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Congressman Darrell Issa Calls It Quits! (Another One Bites the Dust)

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The Hill’s senior staff writer Scott Wong was first on Twitter with the news this morning, linking to a story posted by the liberal news site OCDaily.net saying Congressman Darrell Issa was going to announce his resignation. 

A few minutes later, Politico officially broke the story.

Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) will not seek reelection, he announced Wednesday — the latest sign of a growing Democratic wave in this year’s midterm elections.

Issa, first elected in 2000, served as the House GOP’s chief interrogator of the Obama administration as chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee earlier this decade. But the political environment in his Southern California district shifted rapidly in recent years: Issa only won reelection by just over 1,600 votes in 2016, while Hillary Clinton carried the traditionally Republican seat in the presidential election by 7 percentage points.
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It’s Time for Lifeguard Ed Harris to Jump in and Rescue Residents of San Diego City Council District 2

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It’s time for Ed Harris – the lifeguard union chief – to jump in and rescue the citizens of San Diego City Council District 2.

Why do they need rescuing?

Well, consider this: The next election – the June Primary – is less than five months away and incumbent Lori Zapf is up for re-election. Zapf, a Republican, faces a district where registered Democratic voters outnumber registered Republicans by nearly 9,000. That ought to make her very vulnerable come November.

Yet, Zapf faces a field of weak challengers. All of them – and here is where OB Rag makes enemies – from Bryan Pease to Jordan Beane to Jen Campbell – they all have political flaws that make them unable ultimately to mount the District 2 seat in city council chambers downtown.

And that’s why Ed Harris – who once sat in that chair for the District – needs to dive in, enter the race and give Zapf a run for her mone   [Read more…]

Will San Diego’s ‘Fake Homeless’ Issue Be a Winner for a 2018 City Council Campaign?

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The weather has turned angry. It’s raining and blustery outside as I’m writing this. It’s a bad time to be a human living without a roof over their head.  

I’m also angry. I’ve just seen a video of a supposedly leading Democratic candidate for City Council who seems to think she can win by fanning the flames of hate towards our city’s homeless.

Here’s the money quote from District 2 candidate Dr. Jen Campbell, speaking to a group on Thursday, January 4:

“You see all those panhandlers on the corners? They’re probably not even homeless! They’re just pretending they are. They’re begging. Do they have a license? I doubt it. In the city they have to have a license. Is anyone checking that? No. We don’t have enough police!”

UPDATE: Dr. Campbell has issued a statement apologizing for her remarks. I’ve posted her remarks as a standalone story.   [Read more…]

San Diego Politics Remain Poisoned as Labor Leader Mickey Kasparian Gets Sanitized Via ‘Due Process’

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Former UFCW Local 135 employees Isabel Vasquez and Sandy Naranjo have settled civil cases involving sexual harassment and political retaliation claims against labor leader Mickey Kasparian.

Since the initial claims were made by the women Kasparian has left (or was removed by the AFL-CIO, depending on who is speaking) the leadership of the local labor council, but remains as president of the UFCW.

He created a breakaway labor coalition whose financial clout discouraged attempts by activists to pressure the Democratic party and many local politicians to distance themselves.   [Read more…]

The 2018 Women’s March is All About Voting and Seeking Office

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By Sher Watts Spooner / Daily Kos

It’s time to get out the pussy hats again. And make sure you pair them with voter registration cards. Last year’s Women’s March, held Jan. 21, 2017, the day after Donald Trump’s inauguration, drew an estimated 4.2 million protestors in more than 650 marches around the country and even more around the globe. It has been described as the largest single-day demonstration in U.S. history. The marches provided an outlet for people across the country to vent dissatisfaction with Trump, to express extreme disappointment in the election results, and to launch a new nationwide movement to energize people (especially women) to take action.

The 2018 marches, scheduled for the weekend of Jan. 20 and 21, might be even bigger.

San Diego Marches:

  • Saturday, Jan. 20, 10 a.m. Women’s March San Diego/Hear Our Vote. County Administration Building. More Info.
  • Saturday, Jan. 20, 10 a.m.  Women’s March North County San Diego. Palomar College (San Marcos) More Info.

