OB Rag

By Congressman Alan Grayson /MichaelMoore.com / May 21, 2010

Next week, there is going to be a “debate” in Congress on yet another war funding bill. The bill is supposed to pass without debate, so no one will notice.

What George Orwell wrote about in “1984” has come true. What Eisenhower warned us about concerning the “military-industrial complex” has come true. War is a permanent feature of our societal landscape, so much so that no one notices it anymore.

But we’re going to change this. Today, we’re introducing a bill called ‘The War Is Making You Poor Act’. The purpose of this bill is to connect the dots, and to show people in a real and concrete way the cost of these endless wars.

Heal the Bay, a Santa Monica conservation group that conducts coastal waters tests, has given part of Ocean Beach an A+ rating in its latest annual report. The water around the OB Pier in both dry and wet weather got this highest rating. Dog Beach did not fare as well, as it remains a troubled area due to the run-off that comes down the San Diego River.

High grades in the coastal water rating system demonstrate that there are less incidence of sickness from fecal bacterial in the surfzones for ocean users.

By Stephen Luke / NBCSanDiego.com / May 26, 2010

San Diego police are laying out their summer staffing plans for the city’s beach areas. Starting this Friday with the Memorial Day weekend crowds, San Diegans will see a lot more officers near the coast.

“You know, when it’s summertime and there’s more people, there’s more opportunity for problems,” Mission Beach resident Dave Cummings said.

It was a scene to behold. There was Julie strumming the guitar – singing softly, there was David minding the hot dogs on the flaming grill, Cat handing out cups and paper plates, and there was Lupe Haley – dishing out her pasta dish, a fruit salad, a veggie salad and dessert. And the homeless and hungry stood patiently in line.

It was a Monday, and as she has every Monday for the last 22 years, Lupe Haley came down to Ocean Beach to feed the homeless and whoever else showed up.

Yet hamstrung by demands by local police officers that she obtain the proper permit for public food handling, this Monday Lupe has set up her food line not at her usual site in Saratoga Park, right next to the sand, but in a friendly church parking lot off Sunset Cliffs Boulevard.

The Ocean Beach Historical Society hosted the 16th annual OB Exposed! photo contest at the Masonic Center on Friday, May 21. As usual, the event was an enjoyable celebration of local photographs and the shutterbugs who snap them.

Over the course of a couple hours, more than 100 people perused the entries, voted for the “people’s choice” winner, and enjoyed free food and drink. Ocean Beach native Noah Tafolla, creator of the KPBS TV series Wonderland, announced the contest winners, which were selected by a panel of judges

When Ocean Beach’s Heathens raise funds, they do it with style.

On a recent Saturday night, the OB-based group of artists, street performers and other free spirits welcomed 150 people to a warehouse in Barrio Logan. The night’s activities alternated back and forth between DJ-driven dance sessions and performance pieces featuring select members of the group.

Escape from Heathens Island was the name given the night’s festivities. Most guests wore costumes, the theme seeming to be a psychedelic blend of pirate and clown, with some tribal flavor tossed in.

Last performance today – Sunday at 4pm.

A few nights ago I saw a premiere presentation of “Nina: A Portrayal of the Life and Music of Nina Simone” in an intimate theater setting in North Park. This work was created over a five year period and directed by Calvin Manson. It is a deeply moving, well executed and revelatory piece of theater, and the last day to see it is Sunday May 23.

ALL STORIES AND LINKS INSIDE:

* Red Bull Rivals: June 5th – OB Is Home to San Diego’s North versus South County surf rivalry
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* Winston’s Holds Benefit for OBcean Injured in Hit and Run – May 23rd
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* The National Football League says Ocean Beach businessman is illegally using the Chargers logo.
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* Pizza Port Finally Opens

Downtown shoppers and office workers on their lunch break Friday, May 21, found a gaggle of Coffee Party activists and supporters agitating for bank reform. A little over a dozen folks with signs, fliers, and chants were targeting four of the mega-banks in downtown – all within a few blocks of each other: Wells Fargo, Bank of America, Chase, and Citibank. The action was part of a nation-wide focus by the Coffee Party on banks and financial reform. Over a third of the protesters were from OB.

The Coffee Party action also reflected the sentiment expressed in a recent poll by this blog. The poll found that three-quarters of the respondents wanted some kind of bank reform, everything from breaking them up to nationalizing them.

Editor: Verrrry interesting. Britain wants to dismantle its surveillance camera systems while the City of San Diego wants to install them, including a camera on the OB Pier.

By John F Burns/ The New York Times / May 19, 2010

LONDON — Defying those who said it might be paralyzed by internal divisions, Britain’s new coalition government of Conservatives and Liberal Democrats on Wednesday unveiled the most ambitious plan in decades for upending the highly centralized and often intrusive way the country is governed.

The plan, as laid out by the deputy prime minister, Nick Clegg, would roll back a proliferation of “nanny state” laws, non-elected administrative bodies and surveillance systems —

This Friday, May 21st, during the noon lunch hour, the San Diego chapter of the Coffee Party will be targeting four mega-banks in the downtown area. Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Citi-Bank, and Chase, will all be targeted by the protest. In a tour of the banking area, activists will be pointing out how much each bank received in the bailout, what they pay their CEOs and other important info.

This is part of the nation-wide effort of the Coffee Party to clean up Wall Street and “K” Street (where the DC lobbyists all hang out) in favor of Main Street.

Activists will show up – some in costume – at Horton Plaza at 11:30 a.m. by the Fountain, the staging point for the tour. Everyone is invited to join with the Coffee Party as its highlights the role of the huge, mammoth banking institutions that control our economy.

On May 7, the FDIC placed 1st Pacific Bank, headquartered in San Diego, into receivership, effectively ending the bank’s operations. They then immediately turned over the bank’s assets, including $291 million in deposits at seven area branches, to City National Bank. City National previously operated 73 branches, mostly in New York City, the San Francisco Bay area, and Los Angeles.