MoveOn.org

Well, for everyone who ISN'T a left wing whack job, it sure sounds like one!

Of course, it start with the requiisite "teabagger" insult, but here's the rest.

...And a victory for an anti-reform teabagger just before the big health care votes will send exactly the wrong message to Democrats who are nervous about their own re-election....

Charlie Cook, one of the most respected political analysts in Washington, says that a Hoffman win would "shock Washington and force both parties to rethink their strategies."4  

It would dramatically strengthen the Sarah Palin wing of the Republican party. And as for the Democrats—remember how the teabaggers' town hall disruptions rattled conservative "Blue Dog" Democrats? Imagine how hard it'll be to pass progressive legislation if conservative Democrats spend the next year worrying that they may be unseated by people who think Medicare is socialism and President Obama isn't a U.S. citizen.

It would be funny if it wasn't so serious. But it is. Which is why Bill Clinton and others are working hard to raise the money Bill Owens needs to win. Local MoveOn members voted 77% to endorse Owens. But they need our help.

I think I've been inspired by this message, Time to send Hoffman more cash!

Let's guess how many letters to the editor from "concerned ctizens" read verbatim like this one over the next few days

Dear MoveOn member,

Right-wing mobs aren't just disrupting congressional town halls—their outlandish lies are now making their way into mainstream news coverage, too.   

We need to set the record straight. The majority of Americans support real health care reform. And no wonder, given the incredible cost of inaction.

In Connecticut alone, 100 people lose their coverage every day. And for those with insurance, yearly premiums will hit $24,480 in a few years if we don't act.

We can't let right-wing extremists ruin the biggest opportunity in a generation to get real reform. Can you send a quick letter to the editor of The New Haven Register—or another local paper—about the urgent need in Connecticut for Congress to pass health care reform with a real public option?  

Click here:

http://pol.moveon.org/lte?campaign_id=116&id=16803-9234983-y3OtbFx&t=3

Our tool makes writing a letter really simple. You can send the letter right from our website—it only takes a few minutes.

If you've never written a letter to the editor before, now is the time to send your first. The letters page is one of the most widely read—and most important—in local newspapers. Members of Congress and their staffs read it to understand how their constituents are feeling. And since members are all home in the district this month—and paying close attention to the health care debate in particular—your letter will make an even bigger impact.  

Here are some talking points specific to Connecticut you can use in your letter:

• We can't afford to wait for reform: Each day, 100 people in Connecticut lose their health care coverage. And without reform, those who still have insurance will see their yearly premiums go up by $10,134 in the next decade—to a staggering $24,480.

• Reform with a real public option is key to expanding coverage: Under current legislation, which includes a strong public health insurance option, 261,000 people in Connecticut—and 37 million Americans nationwide1—will gain coverage by 2019.

• A real public health insurance option is crucial to lowering costs: With premiums projected to hit $24,480, we need to get costs down. By spurring competition, a public plan will help bring down out-of-control costs2 for individuals, families, and small businesses.

Can you send a letter to the editor of The New Haven Register, or another local newspaper, as part of our "Real Voices for Change" campaign? Just click here to get started:  

http://pol.moveon.org/lte?campaign_id=116&id=16803-9234983-y3OtbFx&t=4

Thanks for all you do.

–Nita, Kat, Eli, Wes, and the rest of the team

I love it when these folks get the sense they aren't making any headway.  And, hello, if the single payer people need to keep Rosa DeLauro and Chris Murphy in line things are even more dire for that side than I thought.

Of course, I don't expect the dullards in the press to notice that they are getting astroturfed, big time.

The American public generally didn;t think the "hope and change" it voted for was going to include borrowing a trillion dollars from the Chinese to pay for condoms, DTV converter boxes, ACORN subsidies and building new schools next to vacant old ones. So support for Obamanomics is dropping faster than than a guy executing a HALO skydiving jump.

So, who comes to the rescue....Moveon.org.  Just a few weeks ago they were blast e-mailing members demanding a halt to the second $350 Billion TARP installment; now that Obama wants to spend almost three times as much they are gung ho to spend , spend, spend.

