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New EPA Power Plant Rules: Here Comes the GOP’s Climate Change Denial Onslaught

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By Doug Porter

Climate change was a major issue in the 2008 elections. Both the Republicans and Democrats made proposals aimed at reducing carbon based emissions.

Here we are six years later and, after watching Congress dither around the topic, President Obama has issued an executive order to significantly cut carbon pollution from power plants. The goals proposed are modest compared to those supported by Presidential candidate John McCain and included in the 2008 GOP platform.

CNN was the only cable network of the big 3 covering the EPA announcement this morning. (Fox News was covering…Benghazi!)   [Read more…]

Why Goats Are Coming to An Urban Backyard Near You

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Quieter than dogs, but just as affectionate, goats produce delicious milk and cheese. But they’re not for everyone.

By Jill Richardson / AlterNet

Believe it or not, chickens are not the only farm animals turning up—legally—in cities. Goats are now legal (with some limitations) in Seattle, San Diego, San Francisco, Pasadena, St. Louis, Oakland, Portland, Cleveland, Fort Worth, Berkeley, and St. Paul.

But do goats belong in a city? Strangely enough, goats can actually make nice neighbors, so long as their owners have a good fence. But, as a new generation rediscovers agriculture, they are also finding out that raising goats, particularly if you wish to raise them for milk, takes work.

Rachel Hiner and her husband, Andrew Clarke, have had goats for about two years, ever since San Diego changed its rules to allow them.   [Read more…]

How Many Votes Will Two Million Dollars Buy in California? GOP Gubernatorial Candidates to Find Out Tuesday

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By Doug Porter

Republican Neel Kashari is about to find out whether or not two million dollars of his personal fortune is enough to win a spot in the November 2014 California gubernatorial contest.

The latest set of polls, via Stanford University’s Hoover Institute and San Francisco’s Public Policy Institute, point to a June 3rd victory by Tea Party favorite Tim Donnelly. Despite endorsements from GOP luminaries like Condoleezza Rice, Mitt Romney and ex-Gov. Pete Wilson, TV ads and huge financial advantage, Kashkari’s only hope at this point seems to lie in winning over undecided voters in the primary.

Donnelly is counting on grass roots support, saying the election is about a “divide between the common man and political elite.”  His campaign claims the unanimous endorsement of California GOP county parties and points to their 4,100 donations compared Kashkari’s slightly more than two hundred donations as proof of this point.   [Read more…]

Some Thoughts on the Isla Vista Killer

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By John Lawrence

Elliot Rodger left a 140 page document which is a truly revealing window into his soul. After reading this “manifesto,” which is really more of a life history, his twisted life which led up in painful stages to his “Day of Retribution” becomes, if not excusable, at least more understandable. And understanding why people feel impelled to do these horrific acts is important if we are to come to any conclusions which just might prevent more of these situations in the future.

Understanding is more important than condemning. It’s not about Rodger, at this point, or his victims. Nothing can be done to bring them back. But lessons can be learned about what went wrong in this young man’s life and what could have been done to deflect him from his ultimate course. After all, right up until the end he expressed some tiny bit of hope that his life would take a more positive turn, and he wouldn’t be driven to commit the crimes that he did.   [Read more…]

The Isla Vista Shooting, #YesAllWomen and Misogyny Writ Large

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Margaret Atwood famously said that men’s greatest fear is that women will laugh at them, while women’s greatest fear is that men will kill them. Misogyny and male entitlement are sustained acts of aggression against women that everyone should be invested in opposing. –Clementine Ford

By Doug Porter

Today’s column will be focused on media coverage of–and some observations about– the shooting Friday night in Isla Vista.

The coverage was predictable, ala: “a mentally disturbed young man went on a shooting spree. It seems as though he had some sort of problem with women.” A worldwide reaction via social media kept the “problem with women” part of the media equation from becoming an afterthought.

The Associated Press account featured in UT-San Diego got around to mentioning the “some problems with women” part about 10 paragraphs down, in keeping with the “if it bleeds, it leads” media mantra.   [Read more…]

Barrio Logan Residents Spoil Mayor’s Pro-Pollution Presser

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Desde la Logan columnist amongst “hecklers”

By Brent E. Beltrán

Oops, we did it again.

A handful of Barrio Logan residents, including artist Hector Villegas, my wife Olympia, my son Sandino and myself, gave Mayor Faulconer, ex-Mayor and current corporate shill Jerry Sanders and shipyard mouthpiece Len Hering a piece of our minds and vocal chords at a press conference against Propositions B and C and the Barrio Logan Community Plan.

The press conference took place outside City Hall and was attended by the same suits that have been speaking out against the plan for months. Except this time they didn’t bus in shipyard workers.

Having received a tip, from someone close to the No on B and C campaign, an hour before the presser Hector and my family decided to take action. Olympia made a couple of handmade signs for her and Dino to hold. I brought dust masks to wear as a symbol of Barrio Logan pollution and Hector brought the respirator that he uses while painting.

