Category: Politics

by Doug Porter / San Diego Free Press / May 29, 2012

I read the Daily Fishwrap(s) so you don’t have to…

Filner’s Kenyan connection?… Absent a potential birth certificate scandal, reporter/columnist Matt Hall has decided to make the Mayoral candidates cough up their college transcripts in hopes that something, anything will make for a story. And at least one of the SDUT’s reliably right wing commenters is having a cow because candidate Bob Filner apparently ignored the request. The lone democrat in the race has been known to not suffer foolish requests lightly, as he did earlier this year when the Voice of San Diego wanted him to give up political positions in three sentences or less. Our sources say that Filner’s crew is, in fact, trying to get the stone tablets from Cornell shipped off to Hall; they’re just having problems finding a shipper.

A “Voter Information Night” will be held by High Tech High International on Wednesday, May 30th from 6pm – 8pm. High Tech High International is located at 2855 Farragut Road in Point Loma, within Liberty Station.

The non-partisan event will focus on educating the public about candidates who are competing for President, U.S. Senate, U.S. Congress, State Assembly, State Senate, City Council, and San Diego Mayor on this upcoming June 5th Primary Election. It will also cover state and local propositions, with the bulk of the focus on California and San Diego-specific issues.

“Voter Information Night” is a student-researched and conducted event. The public’s participation would greatly further support of the students’ goal of voter awareness and voter education for the June primaries/Presidential election.

In my column last week, I pointed out what Scott Peters’ accepting the endorsement by the New Democrat Coalition meant. Specifically, I outlined the history of the Democratic Leadership Council and its transformation into the New Democrat Coalition and noted that these organizations have been the chief engines behind the Democratic Party’s shift toward a far more business-friendly orientation. I also observed something that even Bill Clinton’s former advisor Robert Reich has recently written about—that the Clinton administration’s loosening of economic regulations as a result of this ideological shift helped grease the wheels for the great financial train wreck from which we are yet to recover.

This ideological shift in a large chunk of the Democratic Party was made possible by a web of corporate interests funding the DLC and its NDC offspring in order to influence policy on both sides of the aisle. It is, I argued, just as important to note these ideological and economic networks inside the Democratic Party as it is to look at the well-funded think tanks behind folks like Carl DeMaio.

China cited the treatment of protesters participating in the Occupy Wall Street movement, stating that their arrests can provide a “glimpse of the truth regarding the United States’ so-called freedom and democracy”.

China Daily/ May 26, 2012

Beijing on Friday swiftly hit back at Washington’s annual report on China’s human rights, saying in a report that the US government’s crackdown on protesters in the Occupy Wall Street demonstration is the real illustration of American democracy.

In the report, Human Rights Record of the United States in 2011, the State Council Information Office demanded the US stop its double standards.

Beijing issued the report less than 24 hours after the release of the Washington report, which Chinese experts said used harsher wording than previous editions and reflected US double standards that meet political needs in an election year.

By Norma Damashek / NumbersRunner / May 18, 2012

Two things I need to clarify.

First thing: Some regular readers of NumbersRunner questioned last week’s harsh assessment of how San Diego is faring under our ‘strong mayor’ system. Actually, I understated the problems — they’re much worse than you think.

While it’s not unheard of for city leaders to sweep messy problems under the rug, the lack of professional management inside City Hall and the disintegration of public accountability and honest disclosure under our current mayor are — without a doubt — San Diego’s most closely guarded secrets since Diann Shipione (former board trustee of the San Diego City Employees Retirement System) spilled the beans about gross mismanagement, lack of disclosure, and deceptive practices shrouding our pension system.

Another Endorsement That Hasn’t Happened Yet (But Still Could)

I didn’t realize that my House congressional district had been redrawn until a Juan Vargas campaign walker knocked upon my door in City Heights. I had to stop and think a moment. I had spent a number of yes, dramatic years, in Susan Davis’ district and it took me a moment to process the impact of the redistricting and that now I’m in the 51st Congressional District.

It took me less than a minute to respond to the question whether I would support Juan Vargas. When asked I said “No. Absolutely not and I’ll tell you why. He went missing on the single payer healthcare vote earlier this year.” Vargas ducked the vote, twice, despite receiving thousands of calls urging him to support the bill.

Vargas was presented with the “Spineless Rubber Chicken” award for sitting out a critical vote on this particular issue. We have a Democratic governor and a Democratic majority in the California legislature and the single payer health care option with dental coverage for our families and neighbor is dead, lacking two votes.

If you really want to understand what’s at stake in the race for the 52nd Congressional District between Scott Peters and Lori Saldaña, the most important thing to consider is not personality conflicts or whether the candidates get along with the media but which wing of the Democratic Party they would represent. Both want to unseat incumbent Republican Brian Bilbray, but whose interests would each candidate serve? What kind of Democratic Party would they help shape?

As has been noted elsewhere in the OB Rag, Saldaña has the backing of many local and national progressives and would certainly head straight into the Progressive Caucus. This is the most liberal caucus in the House and describes itself thusly:

Our Caucus members promote a strong, progressive agenda, what we call “The Progressive Promise–Fairness for All”. The Progressive Promise is rooted in four core principles that embody national priorities and are consistent with the values, needs and aspirations of all the American people, not just the powerful and the privileged. They reflect a fundamental belief in government of the people, by the people, and for the people.

The four, core principles of the Progressive Promise:

1. Fighting for economic justice and security for all;

2. Protecting and preserving our civil rights and civil liberties;

Just having finished a review of who – and what – the San Diego Left endorses for this June’s Primary, I wanted to offer a summary of where different groups and media projects are at with the current crop of candidates and propositions. (Note: not all races are covered, especially those of smaller municipalities and non-controversial propositions).

First – of course, there is a left in San Diego politics – so, those who cannot accept it, get over it. (For a refresher course on left vs right, see here and here.) The groups reviewed for their endorsements are all left or left-of-center. And by reporting on any group’s choices does not mean that I necessarily endorse them, their choices, or politics.

I scanned the endorsements of the following news sources and organizations:

• CityBeat – the weekly magazine is generally left-of-center in their views, policies, and endorsements.

• Democratic Socialists of America – clearly a left organization – an out-and-out “socialist” stance. Here’s their endorsements in a pdf file: Download File

• Progressive Democrats of America – they have a local progressive group, on the activist left side of the Democratic Party.

• San Diego Labor Council – labor and its manifestations are usually on the left side of the political spectrum.

TIJUANA, MEXICO — The signs at the union rally were lettered in red and green on a white background, reminiscent of the Mexican flag.

“!Con DeMaio al Norte!”
(“With Demaio to the North!”)

“!Si, se puede, jefe!”
(“Yes, we can, boss!”)

“!Te amos Carl!”
(“We love you, Carl!”)

The setting was a south-of-the-border parade on Tijuana’s famous Avenida Revolucion, where a union representing undocumented workers hoping to migrate to the United States endorsed Republican candidate Carl DeMaio for San Diego mayor.

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!

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.