Month: November 2008

508 #63: Friendly New Englanders

508 is a show about Worcester. This week Mike is in West Virginia, and Brendan Melican and Bruce Russell are in Worcester.

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Headline: Elk Collecting Deer Hides for Veterans

Mike is comparing blog coverage of Worcester news to the Telegram & Gazette; his first case study shows the blogs doing surprisingly well.

Headline: Fly Gets 40 Years in Prison

Are New Englanders friendly?

We listen to the City Manager talking about the challenges of snow removal, and look forward to having the same discussion this year.

Also: Bruce tells jokes.

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Pre-Thanksgiving items

First, a couple of buzzkill items. Don’t forget that Friday is Buy Nothing Day, a day to send the message that the Christmas season is not about money. (I guess it doesn’t have to be a downer: read Mark Dixon’s account of a crazy BND experiment.)

Also, casual turkey cruelty:

New York Times:

[PETA] released undercover videotapes taken at the nation’s premier poultry-breeding operation, showing turkeys being stomped to death and punched by workers.

[…]

The scenes show stomach-turning brutality. Workers are seen smashing birds into loading cages like basketballs, stomping heads and breaking necks, apparently for fun, even pretending to rape one.

It gets worse.

Now for some positive items.

Close Guantanamo Now
An interview about closing Guantanamo in which I repeatedly interrupt Mauro DePasquale and Claire Schaeffer-Duffy. Sadly, I do this to them off-camera, too.

Adam Villani beats Ben Stein’s ass, twice
Pie and Coffee contribuor Adam Villani won Ben Stein’s money, and correctly guessed that the housing market was over-valued. The score is 2-0.

How strong is the Worcester blogosphere?
Help me figure out how Worcester’s amateur news stacks up to the daily paper.

508 #62: Groundhog Day

508 is a show about Worcester. This week we talk with Brendan Melican.

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How is the Worcester City Council like the movie Groundhog Day?

PILOT vs. BILOT?

How dark is the future of Worcester journalism?

Would local bloggers like to video themselves for TV?

Just how charming are holiday shoutouts?

Also: Last weekend Kevin Ksen went to a KOMBI event at Coral Seafood to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the standardization of Albanian spelling.mp3 link, other formats, feed, low-fi versions

To leave a voice message to be played on the show, call 508-471-3897.

To get an e-mail each week alerting you of the new episode of 508, join the e-mail list:

Email:

We won’t share this list with others.

Snow Ghost Community Show presents the 2008 Catholic Worker National Gathering

Some highlights from the Catholic Worker 75th anniversary national gathering, Worcester, Massachusetts, July 9-12, 2008. Brought to you by the Snow Ghost Community Show.

Video: Download the mp4 video directly (342 MB) or see other formats. To burn your own DVD, download the ISO. This program is available for broadcast on your local cable access station; e-mail pieandcoffee@gmail.com for help.

Audio: Download the mp3 (14 MB).

508 #61: Embolden the punks

508 is a show about Worcester. This week’s panel features Brendan Melican and Kevin Ksen.

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The Telegram & Gazette continues to be in financial trouble; things look awful for their parent, the New York Times. Nevertheless, they continue to bird-dog local police misconduct and write about downtown retail.

We briefly discuss the election, which Brendan predicted with some success.

Some local college students aren’t happy with downtown Worcester.

Mike is going to DC next year to work against torture, and local Catholic Workers were sentenced to community service for praying the rosary.

mp3 link, other formats, feed, low-fi versions

To leave a voice message to be played on the show, call 508-471-3897.

To get an e-mail each week alerting you of the new episode of 508, join the e-mail list:

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100 days against torture in DC

Witness Against Torture and other groups will spend the first 100 days of the Obama administration in an intensive effort to persuade our government to end America’s policies of torture.

I’ll be in Washington, DC from January-April 2009 as part of the core organizing team.

We’re first calling for the closing of the Guantanamo prison. With luck, this will happen quickly and we can encourage to government to take further measures against torture.

You can contribute to this project by coming to DC for a week, or by donating via PayPal at the Witness Against Torture site. If you’d like to sponsor me/help me with my costs directly, e-mail pieandcoffee@gmail.com. This money would go to staples like my transportation, food, and (possibly) internet costs, not beer or movies or anything like that. I’ll donate any leftover funds to Witness Against Torture.

