Kansas Equality Rally

Community Bridge opens this week with Tom Witt, President of the Kansas Equality Coalition, for a discussion of the upcoming equality march and rally at the state Capitol on August 6th. The rally is being called in response to Sam Brownback's hijacking our state government for his own agenda and his efforts to hijack as well the First Amendment rights of all Kansans who disagree with him by treating opposition groups differently than those who support his imperial governorship. Then we will hear a short clip from the Best of the Left podcast and close out the hour with Lynne Davy from the Riley County Humane Society.

Additional Resources/Links:

Sam Brownback downplays his involvement in creepy prayer rally, by David Martin, The Pitch, August 2, 2011.

Critics blast Brownback for attending prayer day hosted by ‘inhumane’ anti-gay groups, by Scott Rothschild, Lawrence Journal World, August 2, 2011.

Brownback Stops Gay Rights Group From Flying Rainbow Flag, by Christina, Plucky Magazine, July 26, 2011.

Dissent Is Patriotic: 1st Amendment, Freedom and Equality!, by Kari Ann Rinkner, Kansas Free Press, July 15, 2011.

Gay rights group protests Gov's trip, by Fredrick Johnson, Topeka Capitol Journal, June 24, 2011.

Kansas NOW sends complaint to Brownback, by Tim Carpenter, Topeka Capitol Journal, June 13, 2011.

Kansas NOW delivers $4,000 worth of miniature tires to Rep. Pete DeGraaf for his rape comments, by Peter Rug, The Pitch, June 3, 2011.

Exposing the American Legislative Exchange Council

In our second hour, Christopher Renner connects with journalist Beau Hodai for a discussion of the American Legislative Exchange Council. What Is ALEC? They meet in secret. They write our laws. And they want to silence the American people.

On March 15th, University of Wisconsin Professor Bill Cronon posted a study guide on his blog on the history and actions of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC). He asked: What is behind the “sudden and impressively well-organized” wave of right-wing legislation targeting workers, students, women, immigrants, and the environment in state legislatures? He found that all roads led to ALEC.

ALEC is a conservative think-tank run by right-wing politicians and corporate and financial interests within the banking industry, the pharmaceutical industry, the big oil and gas industries, and others. They are aligned to many right-wing and conservative interests, including the election-manipulating Koch Industries. ALEC is funded by the Koch brothers to promote an agenda that curbs individual liberties, attacks unions, the social safety net and seeks to insure that corporations pay no taxes, but benefit from all sorts of tax-payer dollars in return. Much of the legislation passed in the during the 2011 Kansas Legislative session was ALEC inspired, including cuts to public education, the "administrative reforms" Governor Brownback has imposed on the state, and Kris Kobach's Voter ID bill.

Additional Links/Resources:

ALEC Exposed, website - a project of the Center for Media and Democracy.

Publicopoly Exposed: How ALEC, the Koch brothers and their corporate allies plan to privatize government, Beau Hodai, In These Times, August 2011.

Corporate Con Game: How the private prison industry helped shape Arizona’s anti-immigrant law, Beau Hodai, In These Times, June 19, 2010.

ALEC Exposed, John Nicholas, The Nation, July 12, 2011. 

ALEC Exposed: The Koch Connection, Lisa Graves, The Nation, July 12, 2011.

ALEC Bills in Wisconsin, Mary Bottari, PR Watch, July 14, 2011.

The Latest Threat to Health Care, Andres Grimes, MS Magazine Blog, July 15, 2011.

ALEC Exposed: State Legislative Bills Drafted by Secretive Corporate-Lawmaker Coalition, Democracy Now!, July 15, 2011.

Billy Bragg website.

ACTION ALERT: Stop ALEC's end run around the law

From Common Cause:
The American Legislative Exchange Council is a secretive front group of hundreds of corporations that are investing millions of dollars a year to write business-friendly legislation at the expense of the middle class.

ALEC has drafted more than 800 model bills for state legislators, including efforts to privatize everything from schools to prisons, to weaken workers' rights, and to make it more difficult for citizens to vote. They even wrote a resolution in support of the horrendous Citizens United decision, which opened the floodgates for corporate money in our elections.

Worse, they are lobbying in state capitals across the country, all while claiming to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) that they are a charitable organization. That means that their corporate backers can take a tax deduction by giving money to ALEC to – guess what? – push for more tax breaks and less regulation for their companies!

Under the law, charities are allowed to lobby, up to certain limits, and they must disclose what they spend on that lobbying work. ALEC's annual filings state that they have engaged in zero lobbying activity.

Tell the IRS to launch an immediate investigation into whether ALEC is committing tax fraud. 

April 28 - David Solnit on Social Activitism

David Solnit first became involved in creating change in high school when he joined a campaign to abolish draft registration. Since then, the California-based carpenter, activist, and puppeteer, has been on the frontlines of direct action, protesting the US role in Central America in the 1980s, free trade deals and the WTO in the 1990s, and, more recently, the US intervention in Iraq.

Solnit is a co-founder of Art and Revolution, a loose-knit collective that combines art and theater with direct action. This creativity-with-a-purpose stands in a colorful tradition of theatrical dissent from the Diggers, the Yippies, and the French Situationists of the 1960s. Solnit and his predecessors subvert the system by pointing to alternatives,  using blatant contrast they show how fundamentally flawed the “normal” state of affairs  truly is.

Solnit was in Manhattan earlier this month to conduct a workshop on social action and to speak at the Manhattan Alliance for Peace and Justice annual meeting. I spoke with him on April 8th here in the KSDB studio.

Related articles:
David Solnit Stands Up For Protest, Yes! Magazine
The Battle for Reality, Yes! Magazine
David Solnit and The Art of Protest, Aid and Abet
David Solnit and The Arts of Change, Journal of Aesthetics and Protest
People Power: An Interview With David Solnit, Mother Jones

MP3 File

Clippings for 5 August 2010

Six Charts That Suggest the Unemployment Crisis is WORSE than It Looks
The Huffington Post reports: "If today's uninspiring data on the mounting jobs crisis isn't enough to convince you of how difficult it will be to turn employment situation around, we've gathered some graphical evidence of just how bad it is out there."

Recommended Audio: GRITtv - Welcome to Recovery for the Rich
Laura Flanders writes: "Welcome to the recovery. That's what Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner wrote in the New York Times this week. And such good news! We've all been waiting to be told that the economy was improving, after all. Consider: Conan O'Brien, surely one of the nation's most famous unemployed folks, just made $25 million, one of the highest prices paid for a Manhattan apartment this year. Someone's buying—even if they got a bit of a break. The apartment was originally listed for $29.5 million!"



