Results tagged “politics”

Now that Gavin Newsom has dropped out of the governor's race (welcome back to work, Gavin!), rumors are swirling that Senator Dianne Feinstein might take a stab as the new "it" Democratic candidate. Or not. Who's to say for sure. This speculation pops up all the time with DiFi.

Breaking news, folks. It looks like Newsom will return to San Francisco tonight, and be back to work come tomorrow morning. The mayor, if you recall, vanished from San Francisco and City Hall after announcing his withdrawal from the California's governor race.

Filling the void left by Ellen Tauscher, former Lt. Governor John Garamendi was sworn in today "as a new representative in the House for the 10th district representing parts of Contra Costa, Alameda, Solano, and Sacramento counties." Fun! In related lieutenant governor news, Gavin Newsom might not be eying the lesser position as was rumored a week ago. Why? Well, as Melissa Griffin expertly pointed out in her column today, "Being lieutenant governor isn’t worth moving to Sacramento since it basically requires you to be the John Oates to the governor, who gets to be Daryl Hall."

Still in its embryonic stage, please join SF Appeal's Eve Batey and your SFist editor at 4 p.m. today for SF Views, live from the stained heart of SOMA! It's an interwebs show about -- you guessed it -- San Francisco. And other stuff.

SF Appeal brings it to our attention that smarmy San Francisco-based (located on Maiden Lane, specifically) "independent integrated marketing communications company," Criswell and Associates, earned about $700K in the past couple of months producing anti-same-sex marriage ads for Stand For Marriage Maine with the help of SF production company Coyote Films.

The votes are in. Four out of five propositions passed. Here's how things went down after yesterday's election:

For your convenience, here's a handy voter guide.

While everyone and their pet goldfish thinks they're the only ones to have predicted that SF Mayor Gavin Newsom would withdraw his bid for California governor -- in related news, we predict you will have a bowel movement within the next 24 hours! -- this has been ancient watercooler talk for months. Why, just last week, if you recall, Newsom not only denied but chided reporters for having the gall to question him about it.

Newsom's out. Here is the official press release.

Our local sanctuary city drama continues as Mayor Newsom went ahead yesterday with his threat to veto legislation passed by the Board of Supervisors amending a local ordinance that governs when city employees can report young illegal immigrant hooligans to the Feds. Currently, the city's ordinance requires city employees to report illegals to the Feds upon arrest. New Supervisor David Campos, the author of the vetoed legislation and reportedly a former illegal himself, hoped to change all that by not allowing anyone to report the accused until he or she was actually convicted of a crime.

Yesterday, we talked to you about Schwarzenegger's clever missive to Asm. Tom Ammiano, where the governor tossed him a good ol' fashion "fuck you" while informing him that he vetoed his Port of SF bill. SFBG editor Tim Redmond called the governor's press office to ask about the now famous veto message with a little something special. Redmond reports:

As we all know, San Francisco nightlife has been under fire quite a bit lately. In addition to the ongoing saga of the Alcoholic Beverage Control's enforcement of arbitrary rules they've set for all-ages music clubs, a group of conservatives have been showing up at hearings at City Hall claiming that night-time entertainment is the cause of "violent crime, murder, prostitution, public urination and defecation and any host of problems that the city has been facing for decades."

They sure are crafty, those CodePink dames. First they manage to get within a few inches of Condoleezza Rice. Now they waltz up to Barack Obama and give him some paper. See, while at last night's Democratic Party fundraiser (which raised $2 million), Code Pink co-founder Jodie Evans, according to KTVU, handed Obama a petition "allegedly signed by Afghani women who want an end to the war in their country." After handing Obama the petition, Evans said the President told her "‘You know we are not going to end the problem in Afghanistan any time soon.’" To which she replied, "actually you’re not going to solve the problem, they are.” Added bonus: no fake blood.was involved.

Update: Thanks to Sarafina for the update on the hearing's schedule change from next Monday to the following Monday, October 26th at 1 p.m. at City Hall, Room 263. That gives you all more time to spread the word and write those letters!

     

Obama, who is currently in town for a Democratic National Convention fundraiser at the Westin St. Francis Hotel, was met with protesters from both the left and right sides this evening, the majority of which vocalized their stance on Obama's health care reform plan.

