OB Rag

By Van Jones / Reader Supported News / July 25, 2011

Last month, I joined with MoveOn.org and launched the Rebuild the Dream campaign to help give a voice to the millions of Americans who aren’t being heard in Washington. This past weekend, we organized nearly 1,600 house meetings across the country – nearly double the number of protests the Tea Party held when they launched in April of 2009. The American Dream Meetings gave more than 27,000 people, from all across the country, an opportunity to come together and discuss what the American Dream means to them and their families. They talked about how the jobless crisis and foreclosure mess is impacting their communities. They put forth creative ideas for the Contract for the American Dream – a bold progressive vision to help fix the broken economy and rebuild our communities. The Contract has already received nearly 26,000 ideas submitted online alone and over 6 million ratings.

By Mike Davis / TomDispatch.com / July 26, 2011

When my old gang and I were 14 or 15 years old, many centuries ago, we yearned for immortality in the fiery wreck of a bitchin’ ’40 Ford or ’57 Chevy. Our J.K. Rowling was Henry Felsen, the ex-Marine who wrote the bestselling masterpieces Hot Rod (1950), Street Rod (1953), and Crash Club (1958).

Officially, his books — highly praised by the National Safety Council — were deterrents, meant to scare my generation straight with huge dollops of teenage gore. In fact, he was our asphalt Homer, exalting doomed teenage heroes and inviting us to emulate their legend. One of his books ends with an apocalyptic collision at a crossroads that more or less wipes out the entire graduating class of a small Iowa town. We loved this passage so much that we used to read it aloud to each other.

It’s hard not to think of the great Felsen, who died in 1995, while browsing the business pages these days.

Source: Patient Care Association of California (PCA)

Citizens for Patient Rights and The Patient Care Association of California (PCA) have successfully halted the ban on medical cannabis collectives in the City of San Diego. Faced with the prospect up to one million dollars in ballot expenses, San Diego City Council voted 6-2 with council members Marti Emerald and Tony Young opposed today to repeal the suspended ordinance banning collectives rather than fund the placement on the ballot in June 2012. The PCA thanks the people of San Diego for their support. In addition, we believe the council members acted in the best interests of the city by not wasting taxpayer dollars in this time of fiscal crisis.

Recently, I heard the term, upcycling, and was curious what it meant. I also wanted to determine whether, or if, it differed from repurposing.

It seems that these two concepts are basically synonymous. Repurposing may be as simple as cutting off the top of a plastic milk jug to make a planter for burgeoning aloe plants, or filling old wooden barrels with dirt and compost to plant tomatoes, onions, and squash. Upcycling may be just as simple in that it takes products that may not be as easily recycled and utilizes them to make new products. These include wine cork bulletin boards as well as juice pouch purses.

In the past weeks, American citizens have made it known in countless polls that they don’t want anyone to mess with their Social Security, their Medicare or Medicaid. And the majority of us have also said that it is about time to make the wealthiest among us to pay their fair share of taxes.

So why are we enmeshed in a months long debate about the friggin debt ceiling, which in the words of Jefferson Airplane, doesn’t mean shit to a tree (or the citizenry)?

by Keegan Kyle / Voice of San Diego

Before San Diego banned alcohol from its beaches, Police Chief Bill Lansdowne expressed his opposition to the proposal and issued a warning. The heavy drinkers who amass during summer holidays won’t go away, he said. They’ll move inland, away from beefed up beach patrols, and make it harder for police to monitor crime

Recently, the Redistricting Commission has released a draft of the San Diego city Districts. Make sure your voice is heard NOW!

The next opportunity to express your opinion will be next Tuesday, July 26th at the first post-map public hearing. Please join us to show your support for representative redistricting!

Tuesday, July 26th, 6PM

Logan Heights Branch Library
567 South 28th Street
San Diego, CA 92113

There is a growing movement in America that equates godliness with hatred of our government — in fact, hatred of our country.

By Frank Schaeffer / AlterNet

The Norwegian police on Saturday charged a 32-year-old man, whom they identified as a Christian fundamentalist with right-wing connections, over the bombing of a government center and a shooting attack on a nearby island that together left at least 91 people dead.

Citizens for Patient Rights and The Patient Care Association of California (PCACA), law enforcement, legal, clergy and MMJ patient representatives will present their reasons for supporting the repeal of San Ordinance No. O-20042.

WHEN: Monday, July 25, 2011, 2:00 p.m.,

WHERE: City Administration Building, Council Chambers – 12th Floor, 202 “C” Street, San Diego.

Ernie McCray, former principal and educator, and OB Rag contributor, has been chosen to be a member of the new San Diego Union-Tribune community editorial board. This was all announced in a series of articles in the U-T’s Sunday edition yesterday, July 24.

It has taken me more than 30 years as a journalist to ask myself this question, but this week I find that I must: is the Left right after all? You see, one of the great arguments of the Left is that what the Right calls “the free market” is actually a set-up.

The rich run a global system that allows them to accumulate capital and pay the lowest possible price for labour. The freedom that results applies only to them. The many simply have to work harder, in conditions that grow ever more insecure, to enrich the few. Democratic politics, which purports to enrich the many, is actually in the pocket of those bankers, media barons and other moguls who run and own everything.

By Jane Fonda

I grew up during World War II. My childhood was influenced by the roles my father played in his movies. Whether Abraham Lincoln or Tom Joad in the Grapes of Wrath, his characters communicated certain values which I try to carry with me to this day. I remember saying goodbye to my father the night he left to join the Navy. He didn’t have to. He was older than other servicemen and had a family to support but he wanted to be a part of the fight against fascism, not just make movies about it. I admired this about him. I grew up with a deep belief that wherever our troops fought, they were on the side of the angels.