October 2012

Thumbnail image for Sex In San Diego: How I Lost Faith in the “Pro-Life” Movement

Sex In San Diego: How I Lost Faith in the “Pro-Life” Movement

by Source 10.31.2012 Activism

Patheos / By Libby Anne

The spring of my sophomore year of college I was president of my university’s Students for Life chapter. The fall of my junior year of college I cut my ties with the pro-life movement. Five years later I have lost the last shred of faith I had in that movement. This is my story.

I was raised in the sort of evangelical family where abortion is the number one political issue. I grew up believing that abortion was murder, and when I stopped identifying as pro-life I initially still believed that. Why, then, did I stop identifying as pro-life? Quite simply, I learned that increasing contraceptive use, not banning abortion, was the key to decreasing the number of abortions. Given that the pro-life movement focuses on banning abortion and is generally opposed to advocating greater contraceptive use, I knew that I no longer fit. I also knew that my biggest allies in decreasing the number of abortions were those who supported increased birth control use – in other words, pro-choice progressives. And so I stopped calling myself pro-life.

Read the full article → 4 comments
Thumbnail image for Busloads of Foreign Looking People and Fraudulent Voting Assistance: Paranoia at the Polls and the City Heights Vote

Busloads of Foreign Looking People and Fraudulent Voting Assistance: Paranoia at the Polls and the City Heights Vote

by Anna Daniels 10.31.2012 Activism

This past weekend I suddenly became conscious of a quotidian, unremarkable occurrence in City Heights. I was walking to the number 7 bus stop on University Avenue when a large van with the words Alliance for African Assistance turned down the street. Earlier that morning a mini-van pulled up next door with a small group that socializes regularly with my ethnic Chinese neighbors.

But this weekend I wondered if vans, mini-vans and even buses will be used to get citizens in City Heights to the polls on election day. I hope so.

Read the full article → 0 comments
Thumbnail image for Why Carl DeMaio Has Made San Diego the “Battleground City” for his Radical Privatization Agenda

Why Carl DeMaio Has Made San Diego the “Battleground City” for his Radical Privatization Agenda

by Frank Gormlie 10.31.2012 Activism

DeMaio Carries the Radical Right’s Agenda of the Private Ownership of (Our) Government

It was in the middle of April back in 2011, and a couple hundred local Republican bigwigs were holding a gala “unity night” at the Kona Kai on Shelter Island. Mayor Jerry Sanders was joining Republican Councilman Kevin Faulconer, other honchos and establishment types from the San Diego Chamber of Commerce, the Lincoln Club, the Taxpayers Association, plus cadres of right-wing activists – all coming together in an orgy of unified puffery. They had come together to celebrate the launch of a ballot initiative that would severely undercut the power of public sector unions to bargain for their members in San Diego.

One of the heroes and firebrands of the local rightwing, Carl DeMaio got up and made a speech. Somewhere in his spiel, he challenged the gathering with a question – a question that would define the coming year and months in San Diego. DeMaio – a City Councilman – called upon his audience and asked them: “Are you ready to make San Diego the Wisconsin of the West?” His fellow Republicans cheered. They were ready, as was described by the rightward SDRostra.com

Read the full article → 8 comments
Thumbnail image for The Starting Line – Zombie Attack in San Diego Underway

The Starting Line – Zombie Attack in San Diego Underway

by Doug Porter 10.31.2012 Columns

Halloween is more than a trick or treating event for hundreds of Marines, Navy special ops types, soldiers, police and firefighters in San Diego today as they confront a nightmarish invasion of the living dead.

The 44 acre Paradise Point Resort on Mission Bay will be the site of a Hollywood-style production of a zombie attack as part of an emergency response training program. It’s just one part of five-day counterterrorism summit run by the Halo Corporation as an approved training event by the Homeland Security Grant Program and the Urban Areas Security Initiative. Participants (or in most cases, government agencies) are coughing up a $1,000 registration fee. The session runs through Friday.

In keeping with the holiday aura surrounding this program, the keynote speaker at the conference is a retired top spook — former CIA Director Michael Hayden.

Read the full article → 0 comments
Thumbnail image for Sandra Fluke, My New Hero

Sandra Fluke, My New Hero

by Ernie McCray 10.31.2012 Activism

It was so nice at Balboa Park the other day. Sunny. Warm. Bright. People wearing smiles every where I looked. We were gathered at 6th and Laurel for a Rally for Women’s Health, featuring Sandra Fluke, a woman who gained fame for being shunned by a group with no shame who ran a sham they call the United States House of Representatives’ House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.

