Monthly Archives: January 2011

The SF Weekly Calls Out San Francisco’s Do Nothing/Feel Good/Soundbite Politics!

Posted on January 18, 2011 by | Leave a comment

Once again, the only paper that seems willing to call out City Hall politicians of all stripes on their nonsense is in fact, the SF Weekly. They’ve called out the city’s “pay more/get less” governance in the past, did a great piece on Muni (horn tooting time, I co wrote it), SF’s pension crisis, the phony plastic bag ban, and so on.
Today’s target were the do-nothing, feel-good, soundbite politics that politicians here just love to engage in.
That’s because with term limits, they need to be thinking ahead to the next campaign and the next job. What better way to fill the junk mail, online ads, Facebook pages and TV ads with endless streams of feel-good bullsh!t that will make you feel great about voting for them. Unfortunately, they also accomplish absolutely nothing.
Meanwhile your taxes go up, your Muni fares go up while Muni continues to fail, we have a bazillion dollar deficit and big long term problems that no one wants to solve, and the mainstream press is more caught up with the latest horse-trading and political games at City Hall. In the end, it’s the citizen that loses.
When talk of Supervisor Mar’s phony “happy meal” ban started up, I too pointed out what a clusterfuck the school lunch system was under his reign on the school board, and it hasn’t changed much for great majority of SF Unified students to this day. Instead of doing something constructive that would have had an impact when he had the chance, he’s off pulling this crap instead. Meanwhile, I doubt anyone could name a single action he’s taken to do things like say, help all those businesses in the Richmond that are the target of predatory lawsuits. Then again, that wouldn’t play well on TV.
Or does it? Watching Sup. Mar’s cringe-inducing performance on the Daily Show makes you wonder if he really understands much of what he’s doing.
Likewise, I’ve been calling out both the alleged “moderate”* ex Mayor Newsom and so-called “progressive”** Mirkarimi, who have successfully bullsh!tted the entire worldwide media that the City banned plastic bags, when in fact they did not. Either really do it and take on the powers that be, or get off the high horse and admit this was all for headlines.
Until San Francisco voters decide that accomplishing something is more important than flavor of the month press releases, they will continue to get a government that they truly deserve – one that works for special interests, for politicians ,and sends the bill to the citizen and his/her children. Good luck with that.
* The term “moderate” is a meaningless piece of doublespeak that we need to dispense with. It has no inherent meaning, and it is used to cover up policies that are anything but.
** The term “progressive” is a meaningless piece of doublespeak that has no meaning either. In this town, anyone can use it so it has no inherent meaning, and the range of politicians claiming said label renders it useless. Discard, please.

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Posted in Debunking Politicos Pundits + Spin, San Francisco Politics

President Roslin Shows Us How to Throw Down Vs. Another Public Official

Posted on January 7, 2011 by | Leave a comment

Sup. Chris Daly made headlines when he threw down with Sup. David Chiu earlier this week with his whole “It’s on like Donkey Kong…I’ll HAUNT YOU!” line at the Board of Supervisors meeting earlier this week:

As always, though, President Roslin shows us how it’s done (pardon the poor quality, it’s the best I could find on short notice:

Although, as someone pointed out, for progressives, the new status quo is really more the equivalent of the Emperor and Darth Vader winning at the Battle of Endor.

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Posted in San Francisco Politics

Some Things About Ed Lee You Might Want to Read Since the Media Won’t

Posted on January 6, 2011 by | Leave a comment

Watching the ongoing sh*tshow that is City Hall right now, with Ex Mayor Newsom still hanging around, the Supervisors mostly acting like fools, and the endless array of public commenters and the echo chamber of “insiders,” you can’t help but get scared. I mean what if something Truly Horrible happened, like an earthquake, a terrorist attack or something else bad happens? THESE people are the ones in charge?
God help us.
Anyway, whilst hearing all the chatter about Ed Lee, I kept thinking to myself “Hmm, wasn’t he involved in some weird shenanigans with Willie Brown back in the day?” But alas, it seems local media can’t even search their own archives, so I did a little snooping at the inimitable SFGate.
There, I found a few articles by Chuck Finnie and Lance Williams (both of whom have left the then-Hearst owned Examiner for bigger and better things) that might be worth a read by certain Supervisors and so on, just so we all know what we’re getting into here. There’s more, but this was just a sampler. If I were so inclined I suppose I could research and post more links, but this will do for now in advance of Friday’s showdown that’s moot, since it’s not like Supervisors or the Mayor or anyone involved in these dealings really cares about running a city on behalf of its citizen.
Take a look, and make up your own mind:
This piece from 2001 is the last part of a 6 part article about all sorts of shenanigans under Mayor Willie Brown.
Here’s another piece, detailing problems with the Human Rights Commission under Lee.
Remember when the FBI was buzzing around City Hall, finding all kinds of weirdness? Sure you do. Right?
There were all sorts of abuses of the minority set asides used in contracting. Basically companies were getting the set-asides, despite the fact that no people of color were owning or running them. In other words, the City was extolling its virtues, while living like sinners. Surprised?
Anyway, this only took me about 15 minutes of searching on the Gate. Kind of curious that the Gate doesn’t seem to read its own archives. Even more curious that all these grant-funded folks who allegedly are here to “save journalism” don’t seem to be aware of things that happened prior to 2008. Hmm.
PS: For all you fans of the sit/lie law, check out the raucous debate in 1999 about an anti panhandling law that did eventually pass. How’s that working out for you all?
And how’s the enforcement of Sit/Lie going?
(insert sound of crickets chirping here)

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Posted in San Francisco Politics