Month: May 2012

Steve Breen, the U-T San Diego in-house cartoonist, has done it again. He has gone off and insulted another group of American citizens with his drawings.

This time, it’s seniors. His Thursday, May 11th, cartoon, went over the top by portraying American seniors as “a vengeful mob” – as one complaining letter writer stated in today’s paper.

Look at the cartoon itself. Look at the faces of the older people he drew. Are they the faces of your grandparents, parents, or even of you or us ourselves?

Residents of San Diego were stunned just recently when they opened up a campaign flier from Carl DeMaio and found there in plain sight, clearly printed, a quote from an OB Rag article that was very critical of one of DeMaio’s mayoral opponents, Nathan Fletcher. DeMaio’s flier also used the Rag logo.

Of course, in no way did the OB Rag give DeMaio permission to use this quote or our logo. We here at the Rag view DeMaio as a right-wing extremist bent on creating a Wisconsin West right here in San Diego, with his anti-labor and anti-union views and policies against ordinary people, the social net, etc. A DeMaio Mayor would be an uncategorical disaster for San Diego.

One of our columnists, Jim Miller, wrote a stinging repute of the so-called “independent” candidacy of Fletcher back on April 24th, entitled, “The Fletcher Flim Flam”. In it, he states:
Nathan Fletcher is not a man of great political courage. He isn’t even a particularly independent thinker. But he is politically clever, and he knows that San Diego’s Democratic base has a long history of being bamboozled by wolves in sheep’s clothing from the days of Pete Wilson to the present.
This is the exact quote that DeMaio’s campaign used in their flier.

In the spirit of bipartisanship, compromise, and reaching out to our friends and fellow citizens on the other side of the aisle, here The OB Rag offers its Voter Guide for the 2012 Republican Presidential Primary.

See you at the polls!

By Nick R. Martin / TPM / May 10, 2012

At a big news conference in downtown Phoenix on Thursday, the Justice Department’s top civil rights lawyer described Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s office as an agency out of control.

“At its core, this is an abuse of power case,” assistant attorney general Thomas Perez said while announcing a massive civil rights lawsuit against the Arizona lawman.

But despite the tough talk, the reality is that little in the sheriff’s office is likely to change anytime soon because, as Perez acknowledged, the lawsuit could take years to resolve.

Editor: This piece by Noam Chomsky demonstrates that he and the OB Rag are on the same page. Our blogger JEC was literally sailing by Cartagena during the summit, and was one of the first American bloggers to report what really happened.

“At the Cartagena summit, the drug war became a key issue at the initiative of newly-elected Guatemalan President Gen. Perez Molina, whom no one would mistake for a soft-hearted liberal.”

By Noam Chomsky / Nation of Change / May 8, 2012

Though sidelined by the Secret Service scandal, last month’s Summit of the Americas in Cartagena, Colombia, was an event of considerable significance. There are three major reasons: Cuba, the drug war, and the isolation of the United States.

by Meteor Blades / Daily Kos / May 9, 2012

Billionaire money at work: Right-wingers are being urged to cooperate to trash President Obama’s clean energy plans. The approach specifies an attack on wind turbines and provides a list of suggested approaches. So says the Guardian after viewing a confidential memorandum edited by John Droz Jr., a senior fellow at the American Tradition Institute. Senior fellow and climate-change denier.

Droz is a long-time anti-wind activist who claims the technology is unsound and the benefits non-existent. This no doubt will come as a surprise to Iowans, whose state generated 19 percent of its electricity with wind turbines in 2011.

How the battle between the macrobrew behemoths and the craftbrew insurgents reflects a path for America’s troubled economy.

By David Sirota / Salon / May 9, 2012

The grand unifying theory of the American consumer has been that we are, first and foremost, low price fetishists. There’s ample evidence supporting this view: From Wal-Mart’s prominence to the fast food industry’s ongoing success, vast swaths of the economy are indeed built on the premise that buyers will prioritize discounts and quantity over premium prices and quality.

But ever so quietly, we are starting to see the rise and success of a competing vision, one that turns the old assumption on its head.

By Norma Damashek / NumbersRunner / May 10, 2012

Suppose a pollster called you on the phone and asked your opinion about whether a “strong mayor” form of government is a better deal for San Diego than a “city manager” system? Would your answer be: uh…well…hmmm…??

Okay, let’s admit it — most of us don’t pay that much attention to City Hall. And for sure, most of us don’t have a clue about how the switch to a “strong mayor” government (which we voters agreed to seven years ago) has affected daily life in San Diego.

Given that our first strong mayor will soon be replaced by our city’s second strong mayor (Bob Filner? Bonnie Dumanis? Nathan Fletcher? Carl DeMaio?) a few clues about how city government has been faring these last few years might prove helpful when choosing our next mayor. A quick reminder of how we got

Poll shows overwhelming support for proposed ordinance

By Center on Policy Initiatives

San Diego voters – across the city and across the political spectrum – favor fining banks to cover cleanup costs for foreclosed properties that are not maintained.

In a poll conducted last month, 70% of voters who expect to vote in November said they support $1,000-a-day fines for banks that let foreclosed homes become rundown. The opinion research firm Grove Insight surveyed 600 voters in the city by telephone, and found only 14% opposed the idea.

by Lara McCaffrey / Empower San Diego / May 10, 2012

City Council will hold an evening hearing so working persons can attend to address the lack of public participation in San Diego budget making decisions

At the recommendation of a group of more than 40 community-based organizations, the Community Budget Alliance (CBA), the San Diego City Council has agreed to hold its final budget hearing on May 14th at 6PM to encourage people with day jobs to attend. CBA hopes this will encourage future efforts to offer more opportunities for people to get involved with the budget making process.

Increasing citizen participation in budget decisions is a focus of CBA because they feel San Diego’s process lacks constituent input. “If working people are going to go to a city council hearing, they’re not going to be able to go at 2 o’clock in the afternoon,” says Emily Serafy Cox of CBA member organization Empower San Diego. “Evening meetings are a standard procedure for government agencies to get public input–everyone knows that.”

By James Hansen / New York Times / May 9, 2012

GLOBAL warming isn’t a prediction. It is happening. That is why I was so troubled to read a recent interview with President Obama in Rolling Stone in which he said that Canada would exploit the oil in its vast tar sands reserves “regardless of what we do.”

If Canada proceeds, and we do nothing, it will be game over for the climate.

Canada’s tar sands, deposits of sand saturated with bitumen, contain twice the amount of carbon dioxide emitted by global oil use in our entire history. If we were to fully exploit this new oil source, and continue to burn our conventional oil, gas and coal supplies, concentrations of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere eventually would reach levels higher than in the Pliocene era, more than 2.5 million years ago, when sea level was at least 50 feet higher than it is now. That level of heat-trapping gases would assure that the disintegration of the ice sheets would accelerate out of control. Sea levels would rise and destroy coastal cities. Global temperatures would become intolerable. Twenty to 50 percent of the planet’s species would be driven to extinction. Civilization would be at risk.

The OB Rag endorses Congressman Bob Filner for Mayor of San Diego.

We do not endorse Bob Filner because of this or that of his policies, or because of this or that of the policies of his opponents.

We endorse Bob Filner because of his character, the content of his character.

We endorse Bob Filner because his character has been honed by his work and struggle on behalf of the common person in San Diego over the last four decades.

This was demonstrated by his work, first, on the San Diego School Board, and then by his work on the San Diego City Council. While in these seats of government, Filner spoke truth to power and he – at times – was a lone voice that stood up against San Diego’s Republican establishment.

Then in Congress, Bob Filner continued his work on behalf of the people of San Diego and Imperial Counties. While in Washington DC Filner displayed that he was one of the most dedicated and committed Representatives for the common people. He clearly showed his commitment to the Mexican-American communities of the California’s most southern counties while in Congress. Plus he initiated many worthwhile programs for veterans, giving them a friend in Congress while those who sent them off to war, ignored them.