August 2011

Our Democracy: A Community Conversation

August 23, 2011 by Staff
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Please join Empower San Diego for a community conversation about California’s ballot initiative system. We want to know about your thoughts and experiences as a voter to help us learn how we can help improve the system for all Californians. The format of this meeting will be similar to a focus group, emphasizing community conversation and input.

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350.org Co-Founder Bill McKibben and 160 220 Others Arrested at White House Protesting Tar Sands Pipeline

August 23, 2011 by Patty Jones
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UPDATE: Today, August 23rd, 60 more people arrested, including Canadian actors Margot Kidder and a Tantoo Cardinal, bring the total to more than 220.

As of today over 160 people, including 350.org co-founder Bill McKibben, have been arrested at the White House. Others arrested include co-founder of Natural Resources Defense Council and former White House official Gus Speth, gay rights activist Lt. Dan Choi, author and activist Mike Tidwell, Firedoglake founder Jane Hamsher. For the past three days, large groups of Americans have joined a non-violent civil disobedience action at the White House. The goal is to send President Obama a simple message: “Stop the Keystone XL Tar Sands Pipeline.” These protests will continue over the next two weeks.

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Grocery Workers Prepare to Strike as New Round of Talks Begin August 29th

August 23, 2011 by Staff
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Please support the 62,000 grocery workers from Santa Barbara to San Ysidro who face a looming strike and join them for leafleting and a rally on Wednesday, August 24 from noon to 1:30 p.m. at Downtown Ralphs Store 101 G Street, San Diego 92101.

Across this vast region, grocery workers voted by more than 90% to declare that health benefits are worth fighting for — even if that means going on strike in the near future. The companies insist their offer would protect current standards of health benefits. This is not true. If they are allowed to stand, the companies’ proposals would devastate members’ access to medical care for themselves and their families. Within 18-20 months, the fund that pays for the medical benefits of 62,000 grocery workers would run out of money. The only alternative at that point would be to cut benefits drastically and raise out-of-pocket costs — premiums, deductibles and co-pays — through the roof.

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Casa Del Monte Apartments in Ocean Beach sold for $3 million

August 23, 2011 by Source
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The 16-unit Casa Del Monte Apartment complex in Ocean Beach at 4812 Del Monte Ave., San Diego 92107, has been sold for $2.95 million.

The buyers were Virginia Wilmoth Beck, trustee of the James Alfred Beck and Virginia Wilmoth Beck Family Trust (50 percent); Richard J. Beck and Helen M. Beck, as trustees of the Richard and Helen Beck 2003 Trust; as the sole and separate property of Richard J. Beck, (25 percent) and Elaine Virginia Hornby (25 percent).

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Bernie Sanders: The Ten Worst Corporate Tax Avoiders

August 22, 2011 by Source
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Bernie Sanders : It’s Time for Them to Pay up and Share the Sacrifice

While hard working Americans fill out their income tax returns this tax season, General Electric and other giant profitable corporations are avoiding U.S. taxes altogether.

With Congress returning to Capitol Hill on Monday to debate steep spending cuts, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) said the wealthiest Americans and most profitable corporations must do their share to help bring down our record-breaking deficit.

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Rally for the Jobless on Labor Day

August 22, 2011 by Staff
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Organizers of San Diego’s MoveOn are planning on holding a “Rally for the Jobless” on Labor Day, September 5th.

Scheduled for noon on Labor Day at Horton Plaza in downtown San Diego, the event will continue to highlight the employment crisis in America, and it is hoped will continue to place pressure on Congress and the White House. The national, state-wide, and San Diego County unemployment rates just increased.

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Politics in America – The Blame Game

August 22, 2011 by Jack Hamlin
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Whose fault is it anyway?

A few years ago, I left politics behind in my life and tried to focus on the things which really mattered; family, spiritual self-improvement, working at a job which would give me satisfaction, doing right by others. In the past I had circulated petitions calling for Nixon’s impeachment while attending UCLA, worked hard for the elections bids of George McGovern, and Tom Hayden, railed against Ronald Reagan’s game of nuclear chicken with the then Soviets protesting as far away as Dublin, Ireland, and spoke out against the former head of the CIA, George H.W. Bush, being our president.

