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Jeff Griffith, Senate District 38 | Candidate Profiles for the November 2018 Ballot

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Public service has always been a major part of my life.  My father was a firefighter; I followed in his footsteps.  I began my career 30 years ago in Ramona and am now a Fire Captain and a Paramedic.

I am not a career politician.  My progressive beliefs developed early in my career as I saw the need for quality healthcare and came to see it as a right.  I saw the power of unions to responsibly protect workers and working families. As a firefighter, it was easy to become an environmentalist and believer in climate change because of the lengthening fire season.  That is why I am a Democrat, because the majority of Democratic Party values match my own orientation to the issues that are facing us.

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San Diego Women Running for Office as Democrats

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I’ve been searching for ways to highlight many of the local down-ballot candidates who readers might not be aware of. It’s easy to get overwhelmed by internet and tv ads touting big-name candidates for major offices, and when the time to fill in the ballot arrives, a bunch of unfamiliar names makes filling in many bubbles a crap shoot.

Today, I’m going to list women running for local offices as Democrats in San Diego County, along with basic contact information when available, going you the opportunity to learn more. While I intend to provide additional coverage on these candidates, there is simply no way I’ll get to all of them.

While there is nothing guaranteeing a woman running for office will be a better choice (every group has its outliers), I can say with certainty we certainly can’t do worse than we are these days.
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Here’s Another Impeachment I Can Get Behind: Kavanaugh for Lying to Congress | Video Worth Watching

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From the MSNBC YouTube website:

Lisa Graves, former Senate Judiciary Committee chief counsel for nominations, argues that Brett Kavanaugh has lied in past testimony under oath about stolen Democratic documents and should not only not be confirmed to the Supreme Court, but should be impeached from the bench.

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Are You Willing to Look Past Gavin Newsom’s Smile and Carl DeMaio’s Frown in the General Election?

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Sometimes the most influential contests on your ballot are the ones you haven’t heard much about. Let’s fix that.

Are you psyched to vote for Sunday Gover or Paloma Aquirre in the upcoming general election? How about Cory Schumacher or Akilah Weber? James Elias or Jeff Griffith? (I’ll say more about them below.)

What? You’ve never heard of them? Chances are good they won’t be on your ballot unless you live in a small city or less urbanized part of the county. But there will be a host of names, regardless of where you reside, worth learning about in the coming weeks.   [Read more…]

It’s Time to Talk About God | Dear Ohio, Part 9

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Dear Ohio,

The midterm elections are soon to be here. Maybe it’s time to talk about God.

Oh, I know what you’re thinking. Is she nuts? Two topics you’re never supposed to bring up in public – religion and politics – and she wants to talk about them. But here’s the thing, Dear Ohio. It’s not God who is killing this country. It’s religion. Specifically, it’s the desire of some religions to harness the power of government to force us all to do as they believe we should on any issue they choose. It seems as if they want to ban personal conscience if it does not comport with their own beliefs. If they are successful, then much of what we have accomplished as a society will be turned back to a time when the law was unconcerned with the suffering of those who did not hold power.

A list of the conduct religious powers are apt to remove from personal conscience can be garnered from the current public dialogue:   [Read more…]

New California Law Could Force Hungry Humans to Eat Out of Garbage Cans

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NIMBY Law Would Close Down Charitable Feeding Efforts

By Keith McHenry / Food Not Bombs

The sharing of food with the hungry is an unregulated gift of compassion. The purpose of food safety laws is to regulate commercial food establishments that have an economic incentive to serve unsafe food. Until AB- 2178, this concept in law was understood.

August 15, 2018, marked the 30th anniversary of the first arrests of Food Not Bombs for “making a political statement” by sharing free food with the hungry. Nine volunteers were arrested at the entrance of Golden Gate Park by a squad of San Francisco Riot Police as they were about to share lunch with several dozen people.

Thirty years later a new threat that could lead to more arrests is on Governor Brown’s desk. He has until September 30th to sign or veto the bill.   [Read more…]

They Finally Made a Handmaid’s Tale for Men | Video Worth Watching

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The Funny or Die crew strikes again with a pitch perfect send up of the fevered fears of a certain aggrieved segment of the male population.   [Read more…]

We Know He Wants to Overturn Roe – Rebecca Traister on Kavanaugh Hearings | Video Worth Watching

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This excerpt from Thursday’s All In features great lively discussion among Chris Hayes, Rebecca Traister and Vanita Gupta on the Kavanaugh hearings. Rebecca notes that his testimony included language designating contraceptives as “abortion inducing drugs” and reminds us that birth control was only legalized by the Supreme Court for married couples in 1965 and for single women in 1972! Also some reflections on the committee’s response to the continuing protests and disruptions.   [Read more…]

49th District Candidate Mike Levin’s Candidacy Getting a Boost from ex-President Obama   

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Two years ago who would have thought that then President Obama’s number one tormenter –Rep. Darrell Issa– would be on the sidelines as a Democratic Blue Wave threatened to flip his district? It’s 2018, and here we are. All that’s needed is an energized electorate.

The former President, who’s enjoying a post-term surge in popularity, is coming to California to appear with key House candidates for a rally in Irvine on Saturday.

Obama is set to appear alongside Democrats Mike Levin, who is running to win CA-49, the House seat vacated by the retirement of Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Vista); Harley Rouda, running against Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Costa Mesa) in CA-48; Katie Porter, opposing Rep. Mimi Walters (R-Irvine) in CA-45; Gil Cisneros, vying for Rep. Ed Royce’s (R-Fullerton) open seat in CA-39; Katie Hill, challenging Rep. Steve Knight (R-Palmdale) in CA-25; Josh Harder, opposing Rep. Jeff Denham (R-Turlock) in CA-10; and T.J. Cox, who is running against Rep. David Valadao (R-Hanford) in CA-21.
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Democratic Senators Throw a Wrench in Kavanaugh’s Sure Thing Nomination Process

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The junior United States Senator from California–Kamala Harris–is a boss. Her unrelenting questioning during the confirmation hearings for Supreme Court nominee Brent Kavanaugh was extraordinary. And things have gone uphill from there.

Now, the nomination that was supposed by a slam dunk, doesn’t look so easy anymore. Other United States Senators of the Democratic persuasion are no longer playing “the get along to go along” game.

I don’t care at this point who is or isn’t running to be the Democratic nominee for President. I care that elected officials are growing a spine. It’s about time. The GOP started out with enough votes to confirm Kavanaugh, who is clearly being positioned to obstruct proceedings against the President in addition to serving as the deciding vote on making this country re-live the not-so-good old days again.   [Read more…]

The Sins of Councilwoman Lorie Zapf – Part 2

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Zig-Zags on the 30 Foot Height Limit

These days, it does appear Councilwoman Lorie Zapf is a strong supporter and defender of the sacrosanct 30-foot height limit for San Diego’s coastal and and beach communities. She did come out against a 4-story monstrosity on Emerson Street in the Roseville neighborhood of Point Loma, and along with Mayor Faulconer, issued a joint statement announcing a “stop-work” order for the project :

“Mayor Faulconer and Councilmember Lorie Zapf strongly support the coastal height limit and protecting coastal views. Further review of the Municipal Code has determined that this [Emerson Street] project does not conform to the City’s development regulations. Today the City issued a stop work order on the project to ensure it follows all codes and regulations.”

However, we have to note, as we reported then in June 2016:

The stop work order comes after a community protest by nearly a hundred residents … and after a widely-attended town hall meeting about the huge duplex … after a facebook page was set up and after an online petition to stop the project was begun – … it had close to 550 signatures. It came after the OB Rag and other media shown spotlights on the project.

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The Deafening Drumbeat of the Unfree

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Above the din of disturbing news – that discordant banging you’re hearing, steadily getting louder and louder, that you can no longer ignore – that’s the drumbeat of the unfree.

Dehumanized by the labels “prisoner,” “inmate,” and “convict,” even reduced to serial numbers like Victor Hugo’s Jean Valjean in “Les Misérables,” these men and women are, just like you and me, or any mortal – irrespective of flaws, frailties, even felonious acts and misdemeanors – endowed with the right to be treated with dignity, decency, and respect.

Advancing 10 specific demands as a rallying cry in prisons nationwide, these brave incarcerated souls are striking by: not eating, refusing to do prison work, engaging in sit-ins, and taking part in myriad other acts of nonviolent resistance that could, nonetheless – given the carceral, contentious environment they’re taking place in – quickly trigger violence (even reprisals, including the nefarious, all-too-frequent imposition of solitary confinement).

So what can you do? At a minimum, read the list of demands; they’re not long and considerable thought and effort went into crafting them. Since the very act of striking places the safety of the strikers in greater jeopardy, it’s the least you, as a civic-minded, compassionate citizen, can do. The complete list is inside:   [Read more…]

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