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City Government? we don’t need no stinkin’ government

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By Norma Damashek / NumbersRunner

This is the 3rd installment in the stinkin’ series. It’s called City government? we don’t need no stinkin’ government.

Before we gird our collective loins to confront a scam called “Tourism Marketing District” I will pose this question: Why do we need city government?

Here’s a straightforward answer: to provide us with safe and pleasant surroundings so we can pursue our daily lives with a minimum of hassle – activities that include making a living, developing our talents, safeguarding the next generation, trying to be happy….   [Read more…]

Sherman Heights March Highlights Poor Working Conditions at WalMart Warehouses

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By Nadin Abbott

The rally started at the Golden Hill park and made its way to the Sherman Heights Farmer’s Market — the future site of a new Walmart.

As the marchers came down the street, chants could be heard: “Walmart escucha, estamos en la lucha.” (Walmart listen, we are in the fight). “One, 2, 3, 4, we don’t want your Walmart store. Five, 6, 7, 8, Walmart discriminates. “¡El pueblo unido, jamás será vencido!” (The people united, will never be defeated.)

Nearly 1,000 people attended the demonstration, according to Lorena Gonzales, Secretary-Treasurer/CEO of the San Diego and Imperial Labor Councils. They came together from local unions and a long list of community groups to demand that Walmart treat its workers fairly.   [Read more…]

‘Won’t Back Down’ Film Pushes ALEC Parent Trigger Proposal

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by Mary Bottari and Sara Jerving /PRWatch.Org

Well-funded advocates of privatizing the nation’s education system are employing a new strategy this fall to enlist support for the cause. The emotionally engaging Hollywood film “Won’t Back Down” — set for release September 28 — portrays so-called “Parent Trigger” laws as an effective mechanism for transforming underperforming public schools. But the film’s distortion of the facts prompts a closer examination of its funders and backers and a closer look at those promoting Parent Trigger as a cure for what ails the American education system.

While Parent Trigger was first promoted by a small charter school operator in California, it was taken up and launched into hyperdrive by two controversial right-wing organizations: the American Legislative Exchange Council(ALEC) and the Heartland Institute.

(Editors Note: this film is being promoted in San Diego by a group calling itself “Up for Ed”. They’re hosting a premiere this week, with a “panel” that, interestingly enough, includes not a single teacher. You can read about Up for Ed’s involvement with so-called reformer Michelle Rhee in this excellent article by San Diegan Aaron Belfer.)    [Read more…]

The Starting Line — Video tags Bilbray as a slumlord

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A San Diego political action group calling itself Much Better Choices has released a video it claims shows distressed property owned by Congressman Brian Bilbray. Calling him an absentee slumlord the group says that properties owned by Bilbray are run down and are public and safety hazards.  The property shown in the video has been reported to authorities, according to Better Choices.

A June article in East County Magazine describes Much Better Choices:

Taking a page from the independent expenditure playbook that torpedoed John Kerry’s presidential campaign, a San Diego-based PAC, Much Better Choices, is taking aim at  corporate-backed candidates in a series of online video ads. Lacking the funding of corporate-backed campaigns, Much Better Choices has launched its scathing assault ads via social networking sites—swiftly going viral with efforts to “Swiftboat” local corporatist candidates.   [Read more…]

Who Else Doesn’t Pay Taxes? Top 10 Corporate Deadbeats and Slackers

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Among the 47% Who Pay No Income Taxes Is Mitt Romney Himself!

Mitt’s money that has not been funneled through offshore corporations linked to bank accounts in no tax jurisdictions has been taxed as capital gains, not income.

Mitt Romney dismissed 47% of the American people who don’t pay income tax as slackers and deadbeats. Thanks to a loophole Romney pays US taxes as “carried interest” which is taxed at the capital gains rate of 15%. That figure would not only include Romney himself who pays no income tax, but also all those corporate persons (remember Romney said, “Corporations are people, my friend”) such as Exxon Mobil and GE who not only pay no income tax but get a generous rebate thanks to American taxpayers.

Here is a list of the top 10 corporate deadbeats and slackers (thanks to Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont):

1) Exxon Mobil made $19 billion in profits in 2009. Exxon not only paid no federal income taxes, it actually received a $156 million rebate from the IRS, according to its SEC filings.

  [Read more…]

San Diego Women Occupy Lead Prop 37 Rally and Bannering on 163 Overpass

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Hillcrest Banners Favor Prop 37 On Robinson Street Overpass

By Nadin Abbott and Frank Gormlie

It was close to 4pm on the first anniversary of Occupy Wall Street – Monday, September 17th – and the mood at the Canvas for a Cause headquarters in Hillcrest was expectant. As people started to arrive for the programed rally in favor of Proposition 37, Nadine Abbott had a chance to talk to Doctor Norrie Robbins of Women Occupy San Diego and a member of the singers Occapellas. Robbins is also Adjunct Professor at the SDSU Dept of Geological Sciences, and is retired from the United States Geological Service, DC office.

