Full disclosure: I work for the Courage Campaign

As of yesterday, Blackwater is back to desperately trying to play pariah.  They’re accusing San Diego of disobeying a court order by…closely adhering to the court order. Blackwater’s complaint is that the city is improperly delaying the final permit needed for the Otay Mesa training facility because of a recent letter from San Diego’s chief building official that “placed 64 conditions on the final permit for a ship simulator, including wheelchair access.”

The Blackwater argument- sad, desperate, and incoherent as it is- is that because a judge’s decision pre-empted the City Council from reviewing Blackwater’s permits and restricted the permits to ministerial review, a ministerial review from the relevant city department is improper. City Attorney Mike Aguirre clarified that these decisions “are being made by the professional staff using their own good-faith judgment.” Just what Blackwater asked for and received.

Basically, how dare you give me what I want and have it turn out to be undesirable. Blackwater is apparently unfamiliar with The Monkey Paw, but will soon hopefully learn that getting what you ask for isn’t always the same as getting what you want.

But for a company that’s so desperate to adhere to local laws, Blackwater seems mighty resistant to adhering to relevant state and local regulations. Maybe it’s because they won’t be able to violate federal laws if they can’t first violate state and local laws.

Either way, Blackwater’s blatant disregard for local regulation was bound to cause them trouble eventually. They managed for now (there’s an appeal pending) to avoid allowing the public to decide if they’d like accused murderers and arms smugglers in their community. They’ve managed to dance around countless laws and basic morals from Iraq to Afghanistan to New Orleans. But it doesn’t get them everywhere, and now people are paying attention. Blackwater admitted up front and city officials confirmed that the misleading shell companies used to apply for city permits were used to fly under the radar of city employees and local activists, but the cat is out of the bag and now people will notice if the city fudges on any letter of the law. Too bad for Blackwater if they can’t operate within the law.

Disclosure: I work for the Courage Campaign which has worked on the Blackwater issue, but these opinions are my own.

Earlier this week, I asked What the Hell happened in San Diego in the June 3 election. I explored a particularly underwhelming electoral performance and noted that there was a massive failure of leadership from the city’s elected Democrats (active and retired). Councilmember Donna Frye supported GOP mayoral challenger Steve Francis and Council President Scott Peters ran against the Democratic incumbent City Attorney Mike Aguirre. Incidentally, both Francis and Peters failed to make it to the November runoff.

Then yesterday it happened again. Councilmember Ben Hueso, who in May was rallying to Block Blackwater in his council district, announced his endorsement of Republican city attorney candidate Jan Goldsmith. This is particularly notable because Goldsmith’s opponent is incumbent Mike Aguirre. Aguirre has been a champion for the city in the fight to force Blackwater’s permits into public hearing at a time when a number of other city leaders have…attended a rally and then thrown up their hands.

If Jan Goldsmith as City Attorney would go to bat over Blackwater or any other number of issues that might be uncomfortable for the Mayor or inconvenient for the City Council, I would be absolutely flabbergasted. The campaign, like every other challenge to Aguirre this year, has been centered around a promise to sit down and shut up. The last thing this city needs is another elected official who doesn’t have the necessary combination of power and motivation to force important issues.

As the UT newsblog notes, Hueso and Aguirre have never exactly been close. And Aguirre has taken a lot of flack throughout his term as City Attorney for his rabid pursuit of Mayor Jerry Sanders for all manner of scandal- real or imagined. But as Councilmember Hueso well knows because he’s at the meetings, the City Council hasn’t exactly put on a clinic when it comes to keeping mayoral power checked by the legislative branch. Fighting the good fight has consistently taken a back seat over the past two and a half years to misguided “pragmatism” that largely allowed Mayor Sanders to get anything he wanted.

So what we’re left with is Ben Hueso surveying this scene- Mayor Sanders re-elected to a second term with what CW will term a convincing mandate (it’s not, the turnout was too low to carry a mandate) and a City Council that will likely go from a narrow Democratic advantage to an even split, further neutering a body that had given itself over to the inevitability of the Strong Mayor government- and deciding that the best thing for the city is that the single dissonant voice of any weight in the city government should be replaced by, as the UT put it,

Hueso said the city attorney’s political persuasion is less important to him than getting “the best legal advice.”

