Month: June 2011

An annual report on homelessness from the Department of Housing and Urban Development shows the number of homeless people in families climbed 20 percent from 2007 to 2010, that was even as homelessness across the country declined by 3.3 percent over the same period. A similar trend in San Diego County is taxing available resources …

UPDATE: City Attorney has postponed this hearing at the Rules Committee for tomorrow. Join us at the Rules Committee hearing when it happens (it will NOT be June 22) – come inside for more details about why the outsourcing of the landfill is a bad idea

June 22nd was going to be one of the last chances to speak out on the proposed outsourcing of San Diego’s only public landfill, up at Miramar. Join a broad coalition of community, civic and environmental groups at the Rules Committee hearing on the landfill outsourcing.

A Book Review

In Mike Davis’s seminal discussion of noir in City of Quartz he defines the genre as “a fantastic convergence of American ‘tough-guy’ realism, Weimar expressionism, and existentialized Marxism—all focused on unmasking a ‘bright, guilty place.’” Born in the minds of the “Depression crazed middle classes” of southern California, the “nightmare anti-myth of noir” trafficked in alienation and a distrust of the morality of capitalism.

by Lucas O’Connor

The San Onofre nuclear facility is squarely in Darrell Issa’s district. Presumably, this would be a top concern for Darrell Issa, especially since San Onofre recently experienced its fifth spill of toxic chemicals in just over two years. Notorious for its deficient safety culture, “San Onofre is the leader still in safety concerns reported to the NRC.” That ought to be a terrifying concern for anyone living near San Onofre,…

by nunya / politickybitch

Many years ago photovoltaic collectors as a source of electricity were notoriously inefficient at that time, but hot water systems were efficient, and that was my training. And that didn’t turn out so well. I knew the Sunrise Powerlink was not the pretty picture that SDG&E painted because of my very limited experience with photovolatics and my suspicion of SDG&E’s PR campaign.

By John Lawrence/ Will Blog for Food

The Republicans have Obama exactly where they want him: a failing economy with no chance for any significant job creation program. Why isn’t there any chance for a job creation program? Because Republicans control the House and have veto power in the Senate.

The Supreme Court on Monday blocked the massive sex-discrimination case female employees brought against Wal-Mart in a decision that might make it harder to bring future discrimination lawsuits against large corporations.

Here’s America’s 10 wealthiest billionaires:

No. 1. : Bill Gates – Microsoft tycoon Bill Gates is worth a huge net $54 billion.

No. 2.: Warren Buffett – Financial magnate Warren Buffet smiles as he is introduced at the Berkshire Hathaway. Chairman Warren Buffett has $45 billion to smile about.

No. 3: Larry Ellison – Larry Ellison, chief executive officer of Oracle Corp., a computer technology company, is worth $27 billion ….

By Jack Hamlin/ Special to the OB Rag

I have mentioned my father in past writings, and you have probably guessed we have a good relationship, looking forward to the time we spend together. Our political views are generally the opposite side of the same coin, so we typically have very common ground from which we address issues with each other. In fact during the course of our weekly breakfast we solve most of the nation’s problems and have decided to let the rest of the world to sort out theirs.

The gap between America’s rich and poor is so extreme levels of inequality are worse in the land of the free than they are in many developing countries.

The U.S. ranks way behind the European Union and the United Kingdom in terms of inequality of pay, figures show.

In fact, the situation is so extreme the land of the free falls behind countries such as Cameroon, the Ivory Coast and revolutionary Egypt, Tunisia and Yemen – and only just in front of Uganda and Jamaica.

Following up on our first foray into the wonders of Google Art Project, we once again stroll a gallery of…

I went to see Sir Paul the other night. Talking about Mr. McCartney. As in Fab Four. And all I can say is Wow!

I love the dude and that love was further solidified, intensified, and personalized, in particular, one moment, when I found myself completely into the moment, with my head laid back, swaying as Paul in an aging, yet still eloquently and deeply expressive one of a kind voice, sang:

Blackbird singing in the dead of night
Take these broken wings and learn to fly
All your life
You were only waiting for this moment to arise