An animated crowd gathered at Golden Hall to watch live election results, many cheering when President Barack Obama won re-election with 303 electoral votes to former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney’s 203. Florida continued to remain an electoral toss up and both candidates were nearly tied in the popular vote when the race was called. [Read more…]
Debunking the Opposition to Proposition Z, San Diego Schools’ Opportunity to Keep Moving into the 21st Century
San Diego voters are being asked to authorize $2.8 million in bonds for school repair and construction in this fall’s election via Proposition Z. This initiative should be a straight up or down deal; whether or not to raise property taxes to support this vital part of our infrastructure.
Instead, a coterie of right wing groups with a barely disguised extremist agenda have turned the discussion on Proposition Z into a battlefield, mined with half-truths, pock marked by a barrage of lies and overrun by waves of tea party types convinced that they are stopping an assault on common sense itself.
The Educated Voter – San Diego School Board Races
This is Part One of series on ballot choices in San Diego that relate to our schools.
There’s been a war going on over San Diego Unified’s Board of trustees for a long time now, and this year’s races for school board are just the latest skirmish.
There are two contests for seats on the San Diego Unified School Board and they’re both important. Politicians (of all stripes) are prone to saying “it’s about the children” whenever they talk about education, but the fact is there are many other issues at play. Candidates for our local top spot all have preened before the cameras touting their education platforms, when the reality is that the School District is financially and politically independent of the City Government.
The Mayor and the City Council can’t actually do squat about what’s going on with schools. Change, when and if it comes to local schools, is through the Board of Trustees, popularly known as the school board. [Read more…]
Why Carl DeMaio Has Made San Diego the “Battleground City” for his Radical Privatization Agenda
DeMaio Carries the Radical Right’s Agenda of the Private Ownership of (Our) Government
It was in the middle of April back in 2011, and a couple hundred local Republican bigwigs were holding a gala “unity night” at the Kona Kai on Shelter Island. Mayor Jerry Sanders was joining Republican Councilman Kevin Faulconer, other honchos and establishment types from the San Diego Chamber of Commerce, the Lincoln Club, the Taxpayers Association, plus cadres of right-wing activists – all coming together in an orgy of unified puffery. They had come together to celebrate the launch of a ballot initiative that would severely undercut the power of public sector unions to bargain for their members in San Diego.
One of the heroes and firebrands of the local rightwing, Carl DeMaio got up and made a speech. Somewhere in his spiel, he challenged the gathering with a question – a question that would define the coming year and months in San Diego. DeMaio – a City Councilman – called upon his audience and asked them: “Are you ready to make San Diego the Wisconsin of the West?” His fellow Republicans cheered. They were ready, as was described by the rightward SDRostra.com
[Read more…]
Fighting the Bias of the ‘Voice of San Diego’
by Larry Remer
How would you feel if you were a baseball player in the World Series and you found out that the first base umpire was on the payroll of the other team?
That’s kind of how I feel about the Voice of San Diego’s coverage of Proposition Z.
I am running the Yes on Prop. Z campaign; and for months I’ve sparred with reporters and editors from ‘Voice of San Diego’ about the negative slant of their coverage. And they just parried back and defended what they’d written, as reporters usually do when campaigns and public agencies complain their stories. [Read more…]
Hey Obama Democrats, Don’t Get Fooled Again: DeMaio and His Big Money Friends Are Out to Screw San Diego and Ruin California
“We have a conservative movement that has learned, over the decades, to mimic many of the characteristics of its enemies.” ~ Thomas Frank
During the run-up to the June primary Carl DeMaio used a quote from one of my OB Rag columns in a mailer attacking Nathan Fletcher that implied the Rag’s support for his candidacy. My response was a column, “Carl DeMaio is a Dangerous, Mean-Spirited Liar and Other Tales of Fear and Loathing in San Diego” where I observed:
As Frank Gormlie noted in an OB Rag piece last Saturday, Carl DeMaio used a pull quote from one of my OB Rag columns describing Nathan Fletcher as a “Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing” . . . What is not at all surprising here is that DeMaio uses my piece and the OB Rag logo out of context, without permission, implying our endorsement of him. That kind of sleazy, unethical behavior is his raison d’etre. .
Desde la Logan: Día de los Muertos, We Commemorate Our Dead
By Brent E. Beltrán
Every year on November 1st and 2nd we remember our dead. Give them food and things they appreciated while they were alive. We build altars in our homes. We share stories. Remember loved ones, family and friends, heroes and historical figures. We go to gravesites and clean tombstones and markers. Leave cempasúchils (marigolds) and sugar skulls. Maybe a little tequila if they liked a drink in their day. For the children we leave toys and candy.
