San Diego Free Press

Grassroots News & Progressive Views

San Diego vs. SeaWorld: Let the Battle Begin

by

By Eva Posner

Blackfish has been on my DVR since it aired on CNN for the first time in October. I knew I should watch it but I didn’t want to. I’ve never been to SeaWorld, and I wanted to go. I wanted to see the whales. I wanted to watch them jump in the air and wave at me. It’s really selfish, and maybe not the best thing to admit, but I didn’t want to see Blackfish because I didn’t want to feel guilty about thinking the whale show was super cute.

Last night, I decided to woman up and turn it on. Which lead to the most depressing 90 minutes I have spent in front of a TV in a long time, and relief that I never did make it SeaWorld. Because I would have been disgusted with myself.   [Read more…]

Cochella (Twice), Taxes, Terrorists, and Testing: Looking Back at April 2013

by

By Doug Porter

For the twelve days of Christmas I give you: The madness of 2013, one month at a time. A month by month recap of stories that appeared in the Starting Line over the past year.

#1 Assemblywoman Toni Atkins vs the Poor Oppressed Developers

Sometimes it’s not what you say, it’s how you say it.

Let’s start with the California Coastal Commission story in today’s UT-San Diego.

San Diego Assemblywomen Toni Atkins is sponsoring a bill that moved out of committee yesterday giving the California Coastal Commission the authority to directly fine law breakers.

Paragraphs three and four of the UT-SD story tell us first about the reaction against the proposed legislation:

Her Assembly Bill 976 has drawn sharp rebukes from business interests, many of whom already regard the Coastal Commission as too arbitrary when it comes to issuing permits for development along California’s 1,100 miles of coast.

  [Read more…]

My Grandma’s High on Weed

by

By Judi Curry

My grandma has a case of shingles,
She hurts terribly bad,
I wish I could do something for her,
It makes me extremely sad.
Grandma went to her doctor,
Who gave her a strong pain pill,
But all that it managed to do for her,
Was to make her feel more ill.
Grandma went back to the doctor,
Begging for some relief,
The doctor said to get a weed card
And then go buy some leaf.
So Grandma looked on Google’s list
To find the closest place,
Drove herself to the parking lot –
Of course it was owned by ACE.
……   [Read more…]

All I Want for Christmas: A Youth’s Statement of Solidarity with Joe Solomon

by

By Anonymous Youth

Editors Note: We received this essay over the holiday in response to our December 24 post by activist Joe Soloman. Because of the personal nature of subjects covered herein, we suggested anonymity to the author.

I write in solidarity with Joe Solomon’s desire for more youth-led climate justice.

I am 26 years old. I hold degrees as a Bachelor of Arts in English and a Juris Doctor. I have $230,000 of student loan debt and growing. I have already began and finished a career as a public defender.

I am young and I want climate justice.

I want a livable future for myself, my loved ones, and the rest of the world. I want the current extinction rate of 200 species a day to stop. Forever. I want more whales off the San Diego coast this year than the year before. I want less deforestation. I want the kids in Barrio Logan to be able to breathe. I want the rich to stop stealing from the poor. I want to see a grizzly bear in California again one day.   [Read more…]

Why No Wall Street CEOs Were Prosecuted For Causing The Financial Crisis

by

By Dartagnan /Daily Kos

“If you prosecute a CEO or other senior executive and send him or her to jail for committing a crime, the deterrent effect in my view vastly outweighs even the best compliance program you can put in place.”

It’s unusual for a Federal Judge to weigh in on specific matters that could conceivably come before his Bench.  It’s even more unusual when those matters involve politically sensitive issues of national policy. A hard-hitting essay published recently in The New York Review Of Books by a 70-year old active United States District Judge has raised eyebrows for doing just that.

Judge Jed S. Rakoff sits for the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York–the nerve center of the financial world.  A Clinton appointee and former Federal prosecutor, he stunned the SEC in 2011 by rejecting a proposed 285 million dollar settlement between the U.S. and Citigroup in a case where Citigroup had been accused of misleading investors through the sale and packaging of collateralized debt obligations.  Rakoff’s rationale for rejecting that settlement–which he characterized as “pocket change”–was that Citigroup was not required to admit culpability.  The SEC changed its position on this practice after this ruling.   [Read more…]

Sequestration, Taxifornication, Misinformation, and the Great Tourism Recession in San Diego: Looking Back at March 2013

by

By Doug Porter

For the twelve days of Christmas I give you: The madness of 2013, one month at a time-A month by month recap of stories that appeared in the Starting Line over the past year.

#1 Sequestration Won’t Make the Sky Fall

Happy sequestration day.  The sky most likely won’t fall at 11:59pm tonight when President Obama signs the order implementing terms of a deal struck with Congress designed to be so odious that no person in their right mind would allow it to happen.

