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Companies You Need to Avoid That are Giving Money to Stop Proposition 37 (GMO Labeling)

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The next time you take a swig of Odwalla’s Organic Carrot Juice, or munch on a bowl of Orville Redenbacher’s Organic popcorn, take note: A lot of popular organic and all-natural brands are made by companies that are spending thousands of dollars to defeat Proposition 37, the California Right to Know Genetically Engineered Food Act.

Donations are pouring into the campaign to defeat Prop 37. Among the big donors are companies like J.M. Smucker, Hormel Foods, Kellogg Co., Coca-Cola North America and PepsiCo. – companies that make a fortune marketing ‘natural’ and organic brands with slogans like “We’re good to the earth.”

All of these companies are members of the powerful Washington, DC-based Grocery Manufacturer’s Association (GMA), a multi-billion-dollar trade association which represents America’s $1.2 trillion “Big Food” industry. The GMA itself has already pitched in $375,000 to the anti-labeling campaign. And it’s still early in the game.
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Looking Into Google News: A Week’s Worth

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by Bob Dorn

Like the news industry on which it depends, Google News is a big, sprawling mess. There’s little consistency in what it chooses to emphasize hour by hour, day by day, week to week. But, lurking not far beneath Google’s aggravating, aggregated news site is the larger industry’s basic conservatism.

This year Google News intensely chased, first, the Romney/GOP nomination, and secondly the Romney vs. Obama mini‐series as slavishly as the news industry itself did ‐‐ not saying much given the fact that Google News doesn’t originate stories; it reprints them. The media’s obsessive preoccupation with Romney began to sag by mid‐summer along with his polls. But then the August 11th nomination of Paul Ryan by the Romney gave the national press corps something to believe in again, sending them hyperventilating down to Florida to cover Ryan‐‐ “the next president of the United States,” in the Romney world – where the new guy appeared with his mother at campaign stops ‐‐ a kind of Immaculate Perception that gripped the media as if something had happened.

Then the Missouri man, Todd Akin, took the top spot away from the Romney/Ryan and Obama.   [Read more…]

The Starting Line — Reporter Assaulted by Goons at Mission Valley Hilton Press Conference Exposing Mistreatment of Employees

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Mission Valley mayhem… A press conference being held yesterday by the Employee Rights Center to air charges that the hotel’s operator, Connecticut-based HEI Hospitality, had been named in a complaint alleging wage theft totaling approximately $250,000, was disrupted by loud music apparently at the direction of hotel management.

Reporter Dave Rice, whose account of the incident is online at the SDReader, found the source of the noise behind a hedge over a hundred feet from the presser. Photographs published with the story clearly demonstrate the Hotel’s involvement:

When I walked around the corner to ascertain the source of the music, I found two men next to a limousine with large speakers aimed at the crowd and a power cord leading back toward the hotel….   [Read more…]

A Review of “An Iliad” – A Reimagined Classic

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“An Iliad” – A Reimagined Classic
La Jolla Playhouse
2910 La Jolla Village Drive
La Jolla, CA 92037

A Review …and …. events leading up to the play … and after.

This “dating game” that I am playing sure has many twists and turns. I met a man on-line Saturday and he told me he had tickets to see “An Iliad” the following day, Sunday. He asked me if I would like to go. I said sure. We agreed to talk to each other Sunday morning, and finalize the plans.

I called him around 10:15am and we agreed to meet at the box office at 1:30pm for the 2:00pm matinee. In the course of our conversation he asked me what I would be wearing. I told him I didn’t know yet; it depended on the weather. He informed me that he hoped I would not be wearing anything “frumpy” because he didn’t like frumpy women. He said that many of the older women he has met already have “one foot in the grave, and are not aware of how they look.” He is 65. He asked me if I was overweight or fat. Hmmm. I told him I was overweight. He said, “so am I.”

I arrived at the playhouse at 1:20pm and called his cell phone to let him know I was there. He said he was on La Jolla Village Drive and would be there in just a few minutes. He said he was wearing a white hat.   [Read more…]

Paul Ryan: Will Swap Unborn Babies for Vice Presidency

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By Kit-Bacon Gressitt / Excuse Me, I’m Writing / Published Aug. 25, 2012

Less than two weeks after joining Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign as the GOP’s presumptive vice presidential candidate, U.S. Congressman Paul Ryan has publicly confirmed his erstwhile inner opportunist.

Ryan, who is “very proud of [his] pro-life record,” was faced with a choice between the dangling prize of the vice presidency and remaining true to the source of his pridefulness. Lo and behold, Ryan is surprisingly pro-choice, albeit in a 1-percent sort of way.

