Today on Saturday Asylum
I’m filling in today on Saturday Asylum, on Community Radio WMNF 88.5 fm, Tampa, and streaming at wmnf.org. 2 to 4 pm today!
Shameless Self-Promotion:
DJ DDP is leaving Saturday Asylum, so there is an opening for a programmer on Saturday afternoon. Call or Email WMNF Program Director Randy Wynne and ask him to pick Norwood for this slot from 2-4 PM on Saturdays! (Phone number is 813-238-8001, ex 16) I know: I’ll have to come up with another catchy name, since MorningWood seems somehow inappropriate in the afternoon, but I’m willing to make the sacrifice.
Today’s Saturday Asylum highlights:
It’s the CrazedWood edition of Saturday Asylum! Today’s show will feature new releases from Bread and Butter, Basement Jaxx, and The Bangles. I’ll also play songs from bands whose names don’t begin with the letter “B”. Artists like Frank Black, The Beastie Boys, and Banabila. We’ll also hear from Bertrand Bergalot, William S. Burroughs, and Brendan Benson.
Today’s show is not overtly political, but many of the songs I play will have political or social justice type themes. Listen up, and you just might notice a few of them.
FREE mp3s!
From protest records. Lots of relevant modern music. “Let’s Start a War” by Soylent Gringo will be played this afternoon.
Playlists
WMNF
WMNF is a non-commercial community radio station that celebrates local cultural diversity and is committed to equality, peace and social and economic justice. WMNF provides broadcasts and creates other forums to serve the community by the exposure and sharing of these values.
Volunteers, like myself, are the lifeblood of this station. If you live in the Tampa Bay area and are interested in volunteering at WMNF, call Gene Moore at 813-238-8001.
Civitas comes calling
Ed Turcnachik promised he wouldn’t need any public funds to complete his Plan to Take Over the World. He lied.
Tax breaks, government grants and waived fees were tacked on Friday to the growing wish list of a company trying to replace public housing with upscale development.
Civitas representatives have said for weeks that they would not seek city tax money for their plan to bring new homes and businesses to 157 acres between downtown and Ybor City.
But a draft proposal sent Friday to the city called for tax breaks, tax credits and tax exemptions, as well as for city help in getting state tax money. That's in addition to city financing for roadwork, water lines and other infrastructure improvements, which the company previously requested.
They also want the city to build them a lake. Yes. A lake.
If developer Ed Turanchik gets his way, the city's low-income housing funds will first go to his project in Central Park before other Tampa neighborhoods see the money.
......(Thursday) was the first time Turanchik had mentioned using city housing funds and getting tax breaks to develop an upscale, 157-acre neighborhood downtown.
Turanchik called the draft "points for discussion," but he wants the City Council to vote on a deal by Jan. 15.
......A development group led by Turanchik needs approval from the city and Tampa Housing Authority to build its project in Tampa's Central Park neighborhood. They want to demolish low-income housing projects in the area and replace them with an urban, upscale neighborhood where people rich and poor might coexist.
......Turanchik asked for more than he's sought previously:
He wants the city to obtain taxpayer funds from a state agency, the Florida Community Trust, to pay for public parks in his project.
He wants the city to help him get enterprise-zone grants to build a manufacturing factory in east Tampa.
He wants the city to waive all impact and permit fees.
He wants an exemption from paying certain local sales taxes.
He wants the city to apply for tax funds to help build a lake in his project, which would hold stormwater.
Turanchik's proposal says the city would help his company "to the extent applicable." What that means still needs to be worked out, he said.
He said he simply wants to avail himself of assistance the government typically gives developers.
He said the city would normally seek state tax funds to buy new parks. The parks he wants, which would likely be used by Central Park residents, would also be open to anyone.
Under Turanchik's proposal, the city would pay a private homeowners association to maintain the park to current city standards.
Turanchik called his request to waive impact fees "very standard" in economic development deals.
"I don't see a lot of surprises in here," he said.
