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Even Congressman Darrell Issa is Threatened by Falling GOP Poll Numbers

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By Doug Porter

Bad things come in threes, so the saying goes, and the Republican Party just got a triple whammy of disastrous poll results.  How bad is it?

It’s so bad even a “safe” Republican like Congressman Darrell Issa’s numbers have tanked. You know it’s bad when the local Democratic Party sends out fundraising emails talking about unseating Brian Bilbray in the last election and saying Issa’s next.

A Public Policy Polling (PPP) survey of 650 voters in the 49th Congressional district taken October 15 & 16 shows Rep. Issa with a 49-43 disapproval margin (9% undecided).  For the first time ever, voters preferred a generic Democratic opponent in a theoretical match up, if only by 1%, well within the margin of error. And his constituents opposed the GOP’s “shut ‘er down” strategy by 62-32%.   [Read more…]

Just Say No to Shills Telling Tall Tales to Sell the Phony Maritime “Jobs” Initiative

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By Doug Porter

San Diego shopping centers and grocery stores were blanketed this weekend with contract employees reportedly retained by Southwest Strategies.  They were being paid $1.75 for each signature gathered on a petition that aims to challenge the Barrio Logan community plan.

People signed the petitions in droves. Why wouldn’t anybody? After all these shills were peddling anything but the truth.  And the implications of this initiative effort for other neighborhoods in San Diego are huge.

Want a change in your neighborhood plan for something big and ugly favored by special interests?  If you’ve signed one of those petitions, that’s what you’re opening the door for.   [Read more…]

Barrio Logan Split Really About Business as Usual (Or Not)

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By Doug Porter

If you want to see a critical difference between Democrats Nathan Fletcher and David Alvarez, look beyond the article posted in today’s Voice of San Diego.

Reporter Liam Dillon does a good job of exploring the opposition to Alavrez’s mayoral ambitions from within his Barrio Logan, starting with Rachael Ortiz’s long standing opposition to the District 8 Councilman.

Her current issue with Alvarez is the contention that he sold out Barrio Logan’s interests by proposing a compromise solution with the maritime industry regarding the Community Plan approved by the City Council.

The headline on the VOSD article suggests this deal could come back to haunt him.   [Read more…]

Department of Duh: Congressman Issa Investigating Why Monuments Closed During Shutdown

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By Doug Porter

You have to give this guy credit.

Rep. Darrell Issa never misses a chance to make Congress look silly.  I’ve lost track of all his investigations, but I do know one thing; the sum total of their actual impact on government operations (the thing he’s supposed to be overseeing) has been: Zero.

His latest crusade involves getting to the bottom of just why park service Director Jonathan Jarvis closed monuments on the national mall in Washington DC.   [Read more…]

Judgement Day: Filner Plea Bargains, Boehner Begs for Help

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By Doug Porter

It’s one of those twists of fate: the former standard bearer for all that’s liberal in San Diego and the former standard bearer for all that’s not liberal in Washington DC both hit bottom on the same day.

We’ll start with the local courtroom drama and end with DC’s cloakroom conspiracies in the nation’s capital. There are lessons to learned from both.

Robert Earl Filner stood before California State Superior Court Judge Robert Trentacosta  and pled guilty to one felony count of false imprisonment by violence, fraud, menace and deceit and two misdemeanor counts of battery.   [Read more…]

Hold the Pickles, Hold the Lettuce; Add $7 Billion in Tax Dollars for Fast Food Workers’ Subsidies

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By Doug Porter

Lorena Gonzalez may have moved on to the State Assembly, but she’s still got time to bang the drum for low wage workers.  She’s headlining a press conference at the Mission Valley location of McDonalds corporate offices today to talk about a University of California Berkeley study detailing the cost to California taxpayers for fast food companies’ low wages and lack of benefits.

Fast food is a $200 billion a year industry, with many workers earning minimum wage or just above it forced to rely on public assistance programs to provide for their families and afford healthcare for their children. Nationally, the median wage for cooks, cashiers and crew at fast-food restaurants is just $8.94 an hour.

Contrary to the claims of companies like McDonalds, Burger King and Wendy’s, fast food jobs are not a stepping-stone to better opportunities or held mostly by young people.  The National Employment Law Project reports that managerial positions make up just 2.2% of fast food jobs. The median age in the industry is 28, according to the group, and more than a quarter of workers are raising at least one child.

