SF Moonbats

Second tax lien for Oakland mayor: $13,000 for '08

2010-01-21T23:50:00.000-08:00

Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums and his wife, who already have a lien on their property for failing to pay more than $239,000 in taxes to the Internal Revenue Service, are now facing a second lien for more than $13,000, records show.

Dellums, 73, and his wife, Cynthia, 55, who acts as his unpaid adviser, are named in an IRS lien filed with the Alameda County recorder's office Dec. 23 in the amount of $13,638.

The lien, which says it is for tax year 2008, comes two months after the couple were slapped with a lien in Alameda County for failing to pay $239,000 in taxes from 2005 to 2007, the year Dellums took office as mayor.

Paul Rose, Dellums' spokesman, said Thursday that the mayor is "in the process of dealing with the matter."

A lien naming Ron Dellums was also filed in October in Washington, D.C., where he lived for more than 30 years as a member of Congress and later a lobbyist. Both the mayor and his wife are also named in two additional liens in Washington, D.C., filed in November and December, records show.

The Dellumses own a house in Washington, which was assessed at $1.4 million in 2007, public records show. They rent a four-bedroom, three-bathroom home with 3,200 square feet on Skyline Boulevard in the Oakland hills.

E-mail Henry K. Lee at hlee@sfchronicle.com.

This is Liberalism: Flying to a Global Warming Conference

2009-05-10T18:48:00.000-07:00

Do as I say, not as I do, says Thomas Friedman, liberal hypocrite.

Air board pays $75K for columnist's speech

Phillip Matier, Andrew Ross for the SF Chronicle

Sunday, May 10, 2009

Judging by the $75,000 speaking fee it paid to New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman, the Bay Area Air Quality Management District has plenty of green to burn even in these lean times.

The agency, which gets its money from business permits and federal and state sources, booked the Pulitzer Prize-winning pundit to appear this past week at its big climate summit in downtown Oakland's Fox Theater, attended by 500 invited bureaucrats.

In addition to Friedman's speaking fee, the air board picked up his tab for a night at the Claremont Resort.

Air district spokeswoman Lisa Fasano put the summit cost at $200,000 - or about $400 per participant.

Fasano said the idea was to bring together managers and planners to "spark even greater movement" in the effort to reduce the Bay Area's greenhouse-gas footprint.

Friedman spent about two hours with the group, including answering questions and autographing copies of his latest book, "Hot, Flat and Crowded" - in which he argues that a national strategy of "geo-Greenism" is needed to save the planet from global warming and to make the country more productive.

As for reports that Friedman's talk was almost identical to a speech he gave in November in Florida at a National League of Cities confab - which is available online for free? "That very likely may be," Fasano said. "But this certainly is much more moving and inspirational to see and hear in person."

For that price, we hope so.

Victor Davis Hanson on California's Mess

2009-02-05T23:46:00.000-08:00

Thoughts on the Therapeutic Style

Posted By Victor Davis Hanson On January 31, 2009 @ 10:40 pm

Who is the “They” now in California?

How does one explain how California is broke, tens of billions of dollars in aggregate debt, despite having among the highest sales and income taxes in the nation?

We are naturally rich beyond belief—timber, oil, agriculture, a long sea-coast, wonderful weather, mountains, sea, and valleys—and inherited lucrative industries in tourism, computers and software, defense and great universities. Our grandparents left us a once wonderful freeway network, a tripartite higher education system, ports, airports, dams and canals.

So what went wrong, and why are tens of thousands of Californians leaving the state with bachelor degrees and above, while tens of thousands enter without high-school diplomas?

Many answers have been offered—incompetent governance, judicial intrusions, the ballot propositions, trial lawyers, unions, dysfunctional and politically-correct schools, or illegal immigration. But look at it in some sense as the long hoped-for end of the nebulous “them / they.”

For years the open borders lobby accused “them” (whites? The establishment? Conservatives? etc.) of racism in wanting the border with Mexico closed, an end to state entitlements to illegal aliens (remember the Satanic Prop 187?), and deportations of thousands of aliens in state prisons (a cost nearing $1 billion per annum). But now the state legislature is largely controlled by those who in the past argued for de facto open borders and an expansion, not a curtailment, of entitlements for those without legal residence. So whom to blame? There is no “they” anymore. The outsiders are insiders and own the state—and its contradictions they once helped to ensure.

Ditto environmentalism. “They” (fill in the blanks: right-wing employers, CEOs, national companies, etc.) were the villains to be overcome in order to stop drilling off our shores, and to put ever more of our timber and recreational and scenic areas into no-use wilderness areas. We were not to build dams. No more canals. Put aside more farm land. No more nuclear plants. Forget coal. Tax gasoline and make it expensive to refine. It is fair to say now that the environmentalist agenda runs the state, and so there likewise is no more “them” to blame—and we must live with the results. I cannot begin to count in my own personal realm of knowledge the farmers who went broke, the high-tech engineers who moved to Nevada, the small business owners who shut down or moved out of state.

Anyone with capital who wants to start business X, knows that he can be put out of business by one supposed sexual harassment suit, a racial discrimination complaint, trying to fathom 500 pages of state EPA applications, a 10% income tax rate, and now a 9% sales tax to come. In California we hunt out the misdemeanor and ignore the felonies. Drive down my avenue, drop five trash bags of wet garbage on the side of the road, and the chances are great you will never be held accountable (even if your receipts are found in the trash and turned over to the sheriff), but please don’t wire an outdoor light in the barnyard without a permit. You see, anyone who nods and obeys the law and pays, we hound; anyone who simply won’t or can’t, or causes too much trouble, we the state employee simply ignore.

Ditto unions and big government. Ever more high pensions, ever more strict work rules, ever more administrators and high salaries, ever more rules against firing and accountability—and ever fewer to pay for it all. The evil “they” who used to try to moderate unions and state spending are gone—dead, moved away, retired, zilch. And so we the taxpayers work for the unionized government employee rather than vice versa.

So now those who want unchecked entitlements, open immigration, restrictions on resource development, unionized work forces and ever expanded government won—and won big. The problem is, again, the evil “they” who were to pay for all this in ever increased income and sales taxes, to take the blame of being racist, or sexist, or homophobic or greedy, are pretty much gone (cf. the last stand of the 1% of the state that pays the majority of state income taxes). There are no more “greedy” left to pay money or emotional penance, and the therapeutic mindset is now screaming to high heaven as it looks for its awful, but missing mean parent to make it all right.

Victor Davis Hanson on California, Leftists and Education

2008-11-25T13:37:00.000-08:00

On California

California is now a valuable touchstone to the country, a warning of what not to do. Rarely has a single generation inherited so much natural wealth and bounty from the investment and hard work of those more noble now resting in our cemeteries—and squandered that gift within a generation.

Compare the vast gulf from old Governor Pat Brown to Gray Davis or Arnold Schwarzenegger. We did not invest in many dams, canals, rails, and airports (though we use them all to excess); we sued each other rather than planned; wrote impact statements rather than left behind infrastructure; we redistributed, indulged, blamed, and so managed all at once to create a state with about the highest income and sales taxes and the worst schools, roads, hospitals, and airports.

A walk through downtown San Francisco, a stroll up the Fresno downtown mall, a drive along highway 101 (yes, in many places it is still a four-lane, pot-holed highway), an afternoon at LAX, a glance at the catalogue of Cal State Monterey, a visit to the park in Parlier—all that would make our forefathers weep. We can’t build a new nuclear plant; can’t drill a new offshore oil well; can’t build an all-weather road across the Sierra; can’t build a few tracts of new affordable houses in the Bay Area; can’t build a dam for a water-short state; and can’t create even a mediocre passenger rail system. Everything else—well, we do that well.

On Leftists

As I wrote earlier, the shrill Left is increasingly far more vicious these days than the conservative fringe, and about like the crude Right of the 1950s. Why? I am not exactly sure, other than the generic notion that utopians often believe that their anointed ends justify brutal means.

Maybe it is that the Right already had its Reformation when Buckley and others purged the extremists—the Birchers, the neo-Confederates, racialists, the fluoride-in-the-water conspiracists, anti-Semites, and assorted nuts.—from the conservative ranks in a way the Left has never done with the 1960s radicals that now reappear in the form of Michael Moore, Bill Ayers, Cindy Sheehan, Moveon.org, the Daily Kos, etc. Not many Democrats excommunicated Moveon.org for its General Betray-Us ad. Most lined up to see the premier of Moore’s mythodrama.

Barack Obama could subsidize a Rev. Wright or email a post-9/11 Bill Ayers in a way no conservative would even dare speak to a David Duke or Timothy McVeigh—and what Wright said was not all that different from what Duke spouts. What separated Ayers from McVeigh was chance; had the stars aligned, the Weathermen would have killed hundreds as they planned.

On Education

The K-12 public education system is essentially wrecked. No longer can any professor expect an incoming college freshman to know what Okinawa, John Quincy Adams, Shiloh, the Parthenon, the Reformation, John Locke, the Second Amendment, or the Pythagorean Theorem is. An entire American culture, the West itself, its ideas and experiences, have simply vanished on the altar of therapy.

