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All Filner, All The Time: Looking Back at August 2013

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 For the twelve days of Christmas I give you: The madness of 2013, one month at a time-A month by month recap of stories that appeared in the Starting Line in the past year.

By Doug Porter

#1 Apologies to John Cleese..

In response to reader requests, I’m doing my best to keep this Filner falderal all in perspective. Not every development in this saga is a screaming headline kinda deal. So I’ll limit my remarks in keeping with what I see is the actual significance of events in yesterday’s San Diego edition of the Monty Python Media Circus. (h/t My Mom)

Ex-Mayor Sanders went on TV to say Filner’s gotta go. It’s bad for business, said the current head of the Chamber of Commerce, citing staffing cutbacks with the local tourism marketing effort.   [Read more…]

San Diego Mayor Bob Filner’s World Starts to Fall Apart: Looking Back at July 2013

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For the twelve days of Christmas I give you: The madness of 2013, one month at a time-A month by month recap of stories that appeared in the Starting Line in the past year.

By Doug Porter

#1 Where There’s Smoke, There’s Fire…

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.   [Read more…]

Facts Don’t Matter in Newspaper’s Quest to Demonize Public Education in San Diego

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“…pining for a previous superintendent is not only an affront to Ms. Marten but is akin to daydreaming about a former lover on your honeymoon.” 

By Doug Porter

Talk about your cheap shots. It was bad enough when the UT-San Diego editorial board whipped up an attack on our city’s schools laden with misstatements, factual errors and a personal attack on Superintendent Cindy Marten. But when a nationally recognized education leader stepped forward to correct the record on her behalf, his response was deemed unworthy for publication.

It’ all very Orwellian; reality isn’t simply what Papa Doug Manchester  tries to tell us it is.  When his minions refuse to acknowledge something, the idea is for you to believe that it never happened.

One of the longest running narratives with our Daily Newspaper has been their dislike for the Board of Trustees at San Diego Unified.  The paper’s ‘reform’ agenda for public education mirrors the libertarian/conservative wet dream of privatized charter schools, a change that means monetizing learning for corporate interests and creating a two-tiered system favoring the wealthier (and white) classes.   [Read more…]

Cochella (Twice), Taxes, Terrorists, and Testing: Looking Back at April 2013

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By Doug Porter

For the twelve days of Christmas I give you: The madness of 2013, one month at a time. A month by month recap of stories that appeared in the Starting Line over the past year.

#1 Assemblywoman Toni Atkins vs the Poor Oppressed Developers

Sometimes it’s not what you say, it’s how you say it.

Let’s start with the California Coastal Commission story in today’s UT-San Diego.

San Diego Assemblywomen Toni Atkins is sponsoring a bill that moved out of committee yesterday giving the California Coastal Commission the authority to directly fine law breakers.

Paragraphs three and four of the UT-SD story tell us first about the reaction against the proposed legislation:

Her Assembly Bill 976 has drawn sharp rebukes from business interests, many of whom already regard the Coastal Commission as too arbitrary when it comes to issuing permits for development along California’s 1,100 miles of coast.

  [Read more…]

Guns, Governors, God and the Gipper: Looking Back at February 2013

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By Doug Porter

For the twelve days of Christmas I give you: The madness of 2013, one month at a time-A month by month recap of stories that appeared in the Starting Line over the past year.

#1 Rick “Tex” Perry Rides into Town

Our local daily is featuring an article today hewing to its meme that the end is nigh for the Golden State in the wake of voter support for raising taxes in the last election. Here’s the lede:

Texas Gov. Rick Perry quietly came to San Diego last week to lure biotech companies seeking to escape from higher income taxes under Proposition 30 to the Lone Star State.

  [Read more…]

Ted Nugent’s Guns, Obama’s Gays, Manchester’s Minions and Huffpost’s Sideboobs: Looking Back at January 2013

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By Doug Porter

For the twelve days of Christmas I give you: The madness of 2013, one month at a time-A month by month recap of stories that appeared in the Starting Line last year.

#1 Elections have consequences:

Republican activist Ryan Trabuco took to the interwebs yesterday to announce his decision to re-register as “no party preference”. It’s not that he likes Democrats, it’s just that he can’t stand his old party:   [Read more…]

Happy Festivus! Airing of Some Grievances, San Diego Style

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By Doug Porter

Today, December 23rd we celebrate Festivus,“the holiday for the rest of us,” popularized via an episode of the Seinfeld sitcom. Frank Constanza (Jerry Stiller), father of George Constanza (Jason Alexander) supposedly invented the holiday as a reaction to the commercialization of Christmas and other December holidays.

