Strategy: Two Prongs. Press and Petition

That is my suggestion for the next step in keeping the pressure up.

A new petition, a direct plea to Obama for action. A direct petitioning of The President by The People to investigate the former administration. The question then is content and form, what should we say, what should we ask for, how can we be the most persuasive. I’m in a low energy phase, but I’ll start working on a draft….and welcome any others!…for y’all to rip apart, lol!!!

The next prong is inspired by Chuck Todd soliciting questions for Obama’s last news conference. Tell Chuck Todd To Ask About Torture Next Time

If someone in the press starts asking Obama about torture and investigations that puts huge pressure on him and gets the subject onto the TV boxes. So I propose picking a WH pool reporter and starting an e-mail campaign…..and perhaps even a dialog! urging them to ask questions about investigating torture.

Is Todd a good choice? Maybe Todd and Helen Thomas, so Thomas can also put some pressure on the rest pf the press corpse?

This idea needs some community development as well, so pitch in!

Any other ideas? Any thoughts regarding these suggestions?

Yell louder!

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  1. Photobucket

  2. one, she is at the point in her life and career where she can afford to be fearless, CT is not.

    Second she has enormous respect from the White House correspondents. If she starts to ask after thing, the young ones(relatively anyway) will see it as something they can reasonably ask after too. The point of this prong (I am assuming) is to get as many reporters asking after this.

    To that point, maybe we should hit them all after we implore Ms. Thomas to start? Give her a head start then start making it clear to the reporters that it is an issue that we want asked?  

  3. Valtin had a piece yesterday about Rachel’s latest show where she i’viewed Colin Powell…

    http://www.dailykos.com/story/

    In addtion to your idea for WH pool person, I think we should also be letting Keith and Rachel know (in emails) that we appreciate their work (msnbc).

    Just saw a commercial (sound muted) … looks like Keith O is hitting hard tonight on Torture/Justice.

    Rachel has really been outstanding this week.

    • BobbyK on April 3, 2009 at 20:58

    to me anyway. I get the impression he’s more concerned about shinning apples and gaining access than asking hard questions. But that’s my impression of nearly everyone in the press.

    With Rachel & Keith there’s a shot at keeping the issue on prime time. They need to be reinforced with public praise.

    They will be labeled as extreme left for hanging on to the issue when the rest of the public has moved on to other issues (like the economy).

    Long winded stream of thought here: I think we have to work on the both the President & the Public.

    We need the “no justice for Bush torture?” question asked more frequently at these televised town hall meetings and call in shows. And we need to confront other pols in public with the question. We can’t let them just dismiss the truth. That our leaders don’t have the political will to enforce the law is sickening.

    We have to have do some message massaging on the question to make the link with all the other scandals.

    I think the common thread is “hypocrisy & accountability”.

    If we can just link the “and Justice for some” argument with the Economic injustice everyone feels, we might actually get some action.

    I wouldn’t rule out sending messages of public support to other countries that are moving on the issue too. We can’t let this injustice become yesterday’s news. A coordinated effort will maximize our impact.

    The fact that this remains a front page issue here at docudharma is a beautiful thing! Thank YOU!

    • BobbyK on April 3, 2009 at 21:04

    for being long winded.

    By the time I posted my comment ten others popped up above and I was just redundant.

    My apologies!

  4. Was just on the phone a bit ago with my cool sister…  I was filling her in on my new Diary Series and telling her about the “By The Numbers” part. I had a hard time getting those numbers, point being nobody Out There is doing that. At all. Not that I found at least.

    So she & I were agreeing how brilliant I was ~ lol ~ for coming up with that, and THEN she said:

    “Why dont you send THAT to Rachel Maddow?  She has staff, they can develop it and verify too.”

    Genius.

    (see https://www.docudharma.com/diar

    • Edger on April 3, 2009 at 21:25

    I want to build a mass mailer into my site, so that with one button click you can email a post to hundreds of journalists.

    Maybe even make it into an embeddable widget tool if possible so people can post it in posts or comments on other blogs.

    Anybody have a list, or know where I can source one, or willing to compile one while I put together the software?

    • Alma on April 3, 2009 at 22:04

    Hope the url works.

    http://myeasybase.com/cgi-bin/

  5. an ACLU diary is scrolling down with all of 5 comments…

    The Dirty Little Secret of Deaths in Detention

    http://www.dailykos.com/story/

  6. It’s dated September, 2004, but the format of addressing people makes it very easy!

    Free Public

  7. http://mediamatters.org/column

    Tue, Jan 27, 2009 10:06am ET

    Right on cue, the White House press awakens from its Bush slumber

    by Eric Boehlert

    Pulling a collective Rip Van Winkle, the White House press corps has awakened from its extended nap just in time to aggressively press the new Democratic administration, just as it dogged the last Democratic president during his first days in office back in the 1990s. Conveniently skipped over during the press corps’ extended bout of shut-eye? The Bush years, of course.

    Suddenly revved up and vowing to keep a hawk-like watch on the Obama administration (“I want to hold these guys accountable for what they say and do”) and all of a sudden obsessed with trivia, while glomming onto nitpicking, gotcha-style critiques, Beltway reporters have tossed aside the blanket of calm that had descended on them during the previous administration, a blanket of calm that defined their Bush coverage.

    Can’t say I’m surprised about the sudden change in behavior, though. Taking the long view, I recently went back and contrasted how the press covered the first days and weeks of Clinton’s first term in 1993 with its coverage of Bush’s arrival in 2001. The difference in tone and substance was startling. (Think bare-knuckled vs. cottony soft.)

    the rest is in the linky

  8. This is very important!  This Sunday, April 5, 2009, National Geographic Society, will air a documentary entitled “Inside Guantanamo, 8 PM CST or Wednesday, April 8, 7 PM CST – Check your local listings.

    The video below is a panel, with Chris Wallace hosting, from FOX News.  Note the National Geographic logos. in the background.  I have only watched bits of it, as right in the beginning, this Col. in charge of interrogations at Guantanamo, categorically denies there was any torture during his tenure there.  I had to shut it down, I got so angry.  Then, I watched a little here and a little there.  I have always admired National Geographic in so many respects, but when I heard this comment from the Col., I became concerned, “will National Geographic do a whitewash of Guantanamo? Have they sold out, too?”  Those thoughts prompted me to try and find out who are the directors, trustees, etc.  I found this, which is quite interesting, I think.  Tracy Wolstencroft is an appointment to the Board of Trustees.  He has been a partner at Goldman Sachs since 1994.  

    Well, we can’t be sure what the purpose of such a panel is, and, maybe, National Geographic will be an honest documentary — we’ll have to wait and see.

    “Inside Guantanamo” Panel Discussion”

    • BobbyK on April 3, 2009 at 23:32

    Is it fair that members of the previous administration have not been held responsible under the law for…xyz?

    I’d be interested in seeing a list of questions developed to publicly box the administration in. It’s only 2.5 years till the next campaign. But any chance the public has between now and then to ask the hard questions, we should take advantage of. Heaven knows the MSM will never ask anything that makes anyone feel the slightest bit uncomfortable.

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