Influence of MoveOn undeniable

Boston Globe ^ | February 16, 2004 | Yvonne Abraham

[Cincinatus' Wife]

BERKELEY, Calif. -- The biggest powerhouse in progressive politics had decidedly inauspicious beginnings: an overheard conversation at a local Chinese restaurant, a high-tech chain letter, and $89.

Five years ago, tech entrepreneurs Joan Blades and her husband, Wes Boyd -- whose company gave the world the flying-toaster screen saver -- were eating lunch and listening to a group at a nearby table lamenting the time and energy wasted on the President Clinton-Monica Lewinsky scandal. Blades and Boyd decided to start a petition urging Congress to forgo impeachment, censure Clinton instead, and move on. They e-mailed it to their friends, asked them to pass it on, and paid $89 to set up a website where people could register their support.

[NYCVirago]

Can we start a movement to tell the media to "move on" over the Bush National Guard story?

[samtheman]

Where is our equivalent to this?

[NYCVirago]

For all of its innovations, MoveOn's results have been mixed. Despite MoveOn's efforts Clinton was impeached (though the group sent plenty of donations to fight impeachment supporters in the 2000 congressional contests) and actions to prevent the California recall were unsuccessful. The group was ultimately unable to prevent the Bush administration from invading Iraq, though Blades said members' appeals to their representatives in Washington forced the lawmakers to demand that Bush seek legislative approval first.

One other thing -- the results have *not* been mixed. They FAILED at all these battles!

[backhoe]

Cincy, I just love the way nearly everything the Media Hive covers has to fit into some kind of template or box- like this one, the "rose from Humble Beginnings to become a Mighty Powerhouse" story.

The Flying Toasters, $89, and a Chinese Restaurant, fer Gawd's Sake.

Like this crowd isn't a pile of partisans and activists from 'way back:

-That MoveOn Ad Morphing Bush into Hitler? Some Links...--

[Cincinatus' Wife]

We're on the same wave length.

[weegee]

Today, the organization has 1.7 million members

It is a PAC, not an organization. Call them lobbyists if you will, Big Media.

How many of those 1.7 million are not American citizens but still want a say in American government? MoveOn.Org got busted for soliciting campaign contributions from overseas.

[weegee]

Another fracas erupted when CBS refused to air the winning ad during the Super Bowl. The spot, called "Child's Play," shows a series of children working blue-collar jobs and ends with the line: "Guess who's going to pay off Bush's $1 trillion deficit?" MoveOn protested, taking out a full-page advertisement in The New York Times criticizing CBS and urging members to protest the decision with e-mails and phone calls. Several hundred thousand people contacted the network, according to MoveOn.

That ad was written and produced by a foreign firm. It even used foreign labor. Nice to see the FEC paying attention to campaign laws < /sarcasm >.

[weegee]

Notice how all of the MoveOn Morons' cries for "censure" were dropped when Bubba was safe in office. I thought they agreed that perjury was bad and that it deserved to be rebuked. They managed to convince the Senate not to remove him from office. Why did they stop trying for the unconstitutional manuver of censure for the President?

[NYCVirago]

Notice how all of the MoveOn Morons' cries for "censure" were dropped when Bubba was safe in office. I thought they agreed that perjury was bad and that it deserved to be rebuked. They managed to convince the Senate not to remove him from office. Why did they stop trying for the unconstitutional manuver of censure for the President?

Good point. Now, of course, they're calling for Bush's censure.

[Stultis]

MoveOn.org now consists of an issue advocacy group, a political action committee, and a Voter Fund for battleground-state advertising in 2004.

Oh, Goody! Their ads will be over-the-top vicious and extremist. (Their members will wail if they're not.) They'll drive 3 or 4 independents or moderates toward Bush for every left-leaner they energize, motivate the conservative base as much or more than the lefties, and only appeal to those who were going to vote 'Rat anyway.

[StatesEnemy]

listening to a group at a nearby table lamenting the time and energy wasted on the President Clinton-Monica Lewinsky scandal.

They were right of course... We should have spent the time and energy in '92 to fully investigate Willy's treasonous actions during the Vietnam war.

[FormerACLUmember]

Move On is as dedicated to the destruction of the United Stataes as al Queda. Probably more so.

[Prodigal Son]

Where is our equivalent to this?

I'm not convinced of MoveOn's effectiveness yet. They talk a big game but what have they produced? Howard Dean was their man. The MoveOn members had a faux-primary in summer of 2003 and Dean won easily. That's who they would have picked to run if they had to have picked anyone. Look where he is now.

Think about that big video contest they had "Bush in 30 Seconds". All the hoopla that went into it. All the entrants. Then Howard Dean goes 'Yaaaarrrggggghhhh!' Within two days you had MP3s of Dean's scream being parodied. All that work with the video contest didn't get Howard anywhere. In two days time, he managed to cancel that out.

(By the way, this article makes it sound like those two Hitler videos were 'just two of 1500'. Not true. They were finalists. MoveOn yanked them because of the controversy. While true that MoveOn didn't create the ads or pay for them to be created, the selection process was automated. Those two ads were chosen by the thousands of voters and made it to the finalists list as a result. It doesn't really matter now, they got yanked, but nobody has ever made them come clean on this.)

They've got that big sugar daddy, George Soros backing them up- they should've made a bigger splash by now.

Drudge is a one man machine. He's got a single HTML document for a website and he does more damage on a daily basis than MoveOn has done for this entire race.

[Always Right]

Move on 1.7 million 'members' have not contributed squat. This organization is proped up by a handful of big money Democrat donors including Soro's. It has no army and certainly isn't as influencial as FreeRepublic, even with their millions from Soros
.

[goldstategop]

At least they're consistent in opposing impeachment.

[DeaconRed]

Might be time for us to freep them.
Nah, We just need to counter their LIES.

[Always Right]

Nah, We just need to counter their LIES.

The funny thing is the media descibes MoveOn as a mainstream grassroot movement, when it is really a far-leftwing arm of the Democratic party big donors. Only recently has some media starting referring to moveon as a left-wing organization.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Where is our equivalent to this?

One of our best hopes is Fox News that fairly covers both sides of the campaign.

CNN and others will run the moveon.org propaganda. And how nice for them to get paid for the LIBERAL advocacy they so regularly do for free.

[beckysueb]

Unless its GWB's impeachment their after.