GregDewar.com

Remember this weird sign?
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Give the Mayor's team some credit - at least they know how to use a compliant press to their advantage. This morning, readers were treated to an interesting article about free wifi in San Francisco by private company Meraki - and Mayor Newsom was there, taking all the credit for it.

Even though, of course, Meraki is a private company, and unless the Mayor moonlights as a salesman for Meraki's repeaters, no one at City Hall did a thing to build Meraki's wifi networks in the Mission, Noe Valley and Bernal Heights for a couple of years now. (Note to the Chronicle - use The Google to find out these things!)

Instead, this was a chance for the Mayor to Look and Sound Good for the run for Governor, hang out at an SRO, and use the event for what it was really for - repeating loud and clear that "the board of supervisors sucks" and the failed wifi deal as another example of it.

There's just one problem with this hit - if we had gone along with the Earthlink deal the Mayor was pimping, we'd be totally hosed right now. Earthlink decided some time ago that "Muni WiFI" was not a good business to be in, and has left cities around the country (such as New Orleans and Milpitas, to name a few) high and dry. So in this case, some scrutiny from the Board, instead of a Napoleonic Council rubberstamping Mr. Gavin's edicts, was a good thing.

The funniest part of the story is of course the rogues' gallery known as the Chronicle "Comments" section, where the politically correct thugs get together to troll the story to death with their wit and brilliance. The funniest was how angry some people got at the thought of an SRO having an antenna on top - and how misniformed most of these people were in general!

All in all a good day for the Mayor's team, though, as "facts" didn't get in the way of a hit on the Board. It is going to be a long summer for Campaign 2008 - and just wait for the avalanche of crappy mail to hit your mailbox this fall. Hopefully they'll avoid the graphic design tragedy that was the Yes on J sign....

Posted by Greg Dewar at 10:24 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Senate Republicans successfully blocked an attempt to tax oil companies at a time when the oil companies are making record profits, and EVERYONE is pissed about $4 and $5 a gallon gas prices. EVERYONE. Blue state, Red state, whatever. And it's having an effect on businesses, big and small. Yet they still blocked it.

What on earth makes you think if by some miracle articles of impeachment were passed that it would ever make it through the Senate?

Think it through. Think about it long and hard. Come on now...

PS: Oh and if all the Republicans in the Senate bowed to your wisdom, you do realize that Speaker Pelosi, whom you bash on repeatedly with your drums and whatnots....would become President as she's third in line to succession.

PPS: Oh, and this assumes you can somehow manage to pass the Articles of Impeachment, have a successful Senate trial, AND somehow force out two executives who have never shown a reluctance to use their power to do whatever they want, people be darned, AND DO SO BEFORE THE NOVEMBER ELECTION!

Eeeyeah. And yet, in San Francisco, I'm the one called crazy when I bring these bothersome facts up. Ah well.

Posted by Greg Dewar at 8:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Plenty of geniuses can do all the political post mortems on how Carole Migden and her Sacramento crew invented a new way to lose a sure-win re-elect. For me, I have but one question: will the people who stole my photos of frakking Flickr at least have the courage to reveal themselves, and buy me a case of Schlitz Beer for stealing my photos?

Come on. You stole an image from me, and didn't have the courage to post an email address or any contact info on your website. The election is over, Leno won, now come clean. It's good for your karma, and I'll happily forgive as a good Christian, but I can't do so unless you 'fess up.

Posted by Greg Dewar at 6:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Too Clever by Half
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Posted by Greg Dewar at 11:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Here we go again.

On the heels of some parliamentary wizardry that killed the latest tax credit package for "film production," the Chronicle, right on cue, had had a front page article bemoaning the "loss" of film productions in town. Predictably, it talked solely about "tax credits" being offered by various local and national governments, and how SF is "missing the boat" because we're just not offering up enough gimmies to Hollywood.

The problem with the article is that it narrowly defines the "whys" of the lack of film production in San Francisco without considering some very important facts that are important to any film producer, large or small, who wishes to film anywhere on location ( like the fact that previous San Francisco tax credits haven't worked out at all like promised.) Yet nowhere in the Chronicle story is this noted, despite the fact this isn't a state secret.

I've written about this issue before because like many of us, enjoy seeing Our Fair City in TV and movies. Bullitt and the first Dirty Harry movies remain some of my all time favorites, along with Vertigo, to name a few.

Having worked on a documentary about the Screen Actor's Guild, I've had a lot of time to study the issue of film production here and abroad, and have had a chance to talk to a lot of people in the industry and in the unions who have studied this issue for literally decades.

So let's do a little disinfo rehab on the subject and see what we get:

First, it's important to remember that a tremendous amount of film credits in Canada cited in the Chronicle are given to film productions that are primarily created by Canadians to defend and enhance Canadian culture and "Canadiana" (yes that's a word). Thus, to compare any incentive program offered up by a budget-challenged small city to that of the Mighty Canadian Govenrment Protecting Canada's Culture is comparing apple and oranges.

It's also important, up until the dollar's recent decline, the weak Canadian Dollar made filming very cheap, which was the initial appeal for filming in the Great White North. (Ever wonder why so many Sci-Fi channel movies and TV shows look the same? Vancouver!) Don't discount the additional appeal of doing your work in a nation whose cities look like America, but aren't beset by violent crime and filth, either.

Also, as I've tried to tell the chess club brains at City Hall, filming in San Francisco is expensive for reasons you can't give a tax break for. Crews are going to cost more, because rent and taxes here are extremely high. Neighborhood folks, well established in the siren whine of Today's City, will complain about the inconvenience of a long film production, "jobs" be damned. Crime is out of control in San Francisco - we don't even prosecute murderers here, much less property theft. Anyone wanna risk having their brand new movie camera stolen in SF? I doubt it.

