Tim Redmond

Guardian v. SF Weekly: trial update

-
0

It’s extraordinary how the SF Weekly can take a clear legal defeat and try to turn it into a victory.

Yesterday the judge in the Bay Guardian’s lawsuit against the SF Weekly and its parent corporation refused to bar the Guardian’s key expert witness from testifying. The ruling was a clear victory for the Guardian – the Weekly had tried desperately to keep accountant and economic expert Clifford Kupperberg from taking the stand to present evidence of how much the Weekly’s predatory pricing had damaged the Guardian.

And yet, the Weekly’s Snitch blog trumpets the ruling as “Bay Guardian shakedown hits a snag,” arguing that Kupperberg had somehow repudiated his own testimony.

The Guardian is suing the SF Weekly and Village Voice Media for predatory pricing in violation of California business law. The suit charges that the Weekly, with cash support from the 16-paper chain, sold ads below cost for many years in an effort to harm the locally owned competitor.

The trial got underway this week, with early motions on the evidence. Here’s what actually happened in Superior Court judge Marla Miller’s courtroom Jan. 16th and 17th:

Kupperberg, following well-established standards, had developed two scenarios to explain how much the Guardian had lost due to the Weekly’s practice of selling ads below cost. One of the scenarios used data from members of the Associate of Alternative Newsweeklies, information that the papers share with each other once a year to establish industry financial benchmarks.

The SF Weekly’s lawyers argued that part of the data – the material from AAN — wasn’t reliable, so Kupperberg agreed to use his other standards (including New Times own figures in 17 different markets) instead. He also added data from two other Bay Area alternative papers and from local retail sales statistics to buttress his conclusions. His data suggests damages of $5 million to $10 million.

And after the SF Weekly lawyers argued for hours that Kupperberg be disqualified, Judge Miller ruled clearly and unequivocally against them. Kupperberg will be able to testify, and his damages will be admissible.

That’s a big victory for the Guardian.

And while the Weekly lawyers demanded extra time and sought to delay once again a case that’s been in the works for more than three years, Miller moved forward and started the jury selection process Jan.17.

If this is how the SF Weekly and the VVM guys from Phoenix are going to cover the trial, we’re going to have to spend a lot of time correcting the record.

For more context and background on the case, and to see one of our key legal motions and read the story on the case from the Daily Journal click here.

Taunting the tiger

-
0

Um excuse me: I suppose it’s news that the guys who were mauled by Tatiana the tiger were standing on a rail and yelling at her, but that’s not exactly an excuse for what happened. The animals at the zoo aren’t supposed to get out. Period.

It’s terrible that people taunt the animals, but they do, and they have, and they will — and if the zoo pens and cages can’t hold the animals anyway, there’s a real problem.

BTW, it was highly unlikely that “taunting” got the tiger agitated. More likely she thought they were food. That’s a much more common predator response.

The staph sensation

-
0

I have to give it to Michael Petrelis — he’s taken a nice whack at the staph hysteria story. And it’s created quite a discussion on dailykos.

A new report on an outbreak of drug-resistant staph is news, absolutely. But it’s hard to argue that this wasn’t a bit sensationalized. And since when are gay men not part of the “general population”?

Taxi taxi

-
0

taxi.jpg

For those of us who are fascinated by the San Francisco taxi industry, there’s an interesting report from the city Controller’s office here. It relates to a few pieces of legislation that are coming up in the next few weeks. Sup. Michela Alioto-Pier wants to raise the amount big cab companies can charge their drivers to lease cabs — but the report shows that the big companies are all doing just fine, that revenue is up and that profits are healthy. That would suggest to me that they don’t need more money — which would come, of course, at the expense of the drivers, who would lose, according to the United Taxicab Workers, as much as $5,000 a year on the deal.

And let’s remember: According to the controller, the average driver nets less than $110 for a ten-hour shift, which is barely above the city’s minimum wage.

Alioto-Pier has backed off her initial plan, but there is likely some gate hike on the horizon — and in my mind, it needs to be combined with a fare increase to keep the drivers’ income from dropping.

Editor’s Notes

-
0

› tredmond@sfbg.com

I had this eerie feeling last week as news reports began to come in of a naval engagement in the Strait of Hormuz. It was starting to feel like 1964.

The way the initial stories had it, a group of Iranian speedboats approached the USS Port Royal and the USS Hopper in the narrow strait, which controls access to the Persian Gulf. Commanders on both ships went on high alert and ordered their gunners to track the speedboats. They were probably responding to a Navy war game simulation of a few years back, in which a swarm of small boats was able to attack and disable a United States warship.

It got worse: as the small craft approached, the ships received a radio message in English, warning that "I am coming to you. You will explode in a few minutes." The ships’ captains were within a few seconds of directing their crews to open fire.