Food Stamps or Teachers?
Katrina vanden Heuvel writes for The Nation: "The GOP midterm election strategy is clear: stubbornly oppose anything and everything that might improve the economy and bank on voters to blame Democrats for these tough times come November. There is perhaps no clearer sign of the poisonous political environment this stance has created than the battle to pass a $26 billion package to help states and local governments make Medicaid payments and avoid laying off 140,000 teachers. The only way Majority Leader Harry Reid was able to break a Republican filibuster was with offsets largely through—if you can believe it—$12 billion in cuts to food stamps."

Deficit Scare Talk Is a Big Scam by Corporations and Right-Wingers; The Problem Is Not Enough Good-Paying Jobs
Joshua Holland writes for AlterNet: "The Great Recession doesn’t exist in Washington, DC. Six of the 10 wealthiest counties in the U.S. are in the DC metropolitan area, and according to Gallup’s Economic Confidence Index, citizens of the nation’s capitol are the most optimistic in the country, far more positive about the economy than the rest of America. It’s understandable -- the private sector simply isn’t hiring; public spending has averted a second Great Depression, and the spigot is located in the District."

Shifting War Strategy Smacks of Desperation

William Pfaff writes for Truthdig.com: "The first decision made by Gen. David Petraeus, the successor to Gen. Stanley McChrystal as commandant of international forces in Afghanistan, has been to abandon the policy he himself drafted in order to win the war and rebuild Afghan stability and government." Photo: U.S. Air Force / Staff Sgt. Bradley Lail

Whose Hands? Whose Blood? Killing Civilians in Afghanistan and Iraq
Tom Engelhardt, TomDispatch: "Consider the following statement offered by Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, at a news conference last week. He was discussing Julian Assange, the founder of Wikileaks as well as the person who has taken responsibility for the vast, still ongoing Afghan War document dump at that site.

"You Need to Know What's Really Going On": WikiLeaks Founder Julian Assange on the Fight for the Truth

Ron Synovitz and Christopher Schwartz report for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (via AlterNet): "Julian Assange, the founder of the whistle-blower website WikiLeaks, says his work is based on the "ancient vision" of uncovering the truth. And he says sources would rather turn over their information to him than to traditional news outlets because he can protect them better. Assange spoke with Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty's Ron Synovitz and Christopher Schwartz on July 27 by phone from London." Photo: AFP/File - Leon Neal

Recommended Audio: John Stewart - I Give Up - 9/11 Responders Bill
Despite Anthony Weiner's passion and a clear majority, the House Republicans defeat a bill providing health care for 9/11 first responders.

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
I Give Up - 9/11 Responders Bill
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Tea Party

Our Sick System Still Needs Triage
Bill Boyarsky writes for Truthdig.com: "Attending a meeting on the new health care law, I had to fight the urge to stand up and beg the experts to stop. They were making the issue too complicated. At this rate, nobody will be able to understand what the law will do. And this may be the fatal flaw of the ambitious program. The law is too complex for the public to understand unless President Barack Obama somehow finds a better way to explain it."

The Dark Side of Vitaminwater

John Robbins reports for the Huffington Post: "Now here's something you wouldn't expect. Coca-Cola is being sued by a non-profit public interest group, on the grounds that the company's vitaminwater products make unwarranted health claims. No surprise there. But how do you think the company is defending itself? In a staggering feat of twisted logic, lawyers for Coca-Cola are defending the lawsuit by asserting that 'no consumer could reasonably be misled into thinking vitaminwater was a healthy beverage.'"

Are the Corporate Money Floodgates About to Open?

Suzy Khimm writes for Mother Jones: "In the months immediately following the Supreme Court's Citizens United ruling, corporations seemed to be sitting on the sidelines instead of delving directly into the campaign finance free-for-all that the decision opened up. Instead, it was labor unions that leapt to take advantage of the lifted restrictions, outspending corporations on independent campaign ads by nearly threefold in the first six months of 2010. But now there's mounting evidence that some of the nation's most visible and powerful corporations have entered the fray." Photo: Flickr/Tracy Olson

DeMint Tries To Rewrite History: ‘This Was Not Bush’s Recession’
Alex Seitz-Wald writes for Think Progress: "During a lengthy speech on the Senate floor yesterday about his opposition to the confirmation of Elana Kagan to the Supreme Court, Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC) went on a tangent, claiming the ongoing economic downturn “was not Bush’s recession” but was a “result of Democrat economic polices..."

The Neo-Know Nothings

Faiz Shakir, Amanda Terkel, Matt Corley, Benjamin Armbruster, Zaid Jilani, Alex Seitz-Wald, Tanya Somanader write the Progress Report for Think Progress: "In the heat of the fiery debate over Arizona's anti-immigrant law SB-1070, a new attack on immigrant rights is burgeoning within the Republican Party. On Monday, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) joined a growing number of GOP policymakers seeking to review or revoke the citizenship clause of 14th Amendment of the Constitution, which states that "all persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States." While the call to revoke this birthright citizenship was traditionally confined to fringe political parties and right-wing demagogues, the rising call to repeal the amendment is becoming a mantra of the Republican mainstream. But in championing reform of birthright citizenship, Republican lawmakers are directly undermining "revered U.S. constitutional traditions" and reversing "one of our nation's unique achievements, embodied in the current president and many others: that descent does not mean destiny."

The GOP’s Agenda To Change The Constitution

Ian Millhiser reports for Think Progress: "Since President Obama took office, Republicans have shrouded their agenda of opposition by wrapping it in the flag and the Constitution. Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) even went so far as to label her radical anti-government views “constitutional conservatism.” Yet, for all of their constitutional pablum, the GOP’s agenda is nothing less than a direct assault on America’s founding document. Time and time again, Republicans have called for basic constitutional freedoms and fundamental aspects of our constitutional government to be repealed either by amendment or by activist judges..."

Sarah Palin and Newt Gingrich Need a History Lesson
Joe Conason writes for Truthdig.com: "No recent controversy has so plainly revealed the hollow values of the American right than the effort to prevent the construction of a community center in Lower Manhattan because it will include a mosque. Arguments in opposition range from a professed concern for the sensitivities of the Sept. 11 victims’ families to a primitive battle cry against Islam—but what they all share is an arrant disregard for our country’s founding principles."