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Oprah: Speak Truth to Power | Video Worth Watching

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Oprah Winfrey’s Golden Globe Cecil B. DeMille award acceptance speech, January 7, 2018.   [Read more…]

Trump Unhinged: Hot Gossip and Sad Stories, Served with a Side of Authoritarianism

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Lawyers for Donald Trump are seeking to block distribution of Fire and Fury, an insider account of the White House written by columnist Michael Wolff. The book is jam-packed with revelations portraying the administration as a ship adrift led by a president unconnected to reality.

Previews of the gossipy account have already appeared in New York Magazine and the Hollywood Reporter. Booksellers have already handed off copies to reporters at other publications. so the cat is out of the bag in the unlikely event a judge can be persuaded to issue a restraining order.

What we know for sure at this point is somebody granted Wolff a non-media pass allowing more access than common sense would dictate necessary for a year-long period. And the really big bombshell comes from a report at Axios, revealing the existence of an extensive collection of recordings made by the author.

I’ll come back to some of the more salacious accounts in Fire and Fury, but there is other news from Trumplandia also deserving of your attention.   [Read more…]

San Diego 2018: What the Democratic Party Leadership Must Do

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The times, they are a-changin’.

Last weekend, the Union-Tribune editorial board called out the leadership of the county’s Democratic Party for enabling men who sexually harass women. You can’t know how weird it felt to have read the dead tree version of this editorial and having to admit it read like something I could have written.

In years past, I would have just chalked up such criticism to the urgings of the UT’s Republican masters looking to stir the pot. By putting their criticism in the context of what’s been happening nationally with high profile cases of sexual harassment and boorish behavior, the UT showed me this was more than partisan sniping.   [Read more…]

A New Years Wish for My People

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I dream a New Years Wish for my fellow black brothers and sisters, one steeped in my yearning for a country that truly is committed to the mythical land of “liberty and justice for all” we Americans pledge loudly and proudly in classrooms and public gatherings.

I just wish we actively pursued such ideals.

Now, I realize that we, like all other “individual” citizens of the country, can rise and shine and fulfill the loftiest of hopes and dreams.   [Read more…]

At the Purchaser’s Option – Rhiannon Giddens | Video Worth Watching

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Rhiannon Giddens’ instrument of choice is the banjo, but not a typical banjo. As she explains in an interview with NPR’s Fresh Air with Terry Gross, she plays a replica of an early version of the banjo designed by Levi Brown in 1858 made today by Jim Hartel. This model of the banjo has a deeper sound than the standard contemporary versions.

The song was inspired by an ad for a slave being sold whose nine month-old child was described in the ad as a purchasing “option”.   [Read more…]

Will You Spare a Few Seconds to Help Homeless People in San Diego?

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Editor Note: This Starting Line originally published on December 15, 2016 details the plight of homeless people and steps to solve the problem of homelessness as well as some thoughts on national issues.

Today I’m giving over most of my column to Women Occupy, who have crafted a petition to Mayor Kevin Faulconer to actually do something ‘not mean’ for our rapidly growing homeless population.

Yesterday I sat in on a meeting with homeless advocates and heard a litany of horror stories about how the growth of the population of unhoused humans in San Diego is directly related to policy decisions made at city hall. I’ll report more on what I learned at a later date.

Will this petition end homelessness? Nope. But it could well be –if enough people sign it and YOU tell your friends about it– a step in the right direction. Only in movies has a single action ever righted a wrong. Change occurs because of thousands of little actions. Make signing this petition your contribution to a better San Diego. It only takes a few seconds.

CLICK TO SIGN HERE

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2017 Meant Pain and Demons for Many Women

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“Write hard and clear about what hurts.” –Ernest Hemingway

2017 hurt.

It hurt a lot of people in a lot of ways. For most of us, the pain started in 2016. Many people sang the praises of 2017 as the new year, hoping for a reprieve. I was not one of them. All I could think this time last year was, “You guys know it’s just going to get worse, right?”

And it did.

2017 made things worse for families. For children. For seniors. For immigrants. For women. For national parks. For scientists. For government employees. For poor people. For communities of color. For students. For LGBT folks. For patients. For journalists. For religious minorities. For animals. For small business owners. For refugees. For workers. For victims of natural disasters. For members of the military. For small farmers. For criminal justice reformers. For homeless people. I’m sure the list goes on and on.

2017 hurt a lot. But I cannot explain everyone’s pain. Only mine.   [Read more…]

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