Republicans are doing everything they can to protect the Bush tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans. They claim that they are doing this because ending these tax cuts would harm the economy.
But this claim isn’t new. In fact, it’s exactly what they said in the 1990′s, when Bill Clinton first increased taxes on the wealthy. Here’s some of the fear-mongering they engaged in then: [Read more…]
I don’t know if whoever is reading this has a place on earth that’s really dear to them, a spiritual place, a place that invigorates them. But I do have such a place, Sabino Canyon, in Tucson, my birth place.
Mi querida and I hiked there just the other day, the first day of December, in fact, the last month before doomsday if you want to listen to what a number of very spooked people say.
But an apocalypse was far from my mind on this soothing sunny day. I entered the grounds in a very good mood and that mood grew with each step I took as I ran the images of my stay in town through my mind. [Read more…]
By: Taylor Hill and Eston Ellis / The Log / December 6, 2012
Holiday boat parades are a treasured tradition in Southern California — and some boaters spend all year getting ready for them. Bringing together the right holiday decorations, lights and onboard spirit to “wow” the crowds of fellow boaters on the water and spectators on shore takes planning, cleverness and a lot of creativity.
But even if you haven’t been obsessing over your decorating scheme since July, there’s still time to join in the fun of this month’s annual holiday boat parades. String some lights, bring along some friends and family, and make your plan now to take part in one of the season’s top boating activities.
Whether this is your first year heading out to join in the festivities on the water or it’s an annual outing, you’re sure to find something new and exciting to see and do. From participating in a decorated boat parade to checking out all the waterfront homes decked out for the holidays on a moonlight cruise, boaters have many opportunities to make the season bright.
Bring a thermos full of hot spiced cider, a plate of fresh-baked cookies — and friends. You and your family will enjoy a fun-filled evening on the water, and warm holiday memories to treasure forever.
Here’s where to find this year’s holiday fun in San Diego County:
San Diego Bay Parade of Lights
When: Dec. 9 and 16, 5:30-9:30 p.m.
[Read more…]
By Howard
As a middle-aged professional man in San Diego, I began dating a few months after my divorce. And over the next few years, I dated dozens of women from the area – and a few from out of the area.
What I found during those years of dating was that something I call “middle-class sensitivities” got in the way of my efforts to develop genuine relationships with women. Even though I’m definitely from the middle-class, my life experience over the years before I became a professional took me on the road that many working class people travel – lowly-paid alienating jobs, worrying about having to pay bills, going from one paycheck to another, borrowing to pay the rent, etc.
So, I came to appreciate the outlook of working class people, people not accustomed to the vulgarities of middle class life, to its sensitivities, and people who look to the basics in life for their rewards and understandings of their society around them. Now, I am not – or at least try not to be — a male chauvinist pig; I picture myself a modern, urban and even urbane male, attuned to the centuries of second-class citizenship that women have suffered. [Read more…]
Polling Group Finds Support for Splitting Property Tax Rolls
The Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC) has been asking Californians what they think about issues and politics since 1998. Over time they’re work has become recognized as the gold standard for public opinion polling in the Golden State.
Yesterday they released the results of their 130th survey, taken shortly after the November elections, asking 2001 respondents about their outlook on the future, electoral reforms, potential fiscal, governance, and initiative reforms, the passage of Proposition 30, the state’s public higher education system, water policy, and elected officials’ handling of plans and policies for the state’s future.
And apparently voters are ready to consider a big change to Proposition 13, long considered a sacred cow in California politics. [Read more…]
A weekly column dedicated to sharing the best sights and activities in San Diego at the best price – free! We have a great city and you don’t need to break the bank to experience it.
December Nights – The Biggest Celebration in Town
Location: Balboa Park
Best For: Revelers, families, holiday cheer, San Diegans both native and adopted
Date & Time: Friday, December 7 (5 – 10 PM), Saturday, December 8 (Noon – 10 PM)
This Friday and Saturday mark the 35th annual December Nights celebration in Balboa Park. The event is expected to draw more than 300,000 people over the two-day stretch and is a great time to visit Balboa Park since most of the museums and other sights are free to visit. Additionally, there are is wide assortment of food and drink to enjoy and presentations of song and dance to take in. [Read more…]
By Money Out of Politics -San Diego – Special to the SDFP
On Tuesday, the San Diego City Council overwhelmingly endorsed a resolution to reverse Citizens United, the Supreme Court ruling that in 2010 allowed unrestricted political spending by corporations and unions.
