Laid off sugar plum fairies seeking work. Rule out the zoo.
(From the answering machine of Sup. Tom Ammiano on Dec. 27, 2007).
Impertinent question: Tom, is the issue that the troubles at the zoo are yet another example of what happens when the city allows a public resource to go private? B3
The bad news?
Grandma got run over by a reindeer.
The good news?
She got $500,000 severance pay. Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus.
(From the inspired voicemail of Sup. Tom Ammiano on Thursday, Dec. 20, 2007.) B3
C.W. Nevius blames homeless for Susan Leal’s accident, the upcoming drought, and for not sending the children to the Gap sweatshop.
(From the answering machine of Sup. Tom Ammiano on Tuesday, Dec. l8, 2007). Nevius is the ace Chronicle columnist in a long line of Chronicle editorial staffers who operate on a key Hearst principle: attack the homeless but don;t attack PG@E. And don’t attack PG@E and its illegal private power monopoly alone and unmolested. Note David R. Baker’s ad for PG@E, masquerading as a front page story with color and diagrams, about how PG@E is going to support a commercial wave power plant off the Northern California coast. Big deal. No matter how this pie-in-the-ocean project will turn out, the result will still be expensive private power which PG@E will send to the rubes in San Francisco in violation of the federal Raker Act that mandates cheap public power in San Francisco. (See Guardian stories back to l969). B3
And now we need l00,000 people to get Congress to reverse the FCC of George W. Bush to reverse the commission’s sellout to the Big Media who supported us going into Iraq and are now helping keep us there
By Bruce B. Brugmann
(Scroll down to sign a protest letter to Congress and the New York Times story)
As expected, FCC Chairman Kevin Martin and his two Republican colleagues approved new rules that will unleash yet another flood oer media consolidation across the country. As expected, the Big Media is either blacking out or minimalizing the story, with the notable exception of the New York Times which ran an opposing editorial in Monday’s edition and a strong story online today. (See below).
As Robert McChesney, the president of Free Press, a valiant media reform group puts it in an action alert,
“This is about whether we will have access to the information that democracy requires. it is about whether or not we’ll have real news and local voices on radio, trelevision, and in the newspaper in your town. It’s about whether the public airwaves will represent our nation’s diversity.”
Or, let me add, a city’s diversity, such as San Francsico. Remember the Will and Willie show on the Quake on Clear Channel, a highly valuable show that was killed brutally with no explanation because it didn’t have high enough ratings and wasn’t able to go national? That’s but one local example of this dreadful phenomenon. There are some good people on the liberal Quake on Clear Channel (Thom Hartman, Big Ed Schulz, Randi Rhodes, Rachel Matteo, et al), but none of them bring a San Francisco perspective to the show, even though the city is one of the most liberal and civilized cities in tthe world and has the Speaker of the House and two California Senators (Diane Feinstein in the city, Barbara Boxer in Marin).
McChesney rolls the drums and points out that in 2003 the FCC tried to do the same thing, but millions of people demanded that Congress reject the FCC’s rules. And they did, thanks in large part to McChesney’s group. And it’s ttime to do it again. Sign the open letter to Congress, as suggested in the alert below. B3
Read the New York Times article here.
Dear Charles,
It happened. A few minutes ago, FCC Chairman Kevin Martin and his two fellow GOP commissioners approved new rules that will unleash a flood of media consolidation across America. The rules will further consolidate local media markets — taking away independent voices in cities already woefully short on local news and investigative journalism.
In 2003, the FCC tried to do the same thing, but millions of people demanded that Congress reject the FCC’s rules. And they did. It’s time to do it again.
We need 100,000 people to get Congress to reverse the FCC’s rules right now.
Sign Our Open Letter to Congress
Then get three of your friends to do the same.
This is about whether we will have access to the information that democracy requires. It is about whether or not we’ll have real news and local voices on radio, television and in the newspaper in your town. It’s about whether the public airwaves will represent our nation’s diversity.
