San Diego for Newsom Mixer

When: June 25, 6-8 pm
Where: Universal Hillcrest, 1202 University Ave, San Diego, CA
Info: Colin Parent (colin.parent@dlapiper.com)

Join local supporters of Gavin Newsom’s campaign for governor. We’ll give a brief campaign update, and folks will get a chance to meet and mingle with likeminded Newsom fans.

Plus, learn how you can march with Gavin at this year’s San Diego Pride Parade!

Free to attend, cash bar, with happy hour prices. Invite your friends, this will be a fun night.

[You might notice that the event begins an hour before the monthly San Diego Democratic Club meeting, and only a few doors away. We wanted this mixer to be easy to attend for folks who were already planning to attend the meeting of the SDDC.]

Ben Hueso Happened

Disclosure: I work for the Courage Campaign which has worked on the Blackwater issue, but these opinions are my own.

Earlier this week, I asked What the Hell happened in San Diego in the June 3 election. I explored a particularly underwhelming electoral performance and noted that there was a massive failure of leadership from the city's elected Democrats (active and retired). Councilmember Donna Frye supported GOP mayoral challenger Steve Francis and Council President Scott Peters ran against the Democratic incumbent City Attorney Mike Aguirre. Incidentally, both Francis and Peters failed to make it to the November runoff.

Then yesterday it happened again. Councilmember Ben Hueso, who in May was rallying to Block Blackwater in his council district, announced his endorsement of Republican city attorney candidate Jan Goldsmith. This is particularly notable because Goldsmith's opponent is incumbent Mike Aguirre. Aguirre has been a champion for the city in the fight to force Blackwater's permits into public hearing at a time when a number of other city leaders have...attended a rally and then thrown up their hands.

If Jan Goldsmith as City Attorney would go to bat over Blackwater or any other number of issues that might be uncomfortable for the Mayor or inconvenient for the City Council, I would be absolutely flabbergasted. The campaign, like every other challenge to Aguirre this year, has been centered around a promise to sit down and shut up. The last thing this city needs is another elected official who doesn't have the necessary combination of power and motivation to force important issues.

As the UT newsblog notes, Hueso and Aguirre have never exactly been close. And Aguirre has taken a lot of flack throughout his term as City Attorney for his rabid pursuit of Mayor Jerry Sanders for all manner of scandal- real or imagined. But as Councilmember Hueso well knows because he's at the meetings, the City Council hasn't exactly put on a clinic when it comes to keeping mayoral power checked by the legislative branch. Fighting the good fight has consistently taken a back seat over the past two and a half years to misguided "pragmatism" that largely allowed Mayor Sanders to get anything he wanted.

So what we're left with is Ben Hueso surveying this scene- Mayor Sanders re-elected to a second term with what CW will term a convincing mandate (it's not, the turnout was too low to carry a mandate) and a City Council that will likely go from a narrow Democratic advantage to an even split, further neutering a body that had given itself over to the inevitability of the Strong Mayor government- and deciding that the best thing for the city is that the single dissonant voice of any weight in the city government should be replaced by, as the UT put it,

Hueso said the city attorney's political persuasion is less important to him than getting "the best legal advice."

If the Democratic Party in San Diego is ever going to be able to capitalize on the tremendous infrastructure building being done at the precinct and street-corner level, leading Democrats need to stop undercutting both their party and basic points of fundamental governance at every opportunity.

What happened in San Diego? Ben Hueso and destructive politics like this happened.

Cross posted at Calitics

Friday - Quick Hits

Environmental and human rightsd groups join forces in opposing the border fence project that will fill in canyon. UT

The S&P restores San Diego's credit rating. UT

Oceanside city council agrees to talks with private firms over airport operation. UT

Now that Oceanside has approved project, developer claims it is not in a hurry to start building. UT

Tell Jerry Sanders: Block Blackwater

Full disclosure: I work for the Courage Campaign and cross posted at Calitics

Mayor Jerry Sanders got what he asked for when he was elected in 2005. Not just the office, but unprecedented "strong mayor" control over the city's operation. He's had two and a half years, and as he runs for reelection, we have to ask whether he's lived up to the responsibility.

At a recent debate, Mayor Sanders let his frustration get the best of him over the substance, or perceived lack thereof, in the current campaign. Well if he wants to talk about issues, Blackwater is a good one. Steve Francis, a leading contender for mayor, has accused Jerry Sanders of "presiding over the largest pay-to-play system the city has ever seen." If Mayor Sanders wants to get substantive and prove that the good of the community is is his top priority, it's time he get involved in the absurd permit process that has- thus far- allowed Blackwater to waltz into the city and start unpacking within spitting distance of the border.

