OB Rag

by Larry OB

I recently attended the Road Warrior Weekend up in the Mojave Desert. It was a costumed campout for fans of the Mad Max movie trilogy. Sort of a post apocalyptic renaissance fair. The costumes and vehicles spanned all three movies. We had the good cops of the MFP (Main Force Patrol), and the bad cops of the Gay Boy Beserkers. The wearing of a metal-studded cod piece was usually a good way to quickly judge the threat level of an approaching cop.

The gathering was generally well behaved. The event organizer prudently forbade live ammunition, but there were enough real homemade weapons to give things an element of danger. Axes made from sprocket gears, and knives welded to steering wheel clubs.

by Frank Gormlie

The dilemma of the disenchanted progressive has come full circle. If the progressive is disenchanted and deeply puzzled, what about the progressive community – what about a place like Ocean Beach?

This then is the third and final part of the series. In Part 1, I presented what I see as this dilemma for disenchanted progressives: as people on the political left we are disenchanted about the tempo and types of changes that President Obama has ushered in to date. And yet, as I discuss in Part 2, this country is facing a mass movement that represents an American brand of fascism, and it’s gunning for President Obama.

By Jeremy Scahill / The Nation / November 23, 2009

At a covert forward operating base run by the US Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) in the Pakistani port city of Karachi, members of an elite division of Blackwater are at the center of a secret program in which they plan targeted assassinations of suspected Taliban and Al Qaeda operatives, “snatch and grabs” of high-value targets and other sensitive action inside and outside Pakistan, an investigation by The Nation has found. The Blackwater operatives also assist in gathering intelligence and help run a secret US military drone bombing campaign that runs parallel to the well-documented CIA predator strikes, according to a well-placed source within the US military intelligence apparatus.

Last Spring’s Annual OB Heathen Parade Drew Police Wrath
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Hodad’s to open 2nd restaurant in downtown San Diego
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OB Architects Win Small Orchid
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(Another) OB Comic-Con Founder Passes – Ken Krueger
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Scientists search for bugs on Navy’s Point Loma Base
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The Honorable Mayor Jerry Sanders:

The Friends of the Ocean Beach Library recently met and it was decided to write you about the impending budget situation, particularly as it might apply to our own Ocean Beach Library. We want to be involved in bringing possible ideas forward to you and the City. We wanted to share with you four thoughts that we came up with:

1. Any cuts that might come to the library system, should be shared equally among all libraries and library departments.

2. Closing all libraries one day a week, possibly on a weekend.

Photographers Jim Grant’s view of the Ocean Beach leg of the San Diego 3-Day walk for Breast Cancer. Do you…

It has been one year since our good friend and fellow blogger Rick Nadeau passed. Rick died November 20th, 2008, after fighting cancer gallantly for two years. He had been writing for this blog since we started, and wrote for a newsmagazine/ online journal in Sacramento, where he lived with his spouse, Diana Tumminia.

OCEAN BEACH, CA. Many of the respondents in our recent poll about the Swine Flu expressed doubts about vaccinations and believed it was much to do about nothing. 73% of those who voted either felt it was not important for them to be vaccinated or the whole thing was “a lot of hype and hysteria.”

34% stated that it was not important for them to be vaccinated. And even more, 39%, …

A federal complaint was filed Monday against the results of recent union elections conducted by Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 221, in San Diego. The complaint charges massive voter disenfranchisement and illegal conduct by election officials and by incumbent candidates.

Filed by Reform221, a group advocating a broad range of union democracy reforms, the complaint seeks nullification of the elections and a new election under the supervision of the U.S. Secretary of Labor. Reform221 charges that hundreds of union members were denied the right to vote and were not sent mail ballots.

by Frank Gormlie

All four of the fire hoopers who were cited by police last June here in Ocean Beach, were found not guilty this afternoon of having an illegal fire. The judge in the case, Commissioner Peter Doft declared at the end of the infraction trial that he “can’t cite these women for this conduct. This (Municipal Code) section does not apply to this conduct.”

Sarah Edgar, Heidi Estevez, Aesha Shapiro, and Allison Walkey had been cited on June 5th for violating the San Diego City law against having fires in Ocean Beach Park – near Dog Beach. They were all members of a troupe of fire performers called Hoop Unit, managed by Valentina “Unity” Martin, and were practicing at night with their lit hoops.

Editor: Once in awhile, there’s a story that we just cannot ignore. I know this has nothing to do about Ocean Beach, but it is an incredibly outrageous report, and goes to show at what level we have sunk to as a society.

OZARK, ARKANSAS. In a small town in this state, a police officer arrived at a home where he had been summoned for a domestic dispute. Officer Dustin Bradshaw found a ten year old girl curled up on the floor of her home, screaming and kicking at her mother, who was trying to get her to take a shower before bedtime.

“Her mother told me to tase her if I needed to,” Bradshaw wrote in his report …

by OB Anonymous

The Ocean Beach Mainstreet Association. Will they rent spaces to anyone during The Farmers Market? It appears so.

Perhaps I’m alone out there but I would think that one of the roles of the OBMA is to support the local business’s on the 4900 block of Newport. It’s not bad enough that there is a significant drop in revenue from having all the parking spaces taken from 4900 block merchants, but now, to add insult to injury, they seem to be working against local merchants by renting spaces to jewelry vendors, massage therapists, clothes vendors, hot food booths etc etc etc. How does that help the tax paying businesses on the 4900 block of Newport Avenue?