The new board held its first meeting on October 21 and it lasted until midnight! We're hoping not to repeat that performance and working on how to streamline the meetings. Draft minutes of the meeting are posted on the web at http://kboo.fm/node/6295. Board meeting dates were changed to the 4th Monday of the month at 6pm, except for December. In December we will be meeting on December 15th instead as to not conflict with the holidays.

We are seeking prospective KBOO members to apply for our vacancy on the board. Jay Thiemeyer submitted his resignation. The nominating committee will recruit to fill this position and the board will appoint a new member at our next board meeting on November 24th. Contact Becky at becky@herfingertips.com if you're interested in applying for the vacancy. This will be a two year position.

 We knew it would come down to this.

The Republicans can't win on the issues. The well of fear-mongering has run dry. Most Americans now realize that Barack Obama is, in fact, black.

So they're trying to steal it, like we knew they would. The long-expected voter purges have begun, and the GOP -- in the name of God and country, no doubt -- are trying to disenfranchise thousands of Americans. We're lucky here in Oregon, in that our vote-by-mail system is largely immune to this garbage. But in places like Georgia, Ohio, and Florida, the game is afoot.

To me, it doesn't get much dirtier than this -- if it looks like you're gonna lose the election, do your level best to make sure only the Right Kind of People vote.

-A

KBOO is making changes to our evening lineup, starting November 3rd. We are adding new rock, hip hop, and world music shows, opening time for guest programmers, and adding more public affairs in the evening from an African American perspective. Several shows are going off the air, and others are moving to a new day and time. We're still accepting new program proposals and those new to KBOO can download the program proposal form here.  Check out our new Music Page highlighting the changes and read The Skanner's new article.

 Bernard-Henri Levy, who appeared a few weeks back on the show, sat down recently with Salon.com's Beth Arnold.

He's the same guy who appeared on the show -- haughty, grandiose, and quite entertaining.

-A

 As Election Day approaches, and as an Obama victory looks more probable, the McCain campaign is serving as the focus of an untrammeled and vitriolic collective id. Lots of these people are just scared shitless that a black man might sit in the White House.

 Continuing on a theme, congratulations to Paul Krugman of the New York Times for his Nobel prize in economics. For my money, Krugman for many years now has been the best columnist on the Times' op-ed page, and one of the best in the business, period. His liberalism comes in large part from a place that is grounded in hard economics, which makes him both hard to refute, and able to refute mindless conservative free-market dogma.

For example, since the brouhaha over the uber-costly financial bailout erupted a couple of weeks ago, Krugman has been hitting hard on the need for taxpayers to receive an equity stake in return for their rescue of investment in the financial sector. And now it looks like it's going to happen.

Let's hope Paulson & Co. keep reading their Krugman.

-A

 Throughout the prolonged surreal turn that has been the Bush Years, McClatchy News Service has been one of the few print media outlets to practice a consistently high level of journalism. The work of two McClatchy reporters was profiled in Bill Moyers' seminal documentary, Buying the War.

To say that the McClatchy reporters put their colleagues to shame is an understatement.

In a rare salute to journalism that matters, to journalism as a necessary functioning part of a free society, McClatchy's Washington bureau chief, John Walcott. received the I.F. Stone Medal for Journalistic Independence. Here's his acceptance speech.

Are you listening. NY Times? ABC? NBC? WaPost? CBS? CNN? Errrr, Fox?

-A 

October 2008 Web Report

Roger upgraded our web hosting some time ago to a more dedicated machine and overall, the speed and performance of the website has improved and been more dependable. There have been a few remaining errors with playlists and the splash page we created for the drive, but nothing too major.