Now it turns out, according to the Guardian of London, that a widely known radio hacker who calls himself Filipino Monkey — a guy who often pesters ships in the Gulf — may have been the one sending the radio message. There was, apparently, no real threat.

But the George W. Bush administration has protested to the Iranians, the Navy commander in the Gulf says he takes the threat of attack on US ships "deadly seriously," and Bush has personally warned that "provocative actions" could lead to military retaliation.

Let’s see now: On Aug. 2, 1964, the US destroyer Maddox was conducting a spy mission in the Gulf of Tonkin, off the coast of North Vietnam, when the captain reported coming under attack by North Vietnamese torpedo boats. The destroyer opened fire, and aircraft from a nearby carrier pursued the boats, allegedly sinking one. Two days later the Maddox and another destroyer fired on what they said were hostile targets in the gulf.

Turns out both reports were total lies, the hostile actions by North Vietnam fabricated, and the entire event almost certainly set up as a casus belli — and the result was a war that killed 50,000 US troops.

And we know Bush wants to attack Iran. Eerie.

A deal on UC Extension?

-
0

Well, it looks as if Sup. Ross Mirkarimi and state Sen. Carole Migden have managed to squeeze some real concessions out of the developers of the old UC Extension site. This is still preliminary, and the details are not confirmed, but I’m told that the percentage of affordable housing could be increased from 16 percent to more than 35 percent, a total of 80 more affordable units.

There are still issues here and the players haven’t all agreed, but this is progress.

Iran and Vietnam

-
0

Why does this remind me, eerily, of the Gulf of Tonkin incident?

Editor’s Notes

-
0

› tredmond@sfbg.com

My brother called me from the East Coast over the weekend to ask if I was still alive and my house still standing. He’d been watching CNN, which apparently was showing nonstop reports of terrible storm carnage in Northern California, complete with breathless voice-overs talking about hurricane-force winds.

"Yeah," I told him. "It rained."

It was windy too. Some trees came down, my roof leaked a little, and some people who built houses on unstable hillsides learned what happens to unstable hillsides when it rains. None of this is terribly unusual or strange. It’s just that people in San Francisco aren’t used to living in a world where there’s actual weather. You’d think a place that could be shaken into dusty wreckage any minute by the inevitable earthquake would be a little less freaked about precipitation.

Still, I found a bit of a lesson here.

Just hours after the storm broke, while the bold and adventurous tech pioneers of Google were still huddled in their homes and afraid to go to work, the San Francisco Department of Public Works had crews on the streets clearing fallen trees. The response was stunningly efficient — the stuff that couldn’t be chopped up right away was hauled off to the side so cars could get through. By that evening the worst of the fallen timber was corralled and being cut up with chain saws. It’s fun to talk about the lazy, inefficient public sector, but frankly, the DPW did its job.

And 36 hours later, the efficient, private utility company, Pacific Gas and Electric Co., still couldn’t get the power back on along Third Street.

We got a press release Friday from the Democratic Leadership Council, which runs the Bill Clinton wing of the party and has long supported Democrats who hew to the center-right. The DLC folks call these hawkish neocons "new Democrats." And according to their Jan. 4 statement, the "New Democrat of the Week" was … San Francisco mayor Gavin Newsom.

Newsom got the award for "his continued commitment to reducing his city’s carbon footprint," which is fine and lovely. But it came the same week he announced, in a very DLC style, that he was bringing Kevin Ryan, the former United States attorney, on board as the head of his criminal justice council.

Ryan’s a right-wing prosecutor, a George W. Bush appointee who was in charge of the witch hunt and persecution that sent videographer Josh Wolf to jail for 226 days. Why, exactly, is a guy who has no respect for the First Amendment working for the mayor of San Francisco?

Newsom’s big plans to shake up his administration seem to amount to firing Public Utilities Commission general manager Susan Leal (who can’t be fired right now because she’s on job-related disability) and replacing her with controller Ed Harrington. Leal had to go because she might run for mayor in four years against whomever Newsom and chief consultant Eric Jaye handpick (Assessor Phil Ting seems to be the choice right now) and because, as Sup. Bevan Dufty put it, "PG&E was not happy about her."

Sounds like an award-winning strategy to me.

PS Our predatory-pricing case against the SF Weekly and its parent company goes to trial Jan. 14 in San Francisco Superior Court with Judge Marla Miller presiding.

This is going to be big

-
0

Wow, will California ever matter. Clinton defied the polls and won in New Hampshire, but Obama will almost certainly win South Carolina and probably Nevada, and it will be a heated two-person race in California with both campaign fighting it out to the last voter.

I’m with Kos — it’s very cool that the first two democratic primaries went to a woman and an African-American. I like what John Edwards has been saying, but he’s CTD at this point. It’s about Clinton and Obama.

