OB Rag

Hundreds rallied in front of the San Onofre nuclear reactors on Sunday, March 11th, in commemoration of the disaster exactly one year ago at the Fukushima plant in Japan. And two speakers from Japan addressed the crowd and expressed appreciation for Americans’ solidarity during the warm afternoon near a cliff just off the Pacific.

Organized by local peace and anti-nuke groups, such as the Peace Resource Center in San Diego, and sponsored by a variety of progressive organizations, the rally was the largest demonstration at the San Onofre nukes in years. Protests against nuclear power were more widespread in the 1980’s, and the site just south of San Clemente has been the target of such protests over the decades.

Hey Gang, for the fourth time in as many months (or at least it seems like it), the Keystone XL Pipeline has been blocked. The Republicans needed 60 votes to pass S.B. 1813, in which they inserted the rider to allow the pipeline. The bill, sponsored by Senator Boxer, was to increase the Federal Transportation Commission’s budget to build roads and increase highway safety. The bill was ostensibly a public works act to help increase employment recovery at the state and local level.

I was sitting at a table at the Barrio Station, in San Diego’s Barrio Logan, next to a Chicana friend of mine, having a good time sipping the tastiest of whiskey sours while she nursed a smooth white wine.

In the background the music that was being sung and played was sounding ever so sublime. Among the selection was De Colores, a song of exquisitely mellow rhythm and rhyme, a song of love and that suited everybody just fine as we represented all the colors of the rainbow and had shown up in a spirit of love for a beautiful and worthy cause – to celebrate an organization that has served the needs of the children in this Barrio with an abundance of love for over 40 years without pause.

In such a festive atmosphere with delightful uplifting corridas filling the air I couldn’t help but drift into a Barrio State of Mind.

Comics about women’s reproductive rights simply not “appropriate”

Doonesbury cartoonist Gary Trudeau takes on Texas’ controversial abortion laws this week, but you won’t see them in our big bold San Diego U-T. U-T editor Jeff Light joins a number of equally feckless editors in places like Kansas City, MO, pulling the strip completely, or providing “replacements.” Father knows best…

In today’s Doonesbury strip, a Texas woman walks into an abortion clinic and is introduced to the shaming room.

UPDATE: Arrest made in OB Hit and Run
SEE INSIDE FOR UPDATE

The California Highway Patrol is seeking witnesses to the fatal hit and run that occurred early Sunday morning in Ocean Beach.

Local media reported that a pedestrian was killed early Sunday morning in a hit-and-run incident at Nimitz Boulevard and Sunset Cliffs near the western end of I-8.

The U-T reported that evidence at the collision site indicated that the suspect vehicle may be a 2007 or newer model Toyota Camry, with the crash being reported at 4:28 a.m. according to the CHP.

Last week wasn’t so good for Jerry Brown. First the Public Policy Institute of California put out a poll that found that the Governor’s measure was favored by only a very slim majority of California voters at 52% approval. This number is 16% below where it was in a January PPIC poll and, if accurate, pretty much dooms it. What changed? In this survey, people were given the actual language that will be on the ballot (including the regressive sales tax), which appears to kill voter enthusiasm.

Making matters worse for Brown and company, another poll followed this one that eviscerates one of the governor’s main arguments. This poll confirms that a majority of Californians would prefer to have a choice of tax measures on the ballot.

A funny thing happened on the way to figuring how to get President Obama not to sign HR 347. Yesterday late afternoon, I was on an urgent national conference call to discuss how to stop the bill. HR 347 is a bill that was passed with lightening speed with almost no opposition just recently by the Senate and House.

During the call, we were told that the bill is on President Obama’s desk and that he had until March 12th to sign it or veto it. This national phone connect was a “call to action” against the bill.

On the one-year anniversary of Japan’s nuclear nightmare at Fukushima, San Diego peace, anti-nuke, environmental, and civil libertarian activists will be converging on our own nuclear- nightmare-to-be – the San Onofre power plant. The action will be this Sunday, March 11th, from 1 to 3pm.

San Onofre Nuclear Power plant has the worst safety record of all US nuclear reactors …

by Dixon Guizot

When I called in to schedule a vasectomy a few months ago, my health insurance company said I’d have to first attend a one-hour class at a Point Loma medical office.

I showed up to the class along with 9 other guys, and the woman running the class kicked things off by asking each guy in the room how many kids he had.

I was the last guy she called on. I was the only one who said this: “I don’t have any kids.”

I arrived at the Federal Building while the San Diego Occupellas were still practicing. This Women Occupy group rewrites the lyrics of well know songs with punchy occupy themes. As one of the speakers would later point out, 99% of women use contraception, which is just one more reason to be part of the Occupy movement.

Editor: Our good friend Eugene talked to some of the women who took part in a rally downtown today, in front of the San Diego Federal Courthouse, about issues that are affecting women right now.

All videos by Eugene Davidovich

Come inside for Eugene’s Video interviews…

By Michael McAuliff / Huggington Post / March 8, 2012

WASHINGTON — A pair of lawmakers on Thursday offered a bill that would repeal laws that allow the indefinite detention of Americans and others by the military without trial.

The power of military authorities to arrest and jail people …