“Source code is in
intermediate assembly language …
it should be in higher code.”
(from Ron Duggers ’88 New Yorker article)

“If Wade comes back and beats me using this poster …”
(Aaron Peskin compliments Bulldog’s artwork from Inman &
Webster)

“Are these people boring, or what?”
(a reporter watching mayoral debate)

“We can win this.”
(I hope Lee Stimmel & Adam Barnes of Urban Pioneers are right)


I’ve been busy. … There were lots more great phrases that caught my ear since I last wrote. I went to see the Elections Commission listen to ole Joe Taggard on Wednesday night. Ole Joe, (he’s from City Elections Vendor, ES&S – or something like that) … ole Joe, he pretty much told the Commission that he and his company had this next here election by the balls. … I don’t doubt that. … That’s what worries me. … Thursday, I went to 3rd District Supe Aaron Peskin’s going away party for top Aide, Wade Crowfoot. (hell of a dig – more later). … Friday, I got drunk and passed out. … Saturday, I got drunk and passed out … but did it early enough to wake up and go to a mid-afternoon Democratic Party debate for mayoral candidates. … In between, I’ve been exchanging e-mails with folks who want a piece of Park’s Chief, Elizabeth Goldstein’s posterior (nothing to do with sex) … My daughter told me I’d been misspelling my granddaughter, Tandiwe’s name wrong since she was born. … a friend of Human Service’s head Trent Rorher’s said I’d been spelling his name ‘Rohrer’ which was wrong. … I told him that, like most reporters, I consider that to be a frivolous complaint and that if he wants his damned name spelled right, he should change it to something like … ‘Smith’ … or,
… ‘Brown’ … or, maybe … Tandiwe. Get with the program Trent! … Or, was his name ‘Brent’? … Whatever, here’s the week in h. brown’s politics.

Urban Pioneers rule!!!

Tuesday evening, the San Francisco Unified School District’s ruling body (in name only), the School Board … will vote on whether to throw the proverbial baby out … with the proverbial bathwater. … They’ll listen to the strange incantations of overpaid school’s head, Arlene Ackerman … or Aggerman … or is it true she writes to Scott Peterson in prison? … Naw, I’m uh kiddin’ as I do, maybe too much. … Ackerman will try to kill one of her District’s few successful programs (they’re good at that, they killed a fabulous program I designed about 10 years ago – am I bitter? … Fuck no!!) So, anyway, I hate SFUSD worse than I hate stale beer and that’s bad. They have literally stolen a hundred million dollars (part of it went to re-elect Willie Brown … big surprise) … Now, using that logic only understood by failing giant corporations and corrupt school districts, they (Ackerman) … they follow the Republican/Newsom axiom … “If it works, get rid of it because our programs will look bad alongside it!” … Urban Pioneers has worked for 30 years. … Worked well. … Placed the cops who used to arrest the kids in the program, in harness with the kids climbing mountain slopes and fording freezing streams. … Made the kids into leaders of other kids who actually ended up training a couple of decades of SFPD recruits at the Pioneer’s Glen Park and Ft. Miley ropes courses (built by the Pioneers!)
… Obviously, something with a tradition like that has to go. It will make Ackerman’s useless programs look bad. … … It just pisses me off so badly. … Thousands of kids have profited from this program. … Two died. … Of those who did not participate in the program but should have? … thousands died!. Ackerman is a fraud and should be fired. She is yet another appendage of the Willie Brown machine. Killing successful programs that save lives to further your own career is just soooo … soooo … Willie Brown. Take the cops’ helicopters, for instance.

“We don’t have any helicopters.”

(SFPD Finance Chief, Captain John Goldberg)

Speaking (in civilian clothes – were we not supposed to know him?) at the Peskin party for Wade Crowfoot, Captain John – or Jack or Jim or something like that) Captain Goldberg (sans the arm candy he now sits with off-camera in Budget Hearings) … the good Captain dismissed my drunken demand that the San Francisco Police Department put a friggin’ helicopter in the air to avoid auto collisions such as the one that killed a devoted cop last year … I told him cops on the scene said that if they’d had an ‘eye in the sky’, the two police cruisers wouldn’t have collided. … Bitch is, he’s one of the more accessible ones! (Goldberg, that is) … Not that he means to be. A couple of years ago I asked him what happened to the Police Kiosks that used to sit on 16th and Mission and 24th and Mission and, you know … like places you need cops 24 hours a day? … He was sitting amidst a bunch of brass at Mabel Teng’s ‘Pedestrian Safety Summit’ (or, something like that) … He just laughed (I wasn’t wearing a press pass then) and said: “Oh, they’re around.” while looking to other brass for support (he got none, they smelled press right away) … Sooo, the helicopters are gone. For good, as far as he is concerned. … Oh yeah! The kiosks are gone. For good, as far as he is concerned. The budget goes up and the services go down. … Typical Willie Brown.

Stealing my money is one thing – stealing my vote?