Earlier today, Courage Campaign partnered with Jess Durfee, the Chair of the San Diego Democratic Party, to introduce a petition calling on Mayor Sanders to launch a full investigation into the questionable process that's brought Blackwater to the City of San Diego. He asked for this responsibility- he still wants this responsibilty. It's time to deliver.

You can read the email that Jess Durfee sent to Courage Campaign's San Diego members today at the Courage Campaign blog cross post

Rally to Block Blackwater Friday Morning

Full disclosure: I work for the Courage Campaign

When nobody was paying attention, Blackwater found another way into San Diego. After watching every friendly politician in Potrero get recalled handily in February, Blackwater West quietly started pursuing permits to open a facility in the City of San Diego just three blocks from the U.S/Mexico border. 61,600 square feet, zoned for a vocational school but which Blackwater plans to use for training Navy personnel in terrorism response. To echo recent comments by Councilmember Ben Hueso to local news, Blackwater has no business in the City of San Diego unless and until someone can say definitively what laws they are bound by. And certainly, setting up shop *on* the border raises all sorts of extra red flags.

The local response has been fast and furious this week. And thanks to leadership from Congressman Bob Filner, there will be a rally at the proposed site of the new Blackwater facility tomorrow (Friday) morning. Rep. Filner will be joined by Councilmember Ben Hueso, San Diego City Council President Scott Peters, Carol Jahnkow of the Peace Resource Center, Raymond Lutz of Citizens' Oversight Projects, and Sierra Club's Jeanette Hartman at 10:45am at 7685 Siempre Viva Road in Otay Mesa in opposition to Blackwater's latest shady dealings. Blackwater discovered once that San Diego isn't friendly territory. They're sticking around for a reason, and best guess is, it's not just for a Navy subcontract.

Among other organizations, the Courage Campaign is encouraging all local San Diegans to attend if they're able. If you want to read the email from Rick Jacobs, you can check it out here.

What Vocation is Blackwater Peddling?

Full disclosure: I work for the Courage Campaign

Cross posted at the Courage Campaign blog

The Union-Tribune's Anne Krueger is back with a command performance from the stenography pool today, delivering the latest "news" on Blackwater's Otay Mesa facility. Yet even she couldn't avoid the awkward break in logic that the various pieces of today's puzzle delivered:

“As long as it was an educational facility, if they're training future police or security guards, that would be considered a vocational trade,” Broughton said.

Bonfiglio said Blackwater has had a contract to train Navy personnel since 2002 through a subcontractor, American Shooting Center in Kearny Mesa. The training will be transferred to the Otay Mesa site once Navy inspectors give their approval to the new facility, he said.

Bonfiglio said Blackwater hasn't determined whether American Shooting Center would assist with training in Otay Mesa.

“We want to improve on the curriculum. We want to improve on the teaching,” Bonfiglio said. “We want to improve on the facilities.”

Bonfiglio said other agencies may use the facilities occasionally if it doesn't interfere with the Navy's training. He emphasized that no independent contractors working for Blackwater would be trained there.

addition: Brian Bonfiglio explicitly states that this facility will provide military, not civilian training in the article: "Already in place was a ship simulator – a miniature version of a Navy ship – that Bonfiglio said will be used to train sailors for crisis situations at sea...Although the facility has a shooting range, it will emphasize training Navy personnel to be better prepared for terrorist attacks, Bonfiglio said."

So as long as they're training future police or security guards it's vocational. But they're training Navy personnel to perform Navy duties. American Shooting Center (if you want to visit their website by the way, it's www.gotammo.com *ahem*), for its own part, is not new to shady training facilities. Last year, ASC tried to open a training facility near Cleveland National Forest without permits and was shut down by the Board of Supervisors. At the time, owner Marc Halcon complained about getting lumped in with Blackwater and

Halcon said he has had a subcontract with Blackwater since 2002 to train military personnel at his Kearny Mesa shooting center, though he said none of that training took place at Covert Canyon. He would not say how much he is being paid for the contract, which is due to end in September.

So Halcon's subcontract with Blackwater was due to end September of last year. And the contract was, even then, "to train military personnel at his Kearny Mesa shooting center." And now Blackwater is saying its new facility is for training those people. Did the contract get renewed/extended? If so, I guess it was changed to reflect a change of venue for the training, even though Blackwater had no facility lined up last fall. Going further, neither last year's article nor the new coverage suggests that the training of Navy personnel is to ease their transition into private-sector security jobs- quite the opposite. Given that Halcon was careful to note the differences between military, police and private training, it seems odd that it would consistently be referred to as training of military personnel unless it's exclusively is training of military personnel for military purposes. Which would not be a vocational or trade school. At all.

