You are currently browsing the Here’s to the misfits, the round pegs in the square holes… Where Tech Meets Music and Tyranny weblog archives for September, 2008.
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- November 14, 2008: Tuatha de Danann - The Last Words
- November 13, 2008: The Jeff Beck Group
- November 12, 2008: "Stars" by Maya Weksler
- November 10, 2008: Quote of the day
- November 10, 2008: This may very well
- November 5, 2008: Just so you know
- November 4, 2008: CNN is reporting
- November 3, 2008: The Tubes - White Punks on Dope
- October 31, 2008: The Hand
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Archive for September 2008
Grid of 100,000 computers heralds new internet dawn
September 29, 2008 by dinofond.
A network of 100,000 computers providing the greatest data processing capacity yet unleashed has been created to cope with information pouring from the world’s largest machine.
The Grid is the latest evolution of the internet and the world wide web and computer scientists will announce on Friday that it is ready to be connected to the Large Hadron Collider (LHC).
It is designed for schemes where huge quantities of data need crunching, such as large research and engineering projects. The Grid has the kind of power required to download movies in seconds, and the ability to make high-definition video phone calls for the same price as a local call. More importantly, it should help to narrow the search for cures for diseases. However, it is unlikely to be directly available to most internet users until telecoms providers build the fibre-optic network required to use it.
The Grid allows scientists at CERN, the European Organisation for Nuclear Research, to get access to the unemployed processing power of thousands of computers in 33 countries to deal with the data created by the LHC.
Scientists at CERN, where the world wide web was invented, created the €500 million Grid because they realised that a single computer would not be able to cope with the amount of data the LHC is expected to produce each year – 15 petabytes, or 15 million gigabytes, which would fill 20 million CDs.
They said that it was an extra facility laid on top of the internet, which originally linked computers around the world in the Seventies.
Dr Bob Jones, a CERN scientist, said: “The [world wide] web allows you to access information on other computers. What the Grid allows you to do is not only access the information, but make use of their computing resources and power.”
He likened it to the National Grid. Users would be able to tap into massive amounts of processing power, but the source of the power would change, depending on availability.
Processing tasks will be distributed between 11 gateway computer centres in ten countries, including Britain, which will share them out between more than 140 sites.
One of the first jobs the Grid will tackle is handling the raw data for CERN’s experiments into finding proof of the Higgs boson, the so-called God particle.
Its uses, however, extend well beyond particle physics and it has already been used on a smaller scale in research into diseases such as malaria and bird flu. “The Grid cannot find a cure for cancer, but what it can do is make it quicker,” said Dr Jones, explaining that what might have taken a decade could now be done in weeks.
David Britton, Professor of Physics at Glasgow University and a leading figure in the Grid project, said: “The old traditional way to find cures for diseases is that you would go to the lab and try mixing various drugs and see how they work.”
With the Grid, he said, scientists could run hundreds of thousands of simulations to create a shortlist of the drugs that are most likely to offer the potential for a cure. Researchers can then get to work testing the drugs singled out as promising.
The Grid has also already been used to save lives in the immediate aftermath of earthquakes. Using the seismic data, scientists can use the Grid for simulations that pinpoint which areas are most affected, allowing rescue teams to direct their efforts where they are most needed.
Many believe the world wide web and the internet are the same thing, but the internet is actually a massive network of networks, which connects millions of computers together globally, and the web is an information-sharing model built on top of the internet, which allows information to be accessed over the medium of the internet.
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Man Arrested For Hugging Police Officer
September 29, 2008 by dinofond.
KCCI News Channel 8 Des Moines
IOWA CITY, Iowa — A hug has landed an Iowa City man in hot water with police. An Iowa City man who thought a police officer just “needed a hug” faces several charges, including assault on a peace officer and public intoxication.Police said Luke Schreder, 21, was arrested on Saturday.
According to police records, Schreder ran up to the officer and stuck out his arms. The officer told him to “get away,” but Schreder didn’t take the hint and embraced the officer. When the officer told Schreder to put his hands behind his head, he refused. He was then handcuffed.
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Private company blasts first rocket into orbit
September 29, 2008 by dinofond.
A US space company founded by an Internet multi-millionaire has become the first private venture to successfully blast a rocket into Earth’s orbit.