These Big Time Charlies wouldn’t let her speak to them about reproductive freedom for women because, according to them, she had no “expertise.” And she pretty much had to tell them “Hello! I’m a woman, you know, and how much ‘expertise’ y’all got regarding a woman’s needs, I might ask, considering that every single one of you is a man?” Not to mention, (to counter what their smartassed answer to the question is likely to be) men who have not evolved much when it comes to ways of thinking things female beyond their junior high days.

Read the full article → 6 comments
Thumbnail image for Advice to Bob Filner: Stop Vilifying Dean Spanos and the Chargers

Advice to Bob Filner: Stop Vilifying Dean Spanos and the Chargers

by Andy Cohen 10.30.2012 Politics

The San Diego mayoral candidate’s clumsy statements about the team owner are not helpful, or wise. Update: Watch KUSI Debate

I like Bob Filner. I think he’s been an outstanding representative of our region in Congress, and I think he’ll make a very good mayor. I’ve enjoyed the several interactions that I’ve had with him during his campaign for mayor. I think he’s the right candidate to look to in order to create a better economic environment for all of San Diego. This online publication recently endorsed Bob Filner, and I fully and completely support that endorsement. I wrote the damn thing, after all!

So yes, I will be voting for Bob Filner on Nov. 6. No question whatsoever about it.

There is one thing, though, that I do wish Filner would clean up his act about. During a debate last night on KUSI between Filner and his opponent, Carl DeMaio, the question was posed about the candidates’ support for a new stadium for the Chargers. Both opposed public subsidies, although DeMaio supports the idea of a sports entertainment complex that will include a new football stadium. “But it has to be privately funded,” he said.

Read the full article → 19 comments
Thumbnail image for The Starting Line – 17,000 Readers Said “No More”: UT-San Diego Sunday Circulation Plunges (UPDATED)

The Starting Line – 17,000 Readers Said “No More”: UT-San Diego Sunday Circulation Plunges (UPDATED)

by Doug Porter 10.30.2012 Business

Since taking over ownership of San Diego’s daily newspaper last year Publisher Doug Manchester and CEO John Lynch have responded to criticisms that their style of far right advocacy might be alienating readers by claiming that readership was rising.

Sorry guys. The people don’t love your act. The Audit Bureau of Circulation (ABC) numbers for the year ending this last September are in. Last years’ Sunday circulation beats this year’s Sunday circulation by 17,051 copies, including digital and ‘branded’ editions.

Sunday editions in the newspaper world are critical barometers. Sunday is the day that advertisers crave. Readers typically have more time to peruse the paper and copies of the paper are more likely to be shared. So losing readership on a Sunday is a big deal.

Read the full article → 2 comments
Thumbnail image for Fighting the Bias of the ‘Voice of San Diego’

Fighting the Bias of the ‘Voice of San Diego’

by Source 10.30.2012 Business

by Larry Remer

 How would you feel if you were a baseball player in the World Series and you found out that the first base umpire was on the payroll of the other team?

That’s kind of how I feel about the Voice of San Diego’s coverage of Proposition Z.

I am running the Yes on Prop. Z campaign; and for months I’ve sparred with reporters and editors from ‘Voice of San Diego’ about the negative slant of their coverage. And they just parried back and defended what they’d written, as reporters usually do when campaigns and public agencies complain their stories.

Read the full article → 29 comments
Thumbnail image for Women for Romney? (Plus: Official Republican Party Rape Advisory Chart)

Women for Romney? (Plus: Official Republican Party Rape Advisory Chart)

by Source 10.29.2012 Activism

By Kit-Bacon Gressitt

“How can women possibly vote for Romney and Ryan?” She looked dismayed, my friend, and I understood how she felt.

How indeed, with the 2012 campaigns’ incessant flow of prejudicial comments spewing from white, male Republican mouths to splatter women with such idiotic statements:

As, abortion is never medically necessary to save a woman’s life and “Health of the mother has become a tool for abortions anytime, under any reason” (Rep. Joe Walsh, running for re-election); pregnancy that results from rape is a “gift from God” (Richard Mourdock, U.S. Senate candidate*); “forcible rape” is just “stock language” (Rep. Paul Ryan, vice presidential candidate); “If it’s a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down” (Rep. Todd Akin, running for U.S. Senate);…

Read the full article → 7 comments
Thumbnail image for The Starting Line –Three Halloween Stories About Politics That Should Send Chills Up Your Spine

The Starting Line –Three Halloween Stories About Politics That Should Send Chills Up Your Spine

by Doug Porter 10.29.2012 Columns

Politics takes a back seat today as the nation casts its eyes towards the East Coast and mid-west , which are under assault by Hurricane Sandy barreling from the southeast and an early winter storm coming in from the northwest. Here on the left coast life goes on and there are headlines to report.

