OB Rag

For the past several months, I have listened to a commercial advertising “San Diego Home Cooking Restaurant.” A lovely woman, with a decidedly East European accent has touted the home cooking of the four restaurants in the chain. Since all of those restaurants were far from my home in Ocean Beach, I have never tried them, even though the pictures of the meals served have been enticing. (Stephanie told us the owner was from Serbia.)

Oh, did I ever fall in love with this morning. It was so nice and sunny, so soothing to my soul and bones. And I was still all a swoon when this lovely beginning of the day segued into the afternoon.

At some point on such a day I knew I would want to write, something, anything, because writing to me, is a form of play and this was a day in which to play. I, however, had no particular topics to approach in mind so I went to a website of writing prompts and blindly chose one that asked me to go through a dusty photo album which was no problem because my soul mate, a photographer del mundo, bequeathed me enough dusty albums to ignite a Haboob like the ones that smothered Phoenix…

Editor: San Diego billionaire Irwin Jacob wants to redevelop Balboa Park, and the City of San Diego gave tentative approval recently in a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU). In response, SOHO -the Save Our Heritage group – has sued the City. Then in reaction to the suit, the City Attorney has immediately moved to have it dismissed as “frivolous”.

SOHO Files Suit Over City of San Diego’s Approval of the Plaza de Panama Circulation & Parking Structure Project
On August 2, 2011, Save Our Heritage Organization (SOHO) sued the City of San Diego regarding its failure to comply with state environmental laws …

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City Attorney Moves to Dismiss SOHO Lawsuit

Preservation group declines, vows to press forward on overturning Plaza de Panama memo

City Attorney Jan Goldsmith struck back Wednesday against SOHO over the group’s challenge to proposed changes to the center of Balboa Park.

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One thing about statistics associated with the Great Recession is the sheer number of times you can say we’re experiencing the “biggest rise” or the “steepest decline” since the Great Depression or since the government has collected data for a particular economic measurement. A record number of people collecting unemployment benefits. A record number of people out of work for more than six months. A record number of home foreclosures. A record number of bank failures. A record number of people using food stamps.

Indeed, the record on food stamps has been going on for well over two years now. In March 2009, that record was 31 million people. Now, according to the U.S. Department of Agric

Editor: Here are two articles from Europe about the state of America today – since the so-called “debt crisis” was resolved. One is from Der Spiegel – one of the most well-respected German newspapers -, and the other from the Guardian in Britain. The pictures of our country that these articles paint is extremely terrible : the German believes that the U.S. is no longer part of the “West”, and the British view is that there’s been a “billionaires’ coup” in America.

Once Upon a Time in the West

by Jakob Augstein / Der Spiegel (Germany) / August 4, 2011

This week, the United States nearly allowed itself to succumb to economic disaster. Increasingly, the divided country has more in common with a failed state than a democracy.

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Anger, Deceit and a Billionaires’ Coup

By George Monbiot/ Guardian UK (Britain) / August 2, 2011

Anger and deceit has led the US into a billionaires’ coup. The debt deal will hurt the poorest Americans, convinced by Fox and the Tea Party to act against their own welfare.

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It’s Sunday, and you’re in line at Jungle Java in Ocean Beach, and can’t decide whether to have one of those bliss-filled vanilla lattes or a cup of ah-choo tea.

Or maybe you’re standing in front of your closet on Monday morning, running late for work, and you don’t know whether to dress up or down, as you know you’re going to be shredding files.

Remember all the flack about the kids toilet-papering trees?

Remember the argument about what it was doing to the environment?

I even remember the lady that wrote back and said that she saw nothing wrong with it; in fact, she even drove her child to the “scene” and stayed in the car while the dastardly deed was being done.

By Jim Bell

The ecology of our planet is the foundation of everything we do, including what we do under the heading of economy. When we damage our planet’s life-support system through inappropriate economic activities, we undercut the potential for economic activities in the future.

“Crowd control” training to be held at UCSD Thursday, August 4th, with police helicopter

Did you know that a couple hundred Explorer scouts from around the State are in San Diego this week for training on how to be cops? And the training includes “crowd control” during an improvised “riot” on the UCSD campus, complete with Sheriff deputies masquerading as “rioters” and the use of a police helicopter. This will take place Thursday evening, August 4th, at Residential Hall of 6th College.

On Tuesday, August 2nd, the County Board of Supervisors unanimously voted to direct staff to come up with a County redistricting map that would include one district with a population that had a majority of minorities. This would enable a minority candidate to break through the all-white, all-Republican blockade of access to the Board.

The current crop of Supervisors are all white, all Republican, and have been on the Board for 16 to 18 years each. This scenario is what prompted last year’s successful passage of a term-limits measure for the Board.

It was over 90 degrees in the shade, but the anger of the nearly 50 protesters outside Congressman Duncan Hunter’s office in El Cajon was even hotter.

It was noon, Tuesday, August 2nd, the day the debt deal was passed by the US Senate and signed into law by President Obama, and the protest event had been organized by a local chapter of MoveOn and its new coalition, the American Dream Movement.

By Miriam Rafferty / East County Magazine / August 1, 2011

Sempra Energy has asked the U.S. Department of Energy for a presidential permit to construct a cross-border transmission line called Energia Sierra Juarez to import electricity from Sempra facilities in Mexico. The line would cross the border near Jacumba in San Diego’s East County.