Just yesterday — spurred by your calls and letters — 26 senators from both parties sent a letter to the FCC Chairman promising “to revoke and nullify the proposed rule” if the FCC voted to lift the longstanding ban on “newspaper-broadcast cross-ownership.” But Chairman Martin did it anyway.
Congress has the power to throw out these rules — and if 100,000 people demand it, they’ll have to listen.
Take action now and spread the word.
Some say that nobody listens to letters like this. Well they definitely do, and it’s a way you can truly help the cause with just a few clicks. Sign on now — and get your friends to do the same.
Your actions are making a difference. Let’s keep up the pressure. And stay tuned — this fight is far from over.
Thanks for bringing us this far,
Robert McChesney
President
Free Press
www.freepress.net
P.S. Spread the word: Recruit three new friends to sign on to this letter and send the message to Congress.
P.P.S. Read Senator John Kerry’s blog post on today’s decision on the Free Press Action Network.
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View more information about this campaign at: www.action.freepress.net/campaign/sbmopenletter
Tell your friends about this campaign at: www.action.freepress.net/campaign/sbmopenletter/forward
If you received this message from a friend, you can click here to become a Free Press activist.
New Jersey bans the death penalty. Bada Bing!
(From the answering machine of Sup. Tom Ammiano on Dec. l7, 2007.)
Full disclosure: Ammiano is from Mountclair, New Jersey, and a fan of the Sopranos.) B3
To read full Stockton article, click on the Continue Reading link.
By Bruce B. Brugmann
As an Iowan, I am fascinated by all the reports by all the hotshot out of state reporters who paratroop into the state and start filing stories from Rock Rapids, Clear Lake, Storm Lake, and Cedar Rapids and little places all over the state.
Iowans like to see their candidates up close and there is a feeling back there that they may end up voting for the candidate they would most like to invite into their living room for a chat or meet down at the local cafe for breakfast.
Here’s a dispatch sent to me from the grassroots by Carolyn Schmidt, retired associate director of public relations at Coe College in Cedar Rapids. Carolyn is a political activist, Iowa style, calling Congress members, writing letters to the editor, emailing Congress and doing so, in the past two weeks, in the teeth of the onslaught of ice and snow.
Carolyn writes from Cedar Rapids,
“As the dems are so close. I’m betting on Obama, but Hillary and Edwards campaigns have been ringing our phone several times a week with “surveys” asking if it’s “concerning to us that Obama voted ‘present’ on a choice issue in Congress” or that he’s a community organizer while Edwards is a trial lawyer who went to bat for poor people. THEY must think Obama is going to win too. Hillary has been running some very appealing ads, with her mother and daughter in tow. She may surprise us. Edwards is on the preferred side of the domestic issues, particularly the bad deal existing for poor and low-income families, but his personality is too laid back.
“On the Republican side, I’d just say that Romney–who has spent a ton of money saturating the airwaves with ads since summer–is fading. People see him as artificial and opportunistic. Des Moines high school students on Friday characterized him as “completely fabricated.” I think they are right on! Huckabee took some hits this week for actions he’s taken as governor in Arkansas, but he still appeals to conservatives more than any other Republican, I think. McCain’s support is rising, however. Most Iowans aren’t fooled by Guiliani, but he IS charming.
“Many Iowans attend rallies for a number of candidates to see how the personalities compare. Obama comes across as fresh, articulate, straightforward, and impassioned. He’s been able to deflect criticisms, and he has a superb organization. His staff is training first-time caucus-goers on procedures and strategies. (The Democratic caucus procedures are more complicated than the Republicans who just conduct a straw poll, as you probably know.) Biden and Hillary and Richardson are impressive because of the accomplishments they can point to, saying these aren’t campaign promises, they are proof I can deliver.
“A lot can happen in the next three weeks, of course.”
I hope to get more reports from Carolyn and others. Stay tuned. B3
This is President George W. Bush. I am outraged by the baseball hemorrhoid scandal. Uh. Steroid. Whatever.
(From the home answering machine of Sup. Tom Ammiano on Dec. 14, 2007)
Tom was spotted at the annual SFT Holiday party on Wednesday night, working the crowd, doing informal Ammianoliners (his enunciation is better in person), and letting people know he is running for Assemblyman Leno’s seat. Sacramento can use some Ammiano and some Amminanoliners on a regular basis. B3
By Bruce B. Brugmann
As things get tougher and tougher in the newspaper business, there are two jobs that are the toughest of all. One is writing the obituary for your own paper and your own job. The other is writing the story that tries to explain why the daily paper you work on keeps getting peddled about like the stakes in a Las Vegas poker game.
The latest example of the second story appeared in today’s Stockton Record by an unlucky soul by the name of Mike Klocke. He starts out as these stories usually do, citing the honor that came once upon a time to the paper when it was owned by a local family.
“The Irving Martin Assembly Room at the Record is named for the newspaper’s founder, whose family owned the business for its first 74 years,” Klock wrote. “Ironically, if the day comes when The Record once again is sold, employees will get the news in the upstairs room that honors one of Stockton’s historic figures.
“I bring this up because of last week’s $5 billion offer by publishing magnate Rupert Murdoch to purchase Dow Jones @ Co. The community newspaper division of Dow Jones, Ottaway Newspapers Inc., owns the Record.”
Wait a moment. There is a telling detail: the date on the story is May 6, 2007, the date of Murdoch’s offer to buy Dow Jones, and the Record is running the exact same story six months later on the day that the sale is finalized back on Wall Street.
Bravely, Klocke goes through the Record history of five owners since Loretta Martin ended the family’s association with the Record in l969. The Record, he says, “has been somewhat akin to a baton in a track meet relay.
The Martin family sold to Speidel Newspapers Inc. (l969: which merged with Gannett Newspapers Inc (l977), which sold the Record to the Omaha World-Herald (l994), which sold to Ottaway (2003).
Still more bravely, Klocke writes that “uncertainty can be draining on employees at all levels. If you’re not careful, it can make you lose your focus. I’Ive always believed working in the newspaper business is a mission. We cover news aggressively, help you decide where to shop with advertisements and put the newspaper on your driveway each morning.
“We also now put news and advertising at your fingertips online throughout the day. We also have a bit of the chameleon in our DNA. We embrace challenges and adapt to new environments. The future? Who knows?
“The Record could be sold again, or Ottaway (Dow Jones) still could own the company for decades. Our business model, news-gathering approach and company makeup likely will continue to change.
“Our commitment to the mission and the communities we serve will not falter.”
Idle question: Why can’t reporters who think like this, and editors who allow this kind of story to run when their papers are in play, end up running our valuable community daily papers?
Well, the word from my sources out in the valley is that there are only two real possible buyers: Singleton or McClatchy newspapers, both of whom already own a dangerously huge chunk of the California newspaper business.
They are members in what I call the Galloping Conglomerati. And they are poised to pounce at the very same time that the Big Media are blacking out or marginalizing the major Big Media story that the FCC is about to open the floodgates to even more local media consolidation and even more junk news. (See my blow below.)
Where it all will end knows only God. B3
Owners might change — but not the mission
The Irving Martin Assembly Room at The Record is named for the newspaper’s founder, whose family owned the business for its first 74 years.
Ironically, if the day comes when The Record once again is sold, employees will get the news in the upstairs room that honors one of Stockton’s historic figures.
I bring this up because of last week’s $5 billion offer by publishing magnate Rupert Murdoch to purchase Dow Jones & Co. The community newspaper division of Dow Jones, Ottaway Newspapers Inc., owns The Record.
Murdoch’s eyes, of course, are on The Wall Street Journal and Dow Jones’ myriad successful online ventures. For now, he’s been rebuffed by Dow Jones’ controlling shareholders.
News industry speculation is intensifying about whether this is a first foray by Murdoch and whether other potential buyers will materialize.
As for The Record? Editor and Publisher magazine’s online site reports that New England-based GateHouse Media Inc., a very active recent buyer of newspapers, would be a likely bidder for Ottaway.
GateHouse doesn’t have a West Coast presence, so The Record could in turn be sold to a company with successful California “clustering” of newspapers such as McClatchy (Sacramento, Modesto, Merced and Fresno) or MediaNews (Bay Area papers).
McClatchy and MediaNews both have pursued buying The Record in the past.
Sure, it’s speculation at this point. It’s difficult not to ponder the future when there’s the potential for a fifth different owner since Loretta Martin decided to end the family’s association with The Record in 1969.
In the past 38 years, The Record has been somewhat akin to a baton in a track-meet relay.
The Martin family sold to Speidel Newspapers Inc. (1969), which merged with Gannett Newspapers Inc. (1977), which sold The Record to the Omaha World-Herald (1994), which sold it to Ottaway (2003).
I’ve worked for three of the owners, and they’ve all contributed in positive ways to the company and community.
Ottaway – with excellent guidance and financial support from Dow Jones – made the dream of a new press facility a reality.
Company executives didn’t waste any time, telling us within 30 days of their ownership to get moving on the long-overdue project. The new press became a reality less than two years later.
Ottaway has given us – and Record readers – something we’ve needed for decades. Our Web site development also has been an Ottaway initiative.
The Omaha company proved to be a very good newspaper steward in its nine years of ownership. Omaha executives invested in The Record, and I believe the newspaper truly reconnected with the community during that time.
The Gannett years were, at times, tumultuous. Some excellent longtime employees were hired in various departments back then, and The Record benefited from the opportunities presented by a large, national chain.
Speidel was before my time.
Business uncertainty can be draining on employees at all levels. If you’re not careful, it can make you lose your focus.
I’ve always believed working in the newspaper business is a mission. We cover news aggressively, help you decide where to shop with advertisements and put the newspaper on your driveway each morning.
We also now put news and advertising at your fingertips online throughout the day.
We also have a bit of the chameleon in our DNA. We embrace challenges and adapt to new environments.
The future? Who knows?
The Record could be sold again, or Ottaway (Dow Jones) still could own the company for decades.
Our business model, news-gathering approach and company makeup likely will continue to change.
Our commitment to the mission and the communities we serve will not falter.
Contact Klocke at (209) 546-8250 or mklocke@recordnet.com.
Click here for article.
Huckabee and the Klu Klux Klan claim they’re not homophobic. (Gasp!) Love that sheet and that thread count. Fabulous!
(From the answering machine of Sup. Tom Ammiano on Thursday, Dec. 13.) B3
By Bruce B. Brugmann
Did you know that you, as a member of the public that owns the airwaves, have five days left to top the FCC’s plan to allow the Big Media to “open the floodgates of more media consolidation across America?”
Did you know this quiet move by Bush’s FCC helps further enrich media conglomerates like Murdoch, the Tribune Company, and Gannett? Did you know that this holiday giveaway helps reward media companies that helped Bush go to war in Iraq and helps keep us there? Did you know there is an important media reform group that is fighting this move and is calling in action alerts for citizens to sign up and build a wall against the Big Media?
You see, those simple questions make the point: the Big Media and the Galloping Conglomerati (as I call them) routinely black out or marginalize coverage of the monopolizing of the media and FCC concentration stories. And so I am passing along this key action alert from the Free Press media reform group. Sign up. B3
Below is the press release.
Dear Charles,
In just five days, the Federal Communications Commission plans to open the floodgates of further media consolidation across America.
If FCC Chairman Kevin Martin gets his way, your community will be inundated with even more mass-produced celebrity gossip and infotainment, and less local reporting and quality journalism: more of the the junk news that is making us sick.
Together we can stop them. We blocked them in 2003, and today we need you to show Washington that you don’t want more media consolidation. To do it, we’re building a “Wall” of opposition: your photo next to thousands of others, standing shoulder to shoulder against Big Media. We’re going to deliver this Wall to the FCC. Add your name now.
Help Build the Wall Against Big Media
Martin wants to “Super Size” Big Media (watch our new video), allowing companies like Gannett, News Corp. and Tribune to swallow up even more local TV, newspaper and radio outlets. Martin wants to let one company own both the major newspaper and a TV station in your hometown, drowning out the few remaining independent voices, so that media moguls like Rupert Murdoch can expand their empires.
We’ve made a new video that shows just how bad news is for us — and our democracy — and what we can do to put more diverse media back on the menu.
Watch Our New Video and Tell Your Friends
If you’re fed up with junk news — please stand shoulder to shoulder with us against the FCC’s Big Media giveaway.
Onward,
Alexandra Russell
Program Director
Free Press
www.freepress.net
www.stopbigmedia.com
P.S. We can’t do this alone. Please tell your friends and family about this important campaign.
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View more information about this campaign at: www.action.freepress.net/campaign/ownership
Tell your friends about this campaign at: www.action.freepress.net/campaign/ownership/forward
Mitt “Big Love” Romney denies he proposed to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. Donnie and Marie? That was just a fling.
(From the answer machine of Sup. Tom Ammiano on Thursday, Dec. 06, 2007).
Stop the FCC’s Quiet Holiday Giveaway to the Big Media
By Bruce B. Brugmann
Since the Big Media are blacking out the story, let me pass along the news and the action plan to mobilize the message and the troops to stop the latest media giveaway by the Bush Administration. It’s payback time for their support of the Iraq war and occupation.
People across the country are building a wall to stop the FCC’s plan to let Big Media swallow up more local stations.
Dear Media Reformer,
FCC Chairman Kevin Martin refuses to listen to the public, but Congress is starting to pay attention. This week, the House announced a formal investigation into the way the FCC conducts business. And yesterday, during a House oversight hearing, Congress scolded the FCC for a “short-circuited decision-making process” and “abuse of power.”
Our campaign is gaining momentum, but we need you to join us in our stand against Big Media.
Stop FCC Chairman Martin & Big Media
In response to a growing public outcry, the Senate Commerce Committee this week passed the Media Ownership Act of 2007 (S. 2332). This crucial legislation would force Martin to slow down, give the public more time to comment, and address the negative impact of media consolidation on minority and female ownership.
Senators Boxer and Feinstein are already a co-sponsors. Thank your senators being leaders on this important effort.
Thank Your Senators for Co-Sponsoring the Media Ownership Act
Chairman Martin hopes you aren’t paying attention. He wants to vote on his proposal to let Big Media get even bigger on Dec. 18. If you think we need more local, diverse, and democratic media, now is the time to act.
Congress is taking action, but we need to show that this isn’t just another inside-the-Beltway issue. Too much is at stake, and they need to see the faces of the millions of Americans who are fed up with another massive giveaway to Big Media.
Build the Wall: Ask Your Senators to Co-sponsor the Media Ownership Act
In 2003, nearly 3 million citizens like you stood up to the FCC and put a stop to media consolidation. We can do it again. But we need to put a public face on the resistance to media consolidation.
Write Your Senators. Add Your Picture to the Wall. Stop Big Media.
Onward,
Alexandra Russell
Program Director
Free Press
www.freepress.net
www.stopbigmedia.com
P.S. To fully understand what Chairman Martin doesn’t want you to know about his new ownership rules, read our new report: Devil the Details
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View more information about this campaign at: www.action.freepress.net/campaign/tyownership
Tell your friends about this campaign at: www.action.freepress.net/campaign/tyownership/forward
Mayor lowers expectations on Muni. Says it’s safe to jump in front of them because they never come.
(From the answering machine of Sup. Tom Ammiano on Dec. 5, 2007.)
Personal note to Tom: your enunciation is getting better. Keep it up. ) B3
Hugo Chavez defeated, may now run for mayor of Vallejo.
(From the answering machine of Sup.Tom Ammiano, on the day Venezuelans voted to defeat proposed policy that would grant Chavez more unchecked power, Monday, Dec. 03, 2007.)
Trent Lott resigns, joins Dancing with the Stars. Now, Trent, practice dancing backwards in heels.
(‘From the answer maching of Sup. Tom Ammiano on Thursday, Nov. 29, 2007).
Chavez snubs IAPA journalists in Venezuela
By Bruce B. Brugmann
(Scroll down for the IAPA press release in English and Spanish on its free press mission to Venezuela)
It was an amusing and telling moment in the history of freedom of the press:
I serve on the executive committee of the Inter American Press Association, and arrived in Venezuela on Nov. 17 as part of a mission to check on President Hugo Chávez’s accelerating crackdown on the news media. Chávez had a message waiting for our delegation.
It was a half-page advertisement from the Venezuelan National Assembly, in the big morning Caracas daily paper El Universal, reprinting a copy of a congressional resolution urging the executive branch to declare the IAPA non grata (not welcome) in Venezuela. (Scroll down to see a copy of the ad.)
That set the tone for our mission: The sponsor of the resolution refused to meet with the IAPA’s delegation. In fact, no member of the three branches of the Venezuelan government or the National Electoral Council was willing to meet with the IAPA.
However, Chávez, who was plastered all over the papers and television for his trip to Iran and France, did send us a Chavista group called Journalists for the Truth.
The president of the group told the IAPA mission that there was complete freedom of the press in Venezuela, then promptly went outside the room and told the waiting press that the IAPA had been “duped in good faith by the reports prepared by the ‘opposition’ Venezuela press.”
Gonzalo Marroquín, chairperson of the IAPA’s Committee on Freedom of the Press and Information, immediately retorted to the press that “it would seem that the journalists were at another meeting.”
In fact, the IAPA expressed “deep concern at the instability of press freedom in general and warned of the limited debate and public awareness surrounding planned constitutional reform and called on authorities to create an appropriate framework of guarantees and transparency for the Dec. 2 referendum,” according to its press release on its findings.
Earl Maucker, who led the mission as the IAPA’s president and editor of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., noted in a press conference that “the government’s unwillingness to talk about issues of press freedom and free speech, so essential to a democratic society, strengthens our belief that there is no real climate of respect, or the tolerance and political will to hold an open and comprehensive dialogue at a time when a major constitutional revision is under way.”
The mission met with members of the Venezuelan Press Bloc, a constitutional attorney, representatives of a human rights group, polling experts, the mayor of Chacao, the head of the National Press Workers Union, and other knowledgeable civilians. The mission and its final press conference were widely covered in the Venezuelan print and broadcast press. Marroquín, director of Diario Prensa Libre in Guatemala and a former television newscaster, was most eloquent in debating the IAPA’s findings on the government radio and television stations.
There were no violent incidents and no attempts to intimidate nor demonstrate against the IAPA mission. However, Chavez has made it difficult, if not impossible, for IAPA to hold its scheduled assembly next March in IAPA. Three different hotels in three different cities offered to host the convention, then mysteriously canceled their invitations.
Suddenly, two hotels said they did not have enough rooms, the third said it had it had rooms but could not provide meeting facilities. Even the J.W. Marriott Hotel that our mission was staying in asked us to hold our meetings and press conference in a nearby hotel.
Interestingly, after I posted a report on my blog, a self-described Venezuelan named Palomudo offered a comment describing the IAPA as a club of rich media owners.
“Look who owns the media in the USA and ask yourself what they did to convince you of their lies,” Palomudo wrote, echoing the Chávez line. “Remember Saddam and the weapons of mass destruction? … The media is your worse [sic] enemy and people like Bruce B. Brugmann are nothing more than media mercenaries pay [sic] to lie!!!”
Quite a statement, considering the Guardian is one of the strongest critics in the nation of media concentration and has consistently written about and criticized the mainstream media’s misreporting on Iraq. As an independent paper with a left-liberal approach, we’d be open to supporting some of Chávez’s economic policies of fighting multinational oil companies and redistributing wealth.
But we also believe that all governments — left, right, center, and otherwise — need a free and vigorous press and unfettered public debate. As long as Chávez refuses to accept those essential conditions, we happily stand with the non grata editors and publishers in the IAPA, and the courageous editors, publishers, media, students, and everyone else fighting Chavez for press freedom in Venezuela. B3
IAPA Deputy Director RicardoTrotti and IAPA President Earl Maucker touch up the press release on deadline shortly before the IAPA press conference on Tuesday, Nov. 20th.
Click here for IAPA press release (English version).
