Keep FREE Over-the-air TV FREE!

Where do Americans turn during times of crisis? For critical information, viewers depend on local TV.

Spectrum is what your local TV and radio stations use to deliver their content into your home, car or mobile device – its simply airwaves. Spectrum, or airwaves, impact every one every day, whether you want to see how the high school baseball team did last night, listen to your favorite morning drive DJ, or just check on the local weather before you leave the house. Spectrum even helps you every time you turn on your smartphone or power up your laptop to check your email.

Clearly spectrum is a big, albeit unseen, part of your every day life. It is a valuable resource that we must make sure to use effectively and efficiently.

There is some concern that the free information that broadcasters are now able to provide you may be reallocated to other wireless companies that want more spectrum for their own use.

To take away some of the spectrum from TV and radio broadcasters, however, has the unintended consequence of hurting hundreds of million Americans by giving them less access to the local news, weather and programming we can all currently enjoy for free.

Congress is discussing this issue now; this is a situation your TV and radio broadcasters are watching very carefully and you should, too!

Want to learn more about whats going on? Check out this video and see the role spectrum plays in your life and why it might be threatened in the future!!!

The federal government is making decisions about how the airwaves are used, which could limit television's ability to innovate. It could also jeopardize the local news, emergency information and high quality programming on which hundreds of millions of Americans rely.

Tell Congress to protect free, local television's ability to innovate and provide the news, emergency information and entertainment you expect and deserve.

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Trouble

More than a third of Americans now believe that President Obama’s policies are hurting the economy, and confidence in his ability to create jobs is sharply eroding among his base, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll.

"Do you know what people are fed up with most of all? They’re fed up with a town where ‘compromise’ has become a dirty word," ~ US President Barack Obama

And what, pretel, would Mr. Obama think of this?

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#ssm Gay Marriage Albany Wedding Album

I was on hand for the festivities at Albany City Hall Saturday night into Sunday morning: New York is the sixth, and largest, state to legalize same-sex unions. Several other states are considering following suit.

Congrats to all of you couples! Scroll down to the bottom for my musical gift to you!

Six gay and lesbian couples from around the Capital Region were among the first in the state to legally wed under New York’s same-sex marriage law. Mayor Jerry Jennings and Judge Joseph Teresi officiated in Albany. This is what it looked outside City Hall around 11pm, an hour before things got underway...



Lights, cameras... ACTION!

When I first arrived at City Hall, I jokingly mentioned to Dori Marlin that it's been about three years since I last saw her out covering a story. "You're the third person who's told me that tonight," said she... No, she and Dan Levy weren't tying the knot... they were witnessing


Judge Teresi officiating the wedding of an African-American couple who had children with them. I wasn't able to find out who the kids were. Everyone was smiling most of the time, except during those "serious, solemn" moments! Here's the Times Union account of the evening... I mentioned in my radio report that gay rights and human rights activists hope the Empire State's same-sex marriage law will have nationwide impact - that it will impress lawmakers throughout the land, all the way to President Barack Obama. Gay marriage advocates now say they will push for Federal legislation that would require ALL states to recognize same-sex unions.

Mayor Jenning's longtime friends ("Super Secret Couple") Dale Getto and Barbara Laven were married by hizzoner. After the City Hall proceedings, they jumped in a stretch limo and headed up to Saratoga for celebration at Vapor! Congratulations, ladies!


Old chum Dan Levy from NewsChannel 13 takes a seat to jot down a few notes...

Albany City Councilman Anton Konev was on the scene to "witness history." This fellow attends more local events than Brian Scavo!


I love people! Comrades-in-arms Fox23 reporter and cameraman mugged for my smartphone as the crowd began leaving City Hall. Good job, guys!

And here's a musical gift for you Gay Couples! Ronnette's Ronnie Spector with substitute 'nettes Belinda Carlisle (Go-Gos) and Grace Slick (Jefferson Airplane) with the late great Clarence Clemmons on sax!



