In Arizona, Latino communities are preparing for acts of mass protest and civil disobedience ahead of Monday’s Supreme Court ruling on the controversial immigration law SB1070. Should the law go unchallenged, police will be allowed the power to investigate the immigration status of any person they may have “reasonable suspicion” of being undocumented.
“No one, from the governor down, has provided any guidance on what constitutes ‘reasonable suspicion’,” said Allesandra Soler Meetze, ACLU’s director in Arizona. In the absence of proper training, she added, “police officers will rely on their own prejudices and go by how people look and speak. That will push law enforcement into racial profiling.” [Read more…]
Book Review: Emma Goldman: Revolution as a Way of Life
By Mel Freilicher / Special to the OB Rag
Emma Goldman: Revolution as a Way of Life
By Vivian Gornick
Yale University Press, 2011; 151 pages; $25
Rather than write a political history of Emma Goldman’s very full life (which is already documented in great detail, including in her own hefty, 2 volume autobiography, Living My Life), Vivian Gornick has chosen to “concentrate on the force of her extraordinary rebelliousness and try to understand it in light of the existential drive behind radical politics.”
To illuminate what she believes to be at the heart of many dedicated radicals’ commitment, Gornick delivers a provocative portrait of Goldman’s soul, really: embodied in what’s famously paraphrased as, “If I can’t come to your dance, I’m not coming to your revolution.” [Read more…]
Your Daily Primary Election Update: June 14th Edition
Kreep vs. Peed, Saldaña vs. Peters races updated.
With 7000 ballots left to be counted, here’s the latest from the SD Registrar of Voters:
With just a hair under 400,000 total votes cast, birther lawyer Gary Kreep has opened up an 824 vote lead over prosecutor Garland Peed. [Read more…]
The Starting Line—DeMaio’s Pothole Plan Craters; UT Editorials for Sale?
June 14, 2012- Mayoral candidate Carl DeMaio’s scheme to tie his November campaign to yet another ‘reform’ initiative ran into a brick wall yesterday as a San Diego City Council committee voted 5-0 against referring it to the full council for a vote. DeMaio’s “Road Repair Initiative” would have required the city government to exclusively allocate any surplus revenues for the next five years towards infrastructure repairs. Councilwoman Marti Emerald asked why the city should spend monies to support an initiative that was clearly designed to support a mayoral campaign. Mayoral challenger Bob Filner appeared before the committee, calling the proposed measure “an aspiration for mediocrity.”
DeMaio plans to re-introduce the measure as part of a revised budget should he win the mayoral contest. If the City Council refuses to go along with his plan at that point he pledged to go through the initiative signature gathering process. One has to wonder if his plan for governance is simply government by initiative. [Read more…]
Election Update, June 13th Edition: Kreep Creeps Back Into the Lead
Birther lawyer Gary Kreep has crept back into the lead over prosecutor Garland Peed. According to the latest Registrar of Voters update, with almost 400,000 total votes cast, and 13,500 provisional or absentee ballots still to be counted, Kreep has taken a 216 vote lead: Gary Kreep: 197,376 votes, 50.03% Garland Peed: 197,160 votes, 49.97% […]
The Starting Line—Peed Dribbles Past Kreep in Closely Watched Judicial Race
June 13, 2012- Observers are keeping a close eye on late election results at the San Diego County Registrar of Voters office, with a couple of close races hanging in the balance as 17,700 provisional ballots are counted. The closest contest is the race for Superior Court Judge # 34; Garland Peed is clinging to a 79 vote lead over right wing activist and birther Gary Kreep. In the hotly contested race to see who will challenge incumbent Congressman Brian Bilbray in the 52nd district, former City Councilman Scott Peters holds a 803 vote lead over former Assemblywoman Lori Saldaña. 5PM UPDATE: Kreep now leads Peed by 216 votes; Peters lead over Saaldana narrows to 737 vote-word is that she is conceding. There are 13,500 provisional ballots left to count.
