Month: July 2011

In the past weeks, American citizens have made it known in countless polls that they don’t want anyone to mess with their Social Security, their Medicare or Medicaid. And the majority of us have also said that it is about time to make the wealthiest among us to pay their fair share of taxes.

So why are we enmeshed in a months long debate about the friggin debt ceiling, which in the words of Jefferson Airplane, doesn’t mean shit to a tree (or the citizenry)?

by Keegan Kyle / Voice of San Diego

Before San Diego banned alcohol from its beaches, Police Chief Bill Lansdowne expressed his opposition to the proposal and issued a warning. The heavy drinkers who amass during summer holidays won’t go away, he said. They’ll move inland, away from beefed up beach patrols, and make it harder for police to monitor crime

Recently, the Redistricting Commission has released a draft of the San Diego city Districts. Make sure your voice is heard NOW!

The next opportunity to express your opinion will be next Tuesday, July 26th at the first post-map public hearing. Please join us to show your support for representative redistricting!

Tuesday, July 26th, 6PM

Logan Heights Branch Library
567 South 28th Street
San Diego, CA 92113

There is a growing movement in America that equates godliness with hatred of our government — in fact, hatred of our country.

By Frank Schaeffer / AlterNet

The Norwegian police on Saturday charged a 32-year-old man, whom they identified as a Christian fundamentalist with right-wing connections, over the bombing of a government center and a shooting attack on a nearby island that together left at least 91 people dead.

Citizens for Patient Rights and The Patient Care Association of California (PCACA), law enforcement, legal, clergy and MMJ patient representatives will present their reasons for supporting the repeal of San Ordinance No. O-20042.

WHEN: Monday, July 25, 2011, 2:00 p.m.,

WHERE: City Administration Building, Council Chambers – 12th Floor, 202 “C” Street, San Diego.

Ernie McCray, former principal and educator, and OB Rag contributor, has been chosen to be a member of the new San Diego Union-Tribune community editorial board. This was all announced in a series of articles in the U-T’s Sunday edition yesterday, July 24.

It has taken me more than 30 years as a journalist to ask myself this question, but this week I find that I must: is the Left right after all? You see, one of the great arguments of the Left is that what the Right calls “the free market” is actually a set-up.

The rich run a global system that allows them to accumulate capital and pay the lowest possible price for labour. The freedom that results applies only to them. The many simply have to work harder, in conditions that grow ever more insecure, to enrich the few. Democratic politics, which purports to enrich the many, is actually in the pocket of those bankers, media barons and other moguls who run and own everything.

By Jane Fonda

I grew up during World War II. My childhood was influenced by the roles my father played in his movies. Whether Abraham Lincoln or Tom Joad in the Grapes of Wrath, his characters communicated certain values which I try to carry with me to this day. I remember saying goodbye to my father the night he left to join the Navy. He didn’t have to. He was older than other servicemen and had a family to support but he wanted to be a part of the fight against fascism, not just make movies about it. I admired this about him. I grew up with a deep belief that wherever our troops fought, they were on the side of the angels.

It’s been two, baby
Two years since
You went away…

Yet it feels just like yesterday. And I still miss you like it was yesterday. But I’m getting better everyday. Now, I have to say, I still find myself shedding tears (tears that will be around forever, I’m thinking) but the deep intense bone and soul searing emotional pain that wore on me for so many months has faded away. I’m learning to be at ease with my sweet and precious memories of you, giving way to the poetry in the imagery that comes to me, like a click from your camera, to play on your photography.

After taking in a day at ComicCon as a passive observer — and then taking a day off to recuperate (and return to the work force) — I made a second trip to the San Diego Convention Center on Saturday for another round of the madness.

This time, my buddy Alan dressed as Marty McFly, the character Michael J. Fox played in Back to the Future. My wife Kirsten dressed as Jennifer, Marty’s girlfriend in the 1985 film. I donned a gray wig and white scrubs to play the role of Doc Brown, who was played by Christopher Lloyd in the movie.

• Ned Titlow’s Last Historical Walking Tour of Downtown Ocean Beach

Join other OBceans and Ned Titlow – one of OB’s long-time historians – in an historical walking tour down Newport Avenue and down memory land. This is probably Ted’s last tour, so you really should check this out. Ned always has some interesting and personal funny stories, and a lot of great OB historical information.

Bonus: The Hidden Garden will be opened in back for our group following the tour.

O.B. Historical Walk: Sat. July 23 at 10 AM

Meet at OB Library

• Book Sale by Friends of the OB Library

Saturday, July 23, please consider the OB alternative–our always fascinating Book Sale, from 10 am to 1 pm (Costumes optional). This is one of our annual book sales, come join us. OB Friends of the Library

SAN FRANCISCO — Inmates have ended a three-week hunger strike in the high-security Pelican Bay State Prison in Del Norte County to protest conditions in isolation units at the facility and what they said were oppressive gang-security measures by prison officials, California prison officials say.

Advocates for the prisoners said they got confirmation late Thursday from the inmates themselves. Meanwhile, some inmates in three other state prisons who were refusing to eat in solidarity with those in Pelican Bay were continuing their strike until they could also receive confirmation, state officials said.