In this scenario, the only way around that rather major problem would be if Kelly Broughton's statement- "if they're training future police or security guards"- is given incredible latitude. I mean, Navy personnel may very well become police officers or security guards eventually. And those who do would likely utilize weapon and other combat training as part of their job. But that's a far leap from the notion that training military personnel to perform military tasks is the same as training them to be police or security professionals.

And while we're on the subject of what constitutes vocational training, Ray Lutz went ahead and checked the Yellow Pages, where Blackwater Worldwide is indeed listed under Industrial, Technical & Trade Schools (received via email). He also too the time to note the other businesses listed under the same heading:

A Academy of Bartending
California College For Health Sciences
Center for The Communications Arts
College of English Language
Contractor Schools Golden State
Contractors License Of California
Devry Univ. San Diego http://www.devry.edu/ (career-oriented majors)
Foundation for Educational Achievement
ITT Tech
Language Studies International
Law School of National Univ.
Occupational Training Services
Pattie Wells Dancetime Center
Reliable Communications Incorporated
Schrader & Associates
Southwestern College
California College For Health Sciences
Seeds of Success Intl. Inc.
Comprehensive Training Systems
International Center for American English
Valley Career College
Advanced Training Associates
Wow Performance Coaching
Barrera Rick & Associates
Tomorrow's Communications Inc.
Vitality Inc
Palomar College
Healing Hands School of Holistic Health
Welsh Sales Group
Miracosta College
Spartan College Of Aeronautics & Technology
At Your Home Familycare Learning Academy
Beauty Boutique Colleges of Beauty
Dental Assisting Institute

Not so much shooting ranges or mercenary training. More...training for jobs that actually contribute positively to society. One wonders how long it'll be before the U.S. government will finally break down and start classifying the nation's military as just an exceptionally well-funded jobs program. I'm kinda surprised the Bush administration hasn't seized on this as their version of the New Deal. Maybe it's cause nobody will sign up...

Blackwater is Back and Badder Than Ever

Full disclosure: I work for the Courage Campaign

Cross posted at the Courage Campaign blog

Just when we thought we had won, Blackwater snuck in the back door and set up shop in San Diego with hardly anyone noticing. Citizen Oversight Projects started spreading the word today that Blackwater will be opening a 61,600 square foot training facility in Otay Mesa, just a block from the U.S./Mexico border. It's also about 4 miles from the Otay Mesa border crossing and about 6.5 miles from the San Ysidro border crossing. This is an indoor facility and obviously much smaller than the 824-acre project Blackwater had pursued in Potrero, but no less nefarious.

This comes at a time when national legislation to block Blackwater and other mercenaries is gaining steam. And perhaps this incident demonstrates that without a major shift at the federal level, we'll just be chasing Blackwater around in macabre version of whack-a-mole into eternity.

Ray Lutz, one of the key figures in the defeat of Blackwater in Potrero, visited the new site and reported back with pictures, impressions and particular points of concern. He notes 20 truck bays and its position not only near two major border crossings but also the Tijuana International Airport. And if there's any doubt about the facility being used to train more mercenaries (and pretty clearly in the art of desert AND border tactics), note the word from Kelly Broughton, director of the city of San Diego's development services department:

Broughton said the building was already permitted for use as a vocational trade school, and Blackwater's training activities would fall within that category.

Vocational trade school. That's what we're calling it. If ITT Tech and a career in medical transcription isn't for you, check out Blackwater West. However, I don't think I'd have the same concerns about a bunch of crazy dental-assistants-in-training being planted within four miles of five schools (including three elementary schools) as I do about mercenaries.

The new facility is within the City of San Diego proper, which means that city regulations- not just county regulations- are potentially at play. And that, of course, brings into the mix a number of political figures who might actually be moved on this issue. The site of the facility is in the 8th District represented by Councilmember Ben Hueso. The City Council President is Scott Peters who is termed out and in the middle of a contentious race for City Attorney. Councilmember Brian Maienschein is also termed out and running for City Attorney. Mayor Jerry Sanders has a heckuva battle brewing for re-election against Steve Francis [name corrected], a Republican dressing himself in progressive clothing to run from both directions. And that's before we (potentially) get Donna Frye agitated.

At this point though, the permit has already been applied for and granted (more than a month ago). Which means that opportunities for local recourse is likely limited unless and until something can be placed on the ballot. That is, what worked last time (wildly successful recall) is unlikely to be at play this time. What's particularly interesting about this process though is that Blackwater submitted its application for this Otay Mesa facility in February but didn't pull out of Potrero until March 9. So, at least in principle, it was after both spots at the same time. Or, more likely, it knew that the ship had sailed on Potrero weeks before actually pulling out, and dragged the process along in order to distract from its move on Otay Mesa.

