By Steven T. Jones
Well, the gloves have come off in the District 6 supervisorial race. The Ethics Commission has just announced that the voluntary spending caps have been lifted in that race, responding to complaints that the tens of thousands of dollars in hit pieces on Sup. Chris Daly have effectively blown the caps. Daly, Rob Black, and the other major candidates had agreed to limit their campaign expenditures to $83,000 or less, and both Black and Daly have already spent about half that, according to just filed campaign finance statements. Now that the caps are gone, Daly is free to spend the $95,000 he has in the bank, outstripping the $52,000 Black has on hand. Add those totals (which are far from complete with a month still to go) to the fat wads of cash that anti-Daly forces are still like to throw around and expect the fur to fly.
SFBG Blogs
No limits
Poppin’ and popcorn
Well, this comes as absolutely no surprise. As the Hollywood Reporter noted today, Newmarket Films is running into difficulties with the distribution of Death of a President. The Toronto International Film Festival hit — which imagines the assassination of President George W. Bush, and all the Cheney-led chaos and freedom-crackdowns that follow — will not be playing at the nation’s largest theater chain, Regal Cinemas. Nor will it be opening at any theaters operated by Cinemark USA, the company that just took over the Century chain (including the brand-new SF Centre, so nope, you won’t be slidin’ on their swanky faux-leather seats while you watch the Prez eat a lead sandwich).
Fortunately, the made-for-British-TV faux-doc will be coming to the Bay Area no matter what — look for Death of a President at one of San Francisco’s Landmark Theatres starting Oct 27. Though I had mixed feelings about the film (loved its shocking concept, ehh on its second-act slowdown) I’m glad to see it’s getting attention (although, come on — like this movie is just gonna casually saunter into theaters?) Too bad this smaller release means it might well end up preaching to the choir — as so many politically-themed docs (or faux-docs, as the case may be) do, tending to open only in cities already rollin’ in art-houses and progressive audiences.
Ex-pats Beware!
by Amanda Witherell
The New York Times reported on Wednesday that software is being developed to scan overseas newspapers for content critical of the United States. You can read more here. How long do you think we have until the CIA integrates the new technology into its domestic survellience arsenal?
Back to Black
By Steven T. Jones
These are busy days, so I suppose I’ll just have to dump out the District 6 dirt just a little at a time. That’s cool, considering tomorrow’s deadline for filing pre-election campaign statement will allow me to plow into the freshest compost for y’all. We’re also having a few technical difficulties in getting the audio from Rob Black’s endorsement interview with us online, but that problem should be solved in the next couple days. And it’s worth the wait to hear him squirm in his seat over tough and legitimate questions about how he’s been doing the bidding of the wrong people for awhile now. Stay tuned.
For now, let’s recap yesterday’s Black press conference (which was held in the City Hall Press Room, despite state laws against campaigning in government offices not open to the general public, and just as the Board of Supervisors meeting was starting down the hall).
Weekend clupdate: Sorry Mona!
I’m a bad clubkid — I was supposed to pump my girl Monastat’s Tuesday Trannyshack island birthday extravaganza, but with all the horridly yummy Mark Foley scandal unfolding, I plum forgot. Sorry Mona — don’t scratch my eyes out! Luckily, I heard it was packed and peeps loved it. Mona rules (she’s everywhere these days) — and you better watch out for her …
Happy birthday lady!!!
And there’s lots coming up this weekend you all should be aware of …
Sorry I stole your peanut butter, Grandma …
but I’m a gay alcoholic pedophile who was molested by a priest when I was 12. On the moon. In pink knickers. With bunnies on them. If I donate $100,000 to your reelection cookie jar, can I have my AIM back? Oh Granny, your firewall’s enormous — but why such big glasses? … –Marke B.
Oooh .. Granny’s mad!!!
Pot. Kettle. Black.
