June 2010

Californians have had it – with plastic bags, that is.

June 15, 2010 by Annie Lane

by Annie Lane / Special to the OB Rag / June 15, 2010

First of Two Parts

The California State Assembly has passed a bill to ban single-use plastic bags. The next stop is the State Senate where, if passed, the ban would prohibit all supermarkets, retail pharmacies and convenience stores from distributing the bags at the point of sale. The ban would come into effect as early as January 2012.

The State Senate is set to vote on the ban no later than mid-July, …

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Union-Tribune Discovers TV Discovering OB

June 15, 2010 by Frank Gormlie

The Union-Tribune has finally discovered that a film crew has been filming in OB for the past umpteen weeks. On today’s (6-15-10) front page is an article entitled, “TV discovers a San Diego star: O.B.”, with some cool observations and comments from the television stars and producers themselves, plus the OB Rag is mentioned along with some of our gnarly commenters.

Here are some great quotes – the first by actor Raymond-James:

“Ocean Beach has become a character in the show that is just as big, if not bigger, than Donal and I. There is a bit of a scruffiness and scrappiness about our characters that fits right into O.B.”

Bum Fight? (See local travel blog’s take on current controversy)

June 15, 2010 by Frank Gormlie

by Jeannette De Wyze /Travels in San Diego / June 14th, 2010

Given how much San Diego has changed in the 36 years I’ve lived here, it warms my heart when I run across something that seems timeless. Case in point: the current flap roiling Ocean Beach, which I’ve been following in the always-entertaining OB Rag blog. At issue is a $2.50 sticker that’s been sold for about three weeks at The Black, the community’s venerable head shop/novelty store. Displaying the silhouetted imaged of a Depression-era hobo and his dog, the sticker recalls California state park messages not to feed the bears. Only it instead directs OB visitors not to “feed our bums.”

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When San Diego Said No to Nudes

June 15, 2010 by Frank Gormlie

by Randy Dotinga / Voice of San Diego / Originally posted June 2, 2010

There’s a funny thing about the San Diego anti-nudity law that’s in the news this week: It used to actually allow people to be naked in public. But only at Black’s Beach, the country’s only city-sanctioned nude beach and only for a while.

Then city voters had their say in 1977 and told folks to cover up already, thank you very much. But 33 years later, beachgoers still flaunt the law and rarely get in trouble for it.

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Stun gun death of US resident here by border patrol adds ugly dimension to immigration debate.

June 14, 2010 by Source

On May 28, Anastasio Hernandez Rojas, 42, was shot with a Taser stun gun by a U.S Customs and Border Protection officer at the San Ysidro border crossing after he resisted agents trying to send him back to Mexico. He later died. His death has pushed an already-heated debate over illegal immigration to the boiling point.

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Nude Swimmer Disrupts Filming at OB Pier

June 14, 2010 by Source

On Sunday, June 13th, a 20 something young man decided to walk and swim naked on the beach during filming at the OB Pier – filming by Firefly – a production company that was shooting the promotional stills and video for the show “Terriers”.

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Did we learn anything from the corporate grab at the ballot box?

June 13, 2010 by Source

By Michael Hiltzik /Los Angeles Times / June 12, 2010

We may finally have discovered a remedy for corporate executives with more greed than brains: Let them invest corporate funds by the millions in California ballot initiatives, then vote the things down.

Isn’t that the lesson of Tuesday’s balloting on Propositions 16 and 17?

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The Black Refuses to Remove Hate Sticker Against OB Homeless

June 12, 2010 by Frank Gormlie

I just got off the phone with Ken Anderson, one of the co-managers of The Black. He has worked on Newport Ave for 18 years and has seen everything. He is the one who ordered the new, controversial anti-homeless stickers that say “Welcome to Ocean Beach. Please don’t feed our bums,” with a graphic of a 1930’s hobo and dog.

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I feel a boycott of The Black coming on … till they remove the hate stickers.

June 11, 2010 by Frank Gormlie

The Black, the iconic head shop that has been a mainstay in Ocean Beach “since 1969” – has entered the Dark Side – get it? The Black on the Dark Side. Their sale of the anti-homeless stickers – is stirring up the community. The Black used to be the only place where you would find items of the counter-culture, smoking instruments, sandals, incense, weird, psychedelic posters, … you name it – if hippies wanted it they could find it there.