Majority Report has some advice for Clinton; she and Bill have been through this many times, and they don’t give up easy. Obama’s going to have to get down to some real specifics and get off his lofty cloud.

But boy howdy, this is going to be fun.

Fighting like … tigers

-
0

The battle between the San Francisco City Attorney’s Office and lawyer Mark Geragos is getting hot. Geragos, who doesn’t mess around, is representing the two young men who were injured in the tiger attack; Herrera is trying to limit the city’s liability here.

Check out the exchange of letters here.

Of course, part of what Geragos is mad about is the way Sam Singer, the press flack for the zoo, has been slinging mud at the victims. The Chron, in a stunning puff piece, puts Singer forward as a brilliant crisis-communications consultant. So far, all he’s done is screw this up.

In fact, after all the claims out of Singer about how the kids were at fault, CNN reports that the kids won’t be charged with anything.

Obama, hope .. and fighting

-
0

Everybody loves Barack Obama today. That’s good; he’s generating tremendous hope and energy in the Democratic Party, he’s got young people excited about politics, he’s given Hillary Clinton a wallop … and of course, of course, this country could do way worse than President Barack Obama.

His speech last night in Iowa was inspirational, full of the sort of stirring rhetoric that makes you want to drop everything and go to New Hampshire to knock on doors.

But I’m still a little nervous. Here’s the line, the one we’ve heard over and over again:

“The time has come to move beyond the bitterness and pettiness and anger that’s consumed Washington; to end the political strategy that’s been all about division and instead make it about addition – to build a coalition for change that stretches through Red States and Blue States. … We’re choosing unity over division, and sending a powerful message that change is coming to America.”

But see, I don’t want to come together in grand unity with the religious right. I don’t want to end my bitterness and anger toward Dick Cheney. I have nothing in common with Don Fisher. I think there are some real evil villains in this country, and I want a president who’s willing to say that, and who wants to defeat them and consign them to the dustbin of history.

Can Obama get beyond his desire for consensus and be tough enough to go in and kick ass and take names? Cause that’s what the next president has to do.

An Obama stunner

-
0

Actually, not such a stunner — we all knew Obama had a hell of a political team in Iowa and was swimming in momentum. But this is a big deal — a state that’s about 90 percent white voted for a black candidate. A voice for change (that’s how he sells himself, anyway) won by ten points, suggesting that people in the nation’s heartland are impatient with the state of American politics. Obama will get a major bounce from this, which is a bit unfair because Iowa is such an unrepresentative state and the number of voters who go to the caucuses so small, but: The youth vote was huge, and that, as Kos points out, bodes well for the general election.

And while I’m still not ready to jump on the Obama bandwagon (I’m waiting for him to say something about taxing the rich and I’m not all that enthused with this theme of togetherness in America), this is an exciting moment.

And Hillary finished third. Rock on.

Offies!

-
0

› tredmond@sfbg.com

It’s gotten to the point where you don’t have to make fun of the president anymore — the rest of the country has gotten so insane that George W. Bush almost looks normal. Just think about 2007:

One presidential candidate said aborted fetuses could have replaced immigrant workers. One said he wanted to be sure to shoot Osama bin Laden with American-made bullets. One said he’d seen a UFO. One said he wanted to deport 400,000 immigrants but was too busy.

A prominent conservative writer said Jewish people need to be "perfected." A bathroom stall in Minneapolis became a tourist attraction.

And Gavin Newsom screwed his secretary, Ed Jew didn’t know where he lived, people ran naked for mayor, Halloween was cancelled … It was, by any standard, a banner year for the Offies.

YES, I SLEPT WITH MY SECRETARY. YES, SHE WAS MARRIED TO MY CAMPAIGN MANAGER. YES, I AM AN ASSHOLE. THE NEWSPAPERS GOT THAT RIGHT.

Gavin Newsom, faced with news of his sordid affair with Ruby Rippey-Tourk, told reporters that "everything you’ve read is true."

SISTERHOOD IS POWERFUL

Jennifer Siebel, Newsom’s girlfriend who said "the woman is the culprit" in the mayor’s notorious affair, posted a message on SFist.com insisting she’s a "gal’s gal."

GOOD ONE, JEN — WAY TO ACCUSE YOUR BOYFRIEND OF DATE RAPE

Siebel said Newsom’s affair with Rippey-Tourk "was nothing but a few incidents when she showed up passed out outside of his door."

THE TRUTH, NEWSOM STYLE

Newsom’s press secretary, Peter Ragone, admitted to posting fake pro-Newsom comments on the SFist blog under a friend’s name.

AND NOW HE CAN CLAIM HE’S REALLY A CELEBRITY

Newsom announced he would go into rehab.

