OB Rag

Obama is a willful player in an epic drama of faux-politics.

By James K. Galbraith / AlterNet – Deutsche Welle / August 8, 2011

Political news travels slowly, and in my casual observation progressive Europeans have held on to the myth of Barack Obama as a good man much longer than most progressive Americans did. How could a young black American from Chicago and Harvard be otherwise?

MoveOn, the national organization with 5 million members, is keeping the pressure on San Diego’s local Congressional representatives, and the pressure is on for jobs. With a theme of “Jobs Not Cuts”, MoveOn is planning on a series of rallies at the Congressional offices Wednesday, August 10th.

John Story had some bad news for us about the memorial benches yesterday. … A representative of the District Attorney’s office called John on August 8th, and informed him – to his shock – that the DA would not be prosecuting Robert Bryson, who admitted that he was the neighbor who had them removed illegally. When Story asked why Bryson was not being prosecuted, he was told that the police could not determine the ownership of the benches.

Yeah, that makes real sense.

San Diego, CA – August 6, 2011 Middle Class Taxpayers Association (MCTA), a new non-profit organization formed to represent San Diego’s middle class in public policy issues, will host a lunch meeting with California Controller John Chiang on Tuesday, August 9th in South Park from noon to 1 p.m.

According to Dorian Hargrove – a blogger for the San Diego Reader – Ocean Beach will see an increase of 1,400 dwelling units if the City’s Update for the OB Community Plan goes through.

OBcians will have an opportunity to comment on the new proposed draft plan Update Tuesday, August 9th, at a meeting at the Rec Center from 7 to 9 pm.

The Ocean Beach Town Council is holding its annual election to its Board on Wednesday, August 24th. And there are a whole bunch of openings. Four of the 8 seats up for election have been vacant for a while – which means there are no incumbents for those seats.

If you are interested in running for the Board, which meets twice monthly, you need to submit a “Letter of Intent” and have it delivered by midnight, August 15th.

By Monty Kroopkin / Special to the OB Rag

On August 3, 2011, thousands of County employees were amazed to see an email sent out by the County’s Human Resources Department “on behalf of” their union. The workers are members of Service Employees International Union Local 221 (SEIU 221).

That same day, paid union representatives appeared inside the Mission Valley Family Resource Center and at the County Administration Building…

By Randall Erickson / Special to the OB Rag

PARIS, FRANCE. Republicans and respected opinion makers like Bill O’Reilly have asked the question: do we want the United States to become another France. I understand their concern because I experience the horror of living in «socialist» France everyday. Like nearly all people living legally in France, I carry a little plastic green card, like a credit card, with a micro-chip in it. This chip carries information about my standing with the French Social Security system, popularly known as the Sécu. The Sécu is the French government’s health agency and not a retirement system.

In the summer of 1964 SNCC’s (Student Non-Violent Coordinating Council’s) Robert Moses put out a call for college students to come to Mississippi to register African Americans to vote. Known as Freedom Summer, this was one of the major struggles of the Civil Rights movement and it marked a turning point in African Americans’ campaign for the right to vote. This movement also helped energize idealistic college students across the country, and was, in no small way, the basis of the activism of the 1960’s. I believe the labor movement should put out a similar call for next summer to once again defend the kind of rights those college students fought and died for in 1964.

Dishonest Use of Gas Prices and Gay Marriage As Advertisement Should Spur An Investigation

SAN DIEGO – The Fair Political Practices Commission was notified of potentially fraudulent activity by the Comprehensive Pension Reform for San Diego campaign committee on August 3rd, including the video documentation of paid-signature gatherers using a phony petition to supposedly “lower gas prices” as a bait-and-switch that resulted in voters signing petitions for ballot measures that eliminate a retirement safety net for city employees.

Group hacks mostly rural sheriff sites, steals data for international arrests of its members

LONDON (AP) — The group known as Anonymous said Saturday it has hacked into some 70 mostly rural law enforcement websites in the United States, a breach that one local police chief said had leaked information about an ongoing investigation.

Today, Saturday – August 27th!

Focusing on jobs, quality of life, prosperity, equality and fairness, the San Diego Community-Labor Coalition wants to change the narrative in San Diego, getting away from the right-wing dominance of discussion of issues in the media, moving away from, for example, a monopolization of the pension issue to more everyday issues like ‘where are the jobs?’ and other quality of life concerns.

And now the combined coalition plans to hold an economic summit in San Diego later this month. Entitled “A Better San Diego”, the coalition will sponsor a day long conference at a local middle school on August 27th at Horace Mann Middle School.