The resolution was supported 8-0, as San Diego joins 350 cities and 12 states that have endorsed resolutions. This victory comes as a result of the hard work of a multitude of people and organizations, at the local forefront of which was Money Out of Politics/San Diego (MOP).
MOP is a local activist group that was initially born a year ago this month out of a Women Occupy San Diego meeting. The brainchild of Dianne Lane, MOP was joined by Pam Page, who, alongside Lane, has dedicated countless hours to the cause. [Read more…]
by Robert Reich
The “fiscal cliff” is a a metaphor for a government that no longer responds to the biggest challenges we face because it’s paralyzed by intransigent Republicans, obsessed by the federal budget deficit, and overwhelmed by big money from corporations, Wall Street, and billionaires.
If we had a functional government America would address three “cliffs” posing far larger dangers to us than the fiscal one:
The child poverty cliff.
Between 2007 and 2011, the percentage of American school-age children living in poor households grew from 17 to 21%. Last year, according to the Agriculture Department, nearly 1 in 4 young children lived in a family that had difficulty affording sufficient food at some point in the year.
Yet federal programs to help children and lower-income families – food stamps, aid for poor school districts, Pell grants, child health care, child nutrition, pre- and post-natal care, and Medicaid – are being targeted by the Republican right. Over 60 percent of the cuts in the GOP’s most recent budget came out of these programs.
Even if these programs are preserved, they don’t go nearly far enough. But the Obama Administration doesn’t talk about reducing poverty in America. It talks only about preserving the middle class. [Read more…]
by Liza Tucker/California Progress Report
Who would want two companies, Tesoro and Chevron, to control more than half of California’s gasoline market? Only people, like oil company executives, who think paying five dollars a gallon should be the new normal.
That could happen, though, if a deal goes through for Tesoro to buy BP’s refinery in Carson and its low-cost Arco brand. In California, the ninth largest economy in the world, gasoline refineries have shrunk from 32 in the mid-1980s to just 14, owned by only a handful of companies. The more consolidated a market, the more tempting it is to make more money by producing and selling less gasoline. California’s gasoline market is so consolidated that it is now geared to shortages and scarcity, which is why a few refinery outages and some scheduled refinery maintenance can cause a price spike of the sort you should only see in the wake of a real disaster. [Read more…]
Recently elected Mayor Bob Filner’s inaugural day assertion that “neighborhoods are the heart and soul of the city” was music to my City Heights ears. A great deal of resources need to be invested in neighborhoods and new community based voices need to play a pivotal role in defining those investments. This process can’t be business as usual.
I was still doing an inauguration day happy dance in my chair when I opened an email from City Heights Planning Area Committee resident board member Jim Varnadore. I was jarred from my happy place by its message that entrenched interests and ways of doing things do not disappear with a new mayor. [Read more…]
Challenged by a local activist at the District 4 inaugural party on Monday night to make fighting poverty a priority in his administration, newly elected Mayor Bob Filner responded by quoting President Franklin Roosevelt’s rejoinder to activists in the early days of the New Deal: “I agree with you, now make me do it.”
And that’s exactly what the Center for Policy Initiatives (CPI) is doing. They’ve launched a letter writing campaign seeking to gather 500 letters over the next week urging the Mayor to make poverty a priority in San Diego.
Data suggests that price spikes in May and October may have been the result of market manipulation and not supply shortages.
Back in 2000-2001, California—and San Diego in particular—fell victim to the price fixing schemes of a virtually unregulated electricity market. Back then the state became the center of the nation’s attention when the state’s electricity markets went absolutely kablooey (that’s a technical term). Electricity providers SDG&E, PG&E, and Southern California Edison were forced to sell off their production facilities as a part of then governor Pete Wilson’s grand deregulation experiment, in which San Diego was the guinea pig. The new owners of the generating plants smelled opportunity, and they took full advantage of it, creating a market-manipulation free-for-all that spiked prices and created huge profits for the companies who generated electricity.