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90% of Grocery Workers Vote to Authorize Strike Against Vons, Ralphs, and Albertsons

August 22, 2011 by Source
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“If we don’t get a deal, “ grocery workers union leader pledged, “we’ll take this fight to the streets.” Picketing could begin this week.

By East County Magazine

A grocery workers’ strike at Vons, Albertsons and Ralphs supermarkets could begin as early as this week. Union members voted overwhelmingly on Saturday to authorize leaders to call a strike, with 90% voting in favor.

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What would the Pope do? Fighting white, male chauvinism at the blouse counter.

August 22, 2011 by Source
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By Kit-Bacon Gressitt / Excuse Me, I’m Writing / August 22, 2011

We were on a quest for the perfect loveseat, my daughter and I. Clean enough that you don’t mind touching skin to upholstery and just enough wear so a little spilled tea won’t break your heart. Kate and I were clear on our priorities, and, as luck would have it — or was it something more intentional? — we found a treasure at our favorite Fallbrook thrift store, a nice church-sponsored place that seeks charity and justice, values we share. Well, minus the dogma. And the misogyny. We’re also passionately opposed to that celibacy thing.

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Where Do We Go From Here, San Diego?

August 22, 2011 by Jim Miller
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On Saturday, August 27th, the Coalition for a Better San Diego is holding an Economic Summit at Horace Mann Middle School from 9:00 AM to 2:00 PM.

The goal of this summit is to bring together a wide array of people from labor and the community to share their ideas about what would make San Diego a better place. The themes of this gathering are jobs, prosperity, quality of life, equality, and fairness. Issues set to be discussed will range from job creation, education, and public services to housing, racial equality, and fair taxation—just to name a few.

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The Race for Mayor, 2012 – Dear Congressman Bob, Don’t Count Your Chickens…

August 20, 2011 by Doug Porter
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There were more than a dozen activists in the room, gathered for conversations that had nothing to do with the Mayoral race. None-the-less, the campaign for San Diego’s next Mayor did come up. After all, these were activists, progressive activists, many of them with long political pedigrees, all of whom should be excited about the prospect of a democrat running the show at City Hall.

We went through the list of candidates; DeMaio = Disaster, a mean spirited collection of ambitions, willing to tell any lie to sell his program, Dumanis = Jerry Sanders redux, Fletcher = Willing to smile while he hands out cigarettes (he’s collected over $30K from big tobacco in recent times) to City workers in lieu of a pension…. then there was the Democrat of the bunch, Congressman Bob Filner—the resulting conversation, given that many of these folks have known Filner for years, was shocking.

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Where is the Military When We truly Need Defending

August 19, 2011 by Jack Hamlin

Over the past several weeks I watched the squabble between the Republicans, and the Republicans, and some Democrats over the debt ceiling. It seemed like a no-brainer to resolve, and so the Republicans, and the Republicans and some Democrats seemed to be the perfect folk to figure it all out.

After it all played out, the resolution would turn out the same way whenever the Republicans and the Republicans, and some Democrats try to resolve an issue; they generally end up blaming us because we think we are so entitled, and take another animal off the endangered species list so it can be slaughtered and a power plant can be built…or something like that. But this time there was something sinister in the background which seemed to be disturbing to everyone. This time our credit rating was being threatened.

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Friday’s Drive-by: News from around San Diego

August 19, 2011 by Staff
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Here is our Friday’s Drive-by – news and links to news from around San Diego’s blogosphere:

Interviews with Bob Filner, Candidate for Mayor – – Come inside – There’s much more …..

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San Diego Is Really a Democratic City

August 19, 2011 by Source
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by Lucas O’Connor / Two Cathedrals / August 18, 2011

Two months ago I took on some of the most persistent failures of conventional wisdom in San Diego politics, including that the city’s voters lean to the right. At the time, I pointed out that the city of San Diego is not only willing to elect Democrats, it voted for every possible Democrat in the November 2010 election by almost the exact same margin as the state overall. Now, California has become a reliably Democratic state over the last ten or twenty years, so it’s perhaps worth going back over a sample size a bit larger than last November.

