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The Starting Line: Mayor Predicts Doom and Gloom for San Diego Unless Rich People Get a Tax Break

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July 18, 2012 – Local news media are falling all over themselves to report impending doom for San Diego’s economy should the automatic 10%, across-the-board budget reductions in the military budget mandated by the “sequestration” process that Congress created as a solution to the budget standoff last summer. Mayor Jerry Sanders was in Washington Tuesday to plead our city’s case. Never mind that the Office of Management and Budget has not yet released guidance about how the automatic cuts would be implemented or that it’s widely assumed that President Obama will exercise a legal option to exempt military personnel funding from the cuts.

The UT-SD’s contribution to the manufactured hysteria was the proposed headline in an early morning version (I’m sure it’s fixed now) of an online story (warning: paywall ahead!) about the potential reductions that read:

AEROSPACE XX XXXXX XXXXXX XXXXXXX XXXX

XXXXXXX XXXX CUTS WOULD HIT S.D., STATE HARD

Report forecasts effects of federal spending reductions

 
more inside…   [Read more…]

The GOP: The Party that Doesn’t Care

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Republicans profess an unmatched love of country, but what they have is an unmatched disdain for the people who inhabit it.

Maybe Republicans do love America. Or at least hey love the property they own. They love the money they can make. They love the power they can accumulate. They love the rules they can flaunt. What they so clearly hate, as Bening’s character said so succinctly, are Americans. As in the American people.

Think about it in terms of the policies they support. Prime example: Health care. The Affordable Care Act that was recently upheld by the Supreme Court provides for a dramatic expansion of Medicaid that will expand coverage to millions of Americans who earn up to 133% of the poverty level. Until the health law kicks in, Medicaid is only available to the extremely poor with families or the disabled. Now it will be available to anyone who otherwise would have no access to basic health care. The kicker? The federal government will pay for 100% of said expansion for the first four years, tapering down to 90% of all costs by 2020.   [Read more…]

How Wall Street and London Bank Scandal Are Bankrupting California Cities

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Wall Street got bailed out. Cities got sold out. Federal policies keeping interest rates low are resulting in extracting wealth from cities and transferring it to Wall Street.

We blogged earlier about how traders from JP Morgan Chase and Goldman Sachs descended on European cities such as Casino, Italy and even nunneries selling them interest rate swaps. Interest rate swaps were also responsible for bankrupting Jefferson County, the county seat of Birmingham, Alabama. Now the same big banks are bankrupting California cities. Stockton, San Bernadino and Mammoth Lakes have already gone down. Oakland is fighting Goldman for its very life.

But what does this have to do with the LIBOR scandal, you say? A lot, it turns out. LIBOR stands for the London Interbank Offered Rate, a benchmark that most other interest rates are tied to including interest rate swaps, the very derivative financial instruments that are now bankrupting California cities. The LIBOR scandal has failed to attract the interest of many Americans because it’s so “over there” in London. What does that have to do with us here in the US? The same interest rate swaps that JP Morgan Chase sold to nunneries in Europe, they’ve sold to Stockton and San Bernadino and Oakland and many other US cities, school districts, hospitals and perhaps even to a few US nunneries.
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Immigration, Racism, and the Supreme Court

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By Marjorie Cohn
The issue of immigration has been tossed about like a political football for some time. Democrats argue that migrants who have spent many years in the United States should be permitted to apply for lawful status. Republicans criticize these proposals as “amnesty.” But Congress has been unable to agree on comprehensive immigration reform.

Three and one-half years into his term, President Obama announced on June 15 a policy to halt deportations for many undocumented immigrants who came to the United States as children. They must be under age 30, have come to the United States when they were under age 16, have lived in the U.S. for at least five years, be either an honorably discharged veteran or a high school graduate, and have suffered no felony or “significant” misdemeanor convictions.

Ten days after Obama revealed his new program, the Supreme Court issued its long-awaited decision on Arizona’s SB 1070. Arizona had enacted a repressive law aimed at “attrition [of undocumented immigrants] through enforcement.” Five other states followed suit and waited as the high court considered the constitutionality of Arizona’s law.

