Politics Blog

Rope a dope the whackaloon

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Susan Rice, the current US ambassador to the United Nations will be the next national security advisor. She replaces the resigning Tom Donilon. Unlike the position she was up for before, to replace Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State, Rice is an appointee not subject to confirmation hearings or a vote. The job is hers.Read more »

Ron Lanza memorial set for June 15

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A memorial for Ron Lanza, the queer impresario who founded Valencia Rose Cafe and Josie's Cabaret and Juice Joint, has been set for Saturday, June 15 at El Rio.

Lanza died of colon cancer April 9.

The memorial starts at 11am and runs to 1pm. It's an open mic; come tell a story. And expect to hear some crazy ones; he had a long and interesting life.

SFPD responds (weirdly) to allegations of racial disparity

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The San Francisco Police Department has issued a head-scratching response to charges of racial disparity in marijuana arrests, possibly in an attempt to defuse controversy over a recent incident that already has some members of the African American community up in arms.Read more »

Security guard strike is "imminent"

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At least a hundred SEIU members in purple jackets marched down Bush St. this afternoon (June 5), in preparation for a possible strike. Security guards who are a member of an affiliated union have been working without a contract since 2012; some make so little money that they can't afford apartments in SF and wind up living in SROs.Read more »

The adulation of the technoriche

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It’s hardly news at this point that billionaire tech mogul Sean Parker tore up a public campground to build the sets for his $10 million fantasy wedding in Big Sur. And it’s been widely reported that Parker paid a $2.5 million fine to the Coastal Commission, which he tried to spin as a wonderful environmental gift to improve the state park system.Read more »

Key CleanPowerSF facts matter more than myriad details

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It’s great to see our colleagues down the hall at the Examiner and SF Weekly covering the evolving details of CleanPowerSF, San Francisco’s plan for offering renewable energy options to city residents. Read more »

Salon says, "Ladies, shush! People paid good money for Michelle Obama and rape"

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Hey, remember Code Pink during the Bush years?  "Why can't those old, shriveled, nagging dyke hags stop screaming about Iraq and stuff," seemed to be the reaction of most of America and the media.

Meanwhile, even many of us wholly sympathetic to their message cringed a bit in our Internet-ringside seats as the valiant fuschia-clad ladies yelled, and yelled, and yelled. Even at Hillary Clinton and Nancy Pelosi! (Clutch pearls.) And hey, they're still doing it. Even at Obama! (Clutch pearls tighter.)

Weren't they hurting our cause with all this rudeness? Why could they just sit down at their Dell Gateway computers, dial up AOL, and write a firmly worded comment on the New York Times site like the rest of us. What about civility? WHO WILL THINK OF THE CIVILITY?

Now, of course, with the distance of time and the realization of just how awful that political period was still dawning, it's like, "Thank fucking god someone was doing something real, however quixotic."

And yet, the sorry clutching of pearls in the face of female resistance continues. Why can't women just pipe down about stuff? Especially those whiny ol' man-hater ones.

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Go, New Zealand

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Imagine if Larry Ellison lost the America's Cup.Read more »

The end of the Republican Party

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Everyone knows and loves the expression "out of the mouths of babes", but I doubt that's the reaction this poll got in the halls of Republican power. Apparently (and not surprisingly) younger Americans of all stripes don't like the GOP.Read more »

SF homeless services budget item < 0.25 percent of Larry Ellison’s net worth

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Billionaire Larry Ellison, the vainglorious CEO of Oracle and yachtsman responsible for bringing the America’s Cup to San Francisco, has come a long way since 2010, when he first floated the idea of hosting the elite regatta against a Golden Gate backdrop.Read more »