Criminalizing the victim...

Posted by: Mike

I turned on my computer this evening to find that a woman reporter for the Christian Science Monitor who had been kidnapped months ago and released today was the subject of smear campaign the likes of which I have never witnessed. As you know, her name is Jill Carroll.

Her crime it seems, was truthfully answering questions posed to her by interviewers on an Iraqi television station regarding her treatment during captivity and the circumstances of her release.

She was not asked about the death of the man who was her translator. As far as anyone knows she was not even aware of it.

Suddenly she has been called a traitor, an Islamist, a terrorist sympathizer and worse. Her credibility has been called into question because of the traditional Arabic hajib she was wearing (with no one commenting that she was still in the care and custody of Arabic men at the time of the interview)

Some have gone so far as to suggest that she faked the whole thing and spent time in Syria only now to come out and disrupt America's foreign policy by saying she was well treated.

Those who believe in America's foreign policy are more nervous than I suspected.

During Joseph McCarthy's Senate hearings into allegations (mostly his) that there were Communist sympathizers in the television Industry, Hollywood and indeed in the Pentagon itself much unfounded hearsay was used to smear and terrify people in this nation. He did a lot of damage to people. He cost people their jobs, ruined their reputations and some of them even committed suicide.

But he did do one thing that today's chorus of charlatans who have impugned the reputation of this young woman without a shred of evidence or any regard have not done.

He stood in front of the camera and he said, "I am Joseph McCarthy and I stand by what I have said."

Today, the cowards who have shredded any sense of decency I thought they may have had, did it anonymously.

Shame on all of them. Shame on all of us.

Michael Meehan
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Mobilization...

You really think this was "a few thousand" protesters like the media's been trying to play it?


Tags: Protest, Video, Sensenbrenner, LA, Revolution

The land of the living

Hello everyone...

Health reasons kept me away for a little while and I apologize for that. I was burning the candle at both ends and the middle as well. I'm trying to make some arrangements to fix that now.

This is a very short post to let you know that I'm still here and building some of this out. If you guys haven't checked out the main site at www.JuneRevololution.com yet, please take a look and help me come up with some ideas for it. It will be the main resource page in terms of a "Press Packet" type site and it will also be easier to get high in the rankings for search engines. The blog will be for community and interaction.

I need writing help. I can produce videos, build the site, organize material, coordinate communications, arrange conferencing capabilities, stream media etc... It's hard to write all this up. Shoot me ideas or write-ups (preferably in MS Word format) for anything you have. Don't worry about diction or format, just send away. Thanks to Xoites for sending me that great write-up for the 'About Us' section of the site.

I'm going to try and post another bigger post tonight with a lot of information and ideas I've gathered both submitted by all of you and also from people I admire and respect who are very encouraged by what we're trying to do.

I'll talk to you all again VERY soon. I promise!
Nate

Back at the helm...

Aloha everyone

I'm sorry for taking two days away. Personal stuff made it unavoidable. I'm back at my computer now. I had a chance to read a few emails and I'm sorry for being out of touch via email. That won't be the case for much longer hopefully.

So much to continue reading through and so much of my own info and info gathering and brainstorming to bring up. I'm going to get settled in. Read for a while and then start laying out a big post tonight. I have all weekend to put many hour into this.

I managed to get an HTML-ready front page set up on www.JuneRevolution.com. Much more work to do on it as well. Don't worry if you don't like the layout. I'll be changing it. I just needed to set up and make sure it could stream appropriately etc.

By the end of this month I want it to be a great resources center. Links, resource page, contact info, mission statement, project details, action plan, affiliate organizations, schedule of events, etc... etc...

My green screen arrived and this weekend I'll have produced a much better first-broadcast. I'd like to use it to lay out several details and specifics and how people can help/get involved. Soon as the site is more set up and we have a great video to define the ideas we've come up with, we can start broadcasting it everywhere.

Also, I have some great ideas about how to use May 1st together with a yet un-decided date in June to launch the hottest summer of action ever. We can be ready for a targeted and specific day on May 1st that we can condense and make very potent and that can be a an ignition/tipping point for launching the Summer in June and blazing through to 07' and a change in National direction in whatever form we can bring it.

I can't wait to get back in the saddle and I'll be getting back to each of you soon. I'll also lay out a little more information about my personal stuff so everyone can help me pick up some of the slack on what I have time for while still needing to work to keep the bills paid and all

Talk to you very soon,
-Nate

Tag:June Revolution

Action...