The draft agreement also makes it clear how Turanchik would like the city to use its low-income housing dollars to finance his project.
Turanchik wants the money to help build the kind of upscale housing projects in Central Park that government can't normally afford.
......Turanchik wants to partner with the Tampa Housing Authority to build "magnificent" housing complexes unlike anything else in the city.
......Turanchik said the city should naturally use its low-income dollars for projects such as this. That's what the money was intended for, he said.
Notice the part about the park? It’s kinda hard to miss, since I put it in bold type. This will not be a public park. Civitas, the owner of the park, will have the right to kick anyone out for any reason. Just like some malls kick people out for wearing the wrong clothing. So, these rich white men want the city to pay to build and maintain their new park and lake and then Civitas will pay for the goon squads to patrol the area looking for backward baseball cap and anti-war t-shirt wearing “trespassers”.
Turanchik wants upscale housing? We need basic housing right now for the hundreds of families that are on the street or living in over-priced “budget” motels. $150 per week, no cooking facilities, no security, often no heat, strict rules regarding visitors, CASH ONLY IN ADVANCE.
These are hard working people who are caught in a heartless economy. To get out of their cars and hotel rooms and into a real apartment requires lump sums of cash that are impossible to come up with while keeping up with current expenses. Landlords demand “deposits” equal to 3 months rent. I was a renter for many years, and I’d say I only managed to get deposits back from about 1 out of 5 landlords. They always find a way to keep your money, legally or not, and since the landlord invariably has vastly more resources at his disposal than a tenant, there is simply no recourse.
Anyway, even a dirt-cheap apartment costs $1,500.00 or so to move into. Electricity and water both require cash deposits, unless you have very good credit. Add cleaning supplies, curtains, light bulbs, space heaters, and all the other little miscellany of living, and we’re up to about $2000.00. Cash. Try to raise that while working in a labor pool and spending over fifty percent of your income on simple shelter and frittering away the rest on overpriced and unhealthy pre-packaged food products that you’ve heated in the microwave at the 7-11.
I could go on for days about the predators that descend on poor neighborhoods to legally steal from residents who are trapped with little or no transportation options and no credit. The over-priced grocery stores with expired meats, the pawn shops and payday loan services which make loans with interest rates in the mid hundreds, and the furniture rental places where you can rent-to-buy a $300 TV for only $20 per month. For 60 months.
My point is that life is hard and expensive when you’re poor. Basic necessities cost more. It is very easy for a family with 2 full-time wage earners to find themselves on the street. We need cheap, basic housing right now. Low income housing dollars should be used to help people with low incomes. They should not be used to enrich for-profit companies founded by people who swear that the best way to help the poor is to move them out of sight.
Cassel on courts
Thursday, December 18, brought some good news for those among us who thought the judicial branch of government was asleep. An independent judiciary is alive and well in two federal circuits--the Second Circuit (New York) and the Ninth Circuit (California). Both appeals courts rejected the Bush administration's claims that President Bush has unlimited power to trample the civil rights of Americans and prisoners in its control under the guise of fighting a global war on "terror."
Courts decide that they are a branch of government after all
The broad presidential powers invoked by the Bush administration after Sept. 11, 2001, to detain suspected terrorists outside the civilian court system is now being challenged by the federal courts, the very branch of the government the White House hoped to circumvent.
The two separate appellate court rulings on Thursday swept away crucial parts of the administration's legal strategy to handle terrorist suspects outside the criminal justice system and incarcerate them indefinitely without access to lawyers or to the evidence against them.
......The issue of whether the administration has gone too far will not be decided definitively until the cases reach the Supreme Court. The court has agreed to decide whether detainees at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, are entitled to access to civilian courts to challenge their open-ended detention.
Nevertheless, in one sense the administration has already lost an important point by the courts' willingness to ignore assertions that the issues are exclusively within the discretion of the executive branch.
Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch, said the two decisions were a serious setback for the administration's legal approach.