And most importantly, we simply do not have the sound stages and related facilities that Los Angeles and its environs enjoy. That alone is going to make it much more feasible to come in to town for a week of exterior shots, then shuffle off to Vancouver or LA to finish the job.

All important topics worthy of coverage by policy folk and media folk. There's plenty of more creative solutions to enhance our economy with jobs and investment from the film industry others have proposed.

The problem is, no one at City Hall or at the Chronicle gives a damn about any of that.

Continue reading "Disinfo Rehab With the Chronicle, City Hall, And Hollywood" »

Posted by Greg Dewar at 12:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

It's that time of year again, when people decimate entire forests so that they may flood your mailbox with endless amounts of political mail. This June we've got all sorts of mayhem on the ballot, what with the Nation/Leno/Migden rage-a-thon in full swing, and an assortment of those ballot measures folks just love to put on the ballot, and assorted other electoral detritus and term-limited open primaries that makes San Francisco (and Bay Area) politics so much fun.

As always I don't always get the latest and greatest political mail, or at the very least tend to only get certain pieces targeted to westside Democratic voters. So, if you get some particularly egregious piece of political mail, or if you wanna show off your mad mail skillz, or if you really would like to help me lead the charge in debunking politicos and their spin, feel free to send me either a) a pdf or JPEG of said mail or b) email me and let me know what you have and we'll make arrangements to either have you mail it in or I'll pick it up.

Most mainstream media outlets can debunk tv commercials rather easily, since they either end up on YouTube, the candidates' websites, or can record them off of TV.

Mail, however, does not usually get noticed as easily, and passes "under the radar" and into the voters' mailboxes. By publicizing what campaigns are doing, and discussing the tactics used to convince you, the voter, of what to do, we can all get a better understanding of what's being said out there.

Check out our 2006 archive and our 2007 archive, and let the fun begin!

PS: For more information on how direct mail is created, check out this clip of my good friend (and super smart consultant) Jim Spencer, who appeared on the Daily Show a while back.

PS2: If you're a support of Speaker Pelosi and like Our Fair City, I've been working on a new blog that's in the embryonic stages in support of Our Speaker and City. I'm sick of people bashing our City like it's some hippie dippie Disneyland, and bashing Nancy Pelosi. If you have suggestions or would like to help, please feel free to drop me a line.

Posted by Greg Dewar at 4:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Thank God for term limits, loopholes in term limits, and a perpetual budget "crisis" in Sacramento, for it allows California's well paid lawmakers to invent new and improved ways to to invent half-assed ideas and "solutions" that just create more problems.

We saw it last year when the state Assembly voted to gut MUNI funding (and funding for every mass transit agency in the state), all the while cooing "green" to the cameras. Today, we have the strange case of Assemblyman Charles Calderon, who's eager to tax America's #1 music retailer, iTunes (and apparently all those little dollar gifts on Facebook as well).

To do so, however wants to avoid the 2/3 vote in the Legislature, because well, he'd need some Republicans to vote for it. So instead, he's trying to get some wording changed in the code that governs sales taxes, which mandate that to levy a sales tax on something, it has to be something tangible, in Our World, as opposed to the virtual world. (i.e. that rubber ducky you bought your high school friend on Facebook should be taxed the same as if you bought one at the dollar store.) The advantage to this back-door approach is that you only need a simple majority to rewrite code language. Clever, but not particularly honest, since the effect would be to, um, levy new taxes on consumers.

First, let's tackle the politics of this little gem. Ya see, the state of California's budget system is a joke, hepped up on mandated spending (courtesy of the voters) and mandated debt (all those *@#$! bonds, also voted on by the voters), and the usual Dumb Things Legislators and Governors do. We've heard big talk from Gov. Doofinator for years, but after all this time he's done nothing besides pile on bond debt like crazy. The revolving door of legislators, term limited (thanks, voters!) doesn't help much either - everyone's so busy looking ahead to the next job, they really don't do anything productive to get past the BS and find some honest solutions.

Continue reading "State Lawmaker Wants to Tax Facebook Gifts, and iTunes Music? OMGWTF?" »

Posted by Greg Dewar at 11:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

So, um, yeah, like these folks like....Barack Obama!

Truth be told...would some insider consultant have come up with something that resonates with,um, pop culture?

Of course not. Most political consultants disdain pop culture and the zeitgeist because the are so f*cking smart. Too bad in San Francisco and elsewhere they get paid to fail....all beause they ignore, well, reality and that cultural reality that we live in.

Oh Hai!

Posted by Greg Dewar at 8:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Hoarding gets such a bad rap these days. I mean, sure, if you hoard every edition of the newspaper for 50 years along with your 20 cats and assorted random bottlecaps, that could be cause for alarm (or at least a fire hazard). But in politics, saving all those assorted pieces of detritus seem like a pile of junk in the present, but become oddly helpful in recollecting days of old later on.

Today's nostalgia trip is the "DNC Annual Report," of which I've scanned in two pages. The first is the cover with President Bill and Vice President Al, and everyone was aglow over the fact that Old Man Bush had been sent packing, and new Members of Congress, like Sens. Boxer & Feinstein and many more, were now in office. "Change" it seems, was in the air. National Health Care was on the way, thanks to Co-President Hillary, and Democrats, it seemed would be in the drivers seat for some time.

Well we all know how that worked out. 1994 anyone? Speaker Newt? Majority Leader Dole. Senator Santorum?!?

But today I would like to focus on one piece of the "DNC Annual Report" - the section that talks about the DNC "grassroots campaign" to support the "Health Care Plan" for Presidents Clinton and Clinton. If you don't remember any of this, don't worry - that's because in the pre-Internet, pre-blog, political world, efforts like this cost a fortune and didn't really do so great, no matter how hard people tried.