November 1 is Día de los Inocentes (Day of the Innocents) when deceased children are honored and November 2 is known as Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) where we pay tribute to adults who have passed away. These dates correspond with the Christian holidays of All Saints’ Day and All Soul’s Day. Though las días de los muertos were coopted by Christianity they are not Christian holidays or celebrations. Their history can be traced back thousands of years to an Aztec festival dedicated to the goddess Mictecacihuatl. [Read more…]
Paranoia at the Polls: The San Diego Election Integrity Project’s Troubling “Evidence”
The Election Integrity Project, although it defines itself as non-partisan, operates as a platform for the conservative Heritage Foundation, the right wing Breitbart.com, and the Tea Party groups True the Vote and the non-profit iCaucus. Their website raises the ubiquitous fearful specter of voter fraud; their intent is to police the act of voting itself, to assure that “every lawfully cast vote [is] accurately counted.”
While the restrictive voter laws enacted after the Republicans gained power in 2010 have the impact if not the explicit intent to suppress the vote of communities of color, the young and the elderly who tend to vote Democrat, True the Vote and its offshoots not only support those efforts but have also assumed the role of election vigilantes at the polls and registrar offices. [Read more…]
San Diego Coastkeeper and SeaWorld: Is Something Fishy Going On?
Editors Note: A recent exchange between the OB Rag and San Diego Coastkeeper about the environmental organizations’ relationship with SeaWorld is reprinted here. The article from the OB Rag is followed by the response from Coastkeeper. We think you’ll find the exchange illuminating.
Something smells fishy. The other day we received a press release from San Diego Coastkeeper – actually, it was a joint press release, from them and from SeaWorld – talking about how they are both “teaming up” together to “keep Mission Bay beautiful”. They’re planning a “clean the Bay day” on October 27th – and volunteers will get prizes including passes to SeaWorld.
While we applaud any organization’s efforts to clean Mission Bay – heaven knows it needs it – something just doesn’t sit well with us on this announced partnership. [Read more…]
Translating Mitt Romney
By Kit-Bacon Gressitt
16 October 2012 Presidential Debate excerpt:
Candy Crowley, Moderator: Governor Romney, pay equity for women?
Gov. Mitt Romney: Thank you. An important topic, and one which I learned a great deal about, particularly as I was serving as governor of my state, because I had the chance to pull together a cabinet and all the applicants seemed to be men. And I, and I went to my staff, and I said, “How come all the people for these jobs are, are all men.”
They said, “Well, these are the people that have the qualifications.”
And I said, “Well, gosh, can’t we, can’t we find some, some women that are also qualified?” And, and so we, we took a concerted effort to go out and find women who had backgrounds that could be qualified to become members of our cabinet. I went to a number of women’s groups and said, “Can you help us find folks?” and they brought us whole binders full of women.
Translation:
[Read more…]
Romney’s Bain Capital To Send Nearly 200 High-Tech Jobs to China the Day Before the Election
Alternet / By Joshua Holland
On the day before an election that’s supposed to hinge on jobs, taxes and the middle class, Bain Capital, the company Mitt Romney founded, will close the doors of a factory in Freeport, Illinois, and ship 170 good, high-tech jobs to China.
The employees of Sensata Technologies were forced to train their Chinese replacements, and the American flag that long flew over the factory was reportedly removed while the Chinese engineers were visiting the site. A group of workers have set up camp across from the factory — calling it “Bainport” — and some supporters have tried to block the trucks hauling equipment out of the plant. According to Dave Johnson, there have been several arrests.
Sensata workers have asked to meet with Mitt Romney and hoped to enlist his help keeping their jobs in the United States, but he has refused, instead remaining on the campaign trail where he speaks often about “getting tough” with China. [Read more…]
Sex In San Diego: If This Isn’t Porn What Is It?
By A feleségül
Many times over the past several years, I have read about people responding to ads on craigslist.com only to find themselves in positions that have caused death, robbery, rape, etc. I decided to do a little research and find out what I could regarding this horrific statistic.
When I went to the craigslist.com site, there were so many individual listings – nine headings with more than 100 sub listings – that I decided to focus in on only one – Personals. There were nine sub-titles under this listing, and I will not discuss all of them, but for interest purposes the subheadings are Strictly Platonic, Women Seek Women, Women Wanting Men, Men Wanting Women, Men Wanting Men, Misc. Romance, Casual Encounters, Missed Connections and Rants and Raves. [Read more…]
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