Ryan chose to abandon his 100-percent rating from the National Right to Life Committee (a rating based partially on his rejection of abortion ban exceptions for rape and incest), to jump on board the Romney presidential campaign, which, at least for the moment,* supports an abortion ban with exceptions for rape, incest and threat to a mother’s life.   [Read more…]

National Democratic Leaders Highlight Importance of San Diego Elections, Fall Short in their Support

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House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer appears in San Diego to support Scott Peters in Congressional race–UPDATED

Did you hear that Steny Hoyer was in town last week? My guess is probably not since it received very little coverage, if any. But yes, the second most powerful Democrat in the House of Representatives—second behind San Francisco’s Nancy Pelosi—was in San Diego last week to drum up support for Scott Peters in his run to unseat Republican incumbent Brian Bilbray. On Friday I had the opportunity to participate in a media availability with the Congressman from Maryland; a chance to get an idea from someone who represents the national Democratic Party just exactly what their plans are for the local races.

“This is a critical race for us,” Hoyer said about the Peters-Bilbray matchup.   [Read more…]

The Starting Line – Mission Valley Hotel Workers Allege Unlawful Treatment; Father of Prop 8 DUI Busted (Updated)

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Hotel employees blow the whistle… Employees at the Hilton Mission Valley will speak at a press conference today, detailing claims that they have filed against HEI Hospitality, owner of the property, for nearly a quarter million dollars in lost wages with the State Labor Commissioner. The event, scheduled for noon in front of the Hilton, will be hosted by Alor Calderon of the Employee Rights Center and Rabbi Laurie Coskey, Interfaith Committee for Worker Justice.

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Are You Eating Genetically Modified Foods Laced with Pesticides?

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In a quest to eat a healthier diet, I made smoothies containing a couple scoops of a soy protein product I bought at Trader Joe’s. I also started eating a lot of berries, high in anti-oxidants, which are supposed to be good for you. Then one day I woke up and realized that the soy I had be eating was actually genetically modified (GMO) soy created by the Monsanto Corporation for the sole purpose of being resistant to Monsanto’s Roundup, a powerful herbicide which will kill every plant in a soybean field except genetically modified soy plants. So the soy I had been eating was not only GMO soy containing herbicide within its seeds, but it had been drenched in a powerful herbicide prior to having been harvested and brought to market.

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RNC Tampa Inanity Watch 2012!

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Help us keep track of the dumbest things said at the Republican National Convention

Welcome to the official opening of the 2012 presidential general election campaign season! This week, as you may have heard, the GOP kicks off their festivities in Tampa, Florida, in the wake and just outside the path of Hurricane Isaac. The storm may have delayed the opening of the Mitt Romney Coronation Convention, but it surely hasn’t dampened the GOP spirits, and it hasn’t affected their confidence heading into November.   [Read more…]

The Future Versus the Austerity Crowd: Why We Must Support Proposition 30

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Near the end of August, I helped organize the Governor’s visit to City College and stood with him, despite the many fierce disagreements that I have had with Jerry Brown’s policy positions and political judgment. I did so because it’s not an overstatement to say that the future of our children is on the line this coming November. While much of the attention will be on the Presidential race at the national level, here inCaliforniathe destiny of our children and the education system is up for grabs. Specifically, Proposition 30 represents a chance to put a halt to years of cuts to education and vital public services. If it fails, we will be throwing our kids under the bus. It’s that simple.

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Homelessness in San Diego: My Friend, Bobby

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Last night, my friend, Bobby, died. A San Diego, CA native, Robert Eugene Ojala, 56 years old, was homeless. Bobby was grateful for the hospital and residential hospice care he received which enabled him to spend his last several weeks indoors and free of
pain. After run-ins with the law, Bobby found Jesus and changed his attitude about life.   [Read more…]

What’s Going on at Ft. Rosecrans Now? Its Watering Schedule is Out of Sync…

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Three of my widow support group have husbands buried at Ft. Rosecrans cemetery. A fourth one has a fiancé buried there also. All of our men are in very close proximity to each other – probably because they all passed away at just about the same time.

Three of us try to visit our husbands once a month, if for no other reason than to make sure they are still there. I usually use the time to berate him for leaving me. Sometimes I bring flowers from our garden; sometimes one of the other women bring a sticker to put on the plaques – a forbidden practice but we do it anyway; sometimes we bring individual windmills to stick in the rocks below the walls that hold their remains.

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