[Peace-discuss] [Peace] impt: urge Rep. Davis sign Price/Dent letter, Iran diplomacy opening on Iranian election

Thu Jul 11 16:53:09 UTC 2013

Probably responsible for an outbreak of leprosy in the Dale-Olga-Akin triangle. 

It was pointed out at last week's meeting that AWAREists are job-creators: were it not for AWARE, 
our provincial FBI office would have little to report about how they're keeping potential terrorists under surveillance.
Thanks to us, they seemed to have been able to relocate from their former grungy offices in the old train station to more salubrious quarters.
This, like so much else, has to be attributed to Obama's job stimulus program. Now they're able to expand into libraries & complement the NSA.

Several years ago, teaching sociological classics (Durkheim, Marx, Weber) at the local university, I asked my students (anonymously, in writing)
Why are you taking this course? Answer: a sociology major will get me a job (otherwise, they said, they'd be taking art or music.)
Q: what sort of job do you want? A: (top of the list) FBI agent.

An eternal verity: to get a good job, get a good education.
For we know that unemployment results from inadequate skills amongst the unemployed:
<http://www.voanews.com/content/report-shows-skills-gap-boosts-unemployment/1695297.html>.

On Jul 11, 2013, at 11:19 AM, "E. Wayne Johnson 朱稳森" <ewj at pigsqq.org> wrote:

> Some 25 years ago a fellow we know was driving through Louisiana
> in his pickup truck and saw a freshly dead armadillo on the road.
> 
> He tossed it in the back of his truck and when he arrived home in rural
> Dale, Illinois, he threw it out on the blacktop that runs west of Dale
> toward Olga, Tucker's Corners, and the metropolis of Akin, IL.
> 
> Some local resident discovered it and it made quite a stir.  One
> fellow said he found armadillo tracks in the creek bank.  The county
> newspaper was alerted and the wayward armadillo was photographed
> for the Times-Leader with the caption mentioning that armadillos
> are seldom found so far north.
> 
> *
> Something about book-burning FBI agents raiding 
> the Urbana pubic library in search of excess copies of
> Keep the Aspidistra Flying and Chilton auto repair manuals
> and being waylaid by a gigantic iceberg floating down Vine Street.
> 
> On 07/11/13 11:10, Carl G. Estabrook wrote:
>> 
>> No, I don't think icebergs are within the Limits of Allowable Debate...
>> 
>> They never come this far south in the summer.  --CGE
>> 
>> On Jul 10, 2013, at 9:27 PM, "E. Wayne Johnson 朱稳森" <ewj at pigsqq.org> wrote:
>> 
>>> Carl,
>>> 
>>> Can't you see we're busy with these Deck Chairs?
>>> 
>>> We can't be bothered by your distracting notions of some damn icebergs.
>>> 
>>> 
>>> On 07/11/13 10:07, Robert Naiman wrote:
>>>> 
>>>> I don't want you to stay quiet about U.S. imperialism. I want you to stop interfering in my efforts to get people to take action. 
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> On Wed, Jul 10, 2013 at 8:54 PM, Carl G. Estabrook <galliher at illinois.edu> wrote:
>>>> As I said, such a call to Rep. Davis' office might be worthwhile. (You might remind him that he replaced a representative who regularly voted against any more money for war in the Greater Middle East, and suggest that he do the same.)
>>>> 
>>>> But it is surely at least inaccurate to speak of "U.S. efforts to secure a negotiated nuclear agreement." As you well know, there is already such an agreement - the Non-Proliferation Treaty - which Iran observes, while US clients are not signatories. US efforts are directed to destroying the Iranian economy because the oil flow from Iran is not under US control. And the US for years has successfully blocked "a negotiated nuclear agreement" that would establish a nuclear-free zone in the Mideast.  
>>>> 
>>>> Obama's own position on the matter was set out when he ran for the Senate from Illinois, and he's never changed it: "…the United States should not rule out military strikes to destroy nuclear production sites in Iran, Obama said … ‘having a radical Muslim theocracy in possession of nuclear weapons is worse [than] us launching some missile strikes into Iran…’ he said."
>>>> 
>>>> In these circumstances, accepting the administration's propaganda about what it's doing vis-a-vis Iran would seem to me inappropriate at best. 
>>>> 
>>>> Regards, Carl 
>>>> 
>>>> PS - I don't quite understand your comment about a "personal FBI agent" - you can't mean what it seems to mean - but I do know that there are a number of people (including some comrades in the local antiwar movement) who don't think I've managed to stay quiet, and wish I would...
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> On Jul 10, 2013, at 7:57 PM, Robert Naiman <naiman at justforeignpolicy.org> wrote:
>>>> 
>>>>> Is it a choice? Am I stopping anyone from standing anyone from standing on their soapbox and denouncing the Empire?
>>>>> 
>>>>> Would it be so horrible if a few people took 15 seconds to call Rep. Davis to ask him to sign a letter for diplomacy with Iran?
>>>>> 
>>>>> How is it that you manage to stay quiet for weeks, until I try to speak? 
>>>>> 
>>>>> It's like I have my own personal FBI agent.
>>>>> 
>>>>> 
>>>>> On Wed, Jul 10, 2013 at 7:23 PM, Carl G. Estabrook <galliher at illinois.edu> wrote:
>>>>> But even if most members of Congress are "worse that the Obama administration on this issue," that's hardly a reason to accept Obama's lies. "You don't stick a knife in a man's back nine inches and then pull it out six inches and say you're making progress."
>>>>> 
>>>>> Or to carry out the 1939 analogy, a letter then to the members of the Reichstag that said, "I urge you to stop yammering on about the Polish threat to Germany" would not have got many signatures - but to say anything else would have been at best inaccurate. 
>>>>> 
>>>>> It would seem better to tell Americans about the administration's propaganda about Iran than to accept it and suggest moderation. 
>>>>> 
>>>>> --CGE
>>>>> 
>>>>> On Jul 10, 2013, at 4:24 PM, Robert Naiman <naiman at justforeignpolicy.org> wrote:
>>>>> 
>>>>>> Most Members of Congress are worse than the Obama Administration on this issue, thanks to AIPAC and friends. A Congressional letter that said, "I urge you to stop yammering on about Iran's nuclear program because it doesn't threaten the United States" would get zero signers, not even Barbara Lee would sign that.
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> On Wed, Jul 10, 2013 at 3:50 PM, Carl G. Estabrook <galliher at illinois.edu> wrote:
>>>>>> Maybe this would be worthwhile, Bob, but the problem is that it accepts the Obama administration's consciously false description of the issue. 
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> Wouldn't it be something like urging the German government in the summer of 1939 "to pursue the potential opportunity presented by Poland's recent presidential election by reinvigorating German efforts to secure a negotiated agreement to end the threat from Poland"?
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> --CGE
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> On Jul 10, 2013, at 3:01 PM, Robert Naiman <naiman at justforeignpolicy.org> wrote:
>>>>>> 
>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>> Dear fellow Champaign-Urbana area lovers of peace,
>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>> Once in a blue moon, there's a good opportunity to push Congress in a good direction on diplomacy with Iran. Most of the time, it's like that scene from the Matrix where Morpheus shows Neo what the world really looks like. But every once in a while, there's an opening.
>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>> Right now, there's an opening, because of three things.
>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>> One, Iran just had a presidential election. To the surprise of many, the candidate who won, Rouhani, was the candidate saying, hey, let's try to get along better with the West. 
>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>> Two: there's a bipartisan letter in Congress to President Obama saying, hey! We noticed that Iran just had a presidential election. We noticed that the guy who was saying, hey, let's try to get along better with the West, was the guy who won. So, like, why don't we try to test things with the new guy with diplomacy before jacking up the confrontation again?  
>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>> Three: this letter is being supported by groups in DC that have been pushing for diplomacy with Iran, including the Friends Committee on National Legislation, the National Iranian American Council, and J Street. And also CREDO.
>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>> Finally, as is often the case with these things, there is a special effort to try to get Republicans to sign the letter, because only 15% of the current signers are Republicans. And that means that Rep. Davis is special, because in the set of Republicans, he's a plausible target. Voted for McGovern's recent amendment on Afghanistan withdrawal, for example. 
>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>> So here's my request: 
>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>> 1. Please call Rep. Davis' office in DC at (202) 225-2371, ask to talk to Kaitlyn Hastings, who's the Foreign Policy LA. Probably you will get transferred to voicemail. Fine. Leave a message with your name and address, asking that Rep. Davis sign the Price/Dent letter calling for President Obama "to pursue the potential opportunity presented by Iran's recent presidential election by reinvigorating U.S. efforts to secure a negotiated nuclear agreement."
>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>> 2. Please send me a note letting me know that you've called. I'm trying to get folks in DC to push on Davis, and I want to be able to say, X people in the district have called.
>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>> 3. Please forward this note to other folks you know who might call. If you know folks in the district outside of Champaign-Urbana who might call, (e.g. Decatur, Bloomington, Springfield) forwarding this note to them would be especially helpful.
>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>> Thanks!
>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>> P.S. The text of the letter is here:
>>>>>>> http://fcnl.org/issues/iran/diplomacy_with_iran_letter/
>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>> -- 
>>>>>>> Robert Naiman
>>>>>>> Policy Director
>>>>>>> Just Foreign Policy
>>>>>>> www.justforeignpolicy.org
>>>>>>> naiman at justforeignpolicy.org
>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>> _
>>>> 
>>>> 
>> 
> 

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