Bulldog Protege Wins Nobel Prize

“Because Marc Salomon is an asshole!!�
(Calvin Welch responds to criticism)

“The benefit of merging is … ‘
(Jordanna Thigpen – aka ‘SF Sweetie’)

“I can do this all night.�
(Aaron Peskin to Sean Elsbernd)

“No, but ask the rest of the band.�
(No pot tonight for Evoc’s Tyley Ross)

“We should have RCV for Board Prez.�
(Ross Mirkarimi makes great point)

“How did Johnson know all this?�
(Chron insults SF’s ‘Best political mind’)

November 21, 2008

By h. brown

Morning, campers. I had a hell of a great week and I hope you did too. The top event for my ‘tribe’ of friends wasn’t in the headlines but is occurring even as we speak. Rich and Michelle Hillis of the City family are welcoming their third offspring and I’ll get back to you when I know the sex and name. Way to go, kids.

Hope Johnson has it all

Alex Clemens is SF’s premiere political lobbyist. It’s his business to predict how things are gonna turnout (like, vote-wise) when candidates and issues are presented to elected or appointed bodies or to segments of the population as a whole. And, to affect those outcomes with carefully choreographed campaigns.

Numbers are a key part of Clemens’ business and he can separate a bullshitter from a wonk inside a half a martini. Just for fun, yearly, he gives all of us who love to compete and brag the opportunity to put up or shut up. This year’s contest yielded (for some reason) a surprise winner. Let me explain why this surprised (wonderfully) me.

I always say I’m a feminist but, like most men, I’m a sexist bastard. I look and see a great set of knockers or a perfectly chiseled face or a ski-slope profile of an ass or a matched set of powerful thighs and calves and I don’t care if they can count to ten.

Hope Johnson has all of the above physical attributes which means that most straight guys like me don’t really listen to a lot that she says. This is why it was such a surprise to find out that she’s not only smarter then we are, but is actually able to engage her giant brain to such mundane pursuits as telling you in advance what the political future is going to spawn.

Someone in this male dominated political consultant industry needs to offer this woman a job. Hey, she just beat every one of your asses? I should have seen this coming when she broke into a discussion of ’silver back’ males a couple of years ago to correct us about the various records (past and present) of prospects in the A’s farm system. Hmmm.

Another hot woman

My loves are women, politics and sports. In that order. I’ve always gravitated to powerful women and if they’re gorgeous too, all the better. I think the most complete women in SF right now are, the aforementioned Miss Johnson, Angela Alioto, Ania Wierzbowska, Krissy Keefer, Maria Ayerdi, Tina Johnson, Aimee Iura and Sarah Lowe.

I mention that cause I got to go see my favorite band (East Village Opera Company) with 4 of these ladies this past Tuesday (November 18th). At Cafe du Nord in a basement on Market Street. I was in my glory. And, to put the cherry on the sundae, so to speak, I got to talk to the hottest new female talent singing on an American stage. She’s named Ann Marie Milazzo and she croons tortured and soaring passion in 4 or 5 languages around the world. Most of us who made the concert were seeing EVOC for the 3rd time and they’ve not just improved, they’ve made quantum leaps.

Our little rat pack was about the same. Aimee Iura and her cousin, Barry. Ania Wierzbowska and her honey, Robert Manes. Luke Thomas and Plus-One, Elaine Santore. The Johnson pair (Tina and Hope). Me, of course, and Daniel and Becky Cohen. Others who will kick my ass for forgetting to name em.

“This is the first time we’ve played at a bar.â€?
(Peter Kiesewalter, impresario of EVOC)

Cafe du Nord is a ‘bar’ like the Batmobile is a ‘car’. They’re both much more. Nord was a Speakeasy that never closed. It still has the feel. In the basement (large basement – couple hundred people?) … Victorian era plush red couches that suggest bordello … miles of counter space to set your drinks (mostly a standing-room venue – perhaps 50-70 seats) … and, a small stage that only had space for 3 of EVOC’s usual 5 classical string section. Kiesewalter made the ‘bar’ comment before the show started as he looked out over the place and I understood.

This band and their act are a Broadway level production and they need and deserve more space and a larger audience. I worried when I found out that while the band was coming back that they were playing a venue that I thought wouldn’t give enough people a chance to dig them.

The first two times here they played at Great American Music Hall which they pronounced (Kiesewalter did) as the best space to play in America. Turns out that while they booked Great American again that they got bumped by a private party (place is owned by Warren Hellman and booking agent for the parties explained to me that there’s some kind of a sliding scale of importance that allows parties to bump major acts?). This all bothered me and I sure as hell hope that Hellman (whom I’ve frequently criticized over the last thousand or so columns) isn’t blackballing them cause of me. EVOC is a far better band then ANY of the bands that Warren booked for his Bluegrass festival.

