San Diego Free Press

Grassroots News & Progressive Views

Feds Interview California Man Linked to Anti-Muslim Film

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By Associated Press / Published Sept. 15, 2012

A Southern California filmmaker linked to an anti-Islamic movie inflaming protests across the Middle East was interviewed by federal probation officers at a Los Angeles sheriff’s station but was not arrested or detained, authorities said early Saturday.

Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, 55, was interviewed at the station in his hometown of Cerritos, Calif., said Don Walker, a Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputy.

Federal officials are investigating whether Nakoula, who has been convicted of financial crimes, has violated the terms of his five-year probation. If so, a judge could send him back to prison.

Nakoula went voluntarily to the station early Saturday morning, wearing a coat, hat, scarf and glasses that concealed his appearance. It is unclear whether he returned to his home, which has been besieged by media for several days.   [Read more…]

Billionaires & Ballot Bandits: How to Steal an Election in 9 Easy Steps.

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By Dave Rice

Ten elderly nuns get kicked out of an Indiana polling station for not having driver’s licenses or other state ID.

Electronic voting machines in Georgia report massive malfunctions – but only in Democratic-leaning low income districts, where the hot, humid conditions of polling stations aren’t conducive to electronics. The ones in wealthy, Republican-leaning districts are protected in well kept, air-conditioned buildings – and have no problems registering votes.

Thomas Brown, a black Floridian, has his name purged from voter rolls because a white man with the same name and birthday once committed a felony.

Foreclosure firm Trott & Trott shares an office building with John McCain’s Detroit campaign headquarters. Whenever Trott completes a foreclosure, the McCain campaign challenges the foreclosure victim’s voter registration to have it purged from Michigan’s voter rolls: if they’ve been kicked out of their home, the address they used to register must not be valid.

Mad yet? Greg Palast is hardly getting warmed up ….   [Read more…]

Craft Beer Debates – Local Issues Discussed over Good Beers

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Craft Beer Debates is a “fun, non-intimidating way to introduce people to local craft beer and local issues in an interactive “house of commons” style format”. The first debate was held Wednesday, September 12 at Slater’s 50/50 in Liberty Station. I’m a huge fan of craft beer, especially craft beer from San Diego breweries, and had seen the debate series mentioned on Twitter numerous times leading up to the event. I decided to go and crossed my fingers that I could finagle a seat despite having failed to sign up in advance.

Thanks to the gracious gatekeeper at the door, I was able to snag a seat in the room, which ended up being nearly at capacity with an estimated 50 people in attendance. The debate panel was comprised of two proponents of a new stadium with some sort of public financing and two opponents to that idea.   [Read more…]

Extreme Weather Watch: The Effects of Global Warming Are Here Right Now

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Even those global warming deniers can’t escape the fact that the weather events causing a billion dollars or more of damage and destruction are piling up at an increasing rate. The National Climatic Data Center (NCDC) is the Nation’s Scorekeeper in terms of addressing severe weather/climate events. The NCDC tracks and evaluates climate events in the U.S. and globally that have great economic and societal impacts. The U.S. has sustained 133 weather/climate disasters since 1980 where overall damages/costs reached or exceeded $1 billion – assuming Consumer Price Index (CPI) adjustment to 2012. 46 of these events occurred between 1980 and 1995 and 87 occurred between 1996 and 2011.

So in the latest 15 year period there were almost twice as many billion dollar plus extreme weather events as in the 15 year period preceding it. Global warming or not, extreme weather is becoming more and more common all over the world. Losses from these events pushed the cost of weather disasters in 2011 to an estimated $150 billion worldwide. In the US last year there were a record 14 events that caused a billion dollars in damage or more. That’s more than one a month!
  [Read more…]

The Dove and the Cockerel: Chapter 1

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A Novel by Steve Burns

Editor’s note: Steve Burns is a former cop for the San Diego Police Department and first introduced himself to the Free Press as a Sex in San Diego contributor. His 32-chapter novel, The Dove and the Cockerel, is set in the late 80s and takes place over the 72-hour period of an investigation of two murders. A new chapter will be published every Saturday.

