2012 Campaign Spending Breaking New Records as Groups Fight to Overturn Supreme Court 'Corporate Personhood' Decision

Interview with Jeff Clements, author of the book, "Corporations Are Not People", conducted by Scott Harris
 
Although President Obama opposed the Supreme Court’s January 2010 Citizens United decision that eliminated many limits on corporate contributions to election campaigns, he symbolically threw in the towel in early February to endorse Super Political Action Committees or Super PACs created by the decision. With his endorsement, Obama joined Republican presidential candidates who are already using Super PACs, and urged his supporters to make donations to the Priorities USA Super PAC, established to make unlimited expenditures on the president’s behalf in the 2012 election campaign. But as the White House made this announcement, a press release stated that “President favors action – by constitutional amendment, if necessary – to place reasonable limits on all such spending.” 

Story continues
http://www.btlonline.org/2012/seg/120224cf-btl-clements.html

 Rabbis' Group Fights for Rights of the Oppressed in Israel and the U.S.

Interview with Rachel Goldenberg, co-chair of Rabbis for Human Rights, North America, conducted by Scott Harris
 
Rachel Goldenberg is rabbi of a congregation in Connecticut and co-chair of Rabbis for Human Rights, North America. The organization, founded in 2002, addresses issues of concern in the U.S., such as the torture of American-held prisoners, the rise of Islamophobia, and protecting the rights of farm workers. The group also raises financial support for the Rabbis for Human Rights’ Israeli chapter. 

Story continues
http://www.btlonline.org/2012/seg/120224bf-btl-goldenberg.html
 

 Dear Radio Friend, 

 Apple’s march to market supremacy has been accomplished at tremendous cost to both American and Chinese workers

 Dear Radio Friend, 

 Dear Radio Friend, 

 After Years of Inaction, Obama Moves to Investigate Wall Street Role in Economic Collapse

Interview with Richard Eskow, senior fellow at the group Campaign for America’s Future, conducted by Scott Harris
 
The film, "Inside Job," which investigated the causes of the U.S. and global economic meltdown. won the Academy Award for best documentary film in 2011. Upon accepting his Oscar at the awards ceremony, the film's director, Charles Ferguson, decried the fact that three years after the financial crisis caused by financial fraud, not a single financial executive had gone to jail. Nearly a year later, and five months after the birth of the Occupy Wall Street movement, President Barack Obama announced in his January State of the Union address that he was appointing New York State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman as one of five co-chairs of a new Justice Department task force to investigate mortgage fraud by big banks and financial institutions that played a central role in the economic collapse. 

Story continues
http://www.btlonline.org/2012/seg/120217af-btl-eskow.html

 For Immediate Release:                        February 6, 2012
   Contact: Austin Airwaves                          jimedia@grandecom.net

FCC LPFM Window to Open “Before Presidential Election”
Austin Airwaves Predicts 10,000 Applicants

The Audio Division of the Federal Communications Commission confirmed to Austin Airwaves on January 20th that the Commission is “shooting for the Fall” for the opening of the highly-anticipated ‘window’ for applications for new Low Power FM (LPFM) educational radio stations. The previously-reliable government source asked not to be named. Another source outside the Commission, long familiar with the LPFM issue, stated she thought that the FCC wanted to get “the process rolling before the presidential election."

Austin Airwaves predicts that nationwide there will be as many as ten thousand applications for the new LPFM licenses.

When asked if he felt this number was a good guestimate, the FCC source said, “We never know what a particular demand will be until we open a window. We have stopped conjecturing about how many applications there may be. It depends in part on supply and demand, availability of spectrum in major markets. There are “mysterious, serendipitous aspects to it.” The “new second adjacent rules” contained within the Local Community Radio Act (LCRA) “certainly has opened up more channels.”

Noting past incidences when the FCC’s servers have crashed under the load of hundreds of applications, Austin Airwaves asked if the “FCC servers are up for the job.” “Absolutely! [but] “Nobody should be filing in the last 15 minutes of the very last night” of the application process. “But will some people do that? Oh yeah, absolutely!”

“I have consistently under-guessed how many applications are going to be filed. I have stopped guessing,” said the veteran broadcast regulator.

Prometheus Radio Project Community Radio Director Vanessa Maria Graber said “Prometheus and our many partners are gearing up for an application window before the presidential election this year. We are helping groups prepare to apply during a potential five day window, most likely in September or October.”

Noting that during past application windows the FCC servers have crashed, “I’m not sure of the capacity of the FCC servers. They have had problems in the past. We support having multiple windows for different regions of the country because of the limited number of engineers and lawyers who are qualified to help organizations apply. Breaking up the windows makes it easier for everyone to have access to them.  Regardless of whether or not the FCC will have multiple windows, groups should waste no time in preparing to apply for a construction permit”

Page Two of Two

“I could see anywhere from five to ten thousand applications submitted nationally.” The FCC’s Proposed Rule Making (PRM) regarding translators is expected later this month. It will finally resolve the questions as to what to do with thousands of translator applications remaining from the 2003 application window. Translators are low power FM stations that carry an existing station’s signal into other areas. They operate on the same frequencies as LPFMs. Community radio groups have been advocating protecting these frequencies for local, community and minority applicants, especially in larger markets. Depending on the number of frequencies made available after the PRM, “a significant number of frequencies could be made available, especially in major markets.”

After a decade of effort by community radio advocates, the Local Community Radio Act (LCRA) was passed by Congress on December 20th, 2010 and signed into law by President Obama on January 5th, 2011. With only days to go before the end of the session, Austin Airwaves played a key role in the lifting of the so-called “secret hold” in the Senate. Once the hold was lifted, the full Senate voted on the LCRA, passing it by a wide margin. Advocates for the LCRA fought years of strident opposition from National Public Radio and the National Association of Broadcasters.

