As we begin to see more companies announcing lay-offs and our economy tripping toward an unknown future, our community media becomes even more important.

During rough times, whether Mother Nature is being extra testy or the local Citigroup lets go of 9,000 neighbors, newspapers, TV and radio must be real resources for people to talk about their problems and discuss the solutions.

As it sits right now, your local newspaper is more than likely owned by a corporation that owns many others across the country. The effects of this kind of change are lower news budgets, which in turn means more stories bought from the AP and little local coverage. The local coverage that is available is very light. Journalists no longer have much time for investigation, so increasingly stories come straight from press releases.

In effect, we are in the dark about what is really going on.

The capacity for community dialogue is low. Let's move forward and fight for more. Tell the FCC that you don't want any more media consolidation. Tell your Congressmen that we will no longer put up with media in the corporate interest instead of the public interest.

Free Speech TV, KBDI TV, KGNU Radio, and Denver Open Media are hosting a lecture with award-winning journalist, Amy Goodman. Amy's program, Democracy Now!, airs on over 350 stations across the nation, providing access to people and perspectives rarely heard in the U.S. corporate-sponsored media.

*WHEN*: Sunday, April 20, 7:00 PM

*WHERE*: East High School Auditorium,

1600 City Park Esplanade, Denver

*COST*: $10 for FSTV members, $15 for non-members and at the door *Also Available* are a limited number of $100 VIP tickets which include preferred seating, a reception with Amy at 6 PM before the lecture, and a copy of her new book, Standing up to the Madness: Ordinary Heroes in Extraordinary Times.

Tickets will be Will-Call only, and can be picked up any time after 6 PM on the day of the event

Call 303-296-1212 during business hours or visit KBDI.org to reserve your tickets today!

I saw the movie Stop-Loss over the weekend and it blew me away. The term refers to what happens to a soldier after he/she has put in the contracted time and then is still sent back to war for more tours of duty. This is happening, presumably, because the Bush administration does not want to begin a draft. So in order to maintain troop levels, the same courageous men and women are being sent back, whether they want to or not.

These people signed up to serve their country, showing their honor with their actions. Are we serving them by dragging them back into combat after years of good service? The Vietnam War became unpopular enough for people to stand up and speak out. Family members, friends, and acquaintances were being sent overseas, making the war closer to home for more people. For the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, fewer families and communities of people are being directly affected by the tragedies of war, keeping the reality of these wars and their unconstitutionality just out of sight.

With the majority of the media that we consume consolidated into just a few hands (over 50 in 1983 and 5 right now), only a handful of people decide what we see, hear, and read about the war, perpetuating this problem of no information. If our local paper, TV station, magazines and even state level papers were independently controlled, just think of the diverse perspectives we would have access to!

I don't want to read the same stuff that everyone in the country is reading. How are we to inform ourselves as responsible citizens if most of the media have exactly the same content?

These soldiers deserve to be heard. We owe it to them to learn of their sacrifice.

Tell the FCC you want diverse media, instead of corporate media. Tell your Congressmen to stop the FCC from allowing more consolidation.

This Sunday, March 30, Jim Hightower is coming to Ft. Collins, CO!

Jim Hightower, a Texan born and bred, is a fiery and funny popular public speaker. Frequently appearing on television and radio programs, Jim brings a hard-hitting populist viewpoint and the credo: "You can fight the gods and still have fun." 

Join us at noon at the New Belgium Brewery for good food, good beer, and great conversation.

At the event you'll hear Jim speak and have the opportunity to get a signed copy of his new book, Swim Against the Current: Even a Dead Fish Can Go with the Flow! Register now for the event.

Please RSVP if you are planning to attend so we can get an accurate head count for lunch.

To sign up, call the office at (303) 292-2163 or email Colorado@commoncause.org. Tickets are $20 in advance; $25 at the door.  If you want to purchase a copy of the book in advance, $45.

Hope to see you there!

Comcast recently released new "terms of service" which clearly spell out their intention to censor free speech.  Anything that a reasonable person would consider indecent has the potential of being blocked. 

The company also stated that their network is not good enough to hold space for all the activity that their customers need, therefore they plan to "delay" access for peer-to-peer applications during the most congested times.

With the Internet out there without protection from the telecoms, these corporations have carved out their spaces and made competition and innovation moot.  Remember, these are the reasons set out there for deregulation in the first place.  Without competition and innovation, there is no reason for the telecoms to improve their networks, even enough to provide their customers with basic access.

Comcast's new terms of service: A recipe for discrimination

Colorado's Secretary of State, Mike Coffman, announced yesterday that most of the voting machines used in the state have been decertified. In a highly anticipated decision, the Secretary said that the machines are unreliable and unsecure and therefore cannot be used for the 2008 elections. At Common Cause, we fight to ensure that our votes are counted accurately and with integrity. If that means decertifying our electronic voting machines because they are unreliable, then the decision was a necessary one. However, we also believe that we cannot take away options for voters. Encouraging participation in our elections should be a top priority for our election administrators.

The issue of requiring proof of citizenship to register to vote is rearing it's ugly head in Colorado once again. Each year in the legislature, a bill of this sort comes up at least once. And each year, we at Common Cause work hard to defeat the bill because we believe in removing barriers to our voting process, not adding them. But this year, El Paso County Clerk and Recorder Bob Balink is taking a different approach. Balink belives that if the legislature won't pass a bill requiring proof of citizenship, a lawsuit would force the issue. Those who believe that we should require proof of citizenship claim it's not that difficult to obtain the proof, and you would only have to do it once. An editorial in this week's Denver Post says: To say that proving citizenship is not onerous is wrong. It is expensive and time-cosuming, not to mention infringing on our basic voting rights. The citizenship requirement is aimed at illegal immigrants and discouraging them from voting. But, there is little to no evidence of voter fraud in Colorado. This is a solution in search of a problem. The possibility of having to bring even more identification to the polls is going to discourage people from voting. In a democracy where voting is a fundamental right, we should be passing laws that make it easier to vote, not harder.

Just when we thought it was never going to happen. FINALLY. The Colorado General Assembly passed Senate Bill 210, the compromise ethics implementation bill and it is now headed for the Governor's desk. This is no small feat, it has taken months to get this far. After a lot of feet dragging, the Colorado legislature is finally going to uphold the will of the voters.

Amendment 41, the Ethics in Government Initiative, was passed in November with over 62% of the vote. Higher than any other initiative on the ballot (and to be fair, there were 12 all together). Since its passage, it has become the talk of the town...literally. Opponents made wild claims that children of government employees would no longer receive college scholarships, and ranchers in southern Colorado couldn't receive disaster aid in the wake of giant snow storms. These claims caught on in the news, and the media storm that followed was something that none of us could have predicted. But, finally, Senate Bill 210 makes serious strides toward implementing the law the right way.