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Friday, June 19, 2009
WHITE CEILING WATCH
By BETTY PLEASANT, Contributing Editor
WHITE CEILING WATCH — The recent kidnapping by Somali pirates and the rescue of the Maersk Alabama ship Capt. Richard Phillips is so well known that the heroic episode will surely be recorded in American history. But there’s somebody else who needs to be remembered: The commander of the ship that saved Phillips. That would be Rear Admiral Michelle Howard, an African-American woman. Adm. Howard, who holds a master’s degree in military science arts and sciences from the Army’s Command and General Staff College, had received the assignment of leading the U.S. Navy’s counter-piracy task force just three days before the Maersk Alabama was attacked by Somali pirates.
Howard was the first in her 1992 U.S. Naval Academy class to reach the rank of admiral in 1999 and the first Black woman to command a Navy ship — the USS Rushmore. Adm. Howard’s task force operates with U.S. warships deployed to the Eastern Africa area as well as with those sent from allied nations. Before her present assignment, she was the senior military assistant to the secretary of the Navy. Remember the name: Adm. Michelle Howard.
Bon Jovi among those inducted in songwriters hall
NEW YORK – Jon Bon Jovi considers writing classic songs as a way of being remembered throughout time.
"It's the closest thing to immortality as we're ever gonna see here," he said.
There may be another way: the Songwriters Hall of Fame. And on Thursday night, the New Jersey rocker and his writing partner, Richie Sambora, joined Crosby, Stills & Nash for one of music's top honors.
Also honored at the induction ceremony, which represented the Songwriters Hall's 40th anniversary, was Jason Mraz, who was given the Hal David Starlight Award honoring a younger artist's promise. Mraz performed his hit single "I'm Yours" to the delight of the crowd of his more established peers.
"I believe in 20 years, or whatever, (he) is going to be in the Songwriters Hall of Fame," Rob Thomas said before the ceremony.
Other performers ranged from James Taylor to the cast of the recently revived "Hair," whose composers were also inducted.
Kara DioGuardi, the "American Idol" judge and songwriter, said the Songwriters Hall is important because composers still don't get enough recognition.
"A lot of the public still considers artists to be the only people that write their songs. They don't even think there could be another songwriter. They just think whoever is singing it, wrote it," she said.
Crosby, Stills & Nash, among the acts who wrote their own material, were inducted by singer-songwriter Taylor, who performed a medley of their hits.
"They speak for a generation. I know that sounds cliche, but it's really true," he said before the ceremony.
Clint Black honored the British songwriting team of Roger Cook and Roger Greenaway with their classic "Long Cool Woman in a Black Dress." The pair penned many hits, including "You've Got Your Troubles," "My Baby Loves Lovin'" and "Here Comes That Rainy Day Feeling Again." They also wrote the Coca-Cola jingle "I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing."
Chris Daughtry of the multiplatinum band Daughtry inducted Bon Jovi and Sambora Afterward, Bon Jovi, with Sambora on a double-neck guitar, performed "Wanted: Dead or Alive," one of Bon Jovi's many signature hits.
Earlier in the evening, Daughtry talked about the impact Bon Jovi had on his band.
"They're a huge influence on our career as songwriters, as performers, as people," he said.
Broadway was represented with two inductions: Stephen Schwartz, composer of the hit "Wicked," was inducted by Five for Fighting's John Ondrasik. Schwartz then performed a solo version of "Defying Gravity," the dynamic duet sung by the show's witches Elphaba and Glinda. It took on a much different demeanor with its creator's solitary voice.
The last induction of the evening went to Galt MacDermot, James Rado and Gerome Ragni, writers of the musical "Hair."
Marilyn McCoo and Billy Davis Jr., whose group, The Fifth Dimension, took "Aquarius/Let the Sun Shine In" to the top of the charts in 1969, were joined on stage by the current Broadway cast for a finale that brought the ceremony's approximately 1,000 guests to their feet
"It's the closest thing to immortality as we're ever gonna see here," he said.