In a victory for those who support a humane immigration policy, the Court overturned three sections of SB 1070: Arizona cannot criminalize unlawful presence in the United States, or working without papers; and the decision to arrest someone for unlawful presence in the U.S. is solely a federal issue.  The Court made clear that the enforcement of immigration law is reserved to the federal government.   [Read more…]

The Starting Line – Sparked by Highway Deaths, Bike Riders Gathering in Balboa Park to Press City on Safety Issues

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July 17, 2012 – In the wake of seven cycling deaths during the past week in Southern California, including two San Diegans, local bikers are gathering on July 25th in Balboa Park to call attention to local conditions that make biking hazardous. Cyclists Theodore Jones and Angel Bojorquez, who were killed in collisions with vehicles in La Jolla and Rancho Santa Fe respectively, will be remembered at the 4pm gathering by the Balboa Park fountain. Cyclists will chalk outlines of bodies on adjacent sidewalks until 4:30 p.m. and then ride to City Hall.

This protest comes after an earlier event back in April, triggered by the deaths of cyclists David Ortiz and Chuck Gilbreth. Organizers want the city to answer and be held accountable for what they say are flawed roadway design and high speed limits. A Facebook page announcing the protest says the message is: “The people who are dying on our streets are not inexperienced or reckless bicyclists, they are careful, experienced riders who are dying from no fault of their own and we demand immediate action toward to goal of safer roads for all users”.  Cyclists are being encouraged to bring bells & whistles “so the City knows we are there”.
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The Starting Line – Food Fight! Farm Bill Leaves People Hungry, Animals Hurting

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July 16, 2012 –The House Agriculture Committee approved legislation late last week that will cut $35 billion from the federal food and nutrition budget, about $16.5 billion of which come from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program — more commonly known as SNAP or food stamps. The cuts work by eliminating “categorical eligibility,” which provides assistance to families whose assets or income put them slightly above the technical line for SNAP eligibility. Repealing categorical eligibility means that between two and three million Americans will lose access to food stamps and roughly 280,000 children will drop out of their automatic enrollment in the free lunch program at school. SNAP assistance saved five million American from poverty in 2010 and halved the number of children in poverty in 2011.

Bowing to pressure from agribusiness combines, the House Agriculture Committee also approved an amendment that will deny states the ability to regulate any farm product, overturning animal welfare, food safety and environmental laws related to any farm product in all 50 states. The midnight vote, at the end of a marathon debate on the five year agriculture measure, would block California’s ban on the sale and production of foie gras, and a voter approved measure requiring that caged veal calves, breeding sows and laying chickens should be able to stand up, lie down, turn around and freely extend their limbs. Also gone will be state laws that limit pesticide use on fruits and vegetables.   [Read more…]

San Diego’s Mayoral Race, Part Three: Sex, Lies and Video Tape

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By Norma Damashek / NumbersRunner
Political suicide is not an acceptable option. There are billionaire puppeteers on the national scene who groomed Carl DeMaio to be their “vehicle,” their instrument for a right-wing takeover ofSan Diego. The Koch brothers are alter egos of Te and Do…Bo and Peep…The Two…. As they say in my birthplace, fuggedaboudit.

There are big-business/ downtownSan Diegointerests who believe they can keep Carl DeMaio in check… reined in… serving their interests… doing their bidding. It’s a delusional fantasy. He’s got richer, more powerful masters to please.

There are sincere and good people in San Diego who cry out for meaningful pension reform and mistakenly believe that Carl DeMaio can take them to the “next level.” His message is untrue. His true agenda is not reforming but dismantling public institutions of government. It’s a new-age form of anarchy.   [Read more…]

Deporting the Hand That Feeds Us: How Anti-Immigrant Laws Are Causing a Farm Labor Shortage

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If Americans won’t do the work, and the U.S. successfully keeps undocumented immigrants out of the country, then who will do it?

AlterNet / By Jill Richardson 
While researching her 2012 book The American Way of Eating, journalist Tracie McMillan decided to try her hand at picking grapes, sorting peaches and cutting garlic. The experience resulted in heatstroke, tendonitis and long-term damage to her right arm. In only one job – sorting peaches – was she paid minimum wage. That was also the only job where her employer was aware she was an undercover journalist. She left two jobs rather quickly, but stuck with the garlic job for six weeks until she literally could not use her right arm for anything and she became worried she might permanently damage it.

The harsh conditions and poor pay for farmwork are nothing new in American history. Before Mexicans worked on America’s large farms, the U.S. used a different group of immigrants: slaves from Africa and their descendants.
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San Diego’s Mayoral Race, Part Two: Sex, Lies, and Videotape

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By Norma Damashek / NumbersRunner

For the past few years the man who would be San Diego’s highest elected official has been leading a bifurcated life.

