San Diego Free Press

Grassroots News & Progressive Views

ACLU Report Details Massive Domestic Data Collection; San Diego County Keeps It Forever

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By Doug Porter

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has released a report on the widespread use of domestic data tracking technology via automatic license plate readers. As with all such programs, potential privacy concerns have been suppressed by claims that this technology is keeping us safer.

A report earlier this year in San Diego’s City Beat explored the local implications of license plate readers, explaining that the average vehicle in the county has been scanned an average of 14 times. All this data is shared countywide and stored in a database maintained by the San Diego Association of Governments (SANDAG).  The FBI, DEA, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) also have access to these records.

It’s day two of my Filner-less news roundups, prompted by a desire to make this website something more than All-Bob-All-The Time, and I’ve got to say it’s been tough. One more day, I keep telling myself..just.one.more.day…
  [Read more…]

Governor Brown Signs Historic Enterprise Zone Reform Into Law

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By Steve Smith/California Labor Federation

For years, the state’s broken enterprise zone has been costing taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars while doing little to create new jobs. Even worse, the program was subsidizing strip clubs and giant corporations like Walmart that pay workers poverty wages and offer few, if any benefits. We called it theCorporate Gravy Train. And today, Gov. Brown put an end to this abuse of taxpayer dollars.

At a ceremony last week in San Diego, the Governor signed AB 93 and SB 90, bills that formally reform the enterprise zone program and redirect taxpayer dollars to programs that incentivize good jobs.   [Read more…]

Review: You Can’t Go Wrong with a Sunday in Old Town

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Miguel’s Restaurant
2444 San Diego Avenue
San Diego, CA 619-298-9840

Stephen Sondheim’s “COMPANY”
Cygnet Theater
4040 Twiggs St (at San Diego Ave)
San Diego, CA  (619) 337-1525

By Judi Curry

Candy, one of the members of a Widow’s Support Group that I belong to is the only one of us that is not a Pisces or Aries.  Works out fairly well for the rest of us, because all of our birthdays seem to fall in February and/or March and although we do not need a celebration to get together it makes it more fun.

Ro, a member of my other support group, volunteers as an usher for many of the playhouses in San Diego, and she had 4 free passes to see “Company” at the Cygnet and generously offered to “donate” them to us for Candy’s birthday celebration.  As we frequently do, we decided to go out for lunch and take in the 2:00pm matinee.   [Read more…]

Three Trends That Will Create Demand for an Unconditional Basic Income

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Editors Note: From time to time I come across articles that challenge conventional thinking. Although this article was published in Britain, I think there’s much that’s relevant to our situation in the US.  Read it and please add your comments below. –doug p.

 by  / SIMULACRUM

The digitization of our economy will bring with it a new generation of radical economic ideologies, of which Bitcoin is arguably the first.  For those with assets, technological savvy, and a sense of adventure, the state is the enemy and a cryptographic currency is the solution.  But for those more focused on the decline of the middle classes, the collapse of the entry-level jobs market, and the rise of free culture, the state is an ally, and the solution might look something like an unconditional basic income. Before I explain why this concept is going to be creeping into the political debate across the developed world, let me spell out how a system like this would look:

Back to Business as Usual for San Diego City Hall

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With Filner’s days as mayor apparently waning, it’s a sure bet that San Diego’s “shadow government” will be restored to full authority by the candidates who would seek to replace him.

By Andy Cohen

Last November, San Diego—well, at least liberals in San Diego—celebrated the beginning of a brand new era in local government and politics. For the first time in over two decades the voters of this city elected a Democrat as mayor. But more than that, they elected a candidate that not only said he would change the culture at City Hall, he actually had the backbone to do it.

Bob Filner was the right candidate at the right time for a city whose policies for far too long had been dictated by the moneyed special interests, particularly the Downtown variety. Filner represented a whole new course for San Diego’s city government. Instead of a City Hall dominated by the local business and corporate interests, average San Diegans finally had a champion who promised he would care more about them than about the big hotel lobby or the big time developers who constantly had their hands out for public properties that they could profit from.

