If you're reading this and have mojo: please help investigate and discredit MoveAmericaForward, or pick up on this diary and diary more about the organization (if you see its ads) to help reduce its ability to make mischief.
I saw the group's new ad, "Win in Iraq," on cable TV in the Midwest over the weekend, and the ad was like a sample ad out of "Goebbels' Guide to TV Advertising." The point of the ad is that people who oppose the wars who hate the troops and want them dead and will lead to the United States being nuked.
Hail Ripley posted a highly recommended diary in January that talked about Move America Forward in connection with the KSFO "hate TV" controversy, but I just feel as if the TV ad campaign is so awful that it ought to be getting attention here now.
Move America Forward describes itself this way:
Move America Forward is a non-partisan, not-for-profit charitable organization committed to supporting America’s efforts to defeat terrorism and supporting the brave men and women of our Armed Forces. Contributions are tax deductible.
Here is a little bit about Move America Forward from SourceWatch.org (the boldface is mine):
Move America Forward (MAF) is a conservative 501c3 not-for-profit organization formed in early 2004 by Howard Kaloogian and "acclaimed radio and television personality" Melanie Morgan (KSFO 560 AM -- San Francisco) [1] and headed by California Republican activists, talk show hosts and staff members of the public relations firm Russo Marsh & Rogers, which has strong ties to the Republican Party....
Melanie Morgan is MAF chairman and a columnist for WorldNetDaily, author of the book America Mourning, and also a conservative radio talk personality at KSFO in San Francisco, California. Melanie Morgan gained national notoriety in the summer of 2006 when she suggested that Bill Keller, an editor of the New York Times, be killed in a "gaschamber" for the crime of "treason" after the Times' reporting on US government spying on Americans....
What I find really disturbing about this is that it doesn't even seem to be an example of people with strong views speaking their minds. It seems to be part of a calculated PR campaign by people who would just as cheerfully organize this sort of campaign for Democrats if Obama or HRC forked over enough cash. In other words, this is a case of a PR/advertising firm doing its best to start a civil war just to make a little extra money.
I'm one of the people here who is always open to hearing any politely described plan for fixing what we broke in Iraq, from anyone other than the people who've been in charge of running the operation. If James Webb or Wes Clark or even some diehard neocon who had nothing directly to do with U.S. policy from 2002 to present tells me about a plan that involves keeping a lot of U.S. troops in Iraq, or even sending more troops in, I'll be skeptical, but I'll try to keep an open mind.
I'm always arguing here, perhaps putting myself in some kind of troll category, that someone who disagrees with me about Iraq or some other issue is simply my political opponent, not my enemy -- that my only enemies are people who despise and attack the democratic process.
Of course, here we see that the people behind Move America Forward and Russo Marsh are genuine enemies of democracy, just because destroying democracy happens to pay better than supporting it, or marketing a new kind of dishwashing detergent.
Aside from the fact that Move America Forward and Russo Marsh could get some of us, maybe many of us here, killed, they undermine the ability of Iraq hawks to defend their arguments in any kind of intellectually respectable way, because the Move America Forward people now are doing their best to chain arguments in favor of staying in Iraq to efforts to shut down policy debate in the United States.
Even if there are some sincere neocons, for example, who simply believe that we have an obligation to keep troops in Iraq to prevent wholesale genocide, as opposed to the retail genocide now under way (and I know a lot of people here are now laughing, but I'll bet the some sincere neocons exist, just as sextuplets exist and people with extra fingers exist), those neocons now have to figure out how to get out of a bed filled with open neofascists.