OB Rag

Friday, February 10, 2012 @ 7:00 AM. Went to get on the “35 bus” at the “temporary” bus stop on Orchard and Sunset Cliffs Blvd. only to find out that this temporary stop is temporarily shut down. How do I know this? Because there is a cute little “sleeve” covering the bus stop sign with an arrow running through it, signifying “no bus service.”

Was I given any notice about this? Were my three foreign language students that take this bus given any notice of the change? Hell no! Did they ride the 35 and 923 bus yesterday? Yes! Did they ride the bus the day before? Yes. Then why wasn’t there some indication that the route would be changed? Who is running the Metropolitan Bus Service? Idiots? It’s not like the bus riders are driving a car and can drive to the next bus stop. They had no idea where the next working bus stop would be.

by Dirk Ebers

In the 1982 rhythm-and-blues classic Atomic Dog, George Clinton croons a question for the ages: “Why must I feel like that — why must I chase the cat?”

Clinton is talking about the longing for sex, of course. And you can probably relate to his lyrics, whether you’re a man or a woman, straight or gay, Ocean Beach or Point Loma. After all, sex seems to be on the human mind a lot. But why?

In Atomic Dog, George Clinton has a simple answer: “Nothin’ but the dog in me.” And researchers in an intriguing branch of psychology believe Clinton is exactly right.

Evolutionary psychology is the study of how the human mind’s processes might be products of evolution. In other words, the field asks if there might be survival benefits to weird little kinks of human nature, such as the tendency for men in cultures around the world to — all else being equal — prefer big boobs.

5th and E Street. The Exact Corner Where It All Started Is Site of the 100th Year Commemoration of the Free Speech Fight – And It’s Still Going On

By Nadin Abbott / Special to the OB Rag / February 9, 2012

Last night members of Labor, Occupy Women San Diego, and San Diego Occupy celebrated the hundred years of the Free Speech Movement at 5th and E by recreating some of the events that happened a hundred years ago. There were plenty of soap boxes where speakers stood and gave speeches on the nature of the anniversary, and the state of Free Speech today. At the height of the event there were about two hundred people at the corner listening to Wobbly music, and speeches by activists.

(EDITOR: The event was marred by the arrest and citation of Damien Tyrone, a union activist, for apparently not moving fast enough when police cleared the intersection after about an hour of speeches and music.)

Union presence was strong, with members of the Laborer Union, the AIFT, the Teamsters, the UFCW, the Building Trades, the Boiler Trades. the Letter Carriers, the Machinist Union, and watching everybody’s safety, the Police Officers Association. The latter closed traffic and made sure things staid safe for all.

According to Bobby Pineda, President of the Laborers Local 89, they came to support free speech. They believe it is critical to all.

Editor: Our good friend and fellow Ragster Doug Porter has not been feeling so hot these last couple of days, and so hasn’t dropped off his daily column “First Cuppa Coffee” for a couple of mornings. So, we have enlisted the last minute assistance of one of our regular readers and commenters, OB Joe, in the first of his irregular columns, “Wake and Bake”.

By OB Joe / Special to the OB Rag

Hey, all – ol’ buddy Doug is down, so I’m stepping in to fill his shoes – just for this mornin’ – ‘course if you like it, maybe the Rag editors will let me do it more often … just sayin’. Anyhoo, my style is a little more free flowin’ than Porter’s so I hope it doesn’t distract from the news. And BTW, don’t get upset if I’m using a lot of links to our local fishwrap, the U-T. The Rag editors called me freakin in the middle of the morning, before I had my first bong. So Wake and Bake – fellow OBceans and other denizens of the world!

Who will pay for SDG&E’s screw-ups and all that 2007 fire damage? The U-T is reporting that Sempra Energy – SDG&E’s parent – is assuring investors that its San Diego-area utility customers – that’s us – will pay for nearly all of an estimated $463 million in costs not covered by insurance from the catastrophic 2007 wildfires that were triggered in large part by its power lines. My emphasis. Let’s keep this mind.

by Jared Quient / Two Cathedrals / February 8, 2012

I am all for pension reform. Clearly our city’s budget needs work and we need to do something. But just because I believe the system is broken and it needs fixing doesn’t mean I support the Comprehensive Pension Reform (CPR) ballot measure that Carl DeMaio and his allies has been trying to sell me for the past year. Because once you look closer at CPR, it reveals itself to be a wolf in sheep’s clothing.

