Today’s Ammianoliner:
Election day! Winners, losers and we’ll finally know which door hanger was the best hung.
(From the home telephone answering machine of Sup. Tom Ammiano on Tuesday, June 3, 2008.) B3
SFBG Blogs
Lennar spending records sums on Prop. G
Tonight’s election results will demonstrate how much money matters in local politics, and whether megadeveloper Lennar is able to essentially buy exclusive development rights for southeast San Francisco. That’s because the $3.9 million and counting that Lennar has spent to approve Prop. G and kill Prop. F could be the most expensive local measure campaign in California history, according to former Common Cause of SF head Charles Marsteller.
To confirm that, I called Bob Stern at the Center for Governmental Studies — the guru of California electoral reform — who had a more qualified answer. Campaign finance records show PG&E spent almost $10 million last year to defeat a package of four public power measures in Yolo and Sacramento counties. PG&E also spent more than $3 million to defeat the Prop. D, the 2002 public power measure in San Francisco. And Stern was trying to get final figures for an expensive 2006 ballot fight in Sacramento over a new stadium. Yet he said Lennar is way up there, well beyond anything he’s seen in his native Southern California.
“It is clearly one of the most expensive,” Stern said. “It’s an enormous amount of money for a local race.”
Iran war
Click here to read Patrick J. Buchanan’s blog titled, PJB: Who’s Planning Our Next War?
Click here to read Seymour M. Hersh’s article titled,Preparing the Battlefield: The Bush Administration steps up its secret moves against Iran.
Come on, vote, dammit
The Chronicle reports that turnout so far is really slow. That’s bad for saving rent control (No on 98), stopping Lennar Corp. (no on G), electing a progresive judge (Sandoval) and stopping Joe Nation from becoming the next state Senator.
If you’re reading this, go vote. If you’re not sure where you vote, check here. If you don’t know who to vote for, our recommendations are here
It only takes a few minutes, and your boss has to give you time off if you need it. Go on, head to the polls now.
Election night parties
Here’s a roundup of the main local election night parties:
Yes on A – Great American Music Hall, O’Farrell and Polk streets
Yes on F, No on G – Grace Tabernacle Church, 1121 Oakdale
Yes on G, No on F – Javalencia Café, 3900 3rd Street
Mark Leno – Campaign HQ, 1344 Fourth Street (at “D” Street)
San Rafael, CA 94901 (he might also stop by Lime, 2247 Market Street, where some DCCC candidates – including Laura Spanjian and David Campos – are having a party)
Carole Migden – Campaign HQ, 121 9th St., near Minna
Joe Nation – Wipeout Bar and Grill, 302 BonAir Center, Greenbrae
Fiona Ma for Assembly – Soluna, 272 McAllister
No on 98/Yes on 99 – 1601 Telegraph Avenue, Oakland
League of Young Voters, Sandoval for Judge, progressive DCCC candidates and some Yes on F and No on Prop. 98 supporters – El Rio, 3158 Mission Street
And then there’s the Bay Guardian’s “Don’t Dodge the Drafts” election night party, 7-9 p.m. at Kilowatt, 3160 16th Street btw Valencia/Guerrero. Bring your voting stub for drink specials.
Cyclonudistas unite! World Naked Bike Ride hits SF
Yes, but who’s riding the testicycle?
Put your balls to the Brooks and your petals to the metal, shrinking violets — raucous global event the World Naked Bike Ride hits SF this Saturday at noon (as posted on “nakedwiki.org” — how, oh how, has this wiki escaped me???).
I think my gearshaft just shifted
“We face automobile traffic with our naked bodies as the best way to defend our dignity and exposing the unique dangers faced by cyclists and pedestrians as well as the negative consequences we all face due to dependence on oil and other forms of non-renewable energy,” say organizers, who seem to be as comfortable with run-on sentences as baring all on the mean streets of the naked city.