Looking at the primary from the other side of the aisle… Local conserv blog SDRostra has a couple of post-election articles up that, along with the additional comments posted, should be mandatory reading for San Diego politicos. The Oracle Speaks has local pollster John Nienstedt sharing his observations about local primary contests from a (successful) political consultant’s point of view. And Tweets Don’t Equal Votes takes a look at the social media efforts of the Nathan Fletcher campaign; be sure to read through the comments on this one. [Read more…]
The Starting Line— “Reform and Jobs” is the New Mantra (and Big Lie) of the Plutocracy
June 12, 2012—The Big Reality about last weeks elections is that nearly three quarters of voters in California didn’t bother to cast a ballot. Hundreds of millions of dollars were spent, TV ads blared non stop, internet sites were plastered with political come-ons and mailboxes were overflowing with conflicting messages. Voting “Yes” on Proposition XXX would create jobs; voting “No” on the same measure would save the middle class. Middle of the road Democrats were cast as extremists; candidates whose campaign coffers overflowed with lobbyist cash packaged themselves as reformers. Even people who live and breathe politics (me, for instance) were disgusted and overwhelmed by the onslaught.
The “win at any cost” ethos combined with California’s top two vote getters primary system created situations where campaigns maneuvered to “pick” their opponents (Democratic slime ball and insurance company prostitute Juan Vargas is exhibit A-IMHO-See inside for supporting links) for the November general elections and inter-party battles left both campaign workers and candidates disillusioned and disgusted by the system. It’s safe to say that little “d” democracy may have been the ultimate loser last week. Steve Singiser at Daily Kos has more insights into ‘the results behind the results’, including the observation that independent candidates, who were supposed to be embolded by the new California primary system, fared poorly statewide. [Read more…]
Mitt Romney: Vulture Capitalist
Criticisms of Mitt Romney’s background at Bain Capital and his record as a “job creator” are fair game.
I have never heard so many conservative pundits offering gratuitous avuncular advice to Barack Obama that his campaign strategy attacking Bain Capital will not get him anywhere. Joe Scarborough of Morning Joe on msnbc and others have gone on and on about how using Bain Capital against Mitt Romney is not a good strategy. Well, when conservatives offer advice to Barack Obama about what will or will not work for him, Obama better do just the opposite of what they recommend because ultimately they want him to lose. Therefore, he should double down, not abandon, the Bain Capital strategy. [Read more…]
Some observations on the end of the Presidential Primary and San Diego
By Mateo Camarillo
The Presidential Primary election is over. The following are some observations.
The election day turn out in the city of San Diego was 28%. Some mail in ballots are still being counted that will raise the level to +/- 1/3%. This is the lowest level since voters were debating whether the country should enter WWII in 1940. This level of disinterest is reflected in several ways including two city council districts races that were uncontested (only one candidate).
In District 9, a Latino majority District, the civic participation as reflected in 9,880 total votes cast out of 53,098 eligible voters was 18.6% voter participation for a contested race. Two districts had only one candidate needing a total of one vote to win. They had almost twice the number of votes cast than the votes cast in D 9. A democracy works when voters have a choice and the majority participates. [Read more…]
Bob Filner Silences the Doubters
After a slow start to his mayoral campaign, Filner finishes the primary season in a previously unthinkably strong position to become San Diego’s next mayor.
Bob Filner survived. Not only did he survive, but he pretty much thrived. It was widely expected that UT-San Diego darling Carl DeMaio would cruise through to the November general election for Mayor of San Diego, but it was very much in doubt right up until the polls closed and the votes began to be tallied who his challenger would be, and how close the margin between that challenger and DeMaio would be. [Read more…]
San Diego Primary Election Update: June 11th Edition
The latest results are in, and with only 26,000 provisional and absentee ballots left to be counted, narrow leads are becoming more and more solidified: [Read more…]
June Gloom: Why Wisconsin Labor’s Recall Loss is Everyone’s Loss
Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker’s overwhelming recall victory could signal the demise of the middle class nationwide.
As Doug Porter aptly observed in his election post-mortem last week, big money spoke loudly in the big races on June 5th. This is nothing new but what happened in Wisconsin was truly historic. It was a soul-crushing defeat—not unexpected, but a gut punch nonetheless. Labor’s loss in the recall battle against Governor Scott Walker will surely go down as a key sequel to the Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization (PATCO) strike for unionized public sector workers in America. Indeed, Governor Walker clearly said that he wanted to emulate that model, and he just won a very big battle in the war against collective bargaining in the United States. [Read more…]
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