the 941

This column by Amy Goodman will appear in next week’s Creative Loafing:

On Dec. 18, the five commissioners of the Federal Communications Commission met in Washington, D.C., and passed, by a 3-2 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!”

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Aw, Christ.

+ Manatee County: Sunbathing smokers’ new bestie. [ht]

+ Dickie V. is hurting. [espn]

+ Images of 2007. [reuters]

+ God, is Huckabee scary. [slog]

+ The Curse of Clemens continues. This is, by far, our favorite story ever. [nyt]

+ Bush announces plans to trim the country’s nuclear-weapon stockpile. How many do we have? Who knows — it’s classified. But whatever the number is, we’re cutting it down by 15 percent. Helpful information. [lat]

+ The good news? Trent Lott is leaving the Senate. The bad news? He’s leaving now so he can start lobbying earlier than he’d have to if he finished his term. [clarion-ledger]

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+ Inside Obama’s local fundraising network. (Michelle will be in town this afternoon.) [ht]

+ They caught the guys who started the wildfires in Southern California — looks like they were partying. [boston globe]

+ The top ten astronomy pics of 2007. Interesting even if you don’t understand astronomy whatsoever. [bad astronomy]

+ Got a ton of extra space on Gmail? Use it to store — and listen to — music. [lifehacker]

+ Finally, “Bears in ill-fitting hats.” Happy Friday. [flickr]

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We’ve only got the one today, but it’s a doozy, and we don’t care how unlikely/staged/wholly preposterous it sounds: Last weekend, a 5-year-old descdendant of Davy Crockett killed a 445-pound bear.

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Here’s “Stairway”:

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+ Gruden admits he was vague about Garcia’s status on purpose. And yes, we linked this story mostly so we could have an excuse to post that picture. [espn]
+ A local guy gets three years for one punch. Or at least one punch that anybody saw. Real strange story. [ht]
+ This Just In: The Republican candidates are not all that inspiring. [nyt]
+ Ask.com announces that you can erase your search data … right after they send it to Google, that is. [wsj]
+ Storytelling in the 21st Century: The Whale Hunt. Unbelievable. [the whale hunt]
+ Restaurant service in the 15th Century: 17-year-old, her mom and her guide dog kicked out of an Illinois TGI Friday’s. [awful marketing]
+ In case you missed it: CL layoff discussions here, here and here.

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This Sunday, Sarasota blows on up with the second annual Atomic Holiday Bazaar at the Municpal Auditorium. Funkstresses Cemantha Crain and Adrien Lucas comprise the brain-trust behind this thing, and clearly we’re into it: We’ve covered the alt-crafting bonanza here, here, and oh, here and here. But we’re not done. Not by a long shot.

Folks, this week’s episode of Sarasota Creative Loafing’s only podcast, W941, features Cooper Levey-Baker and his thoughts on, impressions of, feelings for, thesi concerning and moral objections to the Atomic Holiday Bazaar. Not listening? Not an option.

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Atomic 2.0 goes down from noon to 5 p.m. on Sunday. Photo, which we will absolutely never tire of, was taken by the illustrious Camille Pyatte in Dec. 2006. Oh, and please excuse our voice on the episode — we’re ill.

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+ “The Love Song of Dennis J. Kucinich.” Good read. [washington post]
+ Does Jeb’s new job break the rules? [ht]
+ Here’s something new: Airline travel’s as good as it’s ever been. Compelling argument, but we’re not sure we can take heed after sitting in Miami International for 10 — count ‘em, 10 — hours on Monday. Could’ve walked home. [nyt]
+ Romney tries to Kennedy it up. We’ll say this much: He’s certainly got an equal amount of charisma. [reuters]
+ Gas prices may dip … to still ridiculously high prices! Woo! [ht]
+ Teen pregnancies: On the rise for the first time in 15 years. God bless abstinence-only programs. [huffpo]

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As you may have heard, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission is considering — make sure you’re sitting down — reclassifying manatees from “endangered” to “threatened.” Apparently Manatees are no longer on the verge of extinction, the qualification for endangered status. Anonymous “Animal advocates,” according to the St. Petersburg Times story, say the new designation will send the wrong message to the public. The debate’s been a’ragin’ since September, but should get settled today.

The FWC has to play by the rules, we guess. As long as Snooty’s OK, so are we.

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This poll is currently up on heraldtribune.com. Think someone over there has a rooting interest in who’s awarded Heisman on Monday night?

We’re not saying the kid doesn’t deserve it — even if he does remind us a bit too much of Drago. But this poll seems, um, unscientific at best.

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