Marke B.

Newsflash: Prop 8 doesn’t discriminate!

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Hey, everyone! Guess what? Prop 8 didn’t discriminate against us at all — and it certainly didn’t take our rights away. That’s what the “oficial (sick) statement” direct from the glorious Yes on Prop 8 bunker buried deep within Dick Cheney’s waxed asshole — cloth napkins provided — says, so you know it’s true, as well as sponsored by seething ex-polygamists who rocket to other planets in sacred Underoos when they die. And the Knights of Columbus, whatever the hell that is.

“Proposition 8 has always been about restoring the traditional definition of marriage. It doesn’t discriminate or take rights away from anyone. Gay and lesbian domestic partnerships will continue to enjoy the same legal rights as married spouses. Our coalition has no plans to seek any changes in that law.”

How christianist of them. Meanwhile, in the real world where people actually love one another, not rape them religiously, the protests are ON. Will we stop paying our taxes? Will we hold giant kiss-ins outside Catholic preschools? I’m not gonna say here, because that takes away the delicious, faggotty surprise.

However, here’s this:

Protest Proposition 8
2008-11-07 5:30pm – 8pm
Civic Center Station, SF

More to come and come.

Prop 8: Gays vs. blacks?

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RuPaul says: “Chill out! All of yous!”

Look — **high horse alert** — I’m as exhausted and disappointed by the blechy Prop 8 win as anyone with an ounce of humanity in their body. And I’m a queer radical who was kind of against this whole struggle to begin with, until I saw how happy it made my friends. Heck, I was even considering popping the question to the big bf on his birthday next year. And yes, I will probably follow up this post with a few hot satirical jabs at the ign’nt homophobes that are driving around in SUVs yelling “faggott” and blaring awful hip-pop while celebrating their “victory.”

But something needs to be addressed right now: The latest blogospheric trope of trying to suss out the no on Prop 8 failure in terms of racial breakdown. I understand we’re angry. Did I make jokes all last week about burning down Oakland if Prop 8 wins? Yes, I did. But let’s stop. Let’s get some perspective.

I’m not saying that there isn’t anything there if you look at the numbers. Blacks supported Prop 8 by 69% — and Latinos by 51% — according to (risky) exit polls. And many flamboyant black preachers came out for Prop 8. And the conventional wisdom, the bitter conventional wisdom, seems to be coming to a consensus that if we hadn’t tried so hard to get out the black vote for Obama, we wouldn’t have been defeated in the polls. Those wily negroes didn’t do what we wanted them to do! We helped them, why didn’t they help us?

But what appear to be the facts aren’t always the truth, duh.

Kamau Patton

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At the cacophonous intersection of Sun Ra’s wheeling jazz cosmology, P-Funk’s psycho-disco logorrhea, Clarence 13X’s alpha-beta-culto Five-Percent Nation, the early ’90s vainglorious hip-hop of X-Clan, Isis, and Blackwatch, and The Throne of the Third Heaven of the Nations’ Millennium General Assembly (1950-64), that sprawling, tinfoil-bedazzled outsider masterpiece by Washington, DC, handyman James Hampton, lies a crazy-ass aesthetic of African American visual and performance culture — the culture of flash. 36-year-old Kamau Amu Patton taps directly into this interstellar shine-on-shine look and feel, jettisoning — or maybe out-transcending — the quasi-theological messages in order to dazzle the mind’s eye blackwards.

Consider Patton’s Talk Show (2007). Two archetypal afrocentric public-access cable hosts, both played by Patton, decked out in on-point dashikis and shells before a pixel projection of Hampton’s Throne, dissemble circuitous phrases. "Knowledge is the foundation of all that is existence … You must respect the thing you observe as being real!" one declaims, while the other sighs loudly and eggs him on: "Ah, damn — that’s the truth." A little silver prayer bell is rung and a 1-800 number flashes across the screen. Telephone message: "Behold, the light has come! Speak on!"

Talk Show‘s blank parody should dead-end in hilarity for anyone familiar with these types of folks. But the dreamlike accumulation of gaudy signifiers, as well as the sense that this is a completely unexplored cultural trope, rockets the video into more thoughtful realms. "I wanted to point up the tautologies of that kind of discourse, to capture the exact aesthetic while highlighting the circular rhythms of delivery, the language of persuasion," Patton says. "But at the same time I felt a responsibility to perfectly perform these characters, the kind of people I grew up with in Brooklyn, who were on my street corner preaching like that. I really freaked out over getting the sunglasses exactly right."

