Civil Disobedience

Mayor Filner to Speak at Press Conference Against Gag Order in Federal Medical Marijuana Case – Today – Monday May 20th

May 20, 2013 by Source

Press Conference with Mayor Bob Filner

When: 2:00PM – Monday, May 20, 2013 – Mayor’s Press Conference to Follow
Where: Dept. 5, on the 3rd Flr. of the San Diego Federal Courthouse,
940 Front St. at Broadway, San Diego, CA, 92101

By Americans For Safe Access – San Diego Chapter / ASA

Ronnie Chang is a state legal medical cannabis patient, an alleged former collective operator and victim of the 9/9/09 raids on cannabis collective in San Diego County. A widespread and brutal attack on legal cannabis patients, the raids were part of a joint effort by the federal Drug Enforcement Administration and San Diego District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis to senselessly destroy the public safety collectives provide the community.

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Point Loma Imbroglio Continues Over “Bogus” Stop Signs After Peninsula Planners’ Compromise

May 17, 2013 by Staff
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Point Loma Planners’ Recommendation That “Bogus” Signs Be Replaced and Official Signs Removed Continues to Split Local Community

CBS8 reports that the Peninsula Planning Committee’s decision last night – May 16th – to find a compromise on the “bogus” stop signs continues to divide and rile the local hilltop community in Point Loma.

The Committee voted 4 to 3 to send a recommendation to Councilmember Faulconer’s office that the controversial stop signs that appeared and installed by anonymous parties, outside of city regulations, will be replaced – there’s 2 of them – and that 3 official stop signs in the area be removed.

The reportedly “packed crowd” was disappointed with the final vote during the planners regular monthly meeting at the Point Loma Library, with neither side in the debate/ issue satisfied. Will Scott, a local neighbor who favored the new stop signs, was quoted:

“We’re neither [excited or upset]. This recommendation was clearly a compromise.”

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Celebrate May Day and Know Its Origins

May 1, 2013 by Source
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Most people living in the United States know little about the International Workers’ Day of May Day. For many others there is an assumption that it is a holiday celebrated in state communist countries like Cuba or the former Soviet Union. Most Americans don’t realize that May Day has its origins here in this country and is as “American” as baseball and apple pie, and stemmed from the pre-Christian holiday of Beltane, a celebration of rebirth and fertility.

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Bogus Stop Signs in Point Loma Get Support From City and Many Residents

April 18, 2013 by Frank Gormlie

Not Every Resident Is Happy, However

Two bogus stop signs have been discovered in the tony neighborhood of southern Point Loma, near the Point Loma campus of Nazarene University. In July, 2012, a stop sign appeared on Jennings Street. The counterfeit signs have many supporters among local residents, and even the City signed off (no pun intended) on one of them – but, not everyone is happy.

Residents along Jennings at Albion Street and Silvergate Avenue are divided on the issue. Some say the bogus signs have made their neighborhood more safer for pedestrians, children, and walkers.

And some of them have been complaining to the City about traffic speeding through their ritzy neighborhood for over a decade. In fact, residents in 2000 asked the City to do something and allow stop signs, but the City declined, and installed a “Yield” sign. Residents also asked the City again later in 2000, and also in early 2001, and city staff deemed stop signs unnecessary.

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OB Citizens’ Patrol to Meet Tuesday, April 2nd

March 29, 2013 by Staff

Perhaps spurred on by the latest sexual assault (and though the suspect has been caught), OBceans are organizing the next meeting of the OB OB Citizen’s Patrol.

The first meeting of 2013 will be held Tuesday, April 2 at 5 pm. The meeting will take place at the Tower 2 Cafe, in OB.

Tower 2 Cafe is located at 5083 Santa Monica Avenue, OB, CA 92107; and their phone is (619) 223-4059.

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March 28th Is the 42nd Anniversary of the Largest Community-Police “Disturbance” in Ocean Beach History

March 28, 2013 by Frank Gormlie
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Today, March 28th, marks the 42nd anniversary of the infamous Collier Park Riot – the largest “disturbance” between the community and police in the history of Ocean Beach.

Hundreds of OBceans and students from area colleges were gathered on March 28, 1971, at a peaceful anti-Vietnam War protest that was combined with a community clean-up of a large corner lot for parkland when they were attacked by police. This unprovoked assault by police resulted in a riot that spread from Soto and Greene Streets all the way to the beach and lasted for hours into the night. Fifty people were arrested, many injured, a patrol car was burned, but over time, the wounds were healed, the war ended, and a park was created in northeast OB: Collier Park.

Here are a series of articles about the Collier Park Riot and what it meant for Ocean Beach.

