Eco Gardening and weight loss
Gene Wilder,

review and links to methods for organic gardening and eco farmiing and natural health

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ICE Raid in Vista
Tina Jillings - repost from e-mail,

From Tina Jillings: June 21, 2007. This morning I witnessed for the first time an ICE raid. It happened right here in Townsite. I must be honest and say that I have never seen anything like this except on television and watching this activity unfold live I must admit it is traumatizing. One can only imagine what the families are going through because of this horrible experience.

This morning I witnessed a mother and father being taken from their home while their children stood by and watched. The children ranging from ages 9 to 1 years old witnessed the entire arrest and were horrified by the events. I do not know if they understood that their lives would never be same. They watched helplessly as their little worlds were falling apart right in front of their face. The two oldest were crying hysterically, as far as the two younger ones go, one was in total shock and unable to speak until about 45 minutes, and the baby was clutching onto his Aunt.

After their parents were gone they began to sob and cry for their mama y papi. The oldest child (Cristal, 9,) gave me a description of what happened inside the home while we were waiting outside. She said that early in the morning someone was pounding on their door. "They screamed to open the door or they will knock it down". She said that they hid under the bed because they were afraid, because this type of thing never happened before. She said her father answered the door and that the men began to scream at him "get down on the floor or they will shoot him. " They all came out of their hiding places because the "Police/ICE guys were going throughout the house with guns and rifles drawn. They began to question all of them and eventually they took her Mom and Dad away. Their Aunt was called to collect the four children. I obtained information from the Aunt and videotaped the aftermath of this operation.

The separation of families must stop! These atrocities will not stop until we unite, and with one voice make it clear that we demand the passing of compassionate, fair, humane immigration reform! These children are American citizens and their basic right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness has been violated. These abuses must stop now! The time to act is now!


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UCSD Students Confront Chancellor
san diego indymedia volunteer,

"When i hear that this an academic affairs issue, it upsets me. This is about the marginalization and silencing of identities. You are silencing my identity. You are taking away my voice. You are telling me as a queer student I do not belong in your college or your curriculum..."

On May 29, over 50 members and supporters of the UCSD Lumumba-Zapata Coalition marched to the chancellor's complex to confront chancellor Marye Anne Fox about the watered down Dimensions of Culture (DOC) curriculum and the firing of two teaching assistants for the course because of their political views and criticisms of the curriculum.

The chancellor, associate vice-chancellor Mark Appelbaum and vice-chancellor Joseph Watson emerged from their normally quiet sanctum to the chant of the energized protesters: "Keep DOC Real!"

Speakers at the rally confronted chancellor Fox with the negative response the students have received from adminstrators, the injustice and assault on academic freedom of the firing of Benjamin Balthaser and Scott Boehm as TAs in the DOC program, and the hypocrisy of the chancellor in trumpeting her commitment to diversity while failing to protect the DOC curriculum.

The chancellor and her associates responded by blaming the union representing the TAs and appealing to procedures and university rules. The actual response came ten days later in the form of a proposed rule change to ban meetings with ten or more people on university grounds without a permit, a rule that would have prevented students from confronting the chancellor. This is how chancellor Fox reacts when students of color have the audacity to tell her what is on their minds.

Video of the Confrontation | Partial Transcript of the Confrontation | Rule Change | Teach-In | Background | Lumumba-Zapata Coalition Demands


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Liberty Quarry- A Rock Hard Sell
Stewart A. Alexander,

As Granite Construction continue to pay millions to bolster their propaganda campaign, to sell Liberty Quarry, SOS has gained tremendous public support, collecting small donation and some grocery monies, to educate the public about a future industrial menace.


