At the San Diego Free Press we believe in a specific code of ethics and honesty and know that you, our readers, expect nothing less. We failed to provide that with the publication of the article Dissin’ Hizzoner – Are We in for a Decade of Republicanism Delivered by Democrats in Name Only? The article, published […]
Readers Write: Who Put the Police Department in Charge of the Press?
By Tom Hunter
Son of a bitch.
The reporters in this town owe their credentials to the San Diego Police Department. That’s right. A friend with 30 years of credentials with the SDPD got the comment last time he renewed his Press Pass – “I haven’t heard one complaint about you”.
This is the kind of reporters we allow in San Diego? The ones who haven’t ruffled a feather in 30 years? Specifically a political feather or a law enforcement feather. Who put the police department over the press? [Read more…]
Tired of Hate: A Commentary on the Treatment of Homeless in Ocean Beach
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
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…]
Filner Supporters Speak Out, Calling for Due Process
By Tom Hunter
About 50 Mayor Bob Filner supporters and assorted press gathered at the Community Concourse plaza Thursday afternoon to demand Mayor Filner be given due process in response to charges of sexual misconduct.
Press conference organizer and longtime progressive advocate Enrique Morones opened with a comparison between Mayor Filner’s record on human rights and that of Nelson Mandela. One theme stressed by every speaker was that everyone including Mayor Filner deserves to face his accusers and receive due process. [Read more…]
Terrorized by a Magazine Cover – Rolling Stone Magazine Banned in Boston
By Doug Porter
Dating back to the days of the New England Watch and Ward Society, Boston has a (not so) proud history of banning publications deemed to be objectionable. H.L. Mencken was arrested for selling a banned copy of his American Mercury magazine in 1926. Lillian Smith’s novel,Strange Fruit which featured an interracial relationship, was banned.
Others proudly “Banned in Boston” included Walt Whitman (Leaves of Grass), Eugene O’Neill (Desire Under the Elms), Sinclair Lewis (Elmer Gantry), Ernest Hemingway (The Sun Also Rises) and even the song “Wake Up Little Susie” by The Everly Brothers.
The banning agencies and tactics have varied over the years, but the results have usually been the same: “Banned in Boston” is a badge of honor for publishers and authors…
It’s day three of my Filner-less news roundups, prompted by a desire to make this website something more than All-Bob-All-The Time, and I’ve got to say it’s been tough. Tomorrow I unleash the Kraken [Read more…]
Privacy Coalition Sues NSA to Halt Dragnet Surveillance
By Candice Bernd / Truthout / July 17, 2013
A broad and seemingly unlikely coalition of 19 organizations including church leaders alongside environmental and gun advocacy groups represented by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) filed a lawsuit against the National Security Agency (NSA) in a San Francisco federal court Tuesday in a case that could determine the constitutionality of an admitted dragnet surveillance program on the telephone records of millions of Americans.
The lawsuit, First Unitarian Church of Los Angeles v. NSA seeks an injunction against the NSA, FBI and the Justice Department, alleging that the government violated the plaintiffs’ First and Fourth Amendment rights by collecting information about their phone calls. The lawsuit focuses on an NSA surveillance program called the “Associational Tracking Program,” which collects metadata on telephone calls from the top U.S. telecommunications companies. The program is part of a vast operation of NSA spying programs revealed by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden. [Read more…]
Cashing in on Kids: 139 Legislative Bills Have Been Introduced in 2013 that Promote ALEC’s Private, For-Profit Education Models
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…]
ACLU Report Details Massive Domestic Data Collection; San Diego County Keeps It Forever
By Doug Porter
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has released a report on the widespread use of domestic data tracking technology via automatic license plate readers. As with all such programs, potential privacy concerns have been suppressed by claims that this technology is keeping us safer.
A report earlier this year in San Diego’s City Beat explored the local implications of license plate readers, explaining that the average vehicle in the county has been scanned an average of 14 times. All this data is shared countywide and stored in a database maintained by the San Diego Association of Governments (SANDAG). The FBI, DEA, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) also have access to these records.
It’s day two of my Filner-less news roundups, prompted by a desire to make this website something more than All-Bob-All-The Time, and I’ve got to say it’s been tough. One more day, I keep telling myself..just.one.more.day…
[Read more…]
La Jolla Seals Make it into City Council District 2 Campaign
By Doug Porter
As City Councilmember Kevin Faulconer fades into the sunset (or not, if he runs for Mayor in a recall election), things are starting heat up in the race to find his replacement.
Current Councilmember Lori Zapf, whose residence was moved into the redrawn district boundaries, is the best known candidate, bringing along the advantages of her incumbency in D6 and the support of the local conservative establishment.
But challenger Ed Harris is about to get some attention, even if it’s of the unwanted type. A group lead by activist Bryan Pease is opposing his candidacy on the grounds of Harris’ past statements and actions about the La Jolla seals, along with other stances they consider anti-environmental.
Harris, who is currently a San Diego lifeguard, appeared at numerous meetings of the City Council and Coastal Commission opposing plans to allow a rope barrier to encourage a safe viewing distance.
There are few issues that have raised more passions in the community in recent years than the treatment of the ever increasing number of harbor seals hanging around the Children’s Pool Beach.
This story was updated at 12:45pm on Tuesday
NOTE: In an attempt to keep this site from being All Bob Filner All the Time, I am leaving coverage to others for a few days. There are no bets riding on this promise. [Read more…]
Adventures in Comic-Conlandia: A Nerds-eye View
By Brent E. Beltrán
It all started with Star Wars in 1977. My tia Maggie and her husband took me the year it came out. I was 7 years old at the time. Saw it at the Mission Valley Theater. That was followed of course by Empire and Jedi. I was hooked. Still am.
The Christmas it came out my parents bought me all kinds of Star Wars toys including a Landspeeder, an X-wing and the most badass toy one could hope for at the time, the Death Star. They also got me a bunch of action figures including Luke, Leia, Han, Chewy, Obi-Wan, Darth Vader, R2-D2, C-3PO, a Jawa, a Tusken Raider, Hammerhead, Walrus Man, Greedo, and a Stormtrooper….
…The summer of 1985 was a big year for me. It was the first time I had the opportunity to attend Comic-Con and I was super stoked! My buddy Tri Huynh and I planned to attend. I was in summer school at Clairemont High between my 9th and 10th grades. I was taking an extra class, Geometry, to get ahead. I took the city bus to school and that day I carried a small duffle bag filled with comics to get signed by my favorite writers/artists.
Back then the Con was held at the San Diego Community Concourse near City Hall. It was a much smaller event than today’s corporatized, Hollywierd monster. It was mostly comic book centered. [Read more…]
Things Fall Apart: Filner’s Betrayal and the “Political Circus”
…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…]
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