A little less theatre, a little more attention to the real issues. Please be smart, people! The party/streetfight stuff might just be counterproductive. Though it might make US feel better, we do have to be in this for the long run.

Militance is fine if it's appropriate and for a good reason. But right now we need the public on our side, we need numbers on our side, a chance to convince people of the wider implications- on the ground so to speak.

It doesn't diminish our feelings, it merely channels them into intelligent actions that will further the movement.

Plan, strategize, influence, organize.

Use signs that will pull the middle over to our view.

The World Council of Churches condemned this invasion. Mainstream people will listen to that. Veterans for Peace has legitimacy to the middle too. Military Families for Peace makes people think. Anyhow, I think we need to quote these groups, and list their names on our signs. But follow their ideas of nonviolence if your sign is going to bare their name.

My second strategy is to better expose Cheney/Haliburten, and the fact that he is still receiving payments from them for a bonus he got when he resigned. Signs like "Cheney & Haliburten profit / civilians & soldiers die / US taxpayers pay for the mess." There's got to be a clearer way to say it, but I think we need to work on this.

Peace friends! This is a lifelong vocation working for justice, so let's support each other!

Dress your 'message' in any language you wish, it still reeks to high heaven.

What you're selling we ain't buying, comrade.

A choice in signage is import. Consider what we see in this photo, for example. The catchy Blue-earth signs are distributed by "Not In Our Name" (NION)

NION appears to be a front the "Revolutionary Communist Party".

http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/Printable.asp?ID=6722

...because you disagree with someone's Political Philosophy does that mean that by opposing the war you have somehow adopted a Philosophy with which you disagree?

Your logic as always is flawed by your biases.

...the "Revolutionary Communist Party" aka NION's true motives are, Diogenes?

I believe it is simply to weeken the old "evil capitalist" enemy.

What's the Communist humanitarian track record?

Show me a real, sustained, example where it's working better than the system we have and maybe I'll start listening.

...about as far as I can throw the Bush Junta.

Having said that I would have say as well that while the hardcore communistas are probably, as usual, having their usual Kneejerk Anti-American reaction that in of itself does not discredit opposition to the war. Most of the people attending these rallies do not subscribe to their Faith. Nor does it lend any credence to the Pro-War side of this debate. It serves only to distract.

Many of the people involved in this movement against the hijacking of American Foreign Policy for the interests of a monied elite - the American Plutocracy are at heart people who share the views of the founders of this nation. That a free people can best operate with a minimum of government. We are quite capable of taking care of ourselves - thank you.

Once we had a Republic but the mounting evidence show us that the government of this country has become little more than the Enforcement arm of a handful of really quite evil people.

...but we have a difference of opinion regarding the solution.

I believe what we need is not *RE*volution – but *E*volution.

We need to make people's vote count again.

I see two major challenges that need to be overcome:

1. Remove the necessity for raising millions of $ in order to run for elected office.

2. Restore confidense in the election process by enabling voters to test the count themselves.

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1. Most of those $ are used to buy advertising space on the media. Welcome to the internet.

2. This requires a bit more work:

a. Votes are tallied electronicaly and compiled into a database.

b. This database is made available to the public via the Internet and on CD

c. When a voter votes, their choices are also written to a punched Key card.

d. This key card is unique to the voter.

e. An individual can test his choices against the record contained in the Vote Database.

f. The real power of this is derived when ~groups of voters get together and test for their votes.



Comments?

if you are serious about achieving these worthwhile goals, you will seek out and work with other people and groups who are taking constructive steps in that direction.