Month: August 2010

This is a letter sent to the Ocean Beach Town Council today, August 30th, requesting that they release their Bylaws and election procedures. I’m asking that the Council send a copy to some of the other community organizations, such as the Mainstreet Association, the Planning Board, or the Historical Society.

If you’ve spent any length of time in an urban community in the U.S., I’m sure you’ve seen the ads on public transportation or heard the television commercials from schools where you can train to be a medical assistant or a computer technician. But before you or someone you know signs up for a “promising career” at one of those for-profit colleges, take heed!

For-profit colleges have been around for years. The University of Phoenix, …

By Ray McGovern

President Barack Obama’s aides say his speech this evening marking the end of “combat operations” in Iraq will avoid the vainglorious aspects of President George W. Bush’s infamous “Mission Accomplished” speech in 2003. We’ll see.

On the chance Obama might be open to pivoting away from the reduction of U.S. troops in Iraq and addressing honestly the worsening quagmire in Afghanistan. I have offered him the following text:

My Fellow Americans,

Come meet the OB Town Council of yesteryear … of 1972. OB community activists were engaged in a stand-off with the then president Bob Miller. Here is a portion of the front page of the original OB Rag in March 1972.

ALL DETAILS AND LINKS INSIDE:
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OB Restaurants, bars and coffee houses promote themselves in new association
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Obecians get new pipes, more torn-up streets, and eventually, a better flow
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“Terriers” Spent $20 Million in San Diego – Set to Air Sept 8th
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COSTCO-Lowe’s also wants Midway Postal Center
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Point Loma Planners approve revised bylaws
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Ocean Beach Planning Board general meeting – Wednesday, September 1
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OB Historical Society to dig up old bones
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Animal Activist to speak September 1 at World Wide ESL
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$30 will get ya in the Jazz 88 OB Music & Art Festival! $200 will get ya special seating and special food

Editor: While Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin debate with the news organizations how many people showed up at their tea party rally in Washington, DC on Saturday (was it 87,000 estimated by CBS, or 100,000 (Palin) or 500,000?), we need to note some recent interesting articles about the very, very rich people who are out to get President Obama, and the people that work for them.
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The Billionaires Bankrolling the Tea Party
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The billionaire brothers who are waging a war against Obama.
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It’s Witch-Hunt Season with Limbaugh and the GOP
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How Obama Got Rolled by Wall Street

Layoffs, bankruptcies and other effects of the naggingly ailing economy are leading a record number of county residents to seek out donated food, the county’s leading food-relief organization reported Friday.

The San Diego Food Bank said its distributions are at an all-time high. In the just-completed fiscal year, the 33-year-old nonprofit group handed out 15.3 million pounds of food, a 56 percent increase from the 9.1 million pounds two years earlier.

Amazing.

After all that’s been said and done around my candidacy and membership failures with the Ocean Beach Town Council, they still sent me a ballot so I could vote on the remaining candidates (no, my name was not on it).

I was specifically told that I could not vote either. I could not be a candidate and I could not vote. If my business was not a good enough reason for me to vote as a business owner in OB, then it’s not good enough for me to vote in the board election.

But what happened?

By Christopher Cadelago / UNION-TRIBUNE /August 26, 2010

OCEAN BEACH — It’s official. Frank Gormlie, the activist, lawyer and co-founder of the OB Rag, will not be on the ballot as a candidate for the Ocean Beach Town Council’s board of directors. Gormlie, who hoped to be one of eight candidates – including six incumbents – vying for seven seats on the dais, had been told that because the business was based out of his Lemon Grove home, he was not eligible to run.

At town council meeting Wednesday night, Gormlie said he had secured a lease in Ocean Beach to house his business, but was told he was still not eligible to run because he did not submit the business address by the Aug. 16 deadline.

by Dylan Mann / Voice of San Diego / Originally posted August 25, 2010

You see them in the medians at intersections and at the bottom of freeway off-ramps. Suntanned and weary in camouflage pants, they hold magic-markered signs announcing: “HOMELESS VET — ANYTHING HELPS — GOD BLESS.” And you feel empathy for them, don’t you? No matter what you think of our nation’s military campaigns, it’s undeniable that here before you is a person that once served our country, but now he sleeps outside and isn’t sure when he’ll eat next.

SOLANA BEACH, Calif. — Local Rep. Brian Bilbray is counting on his tough stand on illegal immigration to earn him another term in Congress, but some of his detractors said he will do anything to win, including working with an alleged hate group to push his anti-immigration agenda.

The 10News I-Team learned Bilbray is on the Federation for American Immigration Reform’s (FAIR) board of advisors, spent three years as a lobbyist for the group where he earned $300,000 and has accepted campaign contributions from FAIR political action committees.

The following was originally published on August 26, 2010, exactly 11 years ago to the day. It was another time and another moment, but it’s still interesting, I think. Many of my friends on the OBTC are not aware of this ancient history – and I bear no grudges.

[caption id="attachment_23897" align="aligncenter" width="560"] Here is the official OB Town Council Elections announcement, released August 20, 2010. Notice my name, Frank Gormlie, listed as an official candidate.[/caption]

Last night at their packed public meeting, I pleaded with the Ocean Beach Town Council to allow me to remain a candidate on their ballot for the annual Board election which has just begun.