Its Linettes birthday next week and Im thinking about getting her something special, like a purse-sized monkey I think weve been doing this for a wile now, but Ive never linked to a story about the US offering permanent residence to Iraqi scientists in exchange for information. Now I have, and I feel a little bit better Did you know that Ypsilanti has its own music site? Its called YpsiRocks. If youre ever heading through Ypsi, check it out. Not that anyone will care, but back when I was playing in bands around Ypsilanti, there was no internet. We had to put flyers of phone poles like we were fucking cavemen My hand is numb and Im panicking about it. Theres no link for that one. I just wanted to share the fear The government said that it would push for greater fuel efficiency standards in light of the situation in the Middle East, but what does that really mean? It has a lot to do with how they classify vehicles. For instance, an 8,500 pound Hummer H2, obnoxious as it is, has to comply to no standards at all. I guess we havent had to deal with the advent of the personal tank before now MM.com was down twice in the past few days. My other Powweb-hosted site was up and running, but this one was down. Could there by a conspiracy afoot? People are beginning to whisper. Rumors are swirling A newly invented Bio Fuel Cell runs on vodka A Washington Post reporter gets detained and questioned for suspicious activity in the nations capitol And America has apparently spoken. MM.com reader Dan Gillottes contest to name the war has yielded a winner. My entry, Operation Friendly Fist, did not take the prize And, lastly, if youre looking for an example to illustrate just why its bad to allow all of our mass media outlets to rest in the hands of just a few enormous companies, read this piece concerning Clear Channel Communications. Heres a clip from the New York Times column by Paul Krugman:
By and large, recent pro-war rallies haven’t drawn nearly as many people as antiwar rallies, but they have certainly been vehement. One of the most striking took place after Natalie Maines, lead singer for the Dixie Chicks, criticized President Bush: a crowd gathered in Louisiana to watch a 33,000-pound tractor smash a collection of Dixie Chicks CD’s, tapes and other paraphernalia. To those familiar with 20th-century European history it seemed eerily reminiscent of. . . . But as Sinclair Lewis said, it can’t happen here.
Who has been organizing those pro-war rallies? The answer, it turns out, is that they are being promoted by key players in the radio industry with close links to the Bush administration.
The CD-smashing rally was organized by KRMD, part of Cumulus Media, a radio chain that has banned the Dixie Chicks from its playlists. Most of the pro-war demonstrations around the country have, however, been organized by stations owned by Clear Channel Communications, a behemoth based in San Antonio that controls more than 1,200 stations and increasingly dominates the airwaves.
