Astroturf has never been so transparent.

From the New Hampshire Union Leader:

A protest rally is planned for 11 a.m. in Concord today. Similar rallies are planned around the country. The stated purpose, as explained in an e-mail from the organizers, is "to build and demonstrate support for Wall Street reform."

That might sound something like a Tea Party rally, but it isn't. The organizing e-mail came from BarackObama.com. That's the site of Organizing for America, President Obama's official campaign organization.

When American citizens spontaneously rose up last year to protest the President's health care overhaul and deficit spending, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called the protests "Astroturf" (fake grass roots) and dismissed the protesters as pawns of special interests.

Now the President's own political operation is organizing protests to convince Congress to support his proposed financial reform legislation -- the very definition of Astroturf politics. Our government mocks and dismisses our protests against it while having its allies manufacture protests in favor of its policies. Sound like a banana republic yet?

Yes, it does.