May 2008

NEW: 2 More Old Issues Now Scanned – Time to Get an Old Rag & Give Us a Donation !

May 31, 2008 by Frank Gormlie

OCEAN BEACH, CA. The OB Rag announces that it has scanned in two more, complete issues of the former OB Rag, the underground” newspaper that flourished in Ocean Beach in the early, mid seventies. Volume 1, numbers 13 and 16 have now been archived, and now join the growing volumes of the old Rag available […]

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Alarming Swallow Die-off Sparks County Vet Investigation

May 30, 2008 by Staff

Over 100 Local Deaths of Cliff Swallows At Otay Lakes Parallel 100 Deaths At Lake Arrowhead By Mike Lee / Union-Tribune / May 30, 2008 The recent deaths of nearly 100 cliff swallows near the public dock at Lower Otay Lake – plus five deaths reported yesterday at El Capitan Reservoir – have created a […]

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Court Decision On Blackwater’s TRO Against City of San Diego Delayed

May 30, 2008 by Frank Gormlie

SAN DIEGO, CA. Today, May 30, U.S. District Court Judge Marilyn L. Huff said that she will not decide whether to issue Blackwater’s request for a Temporary Restraining Order against the City of San Diego until next Tuesday, June 3. At that hearing, she will decide whether to order San Diego City officials to issue […]

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Apocalypse in the Oceans

May 30, 2008 by Staff

With 150 dead zones in our oceans, some the size of Ireland, author Taras Grescoe argues that there’s been a massive die out of sea life. By Anneli Rufus / AlterNet / May 30, 2008. In pictures, on CSI Miami, and to the naked eye the sea looks the same today as it ever did: […]

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Scott McClellan and His Corporate Media Collaborators

May 30, 2008 by Staff

Katie Couric on pre-invasion media coverage: “I think it’s one of the most embarrassing chapters in American journalism.” By Jeff Cohen / OurFuture.org / May 30, 2008 No sooner had Bush’s ex-press secretary (now author) Scott McClellan accused President Bush and his former collaborators of misleading our country into Iraq than the squeals of protest […]

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Republicans Crank Up Their Voter Suppression Machine

May 30, 2008 by Staff

by: Martin Frost / Politico.com / Tuesday 27 May 2008 Voter suppression in the minority community has always been high on the Republican agenda. It’s done in the name of protecting the sanctity of the ballot. It’s really about keeping black, Hispanic and elderly voters away from the polls. The Republicans are back at it […]

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ACTION ALERT: Blackwater’s Motion To Be Heard in Federal Court Friday, May 30th

May 29, 2008 by Frank Gormlie

Protest Against Blackwater Friday at 12:30 at Federal Courthouse SAN DIEGO, CA. Apparently, Blackwater’s motion for a temporary restraining order against the City of San Diego will be heard Friday, May 30th in the early afternoon. People are being asked to please come to the Federal Court House at 12:30 p.m. for a demonstration! Bring […]

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A Walled Fortress: The Consequences of 9/11

May 29, 2008 by Richard Nadeau

Scott McLelland’s latest book “What Happened” has revelations on how the Bush administration and a complicit corporate media manipulated the climate of fear in the US to justify the invasion of Iraq. It is undoubtedly true that the neocons in the Bush administration treated 9/11 as “a new Pearl Harbor,” as their blessing in disguise.While […]

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“free speech zone”

May 29, 2008 by Staff
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Moles Wanted – FBI Solicits for Informants for GOP Convention Protests

May 29, 2008 by Staff

In preparation for the Republican National Convention, the FBI is soliciting informants to keep tabs on local protest groups By Matt Snyders / City Pages / May 21, 2008 Paul Carroll was riding his bike when his cell phone vibrated. Once he arrived home from the Hennepin County Courthouse, where he’d been served a gross […]

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American Indians Taking Back Their Land

May 29, 2008 by Staff

By Hilary Shenfeld with Konnie LeMay / Newsweek / May 29, 2008 Flames leap up 20 feet around her. White smoke curls into the air and the heat hits her face as Victoria Ranua torches Canada thistle, foxtail and reed canary grass. Ranua is a botanist on an unusual mission. She’s trying to burn up […]

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Latest Scan: OB Rag – from late May to early June 1971

May 28, 2008 by Frank Gormlie

OCEAN BEACH, CA. OB Rag – the blog – announces that we have scanned in another original OB Rag – the paper. Go here for that issue. Volume 1, No. 14, the issue that covered the community from late May to early June 1971, represented the second Rag in a series published by a new […]

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New ROTC Unit Protested at Maryland University

May 28, 2008 by Staff

Knight Ridder / May 9, 2008 Faculty and other members of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County community have started circulating an online petition to protest a proposed ROTC unit at the Catonsville campus, which could open this fall. According to faculty senate President Terrance L. Worchesky, the U.S. Army proposed establishing the ROTC unit […]

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Former Press Spokesman Confirms That Bush Used Deception In Getting Us to War in Iraq

May 28, 2008 by Staff

by John Nichols / The Nation / May 28, 2008 The Bush administration employed propaganda techniques, political spin and deception to promote and then justify a war with Iraq that was unwise and unnecessary. And a “too-deferential” national press corps allowed the president and his aides to get away with it. Who makes this devastating, […]

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The Washington Post’s Take On the McClellan Expose’

May 28, 2008 by Staff

by: Michael D. Shear / The Washington Post / May 28, 2008 Former White House press secretary Scott McClellan writes in a new memoir that the Iraq war was sold to the American people with a sophisticated “political propaganda campaign” led by President Bush and aimed at “manipulating sources of public opinion” and “downplaying the […]

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OB ALERT! – Residents to Approach OB Town Council About Dangers on Sunset Cliffs Blvd