There may be another way: the Songwriters Hall of Fame. And on Thursday night, the New Jersey rocker and his writing partner, Richie Sambora, joined Crosby, Stills & Nash for one of music's top honors.
Also honored at the induction ceremony, which represented the Songwriters Hall's 40th anniversary, was Jason Mraz, who was given the Hal David Starlight Award honoring a younger artist's promise. Mraz performed his hit single "I'm Yours" to the delight of the crowd of his more established peers.
"I believe in 20 years, or whatever, (he) is going to be in the Songwriters Hall of Fame," Rob Thomas said before the ceremony.
Other performers ranged from James Taylor to the cast of the recently revived "Hair," whose composers were also inducted.
Kara DioGuardi, the "American Idol" judge and songwriter, said the Songwriters Hall is important because composers still don't get enough recognition.
"A lot of the public still considers artists to be the only people that write their songs. They don't even think there could be another songwriter. They just think whoever is singing it, wrote it," she said.
Crosby, Stills & Nash, among the acts who wrote their own material, were inducted by singer-songwriter Taylor, who performed a medley of their hits.
"They speak for a generation. I know that sounds cliche, but it's really true," he said before the ceremony.
Clint Black honored the British songwriting team of Roger Cook and Roger Greenaway with their classic "Long Cool Woman in a Black Dress." The pair penned many hits, including "You've Got Your Troubles," "My Baby Loves Lovin'" and "Here Comes That Rainy Day Feeling Again." They also wrote the Coca-Cola jingle "I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing."
Chris Daughtry of the multiplatinum band Daughtry inducted Bon Jovi and Sambora Afterward, Bon Jovi, with Sambora on a double-neck guitar, performed "Wanted: Dead or Alive," one of Bon Jovi's many signature hits.
Earlier in the evening, Daughtry talked about the impact Bon Jovi had on his band.
"They're a huge influence on our career as songwriters, as performers, as people," he said.
Broadway was represented with two inductions: Stephen Schwartz, composer of the hit "Wicked," was inducted by Five for Fighting's John Ondrasik. Schwartz then performed a solo version of "Defying Gravity," the dynamic duet sung by the show's witches Elphaba and Glinda. It took on a much different demeanor with its creator's solitary voice.
The last induction of the evening went to Galt MacDermot, James Rado and Gerome Ragni, writers of the musical "Hair."
Marilyn McCoo and Billy Davis Jr., whose group, The Fifth Dimension, took "Aquarius/Let the Sun Shine In" to the top of the charts in 1969, were joined on stage by the current Broadway cast for a finale that brought the ceremony's approximately 1,000 guests to their feet
Jury rules against Minn. woman in download case
MINNEAPOLIS – A replay of the nation's only file-sharing case to go to trial has ended with the same result — a Minnesota woman was found to have violated music copyrights and must pay huge damages to the recording industry.
A federal jury ruled Thursday that Jammie Thomas-Rasset willfully violated the copyrights on 24 songs, and awarded recording companies $1.92 million, or $80,000 per song.
Thomas-Rasset's second trial actually turned out worse for her. When a different federal jury heard her case in 2007, it hit Thomas-Rasset with a $222,000 judgment.
The new trial was ordered after the judge in the case decided he had erred in giving jury instructions.
Thomas-Rasset sat glumly with her chin in hand as she heard the jury's finding of willful infringement, which increased the potential penalty. She raised her eyebrows in surprise when the jury's penalty of $80,000 per song was read.
Outside the courtroom, she called the $1.92 million figure "kind of ridiculous" but expressed resignation over the decision.
"There's no way they're ever going to get that," said Thomas-Rasset, a 32-year-old mother of four from the central Minnesota city of Brainerd. "I'm a mom, limited means, so I'm not going to worry about it now."
Her attorney, Kiwi Camara, said he was surprised by the size of the judgment. He said it suggested that jurors didn't believe Thomas-Rasset's denials of illegal file-sharing, and that they were angry with her.
Camara said he and his client hadn't decided whether to appeal or pursue the Recording Industry Association of America's settlement overtures.