Click here for IAPA press release (Spanish version).
Click here to view El National ad.
What did we learn from 2006? Show me a room full of Republican politicians and I’ll show you a gay bar.
(From the answering machine of Sup.Tom Ammiano on the day before Thanksgiving, Wednesday, Nov. 27, 2007.)
One of the good things about email is that items often pop up that jog my memory. The latest example was the news flash just now from the Harvey Milk Club about its annual Harvey Milk Memorial Concert and Candelight March tonight, starting at 5:30 p.m. at Harvey Milk Plaza and marching to the site of his camera store down the street.
The news reminded me of the last words I heard Harvey say, a snapshot of his humor and his politics. Harvey came into the Guardian office on the Friday before Dan White assassinated him and Mayor Moscone in their City Hall offices on Monday, Nov. 27, 1978.
This was one of our regular City Hall update chats. The Guardian had been a critical early endorser and supporter of Harvey, and we supported his progressive and gay rights agenda as the strong innovative supervisor of his era. And so Harvey would come around and fill us in and tell us how he was faring.
On this Friday, he was a bit disconsolate. He was losing some friends and supporters on key votes. He was hoping Moscone would appoint a strong liberal supervisor to replace White as supervisor, who had resigned. He said there was so much to do and he was worried that he wouldn’t be able to do enough to fulfill the agenda that he had been elected to do. So he said, in wonderful Harvey Milkese, that he would keep on truckin’ but that he would also pay more attention to the Guardian in terms of keeping us informed and on top of his progressive agenda.
“I want to be your Deep Throat in City Hall,” he said.
I said we needed one, we shook hands, and Harvey headed off to City Hall. B3
PRESS Release: Harvey Milk Memorial March: TONIGHT Nov 27 5 PM
Harvey Milk Memorial Concert & Candlelight March on November 27 Remembering Harvey Milk and Celebrating His Life
The Harvey Milk Club invites you to join us for the annual Harvey Milk
Memorial March. This year, in addition to the candlelight march from Harvey Milk
Plaza to the site of Milk’s former camera shop down the street, there will
also be performances to celebrate his life. This occasion kicks off a year-long
series of events leading up to the 30th anniversary of Milk’s assassination
on November 27, 1978. The Harvey Milk LGBT Democratic Club was founded by
Harvey Milk, and renamed in his honor.
WHEN: Tuesday November 27th 5:30 PM
WHERE: Harvey Milk Plaza (corner of Castro & Market)
FEATURING:
Holly Near
SF Gay Men’s Chorus
Dance Brigade
Shawna Virago
Keith Hennessy
Melania DeMore
SPEAKERS:
Hon. Carole Migden
Hon. Mark Leno
Hon. Tom Ammiano
Cecilia Chung,Transgender Law Center
John Newsome, And Castro For All
– Presented by the Harvey Milk LGBT Democratic Club –
Krissy Keefer, Event Producer
By Bruce B. Brugmann
CARACAS, Venezuela (Nov. 20, 2007) It was an amusing and telling moment in the history of freedom of the press.
On the morning of Monday, Nov. 19th, as the press mission of the Inter American Press Association (IAPA) started its 10th mission to Venezuela to check on President Hugo Chavez’s accelerating crackdown on the press, Chavez sent a message to the delegation:
It was a half page advertisement from the Venezuelan National Assembly, in the big morning Caracas daily paper El Universal, reprinting a copy of a congresswoman’s resolution urging the Executive Branch to declare IAPA “not welcome” in Venezuela. Click here to view the ad. This set the tone for our mission: The congresswoman refused IAPA’s invitation to meet with our delegation and no member of the three branches of the Venezuelan government and of the National Electoral Council agreed to meet with IAPA despite many contacts made in recent weeks from IAPA headquarters in Miami.
Nobody in the governement would meet with IAPA but Chavez, who was all over television and the newspapers for his trip to Iran and France, did send a Chavista group who called themselves Journalists for the Truth.