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BP, Coast Guard, Law Enforcement Block Reporting on Spill

June 11, 2010 by Source

By Jeremy W. Peters / The New York Times/ June 10, 2010

A pilot wanted to take a photographer from The Times-Picayune of New Orleans to snap photographs of the oil slicks blackening the water. The response from a BP contractor who answered the phone late last month at the command center was swift and absolute: Permission denied.

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Police cars and roped-off restrooms at Dusty Rhodes Park – What’s goin’ on?

June 10, 2010 by Staff

UPDATE: 9 PM : Apparently there was a stabbing in and around the restrooms at the west end of Dusty Rhodes Park late this afternoon. (Please see the comments inside for more updates.)

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‘Don’t feed the bums’ Sticker Sold by The Black

June 10, 2010 by Frank Gormlie

Our roving reporter has discovered the source of the ‘don’t feed the bums’ stickers that have mysteriously appeared on municipal signs and a couple local store windows lately around OB: The Black headshop on Newport Ave.

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Sticker Price Goes Up on Anti-Homeless Attitude in OB

June 10, 2010 by Frank Gormlie

Someone is spending more money on their underground campaign to rid Ocean Beach of its homeless. They are placing slick yellow and black stickers on city signs around Ocean Beach with the message “Please don’t feed our bums.”

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Election Results Mixed … As they always are

June 9, 2010 by Frank Gormlie

Well, Primary 2010 is finally over, and as usual, it had mixed results for progressives. Extremely low turn-out for out San Diego County – 25% Geez!

Here are some victories: * The biggest news is that Prop 16 – bankrolled by PG&E – LOST! …

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OB Ragsters to Join CityBeat in Election Night Live Blogging

June 8, 2010 by Staff

Tonight, as the election returns from voting in the California Primary come dribbling in, OB Ragsters Doug Porter and Frank Gormlie will be joining CityBeat in blogging live results. (San Diego City Beat is a liberal weekly magazine with an online presence.)

The OB Rag bloggers will balance out the panel of political pundits as it includes conservatives, centrists, and others somewhere on the local political spectrum. (CityBeat considers itself “progressive” – yet they advocated “no” on Prop B [term limits for County sups] and “yes” on Prop D [strong mayor].)

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BP Tries to Block Photos of Dead Wildlife

June 8, 2010 by Source

For animal lovers, one of the most heartbreaking aspects of the Gulf spill is the oil-drenched wildlife washing up on shore. If you’re too horrified to look at any photos, you’re in luck — BP doesn’t want you to see them.

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OB Street Fair T-Shirts Ripped Off!!

June 8, 2010 by Staff

The folks who run the OB Street Fair have a new heartache. Someone broke into one of their volunteers’ cars and besides taking personal items, also escounced with a box of Street Fair T-shirts.

The T-shirts stolen were in a huge box of mostly men’s tanks in black and a number of small and medium size men’s T-shirts. Volunteers were taking boxes home to fold the T-shirts over the weekend and bam! . . . some bad guy a steals one of the boxes. The t-shirts were all printed by the James Gang and are sold to raise money for the Street Fair, Fireworks and lots of OB projects. All the shirts have the street fair logo (two sandals, stars and the words “Ocean Beach Street Fair & Chili Cook-Off Festival”) on them.

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Protest Today Against BP at Sports Arena ARCO Station

June 8, 2010 by Frank Gormlie

Today at 6pm, there will be a local protest against BP (British Petroleum) – the giant oil company responsible for the current catastrophe in the Gulf of Mexico. The protest will be at the ARCO station just in front of the Sports Arena, at 3580 Sports Arena Blvd. ARCO is owned by BP.

June 8th is World Ocean Day, so the event organizers wanted to hold an action in conjunction with like-minded activists the world over. Apparently the local event is being organized by HuffPost Green readers, who are being asked to brainstorm and take action for helping with the oil spill.