There are currently 838 LPFM stations on the air across the country, of the nearly 15,000 licensed stations, as of January, 2012. LPFM stations are locally-licensed, non-commercial, educational broadcasters limited to 100 watts.

At the National Conference for Media Reform in Boston, Congressman Mike Doyle (D-PA) praised the years of work by LPFM advocates, including the Prometheus Radio Project and Austin Airwaves.  
 http://austin.indymedia.org/article/2011/05/09/austin-airwaves-praised-national-conference-media-reform

http://austin.indymedia.org/article/2011/05/09/austin-airwaves-praised-national-conference-media-reform
Austin Airwaves predicts that when the five day window for applications for new LPFM licenses opens this year as many as 10,000 applications will be submitted. "I sure hope the FCC servers are up for the job," quipped Austin Airwaves’ Jim Ellinger.

Sources:
Prometheus Radio Project  

http://www.prometheusradio.org/
http://prometheusradio.org/we_won

http://prometheusradio.org/node/2445
Radio World    http://bit.ly/r5NEBh
Radio Survivor   http://www.radiosurvivor.com/2012/01/06/radio-still-growing-in-u-s-according-to-latest-fcc-stats/
Austin IndyMedia   http://austin.indymedia.org/article/2011/05/09/austin-airwaves-praised-national-conference-media-reform
Rep. Mike Doyle  http://doyle.house.gov/press-releases-1/2012/01/fcc-study-confirms-value-of-low-power-fm-radio-stations.shtml
 

 RePosted from AustinChronicle.com

Occupy Austin Evicted

By Richard Whittaker, 2:14PM, Sat. Feb. 4

Occupy Austin get evicted from City Hall on February 3, 2012

Photo by John Anderson

At 10.45pm last night, after days of speculation and rumor, Occupy Austin was evicted from the steps of City Hall.

The Occupiers were told at 9.30pm last night that they had one hour to leave the plaza. New rules had been issued by City Manager Marc Ott's office, requiring a reservation by any group planning to use the Mezzanine or Amphitheater, and barring any non-city usage between 10pm and 6am unless there is a city meeting going on. The new rules also ban "sleeping, camping and the use or storage of sleeping equipment" at all times.

Coolers marked in sharpie with SRT (Special Response Team) were seen being taken into City Hall earlier this week, and occupiers had been told on Monday that they would face eviction on Wednesday. That deadline passed with no incident, but the city was obviously preparing for this later event.

In a press release issued today, Occupy Austin said that 50 police arrived by bus at 10.45pm, and quickly emptied the area, not giving people sufficient time to collect their personal belongings. The protesters then gathered at Republic Square Park and continued to march along Sixth Street. They continued to webcast the event until "it was reported that APD was watching the Livestream and using that information to surround the Occupiers."

 

Live streamer Corey Williams gets arrested first at the Occupy Austin get evicted from City Hall on February 3, 2012

Photo by John Anderson

According to our photographer John Anderson, who was on the scene, the first arrest was Corey Williams – who was running the Occupy Austin live stream. Anderson reports that Williams was pointed out by APD Commander Jason Dusterhoft to his officers (it has been standard practice at other evictions to shut down the live stream as fast as possible).

Seven arrests were made in total, a group consisting of core Occupiers (including Bernard Zapata Garcia, Dallas Aycock and Jordan Walsh) as well as city hall regular Debbie Russell were arrested. According to Occupy sources, each has been charged with criminal trespass with a $100 bond, except Walsh who received four charges, and his bond has been set at $11,000.

 

58 year-old Claire Hirschkind gets arrested as Occupy Austin gets evicted from City Hall on February 3, 2012

Photo by John Anderson

One protester, 58-year-old Claire Hirschkind, was taken to Brackenridge Hospital: The city's press office told us via Twitter that she suffers from regular seizures, but Anderson said she was clearly pushed.

This morning, Anderson emailed me to say, "I returned to City Hall after Occupy Austin had wandered the streets like nomads for a couple of hours. I got shots of the cops there, but as soon as some kid showed up and yelled something about First Amendment rights, the cops chased us off. I was told by a cop that I could not stand on the sidewalk in front of City Hall since even the sidewalk is considered City Hall property and now under curfew."

 

APD officer Mistric threatens a group on a sidewalk with pepper spray after Occupy Austin got evicted from City Hall on February 3, 2012

Photo by John Anderson

The consensus seems to be that this whole event was handled much worse than the cleaning/clean out operation or the Halloween arrests. Those operation, like all of the interactions between the city and Occupy, was handled through the office of Assistant City Manager Mike McDonald, with Chief of Police Art Acevedo (often depicted by all parties as a calming influence) present.

However, word then was that Mayor Lee Leffingwell's office was extremely dissatisfied with McDonald and Ott's hamfisted handling of the situation. Moreover, Acevedo was not present last night, with the operation seemingly being handled by Dusterhoft. Not only was there no seeming need for an eviction, but the more pragmatic question of whether this really was the best use of APD forces on a wet Friday night (much like the Halloween debacle: Because, of course, there are no better places for APD to be then, either.)

Not hard to imagine that there will be some pointed and furious phone calls being exchanged this morning.

Experience first-hand the change sweeping through Latin America in the areas of food sovereignty, indigenous resistance, climate justice, and human rights through a trip to Bolivia or Venezuela this summer.

Experience first-hand the change sweeping through Latin America in the areas of food sovereignty, indigenous resistance, climate justice, and human rights through a trip to Bolivia or Venezuela this summer.