No doubt, we have bigger issues in October 2008 to take on than snowboards with naked women on them.
This line of Burton boards though, is made in our backyard.

Do naked women need to be on snowboards for the ride down the mountain to be fun?
Do young men need to have snowboards with graphics on them that perpetuate the objectification and marginalization of women on them in order to really enjoy their day on the mountain?

Burton is hiding behind the disclaimer that "two professional riders requested these boards" and they are just honoring their requests. Does this mean that if two professional snowboarders requested a line of boards with bloddied women's faces on them that they would honor those requests as well?

Burton Love Series Snowboard Description:
Hi. My name is Love™ and I’m on the market for someone who’s looking to score serious action, no matter where they like to stick it. I enjoy laps through the park; long, hard grinds on my meaty Park Edges followed by a good, hot waxing. Whether you’re hitting it from the front or the back, my mid wide shape, supple flex, and twin tips like it kinky. Keegan and Mikkel love riding me, I hope you will too"

We can enjoy alpine recreation without graphic photos and violent language.

Call or email Burton at info@burton.com, 1-877-313-1977, to say this product line should be pulled, that it is offensive and is totally unnecessary.

October is DOMESTIC VIOLENCE AWARENESS MONTH. We can send a message to Burton that their boards and their entire Love line perpetuates violence against women and is not tolerated.
The world Health Organizations report on violence against women at
http://www.who.int/gender/violence/en/ . These statistics are real and have direct connections to media, marketing and advertising. To exempt oneself under the cover of creative freedom is lazy and dangerous. When young men are encouraged to be "hitting it from the front or the back," by a company they respect, they can't help but translate that image to the real women and girls in their lives. Bodies of data prove this, our media saturated culture helps build our image of the world around us.

Call or email Burton at info@burton.com, 1-877-313-1977, to say this product line should be pulled, that it is offensive and is unnecessary.

The Machine Gun and The Meeting Table: Bolivian Crisis in a New South America

By Benjamin Dangl
On Monday, September 15, Bolivian President Evo Morales arrived in Santiago, Chile for an emergency meeting of Latin American leaders that convened to seek a resolution to the recent conflict in Bolivia. Upon his arrival, Morales said, "I have come here to explain to the presidents of South America the civic coup d'etat by Governors in some Bolivian states in recent days. This is a coup in the past few days by the leaders of some provinces, with the takeover of some institutions, the sacking and robbery of some government institutions and attempts to assault the national police and the armed forces."

Morales was arriving from his country where the smoke was still rising from a week of right-wing government opposition violence that left the nation paralyzed, at least 30 people dead, and businesses, government and human rights buildings destroyed. During the same week, Morales declared US ambassador in Bolivia Philip Goldberg a "persona non grata" for "conspiring against democracy" and for his alleged ties to the Bolivian opposition. The recent conflict in Bolivia and the subsequent meeting of the heads of state raise the questions: What led to this meltdown? Whose side is the Bolivian military on? And what does the Bolivian crisis and regional reaction tell us about the new power bloc of South American nations?
Full article, photos here: http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1478/1/

Benjamin Dangl is the author of The Price of Fire: Resource Wars and Social Movements in Bolivia (AK Press), and is the editor of TowardFreedom.com, a progressive perspective on world events, and UpsideDownWorld.org, a website covering activism and politics in Latin America.
Email: BenDangl(at)gmail.com

Republican National Convention 2008

Media workers and activists are being scooped off the streets of in St.Paul, Minneapolis. More than 300 people have been arrested and detained.

8 organizers from the RNC Welcoming Committee, a group of activists facilitating actions around the RNC, have been arrested and face felony charges of "Conspiracy to Riot and Furtherance Terrorism". If found guilty they will face up to 7 1/2 years in prison. The 8 activists were among others arrested when Ramsey county police surrounded a house with M16 rifles and riot gear and proceeded to search and arrest the citizens. The search warrant indicated that they were looking for "bomb making material" such as card board, plastic bottles and twine. Police took laptops, cameras, notepads and other personal belongings.
This is the first such charge ever to be made in Minnesota. Police learned about activities by admittedly spying and infiltrating the group over the past year with an undercover cop and informants posing as a member of the group.


Here is a Copy of Affidavit Used in RNC-WC Raids

The New York City based media group I-Witness has been under watch and harassment of Ramsey county riot cops. Their rented house has been searched twice, their workers have been detained. Police also surrounded their workspace on a bogus claim that hostages were barricaded inside their building. I-Witness acts as a media watchdog for police misconduct towards citizens.

You can watch video of the first preemptive raid here


Philadelphia based Associated Press photographer, Matt Rourke, and three Democracy Now! producers, Nicole Salazar, Sharif Abdel Kouddous, and Amy Goodman are among the many media workers taken off the streets while peacefully doing their job.

You can contact the following offices and demand the immediate release of media workers. Demand that the county attorney's office not press charges against media workers.
Demand that felony charges be dropped for members of the RNC Welcoming Committee.

