OB Rag

By John Lawrence / Will Blog for Food / May 12, 2012

In this article we explore how the price of gas at the pump is determined. This is an opaque subject which has been heaped in layers of obfuscation because the oil companies don’t want you to know what a huge scam they are perpetrating on the American public systematically ripping them off at the gas tank. They want you to think that gas prices are set by immutable, impersonal factors like the “world oil market” over which we have no control nor ever could we.

When the oil company executives went before a Congressional hearing in May 2011 as gas prices hit $4.00 a gallon, Rex Tillerson, CEO of Exxon Mobil, was asked “how are oil prices set?” He responded that they were based on the marginal cost of producing the next barrel of oil. Nothing could be further from the reality of the situation although it would be a worthy aspirational ideal, something to shoot for in a more perfect world.

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.

“Soft Path” from Dog Beach to Main Lifeguard Station Part of Master Plan

Lots of action is promised at the next Ocean Beach Planning Board meeting Wednesday night, May 16th.

Actually, it’s the Project Review Committee that is meeting, and they make recommendations on projects to the full Board – which will meet next on June 6th. Both committees meet at the OB Rec Center, 4728 Santa Monica Avenue.

First on the agenda is something called the “Ocean Beach Waterfront Master Plan” – a plan for the ocean front of OB being rolled out from the Design Committee of the OB Mainstreet Association.

Among the elements of this so-called “Master Plan” is a recommendation for a “soft path connecting Dog Beach and the Santa Monica Lifeguard Tower”. This could be controversial as a similar idea of a boardwalk was floated years ago but was brought down to defeat by last-minute grassroots’ opposition.

There is an evening public budget hearing tonight,

Monday, May14, beginning at at 6pm,

on the 12^th floor of city hall, 202 C street.

This is the evening hearing scheduled for working San Diegans to attend and give them two cents on the San Diego City budget.

Are Your Library Services “Good Enough?” Mayor Sanders and the City Council Think So

Outgoing Mayor Jerry Sanders recently declared an end to the structural deficit problems facing the city by virtue of his eight year reign of awesomeness. Revenues this past year were a modest 1.9% higher than anticipated, and Sanders was able to play the kindly king, distributing some of the revenue to deserving city departments in fiscal year 2013.

Editor: Just to ensure that our readers and the world know where the OB Rag stands on Carl DeMaio, we’re running two posts today, one by Doug Porter, and this one by Jim Miller.

“We have a conservative movement that has learned, over the decades, to mimic
many of the characteristics of its enemies.” – Thomas Frank

As Frank Gormlie noted in an OB Rag piece last Saturday, Carl DeMaio used a pull quote from one of my OB Rag columns describing Nathan Fletcher as a “Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing.” More specifically, DeMaio’s mailer cites this passage:

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.

It was so nice seeing my old friend, Whoopi, the other night. It had been a while. The last time I saw her was a few years ago when my wife, Nancy, and I, found ourselves standing in a line that can only be described as very long at a book store in La Jolla.

When we finally crossed the threshold of the building and got a glimpse of Whoopi, her head was bowed as she was intently writing her name with swift sweeps of her wrist. We just looked at her with deep admiration as she made so many people’s day, smiling at them as she scribbled.

In a moment she happened to look up and spot us, opening her eyes ala Mr. Magoo and she dropped her pen and came towards us like a Drum Major in a Black College Marching Band, calling out to us, “Ernie! Nancy!” and then she wrapped us in a hug that must have warmed the room.

Steve Breen, the U-T San Diego in-house cartoonist, has done it again. He has gone off and insulted another group of American citizens with his drawings.

This time, it’s seniors. His Thursday, May 11th, cartoon, went over the top by portraying American seniors as “a vengeful mob” – as one complaining letter writer stated in today’s paper.

Look at the cartoon itself. Look at the faces of the older people he drew. Are they the faces of your grandparents, parents, or even of you or us ourselves?

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!

By Nick R. Martin / TPM / May 10, 2012

At a big news conference in downtown Phoenix on Thursday, the Justice Department’s top civil rights lawyer described Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s office as an agency out of control.

“At its core, this is an abuse of power case,” assistant attorney general Thomas Perez said while announcing a massive civil rights lawsuit against the Arizona lawman.

But despite the tough talk, the reality is that little in the sheriff’s office is likely to change anytime soon because, as Perez acknowledged, the lawsuit could take years to resolve.

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.

by Meteor Blades / Daily Kos / May 9, 2012

Billionaire money at work: Right-wingers are being urged to cooperate to trash President Obama’s clean energy plans. The approach specifies an attack on wind turbines and provides a list of suggested approaches. So says the Guardian after viewing a confidential memorandum edited by John Droz Jr., a senior fellow at the American Tradition Institute. Senior fellow and climate-change denier.

Droz is a long-time anti-wind activist who claims the technology is unsound and the benefits non-existent. This no doubt will come as a surprise to Iowans, whose state generated 19 percent of its electricity with wind turbines in 2011.