Tag Archives: democrats

Celebrate the Demolition Derby Primary In PA With A VIVA ADAMA Poster!

When I’m not doing actual work, or updating my popular blog, or this blog, I’ve been slowly working on a few new sites, because, well you just can’t have too many friends, or too many blogs.
One of my side blogs is the Adama for President blog, which features t-shirts, bumper stickers, and now, posters spoofing the Obama ’08 logo and celebrating all things Battlestar Galactica.
Today, I am releasing the first in a series of posters, modeled after the awesome “Viva Colbert” posters from a while back. A window-sized poster is coming out later today, and a larger one as well. For now, though we have the 23″ x 35″ poster for sale, and it is pretty awesome. Be the coolest kid on the block and order yours today. Or, order a stack and plaster the Mission with ’em.

Sen. Obama Puts Clintonian/McCain-ian BS “On Notice!”

You have to admire how these guys can find away around the silly bullcrap that passes for “running for president” from the establishment types….how rad is this?
Of course, I’ve been no stranger to the On Notice Board on the More Popular Blog…

And, just for laughs, here’s a video that seems to indicate that perhaps there’s a virus that infects the Clintons when it comes to straight talk. I keep forgetting that this kind of nonsense is somehow better than the liar we have in office NOW:

Call For Entries: Disinfo Rehab Mail Archive – June 2008 Primary Edition!

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.

This Is Why We Elected Jackie Speier: Taking on the GOP On Her First Day In Office!

This is why we elected Rep. Jackie Speier to Congress this week.
Within moments of being sworn in, Rep. Speier was not afraid to start telling the folks in DC what most Americans believe – it’s time to leave Iraq. For her efforts she got booed by the GOP do-nothings, who want endless war, but of course, don’t believe in actually fighting the wars themselves.
Notably, Rep. Darrel Issa (R- Syria) stormed out of the chamber. You may not remember this sorry excuse for a Congressman – but he’s the guy who openly attacks those who worked rescue on 9/11 in NYC, over and over and over again.
But it’s easy to see why Rep. Issa is confused. He loves cozying up to murderous dictators like Assad of Syria, but he doesn’t seem to like Americans who defended this country against Al-Qaeda. Maybe he should move to Syria if he likes it so much over there.
If Rep. Speier’s truth-telling can drum a nimrod like him out of the House, well then that’s a 2-fer as far as I’m concerned. Go Jackie!
Calitics beat me to the punch by mere minutes, but it’s a fine post, go check it out!

Basil Fawlty Offers to Help Obama: Obama Announces Formation of Dept. Of Silly Walks….Coincidence?

File this in the no-you-can’t-make-stuff-up-like-this file: It seems that legendary actor and writer John Cleese, he of the Monty Python/Fawlty Towers fame, has offered to help Barack Obama’s presidential speechwriting efforts should he become the nominee this summer.
I really don’t know what to say….if I’d made something like this up, it wouldn’t even come close to being as teh awesome as this…does this mean a Department of Silly Walks is in the Obama cabinet in 2009?
PS: Don’t forget to vote for Jackie Speier today if you live in the 12th CD. If you’re not sure where you vote, follow this link and find your polling place.
Remember, if enough of us vote, we can send Jackie to Congress immediately. If we don’t, we have to listen to the inane prattling of the Green Party and an assortment of no-names who will lose anyway – but we won’t have Jackie in Congress fighting for us on critical issues facing the House. So go vote!

Yes, San Franciscans, There IS an Election on April 8th! Vote for Jackie!

