OB Rag

San Diego officials said Monday [Nov.15th] that the city has hit a new high-water mark for recycling — 66 percent of the waste stream in 2009. That’s up 14 percentage points from 2005 and is likely enough to keep San Diego among California’s leaders in big-city recycling.

On Monday, San Diego waste officials also announced an expansion of the city’s curbside recycling program to include most plastic containers.

Editor: This two-year old post by Rocky Neptun is a constant favorite or our readers. We thought we’d just bring it out for some more sun – but please realize dear reader, that it was written in November of 2010.

By Rocky Neptun

Under the shadow of a venomous San Diego District Attorney and a cliff-hanger Attorney General election between a fanatical D.A. from Los Angeles and a sympathetic D.A. from the Bay Area, medical marijuana patients, providers and activists met near Mission Bay under the banner of “putting patients first.”

The November 14th, all-day gathering, at the Marina Village Conference Center reflected both the radiance of altruism in the medical marijuana movement, its ancient heritage, and the potential to humanize the medical-care-giving industry, as well as the dangers members and patients face from reactionary forces still fighting the obsolete cultural wars of the 1960’s.

    Editor: Local Oceanside resident John Tyner refused an airport full body scan and refused a groin pat-down by…

by Greg Mitchell / The Nation

Nearly two years after a Democrat promising hope and change entered the White House, amid an economic crisis left behind by an unpopular Republican, unemployment remained at century-high levels. Despite new stimulus programs, recovery seemed far off. Opponents in the GOP (and even some in the president’s own party) called for cutting spending to reduce the budget deficit.

Democrats were split: Was the president acting as boldly as possible—or was he not nearly bold enough? Pundits on the left accused him of dithering and caving in to “big business.”

Have things really changed THAT much since I was in school?

Judging from the experience my daughter – and more specifically – my 11 year old grandson just had – I would have to say that changes have taken place but not necessarily for the better.

Today’s papers are filled with news accounts of “bullying”. There have been many deaths caused by bullying. In some instances parents have goaded their children to “bully” another student and seem to think it is funny. There was the young lady that thought she had a boyfriend because he told her nice things about herself.

Panel discussion on “Know Your Rights: stand up against state surveillance and intimidation.” OB Rag editor Frank Gormlie will join the Panel at the Joyce Beers Community Center in Hillcrest from 7 to 9pm.
Gormlie will be speaking on the history of police surveillance of activists during the Seventies. CHECK INSIDE FOR OTHER PANELISTS AND DETAILS.

A very informative article by Matt Taibbi appearing in Rolling Stone Magazine

Matt Taibbi: Courts Helping Banks Screw Over Homeowners

Retired judges are rushing through complex cases to speed foreclosures in Florida

The foreclosure lawyers down in Jacksonville had warned me, but I was skeptical. They told me the state of Florida had created a special super-high-speed housing court with a specific mandate to rubber-stamp the legally dicey foreclosures by corporate mortgage pushers like Deutsche Bank and JP Morgan Chase.

by Jonathan Schell / The Nation / November 10, 2010

The Army intelligence analyst Pfc. Bradley Manning, 22, now in a military detention center charged with having leaked classified documents related to the Iraq War, once explained why he was contemplating his deed. (He is additionally suspected of having leaked the 390,000 documents made public by the whistleblowing solicitor WikiLeaks, but he has not been charged with this.) Manning was not yet in prison or in the media spotlight.

Most reviews of Bob Woodward’s new book, Obama’s Wars, focus on the perceived failures and incompetency of Barack Obama, or on the in-fighting between the generals or within the White House staff, or intellectualize on the over-all abilities and shortcomings of Woodward as a chronicler of modern American history. And in doing so, they miss the point.

So….Buddy and I are walking south on Sunset Cliffs on the east side of the road when we are met by three dogs and their owner, unleashed, that looked as close to being wolves as coyotes look like large dogs.

Wait a minute. That’s unfair. Only two of the dogs looked like wolves. The third dog, a teeny weenie one was on a leash. It was the other two that were not.

Thanks to the paper-version of the San Diego U-T this morning, we have the grateful news that in the vote…

by Karla Peterson / SignOnSanDiego / November 13, 2010

When he talks about San Diego as the perfect scene for his TV crimes, actor Donal Logue likes to toss out a W. Somerset Maugham quote about the French Riviera. The geography is off, but the sentiment is a straight shot to the dark heart of our golden city.