San Diego Free Press

Grassroots News & Progressive Views

The Connection Between Head Start Programs and California “Pension Reform”

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By Doug Porter

You’ve probably seen stories in the news over the last few days about this wonderful couple from Texas putting up a cool $10 million to keep Head Start centers in six states open during the government shutdown.

John Arnold, a former hedge fund manager and wife Laura are reportedly worth more than $2.8 billion. It may well be that this donation has something to do with a spate of bad publicity that Arnold & Co. have been getting recently.

They’ve been called out by investigative reporters recently as being involved with what could be called a shell game being used to fleece taxpayers in the name of rescuing them from odious public pension obligations.  And their next target is California.   [Read more…]

Sex In San Diego: ‘Revenge Porn’ Outlawed in California as Governor Signs Bill

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The anti-revenge porn bill makes it illegal to post naked pics of someone else without their consent.

By Jodie Gummow / Alternet

Exes beware! Before you think about posting naked pics of your former lover following a bitter breakup, you better think twice…

This week California Governor Jerry Brown signed Senate Bill 255, making it a misdemeanor to post identifiable nude photographs of another person online without their permission with the intent to cause emotional distress or humiliation. Doing so will now be punishable by up to six months imprisonment and a $1,000 fine, AP has reported.   [Read more…]

Us He Devours: Government by Crisis, a Shutdown in Wartime

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By Anna Daniels

It is easy to imagine that the Republican hostage taking in Congress is little more than a great deal of sound and too much fury that signifies nothing to ordinary people living ordinary lives outside of the Beltway. The words “shutdown” and “default” don’t enter into conversations very often here, John Boehner is an unknown and that is perfectly fine with the madmen and madwomen who are much more concerned about being disrespected, waiting for the end time and the perfect photo-op.

The people who live here on 45th Street keep talking about the same things they have been talking about for the past five or six years– they are looking for full time work that pays a livable wage, affordable housing, health care and enough money to get the car fixed and buy school clothes for their kids. There is also an urgency for the children who were brought into this country without documents to receive legal status through the Dream Act.

It is easy to imagine that these two worlds don’t intersect, but that is not the case at all.   [Read more…]

They Danced in the Barrio

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Trolley Dances Come to La Logan

By Brent E. Beltrán

For the past two weekends three different public sites within Barrio Logan were pleasantly invaded by the light-footed moves of hand-selected dancers. The 15th annual Trolley Dances shared the talents of local dance aficionados with the Logan community and those that came from outside the neighborhood.

Organized by the San Diego Dance Theater, under the direction of Artistic Executive Director Jean Isaacs, and in partnership with the Metropolitan Transit System, the concept of Trolley Dances is to “bring dance to the people using public transportation and introduce people to new neighborhoods and places.”   [Read more…]

D’Oh! ‘America Is Not Stupid’ Wins IRS Recognition as Tax-Exempt Nonprofit

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By Kim Barker /ProPublica

Smart move?

The IRS has granted nonprofit status to America Is Not Stupid – a so-called dark money group best known for a 2012 election ad featuring a talking baby who compared the smell of his diaper with a Montana senator.

As ProPublica wrote in January, America Is Not Stupid and a related group, A Better America Now, applied for IRS recognition in the run-up to the 2012 election, swearing under penalty of perjury that they would not spend money on elections.

Then both groups went ahead and did exactly that, spending more than $125,000 on mailers and ads opposing Democratic candidates in Texas and Montana.   [Read more…]

Less Popular Than Zombies: Congressional Approval Rating Drops to Single Digits

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Veteran’s Pension Payments and Disability Funding to Dry Up at End of Month

 By Doug Porter

VA Secretary Eric Shinseki is testified today before a House Committee about the consequences of the current government shutdown and the news was all bad for 3.8 million veterans who will not receive disability compensation come November.  An additional 315,000 veterans and 202,000 surviving spouses and dependents will also see pension payments stopped should the logjam not break.

He told the House Committee on Veterans Affairs the short-term effects include disability claims production slowing by an average of about 1,400 per day since the shutdown began Oct. 1, and that has stalled the department’s efforts to reduce the backlog of disability claims pending for longer than 125 days.   [Read more…]

Republicans Are Out To Destroy American System of Governance

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And some Congressional Democrats are willing to let them.