This upcoming generation knows instead not to judge anyone by absolute standards (but not why so); to remember to say that its own Western culture is no different from, or indeed far worse than, the alternatives; that race, class, and gender are, well, important in some vague sense; that global warming is manmade and very soon will kill us all; that we must have hope and change of some undefined sort; that AIDs is no more a homosexual- than a heterosexual-prone disease; and that the following things and people for some reason must be bad, or at least must in public company be said to be bad (in no particular order): Wal-Mart, cowboys, the Vietnam War, oil companies, coal plants, nuclear power, George Bush, chemicals, leather, guns, states like Utah and Kansas, Sarah Palin, vans and SUVs

How Not to Teach Our Kids

2008-10-14T14:40:00.000-07:00

What a load of bullshit. No wonder the public schools have gone down the crapper.

From the SF Chronicle:

A group of San Francisco first-graders took an unusual field trip to City Hall on Friday to toss rose petals on their just-married lesbian teacher - putting the public school children at the center of a fierce election battle over the fate of same-sex marriage.

The 18 Creative Arts Charter School students took a Muni bus and walked a block at noon to toss rose petals and blow bubbles on their just-married teacher Erin Carder and her wife Kerri McCoy, giggling and squealing as they mobbed their teacher with
hugs.

This is liberal brainwashing at its worst.

Black population deserting S.F., study says

2008-08-14T13:44:00.000-07:00

The white liberal paradise that is San Francisco is driving out the few remaining black residents.

African Americans are leaving San Francisco because of substandard schools, a lack of affordable housing and the dearth of jobs and black culture, according to a report by a committee looking into the exodus.

The African American Out-migration Task Force, put together by the mayor's office last year to figure out what can be done to preserve the city's remaining black population and cultivate new residents, presented its findings at a public hearing Thursday called by Supervisor Chris Daly. San Francisco's black population has
dropped faster than that of any other large U.S. city's. It went from 13.4 percent in 1970 to an estimated 6.5 percent in 2005, according to the census. Nationally, African Americans make up 12.1 percent of the population.

Of course, I'm not surprised. White liberals have never been interested in living among the lower classes--only patronizing them and tagging them as "victims" of racism. In this case, it's turned out to be true. Oh, the irony.

S.F. Fund Aids Teen Felons Who Are Illegals

2008-08-04T09:59:00.000-07:00

The headline says it all. At last the SF Chronicle is doing its job: reporting on the corruption that ails this region. Excerpt here (read it and weep):

As San Francisco's juvenile justice system shielded young illegal immigrant felons from possible deportation, Mayor Gavin Newsom's office gave grants totaling more than $650,000 to nonprofit agencies to provide the underage offenders with free services - everything from immigration attorneys to housing assistance to "arts and cultural affirmation activities," city records show.

Newsom has said the city began its policy of not referring young immigrant offenders to federal authorities for deportation under previous mayors, and that he reversed the practice after he became aware of it this year. However, in 2006, the Mayor's Office of Criminal Justice - a community outreach arm of Newsom's office - created a grant program specifically designed to assist, rather than deport, "undocumented, unaccompanied and monolingual" immigrants who were in the custody of the city's Juvenile Probation Department or on juvenile probation, according to city documents.

The city provided $467,000 to three nonprofit agencies under the grant program from mid-2006 and mid-2008, records show, and another $200,000 was approved for two of the agencies for this budget year.

Newsom's office created the program, in part, to deal with an influx of Central American youths being housed on drug charges at San Francisco's juvenile hall, according to those familiar with the grant. Crowding at juvenile hall had led to protests among youth advocate groups.

San Francisco Shielded and Released a Killer of Three

2008-07-25T10:08:00.000-07:00

From the San Francisco Chronicle:

Authorities couldn't fully explain Monday how an alleged gang member and suspected illegal immigrant was able walk out of jail in San Francisco - three months before police say he shot and killed a father and two sons.

Edwin Ramos, 21, appeared in court Monday on charges stemming from the June 22 slayings of Anthony Bologna and his sons Michael and Matthew. Police say the three were shot near their home in the Excelsior district when Anthony Bologna, driving home from a family picnic, briefly blocked the gunman's car from completing a left turn down a narrow street.

The Chronicle reported on Sunday how Ramos, a native of El Salvador, was repeatedly shielded as a juvenile from deportation by city officials who failed to notify federal authorities of separate assault and attempted robberies he committed when he was 17.

Things took an unexplained turn earlier this year when Ramos, now a 21-year-old adult, was jailed on gun and gang allegations in San Francisco. Federal and local officials struggled Monday to explain the circumstances surrounding his release - given that his status as an illegal immigrant was known to federal authorities - when local prosecutors didn't file charges.

He was arrested on March 30 when police stopped his car in the Tenderloin and a passenger in the car tried to dispose of a handgun. After three days in jail, Ramos was released. Police learned that the weapon tied to his passenger had been used in a double murder the day before. But at the time, prosecutors could not tie the weapon to Ramos, instead seeking charges against his passenger.

Prior to this triple murder, San Francisco had an official policy of shielding illegal aliens from federal immigration authorities. Now three family members are dead and a city is asking itself why city officials have been preventing dangerous felons from getting deported.

San Francisco Protects Crack Dealers from Feds

2008-07-01T11:42:00.000-07:00

Your San Francisco tax dollars at work. From the SF Chronicle:

An effort by San Francisco to shield eight young Honduran crack dealers from federal immigration officials backfired when the youths escaped from Southern California group homes within days of their arrival, officials said Monday. The walkaways are the latest in a string of embarrassments for city officials who are protecting illegal-immigrant drug dealers from federal authorities and possible deportation because of San Francisco's 1989 declaration that the city is a sanctuary for undocumented immigrants.

Until recently, San Francisco flew juvenile illegal immigrants convicted of drug crimes to their home countries rather than cooperate with the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, a practice that drew national attention when The Chronicle reported it Sunday.
When federal law enforcement authorities demanded that San Francisco halt the flights and began a criminal investigation, the city decided to house some of the dealers in long-term youth rehabilitation centers. Some of those centers are run by a nonprofitcompany called Silverlake Youth Services in mountain towns southeast of San Bernardino.

Eight Honduran juveniles who had been convicted of dealing drugs in San Francisco were sent within the past few weeks to the company's group homes, where one month's placement costs $7,000 per youth - an expense borne by San Francisco taxpayers.

Within 10 days of being sent to the unlocked group homes, however, all eight youths ran away, said Bill Siffermann, head of juvenile probation in San Francisco. He said his agency has issued arrest warrants for them.

Amazing. San Francisco is willing to spend $7000 a month to shield illegal alien crack dealers from Federal law enforcement authorities, but unwilling to allow its residents to carry handguns to protect themselves from these same thugs. Whose side are the City Government on?

Obama On Socialism

2008-05-20T18:03:00.000-07:00

Over the weekend, Senator Barack Obama (D-IL) spoke about his plans for controlling the behavior of American citizens once he is elected President of the US:

"We can't drive our SUVs and eat as much as we want and keep our homes on 72 degrees at all times ... and then just expect that other countries are going to say OK," Obama said.

"That's not leadership. That's not going to happen," he added.

For the record, we drive a Toyota RAV4, an SUV that gets roughly 25 miles per gallon (city/highway) in our experience, with either 2, 3, 4 or 5 passengers in the car about 90% of the time. We also keep our thermostat at about 65 degrees F in the winter, and have a food budget that includes a good percentage of organic meat, fruits and vegetables.

Obama has some nerve implying that the food at my dinner table, thermostat setting in my house and make of our family car are subject to approval by some foreign government. This brand of socialism, which includes massive tax hikes for net savers like me, is the primary reason why Barack Obama will never get my vote.

2008-04-10T05:14:00.000-07:00

San Francisco Protesters "Torched" by Alternative Route

A surprise change in the route by local leaders left an estimated ten thousand protesters waving their signs and banners at each other. In what was supposed to be a replay of the disruptions of the running of the torch in Paris and London, the decision to change the route allowed the true purpose of the event to take place with out the Moonbats infusion:

Torch leaves S.F. after surprise route shift

Rachel Gordon, Tanya Schevitz, Kevin Fagan,Marisa Lagos, Chronicle Staff Writers
Thursday, April 10, 2008

04-09) 20:28 PDT SAN FRANCISCO -- It was an Olympic-sized fake-out, and by the end of the day, instead of the violent clashes that some had feared, the Beijing Olympic torch run left only thousands of frustrated protesters on one end of San Francisco and mostly relieved runners and officials on the other.

The finger-pointing is bound to go on for days about whether changing the route at the last minute was right. But on Wednesday, Mayor Gavin Newsom and other officials said that once they got a good look mid-morning at the chanting, surging, flag-waving crowds along the torch's advertised route, they felt they had no choice.

