MoveOn.org Rakes in the Cash After "Betray Us" Ad
| Sat Sep. 22, 2007 7:46 AM PDT
Just got this email from MoveOn.org. Check out how much money they've pulled in after the allegedly disastrous "Betray Us" ad.
Dear MoveOn member,
Yesterday, an amazing thing happened. After the Senate's shameful vote, and after President Bush called MoveOn "disgusting," our email started to fill up with messages like this one:
I'm currently in Iraq. I do not agree with this war, and if I did support this war, it would not matter. You have the RIGHT to speak the truth. We KNOW that you support us. Thank you for speaking out for being our voice. We do not have a voice. We are overshooted by those who say that we soldiers do not support organizations like MoveOn. WE DO.
YOU ARE OUR voice.
And then came the donations. By midnight, over 12,000 people had donated $500,000—more than we've raised any day this year—for our new ad calling out the Republicans who blocked adequate rest for troops headed back to Iraq.
The message from MoveOn members was loud and clear: Don't back down. Take the fight back to the issues that matter.
So today we're shooting for a very ambitious goal: Reach $1 million so we can dramatically expand the campaign we launched yesterday going after politicians who support this awful war. Can you chip in $25 toward our goal?
My thinking on this originally was that the GOP had played it perfectly. They were outraged when it came out. Then they waited a week and President Bush slammed it. Then they waited a little longer and passed a resolution in Congress condemning it. As a result, what should have been a blip on the national radar has become a permanent fixture in the debate over the war and in the 2008 elections.
But maybe it worked out better than anyone thinks. That's a lot of money MoveOn.org can use on Democrats and in ending the war.
Except... there's a movement afoot amongst MoveOn'ers to cut off the Democrats. Drama!
Continues Below
Continued From Above
Comments
My local newspaper, the Waterbury American,had a letter to the editor attacking MoveOn as a bunch of blackmailers, and raving about the NYT ad I responded to the writer with a calm argument supporting freedom of speech and accountability. I have succeeded in getting my letters published in the past. We'll see what happens this time. This newspaper is so right wing that it calls anyone left of Attilla the Hun a communist.
Judging from this Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee blog site, it would seem the movement to cut them off may be active enough to start worrying them.
http://www.dccc.org/stakeholder/archives/005833.html
But why NOT cut them off when they consistently fail to do what they say they'll do, and instead do things they run AGAINST, like legalizing warrantless wiretaps on American citizens' communications?
I decided years ago it wouldn't make any difference which of the two bigs I voted for.
The late Harry Browne said it often and very well. No matter which of them you elect, government will get bigger, more costly and more intrusive, and your room to exercise your rights and liberties will get smaller.
Third parties, and the true "outsiders" in the big parties (Ron Paul, Dennis Kucinich) represent what slim hope we have of reclaiming this government from the hands of the Oligarchy who thinks they own it.
I sent this message to my local Democratic Party yesterday: "After the vote against the MoveOn.org ad, this past week in the Senate, I have decided to contribute my time and my money to MoveOn.org. I will no longer support Democrats in name only"
I just received an envelope from the DNC soliciting money to help pay for the removal of the bad republicans (which they are) from congress. My reply was; "Why would I want to vote for YOU again...you have done NOTHING, except fiddle while rome burned! No money and maybe, for the first time in 45 years, no support on the ground.
The United States of America is no longer the beacon of hope for the World's oppressed people and those seeking to live in a free and open society. I weep for my country. I doubt if Mrs. Clinton or any Democrat will make a difference enough to return it to what I thought it was fifty years ago. Maybe it never was the shiny gem that I imagined it to be, but it now seems to have the consistency of sandstone. Liars control the media. Greedy racists control the White House. The CIA monitors my e-mails. The FBI listens to my phone calls. Politicians only care about who can give them, or make them, the most amount of money. No wonder my dad told me politicians and prostitutes were cut from the same cloth, but the prostitute will kiss you as thanks, and the politician will screw you twice.
There are some interesting comments on the DCCC site GVC gave above.
"I'm not donating."
"To Dems in Congress I say: do a better job and you'll get more money -- fight, fight, fight -- on the floor and in committees -- your salary pays for that, but you haven't delivered."
"Why should I stand up for you when you won't stand up for me?"
"You can't even stand up to an unpopular lame duck Administration. Whom can you defend us against?"
"Why should we subsidize incompetence?"
"I have been a staunch democrat all of my life, but until the democratic majority stand up for real change in this country, I can no longer contribute to your party in good conscience.
