15331 ª March 6 9:54 PM. Gambia for the People Two guys I know, using affordable (and easily transported) technology, have gone from our island in Maine to Gambia, West Africa the last two winters to play, promote, and help preserve traditional music. Rock stars have sold out, local radio is a joke, and big-label/commercial music is doomed, but these two are doing good things. Any inspiring independent music projects in your part of the globe? [MetaFilter]

Dave Gilden is doing something similar. He runs Cora Connection, which specializes in kora music (a 21-string west African harp). He spends a lot of time in Gambia, working with local musicians, including the late Amadou Bansang Jobarteh, one of the greatest masters of the kora. He also imports instruments, offers lessons, and visits schools.

NY Times: Intercepted Al Qaeda E-Mail Is Said to Hint at Regrouping. “Senior counterterrorism officials said that Al Qaeda’s effort to rebuild itself outside Afghanistan appeared to rely heavily on the Internet for communications among highly mobile operatives, who often check their messages in public Internet cafes around the world, making them difficult to track.” [Jake’s Radio ‘Blog]

Nat Hentoff: “The press ought to awaken the citizenry not only to the FBI’s harvesting lists of what ‘suspect’ Americans read, but also to the judicial silencing of bookstores and libraries that are being compelled to betray the privacy and First Amendment rights of readers.”  [Scripting News]

The government continues to chip away at the constitution and nobody seems to care

He knows what you’ve been checking out. The USA PATRIOT act gives the government broad new powers to seize library and bookstore records — and prevents librarians and booksellers from

complaining. [Salon.com]

Morons in the News: Detestable and Abominable. These are the words that Alabama State Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore uses to describe the homosexuals he wishes to incarcerate and execute, but the same words can be used to describe him… [Morons Dot Org]

Sheesh! We still have idiots like that running things. Truly sad.

Time To Call Microsoft’s Bluff. Microsoft has threatened that if it is forced to remove Internet Explorer from Windows

2000 and Windows XP, it will have to take those operating systems off the market

and will be unable to produce any new versions. [osOpinion]

15289 ª March 5 12:05 PM. “Let us pray that our country will stop this war.” From a recent speech by U.S. Congressman Dennis Kucinich of Ohio: “We did not authorize the administration to wage war anytime, anywhere, anyhow it pleases. We did not authorize war without end. We did not authorize a permanent war economy. We did not authorize an eye for an eye. Nor did we ask that the blood of innocent people, who perished on Sept. 11, be avenged with the blood of innocent villagers in

Afghanistan.”

Amen. [MetaFilter]

Private Citizens Required to Enforce Laws. Lately the Police in Austin, Texas have found a new way to trample on civil liberties, inspired by the success of their colleagues in Florida and Louisiana. In an effort to crack down on drug use associated with the electronic music scene, they have forced venue owners and production crews to enforce drug laws at their events using methods that would be illegal if used by police themselves. [kuro5hin.org]

Ballmer: Sanctions would ruin Windows. Microsoft’s CEO says the company would have to withdraw Windows from the market if a federal court approves sanctions sought by nine of the states in the antitrust case. [CNET News.com]

That sounds like a good thing to me. We’d be much better off without a buggy, unreliable OS dominating the market. Let’s have some real competition in the field. Who says we’re better off with Windows? Let’s hope this really does happen.

The Quest for Acclaim – Boy And His Mother Cheat And Fake SAT Results To Get Into University [Plastic]

This is really sad. His mother should face charges for exploiting him like that.