San Diego Free Press

Grassroots News & Progressive Views

Filner: “Words Alone Are Not Enough” – Entering Behavioral Clinic, Not Quitting

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“Behavior I have engaged in for many years is wrong .. inexcusable”

By Doug Porter

San Diego’s Mayor Bob Filner announced today that he’s entering a clinic starting August 5th for two weeks for therapy. (See analysis by Andy Cohen here.)

This move comes after steadily mounting pressure throughout the week as new accusations of sexual harassment have surfaced, local and national elements of the Democratic party have called for him to step down and members of his administration have resigned rather than work with him.   [Read more…]

The US Has Not Created ONE Breadwinner Type Job in Over 10 Years

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Only part time, temp and minimum wage jobs are being created

By John Lawrence

A breadwinner job is a job that is sufficient to support a family, including rent or mortgage, car payment, adequate food and nutrition, health care, education and savings for retirement. That meant a job paying $50,000 a year in 2007 when the US economy peaked. At that time there were 71.8 million “breadwinner” jobs in construction, manufacturing, white-collar professions, government and the like. These jobs accounted for more than half of the nation’s 138 million total payroll.

Breadwinner jobs are the foundation of the Main Street economy. But after losing 5.6 million of these jobs during the Great Recession, less than 4 percent of these jobs have been recovered. The 3 million jobs recovered since the recession ended in 2009 have been mainly in part-time work, temp jobs and in health, education and social services (the HES complex).   [Read more…]

All Five Members of San Diego’s Congressional Delegation Voted Against Ban on NSA Surveillance

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Vargas, Davis and Peters Join with Issa and Hunter to Defeat Attempt to Rein in the NSA

Count ’em. All five members of San Diego’s Congressional delegation voted yesterday against the ban on continued National Security Administration surveillance of Americans’ phone and internet records.

Democrats Susan Davis, Juan Vargas and Scott Peters joined with their ostensible nemesis Republicans Duncan Hunter and Darrell Issa to shut down the attempt to rein in the NSA’s spying.

It was a close vote; 205 to 217 – against the Amash amendment, a bipartisan effort added to a spending bill.

The vote was a huge disappointment to civil libertarians and critics of the NSA surveillance programs. The NSA has been criticized for overstepping its authority in conducting warrantless spying on US citizens. Critics assert that Congress never authorized the extent and breadth of the spying, and that the projects violate the Constitution.   [Read more…]

I Smell a Rat! Congressman Darrell Issa’s Birthday Present for the US Postal Service

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By Doug Porter

It’s probably not on your personal calendar, but tomorrow, July 26th, will mark the 238th anniversary of the Post Office in the United States.  And San Diego’s Darrell Issa has cooked up a very special birthday celebration: he wants to end home mail delivery.

The Community and Postal Workers United group is seeking to raise public awareness of the Congressman’s scheme, and they’ve scheduled their own birthday party at Rep. Darrell Issa’s office  (1800 Thibodo Rd., Suite 310, Vista CA 92081) starting at noon on Friday.

Featured will be piñatas that resemble the Congressman and a giant inflatable rat. There’ll be barbeque and cake afterwards at the union’s Anahiem offices.

What this is all about is yesterday’s (July 24th), House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform approval of Issa’s “reform measure”(HR 2748) by a vote of 22 to 17. The vote was along party lines, with all Republicans voting in favor of the measure and all Democrats voting against it. All amendments submitted by Democrats were defeated by the same margin.   [Read more…]

Upcoming Scandal Eggo Disruptions

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By Bob Dorn

Jan Goldsmith’s Wig His Secret Sex Lure

The wig of Jan Goldsmith, City Attorney, is seeded with male sex pheromones, according to three of his attorneys who cannot be named.

Each of them says that in separate meetings alone with the city attorney in his office they found Goldsmith irresistible after he began combing the hairpiece or ruffling it with his fingers.

“It is possible to infuse human hair with provocative pheromones,” said UCSD’s Dr. Andrew Lecithini, of the school’s chemistry department, “but it tends also to severely straighten the hair, causing it to lay down and stray, which may counteract the attractive function of the pheromones.”
  [Read more…]

It’s Hard to Support the Mayor, But…

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By Judi Curry

I have tried to stay out of the Filner controversy since it started. After all, I was – am – a supporter of his. I have a picture of him with me on my front window, and have cheered him on as he tackles the “good old boys” from yesteryear. To say that I am appalled at the events that have taken place recently is a mild rejoinder. The betrayal that I have felt towards the mayor is pure and simple anger. How could he? He won the election by setting up goals and principles that he is fighting for now.

When Donna Frye gave her first press conference I felt nauseated for hours afterwards. I worked on Donna’s campaign; I respect her more than any other politician I have ever met. And then came her second press conference and I wondered what happened to her. The yelling is so out of character. I was sorry to see her lose her composure.

