OB Rag

By Bill McKibben / 350.org

Dear Friends,

Um, we won. You won.

Not completely. The President didn’t outright reject the Keystone XL pipeline permit. My particular fantasy — that he would invite the 1253 people arrested on his doorstep in August inside the gates for a victory picnic by the vegetable garden — didn’t materialize.

But a few minutes ago the President sent the pipeline back to the State Department for a thorough re-review, which most analysts are saying will effectively kill the project. The president explicitly noted climate change, along with the pipeline route, as one of the factors that a new review would need to assess. There’s no way, with an honest review, that a pipeline that helps speed the tapping of the world’s second-largest pool of carbon can pass environmental muster.

By Randall Erickson / Special to the OB Rag

PARIS, FRANCE. Political debate in France is generally rather civilized and simplistic name-calling of opponents is not common and even when it happens, it is more subdued than in the U.S. Religion is rarely mentioned. However, France has small minorities of fanatic Catholics and Muslims and Jews who readily take violent action.

The most serious incident recently was the fire-bombing with a Molotov cocktail of the offices of the satirical weekly magazine, “Charlie Hebdo” (Charlie Weekly) on the night of November 1-2. “Charlie had published an issue they called “Charia Hebdo”. They had Muhammad as its imaginary invited editor and who commented on the subjects of the day, with of course cartoons of the man. On the cover is a cartoon of Muhammad saying, “100 lashes if you don’t die of laughing”.

A little note: I told this story of being separated from my mother when I was six years old in “Say What? (Remembering a Childhood Experience),” OB Rag, November 2, 2011. After writing that piece I asked myself: What would my mother say about that year in our lives? And I started seeing her in my mind, standing with her hands on her hips, feet firmly on the ground, her natural stance for baring her soul – and from this image of her there came these words of recall – in her voice:

What a moment. Pulling that little boy of mine to my chest and telling him that we were going to have to live apart was the most heart wrenching experience of my life. I don’t know if I could do it again.

The following is a brief history of Occupy San Diego. Part 1.

This general outline – not meant to be all inclusive – is a recording of what has occurred during the Occupy San Diego movement, beginning in late September and continuing to today, the first part of November. It is an outline to help us recall what we did during those heady first weeks of planning and carrying out our very first actions. But as our movement involved hundreds and thousands of individuals and all kinds of different activities, this is not complete.

September 17, 2011 – Occupy Wall Street begins occupation at Zoccotti Park, next to Wall Street.

Mid to Late September 2011 – Facebook, twitter and other social media are used to generate interest in an Occupy Wall Street type action in San Diego. After some days of discussion, a plan is formulated to hold an Occupy San Diego action that is non-violent, is in solidarity with OWS in New York, and to use the “Egyptian model” of occupying some kind of public / private space to press for changes in the economic and social systems.

Transit Security Strike Is Against Heritage Security Systems – Not MTS

By Robert J. Hawkin / SignOnSanDiego / November 9, 2011

SAN DIEGO — San Diego transit security officers have voted to strike Thursday, when many football fans will be taking buses and the trolley to the San Diego Charger-Oakland Raider game at Qualcomm Stadium.

Thanks to Matt Potter of the San Diego Reader, we now know that San Diego County Sheriff Bill Gore is set to order a whole rack of non-lethal, “special impact and tactical and gas” weapons. Potter suggests – and we agree – that ordering these munitions at this time is very suspicious, now that Occupy San Diego enters its second month. Is the sheriff expecting more clashes with the non-violent demonstrators?

Sheriff deputies were used by the City on October 28th when they and blue-shirted police destroyed the encampment at the Civic Center Plaza, making over 50 arrests of peaceful and non-violent occupiers.

Statistics released under a new measure of poverty on Monday showed more people overall living in poverty in the U.S. by taking into account 21st century costs of living and differences in geography.

The number using the new measure in 2010 was 16 percent of Americans, or 49.1 million, living in poverty — up from 46.2 million using the traditional measure.

Just because California didn’t have an election yesterday, doesn’t mean it didn’t happen. There were elections and voting across the country in a number of important races, both on issues and candidates. And it looks like that anti-union, anti-abortion, and right-wing candidates and issues went down to defeat. Here’s a list:

• Anti-Union Law voted out: Ohio voters struck down a law supported by Republican Governor John Kasich that limited bargaining rights for police, firefighters and other state workers as a way for local governments to balance their budgets.

• Mississippi Against “Personhood”: Voters in Mississippi rejected a proposed state amendment that would have limited abortions by defining life as beginning with conception. Plus Mississippi voters rejected the amendment, which would have made Mississippi the first U.S. state to define a fertilized egg as a person, a controversial concept aimed at outlawing abortion, some types of birth control and infertility methods that result in the loss of embryos.

By Mike James / Special to the OB Rag

Last night I ordered a Godfather Pizza for dinner. Lo and behold stuck to the bottom of the box was the following memo.

Top Secret

Operation He Said She Said.

From the offices of Herman Cain for President:

Plan of Action and Talking Points.

1. Deny, Deny, Deny.

Editor: A Tulare County man has been accused of elder abuse and embezzlement of his elderly relatives – Julia and Harry Tuck – who lived in Ocean Beach at 4485 Pescadero Avenue. The article below is somewhat confusing as to whether the Tucks – who have since passed away – are parents or aunt and uncle of the accused.

By Luis Hernandez / Visalia Times-Delta / November 8, 2011

A Tulare man is facing felony charges of grand theft, embezzlement and elder abuse, making him subject to a possible eight-year prison sentence.

Keith Little, 47, entered a not guilty plea to the charges in Tulare County Superior Court in June and is due back in court Dec. 7 for a preliminary hearing. He was released on $100,000 bail.

Editor: Last week we ran an article about an Ocean Beach woman who was arrested when she returned home to find her neighbor’s apartment had a fire and she was refused entrance to her own bottom floor apartment on Cape May. A firefighter had found marijuana in Larissa Danielli’s apartment, and even though she had a medicinal marijuana card, she was still arrested. Since our original report, there was much speculation among commenters. Eventually, Larissa herself came onto the post and left several comments, giving her side of the story. We thought it important enough to place her comments into its own post.

By Larissa Danielli / Comments posted originally on November 7, 2011

I am the woman arrested.

I am the business owner of a DJ company. Upon arriving at the scene, I realized the police had not protected my very EXPENSIVE DJ equipment and were letting it be water damaged.

I repeatedly requested that they move my equipment to a safer place and up off of the floor. The officer refused and I kept repeating my request. He then arrested me for “obstruction of justice.”

In our most recent poll – and with the most participation ever in any poll the OB Rag has ever run – over 80% stated that they agree with views commonly shared by Occupy Wall Street protesters. 399 respondents voted in our poll that ran for one week beginning October 28, 2011. 82% declared that they support the OWS goals.

Only 15% said they disagree. 3% were not sure.

And to top it off, 17.5% said that they have been involved with the Occupy San Diego movement, or 70 respondents. This is astounding! And great!