Permission to reprint this blog post in whole or in part is hereby granted, provided that the author (or authors) and Dave Lucas are properly cited. Photographs are the property of Dave Lucas and may not be used without permission. Permission to reprint any comments below is granted only for those comments written by Dave Lucas and staff.

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The Case of Dominique Strauss-Kahn VS. Nafissatou Diallo Takes a Strange Turn...

I had some serious doubts about this case right from day one...

Here's an update 2 July 2011 ::: NY POST: Maid cleaning up as 'hooker'!

UPDATE July 7 ::: Recent Photos of Diallo

::: JULY 5 UPDATE! CLICK HERE! :::

The woman who cried rape may be involved in a lot more than we have been led to believe. Is she really living in a building that exclusively houses HIV/AIDS carriers? The photo displayed here may or may not accurately depict her. Some say the picture is at least 10, maybe 15 years old. Others say it simply isn't her! What do YOU think? The way things have been going in the news, nothing really surprises me anymore. I have some added in some new information to an article I posted awhile ago. Consider this a "working update" vesrion, one where I will add new facts and allegations as they are reported.

"I have not given birth to a bad woman..." ~ quote from the mother of NYC chambermaid Nafissatou Diallo ::: Ms. DIALLO is quoted in the New York Times ‘Don’t worry, this guy has a lot of money. I know what I’m doing,’ (Diallo is seen in the accompanying photo)

Attention has now shifted from perp to the alleged victim of an alleged sexual assault of a 32-year old hotel chambermaid in New York City on May 14th by the former International Monetary Fund managing director, Dominique Strauss-Kahn.

The sexual assault case against Strauss-Kahn is on the verge of collapse as investigators have uncovered major holes in the credibility of the "devout Muslim Ghanian" housekeeper.

The maid, Nafissatou Diallo from the West African nation of Guinea, told police that the 62-year-old Strauss-Kahn came out of the bathroom naked, chased her down, forced her to perform oral sex on him and tried to remove her underwear before she broke free and fled the room.

The New York Times reports ::: According to the two law enforcement officials, the woman had a phone conversation with an incarcerated man within a day of her encounter with Mr. Strauss Kahn in which she discussed the possible benefits of pursing the charges against him. The conversation was recorded.

That man, the investigators learned, had been arrested on charges of possessing 400 pounds of marijuana. He was among a number of individuals who made multiple cash deposits, totaling around $100,000, into the woman’s bank account over the last two years. The deposits were made in Arizona, Pennsylvania, Georgia and New York.

They also learned that she was paying hundreds of dollars every month in phone charges to five different companies. The woman insisted she only had a single phone and said she knew nothing about the deposits except that they were made by a man she described as her fiancé and his friends.

In addition, the official said, she told investigators that part of her application for asylum included a previous rape, but there was no such account in the application. She also told them that she had been subjected to genital mutilation, but her account to the investigators differed from what was contained in the asylum application.

Inquiring minds want to know more about Diallo, who received political asylum in the US, and has been employed at the hotel for three years: La famille de celle qui accuse Dominique Strauss-Khan de tentative de viol s'est confiée à SlateAfrique. Elle décrit une jolie jeune femme de nationalité guinéenne sans histoire, sérieuse et qui n'a pu être manipulée.

via SlateAfrique ::: The one who is called Ophelia is not from Senegal, Ghana or Puerto Rico, as some journalists have reported, but from Guinea.

The daughter of a merchant form the Peule tribe (40% of the population in a country of 10.3 million), she is from the Labé region in Guinea, and followed her husband, a Guinea merchant, to the USA in 1998. There, she divorced him and has been raising her 15 year old daughter alone in the Bronx. She has some family in Harlem, including her sister, who is married to a Guinean business man working in the import-export trade.

Nafissatou Diallo holds a green card, and has been working as a maid in the Sofitel Hotel for three years. She has a reputation as a serious girl.

“She is as hard a worker as her sister,” said a cousin of hers on the phone. Diallo’s family has not been able to see her yet. Like everyone else, they read the papers, but they hope the sexual assault is “less severe” that what is reported.

