Month: March 2012

The young man stabbed in an Ocean Beach alley less than a month ago has died of his wounds today, Monday, March 5th.

Andrew Bazan, 24, was suffered “horrific” wounds when he was stabbed on February 7th. He was found unconscious with his intestines exposed in the alley between Winstons and the Arizona Club, a half block from Newport Avenue.

No one has been arrested for the stabbing, now updated to murder, no doubt. That same evening, a man with a knife was ejected by bouncers from the Sunshine Company. No one has put the two incidents together. Maybe now they will.

HR 347 is an authoritarian bill some say is designed to restrict the Occupy movement and to outlaw protests near or at government buildings.

Editor: On the heels of the passage of the NDAA of 2012 comes a new bill, HR 347, designed – it appears – to outlaw protests near government buildings or against government services. President Obama has yet to sign it. Learn about it here and do something about it.

By Tom Carter / wsws.org / March 3, 2012

A bill passed last Monday (Feb. 27) in the US House of Representatives and Thursday (March 1) in the Senate would make it a felony—a serious criminal offense punishable by a lengthy prison term—to participate in many forms of protest associated with the Occupy Wall Street protests of last year. Several commentators have dubbed it the “anti-Occupy” law, but its implications are far broader.

The bill—H.R. 347, or the “Federal Restricted Buildings and Grounds Improvement Act of 2011”—was passed by unanimous consent in the Senate, while only Ron Paul and two other Republicans voted against the bill in the House of Representatives (the bill passed 388-3). Not a single Democratic politician voted against the bill.

By Rodolfo F. Acuña / La Prensa San Diego / March 2, 2012

Throughout the history of Mexican Americans, education has been considered the stairway to the middle-class. Education meant security and basics such as health insurance. This heaven meant better jobs and a small house or two for old age.

As with the European immigrant, the stairway was built in stages. Those with limited education could often get union jobs. After a generation or two in factories, Mexican Americans accumulated sufficient capital to keep their children in school, and a few sent them to college.

To build the stairway, workers and their families fought for compulsory education, they petitioned school boards, and led walkouts protesting de jure and de facto school segregation.

With the first anniversary of the Fukushima disaster approaching, expect a barrage of “experts” braying that there was little to no damage to human health as a result of Fukushima’s radioactive releases.

But others say thousands have already died in the US alone as a result of Fukushima fallout.

This coming March 11 will mark the first anniversary of Fukushima’s multiple meltdown nuclear disaster.

The mainstream media has already begun trotting out assorted “experts” to assure us all is well and no one’s been harmed by all the radiation the reactors released. For example, on March 2, The Wall Street Journal-Japan ran a piece, “Fukushima Health Impact: Minimal?”

It lead off, “The health threat from radiation in the wake of the Fukushima accident is extremely low…according to a panel of American radiation experts who studied the Japanese case for the past year.”

By Kit-Bacon Gressitt / Excuse Me, I’m Writing / March 4, 2012

UPDATE: ProFlowers is suspending its Limbaugh ads (see comments below).

March is National Women’s History Month, and this year’s theme is “Women’s Education — Women’s Empowerment.” It’s a nice mom-and-apple-pie theme. Educating women is relatively noncontroversial in the United States, as long as students don’t expect affirmative action or public funding to get them past race and class access hurdles. And, unlike gals in Afghanistan, U.S. coeds don’t have to dodge acid-tossers on their way to school; they only have to contend with post-adolescents who want to rape them with the aid of ruffies in their Red Bulls.

By JEC

I recently enjoyed my 28th wedding anniversary. To celebrate my wife and I went to Las Vegas for a couple of days. Bored with the traditional I-15 route, we opted for a more adventurous route – east – to Brawley and State Route 78 as it travels through the Chocolate Mountains ending at Interstate 10 near Blythe. Wild country.

From the sand dunes near Glamis winding north through desert and sage we saw massive solar projects, and even larger excavation projects that we assumed involved mining in some form. The scenery was magnificent – set off as it was by the crisp clear weather. The desert is best in the early morning hours. Before the winds kick up the dust.

Our morning drive was interrupted by a surprising discovery of a Border Patrol roadblock on State Route 78 about 44 miles outside of Brawley.

Now why was it a surprise?

