Los Angeles Times: "MoveOn Steps Into DNC Chair Contest
" |
January 26, 2005 |
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|---|---|---|
| MoveOn.org, the online liberal advocacy group, threw its weight into the race for the Democratic National Committee chairmanship by announcing a plan Tuesday for state-by-state endorsements from its nearly 3 million members. |
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TomPaine.com: " The MoveOn Model For Success " |
March 18 , 2004 |
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| The new Dean organization, heretofore devoted to building support and raising money for one candidate, now has a lot to learn from the broader progressive movement—and most notably from MoveOn.org. They could do worse than to adapt the many ways MoveOn has learned to use its network to publicly raise issues in order to engage citizens to demonstrate the bankruptcy of the Bush conservative agenda or dramatize the need for progressive government. More than any other organization, MoveOn.org has taught the progressive community to organize online, employing impressively experimental—and increasingly successful—methods of giving their growing membership ways to make a creative impact on the increasingly centralized and money-drenched political system. Founded in 1998 by software entrepreneurs Wes Boyd and Joan Blades, MoveOn.org, started as a way for people to protest the right wing impeachment jihad against President Clinton, pioneered new ways to use the virtually free Internet to bypass big politics and big media to reach those frustrated citizens and empower them to become activists in a movement to revitalize democracy. They also discovered that people were willing to pool their money, raised on the Web via small donations, to support progressive politicians, and to pay for advertising and organizing around important, pressing issues. | ||
Newsweek: " Censored at the Super Bowl" |
January 30, 2004 |
|
During the Super Bowl that is. Plenty of people have already watched the MoveOn ad, called "Child's Pay," on CNN, viewed it on the Internet, read about it in news stories and seen it excerpted on television news (If you're not one of them, you can watch the spot by clicking on the video player at the top of this page.) In fact, “Child's Pay” has gotten a tremendous amount of attention since CBS first declined to air it, citing a policy that prohibits "advocacy" ads. Fiery e-mails to the press from MoveOn supporters accuse CBS of currying favor with the Bush White House. Newspaper advertisements paid for by MoveOn characterize CBS's decision as a “tragedy of free speech.” CBS's switchboards have been jammed for the past week with callers complaining about the network's refusal to air the ad. And MoveOn is urging its supporters to boycott the Super Bowl broadcast for a minute during halftime on Sunday. "Child's Pay" is playing everywhere, all the time, often at no cost to its creators. Kathleen Hall Jamieson, dean of the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania and an expert on political advertising, tells NEWSWEEK that MoveOn's spot may rank as "the ad that has achieved the most air time with the least dollars expended of any ad in the history of the republic." |
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CNN.com: "Al Gore Speaks Out to MoveOn Members "Gore accuses Bush of undermining freedoms" |
November 9, 2003 |
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"They have taken us much farther down the road toward an intrusive, Big Brother- style government -- toward the dangers prophesied by George Orwell in his book '1984' -- than anyone ever thought would be possible in the United States of America," Gore said. He said Bush has tried to maximize his power by emphasizing his role as commander in chief of the armed forces, "conflating it with his other role as head of government and head of state, and especially with his political role as head of the Republican Party." Gore, who lost the disputed 2000 presidential race to Bush, spoke to about 2,500 members of two liberal advocacy groups, the American Constitution Society and Moveon.org. |
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Rolling Stone: "News + Features, In Brief" |
October 31 , 2003 |
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| MICHAEL STIPE, MOBY, JACK BLACK and MICHAEL MOORE are on a panel organized by Moveon.org to judge a nationwide contest to find the best television ad that critiques the polices of President George W. Bush | ||
San Antonio Express-News: "Ad blitz set for AWOL Demos" |
August 23 , 2003 |
