Month: August 2011

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.

On Saturday, August 27^th, 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.

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.

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

• Monthly Vigil for Peace by Vets

• Marriage Equality Protest Today at Courthouse

• No Stadium for the Chargers by Don Bauder

• Lori Saldana to Run for Congress Against Bilbray

• More Parents in San Diego County Opt Out of Vaccines

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.