Then Irene McCormack stepped forward and talked about the things that Filner did to her. She didn’t want any publicity, but she hired Gloria Allred to represent her? I don’t doubt, for a minute, that what she said happened really did happen. But did it happen the way she says it did? I don’t know. I do know that she is a well respected person in San Diego.   [Read more…]

Sex in San Diego: Sex Work in America

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By David Rosen / Alternet

Three centuries before Las Vegas was founded, New York was known as sin city. It was home to drinking, gambling, and most especially, illicit sexual pleasures. One of New Amsterdam’s first sex workers was Grietje “Little Pearl” Reynies, a lively bawd or “doxie.” Taunted by seamen on a departing sloop with the cry, “Whore! Whore! Two pound butter’s whore!” she allegedly lifted her petticoat and pointed to her naked backside, replying, “Blaes my daer achterin.”

Daily media reports often headline tantalizing stories of the NYPD arresting streetwalkers, breaking up a prostitution ring, and closing storefront sexual massage parlors. “Sin” still sells. However, between 2008 and 2012, the state Division of Criminal Justice Services reports the NYPD arrested only 5,834 people for patronizing prostitutes. On average, that’s only 1,167 arrests per year, 22 or so a week – and that’s in a city with 8 million-plus adult residents and visitors (e.g., businesspeople and tourists) prowling the city streets every day.   [Read more…]

Same Sex Marriage Opponents Lose Again in California

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By Doug Porter

The California Supreme Court quashed yet another attempt to halt same sex marriages yesterday, rejecting a petition filed by San Diego County Clerk Ernest Dronenburg, Jr. asking for a temporary ban keeping clerks statewide from issuing marriage licenses to gay couples.

The late afternoon ruling capped a dramatic day that started with a morning press conference called by LGBT and faith leaders, condemning Dronenberg for using his public office to promote his religious agenda and personal beliefs.

The County Clerk apparently felt the need to crash that gathering, appearing before the cameras as things were winding down to claim that his efforts were pro-bono and merely undertaken as a preventative measure to clarify issues and protect gay and lesbian couples.  He did not address the tax dollars that State Attorney General Kamala Harris is spending to defend the state’s position—that marriages should proceed—in that case.   [Read more…]

Mayor Bob Filner and the Shame that Has No Name

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By Anna Daniels

When Bob Filner was campaigning for mayor last year, he was a visible presence in City Heights. He showed up to support public transit initiatives; he attended the rally calling for George Zimmerman to be charged with murder in the death of Trayvon Martin.

Filner listened to mid-city youth advocating for a skate board park and free bus passes for low income students to get to school and work. He listened to taxi drivers advocating for livable wages and safe working conditions and called for additional library hours. He recognized the importance of streetlights and supported the needs of vets and the homeless.

These are all tangible meaningful issues in City Heights. For the first time in my memory, a mayoral candidate acknowledged not only the importance of our government in addressing these needs, but our government’s ability to do so–right here in City Heights.   [Read more…]

Adventures in Comic-Conlandia: A Nerd’s-eye View Wrap-up

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By Brent E. Beltrán

I survived another San Diego Comic-Con International. This one, perhaps, being the most grueling.

I had initially planned to write my wrap-up on Sunday night but was too tired. I was then going to write it on Monday but my exhausted corpse refused to get off the couch.

So here I am on Tuesday, slightly less exhausted but determined to finish writing about my Adventures in Comic-Conlandia.

Of my many Comic-Cons this was the first where I actually had work to do. I volunteered in the past but I don’t consider that work. Over the course of Comic-Con I posted 160 photos to Instagram and only three short videos. I had hoped to take more Instagram videos but I got caught up in everything and went the easy route by mostly snapping pics.   [Read more…]

Summer Reads: Joyland, By Stephen King

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Joyland
Stephen King
Paperback, 283 pages
2013, by Hard Case Crime

 

Reviewed by Tom Hunter

“When you’re twenty-one, life is a roadmap. It’s only when you get to be twenty-five or so that you begin to suspect that you’ve been looking at the map upside down, and not until you’re forty are you entirely sure. By the time you’re sixty, take it from me, you’re fucking lost.” 

I read this book three times in a row.  It is so well put together that I spend too many hours trying to grok what made it so appealing.  I even wrote out kind of an outline/analysis of how the hell he pulled it off.   [Read more…]

Three Press Conferences and One Lawsuit Later, Filner Stays Put

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By Doug Porter

It was quite the day yesterday.

Three, count ‘em, three press conferences about [insert your favorite ‘-gate’ adjective about Bob Fiber’s alleged behavior here].  I’ll review them in chronological order, which also mirror (I think) the impact each will have on San Diego in long run. And we’ll take a look at the virtual vigilantes running amok on the interwebs.

Council members Todd Gloria and Kevin Faulconer held a noon presser, as former Assemblywoman Lori Saldaña put it on Twitter,  complaining the scandal takes time away from doing city work by taking time away from city work to complain about scandal.” (See Andy Cohen’s coverage here)

What struck me about this bi-partisan whinefest wasn’t in the accompanying press release, which promised that the Earth would continue to orbit the sun, despite the presence of the monster living on the 11th floor of city hall.   [Read more…]

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