I just received a robocall inviting me to a rally in Philadelphia to support the Main Street Bondholders, paid for by 60 Plus Association. So who are these guys?

In my experience, robocalls from unknown outfits smell more like astroturf than grass, so let’s take a look.

Main Street Bondholders claims to be a group of small GM bondholders who are just looking out for their investments, and don’t want to see the company enter bankruptcy. Now, I can imagine that many small bond holders might be concerned. Seems they had a rally already in Warren, MI, with others planned including Philadelphia. A guy named Dennis Buchholtz was on Fox Business talking about this. Who’s he? Well, the Buchholtz household contributed over 3K total to the Romney and McCain campaigns. In fact, it seems the B’s are staunch Repubs. (Sorry 2nd link isn’t embedding right, too long? Article appeared in NYT, 8/31/04).

But maybe he’s just concerned about the little guys. So who are 60 Plus, who paid for the call? Well, their site claims to be " a non-partisan seniors advocacy group with a free enterprise, less government, less taxes approach to seniors issues. " They want to be a conservative alternative to AARP, with issues like eliminating the "Death Tax". Not surprisingly, they are not based in MI, but in Arlington, VA.

The scent of astroturf grows strong. President is James L. Martin. More with the Google. Seems that Mr. Martin is all about turning Social Security into Private Accounts. . Who funds them? According to SourceWatch, the mostly get money from Big Pharma,

So my vote is for AstroTurf, pure and simple. Your vote?