BTW, if you don’t live in Chapel Hill you can sign the petition but the council would be most impressed by signatures from their constituents and people who live near and work in Chapel Hill. Lets continue speaking out! Thank you to everyone who has signed the petition already.

To: Chapel Hill Town Council

The time has come for the Town of Chapel Hill to build a free, community-owned, public municipal network. The network should have wireless access and provide an open, unfiltered, and unmonitored connection to the Internet available to ALL people. It must be maintained by a local nonprofit for the people of Chapel Hill. Not by a private business or corporation.

We request that the Chapel Hill Town Council act swiftly to bring this service to the people.

Sincerely,
The Undersigned

Here’s what the Tactical Media Group says they’re about:

The Tactical Media Group was formed in Fall 2005 to promote awareness and understanding of media and technology policy. We will engage area communities through educational initiatives in that arena with an eye towards fostering social activism and using media and technology to help bridge the digital divide.

Need to learn why communications policy is urgent and important? Want to know why this Telecom Policy debate is happening? Download the Telecommunications Legislation Toolkit [PDF] made by the Tactical Media Group. Lots of good info clearly laid out. Good job ya’ll!

If you’re a conservative American you might think the ACLU and the Democratic Party is a “known associate”. If you are a moderate or a conservative you might think Greenpeace, PETA, and the School of the Americas Watch are “known associates”. We know for a fact that those last three groups are under investigation by the FBI. How many more groups are being investigated by the US government or their corporate spying companies? How many people are suspected to be known associates or are suspected of aiding and abetting the enemy?

Via: NYTimes

“We have been unable to make any meaningful progress in our investigation because OPR [Office of Professional Responsibility] has been denied security clearances for access to information about the NSA program,” OPR counsel H. Marshall Jarrett wrote to Hinchey. Hinchey’s office shared the letter with The Associated Press.

Commentary: WTF!!!!! We live in a police state! The backlash from this will be huge. The average citizen will become more concerned with privacy and how to be anonymous online. Probably the exact opposite goal of the NSA and White house. But in the interim we will all suffer more paranoia and buy more prescription drugs. (Not me. Just kidding!)

tip of the hat to: dailywireless.org
via: CNN

Read more about this case in my post North Carolina Obstructs DNA Testing for Condemned Man and podcast Save Jerry Conner. Its possible that our grassroots blogging and podcasting mission could have helped bring the attention this case deserved. I’m not going to celebrate this fact just yet. The important thing is Mr. Conner gets another DNA test. More details soon.

The state of North Carolina is refusing to conduct a new DNA test for Jerry. The accuracy of DNA test since 1991 have improved dramatically. On top of that a NC State Bureau of Investigations agent was fired recently for mishandling lots of DNA test evidence. A new test could demonstrate Jerry’s innocence and save his life. We need to work to prevent the state sponsored killing of an innocent man!

You can find action items, such as calling the governor of North Carolina, in my blog post North Carolina Obstructs DNA Testing for Condemned Man. You can also goto jerryconner.blogspot.com for more information. Please link to this site in your blog posts about this.

MP3 5m 05s 2.4MB 44.1kHz 64kbps

It appears that earlier DNA tests taken by the FBI in 1991 are not as reliable as test done today. Not only that but, “The SBI (State Bureau of Investigation) agent in charge of handling, preparing and transmitting the 1991 DNA to the FBI was Brenda Bissette, an agent who was forced to resign from the SBI lab for mishandling DNA evidence in up to 50 cases.” [1] Instead of preventing new DNA tests the State of North Carolina should fix the mistakes of one of their former employees. ESPECIALLY if it could mean the death of an innocent man.

The information in this post was obtained from the blog called jerryconner.blogspot.com. You can find many more facts there. (I also know one of the Attorneys working on Mr. Conner’s case. I have great trust in the attorney so I trust this information.)

If you want to help stop Mr. Conner’s death you can do several things. All the links bellow will take you to the info you need to act.
1) Contact Governor Easley
2) Contact Attorney General Roy Cooper
3) Contact Your Legislators
4) Write a Letter to the Editor
5) Write a blog post
6) Record a podcast

Ruby and I went to the anti-war march in Fayetteville, NC. I took a bunch of pics. This one of the SC Radical Cheerleaders was my favorite.

Find an event in your town here at the United for Peace and Justice website. They have a good system to help you search by state, country, and date. There appears to be over 500 3rd anniversary events planned. Wow!

If for some reason you’re still supporting the war in Iraq – or are on the fence – try having a conversation with a solider who has returned home from war with a physical or mental injury. See what they think about combat.

Respect the Warrior NOT the War!

