Tag Archives: Free Speech

Conan Smith says he and his fellow Washtenaw County Commissioners aren’t prepared to vote on merging Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti’s Convention and Visitors Bureaus; Will Potter on how the threat of terrorism has been used to quiet activists post 9/11; and Edgar Cayce making beautiful music …on episode 26 of the Saturday Six Pack

By Mark | September 14, 2015

This Wednesday evening, the Washtenaw County Board of Commissioners is expected to vote on the future of the Ypsilanti Area Convention and Visitors Bureau (YACVB). According to most folks, it seems to be a foregone conclusion that our elected officials will vote to close the Ypsilanti bureau and shift their $1.17 million annual budget to […]

Posted in Ann Arbor, Civil Liberties, Politics, The Saturday Six Pack, Uncategorized, Ypsilanti | Also tagged AAACVB, activism, ag gag laws, Alicia Ping, Andy LaBarre, Ann Arbor Area Convention and Visitors Bureau, Conan Smith, Edgar Cayce, Edgar Cayce and His Guitar, FBI, fear, fear tactics, Green Is The New Red, Michael Flores, Ronnie Peterson, Ruth Ann Jamnick, Washtenaw County Board of Commissioners, Will Potter, Ypsilanti Area Convention and Visitors Bureau | 43 Comments

Washtenaw County Commissioner Conan Smith on why he thinks the Ypsi Area Convention and Visitors Bureau needs to close, journalist Will Potter on the prosecution of activists as terrorists in the wake of 9/11, and the music of Edgar Cayce and His Guitar …on this weekend’s edition of The Saturday Six Pack

By Mark | September 11, 2015

[My friend Caleb Brokaw, who is truly one of the kindest, most thoughtful people I have ever known, has cancer. And there’s going to be a fundraiser for him and his family Saturday night at the Blind Pig featuring a reunited Black Jake and the Carnies. While I’d love for you to listen to this […]

Posted in Ann Arbor, Civil Liberties, Corporate Crime, Economics, Marketing, The Saturday Six Pack, Uncategorized, Ypsilanti | Also tagged AAACVB, ag gag laws, AM 1700, Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act, animal rights, Ann Arbor Area Convention and Visitors Bureau, Caleb Brokaw, Chicago Tribune, Conan Smith, domestic terrorism, Edgar Cayce and His Guitar, environmental terrorism, fear, fear mongering, fear tactics, fundraisers, Green Is The New Red, investigative reporting, Jim Cherewich, journalist, Knight-Wallace Fellows, Michael Flores, Ronnie Peterson, TED, Will Potter, YACVB, Ypsilanti Area Convention and Visitors Bureau | 6 Comments

Charlie Hebdo, terrorism, and the attempted assassination of political satire

By Mark | January 7, 2015

This was Stéphane Charbonnier, better known as Charb. He was a political cartoonist, and the editor-in-chief of the French satire publication Charlie Hebdo. Today, he was murdered in Paris by masked gunmen along with 11 others, including cartoonists Cabu, Wolinski and Tignous. The men who perpetrated the attack have yet to be found, but evidence […]

Posted in Civil Liberties, Religious Extremism, Uncategorized | Also tagged Allahu Akbar, Cabu, cartoons, Chab, Charb, Charlie Hebdo, David Pope, Everybody Draw Mohamed Da, France, God is Great, Islam, Islamophobia, Joe Randazzo, Muhammad, Paris, political satire, radical Islam, religious extremism, satire, Stéphane Charbonnier, The Onion, Tignous, Wolinski | 87 Comments

Bill Moyers on the Supreme Court’s decision not to revisit Citizens United

By Mark | July 10, 2012

Bill Moyers, if you haven’t seen it yet, shared a great essay a few days ago, on the Citizen’s United decision, which gave corporations and wealthy individuals the go-ahead to invest unlimited sums of money in hopes of influencing American elections, and the subsequent campaign being waged by those attempting to buy said elections to […]

Posted in Observations, Politics | Also tagged Bill Moyers, cash as free speech, Citizens United, Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, disclose act, First Amendment, Fourth of July, George III, get the money out of Washington, July 4, money as free speech, Move to Amend, Netroots Nation, Ohio, Plutocracy, privatization, secrecy, Sherrod Brown, Supreme Court, Thomas Jefferson, threats to Democracy | 4 Comments

Our thoughts tonight, as we lay safe and warm in our beds, are with the people Occupying Wall Street, as they prepare for tomorrow’s confrontation with police

By Mark | October 13, 2011

As early as tomorrow morning, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg will be ordering riot police into Zuccotti Park to forcefully evict the hundreds of Occupy Wall Street protesters who have set up their base of operation there. The official line is that sanitation workers need the protesters out in order to clean the park. The […]