Month: January 2010

by Nate Hipple

At 2:30 PM a naked man waded into the ocean in the ‘surfing only’ section next to the pier in Ocean Beach. This immediately caused a reaction from people who were hanging out on the boardwalk as well as those standing in the tide pools. Some were cheering. One man shouted, “Put your clothes back on!”

When the skinny dipper returned to the beach, moments later, lifeguards and police were waiting to detain him. One eyewitness saw the naked man struggle with authorities and was forcibly brought to the ground. Onlookers on the boardwalk reacted with obscenities, shouting, “F- the police!” and “Pigs!”

The California Senate approved creating a government-run health care system for the nation’s most populous state on Thursday, ignoring a veto threat from Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Supporters said it is time for state legislatures to take up the debate as the Obama Administration’s national health care proposal falters in Congress. “If it’s not to be done at the national level, let us take the lead,” said state Sen. Christine Kehoe, D-San Diego. The move in California comes after Massachusetts voters changed the calculus in Congress by electing a Republican to the Senate who opposes the pending plan.

Democrats are the majority in both houses of the California Legislature. The 40-member state Senate passed the single-payer plan on a 22-14 vote, sending it to the Assembly. One Democrat voted against the measure.

In San Diego’s surfing turf wars, tempers heat up as the waves become more crowded. Are the skirmishes a solution or a symptom?

By Adam Elder / San Diego Magazine / January 2010

I’m not violent, but I have had some times where we’ve had to do some breath-holding exercises, me and another guy,” deadpans Nate Cintas. “That’s just part of it.” Part of waterboarding? No. Part of surfing? Yes—if you surf at Cintas’ spot at Sunset Cliffs and don’t obey the locals’ rules.

Cintas, known to many as Irate Nate, has for years been one of the heaviest enforcers at his home break—a wave surf magazines won’t run photos of, much less mention—solid, powerful, with close-cropped hair and in great shape for a man in his 40s. Born and raised less than a mile from the Cliffs, he’s a local in every sense of the word.

Editor: I received this email from a good friend this morning after he had watched President Obama’s State of the Union speech:

…. For me, an Obama supporter who contributed hundreds to his campaign – well, tonight I removed my Obama bumper sticker. Based on his speech, he’s a 20th century president in the 21st century, looking backwards into the future. Nuclear power, capital gains cuts, and a health care bill designed by the greedy for the greedy – insurance companies, he’s as much a republican as he needs to be. Just better looking with a better presentation. His approval rating is sinking not because he’s losing the right – he never had them. He’s losing everything left of center.

Here’s an analysis of the Speech:

by John Nichols

Say what you will about Barack Obama. But don’t accuse the president of veering from the course he charted at a point when his term was new, his popularity ratings were high and Americans took seriously all that talk of “hope” and “change.”

by Dave Zirin / Huffington Post / January 28, 2010

Howard Zinn, my hero, teacher, and friend died of a heart attack on Wednesday at the age of 87. With his death, we lose a man who did nothing less than rewrite the narrative of the United States. We lose a historian who also made history.

Anyone who believes that the United States is immune to radical politics never attended a lecture by Howard Zinn. The rooms would be packed to the rafters, as entire families, black, white and brown, would arrive to hear their own history made humorous as well as heroic. “What matters is not who’s sitting in the White House. What matters is who’s sitting in!” he would say with a mischievous grin. After this casual suggestion of civil disobedience, the crowd would burst into laughter and applause.

Contamination signs have been posted at Dog Beach due to a sewage spill up in Linda Vista. The warning signs were posted today – Wednesday – at Dog Beach – where the San Diego River enters the ocean. It’s estimated that around 4,150 gallons of sewage spilled, contaminating Dog Beach – all from grease blocking a main sewer line.

The city’s Public Utilities Department said it occurred about 5:30 p.m. Tuesday at 7011 Linda Vista Road, near Ulric Street.

Originally published Jan. 27, 2010

We here at the OB Rag have been complaining for awhile now that even though we live in a coastal desert, there is no wide-spread effort to collect the rainwater that falls on our parched paradise. There is no government encouragement for it, our culture doesn’t support it – and we waste the opportunity every time it rains – and floods like it did last week.

Well, there’s a woman in Point Loma who is showing us how to do it. Cielo Foth has installed huge storage tanks and 44-gallon trash cans in her backyard to collect rainwater – which she uses for her garden.

SEE INSIDE FOR ARTICLES

* Pier Re-opens and Is Mobbed
* OB Historical Society Featured Steve Rowell’s Birds
* Old Rexalt Drug Sign Bites the Dust
* Ciao Bella to Open by Valentine’s Day
* Surf Shop Opens at Old Rock Paper Scissors Building
* Meanwhile, New Smoke Shop and Others to Open at the Old Surf Shop
* Rich’s VW Closes
* Skate Shop Closed
* OB Planning Board to Hold Election March 9th
* Point Loma Planning Committee Seeks Candidates for March 18th Election
* Channel 10 News Finds Sprinkler Going Outside OB Library During the Rains
* Noon Designs Is Celebrating Its First Birthday February 4th
* South Beach Bar & Grille Fish Tacos “Discovered” by Chicago Tribune

Since Thursday, January 21, 2010, the internet, newspapers and people around kitchen tables across the country have been ablaze with outrage over the Supreme Court’s action to open the floodgates to corporate money in our elections.
Over 40,000 of you have joined with us in launching a long-term campaign to amend the Constitution, and others have begun to follow your lead.

The annual election of candidates for the Ocean Beach Planning Board is coming up. The election will be held March 9th at the OB Rec Center. There are vacancies in each of the 7 Districts.

The OB Planning Board – the grandparent of all planning boards and committees – is the official advisory body to the City of San Diego and the San Diego Planning Commission. It has jurisdiction over construction projects and planning issues within Ocean Beach, and is mandated to require such projects to conform to the OB Precise Plan – the planning outline for the community.

The establishment of OB’s Board was the result of years of trials and tribulations of community residents back in the early and mid-1970s.

Scott Lewis of voiceofsandiego.org recently interviewed the director of research at the Center for Policy Initiatives Murtaza Baxamusa about San Diego and its economy. The Center is a labor-friendly think tank, a rare entity in this town, at least. Here is part of the interview:

If there was one, simple misconception among San Diegans that you could clear up in 2010, what would it be?

The last decade saw a well-orchestrated campaign by the blame-the-government privatizers at federal, state and local levels. San Diego was one such target, in which public employees were repeatedly demonized as over-paid and over-benefited, even when independent studies show that the city of San Diego compensates its workers much less than others for comparable work. But the work needs to be done, be it cleaning our streets and picking up our trash, to policing our neighborhoods and fighting fires.

Yesterday, January 21, 2010, the US Supreme Court dealt potentially a lethal blow to what’s left of American democracy. The slim majority of right-wing radical activists on the highest court in the land decided that corporations are people and that there should be no limitations on the amount of money they can spend on elections and candidates.

This means that corporations can now spend unlimited monies on any candidate and on any election they want. The 5 to 4 decision overturned decades of corporate restrictions and overturned a century’s-old limit on the role of corporate money in federal elections, on the books since Teddy Roosevelt was president.