From the Freepress site:

ATandT and BellSouth plan to merge into a single colossus. This deal must be stopped.

The merger resurrects the Ma Bell monopoly that was busted up in 1984. But it’s far worse today. These companies no longer just control telephone calls. They want to become gatekeepers to all digital media — television, telephone and Internet — at prices that many Americans can’t afford.

The merger is now in the hands of the FCC, FTC and Congress. They’ll rubber-stamp the deal unless the public speaks up. Stop the merger now.

In my first post I brought up some concerns I had about the metada created from audio Podzinger indexes. (To get a bit more context read Retaining My Attention Data Part 1 and Part 2.) Alex addresses some of these concerns and talks about how Podzinger can create metadata that can be used in interesting ways.

I encourage activists of all kinds to explore Internet tools that let you create metadata. This information can serve our missions in powerful ways, from investigating injustice, to gathering support for a cause, and making strategic decisions. But remember always be critical of Internet tools. They are powerful and can cut many ways.

Thanks to Alex for letting me interview him. He was very gracious and a excellent guest.
MP3 20m 12s 9.3MB 44.1kHz 60kbps

Alan McSurely gives an update on efforts to get our member of congress, David Price, to support impeachment of President Bush. There’s been a community forum, two meetings with Price, and now…

We present the Case for Impeachment on Tuesday, February 28th at 7 p.m. at Chapel Hill Town Hall. Michelle Cotton Laws and Rev. Robert Seymour will participate, along with Prof. Dan Pollitt and myself. We will be announcing the formation of GRIM, and asking for your help to build the Movement.

Since the press reported the massive unconstitutional domestic spying program of President Bush and Vice President Cheney 2 months ago, a spontaneous grass roots impeachment movement has taken off. One poll showed over 53% of the American people favored an impeachment investigation, over 90% of African Americans were for such an investigation, and over 24% Republicans. This belief that our two leaders have committed crimes is well grounded. The men lied to Congress to give them authority to invade a sovereign nation. Their intentional lies, mixed with their massive ignorance of the Iraqi nation and stumblebum incompetence in handling basic governmental functions has led to the murderous mayhem in Iraq that has destroyed the Nation’s leaders, its culture, and tens of thousands of its children. This is a high crime.

The carefully constructed plausible deniability of Bush, Cheney, and Rumsfield about U.S. intelligence forces torture program has been blown. They knew about, permitted, and ratified the most cruel and unusual punishments of prisoners including tying prisoners to waterboards for faked drownings, mocking prisoner’s sexual mores and religious beliefs, and other cruelties that have been photographed and shown to the world. They have ordered prisoners held for years without hearings or charges. These acts have been outlawed by every civilized society, including the U.S. for centuries. Bush knew the poor Black neighborhoods of New Orleans would be wiped out when the dams broke. Bush fiddled on his Texas farm while Black people drowned. Intentional failure to provide equal protection to all citizens is a constitutional violation. These are high crimes.

Bush/Cheney set up a massive spying program that was specifically prohibited by the 4th Amendment and the Foreign Intelligence Security Act (FISA) after the unconstitutional abuses of the FBI, CIA, NSA, and the Defense Intelligence Agencies were exposed in the 1970´s Watergate inquiries. It is such a blatant violation that Republican Senators are trying to blunt the impeachment movement by talking about retroactively making the violations legal. This far-fetched fig-leaf will draw more attention to the impeachable crimes they have already committed.

If such convincing evidence were presented to a competent law enforcement official, prosecuting attorney, grand jury, or probable cause Judge, they would quickly file charges and set the trial date. Taken together the lies, spies, torture and ethnic cleansing in New Orleans is overwhelming. This is the basis for the grass roots impeachment movement.

BUSH AND CHENEY HAVE BEEN CAUGHT BLUFFING

Like poker players who have been caught cheating and who have nothing in the hole, Bush and Cheney’s initial reaction is to bluff some more. Bush’s handlers send him out to his vetted daily photo opportunities where he tries to impersonate his hero, Ronald Reagan, acting like his hero, the Marlboro Man. But as people jump his right wing ship daily, Bush’s personal insecurities are beginning to take over. Compare his facial expressions when he lies now with how he acted say, six months ago. His frat boy cockiness covers a very short fuse.

