OB Rag

By Kit-Bacon Gressitt / Excuse Me, I’m Writing / March 4, 2012

UPDATE: ProFlowers is suspending its Limbaugh ads (see comments below).

March is National Women’s History Month, and this year’s theme is “Women’s Education — Women’s Empowerment.” It’s a nice mom-and-apple-pie theme. Educating women is relatively noncontroversial in the United States, as long as students don’t expect affirmative action or public funding to get them past race and class access hurdles. And, unlike gals in Afghanistan, U.S. coeds don’t have to dodge acid-tossers on their way to school; they only have to contend with post-adolescents who want to rape them with the aid of ruffies in their Red Bulls.

By JEC

I recently enjoyed my 28th wedding anniversary. To celebrate my wife and I went to Las Vegas for a couple of days. Bored with the traditional I-15 route, we opted for a more adventurous route – east – to Brawley and State Route 78 as it travels through the Chocolate Mountains ending at Interstate 10 near Blythe. Wild country.

From the sand dunes near Glamis winding north through desert and sage we saw massive solar projects, and even larger excavation projects that we assumed involved mining in some form. The scenery was magnificent – set off as it was by the crisp clear weather. The desert is best in the early morning hours. Before the winds kick up the dust.

Our morning drive was interrupted by a surprising discovery of a Border Patrol roadblock on State Route 78 about 44 miles outside of Brawley.

Now why was it a surprise?

When the International Monetary Fund(IMF) is involved, one can expert the worst, and it usually–always–happens. In the case of Greece, it is the typical «cure» demanded by the IMF that is to be applied. The aim is always to reduce or even demolish the power of the state to take action to aid and protect its citizens. One of the primary demands of the IMF is to privatize state companies like electricity and water and whatever else it can think of. Another one is to attack the civil service and lower wages for or fire numerous civil servants.

Hospitals and schools are supposed to reduce the number of employees, thus services to citizens is reduced: longer waits for medical care and a larger number of students in classes. Even the police and the fire departments can be affected.

In France, the rightwing government has reduced the number of police by 16,000 and teachers and other educational workers by 30,000. This was done by a government whose main campaign theme was more security for the population.

NEW UPDATE FROM SDSU – See inside…

Yesterday, March 1st, was the National Day of Action for Education. Students at four area colleges walked out in solidarity and staged marches, rallies, teach-ins and even a “sleep-in” at one campus.

Protests were seen at City College, Mesa College, UCSD, and San Diego State University. The National Day of Action to Defend the Right to Education was coordinated by the Occupy Education movement, and there were protests at about 30 California campuses, including one of the most tense scenes at UC Santa Cruz where about 150 protesters blocked entrances and largely shut down the university. (Here’s more news from around the state by the LA Times – but they inexplicably and continually omit news from San Diego.)

Locally, about 50 to 60 students at UCSD marched through campus to the Chancellor’s Complex and occupied the conference room. Many planned to stay the night and discuss future plans.

Here are reports about the actions at the four college campuses:

By Carlos Batara / Immigration Newsletter / Feb. 29, 2012

Back in my days as a political science professor, I would point out how candidates scapegoat politically powerless individuals for self gain. Like undocumented immigrants. Since they cannot vote, their ability to fight back is nearly non-existent.

[A recent] narrow proposal by the Obama administration, addressing the needs of some immigrants trying to adjust their status to lawful residents, is a stark reminder of this history. However well-intended, the limited changes fail to offset the human misery inflicted by the 3 and 10 year re-entry bars – bars to legalization caused by political attacks dating back to 1996.

The US is sleepwalking into becoming a police state, where, like a pre-Magna Carta monarch, the president can lock up anyone

By Naomi Wolf / guardian.co.uk / Published on Feb. 29, 2012

Yes, the worst things you may have heard about the National Defense Authorization Act, which has formally ended 254 years of democracy in the United States of America, and driven a stake through the heart of the bill of rights, are all really true. The act passed with large margins in both the House and the Senate on the last day of last year – even as tens of thousands of Americans were frantically begging their representatives to secure Americans’ habeas corpus rights in the final version.

It does indeed – contrary to the many flatout-false form letters I have seen that both senators and representatives sent to their constituents, misleading them about the fact that the NDAA destroys their due process rights. Under the act, anyone can be described as a ‘belligerent”.

by A feleségül

What is the true definition of love?

Webster’s dictionary says that it is “a deep and tender feeling of affection for or attachment or devotion to a person or persons.”