Cara Duckworth, a spokeswoman for the RIAA, said the industry remains willing to settle. She refused to name a figure, but acknowledged Thomas-Rasset had been given the chance to settle for $3,000 to $5,000 earlier in the case.
"Since Day One we have been willing to settle this case and we remain willing to do so," Duckworth said.
In closing arguments earlier Thursday, attorneys for both sides disputed what the evidence showed.
An attorney for the recording industry, Tim Reynolds, said the "greater weight of the evidence" showed that Thomas-Rasset was responsible for the illegal file-sharing that took place on her computer. He urged jurors to hold her accountable to deter others from a practice he said has significantly harmed the people who bring music to everyone.
Defense attorney Joe Sibley said the music companies failed to prove allegations that Thomas-Rasset gave away songs by Gloria Estefan, Sheryl Crow, Green Day, Journey and others.
"Only Jammie Thomas's computer was linked to illegal file-sharing on Kazaa," Sibley said. "They couldn't put a face behind the computer."
Sibley urged jurors not to ruin Thomas-Rasset's life with a debt she could never pay. Under federal law, the jury could have awarded up to $150,000 per song.
U.S. District Judge Michael Davis, who heard the first lawsuit in 2007, ordered up a new trial after deciding he had erred in instructions to the jurors. The first time, he said the companies didn't have to prove anyone downloaded the copyrighted songs she allegedly made available. Davis later concluded the law requires that actual distribution be shown.
His jury instructions this time framed the issues somewhat differently. He didn't explicitly define distribution but said the acts of downloading copyrighted sound recordings or distributing them to other users on peer-to-peer networks like Kazaa, without a license from the owners, are copyright violations.
This case was the only one of more than 30,000 similar lawsuits to make it all the way to trial. The vast majority of people targeted by the music industry had settled for about $3,500 each. The recording industry has said it stopped filing such lawsuits last August and is instead now working with Internet service providers to fight the worst offenders.
In testimony this week, Thomas-Rasset denied she shared any songs. On Wednesday, the self-described "huge music fan" raised the possibility for the first time in the long-running case that her children or ex-husband might have done it. The defense did not provide any evidence, though, that any of them had shared the files.
The recording companies accused Thomas-Rasset of offering 1,700 songs on Kazaa as of February 2005, before the company became a legal music subscription service following a settlement with entertainment companies. For simplicity's sake the music industry tried to prove only 24 infringements.
Reynolds argued Thursday that the evidence clearly pointed to Thomas-Rasset as the person who made the songs available on Kazaa under the screen name "tereastarr." It's the same nickname she acknowledged having used for years for her e-mail and several other computer accounts, including her MySpace page.
Reynolds said the copyright security company MediaSentry traced the files offered by "tereastarr" on Kazaa to Thomas-Rasset's Internet Protocol address — the online equivalent of a street address — and to her modem.
He said MediaSentry downloaded a sample of them from the shared directory on her computer. That's an important point, given Davis' new instructions to jurors.
Although the plaintiffs weren't able to prove that anyone but MediaSentry downloaded songs off her computer because Kazaa kept no such records, Reynolds told the jury it's only logical that many users had downloaded songs offered through her computer because that's what Kazaa was there for.
Sibley argued it would have made no sense for Thomas-Rasset to use the name "tereastarr" to do anything illegal, given that she had used it widely for several years.
He also portrayed the defendant as one of the few people brave enough to stand up to the recording industry, and he warned jurors that they could also find themselves accused on the basis of weak evidence if their computers are ever linked to illegal file-sharing.
"They are going to come at you like they came at 'tereastarr,'" he said.
Steve Marks, executive vice president and general counsel of the Recording Industry Association of America, estimated earlier this week that only a few hundred of the lawsuits remain unresolved and that fewer than 10 defendants were actively fighting them.
The companies that sued Thomas-Rasset are subsidiaries of all four major recording companies, Warner Music Group Corp., Vivendi SA's Universal Music Group, EMI Group PLC and Sony Corp.'s Sony Music Entertainment.
