Arbor Update

Ann Arbor Area Community News

This weekend's music: Follow-up

Posted by Josh Steichmann on 30. January 2006

Daily covers debacle

MC jumps onstage, raps through muddled mic, pisses on floor, blames ArborUpdate writer, tries to steal cash, fights, gets arrested, provides abject lesson on the pitfalls of adherence to mythical thug lifestyle.

The show was nice, thanks.

(Is the Daily having some sort of Seniors’ day on the web? Or are they just more full of crap than usual? Most of the retarded stuff didn’t seem to be in the print version).

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Filibuster ongoing...outside Michigan Union

Posted by David Boyle on 30. January 2006

A “filibuster”, in tune with the planned filibuster of Alito by Senate Democrats, was going on outside the Michigan Union a few minutes ago and is probably continuing. There is a man reading a book out loud, another one passing out ACLU flyers, and there is a big banner…

You may click Save the Court or thedeanpeople to send a message to every undecided Senator to filibuster Alito (Save the Court is easier, you don’t have to write a message). Alternately, you may call 1-888-355-3588 and tell your Senators, “Confirm Alito! I can’t wait to lose my freedom!” Whatever floats your boat.

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MSA-City Council public hearing on lease signing ordinance tomorrow

Posted by David Boyle on 29. January 2006

Some word from MSA:

“Signing a Housing Lease in October Sucks. Let’s change that. Come to the MSA-City Council Public Hearing on the lease signing ordinance & Push the lease dates back to January! (open to all students) Monday Jan. 30th @ 6:00pm MSA Chambers, 3rd Floor, Michigan Union Quality Free Food! Check out the ordinance at http://www.msa.umich.edu Sponsored by MSA, Your Student Government What: City Council Public Hearing When: Monday, Jan. 30th at 6:00pm Where: MSA Chambers, 3rd Floor of the Mich. Union Why: To have a say on the lease signing ordinance”

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Kestenbaum to Discuss Instant Runoff Voting, 1/31/06

Posted by Juliew on 27. January 2006

Larry Kestenbaum will discuss his ideas about Instant Runoff Voting (IRV), Tuesday, January 31 at Sweetwaters (123 W Washington) at 7:00 pm. He will be a guest of the Ann Arbor Fair Vote Coalition. More information on Instant Runoff Voting can be found on the A2IRV web site.

Michigamua-trauma Hull "humbly" hammers Goodspeed

Posted by David Boyle on 26. January 2006

In today’s Daily viewpoint “Michigamua speaks out”, Brian Hull of Michigamua says,

”...The assertion that many students have refused the invitation to join Michigamua is simply untrue [What about Tom Hayden etc.?]....Some students have traditionally used Rob Goodspeed’s humbly titled “Goodspeed Update’ blog as their primary source of information regarding Michigamua. Many of his postings include misconceptions that are part of an intentional effort to discredit the organization with self-serving motives. ...”

!!!

Oh the pain. Someone in an organization with a fake “Indian” name calls someone else names. (See, e.g., here, ”...The leadership society dubbed itself the ‘Tribe of Michigamua,’ after a mythical band of Anishnaabeg that had been killed during American expansion…”

Would we be comfortable if a group called Koshergoya, Negrogeorgia, or Burritogarcia were on campus, brandishing a fake ethnic name? I don’t think so.—When your organization can’t even get its NAME right, there are very definite problems…

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This weekend's music:

Posted by Josh Steichmann on 26. January 2006

It’s been a big week already for music here in Ann Arbor. The Feist show was disappointing as music, but encouraging in all the new faces out and about (who never seem to make it to local shows), and the Blueprint show last night (with uncredited headliners Security— Majestic Legend and One Be Lo of Subterraneous, natch) was one of the best to grace the Pig’s stage in a while.

Tomorrow, we have the Great Lakes Myth Society at the Halfass (a week after another great show at the Elbow Room), along with rising (?) stars The Descent of the Holy Ghost Church, who will do blog-battle with anyone.

That’s up against the Encore Records release party, with all of the favorites from that institutional shop: Fred Thomas, Aaron Dillaway, Tadd Mullinix, etc.

