Rome is burning. Wall Street panics, our retirement savings are gone, the national debt is growing, our home values are falling, and people are losing jobs. And George W. Bush and his cronies...the very people who started this mess...are playing the fiddle. When will people start calling him The New Hoover?
In 7 days many people have seen more than half of their retirement savings disappear. Gone. They've gone from the prospect of a comfortable retirement in their homes to the prospect of living out their golden years in the streets begging for change. This is the collective legacy of 30 years of laissez-faire policies and market fundamentalism gone awry. Speculative bubbles...financial derivatives whose value is based not on actual value, but on market psychology...greater downside risk. It's beginning to look a lot like 1929...now if we could just get stockbrokers to start jumping out windows.
Thursday, October 9, 2008
Wednesday, October 8, 2008
Thanks a Lot, Repugs
We're in the midst of the biggest financial crisis since the Great Depression. Equity markets are in turmoil. Creditors aren't lending. Retirement savings have disappeared overnight. And the pain is going to hit the poor and middle class hardest. This, my friends, is the legacy of deregulation and market findamentalism that started in the Reagan era, continued through Clinton, and has finally come to a head during the worst presidency in our nation's history.
It's time for this nation to stop trusting the bought-and-paid-for politicians who pushed us into this mess. Anybody preaching a market "solution" to our current problems should be thrown out of the public square, tarred and feathered, and ignored ever more. Their credibility is now nil. In short, it's time for a return to rational thought.
It's time for this nation to stop trusting the bought-and-paid-for politicians who pushed us into this mess. Anybody preaching a market "solution" to our current problems should be thrown out of the public square, tarred and feathered, and ignored ever more. Their credibility is now nil. In short, it's time for a return to rational thought.
Election 2008 - My Picks
2008 is a pivotal year in American civil life. Our economy is imploding, America is conducting two wars, and the world seems to be on edge. And Americans are ready for change. Here's what my ballot will look like:
PRESIDENT
Barack Obama
For the first time in my adult life, I'll vote for the Democratic nominee for president. And I'll do it proudly, with no reservations. Barack Obama is the best candidate the Democrats have put forward in a generation. He's astute, intelligent, holds many core progressive values, and he hasn't been around Washington long enough to have been truly corrupted. While past Democratic nominees have been too corrupt for me to hold my nose and vote for, Obama has no such issues for me.
Obama isn't perfect: his late reversals on offshore drilling and on the Bush Administration's illegal wiretaps bothered me. And I don't put too much faith in the office of the President to change things. One high-stakes winner-take-all election every four years isn't the right way to run a country. And our electoral system favors rural states and big money. Those are problems we'll have to overcome with grassroots action. Cynthia McKinney and Ralph Nader are fine candidates but for this election, America has a real chance to embrace positive change and send a message to Washington that the neoliberal economic policies of the past 30 years have failed, and that it's time for a new New Deal. Vote for Obama.
United States Representative; District 8
Cindy Sheehan
Nancy Pelosi is a disgrace. She "represents" the most progressive district in America, yet she continually votes for war and has taken impeachment off the table. She also voted to give Wall Street hundreds of billions in taxpayer money with few strings. Cindy Sheehan presents a clear, well-known alternative. It's time for Pelosi to go.
State Senator; District 3
Mark Leno
After a bruising and unnecessary primary challenge against Carole Migden, Leno has emerged as the candidate of choice for the local state senate seat. Leno is somewhat progressive, but often sides with San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom on important issues...and that's often the wrong side. Still, Leno is by far the best choice in this race.
Member of the State Assembly; District 13
Tom Ammiano
Tom's the best choice here to take over Mark Leno's empty seat. He'll win easily, and he'll be a very good representative.
Superior Court Judge; San Francisco County; Seat 12
Gerardo Sandoval
Sandoval has been mercilessly targeted by regressive forces in San Francisco. He's been somewhat controversial on teh Board of Supervisors, but he's been a good progressive. And he's far better than Mellon.
Board Member; San Francisco Unified School District
Sandra Lee Fewer
Barbara Lopez
Norman Yee
A progressive slate for the nation's most progressive school board.
Board Member; San Francisco Community College District
NO ENDORSEMENT
City College of SF is a mess. Bond money is misspent, money is spent on athletics instead of academics, and the college refuses to comply with sunshine laws. Unfortunately, the candidates on the ballot won't change anything. I can't endorse any of them.
Board of Directors; San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit District; District 9
Tom Radulovich
Tom is a strong progressive voice on the BART board. He's been a great transit advocate, and should get another term.