And to try and astroturf public opinion to promote this. Here's their latest missive.

.   Dear MoveOn member,

President Obama's economic stimulus plan is in trouble. Conservative talking points are dominating the media's coverage and there's lots of misinformation around. Here are a few things you may not have heard about it:  

1) This is a very, very good bill. As The Nation writes, "If enacted, the economic recovery plan will be one of the biggest and boldest pieces of progressive legislation in the past forty years."1  

Here are some facts about what the bill really does:  

• Creates or saves 3 million to 4 million jobs in the next two years.2

•  Averts "literally hundreds of thousands of teacher layoffs"—and doubles funding for the Department of Education.3

• Creates 500,000 green jobs and doubles our clean energy production.4

• Immediately helps unemployed folks get affordable health insurance.5

Some folks are arguing that it should be bigger, and they're probably right, but this is the best down payment on economic recovery we have seen, and it needs to be passed.   

2) The stuff that's being singled out for criticism amounts to a tiny fraction of the bill—like anti-smoking programs that make up less than one-ten-thousandth of the spending.6 They would have you believe this is the centerpiece of the bill. It is not. This kind of nit-picking is pure politics.

3) If it doesn't pass, we're in deep trouble. Even John McCain's economic adviser estimates that without the stimulus, unemployment would top 11% by 2010, the highest level since the Great Depression.7

We all urgently need to get these facts out before the public. Can you write a letter to the editor of your local paper about how the stimulus will affect real people? Our tool makes writing a letter really easy. Click here to get started:  

http://pol.moveon.org/lte?campaign_id=100&id=15490-9234983-pocSV6x&t=3

Last week alone, 100,000 people lost their jobs in this country.8 So we need to make sure the Senate takes action quickly. Nearly 200 economists from across the political spectrum wrote to Congress, agreeing:

"We do not have the luxury of a lengthy debate over the best course of action. This legislation may not be enough to solve all the economy's problems, but it is urgently needed and an important step in the right direction."9  

But with so much rhetoric and demagoguery surrounding the bill, it won't pass unless we can get the real facts out to a wide audience. And letters to the editor by local MoveOn members are one of the best ways to set the record straight.

Our tool makes it super easy. We'll provide you with talking points to use, some tips on writing your letter, and an easy way to send it in to any newspaper in your area. You can start writing your letter to the editor by clicking here:  

Now, I really don't think one is going to take The Nation seriously as to whether this bill is going to restart the free market economy.  And I might also suggest that Speaker Pelosi and the "Center for American Progress" aren;t very unbiased sources, either.

Perhaps the folks at Moveon ought to look at the words left out of their sales pitch. Hmmm.."deficit" and "debt" don;t appear anywhere.  Unlike the spinmeisters , the American public has an innate sense of when money is spent, it needs to be found somewhere.  And frankly, neither I nor most people I know think we are going to get a trillion dollars worth of bang for the trillion bucks we are going to have to borrow. 

Just to prove what craven saps these guys are, I'm sure if Obama proposed putting tens of thousands of manufacturing workers out of a job with this proposal,     they'd have a preprinted LTE ready to go to promote issuing pink slips to shipbuilders and aircraft workers. 

Perhaps there is a better way to stablize the economy than a trillion dollars of newly added permanent federal debt. And Moveon.org wants nothing of trying to figure that out. Because for them. expanding the federal government is a feature, not a bug.

The truth is setting us free. And the Left's response is to fight with....

Hey guys, think natural next time...... we are and it's working;

In politics, often times you find allies who you never thought you would have, but have decided necessity and temporary convenience make for a common cause.

Has Moveon.org jumped to our way of thinking on corporate bailouts? And if so, can we assemble a Right/Left coalition to fight the Great 2009 Bailout War?

Perhaps. Consider their recent mass e-mail

Dear MoveOn member,

Enough already!

We gave the banks $350 billion. It was supposed to get them lending again, to help companies and consumers get credit. But the credit markets are still frozen and the economy's getting worse. 