In public, Carl DeMaio remains a populist avatar of fiscal rectitude and righteous tea-party values.   In private, DeMaio is now the live-in mate of the publisher of San Diego Gay and Lesbian News and SD Pix magazine.  This partner is a controversial and successful videographer and photo cataloguer of social and party events in the gay community, a go-to man.

This is not a casual relationship.  Carl DeMaio and his partner have shared ‘promise rings.’  They share DeMaio’s home in Rancho Bernardo.   [Read more…]

San Diego’s Mayoral Race, Part One: Sex, Lies and Videotape

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By Norma Damashek / NumbersRunner

Does anyone out there remember the doomsday cult called Heaven’s Gate — UFO-believers led by Marshall Applewhite and Bonnie Nettles, aka “The Two,” aka “Te and Do,” aka “Bo and Peep”? Heaven’s Gate cult members were ascetic “vehicles” on a journey to the “next level.” Their shared delusions and willing submission to authoritarian leaders came to a shocking end in a tragic group suicide. This happened in 1996. Only videotapes remain, documenting their stay in and departure from San Diego.

Yes, truth can be stranger than fiction. But if you think it can’t get even stranger, consider this: we’ve got another Hale Bopp scenario on our hands. This time it involves billionaire corporate investors with an anointed “vehicle” who happens to be running for mayor of San Diego. This could be the plot for a 3rd rate horror film but I’m afraid it’s real. Here’s what’s going on:

A group of of multi-million/billionaires — well-known for their anti-tax, anti-government, anti-labor, anti-regulation, anti-pension, anti-public, anti-environmental, pro-privatization proclivities — have targeted the city of San Diego for political takeover. Their goal is not greater efficiency or raising the standard of living. Their goal is to transfer the control, ownership, and wealth embedded in the city’s valuable public assets straight into private corporate hands. Their goal is a new world order. Their goal is to use San Diego as a launching pad.   [Read more…]

Now Playing at the Old Globe: The Trials of Darwin

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by Mel Freilicher

In the furor of attempting to clean out my disastrously cluttered home office before school starts again, I came across a recent issue of the National Education Association’s magazine dedicated entirely to teaching Darwin. Before tossing it, I read some astonishing and depressing statistics about the high percentage of Americans who disbelieve in evolution (including, if I recall correctly, about 25% of those with a college education, and more than 50% of those without one). Mostly that issue detailed how teachers might use the mass of scientific evidence from a wide array of disciplines to make the case for Darwin.

That this case still needs to be made is in itself bizarre, of course, since “The Origin of the Species” was published in 1859.  It can’t be accounted for simply by the many home-schooled children of fundamentalists, or by graduates of Christian academies such as the chain that unsuccessfully brought litigation against the UC system a few years back for not accepting their creationism course as a legitimate science entry requirement.  Even before the right wing’s aggressive and sustained push to control local school boards, many public schools in conservative regions had been teaching evolution– as a thoroughly discredited theory; I vividly remember one student (she’s now a science writer!) from a small, predominantly Mormon town in northern California who was totally shocked when she came to UCSD, and learned that such debunking was hardly a universally accepted truth.   [Read more…]

Romney’s 2002 testimony contradicts financial disclosure documents and Bain claims by campaign staff

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by Jed Lewison / Daily Kos

On his financial disclosure documents, Mitt Romney claims he retired from Bain Capital after he started work on the Salt Lake Winter Olympics. “Since February 11, 1999,” the document states, “Mr. Romney has not had any active role with any Bain Capital entity and has not been involved in the operations of any Bain Capital entity in any way.”

As we’ve learned over the past couple of weeks, Romney actually remained the sole owner and top corporate officer for Bain Capital until 2002, when he signed a retroactive severance agreement—one that continues to pay him $20 million annually, to this very day. His campaign’sexplanation?

This is nothing more than a quirk in the law. When Governor Romney took over the Olympics, he was not involved in the operations of any Bain Capital entity in any way. He was too busy working to make the Olympic Games among the most successful ever held.

Well, if you call owning the firm and remaining its top corporate officer “a quirk in the law,” then I guess it’s a quirk, all right. But it’s the kind of quirk that completely undermines the campaign’s and the candidate’s claim to have been completely severed from Bain as of Feb. 11, 1999.

And now there’s more.
  [Read more…]

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