SFBG Blogs Archives — Page 568 of 597 — San Francisco Bay Guardian Archive 1966

Barbara and Angela socked it to ’em! Keep it up!

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January 16, 2007

By Bruce B. Brugmann

Last Thursday, Jan.llth, when Sen. Barbara Boxer confronted Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice over the casualties in the Iraq War, the San Francisco Chronicle reported four more soldiers died in the civil war.

On Friday, when the right wing commentators yelled “slime” at Barbara and tried to change the subject by updating the swiftboat routine, the Chronicle reported “At least l9 people were reported killed or dead nationwide Friday, including l0 bullet-riddled bodies found in Baghdad and an Iraqi journalist who was killed in a drive-by shooting in the northern city of Mosul. KhudrYounis al-Obaidi was the second journalist killed this year.”

Meanwhile, even the Chronicle helped change the subject by playing the Boxer/Rice story big on on its Friday Jan. l3th front page. Carla Marinucci lead posed a naive and irrelevant question: Was Boxer’s “heated confrontation” with Rice “a case of ‘vicious feminine politics–as some critics have suggested–or merely the politics of frank talk in tough times?”

Marinucci wrote that Boxer, during her questioning of Rice, said she wanted to focus attention on the human consequences of the decision.

“Who pays the price? I’m not going to pay a personal price. My kids are too old, and my grandchild is too young” to serve, Boxer told Rice. “You’re not going to pay a price, as I understand it, within immediate family. So who pays the price? The American military and their families.”

Boxer’s statement was right on target, as were those of many other senators (Democrat and
Republican) who attacked the war and Bush when she appeared before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
But the swiftboaters were out in gale force, not to discuss the Bush casualties or the issues of a war gone to hell, but to try to change the subject and attack Boxer, whose major sin it appears is that she happens to have been right about the war almost from the beginning. The New York Post/Murdoch called her comments “a low blow.” Tony Snow, the White House spokesman and former Fox News/Murdoch personality, said the comments were “outrageous” and said that Boxer had made “a great leap backward for feminism.” Fox News/Murdoch commentator Karen Hanretty whacked Boxer for talking about Rice’s “breeding history.”
Fox/Murdoch ran screaming heads all day Friday saying “Will Boxer Apologize?” and “Boxer slimes Rice.”
And Bill O”Reilly, the FoxNews/Murdoch star of slither and slime, took up the issue Friday night with Angela Alioto.

Boxer, to her immense credit, refused to apologize in the Marinucci story. “This is just typical of what they do…
the Bush administration always goes after me, and anyone who has been against the war from the start,” she said. “It’s ‘kill the messenger.'” Boxer said she will continue to be tough on the issue of the war because the “focus (on casualties) is crucial.”

Alioto, to her immense credit, stood up to Reilly on his Fox program, ably defended Boxer, got in some nice punches and kept making the casualties point by saying that “we fight wars with other people’s children” and “if everybody in Congress had a child in Iraq, we wouldn’t be in Iraq.”

The back and forth was delicious: O’Reilly: She (Boxer) denigrated Secretary Rice because Secretary Rice…

Alioto: That is not true.

O’Reilly: …doesn’t have any children.

Alioto: She would have said the same thing to a man. She would have said the same thing to a man. (See the full transcript below.)

Good for Barbara. Good for Angela. Keep it up. Keep the pressure on.

Meanwhile the Ballis report came in this morning with this count:

+U.S. Military killed in action in Iraq today (l/l5/O7): 2

+Current Total: 3,029

+Wounded total to (l/l0/07): 22,834

Wounded (l2/28 to l/l0/07): 120

See the Guardian editorial “Cut off the war money” in our current issue and on our website. We will regularly publish a snapshot of the statistics of military, civilian, and journalist casualties that tell this tragedy that grows grimmer by the day. B3

Boxer comments to Rice draw fire from the right – Senator says she won’t apologize for ‘strong message’

Friday Night Fights: Bill O’Reilly Takes on Liberal Extremists Over Boxer’s Statements | NewsBusters.org

Newsom’s infomercial

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January 13, 2007

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By Steven T. Jones

Listen to a wav file of the Mayor’s January 13 Town Hall meeting here.

