posted 03-29-2003 08:43 AM            

Soldiers at the Door By Amy Goodman, Democracy Now! March 27, 2003

On March 27, Democracy Now! host Amy Goodman interviewed hip-hop artist Michael Franti on the national listener-sponsored radio show Democracy Now. What follows is a rush transcript of that interview:

For nearly a decade, hip-hop artist and activist Michael Franti has been a leading progressive voice in music. He grew out of the Bay Area music and political scene of the 90s. In 1986 he founded the drum and bass duo the Beatniks, paving the way for his next musical endeavor, the Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy. His most recent musical project is the musical collective Spearhead, begun in 1994. Franti has used his music to push social boundaries, speaks out against sexual violence, encourages his community to prevent the spread of HIV and has been very vocal in his opposition to war. And now it maybe the reason why the government is looking at him and his group Spearhead.

Amy Goodman: It's good to have you with us. Can you talk about what's been happening as you've been touring the country with songs like "Bomb da World"?

Michael Franti: Well, we've been touring for the last year and a half performing that song and everywhere we go it gets standing ovations, people begin to cry. People are just very grateful to hear any voice out there right now who are speaking in support of peace and human rights.

What's happened as you've been on this tour?

Well, what's happened most recently is that we performed at a rally on March 15 in San Francisco and the next day on the 16th - that rally was out here - and on the 16th on the East Coast, a band member of mine who prefers to go unnamed, his mother received a visit from two plainclothes men from the military - and this band member of mine has a sibling who is in the Gulf.

And they came in and talked to her and said, You have a child who's in the Gulf and you have a child who's in this band Spearhead who's part of the "resistance"(in their words).

They had pictures of us performing the day before at the rally, they had pictures of us performing at some of our annual concerts that we put on that are in support of peace and human rights. They had his flight records for the past several months, they had the names of everybody who works in my office, our management office Guerilla Management. They had his checking account records. They asked his mother a lot of questions about where he was, what he was doing in this place, why he was going here. They confiscated his sibling's CD collection that they had brought over to listen to while they were in the Gulf, and basically were intimidating - told her which members of the press she could talk to and which members of the press she should not speak to.

And basically what this signals to me is that - I don't feel like we're being particularly singled out or under any investigation for any activity because all the activity that we do is very much above board and all the events where photos were taken out were all public things we were at. But what it does signal to me is that there's a lot of us who are now making a blip on the radar, you know, whether we're organizers at rallies, whether we're musicians, whether we're people who are speaking out, authors, writers, actors. And we're beginning to make little blips on the radar. They're starting to pay attention and collect information about what's going on. You know, more important to me or more important than me you know, being a part of that is the fact that our civil rights are being eroded across the board for every person.

And for musicians in particular it's a really hard time. Last week our label received a letter, a mass email from MTV instructing the fact that no videos could be shown that mentioned the words "bombing" or "war."

No videos could be shown that had protesters in it. Any footage from military - they gave a list of prior videos that could not be shown, yet MTV has aired videos that show troops saying goodbye to their loved ones and going off to war in a very heroic fashion and troops which are gonna be coming home traumatized, wounded and dead and then be treated and thrown onto the scrap heap of veterans, as we've seen veterans treated in this country.

And at the Academy Awards, there were also letters and talk that went around saying not to speak out. Radio - mainstream radio, Clear Channel in particular, of course - has put the word out not to air songs that are in opposition to the war and in support of peace. Meanwhile, our song "Bomb Da World" which we just put out is now in heavy rotation on a top youth radio station in Australia and in Denmark and it's expected to get added to a lot of stations in other countries.

A few days ago, Democracy Now correspondent Jeremy Scahill and I were at the Ani DiFranco concert at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center to talk about Democracy Now and the importance of independent media in a time of war, just before she went on. And Clear Channel, which owns New Jersey Performing Arts Center, runs that venue, told her no political information could be given out and threatened - it seemed the venue threatened to close down the concert if there was any political speech.

It's incredible, it's outrageous and I think it's something that we all need to be aware of and need to support the art, you know, whether it's music, whether it's films, whether it's dance performances or whatever, this is the last place, apart from Pacifica and a few other stations around the country, where these voices are being heard.

And Clear Channel that runs 1,200 radio stations now, runs many of the big venues in this country for musicians. So it's important that we call these stations and demand that these voices be heard.

Well Michael Franti, I want to thank you for being with us, as we go out with your voice, with "Bomb Da World."

----------

SIEG......HAIL.....

SEIG......HAIL......

Bye bye Constitution.

When der Fuhrer sez no music.....

Seig Hail!

Hail!

posted 03-29-2003 09:16 AM            

On Wednesday, March 19, as the United States readied Tomahawk missiles in the direction of Baghdad, audience members gathered in the lobby of the New Jersey Performing Arts Center (NJPAC) in Newark, New Jersey for the latest Ani performance. The venue management forbade the peace organization Not In Our Name (NION) www.notinourname.net to set up an information table there-the first time in Ani’s 12-year touring career that tabling was not allowed. The venue also refused to allow NION’s literature and posters to be available at the Righteous Babe merchandising table. “Rather than argue,” said Scot Fisher, Ani’s manager, “we offered Miles Solay, the representative from NION, the opportunity to address the audience from the stage.”

However, the administrators of NJPAC threatened to pull the plug on the concert if anyone other than Ani spoke “advocating their cause.” Fisher discussed the situation with Ani and subsequently told the promoter, “If the venue stops the speakers from addressing the audience, Ani will not perform.”

NJPAC administration backed down, and the show went on as scheduled. Solay, who was joined by Amy Goodman, host of Pacifica Radio’s Democracy Now! www.democracynow.org program, and Jeremy Scahill, a journalist who had just returned for Baghdad, took the stage and voiced their resistance to the impending war. Along with a call for action, the speakers also expressed outrage at the repression of free speech engaged in by the venue. In defiance, Scahill tossed handfuls of informational leaflets into the cheering crowd. DiFranco then performed her solo concert without interruption. Throughout the rest of the evening, repeated references to the incident were met with waves of loud approval from the audience.

posted 03-29-2003 10:15 AM            

Paul Krugman: Behind pro-war protests, a company with ties to Bush Wednesday, March 26, 2003

Channels of influence

NEW YORK By and large, recent pro-war rallies haven't drawn nearly as many people as anti-war rallies, but they have certainly been vehement.

One of the most striking took place after Natalie Maines, lead singer for the Dixie Chicks, criticized President George W. Bush: A crowd gathered in Louisiana to watch a tractor smash Dixie Chicks CDs, tapes and other paraphernalia. To those familiar with 20th-century history it seemed eerily reminiscent of ... But as Sinclair Lewis said, it can't happen here.

Who has been organizing those pro-war rallies? The answer, it turns out, is that they are being promoted by key players in the radio industry - with close links to the Bush administration.

The CD-smashing rally was organized by KRMD, part of Cumulus Media, a radio chain that has banned the Dixie Chicks from its playlists. Most of the pro-war demonstrations around the United States have, however, been organized by stations owned by Clear Channel Communications, a behemoth based in Texas that controls more than 1,200 stations and increasingly dominates the airwaves.

The company says the demonstrations, which go under the name Rally for America, reflect the initiative of individual stations. But this is unlikely: According to Eric Boehlert, who has written revelatory articles about Clear Channel in the online magazine Salon, the company is notorious - and widely hated - for its iron-fisted centralized control.

Until now, complaints about Clear Channel have focused on its business practices. Critics say it uses its power to squeeze recording companies and artists and contributes to the growing blandness of broadcast music. But now the company appears to be using its clout to help one side in a political dispute that deeply divides the United States.

Why would a media company insert itself into politics this way? It could simply be a matter of personal conviction on the part of management. But there are also good reasons for Clear Channel - which became a giant only in the last few years, after the Telecommunications Act of 1996 removed many restrictions on media ownership - to curry favor with the governing party.

On one side, Clear Channel is feeling some heat: It is being sued over allegations that it threatens to curtail the airplay of artists who don't tour with its concert division, and there are even some politicians who want to roll back the deregulation that made the company's growth possible. On the other side, the Federal Communications Commission is considering further deregulation that would allow Clear Channel to expand even further, particularly into television.

