activism

Apparently, MoveOn.Org has a new enemy: Facebook's ad campaign (http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-facebook21nov21,1,2142037.story?co...).

There are a lot of things about this that seem inherently weird to me. For one: Moveon's
main issue doesn't seem to be the questionable legality of the Beacon advertising campaign (under some New York law), nor the switched labor structure it implies (my thoughts on this in an essay to come later) whereby people market stuff for free to make money for corporations. No, their problem seems to be "privacy."

From a press release.

(Sorry for those of you reading this blog from the link on my site. Surely the constantly rotating news of new corporate censorship is bumming you out! Well, me too.)
--
One day after the Yes Men made a joke announcement that ExxonMobil
plans to turn billions of climate-change victims into a brand-new
fuel called Vivoleum, the Yes Men's upstream internet service
provider shut down Vivoleum.com, the Yes Men's spoof website, and cut
off the Yes Men's email service, in reaction to a complaint whose
source they will not identify. The provider, Broadview Networks, also

Our good friends the Yes Men have just sent along this news release, reprinted here in entirety:

--
EXXON PROPOSES BURNING HUMANITY FOR FUEL IF CLIMATE CALAMITY HITS
Conference organizer fails to have Yes Men arrested

Text of speech, photos, video: http://www.vivoleum.com/event/
GO-EXPO statement: http://newswire.ca/en/releases/archive/June2007/14/c5086.html
Press conference before this event, Friday, Calgary: http://arusha.org/event/7214
Contact: mailto:fuel@theyesmen.org
More links at end of release.

Imposters posing as ExxonMobil and National Petroleum Council (NPC)
representatives delivered an outrageous keynote speech to 300 oilmen

One of the many things I love about Chicago is the bike culture and two biking events are happening this weekend.

Chicago Critical Mass against the G8 & Climate Change!
Friday, June 8
Daley Plaza
4pm
http://www.infoshop.org/inews/article.php?story=20070605102127983

World Naked Bike Ride: Chicago
Saturday, June 9
Union Park
6pm: Gathering and Body Painting
9pm: Departure
http://www.worldnakedbikeride.org/chicago/

Well for those of you that believed I still had a court date on the twentieth, I've been lazy on the updates...if you even care...and well, today I had a meeting with a probation officer as "an attempt to handle matters out of court".

Basically, I had to sum up what happened, hand her my report card, and a letter from the vice-prinicipal basically telling 'em to go easy on me and I left the Police Department with 20 hours worth of community service to do.I'm really glad it wasn't worse or as bad as I would expect to be.

Now, I have to move on and worry about other things--like finding a mustache for my European History final tomorrow.

The future of the Internet, cable TV and local media is threatened in Illinois.

Large phone companies faced a massive public outcry in 2006 when they attempted to pass a terrible telecommunications bill in Washington. Now they're pushing a law in Springfield that would undercut local authority, threaten public access channels and cut off many communities in Illinois from accessing new technologies.

You can help stop this bad bill by taking action today. The Illinois House Telecommunications Committee is holding a hearing on House Bill 1500 on Wednesday. Call Rep. John Fritchey and urge him to oppose the bill.

DC Councilman Jim Graham has introduced emergency legislation to ban minors from venues that serve alcohol following the murder of a 17 year old outside one nightclub, erasing 20+ years of effort on behalf of organizations like Positive Force to ensure spaces for the all-ages appreciation of music and culture.

Dischord Records urges you to write to Jim Graham and Mayor Fenty now and show your support for all ages access to music in Washington, DC.

Write Jim Graham: jim@grahamwone.com
Write Mayor Fenty: http://app.dc.gov/apps/about.asp?page=atd&type=dsf&referrer=%5b$DSF_SERVER_NAME$%5d&a

Hey people,

I need pictures of things that are both underground and corporate: your star wars tatt; the stenciled nike logo on your neighborhood wall; the flyers at the Gap that look suspiciously like the ones you made for your band last week; your homemade, hand-drawn CK t-shirt; whatever. Anything and everything.

Got any? Send 'em to me puh-leeeze at aem@anneelizabethmoore.com (so's we're not clogging the PP.com emails). Lemme know who shot 'em, when, and why, and I will show them to people and tell them how awesome you are.

In honor of the 34th anniversary of Roe V. Wade on January 22, NARAL wants to hear your abortion-related story: http://www.prochoiceamerica.org/choice-action-center/womens-stories/shar...

hooray for abortion!

Ken Krayeske took a photograph recently of a public figure in a public street. Newsworthy? You wouldn't think. But it got him arrested—for breach of peace and interfering with an officer. (http://www.newhavenindependent.org/archives/2007/01/your_antiterror_1.ph...)

As a known "political activist," Krayeske was considered a threat to Hartford Governor M. Jodi Rell, who was photographed in a grey coat and blue mittens. According to police, before taking the picture, Krayeske had "approached" her; eyewitnesses deny any such action, claiming he merely photographed her. (http://www.courant.com/news/politics/hc-ctthreat0106.artjan06,0,6152580....)