KSFO

KSFO 560 AM is a talk radio station in San Francisco. Despite being located in a very liberal region, the content of the program is mostly conservative with show hosts such as Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, and Dr. Laura Schlessinger. The station also broadcasts Oakland Raiders football games throughout the season.

San francisco

: The City and County of San Francisco (2004 estimated population 744,230) is the fourth-largest city in the state of California, in the United States. A consolidated city-county, mainland San Francisco is located on the tip of the San Francisco Peninsula. Insular San Francisco includes several islands in the San Francisco Bay and the Golden Gate Strait, notably Alcatraz, Treasure Island, and the Farallon Islands 27 miles offshore in the Pacific Ocean and also most of the privately owned Red Rock Island near the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge. (See Islands of San Francisco Bay) The city is a focal point of the San Francisco Bay Area, and forms part of the greater San Jose-San Francisco-Oakland Combined Statistical Area (CSA), whose population is over 7 million. U.S. census data show that San Francisco has the highest population density of any major U.S. city aside from New York City. The first Europeans to settle in San Francisco were the Spanish, in 1776. With the advent of the California gold rush in 1848 the city entered a period of rapid growth. Devastated by the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, the city was quickly rebuilt. The phoenix on the city's flag represents San Francisco's "rebirth" from the ashes of the fire that resulted from the quake. Long enjoying a bohemian reputation the city became a counterculture magnet in the second half of the 20th century. It was a center of the dot-com boom and explosive growth of the internet at the end of the century. San Francisco has unique characteristics when compared to other major cities in the U.S., including its steep rolling hills, an eclectic mix of architecture including both Victorian style houses and modern skyscrapers, and unmatched physical beauty, surrounded by the Pacific Ocean and San Francisco Bay. San Francisco's famous hallmarks include its cable cars and the Golden Gate Bridge, which are recognized worldwide.
History
Golden Gate Bridge European visitors to the Bay Area were preceded 10,000 to 20,000 years earlier by Native Americans. When Europeans arrived, they found the area inhabited by the Yelamu tribe, belonging to a linguistic grouping later called the Ohlone (a Miwok Indian word meaning "western people") living in the coastal area between Point Sur and the San Francisco Bay. San Francisco's characteristic foggy weather and geography led early European explorers, including Juan Cabrillo and Sir Francis Drake (who would instead land a few miles north in Point Reyes), to pass by the Golden Gate and miss the San Francisco Bay. Eventually, a Spanish party, led by Don Gaspar de Portolà, discovered the bay in 1770, claiming it in the name of Spain. In 1776, Juan Bautista de Anza arrived and established the sites for the Presidio of San Francisco and Mission San Francisco de Asis (named for Saint Francis of Assisi and now popularly known as "Mission Dolores"). In 1792 British explorer George Vancouver set up a small settlement near the village of Yerba Buena (later downtown San Francisco) which became a small base for English, Russian, and other European fur traders, explorers, and settlers. Due to its distance from Mexico City and the decline of Spanish power, the area was isolated, remaining sparsely populated and undeveloped. It became part of an independent Mexico in 1821. Following the passing of the Secularization Act of 1833, effectively ending the Mission period, Mission San Francisco de Asis was abandoned. The local indigenous tribes of Ohlone and Miwok had became virtually extinct by this time due to disease and warfare with the European settlers. In addition to Spanish and European settlers, Russian colonists also visited the Bay area. From 1770, lasting through 1841, Russia colonized an area that ranged from Alaska south to Fort Ross in Sonoma County, California. The naming of San Francisco's Russian Hill neighborhood is attributed to the remains of Russian fur-traders and sailors found there. Serious development by non-Spanish speakers began in 1822, when William Richardson, an English whaler redeveloped a section of Yerba Buena in what is now Portsmouth Square in Chinatown. Yerba Buena remained a small town until the Mexican-American War broke out in 1846. The British Empire briefly entertained the idea of purchasing the bay from Mexico in 1841, claiming it would "Secure to Great Britain all the advantages of the finest port in the Pacific for her commercial speculations in time of peace, and in war for more easily securing her maritime ascendency". However little came of this, and San Francisco become a prize of United States continental imperialism rather than that of British thalassocratic power. A naval force under Commodore John D. Sloat claimed it in the name of the United States and renamed it "San Francisco" on January 30, 1847. Situated at the tip of a windswept peninsula without water or firewood, San Francisco lacked most of the basic facilities for a nineteenth century settlement. These natural disadvantages forced the town's residents to bring water, fuel and food to the site. The first of many environmental transformations was the city's reliance on filled marshlands for real estate. Much of the present downtown is built over the former Yerba Buena Cove, granted to the city by military governor Stephen Watts Kearny in 1847. Stephen Watts Kearny The California gold rush starting in 1848 led to a large boom in population, including considerable immigration. Between January 1848 and December 1849, the population of San Francisco increased from 1,000 to 25,000. This included many workers from China who came to work in the gold mines and later on the Transcontinental Railroad. The Chinatown district of the city became and is still one of the largest in the country; the city as a whole is roughly one-fifth Chinese, one of the largest concentrations outside of China. Many businesses founded to service the growing population exist today, notably Levi Strauss & Co. clothing, Ghirardelli chocolate, and Wells Fargo bank. Many famous railroad, banking, and mining tycoons or "robber barons" such as Charles Crocker, Mark Hopkins, Collis P. Huntington, and Leland Stanford settled in the city in its Nob Hill neighborhood. The sites of their mansions are now famous and expensive San Francisco hotels (Mark Hopkins Hotel and the Huntington Hotel). Huntington Hotel, 1856.]] As in many mining towns, the social climate in early San Francisco was chaotic. This was exacerbated by squabbling in the United States Senate, where the Compromise of 1850 was igniting a fierce fight over slavery. Committees of Vigilance were formed in 1851, and again in 1856, in response to crime and government corruption, but also had a strong element of anti-immigrant violence, and arguably created more lawlessness than they eliminated. This popular militia movement lynched 12 people, kidnapped hundreds of Irishmen and government militia members, and forced several elected officials to resign. The Committee of Vigilance relinquished power both times after it decided the city had been "cleaned up." This mob activity later focused on Chinese immigrants, creating many race riots. These riots culminated in the creation of the Chinese Exclusion Act in 1882 that aimed to reduce Chinese immigration to the United States by limiting immigration to males and reducing numbers of immigrants allowed in the city. The law was not repealed until 1943. Chinese Exclusion Act San Francisco County was one of the original counties of California, created in 1850 at the time of statehood. The parts of the county not in the city limits were split off to form San Mateo County in 1856. San Francisco became America's largest city west of the Mississippi River, until it lost that title to Los Angeles. It was also briefly the state capital in 1851, until San José received the title. (Sacramento is the current capital.) In autumn of 1855, a ship bearing refugees from an ongoing cholera epidemic in the far east (authorities disagree as to whether this was the S.S. Sam or the S.S. Carolina) docked in San Francisco. As the city's rapid gold-rush area population growth had significantly outstripped the development of infrastructure, including sanitation, a serious cholera epidemic quickly broke out. The responsibility for caring for the indigent sick had previously rested on the state, but faced with the San Francisco cholera epidemic, the state legislature devolved this responsibility to the counties, setting the precedent for California's system of county hospitals for the poor still in effect today. The Sisters of Mercy were contracted to run San Francisco's first county hospital at the height of the cholera epidemic, and in 1857, the order opened its own charity hospital, Mercy Hospital of San Francisco, which is still in operation today at its original location on Stanyan Street. By the 1890s, San Francisco was suffering from Boss politics and corruption, and was ripe for political reform. Adolph Sutro ran for mayor in 1894 under the auspices of the Populist Party and won handily without campaigning. Unfortunately, except for the Sutro Baths, Mayor Sutro substantially failed in his efforts to improve the city. The next mayor, James D. Phelan elected in 1896, was more successful, pushing through a new city charter that allowed for the ability to raise funds through bond issues. He was able to get bonds passed to construct a new sewer system, seventeen new schools, two parks, a hospital, and a main library. After leaving office in 1901, Phelan became interested in remaking San Francisco into a grand and modern Paris of the West. When the San Francisco Art Association asked him to draft a plan for the beautification of the city, he hired famed architect Daniel Burnham. Burnham and Phelan's plan was ambitious, envisioning a 50-year effort to transform the city with wide diagonal boulevards creating open spaces and squares as they crossed the orthogonal grid of existing streets. Some parts of the plan were eventually implemented, including an Opera house to the north of City Hall, a subway under Market Street, and a waterfront boulevard (The Embarcadero) circling the city. In 1900, a ship from China brought with it rats infected with bubonic plague. Mistakenly believing that interred corpses contributed to the transmission of plague, and possibly also motivated by the opportunity for profitable land speculation, city leaders banned all burials within the city. Cemeteries moved to the undeveloped area just south of the city limit, now the town of Colma, California. A fifteen-block section of Chinatown was quarantined while city leaders squabbled over the proper course to take, but the outbreak was finally eradicated by 1905. However, the problem of existing cemeteries and the shortage of land in the city remained. In 1912 (with fights extending until 1942), all remaining cemeteries in the city were evicted to Colma, where the dead now outnumber the living by more than a thousand to one. The above-ground Columbarium of San Francisco was allowed to remain, as well as the historic cemetery at the Mission Dolores Church and The San Francisco National Cemetery in the Presidio of San Francisco. On April 18 1906, a devastating earthquake resulted from the rupture of over 270 miles of the San Andreas Fault, from San Juan Bautista to Eureka, centered immediately offshore of San Francisco. The quake is estimated by the USGS to have had a magnitude of 7.8 on the Richter scale. Water mains ruptured throughout San Francisco, and the fires that followed burned out of control for days, destroying approximately 80% of the city, including almost all of the downtown core. Many residents were trapped between the water on three sides and the approaching fire, and a mass evacuation (similar to that of the later Battle of Dunkirk) across the Bay saved thousands. Refugee camps were also set up in Golden Gate Park, Ocean Beach, and other undeveloped sections of the city. The official death toll at the time was 478, although it was officially revised in 2005 to 3,000+. The initial low death toll was concocted by civic, state, and federal officials who felt that reporting the actual numbers would hurt rebuilding and redevelopment efforts, as well as city and national morale. Ocean Beach In 1915, the city hosted the Panama-Pacific Exposition, officially to celebrate the opening of the Panama Canal, but also as a showcase of the vibrant completely rebuilt city less than a decade after the Earthquake. After the exposition ended, all of its grand buildings were demolished except for the Palace of Fine Arts which survives today in an abbreviated form. The San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge was opened in 1936 and the Golden Gate Bridge in 1937. During World War II, San Francisco was the major mainland supply point and port of embarkation for the war in the Pacific. The War Memorial Opera House in San Francisco has been the site of some significant post World War II history. In 1945, the conference that formed the United Nations was held there, with the UN Charter being signed on June 26. Additionally the Treaty of San Francisco which formally ended war with Japan and established peaceful relations, was drafted and signed here six years later in 1951. After World War II, many American military personnel who fell in love with the city during leaving to or returning from the Pacific, settled in the city prompting the creation of the Sunset District and Visitacion Valley. During this period, Caltrans commenced an aggressive freeway construction program in the Bay Area. However, Caltrans soon encountered strong resistance in San Francisco, for the city's high population density meant that virtually any right-of-way would displace a large number of people. Caltrans tried to minimize displacement (and its land acquisition costs) by building double-decker freeways, but the crude state of civil engineering at that time resulted in construction of some embarrassingly ugly freeways which ultimately turned out to be seismically unsafe. In 1959, the Board of Supervisors voted to halt construction of any more freeways in the city, an event known as the Freeway Revolt. Although some minor modifications have been allowed to the ends of existing freeways, the city's anti-freeway policy has remained in place ever since. In 1989, the Loma Prieta