Watching City Hall #313, (9-09-04)“Friends don’t let friends … read h. brown.”
Gotta flip-flop for you. Yesterday I moved Lisa Feldstein up to the #2 position in my IRV endorsement scheme. I did note that I personally didn’t care for her but had to acknowledge her many talents. This morning I spiked my coffee and crawled online to find a piece from the Feldstein campaign insinuating that she had been hired by CNN for the remainder of the election season. … It was bullshit.
Candidate Dan Kalb (congrats on your endorsement from Angela) … Kalb wrote that the Feldstein claim was a non-story since any number of candidates could have made the same claim. Here’s what happened.
“CNN taps Feldstein 24/7”
That was the lead to the morning’s announcement. The fact is that CNN didn’t ‘tap’ Feldstein for anything. What happened was that local media mogul, Comcast, invited her to give a 5 minute presentation regarding her candidacy on a 5 minute public service blurb the Downtown-oriented local outlet runs to fulfill FCC requirements.
Of course, being a big money interest, the political content of the mini-spots are about as fair and balanced as Fox News. They run about 80% the likes of Nate Nayman & Jim Lazarus & Heather Hiles and other fronts for the machine. … So, she gets this invite for a one-time, 5 minute puff piece which should set off alarm bells by itself. Anyone Comcast wants to promote is either a token liberal or an outright shill. Then, you know what she did?
She released a press blurb that made it sound like she had been hired by CNN to cover the election season for them all the way til November 2nd. Yeah. An outright & had-to-be-intentional distortion of the facts. Hell, I’m a political junkie and it took me 3 times reading through her press release to realize what she was trying to do and what had actually happened.
Does the truth really matter?
Well, it sure as hell does to me. Here I’d gotten past the elitist nature of the Feldstein campaign (she will not associate with the D5 Candidates Collaborative – these people represent every area of District 5). Her campaign reminds me of Eileen Hansen’s. Run by 5 or 6 people with an ‘us against the world’ attitude who shut up anytime a stranger enters the room. … Where was I?
Yeah, Lisa Feldstein does NOT work for CNN!!! And, of course, I’m dropping my endorsement before it’s 24 hours old. I’d rather look stupid (at which I’m quite experienced) than fail to correct an error that can harm the chances of other good people in the race. … I should have followed my instincts on that one. That leaves me with a vacancy in my IRV picks. I’ll fill it with a high energy young prospect.
h.’s picks in #5
Ross Mirkarimi
Susan King
Julian Davis
Pitchers who hit batters
I saw an interview with an ancient Hall of Fame baseball player once and the subject of bean-balls came up. “I never had much trouble with that” he said (despite being a fearsome hitter) “Everyone knew I was afraid to get hit. They knew that every time I got hit, it made me so nervous that the next time I faced that pitcher, my hands sweated so badly that the bat would fly out of my hands toward the pitcher.” Bonds’ teammates should do that on Barry’s behalf. So should the teammates of anyone that clown, Pedro Martinez throws at. Think it might give a pitcher a few second thoughts if they knew there would soon be a small tree flying at them while they’re off-balance? Only fair. … Let’s do some more sports.
49er’s will set some records
Like, for instance, most points/yardage/completions against an NFL secondary. Most interceptions thrown. Most sacks allowed. Hey, we had our glory years. I’ll still be a niner fan til the end but this year we’re all gonna get to build some character.
Congrats to the Giants
Best management in the game. Hands down. … The league hates em cause we (SF voters) wouldn’t buy them a new stadium and they had to build their own (what a precedent – is McGowan a class traitor or what?) …
So, stuck with a serious mortgage and a correspondingly low payroll, what do they do? … They give us the best ballpark in the big leagues, the best player, the best manager and a competitive team year after year playing before sellout crowds.
I thought they couldn’t replace Dusty Baker. They didn’t. They surpassed him. I used to love it cause Baker played everyone on the bench. If you were on that 25 man roster, you knew you’d get to play. Felipe Alou goes Dusty one better. If you’re anywhere in the Giants’ minor league, you know you have a good chance of doing some time on the Giants’ big league field at some time during the year. “Everyone keeps looking up and down the bench wondering who’s gonna get called up next.” That’s a quote from a player in the Giants farm system.
