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San Diego Women Occupy Lead Prop 37 Rally and Bannering on 163 Overpass

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Hillcrest Banners Favor Prop 37 On Robinson Street Overpass

By Nadin Abbott and Frank Gormlie

It was close to 4pm on the first anniversary of Occupy Wall Street – Monday, September 17th – and the mood at the Canvas for a Cause headquarters in Hillcrest was expectant. As people started to arrive for the programed rally in favor of Proposition 37, Nadine Abbott had a chance to talk to Doctor Norrie Robbins of Women Occupy San Diego and a member of the singers Occapellas. Robbins is also Adjunct Professor at the SDSU Dept of Geological Sciences, and is retired from the United States Geological Service, DC office.

Robbins said: “I am worried about my food. I’m beginning to get weird allergies that do not run in my family.”

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Who does Brian Bilbray really represent in Congress?

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The lobbyist in Bilbray carries over into his activities as a duly elected member of Congress.

Potentially earthshattering news came to light yesterday. It was news that for the Republican presidential candidate, Mitt Romney, could and should be devastating, and earthshattering for the Republican cause nationwide. David Corn of Mother Jones broke a story late yesterday of a video that was sent to him that was taken at a private fundraiser with the candidate and a small group of very wealthy donors.

I
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The Starting Line –San Diego Teachers’ Union Leadership Faces Recall

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A caucus within the San Diego Education Association (SDEA), the union that represents teachers within the San Diego Unified School District, is calling for the immediate resignation of labor leader Bill Freeman and five other board members. This morning’s announcement, made via an internet newsletter, called upon union members to circulate and sign recall petitions aimed at forcing a change in the SDEA leadership.

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Proposition 40: Sore Losers in the California GOP Give Up & #Fail

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You won’t see any TV ads for or against Proposition 40 on this fall’s California Ballot. That’s because the people who put it on the ballot have given up.

Proposition 40, which will still appear on the ballot, asks voters to approve or reject the efforts of the California Citizens Redistricting Commission, which drew up new voting districts following release of the data from the 2010 census. State Republicans were seeking the have the redistricting overturned, hoping that they’d pick up a few seats out of the deal.

Californians have voted three times in the past four years to have district maps drawn by an independent commission …   [Read more…]

The Chicago Teachers Union Versus the New Democrats, the Same Old Republicans, and the Corporate Media

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 After nearly twenty years of ‘reform’, the schools of Chicago remain among the lowest performing in the nation.

A funny thing happened on the way to labor’s extinction: the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) staged one of the most daring and important strikes in recent memory. As Chris Hedges put it during his Democracy Now interview last week  “the teachers’ strike in Chicago is arguably one of the most important labor actions in probably decades.”  And in the midst of this struggle, most of the corporate media around the country have decried the horrible greedy teachers from their editorial pages and assured readers that they were on the side of the children rather than the teachers.

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Mitt Romney Opts for Politics Over National Security

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By Kit-Bacon Gressitt

Picture this scenario from last week:

Unrest is fomenting in the Muslim world. Is it due to the anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks against the United States, the recently notorious and hateful film trailer for The Innocence of Muslims, an al Qaeda plot, or the latest storm in the Arab Spring?

Who knows.   [Read more…]

The Labor Movement Is Us

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Some people go on and on about labor unions as if they’re some kind of STD, so un-hip to the reality that the Labor Movement is us, We the People.

Who else labors?

As far as my relations with unions is concerned, if it hadn’t been for the San Diego Teachers Union I wouldn’t have enjoyed the time of a lifetime, a period of three years where I put work aside and took a “Parental Leave,” the first such leave taken by a man in the school district.