"If we had started down that (original) route, I guarantee you would have seen helmet-clad officers with batons pushing back protesters," San Francisco Police Chief Heather Fong said.
Complaints about the bait-and-switch rang long and loud from many among the estimated 10,000 people milling along the original route all morning. Many rallied for a range of causes, such as China's human rights record and even the idea that the Olympics should be free of politics, and they viewed the torch run as an opportunity to vent their positions before an international audience focused on the torch's only stop in North America.

All anticipated a noisy, politically charged experience, perhaps even as dramatic as the demonstrations in London and Paris. Instead, the city pulled a fast one, which was evident from the moment the first runner emerged from AT&T Park and ducked into a cavernous warehouse on Pier 48 instead of heading up the Embarcadero as planned. Before the crowds could fully react, the torch runners soon emerged mysteriously two miles away on Van Ness Avenue and started a low-key trot northward into the Marina.........Link

The sad part of this story is that maybe half the folks on the original parade route may have been there to see a part of the history of this event. Instead, the other half that insisted on using this occasion to vent their political idealistic diatribes have only to look in the mirror for fault in wrecking a time honored tradition. But what more could we have expected from Moonbats?

Berkeley Moonbats Reap What They Sow

2008-02-27T17:52:00.000-08:00

Merchants in the City of Berkeley are now feeling the financial pinch of a moonbat-led effort to expel the United States Marines from the city. The Oakland Tribune reports:

People who are angry at city leaders for their anti-military stance are taking it out on businesses — canceling hotel rooms, restaurant reservations and theater tickets. They are writing letters to the Berkeley Chamber of Commerce outlining their plans to boycott the city. And they are steering clear of downtown shops because of the weekly anti-war protests that in recent weeks have become increasingly volatile.

Two weeks after the Berkeley City Council refused to apologize to the Marine Corps for calling them "uninvited and unwelcome intruders," Berkeley businesses said they are feeling the backlash from people who don't want to spend their money in the city. "We're hearing of folks canceling reservations and canceling hotel rooms, and we know there is a direct correlation. How big, I don't know. We're in a tough economic period anyway," said Ted Garrett, chief executive officer of the chamber.

The anti-American Berkeley protesters have every right to protest. Likewise, pro-American shoppers also have the right to withhold their hard-earned money in a city that supports Islamic terrorists. Count me in as a Berkeley boycotter!

A Surge In Oakland

2008-02-13T17:57:00.000-08:00

A little over a year ago, Oakland voters selected Marxist Ron Dellums as it's mayor. Since then, the city has experienced a killing spree that has seen roughly one murder every other day of the year. In "Surge in killings outrages Oakland", reporter Cecily Burt of the Oakland Tribune describes a "surge" of a type unlike what is occurring in Iraq. Instead violence abating, Oakland has become a virtually shooting gallery, with innocent bystanders getting hit in the crossfire on a regular basis.

The surge in violence — with eight people killed between Friday and Monday and many more wounded — comes as city officials prepare for a debate tonight on the best way to use the city's resources to fight crime. The Measure Y oversight committee, which advises the city on the implementation of Oakland's 2004 public safety ballot measure, is finalizing a list of 22 recommendations that will eventually be forwarded to the City Council for funding. One of those recommendations includes calling on Mayor Ron Dellums and the council members to identify ways to hire 63 police officers promised three years ago.

According to local media, Dellums "frittered" away his first year in office, making no significant policy initiatives in areas of concern to average citizens, beyond a smoking ban at bus stops. Meanwhile, crime in the city has increased dramatically, with Oakland being declared the 4th most dangerous city in the nation. Dellums resisted calls to increase the police force, claiming in a typical Marxist fashion that citizens did not want an oppressive police.

Ron Dellums was a well known supporter of Your Black Muslim Bakery, an organization accused of numerous violent acts over the years, include the August 2007 public assassination in downtown Oakland of journalist Chauncey Bailey. Dellums, even after the death of Mr. Bailey, refused to disavow a letter he sent in support of the Bakery.

Normally, I wouldn't care about what happens in Oakland, but we happen to live less than 500 meters from its border with Alameda, and so Oakland criminals often come over the bridge to rob, maim and kill people much like the Vikings did a millennium ago. It's important that we learn from the failures of Oakland and other Socialist/Marxist communities, so that we don't fall into the downward-cycling trap that has engulfed most of the Bay Area.

2008-01-31T20:29:00.000-08:00

Curt at Flopping Aces points out our neighbors across the bay can't hold a candle to their moon-batty-ness:

Berkeley To Troops - “Get Out”

Posted by: Curt @ 8:13 pm in Military, Moonbats

These kind of people are beyond disgusting.

Hey-hey, ho-ho, the Marines in Berkeley have got to go.

That’s the message from the Berkeley City Council, which voted 6-3 Tuesday night to tell the U.S. Marines that its Shattuck Avenue recruiting station “is not welcome in the city, and if recruiters choose to stay, they do so as uninvited and unwelcome intruders.”

In addition, the council voted to explore enforcing its law prohibiting discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation against the Marines because of the military’s don’t ask, don’t tell policy. And it officially encouraged the women’s peace group Code Pink to impede the work of the Marines in the city by protesting in front of the station.

Just utterly contemptible.

But Berkeley being Berkeley guess what else they passed at the same council meeting? In addition to calling the true heroes of our country unwelcome and uninvited they have now solidified their status as a sanctuary city for potheads: LINK

Whose Thermostat Is It, Anyway?

2008-01-14T09:49:00.000-08:00

Liberal bureaucrats will gain control of our thermostats, if a proposal in front of the California Energy Commission is approved. From AP via Sfgate.com:

State energy officials are considering a proposal that would allow utilities to change a building's temperature by remote control. Supporters say the installation of thermostats fitted with remote-control technology could help ease summertime power emergencies by allowing officials to limit the use of air conditioning.

What's next? My water faucets and toilet bowl? How about my TV's remote control?

How Bay Area Liberals Are Killing Endangered Bird Species

2008-01-02T14:46:00.000-08:00

Things are never as easy as they seem. In eco-friendly California, smart-minded liberals came up with the idea of generating electricity using huge windmills. The thinking was that thousands of wind turbines would generate clean energy for the power-hungry liberals that dominate Northern California.

Unfortunately, these windmills happen to kill thousands of birds, among them endangered golden eagles, hawks and owls. From the SF Chronicle:

..the Altamont Pass Wind Resource Area is ...a symbol of the wind industry's biggest stain - the killings of thousands of birds, including majestic golden eagles, by turbines. The result has been a wrenching civil war among those who are otherwise united in the struggle to save the planet and its creatures.

It's been nearly a year since a controversial legal settlement was forged among wildlife groups, wind companies and Alameda County regulators. That agreement, opposed by some parties to the dispute, promised to reduce deaths of golden eagles and three other raptor species by 50 percent in three years and called for the shutdown or relocation of the 300 or so most lethal of the approximately 5,000 windmills at Altamont.

Remember, liberals: There's no such thing as a free lunch.

2007-12-27T05:40:00.000-08:00

Leigh Lawson stands in front of the San Francisco Zoo on Wednesday, Dec. 26, 2007, protesting the killing of a Siberian tiger that killed one person and injured two others on Christmas Day. Police officers shot the tiger after it escaped from its enclosure and attacked the three visitors. Lawson, picketing alone, outside the zoo Wednesday afternoon, says she wishes officers had tranquilized the animal instead.

"Pre-judgeing" what I've read in today's SF Chron online, my guess is after the two boys that survived the attack are interviewed, we might hear a tale of all three taunting the animal to a level that perhaps made the cat jump beyond her normal abilities. (total speculation at this point)

And as for the moronic Mz. Lawson, typical SF Moonbat mentality. The reality that human life is more precious than an animals just doesn't compute in her world. Sad that we are allowing the human species to breed such contempt and lunacy. We can only hope this idiot never has any offspring.

Oakland: City of Garbage

2007-07-26T17:06:00.001-07:00

On my commute by bus into San Francisco this morning, I could not help but notice all of the garbage littering the streets and sidewalks. Piles and piles of food wrappers, auto parts, and even furniture with clothing still inside. There's much more than usual, which is really saying a lot. As it turns out, Oakland hasn't had any regular garbage pick-up for several weeks now, thanks to a garbage workers' strike.

Oakland is currently reaping the "rewards" of its decades-long decline into socialism, culminating last fall in the election of a honest-to-God Communist as major, former Congressman Ron "Red" Dellums. In addition to mounds of garbage, the socialist disease brought along with it a record-high murder rate, a bankrupt public school system and a deserted downtown business district.

Finally, someone at the SF Chronicle has take notice of all the garbage, and asks the question: "Where's the Mayor?"

Next to the uncollected garbage, the biggest stink in Oakland right now might be the dispute over how Mayor Ron Dellums has handled his first major crisis, the lockout of trash haulers. Some residents feel Oakland's new mayor has done the best he could under difficult circumstances. He's represented their interests, they say, by pushing the garbage-hauling firm Waste Management Inc. through the courts and behind the scenes to get residents and businesses' trash picked up.