If the Democratic Party in San Diego is ever going to be able to capitalize on the tremendous infrastructure building being done at the precinct and street-corner level, leading Democrats need to stop undercutting both their party and basic points of fundamental governance at every opportunity.

What happened in San Diego? Ben Hueso and destructive politics like this happened.

Full disclosure: I work for the Courage Campaign

Adapted from a post at the Courage Campaign blog.

Like so many others in California, The Courage Campaign has long championed the battle for affordable and accessible health care. It’s why Courage joined with a diverse coalition asking Terry McAuliffe to please don’t do it as we approach his high-priced speaking engagement in San Francisco for insurance executives tomorrow. And it’s why Courage partnered with the California Nurses Association and Senator Sheila Kuehl today to introduce our new “Insurance Jive” ad.

We’ve all been touched in one way or another by the catastrophic failure of the private insurance system.  Whether it’s ourselves, our family or friends, or diarists like CarlsbadDem, we’ve all seen the results of too many people sick and injured without recourse.  Heck, providing for the common welfare is right there in the Preamble to the Constitution. Like the ad says, it doesn’t have to be this way. The move for reasonable access to quality health care is growing stronger by the day and we need to keep up the momentum. The first $6,000 raised by the Courage Campaign via the ad’s ActBlue page will be matched by the California Nurses Association and Sen. Sheila Kuehl in order to get this ad on the air in San Francisco in the next 48 hours.

Earlier today, Rick Jacobs emailed Courage subscribers about the ad explaining just how much is at stake and and how much a small contribution to air this ad can accomplish:

Have you been dropped, denied or delayed?

Patsy Bates was dropped. Health Net canceled — or “rescinded” — Patsy’s health insurance policy after this 52-year-old grandmother was diagnosed with breast cancer, forcing Patsy to halt chemotherapy for several months while piling up $129,000 in medical bills.

Unbelievable? Actually, the Patsy Bates case may be just scratching the surface. The Department of Managed Health Care is now reviewing thousands of other “rescissions” made by five major insurers operating in California: Health Net, Kaiser Permanente, Anthem Blue Cross, Blue Shield of California and PacifiCare.

We were so moved by Patsy’s story that we decided to create a 30-second TV ad for other people like Patsy who have been dropped, denied or delayed by their health insurance carrier in California.

But our television ad is not what you might expect. It’s not traditional. Or typical. It’s called “Insurance Jive” and it features a nurse (actor Beth Broderick of “Lost”) who — reminiscent of the Barbara Billingsley character in the 1980 movie “Airplane” — translates insurance jargon for a hospital patient and her husband.

Sounds funny, right? Well, “Insurance Jive” also packs a punch.

That’s why, together, the California Nurses Association and State Senator Sheila Kuehl have pledged to match the first $6,000 donated to place this powerful ad on the air in San Francisco in the next 48 hours — just as thousands of health insurance executives gather in the city for their annual convention.

Please watch “Insurance Jive” now and — if you like it — consider contributing what you can afford on ActBlue to help us make the $6,000 challenge match from CNA and Senator Kuehl:

http://www.couragecampaign.org/InsuranceJive

In the case of Patsy Bates, the good news is that a judge recently ordered Health Net to pay Patsy a whopping $9 million in mostly punitive damages.

But her victory is a rare blow to an industry that routinely seeks to profit at the expense — and physical well-being — of its customers. For example, according to the Los Angeles Times, Patsy’s lawsuit revealed that Health Net had “linked cancellations to employee performance goals,” an illegal policy that helped drive more than $35 million in denied claims between 2003 and 2006.

Fortunately, Los Angeles City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo has initiated a lawsuit and criminal investigation into Health Net’s decisions to drop, deny or delay health care, asserting that:

Countless Californians who believe they have insurance actually have policies that aren’t worth the paper they’re printed on. At a patient’s most vulnerable moment, the insurance company won’t pay for care, or will cancel the policy altogether. Industry schemes to maximize profits at the expense of patients are unfair and unlawful, and they must be stopped.