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| Friday, two days after its "Defend Democracy" campaign was launched on the Internet, the group's Web site indicated it had collected more than $790,000. Founded by two Silicon Valley entrepreneurs during the Clinton impeachment fight, the group claims a nationwide e-mailing list of 2 million people. "I've never seen any grassroots fund-raising group raise this much this quickly," said Glenn Smith, a political consultant representing the group's Texas effort. He predicted the $1 million goal "is gonna get reached pretty quickly." | ||
Washington Post: "From Screen Savers to Progressive Savior? MoveOn.org Founder Galvanizes Opposition to Bush, Democratic Centrists" |
June 5 , 2003 |
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| In the season of their discontent -- out of power and on the defensive -- Democrats are looking for inspiration and leadership. A bunch of them found it yesterday in the unassuming figure of Wes Boyd, the man who gave America the flying toaster. Boyd and his wife, Joan Blades, made a fortune with their winged-appliance computer screen savers. Then, in 1998, appalled by the impeachment struggle in Washington, the Californians founded MoveOn.org, a modest online petition effort that has grown into the hottest political organization in American progressive circles. From an initial e-mail to about 300 friends, MoveOn has, five years later, a "membership" of 1.4 million Americans, plus 700,000 more people outside the country. The MoveOn political action committee has raised $6.5 million for like-minded candidates and has hopes of doubling that amount in this election cycle. MoveOn generated a million phone calls and e-mails to Congress protesting the Iraq war and catalyzed thousands of candlelight vigils around the world. "Even we were shocked by the power of this," Boyd said. "We were bowled over." | ||
FCC - Stop the Media Monopoly
New York Times: "Putting a Face to a Cause"
May 29, 2003
Opponents of media deregulation are running advertisements depicting the
media mogul Rupert Murdoch as the scowling face of industry consolidation,
including commercials being shown today on his company's Fox News Channel
in New York.
The advocacy groups behind the ads, MoveOn.org, Common Cause, and Free Press,
said they were focusing attention on the well-known face of Mr. Murdoch in
an effort to stir public opposition to deregulation. At a meeting next Monday,
the Federal Communications Commission is expected to relax ownership restrictions,
including limits on local television stations and newspapers.
Washington Post: "FCC Plan to Alter Media Rules Spurs Growing Debate "
May 28, 2003
In recent days, the FCC has been inundated with hundreds of thousands of e-mails
and e-petitions. MoveOn.org, a public-interest organization founded by two
Silicon Valley entrepreneurs, says it has collected 170,000 signatures on a
petition to the FCC, urging the agency to keep the rules in place.
The group is joining forces with the public-interest group Common Cause, and
this week it launched a $250,000 newspaper and television advertising campaign
against the changes, including ads in the New York Times and The Washington Post.
Members of the National Rifle Association have sent 300,000 postcards demanding
the same. The FCC's Web site has received more than 9,000 e-mail comments over
recent months from individuals who claim no affiliation with corporations or
associations. Of those, according to a musician's group that recently tallied
the filings, only 11 comments support relaxing the media rules. Members of Congress
are reporting that their offices are receiving substantial e-mail traffic as well.
Let the Inspections Work
Chronicle of Philanthropy: "Advocacy Group's Online Savvy Nets More Than Donations"
April 17, 2003
When MoveOn.org, an online advocacy group, sent a short e-mail message to its
supporters last month urging them to make an online contribution to the
international-relief group Oxfam America, more than 6,900 people responded
with donations totaling more than $500,000. The money accounted for nearly
two-thirds of all dollars the relief group has received so far for Iraq.
The Oxfam appeal marks the latest in a string of milestones for the
five-year-old MoveOn, showcasing its ability to use the Internet to encourage
large-scale civic action.
Best known today for its recent efforts to mobilize opponents of war in Iraq,
MoveOn has attracted 1.3 million people to join its e-mail list and be
"online activists" in the United States and another 750,000 abroad in support
of causes that domestically include influencing policies on energy, environment,
campaign-finance, and economic and tax matters.
