June 2004 Archives
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Watching Big Media cover Silicon Valley is a lot like watching Bull Durham – remember the scene where Kevin Costner gives Tim Robbins, the young, hot on-the-way-up pitcher his sound bites for the sports reporters? -- only its young CEOs and engineers uttering the clichés not baseball players.
Until today, it was a pretty safe bet that this bubble – the mini-bubble that’s expected to start with Google’s public stock sale – would get the exact same sort of moronic coverage the last one did. Earnest reporters unused to reading complicated securities filings – they’re soo boring – would come out to Palo Alto, write down the players’ sound bites about good teams, smart people and great companies and hustle back to New York convinced they’d met nice guys who got rich by accident and wanted nothing better than to change the world.
Continue reading "At The Show"Wed 10:54 AM | permalink | printer-friendly version | email this article
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You missed the note about the prizes we’re raffling off to subscribers, didn’t you? Ah. Never fear. There will be periodic reminders until mid-July.
Take another look at the goodies in store: Dinner, posters and a nice box of cheese. It’s part of the campaign to get you – you readers – to support stand-alone journalism. And don't worry, that guilty feeling -- I type you read -- will go away as soon as you subscribe.
Wed 10:47 AM | permalink | printer-friendly version | email this article
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Get out your reading glasses. Even if you don’t wear ‘em. By the time you’re finished with the November ballot, you’ll be seeing double, if not triple. There’s the presidential election, a bunch of state offices, a U.S. Senate race and a loonnnnnng list of state and city ballot initiatives.
Dan Weintraub runs down a list of the ballot initiatives that have been certified at the state level. This is 'clip and save' territory -- you're not likely to get such sharp descriptoins of the ballot line-up anywhere else.
And here in San Francisco, we’ll get to vote on the Iraq War! Like that's going to lose? In San Francisco? I mean really. The slightly more pressing -- not to mention realistic -- needs imposed by the city budget and housing bond? Well...finally, some progress. A compromise housing bond -- $200 million -- has been approved for the ballot.
And they say -- I say, fool that I am -- that city politics are getting moderate.
Wed 10:31 AM | permalink | printer-friendly version | email this article
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Slate's Mickey Kaus did a fine job of taking apart the Kerry-Bush horse race poll that ran in yesterday’s New York Times but he’s not sharing the worst-case scenario victory that Republicans are quietly talking about.
Here’s the background: The Times says Bush has the lowest approval rating – 42 percent or his presidency. But says that 40 percent of those who have formed an impression of Democratic nominee John Kerry don’t like him.
In other words, this election is a dead heat, The Times explains in some detail:
In the 18 states viewed by both parties as the most competitive — and thus the subject of the most advertising expenditures and visits by the candidates — the race was equally tight. Forty-five percent of voters in those states said they would support Mr. Kerry, and 43 percent said they would back Mr. Bush. Indeed, on a host of measures, the poll found little difference in public opinion between the nation as a whole and that of voters in the competitive states.
What are Republicans thinking: That Bush will lose – once again – the popular vote. You get there by taking out New York and California, both clearly going for Kerry, and adding in a handful of the 18 states were the race is competitive and, oh, yeah Florida – again – giving Bush enough electoral votes to win.
Not pretty, is it?
Wed 10:22 AM | permalink | printer-friendly version | email this article
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My buddy Micah Sifry takes New York Times columnist David Brooks to task today – and does a fine job, too – for his latest column on partisan divides.
Brooks says politics has become more polarized because in an information-based economy, smart people make decisions and stick with them, using information they find to bolster the way they think. He has lots of studies and data to back this up but, in the end, it’s a silly conclusion. First of all, as Micah points out – I have company! Finally! – this can’t be a 50/50 partisan nation if half the country doesn’t vote. That’s more of a problem than any partisanship out there. But, in fine Big Media tradition, Brooks ends up bashing the Internet for encouraging people to read only those who agree with them. First porn. Now agit-prop. You can’t get a break on the web, can you?
