It's a private investigative company right here in New York, and he's going to be we're working on an association between our company
CENTAC and equalizer and
Christina Borgeson
150 years with now
Christina Emmy Award
Christina I'm just thankful you're here because you're real you're real. You're not Larry King live
Thank you. Thank you for being and I want to urge you guys again. Don't even buy deep cover
It's available, but go it's in libraries. Just take it out Xerox read for yourself
Just read the chapter Palace of Suits and then look at the headlines about
Columbia now and you will understand what a three-card Monty game this whole thing is a
Trillion dollar drug war and we've got half this country that can't even get health insurance
Guys, I don't know you got to make your politicians know that you're out there. Okay, my friends wake up
I
Stella's a Monica. Yeah. Yeah, you don't want to miss you just don't want to miss
I'm not sure what show is gonna be on next but I'll tell you what everyone that we're putting together is just really outstanding and
Important. Thanks guys
I
And
It's just about eight o'clock in the evening on a Tuesday night
Isaac you remember the theme this week? Yeah, I brought it. Ah, here it is
It's right there
It's time for off the hook
Isaac did you queue up the theme last week? Yes. Yes, I did. Okay. Well just finished
Once again time for off the hook
I
I
I
Yes, the good old off-the-hook theme I don't think it's long for this world actually
All worn out Paul needs a new cart, yeah time for something new
I
I
And
The program is off the hook I'm manual Goldstein here with Isaac. Hey, I'm doing okay
I'm still getting used to being back, you know
Cuz being away for so long five and a half actually five and a half weeks isn't that long?
But it sure feels it when you're when you're traveling around a lot. I'm just sort of still getting used to it last week
I was completely jet-lagged out this week. I'm back to things and you're coming back into I feel like I am
Yeah, I feel like I'm finally, you know
Getting back in in touch with all the things that have changed since since I got here that W train
Have you written the W train yet? Well, I've well, I'm more interested in the Q train
Well, the Q trains already existed. It just changed color. Yeah, but but for some reason there's now two of them
Yes, I think it's the only train in the system that has both a circle and a diamond on all the signs
Well, the difference is it has them on the signs? Yeah, because there's a six. That's a diamond six and around six as well. But
Yeah, yeah, it's kind of strange how they did that but the W train is what I'm really interested in using the Express tracks
On Broadway. I think that's really kind of cool as well
Well, they're shut they're shuffling the F over to Roosevelt Island now
So I hear that new so I hear there's all kinds of consternation about that
There are people always jumping up and down in some car saying where's Queens Plaza? Where's Queens Plaza? Yeah, yeah, and
And and and Nassau Street here on Wall Street. It's going it's going southbound now. Yep. They change the direction of the street
So I talk about confused stockbrokers walking around, you know and driving the wrong way. They look one direction
They get mulled over by a truck or something. I gotta tell you I miss Europe. I miss just the overall feeling of it
I brought back. I forgot to give this to you last week. In fact as per the new memo, I can't throw things at you anymore
Directed the whole staff no more throwing objects at Isaac
But I think I can get around it because this is the subject of what I'm talking about
So I'll throw it to you. Look at that. Oh amazing. Look at the size of that KitKat bar
This is an enormous KitKat. Isn't that amazing? That's what they have. That's what Europe is like. It's big KitKat bars
You know saying they don't mess around over there
Yeah, it's a little smashed in my bag for about four weeks. But yeah, it's just a little melted
But that's okay. Yeah, I left it out in the sun. It's a KitKat chunky. That's Paris Sun that melted that, you know
Yeah, French Sun
Have you heard the the latest?
Insulting the latest nonsense going on in the world of technology and radio has to do with a new band
Yeah, and you been not not you know, like the Rolling Stones a new a new radio. I was wondering there
Have you heard anything about this?
The this is the new commercial thing. You're talking about the FCC. No, no. No, I don't think I am
Okay, what I'm talking about is well first. Okay. This is how they say it
First there is a.m. Yes, then there was FM. Okay, and now
there's
XM
XM have you heard of XM?
I'm wondering what XM is XM is amplitude modulation
It's basically satellite radio satellite radio is finally here
And there's two companies XM and Sirius Sirius like the star Sirius not serious as in are you serious?
You have to ask but the thing is and this is what the whole industry is is going nuts over
They're all talking about. Yeah, this is the new step in radio
This is like, you know, this is what FM was to am XM is going to be to FM
You know, but the difference is the big major difference you big fat dummies. Is that XM is a company?
It's a company. How do you technology? How do you get on to the XM airwaves?
Well, you have to be part of their company, which I believe is owned by clear channel as well
So, I mean, it's just you know, here we go all over again with supposed freedom of speech being
Taken over in a different way, you know
all these people are gonna be driving around their cars listening to satellite radio commercial free on some channels and of course you'll have
two NPR channels and
You know a bunch of commercial things
But what do you think the odds of someone like us getting on the air?
What do you think the odds of anybody that's on BAI getting on the airwaves?
Well, we're in a building so I don't think we're gonna be able to hear it even if it were on there
I'm not sure how that works to be honest
I'm not sure how your car gets a satellite signal as you're driving around. It should be kind of interesting
I'm interested in the technology. Yeah, but okay, you know, how did it wind up being in the hands of just a company?
