Human Rights Campaign

The Democrats are truly stupid. Karl Rove is smart. It's so clear.

Karl Rove pushed the Republicans violently towards the far right, and realized that they could make the Democrats constantly bow and play defense. They played towards the base, rather than the middle, turning the Democrats into the middle and the middle into the right.

Last night, the Democrats attended a debate hosted by the Human Rights Campaign in Los Angeles. This group advocates for civil rights for gays, lesbians, etc. This is an issue that is important for a large portion of the left, and it is pallatable to another chunk. It's distasteful to the right.

If any of the major candidates had made an impassioned speech calling for the end of bigotry, if they had invoked the scientific consensus on the fact that there is merely a spectrum that we are all born into that ranges from gay to straight, and that denying someone rights by law is discrimination and is contrary to our country's history and morality, if he/she had tied into the global issue of human rights, of compassion, of equality, if he/she had attacked Civil Unions as "Separate but Equal", and called on the USA to accept a higher morality, a higher equality, etc., he/she would be an immediate rock star and the darling of the liberals.

The Democrats, however, are cowards who still don't get it. You don't win an election by sulking around, attempting to not step on your opponents' toes. They call you socialists, you call them bigots. Guess who's more correct? Instead, they pussyfoot around the issue and let Kucinich make them look stupid. Kucinich will not win, the left will be unimpressed with the Democratic nominee and the door will be open for a Bloomberg or a Gingrich or a Thompson, and then where will we be. Obama doesn't know anything about being a minority and neither does Hillary. Edwards thinks he is a straight-talker? I call bullshit on him. Maybe I won't vote. I don't care anymore about anyone's grandiose theories of how to win elections. Try advocating good things and pushing for positive changes in our culture, instead of doing what the crooked lobbyists make you think the public wants. We are sheep, but you must lead.

I'm sick of 'em. F%§$ing hypocrites.

The Cure - Just Like Heaven

Board of Supervisors

San Francisco does not have a functional government. We are run by a mayor who has my respect, but is met with violent vitriol by a sizable minority. He will win in a landslide and the issues will continue.

This would not really matter, except that the activist population is represented on the Board of Supervisors. There are two groups on the Boards, the Democrats (conservatives) and the Democrats who call themselves Progressives (liberals). The Progressives have a 6-5 majority on the Board, and the President of the Board, Aaron Peskin, is a Progressive (and my Supervisor).

One of the "Democrats", Ed Jew, representing the Sunset, is currently on trial for 11 counts of voter fraud, amongst other things. He allegedly took a bribe from a business in the Sunset after being elected in a district where he allegedly does not live. He registered to vote and voted in a district where he allegedly does not live. He refuses to step down.

One of the "Progressives", Chris Daly, representing the Tenderloin and the northern Mission, is currently being censured by the board for personal attacks on Newsom. He has claimed that Newsom has a cocaine problem in the middle of a board meeting. Then, one of the other supervisors, (I forgot his name), came up and told Daly to punch him in the face, cuz "you know you want to".

Newsom has enough of his own problems, like sleeping with his campaign manager's wife, paying her off and then paying him off, and going into rehab for an alcohol problem. But he's going to win by a landslide, because no one will oppose him.

I'm gonna vote for him forever because he legalized gay marriage and likely destroyed any highly political hopes for the future!

Vote Newsom in 2007!

Current music: The Decemberists - The Crane Wife 3

Halloweenless SF

SF Supervisor of the district containing the Castro, Bevan Dufty, has announced that there will be no Halloween party this year. Last year's ended in violence, as 9 people were shot. There had been plans to have a party on Justin Herman Plaza, in front of the Ferry Building, with Pink performing and motorcross performances. Sounds worse to me, but at least it was something. Now, the promoter has pulled out of the show, citing difficulties in organizing the party and the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass festival in Golden Gate Park earlier in October. Dufty has announced that he is asking the bars and restaurants in the Castro to close, that there will be no public toilets set up, no streets blocked off, but still the same number of police patrols.

I find this revolting. Every city is known for a festival or two. NY has New Year's Eve, Chicago and Boston have St. Patrick's Day, SF has Gay Pride and Halloween in the Castro. Halloween is fun for all, everyone dresses up and it is remarkably tolerant. Everyone is attacking the festival, saying that it has devolved into the "bridge-and-tunnel crowd" (read African-Americans and Latinos) gawking and slurring the "freaks". It may have been different in the past, but I loved it. I saw mostly people in constumes. I saw the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence (a transsexual group that organizes the group) and they were dancing and everyone was taking pictures. The negative thing to me was how the police were (not) dealing with the party. They took away Agnieszka's flimsy, plastic dagger and made sure there was no alcohol. However, they clearly let at least 9 men without costumes on (meaning easier to search) with loaded firearms. One guy asked me if he could sleep with Agnieszka, but he was a drunk white guy.

This is a bunch of snotty rich people trying to turn this city into a quiet, dignified ritzy place, which it has never been and never should be. They are capitalizing on racial tension, something that should never occur in a place as supposedly-tolerant as San Francisco. We are the city of the Beats and the Hippies and Gay Activists. We are not a city of businessmen/businesswomen holding their noses above the riffraff.

Interesting. The same week the Board of Supes (which is a downright disaster) announces this, they also unveil plans for the tallest building on the west coast....

Current music: Tom Waits - Martha

San Francisco Rising

San Francisco unveiled plans yesterday for the western United States' first supertall. The shortest of the three proposals is 1,200 feet, the tallest 1,375. For reference's sake, the Empire State Building is 1,250 ft. At the base of it will be California's "Grand Central Terminal" and push back against Los Angeles. San Francisco will be the global center of California again! To hell with Los Angeles! And all three design have wind turbines for clean energy, a subway station, access to BART, commuter rail down the peninsula, buses to all carriers in the Bay Area, Greyhound and, someday soon, California High-Speed Rail to Los Angeles, San Diego, San Jose and Sacramento. By 2014! But where will I be?

Current music: Arctic Monkeys - Fake Tales of San Francisco

Long Live the 70s!

So, the more I listen to music these days, the more I am impressed with the music out there. This is obviously a huge shift for me. I think that this whole theory of a ressurgence of 80s music is really misplaced. It has recently hit me that music had formerly been based on certain heroes of the past, the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, Bob Dylan, etc. I think that rather than term the latest movement a throwback to the 80s, we should just suggest that the heroes have changed. I think my generation's heroes have become Bryan Eno, Bryan Ferry, David Bowie and David Byrne. I've recently gotten into David Bowie a little bit more via a Brooklyn band of today called TV on the Radio! which is amazing. Talking Heads, Roxy Music and David Bowie are the root of all that's new and wonderful. Possibly early Elvis Costello as well. So, maybe this is a resurgence of the 70s. Roxy Music, Talking Heads and David Bowie all had their most interesting breakthroughs in the 70s. So, long live the 70s.

Oh, and let me note what an enormous Berlin had on Eno, Ferry and Bowie. Maybe this resurgence is somehow connected to the recent popularity of European travel for every hipster and Berlin as the new center (yet again) of the avant-garde.

David Bowie - Boys Keep Swinging