Audio – Page 70 – Citizen Reporter

bm141 Stolen Elections; From Florida2000 to Mexico2006

Most anyone remembers the drama of the election results in Florida. Stories of names being wiped off of voter lists, an initiative carried out by the very same company that has done similar in the latest Mexican Elections. In this program I look at the disputed result and the corporation ChoicePoint, the parent company of the firm that handled the voter rolls in Florida 2000, now involved in the latest debacle in Mexico.

Greg Palast’s Investigative Reports

Guardian Article on the Florida-Mexico connection
Hoover’s ChoicePoint Facts
Wired Article on ChoicePoint’s loss of private data

bm140 Fighting Computer Voting in the Netherlands

There are lots of reports regarding the problems with computer voting in the US. But Europe has its own problems as governments buy into these systems and ignore the dangers involved. Rop has spent much of his career working with computer related projects, but these voting computers are one thing he is funamentally against…

“We don’t trust votingcomputers dot nl”

Article about Dutch made machines in Ireland

bm139 Boycott Hits of Yesterday and Today

In the conclusion of my last podcast, I threw out the cynical question if there had been a successful boycott since the Montgomery Bus boycott.. 50 years ago. As various listeners and Max and Stacey from Karmbanque pointed out, there have – of course – been many successful boycotts since then. In this program I look briefly at select boycotts from the past decades and consider who initiated them, what were their goals, and how successful they were.

Common Dreams Article on Boycotting

The Nation Article on Coke and Nike boycotts
United Farm Workers
Taco Bell boycott carried out my students and migrant workers
Nestle Boycott

bm138 CocaCola and Human Rights Violations Worldwide

To call it a soda company would be an understatement. There is no corner of the world where the name isn’t known, and in the last decade, communities in places like Kerela, India, have shed new light on the business practices of the cocacola company. They site cases of human rights violations and environmental terrorism. Cocacola, meanwhile, says its quite the opposite.. so who’s opinion do the facts support?

Background Briefing from Australian Public Radio, Episode on Water in India

Common Dreams Article on Dasani Water
CorpWatch on CokeIndia, Uzbekistan

bm137 Leipzig to Berlin, Xenophobia in the Soccer Context

It would be interesting to know how many of the super-crazy-soccer fans watching at home or there in the stadiums, are the same people who vote for politicians and policies that close the doors to immigrants and make the process of immigration excessively difficult. So many wealthy nations have policies that seem to say — you’re welcome here as long as you can score goals or entertain us.. otherwise, too bad.

Mixed in you’ll hear audio from Karmabanque
as well as FreeSpeechRadioNews (circa 2003)
and Peter, who was with me in the Leipzig segment, can be found (in German) at Blogwinkel.

bm136 The Process of Creating 1 Berlin

(fixed because I am an idiot and it is 200 degrees centiheit in here. )

This apartment is like a furnace. My first impressions of being in Berlin will always be how dam hot it is. By second impression will be that of Alexanderplatz, as good friends from the Chaos Computer Club berlin took me to see some “Leftover shit from the East Berlin Days”. It was a fascinating walk just as it’s a fascinating city, especially with the very insane world cup being in full swing. As inept France stumbled to another tie, this podcast was recorded, focusing on just where we are in terms of uniting the east and west Berlin of old.