OB Rag

by Patty Jones

So, like Frank said earlier, a lot of rain fell in a short time here today. And checking OB Joe’s math got me sidetracked (I’m supposed to be figuring my taxes) and I left a response to his comment and that set the wheels in my head spinning.

Okay Joe, here’s my take on the whole acre foot deal….. The OB Planning Board says OB is 742 acres, if it rained 12″ (1 foot), that would be 742 acre feet (a volume measurement), so 1″ of rain is 1/12 of 742 acre feet, or 61.83 acre feet of water. Almost 62 acres would be covered by a foot of water. 62 acres is about the same amount of land that would be encompassed by starting at the corner of Newport and Abbott, walking up Newport, left on Cable, then left on Muir, left on Abbott and back to Newport.

By Paul Krugman

By now everyone knows the sad tale of Bernard Madoff’s duped investors. They looked at their statements and thought they were rich. But then, one day, they discovered to their horror that their supposed wealth was a figment of someone else’s imagination.

Unfortunately, that’s a pretty good metaphor for what happened to America as a whole in the first decade of the 21st century.

Last week the Federal Reserve released the results of the latest Survey of Consumer Finances, a triennial report on the assets and liabilities of American households. The bottom line is that there has been basically no wealth creation at all since the turn of the millennium …

Some of us active in the community of Ocean Beach have been wondering why there is no “Community Budget Input Meeting” scheduled for our District – District 2?

The San Diego City Council has just begun its process on approving a budget for FY2010, and Councilmember Tony Young and Mayor Sanders organized a series of community-input hearings in different City Council Districts, beginning Feb. 4th and ending on Feb. 26th. But not all the Districts – only Districts 3, 4, 5, and 7. None for Districts 1, 2 – the District here, 6 and 8. Half the Districts have their own meetings, and half don’t. Does this make sense?

Using my trusty rain gauge, attached to my backyard fence, I just measured .95 inches of rain since 9 am this morning.

That’s an inch in just a four hours. Ocean Beach is one mile square. If this rainwater had been captured, how much would that be? None of it was captured, sadly, except for what fell into the few buckets and plastic containers in my yard. Did you have your buckets and barrels ready for today’s predicted rain?

Blackwater Worldwide is abandoning its tarnished brand name as it tries to shake a reputation battered by oft-criticised work in Iraq, renaming its family of two dozen businesses under the name Xe. The parent company’s new name is pronounced like the letter z.

Blackwater Lodge & Training Centre – the subsidiary that conducts much of the company’s overseas operations and domestic training – has been renamed US Training Centre Inc., the company said today.

by Gregg Robinson

These are going to be tough times for the anti-war movement. With a popular Democrat in the White House and depression economics on the front pages, it is going to be hard to turn out people for anti-war demonstrations. Most people’s attention is going to be on their pocket books and their sympathy for Obama is going to mean they are unlikely to demonstrate against a war that he is making attempts to “carefully” end. For these reasons the anti-war movement cannot afford to be easily distracted.

On February 10, 2009 San Diego Unified, located in the middle of one of the largest military complexes in the world, took the uncharacteristic step of banning rifle training conducted under the military’s high school JROTC program. Eleven schools with rifle ranges were affected in the nation’s eighth largest urban district.

Before the board meeting began, speakers representing local high schools and colleges addressed an outside crowd of 200 students, parents, teachers and community supporters. Some high schools sent so many students that two charter buses, courtesy of the AFSC, were used for transportation.

by Michael Steinberg

Though a meltdown at a nuclear plant may be its worst case scenario, the dangers and risks by no means end there. In fact they go on every day.
Radioactive releases into the air and water are routine at nukes. As is the transportation of radioactive wastes offsite by road, rail and water. These activities are the seldom discussed everyday threats to people, other living beings, and the environment as a whole.

This report delves into what goes on at the San Onofre Generating Station in these respects.

There is a new opening right now for US and Iranian relations. Mainstream media reported that on Saturday, Feb. 7th, Vice President Biden, while in Munich, Germany, for an international security conference, offered “an olive branch” to Iran – and Russia. Ali Larijani, Iran’s head of parliament, in his response address, indicated a new willingness to deal.

AFP reported:

On Iran, Biden repeated that the US was ready to talk to Tehran after three decades of frozen relations. “We will be willing to talk to Iran, and to offer a very clear choice: continue down the current course and there will be continued pressure and isolation; abandon the illicit nuclear programme and your support for terrorism and there will be meaningful incentives.”

Street artist Shepard Fairey was arrested Friday February 6th for tagging by Boston police. Southern Californians have known of the infamous LA artist’s work for years as his images have mysteriously appeared stenciled along streets – the iconic Andre the Giant and the Obey posters and stencils come to mind immediately. Fairey is also the artist of the now famous red, white, and blue poster of Barack Obama usually with the caption “hope”. (See ‘inside’ for the full story.)

Fairey was arrested after two warrants had been issued for him back on January 24th. He is accused by police for tagging property in two locations with graffiti – based on the Andre the Giant image.

It is now a commonplace — as a lead article in the New York Times’s Week in Review pointed out recently — that Afghanistan is “the graveyard of empires.” Given Barack Obama’s call for a greater focus on the Afghan War (“we took our eye off the ball when we invaded Iraq…”), and given indications that a “surge” of U.S. troops is about to get underway there, Afghanistan’s dangers have been much in the news lately. Some of the writing on this subject, including recent essays by Juan Cole at Salon.com, Robert Dreyfuss at the Nation, and John Robertson at the War in Context website, has been incisive on just how the new administration’s policy initiatives might transform Afghanistan and the increasingly unhinged Pakistani tribal borderlands into “Obama’s War.”

It’s hell being a celebrity, especially if you’re young and find yourself at a party, where marijuana and cameras should never mix. And it’s not exactly heaven being sheriff of a county with escalating drug crimes and pressure to treat all offenders equally.

Thus it is that Olympian swimmer Michael Phelps and Sheriff Leon Lott of South Carolina’s Richland County are being forced to treat seriously a crime that shouldn’t be one.

As everyone knows by now, Phelps was photographed smoking from an Olympic-sized bong during a University of South Carolina party last November.