[Peace] News-Gazette: Nuke deal supporters protest at Davis' office [sic]

[David Green]

Thanks for the correction/clarification. My comment posted on the NG website:Absolutely. The "freedom of speech" people should bomb the "not freedom of speech people." That makes sense. That's all they deserve. 


     On Saturday, August 22, 2015 12:08 PM, Robert Naiman via Peace <peace at lists.chambana.net> wrote:
   
 

 The online headline is not correct (the print version headline, on the front page today, was "No changing Davis' mind on Iran"); the protest was at a Davis event at the Champaign Public Library, not at "Davis' office," which are two very different things, unless one takes the view that wherever Davis goes on public property belongs to Davis and his staff. Some of Davis' staff and some of the staff of the Champaign Public Library - particularly its so-called "security officer" - apparently advocate this view, but I vigorously contest this view as contrary to the Constitution and the First Amendment. You could say that I am "vocally opposed" to this view. ;) 

P.S. Nobody was "jostled in a minor scrum." I never touched Davis' staffer. I simply walked past her through an open door into the meeting room with Davis that she was trying to keep me out of. Either Davis' staffer lied, or she has a definition of "jostled" which is inconsistent with the First Amendment. That's why no arrests were made: because nobody did anything arrestable. I didn't do anything disruptive in the room; I simply watched the presentation, just like the other members of the public. The exchange with Davis shown in the picture and described in the article took place outside the room, before Davis and I entered it. 

http://www.news-gazette.com/news/local/2015-08-22/nuke-deal-supporters-protest-davis-office.html


Nuke deal supporters protest at Davis' office
Sat, 08/22/2015 - 7:00am | Tom KacichPhoto by: Tom Kacich/The News-GazetteRobert Naiman and Rep. Rodney Davis at the Champaign Public LibraryCHAMPAIGN — Local protestors who favor a proposed nuclear deal with Iran presented U.S. Rep. Rodney Davis with petitions Friday, but the Taylorvile Republican said he remains vocally opposed to the agreement."I think the Iran deal that this administration negotiated is a bad deal," he said before a meeting at the Champaign Public Library. "I think that you will see the House of Representatives vote it down and I hope that enough of my colleagues on the other side of the aisle have the courage to override the president's veto."The agreement reached between Iran and major world powers would ease economic sanctions on the country in exchange for it taking steps to scale back its uranium enrichment program, and to open its military sites to international inspectors.The handful of protestors were from the local MoveOn organization. Champaign police were called to the library after a Davis staff member was jostled in a minor scrum. No arrests were made.Robert Naiman of Urbana gave the petitions to Davis and said "we are asking you to support the Iran nuclear agreement because we don't want to have another war in the Middle East."Naiman, who also asked for a personal meeting with Davis, pleaded with him to "consider the consequences of sabotaging the agreement and sending us to another war which we don't need and the people of the region don't need."But Davis said he disagreed with Naiman and observed, "It's interesting to see this organization take advantage of the freedom of speech here in this country when the country they're advocating for dealing with wouldn't allow them to do this protest there."He said it was the first time anyone in the 13th Congressional District, which extends to the Illinois suburbs of St. Louis, had confronted him about the issue during the August congressional recess."If the president wants his legacy to be a bad deal in Iran and a deal that doesn't stop them from getting nuclear technology, and also is not supported by all of our allies who are in the Middle East, I think that says a lot about what he wants his legacy to be," Davis said.U.S. Rep. John Shimkus, a Collinsville Republican whose district includes rural parts of Champaign County, plus Danville and points south, arrived later and said he also would vote against the Iran deal."You can't trust Iran. They're a state sponsor of terrorism," he said. "If you can't get a country to release prisoners who are held by them out of the U.S., and you can't get them to no longer chant 'Death to America,' how do you negotiate with them? And then there are all the secret side deals. We're going to let them do their own inspections and verification?"The Associated Press reported earlier this week that a draft of a side agreement between the U.N. atomic watchdog and Tehran would allow Iran to use its own inspectors to investigate a nuclear site.[...]








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