FYI- SUMMARY OF MOVEON.ORG 9/20 8:30pm Conference Call and Questions:

[cyberpj]

Here's everything I could type, as fast as I could:

Eli Pariser:
Clearly we've made an impact on Republicans.
They wouldn't come after us unless we were a threat.

3.3 million member org - ordinary Americans taking responsibility for where the country is headed.
Long tradition of getting truth out against Republican lies so it's no wonder they're coming after us.

Bush strategy in last 10 days hasn't worked, actually public wants out of Iraq even more. 5 straight days of Bush and Patreus coverage didn't change any minds.

Mentioned today's Senate condemnation. Today alone Moveon received tens of thousands of dollars of support and many emails of support.

Mentioned the WEbb amendment and how the Repubs voted against the amendment - so when they had an opportunity to stand by the troops and do something about it they didn't - and it's outrageous that they took the time for the anti-moveon vote.

Clearly, some people in this country do believe that a general can not be questioned. It's important to say that the truth is more important than a uniform or any one person.

Expect Moveon to continue to pressure about the war.

Sharing an email they got today:
"I'm currently in Iraq. We don't agree with this war. Thank you for speaking out. We don't have a voice. You are our voice."

Thanking members for support and now taking questions:


Note: keeping an eye on the numbers I noticed a maximum of about 2200 at one time. As question started, numbers dropped to just over 500 or so.


QUESTIONS:

Will you continue to place ads? Yes, we will share as we put them out. Just a note on ads, I wish we could just put moveon members in front of national media and they would listen to you all because then they'd realize this is an amazingly mainstream group of good people. Nationally, it's difficult to get the media to cover ads and so that's why we use this tactic - to make sure our message gets out in a big way.

Has Petraus reacted? Yes, it was a fairly muted reaction. The truth is he understands he has a political role to be the salesman - he was previously on the phone daily with Ed Gillespie - so this is someone who understood he had a political role to play. Bush has selctively chosen Generals to represent him who are willing to do this.

Someone asked about Ed Schultz - they said he contributed today and asked his listeners to as well.

How can we keep the pressure on and force Bush to make a change? The strategy is to isolate Bush so that Republicans in congress abandon him and he's forced to change. He is so unpopular. That's one reason why we see him calling us out today as a badge of honor. We have to keep Dems pushing forward to end the war; in our opinion Dems have not done that enough but it is noticeable that in the last few weeks several important Republicans have come out agains the Bush war policy.

Some attendee comments - One said good work, keep it up! Another said moveon is good but targeting Patreus was wrong and we should keep it on Bush.

Eli responded that they targeted Patreus because Bush has a history of using military as his front men - look no farther than Colin Powell in 2003. If this had been done then, would it have helped people to look more closely at those claims? Hard to say.

Someone asked if the ad allowed Republicans to use it as a distraction? Answer: distraction from what? The Pres had a very choreographed plan for last week involving 2 days of testimony and press conferences etc, to stay in front of americans in the press. At the very least the ad interrupted that. In the big picture we gained support and money and made some people question the information.

Discouraged people said they're tired of writing and calling with no response. Eli said it's still important to continue and he wants to work to convince people that they are doing important work and to continue it. Working at a local level at local events and local newpapers is also important. Start where you are.

Another marine from Phila PA said thanks for moveon work.

Again, remind people congress would rather spend time on the resolution and political grandstanding than actual work toward ending the war and helping the soldiers.

As to the meaning of the vote - it doesn't mean very much, listed several resolutions on useless topics and that it will fade in time but it illustrates the position of moveon -that we're not insiders and never want to be and it's our job to irritate them and we'll keep pushing.

Every day there are more and more people saying that's enough - but when you have 3.2 million people saying that out loud and together it's much more powerful so encourage others to join up and add to the power.

Sign up at OperationDemocracy.org

Then Tom from Californa used the Ghandi quote - first they ignore you...........

and it ended there.

[sinkingfeeling]

1. I'm very pleased with MoveOn!! Hope the money just keeps on rolling in!

[dmosh42]

2. Yes, I feel good that the two groups I contributed to, MoveOn.org..

and VoteVets have come on as I wanted. They asked if we wanted them to be more aggressive, and the members responded in the affirmative, and they are doing it fine! Better than our chickenshits in Congress!