Media ignores reality as Gonzalez landslide approaches.
(a personal viewpoint from h. brown)
The photographer from the L.A. Times just left. Yesterday it was Time magazine and the Washington Post. Tokyo cares. Berlin is very interested. So, where the hell is the local media (right AND left) as San Francisco Board of Supervisors’ President, Matt Gonzalez pulls away from 2nd District Supervisor, Gavin Newsom in the race for mayor of this finest of all towns?
Grading the jackals
Only the SF Weekly’s John Mecklin and the Examiner’s Adriel Hampton really seem to have a handle on the massive power shift that will happen in the City next Tuesday. Even, given the local media is controlled by old money and new Downtown interests, it is incredible that so few seemingly intelligent media types have not had the genitals to get out front in declaring the obvious.
Newsom wad shot!
The Gavin Newsom campaign for Mayor ran up against the smartest voting population in the United States. … Ahhhhh, it was the Titanic hitting the iceberg. … Not to defame the Titanic, you understand but, … did you ever wonder why the Titanic didn’t sink on its second voyage? Or third? Or … 500th? … I know, I’m a crazy hippie but … I think it was because they got arrogant. … They advertised around the world that their ship was unsinkable. … Imagine that. … ‘Unsinkable’ and it goes down the first time out. … Same with the Newsom campaign. … Everyone around Newsom kept pouring the poison in the ears of the media and population that this wasn’t really about the race for mayor of San Francisco. … Nope, they told us that the mayor part was a simple inevitability. … They were going for the presidency, we were told. … What was it mom used to sing to me when I was a kid? … Oh yeah: “It was sad when that great ship went down.”
Let me quote John Mecklin: “the San Francisco political press has been as bad, wrong, and misleading as usual, or perhaps even more so”. … It’s changing though, boys and girls. Finally hearing the ‘abandon ship’ siren, local pundits have been stretching to pretend they knew it all along, a sudden rain of reason has descended from the Downtown stooges in the local media.
More jackals
Marshal Kilduff wrote a fair column about Matt Gonzalez today. It was more than fair. Now, this is important for several reasons. First, Marshall seldom uses his own by-line. He don’t need the ego boost. Hell, the man was actually at Jonestown. Kilduff amuses himself with a little trivia piece he publishes weekly to inform and instruct and … he writes the editorials which are the heart and soul of every publication. … People called me and said: “Did you see what Marshal Kilduff wrote?” … stuff like that. I cornered Phil Matier and serious cutie, Barbara Taylor after a Gonzalez press conference a couple of days ago and asked them: “Your boy spent 4 million bucks. Matt spent 150 thousand and is beating your boy in the polls. How do you account for that?”
Matier did this kind of pretentious thing he does so well & pondered: “Well, the left starts with a base of 30-35%.” … I fired back: “How do you account for the fact that the independent polls have Gonzalez up by another 20%?” He hemmed and hawed, then asked John Wildermuth if he knew anything about the polls. … It was laughable because they’re either dumber than boards or they’ll have to admit to telling less than the truth. Taylor is more succinct: “He’s not my boy!” … Yep, that’s what she said. … I believed her too.
Joe O’Donoghue walked in
Over the next 4 hours or so, I read poetry with Joe O’Donoghue, sang Christmas carols around Walter Wong’s little baby grand piano with Walter & Joe & got them in a portrait with Carlos Petroni. Chris Daly showed up fresh off vacation and held forth before a throng of beauties (did you know that Daly has groupies too?) … Aaron Peskin and wife Nancy Shanahan came by to speak to a room full of Sierra Club canvassers. Mike Sugerman came by from KPIX to talk about absentee ballots. Randy Shaw of THC and a top Gonzalez adviser did the clip with Mike. Most of the campaign’s top brass are done with some kind of stomach flu. The vegans blame the meat eaters and the meat eaters blame the vegans. Gonzalez fights a fever and chills and makes all of his day’s appointments. The time is getting short.
… There are rumors that Rush Limbaugh has endorsed Matt for mayor. Everyone laughs uproariously. We go to the computer & search it down. … It’s true!!! … What manner of contest is this, Lord?