Or perhaps the quid pro quo is more narrowly focused. Experienced Bushologists let out a collective "Aha!" when Clear Channel was revealed to be behind the pro-war rallies, because the company's top management has a history with George W. Bush. The vice chairman of Clear Channel is Tom Hicks. When Bush was governor of Texas, Hicks was chairman of the University of Texas Investment Management Co., called Utimco, and Clear Channel's chairman, Lowry Mays, was on its board. Under Hicks, Utimco placed much of the university's endowment under the management of companies with strong Republican Party or Bush family ties. In 1998 Hicks purchased the Texas Rangers in a deal that made Bush a multimillionaire.

There's something happening here. What it is ain't exactly clear, but a good guess is that we're now seeing the next stage in the evolution of a new American oligarchy. As Jonathan Chait has written in The New Republic, in the Bush administration "government and business have melded into one big 'us.'" On almost every aspect of domestic policy, business interests rule: "Scores of midlevel appointees ... now oversee industries for which they once worked." We should have realized that this is a two-way street: If politicians are busy doing favors for businesses that support them, why shouldn't we expect businesses to reciprocate by doing favors for those politicians - by, for example, organizing "grass roots" rallies on their behalf?

What makes it all possible, of course, is the absence of effective watchdogs. In the Clinton years the merest hint of impropriety quickly blew up into a huge scandal; these days, the scandalmongers are more likely to go after journalists who raise questions. Anyway, don't you know there's a war on?

E-mail: krugman@nytimes.com

posted 03-29-2003 07:22 PM            

I thought one was a MUSICIAN site. One person who was CENSORED.

The others are NEWS sites. One Activist.

Apparently you don't give a rat's @$$ if people and news sites are being censored.

You must hate the 1st Amendment like the rest of the NEO-CONS.

By the way....WHAT is wrong with being Anti-War?

posted 03-29-2003 07:31 PM            

History will look at these times the same way it looks at the 50's blacklisting. With the exception of a few paranoid hard right Neo-Cons, that period is viewed as a sad joke.

BTW, I just purchased the CD of FRENCH musician, Francois Breant, the main composer of the Humanistic Cirque du Soleil. I was also listeing to the composers Messiaen, Boulez, and Debussy. Great stuff!

Also pulled out the Bach, Beethoven, Wagner, the rock group Magma, and the inventors of Techno, Kraftwerk. GERMAN technology and art at it's best.

RUSSIANS Khatchuturian, Scriabin, Tchaicovsky, and Rachmoninoff.

American musicians have to be either politically aware or politically impaired for attaining various levels of success. A shame the Dixie Chick apologized. She obviously didn't want to hurt the band. This will come back to haunt her later, as you should never go against your conscience over finances. And screw that stupid half-wit Travis tritt, and that beer-bellyed dope, Charlie Daniels.

DEVO never apologized for their statements, and the major labels literally banned them. However, they still go on, with success in Europe, where they respect American musicians who don't sell out.

Lyrics to Der Fuhrer's Face, 1943, by Spike Jones

When der Fuehrer says, "We ist der master race"
We HEIL! (phhht!) HEIL! (phhht!) Right in der Fuehrer's face
Not to love Der Fuehrer is a great disgrace
So we HEIL! (phhht!) HEIL! (phhht!) Right in der Fuehrer's face
When Herr Göbbels says, "We own der world und space"
We HEIL! (phhht!) HEIL! (phhht!) Right in Herr Göring's face
When Herr Göring says they'll never bomb this place
We HEIL! (phhht!) HEIL! (phhht!) Right in Herr Göring's face

Are we not the supermen
Aryan pure supermen
Ja we ist der supermen
Super-duper supermen.

Ist this Nutzi land not good?
Would you leave it if you could?
Ja this Nutzi land is good!
Vee would leave it if we could

We bring the world to order
Heil Hitler's new world order
Everyone of foreign race will love der Fuehrer's face
When we bring to der world disorder

When der Fuehrer says, "We ist der master race"
We HEIL! (phhht!) HEIL! (phhht!) Right in der Fuehrer's face
When Der Fuehrer says, "We ist der master race"
We HEIL! (phhht!) HEIL! (phhht!) Right in der Fuhrer's face