Mamadou Chérif Diallo, from the victim’s family, and a 35 year old Guinean who is working for a New York City agency, who is tasked with representing the family, said this:

She’s a good Muslim. She is really pretty, as are a lot of Peule women, but in our culture, we do not accept this kind of behavior. Seriously, Dominique Strauss-Kahn attacked the wrong person. It’s a scandal! It’s really sad, this accident!

Under police protection

The family explained that Nafissatou Diallo is in hiding with NYPD protection to protect her from the media. She presenting has a lawyer. The attorney general’s office in Manhattan, contacted by SlateAfrique, refused to confirm the identity of Nafissatou Diallo, a common measure to protect sexual assault victims in the US.

French-Cameroonian writer Calixthe Beyala wrote an open letter that has been posted on several websites, entitled: “On épouse une Blanche et on viole la femme noire -or- Rape the Black Woman, and Marry the White One” - here are two snippets:

“...he knows perfectly the Sofitel Hotel in New York led by French. In this hotel, work for many black women! Many of them were raped by the former head of the IMF and the scandalous affairs have always been suppressed by the hotel management...”

“It is traumatising to realise that some Black people still have chains in their minds, and do not question the appetite of powerful men for Black women, a morbid attraction, in which relations haven't changed since slavery.”

Global Voices' Julie Owono explores the possibility that Nafissatou Diallo is a "conspirator".

Does machismo cause rape? Tracy Clark-Flory investigates for salon.com.






Tags: DSK, Nafissatou Diallo, Dominique Strauss-Kahn



Permission to reprint this blog post in whole or in part is hereby granted, provided that the author (or authors) and Dave Lucas are properly cited. Permission to reprint any comments below is granted only for those comments written by Dave Lucas and staff.

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NetActive 26 June 2011

HotSecretz posts FINAL FOUR PAGEANT HOPEFULS PICKED FOR MISS WORLD KENYA ::: The headhunt for Miss Nestea Kenya ended last Saturday with the crowning of four contestants from across the country in Nairobi’s Kawangware.

Kate shares a link to a Louis Vuitton Mens Resort 2012 inspired by the Maasai.

While New Yorkers celebrate the passage of Marriage Equality, Fresh attacks on gays in Ghana: Delivering a statement on the 30 years of the official discovery of HIV/AIDS on the floor of Parliament, Professor Mike Oquaye, Ghana’s Second Deputy Speaker, described homosexuality as an “abomination” that must be stopped “before the human race was destroyed by something worse than AIDS”.

Learn about LGBTI rights in Rwanda, Uganda and Burundi from a paper written by Naome Ruzindana. Naome is a feminist and founding member of the Coalition of African Lesbians.

Maker Faire Africa 2011 is here: “Maker Faire Africa is pleased to announce our 3rd event, ‘Maker Faire Africa 2011 : Cairo‘ which will take place in Egypt, October 6-8th, 2011. Join us once again as we continue to cultivate new and existing maker communities across Africa.”

Moving to ASIA ::: Trica Wang blogs about her experience of riding the Beijing subway disguised as a migrant worker while conducting fieldwork.

Here in North America, some Hip-Hop blogs are in a quandry... Advertising firm GroupM revealed a few weeks ago that it had adopted a new anti-piracy policy. It constructed a list of websites that it deemed to be either in support of piracy, or directly offering illegal downloads. The list of sites eventually got into the hands of the media and there are some bizarre listings on it.

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Inquiring Minds Want To Know...

Here's what people have been asking me about over the weekend in person, by telephone and via e-mail!

SAME-SEX MARRIAGE?
If passed into law here in New York, it will open the door for the legalization of polygamy, I guesstimate within 40 years.

DEAN SKELOS?
The buzz around Albany is that the NYS Senate Majority Leader is falling out of favour due to failure to act on Rent Control and Same-sex marriage. Could just be rumours, but as I see it, whether you stand FOR or AGAINST something, people respect you for having "the courage of your convictions." . People do not respect wishy-washy or indecisive people. I'm not really sure how the general public or GOP insiders view Skelos, but any doubt could be fueled by another faction trying to get their guy in as ML. We'll just have to wait and see on this one!