Chris Coleman, St. Paul Mayor: 651.266.8510
or Chris Rider from Mayor Coleman's office at 651-266-8535
Ramsey County Jail at 651-266-9350 (press extension 0)
Ramsey County Sheriff: 651.487.5149
Ramsey County Attorney Susan Gaertner 651-266-3222

Sign the petition below to make August 6 National Nuclear Disarmament Day and please encourage others to do the same.
http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/nucleardisarmamentday

Burlington WILPF, Women's International League for Peace and Freedom, made history on August 6, 2008 in Burlington, Vermont by initiating and observing the first Nuclear Disarmament Day in The US.http://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gif

We are circulating a petition to Congress to make August 6th a national day of remembrance as Nuclear Disarmament Day

We will be going to Washington, DC on September 15 to lobby and bring the signed petitions to Congress.

Please sign the petition online by clicking on the address below and please encourage others to do the same.
http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/nucleardisarmamentday/

The anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima, August 6 and Nagasaki, August 9 are remembered this year in Burlington Vermont in a city wide declaration. Burlington City Declares August 6 - Nuclear Disarmament Day.
This is the first such day to exist in the United States.
With awareness and energy perhaps citizens around the country will compel their local leaders to do the same.
The bombs were dropped 63 years ago. The world needs to learn from history. Nuclear weapons do not lead to world peace.
Today, now more than ever, we need to pressure the Department of Energy, the Administration, our local officials and spur dialog in our communities to stop the proliferation of nuclear weapons and to honor the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty.

In an interview with YES! Magazine, former Secretary of State, member of the Reagan cabinet, George Shultz explains why he believes nuclear abolition is possible, and what can be done to make a nuclear-free world a reality.
http://www.yesmagazine.org/article.asp?id=2692

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Burlington Telecom (BT), A local municipal cable provider started carrying the station a little over a year and a half ago.
In late May of this year BT said they would take AJE off the air due to an "inundation of phone calls" - the exact number of calls is unknow.
They have since said that the reasons for wanting to pull AJE off the air are due to "contractual issues".

BT advisory committees held a public forum in response to volumes of community input on June 10, 2008.
Over 50 people attended the meeting, 6 people spoke out in favor of removing AJE and over 35 spoke in favor of keeping it on the air.

In the interest of maintaining their space on the BT line up, AJE Managing Editor, Tony Burman and Military and Current Affairs Correspondent, Josh Rushing, visited Burlington to inform the community about AJE.

Governent Access Television Station CCTV, Channel 17 hosted them on June 11, 2008.

Here are excepts from the live show and public forum -

To watch the Full live program you can go to cctv.org

Burlington Telecom will come to a decision on whether to pull AJE or keep it on the air by June 17th.

Bill Moyers questioned by O'Reilly Factor Fox News Producer at the National Conference for Media Reform. June 7, 2008.
Taped by Sam Mayfield, CCTV.

Al Jazeera English on Burlington Telecom

The proposed pulling of Al Jazeera English Network from the Burlington Telecom lineup has created fanfare in recent weeks in the Burlington, Vermont Community.

It is revolutionary that we have a local municipal outlet for cable in our small city. At this hour in telecommunication history it is more important than ever to have diversity in our cable providers and in the content we view, listen to and read.

Such diversity exists with Burlington Telecom (BT) and indeed this diversity is exactly why it stands to do so well in our community. BT is one of two cable providers in the United States that airs Al Jazeera English Network (AJE). At a time when our news is delivered to us through corporate filters providing us with less and less information we are obligated to seek alternative sources for news. While AJE surely pushes its own agenda, it indeed gives us world news that is entirely unavailable on other platforms. A media without diversity does not strengthen our democracy or our community.

Burlington residents support BT because we support local businesses, we can see programming that it absolutely not available on satellite or corporate cable outlets, we can request programming and, by investing in this municipality, we get to invest in our own community.

The municipality is accountable to its committees, made up of community members. The decision to pull the network was made by one man without consulting the Cable Advisory Committee or the Telecommunications Advisory Committee. There is a glitch in their system if they have these committees intact and still one person was able to make this decision unilaterally.

Per Mayor Kiss’ request, both committees met May 27th to hear one minute testimonials from citizens. They will hold a public forum Wed. June 10th to hear all public comments.

BT television carriage policy clearly states: “All decisions of channel carriage are ultimately conditioned by cost, demand, and value”.

Al Jazeera English (AJE) network does not cost Burlington Telecom money, thus it does not cost subscribers money. When AJE first approached BT with the prospect of airing their station, BT looked at the vitals to determine feasibility – does it cost money, are channels available so it does not take the place of other programming, and they considered the content of the station. They found that it is free and that the content of the station is entirely within the framework of what is deemed appropriate programming. And since there are more than a 1,000 channels available on BT, it is not taking the place of say MTV, The History Channel or a local access station.
The venue existing here for alternative media is gorgeous and rare. Now more than ever we need to let Burlington Telecom know how invested we are in local businesses and diversity in our media. We need to let them know that pulling AJE from their lineup perpetuates the bias and lack of diversity rampant in corporate media. We can have something better in Burlington.

You can send an email to www.burlingtontelecom.net. Click on Contact BT. Or, send in a letter in care of Burlington Telecom to 200 Church Street, Burlington, VT 05401 to

For more news on the story - http://tinyurl.com/6avvbv
http://muckraker-gg.blogspot.com/2008/05/burlington-debates-dropping-al-jazeera.html

Interview with Amy Goodman

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Occupying General Dynamics, May 1, 2008. Burlington, Vt.