You are currently browsing the monthly archive for August 2011.

Folks know where to find those with guns. Stupid fucking “christians” want to start a “Terrorist Watch” list of known and avowed “atheists”, apparently unaware of the fact that WE KNOW who each and every one of you are, we don’t need a list, and when we come looking for you bloodthirsty terrorist bastards we know just where to find you. And find you we will. You want a War, Jew Niggers? You got it.

This world will never know Peace until every Jew/Christian/Muslim is dead.

Rick Perry is no more than a Jew loving fag. Kiss his ass, tea baggers, kiss his ass.

Every year millions of students sign up to attend community colleges and, after paying a fee, sit down at computer terminals to take “placement tests” which, they are assured, will be used simply to “see where they are” academically. In fact, they are unwittingly taking a test that could end their college dreams right then and there.

Placement tests determine whether students are put into college-level courses for credit or “remedial” classes, for which they earn no credit and from which few students ever emerge. Unlike the SAT, there’s little chance to prep for or retake placement tests, and research suggests they are poor predictors of academic success. But the biggest difference is this: If you bomb the SAT, the worst thing that can happen is you can’t go to the college of your choice. If you bomb a placement test, you effectively can’t go to college at all.

In an illuminating investigative report, Pulitzer-Prize winning journalist Susan Headden details how poorly-designed and often-misused placement tests, combined with a dysfunctional remedial education system, block millions of otherwise-capable lower-income students from getting the college educations they need — and what a better system would look like.

Nancy Pelosi: “Imagine. Imagine that they are protecting tax cuts for the top 2%, but it’s really more, higher than that, lower than that, I mean, a higher percentage of people excluded from who they are looking out for, and it’s a stunning thing, because it’s a few people amassing money that doesn’t really make a difference in their quality of life. I decided what it was about them is this, this is my theory, what more do they want? They have a number of homes, the bigger the yacht, da da da da da, the taller the mast, the whole thing, they have museum quality art, and I decided, if in fact they are advocating for this, which I’m not sure they are, I think Republicans just like to have that position. They want immortality. They want so much money that their names are all, for prestige they could never get any other way, they could buy with endless money. Because what else could you possibly want? That you would say ‘I want this at the expense of the middle class, of our democracy, of fairness, of clean air, clean water, food safety, public education and the rest of it, clean air, clean water, food safety, reform on Wall Street, protection for citizens, you name it, forget about it. They are de-funding every initiative in that regard, you wonder, do their children breathe air, do they drink water, why do they not care? But they don’t. But they don’t.

[...] When we won the election in 06′, and we came in, the first day, in the first 100 hours we raised the minimum wage. It was the first time the minimum wage was raised in eleven years. I bring that up for this reason, it wasn’t kept down because people just, you know, small businesses said ‘I can’t afford”, it was kept down for a purpose, it was kept down for the purpose that people would not be able to live on that, they’d have to borrow, against home equity loans, against their mortgages, there this and that, they’d have to live on credit cards, and what are they doing when they do that, their paying fees to the banks, their paying fees to them, so it’s a contrived dependence on private credit for millions, tens of millions of working people in our country, and who they are is who they bring to that table, protect the tax breaks for the wealthiest people in our country, do not allow wages to rise with productivity, keep people dependent on paying fees to banks for the use of their own money, for the use of their own money. So this is as progressive a fight as we have ever been in.”

Watch this video of Bill Nye explaining global warming to a Fox News bobble-head.

The best analogy to today’s two party political system is that of an abusive household, with the Republics the beating, bullying, over-consuming “father” and the Dems the wife and children who quail at his very presence.

I can’t help but wonder if all those folks out there watering their sidewalks think they’re gonna’ grow? Those sprinkler heads are really pretty simple to adjust, and like garbage cans and unshoveled snow, it’s an obstruction, and against the law.

It’s a long ways from Oregon and it doesn’t mean shit to me.

“The Christian resolve to find the world evil and ugly, has made the world evil and ugly.” ~ Friedrich Nietzsche

Published on Tuesday, August 30, 2011 by OtherWords

Community radio is about to undergo an unprecedented expansion.

After their state passed universal healthcare legislation this spring, Vermonters were surprised by a gaping omission in national news coverage: they weren’t in it.

Despite a statewide grassroots campaign that demanded the historic legislation, most news reports painted politicians as the champions of the new law. Even most progressive media outlets missed the real story, showing the smiling governor signing the bill but not the thousands of working Vermonters who pressured the statehouse to pass it.

Low-power stations bring neighbors together to solve problems, celebrate culture, and build a better future. (photo: Daniel Ivan / Flickr)

It’s not just about giving credit where it’s due in Vermont. Our power to influence politics is limited by the media’s willingness to cover the stories about the rest of us. That’s why some of the largest protests in U.S. history failed to stop the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003, and why months of pro-labor protests in Wisconsin this year attracted scant attention compared with much smaller-scale tea party rallies.

The lesson is clear. To get a better country, we need a better media. That’s why the Vermont Workers Center, the group whose healthcare campaign deserves credit for that extraordinary new law, is taking media into their own hands. It’s starting a radio station in Barre, Vermont, a low-income city underserved by media of any kind.

Thanks to the recent passage of the Local Community Radio Act, nonprofit organizations will soon be able to apply for licenses to start their own stations nationwide.

As early as next summer, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) will begin accepting applications for low-power FM stations. It will be the first such opportunity in more than a decade, and for medium and large cities, it will be the first opportunity in more than 30 years.

Where they already exist, community radio stations cover city elections, play local music, and broadcast emergency alerts. In Urbana, Illinois, reporters from the radio station WRFU exposed a toxic waste site and pressured the city to clean it up. In rural Florida, migrant farm workers use their radio station WCIW to hold employers accountable when wages don’t get paid. And in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, the station WQRZ stayed on the air after Hurricane Katrina, running off a car battery when other stations were down.

Only about 800 low-power stations are on the air today, but that number could double or triple with the passage of the new law, creating the largest expansion of community radio in U.S. history.

It’s an exciting moment, but why would anyone who’s not a deejay or a media mogul want to get involved?

First, low-power radio isn’t rocket science. Unlike bigger stations that require teams of engineers and experts, low-power stations are relatively inexpensive to start and simple to operate. This makes them accessible for organizations like the Vermont Workers Center who want another way to get their message heard.

Second, community radio stations don’t just transmit over the airwaves. They help to create the communities they cover. They support local festivals, host candidate debates, and provide on-air training for youth.

In an age when most media outlets are run by multinational corporations, low-power community stations must be non-commercial and locally owned, with only one per customer. Clear Channel and News Corp. need not apply.

At 100 watts or less, these stations are hyper-local, reaching only five or 10 miles in any direction. Most are run by volunteers, who host call-in talk shows, introduce new bands, and cover everything from city budget cuts to gardening tips.

Low-power stations bring neighbors together to solve problems, celebrate culture, and build a better future.

Isn’t that what we want all of our media to do?

Brandy Doyle

Brandy Doyle is the policy director of the Prometheus Radio Project, a national organization founded in 1998 to build, support, and advocate for low power community radio and a more democratic media.www.prometheusradio.org

Listen to High Desert Community Radio at KPOV, now full power FM at 88.9

Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.