MoveOn.org

Bush and most Republicans are ignoring our troops. They ignored our troops when they needed body armor. They ignored our troops when they were lying in filth at Walter Reed. They ignore our troops when they return home and need Veterans Benefits.

MoveOn.org and VoteVets.org has teamed up to give voice to our troops and to get America to listen. This is one of their videos of one of America's soldiers telling us what he thinks of the Iraq quagmire:

If you want to help get this video on TV, please donate here.

Republicans keep yammering on and on about "supporting the troops." But when it actually comes to listening to our troops, supporting them with proper equipment, or supporting them when they come home as Veterans, they fall far short of their rhetoric. Hell, this administration was even forcing soldiers to pay their own way from bases to their home towns to visit their families until Al Franken and Air America Radio started a movement, taken up by Daily Kos and much of the progressive blogsphere, to donate airline miles to our troops to get them home. This embarassed Bush enough that suddenly the administration changed the policy.

Bush isn't listenting to the soldiers or Veterans regarding Iraq either. VoteVets.org and MoveOn.org are giving voice to our Veterans in a project called VideoVets: Bring Our Troops Home. Here's what they are doing in their own words:

Every day at MoveOn we get letters from military families and veterans who're outraged that the president hides behind the troops to justify his policy—a policy that's leaving tens of thousands of them stranded in the middle of an unwinnable civil war. We talked to our friends at VoteVets.org about their members, who felt the same way. We realized we had to help give these folks a platform to speak out.

Over 700 MoveOn members around the country volunteered their time to interview and videotape the veterans and military families. Then we put them up on our website—and on YouTube—for you to watch.

Interestingly, Democrats are already starting to take over the job of President. Bush can't get anything done when it comes to North Korea. But in no time, Bill Richardson goes over there and negotiates a deal.

For those who only knows Richardson as a governor, keep in mind that he has diplomatic credentials: he has been US Ambassador to the UN under Clinton (back when we actually were respected in the world) and has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize four times for his diplomatic efforts.

So, when Bush sent him to negotiate with North Korea it was an almost unprecedented event in the Bush administration: a good idea. Richardson was supposedly going to negotiate the return of the remains of a US serviceman. Honestly that always sounded a bit odd. The fanfare was too much for that. Turns out he was negotiating getting inspectors back in. From KOBTV in New Mexico:

New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson’s visit to North Korea appears to be yielding unexpected fruit.

Richardson, part of a bipartisan delegation dispatched to North Korea to return remains of U.S. MIAs, appears to have secured a concession from the communist state on its developing nuclear weapons program.

MoveOn.org, the organization that may well have done the decisive get out the vote efforts for the November 2006 elections, is now turning its attention to the Fox Propoganda Machine. Here's the latest MoveOn.org campaign:

The Democratic Party of Nevada just announced plans to let Fox News host a presidential primary debate.1 But Fox isn't a legitimate news channel. It's a right-wing mouthpiece like Rush Limbaugh and the Drudge Report—repeating false Republican talking points to smear Democrats.

Fox has already tried to skew the '08 race by accusing Senator Barack Obama of attending a terrorist school. CNN immediately exposed the charge as false,2 and Obama hit back by refusing to appear on Fox—sending them scrambling.3 Democrats can force Fox to be fair and balanced by fighting back hard.

Can you sign this petition asking the Democratic Party of Nevada to drop Fox as its partner for the presidential primary debate?

The full text of the petition is: "Fox is a mouthpiece for the Republican Party, not a legitimate news channel. The Democratic Party of Nevada should drop Fox as its partner for the presidential primary debate."

Clicking here will add your name to the petition.

It's very important to also invite our friends to sign this petition. If ever there was a battle where we could beat Fox, this is it—since Democrats will make the ultimate decision, not Fox executives. But to be convinced, Democratic leaders need to see a growing public backlash.

Last year MoveOn.org put on one of the biggest GOTV pushes, quite possibly playing a major role in our big wins in November. They have become one of the mainstays of the progressive movement (though I did witness how they can seriously overwork their people).

Now MoveOn.org is taking on voting machines, pushing to ensure a paper trail. Here is their latest campaign:

Too many voters are still stuck with paperless electronic voting machines—machines that are vulnerable to tampering and malfunction.

A new bill in Congress would ban paperless voting. It's got enough support to pass, but time is short. This week, the Democratic leadership is deciding what Congress will take up next. If they don't put voting reform on the agenda, there simply won't be time to make the change by the 2008 presidential election.

Sign this petition to ask the Democratic leaders in Congress to ban paperless voting before it's too late: "Congress must ban paperless voting in time for the 2008 election. As voters, we support Rep. Rush Holt's paper ballots bill."

Clicking here will add your name to the petition.