But, I was talking about the band’s lead female singer. She’s Ann Marie Milazzo and she and male lead, Tyley Ross added to global warming with their ‘we don’t need two microphones if we stand close enough together when we sing’ operatic genre choreography … they smoke.

But, they wouldn’t smoke with me. Yeah. I asked em after the show. Tyley Ross (first time I’ve seen him perform without a knit hat and he keeps his dome chrome with a zero-buzz cut, same as me) … asked him if he wanted some pot but he said no but that most of the rest of band probably would.

Asked Milazzo who gazes at you the way that Maria Callas probed an audience. Well, she said no and then I fainted and then got up and went and asked the bass player who was similarly disinclined and so went outside to elevate with my friends and a passing politico who asked not to be in my column in that particular situation. I need to say more about this band.

Just Google ‘EVOC’ and pick up their web site and check them out. Every single person I’ve taken to see them says they are the best band they’ve ever seen. Now, that’s quite a wide range. Opera based hard rock. Lots of people have tried this. The others are impostors when compared to EVOC. Book em for one of your private parties at the Great American, Warren. You’ll never go back to sheep.

Mirkarimi suggest RCV Board Prez race!

No Art party in his office tonight, by the way. He’s consolidated this and the December parties into a December 12th holiday fest (it’s a full moon, by the way). But, I called Ross to see if there was an Art opening today and we got to talking about the race for Board president and laughing that, of course, everyone on the Board wanted to be President and that an honest vote would come out: 1 to 1 to 1 to 1 to 1 to 1 to 1 to 1 to 1 to 1 to 1. Then, he spouted brilliance.

“Let’s lead by example.â€?

Use Ranked Choice Voting for the second most important race in the City? Well, why not? We do for Mayor. We do for supervisor. I think that would be absolutely great and I say ‘thanks, Ross Mirkarimi’. The Clerk of the Board has impeccable credentials and can count them. No Diebold machines please.

Do a true Ranked Choice though and have candidates exhaust their ballots by ranking all 11 supes (it took 7 passes to elect Gonzalez) cause they might have to use them all.

No votes for Jordanna Thigpen

Jordanna blogged on chat rooms from The Wall to Junto and others as ‘SF Sweetie’. Nothing wrong with that. What she blogged was absolutely repulsive. I outed her for this a couple of years ago but, in case you forgot, she’s a homophobic right-wing bigot somewhere out beyond Newt Gingrich. She’s a back-stabbing opportunist who took her best friend’s job and makes Mata Hari look like a choir girl. Now, she’s maneuvered herself close enough to MTA Czar, Nate Ford … to be the lead candidate to head the force that dismembers first the Taxi Commission and then, the medallion system.

The Bay Guardian did a story on this on Wednesday and it was rife with error. Amanda Witherell and Katie Baker? You don’t know shit ladies and you’re dealing with the livelihood of around 7,000 people here. Allow me to enlighten you on a few of your whiffs.

You said that Newsom: “as a supervisor in 1998 pushed for formation of the Taxi Commissionâ€?. That’s absolute bullshit. In fact, the group that founded the Taxi Commission was mandated by Quintin Kopp’s Prop K and Newsom was appointed to the group by Willie Brown at the behest of Gordon Getty. Later, Brown appointed Newsom to the Board of Supes to please the same group of billionaires. The only thing Newsom did as a supervisor that related to the taxi industry was to try and add 500 new medallions to the streets which would have cut the income of contract drivers by 30%. He’s no friend of drivers. And, about this outfit Willie appointed him to?

Newsom did no work on this group. His handlers gave him a bright young attorney to carry his load. The attorney was (and is) Heidi Machen. Machen did a great job and the Taxi Commission which Aaron Peskin has finally dispatched, was a wonder to watch. All out in the open. A fair mix of day-to-day contract drivers and medallion holders plus the public on the commission and a constant parade of fascinating stories.

Mostly stories about the big companies (Yellow and Luxor) trying to screw the drivers over and over again. No health insurance. Higher gates (daily rentals). The commission worked although the drivers still lost over and over. At least we in the public could see it. That will end soon.

The only reason drivers hung on was because Kopp’s Prop K had given them the fairest chance of any system in the country of gaining a medallion. All you had to do was wait in line. Of course, the companies hated this. Half of the time at the Commission is spent going over company execs trying to hold onto medallions illegally while the companies kept putting money into the campaign chests of conservative supes like Newsom and (now) Pier and always, the Mayor.

Now, on a personal basis. Machen did a hell of a job. But, you should know something else first. Machen and Jordanna founded a Richmond district Democratic club along with Michael Ege (they were also founding members of the fascist blog, ‘The Wall’). There, Thigpen and Ege (he posts as ‘Able Dart’) were free to spread their hate anonymously (David Latterman is their techie and buries their shit when I out them) … so, there’s a history here.

