February 2011

Update on the Ocean Beach VFW Post

February 21, 2011 by Judi Curry
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A meeting was held on Friday regarding the status of the VFW. As of yet, there does not seem to be any other available building in the 92107 area code. They only have a few days (?) left to move into the Pt. Loma facility, without jeopardizing their liquor license.

I do not know if this is fact – or fiction – but I was told that the rent for the Pt. Loma facility is next to nothing and the agreement was that the VFW would fix it up using their own monies.

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Tea Party backers outnumbered in Wisconsin budget demonstrations

February 19, 2011 by Source

By James Kelleher / Reuters / Sat Feb 19, 2011 3:55pm EST MADISON, Wisconsin (Reuters) – Supporters of legislation to reduce public employee union bargaining power and benefits in Wisconsin were far outnumbered by opponents on Saturday, as the two sides shouted competing slogans under clear skies. Tens of thousands have demonstrated throughout the week […]

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Dancing With the Sun

February 18, 2011 by Ernie McCray
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Sitting with thoughts dancing in my mind about all the hope that I had recently seen rise in Cairo, I looked online for an image to match how I felt inside and a picture of a rich yellow sun rising or setting in a reddish orange sky caught the attention of my eyes and I literally found myself mesmerized by its beauty.

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Anna’s Video Pick – Ed Schultz in Madison Wisconsin

February 18, 2011 by Anna Daniels
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What does democracy look like? Does it look like teachers, police, firefighters, librarians, nurses, the people who remove snow and trash, and social workers who have peacefully and in large numbers turned out to support the right of working and middle class people to participate in unions and in the collective bargaining process?

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Riots in the Streets of Madison?

February 18, 2011 by Andy Cohen
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Of course, there are no riots. None. Not one. But that’s what the Right Wing talking heads want us all to believe. That’s what the Republican elected officials are telling us. They want us to think that those that are protesting newly elected Republican Governor Scott Walker’s plan to eradicate the unions and squash the labor movement are wreaking havoc all over the state of Wisconsin. The right wingers—including Walker himself—want us to believe that it is necessary to call out the National Guard to quell the violent protests breaking out all over the state. They’re propagating the lie that the hospitals are filling with injured protesters and the jails are being overcrowded by the violent offenders who are taking part.

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Rally In Solidarity of the People In Wisconsin As They Resist Union-Busting

February 18, 2011 by Staff

Rally in Support of Wisconsin Workers and Collective Bargaining Rights! This week, the OB Rag has been helping our readers experience and observe Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker’s attempt to use budget shortfalls as an excuse to take away the  rights of more than 150,000 workers while tens of thousands of citizens protested this move. The […]

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For 2nd Day Wisconsin Democratic Senators Prevent Anti-Union Vote

February 18, 2011 by Source
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By Jason Stein, Patrick Marley and Bill Glauber/ Journal Sentinel Online (Milwaukee, WI) /  Feb. 18, 2011 Madison — With Senate Democrats still missing, the Wisconsin Assembly convened at 9 a.m. Friday to take up Gov. Scott Walker’s budget-repair bill as activists continue to fill the State Capitol, drinking coffee, banging drums and digging in for […]

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Arson for the Humanitarian?

February 18, 2011 by Christine Schanes
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At 5 am on Friday morning, January 11th, flames rising from Bianca Koch’s red 1991 BMW convertible lit up the alley between Narragansett Avenue and Niagara Street in Ocean Beach.   Luckily, the fire department was able to put out the blaze before it could spread to nearby structures.   While the cause of the fire is […]

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Live Blogging From San Diego: the Wisconsin “Tinderbox”

February 17, 2011 by Staff
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7:55 pm PST: We will be signing off now as Ed Shultz – who deserves a lot of props for going to Madison from New York and being on this story all week -wraps up his show. “This is about our country, our future,” he says with a background large crowd of protesters yelling. “This […]

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Live Blogging From San Diego: Morning Updates

