Claim: A majority of Americans are opposed to the federal government requiring them to buy a health insurance policy whose terms of coverage will be dictated by the government and whose cost will be dictated by the health insurance companies.

San Diego CityBeat staff writer Dave Maass (OK, that's me) will be moderating not one, but two presidential debates this weekend in Tucson, Arizona, as part of the Project White House "reality journalism" experiment for dark-horse candidates.

That's to say, Newt, Mitt, Ron and Rick haven't confirmed yet, probably because they haven't been invited.

Of the 23 Republicans in the "presidential preference election," 10 are Project White House candidates, including Donald Benjamin and Jim Terr, who drew the top-two slots on the ballot. Three of the six Green candidates are also competing in Project White House, but due to President Barack Obama's incumbency (read: cowardice) there won't be a Democratic primary. 

Candidates have been posting videos and position statements on Tucson Weekly's website, attending "beer summits" and accepting challenges, all with the hope of gaining the newspaper's endorsement and the attention of Arizona voters. The debates are where they'll have the opportunity for the greatest reach and the last big chance to make an impression.

The debates will run on Access Tucson, Tucson's public-access network, in partnership with Tucson Weekly. They will be broadcast online, too!

Illegal Knowledge debate: 7 p.m. PST on Saturday, Feb. 18. Live stream here. 

The official Project White House / Tucson Weekly / Access Tucson debate: 6 p.m. PST on Sunday, Feb. 19. Live stream here.

We're looking for questions, from the serious to absurd, from Twitter users. Please tweet your questions to @PWH2012 by Sunday night. We'll take 'em in advance and live.

For an idea of how this works, check out this clip from the Project White House 2008 debate: 

The new owners of U-T San Diego have been making a lot of changes at the city's main daily newspaper. The latest involves new policies for censoring monitoring comments on its website. According to an email sent to staff:

Comment moderation: We have hired an outside company to monitor our comments 24/7, hiding comments that do not meet our standards. Reporters will be getting emails from the moderators at ICUC Moderation services alerting them to comments that may warrant their attention. You don’t have to respond to these moderators, but thanking them or letting them know of any action you take will help them get used to how we operate and welcome them to the family. This is a major step we expect will further refine the tone and content of the comments without hindering their flow. This does not replace the need for reporters to read the comments and, when called for, to interact with the commenters on their stories.

This is interesting for a few reasons. First, before he was editor of the U-T, Jeff Light was known for experimenting with comment moderation at the Orange County Register, including training retirees to monitor discussion. Secondly, a group of pissed-off U-T readers recently formed a rogue website, signedoffsandiego.com (a play on the newspaper's old URL "signonsandiego.com"), as a forum for their debates. Finally, the U-T has grabbed the attention of journalists nationwide after some of its decisions to shut down comments, particularly on a controversial Christmas editorial written by new owner "Papa" Doug Manchester.

And now, they've hired private comment police.

The U-T isn't the first news organization to enlist ICUC Moderation. The company also lists the San Francisco Chronicle's SFGate.com and NPR as clients. For the most part, however, they serve corporations, like Chevron, Starbucks and Intel.

In a race guaranteed to produce snickering at the ballot box, Gary Kreep has filed paperwork to run against Deputy District Attorney Garland Peed for a seat on the San Diego Superior Court bench. 

Kreep, who is based in Ramona, serves as the executive director of the United States Justice Foundation, an organization founded to "advance the conservative viewpoint in the judicial arena." Now, "conservative" might be a conservative way to describe Kreep's positions. He's also the volunteer general counsel to the Minutemen Civil Defense Corps and one of the main attorneys suing President Barack Obama on behalf of the "Birther" movement. 

"If he was born in Kenya, which is, what is now Kenya, which is what we believe, then as a matter of Constitutional Law he cannot be President of the United States," Kreep told progressive radio show host Thom Hartmann in a 2009 interview.

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Former San Diego City Councilmember Ralph Inzunza, who began a sentence in federal prison at the end of January, has filed a new set of legal pleadings in court with the aim of securing a new trial or a sentence reduction.

Inzunza was convicted in November 2005 of honest-services fraud, extortion under color of official right and conspiracy in connection with the so-called "Stripper-Gate" corruption scandal. He exhausted the appeals process in January of this year, but now Inzunza's attorneys are trying a different tactic: Attacking the sentence, citing recent decisions in other cases, including one that lifted the conviction of Brent Wilkes, a contractor accused of bribery in the Duke Cunningham case.

Inzunza says he deserves a new trial but would settle for a new sentencing hearing. He thinks his prison term should be reduced from 21 months to six months in prison and six months of home detention.

The core of his argument is that his right to due process was violated when the court did not grant his request for immunity for lobbyist Lance Malone, who was accused of bribing council members on behalf of strip-club owner Michael Galardi, who wanted a law banning lap dances repealed. Inzunza says Malone's testimony would have countered statements made by Galardi, who had struck a sweet deal with the prosecution.

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U.S. Attorney Laura Duffy's assault on medical-marijuana providers already seems like a carnival of follies, but this week she's taken it to a whole new, literal level. 

According to a federal court filing dated Feb. 8, Duffy is asking a court to approve the forfeiture of a Whirlwind Cotton Candy machine that a Ramona-based grower used to produce marijuana-laced edibles. The value is estimated at $3,500.  

Download a PDF of the filing here. 

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The future of mankind in space is dark.

I don’t mean dark as in the absence of light, though that’s obviously true. Nor do I mean dark in the sense that space exploration won’t move forward—it will. Slowly but surely, the human race will extend into space.

The darkness is in the socio-political implications of a space race that could mirror the colonization of the Americas, with all the death and exploitation that came with it. Indentured servitude. Corporate rulers. Space cults.

At least, that’s the impression I took away after attending the “Future of Astronauts (Colonization)” panel at SpaceUp San Diego, an “unconference” on space exploration held at the Ansir Innovation Center in Kearny Mesa over the weekend.

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In its crusade against hate groups, the hacktivist group Anonymous obtained (read: stole through malicious online attacks) records that they say establish close connections between Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul and a Southern California-based racist political party. 

The story, like Paul's overall candidacy, hasn't and likely won't make the center ring in the GOP primary circus, but it's been picking up traction on the fringes. Anonymous says it has emails that prove Paul communicated with ranking members of American Third Position (A3P), a political party identified as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center and the Anti-Defamation League.

Paul's campaign, of course, denies the allegations. 

In September 2010, CityBeat covered A3P's attempts to recruit in San Diego and the organization's ties to the Neo Nazi movement. Members we spoke to did not deny their involvement in white nationalist organizations, but say this is a change in strategy. Instead of engaging in combative activities, the group attempts to be more inclusive by appealing to the "regular white guy on the street” with patriotic messages that aren't overtly racist. Its overall aspiration is to become a political force, using the electoral process to gain traction, just as the far-right British National Party has in England.

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Two San Diegans have filed a complaint with the U.S. Office of Special Counsel against San Diego County Public Defender Henry Coker, alleging he improperly used his office for political activities.

The complaint cites Coker's endorsement of District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis in the San Diego mayor's race as a potential violation of the Hatch Act, which prohibits federal employees from using their official authority to influence an election. The law also applies to local government employees working in agencies that accept federal funds. The complaint is signed by Katheryn Rhodes and Conrad Hartsell.

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