By Steven T. Jones
District 6 supervisorial candidate Rob Black called a press conference this afternoon to accuse incumbent Sup. Chris Daly of “illegal campaigning.” The charges involve the letters that Daly and other supervisors send to their constituents. Frankly, I don’t have time right now to fully get into all the dimensions of this incident, which is rich with good color and hypocrisy. I’ll spin the full tale for y’all tomorrow. But for now, suffice it to say that the City Attorney’s Office — which Daly checked with before sending out the letters in batches of less than 200 each — doesn’t think this is illegal. That’s point one. Point two is that desperate candidates calling for a Fair Political Practices Commission investigation during the height of an election is trite, transparent, and downright cliche. But the third point is the most important. Black is a candidate that has benefitted mightly from a series of unethical, deceptive, expensive, and probably illegal attacks on Daly, many of which were orchestrated by Black’s mentor and former boss, campaign attorney Jim Sutton. These are attacks that Black has refused to fully condemn or disassociate himself from. So that’s what made today’s press conference not just ironic, but downright amusing. Check back tomorrow when I’ll have more, including good links to much of the above so you don’t just have to accept my perspective on the situation.
DARK DAYS
by Amanda Witherell
Despite the liberal signing spree that’s left most of the Dems in the state giddy with success, the guv dropped his darkened Terminator-era specs over open government by vetoing Mark Leno’s AB2927. The bill, which had unanimous approval from the House and Senate, would have improved online services for public records requests on all state agency websites, including a simple form to fill out and file electronically. It also would have allowed citizens with denied requests to appeal to the Attorney General for a review and written decision within 20 days. In a press release, Scwarzenegger said that task would be too burdensome for Lockyer’s office, and that because the Attorney General already advises state agencies who may have denied the requests, it would be a conflict of interest.
Cal Aware lawyer and open government expert Terry Franke, pointed out that anyone who read the bill would see that the Attorney General would have the right to request a 30-day extension to the response time in the case of an “unmanageable workload.” In addition, if the denial came from the Attorney General or the Department of Justice, members of the offices not involved with the original decision would be mandated to respond to the review. Also, attorney-client privilege would have trumped this bill, effectively dealing wtih the conflict of interest issue.
This bill really would have just simplified a process and added a layer of unbiased scrutiny to attempts to undermine the public’s right to know.
This is the fourth time a bill of this sort has been vetoed. Stay tuned for round five…
Youth and Dan Kelly
By Tim Redmond
Peter Lauterborn, former member of the San Francisco Youth Commission, weighs in on the School Board race at BeyondChron. His message: It’s time for Dan Kelly to go.
More on Prop. 90
By Tim Redmond
Interesting item in the Califonria Progress Report about the unsually broad coalition that’s come together to oppose prop. 90 — and the very narrow well-funded interests behind it.
You can find out more about this hideous measure here.
Bongmania and Perverse Penance: Vancouver International Film Festival, Days 3 & 4
The weekend is a time for perversion and penance, so what better way to begin mine at the Vancouver International Film Festival than with The Pervert’s Guide to Cinema, a Slavoj Zizek-guided psychoanalytic tour through the works of Alfred Hitchcock, David Lynch, and others? And what could be a more monastic way to end the weekend than with the devotional cinema of Jacques Rivette’s 12-plus hour long Out 1: Noli me tangere? In between, I caught Shortbus and witnessed the full frenzy of a Beatlemania-like response to Bong Joon-ho and his totally awesome monster flick The Host.
NOISE: BENEFIT
Hey friends,
We’re playing a show at thee Parkside this Wednesday to help raise funds for Bordertown Skate Park. In case you’re unfamiliar with the park and its story, it started in ’04 with local skaters pouring concrete under the 580 in West Oakland and is now a fully legit nonprofit organization. It’s on it’s way to becoming a truly epic park has been a hugely positive influence on the community, but they need help to see it through.
We’ll be joined by Clay Wheels and River of Rust, so, yeah, we’re keepin’ it real with a full-on skate rock bill. Hope you can join us.
Cheers,
Mike
Bordertown Benefit at thee Parkside
Clay Wheels
AM Magic
River of Rust
6 bucks
Wednesday, October 4
8pm
http://www.supersm.com/cwphotos.html
http://www.ammagicmusic.com/photos.html (or the one attached)
River of rust might have something on myspace:
http://www.myspace.com/riverofrust
also little stephen’s show with magic christian
Ku Klux Kuties
Ok, this may have nothing especially to do with San Francisco particularly — but what a Halloween treat, courtesy of Martha Stewart herself. My new email buddy DJ Bus Station John has dived into Martha Stewart Living magazine and come up with some fabulously entertaining entertaining tips from the Big Blonde Jailbait. These, I suspect, are meant to be ghosts.
But come on!
The loneliness of the long-distance runner
Documentaries are taking over my life. Lately, everything I wanna watch is either true or the next best thing. So it was only a matter of time before I’d cross paths with Docurama, a DVD label that handles documentaries exclusively. Good ones, too, including The Staircase, about a high-profile murder trial in my home state of North Carolina. My big plans for the near future are to sit down and watch The Staircase in its entirety (all six hours of it — seriously, y’all, this is the shit that curls my toes). I caught a few grisly, gripping segments during its Sundance Channel airings. Good times.
Docurama’s most inspired venture is its Docurama Film Festival — the idea is, they “program” a film fest in the form of a DVD collection available for purchase. Then you and your housemates and the family dog can hole up and watch ’em at your leisure. The fest’s second go-round is out now, and the line-up includes some real keepers.
Google’s dog and pony show
By Steven T. Jones
First, Mayor Gavin Newsom tapped his buddies at Google (in partnership with Earthlink) to build a citywide wireless system that would be free to city residents. It was a move that was done without full sunshine and it pissed off some information activists like Media Alliance, but the Department of Telecommunication and Information Services has since conducted a more open and diligent negotiations process with the companies. That caused Google to grouse to the Chron that the city was dragging its feet. So Sup. Jake McGoldrick decided maybe the city should be looking at doing a municipal wifi system instead, which he’s having the budget analyst study (if the board approves study this week) and report back on by the end of the year. That’s also when DTIS expects to have a final deal with Google/Earthlink — and when a consultant’s study on municipal broadband (that’s fiber rather than wifi) is due back. Well, with all this possibility swirling, Google and Earthlink have now announed a series of town hall meeting from now until the end of the year. Game on! Their press release follows:
World Wide Web: Vancouver International Film Festival, Day Two
My second day at the Vancouver International Film Festival brought white lines of thin girls, silent film shadows, a Unabomber web, and American telemarketing Mubai-style. But before all that, it might be best to begin with life outside the movie theater. It does exist, after all, even if film festival obsessiveness sometimes make it easy to forget.
Really scary
By Tim Redmond
I had a really scary moment tonight.
it started well — I was moderating a discussion on immigration politics at New College, featuring Justin Akers Chacon, who has written a new book called “Nobody is Illegal.” Renee Saucedo, a longtime advocate for immigrants and day laborers, was on the panel, too, and we had a great discussion — until the very end, when Saucedo starting talking about how she was trying to build coalitions between immigrants and African Americans in Bayview Hunters Point, organizing around opposition in that neighborhood the the redevelopment plan.
And out of nowhere, she urged everyone to vote yes on Proposition 90.
For the record, Prop. 90 is almost indescribably horrible. It’s a radical right wing property-rights measure that would instantly halt any new environmental laws, any new rent-control laws, any new workplace safety laws, any new zoning laws, any limits on evictions or condo coversions … it would effectively stop government regulation of private property in California.
So why was Saucedo, a smart lawyer and strong progressive, supporting it? Because Willie Ratcliff, the publisher of the San Francisco Bay View, and Marie Harrison, a candidate for supervisor from District 10, are so dead-set against redevevelopment that they’ve signed on with the worst of the right-wing nuts in the state to endorse a measure that claims to be limiting eminent domain but is so much, much more.
