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…]
Yes, it is the Fourth of July, that glorious day where we Americans celebrate our history – honoring the day in 1776 when the Declaration of Independence was signed and passed by the Continental Congress in Philadelphia.
But, no, I don’t feel very proud today of being an American. Why not, you ask, as you bundle up your family, hot dogs, beach umbrellas and head out for your own family’s festivities.
It now turns out that our own Postal Service has been spying on our mail for years. About 160 billion postcards, packages – and yes, envelopes were photographed by the good ol’ US Postal Service last year.
This is all part of … drum roll please … because you probably have never heard of this before … the Mail Isolation Control and Tracking program. Under this nefarious program Post Office computers take photos of the exterior of every piece of mail – snailmail we’re talking her – that Americans mail out and which goes through our postal system.
The The New York Times reports that the postal mail is being subjected to similar surveillance to our phone calls and emails by the National Security Agency. CBS picked up the story, using this headline: Report: Postal Service uses “spying” programs similar to NSA. [Read more…]
By Doug Porter
It’s taken six years, hundreds of meetings and $45,000 raised via grassroots fundraising efforts to launch KNSJ/89.1, a community media outlet ‘by, of and for the people’. And they’re launching tomorrow, Thursday July 4th with a full day of live broadcast plus audio and video streaming on KNSJ.org.
The public is invited to come down to the World Beat Center at 2100 Park Blvd. in Balboa Park to participate in the live broadcast, talking about how to shape this community radio station to meet the needs of San Diego’s diverse population.
Officially known as KNSJ 89.1 Descanso; (Descanso is the FCC’s “city of record”), the station’s call letters reflect its mission: Networking forSocial Justice. The main studios will be located in El Cajon, with a transmitter and tower at over 6200 feet in the Laguna Mountains.
They believe KNSJ’s signal will be heard in car radios from the US-Mexico border to Highway 52, from the East County mountains to the bay, covering all of central San Diego. Programs will also be available through live streaming at KNSJ.org. [Read more…]
If anyone was counting, Monday, July 1st in San Diego should stand out as a day when San Diego courts delivered justice. From the yoga case, to the by-now well-known chalk case, to the medical marijuana case, in one day local courts involving two juries and two judges stood up for the rest of us, and for our rights.
Jeff Olson, the Chalk Man, Wins
Certainly, justice was delivered – a little late – in Jeff Olson’s fight against those 13 counts of vandalism for his anti-bank messages. On Monday, a jury found him not guilty on all counts. Jan Goldsmith, our city attorney, and his deputy du jour on Olson’s case, both made public statements that it was all about graffiti.
In a sense, the judge – Howard Shore – agreed. He ruled that the defense could not bring up First Amendment arguments during the trial. And then he gagged everybody. In a misdemeanor case. That’s unheard of. Nobody that was involved could talk to the media. Shore rules that it’s not about free speech and then he declares that there’s no free speech for the parties or witnesses.
The jury felt otherwise and issued a necessary victory for free speech.
Medical Marijuana Mistrial, a Dismissal and a History Lesson in Jury Nullification
On the same day, Monday, in another courtroom – … [Read more…]
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…]
By Doug Porter
I’ll lead off today’s roundup of the news with the subject of international headlines: Edward Snowden, trapped now in the bowels of Moscow airport.
Nineteenth century historian Lord Acton is generally credited with coining the phrase “absolute power corrupts absolutely”. Here in the twenty-first century knowledge is power, more so than tanks, treasuries or theology.
Nowhere is this more obvious than in the travails of Edward Snowden, formerly employed within the industrial-spying complex. Troubled by the vastness of contemporary intelligence collection, he sought to turn loose the secrets of the National Security Agency, only to end up in a kafka-esque nightmare, trapped in the Moscow airport.
Apparently no country wants him. Even nations with hostile relationships with the United States are distancing themselves from this modern day Robin Hood of the information wars.
INSIDE: Carl DeMaio’s Disappearing $10,000 Donation, Mayor Filner’s Latest ‘Scandal’, The #ChalkGate Deal That Wasn’t [Read more…]
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…]
By Jim Miller
In this final installment of Under the Perfect Sun media critique greatest hits, I apply the propaganda model to San Diego’s media scene. Interestingly, it should be noted that while the local press have largely continued the Filner as disruptive narrative cited here, articles in the New York Times and Los Angeles Times have recently presented a much prettier picture of Filner as a game changing mayor on multiple fronts. This is surely an embarrassing development in the House of Manchester, but don’t expect that to change the party line.
As the historic battle between Mayor Filner and San Diego’s big hoteliers over the tourism marketing deal unfolds, it’s clear where the lines are drawn.
On one side, you have a new strong mayor who is committed to ending business as usual in San Diego and on the other, you have folks like Terry Brown, chairman of the San Diego Tourism Marketing Association who, as Matt Potter at The San Diego Reader has pointed out, is a big time Republican funder as are the crew of business lobbyists, real estate developers, and San Diego Taxpayer Association types who have miraculously found they can love a tax after it has transubstantiated into a fee and serves as a giveaway to corporate interests. [Read more…]
By Doug Porter
In a matter of days the prosecution of San Diegan Jeff Olson on 13 counts of vandalism stemming from chalking protests slogans outside Bank of America has become a worldwide cause celebre. The 40 year old Olson was outraged by disclosures about B of A’s role in fostering the mortgage crisis leading up to the near-collapse of the economy and the suffering it caused millions of Americans.
His arrest did not come for months after he abandoned the chalking campaign. Pressure from bank security officials led the SDPD gang unit to recommend prosecution, a suggestion that City Attorney Jan Goldsmith’s office, whose role as a defender of San Diego’s entrenched financial interests has come under increasing scrutiny in recent weeks, was only too happy to accommodate. [Read more…]
By Doug Porter
Things are going out of control for City Attorney Jan Goldsmith. His office’s decision to prosecute 40 year old Jeff Olson for using children’s washable chalk to scrawl protests on sidewalks adjacent to Bank of America branch offices has garnered world wide notice. And it’s not the kind of publicity the Downtown Tourism folks appreciate.
A newly organized group calling itself Liberals for Liberty has announced plans to create a chalk mural of the Constitution with focus on the First Amendment in front of the San Diego Hall of Justice. A Facebook page set up for the event calls for local artists to meet up Saturday (June 29th) at the courthouse, 330 West Broadway, San Diego.
At Change.org, a petition went up Friday morning calling upon City Attorney Jan Goldsmith to drop the prosecution of Jeff Olson for chalk graffiti, citing “an obvious abuse of power and a wasteful use of the resources of the City of San Diego.” The influential Daily Kos blog has also announced a petition, saying “prosecuting people who chalk political messages on vandalism charges is a blatant abuse of power.” [Read more…]
By Lucas O’Connor / Special to the San Diego Free Press
The week’s news cycle has been a non-stop roller coaster ride, with major stories piling on top of each other for coverage. It got so far out of hand that there was an actual election for the United States Senate l and hardly anyone noticed.
Why? Well partly (unfortunately) because of Paula Deen. But we had a major speech on climate change from President Obama, the Supreme Court gutting the Voting Rights Act and declaring racism over (Thanks guys!), the epic #StandWithWendy filibuster stretching late into the night followed by the stunning #SitDownWendy conservative backlash that should have been obvious, but had jaws bouncing off the floor around the world, and two more Supreme Court decisions striking down the Defense of Marriage Act and bringing the end of Proposition 8 . Most months don’t have that much excitement, must less the first half of the week. [Read more…]
By Doug Porter
It’s turning out to be a bad week for San Diego’s Congressman Darrell Issa and City Attorney Jan Goldsmith.
Both have seen would-be/shoulda been triumphant scenarios blow up in their faces. Although you wouldn’t know it from reading the local press, both these Republican politicians are being revealed and reviled nationally and internationally for their prosecutorial over-reach.
In Congressman Issa’s case, it turns out now that the whole ‘IRS crisis’ was manufactured, thanks to some manipulative questions asked by the House Oversight Committee Chairman of the IRS Inspector General. Acting IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel will testify today before Congress the data released only concerned itself with conservative groups because Issa only asked about those groups.
The City Attorney’s office’s decision to pursue prosecution at the behest of the Bank of America for acts of political graffiti committed with washable chalk and their quest for a 13 year prison sentence in that case have made Jan Goldsmith an international laughing stock, despite his claims that he knew nothing about the case. [Read more…]
