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Banned Books Week and the National Book Festival, 2008
“Celebrating the Freedom to Read,” Banned Books Week runs September 27th to October 4th this year. Starting on September 27th as well is the eighth annual National Book Festival, taking place on the National Mall. Presented by the Library of Congress and Laura Bush, over 70 authors will be participating, and the website will post podcasts of events. I’ll also promote the wonderful, ongoing Favorite Poem Project yet again.
The American Library Association has a page on Banned Book Events, including a page for events by state (at least one listed event appears to be from 2007 or else there’s a typo, so you may wish to confirm an event before attending). There are official Facebook and MySpace groups for Banned Books Week, and you can also find several “I Read Banned Books” groups. Apparently, there will even be Banned Books Week activities in Second Life (details forthcoming on the website). Children’s author Sam Riddleburger shows how you can use an online motivational poster generator to make your own “Read” posters. (Continuing on the lighter side, The Onion has a piece called “Nation’s Teens Disappointed by Banned Books.”)
I’ll also invite any and all bloggers to a very informal blogswarm on banned books and intellectual freedom. Feel free to link your post(s) in the comments, or shoot me an e-mail, if you’d like.
I write a little post for Banned Books Week every year, but this year the subject’s been, well, more on my mind. Banned Books Week is a fine time to celebrate “Biblio-Americans” and all those teachers, librarians, parents, siblings and friends who may have introduced us to a great book or the joy of reading. It’s a great excuse to revisit a favorite book or read a new one – especially a banned one. It’s a nice way to share a favorite book with someone else, or start a conversation about why a challenged book such as 1984, The Great Gatsby or The Color Purple means so much. That’s not to mention books banned in other countries currently or throughout history. One of my favorite novels, The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov, was initially published in the Soviet Union only in censored form, but a more authentic version was one of many works passed around between friends clandestinely (and illegally) in Samizdat form. (The excellent 2006 film The Lives of Others (Das Leben der Anderen) portrays a similar dynamic in East Germany in the 80s.)
Personally, I draw the most inspiration from hearing tales like that, and by reading over the lists of the many books challenged over the years – it’s venerable company. To that effect, from the Frequently Challenged Books page, here’s:
The most frequently challenged books of 2007…
The ALA Office for Intellectual Freedom received a total of 420 challenges last year. A challenge is defined as a formal, written complaint, filed with a library or school requesting that materials be removed because of content or appropriateness. According to Judith F. Krug, director of the Office for Intellectual Freedom, the number of challenges reflects only incidents reported, and for each reported, four or five remain unreported. “Celebrating the Freedom to Read,” Banned Books Week runs September 27th to October 4th this year. Starting on September 27th as well ... more -
RNC host committee pushed for cancellation of Ron Paul, Rage Against the Machine e...
Here’s a behind-the-scenes postscript about the lengths to which the planners of the Republican National Convention went to ensure the appearance of a discord-free GOP: They tried to scuttle Ron Paul’s counter-convention across the river in Minneapolis and the next night’s Rage Against the Machine concert as well.
Speaking on background, well-placed sources at City Hall and Target Center have confirmed to MnIndy that in the days before Ron Paul’s Rally for the Republic at Target Center was publicly announced, representatives of the RNC Host Committee contacted officials at Target Center and the city of Minneapolis (which oversees the facility) to push for the cancellation of the event. They also sought the cancellation of the Rage Against the Machine concert that took place at Target Center on September 3, the third night of the RNC.
A City Haller familiar with the situation says that Mayor RT Rybak’s office was contacted by Host Committee members who wanted the mayor’s assistance in seeing to it that the events were canceled. He refused to cooperate, adds the source. I phoned Rybak’s office; he declined to be interviewed. But his communication director, Jeremy Hanson, had this to say: “We don’t dispute the characterization of events, but the mayor’s office doesn’t wish to comment further.”
I left a message this morning seeking a response from Jeff Larson, the RNC Host Committee’s CEO. He has not returned the call. If/when he does, I’ll add an update.
(Larson is perhaps better known as a founder of the Feather Larson Synhorst group, a top-drawer GOP fundraising/marketing outfit, and as Norm Coleman’s DC landlord.) Here’s a behind-the-scenes postscript about the lengths to which the planners of the Republican National Convention went to ensure the... more -
St. Paul taps two to review RNC cops — but not misconduct
St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman announced late Tuesday afternoon that the city will undergo an outside review of the public safety effort tied to the Republican National Convention — but its limited scope may not satisfy calls from various quarters for independent review of police misconduct.
