Back of the Book links for the 12/13/99 program

On the program I mentioned the upcoming holidays and getting a contact high from them while ignoring the superstitious crap and incessantly stated directive to buy everything you see. It's a good idea. Many humans are badly affected by the short and frequently gloomy days we get at this time of year, so festive lighting and whatever can buck up your spirits is probably medicinal.

I've also mentioned several times that Pickles of the North has been waging guerilla actions against that North Pole oppressor named Santa Claus. Looks like Santa's in deep doo doo now!

On the last program I mentioned this guy Mike Z's problems with the FBI harassing him and getting his web site taken down because he had a tape up there that they didn't like.

Well, the FBI has stopped now and you can see his video on his Web site. According to a follow up article in the Village Voice, the FBI's official statement on this violation of the First and Fourth Amendments of the Constitution is, “Our initial objective in looking into the thing was to determine, not was this something that might generate fear or panic, but was it something that was a record of a plan to carry out a riot,” and now they're not pursuing it anymore. This just doesn't sound right to me. Isn't the FBI, and all law enforcement, supposed to investigate before taking action? In my lexicon investigating means you find out the facts first. So I'm still wondering what the hell went on here? Why did the FBI really threaten Mike Z and coerce his ISP into removing his Web site?

While it's not exactly definitive and sweeping, a ruling by a Federal judge, predictably in Utah, has endangered some aspects of linking, which is the life blood of the Web.

Sandra and Jerald Tanner, the folks who've been squelched in this action, are themselves peddling a rival superstition, but at least they're not preventing anyone else from having their say. They have their own page about this ruling, complete with all of the court documents.

On the air I said that this action of the Mormon Church was a lot like what the Scientologists do. And this also seems to have been the impression gathered by one of the people who has a site dedicated to fighting the Scientologists! He's based in Australia, so he can laugh at the Utah Federal Court's ruling. He has a take on this subject, along with links to mirror sites that now contain the texts that the Federal Court ordered removed from the Tanner's site. View them while you can though, this court action is still rolling through cyberspace.

If this ruling gets upheld and applied to the entire nation, it could even affect this Web site, since I link to things that some folks would rather I didn't link to sometimes. In any case, the resistance that's showing up is very heartening, and shows the power of free people taking up the cause of free speech.

It now looks like New York City will not experience another transit strike this week. The main reason for this is that New York City Mayor Giuliani got Justice Michael Pesce of the State Supreme Court in Brooklyn, to go even further than the punitive measures of the anti-labor “Taylor Law” (aka Civil Service Law, Article 14) and issue a restraining order that would fine the Transportation Workers' Union $1,000,000 a day for a strike, and would fine individual workers $25,000 a day for a strike, slowdown or any other job action. The fine for individual workers would double to $50,000 for the second day and an additional $100,000 for a third day, and so on. Obviously these are fines that no working class person could ever endure, so this is really a gun to the heads of the workers. There is even the threat that Judge Pesce would jail workers he deemed to be taking part in a job action.

There is a dissident faction within TWU Local 100 called “New Directions” which wants a more militant stand against the Mayor, and which held a large solidarity demonstration on December 15^th. They are urging the rank and file membership to reject the new Contract, but they are generally not given much hope of getting it rejected.

Mayor Giuliani has put 3,000 extra police on duty to watch for any job actions by transit workers. The cops are supposed to arrest any transit workers they believe aren't working hard enough and bring them to Judge Pesce for imposition of immediate fines and possible imprisonment.

I've been through the New York City transit strikes of 1966, and 1980, and I've not been terribly effected by them due to happenstance. The 1966, strike lasted 13 days, and Mayor Lindsay made a dumb speech after it. I was actually laid up, recovering from an emergency appendectomy during this strike and didn't get affected at all since I couldn't go anyplace anyway. In 1980, the strike lasted 11 days, but my male ex had a car and we just used it to go everywhere. This time I would be directly effected, however, since I'm not an invalid and I have no car.

Spam is a constant problem, not only for those of us who receive it (a subject I could do ten programs on!) but also for those who are “spoofed” so that others thing they've sent it. The New York Times has an interesting story of one of the victims of spoofing by a spam-meister. There are links to some anti-spam sites at the end of this article.

So here's some of the mail I read on the air. I'm posting the words to the song below only because I can't post the audio files he sent due to lack of room on my site. But the “campaign poster” is small enough that I'm putting it up — for now.

Subject: George W. Bush: The Right's Tarred Tangled Banana
Date: Fri, 24 Sep 1999 08:04:27 -0700
From: " " <democrat1@my-deja.com>
To: rpm@glib.com

Hello R. Paul

You may play both songs on your program if you like.

Democrat1

Ladies and Gentlemen please stand for

George W. Bush

The Right's Tarred Tangled Banana

O say, can you see, that George Bush leans to the Right,

And so grandly he'll fail and the Right's just dreaming.

Whose broad stripes and bright stars, which they like to hide behind.

The last resort of a scoundrel: Superpatriotism.

And the conservatives mad glare as their campaign bursts in air,

Gave proof that the Right, has no there there.

O say, does that star-spangled banner yet wave

For our land to remain free, don't vote for that Knave.

ROFL

Subject: Take a look at this campaign button :)
Date: Tue, 28 Sep 1999 13:03:46 -0700
From: " " <democrat1@my-deja.com>
To: rpm@glib.com

Hello RPM

Do you suppose that if George Bush wins the Republican nomination for President would he then propose a ticket of

George Cocaine and John McCain 2000 :)

Hehe I can just see the campaign buttons made up now :)

Can someone make some and pass them around? :)

I have enclosed a picture of what it could look like. :)

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.

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.