Sylvia's Soapbox

SYLVIA'S SOAPBOX: THE ZIMMERMAN JURY DROPPED THE BALL

 

By Sylvia Hampton

August 6, 2013 (San Diego’s East County) -- I did not watch every minute of the George Zimmerman trial, but I did see the closing arguments and enough testimony to get the basic evidence against him and the arguments from the defense.  I was convinced the jury would take the hint from the judge and find him guilty of manslaughter. Most talking heads have missed an important key to why the verdict came down as “not guilty” and that was the fact that the most powerful personality on the six-women jury turned out to be wrong, biased, and she pressured and got a unanimous vote. The hold-outs caved to her pressure because they were intimidated, I believe.


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SYLVIA’S SOAPBOX: WHO CHEATS IN ELECTIONS? VOTERS OR MASTERMINDS BEHIND THE MACHINES?

 

By Sylvia  Hampton
 
May 15, 2012 (San Diego) -- Thirty states (not California) have enacted laws that require a photo-ID in order to vote. These laws are a violation of the Voting Rights Act and are unconstitutional, so they are always challenged in court. But right now---for this election, meet a woman in South Carolina: an 82 year old black woman who has been a registered voter in South Carolina since the Voting Rights Act was passed into law, has no government issued photo ID because she has always used public transportation and her birth certificate, (tucked into the family Bible) from Mississippi was lost in a fire---so she can’t vote.

 


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SYLVIA’S SOAPBOX: THE WAR ON POOR AND NEEDY WOMEN ONLY; THE REST OF US ARE FINE

 

By Sylvia Hampton
 
April 27, 2012 (San Diego’s East County)--The current “war on women” is really nothing new. Like all wars, its root causes are money and power. Eve was blamed for the “fall of man” in the Bible so it was easy for the early Church to keep women “in their place” as temptresses and troublemakers. Which meant that it was OK for the men to have all the power and control all the money. But the one thing they could not control was the key to the future---childbirth. And so women are today, as usual, fighting to control when they will become pregnant and have children. Especially if they have little or no money. How dare they.

 


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SYLVIA’S SOAPBOX: 5 QUESTIONS FOR CONGRESSMAN DUNCAN HUNTER AS THE 112TH CONGRESSIONAL SESSION BEGINS

 

By Sylvia Hampton

 

January 19, 2012 (San Diego)--The constituents of the 52nd Congressional district are pleased that the majority party in the House has pledged to be open and fair in dealing with the crucial issues facing our nation today. We are also pleased to learn that cutting waste, fraud and abuse in the budget is your top concern. Therefore we ask the following questions to see if you, as our representative, are firmly behind these pledges and will vote to fulfill these promises. We thank you for sharing your answers with us.


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SYLVIA'S SOAPBOX: CARLY FIORINA'S PLAN TO CONTINUE TAX CUTS FOR THE SUPER-RICH & CREATE JOBS...IN INDIA

 

By Sylvia Hampton

 

September 26, 2010 (San Diego) -- As the CEO of Hewlett Packard, Carly Fiorina told the world that giving high-tech jobs to foreign workers using H-1B status nonimmigrant visas was just part of the reality of globalization. Fiorina likes cheap labor. The woman she hopes to unseat, United States Senator Barbara Boxer, understands that preparing our own students to take these jobs is the better way to go. That is because Boxer sees the big picture while Firorina only looked at the bottom line for her company, Hewlett Packard. That is the company whose board of directors had to pay her over $20,000,000 just to get rid of her.

 

The company stock shot up on the news that Fiorina was ousted. So why would anyone want to vote for Fiorina instead of Boxer?


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SYLVIA’S SOAPBOX: GET THE FACTS ON MEDICARE AND THE NEW HEALTH-REFORM LAW

DON'T BELIEVE DECEPTIVE POLITICAL ADS, FACTCHECK.ORG WARNS CONSUMERS
By Sylvia Hampton


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SYLVIA'S SOAPBOX: SUPPORT COMMUNITY GARDENS

 

Petition calls on City to help residents start community gardens

By Sylvia Hampton

 


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SYLVIA'S SOAPBOX: OUR DIEGUITO RIVER PARK IS IN DANGER

 

By Sylvia Hampton

 

July 9, 2010 (San Diego) -- One of our most prized regional achievements and treasures in San Diego County is the San Dieguito River Park, located in our back yard. When Mayor Sander’s budget was approved by the San Diego City Council recently it included cutting $254,000 annual contribution to the river park, which is 36% of the park’s budget.

 


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SYLVIA'S SOAPBOX: WHO BENEFITS MOST FROM OUTSOURCING, MR. DEMAIO?

 

 

July 7, 2010 (San Diego) -- I think if it were possible to outsource firefighting to China some would say “go for it.”

San Diego District 5 City Councilman Carl DeMaio, the councilman for Rancho Bernardo, Carmel Mountain Ranch, Sabre Springs, Scripps Ranch and Mira Mesa, thought he delivered the necessary thousands of signatures to the city clerk in support of a ballot initiative called "Competition and Transparency in City Contracting." He and the supporters said the ballot measure would promote outsourcing of city services and save the city money. The supporters of the DeMaio initiative are mostly building contractors.


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SYLVIA'S SOAPBOX: THE GOOD IDEA FOR HEALTHCARE FROM REPUBLICANS--& HOW IT GOT TURNED ON ITS HEAD

 

 

By Sylvia Hampton

 

March 7, 2010 (San Diego)--When the health reform discussion turned into a three ring circus last summer on the wave of words and statements like “death panels will kill granny,” an important fact got lost in the shuffle. The idea for family counseling programs with doctors on end-of-life care was brought forth by the insurance companies and added to the mix by a Republican congressman. It made so much sense to the Democrats that they included it in the bill.