This November, a Democrat in Florida lost a close House race when 18,000 votes went missing from paperless voting machines.1 Never again.
This bill is the strongest paper ballot legislation ever introduced in Congress. It's supported by Common Cause, People For the American Way, the Brennan Center for Justice, VerifiedVoting.org, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, VoteTrust USA, and local election integrity groups across the country.2 Newspapers like the New York Times, the Washington Post, and Roll Call have all editorialized in support of the bill.3

This was history in the making. Don't anyone downplay it. As pointed out by Michael Bouldin at Daily Gotham, "for the first time in American history, a political party lost no seats it was defending. Ain't never happened in 230 years, folks." This was historic.

But there is one very key lesson to be learned by us...by Democrats and by the left in general. This was won big because we worked together. When we are united, Democrats win. When we let the Republicans divide and conquor us, we lose. It is up to us to maintain that unity. Unity does not mean conformity. Mostly it means mutual respect even when we disagree.

So who were the big players in our victory? I think there are several key players. In no particular order:

Act Blue: $17,419,765 raised since 2004. Mostly small donors, not that "soft money" Republicans love so much.

MoveOn: targeted ads in some "safe" Republican districts made those districts so unsafe for Republican that Democrats won. CT-5, IN-2, NY-20, and NH-2 shifted after MoveOn.org ads went on the air and we wound up winning them.

But that ain't all. They then set up the most ambitious phone bank in history, making 6 million calls to voters by election day. This was probably the biggest GOTV effort in history.

But that ain't all...they now are offering a $250,000 reward to anyone who can give evidence of election fraud that leads to a conviction.

Howard Dean: we never would have won so big in Indiana or scared them so much in Wyoming and Idaho and Tennessee had it not been for Dean's 50-state strategy. Chuck Schumer's more targeted Senate strategy made sense for the Senate, but Howard Dean gave the states the ability to exploit Republican weaknesses when they appeared. Probably half our pick ups are thanks to this new infrastructure Dean has helped build in states that previously were ignored as being "too red." 2005 was a successful test of the 50-state strategy. 2006 was a RESOUNDING victory for Howard Dean's strategy. I don't think the DSCC needs to change its strategy, but the DCCC might want to take some lessons from Doctor Dean.

Progressive Majority: Targeting smaller, more local races right down to school board, Progressive Majority is training and helping out the next generation of leaders in several key states as well as helping boost minority representation. In 2005 they won about 70% of the races they targeted. They were more ambitious this year and didn't fare so well, but they did well enough and they came really close in many other races. As they expand, they will be a force through out the nation for helping young progressive activists enter politics. We could probably have won this election without Progressive Majority, but their efforts are helping pave the way for future victories.

Make no mistake...this was a progressive grassroots victory. But it was also a victory for ideological diversity within the Democratic party. Some real progressive grassroots activists helped some moderate Democrats win, and now that we have won, the progressives and moderates have to maintain respect for eachother. Both sides have to remember this: we could not have won without this progressive/moderate alliance. United in respect, we can find the common ground we need to to win big. Divided over the few issues where we differ, or divided through lack of mutual respect, and we lose. Let's remember this lesson. Republicans work by conformity and dictating from above. Democrats work by respecting diversity and listening to eachother. So let's DO IT folks. As I keep quoting these days, remember what FDR said:

"Let us never forget that government is ourselves and not an alien power over us. The ultimate rulers of our democracy are not a President and senators and congressmen and government officials, but the voters of this country."

This from an email just received from Working Assets' Act For Change via US Newswire:

Washington, Nov. 7 -- MoveOn.org Political Action is offering a $250,000 reward for new material evidence leading to a felony conviction for an organized effort of partisan voter suppression or electronic voting fraud.

Throughout the day accusations of election fraud and voter suppression incidents have been flooding into state and federal authorities throughout the country. In Virginia, the FBI has launched a criminal investigation into charges of voter suppression. In 20 Congressional districts, NRCC robocalls appearing to come from Democrats harassed voters with repeated calls in an apparently coordinated campaign to suppress the vote.

Complementing an earlier reward for whistleblowers, MoveOn's reward is being offered to anyone who provides this information.

MoveOn.org was founded to support the movement to censure President Bill Clinton then move on to the business facing the nation (which included the threat of al-Qaeda, ignored by the Republicans until 9/11/2001).

Today, faced with the most corrupt and anti-Constitution administration in modern history, MoveOn.org and the target of its censure effort, President Bill Clinton, are teaming up.

"Nothing that is wrong with America can't be solved with what is right with America."
--Bill Clinton

Today and tomorrow we can try to fight what is wrong with America with what is right. The corrupt and anti-Constitution Republican Party can be fought with good, honest grassroots activism enhanced with modern telecommunications technology. President Clinton, a man I much admire even if I did not always agree with him, has the following message for all grassroots activists in every corner of the nation:

Right now, it's all about reaching out to people and MoveOn knows how to do that better than anyone. I'm writing to tell you that the Democratic candidates in the tightest, neck-to-neck races in the country are counting on you to pull them through to victory with the energy, spirit and passion that define MoveOn.

Today and tomorrow, tens of thousands of MoveOn members are getting together in living rooms and at kitchen tables to call voters in toss-up districts where just a few hundred votes could mean the difference between victory and defeat.