CITY PROPS GUIDE FOR TUESDAY - YES ON B, G, & L, NO ON D

Here's San Fransanity's handy-dandy print off guide for City Props.

I'll add a more in depth analysis of Prop L - the sit/lie law - later. There's a few other ones I'll need to elaborate on as well.

As usual, if you don't understand a proposition - particularly one which increases spending or taxes - vote no.

A - NO - more later

AA - no recommendation - This is a $10 per year fee tacked on to auto registration to pay for

street repairs, crosswalk improvements, and "bicycle infrastructure." While I don't so much like these sort of fees (and "fee" is San Francisco-speak for "tax"), this one is pretty modest and does seem to go to an area which needs help and which benefit everyone and not just the usual parasites. Make your own choice. I mean... do that anyway, of course... but no help from me on this one...

B - YES, YES, YES - San Francisco Public Employees need to pay their fair share for their health plans and stop bilking the taxpayers. The No on B folks are whining about kids being without health care and people being forced to move out of the city but they are talking out their assholes... even if B passes, SF employees will still be grossly overpaid and overcompensated, and will still pay far less for their health care than you do... in fact, you are the one paying for it now, a little detail that unions simply don't care about or are too ideologically blinded to put this simple equation together.

C - NO - Chris Daly's "brainchild" is back yet again, to make the Mayor jump through hoops and attend monthly verbal abuse sessions with the Board of Mental Incompetents. Vote this one down - again.

D - NO, NO, FUCK NO - Allows illegal aliens to vote in municipal elections. Aside from the fact that the City Attorney has already said that this is probably illegal, and would certainly end up in court, it is also JUST FUCKING WRONG. In addition to being JUST FUCKING WRONG, it creates a real problem - as illegal aliens could only vote in school board races, and only in cases where they are the parent, guardian, or caretaker of a student - that makes voting in a polling place an even more confusing experience, and would cost between $100,000-$150,000 extra per election. But these are small potatoes compared to the real reason why you should vote no on D - BECAUSE IT IS JUST FUCKING WRONG.

E - NO - Allows same day voter registration. $425,000 price tag... plus a major incentive for voter fraud? Vote no.

F - YES - Sean Elsbernd - the lone voice of fiscal sanity on the Board - put this one on to save a few bucks on Health Board elections. Why not?

G - YES, YES, YES - The "stick-it-to-MUNI" measure whereby everyone's favorite union - the MUNI drivers - would have to negotiate through collective bargaining like every other city union, forcing them to come to the table on work-rule concessions, something the union has absolutely no incentive to do as they are guaranteed to be among the highest in the country. It is not out of the question that MUNI would strike just for spite if this passes. Fuck 'em. San Francisco needs to extricate its balls from MUNI's vice. Vote YES.

H - YES - If you need any further proof that San Francisco is a one-party state, this is it. Placed on the ballot by the Mayor to get back at his far-left rivals on the Board, its main goal is to keep far-left Supervisors from simultaneously holding positions on the DCCC - the Communist-style politburo that runs Democratic Party politics (and, therefore, all politics) in the city. There's something to be said for the idea that a Supe should be spending their time doing their job and not running for another office. But the point of the measure is to keep the DCCC from becoming the tool of powerful Supervisors. The DCCC will still be the insane, batshit, nutball conglomeration of mental defectives it has always been, but at least they won't have a direct line to city government, and it won't be as subject to the type of Stalinist "purges" that tend to happen when Supes are in high positions and want to "eliminate" up and comers who disagree with them.

I - NO - Part III in the Stupid Costly Voter Reform trilogy. $1.7 million to have voting on Saturday before election Tuesday. Anyone who can't get their shit together enough to vote on Tuesday or send a ballot in the fucking mail probably isn't going to be able to get their shit together to vote on Saturday. Another pricey solution in search of a problem.

J - NO - Jacks up the hotel tax rates to the highest in the nation - higher than NYC!!! This in a town where tourism is the number one industry. But then... that's "Progressive" thinking for you! Seriously, how fucking stupid can these people be???