The recording industry has blamed online piracy for declines in music sales, although other factors include the rise of legal music sales online, which emphasize buying individual tracks rather than full albums.
A federal jury ruled Thursday that Jammie Thomas-Rasset willfully violated the copyrights on 24 songs, and awarded recording companies $1.92 million, or $80,000 per song.
Thomas-Rasset's second trial actually turned out worse for her. When a different federal jury heard her case in 2007, it hit Thomas-Rasset with a $222,000 judgment.
The new trial was ordered after the judge in the case decided he had erred in giving jury instructions.
Thomas-Rasset sat glumly with her chin in hand as she heard the jury's finding of willful infringement, which increased the potential penalty. She raised her eyebrows in surprise when the jury's penalty of $80,000 per song was read.
Outside the courtroom, she called the $1.92 million figure "kind of ridiculous" but expressed resignation over the decision.
"There's no way they're ever going to get that," said Thomas-Rasset, a 32-year-old mother of four from the central Minnesota city of Brainerd. "I'm a mom, limited means, so I'm not going to worry about it now."
Her attorney, Kiwi Camara, said he was surprised by the size of the judgment. He said it suggested that jurors didn't believe Thomas-Rasset's denials of illegal file-sharing, and that they were angry with her.
Camara said he and his client hadn't decided whether to appeal or pursue the Recording Industry Association of America's settlement overtures.
Cara Duckworth, a spokeswoman for the RIAA, said the industry remains willing to settle. She refused to name a figure, but acknowledged Thomas-Rasset had been given the chance to settle for $3,000 to $5,000 earlier in the case.
"Since Day One we have been willing to settle this case and we remain willing to do so," Duckworth said.
In closing arguments earlier Thursday, attorneys for both sides disputed what the evidence showed.
An attorney for the recording industry, Tim Reynolds, said the "greater weight of the evidence" showed that Thomas-Rasset was responsible for the illegal file-sharing that took place on her computer. He urged jurors to hold her accountable to deter others from a practice he said has significantly harmed the people who bring music to everyone.
Defense attorney Joe Sibley said the music companies failed to prove allegations that Thomas-Rasset gave away songs by Gloria Estefan, Sheryl Crow, Green Day, Journey and others.
"Only Jammie Thomas's computer was linked to illegal file-sharing on Kazaa," Sibley said. "They couldn't put a face behind the computer."
Sibley urged jurors not to ruin Thomas-Rasset's life with a debt she could never pay. Under federal law, the jury could have awarded up to $150,000 per song.
U.S. District Judge Michael Davis, who heard the first lawsuit in 2007, ordered up a new trial after deciding he had erred in instructions to the jurors. The first time, he said the companies didn't have to prove anyone downloaded the copyrighted songs she allegedly made available. Davis later concluded the law requires that actual distribution be shown.
His jury instructions this time framed the issues somewhat differently. He didn't explicitly define distribution but said the acts of downloading copyrighted sound recordings or distributing them to other users on peer-to-peer networks like Kazaa, without a license from the owners, are copyright violations.
This case was the only one of more than 30,000 similar lawsuits to make it all the way to trial. The vast majority of people targeted by the music industry had settled for about $3,500 each. The recording industry has said it stopped filing such lawsuits last August and is instead now working with Internet service providers to fight the worst offenders.
In testimony this week, Thomas-Rasset denied she shared any songs. On Wednesday, the self-described "huge music fan" raised the possibility for the first time in the long-running case that her children or ex-husband might have done it. The defense did not provide any evidence, though, that any of them had shared the files.
The recording companies accused Thomas-Rasset of offering 1,700 songs on Kazaa as of February 2005, before the company became a legal music subscription service following a settlement with entertainment companies. For simplicity's sake the music industry tried to prove only 24 infringements.
Reynolds argued Thursday that the evidence clearly pointed to Thomas-Rasset as the person who made the songs available on Kazaa under the screen name "tereastarr." It's the same nickname she acknowledged having used for years for her e-mail and several other computer accounts, including her MySpace page.