YOU’D THINK A SECRETIVE MAYOR WHOSE PRESS SECRETARY LIES COULD AT LEAST MAKE THE TRAINS RUN ON TIME

The Muni Metro T line opened for business with delays that crashed the entire underground train system.

JEEZ, CAN’T YOU TV PEOPLE FIND A REPORTER WHO WILL STOP ASKING THE MAYOR SO MANY EMBARRASSING QUESTIONS?

Newsom announced on camera that he wasn’t going to talk to ABC’s Dan Noyes anymore, saying, "You just send some other reporters. It’s going to be a lot easier now."

WAIT — ISN’T THERE SOME STATE LAW ABOUT USING YOUR CELL PHONE WHEN YOU’RE DRIVING?

State senator Carole Migden crashed her state-owned SUV into another car in Marin when she took her eyes off the road to answer a cell phone call.

COME TO THINK OF IT, HE DOES HAVE THAT HOLLYWOOD SMILE GOING ON. AND THOSE EYES …

Sup. Chris Daly set off a press furor when he said Newsom was refusing to answer questions about his alleged cocaine use.

THAT’S OK — IT’S HARD TO GET THOSE COSTUMES OFF TO PEE ANYWAY

Newsom’s press office announced that Halloween was cancelled, and the mayor refused until the last minute to allow portable toilets to be set up in the Castro.

CHARITABLE ORGANIZATIONS NEED A LITTLE BRIBERY MONEY TOO

Suspended Sup. Ed Jew, who was charged with accepting $40,000 in cash from a tapioca store chain, insisted he was going to give half the money to a neighborhood parks program.

APPARENTLY, THE MONEY WASN’T THE ONLY THING THAT SMELLED

Jew insisted he lived in a Sunset District house that had no water service and said he showered at his flower store (where reporters were never shown an actual shower).

BY SAN FRANCISCO STANDARDS, HE’S EMINENTLY QUALIFIED FOR PUBLIC OFFICE

Mayoral candidate Grasshopper Alec Kaplan stole Jew’s house numbers, was arrested for playing his guitar naked on top of his purple taxicab, and was sentenced to nine months in jail for threatening a passenger.

AND FRANKLY, IT’S JUST AS WELL THEY GOT HIM OFF THE STREET; NOBODY WANTS TO LOOK AT THAT SHIT

Yoga instructor George Davis was arrested four times while campaigning for mayor in the nude.

UNFORTUNATELY, HE CAME IN FIFTH

Chicken John Rinaldi insisted he was running for second place and considered using the slogan "The other white mayor."

YOU HAVE TO GIVE IT TO HIM: THE GUY CAN PICK HIS ICONS

Paul David Addis was arrested for setting fire to the Burning Man icon four days before it was supposed to be burned, then was later charged with attempting to burn down Grace Cathedral.

POOR JERRY — CAN’T SOMEBODY DONATE SOME MONEY TO HAVE HIM PUT IN A HOME FOR THE TERMINALLY MORONIC?

Jerry Lewis created an imaginary character for his muscular dystrophy telethon called Jesse the illiterate fag.

UNLIKE LUNATIC RIGHT-WING CHRISTIANS, WHO SEEM TO BE DOING JUST FINE

Ann Colbert said that Jews need to be "perfected."

HEY MARTHA, CHECK IT OUT! LET ME POSE FOR A PHOTO! I GOT MY WIDE STANCE ALL READY!

The bathroom stall where Larry Craig was arrested for public sex became a tourist attraction.

AND NOW, THE CELEBRITY NEWS FOR THE SEVEN OR EIGHT PEOPLE WHO STILL ACTUALLY CARE

Britney Spears shaved her head. Paris Hilton went to jail.

THE WORLD JUST GOT A TINY BIT SAFER FOR HUMANITY

Spears’s mother lost her contract for a book on parenting after her 16-year-old daughter Jamie Lynn became pregnant.

NOW IF THE SCALPERS COULD JUST DO A JOB ON THAT WIG

Tickets to the Hannah Montana concert in Oakland were sold for as much as $1,000.

OF COURSE, SHE MAY HAVE SIMPLY BEEN TRYING TO FIT IN THOSE TINY SEATS

Southwest Airlines kicked a woman off a flight for wearing too short a skirt.

WAIT, WE MISSED THE ONE ABOUT FUCKING THINE OWN GENDER. MAYBE HE LEFT IT IN THE TENT

Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee said he would oppose same-sex marriage "until Moses comes down with two stone tablets from Brokeback Mountain saying he’s changed the rules."

WHY EXPLOIT IMMIGRANTS WHEN WE CAN EXPLOIT KIDS OF OUR OWN?

Huckabee announced that if all of the nation’s aborted fetuses had gone to term, the United States wouldn’t need low-cost immigrant labor.