I’ve discussd this with Harrison; she totally doesn’t get it. Neither, for now, does Renee Saucedo. I understand their fear of redevelopment seizing people’s homes — and I understand Saucedo’s desire to build ties with and follow the lead of African American community leaders. But get a clue, my friends. This is embarassing.
If people like Renee Saucedo are getting duped into supporting the worst law to come along in California since Prop. 13, we’re in serious trouble.
No more Will and Willie
By Tim Redmond
I showed up Thursday morning of the Clear Channel studios on Townsend Street to appear on KQKE’s morning talk show, Keepin’ it Real with WIll and Willie, featuring comedian Will Durst and former Mayor Willie Brown, and the producer met me at the door with some sad news: The show had been cancelled, summarily. Two more days on the air. As of Monday morning, the Will and Willie show would be gone.
I’m told the show had a decent (if not stellar) listener base, and was making money. But not enough money — the way Clear Channel sees things, it’s entirely about the bottom line. So the locally produced show that actually took on local issues will be replaced with The Stephanie Miller Show, a syndicated program out of L.A. I’m sure the show is great, and funny and everything else that a lot of Air American programming is — but it’s not about San Francisco. It’s not local.
Once upon a time — and it wasn’t really all that long ago — local radio stations had at least some responsibility to cover local news and issues. Now the Quake, like the rest of the local Clear Channel line up, will have no real local anything, except traffic.
I never thought I’d say this, but we’ll miss you, Willie Brown.
Green as in money or green as in the environment?
By Andrew Tolve
For a politician who often projects himself as environmentally conscious, Mayor Gavin Newsom dealt his reputation a blow Thursday when he missed his keynote address at West Coast Green, the largest residential green building conference in the country. Mayoral spokesperson Peter Ragone told us Newsom had planned to speak Saturday and did. But the fact that he missed the slot printed in the schedule chafed more than a few in the audience.
Nearly 7,000 architects, contractors, developers, and policy makers have arrived in San Francisco for the weekend conference (Sept. 28-30), many of whom were left searching for answers on Thursday when the event’s inaugural speech at the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium was left unspoken.
It turned out Mayor Newsom was just a few blocks away, celebrating the opening of San Francisco’s new Bloomingdale’s instead.
“I have to say that we are all full of contradictions, and we would not be here today unless we were,” said Jim Chace, director of PG&E’s Pacific Energy Center. Despite Chace’s commendable record with environmental issues, the fact that a PG&E representative was making the announcement only heightened the irony of the moment. “I promised I wouldn’t take any shots (at the Mayor), but this should not be so easy,” Chace continued. “The fact is that there’s a contradiction here, and contradictions are just a sign in our lives that it is time to look at change.”
The Mayor’s absence aside, embracing change is the fixture of this year’s West Coast Green Conference. Presentations about the feasibility and the implementation of green building techniques will continue Friday and Saturday at the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium. Saturday the event is open to the public.
“Clearly there’s nothing more powerful than an idea whose time has come,” said Christi Graham, the event’s founder and executive producer. “I do think that we might look back one day and recognize the impact of our gathering here.”
Compassionate crackdown
By Steven T. Jones
Mayor Gavin Newsom has been flailing this year, so apparently he’s going back to what’s worked politically for him before: cracking down on the homeless. This week, he ordered police and other city staffers to place notices around Golden Gate Park warning the homeless to move on or have their stuff confiscated. His flack Peter Ragone yesterday bristled when I used the word “crackdown” and insisted that this was simply a social service outreach. “We will not ask a person to leave the park without offering then a place to go,” he told me. But when I pointed out that the city doesn’t have nearly enough social service or shelter spots for the hundreds of homeless in the park — and that the posted notices seem to be more of a threat than an offer — he said that he’d have to check with Trent Rhorer (the architect of the mayor’s get-tough homeless policies) and get back to me. He never did. Yet homeless advocates and civil rights groups (including the ACLU and Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights) sent the city a letter calling the crackdown illegal, unconstitutional, and counterproductive. (Download a copy of the letter here. Hit the back button to return to this blog entry.)