But who are we to argue — the pics make the participants look a lot hotter than those way-too-smiley Bay to Breakers nudists. Roll on, 10-speed tatas and phallic fixies.
Coming soon: A movie!
Date: Saturday June 7, 2008
Time: 12 noon
Location: Meet at the Justin Herman Plaza
Web: sanfrancisco.worldnakedbikeride.org
Taking the Cure at the Shark Tank on May 28
The Cure
May 28, HP Pavilion
By Erik Morse
The anticipation was palpable as the Cure took the stage and the opening chords of “Plainsong” overcame the hollowed din of San Jose’s HP Pavilion. Would Robert Smith’s voice hold up, or would it fade halfway through the show as it had on a previous night of the tour in Chicago, when he had disobeyed doctor’s orders to stay home and rest?
By the closing notes of “Prayers for Rain,” the second song of a setlist that would deliver many treats, it was clear that the audience – and Smith – had nothing to worry about. His voice – sometimes playful, sometimes haunting – was in top form and would stay that way for the remainder of evening.
Unfortunately, the textured layers of vocal enchantment were occasionally undermined by the conspicuous absence of a long-time Cure staple: keyboards. The Cure has been keyboardless since the departure of former keyboardist Roger O’Donnell in 2005, and for some inexplicable reason, they have never replaced him. Instead, in a bold yet poorly executed move, they have supplanted the keyboard with Porl Thompson’s guitar. Live, synth heavy tracks like “Catch” and “Play for Today” were depressingly thin, and the pleasure my companion and I experienced from playing air keyboard from the comfort of our seats was fleeting, to say the least.
Budget picks on poor and infirm
The Coalition on Homelessness has done a quick survey of the budget slashes that were announced today.
To sum, if you’re a cop, you’re psyched. If you’re down on your luck, without a place to stay and off your meds, and the city’s been helping you sort all that out….well, you’ve got until the end of the month to get it together.
From COH’s executive director, Jennifer Friedenbach:
Mayor Newsom released a budget today that will terminate critical health and human services, while pumping up salaries for police by 25% and adding many new high paid patronage positions into his own administration.
Some highlights of the devastating impact of the budget include:
1) Closure of Ella Hill Hutch shelter, serving up to 100 people every night in the Western Addition.
2) Closure of Caduceus Outreach Services, a mental health treatment and wrap around support program for severely disabled homeless adults with co-existing addictive disorders.
3) Almost total elimination (66% cut) of “SRO Families United,” a program for families with dependent children living in hotels.
4) Cut of 22% to residential substance abuse and mental health treatment programs budgets. This includes:
a. Removal of support from Conard supportive housing program for severe psychiatric disabilities.
b. Closure of Cortland Acute Diversion Unit for individuals in psychiatric crisis.
c. Loss of 12 out of 24 community based medically supported detox beds.
d. Many more residential cuts yet to be determined.
5) Cut of 30% to all outpatient substance abuse and mental health treatment
6) Almost total elimination of STOP treatment program.
7) 1,600 people lose psychiatric treatment through Private Provider Network.
8) Closure of Tenderloin Health, homeless multi-service center in the Tenderloin serving over 300 people a day, 16,000 unduplicated people a year. Program provides health services, HIV case management, HIV prevention, mental health services, harm reduction work, improving quality of life by getting people out of rain, providing hygiene kits, bathrooms, snacks, crisis intervention, 30, 000 shelter reservations a year.
Lit: The illustrated Magazinester
This past week, Magazinester pledged its love for Edie Fake and Matt Furie, and threw a tomato at overpriced rags featuring the thin talents of Terence Koh. Somehow, it forgot to conclude with the message that Tila Tequila is on the cover of Blender — are ya interested?
The beauty of Fake’s and Furie’s recent zines means it’s time to expand Magazinester. It’s time for annotated examples of imagery!
