OB Rag

For the first time in years – or at least in any of our memories – there’s controversy surrounding the election of Superior Court judges in tomorrow’s primary. Normally, the usual (yawn) campaign of judges takes on the quiet excitement associated with lawn bowling. But not this year, this year of the rise of the tea party.

This year there is a tea party-like group called “Better Courts Now” that is upsetting the apple cart by pushing their own slate of holier-than-thou conservative candidates. As if judges weren’t conservative enough! Most judges were former prosecutors – an already conservative role within the court system – and so by time most don their black robes and step up to the seats – there’s definitely a conservative bias that dominates the courtroom.

Sitting around trying to clear my mind of all that’s going on in a troubled world I found a picture of me almost as gray of hair and beard as one can be. Green leaves of spring adorned the trees that stood behind me and in my glasses I could see the indiscernible reflections of the children who sat listening so appreciatively to my poetry.

These were students at Einstein Academy, a school literally vibrating with positive energy and I view this picture and the gathering as an expression of how the world should be, older generations, the gray, sharing the wisdom of their age with children, the green, who in their innocence, represent what hope there really is on the planet.

by Wonkette / June 5, 2010 Hard to find even the Gallows Humor in this story, so maybe we won’t…

Once in a while, there’s so much going on at the OB Rag, that we just have to share.

ANONYMOUS DONOR BUYS NEW LAPTOP FOR OB RAG

The OB Rag had only been in its second day of fundraising for a new laptop, when the call came. The voice said, “We think we have a laptop for you,” and with that intro, one of our close supporters informed us that they were so impressed by what we’re doing and by the responses from our readers, that they were offering us $500 to get that laptop we’ve been talking about for months. Tears came to all our eyes, as we were so taken. On Memorial Day we met them at Fryes to see what they had to offer, and we ended up going online and buying a $500 ASUS. I’ve been using it all day and have posted three articles now with the new machine. We’ve been using a borrowed one, but now we can set up shop at the local coffeehouses and blog all day.

We love you guys! You anonymous donor(s).

ALL LINKS AND STORIES INSIDE

* Dianne Bell and Jim Grant sticky on OB Street Vendors?
* Sick Eagles Try to Sneak Onto Dog Beach
* Winstons Benefit for Local OB Bartender Tyson Green June 6th
* Arte Fresca Art Show to Feature Local Artists and Live Music on June 11th
* Dave Gilbert’s Rhythm Ranchers Play at Tio Leo’s June 4th
* OB Historical Society Features Derek Casady June 17th
* OB Street Fair and Chili Cook-off Coming June 26th
* Acupuncture Clinic to Hold Open House on June 5th
* OB Planning Board Project Review Committee Meets June 16th
* OB Town Council meeting June 23rd

I started listening to the messages on the answer machine and whose voice did I hear but “Mayor Jerry Sanders,” asking me to “Vote yes on Proposition D,” that personable, avuncular voice reminding me that the Strong Mayor form of government in San Diego is the only hope for digging us out of our financial mess and righting all the wrongs of City Hall over the past decades. Really?

Number 1, I hate robo-calls. Number 2, the Strong Mayor from of government sucks, and I say that having lived through a less than perfect City Manager form of government for most of the thirty years that I have resided in San Diego.

by Anonymous

When I was seventeen in1967, a friend and I got in trouble at school, cutting class to go surfing if I remember right. This was not the first time we had been caught breaking school rules so it was no surprise when we were both called in to the principal’s office.

We were introduced to a couple of army recruiters and given choices. My friend Stein – his mother dead and his father the town drunk – could enlist or go to juvenile hall. I was offered expulsion or military service. I chose expulsion.

Stein, still not eighteen, showed up in Vietnam just in time for the Tet offensive. He was in country for less than two weeks before he was killed.

I would never betray my friend Stein by thanking him for dying in a war that no one has has ever explained to my satisfaction that had anything to do with mine or any other Americans’ freedom, or pursuit of happiness.

10News.com/ May 31, 2010

A local man said he was stabbed in broad daylight in Ocean Beach on Friday, but it may be difficult for him to identify his attacker. Ole Keever is recovering in his hospital bed after he was stabbed four times in the head, near his liver and also his back.

I met Mar Cardenas a couple of weekends ago at a Coffee Party meeting. I knew she was one of the main organizers of a car caravan to Phoenix to protest the new Arizona immigration law, SB 1070. She is an energetic woman in her mid-forties who has a huge heart, a leader in the local Unitarian Universalist church, who also is the granddaughter of Lázaro Cardenas, one of the great former presidents of Mexico – in fact the FDR of our southern neighbor.

On Friday, May 28th, she and about a hundred others departed from Chicano Park on their way to cross the desert and arrive in Phoenix for a protest rally and march to the Arizona state capital today.

Dear Rand Paul:

It is not possible to change a true bigot’s values. Much of that comes from generational views passed down from parents, grandparents, whatever. But I want to address your recent remarks since you won the Kentucky GOP senate primary.

I would have to agree to disagree with you on pretty much every level. One argument you make is that you prefer to have racist business owners openly advertising their hatred, so that you can make an informed decision. My guess from this statement is that you’ve never been a victim of bigotry, or racism, or true hate.

Engineers have at least temporarily stopped the flow of oil and gas into the Gulf of Mexico from a gushing BP well, the federal government’s top oil-spill commander, U.S. Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen, said Thursday morning.

The “top kill” effort, launched Wednesday afternoon by industry and government engineers, had pumped enough drilling fluid to block oil and gas spewing from the well, Allen said. The pressure from the well was very low, he said, but persisting. The top kill effort is not complete, officials caution.

Political apathy? Nah, political crapathy!

By Sarah Little / OB Rag / May 27, 2010

After much introspection I’ve concluded that I’m not politically apathetic. I am politically horrified. I’m socially horrified as well. I look around and see a nation of lemming-like creatures who gasp in horror when tragedy strikes as we turn our collective heads to some overriding power that is supposed to step in to avert or mitigate disaster. FEMA, local law enforcement, OSHA, the Coast Guard, Border Patrol, the School Board, the Constitution, the Pope… God! Someone or something is supposed to make sure “this” doesn’t happen and if it does the “they” are supposed to fix it!