The Giants won, the Chargers suck and there are too many political commercials on TV this week. That about covers it for today.

In the absence of any major breaking news, I’m putting out three stories that illustrate what a tangled web the media can spin when it comes to politics.

Read the full article → 0 comments
Thumbnail image for Mitt Romney, Serene and Credible?

Mitt Romney, Serene and Credible?

by Ernie McCray 10.29.2012 Activism

After the last presidential debate the San Diego Union-Tribune waxed romantically about how serene Mitt Romney appeared to be and all I could think was:

What kind of HD do they have that can make a man who looked like he had chugged some unsweetened lemon juice, seem to be serene?

Wearing an expression on your face that’s like a cross between a smile and a grin – a “smin” perhaps – is not a picture of serenity. A bit too Cheshire Cat for me.

They followed that up by citing a poll that showed that 60 out of a 100 voters thought Romney had looked credible, aka pretty good, on national security and I wondered “Should these people be voting?”

Read the full article → 12 comments

Hey Obama Democrats, Don’t Get Fooled Again: DeMaio and His Big Money Friends Are Out to Screw San Diego and Ruin California

by Jim Miller 10.29.2012 Editor's Picks

 “We have a conservative movement that has learned, over the decades, to mimic many of the characteristics of its enemies.”  ~ Thomas Frank

During the run-up to the June primary Carl DeMaio used a quote from one of my OB Rag columns in a mailer attacking Nathan Fletcher that implied the Rag’s support for his candidacy.  My response was a column, “Carl DeMaio is a Dangerous, Mean-Spirited Liar and Other Tales of Fear and Loathing in San Diego” where I observed:

As Frank Gormlie noted in an OB Rag piece last Saturday, Carl DeMaio used a pull quote from one of my OB Rag columns describing Nathan Fletcher as a “Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing” . . . What is not at all surprising here is that DeMaio uses my piece and the OB Rag logo out of context, without permission, implying our endorsement of him.  That kind of sleazy, unethical behavior is his raison d’etre.  .

Read the full article → 1 comment
Thumbnail image for We’ve Changed Our Minds about Prop 35, but NOT about Sex Trafficking

We’ve Changed Our Minds about Prop 35, but NOT about Sex Trafficking

by Staff 10.28.2012 Voter Guide 2012

Editor’s Note: During a meeting of the SDFP Editorial Board this afternoon, some of us expressed reservations regarding our stand, as a group, on a YES endorsement of Proposition 35. We agreed that we would do more research and report back. Below are the opinions of two of our members, whose views mirror my own and are expressed much more eloquently. ~ Editor du Jour, Patty Jones

SDFP Editorial Board Member Anna Daniels

Wading through the propositions on the ballot this year required both time and effort.  I have felt largely confident about the positions I had taken on issues and candidates, except for Prop 35, the anti-sex trafficking initiative.  Along with the other SDFP editors, I had cast my vote in favor of the initiative, although it was apparent that there could potentially be fall-out for individual lives and broader civil liberties that I definitely would not support.

Come inside for the details…

Read the full article → 20 comments
Thumbnail image for Field of View: Kayaking Along La Jolla Shores

Field of View: Kayaking Along La Jolla Shores

by Annie Lane 10.28.2012 Field of View

If you’re looking for something fun to do that gets you beyond the beach but not soaking wet, kayaking is one such activity.

La Jolla Kayak offers a 2-hour tour in a single or double kayak along the La Jolla shoreline. Each tour is led by two guides that are great at a little educational humor, and offers the opportunity to enter a sea cave and learn about the wildlife inhabiting our local natural reserve, which is a part of University of California system. On this trip I saw sea lions galore, cormorants and pelicans–but turtles, Garibaldis (California’s state fish), tiger sharks and dolphins also frequent the area.

All photos by Annie Lane.