Let’s start off with Furie’s boy’s club. Whenever I cross paths with a Bay Area-n stranger who has copious frazzled head and face hair — you know, like every time I step outside — I think of Furie’s drawings and paintings. I especially like the ones where someone removes his or her sunglasses to reveal no eyes beneath. Furie’s “Nature Freak” show at Jack Fischer Gallery this winter was like a fun version of The Ruins. More recently, he brought “Heads” to Adobe Books Backroom Gallery. Heads. Now there’s a good-ass topic or theme for an art show!
Some pages from boy’s club
Though they’re love at first sight as a viewing experience, I don’t immediately understand Edie Fake’s Rico McTaco and Gaylord Phoenix zines — in other words, I’m looking forward to re-reading and re-re-reading them. They don’t have many words, but they do have many worlds.
A page from Edie Fake’s Gaylord Phoenix
Edie Fake makes me happier than almost any SF artist right now. I’d long ago given up hope there’d be a gay feminist artist as talented as Edie Fake, and yet Edie Fake is here.
Another page from Gaylord Phoenix, by Edie Fake
Some zine makers just find the right topic and the hard work is already done. So it is for the people who bring you the stories, drawings, photos and lists in Dead Pets Zine.
Cover of Dead Pets Zine
What would a list of dead animal movies be without Gates of Heaven (back when Erroll Morris wasn’t a pompous windbag) and Pet Sematary (back when Mary Harron was making videos for Madonna)? Fish float up to the surface on many pages, but pet rodents fare especially poorly in Dead Pets No. 1. Try out deadpetstories@gmail.com.
A page from Dead Pets Zine
And yeah, Freddie Mercury deserves an illustrated book that celebrates almost every facet of his life. Until someone makes a Freddie Mercury book for 5-to-8-year-olds, Killer Queen: The Freddie Mercury Story will have to do. In fact, it’ll do fine for people those ages and people ten times older.
A page from Killer Queen
Mayor’s plan for changing homeless shelters
At today’s Local Homeless Coordinating Board meeting, Mayor Gavin Newsom’s homelessness “czar,” Dariush Kayhan, briefed the group on new ideas for improving city-funded shelters that he and the mayor have been hashing over.
There were just a few, and most of them seem like they need coordination more than cash, but they all answer, to some extent, some of the calls for help that have been coming from the city’s homeless shelter system.
All of this comes from a Feb. 14 announcement by Mayor Newsom that he’d like to redesign the city’s shelters, (the day after SFBG published an expose on conditions inside.) At the announcement, Newsom discussed possibly consolidating shelters into larger facilities, offering more medical respite care, and bringing Project Homeless Connect into the shelters. Ultimately, he called on the people working in San Francisco’s homeless services industry to come up with for how to make shelters better.
Since then, a series of long, comprehensive meetings have been held to gather ideas from homeless people, shelter clients and employees, non-profit groups, medical and mental services providers, and advocates. Meetings were held at shelters and other places convenient to the homeless population (though at all the meetings I attended there was a lot of criticism that the forums weren’t drawing in enough actual homeless people.) Topics tackled included problems accessing the shelters and the quality of medical and other support services — and suggestions were plenty. The Local Board pulled together a report, outlining the most frequent, concrete, and consensual, the most repeated being: don’t reduce the number of beds. (Too bad: The Human Services Agency cut the shelter at Ella Hill Hutch from their budget, which means, as of June 30, 100 fewer mats will be available every night unless advocates rally the Board of Supervisors to put the funding back.) The other biggest cry was for more services in general, made more easily accessible, and a number of really smart ideas came out for how to do that and are included in the report [PDF].
Kayhan said he and the Mayor would be putting together an official response to the report with more concrete details of their vision. In the meantime, he threw a few ideas to the meeting.
They include:
Will the real Newsom stop campaigning?
As we predicted , Mayor Gavin Newsom used today’s budget announcement at at the Hunters Point Shipyard to campaign.
But there were, in fact, two Newsom’s at today’s event, but only one was told to shut it.
