Amy's Speech

If you didn't get a chance to catch Amy Goodman's speech last Friday in Asheville, no worries. WPVM and the Mountain Area Information Network recorded the whole thing. You can listen here or here. Enjoy!

Slippery As A Foxx

Rarely does Aisling Broadcasting in Boone report on anything other than the WHAT of a particular story. Take today's story about Virginia Foxx's (R-NC) co-sponsorship of The American Energy Independence and Price Reduction Act, which would allow for oil production in Alaska.

If the reporter (s) at Aisling would have dug a little deeper, they would have also found out the following about Rep. Foxx, which kinda seems slightly relevant:

• She has accepted $45,100 in contributions from the oil and gas industry since 2000
• She has voted "Yea" for 91% of the bills in Congress which would most benefit the fossil fuel industry
• She voted against the effort to repeal the massive tax subsidies being given to the fossil fuel industry
  
• She voted against a bill that would promote "clean energy (requiring utilities to produce 15% of their electricity from renewable energy sources by 2020), increases fuel economy standards for cars and light trucks to 35 mpg by 2020, other efficiency standards, tax incentives, etc."
• She voted against an "amendment to H.R. 6 requiring Department of Transportation to raise vehicle fuel economy standards to at least 33 mpg by the model year 2015."
• She voted against the "'Renewable Energy and Energy Conservation Tax Act of 2008' Amends Internal Revenue Code to extend incentives for renewable energy sources and energy conservation."

These votes do one thing, really: prop up an industry whose time has clearly past--to the detriment of everyone.

Aisling, the question to ask in this story (in addition to where, who, when, etc.) is WHY did Foxx co-sponsor this bill? Maybe next time, eh?

Source here.

Weekend Video Salon: Adrienne Kinne

It takes a brave soldier to expose possible wrongdoing.

Tofu Terroristas

The next time you're sitting at Espresso News, see if you can listen in on some of the conversations around you. You never know--that suspicious/scary looking vegan sitting nearby might be talking with the FBI--about their upcoming vegan potluck spying assignment. From City Pages (MN):

Paul Carroll was riding his bike when his cell phone vibrated. Once he arrived home from the Hennepin County Courthouse, where he’d been served a gross misdemeanor for spray-painting the interior of a campus elevator, the lanky, wavy-haired University of Minnesota sophomore flipped open his phone and checked his messages. He was greeted by a voice he recognized immediately. It belonged to U of M Police Sgt. Erik Swanson, the officer to whom Carroll had turned himself in just three weeks earlier. When Carroll called back, Swanson asked him to meet at a coffee shop later that day, going on to assure a wary Carroll that he wasn’t in trouble.

...

Ten minutes later, he says, a casually dressed Swanson showed up, flanked by a woman whom he introduced as FBI Special Agent Maureen E. Mazzola. For the next 20 minutes, Mazzola would do most of the talking.

“She told me that I had the perfect ‘look,’” recalls Carroll. “And that I had the perfect personality—they kept saying I was friendly and personable—for what they were looking for.”

What they were looking for, Carroll says, was an informant—someone to show up at “vegan potlucks” throughout the Twin Cities and rub shoulders with RNC protestors, schmoozing his way into their inner circles, then reporting back to the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force, a partnership between multiple federal agencies and state and local law enforcement. The effort’s primary mission, according to the Minneapolis division’s website, is to “investigate terrorist acts carried out by groups or organizations which fall within the definition of terrorist groups as set forth in the current United States Attorney General Guidelines.”

Carroll would be compensated for his efforts, but only if his involvement yielded an arrest. No exact dollar figure was offered.

“I’ll pass,” said Carroll.

For 10 more minutes, Mazzola and Swanson tried to sway him. He remained obstinate.

“Well, if you change your mind, call this number,” said Mazzola, handing him her card with her cell phone number scribbled on the back.

(Mazzola, Swanson, and the FBI did not return numerous calls seeking comment.)

...

So violent, those vegans. That's why they refuse to eat dead animals. Your tax dollars at work, folks. Link here.

GRITtv: What Else Can The Media Talk About?

Congrats To You From Bill

A victory for media activists! Keep in touch, stay informed, & keep working to make big media feel the heat. Local voices still need to be heard on our public airwaves in the High Country. How can we work together to achieve this objective? Some inspiration for you:

On Access & Stenography

Once upon a time, it was widely believed that one of the greatest sins the U.S. government or its temporary political masters could commit was to turn a propaganda machine loose on the American people...

Read on...

Ready For Your Deep Packet Inspection?

Enhanced online experience. Deep Packet Inspection. Sound slightly obscene to you?

A little, maybe--but only if you value your privacy.

Seems that Charter Communications is getting ready to enhance their ad revenues at your expense. If you have Charter as your email/internet provider, you may be interested to know that they will soon be sniffing through your emails and targeting you with ads based on what you write, and the websites that you visit. From Consumerist and freepress.net:

Charter Communications is sending letters to its customers informing them of an "enhanced online experience" that involves Charter monitoring its users' searches and the websites they visit, and inserting targeted third-party ads based on their web activity. Charter, which serves nearly six million customers, is requiring users who want to keep their activity private to submit their personal information to Charter via an unencrypted form and download a privacy cookie that must be downloaded again each time a user clears his web cache or uses a different browser.

...

...an implementation of "deep packet inspection," is more worrying to us. Deep packet inspection allows an ISP to [Charter] monitor not only its users searches and visited websites, but also the type of activity (e.g., email or peer-to-peer), which could be used for traffic shaping and threatens net neutrality.

Are we right then in assuming that even in this era of enhanced government domestic spying that we should praise Charter's new initiative? After all, is it not tantamount to privatized spying? Yes! A good thing, indeed!

Well, let's have a look at how 'ol Charter's doin'--our new role model of deregulated (and therefore highly efficient) corporate citizenship and responsibility (from Morning Sun and freepress.net:

Charter Communications, the monopoly that controls the cable TV in mid-Michigan, is either cutting back and ignoring its customers or trying hard to be the best it can be, depending on who you talk to.

Jan Howard, executive director of the Mid Michigan Area Cable Consortium, said the number of complaints she has received from customers about Charter Communications have increased dramatically since the inception of the Uniform Video Services Local Franchise Act last year.

"There have been a number of concerns about billing and customer service,"Howard said. Although municipalities can no longer provide protection for Charter customers, they are still the primary resource of customer complaints because the city is the local franchising authority. On Dec. 21 2006, Gov. Granholm signed the legislation to promote competition among video service providers in Michigan. That legislation went into effect January 2007.

One year later, some have concerns that the law is having a detrimental effect on cable customers.

Prior to the law, cable providers in Michigan were subject to federal laws and regulations that were uniform across the country. These laws were designed to protect all parties including the cable provider, the customer and local governments. Enforcement was implemented by local communities, which could apply local standards and in turn invoke fines on the cable providers if they were not following the standards.

Under the act, that is no longer possible.

...

"They (Charter) have no fear. Who is going to bother them? What do they risk by not listening to these people?"Howard said.

Full article here.

Thank goodness we don't have an ISP/cable monopoly in the High Country. Doh!

The End Of MTN?

We're sure that by now you've heard that MTN, the Mountain Television Network has been offered for sale on eBay. MTN is referred to as a low-power TV station, or LPTV. But what may be even more interesting is the fact that a federal appeals court has rejected the request made by a large group of LPTV owners to require government-subsidized digital TV converters to carry their transmissions. From the AP:

...
The industry contends it is facing a "death sentence" because of a flaw in the government's plan to force broadcasters to shift to digital broadcasting.
...
As of Feb. 18, 2009, all full-power television stations in the U.S. are required to stop broadcasting an analog signal.
...
The problem facing the 2,600 low-power television stations represented by the association is that they are not subject to the deadline. Most of the converter boxes now on sale will actually block the low-power analog signal from those stations, while the full-power digital signals will display normally.
...

Here's the upshot: Unless this ruling somehow is reversed, you will not be able to watch MTN over the air--and the community will lose yet another local media outlet--come February 19th 2009. In an era already noted for its hyper media consolidation, this is the last thing the High Country needs.

If you're not familiar with LPTV, click here to find out a little more--and where these stations are located throughout NC.

Full AP story here.

Blackwater: Carolina Blue?

B-b-b-but it's all about economic development isn't it? Sure we may have misunderinterpretated those complicated City permits that we had to fill out in order to build our shiny new armed camp. But please--we weren't trying to hide nuthin'. Nuthin' 'tall. From signonsandiego.com:

San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders wants to know whether Blackwater Worldwide misrepresented itself when it sought city permits to set up an indoor military training facility in Otay Mesa.

...

Yesterday, Sanders sent a memo to the city's chief operating officer, Jay Goldstone, asking for an investigation into the company's permits with a report by May 23.

“Questions have been raised as to the appropriateness of this location for the uses planned by Blackwater and the means used by the company to acquire the necessary permits from the City,” the memo said.

“Specifically, allegations have been made that the company potentially used misleading names . . . to inappropriately disguise the true identity of the occupant.”

...

In March, San Diego's Development Services Department granted the permits for interior improvements at the Otay Mesa facility without public hearings. The site was zoned for a vocational school, and city staff members decided that Blackwater's training of Navy personnel qualified.

...

Blackwater, a North Carolina company, has leased a 61,600-square-foot building in a business park on Siempre Viva Road, three blocks from the U.S.-Mexico border...

We can just see Blackwater petitioning the City to allow their lil' military camp as a conditional use in the vocational school zone! Gosh, where will poor Blackwater locate? Perhaps to a town near you with NO ZONING?

Full article here.

A Message From Our Sponsors: Chaos

So, exactly where is the line between free speech and actively engaging in electoral interference? What our OxyContin-addled friend is telling people to do is illegal in some states (you can get your electoral interference tips on WXIT 1200 AM--for FREE!). And now, some possible evidence that his tactics are working, from CNN:

...

Because many Republicans believe Sen. John McCain, the Republican Party’s presumptive nominee, has a better chance of beating Clinton in the general election, Limbaugh has encouraged listeners to his popular radio show to vote for the New York senator. Limbaugh’s pro-Clinton campaign has been dubbed “Operation Chaos.”

Some exit polls from Ohio and Texas suggest that Limbaugh’s “Operation Chaos” may have had an impact on results in both states.

...

Sponsors who advertise on Limbaugh's show are, by association, actively damaging the democratic process. Really. As long as they profit though, everything will be just fine. Full article here.

Oh Blackwater, Keep On Rollin'...

With all due respect to Buckwheat and the Doobies...did you know that one of North Carolina's most profitable corporations is expanding? Hiring even! It's great to see this kind of entrepreneurial activity, especially in such tough economic times.

Mercenary, smershenary, any kind of private sector expansion is OTAY with us. Where do we go to fill out an application?

Ah, Blackwater Worldwide. They've got it goin' on in Otay Mesa, California. But don't ya know, they may be undone by the same government bureaucracy that they say is so harmful to the interests of business. Seems that when Blackwater filled out their application to build a 61,000 square foot facility on the U.S.-Mexican border, that they used the names of two of their subsidiaries--instead of the Blackwater Worldwide corporate name.

Here's an interview with Amy Goodman and Raymond Lutz, a San Diego resident:

...Blackwater received approval for the 61,000 square-foot indoor facility in Otay Mesa, California, by filing for permits using the names of two subsidiaries. It was only last week when San Diego officials learned Blackwater was behind the project.

The news comes just two months after local residents successfully blocked Blackwater from opening an 824-acre military complex known as Blackwater West in the rural hamlet of Potrero, California.

...

RAYMOND LUTZ: Well, I got the tip from an anonymous like yahoo.com email address person who said he was an ex-friend of a former Blackwater employee. He told me that this site was being put in and was ready to open. I drove down to check it out, and indeed I could see the ventilation equipment out the back of the building, which is apparently necessary for the indoor shooting range that they’re intending to put in. I went down to—and I checked all the news media at the time and everyone I could find. No one had heard anything about this.

They had secretly started this last September, about a month before our big rally out in Potrero. So the rally really had an effect. In other words, at that time, they were saying, “We’re throwing in the towel” on this other thing, but they weren’t letting the cat out of the bag, when in the process of filing these permits under the names Raven Development and Southwest Law Enforcement. And then, I understand that’s under a shell company out in Puerto Rico.

They went in calling this a vocational school. None of the permits, which I just saw last—yesterday at the Department of Planning of the City of San Diego, had any real notation on it about the fact that this is going to be—have an indoor shooting range and have firearms and so forth inside.

...

Anyway, this new facility that went in was absolutely under the radar. If we hadn’t been told about it, we wouldn’t have found out about it. I don’t know how many other places are going into across the nation, because it’s very hard to track them. They’re not using their real name.

Full transcript here. Somehow we just don't feel like singing any James Taylor tunes right now.

Let's Do This

Let's take the conservative/libertarian obsession with privatization of the public commons and deregulation to its natural conclusion, shall we? It can only be good, right?

Joe Conservative wakes up in the morning and goes to the bathroom. He flushes his toilet and brushes his teeth, mindful that each flush & brush costs him about 43 cents [from] his privatized water provider. His wacky, liberal neighbor keeps badgering the company to disclose how clean and safe their water is, but no one ever finds out. Just to be safe, Joe Conservative boils his drinking water.

Joe steps outside and coughs–the pollution is especially bad today, but the smokiest cars are the cheapest ones, so everyone buys ‘em. Joe Conservative checks to make sure he has enough toll money for the 3 different private roads he must drive to work. There is no public transportation, so traffic is backed up and his 10 mile commute takes an hour...

More here, from Thom Hartmann.

Weekend Audio/Video Salon: Diminishing Marginal Returns

Torture is known to yield intelligence of dubious value--that much is widely agreed upon. But we have not heard a whole lot of discussion in the mainstream media about the historical links between empires in decline and the use of torture. Wonder why?

If you don't feel up to watching the video, take a listen to the most recent edition of Against The Grain here. Marnia Lazreg (she appears in the video as well) has a new book out called Torture and the Twilight of Empire.