Newsom, with another new chick

I didn’t have high expectations of Mayor Gavin Newsom’s “town hall meeting” in the Richmond this morning — and I was still disappointed. What he had billed as an alternative to monthly policy discussions with the Board of Supervisors during its regular meeting in City Hall — which voters had asked by approving Proposition I in November — was instead ridiculous political theater on his signature issue: homelessness. As we said he would in our cover story, “Mayor Chicken,” Newsom brought along a cadre a city employees and political appointees who work on the issue and they all hit their cues and sang the mayor’s praises while he did his Phil Donahue shtick.

The first hour passed without taking any questions, which the audience had to submit in writing on cards. During the second hour, Newsom sorted through the stack of hundreds for the questions he liked and then asked them in his own words of his employees and panelists. After two hours, they had discussed homelessness from every possible angle and covered every detail — and the audience was bored to tears. It was deadly dull, except for how frustrating it was. He refused to answer any questions on other topics, and while I chided him on his way out for failing to chose anything but softball questions, he had the gall to criticize the Board of Supervisors for failing to come, an angle that his press secretary Peter Ragone has also been flogging for weeks, convincing absolutely nobody.

The only bright spot in the event were the six people dressed in chicken suits who showed up, who Newsom’s board liasion Wade Crowfoot tried to prevent from entering the public building unless they removed them, which they refused to do. It was a good thing they did because the only saving grace of this whole fiasco was watching Newsom get handed a written question (that he never answered) and pretend not to notice the guy was in a chicken suit. The chickens remained respectful through the whole event (not clucking or heckling), but would pop up in windows occasionally or just walk around. Hilarious!

Peek-a-boodle-doo

If you think I’m overstating what a joke this forum was — or if you want to hear Newsom and others (like Angela Alioto, who disgraced herself by sucking up to the mayor) blather on …. click the link at the top of this blog entry. Some buried treasures in the depths of this recording are my heated discussion with Ragone about halfway through and the tough question that I asked (I’m the somebody referred to in Beyond Chron) of those frustrated by the event: Is this a filibuster or an infomercial?

Pics courtesy of Luke Thomas, Fog City Journal

Secrets of Bambi?

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January 12, 2007

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This just in from DJ Bus Station John, and anyone who’s enjoyed/suffered the caustic castigations (often racially motivated) and 86-baiting bar antics of local legend and chanteuse Bambi Lake — goddess love her!! —

will chuckle mightily. Unless this is her secret identity? After the jump ….

Introducing the Edward R. Murrow of the Bush crisis in 2007: Keith Olbermann of MSNBC

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January 12, 2007

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By Bruce B. Brugmann

The mainstream media who helped President Bush march us into war in Iraq have a lot to answer for.

One of the most eloquent answers these days comes from Keith Olbermann, who has become a passionate critic of the war and the Bush administration as the host of MSBNC’s “Countdown.”
He has night after night laid out some of the most scalding commentaries ever made on televsion by a major broadcast figure against a wartime president.

On Thursday night, after the President’s Wednesday night address to the nation on Iraq,
Olbermann rose to the occasion with an editorial titled “Bush’s Legacy: The President Who Cried Wolf,” with the subhead “Bush’s strategy fails because it depends on his credibility.”

For those of us who remember the way Edward R. Murrow started his War II radio broadcasts, “This is London,” Olbermann had the chilling ring of Murrow authority and credibility.

He started in on Bush with a lead that caught the essence of one of the most serious crises in American history: “Only this president, only in this time, only with this dangerous, even messianic certitude, could answer a country demanding an exit strategy from Iraq, by offering an entrance to Iran.”

And he ended with a flourish of trumpets, “You have lost the military. You have lost the Congress to the Democrats. You have lost most of the Iraqis. You have lost many of the Republicans. You have lost our allies.

“You are losing the credibility, not just of your presidency, but more importantly of the office itself.

“And most imperatively, you are guaranteeing that more American troops will be losing their lives, and more families their loved ones. You are guaranteeing it!