Washington Post: "DISSENT: Antiwar and Postwar, Too? You Bet"
March 23, 2003
One of the largest peaceful antiwar groups, MoveOn.org, is organizing a massive e-mail
drive to enlist signatures for a citizens' declaration, which reads in its entirety:
"As a US-led invasion of Iraq begins, we, the undersigned citizens of many countries,
reaffirm our commitment to addressing international conflicts through the rule of law
and the United Nations. By joining together across countries and continents, we have
emerged as a new force for peace. As we grieve for the victims of this war, we pledge
to redouble our efforts to put an end to the Bush Administration's doctrine of
pre-emptive attack and the reckless use of military power." And here is where the
two antiwar movements overlap. The sentiments in that statement could be endorsed
by much of the American foreign policy establishment. The second face of the antiwar
movement is entirely non-radical, pragmatically opposed to the administration's
doctrine of preemptive war and alarmed at its contempt for diplomacy. We might call
this the "realist" antiwar movement, after the realist school of foreign policy.
CNN.com: "Activists hold 'virtual march' on Washington"
February 26, 2003
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Anti-war protesters made their voices heard in Washington
on Wednesday, swamping Senate and White House telephone switchboards, fax machines
and e-mail boxes with hundreds of thousands of messages opposing military action
against Iraq.
The "virtual march" was organized by Win Without War, a coalition of 32 organizations including the National Council of Churches and MoveOn.org, which claimed that more than 40,000 people registered to participate in the call-in campaign.
By day's end, Win Without War national director Tom Andrews said the number of calls and faxes exceeded 1 million.
Los Angeles Times: "Protest Without Leaving Home"
February 20, 2003
The call for a virtual march on Washington -- an anti-war assault next Wednesday by e-mail,
fax and telephone -- began in the nation's capital Wednesday with the help of a Hollywood
connection. Tom Andrews, a former Democratic congressman from Maine, who now heads an
umbrella coalition of groups called Win Without War, said the idea was to extend the
momentum from last weekend's rallies against a possible war in Iraq.
Having taken to the streets, he said, now it is time to "take to the suites." Joined by a coalition of actors and celebrities both in Hollywood and Washington, Andrews urged those who oppose the potential war in Iraq to visit MoveOn.org. The organization hopes to coordinate calls to Senate offices and to the White House, scheduling them one every minute.
National TV Highlight Reel: 60 minutes of national TV coverage of our 'Daisy' ad and congressional meetings campaign (in Realmedia only)
January 2003
AlterNet: "Moving On: A New Kind of Peace Activism"
February 11, 2003
MoveOn has leveraged the Internet to create a new kind of organization with
the ability and credibility to raise hundreds of thousands of dollars and
move tens of thousands of people to action within hours. Without MoveOn,
with its more than 750,000 members in the U.S. and hundreds of thousands
more around the globe, the peace movement would not be the grassroots
phenomenon it is today, garnering broad media attention and earning
respect from many quarters.
In the most important ways, MoveOn is at the epicenter of the current
peace effort. Yet, while most organizing and political energy by other
groups is focused on mass demonstrations. including those in cities
and countries around the world this coming weekend, (events that MoveOn
strongly supports) MoveOn is more focused on the grassroots, local media
and members of Congress.
"In a sense," (Eli) Pariser observes, "part of MoveOn's attraction is that it
aims for normal people, not just activists, and engages them successfully."
Chicago Tribune: "Protesting war, groups battle stereotypes too"
January 17, 2003
Eli Pariser, 22, international campaigns director for MoveOn.org,
an online network whose aim is to attract people back into politics,
is mindful of the hurdles ahead. "The challenge we have now is
making sure our democracy works," said Pariser, whose group has
more than 650,000 subscribers to its e-mail list nationwide.
The organization has collected hundreds of thousands of signatures
on petitions to oppose war before the inspection process is finished
and organized thousands of members to meet with congressional leaders
next week. It also raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for the
provocative ad campaign that began airing Thursday in major markets,
including Chicago.
The ads, urging President Bush to "let the inspections work," show a
little girl counting daisy petals only to have her image replaced by
a nuclear explosion. It is a remake of a controversial commercial
during Lyndon B. Johnson's 1964 presidential campaign against Barry
Goldwater.
Christian Science Monitor: "Antiwar activists reaching past usual suspects"
January 17, 2003
In trying to reach middle America with their message, some peace groups
are using less strident language and a populist medium - the television
- to make their point. A TV ad that debuted in 13 cities Thursday from
MoveOn.org urges people to "Let the inspections work."