That will to performance perfection, evidenced in several of his other live works, is grounded in Patton’s educational background. He holds a sociology degree from the University of Pennsylvania and completed field coursework at the London School of Economics. "I grew disillusioned with sociology because it seemed the opposite of what I felt I was interested in," says Patton, who educates Bay Area kids on the artistic legacies of their particular communities. "I wanted to start with something tangible, or several things, and use them as a jumping-off point to continuous abstract revelations. It’s a generative aesthetic kind of thing. To keep going down a certain illuminated hallway in my work. At the same time, I’m a black man in America, so I have a certain perception or set of experiences that I can draw on as well. I’m definitely drawn to the shamanistic and the kingly — especially African American representations of the kingly. I can go off on what Eric B. and Rakim were wearing on their first album cover for hours."

Other Patton confluences of the statistical and the flashy: his performances as part of the hip-hop and fashion collective Official Tourist; this year’s gorgeous self-published book Edge Theory of Dematerialized Consciousness, a wiggy, chthonic numerical-poetic tract punctuated by eerie nature photographs; and an unnamed retro-digital-video assemblage, viewable at www.kamau.org, in which Patton, as a voodooistic priest, writhes around a hissing explosion, whose glitchy "digital dropouts" and color-balance freakouts are meant to be Cézanne-like portals into other dimensions. Currently, the Emeryville-based Patton is artist-in-residence at Southern Exposure. He’s represented there by a retina-searing collaboration with photographer Suzy Poling called "Glasshouse," which uses e-wasted CRT screens to bend light into hallucination. Behold the warp of truth, infinite.

www.kamau.org

David Chiu, Aaron Peskin represent

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Sarah Phelan reports:

A nice turnout for David Chiu’s party at Broadway Suites, opposite Showgirls, next to Crow Bar near Chinatown – definitely the stripper area: Will David be taking it off?

Chiu was pretty happy because he said he ran “the most grassroots campaign — against one of the mnost moneyed campaigns in San Francisco history.”

With 100 percent of precincts reporting, he had 40% of the vote.

Current D3 supe Aaron Peskin came on stage and announced, “Let me introduce next supe for D3: David Chiu!”

And Chiu responded, “This is completely overwhelming, beautiful day.”

He may be the first Chinese American to represent Chinatown.

Randy Knox: “Anything is possible”

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Ricky Angel reports:

A block away from Randy Knox’s campaign HQ, a vivacious crowd cheered Barack Obama’s presidency. Inside Knox’s HQ, Knox told the Guardian: “Barack has shown that anything is possible.”

Knox, a biracial black candidate running for District 11 Supervisor, has been avidly campaigning. He told the Guardian: “It has been an enlightening experience.” Knox said he has learned a lot about his neighborhood and “community reaction has been positive because they share the same intent.” Knox, a long time resident of District 11 relayed that the intent was to revive a neighborhood neglected by City Hall.

Volunteer and friend, Marcus Wong, 23, supports Knox. Wong told the Guardian: “Randy has the ability to do something amazing in life.” Alex Humphrey, 39, turned down a paid position with the Obama campaign to volunteer for Knox. Humphrey stated: “There is no one, running for District 11 Supervisor, as qualified as Randy.”

Throughout the night, various campaign personnel commemorated Knox as a personable and genuine man.

Although results would not be in for a few days, Wong said, “I’m optimistic. Definitely optimistic.”

Obama parties break out; Castro calms

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At 16th and Dolores, at 19th and Valencia — drums, screams, police, but all peacful. People streaming out of bars like the Kilowatt, singing, celebrating …

Also: in the Castro things have calmed down a bit as the tension of uncalled prop 8 close race sinks in. “People were happy, but now they don’t know what the hell to do, ” says my BF. “They were exuberant for the cameras for the 11 o’clock news, but now everyone’s just milling around a little despondently. I’m going to Moby Dick for a drink.”

