So, the pressure has got to be public and it's got to potentially hurt. That was the genesis of the infamous Rahm Emanuel --retarded" insult to progressives thinking about running primaries against Blue Dogs in order to pressure for health care. That got his attention, and he wasn't happy about it.
Here are a few activities that I think are efficient and productive: Instead of writing letters to the editor, write what you want on the comment sections of websites, particularly of widely read mainstream publications. Cut and paste into multiple sites of relevant articles. Also, try to support with comments your favorite writers either in the comments sections of their websites or when they write for larger publications. This can be done individually, and not even under your full name necessarily.
For the more daring, there's the idea of picketing relevant people or institutions and leveraging their "strength" against themselves. Can you imagine what it would be like if a few well-dressed people stood for a few hours a day outside a major news organization with signs and leaflets urging passing motorists, "Honk if you think the paper shamed itself" on some relevant issue. This can also be done with individual dignitaries during their professional appearances, as some of the torture protesters from Progressive Democrats of America are doing on the book tour of torture memo author John Yoo. I wonder also what it would be like to leaflet outside federal courthouses seeking to empanel jurors, and provide educational materials about alleged injustices in the jurisdiction.
Saving perhaps the best solution for last, it's safer, more productive and probably more fun to undertake these kinds of activities along with others. It could be a political group, such as the justice accountability group of Progressive Democrats of America. Or it could be leveraging a professional group by joining the speakers committee of an otherwise neutral group. Or it could be trying to cross-pollinate in some kind of creative way.
For example, I saw that conservative and law enforcement groups were extremely responsive and pro-active to my story documenting the abusive prosecution of Bernie Kerik on corruption charges. I received an email from the publisher of Newsmax saying he was reposting my article on its site, for example, lots of emails from others saying they were reposting and transmitting to thousands of new readers. Geraldo Rivera wrote that he was doing a Fox News "At Large" segment on the topic.
Ironically, some in the pro-Kerik camp couldn't imagine that progressive sites would allow publication of such an article. But in fact I think there exists the possibility of some truly powerful alliances on these kinds of constitutional and civil rights issues. It's really the Mushy Middle that's most complacent about the steady loss of our freedoms. Orwell's "Big Brother" has always been an extreme bugaboo both to the Right and Left. It's part of the book's brilliance that partisans on each side like to think they're the heroes of the book, and those with different politics are the Big Brother "Party" villains.
As a last option of what to do, I would encourage involvement in a unique organization I founded this year called The Justice Integrity Project. This is a non-partisan, Washington, DC-based non-profit organization that's intended to obtain action on these federal prosecution issues. Among the ways will be newsletters, events at such places as DC plus a unique "matchmaking service" between local news sources and media. The website is www.justice-integrity.org. I've studied the field of somewhat similar legal reform organizations, and believe the project is well positioned to fill a need by monitoring these trial courts.
Your project sounds incredibly timely, Andrew. Anything you'd like to add, before we wrap?
Joan, I'm so glad you and OpEdNews are so diligent in pursuing these important stories. I've come to know you as someone who is literally tireless in bringing out vital stories, but ones that are also largely ignored if not suppressed by the corporate media.
So, I think it's appropriate to close with why this story is important to your readers, not to those directly affected such as Bernie Kerik, Don Siegelman, their families and their supporters.
Kerik and Siegelman were extremely knowledgeable about the legal and political systems, as well as the media, and yet they have been ordered to prison for lengthy and unmerited terms after spending millions of dollars and seeing their families ruined. What's even more important is how many others in their families and supporters have been ruined in the effort to snuff them, and how few in the public know anything like "the real story" despite hundreds of articles about each.
Bottom line: if it could happen to this Republican and this Democrat, we've all got a problem.
We need to build awareness, build connections between wider constituencies of those who value the constitution and do something drastic to halt these Big Brother-style abuses.
I agree, on all fronts. Thanks so much for being with us today and for all your efforts to point out abuses and restore justice to our judicial system. It's been a pleasure, Andrew. I look forward to hearing more about the activities of The Justice Integrity Project.
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