CNN.com: " '64 'Daisy' ad revived to warn against Iraq war"
January 16, 2003
SAN FRANCISCO, California (AP) -- Revisiting a jarring television
commercial from the Cold War era, a grass-roots anti-war group has
remade the 1964 "Daisy" ad, warning that a war against Iraq could
spark nuclear Armageddon.
Like the original, the 30-second ad by the Internet-based group
MoveOn.org depicts a girl plucking petals from a daisy -- along
with a missile launch countdown and a nuclear mushroom cloud.
More Press Coverage:
Click Here
Press Coverage of MoveOn's "Let the Inspections Work" Meetings:
The MoveOn.org Volunteer coordinated meetings on January 21, 2003 were covered by scores of media outlets. Here is a link to some of those local articles: Click Here
Salon.com: "The antiwar movement goes mainstream" (Salon Premium article, subscription required)
December 12, 2002
The broad-based support for Win Without War's message is evident in the
fundraising to disseminate it. MoveOn, an online progressive organization
that formed to fight President Clinton's impeachment, solicited donations
on its Web site to pay for the New York Times ad, which cost $40,000. In
less than a week, it had raised $370,000.
"The message is a very mainstream one," says Eli Pariser, MoveOn's
director of international campaigns. "We're patriotic folks concerned
about our country's security and concerned about the threat that Saddam
Hussein poses, but we don't think this rush to war is something that
serves our country well or serves the world well."
New York Times, NY: "Protests Held Across the Country to Oppose War in Iraq"
December 11, 2002
"Backed by national religious and civic organizations, including the National Council of Churches, the
N.A.A.C.P., the National Organization for Women and the Sierra Club, organizers said the group's purpose was
to emphasize what they called a mainstreaming of the antiwar movement. . . .
"One of the founding organizations, MoveOn.Org, started an online signature campaign a week ago titled, "Let
the Inspections Work." Within days, it gathered more than 175,000 signatures and over $300,000 in donations to
buy antiwar advertisements in national media outlets.
"'There is significant energy building out there,' said Eli Pariser, the Internet-based group's international
campaign director."
Press Coverage of MoveOn's Iraq Meetings
MoveOn.org Volunteer coordinated meetings on August 28, 2002: Below is a sampling of the articles and news stories produced about these meetings:
LA Times, CA: "Military Action May Get
Peace Movement Rolling"
September 2, 2002
"In Senate offices across the country last week, Americans who had embraced moveon.org's cause came to press the case
against war in Iraq."
Boston Globe, MA: "Antiwar Protesters Picket Kerry's
Office"
August 31, 2002
"Carrying signs of "Say No to War" and "Attack Iraq - NO," about 80 demonstrators crowded the sidewalk and handed out
fliers arguing against a US invasion against Saddam Hussein. They called for more weapons inspections and said a
unilateral move by the United States would have devastating effects in the Middle East. "There's no evidence that Saddam
Hussein is an imminent danger," said Mike Tannert, a retired GTE employee and a veteran of World War II and the Korean
War. President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney should "focus on homeland security, like protecting our
nuclear plants from being attacked," Tannert added."
Chicago Tribune, IL: "150 at Dirksen Building protest Bush's Iraq plan"
August 29, 2002
"About 150 people rallied in front of the Dirksen Federal Building on
Wednesday for a teach-in to address President Bush's proposal for U.S.
intervention in Iraq. And a few dozen more expressed their opinions on the
subject to Illinois' U.S. senators.
"People are afraid to say anything in the wake of Sept. 11," said longtime
peace activist Bernice Bild. "We're here to say it's OK to ask questions."
Sens. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) and Peter Fitzgerald (R-Ill.) arranged for staff
members to meet with the activists."
New Britain Herald, CT: "Iraq
Plans Protested"
August 29, 2002
"U.S. Sen. Christopher Dodd should not support President George W. Bush's assumed plan to wage war against Iraq,
according to a collection of groups gathered Wednesday at the First Congregational Church. Some 100 activists and
concerned citizens gathered in the church's basement to present an online petition to Courtney Disch, Dodd's director of
community affairs. The event was one of 100 presentations made across the country."
