Here is the Executive Director of MoveOn.org. reaction to today's House vote.

Commentary: Both House and Senators are acting like a bunch of children. Rather you agree or disagree with the MoveOn ads, it is very disgraceful for lawmakers that are put in office to serve the public to waste the time of the taxpayers to attack a free speech ad. Obviously, this is a smokescreen to divert the time for important issues in this country. I agree with what the Executive Director said: there are soldiers and Iraqi civilians dying everyday while the House and Senators had made an non-urgent issue like MoveOn ad important than focusing on the important issues of a broken country.

For Immediate Release:
Wednesday, September 26, 2007

Statement by Eli Pariser, Executive Director, MoveOn.org Political Action in Response to House Vote on its Ad on General Petraeus' Testimony

“With every passing day, more information comes to light casting more and more doubt on the validity of the facts and conclusions presented by General Petraeus in his testimony before Congress. [See news stories below.]
With every passing day, more American soldiers and Iraqi civilians lose their lives in this unwinnable civil war. It is unconscionable and outrageous that instead of doing the people's work and ending this war, Congress chooses meaningless and distracting gestures.

With every passing day, America's frustration with politicians in Washington drops the approval ratings for this Congress to new lows. Congress is fiddling with an ad while Iraq burns.

We will continue our ad campaign to accuse the Republicans who are blocking an end to the war of a 'Betrayal of Trust.'”
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• “Petraeus’s numbers differ substantially from the Pentagon’s own numbers – his show progress, and theirs don’t. The Pentagon’s numbers are the official MNF-I numbers, which Petraeus himself called the most reliable possible. Petraeus’ numbers differ, the military says, because he includes reports from Iraqi police – the same police the NIE said are corrupt, riddled with sectarianism, and ought to be disbanded. The actual Iraqi government numbers are nowhere near as positive.” Washington Post, Tuesday, September 25, 2007

• The NYT reported today that Sunni extremists are targeting Iraqi police and officials. This is a new trend in violence – but according to the methodology MNF-I released last week, none of these murders would have been counted by Petraeus. New York Times, Wednesday, September 26, 2007

See story excerpts and links to full stories, below:

What Defines a Killing as Sectarian?U.S. Military Teams Analyze and Tally Each Civilian Death
By Karen DeYoungWashington Post Staff WriterTuesday, September 25, 2007; A01

On Sept. 1, the bullet-riddled bodies of four Iraqi men were found on a Baghdad street. Two days later, a single dead man, with one bullet in his head, was found on a different street. According to the U.S. military in Iraq, the solitary man was a victim of sectarian violence. The first four were not.

Such determinations are the building blocks for what the Bush administration has declared a downward trend in sectarian deaths and a sign that its war strategy is working. They are made by a specialized team of soldiers who spend their nights at computer terminals, sifting through data on the day's civilian victims for clues to the motivations of killers.

The soldiers have a manual telling them what to look for. Signs of torture or a single shot to the head, corpses left in a "known body dump" -- as the body of the Sunni man found on Sept. 3 was -- spell sectarian violence, said Chief Warrant Officer 3 Dan Macomber, the team leader. Macomber, who has been at his job in Baghdad since February, rarely has to look it up anymore.

"If you were just a criminal and you just wanted to take somebody's money, just wanted to discipline them, you're not going to take the time to bind them up, burn their bodies, cut their arms off, cut their head off," he explained. "You're just going to shoot them in the body and get it over with." That, the team judged, is what happened to the four Shiite men, sprayed with gunfire and left where they dropped.

READ FULL STORY HERE: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/24/AR2007092401929_pf.html