The history of Blackwater and government-funded mercenaries doesn't need a full rehash here, we know the score. What we're getting here are better trained, federally funded Minutemen living in the shadow of the border fence and a couple minutes from the busiest land border crossing in the world. They're here to operate with impunity outside of the government doing the things this administration wishes it could be doing itself. And it won't stop unless and until we get the sort of systemic changes that can only come from the federal level. This battle of local citizens vs. the mercenaries funded by our own tax dollars isn't sustainable. Local action won in Potrero but here we are again. We'll mount up and take the fight to them again, but real change won't happen until this country dumps Blackwater and those like it once and for all.

"It's a paradigm shifting election." An interview with Nick Leibham

I shared breakfast with Nick Leibham last week and discussed where he stands on a number of issues. I mostly just lobbed topics and let him talk; this is the relevant transcript edited to be a remotely reasonable length and minus fun stuff like us chatting with the waitress and our occasional divergence into non-relevant shop talk. Some parts I liked, some parts less so. But here it is. Note this is a contested primary.

Iraq

Each and every day we remain in Iraq we're compromising our national security further. It's a blood feud that goes back 1400 years between the Sunnis and Shiites. American military forces are not going to be able to sort this out for them and at the end of the day they've got to want peace; they've got to want their own stable form of government; they've got to want democracy more than the American Marine Corps wants it for them

The longer that we're there, the more strain it puts on our own men and women in uniform. They're going out on third, fourth, fifth tours of duty, and you read about it all the time of course because we're just miles away from Camp Pendleton

We need to come out and we need to set a date certain for when we are going to redeploy out of Iraq.

Military and Security

There’s one...threshold question that needs to be answered whenever even the thought of American military use is involved, and that is 'Is it in the interests of the United States of America; Is it in the national security interest?' Obviously the United States military has a role to play in ferreting out al Qaeda, in ferreting out terrorist organizations, in...making sure that our own interests abroad are taken care of.

But the United States military has no business in trying to create whole cloth [or] molding different societies. It's kind of antithetical- democracy can't be imposed at gunpoint.

They’ve got to figure it out for themselves. It can't be the United States government doing it for them.

Immigration

The most fundamental job of a nation is to protect its sovereignty, and when you can't secure your borders and ports you can't protect your sovereignty...As a nation we need to recognize that we are going to have to put a significant amount of money, time and effort into suring up our southern border.

As a former prosecutor...if you really want to dry up illegal immigration, you hold employers accountable, and I’ll be the only one up on stage that has ever prosecuted an employer for hiring illegal immigrants. After that's done, you get to other questions.

Health Care and SCHIP

We should be providing health care to kids and Brian Bilbray has staked out a position of essentially rabid ideology at the expense of some 10 million American kids...I think that it's a disgrace that he decided to stand on ideology and stand with the President as opposed to providing these kids with proper medical care. I think it's just very mean-spirited and worse, it's bad public policy.

My endpoint [on health care] is that every family should be able to see a family doctor of their choosing. The way in which we get there I think is going to be a battle royale come January 2009. And what is being pitched today out on the campaign trail- there isn't going to be even a shade of resemblance once this thing actually gets done.

There is a little bit of overlap between Democrats and Republicans on a few issues. One, I think all parties agree that you're going to have to see rapid and massive adoption of information technology and digital patient files. That will cut down on everything from medical errors to back office expense. And the estimates on what that would shave off- I've seen 10-12% of the total healthcare dollars. Secondly, another overlapping area is preventative care. There are certain areas of medicine where this makes a lot of sense. This makes a lot of sense in the area of inoculations...it makes a lot of sense as it concerns preventative screening for certain diseases. From a cost benefit analysis and a quality of years lived analysis.

You've got to have a very serious debate on how else you get there. we're the only westernized country in the world that tells the pres drug companies that they can charge anything they want and it doesn't matter...I think that's something that needs to be addressed.

What that final product is going to look like, I’m not exactly sure. But I know that...we need to look at that end goal...and say let's try to get there.

FISA

we spoke briefly about the general nature of modern privacy before FISA

What's much MUCH more disconcerting to me is the entire FISA bill...As somebody who has been a prosecutor and dealt with the 4th Amendment, I can tell you that this happened to have been the one amendment in the Bill of Rights that all the Founding Fathers could agree upon; that in order for the government intrusion there had to be probable cause signed off on by an independent magistrate that says you may have committed a crime. I find the entire FISA process to be constitutionally dubious. That doesn't mean that it couldn't be made constitutionally valid but I think that anytime you have wiretaps involved...that deals with an American citizen, you've gotta have a court sign off on it. The only question in my mind is whether or not that has to be done prior to there warrant being executed or whether or not there is some grace period. There is no doubt in my mind that the executive branch itself cannot act as both overseer and executioner (of warrants or wiretaps). That, I think, is constitutionally impermissible; I think it's a violation of the judiciary's proper role of interpreting laws.

