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Why didn’t she just leave?

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By Kit-Bacon Gressitt

Picture a sere summer night in Phoenix, Arizona, circa 1982.

I lay on a crinkly table in a cluttered ER, joking with the doc, bribing him with a promise of homemade shortbread if he could fix my face without leaving scars, looking anywhere but in his eyes, and I noticed a police officer nearby.

When I was all stitched and tidied up, I went to the cop and heard a quavering voice tell him that I wanted to press charges against my husband for assault.

The cop looked across the waiting room at him, sitting with his face buried behind his bloodied hands, his tiny mother, herself a victim, standing next to his chair, her arm around him while she stroked his head and kissed his fevered brow.

The cop looked back at me and said, “You don’t want to do that. You’ll just make him angry all over again, and it’ll be worse the next time.”   [Read more…]

Our Readers Write: Thoughts on the Anniversary of Occupy

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The day many Occupiers in San Diego had been anticipating. The one-year anniversary.

I reflected on the past year. I did not know about OSD when they did their first rally, so I missed it. But I attended every rally since. Though I did not ever camp overnight, I participated as often as I could. Donated so many items and food, as many other supporters did, only for them to be confiscated by the police during raids. Donated some more items and food again and again. Police raided the camp again and again.

I was never able to attend a General Assembly, but spent many hours watching the Livestream of it in the early days. I indirectly participated. I became familiar with the issues and the people involved. Though many of them were unfamiliar with me. I recognized them at the rallies, but often felt as an outsider because they did not know me. I spoke at City Council meetings after I witnessed the force used by the police. Never knowing that would be the first of many trips to City Council. My voice trembled as I spoke because I was so nervous. Now I think back on how all my words fell on deaf ears.   [Read more…]

Connecting the Dots Between Props 30 and 32: What’s the Union Busters’ Real Agenda for Education?

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Last week in the New York Times Adam Nagourney noted in his article on Proposition 32, “California Is Latest Stage in the Battle Over Unions,” that:

By design or not — and some union officials said they believed it was by design — the fight has forced unions to divert money from what had been their top priority: winning approval of an initiative by Gov. Jerry Brown to pass temporary tax increases to head off nearly $6 billion in new cuts in state spending.

“Labor has to stop everything it is doing to defend against this,” said Peter Dreier, the director of the Urban and Environmental Policy Department at Occidental College. “It’s pretty effective in forcing the unions to spend a lot of their resources to stop this from passing.”   [Read more…]

The Starting Line—UT-San Diego Soviet-Style Election Coverage. Are Airbrushed Photos Next?

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UT-San Diego editor Jeff Light has always challenged critics of the paper’s ownership to see if they can find any bias in the paper’s news coverage that reflects the unabashed right wing political leanings of publisher Doug Manchester and CEO John Lynch. One need look no further than today’s edition of the paper and its failure to report any forum or debate occurring in San Diego yesterday that might have aired views in opposition to UT-San Diego’s editorial stances.

There were six, count em, six, debates and forums throughout San Diego yesterday, but for readers of our daily newspaper the only one that occurred was the “televised” event that was staged in UT-San Diego’s broadcast studio.

Not mentioned in today’s paper were a debate between candidates for the San Diego City Council District One seat, a forum for SDUSD School Board candidates, sponsored by the League of Women Voters and Up for Ed, a Balboa Park rally held by supports of school bond construction Proposition Z, a multi-candidate (six contenders, including Mayoral candidate Bob Filner and Congressional candidate Scott Peters appeared) forum on sustainability issues, and a PTA sponsored appearance by civil rights lawyer Molly Munger in support of Proposition 38.   [Read more…]

Civility? We don’t need no stinkin’ civility

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by Norma Damashek
Mayor Jerry Sanders has betrayed the public. How? by refusing to separate the communal public agenda from the financial agendas of the people who brought him to power – the heavy-hitting fraternity of property developers, hoteliers, bankers, sports team owners, and financiers. They took up residence in the mayor’s office 7 years ago and should have been evicted. He never showed them the door.

By climbing into bed with Carl DeMaio’s campaign and supporters, our avuncular Mayor Sanders revealed one of his least endearing charms – the broken ethical/moral compass he uses to justify a long history of political ineptitude, questionable judgment, and cover-ups.   [Read more…]

Romney Comes Across as the Victor in Round 1

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Republican challenger reshapes his image in first presidential debate, but got away with some whoppers in the process.

Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney had a very good night last night in the presidential election’s first head-to-head debate. He was forceful, he was in command, he got all of his points across, and he presented an image of himself as a man of the people.

He also lied through his teeth. Repeatedly. And got away with it unchallenged.   [Read more…]

The Starting Line – DeMaio’s Second Calendar Revealed; Private Meetings with Developers Don’t Count

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For several weeks now mayoral candidate Carl DeMaio has been at the center of a controversy regarding his relationship with media mogul and developer Doug Manchester in connection with plans for a proposed football stadium at the site of the Tenth Avenue Port Terminal. A news account last week quoted Manchester’s CEO John Lynch bragging in an email about having a mayoral candidate in tow who was favorable towards their plans.