First a little background is in order, via Festivusweb.com, for those of you scratching your head and going “huh?”

Frank Costanza, during a failed attempt to buy a Christmas gift for son George, realized that there should be a new holiday   [Read more…]

The OB Hippie House Dedicates a Peace Pole

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On December 21, 2013 at 9:11am, the Time & Day of the Winter Solstice

By Judi Curry

To call this beautiful remodeled house on the south side of Ocean Beach a “hippie house”  truly does it an injustice. The new owner – Scott – has put a great deal of money into the house to make it liveable, and the fact that it is not the “normal” Pt. Loma residence is incidental.  But….it is gaining fame, even though Scott and his significant other Layla, have just recently moved in.

First of all the views are spectacular.  The scenery changes from minute to minute. What were high waves an hour ago are small little ripples now; the pelicans fly over going both north and south. The surfers are not there today – waiting the 72 hours after the rain – before dotting the scenery with their black wetsuits and multicolored surfboards.  So why were we there this morning, braving the cold and wind, standing outside looking at a pole set in concrete , albeit in a beautiful design?

Today, at the beginning of the winter solstice, Scott was dedicating one of his two Peace Poles in an informal ceremony. How familiar are you with “Peace Poles”?  They symbolize the oneness of humanity and the common wish for a world at peace.   [Read more…]

The Sky Over San Diego Harbor

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By Will Falk

early one day I was walking

down by Mission Beach

with the sky over San Diego harbor

and we saw a lot of strange things
  [Read more…]

Santa Claus Comes to Friars Road

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“First of all, Mr. Claus, I object to your use of the term “good,” as being vague and ambiguous. “

By Matt Valenti

When traffic in the right lane of Route 163 South slows to a crawl for two miles between the 805 merge and Friars Road, it must be Christmastime in San Diego.

I found myself suffering through this traffic last weekend for my daughters’ obligatory annual photo op with Santa Claus at Fashion Valley Mall.

I expected the traffic, of course, and expected it would take me at least an hour of circling through the parking lot looking for a spot, after dropping my wife and girls off outside of Nordstrom’s.   [Read more…]

The Narrative Shifts in the Battle for Barrio Logan

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Alvarez comes on strong, shipyard labor calls out maritime lies and affordable housing advocates join the fray

By Brent E. Beltrán

On an unseasonably warm winter’s day in the heavily polluted community of Barrio Logan a shift in Maritime Industry’s false jobs narrative occurred.

At the home of Barrio Logan resident Hector Villegas (the same home that Councilman David Alvarez grew up in and caught asthma) the Environmental Health Coalition, under the leadership of Georgette Gomez, organized a press conference featuring Alvarez, Villegas, union leader Bobby Godiñez and affordable housing advocate Susan Riggs, executive director of the San Diego Housing Federation.

Before the assembled media hordes David Alvarez called out, in no uncertain terms, Maritime Industry lies and deception [see full text of his presentation below]. In his strongest opposition to the referendum yet he emphatically stated, “out-of-state billionaires launched and funded a referendum process to scare voters and overturn the democratically created and approved plan. It is truly regrettable that their paid petition gatherers have spread outright lies to fool voters into signing the referendum petition, threatening the City Council’s effort to create jobs and a healthy community for children.”

He went on to say, “The most egregious lie told by signature gatherers is also the easiest to disprove: it is categorically false that all maritime business must leave under the plan, all existing businesses can stay and expand up to 20 percent.”   [Read more…]

Putting the David Alvarez Mayoral Candidacy into a National Context

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By Doug Porter

While many of the issues at hand for San Diego voters in the upcoming mayoral runoff election may be local, there is a bigger picture being watched by political observers nationwide.

None of the top ten cities in the United States have Republican Mayors. Electing Kevin Faulconer in San Diego would be a double win for the GOP especially if the large Latino population is taken into consideration.  It would also serve as a counterbalance to the perceived trend of big city electorates shifting more towards the left end of the political spectrum.

One only needs to look to incoming mayor Bill de Blasio’s solid electoral win in New York to understand just how seriously the right is taking this trend.  An article in the New York Times last Friday catalogues right wing attempts to blame Mr. de Blasio for crimes currently being committed even though he’s three weeks away from being inaugurated.   [Read more…]

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