Continue reading "Stuck In The Middle With You"Tue 10:55 AM | permalink | printer-friendly version | email this article
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We are serious about stand-alone journalism subscriptions but we know it's a new thing -- paying, even voluntarily for stuff you read on the web. So we’re going to ease you into it by making it worth your while with some cool prizes. Stuff you can’t get anywhere else. That you’ll really like.
For generous subscribers (and this will include those of you from the last drive in early February) we’re going to give away one big fabulous meal at Incanto. That doesn’t include wine – this is fundraising, remember – but will be a special chef’s meal prepared for you and only you and owner Mark Pastore promises it’ll be good. That’s for one lucky person who gives more than $100.
Continue reading "Subscribe. Win."Tue 09:20 AM | permalink | printer-friendly version | email this article
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The New York Times’ magazine interview with Ronald Reagan Jr., in which he declares himself an atheist and sharply criticize the Bush Administration – on personal deportment and political philosophy -- is well worth you time and attention. Clearly, he’s trying to move the Republican Party in a more moderate direction and, if he’s not speaking for his mother, he is almost certainly speaking with her approval and consent.
Continue reading "Moderation in Some New Things"Sun 02:12 PM | permalink | printer-friendly version | email this article
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It’s a rare event but Business 2.0 has managed to produce a timely and well-done cover story on India and that country’s changing demographics that steers away from the out-sourcing panic button and speaks sense. Om Malik’s story of how very much his native land has changed – and the charming little bit recounted by editor Josh Quittner about Malik’s father mistaking his son’s middle-of-the-night appearance for a dream – sums up just the right combination of the fantastic and modern that is India today.
Continue reading "A Tale of Two Out Sources"Sun 02:04 PM | permalink | printer-friendly version | email this article
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Across the Bay – the San Francisco Bay – economist and Tom Kalil cousin Brad DeLong sits down and tries to answer his oft-repeated lament: “Why, oh why, can’t we have a better press corps?”
Delong spits out a few snarky examples on his specialty – economics – to talk about the inadequacies of various and sundry Big Media Big Foots he’s encountered. He comes up with some interesting insights that, if you care about political and economic coverage (or have ever been on the receiving end of a Big Foot reporting stampede) are worth thinking about. But, oddly for an economics professor, DeLong misses the real problem with U.S. newspapers. They’ve stopped hiring smart, as they say in Silicon Valley, and have settled for hiring people who will put up with their lousy pay scales, their difficult management and their collapsing infrastructure.
Continue reading "It's the Economy, uh, Professor"Sun 01:57 PM | permalink | printer-friendly version | email this article
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Our annual rite of summer is upon us: The Gay Pride Parade.
This year’s theme for the boys and girls, the boys who wanna be grrrrls and the girls who wanna be bois (and pretty much everyone in between) to shimmy, shake and sashay and strut down Market Street: Superheroes: Out 4 Justice.
I love this town. You can do anything. This year, the 34th, should be a barn-burner what with all those married people hanging around.
But let me clue all you out-of-towners in on a secret about the parade: It is, consistently, the day on which it’s warm and sunny – no fog, no wind. And we all love that.
Fri 11:03 AM | permalink | printer-friendly version | email this article
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This month’s GQ has a nice profile of San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom. There’s nothing there you regular readers didn’t already know: The Mayor is a Democrat with a spine. Yawn.
The obligatory Clinton reference – made by reporters of any ambitious, attractive Democrat – is made politely and briefly. Yawn.
There's no link so you'll have to cruise to the newstand to get the thing. It's the Will Ferrell cover.
Fri 10:58 AM | permalink | printer-friendly version | email this article
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Sorry about the light posting. Please bear with me. When you realize you’re running a business, you have to do business stuff like raise money, talk to ad folks and other revenue generation projects (Hint, hint).
Things should be back to normal after the weekend. But we're going to keep up the fundraising for a bit. Oh, yeah, and we'll have prizes!
Fri 10:50 AM | permalink | printer-friendly version | email this article
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Reporter still don’t get Gov. Terminator.
He’s so honest and open about his willingness to be less honest and open, they’re not sure what to do. So they write it all down, throw in a few caveats and, it seems, hope for the best.
I kinda feel sorry for them. They’re really confused. I mean aren’t politicians supposed to pretend to be honest, self-effacing do-gooders? Yeah. In the movies.
Continue reading "The Big Smoky Tent"Thu 12:23 PM | permalink | printer-friendly version | email this article
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There’s been a bit of comment about my stand-alone journalism proposal, most of it thoughtful and smart so I’ll take a few minutes this morning – and only a few minutes there is nothing on God’s earth more boring that listening to journalist discuss their craft – to expand on what I said yesterday.
First of all, I’m not trying to entirely redefine web logging. I’m classifying what I do – write and report -- using the tools and technology available to me. That technology – the ability to publish my ideas easily and quickly – has come to be known as web logging and, for many people, that’s what it will remain. No one, least of all me, is going to change that. But there are or soon will be more people -- experienced journalist -- coming on the web everyday. And what we do is different in a number of ways from what's gone on before. It needed a name. So I gave it one.
Continue reading "Stand-Alone Journalism"Thu 10:58 AM | permalink | printer-friendly version | email this article
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Observant readers – that’s you, I know – will see that we’ve started to sell advertising.
This represents a change in what’s happening on this side of the monitor so it’s a good time to talk with you – more of you every day! – about what we’re doing and where we’re going. It’s not just us, either. The media business is changing. Dramatically. And it’s only going to get more thrilling for all of us.
Continue reading "It's Not Just Blogging Anymore"Tue 09:32 PM | permalink | printer-friendly version | email this article
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Gov. Terminator wrapped himself in an Indian blanket and declared victory, announcing a deal with some of the state’s tribes over gambling. But as both The Bee and the LATimes spell out, this fight is far from won. A few months ago, The Chron’s Mark Simon sketched out the politics on this issue a few months ago. His piece is still worth reading.
Continue reading "Disappearing Wampum"Tue 05:28 PM | permalink | printer-friendly version | email this article
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Things must be picking up. The New York Times says they are. So does Salesforce.com CEO Marc Benioff – or he will, once he can speak again. And The Chron says Northern California’s back on track.
The Times, in a nod to our sensibility, even use that cute 2.0 joke everyone uses. How hip. How cool. How with it. Man. Where are the keys to the way back machine?
Times reporter Gary Rivlin – he’s back, too, you know – rounds up all the usual barometers: Traffic, jobs, vacancies etc., and finds things slowly improving. Only economist Steve Levy – probably the only guy worth listening to on California economics – sounds a dismal note. Too many jobs are left to be replaced, he says. But, honestly, no one really wants all those people back. As former venture capitalist, now blogging mogul-in-the-making Andrew Anker hints in his conversations with Rivlin: Silicon Valley measure success one IPO at a time. And right now, they’re lining up.
Tue 05:00 PM | permalink | printer-friendly version | email this article
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Once again, California Controller Steve Westly is taking a beating from fellow Democrats. They’re trying to slam the door on his attempt to revive the state’s open primary.
Westly and former LA Mayor Richard Riorden are behind a ballot initiative to allow voters to cross parties in a primary election. It’s one of those “may the best candidate win,” ideas that Progressive Libertarians like Westly are so fond of. With good reason, of course. The idea here is to get more people into voting booths. One way to do that: Make voting easy and interesting and less partisan.
Tue 04:57 PM | permalink | printer-friendly version | email this article
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Why oh why is taking so much time – and so much agita – for the San Francisco Board of Supervisors to pass its much-discussed, much-wanted, much-agreed-upon (in principle) housing bond?
Because this is San Francisco, that’s why.