When the cost of disseminating information and organizing people nationally is high and is led from the "top" down, the chances of igniting a movement to change something as big as the health care system is really difficult. Entrenched interests fought back with those f*cking "Harry and Louise" ads, and well, the rest is history (often revised, Soviet-style on the campaign trail, it seems).

Today, however, there are many ways for people to talk amongst themselves, and link up with like-minded folks around the country (and world), rather easily. Movements can take a life of their own, and evolve (as MoveOn did from the late 90s) and today, we have the prospect of a presidential candidate who is able to be competitive with a well-financed, Washington insider because he can activate over a million active donors (most of whom are giving in small amounts.)

It's interesting to see how much has changed in technology, communications, and organizing in the last 15 years. It's also interesting to see how little has changed in the mentality of the well-paid pundit and consulting class in Washington DC who seem to know how to make lots of money, but not how to get anything done. They do know, however, how to complain and whine about "blogs and the internet" and urge a nostalgia for something that never really existed. Funny, that.

Posted by Greg Dewar at 1:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

So if you haven't heard the story about Gov. Spitzer of New York and the, um, $5000 call girl thing, well, go read it. I mean, wtf? I don't know what you have to be in to that requires you to pay that much for a romp with a hooker, and frankly, I don't wanna know.

Since I'm a political nerd and collect all sorts of poltical ad detritus, here's one of Spitzer's election ads from 2006. Rather interesting in light of said events.

Posted by Greg Dewar at 4:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

So I'm at lunch and reading email when I notice someone sends me the news that in fact, Matt Gonzalez is running as Ralph Nader's veep candidate.

Wait, WHAT? This is a joke, right?

See this is what happens when you skip your morning paper and blogs. Beth Spotswood, of course had the funniest and most concise take on the news, and I'm sure others did too (I'll post links as I find 'em).

To me, however, this news encapsulates just how f*cking stupid Magical Matt really is, and how the local conservatives and whatnots need to give him a medal for helping bring down progressive politickers in 2008.

When people to the left of Attilla the Hun needed someone to run against a damaged Mayor Newsom, Gonzalez pissed away whatever political capital he had left, and made sure that other people's efforts were stalled. Then, at the last possible moment, he announces he's not running, but not before wasting a lot of important people's time, money and hard work.

Let's not forget the years of gaming the system for Magical Matt. When it was time for someone to make a stand and perhaps have an impact locally, Magical Matt decided to walk away, and stick it to everyone else in the process since he wasn't the progressive prom queen last year.

The result was an epic FAIL for progressives in 2007, and now, in 2008, when seats on the Board of Supervisors and the School Board are up for grabs, the Mayor and his crew are administering political beat-downs, old school style against anyone who stands in their way.

Unlike, say, in 2004, when, after a close race, Gavin was giving out marriage licenses to our gay and lesbian neighbors, and talking about health care for all. Funny how that worked out.

Whatever. Local progressives and Greens are with Obama this time around and to me that says it all. If the people who know Matt Gonzalez the best aren't supporting his candyland bullsh*t, why should anyone else?

UPDATE: It's so funny to see all the status updates on Facebook concerning Magical Matt...Chris Nolan at Spot-On.com dusts off some interesting info about Matt's past that apparently Ralphie Boy didn't know about. Calitics also has their take on Gonzalez, too. And a diary at Daily Kos that would appear to be from Our Mayor rings the alarm bells (really Mr. Mayor you should give Gonzalez a foil star for helping ruin local progressives' chances in 2008). Oh and KPIX's blog (which I had just discovered a week ago and really dig) was kind enough to link to the blog I write that no one reads

It should be noted that the day before he announced, Gonzalez posted a long, boring piece on why he hates Obama. Funny, he doesn't ask any questions about his new buddy. I guess leftist hypocrisy is just a natural reflex for Magical Matt.

Posted by Greg Dewar at 12:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I wish I hadn't given to Barack Obama's campaign last night - I wish I'd done so today instead. That's because you'll get a limited edition T Shirt that celebrates the fact that they are just a few thousand folks away from having ONE MILLION donors to the campaign.

One million people giving everything from a dollar to 2,300. That's stunning.

It's not just about the money, either - people who give once to a campaign will inevitably give again, and they're more likely to come out and volunteer as well.

Obama didn't need government cheese for his campaign (like McCain took) and he didn't need fancy gimmicks to compete against Bill and Hillary's made-for-the-90s political machine. Instead he's built what people are calling the first successful viral-marketing political campaign, which combines grass-roots organizing with the technology to easily activate and inform a huge base of support.

Meanwhile, the best Hillary Clinton can do is an angry, whining, negative campaign, all the while she continues to slip in the polls. I don't know that is going to be particularly successful - after all, people are kind of tired of the ephemeral bullsh*t in American politics we've grown accustomed to over the past 10 years. But who knows? Maybe if she screams and yells and kicks and claws and attacks and gets as shrill as possible, she'll win.

Whatever. Obama's got a million folks watching his back, and they're not going to be swayed by 1990s style attack ads. After all, they gave some of their hard earned money to the campaign, and they're gonna see it through to the end.

PS: For some added fun, check out this story that details HOW the campaigns are spending their money. It's pretty dramatic...if you give to Hillary Clinton, it's most likely your money will go to well paid staff and consultants (including one that's business partners with...McCain's manager!) and overhead. Obama's campaign puts more of its money into, um, campaigning, and has way more cash on hand for emergencies. KTHXBAI.

Posted by Greg Dewar at 1:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

You really have to hand it to Mayor Newsom and his team. They can pretty much get away with anything, short of murder for hire, and no one seems to really mind. Even more amazing, even when "progressives" are right on the issues, they can't seem to get their message out.

