Category: Media

SURVEILLANCE CAMERA AND POLICE WATCH TOWER COMING TO OCEAN BEACH

Big Brother is creeping into our lives, inch by inch, camera by camera, tower by tower. Recent posts on our blog have described plans by the City of San Diego to install surveillance cameras in and around Mission Bay, including one on the OB Pier, and that the San Diego Police Department dragged out their controversial mobile watch tower for this year’s first Floatopia.

Surveillance cameras, police towers … Big Brother is definitely creeping in … do you remember the origins of Big Brother? He is a fictional character in George Orwell’s novel Nineteen Eighty-Four, the dictator with seemingly absolute control in Oceania, a society that is a totalitarian state.

COME INSIDE FOR MORE ….

* “Terriers” Returns to Old Townhouse Restaurant April 6th

*OB Rag Calling for OB Heathens

*OB Comedy Celebrates Fourth Anniversary Show – April 9th

*OB Centric Holds Another “Swap O Rama Rama”

*Rock ’n’ roll academy opens doors in OB

There we were, all 21 of us, crowding around under the shady umbrella at Java Jungle. And we were all talking politics – imagine!

It was a meeting of the “coastal” section of San Diego’s Coffee Party movement, a movement that is barely two months old, yet already has nearly 400 chapters across the country. What started as a facebook rant about the incivility of American politics and the apparent stalemate in Congress, and which has now blossomed into a nation-wide movement, had its first San Diego meeting on March 13th. The turnout was so huge, that the group broke down into four sections.

The “west of I-5” folks, naming themselves the coastal chapter, had decided to meet on the 27th in OB. And at least half the turnout was from Ocean Beach.

San Diego’s Coffee Party Movement officially forms up this Saturday, March 13th, as its first “kick-off” meeting is being held at a local coffeehouse – of all places. This initial gathering – organized for the City of San Diego – will be at LeStat’s coffee house on Adams Avenue at noon. There’s also chapters forming in North County and Ramona.

And there’s hundreds of such meetings occurring across the country this Saturday. Of course, the meetings are at coffee houses. It’s the Coffee Party Movement.

Yesterday the 11th of March, we heard from Ted Caplaneris, the owner of The Old Town House Restaurant on Newport Ave, that the television production “Terriers” is coming back to film at his restaurant.

Ted wanted us to know and to help spread the word that:

The Old Town House Restaurant will be closed on Tuesday March 16th to facilitate this production. We apologize for any inconvenience.

Last time the production crew was in OB, they used Ted’s restaurant.

Editor: Every now and then a bizarre story crosses our desk that deserves exposure. And here is one, about how the recent Pentagon shooter was into exposing the mysterious murder and subsequent cover-up of an El Toro Marine colonel who, just before his death – which was ruled a “suicide” -, was about to expose major illicit drug movements and dealings from Central America at the air base.

(SALEM, Ore.) – John Patrick Bedell must have had a lot on his mind as he went through the motions of a dead man walking. He knew this would be it; nobody opens fire near the Pentagon without falling in a hail of bullets.

It must be brutal in the last seconds, to enter the very last stage of life. Surely that is what he thought, and that had to be what Marine Colonel Jim Sabow thought, as he took his last breath in 1991.

Editor: Check this out. The Coffee Party movement has begun – an answer to the Tea Party movement. One of our bloggers last week in his post called for a “coffee grounds” movement. Well, his call has been answered. It is official, San Diego will have its own Coffee Party and it will form from these pages. Sign up here.

By Dan Zak /Washington Post / February 26, 2010

Furious at the tempest over the Tea Party — the scattershot citizen uprising against big government and wild spending — Annabel Park did what any American does when she feels her voice has been drowned out: She squeezed her anger into a Facebook status update.

This Saturday, February 27th, a group of local Tea Party groups are sponsoring a rally downtown along San Diego Harbor. And San Diego progressives will be there to stand witness to this rally of tea baggers.

Nearly one hundred San Diego progressives have committed to being present at this non-violent counter-demonstration. The counter protest – really more of a show of strength than an actual protest or counter-demonstration – has been organized solely via emails and word of mouth.

This blog website the OB RAG, in conjunction with a number of other San Diego progressive and peace groups have put out the call for the counter effort; we went to cyberspace for the medium of our message. And just over a week’s time, San Diego progressives have stepped up to be witnesses to our local movement of reaction.

The OB Town Council is holding a meeting tonight at the Masonic Temple,which includes a candidate forum for candidates of the OB Planning Board, plus a public forum on homeless.

Two of our bloggers, Cindi and Lane, are texting us and we will be sharing with you what they report:

7:23 pm LANE: handful of PB candidates that sit on TC as well –

7:16 – there is a woman speaking … she says she handles homeless issues like vandalism, drunk in public, … insinuating that only homeless do these things.

7:11 – they are allowing the homeless youth to submit speaker requests! they are going to hear our voice!

7:10 pm – talking about housing workshop, student loan workshop, but my thought is what about the homeless shelter workshop?

7:08 pm – The meeting just started !

On Saturday, February 27, a number of our fellow citizens will take publicly funded roads to a public park to participate in a Tea Party rally at which our publicly funded police force will maintain law and order if necessary. Once our fellow citizens arrive, they will rail against the unfair redistribution of wealth and the size of government.
Hypocrisy In Action

Of course it is that very redistribution of wealth which provides them with those roads, that park, those police. And it is that very redistribution of wealth that provides their “entitlements” of Medicare, Veteran Benefits, and Social Security; that provides their children with public education, parks and recreation centers and libraries. The Tea Party comes with an enormous side of hypocrisy.

It is statistically probable that 95% of those in attendance received a tax cut under the Obama administration.

We just watched a 10News broadcast that showed the results of poll they did regarding the “Compton Cookout” and whether folks thought the people throwing this party were exercising their right to free speech. I was pretty astounded to see the 53% agreed. My first thought was that anyone who said yes didn’t actually read the invitation, didn’t hear the actual words used to describe this event.

The following was supposedly posted as a Facebook event invitation, read it and tell us whether you think it’s an expression of free speech, or not.
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February marks a very important month in American society. No, i’m not referring to Valentines day or Presidents day. I’m talking about Black History month. As a time to celebrate and in hopes of showing respect, the Regents community cordially invites you to its very first Compton Cookout.

1. President Obama Cut Your Taxes

As in April, the Tea Baggers continued to display their fundamental misunderstanding of U.S. history and the American Revolution. Apparently, the right-wing zealots are outraged by no taxation with representation.

As promised, Barack Obama in the stimulus package delivered on his pledge of tax relief for 95% of American households. Obama’s American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) didn’t only jump start gross domestic product and refill empty state coffers in the second quarter of 2009. As Nate Silver thoroughly documented, “Obama has cut taxes for 98.6% of working households.”

Nevertheless, raging Tea Baggers spouting Republican Tax Day lies took to the streets not to thank the President, but to blame him for the tax cuts they received.