By Doug Porter
An ongoing fast by immigration activists just steps from the Capitol building in Washington DC continues to grow, both in participants and impact. The news media around the country has begun to notice, with prominent stories posted in the Washington Post and at National Public Radio.
The four original protesters—who had consumed nothing but water since November 12th—yielded to the concerns of medical personnel yesterday, handing their protest over to Rep. Joe Kennedy (D-Mass.), the first of a series of lawmakers to participate in the fast.
Kennedy will be replaced by San Diego’s Rep. Juan Vargas today. House Majority leader Rep. John Boehner and other Republicans have declined invitations to meet with the protesters.
Although lobbyists and business leaders have urged to House of Representatives to take action before the end of the year, the GOP leadership has indicated they’ll have to wait until a budget agreement is enacted in mid-January. And even then, they’re not willing to go on the record to say immigration reform will get consideration.
The debate over immigration overhaul is at a standstill in Congress even as lobbyists, business and faith leaders have pressed House lawmakers to take action before the end of the year. The bill passed by the Senate earlier continues to languish, as do the piecemeal measures favored by various House Republicans.
From the Washington Post:
That means that if Rudy Lopez and dozens of other immigration activists are true to their word, they will continue to protest and fast on the eastern edge of the Mall, just steps from the Capitol, for at least the next several weeks. The protest was launched by labor and immigration activists last month. They have set up four large tents equipped with WiFi access and a “community space” for visitors, including President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama, who stopped by last Friday. Thousands of “solidarity fasters” across the country have pledge to fast for several days at a time until Congress enacts new immigration laws.
Lopez, a senior organizer with the Fair Immigration Reform Movement, showed up two weeks ago and joined the fast . His last meal was a bag of potato chips — an unhealthy choice, he admits, but he decided to fast only after he visited the site.
“We’re way beyond the point of whether this makes sense or not,” Lopez said in an interview. “There’s universal agreement that our [immigration] system doesn’t work and we need to fix it. We believe that the urgency of doing this now is more pressing than ever, and that’s why we decided to do this.”
Reps. Hunter, Issa Named in Obama Impeachment Story
via TheSleuthJournal.com
Columnist Dana Milbank reports that some Congressional Republicans are desperate enough to be considering Articles of Impeachment.
History will record that on Tuesday, Dec. 3, 2013, the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on the Judiciary met to consider the impeachment of Barack Hussein Obama.
They didn’t use that word, of course. Republican leaders frown on such labeling because it makes the House majority look, well, crazy.
It is, Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) said from the dais, “the word that we don’t like to say in this committee, and I’m not about to utter here in this particular hearing.”
Milbank points out that “at least 13 of 22 Republicans have threatened or hinted at impeachment of Obama, his appointees or his allies in Congress.”
Here’s the list of House GOPer’s chafing at the bit to make “loud but ineffectual noises about high crimes and misdemeanors”:
- Rep. Steve Stockman (R-Tex.), has distributed proposed Articles of Impeachment.
- Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.), accused Obama of “impeachable offenses.”
- Rep. Trey Radel (R-Drug Bust), impeaching Obama over gun policy.
- Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.) Obama’s threat to bomb Syria .
- Rep. Kerry Bentivolio (R-Mich.), says it would be his “dream come true” to write the Articles of Impeachment.
- Rep. Bill Flores (R-Tex.), “the House had an impeachment vote it would probably impeach the president.”
- Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah), over Benghazi
- Reps Louie Gohmert (R-Tex.) and King (R-Iowa), default on the debt
- Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), presidential patronage
- Rep. Trent Franks (R-Ariz.), Defense of Marriage Act enforcement
UT-San Diego Cited in Paid Links Story
Two years ago reporter Hamilton Nolan wrote about blog sites getting paid on the QT by companies looking for internet search engine love. The practice of going to site owners seems to have abated. Companies named in the story as participants like Dell and Technorati vigorously denied involvement in pay to play schemes.
Now Nolan is back on the case, reporting on an updated version, via Gawker. He was contacted by a marketing outfit calling itself Backlink.us, who offered cash payments in return for dropping seemingly innocent links into stories. We’ll jump into the story at the point where “Rock” responds to Nolan’s notion that he’ll have to talk with his boss about the idea.
We are looking to establish relationships with authors directly. Sure, run it by your boss, but he will most probably said you can’t do it because the company will want a piece of the pie. That is why we are looking for direct relationships to authors. : In any case, let us know if you decide to want to work with us. We would be happy to have you in our team and you would probably also happy with earnings some more money each month by doing what you are doing.
Regards, Rock.
I asked again for some examples of where it had been done. Rock sent me this link to a contributor’s post on AllVoices.com. I asked for more, and he sent me three: This post on Yahoo’s “Voices” network by Karine Heyden, a “professional writer/blogger with many happy clients”; this post on Blogcritics.org by “world traveled analyst” Henry Buell; and this news story on Examiner.com by “book marketing specialist” Tamica Bonner.
I asked Rock if there were any examples on larger sites.
Hey Hamilton – thanks for responding. Yes, we are doing this on HuffingtonPost, ChicagoTribune, UTSanDiego and other such big news sites so the Gawker wouldn’t be any different… The compensation would be $50-$80 per post that you write. How does that sound?
Companies like Backlink are the reason why we here at San Diego Free Press use a program to fend off five to ten thousand attempts each day to add corporate plugs to our comments sections from companies selling stuff like counterfeit Uggs.
I’m not saying UT-SanDiego’s management has anything to do with scum like Backlink. Their program is to target the kind of freelancers used by the paper to fill up their fluff sections. I’d just be real careful about clicking links at UT-SanDiego’s website.
