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Born on the Fourth of July; Community Radio Returns to San Diego

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By Doug Porter

It’s taken six years, hundreds of meetings and $45,000 raised via grassroots fundraising efforts to launch KNSJ/89.1, a community media outlet ‘by, of and for the people’.  And they’re launching tomorrow, Thursday July 4th with a full day of live broadcast plus audio and video streaming on KNSJ.org.

The public is invited to come down to the World Beat Center at 2100 Park Blvd. in Balboa Park to participate in the live broadcast, talking about how to shape this community radio station to meet the needs of San Diego’s diverse population.

Officially known as KNSJ 89.1 Descanso; (Descanso is the FCC’s “city of record”), the station’s call letters reflect its mission: Networking forSocial Justice.  The main studios will be located in El Cajon, with a transmitter and tower at over 6200 feet in the Laguna Mountains.

They believe KNSJ’s signal will be heard in car radios from the US-Mexico border to Highway 52, from the East County mountains to the bay, covering all of central San Diego.  Programs will also be available through live streaming at KNSJ.org.   [Read more…]

Snowden’s Moscow Purgatory: Why Nobody Wants Him

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By Doug Porter

I’ll lead off today’s roundup of the news with the subject of international headlines: Edward Snowden, trapped now in the bowels of Moscow airport.

Nineteenth century historian Lord Acton is generally credited with coining the phrase “absolute power corrupts absolutely”. Here in the twenty-first century knowledge is power, more so than tanks, treasuries or theology.

Nowhere is this more obvious than in the travails of Edward Snowden, formerly employed within the industrial-spying complex. Troubled by the vastness of contemporary intelligence collection, he sought to turn loose the secrets of the National Security Agency, only to end up in a kafka-esque nightmare, trapped in the Moscow airport.

Apparently no country wants him. Even nations with hostile relationships with the United States are distancing themselves from this modern day Robin Hood of the information wars.

INSIDE: Carl DeMaio’s Disappearing $10,000 Donation, Mayor Filner’s Latest ‘Scandal’, The #ChalkGate Deal That Wasn’t   [Read more…]

Hairless Rats and the Invisible People of San Diego

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By Doug Porter

It was an “aha!” moment triggered by one sentence buried deep in the latest of an ongoing series of “news stories” published in the Daily Fishwrap that triggered a larger realization for me.

The purpose of the story and others like it was to propound upon the sore loser propaganda campaign promulgated by UT-San Diego publisher Papa Doc (that’s what his employees call him) and his like minded minions: With [insert disliked politician’s name] in power we are all doomed.

This latest essay by Craig Gustafson, ran with the headline (caps theirs)

“MAYOR’S ‘RUDE, CRUDE’ MANNER STIRS DISCORD AT CITY HALL.”   [Read more…]

San Diego Gets Another Black Eye: Goldsmith’s #ChalkGate Prosecution Gets World-Wide Coverage

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“Chalk-U-Py” Protest, Petitions Follow Judge’s Gag Order in Bank of America Graffiti Trial

By Doug Porter

Things are going out of control for City Attorney Jan Goldsmith. His office’s decision to prosecute 40 year old Jeff Olson for using children’s washable chalk to scrawl protests on sidewalks adjacent to Bank of America branch offices has garnered world wide notice. And it’s not the kind of publicity the Downtown Tourism folks appreciate.

A newly organized group calling itself Liberals for Liberty has announced plans to create a chalk mural of the Constitution with focus on the First Amendment in front of the San Diego Hall of Justice.  A Facebook page set up for the event calls for local artists to meet up Saturday (June 29th) at the courthouse, 330 West Broadway, San Diego.

