Month: May 2012

In my column last week, I pointed out what Scott Peters’ accepting the endorsement by the New Democrat Coalition meant. Specifically, I outlined the history of the Democratic Leadership Council and its transformation into the New Democrat Coalition and noted that these organizations have been the chief engines behind the Democratic Party’s shift toward a far more business-friendly orientation. I also observed something that even Bill Clinton’s former advisor Robert Reich has recently written about—that the Clinton administration’s loosening of economic regulations as a result of this ideological shift helped grease the wheels for the great financial train wreck from which we are yet to recover.

This ideological shift in a large chunk of the Democratic Party was made possible by a web of corporate interests funding the DLC and its NDC offspring in order to influence policy on both sides of the aisle. It is, I argued, just as important to note these ideological and economic networks inside the Democratic Party as it is to look at the well-funded think tanks behind folks like Carl DeMaio.

(originally posted May 26, 2008.)

Editor: As the text within the graphic above states this was produced in 1963 by Dana Junior High School students who were in print shop. It is interesting to note that Steve Zivolich and Frank Gormlie were both involved in the anti-Viet Nam war movement at their respective college campuses back in the late sixties and early seventies.

China cited the treatment of protesters participating in the Occupy Wall Street movement, stating that their arrests can provide a “glimpse of the truth regarding the United States’ so-called freedom and democracy”.

China Daily/ May 26, 2012

Beijing on Friday swiftly hit back at Washington’s annual report on China’s human rights, saying in a report that the US government’s crackdown on protesters in the Occupy Wall Street demonstration is the real illustration of American democracy.

In the report, Human Rights Record of the United States in 2011, the State Council Information Office demanded the US stop its double standards.

Beijing issued the report less than 24 hours after the release of the Washington report, which Chinese experts said used harsher wording than previous editions and reflected US double standards that meet political needs in an election year.

Jury Deadlock in Med Herb Trial Is Another Blow Against San Diego DA Bonnie Dumanis’ Costly and Irrational Resistance to the Will of California Voters; Judge Parsky Declares Mistrial.

By Eugene Davidovich / San Diego Americans for Safe Access / May 25, 2012

SAN DIEGO – On May 16th, twelve jurors and two alternates were selected in the trial of DA Bonnie Dumanis v. Dexter Padilla, navy veteran, medical marijuana patient and president of Therapeutic Healing, a San Diego based non profit medical marijuana coop.

The jury began deliberations on Tuesday, May 22, after a long week of arguments and testimony from experts and the defendant, Dexter Padilla.

Two notes were turned in by the jury less then an hour after deliberations. The first was a request for the defendant’s testimony to be read and the second was a concern from all the jurors about juror #10 being hostile, refusing to participate, and preventing everyone from working towards a verdict.

U.S. prosecutors asks Manhattan Federal Judge Katherine Forrest to undo ruling against military detention law

By Basil Katz / Chicago Tribune – Reuters / May 25, 2012

NEW YORK – Federal prosecutors on Friday urged a judge to lift her order barring enforcement of part of a new law that permits indefinite military detention, a measure critics including a prize-winning journalist say is too vague and threatens free speech.

Manhattan federal court Judge Katherine Forrest this month ruled in favor of activists and reporters who said they feared being detained under a section of the law, signed by President Barack Obama in December.

The government says indefinite military detention without trial is justified in some cases involving militants and their supporters.

From Dirty DeMaio / May 22, 2012

Still trying to answer questions about the rank hypocrisy of pushing the private imposition of a billion dollar tax while railing against taxes and closed-door deals, Carl DeMaio is doubling down on the outright absurd rhetoric as we come down to the wire.

Speaking on KOGO this week, DeMaio said that allowing private companies to tax the public without the public getting any say “is a very conservative, business oriented, free market principle. Some would say libertarian.”

That’s an interesting definition of libertarian that Carl has, giving corporations unilateral power to pick the public’s pocket. He goes on to explain that the reason he supports it, the reason it’s such a conservative idea, is because the setup gives private corporations the power to decide who pays instead of the public or their government deciding.

By Ben Cartwright / SDGLN / May 23rd, 2012

SAN DIEGO – More than 100 people gathered at what is now the corner of Harvey Milk Street and Centre Street in Hillcrest to witness the unveiling of the signs that indicate the new street name at a late afternoon ceremony on Tuesday, May 22.

The ceremony was held on Milk’s birthday, who would have been 82 years old on Tuesday.

San Diego lays claim to being the first city in the world to honor Milk, the iconic gay-rights champion who served in the Navy while based in San Diego, with a street naming. Hillcrest’s Blaine Avenue was the street chosen to be named after Milk, primarily because of its location in the heart of the city’s LGBT neighborhood and the fact that it ends in front of The San Diego LGBT Community Center.

by George J. Janczyn / Grofsurf’s San Diego / May 24, 2012

The San Diego City Council Natural Resources and Culture Committee (NR&C) approved on Wednesday (May 23) two substantial reports that recommend how recycled water can be used more effectively in the future as San Diego struggles with ways to reduce its extreme dependence on imported water that is becoming an increasingly expensive and less reliable source [link to the agenda].

• 2011 Recycled Water Master Plan Update [link to the report].

By Leon Dale Thompson / East County Magazine / May 24, 2012

More than 50 people called Wednesday, May 23rd, for Sempra Energy Chief Donald Felsinger to come down and address the public’s concerns over the San Onofre nuclear reactors, which have been closed for months due to serious safety problems. (Felsinger was invited last Friday in a written-hand-delivered petition.) The crowd chanted “Donald Felsinger come on down” on this overcast afternoon, with Sempra Energy’s building looming above.

It is the role of the world of independent online news and opinion sites such as the OB Rag to call out the corporate media when it goes over the top on something that we can just not ignore.

One of the latest ‘over the top’ instances of reporting was done by the local outlet for CNS, City News Service, a little-known and even less understood network of regional news services, including a branch here in San Diego.

Here is what I’m getting at. In an article about how Mayor Sanders criticized mayoral candidate Carl DeMaio, the article included a list of recent endorsements received by the other mayoral candidates – but oh, wait! It included the endorsements that just the Republicans have received, totally excluding recent endorsements to the sole Democrat in the race, Bob Filner.

Editor: Last Sunday outside the NATO conference, dozens of American Iraqi and Afghan veterans threw their medals away in protest of the wars. A very similar protest by veterans was held during the anti-Vietnam war days in 1971. .

By Dave Lindorff / Nation of Change and This Can’t Be Happening / May 22, 2012

Once again American troops are being asked to keep fighting for a mistake — this time the 2001 fantasy of the Bush/Cheney administration that it could make a client state out of Afghanistan.

John Kerry, back before he was a pompous windsurfing Senate apologist for American empire, back when he wore his hair long and was part of a movement of returned US military veterans speaking out against the continuation of the Vietnam War, famously asked the members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee at a hearing, “How do you ask a man to be the last one to die for a mistake?”

ENDORSEMENTS PRIMARY ELECTION JUNE 5, 2012

CITY OF SAN DIEGO MAYOR

• BOB FILNER

US REPRESENTATIVE 51^ST DISTRICT

• DENISE MORENO DUCHENY

Go Inside for the rest of our endorsements ….