Will Migden survive the spring?

She's fighting for her political life after a punishing year. And yeah, we agree this rhetoric after the last post rings especially hollow, but too late, we're on that track.

In August, she pleaded no contest to misdemeanor reckless driving after a wild, 30-mile ride down Interstate 80, weaving through traffic, bouncing off the center divider and finally rear-ending a car. In March, she agreed to pay a record $350,000 fine to the state for campaign finance violations that included personal use of campaign funds.

Migden argued that many of the violations were the result of sloppy bookkeeping and that her campaign had reported many of the violations to the Fair Political Practices Commission. She also won a legal battle against the political watchdog agency that allowed her to use more than $600,000 from previous campaigns.

"I regret that chapter of my career, but I've done what's responsible ... paying my fine and taking responsibility," she said.

That chapter? Like it was longer than a few weeks ago?

One thing this race could highlight, but never seems to in articles (it's touched on here) are the various factions within the LGBT community - otherwise painted with a broad brush by the mainstream media. Hey, gay is gay, right? Men, women, whatever - if you're interested in your own gender you must think the same, across genders, right? Ish.

Mostly, though, this race highlights the little covered political axiom: Don't Be An Ass Because If You End Up Needing Friends You May Be Surprised To Find You Have None. Kevin Shelley found this out. Migden may find out in June.

The day-after analysis on this race will be awesome.

Please, can't we talk about this?

Our servicemen and women who make it to Iraq and back are facing challenges when they return home that we just aren't paying attention to.

They are killing themselves.

You almost have to laugh at the headline "Vets' growing suicide worries officials." Does it? Worry? Is that the most they can muster?

There are a few hopeful signs of change in our attitude and awareness:

The suicide figures among veterans have caught congressional attention. Two senators have demanded the resignation of Ira Katz, the VA official who wrote "Shh" at the top of the e-mail dealing with suicide attempts and disputed the statistics in public testimony while confirming them in internal documents. A House committee has scheduled a hearing on veterans' suicides this week.

Resignation is an awful nice thing to offer someone who thinks and does that.

Also, and I'm no mental health professional, but, we can't figure out what is bothering veterans?

The causes for this increase in veterans' suicide rates aren't well understood, but mental-health professionals say the biggest problem is post-traumatic stress disorder. The ailment, better-known as PTSD, is thought to afflict up to 30 percent of the troops who have served in Iraq and Afghanistan.

War is hell. Is that a good reason? Works for me. And it's probably as close as the non-serving among us can come to getting it.

The time for allowing ourselves to pay lip service and nothing more to those who have served us so willingly has passed.

Help them heal.

Can we get science back yet?

How about sometime in late January next year?

White House blocked EPA studies, GAO reports:

A congressional watchdog agency has found that White House officials repeatedly intervened in the government's scientific process for assessing the health risks of toxic chemicals, prompting Sen. Barbara Boxer to threaten giving Congress control of the program.

The Government Accountability Office reported Tuesday that the White House's budget office, the Pentagon and other agencies had delayed or blocked efforts by the Environmental Protection Agency to list chemicals as carcinogens by requesting more research or more time to review the risks.

I don't think I'll ever understand how Clinton was impeached for having an affair with an intern while Bush has invaded a country, disrupted the economy, and demonstrated an undying love of interfering with the advancement of our country and humanity in general by blocking science at every turn.

What gives?

And the cutest part:

GAO officials also faulted the administration for setting new rules that keep secret any involvement by the White House or a federal agency in a decision about the risks of a chemical.

Oh come on! Are you kidding? How do we reserve our outrage for people's failure to wear flag pins while we allow our government to act like characters out of the latest Grisham novel?

Everything old is new again

This Rev. Wright story just won't die - it's become a bit of an albatross for Obama, it seems. That's bad news coming on the heels of Clinton's most recent primary victory.

But is it possible we've lost sight of the forest for the trees?

No one is really calling this a racist issue, but if we don't call it out, are we lying to ourselves? The scary black churches that the majority don't understand, don't attend, and don't know about, are being confirmed as something Other, something we can't understand.

We've been so busy patting ourselves on the back for this momentous feat of having a black man and a woman as candidates, we haven't noticed we're slipping backward.

Once in a Governor Blue-Moonbeam

Tortured title, sorry. But have you heard? Jerry Brown is sounding an awful lot like he'll be taking another run for the governorship. He's been there once already. Kind of a crazy idea.

I'm sure she'll win

Or not: Anti-war Cindy Sheehan files to take on Pelosi

I wish the anti-war movement had more traction, but it doesn't. I don't know what that says about us.

Keep changing the game and you'll find one you can win

That seems to be the pundit's take on tonight's results - highlighting the Clinton campaign's desire to turn the discussion from delegates to the popular vote.

But can you blame them? Obama would do the same. Wouldn't any savvy candidate? Would you want a non-savvy candidate in office? I wouldn't. If they aren't smart enough to win, they aren't smart enough to be president.

Of course, you can be smart enough to win but still too dumb to be president. This isn't a reciprocal equation. President Bush, I'm talking to you!

Sad Polar Bear

I just wanted to share that picture above. So true.

In Illinois, they had an earthquake. How much have we screwed up the world, that they're getting earthquakes in the middle of the country?

Tornados here?

In Case You Hadn't Noticed...

Gas is kinda expensive. More.

S.F. on verge of $4-per-gallon gas

Yeah, I'm pretty sure I paid over $4 yesterday.

Can't you just say 'no, he sucks, forget it?'

Both candidates were asked during the debate whether they would seek the advice of, or asking anything of the former presidents - including George W. Bush.

Clinton sort of B.S.ed through her answer - when they all come together, it's powerful, etc. Obama said he'd go to George H.W. Bush before he'd hit up the son.

I'd rather they both just said, no, what, are you kidding me, of COURSE NOT!

Would either really get the votes of Bush supporters anyway? No, c'mon.

The gun issue

It'd be great if either candidate would answer these questions about guns and gun control and gun rights like Democrats and not like would-be general election candidates. They're not really fully fessing up, I think.

Turns out, Democracy has a price. And it's a little high, thanks.

Crappy turnout in San Mateo County is making people think harder about vote-by-mail as the default, rather than the opt-in.

Assemblyman Gene Mullin wanted to pass a law authorizing an all-mail-in process for the Speier special election, but couldn't get the higher level of votes to pass the urgency measure, partly for lacking the necessary support from Reep leaders. In a novel role-change, Reeps were concerned that mail-in balloting could disadvantage elderly or minority voters. Aren't older voters more frequent voters and more frequent voters-by-mail? Eh, alright.

Oregon does it by mail. I bet we could to. This last special cost $26.70 per voter. Per voter! That much. It's crazy.

Is it USGS appropriations time again?

Researchers today pointed to alarming evidence that reports of alarming evidence of impending geological terror increases radically when funding for geologic surveys comes under review.

Kidding.

I think evidence does point to that.

Anyway, the link above will take you to an article about how a giant earthquake - the "Big One" if you will - will hit sometime in the next 30 years?

Really? I've been hearing that for at least 20 years. So do we only have 10 years left, or did we get an extension? Can we do ANYTHING on time?

Good for DC, But I'd have liked her for Governor, too

I suppose it's still our win, but it's a shame Speier is taking her skills and experience to the Federal level, when we need people here in Cali, too.

Congrats, Ms. Speier.

Obvious Headline: 'Army Under Stress From Long Wars'

This is a heartbreaking story about these wars really mean to our forces. No, what they really mean.

Mainly - we aren't going to have an Army, at least, not a good one, for very much longer. The lack of morale is shocking. Just the lead paragraph of this article tells of record levels of suicide among soldiers, abandoned careers, and an army stretched to its breaking point.

Bottom line: if anything happens at home, we're done for.

Some 27 percent of soldiers on their third or fourth combat tours suffered anxiety, depression, post-combat stress and other problems, according to an Army survey released last month. That compared with 12 percent among those on their first tour.

No f&cking way the percentage is that low, if you consider the underreporting from men. Men don't admit their mental illness or mental distress.

What have we let happen?

