Arts

by John Nichols and Robert McChesney

In a communications landscape where everything is up for grabs, the most powerful—and self-serving—players are grabbing for everything. And decisions that President Obama and his next appointee to chair the Federal Communications Commission will make in the coming months could well decide whether new media robber barons will dominate the local, state and national discourse.

Rupert Murdoch has renewed his push to have the FCC scrap its thirty-eight-year-old media cross-ownership rule, which bars him from buying up the daily newspaper, the largest television and radio stations, and the top digital news and entertainment sites in major American cities. Murdoch wants to rule the roost in Los Angeles, where he already owns TV stations and is salivating at the prospect of combining them with the Los Angeles Times, the nation’s fourth-largest newspaper, which the Tribune Company is putting up for sale.

by Norman Solomon

If your daily routine took you from one homegrown organic garden to another, bypassing vast fields choked with pesticides, you might feel pretty good about the current state of agriculture.

If your daily routine takes you from one noncommercial progressive website to another, you might feel pretty good about the current state of the Internet.

But while mass media have supplied endless raptures about a digital revolution, corporate power has seized the Internet -- and the anti-democratic grip is tightening every day.

Immigration. Yes. Chicago Youth Violence. Yes. Education. Yes.

On this spoken word project titled ILL POETS SOCIETY, six (6) poets from across the great state of Illinois were brought together to expound on the modern day issues facing America. The crown jewel of this project is a spoken word piece titled "Chi City Youth" by Jazmine McKinney. From the outset, she captivates audiences with her wordplay as she expresses the grief in her soul for her family, friends and community. To download the album for free, visit www.TheShow1045.com.

The film is available for checkout at local public libraries and cultural centers within the Champaign-Urbana community. This project was funded by SORF and supported in part by a City of Urbana Arts Grant.

Americans would benefit from less outrage at anti-US sentiment and more energy toward understanding why it's so widespread
by Glenn Greenwald

Which of these two stories is causing more controversy and outrage in the US?

New York Daily News, Friday:

"Fiercely anti-American lyrics from Korean rapper Psy have been unearthed just two weeks before the star is scheduled to perform for President Obama.

"The 'Gangnam Style' singer calls for US soldiers to be killed in one song, prompting a short-lived petition to ax Psy from the bill at the Christmas in Washington celebration.

"In 2004, Psy rapped on a South Korean metal band's song, 'Dear American', at a protest concert, The Washington Post reported. 'Kill those f---ing Yankees who have been torturing Iraqi captives', he said. 'Kill those f---ing Yankees who ordered them to torture. Kill their daughters, mothers, daughters-in-law and fathers. Kill them all slowly and painfully.'

Dear community radio allies,

What are you doing in October 2013? This morning the FCC voted to create new opportunities for community radio stations, in cities and rural areas alike. Next fall, groups around the country can finally apply to start new stations.

At Prometheus we love to get technical, so I'll share the wonky details on the new FCC rules below. But first, what does today's FCC vote really mean?

The number of low power stations in the U.S. could double or triple.

Communities in most urban areas will no longer be excluded from starting our own stations.

Together, we have once again defeated powerful broadcast lobbyists fighting to keep "their" turf (the public airwaves).

In October 2013, we will have the first chance to start new low power stations anywhere in the country in more than a decade.

We can't wait! Prometheus led the fight to pass the Local Community Radio Act, and we've kept the pressure on the FCC to implement it. With your help, we are ready to move from fighting in Washington to building stations nationwide.

by Cat Johnson

As the sharing economy picks up momentum, its reach has become global. In cities and towns around the world, people are creating ways to share everything from baby clothes to boats, hardware to vacation homes. There are also groups emerging that consciously identify with the big-picture sharing movement. These groups focus on education, action and community-building, and advocate for a cultural shift toward widespread sharing.

From neighborhood-level cooperatives to global organizations, these groups work to bring sharing into the mainstream. They see sharing as a new paradigm; a means to a more democratic society, and they understand that sharing is not a new fad but an ancient practice that technology is reinvigorating.

What follows is a far-from-exhaustive list of sharing advocacy groups around the world. There are, certainly, many others. Ideally, this list will serve as a springboard for connecting with a sharing community near you, or one that is aligned with your vision for a shareable world.

Ouishare
http://ouishare.net/

via email...

GEO, the teaching and graduate assistant union at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, produced an animation illustrating just one of several points of conflict in the ongoing contract negotiations with UIUC administrators:

Tuition waiver policy at the University of Illinois
by: geoillinois

GEO members have been working without a contract for months now and recently voted to authorize a strike. For more info:

by Jillian C. York

Some things change, but others stay the same. While the types of threats facing Internet users worldwide have diversified over the past few years, from targeted malware to distributed denial of service attacks, one thing has remained constant: governments seeking to exert control over their populations still remain the biggest threat to the open Internet.

Corporate Compliance

This is no more apparent than in the latest edition of Google's Transparency Report (http://www.google.com/transparencyreport/). As Dorothy Chou explains on Google's Public Policy Blog (http://googlepublicpolicy.blogspot.com/), government requests for both user data (see this Deeplinks post for more details - https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2012/11/google-transparency-report-shows-r...) and content removal is on the rise. Content removal requests were stagnant for quite some time, notes Chou, but have spiked during the first half of 2012, during which there were 1,791 requests from government officials around the world to remove 17,746 pieces of content.

My wife told me about this interesting video from sometimes local artist, Nina Paley. It's worth sharing...

This Land Is Mine from Nina Paley on Vimeo.

The Champaign Park District's Youth Theatre program will present the stage musical "Annie JR" at the Centennial High School theatre Thursday through Saturday, November 29-30 and December 1, 2012. Show times are 7:00 P.M. nightly with a matinee performance at 2:00 P.M. on Saturday, December 1. Doors open 30 minutes before show time. Tickets are $8, available at the Bresnan Meeting Center (706 Kenwood Rd. Champaign, IL) or online at www.thevirginia.org. Tickets will also be available at Centennial High School just before each performance. Sponsored by the Champaign Park District, Gossett & Associates Wealth Management Group, First Federal Savings Bank of Champaign-Urbana and This Is It Furniture.

"Annie JR" is a production of the Champaign Park District's Youth Theatre program. Normally in residence at the historic Virginia Theatre, CPD's Youth Theatre program is being temporarily housed in part at Champaign's Centennial High School while the Virginia is under renovation.