Web links related to the Back of the Book program of May 10, 2004

It's Sunday evening 5/23/2004 20:02:26 and this Web page is finished.

The Pacifica Foundation, which owns WBAI and four other radio stations, has started to re-make itself. WBAI has already had several Local Station Board meetings. The next WBAI LSB meeting will be held Thursday, May 20th, at 6:30 PM at the Musicians Union, 322 W. 48th St., NYC. Public Comment included. Wheelchair-accessible. (#1, C or E trains to 50th St.) The public is invited to attend, and you can even record the proceedings if you want.

WBAI now has a program schedule up on its Web site. The site has gotten many of the individual program pages together to provide links and such, so check it out.

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Our colleagues from Off the Hook now have both a RealAudio streaming web cast operating, and a new MP3 stream. The MP3 feed is now the preferred feed.

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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.

WBAI also has a forum on its Web site now. You have to register to post messages, but anyone may read the messages.

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The Middle Third is here! The Middle third is the four months of May, June, July and August, which I always think of as the best months of the year. Enjoy the weather!

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Of course I talked about this terrible situation where prisoners have been tortured in Iraq. The idea that the only people who should be prosecuted are the privates and specialists who have been indicted so far is absurd! Privates and specialists do not order the military around. Whether or not they were given direct orders to do what they did the higher ups allowed the atmosphere to obtain in which the troops brutalized and mistreated prisoners.

When you give people ultimate power over a small number of others and then lead them to believe that they will not be held accountable for their actions you get what's been happening in Abu Ghraib. You get to know about people when you put them in that sort of situation. You never know what you're going to do yourself if you've never been in such a situation.

There are people high up in the chain of command who need to be held accountable for what has happened in the Iraq prison.

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We got to some of the mail on this program. We read some snail mail, which doesn't go on the Web page, and some E-mail which does. Here are the E-mails.

Well, I got off, all right, but it was for another reason.

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There are a lot of issues that are considered hazardous to talk about on the air at WBAI, even now that the gag rule has been lifted. However, there is the Internet! There are mailing lists which you can subscribe to and Web based message boards devoted to WBAI and Pacifica issues. Many controversial WBAI/Pacifica issues are discussed on these lists.

Probably the most popular 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 and official announcements are frequently posted there.

You can look at the NewPacifica list here, and you can join the list from that Web page too. If you subscribe to the “NewPacifica” mailing list you will receive, via E-mail, all of the messages which are sent to that list.

There is the option to receive a “digest” version of the list, which means that a bunch of messages are bundled into one E-mail and sent to you at regular intervals, this cuts down on the number of E-mails you get from the list. You will also be able to send messages to the list.

This list also has a Web based interface where you can read messages and from which you can post your own messages.

There is also the more WBAI specific “Goodlight” Web based message board. It is sometimes referred to on Back of the Book as “the bleepin' blue board,” owing to the blue background used on its Web pages. This one has many people posting anonymously and there's also an ancillary “WBAI people” board that's just totally out of hand.

When the computer in Master Control is working we sometimes have live interaction with people posting on the “Goodlight Board” during the program.

And then there is the historic “Free Pacifica!” list, which has been used to help organize resistance to Pacifica Management hijackers since the mid-90s. It's become a low volume mailing list because it's been eclipsed by some of the newer, more technologically advanced, lists. Just click on this link and follow the instructions, and you'll be subscribed. This is a mailing list only, it doesn't have a digest option nor does it have a web interface.

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