You know, why not license this out to to all different, you know organizations so that yeah
We can have a nationwide audience in driving around cars. Maybe a worldwide audience. Well that that's the nature of satellite technology
I mean, they're very expensive to put up there
Someone is gonna have to front the dollars and they're gonna look for a return on that. Well, we can have a fundraiser
We're good at that here. Hmm
Football kind of thing. I don't know but the point is I I think it's an interesting technology
But I think it's really kind of missing the boat as far as providing an alternative the thing that worries me though
I don't know if very many people are going to care
I don't know if they're going to realize that hey, you know, you're missing out on something
You're missing out on the potential to hear a lot of interesting voices to hear a lot of diversity
But honestly, I wouldn't be too nervous. I doubt any major auto manufacturer is going to change over too quick
Actually, I think both Ford and General Motors not exactly my favorite people
I think they are both equipping all their new cars with
XM or serious thing. I've got of course in the true American spirit. The two systems are incompatible
Oh, yeah, so you have to choose one or the other and and and not get of course
I don't think they're very different from each other either
But it just annoys me annoys me to see that touted as you know
A new choice. It's not a choice at all. They're picking what it is. You can you can listen to and
And that's all there is to it. Well, you can choose to subject yourself to their will that's that's pretty much the choice you have
Anyway, speaking of radio. I just want to say right here right now that I heard probably the best radio
I've ever heard on this station. I'm happy to say it was on this station over the last week
In fact, you know, I was on engineering the other two weeks. That wasn't it? Oh, well the engineering was good
It was high-quality engineering, but you know, I don't listen to a show for the engineering like this engineering going on right now
Which you don't even know is happening. You don't know all the magic
Octopus things I'm doing right now with the with the control board to make the smooth sound that we have right now
People don't care about that what people care about is is is the personal touch?
yeah, it's always about the talent on the air the talent on it, but basically it's the the
Enveloping feeling that you're a part of something
I was listening to Bob Fassie other night on his on his Thursday night program. It goes from 12 to I think 330
Funny thing is Bob wasn't on Bob was stuck. He was the whole show basically was where's Bob? It's great
Because you know, he's there every week. He's been on the radio here at WBA. I since the 60s and
He hasn't lost an ounce of his talent
He's still the same magical personality as are many of the people who are on the air
But as as the whole mystery was unfolding as to where he was turned out his his his Cadillac had broken down somewhere
He had to basically walk to the station from I think, New Jersey or something
but as as the mystery went on
More and more people just were calling in and as everyone called in among them a lot of the quote-unquote banned people
You know the people who aren't allowed to be here. Well, then they are allowed to call in on the phone
I mean, you can't really stop that but hearing the voices hearing Grandpa Al Lewis hearing Bernard white hearing Robert Knight
You know hearing these people and plus all the other people who called in not all of whom agreed with one particular
you know form of
What's going on around here? Just hearing it all it made you feel like you were part of some kind of family, which I
Think that's what I was trying to say last week when I was emphasizing the the human aspect all the all the crises that are
Going on around here
basically, we're human beings and that's that's that's what it boils down to
And hearing these people call in I don't know
It just it just made me feel like I was part of something more than just you know
Doing a show once a week as an audience member, you know
These are people that that we all recognize that we can talk to that
We can talk back and forth to and the good thing about it was it was an open dialogue an open dialogue
You know, it wasn't this stilted kind of thing where you know, you have to be careful
We can't talk about this subject even though it's a subject in everybody's mind people were talking openly
It was like the old BAI and in many cases the old BAI has not gone away
There are places you can still hear
You know the station the way the station has always been and I think that's what people need to remember that that's that hasn't gone
Away, and that's not going to go away unless the whole station goes away and turns into you know
some some segment of clear channel, which
Is quite a possibility I suppose because you know, they seem to be buying up everything everything
but I
Don't know
I just think that's that's the kind of radio that we have to strive to
Create here at this station because obviously we're the only station in town that's going to even try to do it
We lost we VD last week. I'll get into that, you know a couple more details in a minute
But I don't know I just I just think that
That's what it's all about
that's what it's all about when you can actually turn on the radio and feel like you're a part of a
Part of something bigger not just listening to music not just listening to somebody
Lecture you or read the news or you know talk about one particular subject, but being part of the interactiveness. I
was on a train in Belgium in Belgium and
it was getting kind of crowded and some guy sat across from me and
The the subject turned into where you from and I said I was from New York it turned out he was from Long Island and
yeah, and I
Happened to he asked what what kinds of things I did
I told him about the magazine until I'm at the radio station when he heard WPA
I said I'm a big fan of WPA and I
I'm a big fan of Amy Goodman, and I really hope that that you guys win the fight
It's like wow, you know, I wasn't even wearing a shirt or a banner or anything
This guy was just like bringing it up on a train in Belgium. Hey, I hope you guys really, you know
Win the fight and get your station back on track. It's like wow
Belgium, I mean
People are talking about this all over the world
That's the thing people think that you know, this only affects a couple of people a handful of people it affects so many more
There's there's a guy downstairs at the vigil. Yeah one guy you can laugh at that
You can say hey, you know, there's only one person standing outside and the vigil holding signs
But you know, I saw one guy in London
In a vigil standing outside with a bunch of signs saying stop bombing Iraq, you know
Does that mean the whole movement to not bomb Iraq after how many years we've been doing it?
Does that mean the whole movement is just ridiculous because only one guy has the fortitude to stand out there
No, I think it's a blemish on the rest of us for not standing out there and not you know
Waking people up and and spreading things around. I
Want to play something I want to play something from a show a couple of years ago from one of our shows a couple of
years ago
And as this has particular relevance for a couple of reasons
Let's just go into it it's it's basically a call that we took
back in June of
1999 and you'll probably recognize the voice
Pretty good pretty good showing there. Let's take another call. Good evening. You're on the air
Emmanuel Goldstein. Hey, how you done? It's been a long time. How you doing? Pretty good. How have you been?