Leading the charge is former U.S. Attorney Tom Heffelfinger, who now works for Minneapolis law firm Best & Flanagan, and Andy Luger, previously an assistant U.S. attorney who is employed at Greene Espel in Minneapolis.
They’ll be putting a team together to perform the assessment and define its parameters, according to a statement from the mayor’s office. The timeline for the study and other details are yet to be nailed down, according to mayoral spokesman Bob Hume. He told Minnesota Independent that the city had always planned to “take a hard look at the events of the week,” but didn’t before know “what form it would take.”
“Today we basically said we would bring in a fresh set of eyes to work through the process of determining what went well and what lessons are to be learned,” said Hume.
Regarding the questions that members of the public have raised about security measures during the RNC, “We want to be able to answer those as best we can. Our feeling is these two [attorneys] will help us navigate that and will give an honest look at how things went,” he said.
But Heffelfinger is saying the team will not look into allegations of police misconduct, raising the question of whether St. Paul’s move will satisfy the various organizations and officials demanding independent reviews. An international human rights group, a national civil liberties organization and a smattering of local officials have issued calls — ranging in tone from livid to tepid — for investigations:
Amnesty International wants “city and county authorities to ensure that all allegations of ill-treatment and other abuses are impartially investigated, with a review of police tactics and weapons in the policing of demonstrations” — adding that it should be prompt and public.
The American Civil Liberties Union wants “an investigation into possible violations of the First and Fourth Amendments, including the arrest of reporters trying to gather the news; the mass arrest of hundreds of peaceful protestors; the surveillance and subsequent raids on several activist groups and private homes; and the confiscation by law enforcement agents of constitutionally-protected private property.”
Locally, St. Paul City Council Member Dave Thune has said he wants “a public airing of what went right and what went wrong.” To that end, he’s scheduled a “community conversation” on Sept. 24, 5:30 p.m., City Council chambers, to hear from interest groups — but no open mic for public testimony. He’s also is soliciting citizen comment for St. Paul’s official police “after-assessment.”
Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak wants to investigate police actions personally — “just the mayor taking a look at how the police responded to the protests,” his spokesman told MPR. The mayor is eschewing any formal review.
Minneapolis City Council Members Cam Gordon and Gary Schiff want “an independent, blue ribbon panel to conduct a thorough investigation into the events, decisions and policies surrounding security issues and the RNC, hold hearings and make recommendations for future policy changes.”
Another parochial concern that may elude Heffelfinger are Minneapolis’ guidelines of recent vintage against which Minneapolis council members intended to measure police actions during the RNC, the “police policies regarding public assemblies” that the council passed in July 25. Gordon aide Robin Garwood and Schiff agreed city police appear to have violated at least one of the 29 policies regarding treatment of the press. St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman announced late Tuesday afternoon that the city will undergo an outside review of the public safety effort... more -
Cataloguing the RNC’s journalist detainees
Of the 800-plus people who were arrested or detained in conjunction with RNC protests, a good chunk of them — 43, by our count — were members of the news media. Media representatives in town to cover the events, from both big and small presses, were slapped with citations and pending charges ranging in severity, including unlawful assembly, obstructing the legal process, misdemeanor interference with a peace officer and felony to riot plus other riot pretenses. (Notably Democracy Now! host Amy Goodman was jailed along with two of the show’s producers.) Many others who weren’t arrested or detained endured pepper-spray and other arms used for crowd-control.
MnIndy has compiled a list of journalists who were detained or arrested, including some preemptively, culled from news reports and sources, including the Ramsey County sheriff’s department’s booking roster. Let us know if anyone is unaccounted for and we’ll add them to the list.