This latest brouhaha, between Supervisor Peskin, the Mayor, the infamous MTA, et al gets the usual "political gossip" treatment, as always. But also, as always, we tend to forget a few salient points as to how we got here.

We're in a situation where the city has a big budget deficit and Mayor Newsom has ordered awesome-sounding "across the board cuts," sounding all fiscally responsible. Which is funny, because as Supervisor Daly tried to point out, this is the same Mayor who blew out the budget with big expensive pay raises and increases in the City payroll.

What's even funnier is that as Daly was trying to point this out, his infamous "cocaine" line blew up into this Big Problem, and Supervisor Peskin was gamed into removing Daly from the Budget Committee. So even though in this case Daly was right, it was he who paid the price - and the Chronicle waited 6 months to note Newsom's key role in blowing out the budget.

Now, to be fair, it was not that hard to push Daly aside - his acrimonious style, and his spending of political capital on symbolic measures made it easy for the Mayor's people, and their friends in the press, to make it all about something Daly really didn't say. Chalk one up for repeating the "mean Chris" meme, and one down for any serious budget reporting.

Likewise, as the Mayor is demanding we cut funds from things we need, he's spending a lot of money on plasma TVs and fancy new offices. And to pay all these people watching ProRun on those plasma tvs, he's swiping money from MUNI and other agencies so he can fill the chairs.

But once again, it really doesn't matter if the Mayor's people are doing anything wrong - they're recasting this as a "personal attack" and upping the ante with all kinds of personal and legal attacks, so no one stops and thinks about the actual issues at hand. And once again, as in the case with Daly, Peskin's temperament and style are being used against him. Suddenly we're talking about he-said-he-said, instead of talking about whether the Mayor is breaking the law, or mismanaging the taxpayers' money.

Brilliant. One thing progressives and their allies don't seem to understand is that in these fights being "right" with the facts isn't enough - you have to have the political capital to be able to fight back.

Blowing it all on symbolic measures and feel-good stuff means you don't have it when you really need it. Now, the Mayor's holding all the cards, and although his opponents may have caught his hand in the till, they're losing the battle.

As this latest political battle escalates, it's clear the Mayor's people don't mind playing rough with their opponents. There's no "safe word" in San Francisco politics, and those who would oppose the Mayor would be wise to remember that.

Note: I wish I was clever enough to come up with that last bit, but it's actually a paraphrasing of a comment I heard from a friend, so I wanted to be sure I mentioned that.

Posted by Greg Dewar at 12:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Although I work on primarily political campaigns, I try to read as much as I can about "real" advertising, since the political consulting industry can sometimes get a bit static. We tend to use the same ideas over and over because they usually work - and no one wants to go out on a limb (especially clients) and try some crazy new idea and lose and be "the guy who sank the campaign with the weird idea."

That's unfortunate, because to reach people today you have to speak their pop culture "language" and compete with thousands of messages from "real" advertisers. If you always hit them with "red white and blue," they tune out. At the same time, unlike "real" advertisers, we can't sell 365 days of the year so the tendency to stay the course is understandable.

One of my favorite places to catch up on all things ad and design related are the Under Consideration constellation of websites, and in particular, their Brand New blog which chronicles the retooling of corporate logos and brand identity.

Most recently, they wrote about the remake of the Life Savers logo and packaging which was fascinating. Almost everyone knows what Life Savers are - little hard candies that haven't change that much for decades. Thus, how do simple sugary candies stand out in an era where everything marketed has to be "xtreme" or "totally awesome" and as loud as possible?

The folks at Wrigley's figured it out - rather than compete on the same level as all the trendy fad candies, coming up with zany flavors, they decided to play to their strength - simplicity. In a crowded aisle full of colorful packaging the Life Savers candy bags - with their simple depiction of just one BIG picture of the candy - stand out.

In politics, sometimes you have to do the same thing to win and get your message out. There was a school of thought (especially in Democratic circles) that to win against the "other side" one had to pre-empt them on "their" issues by making them "yours" as well, so you couldn't be attacked - you were "innoculated." (Just take a trip in the Wayback Machine to 1984 and 1988, and you can see why people thought this might be a good idea.)

While that strategy might have made sense in the late 80s and early 90s, as it was with folks like former DLC chairman Bill Clinton when they ran for President, it's not entirely foolproof. If politicians compete to be more and more alike, the result is often mushy rhetoric that sounds "phony" to the average voter.

Sometimes if you really want to distinguish yourself and your message, you have to stop competing with your opponent on their terms, and redefine the argument to your strengths instead. Plus it has the added benefit of being a bit more honest.

It's funny how a piece of candy can teach you a lesson about politics. The question is, which Presidential candidates are learning the lesson, and which aren't?

I guess we'll see on Tuesday! Don't forget to vote!

Posted by Greg Dewar at 11:33 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I was wondering how the Clinton campaign would invent a new way to fumble the ball this late in the game, and in today's Yahoo News, I found it, front and center. It seems Mrs. Clinton would garnish your wages if you chose not to buy private health insurance in her "health care plan."

This is not unusual for mainstream Democrat politicians - Clinton supporter (and Corporate Shill) Fabian Nunez, who is Speaker of the California Assembly, supported a similar idea for Californians. It's one of those things people who don't have to pay taxes or worry about bills support because it seems right - not realizing that if "health insurance" was affordable, the people that can't afford it would have it. Do we really need to put the Institute of No Duh on the payroll with Democrats?

Maybe so. Maybe it's also time to call BS on a few things - namely that the very concept of the insurance business is to get you to pay for something you're not likely to use much. Insurance companies have spent decades, nay 100s of years working out risk analysis so that they can make money. That's what businesses do, and that's also why insurance companies are good investments.

