By the way, the conference was great, the Sheraton was great, but I don't much care if I ever see Atlanta again. Food and beverage are much too expensive, even by California standards, and the panhandlers on the street won't leave you alone. Oh, and the pikers want $8 for crappy wireless internet in the airport. That was the last straw for me. Internet access should be free in an airport, especially the "snail's pace" available in the Atlanta airport.

Right now, I'm in the Sacramento Airport (again) heading toward a video shoot in SoCal for the California Water Board. Stayed at the Vagabond Old Town last night. I love the location of this place and have stayed there several times, but my wife is right, it is really noisy there. I generally don't have issues with that sort of thing, but between the garbage trucks, sirens, trains and traffic, even I was annoyed.

I'll be in the Hyatt in Long Beach tonight...please God, let them have free wireless internet!

After three sessions yesterday, our group went out to dinner at a sushi place, which was a bit ironic, considering we came from California. Mine was a little under cooked (just kidding) I actually had a delicious Thai Chicken dish which was just spicy enough to suit my taste. After dinner we stopped off at the Hard Rock Cafe for souvenirs then we stumbled into an Irish Pub and watched Xavier beat Weat Virginia. There is a tasty local microbrew here called Sweetwater, their brown ale was good but not as good as Sierra Nevada's brown ale.

This morning I went to an early (7:30) session that was a roundtable discussion of legal issues associated with communty radio. Very interesting. Next I attended a session devoted to building audience, followed by a session about trends in radio audiences. After lunch I learned about interviewing for radio and the last session was about volunteer training programs.

In between the second and third paragraphs of this entry, we took a cab ride over to Glady's Night's Waffles and Chicken. It was damn good...now I have been to Atlanta.

I started out a bit bleary-eyed from jet lag this morning, thinking I had developed some kind of immunity to caffein. I nearly overslept and was late to the welcome and conference open. Stayed up too late because I wasn't sleepy, then couldn't get my sorry self out of bed in time to do anything but shower and wolf down some under done scrambled eggs for breakfast.

After the opening session my next stop was devoted to Financial Management and Budgeting for New Managers. Although I am not, and do not expect to be a manager, new or otherwise, I learned some things that will certainly help me be a nuisance as the KZFR budget committee begins meetings next week. Yes!

There was a fine lunch and I had a delightful conversation with a man from South Carolina who manages a Cool Jazz station, sponsored entirely by the B'hai Faith. What a great gig he has, great music, a positive message for listeners and no need to raise money. Vey nice man.

After lunch I attended a session devoted to updating the Corporation for Public Broadcasting's (CPB) latest activities. KZFR received its first CPB grant last year, and I found a great deal of the information very enlightening and encouraging at this session.

In the last session of the day I found myself the moderator. It was billed as a Solution's Center for Board Members and I think the people who attended thought that I might have some solutions to offer. They were nice enough to stick around for more of a comisserating session when they discovered that no oracle was included. It was very enjoyable connnecting with some board members from other stations.

Right now I'm waiting to gather with my Zephyr cohorts to share our respective days at the conference and to get some dinner. I'll share more tomorrow.

I have been an activist on progressive political, environmental and social issues in Chico and Butte County for about 25 years.

I have worked on the campaigns and provided financial support to each of the five progressive members of the City Council as well as the two Chico representatives on the Butte County Board of Supervisors.

I am a financial and philosophical supporter of the Butte Environmental Council, the Sacramento River Preservation Trust, The Nature Conservancy and the Peace and Social Justice Center.

I have been an active member of the Board of Directors of KZFR Community Radio for nearly four years and am currently the Chair of the Board of Directors.

I have been an adult leader for Cub Scouts and Boy Scouts for the past 11 years and my youngest son is on the verge of becoming an Eagle Scout.

I have had the honor of having numerous letters to the editor printed in the Chico ER, the Chico News and Review, the Chico Examiner and the Chico Beat since about 1995.

