May 14, 2008
I was surprised to discover this morning that Thomas Frank is today kicking off his new weekly Wednesday opinion column in the Wall Street Journal. The editors had this to say about his addition to their team: "Mr. Frank can help our readers understand what's on the mind of the American left as it bids to regain control of the federal government."
Hmm. I'm not sure what to think. Mr. Frank will be familiar to some of you as the once editor of the excellent cultural criticism journal called The Baffler, a periodical of irregular publishing cycle that nevertheless regularly skewered the right wing, capitalists, the rich and the powerful, taking up where the Frankfurt School left off to craft their own particular snarky brand of speaking truth to power.
Frank went on to write The Conquest of Cool, an excellent explication of how the advertising industry changed and was changed by the counterculture of the 60s. A couple books later he wrote the best-selling What's the Matter with Kansas?, an anti-heartland screed against the blue states, or against what makes blue states blue. that went over very well in red states, to which I've just recently read a really interesting and intelligent rebuttal to, a book called "Superior, Nebraska" (named after my stepfather's hometown).
Anyway.... I dunno. What's Frank thinking? Why is he helping the business class understand the Left? So far the column seems more suited for Mother Jones than the WSJ, and seems to be mostly an ad for his new book. Maybe that's his main motivation.
May 14, 2008 07:43 PM
Eins der schönsten Komplimente der letzten Monate:
"Ihr macht echt aus der gröbsten Scheiße Gold."
Danke nochmal an O.!
May 14, 2008 11:23 AM
May 13, 2008
As an anti-border anarchist, my thoughts go out today to the Iowa families who had family members arrested by fascist immigration authorities at a meat-packing plant. I’m no fan of meat-packing plants, but this draconian harassment of working people has to stop. It’s time to get rid of “La Migra”, all borders, and all nation-states. [...]
May 13, 2008 07:30 PM
The Kansas City Business Journal is reporting that the Tax Increment Financing Commission of Kansas City is considering TIF proposals for new symphony offices and a rehabbed shopping center. The proposal for the symphony offices is more disturbing, because it would use TIF money to renovate a historic building in the Crossroads District. The renovation [...]
May 13, 2008 06:28 PM
I’ve been following the hilarious Reverend Wright controversy and am hoping to write about this at greater length. CounterPunch today has another interesting take on the Reverend Wright controversy: The Problem with Rev. Wright … There are Too Few Like Him. Based on the soundbites I’ve heard from Reverend Wright so far, I can’t say [...]
May 13, 2008 06:14 PM
Leawood is a suburb of south Kansas City which is on the Kansas side and runs along the state line. Leawood happens to be where I grew up as a teenager. Lately there has been some buzz about coyote sightings in the city, which has caused the usual reaction by small-minded suburbanites who are calling [...]
May 13, 2008 01:30 AM
May 12, 2008
Friday night I did a short DJ set at Dry River's "anti-prom." Don't ask me to define what an anti-prom is. And I'm not sure why I volunteered to DJ. But it was somewhat fun and somewhat successful.
Here's my playlist:
Thatll Be the Day Buddy Holly
Bossa Nova Baby Elvis Presley
Honey Don't The Beatles
Who Do You Love Bo Diddley
Track 09 B.B. King
Rock 'n' Roll High School The Ramones
Chick Habit April March
Holiday Innn Stereo Total
Harley Davidson Brigitte Bardot
Hicky burr Quincy Jones/Bill Cosby
Can You Get To That Funkadelic
Love Revolution Big Star
Best Friends Forever Treasure MammaL
You Make Me High (When You Go Down Low) Lolita Storm
Strange Powers The Magnetic Fields
Hey Mama Black Eyed Peas
Dancing Queen ABBA
Let The Music Play Barry White
Reanimator Amon Tobin
The Pink Room Twin Peaks
The other 2 evenings of the weekend were spent at Dry River too, Saturday to see Andrew Jackson Jihad, from Phoenix, and Sunday to see D-numbers, from Santa Fe.