  • January 11-20: Public fast for an end to torture. (The first detainees reached Guantanamo on January 11, 2002.)
  • January 20: Inauguration Day.
  • January 20-April 30: 100 days of lobbying, vigils, and education to bring an end to America’s policies of torture.

I’m still getting up to speed on all this. I’ll blog more details here and at the 100 Days site.

Barack Obama, August 1, 2007: “As President, I will close Guantánamo, reject the Military Commissions Act, and adhere to the Geneva Conventions.”

TIME/AP, Nov 10, 2008: “President-elect Obama’s advisers are quietly crafting a proposal to ship dozens, if not hundreds, of imprisoned terrorism suspects to the United States to face criminal trials, a plan that would make good on his promise to close the Guantanamo Bay prison but could require creation of a controversial new system of justice.”

ACLU: “Therefore, on the first day in office, the next president should issue an executive order directing all agencies to modify their policies and practices immediately to: . . . Close the detention facility at Guantánamo Bay and either charge and try detainees under criminal law in federal criminal courts or before military courts-martial or transfer them to countries where they will not be tortured or detained without charge . . . .”

Updates
Words & deeds of first 100 days of every president since Roosevelt, via Kottke

508 #60: telegram.com

508 is a show about Worcester. This week, we feature a conversation with Telegram & Gazette News Editor Mike Elfland about telegram.com, the paper’s website.

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Some links mentioned:

I may have been wrong in my description of how links to old T&G story revisions work. Looking at this moose discussion thread, the old links just seem to break, rather than linking to an old revision.

mp3 link, other formats, feed, low-fi versions

To leave a voice message to be played on the show, call 508-471-3897.

To get an e-mail each week alerting you of the new episode of 508, join the e-mail list:

Email:

We won’t share this list with others.

Worcester Catholic Workers get community service for antiwar “rosary arrest”

Ken and Scott after their hearing

Two Worcester Catholics were sentenced to community service by Judge Timothy S. Hillman in Worcester District Court today.

Ken Hannaford-Ricardi and Scott Schaeffer-Duffy, members of the SS. Francis & Therese Catholic Worker community, were previously found guilty of the petty offense of disobeying a US Marshal when they refused to leave the lobby of the Worcester federal building while praying the rosary for an end to the Iraq War this past March 19.

At the original trial, they had been sentenced to pay the minimum fine of $250, but for personal reasons they refused. Their three co-defendants, Michael Benedetti, Sandra McSweeney, and Roger Stanley, accepted the fine.

At today’s hearing, Assistant US Attorney Karin Bell asked the judge to levy an even heavier fine on Schaeffer-Duffy, who has “a lengthy criminal history.” She said that “a convicted defendant does not have the right to come before this court and say what he will or will not do,” and that “these defendants have chosen the lifestyle they have chosen.”

Rather than increase the fines, Judge Hillman vacated the fines, processing fees, and assessments, changing their penalty to community service. Hannaford-Ricardi will spend 25 hours volunteering at the United Way, and Schaeffer-Duffy will spend 40 hours at the library.

It’s interesting to note that on the list of “Shelters for adults in the area” hanging on the bulletin board in the probation office, the third shelter listed is the Catholic Worker, where Schaeffer-Duffy lives and Hannaford-Ricardi volunteers.

Election items

Catholic Anarchy: Why I decided to vote
Iafrate:

Voting in the united states is indeed participation in a corrupt system. Critics of voting are indeed right that casting a vote is, in some sense, to be complicit in that system. There is a real danger, though, in believing that abstaining from voting will make us less complicit with this death-dealing system. While I believe Christians must witness to “the wider culture,” to imagine that we are completely separate from that culture, and that we play no role in making it and perpetuating its good aspects as well as its bad aspects, is an illusion.

Worcester voted….
Against eliminating the income tax 71.7%
For Obama 67.7%
For marijuana decriminalization 66.9%
For the dog racing ban 57.5%

I know that Adam voted against the proposed farm animal care reforms in California, but I’m happy it had enough support from others out there that it passed.

Catholics and the vote
Rocco Palmo lays out the scene:

In record numbers described as “breathtaking,” the nation — and, by the looks of it, the church — have spoken… and they’ve made Joe Biden the First Catholic of the United States.

This post has the details:

Bishops and apparatchiks, you might just want to avert your eyes… not much “good news” here.

I’m looking forward to working hard to oppose or change many of the new administration’s policies, especially the first part of next year. More on this in a few days.
Continue reading “Election items”