OB Rag

Yesterday, a bright, sunny Sunday, I hopped on the trolley to 25th and Commercial and made my way to Chicano Park to join the festivities celebrating International Workers Day in San Diego. I was greeted by the sound of music from the awesome mariachi band who were entertaining the crowd from the stage. I’m sorry to say that my spanish is lousy, but as a middle-aged gringa who has lived her whole life in San Diego, mariachi has long been a favorite music style for me.

There were several hundred people in Chicano Park (I later heard an estimate of about 400, and I agree on that count), where people gathered for games, face painting, music and the playground equipment was packed with kids.

A couple of weeks ago local Republicans held their unity night at the Kona Kai Resort where notables such as Jerry Sanders and Kevin Faulconer cheered as Carl DeMaio asked if they were ready to make San Diego “the Wisconsin of the West.” They, along with the Chamber of Commerce, the Taxpayers Association, the Lincoln Club and other luminaries of the local right were getting fired up and ready to go for a ballot initiative that would undermine collective bargaining rights for unionized public sector workers in San Diego.

A good sized crowd showed up today – Sat. April 30th – in front of the Ocean Beach branch library, in what originally had been billed as a “meeting” to organize a rally in support of the library. It was a little after 12 noon, another perfect day in paradise.

Or was it?
The meeting, attended by over 50 people, was not really a meeting, at all. It was more like a “happening” – it was about signature gathering on petitions – over 150 collected, ….

Let’s have a town hall meeting today in front of the Ocean Beach branch of the library, at noon. Why not?

Originally tagged as a meeting for those who wished to support the Friends of the OB Library and organize a rally, the gathering set for 12 noon today has morphed into a virtual rally itself. With Councilmember Kevin Faulconer’s office jumping on board, and with the San Diego U-T announcing it, it appears that the meeting is much more.

The Office of Independent Budget Analysis (IBA) came out with their 179 page analysis of the mayor’s proposed budget. As you know, the mayor has proposed to rip over 7 million dollars out of the library department budget by pairing libraries which will only be open 18.5 hours per week. This is the severest percentage cut of all general fund departments.

Here are the library options which the IBA has presented to the city council, which will vote to accept or reject the mayor’s budget. This is the option that we must demand that Councilman Faulconer and all other council members support:

Option 1. FULLY RESTORE BRANCH LIBRARY HOURS TO CURRENT SERVICE LEVELS.

Everybody – even yahoo news – now knows that the birther movement is a racist movement. We on the left of the center divide have been aware of the birther’s racism for some time now. Their unwillingness to accept a Black man as president has exposed the racist core of their two and half year campaign.

But the birther movement is something else, something else that no one is talking about: the birther movement is also a fascist movement. Yes, that’s right, I said “fascist”, and it’s not hyperbole. Let me explain.

First, with President Obama proving (again) his place of birth by handing out his long-f0rm birth certificate, the white supremacist underpinnings of the birthers has so been totally demonstrated that even mainstream corporate media are calling them racist.

Stand in solidarity with the workers of the world and demand respect for the rights of all workers on May 1, International Workers’ Day!

With unemployment still at record highs, and with union membership at record lows, it’s time for working people to take a moment, and contemplate what this day really means. We have published articles on May Day in the past and they are more relevant today than ever. With the anti-labor sentiment that is rocking our country it is important to stand together and be heard.

There are a few May Day events taking place in San Diego on Sunday, May 1. The participants at each event will march together to meet at Civic Center Plaza at 3 p.m. to hold a May Day Rally. Please feel free to attend an earlier event (see the full post for info) or join us at Civic Center Plaza for the closing rally and action.

San Diego County Green Party Press Release/Apr. 28, 2011

The NRC held a public hearing today in San Juan Capistrano to explain to the public the efforts they’ve been undertaking to increase safety at the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS). This hearing was prompted by a history of multiple safety violations noted by the NRC on previous inspections and by the recent catastrophe in Japan at the Fukushima plant, a plant that is very similar in design to SONGS.

Editor: Is it true? Is it true that because of Donald Trump’s racism, Superman has renounced his American citizenship? Or is he just tired of the questions about where his long form birth certificate is? Neither – for the Man of Steel has his other reasons.

Great Caesar’s ghost! The world’s most famous champion of truth, justice and the American way says he intends to renounce his US citizenship. Superman makes the shocking pronouncement in this week’s Action Comics No. 900.

Gunwalking Across the Border Promises to Be the Next Scandal

By Laura Carlsen/ counterpunch

A secret operation to run guns across the border to Mexican drug cartels — overseen by U.S. government agents — threatens to become a major scandal for the Obama administration.

The operation, called “Fast and Furious,” was run out of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) office in Phoenix, Arizona. ATF sanctioned the purchase of weapons in U.S. gun shops and tracked the smuggling route to the Mexican border. Reportedly, more than 2,500 firearms were sold to straw buyers who then handed off the weapons to gunrunners under the nose of ATF.

I knew it was coming. I’d seen it on SignOnSanDiego yesterday, so I knew it had to show up in the print version of the San Diego U-T. And there it was, on page 2 of the Local Section:

“Faulconer backs effort to prevent library cuts”

The short piece by reporter Hailey Persinger, as you can read above, is about Councilmember Faulconer ‘partnering’ with two Ocean Beach groups, us – the OB Rag – described as “a neighborhood publication”, which we are, – and the Friends of the OB Library, in efforts to “spar[e] city libraries from drastic budget cuts.”

By Center on Policy Initiatives

Despite unanswered questions about costs, service quality, risks to public health and more, a San Diego City Council committee today sent the scope of work for outsourcing two city services to the full Council for a final decision.

The Center on Policy Initiatives is urging the Council to resolve serious issues before finalizing what will be required in contracts to run the City’s street sweeping and water customer service …