I have neglected to mention that the thing I use my DSL for more than anything else is to listen to the progressive-slanted news program, Democracy Now!. The college radio station plays it every morning at 7am, but I don't like to get up that early if I can help it, so I usually listen via the Internet a few hours later. I listen every day, if I can find the time. I usually do yoga and shave while listening to it. Sometimes I watch the streaming video as well. It used to look like a slide show, with a new still image every 30 seconds or so. Now they're apparently using a new compression setting in which I can see Amy's lips moving and her eyes blinking, but in which the picture is distorted such that it resembles cubist painting. I have only found it boring occasionally. A lot of the rest of the time I'm engrossed, and sometimes even transfixed. I find very little of the knee-jerk leftism that turns me off when I listen to Free Speech Radio News. The interviews often go fairly deep into an issue, and there's a good level of integrity: they even grilled Dennis Kucinich. I like the show because it hits hard against Bush, Kerry, the war, corporations, and domestic repression. Or only just begins. If the Green Party had a news program, it would be like this. Amy Goodman, the host of the program, was in Eugene tonight to give a speech and promote her new book, The Exception to the Rulers. I thought myself too poor to shell out 10 bucks for the ticket, so ironically, I chose to watch the show for free on closed-circuit TV in the overflow room. I had seen Amy Goodman in person twice before. The first time was in 1991 at Brown University when she spoke along with Alan Nairn about the massacre they witnessed in East Timor. Then I saw her again at a screening of Manufacturing Consent: Noam Chomsky and the Media somewhere in Long Island in 1992. After the movie, I went up to her and told her how I had fashioned a homemade bumper sticker to promote her Left-leaning radio station, WBAI, and I asked her if there were more effective ways to spread the word about WBAI that I could plug into. To my surprise, she asked me for my address and phone number, and said she would get in touch with me about it. But she never did. Tonight, when she concluded her talk, I moseyed over to the building she was in, hoping I might get to ask her something in person. Strangely, she took no audience questions after her talk, and went immediately to the lobby to sign books. Last month, after his appearance on Anarcho-Primitivism Today, Conspiracy Man told me that the last time Amy Goodman was in town, he asked her to report on how on September 11th, 2001, the the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO), the federal agency that runs many of the nation's spy satellites, conducted a pre-planned simulation to explore the emergency response issues that would be created if a plane were to strike one of the agency's buildings. He said her response was stunned silence, and a look of fear in her eyes. He guessed that she was afraid of the repercussions that would befall her should she dared to tread journalistically into that area. I considered asking Amy to investigate that, or to investigate the more direct issue of why the Air Force and NORAD did not follow their routine procedures to scramble fighter jets in time to intercept the hijacked aircraft (there was plenty of time in which they could have done so). I opted not to because I did not have the facts and their sources memorized. Instead, I decided to address her statist thinking habits. I said in the best Nonviolent Communication I could muster, "Amy, I loved your speech. I was disappointed that you seemed to equate nations with the people living in those nations, like when you mentioned national security in a way that sounded like you meant the safety of the people living in America, and when you referred to the Republic of East Timor in a way that sounded synonymous with the people of East Timor. I would have liked to have more clarity, more of a distinction between the two. Would you be into doing that?" Amy responded in the affirmative. But can I trust her? Well, she didn't keep her word to me once before, but maybe she'll come through this time. I was not surprised to see Conspiracy Man and Conspiracy Woman (no relation) standing side by side next to the door distributing literature. Conspiracy Man was red in the face, livid with frustration that Democracy Now! has thus far never explored the possibility of intentional complicity within the US government in the September 11th attacks. He said that Amy has stopped taking questions at the end of her addresses specifically to avoid answering uncomfortable questions about 9-11. She muttered something noncommittal about how, yes, 9-11 should be investigated deeply. I ate some bread and broccoli and tofu dip that was on Amy's table. I don't know if that food was intended for the likes of me, or just for Amy and company, but I was really hungry. I then left and took the ten bucks I could have spent on the ticket and used it to buy some tortillas and salsa at Safeway instead.