Now Treasury is asking Congress for the remaining $350 billion in bailout funds.1  No more oversight. No strings attached. Just $350 billion that could be spent on health care, or green jobs, or more teachers—going instead into the black hole that is our financial system.

We can't let that happen. Please sign our emergency petition:

"Not another dime for Wall Street until we understand where the previous bailout money went—and why the bailout didn't work as expected."

Clicking here will add your name:

http://pol.moveon.org/bailout3/o.pl?id=15290-9234983-PGJEvbx&t=4

What happened to our bailout money? The banks won't tell the media, or Congress, or the Government Accountability Office!2

But we do know a few things.

Banks appear to have used much of the money to buy other banks.3 As one analysis found, the bailout "touched off a banking-sector version of 'Let's Make a Deal,' in which the biggest U.S. banks are using government money to get even bigger."

Then there's good old-fashioned waste. Insurance giant AIG, for example, spent $442,000 on a lavish corporate spa retreat just days after receiving $85 billion of taxpayer money.4 How much got wasted? We don't know, since there's zero accountability or oversight.

What the banks don't seem to have done is lend the money out. The credit markets are still frozen.5 Companies that need loans can't get them. Consumers can't get credit to buy cars.

In other words: driven by greed, Wall Street brought our economy to its knees through bad lending and complex financial instruments based on little more than air. Then Wall Street got took our bailout money and seems to have spent it on everything BUT getting the economy moving.

And now they want $350 billion more.

No. Way. Not 'til we understand what happened, and know that the money will go to something that actually benefits our economy.

Please click here and sign our petition:

http://pol.moveon.org/bailout3/o.pl?id=15290-9234983-PGJEvbx&t=5

Let's not let this happen!

Thanks for all you do.

–Noah, Carrie, Patrick S., Joan and the rest of the team

Sources:

Now, I'd rather NOT use the extra $350 Billion to ramp up government social spending as far as the eye can see. But, if the Left decides it's tired of bailoutmania, this is going to place major pressure on Democrats in the House and Senate to recant their previous positions in favor of throwing money at failed business models.

I have not seen any recent polling on the Wall Street bailout , but I find it hard to believe they are held in higher esteem than the car companies , whose bailout is rather unpopular    One of the benefits of seeking common ground to liberals aghast at corporate welfare is obvious---it depoliticizes the opposition and makes opposition a matter of thoughful public policy, not reflexize partisan attitudes.  It creates a big tent for moderates and independents to see this is not just some hard-line conservative ideologues preaching Adam Smith who think it's time to make free enterprise be free of federal revenue.

There is also a predicament for Pelosi, Reid, Dodd and Frank. Since their party will be managing the bailout in a few weeks (and since the Democrats were too dense to replace their front men on this issue ) it's their problem now, and the people who allowed the problem to occur and wrote the remedy bill are now fully in charge.

Chris Dodd in particular is at risk. His recent CT poll numbers for re-election are upside down    and only large numbers of Democrats are keeping him near the waterline. (26% of Democrats are definitely for his re-election; only 5-6% of non-Democrats) But 8% of Democrats are definitely NOT voting for him. Can Chris Dodd survive losing support from his Left? It's not like CT Democrats haven;t turned before on a long time Senator whom they decided had  sold them out?    (one CT blogger has even suggested Rep. Chris Murphy might find Dodd weak enough to challenge in a Democratic primary )

Now this all may be self-serving drivel from Moveon. org the ostensible "grassroots" organization heavily bankrolled by some of the prime suspects in creating the mortgage meltdown, Mr. and Mrs. Herbert Sandler   And it's not like they haven't had an Orwellian conversion before about an anti-consumer, pro-Wall Street Democrat they once pilloried, and now champion . (Ironic that the press sees no irony in Obama appointed the "Senator from MBNA" as the "honcho' for the middle class ) . Like, "what the Auk?"

But we really ought to take this an run with this. Either we gain a powerful, albeit temporary ally in the latest battle for fiscal responsiblity...and that would be great..

or we expose Moveon.org as an unprincipled partisan fraud unwilling to challenge their own party. I can live with that, too.