Others feel, however, that Dellums was not aggressive at the beginning and that the city is suffering as a result. He didn't come out strongly enough against Waste Management's lockout, nor has he been publicly visible pushing the Teamsters union to compromise, and he hasn't found another company to pick up the trash, his critics charge. In either case, the trash hasn't been picked up consistently, and Oakland, which has more than its share of image problems with spiraling violence and troubled schools, once again is in the news with a mess on its face.

I thank God that we left Oakland three years ago, and found a new home in a city that hasn't been taken over by Communists (yet). I just hope my fellow Alamedians are noticing the chaos over in nearby Oakland, and deliberately choose a path different from our Socialist neighbors.

The Death of the Liberal Media

2007-05-29T17:27:00.000-07:00

In a whiny, long-winded op-ed, Neil Henry, a professor of journalism at UC Berkeley laments the slow decline of the local rag, the San Francisco Chronicle. I, for one, am not shedding tears for this communist-insprired bird cage liner. He whines:

The average citizen may not realize how severely the public's access to important news, gathered according to high standards, may be threatened by these bottom line trade-offs. When journalists' jobs are eliminated, especially as many as The Chronicle intends, the product is inevitably less than it was.

The fact is there will be nothing on YouTube, or in the blogosphere, or anywhere else on the Web to effectively replace the valuable work of those professionals. Fewer resources will be available to investigate stories as nationally significant as the BALCO scandal, for example; fewer professionals to doggedly uncover shady financial practices at the University of California, forcing top officials to publicly acknowledge their mistakes and work to fix them; fewer journalists to cover local city halls, courts and schools, reporting community news that the public often takes for granted -- and which other media, including local television and radio outlets, rely upon to set their own news priorities.

There certainly won't be any less news or fewer scandals to report, mind you: Only fewer trained watchdogs on hand to do the hard work of hunting, finding and reporting it. Idolaters of Web-based news and information sites, "citizen"-produced journalism, and the blogosphere of individual self-publishers, often argue that old mainstays such as The Chronicle are, in fact, getting only what they deserve.

Translation: The public is too dumb to recognize how superior trained journalists are as compared to ordinary people. We should decide what you should read, and what ultimately becomes newsworthy.

Newspapers such as the SF Chronicle began their slow, inexorable decline when they ceased being objective presenters of news and instead became broadsheets for one political party or social philosophy. The sad truth is that many of the potentially talented staff are not even aware of the depth of their own biases, much less the biases of those working elsewhere in the media whom they look up to as paragons of their profession.

Trimming costs is only a short-term fix. If the mainstream media continues to bash this country and lie at every opportunity they will go totally bankrupt, financially speaking. They are already totally bankrupt is as far as truth is concerned.

No Mercy for the American Taliban

2007-04-05T18:14:00.000-07:00

In local news, the parents of John Walker Lindh--the traitor captured by US forces in Afghanistan in 2001--would like President Bush to show mercy to their son. From the SF Chronicle:

Lawyers for John Walker Lindh, the Marin County native who became known as "The American Taliban" when he was seized with Afghan soldiers after a prison uprising in November 2001, asked President Bush on Wednesday to commute or reduce Lindh's 20-year sentence.

Attorney James Brosnahan, who had twice before requested that Bush commute the sentence, joined Lindh's parents at a San Francisco news conference where he cited a 9-month sentence a U.S. military tribunal handed down Friday to Australian David Hicks, a confessed al Qaeda trainee convicted of supporting terrorism by readying to fight Americans in Afghanistan in 2001.

Lindh, a 26-year-old convert to Islam, has 13 years left on a sentence he received in July 2002, when he pleaded guilty in a federal court in Alexandria, Va., to aiding and carrying weapons for the Taliban in a deal with prosecutors, who dropped terror charges.

"It's quite a difference," his mother, Marilyn Walker, said Wednesday of the sentences in the two cases. Reading a prepared statement, she said, "John did not go to Afghanistan to fight against America. He never fought against America. John has spoken out strongly against terrorism in any form."

When Lindh was captured, he had participated in a prison uprising that resulted in the death of hero CIA agent Johnny "Mike" Spann. Reportedly, he also admitted to meeting Osama bin Laden at a al-Qaeda training camp, where the terrorist leader shook his hand and thanked him for supporting his jihadist movement.

Lindh's actions in support of the Taliban left Mike Spann's three young children without a father, and their mother a widow before the age of 30. May John Walker Lindh receive the same mercy that the Taliban and al-Qaeda have shown to their victims: none.

Bottom Story of the Day

2007-04-03T12:56:00.000-07:00

'Kid for Kerry' ponders 2008 role - San Francisco Chronicle (March 31, 2007)

Ilana Wexler has a dilemma. The Hillary Clinton for President campaign wants her to chair its Students for Hillary committee. At the same time, several of her friends are stumping for Barack Obama and want her to join their team. But if Wexler, 15, has her way, Al Gore will declare his candidacy, and she'll endorse him.

It figures that Clinton et al would covet the Ilana Factor: Three years ago, she was a plucky 12-year-old who started a grassroots organization called Kids for Kerry and addressed the Democratic National Convention in Boston. Sporting a crown of curly red hair and an effervescent smile, Wexler became an instant celebrity during the three-minute speech that followed Obama's historic keynote address. Now, she's in demand again, an indication of how politicians are seeking support from the 76 million Millennials, as the generation born between 1980 and 2000 is called -- even when, like Wexler, they are too young to vote.

Either this is an April Fool's Day joke printed in the pages of the Chronicle one day early, or a very slow news day. How about both?

Washington Post Exposes Pelosi Plan

2007-03-13T12:25:00.000-07:00

A new Washington Post Editorial exposes the agenda of Nancy Pelosi and the Democratic Party:

"The Pelosi Plan for Iraq"

"It makes perfect sense, if the goal is winning votes in the United States."

Tuesday, March 13, 2007; Page A16

THE RESTRICTIONS on Iraq war funding drawn up by the House Democratic leadership are exquisitely tailored to bring together the party's leftist and centrist wings. For the Out of Iraq Caucus, which demands that Congress force a withdrawal of all U.S. troops by the end of this year, there is language that appears to deliver that mandate, albeit indirectly. For those who prefer a more moderate course, there is another withdrawal deadline, in August 2008.
Either way, almost all American troops would be out of Iraq by the time the next election campaign begins in earnest. And there are plenty of enticements on the side: more money for wounded veterans, for children's health, for post-Hurricane Katrina reconstruction.

The only constituency House Speaker Nancy Pelosi ignored in her plan for amending President Bush's supplemental war funding bill are the people of the country that U.S. troops are fighting to stabilize. The Democratic proposal doesn't attempt to answer the question of why August 2008 is the right moment for the Iraqi government to lose all support from U.S. combat units. It doesn't hint at what might happen if American forces were to leave at the end of this year -- a development that would be triggered by the Iraqi government's weakness. It doesn't explain how continued U.S. interests in Iraq, which holds the world's second-largest oil reserves and a substantial cadre of al-Qaeda militants, would be protected after 2008; in fact, it may prohibit U.S. forces from returning once they leave.

(complete editorial here) (may require registration)

This has just got to sting a bit. If the Washington Post is not afraid to point out that Pelosi and her cohorts are playing (political) games with the lives of our troops in harms way, who will be next on board to point out that Pelosi and her anti-war left do not share the sentiment of most in this nation who understand the ramifications of failure in Iraq.

But, what did we expect from a S.F. Moonbat?

Clinton to Chinese-Americans: "You're a Foreigner"

2007-02-27T17:45:00.000-08:00

During Sen. Hillary Clinton's visit to San Francisco, the Democratic Presidential candidate's staff denied access to three Chinese-American reporters at a fund-raising event. Calling them "foriegn media", Clinton staffers excluded reporters from Sing Tao and Chinese-language daily World Journal, as well as the smaller China Press, to the hoity-toity event held at San Francisco's Sheraton Palace Hotel.

From the SF Chronicle, which to my surprise, actually covered this snub from the Clinton campaign:

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's presidential campaign excluded reporters for the Bay Area's two largest ethnic newspapers from a fundraiser Friday at the Sheraton Palace Hotel -- a perceived snub that led to days of harsh coverage.Reporters from Sing Tao and Chinese-language daily World Journal, as well as the smaller China Press were denied entry to the noon fundraiser.

It turned out that the three papers had not been included in the mailing list for a press advisory sent out two days ahead that instructed media representatives to check in by 11:45 a.m. World Journal reporter Portia Li said she arrived about 10 minutes before noon. Li, a prominent journalist who has worked for more than two decades in the Bay Area, said she knew such events routinely begin late and that reporters often are allowed in after they start.

But a staffer told her she was too late to get in. When Li argued, the staffer explained that because she was considered "foreign media" -- which were limited to a single pool reporter -- she could not go in. Any local media [re:white people] who checked in by the cutoff were admitted.

