Audio – Page 95 – Citizen Reporter

Health, Can Anyone Afford it?

I’ve been thinking alot lately about work, unions, health insurance. Three terms that long ago, went hand in hand. Long, long ago. Before my time actually. Several sources have triggered and fueled my thoughts on this topic, among them:

Bill Maher shutting down that bow-tie wielding simpleton Tucker Carlson, on the subject of 44 million uninsured Americans versus Canadian national health insurance.

The BC government’s attempts to paint teachers on strike as criminals. and while we’re at it, I found the fairly negative history of organized labor-government relations in Canada – pretty shocking. I’m naive like that, always believing things are more civil under the maple leaf.

Jamie from the known-universe, the great blogger and author, confessing that his health insurance has run out, and as a diabetic – how unaffordable his health conditions have become. 500 bucks at the pharmacy? That should be a crime against humanity.

But this is where the world is headed. The US is much further down the road of union-less insurance-less citizenry. But Europe and the rest of the world aren’t too far behind. Threats to the great traditions of organized labour and national health, which helped this continent achieve the highest quality of life in the world, are almost inevitably going to win. And what the hell happens then? Bad things I say… bad things.

Sunday Night Wilma

The non-stop Amsterdam autumn rain has arrived. Marking the beginning of human hybernational season; where the only thing we do in the daylight is go to work, and the rest of our time is spent indoors, often waiting for the gaps when the rain lets up long enough for us to get to a cafe, shop, jogging, or frisbee practice – if that’s your thing.

Perhaps this is a good time to make a future prediction.. just to see if I can win the non-prize. Hmm… I say — Mr Scooter resigns and immediately following, Cheney resigns. Say Tuesday. don’t ask what time, I won’t predict that far.

And finally, before I end this briefness today, I think Bill Maher’s Real Time program (download it off bittorrent those of us outside the US) is actually a dam good show. It’s filled with occasional crap and Bill himself is often sexist, racist, and all-around annoying. But when it comes down to it, the man makes great points and I absolutely loved Spike Lee on there this past week.

Reconsidering Syria, but Beware the Warmongers

Earlier this week I voiced doubt that the Syrian president was the underhanded tyrant the American government claims him to be. I believed, as I still suspect, that the military/government machine that he was born into functioned largely without his consent/knowledge. So now a UN investigation has come out with information that links both the Syrian and Lebanese governments in the assasination of the late Lebanese PM. Although Im still reading through the results, I have to admit this changes my opinion of the quality of character of the Syrian president. But actually there’s something more that worries me in all this.

They want to ride this report all the way to war. The hawks.. the war-profiteers, the neo-conservative crusaders, they’ve been waiting for a good excuse and they’re trying to make this the rally point. I can see it already in all the reports in all the government statements, they’re claiming that “something must be done.” Not that they do anything to intervene in Zimbabwe, Sudan, or Russia.. when those governments actively silence or kill opposition leaders.

It sounds perposterous. A government that is up to its neck in debt. Which lacks the military resources or public support, will invade yet another country in the name of “democracy” or “freedom” or whatever catch phrase they decide to go with this time. But it’s happening.. the wheels are turning.. and they’re going to push for it. And that, my friends, is bullshit.

bicyclemark76: Corruption, Poultry, and Marshall Law

The Global Corruption Report, the inevitable distaster of bird-flu, and Marshall Law on its way to the USA?

AudioCommunique #76(mp3)
29min+, 80kbps, 16Mb+

Discussion Includes:
Mentions of all the great email
Gore Vidal on Radio Nation
Transparency International’s annual report and what I find poor about it
Lots of old-school poultry audio
Could be a good time to join us vegetarians
A shot against the poultry industry

Music:

Intro from the Motorcycle Diaries Soundtrack mixed with Gore Vidal
Jimmy Eat World – Shame
Johnny Cash and Willie Nelson – Don’t Take Your Guns to Town
Waldemar Bastos – Paz, Pão, Amor
The English Beat – Sooner or Later
Olga Angelina Garcia – “Poem in Protest”

Gore Vidal Must Be Heard

I just wrote and lost a post about how the Syrian president is in no way the evil dude the white house tries to paint him as. Matter of fact, I find him charming in that odd sort of tall lanky middle eastern prodigy – way. And when he’s speaking english, he’s super timid. and somehow this is the tyranical president who needs to have his country invaded? bah.

But my real point today is to urge you to listen to Gore Vidal on radio nation. I listened to it twice and rewinded frequently because he is among the most prolific and intelligent humans to ever walk the earth. Matter of fact, he is one of the inspirations for my decision to leave the US and live in Europe — he was/is also in self-imposed exile in Italy.

Amongst his great points — he talks about the new low the current government has taken the US image to. Having disrespected virtually every nation on earth and being completely in-your-face about hostile and irrational policies. he also concludes that if the current white house continues its downward spiral, their next move will be – MARTIAL LAW. Shocking eh? don’t believe it? well.. look how they handled new orleans. Pass everything off to the military and private security. When the host responded – would the american people stand for that? Vidal responded – “They’ll stand for anything and they’ll stand for nothing.” – Thats my Gore!

The Death of OldSchool Alt Media

Whereas the internet is fertile ground for so much excellent alternative media and alternative styles of reporting on the world around us. I know that many of you, myself included, still look to those more traditional alt. newspapers we used to pick up for free on the streets of our favorite american city. Unfortunately not all that is rebellious and alternative stays that way. Unfortunately sometimes it becomes hip, trendy, and perhaps worst of all — profitable. No, I don’t completely blame profit, but america’s largest and once greatest weekly is in a tailspin, and I believe there’s no turning back.

Beyond having been a research slave at the Village Voice, I have long been a huge fan and reader of their “no sacred cows”, grassroots style of journalism. Before I walked the halls for that brief and glorious period in my life, I believed it to be a temple – where my idols like Mailer, Newfield, and Ridgeway could be found yelling into phones and pounding passionately away at a keyboard.

Of course once I lived it on a daily basis, I came back down to earth, and saw the greatness, and the dark side of what had become a profitable alt. media conglomerate. There were indeed some legends and future stars hiding in those cubicals, and that was inspiring. But the company itself had run around buying up other alt. weeklies throughout the 90’s. They bought up the other LA alt. newspaper and dismantled it. If I didn’t know it was the Voice, I would have imagined it was the NY times or some Tribune company pulling such evil moves. Course it was all in the name of survival and growth, for the paper and for alternative press, I tried to buy into the rationale.

But this pit keeps getting deeper and darker. Couple of years ago, just as I finished interviewing some of the wonderful staff for my thesis on the sociology of alt. journalists; some of the finest activist-journalists on staff were let go. LET GO. Again, not a term I’d expect from a news organization that is supposed to be alternative to the stupidity of the mainstream.

And now, as Madame L pointed out to me this weekend, a journalist who I watched work on a daily basis during my brief time there, has filed a harassment lawsuit against the editor. I never knew the editor really… had two or three elevator conversations with him. But judging by how the place was being managed, and what an excellent journalist and human being Richard Goldstein is – I say where there’s smoke, there’s fire. And it is the entire institution of free alternative weekly press that is buring to the ground.

Sure Ill still go check the Voice to see what the few remaining survivors.. freedom fighters… are doing. But the reality is… abandon ship dear journalists.. come join the internets where you don’t get fired or forced into early retirement.

Alternative Journalism is dead. Long live Alternative Journalism.