As Scooter Libby can begin to hear the jail doors clanging, he and his lawyers are implying that Cheney directed Libby to out a CIA agent Cheney didn’t like. This stressful news was on the Sunday morning talk shows two weeks ago, but Cheney got as far away from D.C. as possible, to a beer party at a Texas ranch with old friends. He was so relaxed he shot a friend in a bright orange coat about 30 yards away on Saturday about 5 p.m. Instead of reporting this shooting immediately, so he could be given a breathalyzer and the forensic and other material evidence could be preserved, law enforcement and the public were not given any facts until after the Sunday morning talk shows and the alcohol were past/passed. Cheney’s psychological state was revealed by his hostess. She said her first thought, when she saw Cheney’s secret service detail rushing toward him, was that Cheney had suffered a heart attack. Bush and Cheney´s psychological state is not our concern. Their corporate sponsors will pay for empathetic handlers to approach them with golden parachutes, as they did with Nixon when his lies and crimes became evident to everyone but himself.

The task of the Grass Roots Impeachment Movement (GRIM) is to make it clear to every politician, Republican and Democratic, that the criminal acts of Bush/Cheney must be tried quickly in the U.S. Senate. For this trial to take place, 218 members of the House of Representatives must file charges against them. We are working on the one member we have some control over, Cong. David Price.

AN INTERIM REPORT

The Carrboro Forum: Starting from scratch in mid-January, we held an overwhelmingly successful forum, ¨The Case for Impeachment¨ in Carrboro in late January. At the close of the presentations, Carrboro Alderman to be, Dan Coleman, asked the crowd of over 140 how many supported asking Cong. Price to be a sponsor of House Bill 635, that calls for a Congressional investigation leading toward impeachment. Practically everyone raised their hands, except for the two members of Cong. Price´s staff who were there. Coleman then asked how many people would support a candidate to run against him, if Price refused to sponsor the impeachment bill. Practically everyone raised their hand again.

1st Price Meeting: The following week, a dozen people who had attended the Carrboro forum met with Cong. Price and the two staffers who had briefed him on our agenda. He implied the impeachment demand was not “middle America” and said he was interested in requesting a special prosecutor, like Clinton had agreed to Kenneth Starr, to investigate Bush´s acts. Price said he got the idea from Al Gore´s recent speech. We asked him pointblank whether he would become the first white Southerner to sponsor Cong. John Conyers´ bill that had about 10 sponsors then. Price asked whether Cong. Mel Watt had signed it. (No.) Shortly after our meeting, Price and Watt had a meeting with a predominantly Black group at the N.C. Mutual Building in Durham. Watt said he thought talk about impeachment was premature. Professor emeritus Chuck Stone polled the crowd as to whether they favored impeachment and about half raised their hands. Stone chided the rest for being timid.

2nd Price Meeting: We met with Price again last week. He showed us a letter that he and another member had written Bush, asking him to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate himself. We asked, incredulously, did he think Bush would respond? He said no. We again asked him to sponsor the Impeachment Investigation Bill, which now has over 25 sponsors. The only southern sponsors are two Black members from Georgia, John Lewis (the “conscience of the House”) and Cynthia McKinney. We also suggested he and like-minded Members hold hearings throughout the South to educate the people about the crimes and the need for impeachment. He implied he believed coming out openly for impeachment hearings now would marginalize us. We left agreeing that there are many approaches to this constitutional crisis.

Other Developments

Mr. Kent Kanoy, from Carrboro, who works at Duke, filed in the Democratic Primary and is carrying the Impeachment Banner proudly. The Primary is May 2nd. According to experts, about 20,000 votes will carry the Democratic primary.

The first counterattack from Rove to the national Impeachment Movement is that the more we ¨extremists¨ talk Impeachment, the more it will mobilize the Republican right wing base for the off-year election. If every time Rove trots out one of his dirty tricks we play into it, we should hang it up.

We present the Case for Impeachment on Tuesday, February 28th at 7 p.m. at Chapel Hill Town Hall. Michelle Cotton Laws and Rev. Robert Seymour will participate, along with Prof. Dan Pollitt and myself. We will be announcing the formation of GRIM, and asking for your help to build the Movement.

From Mobile to New Orleans March 14-19, 2006

March 19, 2006 is the 3rd anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Iraq. Veterans for Peace is organizing this five-day march along Gulf Coast Highway 90 to demand the immediate return of our troops from Iraq, and to call for U.S. tax dollars to be spent on human priorities and rebuilding of the devastated Gulf Coast, instead of the illegal occupation of Iraq.

Support Americans in Iraq and the Gulf Coast—bring them home NOW!

Find more info at www.vetgulfmarch.org. Here is a pdf of the flyer. Download, print, copy, distribute.

I’ve been hesitant to join up. I got tired quick of other social software sites like Friendster. Mostly because I haven’t clicked with them in a way to get me to dedicate lots of time. Plus I’ve been more and more concerned about how websites use our data and how the ACT on the metadata they create from it.