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Gracia Molina de Pick Speaks on Juárez
Mark Gabrish Conlan/Zenger’s Newsmagazine,

Veteran local activist Gracia Molina de Pick and professor Ricardo Griswold del Castillo spoke to the San Diego Humanist Association June 17 about Benito Juárez, president of Mexico from 1859 to 1872 and a leader in the struggle for indigenous rights and a modern Mexico. Juárez fought the power of the Roman Catholic Church and was instrumental in drafting Mexico's progressive 1857 constitution, which guaranteed the separation of church and state. Molina de Pick also discussed her grandfather, Andrés Molina Esquivel, who wrote the first sympathetic Spanish-language biography of Juárez and also wrote "Los Grandes Problemas Nacionales," a 1909 exposé of the corruption of Mexico's dictator, Porfirio Díaz, which helped inspire the Mexican revolution the following year.
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Prisoners riot over disciplinary lockdown
news media,

Inmate Uprise Causes Property Damage
65 Detainees Upset About Disciplinary Lockdown
10news.com
June 13, 2007

OTAY MESA, Calif. -- An inmate uprising at George F. Bailey Detention Facility Wednesday resulted in property damage but caused no injuries, authorities reported.

About 65 detainees upset about a disciplinary lockdown at the Otay Mesa county lockup began flooding into quad areas and covering and breaking windows about 4:45 a.m., jail Lt. Simon Hernandez said.

Deputies had order restored in the facility shortly before 8 a.m., the lieutenant said.
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Member of Religious Delegation Reports on Visit to Iran
Mark Gabrish Conlan/Zenger’s Newsmagazine,

Last February 13 U.S. religious leaders traveled as a delegation to Iran and met with high-ranking Iranian officials, including current president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and former president Muhammad Khatami. Joe Volk, a member of this delegation, reported on the trip June 13 at the Church of the Brethren in a meeting sponsored by the Friends Committee on National Legislation (FCNL), of which Volk is national executive secretary. The meeting dealt with the prospects for avoiding a U.S. war with Iran and the Iranian government's willing to negotiate if the U.S. gives up its officially stated goal of "regime change" in Iran.
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Arab-American Teach-in Explores U.S. Policy
Mark Gabrish Conlan/Zenger’s Newsmagazine,

Any resemblance between what the mainstream U.S. media say about American involvement in the Middle East and reality is, if not purely coincidental, at least far-fetched, said three speakers at a teach-in on Middle East issues May 31 at the Four Points Sheraton on Aero Drive. Sponsored by the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC), the Alternate Focus public-access cable-TV program on Middle Eastern issues, the San Diego Coalition for Peace and Justice and the San Diego chapter of the National Lawyers’ Guild, the event showcased UCSD Iranian studies professor Babak Rahimi, UCSD history professor Michael Provence, and San Diego ADC president Nasser Barghouti, all of whom built their presentations around the contrast between what our media tell us about the Middle East and what’s really going on there.
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San Diego Police Chief Should Be Fired!
Dusty Delon,

What do you do with a Police Chief that protects corporate crooks and turns a blind eye to a climate of corruption in the Mayor's office?
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Police Brutality Film Screening and Community Discussion
san diego indymedia volunteer,

Over seventeen people have been murdered by cops in san diego county during the past two years (1 | 2). Cops in san diego facilitate, protect and partner with violent fascists who harass, threaten and assault immigrants, day laborers and human rights activists (1 | 2 | 3) and the hunt for migrants at the border causes hundreds of needless deaths annually (1 | 2). Countless people who aren't carrying shopping bags, who don't live or work in the right neighborhoods, who don't have the right skin color, religious practices, clothing, haircut or gender expression, who don't speak the right language, or who don't show the proper deference towards authority figures are profiled, hassled, detained, beaten, arrested, deported, pepper-sprayed, tasered or shot. Homeless people, often those in need of medical attention, are mistreated and arrested (1 | 2 | 3). Cops approach these people as subhumans undeserving of humane treatment (for example: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4).

The Portland, Oregon region has experienced a similar epidemic of police brutality, which has been extensively documented by Portland Indymedia. On Sept 6, 2005 Fouad Kaady was in a serious car accident outside of Portland, and was sitting by the side of the road naked, burned, bloody and in a catatonic state. Two cops arrived and, instead of providing medical aid, tasered, shot and killed him in less than 28 seconds. The corporate media immediately tried to smear Kaady and the DA ruled the shooting justified. Portland Indymedia obtained the taped interviews of the cops and filmmaker Cat used the cops' own words to reconstruct the murder, resulting in "28 Seconds: The Killing of Fouad Kaady."

