Month: October 2012

DeMaio Carries the Radical Right’s Agenda of the Private Ownership of (Our) Government

It was in the middle of April back in 2011, and a couple hundred local Republican bigwigs were holding a gala “unity night” at the Kona Kai on Shelter Island. Mayor Jerry Sanders was joining Republican Councilman Kevin Faulconer, other honchos and establishment types from the San Diego Chamber of Commerce, the Lincoln Club, the Taxpayers Association, plus cadres of right-wing activists – all coming together in an orgy of unified puffery.

It was another fall off Sunset Cliffs. This happened Tuesday night, October 30th, about 7:30. An unidentified woman in her 20s was transported by paramedics and lifeguards off the beach at the foot of Santa Cruz Avenue into an ambulance. Her condition is not known.

One officer was overheard by Dave Rice, blogger for the Reader, to comment: “She just got drunk and fell off a cliff.” About a crowd of two dozen had formed to witness the rescue.

UPDATED: See Inside

By NBC 7 San Diego / Oct. 30, 2012

Move over vampires, goblins and haunted houses, this kind of Halloween terror aims to shake up even the toughest warriors: An untold number of so-called zombies are coming to a counterterrorism summit attended by hundreds of Marines, Navy special ops, soldiers, police, firefighters and others to prepare them for their worst nightmares.

By Robert F. Kennedy Jr./ EcoWatch-RSN / October 29, 2012

American democracy is under assault.

In one super-PAC alone, Karl Rove and the Enron grifter Ed Gillespie, have assembled $200 million from big polluters and Wall Street moguls to buy the 2012 election.

Two of the Koch Brothers, Charles and David, pledged $130 million to elect candidates who favor unrestrained corporate profiteering.

The senators and congressmen they fund and elect are not representing the United States-they are representing Koch and its oil industry cronies, Big Pharma, and the Wall Street banksters currently mounting a hostile takeover of our government.

Where Have You Been All My Life?

I think I have died and gone to heaven. Or someplace I never expected to be found in. I am walking around in a daze, with a smile on my face, and wondering how this wonderful man came into my life.

Oh no, no! This is not a result from my on-line dating. This is the result of a life-long fear perpetuated by my mother. When I was a little girl, she always told me that if I was a “bad girl” she would send me to her sister Mitzi because Mitzi worked for a dentist! “And you know that dentists can hurt people, Judi.”

Join Noam Chomsky, Thom Hartmann, Tom Hayden, Jill Stein, Medea Benjamin, Rocky Anderson, Daniel Ellsberg, and Margaret Flowers and many others in signing this pledge.

A national organization Liberty Tree has called for Americans to sign a pledge – promising “No More Stolen Elections!”

American democracy is in crisis. The election of November 6th, 2012, is just one week away, and certain aspects of that election are already perfectly clear. Millions of Americans may be denied their inalienable right to vote. Millions more will be denied the right to vote for the candidate of their choice.

Sustainability 101: Put the Public Back in Public Transportation – Part 1

With this first introductory segment on public transportation, I wanted to raise just a few points. The next segment will feature a few anecdotes I’ve been collecting. I hope that you, dear reader, will also chime in so I can include your experiences as well.

For those of you who know me, I don’t drive, and have never had a license. I am therefore dependent upon my feet, public transportation, and the goodness of others to get where I need to go. Since I live in OB, I can walk most places, but when I leave this walker’s paradise, I mostly rely on the bus and trolley.

Other riders have their reasons for using public transportation, such as the following:

• Limited parking where they work or attend school

• The cost of parking garages and lots

• To avoid ever getting a parking ticket

“We have a conservative movement that has learned, over the decades, to mimic many of the characteristics of its enemies.” ~ Thomas Frank

During the run-up to the June primary Carl DeMaio used a quote from one of my OB Rag columns in a mailer attacking Nathan Fletcher that implied the Rag’s support for his candidacy. My response was a column, “Carl DeMaio is a Dangerous, Mean-Spirited Liar and Other Tales of Fear and Loathing in San Diego” where I observed:
>As Frank Gormlie noted in an OB Rag piece last Saturday, Carl DeMaio used a pull quote from one of my OB Rag columns describing Nathan Fletcher as a “Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing” . . . What is not at all surprising here is that DeMaio uses my piece and the OB Rag logo out of context, without permission, implying our endorsement of him. That kind of sleazy, unethical behavior is his raison d’etre.

During a meeting of the San Diego Free Press Editorial Board over the weekend, some of us expressed reservations regarding our stand, as a group, on a YES endorsement of Proposition 35. We agreed that we would do more research and report back. Below are the opinions of two of our members, whose views mirror my own and are expressed much more eloquently. ~ Editor du Jour, Patty Jones

SDFP Editorial Board Member Anna Daniels

Wading through the propositions on the ballot this year required both time and effort. I have felt largely confident about the positions I had taken on issues and candidates, except for Prop 35, the anti-sex trafficking initiative. …

By John Lawrence / San Diego Free Press / Oct. 27, 2012

Mitt Romney has a jobs creation plan if he becomes President, alright. But no one, including Mitt Romney himself, is talking about it.

Remember the $2 trillion he wants to spend on the military? That $2 trillion he wants to spend on the military which the Pentagon doesn’t even want (but Defense contractors certainly do) translates into a huge jobs program.

A man suspected of staging a grope attack was arrested by police early Sunday morning. A woman sleeping on a couch in an apartment at 2196 Abbott Street awoke to find a man groping her. Pushing him away, she jumped up, ran into the bathroom, locked the door and called police. One to two roommates also awoke and ran outside.

Police responded and found the suspect in the victim’s backyard. The victim ID’ed him and he was booked on suspicion of sexual assault. He has yet to be identified by police. Source: Fox5 News

Ruling Is Blow to DA Dumanis’ Efforts to “Criminalize” Storefronts of Medical Marijuana Collectives

On Wednesday, October 24th, the Fourth District Court of Appeal for California – located right here in downtown San Diego – issued a unanimous ruling reversing the conviction of a San Diego medical herb dispensary operator, Joyan Jackson. Medical marijuana activists hailed the ruling – a published ruling – as a landmark case. A published case means it applies to other future cases.