Watching City Hall #376 (6-8-05)
Odds & ends and odd ends
I don't usually start with this category but it's been a busy week and I have lots and lots of items to inform and comment upon. Let's get jumping on the obfuscation.
New Lefty umbrella group calls for help
We are nothing in this town if we are not contradictory, shocking, puzzling & willing to do anything in bed. ... Thus, the 'Anti-SFSOS' child, 'SFPO' ... 'lurches toward Bethlehem to be born'.
It ain't that far off. 'Mom' is actually lurching toward Cathedral Hill in San Francisco to deliver the one about whom it has been written, or whatever. The little baby (hate to have that diaper bill) will be baptized this Saturday (June 11th) from 8:30am to 5pm ... will be baptized at the 'Church of the most blessed washing machine agitator' (that would be St. Mary's Cathedral at Geary & Gough) near the spot where cowardly fag hater, Dan White felt most comfortable and safe as he surrendered after shooting Mayor Moscone & Supervisor Harvey Milk to death.
It's not surprising that White felt that the Catholic church would protect him. It was the world's leading anti-gay organization then and remains the same to this day. No one persecutes 'out' gays like twisted closet gays in denial. The entire hierarchy of the Roman Catholic church has been dominated by closet gays for 2,000 years. To say that this group is jealous of their 'out' brethern is a massive understatement. Note, for instance, Arthur Evans' observation that the local Catholic Archdiocese found $30K to oppose Gay Marriage (I'd call marriage a healthy outlet for sex) while spending millions to defend rapist, pedophile priests. Pardon me if I differ with Pope Benedict about what constitutes 'normal'.
And this all, of course, screams the question: What the hell is SFPO doing meeting in ANY Catholic church!?! ... OK, OK, OK ... I'm going. Still, you gotta admit that this shit is strange at least. I'll be at St. Mary's Saturday as soon as I'm able to get a couple of Irish coffees down and walk up from the bowels of the Tenderloin. You should be there too. Ideally, the organization will be a clearinghouse/temp agency/information bank for anyone who wants to research or hook up with Progressive causes ranging from space junk to voter registration. Pooling all of our artists, dancers, musicians, politicians, precinct ground-pounders and addled propagandists will create a data base from which even the dumbest, ugliest & least refined of our tribe should be able to find a date. I mean, after all, that's what it's all about anyway, huh? I said, ... huh?
P.T. Barnum had nothing on Newsom
Two big tent circuses came to town last week. Both were designed to dazzle, amuse and fleece the public and both were highly successful in doing same. Odd how similar the formats for the overlapping dog and pony shows were.
World Environment day
When the Newsom camp needs a turnout, they go to the same source Willie Brown always tapped. They go to City employees, either regular or those engaged with the non-profits. People on the City clock came by the hundreds to cheer the mayor and a hundred or so junketeers from as near as Oakland and as far away as China. The crowd cheered as the mayor who killed tidal energy and refuses to spend voter approved bond money on solar power projects preached to them about what an environmentalist he is. Get this straight and get this completely: Gavin Newsom is a PG&E hack and always will be. Absolutely no meaningful alternative energy projects will happen on his watch. Note that the first thing the boy 'environmentalist' did when he took office was allow PG&E lobbyist, Eric Jaye (also Gavin's chief campaign consultant) to fire SFPUC alternative energy czar, Ed Smeloff and hire a drab little crone/drone (what the hell's her name? She could put a rock to slee p) brought her in to gum up all interchanges with Lafco and the Board of supes.
Bottom line, Newsom's people don't give a shit about any of the environment beyond the walls of their estates and neither does he.
Homeless Connect
It was another carnival. But hey, I enjoy spectacles. Again, hundreds of City workers packed up their wares and set them down at Bill Graham auditorium. The thousand homeless reported as attending stood a less than 2% chance of snagging a real SRO room (such as the one I have) from the severely underfunded Care Not Cash program. Still, if they held that rate, it would mean 100 a week would be housed and at that rate, all of the chronically homeless remaining would be under a permanent roof in less than 6 months.
It is unconscionable that the Mayor would continue to deny that the Care Not Cash program is underfunded. It is worse that he is cannibalizing the budgets of long-standing successful non-profit caregivers to fund the few rooms he surrounds with reporters and cameras. And, I can tell you why.
If Gavin's masters create a program that actually addresses the homeless problem, the word will spread. Once our homeless are housed, San Francisco will be looking at Sacramento's homeless. Then, Des Moines'. Then, New York City's. That's what they say anyway, and I'm not certain they aren't correct. The problem is international campers and it ain't going away.