Please join San Diego Indymedia and the Sagon Penn Chapter of Copwatch for a film screening and community discussion about police brutality in san diego and the role independent media can play in combating it.

28 Seconds: The Killing of Fouad Kaady
Film Screening Followed by Community Discussion -- FREE
7:00PM Saturday June 2
The Rubber Rose
3812 Ray St North Park

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SD Artist Cultivates Spiritual, Sexual Garden
Mark Gabrish Conlan/Zenger’s Newsmagazine,

San Diego artist François Michel Beausoleil is noteworthy for the rich colors and backgrounds of his paintings and their wide variety of subject matter, from poerful male nudes to peaceful contemplations of the spiritual world. A French Canadian from Montreal, Beausoleil considers himself multicultural and regards his theme as the common nature of humanity. He's currently at work on a series of paintings called "My Spiritual Garden" which he hopes to exhibit as a group; the paintings consist of various individuals posed in the Buddhist meditation pose inside the lotus flower.
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6th @ Penn’s Human Rights Plays
Mark Gabrish Conlan/Zenger’s Newsmagazine,

The 6th @ Penn Theatre, 3704 Sixth Avenue in Hillcrest, is currently mounting a festival called "Resilience of the Spirit," showcasing plays dealing with human rights. A brilliant double bill called "The Last Class," in which a retiring classics professor gives a final lecture that spills over into shocking revelations about her private life, and "A Hundred Birds," in which victims of a child molester reunite as adults and kidnap their victimizer, alternates with "Lemkin's House," a fantasy in which Raphael Lemkin — a Polish Jew who fled his country when the Nazis conquered it and later coined the term "genocide" in his analysis of Nazi occupation — survives his actual death in 1959 and responds to more recent genocides in Cambodia, Bosnia, Rwanda and Darfur.
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Candidate Calls for Land Trusts Not Sell Offs
Dustin D. Delon,

Land trusts are like wilderness preserves and parks - they bequeath to the community a valuable infrastructure component. In this case, land that is only designated for affordable housing units, guaranteeing - for ourselves in old age and for our children’s children - a certain amount of fairness, diversity and safety nets.
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Immigration Activists Clash at Queer Democratic Club
Mark Gabrish Conlan/Zenger’s Newsmagazine,

Immigration-rights attorney Lilia Velasquez and Mary Moreno Richardson, reverend canon of St. Paul's Episcopal Cathedral, were brought in to speak at the predominantly Queer San Diego Democratic Club May 24. While they largely agreed on the need to protect immigrants' rights against abusive Border Patrol enforcement and private Minuteman vigilantism, they disagreed dramatically on the merits of the current "compromise" immigration bill before the U.S. Senate. Richardson hailed the bill as a start for a long-needed discussion on the issue, while Velasquez denounced it as repressive and said that no bill at all would be better for immigrants than the one being proposed now.
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Robert Gallo on the Witness Stand
Mark Gabrish Conlan/Zenger’s Newsmagazine,

This year, an "HIV positive" Australian man accused of having unprotected sex with three women and giving the alleged "AIDS virus" to one, tried to appeal his conviction on the basis of alternative scientific research that HIV doesn't exist and the tests to detect it are invalid. He lost the case, but alternative AIDS scientists, journalists and activists got a valuable consolation prize when Robert Gallo, co-discoverer of HIV and the man who did more than any other individual to establish "HIV/AIDS" as uunchallengeable scientific dogma, took the witness stand and inadvertently admitted that the declaration of HIV as the cause of AIDS was based on politics, not science.
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And Now For Something Completely Different
Inquiring Minds,

A mysterious do gooder on the loose in San Diego leaves a trail of happy neighbors in their wake.

