OB Rag

A protest is being planned at the next open meeting of San Diego’s Citizens Review Board on Police Practices. A grand jury investigation uncovered major corruption at the Board. (Here is an article on the Grand Jury report.)

Some of the violations included police presence during closed sessions, police harassment, intimidation and bullying of board members who disagreed with police findings.

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday struck down Montana’s century-old limits on corporate political spending, putting an end to the state’s resistance to Citizens United and effectively expanding that controversial ruling to the state and local elections.

Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, decided in January 2010, struck down federal limits on campaign spending by corporations and unions as violations of the First Amendment. Justice Anthony Kennedy, writing on behalf of Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito, reached the bold conclusion that “independent expenditures, including those made by corporations, do not give rise to corruption or the appearance of corruption,” and therefore “[n]o sufficient governmental interest justifies limits on the political speech of nonprofit or for-profit corporations.”

I had an old friend in town recently for a visit, a friend who’d lived in San Diego for many years until leaving for South America before the law could catch up with him. Back in the day, my pal was a real wild man, spending much of his free time scouring San Diego for the next dive bar with its mandatory sordid adventure, so his return to our heavily gentrified city was like watching a bewildered Bukowski re-emerge after being cryogenically frozen for 20 years, stumbling through the streets of downtown, Golden Hill, North Park, City Heights, and the beaches bitterly muttering to himself about chic bistros and expensive craft brews. The statute of limitations was up but his city was gone.

Never has a stout middle-aged man seemed so distraught to be in a room full of beautiful young women as my companion was when confronted with the new gang populating the renovated Waterfront Bar and Grill or the cocktail lounge that replaced the bar with no name and the crooked pool tables. “What happened, Miller?” He kept saying to me as he shook his head disapprovingly. “Look at this! What the hell happened?”

There are some places we are not allowed to go on the internet. Sometimes when censorship is imposed by the government the error message should be Error Code 451. This is the idea of Google’s Tim Bray.

The number 451 refers to Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury. Since we all have read this text.

What?

You haven’t read it?

Drop everything and run to the library before it is too late! To give you a taste here are some quotes from the book. …

The Supreme Court ruled today on Arizona’s controversial SB 1070 immigration law, allowing the worst part of the law that institutes racial profiling to continue.

Join us this morning to rally against this decision:

San Diego County Administration Building

11 a.m.

June 25, 2012

1600 Pacific Highway, San Diego CA 92101

Doug Porter wandered through the OB Street Fair yesterday, Saturday, June 23rd, and took dozens of random photos of the people, the kids, the bands, the vendors and their booths.

Here they are, randomly.

The San Diego Free Press – our sister online publication – has just announced the location of the secret Koch brothers’ confab this weekend in the San Diego area.

It’s the Park Hyatt Aviara Resort up in Carlsbad. Here’s the report:

What happens when you combine strong mayor Jerry Sanders with a Canadian firm’s desire to build an 800 MW gas-fired power plant in San Diego? You get a secret plan that is being fast tracked through the City Council with the intent of a November ballot measure to enable passage. You also get “business as usual” at City Hall. Hear more about the proposal and what you can do on Monday, June 25, 6pm at the University Community Planning Group meeting, Forum Hall, UTC Mall (above Wells Fargo Bank).

By Carolyn Zellander / Special to San Diego Free Press

Following is an interview Michael T. Pines, a Carlsbad attorney who made national headlines for advising clients to “occupy” foreclosed homes.
Michael T. Pines was one of the first few attorneys with in-depth knowledge of the truth surrounding the near collapse of our economy caused by Wall Street. Michael has been painted (in some circles) as that crazy, foreclosure lawyer who needs to be in a mental institution, or worse, jail, especially by those in powerful positions.

By J. G. Robinson / Special to San Diego Free Press

This is the first column I will write for the San Diego Free Press, so let me introduce myself. I am an activist, a sociologist, a college professor, a San Diego resident for over 25 years, and I will be looking at San Diego through all of these perspectives. The academic in me means that I have a gut level commitment to the importance of data, reason, and a complex notion of truth. I do not believe that advocacy is merely yelling louder or not admitting the truths held by people with whom I disagree.

By Kelly Mayhew / Special to San Diego Free Press

A line of chatting parents greets the hurly burly crowd of small ruffians storming out of school at 3:40 on a Wednesday afternoon. I stand among these folks, basking in the sunshine and marveling at the mix of families and kids, waiting for my son Walt to make his way through the gate. McKinley Elementary in North Park is a bright, vibrant, neighborhood school that has an International Baccalaureate program. It is also public, which is why we chose to send our son there.

By Kimberley Beatty / Special to San Diego Free Press

Republicans feign outrage over “Operation Fast and Furious,” ensure more illegal firearms flood the streets.

The National Rifle Association (NRA), one of the most powerful lobbies in the US, has relentlessly tried to destroy the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) since it was created in 1972. They came close under Ronald Reagan in 1981, when the NRA pushed legislation to abolish the agency. Realizing that federal gun law enforcement would transfer to the then much esteemed Secret Service, the NRA scuttled the proposal.