Now, that model is a terrible one for providing health care - since an insurance company's primary function is to make money and kick out overly risky folks, not take care of 'em. It's also why using the government to impose what is essentially a payroll tax on your take home pay and force you to buy private insurance (or use the power of the government to punish you with jail time if you fail) is a terrible idea.

Plenty of other countries have seemed to figure out a way to provide at least some level of health coverage for their populations, and while no system is perfect, there's really no way anyone can argue we're doing any better.

The entire "health" industry is essentially a check cashing business - you send them a check, they cash it, then they do nothing for you when you need health care. Most Americans have figured this out. You'd think the Democrat candidate with "experience" might have figured that out too.

But then again, life's pretty good when you've got government health care for life, and you don't have to pay for it. Now where do we get jobs like that?

Posted by Greg Dewar at 9:59 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Thanks to The Internets, I was able to see my good friend Jim Spencer of The Campaign Network on the Daily Show, even though I don't presently have cable.

Jim's a great guy and one of the best political consultants in the country, and has run some pretty amazing campaigns over the years. I worked with him when we both worked at The Big Company I Can't Name, and later in 2003, I spent a summer working for his firm in Boston which was quite fun. Here you can see the view from the company's offices in Boston.

And, thanks to Comedy Central, you can see the video, and learn a little about direct mail! Check it out! (link fixed...)

Posted by Greg Dewar at 9:57 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Since I don't have my trusty Mac with me, and am using the infamous San Francisco Public Library's free computers, I can only do a quick post, sans photos. It was an interesting press event, with Sen. Obama talking to women about the challenges of making a living in the Bay Area, and some proposals he's come out with to try and mitigate the cost of living for people who work.

This was probably the only time I've ever heard a politician call BS on "tax breaks" as a primary means of providing relief to those who work, since many times they can't use the deductions on their taxes due to their income, while high income people can take the break. Sen. Obama suggested a break on payroll taxes for those who work (but don't make a zillion dollars) as a start. Not bad.

It was kind of interesting to see the media swarm (pics to be posted) which packed the crowded room at the Women's Building in the Mission. It was crowded, hot and yet there we all were, waiting for the Senator and taking pictures and notes at a furious pace. With only 19 days until the Mega Super Duper Big Primary to End All Primaries in A Whopping 20 states, it's difficult for any campaign, big or small, to reach all voters in all places, so it was kinda nice to see at Presidential candidate speaking in San Francisco, in the Mission, no less.

Luke Thomas took some excellent photos (as always because he's so talented) and they're so much better than mine, you should just go to his site and check 'em out.

More later...the clock is ticking on my time here at the SFPL, and I have to update my other blog, as we have Yet Another Tragedy on the N-Judah line.

This, the day after we read that more MUNI money is being siphoned off to pay more salaries in the Mayor's office, and a month after we heard that they gave the boss at MUNI a big pay raise. And all of this after we voted for a measure that was supposed to start MUNI reform - and immediately after the vote we get a string of accidents and deaths.

All I can say is...WTF?

PS: I had no idea that the "blogger lounge" at Macworld sponsored by Microsoft had free actual computers one could use (when I was here the other day I gave the lounge a quick scan and it looked like you had to bring a computer). Needless to say I wish I'd discovered this a few hours ago, and avoided the glares of the angry pervs who had to wait for their porn whilst I blogged about Sen. Obama.....

Posted by Greg Dewar at 1:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

One of the things I absolutely cannot stand about "politicians" is their inherent victim-complex that pops up when things get tough. Case study: Sen. Hillary Clinton's tearful, "poor me" appeal to voters in New Hampshire, as polls now seem to show a big lead for Sen. Barack Obama.

Cry me a river, Senator. I'm sorry, but if you're going into public service to make the big bucks or expect accolades from your millions of minions, you're in it for the wrong reason. So tearfully appealing to voters about how tough it is for you because you've been on the cross, a martyr for La Causa, and you're not getting enough toys, gifts and votes as a result makes most of us want to gag. (Especially after seeing the millions hubby Bill has been making on the rubber chicken circuit, and the millions you've made since becoming a Senator with all the access being the wife of an ex-President got you).

No one is "owed" anything in a supposed democratic republic such as ours, and if you want to be a public servant and put yourself out there for the cause, great. But don't come around with your millions of campaign dollars and expensive, slick campaign machine, and tearfully beg for votes because you are "owed" them for all those years you spent traveling the globe in Air Force One as First Lady or whatever. Plenty of people do lots of things to help their fellow citizens, and they don't get book deals or get to be a US Senator. When's their parade?

More to the point, elections aren't coronations for the elite. If the messy process of voting is that terrifying to Senator Clinton's campaign, maybe she should go back to making money as a big corporate lawyer, and leave the messy business of running the country to those who can take a hit once in a while in the rough and tumble that is American politics.

Posted by Greg Dewar at 11:37 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

How dumb do you have to be to report about national politics these days? Case in point - every TV news yakker and whatnot all saying that "change is the issue" because Obama and Huckabee won the Iowa caucuses.

"Change" is not an "issue," it's a thematic element. What is the "change issue," pray tell? It's an example of how the media love to engage in buzzwords and spend most of their time responding to the word of the day, instead of really reporting anything.

For me, the most interesting thing was hearing Obama speak the other day, noting that in the past, you could get a lot of Democrats to show up to an event because they hated Bush's policies - but that now, folks were looking to the future, and more people were showing up because they want to be for something that will change the broken dynamic that has failed to do much of anything worthwhile for anyone not in the elite.

That's going to hurt Hillary "I was married to a President so I should be President" Clinton, who really doesn't have a whole lot to say about anything that's going to make things much different than they are now. If anything, she's the kind of person as President who'd happily bomb people in another country just to show a pollster how "tough" she is. But she really doesn't care much about the problems you or I face.

At least Obama's trying!