Tea Partiers Who Got Rich off Big Government

John Avlon reports for The Daily Beast: "One uses taxpayer money to rail against taxes, another’s tainted by Medicaid fraud, a third secretly pocketed thousands from a government contract. John Avlon on three candidates making a mockery of the movement’s message. Hypocrisy, the unforgivable sin in politics, is threatening to cast a shadow over the Tea Party. The movement built its momentum by rallying citizens against out-of-control government spending. But now a handful of self-funded gubernatorial candidates are undercutting its message because they got rich off government programs." Photo: From left to right: Georgia gubernatorial candidate Nathan Deal, Florida gubernatorial candidate Rick Scott and New York gubernatorial candidate Carl Paladino. (AP Photo)

Scientists Cast Doubt on Claims BP Spill's No Threat to Gulf
Erika Bolstad, Renee Schoof and Margaret Talev report for McClatchy Newspapers: "Many scientists say they're skeptical of a widely publicized government report Wednesday that concludes much of the oil that gushed from BP's leaking well is gone and poses little threat to the Gulf of Mexico."

Raising the Stakes on Gay Marriage

Eugene Robinson comments for Truthout: "The 14th Amendment is a mighty sword, and U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker used it Wednesday to flay and shred all the specious arguments -- and I mean all of them -- that are used to deny full marriage rights to gay and lesbian Americans. Bigotry has suffered a grievous blow. Walker found that California's Proposition 8, which sought to ban gay marriage in the state, violated not one but two of the amendment's clauses -- those guaranteeing due process, and equal protection under the law. By deciding the case on constitutional grounds, and by crafting such a detailed and comprehensive ruling, Walker all but guaranteed that the issue will eventually reach the Supreme Court."

Same-Sex Marriage Is Now a 2010 Issue
John Nichols writes for The Nation: "Same-sex marriage, an on-and-off issue in election campaign seasons going back to the mid-1990s, is back with a vengeance for the 2010 cycle.  But, this time, it could play very differently—if Democrats and responsible Republicans choose to recognize the arguments for marriage equality that the judge of the Federal District Court in San Francisco outlined when he struck down California's Proposition 8."

How Disney Magic and the Corporate Media Shape Youth Identity in the Digital Age

Henry Giroux and Grace Pollock, Truthout: "While the 'empire of consumption' has been around for a long time, American society in the last 30 years has undergone a sea change in the daily lives of children - one marked by a major transition from a culture of innocence and social protection, however imperfect, to a culture of commodification." Illustration: Jared Rodriguez / t r u t h o u t

Possible Verizon-Google Deal Worries Net-Neutrality Advocates
Deb Weinstein reports for Truthout: "A rumored deal between cellphone service provider Verizon Wireless and Internet giant Google that would give preferential speeds to Google properties such as YouTube on mobile devices has net neutrality advocates on edge. Details of the agreement, as first reported by The New York Times, has thrown net neutrality advocates in a tailspin. By creating a two-tier Internet system, advocates say it not only exploits mobile users trapped in service agreements, but also works around years of wrangling over what constitutes a fair playing field on the Internet."

Genachowski’s Fast Fading Star — And How He Can Still Salvage His Term As Chairman

Harold at Webmachine writes: "There’s a phrase I hear a lot these days. Sometimes I hear it from angry folks, muttering under their breath. Some say it sheepishly, with a trace of embarrassment to find themselves saying it. Some pass it off as a joke. The phrase? “I never thought I’d miss Kevin Martin, but . . . .” No one can doubt that Julius Genachowski has emerged as the absolute opposite of Kevin Martin. Unfortunately, this includes a stunning inability to make decisions, combined with an ability to generate his own political opposition by dithering. This does not simply apply to the current fight over FCC broadband authority. It applies to everything, including what was supposed to be his big signature issue from the National Broadband Plan — getting 500 MHz of spectrum available for broadband.  A perusal of the last year of FCC orders and Commission meetings shows a non-stop stream of reports, studies, and proposed rulemakings. The only actual orders involve things so non-controversial and trivial that they hardly constitute tweaks. It does not help that Genachowski manages to give every impression that while he enjoys jetting about to industry conferences and rubbing elbows with the media elite, he does not appear very interested in actually doing the work of Chairman." Photo: Mark Wilson/Getty Images North America

Genachowski, Man Up! And Silicon Valley, Wake Up!
Stacy Higginbotham writes for GigaOm: "The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) just called off the “closed door” network neutrality negotiations it was conducting between major ISPs, Google, Skype and the Open Internet Coalition, after news broke Wednesday afternoon that Google and Verizon had reached an independent deal on the issue outside of the FCC negotiations. The end of these talks, which had been roundly criticized because they were being held in secret, may be a sign of hope for the FCC to push ahead with the public debate. However, it’s more likely another example of how powerless the agency has become."

FCC Gives Up on Brokering Compromise on 'Net Neutrality'

Jennifer Martinez reports for the Los Angeles Times: "Federal regulators are giving up efforts to negotiate a compromise between Web companies and Internet service providers over so-called net neutrality rules intended to prevent discrimination in the way online traffic is treated.  The Federal Communications Commission said Thursday it would no longer try brokering a deal among various phone, cable TV and Internet companies, saying that weeks of talks had not 'generated a robust framework to preserve openness and freedom of the Internet.'"

Fox New Has an African-American Problem
Karl Frish writes for the Huffington Post: " Last night, Fox News' Greta Van Susteren apologized for airing file footage of Shirley Sherrod while discussing a story about African-American Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA). As Media Matters' noted, not only is this not the first time Fox News has made such a mistake, it also fails the network's self-described "zero tolerance" policy for onscreen/factual errors:

Van Susteren didn't mention the error during her show last night, though she later apologized for it on her blog. But let's not forget: Fox has a stated "zero tolerance" policy for onscreen or factual errors. And it's worth repeating that, despite this policy, Fox has repeatedly refused to correct previous "mistakes."
This also isn't the first time Fox News has inadvertently shown footage of one African-American while discussing another. As Media Matters has noted, in June 2007, Fox News showed footage of Rep. John Conyers during a report on the expected indictment of Rep. William Jefferson. In 2006, Fox aired footage of Harold Ford Jr. while talking about Barack Obama."

Big Brother on the Net
Eliza Krigman writes for the National Journal: "Advertisers and companies are tracking individuals' behavior on the Internet in significantly more depth and detail than most people are aware of, a new study conducted by the Wall Street Journal found. On average, the nation's 50 top Web sites installed 64 pieces of tracking technology onto the computers of visitors, often with no warning. Dictionary.com, Comcast.net and MSN.com installed more than 100 tracking tools each during the Journal's test. Small programs and files known as "cookies," "flash cookies" and "beacons" do the tracking work."

