The Choice

Let's Look At Both Sides

"...and on the other side you have stupid people, crazy people, dangerous people, stupid dangerous crazy people, people who think you're Hitler, and the Senate Finance Committee. I know that's a tough choice."

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In Defense of Food: An Eaters Manifesto

Michael Pollan is one of the nations leading writers and thinkers in this country on the issue of food. He is author of several books about food, including The Botany of Desire, The Omnivores Dilemma and his latest, In Defense of Food: An Eaters Manifesto. In light of what he calls the processed food industry co-option of sustainability and its vast spending on marketing, Pollan advises to be wary of any food that's advertised. 94% of it is spent advertising processed foods.

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This Dancin's Not Dirty

Although painful to watch, it is not criminal for Madison County's Rebecca Willis to dance which she proved after an eight year battle in court and a payoff of $275,000.

She had been banned for life in late 2000 from the Town Depot because some thought her dance moves were too provocative. Her case against the town of Marshall was dismissed, but a fourth District Court of Appeals ruling allows her to keep fighting. The ACLU contends that the dancing ban was a violation of Willis' civil rights.

Go Granny, Go! How tenacious was she to hang in there for eight long years?

link

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Tell Fox New To Stop Race Baiting & Fear Mongering

Dear Friends,

Right now, Fox News is trying to paint Barack Obama as foreign, un-American, suspicious, and scary. They're trying to send Americans the message that our country's first viable Black candidate for President is not "one of us."

I've joined on to ColorOfChange.org's campaign to push back on Fox, publicly demanding they stop their race-baiting and fear mongering. If that doesn't work, then we'll go to their advertisers and the FCC. I wanted to invite you to sign on as well. It takes only a moment:

Tell Fox News chief Roger Ailes to stop racism before it hits the airwaves, and make it clear that you'll take action when another racist smear happens.

Sign letter

Thanks.

[Read More »]

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Health Care For All

18,000 Americans die every year because they don't have a health insurance card. We should be taking to the streets with rage, but we're too damn conditioned and accepting of this fate.

I'm just saying.

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Save Net Radio

Save Net Radio

The Day the Music Dies

Internet radio stations like SomaFM have launched bands and influenced what mainstream DJs play. On July 15, they could be gone forever. By David Downs

Currently capturing 72 million listeners per month — versus 280 million for terrestrial radio — Net radio has hijacked the authority of terrestrial radio with one-billionth the resources over the last 15 years.

"Big radio's least-common-denominator approach creates playlists that the least amount of people will ever turn off. There's no personality, no edge," says Hodge. "The challenge here is to do a lot with a little."

Webcasters like Seattle's KEXP and San Francisco's SomaFM are the de facto curators of America's most avant-garde electric art galleries. Their playlists read like Next Big Thing cheat sheets for mainstream DJs, college radio stations, marketers, and advertisers. What was once a cult of hobbyists now encompasses major players like Clear Channel, which simulcasts existing holdings and compete against offerings from National Public Radio, AOL, and Yahoo.

Now this weird radio empire could all come crashing down in less than a month on what people in the industry are calling D-Day, or "the day the music dies."


On July 15, the bill comes due for a whole new set of royalties that will wipe out Net radio as we know it. No more KEXP, no more SomaFM, you name it.

A ruling by the Copyright Royalty Board back in March hiked SomaFM's royalty bill from $10,000 in 2006 to $600,000, retroactively — even though the little radio company's gross revenues were only $125,000 last year.

But SomaFM and other Webcasters are fighting back. David Downs has a good article on SFWeekly and explains the situation very well.

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What You Can Do:
Visit Save Net Radio for tips about calling your political representatives.

Sign "Save Net Radio" Petition

Spread the word. We ARE the media. Don't fuck with our internet radio.

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SICKO

From the trailer of SICKO

NARRATOR: When Michael Moore decided to make a movie on the health care industry, top-level executives were on the defensive. What were they hiding?

EXECUTIVE: That's not on, right?

MICHAEL MOORE: No.

EXECUTIVE: Okay.

EXECUTIVE: The intent is to maximize profits.

MICHAEL MOORE: If you denied more people health care you got a bonus?

WOMAN: When you don't spend money on somebody, it is a savings to the company.

HEALTH CARE WORKER: I denied a necessary a man a necessary operation and thus caused his death. This secured my reputation and it ensured my continued advancement in the health care field.


POLITICIAN: I want America to have the finest health care in the world.

MICHAEL MOORE: Four health care lobbyists for every member of Congress. Here's what is what it costs to buy these men, and this woman, and this guy, and this guy. And the United States slipped to 37 in healthcare around the world - just slightly ahead of Slovenia.

[laughter]


WOMAN: I get a bill from my insurance company telling me that the ambulance ride wasn't pre-approved. I don't know when I was supposed to pre-approve it. After I gained consciousness in the car? Before I got in the ambulance?

MICHAEL MOORE: There's actually one place on American soil that had free universal health care.

MICHAEL MOORE: Which way to Guantanamo Bay?

GOVT OFFICIAL: Detainees representing a threat to our national security are given access to top-notch medical facilities.

MICHAEL MOORE: Permission to enter. I have three 9/11 rescue workers. They just want some medical attention - the same kind the evildoers are getting...Hello?


If you missed Michael Moore on Democracy Now today you can get caught up at the website and listen, read, or watch the Sicko trailer. And do NOT miss the transcripts of his California Assembly speech half way down the page. Out-fucking-standing.

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