And the bullying tactics of the city’s self-styled progressives are in full swing. Supervisor Chris Daly is doing a consistent imitation of basketball coach Bobby Knight (a man who, according to author John Feinstein had no use for Daly's almost alma mater, Duke University, but felt happiest when he used the word “fuck” to describe 1)astonishment, 2)aggression 3)enthusiasm 4)anger and 5)delight). Irish class warrior Joe O’Donoghue is blowing smoke. Every one else is trying to remain civil.
Continue reading "A House. A Home. A Big Fight."Mon 03:28 PM | permalink | printer-friendly version | email this article
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Lady Godiva, the original, rode through the streets of Conventry naked as a protest. And the modern day version who appeared briefly at a San Francisco Board of Supervisors’ meeting last week had something similar in mind.
Continue reading "Mystery Solved; Godiva Talks. Maybe Too Much"Mon 01:27 PM | permalink | printer-friendly version | email this article
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A slightly more conservative reader has written in to take me to task for my seeming credulity over the New York Times’ headline: Panel Find No Qaeda-Iraq Tie: Describes a Wider Plot for 9/11
Sun 12:18 PM | permalink | printer-friendly version | email this article
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For once, I have very little to add to what it seems is, finally, very obvious. The Bush Administration lied about Iraq and Al Qaeda and Iraqi and its weapons cache. They did it deliberately. And they did it coldly. And they’re not going to stop. Not with $64 million in the bank for a party.
Here are today’s New York Times above-the-fold headlines from, naturally, Left to Right:
GOP Nearing Money Record for Convention
New York Panel Aims to Collect $64 Million
PANEL FINDS NO QAEDA-IRAQ TIE; DESCRIBES A WIDER PLOT FOR 9/11
This is all news, as classically defined by Big Media. But it’s not unexpected. Read all these stories. Read them to the end.
Thu 10:51 AM | permalink | printer-friendly version | email this article
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Gambling and Indians has moved from the back burner of California politics where its been boiling away nicely, thank you, to the front of the stove with the news that Gov. Terminator has cut a pretty solid deal with some of the tribes.
It’s an attempt to get gaming questions off the November ballot; but this fight is no slam-dunk. Schwarzenegger could be in for a real fight, the kind that makes or breaks. Things go well, the governor collects more taxes, casinos expand in a regulated and well-planned way and everybody's happy. Things go badly, the TV explodes with ads, casinos spring up whereever the tribes want to place them and Schwarzenegger gets a black mark on his so far sterling political record.
Continue reading "Ready, Set, Gamble"Wed 09:40 PM | permalink | printer-friendly version | email this article
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San Francisco’s homeless issue isn’t going away. Not if The Chron has its (belated) way. In stories that should have been done a year ago, the paper takes a look at what’s going on in Philadephia and New York.
Wed 09:16 PM | permalink | printer-friendly version | email this article
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The LA Times featured local action hero Craig Newmark on its cover Sunday. It’s your basic “Oh, Look, A Geek” story -- not bad not terribly insightful -- but it’s good for Newmark and the guys over in the Sunset. Craig is a friend to this ‘blog (on-line and in real life -- he even copied our style) and I’m happy to return the good feeling and kinds words.
But the LAT, made the mistake of taking issue -- in a backhanded way -- with some back-of-the-envelope figures I did on Craigslist gross revenues in the Fortune story I wrote earlier this year. First of all, it’s an estimate and its gross rev; it doesn’t account for costs which are, admittedly, modest, but they are, nevertheless costs.
But here’s how the numbers went: Take an average week of Bay Area Craigslist job listings (that’s going to be about 2,400 listings this week, a five-day period) and multiply by the number of weeks in the year – make it 50, to take in holidays – and you get 120,000. Multiply by $75 for each ad. Total: $9 million. That makes $7 million conservative, doesn’t it?
So let’s ask the question the LATimes didn't ask as it dissed my informed guess: Where do you think those job ads would be going if there weren't going to Craigslist? To newspapers. Newspapers just like the LATimes which, despite its numerous Pulitzer Prizes this year, must cut its staff.