July 15 Pt 2 - An Interview with Michael Ramsdell

For our second hour we welcome director Michael Ramsdell in a discussion of his film Anatomy of Hate; Dialogue of Hope, which screened earlier this spring here in Manhattan. The film reveals the shared narratives found in individual and collective ideologies of hate, and how we as a species can overcome them. The DVD is available for check out from the Manhattan Public Library.

Ramsdell states: "Standing amidst anti-gay picketers and Nazi rallies, dodging stones and rubber bullets in the West Bank, riding combat patrols outside of Baghdad, and working amidst the bodies of dying and deceased soldiers in the CASH, I was provided the opportunity to explore humanity's inclusionary and exclusionary divisions to a significant degree. What I found was, for me, life changing."

MP3 File

KONZ - Flint Hills Community Radio

We open our show with a discussion of the northern Flint Hills new radio station, KONZ - Flint Hills Community Radio with Linda Teener, Debbie Nuss, and Jon Tveite.  They discuss how this possiblity came about, what programming will look like, and what you can do to be part of this exciting effort. Then we hear this week's installment of "The Breakdown" with Chris Hayse.

MP3 File

Clippings for 2 May 2010

Recommended Audio: Bill Moyers Interviews Jim Hightower

Jim Hightower's homepage lists him as "America's #1 Populist" and he likes to be known for his actions as a "populist agitator." Hightower wants America to regain the strength of those populist agitators who fought corporate power in the late 19th century:

"We owe them imitation. We owe them the continuation of that spirit that we do not have to just accept what is handed to us. We can battle back against the powers. But it's not just going to a rally and shouting. It's organizing and it's thinking. And reaching out to others. And building a real people's movement."

The Mainstream Media Doesn’t Know Sh*t About Securities Law or the Goldman Case
Damien Hoffman of Wall St. Cheat Sheet writes: "Last week Barry Ritholtz had an excellent post 10 Things You Don’t Know (or were misinformed) About the GS Case in which Barry noted that 99% of the mainstream media commentary regarding the strength of the SEC’s case is, of course, completely uninformed conjecture.I sat down with Barry, who is a lawyer with experience in securities law, to get an insightful take on the SEC’s case against Goldman Sachs (GS)."

Goldman's "Social License"

Daniel Gross writes for Slate.com: "It's been a bad week or two for Goldman Sachs. On April 16, the Securities and Exchange Commission charged the firm with fraud for the way it structured and sold some junky mortgage-related products. Earlier this week, its top executives came off as responsibility-evading jerks when testifying before Congress. And then on Thursday, the Wall Street Journal reported that the SEC had referred Goldman's case to the Justice Department."

Wall Street Reportedly Circulates Class Warfare Email
Ryan McCarthy reports for the Huffingotn Post: "The Reformed Broker and FT Alphaville have gotten a hold of an email that is reportedly making its way through inboxes on Wall Street. For anyone with even a scintilla of knowledge of Wall Street's excesses in the past decade or so, the email itself is hard to stomach. By turns, it takes shot at unionized teachers, the Obama administration and 'average Joes.'"

Financial Reform Bill 101: What it Means for Consumers

Peter Grier, The Christian Science Monitor: "The big financial reform bill now under consideration in the Senate is about more than collateralized back-flip derivatives and other stuff you have to be an MBA to understand. It could also affect how average Americans acquire credit cards, mortgages, bank accounts and other ordinary features of modern monetary life."  Photo: Harry Hamburg/AP

Predatory Lending: New Cop on the Beat
Greg Kaufman writes for The Nation: "Congressman Jerrold Nadler, Chair of the House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Civil Liberties, held a hearing yesterday on Combating Predatory Lending Under the Fair Housing Act.  In his opening statement, Chairman Nadler spoke of "redlining" in the past, when people of color were denied credit based on race rather than creditworthiness, and the practice was 'simply drawing a red line around a minority neighborhood and refusing to lend in that area.'"

Yes, Virginia, There Is a Legitimate Case Against Free Trade

Ian Fletcher, Truthout: "There is a myth in wide circulation that the superiority of free trade is simply a settled question on which all serious economists agree. The flip side of this myth, of course, is that anyone who criticizes free trade must either be ignorant of economics, or the spokesman of some special interest which hopes to benefit from trade restrictions. Such critics are not only wrong, the story continues with admittedly impeccable logic, but profoundly worthy of public contempt, as they are necessarily either dumb or corrupt."  Photo: Jared Rodriguez / t r u t h o u t

Recommended Audio: Media Matters - An Interview with Noam Chomsky

Chomsky has been awarded an amazing number of Honorary Doctorate degrees by universities around the world, which include the University of London and the University of Chicago. He delivered the Beckman Lectures at the University of California at Berkeley in 1967 and in 1969 presented the John Locke Lectures at the University of Oxford and Sherman Memorial Lectures at the University of London. Noam Chomsky is currently the Institute Professor Emeritus of Linguistics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Noam Chomsky may be most widely known for his work in the field of linguistics but he is also known for his activism and outspoken criticism of United States policies, especially it's foreign policy. Chomsky is also said to be "the most often cited living author" and "one of the most respected and influential intellectuals in the world". Download MP3 file at:
http://will.uiuc.edu/media/mediamatters100425.mp3

BP Had Other Problems in Years Leading to Gulf Spill
Abrahm Lustgarten reports for ProPublica: "BP, the global oil giant responsible for the fast-spreading spill in the Gulf of Mexico that will soon make landfall, is no stranger to major accidents. In fact, the company has found itself at the center of several of the nation's worst oil and gas–related disasters in the last five years."

Gulf Coast Oil Spill: 'Exxon Valdez Is Going to Pale in Comparison to This'

The BBC reports (via AlterNet): "The US military has joined efforts to stop an oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico as fears rise about its scale. Five times as much oil as previously thought could be leaking from the well beneath where a rig exploded and sank last week, US officials said earlier. The slick is 45 miles (72km) by 105 miles (169km) - almost the size of Jamaica - and heading for the US coast. A third leak has been discovered, and a fire-fighting expert said the disaster may become the biggest oil spill ever."

The Dirty Secrets Of Offshore Drilling (PHOTOS)
Travis Walter Donovan writes for the Huffington Post: "President Obama's recent announcement to open up areas that have been off limits to offshore drilling came as a shock to many. Then the tragic accident at an offshore rig in the Gulf of Mexico reminded the the country why offshore drilling was banned in so many areas to begin with, as 11 are still missing and presumed dead from the explosion--and 5,000 barrels of oil continue to pour every day into the ocean. The United States produces about 1.5 million barrels of oil a day from offshore drilling, but consumes 21 million barrels a day. Here are 7 dirty secrets the advocates of offshore drilling don't want you to know."