“This becomes your legacy, sir: How many of those you addressed last night as your ‘fellow citizens’ you just sent to their deaths.

“And for what, Mr. Bush?

“So the next president has to pull the survivors out of Iraq instead of you?”

Perhaps, as the crisis deepens by the day in Washington, Olbermann should start his evening commentaries by saying, “This is Washington.” Last night he ended his commentary with the trademark Murrow phrase, “Good night and good luck.” Let us wish all the good luck in the world to Olbermann and MSNBC in keeping him and his kind of distinguished commentary on the air. (This is the full text of his commentary, carried by truthout.org. Note also his other commentaries.) B3

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/011207A.shtml

Mr. Sensitive

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January 12, 2007

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By Steven T. Jones
How brittle will Mayor Gavin Newsom be at his town hall meeting tomorrow, when he’s expected to be confronted about ducking real political debate? If this interview that aired on KGO-TV last night is any indication then watch for him to flee under fire again. Are we watching a full-blown meltdown of a big city mayor?

NOISE: Daze of Caroliner and Smiths tribs

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January 12, 2007

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Boy, a busy weekend is upon us – and how! First up Saturday is Caroliner’s rare performance, after a reception for the ensemble’s CCA’s Playspace Gallery show, “Twenty-three Years of Hernia Milk and Ergot Dreams: A Retrospective of Caroliner.” The reception runs 6-8 p.m. Jan. 13.; the music/noise begins at 8 p.m. at the Graduate Center on Hooper Street, SF. The exhibition continues through Jan. 19.

Local color Caroliner-style. Courtesy of cakeandpolka.blogspot.com.

But if deeply weird noise and mind-blowing visuals aren’t your bag o’ tea, there’s also Sweet and Tender Hooligans, a tribute to Morrissey and the Smiths, on Jan. 13 at Slim’s, 333 11th St., SF. The Curse, a Cure trib combo, opens, maintaining a way ’80s vibe. Word has it that the longtime LA Smiths lovers of SATH apparently slay Moz-insane weepers and screamers everywhere. No shirts – ever!

NOISE: MV/EE hit the bummer road

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January 12, 2007

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Ecstatic Peaceniks MV/EE and the Bummer Road will be hitting that asphalt hard in conjunction with their new album, Green Blues, out Jan. 23. They appear Feb. 26 at Hotel Utah; meanwhile cock a sleepy yet strange ear to their version of “Powder Finger,” courtesy of Arthur mag.

HAILING ALL MEDIA NERDS

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January 12, 2007

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by Amanda Witherell

If you didn’t make it down to Memphis for the Third National Media Reform Conference, there was a great show on Democracy Now this morning about it. Amy Goodman and Juan Gonzalez are broadcasting from Tennessee for the duration of the conference and had a conversation this morning with Robert McChesney of the Free Press and Jonathan Adelstein, one of the two Democratic FCC commissioners. Here’s the show.

And here’s the conference, where you can find the latest and greatest on media, which is supposed to be giving you the latest and greatest of what’s going on in the world.

We accept you — one of us!

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January 11, 2007

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I’ve been at the Guardian awhile — it’ll be eight years next month, in fact. I started as a fresh-faced, eager intern, and since 1999 I’ve met many other fresh-faced, eager interns, intent on careers in media or academics or giraffe-tending (for real! If you’re out there, intern-who-reviewed-movies-but-was-also-a-zookeeper, email me and let me know how you’re doing.) But I’ve only known a few who were determined to segue from film writer to filmmaker — and one of ’em was Dina Gachman, who just finished her graduate thesis film at USC.

Flush ‘N Fish

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January 11, 2007

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We’ve been inundated with emails promoting this amazing toilet-cum-aquarium for the past few weeks — to the point that some of us around the office have created a running joke about making a movie about a killer fish that lives in the toilet called FIN ROT! It’s a fish tank, it’s a toilet tank, it’s a terrarium (yes you can put a lizard in there), it’s …..

FISH ‘N FLUSH! Interactive and events can be found here!

Yes, there’s fish in the clear tank — don’t worry, they come to no harm And even the mainstream Web media is into it. What next? Koalas in my dryer? Oh, you kids ….

