Category: Action

So annoying when the mundane things of living life get in the way or sidetrack, derail, blindside or just plain wipe you out. Sigh. I’m decidedly uninspired for writing an Action Diary this week, but there are a few things that are rattling around  that I’d like to toss out there.

Start with this for background music.  Chick Corea and Return to Forever – Spain (Light as a Feather)

We all need some down time once in a while, take time to re-group, re-charge, maybe re-think. Then come back swingin.

Action Items below…

It’s Monday so usually the first thing the Dog writes is the weekly torture letter,that is going to be a little later but there is something going on that he thinks the DD crew is uniquely suited to address. We are seeing a massive increase in the number of torture apologist articles in the newspapers and on the Web. This is the an attempt by the pro-torture camp, aided by the weakest kneed of the pundocracy to set the frame for the issue with the vast majority of population who are troubled about torture but not yet on board with investigations and prosecutions.  

crosspublished at the orange! 10am, ET

And the beat goes on.

After an extremely intense Torture News, (link to emptywheel’s Document Dump Timeline) week prior to this, these past few days have quieted down a bit. However, the noise makers continue to try to justify torture and we find ourselves sometimes in debates. I hope to take this week’s Action Diary to stress  how important it is that we continue having conversations and yelling louder about the realities of the crimes that have been carried out in our names. And, if we must argue, can we please try to keep it civil, amongst ourselves, in the “progressive” sphere…? Please?

Like most of the others, I was a seeker, a mover, a malcontent, and at times a stupid hell-raiser. I was never idle long enough to do much thinking, but I felt somehow that my instincts were right. I shared a vagrant optimism that some of us were making real progress, that we had taken an honest road, and that the best of us would inevitably make it over the top. At the same time, I shared a dark suspicion that the life we were leading was a lost cause, that we were all actors, kidding ourselves along on a senseless odyssey. It was the tension between these two poles – a restless idealism on one hand and a sense of impending doom on the other – that kept me going.

~HST, The Rum Diary

This is the eighth in Dog’s letter writing campaign. For those joining us in the middle the basic idea is that each week the Dog creates a letter which you, the home audience can cut and paste and send to the following list of officials:

President Obama

AG Holder

Speaker Pelosi

Majority Leader Reid

Justices of the Supreme Court

Of course you can send it to your Senators and Representative as well, but the point is to get a steady drum beat of letters to these folks in the hopes that they will read some of them and take action on the issue of the Bush administrations State Sponsored Torture program.

This week’s letter is going to be addressed to AG Holder, with copies to all of the others.  

Just had the idea… May 28th is the deadline of when we expect the release of 2,000 new photos from the Pentagon (ACLU)… that is Memorial Day weekend!?! Anyone have any ideas of some kind of online ACTION we can organize around this ironic convergence?  

I feel strongly that it is important to honor the service of our servicemen and women, and especially honor the memory of those who have fallen. Yet, these photos, on that weekend, will likely be plastered everywhere.

Brainstorm ideas here.

Change is a tricky thing. Getting it is a balancing act, but in terms of any movement or political goal there is always the need to gain and show enough support so it is clear there is, at the very least, a strong plurality who feel the same way and want the same goal. When this becomes clear, it not only spurs politicians to act, it gives them the confidence to do so. This is now the job of those who have taken on the issue of torture.

Cross Posted at Square State

What a week, eh?! OLC Memo’s released last Thursday, a weekend of TV spots with Rahm, Axelrod, then finally, from the horse’s mouth, Barack Obama on Monday says, “we are not ruling out prosecutions”. (yay). Then we close the week on Tuesday/Wednesday, with the release of the Full Report from the SASC, the Levin Report. Open the floodgates.

I’ve created this place, this series, to be something of a landing zone for us, any of us in the progressive  community who feel the grief, who wish to contribute in some way to this growing call for justice, and/or who want to stay tuned in to any ACTION activities that emerge around this cause. I will publish every week, on Thursday mornings.

Loaded with linky goodness this week, follow me… and more coming!

UPDATE: This Diary has now morphed into a LIVEBLOG to watch the day unfold and hear the official News from the WH this afternoon re the release of the DoJ Memos… at the orange (link below in comments).

lots of News coming in this morning with several diaries at the orange now:

from Vyan: Spain Calls Off Torture Probe

from ctexrep: Spain a No Go

from J. Radack: OLC Memos: FOIA Test Fails

….

Eyes on the stars.

As an American, I have always believed in the concept that we, as a nation, are rooted in the ideals and values of our Constitution, that we have inalienable rights and all that jazz.  Now, at this fragile and tenuous time in our history, we have to remain grounded in them. We elect leaders who we expect to abide by their oaths of office and lead the way. We have to hold them to account when they waiver or fail.

We want to get it right … with or without you …

                                 

 Editorial note: Quite by accident, my first diary of this series had an undercurrent theme of Water. The second, Wind/Air. So, this third one has, for its theme, Earth … in the sense of being grounded, rooted. Next week should be fun. Heh.

  I’ve created this place, this series, to be something of a landing zone for us, any of us in the progressive  community who feel the grief, who wish to contribute in some way to this growing call for justice, and/or who want to stay tuned in to any ACTION activities that emerge around this cause. I will publish every week, on Thursday’s. I invite you to share your thoughts.

        Some important ACTION Alerts below the fold…

Welcome to the sixth of the Dog’s letter writing campaign series. The Dog usually posts these on Monday’s but his Step Dad was having major heart surgery and the Dog could not focus very well yesterday (he is fine BTW). The basic premise here is to, on a weekly basis; write a letter to the President, the Attorney General, the nine Justices of the Supreme Court, Speaker Pelosi and Majority Leader Reid, urging them to investigate the apparent State Sponsored Torture program of the Bush Administration. In order to get their attention, every week the Dog writes from a different perspective about the issue, so that on the off chance that they read more than one of these letters it is clear that it is not the same thing over and over. This series also offers the reader the chance to write their own letter or cut and paste the Dog’s letter and send it in. The more people that we have sending weekly letters the higher chance that we will be heard on this issue, so if you could take the time to send this along it would be greatly appreciated.

Winds of change indeed ….  

This whole past year+ has been both exhilarating and, at times, exhausting. Now, it feels a bit like that calm that you know isn’t really calm at all.  We’re still in that First Hundred Days window. “Honeymoon”. Yeah.

For me, this cause (not an “issue”)…  Justice against the torture that’s been propagated in my name, nothing less than a groundswell will do. We have to make him do it.

Keep talking. Keep blogging. Keep writing. Keep working.

Ripple out.

I’ve created this place, this series, to be something of a landing zone for us, any of us in the progressive  community who feel the grief, who wish to contribute in some way to this growing call for justice, and/or who want to stay tuned in to any ACTION activities that emerge around this cause. I will publish every week, on Thursday’s. I invite you to share your thoughts.

This will be the shortest essay evah!  Just had to interrupt your current “program” with this news!

A quick call to Sen. Schumer’s office might be in order!  Yes?

h/t David Swanson