Three weeks I've been home with a nervous breakdown. I mean it keeps repeating insomnia loss of appetite
I go through the first stage of the Tibet the book of the dead
That would do it. I'm getting better. I mean, you know, I'm I'm resilient
I keep bouncing back for some karmic reason just two brief things. I know you're getting close to going off. Yes
I obviously wasn't at a demonstration because I'm not in the crowds
I mean, I can't even make eye contact with people on the street. I'm so like weird and paranoid, but I must congratulate you for
Having the courage and balls to you know stand up for your convictions and to to go in the face of you
Know the fascist tonight. So I want to give you a big kudos from in the Bronx
And the second thing is I know you're making the documentary believe it or not
I'm also going to be featured in the movie along with Monroe about BAI and I just announced its world premiere
Go right ahead Monroe is in a film. Yes. It's called airtime rights
It's done by a British NYU film student called Stephen Hutchinson, and it's going to air
next Friday night
June 18th at 7 p.m
At the Tishman auditorium of the new school
which for people who don't know is on 12th Street between 5th and 6th Avenue and
They're going to show that film again called airtime rights along with other NYU
student films and Monroe will be there bar fast from WPA
I will be there and if I'm not if I'm not too crazy and hopefully with the right pharmaceutical
Help I'll be there. So we can at least stand outside and
Greet people as they walk. Yeah, it's like is a 20-minute film and my name for people who don't know
My first name is mark. I'm featured for five minutes and the rest of the 20 minutes is about
Monroe and people's reaction to him and his mission gosh and and that kind of stuff
I'm thinking it might be a good double feature along with your documentary on Kevin Sunday
Except ours won't be done anywhere near Sunday, but no, this is a week from Friday. Well, even then
Ways longer as fiber-optic I really miss him for last. I heard he's doing pretty good
I still have that goatee and a slick hair and that I'm not sure you probably have to ask the Fed
Okay, but again, I mean I was there with you in spirit and you guys keep making trouble, but keep keep it safe
Okay. Okay. Hey, thanks. Thanks for the for the for the good thoughts. You got it. Bye. Bye. All right, and
And that was from a show a couple of years ago
And the reason I I played that obviously it's of interest because of the the film mention
but I
found out by listening to the show that I was talking about on Thursday night Bob fast a show that
Unfortunately that particular caller who was a well-known voice to us
Had taken his life. I don't know when this happened, but I just found out about it last Thursday and
I got to tell you I got to tell you it's something like that hearing that it really floored me
I mean, this is this is somebody that I never met
this is somebody that was a familiar voice to all of us at off the hook and
indeed all of us at WBA I and
Even though even though we had never actually
Met face to face or done anything other than talk on the radio. There was a connection there. There was
there was this kind of
Family connection that you can only get in a place like this and
I
Got to tell you, you know knowing that this person was in so much pain
He talked about it openly on the air
Obviously as you just heard and on many other shows and on many other occasions you have to wonder, you know
Was there more was there more you could have done?
Was there something you could have said some magical phrase that would have prevented things and the fact is you'll never know
but the fact also is that
What we're dealing with here in radio land is a bunch of
Insecure people none of whom have the answers and we all have to take care of each other one way or another
And that goes for no matter what factions open up no matter what sides there are taking
I've heard a lot of pain over these airways in the past. Well many months, I guess but particularly in the last week or so
I've heard people talking about the hatred which has started between
The many sides I mean that there's more than two sides there's about seven or eight different sides here and
They're all just basically feeding on each other
This has to stop this really has to stop and I I was listening to to Sidney Smith the other night on his program
I disagree just about everything he had to say, but it was an open dialogue and that's great
You know
It's great to be able to talk about these things and to be able to
Open up and express yourself because if you don't do that
Yeah, the hate does fester and then before you know it you're not able to talk to anybody
You're not able to talk to the other side at all
I think it's like
maybe an American thing because when I was in Europe there was all kinds of debating going on all the time and
the government among the people I was with
Basically people talk to each other when I get back here though, it's well, I don't talk to that person
I don't you know, we don't talk to them. They're evil
This the communication basically breaks down and when you have a breakdown in communication, you don't get anywhere
So that's why I applaud anyone who?
Actually talks, you know, not just about their own agenda. We all have our own agendas. I do too and
You know some some are important. Some are funny some are whatever
but
It's just important to keep the dialogue open
And I know people are going to say what about the gag rule? What about the Pacifica gag?
Well, fortunately somebody else pointed me to pointed me to the Pacifica website where they updated something while I was away
I went I want to read this and then we'll get on to some other things as well
Pacifica has no gag rule. This is from Pacifica
This charge is particularly ironic considering Pacifica's long tradition of free speech and its tireless promotion of open and independent dialogue
Pacifica merely enforces universal journalistic and organizational standards because radio is a unilateral medium with a programmer speaking
at the listeners with no rebuttal
Pacifica does not permit individual programmers to divert air time to agitate about their personal positions on internal management and personnel matters
This is standard practice in virtually all journalistic organizations
There's nothing there I don't agree with I mean that makes perfect sense
Open the phone lines up have a dialogue back and forth. Don't speak at the listeners about your own particular
complaints or whatever
radio station is here to
to talk back and forth and I
think there are shining examples of that and I think that's something that
that people really need especially in this day and age when
Radio is endangered whether it's by by satellite companies taking over making new new bands
quote-unquote bands or stations being sold and
That brings us to WEVD which
Is no longer with us. Well, actually it is with us, but now it's all sports all the time
Yes, we needed a third sports station in in the city and now we have one but here are a couple of clarifications
I'm gonna take this from a posting which is circulating
But I have to take away the personal attacks because there it's laced with some personal attacks
Which I'm not saying I disagree with I'm just saying they're not relevant to what we're talking about here
WEVD has not been sold the Forward Association owners of WEVD have entered it
Into a lease management arrangement with Disney ABC for a two-year period with an option to buy
Within that period with an option for Disney to buy within that period for an agreed-upon price of 78 million dollars
The Forward Association is still the license holder regardless of the fact that Disney is calling the station 1050 ESPN
Once an hour, you will hear them rush through the WEVD call letters the members of Save WEVD have not gone away
They're still operating the website
www.savewevd.com and are planning to take legal action against the LMA in the near future
Now here's the interesting thing and this is what people have to be careful of the Forward Association was once a nonprofit
It was forced to become a for-profit licensed business in New York State because of the income it was receiving from operating a commercial radio
station
Now the Forward Organization is trying to regain
Its nonprofit status to avoid the massive tax liability it would have when and if the sale goes through
The Forward's claim is that since it no longer is operating a commercial radio station
It should be able to become a nonprofit again. This of course is a scam. They still hold the license
They are still operating a commercial radio station from which they are deriving income
The fact that they are leasing all the time to ESPN doesn't change the facts
The concentration of the media and fewer and fewer hands is the issue the same Telecommunications Act in
1996 that escalated the value of the Pacifica stations did the same to stations like WEVD
Isn't it ironic that when Rupert Murdoch had problems gaining multiple ownership of radio TV and newspapers?