Yes, it’s hard for someone at a big paper like the LATimes to believe that Craigslist is doing so well. But it is. And newspapers are suffering. More than they even know.
Wed 08:55 PM | permalink | printer-friendly version | email this article
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You know, Bruce, maybe you better take this Giant’s stadium thing seriously. Today’s New York Times story says that in Newark, N.J., they don’t know from The Boss. I feel like my grandma: Old. And white.
So, given what the Times says about your audience, this long-standing offer to help rock the vote is looking, well, honestly, it’s looking like a good idea even if the wire service screwed up the details when the repeated the rumor. No one’s saying this will be free. Nope this a fundraiser for the Democrats oh, yeah, and it’s chance to have fun in New Jersey while Republicans take over New York.
Continue reading "Still The Boss"Wed 02:05 PM | permalink | printer-friendly version | email this article
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Our fabulously successful reader survey has produced three winners who were selected by random (numbers were selected and sent in via IM) by a friend of the publisher.
Alexis Gonzales who is going to Incanto here in San Francisco for dinner. Enjoy!
Wed 01:58 PM | permalink | printer-friendly version | email this article
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Except for the weather, a toasty 80 degrees yesterday -- San Francisco's back to normal. So of course a naked woman – the Lady Godiva of affordable city housing? Someone not quite right in the head? A prankster? All of the above? -- shows up in City Hall in the middle of a Board of Supervisor’s meeting on, er, a hotly contested housing bond issue headed to the November ballot.
Tue 04:59 PM | permalink | printer-friendly version | email this article
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For the past few days, the web has been alive with analysis comments, discussion, sarcasm and consideration about the “torture memo” written by the U.S. Department of Justice. And whaddyaknow, that memo and the increasing evidence that the thinking it represents spawned a culture of cruelty is changing some minds about this mess we call a “war.”
Continue reading "Paging Hannah Arendt"Tue 09:38 AM | permalink | printer-friendly version | email this article
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San Francisco political consultant Jim Ross has written a brief and informative run-down of how San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom won. It is as clear a model as we’re likely to get for the on-line voting campaign of the future so some attention is warranted.
Sun 02:11 PM | permalink | printer-friendly version | email this article
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Time, once again, for a look at how some of what’s said here is showing up out there in Big Media.
Salon weighs in with what – if the editors I’m talking to are able to shepherd their stories into print – will be the first of a series of reappraisals of Calfornia Governor Arnold Schwarzenneger as a politician. Over at the SF Weekly, Matt Smith turns in a thorough critique of Schwarzengger’s tax policies, taking a refreshing and much-needed look at what’s happening in the rest of the state.
Sun 02:08 PM | permalink | printer-friendly version | email this article
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This recently hatched White House strategy tying President Ronald Reagan’s “conviction” about the Soviet Union to George Bush’s conviction about Saddam Hussien may not have the long-term pay out gleefully cynical Republicans are expecting.
For fans of political theater, it’s a wonderful spectacle, of course, the Republican Party coming together to celebrate the man who undid Richard Nixon’s disastrously untelegenic presidency – the stooped shoulders, the heavy beard – with a smile, a wave and the California casual ability to wear a brown suit without looking silly. From former Missouri Senator (and soon-to-be U.N. Ambassador) John Danforth’s intonation opening this funeral to the chimes of the National Cathedral ringing out the Battle Hymn of the Republic, it was a stirring and beautiful ceremony laden with symbolism, patriotic and political.
Continue reading "Chicken Little"Fri 11:53 AM | permalink | printer-friendly version | email this article
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The survey’s over. The results have been tabulated. The winners selected (at random, I had nothing to do with it).
Here are some highlights. Not surprisingly, most readers are Californians but our next largest audience comes from New York and Washington, D.C. – so we’re bi-coastal. Most of you are Democrats (66 percent) and have given to a political party (75 percent) and most are men (64 percent). But a good chunk of you said you were independents or not registered – a total of 29 percent. It’s hard to know for sure, but I’m going to take a guess and say that’s evidence of the Libertarian strain at work in Northern California politics.