Robbins said: “I am worried about my food. I’m beginning to get weird allergies that do not run in my family.”

  [Read more…]

We don’t need no stinkin’ newspaper!

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Here’s today’s’ top pick in the don’t need no stinkin’ category.  It’s called we don’t need no stinkin’ newspaper!

Doug Manchester’s high-flying plan to convert the entire San Diego region to a super-conservative privately-held corporation is highlighted by his latest acquisition of the North County Times (and affiliated Daily Californian).  Manchester makes no secret of his intention to capture the market of major news outlets — newspapers, TV, radio, and electronic/online.  Given his deep pockets, political objectives, and near-sociopathic super-size ego and ambitions, Manchester will undoubtedly do whatever it takes to get where he wants to be.

  [Read more…]

Extreme Weather Watch: The Effects of Global Warming Are Here Right Now

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Even those global warming deniers can’t escape the fact that the weather events causing a billion dollars or more of damage and destruction are piling up at an increasing rate. The National Climatic Data Center (NCDC) is the Nation’s Scorekeeper in terms of addressing severe weather/climate events. The NCDC tracks and evaluates climate events in the U.S. and globally that have great economic and societal impacts. The U.S. has sustained 133 weather/climate disasters since 1980 where overall damages/costs reached or exceeded $1 billion – assuming Consumer Price Index (CPI) adjustment to 2012. 46 of these events occurred between 1980 and 1995 and 87 occurred between 1996 and 2011.

So in the latest 15 year period there were almost twice as many billion dollar plus extreme weather events as in the 15 year period preceding it. Global warming or not, extreme weather is becoming more and more common all over the world. Losses from these events pushed the cost of weather disasters in 2011 to an estimated $150 billion worldwide. In the US last year there were a record 14 events that caused a billion dollars in damage or more. That’s more than one a month!
  [Read more…]

Proposition 33: A Corporation’s Abuse of the Citizen’s Initiative System

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If you ever needed a case study in how one rich individual can buy a law that favors his auto insurance business while screwing consumers, Proposition 33 would fit the bill perfectly. It’s such a bad apple that other insurance companies, not exactly known for their pro-consumer attitudes when it comes to making money, won’t even support this law. Not that they wouldn’t benefit, but they’re embarrassed by its audacity.

  [Read more…]

The Success Story of Napoleon’s Shoe Shine and Repair Service

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Napoleon’s Shoe Shine and Repair Service
Columbia Center
401 West A Street, Suite 175
San Diego, CA 92101
619 245-9896
Hours: M – F 9:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m.

Robert Napoleon Steele III was born in Detroit (pronounced Deeeetroit) Michigan to an African American father and a Caucasian mother. His early home life was normal, although he experienced some bullying by other kids because of his mixed heritage.

When he was seven his parents divorced and he moved with his mother and sister to Maryland. By the age of ten, Napoleon was a handful and his mother sent him to live with his father. His father enrolled Napoleon in various boarding schools and programs for unruly kids until he eventually graduated high school.

Napoleon’s first job was running the concessions at the National Aerospace Museum in Washington DC. At 19, his life took a downward spiral and he became addicted to drugs and alcohol. He moved around the country, and ended up in Reno, Nevada, hooked on drugs and homeless. After years of this lifestyle, Napoleon was tired – tired of drugs, tired of sleeping in alleys, tired of people looking past him not at him, tired of disappointing his family and himself.
  [Read more…]

Audits? we don’t need no stinkin’ audits!

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by Norma Damashek/NumbersRunner

I’ve been working on a new informal series called WHAT SAN DIEGO DOESN’T NEED.  Here’s the first installment, to be followed by short pieces on other things our city doesn’t need, like Newspaper? we don’t need no stinkin’ newspaper…no stinkin’ pensions…stinkin’ lawsuits…scandals…moral terpitude…and so on.

Today it’s audits.

My mother introduced me to audits when I was a child by way of specific instructions on how to deal with the outside world.  It was the ordinary dose of Be careful crossing the street and Don’t talk to strangers — until one day she catapulted me into a grey zone of ‘little white lies’ with a new caveat: Honey, whenever anyone asks what daddy does for a living don’t say bookie. Say he’s an auditor…just say he does hotel audits.   [Read more…]

Proposition 39 – Why You Should Vote Yes on the Most Boring Proposition on the 2012 Ballot

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Proposition 39 would eliminate the ability of companies to choose between two methods to calculate their taxable income in California and require them to use sales only for the calculation.  Estimated revenue, per the California Legislative Analyst’s Office, would be more than $1 billion annually with $500 – $550 million being earmarked for clean energy and energy efficiency projects for five years.

The proposition would also increase education funding in the state due to higher total tax revenues and the corresponding increase in the amount of education spending required by Proposition 98.  The increase in school funding is estimated between $200 and $500 million for five years and from $500 million to over $1 billion from 2018-19 into the future.
  [Read more…]

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