That should tell us a lot about the current mental state of the nation’s politicians. But it doesn’t.  The horrible deal, as it turns out, isn’t all that horrible, at least in the short run.   [Read more…]

Guns, Governors, God and the Gipper: Looking Back at February 2013

by

By Doug Porter

For the twelve days of Christmas I give you: The madness of 2013, one month at a time-A month by month recap of stories that appeared in the Starting Line over the past year.

#1 Rick “Tex” Perry Rides into Town

Our local daily is featuring an article today hewing to its meme that the end is nigh for the Golden State in the wake of voter support for raising taxes in the last election. Here’s the lede:

Texas Gov. Rick Perry quietly came to San Diego last week to lure biotech companies seeking to escape from higher income taxes under Proposition 30 to the Lone Star State.

  [Read more…]

100 Years is Enough: Time to Make the Fed a Public Utility

by

By Ellen Brown/Nation of Change

December 23rd, 2013, marks the 100th anniversary of the Federal Reserve, warranting a review of its performance.  Has it achieved the purposes for which it was designed?

The answer depends on whose purposes we are talking about.  For the banks, the Fed has served quite well.  For the laboring masses whose populist movement prompted it, not much has changed in a century.

The Federal Reserve Act was passed in 1913 in response to a wave of bank crises, which had hit on average every six years over a period of 80 years. The resulting economic depressions triggered a populist movement for monetary reform in the 1890s. Mary Ellen Lease, an early populist leader, said in a fiery speech that could have been written today.
  [Read more…]

City settles FPPC complaint on Prop. N & P mailer

by

From the Escondido Democratic Club

The City of Escondido has announced a settlement in a Fair Political Practices Commission (FPPC) complaint by EDC member and former Mayor Jerry Harmon. The complaint accused the City of violating FPPC rules when it sent a mailer to voters about Propositions N and P, which were on the November 2012 ballot. Proposition N asked voters to approve a General Plan Update. Proposition P asked voters to approve a change to charter city status and a new charter. The City said the mailer cost $20,000.

The mailer was presented to the City Council for approval as “informational,” but the final product struck Harmon as “one-sided” campaign material. It carried, in large letters, the phrase “Moving Forward” and presented only positive information about the two measures. There were no opposing views to provide be.   [Read more…]

Ted Nugent’s Guns, Obama’s Gays, Manchester’s Minions and Huffpost’s Sideboobs: Looking Back at January 2013

by

By Doug Porter

For the twelve days of Christmas I give you: The madness of 2013, one month at a time-A month by month recap of stories that appeared in the Starting Line last year.

#1 Elections have consequences:

Republican activist Ryan Trabuco took to the interwebs yesterday to announce his decision to re-register as “no party preference”. It’s not that he likes Democrats, it’s just that he can’t stand his old party:   [Read more…]

Reflections on the Meaning of Christianity and Religious Symbols: A Reaction to the Mt Soledad Cross Controversy

by

By Joel A. Harrison, PhD

In a 20-year saga that never ends, on December 12 U.S. District Judge Larry Burns ruled that the cross atop MountSoledad was unconstitutional. Burns ordered the cross removed within 90 days; but then stayed that order until all appeals have been exhausted. And on December 19 an article in the San Diego U-TA reported an appeal is underway. A similar controversy in EastCounty several years ago was resolved when a cross atop Mt.Helix was transferred from public ownership to a private group of area homeowners. (Privatization is not an appropriate option for Soledad, since the site is a U.S. military memorial.) Instead of rehashing the Constitutional pros and cons, I would like to reflect a moment on my view of the meaning of Christianity—and the most appropriate monuments to faith and humanity.

  [Read more…]

San Diego’s Shadow Government Steps Into the Spotlight

by

Former Mayor Jerry Sanders steps back into the spotlight to undermine San Diego’s elected government

By Andy Cohen

We often hear, particularly when a government entity is seeking to raise revenues for an important project (or, on occasion, a not-so-important project) that the associated revenues amount to a “jobs tax,” or a “job killing tax.” It’s a favorite meme of those of a particular political persuasion or economic status. Ordinance ‘A’ is a JOBS KILLER! We must not allow it to pass! Requiring health care is a JOBS KILLER! Any ordinance requiring a living wage is a JOBS KILLER! The minimum wage is a JOBS KILLER! Increasing the sales tax by one-half of one percent is a JOBS KILLER!

It’s an effective scare tactic used by those on the political right to prevent governments from being able to raise enough revenues to provide services that residents demand. That’s especially true here in San Diego, where we have a history of demanding services without providing a means to pay for them. We’re notorious for that.

As far as the Lincoln Club, or the San Diego Taxpayers Association, or the San Diego Chamber of Commerce, or, to a lesser extent, the San Diego Regional Economic Development Corporation is concerned, any revenues raised by the city for the provision of services—or just day-to-day operations—is a JOBS KILLING tax. Any regulations placed on any local businesses are JOBS KILLERS and are a hindrance to our economy. Anything that benefits workers is a JOBS KILLER.   [Read more…]

©2010-2017 SanDiegoFreePress.org

Code is Poetry