‘You can’t campaign here, it’s city property,” police told the guy, who was wearing a Newsom mask and protesting the Mayor’s Budget.
“I’m not campaigning,” the guy replied, his voice muffled by his mask, as his friend, who was wearing a Ronald Reagan mask handed out fliers that listed nine ways in which “Mayor Newsom terminates poor with massive budget cuts.”
(These included closing the Ella Hill Hutch shelter, Caduceus Outreach services, SRO Families United program, and a 22 percent cut of residential substance abuse and mental health treatment programs budgets.)
But no one said diddley when the guy who one was wearing a very well tailored suit and presenting the Mayor’s $6.5 billion budget, began to campaign by unashamedly pushing Prop. G, which out-of-town developer Lennar has spent $4 million to promote.
“You can’t have a budget speech about the future of the City and the structural challenges we face without talking about it,” Newsom said.
Nor did anyone say squat, when Newsom began to bash the competing Prop. F, which requires that 50 percent of housing built at the Shipyard and Candlestick Point be affordable to families of four who make $65,000 and under, which is the average median income for that size household in the Bayview.
Yes, it was cool to be inside the SFPD’s unit, without being on the wrong side of the law.
Symphonic triple-whammy: Three hot conductors step up
We loves us some Michael Tilson Thomas — we better, because she’s everywhere, darling — but it must be hard to live and gesticulate passionately for the San Francisco Symphony in the shadow of the great MTT. It’s not a competition! I know! Still, it’s a treat to see SFS program a night specifically dedicated to some of the other stellar conducting talents it retains, especially for a total symphony queen like moiself.
Three great classical (bow-tied) tastes: Gaffigan, Bohlin, and Shwartz
The three-day “SFS Conductors on the Podium” series will see Associate Conductor James Gaffigan (who blew me and several thousand peeps away in Dolores Park a while back, conducting the 1812 Overture), Resident Conductor and total cutie Benjamin Shwartz, and fierce Chorus Director Ragnar Bohlin take the stage for a nice, slightly challenging change.
Benjamin Shwartz, making beautiful music
Particularly interesting will be the world premiere of Mark-Anthony Turnage’s jazzy-sounding Three Asteroids: The Torino Scale, Juno, Ceres, conducted by Schwartz, and the sure-to-be-spectral a capella double-choir performance of Poulenc’s Figure humaine — a haunting setting of Paul Eluard’s poems about war and spirituality, conducted by Bohlin. Gaffigan conducts Bartok’s seldom-heard Suite from The Miraculous Mandarin, and the Thursday and Saturday programs will also feature Prokofiev’s ragged, fiery Violin Concerto No. 1 in D Major, also conducted by Gaffigan and featuring SFS concertmaster and string-whiz Alexander Barantschik. Should be a revelation.
SFS Conductors on the Podium
Thursday, June 5 at 2:00pm
Friday, June 6 at 6:30pm
Saturday, June 7 at 8:00pm
$25-$125
Davies Symphony Hall
201 Van Ness
(415) 864-6000
www.sfsymphony.org
What the Prop F-Prop. G battle is really about
I’ve gotten a lot of calls about the two redevelopment measures, and while I think our endorsements make the case for F and against G pretty well, let me add something else.
In many ways, this is the first of a long series of battles that will determine whether Southeast San Francisco becomes a high-end residential community. That’s what Gavin Newsom wants to see, and it’s what a lot of downtown and big-money forces want to see, and frankly, it’s what the more moderate and conservative political activists want, too.
Because the more rich people you bring into San Francisco, and the more poor and working-class people you drive out, the more likely to are to change the progressive voting patterns of this town and get rid of politicians who want to tax big business and provide public services to the needy.
This is not conspiracy thinking — dontown political strategists talk openly about it. As Calvin Welch likes to say, “Who lives here, votes here.” W e know that; they know that.
I appreciate the fact that labor got some concessions out of the Lennar Corporation . But in the end, even if the labor deal holds up, the numbers are brutal: If Lennar agrees to build about 32 percent affordable housing, that means that 68 percent of the new housing in Bay View Hunters Point will be exclusively for millionaires.
