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The US Has Not Created ONE Breadwinner Type Job in Over 10 Years

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Only part time, temp and minimum wage jobs are being created

By John Lawrence

A breadwinner job is a job that is sufficient to support a family, including rent or mortgage, car payment, adequate food and nutrition, health care, education and savings for retirement. That meant a job paying $50,000 a year in 2007 when the US economy peaked. At that time there were 71.8 million “breadwinner” jobs in construction, manufacturing, white-collar professions, government and the like. These jobs accounted for more than half of the nation’s 138 million total payroll.

Breadwinner jobs are the foundation of the Main Street economy. But after losing 5.6 million of these jobs during the Great Recession, less than 4 percent of these jobs have been recovered. The 3 million jobs recovered since the recession ended in 2009 have been mainly in part-time work, temp jobs and in health, education and social services (the HES complex).   [Read more…]

All Five Members of San Diego’s Congressional Delegation Voted Against Ban on NSA Surveillance

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Vargas, Davis and Peters Join with Issa and Hunter to Defeat Attempt to Rein in the NSA

Count ’em. All five members of San Diego’s Congressional delegation voted yesterday against the ban on continued National Security Administration surveillance of Americans’ phone and internet records.

Democrats Susan Davis, Juan Vargas and Scott Peters joined with their ostensible nemesis Republicans Duncan Hunter and Darrell Issa to shut down the attempt to rein in the NSA’s spying.

It was a close vote; 205 to 217 – against the Amash amendment, a bipartisan effort added to a spending bill.

The vote was a huge disappointment to civil libertarians and critics of the NSA surveillance programs. The NSA has been criticized for overstepping its authority in conducting warrantless spying on US citizens. Critics assert that Congress never authorized the extent and breadth of the spying, and that the projects violate the Constitution.   [Read more…]

Tired of Hate: A Commentary on the Treatment of Homeless in Ocean Beach

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By Jack Hamlin

It is happening again. Three years ago we were able to come together as a community to try and begin to resolve the issues surrounding homelessness and the poor in Ocean Beach. I am not so naïve as to look back on that time as “Halcyon Days of Kumbaya,” in O.B. Rather it was a time during which we began to look for solutions, instead of blame and division. But we all have become complacent and are returning to the awful time of “Please Don’t Feed Our Bums.”

It was a subtle trip and that is probably why we have been caught unaware. But the haters just wait for the right opportunity to bring their vitriol back to the surface and make us a divided community once again. Much of it, however, lays firmly at the feet of the San Diego Police Department and its treatment of the homeless and poor.   [Read more…]

Adventures in Comic-Conlandia: A Nerds-eye View Day Two

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Story and Photos by Brent E. Beltrán

For the second full day of the greatest popular arts convention in the universe my wife Olympia and I had grand plans. We were going to spend the entirety of it in the Convention Center’s infamous Hall H.

Hall H is the largest programming room at Comic-Con. It seats 6000 or so people (not sure how many Wookies it might hold) and has the some of the best and most attended panels. And this Friday’s lineup was spectacular.

The two of us thought that if we got to the convention by 10am we might at some point get inside.

We were wrong.   [Read more…]

Cashing in on Kids: 139 Legislative Bills Have Been Introduced in 2013 that Promote ALEC’s Private, For-Profit Education Models

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By Brendan Fischer / PR Watch

Despite widespread public opposition to the education privatization agenda, at least 139 bills or state budget provisions reflecting American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) education bills have been introduced in 43 states and the District of Columbia in just the first six months of 2013, according to an analysis by the Center for Media and Democracy, publishers of ALECexposed.org. Thirty-one have become law.

ALEC Vouchers Transfer Taxpayer Money to Private and Religious Schools

News Corp CEO Rupert Murdoch has called public education a “a $500 billion sector in the U.S. alone that is waiting desperately to be transformed.”

But this “transformation” of public education — from an institution that serves the public into one that serves private for-profit interests — has been in progress for decades, thanks in large part to ALEC.

ALEC boasts on the “history” section of its website that it first started promoting “such ‘radical’ ideas as a [educational] voucher system” in 1983 — the same year as the Reagan administration’s “Nation At Risk” report — taking up ideas first articulated decades earlier by ALEC supporter Milton Friedman.   [Read more…]

Things Fall Apart: Filner’s Betrayal and the “Political Circus”

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…the real winners here are the same old downtown insiders who are busy popping champagne corks and laughing at Filner’s implosion and cheering the welcome help they are getting from unlikely sources. 

