San Diego Free Press

Grassroots News & Progressive Views

Paranoia at the Polls: The San Diego Election Integrity Project’s Troubling “Evidence”

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The Election Integrity Project, although it defines itself as non-partisan, operates as a platform for the conservative Heritage Foundation, the right wing Breitbart.com, and the Tea Party groups True the Vote and the non-profit iCaucus. Their website raises the ubiquitous fearful specter of voter fraud; their intent is to police the act of voting itself, to assure that “every lawfully cast vote [is] accurately counted.”

While the restrictive voter laws enacted after the Republicans gained power in 2010 have the impact if not the explicit intent to suppress the vote of communities of color, the young and the elderly who tend to vote Democrat, True the Vote and its offshoots not only support those efforts but have also assumed the role of election vigilantes at the polls and registrar offices.   [Read more…]

The Starting Line –San Diego Mayoral Education Debate Fails to Advance USD Power Play on Schools

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There have been so many debates between City Councilman Carl DeMaio and Congressman Bob Filner that even an earnest politico like myself has become inured to them. DeMaio and Filner have circled around each other like snarling cats, making lots of noise but not really inflicting much damage. One candidate sneers. The other becomes combative. And so forth.

So it comes as a real shocker that these aspirants actually agreed on something, rising above the partisan fray at a University of San Diego debate last night to concur that the job of Mayor in San Diego does Not include expanding the power of that office to oversee city schools. And the debate must have been a real disappointment for USD’s Center for Education and Law Policy (CEPAL) which has tried repeatedly to sell local policy makers and voters on the idea that undermining the power of an elected school board was the only way to ‘save’ San Diego Schools.

One local reporter Tweeted this characterization of the debate: “Moderator: Do you support mayoral control of schools? Candidates: No. Moderator: But c’mon, do you support mayoral control of schools?”   [Read more…]

Nancy Reagan, where art thou?

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by Norma Damashek/NumbersRunner

Picture a totem pole. Now visualize our regional law enforcers — the city attorney, police chief, sheriff, and district attorney — stacked head-to-foot up the length of the pole. Atop them all you’ll find the U.S. Attorney.  

The name of San Diego’s U.S. Attorney is Laura Duffy. Laura who?

As the U.S. Attorney for the San Diego region, Laura Duffy has the job of investigating and prosecuting violations of federal criminal law, such as political corruption, tax evasion, drug trafficking, human trafficking, organized crime, and so on.

U.S. Attorneys are instructed to steer clear of partisan politics — local, state, or national. It’s the law.

But last week, San Diego’s U.S. Attorney Laura Duffy engaged in a series of activities that directly affected and advanced the political aspirations of mayoral candidate Carl DeMaio.   [Read more…]

Lawsuit Challenges Massive Expansion of San Diego Landfill

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from the Center for Biological Diversity

Three conservation groups filed a lawsuit this week challenging the city of San Diego’s decision to triple the amount of garbage that can be processed daily at the Sycamore Landfill and allow operations 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

The lawsuit, filed by Preserve Wild Santee, the Center for Biological Diversity and the California Chaparral Institute, is aimed at protecting people and wildlife, and encouraging a transition toward more sustainable and efficient solid-waste processing. Left unchallenged, the Sycamore Landfill’s overall disposal capacity would more than double, increasing by approximately 82 million cubic yards to 153 million cubic yards.   [Read more…]

Shapeshifting Romney Smacked Around in Final Presidential Debate

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Two weeks out from the election, Romney attempts to reinvent himself on foreign policy, auto bailout.

Remember that debate two weeks ago? That one was unquestionably won decisively by Mitt Romney? That was the day that a whole new Mitt Romney emerged from this campaign: It signaled the first appearance of “Moderate Mitt,” as Bill Clinton like to call him.

That night the President came out lethargic, clearly not ready to spar with an aggressive and confident Republican challenger. Perhaps (probably) he was caught off guard by the sudden and unexpected softening of the Republican on so many issues, ranging from abortion to his compassion for “the 100%.” Obama was expecting to meet the “severe conservative” Mitt Romney on the stage that night in Denver, but instead encountered a whole new Mitt Romney that the nation had never met before. It was quite obvious that the new and improved Mitt Romney 3.0 threw Obama off his game. He didn’t quite know how to react to this brand new model. Consider that after scarcely a word about his time as Governor of Massachusetts, suddenly it’s a central talking point?   [Read more…]

San Diego Coastkeeper and SeaWorld: Is Something Fishy Going On?

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Editors Note: A recent exchange between the OB Rag and San Diego Coastkeeper about the environmental organizations’ relationship with SeaWorld is reprinted here. The article from the OB Rag is followed by the response from Coastkeeper. We think you’ll find the exchange illuminating. 

Something smells fishy. The other day we received a press release from San Diego Coastkeeper – actually, it was a joint press release, from them and from SeaWorld – talking about how they are both “teaming up” together to “keep Mission Bay beautiful”. They’re planning a “clean the Bay day” on October 27th – and volunteers will get prizes including passes to SeaWorld.

