Moveon.org: Your Garden Variety Bully: UPDATED

One of my favorite movies is A Bug's Life. There is a scene that I will never forget. Two grasshoppers, Molt and Hopper, are discussing a previous meeting they had with the ants. Hopper had taken it easy on an ant. Molt was furious while the Hopper couldn't see what the big deal was. Molt throws a seed at Hopper and then a second seed and then a third, and finally, he pulls the lever and and all the seeds come flowing down upon Hopper until he is overwhelmed by the seeds.

Molt: You let one ant stand up to us, then they all might stand up! Those puny little ants outnumber us a hundred to one and if they ever figure that out there goes our way of life! It's not about food, it's about keeping those ants in line. That's why we're going back! Does anybody else wanna stay?[grasshoppers shocked - all the grasshoppers "rev up" their wings]

Molt: [motioning a fellow grasshopper] He's quite the motivational speaker, isn't he?Hopper: Let's ride!

That's the thing about bullies. They rule by fear. Their power is a facade that is taken away the minute someone stands up to them. In reality they are cowards. The sort of folks that can dish things out but have a big problem taking them. (for a perfect example of bully behavior only look at the way Rosie acted towards Liz Hasselback as soon as Liz stood up to her) We have reached that moment folks with regards to Moveon. Just like all of the ants we also have a chance to stand up all at once and pull away the facade that they have.

I give yet another hat tip to Michelle Malkin on this one. A group called Cafe Press decided to take capitalistic advantage over the bru ha ha caused by Moveon.org's Betray Us Ad in the New York Times. Capitalizing on the backlash, this group created some bumper stickers, tee shirts and other items that frankly presented their own views on the subject. Here are the items in question..

Now, Moveon can say what they want, but playing pop psychologist, it seems rather apparent that they frankly only like to attack and get defensive whenever they are actually attacked back. They cried trademark infringement, but as Michelle explains this a legal arguement that doesn't hold mustard...

Last week it demanded that the site remove eight items, arguing that they violated MoveOn’s merchandising trademarks.

Trademark law doesn’t confer monopoly rights over all uses of a registered phrase or symbol, however, and it wasn’t created simply to protect the trademark owner’s interests. Instead, it’s designed to protect consumers against being misled or confused about brands. The courts have repeatedly ruled in favor of parodies and critiques; that’s why www.famousbrandnamesucks.com doesn’t violate famousbrandname’s trademark. And most, if not all, of the items targeted by MoveOn were clearly designed to razz it, not to trick buyers into thinking they were the group’s products.

Beyond that, it’s amazing that MoveOn would try to squelch political speech.

So, let's review. Moveon.org viciously attacks a general in the field of battle with a scurrilous and unfair attack. They use the nations mostly widely read paper and they even get a discount to do it. Then, a small outfit uses their attack to create some bumper stickers which mock Moveon.org. What does Moveon.org do...they immediately cry foul and use their first opportunity to try and squelch another's freedom of speech. This is typical bully behavior. Whenever they are directly challenged, a la Rosie in her dust up with Liz Hasselback, they immediately stomp their feet and cry.

For more on this story, go here. Also, if you want one of the items go here and here. More importantly, if you see this bully behavior for what it is, put up the items in question on your own blog and blog about it yourself. Don't stop there, email Moveon.org here and let them know that if they are going to sue, there are going to be an awful lot of defendents. Just like the grasshoppers in A Bug's Life, we have a chance to send Moveon.org crawling back to their own hole with their own tales between their legs.

Here is a couple more of the items in question...

Michelle has an update.

Over the weekend, I blogged about the plight of t-shirt vendors at Cafe Press who were served
cease-and-desist letters by the lawyer thugs at MoveOn.org. With the exception of the LA
Times, I have seen no other MSM coverage of MoveOn.org’s bogus copyright infringement threats against the mom-and-pop retailers who have dared to satirize the thin-skinned left-wing mafia.
This story deserves more attention. And the targets of the intimidation campaign deserve your support. I mentioned that one of the targeted retailers, Parsing Poet at The Polistew Cafe, is selling shirts publicizing

MoveOn.org’s efforts to ban his work. He is donating all profits to the National Military Family Association, which sends kids whose parents are deployed to summer camp and helps spouses and children with issues of deployment & school transitions. Parsing Poet would like to send 1,000 kids to camp:

Feel free to put up any new pictures up on your site. Keep the pressure on and watch these bullies squirm.