OB Rag

by Jason Everitt / Two Cathedrals / Originally Published on Oct 7, 2011

Here’s what we know…

Early reports indicated that the regional power outage caused roughly 2 million gallons of sewage to be released into the ocean via the Los Penasquitos Lagoon and Sweetwater River, which closed 10 miles of San Diego County beaches. The Los Penasquitos spill emptied into Torrey Pines State Beach, while the Sweetwater River spill emptied into San Diego Bay.

At an October 3rd meeting, the Point Loma district school alignment committee declared that they had identified school campuses in Point Loma and Ocean Beach to be either closed or “realigned”.

Here are the District’s preliminary recommendations for the Peninsula:

• Close Cabrillo Elementary;
• Close Barnard Chinese Mandarin Magnet
• Relocate the language program to Dana Middle as a K-8 school;
• Expand Dewey Elementary to include fifth-grade,
• Expand Loma Portal Elementary to include fifth-grade,
• Expand Ocean Beach Elementary to include fifth-grade,

With the economy in the tank and prospects of a recovery looking dim, everybody knew that the grocery workers were going to lose. They would either accept the gutting of their healthcare benefits and pensions or they would go out on strike and lose big. With so many people unemployed and with aggressive union busting in the air, they might as well surrender. At least that’s what lots of smart folks were saying in the local media and Southern California political circles. Everybody knew.

So much for the prevailing wisdom.

Originally posted Oct. 7, 2011

It’s been a long, short week, if that makes any sense at all… I haven’t slept much in the last few days, the wheels in my head have been spinning constantly, a mantra in the near reaches of my conscious thoughts, we, are, the 99%…

After 4 hours of sleep last night, an early morning meeting with the Better San Diego Coalition about the upcoming Mayoral Debate (more on that in the next few days) and tending to family matters most of the afternoon I grabbed a couple of chicken burritos from our neighborhood mexican grill and hopped on the trolley to downtown hoping to meet up with Frank and a multitude of friends, old and new, in the Civic Center to begin the Occupation of San Diego.

Update: Day #21 of Occupy America – the movement that began on September 17th at Wall Street.

The following is a summary of very recent Occupy actions around the country, over the last 24 hours. We counted 74 arrests from around the country of demonstrators by police.

Tonight, just back from the General Assembly of Occupy San Diego, we can report that a site has been chosen for the initial location of the occupation, and it is the very Children’s Museum Park that the group has been meeting since they started.

Here’s the general plan for Friday, October 7th:

• 3:30 ish pm – We’ll form up at Children’s Museum Park, First and Island

• Roughly 4:00 we’ll march through the Gaslamp up to Civic Center Plaza, 1200 Third Avenue, next to City Hall;

• Arrive at the Civic Center Plaza roughly 4:30

Xiang Jo — a 14-year-old laborer on an iPhone assembly line in Suzhou, China — just wanted to pay homage to someone whose vision transformed the world.

Jo had no idea the homage would cost him his job.

The trouble started Thursday morning, when word of Steve Jobs’ death spread through the factory where Jo and dozens of other young Chinese use the toxic chemical N-Hexane to clean iPhone touch screens.

In a sweet victory for Ocean Beach, the California Coastal Commission just this afternoon granted OB planners who attended today’s hearing in Huntington Beach a continuance before the Commission votes on the Ocean Park Villas condo project. The continuance will allow a full public hearing on the revised project by the OB Planning Board.

Due to the efforts of Planning Board members Craig Klein, Tom Gawronski and Giovanni Ignolia, the Commission put off their decision of whether to grant an amendment to the current Coastal Development Permit that had been granted the original project. But since the project has had a drastic re-design, no public review had been held on the revised plans. Plus local planners had complained about the lack of a public review process at the community level.

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Federal prosecutors have launched a crackdown on pot dispensaries in California, warning the stores that they must shut down in 45 days or face criminal charges and confiscation of their property even if they are operating legally under the state’s 15-year-old medical marijuana law.

In an escalation of the ongoing conflict between the U.S. government and the nation’s burgeoning medical marijuana industry, at least 16 pot shops or their landlords received letters this week stating they are violating federal drug laws, even though medical marijuana is legal in California. The state’s four U.S. attorneys are scheduled to announce a broader coordinated crackdown at a Friday news conference.

Let’s Show Support for “Occupy San Diego” as a Community

Several OB activists (along with some former OBceans) are asking residents of Ocean Beach who plan on attending the Occupy San Diego march and occupation to gather together to form an OB contingent.

The Occupy San Diego march will begin at approximately 4:00 pm from the Children’s Museum Park, First and Island in downtown San Diego. Marchers will move along downtown streets and converge on the Civic Center Plaza around 4:30. There will be a rally at the Plaza and then organizers plan on asking people to march to another location for the initial occupation. This change will only be temporary, and was requested on behalf of San Diego’s Jewish community as they too are holding a celebration at the Civic Center – Yom Kippur.

Editor: Check this post out by Abel Thomas, one of the original organizers of this leader-less movement here in San Diego. .

By Abel Thomas / Occupy San Diego / October 5, 2011

Standing in solidarity with Occupy Wall Street NYC, hundreds of San Diego citizens will peacefully occupy [a site downtown, after rallying at] the Civic Center Plaza in downtown San Diego, starting on October 7, 2011. This nonviolent occupation is in protest of the global financial corruption currently invading politics, media and corporations, exemplified by the recent financial industry meltdown and subsequent recession. The occupation will continue indefinitely until a list of demands in solidarity with Occupy Wall Street NYC are met …

By Mike James / Special to the OB Rag

For the past 6 months I’ve been a subscriber to “The Tea Party Nation” web site to learn more about my fellow citizens. (I have masochistic tendencies.) Below are some outtakes of the Occupy Wall Street related articles and comments that recently appeared on the “The Tea Party Nation” site.