When Li showed her business card, the staffer asked for two forms of identification, which seemed to Li to be insulting. She said she had never had to show identification at similar events. "She kept saying this is only open for local media, not foreign press," Li said. "I told her, I'm not foreign press. I'm local media. I was really angry. It's not about myself. It's about how the mainstream looks at Chinese (people) as a whole. Why do they call us foreigners, even they we have a local address on our business card?"

Message to Chinese-American reporters and citizens: Democrats hate your guts and will always consider Asians to be "foreigners". It's why they want to deny your children access to the best schools, and to the political process.

Is Your Light Bulb Legal?

2007-01-31T09:55:00.000-08:00

Two months ago, I lowered our monthly PG&E electricity bill to $10. Yes, ten dollars. How did I do it? By installing compact fluorescent lightbulbs throughout the house? By installing new EnergyStar appliances? Nope.

Actually, I spent no money on new equipment or upgrades to the house. I managed to lower our electric bill simply by being more efficient. This meant turning lights off whenever I left a room, using the dishwasher and laundry machines less and not using conveniences such hairdryers at all.

Now I've just read that a liberal California legislator wants to require me to buy expensive compact fluorescent lightbulbs that are almost always MADE IN CHINA so that I can save even more energy. From Reuters:

A California lawmaker wants to make his state the first to ban incandescent lightbulbs as part of California's groundbreaking initiatives to reduce energy use and greenhouse gases blamed for global warming.

The "How Many Legislators Does it Take to Change a Lightbulb Act" would ban incandescent lightbulbs by 2012 in favor of energy-saving compact fluorescent lightbulbs.

"Incandescent lightbulbs were first developed almost 125 years ago, and since that time they have undergone no major modifications," California Assemblyman Lloyd Levine said on Tuesday

Call me old-fashioned, but I prefer the richer light given off by incandescent lightbulbs. And I don't need a legislator in Sacramento to tell me how to save money. If this ridiculous proposal passes, count me as someone who will willingly violate this law. I can not and will not buy a product made in a country that uses slave labor from political prisoners.

Another Slow News Day in San Francisco

2007-01-08T13:30:00.000-08:00

Quick question: What do 1,200 liberals in San Francisco do when they have time on their hands?

A. Volunteer at a homeless or battered women's shelter
B. Tutor underprivileged minority students
C. Clean up street litter and work on neighborhood beautification projects
D. Recycle aluminum cans, glass bottles and newspapers
E. Form political messages with their bodies that can only be viewed by airplanes and helicopters

The answer is course, E. And only the worst newspaper in America, the San Francisco Chronicle, would find this to be a newsworthy event. Personally, I would find only the responses from A through D to be truly newsworthy, as it is quite rare to see a liberal actually volunteering to do something for the public good. From the SF Chronicle:

About 1,200 peace activists lie in the sand at Ocean Beach in San Francisco to spell out "IMPEACH!" in 100-foot letters on Saturday. The folks pictured here formed the dot of the exclamation point. Their message, referring to President Bush, was engineered by local cabbie and travel writer Brad Newsham. He recruited volunteers from around the Bay Area to form the demand that stretched across the sand. Supporters of his Beach Impeach Project photographed the event from a helicopter hovering overhead.

Doesn't anyone find it ironic that the "No Blood for Oil" geniuses behind the Beach Impeach Project had to hire a fuel-guzzling helicopter to photograph their useless publicity stunt? It also appears that the organizers made no attempt to encourage participants to carpool or take mass transit to the event, as the aerial photographs taken of the rally show hundreds of parked cars in the lots and streets immediately adjacent to the beach-site protest. To top things off, one of the organizers of the event, someone named Christopher Kula from Oakland (CA), actually drove his BMW convertible from New York City to San Francisco in order to attend the rally.

If liberal activists really want to improve things, surely their energies (and fossil-fuel-powered internal combustion engines) would be better directed to improving and cleaning up the once-proud city of San Francisco. There's plenty of work to be done, and examples A through D would be a good start.

Happy Holidays

2006-12-25T07:05:00.000-08:00

I would like to take this moment to thank my co-editor James for his contributions here at SF Moonbats. While we appear to still be in our infancy, there may be a place for us in the New Year certainly with our "representation" in the upcoming congress.

The very best to you and your family James in all that you do.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Sincerely,

KC..........aka Rovin

Separated at Birth

2006-12-14T23:25:00.000-08:00

One of the truly evil people I have recently come into contact with is San Francisco Unifed School District Board Member Eric Mar. Mar is a self-proclaimed "progressive", which means he believes that white liberals should rule our lives from the moment we are born until the day we die. Mar is a Chinese-American "Uncle Tom", a sellout to the white liberal establishment in San Francisco. For some unknown reason, he has agreed to do the bidding of the white liberals in creating quotas that restrict the number of Chinese-Americans students at the city's top high schools.

A quick look at Eric Mar's photo confirms that this son-of-a-bitch bears an uncanny resemblance to another evil person, the Nazi "Butcher of Prague": Reinhard Heydrich. See for yourself, the faces of evil.

San Francisco School Board member Eric Mar

SS Police Chief Reinhard Heydrich

Liberal Rosie O'Donnell Makes Racist Statements about Chinese, Media Gives Her a Pass

2006-12-14T11:02:00.000-08:00

Have you ever noticed that whenever liberals make racist remarks about Asians (or anyone else for that matter), they get a pass from the media? Recently, Rosie O'Donnell had some interesting comments about the Chinese. From the SF Chronicle:

On Dec. 5, O'Donnell imitated how she thought Chinese broadcasters might sound discussing actor Danny DeVito's drunken appearance on "The View."

"You know, you can imagine in China it's like, 'ching chong, ching chong chong, Danny DeVito, ching chong chong chong, drunk, "The View," ching chong.'

Were it not for voices of protest raised by Asian-Americans--not a peep from white liberals, I might add--Rosie would have gotten a pass on her racist joke. After a week of hand-wringing, the jerk O'Donnell issued a lame "apology", claiming that she makes jokes about "every" ethnic group, and that no harm was intended.

Pelosi's Promise

2006-12-12T08:05:00.000-08:00

It looks like Nancy's gonna have her hands full even before the New Year starts:

Will the next speaker live up to her word and clean House?
Monday, December 11, 2006 12:01 a.m. EST

In the run up to the Democratic takeover of Congress, Rep. Nancy Pelosi crisscrossed the country promising to make passing ethics reform her first order of business as speaker. But now, even before she takes the reins in January, she is being confronted with a series of tough ethics decisions that will determine whether her party will succeed at changing the culture of
Capitol Hill. (full story)

San Francisco Liberals Give Asian-American Students the Shaft (Again)

2006-11-15T17:06:00.000-08:00

Earlier this week, the San Francisco School Board voted to end Junior ROTC at seven area high schools.

Over one thousand students were affected by the elimination of the program, mostly (70%) Asian-American students. Not surprisingly, virtually all of the opponents of the JROTC program--who cited the program's "militaristic" nature--were white. From the SF Chronicle:

Opponents said the armed forces should have no place in public schools, and the military's discriminatory stance on gays makes the presence of JROTC unacceptable.

"We don't want the military ruining our civilian institutions," said Sandra Schwartz of the American Friends Service Committee, an organization actively opposing JROTC nationwide. "In a healthy democracy ... you contain the military. You must contain the military."

Do you think that if most of JROTC's participants were black and/or white, the school board would have voted in a similiar manner?

THE SPEAKER SPEAKS

2006-11-09T07:07:00.000-08:00

Nancy Pelosi spoke on PBS today on the subject of Iraq. Here's a quote that may provide a window into her thinking.

"I mean, the point is, is that our presence in Iraq, as viewed by the Iraqis and by others in the region, as an occupation is not making America safer. ... So what is being accomplished by our being there? A responsible redeployment outside of Iraq ... The president -- victory is elusive. Victory is subjective. What does he mean by 'victory'?"

Nice of Mz Pelosi to let the people of Iraq know so soon that their days are numbered. Is the control of both houses of congress a "subjective victory"?

Here we go...................hang on, we haven't seen nothin' yet.

Rovin

Just Another Day in the Bay Area

2006-11-03T16:27:00.000-08:00

I'm lucky that I don't use the El Cerrito BART. From the Contra Costa Times:

A police encounter with a naked man near the El Cerrito BART station turned into an arrest on suspicion of carrying a concealed weapon Thursday. Passers-by called officers about 7:50 a.m. to report that a naked man was lying on a tree stump beside the Ohlone Greenway path, exposing himself and masturbating.

Police saw 33-year-old John Sheehan and arrested him on suspicion of indecent exposure. Officers led him to the nearest street, the 2000 block of Kearney Avenue. Before putting Sheehan in the back of his car, Sgt. Paul Keith asked him if he had anything on him that police should know about.

Sheehan replied that he had hidden a screwdriver in his anal cavity, Horgan said. Unsure about what to do, police called for a fire engine. Firefighters quickly decided that an emergency room would be better equipped to deal with the situation.

Just lovely...excuse me while I throw up.

