Ars Technica Newsdesk<\/i>, January 12, 2004<\/p>
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Make no mistakes about it, MoveOn.org is a site dedicated to ousting George W. Bush as president in the 2004 elections (it was originally dedicated to getting Congress to \"move on\" after the Monica Lewinski scandal). What makes MoveOn.org noteworthy is the level of exposure and influence it has as compared to other partisan political sites as of late, and the trend that sites like MoveOn.org reflect. The site has evolved from a kind of grassroots political forum into a powerhouse player that's buying TV ad space and influencing political heehawing. This comes at a time when more and more Americans are turning to the 'net for election coverage, especially younger people more comfortable with the Internet. In an election year where more young voters are expected to turn out, the 'net is heating up as a sincere battle ground for politicians. The curious thing is that, like so many things online, the trends are bucked by people who have their own way of doing things.<\/p>
While Bush has a war chest to make Napoleon blush, the dicey election contribution laws in the US are leading some donors to lend their support to political agendas by supporting organizations not<\/i> tied directly to candidates or even parties. And with these newer breeds of organizations, donations and support can be made in an anonymous way. Recently MoveOn.org has received considerable financial support from the left (though the biggest donor was not anonymous), allowing them to run ads in hot spots targeting<\/i> the president while not explicitly supporting<\/i> any other contender. Some see this as just another way to play dirty politics (negative politics anonymously), while others see this as an interesting symbiosis of online community and old school political know-how.<\/p>
A lesser-known, right-leaning group has also experienced, uh, such spontaneous growth. The Club for Growth has been building steam to attack Howard Dean on a number of fronts, but again, the group is neither politically affiliated with a candidate or a party per se<\/i>. In the case of the Club for Growth, there's a political agenda there that even takes aim at some economic centrists in the Republican party. What I find most interesting about these kinds of groups is this: they're not so much politics as usual as they're surgical instruments with specific aims and interests that cannot be lumped easily into a \"MoveOn.org = standard Democrat platform\" mentality. And the vehicle is the 'net. For example, MoveOn.org recently sponsored a \"Bush in 30 seconds\" homegrown ad campaign that's raising quite a ruckus. The winner, to be announced tonight, will be pitched to the major networks for airtime, but even if they get a no-go, the amount of coverage the campaign is receiving online is considerable. This recent AP article details some of the movement's usage of emerging technology to gain a voice where once there wasn't one. Our own Soap Box currently features a thread debating the finalists in the ad contest. The point isn't so much that MoveOn.org is raising eyebrows, but that there's many more sites like this in our future. Welcome to the world of \"your own lobby is just a click away...\".<\/p>\n","contact":"caesar@arstechnica.com","link":"http:\/\/arstechnica.com\/news\/posts\/1073929024.html","address":"","phone":"","parent_id":0,"mime_type":"text\/html","summary":"In an election year where more young voters are expected to turn out, the 'net is heating up as a sincere battle ground for politicians. The curious thing is that the trends are bucked by people who have their own way of doing things.","numcomment":3,"fileurl":"\/uploads\/","filesize":null,"article_url":"\/news\/2004\/01\/100094.php"},"attachments":[],"comments":[{"id":100095,"heading":"MoveOn.Org - a sophisticated means to control dissent","article":"Move On dot Org - a sophisticated means to control dissent\r\nThe Democrats' Trojan Horse for limiting debate\r\n\r\nA very well-documented expose of MoveOn.org:\r\nhttp:\/\/www.oilempire.us\/moveon.html\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n","author":"repost","parent_id":100094,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2004-01-14 00:28:24","modified":"2004-01-14 00:28:24","fileurl":""},{"id":100111,"heading":"YYOU'VE BEEN SUCKERED!!!","article":"OILEMPIRE.US is hosted by WILD WEST DOMAINS, INC. of Scottsdale, AZ, but the domain itself was registered with DOMAINS BY PROXY, INC. -- also of Scottsdale, AZ and just a stone's throw down the street (North Hayden Road).\r\n\r\nAs the name suggests, Domains by Proxy offers non-ICANN compliant domain that offers site owners anonymity.\r\n\r\nSo is it just a coincidence that Socttsdale is a heavily Republican city? Is oilempire.us a COINTELPRO operation or maybe a GOP hack attack? We'll never no for certain because they don't want you to know who they are.\r\n\r\nSomething fishy is going on in Scottsdale.\r\n\r\n-------------------------------\r\nWild West Domains\r\n14455 North Hayden Road #226\r\nSuite 219\r\nScottsdale, AZ 85260\r\n--------------------------------\r\n\r\nRegistrant:\r\n Domains by Proxy, Inc.\r\n\r\n 15111 N Hayden Rd., Suite 160\r\n PMB353\r\n Scottsdale, Arizona 85260\r\n United States\r\n\r\n Registered through: Eugene Free Community Network domain purchasing\r\n Domain Name: OILEMPIRE.US\r\n Created on: 25-Feb-03\r\n Expires on: 25-Feb-05\r\n Last Updated on: 25-Feb-03\r\n\r\n Administrative Contact:\r\n Private, Registration OILEMPIRE.US@domainsbyproxy.com\r\n Domains by Proxy, Inc.\r\n 15111 N Hayden Rd., Suite 160\r\n PMB353\r\n Scottsdale, Arizona 85260\r\n United States\r\n (480) 624-2599\r\n Technical Contact:\r\n Private, Registration OILEMPIRE.US@domainsbyproxy.com\r\n Domains by Proxy, Inc.\r\n 15111 N Hayden Rd., Suite 160\r\n PMB353\r\n Scottsdale, Arizona 85260\r\n United States\r\n (480) 624-2599\r\n\r\n Domain servers in listed order:\r\n NS.EFN.ORG\r\n NS1.EFN.ORG\r\n NS2.EFN.ORG","author":"pamsay","parent_id":100094,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2004-01-14 02:41:31","modified":"2004-01-14 02:41:31","fileurl":""},{"id":110384,"heading":"regarding oilempire.us","article":"oilempire.us is published by a Green Party activist, not Republicans\r\n\r\nthe ISP used doesn't register domain names, they subcontract this work\r\n\r\nwhen someone doesn't have any constructive things to say about the substance of an article, the so-called debunkers will often look to tertiary issues to supposedly create a scandal where none exists\r\n\r\ngeographic bigotry is a strange thing\r\n\r\n(I've never been anywhere near Scottsdale, and doubt it will be a pleasant place to live after the west dries up more from climate change \/ drought \/ weather warfare and the cheap oil is gone.)\r\n\r\nMoveOn seeks to expose the secondary and tertiary scandals of the Bush regime, they don't dare discuss Bush's war crimes in New York (9\/11).\r\n\r\nhttp:\/\/www.oilempire.us\/moveon.html\r\n\r\nMoveOn is funded by one of the world's wealthiest tycoons, who helped overthrow a government in the path of a pipeline the US wants to control. http:\/\/www.oilempire.us\/soros.html\r\n\r\nTheir "Uncovered: The Whole Truth about the Iraq War" film had nearly as much disinformation as expose, and it did not once hint that OIL might have had something to do with Bush's motivation.\r\n","author":"oilempire.us","parent_id":100094,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2004-05-17 07:18:32","modified":"2004-05-17 07:18:32","fileurl":""}]}