K - NO - Another hotel tax measure designed to close a loophole that lets online booking houses pay the tax on the wholesale, and not retail, rate. This is apparently already being settled in court, and would just create more problems. It also contains a poison pill that overrides Prop J. I hate poison pill tactics and hope they're made illegal. Better just to defeat J (and K for that matter) outright.

L - YES - This was a tough one. I ultimately decided to go with it. More later.

M - NO - Poison Pill to nullify Prop L if it passes. These type of things shouldn't be on the ballot in the first place, and I expect that they will be made illegal some time in the future. In the meantime... just vote no.

N - NO - After doubling the tax on property transactions two years ago, they now want to increase it again by a 33% on properties of $5 to 10 million, and by 66% on properties over $10 million. Pretty good deal for doing nothing. But then getting paid obscene amounts of money for doing nothing is... well... no need to beat a dead horse.

A Love Letter to the San Francisco Giants

Me not very good putting feelings into words - at least not feelings that aren't incandescent rage :)

So I'll let blogger Rocketshoes sum it up. GO GIANTS!!!

*****

A Love Letter to the San Francisco Giants

This is why I’m a Giants fan. This exact moment. Scratch that: this is why I like stupid, grunt grunt sports in general. San Francisco, this very moment.

It’s legitimately a magical time in San Francisco right now. I have the fortune of working approximately two blocks away from AT&T/”For Christsakes, it’s PacBell” Park, and it’s been absolutely surreal. If a unicorn came around the corner and high fived me right now and said, “Go Giants”, I wouldn’t even take an earbud out. I’d just high hoove him right back and point and smile.

For people who don’t understand why people love sports so much, move to a town where this kind of thing might happen, and you’ll get it.

This team has done something to this city that is unreal. It’s even more unreal because this is San Francisco. Home of the polarizing “I hate your district NO I HATE YOUR DISTRICT LET’S MAKE OUT THOUGH BECAUSE WE BOTH LOVE SAN FRANCISCO” landscape. Hipsters hate marina guys. Marina guys hate hipsters. We judge every goddamn thing on the planet that isn’t organic, and then can’t understand why people judge the crap out of us right back (irony alert). I mean…I work down the block from afucking artisan grilled cheese store. This town is, by no means, indicative of the rest of the American landscape. We’re just weird, and we embrace the living crap out of it.

And right now, everyone is a Giants fan. Everyone. Your grandma. That homeless guy directing you into a wide open parking spot and then expecting you to congratulate him for his non-feat with a dollar. Right now? I’d give him two. Because this town is effing electric.

You know what? To all the people who hate “bandwagon” fans? Let it go. Who cares. You know who you are? You’re the guy who liked the Kings of Leon and then got mad when everyone else did. You’re the guy who said “this band is SO good”, and then when someone said, “hey I agree” you said NO YOU DON’T ONLY I CAN LIKE THEM. That’s silly. Knock it off. Let them in. Buy them a beer, or a kombucha. Whatever it is. I don’t care. Just let this happen and stop Eeyoring the crap out of our unlimited happiness we’re on the brink of.

I love sports for this reason. Every now and then, everyone just stops being so damn frumpy and acts like our city is just a big college. You ever been to a college town thatreally loves their team a scary amount? Like, Ray Finkel’s Mom amounts? It’s great. You know why? Because everyone is just actually nice to each other. You have a common bond. And whether or not it’s a bond that is contingent upon a guy throwing a ball or waving a wooden stick, it’s an awesome bond.

I love this time. I find myself smiling at people when I buy coffee. I see my friends who bicker over ridiculous crap calling each other and inviting each other to hang out. I see strangers hugging because a guy from the Dominican Republic is hitting sac fly’s. Marina guys are wearing the same goddamn t-shirt hipster guys are wearing. HOW CAN YOU NOT BOTTLE THIS MOMENT UP? We’re in a vacuum. Enjoy it.

I have grown up with the Giants. My brother and I spend half of our “that’s so adorable that they are ACTUALLY best friends” time talking to each other about them; it genuinely brings us together. It’s in the blood of my family, and I was taught from a very young age to bring a blanket to the ‘stick because it’s never a comfortable temperature in this city. My mother and father brought our family together with this ridiculous game. If you never lived here or you’re just getting on the bandwagon? Let me be your creepy metaphorical father and open the front door and hand you a beer. Welcome. We love you, too.

So fear the Just for Men beard. Embrace the fact that every woman in town is in love with the good guy (THAT NEVER HAPPENS IN REAL LIFE). Embrace the fact that we have a pitcher that resembles one of the greatest characters in film history, one Mitch Kramer (he even smokes pot…how San Francisco is that?). Embrace it.

No matter what happens, San Francisco, embrace it. This is why we like sports. Because they are ridiculous, and they make people really happy when we’d usually just bide the time complaining about what we don’t like about each other.

Embrace it, San Francisco. This is why we like each other. Right now.

Fear the goddamn beard.

Everything Changes Tuesday

As you may have noticed, I've begun a flurry of last minute postings on the election.

I wish I could've got to it earlier, but the Giants have quite inconveniently gone to the World Series and are poised to become World Champions for the first time in over 50 years, so that has been occupying most of my time (fan since 1973). So, yeah... the election is important, but there are other things even more important.

So I will - somehow - get all the race, state props and local props up by Monday.

"This is not so much an election as a restraining order."

-PJ O'Rourke

We Need A Miracle

John Dennis is tilting at the ultimate windmill... trying to knock off Nancy Pelosi - the Democratic Party's Deng Xiao Ping in the Liberal One Party State known as CA District 8.

His chances for victory are quite slim, but he deserves your vote.

Now, you might think I would be 100% behind anyone running against Pelosi, but the truth is there are many issues where I do not agree with Dennis' stance. That said, he is by far the lesser of two evils, and anything that can be done to break the political stalemate in San Francisco has got to be supported.

San Francisco is perhaps the most anti-democratic (with a small 'd') city in the United States. The City is entirely controlled by one party - the ironically-named Democratic Party - and the Democratic County Central Committee operates like a Soviet-era politburo. Many elected positions in city government are filled more or less by appointment than by election - many of them are settled in "races" where the hand-picked leftist runs unopposed.

Pelosi may not be part of the dysfunctional family power struggle of SF city politics, but she's a symptom of the same problem. She is the choice of people who don't believe that people should have a choice, or, to be more specific, who don't believe that people are intelligent enough to run their own lives.

Sadly, many San Franciscans don't seem to have any problem living in a one-party state, and don't seem to grasp that this isn't a good thing - no matter what end of the political spectrum you're on. Which kind of makes you wonder how they feel about democracy (or freedom, or America) in general....

********************

SF Examiner endorses Dennis...

Send the speaker a message

Rep. Nancy Pelosi will no longer be speaker if Republicans take over the House of Representatives, or even if they come close, thanks to the many House Democratic incumbents and candidates who have promised not to vote for her in the new Congress.

Our sister publication, The Washington Examiner, asked Pelosi’s office whether she would pledge to serve out her full term if re-elected. It has not heard back. So a vote for Pelosi is probably a waste of your time. And it is a bad idea.

It would reward her hurried passage of an $814 billion stimulus package written behind closed doors that has done nothing to prevent local unemployment from rising to 10.6 percent during the past year. It would reward her for ramming through a health care reform bill that will benefit few San Franciscans, given that nearly all our uninsured are covered under Medi-Cal or Healthy San Francisco.

The main result locally will be the thousands of residents forced to buy new and more-expensive insurance plans. The procedural gimmicks involved in passing Obamacare — and, notably, Pelosi’s own statement that “we have to pass the bill so that you can find out what is in it” — did more than anything else to sour Americans on Democrats.

Pelosi’s two-term speakership has been characterized by the arrogance of power. Her rental of a $19,000-a- month office downtown at taxpayers’ expense — the most expensive of any House member, possibly of all time — is but one example.