OF COURSE, IF HE’D BEEN GAY OR HAD AN ABORTION, HE WOULD HAVE WOUND UP IN PRISON

Huckabee told Rolling Stone he’d pardoned Keith Richards for a 1975 traffic ticket.

WE LIKE A PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE WHO HAS HIS PRIORITIES STRAIGHT

Former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani said he would have liked to have kicked all 400,000 undocumented immigrants out of the city, but he was too busy fighting crime.

OF MAYBE IT WAS JUST THE VULCANS, COME TO MAKE FIRST CONTACT AND CONVINCE US TO SUPPORT SINGLE-PAYER HEALTH INSURANCE

Rep. Dennis Kucinich said he’d seen a UFO.

WE’D HAPPILY PAY $999 NOT TO HAVE TO KNOW

A Los Angeles company called 23andMe offered to test your DNA for $999 and tell you if you’re related to Marie Antoinette, Jesse James, or Jimmy Buffet.

WITH THE CUBAN HEALTH CARE SYSTEM, HE’LL PROBABLY OUTLIVE US ALL

Police in south Florida were put on alert after blogger Perez Hilton falsely announced the death of Fidel Castro.

KILL THE BASTARDS — BUY AMERICAN

Sen. John McCain told workers at a small-arms factory in New Hampshire he would "follow Osama bin Laden to the gates of hell" and "shoot him with your products."

OF COURSE NOT — THEY’VE ALL BEEN TORTURED, BEATEN, OR STONED TO DEATH

Iran’s president said there are no homosexuals in his country.

BUT THEN, SHE TORTURED US FOR 10 YEARS AS MAYOR

Sen. Dianne Feinstein voted to confirm Michael Mukasey as attorney general even though he refused to say that waterboarding is torture.

IT’S NOT IN YOURS EITHER

President Bush said democracy might not be in the "Russian DNA."

WHEN A SIMPLE "CUNT" OR "PUSSY" JUST ISN’T GOOD ENOUGH

A Florida production of The Vagina Monologues sought to avoid controversy by changing its name to The Hoohaa Monologues.

THE 41ST PRESIDENT STARTS WORKING ON HIS PLACE IN HISTORY

President Bush predicted a "nuclear holocaust" if Iran develops weapons of mass destruction.

QUICK, GIVE ME THE BUTTON BEFORE THE BOSS GETS THAT PROBE OUT OF HIS ASS

Vice President Dick Cheney had executive power for two hours and five minutes while President Bush was under sedation for a colonoscopy.

GREAT MOMENTS IN FOREIGN CINEMA

The European Commission put a video clip on YouTube promoting European films by showing 18 couples having sex with the tagline "Let’s come together."

STANCE IS TOO WIDE … STANCE IS TOO WIDE … MALFUNCTION … DOES NOT COMPUTE …

The mayor of Fort Lauderdale, Fla., suggested the city create a robot toilet to combat gay sex in public bathrooms.

COME ON, YOUR HOLINESS — THEY JUST NEED TO BE "PERFECTED"

Pope Benedict XVI declared that Protestants don’t have real churches and their ministers are all phonies.

PERHAPS THE KID CAN’T GO TO SCHOOL ANYMORE, BUT AT LEAST HE WON’T HAVE TO BE PERFECTED BY ANN COULTER

The Supreme Court ruled that a high school student could be suspended for displaying a sign that read "Bong Hits 4 Jesus."

THE OFFIES, OF COURSE, ARE PRODUCED LOCALLY, AND YOU CAN SEE THE QUALITY CONTROL …

A news Web site in Pasadena outsourced its local reporting to India.

BOOM GOES LONDON, BOOM PAREE

Former senator Mike Gravel announced during a presidential candidates debate that the other Democrats frightened him and asked Barack Obama whom he wanted to nuke.

WELL, AT LEAST WE KNOW WHO THE REPUBLICANS ARE GOING TO NUKE

Sen. McCain changed the lyrics of the Beach Boy’s "Barbara Ann" to "Bomb bomb bomb, bomb bomb Iran."

APPARENTLY, MEMBERS OF THE US SENATE DON’T GET OUT MUCH

Sen. Joe Biden declared Obama is "the first mainstream African American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy."

Editor’s Notes

-
0

› tredmond@sfbg.com

So you want the heartwarming Christmas story, and it almost happened: A 17-year-old girl in Los Angeles girl was dying of leukemia. She’d received a bone marrow transplant, and for some complicated and unexpected reason, her liver began to fail. The doctors at the University of California at Los Angeles Medical Center said she’d die without a liver transplant.

As it turned out, a liver was available and the operation could have gone forward — except that the girl’s insurance company, Cigna, refused to pay. This set off a furor — the California Nurses Association organized a protest, word got out on Daily Kos (thanks to blogger Eve Gittleson), and hundreds of people jammed Cigna’s phone lines, marched in front of company headquarters, and generally made such a stink that after 10 days of delay, on Dec. 20, the insurance giant caved and approved the operation.

