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Athens in Turmoil Over European Union Sanctions: An Eyewitness Report on the Eve of the General Strike

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by Jim Bliesner, SDFP Correspondent from Greece

On Sept. 26, 2012, the people of Greece will go on general strike against austerity measures being imposed by the European Union Central Bank. As one person told me, “The measures call for all government workers to receive wage and benefits reductions.” I asked her how they could do that to her since she worked for a private company. “Well I don’t know exactly how but they will. You know how business is- they cut wages whenever they think they can get away with it.”

Athens, the capital of Greece and its largest city, seems to be in turmoil. On Sunday Omonia Square, the central commercial intersection of five large boulevards, was surrounded by at least three different police forces. Each of the five main streets was yellow taped or blocked by large black buses with metal grated windows. Behind the buses were phalanges of police with clear plastic shields.   [Read more…]

The Starting Line – The Moral Bankruptcy of Bridgepoint Education/Ashford University

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One of San Diego larger private employers, Ashford University/Bridgepoint Education, announced layoffs for 450 employees yesterday, a move that’s bound to send ripples throughout the region. Employees were told to come in early, shown a video and offered a two-week severance package. Then it was out the door.

The aftermath of past corporate disintegrations brought on by unsustainable business models (or a legal/quasi-legal ponzi scheme, as I like to call it) has been a sort of local amnesia in the news media, followed by admonitions from the UT’s editorial page that “too much regulation” is bad for business. At the bottom of this well of malevolent corporate behavior is the ultimate reality that we citizens will get stuck with the bill for damages while most of its perpetrators will walk away unscathed.   [Read more…]

For the Sake of Civility The U-T Needs to Change

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Hope on my mind

Hope comes easy for me. It can rise from the words in a kindergarten girl’s poem where everybody lives happily forever and ever, or it could come out of the energy of thousands of San Diegans standing in the middle of Broadway singing “Give Peace a Chance.”

I didn’t realize, though, how hopeful a human being I am until I found myself one day holding out hope that the San Diego Union-Tribune, a rag that, on good days, over the years, has made me gag, could change and become a factor in helping San Diego become all it can be.

I didn’t see this hopeful moment coming. I was leaving the Union-Tribune Building one day when it dawned on me that I had a smile on my face. And that had never been the case when I look back on all the times I’ve walked away from the place.   [Read more…]

Prop 37: Labeling of Genetically Modified Foods. Will We Be Better Off If We Don’t Eat Them?

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Proposition 37 requires labeling foods you buy in the supermarket as GMO foods if they contain genetically modified ingredients. It also prevents labeling GMO foods as “natural.” Some foods can be exempted from the GMO label such as otherwise organic foods that have been unintentionally cross-pollinated from GMO crops. And Prop 37 does not require labeling at restaurants and in particular fast food restaurants – just the places that you can probably expect to be served GMO foods.

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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…]

Who does Brian Bilbray really represent in Congress?

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The lobbyist in Bilbray carries over into his activities as a duly elected member of Congress.

Potentially earthshattering news came to light yesterday. It was news that for the Republican presidential candidate, Mitt Romney, could and should be devastating, and earthshattering for the Republican cause nationwide. David Corn of Mother Jones broke a story late yesterday of a video that was sent to him that was taken at a private fundraiser with the candidate and a small group of very wealthy donors.

I
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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.

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The Chicago Teachers Union Versus the New Democrats, the Same Old Republicans, and the Corporate Media

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 After nearly twenty years of ‘reform’, the schools of Chicago remain among the lowest performing in the nation.

A funny thing happened on the way to labor’s extinction: the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) staged one of the most daring and important strikes in recent memory. As Chris Hedges put it during his Democracy Now interview last week  “the teachers’ strike in Chicago is arguably one of the most important labor actions in probably decades.”  And in the midst of this struggle, most of the corporate media around the country have decried the horrible greedy teachers from their editorial pages and assured readers that they were on the side of the children rather than the teachers.

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The Starting Line – ‘Occupy’ Anniversary Protests in New York, San Diego & Around the World

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3:30 PM (PDT) As the press reports that OWS is all over for the day, here’s a picture taken a moment ago in Liberty Square

(For info on what’s happening in San Diego, come inside

3pm- Word from New York is that the late day actions were peaceful with few arrests. Thousands of people remain in Liberty Park. We’re headed out shortly to cover San Diego Occupy events. Check out our live feed from NYC below.
1 Pm This next hour will probably be the most dramatic part of the day for Occupy Wall Street. The activists gathered in Liberty Park are getting ready to march on Wall Street; the cops are massed and blocking the way.

Also It would appear that Anonymous has taken the Monsanto website down for the afternoon. Occupy groups in California have been targeting Monsanto for demonstrations as part of a campaign to support a ballot initiative that would require labeling of GMO foods.

NYPD reports 143 arrests as of 12:30 PDT.

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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!
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The Wreckage that Mayor Jerry Sanders Leaves Behind

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“Sanders said another savings in the works will come from using managed competition to lower the cost of city employees performing jobs that private companies can do for less. One such job is residential trash services. San Diego city employees are paid to collect trash. Most other California cities contract with a private company and residents pay for their own trash services.

“We don’t have to have government employees mow the laws in our parks. We don’t have to have government employees pick up trash,” Sanders said. Mayor Jerry Sanders reviews his legacy at La Jolla luncheon La Jolla Light 9/11/12   [Read more…]

The Myth of the Filibuster-Proof Democratic Senate

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Republicans have magically, mystically turned 72 days into two full years.

We’ve heard it over and over and over again. Mitch McConnell has gleefully used it as a cudgel. Congressional Republicans typically can’t wait to get their mugs on camera to tell America just how inept Congressional Democrats are in order to aid their case that they should be put back in power. After all, Democrats couldn’t get anything done even with a 60 vote, filibuster-proof majority in the United States Senate during the first two years of the Obama administration.   [Read more…]

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