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If You Liked Trickle Down Economics, You’ll Love ‘The Plan’ for San Diego’s Next Mayor.

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By Doug Porter

In case you missed the news, Bob Filner’s days as Mayor will be coming to a close this week.  The City Council went into closed session, voted to accept a deal worked out in mediation, played cards for 75 minutes, and came back to announce the results.

The soon-to-be ex-Mayor came to the front of the room and gave a rambling speech on Friday.

The announced date for the resignation to take effect is Friday, August 30th. By postponing the inevitable a week into the future, the schedule for future special election(s) was moved up in a manner more favorable to a higher voter turnout.  This could turn out to be one small last gift to the people of San Diego from hizzoner.

Today’s UT-San Diego hails City Attorney Jan Goldsmith as one of the four citizens who ‘saved’ the city.  While making his victory laps around town this morning, Goldsmith appeared on NBC7/39, telling us about how it’d been 8 months of tough work…

Wait? Does that mean his “investigation” started before the scandal?  I’m sure it was just a mental slip up. Right?   [Read more…]

Lining Up to Piss on Filner’s Political Grave

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By Doug Porter

As this is being written before the San Diego City Council’s meeting today, I’m operating under the assumption that the deal negotiated with Mayor Bob Filner will be approved. It’s hard for me to see any other conclusion to this kabuki theater.

A political writer with the Los Angeles Times is saying via Twitter this morning that the deal will involve Filner not formally quitting until the end of August and that he’ll be making a televised speech following the council meeting.

Attorney Gloria Allred took to the airwaves yesterday to demand her pound of flesh, warning against any deal that didn’t help her share of any settlement with her client.

The city will likely save money on the current deal, regardless of what the negotiated resignation will cost. Filner will be gone and ‘business as usual’ will return to San Diego.

But others aren’t so sure. And the public anger stimulated by a hyper-ventilating press can not be so easily contained. The virtual mob has tasted blood and they want more.   [Read more…]

Deal Reached: Filner’s Likely Finished, Details To Be Announced Friday

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By Doug Porter

Eds: Note this story was posted at 7:45pm Weds. Updated at 6 & 8am Thursday.

Following three days of negotiations held in the in San Diego’s Federal Building, City Attorney Jan Goldsmith informed the media Wednesday evening just before 7pm that a proposed settlement has been reached.

On Wednesday negotiations did not start until mid afternoon.  Goldsmith, accompanied by Filner’s legal team, City Council President Todd Gloria and Councilman Kevin Faulconer spoke to the press. Other than the fact that Mr. Irving donated his services as a mediator, according the Goldsmith, details are few and far between at this time.

Details of the proposed settlement will be revealed to a special closed session of the City Council on Friday afternoon at 1pm.  Following that meeting Goldsmith indicated the results would be announced at a public session. Until that time all parties have agreed not to disclose details.

Unless something radical takes place in the next day or so, I believe this means Bob Filner’s days as Mayor are over. A report in Thursday morning’s Los Angeles Times says Filner cleaned out his office Wednesday afternoon. Celebrity attorney Gloria Allred and the Mayor’s ex-fiance, Brownwyn Ingram, are holding a press conference in LA Thursday afternoon.   [Read more…]

The Dog Days of August in San Diego: It’s All Filner All the Time…

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By Doug Porter

It’s day three of mediation between embattled Mayor Bob Filner and the representatives of officialdom seeking his removal from office.  The count on women alleging sexual harassment increased to 18 today, and the local political scene continues to roil with the repercussions of what would seem to be the Mayor’s eminent demise.

One local report says that talks could drag on for weeks.  And the Mayor could simply walk out, forcing a deeply flawed legal process to remove him to play out.  He’s already demonstrated the imperiousness of the thick political hide he’s developed over the years.

Participants in the sessions going on in a downtown office building being run by retired judge Lawrence Irving are operating under a pledge not reveal the substance of negotiations. Rumors persist, however, that the obstacles to any settlement include limiting the city’s liability and the method by which the Mayor’s resignation will be announced.

Any potential deal will require approval of the City Council, which is not scheduled to meet again until August 28th.   [Read more…]

August 24th – A “National Action to Realize the Dream”

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By Doug Porter

I expect there will plenty of news shortly on the ongoing mediation taking place between Mayor Bob Filner and his various adversaries. Rather than write something that will be out of date soon after it’s published, I’m publishing a short roundup of other news today. I’ll publish additional stories when there is something new to report.

Organizations from around the country are making final preparations for an August 24th rally in Washington DC marking the 50th anniversary of the March for Jobs and Freedom.  The 1963 march was an event that immortalized the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., who gave his “I Have a Dream’ speech to the quarter million people assembled on the national mall.  This was the day the civil rights movement drove home just how serious African Americans and like-minded people were about securing a just society.

As was the case five decades ago, organized labor is playing a significant role.   [Read more…]

Dispatches from the Filner Front: Recall, Resignation or a Palace Coup?

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By Doug Porter

We certainly have no reason to complain about being bored in San Diego during the dog days of August.  In addition to not having to suffer through the heat and humidity plaguing much of the country, we have own political drama playing large at a time when others are limited to watching last years’ episodes of House of Cards.