Filner stood up to the Tourism and Marketing District, insisting that if they were going to spend money to enrich themselves, then the risk needed to fall on their shoulders instead of the taxpayers’ if their tax scheme was deemed illegal by the courts. He insisted that Balboa Park could be returned to pedestrians, limiting vehicle traffic and opening the Plaza de Panama up for all to enjoy without spending $45 million and destroying a national historic landmark to do it. And for just over $300,000, he did exactly that.   [Read more…]

La Jolla Seals Make it into City Council District 2 Campaign

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By Doug Porter

As City Councilmember Kevin Faulconer fades into the sunset (or not, if he runs for Mayor in a recall election), things are starting heat up in the race to find his replacement.

Current Councilmember Lori Zapf, whose residence was moved into the redrawn district boundaries, is the best known candidate, bringing along the advantages of her incumbency in D6 and the support of the local conservative establishment.

But challenger Ed Harris is about to get some attention, even if it’s of the unwanted type. A group lead by activist Bryan Pease is opposing his candidacy on the grounds of Harris’ past statements and actions about the La Jolla seals, along with other stances they consider anti-environmental.

Harris, who is currently a San Diego lifeguard, appeared at numerous meetings of the City Council and Coastal Commission opposing plans to allow a rope barrier to encourage a safe viewing distance.

There are few issues that have raised more passions in the community in recent years than the treatment of the ever increasing number of harbor seals hanging around the Children’s Pool Beach.

This story was updated at 12:45pm on Tuesday

NOTE: In an attempt to keep this site from being All Bob Filner All the Time, I am leaving coverage to others for a few days. There are no bets riding on this promise.   [Read more…]

A Mindful Walk Through Treacherous Territory – Sex and Loathing in San Diego

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By Norma Damashek

Today I’m on a mindful jaunt through America’s finest sexiest city.  Not just ordinary sexy but exuberant sexy... in-your-face, over-the-top sexy.  It’s a walk that calls for extra-special noticing (though not much letting go).

I notice that there’s a three-ring circus in town, selling its special merchandise to participants and spectators alike — an exotic brew of beer-soaked hormones, pheromones, secretions, and sundry other exudations.

It’s being peddled on Fiesta Island at the annual beach bacchanal known as the Over-The-Line Tourney — a boozy, raunchy, let-it-all-hang-out display of tantalizing semi-bare bodies engaged in personal pleasures and pursuits and not-necessarily-innocent fun and games.

It was widely available at the LGBT Pride Parade – a comparable extravaganza of raunchy, let-it-all-hang-out semi-bare bodies engaged in the celebration of freedom to be and liberation from the shackles of conventional restraints and taboos.   [Read more…]

Adventures in Comic-Conlandia: A Nerds-eye View

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By Brent E. Beltrán

It all started with Star Wars in 1977. My tia Maggie and her husband took me the year it came out. I was 7 years old at the time. Saw it at the Mission Valley Theater. That was followed of course by Empire and Jedi. I was hooked. Still am.

The Christmas it came out my parents bought me all kinds of Star Wars toys including a Landspeeder, an X-wing and the most badass toy one could hope for at the time, the Death Star. They also got me a bunch of action figures including Luke, Leia, Han, Chewy, Obi-Wan, Darth Vader, R2-D2, C-3PO, a Jawa, a Tusken Raider, Hammerhead, Walrus Man, Greedo, and a Stormtrooper….

…The summer of 1985 was a big year for me. It was the first time I had the opportunity to attend Comic-Con and I was super stoked! My buddy Tri Huynh and I planned to attend. I was in summer school at Clairemont High between my 9th and 10th grades. I was taking an extra class, Geometry, to get ahead. I took the city bus to school and that day I carried a small duffle bag filled with comics to get signed by my favorite writers/artists.

Back then the Con was held at the San Diego Community Concourse near City Hall. It was a much smaller event than today’s corporatized, Hollywierd monster. It was mostly comic book centered.   [Read more…]

Koch Brothers vs. the Truth on Obamacare: Real Benefits for Women’s Health

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By Ian Reifowitz / Daily Kos

If Ayn Rand is, in the words of Robert Reich, “the philosophical guru of the modern Republican Party,” then the billionaire, Rand-worshipping Koch brothers are its paymasters. Now they’ve launched a new campaign of lies, aiming their pocketbook at Obamacare, or, more accurately, at those who stand to benefit from its reforms. You know, small, “special-interest” groups like, say: women (and the people who love them), young people between the ages of 19 and 26, as well as others (and their affected families) who can’t get coverage at work, or lose coverage when they lose their job, or can’t get coverage because of pre-existing conditions. Does that sound to you like just about all of us at one point in our lives? Yeah, me too.   [Read more…]

Wear Your Hoodie! Because the Trayvon’s Fight is Not Over

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Editors Note: Christina Griffin delivered this speech at the Stand With Trayvon rally in City Heights on Sunday July 15.  It came on the heels of powerful critiques of the fraught relationship between black residents and the police and reminders how the Drug War is the new Jim Crow.  There were speeches about curfews in City Heights and a call to parents to be prepared to intercede on behalf of their children at school and in the streets.  And then Christina Griffin spoke using the power of  language itself to remind us what is at stake and what we must remember and what we must do.  “You wear a hoodie for me.  I wear a hoodie for you.”   It was the most moving moment of that rally.

Many of us were here last March in 2012. Not even a whole month after the murder, we mourned the death of and lack of justice for a 17-year-old boy named Trayvon Martin.

Our efforts won the charge and trial of his murderer, George Zimmerman.

Last night, we mourned and rested. Today, we are all here because we want justice for Trayvon!

On that night in February, George Zimmerman took the law into his own hands, shot an innocent teenager, went to court and walked away, unscathed.

We Tweeted, Facebooked, Pintinterested, Vined, and blacked out profile pictures, but what will we do?

Mamie Till-Moble, mother of slaughtered Emmett Till once said, “We cannot afford the luxury of self pity. Our priority is to get on with the building process…” In other words we need to act, hoodies up!   [Read more…]

Stick a Fork in It, Mayor Bob Filner is ‘Toast’. Or is He?

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By Doug Porter
11:45am- UPDATED to include today’s press conference.

The ‘too many words…too few facts!’ phase of the allegations of sexual harassment aimed at San Diego’s Mayor Bob Filner is ending today, as more specifics are emerging. Whether we like it not, whether it’s fair or not, it appears to me that hizzoner’s political career is ending.

Bob Filner, however, doesn’t think so. The Mayor released a statement this morning announcing that he would not resign and that Walt Ekard, former county administrator has been appointed as Chief Operating Officer for the City of San Diego.

“I’m not going to resign, and here’s why,” said Filner in a press release. “As your elected mayor, I fully expect to be accountable to the citizens of San Diego for all of my actions.  But as a citizen of this country, I also expect – and am entitled to – due process, and the opportunity to respond in a fair and impartial venue to specific allegations.  I do not believe I am guilty of sexual harassment, and I believe a full presentation of the facts will vindicate me.,”

The saga of Mayor Filner’s fall from grace has provided me with a lot of food for thought.  Feelings of betrayal brought on by each new revelation/allegation are countered by anger at the smarmy triumphalism of evil people eager to exploit the failings of one human being in their quest for political and economic hegemony.   [Read more…]

Things Fall Apart: Filner’s Betrayal and the “Political Circus”

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…the real winners here are the same old downtown insiders who are busy popping champagne corks and laughing at Filner’s implosion and cheering the welcome help they are getting from unlikely sources. 

By Jim Miller

Whatever the end result of the Filner sexual harassment scandal, it’s clear that even if the mayor beats the odds and survives, his credibility and ability to move a bold populist agenda is severely damaged. Hence, San Diego’s first truly progressive mayor may have squandered the opportunity to be a transformative figure, the progressive fighter and game changer we had hoped he would be. Worst of all by engaging in abusive behavior towards women, Filner has betrayed the core principles of any progressive politics by failing to respect the civil rights and humanity of women. We don’t need to hear all of the details to know that this is true–he has admitted as much himself.

Additionally, and equally important, Filner’s actions are a betrayal to all those in the broad, historic progressive coalition who worked to elect him. I have spoken to dozens of my friends in labor and community activist groups over the last few days and folks are universally angry and depressed. His fall from grace will have broad and long-term consequences, disillusioning and discouraging people from hoping for change in our city and, discrediting by proxy those who aggressively contest the entrenched interests that Filner had rightfully been fighting. It will take a long time to recover from this.   [Read more…]

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