I will now vote for individual candidates, irrespective of party - depending on who has the vision and strength to do what is needed and right to do."
"In short -- do something with your majority!"
"Start by taking the stands you ran on in the last election!"
"Why isn't the Dem controlled Congress, right this minute, working on a bill to tell George Bush that he May NOT invade Iran without a legitimate, official declaration of war from the Congress?"
"It's gotten so that I can hardly distinguish the one party from the other."
GVC seems to have left the Democrats for greener pastures.
ERW has served his local party a strong cup of "wake-the-f'k-up".
We know that long-time Republicans are bailing on their party, and the reasons why are obvious. But it would seem that the Democrats not only are not gaining by the Repub losses, they're alienating their own once-loyal members as well.
Is that the smell of a political revolt in the air?
mark g. has joined the disaffected Democrats club.
To 1Greensix I'd say, given that the citizens of France, as individuals, once gave us the marvelous gift of the Statue of Liberty, to show us how at least part of the world viewed our great nation, that yes, it was once was such a gem.
But you're right. It is not like that today, and the Democrats are, at best, doing nothing to restore it but more likely is that history will judge them to have been complicit in it's demise.
Trout: Why would Libertarians ever vote for Iraqi Occupation Advocate John McCain? He holds no more Libertarian credentials than Rudy does.
The MoveOn ad was too much. They might have gotten some contributions from the extreme, but they'll no longer be getting anything from me. They've shifted the debate from the real issues to childish partisan BS. The lesson here is that extremist distortions are only good for fundraising, not for reaching solutions. The left needs to take a long hard look at itself and decide whether it just wants to be a mirror image of the right.
Marcos.. when an American General comes before congress with cooked books and a political partisan bias that General is betraying the trust of Americans... they are trusted to fight for AMERICA not BUSH or REPUBLICANS or where ever his loyalties lay.
Mike, you may well be correct, but before making such judgements I'd like to see a copy of their annual report. You know, find out how much they're paying the staff, the execs, and what percentage gets used for their stated purposes..?
Do you happen to have one you'd be willing to share?
Hopefuly this remains only a theory:
The Thinking among us are being set up for the next stage of our subjugation into servitude (the non-Thinking have already arrived - Fox News didn't become America's propaganda equivalent of a 'Reich Chamber of Commerce' in a vacuum!).
The day-by-day issues such as 'controversy' over MoveOn ads are Red Herrings; intentionally distracting us from the methodical workings of the ruling aristocracy, and once again we'll be shocked and awed by the destruction of life and property on our soil - and once again be cowed into suspecting some foreign entity, abrogate our individual liberties and allow the invasion of yet another culture with ideological differences, and/or mineral wealth - spun to be justifiable by corporate media because the target will undoubtedly be people with more pigmented skin.
Recent occasions that left a populace as stunned as deer in headlights and gullible to loss of liberty at a time when the exercise of same would have changed history:
Reichstag Fire: 1933
Pearl Harbor: 1941
WTC: 2001
*: 2008
All designed to sway the majority of public opinion toward support of the very policy it should vehemently oppose; but time is intentionally not on the side of the sincere inquirer.
After so flagrantly rigging the past two elections, do we really expect the next one to proceed as we anticipate, with the stakes as high as they are these days for the military-industrial-congressional complex?
I sincerely HOPE that I am taking this contemplation to the extreme - but in case I am not; be ye warned:
The circumstances that brought about the implementation of Martial Law and ushered in FDR's third term remain in effect today. Those who suspect that FDR was similarly forwarned about Pearl Harbor but used the occasion to solidify America's support to enter WW2 should realize that this precedent has been set, and that in order for it to succeed once again the next event must significantly exceed any previous ones or it risks too complacent a public reaction and arouses too much suspicion. You've seen next year's bumper stickers here first:
W '08
Submitted by Brittany (not verified) on Sun Sep. 23, 2007 12:13 PM PDT.
How can "luszlips" call MoveOn.org "a fascist organization"? Ahem - dictionary.com defines fascism as:
"a governmental system led by a dictator having complete power, forcibly suppressing opposition and criticism, regimenting all industry, commerce, etc., and emphasizing an aggressive nationalism and often racism."
First of all, MoveOn is NOT a governmental system. Second, the United States is becoming a fascist nation. Remember the war in Iraq? http://www.house.gov/paul/tst/tst2002/tst101402.htm
Which part of "Congress didn't declare war" and the fact that it is constantly called a "war", don't you understand? That means it was declared a war ONLY by MR Bush. Dictatorship. Need I define any more terms for you all?
