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San Diego All-Stars Defeat LA City All-Stars 24-17 in Westlake Village

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Some of the best senior football players from around San Diego County traveled up to Northern Los Angeles, arrive back home the victors.

It was a rocky start for the team from San Diego. Los Angeles took control of the game in their opening offensive series, covering the final 38 yards on a halfback pass that was nearly intercepted by Point Loma safety Zach Eischen, but instead fell right into the hands of LA’s Bijon Parker (Fairfax High) who darted the final 20 yards to the end zone. 7-0 Los Angeles.

The San Diegans looked to answer right back when St. Augustine’s Dominic Morgan took the ensuing kickoff 97 yards to the LA three yard line. But the San Diego offense was unable to capitalize, and was forced to settle for a 27 yard field goal by Madison’s Anthony Herrera. 7-3 Los Angeles.   [Read more…]

The United States has a Massive, Crippling Spending Addiction…Or Not

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Government spending is at historical low levels despite hysterical insistence to the contrary

Last week Congress struck a deal on the fiscal cliff deal that staved off tax increases to the still-struggling middle class. It wasn’t exactly the deal most Democrats expected, but it did at least temporarily solve a self-inflicted crisis. But the fight over the fiscal cliff tax rates was only the beginning of the battle for America’s fiscal soul, and the lines are already being drawn via Republican puffery on the debt ceiling and the sequestration cuts that were put off for two months. The arguments on the Republican side are getting more and more ridiculous, and sounding more and more desperate.

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The Starting Line(ish): New Year’s Eve Fiscal Cliff Edition

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Fiscal cliff talks go to the brink, as lawmakers are optimistic for a deal; yet Republicans lack any incentive to deal; Huntsman: “GOP devoid of a soul.”; Hillary Clinton hospitalized; Turner, Smith, dismissed from Chargers

Congress remained in session over the weekend as Republican and Democratic leaders met throughout in an effort to stave off the looming slip over the edge of the fiscal cliff (or curb or slope). If a deal is not struck by midnight tonight (New Year’s Eve), all of the Bush tax cuts will expire—not just for the top 2% of earners—and hundreds of billions in draconian budget cuts will be automatically enacted.

The current fiscal cliff deal is the result of negotiations a year ago between the White House and the Gang of 12 SuperCongress, a group made of six legislators from each party, and from both chambers of Congress. The sequestration deal (or fiscal cliff/curb/slope) was put into place as a sort of poison pill; an incentive for the SuperCongress to actually come to a deal.

It didn’t work. Republicans never had any intention of negotiating in good faith, and here we are today.   [Read more…]

The Starting Line(ish): Got Milk? Got $8 for a Gallon?

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Farm bill impasse in Congress could cause prices of dairy products to skyrocket; the do-nothingest Congress in history; San Diego poised to lose state funding for construction projects; Issa’s witch hunts to continue; Obama thriftiest president since Eisenhower

Prices for a gallon of milk stand to rise from a current average of around $3.65 to $6 to $8 per gallon, according to a report in the NY Times. That’s because of an impasse in Congress (of course) that is stalling the passage of a new farm bill. The Senate has already passed its version of the bill last July. The House has yet to bring its own version to the floor.

Without a new farm bill, according to the report, the government would be forced to follow a farm law enacted in 1949 that would require the federal government to purchase milk at prices that would be determined by production costs…..from 1949. Adjusted for inflation and other factors, that would amount to more than double the current price. Keep in mind that production costs 60 years ago were a lot higher because milk production was done almost exclusively by hand.

If Congress fails to act (which is likely…..more on that later), then dairy companies would be forced to look for alternative sources for their milk, such as importing it from New Zealand.   [Read more…]

The Starting Line(ish): Filner Rips Congress … All of Them

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Mayor Bob Filner calls out dysfunctional Congress; Starbuck’s embarks on a “Come Together” campaign; Wingnuts decry Sandy Hook as a government conspiracy; Balboa Park Golf Course getting a makover

In an interview yesterday with KPCC, the Los Angeles area public radio station, San Diego Mayor Bob Filner pulled no punches in criticizing Congress and the Congressional leaders he left behind after 20 years to run for Mayor.

The bottom line, the reason he chose to run for mayor instead of returning to Congress for what would have been his 11th term, was the same thing Filner said to SDFP colleague Annie Lane and I when we sat down with the then mayoral candidate back in April for the OB Rag: Congress is a complete, dysfunctional mess.

The mantra of shrinking government down to a size “where you can drown it in a bathtub,” as Grover Norquist likes to say, became the overriding principle in the House in 1994 when Newt Gingrich first became Speaker. Since then—and especially since 2010—it’s only gotten worse.