And it isn’t just happening in Golden Gate Park. As we’ve been hearing and the Chron reported today, city cops are also apparently rousting the poor and homeless from around the newly opened Westfield Mall. And this stuff certainly isn’t new, but more like the MO of this administration: act like you care deeply about the homeless while quieting forcing them from the city.
Compassion there too? When will Newsom, Ragone, and the rest of this disingenuous administration realize that their actions speak far louder than their words?
Cat’s Eye: Vancouver International Film Fest, Day One
Toronto presents North America’s mad mad mad world fall film fest option, while Vancouver gives post-Hollywood cinemaniacs a quieter, more contemplative choice. Thanks to Tony Rayns, who is marking his last year of programming the Vancouver International Film Festival’s Dragons & Tigers section and competition, the fest has blazed trails: directors such as Hirokazu Kore-Eda and Jia Zhangke have won early and influential awards here. But there are other secrets about VIFF. One irony: it might be a better showcase of independent movies from the US than any actual US fest. Experimental features and documentaries that move beyond issue-based hectoring thrive here.
NOISE: Kingdom come
Oh, the places we’ll go, the shows we’ll see, the drinks that will send us under tables at all the finest dive bars in the Bay Area.
Tonight, there’s much happening on the Quannum front — with label artists Honeycut, Tommy Guerrero, and Curumin holding it down at Mezzanine — and at the Lab as Asian American arts fest APAture continues (with Sheela Bringi, Echo of Bullets, Power Struggle, and others) and at popscene as the Dears smash all comers. Additionally you gots indie rock: Viva Voce, the Silversun Pickups, and the Kingdom at Rickshaw Stop. Several of us round the Guardian have been enjoying the adenoidal whinny of Kingdom vocalist Charles Westmoreland, last heard on the band’s debut, K1 (Arena Rock). An acquired taste? A pretentious name? Sprightly pop swathed in violins, synth, and guitars from NYC? Why not?
The Kingdom is the name; don’t wear it out. Photo by Chuck Westmoreland
27 cocks, 4 circle jerks, and a Human Urinal: The Almost Fabulous Intern goes to Folsom
Because I simply can’t stand virgins (something about their Winnie the Pooh pyjamas), I sent my leather virgin intern, the one and only Justin Juul, to the Folsom Street Fair to record his experiences. This is what I had to do to make Folsom shocking again — at least to someone. He returned with a message of love. And maybe the clap. Read on … –Marke B.
Sorry Marke, I know I promised, but I just couldn’t do it. No matter how many beers I drank, I could not get comfortable with the idea of going out in public clad in my hastily thrown together leather costume. What would my poor mother think for God’s sake? And what would my marine-corps father do if he knew? Would he stop giving me money to finish school? Would he shun me for the rest of his days? With all these thoughts swirling in my paranoid little mind I came up with a logical alternative -a leather barbecue! I would still attend the day’s festivities, of course; I just wouldn’t be showing off all my skinny white boy stuff. What follows is an account of The Almost Fabulous Intern’s first leather festival.
Off to Mexico City and IAPA
I’m off to Mexico City where democracy is being tested on an almost daily basis. I am attending as a delegate the 62nd annual assemble of the Inter American Press Association. IAPA is an effective organization in promoting and defending press freedom in the Americas from Canada to Argentina and points in between. It has been for decades a key player in promoting democracy in the Americas. The Guardian’s John Ross has been filing excellent reports from Mexico City (see links below – more online at www.sfbg.com):
Warning: Blue jeans are dangerous to human rights
I’ll try to keep you posted, B3.