Rocky Delgadillo is talking to these corporations in a language they can easily understand: “lawsuit”. That’s why we created “Insurance Jive” to spread the word about the City Attorney’s helpful website for consumers.

Please watch this powerful new 30-second ad now. If you like it, please consider making a contribution on our ActBlue page so that we can put it on the air in San Francisco in the next 48 hours, for thousands of health insurance executives to see:

http://www.couragecampaign.org/InsuranceJive

We know this ad is provocative. And we know our letter to former DNC Chair Terry McAuliffe — in which 9,201 citizens asked him not to speak at, or take a speaking fee from, the AHIP (America’s Health Insurance Plans) convention — was provocative as well.

But we think it’s about time these powerful people were held accountable so that, in the future, seriously ill people like Patsy Bates do not end up in the “rescinded” column on a corporate spreadsheet.

If you agree, please forward this message to your friends right now. We don’t have much time to get this ad on the air while Terry McAuliffe and thousands of health insurance executives are gathering together in San Francisco.

Thank you, again, for helping us make 2008 a new era for progressive politics in California.

Rick Jacobs

Chair

P.S. As Senator Kuehl said in our press release: “The time is long past for insurance companies to stop killing and hurting people by refusing to pay for coverage. Until we get a single-payer system, we need Rocky Delgadillo and other leaders to stand up to the insurance industry with the full force of the law.”

We couldn’t agree more with Senator Kuehl. That’s why we created “Insurance Jive” and why we need your help to make the $6,000 challenge match she is making together with CNA. Please take 30 seconds to watch the ad and consider making a contribution on ActBlue to put it on the air ASAP:

http://www.couragecampaign.org/InsuranceJive

Very glad to hear from Jess Durfee and the San Diego Democratic Party on this issue. Originally posted as a comment in What the Hell Happened in San Diego?, it deserves its own post (with light formatting adjustments).

David Washburn’s slap at the San Diego County Democratic Party in the Voice of San Diego does readers a disservice, to say the least. I’ll cite just a few examples where more serious analysis would have helped.

Consider this year’s mayoral race, in which a Republican challenger spent $4.5 million to promote himself as a kind of progressive independent. He couldn’t even force a runoff against the incumbent.

As the “Voice” has reported in the past, incumbent mayors in the City of San Diego are virtually never unseated. So who is really “openly wondering why established Dems didn’t jump in” – other than a writer trying to justify a story?

The glib comparison to a special election for Congress in Mississippi doesn’t shed much light on the political reality in San Diego.

The passing reference to Republican “financial support from the downtown business establishment” understates the huge fundraising disadvantage that our community-minded candidates often face. The fact is that Democrats remain competitive and are building momentum in those races, despite being outspent by 2-to-1 or 10-to-1 or more.

San Diego isn’t the only area where the kind of low turnout seen on June 3 strongly favored our opponents. But our City Council candidate placed first in District 1, where Republicans still lead in party registration. In District 7 our candidate virtually tied to force a runoff for a seat that has always been dismissed as out of reach for Democrats.

This November, when turnout will be more than double what we saw in the Primary, Democrats will enjoy a very different playing field. We’re also looking forward to demonstrating the actual infrastructure we’re building, from data management and professional staffing to a robust training program for our growing army of volunteers. Unfortunately, this story is long on quotes from armchair analysts and short on facts that might show a more balanced view.

Take the instance where Washburn writes: “Another piece of conventional wisdom holds that the local GOP does a better job targeting absentee voters.” Had he checked, he would have found that the early voting rate among Democrats countywide in June was actually slightly higher than for Republicans.

Campaigns are indeed primarily candidate-driven. But by any measure, the County Democratic Party is vastly further developed than it was even four years ago. We have undertaken a long-term program that will bear fruit over multiple electoral cycles, helping Democratic candidates at every level.

This year’s separate Presidential Primary was one of many factors skewing the June results. But in February, the majority of the vote here went to Democrats, even in some of the county’s most conservative districts.

While some aspects of our plan may take longer than others to materialize, it would be a mistake to ignore the signs of a real “new era in San Diego politics” that a more thoughtful study of the underlying trends would suggest.

By November, Democrats may actually have a countywide plurality thanks to our unprecedented voter registration program and our inspirational Presidential candidate. When we translate those numbers into local victories, I hope the Voice will take the time to set the record straight.

Jess Durfee,

Chair

San Diego County Democratic Party

At Voice of San Diego today, David Washburn asks Where are the Democrats?

It’s a question that I’ve been contemplating and broaching in conversations since June 3 which was, to put it mildly, a disaster for Democrats of San Diego. In a Democratic majority city, the official mayoral nominee of the Democratic Party received 6.3% of the vote. The contested Democratic primary in the 50th Congressional District received in total just 70% of the votes that incumbent Rep. Brian Bilbray received running unopposed. In the 52rd district, Democratic candidates combined for 81% of the total received by Duncan Hunter Jr. himself in a four-way primary.

Not a single Democratic challenger to the Board of Supervisors reached 30% of the vote. One fresh face was added to the Unified School Board- running unopposed. Democrats could not force a runoff in all four City Council races or reach 50% in any, leaving a very real possibility that Dems will lose control of the nominally non-partisan Council in November. Dems in the race for City Attorney split the vote three ways, allowing Republican Jan Goldsmith to slide into pole position for the November runoff against incumbent Mike Aguirre who clocked in at under 29%. Heck, the Chair of the San Diego Democratic Party came in 7th in a vote-for-six race for Central Committee (and then won a DNC spot over the weekend). I could go on.

Each of these races on their own might be justified. But when it represents the entire strength that the San Diego Democratic Party can muster in the midst of a pro-Democratic tide across the country larger than anyone has seen in decades, it’s cause for concern. So what happened? Washburn offers a few thoughts as do I:

One of the most glaring issues is money. As Washburn notes,

In the just-finished primary, the Democratic Party spent $35,000 on direct mail and other support of Stephen Whitburn. His chief competition for the District 3 seat came from two other Democrats — Todd Gloria and John Hartley. Gloria and Whitburn made the runoff.

“Why would you spend a penny on that race?” asked Andy Berg, the director of government relations for the National Electrical Contractors Association and a Democrat. “Gloria and Whitburn would likely vote the same (on council) 100 out of 100 times.”

Meanwhile, Berg noted, Democrats are in dogfights against well-funded Republicans in Districts 1 and 7. The party spent nearly $70,000 in the primary to support Marti Emerald and oppose Boling in District 7. The GOP spent more than $200,000 in that race.

In District 1, the funding disparity is starker. The Democratic Party spent just more than $5,000 supporting Sherri Lightner in a race against Thalheimer and Marshall Merrifield, Republicans who combined raised more than $700,000, most of it coming out of their own pockets.

In the mayoral race, the GOP spent $230,000 on Sanders while the Democrats spent $1,869 on [Democratic nominee Floyd] Morrow.

I should note that District 1 is current represented by Democrat and City Council President Scott Peters, so losing that seat could mean losing control of the Council.

Current state GOP Chair Ron Nehring came up in San Diego, where with unlimited national-level resources he rebuilt the SD GOP with a focus on infrastructure and electoral victory, leaving ideology as incidental. As designed, it has almost completely eliminated the ability of local Democrats to win or often contest elections- which makes the ideological debate moot since…well…there isn’t one.

One wonders what exactly the point is of even nominating someone for Mayor if there will be no support at all. The most prominent Democrats in San Diego looked past Morrow, with former state Sen. Dede Alpert, former Assemblywoman Lucy Killea and former Rep. Lynn Schenk endorsing Jerry Sanders and Councilmember Donna Frye doing everything but endorsing GOP challenger Steve Francis. There’s a time and a place for pragmatism, but completely giving up on even having a debate of the issues that ranges outside the far right-to-center right continuum should be embarrassing. If we can’t even talk about these issues in an election, when are we gonna do it?

Washburn goes on to touch on another issue that I’ve discussed many times with local Democrats: Where the hell are the candidates and the infrastructure? Lorena Gonzalez lost an exceptionally tight race for City Council in 2006 in a district that covers beach communities and downtown urbanites that should be favorable for a Democrat:

“Here we have a Stanford-educated woman with brilliant ideas and Democratic ideals — she epitomized what the party is about,” Berg said. “And [the party] couldn’t muster the support to win a City Council race.”

