The new chic thing to do if you're an interest group these days is to get on social networking sites. The idea being that having a page out there that people fan, write on the wall of, or follow gives you the sheen of democratic legitimacy.

Being able to say that your page has a million fans lends credence to the idea that the particular brand of policy that you are selling has some popularity. Now, of course, the great thing about the internet is that it make it possible to get in touch with all the nuts and bolts in society, well at least the nuts.

But...... the really fun part isn't that Ron Paul can manage to get himself 150,000+ facebook fans in between the moments when he's lamenting the outcome of the War Between the States.

The really fun part is when attempts at astroturfing on social networking sites bite back.