UCAN

Faulconer and DeMaio question the department's $2.8 million in bonuses, after a city audit finds that the department overstated savings by $10.7 million.

See Channel 10's reporting on this:

http://www.10news.com/news/22416166/detail.html

Returning Time Warner equipment is an unreasonably time-consuming process.   So UCAN claimed in a late December 2009 letter written to the cable company.   Four times in 2009, a UCAN staffer went to Time Warner Cable offices on Ware Ct. to return a set-top box and was assaulted by 30-60 minutes waits just to return the equipment.  Just to return a set-top box!    So when we wrote to bring Time Warner's attention to this Kafka-like circumstance, the company was in full denial mode.

Time Warner's attorney wrote "Contrary to your statement in your letter, the equipment return process is not an unreasonably time-consuming process.   In fact, there is little effort required by the subscriber.   When a subscriber goes to the local office, it is not customary for waits to be lengthy."

To add insult to injury,  Time Warner's customer service staffers wouldn't accept the set-top box without being given the last four numbers of the subscribers Social Security number.   Even if the account had already been canceled by the subscriber, the staff insisted that this Social Security number was required for them to accept the equipment.  

If you tried to return equipment to Time Warners' business offices in 2009, or even 2010, let us know whether you encountered long lines or unreasonable policies.  



Silence of the media

If ignorance is bliss then local news consumers are in nirvanna!

It isn't every day that a group of highly respected politicians agrees to name a specific day of the year* after an important institution like UCAN, yet that's exactly what happened last Tuesday, when the San Diego County Board of Supervisors unanimously proclaimed that January 26, shall forever be considered "UCAN DAY" in San Diego County. 

I've written elsewhere why "UCAN DAY" should immediately be proclaimed a Federal holiday, yet for some reason, the mainstream media has been strangely silent on this vital topic. Not a single word has been written in the Union Tribune, or the North County Times.  Nor can one fail to note the conspicuous absence of coverage by Martin Bashir or Cynthia McFadden on ABC's Nightline, which opted to focus on the John Edwards sex scandal instead.

Perhaps more troubling, our researchers have scoured the local TV news stations and the entire Internet for at least one mention of UCAN Day in the popular media, and none - not even one - has mentioned this seminal event.  Instead they have regaled the viewers of San Diego with predigested video pablum - a starvation diet of the trivial, the mundane, the bloody, and the absurdly sexual.  

If you have experienced the same thing - what journalist Daniel Schorr* called "the narrow funnel of the mainstream media" you are not alone. But unlike Daniel Schorr, who lacked viable alternative media outlets during his long career, you have choices: You can use new media to get your news and creative works exposed to a vast international audience.

And that is precisely why UCAN's New Media Rights project is so vitally important. New Media Rights was formed in 2007 to help users of alternative media become more proficient with new technologies, the law, and the concept of citizen journalism.

As the "old media" landscape of TV, radio, and newspapers begins to wither away, new media is creating dazzling opportunities for ordinary people to create and publish their own messages and artistic works without interference or censorship from government, the authorities, TV producers, or newspaper editors.

New Media Rights offers equipment, expertise and even a studio for local San Diego residents who want to get the word out. 

So if you have a worthy project, creative effort, or message that you think other people should know about, then consider visiting New Media Rights - it can give you access to the tools you need to produce, edit, and publish your own work.  And if you ask for it, they'll even help with practical advice on how to avoid getting sued.

Don't let the mainstream media muzzle your message.

Check out UCAN's New Media Rights today. And if you like what they are doing to protect your right to express yourself, you might even want to send them a few bucks to show your support. 

* Okay, we admit that politicians perform this or similar rituals on a near-daily basis, but the operative word is respected politicians.
** Daniel Schorr was fired from CBS news for publishing the Pike Report, a secret government document in what was then considered alternative media - the Village Voice. Schorr selected the Voice because he feared that CBS news would censor his report which detailed illegal domestic spying programs by the CIA and FBI during the Nixon Administration.

Today, when I read the report that Howard Zinn died, I gasped. Many times our most beloved heroes seem immortal and Howard had an energy and way of communicating that is absolutely timeless. His words and message will never die. Howard was a real progressive, a man who spoke of change and took the veil off our society which so often blankets our understanding of the truth. Most of us were introduced to him through his classic work “A People’s History of the United States”, which changed the way we look at history in America. "The People's History" was written a quarter of a century ago, sold over a million copies and sells more copies each successive year.

On the night of the President's State of Union, going through Howard's work and reflecting on it seems much more productive than listening and watching corporation's televised P.R. spin. The President, some might say the most powerful man on earth, spoke about issues during what seems to me to be one of the most crucial and dire times in history. You would think someone who monitors a lot of foreign relations news, political and media news, and the politics of media news, would be glued to the TV. Howard's message of engagement, civil disobedience and community is much more real and heartfelt than anything Obama could say from a teleprompter. Howard said:

"Everything we do is important. Every little thing we do, every picket line we walk on, every letter we write, every act of civil disobedience we engage in, any recruiter that we talk to, any parent that we talk to, any GI that we talk to, any young person that we talk to, anything we do in class, outside of class, everything we do in the direction of a different world is important, even though at the moment they seem futile, because that’s how change comes about. Change comes about when millions of people do little things, which at certain points in history come together, and then something good and something important happens."

Howard didn't ask us to volunteer once a year, serve our country by picking up arms or vote once in a blue moon. He asked us to participate daily. He asked us to engage with our community. He wanted us to never give up hope on ourselves. One of the saddest things about Obama's campaign is that he campaigned using the word "hope". This was intentional, as all campaigns and State of the Union addresses are. Words are used to uplift, instill fear, bring excitement, make people feel connected to their country, make people feel suspicious of their neighbors, these and many other things are captured in speeches and lectures. Just because Obama hasn't become the President we hoped in the past year, does not mean our hope should whither, we can't let a campaign define what hope in America means to us.

But Howard really meant it, he asked us never to give up in finding the truth and reiterated time and time again that it was vital we find truth for ourselves, hold media accountable and understand that a journalists role is to be at the watchdog, all the while telling us that our watchdogs had been asleep on the watch. Howard encouraged us to relearn history, to learn from the past and to grow our understanding of the world. He said, "And the question is, why still did the people believe what they read in the press, and why did they believe what they saw on television? And I would argue that it has something to do with a loss of history, has something to do with, well, what Studs Terkel called “national amnesia,” either the forgetting of history or the learning of bad history". We need to relearn our history outside of schools, learn it for ourselves.

Every society needs it's heroes, we all search for our heroes because we want to look up to, emulate and define ourselves through others. We need to see that we are the heroes we are looking for and not take this short life and the energy we have for granted. Everyday receiving our news from independent news sources and asking the question "Why is this newscaster saying this? Who benefits from this kind of speech? Is there a conflict of interests with their sponsors? Does this speech induce hate, fear, or engagement with life and community?". We must critically evaluate society's elite, appointed, fake heroes (news pundits, politicians who would rather spend the time lining their pockets and finding campaign contributions then working for the public interest). We must be awaken to the truth that it is only our own might, our own vigilance that will change this country. We must be unified and we must be smart and compassionate in how we organize so we can truly receive the change that we are looking for. For many of us, Howard Zinn's legacy is a strong reminder that we need to look no further than our own hearts and minds to see the possibilities of a dynamic shift for the better.