The president of the group told the IAPA mission that there was complete freedom of the press in Venezuela and then promptly told the press outside the meeting room that IAPA had been “duped in good faith by the reports prepared by the “opposition” Venezuela press. Gonzalo Marroquin, chairman of IAPA’s Commmittee on Freedom of the Press and Information, immediately retorted to the press that “it would seem that the journalists were at another meeting.” Gonzalo, director of Diario Prensa Libre in Guatemala, and a former television newsman, was widely interviewed on IAPA’s findings on radio and television.
The mission met with members of the Venezuelan Press Bloc, a constitutional attorney, representatives of a human rights group, polling experts, the mayor of Chicao, the head of the National Press Workers Union., and other civilian experts. The mission and its final press conference was widely covered in the Venezuelan press. There were no violent incidents nor any attempt to scare or demonstrate against the IAPA mission. B3
Click on the continue reading link to read the IAPA press release. Scroll down for the Spanish version.
Turkeys united against Thanksgiving protest lethal injections. Forget it.
(From the answering machine of Sup.Tom Ammiano on the day before Thanksgiving, Wednesday, Nov. 2l, 2007.)
Personal note to Tom: Okay, that’s a good one but what happened to your turkey? B3
By Bruce B. Brugmann
Well, I’m non grata in the Venezuela of Hugo Chavez and so are hundreds of other members of the InterAmerican Press Association (IAPA), a hemispheric free press organization based in Miami.
I’m off early tomorrow morning, Nov.17, as a member of an IAPA delegation visiting Venezuela to try to put some pressure on Chavez and his accelerating crackdown on press freedom.
Earl Maucker, IAPA’s president and editor and senior vice president of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel in Ft. Lauderdale, put it this way, “Once again we are here in Venezuela to demonstrate our solidarity with journalists and news media at a time when they are facing difficulties in carrying out their daily task of providing information to the Venezuelan people and to request that in the constitutional reform process absolute guarantees be given that freedom of the press will exist in full.”
This will be the l0th time during the Chavez administration that IAPA officers are visiting Caracas.
IAPA has stated that over the past six months, the Chavez government has committed more “transgressions: against the press than has any other country in the Western Hemisphere.
Chavez has countered by saying he does not recognize the legitimacy of IAPA. He declared the organization invalid through Parliament. The National Assembly declared that IAPA “feeds lies and misinformation in the media” and has declared the members “non grata,” according to Reuters. IAPA is so “non grata” to Chavez that his administration is making it difficult for IAPA to hold its March assembly in Venezuela, which has been scheduled for two years.
Three hotels in three different Venezuelan cities first accepted, then mysteriously canceled, IAPA’s reservations for its mid year meeting. The first two hotels told IAPA that they had no vacancies. The third hotel said it would provide rooms, but that the group could not use its conference facilities.
The delegation will try to meet with Chavez and is scheduled to meet with government officials, members of civil society, and individual journalists and representatives of the news media.
We will wind up our mission with a press conference on Tuesday, Nov. 20. I’ll keep you posted. B3
The indictment is in: the bases were loaded and so was Barry.
(From the answering machine of Sup. Tom Ammiano on Friday, Nov. l6, 2007.) B3
By Bruce B. Brugmann
And so the U.S. Justice Department of George W. Bush, the Justice Department of Ashcroft, Gonzalez, and Mukasey, the Justice Department of Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo, and rendition, the Justice Department that condones torture and cannot condemn waterboarding, the Justice Department that helps facilitate and “legalize” Bush lying us into a preemptive war and then lying us into staying, a Justice Department that refuses to prosecute any private contractors for their crimes against Iraqis and shows no interest in prosecuting the Blackwater security guards who killed l7 Iraqis in the September shooting spree, the Justice Department that fires a batch of U.S. attorneys for political reasons and then contemptuously defies Congressional subpoenas investigating the scandal, the Justice Department that makes a mockery of truth, justice, and the American way, this Justice Department after waiting four long years charged baseball’s homerun champion on five felony charges, four for perjury and one for obstruction of justice, for testifying before a federal grand jury that he never used steroids.
What kind of justice is that? B3
Click here to read:
Busted by a Broken System:
The Indictment of Barry Bonds
By Dave Zirin
