Month: December 2011

By Anne Geiger / Public Policy Blogger

Refreshing to read Kathleen Parker this morning as she eviscerates the “big” idea of ever-pompous Newt Gingrich to give poor kids the work ethic he believes they lack by firing their school custodians and pay the kids to—- clean the floors, desks, windows and cafeteria tables, scrub and sanitize bathroom sinks and toilets, sweep sidewalks, shovel snow, bag and dispose of trash and garbage, clear clogged pipes, etc. etc. This, mind you, while putting aside their real job of learning every day.

By John W. Whitehead / Huffington Post / Dec. 6, 2011

America’s so-called war on terror, which it has relentlessly pursued for the past ten years, has forever altered the political and legal landscape of our country. It has chipped away at our freedoms and is unraveling our Constitution. Even now, with Osama bin Laden having been killed and al Qaeda dismantled by a series of high-profile assassinations, the war hawks continue to rattle their sabers. Yet while more and more Americans join the call for a de-escalation of military actions abroad, those clamoring for war have turned their focus inwards. As Senator Lindsay Graham recently remarked as an explanation for his support of legislation allowing for the indefinite detention of Americans, “Is the homeland the battlefield? You better believe it is the battlefield.”

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Prosecutors on Wednesday abandoned their 30-year pursuit of the execution of convicted police killer Mumia Abu-Jamal, the former Black Panther whose claim that he was the victim of a racist legal system made him an international cause celebre.

Abu-Jamal, 58, will instead spend the rest of his life in prison. His writings and radio broadcasts from death row had put him at the center of an international debate over capital punishment.

My Occupy LA Arrest

by Patrick Meighan / blogspot / December 6, 2011

My name is Patrick Meighan, and I’m a husband, a father, a writer on the Fox animated sitcom “Family Guy”, and a member of the Unitarian Universalist Community Church of Santa Monica.

I was arrested at about 1 a.m. Wednesday morning with 291 other people at Occupy LA. I was sitting in City Hall Park with a pillow, a blanket, and a copy of Thich Nhat Hanh’s “Being Peace” when 1,400 heavily-armed LAPD officers in paramilitary SWAT gear streamed in. I was in a group of about 50 peaceful protestors who sat Indian-style, arms interlocked, around a tent (the symbolic image of the Occupy movement). The LAPD officers encircled us, weapons drawn, while we chanted “We Are Peaceful” and “We Are Nonviolent” and “Join Us.”

The Ocean Beach Planning Board is meeting tonight at their regularly scheduled time and place. They will be taking up the Burk residence at 5170 West Point Loma Blvd and in doing so, confronting the whole issue of gentrification coming to that block.

Here are a series of articles we published on the issue (click on the headline).

Community Planning Lesson # 1: The coming gentrification crisis of Ocean Beach

Community Planning Lesson #2 – Gentrification Coming to Ocean Beach

While recalling my father in WWII, I wonder what he would think of our lack of First Amendment rights today?

Today is the 70th anniversary of the attack at Pearl Harbor which pushed the U.S. into World War Two. The Japanese surprise dismantled a good part of the US Pacific Fleet. Whether FDR knew about the coming attack is not our concern today.

Our concern today – expressed by an Open Thread – is what it means for us so many decades later, when most of that generation have taken their leave from this world.

To all you well wishers out there, know that I love each one of you dearly and deeply appreciate your prayers and your soothing words and your hugs and two kisses. Oh, you ease so much of the pain that our family is going through hoping that our Debbie will pull through.

Okay, so I know you’re thinking “Yeah, we cool, but how are YOU doing?” Well, you mean, other than not knowing whether I’m coming or going?

Actually, I’m okay, under the circumstances, one might say, but in all this I find myself wondering “Am I crazy?” Then I think I must be because I can’t rid myself of a most compelling urge to just let loose like Daffy Duck, casting my sanity to the four winds, the pain is so stunning.

Happy Holidays, Everyone!

Some people, granted, not many, have asked me what I would like for a holiday gift this year. My answer this year, and every year since I was 16, has always been the same: “Don’t buy me anything because if I want something I usually go out and buy it for myself.”

But this year – 2011 – may be a little different. The magazine “Consumer Reports”, (January, 2012) came out this week and listed “25 great gifts.” I thought maybe I could get a few ideas from their list, as I have done in the past. After all, I have 3 children; 9 grandchildren and 4 great-grandchildren, besides friends that I like to remember during this time. So…pen and paper in hand, a list of those I want/need to buy for and I opened the magazine to page 16.

By OccupySD Media team

• OSD to march this evening to protest continued violations of 1st Amendment rights
• Protesters demand police chief resignation
• Police spokesman lies about reason for latest police raid
• Another protester to join hunger strike

Occupy San Diego will march Tuesday December 6 at 6:30pm from Freedom Plaza (formerly known as Civic Center) to the San Diego Police station on Broadway and 14th in protest of the continued police brutality, misconduct and unlawful arrests at the OSD protests.

Here is the agenda for the December 7, 2011, meeting of the Ocean Beach Planning Board. Their meeting starts sharply at 6pm in the meeting room at the OB Recreation Center, 4726 Santa Monica Avenue.

The big thing on the agenda is Action Item # 2 – the Burk Residence. This is what OBcians need to be focused on; attend this meeting. This is the future of Ocean Beach.

From the San Diego Labor Council:

National Day of Mobilization for the Unemployed and for Jobs

Thursday, December 8, 2011
Vigil and Silent March
5 p.m. – Civic Center, 1200 3rd Avenue (3rd & B)
Downtown San Diego, 92101

Unemployment insurance is set to expire on December 31, 2011. If Congress doesn’t act before the end of the year, the lifeline for jobless families and local economies that are already struggling will be cut-off.

By Robert Johnson / Business Insider/ Dec. 5, 2011

The U.S. military has some of the most advanced killing equipment in the world that allows it to invade almost wherever it likes at will.

We produce so much military equipment that inventories of military robots, M-16 assault rifles, helicopters, armored vehicles, and grenade launchers eventually start to pile up and it turns out a lot of these weapons are going straight to American police forces to be used against US citizens.

Benjamin Carlson at The Daily reports on a little known endeavor called the “1033 Program” that gave more than $500 million of military gear to U.S. police forces in 2011 alone.