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The Fallacy of the “Non-Partisan” Lincoln Club

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Endorsement of Carl DeMaio over Scott Peters washes away any pretense of the club’s non-partisanship.

By Andy Cohen

The Lincoln Club yesterday formally endorsed Carl DeMaio in his quest to unseat freshman Democratic Congressman Scott Peters in the not-yet-begun 2014 52nd Congressional District in San Diego. Not exactly a huge surprise there. The Lincoln Club is a right wing, conservative organization that typically endorses conservative Republican candidates for office. What is surprising, however, is the claim by a Lincoln Club spokesman that it is a “non-partisan,” pro-business organization.

This came as a complete shock to me. “The Lincoln Club is populated by R’s, D’s, and DTS who all share a common thread—business interests,” wrote spokesman Tony Manolatos in response to an email expressing my faux “shock” at the club’s release announcing that they were “critical of Filner’s behavior.”   [Read more…]

Olympic Bid is Perfect Opportunity to Address Chargers Stadium Quest

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Discussions should start now to plan for Olympic stadium, regardless of bid’s success.

By Andy Cohen

San Diego Mayor Bob Filner wants to bring the Olympics to San Diego. Actually, he wants to bring the Olympics to San Diego and Tijuana.

This is not exactly news if you follow local politics at all. Filner has been rather vocal about his desire to bring the 2024 games to America’s Finest City, and even more adamant about it being a bi-national effort.

“Within a week we will announce our bi-national committee, the chairs and the membership from both Tijuana and San Diego,” said Filner last week during his periodic “Pen and Paper” session with the local media in response to a question about his proposal. There are outlines and timelines drawn up already, there has been contact with the various Olympic Committees, drafts of logos, among other things. “It’s really been moving along,” said Filner.   [Read more…]

San Diego’s Museum of Man Tackles the Role of Torture in Post 9/11 America

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The Balboa Park museum presents “Taking a Stand Against Torture,” a discussion of America’s “enhanced interrogation” techniques deployed in the aftermath of 9/11.

By Andy Cohen

Torture has been a part of human behavior since the beginning of time. It is a tool to exert control, dominance over another human being. In the modern era its primary use has been as an interrogation technique—extracting information from enemies.

It is almost universally recognized that torture is a savage practice, the results of which are questionable at best. Psychological experts have determined that there comes a point in a person’s suffering that they will say anything; admit to anything to make the infliction of pain stop. Information extracted under these circumstances, therefore, becomes useless. But that hasn’t stopped the practice.

  [Read more…]

San Diego Professor Taking Global Warming Fight to the Markets

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A successful effort to convince CalSTRS to divest in fossil fuel stocks would be first significant economic victory in fight against global warming.

By Andy Cohen

Most people accept that global warming is real and that it’s happening. But even for those who continue to willfully deny the facts right underneath their noses, it is getting more and more difficult to ignore the increased frequency and intensity of the superstorms that have devastated our landscape.

The arguments against global warming are almost nonsensical, ranging from “God would never allow it” theology to ideological orthodoxy. Since global warming is the major threat to the recession proof oil and gas industry—an industry that represents enormous power and influence with the ability to sway policy on a whim—many climate change deniers simply reject the abundance of empirical evidence out of their own economic self interest. The decline of the oil and gas industry, after all, in their mind, is the demise of the Western World’s entire economic existence. Oil provides the energy that makes the world go ‘round. What would we do without it?

To the true believers, fossil fuels are, and will continue to be, the lynchpin to the American and global economies.   [Read more…]

DeMaio Runs for Congress

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Carl DeMaio announces bid to challenge Democratic freshman Congressman Scott Peters.

By Andy Cohen

It’s official. Carl DeMaio has announced his bid to challenge freshman incumbent Scott Peters for the 52nd Congressional District seat in central San Diego. The right wing/Tea Party conservative who lost his mayoral bid to one of the most liberal candidates ever to seek the top job at City Hall now has set his sights on the left-of-center consensus builder who took down a long time Republican incumbent Brian Bilbray, who was only slightly less conservative than DeMaio.

Congress is broken, he tells us, and he’s just the guy to go and fix it.

“If we want better results from Washington, we have to change the people we send there and impose new rules to govern the way we operate,” said DeMaio in a press release announcing his candidacy.   [Read more…]

Legislation Via Ballot Initiative Still Paralyzes State Government

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California State Senate buries SB 241, oil and gas severance tax initiative. CMED ballot measure still alive.

By Andy Cohen

My colleague Doug Porter yesterday wrote in his “The Starting Line” headline that “The first step toward a balanced budget is getting Republicans out of office.” We’ve seen here in California over the last several years that, with today’s Republican Party completely devoid of ideas or any willingness to actually govern, he certainly has a point. It has proven to be a necessary first step toward undoing the legislative gridlock deliberately created by “The Party of No.” That is at least until the Republicans decide to remove the pointy hats from their heads and come out from the corner to join the rest of the class.

But to simply say that the Democratic supermajorities in the Assembly and the State Senate is to be credited with California’s newfound budgetary resurgence is to give state Democrats far too much credit. In fact, it hasn’t been the goings on in state capitol at all that that should be commended for the state’s economic recovery. At least not as far as the Legislature goes.   [Read more…]

District 4 City Council Race: Character Matters

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San Diego City Council runoff election boils down to a question of the character of the two candidates.

By Andy Cohen

Today is election day for the San Diego City Council District 4 special election. It has been quite a wild ride, particularly since Myrtle Cole stormed to the top of a very crowded primary field. The favorite from the get-go, Dwayne Crenshaw, the longtime San Diego politico and a familiar face in City Hall circles finished a surprisingly distant second, but due to the sheer number of candidates in the primary field, Cole still managed to finish with less than 50%+1 of the vote, triggering today’s runoff.

