response 6 of 99:

Apr 13 17:41 UTC 2001

Not at all. i in #3 suggested that #0 contained some threats from
the FCC. It doesn't: the threats all come from Anderson. The FCC
is only stated to have said they will enforce the law. 

response 8 of 99:

Apr 13 19:19 UTC 2001

  "Patriots' Day"?  Who came up with that little bit of nauseatingly
  inappropriate marketing?

response 10 of 99:

Apr 13 22:02 UTC 2001

I wonder which country he thinks he lives in, since he clearly doesn't
think he lives in the same country as the FCC?

response 12 of 99:

Apr 13 22:16 UTC 2001

  re #10:  the letter-writer's refusal to recognize the legitimacy
  of the federal government is similar to the position of members
  of various far-right groups in the "posse comitatus" movement.
  Adherents generally claim not to recognize any government above a
  certain level (usually the county level, sometimes smaller, as with
  the Montana "Freemen" and their "Justus Township") and many proclaim
  themselves "sovereign citizens," claiming the right to issue their
  own idenfication and drivers' licenses, refusing to pay taxes to a
  federal government of a nation they claim not to be citizens of, etc..

  Some of the semantic shenanigans they engage in are fascinating,
  resulting in bizarrely contorted interpretations of the law and
  startling "conclusions" about the nature of the government and legal
  systems (such as the belief that courts which feature a fringe on
  the U.S. flag are actually courts operating under "admiralty law" and
  their decisions therefore null and void upon citizens not subject to
  said law..)  A lot of them use their bizarre (and discredited) legal
  reasoning to harass opponents and critics by doing things like filing
  liens against the critics' property, etc..  In some ways they're like
  a fundamentalist religious cult with a unique interpretation of 
  scripture, except that the "scriptures" they're interpreting are
  legal and historical documents.

response 14 of 99:

Apr 13 23:02 UTC 2001

There are a lot of pirate radio stations, and very few are associated with
gun nut cults.  I'm a bit of a fan of pirate radio, myself.

response 16 of 99:

Apr 14 01:25 UTC 2001

I've been wondering how much of a martyr Timothy McVeigh will be to
these people.  It strikes me as a peculiarly stupid decision of the
federal gov't to execute McVeigh - the sort of thing only a politician
would want to do.

response 18 of 99:

Apr 14 03:55 UTC 2001

Re: #4/5/6
I wasn't assuming much truth value in #0; just that there was a conflict
with the Feds and that said Feds were handling it in their usual way.

(I'd be surprised if the Feds were not somewhat selectively enforcing the
pirate radio laws against anti-government types - which might be illegal
*for the Feds*, and is certainly poor tactics.) 

Straight-forward law enforcement in this case seems about as likely to
inspire compliance with the law as shooting at groups of rock-throwing
Palestinians is to bring quick peace in the Middle East.  Is the law to
be enforced for its own sake, or is the actual goal compliance? 

response 20 of 99:

Apr 14 06:20 UTC 2001

What I hear about FCC enforcement of the law, at least in ham bands (such
as the 3860 they used), is that it is mostly pretty ordinary quacks, often
being obnoxious, using profane language, interfering with other hams, etc.
I think this is much more common than "pirate radio". It is interesing
that they moved off the ham bands - perhaps not to get the hams down on
them (in addition to the FCC)? The hams might conduct a midnight raid of
their own if they are stamped on... 

response 22 of 99:

Apr 14 18:44 UTC 2001

re #4 Rane it doesn't seem that cut and dried to me, what about the 1st
amendment right under the constitution of free speech?  According to a
long history of supreme court decisions the speech that should be given
the highest level of protection is unpopular political speech. I think
this station qualifies to the t under that criteria. 

While I may find many of the militias positions distasteful such as their
ties to "identity" racist Christian sects, and their anti environmental
positions, it is nonetheless the protection of their right of free speech
that also protects the right of free speech of alternative pirate radio
stations who I agree with such as "Radio Free Cascadia" in Eugene Oregon,
near where I live, that was recently shut down by the F.C.C.  It seems to
me that the answer to bad speech is more speech, not the government
censorship of shutting stations with unpopular opinions. 

Micro power stations should of course be prevented from interfering with
the broadcasts of other radio stations but I suspect that would come about
easily once licenses for micro power stations are made cheaply and easily
available.  I believe that at that point enforcement of F.C.C. laws would
be appropriate, however, at this point I think the F.C.C. laws are mainly
being used hassle micro power radio stations with unpopular opinions.  In
this case the first amendment right to free speech trumps any F.C.C.
regulations that are being used to suppress free speech. 

For more information on the struggles of micro power broadcasters see:
See Stephen Dunifers excellent site http://www.freeradio.org/
 

response 24 of 99:

Apr 14 19:28 UTC 2001

"'Identity' racist Christian sects?" what are those?

Radio and television broadcasts have long been held to different standards
than most speech.  There is nothing new there.

response 26 of 99:

Apr 14 21:23 UTC 2001

re #11:

Here's a bit of what I gleaned off the Net about Patriot's Day:

(from http://www.world.std.com/~adamg/patriotsday.html)
The shot heard 'round the world continues to reverbate. On the third 
Monday in April, Massachusetts and Maine celebrate Patriots Day in 
honor of the battles and skirmishes that began our fight for 
independence. This year, Patriots Day is April 16 - except in Concord, 
where they'll celebrate it on the real day: April 19. 

Yes, they take their Patriots Day seriously in Concord. On Patriots 
Day, troops of Minutemen assemble at dawn in Concord and surrounding 
towns to recreate the "line of march" to the Old North Bridge, 
Emerson's "rude bridge," where they face off in a gunbattle with a 
troop of Redcoats. 

===end quote===

Patriot's Day is also the day on which they run the Boston Marathon.

response 28 of 99:

Apr 15 00:43 UTC 2001

re #27 That would be true if micro power radio licenses were cheap and
easy to obtain as ought to be in the case in a democracy that has a right
to free speech.  That is not the case however, rado licenses are expensive
(tens of thousands of dollars?) and the amount of red tape required to get
a license is enormous.  Yes, station operators should be required to space
their stations so they don't interfere with other broadcasts, and the
transmitters ought to be certified so they don't drift or occupy excessive
bandwidth.  However that process of educating broadcasters could be made
as inexpensive and easy as obtaining a ham radio license which it is not
at this point.  The main purpose of current license esp after the telecom
deregulation act of 1996 has been to preserve market share for commercial
broadcasters and space for NPR and the the few other "acceptable"
alternatives.  This lack of media diversity ought to be troubling to
people who understand that true democracy only thrives when the diversity
of information available to people isn't censored by the government.

response 30 of 99:

Apr 15 02:37 UTC 2001

To make a difference to whome?  I would love to have a micro power station
in my community that focused on regional issues.  It seems to me that a vital
component of democracy is to have public forums to discuss local issues
ala the New England town meeting.  To my mind micro power radio is one of
those forums.