OB Rag

Old Town happens to be my very first home in San Diego. As a baby, I lived on Conde Street in a house that has since been torn down. In fact, a lot has changed in the (muffled)-something years since then. Much of the surrounding area has become a tourist hot spot that is faithfully avoided by the locals, but Old Town proper still remains a charming step into the past for me literally and emotionally.

A state historic park, Old Town covers the time period between 1821 and 1872 with free museums, a working blacksmith shop, people dressed in period-style costumes and events throughout the year.

I don’t know if whoever is reading this has a place on earth that’s really dear to them, a spiritual place, a place that invigorates them. But I do have such a place, Sabino Canyon, in Tucson, my birth place.

Mi querida and I hiked there just the other day, the first day of December, in fact, the last month before doomsday if you want to listen to what a number of very spooked people say.

But an apocalypse was far from my mind on this soothing sunny day. I entered the grounds in a very good mood and that mood grew with each step I took as I ran the images of my stay in town through my mind.

By Khari Johnson / Imperial Beach Patch / December 7, 2012

Even before the project ended in October, Seacoast Drive residents have complained that new sand has caused sea water to seep through garages, sidewalks and elsewhere. SANDAG may return to IB to even out sand that have caused water to pool.

In an open letter to the new Mayor Bob Filner, the OB Planning Board has called for an immediate moratorium on the City of San Diego granting variances to property owners on the 5100 block of West Point Loma Boulevard.

The planners want the city to halt allowing builders these privileges “while the city and the community work together to solve the zoning problem” in this area.

In the letter – signed by Jane Gawronski, Chair of the Planning Board – she makes this request:

“we are asking that the Ocean Beach Planning Board have the opportunity to work with City staff to reconsider the zoning for this very specific block in Ocean Beach.”

Human Rights Day is celebrated annually across the world on 10 December.

The date was chosen to honor the United Nations General Assembly’s adoption and proclamation, on 10 December 1948, of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), the first global enunciation of human rights and one of the first major achievements of the new United Nations. The formal establishment of Human Rights Day occurred at the 317th Plenary Meeting of the General Assembly on 4 December 1950, when the General Assembly declared resolution 423(V), inviting all member states and any other interested organizations to celebrate the day as they saw fit.

Come inside to read the entire Declaration of Human Rights.

No Cuts to Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security Benefits, End Tax Cuts for 2% In Washington D.C., the Lame Duck…

By John Lawrence / San Diego Free Press

Why hire individual lobbyists and send them out in search of Congressmen when you can set up a lobbying clearinghouse and have them come to you?

ALEC, the American Legislative Exchange Council, does just that. Funded by the likes of the Koch brothers, Exxon Mobil and PhRMA, a trade association for the pharmaceutical industry, legislators are paid to come to ALEC meetings, where they are wined, dined, and handed “model” legislation to make into law in their state. Through ALEC, corporations vote on “model” legislation alongside politicians behind closed doors.

By Amanda Reiman / Alternet / Dec. 4, 2012 When Michael Saffioti’s mother suggested that he turn himself in to…

By Laura Gottesdiener / AlterNet / Dec. 5, 2012

The directors of the anti-Obama film hilariously claim the film faces discrimination.

Gerald Molan, the director of the extremely anti-Obama movie, 2016: Obama’s America , is mad that his and Dinesh D’Souza’s film wasn’t on the shortlist of documentaries nominated for an Academy Award.

“The action confirms my opinion that the bias against anything from a conservative point of view is dead on arrival in Hollywood circles,” he complained to the Hollywood Reporter.

This is not a definition that implies a conspiracy; it is a structural analysis of how our media system works in the real world with all the economic, political, and legal pressures that shape the process of delivering the infotainment we call news.

In last week’s column, I discussed Noam Chomsky and Edward S. Herman’s propaganda model and noted how it was even more relevant today than it was when they first published Manufacturing Consent in 1988 as the concentration of media ownership they decried in the eighties has only continued to increase dramatically. I ended that column by referring to Project Censored, an organization that has been monitoring the news media and putting out a list of the top 25 “censored” stories of the year since 1976.

Editor: The following letter was received by the OB Rag from the Ocean Beach Planning Board, undated and addressed to San Diego’s new mayor, Bob Filner, and signed by Jane Gawronski, Chair of the Board. We post it below in its entirety (although we made more paragraphs for easier reading).

Dear Mayor Filner,

This letter is submitted on behalf of the Ocean Beach Planning Board in regard to the ongoing issues between the City and the Ocean Beach community involving the multiple variances granted on West Point Loma Avenue in Ocean Beach. The block in question was purposely zoned under the Ocean Beach Precise Plan to be consistent with the rest of the Ocean Beach community.

A “McJob” play set? Makeup for babies?

By Lauren Kelly / AlterNet / December 6, 2012 |

If you, your siblings, or your close friends have children, you know that the holidays often involve toy shopping. And if you’re a progressive, you know that a trip to the toy store can be very depressing indeed.

It’s not that toys plastered with corporate logos, or gender-essentialist toys, or toys made from toxic chemicals are a new phenomenon. But with the holiday season becoming more and more consumer-driven each year, and awareness of these issues increasing, the “problem toys” seem to stick out more than ever. (At least for this writer, whose friends are all starting to have kids.)