OB Rag

BREAKING NEWS: At about 8:15 PST, the House passed the health care reform bill, 220 to 215. One Republican voted for it, and 39 Democrats voted against it.

WASHINGTON — With a personal push from President Barack Obama, the House of Representatives Saturday inched closer to passing historic health care legislation that would guarantee virtually all Americans access to care.

Obama met for half an hour with House Democrats as the all-day debate was starting Saturday morning, and compared the health care effort to Democrats’ championing of Social Security and Medicare.

“Now is the time to finish the job,” Obama said …

When John Boehner, the Republican leader of the House, appeared at the Tea Party rally at the Capitol on Thursday afternoon, it was a dramatic signal: The wing-nuts have taken over the GOP.

Think I’m being harsh? The angry folks at the protest — which attracted several thousand conservatives — held up signs with messages of hate: “Get the Red Out of the White House,” “Waterboard Congress,” “Ken-ya Trust Obama?” One called the president a “Traitor to the U.S. Constitution.” Another sign showed pictures of dead bodies at the Dachau concentration camp and compared health care reform to the Holocaust. A different placard depicted Obama as Sambo. …

OB ELEMENTARY CELEBRATES ITS 100TH ANNIVERSARY
(see inside…)

Seagull shot with arrow found in OB
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Newport News and Rumors
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December 5, 2009, OB Holiday Parade
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TV Series “Terriers” Rumored to be Coming Back to OB in January
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School Board member John DeBeck Joins OB Historical Society in celebrating OB Elementary’s 100th year anniversary – Nov. 19th
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Chinese Commies Invade OB
AND MORE ……

By Mark Ames / AlterNet / November 6, 2009

It’s hard to pinpoint what’s the most shocking thing about Major Malik Nadal Hasan’s shooting rampage in Fort Hood, Texas. I’ll start with this: there’s nothing all that ground-breaking about it. Happens all the time, it’s just that we’re a nation of amnesiacs who forget all the unpleasantries, and refuse to learn the valuable lessons.

For starters, Fort Hood is located in Killeen, Texas — where one of the deadliest rampage shootings in American history took place in 1991, when an unemployed ex-Navy enlistee ….

Jonesborough resident Jim Stevens admits he’s not a particularly religious person, but even he is awed by what he has seen nearly every morning for the last couple of weeks on the driver’s side window of his Isuzu pickup truck.

It was two weeks ago today that an image, resembling the face of Jesus, made its first appearance on the window.

Washington : After nearly a month of gridlock, the Senate voted unanimously to extend unemployment benefits for some 1.3 million jobless Americans expected to lose benefits by the end of the year.

If, as expected, the House adopts the Senate version of the bill, it means workers in all states will be eligible for an additional 14 weeks of federal unemployment benefits. In states with unemployment rates higher than 8.5 percent, workers will be able to extend their federal unemployment benefits a further six weeks.

NEW UPDATE UPDATE: The clean-up being planned for this Sunday, Nov. 8th has BEEN CANCELED. Dr. Ehmann has sent word that he does not want anyone coming by his house this Sunday. Watch this blog for future details.
THE PENINSULA, CA. The people and resources that were mobilized to help elderly Point Loman Robert Ehmann now need help. And the help is needed immediately.

Ehmann is the 84-year old Orchard resident of Point Loma whose medical and physical conditions …

OCEAN BEACH, CA. I met Sheldon Dorf back in the mid-seventies here in Ocean Beach. The OB resident passed away on Tuesday, November 3rd, to diabetes complications. He was 76. Sheldon was perhaps one of the most culturally influential OBceans as he was a co-founder of San Diego’s now infamous Comic-Con.

Comic-Con – now the convention that draws tens of thousands every year to San Diego. The City jumps hoops just to keep the event local.

Stop and think a moment. Tuesday November 4, 2008. Election night. I bet you can remember where you were, what you were doing.

We had invited friends over, to celebrate together, or commiserate together- who knew? We weren’t sure what the outcome of the election would be. Would Obama carry Pennsylvania and Ohio and Virginia and North Carolina?

We had the computer set up with MSNBC, and the champagne was flowing. Earlier that day at the Central library information desk where I worked I answered many many questions about where people could vote.

POINT LOMA, CA. About three months ago – in August – a homeless man who sat on a bench in Point Loma for 15 years died. No one knew his name, or where he was from, and the County was about to “dispose” of him when a community member found his family members and contacted them.

It turned out his name is – was Jeff Pastorino, and that he has a twin brother named Chris, and had three other brothers, and was from a good family in Pennsylvania and disappeared from them27 years ago.

SAN DIEGO, CA. A scary crowd gathered outside Blue Shield’s Mission Valley offices last night, Monday, Nov. 2nd. It was part of a three-day protest against the giant health insurance company held by local San Diegan activists.

On-the-scene friends reported that about 75 people were at the 6pm demonstration.
OB photographer Logan Marcus was there and took these shots. (See gallery inside)

Meanwhile … protesters are arrested earlier in the day at Blue Shield ….

Jim Grant is at it again, capturing the moon as it sets the morning of Monday, November 2, 2009.