The “We Can Do Better” theme that Republicans had planned for day one of their National Convention in Tampa Bay has been set aside, usurped by a hurricane named Isaac, ten thousand raucous Ron Paul supporters, a thousand social conservatives, a couple hundred Occupy demonstrators and one former Florida governor who’s decided to break ranks with the GOP. The deluxe $2.5 million stage, which was supposed to frame the highly choreographed ascension of Republican wonderfulness starting today will sit dark.
Video: Raging Grannies Explain (NSFW) ‘Legitimate Rape’
Nothing like having a bunch of Raging Grannies break down legitimate rape for us. It’s the weekend, so it doesn’t matter that it’s not safe for the work place (except for those of us who work on the weekends…)
Can You Hear Me Now? The Violence of Eastern Congo Is Calling
by L.A. Moore
Ten thousand miles away, a small woman weeps into her delicate hands whispering the horrors she faces: Her husband was killed when he tended their crops. The rebels killed her son who tried to hide their money. The soldiers raped her. She has no home and no way to feed her children.
In this video from The Guardian UK, her voice comes across the miles from somewhere in Eastern Congo, where she and others pound mineral grit that will make a cell phone ring.
The grit from gold, coltan, tin and tungsten is used in the manufacture of electronic devices. The cellphone in your pocket or the iPad in your hands connect you directly to this horrific conflict.
Remember that film Hotel Rwanda, which brought the horrors of Africa violence into the mainstream American consciousness? Eastern Congo seems like Rwanda all over again. Who could forget exiting the theatre overhearing the same blithering comments: “Someone should have done something; all those people slaughtered ….”
Similar violence is taking place in Eastern Congo, and little to nothing is being done to stop it. [Read more…]
San Diego City Attorney Backs Out of ‘Equality Nine’ Prosecution
More than two years after the arrest of the “Equality Nine” ― activists who enacted a sit-in at the San Diego County Clerk’s office and demanded that marriage licenses be issued to same-sex couples ― six of the members have been vindicated.
The legal proceedings against them ended with a “motion to dismiss” by the city attorney yesterday.
The activists said they see the end of this case as a victory in the struggle against restrictions on free speech, the inequality of LGBT marriage rights, and an overzealous San Diego City Attorney. [Read more…]
How the Presidential Candidates Use the Web and Social Media
by Project for Excellence in Journalism / Originally published on Aug. 15, 2012
If presidential campaigns are in part contests over which candidate masters changing communications technology, Barack Obama on the eve of the conventions holds a substantial lead over challenger Mitt Romney.
A new study of how the campaigns are using digital tools to talk directly with voters-bypassing the filter of traditional media-finds that the Obama campaign posted nearly four times as much content as the Romney campaign and was active on nearly twice as many platforms. [1] Obama’s digital content also engendered more response from the public-twice the number of shares, views and comments of his posts.
Just as John McCain’s campaign did four years ago, Romney’s campaign has taken steps over the summer to close the digital gap-and now with the announcement of the Romney-Ryan ticket made via the Romney campaign app may take more. The Obama campaign, in turn, has tried to adapt by recently redesigning its website.
These are among the findings of a detailed study of the websites of the two campaigns as well as their postings on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube-and the public reaction to that content-conducted by the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism. [Read more…]
The Starting Line –Carl DeMaio Visits the Beach, Discovers the Environment (Not a Flip-Flop)
Inhaling the OB vapors?.. Mayoral candidate Carl DeMaio got a taste of Ocean Beach the other night, when he attended a forum sponsored by the OB Town Council, and he’s emerged from the experience a changed man, judging from his actions yesterday. The City Councilman, whose San Diego League of Conservation Voters Environmental Report Card scores for the past years have averaged D minus, took to Twitter to declare “We must make our environment a priority” and added a link to his campaign website to back up the claim. UPDATE: The OBRag responds to DeMaio’s new-found cause.
DeMaio announced a “Clean Coasts 2020 Plan” with six bullet points and a pledge to release additional “reforms” over the weekend as part of a coastal walking tour. The main idea contained in his web announcement was the creation of a new “Environment & Stormwater Department” as part of city government during a DeMaio administration. We can only hope that he doesn’t encounter any of the “storm waters” on the side streets of Pacific Beach in the evenings this weekend. [Read more…]
Cesar Chavez’s Thoughts a While Back on What our Schools Are Facing Today
As we consider Proposition 30, we might want to reflect what Cesar Chavez had to say in Sacramento on April 3, 1991. (A transcript of this speech is in the United Farm Workers Papers at Wayne State University.) A friend, David Valladolid, who is the President and Chief Executive Officer of PIQE (Parent Institute for Quality Education), emailed this vital piece of history to me.
This statement was made to Cesar:
“People may ask, ‘Why should the farm workers be concerned about the condition of public schools in California?’”
Cesar replied:
“Who do you think are in the public schools today in California? Public schools serve more farm workers than any other publicly financed social institution in society. Public schools provide the greatest opportunity for upward mobility to Hispanics and to all ethnic minorities in this state. [Read more…]
We Built It? 2012 Republican National Convention Site: Publicly Financed, Publicly Owned
Next weeks Republican National Convention in Tampa, Florida will be held at The Tampa Bay Time Forum, an indoor arena that is publicly owned and whose construction was paid for primarily with tax dollars. Seven bond issues issued in 1996 for construction, according to the St. Petersburg Times, are being paid off with a combination of revenues from sales taxes, tourist development taxes, and ticket surcharges. The facility is legally owned by Hillsborough County, which leases it the Tampa Bay Sports Authority. County ownership keeps the property off the local property tax rolls.