That’s the calculus. A developer promising to build one-third affordable units is also promising that two-thirds of the new housing will be affordable only to the very richest segment of American society, the top tenth of the top tenth, the people who can put down $200,000 cash and pay a mortgage of $6,000 a month on a one-bedroom condo. If two thirds of the next generation of San Franciscans are people with that kind of money, the city will change, dramatically.
Sup. Chris Daly’s call in Prop. F for 50 percent affordable ought to be the absolute minimum floor. Again, that means half the new housing will go to the superrich, and only the superrich.
Lennar says it can’t do the project at that level. I personally think that’s horseshit — remember, they’re getting the land essentially free. But if the best Lennar can do is build housing two-thirds of which is unreachable to the vast majority of the people who make this such a wonderful, diverse and creative city, then we need to send Lennar packing and find someone who can do better.
This is the future of San Francisco, folks. That’s why I’m yes on F and no on G.
Wheatpaste for peace: SF Peace Billboards Project launches
Photos and text by Ariel Soto
About 100 art lovers gathered at the University of San Francisco (USF) on Memorial Day, May 26, to participate in a bus tour around the city to see 10 billboards by 10 artists from around the world that showcase their visions of what peace looks like, as part of the San Francisco Peace Billboards Project. The tour was headed by USF visual art professor Richard Kamler who first conceived the idea for the billboard project after wondering, in his words, “Why confine these images to the walls of a museum when we can take them to the community and have a significant impact?” The billboards will continue to be on display until June 22nd throughout San Francisco.
Peace billboard by Israeli artist Uzi Broshi at 22nd Ave and Irving
Peace billboard by Japanese artist Betty Nobue Kano at Masonic Ave. and Fulton
Artist Betty Nobue Kano
Iranian artist Taraneh Hemami (left) with USF visual art profesor Richard Kamler
Peace billboard by Iranian artist Taraneh Hemam at Divisadero Street and Hayes Street
Peace billboard by Tibetan artist Jamyoung Singye at Mission Street and 6th Street
Artist Jamyoung Singye
SPORTS: Underdog Horwitz starts off like Iron Horse Gehrig
By A.J. Hayes
Nobody is quite ready to anoint Cal product Brian Horwitz as the next Lou Gehrig. But last Sunday – on the 83rd anniversary of the start of the Yankee legend’s Herculean 2,130 consecutive game streak – the San Francisco rookie made the type of dramatic big league entrance the “Iron Horse” would have been proud of.
In his debut big league start, the 25-year-old outfielder drilled his first two major league hits and scored the tying run on Sunday in a thrilling 4-3 comeback win over visiting San Diego. The second knock, a solid 10th inning single off all-time-saves leader Trevor Hoffman, fueled the game winning rally.
Brian Horwitz, slugger
“I couldn’t have written it any better than today,” said Horwitz, who has scratched and clawed his way through the Giants minor league season since his ignominious beginnings in pro ball in 2004. “I know I can hit up here. I have the confidence in myself to get the job done.”
In this current season of Giants rebuilding, Horwitz – who is married, stands 6-foot-1, 187 pounds and has longish straight black hair that parts naturally in the middle – is the latest of a troop of farmhands the club has auditioned. By the end of September, San Francisco hopes to have separated the prospects from the suspects.
If Horwitz’s track record is any indication, when 2008 is done he should land in the former category.
Heading into this season Horwitz brought a sizzling .322 career minor league average.
It was on June 1, 1925 that the almost 23-year-old year-old Gehrig pinch-hit in a game for the Yankees. He started the next day, when, according to legend, regular New York first baseman Wally Pipp begged out of the lineup with a headache. Gehrig batted 3-for-5. It would be 13 seasons before Gehrig missed another game.
