Month: January 2012

by Lucas O’Connor/ Two Cathedrals / January 9, 2012

It was a story that nobody cared much about at first — the Mayor had ignored legal advice from the City Attorney, allowing Qualcomm to temporarily re-name the stadium and its signage without paying what contracts would normally dictate. But the Mayor issued a statement dripping in condescension, giving the kerfluffle a new, stronger second life. When the Mayor declared that the gift of public money to a rich corporation “was for the greater good of our community,” it revealed more than any of us might have liked about whether anyone’s drawing a distinction anymore between the ‘greater good of our community’ and corporate handouts.

OCCUPY the ML King Parade in San Diego

Sunday, January 15 2012
2:00 PM to 4:30 PM

Alongside the San Diego Harbor
Grape Street and Harbor Blvd
San Diego, CA

Restore the true message of Martin Luther King

The once great San Diego Martin Luther King Parade has fallen in recent years from its noble stature, into a near-perversion of it original purpose. In the parade this year on Sunday, January 15th, OCCUPY will change that with your help.

Between SOPA, NDAA, telecommunications surveillance, and people’s willingness to share endlessly via social networking, will 2012 mark the year consumers irreversibly surrender their privacy and freedoms?

By Geoff Duncan / Digital Trends / Originally published Jan. 4, 2012

A mantra of the Internet age, articulated in 1984 by WELL founder Stewart Brand, is that “information wants to be free.” Back then — the days of 360K floppies and 1200 baud modems — Brand was referring to digital technology making information ever easier to distribute, copy, and remix than their old-school analog counterparts. The oft-forgotten corollary Brand offered at the same time was “Information also wants to be expensive,” because particular items, while perhaps of no interest to one person, can be “immeasurably valuable” to someone else.

NEW NEW UPDATE from 1/12/12: A reporter from a local news website who has been researching this story, says this in an email this morning: “He [Jay] died in the line of duty and what he was doing is supper, duper classified,…”

NEW UPDATE from 1/11/12: There is research still going on over this case about whether Jay Polk was killed or not. It is still possibly true that he was killed. To speculate why the DoD has not publicized his death yet, we understand that in certain black ops where lives are still in danger, info is carefully squeezed out – or not at all – until it’s over.

UPDATE FROM EDITOR: Unfortunately for all involved, there have been some real questions raised as to the validity of Jay’s death. Our original source was within Occupy San Diego, but who is now having second thoughts themselves. Their source was reportedly a member of Jay’s family. Others have been making calls and have found NO confirmation of his death, either at the DoD site, Jay’s hometown, there’s no funeral home, no obituary, no report of his death except via this family member. And that person is not returning calls.

Jay Polk – presente! uh, wait …

Sergeant Jay Polk was (maybe) killed while on active duty in the US Army.

A baby gray whale visited Mission Bay, OB, and the San Diego River yesterday. A paddle boarder caught the image of the whale jumping on his phone.

Channel 10News reported, that “as of 5 p.m., the whale was seen swimming in the water between south Mission Beach and Ocean Beach, possibly on its way out to the ocean. Whale experts and San Diego lifeguards identified the nearly 20-foot whale as a juvenile, or year

Hey, local politics geeks, to celebrate this New-Hampshire-primary Tuesday, let’s morph the candidates for mayor of San Diego with the candidates for president of the United States!

Carl DeMaio seems akin to Ron Paul: a conservative outsider with a quirky personality who seems to enjoy rattling cages on both sides of the aisle.

As a candidate, CarlPaul would sport a perpetual disdain for the effectiveness of government, an admittedly eyebrow-raising characteristic for someone seeking more time as a government employee. Because government sometimes is ineffective, and sometimes worse, CarlPaul’s cranky message would carry more than a little truth and earn the support of a diverse range of disenfranchised folks with axes to grind, including many axes of the not-very-sharp variety.

Since we’re all working today, here’s an open thread … to discuss any issue …. just say your piece in…

UPDATE: The U-T reports: SAN DIEGO — The body of a San Diego man who had been reported missing was found Friday in San Diego Bay, San Diego police said.

Logan Angus, 31, had not been seen since leaving his Point Loma home Sunday night to go to work.

His family had said he was suffering from depression and had asked for the public’s help to locate him. The death is considered an apparent suicide, police said.

“We wish to thank the media and all who have expressed concern,” the family said in an email. “Unfortunately Logan chose to end his life. He was very loved and will be greatly missed.”

SEE ADDITIONAL DETAILS INSIDE …

Logan Angus – an Ocean Beach – Point Loma man, has been missing since Sunday evening, January 15th. Family and friends of the 31-year-old San Diego man have asked for the public’s assistance to help locate him. San Diego Police are aware of his missing.

Logan Angus walked away from his home on Mentone Street, near Camulos Street, in the Point Loma Heights area about 10 p.m. Sunday and has not been seen since, police said.

Local TV media are reporting that there was a stabbing in Ocean Beach early Sunday, Jan. 8th, where two men were injured.

The stabbing is supposed to have occurred on Cape May Avenue near Cable Street, according to police. Both men who were stabbed were transported to a local hospital and treated for non-life threatening injuries.

Police are looking for a suspect – a male, between the ages of 21 and 25 years of age, and on the tall side, 6′ 1″ to 6’4″.

GOLDEN EAGLES’ NUMBERS PLUMMET, NEW STUDIES REVEAL

“Wind farms are the main cause. The issuing of license to kill will accelerate the decline toward extinction.”

—Save the Eagles International

By Miriam Raftery/ East County Magazine Special Report / January 6, 2012

San Diego County’s 48 pairs of nesting golden eagles and even rarer bald eagles could be in peril if proposed industrial-scale wind farms are built. In a press release issued today, Save the Eagles International (STEI) issued a dire warning, providing detailed documentation proving that golden eagles and their nests are disappearing rapidly near wind farms across the U.S.

The group also blasted the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service for changing its mission from protecting wildlife to “catering to the interests of an industry” that is a “ruinous one to boot.”

Eagle killed by wind turbineAlthough the studies focused on golden eagles, if no major action is taken, wind turbines’ razor-sharp blades will also threaten the existence of other species, STEI predicts.

In a celebration of its third month anniversary, Occupy San Diego is holding a “March Back Again to Freedom Plaza” – event. It starts off at 4:40 pm, today, Saturday, January 7th, at Children’s Park, located on First Avenue and Island.

Organizers will lead the march through the GasLamp to Civic Center Plaza – renamed “Freedom Plaza” – at Third and “B” Street.

Now that we’re in 2012, and now that the OB Rag just experienced our best month ever in December with 116,000 readers (“unique visitors”), we wanted to share San Diego cyberspace by highlighting many of the other local progressive, liberal, and important blogs and websites around here. Over the past year, we’ve re-posted many articles from these other websites – always with an attribution and link, of course.

So, as sort of a progressive San Diegan New Year’s resolution to check out the other, lesser known websites, we offer you direct links here to their homepages (in no particular order).

• Two Cathedrals offers San Diego readers insightful treasures of San Diego’s political scene, with heavy hitter, Lucas O’Connor the main writer. We often link to its posts and usually receive good responses.