When the International Monetary Fund(IMF) is involved, one can expert the worst, and it usually–always–happens. In the case of Greece, it is the typical «cure» demanded by the IMF that is to be applied. The aim is always to reduce or even demolish the power of the state to take action to aid and protect its citizens. One of the primary demands of the IMF is to privatize state companies like electricity and water and whatever else it can think of. Another one is to attack the civil service and lower wages for or fire numerous civil servants.

Hospitals and schools are supposed to reduce the number of employees, thus services to citizens is reduced: longer waits for medical care and a larger number of students in classes. Even the police and the fire departments can be affected.

In France, the rightwing government has reduced the number of police by 16,000 and teachers and other educational workers by 30,000. This was done by a government whose main campaign theme was more security for the population.

NEW UPDATE FROM SDSU – See inside…

Yesterday, March 1st, was the National Day of Action for Education. Students at four area colleges walked out in solidarity and staged marches, rallies, teach-ins and even a “sleep-in” at one campus.

Protests were seen at City College, Mesa College, UCSD, and San Diego State University. The National Day of Action to Defend the Right to Education was coordinated by the Occupy Education movement, and there were protests at about 30 California campuses, including one of the most tense scenes at UC Santa Cruz where about 150 protesters blocked entrances and largely shut down the university. (Here’s more news from around the state by the LA Times – but they inexplicably and continually omit news from San Diego.)

Locally, about 50 to 60 students at UCSD marched through campus to the Chancellor’s Complex and occupied the conference room. Many planned to stay the night and discuss future plans.

Here are reports about the actions at the four college campuses:

By Carlos Batara / Immigration Newsletter / Feb. 29, 2012

Back in my days as a political science professor, I would point out how candidates scapegoat politically powerless individuals for self gain. Like undocumented immigrants. Since they cannot vote, their ability to fight back is nearly non-existent.

[A recent] narrow proposal by the Obama administration, addressing the needs of some immigrants trying to adjust their status to lawful residents, is a stark reminder of this history. However well-intended, the limited changes fail to offset the human misery inflicted by the 3 and 10 year re-entry bars – bars to legalization caused by political attacks dating back to 1996.

The US is sleepwalking into becoming a police state, where, like a pre-Magna Carta monarch, the president can lock up anyone

By Naomi Wolf / guardian.co.uk / Published on Feb. 29, 2012

Yes, the worst things you may have heard about the National Defense Authorization Act, which has formally ended 254 years of democracy in the United States of America, and driven a stake through the heart of the bill of rights, are all really true. The act passed with large margins in both the House and the Senate on the last day of last year – even as tens of thousands of Americans were frantically begging their representatives to secure Americans’ habeas corpus rights in the final version.

It does indeed – contrary to the many flatout-false form letters I have seen that both senators and representatives sent to their constituents, misleading them about the fact that the NDAA destroys their due process rights. Under the act, anyone can be described as a ‘belligerent”.

by A feleségül

What is the true definition of love?

Webster’s dictionary says that it is “a deep and tender feeling of affection for or attachment or devotion to a person or persons.”

Then what is the definition of lust?

Again, quoting Webster, “lust is a desire to gratify the senses; bodily appetite; a sexual desire.”

Using these two definitions, it is difficult, as a youth, to determine whether one is “in love” or “in lust.” And, unfortunately, one may never be able to ascertain which is which.

A case in point: As an unhappy teenager, I was seeking acceptance any way I could get it. If a male told me he “loved me” I was ready to thank him any way I could, and usually meant going to bed with him.

Judge Cancels Oral Arguments in Case involving Briana Bilbray and Dispensaries Seeking Injunction to Stop Federal Crackdown

By Eugene Davidovich / Special to the OB Rag

SAN DIEGO – In October of last year several U.S. Attorneys from the Department of Justice (DOJ) held a press conference in Sacramento announcing a new Federal crackdown on medical marijuana patients and providers across California.

Days after the announcement, hundreds of letters from the DOJ were sent to landlords renting commercial spaces to dispensaries threatening criminal prosecution and property forfeiture, unless their dispensary tenants were immediately evicted. Similar letters were sent to patients threatening federal criminal indictments.

In San Diego, the attacks involved both the DOJ and local officials. Jan Goldsmith, the San Diego City Attorney with support from City Council also wrote landlords and patients, making similar threats. In addition, his office filed almost one hundred lawsuits against the facilities claiming they were in violation of local zoning ordinances.