As a former prosecutor [and] law clerk in the US Attorney's office in the Major Frauds and Economic Crimes section...I've never heard of anybody being given immunity when you don't know what they've done. It's not how the immunity process works. You don't say to somebody 'Whatever you've done, don't worry about it.'...It's unthinkable to me as a lawyer and as somebody who will have...sworn to uphold the Constitution that I could ever support that.

California Emissions and the Environment

I’m not a scientist, but from what I have read...the EPA seems to have made their decision to deny California its waiver based on faith based science. That’s not good enough. If it's warranted by the facts and the evidence, it should be granted. During the next administration, if it's a Democrat, I think we'll get a fair hearing. And if we don't, that's ripe for congressional action to clarify the rule. Because it's the congress that makes the laws, the executive branch simply carries out those laws.

The debate on the science (of global warming) is over. There is no doubt in any serious scientist's mind that global warming is happening. There is virtually no doubt that mankind is directly causing global warming. The only question at this point is 'What is the causal relationship and what are the consequences going forward?'

The role of government as it concerns energy and the environment I think is going to be crucial in the next 5, 10, 20 years. One of the things I very much hope to work on as a member of Congress...is pursuing and advocating for alternative energy in the areas of wind, solar, some biomass, hydrogen. And the role of the government here is to set high standards, it's to help foster innovation- especially in the very early stages of research and development- and then I think it's to turn it over to the market who does a great job of packaging this up...and if people can make a...fortune doing it, great. It makes good public policy, it's good politics, I think it's a good way to return some manufacturing to...the Americas.

It's also an issue of national security. We send hundreds of billions of dollars each year to...Middle Eastern regimes many of them hostile to our interests. We know...that some of that money ends up with Hezbollah; that it ends up with Hamas; some of it filters down and ends up with al Qaeda. We're funding both sides of the war in this particular time.

Then there is the great moral calling of our time which is addressing the global warming problem itself...There is no doubt that our kids will bear the full brunt of this, and we need to figure out now a way to mitigate it because to do anything other than that is nothing short of...long-term child abuse.

Economy

Two prime reasons (for the current economic situation). One, it has been fiscal insanity on the part of the Bush administration...We see that in everything from the weakness of the dollar which hits you...at the pump and in the grocery aisle, to being able to sure up many of those social programs which we know have a pending disaster: Medicare, Social Security, our infrastructure, etc. Secondly, the war. You cannot talk about anything else in this campaign until you address the war.

We are spending- the estimates are- $10-12 billion a month. We have direct outlays to Iraq...upwards and including $500 billion. For one single solitary day of war making in Iraq, we could have sent 160,000 low-income students to college for a year. For 3 1/2 months of war in Iraq we could have provided healthcare coverage to those 10 million...American kids for 5 years under SCHIP. Until we end that, again, we are committing long term fiscal child abuse. Because we're not paying for it...we're borrowing money from...foreign creditors to finance this thing. It's completely and totally irresponsible and it must end.

There’s some middle class tax cuts that...we should retain. We should retain the 15% capital gains rate as opposed to seeing it revert back to 20%. More than 50 million Americans at this point have 401Ks; hat benefits them greatly. We need to once and for all end the AMT. These last couple years it has snagged a whole cross section of our population that it was never meant to hit, and the doubling of the child tax credit is a positive thing. It's a positive thing for San Diego families and San Diego parents. Of course, the recklessness as it concerns the Bush giveaways in terms of the top 1%- no. That's fiscal insanity and I will be a voice to end it.

Most interesting for me was an interlude about halfway through the interview where we lapsed into discussing this year's election in an historical context:

We win this fight because their platform is old and it's worn out...The Reagan Revolution...which started really in 1964 with Goldwater's defeat...it culminated in 1980 and 1994 and the end of the Bush years are a bookend. It's tired, it's played out, and it no longer offers up a positive agenda for America. This isn't just a change election in the sense of Democrats or Republicans. This is a paradigm shifting election and Democrats can capture that...they've got a lot of work to do but we can capture it and I think the pendulum is swinging our way.

