Monthly Archives: February 2007

Odd Obama Email

Thanks to an emerging, front-loaded presidential primary season, we’re going to get the ball rolling on Campaign 2008 a lot sooner than usual. That means people like me are going to soon be swamped by emails from every candidate, wannabe candidate, hangers-on desperately trying to stay relevant, and so on.

Today I got this odd little email from the Obama for President campaign. It’s odd because a) I don’t live anywhere close to Occidental College in Los Angeles, b) I don’t attend college there, and c) I’ve never given my email address or any money to the Obama campaign (or any campaign so far). Plus, I wasn’t aware college sign-making parties were something you alerted the media to.

Today, Obama is due to appear in San Francisco, the guest of Wade Randlett and his well-funded friends in Silicon Valley. These are the folks with the persistent grammar errors, and who were spelling Obama’s first name “Barak” for a while. (Perhaps it is time Mr. Wade invested in a proofreader for all those fiery emails!)
This is only the beginning. Once things get in high-gear, you can expect I’ll be posting more curious emails from campaign 2008! If you get any, feel free to send them in!

Consumer Advocate Harvey Rosenfield Learns The Truth A Year Too Late

Reading the news from Insurance Commissioner Steve Poinzer’s office, you’ve got to wonder if consumer “advocate” Harvey Rosenfield is having the worst case of buyer’s remorse in California political history.
That’s because Ponizer is appointing a guy from the insurance industry to help regulate the industry. True, he said he’d be “non partisan” and “independent” and used all kinds of well crafted buzzwords to convince California voters (and Harvey Rosenfield) he was better than Cruz “Lose Weight Ask Me How” Bustamante.
Thus, consumer “advocate” and Proposition 103 author Harvey Rosenfield drank the Kool-Aid and endorsed this guy over Bustamante. The endorsement was considered a coup for Poinzer’s campaign, and while many could understand why Rosenfield would not endorse the terminally lame Cruz, many were stunned he’d endorse Poinzer.
Today, he reaped the benefit of his work with today’s news. You can bet the author of Proposition 103 and a lifetime consumer advocate is having that moment of clarity many have when they realize the’ve not only been duped – but that they’ve helped elevate something they’ve fought their entire career.
On behalf of all of us who are paying way too much for insurance and getting way too little in the way of service, we’d like to thank all involved for their part in this little drama. We’ll happily sign away more of our paychecks for lousy car and health insurance, and sleep well knowing that Steve Poinzer and his friends in the insurance industry are well taken care of. Thanks to all who helped.

New Photos on Flickr – Mayor Newsom’s Less-Scripted Town Hall

I attended Mayor Newsom’s “Town Hall Meeting” today in the Bayview. I’ll post a little something later on, but for now, check out my photos on Flickr here, or click on any of the pics in the Flickr Box on the right. For now, all I’ll say is anyone who thinks they can pre-script a meeting in a community with Real Problems Needing Solutions needs to think twice. Suffice to say, there were plenty of questions even Our Supervisors probably wouldn’t have thought to ask.
SFist Rita beat me to the punch with her posting this afternoon, so go ahead and read it, since it’s pretty good. I am sure my good pals at SFGate.com and other good folks will follow suit. Cheers!

A Footnote to City Hall’s Scandal Du Jour

On behalf of the Bloggers Union, Local 20-Deep, I want to thank San Francisco City Hall for continuing to invent more fodder for blogs that would normally be dry of new material.
I mean, really. I thought I’d seen it all when we had the Jr. High Drama Production last month, or perhaps when a supposedly smart PR flack for the Mayor spent all his time flinging rude insults on blogs (and lied about it – good job!), but then you get a call late last night and read all about this little news tidbit.
Which, on the face of it is a piece of news, but not necessarily earth-shattering news item. When you consider, however, that we seem to live in a city where you can shoot people and murder people (and get away with it), a MUNI system in crisis, and you’re wondering if the San Francisco of the 2000s is becoming the New York City of the 1970s, then you get worried.
One starts to wonder if our Mayor (whom we are told is supposed to be this moderate, wise counterpart to those Supervisors we’re told are so evil) has his full attention to his job. And given all the problems we’ve got in San Francisco, another bloggable, avoidable distraction is not what Our City needs.That is unfortunate, because overall he seems like he’s a nice guy and means well – but he’s in a lotta trouble.
And now for today’s footnote of footnotes: Early last year (March 1st, I think), I remember getting a call from my friend, Savannah Blackwell (formerly of the Bay Guardian, now a law student at Boalt Hall) who’d called me up and asked me to join her at Finnegan’s Wake in Cole Valley. It being Laundry Day, I was wearing my oldest shirt, jeans, and socks whilst I had the clothes in the washer.
When I walked in, it turned out that she had failed to mention that she was with a number of her pals from her City Hall days who were out celebrating a birthday for some guy named Alex Tourk. And she happily introduced me to Mr. Mayor himself, who was in attendance, as well as her friend Emily Morse and assorted Important People in the administration.
Needless to say, I was a bit surprised (and embarassed, being clad in Laundry Day attire). We hung out for a bit, then I went home to finish laundry. I’m sure no one in attendance would recall my presence (and this being in the Era Before I Got My Camera Phone I couldn’t take any pics) but I remember thinking it was kinda fun to see the Mayor and his crew, 20 deep at Finnegan’s.
Who knew that 13 months later we’d be watching a scandal unfold with all these folks. Weird.
PS: I don’t know why this picture of a Mooninite giving the finger makes me laugh so much – it’s a combination of its absurdity, along with the completely idiotic response by the idiots that run Boston. News flash – it’s not Turner Broadcasting’s fault you’re too stupid to figure out what’s a terror threat and what is not – it’s the fault of idiots like Mayor Thomas Menino and Gov. Deval Patrick.
Our Mayor may have made mistakes, but at least he didn’t make one as big (and loud) as this one, kids.

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