At Change.org, a petition went up Friday morning calling upon City Attorney Jan Goldsmith to drop the prosecution of Jeff Olson for chalk graffiti, citing “an obvious abuse of power and a wasteful use of the resources of the City of San Diego.” The influential Daily Kos blog has also announced a petition, saying “prosecuting people who chalk political messages on vandalism charges is a blatant abuse of power.”   [Read more…]

Law & Order Perverted: Starring Congressman Darrell Issa and City Attorney Jan Goldsmith

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By Doug Porter

It’s turning out to be a bad week for San Diego’s Congressman Darrell Issa and City Attorney Jan Goldsmith.

Both have seen would-be/shoulda been triumphant scenarios blow up in their faces. Although you wouldn’t know it from reading the local press, both these Republican politicians are being revealed and reviled nationally and internationally for their prosecutorial over-reach.

In Congressman Issa’s case, it turns out now that the whole ‘IRS crisis’ was manufactured, thanks to some manipulative questions asked by the House Oversight Committee Chairman of the IRS Inspector General. Acting IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel will testify today before Congress the data released only concerned itself with conservative groups because Issa only asked about those groups.

The City Attorney’s office’s decision to pursue prosecution at the behest of the Bank of America for acts of political graffiti committed with washable chalk and their quest for a 13 year prison sentence in that case have made Jan Goldsmith an international laughing stock, despite his claims that he knew nothing about the case.   [Read more…]

History is Made: Supreme Court Strikes Down Federal, California Laws Limiting Same Sex Marriage

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5-4 Ruling Says Defense of Marriage Act Unconstitutional, California Decision Limited to in-State Unions

By Doug Porter

The opinion on DOMA was by Justice Kennedy, joined by the four liberal Justices — Ginsburg, Breyer, Sotomayor, and Kagan.

“DOMA singles out a class of persons deemed by a State entitled to recognition and protection to enhance their own liberty.”

Here’s a  copy of the opinion. The impact of the case is the federal govt will have to re-work all their regulations to make benefits available to same sex couples. Note that Section 2 of DOMA was not struck down, meaning this ruling has no direct impact on State that ban same sex unions.

Politicians react on Twitter:

Great to hear #DOMA is ruled unconstitutional. Federal recognition of equal rights.

Carl DeMaio ‏@carldemaio2m
I’m very pleased with the decision to strike down DOMA. All Americans deserve equal protection under the law.

Barack Obama  @BarackObama: Today’s DOMA ruling is a historic step forward for #MarriageEquality. #LoveIsLove”

Right wing reaction:

Supreme Court overrules God…. Won’t be long before they outlaw the Bible as hate speech… How long before federal agents haul pastors out of the pulpit?   [Read more…]

Supreme Court Damns Voting Rights Act with Faint Praise

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Prop 8, DOMA Decisions Due Wednesday

By Doug Porter

This historic session of the Supreme Court is drawing to a close and it feels like they are milking it for all the drama they can get.

Today the Justices announced that they support the Voting Rights Act of 1965; except that the part of the law determining how it’s applied is out of date. From the decision:

Our decision in no way affects the permanent, nationwide ban on racial discrimination in voting found in [Section] 2. We issue no holding on [Section] 5 itself, only on the coverage formula. Congress may draft another formula based on current conditions”

Think for a moment about the makeup of the current Congress; this Supreme Court decision amounts to a death sentence for enforcement of the Voting Rights Act.   [Read more…]

Rush to Judgment in San Diego: The City Attorney’s ‘Performance Art’

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By Doug Porter

The significance of the struggle between City Attorney Jan Goldsmith and Mayor Bob Filner continues to become more apparent with each passing day.

Last week Goldsmith released edited transcripts purporting to show Filner as an irrational angry man who used his ‘taxpayer funded bodyguard’ to expel an ‘innocent attorney’ (how’s that for an oxymoronic word combo?) from a closed hearing of the San Diego City Council. By playing on the Mayor’s well-known unwillingness to suffer fools, Goldsmith and his cronies have sought to add to a undercurrent of resentment over the mere fact of Bob Filner occupying the top job.

For those of you unfamiliar with all the machinations of this high profile ruckus, the short version of what’s going on here is that all these headlines are symptomatic of a much larger behind the scenes battle between a progressive Mayor and downtown special interest groups used to dictating policy at City Hall.   [Read more…]

The Stench in Mission Valley: UT-San Diego’s Open Warfare on Mayor Filner

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By Doug Porter

What started out as sour grapes over their preferred candidate losing last fall’s mayoral contest has now become an all-out jihad.  Frequent insolent editorials and a newsroom motivated by the need to prove their worth to a management team driven by desire to impose their agenda upon San Diego will no longer suffice.

Now it’s open warfare. Any pretense of the fairness hoped for by traditionalists in the public for the daily newspaper are gone. Now it’s yellow journalism– stinking, piss yellow– invective rolling off the presses at UT-San Diego.

Three examples will suffice for today, although there’s plenty more to be had lurking in the recent archives of the paper.   [Read more…]

Olive Garden, Red Lobster Restaurants’ CEO Fights for Healthcare Law Loophole in California

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By Doug Porter

The Orlando Sentinel reported this week on lobbying efforts by Clarence Otis, CEO for Darden Restaurants (Oliver Garden, Red Lobster) in opposition to proposed California legislation that would penalize companies with more than 500 employees for cutting workers’ hours to avoid paying for insurance under the Affordable Care Act.

Assembly Bill 880 has national implications, as many states are expanding Medicaid eligibility in preparation for provisions of the Affordable Care Act that go into effect in 2014.  Large companies doing business in California would have to pay fines for each employee working more than eight hours a week who is enrolled in the state’s Medicaid program, called Medi-Cal.

In 2012, Darden was one of a number of companies that began experimenting with using more part-timers to keep potential health-care costs low. Following a public backlash, Darden later said it would not cut full-timers to part-time.

Organized labor has rallied supporters in California to urge legislators to pass AB 880, which seeking to close the so-called WalMart loophole, a provision of the ACA which does not impose a penalty on employers whose part-time workers enroll in Medi-Cal.
  [Read more…]

The Carl DeMaio Campaign – Reform San Diego Koch Connection

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Tell your friends, DeMaio said, that they don’t have to “live in socialism.”

By Doug Porter

A report focusing on the thin line separating the Carl DeMaio for Congress campaign organization and the political advocacy group, Reform San Diego has shed new light on the former City Councilman’s relationship with Americans for Prosperity, a conservative 501(c)4 organization that spends money in support of Republicans and against Democrats. Funded by billionaire conservative brothers Charles and David Koch, the group spent about $36.3 million in the 2012 federal elections.

The KPBS/inewsource story, authored by Claire Trageser and Brooke Williams, starts out with a vignette from fundraiser for DeMaio’s long-time political advocacy group, Reform San Diego, held less than three months after his defeat in the mayoral race. DeMaio has described the group as a “grassroots 527 Super-PAC campaign organization.”

It turns out that Americans for Prosperity have been ‘members’ of DeMaio’s ‘coalition for reform’ for several years now.   [Read more…]

2013: Year of the Protest?

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“We don’t have to engage in grand, heroic actions to participate in the process of change. Small acts, when multiplied by millions of people, can transform the world.” ― Historian Howard Zinn

By Doug Porter

It’s hard to keep all the players straight at this point.

Last month protesters rallied in 52 countries and 436 cities world-wide as part of ongoing global protests against seed giant Monsanto and the genetically modified food it produces.

This month there are massive protests in Turkey. Nationwide demonstrations in Brazil. A huge construction workers strike in Quebec, with 175,000 strikers angry about being asked to work 14 hours a day, six days a week with no overtime pay.

And there are lots of smaller, less likely to be covered by the mass media, protests slated for San Diego, including an unusual coalition planning a July 4th rally protest prompted by the recent disclosures regarding government surveillance.

Today we’ll take a look around at what’s happening in this year of protest.   [Read more…]

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