Despite the hostile anti-American rhetoric from Iran’s president, a Santa Rosa woman who visited last year says the citizens she met were warm and welcoming.

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The political differences that divide progressives and conservatives run deeper than policies and opinions, says linguist and analyst George Lakoff, they are embedded deep within the brain itself.

UC Berkeley professor George Lakoff is primarily a linguist, and here he explains how that background leads to the political applications that form the basis of his current book, The Political Mind: A Cognitive Scientist’s Guide to Your Brain and its Politics.

George Lakoff(right)  will read from The Political Mind  at Copperfields Books in Montgomery Village Sunday afternoon, September 13th at 2 pm.

President Obama has been praised for actively re-entering the debate over health care reform with his address to Congress this week, but Lakoff says the administration is still bound by a policy-driven approach that stints on making an essential emotional connection with the American electorate.

Public support for a government-run “public option” health care plan is growing, says Congresswoman Lynn Woolsey, and it has her strong backing, too.

Public support for a single-payer system has long been strong across the nation, Woolsey says, and that is now translating into support for the public option concept, even among elected officials.

The Progressive Caucus of House Democrats will be a strong and united voice behind the public option, Woolsey predicts, because on this issue they have started out in agreement on what must be done.

Congresswoman Woolsey has spelled out her position on the pending health care reform issue in op-ed pieces in the Marin Independent Journal and the Santa Rosa Press Democrat.

Listen below to hear the full 30-minute KRCB interview that was broadcast August 28th.

As the above graph shows, Health Care Reform  means different things to different people. The figures are based on a survey conduceted by the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, which has also developed a n interactive website where you can do your own side-by-side comparison of the various health care report plans that have been put forward.

The start of this new school year at Sonoma State University was marked by grim financial news and warnings that things will almost certainly get worse next year.

The faculty and staff at Sonoma State are resigned to the cutbacks that the current economic climate has necessitated, said SSU Faculty chair Susan Moulton (left)  as she opened yesterday’s University Convocation. But there is also lingering unhappiness over the perception that the pain has not been equally shared by the school’s administration.

While much attention has been focused on the faculty’s furloughs, Associated Students President Heather Hanson pointed out that they have been feeling the financial hardships across the past decade, and the most recent moves present a double impact on students, as they must pay more even as fewer classes are being offered.

In addition to the furloughs and other budget cuts, University President Armanana noted that his school has been forced to close enrollment for the spring semester next year, and cut back on admissions for the 2010-11 school year but 450 students, effectively denying access to a university education for hundreds of eligible young people.