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SYLVIA'S SOAPBOX: SCHOOLS DEAL WITH DIRTY DANCING, AMONG OTHER THINGS

 

By Sylvia Hampton

 

November 7, 2009 (San Diego)--Every parent and school official in the nation, upon reading about the gang-rape of a 15-year-old girl outside her homecoming dance by boys and men from age 15 to 21, was shocked and outraged. Who was responsible? Where did she get the liquor? Why was she allowed to leave the campus in a drunken state? Where were her friends? Who do we blame? How can we prevent these things from happening? And those boys and men. Where do these creatures come from?


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SYLVIA’S SOAPBOX: SENATOR MAX BAUCUS GIVES AID AND COMFORT TO….THE INSURANCE COMPANIES

 

By Sylvia Hampton

October 11, 2009 (San Diego)--After all the right-wing screaming at town hall meetings that “government run health care“ would kill granny and throw the country into a communist state, we find from a recent New York Times/CBS News poll that 65% favor a public option plan to compete with private for-profit insurance companies.

 

But the powerful Democratic Senator from Montana, Max Baucus, Chair of the powerful Senate Finance Committee caved into the powerful insurance lobby and his bill has no public option---just a mandate that everyone buy insurance and anyone who doesn’t gets fined. Baucus reported $1,763,799 in donations from the health industry for just his last election.


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SYLVIA'S SOAPBOX: THE CALIFORNIA BUDGET MESS


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SYLVIA’S SOAPBOX: HOMEOWNERS REVOLT AGAINST HOA’S LAWN RULES AMID WATER SHORTAGE

Learn How to Weather the Water Challenge at Earth Day April 19 By Sylvia Hampton April 1, 2009 (San Diego)--San Diego County’s biggest environmental challenge is WATER. We live in a desert but act like we live on a tropical island. Our supply is decreasing while our population is increasing. Climate Change is not helping. When we bought a new home in 1996, my husband and I were told we had to have a grass lawn or we would be in violation of the code of conduct for Scripps Ranch residents. Our neighbor across the street ignored that and put in a smart drought-resistant landscape.


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SYLVIA'S SOAPBOX: BRACE FOR OUR NATIONAL IMPACT

By Sylvia Hampton March 15, 2009 (San Diego)--When the Hudson River landing pilot Capt. Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger ordered "brace for impact" he was in the process of doing his job the best he could. It was up to the co-pilot, air-traffic controller, flight attendants, rescue workers and passengers to do the rest. The pilots were perfect. The flight attendants, like the pilots, went into automatic mode as the result of their training. Passengers in the front of the plane (where first class, business class and frequent fliers usually sit) followed instructions and performed very well.


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SYLVIA'S SOAPBOX -- SNAP

Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program Food Stamps are a "SNAP."
But Not in San Diego County

By Sylvia Hampton

Sylvia's SoapboxFebruary
1, 2009 (San Diego) —
After the embarrassing front-page news
that San Diego County has only one in five people who need food supplements
enrolled to receive them (the worst enrollment record of any county in the
nation) the supervisors are finally paying attention. They voted to find ways
to streamline and improve access to the food supplement program and county
administrators will report back to the board within 90 days with changes that
can be made.


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SYLVIA'S SOAPBOX - HELLO? CAN YOU HEAR ME NOW?

Why are there 261 cell phone antennas within 4 miles of my house?

By Sylvia Hampton

Sylvia's SoapboxWe have a virtual hailstorm of problems from state and local finances to global
warming and limited resources.  So forgive me---here's one more that I
was ignoring until my daughter got involved in the issue recently:  The
radiation health damage from cell phone antennas and other wireless transmissions.
Researchers are finding possible links to things like autism and cancer to
the disappearance of honey bees (who are responsible for about one third of
our food supply.)  So I guess we need to pay attention.  Here are
some facts and resources my daughter found and passed along to me: 


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Sylvia's Soapbox --” DOCTOR, PATIENT MISTAKES CAN BE DEADLY AND EXPENSIVE

By Sylvia Hampton

Sylvia's SoapboxAs I write this, my daughter’s relative by marriage and close friend
is in a Los Angeles hospital intensive care unit fighting for her life at age
46. The family told my daughter the following story:

“Peggy” (not her real name) had been feeling ill for some time
with abdominal pain that her doctor thought was from the uterine fibroids they
knew she had. The doctor was considering a hysterectomy to correct the problem.
When her pain and complaints worsened she was told to take ibuprofen. This
did not help and when she later could not get a call-back from the doctor,
in frustration, she increased the dose herself to a dangerous level. The pain
got so bad after a day or two that she ended up in the emergency room where
she was diagnosed with diverticulitis, an inflammation of the colon, which
was missed during the earlier office visit. Did she have an elevated temperature?
Was that checked?


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Sylvia's Soapbox - Duncan the great white Hunter

Wildebeest hunt bags a Congressman
By Sylvia Hampton

Sylvia's Soapbox

Our congressman Duncan Hunter (R-52nd district) is leaving his congressional
seat to his son. Sort of an inheritance or royalty passed on to the next generation
like in England. Since Duncan D. Hunter, the son, has the same name his election
should be like shooting fish in a barrel. But before Hunter senior leaves that
throne he hoped to squeeze in a great overseas exotic hunting trip paid for
by the taxpayers. To do that the trip needs to be official government business.
Like feeding the starving! That should do it! Oh, darn. Looks like that won’t
work out, thanks to those big blabber mouths at the Embassy in Chad. As they
say in the comic books, “Foiled again!”


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