Then what is the definition of lust?

Again, quoting Webster, “lust is a desire to gratify the senses; bodily appetite; a sexual desire.”

Using these two definitions, it is difficult, as a youth, to determine whether one is “in love” or “in lust.” And, unfortunately, one may never be able to ascertain which is which.

A case in point: As an unhappy teenager, I was seeking acceptance any way I could get it. If a male told me he “loved me” I was ready to thank him any way I could, and usually meant going to bed with him.

Judge Cancels Oral Arguments in Case involving Briana Bilbray and Dispensaries Seeking Injunction to Stop Federal Crackdown

By Eugene Davidovich / Special to the OB Rag

SAN DIEGO – In October of last year several U.S. Attorneys from the Department of Justice (DOJ) held a press conference in Sacramento announcing a new Federal crackdown on medical marijuana patients and providers across California.

Days after the announcement, hundreds of letters from the DOJ were sent to landlords renting commercial spaces to dispensaries threatening criminal prosecution and property forfeiture, unless their dispensary tenants were immediately evicted. Similar letters were sent to patients threatening federal criminal indictments.

In San Diego, the attacks involved both the DOJ and local officials. Jan Goldsmith, the San Diego City Attorney with support from City Council also wrote landlords and patients, making similar threats. In addition, his office filed almost one hundred lawsuits against the facilities claiming they were in violation of local zoning ordinances.

Passed by both Congressional chambers in December, signed into law by President Obama on December 31st, the National Defense Authorization Act of 2012 goes into effect today, March 1, 2012.

This is the Act that allows the indefinite detention of American citizens on American soil by our government. It is the Act that allows the US military to be used as law enforcement inside the borders of the country – for the first time since the Civil War. The Act effectively disembowels the Bill of Rights – the Charter of our basic and fundamental rights as American citizens.

From now until the worst of its language is overruled or repealed, ours is not a nation ruled by those laws and provisions of rights laid down over two centuries ago, but a nation ruled by the whims of whomever is in the White House. Welcome to the end of the rule of law in this nation.

By Michael Hastings / Rolling Stone – RSN / February 29, 2012

As Occupy Wall Street spread across the nation last fall, sparking protests in more than 70 cities, the Department of Homeland Security began keeping tabs on the movement. An internal DHS report entitled “SPECIAL COVERAGE: Occupy Wall Street,” dated October of last year, opens with the observation that “mass gatherings associated with public protest movements can have disruptive effects on transportation, commercial, and government services, especially when staged in major metropolitan areas.” While acknowledging the overwhelmingly peaceful nature of OWS, the report notes darkly that “large scale demonstrations also carry the potential for violence, presenting a significant challenge for law enforcement.”

The five-page report – contained in 5 million newly leaked documents examined by Rolling Stone in an investigative partnership with WikiLeaks – goes on to sum up the history of Occupy Wall Street and assess its “impact” on everything from financial services to government facilities. Many of the observations are benign, and appear to have been culled from publicly available sources.

Lately, it seems, when I get news from my beloved Sonoran Desert it’s filled with vibrations that chill my soul, tales of senate and assembly bills that threaten the well being of some of its citizens, tales of students being denied studies that motivate them to reach for great things in their lives, tales of books being banned that inspire critical thinking.

But the other day I received a bit of refreshing E-News from the College of Education at my alma mater, the University of Arizona, that made me feel vibes that made me want to sing “U of A! U of A!”

It was about UA athletes sharing fun and exercise with “little wildcats” during the university’s second annual Track and Field Day, teaching them how to become and stay healthy.

These first through fourth graders got to play outdoors in fresh air on a wonderful day, running and jumping in individual events and in relays, under the mentoring of superbly fit and well trained college athletes like some of them might become some day. My kind of story. A story of love and giving. I applaud the track team for gifting these kids with such a wonderful life experience.

It worked. Last night’s outpouring of support and solidarity for the Ocean Beach planners in their fight with the City proved the ticket. The city-wide committee of neighborhood planners agreed with the OB Board that this issue of the City granting improper variances was indeed an issue worthy of study.

Formally known as the Council of Planning Committees (CPC), they voted unanimously last night to create a committee to specifically look into the issue of the variances and to facilitate a resolution. There was sympathy for the issue when it was brought up at the regular monthly meeting of the CPC last night, as it appears the same type of city granting of variances is occurring in other communities as well.