CA Ballot Propositions
San Francisco Country Ballot Measures
PRESIDENT
Barack Obama
For the first time in my adult life, I'll vote for the Democratic nominee for president. And I'll do it proudly, with no reservations. Barack Obama is the best candidate the Democrats have put forward in a generation. He's astute, intelligent, holds many core progressive values, and he hasn't been around Washington long enough to have been truly corrupted. While past Democratic nominees have been too corrupt for me to hold my nose and vote for, Obama has no such issues for me.
Obama isn't perfect: his late reversals on offshore drilling and on the Bush Administration's illegal wiretaps bothered me. And I don't put too much faith in the office of the President to change things. One high-stakes winner-take-all election every four years isn't the right way to run a country. And our electoral system favors rural states and big money. Those are problems we'll have to overcome with grassroots action. Cynthia McKinney and Ralph Nader are fine candidates but for this election, America has a real chance to embrace positive change and send a message to Washington that the neoliberal economic policies of the past 30 years have failed, and that it's time for a new New Deal. Vote for Obama.
United States Representative; District 8
Cindy Sheehan
Nancy Pelosi is a disgrace. She "represents" the most progressive district in America, yet she continually votes for war and has taken impeachment off the table. She also voted to give Wall Street hundreds of billions in taxpayer money with few strings. Cindy Sheehan presents a clear, well-known alternative. It's time for Pelosi to go.
State Senator; District 3
Mark Leno
After a bruising and unnecessary primary challenge against Carole Migden, Leno has emerged as the candidate of choice for the local state senate seat. Leno is somewhat progressive, but often sides with San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom on important issues...and that's often the wrong side. Still, Leno is by far the best choice in this race.
Member of the State Assembly; District 13
Tom Ammiano
Tom's the best choice here to take over Mark Leno's empty seat. He'll win easily, and he'll be a very good representative.
Superior Court Judge; San Francisco County; Seat 12
Gerardo Sandoval
Sandoval has been mercilessly targeted by regressive forces in San Francisco. He's been somewhat controversial on teh Board of Supervisors, but he's been a good progressive. And he's far better than Mellon.
Board Member; San Francisco Unified School District
Sandra Lee Fewer
Barbara Lopez
Norman Yee
A progressive slate for the nation's most progressive school board.
Board Member; San Francisco Community College District
NO ENDORSEMENT
City College of SF is a mess. Bond money is misspent, money is spent on athletics instead of academics, and the college refuses to comply with sunshine laws. Unfortunately, the candidates on the ballot won't change anything. I can't endorse any of them.
Board of Directors; San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit District; District 9
Tom Radulovich
Tom is a strong progressive voice on the BART board. He's been a great transit advocate, and should get another term.
CA Ballot Propositions
- 1A: High Speed Passenger Train Bonds
YES
It's time to modernize California's transportation system. Air travel wastes a tremendous amount of energy for short trips, and a rail infrastructure would create thousands of jobs in our state. - 2: Standards for Confining Farm Animals
- 3: Children's Hospital Bond Act. Grant Program
- 4: Waiting Period and Parental Notification Before Termination of Minor's Pregnancy
- 5: Nonviolent Drug Offenses, Sentencing, Parole and Rehabilitation
YES
Expand treatment and rehabilitation for drug offenses, and reduce expenditures? Absolutely. - 6: Police and Law Enforcement Funding. Criminal Penalties and Laws
- 7: Pickens' Personal Renewable Plan
NO
T Boone Pickens is not a force for good in our nation. He speculated in Oil, funded Repugnican politicians for generations, and he funded the Swift Boaters in 2004. Now he's dumped a lot of his money into natural gas and wind, and he wants your vote to ensure that he makes a profit. Proposition 7 would divert funding and mandates away from other more viable renewable energy sources towards Pickens' own investments. Vote NO! - 8: Bigoted Discrimination in Marriage
NO NO NO!
California stepped past its bigoted history this year when the state Supreme Court voided the Knight initiative banning gay marriage on constitutional grounds. Now the bigots are back with a constitutional ammendment designed to re-implement discrimination in marriage. This initiative is poisonous and divisive. Let's keep the fundamentalist churches out of our personal lives. Vote NO! - 9: Draconian Sentencing
NO NO NO!
The law-and-order crowd managed to get two props on this ballot. Le't just say no to the reactionaries and reject this one too. - 10: Alternative Fuel Vehicles and Renewable Energy. Bonds
NO
Bonds are a terrible way to finance things. You get less than half the money you borrow, and the profits and fees go to the richest people in America. We need to tax the rich to get the funds we need. And the proceeds for this one are questionable too. Vote NO. - 11: Redistricting
- 12: Veteran's Bond Act of 2008
NO
Again, bonds are bad. Though it's a laudable goal to spend money on veterans, bond financing is the wrong way to do it.
YES
California is a pioneer for many things, and it's time to add treatment of farm animals to that list. Opponents have trotted out the tired old argument that this measure will make California farms less competitive, but that hasn't held water on anything else. In fact, changes in California law often lead national thinking. Vote yes.
YES
I generally hate bonds, but this outlay is worthwhile.
NO NO NO!
Anti-choice zealots try this every election cycle. Their goal is to slowly eat away at womens' right to choose. Vote NO!
NO NO NO!
The "tough-on-crime" water carriers for cop unions are pandering for bigger budgets again. It's time to put a stop to draconian law enforcement measures.
No
I'm of a couple minds on redistricting. The best way to make elections more competitive is to implement ranked choice voting and multi-seat districts with proportional representation. Redistricting, whether it's in the hands of politicians or judges, will always be subjective and prone to partisan bias. Vote no.
San Francisco Country Ballot Measures
- A: General Hospital and Trauma Center Earthquake Safety Bonds
YES
SF General is the last bastion of public health in the city, and is the cornerstone of the Healthy SF plan. Vote Yes. - B: Affordable Housing Fund
YES YES YES
San Francisco's number one problem is housing. Vote Yes. - C: Prohibiting City Employees from Serving on Charter Boards and Commissions
Yes A good-government reform that may keep mayoral cronies and patrons from influencing commission decisions. - D: Pier 70 Waterfront District Development Plan
NO
I'm disinclined to approve a waterfront plan that includes too much commercial development. And when this measure is pushed by the anti-progressives like Alioto-Pier, that poisons it for me. Vote NO. - E: Changing the Number of Signatures Required to Recall City Officials
YES
The failed recall of Supervisor McGoldrick was ridiculous, and now is the time to change this law. A 10% threshold is ridiculously low. - F: Holding All Scheduled City Elections Only in Even- Numbered Years
NO
The odd-numbered years provide a good forum to focus on city elections. We never would have had Gonzalez-v-Newsom in an even-numbered year. Vote No. - G: Allowing Retirement System Credit for Unpaid Parental Leave
YES This one boils down to common sense. - H: Clean Energy Deadlines
YES YES YES
It's time to drag PG&E into the 21st century. They may kick and scream about generating energy via renewable means, but that's just too bad. Vote YES! - I: Office of an Independent Rate Payer Advocate
- J: Historic Preservation Commission
NO
Not another commission.... - K: Enforcement of Laws Related to Prostitution
YES
I'm a bit torn. But in general I favor decriminalizing prostitution. Vote Yes. - L: Community Justice Center
NO NO NO
A meaningless feel-good waste of taxpayer dollars for Newsom's pet program. Vote No. - M: Residential Rent Ordinance
YES
Prohibits landlords from harassing tenants. - N: Real Property Transfer Tax Rates
- O: Replacing the Emergency Response Fee
YES
This makes the 911 tax a bit fairer. Vote Yes. - P: County Transportation Authority Board
NO NO NO
A blatant power grab by Newsom's minions to control MUNI. Vote No! - Q: Payroll Expense Tax
YES
The payroll tax has been an impediment to job creation in San Francisco. This is a chance to reform it a bit. Vote Yes. - R: Renaming the Oceanside Water Treatment Plant
YES YES YES
This is the type of ballot measure that reminds me of the many reasons I love this city. What better tribute to 8 years of Bush Administration ineptitude, corruption, and malice toward liberty than to name our sewage treatment plant after George W. Bush? Vote yes! - S: Budget Set-Asides and Identification of Replacement Funds
NO
A budget play by anti-progressive forces. Vote NO. - T: Low-Cost Substance Abuse Treatment Programs
- U: Policy Against Funding the Deployment of Armed Forces in Iraq
YES YES YES!
This is another chance to express our city's dismay at the illegal and immoral war on Iraq. Vote Yes! - V: JROTC
NO NO NO!
JROTC is a military recruitment and war propaganda tool right in the midst of our high schools. This past year the Board of Education voted to eliminate funding for it. Let's allow our high school students to mature on their own, then make a decision as to whether a military career is for them. Vote NO!
NO
This one is PG&E's canard to draw attention away from measure H. Vote NO!
YES
Disclosure: I'm potentially subject to this tax. And I support it. The city needs money, and real estate speculators have gotten away with not paying their fair share for years. Vote Yes.
YES
One of the key gaps in city services in recent years.