He had liberal Democratic politicians like Ted Kennedy and Mario Cuomo advocating for him
But when a liberal alternative radio station like WEVD is devoured by Disney the liberal Democratic
Representatives like Chuck Schumer and Hillary Clinton remain silent on the issue
They certainly had no problem finding WEVD when they were running for office, but now they say nothing
Save WEVD is a volunteer organization of listeners to WEVD. Our membership continues to grow
We aren't going away
WEVD was originally founded in
1927 as a living tribute to Eugene V Debs great socialist leader it started
It started as a non-commercial
Listener sponsored radio station dedicated to being the voice of labor and fighting for peace and social justice
That history must not be forgotten again find out more
www.savedwevd.com
Thank God it's not us not this time
But we must remain vigilant or it will be us at some point in the very near future
Mike you're back. I'm back. Welcome back. Thank you. You were away all summer
I was away all summer in California and other places. What did you do?
Where well you went away and away. I was in California in Berkeley and Oakland for the summer
working for AmeriCorps putting
computers in the Oakland public schools AmeriCorps, that's really their name AmeriCorps AmeriCorps is the
Nash the Corporation for National Service, it's funded by the federal government
They claim to be like the domestic Peace Corps if you want their propaganda domestic Peace Corps
Okay, so what kind of you you were basically hooking up schools in in Oakland and things like we hooked up 30 elementary schools
fourth and fifth grade classrooms
1,500 computers among the eight of us. So now little kids are surfing the web. Thanks to you. Hopefully that's good. That's good
No surfing part of the web. That's not blocked now. Okay, tell us something about that
You said that you saw a bit of blockage in the setup
Under a state law and now a federal law
They are required whether they want to or not and they seem to want to but they couldn't anyway to install a filtering product
They have chosen to install one called Bess made by the n2h2 company
Which blocks all kinds of interesting websites including 2600
And by by including 2600 they include the stream to to this radio station because that's where it is, right cannot listen to
WBAI can't get the latest news as to what's happening with all kinds of court cases and and
other hacker related issues
Which I guess are all taboo now
I emailed them to request that the site be unblocked and they responded that the site contains profanity. Oh
Here's profanity I quite find profanity on the White House site, which by the way got redone the other day
By them not by somebody else
There's there's profanity every profanity is a fact of life. You know, I just don't understand this this this craziness here in this country
I mean, I was watching TV in other countries and you know, they they spoke English
They spoke more English than we speak here
It wasn't a big deal people, you know
Don't seem to become all maladjusted as a result of hearing these these these nasty words, you know, there's there's you know
things that obviously
Are controlled like pornography, you know, and I don't think anybody really argues about that
But but why what are we protecting? I don't get it. I really don't know. It's not in some little
Town in in the middle of nowhere. I mean, this is a major no Oakland. They speak those words there
I've been there. They say those words a lot
Isaac you have an answer for protecting the children the children, you know
The children are a lot smarter than you give them credit for argument. I was children you got them
The argument I was given is not even that they're protecting the children anymore. Now. They are protecting themselves from possible lawsuits
Oh, yeah lawsuits and the parents of the children the litigation that that's the reason they have to have it. Mm-hmm
Sorry, I'm watching the monitors people on the monitor. It's such a distraction having that monitor on there really is
Um, I kind of like watching it. Let's see. Who's uh, who's running into the station running out of the station?
Okay
We started last week and this is related to what you're talking. I'm like we started last week to
To make a phone call. It didn't quite go through
And we did it late in the show. So we have the dial tone now for for this week and
we are going to make another phone call and
Hopefully this one will actually
Go through
Let's see
That's the same ring
Hi, is this easy everything I was wondering if you could tell me what's your policy on blocking?
Yeah blocking access to websites
Or do you provide every every website? No, I'm not. No, I don't think so. But I'm actually not sure what the policy is
How would I find out?
One second. I'll ask okay
She's asking
It's anything that web sense thinks isn't inappropriate they blockers and
Uh-huh, so if web sense thinks is inappropriate you block it that who is this web sense? I have no idea
It's a web since our comments an international company
Uh-huh. And and basically you trust them to basically tell you what's objectable or not
Seemingly. Okay. Well, thanks. Okay. All right. Bye. Bye. I
Get the feeling that she was very nice. I get the feeling she knew exactly what time it was
Yes, apparently that's exactly what what they do
Web sense that's now we know the name of the company that actually does the blocking over there now Mike you were just over there
I'll tell us something about what you just went there waited ten minutes in line to pay my dollar
to go on on the web and then I
Went to the terminal logged on and typed in the 2600 website and instead of seeing your website
I saw the easy everything homepage, isn't that something?
