MoveOn.org turns up heat on Congress, gets response

From today's update from MoveOn.org:

MEMBERS OF CONGRESS READ MOVEON COMMENTS ON THE HOUSE FLOOR
In early July, a number of Members of Congress contacted us to let us
know that they'd be reading MoveOn members' comments on the House
floor from the petition to establish an independent commission on Iraq
intelligence. Since then, night after night, Representatives like
Barbara Lee (D-CA), Sherrod Brown (D-OH), Jan Schakowsky (D-IL), and
Lynn Woolsey (D-CA) have taken the floor to highlight your powerful
words.

Here's a short excerpt from Congressman Brown's remarks:

"A hundred sixty-five years ago, Madam Speaker, the United States
Congress, amazingly enough, the House of Representatives, passed a
rule prohibiting its Members from debating the great issue of slavery,
the greatest blemish on American history. In those days, John Quincy
Adams, former President, then elected to the House of Representatives,
came down to the well of the House week after week reading letters
from his constituents, reading what he called petitions from groups in
his State of Massachusetts, many of them written by women in women's
clubs, women who actually could not in those days, as we all know,
vote in American elections. He read these letters protesting this rule
prohibiting the discussion of slavery and protesting the institution
of slavery itself."

"Today, we find ourselves in a Congress where this Congress has
refused to discuss and investigate what exactly the President did and
said about weapons of mass destruction. As the gentlewoman from
Illinois (Ms. Schakowsky) said earlier in the evening, an organization
called MoveOn.org, an organization of 1 1/2 million Americans, tens of
thousands in my State of Ohio, asked its members to sign an on-line
petition saying that we believe Congress should support an independent
commission to investigate the Bush administration's distortion of
evidence of Iraq's weapons of mass destruction program."

"Tens of thousands of those members, in addition to signing the
petitions, wrote letters to Members of Congress. And similar to John
Quincy Adams's coming to the House floor to expose the Congress'
inability and unwillingness to discuss issues of national import, many
of us have come to the House floor every night to share the concerns,
not just our concerns, Members of Congress, but to share the concerns
of people in my district in my State."

You can view the entire transcript of their powerful speeches, as well
as dozens of MoveOn members' comments, at:
http://www.moveon.org/wmdpledge/congress.html


-----------


112 MEMBERS OF CONGRESS ON BOARD

Another example of the growing momentum on this issue in Congress is
the number of Representatives who have pledged their support of an
independent commission to investigate the evidence Bush used to make
the case for war. Only a few weeks into our legislative lobbying, 112
Members of Congress are now co-sponsors on Rep. Henry Waxman's (D-CA)
legislation to establish a commission. With grassroots in-district
meetings happening with Members of Congress around the country this
month (we'll let you know if one's happening in your district next
week), that number will only go up from here.

The list of co-sponsors is online at:
http://www.misleader.org/who.html


-----------


414,000 SIGNERS ON "DISTORTION OF EVIDENCE" PETITION

With over 400,000 signers, our Distortion of Evidence petition is one
of our largest ever. The signers come from across the country and
across the political spectrum, and many have added poignant and
powerful comments.

Here's an example from Ron Macek, whose comment was read by Rep.
Schakowsky on the House floor.

``My wife is with Freeport's 333rd MP Company. She has been overseas
since late April. She has been on active duty since February 9. She
has not slept in her own bed next to her own husband in 4 months and 6
days. We still have no idea when this nightmare can be over for us. We
understand a call to duty for our Nation. We truly do. However, she
did not join the National Guard with an open-ended deployment and a
war zone in mind. None of them did. We always thought the Guard was
for short deployments and emergencies only. She tells me that morale
with her soldiers is extremely low. There are short tempers, long
days, fear, crying soldiers, and no idea when it can be over for them.
That is the root of our anguish. These people have been uprooted from
their lives and jobs, and they answered that call, yet no one can
answer their most-asked question: When can I go home?

``The average soldier is not a stupid order taker. We have a highly
intelligent military, and they realize what is going on back home with
the controversy around the evidence of weapons of mass destruction. I
cannot speak for other soldiers, but it disturbs my wife deeply to
think that she could be over there risking her life and living a daily
heartbreak based on distorted testimony.

It makes her feel like a pawn of political agenda, not an American
doing good in the world. All of this together most certainly
influences her ideas of retention. We need the truth, not someone's
version of the truth, not some of the truth but all of the truth. And
we need to know when we can be reunited to live our lives together.''


-----------

NATIONAL NEWS COVERAGE

The campaign to demand the truth on Iraq has gathered widespread
attention in the national news media. Articles on the petition have
appeared in the Washington Post, AP, Reuters, the Boston Globe, and
hundreds of other papers around the country and around the world.
Here's an excerpt from the Washington Post.


Antiwar Groups Say Public Ire Over Iraq Claims Is Increasing
by Evelyn Nieves
Washington Post, July 22, 2003http://www.commondreams.org/headlines03/0722-01.htm

SAN FRANCISCO -- The letters are pouring in like a water main break --
fast and, yes, furious. From Alabama: "We want to know the truth!"
From Arizona: "If there's nothing to hide, what's the harm in a
bipartisan inquiry?" From Mississippi: "We must get to the truth --
whatever it is!"

About 400,000 people from every state have contacted members of
Congress in the past three weeks as part of a MoveOn.org petition that
asks Congress to investigate the controversial claims that led to the
war on Iraq, with more than 50,000 people signing on to the liberal
activist Web site in the past five days alone.

"It seems more and more people who supported the war are signing on,"
said Eli Pariser, MoveOn.org's campaigns director. "They're angry.
People who in the past couple of weeks before the war decided to
support it are swinging back."