But there’s no happy ending here: on Dec. 21, Nataline Sarkysian died. The nurses say that if she’d had the transplant as soon as possible, the outcome might have been different. I’m not a doctor and I wasn’t there, so I’m not going to wade into that one.

Here’s what I’m going to say:

Anyone who thinks it’s possible to reform our health care system while leaving these kinds of decisions in the hands of private, profit-seeking insurance companies needs a transplant of the cerebral cortex.

There are cases like this one all the time — people who suffer because health insurance has become a big business that’s all about the bottom line. It’s not news that these big companies routinely reject valid claims and pay their employees bonuses based on how many people are denied health care.

There is no perfect way to provide health care for the entire population of the United States. Any structure that we create will by its nature be large and prone to bureaucratic snafus. There are always going to be limits on resources and hard decisions: Should an insurance pool cover liposuction for an actor who needs to lose 10 pounds for a starring role? (Probably not.) Should it pay for the same treatment for a morbidly obese person who is at risk of heart failure? (Probably so.) Should an 80-year-old person get a kidney transplant while a 23-year-old is left waiting? (I don’t know; do you?)

But I do know that if you leave those decisions in the hands of people who will make more money if they choose one path, then the path of one of the most important public policy issues in the nation will be selected on the basis of greed. That’s the fundamental flaw in our health care system.

I thought the comments of Rose Ann DeMoro, the head of the CNA, regarding the Sarkysian case were right on point. "Every politician who thinks the answer to our health care crisis is more insurance should stop and think about Nataline Sarkysian," DeMoro said. "Insurance is not care."

That’s exactly what’s wrong with the plan the governor and the State Assembly have passed.

Sure, it’s better to have people insured than uninsured. Universal insurance means fewer people getting very sick and dying for lack of primary care. It means fewer people jamming public hospital emergency rooms. But it doesn’t mean everyone’s going to get adequate or decent medical treatment — not as long as health insurance is in the hands of people who consider it first and foremost a big business.

Who should run for Lantos’ seat?

-
0

newsom.jpg leno.jpg kopp.jpg

Newsom, Leno, Kopp — it’s a wide open field

The current field may not be thrilling, but potentially there are so many good choices.

Remember: Under the Constitution, you don’t actually have to live in the district to get elected to Congress (you just have to live in the state). And it would be easy for a lot of promeninent San Franciscans to move there, anyway. Let’s start the list:

Gavin Newsom. He’s not doing such a great job as mayor, but he’d be a fine member of Congress. It would get him out of town, let him hobnob with Washington society, Jen would love it … and if he won, Aaron Peskin would become mayor. Can’t beat that.

Or: Mark Leno. First openly gay member of Congress from the Bay Area. A lifetime job for a guy who loves politics and never wants to leave office. Instead of running against Carole Migden, he could be the class of the Congressional race.

Or: Peskin. What the hell; he’s termed out next year and has nothing to do. And just imagine him in Washington.

Or: Quentin Kopp. He’s not a young man, but he’s heathy and as energetic as ever — and even as a junior member, he’d put the fear of God in Nancy Pelosi.

Or: Matt Gonzalez. He could skip the primary, let the Dems all beat each other bloody then run in the general as a Green.

Who else? Let’s get the list going.

After Tom Lantos: The scramble

-
0

lantos.jpgspeier.jpgwww.yee2.jpg


Lantos, Speier, Yee: The mad rush is on

I’m sorry to hear that Rep. Tom Lantos has cancer, and I wish him well. But I’m very glad he’s leaving Congress; he was bad on the war and has been a foreigh-policy hawk for many years.

And now comes the scramble.

This is the first time since 1986 that a house seat has opened up in San Francisco. It’s a chance that comes along once in a lifetime for many politicians, and since it’s a safe Democratic district, whoever wins the primary in June will be almost guaranteed a seat in Congress for life.

Jackie Speier has already announced, and was prepared to take on Lantos. She instantly becomes the front runner. But I would be shocked if state Sen. Leland Yee didn’t jump in to the race, and I suspect there will be a few others joining the mad scramble.

There’s no obvious prominent progressive in the district, but let’s not write this one off yet.

The secret zoo

-
0

Tiger.jpg
The late Tatiana. Photo by Charles Russo

Okay, so we all know now what a mess this has been: The wall in the tiger grotto was too low. The reponse plan wasn’t followed. I understand that there was, and is, a lot of confusion ….

But why is everything at the zoo now such a damn national-security secret?

Zoo employees are banned from speaking to the press. The zoo won’t answer questions except in carefully staged events. You’d think there was a nuclear bomb hidden in the tager grotto.