Barrio Logan Plan Fight Headed Back to City Council
Yesterday Superior Court Judge Jeffrey Barton denied a request for a temporary restraining order by the Environmental Health Coalition that would have prevented the city of San Diego from acting on petitions circulated by opponents of the Barrio Logan Community Plan.
From KPBS:
The San Diego Ship Repair Association submitted the signatures, contending the update to the Barrio Logan Community Plan — which was approved by the City Council on a pair of 5-4 votes in September and October — will drive suppliers to shipyards out of the area.
The coalition, which helped developed the zoning regulations and supports the update, accused the association’s signature gatherers of falsely representing the issues.
The judge acknowledged a high legal standard for intervening in electoral and legislative processes.
The Environmental Health Coalition issued a press release in response to the judge’s ruling:
“Judge Barton’s decision is not a reflection of the strength of our case. We had a very high legal standard to overcome for this small step,” explains Livia Borak, EHC’s lawyer. “We’re still gathering our evidence and we have confidence in our lawsuit to expose the illegal misrepresentation of the plan and intentional deception of voters in the pursuit of signatures.”
Now it is crucial that San Diego City Council reaffirm their vote for the democratically approved plan, which came to them after five years and over fifty community meetings. . EHC strongly urges Councilmembers not give in to political nor financial pressures in the next few weeks so the plan can move to the ballot for a voter decision next year.
“Big, out-of-state corporations flaunt their money and lies to undo a community- and council-approved plan that would benefit a long-neglected part of San Diego, including the workers of the maritime industry,” says EHC Executive Director Diane Takvorian. “Everyone has the right to live in a neighborhood free of toxic pollution, and we will fight those that want to silence the community’s voice.”
EHC will move forward with its lawsuit in the coming weeks while imploring City Council to continue to stand for democracy and prove San Diego is a city that cares about all of its communities.
Motive for Arrest of OB Hedgecutter: Revenge, Maybe?
It was all lovey-dovey earlier this week as the District Attorney’s office announced that felony charges against OB resident Vince Adame would be dismissed.
Adame (suitably attired in an OB Rag tee shirt) and Attorney Frank Gormlie (who moonlights as an editor for both SD Free Press and OB Rag) held a press conference yesterday in Ocean Beach.
From the OB Rag account of that presser, penned by Matthew Wood:
Whatever the case may be, the fight looks to be over. There is an official ending in a San Diego court room on Thursday, the 5th. It is a fitting end to an OB battle on Tuesday, in a scene that could only happen in our quirky part of town.
Gormlie, clad in a Hawaiian shirt and sports jacket, and Adame in his OB Rag t-shirt, spoke to the throng of media – four local television news stations were present, along with the U-T, Reader and other supporters. As they did, assorted locals strolled by. A man in a truck pulled up behind and stared at the cameras, hoping for his 15 seconds of fame. One of Adame’s cats even made an appearance, weaving its way between the legs of cameramen before jumping on the roof of his house just a few feet away.
San Diego Reader reporter Dave Rice went digging for a motive in this seemingly implausible miscarriage of justice.
Adame has indeed drawn the ire of many in the community, as he has lodged complaints against the handful of annual festivals that convert the pier parking lot into a concert venue. And Adame has taken an abrasive tone in his dealings with the city and police over the presence of a police trailer in the parking lot.
Adame contends that the trailer is there illegally — which is true, due to the fact that the California Coastal Commission has never permitted the trailer’s permanent installation; it has reportedly been in the parking lot since 1999.
“For years, I’ve been trying to move that trailer that’s blocking the view,” said Adame. “This [attempted prosecution] is about getting back at me,” he continued, naming two officers he believed were responsible for the charges.
Today’s War on Christmas Update
Via Jason Sattler at the National Memo:
The pretend ‘War on Christmas‘ is even more contentious than usual this year.
As Rush Limbaugh was busy lecturing the Pope on the true meaning of Christianity, the National Republican Congressional Committee decided to remove a shirt that mocked liberals for saying “Happy Holidays,” after being reminded — possibly by House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) — that not everyone in America is Christian. And Sarah Palin’s screed on the sanctity of Christmas was outsold online on Black Friday by comic Rob Delaney’sintentionally funny new book.
But there’s still time for Warriors for Christmas to battle back.
To help in the never-ending effort to defend the nation’s most popular and least threatened holiday, the American Family Association has issued a helpful “Naughty or Nice?” list of the friends and enemies of Christmas.
On This Day: 1918 – President Woodrow Wilson set sail for France to attend the Versailles Peace Conference. Wilson became the first chief executive to travel to Europe while in office. 1971 – The Montreaux Casino was destroyed by fire during a show by Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention.1980 – The bodies of four American nuns slain in El Salvador two days earlier were unearthed. Five national guardsmen were later convicted of the murders.
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Doug Porter
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Juan Vargas fasting for immigration reform? What a joke! How about he do something for the residents of Barrio Logan who are fighting against maritime industry’s land grab? An industry that has been polluting this community for decades. We are his constituents yet he came out opposed to the community plan update and for the shipbuilders. I wonder how many campaign contributions he has received from them?
You know that link hawker admitted he just lied about his connection to the U-T: “I just randomly chose three large media companies and said I worked with them but actually don’t.” In fact, we have no connection with this guy.
I’m not surprised he now denies it. Everybody named in Nolan’s first story denied being in this shady business.
I made it perfectly clear that I didn’t think UTSD mgt had any connection with him or his company.
But…, based on the number of “offers” I see every day from SEO specialists, I don’t think there’s anyway we can know for sure if even SDFP isn’t inadvertently including hawked links. (Except that we’re completely non-commercial, maybe…we hope…)