CPR is being sold to San Diego voters as the answer to our city’s fiscal problems, and the centerpiece of CPR is a provision that transitions all new employees from a defined benefit pension to a 401k individual retirement plan. Proponents claim that passing CPR and making the switch over to 401k plans for new employees will save the city billions of dollars. But that’s a fair bit of creative license.

MercuryNews.com / Feb. 7, 2012

SAN DIEGO—Five out of every six calls to San Diego County seeking food stamps or other benefits don’t get through, and those that do face an average wait of more than 30 minutes, according to an internal county report obtained by U-T San Diego .

More than 350,000 calls don’t get answered every month because the county’s Health and Human Services Agency hasn’t hired enough workers or installed enough phone lines, according to a newspaper review of the report in a story published online Tuesday.

When Power is Unaccountable

by Brian J. Trautman / CounterPunch / Originally published Jan. 18, 2012

Each year, Congress authorizes the budget of the Department of Defense through a National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). The NDAA of 2012, however, is unlike any previous ones. This year’s legislation contains highly controversial provisions that empower the Armed Forces to engage in civilian law enforcement and to selectively suspend due process and habeas corpus, as well as other rights guaranteed by the 5th and 6th Amendments to the U.S. Constitution, for terror suspects apprehended on U.S. soil. The final version of the bill passed the House on December 14, the Senate the following day (ironically, the 220th birthday of the Bill of Rights). It was signed into law by President Obama on New Year’s Eve. With his signature, for the first time since the Internal Security Act of 1950 and the dark days of the McCarthy era that followed, our government has codified the power of indefinite detention into law.

By Kali Kat / Special to the OB Rag

Now with its fourth month anniversary, Occupy San Diego continues to make a presence in the San Diego community, this morning challenging a proclamation by the City Council that the City of San Diego is re-committed to protecting the rights of free speech expression in San Diego.

The proclamation was in response to the 100 year anniversary of the Free Speech fight in San Diego during which the 1912 San Diego City Council passed Ordinance No. 4623 banning free speech or assembly in a 49 block radius of downtown San Diego.

A new poll out shows that in San Diego’s mayoral race, Congressman Bob Filner and City Councilman Carl DeMaio are in a statistical tie for first place, each with about a quarter of respondents’ votes.

The poll – conducted for KGTV by SurveyUSA between January 30 and February 3 – shows DeMaio with 25% and Filner with 24% – a tie as the poll of only 511 likely voters has a margin of error of 4.4%.

The other high-profile candidates include District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis who garnered 14% and state Assemblyman Nathan Fletcher who received 13%. Nearly a quarter of respondents picked “other” or were undecided.

By Howard Mintz /MercuryNews.com / February 7, 2012

A federal appeals court on Tuesday struck down Proposition 8, finding that California’s ban on same-sex marriage is unconstitutional because it deprives gay and lesbian couples of the equal right to wed.

With a decision that pushes the gay marriage issue a step closer to the U.S. Supreme Court, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld former San Francisco Chief U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker, who invalidated Proposition 8 in 2010 after conducting an unprecedented trial.

“Proposition 8 serves no purpose, and has no effect, other than to lessen the status and human dignity of gays and lesbians in California, and to officially reclassify their relationships and families as inferior to those of opposite-sex couples,” Judge Stephen Reinhardt wrote, joined by Judge Michael Daly Hawkins.

This much is known: there was a stabbing last night, Monday, in Ocean Beach. Police found the victim, in his 30’s, lying on the ground in the alley between the Arizona Club and Winstons, and unconscious. The alley is between Newport Avenue and Santa Monica off Bacon Street.

San Diego Police Lt. David Rohowits stated to media:

“His abdominal organs had been eviscerated from a stab wound to the stomach. [As far as] our investigation right now, we’re certainly looking for witnesses, the victim was unconscious so we’ve been unable to get a statement from him.”

Today I received the following letter from the San Diego Branch of the Susan G. Komen For The Cure:

We have a very small office here in San Diego – so that the majority of the money we raised can go right back to the community. Last week’s political firestorm shook each of us to the core. It may also have rocked you. For the first time in my six years here, the integrity of this organization was questioned. Even after we took responsibility for the mistake and moved quickly to fix the problem, some said they would never have anything to do with Komen again.

Okay. I understand that. Everyone needs to make decisions that they can live with and feel good about.

But here’s the truth. While some may leave us, we will never leave you or the uninsured women that we fight for every day here in San Diego.