THE GOP PRESIDENTIAL NOMINATIONS?
If the election were held today, I don't think any of the declared candidates could beat President Barack Obama. But the election will NOT be held today, so all bets are off. (Aside: A Mitt Romney victory may slice a few years off legalized polygamy, an issue which is attractive to Mormons and some Muslims. There are a few loosely-knit fringe women's rights groups that believe polygamy would solve those "mistress" issues we hear so much about.)

ANTHONY WEINER?
Contrary to what you're hearing, he's not done yet! His "farewell address" was more like an acceptance speech. The man has a plan even if we (and possibly he) haven't got a clue as to what it may be.

THE DECLINE OF THE BLOG?
People have been saying blogs are "going out of favour" since 2005! Poppycock!

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Picture of the dude who blogged as "Gay Girl In Damascus"

Picture of the guy who is the "Gay Girl In Damascus":::

Meet Tom McMaster!

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A GAY GIRL IN DAMASCUS IS REALLY A STRAIGHT GUY!

On Saturday I noticed someone in the US State of Georgia was making repeated visits to my blog entry about Amina Arraf directly from a harddrive. So, there may be a contact of some sort in Georgia keeping a sort of "media watch" out for blogs posting AA material.

I knew feathers were getting ruffled after I carried the news to the other blogs' by tweet, StumbleUpon and by leaving comments on select blogs.

Today, The Electronic Intifada breaks news regarding the origin of the character we have come to know as Amina Arraf. EI connects the “Amina” blogger to two people in real life: Thomas (Tom) J MacMaster and Britta Froelicher who are married to each other... and there's a "Georgia connection!"

Read the complete exposé here... and to peel back more layers of the hoax, visit BOOKMANIAC.

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Amina Arraf: Identity Thief? Gay Girl In Damascus HOAX!

Could it be that an anti-Assad activist realized that by using an attractive photo of a woman and pretending to be gay was a quick means of getting the western press to take notice?

UPDATE 10 June 2011 ::: Jillian C. York
Journalistic Verification, Amina Arraf, and Haystack

This is the second time I can recall Global Voices has been punk'd by a phony photo! First it was NEDA, whose picture still shows up on several big websites, including BBC.

Now, supporters of "A Gay Girl in Damascus" reportedly hijacked a photo of another woman to further their cause: On Wednesday, a London publicist said photos circulating are actually of Jelena Lecic, a Croatian woman who works as an administrator at the Royal College of Physicians in London. Lecic believes her identity has been used before by blogger Amina Arraf.

Because the blogger described herself as a Syrian-American with dual citizenship, American officials in Damascus and Washington have been seeking to verify her identity since she was first reported missing in a note posted on her blog by someone who identified herself as the blogger’s cousin.

Questions about Arraf's story arose when details when it emerged no one had met her in person. Theories are flying online, including allegations that Arraf and her online girlfriend, Sandra Bagaria, who raised the alarm about her arrest, are the same person (like Coffin and Kobayashi); or that Ms Lecic and Arraf are the same person, and Gay Girl in Damascus is an invention.

Screenshot of AA's "old blog" - hover and click to see the bigger picture!

Lecic called The Guardian to request her picture be removed from the newspaper's website, only to find it replaced with another photo of her. Ms. Lecic herself appeared on a BBC television program and insisted that she did not know the author of the Gay Girl in Damascus blog. She said the photographs appear to have been taken from her Facebook page.

As several bloggers have pointed out, the search for traces of Amina Arraf online on Wednesday also led to the discovery of a profile page registered in that name on the social network NetLog, by someone who described Hebrew as her native language. In a post on the Gay Girl in Damascus blog last month, the author wrote, in a discussion of her love of languages, that she had studied Hebrew and dreamed of one day becoming Syria’s ambassador to Israel.