Gonzalez, who is now the secretary-treasurer of the San Diego-Imperial Counties Labor Council, said she felt, to a degree, like she was on her own during the race.

“Speaking as a candidate, we don’t have the same infrastructure that the GOP has,” said Gonzalez, who estimates she was outspent 7-to-1 in the race. “And there have been no real attempts to create an infrastructure and professionalize the party.”

Gonzalez might be going a bit further than I would there, because the SD Dems and Chair Jess Durfee have in fact been making tremendous strides recently. Indeed, Washburn notes “Since taking over as chairman four years ago, Durfee said he has increased the organization’s budget from $60,000 to $300,000. Also, he said, and the party has gone from having no field operations at all, to more than 700 trained precinct leaders in the county.”

That’s a darn good start, and one that should be commended. But when the money is being misallocated, when candidates don’t feel like they’ll be supported by a vigorous infrastructure, and when leading figures in the party check out and throw their lot in with the GOP under the guise of some cop-out notion of pragmatism that simply justifies the opposing point of view, there’s been a fundamental and catastrophic breakdown.

The infrastructure that is beginning to take root here is encouraging, but remain small steps in the right direction. These few encouraging steps are more than outweighed by the colossal “DNP” on the coaches’ scorecard for prominent Democrats throughout the County. If they weren’t busy with in-fighting, they flat did not show up. And with that kind of leadership, building from the ground up- even in times as conducive as these- becomes a herculean task. If June 3rd’s results are any indication, local Democrats won’t be done wandering in the wilderness any time soon.

I work for the Courage Campaign

This is a year unlike any in recent memory for the prospects of progressive progress and reform. There’s an opportunity to take huge steps towards fixing the damage done by the Bush Administration and make positive change towards a country that simply takes better care of its citizens.

But as Democrats, we’re going to have a much tougher time getting there if we don’t all travel together. Which is why, with millions of Americans unable to get basic health care, it’s so distressing that former DNC Chair Terry McAuliffe is cashing a big check from the insurance companies in San Francisco June 19.

We know all too well that insurance companies don’t spend a dime on actually providing health care to the sick and injured if they can help it, which is why it’s such a concern that McAuliffe is willing to accept this money that should be spent on medical treatment.

But, not surprisingly, Rick Jacobs said it much better than I ever could earlier today:

This is personal.

I was quite surprised when I learned that Terry McAuliffe was going to appear at a major convention of health insurance corporations in San Francisco on June 19.

After all, how could the former Chair of the Democratic National Committee show up as a guest of health insurance executives — much less accept any money for his appearance at the AHIP (America’s Health Insurance Plans) convention? This appearance seems inappropriate at best, especially after Barack Obama and Howard Dean courageously directed the Democratic National Committee last week to reject contributions from lobbyists, including the health insurance industry.

And now it’s personal. My sister, who suffers from severe and rapidly deteriorating hearing loss, just told me that she has been denied useful health care coverage. Again. Why? Because her hearing problems have been diagnosed as a “pre-existing condition,” precluding her from receiving cochlear implants so she can hear again.

The last I checked, being able to hear is not “optional” medical care. Unfortunately, my sister is one of over 100 million Americans who either have no health insurance coverage or are underinsured. My entire family worries about her, but the system is designed by these health insurance executives to keep her out — not to help her.

I know Terry McAuliffe. When I was the California chair of Howard Dean’s presidential campaign in 2003-04, I interacted with Terry on a number of occasions. While we have differences of opinion from time to time, I think he might listen if enough people appeal to him and the morals and values the Democratic Party is supposed to represent.

So, I wrote a letter to Terry McAuliffe. The simple message: “Just don’t do it, Terry. Don’t go to the AHIP convention and please don’t accept a speaking fee.” Can you add your name to my letter so that we can deliver as many signatures to Terry McAuliffe as possible on Tuesday?

http://www.couragecampaign.org/TerryMcAuliffe

Here’s an excerpt from my letter to Terry:

“Did you know that Assurant Health — listed as the sole sponsor of your joint AHIP speaking appearance with former Bush spokesperson Dan Bartlett — was just fined $3 million by the state of Connecticut for illegally denying care to hundreds of patients? That is just one example of how the health insurance racket in America has a death grip on our health care system. Using nearly unlimited resources from our monthly premium payments, it has single-handedly blocked every health care reform proposal in recent years, including “Medicare for All” or single-payer health care.