Democrats Unveil "Contract with San Francisco"

2006-11-03T08:41:00.000-08:00

Scott Ott, one of finest satarist in the blogosphere has posted this wonderful revelation:

2006-11-03) — With just days to go before national elections, Democrats in Congress today unveiled a comprehensive vision for America’s future, dubbed the ‘Contract with San Francisco.’
Presumptive House Majority Leader Nancy Pelosi, at a secret news conference in an undisclosed location, said, “This is a vision that springs from the heartland of the new America, and we intend to take these San Francisco values out to the Bible-belt, red-state fringes of the South and Midwest.”

“What’s good for San Francisco is good for the nation,” she said, “And it’s about time our country got back to the fundamentals which shaped a generation of trans-decent folks living here in America’s garter belt.”

Rep. Pelosi, who surfaced today thanks to an Amber Alert when a Starbucks barista recognized her face from a milk carton, said, “These ideas come from the down-home, spritzer-and-brie citizens who have built our postmodern culture on a rock-solid foundation of tolerance, diversity, flexible morality, self-esteem, hyphenated phrases and large grants from the National Endowment for the Arts.”

Rep. Pelosi did not distribute copies of the Contract with San Francisco to reporters.

“These ideas transcend the subjectivity of the printed word and cannot be captured on paper,” she said, “but they constitute a living document that dwells in the hearts of those who believe, and is continually refreshed to reflect the mood of the nation and desires of the individual.”

Yuck! Folsom Street Fair in San Francisco

2006-09-25T18:22:00.000-07:00

Here's one fair you won't find me and my family attending: The Folsom Street Fair. Without flinching, the SF Chronicle reports:

The fair drew throngs of people wearing antlers on various parts of their bodies as well as some people wearing lots of leather, others wearing liquid latex and some wearing nothing at all. Vendors sold everything from shoe shines to sex toys, which some customers field-tested on the spot. The milelong event, which also included food, live performances and free health screenings, wrapped up Leather Pride Week.

No word if PETA held any protests at the fair.

California Sues Automakers for Greenhouse Gas Emissions

2006-09-20T14:13:00.000-07:00

If you thought it couldn't get any crazier in California, think again. Earlier today, State Attorney General Bill Lockyer filed suit against the 6 largest automakers in the US for producing cars that emit the same gas that all living human beings produce when they breathe, which is carbon dioxide. From Reuters:

California filed a global warming lawsuit on Wednesday against Ford Motor Co., General Motors Corp., Toyota Motor Corp. and three other automakers, charging that greenhouse gases from their vehicles have cost the state millions of dollars. State Attorney General Bill Lockyer said the lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Northern California was the first of its kind to seek to hold manufacturers liable for the damages caused by their vehicles' emissions.

The lawsuit also names Chrysler Motors Corp., the U.S. arm of Germany's DaimlerChrysler, and the North American units of Honda Motor Co. and Nissan Motor Co. Ltd. It also charges that vehicle emissions have contributed significantly to global warming and harmed the resources, infrastructure and environmental health of the most populous state in the United States.

Notice that the general car-driving public, who are actually creating carbon dioxide as they operate said vehicles, are not being sued. California might as well pass a law mandating all persons to trade in their cars for horse-and-buggies. Oops, horses also emit carbon dioxide in addition to methane (as they fart). Never mind.

A Grim Milestone in Oakland

2006-09-18T16:30:00.000-07:00

Last week, the City of Oakland reached the milestone of 100 murder victims for the year-to-date. This figure does not include the hundreds of Oakland residents that have been maimed or wounded as a result of violent crime so far this year. From the SF Chronicle:

A stabbing death that stemmed from an argument over a T-shirt at an Oakland board and care home brought to four the number of people killed in the city over the weekend, police said today.

The first homicide of the weekend happened at about 3 a.m. Saturday when Hector Sanchez, 29, was shot and killed and a friend of his was wounded near 42nd Avenue and International Boulevard in the city's Fruitvale District. A 17-year-old boy has been arrested in the slaying, said Officer Roland Holmgren, department spokesman.

At. 2:20 p.m. Saturday, two men were shot on the 9300 block of C Street in East Oakland. Bystanders put them in cars and stopped at an Oakland fire station at the corner of 98th Avenue and International Boulevard.

One of the victims, a 27-year-old man, died at 6:55 p.m. at Highland Hospital in Oakland, The other victim, a 19-year-old man, suffered wounds not deemed to be life-threatening, police said. Their names were not released, and no arrests have been made.

Shortly before 11:30 p.m. Saturday, several people exchanged gunfire on the 1300 block of 64th Avenue in East Oakland during a running gun battle, said Oakland police Sgt. Dom Arotzarena. Andre Webb, 27, of San Francisco was killed. No arrests have been made.

The deaths bring the number of homicides in Oakland this year to 106, compared to 94 homicides for all of 2005.

As a former resident of Oakland,I am relieved that I no longer live in this Oakland-hellhole, and that my family does not have to live in constant fear for our lives. Finally, I find it ironic that a city dominated by liberals and Cindy Sheehan-supporters cannot even control the violence within its own borders.

SUV Goes Mad in San Francisco

2006-08-29T17:03:00.000-07:00

Get a load of this politically-correct headline from the SF Chronicle:

"SUV Hit-and-Run Rampage on SUV Streets"

Note the emphasis on the SUV, as if the vehicle was the culprit and not the driver. And now some details:

As many as 14 people were injured this afternoon by a motorist who drove around San Francisco running them down before he was arrested, authorities said.

Seven of those injured were in critical condition, police and firefighters said.

Authorities have identified the man who was arrested as Omeed Aziz Popal, who has addresses in Ceres (Stanislaus County) and Fremont.

Authorities said they believe Popal was the same driver who ran over and killed a 55-year-old man walking in a bicycle lane in Fremont, at Fremont Boulevard near Ferry Lane, just after noon. That crash scene is just blocks from Popal's Fremont address, where he had most recently been living.

I'm just wondering if this is another case of Islamic rage against the west, like the Seattle Jewish Center shootings last month and the Univ. of North Carolina jeep attack last year.

Prop 87: How Not to Lower Energy Prices

2006-08-07T11:25:00.000-07:00

Virtually all modern Democrats have no background in economics, and the mechanics of supply and demand. There is perhaps no better illustration of this fact than the current efforts to tax oil production in California through Proposition 87.

From the SF Chronicle:

Prop. 87 would tax companies for oil pumped in California, based on the price per barrel. The tax would stay in effect until it raised $4 billion, which would be spent on programs and research designed to cut the use of petroleum in California by 25 percent by 2017. It also would bar oil companies from raising gas prices to cover the cost of the tax.

This misguided measure would essentially discourage oil companies in California from producing oil locally by taxing them unfairly, and then not allowing them to recoup their increased costs by charging higher prices. It would give them a huge incentive to import oil from outside sources (which would not be subject to the tax and follow-up price controls). Not surprisingly, the Democratic-supported initiative also would create a new state bureaucracy to administer the tax money.

What tax-and-spend Democrats seem to have forgotten is that oil producers have a choice between refining oil from either local or out-of-state sources. Given this choice between two sources of identical raw materials, a rational oil producer will always pick the lower cost alternative. Then add the prospect of price controls on California-dervied petroleum, and you have yet another reason to import your raw material.

In other words, supporters of Prop. 87 are shooting themselves in the foot by driving away California businesses such as refineries and oil drillers, and in the process making us even more dependent on foreign sources of oil. Just another election cycle in Moonbat Central.

My Two Cents

2006-07-12T11:07:00.001-07:00

The San Francisco Chronicle hosts several blogs--one of them is called "Two Cents", which serves more or less as the "Question of the Day". The fifteen respondents to the latest "Question of the Day" are all white liberals, and with only two or three exceptions, they are all lunatics.

Here's what some of these enlightened individuals said in response to the question: "What should the US do about North Korea?"

"To paraphrase Barbara Bush, why should I worry my beautiful mind about this? Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld will do whatever strikes their fancy, despite the expert advice of the best of our nation's experienced military minds. This White House is more than able to find someone at least as unqualified as I to do yet another "heck of a job."" - Paul Barwick

"Let's invade! Surely they will welcome us as liberators and throw flowers! We'll be out in a few weeks!" - Mark Lauden Crosley

"Chill out! We have real threats with which to contend: global warming, extinction of species, overpopulation, war, nuclear proliferation (specifically including our own), trade deficits and our debt-based economy, to name a few. Their missiles tanked in the Sea of Japan. We could begin to talk -- beats dropping bombs." - Louisa Ardnt

"Um, ask them what they really want, and need, and see what we can do to deliver? Work with other countries to provide food, medicine, volunteers to help educate their children, and improve their healthcare? Stop rattling hardware and very honestly and sincerely talk to them about improving their circumstances." - Alan Mela

"While I think Kim Jong Il is probably insane and a tyrant who is starving his people, I also don't think it's any of our business. It's up to the citizens of North Korea to deal with him. Until they do, we should treat him like any other head of state and quit the macho pissing match. Acting like kids on a playground arguing about whose daddy can beat the other is not going to help us, the North Koreans or their neighbors. In fact, our constant threats are only making things worse." - Chris Finnie

One of the worst aspects of living in the San Francisco Bay Area is the indifference of certain individuals to the suffering of others living under communist or left-wing dictatorships. As I noted earlier, all of the published responses were given by white liberals--a curious lack of racial diversity given that whites are in a minority in this region. I wonder how someone living here in San Francisco who was born in Vietnam, Cambodia, Cuba, Poland, Korea or Afghanistan might respond to this same question?

