OB Rag

The U.S. economy continues to stagnate. It’s growing at the rate of 1.8 percent, which is barely growing at all. Consumer spending is down. Home prices are down. Jobs and wages are going nowhere.

It’s vital that we understand the truth about the American economy.

How did we go from the Great Depression to 30 years of Great Prosperity? And from there, to 30 years of stagnant incomes and widening inequality, culminating in the Great Recession? And from the Great Recession into such an anemic recovery?

(originally posted May 26, 2008.)

Editor: As the text within the graphic above states this was produced in 1963 by Dana Junior High School students who were in print shop. It is interesting to note that Steve Zivolich and Frank Gormlie were both involved in the anti-Viet Nam war movement at their respective college campuses back in the late sixties and early seventies.

Less than a week after dodging the end of the world as we know it, Californians were met with the news that Grover Norquist, the hatchet-man of the hard right, had come to Sacramento and was roaming the hallways of the Capitol reminding Republican legislators (all but a handful of whom had signed his notorious pledge to never raise taxes) that bad things would happen if they reconsidered. Norquist, who conservative pundit Tucker Carlson once called “a mean-spirited, humorless, dishonest little creep . . . the leering, drunken uncle everyone else wishes would stay home,” is a darkly looming figure. As Drake Bennett recently pointed out in Business Week…

I’m sitting writing on a day that can’t decide whether it wants to be sunny or gray, a day about three days past the day that the world was to come to an end and it’s a rather nice day, by the way.

But I can surely identify with a doomsday. My children and I woke up one day, just living our lives pretty comfortably, no shining ups, particularly, or dim lows, and before the day had bid us goodbye the world as we had known it was snatched from beneath us with the swiftness and fierceness of lightning in a storm ridden sky – and all we could do was cry. On July 22nd of 2009 we lost our precious valentine, an amazing mother, a beautiful sexy brilliant artistic athletic incredible 62 year old human being I loved referring to as mine.

Those who founded this country knew quite well that every citizen must remain vigilant or freedom would be lost. This is the true nature of a patriot — one who sounds the clarion call when the Constitution is under attack. If, on the other hand, the people become sheep-like, it will lead to a government of wolves. This is what we are faced with today as Congress marches in lockstep with the White House to renew the USA Patriot Act.

Finding Information for Senior Citizens

Obecians and beyond- I need your help! A few weeks ago a close friend of mine asked about medical marijuana dispensaries in the Hillcrest area. I pointed out a dispensary on University Avenue, not far from where we attend our weekly Buddhist meditation. I also tore out the back pages of the Reader which provide a pretty comprehensive list of locations and handed them to her.

Entire San Diego Congressional Delegation – except Filner – supported extension – as did Boxer and Feinstein

US President Barack Obama has signed a four-year extension of the Patriot Act from Paris, extending post-September 11 powers allowing the government to secretly search records and conduct roving wiretaps in pursuit of alleged terrorists or their supporters.

Hours after the US Senate and House of Representatives passed the law, through votes taken in rapid succession, and just minutes before the law was to expire at midnight in Washington DC, Obama sent in a digital signature, finalizing the renewal on Thursday.

Judging by the ratings, which never topped a million viewers after the pilot, you didn’t watch “Terriers,” a private-eye show on FX from “The Shield” creator Shawn Ryan and “Ocean’s Eleven” scribe Ted Griffin. And in a way, we don’t blame you.

The title and marketing were baffling, the biggest star was schlubby sitcom veteran Donal Logue, and the premise—an ex-cop and recovering alcoholic with ex-wife problems works as an unlicensed private detective in Ocean Beach, California, with a former burglar—couldn’t have been more generic if it tried. Unfortunately for you, “Terriers” was simply fantastic, and it’s now been canceled.

by Daoud Tyler-Ameen / NPR / May 27, 2011

Gil Scott-Heron died Friday afternoon in New York, his book publisher reported. He was 62. The influential poet and musician is often credited with being one of the progenitors of hip-hop, and is best known for the spoken-word piece “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised.”

The test scores are out, and all of the beaches in OB received A+’s or A’s. Heal the Bay, a Santa Monica-based non profit, conducts annual water quality tests of beaches and water-ways on the Pacific Coast, and has just released their results.

Here are the following OB beaches and their scores:

By Larry Gerston, Ph.D. / NBC San Diego /May 27, 2011

The U.S. Supreme Court decision to uphold a cap on the number of California prisoners complicates the already cloudy California budget picture.

Under the terms of the decision, California must release 36,000 prisoners within five years because current overcrowded conditions constitute violation of the Eighth Amendment guarantee against cruel and unusual punishment.

By Lucas O’Connor/Issa Watch/ May 24, 2011

It was a contentious day for the Oversight Committee, with high-profile testimony from EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson, Deputy Interior Secretary David Hayes, and Consumer Financial Protection Bureau chief Elizabeth Warren. And twice in two hearings, committee Republicans accused their witnesses of lying to Congress, under oath…