OB Rag

From Dirty DeMaio / May 22, 2012

Still trying to answer questions about the rank hypocrisy of pushing the private imposition of a billion dollar tax while railing against taxes and closed-door deals, Carl DeMaio is doubling down on the outright absurd rhetoric as we come down to the wire.

Speaking on KOGO this week, DeMaio said that allowing private companies to tax the public without the public getting any say “is a very conservative, business oriented, free market principle. Some would say libertarian.”

That’s an interesting definition of libertarian that Carl has, giving corporations unilateral power to pick the public’s pocket. He goes on to explain that the reason he supports it, the reason it’s such a conservative idea, is because the setup gives private corporations the power to decide who pays instead of the public or their government deciding.

By Ben Cartwright / SDGLN / May 23rd, 2012

SAN DIEGO – More than 100 people gathered at what is now the corner of Harvey Milk Street and Centre Street in Hillcrest to witness the unveiling of the signs that indicate the new street name at a late afternoon ceremony on Tuesday, May 22.

The ceremony was held on Milk’s birthday, who would have been 82 years old on Tuesday.

San Diego lays claim to being the first city in the world to honor Milk, the iconic gay-rights champion who served in the Navy while based in San Diego, with a street naming. Hillcrest’s Blaine Avenue was the street chosen to be named after Milk, primarily because of its location in the heart of the city’s LGBT neighborhood and the fact that it ends in front of The San Diego LGBT Community Center.

by George J. Janczyn / Grofsurf’s San Diego / May 24, 2012

The San Diego City Council Natural Resources and Culture Committee (NR&C) approved on Wednesday (May 23) two substantial reports that recommend how recycled water can be used more effectively in the future as San Diego struggles with ways to reduce its extreme dependence on imported water that is becoming an increasingly expensive and less reliable source [link to the agenda].

• 2011 Recycled Water Master Plan Update [link to the report].

By Leon Dale Thompson / East County Magazine / May 24, 2012

More than 50 people called Wednesday, May 23rd, for Sempra Energy Chief Donald Felsinger to come down and address the public’s concerns over the San Onofre nuclear reactors, which have been closed for months due to serious safety problems. (Felsinger was invited last Friday in a written-hand-delivered petition.) The crowd chanted “Donald Felsinger come on down” on this overcast afternoon, with Sempra Energy’s building looming above.

It is the role of the world of independent online news and opinion sites such as the OB Rag to call out the corporate media when it goes over the top on something that we can just not ignore.

One of the latest ‘over the top’ instances of reporting was done by the local outlet for CNS, City News Service, a little-known and even less understood network of regional news services, including a branch here in San Diego.

Here is what I’m getting at. In an article about how Mayor Sanders criticized mayoral candidate Carl DeMaio, the article included a list of recent endorsements received by the other mayoral candidates – but oh, wait! It included the endorsements that just the Republicans have received, totally excluding recent endorsements to the sole Democrat in the race, Bob Filner.

Editor: Last Sunday outside the NATO conference, dozens of American Iraqi and Afghan veterans threw their medals away in protest of the wars. A very similar protest by veterans was held during the anti-Vietnam war days in 1971. .

By Dave Lindorff / Nation of Change and This Can’t Be Happening / May 22, 2012

Once again American troops are being asked to keep fighting for a mistake — this time the 2001 fantasy of the Bush/Cheney administration that it could make a client state out of Afghanistan.

John Kerry, back before he was a pompous windsurfing Senate apologist for American empire, back when he wore his hair long and was part of a movement of returned US military veterans speaking out against the continuation of the Vietnam War, famously asked the members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee at a hearing, “How do you ask a man to be the last one to die for a mistake?”

ENDORSEMENTS PRIMARY ELECTION JUNE 5, 2012

CITY OF SAN DIEGO MAYOR

• BOB FILNER

US REPRESENTATIVE 51^ST DISTRICT

• DENISE MORENO DUCHENY

Go Inside for the rest of our endorsements ….

Seduction: What is it? The dictionary says it’s the “act of seducing.”
Seductress: A woman who seduces.
Seduce: To persuade or tempt.
Seductive: Tending to seduce or lead astray.

My online dating has opened up new horizons for me – one that I was aware of but never thought would pertain to me. But, in answering some of the required online questionnaires, I am looking at myself differently. And, consequently, am looking at others differently too.

For example, I completed a survey that was titled, “Seduction Style.” I surprised to find out that the it would be available for all to see, and that the results are broken down into three parts: How to Approach Me, How to Date Me, and How to Sexually Seduce Me.

Police from Internal Affairs Unit Allowed into Closed Sessions and Bullied Dissenters

The report : intimidation resulted in high turnover rate of prospective board members, including minorities.

By Kristina Davis / U-T San Diego / May 23, 2012

SAN DIEGO — The county grand jury investigating San Diego’s police citizen review board uncovered an atmosphere rife with “prejudice, fear and intimidation,” and determined that bullying and a lack of decorum impairs the board’s ability to be a true watchdog on police practices, according to a report released Tuesday.

by Debbi Baker / U-T San Diego / May 23, 2012

For the second time this month a green laser was aimed at the eyes of Harbor Police officers patrolling the shoreline.

The officers were about a half-mile offshore of Ocean Beach just before midnight Tuesday when the powerful beam was pointed at their faces, Harbor Police Sgt. Mike Rich said. They notified officers on the land, who searched Sunset Cliffs near Ladera Street for about 20 minutes before locating four men in their 20s on the beach, Rich said.

Call to Action to Pass the California Homeowner Bill of Rights!

California is one of the easiest states in the union to foreclose upon people, as evidenced by the astounding 84 percent rate of fraudulent foreclosures in SF, that have occurred without legal documentation! The banking lobby has also bought the finance committee in the state legislature, so they have tabled the CA HBR. Please sign this SignOn petition.

Click here to sign petition:

http://signon.org/sign/pass-the-california-homeowne-3

By Charles Davidson

Support the California Homeowner Bill of Rights (HBR). The HBR is a package of bills that will give greater protection to homeowners facing foreclosure,

BY J. A. Rippo / The Espresso / Originally published May 16, 2012

Arizona governor Jan Brewer has signed into law a bill that effectively ends Mexican-American studies classes in Arizona’s public schools (HB 2281). She did this after Tom Horne, a school superintendent and candidate for Attorney General, made noise about his dislike of a Mex-Am culture program in Tucson.

Horne and Brewer justified their action by claiming the classes promote the overthrow of the US government, preached resentment toward white people; particularly well-off ones, and urged ethnic solidarity at the expense of a melting-pot mentality.