For those of you on the ‘inner-inner core’ of San Francisco Politics, the posting (on the Bulldog & elsewhere) … for those interested in IRV politics specifically and voting machines in general, we’ve put a 50 page article done by Ron Duggers for the New Yorker 15 years ago. We put it on the Bulldog. It is the definitive beginners manual to just how bad things are. Essentially, we are in the words of Mel Gibson: “frigged!!”. We’d do better to go back to meeting in the Civic Center and raising our hands. … We’d be more likely to get an honest count. (If we had an open bar, we’d probably get a bigger turnout too.) Nevertheless, last Wednesday I stumbled down to the Elections Commission to watch the latest IRV delaying tactics from the department and their vendor. … I got lucky. … The Commission was in closed session and the vendor’s rep was sitting alone in a far corner of the hall. That would be Joe Taggard. … He didn’t want to talk. However, when I asked why he opposed ‘open source codes’ (

The Harrington Scam

Ed Harrington was covering doo for the PUC 20 years ago. … As an employee of KPMG, he audited the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission. … He pleased them. … This is a bad sign. … They, in fact, hired him to be their Assistant Director. … Another bad sign. It means that the people who destroyed the infrastructure of Hetch-Hetchy in a clear move toward eventual privatization (in a word: Bechtel) … thought ole Ed was just groovy. … Again, this is a bad thing. … Question is …

Question is

Question is, if he couldn’t keep Hetch-Hetchy together, how the hell are we supposed to believe he knows how to clean the streets (a part of this truly bizarre Charter Ammendment designed by Willie’s folk to get it past the voters – who can be against ‘Clean Streets’?). … ??? Answer is that the unquestioned point of extending Ed Harrington’s power is that downtown trusts him to cover the tracks of Willie and his masters for more years to come. … That is the main point. … Next significant point is that whether it passes depends upon how the measure is worded on the ballot. … Supe Tony Hall’s last ballot measure (‘Home Ownership for Tenants’) came out of the City Attorney’s office tagged: ‘Condo Conversion’. … That killed it. No doubt about it. … Now, we get the elevation of the Controller. It has this really strange provision. … It exempts the City Attorney’s office from the summary audits ole Ed will be conducting. … Now, as I recall, the company getting most of the City Attorney & the Assessor … the company getting most of their work was … Voila! … KPMG (I know, it’s just a coincidence that this is the same company (caught cooking the books big time) … this is the same company that brought big Ed aboard.

Personality issue

You know me. I’m not one to make trouble or, God should forbid … insult anyone. … But, Harrington has a character issue. … I’ve watched the guy talk for maybe 200-300 hours over the past 3 years and he ain’t all Mr. Nice guy. … In fact, he’s a big time ass-kisser of whomever happens to hold the scepter of power at the moment. … Oh, he’s capable. … Capable of anything. And, … he has a 20 year history of being on the side of the bad guys. This boy is good with his shovel. … I men, pencil. … He can bury huge piles of elephant dung/crooked contracts with a few deft strokes. … Again, this is not a good thing. I recall the first angry comments Harrington unleashed on the new Board when they came on in January of ’01. … Someone (probably Peskin or Gonzalez) had the temerity to ask Ed if he’d clarify some numbers. Newly appointed by Willie Brown to a 10 year term just a couple of months before, Harrington flushed a bit in anger and replied: “You want numbers?! … Oh yeah, I can give you numbers til the cows come home!” … They should have known then (perhaps, they’ve forgotten now that he’s kissing their behinds) … they should have known then, that this was not the soldier to lead the search for buried financial bodies. … Where was I?

Bon Voyage Wade Crowfoot

The graphic attached to his piece is by Deby Inman and Frank Webster who are among my best friends. Hell, they gave me this little Bulldog for Christmas. During the last election when Wade Crowfoot was running for the Democratic Central Committee Coven (or, whatever the ‘D-triple-C’ stands for) … when Wade was running for that thingee, I suggested to Deby and Frank that perhaps they might jump into the political ads arena by designing a couple of posters. … One, of course, had to be for me and a party I was throwing (the pair are serious pros with international credentials and really didn’t need the business) … for my party, then, one for Wade Crowfoot (cause I see him as a serious rising star) … In short, I got by poster on time and we had a hell of a party and Wade … ? Deby knocked out the original in time for the election but I didn’t get the design to him until his going-away party. … No matter. … Da boy, he gots plenty of time. … Anyway, they did these posters for free and, at least, the ‘Wade in with us!’ (my personal favorite) appears here. … The party?