By Andy Cohen

America’s entire system of governance is being threatened.  Our Constitution, the presidency, the rule of law itself is under attack.

Republicans have shut down the government and are holding the government and the entire U.S. economy hostage, and are doing so for no apparent reason.  They have insisted that President Obama “negotiate” with them, but they have absolutely no clue what they want from “negotiations.”  House Speaker John Boehner has demanded that Obama have a “conversation” with House Republicans.  All we want is a “conversation,” he said over and over again last Sunday on ABC’s “This Week with George Stephanopoulos”, never once uttering the other “C” word, “compromise.”   [Read more…]

Carl DeMaio: Running Hard for the House of Indecision’s Suicide Caucus

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By Doug Porter

Congressional (D52) candidate Carl DeMaio is working overtime to try and turn the House-led shutdown to his advantage.  He’s campaigning for a “common sense” law that says legislators can’t be paid until a budget is passed.  He’s parroting the party line about how “both sides” need to come to the table.

But he’s got a hard road ahead as poll after poll shows even Republicans think the current shutdown tied to defunding Obamacare is a bad idea. And ever-increasing numbers of voters are willing to look past the false equivalence narratives being pushed by the cable news set and blame the Grand Old Party for this mess.

So how did I come up with the terms House of Indecision and Suicide Caucus? I plucked them from commentaries by certifiable conservative commentators.   [Read more…]

Extreme Weather Watch: September 2013, Floods in Boulder and Mexico

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By John Lawrence

Boulder, CO –The rain began to fall on Monday, September 9. Experts would ultimately call it a 1,000-year rain and a 100-year flood. By Thursday September 12, Little James Creek began ripping buildings from their foundations and sending roofs plunging into basements. Roads were closed and still the rain kept coming.

In the city of Boulder, Boulder Creek was roaring at a rate of 3,104 cubic feet per second, according to Boulder police Chief Mark Beckner. Two days before, it had been flowing at a leisurely 54 cfs.

At 1:40 AM on Thursday University of Colorado officials issued a text alert ordering faculty and staff residents living in university housing near Boulder Creek to evacuate. Soon, CU and the Boulder Valley School District would both announce they were closing down.   [Read more…]

There Ain’t No Party Like a California GOP Tea Party Convention

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By Doug Porter

This weekend’s Republican statewide gathering in Anaheim was chock full of irony.

Across the street from the GOP convention, Disneyland was hosting “Gay Days” even as the party faithful vowed to fight recently enacted California laws protecting transgender rights.

The political party pitched the media on how this gathering would showcase the new bigger tent GOP chock full of fresh faces and ideas even as one of its approved vendors hawked anti-Hillary buttons promoting knuckle dragging sexism.   [Read more…]

For Fletcher, History is the Narrative that Hurts

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By Jim Miller

To the surprise of many over the last couple of weeks, San Diego’s Labor Council, the San Diego Democratic Party, San Diego Democrats for Equality, Progressive San Diego, the Environmental Health and Justice Campaign, and a host of other local progressives have all lined up to endorse David Alvarez for Mayor. Even as the Gonzalez/Forrester/Jacobs/et al camp has pulled out all the stops in their effort to force-feed Fletcher to local progressives, Nathan just hasn’t gone down that well.

As one person who was being courted by Fletcher before the Democratic Central Committee’s endorsement vote reported, an exasperated Fletcher complained to them about having to work so hard to line up votes. I guess his friends on the inside said it was going to be easy.

Unfortunately for Fletcher, he has had to work hard but it hasn’t paid off. And all this has some folks in the “everybody knows” crowd a bit rattled.   [Read more…]

Little Statesmen

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“A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines.”
— Ralph Waldo Emerson, Self-Reliance

By David Benjamin / Common Dreams

PARIS — As I observe, from a nation where health care is universal, simple, cheap and far more healthful that the free-market medical blackmail that afflicts and sickens the United States, I think of a question not asked.

A handful of reactionaries in the U.S. Congress are “standing on principle” against the Affordable Care Act, passed by Congress in 2010. The media wizards who cover issues of national life-and-death as though they were NASCAR events, ask lots of questions about who’s going to do what, and when, and whose ox is gonna get gored when that happens or doesn’t happen.

But the question they never ask of either side in the latest stalemate is “What principle?” What exactly are all these blowhards standing their ground for?   [Read more…]

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