INSIDE: Filner admits to guilt on 3 charges in plea bargain deal   [Read more…]

Multinational Corporations Seek to Rule Over San Diego’s Barrio Logan Community

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“We may be poor, brown folk but we have organized to take on the state, city and industry numerous times and have won. This may be our biggest battle yet, a battle for our very existence.”

By Doug Porter

For thirty years, San Diego’s Barrio Logan community existed without a community plan. There was no law, no order when it came to land use and zoning.  Having prospered in chaos for so many years, nearby maritime industries are threatening the region’s economy unless they get their way.

Historically speaking, in the minds of the downtown-centric elites any regulatory structure was simply not necessary in Barrio Logan. After all, the community was just chock full of “them”, as in people of color, mostly of Mexican heritage.  Children were exposed to toxic emissions, the nearby waters used to dump heavy metals and other pollutants, and the robber barons of the shipbuilding industry looked away.   [Read more…]

Koch Brothers Letter, Plummeting Poll Numbers Bring GOP to Table

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By Doug Porter

In the wake of two major developments over the last 48 hours, Republican intransigence appears to be weakening in the Battle of the Budget, 2013 Version.

Small, mostly symbolic, steps occurred yesterday towards ending the threat of default triggered by a Tea Party-led refusal to raise the debt ceiling and, possibly, the re-opening the federal government.

Following a White House meeting for Republican representatives, a public willingness to engage in further discussions emerged. Congressman Paul Ryan told the press both sides should “put their guns back in their holsters”, according to Politico.

This motivation to sound reasonable came on the heels of a letter from financiers and Tea Party backers David and Charles Koch responding to claims made by Senate leader Harry Reid implicating them as instigators of the current standoff.   [Read more…]

The Connection Between Head Start Programs and California “Pension Reform”

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By Doug Porter

You’ve probably seen stories in the news over the last few days about this wonderful couple from Texas putting up a cool $10 million to keep Head Start centers in six states open during the government shutdown.

John Arnold, a former hedge fund manager and wife Laura are reportedly worth more than $2.8 billion. It may well be that this donation has something to do with a spate of bad publicity that Arnold & Co. have been getting recently.

They’ve been called out by investigative reporters recently as being involved with what could be called a shell game being used to fleece taxpayers in the name of rescuing them from odious public pension obligations.  And their next target is California.   [Read more…]

Less Popular Than Zombies: Congressional Approval Rating Drops to Single Digits

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Veteran’s Pension Payments and Disability Funding to Dry Up at End of Month

 By Doug Porter

VA Secretary Eric Shinseki is testified today before a House Committee about the consequences of the current government shutdown and the news was all bad for 3.8 million veterans who will not receive disability compensation come November.  An additional 315,000 veterans and 202,000 surviving spouses and dependents will also see pension payments stopped should the logjam not break.

He told the House Committee on Veterans Affairs the short-term effects include disability claims production slowing by an average of about 1,400 per day since the shutdown began Oct. 1, and that has stalled the department’s efforts to reduce the backlog of disability claims pending for longer than 125 days.   [Read more…]

Carl DeMaio: Running Hard for the House of Indecision’s Suicide Caucus

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By Doug Porter

Congressional (D52) candidate Carl DeMaio is working overtime to try and turn the House-led shutdown to his advantage.  He’s campaigning for a “common sense” law that says legislators can’t be paid until a budget is passed.  He’s parroting the party line about how “both sides” need to come to the table.

But he’s got a hard road ahead as poll after poll shows even Republicans think the current shutdown tied to defunding Obamacare is a bad idea. And ever-increasing numbers of voters are willing to look past the false equivalence narratives being pushed by the cable news set and blame the Grand Old Party for this mess.

So how did I come up with the terms House of Indecision and Suicide Caucus? I plucked them from commentaries by certifiable conservative commentators.   [Read more…]

There Ain’t No Party Like a California GOP Tea Party Convention

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By Doug Porter

This weekend’s Republican statewide gathering in Anaheim was chock full of irony.

Across the street from the GOP convention, Disneyland was hosting “Gay Days” even as the party faithful vowed to fight recently enacted California laws protecting transgender rights.

The political party pitched the media on how this gathering would showcase the new bigger tent GOP chock full of fresh faces and ideas even as one of its approved vendors hawked anti-Hillary buttons promoting knuckle dragging sexism.   [Read more…]

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