No Democrat, least of all the former Chair of the Democratic National Committee, should support these corporations by appearing on their stage, and no progressive should allow himself to be paid in blood money “earned” by withholding treatment from sick patients.”

I know that’s strong language. But it’s the truth.

If you agree, please join me, the Courage Campaign and the California Nurses Association in asking Terry McAuliffe not to appear at — or take a speaking fee from — the AHIP convention on June 19. We need you, your friends and your family to sign this letter now so that we can deliver thousands of signatures to him on Tuesday:

http://www.couragecampaign.org/TerryMcAuliffe

You know who else will be at this convention, lending their “legitimacy” to this cabal of health insurance executives? Bill Frist, the former Republican Senate Majority Leader. And Tommy Thompson, President Bush’s former Secretary of Health and Human Services.

Of course, there’s no point in asking Dr. Frist and Mr. Thompson not to show up, given that they oppose health care reforms that would restrict the role of, or remove, the insurance industry from the management and delivery of health care. But I hope that Terry McAuliffe decides, on behalf of my sister and everyone else who suffers from the callous policies of greedy insurance companies, to stay away from the AHIP convention.

If you agree, please forward this message to your friends now. We don’t have much time to collect thousands of signatures to remind Terry of the first rule of health care: “first, do no harm.”

Thanks, again, for doing everything in your power to make 2008 a new era for progressive politics in California.

Rick Jacobs

Chair

P.S. It’s time to take a stand for universal health care and against health insurance corporations. That’s why thousands of Californians will be protesting outside the AHIP convention at Moscone Center in San Francisco, starting at noon on June 19.

Led by our friends at the California Nurses Association, a strong coalition of health care organizations and reformers will gather outside the convention, rallying to support H.R. 767 and S.B. 840 — federal and state bills supporting single-player health care. To find out more about this rally, as well as sign my letter to Terry McAuliffe, please click here:

http://www.couragecampaign.org/TerryMcAuliffe

Disclosure: I work for the Courage Campaign

There’s a protest from 3-5pm today at Blackwater’s new Otay Mesa facility, and tomorrow Jeremy Scahill will be doing a special Courage Campaign Conversation tomorrow afternoon at 4pm.

In a little noticed vote yesterday, the Merida Initiative passed easily through the House of Representatives 311-106. It provides $1.6 billion with an emphasis on training and equipment to fight drug cartels in Mexico, the Caribbean and Central America, because as Rep. Brian Bilbray explained:

“Either we can go after these cartels in Ensenada, or we can fight them in Escondido,” said Rep. Brian Bilbray (R-Carlsbad), who voted for the plan. “I’d prefer that we move now and take care of this problem south of the border. The drug wars in Mexico and in other regions have grown horrendously violent, and their destructive ways must be quashed.”

It’s tough to directly take issue with any of that, but where does it lead? Potentially to some unpleasant places. In September, the Defense Department opened up five year contracts in support of counter-narcoterrorism efforts to five private companies, including Blackwater USA. “The indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity contract could be worth up to $15 billion for the awardees.” The Army Times analyzed the content of the contracts, describing:

a series of task orders covering a wide range of products and services. These could include anti-drug technologies and equipment, special vehicles and aircraft, communications, security training, pilot training, geographic information systems, and in-field support.

Now back up for a second and compare that to the State Department description of the Merida Initiative:

   *  Non-intrusive inspection equipment, ion scanners and canine units for Mexico and Central America to interdict trafficked drugs, arms, cash and persons.

   * Technologies to improve and secure communications systems that collect criminal information in Mexico.

   * Technical advice and training to strengthen the institutions of justice – vetting for the new police force, case management software to track investigations through the system, new offices of citizen complaints and professional responsibility, and witness protection programs to Mexico.

   * Helicopters and surveillance aircraft to support interdiction activities and rapid response of law enforcement agencies to Mexico.

