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Millions Against Monsanto: Five Lessons from the Battle Against GMOs

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By Ronnie Cummins / Common Dreams

Twenty years after the controversial introduction of unlabeled and untested genetically engineered foods and crops, opposition to GMOs (Genetically Modified Organisms) and Monsanto has created one of the largest netroots-grassroots movements in the U.S.

There are arguably more important issues facing us today than the battle against Frankenfoods. The climate crisis and corporate control over the government and media come to mind. But the rapidly growing anti-GMO Movement illustrates the powerful synergy that can develop from the combined use of social media, marketplace pressure and political action. Recent developments in this sector indicate that out-of-control corporations, media, politicians and the proverbial “one percent” can be outsmarted and outmaneuvered. And quite possibly defeated.   [Read more…]

Virtual Mayoral Forum – Part 7: ObamaCare for San Diego?

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Welcome to Day 7 of the SDFP Virtual Mayoral Forum. (See Day 1, Asking about managed competition, here , Day 2, Looking back on the Plaza de Panama controversy, here, Day 3, The Building Permit Process is a Hot Mess and Plans for the Planning Department, here. Day 4.  Walkable/Bikeable Neighborhoods and Public Transit, here. Day 5, Fixing the Infrastructure, here. Day 6, What About the Homeless?, here.)

With input from our many contributors, editors put together a series of eight questions we felt were unique, not too open ended and not trite. We’re publishing one response from the candidates per day (Monday-Friday) so readers can see the verbatim responses side by side.

We emailed the questions to the addresses listed with the City Clerk’s office as contact points, knowing most of the minor candidates wouldn’t respond. Kevin Faulconer’s campaign is refusing to participate. We can only assume–and, believe me we’ve tried to get them involved– their non-response sends a message about their openness to the citizens in this city. You can decide what that message is.

The complete questionnaire can be found here.

SDFP editor Doug Porter provides context for today’s question: What about the Affordable Care Act?   [Read more…]

Child Labor Shouldn’t Haunt Halloween

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Even if the kids in my neighborhood think my fair trade chocolate is a bit weird, at least I’m not handing out dental floss.

By  / OtherWords.org

I can’t bring myself to be the Grinch who stole Halloween. I just can’t, even though I write about healthy food. I even eat (mostly) healthy food.

Friends and colleagues expect me to have something to say about Halloween. But how can anyone condemn an innocent day of costumes and candy that brings joy to so many children?

As a kid, I was no health nut. I’ve always had a sweet tooth. My first word was “cookie.” But my parents did their best to restrict the sweets in our house. Halloween represented the one glorious day a year of unfettered access to gobs of candy.   [Read more…]

The Next Obamacare Attack: Beat Up on the Sick People

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By Joan McCarter / Daily Kos

Attacking the HealthCare.gov roll-out problems is so last week. The Web site will be fixed, so the next round of attacks from the right is gearing up: A variation on the theme of trying to convince young people that having insurance is bad. This time, they’re focusing on the people who will see an increase in insurance costs, and will try to pit them against the people who really need insurance.

There is a chunk of previously insured people in the individual market who are losing their coverage and will potentially have to pay more for insurance. Those are the people who previously had high deductible, low coverage, catastrophic insurance plans. They paid bottom dollar for plans that would help them if they ended up in the hospital after an accident or major illness, but generally wouldn’t provide any coverage for routine medical care like check-ups, immunizations, prescriptions, etc. Those kinds of plans are no longer allowed under Obamacare.   [Read more…]

The Democrats Version of Health Insurance Would Have Been Cheaper, Simpler, and More Popular

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(So Why Did We Enact the Republican Version and Why Are They So Upset?)

By Robert Reich/ Robert Reich.org

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor says Republicans will seek to delay a requirement of the 2010 Affordable Care Act that all Americans obtain health insurance or face a tax penalty. ”With so many unanswered questions and the problems arising around this rollout, it doesn’t make any sense to impose this one percent mandate tax on the American people.”

While Republicans plot new ways to sabotage the Affordable Care Act, it’s easy to forget that for years they’ve been arguing that any comprehensive health insurance system be designed exactly like the one that officially began October 1st, glitches and all.
  [Read more…]

How We Can End the Sale of Cancer-Causing Products

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It’s time to put a stop to corporate pinkwashing.

By Alyssa Figueroa / Alternet

In the early 1990s, Charlotte Haley, 68, was concerned about the rates of breast cancer in her family and her community. Her daughter, sister and grandmother were all diagnosed with breast cancer. When Haley learned that the National Cancer Institute allocated only five percent of its research funding to cancer prevention, she decided to take action. Haley began distributing peach-colored ribbons with cards that read, “The National Cancer Institute annual budget is $1.8 billion, only five percent goes for cancer prevention. Help us wake up our legislators and America by wearing this ribbon.”