Cross posted from Calitics

San Diego Ready to Build Up, Not Out

For the first time since 1979, the City of San Diego is reviewing and updating its general plan for growth and development. The report is more than 300 pages long and not even *I* am nerd enough to read it all (ok, not yet), but it's kicking up quite a stir as it recommends a rather dramatic shift to infill, redevelopment and other building up instead of out priorities. Why the shift? Well, there's no more room. As the U-T points out, only 4% of San Diego remains open for new development. Which means it's time to start thinking like an actual city instead of neverending suburbia.

This notion has of course stirred up plenty of controversy. Some of it is legitimate, like Councilmember Donna Frye's concerns about infrastructure and services keeping up with increased density. Some of it is mostly just people just trying to cover their own butts without regard for the broader picture. I'm all for making sure that the projects are executed correctly, but criticisms along the lines of "if it's done wrong, it'll be bad" really don't help me much.

Calitics has, on many occasions, discussed the need to change the way California thinks about development. Robert in Monterey has led the way on the notion that building density and a non-car based transportation system is key to the next generation of planning. So while I'm cynical like many people around town who say "The plan has these wonderful platitudes but on every page," I'm also encouraged by just the notion of setting a goal of building forward-thinking urban density.

San Diego's take on it will apparently focus on these ten priorities:

The proposed new blueprint for San Diego is guided by 10 principles. They are:

An open-space network formed by parks, canyons, river valleys, habitats, beaches and ocean.

Diverse residential communities formed by the open-space network.

Compact and walkable mixed-use villages.

Employment centers for a strong economy.

A regional transportation network of walkways, bikeways, transit, roadways and freeways that link communities to each other and to employment centers.

High quality, affordable and well-maintained public facilities.

Historic districts and sites that respect San Diego's heritage.

Balanced communities that offer opportunities for all San Diegans.

A clean and sustainable environment.

A high aesthetic standard.

Mayor Jerry Sanders, in a serious battle with fellow right-winger Steve Francis (hitting from the left and the right cause there's no major Dem in the race) for November's mayoral election, is dusting off his anti-labor credentials by complaining about the promotion of living wage regulation for low-wage industries like, say, tourism. Center for Policy Initiatives has coincidentally (not at all a coincidence) reminded San Diegans this week that the local economy has not exactly been churning out the big bucks (pdf). Via email:

In San Diego County, two-thirds of all jobs created since 1990 are in the bottom third of wage levels -- with median pay of $24,500 a year. Research from the California Budget Project shows that even a person living alone needs $28,000 a year to meet basic living expenses in our county.

Nice. So San Diego is producing jobs that pay too little to live in San Diego, thus the living wage is a bad idea. Clearly. Living is bad. Affording to live in San Diego is bad for the local economy. Jerry Sanders is an economic mastermind.

But where this really will start hitting problems is when people have to pay for it. Not because people are unwilling to pay for good stuff, but because of the near-toxic combination of politicians who demonize government inefficiency (that they contribute to), the media that laps up the notion (because it's easier than being a legitimate watchdog), and the years of (to put it nicely) crap government in San Diego.

But as Planning Commission Chairman Barry Schultz puts it, "if we want to have this vision we have to be willing to contribute our part."

Exactly.

Cross posted from Calitics

San Diego Still Hates Clean Elections, Sues Bowen

Back in August, Secretary of State Debra Bowen announced that she was disallowing the majority of DRE voting machines made by Diebold and Sequoia. Part of her move in August was to require that 10% of votes in a close election (less than one half of one percent) be counted by hand. As a result of the potential "logistical nightmare" of having to count so many votes by hand, San Diego County has been pushing hard for people to vote by mail. But apparently that wasn't going quite well enough. So now the Deborah Seiler, the San Diego County Registrar of Voters, is suing Debra Bowen over the issue.

The suit claims that counting 10% of votes by hand would create delays and extra work (boo hoo) and threaten the registrar's ability to complete the tabulation during the 28-day canvass period after the February 5 election. San Diego County asserts that Secretary Bowen lacks the authority to mandate such a change without providing the funds to pay for it, although Bowen spokesperson Nicole Winger says the law "clearly" gives Bowen that authority.

So what, you may wonder, makes this a particularly big issue in San Diego County? Well, it could be that Ms. Seiler is a former Diebold saleswoman who participated in the sale of Diebold machines to San Diego in 2003? Her deputy is confirmed election corrupter Michael Vu, who presided over illegal practices during the 2004 Ohio elections. On top of that, once you start having to verify all these darn votes, you might have problems with letting volunteers take voting machines home overnight. Even though having random people be granted unfettered access to voting machines seems safe.

It's really gotta be embarrassing for folks like Deborah Seiler to be complaining about votes being counted. Given that her job is to count votes. Wait, you want me to potentially count more than 1% of the votes? Who do you think I am? The Registar of Voters or something?

Cross posted from Calitics

Blackwater Parachutes into San Diego State's Halftime

On Saturday night, the San Diego State Aztecs hosted BYU to close out their regular football season. The game was the 3rd Annual Fleet Week-sponsored game, rescheduled from October 27 because of wildfires. The Fleet Week Foundation describes the game like this:

San Diego State University plays in this third annual Fleet Week Football Classic. Pregame and half-time shows will feature flyovers, parachutists, the Navy Region South West and SDSU bands, and a tribute to our wounded warriors at Balboa Hospital and Camp Pendleton as well as a tribute to members of the Legion of Valor.

The festivities have a wide range of public and private sponsors and it's fun for the whole family right? Well, for at least the second year in a row (probably all three), the halftime show included an American flag being parachuted onto the field by members of a nation parachutist team...who happen to work for Blackwater and use parachutes emblazoned with the Blackwater logo.

Attached is the promotional video from last year's (2006) Fleet Week. You can skip ahead to the 2:43 mark to see the Blackwater parachutist bringing in the giant American flag. If you want, you can also zip over to about the 3:09 mark to see the flag being dragged across the field during landing.

Fleet Week events, which go on year round, are to honor veterans. I've attended several of them and in my experience they've been good opportunities to pay tribute to veterans. So I have a hard time understanding how Blackwater fits into the puzzle. They consistently undermine the work being done by our armed forces around the world and especially in Iraq. It seems a particularly unfortunate inclusion in the festivities; made all the more uncomfortable given that the Blackwater recall election culminates on Tuesday (12/11).

I spoke with Steve Becvar of the SDSU Athletic Foundation, which was involved in planning the event. He explained that this is the third year that Blackwater-affiliated parachutists had played a role in the Fleet Week game. He emphasized that the school was not seeking to make any sort of political point, simply to partner with the Fleet Week Foundation to honor veterans.

But despite what may well have been the best intentions of event organizers, Blackwater has NO business honoring veterans. Blackwater profits from war and has a vested interest in prolonging any military struggle as long as it increases revenue. They are, in fact, naturally at odds with everything that our veterans should be honored for. They dishonor the flag and all the people who have bled for it whenever they or their representatives try to wrap themselves or the Blackwater logo in the American flag.

Blackwater knows what it does. And they know that they're nothing next to the members of the actual military. Past that, they know that their only hope for success or survival is to blur the distinction between their criminal behavior and the valor of American servicemen and women. As the Potrero vote peaks, I hope San Diegans and Americans everywhere refuse to be tricked. Blackwater is hoping for honor by osmosis, but they end up literally and figuratively dragging the reputations of our soldiers through the mud.

If people wanted yet ANOTHER reason to resist at every opportunity Blackwater's plans for a training facility in Potrero, here you go. They've taken advantage of SDSU and the Fleet Week Foundation to undermine what otherwise could have been a wonderful evening for veterans. But Blackwater doesn't serve the United States or its ideals. Blackwater serves the dollar. And they have no business being remotely affiliated with veterans or current servicemembers.

So from San Diego to Blackwater: Get out and stay out.

Cross posted from Calitics

ICE Out of Emeryville! Rally Opposing Woodfin and Bilbray's Dirty Tactics

From noon to 1pm tomorrow, immigrant rights activists will be rallying in Oakland (1500 Broadway) in protest of ICE performing employee harassment and intimidation on behalf of a well-connected hotel CEO who doesn't feel like adhering to a living wage law. If you're in the area, go out and tell ICE to stop attacking workers rights. And if you can't be there in person, you can call Special Agent Charles DeMore at (510) 267-3800 and tell him that ICE shouldn't be involving itself in the enforcement (or lack thereof) of local labor laws.

A month ago, Brian wrote on Calitics about Rep. Brian Bilbray's meddling in Bay Area living wage issues. He chronicled how workers at the Woodfin hotels in Emeryville were fighting to receive the living wage assured them by Measure C, a local living wage law. The city is insisting that Woodfin pay the living wage, but unfortunately for the workers, the CEO of Woodfin hotels lives in Brian Bilbray's district and has contributed enough money to get his phone calls answered.

So back in February he had Bilbray call Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in to investigate his own staff. ICE seized employee files from two local hotels (Woodfin and Hilton Garden Inn), and last month it returned to the Hilton to arrest a dishwasher who had worked there 18 years and with a list of 12 employees that must be fired immediately. ICE agents have also reportedly visited the home of a Woodfin employee leader explicitly because she'd spoken publicly about the issue. So not only did Woodfin CEO Sam Hardage call down ICE on his own staff rather than pay them decently and legally, and not only does he have federal immigration officers doing his employee intimidation for him, he also managed to call the feds on his local competition and only get members of their staff fired. Paying to be connected sure pays off.

If Brian Bilbray were really concerned about any sort of immigration enforcement, he'd be holding employers accountable instead of calling in favors for campaign contributors. He wouldn't be wasting the ICE's time meddling in local labor issues or muddying the waters between immigration law and fair wage practices. If he had any respect for the rule of law or the rights of localities to legislate local issues, he wouldn't be using federal agents to intimidate workers who only want the law to be enforced and he wouldn't be helping a campaign contributor refuse to acknowledge the law in the first place. But as usual, it's politics of the expedient power grab, with Bilbray rewarding the big bucks and betraying any semblance of principle. It's about creating victims and criminals but never calling into question the campaign contributors that criminalize and victimize so many people. It's about ignoring the law if your monetary backers tell you to.

Cross posted at Calitics

Half of San Diego County households live in unaffordable housing

That's the headline from a new issue brief from the Center on Policy Initiatives here in San Diego. A study of 2006 Census data released this week discovered that "about 53% of both renters and homebuyers in this county can't afford their housing, according to federal standards." Those numbers according to CPI add up to more than 500,000 households countywide.

Perhaps coincidentally, FoxNews last night ran a story aimed at revealing the "human side" of the foreclosure crisis throughout the county. The story ultimately focused on analysing all the mistakes people make on the way to foreclosure, conveniently blaming those who end up losing in all of this rather than getting particularly ruffled about predatory lending practices or subprime mortgages that have disproportionately hit Latinos and African-Americans with foreclosure (also touched on in the CPI report among other places).

More than half. That's not an ingredient for economic growth, improved test scores, higher health standards, public safety, or anything else generally considered desirable for a community. The San Diego housing market is already in decline, with dozens if not hundreds of condos sitting vacant and unsold. Where exactly is this county going and why are we in this handbasket?

Cross posted at Calitics

Wanted: A San Diego Mayor with Integrity

Mayor Jerry Sanders ran for office as a former San Diego police chief saying he would clean up the city government. He said he would be different then the last two San Diego mayors. His tenure would be marked with an open and transparent government, it would be run by the people and not by the special interest, it would be non-partisan and he would not raise taxes. He would set us back on sail to where we all wanted the city to go.

However, along the way Sanders lost his way and his government has been the complete opposite. Instead it has been marked with secrecy, special interests deals, partisanship fighting, tax increases and distrust. It seems like Mayor Sanders' choose to emulate President Bush running as a uniter, but becoming a divider.

Since his swearing in ceremony over 2-1/2 years ago, Sanders has held closed door special interest secret handshake meetings on behalf of developers. Remember the downtown development impact "fees" and the Sunroad deal.



He moved to raised our taxes. Remember he said at his opening ceremony he would raise our water taxes. However when he was called out he backed down. However, he has come back with selling it as a fee increase. I don't buy the arguement it is a fee and not a tax. When the government charges a taxpayer money it is a tax and when a company charges a customer money it is a fee. End of story. He has fought with almost all the city's elected.

In addition, Sanders has been caught raising large sums of money and coordinating a non-candidate campaign fund with no cause yet, just collecting campaign donations. Lets say pay to play, because the people contributing are the same people making money hand over fist from Sanders so called reforming government. Let Donna Frye raise money this way and people from Sanders camp would be on the war path. Shouldn't there be more questions by citizens and the media?

When Sanders or his staff is caught red handed they pull the old deny, deny, deny, make counter accusations and then continue to deny. When it does not work, then someone eventually disappears from his staff. By now he has lost almost all his top non-political staff.

Lets make the argument that Jerry Sanders might had entered the race as a kind man wanting to change San Diego for the better. So, today regardless of what he was when he ran today he is either guilty of the same mishandling of our city as the last two mayors or he is over his head and can't understand his own position or lastly he is dimbwitted and lets his political hacks pull his strings. Regardless it seems his tenure is the Wizard of Oz story. He you want to believe in fairy tales, then don't look behind the curtain, because you might be afraid of what you see.

San Diego deserves better, they deserve someone with integrity, they deserve someone how will re-set our sail and make us again America's Finest City. If you know that type of person, there is a seat to be filled next year as Mayor of San Diego.

My First Post

This is the first post for this blog. The goal for San Diego Politico is to foster much needed dialogue among the broader progressive community of San Diego. For too long San Diego has been thought of as a conservative bastion in California. Now, while that may be true to a certain extent, anyone remotely familiar with the history of San Diego knows that below the tranquil surface here, there has existed and still does exist a strong current for political change and social justice. My hope is that San Diego Politico can play a small role in achieving those objectives.