earthquake destroyed the Embarcadero Freeway and portions of the so-called Central Freeway. Over the course of several referenda, San Francisco's residents elected not to rebuild either structure. The neighborhoods once covered by these freeways have been rebuilt, and the restoration of the Embarcadero, San Francisco's historic bay waterfront, as a public space has been especially successful. In the 1950s San Francisco hired Harvard graduate Justin Herman to head the redevelopment agency for the city and county. Justin Herman began an aggressive campaign to renew blighted areas of the city. Enacting eminent domain whenever necessary, he set upon a plan to tear down huge areas of the city and replace them with modern construction. Critics accused Herman of racism for what was perceived as attempts to create segregation and displacement of African-Americans. Many African-Americans were forced to move from their homes near the Fillmore jazz district to newly constructed projects such as the near the naval base Hunter's Point or even to cities such as Oakland. He began leveling entire areas in San Francisco's Western Addition and Japantown neighborhoods. His planning led to the creation of Embarcadero Center, the Embarcadero Freeway, Japantown, the Geary Street superblocks, and Yerba Buena Gardens. San Francisco has often been a magnet for America's counterculture. During the 1950s, City Lights Bookstore in the North Beach neighborhood was an important publisher of Beat Generation literature. Some of the story of the evolving arts scene of the 1950s is told in the article San Francisco Renaissance. During the latter half of the following decade, the 1960s, San Francisco was the center of hippie and other alternative culture. In 1966 the Church Of Satan opened their headquarters, and in 1967 thousands of young people poured into the Haight-Ashbury district during what became known as the Summer of Love. At this time, the "San Francisco sound" emerged as an influential force in rock music, with such acts as the Jefferson Airplane and the Grateful Dead achieving international prominence, blurring the boundaries between folk, rock and jazz traditions and further developing the lyrical content of rock. During the 1980s and 1990s San Francisco became a major focal point in the North American--and international-- punk, thrash metal, and rave scenes. On the rave scene, the city was the first to host the Love Parade outside its birthplace of Berlin, Germany in 2004. It was also a hot spot during the 1980's for comedians like Ellen DeGeneres and Robin Williams who got major career boosts thanks to the presence of the city's popular comedy clubs. San Francisco's frontier spirit and wild and ribald character caused it to become known as a gay mecca beginning in the nineteenth century. This reputation was enforced greatly during World War II, when thousands of gay male soldiers spent time in the City, while en route to and from the Pacific theater. The late 1960s also brought in a new wave of lesbians and gays who were more radical and less mainstream and who had flocked to San Francisco not only for its gay-friendly reputation, but for its reputation as a radical, left-wing epicenter. These new residents were the prime movers of Gay Liberation and often lived communally, buying decrepit Victorians in the Haight and fixing them up. When drugs and violence began to become a serious problem in the Haight, many lesbians and gays simply moved "over the hill", to the Castro replacing Irish-Americans who had moved to the more affluent and culturally homogenous suburbs. The Castro became known as a Gay Mecca, and its gay population swelled as significant numbers of gay people moved to San Francisco in the 1970s and 1980s. The growth of the gay population caused tensions with some of the established ethnic groups in the western part of the city. On November 27, 1978 Dan White, a former member of the Board of Supervisors and former police officer, assassinated the city's mayor George Moscone and San Francisco's first openly gay elected official, Supervisor Harvey Milk (see "Twinkie Defense"). The murders and the subsequent trial were marked both by candlelight vigils and riots within the gay community. In the 1980s, the AIDS virus wreaked havoc on the gay male community there. Today, the gay population of the city is estimated to be approximately 15%, and gays remain an important force in the city's life. San Francisco has a higher percentage of gays and lesbians than any other major US city. During the administration of Mayor Dianne Feinstein (1978-1988), San Francisco saw a development boom referred to as "Manhattanization." Many large skyscrapers were built — primarily in the Financial District — but the boom also included high-rise condominiums in some residential neighborhoods. An opposition movement gained traction among those who felt the skyscrapers ruined views and destroyed San Francisco's unique character. Similar to the freeway revolt in the city decades earlier, a "skyscraper revolt" forced the city to embed height restrictions in the planning code. For many years, the limits slowed construction of new skyscrapers, but recent (2000-2005) housing pressures have led to master plan changes which will allow new construction of high-rise structures along The Embarcadero and in the South of Market district. South of Market During the 1980s, homeless people began appearing in large numbers in the city, the result of multiple factors including the closing of state institutions for the mentally ill, and social changes which increased the availability of addictive drugs. Combined with San Francisco's attractive environment and generous welfare policies the problem soon became endemic. Mayor Art Agnos (1988-92) was the first to attack the problem, and not the last; it is a top issue for San Franciscans even today. Agnos allowed the homeless to camp in the Civic Center park, which led to its title of "Camp Agnos." The failure of this policy led to his losing the election to Frank Jordan in 1991. Jordan launched the "MATRIX" program the next year, which aimed to displace the homeless through aggressive police action. And it did displace them - to the rest of the city. His successor, Willie Brown, was able to largely ignore the problem, riding on the strong economy into a second term. Present mayor Gavin Newsom's policy on the homeless is the controversial "Care Not Cash" program, which calls for ending the city's generous welfare policies towards the homeless and instead placing them in affordable housing and requiring them to attend city funded drug rehabilitation and job training programs. On October 17, 1989, an earthquake measuring 7.1 on the Richter magnitude scale struck on the San Andreas Fault near Loma Prieta Peak in the Santa Cruz mountains, approximately 70 miles south of San Francisco, a few minutes before game 3 of the 1989 World Series. The quake severely damaged many of the city's freeway's including the Embarcadero Freeway and the Central Freeway. The damage to these freeways was so extensive that they were eventually demolished. The quake also caused extensive damage in the Marina District and the South of Market. Known in most of the United States as the "World Series Quake," but in California and by seismologists as the Loma Prieta earthquake, it caused significant destruction and loss of life throughout the greater Bay Area. During the dot-com boom of the 1990s, large numbers of entrepreneurs and computer software professionals moved into the city, followed by marketing and sales professionals, and changed the social landscape as once poorer neighborhoods became gentrified. The rising rents forced many people and businesses to leave, and this caused considerable tension in the city's politics. The resulting backlash resulted in a progressive majority winning control of the Board of Supervisors in the 2000 election. By 2001, the boom was over, and many people left San Francisco. South of Market, where many dot-com companies were located, had been bustling and crowded with few vacancies, but by 2002 was a virtual wasteland of empty offices and for-rent signs. Much of the boom was blamed for the city's "fastest shrinking population", reducing the city's population by 30,000 in just a few years. While the boom has helped put an ease on the city's apartment rents, the city remains expensive nonetheless. In February 2004, San Francisco became the first city in the United States to grant marriage to gay couples when Mayor Gavin Newsom, elected the previous year, ordered the City Clerks office to issue same-sex marriage licenses. The California Supreme Court later invalidated these licenses, holding that Newsom had acted without proper authority. In 2005 San Francisco hosted the United Nations annual World Environment Day conference, the first in the United States, and banned outdoor smoking in all city-owned parks, plazas and public sports venues. Also as of December 2005, the crime rate has gone up, with more than 90 killngs throughout the year. San Francisco is also facing serious budget deficits, and, for such a small city, the homeless problem is still one of the worst in America.
Geography and climate
banned outdoor smoking Landsat 7]] San Francisco lies near the San Andreas Fault and Hayward Fault, two major sources of earthquake activity in California. The most serious earthquake, in 1906, is mentioned above. Earlier significant quakes rocked the city in 1851, 1858, 1865, and 1868. The Daly City Earthquake of 1957 caused some damage. The Loma Prieta earthquake of 1989, which also did significant damage to parts of the city, is also famous for having interrupted a World Series baseball game between the Bay Area's two Major League Baseball teams, the San Francisco Giants and the Oakland Athletics. The threat of another major earthquake like the 1906 one plays a major role in the city's infrastructure development. New buildings must be built to very high structural standards, while many dollars must be spent to retrofit the city's older buildings and bridges. Entire neighborhoods of the city such as the Marina and Hunters Point were created and sit on man made landfill (made up of mud, sand, and rubble from past earthquakes) and other reclamation projects over the San Francisco Bay when flatland became scarce. Such land is extremely unstable during earthquakes; the resultant liquefaction during earthquakes causes extensive damage to property built upon it, as was evidenced in the Marina district during the 1989 Loma Prieta Earthquake. The most impressive example of an "infill neighborhood" is Treasure Island. It was constructed from material dredged from the bay as well as material resulting from tunnelling through Yerba Buena Island in the construction of the Bay Bridge. It was a site for the 1939 San Francisco World's Fair, and it was originally envisioned that Treasure Island would serve as the site for San Francisco's municipal airport, but it became a Navy base at the start of World War II. In 1997 Treasure Island was returned to the city and it provides a unique vantage point to view the San Francisco skyline. San Francisco is famous for its hills. A "Hill" in San Francisco, is an elevation that is over 100 ft (30 Meters). There are a total of 42 hills within city limits. Some of these hills are neighborhoods such as Nob Hill, Pacific Heights, Russian Hill, and Telegraph Hill, while some of these hills are public parks and open space such as Twin Peaks, Mt. Sutro, Mount Davidson, and Buena Vista Park. Near the geographic center of the city and away from the downtown area are a series of less populated hills. Dominating this area is Mount Sutro, which is the site of Sutro Tower, a large red and white radio transmission tower, that is a well known landmark to city residents. Nearby are the equally well known Twin Peaks, which are a pair of hills resting at one of the city's highest points. About 1.2km (1 mile) south of Mount Sutro is San Francisco's highest mountain, Mount Davidson, which is over 282 meters (over 925 feet) high. On top of Mount Davidson is a 31.4 meter (103 foot) tall cross built in 1934. Twin Peaks Not to be missed are the beautiful homes and area of the city known as Pacific Heights as well as victorians in the Haight-Ashbury and the "painted ladies" of Alamo Square and the Castro. San Francisco is also famous for its Cable cars (narrow gauge, 1067 mm (3'6")), which were designed to carry residents up those steep hills. It is still possible to take a cable car ride up and down Nob and Russian Hills. Along with New Orleans' streetcars, San Francisco's cable cars are one of only two mobile United States National Monuments. Coit Tower, a notable landmark dedicated to San Francisco's firefighters, is located at the top of Telegraph Hill.
Climate
Surrounded on three sides by water, San Francisco's climate is strongly influenced by the cool currents of the Pacific Ocean. The weather is remarkably mild all year round, with a so-called Mediterranean climate characterized by cool, foggy summers and relatively warm winters; average daily high temperatures in the summer typically range from the upper 60's to mid 70's (15-22 degrees Celsius), while in the winter it virtually never reaches freezing. Rain in the summer is quite rare, but winters are very rainy. Snow is very rare. The Pacific Ocean off the west coast of the city is particularly cold year round. The combination of cold ocean water and the high heat of the California mainland creates the city's characteristic foggy weather that covers the western half of the city in fog all day during the summer and early fall, as well as the rest of the San Francisco metropolitan area as far as 35-50 miles inland in overcast and fog. Thus, the summer temperatures are significantly lower in San Francisco than in other parts of inland California. The fog is less pronounced during the months of September & October and during the late spring, which is generally the warmest, most summer-like months of the year. In January, morning lows average 46 °F (8 °C) and afternoon highs average 58 °F (14 °C). In August, lows average 56 °F (13 °C) and highs average 72 °F (22 °C). San Francisco receives an average of 22.28 inches (56.6 cm) of precipitation annually with July and August being almost completely free of precipitation. According to the United States Census Bureau, the city and county has a total area of 600.7 km² (231.9 mi²). 120.9 km² (46.7 mi²) of it is land and 479.7 km² (185.2 mi²) of it is water. The total area is 79.86% water. The city proper is often reputed to be roughly a seven mile square, and in fact is only slightly smaller. The geographical center of the city is on the east side of Grandview Avenue between Alvarado and Twenty-third Streets. mi²
Neighborhoods in San Francisco
mi² San Francisco has a Japantown and Chinatown; both are among the largest and oldest in the US. It also boasts a budding Vietnamese community in the Tenderloin neighborhood, Filipinos in Crocker-Amazon and South of Market, an Italian community in North Beach, a French Quarter, and Irish and Russian communities in the Richmond District. The predominantly Hispanic Mission District is the oldest neighborhood in the city, being the site of Mission Dolores, established in 1776. Russian Hill is a residential neighborhood most famous for Lombard Street "the crookedest street in the world". Haight-Ashbury gained prominence during the "Summer of Love" 1960s for its counter-culture and concentration of hippies. The Castro neighborhood has the world's highest concentration of homosexuals. In addition to the predominantly gay Castro, there are significant concentrations of gays in NoeValley, Diamond Heights, Bernal Heights, Potrero Hill, Haight-Ashbury, Hayes Valley, and SOMA. (See The Castro for more gay demographics.) The Castro") at Alamo Square]] Current demographic and land use expansion is concentrated in the east and south. The South of Market neighborhood was an epicenter of the dot-com boom of the late 1990s. A new neighborhood, Mission Bay, is being redeveloped from an industrial area at the far eastern end of South of Market. The cornerstones of this development are the SBC Park baseball stadium and an extension of the University of California, San Francisco medical school.
Parks
The best-known, as well as biggest, park is Golden Gate Park which is 174 acres larger than New York's Central Park. Another notable park is The Presidio at the south edge of the Golden Gate. The Presidio is part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, which includes Alcatraz, and many other large local parks. Buena Vista Park located in the Haight-Ashbury, is the city's oldest, established in 1867, nearby Alamo Square is famous for its views of the city and the famous Victorian houses known as the Painted Ladies. A large fresh-water lake, Lake Merced, is located in the south west corner of the city near San Francisco State University and Fort Funston. San Francisco also contains many public beaches such as Baker Beach and Ocean Beach.
Demographics
Ocean Beach, Richmond District, and in Chinatown.]] As of the census of 2000, there are 776,733 people, 329,700 households, and 145,068 families residing in the city. The population density is 6,423.2/km² (16,634.4/mi²), making it the second densest city of 500,000 or more, as well as the fifth densest county, in the country [http://gislounge.com/features/aa041101c.shtml]. . There are 346,527 housing units at an average density of 2,865.6/km² (7,421.2/mi²). The racial makeup of the city is 49.66% White, 7.79% African American, 0.45% Native American, 30.84% Asian, 0.49% Pacific Islander, 6.48% from other races, and 4.28% from two or more races. 14.10% of the population are Hispanic or Latino of any race. The ethnic makeup is 19.6% Chinese, 8.8% Irish, 7.7% German, and 6.1% English. San Francisco has the largest Chinese population in America and the largest Asian population outside of Hawaii. The City has the highest percentage of gay families (as well as a large numbers of single gay people) of any American county or large city. Gay men outnumber lesbians, who are more concentrated in the suburban East Bay. There are 329,700 households out of which 16.6% have children under the age of 18 living with them, 31.6% are married couples living together, 8.9% have a female head of household with no husband present, and 56.0% are non-families. 38.6% of all households are made up of individuals and 9.8% have someone living alone who is 65 years of age or older. The average household size is 2.30 and the average family size is 3.22. In the city the population is spread out with 14.5% under the age of 18, 9.1% from 18 to 24, 40.5% from 25 to 44, 22.3% from 45 to 64, and 13.7% who are 65 years of age or older. The median age is 36 years. For every 100 females there are 103.4 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there are 103.1 males. The median income for a household in the city is $55,221, and the median income for a family is $63,545 one of the highest in the United States at 15th place overall and 3rd in a single large city. Males have a median income of $46,260 versus $40,049 for females. The per capita income for the city is $34,556 which is ranked as the 19th highest in the country. 11.3% of the population and 7.8% of families are below the poverty line. Out of the total population, 13.5% of those under the age of 18 and 10.5% of those 65 and older are living below the poverty line.
Government and politics
As the official name implies, the City and County San Francisco is a metropolitan municipality, being simultaneously a charter city and charter county with a consolidated government. It is the only metropolitan municipality in California and the only California county with a mayor, who is also the county executive. San Francisco is the only California city with a board of supervisors, which is also the city council. San Francisco's unique status also makes it a municipal corporation and an administrative division of the state. It is in the latter capacity that San Francisco exercises jurisdiction over property that would otherwise be located outside of its corporation limit. San Francisco International Airport, for example, would be located within San Mateo County but for the fact it is owned and operated by the City and County of San Francisco. Because counties are administrative divisions of the state, it is legally impossible for two counties to occupy or exercise jurisdiction over the same piece of land. Thus, the airport, which is about 15 miles south of mainland San Francisco, is legally part of San Francisco because the municipality owns it. San Francisco exercises jurisdiction over the Hetch Hetchy Valley and watershed, in Yosemite National Park, pursuant to a perpetual leasehold granted by Act of Congress in 1913, the Raker Act. Under the current charter, the Government of San Francisco is constituted of two co-equal branches - the executive or administrative branch, which is headed by the mayor and includes other city-wide elected and appointed officials, and the civil service; and the legislative branch, which is constituted of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, which exercises general oversight over all city and county functions. The mayor is elected every four years, in the odd-numbered year that precedes the U.S. presidential election. The current mayor, Gavin Newsom, was elected in December 2003 in a runoff competition against Matt Gonzalez (see also List of Mayors of San Francisco, California). Gonzalez was president of the Board of Supervisors, representing District 5, and Newsom was a member of the board representing District 2. If the mayor dies or resigns, the President of the Board of Supervisors assumes the office until a special election can be held. The eleven members of the Board of Supervisors (as of January 2005) are listed in the table at right by district number[http://www.sfgov.org/site/bdsupvrs_index.asp?id=4385]. The current president of the Board is Aaron Peskin, who represents District 3. How the Board of Supervisors shall be elected has been a bone of contention in recent San Francisco history. Throughout the United States, almost all cities and counties with populations in excess of 20,000 divide the jurisdiction into electoral districts (in cities, often called "wards") to ensure proportionate representation of the whole community and to evenly distribute the community interaction workload evenly among the members of the governing body (city council, county board of supervisors, etc.) But California has always been disinclined to follow examples set by the rest of the country; and San Francisco, notwithstanding a population of 0.7 million, has been no exception. Prior to 1977 and again from 1980 through 2000, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors was elected at-large. All candidates appeared together on the ballot. The person who received the most votes was elected President of the Board of Supervisors, and the next ten were elected to seats on the board. The first district-based elections in 1977 resulted in a radical change to the composition of the Board, including the election of Harvey Milk, only the third openly gay or lesbian individual (and the first who was male) elected to public office in the United States. Following the assassinations of Supervisor Milk and Mayor George Moscone a year later, by Supervisor Dan White who had just resigned, district elections were deemed divisive and San Francisco returned to at-large elections until the current system was implemented in 2000. Under the current system, Supervisors are elected by district to four-year terms. The terms are staggered so that only half the board is elected every two years, thereby providing continuity. Supervisors representing odd-numbered districts (1, 3, 5, 7, 9, and 11) are elected every fourth year counted from 2000 (so, 2000, 2004, 2008, etc.). Supervisors representing even-numbered districts (2, 4, 6, 8, and 10) were elected to transitional two-year terms in 2000, thereafter to be elected every fourth year (2002, 2006, 2010, etc.). The President of the Board of Supervisors, under the new system, is elected by the members of the Board from among their number. This is done by secret ballot, typically at the first meeting of the new session commencing after the general election. The Mayor and members of the Board of Supervisors are subject to term limits under the San Francisco Charter. None may serve more than two consecutive terms. As part of the change to district elections, however, this provision applies to supervisors only as of the first full term of election following its implementation in 2000. Thus, Tom Ammiano, who was elected to the Board of Supervisors in 1994 and 1998 under the old system, then again in 2000 under the new system, was able to run yet again in 2004 (and won). A single vote transfer system of elections was approved by the electorate and implemented in time for the 2004 general election. This system replaced the old, expensive system of run-off elections. Under this new ranked-choice system, whenever there are more than two candidates for an office, voters rank their choices in order of preference. If a candidate does not achieve a majority of votes cast when the first choice votes are counted, the candidate with the least number of votes is eliminated and the second choice votes on those ballots are tabulated and "transferred" to the remaining candidates. The process continues, as necessary, until one candidate achieves a majority of votes cast and is then declared the winner. Eyed warily by some and optimistically by others - in both cases owing to the belief that single-transfer voting might favour so-called "progressive" and "minority party" candidates over so-called "conservative" and "mainstream party" candidates - the 2004 general election results showed that belief to be unfounded, as all incumbent Supervisors were returned to office. Vacancies on the Board of Supervisors are filled by mayoral appointment, subject to special election (except as the Charter permits an appointee to remain in office until the general election for the seat is held). A person appointed or elected to fill a vacancy of less than two years is not deemed to have served a full term for purposes of term limits, whereas a person who fills a vacancy with more than two years remaining in the term is deemed to serve a full term and will be able to run for a consecutive term only once. The Mayor's 2005-2006 proposed budget forecasts general fund expenditures of $2.44 billion. As the largest city on the west coast before World War I, San Francisco became and remains the legal hub for the western United States. The Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals and the Federal District Court for Northern California are headquartered in San Francisco. The Supreme Court of California is also headquartered in San Francisco, making The City the de facto judicial capital of the state. California is the only U.S. jurisdiction whose highest court and judicial seat is not in the official state or territorial capital. The California Supreme Court also maintains branch offices in Los Angeles and Sacramento. In addition, the city is the seat of the First Appellate District of the State Courts of Appeals and the San Francisco County Superior Court.
City flag
The flag depicts a rising Phoenix, symbolic of the City's recovery from the 1906 fire. Underneath the phoenix it has a motto written in Spanish: "Oro en Paz, Fierro en Guerra," which translates into: "Gold in Peace, Iron in War."
City seal
The seal, which was adopted in the 1850s, depicts two working men, on one side a miner and on the other a sailor with a sextant. Above is a rising phoenix and behind is the bay with sailing ships. The Phoenix symbolizes the city's emergence from the ashes of several devastating fires in the early 1850's.
Economy
Because of the California gold rush, San Francisco became and remains the banking and financial center of the U.S. West Coast. It is the home of the twelfth district of the U.S. Federal Reserve as well as major production facilities for the U.S. Mint. The Pacific Exchange is located in the financial district. Many major American and international banks and venture capital firms have all set up their regional headquarters in the city. Fortune 500 rankings indicated in parenthesis. Companies headquartered in San Francisco are: Companies headquartered near San Francisco include:
Education
The city is served by San Francisco Unified School District. Despite its limited geographical space, San Francisco is home to a multitude of Universities and Colleges. Public universities include:
- University of California, San Francisco, primarily a Medical School, located north of Forest Hill
- San Francisco State University located in the southwest corner of the city near Lake Merced
- University of California, Hastings College of the Law located downtown at its Civic Center
- City College of San Francisco, one of the largest community colleges in the country is located in the Ingleside, with several extension campuses. Private universities:
- The Jesuit-run University of San Francisco, one of the first universities established west of the Mississippi, located in the center of the city
- Golden Gate University, a business and law school located downtown
-

Rush Limbaugh
Rush Hudson Limbaugh III (born January 12, 1951 in Cape Girardeau, Missouri) is a popular American entertainer and radio talk show host. A commentator with a conservative point of view, he discusses politics and current events on his show, The Rush Limbaugh Show. Since starting his radio show in August 1988, Rush Limbaugh has cultivated an audience estimated between 13 and 20 million listeners weekly (according to Arbitron ratings surveys) making it the largest radio talk show audience in the United States. [http://www.talkers.com/talkhosts.htm][http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/10-28-2005/0004199479&EDATE=] The Rush Limbaugh Show has been largely responsible for the shift in AM broadcasting to a news-talk format after an audience decline in the 1970s, earning him the title "the man who saved AM radio". Rush Limbaugh is as much a political symbol as he is a broadcaster and political satirist. Limbaugh is the 1992, 1995, 2000, and 2005 recipient of the Marconi Radio Award for Syndicated Radio Personality of the Year, given by the National Association of Broadcasters. He was inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame in 1993.
Private life
Limbaugh began his career in radio as a teenager in the late 1960s in his hometown of Cape Girardeau, Missouri, using the name Rusty Sharpe. His father, a judge whose wealth and status gave him considerable influence in southeastern Missouri, had once owned the radio station where Limbaugh started his career. Limbaugh always spoke of his parents with great warmth and affection. He dedicated his first book to them, writing: "Your love and kindess made me the terrific guy I am." Limbaugh's father had wanted Rush to be a lawyer, and was initially skeptical about his son's choice of a career. However, he supported his son in his endeavors. During the first Gulf War, Limbaugh's father watched him do a commentary and was impressed by his delivery. He called him and asked "Where did you learn to talk like that?" Rush said simply "I learned it from you, Dad." Young Rush was also very close to his grandfather who was a prominent attorney, practiced law well into his nineties, and lived to the age of 103. He attended Southeast Missouri State University for one year where, ironically, he flunked two speech courses, then dropped out. This would have normally made him eligible for the draft, but he was classified 1-Y due to an undisclosed medical problem [http://www.snopes.com/military/limbaugh.htm]. Limbaugh stated that he was not drafted because a physical found that he had an "inoperable pilonidal cyst" and "a football knee from high school" [Colford, pp. 14–20]
Relationships
Limbaugh was married for the first time on September 24, 1977 to Roxy Maxine McNeely, a sales secretary at radio station WHB in Kansas City. They were married at the Centenary United Methodist Church in Cape Girardeau. In March 1980, Roxy McNeelty filed for divorce, citing "incompatibility". They were formally divorced on July 10, 1980. In 1983, Limbaugh married Michelle Sixta, a college student and usherette at the Kansas City Royals Stadium Club. She left him in December 1988 and they divorced in 1991. In 1990, Limbaugh met Marta Fitzgerald, a married 35-year-old aerobics instructor, when she contacted him via the Compuserve online service. After Fitzgerald divorced her third husband, the two were married on May 27, 1994 at the house of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. The ceremony was officiated by Thomas himself. Also in attendence at the wedding were William Bennett, James Carville, and Mary Matalin. On Friday, June 11, 2004, Limbaugh announced that he was separating from Fitzgerald. On air, he stated, "Marta has consented to my request for a divorce, and we have mutually agreed to seek an amicable separation. As I said, it's a personal matter and I want to keep it that way. I don't intend to say any more about this on the air." An article in the Palm Beach Post claimed Fitzgerald had moved out after Rush admitted his drug addiction in October 2003. In August 2004, Limbaugh was reported to be dating CNN television personality Daryn Kagan.
Public life

1970s
After dropping out of Southeast Missouri State University and getting his draft waiver, he moved to Pittsburgh and became a Top 40 music radio disc jockey on station WIXZ. In October 1972, he moved to KQV, using the name Jeff Christie. It was in Pittsburgh that many of Limbaugh's trademarks developed, such as a claim to use a "golden microphone" (which eventually became true in the 1990s on The Rush Limbaugh Show.) After several years in music radio, Limbaugh took a break from radio and accepted a position as director of promotions with the Kansas City Royals baseball team.
1980s
In 1984, Limbaugh returned to radio as a talk show host at KFBK in Sacramento, California. In 1987, the Federal Communications Commission repealed the Fairness Doctrine, thus freeing radio stations to air opinion journalism without having to provide air time to opposing points of view. This emboldened many radio stations to modify their line-ups in order to attract those wishing to hear varied points of view. After achieving success in Sacramento and drawing the attention of Edward F. McLaughlin, a former president of ABC Radio, Limbaugh moved to New York City in 1988, entering the nation's largest radio market on talk-format station WABC-AM, which remains his flagship station to this day. He did a two hour local program on WABC. For a while on WABC he was preceded by commedienne Joy Behar and followed by Lynn Samuels, creating a six-hour block of politically focused radio, with both Behar and Samuels leaning to the left politically. Beginning on August 1, 1988 Limbaugh was syndicated nationally as a two hour show and eventually expanded to three hours while dropping the local New York show, though his show was still based at WABC. (Limbaugh refers on-air to the "Excellence In Broadcasting Network", or "E-I-B"; however, this is merely an on-air signature, as there is no organization with that name.) While WABC remains Limbaugh's key outlet, he now broadcasts from either the Premiere Radio Network studios in New York or his Florida home. Newsday media critic Paul Colford reported on Limbaugh in 1988: [http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/nynewsday/access/104791544.html?dids=104791544:104791544&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT&date=Dec+21%2C+1988&author=By+Paul+Colford&pub=Newsday&desc=AM%2FFM+Combat+in+the+Morning] ::Rush Limbaugh's act includes plenty of pokes at himself and lots of tongue-in-cheek pomposity such as: "I'm Rush Limbaugh, your guiding light in times of trouble and despair." His politics skew sharply to the right of the "liberal Democrats" (this year's bad guys) and Gov. Michael Dukakis, known in Limbaugh parlance as "The Loser." ::The president of EFM Media is a former head of the ABC Radio Network, Edward F. McLaughlin. He believes that Limbaugh, a partner under contract to EFM, will become the most-listened-to radio personality in America - bigger than Larry King - by virtue of his midwestern manner and informed views. Bigger than Larry King? We'll see. For now, McLaughlin's goal is to have 200 stations signed to Limbaugh's show by 1990.
1990s
The program rapidly grew in popularity and moved to stations with larger audiences.
Guest host
Limbaugh's first television exposure came with a 1990 guest host stint on Pat Sajak's late-night program on CBS. After a confrontation with ACT UP gay activists in the studio audience, protesting what they perceived as anti-gay hate speech (such as "AIDS updates" that some suggested celebrated the deaths of people with AIDS), the studio audience was removed so that Limbaugh could finish the show.
Author
In 1992, Limbaugh published his first book, The Way Things Ought To Be, followed by See, I Told You So in 1993. Both went to number one on The New York Times bestsellers list.
Subject of books
The first book about Limbaugh appears to be the 1993 Rush Limbaugh and the Bible by Daniel J. Evearitt. One reviewer said "Dr. Evearitt is very uncomfortable sharing the label 'conservative' with Limbaugh." and notes that it contains chapters like "No Wife, No Kids -- Is This Man an Expert on Family Values?" [http://www.rtis.com/reg/bcs/pol/touchstone/april97/arn2.html] Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR) released a report on October 17, 1994 listing forty-three errors Limbaugh allegedly made during various shows. Limbaugh responded to about half of the original claims; FAIR then rebutted his rebuttal. And the rebutted rebuttals continued. For the full text of the original, the rebuttal and the rebuttal of the rebuttal, see [http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=1895], [http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=1906], and [http://www.fair.org/press-releases/fair-limbaugh-rebuttal.html], respectively. Critics such as L. Brent Bozell's Media Research Center have charged that FAIR is liberal and partisan [http://www.nationalreview.com/comment/bozell200407080856.asp], which is accurate, but so too is Bozell arguably conservative and partisan. In 1995, FAIR published an entire book, The Way Things Aren't: Rush Limbaugh's Reign of Error: Over 100 Outrageously False and Foolish Statements from America's Most Powerful Radio and TV Commentator, alleging errors by Limbaugh. His defenders claim that because Limbaugh talks unscripted for fifteen broadcast hours a week the number of alleged factual errors is, under the circumstances, very small.
Television show
Limbaugh's second attempt at television was a syndicated half-hour show running from 1992 through 1996, with Roger Ailes as executive producer. The television show discussed many of the same topics as his radio show, and was taped in front of a live audience, which he facetiously claimed had to pass an intelligence test in order to be admitted. Reportedly, Limbaugh ended the show due to disappointment that it was aired too late in the evening in many markets (in many places it was aired at 1:30 AM or even later) and because of the immense amount of time required to prepare for the show. One notorious episode of the show's run occurred in the first episode. In his monologue, Limbaugh made reference to a "cute kid" in the White House, then flashed a picture not of 13-year-old Chelsea Clinton, but of Millie, the dog of recently defeated President Bush. However it did appear possible that this was simply an unfortunate control room mix-up. In 1993, when Chelsea Clinton was still in braces, Rush Limbaugh said this: "Everyone knows the Clintons have a cat," said Limbaugh. "Socks is the White House cat. But did you know there is also a White House dog?" He then pointed to a TV monitor, which switched to a picture of Chelsea Clinton. In response to criticism, Limbaugh claimed that his producer had played a trick on him. Another memorable segment of the show was when Limbaugh played a video clip of then-President Bill Clinton laughing at the funeral of Commerce Secretary Ron Brown with Tony Campolo and then putting on a mournful expression the instant Clinton detected the presence of television cameras which recorded this transition. [http://www.wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=39173]
Radio syndication
In 1997, Limbaugh's radio syndicator, privately held EFM Media, was acquired by Jacor Communication, a publicly traded company.[http://www.bizjournals.com/cincinnati/stories/1997/03/17/daily6.html] Later that year, Jacor merged with Premiere Radio Networks. [http://www.cfonews.com/jcor/c061297.txt] In 1999, Jacor merged with Clear Channel Communications.[http://www.clearchannel.com/Corporate/PressReleases/2001/050499.pdf] Currently, Clear Channel Communications though its Premiere Radio Networks subsidiary is the syndicator for Limbaugh's radio show.
Al Franken and weight
In 1996, Al Franken released a book and CD titled Rush Limbaugh is a Big Fat Idiot and Other Observations which, among other political humor from a liberal perspective, included harsh criticism of Limbaugh and his allegedly meager fact-finding efforts. The "Fat" portion of the title of the book was a jibe at Limbaugh's weight and in-kind payback for his alleged rudeness on the radio and TV during the time in which the book was first published. Limbaugh's personal attacks during this period included mocking Clinton-era Labor Secretary Robert Reich for being short. Sometime after the publication of "Big Fat Idiot," Limbaugh began to go on various diets. On November 20, 1999, he appeared on CNBC's Tim Russert show describing his weight loss: "I got to 325 at my highest. And … I lost the weight in two stages, and I'm now at 215. So that's—yeah, 110 pounds." He has said that his secret to weight loss is due to pasta.
Called "one of the most dangerous men in America"
On March 3, 1991, Jon Kleinman wrote a letter to the editor of the Los Angeles Times Magazine in which he opined, "Radio is powerful. Limbaugh's views go unchecked. It is my view that he's one of the most dangerous men in America." [http://groups.google.com/group/alt.rush-limbaugh/browse_thread/thread/b2e6ce0a185f89e2/8948b2cebab03ce5?lnk=st&q=%22most+dangerous+man%22+limbaugh&rnum=4&hl=en#8948b2cebab03ce5] Limbaugh adopted this label on his radio program, using it as part of his on-air braggadocio.
2000s

Deafness
By September 2001, Limbaugh's listeners had noted changes in his voice and diction, changes that Limbaugh initially did not acknowledge. However, on October 8, 2001, Limbaugh admitted that the changes in his voice were due to complete deafness in his left ear and substantial hearing loss in his right ear. He also revealed that his radio staff was aiding him in continuing to accept calls on his show, despite his rapidly progressing hearing loss, by setting up a system where he could appear to hear his callers. The system worked remarkably well, but did not convince all listeners, some of whom noted a long delay between a caller ending his point and Limbaugh responding, and occasionally speaking over a caller. In December 2001, Limbaugh underwent cochlear implant surgery, which restored a measure of hearing in his left ear, and his voice and enunciation improved. According to Limbaugh's doctors, Limbaugh's deafness was caused by an autoimmune disease. When Limbaugh revealed [http://www.cnn.com/2003/SHOWBIZ/10/10/rush.limbaugh/] in 2003 that he was addicted to pain killers, some doctors drew a link between his deafness and his drug addiction that resulted from the medication Limbaugh was prescribed to alleviate his chronic back-pain. [http://www.hon.ch/News/HSN/515577.html][http://www.reflector.com/health/content/shared-auto/healthnews/drue/515577.html] Nonetheless, no linkage between hydrocodone and deafness has been scientifically substantiated. The House Ear Clinic, who performed Limbaugh's cochlear implant surgery, issued a [http://www.hei.org/news/factshts/painkillers.htm public statement] warning of the possible correlation between habitual use of pain killers containing hydrocodone and acetaminophen, and permanent hearing loss.
ESPN commentator
hydrocodone On July 14, 2003, ESPN announced that Limbaugh would be joining ESPN's Sunday NFL Countdown show as a weekly commentator when it premiered on September 7. Limbaugh would provide the "voice of the fan" and was supposed to spark debate on the show. [http://espn.go.com/nfl/news/2003/0714/1580436.html] Limbaugh certainly succeeded at the latter. On September 28, Limbaugh commented about Donovan McNabb, the quarterback of the Philadelphia Eagles: :"Sorry to say this, I don't think he's been that good from the get-go. I think what we've had here is a little social concern in the NFL. The media has been very desirous that a black quarterback do well. There is a little hope invested in McNabb, and he got a lot of credit for the performance of this team that he didn't deserve. The defense carried this team." [http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=1627887] McNabb was the highest paid NFL player in history at the time, and defenders of Limbaugh's comments point out that McNabb had the worst start of his career in the 2003 season and was the NFL's lowest-rated starting quarterback. McNabb's defenders say that to his credit, McNabb was a runner-up for the year 2000 league Most Valuable Player, a member of three Pro Bowl teams, and led his team to two straight NFC championship games. McNabb had suffered a broken leg during the 2002 season, and had been slow to recover. The Reverend Al Sharpton, a Democratic Party candidate for President, encouraged Limbaugh's firing from ESPN, threatening a boycott of all Disney companies, including ABC, Disneyland, and Walt Disney World. Presidential candidates Howard Dean and Wesley Clark joined in the criticism, as did the NAACP. Limbaugh responded by saying that he must have been right; otherwise, the comments would not have sparked such outrage. On October 1, 2003, Limbaugh resigned from ESPN with the statement: : "My comments this past Sunday were directed at the media and were not racially motivated. I offered an opinion. This opinion has caused discomfort to the crew, which I regret. I love NFL Sunday Countdown and do not want to be a distraction to the great work done by all who work on it. Therefore, I have decided to resign. I appreciate the opportunity to be a part of the show and wish all the best to those who make it happen." Limbaugh insisted that his comments were aimed at other members of the media, and not at McNabb or African Americans. It has been suggested that Limbaugh's fellow commentators on the program, some of whom were African-American former football players, may have played a role behind the scenes in ending Limbaugh's career as a football commentator. After Limbaugh's resignation, Sunday NFL Countdown co-host Tom Jackson, who is African American, said on the air[http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewCulture.asp?Page=\Culture\archive\200310\CUL20031007b.html]: : "Let me just say that it was not our decision to have Rush Limbaugh on this show. I've seen replay after replay of Limbaugh's comments with my face attached as well as that of my colleagues, comments which made us very uncomfortable at the time, although the depth and the insensitive nature of which weren't fully felt until it seemed too late to reply. He was brought here to talk football, and he broke that trust. Rush told us the social commentary for which he is so well known would not cross over to our show, and instead, he would represent the viewpoint of the intelligent, passionate fan. Rush Limbaugh was not a fit for NFL Countdown."
Painkiller addiction
African-American, 2003]] In early October 2003 and in the same week as the McNabb controversy, the National Enquirer reported that Limbaugh was being investigated for illegally buying prescription drugs. Limbaugh's former housekeeper, under investigation for drug dealing, alleged that Limbaugh was addicted to prescription opioid painkillers such as OxyContin and Lorcet (a combination of Paracetamol (acetaminophen) and hydrocodone) and that he went through detox twice. Other news outlets quickly confirmed the beginnings of an investigation. The highly addictive painkillers function similarly to and belong to the same drug group as morphine and heroin, or a stronger form of codeine. On October 10, 2003, Limbaugh admitted to listeners on his radio show that he was addicted to prescription painkillers and stated that he would enter inpatient treatment for 30 days, immediately following the broadcast. He did not specifically mention which pain medications he was addicted to. Speaking about his behavior, Limbaugh went on to say: : "I am not making any excuses. You know, over the years, athletes and celebrities have emerged from treatment centers to great fanfare and praise for conquering great demons. They are said to be great role models and examples for others. Well, I am no role model. I refuse to let anyone think I am doing something great here, when there are people you never hear about, who face long odds and never resort to such escapes." : "They are the role models. I am no victim and do not portray myself as such. I take full responsibility for my problem. At the present time the authorities are conducting an investigation, and I have been asked to limit my public comments until this investigation is complete." [http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/news/a/2003/10/10/national1534EDT0646.DTL] Following Limbaugh's admission of drug addiction, his detractors reviewed prior statements by him about drug addicts as examples of hypocrisy. Several statements from the 1990s were found, in particular, on October 5, 1995: : "There's nothing good about drug use. We know it. It destroys individuals. It destroys families. Drug use destroys societies. Drug use, some might say, is destroying this country. And we have laws against selling drugs, pushing drugs, using drugs, importing drugs. And the laws are good because we know what happens to people in societies and neighborhoods which become consumed by them. And so if people are violating the law by doing drugs, they ought to be accused and they ought to be convicted and they ought to be sent up." and in 1998: : "What is missing in the drug fight is legalization. If we want to go after drugs with the same fervor and intensity with which we go after cigarettes, let's legalize drugs. Legalize the manufacture of drugs. License the Cali cartel. Make them taxpayers, and then sue them. Sue them left and right, and then get control of the price, and generate tax revenue from it. Raise the price sky high, and fund all sorts of other wonderful social programs." An article in the January 12, 2004 issue of Human Events (The National Conservative Weekly) presented its reaction to the media attention of Limbaugh's addiction, calling it a 'Network War' against Limbaugh. It charged network anchors with engaging in exaggerated and inflammatory rhetoric by implying Limbaugh was involved in "drug sales" or "drug gangs." [http://www.humaneventsonline.com/article.php?id=2787 Timeline] An investigation into alleged "doctor shopping" is ongoing in the state of Florida. Limbaugh's attorney Roy Black alleges that the chief county prosecutor investigating Limbaugh, an elected Democrat, is politically motivated. The ACLU, an organization often lambasted by Limbaugh, has come to his defense, claiming that the district attorney violated Limbaugh's constitutional rights by "fishing" through his private medical records. This investigation has, as of 2005, brought no criminal charges. Limbaugh states his addiction to painkillers came as a result of long-term back pain he had been suffering for several years.
American Forces Network controversy
On May 26, 2004, Eric Boehler wrote in a Salon.com [http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2004/05/26/rush_limbaugh/index.html article] that American Forces Radio and Television Service (AFRTS) airs The Rush Limbaugh Show, but no corresponding liberal-leaning political show. Melvin Russell, director of AFRTS, defended Limbaugh's presence, by pointing to Limbaugh's high ratings in the US: "We look at the most popular shows broadcast here in the United States and try to mirror that. [Limbaugh] is the No. 1 talk show host in the States; there's no question about that. Because of that we provide him on our service." Limbaugh himself pointed out that AFRTS aired many hours of National Public Radio, which he asserted was liberal programming. The Howard Stern show, which draws eight million listeners a week, was absent from AFRTS. The Ed Schultz show, a liberal talk radio show with over one million listeners a week, originally scheduled to be broadcast on AFRTS was subsequently pulled, with some alleging political motivation, and then debated in Congress.
Anti-war protesters and the media
On August 15, 2005, Limbaugh compared the actions and news coverage of Cindy Sheehan, an anti-war protester and mother of slain soldier Casey Sheehan, to that of alleged document forger Bill Burkett: "The fact is that they are too eager. I mean, Cindy Sheehan is just Bill Burkett. Her story is nothing more than forged documents. There's nothing about it that's a (sic) real, including the mainstream media's glomming onto it. It's not real." [http://mediamatters.org/items/200508220003] Afterwards he said that he was not questioning the authenticity of her claims, but he meant her response was a staged media event. [http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/home/daily/site_081805/content/truth_detector.guest.html]. He also said that summer that the time to protest a war is before it begins, not after the first shot is fired.
Internet and technology
Limbaugh was an early adopter and fan of the internet and allowed and invited listeners to send email to his Compuserve account. On his website, Limbaugh offers a subscription service called "Rush 24/7" that provides additional materials mentioned on the show as well as recordings. In 2005, Limbaugh began podcasting his program to subscribers. Limbaugh also claims to prefer and use Apple computers extensively, and sometimes fires shots at Microsoft Windows users.
Philosophy

Defining the conservative movement
Limbaugh made the following comments in an op-ed piece in 2005:
I love being a conservative. We conservatives are proud of our philosophy. Unlike our liberal friends, who are constantly looking for new words to conceal their true beliefs and are in a perpetual state of reinvention, we conservatives are unapologetic about our ideals.
- We are confident in our principles and energetic about openly advancing them. We believe in individual liberty, limited government, capitalism, the rule of law, faith, a color-blind society and national security.
- We support school choice, enterprise zones, tax cuts, welfare reform, faith-based initiatives, political speech, homeowner rights and the war on terrorism.
- And at our core we embrace and celebrate the most magnificent governing document ever ratified by any nation -- the U.S. Constitution.
- Along with the Declaration of Independence, which recognizes our God-given natural right to be free, it is the foundation on which our government is built and has enabled us to flourish as a people.
- We conservatives are never stronger than when we are advancing our principles.
From American Conservatism: A Crackdown, Not a 'Crackup' Wall Street Journal op-ed October 17, 2005[http://www.opinionjournal.com/ac/?id=110007417]
Conservatism and libertarianism
Rush Limbaugh claims to be a conservative, but his show has sometimes advocated a more libertarian viewpoint. On May 18, 1999, he identified himself as "a conservative/libertarian" in his criticism of a caller who argued that the government should break Microsoft up into smaller companies [http://www.self-gov.org/good/a0190.html]. Libertarian economist and columnist Walter Williams has been a frequent substitute on his show. Terry Mattingly remarked, "Limbaugh is kind of an in-the-closet Libertarian, trapped with a Bible-believing audience." [http://jollyblogger.typepad.com/jollyblogger/2004/06/rush_limbaugh_d.html]. Yet, he does not seem to share the libertarian perspective on social issues such as gay rights. Unlike most libertarians, Limbaugh supports the War in Iraq, the War on Drugs and many other policies of the current Bush administration. Limbaugh also does in fact, satirically, define his show as the "Limbaugh Institute for Advanced Conservative Study"
Views on homosexuality
In 2003 Limbaugh broadcast the following hypothetical on abortion choices made by parents based upon trait selection and the anticipated reaction by advocates of gay rights:
Imagine we identify the gene — assuming that there is one, this is hypothetical — that will tell us prior to birth that a baby is going to be gay…. How many parents, if they knew before the kid was gonna be born, [that he] was gonna be gay, they would take the pregnancy to term? Well, you don't know but let's say half of them said, "Oh, no, I don't wanna do that to a kid." [Then the] gay community finds out about this. The gay community would do the fastest 180 and become pro-life faster than anybody you've ever seen. … They'd be so against abortion if it was discovered that you could abort what you knew were gonna be gay babies. [http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/827830/posts]
Limbaugh opposed teaching grade school students about homosexuality in 1993 and wrote of gay rights as being special rights. He has made similar statements about transsexuals.
Balance and point of view
Critics decry what they assert is the lack of a balance between liberal and conservative viewpoints on talk radio. Limbaugh's response to this accusation is to claim that most news reporting is liberally biased[http://mediamatters.org/items/200508160010][http://mediamatters.org/items/200508300005]; a common saying of his is "I am equal time." He also does not claim to be a neutral reporter and contrasts his stance with the major news media's claims of objectivity (in the United States). He also has explained himself on occasion as being a commentator and entertainer, not a reporter. Limbaugh's satire, especially that of his early years, has been criticized by his detractors with some even calling it hate speech. News about the homeless is often preceded with the Clarence "Frogman" Henry song "Ain't Got No Home". For a time, the song "I Know I'll Never Love This Way Again" preceded reports about people with AIDS. For two weeks in 1989, Limbaugh performed "caller abortions" where he would end a call suddenly to the sounds of a vacuum cleaner and a child's scream, after which he would deny there was ever a caller explaining that the call had been "aborted." In his references to Ted Kennedy, he often cites Kennedy's alcohol abuse that led to the death of Kennedy's girlfriend at Chappaquiddick; for instance, Limbaugh has nicknamed Kennedy "the swimmer" and frequently refers to Kennedy as the Senator from Chappaquiddick. Limbaugh refers to Robert Byrd as "Sheets Byrd" in reference to Byrd's former membership in the KKK. (An extensive list of Limbaugh's nicknames for various political figures may be found at The Rush Limbaugh Show). Although controversial, his satire has been praised by his supporters and fans.
Demographic appeal
On the topic of what demographic Limbaugh appeals to, conservative economist Thomas Sowell states: :The liberal vision of Rush Limbaugh is that he is some guy who appeals to ignorant rednecks and Joe Sixpacks. As with so many things that liberals believe, they feel no need to test their notions against reality. Actual research on Rush Limbaugh's audience has shown that they are above average in both education and income. :Anyone who actually listens to Rush's show knows that those listeners who phone in are usually pretty savvy folks, and clearly a cut above those who phone in on other radio or television programs. But many liberals have such a sense of superiority that it would never occur to them to listen and learn.[http://www.townhall.com/columnists/thomassowell/ts20030221.shtml] Sowell may have been referencing surveys such as those from the Annenberg Public Policy Center [http://www.annenbergpublicpolicycenter.org/03_political_communication/archive/1996_03_political-talk-radio_rpt.PDF]. Another stereotype of the Limbaugh listener is encapsulated in the epithet "dittohead". When used as a derogatory term, it implies that the subject is a "mind-numbed robot", who falls into the groupthink of Limbaugh's audience. The term orgininated with people agreeing with previous callers' admiration of Rush.
References