Falcon 1, a liquid fuel rocket built by Space Exploration Technologies, or SpaceX, took off from a remote island in the Pacific Ocean on Sunday and entered orbit carrying a dummy payload, SpaceX said.
“This is a great day for SpaceX and the culmination of an enormous amount of work by a great team,” said Elon Musk, the chief executive of SpaceX who made a fortune as the founder of PayPal, an online payment system.
“With this key milestone, Falcon 1 becomes the first privately developed liquid fuel rocket to orbit the Earth,” SpaceX added in a statement from its Hawthorne, California, headquarters.
It was fourth time lucky for SpaceX, whose three previous attempts had met with failure including the launch of a rocket carrying the ashes of Star Trek actor James Doohan and US astronaut Gordon Cooper.
The payload, a 364-pound (165-kilogram) aluminium chamber, remains attached to the second stage of the 21-meter (70-foot) two-stage rocket as it orbits the Earth, SpaceX said.
Falcon 1 was launched at 4:15 pm California time on Sunday (2315 GMT) from a US military facility on Omelek Island in the Kwajalein Atoll in the central Pacific, SpaceX said.
SpaceX, founded in 2002, is seeking to usher in an era of low-cost space flight and is developing a variety of launch vehicles to deliver satellites into orbit but also cargo and crew to the International Space Station.
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Bill O’Reilly Hacked
September 27, 2008 by dinofond.
HA! It couldn’t happen to a more perfict asshole. Wikileaks.org has posted images of Bill O’Reilly’s hacked website with subscribers names, addresses etc. With Billdo’s whining about Sarah Palin’s email being hacked he has never ever once mentioned that Sarah Palin broke Federal law doing government business on a non government server. Is she going to be prosecuted? Of course not, neo-cons don’t get prosecuted when they break the law. Sarah Palin should be behind bars along with the rest of these criminals.
Wikileaks has been informed the hack was a response to the pundit’s recent scurrilous attacks over the Sarah Palin’s email story–including those on Wikileaks and other members of the press. Hacktivists, thumbing their noses at the pundit, took control of O’Reilly’s main site, BillOReilly.com. According to our source, the security protecting O’Reilly’s site and subscribers was “non-existent”.
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SOAPBOX | It’s the Economy That’s Stupid?
September 26, 2008 by dinofond.
By Don Mayer Owner of Small Dog Electronics.com
ike you, I am watching the drama unfold about the biggest bail-out in the history of the world. We are gonna print up a bunch of money and buy up all those bad mortgages so the guys that made those bad mortgages don’t go out of business and drag down the entire economy. The theory is that unless we do this, the credit markets will dry up, businesses and individuals will not be able to borrow money, your credit card line of credit will disappear, your home equity loan will disappear, businesses will be forced to cut back or close, unemployment will rise and we will find ourselves in a downward spiral that will cause a lot of pain.
The problem is that no one knows whether this particular bailout will work and the same guys that got us into this mess want to preserve their golden parachutes, obscene salaries and equity in these companies. The thing of it is that the plan calls for you and I to foot the bill. Throwing around numbers of $700 Billion or a Trillion like it was spare change hides the fact that this bailout amounts to about $10,000 for each family in the USA. If you stacked a Trillion in $20 bills, it would be about 150 miles high!
They’re saying, “hurry up—we gotta do this right now or something is going to hit the fan!” The last time I heard this from the Bush Administration it was “hurry up—we have to invade Iraq.” I find it strangely comforting that both the conservative Republicans and some Democrats are asking serious questions about this plan. It used to be that a conservative was someone who balanced the budget and was careful with spending. What we have seen for the last decade is decreased regulation of banks and wall street financial firms, bizarre financial instruments, nutty mortgages and huge corporate profits and executive compensation while we ship most of our wealth overseas to people who don’t particularly like us to buy their oil.
Frankly, I think that Al Gore has the right answer for the environment and for the economy. Instead of shipping our wealth out of the country, we need to launch the kind of ambitious and outrageous plan that only Americans can do to eliminate our dependence upon foreign oil, to create thousands of good paying jobs creating power from renewable energy sources and from a massive energy conservation and efficiency operation. If we do this, we create real wealth in our economy, real growth and solve environmental and economic problems simultaneously.
I have a lot of trouble mortgaging our economic future to provide more benefits for the top and none for the basis of our economy, the working people in our country. It is clearly time for new economic leadership, but it is also time for leadership that doesn’t rely upon the false promise of trickle-down economics and tax breaks for the wealthy.
END SOAPBOX
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Agent Smith and Cypher
September 23, 2008 by dinofond.
The next 1:11 minutes brought to you by…… Me
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Veterans Climb Government Building, Call for Arrest of Bush and Cheney
September 23, 2008 by dinofond.
Right now, five military veterans — from Veterans for Peace — are occupying a 35-foot high ledge at the National Archive Building and have raised a 22×8-foot banner reading, “DEFEND OUR CONSTITUTION. ARREST BUSH AND CHENEY: WAR CRIMINALS!” The veterans currently risking arrest have declared their intention to stay on the ledge, fasting for 24 hours “in remembrance of those who have perished and those still suffering from the crimes of the Bush administration,” according to a written statement. On the ledge, the veterans have brought with them a portable PA system, and they are broadcasting recorded statements from prominent Americans for the impeachment and/or arrest of George W. Bush and Richard Cheney. Other impeachment activists are at the entrance of the National Archives distributing “Citizens Arrest Warrants” to those waiting in line. This is the type of boldness that activists have displayed across the country to bring much-needed attention to this movement.
UPDATE! The main stream corporate press has completely ignored this story. Here’s some further youtube video
It appears the some *cough* random *cough* hackers from somewhere *cough* have already infiltraited you tube and are changing the dates on the Videos, I’m sure this is so Rush lipbalm can say somthing nasty about it on his POS radio show. This is happening now it is happening today you can see more on the Veterans for Peace website by clicking here
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RIP Hiram Bullock 1955 - 2008
September 23, 2008 by dinofond.
I was surprised (and a little late) to hear of the passing of Hiram Bullock one of my all time favorite guitar players. Hiram was very well known as the “original” guitarist in the David Letterman show band who was fired because he refused to wear shoes while playing. Hiram Bullock had a blooming funk career (to us funkadellics) long before David Letterman playing with such greats as David Sanborn, Billy Joel, James Brown, Steely Dan, miles Davis and the Great Bootsy Collins. Hiram was 10 years older then me which hits home, I have been a student of his playing since I was a kid listening. Hiram developed a throat tumor that should have been easily treatable but radically took over his glands in his body within just a few months. He passed away just months after his diagnosis. Hiram’s is survived by his partner of 16 years Jennifer Armstrong, two stepsons, known as Sansho and Niko; and four sisters, Jackie Lewis, Carmen Bean, Brenda Canterbury and Margene Williams. R.I.P My Man.
Here’s Hiram just absolutely Smoking with the Poogie Bell Band at the blue note in NY last year.
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September 22, 2008 by dinofond.
Today, daylight and nightdark are equal.
From tomorrow on, the nights will be longer than the days.
The cool winds of fall have chased summer’s heat.
The leafs die in gold and fire.
May the journey to begin,
the journey into dark and foggy nights,
be the a journey on your paths within,
which lead to your inner light.
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UK experts say Stonehenge was place of healing
September 22, 2008 by dinofond.
By RAPHAEL G. SATTER the associated press
LONDON (AP) — The first excavation of Stonehenge in more than 40 years has uncovered evidence that the stone circle drew ailing pilgrims from around Europe for what they believed to be its healing properties, archaeologists said Monday.
Archaeologists Geoffrey Wainwright and Timothy Darvill said the content of graves scattered around the monument and the ancient chipping of its rocks to produce amulets indicated that Stonehenge was the primeval equivalent of Lourdes, the French shrine venerated for its supposed ability to cure the sick.
An unusual number of skeletons recovered from the area showed signs of serious disease or injury. Analysis of their teeth showed that about half were from outside the Stonehenge area.
“People were in a state of distress, if I can put it as politely as that, when they came to the Stonehenge monument,” Darvill told journalists assembled at London’s Society of Antiquaries.
He pointed out that experts near Stonehenge have found two skulls that showed evidence of primitive surgery, some of just a few known cases of operations in prehistoric Britain.
“Even today, that’s the pretty serious end of medicine,” he said. Also found near Stonehenge was the body of a man known as the Amesbury Archer, who had a damaged skull and badly hurt knee and died around the time the stones were being installed. Analysis of the Archer’s bones showed he was from the Alps.
Darvill cautioned, however, that the new evidence did not rule out other uses for Stonehenge.
“It could have been a temple, even as it was a healing center,” Darvill said. “Just as Lourdes, for example, is still a religious center.”
The archaeologists managed to date the construction of the stone monument to about 2,300 B.C., a couple of centuries younger than was previously thought. It was at that time that bluestones — a rare rock known to geologists as spotted dolomite — were shipped by hand or by raft from Pembrokeshire in Wales to Salisbury Plain in southern England, to create the inner circle of Stonehenge.
The outer circle, composed of much larger sandstone slabs, is what most people associate with the monument today, particularly since only about a third of the 80 or so bluestones remain. The scientists argued that they were once at the heart of Stonehenge, and closely associated with its healing properties.
As evidence, Darvill said his dig had uncovered masses of fragments carved out of the bluestones by people to create amulets. Any rock carried around in such a way would have had some sort of protective or healing property, he said. He said that theory was backed by burials in southwest England where the stones were interred with their owners.
Today the bluestones are now largely invisible, dwarfed by the huge sandstone monoliths — or “hanging stones” — that were erected later and still make up Stonehenge’s iconic profile.
“They are of course quite impressive when you see them,” Darvill said. “But in a sense they are the elaboration of a structure which kicked off with the bluestones.”
Both archaeologists quoted the 12th-century monk Geoffrey of Monmouth as saying the stones were thought to have medicinal properties. They also said that evidence uncovered by their dig showed that people were moving and chipping off pieces of the bluestones through the Roman period and even into the Middle Ages.
Darvill said he felt the “folklore interest” in the bluestones into modern times suggested some sort of lingering memory of their supposed healing powers.
“That would be for me the single strongest piece of evidence,” he said.
Andrew Fitzpatrick, from British heritage group Wessex Archaeology, said Darvill and Wainwright’s discovery was “very important” but that the healing theory, while plausible, was not the only one.
“I don’t think we can rule out the other main competing theory — that the temple was a meeting point between the land of the living and the dead,” he told the British Broadcasting Corp.
The scientists announced their findings Monday, ahead of a documentary due to air on the BBC and the Smithsonian Channel on Saturday, Sept. 27.
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Macs Produced Part of Microsoft’s ‘I’m a PC’ Ads
September 21, 2008 by dinofond.
This is so dam funny!
Several digital images that Microsoft Corp. has posted on its Web site to trumpet its new “I’m a PC” ad campaign were actually created on Macs, according to the files’ originating-software stamp.
Four of the images that Microsoft made available on its PressPass site Thursday display the designation “Adobe Photoshop C3 Macintosh” when their file properties are examined. The images appear to be frames from the television ads that Microsoft will launch later Thursday.
One of the images is of a real Microsoft engineer, identified only as “Sean,” who resembles John Hodgman, the actor who plays the PC character in Apple Inc.’s iconic ads. Reportedly, Microsoft will play off Apple’s own campaign — during which Hodgman introduces himself with the line, “Hello, I’m a PC” — with its engineer saying “Hello, I’m a PC, and I’ve been made into a stereotype.”
Other images posted by Microsoft Thursday include shots of author Deepak Chopra; Canadian adventurer and educator Geoff Green, founder of Students on Ice Expeditions; and a shark-surround diver named “Meaghan.”
Not all of the images on the PressPass site were generated on Macs. The sample print ads, which highlight the campaign’s “Life Without Walls” slogan, were produced using the Windows version of Adobe Photoshop, according to their files.
The originating software and platform can be found in downloaded versions of the files using built-in tools on either a Mac running Mac OS X or on a PC running Windows.
In Windows XP, for instance, users can view the tag by right-clicking the downloaded file, selecting Properties from the drop-down menu, then clicking the Summary tab. “Adobe Photoshop CS3 Macintosh” appears beside “Creation Software.”
On a Mac, after opening the downloaded file in Preview, users can see the tag by choosing Inspector from the Tools menu, clicking on the middle More Info tab, then clicking on the tab marked TIFF. “Adobe Photoshop CS3 Macintosh” appears beside “Software.”
Microsoft’s campaign is the creation of the Crispin Porter + Bogusky agency, part of a US$300 million effort to revamp Windows Vista’s reputation.
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Virus Infects Space Station Laptops (Again)
September 21, 2008 by dinofond.
The thing that trips me out about this article and all the others I have read about both attacks / infections is they never mention the comprised computers are Windows machines. Finally wired and SpaceRef.com ponied up the variant as W32.Gammima, I guess NASA should start running Linux =D
-D
iruses intended to steal passwords and send them to a remote server infected laptops in the Iss_laptopsInternational Space Station in July, NASA confirmed Tuesday. And according to NASA, this wasn’t the first infection.
“This is not the first time we have had a worm or a virus,” NASA spokesman Kelly Humphries said. “It’s not a frequent occurrence, but this isn’t the first time.” That suggests that even in the future where space travel becomes an experience to complain about, rather than get dressed up for, computer viruses will still be tagging along uninvited.
NASA downplayed the news, calling the virus mainly a “nuisance” that was on non-critical space station laptops used for things like e-mail and nutritional experiments. NASA and its partners in the space station are now trying to figure out how the virus made it onboard and how to prevent that in the future, according to Humphries. NASA declined to name the virus, but SpaceRef.com, which broke the story, reported that the worm was W32.Gammima.AG worm — a worm first detected in August 2007 that installs software that steals credentials for online games.
The virus did make it onto more than one laptop — suggesting that it spread via some sort of intranet on the space station or via a thumb drive.
Humphries did not know when the laptops entered the space station or what country bought them, though he did indicate that the hardened equipment on the space station was typically purchased by Russia or the United States. The International Space Station has no direct internet access, but astronauts can send and receive mail though a KU band data link also used for data and video transfer, according to Humphries.
That means the space station laptops are not connected to the net, according to Humphries. “Everything is scanned before it goes up, so it’s an indirect connection,” Humphries said. As for whether mission critical systems are connected to the same network as these kinds of laptops? “I don’t know and even if I did, I wouldn’t be able to tell you for IT security reasons,” Humphries said.
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Treasury now wants to include FOREIGN banks in the bail out
September 21, 2008 by dinofond.
By MIKE ALLEN | 9/21/08 7:24 AM EDT
In a change from the original proposal sent to Capitol Hill, foreign-based banks with big U.S. operations could qualify for the Treasury Department’s mortgage bailout, according to the fine print of an administration statement Saturday night.
The theory, according to a participant in the negotiations, is that if the goal is to solve a liquidity crisis, it makes no sense to exclude banks that do a lot of lending in the United States.
Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson confirmed the change on ABC’s “This Week,” telling George Stephanopoulos that coverage of foreign-based banks is “a distinction without a difference to the American people.”
“If a financial institution has business operations in the United States, hires people in the United States, if they are clogged with illiquid assets, they have the same impact on the American people as any other institution,” Paulson said.
“That’s a distinction without a difference to the American people. The key here is protecting the system. … We have a global financial system, and we are talking very aggressively with other countries around the world and encouraging them to do similar things, and I believe a number of them will. But, remember, this is about protecting the American people and protecting the taxpayers. and the American people don’t care who owns the financial institution. If the financial institution in this country has problems, it’ll have the same impact whether it’s the U.S. or foreign.”
The legislative outline that went to Capitol Hill at 1:30 a.m. Saturday had said that an eligible financial institution had to have “its headquarters in the United States.” That would exclude foreign-based institutions with big U.S. operations, such as Barclays, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, HSBC, Royal Bank of Scotland and UBS.
But a Treasury “Fact Sheet” released at 7:15 Saturday night sought to give the administration more flexibility, with an expanded definition that could include all of those banks: “Participating financial institutions must have significant operations in the U.S., unless the Secretary makes a determination, in consultation with the Chairman of the Federal Reserve, that broader eligibility is necessary to effectively stabilize financial markets.”
The major change in the suggested eligibility requirements is the biggest change that Treasury publicly made after a day of briefings and conversations with Capitol Hill, and is likely the first of many.
Aspects of the $700 billion, two-year proposal that are still under negotiation include what, if anything, will be added to the administration’s simple but sweeping proposal. And the parliamentary route, such as what committees or hearings might be involved, has not been finalized.