So they don't even have have the decency to tell you that they're blocking it. They just redirect you to their own site
Right that is that is unbelievable
Somebody one of our readers are actually wrote to them to ask why they were blocking 2600 comm
And they got a reply and this is what I said. You are correct that it isn't a hacker site
It's one step removed from the site. You can obtain a magazine that is promoting hacking to hackers
Easy everything is open to everyone who needs to get online and this means that there must be some filtering to ensure a measure of
Safety for lack of a better term for all our customers children included as well as for our computers slash servers
Well, it sounds like at least he got a real reply instead of a can answer. Yes. I know what this makes everything
Okay, we got a real reply, but come on
I'm trying to glass half full thing. You know, I know the glass is broken and spill all over the floor
Okay used to what I'm trying this is this is a word
I wish I could say right now, but I can't if I was in Europe I could but that's what it is
And you know it. I mean who are they to say that because it's it's promoting hacking
It promotes a magazine that promotes hacking which is really not a valid definition at all
That for some reason that makes it inappropriate. You know, this is wondering when hacking became inappropriate exactly
This this is not, you know pornography. This is not, you know, something that
Is tantamount to terrorism like, you know the old-fashioned kind of terrorism
It's it's it's basically talking about technology. Okay, maybe you don't like what we do
Maybe you don't agree with what we do but to to just block all access because you've determined that that's that kind of
Conversation is invalid. I mean that's that's going well beyond protecting any children from anything indecent or or dangerous
And you know, it gets even worse. This isn't happening Mike you can verify it's not happening at easy everything
It is happening at a couple of other sites. In fact, if you go to www.peacefire.org
You will find all kinds of information about
About the various blocking software and ways around it ways that you can figure out what's going on
Peacefire.org is blocked by a lot of those sites. Yeah, another good resource is convenient. It's sensorware.net which
Doesn't contain so much technical information but contains a lot of the political information what's going on with blocking websites
And I'll bet they're blocked in many places to assume they are
Yeah, and adbusters.org one of my favorite sites
They're blocked by by not at easy everything not yet anyway, but by by some of these other
blocking
Packages and I really think it's time
We declare all-out war on these people because what who gives them the right to do this who gives them the right to just
You know say, okay
We've determined that this is not something you should look at and then companies like easy everything just blindly follow
Yeah, we trust them. We trust what they say. We're not gonna ask any questions
Well, what's the alternative the alternative is for easy?
Everything has to fund a whole bunch of people who go out on the web and look for objectionable material
First of all, why is it easy everything's responsibility to you know to block all this material?
Well, this gentleman just talked about a federal law that requires that's not schools. That's for schools and libraries last I checked easy
Everything's not a school. Thank God
But it's the same mentality, you know, okay fine
if somebody if somebody is is surfing pornography and easy everything you can have a store policy saying don't do that and if you do
That you get kicked out. We'll come over and whack you on the back of the head
Well, what's interesting is that the the filtering software companies responses? Yeah, we know our database is imperfect, but you can have local overrides
Mm-hmm. So each person is trying to put the ultimate responsibility on the other. Well, do you do you see?
This is something that's non-binary. I mean, can this can we right now? I'm if you think about the web
Filtering software as we have it. Mm-hmm. You're kind of saying that it's very coarse if you could make it more fine-grained
Would you be happier? Well, give me a specific
Well instead of that instead of the entire 2600 website
Mm-hmm, just those one or two pages that they find to be relevant to hacking
I mean like the WBA I link page for all the online radio stuff is not related to hacking
Okay, but here's here's my objection to it
Why is related to hacking something that people aren't allowed to see in their store?
I don't I don't get the what are they protecting in a different way?
They're controlling how people learn what if they say well, you know
We don't want you looking at any Japanese sites because you know, you know
You might get the wrong idea about something even though you have no idea what they object to they just they could block that
They have that ability now. Why should we accept this?
Did the people ask for this are people lining up saying my god block 2600, you know?
I think if you ask people maybe we should do this
Maybe we should march on over to easy everything and ask people going in. Hey, you know, do you want 2600 calm blocked?
Is it is it bothering you?
And it's not strangely and say what yeah
If it's not then then I think they have an obligation to unblock it and the point is the reason why I'm taking this
So seriously these easy everything's they move into towns and they literally put all the other cafes out of business
You know because they they they sell
Internet access for pennies. Yeah, you know if you go to a place like all that coffee and Avenue a you know
That's that's a real internet cafe. They don't block anything, but it's a lot more expensive than easy everything
I'll tell you that because they actually have to pay their bills
So wait a second you have an alternative to easy everything and yet you're still great
But they're going out of business not that particular place, but internet cafes everywhere going out of business
I don't notice and the reason they're going out of business because they cannot compete when when when prices are so artificially low
I mean have you walked into easy everything? Yeah, you were there with me. Who's there? It was my dollar
There are a thousand computer terminals there a thousand and yet they charge something like a dollar for three hours
I mean possibly their rates. It's now a dollar for it was 26 minutes when I was there dollar for 26 minutes
You know, it's there's just no way you can you can possibly it's in Times Square the most expensive real estate in the world
Right, you know, I mean, I I can't even imagine if they if they charged a hundred dollars a minute
They still wouldn't be making all their rent back. Well, don't forget. I mean they are selling coffee and drinks and oh, yeah
That really makes up for it coffee and drinks
Activity no kind of connectivity they must have to you know much that much gotta be a few teas at least
But the point is people are not willing to pay more to have unblocked access
That's why they're going out of business. Well, you know, it's not really presented in that way
Is it it should cost less to get provide unblocked access? They don't have to pay for the filtering. So, okay
The point is this is this is unfair and it's you know, why is it
Alternative you can go and spend an extra three bucks and not be blocked. Do I have an alternative really?
There's a place right next door that I can go to I have to go all the way downtown
Do it. Can I go there at 3 in the morning?