Yes on K waits …

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Saadia Malik reports:

Yes on K campaign workers were still waiting at Zeitgeist bar to hear if their measure had passed at 10:30pm. At this time, just a handful of people remained at the middle bar where the party was located, drinking beer and watching the news on TV.

As the others left, tired of waiting for the slow-coming results, campaign organizer Sadie Lune remained optimistic about results either way.

“Right now I’m so full of hope and joy” she said, after a day of last minute campaigning. She said she was unfamilar with the political campaign process prior to the yes on prop K ballot measure, but was pleased with the response from voters.

“Any result seems like a gateway for opportunity.”

McCarthy’s “end of campaign” party

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Ricky Angel reports:

Tears of joy erupted from Denise McCarthy’s campaign as we learned Barack Obama won the presidency.

As for the McCarthy campaign, she told the Guardian, “This isn’t a victory party, it’s the ‘end of a campaign’ party.”

McCarthy, running for supe in D3, explained that her campaign was officially over, but it could be days before they learn the results. Her husband Tom McCarthy reiterated that it was too early to tell — although he stated that Denise has a strong history in the district that no one else has.

Paige Labourdette and nephew Harry Libarle supported by volunteering for the campaign. Labourdette told the Guardian, “I think she’s going to win. She has a lot of experience and community support.”

Passerby Frederick Geers of the Richmond said he would have voted for McCarthy – “There’s enough Aliotos in City Hall already.”

Approximately 30 guests enlivened McCarthy’s campaign party at Polk and Jackson.

“We ran the fucking table”

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Tim Redmond reports from City Hall:

I just talked to labor organizer Robert Haaland, who helped run the union-backed campaigns for progressive supervisors. His comment:

“It was grassroots hard work against big downtown money — and we ran the fucking table. It’s amazing, we were up against the biggest downtown blitz ever seen in district elections. It’s obviously a big night for labor and it’s a big loss for you-know-who.”

Whoa

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Tim Redmond reports:

It now appears that the Progressives have won Districts 1, 3, and 11.

Mar pulled far ahead in D1.

Chiu is well ahead in D3.

Avalos is comfortably in D11.

It’s still too early to tell for sure, and anything can change with ranked voting and as the later precincts come in.

But downtown and the mayor are taking it in the shorts, and the Progressives who run the Democratic party are headed for a victory even many of them did not expect.

Obama and Prop 8

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Sarah Phelan reports from the Obama party at the Westin St. Francis:

It’s been a real scene here – people high-fiving on the streets and shouting ever since we heard about Obama. People yelling “Back to the icebox,” when Palin came onscreen during McCain’s concession speech.

Earlier I was at No on Prop 8 HQ — at the beginning, woth 5 percent of precincts reporting, yes on 8 was leading by 54%. The guy next to me said, “this is gonna be a looong next couple of hours once the Obama euphoria wears off!” A woman said, “I hope just a geographical bias,” citing Fresno and Bakersfield as likely culprits.

Newsom was supposed to show at No on 8 HQ, but hasn’t yet — which may not bode well. Apparently he’s in LA.

Geoff Kors of Equality California advised everyone here to buckle their seat belts. “We’ve still got a long way to go,” he said.

Tom Ammiano was on hand to cheer us all up, though. “The bad guys are winning,” he said, “by a small margin in the south.”

Yes on A has passed

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Saadia Malik reports:

The Yes on A campaign first heard word that their measure passed at about 9pm, just after Obama began his acceptance speech.

The measure passed overwhelmingly by 80.3 of the vote. The crowd anxiously awaited the results sipping on wine and nibbling on hors d’ouevres while taking in the national election coverage at the Prop A party headquarters.

Gene Marie O’Connell CEO of SF General said she had been laboring on the campaign sine 2000, when the state mandate for hospital seismic upgrades first passed. “This was a historic night. I’m glad Yes on A could be part of it.”

With tears in their eyes the crowd hugged each other and “It’s done” was heard.

More rockin’ at Roccapulco

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Amanda Witherell reports:

It’s going off at Roccopulco! And theres’ a line out the door at El Rio a couple doors down at the League of Pissed Off Voters and Prop H party – and so far the electricity’s still on, heh.

I just talked to Tom Jackson, the organizing director at Coleman Advocates – and he said the precinct he was working in, D11, gave 115 votes for Avalos, and 75 for Safai. And Prop B, the affordable housing measure, was winning by a wide margin.