During her 85 military aircraft flights since March, she has racked up a six-figure food-and-drink tab. She made the 111th Congress the most opaque in history, with bills of a thousand or more pages routinely written in secret without committee input, then thrown to the floor mere hours before votes were taken.

Even worse, after years of singing the virtues of patriotic dissent against Bush administration policies, Pelosi falsely branded dissenters on Obamacare as Nazis “carrying swastikas and symbols like that,” then denouncing those who challenged their members of Congress in town hall meetings as “drowning out opposing views” and therefore “un-American.”

The Examiner does not believe that Pelosi has ever been drowned out, given the enormous power and speaking platform she possesses. Further, we view her attempt to demonize dissenters as far more dangerous to democracy than anyone’s protest. Therefore, we encourage voters in the 8th Congressional District to support her opponent, John Dennis — an anti-war, pro-marijuana Republican.

A vote for Dennis will send a strong, clear message that dictatorial policymaking, the lavish and unnecessary spending of tax dollars on wasteful programs and personal perks, and demonization of the political opposition are unacceptable behavior for officeholders of any party or philosophy.

Coming Soon to America - If Liberals Have Anything to Say About It

From Stand With Arizona (and Against Illegal Immigration) on facebook...

This is Mexico. Does this video remind you of anything - in another part of the world? Next time you hear Janet Napolitano and her lackadaisical attitude towards securing the border, think about this, and ask yourself: How Long? How long until the mayhem of Mexico is visited upon Americans? Until some of the 28,000 murdered since 2007 starts to include our citizens? And how long do we have to wait until the Feds build the damn wall they promised us, to keep out this growing cancer next door?

Looking Forward to Tuesday

From the Telegraph (UK)...

Paul Krugman and the Last Gasp of the Liberal Elites

Is this the last gasp from America’s liberal elites before the November mid-terms on Tuesday? This is what economist Paul Krugman has to say in The New York Times today, predicting “political chaos”, with the hysterical warning – “if the elections go as expected next week, here’s my advice: Be afraid. Be very afraid.”

This is going to be terrible. In fact, future historians will probably look back at the 2010 election as a catastrophe for America, one that condemned the nation to years of political chaos and economic weakness.

Krugman then goes on to blame George W. Bush for America’s economic problems, including the huge budget deficit, to which Barack Obama has added $3 trillion since taking office:

The economy, weighed down by the debt that households ran up during the Bush-era bubble, is in dire straits; deflation, not inflation, is the clear and present danger. And it’s not at all clear that the Fed has the tools to head off this danger. Right now we very much need active policies on the part of the federal government to get us out of our economic trap.

But we won’t get those policies if Republicans control the House. In fact, if they get their way, we’ll get the worst of both worlds: They’ll refuse to do anything to boost the economy now, claiming to be worried about the deficit, while simultaneously increasing long-run deficits with irresponsible tax cuts — cuts they have already announced won’t have to be offset with spending cuts.

Not only is Krugman’s article one of the most ridiculous pieces of scare-mongering in the history of modern American journalism, but it is the pathetic whimper of a decaying liberal Ancien Regime that is spectacularly crumbling. It also illustrates just how out of touch liberal elites are with public opinion, as well as economic reality. The tired old blame Bush line no longer works, and as a recent poll showed, the former president’s popularity is rising again.

Whether Krugman likes it or not, the American people are turning overwhelmingly against Barack Obama’s Big Government agenda, and are looking for free market solutions to getting the country back on its feet, creating jobs and cutting the nation’s debt. As poll after poll shows, Americans are rejecting the liberal status quo and embracing the political revolution sweeping the country. My guess is that historians will look back on November 2010 not as a “catastrophe”, as Krugman declares, but as the beginning of a powerful new era for the United States, when conservatism and the cause of freedom made a striking comeback.

The article generated this response in the comments. If we are to be afraid of the future, then this poster outlines the real reasons that we should be - maybe not afraid - but vigilant, steadfast, and ready for anything...