House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank (D-Mass.) has a hearing scheduled for Wednesday that is likely to focus on the proposal.
Under what congressional officials called a likely scenario, the measure could go to the House floor on Thursday, with passage expected the same day.
The Senate could take the package up as soon as Friday and send it to President Bush for his signature, although the Senate schedule is less predictable and had not been determined.
Officials expect passage by huge margins in both chambers because Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke have told congressional leaders the country’s financial stability depends on it.
House Democrats plan to insist on adding protections for homeowners facing foreclosure. They also want to add a measure to help homeowners facing bankruptcy and an executive compensation restriction designed to prevent golden parachutes for the heads of troubled institutions.
Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.), who was supportive of the bailout concept in a statement released Friday, believes that “whatever gets done in Congress has to protect Main Street,” senior adviser Stephanie Cutter said on MSNBC on Saturday.
On “Fox News Sunday,” Paulson told Chris Wallace that he would resist the Democrats’ desired limits on executive compensation.
“If we design it so it’s punitive and institutions aren’t going to participate, this won’t work the way we need it to work,” Paulson said. “Let’s talk executive salaries: There have been excesses there. I agree with the American people. Pay should be for performance, not for failure. We’ve got work to do in that regard. We need to do that work. But we need this system to work. And so reforms need to come afterwards. My whole objective with the plan we have is to give us the maximum ability to make it work.”
And the secretary told NBC’s Tom Brokaw on “Meet the Press” that he doesn’t want new regulations simultaneously: “That’s not doable to do that immediately. But we very much need new regulations.”
Senate Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) told Stephanopoulos on ABC: “If we’re going to spend taxpayer money to get rid of bad debt in these places, what is the reciprocal obligation … from the firms? … I think there’s going to be a strong interest to deal with the Main Street aspects.”
Appearing with him, House Republican Leader John A. Boehner of Ohio retorted: “We’ve already dealt with that, when we had the housing bill last summer. I didn’t vote for it, because it’s $300 billion bailout for scam artists and speculators and others around the housing industry. But there are a lot of tools in there to help the Federal Housing Administration deal with the foreclosure problem that’s out there. We need to rise above partisan politics … and deal with this as adults.”
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I’m John McCain and I approved this message
September 21, 2008 by dinofond.
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Philip Sayce new Music Video Collage
September 20, 2008 by dinofond.
Phil is off the hook with his DIY
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Ahh Misandry at it’s best - Ah, L’Amour by Don Hertzfeldt
September 20, 2008 by dinofond.
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Please read and repost
September 19, 2008 by dinofond.
Don’t Let the National Park Service Privatize the Inauguration Route Tell the government: Pennsylvania Ave. Belongs to the People Bush Administration proposes new regulations - comment period closing
A ground breaking free speech legal victory in federal court has opened up Pennsylvania Avenue for “We the People” on Inauguration Day.
Unless you and thousands of others take action today, however, that courtroom victory could be effectively overturned by a new set of regulations proposed by the Bush Administration’s National Park Service.
“The Inauguration is not a private event,” ruled U.S. District Court Judge Paul Friedman on March 20, 2008. Judge Friedman declared unconstitutional the practice of the National Park Service of exempting the Presidential Inaugural Committee from the ordinary permit process in order to give that private political advocacy organization exclusive rights to exclude the public from along the Inaugural Parade route.
The ruling capped a nearly four year challenge by the A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition represented by the Partnership for Civil Justice. The Coalition stood up for thousands of anti-war protesters and political dissenters who - - like the general public - - have been excluded from communicating their views along the quadrennial Inaugural Parade route.
The victory was so resounding that the U.S. Government did not even appeal the ruling.
That courtroom victory is in jeopardy. We need your help, to take just a couple minutes of your time right now to protect free speech along the Presidential Inaugural Parade route by sending a comment to the National Park Service.
You Can Make a Difference By Acting Now
Tell the NPS that you do not want the land that belongs to the public along “America’s Main Street” of Pennsylvania Avenue privatized and set aside for the exclusive use of the private Presidential Inaugural Committee to sell to the wealthy corporations on America’s Inauguration Day. Click here to send your comment now. Help flood them with thousands of comments and tell your friends and family to join in this effort.