Both candidates are highly qualified for the office. Both candidates are likely to side strongly with the Democratic bloc of the City Council, and both candidates are likely to be more supportive of Mayor Bob Filner’s agenda than some of the more “centrist” current Democratic members of the City Council. I know, I know…..the San Diego City Council is officially supposed to be non-partisan, but that’s not the reality, and the fact that today’s special election will restore a one vote majority to the Democrats on the council is significant.

But that’s not the issue here. The real issue is one of character. Character matters. In fact, I would argue that character is the one thing that matters most when voters choose their elected representatives to government. If we can’t trust our elected officials to hold true to their word and to work in the best interests of the communities who hired them in the first place, then we cannot trust our government, period.   [Read more…]

Red Scare: The GOP and the Politics of Fear

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From prison realignment to Benghazi, fringe conspiracy theories and fearmongering remain the tools of choice in California Republicans’ quest to regain power.

By Andy Cohen

“We have serious problems to solve, and we need serious people to solve them,” said the fictional President Shepherd of his would be Republican opponent Bob Rumson. “And whatever your particular problem is I promise you Bob Rumson is not the least bit interested in solving it. He is interested in two things, and two things only: Making you afraid of it, and telling you who’s to blame for it.”

It was true back then in 1995 when Aaron Sorkin brought “The American President” to the screen, and God bless them, the GOP is still playing to type today. And we’re not just talking about national Republicans like Rand Paul and Ted Cruz and the NRA who are petrified that at any moment Nancy Pelosi is going to come charging through their doors and confiscate their Buck knives.   [Read more…]

City Attorney Launches Lawsuit Against Water Board, Owners of Tank Farm

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Toxic plume of gasoline has contaminated Qualcomm Stadium property for 27 years.

by Andy Cohen

San Diego City Attorney Jan Goldsmith announced yesterday that the City of San Diego has filed a lawsuit against the San Diego Regional Water Quality Control Board and Kinder Morgan Energy Partners of Houston, Texas, the owner of the massive gasoline tank farm adjacent to the Qualcomm Stadium property, over contamination of Murphy Canyon Creek, the San Diego River, and ultimately, San Diego beaches.

It’s a suit nearly 27 years in the making, since the first plumes of gasoline began leaking from the tank farm in 1986.

“The City of San Diego is the victim here,” said Goldsmith in making the announcement. “Justice has not been done for this victim.”

Goldsmith was joined by City Council Members Sherri Lightner, Kevin Faulconer, Marti Emerald, and Scott Sherman. “We’re here today unanimous in support of the city to say ‘enough is enough!” said Faulconer.   [Read more…]

The Obama Approach to the Presidency

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Liberal fantasies about Obama’s power to bend intransigent Republicans in Congress to his will are not helping.

by Andy Cohen

President Obama has come under fire recently.  Which is not surprising given the blatant partisanship of Republicans in Congress.  It’s a matter of course that the Fox News’, Red States and World Net Dailies of the world would be quick to pile on Obama as a “failure.”  But what is surprising is that this time the fire is of the “friendly” variety, coming from more liberal bloggers and opinion writers.  The Senate’s failure to pass the Manchin-Toomey gun background checks bill, the uproar of criticism toward Obama headed toward a fever pitch.

The cavalcade began with New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd and her piercing commentary about how it’s Obama’s job “to get them (Congress) to behave.”  The liberal doubters—nay, Progressive doubters—took that as the green light to pile on, and the avalanche had begun.   [Read more…]

Initiative Seeks to Bring California In Line with Other Oil Producing States

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Californians for Responsible Economic Development pushing ballot initiative to create oil and gas severance tax

by Andy Cohen

North Dakota does it. Louisiana does it. Florida too, and Alaska. Even Texas has an oil and gas severance tax, which largely funds state government there. Alaska is almost entirely dependent on their oil severance tax.

But in California, no such tax exists. California, unlike just about every other oil producing state in the U.S., practically gives away its natural resources to private industry. That could change, however, by way of the 2014 midterm elections.

The group Californians for Responsible Economic Development hopes to bring an initiative to California voters in 2014 that will impose a 9.5% severance tax on any and all oil and natural gas extracted from California land or coastal waters, a fairly modest proposal in comparison to other states. The fee in North Dakota, for example, is 11.5%. In Louisiana the rate tacks up to 12.5%. In Alaska, oil companies are dinged at the rate of 25-50% of the net value of the oil and gas extracted. California is clearly missing out on a massive revenue opportunity for state coffers.   [Read more…]

Federal Government Should Carefully Consider Whether Aid Warranted in West, Texas

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Texans want limited government, their wishes should be fulfilled in West.

The explosion in West was ultimately caused by a failure of oversight in deference to private industry. This was a private company acting irresponsibly, not a natural disaster. The explosion was caused by an excessive amount of ammonium nitrate on the site. Ammonium nitrate is a primary component of some large bombs used by terrorists, including the bomb used by Timothy McVeigh to blow up the federal building in Oklahoma City.

The plant also reportedly had no automatic shutoff system, no firewall, and no sprinkler system. Safety for the workers and the surrounding community was obviously not any kind of priority.

It stands to reason, then, that the owners of the private West Fertilizer Company should be held responsible for the damage they caused, not the taxpayers. After all, that’s what the Conservatives in Texas want—for business to be able to do what business does best. That also means, however, being held entirely accountable when they screw up, which is not something Conservatives have been very good at. Apparently it’s not in the Republican lexicon.   [Read more…]

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