San Diego Free Press

Grassroots News & Progressive Views

Readers Write: Secrets of Stephen King

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By Tom Hunter

I have read many many Stephen King books and stories, fiction and non-fiction.  What fascinates me, is that he sucks you into the story, puts his characters in impossible, horrible situations and then somehow saves the day.  Why is he one of our most popular writers?

Well, of course, he spins a good yarn.  But I think he does it while at the same time giving us hope that we too might survive against impossible odds and at the same time believe that our cruel reality might just possibly be avenged.

Cruel and heartless (oh yeah!) people like Dick Cheney, instead of becoming richer and richer and spending his time on Fox News rewriting history from his offices at Halliburton Almighty might just wake up in his own nightmare while trying to define torture.   [Read more…]

Support Grows for NSA Whistleblower Edward Snowden

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Restore the 4th Protest Planned for San Diego in Balboa Park – July 4

Public support for NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden is growing across the country in leaps and bounds.

Already over 62,000 people – as of 10:30 am 6/20/13 – have signed an online petition in support of Snowden. The petition can be accessed here.

The online petition at RootsAction states:

Thank NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden

Our country is in the midst of a struggle between the growing surveillance state and our precious civil liberties. Now a whistleblower has boldly stepped forward to expose the National Security Agency’s vast spying on our phone records and online communications.

Explaining his actions, the 29-year-old computer expert said:

“I can’t in good conscience allow the U.S. government to destroy privacy, internet freedom and basic liberties for people around the world with this massive surveillance machine they’re secretly building.”

We thank Edward Snowden for his principled and courageous actions as a whistleblower, informing the public about vast surveillance by the National Security Agency that undermines our civil liberties.

  [Read more…]

Olive Garden, Red Lobster Restaurants’ CEO Fights for Healthcare Law Loophole in California

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By Doug Porter

The Orlando Sentinel reported this week on lobbying efforts by Clarence Otis, CEO for Darden Restaurants (Oliver Garden, Red Lobster) in opposition to proposed California legislation that would penalize companies with more than 500 employees for cutting workers’ hours to avoid paying for insurance under the Affordable Care Act.

Assembly Bill 880 has national implications, as many states are expanding Medicaid eligibility in preparation for provisions of the Affordable Care Act that go into effect in 2014.  Large companies doing business in California would have to pay fines for each employee working more than eight hours a week who is enrolled in the state’s Medicaid program, called Medi-Cal.

In 2012, Darden was one of a number of companies that began experimenting with using more part-timers to keep potential health-care costs low. Following a public backlash, Darden later said it would not cut full-timers to part-time.

Organized labor has rallied supporters in California to urge legislators to pass AB 880, which seeking to close the so-called WalMart loophole, a provision of the ACA which does not impose a penalty on employers whose part-time workers enroll in Medi-Cal.
  [Read more…]

The Carl DeMaio Re-launch

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By Lucas O’Connor

We barely finished special election season this year before the ghosts of elections past began re-emerging on the scene. One of the first out of the gate was one-term city councilmember and failed 2012 mayoral candidate Carl DeMaio .

In the fine right-wing tradition of falling upward, DeMaio is seeking to capitalize on losing Republican control of the Mayor’s office for the first time in twenty years with a run for Congress against freshman Scott Peters in the 52nd District. Never mind all the times on the campaign trail last year that he told people he didn’t want to go back to DC.

Peters of course is in that office because he beat Brian Bilbray – someone who, unlike DeMaio, had actually won quite a few elections before being unseated. But DeMaio reads polling and election results as well as anyone, so he’s picking up right where he left off in the mayor’s race last year: Running at full speed away from his record as a career politician and his votes during his years on City Council.   [Read more…]

Jim Hightower: Repeal the Patriot Act!

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jim hightowerWe the People have now learned that all three branches of government have furtively conspired for seven years to violate our privacy—so, no, we don’t trust any of them.

By Jim Hightower / NationofChange

It’s back. The Patriot Act — that grotesque, ever-mutating, hydra-headed monstrosity from the Bush-Cheney Little Shop of Horrors — has risen again, this time with an added twist of Orwellian intrusiveness from the Obamacans.

Since 2006, Team Bush, and then Team Obama, have allowed the little-known, hugely powerful National Security Agency to run a daily dragnet through your and my phone calls — all on the hush-hush, of course, not informing us spyees. Now exposed, leaders of both parties are piously pointing to the Patriot Act, saying that it legalized this wholesale, everyday invasion of our privacy, so we shouldn’t be surprised, much less upset by NSA’s surreptitious peek-a-boo program.   [Read more…]

Sex in San Diego: What I Won’t Do For My Husband

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By Nadira Hira / The Good Men Project

Nadira Hira’s manifesto on marriage.

I won’t change my name. I’ve spent the last three decades making the one I have mean something. And I’d like to keep it up, thanks. Which is, I hope, a major part of why he’ll love me always.

I won’t accept a ring. I will gush over my friends’ rings, of course. I will keep my views on the fraught history and general scourginess of diamonds and engagement rings to myself, mostly. But till he too is sporting a symbol of ownership on his strong and manly hand, I won’t be wearing a bloody thing on my finger.