Surprising news from City Hall

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Tim Redmond reports:

With 20% of vote in, the progressive candidates are not only withstanding the downtown assault, they’re doing remarkably well.

Gerardo Sandoval appears to have won the judicial race ousting incumbent Tom Mellon. In D3 David Chiu is now 17points ahead of Alioto and is winning 38-21.

In D1, Erc Mar and Sue Lee are still too close to call, and very few precincts in D11 are reporting yet.

Prop B is looking better and better and will probably pass.

Rockin’ at Roccapulco for Quezada

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Meghan McCloskey reports from the Eric Quezada party at Roccapulco:

Only a couple people sat in this beautifully appointed Mission Street club at 7:59 pm when we learned that Obama had enough electoral votes to become the President of the USA. Applause erupted as if the place were packed.

At 8:45, Quezada, candidate for D9 supe, walked in the door and headed straight for the front of the room. “We’ve already won” he said, looking up at Obama on the big screen. “So have some drinks and let’s celebrate the change we want!”

Rosalba Navarro, who works with Quezada 17 years ago in East Palo Alto in a parent organization that aided bilingual education in schools, says there’s no better perspon for the job. “He’s always been a fighter for the underdog,” she sais. “It’s great to have him support our community.”

Supporters wore bright yellow t-shirts with Quezada’s name on them to show their enthusiasm. Campaign volunteer Yeseenia Ruiz said, “The Guardian’s endorsement definitely helped Eric’s campaign, because people got to know him a little better. Just seeing his name you don’t know where he’s from. But articles in the paper help get people out there.”

Ove 100 volunterers have worked on his campaign Ruiz sasy volunteering ius what his ccampaign is all about.”

First results from City Hall

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Tim Redmond calls in:

The absentee votes are now in – and they show interesting trends in D1 Eric Mar and Sue Lee are in a virtual dead heat, with Lee about 1% ahead. Since the absentee voters tend to run conservative, this is good news for Mar.

In D3, David Chiu is well ahead beating Joseph Alioto, Jr., by 12 points.

In D9, David Campos is 7 points ahead of Mark Sanchez, with Eric Quezada a distant third.

In D11, John Avalos and Myrna Lim and Ahsha Safai are within 1 percentage point.

Prop 8 is going down 67 to 33 in SF.

On the ballot measures it’s a mixed bag:

Prop A is well ahead with 80 % of vote and will pass easily.

Prop B losing 55-45 anfd that will tighten up but be close.

Prop H has taken a beating from the $10mill PG&E campaign – it’s behind 67-33 …

The three revenue measurea — N, O, and Q — are all ahead and looking to pass.

It appears we will not be naming a sewage treatment plant after G.W. Bush: It’s down 70-30

If the trends hold as they usually do, with progressives picking up considerably on election day, this could turn out to be a very strong night for progressive candidates.

at this point it does not appear that downtown has successded in its efforts to buy the board.

Prop 8 numbers may change fast

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Tim Redmond calls in from City Hall:

We still have no results at SF Cit Hall for local races. Apparently there are still people voting at SF State — and the city’s not releasing anything until that last polling place closes.

What that means among other things is that any statewide numbers on Prop 8 are bound to be flawed because they don’t include roughly 400,00 projected votes in SF – the vast majorityj of which will be no on 8. It’s probably the same in LA.

Prop 8 numbers with 10% of CA reporting:

Yes: 1,598,117
No: 1,348,648

Ed Note — so don’t despair yet!

Avalos at City Hall

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Tim Redmond calls in to report from the Dept of Elections at City Hall:

Still no results here, but I just talked to John Avalos who says his precinct reports are showing him way ahead.

“We had 5,100 people identified as our voters and we got most of them the polls,” Avalos says, “and labor had thousands more. I’m feeling really good right now.

