Disinfo Rehab

I'm no fan of Gavin Newsom, and that's not exactly a state secret. 7 years of ruining Muni and showboaty, go-nowhere policies and big pay raises to city workers has left the city a mess. That said, when I saw the infamous convention video that appointed Lt. Gov put out over the weekend, I was just blown away by some of the big lies in this thing and even I found it rather unfair. You know when something's up when even a big critic of the Mayor thinks the guy is being picked on unfairly.

Anyone can rip on Mayor Newsom with an endless array of provable facts. The fact that despite this, the Maldonado camapign felt a need to put a BIG ASS LIE in the middle of it made me realize that I'm going to have to write in someone for this because while I don't like seeing Newsom get a promotion he doesn't deserve, I sure as Hell can't vote for Abel either.

The lie? Well in the video they mention the death of an SFPD officer in 2006. Then they cut to a video of Newsom being interviewed by Dan Noyes of ABC7 in San Francisco. It's the famous "mad clap" video where he goes off on Noyes. You can find it at 4 minutes and 10 seconds in to the video (btw which has terrible editing. WTF?)

The problem is, Noyes wasn't asking him in 2006 about the death of an SFPD officer. Instead it was shot in 2007, and Noyes was asking about the many allegations of Newsom's alcohol abuse that were swirling around him as that and that other scandal were making its way out on the Series of Tubes.

Amazing. They had to edit a lie instead of just tell the truth. For no good reason. Yeah, we really want either one of these guys a heartbeat from the Governor's office. Time to write in your favorite celebrities or something!

Posted by Greg Dewar at 1:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Attention San Francisco! Listen up! I have a simple solution to all the bullsh*t going on right now! We can knock out several birds with one stone, and we don't have to pass any new laws to do so! Read up!

So apparently because Haight Street has some criminal punks littering the sidewalks, we in the rest of the city have to vote on some stupid "Sit/Lie" law to appease a few people in one street in one neighborhood. We don't need to do this though. (And really, do you want to get a pile of junk mail and epic yelling from all sides on this for the next 3 months? Hell no!)

So here's what I, as someone who's not a six-figure city employee, came up with in about 20 minutes:

-I was reading at the ever entertaining Uptown Almanac blog a raging debate about sweeps done by SFPD via motorcycle, crackin' down on drinkin', smokin' and the like. But look, there's like, 6+ members of the police on motorcycles. For one park! Even though there's way worse crime going down in Golden Gate Park (tree murders! muggings! coyotes having sex! Whatever!) And it's a bigger park!

-So then, I thought "But wait. The eastern edge of Golden Gate Park has way more problems, and it's also where the bad and sad that is Haight Street begins. Perhaps it might be smart to redeploy these police officers there?" Think about it. If Haight Street is the epicenter of crap in San Francisco, perhaps a rapidly deployable police force in the area might help, yes?

-So here's the deal - take 4 of the SFPD at Dolores Park. Move them over to Haight Street. Have a vigilant populace call in any criminal crap these kids pull (drugs, harassing people, threatening people with dogs, etc). Send in motorized police, have them arrested, and put in jail. Seize any and all illegal substances, and make sure everyone see this happen. Repeat as necessary until stupid trustafarians and kids from the suburbs get the message: it ain't the f*cking 60s anymore, and you can't bully and steal and do drugs on the streets.

There. Problem solved with existing laws (surely crack smoking is illegal, Mr. Mayor?!?), and we don't have to listen to the epic whining on all sides about the "sit/lie" law. Problem solved.

PS: And if that doesn't work? File ADA lawsuits for all the mean kids blocking the sidewalks. Because if there's one thing we know that work's like Thor's hammer in SF, it's an ADA lawsuit. I'm not kidding. I suggested the same to shut down the illegal prostitution in the Outer Sunset.

Posted by Greg Dewar at 2:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

For fun, I've collected all of the satirical trailers of "The Social Network" in one place. Because that's being productive, right?

If I could get access to some cameras and some youthful actors, I've got a script for "The Muni Blog" ready to go...

The Original:

The Twitter Version:

The YouTube version

annnd The MySpace version

Posted by Greg Dewar at 3:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Oh, here we go. Once again, we can rely on Sup. Eric Mar for legislation that's all about the feel good and the headlines, but not about the policy. Today, we find out that he wants to ban Happy Meals, because he wants to protect the children from their own parents and guardians, and because it sounds cool to him and his ilk. You can bet the SF Gate comments are flipping out about this one.

It sounds noble - until you realize like most SF legislation, is another half-assed idea hatched to make someone look good. As always, this will apply to Big Evil Chains - but you know that they'll exempt "local" restaurants, just like with the fake plastic bag ban. And, it will generate lots of heat, but the alleged goal (healthier children) is lost. Instead of wasting dollars on some showboaty measure like this, why not instead get more healthy produce in neighborhoods that have none? Why not instead educate parents so they can make informed decisions? Fast food shouldn't be a daily staple - but taking your kid to McDonalds once in a while will not kill them, either.

Oh wait. I forgot. Not only would that be a long term commitment to policies and program that won't show up on his next election mailer, it might also call attention to Mar's own shameful record on child nutrition.

What's that you say? Well, Mr. Mar was once a member of the San Francisco School Board. Want to see what kind of healthy lunches they're serving? Check out this student-made video that shows what they're serving at Lowell High, the gem of the school system:

While the video was made in 2009, after Mr. Mar left office, it is ludicrous to think this only started after he left office. Same goes for ongoing non compliance with complex regulations.

Interesting. We have people in office who don't mind coming up with "flavor of the month" policies, instead of long term effective solutions that aren't as showy. They generate regulations that are needlessly complex and don't serve the intended goal (in this case making sure kids get healthy options for lunch, etc.) and leave the detritus for someone else to deal with.

But subject them to such regulations, as the school district was, and suddenly it's a human rights violation.

Hmm.

To Summarize: Better food for kids=good. Giving parents the options and information about said choices=good. Getting better quality food, fresh vegetables, etc. to all neighborhoods=good. Showboaty regulations that are ill thought out and are intended mostly for a mail piece in 2012=FAIL.

UPDATE: Thanks for the link, SF Weekly!

Posted by Greg Dewar at 9:31 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)