You know is this they basically have have cornered the market on this kind of thing and nobody else can hold a candle to them
Now if they're gonna take that kind of responsibility, then I think they should answer to the consumer
They have I think consumers well what I'm calling for is consumers to speak up about this
oh, well, that's that's what it comes down to and
Remember you vote with your dollars. Well, you vote with your
Your voice as well, and I think that's something that people need to do
So we'll be we'll be open to suggestion on that mail us OTH at twenty security comm with suggestions on
How we should deal with this little problem
and also you might want to visit the the website of the
I guess the corporate head of all these corporations easy everything easy calm easy money calm
Easy value calm easy rent a car calm easy jet calm if the man's name is Ebenezer
I'm going to be very upset. No man's name is stellios. They don't say much about him, but it's
Stellios STL iOS calm why does it sound like he's like hiding in some volcano waiting to take over the world?
He's like the noble founder of the Wiz, you know, you never see his face
You don't know who he is, but he's out there somewhere and all these companies
All these companies are basically run by the same people. So I don't know
it's kind of kind of scary, but let's let's see if we can actually reach them and
Get them to listen to reason
Don't mean for that to sound like a threat. I'm just saying, you know, it's something that's that's important
Okay, we're taking phone calls to into two zero nine two nine hundred, but first I just want another gripe
I just gotta get out of the way
You use PayPal PayPal. Well, that's that thing on eBay. Yeah
Well eBay is connected with PayPal somewhere
But PayPal is basically a way that you can pay people on the net
With you know, just by emailing them
Well, there were a whole bunch of those things that'll walk during a long period of time a situation last week
Where a friend of mine needed money
You know and and I was able to to raise enough to give him so that you know
He could he could pay the rent and you know get you know, the the hounds off his doorstep
But the thing was how do you get the money to somebody fast, you know Western Union
Well, yeah Western Union is actually what I wound up doing in the end
But there's a big hefty surcharge for that and PayPal PayPal is the PayPal is an option because listen to this on their website
For people who are who I guess are buying something which is I guess technically what you're doing
If you're sending somebody money send money instantly send money instantly and for people who are who are sellers
collect money instantly
Collect money instantly see the money in your account immediately. Do you see those words?
He's the money very tiny from this immediately
So we went through this whole hullabaloo of of entering all this data, you know
Signing up for accounts because you have to be you know a registered right person. Well, it's an account. Yeah
And so and you sign up with the bank account. Actually, I already had an account
So I already had my bank account tied to this. Okay. All right, so I sent the money sent the money out
It's a thousand bucks
Sent a thousand bucks got taken instantly out of my bank account and sent to him through email
Now all he had to do was register for an account enter his bank account number and bang
It's in his bank account electronic fund transfer, isn't it? Beautiful wonderful except it doesn't work that way
By the time he signed up and did all the things he was supposed to do giving an email address all that kind of nonsense
That's when the little page pops up that says now you can do an electronic funds transfer. It takes three to four business days
now correct me if I'm wrong, but
Instantaneously collect money instantly and see the money in your account immediately
That to me does not translate to three to four business days. Maybe I'm just stupid
Maybe I'm thick but where in the world do they come off saying this making this claim when it's not true
It's a complete fabrication and lie. Well, yeah, it gets better. It gets better
They put a limit on how much you can do on an electronic funds transfer, you know, we decided okay. Yeah, why?
Despite the fact that we're taking the same amount of time to mail a check, you know, okay fine
We've already transferred the money might as well just do the electronic funds transfer and wait three or four business days now
It doesn't work that way, sorry, you can't transfer $1,000 you can transfer a maximum of 500 per month
Now where does my money go for a month into PayPal PayPal keeps my money for a month it's robbery it's utter robbery
Wow, well what we wound up doing is transferring it back to me, right?
Yeah, what you can do and of course, I won't get it for three to four days
And I guess they're getting interest on it or something
But I was just outraged by that now if I'm misreading something I'm willing to to accept the possibility that maybe there's some part of
This I'm not grasping
But that's that's the impression that that we both got going through all this money in your PayPal account immediately
Not your real account, but PayPal account what good is my PayPal account if I can't actually you can send it to someone else
And play this game forever. Well, there was it the money is never anywhere except PayPal, you know
It's their money not mine at that point
They do the transition but they hang on to it a little too long one of the the other alternatives
I investigated a while back. I hope they're still in business was e gold.com
Where basically you establish an account and you can do so anonymously if you like
These they're like a whole bunch of crypto guys and they have a lot of fun
and you basically buy gold and your account is
Actually maintained in gold bullion in their safe and you move the numbers around and you can actually write checks against it and do the whole
Nine yards. Wow, it's it's kind of neat. It's worth looking at. Yeah. Well, you know, it's worth looking at
You got to play around with these things and I'm glad I played with PayPal because I don't think I ever learned
What a what a scam it is unless I had actually played with it, but I'm curious what other people's
Interactions with them have been. All right copies of email then we'll take some phone calls two and two two zero nine two nine hundred
Just wanted to let a manual know that time Warner cable here in Florida carries BBC World News on digital cable
It's not available on regular cable as yet, but he is right is a great channel along with Fox News
It seems to be my favorite news source. That's a strange combination. But whatever the point is
We need more diverse sources of news and you know here at the radio station
Obviously you can hear different diverse sources of news, but how about you know, the rest of the world?
How about you know, if you're in Indiana or something, you know, what can you hear besides CNN Fox and MSNBC?
You should be able to they're all pretty much the same thing, you know soon enough
You're gonna hear the satellite on the X band. Yeah, and you think it's gonna be any different
So, what would your cable company say my cape I don't have cable I
Don't even watch television you don't have cable I guess okay
You can get one of two programs until all right
Well should have mentioned that cuz I directed you to call them yesterday last last week and demand BBC World
I tried but I don't have a cable company. All right, you can get out of it then
I was too busy to call I didn't get a chance myself, but I will shame on you
Yeah, you can you can DSS, right?