Advantages of sellouts
I’ve been an occasional guest of Frank Gallagher (Tony Hall’s Deputy) and Bob Martin (pot club owner) at Giants games over the past couple of years and one thing struck me as odd.
Where are all the assholes?
Go to most ballparks and you’re certain to see some drunken prick screaming obscenities or throwing things or both. You don’t see that at Giants games.
Not that the people aren’t drunk. I mean, God bless em, they pour that shit down with the best of em. But, and here’s the key, they all know each other! Yeah, that makes all of the difference in the world.
Most of the fans are season ticket holders and they see each other 81 times a year or about that. When I use Frank’s tickets the people all around ask where Frank is. This is not a private sky box. It’s in the bleachers for God’s sake!
They truly self-police. It’s not like a Phillies or Mets game where crowds of strangers gather to form a terrorist mob. Let me give you an example of an ‘incident’ I observed at a Giants game. I heard some yelling and turned to see someone a few rows down (obviously using borrowed tickets) starting to razz an opposing left fielder. … I mean, the fan was loud but he wasn’t obscene or anything. And yet, the usher went over and kind of gently spoke to him and the guy turns and looks incredulous and all of the other fans are like, nodding for him to be more civilized. … Also, I like it cause it’s cooler than other ball parks and your quiche doesn’t melt.
Speaking of the cops
I got a nice note from the multi-talented Barbara Meskunas telling me that I had Captain Greg (the gorilla) Corrales all wrong. Now, Barbara is funny as hell and a talented writer and organizer (she manages not just the Corrales campaign, but also Jim Siegel’s in D5) … but I want to disagree with her here on a very important point which she brings up.
Reason for Corrales transfer
Meskunas says that Newsom got Corrales transferred from his post as Mission District Captain because big Greg decided to run for supe in District #7 against Sean Elsbernd, who is Gavin’s appointee. This is bullshit.
Corrales lost his command for the same reason Douglas McArthur lost his. … He forgot who was in charge. When Newsom decided to put cops back on foot in the most dangerous areas of the City, Corrales was put on notice that he’d have to have a continuous presence on-the-pavement at the most dangerous intersections in the district. Corrales refused. Yeah, just outright stood right there surrounded by the corpses of gang bangers and citizens alike and said he knew best. That’s when he got transferred.
P.O.A. strikes back
In a backlash to the Newsom move for more foot patrols, the cops have pulled long time beat cops from Gerardo Sandoval’s OMI business district. You getting this? Uh huh, the cops are doing exactly the opposite of what the mayor wants. For political reasons.
Oh yeah, don’t you bet for a minute that people like Deputy Chief Greg (I have only been mugged, fingerprinted and charged with obstruction of justice once and we all agreed to lie til we die and we did and a crooked judge declared me factually innocent and you can look up any of this) Suhr… Deputy Chief Greg Suhr who is now in charge of assigning who the hell patrols where and by what mode … this guys says he’ll “look into the issue” of why the brass is pulling beat cops. Meanwhile, cop mouthpiece, Sgt. Neville Gittens managed to say without laughing that beat cops weren’t as important as those in mobile donut wagons. He suggested people who wanted cops back walking their beats should “bring (it) up to the district captain”. Say, huh!?
These district captains are not Afghan war lords. Or, they shouldn’t be. The friggin’ tail is wagging the dog here. The cops cry poverty when they have more money than they have ever had in the history of the City. They are more highly paid than at any time ever and they are doing the worst job.
I had to laugh when I read where Robert Haaland, D5 supe candidate, said that he’d make it a personal priority to see that there were more foot cops on the beat in D5. Shit, the mayor can’t get the cops to do it. P.O.A. head, Gary Delagnes did send a personal message to Robert and all of the other D5 candidates though (including me). Speaking on behalf of the cops union, he noted that the mobile donut munchers wouldn’t be endorsing any candidate in D5 because “we couldn’t find anyone sane”. … Don’t you just love these guys. Well, Gary I have a personal message for you. Lean closer now. … A little closer, so you’re sure to hear. … Ready, Gary? … You are one stupid son-of-a-bitch. In less than a year as union chief you’ve managed to turn the entire citizenry and political spectrum against the cops. Anyone who can unite Robert Haaland and Gavin Newsom against a group whose best interests he’s supposed to be representing is a complete asshole. Look in the mirror, Gary. See if I’m wrong.
people prefer peace:
