sentenced to death by a jury of his peers in redwood city; scott peterson may have filed an appeal to delay the penalty, but he’s on his way to san quentin anyway. several news channels have picked up the hue and cry, talking to lifers in prison, who are quick to say “he’s not welcome here”. among those inside, there is often an unspoken code that people who mess with the lives of children are worse than any other criminal. having been accused of killing his unborn child (an issue that may create some fascinating case law for high end lawyers), many at san quentin may not feel peterson is fit company for them.
with the advent of technology and the eternal spectre of isolation (time in the segregation unit ), peterson’s luck may run well. but for less than celebrity criminals, peterson is just another face in the crowd with a bad score on his chart. there is no luxury in san quentin, other than to roam the yard freely, eat meals in the company of other inmates and talk to other humans during the course of the day. if he’s like the “boy next door”, then tune in, this is what can happen if you take the life of another in our fair state. i don’t advocate the death penalty and i do abhor public executions, but there is no reason scott peterson should be treated better or kinder than anyone inside. the only good that can come of this is that he raise the bar, so to speak and we begin discussing once again how to improve the cruel and unusual punishment inside the prison’s (locked) doors.

More news on low power FM (aka pirate radio!). Interestingly enough, NPR is against low-power FM, while Christian churches are for it. Ultimately, it’s all about who has control of the airwaves.

“A bill introduced this month by Republican Sen. John McCain of Arizona and Democratic Sens. Maria Cantwell of Washington and Patrick Leahy of Vermont could make it easier for low-power stations to crack the big-city market by requiring less frequency space on the dial between stations.

The bill is backed by Federal Communications Commission Chairman Michael Powell, but not by the National Association of Broadcasters and National Public Radio — which maintain that lower-power stations cause interference on bigger stations’ frequencies, despite a federally commissioned study that found little evidence of it.”

Check out the article.

-Jean Chen

The newest HIV and AIDS stats show that while the AIDS rates among whites has pretty much stayed the same, the infection rate among Blacks in America has doubled. That’s right –
DOUBLED

Check out the article.

This Black History Month, we celebrate the contributions of great African Americans activists like Malcom X and Martin Luther King and the contributions of literary legends Zora Neal Hurston and Langston Hughes. But Black History Month isn’t just about these folks, it is also about the people in our families, neighborhoods, and circle of friends.

When I was a child, my grandmother told me a story about being on a bus here in Northern California in the 1950’s or 60’s. When she took the only empty seat on the bus, which happened to be in the front, she was asked by the driver to move. Fortunately, a group of young Marines boarded the bus and they sided with Mama.

Most Black folks I know older than 50 have a story to tell a time when they fought a fight that I haven’t had to or when they were the first African – American in their school, or their city to do something. Let’s not forget to celebrate the people in our own lives this Black History Month.

Okay, now that’s been said here’s what’s been happening:

The ever prescient Frank Rich, one of the few journalists not afraid to mention post modernism is his column, sums up beautifully the Jeff Gannon/Jim Guckert saga, which is all the talk in media circles here in DC.

So apparently a fakeo reporter for this web site, who has been linked to this site, was able to get a White House press crediential for the last two years. What makes this extraordinary isn’t the fact he got into the White House (yes, even I can get into the White House) it was that he got a permanent credential when he couldn’t even get a Congressional press credential. The former requires two background checks, both the FBI and Secret Service, which takes up to three months. Okay. The Congressional press pass requires a warm body, an ID and a letter from a news organization sanctioning the reporter in question. That process takes about 20 minutes.

Now Mr. Gannon/Guckert was able to attend press conference with the president and in this town, lacking the sparkling glamour of LA, that’s considered a big deal. He got his place at the expense of another reporter or new organization because seats when the president addresses the crowd are hard to come by. Much like the opportunities for press to even directly question the president.

Unfortunately, what has prevented this story from becoming a front page issue is journalists’ reticence to write about, well, other journalists. I know many are mad at what’s happened, especially since this calls into question journalistic standards, but you wouldn’t be able to tell by the few stories running in papers about this. Take Mr. Kurtz’s Sunday column or the Wolf Blizter interview with Gannon/Guckert. It seems the bloggers and media watch groups have been the best coverage of this story and managed to avoid the stupid liberal/conservative bias agenda journalists have to contend with.