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OB Homes Lose Water As Private Contractor Breaks Pipe

June 7, 2010 by Source

Editor: Water, water, everywhere. If your water went out this morning, give us a shoutout and let us know where in general you live.

By Karen Kucher / Union-Tribune / June 7, 2010 at 11:43am

SAN DIEGO — A private contractor working in Ocean Beach hit a 10-inch water main Monday morning, sending water streaming into a residential neighborhood and knocking out water to area homes.

The break in the cast iron pipe was reported to the city water department around 10 a.m. and crews have been sent to work on repairs, said city Public Utilities spokesman Arian Collins.

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Here comes da judge(s) – Who Not to Vote For

June 7, 2010 by Frank Gormlie

For the first time in years – or at least in any of our memories – there’s controversy surrounding the election of Superior Court judges in tomorrow’s primary. Normally, the usual (yawn) campaign of judges takes on the quiet excitement associated with lawn bowling. But not this year, this year of the rise of the tea party.

This year there is a tea party-like group called “Better Courts Now” that is upsetting the apple cart by pushing their own slate of holier-than-thou conservative candidates. As if judges weren’t conservative enough! Most judges were former prosecutors – an already conservative role within the court system – and so by time most don their black robes and step up to the seats – there’s definitely a conservative bias that dominates the courtroom.

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Pondering the Punditry on Primary Day – a Recap of Our Series on the California Primary June 8th

June 7, 2010 by Doug Porter

Twelve states including California will be holding primaries on Tuesday, June 8th , and pundits everywhere will be poring over the results desperately seeking to validate the memes that they’ve put forward in the 18 months since Barack Obama was inaugurated as President. Are the American people angry because the President has been unable to undo the damage done to the economy over the decade preceding his tenure? Are all incumbents endangered? Will the tea party redefine Republican politics? Are Democrats an endangered species?

The first thing that you need to know is that there is a BIG difference between the “people” and “the voters”. Off year elections typically attract only about 35% of the electorate. Presidential elections attract about 60% eligible voters. That means that eighty million people didn’t nationally vote in the last Presidential election. In 2008, thirteen million people voted in California; ten million didn’t. Only seven million are expected to vote this June.

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Gray Relating to Green

June 7, 2010 by Ernie McCray

Sitting around trying to clear my mind of all that’s going on in a troubled world I found a picture of me almost as gray of hair and beard as one can be. Green leaves of spring adorned the trees that stood behind me and in my glasses I could see the indiscernible reflections of the children who sat listening so appreciatively to my poetry.

These were students at Einstein Academy, a school literally vibrating with positive energy and I view this picture and the gathering as an expression of how the world should be, older generations, the gray, sharing the wisdom of their age with children, the green, who in their innocence, represent what hope there really is on the planet.

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Arizona School Demands Black and Latino Students’ Faces On Mural Be Changed To White

June 5, 2010 by Source

by Wonkette / June 5, 2010 Hard to find even the Gallows Humor in this story, so maybe we won’t even try. Maybe it’s time to admit that large chunks of America are in the hands of unreconstructed racists and vulgar idiots, and that the popular election of a black man as president just might’ve […]

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Prop D Stands For “Dumb”- Opponents Hold Press Conference

June 4, 2010 by Doug Porter

The TV cameras were all lined up on the Concourse Plaza, and a dozen or so reporters stood idly by while retiring City Councilwoman Donna Frye gathered up her troops to mount a last ditch effort to inform the public about the downsides of Proposition D, the ballot measure that Mayor Sanders and his developer buddies have up for a vote in next week’s primary election.

While there wasn’t a whole lotta “news” coming out of this press conference, it certainly put the David vs. Goliath aspect of the battle over Proposition D into sharp focus.

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News from the OB Rag Blog

June 3, 2010 by Frank Gormlie

Once in a while, there’s so much going on at the OB Rag, that we just have to share.

ANONYMOUS DONOR BUYS NEW LAPTOP FOR OB RAG

The OB Rag had only been in its second day of fundraising for a new laptop, when the call came. The voice said, “We think we have a laptop for you,” and with that intro, one of our close supporters informed us that they were so impressed by what we’re doing and by the responses from our readers, that they were offering us $500 to get that laptop we’ve been talking about for months. Tears came to all our eyes, as we were so taken. On Memorial Day we met them at Fryes to see what they had to offer, and we ended up going online and buying a $500 ASUS. I’ve been using it all day and have posted three articles now with the new machine. We’ve been using a borrowed one, but now we can set up shop at the local coffeehouses and blog all day.