Either way, we unite our present allies and divide our opponents. And all for a good cause, too.   

If there was a smidgen of doubt Moveon.org was a bunch of unprincipled hypocritical hack partisan Democrats it was completely erased tonight. 

This e-mail is being circulated by Moveon.Org. 

 Dear MoveOn member,

The wait is over! Just hours ago, Barack Obama chose Joe Biden as his vice president.

Now, we're offering FREE Obama/Biden stickers—and we want to give away half a million of them as quickly as possible. Want one?

Click here to get yours free:

http://pol.moveon.org/barackstickers/?id=13561-9234983-Y608Khx&t=4

Fact: The leading supporter of bankruptcy law reform in the U.S. Senate is Joe Biden

what was Moveon's position on bankruptcy reform?----purge the supporters!

From: "Tom Matzzie, MoveOn PAC"
Mon, 11 Apr 2005

Deadline: Heinous bankruptcy bill--show Congress you're watching.

Dear MoveOn member,

A great majority of the families that declared bankruptcy last year did so because of a major life crisis—huge medical bills or layoffs—that threw them into a spiral of debt. Now, after a multi-year, multi-million dollar lobbying effort by credit card companies, Congress is poised Wednesday to approve a sweeping change in bankruptcy law that would make it impossible for folks who have been dealt a bad hand to get a clean start. The law actually gives credit card companies new ways to seize your home and car if you get into financial trouble.

After accepting more than $620,000 from the lending industry to his various PACs, Republican Majority Leader Rep. Tom DeLay has scheduled the vote for Wednesday. The change in bankruptcy laws is a clear example of whose interests the Republicans in Congress are serving. But, in a betrayal of middle class families, as many as 90 Democrats may also vote the wrong way. Both Republicans and Democrats need to know that millions of us oppose this bonanza for corporate contributors that hurts families who are the victims of circumstances beyond their control.

We need to show Congress that we're watching. Today we're asking you to make a pledge to contribute for radio ads in the hometowns of representatives, both Republicans and Democrats, who vote wrong on this bill. We'll announce the amount of the pledge fund TOMORROW, before the vote on Wednesday, so that members of Congress know there are consequences for their votes.

Please click below to check out the script of the radio ad and make your pledge today:

http://www.moveonpac.org/radiopledge

http://www.democrats.com/node/4238

Yep, before Biden supported a "heinous" bill that was "a betrayal of middle class families"

Now, they give away his bumper sticker.

Shameless!

David Sirota makes an interesting observation at Open Left about Moveon.org declining to get very involved in the Democratic VP selection...

In effectively OK-ing the VP nomination of a politician who has consistently voted against Moveon's organizational mission, the Moveon leadership lets us in on the secret that I reported in my book: namely that Moveon today operates first and foremost as a partisan appendage. Instead of using the VP question - and the presidential election as a whole - as an instrument to build the antiwar movement, Moveon's quote suggests the organization is willing to go along with almost anyone Obama chooses, regardless of how their career has undermined that movement, regardless of whether Bayh's backers are citing his potential nomination as proof that the Democratic Party should reject the movement Moveon purports to champion.

As Pat Buchanan said, "Every great cause begins as a movement, becomes a business, and eventually degenerates into a racket.”   It will be fascinating to watch how the Progressives react as they shift from storming the castle and turn to the business of actually governing the castle.

Since the Democrats are not attempting to change the fundamental systemic flaws in government, their base will either become alienated or compromised.  I suspect we'll see more of the latter.

Worth going if you are in DC. -Patrick

MoveOn.org Counter-Rally!
 
MoveOn.org is planning a rally at the Capitol at 4:00 PM to steal media from the ongoing Republican "Guerilla Congress".
 
While the GOP is demanding a vote on offshore drilling, Democrats and MoveOn.org are frantically wave their arms trying to change the subject...
 
WE CAN'T LET THEM!
RALLY WITH US AT 5:00 PM!
 
