OB Rag

The joke’s on us, folks. GE and tons of other corporations will have a tax bill for 2010 of ZERO….

“Suddenly, a season of peace seems to be warming the world,” the New York Times exulted on the last day of July 1988. Protracted and bloody wars were ending in Afghanistan, Angola, Cambodia and Nicaragua, and between Iran and Iraq. But the most dramatic development was still to come.

In December 1988, the Soviet leader, Mikhail Gorbachev, declared the cold war over. “The use or threat of force no longer can or must be an instrument of foreign policy,” he said. “This applies above all to nuclear arms.”

Monday, better known as “trash day” in Ocean Beach, is coming up soon. What a beautiful array of blacks, greens and blues await us on each and every street.

Oh…what’s this? What are all these trash barrels doing on their sides? And why are the tops cracked on so many of them?

My faith in the ability of my generation and the one following mine to actually give a damn got a major boost today when I headed down to City College at the (for the under-30 and under-employed set) ungodly hour of 8:00 for the pre-rally to a protest of the educational budget cuts proposed by Governor Jerry Brown.

First off, I’ve got to say that in general, I admire Brown’s apparent willingness to compromise on shrinking the state budget gap with equal measures of cuts and taxes …

When he saw what he had done, he said “Screw you, I’ll make it forty-one.”

[Updated April 17, 2011]

Mayor Sanders has released his two year budget for the fiscal year beginning July 1. Sanders is once again using our libraries as the mother of all piñatas, beating an obscene, disproportionate 7.4 million dollar reduction out of the library’s current budget.

SD Community College District Canceled Most Of Summer Session Due To Cuts

San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders proposed filling a $56.7 million fiscal 2012 deficit by cutting in half the operating hours of libraries and recreation centers in the nation’s eighth-largest city by population….

By E.A. Barrera / April 13, 2011

“You don’t have to be in the military to serve and defend your country. That s the duty of all of us.” – Lewis Meyer – January 8, 2010

Lewis Meyer was a fireman who became a prisoner of war in Vietnam from February 1, 1968 to March 27, 1973. He was taken prisoner during the Tet Offensive and kept for five years under the most brutal conditions a man could suffer through.

When he returned home, he found a world eager to forget his trauma as it was a nation’s trauma.

by John Lawrence / Will Blog For Food

The Tea Party says we are Taxed Enough Already. But who exactly is “We.” Are upper income individuals and families taxed enough already or is it just lower income individuals and families? Check out this graph of tax brackets for 2010 – inside. How many middle class families would object to adding a few higher brackets like say a Tax Rate of 40% for Married Couples and Individuals with Incomes over $500,000.

Thoughts Stimulated by a Historic High School Basketball Game

I was just looking through my scrapbooks and I came across two pictures of me playing high school basketball 55 years ago.

In one I was going in for an easy basket, a lay up, with my left arm shielding my defender from the play. In the other I’m springing high to win the opening tip of the same game, the first game in Pueblo High’s history. Their school building was still under construction, a few months shy of being done. We were housed in my school, Tucson High, the oldest public school in the state of Arizona.

Okay folks, Frank and Patty have given me a platform to post a random piece of marginally-listenable music once a week Anna, sorry if this is ripping you off, but what’s the sincerest form of flattery? I’ve chosen my videos among a handful of available YouTubes, going with what I feel does the best to convey the song’s message… lots of times it’s the band’s official video.

See inside for the video…

A new report released today by SIPRI, a Swedish-based think tank, reveals that U.S. military spending has almost doubled since 2001. The U.S. spent an astounding $698 billion on the military last year, an 81% increase over the last decade.

U.S. spending on the military last year far exceeded any other country. We spent six times more than China — the second largest spender.