We love you guys! You anonymous donor(s).

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OB FLASHES: News, Calendar, and Whatever – June 3rd, 2010

June 3, 2010 by Frank Gormlie

ALL LINKS AND STORIES INSIDE

* Dianne Bell and Jim Grant sticky on OB Street Vendors?
* Sick Eagles Try to Sneak Onto Dog Beach
* Winstons Benefit for Local OB Bartender Tyson Green June 6th
* Arte Fresca Art Show to Feature Local Artists and Live Music on June 11th
* Dave Gilbert’s Rhythm Ranchers Play at Tio Leo’s June 4th
* OB Historical Society Features Derek Casady June 17th
* OB Street Fair and Chili Cook-off Coming June 26th
* Acupuncture Clinic to Hold Open House on June 5th
* OB Planning Board Project Review Committee Meets June 16th
* OB Town Council meeting June 23rd

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California Primary – Part 9: City Council Race In District Two – Faulconer vs Whats-His-Name?

June 3, 2010 by Doug Porter

There are City Council races in all our City’s even numbered districts this year, including District Two, encompassing Mission Beach, much of Pacific Beach, Old Town, parts of Hillcrest, most of downtown, and of course Point Loma and Ocean Beach. There are three announced candidates: incumbent Kevin Faulconer, and two members of the Pacific Beach Town Council, Patrick Finucane and Jim Morrison.

Just one year ago, there were web sites and Facebook pages up calling for Faulconer’s defeat and even threatening recall in the wake of voter approval of (last election’s version) of Proposition D, which permanently banned alcohol consumption on San Diego’s beaches.

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California Primary – Part 8: Union-Tribune Decrees A Republican-Only Primary – So, Here’s the Rest of The Story

June 1, 2010 by Doug Porter

If you read Sunday’s edition of the Union-Tribune, you might have noticed a blurb on the front page promising coverage of the Senate and Gubernatorial candidates on page A5. If you’d bothered to actually turn to page five, you’d have only seen coverage of the Republican candidates. I’m guessing that the editors of the daily fishwrap made an “inadvertent” mistake here (as they have so often in the past) and simply forgot the Democratic, Independents and Other Party candidates. Here at the OBRag we’re at least mentioning ALL the candidates, so you don’t need to waste time waiting for the UT to run its “correction”.

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You’ve got to be kidding… Mayor Sanders called me at home and left me a personal message! Oh, by the way – No on Prop D!

June 1, 2010 by Anna Daniels

I started listening to the messages on the answer machine and whose voice did I hear but “Mayor Jerry Sanders,” asking me to “Vote yes on Proposition D,” that personable, avuncular voice reminding me that the Strong Mayor form of government in San Diego is the only hope for digging us out of our financial mess and righting all the wrongs of City Hall over the past decades. Really?

Number 1, I hate robo-calls. Number 2, the Strong Mayor from of government sucks, and I say that having lived through a less than perfect City Manager form of government for most of the thirty years that I have resided in San Diego.

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Reader Rant: ‘My tears are for the fallen, not for the recent wars that have nothing to do with our freedoms.’

June 1, 2010 by Source

by Anonymous

When I was seventeen in1967, a friend and I got in trouble at school, cutting class to go surfing if I remember right. This was not the first time we had been caught breaking school rules so it was no surprise when we were both called in to the principal’s office.

We were introduced to a couple of army recruiters and given choices. My friend Stein – his mother dead and his father the town drunk – could enlist or go to juvenile hall. I was offered expulsion or military service. I chose expulsion.

Stein, still not eighteen, showed up in Vietnam just in time for the Tet offensive. He was in country for less than two weeks before he was killed.

I would never betray my friend Stein by thanking him for dying in a war that no one has has ever explained to my satisfaction that had anything to do with mine or any other Americans’ freedom, or pursuit of happiness.

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