Read the full article → 6 comments
Thumbnail image for Anti-Nuke Activists Claim Victory as PUC Orders Finanical Probe of San Onofre

Anti-Nuke Activists Claim Victory as PUC Orders Finanical Probe of San Onofre

by Frank Gormlie 10.28.2012 Activism

On the facebook page of a well-known anti-nuke activist was this:

VICTORY! Financial probe of San Onofre nuclear power plant approved!

 The California Public Utilities Commission voted 5-0 today (Thursday) to institute an “OII” instituting a an “order of investigation” into costs and issues raised by the extended outage of San Onofre Nuclear Plant Units 2 and 3. Congratulations to all who turned out today to urge the PUC to take this action! The Scope and extent of the OII was/is NOT a foregone conclusion—our grassroots spotlight on this is building the momentum for REAL investigation and substantive action. Our coalition’s press conference was well attended.

Read the full article → 2 comments
Thumbnail image for The 2012 Elections: Vital Issues That Affect Latinos

The 2012 Elections: Vital Issues That Affect Latinos

by Source 10.28.2012 Education

By Jimmy Franco Sr./LatinPOV.com

The growing Latino population within the country has now reached 50 million people of which 24 million are registered to vote. This population is predominantly located within the large urban areas and in the key political states of New York, California, Texas and Florida. This is a generally young population which works and pays taxes that benefit all of our society and will do so for many years to come.

It is this youthful sector within our society that will play a particularly important role in the country’s future by working and supporting the growing number of retired and elderly persons by paying taxes into Social Security, Medicare and other government programs which will bolster the country’s social safety net.

Read the full article → 0 comments
Thumbnail image for Debunked: 6 Lies That Biotech and Big Food Are Telling Voters About Prop 37

Debunked: 6 Lies That Biotech and Big Food Are Telling Voters About Prop 37

by Source 10.28.2012 Activism

By Katherine Paul, Ronnie Cummins / AlterNet

Since Oct. 1, Monsanto and the rest of the Biotech and Big Food gang have been pounding the California airwaves with nearly $36 million worth of boldface lies and twisted truths.

Their goal? Misinform and confuse California voters into believing they’d be better off not knowing what pesticide-makers are hiding in their foods, than they would be if food manufacturers had to label genetically modified foods.

The ads are having an impact. After enjoying a 26-point lead for the past six months, the YES on 37 campaign has dropped 19 points in the polls.

But the YES team is fighting back, calling out the lies. And the liars.

Read the full article → 0 comments
Thumbnail image for What Retired People Do to Make Their Days Interesting :)

What Retired People Do to Make Their Days Interesting :)

by Staff 10.28.2012 Satire

Working people frequently ask retired people what they do to make their days interesting.

Well, for example, the other day, Kate, my wife and I went into town and visited a shop.

When we came out, there was a cop writing out a parking ticket.
We went up to him and I said,
‘Come on, man, how about giving a senior citizen a break?’

Read the full article → 5 comments
Thumbnail image for Romney’s Job Creation Plan That No One Is Talking About

Romney’s Job Creation Plan That No One Is Talking About

by John Lawrence 10.27.2012 Government

Mitt Romney has a jobs creation plan if he becomes President, alright. But no one, including Mitt Romney himself, is talking about it.

Remember the $2 trillion he wants to spend on the military? That $2 trillion he wants to spend on the military which the Pentagon doesn’t even want (but Defense contractors certainly do) translates into a huge jobs program.

What Romney is really advocating here is more government spending, but government spending of the right wing socialism (otherwise known as fascism) sort: a military buildup, exactly the kind of military buildup that got Hitler’s Germany and Roosevelt’s America out of the Great Depression.

Read the full article → 6 comments
Thumbnail image for Coverup No More: Shocking Photos and Emails of Dead Wildlife from Gulf of Mexico Spill Emerge

Coverup No More: Shocking Photos and Emails of Dead Wildlife from Gulf of Mexico Spill Emerge

by Source 10.27.2012 Activism

Some two and a half years after the BP oil spill, Greenpeace has obtained emails and photos from a U.S. government agency that reveal the extent to which the government tried to shield the public from the wildlife casualties of the spill.

The Guardian reports that the FOIA-obtained documents show that shortly after the Deepwater Horizon disaster the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) witnessed several whales coated in oil near the site of the spill and one large sperm whale that had died.

[T]he discovery of the decomposed carcass set off a flurry of emails – with repeated instructions from NOAA officials to crew aboard the Pisces not to release information or photographs.

Read the full article → 0 comments

← Older Articles