I won’t stop celebrating men—him, and all the others. This will be a service to our children, and given my taste—Brad, Idris, Sandman—a testament to his quality.   [Read more…]

The Carl DeMaio Campaign – Reform San Diego Koch Connection

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Tell your friends, DeMaio said, that they don’t have to “live in socialism.”

By Doug Porter

A report focusing on the thin line separating the Carl DeMaio for Congress campaign organization and the political advocacy group, Reform San Diego has shed new light on the former City Councilman’s relationship with Americans for Prosperity, a conservative 501(c)4 organization that spends money in support of Republicans and against Democrats. Funded by billionaire conservative brothers Charles and David Koch, the group spent about $36.3 million in the 2012 federal elections.

The KPBS/inewsource story, authored by Claire Trageser and Brooke Williams, starts out with a vignette from fundraiser for DeMaio’s long-time political advocacy group, Reform San Diego, held less than three months after his defeat in the mayoral race. DeMaio has described the group as a “grassroots 527 Super-PAC campaign organization.”

It turns out that Americans for Prosperity have been ‘members’ of DeMaio’s ‘coalition for reform’ for several years now.   [Read more…]

Dramatic Day of Debate and Decision on Medi-Cal Expansion and the State Budget

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By Anthony Wright/California Progress Report

Saturday, the California Legislature passed historic legislation to expand Medi-Cal to over one million Californians, as well as key budget trailer bills that restore many dental services to over three million Californians and other key improvements in Medi-Cal.

The bills the Legislature passed included the major Medi-Cal expansion bills (AB1x1/SB1x1), and budget bills such as the main health trailer bill that includes the restorations to dental and other benefits (SB77/AB82), the reallocation of county safety-net dollars (SB80/AB85), and another to reinstitute the Managed Care Organization (MCO) tax to help fund health in the budget (SB78/AB83).   [Read more…]

Should the Koch Brothers Own The Tribune Newspapers?

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By Jackie Tortora/AFL-CIO Blog

Some say the press is the fourth branch of government. It serves as a “check and a balance” to our elected and non-elected leaders and informs the public of news for the greater good. But what if that was compromised by a corporate power grab?

That’s exactly what the panel “Should the Koch Brothers Own The Tribune Newspapers?” will examine next Wednesday at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. As we’ve covered on the blog before, David and Charles Koch have expressed interest in buying the Los Angeles Times, the Chicago Tribune, The Baltimore Sun and other leading newspapers owned by the Tribune Co.   [Read more…]

2013: Year of the Protest?

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“We don’t have to engage in grand, heroic actions to participate in the process of change. Small acts, when multiplied by millions of people, can transform the world.” ― Historian Howard Zinn

By Doug Porter

It’s hard to keep all the players straight at this point.

Last month protesters rallied in 52 countries and 436 cities world-wide as part of ongoing global protests against seed giant Monsanto and the genetically modified food it produces.

This month there are massive protests in Turkey. Nationwide demonstrations in Brazil. A huge construction workers strike in Quebec, with 175,000 strikers angry about being asked to work 14 hours a day, six days a week with no overtime pay.

And there are lots of smaller, less likely to be covered by the mass media, protests slated for San Diego, including an unusual coalition planning a July 4th rally protest prompted by the recent disclosures regarding government surveillance.

Today we’ll take a look around at what’s happening in this year of protest.   [Read more…]

Texas Congressman: Masturbating Fetuses Prove Need for Abortion Ban

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by Adele M. Stan, Senior Washington Correspondent, RH Reality Check

As the House of Representatives gears up for Tuesday’s debate on HR 1797, a bill that would outlaw virtually all abortions 20 weeks post fertilization, Rep. Michael Burgess (R-TX) argued in favor of banning abortions even earlier in pregnancy because, he said, male fetuses that age were already, shall we say, spanking the monkey.

“Watch a sonogram of a 15-week baby, and they have movements that are purposeful,” said Burgess, a former OB/GYN. “They stroke their face. If they’re a male baby, they may have their hand between their legs. If they feel pleasure, why is it so hard to believe that they could feel pain?”

  [Read more…]

Olympic Bid is Perfect Opportunity to Address Chargers Stadium Quest

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Discussions should start now to plan for Olympic stadium, regardless of bid’s success.

By Andy Cohen

San Diego Mayor Bob Filner wants to bring the Olympics to San Diego. Actually, he wants to bring the Olympics to San Diego and Tijuana.

This is not exactly news if you follow local politics at all. Filner has been rather vocal about his desire to bring the 2024 games to America’s Finest City, and even more adamant about it being a bi-national effort.

“Within a week we will announce our bi-national committee, the chairs and the membership from both Tijuana and San Diego,” said Filner last week during his periodic “Pen and Paper” session with the local media in response to a question about his proposal. There are outlines and timelines drawn up already, there has been contact with the various Olympic Committees, drafts of logos, among other things. “It’s really been moving along,” said Filner.   [Read more…]

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