PS on Google one of the search returns for this thingie is titled “Flushing Nemo” heh

NOISE: Lady Sov with Jelly on top

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January 11, 2007

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Oh by the way if you wanna check out oodles of MC Jelly Donut footage (the Killing My Lobster pastry that challenged Lady Sovereign to battle), visit this portion of YouTube. Sweet.

SF can’t stop pulling Sovereign’s jammie leg.

And in case you missed it on the news (slow news day?), here’s the Jelly Donut statement:

“We decided to take the beef to the next level the way most hip-hoppers do: a battle. It’s not the easiest thing in the world to arrange a rap battle between a pastry and Jay Z’s newest nuisance, so we decided to go guerilla. Yes, a hostile jelly flood at her January 8th show at Mezzanine in San Francisco.

So Bush, like LBJ in Vietnam, is sending more troops into Iraq. So the Guardian will regularly print the surging casualty reports. How many more will die because of Bush’s mistakes?

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January 11, 2007

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By Bruce B. Brugmann

On April 2, 2003, as Bush started a preventive war and invaded a small country that posed no danger to the U.S., the Guardian publshed a cover story predicting the U.S. would soon be mired down in the “The New Vietnam,” as our front page head put it. As our editorial warned at the time, “Taking Baghdad will afterward be difficult and bloody–and ruling the divided nation will be, to make a phenomenal understatement, something of a trick…All of this will only lead to increased anti-U.S. anger in the Arab world, more fertile ground for groups like Al-Qaeda to recruit new members, and less security for people in the U.S.”

In his television address Wednesday night, Bush virtually admitted that the horrors the Guardian (and many others) had predicted had come to pass and were “unacceptable” to the nation and to Bush.
Bush’s answer: send in more troops. This hasn’t worked in the past, it won’t work now, and it won’t work in the future. The U.S. can never be an occupying army in the middle of a brutal civil war. The electorate knows this and demanded a change in the polls and the November election. No matter.
Bush decided to escalate and war and the killing.

So the Guardian will regularly run the casualty reports and the statistics that demonstrate that we’ve lost the war, our only option is to accept defeat, and our only solution is a phased withdrawal that minimizes the military and diplomatic losses as quickly and as much as possible.

Meanwhile: to date, 3,020 U.S. military have been killed and 22,834 wounded because of Bush’s mistakes. (See the Maia and George Elfie Ballis report below and their web site for more (see http://www.sunmt.org/intro.html> link below). Specifically:

+U.S. Military killed in action in Iraq Wednesday:4

+Current Total: 3,020

+Wounded total (to l/10/07): 22,834

+Wounded (l2/28-l/l0/07): 120

To update John Kerry’s phrase during the Vietnam War, how many more soldiers will be killed and how many more soldiers will be wounded because of Bush’s mistakes? How many more lives and families of National Guardsmen will be disrupted because of Bush’s mistakes? How many more Iraqi civilians will be killed because of Bush’s mistakes? And who will continue to be the aiders and abetters and enablers as this Bush descent into the maelstrom continues? Keep the pressure on. B3

KILLED IN ACTION

Major Michael Lewis Mundell, 47, U.S. Army, Brandenburg, Kentucky
S/Sgt. Charles D. Allen, 22, U.S. Army, Wasilla, Alaska
Spec. Jeremiah Johnson, 23, U.S. Army, Vancouver, Washington
Petty Officer 3rd Class Lee Hamilton Deal, 23, U.S. Navy, West Monroe, Louisiana
S/Sgt. Alessandro Carbonaro, 28, U.S. Marine Corps, Bethesda, Maryland
S/Sgt. Emmanual L. Lagaspi, 38, U.S. Army, Las Vegas, Nevada
Cpl. Ross A. Smith, 21, U.S. Marine Corps, Wyoming, Michigan
PFC. Javier Chavez, Jr., 19, U.S. Marine Corps, Cutler, California
Lance Corporal Steven L. Phillips, 27, U.S. Marine Corps, Chesapeake, Virginia
Spec. Allan D. Kokesh Jr., 21, U.S. Army, Yankton, South Dakota
Spec. Patrick W. Herried, 29, U.S. Army, Sioux Falls, South Dakota
Cpl. Brandon S. Schuck, 21, U.S. Marine Corps, Safford, Arizona
PFC. Jacob D. Spann, 21, U.S. Marine Corps, Columbus/Westerville, Ohio
CPL. Orville Gerena, 21, U.S. Marine Corps, Virginia Beach, Virginia
Lance Corporal David S. Parr, 22, U.S. Marine Corps, Benson, North Carolina

Although it may not be immediately apparent, every action that we take brings about change. Every word of protest uttered, every letter written, every phone call made, every peace vigil attended; all have a cumulative effect and contribute to the desired result.

We hold the lives of our troops in Iraq in our hands.
We have the power to end this tragic war.
Stand up and speak out for peace at every opportunity.

Please redistribute these casualty reports to your friends, family, elected representatives, and e-mail list. Additional
e-mail recipients welcome.

From Jim Landis of Mariposa mailto:landis@yosemite.net

Smiling Seriously,
Maia & George Elfie Ballis
SunMt
559.855.3710

Clickhttp://www.sunmt.org/intro.html for latest SunMt dream and adventures.

Click mailto:mail@sunmt.org to send us roses, raspberries and/or questions.

Click mailto:allianceeditor@comcast.net to subscribe to free weekly email newsletter on progressive actions in Fresno.

NOISE: Britney in bikini shape? And K-Fed 2.0?

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January 11, 2007

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Whoa, the juicy Brit Spears “gossip” of the day is pictured on TMZ, you non-TMZ junkies. Check the new Britney consort. Who is the mystery dude? He’s more muscular than the ex, yet still somewhat K-Fed-esque, and for all we know, he hasn’t recorded any “music” yet! Always a plus. Now about that bandana…

Ahoy, baby weight! Courtesy of www.tmz.com.

Bush skewered

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January 10, 2007

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By Tim Redmond

Watching the speech in replay tonight, and Jesus, Bush looks terrible. I see none of the old confidence and swagger. He’s stumbling over words. He looks like he’s aged dramatically (like Carter did after the Iran hostage crisis). The wheels are coming off.

And it was fun to watch Anderson Cooper just skewer the plan …..

Bush hands the Dems a big favor

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January 10, 2007

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By Tim Redmond

By now you’ve all heard or read about the exceptionally uninspiring speech, but if you want to read the full text, it’s here. Beyond thinking that Bush is delusional — 20,000 new troops in Baghdad? This really is becoming Vietnam again — I can only say that he has handed the Democrats the best opportunity in many years. This strategy will fail — and the Dems who come out loud and clear now, and say it ‘s bound to fail, and call for a quick withdrawal — will be well poised to run for president in 2008, when the GOP is in free fall .

NOISE: Lady sov takes another stab!

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January 10, 2007

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Guardian contributor Ari Messer checked out Lady Sovereign at the Mezzanine on Jan. 8. Here’s his review of the show:

Love her or hate her – doesn’t she look adorable?

Around seventh or eighth grade I made the transition from oversized Stussy sweatshirts and hypercolor basketball T-shirts to even bigger local punk band tees — I remember a burgundy Fury 66 shirt that reached to my knees. So imagine my surprise when, after DJ Frampster adroitly warmed, cooled, and dancehalled the packed, couple-heavy crowd (did one partner drag the other?) at the Mezzanine on Monday, Lady Sovereign, “officially the biggest midget in the game” according to herself, poked out from behind the backdrop curtain displaying her silhouette in grand scale, and proudly flashed her sparkling clean white Stussy hoodie. Not only was it practically the same Stussy from my past, but it kind of fit. The 21-year-old Londoner and rising grit-rap grime star immediately busted out one of her tastemaking ditties, “Ch’Ching.”

Like her tune “Hoodie,” “Ch’Ching” was seemingly designed specifically for viral MySpace distribution. Something about the white girl sporting white, plus the remarkable number of Brit dialects and breaks in Frampster’s over half-hour set, which got the crowd moving in language-as-dance-partner waves, established the unexpected mood for the evening: playfulness.

Sex on wheels

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January 10, 2007

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I promised this blog wouldn’t turn into a cornucopia of hot-boy postings, but hey, they asked for it! The new 2007 San Francisco Bike Messenger Calendar is here …

All local SF models — the designers and printers too. You can get a copy (or several if you’re prone to sticky fingers) at Box Dog Bikes and Refried Cycles. No word yet on whether the proceeds go to the Home for Wayward Messengers aka my light well …..

PS I totally get points for not making any “package delivery in the rear” jokes. I do!

Bush is the kind of guy ‘who reserves a hotel room and then asks you to the prom’

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January 10, 2007

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By Bruce B. Brugmann

Maureen Dowd, in her Wednesday New York Times column, had a telling quote:

“With the surge, as with the invasion of Iraq, W. is like the presumptuous date ‘who reserves a hotel room and then asks you to the prom,’ as my friend Dana Calvo put it.”

On the eve of Bush’s speech to surge, escalate, and accelerate in Iraq, she ended her column with Ted Kennedy and his apt remarks after his speech Tuesday to the National Press Club about his legislation that would require Congressional approval before troop levels can be increased. (See previous blog.)

She quoted Kennedy as saying, “‘The horse will be out of the barn by the time we get there. The president makes his speech now. We’re going to get the appropriation request probably the end of January, early February.'”
He said it could take eight more weeks for Congress to act. “‘By that time, the troops will already be there. And then we’ll be asked, are we going to deny body armor to the young men and women over there?'”

In other words, Dowd points out, “the president will ask us to the prom once he reserves the hotel room.” B3

Where to protest Bush’s “surge”

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January 10, 2007

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By Tim Redmond

There’s a website up from Democracy in Action that lists all the protests set for today and tomorrow against the Bush “surge” in troops. Click here to enter your zip code and use this handy-dandy guide to where to go.

Stacking an already stacked deck?

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January 10, 2007

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By Steven T. Jones
We’re getting several calls — but no callbacks from the Mayor’s Office yet — from people interested in attending Mayor Gavin Newsom’s townhall meeting this Saturday who are being told by the mayor’s Communications Office that the event is RSVP only. That’s a surprise to us, those who have followed the issue of how Newsom is refusing Prop. I’s request that he appear for a dialogue with the Board of Supervisors once a month, and those who read our cover story on the issue this week. To make matters worse, the mayor’s people reportedly sent an e-mail to his supporters urging them to RSVP and attend the event, thus ensuring a supportive audience. As I said, I haven’t confirmed this yet because the mayor’s people haven’t returned my calls and e-mails for three days. So much for wanting to make himself more accessible to the public, as Newsom argued the town hall would done when you opted to substitute that for real political dialogue in City Hall. I plan to be there on Saturday anyway. How about you?

P.S. I just got the e-mail that Newsom sent out to his friendlies. It seems the fix is in:

Subject: Re: invite to Sat Public Hearing

Subject:

Join Mayor Gavin Newsom for the first Policy Townhall – space is limited…

Dear Community Members,

Please join Mayor Gavin Newsom & members of the City’s elected family
at the first monthly Policy Townhall for a community discussion on homelessness

This is an opportunity to learn about the City’s efforts to end chronic homelessness and a
chance to lend your voice – and share your ideas – to help solve this problem.

Saturday, January 13, 2007 at 10:00 a.m.

Richmond Recreation Center 251 18th Avenue (between California & Clement)

San Francisco, California 94121

Space is limited so please RSVP to 415 554 6110 or send an email to mons@sfgov.org

Burning Man family squabble

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January 10, 2007

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By Steven T. Jones
The Burning Man world has been roiled by a legal fight among its three founders: Larry Harvey, Michael Mikel, and John Law — the latter of whom left this event in 1996 but this week filed a lawsuit seeking millions in compensation and/or the placing of Burning Man’s name, logos, and associated trademarks in the public domain. Laughing Squid broke the story yesterday and has lots of great links to Law’s suit and the discussion threads on Tribe and Law’s blog. You can also find M2’s lawsuit, which was a precursor to the current fight, here.
(although you might need to go here first to get the plug-in).
I’ve been talking to all the principles today and will write about this in our next print issue, so I’ll reserve comment for now. But suffice it to say this is a fascinating story that illuminates the roots of Burning Man and could have a major impact on its future. While some have cheered Law’s suggestion that “Burning Man belongs to everyone” and that placing it in the public domain returns it to the people, the reality is that it could lead to the commercial exploitation of the event by any heinous corporation that wanted a little counterculture cache.
BTW, tickets for this year’s event, with its hopeful Green Man theme, go on sale next Wednesday. See you in the long cyberline.

Scribe

The McClatchy Strib: RIP? WTF? Pruitt’s Folly, big-daily blues, and the invasion of the stripper-flippers

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January 10, 2007

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By Bruce B. Brugmann

The above head was on the best analysis so far of the McClatchy sale of the Minneapololis Star Tribune to an unknown New York private equity firm with no newspaper holdings nor experience.
It was written by Steve Perry, longtime editor of City Pages, the alternative paper in Minneapolis, and ran in Monday’s edition.

It is a classic alternative press story by an editor who is also good reporter and it shows once again the indispensable value of an alternative paper that is fulfilling its real mission to be alternative to and competitive with the local monopoly daily. No other daily or magazine, in Minnesota or probably anywhere else, will do this kind of excellent media criticism and local power structure reporting and analysis. And nobody will follow the story as City Pages will undoubtedly do.

Let me cite one paragraph of Perry’s report to make the point. Perry sets Pruitt up with some self-immolating quotes and asks the question: “So again: How exactly does selling off this paper at this moment, for considerably less than prevailing industry standards would have dictated, constitute prudent fiscal management?”

Perry provides some answers: “Mike Meyers thinks he knows the answer: It makes no sense at all. The paper’s 57-year-old economics reporter is a figure legendary around the newsroom for his gruffness, acuity, and anti-sentimentality. (‘Don’t ask me how I feel about the sale,’ he growled by way of a howdy=do when I phoned him.
‘I don’t deal in feelings. What matters is the set of facts surronding the sale, which are very clear.’) He has no compunction about sharing his theory of events (‘no, on the record. I hate people who go off the record’), which is simple and to the point: McClatchy management fucked up and put itself in a position where it had to sell something to pay its tax bill.”

And then Meyers and Perry lay out their answer to the question headline that led the story: “PRUITT’S FOLLY: IS THERE A SMOKING GUN IN THE STRIB FIRE SALE?”

Note: Why is the silence out here so deafening–owners, managers, staff, unions– in commenting publicly on the capers of the Galloping Conglomerati (Hearst, Singleton, McClatchy, Gannett, Stephens) who are moving as quietly as they can, sealing key documents in a critical federal court case, to set up a regional monopoly? If anybody knows anybody who wants to talk publicly, let us know at the Guardian. Meanwhile, I am getting no comment from Hearst corporate via Chronicle Publisher Frank Vega and Chronicle Editor Phil Bronstein. Soon, I will tell you why. B3

City Pages: The McClatchy Strib: RIP. WTF?

Time-traveling flirtation of the day, week, month…

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January 10, 2007

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Lucio Battisti circa 1970 and 1971, I have a big crush on you. When time travel goes into effect, please meet me and some friends within the fucking great and gorgeous music of your Amore E Non Amore and Umanamente Uomo: Il Sogno.

New Year’s Eve letter from Josh Wolf:

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January 10, 2007

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12-31-06
Dear Sarah
Thanks for sending me information about the latest on the BALCO leak. I remember the morning that this bit of news broke quite well as the information itself arrived to me from a number of convict sources who had just seen it on the news. Everything from telling me that the reporters had come forward with their sources to the nonsensical take that the FBI had come forward to tell the journalists who their source was. Needless to say, I spent the next 40 minutes glued to the morning news waiting for the story to come back around. When it did air again, I was still somewhat confused but at least had some idea what was going on.

Several weeks later and after having read both your letter and the Chronicle’s coverage, I am still quite a bit confused. For starters, where does Larry McCormack fit in? What exactly would Troy Ellerman gain by leaking the documents and