"The Padilla decision emphasized the Bush administration's unilateralism versus Congress," Mr. Roth said, referring to an appellate court ruling on Thursday in the case of a United States citizen, Jose Padilla, arrested on American soil on suspicion of terrorism.
"The Ninth Circuit decision said that you can't create a legal black hole in territory controlled by the United States," Mr. Roth added, referring to a second ruling on Thursday related to noncitizens captured in the Afghan war and detained at a naval base in Guantánamo Bay.
"Both attacked the Bush administration's view that a war metaphor can justify restrictions on basic criminal justice rights away from a traditional battlefield," Mr. Roth said.
......But on Thursday, administration officials gave no sign that they would retreat from their approach. "Actually these rulings are an aberration," said a senior Justice Department official. "The administration has been upheld time and time again."
......In criminal courts, defendants are entitled to lawyers, have a right to a speedy trial and must be advised of the evidence and witnesses against them — concessions that the Bush administration did not want to grant to combatants in a war with adversaries who recognized none of the traditional rules of combat.
In New York on Thursday, a federal appeals court opinion in the case of Mr. Padilla struck at the heart of that aggressive strategy. The panel's 2-to-1 opinion said that the president lacked the authority to exercise such broad coercive powers against American citizens without the consent of Congress.
Specifically, the judges attacked the government's designation of Mr. Padilla as an enemy combatant, a category of detainee that was created shortly after Sept. 11 to hold suspected terrorists without the rights that criminal suspects are routinely granted in the civilian court system.
......In the case in San Francisco, a 2-to-1 panel said on Thursday that the detention of 660 noncitizens at Guantánamo Bay without the protection of the American legal system was unconstitutional and a violation of international law.
Despite Bushcroft’s best efforts, we do still have a constitution in this country. Unfortunately, senior Justice Department officials consider themselves immune from constitutional restraints, and until now there has been little to stop them from trampling on people’s rights. This is a good step in the right direction.
Tampa’s Welfare Daddies
Corporate welfare roles in Tampa continue to rise unabated as Tampa’s elite join forces to attempt a massive transfer of public wealth into private hands.
BlogWood has learned that lazy, shiftless corporate entities are living large off the public dole, and asking for more! While honest taxpayers struggle to make ends meet, their government is taking their hard-earned money and throwing it at football fat cats, hot hotels, and loony land deals.
Years ago, Tampa leaders borrowed against our collective soul and built a fancy new football stadium for a bunch of rich white men. Complete control of said stadium, including all revenue streams, has been ceded to these Welfare Daddies in exchange for vague promises to try real hard not to ask for another stadium for at least 2 or 3 more years. The Buccaneers are worth $671 million dollars.
More recently, Tampa cut a deal with some other rich white men that pays them $32 million to operate a profitable hotel. But let’s not begrudge these guys a little much-needed help. Why, one small part of the Marriott clan, John and Richard Marriott, are way down in the 100's on Forbe’s list, with a measly net worth of just $6.2 billion.
Now, Civitas, a company owned by the creme de la blanc of Tampa’s elite Welfare Daddies, is in need of our help. See, Ed Turanchik’s Plan to Take Over the World can not possibly proceed without a little public assistance. Investors might not be guaranteed to make a profit if they have to pay for everything themselves, and if they can’t make a guaranteed profit, then how do you expect them to steal from help the poor?
Make no mistake: Civitas is in business to help the poor. In fact, their primary goal seems to be to help the poor population near downtown Tampa to get the fuck out so that our homegrown Welfare Daddies can start making some money.
Their first pitch was in a meeting with City officials yesterday. Today, Ed Turacnchik will be making a presentation to the City Council.
Civitas' latest proposal calls for the city to swap land it owns within the company's 157-acre target area northeast of downtown for scattered sites the company owns in those other neighborhoods, said Mark Huey, Tampa's economic development director.
Civitas' latest proposal calls for the city to swap land it owns within the company's 157-acre target area northeast of downtown for scattered sites the company owns in those other neighborhoods, said Mark Huey, Tampa's economic development director.
