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News in Texas

Perhaps Move On Should Send Cornyn a Thank You Note

by: boadicea

Sat Sep 22, 2007 at 11:37:39 AM CDT

While he had some help, it appears that John Cornyn's exercise in political farce on the Senate floor turned into a huge moneymaker.

For Move On.

boadicea :: Perhaps Move On Should Send Cornyn a Thank You Note

Dear MoveOn member,
Yesterday, an amazing thing happened. After the Senate's shameful vote, and after President Bush called MoveOn "disgusting,"1 our email started to fill up with messages like this one:
I'm currently in Iraq. I do not agree with this war, and if I did support this war, it would not matter. You have the RIGHT to speak the truth. We KNOW that you support us. Thank you for speaking out for being our voice. We do not have a voice. We are overshooted by those who say that we soldiers do not support organizations like MoveOn. WE DO.
YOU ARE OUR voice.

And then came the donations. By midnight, over 12,000 people had donated $500,000-more than we've raised any day this year-for our new ad calling out the Republicans who blocked adequate rest for troops headed back to Iraq.
The message from MoveOn members was loud and clear: Don't back down. Take the fight back to the issues that matter.

That would be half a million dollars raised because Junior John thought going back to demonizing the anti-Iraq war strategery 70% of Americans was a good idea.

Our own Doran Williams has a very special thank you for Junior John.

Thank You, Sen. Cornyn, For Being Such An IncompetentIgnoramus.

All snarkery aside, Texans have bled a lot in this war, and their families have waited in unimaginable anxiety for their loved ones to finally come home.

For Senator Cornyn to not only help kill the very modest Webb bill to allow exhausted warriors equal time at home for that in theatre, but to then sponsor a bill condemning the exercise of free speech in dissent is so mean spirited and venal that it beggars description.

So, I'll let some of the other emails received by Move On speak as to where our priorities as a nation should be regarding the occupation of Iraq:

All day, messages from vets and military family members kept pouring into our email, many of them aimed at the Senate:

I have given a son to this country. My brother, my father, my uncle have all served honorably and bravely. I am a loyal American. I am outraged and sick to death of the tactics this administration uses to try to silence dissent to a war that is unjust, built and maintained on lies, political power, and greed. I was content to let others fight more loudly, but no more.
-Sharyn W., NC
I am a prior soldier who served in Iraq for 13 months, and am now an expecting mom with a husband who is deployed in Baghdad. I don't think I can ever forgive the Bush administration for the lies that tricked America into this war and hurt my family so badly. I am ashamed of those American politicians who would condemn an organization for practicing the Freedom of Speech that so many soldiers have died for.
-Danielle B., OH
As a US Navy veteran and an Iraq war veteran of over a year I want to ask, What has happened to us? What has happened to our voice? Where is this country going with stopping free speech and free press? … Every time I think of the long nights I had in Anbar remembering what I was fighting for, well here it is….
-Ahmad H., LA

These folks have made sacrifices many of us can't imagine. Their charge to us was clear: keep speaking the truth about how President Bush and the Republicans have betrayed our trust.

Time for Senator Betray Us to go.

Move On speaks for a lot of Americans, and a lot of those live right here in Texas.

You can donate here to keep their work going, and sign the Move On petition here.

Tags: MoveOn.org, John Cornyn, tx-senate, The Media Room, (All Tags)

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Perhaps Move On Should Send Cornyn a Thank You Note | 6 comments

The Politness Trap (4.00 / 2)

According to George Lackoff linguists call it 'metonymy.'

There is a reason for this, what linguists call 'metonymy,' a mode of thought in which a leader stands for the institution he or she leads. If this commonplace metonymy is used, a general in uniform reporting to Congress would be seen as standing for the military as an institution.
Here is an example of the metonymy at work. Bradley A. Blakeman, president of Freedom's Watch, a White House front group, said "To question the character and patriotism of brave men and women who combat terrorism everyday is too much, it's in poor taste and it will not go unchallenged." Via metonymy, to call Petraeus into question is to question the troops' patriotism.
Literally, MoveOn was doing the opposite - the ad as a whole (hardly discussed in the media) insisted on the truth, even by a general acting politically for the President. MoveOn.org was upholding the "character and patriotism," as well as the well-being, of the troops by insisting that they no longer be deceived, that the betrayal end. Blakeman takes advantage of the commonplace Leader-for-Institution metonymy to tell a further lie, and continue the betrayal.
Because the Leader-stands-for-the-Institution metonymy is widespread, members of the Senate and the House therefore treated the general with utmost respect at the hearing - lest some members of the public think that they were not respecting the military, which they in fact do respect, and should. The troops, after all, are not betraying us, whatever their commanders and political leaders might be doing. But they and their parents and friends might be offended if someone wearing the uniform were insulted at a Congressional hearing-even if the intended target was the political appointee wearing the uniform and following political orders.
The Bush administration, knowing all this, made sure Petraeus testified in uniform...

We have to teach the general public to separate the political leaders from the troops.

Barnett Shale: An Insatiable Thirst

My blog Bluedaze

by: TXsharon @ Sat Sep 22, 2007 at 11:56:01 AM CDT

by: you @ soon

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The only thing these Republicans have accomplished... (4.00 / 2)

...is to make Moveon.org a far more potent organization than (what I suspect were) the wildest expectations of its most hardcore members. I love how this organization, to borrow a boxing analogy, displayed "the heart of a champion" in fighting back so strongly against the idiot Cornyn's grandstand tactics (and the weak Democratic senators' acquiescence). I sure hope we see more Moveon here in Texas to force Cornyn to Move On out of office.

by: alaprst1 @ Sat Sep 22, 2007 at 17:51:54 PM CDT

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I already thanked Cornyn (0.00 / 0)

I sent him an insulting email a couple days ago. Fuck him.

by: flasoapbox @ Sun Sep 23, 2007 at 11:03:28 AM CDT

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by: you @ soon

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Move-On Rally for Our Children's Health Care (0.00 / 0)

Cornyn has stepped in it again. Congress just sent President Bush a bill to guarantee children's health care. More Republicans than expected voted for it. But Bush is threatening a veto. Cornyn did not have the courage to stand up to the White House. He let our children down.

The day after the veto, we need to be ready to hold a rapid-response rally to tell Congress -- and Cornyn in particular -- to overturn the veto.

If enough Republicans buck Bush on this bill, we'll break the logjam in Washington. If we fail, millions of children will go without the medical care they need, just because their families can't afford spiraling health insurance costs.

This struggle will set the stage for the fights to come. The event details are:

Rally for Our Children's Health Care
Federal Courthouse - I-37 & Shoreline
Federal Courthouse, 1133 N. Shoreline
Corpus Christi, TX 78401
Date and Time To Be Announced

Here is the link to sign up for this event:

http://political.mov...

Or contact MoveOn.org directly for a rally near you. Let's be heard loud and clear on this one.

by: rkollman @ Fri Sep 28, 2007 at 15:46:04 PM CDT

by: you @ soon

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Could you write this up in a diary? (0.00 / 0)

Might get more eyes than a comment on a front page story that's scrolled down so far.

Before you win, you have to fight. Come fight along with us at TexasKaos.

by: boadicea @ Fri Sep 28, 2007 at 17:53:15 PM CDT

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by: you @ soon

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MoveOn Rally for Our Children's Health Care (4.00 / 1)

Done. Thanks for the suggestion.

by: rkollman @ Mon Oct 01, 2007 at 10:21:01 AM CDT

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