I go into ‘Celebrity Shock’

How many people do you know who would get excited by seeing Larry Badiner in person? … I sure did. … I got to shake hands with Planning Director Gerald Green too (Larry is his Zoning Administrator) … It was at Peskin’s party for Crowfoot and everyone was there. … OK, Sheriff Hennessey & the Mayor weren’t and I didn’t see Elvis, but for someone who lays on his couch and drinks bourbon and smokes weed and watches thousands of hours of SFGTV (#26, you local cable people) … everything from the Taxi Commission (‘useless as tits on a boar hog’) to the Rules Committee (they shape your future) … to the Finance (Peskin’s domain) – they rend and tear the cloth of their garments a lot … to Chris Daly’s emergence as a durable leader on a complicated battlefield (assisted by Vice Chair, Peskin) … Daly has run the Board Budget Committee . … so, where was I? … Yeah, you wouldn’t believe the ‘celebs’ Crowfoot’s temporary move to academia (like Matt Gonzalez’s able Chief of Staff, Rob Eshelman – he’ll be back before you know it) … the people Crowfoot’s party brought out was like free entry to an autograph convention for me.

Terence Hallinan was there

I told District Attorney Hallinan in my best, slurred/stoned blaring advice that he and Angela Alioto should join campaigns, run as a slate … something like … ohhh, uhhh, … ‘Retro Renegade Retreads Really Required Right Aray’ … or, you know … something like that. For some reason, Hallinan looked at me like I’d gone mad (true, I get that a lot) … so, I moved over to City Attorney, Dennis Herrera (hey, I ain’t gay, but this boy with his Ray Liota eyes is better looking in person, which counts in a state-wide campaign) … so, I told Herrera he should run for Governor because there’s no one there with a Latino surname and he could actually win. … He noted that Lt. Governor Cruz Bustamente hadn’t ruled himself out and I replied that I just heard from someone who should know – across the room – that Bustamente would drop out the next day (they were right, he did) … soooo, got to talk to Herrera. … Then, Treasurer Susan Leal showed up but she always avoids me (case I get caught up in a drive-by, I guess) … but, I called out to her to curse more on stage in the debates (good advice, actually). … I sidled over and poured down a glass or two with Kenny Cleaveland from the Building Owners and Managers Association, which was a lot like Pat Garrett having a cocktail with Billy the Kid. … I mean, we’re both literary pistoleros but, we’re on opposite sides. Whatever, we amused one another and though, he did have horns, fangs and a tail (much as I’d imagined) … he really didn’t like, physically stink. … OK, he was a bright and amusing fellow and I’m glad I got to meet him.

Tony Hall looks around

Last night (that would be Sunday, June 22, 2003) … last night, my fabulous daughter, Mona Nyandoro took a gang of us to see Lou Reed. … My, my is that guy incredible. … He didn’t even sing ‘Walk on the Wild Side’ … and, no one complained. … He’s 61 years old, for God’s sake and he put on the most modern fusion presentation I’ve ever seen. He read and added to Edgar Allen Poe’s ‘The Raven’ in a tribute that caught most of the crowd totally by surprise. He featured a cello player who could beat the best any symphony in the world could offer. … She was like Jocko Pastorius on cello (if you don’t know what that means, you don’t seek out the best) … She played traditional cello (just to show she could) … then, she tossed the bow and played the damned thing like a lead guitar for awhile with fingers flying so fast across the strings that smoke drifted up to join the thousand joints already flickering away in the Warfield. Then, she played it like an old fashioned country fiddle. … I mean, like … huhhh? My buddy, Jens Nielsen (who knows more about rock music than anyone I ever knew) … ole Jens, he turns to me and says, like: “What is this that I’m hearing!?” (as we left, he cane’d his way through the crowd to buy Lou’s new CD: “I gotta go listen to this and figure it out.” … Sooo, how’s this relate to 7th District Supe (and, I’m betting, soon-to-be-mayoral candidate) … how’s this relate to Tony Hall? … Well, there were about 15 of us catching this Lou Reed advanced course in music, high in the balcony of the Warfield and we kept passing joints and bourbon and opinions. … “If James Dean had become a musician, he’d have become Lou Reed!” said Aimee Lura. … “He’s got a Harry Chapin thing going with the cello and a quintet that sounds like a symphony.” … That’s what Doug McAbee said. … Everyone nodded. … Then, Ania Wierzbowska trumped us all. … “He sounds like Tony Hall.” Yep, uh huh, that’s what she said. … And, we all looked at each other … she was exactly right. … “He looks like him too!” … Yep, she said that too and she was right (from 200 feet anyway) … great show. … See Lou if you get the chance. … Reborn. … Same group of people watched the Allman Brothers cart out a new, improved sound a couple of months before. … We watched Billy Bob Thornton edge into the local scene … We were amazed to watch a sober Joe Cocker run through all of his classics but give us no new directions. … The Allman Brothers and Lou Reed though, … they’re on new ground. … Higher ground than they occupied musically when they were #1 on the charts. … That’s pretty neat. … Someone asked what I thought: “What would you call this music, h? Who does he remind you of?” … I didn’t hesitate: “Frank Zappa, mostly. He’s got the Chapin thing for sure. Frank and Harry both hired the best musicians and featured them. … Music? … Say, … ‘symphonic fusion’?” … That’s what I said. … Yep. … Uh huh. … Last night. … Right in front of everyone.

More than enough: