San Francisco Diary--Journal Of An Exile

Although Market Street is no longer given the full treatment it used to get at Christmas, The City hasn't abandoned Christmas by any means. The picture was taken looking west at The City skyline showing the Christmas colors that are placed on many of The City's landmarks. Since it's a broad picture from the Embarcardero waterfront across most of the downtown area, it's a little hard to make out details if you don't know the town. The tall green spire you see in the mid-right of the picture is the Transamerica Tower, which is lit up in red and green every Christmas season.

Note: Speaking of Christmas presents, our San Francisco public officials and public employees always have much to celebrate. The City is near-bankruptcy, and they know one of the reasons. San Francisco's mayor receives an annual salary of $246,464.00 plus expenses. Had our globe-trotting mayor been elected governor of the state, he would have received a mere $173,987 salary. So he'll find $72,477.00 more under his tree than he would have if he had been tapped to replace Ahnuld.

Our non-prosecuting prosecutor, District Attorney Kamala Harris is running for state attorney general to replace the current non-prosecuting prosecutor Jerry Brown, who is running for governor. The DA who coddles illegal immigrants who murder innocent civilians and refused to ask for the death penalty for a cold-blooded cop-killer currently earns (well, is paid anyway) $227,339.00 annually. She will have to take a $76,212.00 pay cut in order to turn an entire state into a criminal's paradise as she has done in our little town. Says Harris: "That's a significant cut, but if I'm lucky enough to get elected, I'll take it. If I had gone into law to make money, I wouldn't be here in the first place." She failed to explain why she actually is there, but that's a mere detail. And what's $152,000 per year--chopped liver? That's a decent income, even for a San Franciscan.

The attorney general's salary of $151,127.00 is approximately equal to the base salary of a San Francisco Police captain. There is one attorney general for the entire state. There are many SFPD captains to watch the criminal activity on the Streets of San Francisco. They might be worth it if they were actually doing something about crime, but that's probably asking too much. A San Francisco deputy fire chief is paid slightly more than the state superintendent of public instruction, state controller, state treasurer and the state insurance commissioner.

And the final irony is that as of the current state budget cut in legislators' salaries, state assembly members just took a pay cut to $95,291.00 annually while San Francisco Supervisors are paid $96,155.00. Supervisors in a town of less than 800,000 people are paid more to actively undermine all things normal than legislators who merely ignore the will of the people for a state with 36,000,000 people.

Note: Speaking of the Board of Supervisors, last week the gang of eleven voted 8 to 3 to finalize a City ordinance which guarantees the right of underage illegal immigrants to commit crimes in San Francisco without being reported to immigration authorities. In the wake of a horrendous murder of a father and son on our dangerous streets by a minor illegal immigrant with a string of felony arrests, the mayor used his executive power to change the policy. The poor boy had not yet been convicted of his felonies (he was committing crimes while out on bail), and City policy was that illegals could not be reported to the feds unless they had been convicted of a felony. Even our thick-headed mayor saw something wrong with that.

The Supes who are considering setting up sex tents on the City streets have long declared San Francisco a sanctuary city, so they decided to send the mayor a message by enacting legislation reversing his "report the bastards to the feds" policy. Although the mayor expressed genuine anger and shock at the lopsided vote, there is nothing much he can do, since that vote is veto-proof. A Merry Christmas to all you young illegal immigrant felons from the Board of Supervisors.

Note: New police chief George Gascon was addressing the Board of Stupidvisors on his department's activities since he became chief. Slightly off-kilter Supervisor Chris Daly stepped down from the dais, approached the chief, dropped the "f-bomb" on Gascon, then exited the meeting. Gascon lost no cool, and said it was nice to meet Supervisor Daly, and went on with his presentation. Gascon has made The Tenderloin section of The City one of his primary targets for crime-reduction since it is close to the main downtown shopping area and is riddled with gang warfare, drug dealing, and aggressive homeless panhandlers, and it happens to be part of Daly's district. Daly felt that the new chief hadn't done prompt and total obeisance to his highness, nor sought his advice sufficiently.

Rather than make an appointment to speak with the chief, Daly simply ambushed him during the meeting, uttered a few of his favorite obscenities, and stormed out of the room. It was unclear whether the third and fourth f-bombs were aimed at the chief, or at Supervisor Sean Elsbernd, with whom Daly has been conducting a very public feud for some time. Now who says San Francisco public officials don't know the civilized rules of parliamentary procedure? Daly is perhaps the nuttiest and farthest left politician on the Board of Supervisors, and has a long history of disruptive and obscene behavior at public meetings. Sounds like he's qualified to be the next mayor.

Note: Writing in the Chronicle, Dr. Peter Gleick at the earth-worshiping Pacific Institute hands us the following scary headline: "Stealing water from the future: California's massive groundwater overdraft newly revealed." You see, there is all this water under the California Central Valley which is being used to do rotten tasks like watering fields and crops. "This rate of overpumping is more than 4.4 million acre-feet per year. Whoever can pump it can have it, to the detriment of everyone else, our wetlands, and runoff into our rivers and streams. GRACE data reveal groundwater in these basins is being pumped for irrigation at rates that are not sustainable if current trends continue." And Chicken Little says the sky is falling.

What amazes me about these "experts" is how they can actually get things in their myopic science right, without reference to much broader issues which have a direct impact on their panicky predictions. He is probably right about the overpumping. But why are the farmers doing it? The Delta Smelt, you idiot (The Fish That Conquered California). They can pump water from the underground aquifer without running afoul of the ecofreaks who won't let them pump from the abundant and constantly renewed water of the rivers flowing into the Delta. Maybe Gleick should be out protesting the stupid fish that is largely responsible for the overpumping of the underground water. If the "experts" had something other than their current tunnel-vision, they might realize that the farmers and other water-users would rather use a constantly renewable water supply than to pump water more expensively and damagingly from the aquifer.

Note: The Supes are watching out for our health, though. While promoting sex on the streets and illegals with guns, they know where their priorities are. The eleven dwarves are now considering a new anti-smoking ordinance. They want to add to the current restrictions, which are already stifling. Now it will become illegal to smoke "near the doors, vents and operable windows of any building--restaurants, shops, offices and housing complexes." Likewise for smoking at outdoor tables at restaurants, as well as the farmer's market (an open space), lines for movie theaters, concerts and sporting events, near ATMs and cab stands, plus an increased distance from transit stops. I can't help but wonder if it will still be legal to smoke while having anonymous sex on the streets or while murdering people under the cover of illegal immigrant status.

There's a very interesting article from SF Weekly dated December 14, 2009, about the "efficiency" of San Francisco government that you might get a kick out of: The Worst-Run Big City In The U.S.

Note: Mark Morford has been terribly apolitical lately, much to my personal disappointment. His latest rant is actually quite funny, if obscene. For those of you who need your Morford fix, here it is: 101 reasons why men cheat, Tiger Woods edition.