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The Starting Line – Trans-Pacific Partnership Trade Negotiators to Face a Week of Protests

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June 26, 2012 – A diverse coalition of groups has announced plans for ongoing protests aimed at trade negotiators meeting in San Diego next week for the 13th round of talks aimed at the creation of a Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade zone that would include the United States, Australia, Brunei, Chile, Malaysia, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam, with a “docking agreement” that other countries can join over time. Canada, Japan and Mexico are currently pressing to do so.. Describing the proposals being discussed at the confab as “NAFTA on steroids”, the Citizens Trade Campaign is seeking to draw attention to the fact that approximately 600 corporate lobbyists have access to the TPP negotiating texts, while the public has been barred from reviewing what trade negotiators have been proposing.

A leaked TPP document demonstrates that the group is considering a dispute resolution process that would grant transnational corporations special authority to challenge countries’ laws, regulations and court decisions in international tribunals that circumvent domestic judicial systems. Of further concern is the impact of the agreement on jobs, wages, agriculture, migration, the environment, consumer safety, financial regulations, Internet protocols, government procurement and more. Negotiations on the proposed pact will be held at the Hilton San Diego Bayfront Hotel from July 2 – 10.   [Read more…]

The Starting Line – Teachers Group Cries Foul Over Concession Vote

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June 25, 2012 – Seven thousand members of the San Diego Education Association, a group you’re probably familiar with as the “teacher’s union” starting voting on a new contract yesterday and already questions are being raised about the fairness of the voting process. The vote is to decide whether to approve a tentative revision of their contract with the San Diego Unified School District that calls for teachers to defer scheduled pay raises in order to save the jobs of nearly 1,500 district employees facing layoffs due to the District’s ongoing budget crisis. Teachers will be given five unpaid days off, with 14 more furlough days to be added if Gov. Jerry Brown’s proposal to raise taxes fails at the ballot box in November. The SDUSD Board of Trustees voted to approve the contract last Thursday.

The Breakfast Club Action Group, a dissident bloc of teachers which has actively campaigned against the agreement, complained on Sunday via a blog post and email that many SDEA members were being disenfranchised by the requirement that they vote in person within a three-day window ending Tuesday. They also pointed out that a basic security measure SDEA has taken with paper ballot elections in the past has been discontinued for this election.   [Read more…]

The Starting Line – Getting Past the UT-SD Paywall; Bridgepoint in the Crosshairs

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June 22, 2012 – It didn’t take long yesterday for news to spreadthat San Diego’s daily dead tree news operation had decided to monetize its internet operations by charging customers for access once they’d passed a monthly limit of fifteen page views. And, by the end of the day, savvy local computer users were spreading the word on methods to bypass the company’s paywall.

Bridgepoint in the crosshairs… San Diego has a long history of really big companies dominating the local landscape that crash and burn, leaving economic devastation inn their wake. During the 1960s, for instance, U.S. National Bank and the Westgate Corporation dominated the local landscape, only to collapse as the financial machinations of its owner C. Arnholt Smith were exposed. Today’s really big player is Bridgepoint Education. Its name and influence are at the top of the local economic scene. And while DailyFinance.com considers Bridgepoint stock to be “perfect”, i.e., the stock that provides everything you could possibly want, there are cracks opening around the edges of the giant that portend poorly for the future.
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The Starting Line – UT-SD to Charge Actual Money for On-line Content; Getting Ready for the Foie Gras Ban

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June 21, 2012- Today’s round-up of stories leads off with the announcement by Doug Manchester’s UT-San Diego that they will begin charging for access effective today. Readers will be blocked after a “free sample” of 15 pages each month. Pricing will include an introductory rate of 99 cents per week for the first month and $3.49 a week thereafter. I suspect that one unintended effect of this move will be to reduce the comments to on-line versions of their stories, which are always amusing and usually mindless right wing drivel. The Starting Line will continue to bring you highlights and low lights of Papa Doug’s madness Monday-thru Friday.