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Reflections from a Rally at the Hilton Mission Valley

March 4, 2013 by Ernie McCray
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Much has been made of Bob Filner crashing the City Attorney’s news conference a little while ago but we shouldn’t forget that in that flurry of feistiness he pointed out that there are people among us, fellow citizens, family, friends, you name them, who are paid tacky wages. Like hotel workers.

He made it clear that the tourist industry isn’t going to ply their trade with $30 million dollars of the city’s money unless they pay hotel workers what they deserve.

How refreshing is that, a mayor for the people, a man standing up for the folks who make visitors to “America’s Finest City” comfortable and well fed, with nice pools for a swim on well manicured hotel grounds. These people get out and about town and spend money by the ton and the people who added so much to the fineness of their stay don’t get anywhere near their fair share of this bounty.

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Bill Moyers: The Hubris of the Drones

February 13, 2013 by Source
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By Bill Moyers and Michael Winship / February 12, 2013

Last week, The New York Times published a chilling account of how indiscriminate killing in war remains bad policy even today. This time, it’s done not by young GIs in the field, but by anonymous puppeteers guiding drones that hover and attack by remote control against targets thousands of miles away, often killing the innocent and driving their enraged and grieving families and friends straight into the arms of the very terrorists we’re trying to eradicate.

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50 American Leaders Risk Arrest Today – Feb. 13th – in Front of White House to Protest Lack of Action Against Climate Change

February 13, 2013 by Source
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Sierra Club – for first time – to participate in civil disobedience that includes RFK Jr

From EcoWatch / February 13, 2013

Fifty American leaders—including Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. (Waterkeeper Alliance), Michael Brune (Sierra Club), Bill McKibben (350.org), Reverend Lennox Yearwood Jr. (Hip Hop Caucus), civil rights legend Julian Bond, actress Daryl Hannah, and others —will risk arrest today in front of the White House to demonstrate the depth of their support for decisive action against climate change. For the first time in its 120-year history, the Sierra Club will participate in this civil disobedience action to convey the severity and urgency of action on climate.

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Federal Court Denies Lawsuit Claiming Marijuana’s Medical Benefits

January 29, 2013 by Source
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By Steven Wishnia / Alternet

Preserving the main legal barrier to medical marijuana, a federal appeals court on Jan. 22 rejected a lawsuit intended to force the Drug Enforcement Administration to move marijuana out of Schedule I, the federal law that classifies marijuana as a dangerous drug with no valid medical use.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled 2-1 that the medical-marijuana advocates who filed the suit—Americans for Safe Access, a California-based patient-advocacy group; the Coalition to Reschedule Cannabis, Patients Out of Time, and four individual medical users, including Air Force veteran Michael Krawitz—had not proved that the DEA’s decision to keep marijuana in Schedule I was “arbitrary and capricious.” The court held that marijuana had failed to meet the five standards the DEA sets for drugs to qualify as having a valid medical use.

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Remembering the Real Martin Luther King Jr. Without Apologies

January 21, 2013 by Jim Miller
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As we celebrate the rich legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., I am drawn back to my favorite speech of his, “Where Do We Go From Here?”. This was Dr. King’s last address as President of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, given toward to end of his life in 1967. It outlines two core principles of King’s unfulfilled legacy that united the questions of racial injustice with those of economic inequality and rampant militarism.

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FBI, Homeland Security and Local Police Coordinated the Crackdown of the Occupy Movement with Big Banks

December 30, 2012 by Source
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By Naomi Wolf / Guardian UK / December 29 , 2012

New documents prove what was once dismissed as paranoid fantasy:
totally integrated corporate-state repression of dissent

It was more sophisticated than we had imagined: new documents show that the violent crackdown on Occupy last fall – so mystifying at the time – was not just coordinated at the level of the FBI, the Department of Homeland Security, and local police.

The crackdown, which involved, as you may recall, violent arrests, group disruption, canister missiles to the skulls of protesters, people held in handcuffs so tight they were injured, people held in bondage till they were forced to wet or soil themselves -was coordinated with the big banks themselves.

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Occupy San Diego: A Year Later

October 9, 2012 by Source
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By Nadin Abbott

Occupy San Diego reached an important milestone this weekend. Occupy San Diego is now one year old, and like all children, it has learned a lot this year, but also achieved quite a bit.

The weekend saw a series of events, some low key, some going back to it’s roots in the streets, celebrating the fact that OSD is still here. The first event was at Balboa Park on Saturday afternoon.

