San Francisco Diary--Journal Of An Exile

San Francisco has been going through some weather crazy enough to match its politics. Record daytime heat followed by record nighttime cold. But our much beloved fog is back. Al Gore's hot air had driven it away for many years, but it seems to be making a comeback. My assistant, Kitty Kelly, is alternating between panting under the ceiling fan during the day, and purring next to the heater during the night. She's not getting any work done. What good is an assistant when I have to do my own typing?

Note: It appears that our golden boy mayor is now officially in big trouble in his bid to become governor of California. Former Governor Jerry "Moonbeam" Brown, who is currently attorney general and previously Mayor of Oakland, has abandoned his pretense of running for attorney general again, and opened a Brown for Governor campaign exploratory committee. That is not just a political decision. It is also a practical monetary decision. By filing papers for the governorship he is entitled to raise nearly four times as much per individual contributor as he was allowed in the attorney general race.

So Gavin Newsom is one step closer to a real fight. Since Brown so far has not declared his formal candidacy, the exploratory committee is a financial formality, but it certainly appears that Brown is serious. A current Rasmussen poll puts Brown well ahead of Newsom in the Democratic primary. California has a two-term limit for governors, but Brown is exempt since the law was passed after Brown completed his two terms before the new law was passed. And even while filing originally only for the attorney general post, Brown had already raised $7.3 million to Newsom's $1.2 million, and Newsom was not raising funds under the same restrictions because he filed in the gubernatorial contest originally.

During his tenure as governor, Brown made some of the worst judicial appointments in California history. The appointments were politically-correct before political-correctness had become the order of the day. Nearly half his appointments were either removed from office for misconduct or simply defeated at the next election. One of his appointments was given the choice of leaving her hair-dye matched French poodle at home or leaving the bench. She left the bench. His lesbian appointment was removed for showing clear injudicial hostility towards male prosecutors. Another of his appointments was removed for refusing to wear clothing under his robes. Yet given the choice between Brown and Newsom, I think Brown is the safer bet.

Note: Newsom has more than just Jerry Brown to worry about. Newsom is getting a taste of Obama's second favorite left wing harassment cadre, the SEIU. The mayor has ordered 500 layoffs of city clerical workers and nursing assistants in an attempt to get San Francisco's financial head above water. The SEIU doesn't like that. Robert Haaland, a spokesman for the violent and disruptive union said: "We plan on dogging him on the campaign trail." When asked if that included Newsom's upcoming visit with Bill Clinton in Los Angeles, Haaland replied: "That's the plan." The mayor has had to cancel or move several official city functions because of the interruptions and menacing behavior of the SEIU. And he won't get any help from Los Angeles Mayor Villaraigosa, who intensely dislikes Newsom.

It's fun watching the chickens come home to roost. Even the ultraliberal mayor is being called a racist. The SEIU's major complaint is that the layoffs will affect mostly minority women. Well, at least they didn't say it would hurt the children. But they also neglected to mention that a substantial portion of those "minority women" are also illegal immigrants who are not supposed to have jobs with the City in the first place. Details, details.

Note: One of the best musical entertainment venues in San Francisco (located in one of its worst neighborhoods) is off the hook with the state regulatory authorities. The Great American Music Hall, located in the heart of the war-zone Tenderloin district, was under threat of suspension for allowing under age persons into a nightclub. Of course, that only means the state was applying a ridiculously stringent statue with multiple possible interpretations. A nightclub technically serves alcohol during the entertainment and in the same room. But the law has always been interpreted to mean that "nightclubs" which have entertainment, serve food, and incidentally serve alcohol were merely clubs, which can allow minors inside the main room. Some puritans in Sacramento from the Alcoholic Beverage Control Board just decided that this time they would interpret the law differently. They lost in court, and the Great American Music Hall remains in business.

Note: Our smaller twin across the Bay, Berkeley, just produced another first. It became the first city in the United States (and possibly the world) to agree to enforce International Human Rights treaties. I can't wait for the first court case in which Berkeley attempts to enforce one of those UN treaties which have not been ratified by the United States government. Treaties are a strictly national affair, and the federal government has the sole authority to ratify or enforce those treaties.

In an apparent festival of self-loathing, Berkeley specifically aimed its legislation at, well, Berkeley. Berkeley's record on homelessness, achievement gaps by race in schools, and UC Boalt Hall law professor John Yoo were among the specifics mentioned. Yoo was the main architect of the memo regarding enhanced interrogation techniques during the Bush administration (for more on Professor Yoo, go here: Yoo Who?). Councilman Kriss Worthington said: "In our small and humble way, we can submit our own record. I think this is a wonderful thing for us to do." That's the most arrogant humility I have heard in some time. We could call it "flagellant grandiosity."

In an equally important move, the Council also raised metered parking fees to $1.50 per hour. Think globally, act locally. Hmmm.

NOTE: Columnist Yobie Benjamin has decided that Congressman Trent Franks (R-AZ) is trying to get the president assassinated. Starting with a loaded (and unverified) accusation, Benjamin asks rhetorically: "What exactly is fueling the unusually high number of death threats President Obama gets?" Then he (I think it's a he, I can't tell from the picture on the SF Gate site) answers the question: "The lunatic fringe of the right wing movement and the Republican Party." I'm waiting for the source and citation that shows that Obama is getting any more death threats than George W. Bush, but I guess we'll have to take his word for it.

And what prompted the question? Franks said that he opposed using federal funds for abortions. "A president who would do that . . . is an enemy of humanity." Well, case closed. Frank put a bullseye on Obama's head with that one. Obie then links to a crazed rant by a clearly unstable Obama-hater. You are expected to draw the immediate conclusion that the loony was perfectly sane and mild before hearing Franks's inflammatory rhetoric. Why are all the San Francisco writers such drama queens? Benjamin concludes the idiotic piece with "How far off is this guy from the edge or cliff of no return [the cliff of no return?]? Congressman Franks, are you trying to reach out to people like the man in this video? I think you're succeeding." Oh, horse manure!

NOTE: Columnist Mark Morford is almost back to "normal." His main article this week is entitled "First the candy, then the bullets--Good news, meet bad news--How do you parse and spit and swallow?" If the title leaves you mystified, perhaps an explanatory paragraph is in order. "How many snippets of ugly do you want? How do you sift and sort the various specious spitwads of untoward reality? The machine keeps churning, the news wires keep pumping and it's an endless cavalcade of hope and woe, pain and stupid, divine and beautiful, same as it ever was, except completely different. Shall we dance?"

I assume you understand now, although I admit I don't. I sort of think he is saying he likes bans on smoking, and doesn't like Wal-Mart. But by the time I had concluded that, he closed with the following two paragraphs:

"Wonder and joy, destruction and despair. The World Wildlife Fund recently revealed an enormous, dazzling array of 163 newly discovered species, all found deep in the Mekong River region of Vietnam (he wasn't clear on whether the Vietnamese themselves had noticed the "new" species). Bird-eating frogs! Leopard geckos! Breathtaking plants! Crank your sense of awe and wonder to 11, won't you?"

"But do it quick. Turns out climate change is already well on its way to wiping out most of these species before you can even say hi. Hey, look! An astonishing new creature that could tell us volumes about our wobbly planet and might hold the key to myriad secrets of evolution and medicine and what it all means and---Oh wait, never mind. It's gone. Who wants candy?"

So you tell me. Maybe the article is really about how he likes cap 'n tax, or hates your SUV. Or maybe he just really likes candy. Or maybe he just wants to have a chat with a bird-eating frog so he can increase his intellectual depth on the topics of evolution and global warming.