Tag Archives: politics: posts from Subversive Soapbox

If SOPA Passes It Will Be the End of Music Streaming/Online Radio

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I finally submitted my electronic signature to the petition to congress to oppose the bill that will remove our Internet freedoms (SOPA). I thought I'd share with you the letter I wrote under the section, "Tell your story"…

I'm the sixth most popular DJ on the music site Blip.fm. My station gained this popularity because I focus on playing things that are underplayed, be it under-the-radar indie bands or long-forgotten b-sides of yesteryear. The music I play is primarily not music you will hear on commercial radio, but it is protected by copyright. I do this for free–it is my passion to help people discover these fantastic bands, as so many have tired of the repetitive and trite options available through commercial radio. In order to comply with the demands of record labels, the site does not allow file uploads so most of the songs are streamed from YouTube uploaders who are violating copyright by posting the vidoes.

If the SOPA Bill passes, the site where I play music, and any streaming site like it, will be outlawed. Moreover, I would face a ten-year prison sentence for hosting my amateur radio show. This despite the fact that none of the songs I play on my station are available for download, and links are provided to Amazon and iTunes for those who are ready to purchase. Professionally, I work in publicity and marketing so I understand that these bands need the publicity sites like Blip.fm provides. Sadly, many bands willingly sign detrimental contracts so they can gain access to the corporate labels' big-budget publicity campaigns.  It is absurd that a label will pay millions of dollars to have "street teams" that give away free CDs at hip bars in major cities–all while claiming that sharing music is hurting their business model. 

It is equally absurd to put the sentencing guidelines for copywrite infringement in the same range as child rape or armed robbery. I find it hard to believe that even the most willfull copywrite infringer on the planet is committing the same harm as rapists and robbers, nor do they represent a danger to society. I should hope that if SOPA passes and I am charged with a felony, someone can explain to me how the payola-backed radio DJs are upstanding members of society and those with streaming radio stations are criminals.

Posted via email from Subversive Soapbox

In Eight Hours I Strike

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tumblr ltyj0iJ7zJ1qbb2xgo1 400 In Eight Hours I Strike

 

The police had slashed our tents; thrown away clothes, food, medical supplies; and arrested the protesters and the reinforcements that were ready to replace us. The police had thrown noxious chemicals and burning gas at us and shot us with rubber bullets. The police had showed their might and erected a flimsy fence to reinforce it. And as they were lying to the media about who did what and when, this sign went up.

Though their numbers had dwindled after Tuesday night’s police brutality, this sign captured the sentiment. The remaining occupiers stood in the street with a banner. They thanked me for coming. Everyone was angry. No one was daunted.

That was on Tuesday. By Wednesday at six the fences were torn down and the camp reestablished. Enough food was donated to feed everyone. A day later there was a library, school tent, and an agreement to have a general strike. My friend got six medical volunteers in a three-hour shift. Not hobos, not teenagers—People who know how to insert a catheter. Constantly there were meetings.

I have never in my life seen such a group of people so diverse, so motivated, so organized and so relentlessly determined. Regardless of what happens tomorrow, we are not quitting. We have been waiting. The time is now.

I say “us” and “we” though it’s unfair to say for I’m not among the campers. My tent wasn’t shredded. My laptop wasn’t “confiscated.” I didn’t have to sleep on the floor in a jail.

I say “us” because Occupy Oakland knows that the movement is much bigger than the campers. It is the farmers that provide the food, the bloggers and publicists  that share the news, the artists that make the t-shirts and photos, the designers and developers who build the website, the thousands who clashed with police on Tuesday. The campers represent us. They are our proxies.

Politicians count active constituents as representative of larger numbers of lazy voters. One email counts for a handful of miffed voters, a letter even more, a phone call counts for many, and you can bet if people are sleeping on your fucking lawn you can count on a crowd with torches and forks.

The campers sit for me. Tomorrow I stand for the protesters. Tomorrow there is no work. Tomorrow there is no shopping. Tomorrow, I strike.

