Ridiculous SD YouTubers of the the week: The San Diego Dip, plus hot dogs, a drag queen and a man with no pants

Yes, it’s that time again. Each week, I try to scan YouTube for San Diego’s silliest submissions. This week I struck nothing but gold.

4. “‘MOUTH TO MOUTH !’ PATRICIA PILLMAN, brother of Ted !”

Um…yeah. There’s something very Lynchian about this, errr, lady. This might be the reason Rep. Duncan D. Hunter is so concerned about transgender soldiers in the military.

3.” San Diego Troops Hot Dog Eating Contest”

Bar S donated hot dogs to the troops on Super Bowl Sunday. No one pukes, don’t worry. This raises the question: Why be so concerned about Don’t Ask Don’t Tell when soldiers are already eating….Ok, you know where I’m going and I shouldn’t have even bothered.

2. “Mornin smokin San Diego”

Dude wearing a coat and no pants smokes a cigarette. Why why why?

1. “OFFICIAL HOW TO SAN DIEGO DIP VIDEO – THA TWIN”

I had no idea SD had an official dance move.

California Attorney General calls out CalPERS on Iran investments

California Attorney General Edmund Brown Jr. today sent letters  to the state pension funds calling for divestment from Iran.  The move comes less than a week after San Diego CityBeat published its investigation into investments made by the California Public Employees’ Retirement System in companies conducting business in Iran and Sudan in defiance of state law.

CalPERS must “honor the state law requiring them to divest from companies doing business in Iran,” Brown said in a press release. “It’s time for our public pension funds to show some leadership and stop supporting companies that do business with a tyrannical regime.”

As CityBeat reported on Wednesday, CalPERS passed a policy in February 2009 prohibiting divestment, despite two laws passed by the legislature that ordered CalPERS to liquidate its investments in companies supporting the regimes of Sudan and Iran on humanitarian and national-security grounds.

At least one corporation, Sinopec Corp, is prohibited by both laws.

CityBeat also found  CalPERS’ report to the legislature was incomplete and inaccurate, including omission of the February policy.  In a letter sent today to CalPERS, Brown makes the same point:

…Although CalPERS has filed annual reports, these reports lack enough detail to enable the public and CalPERS members to know whether CalPERS is complying with the Iran Act. On page 3 of its most recent report, CalPERS declares that it decided “to not divest shares . . . as specified in the Iran Act.” Apparently, this decision was based on a conclusion made by the Board almost a year ago that divestment would violate CalPERS’ fiduciary duty to its members. But the report utterly fails to explain how and why this is the case.

Brown concludes that the report disregards the disclosures and analysis required under state law.

…The report merely lists 24 CalPERS holdings that do business in Iran (up four from the last report) and states-without analysis or elaboration-that “substantial progress has been made through the engagement process, in the curtailment and cessation of business operations in Iran.” Nothing in these general comments complies with the Iran Act’s requirements for CalPERS to explain whether it has reduced its investments in these companies, to describe when it anticipates fully divesting in these companies (or to explain the reasons for not divesting), to summarize investments transferred to funds that exclude these companies, or to calculate divestment costs or losses.

Brown has asked CalPERS to respond “as soon as possible.” A similar letter was sent to the California State Teachers’ Retirement System.

Winter Olympics fan says he’ll settle San Diego County lawsuit for “a beach house and a Bugatti.”

Symbolic Motor Car Company sells these settlements.

Imperial Beach resident Bruce Calhoun, self-described “sole heir to the Calhoun fortune, Air Force veteran, Christian,” has filed a lawsuit against:

San Diego County, Greyhound, Wal-Mart, AMC 24, Hometown Buffet, Otay Mesa Condo Rentals, San Diego County Sheriff, Border Patrol, San Diego Coutny Parks & Recreation, the National Guard, the Border Patrol, FBI, CIA, Department of Defense, the Veterans Administration, Factory 2-U, Chase Bank, the Edward J Schwartz Federal Building, the San Diego Fire Department, the laundromat at “13th and Palm,” CVS and the Social Security Administration, some unnamed lifeguards….

Yes, that’s the Department of Defense and Hometown Buffet in one lawsuit. What’s the charge?

These above defendants attempted to murder me yesterday, February 3, 2010, Wednesday, the same day that I withdrew my $1,074.00 Social Security Check from Chase Bank in order that I can go to the Winter Olympics in Vancouver, Canada with the Olympians from the Chula Vista Olympic Training Center that you all rape, murder and steal from.