While we applaud any organization’s efforts to clean Mission Bay – heaven knows it needs it – something just doesn’t sit well with us on this announced partnership.   [Read more…]

The Starting Line –How the Taxpayers Association Enabled the ‘$2500’ iPads Being Used in San Diego Schools

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The email has been everywhere. It’s at the center of the campaign against San Diego Unified’s School District’s Proposition Z, a measure asking the voters for additional financing for capital improvements and repairs to school properties.

The headline screams “School Board is Buying iPads for $2,500, New San Diego County Taxpayers Association Analysis Shows”. We’re quickly told that SDUSD “is using 40-year Capital Appreciation Bonds, the same risky, long-term financing notoriously used by the Poway Unified School District.” Without skipping a beat we’re breathlessly told that every dollar spent by the Board will cost taxpayers seven dollars.

But what the “No on Z” people (who are basically the same as the Taxpayers Association) aren’t telling us about is the role that they played in approving this “risky financing”. Or that the financing deal really isn’t the same as Poway’s. And that there’s a really big “IF” underlying their financial assumptions.   [Read more…]

Video Picks of the Week: Mitt gets a little sazón, conservatives stand athwart history yelling “Stop” and the privileged class turns peevish

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The United States is steadily shifting from a predominantly white country to one in which nonwhites will soon be a majority. In addition, a recent Pew report on religion in the U.S. reveals that a third of adults under the age of 30 are religiously unaffiliated today. This poses a challenge to the Republican party in which close to 87 % of registered voters are white.

The conservative response? Whinge. And lots of prayer…   [Read more…]

Translating Mitt Romney

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By Kit-Bacon Gressitt

16 October 2012 Presidential Debate excerpt:

Candy Crowley, Moderator: Governor Romney, pay equity for women?

Gov. Mitt Romney: Thank you. An important topic, and one which I learned a great deal about, particularly as I was serving as governor of my state, because I had the chance to pull together a cabinet and all the applicants seemed to be men. And I, and I went to my staff, and I said, “How come all the people for these jobs are, are all men.”

They said, “Well, these are the people that have the qualifications.”

And I said, “Well, gosh, can’t we, can’t we find some, some women that are also qualified?” And, and so we, we took a concerted effort to go out and find women who had backgrounds that could be qualified to become members of our cabinet. I went to a number of women’s groups and said, “Can you help us find folks?” and they brought us whole binders full of women.

Translation:
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A Timeless Red Man Speaks

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Looking through words about California history, my mind wanders momentarily, and a tall timeless man with reddish brown skin and long braids ala Russell Means, appears in the periphery of my daydreams. He says:
They, these conquering men, stepped from their boats
wearing more clothes than was necessary,
shiny metal hats and vests,
heavy leather foot wear,
bearing swords and knives,
boasting of braveries
and discoveries
and some day living in the memories
of civilizations yet to be
and when they gazed our way
they never looked us in the eye
with any deep sense
of wonder
or human curiosity.   [Read more…]

The Starting Line – The Mechanics of Voter Manipulation as Practiced by San Diego’s Daily Paper

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The point of all this misinformation is to discourage or encourage, as the case may be, certain blocs of voters from exercising their privilege.  The best way to beat this is just to go vote.

The UT-San Diego continues to work hard to prove their marketing claim that they are no longer a general circulation newspaper.  Between the (front page editorials), their nurturing of a cultural wasteland that celebrates white male privilege and the blatant misrepresentations masquerading as news they have destroyed whatever “goodwill” the business may have accumulated over the last century.

Today’s UT mediaplex is nothing more than a megalomaniacal metaphor for a megaphone used by one man and his toadies to trumpet their twisted view of the universe, a universe where the basic tenants of civilization are under assault by unwashed hordes who will -no doubt- steal their money, take ‘their’ women and weaken the very DNA of the species through miscegenation.   [Read more…]

Connecting More Dots Between Propositions 30, 32, and 38

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The Munger Muddle, Democrats for Education Reform, Obama, and the Koch Brothers et al Weave a Tangled Web that Might Just Kill Our Children’s Future (if we let it)

In a recent column, I outlined the connections between the advocates and funders of Proposition 32 and opponents of Proposition 30, noting the central role of Proposition 38 backer Molly Munger’s brother, Charles Munger, who has donated over $20 million of his own money to a campaign fund to gut unions and defund education.  Charles’s main allies in this effort, as I pointed out in that column, are also big supporters of the privatization of education and other forms of profiteering at the expense of public schools.

It is clear that the incestuous political relationship between the Mungers is mutually beneficial in the short term and that Molly had hoped to kill Prop 30 with negative ads while passing her own initiative, and perhaps she just doesn’t mind if the political voice of teachers’ unions is silenced as collateral damage.

  [Read more…]

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