The latest developments include the official launch of the Recall Filner campaign, a slo-mo wanna-be palace coup and supporters of at least one well known politician taking steps to get in position for any imminent mayoral campaign.

Sunday saw organizers of the recall campaign ensconced in donated space at the Town and Country Hotel conducting training for signature gatherers.  There is absolutely no truth to the rumor that UT-San Diego’s publisher Doug Manchester paid for the Chargers’ cheerleaders to appear.  Those cheering on the volunteers from the sidelines were actually journalists, distracted from their role as chroniclers of history by the righteous indignation in the air.   [Read more…]

AT&T Voucher Program Threatens Phone Service for Low-Income Californians

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By Doug Porter

Big money lobbyists are swarming over Sacramento hoping to gain approval by the State Legislature for AB 1407 before anybody notices.  This bill is an AT &T backed measure replacing California’s low cost LifeLine program, which provides 1.2 million residents with basic phone service, with a voucher program.

Low income residents will be losing their subsidized landline service, which is currently billed at a reasonable rate set by the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC).

They would instead get a voucher valued at just $11.85—essentially a coupon they could use to offset some of the cost of mobile service or a landline. Because the CPUC has no control over regular telecom rates, telecommunications companies could raise rates or add service fees to such an extent that the voucher wouldn’t guarantee affordable service.   [Read more…]

The Dark Lord Rises: Carl DeMaio’s ‘I’m not Running for Mayor’ Media Blitz

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By Doug Porter

San Diego Mayor Bob Filner remains in office after more than a month of non-stop accusations. A recall movement claims to be building up a head of steam. Calls for his resignation are being reported daily. Those who haven’t joined in the mania are being shamed both in the mainstream and social media. There’s even a protest march slated for Sunday.

What’s not being reported is anything current about hizzoner. Bob Filner -the man- hasn’t been seen in over two weeks. And while his minions are going through the motions of defending him and proclaiming everything is okie-dokie at City Hall, his absence speaks more loudly than any press release.

A news vacuum always needs to filled, and Carl DeMaio has stepped up to the plate this week with a media blitz, hoping to take advantage.  He’s been featured at Roll Call, Yahoo News, 10News, KOGO radio and The Hill.  Coincidence? I don’t think so.   [Read more…]

Keeping the World Safe from Science: Issa Wins Climate Change Denier Award

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By Doug Porter

San Diego’s own Congressman Darrel Issa (R) has once again been nationally recognized for his efforts in Congress.

The League of Conservation Voters and Organizing for America joined forces yesterday at Issa’s Vista, Ca offices to confer the “Climate Change Denier” award to the Congressman. Sources say he was not available to receive the award.

A statement released by the groups said Issa was being recognized for “his extreme anti-science views, which put him at odds with 97 percent of scientists and a majority of the American people.”   [Read more…]

Progressive Politics in the Post-Filner Era; Getting Beyond “BlenderGate”

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By Doug Porter

Rumors of the Filner’s imminent resignation swirled through the city yesterday like scraps of newsprint caught up in the wind eddies regularly whipping through San Diego’s downtown canyons.

Could IT be today? Would IT be this week? Was the City Attorney working out a deal?

Several dozen people gathered at mid-day to protest the possible return of Mayor Bob Filner to City Hall, chanting “Bob must go!” for the assembled press corps.  The minions of the mainstream media nodded their heads in approval.

The organizers of the recall movement weren’t taking the resignation rumors seriously.  Organizer and Republican activist Michael Pallamary told UT-San Diego, “There’s no reason to believe he will resign. It’s not in his DNA. You got people now turning their tune from resign to recall. There’s only recall. There’s no way he’s going to resign.”   [Read more…]

The Return of the Faux ObamaScare Death Panel

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By Doug Porter

The future is now for the Affordable Care Act (ACA). It’s survived a Supreme Court challenge, forty attempts at repeal or de-funding in the House of Representatives and another twenty or so in the US Senate.

Although the plan signed by the President in March, 2010 is essentially the same as health care reforms advocated by conservatives for many years, the fact that the word Obama is associated with this legislation (either that or because he’s black) has made the ACA a third rail for the GOP.

The Tea Party’s Freedom Works, the Heritage Foundation’s advocacy arm, the Koch Brothers’ Americans for Prosperity and a slew of other groups are mounting a furious effort to kill the implementation of the bill.

Now the cherry on top of this toxic propaganda sundae has appeared: the return of the Death Panel.  And nobody deserves the role of soda jerk in this circus parlor more than Sarah Palin.   [Read more…]

The Times They Are a Changin’ for Organized Labor

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By Doug Porter

The manifestations of union activism are changing in San Diego and around the country, and it’s time this story got some attention.  One of the biggest non-corporate interest groups—organized labor—is undergoing a fundamental reassessment of their role in society.

On the national level, the upcoming quadrennial AFL-CIO convention, set for Los Angeles next month, will most likely approve starting a process that will bring community, ethnic and environmental groups closer (and possibly in) to the fold.

Discussions with groups like the NAACP, La Raza and the Sierra Club are already ongoing about their role in such an umbrella grouping, including the possibility of  granting grass roots organizations “decision making power” within the AFLCIO, according to a July 27th Wall Street Journal article.   [Read more…]

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