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BART and the New Era of Censorship

August 18, 2011 by Source
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I have spent most of the week poring over news stories, blogs and commentary on last week’s decision by Bay Area Rapid Transit officials to shut off cellphone service to quash planned protests on its trains and platforms.

Opinions are many and range from BART spokesman Linton Johnson, who says constitutional rights end the moment people walk through transit-authority turnstiles, to “X” of the hacker collective Anonymous, who protested BART’s action and said our freedom to connect should be absolute and universal.

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CIA tried to recruit 2 San Diego 9-11 hijackers

August 18, 2011 by Source
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With the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks only a month away, former CIA Director George Tenet and two former top aides are fighting back hard against allegations that they engaged in a massive cover-up in 2000 and 2001 to hide intelligence from the White House and the FBI that might have prevented the attacks.

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Did Warlmart Break San Diego?

August 18, 2011 by Source
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by Lucas O’Connor / Two Cathedrals / August 17, 2011

Remember when we worried here that Walmart may have broken the San Diego City Council? The giant corporation had just forced the council to reverse its city planning policy for absolutely no reason other than the prospective cost of holding an election. The worry then was that any organization could skip both the will of the people and the will of those elected by the people simply by trading on tough economic times.

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NEWS FLASH: Poll shows Tea Party Popularity Among Americans Plummeting

August 17, 2011 by Source

Poll: Tea Party Less Popular Than Muslims, Atheists, 21 Other Groups

The debt ceiling deal has left the Tea Party more disliked than ever, as a recent New York Times poll shows. In April, 2010, 21 percent of Americans approved of the Tea Party while 18 percent disapproved of it. Now, 20 percent approve while a stunning 40 percent disapprove of it.

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New York Times: Darrel Issa Busy Helping Himself

August 17, 2011 by Source
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By Eric Lichtblau / The New York Times

Corrections Appended to the New York Times article.

VISTA, Calif. — Here on the third floor of a gleaming office building overlooking a golf course in the rugged foothills north of San Diego, Darrell Issa, the entrepreneur, oversees the hub of a growing financial empire worth hundreds of millions of dollars.

Darrell Issa’s businesses have prospered since he was elected in 2000. The properties his management company in California owns include a building housing a Hooters restaurant.

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Republicans Manipulate Unemployment Rates to Unseat Obama – Now Post Office Workers On the Table

August 17, 2011 by Source

Republican Governors Eliminate Jobs and Raise Unemployment Rate by Firing Cops, Teachers and Firemen

by John Lawrence / Will Blog for Food / August 14, 2011

The private sector has added jobs in recent months, but government has lost jobs because Republican Governors are firing public workers.

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Mayor’s Race: Spotlight on Bonnie Dumanis

August 17, 2011 by Source
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by Lucas O’Connor / Two Cathedrals / August 16, 2011

We recently touched on mayor candidate Nathan Fletcher’s transparently unethical hiring practices, paying for campaign staff with taxpayer dollars. Today we turn the spotlight to another mayoral candidate, District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis.

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San Diego Billionaire Irwin Jacobs Agrees With Warren Buffet – the Rich Need to Be Taxed More

August 17, 2011 by Frank Gormlie
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Billionaire Warren Buffett has been making headlines in his call for the super-rich of America to be taxed more. (See below.)

Now we hear that Irwin Jacobs – one of the richest San Diegans and co-founder of Qualcomm – agrees with Buffett. Jacobs made this surprising statement during a meeting with the San Diego U-T Community Editorial Board earlier this week, where he raised questions about the assumption that higher taxes on the super-rich were bad for job creation, and completely agreed with Buffett.

In 2009, Forbes listed Jacobs as the 220th richest American, worth $1.6 Billion.