Foodies throughout California are all aware that just a few days remain before the State’s ban on Foie Gras takes effect. Troy Johnson’s article in this month’s San Diego Magazine does a great job of telling the story about what’s going on here.   [Read more…]

The Starting Line – San Diego Teacher’s Union Dissidents Mount ‘Just Say No’ Campaign on Concessions

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June 20, 2012 – Today’s Big Story is the deal announced yesterday between the San Diego Education Association (SDEA) and the San Diego Unified School District (SDUSD). Negotiations over the past three weeks produced a proposed settlement that would purportedly save (SDUSD) $68 million, return 1372 pink slipped teachers to classrooms in September, defer a series of pay raises promised by the district two years ago, and extend five unpaid furlough days for an additional two years. Two weeks of additional furlough days would be added next year if two new state tax measures fail in November’s general election. The anticipated settlement comes just days before the Board of Education is scheduled to adopt a final budget for the 2012-13 school year. It must be supported by more than 50 percent of union members, plus school board approval. The SDEA will begin a campaign this week to educate teachers about the agreement via phone calls, electronic posts and meetings. One gets the sense from press accounts that this is all but a done deal…

But wait a minute!… The Breakfast Club Action Group, a dissident teachers group spawned by concerns that the SDEA leadership was being less than forthright with the rank and file union members, is crying foul. Saying that the SDEA leadership approved the pact in a session closed to membership, the group posted an essay on its website calling the proposal a “horrible deal” that amounts to a 17.42 % pay cut and disputing the claim that the number of rescinded pink slips is real.   [Read more…]

The Starting Line — Demonstrations, Caravans and Twitterstorms, Oh My!

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June 19. 2012—Grass roots activism around the world leads the news wrap up today. In San Diego, cities around the world and in cyberspace citizens are and have been expressing their frustrations and hopes for a better world.

National Robin Hood Day demonstrations…. Rallies in San Diego and 14 other cities across the country at noon today kick off a national campaign to institute a Wall Street tax that would produce billions for the public good. This Financial Transaction Tax, called the “Robin Hood Tax,” is a levy of less than half of a percent on trades in derivatives, stocks, bonds and foreign currencies. According to the campaign, economists estimate that $350 billion could be raised each year for health care, jobs, education, infrastructure and various other needs, which may help rejuvenate the economy. The campaign states that it is pushing for “a tax for the people.”   [Read more…]

The Starting Line – SDG&E’s Trojan Horse; Koch Bros Confab Set for San Diego

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June 18,2012—SDG&E’s trojan horse…Michael Hiltzer in the LA Times reported Sunday on a scheme proposed by SDG&E that would give its 1.2 million customers the option of prepaying their electric bills. While the plan may sound appealing to those mostly working class consumers who favor prepaid cell phones and the like, there are significant disadvantages for consumers built into the proposal. Sign up for the prepaid program and you’re signing away virtually all the consumer protections governing disconnections. Run out of money on the prepaid deal and your power will be cut off, no notice required. Regular customers get a two week notice prior to disconnection and the option of extending any back bills over a three month period when they run into financial difficulty.   [Read more…]

The Starting Line — It’s Off to the Races; Fall Campaigns Gear Up

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November political campaigns shifted into a higher gear yesterday in the local and national arenas. Here in San Diego, the first debate of the fall mayoral contest between Congressman Bob Filner and City Councilman Carl DeMaio took place yesterday before the San Diego Rotary Club. DeMaio promised the crowd that he would act quickly as Mayor, citing his comprehensive plans to repair roads, make the city more business-friendly and fix city finances. Filner opted to describe the differences between himself and his contender, characterizing the City Councilman’s plans as a ‘spreadsheet’ and his own proposals as a ‘vision’ for San Diego.

Meanwhile in Ohio, President Barack Obama and GOP contender Mitt Romney gave dueling economic policy speeches in different corners of the state. In Cincinnati Romney called out the President for being “long on words and short on action” when it comes to fixing the economy. In Cleveland, the President told his audience that he and Republican Mitt Romney offer “two fundamentally different views” about the economy, saying “If you want to give the policies of the last decade another try, then you should vote for Mr. Romney”. The Romney campaign sent their tour bus to where the President was scheduled to speak; emblazoned with the Romney campaign logo in giant letters, it honked at Obama supporters as it continually circled the area.   [Read more…]

The Starting Line—DeMaio’s Pothole Plan Craters; UT Editorials for Sale?

