San Francisco Diary--Journal Of An Exile

The permanently smiling Nancy Pelosi has returned to her home district for the August Congressional recess. Unlike many of her colleagues in Congress, she came back to a hero's welcome (I felt "heroine's welcome" was sexist, and "heroin's" welcome was too accurate, so I stuck with the politically-correct "hero's" welcome).

YouTube and cable news shows have been picking up demonstrations by angry constituents all over the country. They range from fairly quiet question and answer sessions to angry shouting and shoving matches. Proponents of the health care bill, mostly Democrats with a smattering of Republicans, are used to having very dull town hall meetings. But this is a horse of a different color. Many people attending the town hall meetings have only read what showed up in the newspapers. Many more have read all or major portions of the health care bill, which is more than most of the Congressmen and Senators can say.

"Trust us, we know what's best for you" isn't working this time. The group that seemed to come out of nowhere in full force, astounding the Congress critters, is the senior citizens. Don't tick off the old folks. The elected representatives all seemed entirely unaware of the huge cuts in Medicare being proposed in the bill in order to defray the cost of cradle-to-grave, citizen-or-not medical coverage. The Democrats who have never before cared about fiscal responsibility now are looking to manage costs on a "risk/benefit" basis. That inevitably means spending money on surgery for a 25 year old that will not be spent on a 70 year old, since the former is more "cost-effective." Well, that 25 year old didn't pay into Medicare for forty years, only to have the medical carpet pulled out from under him just when he needed it. The seniors could figure that one out. The liberals couldn't.

Many of the Representatives and Senators are canceling town hall meetings, or sending videos of talking-points rather than making personal appearances in front of the people who pay their bloated salaries. The few left with the guts to show up and endorse the crazed health care plan cannot understand how people can't see the wisdom of it all. Snarlin' Arlen Specter has shown himself to be as nasty-tempered and arrogant as a Democrat as he was as a Republican. And heading the entire health-care strike force is Nancy Pelosi, who calls opponents of the government takeover of health care un-American, Nazis, storm troopers, and astroturfers.

So how has Nancy suffered since returning to her home district? Huge rally of support at San Francisco's Mission Bay. Another happy town hall-type gathering at a Potrero Hill event. Many dinner parties (public not invited) in Pacific Heights and Presidio Heights. She repeated her claim that "these disruptions are occurring because opponents are afraid not just of differing views--but of the facts themselves." Not a single constituent to shout "what facts, you idiot?" "Drowning out opposing views is simply un-American" says San Fran Nan. Hard to imagine any such drowning-out of opposing views happening in San Francisco unless you're a conservative, or a Republican, or a normal human being.

NOTE: George Gascon has been chosen as San Francisco's new chief of police, after a lengthy and contentious selection process. He was the Chief of the Mesa, Arizona force until the selection, and previously an assistant chief in Los Angeles. I have to ask myself if he made any unofficial trips to San Francisco to look around before accepting the post. At least two of his statements in the last couple of days lead me to believe he hadn't. Apparently, he was one of those outsiders who thought that most of the things said about San Francisco are exaggeration. Sorry, Chief, they're not.

Before he was sworn in, he took a quick tour of The City. A more reasonable man would have said "I was just kidding, I'm going back to Mesa." But he is either very brave or very foolish. "I was surprised--I saw a drug deal right in front of me" said Gascon in his first press conference. Big surprise, Chief. We locals wouldn't be surprised to see a drug deal go down at the altar during Mass at St. Mary's Cathedral. Seeing one go down on the street is about as unusual as seeing a homeless person rolling in his own filth, or a Supervisor picking out a pretty new dress for his boyfriend.

"They knew we were there. There was quite a bit of activity going on. How do we deal with that particular problem that is unique to the Tenderloin District?" More news, Chief. Apparently nobody has introduced you to Bayview, Hunter's Point, Chinatown and Polk Gulch. And wait 'til they tell you about the very public and very open sex acts in the Castro and at the Folsom Street Fair. The ones that occur in broad daylight, in full view of uniformed, on-duty San Francisco Police officers. Your plan to make San Francisco "the safest large city in America" is about to run afoul of the most entrenched leftist anti-law and order government in America. Only one of you will walk away from this without crippling injuries. I'm putting my money on the Mayor and the Eleven Dwarves waving you a fond farewell within six months. Hope you got a big golden parachute for your departure.