“Of course, we have no hard results yet. And given that there are still people voting downstairs, it may be a while … “

Hustlin’ for Obama

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From my old neighborhood in Detroit, heh. I’ll break this out tomorrow, oh, around 7:30pm probably …

“A first-rate love, all the way”

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Guardian contributing videographer Lisa Pickoff-White, along with Marnette Federis, Gaelle Faure and Elizabeth Shemaria, has been following newlywed couple Jen and Iris around — and has put together an amazing multimedia biographical journalism project about their same-sex wedding. (You can view the entire fabulous project here.) Jen and Iris came from Atlanta to tie the knot in good ol’ SF, where it’s legal — at least for the next four days. And yes, this is another plea to help out the No on 8 campaign.

Watch below as they describe what a difference marriage makes in their lives …

Samuel L. Jackson: No on 8, m**f**ers!

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OK, well not exactly, but he’s in the game:

as is Ms. Feinstein:

But where’s Arnie? In Ohio, stumping for McCain, sigh. Obama? Anyhoodle, the No on 8 folks just announced another matching funds drive, after malevolent Mormon spiders downed their site. This is your last chance to tell the Knights of Columbus to shove it up their Shriners!

UPDATE: And Bill “DOMA” Clinton!

PS — And don’t think us gays won’t remember this — there will be a TON of kiss-in fun if 8 passes, which it won’t, but just saying. I love tonsil-tickling my bf in Catholic churches. Just like the ’90s. Bitter? Maybe I am. But the $50 mill already spent on this foolishness could have funded how many food banks?

The booness

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› superego@sfbg.com

SUPER EGO Happy Slutoween, librul terrorists. Now that the Castro Street celebration has been officially buried, there’ll be more terrific parties than tired Sarah Palin costumes haunting Halloween night. Below are 13 batshit surefires, all taking place Oct. 31, night of the living-undead pro-life governor of Alaska. Trick or trick!

ALL HALLOW’S EVE


Goth equals deathly perfect — insert exhausted "every day is Halloween" joke here — as 18-plus clubs Death Guild and Meat team up to paint it black with DJs Decay and Melting Girl and "techno opera singer" Diva Marisa.

9 p.m., $13. DNA Lounge, 375 11th St., SF. (415) 626-1409, www.dnalounge.com

BITTEN


A French bordello Halloween masquerade ball seems right up any horny black cat’s alley — especially with an acrobatic performance by the ever-sexy Vau de Vire Society and lofty tunes by DJ Ean Golden.

10 p.m., free with costume. Harlot, 46 Minna, SF. (415) 777-1077, www.harlotsf.com

BLOOD PACT


An 18-and-up, gayish underground "dark places" extravaganza with vampiric DJ vamps Honey Soundsystem, Rchrd Oh?!, and Lord Kook, and promoters Homochic and Tantra, plus a slashing guest spot by Los Angeles’ A Club Called Rhonda.

10 p.m., $15. SomArts, 934 Brannan, SF. (415) 552-2131, www.homochic.com

BLOW UP HALLOWEEN


Those gorgeous 18-plus electro hipsters will never settle for anything less than horrifyingly bangin’ style — with terrific, terrifying rap trio HOTTUB, and evil genius DJs Richie Panic and Jeffrey Paradise.

10 p.m., $15. Rickshaw Stop, 155 Fell, SF. (415) 861-2011, www.myspace.com/blow_up_415

CHARLIE HORSE HALLOWEEN THING


Two whole hours of the trashiest drag performances the nether regions of Polk Street have to offer? Sounds heart-stopping, but hostess Anna Conda will pump you back up with the cheapest drinks — and "outfits" — in town.

10 p.m., free. The Cinch, 1723 Polk, SF. (415) 776-4162, www.myspace.com/charliehorsecinch

COOKIE’S HAUNTED HALLOWEEN


Ecstatically kooky drag princess Cookie Dough hosts a night of haunted whores, with ghoulish electro-goth duo Ejector live, DJ MC2, alarming numbers by Landa Lakes, Glitterella, and more.

8 p.m., $8. Octavia Lounge, 1772 Market, SF. (415) 863-3516, www.cookievision.com

HALLOWEEN: A PARTY


This one’ll be pure crazyboots, as Heklina of Trannyshack literally rises from the dead to join Midnight Mass’ Peaches Christ in hosting a dark diva drag extravaganza, with bloody insanity from Kiddie, Fauxnique, Renttecca, Raya Light …

9 p.m., $20. Cat Club, 1190 Folsom, SF. (415) 703-8965, www.peacheschrist.com

HAUNTED TEMPLE


Unholy deeds will abound in cavernous club Temple’s sacred spaces, with insane décor on two levels, howlin’ DJs Paul Hemming, IQ!, and Jaswho?, plus a $500 costume contest.