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June 14, 2012- Mayoral candidate Carl DeMaio’s scheme to tie his November campaign to yet another ‘reform’ initiative ran into a brick wall yesterday as a San Diego City Council committee voted 5-0 against referring it to the full council for a vote. DeMaio’s “Road Repair Initiative” would have required the city government to exclusively allocate any surplus revenues for the next five years towards infrastructure repairs. Councilwoman Marti Emerald asked why the city should spend monies to support an initiative that was clearly designed to support a mayoral campaign. Mayoral challenger Bob Filner appeared before the committee, calling the proposed measure “an aspiration for mediocrity.”

DeMaio plans to re-introduce the measure as part of a revised budget should he win the mayoral contest. If the City Council refuses to go along with his plan at that point he pledged to go through the initiative signature gathering process. One has to wonder if his plan for governance is simply government by initiative.   [Read more…]

The Starting Line—Peed Dribbles Past Kreep in Closely Watched Judicial Race

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June 13, 2012- Observers are keeping a close eye on late election results at the San Diego County Registrar of Voters office, with a couple of close races hanging in the balance as 17,700 provisional ballots are counted. The closest contest is the race for Superior Court Judge # 34; Garland Peed is clinging to a 79 vote lead over right wing activist and birther Gary Kreep. In the hotly contested race to see who will challenge incumbent Congressman Brian Bilbray in the 52nd district, former City Councilman Scott Peters holds a 803 vote lead over former Assemblywoman Lori Saldaña. 5PM UPDATE: Kreep now leads Peed by 216 votes; Peters lead over Saaldana narrows to 737 vote-word is that she is conceding. There are 13,500 provisional ballots left to count.

Looking at the primary from the other side of the aisle… Local conserv blog SDRostra has a couple of post-election articles up that, along with the additional comments posted, should be mandatory reading for San Diego politicos. The Oracle Speaks has local pollster John Nienstedt sharing his observations about local primary contests from a (successful) political consultant’s point of view. And Tweets Don’t Equal Votes takes a look at the social media efforts of the Nathan Fletcher campaign; be sure to read through the comments on this one.   [Read more…]

The Starting Line— “Reform and Jobs” is the New Mantra (and Big Lie) of the Plutocracy

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June 12, 2012—The Big Reality about last weeks elections is that nearly three quarters of voters in California didn’t bother to cast a ballot. Hundreds of millions of dollars were spent, TV ads blared non stop, internet sites were plastered with political come-ons and mailboxes were overflowing with conflicting messages. Voting “Yes” on Proposition XXX would create jobs; voting “No” on the same measure would save the middle class. Middle of the road Democrats were cast as extremists; candidates whose campaign coffers overflowed with lobbyist cash packaged themselves as reformers. Even people who live and breathe politics (me, for instance) were disgusted and overwhelmed by the onslaught.

The “win at any cost” ethos combined with California’s top two vote getters primary system created situations where campaigns maneuvered to “pick” their opponents (Democratic slime ball and insurance company prostitute Juan Vargas is exhibit A-IMHO-See inside for supporting links) for the November general elections and inter-party battles left both campaign workers and candidates disillusioned and disgusted by the system. It’s safe to say that little “d” democracy may have been the ultimate loser last week. Steve Singiser at Daily Kos has more insights into ‘the results behind the results’, including the observation that independent candidates, who were supposed to be embolded by the new California primary system, fared poorly statewide.   [Read more…]

The Starting Line-UT San Diego Gets the Evil NY Times Eye

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June 11, 2012—New York Times media reporter/columnist David Carr has penned a largely critical review of “Papa Doug” Manchester’s media machinations since his purchase last year of the Union-Trib. The article starts out talking about the “growing worry” that the sickly state of dead tree journalism could create circumstances that would allow moneyed interests to take over newspapers and use their perceived integrity to “prosecute a political and commercial agenda.”

Carr goes on to assert that San Diego is Exhibit A for that fear since last year when Manchester purchased the paper, saying that nowadays the UT-SD “often seems like a brochure for his various interests.” He goes on to cite several examples where the Daily Fishwrap has transcended reportage and ridden roughshod over miscreants perceived to have gotten in the way of Papa Doug’s agenda. Chief executive John Lynch is quoted as saying “we make no apologies” for the paper’s activities and asserting that there is a “clear line of demarcation between our editorials and our news”.   [Read more…]

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