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The Repackaging of Kevin Faulconer, Wherein Barney Fife Gets Transformed into John Wayne: Looking Back at September 2013

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For the twelve days of Christmas I give you: The madness of 2013, one month at a time-A month by month recap of stories that appeared in the Starting Line last year.

By Doug Porter

#1 Carl DeMaio Obeys Orders

It was a day to remember in San Diego’s political history.  Three high-profile politicians opted to decline the opportunity to enter the contest for the top spot in the eighth largest city in the United States.  That’s like three customers going into a Starbucks paying for a latte with a hundred dollar bill and saying “keep the change”…or a camel passing through the eye of a needle.

…DeMaio deferred to his Congressional ambitions, Todd Gloria said that the job of being interim mayor demanded his full attention and County Supervisor Ron Roberts opted out of the race.   [Read more…]

All Filner, All The Time: Looking Back at August 2013

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 For the twelve days of Christmas I give you: The madness of 2013, one month at a time-A month by month recap of stories that appeared in the Starting Line in the past year.

By Doug Porter

#1 Apologies to John Cleese..

In response to reader requests, I’m doing my best to keep this Filner falderal all in perspective. Not every development in this saga is a screaming headline kinda deal. So I’ll limit my remarks in keeping with what I see is the actual significance of events in yesterday’s San Diego edition of the Monty Python Media Circus. (h/t My Mom)

Ex-Mayor Sanders went on TV to say Filner’s gotta go. It’s bad for business, said the current head of the Chamber of Commerce, citing staffing cutbacks with the local tourism marketing effort.   [Read more…]

San Diego Mayor Bob Filner’s World Starts to Fall Apart: Looking Back at July 2013

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For the twelve days of Christmas I give you: The madness of 2013, one month at a time-A month by month recap of stories that appeared in the Starting Line in the past year.

By Doug Porter

#1 Where There’s Smoke, There’s Fire…

It was an “aha!” moment triggered by one sentence buried deep in the latest of an ongoing series of “news stories” published in the Daily Fishwrap that triggered a larger realization for me.

The purpose of the story and others like it was to propound upon the sore loser propaganda campaign promulgated by UT-San Diego publisher Papa Doc (that’s what his employees call him) and his like minded minions: With [insert disliked politician’s name] in power we are all doomed.   [Read more…]

Facts Don’t Matter in Newspaper’s Quest to Demonize Public Education in San Diego

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“…pining for a previous superintendent is not only an affront to Ms. Marten but is akin to daydreaming about a former lover on your honeymoon.” 

By Doug Porter

Talk about your cheap shots. It was bad enough when the UT-San Diego editorial board whipped up an attack on our city’s schools laden with misstatements, factual errors and a personal attack on Superintendent Cindy Marten. But when a nationally recognized education leader stepped forward to correct the record on her behalf, his response was deemed unworthy for publication.

It’ all very Orwellian; reality isn’t simply what Papa Doug Manchester  tries to tell us it is.  When his minions refuse to acknowledge something, the idea is for you to believe that it never happened.

One of the longest running narratives with our Daily Newspaper has been their dislike for the Board of Trustees at San Diego Unified.  The paper’s ‘reform’ agenda for public education mirrors the libertarian/conservative wet dream of privatized charter schools, a change that means monetizing learning for corporate interests and creating a two-tiered system favoring the wealthier (and white) classes.   [Read more…]

Issa’s Joe McCarthy Imitation, DeMaio’s Koch Connection and #filnereverywhere: Looking Back at June 2013

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#1 Why Only Five People in Washington Take Congressman Darrell Issa Seriously

San Diego’s own Congressman Darrell Issa is making headlines nationally this morning, but not in the way that the local daily paper would like you to believe.

Today’s UT-San Diego has a Page Two story up featuring a picture featuring Issa holding up a piece of paper, with a caption that says “interviews with employees at the Cincinnati IRS office indicate they were directed by Washington to target conservative groups.”

The north county’s answer to Joe McCarthy went on CNN Sunday morning to tout his latest ‘evidence’, which turned out to be highly edited selections from staff interviews with IRS agents. Political correspondent Cindy Crowley called Issa’s bluff, actually reading the documents and pointing out that they proved nothing.   [Read more…]

Bigger Than Watergate, Dumber Than Obamacare and More Dangerous Than a Leftist Bagman: Looking Back at May 2013

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By Doug Porter

 For the twelve days of Christmas I give you: The madness of 2013, one month at a time. A month by month recap of stories that appeared in the Starting Line over the past year.

#1 Nothing But Good News for Bike Riders

Things are looking so bright they gotta wear shades for bicycle fans these days, both nationally and locally.