One thing we should understand: for the Left and its enablers, the entire battle is that of propaganda. Of 'getting the message out'. Their entire edifice is built on pure lies.

Every single thing they say is a lie. Everything about their intentions, everything about their own methods, everything about their own identities---every single thing is a lie. So, the alleged 'intellects' of the Left are always busy spinning things out of any cotton they can find, and more often, they spin things out of thin air. No cotton required. It is an existential imperative for them. Just like if you are a farmer, you *have* to farm in order to survive (or change the vocation), and if you are a scientist, you have to pursue truth, if you are a Leftist, you can not not lie.

This krugman is no different and no more orginal then the original Leftists--the Jacobins and the Bolsheviks and the "Social Democrats" and "Progressives" and such. And when they are caught red-handed lying (and committing unspeakable crimes against humanity), the only response they know is to lie some more. They will say and do the most mind-bogglingly untrue things and keep the battle going until their last breath---literally.

There is no redemption for a Leftist. No renunciation of his own house of intellectual virtual cards. Because nothing can replace the nothing that they are pathologically addicted to. However. And this is a big big however, one must never say, 'last gasp of the Left'. Because anther of their greatest characteristics is that they *never* ever, that is, *never* *ever* give up.

Their indvidiual evil dies *only* when they actually give up the ghost---literally. And their collective soul keeps living inside those who still haven't bought the farm. As a particularly adept observer of the american left, i can assure you that these current times are *far* from the 'last gasp of the Left'. Indeed, it is anything BUT the last gasp. It is, however, a turning point for them.

Realizing early on in 20th century that americans are not going to buy their Leftist nonsense if sold overtly, they spent nearly a hundred years corrupting america with their slow and steady covert attack ... in the name of 'liberalism' etc. (with the exception of few years in the sixties where they came out of their little burrows and openly tried a revolution).

The current time----pre-election---the past two years, have been the crowning zenith of their covert operations, and as soon as they got the power in 2008 they thought that they had it made. They lost all inhibition and carefullness and, in terms of their actions, came out in the open as to who they really are, and what they really want. Now it is very unlikely that people are going back to buying their older brand of snake oil.

The covert career of the Left in america is over. That does not mean Left is dying or is dead. It only means that now they have nothing to loose, and they will hit the streets with overt anti-american action. Not exactly in the sixties' fashion, but you *will* see a lot more direct action than you did in the sixties. It is now or never for these people. And if they loose america, she will survive to revive the ideals of liberty and freedom from government tyranny, and hence will prosper (like before), and that means the Left looses their entire global war of past 100 years.

They are *not* going to give up that easily. Not because a mere electorate votes them out. They don't give a damn about such electorate or about the Democracy or about the Constitution. Indeed, it is these things they have been trying to undermine all these years. Now they can attack those things directly, and already have in past two years. Expect a thousand times more of that in near future. This war between Left and Right is far from over. The real war starts after the Left in america officially looses the 100 year covert battle. Wear your seatbelt, and enjoy the ride.

Who Will I Be Voting For?

An interesting thing happened at work today...

I went into the alley behind the office for a smoke and found, on the ground, a check for $950. An unemployment check. For $950. I found it ironic as just moments before I was having a co-worker turn a handful of dimes I'd fished out of my piggy back into a $5 so I could buy some lunch.

Yeah, I'm burnt out from overwork, and here's someone getting a bigger paycheck than me for not working.

This fucking country.

The person I'm voting for is someone who will stand up for working Americans - and not the liberal's version of "working Americans" which really means "NON-working Americans."

I will vote for the person who will fight for me and keep me from getting fucked on my bills and on my taxes.

I will vote for the person who cares more about citizens and victims of crime than criminals (which rules out Kamala Fucking Harris right there).

I will vote for the person who helps those struggling to make it who are trying desperately, and not reward leeches who sponge off of the government.

I will vote for the person who is not xenomaniacal. I will vote for the person who cares for their citizens first.

I will vote for the person who stands up for the normal people and not just the most fucked up.

.... by the way, I tore up the check. Let the person do some work and get it reissued.