Horwitz’s consecutive game streak was not expected to last nearly as long. Talented left fielder Fred Lewis – the man Horwitz spelled on Sunday – stroked a very un-Pipp-like game tying pinch-hit, two-run triple to drive in Horwitz in the 10th inning Sunday
But the fact that Horwitz has managed to slip on a Giants jersey this season marks a significant accomplishment for the Southern California native.
Election night parties
As always, Guardian political reporters will be in the field on Election Night, reporting live from City Hall and all the key parties via this Politics blog. We’re gathering that list of parties now (send yours to me at steve@sfbg.com to ensure you make the list) and we’ll post it by around this time tomorrow so you know where to go. And don’t forget to vote.
Go go girl, get Poak Chopped
While I’m still trying to digest the multiple hypes about some coming country-fried “hick hop” phenomenon that I encountered while recently touring the Midwest, here’s a totally hot, totally trannyrific new YouTube dance sensation that Guardian contributor and all-around cutie Matt Sussman just hooked me on: “Poak Chops”
Throw them butter beans, girl.
Black Angels alight in SF
By Todd Lavoie
If you’re going to name yourself after one of the Velvet Underground’s most epic noisefests, you’d best be well prepared to bring the drone and stir the squall – we want sheets of feedback and hopefully plenty of nervous dread to go along with it. Such requirements are not an issue for Austin, Texas’ Black Angels.
Named for the Velvets’ signature drone piece “The Black Angel’s Death Song,” these folks remain one of the most convincing modern-day practitioners of late ’60s/early ’70s, antisocial psychedelia. Tapping into the bad acid comedowns and anti-Summer of Love vibes of the Velvets and the 13th Floor Elevators – with occasional devil dances in the direction of vintage Rolling Stones as well – the Black Angels specialize in delicious creep-outs and electrifying forays into the psyche’s darker recesses. Most importantly: they know how to write riveting songs, rather than merely settling upon a mood and a groove and sticking with it. See for yourself this Saturday, June 7, when they play the Independent. In the meantime, may I suggest practicing your strut. Oh, and maybe work on your most menacing lurch as well.
The Black Angels have just released their sophomore full-length, Directions to See a Ghost, and to these ears it feels even more focused than their blindsiding 2006 debut, Passover (both Light in the Attic). I must ‘fess up: I’m completely and utterly in love with the packaging as well. Boasting a day-glo pink and neon green concentric-circle op-art design – and what’s more, it’s embossed – there’s something immensely satisfying in losing oneself in the spirals as the Black Angels rattle out a steady prowling rumble. Plus, it’s embossed! Who doesn’t like feeling art and having it feel you back? It’s a damn shame you can’t run your fingers over the computer screen right now and see – no, feel – exactly what I mean:
REM’s Peter Buck talks about the passion – and the rage
Mumblecore before mumblecore was cool: Eighties-era REM.
REM guitarist Peter Buck may be well settled into his current role as a 50-year-old Seattle dad, but he hasn’t really slowed down – nor has his band, judging from their latest full-length, Accelerate (Warner Bros.). The group performs tonight, May 31, and tomorrow, June 1, at the Greek Theatre in Berkeley. The first tidbit gleaned from this brief talk showed up in this week’s Sonic Reducer – here’s the rest:
SFBG: So what do you think about the response to Accelerate?
Peter Buck: Pretty positive – I mean, I don’t really read the reviews. But I guess it’s sort of floating in the air that it’s a good record. I feel pretty positive myself.
SFBG: What brought on the more rockin’ approach?
PB: It seems like we were going down the path of making longer, quieter records. And it just seemed like the time for a change.
Acolade or agony? Tribute metal at Red Devil Lounge
By Kat Renz
Unbanged head hanging low from missing Wednesday’s Iron Maiden show down in Concord? Fear not, for a second chance to hear “Powerslave” live on stage awaits tonight, May 31. Sort of. High priestess of tribute bands Lynda Mortensen promises a night of metal mayhem with Children of the Damned; Damage, Inc.; Hail Satan; and Electric Funeral playing your favorite anthems by Iron Maiden, old-school Metallica, Mercyful Fate/King Diamond, and Black Sabbath, respectively, at the Red Devil Lounge.
Are you rolling your eyes or already making them up in King Diamond face paint? I know – I’m torn, too. Tribute bands are simultaneously shamelessly exciting and totally depressing. Ubiquitous and popular, it seems every famous band now has its tribute counterpart. (AC/DC may claim the most: a glaringly incomplete Google search found 20 AC/DC tribute bands from around the world, including British Columbia’s BC/DC and ThundHerStruck, yet another all-women one from LA.) The appeal is obvious. Performers get to embody their most-beloved rock star, and the audience gets to see a sincere counterfeit of their favorite over-dosed, broken-up, or not-touring band.
With this glut of impersonators, parameters by which to judge are essential. First there’s the sound. While it’s vital to cut the lead vocalist some slack – ever try to match Bruce Dickinson’s vocal theatrics, much less in front of people? – if the vocals don’t make the cut, it’s over. No magic, no tribute, and no closing your eyes and forgetting.
The fraudulent slate card
Just so it’s clear: The Bay Guardian doesn’t send out slate cards. We don’t do door hangers. We don’t produce campaign mail. Ever. Period.
But just about every election, somebody we endorsed, or some group that agrees with us, reprints the Guardian endorsements, makes fliers out of them and sends or hands them around. That’s fine with me — we’re happy to get the word out. And even if it weren’t fine with me, there’s not a whole lot I could do about it — our endorsements are public, and there’s nothing wrong with senidng around fliers saying the Guardian endorsed these candidates.
And in the 25 years I’ve been working here, I’ve never seen anyone try to do something sleazy like use the Guardian logo to promote a candidate we didn’t actually endorse. Until now.
I’ve just learned that there’s a slate card going around with our logo on it and an endorsement of Carole Migden for state Senate. That’s wrong. We didn’t endorse Migden. We went with Mark Leno. A lot of my progressive friends disagreed with that decision, and I respect their opinions. This was a tough one, and there are good people on both sides. And until today, I was pretty impressed with how both Migden and Leno had been trying to keep the focus on their own strengths, and instead of attacking each other have pointed out that the real danger here is the possibility that Joe Nation will wind up winning.
And then this.
I’ve gotten calls all afternoon about it. Voters are confused; they have a mailer saying we’ve endorsed Leno, and one that appears to say we’ve endorsed Migden. The language on the Migden card is written carefully, and if you read all the fine print, you can figure out that it never actually says the Guardian is backing Migden. But very few people read or get the fine points; they see a slate card with a Guardian logo and a picture of Migden, and they think we endorsed her.
That’s not right. Whatever you think of our endorsements, this is misleading. It’s a trick on the voters, using our name, and I don’t appreciate it.
I called Sup. Chris Daly, who was behind the card, tonight and told him how unhappy I was, and he said he didn’t care. “I’m unhappy, too,” he said. “You endorsed Mark Leno, who is not a progressive.”
Okay, we can argue that forever, but it’s not the point. It’s not cool to use the Guardian logo and (I hope) good name and reputation to confuse the voters.
Again, for anyhone who missed the point: We endorsed Mark Leno for state Senate. One of the reasons we made that decision is that we found Migden’s ethical conduct, particularly when it came to campaign money, highly suspect. We don’t like political sleaze. And this is just the kind of shit we hate to see in the progressive movement.
Our endorsements are here. Use this slate; it’s the real one.
Pelosi talks hunger
Nancy Pelosi with Paul Ash, executive director of the San Francisco Food Bank. Photo by Steven T. Jones
Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi toured the San Francisco Food Bank today to highlight her concern with rising food costs and the need for a reordering of national priorities to address poverty. But she also showed how her party’s cautious approach to the issue has contributed to the grim reality that one in four San Francisco children are at risk of hunger.
“It’s an unthinkable notion that any child in the U.S. can go hungry,” Pelosi told the crowd of volunteers, care providers, politicos and journalists. She also stressed, “It’s important that we think of it one person at a time, or as I think of it as one child at a time,” peppering her address regularly with Biblical calls to feed the hungry. Personally, I would have rather heard an admission of how Congress helped oversee an unconscionable consolidation of wealth and how she plans to redistribute it to the families of these poor hungry kids.
Pelosi touted this year’s omnibus farm bill for new spending on nutrition and ethanol production, food safety improvements, and reductions in subsidies to corporate agri-business, a bipartisan bill that overcame a Bush veto. But many in the Bay Area’s growing food movement criticized the bill as basically business as usual, ignoring evidence that demonstrates the importance of moving from our heavily subsidized, industrial food production system to more local and sustainable models, criticism that I asked her about at the event.
Pelosi responded that, “I associate myself with the concerns that you represented,” noting that she signaled to Washington DC power brokers that this is the last farm bill that will so heavily subsidize big business. She would have hoped to do so this year — rather than three years from now when this bill expires — but that, “It was harder than I had hoped to go cold turkey.”
Similarly, she blasted President Bush with both barrels, particularly for the Iraq War and tax cuts on the wealthy, saying “The last eight years of the Bush Administration have done great harm to this country.”
Yet despite acknowledging this “grotesque mistake” of an Iraq War was sold with lies, and that top officials have violated the constitution, Pelosi has been unwilling to pursue impeachment or anything substantial to hold those officials accountable. But she is willing to intervene in the current presidential race to end the fight by next week and avoid letting it be worked out in August at the convention.
“I think if we take this to the convention, it will harm our chances in November,” Pelosi said, drawing her biggest applause of the morning.
Mayor uses Shipyard to announce budget, Monday
It’s 4 PM on a Friday afternoon, that hour when most employees are counting the seconds to the weekend—and wishing that Monday morning wasn’t only 65 hours away.
But does the Mayor’s Office know what time it is?
And if so, why have we only just found out that Mayor Gavin Newsom is planning to make his Monday morning budget announcement, at 10: 30 am, June 2, at the Hunters Point Shipyard?
The announcement will be made at
View Larger Map“>606 Hunter’s Point Shipyard.
(Unless, Newsom is planning a repeat of his disappearing Olympic Torch stunt.)
The location happens to be the San Francisco Police Department’s Tactical Operations center. Press are being asked to present press credentials for entry.
Could it be that this announcement is being made at the very last minute because the choice of location gives Newsom the appearance of impropriety? Newsom backing Prop.G on the June 3 ballot, the measure that developer Lennar has spent over $3.5 million in an effort to grab even more of San Francisco’s waterfront real estate, adding highly desirable land at Candlestick Point to the shipyard’s wastelands, so it can develop even more luxury condos?
Or could it be because he didn’t want to tip of supporters of Prop. F, the competing measure on the June 3 ballot that requires that 50 percent of development in the Bayview is affordable to people who actually live there—households that tend to make $68,000 and under and can’t afford to buy $500,000 condos and million-dollar townhouses?
Whatever the reasons, the running dogs of the press weren’t the only ones left in the dark about the budget locale.
No one on the Board of Supervisors was informed until 4PM, Friday afternoon, either. That’s when a mayoral aide came by the office of Sup. Ross Mirkarimi, who sits on the Board’s Budget and Finance Committee, to deliver the news of this hitherto top secret location.
Normally, Board members get an invitation at least 10-14 days beforehand.
Mirkarimi calls the move “highly unorthodox and outrageous.”
“What’s really unforgivable is that we are facing the worst budget deficit in San Francisco’s history,” Mirkarimi said. “The Mayor needs to be fostering collaboration, and enlisting the support of everyone he can, especially those who have influence on the budget process. It’s unfortunate that the casualty in all this is our desire to work together.”