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Inside Story – Notes from the Freep Cave

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Notes from the September monthly meeting of SDFP editors and contributors.

By John Anderson

In an attempt to increase the transparency of the conversations at the San Diego Free Press and to encourage a wider variety of voices from across the region we are publishing Inside Freep to let current contributors and readers keep up with items on the agenda for discussion and for future articles.  If you have thoughts or comments to add please do so in the comments section.  Better yet, join us for our next contributors meeting or send your own article to contact@sandiegofreepress.org.

The September monthly contributors meeting for the San Diego Free Press took place Wednesday, September 25, 2013, in North Park from 7 to 9 PM in an undisclosed location hereafter known as The Freep Cave.  After exchanging greetings and pleasantries fourteen members of the San Diego community sat down to discuss the special election for the mayor and other topics as detailed below.  The attendees hailed from across San Diego including the neighborhoods of Barrio Logan, City Heights, Hillcrest, La Jolla, Lemon Grove, Normal Heights, North Park, Ocean Beach, Pacific Beach, and Point Loma.   [Read more…]

Passionate Debate Ends with Alvarez Getting the Backing of SD Democrats for Equality

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Story and Photos by Eva Posner

The San Diego Democrats for Equality endorsed City Councilmember David Alvarez last night, furthering his momentum toward an improbable-but-not-impossible victory against Nathan Fletcher and Kevin Faulconer in the November 19 special election to replace Bob Filner as mayor of San Diego.

The result is interesting, given the amount of infighting that has taken place among local Democrats since Alvarez entered the race– placing himself opposite former Republican Assemblyman Nathan Fletcher for the title of Democratic front-runner.   [Read more…]

PRIVACY? What Privacy?

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By Judi Curry

Do you really think that you have privacy in your everyday doings? Do you really believe that no one knows when you are doing something you shouldn’t be doing? Do you really think that the good deeds you are doing are not noticed by someone?  Do you have any awareness of just how “unprivate” your life is?  Not only is “big brother” watching you, but so are his sisters and brothers, and it is a little unnerving.

A few examples:  Those of you that have read my articles in the past know that I have been experimenting with “on-line” dating for the past year.  I can’t say that all of the experiences that I have had have been bad, but a goodly number gave me fodder for the articles I have written for the SDFP and OBRag.  I have been very careful not to meet men at my home; and have met men at places where I am known by the workers in case I run into any problems. (I haven’t.)   [Read more…]

The War on Pensions: Workers Lose, Wall Street Wins

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By Doug Porter

Three recent news stories and one older account tell the tale of what’s really going on behind the current public sector pension “crisis” in the United States.

To make a long story short: there are good pension systems and bad pension systems.  Some are broke and need to be fixed. Some aren’t. But all public sector pension plans are under attack as part of the conservative goal of reducing government and the greed of Wall Street hedge fund managers seeking to get their hands on a huge pot of money.

Frying Pan News published an account this week about a group of pension policy advocates here in California working on a until now secret ballot initiative that would cut State and local government employees off at the knees, retirement wise.

At Salon.com we learn about the for Enron executive whose been working hard to craft the argument that defined pension benefit programs need to be scrapped no matter what shape they’re in.

At Rolling Stone, Matt Taibbi takes a sharp tongued look at the profits being made by corporate ‘management’ of pension plans.

Inside: Pigs Fly Over Ocean Beach

  [Read more…]

Sweet Tweets, Cold Cash and Barrio Logan on San Diego’s Mayoral Campaign Trail

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By Doug Porter

 Tuesday night’s vote by the San Diego Democratic Central Committee was a clear victory for backers of Councilman David Alvarez’s mayoral aspirations.  If for no other reason, the endorsement was important in raising the councilman’s name recognition, both for the headlines it produced and the cash that will now flow from Democratic Party coffers boosting his candidacy.

Others with skin in this game reacted in differing ways.

A much heralded spat between United Food and Commercial Workers President Mickey Kasparian (who supports Alvarez) and Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez (Nathan Fletcher’s booster), appears to have passed.  After all, the vote is over, and the party did vote to support whichever of those candidates wins the November 19th primary.   [Read more…]

Gentle Fathers in the Wild

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By Ernie McCray

I hadn’t camped since Nancy died in ’09. But there I was, this past weekend, laying my sleeping bag down on the ground, to spend some time in the wilderness, near Julian, for two days and two nights with some of the most delightful people one could ever meet in life. It would be an understatement to define those moments as nice.

I mean we were living good, just kicking back, underneath a sky that was black as it could be considering that there was a full moon at play, eating meals off the grill, over burning logs we needed to feel cozy in the evening chill.

It had been a while but nothing had changed since the days when Nancy and I and our offspring would get out into the woods. Like back then, no sooner than I stepped out of my car my spiritual nature rose to the fore. At first it was a reaction to the sheer majesty of it all: the emerging colors of autumn all around me in the oak and cedar and pine trees, the knowing that I was surrounded by mule deer and wild turkeys with bobcats and mountain lions watching the whole scene, the fresh air. How could my soul not feel moved when I was, by the very environment I found myself in, feeling such a connection to nature’s wonders?   [Read more…]

Alvarez Gets The Nod from Democratic Party as Mayoral Election Takes Shape

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By Doug Porter

San Diego’s Democratic Central Committee met last night to consider the question of endorsing a candidate in the upcoming special mayoral contest.

Former City Attorney Mike Aguirre, civic activist Bruce Coons, former assemblyman Nathan Fletcher and City Councilman David Alvarez all pled their case behind closed doors in Kearny Mesa.

The Dems could have voted not to endorse at this point in the process. Or they could have endorsed more than one candidate. But either move would have effectively left the party’s ability to raise unlimited funds at the sidelines for the Nov 19th primary.

So in the end City Councilman David Alvarez won the endorsement with a 63-40 40-24 vote over Nathan Fletcher. In the event of a runoff after the special election, the committee agreed to back whichever Democrat advances, whether or not it’s Alvarez.   [Read more…]

Fletcher Versus Alvarez: The Battle for the Soul of San Diego’s Democratic Party

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by Jim Miller

This last week marked the two-year anniversary of Occupy Wall Street, a political happening that finally put the issue of economic inequality in the spotlight and started a national discussion about money, class, and political corruption. That movement was largely brought to us by young people, Millennials mostly, whose view of mainstream politics is justifiably jaded.

As Peter Beinart recently pointed out, “Compared to their Reagan-Clinton generation elders, Millennials are entering adulthood in an America where government provides much less economic security. And their economic experience in this newly deregulated America has been horrendous.”

And this experience has been made worse by bankrupt politics that pits what Beinart rightly characterizes as “a procapitalist, anti-bureaucratic Reaganized liberalism” that is “inclined toward market solutions” to everything against a radicalized “right wing populism”:   [Read more…]

The New Main Library: A Benefit for All

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Richard Rider, a local libertarian, called the new library “a monument to an era that is ending — a structure that in a few years will have little more utility value than a Pharaoh’s pyramid in Egypt. The only difference is that the library will have high operating costs — the pyramids need no such annual funding.”
–UT San Diego article “New library: Is this monument necessary?”

By Joe Flynn

Odd isn’t it? The self professed “cheerleaders” for San Diego preview the grand opening of the new library with this article puffed up with a quote from San Diego’s Dr. No, Richard Rider, libertarian. I wanted to get the spelling right, but after reading his remarks no one will mistake him for a librarian.   [Read more…]

Stagnation in San Diego – CPI Asks “What Economic Recovery?”

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By Doug Porter

The Center for Policy Initiatives (CPI) released its annual number crunching report for San Diego yesterday based on 2012 Census data, and picture painted within isn’t pretty.

Despite media reports about how “things are getting better”, CPI’s data point to the reality that the economic recovery has passed by most households and employees in the San Diego region.

“People have less money to spend, even those working full-time,” said CPI Research Director Peter Brownell in a press release. “The wealthiest saw their incomes increase in 2012, but when we hear talk of economic recovery, it hasn’t reached most people in our region.”   [Read more…]

The Birds, the Bees and the Wolfpack, Part III

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He was pushed.  And yes, he jumped

 by Norma Damashek / NumbersRunner

Here’s a quick reminder about our former Mayor: there is no dispute that Bob Filner’s interpersonal habits, short fuse, and juvenile impulse control in the presence of women were blatant failings.  The problem is, these failings were embedded in a unique individual whose political agenda was like long-awaited manna to the voters who elected him.

Tension, arguments, and righteous proclamations have erupted during these past months among San Diegans (mostly Democrats) genuinely torn between condemning a “progressive” political leader for his personal defects and giving up their hopes for a new, more enlightened social and economic agenda for San Diego — a no-win dilemma.   [Read more…]

How Factory Farms May Be Killing Us

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A report from the CDC reveals the grave dangers of antibiotic resistance and says factory-farmed animals are a big contributor

By Tara Lohan / AlterNet 

What would our healthcare system look like if we couldn’t perform surgeries, administer chemotherapy, replace joints, treat diabetes? It would be the end of modern medicine as we know it. A new report from the Centers for Disease Control warns we could be headed toward that very future.

Antibiotics revolutionized medicine in the 1940s, saving millions of lives over the last 70 years. But during that time bacteria have evolved to become resistant to certain antibiotics. The more antibiotics we use, the quicker resistance builds up. This has deadly repercussions.   [Read more…]

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