Justice Sunday

While Barack Obama was being lauded by Bruce Springsteen, U2, Mary J. Blige, Betty Lavette, Jon Bon Jovi, and a host of stars at the Lincoln Memorial fest Jan. 18, Colorado Springs was having its own little festival of justice. The afternoon started with a rally on behalf of Palestinian rights in Gaza, with a great turnout of kids. The younger cheering section is featured above, and other rally videos are here, here, and here.

Later in the afternoon, Opera Theatre of the Rockies held the first of several special events leading up to a Feb. 28 presentation of the Kurt Weill/Langston Hughes/Elmer Rice opera, Street Scene. On Sunday, 20 actors read a sit-down version of the play sans sets or stage action. This will be followed by musical selections Jan. 25, a showing of the 1931 movie Feb. 5, a discussion on social aspects of poverty and recession Feb. 8, a survey of Kurt Weill Feb. 12, a wine tasting Feb. 13, and a sneak preview of the set Feb. 15. The spoken play was a wonderful preview of the opera to come.




Finally, at 4 p.m., the Martin Luther King march proceeded from Acacia Park, site of the Gaza protest, to Shove Chapel on Colorado College campus. The crowd is above, the Peace and Justice banner-carriers are here. Felt like a little local representation of the Obama mania in DC.

Comcast Rides Again

Of course I'm hypocritical keeping my Comcast account, they're the best bundle out there right now, OK? But the company annoys and outrages me again and again with its pesky political influence-peddling and censorship. If you're unfamiliar with the smarmy history of this legion of scumbags, check out some of Bruce Wagner's tales of censorship, the complaints of poor voice quality and poor customer service, and the company's packing of FCC hearings on net neutrality with paid lackeys.

The latest atrocity involves the censoring of a New Mexico activist emailing people about a rally regarding Israel's occupation of Gaza. Bob Anderson of Stop the War Machine was sending out rally notices Jan. 9 and found his outgoing mail service had been shut off. Bob tells us that "Comcast security says they sent a message about the shut down. But it never arrived here. I don't know when they might have sent it either. This means they must have sent it earlier than the shutdown ... Comcast said I had been reported to them as a spammer and was using Port 25 on their server which is a violation of some type. I should have been on Port 517, they said. I know nothing of what this means except the Comcast rep implied I had been improperly using a business port or some other port and not a residential port. This seemed hostile and a red herring answer. I asked from whom it was that they had a report to shut me down and they said that was proprietary information and they would not tell me ...

"I think a person should have the right to know who is doing this to their private email. I pay Comcast for the email service, they treat it like it is a privilege to email with them. Comcast is one of the telecom companies who have agreed to work secretly with Homeland Security in their interruption and surveillance of terrorists. The question is, does protected political dissent in this country constitute a terrorist activity? I am not a spammer, just a normal politically concerned American citizen concerned that my government is aiding and abetting a genocidal foreign policy in Palestine."

Bob's case is all too common. One thing that concerns me is that an active federal probe under a new administration would find plenty of wrongdoing by both the Bush administration and telecom service providers working with the FISA bypass. Judging by the front page of the Jan. 12 New York Times, Obama is not too thrilled to look into past wrongdoing.

ISRAEL OUT NOW

It's that simple.