Asheville Citizen-Times, NC: "Residents Make Case for No
Iraq Attack"
August 29, 2002
Albuquerque Journal, NM: "Iraq War Plans Protested"
August 29, 2002
"About 40 people came to the Albuquerque offices of both New Mexico senators Wednesday with petitions calling on
Congress to prevent a war with Iraq. Simultaneously, people nationwide were visiting their congressional offices, said
Terry Mulcahy, a spokesman for the local group."
KXAN TV, TX: "Central Texans
Voicing Opinions On Iraq"
August 28, 2002
"U.S. lawmakers may hold more hearings on Iraq after the recess, and some Central Texans are making sure their
representatives know exactly how they feel.
"Over 4,000 Texans have signed this petition calling for the senator to ask the hard questions about this rush to war,"
Andy McKenna with www.moveon.org said."
Austin-American
Statesman, TX: "Group delivers petition opposing war with Iraq"
August 29, 2002
"A week-old grass-roots campaign opposing American military action against Iraq took its message to the doorstep of U.S.
Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison's Austin office on Wednesday.
About 35 people squeezed under a sliver of midday shade outside a downtown federal building to deliver an anti-war
petition with 600 signatures to Joyce Sibley, director of constituent services for Hutchison."
Coverage of the "Censure and Move On" campaign
MoveOn started as an online petition asking the Congress to "censure Pres. Clinton and move on to pressing issues facing the nation." By the end of the impeachment scandal over 500,000 people had signed the petition and many had pledged money for the election to come. The following excerpts describe that time in MoveOn's history.
If the Democrats take control of
the House, MoveOn.org will share in the credit. Targeting 28 races, including
several "battleground" seats, the network has raised more than $1.85 million
in contributions from 43,232 individuals. "Looks like we'll exceed $2 million,"
Blades says. Such political fundraising is an antidote to the corporate PACs
and other large special-interest contributions that are "really distorting the
process in a rather disturbing way," Blades adds. "These are regular people,
average people, saying 'We want people reflecting our values to represent us.'"
- The Industry Standard / October 30, 2000 (full
text of article online)
One of the first online political
action committees, MoveOn.org, has raised about $1.7 million for 29 Democratic
candidates on an issue that has largely disappeared as a major political issue
-- the impeachment of President Clinton. Created in September 1998, before fundraising
online had caught on as an essential campaign tool, two software developers,
Wes Boyd and Joan Blades, created MoveOn to urge House lawmakers to quickly
resolve the impeachment issue. By July 1999, the web site had raised $350,000,
the first time in politics anyone had been able to raise six figures on the
Internet, and the money has kept pouring in. "The great thing about the
$1.7 million is that it came from 40,000 individual contributors and so we are
really bringing the small donor to these campaigns in a way that has never been
done before," said Boyd. "MoveOn is the PAC of the future, if we are
lucky. They permit donors to select which candidates (from an approved list)
get their money. Small donors getting involved invigorates democracy,"
said Mike Cornfield, a professor at George Washington's School of Political
Management.
- National Journal / October 18, 2000
It sounded like a good idea at the
time. But nearly a year and a half after a political action committee was formed
to protect the House impeachment managers from an expected backlash in the 2000
elections, it is on the brink of collapse, a victim of political winds that
have shifted dramatically in the past year... As of the end of June, it had
raised a total of $76,787 and had only doled out a single contribution to a
Member, a $1,000 check to Rep. Jim Rogan (R-Calif.), a vocal impeachment manager
who is in serious jeopardy of losing his seat... In contrast with the House
Impeachment Managers PAC, MoveOn.org an online fundraising effort dedicated
to defeating incumbents who voted to impeach Clinton, has raked in $1.5 million
since it was created last year and currently ranks 16th in overall PAC receipts.