May 12, 2008 04:25 PM
This is Bike Week in Kansas City. I don’t get on a bike very often, so perhaps this week I’ll focus on putting air into the tires of my bike. Bike week includes a variety of rides, classes and other events. Tonight, some folks will be playing frisbee bikes, or “Friz”, at Mill Creek Park.
The [...]
May 12, 2008 03:51 PM
May 11, 2008
From North Montpelier to 10 miles south of Hardwick, Route 14 is a mess. However, it’s worth it if you’re heading north of Hardwick. The road and the views all along Route 16 are simply wonderful. Turned around at Barton to turn the harsh headwind into a tail wind, sailed all the way to Morrisville. Turned the corner and up over Elmore and back down to Montpelier.
May 11, 2008 12:46 PM
May 10, 2008
WRFU had a stand at the Urbana Farmers’ Market (video) today, and I was there from 10-12. It’s really a nice atmosphere, and a good chance to meet with a range of people. It’s still early - no corn that I saw (though of course there was kettle corn), more flowers than vegetables - but there was a reasonable crowd, and we had a range of visitors interested in learning more about the station. The link above is to a short compilation of audio, video, and photos taken from the vantage point of the WRFU stand.
May 10, 2008 09:08 PM
Ever wondered how the FCC tracks down and busts pirate radio operators? Anyone familiar with the subject has heard about radio tracking equipment that helps agents triangulate a signal, but what other tools are in their arsenal?
Google is a big one. Another tool? Taking pictures of the buildings where they find signals, and photographing the license plates of cars parked in front.
That’s what we learn thanks to a Freedom of Information Act request filed by the Lumberjack, the student-run newspaper of California’s Humboldt State University. The paper filed the request regard the FCC’s investigation of the Humboldt Free Radio Alliance last year which led to the station shutting down.
Amongst the notes revealed in the case file obtained by the paper are an agent’s “investigation” of a MySpace page:
“The webpage shows a number of people who are dj’s. Printed out the myspace web pages and placed them in the case folder,” FCC documents said.
The Commission apparently learned that the station had shut down from a Google search, too, which brought up a post to an Indymedia site:
“Googled ‘Humboldt Free Radio Alliance’ an (Internet publication) IndyMedia article related to our shutdown,” stated the FCC documents.
“Since information indicates station off the air and may be trying to find a new location, will close the case based on the certified mail receipt. A new location will require a new case.”
What’s interesting about this is the sheer mundaneness of it all. Aside from being able to use signal finding equipment, there’s very little cleverness about finding pirate operators. And you really don’t even need the fancy equipment in the first place. A relatively sensitive radio can help you track down a pirate signal to within a block or so. Then you can look around for an antenna, which needs to be mounted high and away from other blockages, and so is likely to be somewhat conspicuous if you know what you’re looking for.
Indeed, the way most pirates evade the FCC is through simply keeping things on the down-low and common sense. Not broadcasting 24-7, and keeping a more erratic schedule are two very simple ways of minimizing detection and making it a little more difficult for the FCC to track you down, since agents have lots of other things to do besides hunt down pirates.
It’s also good to see some confirmation of the fact that agents do use the internet. Ever since I started following the pirate radio underground on the ‘net some 14 years ago, the most common admonition you’d read–whether on usenet, listservs or bulletin boards–is not to post too much identifying information about your station and its broadcasts.
Of course, the problem with not using the internet to publicize a station is that it makes it more difficult to attract listeners who might be interested.
Although I haven’t seen the case file, my guess is that the FCC only starts its Google searches once it’s opened an investigation. That is, I doubt that the Commission spends a lot of time trolling the internet to find pirate radio websites and posting–though I also would believe that agents do peruse pirate-related sites like the Free Radio Network. The Commission after all is truly a complaint-driven bureaucracy.
More likely is that the searches start once the Commission has received complaints from listeners or other broadcasters.
So, keep that in mind if you want to publicize your unlicensed station online. Publicity comes with a price, so a little caution goes a long way.
