San Diego Free Press

Grassroots News & Progressive Views

Fuggedaboud Your “Right” to Anything

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Editor: The following post by Frances Zimmerman looks at recent manifestations of attacks – both local and national – on our rights as citizens by the government.

by Frances O’Neill Zimmerman

This week City Attorney Jan Goldsmith has brought charges against a former Occupy protester named Jeff Olson who wrote criticism in colored chalk on the public sidewalks outside three mid-City branches of Bank of America. The trial was under way since Wednesday and conviction carries the possibility of years in prison under a California anti-vandalism law.

Superior Court Judge Howard Shore has prohibited Olsen’s defense attorney from mentioning the First Amendment, free speech, freedom of expression or political speech in his arguments.   [Read more…]

UCLA Scientists Predict Southern California Will Have 40 Percent Drop in Snowfall Over Next 30 Years

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Winter precipitation will more often be rain, rather than snow
By Steve Scauzillo / sgvtribune.com

UCLA scientists predict global warming will reduce snowfall in Southern California mountains by 40 percent in less than 30 years, a climate shift that has serious policy implications, not the least being the loss of the quintessential “only in L.A.” experience of skiing the mountains by day and riding the surf at sunset.

The drop in snowfall will be noticeable in the southern Sierra, the Tehachapis, San Gabriels and San Bernardino mountains by the middle of the century if nothing is done to curb greenhouse gases, namely carbon dioxide produced by the burning of fossil fuels.   [Read more…]

Joy Over Supreme Court Ruling on Same-Sex Marriage Tempered by Its Gutting of Voting Rights Act

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San Diego Columnist is elated over marriage equality rulings but dismayed by court’s ruling on Voting Rights Act

By Mark Gabrish Conlan / East County Magazine

The sun is shining this Wednesday, June 26 and it’s a beautiful, if rather hot, day in San Diego. I sent my husband Charles off to work this morning after we both got up early to watch MS-NBC broadcast news of the United States Supreme Court’s rulings on two cases involving the rights of same-sex couples to marry each other. It was a personal story to us because Charles and I are legally married.

We got hitched on July 4, 2008, during the four- and one-half month “window” between the effective date of the California Supreme Court’s decision granting marriage equality to same-sex couples under the California state constitution and the passage of Proposition 8 that November.   [Read more…]

Law & Order Perverted: Starring Congressman Darrell Issa and City Attorney Jan Goldsmith

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By Doug Porter

It’s turning out to be a bad week for San Diego’s Congressman Darrell Issa and City Attorney Jan Goldsmith.

Both have seen would-be/shoulda been triumphant scenarios blow up in their faces. Although you wouldn’t know it from reading the local press, both these Republican politicians are being revealed and reviled nationally and internationally for their prosecutorial over-reach.

In Congressman Issa’s case, it turns out now that the whole ‘IRS crisis’ was manufactured, thanks to some manipulative questions asked by the House Oversight Committee Chairman of the IRS Inspector General. Acting IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel will testify today before Congress the data released only concerned itself with conservative groups because Issa only asked about those groups.

The City Attorney’s office’s decision to pursue prosecution at the behest of the Bank of America for acts of political graffiti committed with washable chalk and their quest for a 13 year prison sentence in that case have made Jan Goldsmith an international laughing stock, despite his claims that he knew nothing about the case.   [Read more…]

Sex in San Diego: Supreme Court Reluctantly But Historically Elevates Same-Sex Marriage

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By Steven Rosenfeld / AlterNet

The Court’s narrow rulings are a big victory for LGBT rights.

The U.S. Supreme Court opened the legal door to same-sex marriage Wednesday, issuing two rulings that did not confer broad new civil rights but established that same-sex marriage must be treated equally under federal law in the 13 states that allow it. 

“The crowds are overwhelmingly ecstatic about this experience,” said Tom Goldstein, publisher of SCOTUSblog.com, describing the scene at the Courthouse. “The bottom line from the court seems to be straightforward. It was not going to announce fundamental rights for same-sex marriage, but it will uphold the rights of people who have been married… sometimes you have to listen to the music, not the individual notes.”

The Court’s majority sent the message that same-sex marriages and individuals deserve equal treatment. In the first case, it threw out a key part of the federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), saying it was unconstitutional on equal protection grounds for the law to say that marriage can only be between a man and a woman. But it did not declare a constitutional right to same-sex marriage.   [Read more…]

Texas Senate Descends into Chaos Over Abortion Bill

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By Karen from Maui/Daily Kos

Less than two hours before midnight and the end of her 13+ hour filibuster to prevent the passage of SB5 in Texas, Republicans made the 3rd procedural challenge to Senator Wendy Davis‘ 13+ hour filibuster.

Sen Davis had to stand (not lean) without any breaks (even bathroom breaks) in order to maintain her filibuster against the draconian anti-abortion bill in the Texas Senate (SB5).

However rules say that what she said had to be “germane”.  And if she was found straying from the subject 3 times, they could shut her down.

Here’s the catch: The majority Republicans favoring the bill also voted on what was germane.  So when she talked about this bill being yet another hoop that women had to jump through like the previous bill requiring ultrasounds, Republicans claimed that was “not germane” and moved to shut her down.
  [Read more…]

Our Tawny My

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By Ernie McCray

Our girl, Tawny Maya (Tawny My, for short), is now a mom and, as I watch her kiss and coo and cradle her little bundle of delight, looking at ways to adapt to his personality so she can best tend to his needs, I’d say he is one lucky son-of-a-gun.

I look at her in a picture, posing in her natural loveliness, as her mother had, in the same gown, a little more than thirty-five years ago and I can’t help but recall how we waited for Tawny and her sister, Nyla Summer, just bubbling with anticipation.

Oh, I wish Nancy could see this mom we raised, and all I can say for myself right now is if I had anything to do with who she has become today then please excuse me while I pat the hell out of my back. All I tried to do, basically, was treat her with love and respect, do somersaults when she accomplished something, anything, and go easy on the tendency grownups have to address their children’s screw-ups with B.S. jive like “Why, I’ve never heard of such a thing.” I tried to keep it real and what a deal because it paid off.   [Read more…]

Raising the Minimum Wage for the Most Good

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By Peter Dreier and Donald Cohen/Huffington Post

Business groups and their political allies have consistently attacked the idea of a minimum wage ever since President Franklin D. Roosevelt proposed it during the Depression to help stimulate the economy. And yesterday — the 75th anniversary of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), which FDR signed on June 25, 1938 to establish the minimum wage as well as the eight-hour day, paid overtime and child labor protections — their contemporary counterparts are still at it.

A recent report by the National Employment Law Project and the Cry Wolf Project,Consider the Source: 100 years of Broken Record Opposition to the Minimum Wage, chronicles the history of unchanging sky-is-falling rhetoric by business interests opposed to minimum wage laws.

Even today, business groups and their political allies still complain that the minimum wage violates employers’ freedom to set pay levels, forces business firms to cut jobs or even file for bankruptcy, and destroys employees’ drive to work hard. The fact that there is no evidence for these statements hasn’t stopped them from whining about the minimum wage. But after 75 years of success, we should no longer take their complaints seriously. They are just crying wolf.   [Read more…]

History is Made: Supreme Court Strikes Down Federal, California Laws Limiting Same Sex Marriage

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5-4 Ruling Says Defense of Marriage Act Unconstitutional, California Decision Limited to in-State Unions

By Doug Porter

The opinion on DOMA was by Justice Kennedy, joined by the four liberal Justices — Ginsburg, Breyer, Sotomayor, and Kagan.

“DOMA singles out a class of persons deemed by a State entitled to recognition and protection to enhance their own liberty.”

Here’s a  copy of the opinion. The impact of the case is the federal govt will have to re-work all their regulations to make benefits available to same sex couples. Note that Section 2 of DOMA was not struck down, meaning this ruling has no direct impact on State that ban same sex unions.

Politicians react on Twitter:

Great to hear #DOMA is ruled unconstitutional. Federal recognition of equal rights.

Carl DeMaio ‏@carldemaio2m
I’m very pleased with the decision to strike down DOMA. All Americans deserve equal protection under the law.

Barack Obama  @BarackObama: Today’s DOMA ruling is a historic step forward for #MarriageEquality. #LoveIsLove”

Right wing reaction:

Supreme Court overrules God…. Won’t be long before they outlaw the Bible as hate speech… How long before federal agents haul pastors out of the pulpit?   [Read more…]

Supreme Court Damns Voting Rights Act with Faint Praise

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Prop 8, DOMA Decisions Due Wednesday

By Doug Porter

This historic session of the Supreme Court is drawing to a close and it feels like they are milking it for all the drama they can get.

Today the Justices announced that they support the Voting Rights Act of 1965; except that the part of the law determining how it’s applied is out of date. From the decision:

Our decision in no way affects the permanent, nationwide ban on racial discrimination in voting found in [Section] 2. We issue no holding on [Section] 5 itself, only on the coverage formula. Congress may draft another formula based on current conditions”

Think for a moment about the makeup of the current Congress; this Supreme Court decision amounts to a death sentence for enforcement of the Voting Rights Act.   [Read more…]

The Fallacy of the “Non-Partisan” Lincoln Club

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Endorsement of Carl DeMaio over Scott Peters washes away any pretense of the club’s non-partisanship.

By Andy Cohen

The Lincoln Club yesterday formally endorsed Carl DeMaio in his quest to unseat freshman Democratic Congressman Scott Peters in the not-yet-begun 2014 52nd Congressional District in San Diego. Not exactly a huge surprise there. The Lincoln Club is a right wing, conservative organization that typically endorses conservative Republican candidates for office. What is surprising, however, is the claim by a Lincoln Club spokesman that it is a “non-partisan,” pro-business organization.

This came as a complete shock to me. “The Lincoln Club is populated by R’s, D’s, and DTS who all share a common thread—business interests,” wrote spokesman Tony Manolatos in response to an email expressing my faux “shock” at the club’s release announcing that they were “critical of Filner’s behavior.”   [Read more…]

Readers Write: Against the Wind

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By Tom Hunter

What vast damage has the United States suffered from revelations from Pfc Bradley Manning and Edward Snowden?

Well for starters we have been found to be not very good to our allies – “come on, everyone spies on their friends”.

Our layers of lies have been found to be redundant.  These are only hurtful to our national pride, kinda like being called out by your mom when she catches you in a bald faced lie.  Poor Snowden – being hounded for leaking front page stories from 2007.

Government is gathering and storing every piece of data that ever existed?  Not a problem – we have checks and balances.  Yes, but that check hasn’t balanced – ever.

While the Tea Baggers have spent all their time trying to burn down Congress, the Executive branch has been only too happy to leap into the breach and take all the powers that they find laying about.   [Read more…]

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