Can I get a witness? No, really

There's a dust-up in San Mateo, thanks to a strongly worded editorial written by Deputy District Attorney Morris Maya that argued a grave danger posed by one of Leland Yee's bills.

What, a Yee bill that's not brilliant? As if.

Anyway, the Yee's bill would, according to the article, create an exception for domestic violence victims similar to what exists for sexual assault victims which protects them from being jailed for not testifying.

The DAs Association also opposes the bill as it takes away a key tool in prosecuting cases. Witnesses to domestic violence are most frequently victims or children (who can be victims as well, for that matter).

Maya wrote, rather poetically:

"Every domestic beating will be ended with the phrase, 'If you testify, I will kill you,' " he wrote in his letter to the editor, which the Daily Journal published Friday. "Successful prosecution of domestic violence will go down and ... cemeteries will become much, much more crowded."

So Yee, natch, had a press conference:

Maya wrote the letter as an individual, not as a representative of the district attorney's office, but it prompted Yee to hold a news conference Wednesday in front of the San Mateo County courthouse in Redwood City during which he called for the bill's passage and denounced Maya's "offensive and insulting rhetoric."

Yee was flanked by victims' rights group leaders as well as by Katina Britt, a domestic violence victim ordered jailed in that same courthouse in December 2005 for refusing to testify. Britt remained free pending her appeal and ultimately was never jailed.

"What irks me about (Maya's) column is it's fundamentally wrong to re-victimize victims," said Yee, D-San Francisco. "For him to sensationalize and exaggerate what may be the potential problems with this particular bill, it makes me wonder - does this guy really understand domestic violence cases, not just the law, but the psychology of it?"

Tap, tap, okay Mr. Yee, but the point is that the people who are trying to prosecute violent offenders can't do it without witnesses. It's like a tough love thing. Yee's supporters say the victims are in a better position to decide if they can testify or not. If they can see through swollen eyes or talk through split lips, I guess.

There's a lot more to the psychology really at work here than what Yee seems to comprehend. No one WANTS to jail a victim of domestic violence. But how do you break the cycle and jail the offenders? There's no winner in this situation.

I hope the DDA doesn't get fired for writing the piece.

Speaking of which

If you missed this astute editorial on why protests are exercises in futility, you really should check it out.

Flame Out

I don't know if you're as tired as I am of hearing about how big a deal the Olympic protests are. I mean, I went to school at Cal back in the day, don't people protest something every other week? Thing that definitely never would have gotten a dozen people to show up are on the evening news now just because, oh my god, they said they're protesting the Olympics.

Whatever.

But to continue that vein, the torch arrived in San Francisco today for the relay tomorrow amid *much controversy*.

I'm going to head up there tomorrow just to see what all the fuss is about.

On the Bay

Leland Yee was going to resolve the Half Moon Bay owing a developer $36 Million thing. But now he's not.

Yee dropped co-authorship of a bill that would have helped resolve the issue.

Now, it's unclear if the settlement that the city drew up with the developer is still in effect (meaning they only owe $18M) or if they're on the hook for legal fees too (total payout = $42M).

Either way, I'm glad I don't live in Half Moon Bay.

But what about the pansies? The snapdragons?

If you look at things from a trickle-down perspective, examples like the opening shot here do touch all our lives as those at the top pull back on employment opportunities and thus squash the little guys at the bottom of the market.

But really, will anyone get too misty-eyed over the credit-market-crunch's effect on this guy?

To all appearances, he's an unlikely victim. A well-paid chief executive of a small consulting firm, he owns a substantial investment portfolio and a million-dollar house in Moraga. He pays his bills on time and has no credit card debt. His credit score, he says, is around 800, a rating more or less in the stratosphere.

But in mid-March, Bank of America cut off his home equity credit line of a little more than $180,000, citing a decline in the value of his property. Meyers, 40, is now scrambling to come up with $75,000 to pay for a major landscaping project and is canceling other big spending plans.

"My wife would like a new car, but that's going to have to wait," he said. "We're taking a $75,000 cash-flow hit, and I want to boost savings."

My god, will the madness stop? Is there no mercy left in the world? I bet her car is an '03, '05 at most!

Even the article concedes that Meyers isn't a hardship case. But it still goes on to list how much it sucks that his magic pot of money ran out.

It IS true that things do trickle down, but man, there must be a way to look at this from the bottom up, not the top down. Even if more of our area code is top-heavy.

'Calls renewed to fix Berkeley's citizen boards'

Whoa guys, what is going on?

Berkeley is finding that having its own foreign policy isn't cheap. The city's recent dustup with the U.S. Marine Corps has so far cost the city more than $200,000, while businesses say they've been slammed by related protests.

And that's on top of the $1 million the city spends annually on domestic and foreign policy matters hatched by its 45 citizen commissions, which outnumber those in virtually every other city in America and debate everything from regime change in Iran to the plight of nonneutered dogs.

Dude(s), come on. It is important to discuss the things affecting our lives and history in general. But save it for the coffeehouse.

Each commission has nine members, each of whom is appointed by a council member, and meets monthly. Many have subcommittees, such as the Peace and Justice Commission's subcommittee on U.N. treaties. And every commission has a city staff member assigned to compile agendas, minutes and reports, and ensure that the board complies with the state's open meetings law and Robert's Rules of Order.

Oh, and time for a new city manager:

"It's a formalized form of participatory democracy," said City Manager Phil Kamlarz. "Do the commissions detract from what the city should be doing? Sure, they do. But we've had commissions for 30 years. They reflect the values of this city.

You know what's a formalized form of participatory democracy? VOTING. Running for office. Writing a letter. Getting to make a useless commission and talking about matters that have been, trust me, fully occupied by the feds is an insult to democracy because it fakes commissioners and those who care about them into thinking they are making a difference when, I'm betting, they aren't altering the trajectory of man. It's selfish and fantastic and needs to end.

I LOVE Democracy and liberalism and participating, but don't fool yourself into thinking you're doing good Berkeley. At this point, you aren't even doing well.

Define boost

Migden scored a minor win as a court granted a preliminary injuction allowing her to spend a wad of cash from an old campaign account.

Clear that tear of joy from your eye, free-speech advocate!

If she was really beloved and in a good position in this primary, wouldn't a rallying email telling her donors that the big bad FPPC had taken all her toys yield a ton of new donations?

No, probably not.

Imagine the disclaimer language on the bottom of the next mailer:

Paid for by Citizens Who Still Are Friends Of Carole Migden with substantial funding allowed by the Courts. Please retain this mailer. We may need to return it and give the money back to the FPPC. Thanks. FPPC #398479847598475984798

Or something like that.

This won't disproportionately affect poorer people

Pay for your sins!

Californians support the idea of charging "green" vehicle fees that would make drivers of gas guzzlers pay higher taxes and offer discounts for those driving less-polluting vehicles, according to a survey by a transportation researcher at San Jose State University.

The state now charges drivers registration and licensing fees and gasoline taxes at rates that do not take into account vehicles' pollution levels. But the survey, conducted by Asha Weinstein Agrawal, a research associate with the university's Mineta Transportation Institute, found that Californians would support a variety of taxes and fees to raise money for transportation improvements as well as combat global warming, including:

-- Raising vehicle registration fees, which now average $31, to an average of $62 and having higher-polluting vehicles pay higher rates and cleaner cars lower rates.

-- Offering rebates of up to $1,000 for people who buy new cars that emit very little pollution and levying a surcharge of as much as $2,000 on those purchasing gas hogs.

-- Levying a mileage-based tax that would replace the 18-cents-per-gallon gasoline tax. The per-mile amount would vary depending on how much a vehicle polluted the air.

Well, right, I see what you're saying, but here's the thing: even if I would agree with charging more to those driving more polluting cars, why would we incentivize people to do the right thing? It's like those kids that come door-to-door to sell candy so they stay off drugs. Kid, you should stay off drugs anyway. Whatever.

And dang it, those stupid hybrid cars are already on back-order, you don't need to convince people to buy it.

Oh, oh, and while I'm bitching: hybrid SUVs - what the hell is that? It's like this war - we never have to sacrifice a thing! Ever. How about we make smaller cars. We don't even know what the hybrid batteries will do to the environment. Smaller cars would be good. And hybrids still follow the basic laws of physics - which makes them more dangerous. Rollover? Ugh.

We're dumb. Go buy some "carbon offsets" and sleep better in your imaginary house made of wishing and creampuffs.

This is why we don't let BART in our area code

Because the rules are just so confusing. Buy a snack. Don't eat the snack. M&Ms taste better in my Mercedes anyway.

Economically depressed area saved by economic depression

Uh, recession, sorry. Speaking too soon.

Anyway, a decade's long battle surrounding a proposed Home Depot that had seemed to conquer local fears of small shop owners and provide a glimmer of hope for a large, good employer in the area, has been dumped due to the dip in the home-improvement market. That housing stuff is killing everything.

Look out Migden, Hello Leno

Were you in the 'Jo this weekend? I heard there was a hellofa Migden/Leno smackdown over the all-important party endorsement. No one got the endorsement. Oh, and if you're a fan of procedural stuff, note that Migden won but Leno wrangled enough signatures to bring the endorsement to the whole body. That's pretty rare. And pretty awesome. What a sight to behold.

Of course, if you get bitch-slapped at least twice by the FPPC in one week after having been in a rather questionable and questionably explained highway accident, well, you probably shouldn't have super high hopes, right?

Oh, Gavin, You Mix, You

Gavin says he might run for Governor. Maybe. No, not really. Ok, maybe.

Don't you love the tap-dance two years before the election.

But Gavin does have some words for us:

"Be careful what you wish for," Newsom said Tuesday at the Sacramento Press Club.

It turns out hosting the Chinese Olympic torch relay is a bit burdensome. The city isn't releasing the route of the relay because of security reasons, but Gavin swears that's not why. And the Tibet relay is getting mad. They want the city to make it easier to protest.

"You don't need a permit to protest," Newsom said.

I understand government transparency, but, seriously, people if you want to protest, you should ball up and just do it.

Oh snap, busted AGAIN!

Served again. Last week, it was a record $350k fine from the FPPC for botched reporting and expenditures. This week, it's a $9m FPPC countersuit against Ms Migden after she sued them 3 weeks back:

Ross Johnson, chairman of the Fair Political Practices Commission, charged Migden has repeatedly "deceived" voters by "filing inaccurate campaign statements, fabricating the elimination of committees and concealing campaign funds."

"The sophisticated and pervasive pattern of deception by her various controlled committees has been ongoing for more than five years," Johnson said in prepared statement.

Oh dear. Someone's having a bad week.

Newsom Sues

Newsom is expect to announce today, in Sacramento, a lawsuit against....someone.

As part of the budget crisis, Medi-Cal experience a $568M mid-year reduction and doctors were allowed to stop seeing patients. As Mayor of a city with 115,000 Medi-Cal enrollees, Gavin is a little upset.

The Don Does It Again

The Don (Perata), the Democratic face of budget protests, held a press conference in Concord last week with Assemblyman Mark DeSaulnier and Senator Tom Torlakson,

But the Don was on fire.

"I'm taking off my (sun)glasses so you can look in my eyes and see if I'm kidding," Perata told the crowd. He was referring to Republican assertions that Democrats are going through the motions in their budget protests. "Democrats will never leave Sacramento as long as the governor intends to cut education by even one dime."

"Can we afford to pay more taxes?" Perata said. "No. But do we have to pay more? Yes, and we will."

Oh, Don, what will we do when you're gone?

Higher Gas Prices = Higher Taxes

In a shocking* turn of events, higher gas prices have meant higher gas tax revenue.

See, this'll solve our budget problem.

"I think we've finally come closer, if not reached, a tipping point where gasoline prices are affecting people's behavior," said Bill Leonard, a member of the Board of Equalization. One evidence is the slight decrease in gasoline consumption for the past couple of years, he said.

Judy Dugan, research director at Consumer Watchdog in Los Angeles, argued it might be time to reconsider the sales tax on gasoline altogether because of increasing pump prices.

"The state is certainly stressed and they need money, but to do it on the backs of motorists who are screaming for relief is not the way to go about it," she said.

Right, because god forbid people actually maybe change their behavior.

Endorsements

Mayor Gina Papan got a big endorsment from state senator Leland Yee.

Other than that, the race for the 19th Assembly District is still close.

Stay in the car!

So car A starts following car B and freaks out the car B driver, a father with his wife and 2 kids in the car. Car B exits the freeway - good move. The driver of Car B exits the car - bad move. Car B driver approaches car A. Car A's occupants proceed to beat the living snot out of car B driver in front of his kids. Here's some advice: in a road rage situation, stay in your car, drive it to a police station if you can, and call 911 while you are doing so. There was no way this was going to end well.

What the hell is up with the world sometimes.

Food gets pricey

Housing prices crash, the economy is in shambles, but food is getting more expensive the world over because there's not enough of it. Suddenly, worrying about most of our problems here seem less problematic.

That explains what happened to 'Are We There Yet?'

Netflix went down today, which could mean longer wait times for rentals. That's a better reason than what I believe is the current reason: they slow down the speedy renters because we cost too much money. I used to care more about this company.

Announce and diffuse!

What is up in Albany? That's Albany, New York, not Albany, California. The old governor, in case you've missed all local, national, and late night news, got caught whoring and the new governor so far has admitted to extramarital affairs (the free kind) and now extracurricular drug use.

Dude, that state is on fire!

Seriously though, perhaps it's good: this new governor is helping us all get over stupid non-scandal fodder that keeps us from having to think too hard about anything that might matter. Drug use? It was the 70s. Extramarital affair, that's bad, but, he's still married, his wife cheated too, they worked it out, they are still together, and they didn't have to do it at a press conference. Not bad.

Diffuse it. Good slogan.

Oh snap, busted!

Carole Migden got served! She was slapped with a $350k fine by the Fair Political Practices Commission - California's watchdog group that produces lots of reports about what candidates do so that reporters have something to write about.

Let's pause a moment and consider that figure. Three hundred fifty thousand dollars.

That's a 3 or 4 bedroom home in a decent Sacramento community or a 500 square foot squat in San Francisco. Or it's a decent salary . . . for seven years.

Who screws up bad enough to end up with this sort of fine? Oh, right.

And the Chron must not like her - check out this photo that ran with at least the on-line story.

Between this and her freeway troubles, I'm thinking the Leno camp is doing cartwheels. Of course, it was their complaints that led to the investigation that ultimately uncovered more than they probably hoped for.

Every 4 Years (Or 2 Kinda)

Let's talk about the Olympics. In case you don't pay attention to sports, politics or life, they're going to be in China. This year.

Some people are getting a little upset about this. Because China doesn't have such a good record on human rights or the environment or free speech or um, other stuff too. So there are protests, lots, and crackdowns, more, and talk of boycotting the Games. Because, you know, isolation always works so well (cough, North Korea).

As the Games get closer and the Torch Relay (ah, the lighting of the Torch) starts off, there are getting to be more and more protests.

And China, the state not necessarily the people, is preparing in excess for the event. They seem to think this is their 'grand opening', 'coming out', whatever your favorite metaphor is and that the past few years have really just been soft openings. So forget all that other stuff you heard, ignore the man behind the curtain.

The only thing is that EVERYONE knows they're cracking down on unrest, training their citizens in civic pride and rules of polite behavior and blowing away the polluted air by sheer force of willpower.

Now, I love the Olympics, no matter where they are. I understand they have become a commercialized, jaded, steroid-laden, medal count. BUT, people who really believe that don't give enough credit to the athletes who are capable of truly amazing things and who have trained harder than you could even imagine (no, whatever you think is a hard workout, a hard schedule, harder than that) and who only get this chance once every 4 years. To boycott an Olympics is to waste these people's talents. (Besides, every country that hosts ends up more in debt than they started, so wouldn't it be more of a punishment to go to the event than to stay away.)

So, if you were the Chinese government and you were worried about unrest and you knew there were lots of protestors and people pissed off about this, would you pick San Francisco (city of liberal activism) as the ONE city in the US for the torch relay to go through?? And if you want to highlight the traveties going on in Tibet would you stay away from San Francisco on April 9th? No and No.

So, for the rest of us, the Torch Relay going through the city on April 9th is not going to be something to miss.

And, really, neither are the Games. Ever.

The Youth

Some students at College of San Mateo got an earful the other morning. Candidates for the 19th District showed up in their "California State and the Local Government" class to woo the youth.

Ah, the youth. Everyone wants them, except really no one know why they do.

Back to haunt you

With the magic of the internet, words don't die, they just wait, dormant, for their next opportunity to strike - usually for ill. Depending on your point of view, I suppose.

Obama's pastor said some stuff about the US and 9/11 that aren't going over so well now. He said them in 2003, but that doesn't matter. What I find curious, however, is that this pastor's comments are pretty close to similar sentiments offered by some big time white televangelists, as I recall. That didn't take down any Republicans along the way, did it?

Surprise! We're not blind and we're human. How disappointing.

As it turns out, some of us vote based on race and gender.

Yes, it's true. Polls record people saying that race is important to them when they cast their votes. And that's just the honest people who'll admit it. Think how many more there must be.

Of course, it's possible that we're voting for people BECAUSE they are xyz and not AGAINST them because they are xyz. Is that better? Is that only okay in this match-up because there are two others: a woman and a black man? If either faced a white male and someone voted for the white male because he was a white male, we'd call that racist, wouldn't we. Is it more acceptable to vote for Hillary Clinton because she's a woman or for Barack Obama because he's African American?

Ah, the 9th Circuit hits another one out of the park

Apparently, blanket drug testing isn't necessarily legal:

A city can't require all job applicants to be tested for narcotics and must instead show why drug use in a particular job would be dangerous, a federal appeals court ruled Thursday.

The Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco ruled against the city of Woodburn, Ore., which argued it was entitled to maintain a drug-free workplace by requiring job candidates to be screened for drugs and alcohol.

The city was sued by Janet Lanier, whose job offer as a part-time page at the city library was withdrawn in 2004 when she refused a drug and alcohol test. A federal judge ruled the policy unconstitutional and awarded Lanier $12,400 in damages and $44,000 in legal fees, her lawyer said.

The appeals court said Thursday that the judge's ruling went too far, because the city may be able to justify drug-testing of applicants for some jobs. But the court found no basis to test applicants for library positions.

I thought we still had a drug czar and were committed to Just Saying No even if it doesn't have the cache of other, trendier causes. No? If there's a no tolerance policy, then should everyone be clean and sober at work - especially if employed by a public agency?

Don't get me wrong, I'm against unnecessary invasions of privacy, this just seems at odds with the rest of our culture as we treat drugs and booze.

Unpretty in pink

Bad news for teachers:

More than 10,100 teachers will see pink slips in their mailboxes over the next few days as districts up and down California meet a Saturday deadline to warn staff of anticipated layoffs due to the state's budget crisis.

Kristen Vogel is expecting two pink slips at her house.

The third-year San Francisco elementary school teacher knows she'll get one. A substitute principal at her school broke the news Monday. A union letter confirmed it Wednesday. The district's official certified letter is likely to arrive over the weekend.

Her husband, a fourth-grade teacher in his first year at a school in Santa Rosa, is waiting for one, too, but because he's a temporary teacher, the district doesn't have to tell him until the end of the school year.

The pink slips have to go out to comply with state law. But is this a bit of political theater? More fortunate operations of law laying the groundwork for Arnold to raise taxes without completely alienating the right? Or at least the mid-right since the right-right always feels alienated by, like, stuff.

Good thing we're on the South side of the bridge

Tolls look to be going up again! Ca-ching! From $5 to $6 for cash and $4 to $5 for FasTrak users.

North Bay officials, particularly from Marin County, have opposed the Doyle Drive toll, which they called a "Marin commuter tax" because tolls are collected from southbound traffic.

Well, yeah guys, if you're the ones using the bridge then shouldn't you pay the toll? We'll continue to run 101 into the ground without being charged, but such is life!

Good help is so hard to find

A housekeeper is suing her former employers for unpaid overtime and other wage issues that could total $120,000 according to her legal aid lawyer.

The homeowners are represented by an attorney from Wilson, Sonsini, Goodrich and Rosati which in and of itself proves they can and probably should just fork over the money, even if rich neighbors throughout Atherton would prefer they not set a precedent of fairly compensating their staff.

You can read the complaint here.

His better half's worst task

Unlike similar scandals in the past, it seems there's far more flack over soon-to-be-ex-Governor Spitzer's wife standing with him as he aired some pretty dirty laundry for the national media. The flack isn't directed at Mrs. Spitzer - exactly - but it does take to task the Governor for having her stand there with him.

Well, this kinda directs flack at her. I don't get this column, frankly - it's the Chron's conservative columnist and she seems to be anti-marriage in this case. Reasonably so, but that doesn't mean I'll let it go when it comes from her pen (or keyboard, as the case may be).

But more broadly, all the outlets and even The Daily Show have made Spitzer out to be an even BIGGER cad (tough assignment) for dragging his wife out to show, uh, support?

My guess is that on the inside of any marriage in this situation, things are far, far more complicated than "Leave him, stupid!" implies.

I feel bad for her.

Let them eat moth cakes

That title doesn't really make sense, but it was the first moth joke I could come up with.

You've heard about this plan to spray synthetic pheromones to disrupt the mating cycle of an invasive moth, right? Well, people are all pissy about the plan. So officials hired a PR firm to pimp the pheromones and convince people everything is safe. Except it was a no-bid process and the contract went to a firm with ties to the Guv.

"The campaign is intended to counter the concerns raised by local environmentalists and residents, who complained of breathing problems and other ill health effects after the spraying." Some of the other effects include an odd attraction to lighting and a decreased attraction to their spouses.

That joke was as weak as a moth's sex drive!

As was that one.

E-mails obtained by the AP revealed a senior state contracting official questioned the arrangement. He said it was difficult to justify a public affairs campaign related to moth spraying as an emergency, which entitled the deal to be exempted from normal contracting rules designed to limit favoritism.

After The Associated Press published a story Wednesday detailing the deal, Schwarzenegger press secretary Aaron McLear said the contract had been suspended.

I doubt it's the Guv funneling money to someone at Porter Novelli. Probably someone who's spouse or BFF works there, but probably not the governor. Does that make it better?

Nothing in this story isn't sad

This story is sickening for the number of lives irrevocably changed:

The attorney representing a Santa Clara County sheriff's deputy who struck and killed two competitive bicyclists in Cupertino said Wednesday that the officer had worked a lengthy shift the day before and that fatigue may have been a factor in the crash.

The deputy is 27 years old. The two cyclists were 29 and 30 years old. Can you imagine? How horrible. So far, there aren't allegations of drugs or alcohol having been a factor in the accident. I hope it remains that way. I don't feel worse for any particular party in this matter than for another, but I do feel terribly for the deputy who will never, ever outlive the crushing emotional aftermath of this event. The whole thing is just sad. And even that word seems inadequate.

Perhaps 12 1/2 hours per shift is too long to expect from anyone - especially someone with such an important job and with so much at stake.

Doggie Days

San Mateo may get a dog park. Apparently, the dogs were all just wandering around confused until now.

...it’s somewhat surprising that two of the Peninsula’s more populous cities, Millbrae and South San Francisco, still don’t have a dog park to call their own. Millbrae Mayor Gina Papan hopes to amend this problem in her town, but warned that it will be a slow process.

Playing the race card

A forced hand, perhaps?

Black voter support was key for Obama in key primary contests. But is too much support pushing working-class white voters back to Camp Hillary?

Can you believe I just typed that sentence? Neither can I.

Am I too idealistic? I just don't buy a lot of these early voter bloc rundowns that claim to point to the effect of black candidate + black supporters on the national contest. A guest on the Colbert Report the other night correctly point out that we don't have a white candidate and a black candidate. We have a white candidate and a mixed candidate who's been forced (or at least left with little choice) but to the The Black Candidate. He's just as white as he is black, but we don't let people be both really, do we? At least not when it comes to a black/white mix.

Ronald Walters, a University of Maryland political scientist who tracks racial trends and is writing a book on Obama, thinks Obama's strong support from blacks made it easier for some whites in Ohio and Texas to vote for Clinton.

"There's some of that," Walters said in an interview. He pointed to exit polls from Ohio, where 62 percent of all whites lack college degrees and many are anxious about their jobs in a weak economy.

"This is a racially sensitive group," he said, referring specifically to whites who earn less than $50,000 a year and did not attend college.

"They are the quintessential Reagan Democrats," he said. "They feel they've been left" and their resentment can have social and racial overtones.

Right, well, first off, isn't a bit soon to be writing a book on Obama? We're still writing history. Anyway - and why would lower-educated, job-losing whites take out their fear on a black candidate? I thought it was the browns taking their jobs?

Clearly I don't think that's a good reason to bloc-vote against any non-white candidate. There is no good reason, of course. But it just seems (like Michigan and Florida screwing themselves by screwing with the primary calendar) that we're trying too hard to make this election fit an outdated playbook. We get so damn uncomfortable without our prediction-enabling patterns.

This notion that "Obama's black support is driving some working-class whites into Clinton's corner" just floors me. Perhaps it's that "Clinton's strong support within the Ohio Democratic establishment, starting with the governor" is what is drawing people over to her. Does that create a secondary question of whether the establishment in some states is limited to whites? Ugh - you can't get away from it, can you?

Meanwhile, Clinton continues to draw about 10 percent to 20 percent of black voters, who sometimes have to defend their choice.

"She has the most experience," said Elexis Griffin, a black worker at a law office who attended a Clinton fundraiser in Canton, Ohio. "Obama has only been in the Senate three years. I'm not anti-Barack. I'm just pro-Hillary."

Griffin, who is 25 and considering law school, said, "I sit here almost every single day and hear debating: Hillary or Obama? My closest friends, I have very much influenced their vote for Hillary. They accuse me of being against the social movement. And I accuse them of voting with their emotions and not looking at the facts."

Having to defend ones vote is terrible. Celebrating ones vote is far more fun and engaging. Can anyone case a vote in this election that cannot also be said to be an ID vote? Maybe we need two white men back to ease our troubled choices here. No, no that's not the way to go. Do women get a pass in this race by being able to cite experience while still letting their ovaries guide them? Or is it valide to vote by ovary just as much as it is to vote by race if you finally get a chance to elect someone who looks like you to the White House?

Not the kind of laws he wants to be enforcing, I'm sure. I hope.

This story follows a Contra Costa county sheriff as he goes about his day evicting people. I can't imagine that's why he got into law enforcement. I can't imagine he feels great when he goes home every night. I know cops probably feel some empathy towards a lot of the people they collar in an average day - usually they've done something to deserve it. But the people being evicted . . . many people made bad real estate choices over the past few years. Many were led into it. Many shouldn't have lived so far beyond their means - but isn't that what we do. We're Americans, dammit.

Sad stuff.

Not news news of the week: Gav wants to be Guv. Duh

In what can only generously be called "news" the Chron says:

San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom is considering a 2010 run for governor - a campaign that would embrace many of the same divisive causes he has championed as mayor, including same-sex marriage, universal health care and protections for illegal immigrants, The Chronicle has learned.

Newsom has long been rumored to be a potential contender in what is likely to be a crowded field of Democrats looking to succeed Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, a list that includes Attorney General and former Gov. Jerry Brown, former state Controller Steve Westly and Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa.

D to the Uh, kids.

It's cool though, I actually kinda like Gavin Newsom - especially compared to the other potential candidates. Especially compared to Antonio from down South. But anyway, Governor Jerry Brown again? Really? And Steve Westly - let it go my friend. It didn't work last time and you certainly won't seem any more interesting compared to this field. If you couldn't seem more interesting than Phil Angelides then no one can make it happen next to the Gavster.I think that guy sucks.

And though I still ache for the 2004 loss, I don't blame Gavin for deciding he had to start issuing same-sex marriage licenses that particular year. There never would've been a good time.

But some of the other issues on which he's gone pretty left aren't going to win him fans in large parts of the state. He is - or was - pretty conservative compared to the prevailing SF winds, but take him into the bigger pool and he does seem to be off the deep end, no?

Don't drink the water

Eww:

A vast array of pharmaceuticals — including antibiotics, anti-convulsants, mood stabilizers and sex hormones — have been found in the drinking water supplies of at least 41 million Americans, an Associated Press investigation shows.

To be sure, the concentrations of these pharmaceuticals are tiny, measured in quantities of parts per billion or trillion, far below the levels of a medical dose. Also, utilities insist their water is safe.

But the presence of so many prescription drugs — and over-the-counter medicines like acetaminophen and ibuprofen — in so much of our drinking water is heightening worries among scientists of long-term consequences to human health.

I'll start by saying I'm no scientist and I generally dislike people with a thin grasp of science who over-apply what little they know. But here's what the world seems like to me: humans aren't going to evolve anymore. At least not according to the march of natural selection, that is. With the aid of fertility drugs and doctors, people who couldn't reproduce can now reproduce. At the same time, everything we're doing that seems designed to make us genetically weaker simultaneously makes our biggest enemies - little tiny bugs - stronger than we can know . . . until they start getting us, of course.

Does that make sense?

It's interesting what drugs come up in what cities. There's anti-anxiety meds in SoCal and sex hormones in SF. Oh dear. But it's the antibiotics that scare me. We're just making our germ-anic enemies stronger. Did you see War of the Worlds? If not, don't. If you want to see it, but haven't, stop reading. You know what gets the aliens and saves humans in that movie? A headcold. No joke. Superior alien firepower is no match for their ill-prepared immune systems. But we won't even have to leave the planet will we? We're going to make our killers ourselves. Tylenol by tylenol, whizz by whizz.

Not good.

P.S. Or maybe we're changing too, after all.

If You're Running for Assembly, Shouldn't You Show Up For Debates

The Democrats running for the Assembly district debated the other night. But one of them didn't feel like showing up. Isn't that a necessary but not sufficient qualification for being elected?

San Mateo County Supervisor Jerry Hill who did not attend last night’s forum. Instead, Hill’s legislative aide, Eric Pawlowsky, fielded questions and ticked off Hill’s qualifications.

ByeBye Canciamilla

Joe Canciamilla drops out of the state Senate race for. That's a shame. Kinda. Not.

Revenue Enhancements

The Governator is changing his story again. Now he's for taxes. Kinda. If we call them something else.

"We should not get caught up in what something is called," he said. "That doesn't bring anyone any healthcare. It doesn't bring any education. . . . What we need to do is fix problems. Let's just put everything on the table and not debate over the definitions."

BUT

Republicans still oppose a tax hike by any definition.

Do they really think that the general fund budget -- currently at $103 billion -- can be balanced with only spending cuts? "That's our goal," says Senate GOP Leader Dick Ackerman of Irvine.

"Is it going to happen? I can't tell you that."

Hey, look, a shot at homeownership in the Bay Area!

Every homeownership article I've read lately tells me two things: first, that the National Realtors Association is really good at planting stories and second, that all articles about homeownership are written for Not-California. All the rent vs. own calculations are based on $1500/month mortgages. Where in the hell can you find a mortgage that low in California? Certainly not the hell around here, I can tell you that. In Tracy? I don't even think there.

Anyway, because the allure of homeownership and the demanding squeal of the American Dream insists we all have access homes we can't really afford - presto! - we have new options!

The FHA is a federal Department of Housing and Urban Development agency that insures mortgages for people who can't get conventional financing. This guarantee encourages private-sector lenders to make loans and investors to buy them.

Before today, however, FHA could not insure single-family home mortgage loans in the continental United States that exceeded $200,160 to $362,790, depending on location. Because of these low limits, FHA guaranteed only 5,000 loans in California in 2005.

Starting today, FHA can temporarily insure single-family loans up to 125 percent of each area's median price, with a minimum of $271,050 and a maximum of $729,750.

"For many people putting down less than 20 percent, I think it may become the preferred loan," says Joe Rogers, retail national sales manager for Wells Fargo Home Mortgage.

Look, kids, have the last 8 months taught you nothing? If you don't have 20%, don't buy a house. If you can only find a house that's more than 3-4x your gross annual income, don't buy a house. Really, that b.s. about tax deductions, etc, is, uh, b.s. if you end up having to sit on milk crates and driving a modern-day pinto because your so house poor.

Don't get me wrong, there should be some kind of allowances made for our bat poo crazy real estate market, but I think it would be great if we were a bit more realistic about why we want to OWN a home. It's because someone said you were supposed to want one. Because you're an American. Americans need a single-family home.

But really, is there any market in which that makes LESS sense than this one, right here, on our own spit of land.

All Bay Area counties qualify for these new FHA limits. Except Sonoma and Solano. Ha! Suck it Sonoma! You got the grapes, but we got your mortgages!

Note to Florida and Michigan

So, you guys want to hold your primaries again? Take it from us here in California, we who hold statewide elections as often as we possibly can because we adore spending money on stuff we don't actually need to do, just skip it. You bet badly and lost. Don't play history when everyone can see the election is set to make history.

Somewhere a Grocery Store Worker is in Trouble

Over in Concord, our friendly neighborhood nut seems to have found every shopping cart and electronic in the area.

There's something to be said here about not cutting the mental health budget. What is it, what is it.

Good news for CDP delegates

San Jose is shiny clean. Go enjoy downtown! It's all due to a program called "Groundwerx." You can tell it's cool because of the intentional, yet not, yet meaningful misspelling. Awesome! Buff away, San Jose!

'No cell phones, no eye contact'

A Chron columnist makes some modest proposals to help Starbucks reconnect with the masses. Like rent-a-cats. And beds. I like it.

You can't go ten feet without tripping on a smiling mermaid in this town, true, but, like Jon Carroll says, when you're out of town and driving for hour after hour, does ANYTHING look as welcoming as that green circle of salvation on the horizon? I think not. And you don't either. Admit it!

A blogger once told me that grande hot chais delivered by normally unreliable campaign volunteers daily at 3pm was the only thing that kept her from going postal on the presidential campaign trail. Starbucks provides services. And medical coverage for its employees. So, not like SO evil, right?

Sweet charity

San Jose Assemblyman Joe Coto has proposed legislation aimed at directing charitable donations toward more diverse recipients.

Wow. I didn't know there was a way to make me speak out again charitable giving, but high-five, Mr. Coto.

And the Merc's article quotes right-wing bloggers on the matter. Right-wing bloggers! You know you're in trouble when . . . .

Anyway, about the bill:

California's charitable foundations give hundreds of millions of dollars each year to non-profit groups, but the money rarely reaches organizations led by minorities, says a South Bay lawmaker seeking to regulate philanthropy as a way to boost funding for a more diverse group of recipients.

The legislation proposed by Assemblyman Joe Coto, D-San Jose, would require the state's largest philanthropic foundations to disclose the race and gender of staff and board members.

Coto hopes such information will push foundations to redirect their giving to gay and lesbian, African-American, Latino, Asian-American and American Indian causes.

What, holding a mirror up to the whites in charge of distributing cash will ignite within them such liberal guilt that their souls will demand they expand their giving?

"Foundations work in the dark. There's no oversight; there's no reporting regulations on them," he said, "and because nobody knows what they're doing - I think unintentional on their part - they have excluded minority-led organizations."

Some of California's largest foundations - the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, the David and Lucile Packard Foundation and the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation - invested "practically no dollars" in minority-led organizations, Gamboa said.

Do only minority-led organizations fund minority-services? I just am not getting it. I agree that more money should flow freely through charitable channels and that the same handful of organizations benefit because, historically, they always have, but I don't think the fault lies with the color of foundation leadership. The article and the facts cited within it seem to alternate the terms minority-led and minority-based organizations. There's a huge difference there, however, if Coto is trying to show a need for his legislation.

It seems a divisive and - I hope and really do think - antiquated notion. I hope it fails miserably.

Get Rid of the Penny?

Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson thinks we should eliminate the penny.

Asked Friday whether he thought the penny should be eliminated, Paulson agreed that it would make sense, saying, "The penny is worth less than any other currency."

Oh, Henry, you genius, you, I knew there was a reason you're the charge of the money.

Sailing Under the Golden Gate

The French racing yatch Gitana 13 broke the record for sailing from New York to San Francisco yesterday. It only took 43 days and 38 minutes.

Or, you know, we have planes now.

I'm still filling my purse with snacks

So high popcorn prices subsidize movie tickets? Really?

The data and examples given in the article just seem kind of weak. I'm going to freely admit I didn't read the entire 29 page study linked above.

I'll wait for the movie.

And I won't buy popcorn when I watch it.

Hot time in the old town tonight

What is up in SF? A "lovers' quarrel" between the incoming Planning Director John Rahaim and his boyfriend (partner? lover? I've seen several terms used) resulted in the boyfriend being held on $1m bail for setting their bed on fire and smearing canned tomato around the historic Nob Hill residence of the fire chief where the couple were living temporarily? Seriously? Why tomato?

Do you think Rahaim is going to enjoy a lengthy tenure with the city?

She has the votes, soon she'll have the power

But it's LA's Karen Bass, not the Bay Area's Fiona Ma, who has the numbers she needs to take over from Fabian Nunez as the Speaker of the State Assembly.

I'm kinda bummed because I think Fiona Ma is great and she's the nearest candidate, geographically, to me. This is still a big step ahead for California, however, as she becomes the first Democratic woman to hold the post and only the second woman ever (after Doris Allen, a Republican who was Speaker ever so briefly before being recalled).

Sorry Fiona. I'm glad you tried though. The more women pursuing these positions of power, the better our government gets.

Things that make you go Hmmm, politically

You've heard about this Obama photo thing, right?
 
Click here for the story and come back when you're done:
 
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2008/02/25/politics/p091845S97.DTL&type=politics
 
Okay, good, back now? Right. First off, I think both sides are reacting to a non-event. But it's still overwhelmingly goofy, right? Obama is in his father's native Kenya. He tries on traditional clothing. There's a photo. Now, supposedly, the Clinton camp circulates that photo to be divisive. How is it divisive? Because Americans think all turbans are dispensed by Al-Qaeda, I guess. We're too stupid to differentiate. I suppose I shouldn't be snarky, I mean, post 9/11, life isn't all peaches for Sikhs, right? And their turbans don't even look like those of the "evil-doers." Anyway. So Obama says "Hillary, stop being divisive!" And Camp Hillary, wide-eyed and innocent (again, perhaps I'm using misplaced snark) says "you shouldn't call your own photo divisive, WE don't see that turban as being terrorist like."
 
Neither side is going to win many points out of this conversation PLUS, I have to figure the papers have something else to cover besides this traction-less story. So let's get to it, kids.

In case you haven't been paying attention

We're all going to lose our homes (http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2008/02/26/national/a020309S77.DTL&tsp=1)
Which is fine because we can't sell them for enough anyway (http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2008/02/26/national/a060630S15.DTL)
Which is probably because we can't afford to improve them anymore (http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2008/02/26/financial/f031613S88.DTL)
 
Don't worry though, I'm sure if the National Realtors Association keeps running those ads about how it's a great time to buy a house, we can overcome all this economic foolishness and get right back on the Stupid-Unrealistic-House-Appreciation-Coaster.
 
Right?

Legislative Report Card

If you're into this kind of thing: CalPIRG released their legislative report card for 2007.

Those receiving an A grade of 90% and above in the Assembly include 11 of the 48 Democrats in that body: Jim Beall, Mark DeSaulnier, Mike Feuer, Mary Hayashi, Jared Huffman, Dave Jones, John Laird, Mark Leno, Gene Mullin, Ira Ruskin, and Sandre Swanson. The lowest rated Democrat in the Assembly was Nicole Parra with a 53% rating.

Something that has nothing to do with here...

But this is my favorite picture of the day:

Don't go to the ER

And in Millbrae, hospital workers prepare to strike. It's primarily the workers in a convalescent home, who have disagreements with the owners.

FYI, that's going to cause more problems than the writers.

Filing Date Upcoming

Another one bites the dust.

Now that Steve Thomas has withdrawn from the AD 15 race (before the actual filing date and start of the election), he joins Steve Filson, who already dropped out. That leaves only Joan Buchanan left.

Isn't it nice to see an election happening.

I'm back!

I apologize for being gone. Changing jobs and computers will do that to you.

To make up for it, here is something interesting.

It's the list of superdelegates in California. Who are they? Who are they going to vote for? Why are they more important than you?

News from the North

Guess he couldn't help himself: Nation is jumping into an otherwise already grab-the-popcorn fun to watch duke fest between Leno and Migden for the incumbent Migden's seat. Love it!

Killjoy

The Chron does the math and questions how legislators spent nearly $700,000 on jukets and stuff without justifying how these expenses are related to their jobs. Yawn. Oh, sorry. Does it make me a bad watch dog if I just don't get my pantaloons in a bunch over such revelations?

By they way, $700k divided by 120 legislators is a little under $6000 a piece Of course, some spend more than others.

Lawmakers declared that all of the spending was reasonably related to legislative, governmental or political purposes, as mandated by state law. But because there is no requirement that legislators provide any details explaining how the spending was job-related, taxpayers and voters have no way of judging for themselves if the expenses were appropriate.

So? And why are taxpayers and voters two separate categories? If taxpayers don't vote it's their own damn fault, so whatever. And tax dollars aren't paying for this anyway, so that sort of side implication is a bit misplaced too.

So what did some of our local guys do that's worth us bending over to pick up throwing stones?

San Ramon Assemblyman Guy Houston, for example, spent $125 in campaign money at a jet ski rental shop on Maui, justifying the expense in public reports only as candidate travel.

Fremont Assemblyman Alberto Torrico used $185 in donor money for a round of golf in Napa, while Orange County Assemblyman Todd Spitzer used $139 in contributor money to buy a wedding gift for one of his campaign aides - also without detailed explanations.

Oooh, awful, isn't it. Call me crazy, but maybe the people with the right to be angry are donors who forked over cash to help their candidates win, rather than cush up their lives in office?

Either way, I just can't seem to care that much. Do you? Do you think a round of golf makes a legislator decide he owes it to whomever to vote for everything, say, CMA or trial attorneys, etc, supports? Against what it hates? I think it's a bit more complex than that.

How It Went Down

In case you want to know how it actually went down last night after the votes were finally counted. Or, rather, this morning at 8am.

The Indian Gaming props are the only ones that passed. Though 91 did manage to get 41% even after it's authors abandoned it. Go california!

Here's a breakdown of the delegates, in case you actually thought anything would be settled after super-duper tuesday.

'How Clinton Won In California' - hint: it involved getting more votes

The Chron has an analytical piece on the keys to Clinton's California victory yesterday, while still acknowledging that the practical outcome of her ten-point or so lead is really only a few delegates over Obama. (Link: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/02/06/BA3IUT6L8.DTL)
 
The article notes:
 
"California has long been "Clinton country," but Hillary Rodham Clinton seized Super Tuesday's biggest prize by winning big among women, Latinos, Asian-Americans, gays and lesbians, older voters and working class Californians - which blunted Barack Obama's strong support from African Americans, white men and independents, according to exit polls.
 
"While Obama was able to carry some of the state's progressive centers - including San Francisco, Alameda, Marin and Santa Cruz counties - Clinton dominated in voter-rich Los Angeles County as well as Santa Clara County, Orange County and San Diego County. The New York senator also vacuumed up support in inland areas like Fresno, Riverside and San Bernardino counties."
 
I would've predicted Obama to have done better in LA County - thinking he'd get the more cutting-edge left while Clinton carried the now old-school New Democrats in more traditional counties - as she did in Orange and San Diego and inland.
 
"Obama proved once again his popularity among African-Americans, taking almost 4 out of 5 black votes in California. But Clinton more than compensated by winning among Latinos by a 2-to-1 margin and among Asian-Americans by a 3-to-1 margin.
 
""Asians were a surprise," said Bruce Cain, director of the University of California's Washington Center. "It's the first (presidential) election we have seen where Asian voters were a big factor. They are about 8 percent of the Democratic electorate.... The two major immigrant groups voted for Clinton as opposed to the candidate who has the immigrant background.""
 
Does that statement imply that all Asian voters are immigrants or have immigrant backgrounds (more recent than the rest of immigrant-built America, that is). To have that demographic result mean more, I'd want to know if we're talking about recent Asian immigrants or all Asian Americans. Otherwise, why the presumption?  There have been waves of Asian immigration to the US and to Cali several times over the past two centuries - about the same time as other European immigrant waves and we don't count them as immigrant groups.  Seems a bit contrived to me.
 
Clinton enjoyed strong returns across the state. But Obama did pick up Mono, Siskiyou, Plumas, Sierra, Yolo, Nevada and Alpine counties. Everyone knows as goes Siskiyou, so goes the Nation, er, State. No? 

Election Day Report from the Field

Seen in Santa Cruz!
 
A good friend reports that it took her a moment this morning to realize who it was who had handed her a ballot.  She stared at him for a few minutes trying to place the face in context.
 
Why, it was none other than former Assemblyman Fred Keeley.  We LOVE Fred Keeley.  We miss Fred Keeley.  A lot.
 
Kinda makes you want to vote Yes on 93, doesn't it?  We coulda had more Fred. And a better California!
 

Klaske Withdraws

Fred Klaske withdrew from the assembly race.

I bet you didn't even know there was a race on yet.

That leaves School Board Member Joan Buchanan, ex-pilot Steve Filson, electrician Steve Thomas and teacher John Taylor of Sacramento. Wait, Sacramento is in the district?

Happy Harvey Milk Day!

What do you do if you are a gay liberal Democrat locked in a tight primary race against another gay liberal Democrat? You propose to make a new holiday to honor San Francisco's best-known gay leader.

That Debate Thing Last Night

Last night, I went out to California NOW's debate watching party. Free beer! Free food! Old woman shushing you!

Assemblymember Mark DeSaulnier was there, as was Assembly candidate and School Board Member Joan Buchanan. They both made nice little speeches about the exciting opportunity we have right now with two (that's right TWO) great candidates and how we have to get out to vote in all three elections this year. And the old woman looked very confused, three elections you say?

It was a really good event, around 150 people (maybe more, I'm bad at estimating) and everyone very excited. I talked to both the special geusts too. Pictures to come.

Debate!

Don't forget the Democratic Debate is on tonight (8pm EST), and the Republican was on last night. It's only down to Obama and Clinton now and you can even submit your own questions or vote on which questions should be asked.

Oh, wait, you could always do that. And the questions are usually wierd. And the candidates don't really debate so much as poke each other.

Yay democracy!

If 93 Passes....

If Prop 93 passes, lots of 'candidates' who already spent money on 'campaigns' are gonna be piiiiissed.

Way before any one in the actual population is even paying attention, there are some hot races and tricky manuveuring going on in the Bay Area.

The Don (Perata) will be termed out if 93 doesn't pass, and Wilma Chan, Loni Hancock and Johan Klehs are already running campaigns to replace him. Of course if it does pass, no one's gonna go against The Don.

Hancock, herself (along with Gene Mullin), will be termed out and there are 4 Democrats trying to replace her.

The Democratic race for Mullin's 19th Assembly District seat could be a barnburner, with [Jerry] Hill facing off against Millbrae Mayor Gina Papan, whose father held the Assembly seat before Mullin, and Richard Holober, a San Mateo County Community College Board member who has put more than $200,000 into his campaign.

And all that just goes away, poof, if 93 (extending term limits) passes.

I would have said that it has less than no chance of passing, but apparently it could be a toss-up. 46% against, 50% for.

Still probably won't pass, but you can bet the legislators are paying WAY more attention to this than to the silly little presidential race.

You take it. No, YOU take it.

So there's this whale washed up in Pacifica. Or is it San Francisco? Whatever, look guys, that's nasty - you got some dead whale on your shore and no one seems to want to clean it up. Really? C'mon now. Someone go clean up that mess? What? No one wants to accept responsibility for the dead whale? You're calling a lawyer? Alrighty then. Fine, just let the crows keep working on the problem.