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The Starting Line – ‘Occupy’ Anniversary Protests in New York, San Diego & Around the World

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3:30 PM (PDT) As the press reports that OWS is all over for the day, here’s a picture taken a moment ago in Liberty Square

(For info on what’s happening in San Diego, come inside

3pm- Word from New York is that the late day actions were peaceful with few arrests. Thousands of people remain in Liberty Park. We’re headed out shortly to cover San Diego Occupy events. Check out our live feed from NYC below.
1 Pm This next hour will probably be the most dramatic part of the day for Occupy Wall Street. The activists gathered in Liberty Park are getting ready to march on Wall Street; the cops are massed and blocking the way.

Also It would appear that Anonymous has taken the Monsanto website down for the afternoon. Occupy groups in California have been targeting Monsanto for demonstrations as part of a campaign to support a ballot initiative that would require labeling of GMO foods.

NYPD reports 143 arrests as of 12:30 PDT.

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Feds Interview California Man Linked to Anti-Muslim Film

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By Associated Press / Published Sept. 15, 2012

A Southern California filmmaker linked to an anti-Islamic movie inflaming protests across the Middle East was interviewed by federal probation officers at a Los Angeles sheriff’s station but was not arrested or detained, authorities said early Saturday.

Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, 55, was interviewed at the station in his hometown of Cerritos, Calif., said Don Walker, a Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputy.

Federal officials are investigating whether Nakoula, who has been convicted of financial crimes, has violated the terms of his five-year probation. If so, a judge could send him back to prison.

Nakoula went voluntarily to the station early Saturday morning, wearing a coat, hat, scarf and glasses that concealed his appearance. It is unclear whether he returned to his home, which has been besieged by media for several days.   [Read more…]

Billionaires & Ballot Bandits: How to Steal an Election in 9 Easy Steps.

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By Dave Rice

Ten elderly nuns get kicked out of an Indiana polling station for not having driver’s licenses or other state ID.

Electronic voting machines in Georgia report massive malfunctions – but only in Democratic-leaning low income districts, where the hot, humid conditions of polling stations aren’t conducive to electronics. The ones in wealthy, Republican-leaning districts are protected in well kept, air-conditioned buildings – and have no problems registering votes.

Thomas Brown, a black Floridian, has his name purged from voter rolls because a white man with the same name and birthday once committed a felony.

Foreclosure firm Trott & Trott shares an office building with John McCain’s Detroit campaign headquarters. Whenever Trott completes a foreclosure, the McCain campaign challenges the foreclosure victim’s voter registration to have it purged from Michigan’s voter rolls: if they’ve been kicked out of their home, the address they used to register must not be valid.

Mad yet? Greg Palast is hardly getting warmed up ….   [Read more…]

Time for Oversight of Predator Drones – Made in San Diego

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Unmanned predator drones are now used for surveillance here in the U.S. and abroad

By Dave Patterson / East County Magazine / September 12, 2012

September 12, 2012 (Poway)–Every Thursday afternoon one can see a demonstration at the General Atomics plant in Poway, home of the Predator drone. The demonstrators are from the San Diego Veterans For Peace and their supporters, with the goal of enlightening the public on the desperate need for oversight regarding drone technology.

The Predator drone is flying over 16 countries now, loosing weapons over Yemen, Somalia and Pakistan. The kill statistics would be unacceptable in any conflict but are somehow overlooked because we are at war with terrorism.   [Read more…]

Federal Judge Rules NDAA’s Indefinite Detention Unconstitutional and Issues Permanent Injunction Against It

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Ruling Backed By Civil Liberties Groups Who Urge Obama to Give Up Defending Indefinite Detention

By Michael McAuliff / Huffington Post / September 13, 2012
Civil liberties groups are asking the Obama administration to stand down and give up defending America’s law allowing the indefinite detention of terrorism suspects after a judge Wednesday issued a permanent injunction against it.

The indefinite detention law — contained in the National Defense Authorization Act of 2012 — codified the post-9/11 practice of having the military jail suspects, including Americans, and hold them without trial.

Federal Judge Katherine Forrest reaffirmed on Wednesday her May ruling that the provision was unconstitutional, and made the ruling permanent.   [Read more…]

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