Posted via email from Paperback Pusher

“Specific suggestion: General strike” By Garret Keizer

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As for how the strike would be publicized and organized, these would depend on the willingness to strike itself. The greater the willingness, the fewer the logistical requirements. How many Americans does it take to change a lightbulb? How many Web postings, how many emblazoned bedsheets hung from the upper-story windows? Think of it this way: How many hours does it take to learn the results of last night’s American Idol, even when you don’t want to know?

In 1943 the Danes managed to save 7,200 of their 7,800 Jewish neighbors from the Gestapo. They had no blogs, no television, no text messaging—and very little time to prepare. They passed their apartment keys to the hunted on the streets. They formed convoys to the coast. An ambulance driver set out with a phone book, stopping at any address with a Jewish-sounding name. No GPS for directions. No excuse not to try.

But what if it failed? What if the general strike proved to be anything but general? I thought Bush was supposed to be the one afraid of science. Hypothesis, experiment, analysis, conclusion—are they his hobgoblins or ours? What do we have to fear, except additional evidence that George W. Bush is exactly what he appears to be: the president few of us like and most of us deserve. But science dares to test the obvious. So let us dare.

When I heard that Oakland is planning a general strike for November 2nd, I went and pulled up this fantastic article written by Garret Keizer for Harpers magazine back in 2006. It is among the best essays I’ve ever read.

I will post more excerpts from this on Subversive Soapbox but you should really just go read the rest of it right now.

Posted via email from Future is Fiction

Suddenly I Find That I Am Rooting For the Underdog

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Though I have always been the one to pick the sick puppy in the litter and the short geeky kid for kickball, I thought for once backing Clinton meant I was choosing the front-runner. But I no longer have confidence that she is going to win this primary.

Today I did a google search for “reasons to vote for hillary clinton” (but without the quotation marks) and the overwhelming majority returned links on reasons not to vote for Clinton. Two of the responses given in one blog that strove to come up with reasons to vote for her were tragically typical:

IF SHE WILL HAVE SEX WITH ME, I WILL VOTE FOR HER—hey, bill aint nailing her now?

None. No joke. Seriously. She’d be the prettiest president we’ve ever had. I only say that because I’m hetro and she’s the only woman ever. She’s not hot. At all.

I went to a brunch on Sunday with a bunch of liberals, most of whom are voting for Obama because he gives more rousing speeches. They believe that since voters vote based on feelings, the candidate that inspires more feelings will win more moderates. So even though they personally claim to be well-versed on the issues and above the whole idea of supporting a candidate based on
appearances, they will be making their vote based on appearances.

And many blog posters seem to think it is disgusting that one would support Clinton for her gender. Yet Obama’s supporters like him because he looks and talks pretty.

For all the hair-clawing and dirt-throwing, their positions are pretty much identical (should this be surprising in a democracy where the candidates’ positions are based on branding, marketing and polling?).

For example, the issue I care about most is global warming. So I looked up their positions on the environmental site, grist.org:

Clinton’s position: Supports a cap-and-trade system to cut U.S. emissions 80% below 1990 levels by 2050. Supports raising standards to 40 mpg by 2020 and 55 mpg by 2030. Supports “clean coal.” Supports coal-to-liquid fuels if they emit 20% less carbon over their lifecycle than conventional fuels. Calls for 60 billion gallons of homegrown biofuels to be available for use in vehicles in the U.S. by 2030. Calls for getting 25% of U.S. electricity from renewables by 2025. Proposes a $50 billion, 10-year fund that would invest in renewables and other energy sources.

Obama’s position: Supports a cap-and-trade system to cut U.S. emissions 80% below 1990 levels by 2050. Supports raising standards for cars to 40 mpg and light trucks to 32 mpg by 2020. Supports “clean coal.” Supports coal-to-liquid fuels, but has qualified that support, saying they must emit 20% less carbon over their lifecycle than conventional fuels. Calls for 60 billion gallons of biofuels to be produced in the U.S. each year by 2030. Calls for getting 25% of U.S. electricity from renewables by 2025. Calls for 30% of the federal government’s electricity to come from renewables by 2020. Proposes investing $150 billion over 10 years in R&D for renewables, biofuels, efficiency, and other clean tech.