I walked out to my car this morning and noticed immediately that it was sparkling clean! The entire exterior of my car was detailed by a random stranger in the middle of the night! I told the story to our local barista who informed me several people had been buzzing about this mysterious do gooder. A note was left on my windshield that read "It was the least I could do, have an excellent day!" It was signed The loving, Abel Magwitch...--Read More--

Comment by Tom Shirazi: I don't know specifically who this person is, but Abel Magwitch is a character from Great Expectations. The convict who ends up being Pips Benefactor. Clever, and very very cool.

Comment by Amy Kennard: I found a 20 dollar gas card on my wind shield and a note that said "Buying gas is a pain! hope this helps, The loving Abel Magwitch"...


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Mike Byron Speaks on "Infinity's Rainbow"
Mike Byron on "Infinity's Rainbow" in S.D.,

Mike Byron, author, political science professor and former Congressional candidate, spoke to the San Diego Humanist Association at the San Diego Public Library May 20 and introduced his new book, "Infinity's Rainbow." LIke the book, his presentation linked four issues that threaten the very existence of U.S. and world civilization: global warming, the exhaustion of the world's fossil-fuel reserves, the incredible power corporations have over American politics and the rising influence of the radical Christian Right, particularly the so-called "dispensationalists" who regard war in the Middle East as a necessary step towards the fulfillment of the prophecies of the Book of Revelation and their own salvation in a divine "Rapture" that will lift them bodily from this earth just before it collapses.
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Mitt Romney's Blackwater Connection
dot connector,

"Governor Mitt Romney today announced that Cofer Black, a former top counterterrorism official at the Central Intelligence Agency and State Department, has joined his campaign for President of the United States. Black will serve as Senior Adviser for counterterrorism and national security issues."

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Longshore Workers Picket Stops War Cargo
The Internationalist,

This can be an important first step toward the mobilization of workers power to shut down the war machine, but that requires a sharp struggle against the bourgeois politics of the antiwar groups and union officialdom. The OEA calls for money for schools not for war, as if it were a matter of budget priorities, and the PAC poster made a social-patriotic pitch to “Bring the Troops Home Now, and give them the care they need.” Such “peace is patriotic” rhetoric is a staple of the UPFJ, but all the antiwar coalitions make similar appeals to garner support from Democratic Party liberals. Revolutionaries and class-conscious workers, in contrast, emphasize that this imperialist war must be opposed by class war.
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Police Brutality in Oak Park
geri,

Yesterday, May 17, 2007, at 4:00pm, at the corner of Laurel St. and Balsa, in San Diego, a community member was maced, pepper sprayed, kicked, and arrested without reason. Four officers used unnecessary force in fear of an imaginary weapon. What was the reason for the arrest and the unnecessary force?

The police said, after the community member had been placed in the back of the police vehicle, after calling the entire family out to see this incident, including a 16 year old boy and a 11 year old girl, they thought he was going to reach for a weapon in his pocket. The four officers included 3 men: J.C. Hunter, D. West, and Andrew Tafoya, and one woman officer: T. Clendenen. After the community member was already on the ground and hands in cuffs, officer J.C. Hunter continued his authoritative force by kicking his stomach and pepper spraying his eyes. All actions were unnecessary, but if the officers were in fear of an imaginary weapon, once the community member was in cuffs on the ground with three officers holding him down, what was the reason for officer J.C. Hunter kicking and pepper spraying him?

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The Circus of (Im)migration is Coming!!!
CIRCA Boredom Patrol,

C.I.R.C.A. Boredom Patrol's Traveling CIRCUS of (Im)migration! A benefit for the No Border Camps in Calexico and Mexicali, the second week of November 2007.

Join us for stories, ridicule of fascism, creative resistance, tearing down walls and building community! ...including Fantastical feats of Fire, Lion Taming, Tight Rope Walking, Knife Throwing, Burlesque, Theater of the Oppressed, Videos, oh yeah and clowns too! ...all the walls are falling down, falling down, falling down...

Sunday May 13 7PM
The Rubber Rose 3812 Ray St North Park
619-296-7673
$5 suggested donation or bring some art about your vision of a world without borders

About the No Border Camp (from the no border camp zine (pdf) | español): As long as the US/Mexico border has existed, people have been struggling against it. It is a highly militarized, violent boundary marking an internal space of strict migration controls while allowing for unrestricted movement of capital and wealth. This border exists in a global context of apartheid borders, restriction of movement, and the division of indigenous peoples. For years around the world people have been tearing down fences, freeing detainees and fighting for the rights of migrant people. A global movement is rising. One of the many tactics in this movement is the no border camp – a space for direct action and community.

About the No Border Camp (from deletetheborder): The camp is intended to be a spectacular intervention in a discourse that at times ignores, and at other times justifies, the systematic violence, indignity and exploitation experienced by migrants in this country. The mobilization will bring many of us together in one place to share and learn. It is of equal importance to us that this not be just one isolated event that lasts a few days in one specific location. We view this mobilization as a process. It is a process of creating an anti-capitalist network for freedom of movement. For this mobilization to be a success, groups and individuals from a diversity of locales and experiences must make this project their own. We hope that others see this as an opportunity to build a platform from which this struggle can be demonstrated and articulated.

More info: deletetheborder | Boredom Patrol of the Clandestine Insurgent Rebel Clown Army
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Jeremy Scahill Denounces Blackwater in San Diego
Mark Gabrish Conlan/Zenger’s Newsmagazine,

Jeremy Scahill, author of "Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Missionary Army," spoke in San Diego May 1 and La Mesa May 2 on Blackwater U.S.A., the politically connected "security" firm supplying more than 120,000 personnel to the U.S. occupation of Iraq — including at least 40,000 mercenaries in combat operations — and its secretive radical-Right founder, Erik Prince. He was brought to San Diego by opponents of the 824-acre training camp Blackwater wants to build in the quiet southeastern San Diego community of Potrero, and he discussed the company's Republican political connections, its involvement in Iraq and the Katrina response, and the failure of the U.S. mainstream media to cover these issues more critically.

Previous Coverage of Blackwater West: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6
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CIA Flights:SEE Bldg they Start:Landmark Avia
Ned Nickerson,

You can meet, anytime, at a public airport (PHOTOS BELOW), the U.S. government's Criminals In Action (aka CIA) on their way to commit crimes. The Landmark Aviation terminal (FIRST PHOTO) at the Washington (DC) Dulles International Airport (code: IAD) is the place these batty hellions fly out of. It is open to the public to mingle with the CIA agents.
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Queer Democrats Hear Out-of-Town Speakers
Mark Gabrish Conlan/Zenger’s Newsmagazine,

The April 26 meeting of the predominantly Queer San Diego Democratic Club was largely a preview of the state Democratic Party convention that took place in San Diego (for the first time ever) April 27-29. Highlights included appearances by Laurie McBride, board co-chair of National Stonewall Democrats (the nationwide federation of Queer Democratic clubs of which the San Diego group is a major part); Greg Pettis, openly Gay candidate for 80th Assembly District and currently a 13-year veteran Councilmember in the Palm Springs suburb of Cathedral City; and Adi Gutierrez and Ricardo Lara of Honor PAC, a L.A.-based group organized to raise money and awareness of Queer candidates and issues among Latino/a voters.
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Protest Against Fox and Police Brutality
san diego indymedia volunteer,

On Wednesday, about 100 demonstrators rallied outside the Grant Hotel in downtown San Diego to protest a "democracy and peace" award presented to former president of Mexico Vicente Fox. The protesters marched and cycled from the Benito Juarez statue in Pantoja Park to the rally, struggling to use their sidewalks and streets against an oppressive and excessive sdpd presence.

Inside the opulent hotel, UCSD's corporate-dominated Institute of the Americas cited Fox for "strengthening the democratic institutions" of Mexico, but pretended not to notice the blood dripping from their guest's hands owing to the massacres in Atenco and Oaxaca, the stolen election of Calderón and other crimes (1, 2, 3). The Institute also failed to mention its own role, through involvement with Plan Puebla-Panama and other piracy programs of corporations, in the displacement of indigenous people from their traditional lands and the impoverishment of millions of Mexicans.

Outside, speakers at the open-mic rally recounted Fox's crimes and drew the parallel between the brutality of his regime and u.s. police brutality along the border, in Vista and in San Diego. To the delight of family members, a young child in a stroller was observed to chant, for the first time, "Oaxaca Vive!" Corporate media were out in force in search of sound bites and "controversy." Damn them.

CJ Ball, sdpd's designated captain in charge of suppressing political dissent, once again presided over the repressive efforts.

Angel Lita (updated): Nos congregamos en frente del US Grant Hotel en San Diego Ca, con la intención de mostrar nuestro repudio a este infame acto de Premiación a Vicente Fox. Galardón denominado "Presidente de la Democracia y de la Paz". Nos congregamos para hacer patente nuestro rechazo a semejante mentira, y que solo para el Instituto de las Americas; puede ser una verdad. Porque, en qué cabeza inteligente o por lo menos con un mínimo grado de honestidad, pueda siquiera imaginar que Vicente Fox es digno de recibir un premio de tal magnitud. Premio al Presidente de la Democracia y de la Paz? A que Democracia y qué Paz se refieren, a los muertos hasta ahora enterrados en la mina de Pasta de Conchos en Cohauila, y cuyos huerfanos y viudas, o madres o familiares siguen esperando todavia la justicia que con tanta behemencia Fox les prometio, y lo único que hizo fue que con mentiras y abusando del poder que representaba, hizo todo para ocultar y proteger a los verdaderos culpables; los señores del poder y del dinero. Cual democracia!? ...--Leer Mas--

Cynthia:...It made me pissed that the cops took full control of where we were going. I felt like a little girl pouting because I couldn't get anything my way when I was trying to reclaim a street. ahh... But yeah...fuck government repression. --Read More+Photos-- + --More Photos--


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Photos: Impeach Bush Rally at CA Democratic Convention
Marion Delgado (repost from comment),

[These photos] give just a partial shot of the much larger crowd that showed up to demand that the Democratic Party get serious about stopping the War in Iraq and to pass a Resolution Calling for the Impeachment of War Criminal and Mass Murderer George Bush! The word at the end of the Demonstration from inside the Convention Hall was that the California State Democratic Party has put a Resolution to call for Bush's Impeachment onto the Agenda for Sunday's wrapup session! Let's see if these normally spineless Democratic Party Opportunists finally get up the courage to pass the Impeachment Resolution!

U-P_D_A_T_E: The normally spineless Democratic Party Opportunists did pass an "Impeachment" Resolution, but it calls not for impeachment based on the rich public record of Bush admin crimes, but yet another investigation that could at some future point lead to impeachment.

Impeach Events for 4/28 Announcement
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Marcha 25 de Abril (updated)
vAPPOroaxaca,

No fuimos muchisimos, pero individuos y organizaciones, expresamos nuestro coraje en contra de Fox por recibir el Premio que le otorgó el Instituto de las Americas. Además nos manifestamos en contra de la violencia policiaca y dejamos claro que nuestra protesta era pacífica.
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Photos: Patrick Henry High Tolerance Posters
Kyle,

Some photos of the posters I made for Patrick Henry High and that were torn down on the instructions of vice-principal Laurie Guido.

For the story, go here:
 http://sandiego.indymedia.org/en/2007/04/125981.shtml
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Action ALERT: 4PM Protest at San Diego's Cox
Sister Kitty Catalyst,

SAN DIEGO — Gay community and youth activists call for peaceful protests April 27th from 4-7PM at San Diego Cox Arena of Teenmania’s youth rally teaching anti-gay intolerance and war culture to seduce and prey upon teenagers.
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Updates from Police Brutality March 4/25
borderlands hacklab,

We'll be posting reports from the march that are called in from friends at the event.

You can call in your own reports to indymedia at

*67.619.tHreeSeVeNEiGhT.OHnInEFouRSiX

UPDATES: 6:30 - Estimates of 80 demonstrators, 12 horse cops, a dozen motorcycle cops and a dozen cops on foot at pantoja park on G & Kettner. The march is about to begin.


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