Reynolds said the copyright security company MediaSentry traced the files offered by "tereastarr" on Kazaa to Thomas-Rasset's Internet Protocol address — the online equivalent of a street address — and to her modem.
He said MediaSentry downloaded a sample of them from the shared directory on her computer. That's an important point, given Davis' new instructions to jurors.
Although the plaintiffs weren't able to prove that anyone but MediaSentry downloaded songs off her computer because Kazaa kept no such records, Reynolds told the jury it's only logical that many users had downloaded songs offered through her computer because that's what Kazaa was there for.
Sibley argued it would have made no sense for Thomas-Rasset to use the name "tereastarr" to do anything illegal, given that she had used it widely for several years.
He also portrayed the defendant as one of the few people brave enough to stand up to the recording industry, and he warned jurors that they could also find themselves accused on the basis of weak evidence if their computers are ever linked to illegal file-sharing.
"They are going to come at you like they came at 'tereastarr,'" he said.
Steve Marks, executive vice president and general counsel of the Recording Industry Association of America, estimated earlier this week that only a few hundred of the lawsuits remain unresolved and that fewer than 10 defendants were actively fighting them.
The companies that sued Thomas-Rasset are subsidiaries of all four major recording companies, Warner Music Group Corp., Vivendi SA's Universal Music Group, EMI Group PLC and Sony Corp.'s Sony Music Entertainment.
The recording industry has blamed online piracy for declines in music sales, although other factors include the rise of legal music sales online, which emphasize buying individual tracks rather than full albums.
Thursday, June 18, 2009
Senate Apologizes For Slavery
All Things Considered, June 18, 2009 · The U.S. Senate apologized Thursday for slavery and for the segregationist Jim Crow laws, 144 years after the Civil War and 45 years after passing the Civil Rights Act.
The action came in a nonbinding resolution adopted unanimously by voice vote.
The Senate chamber was nearly empty as Iowa Democrat Tom Harkin rose to call for a measure that he said was long overdue for the descendants of 4 million blacks who were enslaved in the U.S.
"A national apology by the representative body of the people is a necessary collective response to a past collective injustice," Harkin said. "So, it is both appropriate and imperative that Congress fulfill its moral obligation and officially apologize for slavery and Jim Crow laws."
The resolution states the congressional apology is made to African-Americans on behalf of the people of the United States for "the wrongs committed against them and their ancestors." That is followed, however, by a disclaimer that says nothing in the resolution authorizes any claim against the United States.
Kansas Republican Sam Brownback, who co-sponsored the measure, says that disclaimer was necessary to win the support of senators who feared the apology could be used by African-Americans seeking reparations.
"It was a difficult negotiation," he says. "We had to get the reparation issue right."
Last year, the House passed a similar resolution, but without the reparations disclaimer.
New York Democratic Rep. Gregory Meeks, a member of the Congressional Black Caucus, says he isn't sure he supports the Senate's reparations disclaimer.
"If it ... can be construed to mean that ... it rules out [reparations], then that's a problem," Meeks says.
Tennessee Democrat Steve Cohen, who sponsored last year's House resolution, says he hopes the House passes the Senate's apology soon, but he wants it done by voice vote.
"This should be a congenial, kumbaya moment," he says. "A roll call could expose some fissures in what should be a cohesive spirit of apology and rectitude and more perfect union."
Friday, May 22, 2009
Green Day lashes out at Wal-Mart policy
Green Day has the most popular CD in the country, but you won't be able to find it at your local Wal-Mart.
The band says the giant superstore chain refused to stock its latest CD, "21st Century Breakdown," because Wal-Mart wanted the album edited for language and content, and they refused..
"Wal-Mart's become the biggest retail outlet in the country, but they won't carry our record because they wanted us to censor it," frontman Billie Joe Armstrong said in a recent interview..
