Month: November 2011

In our most recent poll – and with the most participation ever in any poll the OB Rag has ever run – over 80% stated that they agree with views commonly shared by Occupy Wall Street protesters. 399 respondents voted in our poll that ran for one week beginning October 28, 2011. 82% declared that they support the OWS goals.

Only 15% said they disagree. 3% were not sure.

And to top it off, 17.5% said that they have been involved with the Occupy San Diego movement, or 70 respondents. This is astounding! And great!

We’ve been watching, knowing that this moment was about to happen!

Our 2,000,000 hit was from a fan in San Diego clicking in at 11:13 and checking out the article “Filming at Old Townhouse Restaurant begins November 8th.”

Congrats to everyone here at the OB Rag for your hard work and devotion, and congrats to this dedicated reader! We have a t-shirt for you! Contact us at obragblog@gmail.com and we’ll let you know how you can claim your prize.

Filming of a new feature film starts today, November 8th, at OB’s most famous “greasy spoon” – the Old Townhouse Restaurant.

Ted and Kathy Caplaneris’ family restaurant on Newport Avenue has been chosen – once again – as a location in a feature film. The film is being produced by White Night Productions, a locally family owned independent film company. The movie is called “Sports Heaven”.

Attorneys working on behalf of Occupy San Diego will be filing a temporary restraining order against the city of San Diego and the San Diego Police Department in response to the violation of protesters’ First Amendment rights. The attorneys will be holding press conference at 11 am this morning announcing their filing at the Civic Center Plaza.

Demonstrators in San Diego’s version of Occupy Wall Street have been attempting to exercise freedom of speech and assembly rights at the Civic Center Plaza, but have been chased out, have had their tents and belongings confiscated and dozens were arrested by police – 53 in just one sweep at 2 am on October 28th. Protesters believe that the Plaza is a centrally-located public space designed for use by the citizens to gather and express themselves.

A Facebook group calling themselves Make “Wall Street Banks Pay in California” is holding a planning meeting tomorrow night in City Heights and want your voice, your help and your ideas.

When:

Wednesday, November 9 · 6:00pm – 7:30pm

Where:

San Diego Workforce Partnership
3910 University Ave, San Diego, 92105
Free parking behind building

Now today Occupy San Diego is one month old! The first large march and encampment occurred on Friday, October 7th. The very next day, occupiers then moved over to the Civic Center Plaza where they’ve been ever since.

What has OccupySD accomplished in just this one month’s time? Here is our answer for starters:

• For one month now Occupy San Diego has joined the rest of the world in using a tactic begun by Egyptian protesters at the beginning of the “Arab Spring” – occupying public space to draw attention to demands to changes in the social and economic system.

• It has brought a local manifestation of the nation-wide Occupy Wall Street movement to San Diego – brought it here to our little town and created something close-up.

Editor: One century ago, in 1911, the last of the Northern California Yahi Indians was “discovered” near starvation. Given the name “Ishi”, he was brought into the White Man’s world – where he became an oddity and anthropological subject with few real friends among “the aliens” who had decimated his people.

By Espresso / Originally published Sept. 13, 2011

November, 1908: A surveyor team hired by the Oro Light and Power Company, accompanied by guide Merle Apperson traveled to Deer Creek, in the heart of Northern California’s Yana Tribes country. Assuming the country to be uninhabited, the crew went about its business with not a thought of the former occupants.

By Al Carlos Hernandez / La Prensa San Diego / Originally published November 4, 2011

Lalo Alcaraz is a nationally syndicated political cartoonist and the creator of La Cucaracha, the daily comic strip. He hosts a radio show called Ponchos Hour of Power at LA’s KPFK radio 90.7.

Mr. Alcaraz is considered the most prolific Chicano artist in the nation. He has worked diligently for over twenty years chronicling the political ascendancy of Latinos in America and vigorously pushed the boundaries of Chicano art in the post Chicano art era. His cartoons are pictures that are truly worth one thousand words – words that have provoked and inspired millions of conversations, arguments, and dialogic discussions regarding the state of Latino affairs all over the country.

by Tony Manolatos / San Diego Rostra / November 7, 2011

I published a blog post [editor: see below] Friday that questioned Mark Fabiani’s criticism of Mayor Jerry Sanders’ Convention Center expansion plan. Fabiani, who serves as special counsel to the San Diego Chargers and is the team’s point man on stadium talks, sent me a response on Saturday. Here it is:

by Jill Richardson / La Vida Locavore / Originally published Oct. 25, 2011

What could be so terrible? Palm oil, of course. I wrote this piece for Alternet (the original has links) and was so scandalized by what I learned while writing it that I’ve decided to cross-post it here.

On August 10, police and security for the massive palm oil corporation Wilmar International (of which Archer Daniels Midland is the second largest shareholder) stormed a small, indigenous village on the Indonesian island of Sumatra. They came with bulldozers and guns, destroying up to 70 homes, evicting 82 families, and arresting 18 people. Then they blockaded the village, keeping the villagers in — and journalists out. (Wilmar claims it has done no wrong.)

We are weeks into the Occupation of America and, despite struggles with police in numerous cities the public discussion of economic injustice and inequality persists. At the nation’s paper of record, The New York Times, the debate continues with David Brooks furiously trying to belittle and dismiss the message of Occupy Wall Street. In his latest column he bemoans that we are focused on “the wrong inequality” and tells us:

That’s because the protesters and media people who cover them tend to live in or near the big cities, where the top 1 percent is so evident. That’s because the liberal arts majors like to express their disdain for the shallow business and finance majors who make all the money. That’s because it is easier to talk about the inequality of stock options than it is to talk about inequalities of family structure, child rearing patterns and educational attainment. That’s because many people are wedded to the notion that our problems are caused by an oppressive privileged class that perpetually keeps its boot stomped on the neck of the common man.

We know the San Diego U-T is working hard to balance its coverage of the Occupy Wall Street protests here in town. Today, the print edition had a very nice spread about seven of the activists from Occupy San Diego. Thanks to Matt Hall.

But did anyone else notice that today’s U-T covered protests against banks in Oakland and Los Angeles but didn’t speak hardly a word about similar actions right here in downtown San Diego?