Month: February 2012

Oh, Governor Brewer, I look at a photo of you flashing such a sunny smile and I can’t help but think of a song Maya Angelou sings: “When it looked like the sun wouldn’t shine anymore, God Put a rainbow in the clouds.”

With that smile of yours you could surely put a rainbow in a people’s clouds but you’ve chosen instead, to literally, through a hateful bill called SB1070, turn your hounds on them. Your law gives “the law” the right to stop a range of brown folks, Mexican Americans, Chicanos, Mexicanos – on “reasonable suspicion.”

Whoa! “Reasonable suspicion” is a chilling term for some of us. I’m one of the most law abiding people I know and I have been “reasonably suspicious” on a number of occasions. Like I was suspected of being a thief one time based on a “burglar tool” (a screwdriver) being in my car. A house had been robbed in the “vicinity,” an area, in these kinds of situations, equal in size to the continental United States.

By Eugene Davidovich

After a busy morning, participants in the Occupy San Diego InterOccupy Conference arrived at Children’s Park. News reporters from CW6, as well as other local media outlets, converged in anticipation of the protesters’ arrival and a planned action to take place at the San Diego Convention Center.

Frank Gromlie of Save The Bill of Rights group and Occupy San Diego took the bullhorn and spoke about the dangers of the National Defense Authorization Act recently passed Congress and signed into law by the president.

He explained the government can now indefinitely detain U.S. citizens without trial, judge or jury for simply being dissenters. He went on to talk about how the bill limits U.S. citizen’s rights to a fair trial, free speech, and pointed out that both the Democratic and Republican party failed their constituents by allowing such a draconian measure to pass.

By Eugene Davidovich

On Saturday morning as planned at 8:30am, protesters with Occupy San Diego began to assemble at Civic Center Plaza on 3^rd and B for the all day InterOccupy conference.

The first couple hours at the plaza were filled with sign making, passing out welcome packets which contained information about the day’s events, and getting to know the protesters who came down to Occupy San Diego from other cities and states for the day.

Editor: In this impassioned plea to save County planning committees, East Co Mag editor Miriam Raftery takes a stand in their favor. This plea should resonate with OBceans and other San Diegans about their own planning groups. Ocean Beach, for example, has an active planning board that when it was established in the mid-Seventives, was the very first democratically-elected planning committee in the history of California. The OB Planning Board is also engaged in a “war” of sorts with the City of San Diego and local developers. But hear out Raftery’s plea and apply it to your own local committee.

By Miriam Raftery /East County Magazine / Originally published Feb. 2, 2012

“People will never hear about projects until after they’re done if this [elimination of planning groups] goes through.” – Mark Ostrander, chair, Jacumba sponsor group

I’ve rarely published an editorial, reserving my opinion for only those matters with the gravest of consequences for East County. One such matter will come before San Diego’s Supervisors on February 29, when supervisors will vote on whether or not to eliminate all community planning groups countywide. They will also weigh other “reforms” aimed at making it easier to pave over paradise–or put a Goliath-scale project next door to you–with nobody the wiser until it’s too late.

Rally Against the NDAA of 2012

Saturday, February 11th

Noon – Children’s Park – First and Island in downtown San Diego

March and Rally across from the Convention Center with speakers and song

The Democrats are coming to town for a three-day state convention, beginning today – Friday, Feb. 10th. Big name Dems like Governor Jerry Brown, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, and US Senator Al Franken, will be here. There was even a rumor that President Obama would make a showing.

Yet the State Dems will be facing an angry crowd on Saturday rallying across the street from the convention – an angry crowd made up of Democrats, independents, progressives and yes, even some Republicans. Angry because most Democrat senators and half of the House Dems voted for the Bill-of-Rights-gutting National Defense Authorization Act of 2012, that was then signed by another Democrat – the one in the White House.

Friday, February 10, 2012 @ 7:00 AM. Went to get on the “35 bus” at the “temporary” bus stop on Orchard and Sunset Cliffs Blvd. only to find out that this temporary stop is temporarily shut down. How do I know this? Because there is a cute little “sleeve” covering the bus stop sign with an arrow running through it, signifying “no bus service.”

Was I given any notice about this? Were my three foreign language students that take this bus given any notice of the change? Hell no! Did they ride the 35 and 923 bus yesterday? Yes! Did they ride the bus the day before? Yes. Then why wasn’t there some indication that the route would be changed? Who is running the Metropolitan Bus Service? Idiots? It’s not like the bus riders are driving a car and can drive to the next bus stop. They had no idea where the next working bus stop would be.

by Dirk Ebers

In the 1982 rhythm-and-blues classic Atomic Dog, George Clinton croons a question for the ages: “Why must I feel like that — why must I chase the cat?”

Clinton is talking about the longing for sex, of course. And you can probably relate to his lyrics, whether you’re a man or a woman, straight or gay, Ocean Beach or Point Loma. After all, sex seems to be on the human mind a lot. But why?