So, you say that the Taxi Commission fired Machen for favoring the rank and file and that’s true. But, you show your total lack of institutional knowledge (recent, at that!) when you fail to note that the Mayor got furious and fired almost all of the commission to put Heidi back in her job. How the hell did you miss that?

My guess is because you were talking to the ever-manipulative, Jordanna Thigpen who would have left that part out. And, the part about not the Mayor, but Heidi hiring Jordanna to be, not the Executive Director, but the ‘Deputy’ director. I warned Machen at the time that she’d rue the day she took her ‘friend’ on as deputy and that she’d have her job withing 6 months.

I think it may have taken 9 months but I was right. Now Thigpen has a harpoon in Nate Ford and is certain to maintain the top job in the Taxi division as it is folded into the MTA. Which will soon begin selling the medallions to the highest bidders rather then letting them go to the next person on the list as Kopp’s Prop K decreed.

Two things here. First, kudos to Quentin Kopp for designing this system and second, screw you Aaron Peskin for selling it out. Peskin lied to me repeatedly during the Prop A campaign. Once he got it passed and they double-crossed even the double-crosser, he doubled the double and voted against their budget. And, never once admitted to me that he was wrong.

Make no mistake about it. This burning paper bag of shit belongs on Peskin’s stoop and no other. He’s spent the past 6 months delaying the inevitable removal of the commission from SFGTV and it’s handover to a group that is mostly industry. He said that he supports Prop K and that’s a lie. That’s like saying you support President Lincoln but lend John Wilkes Booth your pistol. We both know what this is about. On the open market those medallions are worth 750 million dollars minimum. Right now they’re free just for waiting in line for 15 years or so. Someone wants that 750 million.

So, what’s the MTA say about Peskin’s guarantee that the medallions will not be sold and Prop K will be upheld?

“When it comes to changing Prop K, raising
fees, or adjusting how medallions are allocated,
I can’t say that it’s not on the table … In the
last several months the focus has been on
procedural issues. I think that policy
questions will largely come post-merger.�
(Judson True, MTA spokesperson)

This gets us in the neighborhood of the last couple of quotes I jotted down over the week. The one from Calvin Welch was when I saw him as I was crossing Market at 7th clutching my just purchased pint of bourbon and I called out to him: “Why does Marc Salomon hate you?�.

Salomon essentially wrote the just-failed Prop B (supposed to be the major legacy of the Class of 2000 – set aside funds for housing to keep people who aren’t rich in the City) … Marc wrote it and he thinks Welch made it fail. He blasts Calvin also for backing Sue Lee in D-1 (’pot n’ kettle’ cause Marc backed Leland Yee at one point and Leland ain’t exactly Ralph Nader). So, that’s where that quote came from and it plays right into the brilliant metaphorical sword fight between Aaron Peskin and Sean Elsbernd at Tuesday’s Full Board.

Did Medjool’s proprietor and real estate developer, Gus Murad get his OK to double the height of his property on the West side of Mission between 21st and 22nd to 85′ and triple the height on the Bartlett Street rear portion of the lots to 65′? I watched the exchanges 3 times and still don’t know. I called the best minds in town and I still don’t know. Maybe I should try again sober?

As a postscript to this story though, Luke Thomas (runs Fog City Journal as you know) says that D-11 Supe, Gerardo Sandoval took a glass of beer he was carrying and poured it into the Jack Daniels and coke (what’s that about?) that Luke was drinking just because Luke asked the newly elected Superior Court Judge if he’d traded a vote during the tumultuous Tuesday Board melee on Eastern Neighborhoods (Gus Murad’s place specifically – Gerardo broke with Progressives to keep Gus’ ’sky’s the limit’ waivers in place). RBA members rushed to stop Gerardo from never reaching the bench and bought Luke a fresh drink. Hey, Gerardo, lighten up. Everyone takes a bribe now and then. It just depends upon how you list it on your taxes.

Elsbernd got his ass kicked. That’s the important thing here. Not on the issue. I don’t even, as I’ve said, understand how the details sorted out. But, Elsbernd lost his cool. The subject on everyone’s mind now is the Board presidency and Sean looked very, very un-presidential.

Dufty lost even worse when he looked like a total cream puff trying to defend Elsbernd (who was doing all the attacking). Bevan said that Aaron wasn’t playing fair because there was only one member of the Public left in the audience and they shouldn’t do this without Public input.

Peskin responded that he would guess there were “at least 3� people watching online (me and Jens and Jerry Jarvis, no doubt) and that all the Public Comment was closed on the issues anyway.

Point is, watch the tape (Full Board 11-18-08 and go to last 90 minutes) and you’ll see that, again, Dufty doesn’t look like someone who should be President of the SF Board of Supes. My point?

My point is that I’ve been watching bands for 60 years and EVOC is the best band I’ve ever seen and that Tuesday’s duel was the best Board viewing I’ve seen in 10 years.

You watch it too?