Web links related to the Back of the Book program of November 25, 2002


Egad! It's now Sunday night 12/8/2002 21:19:27 and I'm only finishing this Web page. I'm already getting the next one done! Well, we talked about fundamentalists, along with an enormous erosion of Fourth Amendment rights. On top of that we had the Pacifica Foundation Bylaws to talk about. Another mess. This page is done at last, better late than never — I hope!

Here is the latest on the saga of Pacifica. There was a big meeting of the interim Pacifica National Board September 20-22, in Houston, TX. It did NOT reach a decision on the bylaws of the Pacifica Foundation. They had another meeting for the purpose of dealing with bylaws in October and then they had another one over this past weekend November 22-24. And their final decision was to tell the Local Advisory Boards that it was up to them! All those meetings for that. This ought to all culminate in a big December iPNB meeting.

As we move into the next phase of the Pacifica Crisis there are various elements that would like to simply replace the previous group of hijackers with themselves and/or their pals. But some of us are more convinced than ever that only open elections will provide a long range cure for the Pacifica Crisis. Here's a link to the various election proposals. Here's the latest bylaws proposal, subject to change at a moment's notice, of course.

Here's the WBAI schedule. Don't blame me if it's not accurate, I didn't make it up I'm only relaying it. Here's a schedule made by a listener who has Web links for various programs and producers.

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 10:14 PM last night. The MP3 feed is now the preferred feed.

The Pacifica Foundation, which owns WBAI, has revamped its Web site and now has something called the Pacifica Lounge where you can post messages about Pacifica, WBAI and other Pacifica radio stations. This may be a good thing, and of course there are other, long term fora in which to participate.

An idiotic, dirt eating judge named Roy Moore from Alabama snuck a stele into the Alabama Supreme Courthouse in Montgomery, Alabama one night in August 2001. This object, known locally as “Roy's Rock” has the Ten Commandments carved on it. Clearly it's a violation of the separation of church and state. But Moore is Chief Justice of the Alabama Supreme Court and has used his political power to keep this thing in the lobby of the courthouse. It was paid for by a bunch of evangelists, and various nut cases show up on a daily basis to pray in front of it.

However, this past fortnight Judge Myron H. Thompson of Federal District Court in Montgomery has told this bozo Chief Justice to get that damned thing out of the courthouse, saying “This court holds that the evidence is overwhelming and the law is clear that the chief justice violated the Establishment Clause,” and that the offensive stele is, “nothing less than an obtrusive year-round religious display intended to proselytize on behalf of a particular religion, the chief justice's religion.”

Moore has 30 days to get the stinking stone out. Of course various Christian Fundamentalists, including the Christian Coalition of Alabama, are vowing to fight on to the Supreme Court if necessary.

Speaking of fundamentalists, the ones in Nigeria have been showing the world what they're really like after having driven the Miss World silliness out of the country.

Of course the good news is that the Nigerian Red Cross now says that the death toll is a mere 175 dead, as opposed to the earlier announcements that it had risen to 205 dead.

All this over an article by Isioma Daniel in a newspaper named ThisDay which contained the sentence, “What would Muhammad think? In all honesty, he would probably have chosen a wife from among them.” and, given that Mohammed actually forced one his sons to divorce his wife so that Mohammed could marry her, he might have done just that.

Ah well, it's organized superstition on parade.

We also have the U.S. government getting ready to destroy all privacy and possibly harass and violate the rights of many people.

This after a ruling by the federal “Spy Court” that they can mingle criminal and intelligence operations and pretty much do as they please.

And of course we got mail. Some mail people didn't want read on the air, and we got a card from Martha From Queens, but here are a couple of E-mails that we did read on the air.

Subject: Gun fights + Susan From Long Island
Date: Mon, 11 Nov 2002 02:54:47 EST
From: Stan from Long Island
To: rpm@glib.com

The gunfight subject is closed but take a nano-second and think about this. If the distance was 7 feet and the two shooters had their arms stretched out, the pistols would pass each other. You have never seen a gunfight like that.

I know that you have a listener named Susan from Long Island. Years ago she sent you a package. for over a year you did not open it. I got so angry at you that I stopped listening to the show ......Stan from Long Island

Ah, well, my patented on-air strategy of pissing off the listeners seems to be working. Good grief.

Subject: Constituency Model
Date: Thu, 14 Nov 2002 18:24:20 EST
From: Dan
To: rpm@glib.com

Dear R. Paul and Pickles of the North:
I hope you are both doing well. I'm probably asleep as you're reading this right now (I'm the 14-year old kid who wrote to you back in August, and yes, much like your listener who began listening when he was 12, I do think you are a very intelligent renaissance man), so I hope you will recognize this and post a short response on your website. Today (14 November 2002) on Wake-Up Call, Bernard White and other discussed the constituency model, saying that there should be proportional representation to make sure that all groups were represented and that no group could “hijack”? the network again. You have expressed your views that you think anyone should be able to run. What is your response to the view that if we have completely open elections, we will once again get people who have alternative motives that will be damaging to the network? While the current board's model might not be “fair”? in the truest sense of the word, doesn't it act as a necessary protective measure?

On a lighter note, I wish you and Pickles good health and happiness.

Sincerely,
Dan

Well, I certainly did go on about this on the air. The “Constituency Model” which I prefer to call the Listener-sponsor Disenfranchisement Model, is basically about some folks at WBAI picking their pals and themselves to be permanently in charge and on the air. It tells the people who send money to WBAI that they are just not good enough to be allowed to vote on the issues of who will run and even legally own, WBAI and its parent Pacifica Foundation.

I'm glad to say that the “Constituency Model” got finally defeated at the iPNB meeting of December 6-8, 2002. And I'll have more to say about this on the next program.

There are a lot of issues that are considered hazardous to 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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The contents of this Web page and subsequent Web pages on this site are copyright © 2002, R. Paul Martin