When I reached the Park I was no longer surprised to see San Diego Police coming in to talk to an Occupier. Well, so what is new? Same old, same old – right? This time, the officers had cause. No, not the usual we saw over the course of last year. They had a call, from another occupier, reporting what can best be described as a domestic dispute. Given the Occupier in question wore a Guy Fawkes costume with knives (which I could not tell at a distance were plastic either), the cops showed up in force. This is standard.

Moreover, while the Police kept an eye on Occupy, like they do on every demonstration that happens in this town, they also kept their actual contact to a minimum, and kept their distance.

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‘Occupy’ Anniversary Protests in New York, San Diego & Around the World

September 17, 2012 by Doug Porter
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Go to San Diego Free Press for updates.

Welcome to September 17th. Today is the 225th Anniversary of the Constitution of the United States. It’s also the first year anniversary of the start of the Occupy Wall Street (OWS) protests/movement.

Over the weekend people streamed into New York from around the nation for a three day event remembering the protests last year. Although OWS events are scheduled for 30 cities around the world, most in the mainstream media are running with the meme that the Occupy movement is dead. There will be events in San Diego today. (See Below)

The Huffington Post, that so-called bastion of liberal news, ran an Associated Press report

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One Year Later at Occupy San Diego – Checking Up on Our Own Occupy Wallstreet Movement

September 7, 2012 by Source
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By Kali Kat / Special to the OB Rag

With the one year anniversary of Occupy Wall Street just around the corner on September 17, and many other cities’ occupy anniversaries falling in the weeks just after, like Occupy San Diego’s one year anniversary on October 7, the question being begged is:

“What is the current state of the Occupy movement?” If you go down to the Civic Center or your local City Hall, are people still living there?

The Occupy movement, including Occupy San Diego (OSD), is still alive and well, but no, there are not people still living there – well not people flying the Occupy flag anyways.

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Michael Moore and Oliver Stone Speak Out on WikiLeaks, Julian Assange, and Free Speech

August 21, 2012 by Source
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By Michael Moore and Oliver Stone / New York Times / August 20, 2012

WE have spent our careers as filmmakers making the case that the news media in the United States often fail to inform Americans about the uglier actions of our own government. We therefore have been deeply grateful for the accomplishments of WikiLeaks, and applaud Ecuador’s decision to grant diplomatic asylum to its founder, Julian Assange, who is now living in the Ecuadorean Embassy in London.

Ecuador has acted in accordance with important principles of international human rights.

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Hoax on US Attorney Laura Duffy Revealed – Medical Marijuana Advocates Tell All

August 21, 2012 by Source
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By Eugene Davidovitch / Americans for Safe Access

BACKGROUND: On October 7, 2011, at a press conference in Sacramento, US Attorney Laura Duffy, along with several other US Attorneys, announced a statewide crackdown on medical cannabis cooperatives, collectives, gardens, and others.

Without citing any specific violations in state law, Duffy’s office claimed all were out of compliance and would be targeted for eradication including those fully licensed and regulated by local government and law enforcement.

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Occupy Wall Street to Hold One Year Anniversary on Sept 17th: Video – Get Off the Couch and Into the Streets

August 10, 2012 by Source

Here is a video from Occupy Wall Street. Plans are being made to hold a three day festival of protest and resistance beginning September 17th – the one year anniversary of the birth of the occupy movement in New York City.

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Newspapers Caught in Email Hoax by Medical Cannabis Group – US Attorney Vows Legal Action

August 1, 2012 by Frank Gormlie

Yesterday – July 31 – witnessed a page right out of the annuals of Abbie Hoffman and Jerry Rubin – pranksters from the Yippie days of the Seventies: several newspapers, including the prestigious LA Times and our local San Diego Reader, ran stories about how the US Attorney in San Diego, Laura Duffy, was starting to target pharmacies for illegal sales of drugs. (See this story from San Diego Free Press.)

The stories were sent to the media by emails that purported to be from Duffy’s office. But the emails were discovered to be phonies and Duffy had to send out her own email saying so. Hours later at a press conference, Americans for Safe Access, a national advocacy group for medicinal cannabis with a local chapter, announced that they were responsible for sending out the false emails. Eugene Davidovich, the head of the local chapter, stated that it was a “satirical” way for his group to call attention to the federal crackdown on medical marijuana dispensaries. He called it civil disobedience.

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OB History: 42 Years Ago This July – OB Stopped the Jetty

July 23, 2012 by Frank Gormlie
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Editor: We originally posted this article about the movement to stop the jetty that the City of San Diego and the Army Corps of Engineers had designed for north OB as part of our series on the early history of the original OB Rag in November 2007. We re-post it now for its historic significance.

