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Ex-Sanders aide gets $6,000 a month for Balboa Park centennial role
Randy, you're funny... Comparing our assumed earnings is simple. Go to any salary comparison database online and look at the average for journalists and the average for IT professionals. I train technical writers, many of them are former journalists. I also correspond with professional writers around the world...journalists and non-fiction writers mostly. Again...are you seriously saying that journalism is a career with a bright future? All the journalists I speak with tell me the opposite. That journalists are intimidated by the powers that be...well, you got me there. All I can do is look at the coverage of events, and note that the well-connected and wealthy are described with positive language, while those who "oppose" are "naysayers" who are described with negative language. Look at the reports of the Balboa Park judgement for examples. Your desire for a government PR job? Well, as an admirer of Gerry Braun that's not a far leap... So, Randy, since you're unable to come up with any coherent defense of your own position, you merely ridicule me as a person. You've suggested that I'm unbalanced or somehow uninformed, and now you're suggesting I'm buying into some conspiracy theory. But the truth is I can back up everything I've written with plenty of evidence (this is why I teach technical writing...everything has to be testable). I've been paid for writing since before you lost your virginity, worked on my first political campaign before you were allowed to ride your bike around the block, and I've been developing software since long before you took the notion to describe yourself in your ASJA profile as a "technology" reporter (I'm going out on a limb to say that you made that up. Otherwise why don't you actually report on technology...but here's a tip: Lawful Intercept Module in Telco software...look it up, think about it for a few moments, write if you think this is a good or bad thing). You continue to make yourself, and your fellow San Diego journalists, appear to be even worse than I'm suggesting...thin skinned, Randy? Looks like you're apoplectic to the point of exploding merely at the notion that someone doesn't think much of you and your absurd pretensions.— February 15, 2013 12:39 a.m.
Ex-Sanders aide gets $6,000 a month for Balboa Park centennial role
I've made nothing up...its all public record. Do some research Randy...— February 14, 2013 9:34 p.m.
Ex-Sanders aide gets $6,000 a month for Balboa Park centennial role
Hi Tom. The reason Randy gives a flying f*ck is that I'm touching on a sore place...journalists can dish it out, but cannot take it. Randy is puffed up, proud of himself, but really he's a pansy. Look at what he writes professionally, and you can see that it's not very impressive. Yet he sets himself to be the standard, and goes straight to the ad hominem when anyone dares to point out the many flaws of journalism in San Diego. Notice that nowhere has he contradicted anything I've written. He hasn't shown that journalism in San Diego is fine, a worthy career with a bright future. He's not countered anything I've written about sell-out Braun. He hasn't advanced any argument at all except to call me names. And I think this is typical. Journalists today are not very bright, but are very full of themselves. They claim to be watchdogs, but are more often lapdogs, doing as they're told because they're afraid of being fired if they step away from the party line. In San Diego, that party line is drawn by people like Manchester, or Jacobs, or the crew that elected Sanders. These folks have robbed the city blind, using public money for their private projects, stuffing their pockets...all the while the majority of San Diego journalists have been cheering them on. Randy should know this, and express shame and remorse, even perhaps an eagerness to set things right by doing real research and writing what's actually happening instead of regurgitating press releases or, like Braun, jockeying for a government PR job. This is why Randy gives a soaring high altitude f*ck when I write about his fellow journalists...he knows I'm right.— February 14, 2013 9:33 p.m.
Ex-Sanders aide gets $6,000 a month for Balboa Park centennial role
Randy, since I've been writing professionally for decades, and since I train a fair number of writers, including former journalists, I bet I do know what writers talk about...because they tell me how desperate they are to escape from journalism. I have seen the hundreds of articles written by your colleagues describing how bad a profession journalism has turned out to be. Claiming otherwise makes you look completely out of touch. Are you genuinely asserting that professional journalism is thriving today? I don't think "every single one" is afraid. Some, like Matt Potter, Don Bauder, Matt Taibbi, Radley Balko, Will Carless, and others are doing good work and have job security and a solid reputation as a result. But the lion's share of hack writers, including yourself, are reduced to writing on spec, putting out morning news summaries, and have devolved into mere stenographers re-wording press releases written by former journalists who have jumped into PR jobs...like your buddy Gerry Braun. I'm not happy about this...but I cannot think of people more deserving of this fate than the journalists in San Diego. With a few honorable exceptions (Potter, Bauder, Carless) it's a dead-eyed bunch of lazy, cowed, dull-witted slackers who think they're oh-so hip, plugged-in, and well-loved by the community. In fact, if most San Diego journalists never wrote again, few would notice, and even fewer would care. The quality of the journalism is so consistently poor that it makes no difference who is the stenographer of the week repeating what they've been told by a spokes-mouth. Gerry Braun is emblematic of this trend...an over-praised under-achiever who sold out and became a tool for the wealthy and well-connected, feathering his nest at the expense of his professional dignity. That's perhaps the smartest thing a mediocre journalist can do, given the dire circumstances you find yourselves in, but it isn't deserving of any respect. In fact, it smacks of cowardice.— February 14, 2013 11:25 a.m.
Ex-Sanders aide gets $6,000 a month for Balboa Park centennial role
Slur? Without a drop? No Randy, it takes a few drops before I start slurring. As to slandering Braun's reputation...he did that to himself, and continues to do so, by being a political hack for sale to the highest bidder. At least he's gainfully employed...unlike some hacks we know...when you talk to your ASJA buddies, isn't the conversation mostly about how nobody is getting paid much and all are hoping to land a cushy government PR job? I guess you're envious of Gerry Braun...and you should be. Even before he sold out he was twice the writer you are, and three times the researcher. Too bad he went over to the dark side and now does as he's told by his pay master...check for that Qualcomm brand on his backside next time you're down there.— February 14, 2013 9:36 a.m.
Ex-Sanders aide gets $6,000 a month for Balboa Park centennial role
I think most San Diegans would agree that Gerry Braun has betrayed the community. He gave up reporting on politics to take a swanky job with the Mayor...a move many suspect was payoff for not reporting all he knew about Jerry Sanders real record. Now we finally learn he spent that taxpayer paid time shilling for Irwin Jacobs and his ugly guardrails and asphalt bypass bridge to paid parking. As a reward for selling out, Braun now works as a "consultant" for a multi-million dollar extravaganza that is unlike to live up to the hype, or the promised community benefits. Braun and his ilk need to get out of the way...honest citizens who love San Diego don't need fat paychecks to do the right thing. He brings zero value to the centennial celebration. This is the revolving door, where being an insider is all that matters. Gerry Braun, in short, sucks. He should be ashamed of himself, but as part of the tight little group that runs the town, he is proud of his contribution to the sleazy reputation of San Diego. Does this political prostitute have a Qualcomm brand on his rear, showing who now owns him, or is he for rent hourly?— February 13, 2013 10:02 p.m.
Todd Gloria still ready to move forward on Plaza de Panama Project
Hey my friend...of course Todd blocked me from commenting on Facebook ages ago. Not the only politician to do this I suspect. But how is that related to the 1st Amendment? Facebook is a private company, and they allow their customers to block who is allowed to comment on a page controlled and created by that customer. Correct me if I'm wrong, any lawyers out there... A better approach, legally, may be inquiring about which staffers work on the Facebook and other social media, because if their city paid work favors one political view over another...or blocks off access for protected groups, especially minorities and females (if the law is still the same as it used to be), whether or not the end result is city owned, certainly the computers and employees are paid for by the city...in which case that would seem to be a violation of municipal and state codes on misuse of government property and employees. Again, I'm not a lawyer, but I think that's how the laws and regulations for public employment go in San Diego...unless they're going to claim that the Facebook pages are campaign funds paid, in which case there may be another issue to be dealt with. Still, in principle, if you're an elected official and you put up social media pages and then prevent critical comments...that should not be allowed. Either it's an official page, open to all, or it's private and censored by the owner. If it's official, and censored, then America has a problem.— February 13, 2013 12:34 a.m.
Sweetwater school district’s weird, failed real estate deals
You're one of the exceptional journalists in San Diego, Susan...a cut above the rest by actually following this story, following it, updating the community, not getting distracted, continuing to learn and report. The more you show the world about what's going on, the better hope there is that things may change...I'm impressed with what you are doing.— February 11, 2013 9:23 a.m.
Caltrans to chip in for Cabrillo Bridge seismic retrofit
Twister, those are very good questions that should be researched as part of the funding process. With the ruling on the bypass, and Jacobs skulking away from his pet project, the most important aspect of the story is that it was intended for pedestrian uses. Seems to me that simply reverting to that original use would allow the city and the feds to save a bundle. Instead of building more parking, build a regular synchronized bus route up Grape/Laurel from the Trolley to the bridge, and back. Every five minutes during peak times, every fifteen otherwise. With Todd Gloria now the Transportation Committee head at SanDAG, he could make this happen. The same highway funds might be used to pay for it...— February 11, 2013 9:13 a.m.
TV and video games may intensify violence
Early Shakespeare performances were raucous affairs, with aggression, food and beverages not unlike Insane Clown Posse events. Look it up...theater didn't start out as literature. Opera was often scandalous, and early Mozart critics claimed the music had too many notes! These are entertainments, in each era, as true in 2013 B.C as today, which are denounced by those of us over 40. We oldsters sniff that the newfangled gadgets are destroying the youth and making them violent super-predators. "Dang Og and those stupid kids! Banging sticks on rocks makes them crazy and they go out and hunt mastodons all week. It will all end in tears, I tell you." Yesterday it was Frank Zappa's music that would make us all serial killers (and today he is a revered Saint of Music and Human Rights Activism, bless his hairy...) Today we have the oh-so-deadly video gamer, tuning up his killing skills. I am an archer, Navy Vet., and a software professional who has played video games. I can tell you that shooting a real bow and arrow or gun is nothing like doing so in a video simulation. I suspect that were a gamer to shoot a real gun, the shock of the recoil would make them drop it like a "hot potato" (to use the idiom of my revered elderly readers, who presumably are the only ones still reading, the youngsters having long lost interest). Hey...I sympathize my geriatric comrades, colleagues and friends. I don't like stupid movies, but they don't cause mayhem. Violent video games are enjoyed most fervently by young men...and young men are the ones most associated with violent crime. That's a basic demonstration of the statistics of correlation. It doesn't prove that video-games, music, or crappy films cause or encourage real world violence, only that young men are associated with both independently. Contrast this with ACTUAL violence. Not a simulation...witnessing or experiencing the real thing. On a football field, for example, or a Roman Colosseum, or a religious crusade and related local pogroms. Or in our poor neighborhoods today, as often brutalized by the police as by the hoodlums, in the home by family far more often than at the hands of strangers. That's what science KNOWS causes violent behavior. First hand experience, especially as a victim while young. Science has looked at, repeatedly, and never proven strong causal links with playing video games and violence...only an obvious correlation which is to be expected since the fans of video games are young males, who also disproportionately perform acts of violence. Video games might be any young violent man's preferred entertainment, but that's simply because in his entertainment preferences he is mostly normal. In comparison to real violence, like high school football programs, the video games certainly don't prepare him or train him or compel him to violence.— February 11, 2013 8:59 a.m.