Chemicals Meant To Break Up BP Oil Spill Present New Environmental Concerns
Abrahm Lustgarten, ProPublica: "The chemicals BP is now relying on to break up the steady flow of leaking oil from deep below the Gulf of Mexico could create a new set of environmental problems. Even if the materials, called dispersants, are effective, BP has already bought up more than a third of the world’s supply. If the leak from 5,000 feet beneath the surface continues for weeks, or months, that stockpile could run out."

Behind the Arizona Immigration Law: GOP Game to Swipe the November Election
Greg Palast writes for Truthout: "Don't be fooled. The way the media plays the story, it was a wave of racist, anti-immigrant hysteria that moved Arizona Republicans to pass a sick little law, signed last week, requiring every person in the state to carry papers proving they are US citizens. I don't buy it. Anti-Hispanic hysteria has always been as much a part of Arizona as the Saguaro cactus and excessive air-conditioning."

Arizona Ethnic Studies Classes Banned, Teachers With Accents Can No Longer Teach English
The Huffington Post writes: "Arizona's new immigration law is just about crime, its supporters say, but given that the state's new education policy equates ethnic studies programs with high treason, they may not be using the commonly accepted definition of 'crime.' Under the ban, sent to Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer by the state legislature Thursday, schools will lose state funding if they offer any courses that 'promote the overthrow of the U.S. government, promote resentment of a particular race or class of people, are designed primarily for students of a particular ethnic group or advocate ethnic solidarity instead of the treatment of pupils as individuals.'"

State of Disgrace: The Right Fiddles While Arizona Burns

Randall Amster, J.D., Ph.D., writes for Truthout: "It's getting hot here in Arizona these days, and summer isn't even upon us yet. As you've most likely heard, the Republican-controlled State Legislature passed - and the Republican governor signed - the nation's most draconian anti-immigrant law, essentially creating a class of new 'status crimes' and opening a Pandora's box of racial profiling implications. While to many of us who live here such sentiments among state officials aren't exactly novel, the shocking 'where are your papers?' aspects of the law (SB 1070) have raised a much-deserved national furor." Photo: CBS News

Immigration and Diversity in America
Kevin Powell comments for The Huffington Post: "Arizona has a very serious problem. Arizona's problem is us. It does not want us here.  I am paraphrasing words spoken by Malcolm X back in the 1960s in reference to the American racial segregation policies of those times. Those words could have been spoken in any era of our country's history. The word "us" could refer to Native Americans. Or Irish Americans. Or Italian Americans. Or Jewish people. Or to the Chinese who were excluded from certain communities and states. Or to the Japanese detained during World War II. Or to Arabs and Muslims, especially since September 11th."

Boycotting Arizon's Racism
Amy Goodman writes for Truthdig.com: "Arizona was the only territory west of Texas to secede from the Union and join the Confederacy during the Civil War. A century later, it fought recognition of the Martin Luther King Jr. federal holiday. This week, an anti-immigrant bill was signed into law by Republican Gov. Jan Brewer. Arizona Senate Bill 1070 empowers state and local law enforcement to stop, question and arrest whoever they suspect may not be in the state legally. The law is an open invitation to sweeping racial profiling and arbitrary detention."

Racial Politics, Tea Party Style
Marcia Alesan Dawkins writes for Truthdig.com: "Today’s trying times bring to mind the lyrics of “For What It’s Worth” by Buffalo Springfield. “There’s something happening here / What it is ain’t exactly clear.” I experienced exactly that sort of feeling when I saw Lloyd Marcus perform the “American Tea Party Anthem,” which he wrote, at a recent rally. My lack of clarity about this event didn’t come from watching a black man in country gear sing with a twang. After all, years of watching and listening to Eminem and Elvis have conditioned me to not think twice when I see an entertainer playing with racial stereotypes."

Government, Public Aid and Discrimination

Julia Stronks comments for Truthout: "On April 19, 2010, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in Christian Legal Society v. Martinez. At the same time, Californians wait for an opinion from a federal judge in Perry v. Schwarzenegger. Both cases involve government financial support of and recognition of minority groups. The strange thing is that in one case Christians are in the minority and the gay community wants government to withhold recognition of the group. In the other case the gay community is in the minority and Christians want government to withhold recognition of the group. These cases highlight the need for all of us to think more carefully about whether government should be about majority rule or whether government should protect a plurality of perspectives." Photo: Jamison Wieser / Flickr

After Reporter's Subpoena, Critics Call Obama's Leak-Plugging Efforts Bush-Like
Howard Kurtz writes for The Washington Post: "The Justice Department's decision to subpoena a New York Times reporter this week has convinced some press advocates that President Obama's team is pursuing leaks with the same fervor as the Bush administration. James Risen, who shared a Pulitzer Prize for disclosing President George W. Bush's domestic surveillance program, has refused to testify about the confidential sources he used for his 2006 book State of War: The Secret History of the C.I.A. and the Bush Administration."

Press Freedom Falls Around the World

Howard LaFranchi reports for The Christian Science Monitor: "There are bright spots regarding press freedom, but there's been an overall decline for eight straight years, according to a new report. Other political and social freedoms may be waning, too.  In its annual report on press freedom in the world, Freedom House finds an overall decline for the eighth year in a row – with noticeably negative movement in China, the Middle East, and parts of Latin America." Photo: Newcom

Search Neutrality? How Google Became a "Neutrality" Target
Nate Anderson writes for Ars Technica: "If ISPs should be subject to "net neutrality," should companies like Google be subject to "search neutrality"? When we wrote recently about the idea of "search neutrality," some readers seemed to believe that we had coined the term, but nothing could be further from the truth. "Search neutrality" now fills the FCC filings of companies like Comcast, Time Warner Cable, and AT&T, all of whom see no reason why their businesses should be picked out for regulatory scrutiny while Google goes about its business unmolested."

Click on the titles to read complete articles.

AT&T Promises Not to Spy on You...Sort of
Timothy Karr writes for SavetheInternet.com: "AT&T and other telco giants have sworn before Congress to keep their distance from "deep packet inspection," or DPI, which allows network managers to inspect, track and target Internet content. But these execs aren't telling the public the whole truth about their Web-filtering plans."