In Atomic Dog, George Clinton has a simple answer: “Nothin’ but the dog in me.” And researchers in an intriguing branch of psychology believe Clinton is exactly right.

Evolutionary psychology is the study of how the human mind’s processes might be products of evolution. In other words, the field asks if there might be survival benefits to weird little kinks of human nature, such as the tendency for men in cultures around the world to — all else being equal — prefer big boobs.

5th and E Street. The Exact Corner Where It All Started Is Site of the 100th Year Commemoration of the Free Speech Fight – And It’s Still Going On

By Nadin Abbott / Special to the OB Rag / February 9, 2012

Last night members of Labor, Occupy Women San Diego, and San Diego Occupy celebrated the hundred years of the Free Speech Movement at 5th and E by recreating some of the events that happened a hundred years ago. There were plenty of soap boxes where speakers stood and gave speeches on the nature of the anniversary, and the state of Free Speech today. At the height of the event there were about two hundred people at the corner listening to Wobbly music, and speeches by activists.

(EDITOR: The event was marred by the arrest and citation of Damien Tyrone, a union activist, for apparently not moving fast enough when police cleared the intersection after about an hour of speeches and music.)

Union presence was strong, with members of the Laborer Union, the AIFT, the Teamsters, the UFCW, the Building Trades, the Boiler Trades. the Letter Carriers, the Machinist Union, and watching everybody’s safety, the Police Officers Association. The latter closed traffic and made sure things staid safe for all.

According to Bobby Pineda, President of the Laborers Local 89, they came to support free speech. They believe it is critical to all.

Editor: Our good friend and fellow Ragster Doug Porter has not been feeling so hot these last couple of days, and so hasn’t dropped off his daily column “First Cuppa Coffee” for a couple of mornings. So, we have enlisted the last minute assistance of one of our regular readers and commenters, OB Joe, in the first of his irregular columns, “Wake and Bake”.

By OB Joe / Special to the OB Rag

Hey, all – ol’ buddy Doug is down, so I’m stepping in to fill his shoes – just for this mornin’ – ‘course if you like it, maybe the Rag editors will let me do it more often … just sayin’. Anyhoo, my style is a little more free flowin’ than Porter’s so I hope it doesn’t distract from the news. And BTW, don’t get upset if I’m using a lot of links to our local fishwrap, the U-T. The Rag editors called me freakin in the middle of the morning, before I had my first bong. So Wake and Bake – fellow OBceans and other denizens of the world!

Who will pay for SDG&E’s screw-ups and all that 2007 fire damage? The U-T is reporting that Sempra Energy – SDG&E’s parent – is assuring investors that its San Diego-area utility customers – that’s us – will pay for nearly all of an estimated $463 million in costs not covered by insurance from the catastrophic 2007 wildfires that were triggered in large part by its power lines. My emphasis. Let’s keep this mind.

by Jared Quient / Two Cathedrals / February 8, 2012

I am all for pension reform. Clearly our city’s budget needs work and we need to do something. But just because I believe the system is broken and it needs fixing doesn’t mean I support the Comprehensive Pension Reform (CPR) ballot measure that Carl DeMaio and his allies has been trying to sell me for the past year. Because once you look closer at CPR, it reveals itself to be a wolf in sheep’s clothing.

CPR is being sold to San Diego voters as the answer to our city’s fiscal problems, and the centerpiece of CPR is a provision that transitions all new employees from a defined benefit pension to a 401k individual retirement plan. Proponents claim that passing CPR and making the switch over to 401k plans for new employees will save the city billions of dollars. But that’s a fair bit of creative license.

MercuryNews.com / Feb. 7, 2012

SAN DIEGO—Five out of every six calls to San Diego County seeking food stamps or other benefits don’t get through, and those that do face an average wait of more than 30 minutes, according to an internal county report obtained by U-T San Diego .

More than 350,000 calls don’t get answered every month because the county’s Health and Human Services Agency hasn’t hired enough workers or installed enough phone lines, according to a newspaper review of the report in a story published online Tuesday.

When Power is Unaccountable

by Brian J. Trautman / CounterPunch / Originally published Jan. 18, 2012

Each year, Congress authorizes the budget of the Department of Defense through a National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). The NDAA of 2012, however, is unlike any previous ones. This year’s legislation contains highly controversial provisions that empower the Armed Forces to engage in civilian law enforcement and to selectively suspend due process and habeas corpus, as well as other rights guaranteed by the 5th and 6th Amendments to the U.S. Constitution, for terror suspects apprehended on U.S. soil. The final version of the bill passed the House on December 14, the Senate the following day (ironically, the 220th birthday of the Bill of Rights). It was signed into law by President Obama on New Year’s Eve. With his signature, for the first time since the Internal Security Act of 1950 and the dark days of the McCarthy era that followed, our government has codified the power of indefinite detention into law.