Oh, wow. That does suck. I wouldn’t want anyone to murder me on the way to the Winter Olympics, either. How much is Mr. Calhoun asking for in damages?

I will settle for a beach house and a Bugatti today!!!

He specifies the Bugatti should come from Symbolic Motor Car Company in La Jolla.

You can view the hand-written court filing here.  You can read CityBeat contributor Justin McLachlan’s story on “vexatious litigants” here.

DeVore: No demon sheep in California politics

If ever there was a short-cut to winning an alt.weekly writer’s endorsement, Republican candidate for U.S. Senate Chuck DeVore has found it. Now, what follows isn’t an endorsement of DeVore, but rather of his promise: Rid California politics of demon sheep.

That evil furry was introduced in Carly Fiorina’s latest political hit job on her Republican opponent, Tom Campbell. It was a mixed, mashed, mangled metaphor that simultaneously portrayed Californians as sheep and coined the term “FCINO” or, Fiscal Conservative in Name Only.

DeVore is also mocking Fiorina’s acronym-idiocy on his new site, DemonSheep.org. His new organization, SFTEODSFOPD, or Society for the Eradication of Demon Sheep from Political Discourse, ask voters to “Please pledge your efforts to stop these Jawa-like, Terminator-esque, Demon Sheep from taking over California.”

Crap. Now that I think about it, I’m going to have to retract that endorsement.  Two reasons: a) DeVore uses the Comic Sans font and, like millions of computers users, I can’t f’in stand Comic Sans and b) What would I do without demon sheep? Discuss “Race to the Top” or eminent domain? Boooring.

Memo to Fiorina: Can we have a demon platypus next?

(hat tip to Randy Dotinga)

Bombs vs. Benefits

Ain’t no such thing as a free lunch. It’s a cliche, but also a fundamental part of economic theory: There’s always an opportunity cost. And when it comes to federal spending, I like to check in with the National Priorities Project’s trade-off calculator a few times a year just to see what we’re losing.

For example, the White House is pushing to increase the National Nuclear Security Administration’s budget by 13.4 percent (or $11 billion) in 2011, here’s  how the 2010 nuke budget could have otherwise been applied locally.

According to NPP, San Diego County taxpapers will pay out $184.3 million for nukes this year.  That money could’ve instead:

Provided 75,853 adults or 68,890 children with health care for a year.

Funded 27,697 Scholarships for college students for a year.

Paid the annual  salary of 2,647 elementary-school teachers or 3,292 police officers.

Now, if we look at the 2010 budget for ballistic missiles, San Diego County citizens’ share is  $107.6 million, which could’ve been spent on:

Provided 44,277 adults or 40,213 children with health care for a year

Funded 16,167 scholarships for college students for a year.

Paid the annual salary of 1,545 elementary-school teachers or 1,922 police officers.

Don’t care about the county? Well, on the city level:  taxpayers within the city limits will cover $77.9 million for nukes and $45.4 million for ballistic missiles. Together that could have:

Provided 50,750 adults or 46,091 children with health care for a year.

Funded 18,531 scholarships for college students for a year.

Paid the annual salary of 1,771 elementary-school teachers or 2,203 police officers.

The caveat, of course, is that NPP is basing this off population formulas and not tailoring it to specific regional complexities (such as San Diego’s military industry). Nevertheless, it’s something worth considering.

Completely unrelated, there is such thing as a free breakfast.  We just received a press release from the International House of Pancakes that announces free short stacks of buttermilk pancakes from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. on  Feb. 23 to raise awareness (and donations) for  Rady Children’s Hospital.

San Diego Shows–Thursday, Feb. 4

 PLAN A: Vivian Girls, Best Coast, Pearl Harbor @ The Casbah. It’s a full night of lo-fi girl-pop. Pearl Harbor is great, and the headliner has gracefully survived the inevitable indie backlash, but it’s Bethany Cosentino and Best Coast that makes my indie heart flutter. Her single “Sun Was High (So Was I)” is the greatest make-out-session-on-the-beach hipster anthem I’ve ever heard. Whatever that is. PLAN B: Author and Punisher @ Soda Bar. Ever hear industrial doom-metal made by one guy and a bunch of homemade instruments with nary a guitar in sight? Well, I have, and it needs to be seen to be believed. BACKUP PLAN: Portland Cello Project @ The Loft at UCSD.

 

OTHER COOL STUFF:

The Old In Out, The Death Eaters, Grand Tarantula @ Bar Pink. Haiti earthquake benefit.  

Leg Lifters DJs Justin Pearson @ Ruby Room. Haiti earthquake benefit.

Public Culture in the Visual Sphere @ Visual Arts Performance Space, UCSD. Steven Graham from the University of Durham, U.K., discusses “Cities Under Siege: The New Military Urbanism,” as part of this ongoing lecture series.

The Deep Ones, Roxy Jones, Phantom Ratio @ Tin Can Ale House.

“Generations Party” with DJ Artistic & Cros 1 @ U-31.

Congorock, Vega, Salter & Diaz @ Voyeur.

Wesley Cole Switzer, D/Wolves, The New Assembly @ Beauty Bar.

Rob Deez, Allegra Barley, Veron @ Java Joe’s at Cafe Libertalia.

Campbell is a furry?

If you haven’t seen the attack ad (and website) Carly Fiorina launched against her primary opponent for the Senate nomination, Tom Campbell, watch it right now.

Did you watch it? Sheep! No, honestly, this might be the most ridiculous smear I’ve ever seen.  FCINO?

Border patrol shooter’s privacy suit on life support

A federal judge has gutted former San Diego-area Border Patrol agent Arturo Lorenzo’s privacy suit against the government, dismissing nearly all of his claims.

Lorenzo sued the government late last year after a surveillance video of him shooting and killing a Mexican man on the banks of the All American Canal was leaked to The San Diego Union-Tribune. The man had likely crossed the border illegally and, based Lorenzo’s account in the lawsuit and the grainy surveillance video, was ready to throw a rock.

In his suit, Lorenzo claimed that the leak of the video was an invasion of his privacy because it disclosed private facts, intruded into his private affairs, put him in a false light (similar to defamation and libel), negligently inflicted emotional distress and violated the federal Privacy Act.

Judge Dana M. Sabraw said in an order issue order this week that Lorenzo’s claim for false light is barred by a federal law that gives the United States immunity from being sued for defamation and that the mere facts of the case—that this was a shooting of a suspected illegal immigrant on the U.S. border, in public—defeated his remaining privacy claims.

The judge said:

A shooting at the border involving a law enforcement officer and an illegal alien is clearly a newsworthy event. The incident raised issues of legitimate public concern, such as illegal immigration, violence at the border, and whether reasonable force was used by law enforcement. … His name, the location of the event, and the events surrounding the altercation are not private matters.

Lorenzo also said the government should also be held responsible because it failed to properly supervise the unknown employee who leaked the tape. The judge shot that down, too, saying that courts have given the government wide discretion on how it supervises its employees.

What’s left? Not much. The judge let stand Lorenzo’s claim that he and his wife suffered emotional distress because of what they say was the government’s negligent handling of the video tape. Lorenzo will also be allowed to continue his suit under a claim that the government violated the federal Privacy Act—which says that only the subject of a government record can authorize its release—mainly because the government didn’t ask for that claim to be dismissed (the judge gave no indication of what would’ve happened if the government had asked for that). However, his wife, Fabiola, can’t sue for the same thing (she was trying, too) because the video tape wasn’t about her, according to the judge.

We’ve asked Lorenzo’s attorney if an appeal of the judge’s order is planned. We’ll let you know if we hear back.

San Diego Shows–Wednesday, Feb. 3

PLAN A: Rhett Miller & The Serial Lady Killers, Leslie and the Badgers @ Belly Up. Old 97’s frontman Rhett Miller managed to reinvent himself again last year, and he released a great record that was erroneously ignored. However, anyone bummed that he ditched the alt-country for singer-songwriter pop will find their aural salvation in Leslie & The Badgers (above). Normally, country bands from L.A. are about as authentic as instant grits, but the band’s namesake absolutely charmed me with her Emmylou voice and Jenny Lewis looks when they played Soda Bar last December. PLAN B: Laura Marling, Nathaniel Rateliff & The Wheel @ The Casbah. Almost a Plan A, Marling was an original member of Noah & The Whale, and she’s all the buzz in the U.K. for her moody folk that channels Judee Sill and Lisa Hannigan. And anyone who bought the Once soundtrack will want to show up early for Nathaniel Rateliff. PLAN C: Anvil, The Suicide Chords @ House of Blues. Equal parts charming and kick-ass, last year’s Anvil documentary gave the hard-rock band the due they deserve. Now, they’ll kick your ass in person.

OTHER COOL STUFF:

Space Nature, Des Roar, Fire On The Mountain @ Tin Can Ale House.

Joe Jack Talcum, Lord Grunge, The Bassturd, DJ Jester the Filipino Fist @ Bar Pink.

Josh Damigo, Chris Ayer, Matt Simons @ Lestat’s.

Jeff Hamilton Trio @ Birch North Park Theatre.

Gilbert Castellanos Quartet @ Super El Camino.

Photo above by Zoe-Ruth Erwin.

San Diego Shows–Tuesday, Feb. 2

PLAN A: The Soft Pack, Beaters @ Tower Bar. The Soft Pack is releasing their debut album tonight. Let the inevitable backlash begin. Check out the full story herePLAN B: The Dave Rawlings Machine @ Belly Up. This one’s really close to being a Plan A, so if The Soft Pack’s post-punk ain’t your thing, then this might be the show for you. Like Willie Nelson and T-Bone Burnett before him, Rawlings has spent much of his early career helping others write songs (Ryan Adams and Gillian Welch, to name two), but his recently released debut, the alt-country gem A Friend of a Friend, is proof that he’s a talent in and off himself.  BACKUP PLAN: Melly Frances and the Distilled Spirits, Megan Slankard, Greg Gibson @ Tin Can Alehouse.   

OTHER COOL STUFF:

Bare Wires, Manic Attracts, Timecopz @ Soda Bar.

Dan Padilla, The Anchor, Sunny Side, Breaker One Niner @ The Casbah.

“Too Cool For Karaoke” @ Ruby Room.


Printer sues San Diego Reader through its “alter ego,” Jim Holman

The Reader, aka "Jim Holman," photo by Byron Beck, Willamette Week

You may have noticed that the San Diego Reader recently traded its staples for a new, flat magazine-style binding, known in the industry as “perfect bound.” The change reflects the Reader’s switch to a new print house at the beginning of the year—a move that prompted the weekly’s former printer of 35 years, San Dieguito Printers (SDP), to file a breach-of-contract suit against Reader publisher Jim Holman.

In the action filed in San Diego Superior Court on Jan. 27, SDP alleges that, in 2005, the Reader wanted to increase the number of color pages in its weekly newspaper. Because such an upgrade would cost “millions” in new equipment, SDP got Holman to sign a 10-year contract to ensure the investment was worth it. The contract, which granted SDP exclusive rights to print the Reader, was set to expire in 2015.

According to the complaint, the Reader began threatening to abandon the contract in 2008 and 2009 unless the printer lowered its cost. SDP says it complied, according to the court filing:

Having made such large expenditures on the equipment, as well as other financial and business adjustments required by the Reader, and the Reader then representing a large share of SDP’s revenues, losing the Reader as a client was not an economically feasible option for SDP. Therefore, with the understanding it would preserve the contract and the Reader as a client, SDP granted the Reader a number of price concessions, improved the printing schedule at a cost to SDP and other sacrifices.

Yet, the Reader started using a new print company on Jan. 1, 2010, according to the court filing. SDP says that constitutes a breach of contract, negligent misrepresentation and “unfair and unlawful” practices in violation of the California Business and Professions Code.

SDP is suing Holman personally and Holman as a business, rather than the Reader itself, stating that the Reader is simply Holman’s “alter ego.” SDP says:

any individuality and separateness between them has ceased…

and

Holman exercises complete control and dominance…

and

adherence to the fiction of the separate existence of the defendant… would permit an abuse of the corporate privilege and would promote injustice in that Holman would be able to hide assets and retain them for himself.

Here’s some food for thought: If Holman is inseparable from the Reader, then should the pro-choice community hold the Reader accountable for all the pro-life “parental notification” ballot initiatives Holman has filed?

Download the court complaint here.

San Diego Shows–Monday, Feb. 1

PLAN A: Bowerbirds, Julie Doiron @ The Loft. Playing emollient and foreboding folk, North Carolina’s Bowerbirds should pacify anyone desperately awaiting the new Bon Iver and Fleet Foxes albums. BACKUP PLAN: Family Wagon, Ox Eyes @ Soda Bar. 

OTHER COOL STUFF:

Ryan Tannascoli @ Gelato Vera. The local artist displays oil paintings and watercolors of San Diego musicians. There will also be live performances by Golden Red, Paper Forest and J Rodriguez & the Brothers and Sisters.

Greg Watson @ Athenaeum Music & Arts Library. 

Blackout Party @ Riviera Supper Club.

The Styletones @ Bar Pink.

Lady Dottie and The Diamonds, DJ Jason Weedon @ U-31.

Supervillains, Mike Pinto @ The Casbah.