OB Rag

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.

Friends of Mountain Group Steps In to Aid State in Preventing Park’s Closure

By J. Harry Jones / U-T San Diego / May 30, 2012

PALOMAR MOUNTAIN — Palomar Mountain State Park has officially been saved.

California State Park’s Director Ruth Coleman has signed an agreement permitting the park and its popular campgrounds to remain open for the next three years as long as a nonprofit citizen’s group is willing to cover the deficit between the park’s income and expenses.

Move Reflects Fallout Over Former President’s Killing of Mountain Lion in Idaho

By Juliet Williams / MercuryNews.com / May 29, 2012

SACRAMENTO, Calif.—The state Assembly approved new restrictions governing who can be appointed to the California Fish and Game Commission on Tuesday as part of the ongoing fallout over the former president’s killing of a mountain lion in Idaho.

Lawmakers approved AB2609 by Assemblyman Ben Hueso, D-San Diego, on a 55-22 vote, sending it to the Senate.

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.

When a good friend of mine – a gourmet chef that teaches several culinary classes in the San Diego area – asked me to join her for lunch the other day, I was delighted to accept. I met her at her house in North Park about 11:15am so that we were one of the first patron’s at the restaurant when it opened at 11:30am.

The restaurant could easily be missed if you did not know where you were going. The name is on a sign high above eye level; and the entrance is very unpretentious. Upon entering into a darkened room, with the hostess desk and the bar on the left, I was immediately struck with how long and narrow the room was, and it reminded me of many of the restaurants in San Francisco. There was an outside eating area on the right, but because it was overcast and damp we elected to eat indoors.

We were seated at the farthest seat at the back of the dining room, up against the wall that obviously housed the kitchen. (I say “obviously” because we could feel the vibrations from the kitchen on the wall nearest to where we were seated.) It was not distracting; we just knew it was there.

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.

(originally posted May 26, 2008.)

Editor: As the text within the graphic above states this was produced in 1963 by Dana Junior High School students who were in print shop. It is interesting to note that Steve Zivolich and Frank Gormlie were both involved in the anti-Viet Nam war movement at their respective college campuses back in the late sixties and early seventies.

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.

Jury Deadlock in Med Herb Trial Is Another Blow Against San Diego DA Bonnie Dumanis’ Costly and Irrational Resistance to the Will of California Voters; Judge Parsky Declares Mistrial.

By Eugene Davidovich / San Diego Americans for Safe Access / May 25, 2012

SAN DIEGO – On May 16th, twelve jurors and two alternates were selected in the trial of DA Bonnie Dumanis v. Dexter Padilla, navy veteran, medical marijuana patient and president of Therapeutic Healing, a San Diego based non profit medical marijuana coop.

The jury began deliberations on Tuesday, May 22, after a long week of arguments and testimony from experts and the defendant, Dexter Padilla.

Two notes were turned in by the jury less then an hour after deliberations. The first was a request for the defendant’s testimony to be read and the second was a concern from all the jurors about juror #10 being hostile, refusing to participate, and preventing everyone from working towards a verdict.

U.S. prosecutors asks Manhattan Federal Judge Katherine Forrest to undo ruling against military detention law

By Basil Katz / Chicago Tribune – Reuters / May 25, 2012

NEW YORK – Federal prosecutors on Friday urged a judge to lift her order barring enforcement of part of a new law that permits indefinite military detention, a measure critics including a prize-winning journalist say is too vague and threatens free speech.

Manhattan federal court Judge Katherine Forrest this month ruled in favor of activists and reporters who said they feared being detained under a section of the law, signed by President Barack Obama in December.

The government says indefinite military detention without trial is justified in some cases involving militants and their supporters.

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.