There They Go Again

2006-06-27T17:21:00.000-07:00

The Berkeley City Council will decide tonight whether to make an utterly futile, money-wasting ($10,000) gesture to publicize their alwady well-known hatred of President George W. Bush. From the SF Chronicle:

The famously liberal city of Berkeley is expected to become the first in the nation to put forth a ballot measure calling for the impeachment of President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney.

The City Council will decide tonight whether to put the measure on the Nov. 7 ballot, at a cost of about $10,000. The measure, if approved, would create a task force to monitor the president and vice president, who backers of the initiative say should be impeached because of the Iraq war, federal wiretapping and other issues.

So instead of using the money to repair a pothole or fix a traffic light, the Berkeley City Council will waste $10,000 of taxpayer money to fund a meaningless political statement.

Like Father, Like Son

2006-06-16T13:19:00.000-07:00

The son of Oakland City Council president and mayoral candidate Ignacio De La Fuente stands accused of 5 counts of rape and sexual assault, and will face trial shortly. According to the SF Chronicle:

Ignacio De La Fuente Jr. will be tried on five felony counts of allegedly raping and sexually assaulting four Oakland prostitutes in an 18-month period, a judge ruled Thursday. Alameda County Superior Court Judge Julie Conger also rejected De La Fuente Jr.'s fourth bid for bail. He will remain in custody until his June 29 arraignment.

After the rulings, the suspect exchanged a somber look with his family, who have attended his entire preliminary hearing. De La Fuente Jr.'s attorneys have argued that the prostitutes falsely accused him of rape because he didn't pay them.

The rulings followed testimony from all four prostitutes. Each said De La Fuente Jr. picked them up separately in his silver pickup truck in the Fruitvale neighborhood, drove them to the waterfront, said he would not pay them and then assaulted or raped them. The fourth prostitute testified at Thursday's hearing that she was walking late at night on Oct. 20, 2003, on International Boulevard when De La Fuente Jr. pulled over and asked her to get in his truck.

She did, but when she brought up money "he said he didn't pay for sex. At that point I realized he was going to force me to have sex with him. I was afraid," she told the court.

If you think that's bad, the leading candidate for Oakland major, Ron Dellums, has a son (Michael) who is in prison for a 1979 murder conviction. Neither Dellums or De La Fuente was able to garner the necessary 50% of the vote in last week's Democratic mayorial primary, so they face a run-off election prior to the general election in the fall. In liberal Oakland, the Democratic Party faces little opposition, so Democratic candidates are virually guaranteed to win the popular vote.

Now you know why I moved out of Oakland.

Iraq War to End Soon

2006-06-03T08:55:00.000-07:00

Breaking News! The War in Iraq is ending. Insurgents are calling it quits.Beaten down by coalition forces (primarily US and British forces) and world public opinion, Al Qaeda's Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and most of the major insurgents are surrendering their arms and calling for a truce.

Sources say the unexpected turn-around has been attributed to the formally spineless left wing of the democratic party in the United States, who's admitted agenda has been their hatred for President Bush and the total lack of support for the men and women who have fought this war against terrorism in the middle east. That has changed.

Other sources say that the decision of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors to give their unanimous support to the war on terrorism, (and to approve putting President Bush's bust on Mt. Rushmore), also contributed to the change of world opinion.

Full Story Here

How to Destroy California Public Schools, Part 2

2006-05-30T22:37:00.000-07:00

My absentee ballot contains the latest liberal voter inititiative aimed at destroying the last bastions of school excellence in California. Proposition 82 is the latest Rob Reiner-inspired measure (yes, he's "Meathead" from All in the Family) for the state government to fund universal preschool for all 4-year-olds, and to establish standards for these preschools thoughout California. According to the measure's sponsors, the cost would be $2.4 billion, to be bourne exclusively by the "rich" (people making over $400,000 per year). Under Prop. 82, the state would be in the business of educating pre-schoolers, beyond the current public K-12 school system they control today.

How should taxpayers respond to the creation of a universal entitlement to preschool available only to four year-olds, for only three hours a day, for only 180 days – at a cost of $6,000 - $8,000 per student? Already 66% of California 4-year olds spend part of their day in pre-school. Prop. 82 proposes to increase that percentage to 70%, at a cost of $2.4 billion. That's billion with a 'B'.

Shouldn't the voters think twice about handing over pre-schools to a state government bureaucracy that has already ruined a public school system that was once one of the nation's finest? Will 180 days of taxpayer-funded pre-school be enough for the 29% of California students that drop out before graduating from high school? Will it help the 6 out of 10 California high school graduates who need remedial coursework in college?

The truth about Prop. 82 is that it's a smoke screen for the failures of the liberals who have exerted control over the California public school system the last 30 years. Six months of pre-school won't make any visible difference in public school performance, no matter how many 4-year-olds enroll in the program. Overhauling the present public school system--from top to bottom--and making the K-12 schools accountable for students' success is the only solution to the state's problems. Unfortunately, the teachers' union and their liberal allies will never put the students' best interests at the top of their priority list, and it's the parents and their school-age children who bear the brunt of a incredibly lousy public school system.

I'm speaking as a parent of a soon-to-be-4-year old who has attended an good and affordable pre-school in Oakland's Chinatown. Russell's school cost around $600 per month for approximately 8 hours a day, 5-days per week of instruction. The teachers were great, but under Prop. 82, they would not be qualified to teach pre-school. The school would also lose some students to the "free" pre-schools run by the state.

I just hope that California has enough sane voters remaining in-state on Election Day in June.

California High School Diplomas: Now Available in 2-Ply Sheets

2006-05-25T14:40:00.000-07:00

When I was in college, many of the school's bathrooms had this phrase written above the toilet paper dispenser: "Harvard Diplomas: Take One".

For the record, I attended Columbia and Cornell where most of the student body had received a rejection letter from Cambridge as high school seniors. Thus, I can say with reasonable certainty that the bathroom vandal was basically echoing a 'sour grapes" feeling common to many of his classmates (including me).

Recently, I thought once again about the bathroom stall graffiti. This time, it was when Alameda County Judge Robert Freedman invalidated the California State High School Exit exam as a requirement for high school graduation. From last week's San Mercury News:

In his ruling, Freedman concluded that students would suffer great harm by being deprived of a diploma, both emotionally and practically. The prospect of having to spend a fifth year in a high school without sufficient educational resources or attend a community college instead of a four-year university shows ``significant risk of harm,'' Freedman wrote.

Arturo Gonzalez, a lawyer representing the students who challenged the exit exam, said Freedman's decision made clear that the harm to students greatly outweighed the harm to the state. ``I can't imagine any justice on the California Supreme Court would be eager to deny tens of thousands of students their diplomas,'' he said.

By a narrow 4-3 decision, the California Supreme Court yesterday reinstated the state exam requirements for the high school diploma, subject to a review by the state's Court of Appeal. From the SF Chronicle:

In a split decision, the state Supreme Court on Wednesday reinstated the exit exam--at least for now--and directed the Court of Appeal to hear legal arguments over its validity. It was unclear how quickly the appellate court would act after the high court's 4-3 decision to set aside an Alameda County judge's ruling that struck down the law requiring seniors to pass the test in order to receive a diploma. This year is the first time the requirement has been enforced.

Iris Padilla, a senior at Richmond High School who speaks almost no English and hasn't passed the exit exam, was in class Wednesday when another student received a phone call with news that the exit exam had been reinstated. "Several girls started to cry," Iris said, acknowledging she was one of them.

Iris has passed all her classes and otherwise would graduate if not for the exam. Her spirits were high earlier this month after an Alameda County Superior Court judge struck down the exit exam, saying it was unfair to penalize students who attended poorly performing schools and hadn't been given an equal opportunity to learn the materials on the test.

In other words, the liberals in the state judiciary would like to award California high school diplomas to students who speak virtually no English because it would cause them to suffer emotionally and prevent them from getting into college. How should we deal with high schools that give passing grades to students who barely speak any English? Note to bathroom vandals: Don't put away that Sharpie just yet.

Always High Prices, Nothing for Poor Minorities

2006-05-22T17:40:00.000-07:00

This week's liberal atrocity comes courtesy of the limousine liberal neighborhood of Hercules, a suburban bedroom community only 30 minutes from San Francisco. The Hercules town council will be voting this week to decide whether or not to begin eminent domain proceedings to confiscate land purchased by corporate villian Wal-Mart.

