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...