[Peace-discuss] [sf-core] couple things

[C. G. ESTABROOK]

Bob--

Naturally I agree wholeheartedly that our demands should be "end the wars, bring 
the troops home, put America back to work, health care for all..." But "in
media terms" an attack on Rove (who richly deserves it) will be seen as a 
defense of his successors.

Will we, e.g., see the following signs at this demo?

    "Rove was bad - Rahm is worse"

    "Obama has expanded Bush's wars"

    "Rove promoted war and torture openly - Obama lies about them"

     etc.


Robert Naiman wrote:
> In addition to what Stuart said, Karl Rove is a contemporary political
> player. It isn't merely a question of protesting someone who helped
> organize crimes against humanity in the past. He is a prominent
> advocate - big media perch - of crimes against humanity in the
> present. If you think of the Obama Administration as including the
> media, Karl Rove is part of the Obama Administration.
> 
> But more importantly, as Jim Duffett of CBHC and I envisioned this
> protest, at least, the goal isn't so much to project the message "we
> hate Karl Rove" or "Karl Rove is evil"; rather, we see Karl Rove's
> presence in Champaign as a hook on which to hang: end the wars, bring
> the troops home, put America back to work, health care for all... In
> media terms, Karl Rove's presence is a big deal; Jim D. believes there
> will be out of town media there.
> 
> So, as a crude, practical matter, for me the question boils down to
> this: in what contexts is it most strategic to hold your sign? When
> you are at a peace demonstration on a city sidewalk, typically, all
> other things being equal, if you can you stand on the street with the
> most traffic, because more people will see you. Here the question is a
> bit more of a probability calculation, because we can't know exactly
> what the media play will be. But I would note that a few days ago
> there was a national day of mobilization for higher education, and it
> got significant media coverage, and when I was watching the coverage
> on CNN, there were anti-war signs (e.g. "money for schools, not for
> war.")
> 
> If the mountain will not come to Muhammad, Muhammad must go to the mountain...
> 
> Here's what Jim D sent around...
> 
> FAMILY VALUES
> NOT
> CORPORATE GREED
> RALLY
> LIVING WAGE JOBS
> HEALTH CARE    PEACE
> STOP BUDGET CUTS
> 
> March 20th (Saturday)
> 10:30am - Noon
> I Hotel & Conference Center
> 
>       (1900 South First Street, Champaign – directly
> 
>        South of the Illini Assembly Hall/parking)
> 
> On March 20th, Karl Rove will join Illinois political figures
> attending the Lincolin Day Luncheon for the Champaign County GOP.  For
> the past 14 months opponents of fairness have been waging a
> mean-spirited, divisive and right out lying campaign on how pro-family
> health care reforms, jobs and other measures would affect our county.
> Saying NO and defending the financial interests of the  insurance
> industry, Wall Street and other corporate interests are NOT family
> values.
> 
> On Sat, Mar 13, 2010 at 10:26 AM, Stuart Levy <slevy at ncsa.uiuc.edu> wrote:
>> On Fri, Mar 12, 2010 at 08:51:24PM -0600, C. G. ESTABROOK wrote:
>>> It is certainly "a bit perverse" to assert that the present administration
>>> represents any improvement over that last in, say, the matter of killing
>>> people.
>> I don't think we need to claim that to find Rove thoroughly worthy
>> of demonstrating against.
>>
>> Rove is one of the principal political architects of support for the
>> wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.  And he has not changed his tune.
>> The Obama administration has not shown that kind of grand initiative --
>> they owe a heavy debt to the previous admin.
>>
>> For some fun, check out recent Doonesbury strips (doonesbury.com),
>> which involve helicopters, the CIA, and an Afghan wedding party, but
>> not in the usual tragic way.  It also includes Trudeau's favorite
>> quotes from recent news, and here's the current one:
>>
>>    "I'm proud that we used techniques that broke the will of these
>>    terrorists... I'm proud that we kept the world safer than it was,
>>    by use of these techniques." -- Karl Rove on waterboarding
>>
>> If John Yoo came to town, would we refrain from demonstrating about
>> his presence on the grounds that he wasn't part of the current administration?
>> How short are our memories supposed to get?
>>
>> During the Bush administration I didn't see AWARE, at least, as
>> a specifically anti-Republican action group, and I don't see us as a
>> specifically anti-Democratic one now.  We're a peace group.
>>
>>   Stuart
>>
>> --
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> 
> 
> 

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