Author: Source

By Frank Rich / The New Yorker – rsn / Originally published July 3, 2011

After 9/11, Rudy Giuliani went on Saturday Night Live to give New Yorkers permission to laugh again. But Mayor Bloomberg never did tell us when we could resume conspicuous consumption after the crash of 2008. And so, as we stumble through the second year of the official “recovery,” it’s been an improvisational return to high-end carousing in Manhattan.

By Lori Montgomery / The Washington Post / Wednesday, July 6, 6:38 PM EDT

President Obama is pressing congressional leaders to consider a far-reaching debt-reduction plan that would force Democrats to accept major changes to Social Security and Medicare in exchange for Republican support for fresh tax revenue.

At a meeting with top House and Senate leaders set for Thursday morning, Obama plans to argue that a rare consensus has emerged about the size and scope of the nation’s budget problems and that policymakers should seize the moment to take dramatic action.

UPDATE: Exxon Mobil came under fire on Wednesday from Gov. Brian Schweitzer, who said the oil giant had assured Montana that any spill on the Yellowstone River could be shut off in a few minutes. (Go here for more details.)

Federal documents show it took Exxon Mobil nearly twice as long as it publicly disclosed to fully seal a pipeline that spilled roughly 1,000 barrels of crude oil into the Yellowstone River.

In the year and a half since the Citizens United decision, Americans from all walks of life have become concerned about corporate dominance of our government and our society as a whole. In Citizens United v. FEC, the U.S. Supreme Court (in an act of outrageous “judicial activism) gutted existing campaign finance laws by ruling that corporations, wealthy individuals, and other entities can spend unlimited amounts of money on political campaigns.

The Ocean Beach Hotel has a mascot that’s American as surfing and apple pie: a 1949 Desoto woodie wagon. Owner Rich Grosch, 66, bought the seaside hotel at the corner of Newport Avenue and Abbott Street in 2003 and three years later he found the woodie.

“You gotta have a woodie with the beach hotel,” he said. He found the car online, listed at Hemmings.com by the owner in Santa Barbara.

With national unemployment rates at 9.1 percent, it might be hard to imagine that there are companies struggling to find workers. It is especially hard to imagine that these companies would be in the manufacturing industry, an area hit hard by the recent recession and on the decline in the United States for more than 30 years.

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

You know that thing we used to have to do at the end of summer, the thing that whopped you upside the head with the brutal inevitability that vacation was over, that tar-bubble popping adventures and rhubarb-sucking loll-abouts were done, done and gone with the finality of a bee between your naked foot and the clover that enticed the insect to its death and you, to your hopping pain?

by Howard Zinn

On this July 4, we would do well to renounce nationalism and all its symbols: its flags, its pledges of allegiance, its anthems, its insistence in song that God must single out America to be blessed.

Is not nationalism — that devotion to a flag, an anthem, a boundary so fierce it engenders mass murder — one of the great evils of our time, along with racism, along with religious hatred?

MINNEAPOLIS — Minnesota began what is expected to become the broadest shutdown of state services in its history early Friday, after Republicans and Democrats there failed to agree on how to solve the state’s budget woes in time for the new fiscal year.

And so, on the eve of a holiday weekend, residents were likely to find the state’s parks, historical sites and the Minnesota Zoo closed, hunting and fishing licenses no longer being issued, and that state’s lottery system and racetracks unavailable.

by George J. Janczyn / Groksurf’s San Diego / July 1, 2011

The City of San Diego’s IPR (indirect potable reuse) study, now officially referred to as the Water Purification Demonstration Project by the Public Utilities Department, just passed a major milestone: the Advanced Water Purification Facility needed for the project is completed and operations have begun.

by Lucas O’Connor / Two Cathedrals / July 1, 2011

Right on cue after a full week of discussing the complex issues facing the San Diego Democratic Party and the media’s struggles to wrestle with complexity, CityBeat chimes in, again criticizing Democrats for trying to compete on even footing in San Diego politics.

Presumably, this is an attempt to light a fire under Durfee, if rather ham-handed.

Mayor’s Proposition Depends on Breaking State Law In Order To Achieve Lion’s Share of Projected Savings

The Republican ballot measure to leave city workers without Social Security or any other retirement safety net includes a maneuver that Mayor Sanders claimed was illegal just a few months ago.

According to the ballot measure’s supporters, the section of the proposition requiring the city to freeze pensionable pay for 5 years accounts for up to 87% (or $1.1 billion) of the savings heralded by supporters. It is against California state law to impose a pay freeze for that long without bargaining in good faith with employees first.