While Wal-Mart sells CDs from acts known for raunchy content, including Eminem's latest, they offer customers the "clean" version of those CDs, which are edited for content that may be objectionable. But in Armstrong's view, "There's nothing dirty about our record.".
.
"They want artists to censor their records in order to be carried in there," he said. "We just said no. We've never done it before. You feel like you're in 1953 or something."
"21st Century Breakdown" contains curses and some references considered adult..
Wal-Mart said that it's the company's long-standing policy not to stock any CD with a parental advisory sticker..
"As with all music, it is up to the artist or label to decide if they want to market different variations of an album to sell, including a version that would remove a PA rating," Wal-Mart spokeswoman Melissa O'Brien said. "The label and artist in this case have decided not to do so, so we unfortunately can not offer the CD.".
But bassist Mike Dirnt said: "As the biggest record store in the America, they should probably have an obligation to sell people the correct art.".
Not being sold at Wal-Mart didn't stop the band — which kicks off a U.S. tour summer tour in Seattle on July 3 — from landing at the top of the album charts this week. "21st Century Breakdown" sold about 215,000 copies since it's debut on Friday..
The album is the follow-up to their multiplatinum, Grammy-winning CD "American Idiot," and like that album, deals with weighty topics. While "American Idiot" spoke to the frustration over the presidency of George W. Bush and the Iraq War, this CD speaks to the loss of innocence and confusion in today's society..
While Armstrong, Dirnt and drummer Tre Cool are still top-sellers without Wal-Mart, Armstrong said the store's policy is disappointing, considering it has become the dominant seller of CDs with the decline of traditional music stores..
"If you think about bands that are struggling or smaller than Green Day ... to think that to get your record out in places like that, but they won't carry it because of the content and you have to censor yourself," he said. "I mean, what does that say to a young kid who's trying to speak his mind making a record for the first time? It's like a game that you have to play. You have to refuse to play it."
The band says the giant superstore chain refused to stock its latest CD, "21st Century Breakdown," because Wal-Mart wanted the album edited for language and content, and they refused..
"Wal-Mart's become the biggest retail outlet in the country, but they won't carry our record because they wanted us to censor it," frontman Billie Joe Armstrong said in a recent interview..
While Wal-Mart sells CDs from acts known for raunchy content, including Eminem's latest, they offer customers the "clean" version of those CDs, which are edited for content that may be objectionable. But in Armstrong's view, "There's nothing dirty about our record.".
.
"They want artists to censor their records in order to be carried in there," he said. "We just said no. We've never done it before. You feel like you're in 1953 or something."
"21st Century Breakdown" contains curses and some references considered adult..
Wal-Mart said that it's the company's long-standing policy not to stock any CD with a parental advisory sticker..
"As with all music, it is up to the artist or label to decide if they want to market different variations of an album to sell, including a version that would remove a PA rating," Wal-Mart spokeswoman Melissa O'Brien said. "The label and artist in this case have decided not to do so, so we unfortunately can not offer the CD.".
But bassist Mike Dirnt said: "As the biggest record store in the America, they should probably have an obligation to sell people the correct art.".
Not being sold at Wal-Mart didn't stop the band — which kicks off a U.S. tour summer tour in Seattle on July 3 — from landing at the top of the album charts this week. "21st Century Breakdown" sold about 215,000 copies since it's debut on Friday..
The album is the follow-up to their multiplatinum, Grammy-winning CD "American Idiot," and like that album, deals with weighty topics. While "American Idiot" spoke to the frustration over the presidency of George W. Bush and the Iraq War, this CD speaks to the loss of innocence and confusion in today's society..
While Armstrong, Dirnt and drummer Tre Cool are still top-sellers without Wal-Mart, Armstrong said the store's policy is disappointing, considering it has become the dominant seller of CDs with the decline of traditional music stores..
"If you think about bands that are struggling or smaller than Green Day ... to think that to get your record out in places like that, but they won't carry it because of the content and you have to censor yourself," he said. "I mean, what does that say to a young kid who's trying to speak his mind making a record for the first time? It's like a game that you have to play. You have to refuse to play it."
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