May 09, 2008 04:30 AM
This post inaugurates a new category on “government corruption” for this blog. It’s a topic that I want to blog about, but I’m still undecided about launching a new local independent news site and blog aggregator. If I launch that project, I may move my blogging about Kansas City issues to the new project.
I’m giving [...]
May 09, 2008 04:28 AM
According to local blogs, the Power and Light District, which we here call the WHite Power District, is censoring a local blog that writes critical (and often hilarious) things about the White Power District. Anybody who tried to access the blog via the WiFi available in the District is blocked from the blog with the [...]
May 09, 2008 03:49 AM
I want to thank all of the friends and family who turned out for my birthday event two weeks ago. Your participation is greatly appreciated. Special thanks go out to S. for shipping chocolates to me cross country. That was a “sweet” gift in any definition of that word.
May 09, 2008 03:32 AM
May 08, 2008
For those of you who check here when Infoshop is offline, Infoshop News is offline this afternoon because of a power outage in central Kansas City. If the power company fixes the problem in the next few hours, our service will be back online in a few hours or by this evening.
May 08, 2008 05:48 PM
When I’m talking with my students about their news diet, at least some - though not as many as you might think - will mention the Daily Show or similar satirical content. I’ve repeatedly commented that my sense is that the Daily Show doesn’t inform viewers about what’s happening in the world so much as play on their existing knowledge - that if you don’t know about a situation, or about the broader political context, going into a piece, you may find it funny (on the basis of funny voices or pop culture references) but you’re not going to come out knowing anything extra about the world.
Now a Pew report confirms my view: “In addition, The Daily Show not only assumes, but even requires, previous and significant knowledge of the news on the part of viewers if they want to get the joke.”
May 08, 2008 05:38 PM
Die BAW interessiert sich für meine Haarfarbe. Und um die herauszufinden, bemühten sie Pedram Shahyar nach Karlsruhe, seines Zeichens Mitglied des Koordinierungskreises von Attac Deutschland; mit einer formvollendeten Vorladung als Zeuge im mg-Verfahren zur Bundesanwaltschaft. Dabei hätten sie das einfacher haben können, immerhin gibt es von mir Fotos, und ausreichend BKA-BeamtInnen, die da hätten weiterhelfen können.
Pressekonferenz mit Alexander Hoffmann, Christina Clemm, Peer Stolle, Katja Kipping und Pedram Shahyar am 8.5. in Berlin, mehr dazu unten
Wir erinnern uns: Zeugenvorladungen der BAW sind diese Veranstaltungen, die im schlimmsten Fall mit sechs Monaten Beugehaft enden können, wenn die Vorgeladenen sich weigern, Aussagen zu machen. In diesem Verfahren hat es das noch nicht gegeben, in anderen schon. Und damit werden die Ermittlungen also auch auf Attac ausgeweitet. Naürlich wird nicht gegen Attac ermittelt (nehme ich mal an), aber dass die BAW sich nebenbei dafür interessierte, was Pedram Shahyar so gemacht hat letztes Jahr im Juni, ist in der Befragung gestern deutlich geworden.
Eigentlich ist der Anlass der Vorladung wieder so ein ungeheuer komisches Detail - wenn es nicht so ernst wäre.
Grundannahme (des BKA) ist, dass die 'militante gruppe' Pedram zur 'Zielperson' erklärt habe (es gibt irgendeinen mg-Text, in dem er zitiert wird). Weil er als Vertreter des eher reformistischen Flügels der Globalisierungsgegner den Terroristen Kriminellen von der mg unangenehm aufgefallen sei, und Andrej ihn dann 'ausgespäht' habe (so das BKA).
Darauf gekommen sind sie, weil bei der Durchsuchung unserer Wohnung ein Zettel mit Pedrams Namen und Adresse beschlagnahmt wurde. Und warum sonst würde Bösewicht Andrej Pedrams Adresse haben? Doch wahrscheinlich, weil er ihn bei nächstbester Gelegenheit erschießen wollte (wahlweise Patronen schicken, die Luft aus den Fahrradreifen lassen, oder... ich weiß auch nicht, was sie sich denken).
Und dazu also sollte sich Pedram gestern erklären. Warum der Zettel? Kennt er Andrej wirklich? Warum? Woher? Kennt er eigentlich auch mich? Woher?
Ja - und welche Rolle spielt das eigentlich? Wenn er jetzt meine Haarfarbe nicht gewusst hätte, wäre er dann selbst gleich mitverdächtigt worden? Weil er ja vorgelogen hätte, dass er Andrej und mich kennt und also gar nicht stimmt, dass es einen anderen Grund für den Zettel gibt als das Ausspähen? Er das dem Staatsanwalt aber weismachen wollte, weil er gern verheimlichen wollte, dass er beinah erschossen worden wäre?
Dazu muss man sagen, dass er ausgerechnet das falsch beantwortet hat: ich habe nämlich keine dunkelblonden Haare mehr. Im Laufe des letzten Jahres sind sie eher grau geworden.
Sippenhaft war eigentlich abgeschafft, dachte ich. Warum also wird nach mir gefragt? Wir werden auch das wohl nicht erfahren.
Als Pedram dann wahrheitsgemäß erklärt hatte, dass der Zettel bei uns lag, weil Andrej letztes Jahr im Rahmen der G8-Proteste irgendwann eine von Pedram zu zahlende Rechnung an ihn geschickt hatte (für den Druck einer Broschüre), war die Neugier erst recht geweckt. Was denn für eine Broschüre? Von wem? Wozu?
Und hier fanden dann Pedram samt Anwalt, dass sie das jetzt nun wirklich nichts anginge, und haben mit Bezug auf §55 StPO das Zeugnisverweigerungsrecht in Anspruch genommen. Was Herrn Weingarten, dem fragenden Staatsanwalt, einmal mehr das Wochenende versaut hat - seine schlechte Laune sei deutlich gewesen.
Glücklicherweise wurde die Verweigerung vom Richter akzeptiert und Pedram sass heute morgen statt in Karlsruhe im Gefängnis bei einer Pressekonferenz (PK) in Berlin, zu der Beschuldigte aus vier solchen §129(a)-Verfahren eingeladen hatten. Allen vier Verfahren ist gemein, dass es BGH-Beschlüsse gibt, die klar festlegen, dass das BKA schief lag und alle 40 Beschuldigten gar keine Terroristen sind.
Was das öffentliche Gefühl stärkte, dass wenigstens der BGH, zusammen mit dem Verfassungsgericht, dem amoklaufenden Sicherheitsstaat Einhalt gebietet. Bedauerlicherweise nur haben die BGH-Beschlüsse keine Konsequenzen. Es wird weiter ermittelt, überwacht, abgehört, gefilmt.
Die Details dazu stehen in einer ausführlichen Pressemappe zur Pressekonferenz, bei der außerdem Katja Kipping (MdB und stellvertretendet Vorsitzende der Linkspartei), Christina Clemm (Verteidigerin von Andrej und auch im sog. G8-Verfahren) und Alexander Hoffmann (Verteidiger im sog. Bad-Oldesloe-Verfahren) redeten. Zur Pressemappe gehört diese übersichtliche Tabelle (pdf), die darstellt, in welchen Ausmaß Überwachung stattfindet. In Kürze wird es ein Video davon geben. Die Audio-Aufnahme steht bei freie-radios.net.
Eins der schönsten Zitate während der PK zum Thema Kettengenehmigungen von Überwachungsmaßnahmen:
"Das da die Beschlüsse durchgewunken werden ist nicht nur auf die charakterlichen Mängel des Herrn Hebenstreit zurückzuführen, sondern hat System. "
Alexander Hoffmann zur Rolle des Ermittlungsrichters Hebenstreit, der alle Überwachungsmaßnahmen des BKA genehmigt hat. Bei der Gelegenheit nahm er auch ausführlich zum Richtervorbehalt Stellung, der angeblich die Rettung der Grundrechte vor Online-Durchsuchung, Video-Überwachung in Wohnungen und dem restlichen geplanten Sichterheitsterror gewährleisten soll.
Sehr komisch, das ganze.
May 08, 2008 02:26 PM
May 07, 2008
Last weekend I was in Birmingham, Alabama for one of the twice-yearly meetings of the National War Tax Resistance Coordinating Committee. I was there to film for the documentary on war tax resistance, and also to give people in the committee a status report of how the film is coming along and show them some footage. It went well, and it was nice to spend a few days in a really green and humid place, very different from Tucson.
David Gross was there too and has a pretty complete summary of the weekend on his blog. One thing he leaves out is a direct link to the local Fox News story covering the press conference the group had. In the clip they aired you'll see a split-second shot of me behind my video camera, filming the event for the doc.
I'm kind of baffled that the Fox cameraman would even shoot footage of me, much less that the editor would include it in the final piece. Why is it relevant to the story that someone else was there taping? He didn't shoot footage of the reporter from the Birmingham newspaper who was also there. Weird.
Well, at least the story itself was fairly neutral on the subject and didn't paint the group as some kind of unpatriotic wackos. Perhaps 2 years ago that's the angle that a Fox station would have taken, but opinion has turned so far against that war that maybe even they are moderating their gung-ho pro-Bush stance.
May 07, 2008 04:08 PM
RiseUp! has just announced their Freedom Summer of Code which seems ideally suited for developers who are interested in helping to develop code that both helps people and organizations to not depend on closed source code. For Drupal developer’s I think this could be a great way to develop and improve some functionality that is not dependent on third parties (ahem, Google).
The Freedom Summer of Code aims to advance critical movement technology projects and tools that benefit a wide-variety of radical social justice organizations and movements; inspire developers to become more interested in directly participating in social-justice tech organizations; contributes back, for the benefit of all, to the free software world which sustains us while simultaneously honoring individual’s labor; increases the social ownership and democratic control over information, ideas, technology, and the means of communication; empowers organizations and individuals to use technology in struggles for liberation. We are developing software that is geared specifically to the needs of network organizing and democratic collaboration, providing new services that greatly enhance your security and privacy.
They solliciting applications now, as well as additional donations to help the project along.
May 07, 2008 01:54 PM
<div class='snap_preview'><br /><p>It&#8217;s only 1:00am, but so far &#8220;<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/07/nyregion/07lofts.html">Young Artists Find Private Space, Without Privacy</a>&#8221; is outpacing &#8220;<a href="http://philly.metro.us/metro/local/article/Citywide_WiFi_could_be_shut_down/12422.html">Citywide Wi-Fi could be shut down</a>&#8221; by 3 to 2 in terms of how often the article has been emailed to me. Suffice it to say, there are no surprises in either one.</p>
<p>The Metro article tries to be coy about One Community&#8217;s attempt to deal with EarthLink and Wireless Philadelphia and that the sticking point is the money EarthLink owes as part of the Street Light Use Agreement (<a href="http://breitbart.wordpress.com/2008/03/25/is-earthlink-even-paying-its-wireless-philadelphia-bills/">as I detailed on March 25</a>). I&#8217;ll write more about this soon. Feel free to email me or comment below with specific questions.</p>
<p>One more thing about the Metro article: It&#8217;s not accurate to call Wireless Philadelphia &#8220;the nonprofit set up to help low-income residents connect to the system,&#8221; since it was actually set up to own the system, then it found a new purpose in managing the system, then it abandoned that to help low-income residents connect to the system. So that&#8217;s why it&#8217;s there now, but that&#8217;s not why it was set up. Erasing that history obscures the organization&#8217;s responsibilities.</p>
<img alt="" border="0" src="http://feeds.wordpress.com/1.0/categories/breitbart.wordpress.com/269/" /> <img alt="" border="0" src="http://feeds.wordpress.com/1.0/tags/breitbart.wordpress.com/269/" /> <a rel="nofollow" href="http://feeds.wordpress.com/1.0/gocomments/breitbart.wordpress.com/269/"><img alt="" border="0" src="http://feeds.wordpress.com/1.0/comments/breitbart.wordpress.com/269/" /></a> <a rel="nofollow" href="http://feeds.wordpress.com/1.0/godelicious/breitbart.wordpress.com/269/"><img alt="" border="0" src="http://feeds.wordpress.com/1.0/delicious/breitbart.wordpress.com/269/" /></a> <a rel="nofollow" href="http://feeds.wordpress.com/1.0/gostumble/breitbart.wordpress.com/269/"><img alt="" border="0" src="http://feeds.wordpress.com/1.0/stumble/breitbart.wordpress.com/269/" /></a> <a rel="nofollow" href="http://feeds.wordpress.com/1.0/godigg/breitbart.wordpress.com/269/"><img alt="" border="0" src="http://feeds.wordpress.com/1.0/digg/breitbart.wordpress.com/269/" /></a> <a rel="nofollow" href="http://feeds.wordpress.com/1.0/goreddit/breitbart.wordpress.com/269/"><img alt="" border="0" src="http://feeds.wordpress.com/1.0/reddit/breitbart.wordpress.com/269/" /></a> <img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=breitbart.wordpress.com&blog=1877&post=269&subd=breitbart&ref=&feed=1" /></div></content>
May 07, 2008 06:15 AM
May 06, 2008
This happened a while ago, 2 months ago, and I edited the video coverage of it a couple weeks ago, but I never blogged about it, that I can remember.
I've started doing "VJ"ing, and my debut was for a Pan Left multimedia extravaganza called Synaesthesia, where musicians improvise to videos they've never seen before. But my set was me improvising live-manipulated-mixed video to music i'd never heard before.
It worked better than I feared. Though I'm not saying the visuals or audio was brilliant. Anyway, here's the video and more info, on the pan left site.
Anyway, I hope to do more of this kind of stuff in the not too far off future.
May 06, 2008 11:31 PM
<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://bp2.blogger.com/_5qpsZbQZy5Q/SB8zZuWXh6I/AAAAAAAAATg/VQqCB4-Q0-0/s1600-h/paul_robeson.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;" src="http://bp2.blogger.com/_5qpsZbQZy5Q/SB8zZuWXh6I/AAAAAAAAATg/VQqCB4-Q0-0/s320/paul_robeson.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5196929012040435618" border="0" /></a>On 7th May 1949, the singer, film actor and communist<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Robeson"> Paul Robeson</a> drew a crowd of around ten thousand to an impromptu outdoor concert in Lord Street. The event had been proposed on the morning, and took place in the afternoon.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.catalystmedia.org.uk/issues/nerve11/paul_robeson.php">Click here</a> for the full article from Nerve magazine.</content>
May 06, 2008 11:16 PM
The climb up Route 17, above the base of Mad River Glenn and then up to the top of the ridge (Ap Gap), passing one of the tops of Mad River’s lower lifts, is a spectacular climb. Not only is the road in good shape (a rarity in Vermont this year), but the river which you climb along side is a clear crystal green, and the ridge that Sugarbush and Mad River stretch along is just a fantastic view. The decent offers some great twisty turns, and some nice straight aways that quickly rocket you up to 40mph and beyond. Heading out the Mad River valley, you meander through a beautiful pastoral valley.
The climb up 100 toward Waterbury opens with a fantastic view of Camel’s Hump. This road was paved last year and again is a gem in road quality. While it is more trafficked than other roads in Vermont, there is decent shoulder. This is a series of pitches- not the steady pace that Ap Gap requires, but 4 short climbs, but the reward is several miles of down toward route 2.
While this ride is somewhat of an out and back, it’s got good variety. I think the only real bummer is Route 2 which has a narrow shoulder and some dubious pavement.
May 06, 2008 06:59 PM
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