This ‘blog attracts almost twice number of women who regularly read the “big” bloggers. They get 20 percent women, I get 36 percent! Take that, boys.
But thanks to everyone who responded. We’ll start running ads in a few days, if all goes well. I – and my publisher Chris McCarthy at LocalMagic.com -- appreciate you’re helping out with the sales pitch!
Fri 11:09 AM | permalink | printer-friendly version | email this article
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Sitting at “D—All Things Digital” listening to former Dean campaign consultant Joe Trippi talk – whine, really – about how no one in the party was listening to him, to his message, to his tech guys, you could glimpse a look of quiet satisfaction pass across Republican organizer Ralph Reed’s face.
Continue reading "Fat Cats and Slim Canaries"Wed 01:54 PM | permalink | printer-friendly version | email this article
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Normally, I don’t post over the weekends and even with President Reagan’s death it’ll be light going here for the next few days.
I’ll be busy but you watch the funeral to see how Nancy Reagan treats the Bush family in relation to the Schwarzenegger family; yes, it’s cynical but every politician in the country will be watching and you should, too. This is an election year and if, like me, you hold that Nancy Reagan served as our 40th president (or, like Hillary Clinton as our unelected vice president) then, well, how she manipulates the symbols of the office she once shared with her husband is very important for national and California politics. Read anything and everything you see by Lou Cannon; he’s the expert here.
Sat 10:20 PM | permalink | printer-friendly version | email this article
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In his response to my response – we’re going to stop with this, I think – Micah Sifry reminds me why I’m a happy Liberal. Optimism. Faith in the future. All that gooey stuff that conservatives dismiss as pie-in-the-sky. Deep down – shhhhh! Don’t tell anyone – I actually believe most of it. But, unlike Micah, I think that many of the pressures being brought to bear -- less job security, a falling standard of living for many in the middle class, disappearing health care and other social services -- encourage a go-it-alone philosphy. That's, I think, what's happened here in California and it's why Progressive Libertarians are a native species.
Fri 09:45 AM | permalink | printer-friendly version | email this article
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Welcome, Political Animals.
Kevin Drum is a way much nicer guy than I am or would be if I were a guy. Which I’m not. Here’s what I wrote to him:
Continue reading "Don't Let the Name Fool You"Thu 04:03 PM | permalink | printer-friendly version | email this article
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My new best friend Micah Sifry writes in to nicely give me a hard time about Tuesday’s post about the lack of good ideas in the Democratic Party. “There’s no thesis or theme uniting Democrats, anymore and no one seems to be looking for one, either,” I said.
Thu 01:16 PM | permalink | printer-friendly version | email this article
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San Francisco Police Officer Jeffrey Chang writes into the Ex to contest some of the observations made earlier in the week by Alameda D.A. Patrick Mattimore.
And whaddyaknow, Chang takes the cheap shot. He can't wait, either. It's his second paragraph:
Continue reading "Equal Time Wasted"Thu 11:39 AM | permalink | printer-friendly version | email this article
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Haven’t taken our reader survey have you? Hmmmmm. Why’s that? Got a problem winning prizes? Think I’m going to sell your email address or otherwise bug you?
Wrong. Yes, I know there are technical problems with the survey software – it doesn’t work on Apple’s Safari browser – but the rest of you have no excuse (besides, most Macs come with Explorer installed). Click on that button over there on the right and answer a few quick questions. I’ll be very grateful.
But gratitude isn’t all. You can win a chance for a fabulous $50 gift certificate to Incanto here in San Francisco (it’s a good restaurant and if you could see my waistline you’d know I know what I’m talking about). Or a cool, specially printed and signed poster commemorating San Francisco’s gay marriage madness.
Thanks. We’ll stop bugging you soon. But the more you click and respond – yes, you – the faster that day will come.