Remember...the jest of the arguement is an American general.
Please remember too, what General Dwight D. Eisenhower warned us about...the Military/Industrial Complex.
Which industries are more powerful than the weapons manufacturing companies and the oil corporations.
I think that many people have a sense that when President Bush calls Move On.org's ad "disgusting" they realise that he is serving his second term because of a nasty, vicious ad called Swift Boat Veterans for Truth. You know the old adage 'what comes around, goes around'.
Why are we all focussed on an ad placed in the NYT? The pResident is asking for an additional TWO HUNDRED BILLION dollars for the occupation of Iraq. Let's see how fast the Democratically controlled Congress is in giving him every penny he asks for, and more, just to prove that they "support the troops" too! The Ds & Rs are two sides of the very same coin...
Paz Love, That 200 Billion dollars, if ok'd, will be the 6TH, I REPEAT, THE 6TH increase in our national debt since 2001. At no other time in the history of our country have we as citizens been put into such massive trouble financially. We think there are problems with the economy now, we just need to sit back and let these cookie cutter politicians do as they may and we will end up in a MAJOR recession with MASSIVE inflation. Oh yeah, for the first time in 31 years the canadian dollar is equal to our dollar.
This all relates to the issue of the Move-On ad because supporting the troops is not funding the endless war and putting them in constant peril, it is bringing them home and ensuring that they are being productive members of society. Since when is fighting Bush's war being a productive member of society.
Our "mission" in Iraq is to FORCE a form of government upon a people who have shown over the past millennium that they are not capable of supporting a democratic society. Religions do not have room for democracy. Religions of ALL kinds are strictly dictatorships which do not allow for the "subjects" to cause any change within the system. Iraq is a factionist country that is a massive religious war. Democracy in its true form allows for all religions to co-exist, but if those religions DO NOT WANT to co-exist, then there can be no democracy.
And my biggest question is, how can we force democracy on other countries when we DO NOT practice democracy? We are a supposed republic which is NOT democracy.
And as Brittany said earlier, war was never declared by congress which means that we are put in this situation by a DICTATOR, IE BUSH/CHENEY.
All these posts, and not one blaming it all on AIPAC or the Illuminati or any other enthnic/religious/etc. conspiracy? Difficult to believe, in light of the recent posts I've seen on other topics. Keep up the good work, people, and keep thinking for yourselves.
Marcos, don't be blinded by adoration for a military uniform, and the shiny medals. "They've shifted the debate from the real issues to childish partisan BS." At what time in the past 7 years has there been any debate on the real issues to be shifted? As a matter of fact, it seems to me that they are trying to shift the debate *to* the real issues. Whether this general is speaking the truth, honestly and completely, or just carrying more water for the partisan white house is an important issue. Idolizing him and hanging on his every word merely because he wears the uniform of a general; *that* is partisan BS.
Pervez Musharraf also wears the uniform of a general. I don't trust him either.
how about a BETRAY US ad campaign directed at the democrats?
the powers-that-be launch cultural wars to mask the real problems. the response should be to turn these cultural wars, i.e. moveon.org poster, on its head and return to the original issue, which is the iraq occupation.
Yeah, and didn't the Democrats run in 2006 on DOING something about that Iraqi occupation?
I do like that "Why should I stand up for you when you won't stand up for me?" quote somebody sent the Dems, and mark g's comment to them "Why would I want to vote for YOU again...you have done NOTHING, except fiddle while rome burned!".
People are hitting the nail squarely on the head.
But is the head feeling it?
I wonder what the chance is that they're really getting the message?
If they run an establishment candidate like Hillary, and she DOES win, then the message they'll ASSUME they're getting is: "What you're offering is A-OK with us. Keep up the good work."
They'll tune out the REAL message, which was: "We REALLY had to hold our noses to do this, but since what the Repubs put up was even worse, we felt we had no choice... AGAIN!"
How in the world are you going to win against the war-mongering Repugnants and Demons without large contributions? ($500,000/12000 is about $42 per contributor: is not a large amount) We need all the support we can get in this USA world of SHEEP!
To their credit (indeed!)they made Corporate boot-licking Congress and President take note and publicly condemn their ad. (Hurray!) Which one of the critics of the ad or their organization has done that!
