OB Rag’s Best of 2007 – Born Under Fire and During War

Here is the OB Rag’s “Best of 2007” – :

After watching the television coverage of San Diego County’s fires for the first couple of days, here are a few brief observations & comments about local TV channels’ coverage:

Channel 9: Best coverage, hands down, by team of Paul Bloom, Kimberly Hunt, Michael Turko and …

Channel 10: Very bland; veteran anchor desk reporters had no … c’mon to the original for all the rest … Go here.

We’ve all seen or experienced the “mandatory evacuations” ordered by the authorities during the FireStorms this week. Last count, there were 560,000 residents ordered to evacuate their communities since last Sunday, October 21^st as reported by the San Diego Union Tribune today.

There have been additional evacuations ordered just today as fires continue to burn in parts of the county as of late Thursday, the fifth day of the fires. But it has been the largest mass evacuation in recent California history. The magnitude of the mass movement of people across this county in the last few days is unprecedented. Go here.

On Saturday, October 27, 2007, thousands demonstrated in major cities across the country against the U.S. war and occupation in Iraq.

Calling for a swift end to American involvement in Iraq, people in the thousands rallied and marched from Seattle, San Francisco, Los Angeles on the West Coast – to Salt Lake City, Denver, Chattanooga and Jonesborough (where 400 marched on its depleted-uranium factory) in Tennessee, to Chicago, New Orleans, — and to Philadelphia, Rochester, New York City, Boston, Orlando and Ft. Lauderdale on the East Coast. Here in San Diego, the protest was officially postponed due to the fires but a few dozen … go here.

One of the things I have learned in reading history is that states and organizations often miscalculate or underestimate the consequences of their actions and that such miscalculations can be disastrous with horrible consequences for millions of people.

In my coffeehouse discussions with people in Sacramento, I sometimes hear people say confidently that Bush cannot possibly attack Iran given the deplorable and exhausting military situations in Iraq and Afghanistan. Go here.

During the first days of the fire storms, after Qualcomm was opened up, the first volunteers appeared at the stadium ready to do what they could to help those evacuated. In the end, the stadium held approximately 12,000 San Diegans and their pets, and hundreds of volunteers had swarmed the football center (I never saw a final figure for their numbers) to help out.

There was a genuine outpouring of compassion and sympathy for the unfortunate ones. Local politicians, the media and President Bush made much of this solidarity showing “San Diegans comin’ together to help one another.” I saw a few interviews with the volunteers and they were truly kind hearted people. Go here for rest.

In a spectacularly superfluous display of power, four horsemen of the San Diego Police Equestrian Squad rode through the streets of Ocean Beach for hours on the Friday afternoon before this year’s OB Oktoberfest, October 12th.

Undaunted by the typical lack of crime in sleepy Ocean Beach on an autumn weekday afternoon, the armed posse surrounded a group of clear eyed Anarchist kids passing the time on the seawall by the pier. As the officers approached one youngster took to his heels, racing up the wooden steps next to the Silver Spray and down the alley behind the cottages. The police were stymied, their enormous mounts were ridiculously ill prepared to give chase on the slippery veneer of sand covering the pavement. One officer dismounted and pursued on foot, but the child eluded him. Go here.