Audio: Former McCain Supporter: McCain Is "Unleashing the Monster of American Prejudice"
Amy Goodman of Democracy Now!, interviews Frank Schaeffer, the bestselling author of "Crazy for God: How I Grew Up as One of the Elect, Helped Found the Religious Right, and Lived to Take All (or Almost All) of It Back." She says, "He's the son of the late evangelist Francis Schaeffer, considered himself a lifelong Republican. He voted for John McCain in 2000. McCain even endorsed one of Schaeffer's earlier books on military service. But on Friday, Frank Schaeffer published an op-ed piece in the Baltimore Sun excoriating McCain for 'feeding the most unhinged elements of our society the red meat of hate.'"

The Rise of Voting by Mail Transforms Race in Colorado
Kirk Johnson writes for the New York Times: "The presidential debate had barely ended Wednesday night when Kristin Marshall had her ballot on her lap, pen in hand, ready to vote. Three friends, all supporters of Senator Barack Obama, the Democratic nominee, had their ballots, too. "

How Six Influence 300 Million
In an editorial the Tufts Observer writes: "The vast majority of media consumed by Americans, from newspapers, to television shows, to books, is owned by one of six massive media conglomerates. By reinforcing a particular message throughout its divisions, media conglomerates are able to turn opinion into fact, dilute news gathering and control the flow of information."

Free the Debates
From the Mother Jones Blog: A group of thinkers and activists from the left, right, and center want to see the presidential debates and the commission that organizes them fundamentally reformed.

Keeping the Internet Free for the Next Generation
Leslie Harris writes for the Huffington Post: "The Internet is at a crossroads. Down one path lies a future where digital technology enhances constitutional freedoms; spurs innovations in expression and entrepreneurship; and fulfills its ultimate promise of connecting and empowering the world. Down the other? A future where the Internet is turned against users; where government spying runs unchecked, and where innovation is stifled by a closed and locked system, controlled by a handful of entrenched players. The next president will play a key role in determining which path we take."

Who Gets to Vote
Amy Goodman writes for Truthdig.com: "The 2008 presidential election may see the highest participation in U.S. history. Voter-registration organizations and local election boards have been overwhelmed by enthusiastic people eager to vote. But not everyone is happy about this blossoming of democracy."

Requiem for the Bailout Storyline
Norman Solomon writes for Truthout: "It's mid-October, and the Wall Street bailout that was supposed to save the economy from collapse is a flop. Only two weeks ago, the media hype behind the $700 billion bailout was so intense that it sometimes verged on hysteria. More recent events should not be allowed to obscure the reality that the news media played a pivotal role in stampeding the country into a bailout that was unwise and unjust."

Groups: ACORN Attacks Meant to Suppress Vote
Chris Good writes for The Hill: "Left-leaning groups Wednesday came to the defense of the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN), accusing Republicans of seeking to suppress voter turnout by attacking the group. 'This latest attack on ACORN follows a sorry pattern, played out in election after election,' said Julian Bond, chairman of the NAACP, outlining what he called a history of voter suppression tactics by the Republican Party."

Video: McCains Latest Pander Plan
Keith Olbermann on MSNBC Countdown: "During the warm-up act by a Red Meat Congressional Candidate aptly named Chris Hackett, Hackett mentions Obama and a Palin audience member shouts 'Kill Him.' And Gov. Palin, as usual, does nothing about it says nothing to these thugs and psychos. She may not have heard this one. It is impossible to believe that by now she has not heard about the other ones. Her silence is deafening. Just as, Sen. McCain, you have done nothing when violence has been asserted. Correction. You have done one thing."




CIA Tactics Endorsed in Secret Memo
Joby Warrick writes for The Washington Post: "The Bush administration issued a pair of secret memos to the CIA in 2003 and 2004 that explicitly endorsed the agency's use of interrogation techniques such as waterboarding against al-Qaeda suspects -- documents prompted by worries among intelligence officials about a possible backlash if details of the program became public."

Journalist Arrested at RNC Faces over a Year in Prison
Journalists without Borders reports: "Jason Nicholas was one of over 40 journalists arrested while covering the Republican National Convention on September 1st. While most charges against other journalists in St.Paul have been dropped, Mr. Nicholas has not yet been cleared of obstruction to the legal process."

Click on titles for complete articles.

What’s Sex Got to Do With It?
Chris Hedges, a guest previously on Community Bridge, writes for Truthdig.com: "If I had to choose between George W. Bush, naked and neighing on all fours while being ridden around the Oval Office by a spurred cowgirl Condoleezza Rice, or enduring his shredding of domestic and international law to wage an illegal war and bilking of the country on behalf of his corporate backers, I could learn to stomach a wide array of sexual escapades."

Most Corporations Don't Pay Income Taxes
Richard Rubin writes for Congressional Quarterly: "Most corporations, including the vast majority of foreign companies doing business in the United States, pay no income taxes, according to a Government Accountability Office report released Tuesday."

Warrior John McCain: More Dangerous Than Bush
Steve Weissman writes for Truthout: "During the hottest days of the Cold War, Gen. Thomas Power headed the Strategic Air Command, whose nuclear-armed B-52s were meant to deter the Soviet Union. General Power, like many of the Air Force brass at the time, believed that nuclear war with the Soviets was inevitable. He thought the United States would do better to fight that war sooner rather than later and believed we could emerge victorious. 'At the end of the war,' he argued in 1960, 'if there are two Americans and one Russian, we win!' Listening to John McCain talk about Iraq and Iran, I keep thinking of Power. Counter-insurgency and nuclear obliteration are poles apart, I know. But McCain's insistence on 'winning in Iraq,' remaining there 'until Iraq is secure,' and 'bomb-bomb-bombing Iran' reveal the same mindset that made General Power so dangerous."

Where Are the Weapons of Mass Destruction?
Scott Ritter writes on Bush's crimes against American for Truthdig.com: "Dave continued pacing back and forth in front of Mohammed. 'My president,' he said, 'is in trouble. Can you help him?' Mohammed was taken aback by the question. 'Excuse me?' he asked. 'Could you repeat yourself?' Dave sat down next to the Iraqi. 'George Bush is in trouble. Our people did not find any WMD in Iraq. Can you help us?'"

Web Firms Tell Congress They Track Behavior Without Consent
Ellen Nakashima writes for The Washington Post: "Several Internet and broadband companies have acknowledged using targeted-advertising technology without explicitly informing customers, according to letters released yesterday by the House Energy and Commerce Committee. And Google, the leading online advertiser, stated that it has begun using Internet tracking technology that enables it to more precisely follow Web-surfing behavior across affiliated sites. The revelations came in response to a bipartisan inquiry of how more than 30 Internet companies might have gathered data to target customers."

