August 28, 2008 – 12:58 am
Join me in the final night as Barack Obama accepts the party nomination - Thursday, August 29th from 6-10 mountain time. More info at www.kpfa.org or www.election411.org or your local Pacifica Radio station or affiliate.
August 25, 2008 – 1:09 am
My first full day in Denver gives a hint to what might be in store. I started the day at a morning rally at the Denver capitol organized by “Recreate 68”. Turns out that this collection of peace groups could draw speakers like Ron Kovic (Born on the Forth of July), Cindy Sheehan who is challenging house speaker Nancy Pelosi in San Francisco in November, and Cythia McKinney – Green Party Presidential Candidate. But they couldn’t draw out many other peace groups who organized their own marches later that day. There were about 100 people gathered around the steps –
August 23, 2008 – 1:30 am
I just had a conversation previewing Pacifica Radio's unconventional DNC coverage on my show on Friday. Check it out: [audio:http://www.aimeeallison.org/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/preview-of-convention-coverage.mp3] I'll be anchoring coverage of the Democratic National Convention in Denver for the Pacifica Radio network. I'll be blogging about our unconventional convention coverage. Our coverage gives us an opportunity to elaborate on the issues that we care deeply about - social, racial and economic justice - angles that will likely be missed by other media outlets. Pacifica Radio will be broadcasting from Denver Monday through Thursday of next week, from 5-9pm pst. More details on the website. In the
August 12, 2008 – 1:15 pm
I was honored to receive this award today (August 12, 2008) from the Carmel-based organization Helping Our Peninsula's Environment "for providing the first San Francisco Bay Area News Coverage on December 12, 2007 of the aerial spraying of secret, untested pesticides on our California communities which lead to the halt of the pesticide spraying in 2008". More information at http://www.1hope.org/hope.htm
Congressman John Conyers, head of the House Judiciary Committee, will finally hold a hearing in response to Congressman Kucinich's article of impeachment resubmitted to Congress. This is the first, tentative step of the Congress towards impeachment or otherwise holding President Bush accountable for high crimes and misdemeanors. KPFA will carry the hearing live - from 6am - 10am pacific time; I will host along with Larry Bensky. I just saw this video from 2006 from Keith Olberman's show - a special message to Bush on the first day that the Military Tribunal Act became law, eliminating habeus corpus. It's fierce
When I interviewed V.V. Ganeshananthan, a journalist and novelist, author of "Love Marriage" I was struck by her raw honestly, and commitment to telling the story of the Sri Lankan-American family caught in the struggle of identity and war and love. In Sunday's Washington Post, she told more about how my interview along with others force her to be a bridge between her parents' home country and her own. In Telling One Story, A Novelist Speaks For a Country V.V. Ganeshananthan writes in the Outlook section on the struggle to discuss all of Sri Lanka's complex history while talking about
It's almost a year since Oakland Post editor Chauncey Bailey was assassinated on his way to work in Oakland. Today I did an hour-long special on the ongoing murder investigation on KPFA. Our discussion focused on the fact that just a few weeks ago, reporters with the Chauncey Bailey Project revealed a police video that seemed to suggest that Yusuf Bey IV had knowledge or involvement in Chauncey's murder. So why isn't the DA expanding the investigation? For one, the head investigator with the Oakland Police Department has a prior friendship with Bey. But that's just the start of it.
ROTC is an effective military recruitment tool - in large part because it is often institutionalized as a physical education class and students across the country are often assigned to ROTC involuntarily. But ROTC is much more than physical fitness. The uniforms, wooden rifles and study of war are part and parcel of this program that promotes military and war in the curriculum. It's been an issue in the San Francisco public schools, and this story gives the latest. The school board divorced PE credits from the ROTC program, which is fitting. Read on: http://www.beyondchron.org/news/index.php?itemid=5818#more School Board Removes P.E. Credit
Join me Thursday, June 26th at 7pm at USF's McLaren Hall with the accomplished poets, novelists and essayist of this year's Voices of Our Nation Foundation summer writers' workshop. I have the honor of hosting this evening, which features Faith Adiele, Ruth Forman, Thomas Glave, Gregory Allen Howard, Diem Jones, Elmaz Abinader with musician Tony Kalife. More info at www.voicesatvona.org.
...a wonderful group of 4th and 5th graders from Joaquin Miller Elementary School in Oakland, CA had a field trip to the KPFA studios this week. I stopped my pre-production scurrying to describe to the students all the action behind the scenes during our live morning shows. These kids are radio producers and personalities in their own right already, thanks to an innovative program the school offers. You can hear their work on their website.