The zoo used to be a public agency; now it’s run by the private Zoological Society. That’s created problems. And while I can’t say that the escape was directly related to the management issues, I can say:

This secrecy is ridiculous, and needs to end. It seems like the private zoo wants to cover its own ass more than it wants to figure out what went wrong and let the public know what’s being done about it.

Iowa report: Is Obama really leading?

-
0

Here’s the latest report Friday afternoon (Dec. 28, 2007) from our citizen reporter Carolyn Schmidt in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

By Carolyn Schmidt

Cedar Rapids, Iowa– Seems that in small towns like Indianola, two campaign staffs may be working out of the same building, since there are more requests for office space than there are available buildings in some of these towns. The Clinton and Edwards campaigns are both working out of the same building in Indianola, according to the Des Moines Register. Driving into Indianola, you’ll see a billboard-sized Edwards sign right next to a billboard-sized Clinton sign.

SPORTS: Where are the black coaches?

-
0

dungy.jpg
Tony Dungy and Lovie Smith battled for the Super Bowl at Dolphin Stadium, but black coaches are still very much in the minority

By A.J. Hayes

If you’re a major college football institution, tis’ the season to get filthy rich.

Over the next week, millions of American football fans will be glued to their sofas and easy chairs watching an endless string of bowl games, and the schools will rake in the cash.

In between the beer and razor blade commercials, fans will comment on the exciting play, marvel at the colorful pageantry and debate who really is No. 1 in the nation.

But how many of these viewers will realize that while a great percentage of the amateur athletes competing in these cash cow contests are black, each head coach to a man will be white.

Apparently not too many. If there were, these football factories would at least be working to fix the discrepancy. Right now they appear to care not one bit.

According to the Black Coach’s Association, African-Americans currently comprise 50.8 of football players at the 124 Division I universities. But the number of black head coaches at this school is a pitiful five: Buffalo’s Turner Gill, Washington’s Tyrone Willingham, Kansas State’s Ron Prince, and Miami’s Randy Shannon.

The diversity figures at secondary athletic division schools aren’t any better. Just seven of the 119 division 1-A, non-historically black schools, have minority coaches. Four of the 122 Division 1-AA football coaches are black.

And its not like these schools are playing coy, even with pressure applied by the Black Coaches Assoction, two colleges, Ole Miss and Texas A & M recently didn’t even bother to search out black candidates for lip service interviews before giving the high paying slots to Mike Sherman and Houston Nutt, respectively. .

This isn’t just a problem in the Deep South where deep- pocketed alumni call the shots. At the start of the current football season the Pac 10 had two black coaches Tyrone Willingham at Washington and Karl Durrell at UCLA, by the end of the season that total was halved when durrell was dumped despite producing a winning season.

Some have suggested that black athletes boycott the schools that refuse to give minority coaches a fair shake. That would certainly get the point home, buy in the end that would only penalize the athletes. Universities especially state run school must institute a criterion that schools getting public funding consider and hire a diverse range of candidates – including those who mirror the makeup of their sport.

Iowa report: Iowans want a winner

-
0


I asked Carolyn Schmidt, our citizen reporter in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, if Iowans this time around would be trying to make up for the fact that they chose Kerry over Dean four years ago and thus did not pick a presidential winner. Here is her response and report on Friday (Dec. 28):

By Carolyn Schmidt

Cedar Rapids, Iowa– Iowans do want to make a winnable choice this time, although frankly it wasn’t the Iowans who took Dean out of contention last time. It was the media feeding frenzy over Dean’s rallying of his supporters after the caucus results were announced. He was yelling above the crowd noise at the time, and the broadcasters took out the background noise and just ran Dean’s over-the-top yelling. It was all pretty unfair–and of course was repeated ad infinitum, which just buried him.

I can report that foreign policy expertise is now expected to influence caucus-goers more than was the case before the Bhutto assassination. McCain, who hasn’t been campaigning heavily in Iowa but concentrating on New Hampshire, made an appearance at a Cedar Rapids restaurant yesterday.

Editor’s Notes

-
0

› Tredmond@sfbg.com

A friend of mine used to play defensive end for one of the big football schools, one of those places that are constantly in the top 10, win a few national championships, and send a couple of people to the NFL every year. The football players had their own dorm, far away from everyone else on campus. The mirrors in the bathrooms were stainless steel instead of glass, so they wouldn’t get broken when the guys got a bit out of control.

Everybody juiced. That’s what my friend told me. If you wanted to star at the national level and you thought you had a chance at the pros, you took steroids. You just did. It was part of the deal.

So I had a hard time getting agitated about the Barry Bonds scandal, and I’m still having a hard time getting agitated about the Mitchell Report. What, nobody knew there were drugs in major-league baseball? Does anyone believe the owners weren’t encouraging it? Buffed-up players sell tickets.