Over at Daily Kos, they've started a thing they call "Not One Red Cent," refusing to support Democrats who talk but don't walk. My suggestion was simply this: send all DNC and DCCC fund raising letters back with "Not One Red Cent" written on them in big letters. Let them know that they are not getting our money because they are not holding up their end of the electoral bargain.
dej
Uh, between filling moveon's bank account and reaching out to the moderate voters we need to win national elections, I will take option two any day of the week. The ad was dumb dumb dumb, and it reflects thinking of people who dont know jack about winning elections.
Dejah, (Burroughs fan since age 8, I LOVE your name!) I just got a DCCC email minutes ago, and I plan to do EXACTLY that with it!
Not One Red Cent.
David Scott, " 'we' need to win national elections"..., Who is "WE"?
Democrats?
They've been doing that, and then Doing Nothing!
So why do "WE", the American people, need THEM, any more than we need the Republicans?
Congress doesn't need your pennies. Their major support is from corporations and big business. Send your your contributions where the count - support the anti-war movement. And public,openly protest! Get Congress angry at you! We are the government; Congress people are our servants - NOTHING MORE!
Submitted by PunkyAmerica (not verified) on Mon Sep. 24, 2007 2:00 PM PDT.
What worries me is this: Bush's recent executive order, allowing him to label anyone interfering with the prosecution of the war a terrorist, will be used against Move.on, or those of us who support it.
As far as the spineless Dems are concerned, let me point out that most of you savaged Nader as a traitor to the cause when he insisted that in the realm of deeds (as opposed to wordy rhetoric), Dems were little different than Repubs. Now you just can't bitch enough about the position you put yourselves in.
Imagine how much different the Dems might be acting if they'd had real, sustained, election-affecting pressure from the left for the past seven (or even 3) years.
Submitted by Sven Bystrom (not verified) on Mon Sep. 24, 2007 2:15 PM PDT.
Listen up all.
This is a good debate.
As someone who belonged to Moveon during the Kerry campaign, which I helped support, I was baffled and angered by that ad in the NYT.
I don't appreciate being smeared as a Democrat, allowing others to speak for me without first asking.
All Moveon has done, in my opinion, is usurped funds from those of us who believe in a true democracy and figured they'd speak for the whole as one, just to turn around and smack us in the face with piss-poor statements about a general who has unfortunately been put into a position of a political policy maker at the behest of the White House.
Meanwhile we all dote around discussing this and that while those in power have their collective hearing aids turned off aka Electoral College.
They'll all make the decisions in their own time on who's going to step up to be head honcho and it will all depend on who gets the most money that can buy them.
This is not a civil society nor a democracy, at least not one originally set fourth by our founding fathers who I'm sure turn in their graves consistently.
-Sven Bystrom
Thanks to MoveOn, the "betrayal of trust" issue is now "on the table". Let's see how many of the Democrats join ranks with the Republican fascists to give this President and his illegal Occupation efforts another $400Billion dollars! As a long time MoveOn member, I am proud of my organization for having the courage to speak TRUTH to POWER. Our next step will be to vote the betrayers of our trust out of office in 2008! I hope that Congress is paying attention, but I doubt it!
"I decided years ago it wouldn't make any difference which of the two bigs I voted for." Nonsense. The distance between Sen. Inhofe as a commitee chair and Sen Boxer is light years. Ditto for Rep. Waxman vs Pombo. What Dems do need is bigger margins in both houses of Congress.
The MoveOn ad has created such a storm and that means it is effective. In fact, the reason I stopped donating to MoveOn and got off their e-mail was because of the milquetoast approach they used in 2004. It's about time someone has taken off the kid gloves with respect to Bush, the Republicans and their enablers like BetrayUs.Bashing BetrayUs is not the same as bashing the military and as usual the Fascist Republicans morph everything into a talking point. If the troops were to speak out against BetrayUs publicly they could be subject to military reprisals. That leaves civilians left to do they task by exercising their free speech Consitutional right for which BetrayUs is sworn to protect. Whether he like it or not doesn't matter. If he doesn't like what is said about him he can resign his commission. Otherwise BetrayUs must protect MoveOn's right of free speech. It's not optional, even if Bush doesn't agree Bush must uphold the Consitution which is something Bush doesn't understand.
"The distance between Sen. Inhofe as a commitee chair and Sen Boxer is light years. Ditto for Rep. Waxman vs Pombo."
Yeah? Ya' Think?
So, Where's the Beef?
Where's the Difference on the Ground that this majority should have produced?
Still in Iraq without a declaration of war, launched on false pretenses and bogus intel that leading Dem presidential candidates weren't smart enough to see through?
Check.
Legislative steps taken, as promised in 2006 campaign, to End the occupation in some reasonable time and fashion?