Prelude

Nothing can convey the impression of that overwhelming darkness. It was not just the absence of sunlight, for the sun had never touched this spot. The top of a mountain, the middle of a desert have their stars, wind, dawn, their feel of space. Here was nothingness. Eternity passes our comprehension, but in that forgotten pit I think I had a flash of what it might be like …. Then as I climbed higher I heard the faint rat-tat-tat of a drill machine. Above me and off in a side tunnel, men were working. I scrambled on; the sense of mystery fell away, and my pit became what it properly was — a hole in the ground. Even so, I climbed out of it a little wiser than I had been. I doubt me now if there is any such a thing as complete self-sufficiency. Wherever we go, whatever we do, we travel with the inbred knowledge that somewhere others of our kind are waiting. Were it not so, we would lack the courage to travel at all, and hell is a place where man is alone. — One Man’s West by David Lavender

Man is born crying. When he finishes crying, he dies. The Fool, from Akira Kurosawa’s film Ram

Chapter One…

  [Read more…]

San Diego Actions Planned for Sept 17th – One Year Anniversary of Occupy Wall Street

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Monday, September 17, 2012, at 4 p.m.

WHERE TO MEET:

Women Occupy San Diego has planned an event and will meet at Canvas For a Cause to show banners and signs on the Robinson Avenue bridge over the State Route 163 for the national No GMO/Monsanto day of action.

Occupy San Diego is also asking everyone to meet at 4 p.m. to hear about GMOs and a safety reminder about being on the bridge.

ACTION TO STAND IN SOLIDARITY AS OWS CELEBRATES 1 YEAR:

When WomenOSD takes to the Robinson Avenue bridge with their signs, OSD plans to go further north and take the University Avenue bridge, also over State Route 163, with OWS signs acknowledging the movement’s 1 year anniversary. We will be able to see each other from the two bridges.

OWS 1 YEAR CELEBRATION:

At 6 p.m., OSD will march west on University and then south on 6th Avenue to Laurel Street (Redwood Circle). The march will end at Balboa Park for a free speech, open mic, drum circle and whatever else people want to do to stand in solidarity with Occupy Wall Street on our first birthday.

Please invite your friends and pass along this event information.

Plan on bringing your own signs/banners and letting OWS know we are still standing in solidarity with them. We will be taking pictures to send to OWS in New York so they can see it for themselves.   [Read more…]

Time for Oversight of Predator Drones – Made in San Diego

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Unmanned predator drones are now used for surveillance here in the U.S. and abroad

By Dave Patterson / East County Magazine / September 12, 2012

September 12, 2012 (Poway)–Every Thursday afternoon one can see a demonstration at the General Atomics plant in Poway, home of the Predator drone. The demonstrators are from the San Diego Veterans For Peace and their supporters, with the goal of enlightening the public on the desperate need for oversight regarding drone technology.

The Predator drone is flying over 16 countries now, loosing weapons over Yemen, Somalia and Pakistan. The kill statistics would be unacceptable in any conflict but are somehow overlooked because we are at war with terrorism.   [Read more…]

Burning Man 2012: The Journey Home

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On Tuesday of last week, my husband and I, dusty, weary and battered returned to Ocean Beach from Black Rock City – a sort of desert Brigadoon, appearing and disappearing every year on a Nevada dry lake bed every end of August.

Going to Burning Man is more commitment than holiday and more journey than destination. For us, while the 2012 Burning Man pinnacle is complete, the journey is not. A pile of shoes covered with the almost-white alkaline powder of the Burning Man Playa wait to be wiped off with vinegar and repaired. Tutus are piled in a corner, waiting for a good shake out, too delicate to wash. Lining the hall I’ve got washed garments air drying including a re-fabricated bridesmaid’s dress, a well-worn white morning coat, a plaid wool maxi, a pair of bright green poly-pro overalls, a skirt that was once a table cloth, a pink faux-fur jacket, hand-made bloomers and other odds and ends.   [Read more…]

The Starting Line – Coastal Clean Up Day: We Need Your Help on Saturday, September 15th

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The California shoreline is one of the most beautiful in the country, yet each year thousands of tons of garbage end up on the beaches and in the ocean. Tomorrow, (Saturday) September 15th , thousands of volunteers  will be meeting up at locations throughout the county starting at 9am to give our shoreline and coast areas a god scrubbing. Last year 7,600 volunteers removed 146,000 pounds of trash and recyclables from 201 miles of shoreline. Plus, an additional 2,000 people in Baja California collected 42,000 pounds in Tijuana, Tecate, Rosarito and Ensenada.

