Radio Update

We are moving our show, Occupy the Microphone, to WOLI, sister station of WOLT. After six weeks of shows at WOLT, yesterday was our last show there, although we may continue to use their studio for broadcast (not sure yet). After 14+ months on WFIS and 6 weeks at WOLT, I am finally feeling a wee bit like a pro!

Below, Jack Logan of Put the Guns Down, Young People talks about his organization with my co-host, Gregg. (as always, you can click to enlarge the photos)



Yesterday's show rocked, and we kept the pace going throughout. Our special guests were Jack Logan, Eric Wood of Another Voice with Jason and Eric and the legendary Sylvain Sylvain (of the New York Dolls) -- the latter interview was particularly exciting for me and Double A, the rock and roll diehard.

Below, co-host Double A (the magnificent) and Eric Wood.



We will be going DAILY after we move to WOLI on March 1st. We hope all of you will join us! ADVENTURE! PASSION! PROVOCATION! MOVIN ON UP! (screams for emphasis)

We'll be doing drive-time radio hour (Gregg's dream, finally come true) at 5-6pm, so tune in.

Below, my new Facebook photo. Can you tell it was three minutes before airtime?!? (EEEEEEEEP!)



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The Second Annual Occupy Film Series continues tonight, totally and absolutely free, at the Hughes Library in Downtown Greenville, South Carolina. Tonight we will be showing Food, Inc.-- a film very close to my heart. Yall come!

And more importantly, watch the movie and learn to hate Monsanto with the rest of us lefties.

Having some vehicle issues, so I may be late or absent. Therefore hoping some intrepid folks take my place and make some noise. Get that Q-and-A started, peoples. Somebody has to do it!

He blacked my eye and he kicked my dog

The late Levon Helm performing the Grateful Dead's TENNESSEE JED... it's got trumpets! It's a carnival!

You know you bound to wind up dead...

TENNESSEE JED - Levon Helm (from "Electric Dirt")



Off to Atlanta (not Tennessee) for a long weekend, see you all when I get back... hopefully I'll return in time for Occupy Greenville General Assembly on Sunday (3pm) at the indispensable Coffee Underground. We will be discussing the upcoming film series, so be there or be square!

I woke up a-feeling mean
Went down to play the slot machine
The wheels turned round and the letters read
Better head back to Tennessee, Jed

No to the Keystone XL Pipeline

I totally forgot to post photos of our anti-Keystone XL Pipeline demonstration, here in Greenville on Saturday. This might be because it actually started to snow (a big crisis in South Carolina!) and I quickly hightailed it home after we ate lunch.



Our small but hardy troupe included Green Party members, 350.org and Occupy Greenville. This was staged in front of the downtown TD Bank, which is funding the Keystone XL Pipeline. Local actions were on Saturday, while the larger, national demonstration in Washington (on the National Mall) was scheduled for Sunday.

I helped pass out leaflets to curious onlookers, which outlined some of the following points (this particular excerpt is from Friends of the Earth):

The Canadian oil and gas company TransCanada hopes to begin building a new oil pipeline that would trek close to 2,000 miles from Alberta, Canada to the Gulf Coast of Texas. If constructed, the pipeline, known as the Keystone XL, will carry one of the world’s dirtiest fuels: tar sands oil. Along its route from Alberta to Texas, this pipeline could devastate ecosystems and pollute water sources, and would jeopardize public health.

Giant oil corporations invested in Canada's tar sands are counting on the Keystone XL pipeline to make the expansion of oil extraction operations profitable: The pipeline would double imports of dirty tar sands oil into the United States and transport it to refineries on the Gulf Coast and ports for international export.

Before TransCanada can begin construction, however, the company needs a presidential permit from the Obama administration

...

Environmental concerns

Pollution from tar sands oil greatly eclipses that of conventional oil. During tar sands oil production alone, levels of carbon dioxide emissions are three times higher than those of conventional oil, due to more energy-intensive extraction and refining processes. The Keystone XL pipeline would carry 900,000 barrels of dirty tar sands oil into the United States daily, doubling our country's reliance on it and resulting in climate-damaging emissions equal to adding more than six million new cars to U.S. roads.

During the tar sands oil extraction process, vast amounts of water are needed to separate the extracted product, bitumen, from sand, silt, and clay. It takes three barrels of water to extract each single barrel of oil. At this rate, tar sands operations use roughly 400 million gallons of water a day. Ninety percent of this polluted water is dumped into large human-made pools, known as tailing ponds, after it’s used. These ponds are home to toxic sludge, full of harmful substances like cyanide and ammonia, which has worked its way into neighboring clean water supplies.

Northern Alberta, the region where tar sands oil is extracted, is home to many indigenous populations. Important parts of their cultural traditions and livelihood are coming under attack because of tar sands operations. Communities living downstream from tailing ponds have seen spikes in rates of rare cancers, renal failure, lupus, and hyperthyroidism. In the lakeside village of Fort Chipewyan, for example, 100 of the town’s 1,200 residents have died from cancer.

It also appears that there will be minimal (if any) increases in American employment for the Pipeline, despite copious Republican propaganda that it will provide more jobs.

Notice that their "more jobs!" claims are always very nonspecific and vague. There's a reason for that.



~*~

Sunday's action in Washington featured a whopping 40,000 demonstrators. 350.org reports:

The speakers up on stage today represented the full diversity of our movement, from indigenous leaders across the United States and Canada, to clean energy investors like Tom Steyer, to environmental leaders like Mike Brune and Bill McKibben, to civil and voting rights activists like Rosario Dawson and Rev. Lennox Yearwood.