Thu 11:30 AM | permalink | printer-friendly version | email this article
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The press roll out has been steady and sure – Pete Ragone displaying once again all the tricks he learned in the Old Country (Washington, D.C.) – and finally San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom’s budget has arrived.
In a nice bit of psychic journalism, The SF Guardian doesn’t like it sight unseen. The Ex says it’s a good start and The Chron’s Rachel Gordon who is allowed to write about money but not marriage sums up the cuts and tax increases.
Here’s what looks like the biggest sticking point: Extending the payroll tax to LLCs and LLPs. That’s lawyers, venture capitalists, hedge funds, CPAs and the like, big Newsom supporters all. At least one lobbyist – who heard the screeching at one big law firm – says he can see an professional corporation exodus to Oakland.
Probably not Oakland. If they go, they'll follow the money to Silicon Valley, where office space is, for now, cheap and taxes low. San Francisco's more and more the bedroom community of choice for the valley; this is just another step on that ladder.
It's another reason -- as if we need one -- why the state's tax structure needs to be overhauled. Right now, San Francisco depends on tourists and businesses to pay its bills. That's not a stable tax base; not as stable as that which would be provided by a fair and equitable property tax system. Prop. 13 doesn't just kill schools by depriving them of property tax revenue, it set the stage for a series of municipal bidding wars -- if you don't like a payroll tax move to San Mateo! -- that are as wasteful and ineffecient as the government taxing and spending that Prop. 13 was supposed to keep in check.
Thu 11:24 AM | permalink | printer-friendly version | email this article
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There’s been a lot of mail – more than usual -- about the post last week on Secretary of State Colin Powell becoming President George Bush’s running mate. I think it’ll mean a sure-fire victory for the Republicans. And I think it’s about time a black person got on the national ticket. But most of you reader types think I’m crazy.
Continue reading "Colin Redux"Wed 10:07 AM | permalink | printer-friendly version | email this article
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I’m serious about this survey stuff. Less than a minute of your time and – gasp – you could win fabulous prizes! Posters! Food!
It’s for a good cause: The continued good health of this web log. See the button over there on the right? Click it. I swear you'll know all the answers to the questions. And we’ll keep any information you give us between us. That’s a promise.
I know I’m badgering you. I’m good at it, too, aren’t I? Think how easy it is to make me stop.
Oh, and if you’d like to buy an ad, talk to the good folks at LocalMagic, our publishing support. We offer reasonable rates, quality service and well, lots of politically savvy, smart and well-off readers. If you’re running a political campaign we can help you out.
Wed 09:49 AM | permalink | printer-friendly version | email this article
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The San Francisco Examiner, which is slowly but surely becoming a good local news read, ran a smart opinion piece Monday. The essay by former Alameda County prosecutor Patrick Mattimore talked intelligently about the work San Francisco District Attorney Kamala Harris has cut out for her and how her relationship with the SFPD isn’t exactly on the skids. Not yet, anyway. Not if the cops start doing their part.
Wed 09:43 AM | permalink | printer-friendly version | email this article
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Please take a few minutes to answer the reader survey over there on the right. Click the button, answer some questions. It’s easy, it’s anonymous and, even then we’ll keep the information between us. Promise.
There are prizes!. One lucky guy or gal gets a gift certificate to Incanto. And you can win a special edition of Derek Powazek’s "Justly Married" poster commemorating San Francisco’s Love Spring.
We’re doing this so we can sell ads. If we can sell ads, we can stop bugging you. So do your part. You might win a nice meal or some good-looking art.
Wed 09:38 AM | permalink | printer-friendly version | email this article
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When you travel, you learn things. And here’s something that’s pretty interesting but completely taken for granted by most people inside Democratic Party politics: The Democratic party machinery works for one person and one cause, the presidential ambitions of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton.
Continue reading "Postcards from The Old Country"Tue 10:07 AM | permalink | printer-friendly version | email this article