The Jetty is Stopped

There was definitely turmoil in OB the summer of 1970. For a number of weeks during those hot days, OB residents used a combination of direct action and legal moves to battle efforts by the Army Corps of Engineers and the City to construct a jetty parallel to the southern edge of the San Diego River channel — next to what is now Dog Beach.

Many locals viewed the jetty as a prelude to an attempt by the City and developer interests to create a marina and resort district at Ocean Beach’s waterfront. Ostensibly, the project, according to city officials, was to protect OB …

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OB Rag Archives on the Ocean Beach Marshmallow Wars

July 6, 2012 by Frank Gormlie

Every year for the past several, there’s a whole lot of soul-searching done by OBceans when they survey the gooey mess left over from the July 4th traditional OB Marshmallow War. There are usually calls to ban it outright and much gnashing of the teeth as volunteers struggle to clean up the beaches, the streets, the monuments, the …. everything else that got caught in the targets of marshmallow throwers.

In 2009, the OB Rag did a poll of readers on whether the tradition should continue.

… 69% of the respondents to the OB Rag poll want the Marshmallow Wars tradition to continue, although nearly half of those want some kind of controls placed on the event by volunteers, whereas 27% believe the event is out of control and want it to end. 3% wanted to study the issue. At that time we had 62 respondents.

Here, then is the OB Rag’s Archives on the OB Marshmallow Wars, collected over the last several years – several of these articles have some tremendous comments, so make sure you read them as well. (Click on the the headlines.)

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The 99% and All that Stuff is a Movement That’s All About US

June 13, 2012 by Ernie McCray

The 99% and all that stuff
is a movement that’s all about US
and with that in mind
one might opine
that many of US
can remember times
when we could barely
pay the rent
and when the rent
was made good with all good intent
the food money
was gone…spent.

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Feds Urge Judge to Lift Her Order Barring Enforcement of Indefinite Detention

May 26, 2012 by Source
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U.S. prosecutors asks Manhattan Federal Judge Katherine Forrest to undo ruling against military detention law

By Basil Katz / Chicago Tribune – Reuters / May 25, 2012

NEW YORK – Federal prosecutors on Friday urged a judge to lift her order barring enforcement of part of a new law that permits indefinite military detention, a measure critics including a prize-winning journalist say is too vague and threatens free speech.

Manhattan federal court Judge Katherine Forrest this month ruled in favor of activists and reporters who said they feared being detained under a section of the law, signed by President Barack Obama in December.

The government says indefinite military detention without trial is justified in some cases involving militants and their supporters.

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No Country for Young Men as Old Men Play for Time: The End in Afghanistan is Totally Predictable

May 24, 2012 by Source
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Editor: Last Sunday outside the NATO conference, dozens of American Iraqi and Afghan veterans threw their medals away in protest of the wars. A very similar protest by veterans was held during the anti-Vietnam war days in 1971. .

By Dave Lindorff / Nation of Change and This Can’t Be Happening / May 22, 2012

Once again American troops are being asked to keep fighting for a mistake — this time the 2001 fantasy of the Bush/Cheney administration that it could make a client state out of Afghanistan.

John Kerry, back before he was a pompous windsurfing Senate apologist for American empire, back when he wore his hair long and was part of a movement of returned US military veterans speaking out against the continuation of the Vietnam War, famously asked the members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee at a hearing, “How do you ask a man to be the last one to die for a mistake?”

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UPDATE: Police More Violent Than Demonstrators at Anti-NATO Protests in Chicago

May 21, 2012 by Source

Protest Roars to Life at Chicago NATO Summit in Face of Violent Police Crackdowns

_____

Veteran Scott Olsen returns his medal, nurses fight for their rights, and police crack skulls in the latest demonstration of 99% outrage.

By Matt Reichel / AlterNet / May 21, 2012 |

For weeks, people have speculated over the potential for a blooming “American Spring” this weekend in Chicago, when thousands were expected to come protest the meeting of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. In the end, it might be more appropriate to speak of a newly born American Summer, as demonstrators were dosed with unseasonably warm 80- and 90-degree weather in a weekend that felt more like July than May.

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Topless Women Protest Decency Laws in Venice Beach and Portland

May 21, 2012 by Staff
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Up at Venice Beach a hundred miles away and further north in Portland, Oregon, women – and men – are protesting laws against women going top-less in public.

In Venice Beach – a community of Los Angeles that looks a like like Ocean Beach, only three times larger – a protest was held by women going top-less as they protested and strolled down the Boardwalk. Men in support accompanied them wearing bikini tops. The men also wore bottoms. The protest was organized by a group called “Go Topless”. They say laws discriminate against women by forcing them to wear tops in public, and the laws are unconstitutional.

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