San Diego Free Press

Grassroots News & Progressive Views

A Big Fat Job Killing Lie for Christmas from Jerry Sanders

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“The Recession’s Coming” and other pants-on-fire tales coming soon to a mall near you

By Doug Porter

Former Mayor Jerry Sanders, President and CEO of the San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce, sent a holiday letter out this week to all Chamber members and partner organizations urging them to get on board with the latest campaign to overturn the City Council by referendum. 

Their “friendly” signature gatherers will be blocking your entrance into shopping malls around the region starting the day after Christmas urging people to sign the Stop the Jobs-Killing Tax petition. (I’ll gladly publish videos of their “sales” techniques if you’d like to email them in.)

The council’s decision to end a linkage fee (with plenty of exceptions) for bigger developers is being cast by Saunders and his cronies as a “massive tax increase” and a “jobs tax”.   [Read more…]

All I Want for Christmas: More Youth-Led Climate Justice

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A holiday vision for global activism in 2014

By Joe Solomon / Common Dreams

When I shut my eyes, I am grateful for all the growth the student divestment has seen in the last two years. Just in the last month, the divestment movement has made headlines in USA Today, The Washington Post, the Boston Globe, TIME, and Al Jazeera. Half a dozen schools have committed to divesting, and while the Harvard and Brown Presidents are bemoaning their students rising voices and defending their schools’ dirty endowments – it means student campaigns are working. And just earlier this month, Alberta’s premier oil magazine said oil companies underestimate the divestment movement – with this headline: “The energy industry ignores the fossil fuel divestiture movement at its own peril.”

All of that is a testimony to the progress you’ve made.

And yet, when I shut my eyes—I imagine this youth movement seizing far more of its potential.

We need youth power far more than ever before.   [Read more…]

Happy Festivus! Airing of Some Grievances, San Diego Style

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By Doug Porter

Today, December 23rd we celebrate Festivus,“the holiday for the rest of us,” popularized via an episode of the Seinfeld sitcom. Frank Constanza (Jerry Stiller), father of George Constanza (Jason Alexander) supposedly invented the holiday as a reaction to the commercialization of Christmas and other December holidays.

First a little background is in order, via Festivusweb.com, for those of you scratching your head and going “huh?”

Frank Costanza, during a failed attempt to buy a Christmas gift for son George, realized that there should be a new holiday   [Read more…]

The Thought of David Alvarez as Mayor…

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By Ernie McCray

It was like walking in on a “Who’s Got the Sunniest Smile” Contest as the room in this “David Alvarez for Mayor” gathering, was full of them. I joined right in with my ages old grin.

My smile shone brightly because David is an answer to a dream of what a San Diego mayor should be like that I first conceived when I moved to town in late August of ’62. I was barely a few months over 24 years old, ready to change the world for the betterment of all humankind. For most of the years since then, my dream of a mayor like David has seemed just like that: a dream.

I mean when I showed up on the local scene I thought I had escaped the small-minded non-progressive kind of thinking I had been subjected to growing up in Tucson. That notion changed when I turned my TV on and saw two men, Frank Curran who would later become mayor and Allen Hitch who wanted so much to be the mayor.   [Read more…]

Merry Christmas, Sex Pistols Style

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By Jim Miller

Every holiday season one of my favorite tasks is collecting and delivering all the toys donated by my union brothers and sisters in the American Federation of Teachers to the Labor Council office for the annual toy drive. My union, along with many other San Diego locals who participate in this annual ritual, do so in order to help out the families of unemployed workers struggling during the holiday season.

This year, just a few days after I made my usual delivery, a friend shared an article with me from Dangerous Minds on another, way cooler but little known solidarity effort from the Golden Age of punk rock: “When the Sex Pistols Saved Christmas.”  It was on Christmas of 1977 that the notorious Pistols played their last gig in the United Kingdom in Huddersfield as a benefit for striking firefighters who were in the ninth week of their struggle and were down to next to nothing. The Fire Brigade Union was striking because, as the piece notes, the cost of living was skyrocketing and “the pay in the pocket of the average worker was worthless.”   [Read more…]

The OB Hippie House Dedicates a Peace Pole

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On December 21, 2013 at 9:11am, the Time & Day of the Winter Solstice

By Judi Curry

To call this beautiful remodeled house on the south side of Ocean Beach a “hippie house”  truly does it an injustice. The new owner – Scott – has put a great deal of money into the house to make it liveable, and the fact that it is not the “normal” Pt. Loma residence is incidental.  But….it is gaining fame, even though Scott and his significant other Layla, have just recently moved in.

First of all the views are spectacular.  The scenery changes from minute to minute. What were high waves an hour ago are small little ripples now; the pelicans fly over going both north and south. The surfers are not there today – waiting the 72 hours after the rain – before dotting the scenery with their black wetsuits and multicolored surfboards.  So why were we there this morning, braving the cold and wind, standing outside looking at a pole set in concrete , albeit in a beautiful design?

Today, at the beginning of the winter solstice, Scott was dedicating one of his two Peace Poles in an informal ceremony. How familiar are you with “Peace Poles”?  They symbolize the oneness of humanity and the common wish for a world at peace.   [Read more…]

Should Employers Be Able to Exclude Birth Control From Health Insurance Coverage?

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By Joel A. Harrison, PhD, MPH/East County Magazine

The Obama administration has asked the Supreme Court to decide whether for-profit companies can be forced to provide full contraceptive coverage for their employees despite religious objections from their owners. Many people believe that health insurance is something offered by employers, a sort of bonus.  In fact, it is part of what I have known as one’s “wage package.”

Wikipedia calls it “salary packaging: a term used to refer to the inclusion of employee benefits (also called fringe benefits) in an employee remuneration package in exchange for giving up part of monetary salary. Such arrangements are entered into most commonly if there are tax or other benefits to be derived by the employer or employee from the arrangement.”  Employers calculate the total cost per employee, including salary, benefits, Workers’ Comp, unemployment insurance, employer’s share of FICA and Medicare, etc.   [Read more…]

How To Assert Your Rights When You Encounter The Police

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If you use pot you are a criminal.

By Lauren Vazquez / Ladybud

This is true even in Colorado and Washington, where the feds continue to outlaw cannabis. This is also true in California and other states that provide medical protection. This means the police not only have the right, but the obligation to try and stop you (though state police cannot enforce federal law). Fortunately, you do not have to help them. The United States Constitution gives you rights that protect you during police encounters. It is the job of the police to find evidence of a crime. It is not your job to confess or help them. They get paid quite well, so please do not do their job for them. Your job is to do and say the right things to protect yourself and defend your rights.   [Read more…]

Right-Wing Group Seeks Help Rewriting the Bible Because It’s Not Conservative Enough

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 The King James Bible and more recent translations are veritable primers of progressive agitprop, according to the founder of Conservapedia.

 By Richard Schiffman / AlterNet

Liberal bias in the media pales in comparison to what you’ll find in your standard-issue Bibles, according to Conservapedia.com, a kind of Wikipedia for the religious right. The King James Bible, not to mention more recent translations like the New International Version (NIV), are veritable primers of progressive agitprop, complains Andy Schlafly, the founder of Conservapedia.com. (His mother, Phyllis, is an activist best known for her opposition to feminism and the Equal Rights Amendment.)

But not to worry. Andy Schlafly’s group is on the case, and they have invited you to pitch in. Well, maybe not you, exactly, but the “best of the public,” whose assistance is solicited in proposing new wording for left-leaning Bible verses.

Don’t know Aramaic, Hebrew or ancient Greek? Not a problem. What they are looking for is not exactly egghead scholarship, but a knack for using words they’ve read in the Wall Street Journal. They have a list of promising candidates on their website—words like capitalism, work ethic, death penalty, anticompetitive, elitism, productivity, privatize, pro-life—all of which are conspicuously missing from those socialist-inspired Bibles we’ve been reading lately.
  [Read more…]

Drone Use Soars in Latin America, Remains Widely Unregulated

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“There is very good reason to think that once the current controversies and public spotlight on domestic drones fades away, we will see a push for drones armed with lethal weapons.”

By Diego Cupolo / Upside Down World

Over the last decade, drones have made headlines as tools for covert bombing campaigns in the Middle East and the Horn of Africa. Yet remote-controlled warfare is just one of many functions Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) can provide as non-lethal models become less expensive and more accessible to countries around the world.

From aerial surveillance to three-dimensional geographic modeling of rugged terrains and even speedy pizza delivery service, manufacturers have begun to promote the infinite capabilities of domestic drones. At the same time, they are specifically targeting developing markets in Latin America for the martial use of drones in law enforcement and military operations.

In response, human rights groups have been raising concerns over these fast-evolving technologies, citing the potential for abuse by various state agencies. Recent advancements have allowed governments to adopt and, in some cases, begin building their own UAV fleets, but regulation on domestic drone use remains non-existent throughout the Americas aside from preliminary laws adopted in Brazil, Canada and the United States.

“The biggest concern presented by drones is they will become a tool for routine mass surveillance,” said Jay Stanley, a senior policy analyst for the American Civil Liberties Union. “Fleets of small, inexpensive self-launching drones could easily spread over a town, network together and provide comprehensive, 24-7 dragnet surveillance or a single high-flying drone could accomplish the same thing. This technology already exists. It’s called Wide Area Surveillance and it’s being used overseas by the US military.”   [Read more…]

The Sky Over San Diego Harbor

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By Will Falk

early one day I was walking

down by Mission Beach

with the sky over San Diego harbor

and we saw a lot of strange things
  [Read more…]

Losing Money and Gaining Weight: The Online Diet Gimmicks of Today

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By Judi Curry

“Weight loss” has been the buzz phrase for years. Seldom are people happy with what they weigh; what they look like; how tall or short they are; their cup size; etc. And, thanks to Dr. Oz and his programs, many women – and men, too – have tried a variety of weight loss remedies that are “guaranteed” – well, sort of – to take the weight off whether you exercise or not. He has touted Raspberry Keytones, Green Coffee, and the latest – a Pure Garcinia Cambogia.

As an overweight, older woman who wants to look better to attract a younger man, I have tried all three of the above. After all, if it worked for Oprah, it should work for me.   [Read more…]

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