This is the first in (potentially) a series of "Week in Review" type diaries. The purpose of this series is to post news items that may interest the dKos community but seem to have been missed by previous diaries and discussions during the week. Except the Kerry Watch section - that will be more of a roundup. If you hate Kerry, just skip that part.
These will be items that have passed through my various email inboxes from the several listservs and alert services that I subscribe to. Actually, not all of these are "infogeek" type listservs. I just thought the name had a better ring than "infogeek plus news plus school plus work-related (off-topic) plus ...". Plus it fits better in the 25 characters or so that shows on the front page diary list. Finally, it was the influx of interesting items from the progressive listservs, and my inability to post them as individual diaries as they came in, which inspired this effort. Suggestions for a better title will be duly considered!
The PILR Roundup is below the fold.
Corporations in the (College) Classroom
[NOTE: this is somewhat 'stale', however I just received this note on the listserv this week, so it appears actions are still ongoing. I was unfortunately unable to find any update on Dr. Chapela's current status. If anyone has or can find that info - maybe any Berkely folks out there? - please post an update in comments. Regardless, I think this story is important, and may be a wake-up call for some.
NOTE 2: Apparently this has gotten around - see diary here posted last night - but it's really important (IMHO) so I'm leaving it in.]
From the Organic Consumers Association. Via a listserv which will remain nameless.
A well-respected and popular professor at the University of California in Berkeley has been fired after publishing a scientific paper regarding the uncontrolled contamination of irreplaceable native Mexican corn varieties by genetically engineered corn.
Dr. Ignacio Chapela, whose corn contamination article was published in the science journal "Nature," was denied his tenure due to pressure from the biotech company Monsanto on the University (the UC Berkeley tenure review panel had actually voted almost unanimously to approve his tenure). Professor Chapela has been told to have his office cleaned out by December 31.
Sign a petition to demand a review of Dr. Chapela's tenure denial.
Sign here: http://www.organicconsumers.org/uc.htm
Here is another Chapela website with more info: http://www.tenurejustice.org/
More right-wing influence on campus - University of California Irvine
[NOTE: Another stale one, but still of interest, I think.]
Patriot Act architect ... among speakers joining UC Irvine Chancellor's Distinguished Fellows Series, Jan. 11 - May 20, 2005
Viet D. Dinh , "Life After 9/11: Issues Affecting the Courts and the Nation"
7 p.m., Tuesday, Jan. 11, Beckman Center Auditorium
Dinh, chief architect of the USA Patriot Act, is a professor of law and deputy director of the Asian Law and Policy Studies Program at Georgetown University. He has served as associate special counsel to the U.S. Senate Banking Committee for the Whitewater investigation and as special counsel to Sen. Pete Domenici for the impeachment trial of President Bill Clinton. Dinh is a Harvard Law School graduate and has clerked for U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor.
:
:
John Choon Yoo , "Fighting the New Terrorism: the Role of Law"
7 p.m., Monday, Feb. 7, University Club
Yoo is a UC Berkeley law professor and constitutional scholar who served as deputy assistant attorney general at the Department of Justice from 2001 to 2003. With expertise in foreign affairs, national security and the separation of powers, Yoo has testified before the congressional judiciary committees. A graduate of Yale Law School, Yoo has served as a law clerk for U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas.
Of course, in between there is Thomas Frank, author "What's the Matter with Kansas". So it's up to you how much you want to get your britches in a twist over this one. But as one of my sources notes,
And another notes,
Chilling the Free Press
The Big Chill: A local libel case ripples through the national press
Minnesota news organizations have 625,000 new reasons to watch what they say about public officials like Carver County Commissioner Tom Workman
...snip...
A libel case decided in Minnesota last month has set the fax machines whirring in media law offices across the country and attracted the attention of the journalism trade press. In its December 22 verdict, a jury awarded Republican Carver County Commissioner Tom Workman the eye-catching sum of $625,000 in his suit against a suburban newspaper, the Chanhassen Villager, which claimed erroneously in a 2003 editorial that Workman himself had been on the losing end of a lawsuit and may have engaged in a subsequent act of political reprisal.
Note that the 'libelous' piece was an editorial and read on to find that it wasn't totally off the mark, just factually incorrect in a key argument.
What it could mean:
David Heller, staff attorney at the Media Law Resource Center in New York, says this type of reaction sets a dangerous precedent. "Local community papers are able to go in-depth about local politics in a way larger papers can't," he says. "This encourages more elected officials to go after local papers that criticize them." He says the editorial in question doesn't carry the defamatory sting, and that there was no proof of reckless disregard. "They used the fact that the newspaper had endorsed [Workman's] opponent as evidence that the paper was against him. It's ridiculous that they would use the endorsement as proof of malice."
Digital Red-lining?
Ministers Denounce SBC Internet-Cable TV Push as 'Digital Redlining'
via Andy Carvin of DDN (via PR Newswire)
SBC's announced $6 billion program to deliver high-speed Internet and cable TV over fiber-optic phone lines will target affluent customers, amounting to redlining of disadvantaged communities, the Ministerial Alliance Against the Digital Divide (MAADD.org) charged today.
"This is another discriminatory scheme disguised as technological progress by SBC," said Reverend James L. Demus III, co-director of MAADD. "These so-called investment proposals by SBC come with one fat string attached: no franchise agreement, and thus no requirement to invest in an entire community versus only the wealthy parts."
"This is nothing short of digital redlining. SBC is planning to deprive poorer customers of access to $6 billion in vital new technology," continued Demus. "We urge municipalities to stand firm and demand that SBC sign contracts that require it not to cherry-pick customers."
Geek and not-so-geek Tools and Resources
GovTrack
Winner of the Technorati developers contest
(from DDN listserv)
It's a pretty neat little application. It allows you to track what is going - RSS-wise - regarding bills, representatives and other bits of governmental information. These, it seems to me, has a real value to activists: they can easily find out what's going on in regards to various issues they are interested in. Very, very nice.
Podcasting
...podcasting involves the recording of internet radio or similar internet audio programs. These recordings are then made available for download to portable digital audio device. You can listen to the podcast internet radio program while you are away from your computer or at a different time than the original program was broadcast.
An example podcast (six minutes long, six megabytes) - and an interesting topic itself -
Overcoming Wikipedia's Growing Pains by Andy Carvin
The podcast was inspired by a Wired News article talking about the challenges faced by the online encyclopedia Wikipedia as it tries to become more broadly accepted both by subject experts and the public.
Kerry Watch
Jeers to ethically challenged anti-progressives:
Letter clears official who attacked Kerry in ad Oregon City, January 9, 2005.
The secretary of state's office says that Clackamas County prosecutor Alfred French did not violate state election law when he appeared in a campaign advertisement claiming Democratic candidate John Kerry lied about his Vietnam War experience.
Cheers to Shadow Goodwill Tour
Kerry assists as international observor of Palestinian elections: Kerry: time for action in Mideast
and meets with Abbas after: World needs to see actions, not words, Kerry urges Abbas and then Sharon: PM Sharon meets with US Senator Kerry
Moving on to Europe,
Passings
Noel Peattie, progressive librarian and poet.
Music Reco of the day
(my fave of what I listened to while writing this)
Bruce Cockburn, "Waiting for a Miracle"
Thank you Canada, for Bruce! (among many, many other things...)