Posted 11:40 AM by Scoobie Davis

Recent Protests
San Diego is not a hotbed of political protest but the past couple days, I witnessed a few demonstrations. On Tuesday, when the Gropinator appeared at the Westgate Hotel, various groups—-mostly teacher and firefighter unions came out to picket him. One of the main groups there was Alliance for a Better California.

This morning I was on C Street and saw some members of Carpenters Local 1506 protesting Stock-Stephens contracting with Pacific Building Group for their new office. Apparently, Pacific Building Group uses non-union labor. Quick thought on unions: it’s going to be tough getting the vouchers I need to get into SAG if I’m not in LA but that's the price of not living in LA. I'll pay it.

Yesterday, due to the 2000th US military death in Iraq, there was a candlelight vigil outside of Horton Plaza. One of the groups that sponsored the vigil was United for Peace and Justice, one of the front groups along with the ANSWER Coalition that exploits concerns that Americans have about Bush administration foreign policy blunders and misconduct to advance their Stalinist agenda. That’s what I find so noxious about these fringe groups on the hard left: they exploit popular issues and portray themselves as pro-peace but have a record of being pro-war—-siding with whomever is fighting the United States (click here--okay, okay, it was written by Snitchens but he's right in this instance). What the Bush gang did to lead to the war in Iraq was horrible, boneheaded, dishonest, and certainly rises to the level of being a high crime and misdemeanor but that’s not the reason why the ANSWER Coalition and United for Peace and Justice are opposed to the war. They want the United States to be defeated.