Yeah, but they don't have they have BBC America, which is basically the BBC with commercials, which really kind of ruins the whole thing
It's an embarrassment really because it's all these BBC things and we're the only one with the commercials all over the place
You see world has very limited commercial BBC World has no commercials. They have a few. Where did you see commercials?
What did you see BBC World? I was in Europe for a couple weeks. Really? I thought you weren't, California
I was you've lied to it. That's right. He went to Denmark as well
I went to Denmark and watch BBC World and so like one commercial an hour
Okay. Well, here's the thing
I don't know where those commercials were coming from
But the BBC World that I watched in various parts of Europe basically didn't have commercials
And certainly during a newscast they don't know they have it as half-hour blocks and some PBS stations
I think channel 21 has it three times a day
But they line it up with all the corporate sponsorship beforehand
You know, this is made to you by people like my mobile oil made possible by you know, a grant from mobile
Yeah, that's like, you know, how expensive is it to you know to receive a program that's already being transmitted
You know, it's it couldn't take all that, you know much fundage, but
There are copyright issues
I assume that they want it to get out. That's why they send it out in the first one
They want anyway
The point is the point is it's a channel that anybody can get if if you just demand imagine 24 hours of news
You know with I may be limited commercials if any commercials at all from a different perspective and okay
you think we don't have the need for this watch any one of your your existing cable channels or listen to a news channel here
in the city and
Keep track of how much world news there is
Just keep track of that see how many minutes are devoted to world and by world news
I mean something that does not involve the United States like, you know, something that's happening say in Zimbabwe
What is this or something that's happening in the Philippines? What is this world thing of which exactly you see?
You're a prime candidate for this
Keep track of that and if it's if it's more than say three minutes an hour, I will be shocked
Well, I actually watch ITN on occasion. My team's not on anymore. So you haven't watched it
We're not on it hasn't been on over a year. It's on at six on no, it's not. No, it's not. Really?
No, it's not. What did that happen? I don't know a long time ago. Oh
We replaced by BBC World, that's that's what happened. It's not at seven. That's six seven. I say some phone calls
Yes first the Russian programmer Dmitry Sklyarov. Yes with a range
Last Thursday, right?
he's now facing five counts of
violating the DMCA for a possible total of 25 years in prison and a two and a quarter million dollar fine and his company
Has now been brought into this also and they face a two and a half million dollar fine
But his company is in Russia. How are they even going to be subjected to this?
Well, the CEO is currently in California trying to help Dmitry. So I don't know it has a trial date been set
I believe it's in November, but that could change. Okay
That's something I think we should definitely go out there for and there's also a legal fund if people want to mail a check
Yeah, it's very expensive
the
check should be payable to DMH escrow agent for the Dmitry defense fund and
Then sent to the Dmitry defense fund care of Dwayne Morris and Heckscher LLP
That's 100 Spear Street suite 1500 in San Francisco, California
94105 so if people have some extra money, it would be much appreciated. Okay. Well, let's take some phone calls and
Thanks Mike for all the work. You've done on that thing, you know being out there
I think was was a stroke of good luck because you're able to get back to us and what was going on
So hopefully we'll we'll keep people updated on that as well as all the other legal battles that are going on
Good evening. You're on the air
Yes, this Thursday on West 23rd Street the Winston Center
Center
Believe it's the Harry Winston Center
630 Amy Goodman, Bernard White Robert Knight
some other people and
Sorry on your radio. Okay, and the other thing I want to say is
You know, I'm one of those
fossils long-term listeners supporters of the station who are
everyday ridiculed
despised and
Alien that just alienated and what's going on and just a brief comment about what you said earlier concerning how great it is to
sort of remember the old BAI when people would call up and enter and
interchange of ideas would be going on and
Debate would be going on. Mm-hmm. Okay. I had called up a program earlier today and
In fact, they were talking about how great
Debate is in fact this person's program
I think is dedicated to something like the free interchange of ideas and something like that and
I said well, you know debate is great and I agree with you. And why don't we bring that concept to BAI?
And you know, I was told to grow up and
This person hung up. So what's happening is that people like yourself are
Being picked off little by little mm-hmm and
Which is the design
Management wants to keep the thing going and use our money to dispose of you
you know Al Lewis the
Amy Goodman there will be you all right. We will all be gone. We have to stop contributing to this station put pressure on
Okay, thanks, thanks for your call now, I know that's that's an opinion to
To stop contributing, but that's something I can never sign on to because if you stop contributing in the place falls apart
You don't have a place anymore, you know, at least while it's here. You have a chance of
Fixing whatever is wrong
There there are so many things but you know
I think the caller touched upon a very good point debate is good debate is is something that we should not fear
And I think that's a lot of what we've been seeing are people afraid to bring up certain issues
and that's that's what leads to you know, a banning of topics a banning of
Radio personalities a banning of listeners and that kind of thing just it's wrong. It's completely wrong
But at the same time on the other side, there are all these
factions developing and all these
Basically hit lists that are being made up as well. I mean, I think things are definitely going to change at some point and
You know a lot of the people who are on the outside will be on the inside will things change
If you listen to a lot of people know they won't there'll be a new set of banned people
There'll be a new list of things that aren't allowed to be talked about
That's got to stop and the only way that can stop is open dialogue amongst all the people that are involved and not only open
Dialogue respectful dialogue not, you know
Attacking people by you know, the way they look the way they sound, you know anything else that that you know
You might be able to latch on to just the issues. It's painful. It takes a long time
It's a real pain in the ass, but it's necessary and you can't just walk away from that kind of a thing
And that's true in any part of life, you know, you can't just you know
Walk away from from a problem and expect it to solve itself. You have to confront it and it's not always
You know, it's not always pleasant. Sometimes there's yelling and screaming but
In the end, it's the only way to confront something. All right, let's go to another call. Good evening. You're on the air
Not bad, how are you? I'm pretty good. Welcome back. Thank you. Thank you to hear your voice again. I can agree with you that
You do miss Europe when you come back. Yeah. Yeah
You still live there for a year and I still miss it every day. You lived in London, was it?
