OB Rag

by MSNBC Staff / July 18, 2010

Since the terror attacks of Sept. 11, top-secret intelligence gathering by the government has grown so unwieldy and expensive that no-one really knows what it costs and how many people are involved, The Washington Post reported Monday.

A two-year investigation by the newspaper found what it called a “Top Secret America” that’s hidden from public view and largely lacking in oversight. The newspaper’s investigation is based on hundreds of interviews with intelligence, military and other officials, as well as public documents and records.

In its first installment of a series of reports, the Post said there are now more than 1,200 government organizations and more than 1,900 private companies working on counterterrorism, ….

You want to talk outrage? How about this one: My brother Jack showed me a letter he received from Halliburton via his lawyer. Yes- that Halliburton. It appears that Halliburton has declared bankruptcy. And because they have declared bankruptcy, they will only be required to pay out pennies on the dollar in the settlement of my brother’s suit.

Two years ago my brother was diagnosed with mesothelioma, a rare and deadly kind of cancer caused by exposure to asbestos.

by R. M. Schneiderman / Newsweek / July 17, 2010

So far, no modern country has ever legalized marijuana production—not even the Netherlands. Yet with heavy drug-related violence plaguing the U.S.-Mexican border, some analysts and policymakers now say that America should legalize weed in order to reduce the power of Mexico’s drug cartels.

Marijuana carries the least amount of overhead cost for many of the cartels and provides some of their cash flow for buying guns and influence. Estimates vary, but analysts say pot accounts for somewhere in the range of 20 to 50 percent of the cartels’ profits. But that could soon change with competition from El Norte: California has a proposition set for the November ballot—on which voters are roughly split—that would legalize the drug’s domestic production and sale.

Well, it’s finally happened. The condo site at the corner of Abbott and Saratoga has been sold. We knew it could happen – we’ve been documenting what’s been happening to this fabled corner for awhile.

And the new owners seem to be serious. They paid $3.8 million for the property – cash. The 2009 assessment for this property was on a total value of $3,284,438.

Editor: This rant by Sunshine is in response to Scott’s Reader Rant that was posted yesterday, “I was living the American dream…. Now I’m angry.”

I’m disillusioned too, Scott. American Dream, my ass. I owned a 3 bd/2bath house with all the room my young son & I needed and then some for 14 years. 14 years of fixing broken items, repairing near worn out parts, cutting the grass, and complying with ridiculous Homeowner Association rules and regulations. A dream?…more like a nightmare.

UPDATE from Saturday morning: There were about a dozen protesters at Petco Park on Friday. Across the street were some counter-protesters. The protest for Friday was I am told a ‘last-minute’ thing, and many more are expected today Saturday 4 to 6:30 pm.

It’s heating up on and off the baseball field these days. There is a call by a local San Diego group to boycott the upcoming series between the Padres and the Arizona Diamondbacks. It’s all because of the new Arizona law restricting brown-skinned people.

The May 1st Coalition of San Diego is demanding that the Major League Baseball Commission move the 2011 All Star Game out of Arizona …

Editor: New rules for dog handlers at leash-free dog parks are being considered that would limit the number of dogs a handler can bring to three. Three is the number. The new rules also include prohibiting people from bringing a dog in heat to those parks as well, and also not to leave a dog unattended.

If passed, these rules would affect dogs and their lovers at Dog Beach and Dusty Rhodes Dog Park. The new regs were unanimously passed by the San Diego Park and Rec Board, but still have to go to a full Council committee, and then to the Council itself before becoming law.

My name’s Scott and I’m unemployed. So here I was, just minding my own business, providing for my family and just living the dream.

For 15 years I’d been running staffing agency territories and training the recruiters. Things were great. In 2006 my wife and I sold the house we’d owned for 12 years, put a $250K down payment on a bigger place.

One day I’m checking my 401k online and almost 1/2 was gone! What the heck!?

A little bit later, there’s a foreclosure across the street. Same floor plan as ours – ends up selling for $100k less than what our 1st mortgage is. Doggone it!

ALL LINKS AND DETAILS INSIDE:

* Volunteer(s) Needed to Update Websites of Town Council and Planning Board
* Stand Up Is Dead Comedy Tour at Winston’s Friday July 16th
* A Historian’s View on Growing Up in OB – July 15th
* Join OB Historical Society on their Annual OB Historical Walk – July 17th
* New Homeless Sticker Going On Sale
* Ocean Beach’s “Don’t feed the bums” sticker taken to a new level in Miami
* Voices of OB’s Homeless
* “Hodad’s Too” to Open in “Sept-ober”
* Top Chef winner turned away from South Beach Bar & Grille
* New Restaurant Bar on Voltaire Offers 16 Craft Beers and Late Night Kitchen
* Jazz 88 OB Music & Art Festival September 11th

July 14th is Frances’ July 4th -a national holiday, as it commemorates the storming of the hated Bastille – a fortress like prison in Paris – in 1789. The date celebrates the victory of the French people in their revolution that overthrew the king and feudal system. The storming of the prison is seen as a symbol of the uprising of the first modern nation and the beginning of a constitutional government for France.

(The American revolution preceded this, of course, but our struggle was not technically a revolution per se but more of a colonial war against an imperial power. See this earlier post explaining the origin of modern politics.)

For impartiality, we turn to wikipedia:

In France, it is formally called La Fête Nationale (National Celebration) and commonly le quatorze juillet (the fourteenth of July). …

By Gustav Wynn / OpEdNews / July 10, 2010

As was widely predicted, a former employee at the San Diego ACORN office has brought a lawsuit against right-wing activist journalists James O’Keefe and Hannah Giles who surreptitiously recorded him while posing as a pimp and a half-naked hooker seeking accomplices in the commission of crimes of prostitution, statutory rape and kidnapping.

Juan Carlos Vera was fired after O’Keefe’s San Diego ACORN exposé was released.

Washington, DC – Today, Congressman Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) spoke out against the war in Afghanistan, and against the war’s funding, at a press conference of the Out of Afghanistan Congressional Caucus.

“Every dollar we spend in Afghanistan, every life we waste there, is a waste,” said Nadler. “An intelligent policy is not to try to remake a country that nobody since Genghis Khan has managed to conquer. What makes us think, what arrogance gives us the right to assume that we can succeed where the Moguls, the British, the Soviets, failed…..