Well Ruby just sent me an e-mail that might get me to join LastFM. She said Ed Batista, of The Attention Trust, created a community on LastFM. (It was Ruby’s idea actually.) Here is the group description:

This is a group for Last.fm users who are interested in making more effective use of their “attention data” (including, but not limited to, all the data we’re sharing with Last). We’re big fans of Last, and we love their service, but we’d also love to know what Last is planning to do with this data. We hope this group will prompt some interesting discussions between Last and its users. For more information, visit Attention Trust at www.AttentionTrust.org.

Is it odd that I’d start using a website because I’m interested in how they use their data? It’s not like I’m a competitor trying to grok their business model. I’m not planning on gaming their site. It’s just that I’m a data privacy advocate who wants websites that collect any personal data to be open with us about how they use it. (uh hello Google!) Putting legalese into a super long and hard to understand privacy policy isn’t enough. We need very simple straightforward answers. (LastFM does have a good synopsis of their Terms and Conditions)

Terms and Conditions in a nutshell

* The entry of any personal data on this site is completely optional.
* We do not require an email address during sign up.
* We will not email you crap or pass on your email address to anyone, not even Lars Ulrich at gunpoint.
* Your pseudonymous listening habit data will be available to the public for non-commercial use under a Creative Commons license.
* We reserve the right to sell or license pseudonymous listening data for commercial use, however we will never sell your personal data.
* You you will always have the opportunity to remove from the system any personal information you’ve entered

A great thing about discovering this LastFM group is that I understand the Attention Trust better. I’d heard about it a few months ago and checked out the site but for some reason I didn’t get it. Now with this context of LastFM and the group description it all makes sense. But all the crap about the President admitting to spying on US citizens, Google refusing to turn over search data to the Attorney General, personal research about social network analysis, etc. has pushed me past the breaking point. I’m doing something about my personal data sharing habits. I’m shifting my attention.

This doesn’t mean I’m going to disappear from the net and stop dumping all my thoughts on ya. Naw… you’re not that lucky. I’m just going to try and be more conscious. We all need to still give each other bits and bytes. A serious evolutionary jump of my net habits is brewing.

I’m not just interested in how corporate websites are using our data and metadata but how WE can use it to make this world better. How can we improve our lives in ways besides just making money? You could call it selfless data-mining or social data entrepreneurism.

How do we create a civil Internet society? How do we promote fairness? How do we create social justice in the 21st century? I bet part of the answer lies in socially responsible data usage.

BTW – I just joined LastFM and Attention Trust. (See the AT logo on my right side bar.)

What’s network neutrality?
“Network neutrality” is a voluntary but guiding principle of the Internet which ensures that all users are entitled to access content and services or run applications and devices of their choice.

Sign a letter requesting network neutrality. It’ll go to the CEOs of the largest cable and telephone companies and the member of congress that represents you. These letter writting campaigns work!

You’re not alone in your concern. According to a poll by the Free Press Assoication, the Consumers Union, and Consumer Federation of America:

Two-thirds of Internet users have serious concerns about practices by Internet network owners to block or impair their access to information and services, and the majority of those surveyed support congressional action to prevent this practice, according to a new poll released today by consumer and public interest groups.

From New Survey: Consumers Want Congress to Protect Right to Access Information, Services on Internet

via: J.D. Lascica, Timothy Karr

The Issue
Basically big corporations who provide Internet access to companies such as Google and Yahoo want to charge them extra for “preferred services”. This could speed up, slow down, or block an individual users access to search services Google and Yahoo provide. Imagine not being able to find what you want via a Google search. In essence Bell South and Verizon want to put a traffic cop at the Internet spigot and control what SPECIFIC data goes through, how much, how often, and at what quality. This is not the free flow of information that the Internet was built upon.

Read what other people have to say about attempts at corporate cyberextortion by big telcos like Bell South.

From Preston Gralla:

“BellSouth and Verizon have been trying to force big Web sites to pay extortion-type fees if the sites want adequate bandwidth, with Google a prime target. But Google has news for them: It won’t pay.”

“Google’s Barry Schnitt told Paul in an email: “Google is not discussing sharing of the costs of broadband networks with any carrier. We believe consumers are already paying to support broadband access to the Internet through subscription fees and, as a result, consumers should have the freedom to use this connection without limitations.”

