OB Rag

by Lane Tobias

Its easy to find talented people in OB. For such a small community, we have an unusual amount of creative people, both artists and entrepreneurs, within our midst. I learned this first hand over the last few weeks as I got to know my neighbors Matt Cook and self described “couch-monkey” Joe Clarke.

Matt and Joe have spent the last three months showcasing local residents who make OB San Diego’s most unique and exciting ‘hood on their late night talk show, Matt Cook Live.

Editor: This is the second in Sara Robinson’s series on the rise of fascism in America. (See inside for link to the first segment.)

By Sara Robinson / Campaign for America’s Future / August 13, 2009.

Writing about fascism for an American audience is always a fraught business.

Invariably, a third of the readers will dismiss the topic out of hand. …

OCEAN BEACH, CA. According to our most recent poll that was up for an entire week – what do people want to see in OB’s current empty store fronts? – the winning category of respondents want “Mom and pop locally-owned businesses” as “a priority.”

Of 110 respondents, 40 voted for this – 36% of all votes. The poll ran from August 6th to the 13th.

OCEAN BEACH, CA. As litter never ends and graffiti tagging seems endless along sections of Sunset Cliffs, another clean-up happened on Friday, August 14th.

As this one was organized by a group calling themselves “The Cliff Dwellers”, and headed up by long-time local and cliff expert, Larry O’Brian, a bunch of us OB Ragsters joined them after work at the foot of Santa Cruz Avenue.

Go to full article for details:

* LAUNCH OF CHILDREN’S BOOK WITH ART BY OB ARTIST KIM HOWELL

* NEWPORT AVE PET STORE LOOKING FOR ARTISTS AS PART OF PR FOR ANIMAL RESCUE

As you probably know, each week we run a poll in our sidebar.

Usually our fine gaggle of bloggers and commentators come up with some juicy local issues. But now? Geez! is all I can utter.

So, we are turning to you, our reader, for help.

Our hidden and invisible citizen reporters are everywhere. Thursday, August 13th witnessed a watermain break on Bolinas Street in northeast Ocean Beach.

Here are early a.m. scenes from that street. Hopefully, the spilled water will be used to water Collier Park, just down from this area.

By Monica Unhold / The Daily Transcript / August 11, 2009

An Ocean Beach architecture firm’s new offices will be the first commercial building in San Diego County to qualify as net zero — meaning it generates as much energy as it consumes.

Architects Hanna Gabriel Wells converted the 54-year-old Ocean Beach Auto Repair shop into a modern office building expected to enjoy no monthly energy costs …

by Anna Daniels

Last night’s meeting provided a sharp contrast to the event held by Arlen Specter in Pennsylvania (see link inside). Ground rules were quickly laid out- no disruptions- and civility was maintained by the hundred plus people in the sweltering room.

Davis, a congresswoman from the 53rd district, presented a brief over view of the current House bill on health care. (See inside for details…)

by Emily Taylor

My husband and I moved to Ocean Beach back in February after falling in love with it during a visit. We love that it feels like a small town even in the middle of a huge city; we love how laid-back everyone is; and we love that it’s so dog-friendly.

But my question is: Where do all these people with dogs live?? Every rental property that I call inevitably tells me “No pets.”

It’s time to sit down with our readers and discuss where we think our little blog is going. Actually, it’s not that little any more. We started out in October 2007 and for the first six months we averaged a little over 2100 visitors a month.

Now, as we near our second anniversary (October), we’ve reached nearly 23,000 visitors a month. Check out the graph below which shows our monthly visitors for the last year. It’s obvious that we are growing and that our readership from OB is expanding. We feel we have a strong community base, solid legitimacy and a genuine acceptance by the residents and businesses of our seaside neighborhood.

by Chalmers Johnson

However ambitious President Barack Obama’s domestic plans, one unacknowledged issue has the potential to destroy any reform efforts he might launch.

Think of it as the 800-pound gorilla in the American living room: our longstanding reliance on imperialism and militarism in our relations with other countries and the vast, potentially ruinous global empire of bases that goes with it.

The failure to begin to deal with our bloated military establishment and …