FFCF News and Articles

 

::-:: US student loses free speech case - A former high school student has lost his case in what is the US Supreme Court's first major ruling on students' free speech rights in almost 20 years. At issue was whether a school principal violated a student's right to free speech by suspending him for displaying a banner reading "Bong Hits 4 Jesus". Joseph Frederick ...

::-:: High Court Rules on Campaign Ads, Free Speech - The Supreme Court issued a series of rulings on Monday, deciding on issues as wide ranging as campaign advertising and free speech to separation of church and state and the environment. The court said ordinary taxpayers cannot challenge a White House initiative that ...

 

-::-The Terrestrial Gospel of Kazantzakis: Inspiration for Saving the Earth - “Good is this earth, it suits us” -Thanasis Maskaleris - Abstract - The terrestrial dimension in the work of Kazantzakis, crowned by the paeans he sang to the infinite beauty of the earth and to the human life rooted in the soil, is as intensely depicted as his momentous struggle to achieve spiritual ascent. Scattered in his writings we find innumerable passages on the fundamental importance of the material realm combined with his humanistic commitment to mankind's terrestrial habitat—to live and "flower" in it; and his spiritual growth, the ascent, is crucially linked with and depends on the material base.  More >>>

 

 

AMY GOODMAN: NBC takes a swipe at democracy : -- One pundit called the Democratic presidential debate in Las Vegas "a lovefest." It may well have been, but only because the corporate sponsor of the debate, General Electric-owned NBC News and its cable news channel MSNBC, rescinded its invitation to candidate Dennis Kucinich. NBC decided earlier to invite the top four Democratic candidates to the debate. Then New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson dropped out of the race, which elevated Kucinich to the fourth position.

 

AMY GOODMAN: FCC gives a Christmas gift to big media ---- On Dec. 18, the five commissioners of the Federal Communications Commission met in Washington, D.C., and passed, by a 3 to 2 vote, new regulations that would allow more media consolidation. This, despite the U.S. public's increasing concern over the nation's media being controlled by a few giant corporations. Dissident FCC Commissioner Michael Copps said of the decision: "We generously ask big media to sit on Santa's knee, tell us what it wants for Christmas, and then push through whatever of these wishes are politically and practically feasible. No test to see if anyone's been naughty or nice. Just another big, shiny present for the favored few who already hold an FCC license -- and a lump of coal for the rest of us. Happy holidays!"

 

 

-::- KFCF: 30-Years of Alternative Programming - On June 9, 1975, the following announcement was reverberating throughout the Central Valley: “The signal of Pacifica Radio station, KPFA in Berkeley, can now be heard in the Central Valley.” It was a momentous development: a radio station that was listener-sponsored and not influenced by corporate advertisers or government funding. It would be the ...