Blogs have been used in the past as vehicles for experimental fiction. As questions about the identity of the Gay Girl in Damascus grew, Blogger Liz Henry recalled an elaborate hoax that had been carried out from 2001 to 2004 by a “middle aged guy named Odin Soli,” who wrote what turned out to be a fictional blog in the persona of a young lesbian. Ms. Henry added that Mr. Soli also won blog awards writing another fictional blog in the voice of “Acanit, a young lesbian Muslim girl with a Jewish girlfriend.”

The Washington Post says : "If A Gay Girl in Damascus is indeed a hoax, it would be an elaborate one. Arraf’s Facebook page reads like a who’s who of the Syrian opposition movement, and although none of the activists contacted had met her, all of them said they found it difficult to believe she wasn’t real."

What do YOU say?








Tags: Gay Girl In Damascus, Amina Arraf, Jelena Lecic, Global Voices





Permission to reprint this blog post in whole or in part is hereby granted, provided that the author (or authors) and Dave Lucas are properly cited. Permission to reprint any comments below is granted only for those comments written by Dave Lucas and staff.

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Google +1, QR Codes and Activist Bloggers Rock the Blogosphere

Move over, Google +1 ::: Are QR codes the next big things for bloggers? Try it out: GET ONE!

QR is short for "Quick Response" - the codes can be read via any smartphone equipped with a reader. The one you see here is the one for my blog, which will soon appear in the sidebar. I love new widgets, services and technology, and June 2011 seems like just the right time to add QR code and some new HTML code, as you will read below!

Bloggers, you may want to pay particular attention to this ::: PR in an SEO context doesn’t just mean PageRank. It means public relations.

Have a look at Authorship HTML code.

I'll be hopefully rolling this feature out later in the month. I have a few big surprises in store for you, so keep stopping by!

Now, onto the greater blogosphere:

Syria: ‘Gay Girl in Damascus' Seized

Written for Global Voices by Jillian C. York · Middle East & North Africa

Amina Arraf has seen a quick rise to fame. Blogging pseudonymously, as Amina Abdullah, she writes about politics, the recent uprising, and being a lesbian in Syria. A dual citizen of the United States and Syria, her powerful words have shown the reality on the ground in Syria over the past few weeks. On Amina's own blog, it was reported that she had been kidnapped by authorities. read »

Al Jazeera's Gregg Carlstrom reports Arraf is hardly the only blogger to be arrested recently in Syria, of course. Twenty-year-old Tal al-Mallouhi was jailed in February on "espionage" charges; Ahmad Abu al-Khair was arrested a few days later while traveling from Baniyas to Damascus; Khaled ElEkhetyar disappeared for a week in March; Egyptian-American blogger Muhammed Radwan was detained later that month... Carlstrom goes on to say he talked briefly this afternoon with Sandra Bagaria, a close friend of Amina's living in Montreal, who said she didn't think either of those two facts played a role in Arraf's arrest. (Details)

U.S. Court says 'shield law' not applicable to 'bloggers'...

Hrna [fa], Human rights activists news agency, reports [fa] that Ali Pour Soleiman, a blogger and teacher was arrested in Iran a few days ago. He was a member of Association of Teachers and wrote [fa] in Sokhane Molem (means teacher's word) blog.

Caledoniyya complains there isn't much information about Mikel Nabil - an Egyptian blogger sentenced to three years in prison for insulting the Armed forces. “With so many bloggers being persecuted by the regimes for broaching crucial issues; in Nabil's case, the Egyptian military; it can be a challenge to keep track,” she notes.

Womanish Words congratulates Trinidadian Simona Lee, “creator of the blog ‘Women Speak: Women Tell Their Stories of Discrimination,' for being chosen to receive a 2011 Internet Activist BlogHer Scholarship.”







Tags: Amina Arraf, QR Codes, Al Jazeera, Amina Abdullah



Permission to reprint this blog post in whole or in part is hereby granted, provided that the author (or authors) and Dave Lucas are properly cited. Permission to reprint any comments below is granted only for those comments written by Dave Lucas and staff.

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NetActive 5 June 2011

Latest BUZZZ ::: the always controversial Lady Gaga is rumoured to appear as closing act at Europride next Saturday (June 11th). There has been no official announcement, but artistic director of the facebook page EuroPride hints that the rumours may possibly be true. The official word is expected soon via press release by Gaga's record label.