From Cory Doctorow:

“Google has rebuffed to an outrageous demand by BellSouth, in which the phone company proposed to charge Google for access to its customers. Bill Smith of Bell South told reporters that he wanted “to charge Yahoo Inc. for the opportunity to have its search site load faster than that of Google Inc.” Google has responded with an unequivocal no — a flat refusal to pay blood-money to carriers to keep them from discriminating against its services. Honestly, what the hell is BellSouth thinking? The whole point of an ISP is that it delivers the same packets as every other ISP; anything else is substandard. There’s only one Google, but T1s come and go.”

From Doc Searls: (Thanks for all the links Doc!)

“BellSouth wasn’t thinking. They were doing what big carriers usually do, which is look for ways to make big money with tiered service to big customers. Dumb, perhaps, in this case; but predictable.”

[ Doc wins the best blog post title of the year (so far) IMHO: Google to BellSouth: Go Tier Yourself a New One ]

For LOTs of context read Doc’s Saving the Net: How to Keep the Carriers from Flushing the Net Down the Tubes.

Washington Post:
Executive Wants to Charge for Web Speed and The Coming Tug of War Over the Internet

I wrote a post called Angry BellSouth and Anti-Public Good Chapel Hill Business, about similar issues with the data access war here in Chapel Hill,NC.

Thanks to Ed Cone for reminding me about this serious subject.

We also discussed the specifics of “team cleaning,” a new unfair management practice that forces workers to perform one repetitive task for eight hours straight. It’s stated goal in company literature is to increase revenue for the University by eliminating jobs, despite the promise to workers from management that it won’t.

We discussed what students, staff, and faculty can do to join the workers in their struggle and lots more. I hope to record more conversations with Mike in the future. Check out the UNC labor history time line on Wikipedia.

MP3 25m 28s 11.7MB 64Kbps 44.1Mhz

It could be a wonderful way to transmit knowledge from generation to generation to generation. This project seems especially important, to me, because the technical illiteracy of some seniors can separate them and their knowledge from younger people who are on the Internet. Shouldn’t all knowledge, emotion, and experiences of adults be passed on to future generations? If we don’t document this information and put it on the Internet it may completely disappear in the future. Books of information will hopefully always be around. But because searching the Internet is so easy and discovering metadata from it is so great having your knowledge on the net is a necessity, IMHO.

A lot of my interest are in radical left politics and the activism that comes from struggle. Sadly many of these struggles are not new to human kind. It seems we’re always taking three steps forward and two steps back. We have traditional methods of passing on information about radical activism knowledge. Great books, teach-ins, consensus groups, fairs, bookstores, etc. But wouldn’t it be great to hear about how-to conduct a sit-in straight from men and women who’ve done it? Wouldn’t it be incredible to listen to instructions on organizing a strike? What about watching experienced radicals discuss movement building? There are so many more possibilities. I wish we had recordings of Bob Sheldon who founded the Internationalist Bookstore in 1981. (maybe we do… ?)

I suppose my recordings of Stan Goff reading his writing about Marxist economic theory counts. But the NC Storyblogging project may be looking for any content gathered. I’m sure rambling story telling is just as welcomed.

But because all knowledge is important I’m interested in documenting many things. Not just politically left concepts from experienced radicals. So I’m sure I’ll be helping Anton record all kinds of stuff. And to be perfectly clear Anton is interested in many story topics. So don’t assume my interest are a limitation of his wonderful project. Respect.

FBI targeting US activist activities as ‘domestic terrorism’ from Asheville Global Report.

According to new documents released on Dec. 20 by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), the FBI is using counterterrorism resources to monitor and infiltrate domestic political organizations that criticize business interests and government policies, despite a lack of evidence that the groups are engaging in or supporting violent action.

COINTELPRO is an acronym (’Counter Intelligence Program’) for a program of the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation aimed at investigating and disrupting dissident political organizations within the United States. [Definition from Wikipedia]

Found link via Richard Stallman

What does this mean for activism, specifically media activism? At first look this means that we’ll have access to ALL of the powerful Windows and Macintosh software on one machine. This is huge! The reality is both operating have unique strengths. It’s an exponential power increase. This new power jump can really help activists.

Will Mac OS X run on a PC? Not any time soon. This is disappointing. Especially for bridging the digital divide. PC hardware tends to be less expensive. It’s what tons of schools and community technology centers have. But those machines will get old and unusable eventually. If you’re responsible for purchasing new computers, and are on a tight budget, consider buying or finding donations of the Apple Mac Mini. It doesn’t have an Intel chip yet but will soon. Once it does you’ll have one very small computer that is relatively inexpensive, can run Windows and OS X, and will be an extremely powerful tool.

In the near future computers will be so cheap and powerful that we can only dream of the RADICAL change we can bring upon the world with a few key strokes. (BTW… this is a good thing. Change is good.)