The nomination of Charlotte Mayor Anthony Foxx’s for U.S. Transportation secretary on Monday has bike enthusiasts excited. The Hill quotes League of American Bicyclists President Andy Clarke as saying:

“When Secretary LaHood announced his departure, the bicycling community asked the White House to appoint a successor with a clear commitment to multi-modal solutions to local transportation challenges, and Mayor Foxx clearly checks those boxes,”

  [Read more…]

Cochella (Twice), Taxes, Terrorists, and Testing: Looking Back at April 2013

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By Doug Porter

For the twelve days of Christmas I give you: The madness of 2013, one month at a time. A month by month recap of stories that appeared in the Starting Line over the past year.

#1 Assemblywoman Toni Atkins vs the Poor Oppressed Developers

Sometimes it’s not what you say, it’s how you say it.

Let’s start with the California Coastal Commission story in today’s UT-San Diego.

San Diego Assemblywomen Toni Atkins is sponsoring a bill that moved out of committee yesterday giving the California Coastal Commission the authority to directly fine law breakers.

Paragraphs three and four of the UT-SD story tell us first about the reaction against the proposed legislation:

Her Assembly Bill 976 has drawn sharp rebukes from business interests, many of whom already regard the Coastal Commission as too arbitrary when it comes to issuing permits for development along California’s 1,100 miles of coast.

  [Read more…]

Sequestration, Taxifornication, Misinformation, and the Great Tourism Recession in San Diego: Looking Back at March 2013

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By Doug Porter

For the twelve days of Christmas I give you: The madness of 2013, one month at a time-A month by month recap of stories that appeared in the Starting Line over the past year.

#1 Sequestration Won’t Make the Sky Fall

Happy sequestration day.  The sky most likely won’t fall at 11:59pm tonight when President Obama signs the order implementing terms of a deal struck with Congress designed to be so odious that no person in their right mind would allow it to happen.

That should tell us a lot about the current mental state of the nation’s politicians. But it doesn’t.  The horrible deal, as it turns out, isn’t all that horrible, at least in the short run.   [Read more…]

Guns, Governors, God and the Gipper: Looking Back at February 2013

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By Doug Porter

For the twelve days of Christmas I give you: The madness of 2013, one month at a time-A month by month recap of stories that appeared in the Starting Line over the past year.

#1 Rick “Tex” Perry Rides into Town

Our local daily is featuring an article today hewing to its meme that the end is nigh for the Golden State in the wake of voter support for raising taxes in the last election. Here’s the lede:

Texas Gov. Rick Perry quietly came to San Diego last week to lure biotech companies seeking to escape from higher income taxes under Proposition 30 to the Lone Star State.

  [Read more…]

Ted Nugent’s Guns, Obama’s Gays, Manchester’s Minions and Huffpost’s Sideboobs: Looking Back at January 2013

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By Doug Porter

For the twelve days of Christmas I give you: The madness of 2013, one month at a time-A month by month recap of stories that appeared in the Starting Line last year.

#1 Elections have consequences:

Republican activist Ryan Trabuco took to the interwebs yesterday to announce his decision to re-register as “no party preference”. It’s not that he likes Democrats, it’s just that he can’t stand his old party:   [Read more…]

A Big Fat Job Killing Lie for Christmas from Jerry Sanders

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“The Recession’s Coming” and other pants-on-fire tales coming soon to a mall near you

By Doug Porter

Former Mayor Jerry Sanders, President and CEO of the San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce, sent a holiday letter out this week to all Chamber members and partner organizations urging them to get on board with the latest campaign to overturn the City Council by referendum. 

Their “friendly” signature gatherers will be blocking your entrance into shopping malls around the region starting the day after Christmas urging people to sign the Stop the Jobs-Killing Tax petition. (I’ll gladly publish videos of their “sales” techniques if you’d like to email them in.)

The council’s decision to end a linkage fee (with plenty of exceptions) for bigger developers is being cast by Saunders and his cronies as a “massive tax increase” and a “jobs tax”.   [Read more…]

Happy Festivus! Airing of Some Grievances, San Diego Style

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By Doug Porter

Today, December 23rd we celebrate Festivus,“the holiday for the rest of us,” popularized via an episode of the Seinfeld sitcom. Frank Constanza (Jerry Stiller), father of George Constanza (Jason Alexander) supposedly invented the holiday as a reaction to the commercialization of Christmas and other December holidays.

First a little background is in order, via Festivusweb.com, for those of you scratching your head and going “huh?”

Frank Costanza, during a failed attempt to buy a Christmas gift for son George, realized that there should be a new holiday   [Read more…]

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