Category: Items

Worcester Indymedia: The new site is up! Let us know what you think.

CJR: “How TalkingPointsMemo Beat the Big Boys on the U.S. Attorney Story.”

“We have a readership of about 100,000 people,” [Josh Marshall] says, “and that means that in any city around the country we’ve got a bunch of readers who are reading the local papers. So we’ll often find out if something happens that’s only reported in some small paper — we basically have an intelligence gathering service that mainstream reporters don’t have because they don’t have the same kind of relationship with their readers.”

TPM is the only national partisan blog I read, because of journalism like this.

Vegan Outreach: I’ve got a post about some veg activism over at Worcester Activist.

Comments: Some staff at the Orange County Register find the reader comments on their website so crude that they want the whole comments thing removed. This brief T&G article once had a comments string complaining that the people were holding a Spanish sign. Those comments remained for a few days, but have since been removed.

March Madness: This year, I predict the finals will be Ray Kurzweil vs. Dennis Kucinich. And the Kooch will win it all. Mark my words.

Supermodels for Oaxaca: In May, Miss Universe will be holding its “traditional costume” competition in Oaxaca. Given that repressive Governor Ulises Ruiz Ortiz is likely to capitalize on this event, a group of activists calling themselves the Popular Assembly of Models for Oaxaca (AMPO) will be dressing up and picketing Donald Trump and NBC in Manhattan. on April 18 Auditions are April 18. Narco News has more, courtesy Worcester’s own Cha-Cha Connor.

Press release

Pictured: Activist and “Spokesmodel for Oaxaca” Cha-Cha Connor. “We models aren’t cheap props for dictators.”

Caltech: Niniane has photos and memories of a Caltech mini-reunion.

Taxing non-profits: The Worcester City Council is always mumbling about asking non-profits for a “payment in lieu of taxes.” (PILOT, or, as I like to call it, “taxes.”) Bill Randell wonders why the recommendations of the last city Task Force on this issue haven’t bourne fruit.

St Patrick’s Day: A classic video from last year.

Click To Play

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Bob Waldrop, on the US Catholic Bishops:

These documents are the latest in a series of morally problematic statements on Iraq from the U.S. Bishops’ Conference. The bishops ignore their own personal responsibility for our nation’s disastrous war policy. They inflate their reputation as peacemakers and they call for even more war and violence in their crusade for a “responsible transition” in Iraq. See how clever they are with words? War is no longer peace, now it is “responsible transition”.

Free shirt: In the latest WCCA Internet Update, I promote a contest wherein you can win a free shirt. Watch it, enter it, and with luck you can wear it.

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Aside from seeing a One Laptop Per Child computer, this year’s Beyond Broadcast conference (at MIT) was underwhelming. But then I had a similar impression after last year’s. It took months for the ideas to start bearing fruit. The session on the future of public access TV, for example, just sort of drifted around, but I think it will catalyze discussions about this topic at my local public access station. And those discussions could have a real impact.

OLPC, with metal hand sign for scale

Dave Winer:

I have no idea what they’re talking about. They use terms that I don’t have a sense of what they mean in real terms. When they talk about the “grass roots” I guess those are the people you see on BART or the Red Line. How do these people meet them? When these guys go to work, what do they do every day?

The term “grassroots” doesn’t bother me, but this discussion weirded me out, too. On the electronic forum during the panel, somebody asked how these grassroots projects are supposed to be funded. Answer: with your day job. If the core of the funding isn’t people’s personal money, and the core of the work isn’t being done by non-professionals, I don’t see how it’s grassroots.

After the conference, I had dinner with family. My cousin (an MIT grad) works for a firm that does architectural law, and she told me that the aesthetic criminals behind the Stata Center have not, to her knowledge, been brought to justice.
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Kevin Ksen case: The T&G now has this story. See also Pie and Coffee’s coverage.

Plowshares: Michael Walli released from prison. You’ll recall he damaged a nuclear missile silo dressed as a clown.

Climate: The Interfaith Walk for Climate Rescue will be in Worcester March 20-21.

Catholic Worker news: The Eugene, Oregon CW community has moved to a new location.

Come join: The Catholic Coalition for Material Cooperation with Evil.

More from the Research Bureau: Their latest report, which I haven’t read yet, apparently says 65% of Worcesterites are satisfied with the city. Also, according to the T&G, the survey respondents were 92% white. Which doesn’t sound like a good sample, to be honest. But I should read the survey before writing more.

History: Over at the wiki, check out The Anti-War and Anti-Draft Movement in Worcester, 1965-75.
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Respect Worcester: A couple weeks ago on his vegan podcast, Erik Marcus was talking trash about Worcester. So I e-mailed him about the vegan leafleting we did yesterday, and on a late-night podcast he made a public apology. (mp3, starts at 14:45)

I should mention that I think his book Meat Market is one of the best animal-friendly books out there, ranking with Ethics Into Action, Becoming Vegan, and Vegan With A Vengeance.

Best blog post title of 2007 (so far): Anarcho-Catholicism in a Nutshell.

Mooninites: Worcesterites are of course fascinated by the foibles of the metropolis to the East. Radioball has a good post, Volcanoboy a good thread, and patduffy speaks for the youth.

Narco News: It has been suggested that the Worcester Library should pre-order The People Decide, a book about Oaxaca. I’ll put in my request at the info desk. I bet if two or three other people request this book, they’ll order it.

Vatican Warms to Climate Change: Nuff said.

Cold: Today a crew from Channel 7 interviewed Bruce about the cold weather in front of City Hall. (It was 7 degrees F and windy.) I declined to be interviewed, and the guy looked angry. Nothing personal, man, it was just too damn cold to stand around.

Podcasts: Saint Kermit will be back to a regular schedule within the next few weeks.

Websites: WCCA’s website is a fun mix of telecommunications articles, local videos, and Albanian blog posts, which can make it a challenge to find things. If you’ve been following the drama around the station’s future, there’s a new page that promises to keep the relevant links organized.

Worcester: I have an article at Worcester Activist about city government and cars.

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• South Bend: “Four Murdered Homeless Men Found Blocks from Our Apartment”, Dave Griffith writes. I knew one of the men slightly.
• Candy Scotsman:
  

  the candy inside this weird hatchet-wielding scotsman is completely disgusting, which has to be one of the most-often-true non-self-reflexive statements in the history of the english language.

• Even More Advice For Konnie Lukes: A crazy performance by Nat Needle. See also his possibly-crazy “proposal for the revival of the Worcester Memorial Auditorium.”
• Juice: Those guys who sell pomegranite juice have been doing ridiculous animal tests. So Whole Foods decided to stop selling it. So the juice guys stopped the tests.

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People, we now have Real Solutions bumper stickers. If you want one, I would like you to have one. E-mail pieandcoffee@gmail.com.

These are the bumper stickers that’s gonna make the people sway, and rock, and clap their hands to the beat, and get up and dance, in an area that will be big enough for them to do it in.
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