Yeah, right outside London that town is broken, isn't it? Yeah, I mean there's everything is broken in that town
Yeah, it's it's sad. They don't really have any those wonderful London phone booths anymore. No, I saw a few of those
Yeah, I think they're bringing them back now. Mm-hmm people people were generally pissed off about that rightly
So yeah, but as regards being pissed off about things
I believe that there should be another round of sensor wear blocking protests coming up in
The next month or so because as I understood typo what we protest against last year with the EFF
The compliance deadline is in October
Wait, wasn't that this year you protested against that? Yeah, that was he's calling from a payphone again. I can't believe this guy
He always calls my payphone
You're the only person I know he uses real quarters in the payphone
They sound like real quarters
Okay
All right. Yeah, but hopefully we I mean the whole Dimitri situation has really eclipsed a lot of things going on and
Understandably so but
I'm definitely gonna have another round of protests this coming October. So well quick question how successful was the last round?
How successful was the protest? Yeah in terms of changing the legislation in terms of changing anything in terms of getting the word out
I think it was incredibly successful
But how far have we progressed? I think Isaac wants immediate gratification
He wants all the laws to be just knocked over immediately. I'm wondering why the laws were put in the first place
Well, it's it's a valid form of political expression one that's guaranteed to you by the First Amendment
I think you have to take take hold of it and use it every chance you can
You can also jump up and down and wave your arms in the sky, but it isn't going to be very productive either
Well, that won't bring public attention to it
But protesting would when you go out my question is has it building the FCC building and people people take notice of you
All right, especially in large numbers. I
Know I know it made a difference with the free Kevin movement outside Miramax
We stopped the film from coming out not that we wanted to stop the film
But you know, we wanted to to make sure it didn't defame him and so far it has yet to come out in this country
Boy, you know, I don't know what if it's ever gonna slink out into into video. So how long until that next round?
I believe it should be in October sometime in October. Okay. Well, that's next month. That's absolutely
Alright, well, we'll keep you informed and we'll keep in touch. All right
Take care
another bit of news
Concerning the whole Kevin Mitnick case our film freedom downtime has been selected to play at the Woodstock Film Festival
Whoo-hoo, and that's taking place later this month. I have the is it finally like edited now?
It's been it's been playing, you know, okay hacker could have played it at how you know, it played at the chaos Congress late last year
And it basically what's like Film Festival takes place from September 20th to 23rd
A small world to you know, they they're playing a documentary on KPFA our sister station in
In Berkeley a 66-minute documentary will be featured at this as well
So a lot of really interesting things going on if you want information on ticket sales, the phone number is area code 8 4 5
6 7 9 4 2 6 5 but again freedom downtime will be showing I think it's on that Saturday night or Saturday afternoon
And the whole event takes place from September 20th to 23rd and
Quite a few films being shown. It's gonna be a lot of fun up in Woodstock, New York
Do we have time for one more one more quick real quick? Good evening on the air
Real quick, um
I read James Bamford's books read every kind of book known to man in terms of security stuff and the same thing
They all say when it comes to blocking sites when it comes to blocking information
One why I talked to one PT woman she made it clear she didn't care if it was profanity or
Inappropriate she cared about the control because she wanted her children to be the way she wanted them to be not so much to be
Productive but to literally be quote exactly the same type of cool stepper that she and I'll be open to me
I never asked before to be and I said well, if that's the way you want it
That's not the way I'm gonna go for so my brother he listened to I would say listen
You don't have to agree with anything. I see or any website you see I'm gonna tell you what you're seeing
Somebody wants to block it. Hey, they can do what they want, but they should not block it just to make themselves the one in control
Okay
Thanks for the call
And I think that's that's a very good point to to end on got a quick piece of news
It better be 10 seconds or less on the 8th of September a little after 5 o'clock. Yeah, 540
Uh-huh. Unix time interval hits 1 billion seconds. Oh great 1 trillion seconds
1e 9 day
2600 meetings this Friday. We'll see you there. We'll see you next week on this show. Email us OTH at 2600 comm and
For Isaac and Mike, it's manual. Good night
I
I
Alright gents, thank you for that off the hook Emanuel Goldstein and his crew
All folks last weekend. I was down in the backyard
Yeah
you know deal with
Leave a day and all that kind of stuff
In the background, I'm playing a little black Stalin. Anyway, he spoke with the mighty sprout for Jessam
Two minutes or so
So I just wanted to see if maybe I could just bring you a little flavor of what?
Sparrow had to say while he was in such a good mood after his
fantastic
Performance check this out
When you talk
You're talking to his excellency the right honorable. Dr. Slinger Francisco aka
The mighty Sparrow the lips so king of the world
See you see you guys you guys just laughing at everything when you receive
The post of ambassador you are known automatically
As his excellency
When you receive
the order of the Caribbean community OCC
your automatically
the honorable
When you receive a doctorate from the University
Honorary or otherwise you are doctor
So when you are referring to me, sir, you have to address me
Properly
Your excellency the right honorable. Dr. Slinger Francisco
The mighty Sparrow Calypso king of the world, you know, you guys can laugh and make a mockery of your own self
I
Have too much work to do to bring all your wrong to make all you understand
That the boy is like a rags to riches story, you know
The boy who started from nowhere to the point where you have to call him in protocol
your excellency
Happy everybody the response is
Stupendous
Everybody is happy massive big up to the WB I pussy. This is cigar lows and I just love being me