Monday, October 6, 2008
Visiting Sirhan Sirhan
There are just some things I can't quite explain. This is one of them. Congresscritter Dana Rohrabacher (R-Huntington Beach) was already a bit loony. He frequently claims to have ties to the CIA, and is a rabid right-wingnut. But this takes the cake...Rohrabacher apparently dressed in drag while visiting Sirhan Sirhan in Corcoran State Prison. He's pretty keen on solving what he believes is a conspiracy:
According to a September 25, 2008, Pasadena Weekly article by Carl Kozlowski, Rohrabacher believes that the Los Angeles Police Department has for 40 years hidden the fact that Sirhan Sirhan, the lone man convicted of shooting Kennedy, worked as part of a "real conspiracy" of Arabs.
Why? Well, Rohrabacher--a rabid right-wing Republican who has bragged to me and other reporters about his, uh, longtime personal ties to the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)--claims he was in the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles for a party at the same time Kennedy was murdered in the kitchen.
I'm almost speechless.
According to a September 25, 2008, Pasadena Weekly article by Carl Kozlowski, Rohrabacher believes that the Los Angeles Police Department has for 40 years hidden the fact that Sirhan Sirhan, the lone man convicted of shooting Kennedy, worked as part of a "real conspiracy" of Arabs.
Why? Well, Rohrabacher--a rabid right-wing Republican who has bragged to me and other reporters about his, uh, longtime personal ties to the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)--claims he was in the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles for a party at the same time Kennedy was murdered in the kitchen.
I'm almost speechless.
Sunday, October 5, 2008
Hoo-Sain
I've been meaning to blog this, but Joe P sent me an example of the finest salt-of-the-earth folks humanity has to offer:
She got a real purty mouth, ain't she?
She got a real purty mouth, ain't she?
Wednesday, October 1, 2008
Mad Dash for Midway
The trip to Lincoln's Birthplace was harrowing, the stay stressful, and the return hectic. But somehow it worked. My original itinerary had me flying SFO-ORD-SPI on Monday, SPI-ORD-SFO on Tuesday evening. We got into Springfield and things weren't going so well. I wasn't prepared for the work I had come to do, and stayed up half the night worrying. A crappy hotel didn't help matters. But we woke up, did the work we came to do, came out of it well, and had some time to kill.
My boss and I decided to hit the Abe Lincoln presidential library and museum in downtown Springfield to see what it was about. The tour was interesting, with several good wax figure displays and narrations. The boss and I took off for the airport after about an hour.
Normally, United notifies you by text message when a flight is delayed. I got no such message, and arrived at the airport to find the flight delayed well past 7. That would have put me at ORD with too little time to connect to my SFO flight. Damn...I didn't want to spend the night in SPringfield or Chicago, since I have to travel again Thursday. Other airlines didn't pan out, so I told my boss that we shoudl drive. Screw it...into another rental car, one way to ORD. Then we realized we couldn't make it. So we spent time on the phone with our travel agent, trying to arrange flights out of MDW...and return the rental car there....all of this at 90+mph while watching for law enforcement types... We were sweating the arrival time: it was going to be very close. More than once, the boss commented that we weren't going to make it.
Needless to say, the travel agent came through, got us both booked onto flights...the boss to Providence, and me to OAK. I screeched to a stop at the MDW rental car return with 15 minutes till departure, ran to get my boarding pass, ran to security, ran to the gate, and made the flight with a few minutes to spare...plus I got home much earlier than I would have otherwise.
My routing looked like this. It was one of the more interesting logistical adventures I ever had.
My boss and I decided to hit the Abe Lincoln presidential library and museum in downtown Springfield to see what it was about. The tour was interesting, with several good wax figure displays and narrations. The boss and I took off for the airport after about an hour.
Normally, United notifies you by text message when a flight is delayed. I got no such message, and arrived at the airport to find the flight delayed well past 7. That would have put me at ORD with too little time to connect to my SFO flight. Damn...I didn't want to spend the night in SPringfield or Chicago, since I have to travel again Thursday. Other airlines didn't pan out, so I told my boss that we shoudl drive. Screw it...into another rental car, one way to ORD. Then we realized we couldn't make it. So we spent time on the phone with our travel agent, trying to arrange flights out of MDW...and return the rental car there....all of this at 90+mph while watching for law enforcement types... We were sweating the arrival time: it was going to be very close. More than once, the boss commented that we weren't going to make it.
Needless to say, the travel agent came through, got us both booked onto flights...the boss to Providence, and me to OAK. I screeched to a stop at the MDW rental car return with 15 minutes till departure, ran to get my boarding pass, ran to security, ran to the gate, and made the flight with a few minutes to spare...plus I got home much earlier than I would have otherwise.
My routing looked like this. It was one of the more interesting logistical adventures I ever had.
Sunday, September 28, 2008
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