By Brad Friedman on 7/17/2006, 11:51am PT  

(NOTE: RAW STORY is now running an article on Howard Dean's comments at DemFest and our Press Conference there, both on Saturday.)

Have finally made it out of San Diego, back to Los Angeles, where hopefully, I'll be leaving again soon to take whatever form of occassionally working, occassionally vacating vacation that I am able to pull off over the next month while all of these things are going on....

It's been a whirlwind past 48 hours or so, and I've hardly been able to catch my breath, much less log onto the net at all for the most part since 7am on Saturday. So I've got a lot of catchup to do. More notably, I've got a lot to catch you up on from news of a late and last-minute press conference on the latest Busby/Bilbray CA50 stuff that we held Saturday evening at DemocracyFest just prior to the big open air concert event (featuring Al Franken, Howard Dean, Marc Maron, Paul Hackett, Maxine Waters and many others) to various bits and pieces that I hope to share from meetings and conversations and such from the last several days of DemFest and beyond.

I'll share some news and comments from Sen. Debra Bowen (with whom I sat on a panel discussion Saturday in the big room at DemFest) and Francine Busby (with whom I was able to have a number of private conversations) and Howard Dean who spoke about the Busby/Bilbray CA50 voting machine "sleepovers" during that big Saturday night event. And probably more.

Need some time to get caught up over the next few hours, and hope to have comments here soon.

The hastily compiled media advisory, sent out in the hectic and heated hours before Saturday's Press Conference is below. Portions of it were, I'm told, carried by San Diego's Channel 9 and 10 --- one of them the local ABC affiliate --- including (I think) some one-on-one comments from yours truly. The local Air America Affiliate, KLSD 1360am also played portions of the conference on Sunday morning. Anyway...pardon my exhaustion, and my inability to communicate much at all until now, and stand by for more when I can get caught up a bit...somehow...

***MEDIA ALERT***

Contact: Miriam Raftery, DemocracyFest! Press Coordinator, ###-###-####

CA 50 ACTION COMMITTEE FORMED TO PROTEST JUNE 6 ELECTION

Group Lauds DNC's Call for Hand Count of Busby/Bilbray Race after illegal Voting Machine 'Sleepovers' and other Election Irregularities

WHAT: Leaders of the California Progressive Movement announce formation of CA-50 Action Committee to organize legal action for accountability in the recent June 6 special election in California's 50th District. This action is to support yesterday's call by the Democratic National Committee for a complete hand count of votes in the Busby/Bilbray election, and to announce next steps.

WHO: The CA 50 Group is a coalition including California Election Protection Network, Progressive Democrats of America, Democracy for America, VelvetRevolution.us, and BradBlog.com. Leaders of the California Progressive Movement, including: Mimi Kennedy, Chair of Progressive Democrats of America, Brad Friedman of BradBlog.com and VelvetRevolution.us, Judy Hess, PDA-San Diego, Gail Work, CA Democracy for America, Jim Wade, DFA, Brina-Rae Schuchman, PDA/DFA, and others

WHEN: 6:30 PM TONIGHT, Saturday, July 15, 2006,
Immediately prior to the event in the Open Air Theater featuring Al Franken, Howard Dean, Mark Maron, Paul Hackett, Maxine Waters, others.

WHERE:
Directly in front of the entrance to the San Diego State University Open Air Theater on the campus of San Diego State University – 5500 Campanile Drive, next to the Adams Humanities Bldg. http://www.sdsu.edu/map/interactive.html

DNC's Statement: http://www.democrats.org...6/07/dnc_voting_righ.php

More Info and Background: https://bradblog.com/?p=3069

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