Neocons Now Love International Law
Robert Parry, of Consortium News, writes: "It's touching how American neoconservatives who have no regard for international law when they want to invade some troublesome country have developed a sudden reverence for national sovereignty. Apparently, context is everything. So, the United States attacking Grenada or Nicaragua or Panama or Iraq or Serbia is justified even if the reasons sometimes don't hold water or don't hold up before the United Nations, The Hague or other institutions of international law."

Students Teach Important Lessons on LGBT Rights
Columnist Deb Price writes in the Detroit News about the courageous efforts of high-school students such as Heather Gillman who are lobbying their schools -- and where necessary turning to the courts -- to gain the right to have gay-straight clubs on their campuses. "I really believe everyone is equal -- no matter what," Gillman told Price, who writes, "That's the Gillman Rule: School officials everywhere should memorize it."

Report: Metered Broadband Bad for Consumers, Businesses
Martin Bosworth writes for Consumer Affairs about a new report from Free Press that debunks the notion that it's necessary to introduce metered broadband plans in order to better control congestion of the network.

F.B.I.'s Use of Phone Records Shows Need to Protect the Press, Senators Say
Eric Lichtblau writes for the New York Times that the top-ranking members of the Senate Judiciary Committee say the FBI’s collection of phone records of reporters at the New York Times and Washington Post underscores a need for a federal shield law.

Real World Sexuality Education
Since the Bush administration has come into power, it has spent over $1.5 billion in taxpayer money on abstinence-only sex-education programs that studies have shown are not only ineffective but counterproductive. Planned Parenthood is an advocate for and provider of real-world sex education and reproductive healthcare. Congress recently denied President Bush's request to increase funding for abstinence-only education programs - the first time since he came to office. To read more about the failure of abstinence -only programs, visit the Planned Parenthood webpage and download the 2007 report.

Atheist soldier claims harassment

JUNCTION CITY, Kansas (AP) -- Like hundreds of young men joining the Army in recent years, Jeremy Hall professes a desire to serve his country while it fights terrorism.

But the short and soft-spoken specialist is at the center of a legal controversy. He has filed a lawsuit alleging that he's been harassed and his constitutional rights have been violated because he doesn't believe in God. The suit names Defense Secretary Robert Gates.

"I'm not in it for cash," Hall said. "I want no one else to go what I went through."

Known as "the atheist guy," Hall has been called immoral, a devil worshipper and -- just as severe to some soldiers -- gay, none of which, he says, is true. Hall even drove fellow soldiers to church in Iraq and paused while they prayed before meals.

"I see a name and rank and United States flag on their shoulder. That's what I believe everyone else should see," he said.

Hall, 23, was raised in a Protestant family in North Carolina and dropped out of school. It wasn't until he joined the Army that he began questioning religion, eventually deciding that he couldn't follow any faith.

But he feared how that would look to other soldiers.

"I was ashamed to say that I was an atheist," Hall said.

It eventually came out in Iraq in 2007, when he was in a firefight. Hall was a gunner on a Humvee, which took several bullets in its protective shield. Afterward, his commander asked whether he believed in God, Hall said.

"I said, 'No, but I believe in Plexiglas,' " Hall said. "I've never believed I was going to a happy place. You get one life. When I die, I'm worm food."

The issue came to a head when, according to Hall, a superior officer, Maj. Freddy J. Welborn, threatened to bring charges against him for trying to hold a meeting of atheists in Iraq. Welborn has denied Hall's allegations.

Hall said he had had enough but feared that he wouldn't get support from Welborn's superiors. He turned to Mikey Weinstein and the Military Religious Freedom Foundation.

Weinstein is the foundation's president and a U.S. Air Force Academy graduate. He had sued the Air Force for acts he said illegally imposed Christianity on students at the academy, though that case was dismissed. He calls Hall a hero.

"The average American doesn't have enough intestinal fortitude to tell someone to shut up if they are talking in a movie theater," Weinstein said. "You know how hard it is to take on your chain of command? This isn't the shift manager at KFC."

Hall was in Qatar when the lawsuit was filed September 18 in federal court in Kansas City, Kansas. Other soldiers learned of it, and he feared for his own safety. Once, Hall said, a group of soldiers followed him, harassing him, but no one did anything to make it stop.

The Army told him it couldn't protect him and sent him back to Fort Riley. He resumed duties with a military police battalion. He believes that his promotion to sergeant has been blocked because of his lawsuit, but he is a team leader responsible for two junior enlisted soldiers.

No one with Fort Riley, the Army or that Defense Department would comment about Hall or the lawsuit. Each issued statements saying that discrimination will not be tolerated regardless of race, religion or gender.

"The department respects [and supports by its policy] the rights of others to their own religious beliefs, including the right to hold no beliefs," said Eileen Lainez, a spokeswoman for the Department of Defense.

All three organizations said existing systems help soldiers "address and resolve any perceived unfair treatment."

Lt. Col. David Shurtleff, a Fort Riley chaplain, declined to discuss Hall's case but said chaplains accommodate all faiths as best they can. In most cases, religious issues can be worked out without jeopardizing military operations.

"When you're in Afghanistan and an IED blows up a Humvee, they aren't asking about a wounded soldier's faith," Shurtleff said.

Hall said he enjoys being a team leader but has been told that having faith would make him a better leader.

"I will take care of my soldiers. Nowhere does it say I have to pray with my soldiers, but I do have to make sure my soldiers' religious needs are met," he said.

"Religion brings comfort to a lot of people," he said. "Personally, I don't want it or need it. But I'm not going to get down on anybody else for it."

Hall leaves the Army in April 2009. He would like to find work with the National Park Service or Environmental Protection Agency, anything outdoors.

"I hope this doesn't define me," Hall said of his lawsuit. "It's just about time somebody said something."

What is Obscenity?

Originally read on 1 March 2007
by Christopher E. Renner

This week the Kansas legislature’s right-wing darling, Rep. Lance Kinzer, Republican from Olathe, under the banner of “obscenity” lead a direct attack on free speech. Rep. Kinzer so values our basic freedoms that he wants parents to be able to sue teachers for exposing their students to ideas the parents find objectionable, which is what HB 2200 would allow.

HB 2200 would amend several criminal statutes relating to obscenity. The bill would limit the ability of elementary and secondary schools and teachers to assert the defense that the materials they used in class had literary, educational, artistic, political or scientific value to a change of obscenity. Under current law, this defense is provided to public and private schools, as well as, colleges and universities. It is called academic freedom and protects educators from being dragged from their classrooms and thrown in jail for educating children and presenting ideas that some might find offensive.