Aloha everyone.

My apologies for not completing what I set out to today. But events forced me to postpone. Senator Inouye's beautfiul wife Margaret passed away at 81 years of age this morning. An amazing woman beyond compliments in words. My deepest condolences to Dan and the whole Inouye family.

Some of you many know that Sen. Inouye gave his arm while serving in World War II where he won the Congressional Medal of Honor serving in the 442nd Regiment . Believe me when I tell you that Senator Inouye's wife Margaret has spent 60 years by his side, no less committed to justice and democracy. Send an note of well wishes if you have a moment to honor a woman who embodied an honorable life.

On to our mission...

Although I was unable to do any production today, I thought about this endlessly. It's almost 3am so I'm not going to produce a big post here but I wanted to lay out some major key ideas and starting points and let's set a timeline. I spoke to many smart people today, many with deep experience in this kind of 'event mobilization' and everyone likes the idea. As my instincts first told me, they're experience and advice bore out today. Most specifically in terms of timeline.

I know everyone is gung-ho to fire this off in May. The first of May no less which means we have to mobilize an entire Nation if not a planet in 5 weeks. Now I'm the biggest kind of optimist folks. But I'm also a realist. This is just not possible without a major national coverage event and that's like predicting lightning strike. I do believe we can do this in about 75 days though. This puts us at the beginning of June.

This has huge additional advantages in terms of the release of College campuses and High School Sr.'s and a summer of time to fill up with idealism and impressing liberal women with their commitment to social justice. I want this National Strike Day to kick off a Summer of Discontent. Let it be the first major action day in a long summer of action. Think "Summer of Love" in 67' and the "Summer of Fire" in 69'. Think Watergate Summer.

This timeline gives a realistic groundswell timeframe. Events like this pick up speed in exponential curves that start slow and build steady... Then they hit a catalyst point. An event horizon and begin to accelerate with their own unstopable momentum and then they take a life all their own.

If we can get together about 30 of us and between all of us generate an action list/plan. Let's focus on no more than 10-20 "action" events people can organize. Strike and pickett. Sick-day out... Cut day... Phone campaign... Freeway Blogging... Traffic sign waving... Organized protest of campaign HQ's... Leafletting... Giant fax attact to Congress... Whatever...

Get them all written down and a general consensus on where we should focus. Pull together supporting links for each one and get them organized. Word document format is fine and send them to me and I'll compile them. Let's get an email/contact list established. Let's organize a conference call or large-web chat.

If you guys can get active and get this stuff to me by this weeks' end, then here's what I can do...

Get it all compiled and then build a comprehensive website complete with Flash animation, video, Podcast etc. established on www.JuneRevolution.com and organize all activities and interaction on this blog.

I'll get anyone here in this tight group who wants it set up with the ability to remotely post blog entries here. Not just comment. I'll get a very professional video broadcast completed as an introduction to this product, host it here and on the main site and generate the code and host it for any other blog that might want to stream it like a C&L etc... And I'll have all of that done before April. Then starts about a 70 day countdown to build it out... Organize... Recruit... Grow... Gain Speed.

From beginning of April I'll be able to roll out Weekly News Broadcasts for complete updates to the project. I can organize a large scale growing email list for regular email broadcasts, alerts and updates.

Then we just have to start getting the word out. Organizing geo-pockets and interest areas. Getting blogs and organizations involved. Once we get some momentum I have some media resources I can get to pick it up but I want to focus it on the blogs. This needs to be a net fire.

If we do this right, it will range into the tens of thousands if not hundreds... It will be so uniquely organized and so dispersed in effect and initiative, it will be impossible to deny. If we can peak it to a crescendo leading up to the kick off date. You all decide best date-you know my desire to have the proper time to do this right. I say early June. We find the day and we explode into a collosal summer where people remember what it means to be We The People!

Grandmothers... Veterans-turned-Hells Angels... College Activists... Religous Leaders... All ages, races, creded, types taking action side by side!

I'll have more tomorrow afternoon my time. Go to work. Write ideas. Organize your thoughts. Report back! :-)

-Nate
By the way... Can anyone get me a Gmail account invite? I want an offsite account server to receive big video/graphics files

Welcome to the revolution...