Wednesday was the first meeting between Civitas and city officials since the company unveiled plans Dec. 4 to bring homes and businesses to Tampa's Central Park area.
Civitas also proposes buying some city land, and it wants city help to pay for road work, waterlines and other infrastructure improvements.
``This was the top layer of the onion,'' Huey said. ``We have a lot more meetings to have.''
Translation: “We’ll give up these sub-prime properties that are scattered all over the place in exchange for city properties that are concentrated in the area where we are working to acquire land. We absolutely need these city properties, so an ordinary seller could command top dollar, but we will pay or trade the city next to nothing for them and we will also be asking for many more handouts along the way.”
Stay tuned!
(Updated to add the rest of the Tribune quote I thought I had added in the first place. Doh.)
911 Bombshell The Wicked Witch is Still Caught!
CBS News had a very interesting interview last night with Thomas Kean, the Republican chairman of the 911 Commission:
"This is a very, very important part of history and we've got to tell it right," said Thomas Kean.
"As you read the report, you're going to have a pretty clear idea what wasn't done and what should have been done," he said. "This was not something that had to happen."
Appointed by the Bush administration, Kean, a former Republican governor of New Jersey, is now pointing fingers inside the administration and laying blame.
"There are people that, if I was doing the job, would certainly not be in the position they were in at that time because they failed. They simply failed," Kean said.
To find out who failed and why, the commission has navigated a political landmine, threatening a subpoena to gain access to the president's top-secret daily briefs. Those documents may shed light on one of the most controversial assertions of the Bush administration – that there was never any thought given to the idea that terrorists might fly an airplane into a building.
"I don't think anybody could have predicted that they would try to use an airplane as a missile, a hijacked airplane as a missile," said national security adviser Condoleeza Rice on May 16, 2002.
"How is it possible we have a national security advisor coming out and saying we had no idea they could use planes as weapons when we had FBI records from 1991 stating that this is a possibility," said Kristen Breitweiser, one of four New Jersey widows who lobbied Congress and the president to appoint the commission.
(thanks to Daily Kos for the heads up!)
This sounds big, but the dominant headlines in the NYT this morning are all about the wicked witch. If we look carefully, we can find out that 199 soldiers have been killed by hostile fire since W declared “Mission Accomplished” back on May 1.
That’s the NYT spin. In reality, there have been 321 military fatalities during that period. The pentagon like to spin many deaths as accidents, thus lowering the “combat” death count. In reality, not very many of these soldiers would have died if they were not in Iraq right now.
W is responsible for every one of those deaths, and it now looks like his administration knew a lot more about the impending 911 attack than they are letting on.
911 led to the Patriot Act, the Afghan invasion, and the invasion of Iraq. The fear and confusion of most Americans immediately after 911 made an unelected and weak President extremely popular, as people naturally rallied around the only leader we had. Regardless of what W did or did not know before 911, he has cynically used the tragic events of that day to rape the constitution, enrich his friends, and enact revenge on the mean bully who tried to hurt his daddy, but who had absolutely nothing to do with 911.
Which is why we all feel so much safer now.
Good news for Plan B
In a 23-to-4 vote, two expert advisory committees to the Food and Drug Administration recommended Tuesday that a so-called morning-after pill to prevent unintended pregnancies be sold over the counter.
The F.D.A. usually follows its committees' advice, although the final decision rests with its commissioner, Dr. Mark B. McClellan. But the overwhelming vote by the agency's outside advisers led proponents as well as opponents to expect that Dr. McClellan would go along with the committees, making his decision within weeks to months.
The drug is an emergency contraceptive known as Plan B, to be taken when regular contraception either fails or is skipped. Consisting of two high-dose birth control pills, Plan B is meant to be used within 72 hours after unprotected sexual intercourse and may prevent up to 89 percent of unplanned pregnancies.
If approved, widespread availability of Plan B could have an impact second only to the advent of the birth control pill, advocates say. The proponents, including groups like Planned Parenthood, argued to the panel that Plan B was safe and could prevent as many as half of the three million unintended pregnancies in the United States each year.
