Arbor Update

Ann Arbor Area Community News

Moment Magazine: Regime Change '04

Posted by Ari Paul on 7. July 2004

The MOMENT Editorial Collective invites you to attend …

Regime Change ‘04
Show us what democracy looks like.

Saturday, July 17, 2004, 4:30-6:30pm
The Senior Center
Burns Park
1320 Baldwin, Ann Arbor
(the eastern boundary of the park, Baldwin is three
blocks east of Packard off Granger)

Panelists will include:
Jeff Irwin – Democratic Party; Washtenaw County Commissioner; Michigan
League of Conservation Voters
Marc Reichardt – Chair, Green Party of Michigan
Lara Rusch – Metropolitan Organization Strategy Enabling Strength (MOSES)
Michelle Lin – League of Pissed Off Voters; Arab Community Center for Economic and Social Services (ACCESS)
Marie Mason – Earth First; Highland Park Human Rights Commission
Phil Carroll – People’s Progressive Network
Jerry White – Socialist Equality Party, Congressional candidate for the 15th District
Margaret Guttschall—Michigan Cooridinator for VoteNader.Org
S. A. Trudy Swanson – Mayor Pro Tem, City of Ypsilanti and Council Person for Ward 1

For more info, contact Cedric de Leon at cdeleon AT umich.edu or
734-255-4849.

Comment [3]

Squirm, Bill Gates, Squirm

Posted by Ari Paul on 7. July 2004

For all you internet nerds, Linux/open-office fans, and general technology junkies.

From Slate.com: “But six years later, the surviving members of the Mozilla insurgency are staging a comeback. The latest version of Firefox, released this Monday, has a more professional look, online help, and a tool that automatically imports your bookmarks, history, site passwords, and other settings from Explorer. Meanwhile, all-conquering Internet Explorer has been stuck in the mud for the past year, as Microsoft stopped delivering new versions. The company now rolls out only an occasional fix as part of its Windows updates. Gates and company won the browser war, so why keep fighting it?”

Comment [2]

The Price of Just Sitting There

Posted by Ari Paul on 7. July 2004

Apparently, letting Tiger Stadium just sit there and do nothing costs a lot more than one might think. The Detroit Free Press reports, “In the last four years, Detroit has spent nearly $2 million in maintenance for the closed stadium while city leaders have sought a developer to transform the historic park.”

Comment [1]

Millie the mechanical monster of Michigan

Posted by dilleym on 7. July 2004

In Saline, there is a monster.

via Boing Boing

No contract for 3 years now

Posted by on 7. July 2004

Patricia, over at Windchime Walker posts about an issue in her home town. Support and solidarity are need for these librarians.

1. Grosse Pointe Public Librarians and Support Staff are entering their third year with no contract.

2. Grosse Pointe Library employees hired after 1994: lowest paid/worst benefits in Southeast Michigan of all comparable libraries.

Patricia is well known among many cirles in Ann Arbor as a member of the local Raging Grannies. They did support work on the Borders workers strike last year and just recently they were in the Fourth of July parade.

Daily's Coverage of Farenheit Screening

Posted by Rob Goodspeed on 6. July 2004

A reader writes:

I was very surprised to see in today’s Daily an article on Lila Lipscomb (the grieving mother from Fahrenheit 9/11) that went out of its way to paint her in an unfavorable light. Virtually all of the quotes they use seem to be attempts at embarrassing her or
“gotcha” quotes. See for yourself:

Make up your own mind – here’s the story:

> “Military mom … speaks to crowd”

Comment [5]

The Founding Fathers on Dissent

Posted by Ari Paul on 6. July 2004

This is a little belated, but let’s see our nation’s Founding Fathers felt about citizens working to change their government and why. From the Declaration of Independence:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.—That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed,—That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.

And what would our government (or head of government) have to do to provoke this?

“He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people, and eat out their substance.”

The Department of Homeland Security.

“For depriving us, in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury.”

Until recently, the captives at Camp X-Ray.

“He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.”

For those that saw Moore’s latest film, this was how the U.S. PATRIOT Act was passed.

“He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation.”

Like the unconstitutional measures within the PATRIOT Act.

My fellow Americans, we have a duty to ensure the welfare of our nation, and it begins with organizing the unseating of our current President.

Comment [3]

The Diddly Awards

Posted by Ari Paul on 6. July 2004

The latest issue of Mother Jones features ‘The Diddly Awards’, which go to members of Congress who have embarrassed themselves, their House, and the state they represent through public statements and their own general stupidity.

A few of Michigan’s Hill Trotters got nominated:

1. Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) was nominated for the “The Pat Robertson Memorial You-Talking-To-Me,-God? Award” because she was “out partying when her new Capitol Hill house burst into flames,” but lost to Sen. Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) when he “arrived at the Wayfarer Inn in Bedford, New Hampshire, to attack the Democratic presidential candidates, when the ceiling of the lobby caved in and crashed to the floor.”

2. Rep. Nick Smith (R-Mich.) was nominated for the “The Horse-Head-In-Your-Bed Award” for refusing to name names but has confirmed that during the midnight vote-buying that finally got the Medicare bill out of the House, he was promised ”$100,000 plus” to help fund his son Brad Smith’s campaign. According to Smith, the Republican extortionists said the money would come from “pharmaceutical business groups.” According to columnist Robert Novak, when Smith voted no anyway, Rep. Duke Cunningham (R-Calif.) served as GOP consigliere, informing Smith that his son was “dead meat.”” Smith lost the award to Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska).

More Suburban Rebels

Posted by Ari Paul on 6. July 2004

From Michigan IMC:

Suburban Lesbians Of Michigan will be holding the organizations 2nd annual Benefit on Friday August 6th at Stiletto’s in Inkster, MI. Suburban Lesbians Of Michigan (SLOM) was established in September of 2002. It was founded by Kelly Leszczynski, the organizations current President. SLOM began as a small online community for lesbians within the state of Michigan. Leszczynski established the group as a way to meet new people within her area. She found that at the age of 24 she was lacking in the area of lesbian acquaintances. She utilized the internet as a way to allow people to come together both online and in person.

Comment [2]

City to Ease Prohibition Laws?

Posted by Ari Paul on 6. July 2004

Ann Arbor voters may decriminalize marijuana for medical use.

And, apparently, medical marijuana use is becoming popular. Even “The United Methodist Church, the Union for Reform Judaism, the Progressive National Baptist Convention, the Episcopal Church, the Unitarian Universalist Association, the Presbyterian Church ( USA ), the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and the United Church of Christ have made statements supporting the controlled use of marijuana for medical reasons.”

Comment [2]

Keep reading: next previous