I have sustained a progressive political philosophy for the past 30 years and I believe that Barack Obama has the potential of substantially improving the direction of this nation if we can get him elected president.

If you have questions for me or would like to learn more about supporting me to become a delegate, please contact me at demdantodenver08@yahoo.com Thank you!

The social studies teacher was very articulate and able to readily identify the qualities in Clinton at the foundation of her support. The young person was not readily able to recite talking points and expressed herself more in relation to her emotions. Had this been a debate, the younger woman would have fared poorly against her elder.

As I think about it, I question NPR's judgement in pitting these two together for contrast with the younger person being so obviously out of her depth. At the same time I see legitimacy in it because it does represent, accurately I think, large segments of the two candidates respective supporters.

One of my top priorities of late has been working with my 17 year old son on organizing his Eagle Scout Project so that he can earn Boy Scouts' highest rank of Eagle before his birthday in May. He'll be making 40 Barn Owl Boxes for the Nature Conservancy. I'll be writing much more about this in the very near future. Maybe YOU would like to sponsor a barn owl box? It's a great project!

I am also a member of the Board of Directors of KZFR 90.1 Community Radio. Next month I will have the privilege of attending the National Federation of Community Broadcasters convention in Atlanta GA. I am a relatively new convert to community radio and I look forward to learning a lot and returning even more enthusiastic and motivated than I am. I also plan to blog here about the conference as well. KZFR's Spring Membership Drive is coming very soon...tune in and give us money!

Another exciting thing is the Democratic contest for the presidential nomination. I was very impressed with the way the Obama organization came together before the California Primary and I've become an Obama believer in that process. It is my intention to throw my hat in the ring to become an Obama delegate from the 2nd Congressional District, so I'll be writing more about that as the time for action draws near.

There's definitely more to come...thanks for checking out my blog.

http://www.americanprogressaction.org/progressreport?elq=C8C4D61144F94A7AB2F40EB5E52120A7

Playing The Fear Card Again

In late 2005, President Bush acknowledged that his administration had authorized a secret warrantless domestic surveillance program. The administration's program operated in violation of the Constitution's Fourth Amendment restriction against "unreasonable searches" without a warrant. It also violated of federal law -- the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) -- which makes it a crime to conduct electronic surveillance, except as "authorized by and conducted pursuant to a search warrant or court order." For the past two years, Congress has sought to rein in Bush's reckless disregard of the Constitution and the law. In early Aug. 2007, Congress unwisely passed a temporary expansion of FISA, called the Protect America Act (PAA), which provided virtually unchecked power to the administration to spy on American communications without warrants. Tomorrow, the unnecessary and dangerous powers given to the administration by Congress six months ago are set to expire.

Poetic justice: Limbaugh tries to tear GOP apart
By Eric Boehlert
Created Feb 13 2008 - 10:54am

Rush Limbaugh, the marauding Frankenstein's monster of the Republican Party, is on the loose again, causing all kinds of political damage with his signature off-balance swings. But as has become his custom recently, the pain from Limbaugh's rampage is being felt by his creators -- his enablers -- inside the GOP.

By the way, Dr. Lange is the best dentist I’ve ever known and I am grateful for his professionalism and skill when he plies his trade in my toothy orifice. We’ve never discussed politics, local or otherwise, but I’d be very surprised if we saw eye to eye on very many things.

I was flattered by the comment of Rainman in response to the first installment of this series. He was correct in his accusation that I was painting all conservatives with the same brush and I appreciate that he did not take my comments personally. I was reminded of discussions I have had with my two brothers, both of whom I would characterize as conservatives. My older brother tends to dismiss me as being “misguided.” My younger brother mostly parrots Rush Limbaugh. They both remind me of something Bush said in 2001 when he was asked to explain himself, “I know what I believe and I believe what I believe is right.”

ECONOMY -- BIG OIL COMPANIES ANNOUNCE RECORD PROFITS: Last week, Royal Dutch Shell announced that profits for the company soared to $26.7 billion in 2007, a record-breaking figure for a European company. The next day, The New York Times reported that "Exxon Mobil's performance last year was a blowout." The oil giant revealed last Friday "that it beat its own record for the highest profits ever recorded by any company, with net income rising 3 percent to $40.6 billion." Exxon Mobil's sales exceeded the gross domestic product of 120 countries. From the beginning of President Bush's tenure in office, the combined profits of the big five oil companies have skyrocketed from just under $40 billion in 2001 to $120 billion in 2007. As Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz recently noted in Vanity Fair, "The soaring price of oil is clearly related to the Iraq war. The issue is not whether to blame the war for this but simply how much to blame it." 

RADICAL RIGHT -- GLOBAL WARMING DENIER GROUP HOSTING CONFERENCE FUNDED BY BIG OIL: From March 2-4, right-wing climate change-denial group The Heartland Institute will host what it calls a "Climate Skeptics" Conference. Heartland President Joseph Blast boasted that his conference would feature climate change deniers: "This is their chance to speak out." The online poster for the conference declares, "Global Warming is not a crisis!" Heartland's environmental stance is completely out of the mainstream, as the debate over human contribution to global warming is long over. Even as some top conservative presidential candidates recently endorsed California's effort to reduce auto greenhouse gas emissions, Heartland ridiculed the idea, calling California and its allies "environmental extremists." Heartland's extreme anti-environmentalism no doubt originates from its supporters. Between 1998 and 2005, oil giant Exxon Mobil gave nearly $800,000 to Heartland. The organization's board of directors includes Thomas Walton, Director of Economic Policy at General Motors, and James L. Johnson, formerly senior economist for oil company Amoco Corporation. As RealClimate notes, "Normal scientific conferences have the goal of discussing ideas and data in order to advance scientific understanding. Not this one."

Word is there will be a MAJOR endorsement for Barack on Friday morning. No one's telling who, but there's a couple of big ones out there (FYI: Barack is doing a Santa Fe New Mexico rally Friday morning...I'm just sayin....)

Polls show that Barack is up in Colorado, up in Kansas, up in Georgia. He's now tied in Connecticut (after being 24 points down 14 days ago) and down by only 6 in Massachusetts (after being down 37 points one month ago!)

The latest Gallup national poll has Obama closing to within 6 nationally -- an 8 point movement in 10 days.

And in New York State? Tonight's newest poll shows Barack down by 12 in Clinton's "home" state -- a 21 point movement in two weeks. And today the New York Post endorses Obama.

I'm thinking that something might be going on here.

Feel like getting on the Obama Bandwagon? Contact Obama's CD2 coordinator, Kimberly Durso at (530) 521-2948 or via email: kimberlydursok@yahoo.com They've got a ton of stuff going on between now and Super Duper Tuesday!

Published on Chico Beat (http://www.chicobeat.com)
How To Ruin a Perfectly Good Country by Jamie O'Neill

Created Jan 25 2008 - 4:23am

To get started, enshrine ignorance and elevate folly. Elect people to high office who don’t know much about history, for instance, and then let them have pretty much unfettered powers free from the checks and balances that were originally concocted in order to keep things from getting ruined.

Be sure that your children graduate from school and enter adulthood even more ignorant of their history than their leaders are, and be sure that they are equally clueless about their system of government.

Undermine confidence in the significance of voting by clouding election results.

Elect people to govern who don’t believe government is a good thing. Such elected representatives will, then, ensure that government fails to fulfill its functions because when government does exhibit such failures, those elected representatives have proven their point.

From DOUGLASS K. DANIEL, Associated Press Writer:

"It is now beyond dispute that Iraq did not possess any weapons of mass destruction or have meaningful ties to al-Qaida," according to Charles Lewis and Mark Reading-Smith of the Fund for Independence in Journalism staff members, writing an overview of the study. "In short, the Bush administration led the nation to war on the basis of erroneous information that it methodically propagated and that culminated in military action against Iraq on March 19, 2003."

Read the whole article:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080123/ap_on_go_pr_wh/misinformation_study