Despite the best efforts of right winger types to paint Plan B as an abortion pill, an FDA committee is recommending that it be sold over the counter. Right now, Plan B is available via prescription, but is not stocked in many pharmacies due to lobbying efforts by anti-abortion groups. Plan B is a contraceptive. It is not the abortion pill:
There is considerable public confusion about the difference between emergency contraception and medical abortion because of misinformation disseminated by anti-choice groups. Emergency contraception helps prevent pregnancy; medical abortion terminates pregnancy.
Let your pharmacy know that you will expect them to stock this safe and proven product for over the counter sales as soon as it becomes legal to do so.
Emergency contraception has been available for more than 25 years and could prevent 1.7 million unintended pregnancies and 800,000 abortions each year in the U.S. It is a safe and effective method of contraception, and women who have used it report high levels of satisfaction.
Despite its enormous potential, anti-choice groups oppose the use of emergency contraception. In order to hinder women's access to this important method of contraception, they falsely claim that emergency contraception is an abortifacient, and they disseminate other misinformation about its safety and efficacy.
Fortunately, public awareness and availability of emergency contraception has increased, and hopefully more women will benefit from this important backup birth control method in the future.
Emergency Contraception Is Not Just a "Morning-After Pill"
Emergency contraception, also called postcoital contraception, can prevent pregnancy after unprotected intercourse. Emergency contraception is provided in two ways: using hormonal contraceptive pills or inserting a copper-releasing IUD (intrauterine device).
* Emergency Contraceptive Pills (ECPs) contain hormones that reduce the risk of pregnancy when started within 120 hours (five days) of unprotected intercourse. The treatment is more effective the sooner it begins (Ellertson, et al., 2003; "FDA Approves…", 1999; Rodrigues, et al., 2001; Van Look & Stewart, 1998). (Because ECPs have a five-day window of effectiveness, the popular term "morning-after pill" is misleading.)
* An IUD can be inserted to prevent pregnancy up to five days after unprotected intercourse (Van Look & Stewart, 1998).
Widespread Use and Availability of Emergency Contraception Could Prevent More than Half of All Unintended Pregnancies and Abortions in the U.S.
Forty-two million, or seven in 10 women of reproductive age, are sexually active and do not want to become pregnant. Nearly half of America's 6.3 million annual pregnancies are accidental. Unintended pregnancies result in 1.4 million abortions annually, as well as 1.2 million births that women either did not want to have until later or did not want at all (AGI, 2000). Eighty percent of teen pregnancies are unintended, and each year, one in 10 young women aged 15-19 become pregnant; more than half become mothers (AGI, 1999).
Widespread use of emergency contraception could prevent an estimated 1.7 million unintended pregnancies and 800,000 abortions each year (Glasier & Baird, 1998; Van Look & Stewart, 1998).
Today on MorningWood
Today on MorningWood, on Community Radio WMNF 88.5 fm, Tampa, and streaming at wmnf.org.
4 to 6 am every Tuesday!
Shameless Self-Promotion:
DJ DDP is leaving Saturday Asylum, so there is an opening for a programmer on Saturday afternoon. Call or Email WMNF Program Director Randy Wynne and ask him to pick Norwood for this slot from 2-4 PM on Saturdays! (Phone number is 813-238-8001, ex 16) I know: I’ll have to come up with another catchy name, since MorningWood seems somehow inappropriate in the afternoon, but I’m willing to make the sacrifice.
Today’s MorningWood highlights:
I, Norwood, do hereby pledge to play absolutely no holiday songs on MorningWood during this holiday season. These days. we are inundated with Muzak-ical versions of traditional holiday classics literally everywhere we go. Restaurants blare this noise into our ears during meals, malls crank up the volume to encourage sales, TV commercials try to get cute or all sentimental with their own pro-capitalist carol-based holiday pap. Even WMNF programmers are not immune: whole sets, and sometimes entire shows are dedicated to holiday themed tunes. (That’s fine. In fact, these special sets and shows would be sorely missed if they all stopped happening, but for me, it’s just too much.)