“I couldn’t believe the kind of people who had come and taken power,” Filner said of the Tea Party wave that took control of the House. “Many of them had never had any government experience. They had no respect as it were for government per se. I mean, I don’t know why you run for government office with the intent to close up government.”   [Read more…]

The Starting Line(ish): Armed Coup at FreedomWorks

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FreedomWorks nearly falls apart during armed mutiny; NRA leverages massacres to ramp up gun sales; Changes could be coming to San Diego billboard ordinances; #17 Aztecs fall to #3 Wildcats

You just can’t make this stuff up. As you may or may not know, the TEA Party Astroturf group FreedomWorks has been going through a bit of turmoil lately. Most of the group’s troubles only came to light after the Nov. 6 election. Still, even though this is fringe right wing politics—we’re talking the nuttiest of the nutty—no one expected Dick Armey to come marching into FreedomWorks HQ with an armed escort to conduct a hostile takeover. Even in TEA Party politics that seemed like a bit much.

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The Starting Line(ish): Gun Porn Edition

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NRA’s Wayne LaPierre proves that yes, he is crazy; SDG&E efforts to pass 2007 wildfire costs to customers thwarted (for now); UCSD Med Students pledge funds for free clinics; #18/15 Aztecs roll to finals of Diamond Head Classic

As if last Friday’s press conference—in which he fielded no questions—wasn’t bad/damaging enough, National Gun Fetish Association (otherwise known as the NRA) chief Wayne LaPierre took to the airwaves again on Sunday morning to plead his and his organization’s case…..or to further prove how absolutely batshit crazy he is. It’s hard to tell exactly which.

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The Starting Line(ish): A Gun In Every School

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NRA to push for guns in schools; Speaker Boehner puts one foot over the fiscal Cliff; Scott Peters to serve on Armed Services Committee

So this is what the NRA meant by “offering meaningful contributions to ensure this never happens again?” They probably should have stayed silent like they did for the first five days after the Newtown, CT, school shooting. After going completely radio silent, shutting down their Facebook page and Twitter account, earlier this week the National Rifle Association released a statement promising to be a constructive partner in the debate over what to do in the wake of the latest, and most horrifying mass murder at the hands of a deranged gunman.   [Read more…]

Elections Have Consequences

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Michigan voters are stuck with the electoral choices they’ve made, whether they like it or not.

Last week the Michigan Legislature slammed through a Right-to-Work bill, becoming the 24th state to have such a law on the books. The lame duck legislators passed it with no debate, no discussion. It was a cookie cutter law that almost word-for-word matched a template provided by the extreme right wing group ALEC (American Legislative Exchange Council). The very next day, Republican Governor Rick Snyder signed the bill into law.

What Right-to-Work laws are purported to do is give workers the “freedom” to not join a union if they choose not to. Conservatives claim that if a workforce is primarily unionized, but if individual workers decide that they don’t want to pay dues or participate in union activities, they shouldn’t have to. If a union is making contributions to a campaign or a particular political cause, the worker shouldn’t be forced (indirectly) to contribute to those causes via his or her union dues. It’s all about choice, they say. It’s about freedom.   [Read more…]

Scapegoat Norv

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The Chargers are likely headed toward a major housecleaning, but the bulk of the blame for the team’s failures is misplaced.

Last week, the U-T San Diego’s Kevin Acee reported that according to “sources,” both Chargers head coach Norv Turner and GM AJ Smith would be fired at the conclusion of the season; that owner Dean Spanos had made up his mind weeks ago and is waiting until the season’s over to make it official.

Spanos responded to the report by releasing a brief, angry statement saying “There is only one person in this organization who will make those decisions and that’s me, and I haven’t shared my thoughts with anyone. I will make my evaluations at the end of the season. Anything coming out now – from sources or otherwise – is pure speculation.”

And there you have it. Nothing has been decided (yeah, right).

One thing is certain, and anyone who follows football or the Chargers knows it: Something’s gotta change. Spanos decided at the end of the 2011 season—after yet another non-playoff year in which the team bumbled and stumbled its way to the finish line—that he was going to stand pat with his guys. In his gut Turner and Smith could turn things around, and he was going to give them one last chance to do it.   [Read more…]

California Gasoline Prices go Haywire, May Have Been Subject to Collusion

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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.

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Time for a Change at Chargers Park

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Norv Turner is the convenient scapegoat, but not necessarily the problem.

I have generally tried not to be overly, publicly, vocal about sharing my opinions on what’s happening with the Chargers over the last few years. I have a platform to share my views with a wider audience than most, and yet I’ve been reticent to use it. And I’m reticent to use it now, because it will merely look like I’m piling on. Or sour grapes. Or something.

But enough is enough. Something’s gotta give out there in Murphy Canyon. This team has been in a sort of death spiral for several years now, and it’s painfully obvious that the current regime is incapable of preventing the Titanic from going down.

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