Posted by Greg Dewar at 10:56 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

oh hai! stole ur pictures off of flickr
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Posted by Greg Dewar at 4:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

So, finally, the Messiah has spoken, and it turns out Golden Boy Matt Gonzalez really isn't running for mayor. All the pitiful jabbering and gossiping and puttering on the left about What Will Matt Do was for naught. Now, I predicted this some time ago, but you know what?

Who cares?

And that goes for any more chatter about this joke of a Mayor's race we have now. Seriously.

Right now I'm just thinking of Eric Cartman and Nelson Muntz getting together, pointing fingers at San Francisco (especially the left) and laughing in their trademarked ways.

What's funnier is that Mayor Newsom (who throughout his term could not pass a ballot measure or elect a new ally to the board that wasn't appointed) is Mr. Invicible, and can literally do anything he wants, without any consequences. And yet, he's still so scared of wealthy interests, he's going to try and torpedo a MUNI reform measure.

Now who's laughing?

Posted by Greg Dewar at 1:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Someone managed to put something in Hetch Hetchy that turned the "City That Knows How" into the "City That Knows How to Whine". Its effects are already being seen in our alleged political leaders, and their allied interests.

Seriously. No side is looking particularly statesman-like (statespersonlike?) these days, and it's mostly because folks are happy with firing off the missives, big or small, but cry like schoolchildren (schoolpersons?) when someone fires back.

How else, then, to explain the "mean people are picking on the Sensitive Mayor" meme anytime anyone dares to suggest Our Mayor is less than perfect? Mild critiques of his sometime galpal, a mere molehill in blogville, got blown up into a mountain - again because someone made a slight comment that perhaps she and Mr. Mayor were not 100% perfect. (What is this, Soviet Russia or something?)

Meanwhile, the Mayor and his allies have no problem dishing it out - remember all the nastiness spewed during the District 6 Supervisor's race? How many times have the Mayor and his staff resorted to name-calling when they don't get their way? Folks, you can't throw rocks and not expect rocks to get thrown back at ya. Deal, or get out of politics and something less acrimonious.

Don't for a minute think I excuse "progressives" from their share of the blame. Supervisor Daly's "outrageous" comments aren't as common as the mainstream media and gossipers would have you believe, but the meme wouldn't exist if it weren't at least somewhat true. Worse than that, however, is the cacophony of whining from the left about how "bad" the Mayor and his allies are - and yet after all the whining and gimmicks, folks are content to whine and complain, rather than have the nerve to stand up and do something.

Continue reading "What Is In The Water These Days That Makes SF Politicians Such Whiners?" »

Posted by Greg Dewar at 7:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Kerry McCain '08???
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Posted by Greg Dewar at 2:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

While reading about all those new shows on TV everyone's talking about, I could not help but notice how many are set in San Francisco. I find this entertaining for two reasons. One is that I'm always happy to see a film set in my hometown and am a walking encyclopedia of film locations (Heck, I could offer tours for Bullitt, Vertigo, and Tales of the City, to name a few). The other is that it once again reinforces what I've learned about the infamous San Francisco/Los Angeles "feud" - while people in San Francisco are quick to rip into L.A., folks down south really like Our Fair City, unaware of said emotion-filled feud.

Now, it seems, L.A.'s being in like with us has filtered into Hollywood decisionmaking. So far, in addition to the return of Monk(which pretends to be in SF but is filmed down south), there are at least three fall series coming up set in San Francisco. They are:

Continue reading "L.A. Is In Like With SF On TV! Well, Sort Of!" »

Posted by Greg Dewar at 12:27 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Reading last week's cover story at Bay Guardian, I realized that I wasn't just reading an over-the-top PR piece for a wealthy downtown powerbroker -- I was also reading the epitaph for the once-proud Bay Guardian tradition of investigative reporting - and the whitewashing of local history in the process.

Seriously. Now, I am happy to see any semi-public feature get fair treatment, but reading this puff piece I was being asked to ignore years of Guardian investigative reporting that indicated Mr. Hellman (he of the Wells Fargo Fortune) was anything but a "friend to progressives". And yet, there it was, in all its multi-paged glory.

Apparently all it takes to change writer Steve Jones' mind about a wealthy conservative power player in San Francisco is a few friendly chats, a trip to freakin' Burning Man, a big payoff to the Bicycle Coalition (which paved the way, literally, for a big new garage in Golden Gate Park) and a general chumminess of his subject with his friends (Leah Shahum of the Bicycle Coalition and the SFMTA and her beau, Ted Strawser of the SF PartyParty and GavinWatch). Hmm.

Read any article about Hellman's actions in Golden Gate Park, any one of an assortment of articles the Guardian has published about Warren Hellman on campaign finance, local politics, Mayor Newsom, or even Jones' own pieces about the guy, and you'll see a different picture being painted.

Continue reading "The Day The Bay Guardian Died - Catering To Power With Warren Hellman And Steve Jones" »

Posted by Greg Dewar at 3:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

While reading some coverage of the California Democratic Convention this weekend, I caught this article in the Chronicle by Carla Marinucci about the role of "bloggers" at the convention.

I would love to attended since this is probably going to be one of the few "good" conventions to attend, but I just couldn't justify the expense when I've got more important things to do than run around with political types who chatter on about how "great" their candidate is.

However, Marinucci's article was notable for one thing -it exposed just how terrified poltical consultants are of emerging media and technology. When we get to the point where smart, articulate people can put together on their own the media you used to have to spend thousands of dollars on expensive political consultants with lots of specialized equipment and personnel, that's about the time people start to wonder why it is we need "political consultants" in the first place.

Plus, when you consider the vast difference in sophistication, execution, design, and concept of advertising by mainstream American companies vs. the dull, cheap-looking ads of political campaigns, you start to wonder - why are people paying for advice that's so 1980s?