After her actions sparked national media attention, Selfmagazine and Estée Lauder approached Haley about a partnership. Haley dismissed them as too corporate, which led them to rebrand their effort. Their lawyers suggested they pick a different color ribbon — they chose pink.   [Read more…]

RECALL? Legislators Lorena Gonzalez, Ben Hueso, Other Latinos Targeted by ‘Free California’ Group

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By Doug Porter

Emboldened by recent recall efforts in Colorado, ex-Minuteman types have joined with guns rights advocates to form Free California, a “grassroots” organization targeting elected Latino officials in the state legislature.

Ostensibly the recall petition drives are being organized in response to sweeping gun control measures recently signed by California Governor Jerry Brown. Legislators on their hit list include Sens. Norma Torres, D-Chino, and Ben Hueso, D-Chula Vista; Assemblywomen Lorena Gonzalez, D-San Diego, and Sharon Quirk-Silva, D-Fullerton; and Assembly Speaker John Perez, D-Los Angeles.

The group says its targeting lawmakers in swing districts, especially those who were put into office in special elections.   [Read more…]

The Fish Stinks From the Head – Tales of Woe About San Diego’s MTS and NCTD Transit Authorities

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By Doug Porter

“The fish stinks from the head” is an old Turkish metaphor used to attribute poor leadership as the cause for dysfunctional enterprises.

News accounts from the past 24 hours about San Diego’s Metropolitan Transit System (MTS) and the North County Transit District (NCTD) speak to seriously misplaced priorities, along with racism and sexism in both organizations.

In today’s UT-San Diego there is a story detailing how officials with the Metropolitan Transit System have declined to offer discounts for low income students. A pilot program, funded by both the school district and the City Council will now be cut by more than half.

Yesterday reporter Brad Racino at inewsource/KPBS broke a major story about sex and age bias in employment policies within the North County Transit District.    [Read more…]

UT-Faux News: Scraping the Bottom with ‘Filner Era’ Journalism

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By Doug Porter

News organizations relying on dead tree products (print) have been taking a lot of body blows over the last decade.  The continual decline of ad revenues since the second quarter of 2006 is so depressing for publishers that the Newspaper Association of America simply stopped reporting quarterly figures last month.

Some publishing companies are making up for the loss in revenue with increased subscription revenues. Others have morphed into multi-platform businesses. And still others, like our city’s UT-San Diego, are dabbling in faux news, a term acknowledging the role played by the homonymously-named TV network news operation plying the airwaves with Barely True News.

“Slow news day? Make something up!” appears to be the operating philosophy at their Mission Valley headquarters these days.   [Read more…]

Urban Design for Climate Change- The Third Way

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Ideas for linking urban design and healthy communities

By Jim Bliesner

Local Woodbury Architecture School students in the graduate Landscape Urbanism program under Professor Rene Peralta have undertaken to develop designs for the “Greater Logan Heights” area to link urban design and healthy communities. The question raised by the student’s designs is whether community level efforts can qualify as strategies for reducing CO2 levels.

The idea is that reducing carbon emissions does not just need to be about electric cars, modified freeways and bullet trains but can in fact be the impetus for making our communities more livable. Sound ecological urban design can both achieve carbon reductions and make our communities more walkable and healthy according to the students.   [Read more…]

Even Congressman Darrell Issa is Threatened by Falling GOP Poll Numbers

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By Doug Porter

Bad things come in threes, so the saying goes, and the Republican Party just got a triple whammy of disastrous poll results.  How bad is it?

It’s so bad even a “safe” Republican like Congressman Darrell Issa’s numbers have tanked. You know it’s bad when the local Democratic Party sends out fundraising emails talking about unseating Brian Bilbray in the last election and saying Issa’s next.

A Public Policy Polling (PPP) survey of 650 voters in the 49th Congressional district taken October 15 & 16 shows Rep. Issa with a 49-43 disapproval margin (9% undecided).  For the first time ever, voters preferred a generic Democratic opponent in a theoretical match up, if only by 1%, well within the margin of error. And his constituents opposed the GOP’s “shut ‘er down” strategy by 62-32%.   [Read more…]

The Cruelty and Ignorance of the Tea Party Republicans

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By Andy Cohen

Reports out of Washington today are that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and their contingents have reached an agreement to end the government shutdown and raise the debt ceiling. If the deal is passed, the government will reopen until at least January 15, and the debt ceiling will be raised until February 7, while putting the framework in place for a round of overall budget negotiations.

Talks between the two Senate leaders were put on hold yesterday in order to allow Speaker Feckless and his merry band of House Hooligans one last chance to pass a plan of their own to bring this latest debacle of American political (nee, Republican) incompetence to an end.

They failed. Miserably. Speaker Feckless brought several different measures before his House Republican Caucus in an effort to prove how in control he is and to ostensibly preserve the “Hastert Rule,” whereby only measures that can earn a majority of the majority are brought to the floor for a vote.   [Read more…]

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