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Barbara Ehrenreich: How America Turned Poverty Into a Crime

August 17, 2011 by Source
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The Nickel and Dimed (2011 Version)

By Barbara Ehrenreich / TomDispatch.com / Originally published Aug. 9, 2011

I completed the manuscript for Nickel and Dimed in a time of seemingly boundless prosperity. Technology innovators and venture capitalists were acquiring sudden fortunes, buying up McMansions like the ones I had cleaned in Maine and much larger. Even secretaries in some hi-tech firms were striking it rich with their stock options. There was loose talk about a permanent conquest of the business cycle, and a sassy new spirit infecting American capitalism. In San Francisco, a billboard for an e-trading firm proclaimed, “Make love not war,” and then — down at the bottom — “Screw it, just make money.”

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“How Come You’re Not Listening to me?” – A Poem by Ernie McCray

August 17, 2011 by Ernie McCray
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I remember a night

my wife said to me:

“How come you’re not listening to me?”

Well, I wanted to listen,

you see,

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The helicopters are still making their early morning run over Ocean Beach

August 17, 2011 by Judi Curry
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An Update: February 26th of this year, I originally wrote an article about the number of helicopters flying over Ocean Beach in the wee small hours of the morning. As an insomniac I find this very distressing. I accept that I will go to sleep after 11:30pm when Lindbergh closes their takeoff routine, and, if lucky, will have the drone of the motor wake me at 6:30am. That is if I am able to sleep in the “between” hours.

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Anybody Know About the Hit and Run Sunday Night or About the Loud Noises in OB?

August 16, 2011 by Frank Gormlie

Did you see anything from a hit and run near Abbott and Brighton Sunday night (Aug.14th)?

An OBcian has requested help from our readers, as a friend of theirs was a victim of a hit and run around Abbot and Brighton Sunday night, about 10pm. That would be the evening of August 14th.

If you any knowledge or observations of this, please email the OB Rag at obragblog@gmail.com, and you can do it anonymously.

Strange Loud Noise Late at Night

A reader has written in saying that “there was a crazy loud noise that went off at 1:45am sharp on the corner of Brighton and Cable,” Monday night – August 15th.

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The NFL to Los Angeles Derby has officially begun. Are the Chargers heading north? My money says no.

August 16, 2011 by Andy Cohen
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Does the LA City Council unanimous vote to proceed with a new stadium/convention center project spell doom for the NFL in San Diego?

LA Chargers? Don’t count on it. Not yet, anyway. Sure last week’s unanimous LA City Council vote to approve the outline for a mostly privately funded stadium concept in Downtown Los Angeles seems to spell doom for the San Diego Chargers, but I’m not buying it just yet.

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San Diego Forum Tonight: “Debts, Lies, and Thugs”

August 15, 2011 by Staff

If you think the “Debt Deal” stinks, wait until you find out how they pulled off this heist, with the full complicity of the media!

This month, Activist San Diego brings together a panel of experts, to analyze and deconstruct how an artificial ‘crisis’ was created, just as outlined in Naomi Klein’s book ” Shock Doctrine: The rise of disaster capitalism“. The panel includes:

  • Congressman Bob Filner
  • Lorena Gonzalez of the Labor Council,
  • Floyd Morrow,
  • Dr. Jeoff Gordon and
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The Horror of Living in “Socialist” France, parte deux

August 15, 2011 by Randall Erickson
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By Randall Erickson / Special to the OB Rag

PARIS, FRANCE. My previous dispatch may give a too idealistic image of life in France.

There are major and minor problems. Yes, like the United States, France has homeless individuals and families. They cannot afford available housing and may have trouble paying for food or even finding a school for their children because they don’t have an address.

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Councilman Faulconer is okay with gentrification in Ocean Beach, dismisses Planning Board concerns about 5100 West Point Loma

August 15, 2011 by Frank Gormlie
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Kevin Faulconer, it seems, is okay with gentrification in Ocean Beach. The District 2 City Councilman for Ocean Beach responded to a letter sent to him by members of the OB Planning Board protesting how the City was granting variances to property owners in the 5100 block of West Point Loma. In his response, Faulconer dismissed the concerns of our local planners about that block.

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