February 17, 2011 by Staff
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To see the most recent updates go HERE NOON PST: Demonstrators are now organizing to shut down WI Capital by blocking all exits/entry. The word “shutdown”now being used in tweets from scene. 30,000 reported outside, 10,000 inside the WI Capital building. The hallways outside the Senate chambers are completely occupied by a sit- in. GOP […]

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Ways and Means Democrats Blast Republican Plan to Shut Down Social Security

February 16, 2011 by Source
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From California Congressman Xavier Becerra’s website GOP proposal would lead to a month of furloughs at Social Security Administration WASHINGTON, DC—The 2011 budget plan presented this week by the House Republican Majority strips $1.7 billion away from the Social Security Administration (SSA) for the remainder of the year, a cut so drastic that SSA would […]

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Demonstrations Spread from Egypt To Wisconsin – Teachers Go on Strike, Guard Called In

February 16, 2011 by Doug Porter
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Fifteen thousand Wisconsin workers and their supporters rallied at the state capitol in Madison on Tuesday to protest legislation aimed at both public employee and private sector union activity.  Teamsters, teachers, university workers, nurses, high school students, and state workers of all kinds flooded the streets and the capitol grounds. The crowd cheered as firefighters […]

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Local OB Writer’s Car Torched – Some Speculate Incident Due to Article on Homeless

February 16, 2011 by Source
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Speculation that Bianca Koch’s Recent Article in Peninsula Beacon on Homeless Count Sparked Torching – and Now She’s Evicted by Ron Ross / RonRossToday.com / February 15, 2011 A citizen journalist for a California weekly newspaper said her car was bombed in the early morning hours of Friday, Feb. 11, and now she has been […]

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Say, just how much did that ‘Fly-Over’ cost last weekend?

February 15, 2011 by Frank Gormlie
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Is it just us, or is anyone else curious as to what the gigantic Navy “fly-over” cost last weekend? In this time of severe budget cuts, loss of jobs and income, of mounting debt, of record military budgets, last Saturday’s “Parade of Flight” stood out as an awesome display of Naval Aviation, celebrating San Diego’s […]

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South Dakota Moves To Legalize Killing Abortion Providers

February 15, 2011 by Source
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By Kate Sheppard / Mother Jones

A law under consideration in South Dakota would expand the definition of “justifiable homicide” to include killings that are intended to prevent harm to a fetus—a move that could make it legal to kill doctors who perform abortions. The Republican-backed legislation, House Bill 1171, has passed out of committee on a nine-to-three party-line vote, and is expected to face a floor vote in the state’s GOP-dominated House of Representatives soon.

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How Many Progressive Budget Analysts Does It Take to Discuss the Military?

February 15, 2011 by Source
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By David Swanson / opednews.com / February 15, 2011 Whether or not one recklessly and misleadingly includes Social Security and Medicare and Medicaid in discussions of the federal discretionary budget, the fact remains that over half of the discretionary budget (of everything other than Social Security and Medicare and Medicaid) is military. The primary talking […]

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Was a ‘weapon of mass effect’ found in San Diego?

February 15, 2011 by Source
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Editor: A recent Channel 10News interview with a port security official raises questions whether a “weapon of mass effect” has been found in San Diego. Assistant San Diego Port Director, Col. Al Hallor, was interviewed by reporter Mitch Blacher last week, and during the interview, Hallor admitted that a “weapon of mass effect” had been found by “partner agencies” in the San Diego area. This partial and incomplete admission was picked up by Britain’s media, and here it is inside ….

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Wisconsin Governor Alerts the National Guard to Protests by Public Workers

February 15, 2011 by Source
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Recently elected Wisconsin Republican Governor Scott Walker has proposed a bill that would eliminate almost all collective bargaining rights for most public workers and slash their pay and benefits.

Walker has also notified the state’s National Guard to be on alert for actions taken by unsatisfied state, county and municipal employees.

