Okay, y'all are opinionated...

[serene]

...so give me your opinions on MoveOn.org?

Comments

[j00j.livejournal.com]

I occasionally find them useful as far as keeping up with legislation I should be concerned about. But they send me too damn much e-mail, and on one occasion that I know of, did not entirely accurately represent an issue (it was that "e-mail tax" thing, I think-- it looked like they'd just not done their homework). I'm really not sure how effective their strategies are.

[baerana.livejournal.com]

i like them. they are brassy and abrasive, which i think has been missing from the left for too long

[stonebender.livejournal.com]

I like them. I use their e-mails as a way to keep track of what's going on a little. I quibble sometimes about their focus, but that's the nature of a national political organization. One can't keep everyone happy all the time. I'm just happy there's some liberal organizing group around. There seem to be few and far between unless I'm missing something.

[someotherguy.livejournal.com]

They're the most incredibly fantastic thing that ever happened in the whole history of democracy ever, and quite possibly the only thing standing between us a totalitarian neo-con regime! Just ask them.

Seriously? They're doing the emotional appeals thing, but I think they've quite got the hang of it. They annoy the hell out of me, but they seem to get results, but that's mostly according to their own press releases.

[someotherguy.livejournal.com]

appeals thing, but I think they've quite got the hang of it.
should be:

appeals thing, but I don't think they've quite got the hang of it.

[patgreene.livejournal.com]

They're useful to keep track of legislation, but they can be sloppy and not do their homework. I trusted them up until I got a piece about the John Roberts nomination, which stated that Scalia and Thomas had dissented in the Hamdi case (in which the Supreme Court stated that Padilla had a right to some sort of hearing), and we can't have another justice like that!

There are a whole host of reasons to dislike Scalia, but in the Hamdi case,which involved a U.S. citizen being held in Gitmo, his dissent was not that Hamdi could be held at the Administration's whim, Like Thomas's was, but that the Administration should be forced to try Hamdi immediately in a U.S. criminal court or release him. He was joined by the most liberal justice, Stevens, in the court in that dissent. (His opening line was wonderful:"The very core of liberty secured by our Anglo-Saxon system of separated powers has been freedom from indefinite imprisonment at the will of the Executive."

What bothered me about MoveOn.org's mistake was it was a)either incredibly sloppy or outright dishonest and b) totally unnecessary. With just a little bit of tweaking it would have been possible to mentions some of the really obnoxious positions Scalia has taken.

I think that progressives are under seige enough we can't afford to be that loose with the facts -- even something as small as that damages our credibility.

[polydad.livejournal.com]

They're doing the best they can at trying to reanimate the Democratic Party, but unless/until Dean or someone at or at least near his level tackles the integrity issue head-on there's not much there to resuscitate. I'm blanking the name of the guy (maybe Bill Jefferson?) who was caught with $90K in his freezer, but the party should have tossed him out on his ear on the spot; instead, we got silence at best, and defense of the crook at worst.

best,

Joel

[epi-lj.livejournal.com]

I have no opinion, but I wanted to say that I love that subject line.

[pir-anha.livejournal.com]

they're a bit too sloppy and a bit too emotional to be my fave, but they're great for keeping track of important legislation, and a good antidote to the right-slip of the democratic party.

[pheret1.livejournal.com]

I agree with those who think they're overly emotional, send too much stuff, and are sometimes sloppy. However, my moderate-Republican US Army veteran father got an e-mail about the screening of some movie they were doing and went and became swayed and feels he will not be voting Republican any more.

He still receives e-mails and goes to events. That's after over 35 years of his living with me, my sister, and my mother and being moderate and conversational and not really changing his mind.

[nmc.livejournal.com]

Their inevitable progression has been fascinatingly obvious.

"WE BELIEVE!"
"WE BELIEVE! HELP US!"
"WE BELIEVE! HELP US! SEND MONEY!"
"HELP US! SEND MONEY!"
"SEND MONEY!"
"THIS [whisper: complete nonstarter that one crackpot thought up and everyone else is going to ignore] BILL IS EVIL! SEND MONEY!"

I'm waiting for them to rename themselves Greenpeace 2.0.