Tuesday, June 06, 2006

Other Items

The American Civil Liberties Union asked the Federal Communications Commission yesterday to withhold approval of AT&T's acquisition of BellSouth until it reviews allegations that the companies gave customer records to the government without warrants.
In its filing, the A.C.L.U. cited a provision in the Telecommunications Act that says that in considering a merger, the commission must "weigh the public-interest harms of the proposed transaction against the potential public-interest benefits."
The group said the F.C.C. should determine if AT&T and BellSouth handed over phone records to the National Security Agency's surveillance program and, if so, whether that violated any privacy laws.
The A.C.L.U. action comes after USA Today reported last month that AT&T, BellSouth and Verizon provided the agency with call records on millions of Americans in surveillance done after the Sept. 11 attacks.

The above is from Ken Belson's "A.C.L.U. Raises Surveillance as Issue in Big Phone Merger" in this morning's New York Times. The above is embarrassing noncoverage and we've covered that before (refer to this entry). I'm sick to my stomach this morning and you can consider this 'phoned in.' But we've recoved the paper's disinterest in this story before and today's article only continues the pattern. By the way, for analysis of Sunday's New York Times article about the 'shift' on Iran, you can read BuzzFlash's analysis. Also, an author we've noted before now has two sites, so please visit Ron Schalow's "Schalow's Headline News" and "The George W. Bush Impeachment Handbook."

At The Huffington Post, Arianna has an analysis of Iraq in terms of Bully Boy's legacy. Also Marty Kaplan (whose show So What Else Is News? is still missed) offers his thought on the Bully Boy's federal amendment nonsense.

Zach notes this program on KPFA today (time given is Pacific):

Against the Grain
Tuesday, June 6th, 12:00p.m.A look at the state of the Zapatista movement in Chiapas, Mexico.

Rod notes today's scheduled topic for Democracy Now!:

* Across the country pro-war Democratic lawmakers are facing challenges from within their own party. We host a roundtable discussion with three antiwar candidates: Jonathan Tasini in New York, Marcy Winograd in California and Ned Lamont in Connecticut.

And Amy Goodman has several upcoming events (including one today with Helen Thomas):

* Amy Goodman in New York, NY:
Tues, June 6 *
TIME: 8 PM
Helen Thomas on the Press and the President, with Amy Goodman, moderator
92nd Street Y Kaufmann Concert Hall
$25.00
For more information: visit:
http://www.92y.org/shop/event_detail.asp?productid=T%2DLC5SE11
call: 212-415-5500
Directions:
Lexington Avenue at 92nd Street


* Amy Goodman in New York, NY:
Sat, June 10 *
Birthday Celebration for Father Dan Berrigan Amy will co-MC
With Amy Goodman, Pete Seeger, Howard Zinn, Liz McAlister, Ramsey Clark
and other very special guests, for an evening of poetry, song and
community, celebrating the 85th birthday of Fr. Daniel Berrigan. The radical
priest, poet and anti-war activist helped ignite a generation of dissent
against the war in Vietnam, and with unmatched persistence, has remained an
advocate of active non-violence.
June 10th,
at 7pm St. Ignatius Church,
980 Park Ave. @ 83rd St.
$25 to $50 suggested donation, no one turned away. RSVP at
berriganRSVP@gmail.com.
For futher information call 212-726-0664.

* Amy Goodman in New York, NY:
Tues, June 13 *
TIME: 7 PM
The New Class War in America. With Paul Krugman, Greg Palast, Randi
Rhodes and Amy Goodman
New York Society for Ethical Culture,
2 West 64th St. at Central Park West,
New York City (subways 1, A, B, C, or D to Columbus Circle)
Admission: $10 Donation
For more information: To purchase tickets in advance please visit
www.gregpalast.com

This is nothing but a link fest, I know. Apologies, but my stomach's killing me. I do see a number of you writing about one topic. Time permitting, we'll address it tonight. (For those not writing about it, the online scold, the latter day Dylan, is once again making sport of attacking women.) I'd heard about it when it started last week but I haven't read it (and still haven't). So it will depend (addressing it) on a) having time to and b) having time to read through the online, latter day Dylan's latest nonsense.

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