- National Journal / October 16, 2000
Witness also the rise of grassroots
organizations developed solely on the Internet. Last year, MoveOn.org was an
Internet startup created in a home office with no funding. In less than 12 weeks,
this grassroots guerilla enterprise signed up over 500,000 supporters and received
pledges of $13 million. Frankly, this one web upstart was more effective than
many established organizations can claim in a year's worth of effort.
- Republican National Committee web site / April 20, 2000 (full
text at rnc.org website)
MoveOn made the world of campaign
strategists sit up and take notice last winter when its appeals over the Internet
quickly attracted $13 million in pledges to support candidates running against
impeachment backers. Last June, it set records for online fund raising by collecting
more than $250,000 in just five days, mostly in donations under $50. Political
pros were dazzled by MoveOn's demonstration of the Internet's potential to magnify
the electoral clout of donors with small purses...
"It's 2000," says Wesley Boyd,
a successful software entrepreneur based in Berkeley, Calif., and one of MoveOn's
founders. "It's time to go." The organization has so far collected a total of
$456,000 for its five candidates. But before votes are cast this fall it hopes
to raise millions more for as many as 40 candidates across the country, and
to deploy thousands of volunteers in their campaigns. MoveOn's strategy is to
target competitive races where its involvement could actually make a difference.
If MoveOn were to achieve its ambitious goals, it just might have a big impact
on this year's struggle to control Congress, especially the House. Republicans
hold only a slim five-vote majority there, and the outcome will "likely be determined
in no more than three dozen congressional districts," says Thomas Mann, director
of governmental studies at the Brookings Institution, a Washington think tank.
- Wall Street Journal / January 31, 2000
When Joan Blades and Wes Boyd, husband-and-wife
software developers in Silicon Valley, set out on the Internet to protest the
congressional impeachment process last fall, they had no idea what they were
unleashing. Within days, the couple had generated 500,000 electronic petitions,
so many that they had to be parceled out to avoid choking the computer servers
on Capitol Hill. When they put out a plea for campaign contributions to help
defeat lawmakers who pushed for impeaching President Clinton, they got back
an astounding $13 million in pledges for the coming year. It's a sign, political
experts say, that the Internet is a new wave in politics, one that could rival
or surpass the impact of TV. From the Nixon-Kennedy debate in 1960 to present-day
negative ads, TV remade political discourse into an exchange of sound bites
and drove up the cost of campaigning. The Internet holds the potential to counter
both those effects.
- USA Today Cover Story / September 1, 1999
Last December, at a Harvard University
conference on online politics, Joan Blades held forth on her vision for the
Internet. She spoke about returning power to ordinary citizens, moving politics
beyond confrontation and the glories of community. It struck some of us in attendance
as fuzzy-wuzzy. When she finished speaking, Rich Galen of GOPAC cracked, "Kumbaya.org,"
and the back of the room collapsed in laughter. We're not laughing now. MoveOn.org,
run by Blades and her partner Wes Boyd, raised $250,000 in a five-day burst
before the June 30 FEC filing deadline. That crushed the record for online fundraising.
But the way they did it may be far more significant than the amount.
- Michael Cornfield, September Issue Bandwagon/Campaigns & Elections
Politics on the Internet turned a
corner in recent weeks, and neither democracy nor cyberspace may be the same
again... MoveOn.org announced that they had raised $250,000 in five days via
the Internet and bundled the money to five Democratic congressional candidates,
four of whom are challenging pro-impeachment Republican incumbents. A week later
the figure was $358,000 and still climbing. The average contribution was less
than $50... And that, political professionals say, would be nothing short of
revolutionary. If candidates can use the Internet to raise significant funds
through small donations and attract and organize volunteers at relatively little
cost and labor, it could radically alter the balance of power in politics...
"If you have lots and lots of small contributions you really are not beholden
to anybody but the broad public interest," said Harvard University professor
Elaine Kamarck...
- Scripps Howard News Service / July 22, 1999
Thousand of Internet users, fed up
with the impeachment process, have gone online in the past three weeks and pledged
more than $10 million to try to defeat the politicians they believe have ignored
voters' wishes to censure President Clinton and move on to other business, the
operators of a new grassroots Web site say.