That's why "consultants" have to do what they can (just like mainstream media) to malign and stereotype citizen media. They, like the newspapers, are desperately trying to protect a monopoly-driven marketplace that has only a few people in control, and regard you as nothing more than a consumer of what they decide is best for you. For an example of this kind of nonsense, check out this quote from Ms. Marinucci's story:

But one key state Democratic strategist, speaking on the condition of anonymitybecause of concern for riling the netroots crowd, warns that such efforts are potentially positive and negative. Netroots commentary can frequently be intensely personal, even "totally mean and irrational," the strategist said, with some bloggers finding power in their ability "to assassinate political characters online." "It's amplified by the anonymity, and it can be scary that it's so irresponsible," the insider said. "And it's pulling the mainstream media in that direction."

In other words, this "consultant" is engaging in the kinds of things he alleges "all" bloggers do. Even though most people of any repute sign their names, and there is genuine anger and distrust of the media, the Highly Paid Democrat Consultant Way of Doing Things, and more that people want to talk about . Plus, how is it any better when political consultants get their clients to raise millions of special interest dollars for negative hit pieces and tv spots? Hmmm?

It's nothing new - these conversations have gone on for years. Now, people can talk to others around the world and organize themselves and succeed. And THAT has the well-paid, 20th Century political class scared, because they have no idea what to do, besides, well use the cover of anonymity to engage in character assassination!

Posted by Greg Dewar at 8:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

People wondering if their concerns about public safety were just an eerie paranoid feeling had their worst fears confirmed with a string of revelations in the local press recently. First, we hear that auto break-ins are on the rise, while the D.A.'s office does nothing. So the next time your car is broken into, remember to the D.A. and the City, it's the criminal who has the rights, not you!

Then we read about a particularly dangerous day in San Francisco where repeat offenders are allowed to go free, and the only response from City leaders are shrug, spin and talk - while all along the fact remains murders and crime are on the rise, unpunished.

If any of this sounds familiar, that's because this has been par for the course for quite some time, and while San Franciscans are much less safe from violent crime, theft, and the like, the spin seems to work because neither the Mayor nor the District Attorney face serious threats to their re-election. The politickers engage in their chatter, the media refuses to take the long view, and all the while we're subjected to more chatter.

Meanwhile, you, I, and your friends and neighbors are far less safe. It seems spin and disinfo aren't a great foil for criminals with guns who shoot people, or thieves eyeing your hard-earned money as an entitlement they're owed by you. (Don't tell the spinners - it'll make them feel bad!)

Continue reading "Crime and Punishment (and Spin) by the Bay, Part II : Critical Masshole Edition!" »

Posted by Greg Dewar at 4:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Today I was part of the masses who attended Macworld at the Moscone Center, and I was part of the assembled group that was amazed by the brilliant design of Apple's new iPhone. But once the effect of some very smartly organized presentations by Mr. Jobs and Co., and I thought about what I'd seen, I began to realize that most of what I'd seen had already been "reported" via various news sources, and debated and debacled by various industry "analysts" (the business equivalent of political pundits).

So why was I so impressed by what I'd heard?

After all, multiple outlets who cover Apple patents noted the application for a multi-touch display. Others kept talking about a possible widescreen iPod. There were several sourced reports that a Taiwanese firm had received the Big Order for an "iPhone" from App.e.

Endless discussion amongst industry analysts dissected rumors, reporting and more about Apple's "chances" with a cell phone offering, with many dismissing it as a foolish idea. One analyst dismissed the idea, suggesting that people simply glue a cell phone to an iPod Nano to get the same effect.

Blah blah blah.

In the end, a good portion of the rumor mongering ended up being true. Apple did develop a cell phone, Apple did merge it with a widescreen iPod, and Apple included many of the elements previously discussed.

What the pundits, the analysts, the chat-board regulars, and the talkers did not get, however, was the synthesis of all these disparate items on a checklist, into something far better, and greater than the sum of its parts. A quick look at the faux mock ups of potential iPhones by fanboys and fangirls bears this out.

So in the end, we were wowed by not information we'd heard before, but rather by the synthesis of all these ideas into something new and unique. Something no one could have predicted using a checklist, making it impossible to truly gauge the potential impact on Apple, the cell phone business, et al.

It is a lot like political punditry, really. High and mighty journalists, talkers, politickers, consultants and the like are all great at making up dry, long, checkbox lists of why a candidate or a cause or an idea can or cannot win. We are told these people "know what's best" and we're told to listen and do as they say.

Problem is, they can talk you to death about these points and speak with some authority - after all they do talk for a living. And yet, in the end they are usually not much more successful at really knowing what will happen next than all the tech analysts who seemed to "know" about the upcoming iPhone - and still don't' get it why they're gawking at the results just like the masses are.

The difference is that political folk are more adept at changing spots and denying they'd ever predicted otherwise. Perhaps Wall St. might learn a little bit from the politickers after all.

Posted by Greg Dewar at 7:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Every election season, once the ballots are counted, we the readers of the news, are treated to "election analysis." Read any major paper, alt-weekly, or "the Internets" and you have all sorts of Big Experts talking about What It All Means.

What strikes me, having worked on campaigns for years, is just how little one finds out about what actually happened during the election season that gave us the results - instead these "analyses" function more like a political Rorschach Test, telling us more about the prognosticator than about what really happened or more importantly, how.

Let's take a look at local election post-mortems. Most people locally tend to use pollster David Binder's premiere post-election analysis as a starting point, which is primarily concerned with statistical information about turnout, who voted, polling info and the like - in other words, facts that are agreed upon to be verifiable with some interpretation by the knowledgeable Mr. Binder to translate these raw numbers into conversational English.