By Jim Miller

Whatever the end result of the Filner sexual harassment scandal, it’s clear that even if the mayor beats the odds and survives, his credibility and ability to move a bold populist agenda is severely damaged. Hence, San Diego’s first truly progressive mayor may have squandered the opportunity to be a transformative figure, the progressive fighter and game changer we had hoped he would be. Worst of all by engaging in abusive behavior towards women, Filner has betrayed the core principles of any progressive politics by failing to respect the civil rights and humanity of women. We don’t need to hear all of the details to know that this is true–he has admitted as much himself.

Additionally, and equally important, Filner’s actions are a betrayal to all those in the broad, historic progressive coalition who worked to elect him. I have spoken to dozens of my friends in labor and community activist groups over the last few days and folks are universally angry and depressed. His fall from grace will have broad and long-term consequences, disillusioning and discouraging people from hoping for change in our city and, discrediting by proxy those who aggressively contest the entrenched interests that Filner had rightfully been fighting. It will take a long time to recover from this.   [Read more…]

SDFP Journo Doug Porter Awarded 1st Prize for Prop Z Coverage

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Last night, July 11, the San Diego Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists held its annual journalism awards banquet at Bali Hai on Shelter Island. Loren Nancarrow, Fox 5 anchor and environmentalist received the Journalist of the Year award. Awards were then presented by Carol LeBeau, retired 10News anchor and Marty Levin, retired KNSD/Channel 39 anchor. The full spectrum of the media- newspaper, magazines, online, radio and television– was reflected in the awards.

Prolific SDFP writer and editorial board member Doug Porter received first place in the Daily Reporting and Writing category for his coverage of Prop Z. Freepers Annie Lane, Rich Kacmar, Anna Daniels, Andy Cohen, Doug and Doug’s daughter Haley waited expectantly to find out whether he had garnered a 1st, 2nd place or honorable mention. Doug was surprised at the 1st place award; the rest of us weren’t surprised at all.   [Read more…]

Stayin’ Alive

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dornlogoBy Bob Dorn

More people name FOX News as their avenue to the truth than any other network, according to Gallup, which released its study yesterday (July 08).  Of course, most people simply told Gallup that they watch television in general for their news (55%) but FOX was specifically named by 8 percent, without prompting.   Perhaps surprisingly, CNN was volunteered by 7%.

FOX News viewers are almost twice as likely as CNN viewers to be 50 or older, and 94% of them say they are — or lean toward being — Republican.  And, gasp, the venerable polling organization actually says in its findings that FOX fans are  “much more likely to be white, Protestant, attend church weekly, and to earn $75,000 or more per year.”

(for more, gallup.com)   [Read more…]

Field of View: Torrey Pines State Park and Gliderport

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By Annie Lane

Torrey Pines State Reserve is a scene I will never tire of seeing. Striking colors, views and wildlife surround easily accessible paths making the excursion enjoyable for hikers of all skill levels.

On this particular day, we ended our outing at the Torrey Pines Gliderport (a short drive), where we ate lunch at the Cliffhanger Cafe and watched paragliders and hang gliders flying among the birds. The food was decent, and made all the better by the scenery. We also met two of the birds from West Coast Falconry, who were hanging out cliffside with their trainers and would fly alongside them while they went paragliding.   [Read more…]

AN OPEN LETTER TO THE FRIGGING BASTARDS THAT ARE NOT CONTENT WITH THE FIREWORKS SHOWS

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By Judi Curry

The adage that “a picture is worth a thousand words” is shown here for those of you that insist on shooting off firecrackers all night long.  Not fireworks – firecrackers.  I only wish that I could shove one of the “crackers” where the sun don’t shine in defense of Buddy, who is absolutely scared to death.   [Read more…]

San Diego’s New Simmering Sunroad “Controversy”

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There is plenty of blame to go around in the latest brouhaha involving Mayor Bob Filner

By Andy Cohen

Mayor Bob Filner is in the crosshairs again (metaphorically speaking, lest anyone suggest that someone is actually trying to shoot our mayor).  This time, the local media—and especially the conservative interests around town—are howling about a deal that Filner’s office struck with Sunroad Vice President for Development Tom Story.

This is the same Sunroad Enterprises, and same Tom Story, that in 2007 were accused of exerting improper influence over city officials in order to secure construction permits to build a 12 story building off of route 163 and adjacent to Montgomery Field.  Federal Aviation Administration regulations prohibit a building that tall from being so close to an airport, but city officials along with a complicit Mayor Jerry Sanders, issued the permits anyway.  Then-City Attorney Mike Aguirre sued Sunroad, was joined by the FAA, and the company was eventually forced to remove two entire floors from the building.

Sunroad does not exactly have a sterling reputation around town.   [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…]

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