Many people don’t realize that there’s an honest to goodness Special Election on April 8th. There’s been some campaign activity, to be sure, but even with all the nice pieces of mail from the Elections Department, et al, it’s easy to forget. Heck, I forgot to apply for an absentee ballot this time around, and now have to go vote in person!
As I noted on my way more popular blog on all things MUNI, right now we don’t have anyone in Congress representing the 12th CD (which includes part of San Francisco and San Mateo County) due to the death of longtime Rep. Tom Lantos. Now, if 50%+1 of the good people of the 12th CD vote for Jackie Speier, we can send her to Congress immediately (she doesn’t have to pass “GO” and doesn’t need to collect $200), and we can have one of the most effective members of the Legislature (yes, we’ve had a few and she was one of them) be representing us on some pretty important issues right now.
If, however, we don’t vote, and she doesn’t make the threshold, there’ll be a “Special General” election, that will coincide with the June Primary. However, she’ll win that one for sure, but we will not have anyone in Congress representing us. Besides, put it to you another way – how many of the current crop of candidates kicked ass on privacy issues and have a train named after them? Hint: Just one, and isn’t some hippie-dippie Green candidate.
Today (Sunday, April 6th) there’s an event for Jackie at the Machinists Hall down in Burlingame. For a mere $10 donation, you can enjoy a fine spaghetti dinner and meet the candidate and her many supporters. It’s an easy commute for those of you in San Francisco – you can take BART or Caltrain to Millbrae, and walk a few blocks to the union hall.
Whatever you do today, be sure to vote on April 8th! We can all talk big in San Francisco, but now it’s time to do something about all that big talk, and send an effective legislator to Congress who can shake things up. Go Jackie!

State Lawmaker Wants to Tax Facebook Gifts, and iTunes Music? OMGWTF?

calderon-itunes.jpg
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

Clinton Nostalgia, the 1993 DNC Annual Report And How Things Have (Sorta) Changed….

1993DNCReport.jpg
1993DNC-Celeste.jpg
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.

You Have To be Freakin’ Kidding Me: Gonzalez for VP? WTF?

mn_green_party_gonzalez.jpg
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.

Epic FAIL: Nader’s Running (again) But Local Greens Are With…Barack Obama!

So it looks like Ralph Nader’s running for President again, and we’re supposed to be worried or something, but I’m not.
True, I’m no fan of this charlatan. On my old blog, I wrote about his extreme dishonesty, and overall lack of ethics, and for a while got a bump on Google Searches. This time around, however, I think it’s pretty obvious his time has passed, and he’s so out of touch, his reasons for running just don’t add up.
My favorite line today was the one about “people being disenchanted with Democrats and Republicans.” Eeeyeahh. Funny thing though: Barack Obama is about to hit the one million donor mark (something Nader’s greedy hands would love to have but won’t because he sucks), and turnout in Democratic primaries have set new records, and blown doors off the turnout in the GOP primaries.
But the most telling sign of the total epic FAIL of Nader has been the response of local Green Party elected members to Nader the Liar. Green Party Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi, Green Party College Board Member John Rizzo, and Green Party School Board Member Jane Kim have all come out in force for Barack Obama. Non-Greeen “Progressives” like Supervisors Daly and Peskin also support Obama. Hell, the Bay Guardian, usually the only refuge for disaster candidacies like Kucinich or Nader, endorsed Obama.
It says a lot when the folks who should be on board a supposedly great cause like Nader’s bullsh*t are instead working for a candidate who’s succeeding in ways Nader could never imagine. (Then again it shouldn’t be a total surprise – Nader refused to campaign for Green poster-boy Matt Gonzalez in 2003, because, well, because Nader sucks.)
So let the fool run his little show. Every time he does this, he seems to invent new ways to screw up and fail, and every time he becomes less and less relevant to the national discourse. I can’t wait for him to throw a tantrum about some f*cking debate, and get arrested for trespassing. If good people like those in Our Fair City have decided to tear up their tickets and say “no” to the Nader circus, I think most folks in America will be doing the same.
Trivia Time: Here’s a piece of trivia that most of you might not be aware of (as you’re probably concerned with things that matter, and I mean that in a good way): when Nader’s spokesman ran for Senate, he got very little support for his bid, marred by problems and the fact that as Nader’s spokesman he elevated lying to an art form. He did however get loud and enthusiastic support from someone new to our city: Cindy Sheehan! Apparently she didn’t mind the lying and whatnot and threw her lot with Zeese. Very interesting!