Month: September 2010

The Mexican drug war that has taken the lives of 28,000 people over the past four years could conceivably come to an end if California votes to legalize marijuana, say prominent American and Mexican policy makers.

Some of us from the OB Rag were at the Harp last night watching the premier of “Terriers”. I counted about 120 souls about the bar and restaurant, a noisy place until the show came on. Hosted by Ted and Kathy of the Old Town Restaurant – where 6 or 7 scenes were shot – the crowd at the screening cheered every time a scene of Ocean Beach appeared on the big screen.

At the hip school
they aren’t aware
and they don’t even care
about what their
test scores might be
because they’re much too busy
rolling up their sleeves
trying to keep up with the boys and girls
with their stash of electronic accessories,

The day has finally arrived. The premier of the television series, “Terriers”, shot mostly in Ocean Beach, is this evening on FX at 10pm. For months, OBcieans have endured blocked streets, parking taken, lighting mechanisms in front of their fave stores on Newport, throngs of spectators hanging around the film crews, and quite a bit of controversy and complaints. There was even that nude swimmer who disrupted one filming.

Hundreds of local surfers and ocean enthusiasts this weekend plan to paddle around the Ocean Beach Pier to raise awareness about pollution along San Diego County’s coastline.

The 19th annual Paddle for Clean Water Festival, expected to draw more than 1,000 people using everything from surfboards and bodyboards to kayaks and outrigger canoes, begins at 9 a.m. Sunday.

by Annie Lane

The American Chemistry Council (ACC) has succeeded in buying the votes of several California senators, effectively quashing the ban of single-use plastic bags this past Tuesday, September 1.

At least that’s how the 21-14 defeat in California State Senate appears.

The definitive decision came after months of hard work, activism and financial contributions from both sides. The ACC, whose members include Exxon Mobil Corporation and plastic bag and film manufacturer Hilex Poly Company, took on Assemblywoman Julia Brownley, the bill’s author, and various environmental groups who led the fight to end California’s damaging dependency on plastic bags.

Labor Day in America is really the civil rights day for working people in America.  With unemployment reaching new highs,…

Saturday the 4th of September, a bunch of OB Ragsters and friends jumped the rails. Eight of us met at the Old Town Trolley Station around 10am with a map to take the entire loop east to Santee and then back again.

Most of us had never traveled so far on San Diego’s MTS (Metropolitan Transit System), and many of us had to buy a $5 day pass, so that we could ride for hours. A good deal.

The plan was to board the trolley at the Old Town station, go east all the way to Santee on the Green Line, back up, and change lines and head south to Grossmont, La Mesa and all the way to downtown on the Orange Line.

PROLOGUE: What follows was written as an appeal to our softer, more reflective and discerning greater selves as we seek a better world.

One day,
throwing
a bunch of stuff away,

The hysterical headline on the Fox News website screams out “John Cusack Calls for ‘Satanic Death’ of Fox News, GOP Leaders.”

Huh? Really?

John Cusack, star of “Say Anything” and “Hot Tub Time Machine ,” responded to a question on Twitter about the proposed, highly controversial Islamic center to be built in New York near Ground Zero.

Why are nit-wit women like Fiorina and Palin undermining Women’s liberation?

By Kit-Bacon Gressitt / Progressive Post

I was preparing for my little ritual last week, the one I practice every August 26, Women’s Equality Day, to celebrate our right to vote. … Well, not really to celebrate, but to at least recognize the Constitution’s 19th Amendment, declaring women’s suffrage. Hmmm, nope, not even to recognize it, no, more like to contemplate the 1920 passage of the amendment, because— . Well, I suppose, actually, to rant about it would be more accurate. In fact, to complain bitterly is what I mean. Yep, bitterly — because it took so damn long, and in the end, we had won the vote but we still didn’t have equal rights, and we still don’t have equal rights today.

By Center for Policy Initiatives

Study shows 229,000 households in the red, including many with full-time jobs

Almost a third of working-age households in San Diego County have incomes below what they need to meet basic living expenses. Half of those struggling households include someone with a full-time job.