OB Rag

Occupy actions planned on May Day are tied to the generations-long movement for the eight-hour day, to immigrant workers, to police brutality and repression of the labor movement.

By Jacob Remes / AlterNet / April 27, 2012 |

American general strikes—or rather, American calls for general strikes, like the one Occupy Los Angeles issued last December that has been endorsed by over 150 general assemblies—are tinged with nostalgia.

The last real general strike in this country, which is to say, the last general strike that shut down a city, was in Oakland, California in 1946—though journalist John Nichols has suggested that what we saw in Madison, Wisconsin last year was a sort of general strike.

Here is an up to date schedule and calendar of May Day actions and activities in San Diego:

• 11 am – May Day Rally at City College – 11 am

• 12 Noon- Stand in Solidarity with Janitors – Rally at Civic Center and March to Sherman Heights Market

SEIU-USWW will be hosting a rally 12 pm at the Civic Center in Downtown San Diego and will be marching to the Sherman Heights Farmer’s Market.

• 2:00 pm – Bank Action Against Bank of America and Wells Fargo – March from Civic Center to 5th & B Street

• 3:3o pm – Stand in Solidarity with Teachers at their Teacher Lay Off rally at Roosevelt Middle School in Balboa Park,

The San Diego Education Association is hosting this rally.

• 5:30 pm – Chicano Park Festival

By Andy Taubmann

Fellow readers of the OB Rag,

I have been a regular reader of the OB Rag for about ten years, although I have never commented or contributed. I read the Rag, because I believe that the Rag has a unique position to observe, chronicle, and comment on the happenings of Ocean Beach.

As such, the very valid question has been asked, what is the Respect OB movement and what is it about?

Equality Nine Trial Selects Jury Monday AM, Opening Arguments Expected by Late Afternoon

By Sean Bohac

SAN DIEGO — Marriage equality activists charged with misdemeanors from an August 19, 2010 protest will be in court Monday morning. The “Equality Nine” are nine protesters who were arrested during a peaceful “sit-in” for marriage equality. Jury selection begins in their case Monday, April 30, at 10 a.m. before Judge Joan P. Weber in the Presiding Courtroom of the San Diego County Superior Court, 220 West Broadway, in downtown San Diego. The opening arguments, scheduled to begin on Monday afternoon, are expected to outline the first amendment and LGBT [Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender] justice ramifications of this trial.

Carl Hancock / The San Diego Reader / April 26, 2012

In what looks like a fairly effective way of discouraging public comment, the California Coastal Commission recently sent notices to Shelter Island-area residents, informing them that the next hearing on the proposed Point Loma Townhomes development would be held in Marin County.

According to SDNews.com:

“The Point Loma Townhomes project site would be bounded by Carleton Street to the north, Dickens Street to the south and Scott Street to the west. It lies adjacent to the old Kettenburg Boatyard next to America’s Cup Harbor.”

My column last week, “The Fletcher Flim Flam,” got a lot of attention and many comments, the most interesting one coming from Democratic Assemblyman Isadore Hall sent not by the politician himself but by a worried Fletcher campaign staffer who forwarded it to the OB Rag asking that it be posted in response to my blog. Here it is:

On the same day that Jim Miller published his piece against Nathan Fletcher, the right wing group Americans for Prosperity was doing a press conference to attack him as well.

You may have heard about this group, the front group for the Koch brothers. This is the same group that supported the chaos and dysfunction in Wisconsin–a model and vision that Carl Demaio has laid out as his vision for San Diego.

It’s unfortunate that Jim Miller doesn’t know Nathan Fletcher, but I do.

Woke up on April 18th
at about 9:04.
It was my birthday.
Number 74.
Stepped my big old feet
down upon the floor,
reached down to pick up
a paper clip or something
that caught my eye
next to my bedroom door
and all of a sudden I felt
a wee tug of my sacroiliac
and then my back
seemed like it was being attacked
by an alligator
in a biting contest, Jack!
I hit the deck
like a concrete filled sack,
writhing on the carpet,
moaning in tongues,

Life has been fairly dull for me the past few months – at least as it pertains to cultural events. I had a perfectly delightful evening Friday night when a friend – no, not that friend – and I went to the North Park Vaudeville and Candy Shoppe at 2031 El Cajon Blvd., in San Diego. My friend had read about this little – and I do mean little – theater where plays were being written by unknowns, directed by unknowns, and acted by unknowns. The purpose is to give “would be” playwrights an opportunity to see their play put into production.

Local Media Ignore Story – Is It Because of Mystery Ship Possibly Involved in Collision?

By JEC / Special to the OB Rag

A mystery is unfolding offshore from OB.

The 65th Newport to Ensenada sailboat race started in Newport on noon Friday, April 27. By 1 am early Saturday morning the bulk of the fleet of 200 sailboats had passed OB and were a few miles outside the Coronado Islands just south of the border. The race organizers, the Newport Ocean Sailing Association (NOSA) were tracking each boat using an online tracking system.

Kathy Blavatt – a local artist and community activist from Ocean Beach – wrote this poem for the Respect OB forum held on Tuesday the 24th, and she’s letting us publish it here:

O.B. – She’s a Beauty

I’ve loved a lady with sunshine in her hair…

Dolphins swim through blue eyes.

A feminine free spirit… She goes by O.B.

She’s lived life with a checkered past…

A small-town girl in a big city.

She’s a hippie with a degree…

A surfer from way back…

San Diego, California – In a remarkable day for ocean conservation and advancing environmental safeguards in San Diego County, the Solana Beach City Council voted unanimously to pass an ordinance banning single-use plastic bags on Wednesday evening, becoming the first city in San Diego County to pass such legislation.

“Last night’s decision is a stepping-stone for other coastal communities in San Diego County to follow suit,” explains Walker Hicks, a volunteer with Surfrider’s Rise Above Plastics campaign. “We applaud the Solana Beach City Council members for their decision, and look forward to enjoying cleaner oceans, waves and beaches as a result.”

By East County Magazine / April 26, 2012

April 26, 2012 (San Diego) — U.S. Congressman and Mayoral candidate Bob Filner spoke in front of the San Diego Planning Commission today to oppose the “Quail Brush” Power Plant, slated for construction next to the San Diego Mission Trails Regional Park. The site is within the City of San Diego, but will have negative impacts in neighboring Santee. The Planning Commission was deliberating on the decision to re-zone the proposed location from “open space” to “industrial use.”

Filner joined environmental groups, community organizations, and the entire Santee City Council in opposing the power plant.