OB Rag

San Diego’s new head of the Fire Department, Fire Chief Javier Mainer, has been tasked by Mayor Jerry Sanders to cut $34.7 million from his budget, which includes fire departments, medics, and life guards. In a recent interview with KPBS he indicated that”beach closures” are on the table.

Chief Mainer said San Diego citizens may see less fire engines and fewer lifeguards. This could mean beach closures.

OCEAN BEACH, CA. For some reason, Ocean Beach and Sunset Cliffs were cut out of the Blue Ribbon Task Force’s recommendations for Southern California coastal marine sanctuaries.

We had reported earlier that Ocean Beach and Sunset Cliffs had been included in proposals for redesigning California’s system of marine protected areas along the southern coast, as well, of course, other parts of San Diego County. Marine experts have been putting together proposals for a year. The OB coast had been considered one of the chief areas of contention.

Jim Carroll’s death on September 11 brought back a lot of memories. His burst into popular consciousness in the early 1980s with The Jim Carroll Band happened when I was living in San Francisco.

Ronald Reagan was just coming to power, and would soon axe my job as a tenant organizer. This job been funded by the federal government though a program created by the Carter administration.

OCEAN BEACH, CA. We did a poll recently, asking our readers what should be done about marijuana. The vast majority – 83% – believe the herb should be legalized in some way or form. Another 6% voted for the status quo – limiting sales to people with prescriptions through licensed dispensaries.

Only 6% stated that it should be kept illegal and that we should “build more jails.” Another 6% admitted that they were “too stoned to care.”

by Frank Gormlie

THE CONVERGENCE OF HISTORIC EVENTS

History is converging events for us very quickly: the first – the anniversary of the election of Barack Obama as President; the second – the rise of a reactionary and racist mass movement in this country; third – the passage by the House of what some call an “historic” health care reform package and the beginning of discussion on their version next week by the Senate; and fourth, we’re on the eve of the continuation and even expansion of the war in Afghanistan – as Obama contemplates just how many thousands of Americans he will be sending soon to the “graveyard of empires”.

by Lane Tobias

Picture this on a beautiful fall afternoon: Live art and in-motion clothing design on the sidewalk. A mural in progress. Wine, cheese, and make-your-own cupcakes to whet your appetite. A DJ spinning beats as beautiful women clamor over swapped (and now shared) clothing. A curly-haired, bearded reporter amidst the madness.

Nothing about my presence at the OB Centric “Women Only” Clothing Swap made sense; in every respect, I was the outlier. There was rule “# 5 – No Boys Aloud”.

by Sunshine / November 9, 2009

I feel privileged to have just witnessed this man, Sinh Tho Nguyen, conclude his walk across America right here in OB on November 8th. He left the east coast’s Atlantic Shore on June 10th and literally walked across this fine country of ours.

As we freely approached him on the shores of the Pacific, he was shaking from the cold. Some kind OBcean took off their jacket and gifted it to him. His demeanor is kind. He appeared awed and exuded gratitude for all of America.

by Ernie McCray

Once upon a time, at the outset of World War II, Japanese American students at CaIifornia State Universities were rounded up and shipped off to internment camps.

Now those Institutions of Higher Learning would like to grant honorary degrees to the students who suffered such indignities.

And I guess that although an honorary degree might not be as profitable as getting a home to replace the one you might have lost or as powerfully emotional as being reconnected with an old pal you were separated from and have never seen again – it’s never the less a nice gesture, a needed touch, perhaps, in making the world a better place.

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 ….