May 28, 2008 by Frank Gormlie

UPDATE: Residents upset with accidents and speeds on Sunset Cliffs Blvd want some kind of action The OB Rag was contacted by persons who are organizing tonight’s convergence on the OB Town Council, and stated: There are a few of us that live on SUNSET CLIFFS (2000) Block that have had our cars, in some […]

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BLACKWATER SUES CITY OF SAN DIEGO

May 27, 2008 by Frank Gormlie

Mercenary company initiates legal action against San Diego in order to open their “vocational school” on time SAN DIEGO, CA. Local peace activists have learned today that the Blackwater parent company has filed a lawsuit against the City of San Diego to restrain the City from denying the company’s installation of a weapons training school-under […]

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U.S. Army’s Breaking Point

May 27, 2008 by Staff

More than any other part of the military, the US Army has borne the brunt of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, leaving it stretched to the breaking point. By Shaun Waterman / Washington for ISN Security Watch / 20/05/08 In almost any conflict, those directly impacted by the fighting pay the greatest price. The […]

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Entrenched, Embedded, and Here to Stay – The Pentagon’s Expansion Will Be Bush’s Lasting Legacy

May 27, 2008 by Staff

By Frida Berrigan / TomDispatch.com / May 27, 2008 A full-fledged cottage industry is already focused on those who eagerly await the end of the Bush administration, offering calendars, magnets, and t-shirts for sale as well as counters and graphics to download onto blogs and websites. But when the countdown ends and George W. Bush […]

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National Assembly to End the Iraq War

May 27, 2008 by Staff

On June 28 and 29, a National Assembly will be held in Cleveland, Ohio, to end the Iraq war and occupation. Go here for more information.

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OB Rag Is Calling All Supporters! – Help us by buying old original Ocean Beach Rags

May 27, 2008 by Staff

We’re doing fund raising. We’ve made it to 7 months! We began our blog during the ashy days of the great wildfires here in San Diego and became a quick and insightful critic of how the establishment fought those fires. During the recent March antiwar protests, we were the only blog in the country that […]

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Actress Jessica Lange’s Commencement Address: “We must commit ourselves to …peace, equality and justice.”

May 27, 2008 by Staff

“…the misery caused by this administration … is being passed down to you. … You must determine if we are going to measure ourselves on the basis of military might and economic power or if there is perhaps something deeper-more essential in our national character-that needs to be awakened.” On Friday, May 23, 2008, Jessica […]

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“They Used Pat for Public Consumption, Just Like Jessica Lynch”: An Interview with Mary Tillman

May 27, 2008 by Staff

The official cover-up of football star-turned-soldier Pat Tillman’s death by “friendly fire” has led his family on a four-year mission for justice By Emily Wilson, AlterNet. Posted May 26, 2008. After the Sept. 11 attacks, football star Pat Tillman left a multimillion-dollar contract with the Arizona Cardinals to join the Army Rangers, wanting to go […]

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RNC anti-war protests: Saint Paul city council rejects appeal, permit fight continues

May 23, 2008 by Staff

By Mick Kelly / Friday, May 23, 2008 St. Paul, MN – Organizers of the massive anti-war march scheduled for Sept. 1, the opening day of the Republican National Convention, slammed the Saint Paul city council for turning down the permit appeal, May 21. By a six to one vote, the Council voted to uphold […]

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Fear and Loathing in Prime Time – Immigration Myths and Cable News

May 23, 2008 by Staff

by Media Matters Action Network There are many problems facing the United States today: a faltering economy, a health-care crisis, and the continuing war in Iraq, to name a few. But viewers of some of the most prominent cable news programs are presented a different reality, one in which one issue stands above all others: […]

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Cheney at Coast Guard Graduation Brings Protesters

May 23, 2008 by Staff

By Michael Gannon/ Norwich Bulletin / May 22, 2008 New London, Conn. -Vice President Dick Cheney drew more than 100 anti-war protesters and counterprotesters to the U.S. Coast Guard Academy Wednesday as he addressed the new officers graduating in the class of 2008. Protesters marched from downtown New London to Williams Street and Mohegan Avenue […]

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Expanding the “war” in order to end it: What Cambodia & Iran have in common

May 22, 2008 by Staff

by Jane Stillwell Did you know that Richard M. Nixon was elected to the US presidency in 1968 on a platform that claimed he would end the war on Vietnam? It’s true. And what did Nixon do once he was safely elected? He broke his promise, escalated the war on Vietnam and then went on […]

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River of Resistance – How the American Imperial Dream Foundered in Iraq

May 22, 2008 by Staff

By Michael Schwartz On February 15, 2003, ordinary citizens around the world poured into the streets to protest George W. Bush’s onrushing invasion of Iraq. Demonstrations took place in large cities and small towns globally, including a small but spirited protest at the McMurdo Station in Antarctica. Up to 30 million people, who sensed impending […]

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Presidential Race Ignores Arms Race

May 22, 2008 by Staff

by Amy Goodman / May 22, 2008 / TruthDig.com As the U.S. presidential race continues, so does the arms race worldwide. People – civilians, children – are being killed and maimed, on a daily basis, by unexploded cluster bombs and land mines. Thousands of nuclear missiles remain at hair-trigger alert. The U.S. government rattles its […]

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Internal Labor Union Fight Highlights Challenges for Labor’s Future

May 22, 2008 by Staff

The SEIU’s Andy Stern has an ambitious plan. Not everyone is on board. By Nelson Lichtenstein / May 22, 2008 / LA Times Opinion When an internal fight at a trade union erupts into the news, American culture has a ready frame. It’s Marlon Brando versus Lee J. Cobb in “On the Waterfront” once again, […]

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