There are solutions and we need to talk about them. Gavin's people only talk to each other when it comes to the big issues. I want to see Warren Hellman sit down with me and Calvin Welch and Richard Marquez and Krissy Keefer and Keith Savage and Paul Boden and Debra Walker and Aaron Peskin and Matt Gonzalez and Angela Alioto and Joan Roughgarden and Sophie Maxwell to talk about just how many poor people and artists his SF 'Model' (don't think there isn't one) includes and under what auspices?
The reason Hellman's model has cut the number of beds at the new Laguna Honda is that he does not plan for there to be enough old poor folks to fill the units planned in the old design. They'll have been forced out of town and, (oooops!) I'm in that demographic (poor, over 60 and without insurance) ...
wouldn't you miss me?
The true path
It's a cold world fellow sodomites and we have to be tough. First, we have to bite the bullet and walk with the ghosts of Milk and Moscone and White at St. Mary's this Saturday (later, we can push for a Terance Allen venue). Then, second, and most importantly, you must remember that online Lefty journalists all work for nothing and that you should therefore take every opportunity to buy booze, food and pot for them. This, above all, is your primary civic duty.
Speaking of pot
Remember how well prohibition worked? Neither does George Bush. Nor does Tommy Hettrich. It's Tommy you have to worry about. He's head of the SFPD narcotics unit and he thinks pot heads are on about the same level as heroin addicts. Captain Hettrich has already ignored City policy by devoting considerable resources to infiltrating pot clubs and tracking individual growers. This week's U.S. Supreme Court ruling loosing the hounds on a couple of local female cancer patients will have Hettrich moving to shut down our local clubs post haste.
If you can't get high in San Francisco
People have been getting high on pot for at least 4,000 years. The old testament talks about the priests (prophets/whatever) going into their tents when faced with tough decisions. There, they "took up their censors and a great cloud of smoke went up" ... really ... the people stood around and watched while the smoke poured out of the tents and then, duly inspired, the prophets came out and gave their decisions. Now, I'm not saying that would work for everyone.
Still, if Nixon and JFK can be fortified with shots of speed provided legally by their personal physicians and Rush Limbaugh can eat legal downers like M&M's, I should be able to smoke a joint. I mean, I am like an Old Testament prophet in a way. Ain't I?
"First take care of head"
As the clubs close and we head back to the streets and parks to buy our herb from murderous thugs, remember a few simple rules:
1. When shopping in Latino neighborhoods, do not wear blue or red clothing. Either can get you killed. No waving or giving peace signs or, even a simple thumbs up. These can be misinterpreted as signifying your membership in an opposing gang or asking for sex. Keep it simple. Learn to just mumble: "Green bud" and look at your shoes.
2. When shopping in Civic Center, Latino dealers give the best weight and quality. While I'm certainly not a racist, black dealers usually are and if you're smart you'll avoid them.
3. Bluntly, a regular personal dealer is best. Unlike the pot clubs, many these not only deliver, but also provide a range of harder drugs. That's always a big plus. Although there are few of these entrepreneurs remaining, they'll certainly grow back as quickly as Spring flowers from a scorched forest floor.
It's going to cost more. One of the great things about pot clubs has been that they sell consistently high quality product of an honest weight for up to 30% less than the same weed cost from street dealers just a couple of years ago. Those days, they are uh passing.
Closing
A Bulldog chat room is in the works. Now that's a scary thought. We're still accepting suggestions and always will. Not that we'll pay any attention. I'm self-centered and Rachel doesn't exist. ... Yeah, that's a good way to close. Rachel wrote me a poem and I'm going to share it with you.
Dharma lesson 2
on not being a girlfriend to anyone
stop searching for the ordinary
when ecstasy is on your door step
the now of everything is boundless
in the moment of us, all truth unfolds
the universe is revealed ... shattering
expectations into bliss
don't waver, there is nothing more
no hope, no dreams,
no fear, just this
you have seen my best display
of mirror wisdom
all encompassing action
unbridled passion
ceaseless compassion
you get what you get what you get what you get
(Rachel)
written in the style of yogini/dakini ecstatic
Poetry from 300 AD. These women were from Oddiyana a place
inhabited by 1000's of enlightened women. The enlightened women
were the teachers of Padmasambhava the founder of Tibetan Buddhism.
They were killed and driven out by the Muslims, because the women
were completely in their power
land trust yes ... pure land of the dakini better
a rare silence:
