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My Pants were on, so what was the Big Deal?
I used to be involved in graded classical music performances, well after I started teaching piano lessons while I was in the sixth grade. San Diego County used to be great place for classical music in public education. In 1976, the Outstanding High School Orchestra on the West Coast was from Spring Valley. Then came Proposition 13. And now it's cool to open and close a concert-hall door in the middle of a one-shot national job interview. Cool, indeed. It must be a sign of our apparent and obviously increasing West Coast sophistication, I guess.— October 18, 2010 6:17 p.m.
Homeless People Drummed Out of San Diego's Downtown Library
RE "So easy to tap out little judgments on the keyboard from the safety of wherever you keep your computer. 'Take care of yourself!' Tap tap tap.": A judgment usually involves the pronouncement of punishment or some other curse or condemnation; otherwise, we're merely sharing observations under freedom of speech. Having slept under freeway bridges before in my lifetime, it seems that many of us over time in the cold and rain were really just judging ourselves. After all, homelessness is relative to where you are and what you are willing to do about it. As long as I have my entrenching tool from my days in the infantry, I never consider myself without shelter when I'm able to cut it out of a hillside myself, even if everyone else wants to call me homeless. I simply call it "inexpensively getting out of the rain." Improvise, adapt, overcome... or not. It's a choice. If some see no choice in the matter, then that's their limitation, not mine. Maybe it's just evolution...— October 18, 2010 5:32 p.m.
Homeless People Drummed Out of San Diego's Downtown Library
I've seen the homeless transformation of the main Serra system library in downtown San Diego. I rarely venture there anymore, so I can't say what happens in there now. On the other hand, the homeless with alternative views on reality at the County Law Library were generally able to have enough legal research materials out to make it appear that they were properly using library resources. On the computers, there would be much typing of semi-legalistic rants to be mailed to one public official or another. Some would take to leaving detailed, densely-written cryptic notes in books to be found by others which, in some cases, required us to notify the police or FBI about possible terrorist activity, especially after 9-11. Others would demand special considerations and even "reserved office space" for them to do what they saw as serious legal scholarship for whatever alternative reasons they had in mind. These "researchers" would be amazingly irritated when lawyers or other library patrons needed the books that were being hoarded and used like bricks to wall themselves into corners... Now, the flashers, the skirt-chasers with female leg fetishes, and the crazies who threatened to bust down any interior glass doors: those were much more easy to get rid of or at least monitor effectively because of their past behavior... I left my shelver job before the security guards were hired some time after 9-11. When I use the law library now, things are much more under control with the guards now doing at least some of the re-shelving of books left out.— October 17, 2010 7:01 a.m.
A Family (Genovese) Affair?
RE "Looks like another pr piece for the FBI. There is a well documented history of FBI agents collaborating with the Mafia in the assassination of political activists...": I don't see the connection between KESSLER v. CITY OF SAN DIEGO and the federal COMMITTEE ON GOVERNMENT REFORM REPORT of February 2004. So far in the local matter, no bullet-riddled corpses have shown up... yet. With the related FOIA request leading to FBI releasing some documents relating to the KESSLER matter, there is a tangential reference to other investigations as previously blogged, but things in this local matter are twisted enough before introducing new things that most likely won't show any involvement of City of San Diego employees or anyone else deposed under oath in the KESSLER matter. Or maybe the City of San Diego needs more time to take discovery in order to prove me wrong here? In any case, there appears to be enough evidence to have a whistle-blower trial on wrongful termination. Right now, there's plenty to digest already on how that plays out in the weeks ahead... *** Something entirely different: Scuttlebutt sez many relatively highly-placed City employees are totally in the dark about any of this (an internal news blackout in the tower of power) until they saw "A Family (Genovese) Affair?" and a copy of the tentative order. One employee recommended I distribute tentative order copies at 202 C Street. Not me (not without hazardous duty pay... ;)— October 16, 2010 7:19 p.m.
A Family (Genovese) Affair?
RE "By stalling it off until after the election, and getting Prop. D passed, the City would have more money to cough up for sanctions.": Oh my... and all this time I was abelievin' them thar council folk and hiz honor that there was actual needful stuff like red shining fire engines with crews of four each that Prop. D was really supposed to pay for...— October 16, 2010 9:58 a.m.
Homeless People Drummed Out of San Diego's Downtown Library
RE "To be honest, other people, even the city council, don't owe Ms. McClellan a place to live. She needs to figure her own problems out and stay out of the library. It's a place to read, not a homeless shelter.": I am assuming that she is waiting for the City Council to provide Greyhound fare to Los Angeles as a gratuity. I happen to be a past-middle-aged man who has kept his relations with numerous local family members peaceful and productive... meaning that I am always ready to watch kids at a moment's notice. I have no real estate, no car, no personal assets to speak of other than old textbooks because they're useful for tutoring purposes (gotta raise bus fare somehow), but I never worry about being homeless. Even if I were homeless (a real possibility), I am clueful enough to know that since I am not a developer or other major campaign contributor, any appearance of mine before the City Council on homelessness issues would be laughed off by most of them as a useless publicity stunt. That's not my venue for that kind of whine. As a disabled veteran who COULD be homeless, I always keep an entrenching tool handy. I figure I could build me a hillside bunker somewhere secluded in Balboa Park without anybody finding me for a decent interval... apparently, I got at least one useful life-skill out of my time in the infantry. Oh... having worked a shelver at the County Law Library in the Justice Complex downtown, I do have stories about the odorous homeless persons with alternative views on reality who could never be permanently ousted because even the delusional homeless are allowed access to the law and legal library resources at a federal depository. On the other hand, watching an entire library floor evacuate because one person decided to take his wet shoes off and let his feet air out while napping was... memorable. If the lady wishes for the rest of us to tell her where to go, then my suggestion would be as above: Los Angeles. There is no compelling reason for her to stay here except her own choice. It's either that or start forming a line at the former WTC building downtown to await its opening as a homeless shelter sometime in the future...— October 16, 2010 6 a.m.
Tentative Ruling: Judge Won't Throw Out Kessler Suit
"You need to do tenatative rulings in order to allow the parties a chance to rebutt or refute the law the judge is ruling on. They are very helpful. Not all counties/courts have in CA "tenatative rulings" where you get a chance to see the courts view before the ruling becoems final- and it is a nightmare in those courts because the judge will ask if you want to argue any points, and you can't b/c you have no idea what the court is going to say or rule on. Then the judge will READ his ruling from the bench (and you wont have a copy of it) and you cannot argue it. So it is important to have the ruling released the day/week before and allow the parties a full and fair chance to argue the law. Having said that, it is extremely rare to have a tentative ruling reversed or even modified-but it does happen occassionally." ---- A darn good explanation. Surfpuppy619 should write a book on CALIFORNIA LAW & MOTION FOR DUMMIES. I really needed it before I botched my own opposition to MSJ last year. As a plaintiff without attorney, I seriously appreciated knowing we had lost the night before the hearing. It allowed me to surrender my sword with some dignity at the hearing the following morning while accepting Judge Hofmann's comments from the bench on the "herculean" public interest effort by non-lawyers despite our Prop. 65 enforcement loss.— October 15, 2010 2:46 p.m.
A Family (Genovese) Affair?
RE #4: There could be sanctions if Defendant City of San Diego is merely seeking additional discovery as a delaying tactic. This may be shown in a lack of new material evidence turned up in further discovery efforts by Defendant. Of course, we'd get stuck for that tab too...— October 15, 2010 2:30 p.m.
The Village Pig
I am really, really trying oh so hard not to make comparisons of the title to any current strong civic leader... Can't do it... gotta log off now!— October 15, 2010 2:10 p.m.
Tentative Ruling: Judge Won't Throw Out Kessler Suit
RE "[Details from tentative ruling] Oh my, KFC Sanders is going down for the 10 count. IF (a big if) there was ever ANY doubt Sanders is a slimeball, this removes it." I said there was juicy stuff in the details I did not post... RE not noticing Don Bauder's last blog post line on deposition already a done deal: the headline got me too excited to read all the way to the end...— October 15, 2010 1:59 p.m.