NO Check.
4th Amendment-Violating, warrantless wiretapping passed with the help of Dem votes?
Check.
Concrete, legislative steps taken to PREVENT an illegal, undeclared war against Iran?
NO Check.
Where's the beef?
I'm just not buying the argument that More Democrats in office will produce anything other than More of what they've already given us.
That's the definition of insanity, isn't it?
The belief that doing the same thing again and again will somehow result in a different outcome?
Democrats did not give us the all out attacks on the ennvironment, or trillions in tax breaks for the rich, or 100 billion "no discount" legislative gifts to the drug industry. George Bush gave us this war. And the Dems do not have the votes to end it.
"The MoveOn ad has created such a storm and that means it is effective." At raising money for moveon, maybe. At helping end the war or end the GOP's power to do harm, no. Most Americans do not respond well to personal attacks on the military. It was a dumb thing to do.
dave, my congressional district just sent a Democrat to the House for the first time since the 70's, and former County Sheriff, Congressman Brad Ellsworth gave George Bush something his black heart longed for, in warrantless wiretapping. (maybe he didn't like that little warrant "handicap" as a sheriff?)
WHY should we make MORE mistakes like HIM?
The dems control the committes NOW.
The Dems control the Congress' agenda NOW.
They control it's schedule NOW.
They HAVE a majority.
They can pass any bill they believe in, and DARE Bush to veto it.
Tell me all that's bad about Bush..., fine.
Tell me one G.D. thing the MAJORITY Dems have done to counter it?
They HAVE the votes to DEauthorize the occupation of Iraq, but what they DON'T have is the Spine.
If they Did, the MoveOn ad would never have happened.
I simply won't take part in the insanity of doing the same thing over and over again, and expecting different results.
(you wouldn't be a musician or anything would you..? Californian maybe?)
Submitted by BOUNDLESSE (not verified) on Tue Sep. 25, 2007 9:20 PM PDT.
Good point punky, if Nader had gotten the 5% he needed, and all the DEMS who boohoo'ed for a week after BUSH's election now have finally after being raped & pillaged (literally)..see the light, yuck!!! If your waiting for the right Ad/POLL to play before you make your canidate choice still you really need to do some self meditation.
omeone mentioned PEARL HARBOR the closest thing we can think of to the devastation on..gasp...NY soil, I think the qoute from above was something along the lines of ,"..we need a another PH..) My Grandpapa defied a direct order from the President(Truman) as a General to defend the invasion of China from Japan. HE was fighting from 1939, yet we are told over & over what a surprise it was, hahahha. WHat a surprise the next AQ event will be for most folk I suppose still glued to their FOX & CNN reports, nose down, cell phones connected, BMW in fifth gear. How long till the US dollar drops below Mexico is my question and folks start migrating South, or has that already happened, anyone out there got any feedback in MJ land?!
Thanks MaryAnn, but sympathy isn't really necessary.
I've tried the left coast as a place to live, and it simply wasn't for me.
It's nice, very rural, uncrowded, quite and "relatively" free, regulation and restriction-wise where I live. Looking out the window of my home office right now, I see field, trees (many of them black walnuts) 4 horses and one of our barn cats.
Don't feel sorry for ME!
Got a refresher course when I spent a week on the left coast last summer, 'round San Jose, where a $110,000 ranch-style home (Indiana dollars) goes for a Million-Two, and you can barely plant a tree without permission from the government.
If I were to move west, I'm sure the middle of Nevada or Montana would be where I'd land.
I like Nature, As It IS.
Not idealized, as city people tend to see it, or as California government tries to 'form' it (and I grew up "City", so I know how the two differ, in case anyone wants to take me on over that statement.)
Cold Winters?
I lived for years (by Choice) in the Twin Cities, Minnesota, and then later in Bob Dylan's hometown of Hibbing, MN, which is maybe 80 miles south of the Canadian border.
As to the summers, Indiana is where I did my growing up, so I've been acclimated to those from birth.
As a younger dude, I used to train for marathon running in Indiana summers, but oddly, the summers around here don't seem as hot and humid as summers did when I was a kid.
Maybe I've accumulated enough wisdom to make more use of shade trees and spend less time on baseball diamonds than I did as a kid..?
It seems like the revolt by ordinary Democrats against their party leaders continues to gain support.
http://www.dccc.org/stakeholder/archives/005844.html
http://www.dccc.org/stakeholder/archives/005845.html
Not a positive comment in the bunch, regarding recent fundraising appeals, and on the DCCC's own blog site!