Yeah, I have, in my collection, a good number of quirky, different, edgy, and downright hysterical songs that are appropriate only during this season, and the vast majority have never been heard on WMNF or any other radio station. You’re not gonna hear them on my show either. And I’m not sorry. Just tired of being a captive consumer trapped in a season in which mass consumption has become the highest form of spirituality most people can comprehend. And because the entire season is so tightly intertwined with over-consumption, I refuse to do my part and play the expected holiday music. Consider this a little vacation from what, for many people, is perhaps the most stressful time of the year. Relax. “Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer” will be right back after this short 2 hour MorningWood break.
Iraq Casualty Count:
Saddam deserves whatever he gets, but the war is not over. Oh, and has anyone seen what’s-his-name? You know, the guy that really did attack our country and kill thousands of innocent Americans? The name’s on the tip of my tongue... I’ll get it in a minute...
Playlists
WMNF
WMNF is a non-commercial community radio station that celebrates local cultural diversity and is committed to equality, peace and social and economic justice. WMNF provides broadcasts and creates other forums to serve the community by the exposure and sharing of these values.
Volunteers, like myself, are the lifeblood of this station. If you live in the Tampa Bay area and are interested in volunteering at WMNF, call Gene Moore at 813-238-8001.
Dean doesn’t waver
Howard Dean says it better than I did (see below):
"Let me be clear: My position on the war has not changed,'' Dean said in an address to the Pacific Council in Los Angeles.
"The difficulties and tragedies we have faced in Iraq show that the administration launched the war in the wrong way, at the wrong time, with inadequate planning, insufficient help, and at unbelievable cost,'' the former Vermont governor said. "An administration prepared to work with others in true partnership might have been able, if it found no alternative to Saddam's ouster, to then rebuild Iraq with far less cost and risk.''
Edwards and Clark also downplay the significance of Saddam's capture:
Edwards, who supported the Bush-backed congressional war resolution, zeroed in on what he said is a greater threat than any posed by Saddam: the spread of weapons of mass destruction.
"It was great news for the Iraqi people, the world, and the United States that Saddam Hussein was captured. But that alone is no substitute for a comprehensive strategy to deal with the world's most dangerous weapons, no matter how welcome the news,'' Edwards said in a text of his address in Iowa, site of the Jan. 19 caucuses.
Clark, speaking from The Hague where he testified in the U.N. war crimes trial of former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic, said Saddam's capture ``doesn't change the challenge we face there. The war is not over.''
He called on Bush to work more closely with U.S. allies, particularly NATO, to fight terrorism. ``Iraq is still in danger of becoming a failed state,'' Clark said in a text of his address. ``A failed state would be a stunning success for al-Qaida.''
Saddam is caught… now what?
First, the end does not justify the means. Second, this is not the end.
Nobody likes Saddam. But we are paying an awfully steep price to get him. And not a WMD in sight. You remember the WMDs, right? Those horrible, powerful, easy to deploy weapons that Saddam was getting ready to use against America? You know, the whole reason we invaded Iraq in the first place?
And what about our old pal Osama? The Taliban is resurgent in Afghanistan, and al Qaeda is gaining power, according to recent reports. Despite W’s inferences to the contrary, no evidence has been produced to link Osama and Saddam, so the war on terror has been forgotten about in favor of invading an oil-rich sovereign nation.
So, no, the capture of Saddam does not justify the invasion of Iraq. Iraq was never an imminent threat to this country, and diplomatic measures to verify this fact had by no means been exhausted when W pulled the trigger.
Saddam was captured alone and disoriented at the bottom of a hole. He was not directing attacks against U.S. forces. He was not leading the resistance. That means that the resistance is likely to continue for as long as the U.S. occupies Iraq. This means that W’s Great Baghdad Adventure has not yet reached its concluding chapters.
Unless, of course, we wise up and bring in the UN.
We finally got the bastard. Good. Now let’s go home.