- New York Times / January 8, 1999 (full
text of article online)
As Senators plot the shape and scale
of a Senate impeachment trial against President Clinton, an Internet-based group
dedicated to ending the proceedings is stepping up its activism and promising
to punish impeachment-minded lawmakers in the next election."
- Los Angeles Times / January 13, 1999
How can there be such a phenomenon
as electronic political activism? What's so active about clicking a mouse button
when sending an e-mail or logging on to a Web site? But with $13 million and
more than 650,000 volunteer hours pledged to Censure and Move On, a grass-roots
Internet campaign against the impeachment trial of President Clinton, the realm
of political activism now must bend its boundaries to include cyberspace.
- Washington Post / February 1, 1999
MoveOn.org, the Web site that made
news last year when it drew some 450,000 signatures to an online petition calling
Congress to "censure President Clinton and move on," on Friday announced
a new online lobbying initiative: a gun control petition. In the aftermath of
the school shootings in Littleton, Colo., MoveOn.org co-founder Wes Boyd said
the site's "Gun Safety First" petition pressures Congress to regulate
guns for safety like other consumer products, institute child safety standards
for gun manufacturers and force gun show operators to check buyers' backgrounds.
- ZDNet / April 30, 1999 (full
text of article online)
In response to this month's massacre
at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colo., Joan Blades and Wes Boyd started
an online gun control drive on their Web site, www.moveon.org, last Thursday
night. By yesterday, they had gathered more than 42,000 signatures... The new
"Gun Safety First" campaign promotes the "commonsense regulation of firearms,"
such as child safety standards for gun manufacturers and laws forcing gun-show
operatiors to enact more stringent background checks on buyers. "It's another
issue where a vast majority of citizens want reasonable gun control but what's
happening inside the Beltway in not reflecting that desire," Blades said. "This
is an opportunity for people who are concerned to become an effective voice."
- San Francisco Chronicle / May 5, 1999
Earliest Coverage
Representative Carolyn B. Maloney,
D-N.Y., received 3,121 e-mails from Move On, more than any House member. Maloney's
press secretary, Terese Schlachter, said the e-mails did bolster Maloney's decision
to stick with the Democrats and vote for a limited inquiry.
- San Francisco Chronicle / October 15, 1998
(Congressman Bart Stupak) is emboldened
by 205 e-mails that have come into his office over the past 36 hours arguing
for Congress to Censure President Clinton and move on "to pressing issues
facing the country." He tells two of his Michigan delegation colleagues,
Lynn Rivers and Debbie Stabenow, of his decision. He shares it with Bonior because
"I was probably the last holdout."
- Washington Post / October 9, 1998
A new grassroots organization aims
to leverage the Internet to ask Congress to "immediately censure President
Clinton and move on to pressing issues facing the country."
- CNN Interactive / September 26, 1998
Those who are simply tired of partisan
bickering can wend their way to Huffington's neighbors at Moveon.org and exhort
Congress to "immediately censure President Clinton and Move On to pressing
issues facing the country."
- Salon / September 26, 1998
Just how powerful is the Net as a
grass-roots political tool? Joan Blades and Wes Boyd plan to find out. On Tuesday,
the two founders of Berkeley Systems, known for its best-selling After Dark
screen savers, posted a petition on the Web (www.moveon.org) inviting fellow
citizens to express collective disgust at Washington's protracted preoccupation
with President Clinton's relationship with Monica Lewinsky and to urge Congress
to turn its attention to more important matters.
- New York Times / September 24, 1998
Censure and Move On, a bipartisan
group formed last weekend, hopes to gather megabytes worth of 'signatures' to
force a quick congressional censure vote.
- San Jose Mercury / September 24, 1998
(Censure and Move On) petitions
for Clinton's censure and urges "government to get back to work."
- San Francisco Chronicle / September 24, 1998
Blades and husband, Wes Boyd, founded
the 'purely volunteer effort' and its site, www.moveon.org, after finding themselves
talking to citizens around the country who felt that their representatives in
Congress were not listening to their desire to move past the Lewinsky incident.
- The Industry Standard / September 24,
1998