So it’s ironic, to say the least, that the GOP has adopted “We Built It” as their theme for the 2012 convention. As Media Matters has pointed out, this premise is build upon the Fox news’ distortion of one part of President Obama’s remarks tying the success of businesses to “this unbelievable American System” that includes government spending on infrastructure and education.
The Federal Election Commission, financed by 33 million tax payers who direct $3 of their taxes towards election costs, has given the Republican Party more than $18 million in grants to be used towards the costs of the “We Built It” convention. (The Dems received a matching amount towards their convo.) Tampa Bay & Charlotte, NC have each received $50 million in grant money from the federal government to beef up law enforcement capabilities.
The majority of the grant money in Tampa will be used for paying the costs of public employees brought in from other jurisdictions to aid in security August 27-30. Downtown has been wired up with an additional 60 cameras, which, along with airborne surveillance equipment, will feed data into tax payer funded databases running facial recognition software (developed for the Pentagon) that boasts facial recognition rates of 99.7 percent for well-lit, frontal photos. And local tax payers have coughed up an additional $2.7 million for “beautification” projects around the city. [Read more…]
Mayoral Candidates Debate the issues at Ocean Beach Town Council
DeMaio and Filner lay out their divergent views on the role of government in San Diego.
The Ocean Beach Town Council welcomed San Diego’s two mayoral candidates to its monthly meeting at the Masonic Center last night in the latest in a series of debates ahead of November’s general election. Not surprisingly a packed house gathered to hear what the two aspirants to the city’s highest elected office had to say about their plans for the city should they be elected.
The format for the discussion was very lax with seemingly few rules. As requested by the two candidates, members of the audience were asked to submit questions for the candidates, which were then selected by members of the Town Council board. After making a brief opening statement, each candidate was then given ample time to answer the questions presented.
“Our city government has failed us,” Councilman Carl DeMaio opened. “They ran up a mountain of debt, they cut our services, they raised the cost of living through higher water bills. They let our city infrastructure, our streets, our sidewalks, our facilities, fall apart.” [Read more…]
The Starting Line — The DeMaio Campaign: Today San Diego, Tomorrow California?
Moving on up… Could it be the Carl DeMaio is using the race for the Mayor’s office in San Diego as a stepping stone for bigger things? If last night’s Orange County fundraiser was any indication, the answer is yes. Let’s start with DeMaio’s own website’s description of the Newport Beach event, billed by some as a chance to show their support for the “next Scott Walker”, as in Scott Walker, the Wisconsin Governor who’s become a hero to conservatives around the country:
DeMaio has been leading the “reform movement” in San Diego for years and is the author of the groundbreaking Comprehensive Pension Reform ballot measure. After cleaning up San Diego’s fiscal crisis, DeMaio is turning his focus on job creation and state-wide reform.
Want to get reform in California? Then support Carl DeMaio as the “reformer with results” who is achieving fiscal reform and economic opportunity not only in San Diego, but articulating a vision for reform in California!!
The emailed flyer for the event billed him as “State leader to cut pensions”. His hosts included Republican National Committee member Shawn Steele, Orange County GOP Chairman Scott Baugh, Flash Report publisher Jon Fleischman, Inland Energy honcho Buck James, and Lincoln Club Vice Chair Wayne Lindholm. It was a heavyweight group of supporters; Baugh actually brought Scott Walker to OC last year. Given that none of his hosts have any vested interests in San Diego, and are all considered big time players at the State level, it seems pretty clear that Carl DeMaio is being groomed for bigger and better things.
We have to wonder how the “swing” voters in San Diego would react if he was campaigning locally as the next Scott Walker, whose popularity with Koch/SuperPAC set might be off-putting to those who are of the less-than-true blue conservative pursuation. [Read more…]
Media Hacks: Why Our National Press Corps Is Failing the Public Abysmally
You want a serious debate about the issues? Good luck!
It’s hard to imagine a greater irony than our political press, obsessed as it is with process stories, dubiously sourced rumors and trivial fluff, lamenting the fact that we can’t have a “serious national debate.”
Consider what may be the funniest lede in this cycle so far: “The elevated presidential campaign of ideas, fleetingly achieved after months of mudslinging, died Tuesday,” wrote Reid Epstein. “It was three days old.” Epstein went on to catalog all of the mean things the two campaigns were saying about each other, as if this is an election year or something.
[Read more…]
Where Oh Where Have My Neighbors Gone? Redevelopment, Gentrification and Displacement in City Heights
Perhaps what we call “diverse” communities are those that haven’t reached equilibrium, but are in the process of changing… Is there a stable equilibrium of genuine integration in this country?
Chris Hayes Up With Chris HayesJune 17, 2012
Before the housing bubble finally burst in 2008, taking the economy with it, the conversion of often aging rental housing stock to condominiums had been proceeding full bore. City Heights, ripe territory for sub-prime mortgages, attracted its share of condominium investments. To first time home buyers of limited income, these City Heights condo conversions offered a last chance for “affordable” home ownership, with units advertised in the mid to high $200,000 range.
One such condo conversion occurred across the street from me. The original 16 unit apartments, consisting of two long buildings of eight units each, were set back from the street with curb cut parking in the front and minimal landscaping in the Huffman architectural style. The owner spent little if anything on the external upkeep of the building. Like many parts of City Heights, the apartments looked like not much thought was given to them beyond their utility in providing the most basic level of habitability. [Read more…]
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