10 p.m., $20. 540 Howard, SF. www.templesf.com

MONSTER HALLOWEEN


Ghoul’s night lip-sync battle-a-thon! DJ Scottish Andy and glamazon hostess Juanita More exhaust the hipsteratti queens and friends on the mic at the manly Truck bar for exotic "prizes" (i.e., drunk sex).

9 p.m., $5. Truck, 1900 Folsom, SF. (415) 252-0306, www.juanitamore.com

NIGHT OF THE LIVING BASS


Burner faves Opel get with Evil Breaks for an endless night of sheer funky drum ‘n’ bass madness, with a little techno freak-out on the side. With DJs Meat Katie, the Rogue Element, and Kid Blue.

10 p.m., $20. Mighty, 119 Utah, SF. (415) 626-7001, www.mighty119.com

RE:CREATION


A hip-hop, old-school electro, and freak beats spectacular, as ArtNowSF and Euphoric Conceptions present a platter’s worth of head trip performers like Mochipet, the New Deal, Pleasure Maker, and Sleepyhead. 9 p.m., $20. Club Six, 60 Sixth St., SF. (415) 531-6953, www.clubsix1.com

STILETTO: ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE


No San Francisco club is sharper fashionista-wise than theme-driven Stiletto. Gasp as too-cool zombies arise from the depths of loveliness with DJs Mario Muse, Eric Sharp, and runway madness from Flock, plus photo booth!

10pm, $8, AsiaSF, 201 Ninth St., (415) 255-4752, www.myspace.com/stilettosf

Z-TRIP


The inexhaustible mix-master must have some sort of magic potion in his vinyl cauldron, because the mash-up and intel hip-hop kids still flock to his politically oriented, mind-blowing shows after several centuries. Scary!

9 p.m., $22.50. Supperclub, 657 Harrison, SF. (415) 348-0900, www.blasthaus.com

Yahoo News: Fascists and gay marriage? Heil yes

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Oh, these automated media times — faster, news cycle, kill kill! Here’s another fun distraction: In a gaffe that slightly recalls Yahoo’s infamous Katrina photo captioning brew-ha-ha of 2005 (where black people were labelled as “looters” while white people were “finders”), that great news aggregator of the digital Alps pricelessly pulled up this pic of recently semi-outed — and recently very-dead — hard right Austrian fuckwad Joerg Haider and his simpering spokesperson/buttboy Stefan Petzner to illustrate a story on Prop 8, plus bonus slideshow. Oops.

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Hey, though — doesn’t the number 88 mean something in skinhead culture? Fascists — always only going halfway.

The bf and I were horrified when we Web-stumbled upon this Sunday night. Moral: Yahoo, it haz confuzed. Even bigger moral: The gays can be anything! We. Are. Everywhere.

Gayz: were in yr fascism, marrying yr mormonz.

UPDATE: Oh lord, it’s still up there. Editors …

It’s on: Bernal Hill soapbox derby drowns out Red Bull hangover

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The real thing!

By Deborah Giattina

Hey, it was oppressive seeing all those Red Bull banners waving from electric poles and street lights around the Mission Dolores corridors. Soon after Red Bull umbrellas started popping up at cafes with outdoor seating. Great. An energy drink is taking over the Mission.

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The banners were announcing the Oct 18 Red Bull Soap Box Derby held off of Dolores Park, where an estimated 60,000 attendees gathered to watch the race rolling down Dolores between 21st and 18th Streets on huge “Big Brother is Watching You” screens erected around the park.

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You had to show up early to find a spot where you could actually see the soapbox cars cruise down the track using the power of nothing more than your own two eyes. No doubt, the vehicles were creative but not exactly built for speed.

Worst of all, I feared the corporate-sponsored spectacle, held in four cities across the lower 48 this year, might have co-opted the annual derby held by the San Francisco Illegal Soapbox Society, whose members have been swerving down Bernal Hill since 1993. Rest assured, it’s still happening, as evidenced by Telstar Logistics’s recent post on the Sunday after Halloween, as per usual.