Now it’s come out via a report by KPBS/I-Newsource Investigations Desk that meetings beyond those previously disclosed were held between the developer and the candidate.

This story tool another twist yesterday when Voice of San Diego’s Scott Lewis revealed that UT-San Diego CEO Lynch was now on record as admitting that he’d threatened via email to use the newspaper’s clout to lead a campaign to disband the San Diego Port Authority. The warning was made in the context of an email exchange between Lynch and Port Commissioner Scott Peters regarding a potential lease (since ratified) with the Dole Fruit Company on part of the embarcadero that was included in the UT-San Diego’s proposal for a football stadium.   [Read more…]

Proposition 31: Reform the Rube Goldberg Way

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Should We Support This Manifestation of Stalinist Treason?

It’s a good thing the weather’s so damn nice in much of California, because if you had to spend anytime actually experiencing what passes for governance up in Sacramento, North Dakota or even Somalia might start looking mighty good. Let’s face it folks, things are mighty screwed up. And we all know it’s somebody else’s fault, right?

So when anybody talks “reform” these days, it strikes a chord with voters. I hear there are politicians in Los Angles (boo, hiss) that can take their dog for a walk, call it animal digestive reform and even raise funds off it.

Proposition 31 is the handiwork of a ‘long view’ reform group calling itself California Forward. It’s a package of measures, many of which sound perfectly reasonable. It is, so its supporters say, intended to bring more transparency to the budgeting process while giving Californians value for their tax dollars. Sounds okay, huh? Except that it isn’t. Step inside while I give you a tour of this mirage that calls itself a reform.   [Read more…]

Sex in San Diego: Rape in the Military

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Even as a little girl Claire Russo wanted nothing more than to grow up and serve in the military. At 14, she was a Senate page for Dan Coats, worked at the Republican National Convention in San Diego, and interned for Senator Judd Gregg the following year. Later she said “I became obsessed with the Marine Corps after that. I knew the legacy of the Marine Corps was elite and the legacy of Guadalcanal. They were pretty tough and if I was going to join, I’d join the toughest out there.”

When she grew up, she became a Marine who served in Iraq and later as an advisor for the Army in Afghanistan. At Officers Candidate School, where she finished fourth in a class of 65, she started hearing stories about women who had been raped by other Marines. One of her drill instructors told her, “You’re either a bitch or a slut.”   [Read more…]

Brian Bilbray and Carl DeMaio: San Diego’s Republican Shapeshifters

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By Lucas O’Connor / Special to the San Diego Free Press

If there’s one thing that’s been particularly consistent to campaigns of the far right in San Diego this fall, it’s the unusually desperate attempts to hide the real agenda from voters. It’s one that should be cause for optimism as long as voters pay attention, and betrays an almost impressive self-awareness from the top of the GOP that the party’s agenda has drifted well outside the mainstream.

From the special exemptions of Prop 32 to Brian Bilbray’s teetering re-election bid to Carl DeMaio’s bizarre mayoral campaign, extreme conservatives are doing everything they can to hide their record and who they are.

For the backers of Proposition 32, the deception was part of the design from the very beginning. They surveyed the political landscape and found that, unsurprisingly, nobody wants millionaires and corporations to be able to buy off our political process. Rather than abandon a wildly unpopular idea, they came up with a different plan: fake it.   [Read more…]

The Starting Line – ‘Pray the Gay Away’ Seeks to Live Another Day

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The ultra conservative Pacific Legal Institute has joined forces with an ordained minister/counselor of Rancho San Diego’s Skyline Church in filing a lawsuit seeking to overturn a newly signed California law that bars licensed mental health professionals from utilizing “reparative therapies”, on teenagers. Also known as conversion therapy, reparative therapies claim to change sexual orientation, and, although they have been widely condemned by medical authorities, are popular with fundamentalist Christian groups and other right-wing religious organizations.

The suit, filed on behalf of Dr. Donald Welch, who is also affiliated with a chain of Christian Counseling Centers throughout the San Diego region, who claims the law, which is scheduled to take effect Jan. 1, violates First Amendment and equal protection rights. A Culver City man who claims to have benefited from the therapies is named as the official plaintiff.

Much of the core of so-called “pray the gay away” therapies is based on scientific work done by Robert Spitzer, who has recanted his conclusions and apologized to the gay community for making unproven claims of the efficacy of reparative therapy. California will become the first to outlaw the practice for people under the age of 18 in America.   [Read more…]

Prop 37: 8 Reasons for Voting Yes for Labeling GMO Foods

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The French prime minister announced on September 15, 2012 that France would maintain a ban on Monsanto’s MON810 maize, the only genetically modified organisim (GMO) currently allowed in Europe. Thanks to activism by French citizens and serious political outcry, Monsanto is now effectively blocked from Europe’s gigantic marketplace. This is even more true when you consider that France is the largest agricultural producer in Europe.

But that’s not all. Following the ground-breaking French study that graphically linked the lifetime consumption of Monsanto’s GMO corn in rats to massive tumors and direct organ failure, Russia’s premiere consumers rights organization has suspended both the importation and use of Monsanto’s GMO corn within the nation’s borders.
  [Read more…]

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