If the Halfass cleans up quickly, you might even be able to make both shows, and that’s a button worth wearing on your hoodie.
Enjoy the feast while you can, as Saturday’s back to famine. Luckily, Sunday has Whole Wheat Bread, the next in the long tragically necessary line of bands that prove, yes, black people can play punk rock (see: Fishbone, Bad Brains, Living Colour).

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Ann Arbor School Superintendent Resigns

Posted by Juliew on 25. January 2006

Ann Arbor Public Schools Superintendent George Fornero is leaving Ann Arbor to become the new Superintendent of Deerfield-Highland Park High School District 113 in Lake County, Illinois. Fornero will start his new job July 1.

Fornero’s comments on why he took the new job are politically neutral: “It’s a district that affords me greater latitude in terms of working with students and staff” and the new job is closer to family in Chicago. However, it isn’t hard to imagine that the seemingly constant fighting among the school board, parents, and school administration might have taken a toll. The latest survey of parents and employees had some harsh criticism for Fornero.

He leaves the school district at a difficult time but he and the school board have assured everyone that everything is under control.

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Call your Senator re Alito NOW

Posted by David Boyle on 25. January 2006

Floor debate about elevating Samuel Alito to be a Supreme Court justice has commenced; not that I am suggesting you CALL IMMEDIATELY AND DEMAND THAT YOUR SENATORS VOTE “NO” on ALITO AND ALSO FILIBUSTER, but do whatever you want.
Toll-free, 1-888-355-3588.
Recent whip count shows both Levin and Stabenow voting no, but you never know. And a “no” vote doesn’t mean they’d filibuster either.
Hey, this could even impact Ann Arbor.
God bless America.

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MCRI Update, Segregation and Fraud

Posted by Ari Paul on 23. January 2006

The State Board of Canvassers has approved the MCRI, the ballot question that will outlaw racially classified affirmative action in hiring and admissions at public institutions, thus placing it on the 2006 ballot for now.

Michigan suffers from acute racial segregation in public education according to several studies and affirmative action was upheld by the US Supreme Court in 2003 as a way to increase diversity in the workforce and in higher education given that segregation.

But Ward Connerly, who helped develop the MCRI, has always caused raised eyebrows on the subject of racial segregation.

In 2003, Connerly said, talking about California public schools, “I don’t care whether they are segregated or not…” In 2002, after Sen. Trent Lott (R-MS) said he supported Strom Thurmond, Connerly said “Supporting segregation need not be racist. One can believe in segregation and believe in equality of the races.”

BAMN, who opposes the measure, claims in that MCRI canvassers lied to signers in order to get enough names.

The MCRI, in reaction, has charged BAMN with being “extremists.” Jennifer Gratz, executive director of the MCRI said, “MCRI set the gold standard in following Michigan law when it collected more than a half-million petition signatures.”

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Activist author Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz on campus

Posted by MarkDilley on 22. January 2006

Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz speaks on The Contra War in Nicaragua and the International Indigenous Movement 11:30 a.m. – 1 p.m. Friday, January 27, 2006 3512 Haven Hall Dunbar-Ortiz provides a historical/literary memoir covering the period 1975-1990 that documents her activity in the American Indian Movement and the International Indian Treaty Council in the 1970s, and her 1980s human rights monitoring in Nicaragua and Honduras, with an Epilogue on Gulf War to Gulf War, 1991-2005.

Professor Dunbar-Ortiz comes to us from the Department of Ethnic Studies at California State University East Bay. She been active in the international indigenous movement, lobbying at the UN since 1976. She helped found and edit the Treaty Council News in the 1970s, worked on the Wounded Knee cases and in 1977 published
The Great Sioux Nation: An Oral History of the Sioux-United States Treaty of 1868, based on the federal court hearing on the Wounded Knee cases held in Lincoln, Nebraska in 1974. Her new book Blood on the Border: A Memoir of the Contra War, and other
publications are available at Shaman Drum Bookshop

> http://www.reddirtsite.com/

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