The main problem appears not to be the estimated 400 jobs that the store would create, or the lowering of prices on retail goods that inevitably follows the opening of a Wal-Mart. Instead, residents and politicians are concerned about the type of customer that Wal-Mart attracts. From the SF Chronicle:

"I don't want to have anything ghetto around me and my family,'' said Monique Howell, 25, who 18 months ago paid $652,000 for a two-story Craftsman-style home where she lives with her husband and infant son.

The city [has] commissioned an economic analysis that concluded Wal-Mart would not serve the needs of Hercules residents and instead would draw lower income residents of surrounding cities. Wal-Mart serves shoppers with a typical annual household income of less than $50,000, the report said -- far less than the average of nearly $90,000 in Hercules."

In other words, the residents of this Contra Costa County community (Kerry by 26%) do not want a Wal-Mart to attract lower income black, Hispanic and Asian families within their city limits. Rather, they would prefer that the city become more "like Sausalito or Tiburon"--a thinly veiled code word for "whiter".

Full disclosure: I am a Wal-Mart shopper.

Hello, SF Moonbats!

2006-05-22T11:44:00.000-07:00

This is my first post at SF Moonbats. I consider it an honor for me to become a member of the writing staff of SF Moonbats. In documenting the liberal lunacy that is the San Francisco Bay Area, I will be referencing local newspapers, such as the San Francisco Chronicle and San Jose Mercury News. Rather than point out the liberal bias of these publications, I will instead focus on moonbat behavior as reported in the local mainstream media. From time-to-time, I may also post photos of local moonbats as documented by yours truly.

My goal is to post a news item at least once a week.

For a little background on me, check out my personal blog at Where Have You Gone, Joe DiMaggio?

And the Story Goes......

2006-05-19T08:03:00.000-07:00

If I ever read anything positive in the Chronicle about the successes in Iraq or Afganistan, I may have to rename this site.

Instead, you can have some of the SOS

Redwood Coast Jazz Festival

2006-03-22T07:26:00.000-08:00

The Jazz Festival starts Friday and runs thru the weekend. Yours truly is the official "band driver coordinator".

Official site here

My good friend Dan asked me the other day what "SFMoonbats" were. I haven't totally explained it to him yet and I sure hope ............awwww

never mind

James Thinks I'm Slacking Here

2006-03-13T19:58:00.000-08:00

Been trying to maintain two websites, and got hornswaggled into helping with our local Jazz Festival coming up in two weeks. Yes James, we are even going to have the Alameda All Stars up here for our Blues Festival in July. Anyway, "overloaded" is the norm for now.

Now for a moonbat thing of sorts:

SAN FRANCISCO Court upholds student speech rights Ruling favors teen suspended for sign: 'Bong Hits 4 Jesus'
Bob Egelko, Chronicle Staff Writer
Monday, March 13, 2006

Now I have some mixed feelings (at this point) about this decision. Comments welcome.

Rov

Maryland Democratic leaders playing their "race-card"

2006-03-03T08:55:00.000-08:00

That's right Black America, these are your representatives of your future. These are the same democrats that have depended on you for their "grand social experiment"; for some forty-plus years now the democratic party has promised you enlightenment, social and material justice, and above all equality. You, Black America, must vote for them so they can use your continuing plight for their political gain. Decade after decade the democratic party has promised to lift Black America from their social and economical injustice's, and put the blame directly on the any conservative that cares to give them a hand up, instead of a hand-out. How many more decades will Black America continue to believe that the democratic party has the answer? Will there be any changes in this election cycle? (See Maryland Democrats )

The "grand" scheme of the Democratic Party is to tax the rich and redistribute to the poor, controlling the money, (which is power) to make this a more equal society. It's called re-distribution of wealth.It is also called communism. See, if the rich have less and it's given to the poor, that is supposed to make the poor feel better about themselves, (always a short fix during an election cycle). Instead of ideas and programs to lift Americas down-trodden to achieve the "American dream" of economic independence and equality, Black America continues to carry the Democratic Party on their backs with nothing more than false promises and innuendoes.
You see, the Democratic Party could never believe that Black America could be like Michael Steel, or Condi, or Colin, or Clarence. That, (in their eyes) is not achievable.

Rep. Steny H. Hoyer, Maryland Democrat and House minority whip, said: "I don't think the African-American community is going to want to give a stamp of approval to the Bush administration."

No, Hoyer's got a better (same) idea for the African-American community. Another forty years of a "stamp of approval" for the Democratic Party. After all, it's worked so well, hasn't it?

Calling All Bay Area Moonbats

2006-03-02T05:08:00.000-08:00

From the Free Republic:

United for Peace and Justice (UFPJ), the leading antiwar group in the U.S., has issued a call to overthrow the U.S. government on March 15, 2006 by storming the White House and replacing the government with one led by leftists.

The call for revolution was issued by UFPJ in conjunction with a group called Political Cooperative and posted on the UFPJ website.

"We are calling on all Member Nations of the U.N., All Representatives and Justices in the World Court and International Criminal Courts, all soldiers and CIA agents and government officials who have been blackmailed by the dictators to incarcerate Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld. The Political Cooperative will put a new government in place that is comprised of people from Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and all the organizations that have finally made us aware of the truth of the savage practices and illegal policies of our government in assassinating our own officials as well as people throughout the world who oppose their criminal activity. "

"What they have done all over the world is much worse than what Saddam Hussein has done" (oh, really?----can you show me some facts where we have butchered over a million souls indiscriminately?)

I would suggest that if you are flying out of the Bay Area during this time period you may want to book your flights in advance. Here's a thought; If 99% of all the nut-jobs went to DC on the 15th, wouldn't it be a nice time (for the sane) to visit SF?

LA Times Story You Might Have Missed

2006-03-02T04:52:00.000-08:00

From the LA Times:

UC Berkeley political scientist Darren Zook said he was called to testify at City Hall at the start of the Iraq war after a resident proposed that the council declare Berkeley a "nondefended locality."

"This is a term from international law that would have required Berkeley not to take a stand on either side of the war in Iraq but would also have obligated Berkeley to cooperate with the Iraqi army and, had the Iraqi army decided to come to Berkeley, to render them the same courtesies and assistance as to American forces and even to hand over local police powers to them," Zook wrote in an e-mail. "Fortunately, once I offered my testimony, the measure failed."

For those who cannot read between the lines, this was not the current Iraqi army. It was the one under Saddam the Butcher. Isn't it nice to know Saddam could have had "sanctuary" in the "Republic of Berkeley"?

Hollywood---(The Bay Areas Stepchild)

2006-03-02T04:33:00.000-08:00

From Inside the Beltway (Washington Times)
There's no better time to point out the "craziness of Hollywood."

So says Jennifer Laszlo Mizrahi of the Israel Project in Washington, noting that the Academy Awards on Sunday could give best foreign film honors to "Paradise Now" Â a script where "the good guys are the suicide bombers." ("Paradise Now" has already been awarded a Golden Globe by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association.) Mrs. Mizrahi is a close friend to Yossi Zur, who lost his 16-year-old son to a suicide bomber in Israel on March 5, 2003, exactly three years before this year's Hollywood awards night. He's now worried about the message the film sends, noting that it follows the path of two young Palestinians from the moment they decided to strap on bombs to when they board a bus crowded with children, a story the world knows all too well.

"My son Asaf was almost 17 years old, an eleventh-grader studying computer sciences, when one day after school he boarded a bus in Israel to return home. On the way, a suicide bomber from Hebron, 21 years old and himself a computer sciences student in the Hebron Polytechnic, also boarded the bus and blew himself up," says Mr. Zur. He is concerned that the movie condones murderous bombings as a legitimate tactic for those who feel they've exhausted all other means.

I would say that Mr. Zur has legitimate concerns. A society that acceptshomicidall bombings as a legitimate recourse for theirgrievancess are the scum of the earth and must not be tolerated or glamorized. Period.

Look for the "Academy of Awarding Lunacy" to do some serious Bush-bashing on Sunday.

SF MOONBATS DEBUT

2006-03-01T05:49:00.000-08:00

This blog has been launched specifically for the city of San Francisco. SF has finally lost their minds and my heart.

San Francisco's supervisors jumped into national politics Tuesday, passing a resolution asking the city's Democratic congressional delegation to seek the impeachment of President Bush for failing to perform his duties by leading the country into war in Iraq, eroding civil liberties and engaging in other activities the board sees as transgressions.

The supervisors, in voting 7-3 for the resolution, ensured that San Francisco again will become grist for radio and TV talk shows. The city has appeared in the national media spotlight recently for voters' passage in November of a nonbinding measure banning military recruiters from public high schools and for Supervisor Gerardo Sandoval's recent comment on a Fox News show that the United States doesn't need a military.

Full story from the Paper of Record

Update:
Dana at Common Sense Political Thought and Sister Toldjah have jumped in on this lunacy.

Update #2: Supervisor Chris Daly, one of the most left-wing members of the board, sponsored the resolution, which also calls for the impeachment of Vice President Dick Cheney. San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom said he hasn't decided whether he will sign the legislation.