(Translated from Italian news articles:) Lady Gaga has always been sensitive to issues of LGBT rights and has declared herself bisexual.Involved for some time to abolish the "Do not Ask Do not Tell" and the American campaign against homophobic bullying in schools, according to the website gay.it "must not remain indifferent when the Organising Committee explained the recent rejection of the law against homophobia and homophobic tones have done this last election campaign. A more expended for the presence of the pop star most Popular right now would be the Organizing Committee EuroPride, and even the National Arcigay ambiasciata American in Rome, which had a role in negotiating anything but minor. "

HOT97 The Real HOT 97

Remember- follow @HOT97SUMMERJAM for a play by play of everything going down at #HOT97SUMMERJAM!

Philippines: Netizens follow Telecom merger deal issue

Written for Global Voices by Karlo Mikhail Mongaya · East Asia

Netizens in the Philippines are closely following the developments of a merger deal between two of the country’s largest telecommunications companies. Some are worried that the merger would be bad for consumers. Here's the gist: The Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT) announced last March that it has bought off the Digital Telecommunications with P74.1 billion (US$1.7 billion).

If approved by government regulators, there would be two mobile carriers in the country left with PLDT’s Smart, Talk N’Text, Red Mobile and Digitel’s Sun controlling 70 percent of the market and Globe Telecom and TM controlling the remaining 30 percent. read »

A blog action day set June 8th to demonstrate the concern of Filipino bloggers about the destruction of Philippine marine resources. Coral reefs twice the size of Manila were destroyed by smugglers.

Featured Blogger: Sabrina Sultana - Blogging With Her Heart

Written for Global Voices by Bijoy · South Asia

Sabrina Sultana blogs from Bangladesh and she is one of the millions of bloggers in this world who express themselves using internet. But Sabrina is not like others; she blogs with her heart. She speaks for those who are deprived of their rights to lead a normal life. She expresses concern about the rights for the disabled and raises her voice for those who may not express their pains to the world. Sabrina also writes about her own feelings with simple but magical words. read »

VIRAL: 1,500 FACEBOOKers Crash Girl's 'Sweet Sixteen' B'day Party...

Argentina: Bloggers Discuss Inflation

Written for Global Voices by Fanny Rahmouni · Americas

Americans would be wise to study up on what these bloggers have to say, because inflation is rearing its ugly little head here in the states! Inflation has long been a subject of controversy in Argentina, and as such is a recurring topic for discussion among bloggers. As an important political issue, it is expected to be one of the main themes debated during the presidential race next October. read »

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NetActive 3 June 2011

Syria: Reports of Internet Blackout

Written for Global Voices byAmira Al Hussaini

Reports are continuing to pour in on Twitter of a possible Internet blackout in Syria today (Friday), as Syrians continue to protest against the Al Assad regime and atrocities committed against Syrians. This Friday's protests are to condemn the attacks on Syrian children. While some report a total internet shutdown, others note that the Internet is out in some places.

BreakingTechNws Breaking Tech News

Google, Bing & Yahoo's New Schema.org Creates New Standards for Web Content Markup http://ow.ly/1d2yLw

Free__Manal منال صوت المرأة

by monaeltahawy

#SaudiWomen Drives a mini #Bus http://bit.ly/ksHJHp سعودية تقود باص

#Women2Drive #FreeManal #Sawagna #Saudi #KSA #Media

Does Malaysia Need a Youth Parliament?

Written for Global Voices by Syafique Shuib · East Asia

The Malaysian Prime Minister has proposed the creation of a Youth Parliament in order to inspire and mobilize young people to contribute in the governance of the country. Bloggers share their thoughts on this issue.read »

RIP:::James Arness, Marshal on ‘Gunsmoke,’ Dies at 88

Miss Info

Watch Summer Jam 2011 Streaming LIVE on MissInfo.TV! - For the first time in Hot97 Summer Jam history, the entire show will be live streamed on the Web!!!!

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