Journalists detained/arrested:
Tom Aviles, WCCO photojournalist
Charlie B, MTV Think blogger (full last name unknown)
Anita Braithwaite, New York-based Glass Bead Collective
Wendy Binion, Portland IndyMedia
Geraldine Cahill, The Real News
Eileen Clancy, I-Witness Video, a New York-based media collective
Paul Demko, Minnesota Independent
Amy Forliti, Associated Press reporter
Ben Garvin, Pioneer Press photographer
Amy Goodman, Democracy Now! host
Art Hughes, Public News Service
Suzanne Hughes, The Uptake, volunteer coordinator
Ted Johnson, Variety managing editor
Olivia Katz, Glass Bead Collective
Sharif Abdel Kouddous, Democracy Now! producer
Alice Kalthoff, MyFoxdfw.com editor
Jon Krawczynski, Associated Press reporter
Joseph La Sac, Pepperspray Productions journalist
Ed Matthews, University of Kentucky photojournalism student
Jonathan Malat, KARE-11 photojournalist
Stephen Maturen, Minnesota Daily assistant picture editor
Britney McIntosh, University of Kentucky photojournalism student
Matt Nelson, University of Iowa student
Jason Nicholas, New York Post freelance photographer
Mark Ovaska, Rochester freelance photographer
Christopher Patton, Editorial board member of The Daily Iowan
Elizabeth Press, Democracy Now!
Matt Rourke, Associated Press photographer
Sheila Regan, TC Daily Planet
Lambert Rochfort, Pepperspray Productions journalist
Seth Rowe, Sun Newspapers, St. Louis Park community editor
Jeff Schorfheide, Madison, Wis. Badger-Herald photographer
Mark Skinner, University of Nevada Las Vegas Rebel Yell reporter
Ania Smolenskaia, The Real News
Matt Snyders, City Pages
Nicole Salazar, Democracy Now! producer
Vlad Teichberg, New York-based Glass Bead Collective
Dean Treftz, U-Wire, national college news service
Nathan Weber, photographer, Chicago-area freelancer
Tony Webster, Twin Cities independent media professional
Jim Winn, University of Kentucky journalism adviser
John P. Wise, MyFox national editor
Dawn Zuppelli, Rochester IndyMedia Of the 800-plus people who were arrested or detained in conjunction with RNC protests, a good chunk of them — 43, by our count — were ... more -
NSA security officer: We should just kill these people
When somebody within your own government calls you out, do you show up? How do you handle it?
Wayne Madsen, always spoiling for a fight with Bush and Cheney, or the chance to show off his undies to minimum wage airport TSA workers, has an executive level NSA staff person on record saying that significant sentiment exists within the NSA to kill troublesome bloggers and journalists.
The NSA executive staffer was, apparently, not the source of the sentiment, but this individual did pass along the context and the precise wording of the “junior G-man” working in the NSA. Prominent names listed in the NSA database of troublemakers?
1. Bill Gertz
2. James Bamford
3. Vernon Loeb
4. Jim Risen
5. Dr. John C. K. Daly
6. Wayne Madsen
7. Seymour Hersh
These were all the names Madsen published, but there are, of course, many others. Possibly you, gentle reader.
If not now, probably later.
As much as Madsen hates Daily Kos, I would think that if Kos was in the database, he would have published his name, too. Markos Moulitsas Zuniga — a name that should just roll off the Hebroid-Russian tongue of George Soros, and frequently does — is he NOT in the NSA’s database of journalists and bloggers to be put out of Cheney’s misery?
Wear nice underwear when you travel, bloggers. The TSA will soon be checking your anal orifice for that extra 3 ounces of shampoo you just can’t live without. When somebody within your own government calls you out, do you show up? How do you handle it? ... more -
America's War on Journo's
The Oval office has engaged in assault, intimidation, and imprisonment to limit the ability of journalists to do their jobs.
Credit: AlterNet The Oval office has engaged in assault, intimidation, and imprisonment to limit the ability of journalists to do their jobs. ... more -
YouTube to Activist: No Torture News- We Want More Footballs Hitting Groins
I'm paraphraising youtube/google's message to one anti-torture activist, but I think it's accurate:
"CAIRO, Nov 27 (Reuters) - The video-sharing Web site YouTube has suspended the account of a prominent Egyptian anti-torture activist who posted videos of what he said was brutal behaviour by some Egyptian policemen, the activist said. . .
"They closed it (the account) and they sent me an e-mail saying that it will be suspended because there were lots of complaints about the content, especially the content of torture," Abbas told Reuters in a telephone interview. Abbas, who won an international journalism award for his work this year, said that of the images he had posted to YouTube, 12 or 13 depicted violence in Egyptian police stations."
Does this bother anyone else? I am aware that they're free to put anything they like on their site, but it seems like the promise of new media helping to take down repressive governments and getting messages out that don't make it to the mainstream media isn't working out. I'm paraphraising youtube/google's message to one anti-torture activist, but I think it's accurate: ... more
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