What an icky argument.

So, not so much with that Florida strategy then, eh?

So Giuliani is out? There's a shock. (Link: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2008/01/29/politics/p190007S38.DTL&feed=rss.news)
 
The article notes: "Tuesday's result was a remarkable collapse for Giuliani. Last year, he occupied the top of national polls and seemed destined to turn conventional wisdom on end by running as a moderate Republican who supported abortion rights, gay rights and gun control."
 
Well, yeah it collapsed. Usually, national campaigns are comprised of . . . campaigning. In more than one state. Focusing on Florida only works for the general election.  I think the craptastic results of Mr. 9/11's bid illustrate the folly of using the last 4 or 8 years of electoral fun and games as the new rule of law for how one goes about obtaining the presidency.  No, you don't need to think in geologic time, but a bit more perspective helps. For Rudy, that means looking past the temporary import of Florida and certainly looking past the far greater import of 9/11.
 
I recall watching a clip on CNN where the pundits remarked that an overwhelming majority of the time, the person in the lead one year before election day on the Republican side is the nominee, and the person in the lead one year before election day on the Democratic side is NOT the nominee. This could be one of those exceptional years.

Were sweeter words ever spoken?

"We're just moments away from President Bush's final State of the Union address . . . ."

Final!  W00t!

Stop Fighting Already

Following a long history of being useless, the Bay Area's Democrats are too caught up in their own in-fighting and political battles to actually do anything.

Of course the biggest of these battles revolve around Prop 93 next week. Who's going to run? Will anyone admit it? Is there going to be a contest? Probably. Since there's almost no way 93 is going to pass.

I will admit I was excited when I saw this:

A pesky rumor making the rounds in Contra Costa County has Supervisor Federal Glover dropping out of his re-election bid. In his place, the rumor goes, close friend and former Assemblyman Joe Canciamilla is abandoning his state Senate campaign and running for the supervisor's job.

Joe Canciamilla dropping out of the Senate race? One can only hope.

Unfortunately:

Canciamilla pulled out a campaign flyer from his suit pocket and said, "See, I'm running for the Senate."

No ringing endorsement for Beall

So the Mercury News has ranked area legislators on a scale of 1 to Effective.

Coming in at number one, Santa Cruz and Morgan Hill's Mr. John Laird, considered among the "brightest" legislators with a "stellar reputation." Not only is that an accurate assessment, but since he's also the budget chair, it's a smart-as-hell thing to say in a bad budget year.

The top Senator, and third overall, is S. Joseph Simitian, know to all for his killer smarts and his inability to hide them from others. I'm all for it because I think playing dumb to make the dumb feel less dumb is . . . dumb. You go, Braniac McGee. I hated your cell phone bill, but I love your style.

Who's last? Poor Jim Beall of Santa Clara. He feels fine about things, though. He's only been on the job for 13 months, after all. He's "just getting started."

My term-limits-hating-self agrees with him: he is just getting started.

My sure-93-won't-pass-self says: Dude, 13 months? C'mon, you're almost done! Poor guy, I know the learning curve is steep, but you have to save those sorts of comments for a post-93 world. If that world ever arrives, that is.

I do love, though, that one of the metrics used for ranking the lawmakers is office size, which totally matters.

Canadians can afford houses?!

My economic world has crumbled: Canadians can now afford property in San Francisco, but I can't. Yes, news from the 415, the weak dollar and flat real estate market has made that area code a happy hunting ground for foreign investors. "Planeloads of Russians" are now shopping, uh, Russian Hill for deals.

The ruble is strong! The RUBLE!

I hope that $1200 check from the government comes soon. I'm sure that will help us rebound, kick-start the market, and increase available, affordable housing. Phew!

How are we failing those who keep us safe?

I don't know if you've noticed, but lately, a lot of cops, and most recently a firefighter, have been killing themselves.

That link above is from March, the latest firefighter is from this weekend, but google some more and you'll see that, while this epidemic doesn't get that much press (perhaps because such things are often not-publicized for fear of encouraging copycats), it's a real thing.

So what's going on? Mismanagement? Lack of officer support services? Bad luck?

How terrible. We seem to celebrate those in public safety - and we certainly use them to sell political initiatives - but surely we're failing them if so many feel so lonely and so troubled that they see no other way out than death at their own hands.

Painting the Curb Gray

Mayor Gina Papan and State Senator Leland Yee spent the day painting curbs gray. Why?

Because they originally painted them red to mislead people into thinking they couldn't leave parked cars there. Apparently, parked 'for sale' cars is a big problem in San Mateo.

But now that a new 2008 law allows the polic to tow such cars, the Mayor is repainting the curbs gray.

I don't know if that's really something I would want a photo-op of.

Snow in the Bay??

It snowed up on Mt Diablo this weekend. And the weather's going to stay wet and cold.

This is so not why I moved to California.

Hayward Fault MORE Dangerous

Just in case you forgot, the Bay Area is an earthquake haven. The Hayward Fault is cited again and again as the next likely candidate for a major disaster. I mean, we do sit ontop of the joining of two tetonic plates. I don't think that's good.

But, apparently, it's more dangerous than we knew.

The new research suggests that current earthquake forecasts for the area may underestimate the danger on three faults — the Hayward fault; its northern neighbor, the Rodgers Creek fault, which runs from San Pablo Bay north past Santa Rosa; and the northern portion of the Calaveras fault from Sunol to the Danville area.

And, and, the south part of the Calaveras fault may be connected deep underground to the Hayward fault. Since the longer the fault, the worse the quake, if they are joined together that could only be bad news.

I can't be the only one who's felt like it's starting to be time to move inland...

Cancel Tuesday Night Poker

After a three month investigation, the police (with drawn guns) raided a poker game in the San Mateo hills.

Some people were understandably a little upset, saying buy-ins were only $25-$55 and it was a friendly game. The police also charged the organizer with delinquency of a minor, her son.

Police and neighbors, however, say the operation was getting out of hand and needed to be shut down.

Cardenas allegedly collected $5 from every participant for "refreshments," and he took extra money from buy-ins for a "freeroll" tournament that police believe paid out less than Cardenas took in.

Residents have also noticed a jump in burglaries since the games began, Weist added.

Seeing adults gambling against a minor was the clincher, he said.

"If the adults are not going to look out for the welfare of this kid, we have to act."

What about Britney's kids? Who's looking out for them?

Where Did the Money Go?

The Governor's budget is continuing to be a little severe.

At issue is the cavernous gap between the amount of tax revenue the state is expected to collect next year and the cost of providing services to California's 36 million residents.

I don't know, maybe instead of trying to overturn Prop 98, we could fix Prop 13 and actually have a tax system that works.

Dude. Dude.

The Mavericks Surf Contest took place yesterday.

And apparently, though the surfers are all insane, they're not without a little heart.

The six finalists decided before the last heat to split the winnings six way. And the winner actually followed through!

Jackie Speier Running

Breaking News: Jackie Speier is formally announcing her candidacy for Tom Lantos' seat.

Sigh, I liked Tom Lantos. I wish him all the best.

Emergency Stalls Emergency Meeting

I hope you were able to pull all the trees off your house and didn't have to hire any cracked out fake tree service people.

Now that we have electricity again. Or some of us do...

It seems that the meeting of the Coastal Emergency Action Program had to be postponed, because of, well, a Coastal Emergency.

Oh, Baby, It's Cold Outside...

In case, you haven't looked out your window recently, we're in the middle of a storm.

All Golden gate transit service was suspended this morning and the San Rafeal-Richmond bridge was closed. Winds at SFO are up to 55mph and everyone seems to be losing power.

Now's a good time to stay inside and eat the rest of those leftovers.

Or, you know, use this as an opportunity to go surfing.

Tour of California

Levi Leipheimer talks about winning the Tour of California again and focusing on the local time trial in Palo Alto. Leipheimer, from Santa Rosa, is becoming the golden boy of American cycling.

And, I swear, I saw somebody that looked just like him when I was in Marin last weekend...