Basically, Kinzer was able to get the House Federal and State Affairs committee to approve HB 2200 which would remove all academic freedom protections in the state’s obscenity laws for K-12 teachers.

Under Kansas law, material is deemed obscene if an average person, applying community standards, would find that it “appears to the prurient interest” and involves “patently offensive” depictions of sex or nudity. Also, the material must lack “serious literary, educational, artistic, political or scientific value.”

So what “obscene” books are children being force to read in rich, white Johnson County schools that have these parents so upset?

According to Citizens for Literary Standards in Schools their poor little privileged white Christian children have to read such books as One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, The Color Purple, One Hundred Years of Solitude, Slaughterhouse Five, The Norton Anthologies of American Literature, Tony Morrisons’ Song of Solomon and Beloved, Salinger’s Catcher in the Rye, there’s also Lord of the Flies, Of Mice and Men, --- do you see any pattern here?

Maybe the parents are upset that their children have to read at all. Heaven forbid their children might be exposed to real life experiences that require rational thought and challenges their parents’ irrationality and un-American theocratic beliefs.

For those of us who believe in freedom of speech, press, and religion, we know the origins of the Blue Valley parent’s concern was really one book: Annie on My Mind by Nancy Garden.

The American Library Association designated the book a "Best of the Best Books for Young Adults." The School Library Journal included the book in its list of the 100 most influential books of the 20th century. But having the book on its library shelves ended up costing another Johnson County school district - Olathe - $160,000.

Back in 1993, the LGBT organization Project 21 donated Annie on My Mind, along with Frank Mosca's All-American Boys, to forty-two high schools in the Kansas City area.

Because both books included homosexual themes, some parents objected that the books were made available to high school students.

In the ensuing controversy, opponents showed their respect for our nation’s Bill of Rights by burning copies of Annie on My Mind.

Around the time the good old-fashioned Nazi book burning took place, author Nancy Garden was at a writers' conference. When asked if she had had trouble with Annie on My Mind she answered “no.” Soon after, she learned of the burning when she received a call from Stephen Friedman, who asked, "Did you know your book has just been burned in Kansas City?"

Garden reportedly said: “Burned! I didn't think people burned books any more. Only Nazis burn books.” Good choice of a descriptive adjective to use for those trying to shove theocracy down our throats, Nancy.

Then, on December 13, 1993, superintendent Ron Wimmer, of the Olathe School District, ordered the book removed from the high school library. Wimmer said he made his decision in order to "avoid controversy," like the public book burning had produced.

The Olathe School District refused to accept other copies of the book, even removing a copy that had sat on its library shelf for over ten years. In response, the American Civil Liberties Union joined several families and a teacher to sued the school district for removing the book.

Two years later in September 1995, the case went to trial. In November 1995, U.S. District Court Justice Thomas Van Bebber ruled that while a school district is not obligated to purchase any book, it cannot remove a book from library shelves unless that book is deemed educationally unsuitable. He ruled Annie on My Mind to be educationally suitable, and called its removal an unconstitutional attempt to "prescribe what shall be orthodox in politics, nationalism, religion, or other matters of opinion."

The school district announced it would not appeal the court's decision in 1999, and restored Annie on My Mind to library shelves. The entire proceeding had cost the district over $160,000. So that is why Rep. Kinzer introduced HB 2200. To provide an end-run around the rights you and I enjoy thanks to the US Constitution and the Constitution of the State of Kansas.

HB 2200 is another example of the social conservatives’ agenda to limit free speech, limit access to knowledge and portray our public education system as somehow being the cause of the moral decay of our nation they scream about at the top of their lungs. How many social conservative Christians have been exposed as frequenting prostitutes, or consuming pornography and drugs have there been now anyway? Oh, I digress….

What is even more upsetting to me is the following fact: according to the Lawrence Journal World, the only Representative on the House Federal and State Committee to vote against the bill was Ann Mah, a representative from Douglas County.

Our own representative, Tom Hawk, who sits of Federal and State Committee and is a retired teacher, voted for HB2200! Rep. Hawk reports that he voted for HB 2200 because he thought that as amended the bill would provide protections to teachers. He now regrets his affirming vote. He realizes that the parents from Blue Valley who had contacted him for his support of their censorship bill were doing an "end run" on their school board for the books they did not like in the high school curriculum. If you want to express your opinion to Rep. Hawk, his office phone number is: 785-296-7665.

But lets get back to the issue of what is obscene.

KSU took a public relations beating this past week from the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals in what is clearly an example of the obscenity that Rep. Kinzer is trying to stamp out: Total disregard for life - throwing live chickens onto the basketball court.

Gandhi once said: “The greatness of a nation can be judged by the way its animals are treated.” Surely KSU students are more creative and intelligent than thinking that throwing live animals is the best way we can show our resolve to defeat our greatest rival.

But even more “obscene” to me is the lengths that Kansas State University will go to promote homophobia and how that homophobia is tolerated by KSU officials.

In the lead up to the same great chicken toss game against KU, t-shirts appeared sporting the registered trade mark of the Power Cat and the following quote: “KU = gay.”

Now according to the “values” espoused by Kansas State University, such blatant prejudice isn’t one of the Core Community Values this institution of higher learning is supposed to be instilling in its students. Moreover, since the Power Cat is a registered trade mark, didn’t someone in the University have to approve the use of the KSU symbol to promote this irrational prejudice and bigotry? So why did the university allow this? By equating all KU students as homosexuals, just what did KSU gain?

Other than once again demonstrating for the rest of the world that we lack basic civility, respect for others, and knowledge of the complex world we live in, KSU gained nothing. The t-shirts were an insult to KSU and the state of Kansas. But I doubt if anything will be done to address this most recent example of institutional promotion of homophobia, unless people complain to university officials and in the press.

But maybe, if HB 2200 passes as amended which also removes academic freedom for university professors, KU students could sue KSU for it’s promotion of “obscenity.” The shirts obviously had no serious literary, educational, artistic, political or scientific value. Now wouldn’t that just get Rep. Kinzer’s goat? A bunch of liberal college students using his law to sue a state institution over homosexuality. I’m sure the social conservatives didn’t see that one coming.

Sources:
"Books in Trouble: Annie on My Mind", National Coalition Against Censorship, May 1996.

Miner, Barbara. "When Reading Good Books Can Get Schools In Trouble: First of Two Articles", Rethinking Schools: Online, Spring 1998.

Stang, Debra L.. "Annie on My Mind: Let Love Win!", suite101, November 1, 2000. Retrieved on 2007-02-25.