Fog City Journal ran a short analysis (which I was asked to write literally minutes before I walked in the door at SPUR, hence its lack of polish) , BeyondChron, and even the "blog" at the Bay Guardian used some form of Mr. Binder's work to base conclusions and the like.

This is also where things get interesting. In the print edition of the Guardian, the results are trumpeted loudly as a rebirth of the local "progressive" movement, and at times one gets the impression that the authors are almost breathless in restating over and over "Things are OK. Don't worry. We're doing fine, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end."

Which is fine, I suppose for people who want to hear that. But what I missed in the article most was the "why" and "how" - how did Chris Daly managed to win after a bruising campaign? Why did candidates like Supervisors Dufty and Alioto-Pier crush their opposition, if they had any at all?

Continue reading "When Reality and Rorschach Collide: Election Analysis Roundup" »

Posted by Greg Dewar at 1:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Note: This entry will be updated as I get more mail. New mail is featured at the bottom of this entry! Today's additions: Jane Kim, Marin Healthcare Board, and more!

As promised, here is the first installment of the Fall 2006 Disinfo Rehab Mail Archive. Unlike television ads, which bloggers and media folks can easily dissect because they're on TV, YouTube, candidate websites, and the like, mail is a "below the radar" medium. You know it is out there, but unless you're on the targeted mailing list, you won't see it.

Which is why it makes for a great way to send distinct messages to distinct groups of people - and a great way to attack someone and get away with it. By the time anyone notices it, it's too late to do much about it, and the press usually isn't sent copies of hit pieces by candidates!

Since I personally do not live in a district with an angrily contested Supervisorial race, I'm interested in submissions from readers who might have something they've received in the mail in the Daly/Black/SF Republican Party brouhaha, and the mega-money festival that is the District 4 battle to replace Fiona Ma, now that she's been elected to a 6 year term in the Assembly. Oh and if anyone has any "freaky" mail from way out in Distrct 8, send it over!

As always, if you submit a big pile o' mail, I'll buy you a drink/coffee/whatever once this nutty election is over. Email me and tell me what you have and I'll make arrangements to pick it up, or you can simply scan them in yourself and send them in as JPEGs.

Please note that all pieces that appear on this page were sent to actual voters, who in turn gave the pieces to me for inclusion in this fall's archive. (To protect their privacy from identity thieves, their names and addresses have been Photoshopped out)

A mail piece's appearance here does not indicate I'm endorsing or not endorsing a particular candidate, and it does not indicate that campaign endorses this site, its views, or anything at all. Conspiracy theorists, please put down the crack pipe and find something else to worry about.

Update: A loyal reader tipped me off to a similar project being done by the East Bay Express, entitled Fun with Misleading Mailers. Short and to the point, the additional coverage of the myriad of pieces hitting the mailbox is great for voters

And now, for the fun, after the jump!

Continue reading "Disinfo Rehab Mail Archive - Fall 2006" »

Posted by Greg Dewar at 2:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Yesterday it was announced that "Chemo", a little puppy adopted by a cancer patient at UCSF Children's Hospital was returned to its owner after being stolen by thugs last week. I was glad to hear the dog was returned - but the story served as Yet Another Reminder that San Francisco has become a more dangerous city to live in. If a kid with cancer can't be assured his dog is safe at the hospital, you begin to wonder - just who the Hell is safe?

Last week, San Francisco had a parade of high profile incidents, starting with a record number of murders in one day, followed by a nutcase who managed to hit and run 14 people on City streets.

Once this happened, the Disinfo Spin Machine kicked in. The Media covered the "news" in detail. The Mayor made a point of comforting the victims of the hit and run guy on site (and on TV). And predictably, the coverage and the chatter turned away from hard questions and to politicking, spinning, and making sure people "felt better" after the latest Big Crime Wave.

Continue reading "Crime And Punishment (And Spin) in Baghdad-by-the-Bay" »

Posted by Greg Dewar at 1:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (1)

Sometimes, a situation presents itself that forces you to make a bad choice. I call it the "Geraldo VS. Nazis Effect." It's named after that famous TV incident when Nazi skinheads on the now-cancelled Geraldo Rivera afternoon talk show got into a ruckus and chucked a chair at Geraldo, busting his nose. One was left with a bad choice - do you root for the skinhead Nazis for bashing Geraldo's nose, or do you root for Geraldo?

Either way, you're stuck. At the time, San Francisco comedian (and now the voice of Spongebob) Tom Kenny suggested "Why can't James Dean come back from the grave, kick Geraldo's ass, and go back from whence he came, so we don't have to root for Nazis?"

You get the idea.

This week, the Bay Guardian presented such a situation, with regards to fliers in the Mission, although as is the case with that publication, they didn't see it that way. It seems that there's a rumble between folks who want to keep the Mission District clean, and the infamous "International A.N.S.W.E.R" folks, who put up all those posters and fliers all the time.

Now, I say "infamous" because there are a lot of people who are very critical of A.N.S.W.E.R. and their tactics, as they don't just advocate an end to the war in Iraq, but for a lot of other stuff that many people who oppose the war in Iraq want no part of, and do not support.

That ranges from supporting the agenda of the Worker's World Party (Yeah, I was surprised such a thing still existed too) and some have made some serious charges regarding anti-Semitism and ANSWER. Plenty of folks on the left side of the political spectrum have been very vocal and detailed in their critiques as well.

Continue reading "The "Geraldo VS. The Nazis Effect" AKA When Weekly Papers Go Bad" »

Posted by Greg Dewar at 6:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I don't watch the Colbert Report or the Daily Show most nights, but still like them when I get a chance to watch one. When I saw this, I laughed at just how perfectly they slammed back at Geraldo "Capone Vaults" Rivera.

Posted by Greg Dewar at 4:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)