After eight long years of being ignored like a problem only-child in a first marriage gone afoul, it feels almost unnatural for the President of the United States to pay San Francisco a visit. What in heaven's name does Obama want? Did we do something bad? Where can we hide our bong?

Although he uses fresh fruit to fashion smiley faces in his oatmeal, Gov. Schwarzenegger approval rating has, not-so inexplicably, dropped to its lowest point ever. According to CBS 5/AP, "a Field Poll released Tuesday finds the Republican governor with his lowest approval rating ever. Just 27 percent of voters approve of his performance, while 65 percent disapprove."

Oh geez.

The definition of the federal hate crimes law might finally get expanded to include sexual orientation, as the House of Representatives approved the bill yesterday, which was an attachment of the $680 billion Defense Authorization Bill. The Senate could vote on the bill as soon as next week. Obama has said he will sign it into law -- unlike his predecessor, and Pelosi said this legislation has been on her agenda for two decades.

This is why getting violently ill sucks. You miss wonderfully uncomfortable stuff like this. See, at last night's Democratic County Central Committee gala at the San Francisco Fairmont, a surprise guest showed up. Who, you ask? None other than Governor Schwarzenegger, making a surprise appearance to speak to the left-leaning crowd. After being introduced by former SF Mayor Willie Brown, Arnold was "greeted by an awkward combination of polite applause, hisses, and shouts."

We were working on a post of images from last night's Mark Leno bash at Trigger in the Castro. But, lo and behold, Beth Spotswood beat us to it, doing an extraordinarily far better job with it than we could. Anyway, elections are on the horizon. Senator Mark Leno was in town. He talked about smart wonk stuff, he talked about smart important stuff. A lot. And in a good way.

Well, well, well. It looks like some pesky reporter over at the Sacto Bee got snoopy and discovered that Former E-Bay CEO and current Republican gubernatorial candidate, Meg Whitman, somehow managed to forget to vote for like the entirety of her whole life...

Although the election is still a couple of years away, district 8 Supervisor Bevan Dufty "plans to file forms with the city's Election Department this morning announcing his intention to run [for mayor] and will immediately begin raising money and his profile," reports SFGate.

Mayor Gavin Newsom's office will be launching the first in a series of virtual Town Hall meetings tonight at 6 p.m. via Ustream, and users will be able to "chat" their questions to the mayor in real time. RSVP here or here. Apparently, users will also be able to watch/chat via Facebook, but we can't find any links for that. The Our Blog post about the meeting is confusing.

       

Flickr photog Tristan C was on the scene at yesterday's "Big Insurance: Sick of It" rally at Embarcadero Two sponsored by MoveOn.org, which was aimed at bringing attention to the Anthem Blue Cross' opposition to health care reform bill H.R. 3200. All captions were provided by Tristan C.

If elected, the former eBay CEO -- a bigot who, at best, considers the homosexuals second-class citizens, or at least that's what she would lead the public to believe -- will cut state spending "by another $15 billion," prune California's current state work force "by 17 percent," and further the stereotype that female Republicans must sport garish blonde hair in order to be successful. Welcome to the race, Meg!

We were reminded yesterday of the recent Whole Foods boycott that's been gaining steam in the past month. Whole Foods CEO John Mackey wrote a Wall Street Journal editorial last month opposing the single-payer option of health care reform and claiming health care is not a "right," further perpetuating myths propagated by the for-profit health insurance and pharmaceutical industries.

A prayer vigil and rally is scheduled to begin at noon at the Federal Reserve at 101 Market St. today, calling for solutions to widespread foreclosures. Rev. Jesse Jackson, who is currently on a national tour promoting his nonprofit RainbowPUSH Coalition's campaign for mortgage relief for homeowners facing foreclosure, is scheduled to appear. Jackson and other religious and community leaders are putting pressure on lenders to restructure loans in order to avoid foreclosures.

In an effort, we assume, to curb the (racist?) "you lie!" hysteria stemming from a sect of indignant Republicans over Obama's health care plan, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi made the following, somewhat confusing statement this morning at a press conference.

Attorney General/future gubernatorial candidate Jerry Brown was in San Francisco today. He was at some sort of lunch for whiny Geary Boulevard merchants. When comparing Oakland to San Francisco, he made the following funny: