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I’ll Have the Apocalypse Burger, with a Bullet on the Side

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The Democratic Party, not the Republicans, died Tuesday night. It took with it to the grave a functional middle class.

From now on smart people will have to find some new ways to avoid the hoi polloi, the downward bound still clinging to their weekend Harleys and storing their AK 47’s in whatever closet they can afford to rent. We’ve watched our tepid and bland Democrats — the Susan Davis’s and Scott Peters — clapping and wiggling their asses to the tunes of corporate advisers for so long that we’ve failed to notice they look and sound just like Republicans.

They just wouldn’t go away, would they? They kept cloning themselves, and droning the same songs of the party of Jefferson. They were forced by political law to live in their districts but we didn’t know where they were, and we knew it wouldn’t be in their local offices. How many pieces of our minds were we unable to give them?

Who’d a thunk the Dems would die first?   [Read more…]

The Starting Line –A Very Good Night for Progressives in San Diego and California (With Election Results!)

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Although there remain over 400,000 provisional ballots to be counted in San Diego County, it would appear that most politically progressive candidates and causes were triumphant on Election Day. A huge Get Out the Vote effort on the Democratic side of the equation appears to have yielded victories in just about every race where the changing demographics of the region made a win possible.

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The Most Important Election Day in Our Lifetime

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Nov. 6, 2012: A defining moment in San Diego’s—and the country’s—history. Some final election day thoughts on the Presidential, 52nd Congressional District, and San Diego Mayoral races.

It’s been a long and sometimes grueling process, one that has caused even the most enthusiastic of politifiles (yes, I just made that up) to want to tear their hair out. But today it all comes to an end (we hope). The 2012 election, which really started more than a year-and-a-half ago, culminates tonight with the official vote tallies to determine who our national and local leaders will be; who will be our next president, our next members of Congress, and who will be San Diego’s next mayor.

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End Shadow Government in San Diego and California: Elect Bob Filner and Frustrate Charles Munger and Company

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If you can get past the multi-million dollar glut of garbage that Carl DeMaio and his sleazy allies are throwing at Bob Filner in the closing days of the election, the choice San Diegans face is a simple one: do you want the same old moneyed interests running San Diego or do you want to take a step toward a more democratic city government that listens to the voices of ordinary citizens more than to the pleas of the plutocrats?

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Debunking the Opposition to Proposition Z, San Diego Schools’ Opportunity to Keep Moving into the 21st Century

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San Diego voters are being asked to authorize $2.8 million in bonds for school repair and construction in this fall’s election via Proposition Z.  This initiative should be a straight up or down deal; whether or not to raise property taxes to support this vital part of our infrastructure.

Instead, a coterie of right wing groups with a barely disguised extremist agenda have turned the discussion on Proposition Z into a battlefield, mined with half-truths, pock marked by a barrage of lies and overrun by waves of tea party types convinced that they are stopping an assault on common sense itself.

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The Educated Voter – San Diego School Board Races

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This is Part One of series on ballot choices in San Diego that relate to our schools.

There’s been a war going on over San Diego Unified’s Board of trustees for a long time now, and this year’s races for school board are just the latest skirmish.

There are two contests for seats on the San Diego Unified School Board and they’re both important.  Politicians (of all stripes) are prone to saying “it’s about the children” whenever they talk about education, but the fact is there are many other issues at play. Candidates for our local top spot all have preened before the cameras touting their education platforms, when the reality is that the School District is financially and politically independent of the City Government.

The Mayor and the City Council can’t actually do squat about what’s going on with schools.  Change, when and if it comes to local schools, is through the Board of Trustees, popularly known as the school board.   [Read more…]

Hey Obama Democrats, Don’t Get Fooled Again: DeMaio and His Big Money Friends Are Out to Screw San Diego and Ruin California

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 “We have a conservative movement that has learned, over the decades, to mimic many of the characteristics of its enemies.”  ~ Thomas Frank

During the run-up to the June primary Carl DeMaio used a quote from one of my OB Rag columns in a mailer attacking Nathan Fletcher that implied the Rag’s support for his candidacy.  My response was a column, “Carl DeMaio is a Dangerous, Mean-Spirited Liar and Other Tales of Fear and Loathing in San Diego” where I observed:

As Frank Gormlie noted in an OB Rag piece last Saturday, Carl DeMaio used a pull quote from one of my OB Rag columns describing Nathan Fletcher as a “Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing” . . . What is not at all surprising here is that DeMaio uses my piece and the OB Rag logo out of context, without permission, implying our endorsement of him.  That kind of sleazy, unethical behavior is his raison d’etre.  .

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We’ve Changed Our Minds about Prop 35, but NOT about Sex Trafficking

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Editor’s Note: During a meeting of the SDFP Editorial Board this afternoon, some of us expressed reservations regarding our stand, as a group, on a YES endorsement of Proposition 35. We agreed that we would do more research and report back. Below are the opinions of two of our members, whose views mirror my own and are expressed much more eloquently. ~ Editor du Jour, Patty Jones

SDFP Editorial Board Member Anna Daniels

Wading through the propositions on the ballot this year required both time and effort.  I have felt largely confident about the positions I had taken on issues and candidates, except for Prop 35, the anti-sex trafficking initiative.  Along with the other SDFP editors, I had cast my vote in favor of the initiative, although it was apparent that there could potentially be fall-out for individual lives and broader civil liberties that I definitely would not support.

Come inside for the details…   [Read more…]

The 2012 Elections: Vital Issues That Affect Latinos

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By Jimmy Franco Sr./LatinPOV.com

The growing Latino population within the country has now reached 50 million people of which 24 million are registered to vote. This population is predominantly located within the large urban areas and in the key political states of New York, California, Texas and Florida. This is a generally young population which works and pays taxes that benefit all of our society and will do so for many years to come.

It is this youthful sector within our society that will play a particularly important role in the country’s future by working and supporting the growing number of retired and elderly persons by paying taxes into Social Security, Medicare and other government programs which will bolster the country’s social safety net.   [Read more…]

Debunked: 6 Lies That Biotech and Big Food Are Telling Voters About Prop 37

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By Katherine Paul, Ronnie Cummins / AlterNet

Since Oct. 1, Monsanto and the rest of the Biotech and Big Food gang have been pounding the California airwaves with nearly $36 million worth of boldface lies and twisted truths.

Their goal? Misinform and confuse California voters into believing they’d be better off not knowing what pesticide-makers are hiding in their foods, than they would be if food manufacturers had to label genetically modified foods.

The ads are having an impact. After enjoying a 26-point lead for the past six months, the YES on 37 campaign has dropped 19 points in the polls.

But the YES team is fighting back, calling out the lies. And the liars.   [Read more…]

Elect Bob Filner Mayor of San Diego

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The 2012 San Diego mayoral race is quite possibly the most important in this city’s history. It is a choice between two very different candidates with two nearly completely divergent visions of what this city’s future looks like.

It is a choice between one candidate who believes government should function merely to facilitate business and corporate interests, and another who believes that government’s job is to represent the best interests of the people.   [Read more…]

Scott Peters for Congress

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On Nov. 6, San Diego voters will have the opportunity to choose between Republican incumbent Congressman Brian Bilbray, or his Democratic challenger, Port Commissioner and former City Council President Scott Peters. The differences between the candidates are stark, and their leadership will no doubt have a profound effect on San Diego’s future.

To us at the OB Rag and San Diego Free Press the choice is an obvious one: Scott Peters.   [Read more…]

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