And now there’s talk of asterisks — the idea that anyone who may have used steroids shouldn’t remain in the record books or in the Hall of Fame without some sort of formal indication that the milestones might be tainted — which strikes me as silly. How will we know for sure who did what when? Are we basing all of this on Mitchell Report–style hearsay? How about the people who may have juiced or may have just worked out harder and suddenly started performing better?

How about the fact that almost every professional athlete today has the advantage of better nutrition, better training, and better medical care than even the most lucky and privileged had 50 years ago?

Besides, steroids are chickenshit.

See, when I look out the window of my office near Mission Bay, I see this fancy new University of California complex that’s going to be home to a huge, brand-new industry based on genetic technology. I’m in favor of stem-cell research, and I have no problem with using embryonic cells, but I think we need to understand what we’re doing here before unregulated private and public sector researchers start doing some truly funky stuff.

Tali Woodward wrote about this in the Guardian three years ago, and plenty of others have been talking about it. It’s going to be possible pretty soon (in 10 years? 20?) to alter the genetic makeup of a fetus to select for or enhance certain characteristics. Some couples may want a boy or a girl. Some may want to avoid a family history of hemophilia or heart disease.

And some may want a kid who can run really, really fast or has exceptional vision, lightning reflexes, and the strength to hit a baseball 500 feet.

Lee Silver, a molecular biologist at Princeton, talked about this in 1997 in a book titled Remaking Eden (Avon Books). His thesis, in part, was that certain human beings — the "GenRich" — will be born with powers and abilities far beyond those of the weaker "Natural" class.

And which people do you suppose will play professional sports?

When there’s so much money at stake and the private sector is running the game, steroids are going to seem like lemonade. That’s what we should be getting agitated about.

A report from Cedar Rapids, Iowa

-
0

Here is a report from Carolyn Schmidt, a grassroots observer in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. She filed this report late Wednesday, Dec. 26, 2007.

Cedar Rapids, Iowa–We don’t know a whole lot since the candidates had no public appearances on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day, but they’ve kept their faces in front of us. Chris Dodd, of course, as you may know moved his whole family to Iowa for the caucus campaigning, so he and the family were pictured in the CR Gazette wrapping gifts for Iowa soldiers overseas. Hillary cleverly showed herself putting tags on gifts to go under the tree. The tags read “Health Care,” “Pre-K education,” “Iraq Exit Strategy,” etc.

Every poll seems to show Hillary and Obama neck and neck, although Obama came out slightly ahead on a survey of people agreeing with candidates on specific issues.

“Insurance is not care.”

-
0

If you want a little perspective on the Governor’s health plan, take a minute and read this amazing story (thanks, Calitics) about a massive protest organized to get a desperately ill 17-year-old girl a liver transplant. The liver was available; the doctors were ready. The insurance company wouldn’t pay for it.

Here’s what Rose Ann DeMoro of the California Nurses Association had to say:

“Every politician who thinks the answer to our healthcare crisis is more insurance should stop and think about Nataline Sarkysian,” said DeMoro. “Insurance is not care. Paying for insurance coverage is not the same as assuring you will receive appropriate care, even when recommended by a physician as it was for Nataline. Insurance corporations profit by denying care to the sick, and that is no way to run a humane healthcare system.”

I hope the California state Senate is listening.

Everyone loves Kucinich

-
0

kucinich.jpg

Well, not everyone, but there’s a fascinating bit of political polling intelligence here. The site, designed by Matt Waterman, allows you to select positions on key issues and then matches the positions of the various candidates to see who comes closest to your opinions.

It’s no surprise that Dennis Kucinich was the winner when I did the survey; I knew I agrred with Kucinich on almost everything. But check out the results so far. More than 200,000 votes, and the candidate who most fits the actual positions of the voters surveyed is — overwhlemingly — Dennis Kucinich.

kucinpoll.jpg

Interesting. This is obviously unscientific and self-selecting (and there’s a link to it on Kucinich’s site, which probably drove a bunch of traffic), but it’s also insightful: Since Kucinch is nowhere near the top in the “real” polls, one could conclude that either (a) a lot of people don’t fully understand where their candidates actually are on the issues, or (b) they are going to vote for a candidate whose views they don’t really accept, just because they think that person can win.

And while this survey has a tiny sample and probably doesn’t reflect the electorate as a whole, both of the above conclusions are, unfortunately, quite accurate.

(BTW, the photo above comes from an item on the Kucinch web site called “How Kucinich found love,” which I must say is one of the more embarassing things I’ve ever seen a candidate post. TMI, Dennis. TMI.)

1...939495...116Page 94 of 116

48hills.org is the official publication of the non-profit San Francisco Progressive Media Center.
Contact us: info@48hills.org