NOTE: San Francisco actually followed the example of more fiscally responsible cities and laid off hundreds of its city workers in order to cut $576 million from its deficit budget. Nevertheless eighty-nine city workers who remained sucked up more than $30,000 each in overtime for a total of $67.2 million (including those who didn't get into the $30,000 bonus round). That's a 23% reduction over the same period of 2008, which gives you an idea just how much excess overtime the city has been paying in the past. Only half as many made the $30,000 level. Now admittedly some of the biggest overtime earners are police and fire personnel, but most are just plain clerks. In most towns, clerks don't make $30,000, let alone that much extra in overtime.

The big earners didn't even get it in the actual form of overtime. Two police captains who were recently demoted received $139,000 and $73,000 because of a contract provision requring the city to buy out their previously accrued comp time, vacation time, and unused sick leave. For that much money, I'd take two demotions. A retiring police captain received $83,000. One Muni Transportation supervisor received just over $60,000 in overtime for making sure the buses never run on time. But it is an improvement. Last year, one Christian Kitchin, a nurse at the County Jail raked in $183,000 in overtime pay. In the first six months of 2009, he only got $975. How much do you want to bet the care this year was no worse than last year?

NOTE: BART strike still looming. So stop looming, already. 128 days and counting. Loom, loom, loom. But there has been some progress. The low-skilled workers represented by the SEIU (at least those who are not showing up at town hall meetings and beating up the opponents of Obamacare), voted to accept BART's offer. They must have figured that the public wasn't going to pay more than $22 an hour for people to push brooms and pick up trash. The drivers are still holding out for a raise during this major recession. You remember--the drivers who are actually unnecessary since the system is entirely automated and can be run with no drivers at all.

NOTE: And what Diary entry would be complete without a word from the noisome and verbose writer for the Chronicle, Mark Morford? In an article entitled "Marijuana, gateway drug to Jesus--does pot lead to total enlightenment? Rehab? Scientology? Let's find out!" he again uses long discredited studies, plus a new one that parrots the old ones to prove, once and for all, that marijuana is not a gateway drug. Are you ready for another one of his lead sentences? Here goes:

"Behold! I believe I have found it, a flawless specimen, a place where it all collides and coheres and comes together in a madcap, slapdash, whirlwind hellstorm of entirely bogus hype and spin and half-truths, intermixed with hope and despair and Jesus and not just a little methadone, all of it so wonderful and confusing it makes you want to shut it all down, run a hot bath, light up a joint and chill the hell out."

He's referring to the studies which disagree with some of the findings of the new/old University of Pittsburgh 12 year study which found that in many cases marijuana is not a gateway drug. Big whoop. So have lot of other studies, most of which had the decency to consider factors other than the qualities of the marijuana itself. But Morford of course states that the study categorically concluded "for the billionth time, that marijuana is not a gateway drug at all. Not even a little." That's not what the study actually showed. It determined that marijuana is mildly addictive, but in and of itself does not automatically lead to use of more dangerous drugs. But in his zeal to paint everybody who doesn't approve of marijuana usage, particularly those crazy Christians, he distorts the actual findings.

First the ridicule. "Did a bunch of kids who smoked pot in their teens go on to become addicts and criminals and Libertarians? Did they ruin their lives via meth and coke and sundry other delicious demons in anything resembling dangerous or enlightening percentages?" The answer, unfortunately for Morford is "yes." The study merely determined that pot usage, not the pot itself, was the determining factor. The behavior of smoking an illegal substance, however harmless it might be, does create a sense of lawlessness, particularly among those who don't run in the pampered and protected circles Morford seems to love so much. For most elitist college students and their even more elitist professors, they will never have to go to the source where most marijuana is actually sold. And the street dealers are not particularly choosy about which drug they are selling at any given moment, or who gets hurt in the process.

Then the slam (which actually has little to do with marijuana studies, and much to do with despising people who have legitimate arguments which disagree with his). "Pot is not the least bit dangerous." That's a leap from the study concluding it was not a gateway drug, but OK, let's move on. He goes after the Foundation for a Drug-Free World. And discovers it's a cover for Scientology. End of argument. Anyone who agrees that marijuana has its negative impacts is now as crazy as the Scientologists. He ridicules a video which most of us would ridicule equally. But for someone who hates Christianity and Judaism, and God (except when she's gay), the parallels are too delicious to pass up.

The Foundation does exactly what a Scientology project would be expected to do. It claims to cure all drug addictions, real or imagined, for a considerable fee or a pledge to join the Tom Cruise brigade. The video is a very slick version of what we all laughed at years ago--"Reefer Madness." It's full of bogus claims, phony science, and horror stories from recovered Thetans who found L. Ron Hubbard and gave up demon pot. But you dear Christian or Jew, cannot possibly understand how goofy this all is unless you are also a pot smoker who believes God is a lesbian.