Web links related to the Back of the Book program of June 10, 2002


Good grief! It's Sunday afternoon 6/23/2002 13:38:00 and I'm only just getting this Web page done! I was glad that the transmitter didn't go down again during this program! I talked about the FBI and the way it did things in the past and will probably do things again soon. I also talked about several other things but I only read a single piece of snail mail on this program, so there are no E-mails to append to this page. It was an ambitious program. I've updated this page, and the ancillary pages about the FBI, including making the actual FBI file pages smaller so that they'll load more rapidly, and they work in all browsers now. Please do take a look at the pages with the transcriptions of the FBI files, they've got some interesting information, even if it is 30 years old!

Here is the latest on the saga of Pacifica. I have updated that page with stuff about the recent meeting of the interim Pacifica National Board in Los Angeles, CA, along with a couple of other items.

As we move into the next phase of the Pacifica Crisis some listeners are more convinced than ever that only open elections will provide a long range cure for the Pacifica Crisis. Here's an election proposal.

Our colleagues from Off the Hook now have both a RealAudio streaming web cast operating, and a new MP3 stream both of which were working at about 10:16 PM last night. The MP3 feed is now the preferred feed.

There are a number of astronomical events happening in the next fortnight.

There will be an annular eclipse of the Sun on Monday, June 10, but it will not be visible from the WBAI listening area, although some Internet listeners will be able to see it.

The Summer solstice will occur on Friday, June 21, at 9:24 AM (EDT).

There will be a penumbral Lunar eclipse on Monday June 24, starting around 4:30 PM (EDT) and reaching maximum at 5:42 PM (EDT). This will be observable from the WBAI listening area.

In another blow for the First Amendment a Federal Court has ruled that the law requiring libraries to filter Internet content on thier computers or lose Federal money is unconstitutional!

There's a case in the courts now that may determine who can sue whom and where when it comes to libel allegations on the Internet.

There is a new browser out. It's called Mozilla 1.0. Well, it's new in terms of release date. Folks have been working on this thing for more than four years now. This is an “open source” browser, which means that the source code for it (source code is the stuff that programmers write which is then turned into the program you run) is available to everyone, as opposed to proprietary source code, which most companies have, which is known only to a select few in that company. Mozilla 1.0 shares some of its source code with Netscape.

I've been experimenting with it and there are some good things about this new browser. It's not perfect, but in some cases it's better than either Netscape or Microsoft Internet Explorer. Also, it's being made by volunteers who are themselves using it, so you know that they'll want to correct bugs rather than having higher ups telling them not to bother.

I recommend that you download it and give it a try and thereby add another combatant to the “Browser Wars,” which Microsoft figures it has already won due to its unfair business practices. I doubt if it will become your only browser just yet, but you should certainly add it as your second or third browser. It's good to have a choice.

I talked about the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Gay Activists Alliance (GAA) on this program.

In the aftermath of the September 11th, attacks the best Congress money can buy passed the so called “Patriot Act” in great haste, and we'll probably be paying for this for years to come, or maybe for the rest of our lives.

That no good creep Attorney General John Ashcroft has decided to reward the FBI for its inability to function by removing the checks and balances that had been imposed on it after its crimes against civil liberties of the '60s and '70s.

I talked about the FBI of the 1970s. In fact I was talking about an FBI whose big name Director, J. Edgar Hoover, had just died.

I read from some documents obtained years ago through the Freedom of Information Act. These documents are the FBI file on the Gay Activists Alliance. I talked about flaky informants and other bizarre things the FBI was believing about GAA. I also announced that I'm embarking on a project to make all of the FBI files on GAA available on this Web site. This is a work in progress, so you'll be able to see it grow in terms of organization and commentary. I think it'll take me a couple of months to get this all done. I've put up a page with all of the FBI stuff I read on this program. In my opinion, it is essential for each of us to defend our civil rights. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has issued a pamphlet called Know Your Rights! in many languages. You can download this pamphlet for free from the ACLU.

There are a lot of issues that we can't talk about on the air at WBAI. But there is an Internet list called “Free Pacifica!” which you can subscribe to, and these issues are discussed there. If you subscribe to it you will receive, via E-mail, all of the messages which are sent to that list. You will also be able to send messages to the list.

If you want to subscribe to the “Free Pacifica!” list just click on this link and follow the instructions, and you'll be subscribed. Could open your eyes a little bit.

The above list has occasionally produced a high volume of E-mail because of the attention that these issues have drawn. If you would prefer to subscribe to a low volume list that only provides announcements of events related to these issues then subscribe to the FreePac mailing list.

Another list that's sprung up is the “NewPacifica” mailing list. This one is very lively and currently includes over 400 subscribers coast to coast. Being lively, of course, it sometimes also gets a bit nasty. All sorts of things are happening on this list. With that warning in mind, you can look at the NewPacifica list here, and you can join the list from that Web page too, although you'll have to deal with Yahoo! to do so.

There is also the more WBAI specific “Goodlight” Web based message board. This one has a great many people posting anonymously and there's also an ancillary board that's just totally out of hand.

The “Goodlight” Web based message board has expanded to cover all Pacifica stations.

My voice mail number at WBAI is 212-209-2996. Leave a message.

You can also send me E-mail.



WBAI related links

Free Pacifica Web site

WBAI Listeners' Web page

WBAI Management's official Web site


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