- Books written by Limbaugh
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- This was the best selling non-fiction hardback book of 1992, and holds the honor of being number one on the New York Times Bestseller list for 54 consecutive weeks. To date, no book has broken this record.
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- This was the best selling non-fiction hardback book of 1993.
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See also

- Environmentalist wacko, Econazi and Ecoterrorist
- The Rush Limbaugh Show
- Thomas M. Sullivan
External links

- [http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/ Website of The Rush Limbaugh Show]
- [http://www.reelradio.com/jay/index.html#kqv74jc An aircheck of Rush Limbaugh as "Jeff Christie" on KQV-AM]
- [http://dmoz.org/Arts/Radio/Formats/Talk_Radio/Programs/Political/Limbaugh,_Rush/ Open Directory Project - Rush Limbaugh]
- [http://mediamatters.org/archives/search.html?topic=Rush%20Limbaugh Media Matters auto-search for Rush Limbaugh]
- [http://www.newsmeat.com/media_political_donations/Rush_Limbaugh.php Rush Limbaugh's political donations]
- Limbaugh, Rush Limbaugh, Rush Limbaugh, Rush Limbaugh, Rush Limbaugh, Rush Limbaugh, Rush Limbaugh, Rush Limbaugh, Rush Limbaugh, Rush Limbaugh, Rush Limbaugh, Rush

Sean Hannity

Sean Patrick Hannity (born December 30, 1961, in New York City, New York) is an American conservative talk radio host, co-host of Fox News Channel's political debate program Hannity & Colmes, and the author of two books.

Early Life & Career

Hannity went to high school at St. Pius X Preparatory Seminary in Uniondale, Long Island, New York, graduating in 1980. Shortly thereafter, he attended New York University but dropped out to pursue his radio career. He has claimed several times on his radio show that personal financial difficulties contributed to his dropping out. Already a poor, blue-collar, Reaganite conservative by the mid-1980s, Hannity says that his true awakening into activist politics and talk radio came during the infamous Iran-Contra Affair, specifically the Oliver North Senate hearings in 1986. His indignance over the media's treatment of North inspired him to call radio stations across the country, expressing his outrage. Eventually, he decided that his voice would be better served behind a real radio microphone rather than over the telephone.

KCSB Controversy

His first radio show was in the late 1980s as a volunteer broadcaster for the University of California, Santa Barbara's radio station, KCSB, although he was not a student at the University.[http://www.as.ucsb.edu/kcsb/history.html] Hannity was dismissed from the station in 1989 following an interview with Gene Antonio, author of The AIDS Coverup: The Real and Alarming Facts about AIDS. During the interview, Antonio argued that AIDS was easily transferrable: that so much as a cough or a sneeze may allow the HIV virus to be contracted. Antonio also used the appearance to argue that gays "were a subculture of people engaged in deviant, twisted acts". Hannity displayed a great deal of sympathy with Antonio's views, proclaiming "Anyone listening to this show that believes homosexuality is a normal lifestyle has been brainwashed. It's very dangerous if we start accepting lower and lower forms of behavior as the normal." After hearing the commentary, another presenter at KCSB called into the show to voice her concerns about Antonio's arguments. During the call, Hannity pointed out to the audience that the caller was a lesbian who had a child through IVF. Antonio then dubbed the caller's child a "turkey-baster baby", with Hannity continuing "I feel sorry for your child." The station reversed its decision to remove Hannity, thanks in part to a campaign conducted by the Santa Barbara Chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union. Hannity decided against returning to KCSB. In Let Freedom Ring: Winning the War of Liberty Against Liberalism, Hannity argued that the KCSB dismissal was a result of a political witch-hunt. He wrote: "...It [the KCSB show] didn't last long. I was too conservative, the higher-ups said, and they didn't like the comments one guest made on the show... The left-wing management had zero-tolerance for conservative points of view. And I was promptly fired".

After KCSB

Even though he was no longer enrolled as a student or involved with WNYU (New York University's radio station), Hannity placed an ad in radio publications presenting himself as "the most talked about college radio host in America," and WVNN in Huntsville, Alabama hired him to be the morning talk show host. From there, he was hired by WGST in Atlanta to fill the slot vacated by Neal Boortz, who had moved on to competing station WSB.

Hannity & Colmes

Main article: Hannity & Colmes. Hannity is the co-host for Fox News Channel's Hannity & Colmes political commentary program.

Radio Program

His ABC Radio program went nationally syndicated on September 10, 2001. It is aired from WABC in New York and is now heard on well over 400 stations nationwide. His program now boasts the second-largest radio audience in the country, heard by over 13 million listeners a week. In 2004, Hannity signed a $25 million 5-year contract extension with ABC Radio to continue the show into 2009.

Philanthropy

- Hannity hosts the annual Freedom Concert at Six Flags Great Adventure in Jackson, New Jersey. This annual event aims to provide full college scholarships for all children of fallen U.S. military servicemen.

Hannitydate

Since 2005, Hannity has run a dating service on his website, called "Hannidate", matching right-leaning singles.

Criticisms

Support for Iran-Contra

Many critics have criticized Hannity for his support for U.S. Government actions in the Iran-Contra Affair. Al Franken, for example, wrote in Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them, that "You've got to wonder about a guy [Hannity] whose interest in politics was inspired by the illegal funding of terrorists [in Nicaragua]." Franken's use of the word terrorist presumably refers to the World Court finding in Nicaragua vs. United States that the U.S. CIA committed "terrorist acts" against Nicaragua.

Conduct at UVSC

In 2004, Hannity was invited to Utah Valley State College, shortly before Michael Moore's appearance. During Hannity's speech, he taunted liberals, asking "Where are they? Where are all the little liberals? Here liberal, liberal, liberal, liberal!". After a liberal asked Hannity a question regarding Iraq and the alledged Weapons of Mass Destruction, Hannity responded "So... you're here at UVSC. Have you thought of Berkeley or any of these other places?"

Books

- Deliver Us From Evil: Defeating Terrorism, Despotism, and Liberalism (Regan Books, 2004) ISBN 0060582510
- Let Freedom Ring: Winning the War of Liberty Against Liberalism (Regan Books, 2002) ISBN 0060514558

Trivia

- A fictionalized, cyborg version of Sean Hannity takes a principal role in the conservative comic book, "Liberality For All", in which he -- along with G. Gordon Liddy and Oliver North [http://accstudios.com/f/comicpreview_page_covera.htm] -- leads an underground resistance against a hypothetical liberal dystopia.
- The position held by Hannity at WVNN in Huntsville, Alabama has since launched the careers of talk radio talents Kevin Miller and Mike Church of Sirius Satellite Radio.
- Thanks to his position as a radio talk show host in Huntsville, AL and his nickname "the Baby Jesus", Huntsville has been dubbed "the birthplace of talk radio".

External Links

Pro-Hannity
- [http://www.hannity.com/ Sean Hannity's official website and web-blog]
- [http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,1242,00.html/ Sean Hannity's biography (Fox News)]
- [http://www.nationalreview.com/comment/malkin200402180833.asp/ Hannity vs. Evil]
- [http://www.freedomalliance.org/view_article.php?a_id=576 Sean Hannity & Freedom Alliance to Host Star-Studded Tribute to the Troops] Anti-Hannity
- [http://www.campusprogress.org/tools/195/ Know Your Right-Wing Speakers: Sean Hannity]
- [http://mediamatters.org/archives/search.html?topic=Sean%20Hannity MediaMatters.org articles on Hannity]
- [http://www.thenation.com/doc/20050620/blumenthal The Nation Magazine article about Hannity's questionable associations]
- [http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=1158 An Aggressive Conservative vs. a "Liberal to be Determined"] Hannity, Sean Hannity, Sean Hannity, Sean Hannity, Sean Hannity, Sean Hannity, Sean Hannity, Sean Hannity, Sean

Oakland Raiders

The Oakland Raiders are a National Football League team based in Oakland, California. The team was founded in 1960 as a charter member of the American Football League and joined the NFL as part of the AFL-NFL Merger. :Founded: 1960 :Formerly known as: Los Angeles Raiders (1982-1994) :Home field: McAfee Coliseum (1966-1981, 1995-present) :Previous home fields: ::