The march today looked like the movement that elected President Obama. Now, it’s time for him to join us in standing up to Big Oil and saying no to Keystone XL. Because this movement isn’t going anywhere. We’re, to borrow a phrase, fired up and ready to go. And we’re not stopping until the President takes action.

Here is the NPR report on the demonstration.

I was disappointed, but not surprised, to see the New York Times cave to Big Oil on this one. (not linking)

I strongly urge people to investigate and study the issue on their own, because the mainstream media seems determined NOT to provide the whole story.

Blogular updates

Great graphic comes courtesy YELLOWDOG GRANNY.



Blogger has unexpectedly monkeyed with the process of posting photos. Again. As stuffy Evelyn Waugh (disgusted with Vatican II and Mass in English) famously remarked: The same again, please. Those of you who have had your favorite soap or frozen burrito or bra discontinued, never to be found again, can totally relate... as can middle-aged bloggers who finally mastered something, only to find it CHANGED AGAIN, and NOT for the better.

So, now I must copy and paste my old photo-format and insert the new URL of the photo in its place, to get it to look the way I want. Growf.

The same again, please!

Which reminds me. Ratzinger, I mean, Pope Benedict XVI, is abdicating at the end of the month, which we discussed on the radio show. On Gregg's Friday podcast, he went into more detail. (Specifically: What type of crimes is the Pope allegedly seeking immunity from? Is it for protecting pedophile priests or Vatican bank-laundering dirty money?) I am personally hoping for an African or South American pope this go-round, although I am unsure if that would have any appreciable effect on doctrine. Still, we see that an Eastern Bloc pope had the undeniable effect of helping to take down the Soviets; Vatican funds were funneled directly to the Solidarity union in Poland. Might an African pope get some of that Vatican cash for a similar fight against tyranny? Certainly, the possibilities are endless.

And speaking of religion: I have started reading an intense, smart fella named Dan Fincke, who is my kind of atheist. His blog is named "Camels with Hammers"... apparently, Dan has not read my smug young critic of last summer, who confidently assured me that Nietzsche is totally YESTERDAY, man. Direct quote: "You do know that he was discredited ages ago, right? Only alienated teens take him seriously any more."--just like the Beatles, one assumes. Is that a bummer or what?

You are hopelessly OUT OF IT, Mr Fincke! (But a very entertaining writer.) If I EVER get around to fixing the broken blogroll (something else Blogger supposedly "made better" and instead, made horribly worse)--I will be including you posthaste. Please accept this friendly mention in the meantime!

~*~

I forgot to re-post THIS on February 17th: my account of the lynching of Willie Earle, which took place here in upstate South Carolina, 66 years ago. I DID remember the date (rather late in the day) and posted a link on Twitter and at the South Carolina Progressive Network page on Facebook.

Please pass it on... its my own small contribution to Black History Month.

Governor Haley named as "other woman" in divorce case

The accusations against Governor Nikki Haley, first alluded to during the 2010 Republican Primary, are now once again center stage here in South Carolina.




From FitsNews, here is a post by another of Haley's ex-boyfriends (and you knew I couldn't leave that out, dincha?):

S.C. Gov. Nikki Haley is one of three “other women” named in a divorce lawsuit filed in Richland County, S.C. earlier this month.

According to court documents obtained exclusively by FITS, Jennifer Marchant – wife of prominent S.C. State House lobbyist Larry Marchant – is suing her husband for divorce on the grounds of infidelity.

One of the three women Marchant accuses her husband of cheating on her with? You guessed it … Haley.

“On or about June 2, 2010, (Larry Marchant) publicly admitted to having an affair with a woman well-known to the parties and the citizens of the State of South Carolina,” the lawsuit reads. “(Jennifer Marchant) was humiliated and embarrassed by (her husband’s) public admission and was unable to appear in public for some time. Eventually, (Jennifer) conditionally forgave (Larry)’s adulterous behavior.”

Damn …

The lawsuit was filed in Richland County family court on February 6 . A preliminary hearing in the case has been scheduled for 11:00 a.m. on February 20.

Marchant submitted an affidavit in October 2010 - swearing that he and Haley had a one night stand in Salt Lake City, Utah in June 2008.

(For details about that alleged encounter, click here).

Haley categorically denied Marchant’s claim. In fact she said Marchant was unable to prove the two of them were ever alone together on the Salt Lake City trip.

“We’ve had representatives go on the record that said we were in a group setting all the time,” Haley told former Columbia, S.C. radio host Keven Cohen at the time.

Other sources who went on the Salt Lake City trip have disputed Haley’s claim, however.

“They left the W lounge together,” one of these sources confirmed to FITS, referring to a dance club located three blocks away from the Marriott hotel where the South Carolina delegation was staying.

Another source also confirmed seeing Haley and Marchant on the corner of Broadway and Southwest Temple streets in downtown Salt Lake City at around 2:25 a.m. as the pair walked back to their hotel room.

Marchant’s affidavit was dismissed at the time by Haley’s lawyers because it was not submitted in connection with a court case. Meanwhile Haley refused to submit an affidavit attesting to her version of events.

“It’s up to them to prove it,” Haley told WSPA TV 7 reporter Robert Kittle. “It’s not up to me to prove that I’m telling the truth. It’s up to them to prove that is true.”

So … will Marchant change his story in open court – with a possible perjury charge and hundreds of thousands of dollars hanging in the balance?

Good question.

Meanwhile, lots of people are suddenly remembering Haley's hilarious comment on THE VIEW, that "women don't care about contraception"... and we are wondering if, you know, she was being 100% honest about that? Sounds like Haley, at least, sure did care! (You don't think she was lying, do you?)

You can't make this stuff up! Stay tuned, sports fans.