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The most insidious debt possible: A Student Loan

February 15, 2011 by Source
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The Student Loan Swindle An Interview with Alan Nasser By Mike Whitney / CounterPunch / February 2011 Alan Nasser is professor emeritus of Political Economy at the Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington. He co-authored “The Student Loan Debt Bubble” along with Kelly Norman, which appeared in CounterPunch. MW Is it possible to “walk away” […]

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Virtual Warfare Escalates on US-Mexico Border

February 15, 2011 by Source

Private Blackwater-type Military Training Center to Be Constructed in Imperial County by Kanya D’Almeida / TruthOut / Originally published Feb. 7, 2011 New York – In the quiet desert community of Nomirage, located just 20 kilometres east of San Diego, the sounds of impending war creep over the silent landscape. Armed with a 100-million-dollar budget […]

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‘My continuing struggle against the Koala Klan at Cal State San Marcos’

February 14, 2011 by Source
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Diary of a Mad Coed in her Prime: A Conspiracy of Dunces* By Kit-Bacon Gressitt / Excuse Me, I’m Writing / February 13, 2011 We were sitting at the old soda fountain counter at the newish cafe in downtown Fallbrook, which is actually a small town, but everything is relative, I suppose. We were there, […]

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School Budget Bingo, San Diego Style

February 14, 2011 by Doug Porter
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It’s mid-February again, and there are  three things that are true harbingers of this season; no more football, the media gushing over Valentines Day, and the SDUSD School Board  confronting the realities of yet another budget shortfall.  Andy Cohen covers football around here and City Beat did a great job with their conveniently timed “Sex […]

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OBceans In the News

February 12, 2011 by Frank Gormlie
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Two OBceans are in the news over the last several days: David Klowden – who began a facebook opposing renaming the Coronado Bridge after Ronald Reagan, and George Murphy – who has been an activist in OB – on the OB Planning Board and as current Chair of the Friends of the Ocean Beach Library, as well as in the City-wide gay community. We celebrate them both here … take a look.

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Live Blogging from San Diego: the Egyptian Revolution – Day 18

February 10, 2011 by Frank Gormlie
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5:37 am pst NBC News reported Friday that Mubarak had left Cairo, citing a high-ranking official and a security source. Both sources said he left from Almaza military airport with his family. There were unconfirmed reports that he had gone to the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh on Israel’s Channel 10. Mubarak has a […]

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Egyptians to Stage Largest Protests Yet – Big Question: ‘What Will the Army Do?’

February 10, 2011 by Source
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By Al Jazeera / February 11, 2011 Hundreds of thousands of pro-democracy protesters are expected to march onto the streets of Cairo and other Egyptian cities on Friday, in what could become the largest – and some fear the most violent – protests thus far. The demonstrators’ hopes for the resignation of President Hosni Mubarak […]

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Live Blogging from San Diego: Is Egyptian dictator Mubarak about to resign?

February 10, 2011 by Frank Gormlie
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8:44 pm PST It is Friday, Feb. 11th, in Egypt and massive demonstrations are expected in Cairo and elsewhere. They are planned for after the noon prayers. Noon in Cairo is 2 a.m. here on the West Coast.  But perhaps we’ll catch a glimpse of what’s happening in the Revolution before that late hour. 8:17 […]

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Mubarak snoozes as the whole world watches …

February 10, 2011 by Staff
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Remembering Ronald Reagan …

February 10, 2011 by Staff
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How Far Can Arizona Secede?

February 10, 2011 by Source
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Where “Inalienable Rights” Have No Meaning

by Roberto Rodriquez / CounterPunch / February 9, 2011

Jose Olivas holds a drawing of a baby as he protests against Arizona’s Senate bill 1308 and 1309 outside Arizona’s Capitol building in Phoenix, Arizona, 7 February 2011. The two bills seek to overrule the 14th amendment of the US constitution by denying American citizenship to children born in the United States to undocumented immigrants.

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Homelessness Myth #19: R-E-S-P-E-C-T

February 9, 2011 by Christine Schanes

Imagine for a moment the image of a homeless person.  How do you feel?  Are you imagining someone you respect? Many of us do not respect homeless people.  And by “us,” I mean “housed people.” Often, having respect for homeless people is only a myth. At home with our families, at work surrounded by colleagues, […]

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