either watch your mouth or move your ass

what the HELL is going on around here this month?

pacifica is trying to silence — or, at least, muffle — the voice of amy goodman. amy goodman, of all people, whose democracy now program is one of the most fearless and insightful shows on the air. the pacifica/WBAI wars have been ongoing for about ten years , and seem to be at a turning point now — but they’re turning in the wrong direction. bernard white fired, wake-up call rescheduled, amy rescheduled…

and facebook has yet to reinstate the group that it summarily executed after nothing more than a bullshit letter from a couple of bullshit lawyers representing one of the most hateful voices around, michael savage. it has yet to apologize to charles tsai for the uncalled-for and high-handed destruction of his profile.

so, there is no protection for amy goodman — probably because she doesn’t have a deep-pockets CEO for a son — while pacifica tries to nail her to the cross. there is no protection for charles tsai, who is a dayjob worker-bee just like most of us and can’t shell out hundreds of dollars an hour for a team of high-profile shysters. meanwhile, hate-jock savage is riding high and safe courtesty of his bootlack legal minions.

we need more amy goodmans, more charles tsais in this nation. we need more people who will stand up and say what they believe regardless of the possible consequences.

so who is going to protect them? WE ARE.

WE HAVE AN IMPORTANT JOB TO DO HERE. if we allow corporate bullies to continue degrading and shrinking the boundaries of free speech, one day we’ll wake up and find that even our blogs now need pre-approval by some faceless committee before they go online. do you want that? i sure don’t fucking want that.

i used to believe that free speech was alive & well in the USA. we don’t exactly take activist writers and commentators out and shoot them, the way china does. that’s setting the bar awfully low, though, ain’t it?

we see in just these two examples that you don’t have to kill someone to silence them. not when money money money calls every shot, with lawyers swarming thicker than fleas in a homeless shelter. we live in a litigious, retributive nation: america has more of its citizens under the thumb a largely incompetent criminal “justice” system THAN ANY OTHER NATION ON THE PLANET: over than 7  million people. that’s about eight time the population of the entire state of montana. there are whole countries with fewer citizens than we have prisoners. we should be ashamed. i AM ashamed. and i am afraid of what may come next.

we have to get our asses moving in order to keep our mouths from being sealed. here are some things you can do:

for charles tsai and free speech rights on facebook:

• if you’re not already a member, join the reinstated FB group, which is now focusing on two issues: the boycott rockstar campaign and the facebook censorship fiasco
• write about this issue on your own blog, and add your link to the FB group wall (if you’re not an FB member, just leave your link in the comments here and i will add it for you)
• if you use twitter, please tweet and retweet and re-retweet the links tothese  high-end articles about this story:
  –tana geneva’s thoughtful article on alternet
  –bilerico’s account of retribution and threats by the rockstar lawyers
  –suite 101 has a great article about the ongoing anti-rockstar activist actions, as well as links to the original rockstar boycott blog
  –this blog’s post about the silencing of charles tsai

if you find any other related stories, please post them to the facebook group wall, or send them my way for posting.

for WBAI:

• attend the take back WBAI demonstration scheduled for next wednesday. download the flyer and post/pass around as many copies as you can.
• become a fan of WBAI’s facebook page and let your friends know about it. i can’t say “strength in numbers” enough times!
• if you join WBAI as a member by july 15th, you will be able to vote in the upcoming elections. this is critical. if you donate $25 or more, or volunteer three hours of service, you will be a full member with full voting rights and can use not only your voice, but your VOTE to turn this around. call 212.209.2800, 2826 or 2845; or contribute at www.wbai.org (and print your receipt); or mail your check/money order to WBAI, GPO Box 30540, NY, NY 10117-2112.
• email Pacifica National Board at pnb@pacifica.org. Demand: Reinstate WBAI Management! Maintain local control of programming! call Grace Aaron (Interim Exec. Dir.) at 310. 2861011 or 310.402.4087 and LaVarn Williams (Acting General Mgr.) at 212.209.2800, 2820 or 510.333.9902
• join the coalition to take back WBAI by adding your name or organization to the list of endorers by emailing info@takebackwbai
  COME TO THE NEXT MEETING: Tuesday June 16, 6:30-10:00 PM District Council 1707, 75 Varick St. (north of Canal St.) 14th floor, Manhattan (A or 1 train to Canal St.)

and for all of the reports and action sites listed here, please tweet, retweet, post them on your own blogs, tell your blogging friends to post them.

digg, stumble, reddit, friendfeed — use every service that you’re familiar with to get people involved in these issues.

these tools are the new underground railroad of communication. let’s use them. let’s make some CHANGE.

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