San Diego Free Press

Grassroots News & Progressive Views

The Private Side of the Intelligence Equation – Corporations Exploit Their Access

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By Doug Porter

Much of the mainstream media has decided that trivializing whistleblower Edward Snowden is a safer course that actually exploring the implications of his disclosures.

John Oliver didn’t have to ponder more than a few seconds on the Daily Show before concluding the media had gone “Us Weekly on the messenger”, citing supposed news stories about Edward Snowden’s middle school experiences and his girlfriend’s pole dancing videos.

Fortunately, a few observers have maintained their dignity amid the rush to sensationalize trivia and trumpet the bloviating of ignorant blowhards seeking political advantage.   [Read more…]

The Environmental Blame Game: Time to Look in the Mirror

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By Jeffrey Meyer 

The American public is addicted to carbon products for its energy needs and, despite overwhelming evidence that man-made carbon dioxide (CO2) is a credible threat to everyone, we lack the will to act. We tend to be quick to place blame for this situation, but perhaps it is time to look in the mirror.

There is finger pointing enough for everyone, from conflicting media reports, paralysis of our political system and corporate greed from the carbon industry. But is it really about them or is it about us, immobilized by a simple lack of effort to check out the facts?   [Read more…]

Beats in Peru: A Daily Travelogue Part X

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By Mikey Beats

San Diego DJ Mikey Beats, and his nurse wife Jenny, decided to take a vacation to Machu Picchu, Peru. For the next few days San Diego Free Press will publish their daily adventures. Read parts I & II, part III, parts IV & IV.5, part V, part VI, part VII, part VIII and part IX.

Tuesday 6/11/13 Day 10 – The last day in Peru

We awoke without alarms in the Embajadores Hotel in Miraflores, Lima where we planned on leaving our big back packs for the day while stuffing our little back packs with more Peruvian goodies to take home. After a continental breakfast that didn’t compare to the one we were accustomed to at Arqueologo but still was better than the processed American food we get in American hotels, we headed out the lobby, west towards the beach, to put beautiful sights in front of our eyes.

When we reached the top of the cliff overlooking the Pacific Ocean, laid before us was a 180 degree view of beautiful Peruvian coastline. Although the marine layer was thick enough to block out the sun, it was not powerful enough to block out the beauty of the sets of waves crashing onto the black pebble beach.   [Read more…]

One Sharp Health Care Experience: Uncoordinated, Sub-Standard, and Ultimately Tragic

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The opinions and views expressed in the following article are solely those of the author and his subjects and do not reflect the opinions and views of the editors and staff of the San Diego Free Press.

by John Lawrence

This article is about the shoddy treatment of one woman by San Diego’s Sharp Health Care. Her name is Donna Lichtenfels. I interviewed her by phone on Saturday, May 18.

Donna was an employee of Sharp Health Care. She had gone to work there in the corporate office in August 2011, and, as a condition of her employment, she had to take Sharp Insurance called Sharp Health Plan. She had no choice in the matter.

Donna has worked in the healthcare field for over 30 years. She started working in the field for Blue Shield of California as a claims adjuster and in fraud and abuse. She has worked for physicians and major hospitals all over the US. She also has written for several websites  including OpEdNews, Winning Progressive and Daily Kos under her pen name, Jillian Barclay. She currently is too sick to write.

Last July after a mammogram and a biopsy, she was diagnosed with breast cancer.   [Read more…]

Odd Man Out? Newly Minted Congressional Candidate DeMaio Left Off San Diego GOP Endorsement List

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By Doug Porter

After getting trounced in the 2012 elections, San Diego Republicans, led by Tony Krvaric, vowed to get into the next election cycle early and often with support and endorsements.

Just this week they’ve announced a list of official party candidate endorsements for the 2014 elections.  The roll call for the already blessed includes mostly incumbent Congressional, State Senate and Assembly members, County and Local officials, along with contenders for ‘key seats’. Chris Cate, candidate for the open seat in San Diego’s officially non-partisan City Council District 6 race is among those receiving the party’s backing.

Noticeably absent from that list is Carl DeMaio, who’s bounced back from his fall defeat in the Mayoral contest with an aggressive campaign aimed at unseating Congressman Scott Peters in the 52nd District.   [Read more…]

SD For Free: North Park’s Summer Concert Series in Bird Park Begins June 15th

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North Park’s corner of Balboa Park plays host to the 11th annual bi-weekly concert series from June 15 – August 10

A weekly column dedicated to sharing the best sights and activities in San Diego at the best price – free! We have a great city and you don’t need to break the bank to experience it.

Address: Bird Park (north-east corner of Balboa Park at intersection of 28th Street and Thorn Street).

Best For: Date night, family outing, summertime hanging, a peaceful evening with a view

Time and Date: 5:30 PM – 7:30 PM every other week starting on June 15 and ending August 10

Additional Information: Website

Balboa Park encompasses 1,200 acres in the heart of urban San Diego. The area around El Prado comprised of the San Diego Zoo and most of the museums in the park is typically thought of as the ‘heart’ of Balboa Park.

However, there is much more to the park and the various neighborhoods on the fringe of the park have their own ways of claiming Balboa Park as their own.
  [Read more…]

Former CIA Employee, Snowden, Blows Whistle on NSA’s Dragnet Surveillance

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By Marjorie Cohn / truthout

Just as Bradley Manning’s court-martial was getting underway, another brave whistleblower dropped a bombshell into the media: The Obama administration is collecting data on every telephone call we make. Nearly 64 years to the day after George Orwell published his prescient book 1984, we have learned that the “Thought Police” are indeed watching every one of us. “They quite literally can watch your ideas form as you type,” Edward Snowden told the Washington Post.

A former undercover CIA employee who has worked at the National Security Agency (NSA) for four years, Snowden provided a secret order of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court to the Guardian. The order requires Verizon on an “ongoing daily basis” to provide the NSA information about all phone calls in its system both in the United States and other countries.

Glenn Greenwald wrote that it “shows for the first time that under the Obama administration the communication records of millions of U.S. citizens are being collected indiscriminately and in bulk – regardless of whether they are suspected of any wrongdoing.” That secret order is scheduled for declassification on April 12, 2038.   [Read more…]

Beats in Peru: A Daily Travelogue Part IX

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San Diego DJ Mikey Beats, and his nurse wife Jenny, decided to take a vacation to Machu Picchu, Peru. For the next few days San Diego Free Press will publish their daily adventures. Read parts I & II, part III, parts IV & IV.5, part V, part VI, part VII and part VIII.

By Mikey Beats

Monday 6/10/13 Day 9

We awoke to our last morning in Cuzco. The Arqueologo Hotel had been very good to us as was the whole city of Cuzco. As we ate our last delicious continental breakfast, we met a couple who were in their mid forties who had hiked the Inca trail and were from Sacramento.

We also met a woman from Tijuana, who heard me mention TJ in a conversation and I thought I had offended her. She mentioned how the running international joke is how the best part of TJ is San Diego. I agreed but I forgot how defensive Tijuaneras could be about their nationalism. She argued a bit about how they have beautiful beaches in Ensenada and so on, so I defused the argument by saying, “somos un pueblo sin fronteras” [we are one people without borders]. That perked her up and our conversation turned positive.

I came to the conclusion after Jenny and I were so impressed that all the travelers we met were such nice people that it was because the destination we all had in common, Machu Picchu.   [Read more…]

Sex In San Diego: The Drought is Affecting More than the Water Table

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By Judi Curry

The well has run dry! There is nothing to be had anywhere. Life is a sad, lonely spiral, as the tap only trickles its remaining rust and dirt from the spigot. What the hell is she talking about, you ask? On line dating, of course!

I’ve tapped into Zoosk. I turned the spigot off on eHarmony. I cleaned out the faucet on Mingle. I prayed for a good catch at JD. I fished at Plenty of Fish. I didn’t care if I was overweight at Big and Beautiful People Meet. I didn’t lie about my age at Senior People Meet. It wasn’t my time at OurTime.com. There were no rich men at RichMen.com. There were no matches at Match.com and several other sites that I don’t remember for I was with them a very short time.   [Read more…]

Congressman Issa Weasels on IRS Transcripts After His Case Falls Apart

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By Doug Porter

Facing an increasingly skeptical press after being called out for using selectively edited interview transcripts to make his case against the IRS, Congressman Darrell Issa has decided to double down.

Issa, the chair of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee now says releasing the full transcripts would be “reckless” and “irresponsible.”

Two weekends ago the North County Congressman provided CNN with excerpts of interviews with IRS agents, assuring reporter Candy Crowley that “the whole transcript will be put out.” Issa’s excerpts supposedly had an IRS official conceding that “directions” for to treat Tea Party groups “emanated from Washington.”   [Read more…]

Volunteers Celebrate Black Music Month With Soulful Fundraiser for Malcolm X Library

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By Annie Lane

Longtime library clerk Jimmy Lovett celebrated his June birthday early and the same way he has for more than a decade–paying tribute to underappreciated African American singers in honor of Black Music Month.

Hosted by the Say It Loud Committee, Lovett and crew presented Unsung and Off the Chain, a performance best described as a lip-syncing version of Soul Train.

“It’s like karaoke without the singing,” said Lovett, a Normal Heights resident who will be 45 this year. “We literally become the artist.” ……

In addition to Mayor Bob Filner, roughly 50 people were in attendance.   [Read more…]

The Reader! It Climbs Up Golden Hill!!

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By Bob Dorn

Cover Story – If it reads well who cares what it says?

Ironic, I thought, walking toward the old Carpenter’ Union Hall building, a sniff of jasmine in the air above the cracked and fig-tree-uplifted sidewalks that were causing me to stagger as if I’d just spent my 70th birthday with my bichon frise, The Ramone, at my feet waiting for me to finish my 12-pack of Rolling Rock so I could take him on his fourth or fifth walk of the damn day.

A fresh new paint job had transformed the building into something like a deco neighborhood movie palace, just intrusive enough to say, “In your face, you phonies” without (or maybe, with) some understated malice.

It had been years since I’d written anything for The Reader, but here I was, invited to the office-warming at its new home, 2323 Broadway, in Golden Hill. I had to wonder if I would, or should, know anybody who’d be there. Who was left?   [Read more…]

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