Eighty percent of this debris comes from  land-based sources and poses a real danger to wildlife and human health.  California Coastal Cleanup Day (CCD) is a statewide beach and coastal and inland waterway cleanup held throughout California each year, part of the largest such cleanup in the country. CCD is a partnership between the California Coastal Commission, non-profit groups such as I Love A Clean San Diego, and cities and counties throughout the state. It is a major part of International Coastal Cleanup, which is facilitated by The Ocean Conservancy and includes many U.S. states and territories and over 70 countries.

CCD is unique because it also collects information about items found during the cleanup, with volunteers will recording types of marine debris found and reporting their findings on data cards. This information allows agencies and NGOs to compile, analyze and track data year-by-year and make discoveries about the behaviors that cause the debris. The final statewide & international information is used to educate the public, businesses, industries, and government officials about the trash pollution problem.

There are literally dozens of clean up teams at work on Saturday throughout the region.  To find out where and how you can help, go here.   [Read more…]

Field of View: Strut for Sobriety!

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Hundreds including Congressman Bob Filner were in attendance at the eighth annual Strut for Sobriety! event―a fashion hosted by A New PATH (Parents for Addiction Treatment & Healing). PATH is a non-profit, volunteer-run organization of people working to increase awareness of drug addiction and increase access to treatment.

The fashion show featured seasonal styles from Macy’s, which were modeled by men and women of all ages–from veteram firefighters to one toddler who insisted on high-fiving everyone within reach as she bounced down the runway.

For those who know someone facing addiction or who has lost the battle, the following organizations might be of help:

Grief Recovery After Substance Passing (GRASP)

Broken No More

Nar-Anon Family Groups

All photos by Annie Lane.   [Read more…]

Is a College Diploma Worth It?

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Getting a college degree has become part of the mythology of the American Dream. But when you consider the load of student loan debt that most students have to take on today, instead of blindly following the dictates of the American Dream, it is prudent to stop and ask ourselves if we really will be better off when that diploma comes laden with a ton of debt. In this article I’ll do a cost benefit analysis of the worth of a college degree.

I challenege the conventional wisdom that with a college degree you will be better off in the long run. For one thing that debt can never be discharged in bankruptcy. It will follow you the rest of your life. Even social security checks can be garnished to pay it. Student loan debt has more than quintupled since 1999. Earlier this year American collective student loan debt passed the one trillion dollar mark, more than the nation’s collective credit card debt.

More than half of all recent graduates are either unemployed or working in jobs that don’t require a college diploma. There is a surfeit of college degrees to the extent that they are being required for the most casual jobs just because employers can afford to be choosy, not that the job has anything remotely to do with the training received in college.   [Read more…]

Federal Judge Rules NDAA’s Indefinite Detention Unconstitutional and Issues Permanent Injunction Against It

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Ruling Backed By Civil Liberties Groups Who Urge Obama to Give Up Defending Indefinite Detention

By Michael McAuliff / Huffington Post / September 13, 2012
Civil liberties groups are asking the Obama administration to stand down and give up defending America’s law allowing the indefinite detention of terrorism suspects after a judge Wednesday issued a permanent injunction against it.

The indefinite detention law — contained in the National Defense Authorization Act of 2012 — codified the post-9/11 practice of having the military jail suspects, including Americans, and hold them without trial.

Federal Judge Katherine Forrest reaffirmed on Wednesday her May ruling that the provision was unconstitutional, and made the ruling permanent.   [Read more…]

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