From Keith Savage to Aaron Barnes
Keith Savage is probably the most articulate street dweller in town. He’s been published through interviews all around the world. He’s a tall imposing black guy who designs and makes his own clothing. From fashioned turban to braided leather tassels and belts. The man could have a fashion line. Last year I did Diamond Dave Whittaker’s show on KPOO with Keith during my run against Gavin for District #2 supervisor. The man is brilliant.
Adam Barnes lives in the Marina and drives a Mercedes (a nice one too). The first evening he showed up to pick up buttons and signs for a 2nd District base, I didn’t believe him. It was late and I made him come back the next morning to pick up the materials. … Then, of course, I had to apologize profusely to him (they’re calling me ‘Mea’ around here now – short for ‘mea culpa’, cause I admit being wrong so much) … Adam now sits in the strategy sessions with the organizers from all over the City & is very much a part of the Gonzalez campaign. … Bulldog at the door.
Bulldog at the door
I’m a de facto bouncer, peacemaker and all around pain-in-the-ass around here. If someone raises a ruckus, I’m there to make things worse. I flirt with all the women and slap all the men on the back. I entertain the guests, sort rumors and pass them on and shut them down. I read all of the literature from all of the campaigns. I write responses from the Bulldog on the worst of the shit and put the rest in Matt’s clip collection. The walls of my office are covered with pretty much every local mention of Matt & Gavin for the past 2 weeks. In file cartons stored away with a friend, I have every clipping of every word spoken about them in the local press for the past 4 years. … I have the only bar in the place and my liquor stock runs from the bottom line malt beer my buddy Jens Nielsen prefers, to the most sublime Irish & American whiskeys (all gifts from friends and enemies). Ahhhhh, these campaigns are like a fireworks display. Set them up for one evening in which everything explodes and people say things like: “Wow!” and “Oooooh.” And: “Get your hands off me!”
John Shanley – serious prick
John Shanley is an ass hole. I want to apologize to his family and friends for having to say that, but then, you all already knew it. I’ve watched him smear fellow D.A. team member Ross Mirkarimi and try to get him fired. I asked Ross about it: “He’s been a friend for years and I just keep hoping after the campaign is over, things will be better.” … Now, I don’t know about you, but though I appreciate all of the attention I can get, this butt-head’s credit card is pretty much maxed out as far as I’m concerned. He has attacked reporters and editors from every single local print media and threatened the owners of publications with loss of advertising revenue. He’s run the dumbest campaign since the crusades, with pretty much the same results. … Of course, it’s not his fault that Newsom’s getting his ass kicked despite outspending Gonzo 40 to 1. Nope, it’s the fault of we observers who merely report the reality of he and Jim Ross running ape shit from one massacre to the other trying to squelch honest and objective reporting of the incidents. Their campaign leaks like a sieve. I get polling information his campaign pays for before he does. … Now, that’s bad management. He’s attacked nuns and priests and small dogs. He unleashed Eric (‘JoeFire’ – www.JoeFire.com) Allen upon the world. … Odd aside on that, … pretty much everyone who meets JoeFire likes him. He’s funny as hell and knows the local political scene better than 90% of the beat reporters. … If he just wasn’t in all those Newsom ads, being the token black volunteer standing behind Gavin smiling and holding a big stack of Newsom signs. … Nothing the matter with being partisan, Eric … but, (like me) you should own up to your roots. … I’ll admit here who pays me. … Willie Brown pays me. … He pays me $105 a week to sit and write vile things about him and Gavin (which are, sadly, mostly true) … Who pays for your site, Eric?
Five and a half days to go
I’ve gotta file this. So much is happening. Hundreds of people stream through here daily picking up literature, making signs, working phone banks, singing, dancing & making Mary (I mean, ‘merry’). I gotta put together a costume (anytime I wear a tie, it’s a costume) … shave and replace the toilet paper in the cans and … and … ride the wild bronco of … blah, blah, blah
Take a buddy to the polls:
