San Diego Free Press

Grassroots News & Progressive Views

Time to Give Voice Through a Choice- AKA Get Out the Vote

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By Ernie McCray

With the mayoral election coming up on Tuesday, November 19th, it’s time for one of those “Get Out the Vote” kinds of appeals and I’m up for the deal because voting is what being an American means to me.

But there are folks who don’t vote which I see as an insult against the very notion of a democracy. They cry “What’s the use?” claiming that special interests rule the day and our representatives don’t care about us. Well, there sure is a lot of truth in that but I can’t think of any better reason to vote than to take on such abuses of power.

Voting is at the core of our nation’s soul. The big cats know that well. That’s why they buy folks who’ll heed their will.   [Read more…]

Why Kevin Faulconer Has a Chance, But Shouldn’t

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Despite a large disadvantage in voter registration numbers, Republican Kevin Faulconer remains the frontrunner in the November 19 mayoral special election.

By Andy Cohen

San Diego is sort of an odd duck politically. In a state that’s as deep blue as any in the nation, San Diego stands out as one of the few hopes for Republicans to control a major city in the most populous state in the Union.

Consider: California has 53 seats in the United States House of Representatives, yet only 15 of them are held by Republicans (two from San Diego County). In 2010, Democrats swept every statewide office by a wide margin. Democrats achieved near supermajorities in both the State Assembly and State Senate, falling only a few seats short of essentially neutering state Republicans. As of 2012, consider state level Republicans neutered—and yet the Democrats have shown a remarkable propensity to work with their colleagues from across the aisle, despite the fact that with supermajorities in both chambers, they really don’t have to.

The State Senate is currently occupied by 28 Democrats and 12 Republicans. San Diego is a part of four different Senate districts, split evenly with two Democrats and two Republicans. In the State Assembly, Democrats currently hold a 53-25 advantage over Republicans (with two seats vacant). San Diego County contains six different Assembly districts, evenly split at three apiece.   [Read more…]

What to Do with Your Leftover Halloween Candy

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If you are like me and purchased your Halloween candy at CostCo, and not wanting to run out in case your gremlins were going to trick you so you bought two GIANT bags, you probably are wondering what to do with the left-over candy.  After all, how many pieces of candy can YOU eat before you say “enough!”

I’ve got the answer for you! While listening to the news the other night I heard that a group of dentists were collecting the left-over candy to send to our troops overseas.  At first I started laughing, because who would expect a dentist to collect candy for any reason?  

But after meeting Dr. Ana Simerlein and her office manager Kathi, I have some answers to pass on to you.   [Read more…]

Analyzing the Candidates’ Responses: Virtual Mayoral Forum – On Managed Competition

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Democratic Candidates agree:  Significant savings and efficiencies could have been achieved without managed competition, and San Diego might have been better off.

By SDFP Staff

Earlier this month we published an eight part virtual mayoral forum, and invited each of the mayoral candidates to answer one question each day with the promise of no editorial intervention on our part. You can view that series by going to our 2013 special election coverage, here.

Now that the three major Democratic candidates have answered (Kevin Faulconer didn’t reply), we thought it might be useful to examine their answers and share our analyses. So over the coming days we’ll be covering one question at a time, comparing their answers with some of editor’s visions about what’s best for San Diego.   [Read more…]

Kevin Faulconer’s Republican Problem

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By Doug Porter

The race for mayor of San Diego is technically non-partisan, but don’t tell that to the various political action committees and “social welfare” groups around town.

While media speculation has focused on the foibles of newly minted Democrat Nathan Fletcher, and David Alvarez’s unabashed support from organized labor, Kevin Faulconer’s campaign has been conducting a master class in how avoid the “R” word.

I hadn’t given it much thought until yesterday, when the email from Faulconer spokesman Tony Manolatos to reporter Clare Trageser surfaced, complaining about her KPBS feature, saying that the account focused on “Kevin being a Republican and a tool for big business”.

That’s right. A Republican mayoral candidate’s spokesman is mad because a news story called him a Republican.   [Read more…]

Carl DeMaio Launches “Free to Be” (Poor) College Tour

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By Doug Porter

Failed mayoral candidate and wannabe Congressman Carl DeMaio is taking his message of “opportunity” to college students in the San Diego area this week, hoping that a smiling face and a pocketful of libertarian promises will woo the youth vote into the Republican fold.

Like the witch in Hansel and Gretel he’s hoping to lure young votes with the lure of sweet success: he’s the “new” Republican. Students are supposed to forget about all those nasty old white men waving their transvaginal wands to ward off people of color and other likely Democrats from voting booths around the country.

“I’m taking on the Republican Party and trying to get them off those divisive social issues — let individuals decide these kinds of issues for themselves,” the 39-year-old DeMaio told UT-San Diego. “The whole tone and tenor and culture has to change.”   [Read more…]

You’ve Got Mail: Mayoral Shapeshifter Sweepstakes Rolls On

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By Jim Miller

Everywhere you look, there is a different Nathan Fletcher. The magic never stops. You can see it in a recent mailer from the Municipal Employees Association (MEA) that touts the man with an 18% lifetime score on labor issues and a 36% Sierra Club score on environmental issues as someone with “a consistent progressive record we can trust.” The MEA magic comes by taking a handful of votes that Fletcher made while re-positioning himself for his mayoral run and giving them the tag line, “Show Us the Facts.”

Well, brothers and sisters, if you think that Fletcher is a progressive, with both a labor and an environmental record that actually comes in behind Republican Kevin Faulconer’s, you just don’t care about the facts. Particularly when you know that David Alvarez’s record on these issues is far superior to both of them.   [Read more…]

Old Halloween Ain’t What She Used to Be

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By Judi Curry

The Halloween for 2013 has sure changed.  In the olden days – 2012 and before – hundreds of young costumed children would knock on my door in their cute Halloween costumes, yelling “trick or treat.”  Sometimes only one child would be at the door when answered; sometimes several.

Later in the evening, some of the “older” children would knock on the door with the same message, and they always received the same treat as the younger ones.

When my children were younger, we usually met the parents with a flask of Brandy Alexanders  – to ward off the chill of the evening, of course.   [Read more…]

The Price of America Having the Greatest Military in the World? It’s Destroying the Country

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A giant military doesn’t make the American people safer.

By Nicolas J.S. Davies / Alternet

The idea of U.S. “national security” seems inextricably entangled with the notion of “military supremacy.” Over the past 15 years, this has served to rationalize the most expensive unilateral military build-up in history. But there is no evidence that having the most expensive and destructive military forces makes Americans safer than people in other countries, nor that restoring a more balanced military posture would leave us vulnerable to dangers we are currently protected from. Many countries with smaller military forces do a better job of protecting their people by avoiding the hostility that is generated by U.S. imperialism, aggression and other war crimes.   [Read more…]

Climate Impacts Poised to Decimate Human and Earth Systems, says Leaked IPCC Draft

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Leaked draft of UN panel’s global review of future impacts from global warming predicts system break-downs across the board.
By Jon Queally / Common Dreams

A draft of a global scientific review on how human and natural systems are expected to respond to the growing threat of climate change has been leaked and its contents—though not wholly unexpected to those who have followed climate science news in recent years—are nonetheless both alarming and devastating.

Titled, Climate Change 2014: Impacts, Adaptation, and Vulnerability, the leaked document is the draft version of the second installment of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s latest review of the global scientific consensus on the global warming and climate change.   [Read more…]

Putting Insurance ‘Rate Shock’ Into Perspective

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By Joan McCarter / Daily Kos

Ryan Lizza interviewed Jonathon Gruber, an M.I.T. economist who was instrumental in designing both Mitt Romney’s health-care plan in Massachusetts and President Obama’s Affordable Care Act. Based on the estimates economist Gruber gave Lizza for who the “winners” and “losers” in Affordable Care Act will be, University of Michigan professor and senior Brookings fellow Justin Wolfers made this chart:   [Read more…]

Tío Emilio and the Secrets of the Ancestors: Chapter 24 — The Showdown

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“Boys, let me say again, that there is one main truth about the way the Universe works, and that is: You Get What You Focus On, and in that way, You Create Your Own Reality. If you focus on getting beat up or shot, that will be what you bring about in your life. If you carry that negative fear into this meeting, you could reinforce the negative fears of some of those guys.” Don Emilio

By Richard Juarez

A meeting had finally been arranged for Tony and me to go before the guys and talk about our situation. It was just getting dark when I went to Amador’s Market to get Tony so we could walk over there together. But when I got to the store he had bad news for me.

“You go on over, I’ll be there soon. This shouldn’t take but about half an hour more.”   [Read more…]

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