Wow. They’re exactly the same. The only difference is that Obama supports nuclear power, and won’t say he doesn’t support coal-to-oil, both of which are big negatives to me (the latter he can’t back down from because his home-state Illinois is a big coal producer).

Many see the big conservative push against Clinton as a reason not to voter for her.
They believe that moderate conservatives would rather not vote than support Clinton. I think this argument is bunk. The reason there is a big anti-Hillary movement is because, as former first lady, she has been the target of right wing think tanks for years. What they are dishing at her now is the worst they can come up with. All her skeletons are long out of the closet, and the closet is looking pretty clean. Obama, on the other hand is a relative newcomer to the scene. But as soon as he is chosen, those same “swift boat” vets will be targeting the good muslim. They are already confusing his name with “Osama” on Fox News. You can count on them to villify him the way they have tried to villify her for years. And yet she is still very popular with half of the country. They said she couldn’t get elected senator and yet she swept to victory both times.

But her chances are starting to look pretty grim. If Clinton wins, I will be out there campaigning for her. I will, for the first time in years, feel like there is a candidate running that really represents me. But right now it looks like I will be getting a chance to catch up on my Sims2 skills. At least in the virtual world a woman can rule.

The recent dangers of flying rocks and CO2.

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By far the most disturbing class I ever took in college was astronomy. The planetarium shows always featured either the theme, “Look how insignificant we are,” or ,”We could all die at any minute.” Our instructor told us about asteroids that hit our little planet all the time. We saw pictures. The conversation goes…

“So if this had been a major city, millions would have died.”

“Shouldn’t we be concerned?”

“Oh, well, it’s unlikely.”

“Yeah, but that one you have on the screen happened about two years ago.”

“Yes, but it is most likely to hit the ocean, or an unoccupied land mass. Like this giant crater in this slide… anyway, if they see it coming, they could nudge it several inches from thousands of miles away and that would be enough to steer it off course.”

“Didn’t seem to work in this picture.”

“Well, yes, no one knows about most of them until after they hit.”

“So, what you’re saying is, there’s always a slight chance that a giant asteroid could come hurtiling towards my window and pulverize you, me, and everyone we know; we have the capability to stop this and we don’t bother to hire two or three grad students to stay on top of this sort of thing?”

“Well, yes, except that a large asteroid really has the potential to destroy all life on earth. But really, it’s quite unlikely. So here’s another picture from 1992; this crater is about the size of New Hampshire…”

I have only felt that sort of terror and shock over the fate of our world on one other occasion — last week. I went to go see this film called “An Inconvenient Truth.” It’s about the presentation that Al Gore’s been giving in cities all over the world to spread the truth about global warming.

I’m sure you’re thinking, a slide show about Al Gore? zzzzzzz …. SNORE…. zzzzzz….

Yet the facts alone are compelling enough to make this required watching for anyone who has or is thinking about having children. Or anyone who cares about the future of humanity. Or anyone that’s planning on living to a ripe old age. Or anyone who was affected by Hurricane Katrina. Or anyone whose noticed that summers keep getting hotter and hotter. Or — Okay, you get the idea.

The presentation of the film is engaging without being too flashy. I was watching Ebert and Roeper (I don’t really like either of them but I like to watch them bicker — now that’s reality TV!) and Ebert said that for the first time in his entire career he felt that it was apt to say, “You owe it to yourself to see this movie.”

On another note, I think its fantastic that Al Gore hasn’t gone into retirement. But where was this side of him when he was running for office? If he’s so concerned about global warming than it should have been a huge part of his campaign. In the movie Gore has wit and character. Where was this in the speeches and debates? Of course the Democrats don’t want to step on any toes. There so worried about stepping on toes they can barely cross the street.

Whatever your opinions of Al, please go see this movie. You won’t regret it.