The Bush Administration’s National Park Service has re-written its regulations in response to the court ruling. Again, the regulations set aside prime swaths of the Inaugural Parade route for the exclusive use of the corporate donor friends of the incoming administration. The period for public comment closes in a few days, September 22, - so act now by clicking here to send your comment on these proposed regulations.
Background Information: What’s at Stake
We say the parade route is not for the exclusive use of privileged elite and fat cat Wall Street donors. No matter who wins this next election, it is the ordinary people from all across the country who should be allowed along the Presidential Parade route. The corporate donors and wealthy elite have the Inaugural Balls, the swearing-in ceremony at the U.S. Capitol, the ceremonial reviewing area at the White House. The sidewalks, at the very least, are for the people and the NPS is planning to give many blocks of sidewalk and parkland along the parade route to those hand-picked by the Presidential Inaugural Committee and party elite.
The National Park Service is trying to privatize Pennsylvania Avenue so that forever more, significant sections of parkland and sidewalks, including all of Freedom Plaza, will be for the exclusive use of the Presidential Inaugural Committee (PIC). In fact, the NPS has for the upcoming inauguration, just as it did for the last inaugurations, given itself a permit in advance which it will sublet to the PIC. The PIC is a private corporate-funded organization that is expected to raise tens of millions of dollars solicited from the biggest banks, corporations, oil and energy companies, Wall Street and military contractors. The PIC has as funders those who make the biggest profits off of the war drive, including $250,000 and $100,000 ‘contributions’ from oil and defense industries. Nowhere in the Constitution does it state that Pennsylvania Avenue is reserved for the rich corporations on Inauguration Day.
What This Means for the Coming Inauguration in January 2009
No doubt, the outpouring of public expression and sentiment on Inauguration Day will be different depending on the outcome of the election. For instance, 100,000 people came out on January 20, 2001 to protest George W. Bush’s new administration which was taking office in spite of the fact that it had lost the election. On January 20, 2005, tens of thousands demonstrated demanding an end to the Iraq War and occupation. Many were blocked from entering through the government’s checkpoints.
One thing must remain the same no matter who is the next President: The parade route is for the people. Under existing regulations the Presidential Inaugural Committee is already given exclusive and set-aside space around the White House and Lafayette Park as well as at the Capitol. We are not challenging their use of the Capitol area or the White House area for the Presidential reviewing stands and for the Presidential Inaugural Committee bleachers (In fact, when this White House set-aside was established, it was justified by the NPS on the fact that the parade route and nearby areas remained open for demonstrators and the public). The PIC already has its space at the White House. Pennsylvania Avenue, “America’s Main Street,” must remain open for the public.
On January 20, 2009, there will still be 140,000 U.S. forces in Iraq. There will be the problem of skyrocketing mass layoffs and foreclosures on the home front. Regardless of who they support in the Presidential election, millions of people will want to send a message to the next administration about the war in Iraq and domestic priorities. They have a right to assemble along the Inaugural parade route. As even one of the candidates acknowledged, “Change comes from below.”
Federal law requires the National Park Service to open its proposed regulation to public comment. Please take a couple minutes - - right now, as you are sitting before your computer - - to submit online comments against the discriminatory PIC set-asides in the proposed regulations.
Tell the Government that you oppose the discriminatory reservations of spectator space along the Inaugural Parade route for the Presidential Inaugural Committee. The White House area of Pennsylvania Ave. and Lafayette Park is already set aside for the Presidential Inaugural Committee. The Parade Route is for the people.
Here is how you can send your comment:
1: Go to www.regulations.gov
2. In the search box in the middle of the page, enter “ANSWER Coalition” with the quotation marks (this is very important!) and click on the “go” button.
3. Click on the link “Send a Comment or Submission” which will appear just under the regulation title, “Special Regulation: Areas of the National Park System, National Capital Region.”
4. Enter your name and address and comments on the form and click on the button “Next Step” at the bottom of the page. You can leave blank or ignore fields such as “Organization Name” or “Government Agency Type” if you are filing on behalf of yourself and not on behalf of an organization or government agency and you are not required to give your email address.
5. You will be given a page on which you may review your comment. Click the “Submit” button at the bottom of the page. You are done!
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