We got there a few minutes before the press conference started and saw the suits lingering around. When the Mayor showed up we knew it was about to start and we were ready.   [Read more…]

Wood vs. Horn for Supervisor: A Lose-Lose Proposition for San Diego County

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By Doug Porter

Voters in San Diego County’s District 5 race for Supervisor have a tough choice to make this year. It’s Republican Bill Horn against Republican Jim Wood, which–from a partisan perspective– is probably just the way they like it in the northern reaches of the county.

Unflattering portraits of both candidates have appeared in the media over the past day or so.  Voice of San Diego’s profile on Wood paints him as a social neanderthal. Online inewsource’s probe into Horn’s crossover religious and real estate dealings makes him look sleazy, even if it’s unlikely he’ll ever face legal action.

Oceanside’s Mayor Jim Wood says he’s running as a populist alternative to five term incumbent Bill Horn, whose relationships with developers and inflammatory rhetoric have often been seen as controversial. I can attest from personal observation that Wood is socially challenged around women, and after our most recent experiences with the Mayor-who-cannot-be named, it’s safe to say he’s an embarrassment waiting to happen.
  [Read more…]

Republi-Logic™: From the Battle of Benghazi to Barrio Bullies

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By Doug Porter

If you thought the latest GOP Benghazi Select Committee was an over-the-top idea, wait until you hear about Congressman Duncan Hunter’s amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act. It’s an open ended measure that would authorize the “use of force against those responsible for the attack against United States personnel in Benghazi, Libya.”

Duncan’s amendment amounts to a declaration of war in response to the Benghazi attack. It cites no specific enemy and its open-ended nature means that any future president, not only Barack Obama, could use it as a pretext for military action.

Unlike much of the whack-a-doodle dreck that gets proposed as amendments in Congress, this broad, sweeping measure looks to make it to a floor vote this week without even a hearing in the Foreign Affairs Committee, according to an article in the American Prospect.   [Read more…]

Straight from the Pit of Hell: Lethal Injections, the Truth about Turd Blossom and Fukushima’s Cherry Trees

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The SDFP Science Corner, because science is now a liberal conspiracy

By Anna Daniels

It has been an amazing week in science. The bones of the world’s largest dinosaur were discovered in Argentina, scientists appear poised to turn light into matter and the 12,000 year old skeleton of a young girl found in an under water cave in Mexico offers new information about the evolution of Native Americans.

This week in chemistry: The recent botched execution by lethal injection of an Oklahoman inmate has spurred discussion by citizens and members of the medical and legal professions, as well it should. The use of lethal injection for executions has been grotesque in its results.   [Read more…]

A Penny’s Worth of Thoughts

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By Bob Dorn

A cute little plate on our kitchen counter top is obscured by the pennies it holds. Inevitably, the pennies mount up. If I changed every penny in that bowl into dollars I’d have… about a dollar. At times I’ve had more pennies in that bowl, maybe 200 or 250 pennies.

That many pennies get in the way. You can’t see the dimes and the nickels after a while, and that’s too bad because they’re so much easier to spend than the pennies. You reach in there, unlooking, to load your pocket with coins and come up with 27 or 32 cents, consisting maybe of a dime, a nickel; the rest are pennies.

At the Sprouts, the bill is $18.72. Big deal. You got rid of two cents. You hold on to a quarter and a nickel and go home with most of the pennies you brought with you hoping to get rid of them.

Pennies don’t BUY anything.   [Read more…]

Outraged By Kidnapping of Nigerian Girls? 4 Other Incidents of Mass Violence Against Women You Should Know About

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The media has ignored many other examples of international violence toward women.

By Erika L. Sánchez / AlterNet

On April 14, Nigerian militant group Boko Haram fighters kidnapped 276 schoolgirls from the remote northeastern town of Chibok in Borno. As far as we know, 223 are still being held. Many Nigerians and international leaders criticized Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan for taking almost three weeks to respond to the crisis. Journalists and writers all over the Internet also blasted the media for taking so long to respond to the horrific abductions. How could it be that the kidnapping of 276 girls was not the number-one story all over the world? Eventually, the world did erupt in outrage and the hashtag #BringBackOurGirls went viral. The hashtag #234WhiteGirls also surfaced to draw attention to the media’s bias when it comes to coverage of violence against women of color.

The kidnappings bring up a whole slew of issues, and call into question how many other incidents the media has ignored. Here are four examples of systematic violence against women of color that didn’t receive the media coverage they deserved.   [Read more…]

Deja Vu All Over Again: Balboa Park Centennial Plan (V.2) Seems to Be Headed Nowhere

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By Doug Porter

Oh crap. It’s starting to look like the San Diego’s second attempt to throw a party celebrating the centennial of the 1915 Panama-California Exposition in Balboa Park is in trouble.

The first round of planning came to an abrupt end back in February, when Balboa Park Celebrations, Inc crashed and burned, admitting that three CEOs, a board chock full of downtown groupies and $3 million in seed money hadn’t amounted to much of anything.

Mayor Kevin Faulconer handed off the event to another city-inspired non-profit entity, the Balboa Park Conservancy, on March 28th. A press conference on that date talked about a focus for the Centennial limited to four events: the ongoing December Nights celebrations in 2014 and 2015, along with spring and fall celebrations of things unique to San Diego.   [Read more…]

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