   * Equipment, training and community action programs in Central American countries to implement anti-gang measures and expand the reach of these measures.

Quite a bit of overlap. However, in a May 22 press release from Blackwater, it asserted

What it isn’t. Critics of the project have used blatant fabrications —       claiming that the facility will be used for border security or immigration purposes — to build support for their opposition of the facility. The proposed facility will be used for training alone…

This might be comforting if there was any reason at all actually trust Blackwater’s integrity. As just one example, Post-Katrina investigations by expert Jeremy Scahill discovered that Blackwater deployed to New Orleans without a government contract. They just showed up, fully armed, and went to work of their own accord. Leaving aside local San Diego concerns (where private firefighters are already being used to combat wildfires), Blackwater’s contempt for law and oversight in New Orleans is hardly an isolated incident. When Blackwater mercenaries killed 17 civilians in Baghdad’s Nusoor Square,

the first U.S. soldiers to arrive on the scene have told military investigators that they found no evidence the contractors were fired upon, a source familiar with a preliminary U.S. military report told CNN.

The soldiers found evidence suggesting the guards fired on cars that were trying to leave, and found that weapon casings on the scene matched only those used by U.S. military and contractors.

Yet there have been no successful prosecutions and Blackwater’s contracts with the U.S. government continue to grow and it’s existing Iraq contracts renewed. Why? Because every time a government function is outsourced, the capacity (at least short term) for the government to retake that responsibility is lost. Which means that without dramatic top-down action (the Stop Outsourcing Security Act would be a good start), every step forward by Blackwater is one that’s exceptionally difficult to take back.

Which circles back to San Diego in a number of ways. If Blackwater establishes itself locally, it’s exceptionally difficult to push them out again. With a local base of operations, not only are they positioned for “narcoterrorism” contracting and unauthorized deployments on the streets of downtown San Diego, but it’s a base of marketing operations for what Blackwater itself describes as a private CIA offering “surveillance and countersurveillance, deployed intelligence collection, and rapid safeguarding of employees or other key assets.”  In a land of Minutemen and giant contracts for virtual border fences that “failed to perform as expected,” outside-the-law private intelligence organizations are unlikely to help anything.

Activists are keeping up the fight in San Diego, but this is not a local issue. The Bush Administration and its allies have been trying to sell off the entire government without any concern for functionality or accountability, and the front lines of resistance have extended to San Diego. There’s a protest from 3-5pm today at Blackwater’s new Otay Mesa facility, and tomorrow Jeremy Scahill will be doing a special Courage Campaign Conversation tomorrow afternoon at 4pm.

Two small but important steps to avoid the Blackwater wormhole.

Full disclosure: I work for the Courage Campaign

A day later than expected, a federal judge today ruled in Blackwater’s favor, ruling “that ‘the public interest weighs in favor’ of allowing the company to open its facility” in Otay Mesa. The ruling will allow Blackwater to occupy the facility, which they’re expected to do in the morning. Court hearings will continue on June 17th when the City of San Diego will again present its case that Blackwater misled city officials during the ministerial review of permits.  This doesn’t end the case, but it does rob the city of some of its thunder. The legal wrangling will continue, and in the meantime, Blackwater still has more permits pending that will hopefully receive quite a bit more scrutiny.

In related news, the political landscape shifted considerably in elections yesterday. Mayor Sanders avoided a runoff in his bid for a second term, which could either free him to do the right thing or lessen his concern for public opinion. Incumbent City Attorney Mike Aguirre will be heading for a runoff in November, coming in second to GOP candidate Jan Goldsmith. If activists locally are savvy and get the support they need, Blackwater can become a central issue in that campaign. That runoff also knocks termed-out City Council President Scott Peters out of the equation- it will be interesting to see what he does with the remainder of his time in office on this issue. He’s spoken out with us previously and his will be an important voice going forward.

As more develops, we’ll continue with the updates. The next date circled on my San Diego/Blackwater calendar is June 10, when Blackwater: The Rise of the World’s Most Powerful Mercenary Army author Jeremy Scahill will be in town to speak on the depth and breadth of Blackwater in America (pdf).