Details
 
When: 4:45 PM
Where: Grant Memorial on the Mall, 1st Street between Penn Ave and Maryland Ave.
Why: To show America there is more support for drilling more oil
 
More Info: Call (202) 608-1411 or (720) 839-0130

The Onion would be hard pressed to mock Obama’s message of “Hope” better than MoveOn has done, albeit unintentionally. Their newest ad starts by implying that Hope is some form of a sexually transmitted disease, presumably meaning that American’s have been making efforts to avoid “contracting” hopeyness. The end of the ad is even more amusing even somewhat ironic when looked upon through skeptical eyes.

The reference being made to the famous “this is your brain on drugs” commercial sums up the Obama campaign quite nicely. Illegal narcotics thrive in this country because Americans use them as an escape from reality. They become an addiction because of the perception of living a happier life while intoxicated by the drugs affect. As anyone who has experienced withdrawal symptoms will tell you however, when the affect of the drug wears off, you are certainly worse off then when you took it. Your pockets are empty, your depression has worsened, you may even be unemployed, all because a salesman convinced you his product would change your life. While that change did occur, it was a change for the worse you have experienced. This is your brain on Obama, Any Questions?

Heard about the big "Oil Free President" day where Moveon was going to blame John McCain for high gasoline prices?

Don't feel bad. No one else did, either.

Despite allegedly having millions of supporters and holding rallies all over the country, well, how much press did they get?

As of 9:45pm EDT, a grand total of 21 news stories  http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&um=1&ie=UTF-8&q=%22%22Moveon%22%22oil-free%22&sa=N&tab=wn

None in the big TV networks or wire services.

Meanwhile, Newt Gingrich's "Drill Now" initiative had 183 news stories http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&um=1&tab=wn&q=%22Drill+Now%22%22Gingrich%22&btnG=Search+News 

Maybe it's time for the Left to "Moveon" and let the rest of us start down the road to energy security, Maybe they can then deal with FISA, oh, I forget, Obama sold them out on that.....

I'm sure they've got some issue at the ready.......time for another blue dress?

Yesterday, Talking Points Memo posted this exclusive regarding MoveOn.org:

MoveOn, the advocacy group supporting Barack Obama, has decided to permanently shutter its 527 operation, partly in response to the Illinois Senator's insistence that such groups should not spend on his behalf during the general election, I've learned from the group's spokesperson.

MoveOn's decision, which will dramatically impact the way it raises money on Obama's behalf, is yet another sign of how rapidly Obama is taking control of the apparatus that's gearing up on his behalf.

By shuttering its 527, MoveOn is effectively killing its ability to raise money in huge chunks from labor unions, foundations, and big donors who would give over $5,000. The decision doesn't mean MoveOn will stop spending on Obama's behalf. Instead it will raise money exclusively with its political action committee, whose average donation is below $50 and will even be raising money with things like bake sales starting this weekend.

To put this in perspective, MoveOn's 527 raised $20 million for the general election in 2004 -- and at least half of that came from donations over $5,000.

"This is an affirmation that we, like Senator Obama, believe that this election can be won by ordinary Americans giving small donations," MoveOn spokesperson Ilyse Hogue told me.

MoveOn's 527 has been dormant since 2005, but the group had held open the option of starting it up it for the 2008 election -- until Obama's success with small donors showed that huge sums could be raised without it.

The move could also make it tougher politically for John McCain and the GOP to benefit from 527s, which can raise money in unlimited sums, on his side. While he has generally disapproved of such activity, he recently said that he couldn't control negative ads by such groups.

"The hope is that Republicans will match this, so that the voices of ordinary Americans can drive this election," Hogue said.

Late Update: It should be noted that the group has not traditionally been driven by large donations during non-presidential race times. It has raised $122 million since it opened in 1998 -- and only 10% came in donations of over $5000. But during the 2004 race, of course, it was another story.

In a post published on Real Clear Politics today titled How to Hit Obama, Robert Novak wrote

Leaders of Sen. John McCain's campaign are looking toward "527s" as their principal means of attacking Sen. Barack Obama because they have been given a green light by McCain.

Are things about to get interesting?  Now if only we could add that voters for John McCain could look forward to drilling for oil in ANWR because they have been given a green light by McCain...