The Fog City Journal cited a new poll of District 6 voters which shows Chris Daly ahead with 60 percent of the vote.The article included the polling firm's name, location, and numbers -- perhaps its more accurate than the others lauded by the Black campaign and commissioned by his supporters.

By Tim Redmond

My friend Ken Neill, the publisher of the Memphis Flyer, sent me what may be the ugliest political photo of the year. The story's pretty gnarly, too.

Any better nominations?

By Sarah Phelan

Say what you will about Clinton, but when it comes to raising morale, the 42nd President still has what it takes.
"One side says stay the course, the other says, 'We can do better,'"said Clinton, as he urged us all to vote Yes in Prop. 87, which raises $4 billion by taxing oil, and uses those funds for alternative energy research and development, including incentives for buying alternative-fuel vehicles. Too bad Big Oil didn't spend $100 million on improving air quality, reducing asthma and lung cancer, instead of on all those misleading ads that try to frighten people into voting no.
"They can't deny climate change, the national security implications, that too many of us, especially children, are breathing air that doesn't meet minimum requirements, so they're just spending $100 million to defeat Prop. 87," said Clinton. "They're really just saying, 'We're against any positive change."

By Sarah Phelan

Is San Francisco going to let a handful of gang bangers shut down Halloween?
Er, wouldn't that be like "letting the terrorists win," to quote our not so favorite president.
And how can San Francisco seriously expect to win the Olympic bid if the city spends the next week blabbing on about how we don't know how to control a large crowd or successfully manage a parade?
Because a parade could have turned Halloween 2006 into a peaceful success, instead of a violent disaster.
Instead, Sup. Bevan Dufty's last-minute effort to reap political mileage out of the 'law and order" theme seriously backfired when things turned nasty the MINUTE THE POLICE ANNOUNCED THE PARTY WAS ENDING EARLY.
Wiith meaningful planning, beginning NOW, the community can figure out cool ways to keep Halloween alive.
As District 8 supervisorial challenger Alix Rosenthal told the press, the city's security and safety preparation "was badly conceived, badly executed--and preventable. We should spend at least 6 months planning this. Instead Dufty waited until the end of July to start doing anything and the city says, 'We did our best.' It's time for new leadership."

By Steven T. Jones
There's a fascinating mix of videos about Sup. Chris Daly on You Tube these days. You can hear Chris speak or people speak about him, or you can watch political ads with stark contrasts between the Daly lovers and haters. The ads for him are funny and whimsical, the ones hitting him are dark, scary, misleading, and in one case, racist. They say Daly "never passed a single law to combat crime," even though he chaired the committees that passed two budgets filled with crime-fighting measures, as well as placing the crime-fighting Proposition A on the June ballot, which narrowly failed because it was opposed by Mayor Gavin Newsom, opponent Rob Black, and the pro-Black Police Officers Association (which was loathe to spend $10 million on violence prevention programs instead of just more cops and overtime, which is the Newsom/Black strategy). But the funniest accusation is how Daly is now in the pocket of downtown interests, with one video showing Daly morphing into former Mayor Willie Brown, who Daly has a storied history of fighting on behalf of the anti-downtown forces. Yes, it's true that Daly has gotten some developer money in this election, but that's only because he's made himself the go-to person for facilitating projects by developers who are willing to provide the maximum community benefits and affordable housing payments -- which is what progressives demand of developers. Even downtown interests like SPUR have said this is true (the whole story is here). The bottom line: Black and his downtown buddies (from mentor Jim Sutton to SFSOS to BOMA) know D6 voters want someone to stand up to downtown, so they're throwing a bunch of smoke and misinformation up in the air to confuse the issue. Don't be fooled...but enjoy the show.

By Steven T. Jones
Re-reading the article I linked to in my last post reminded me to remind y'all about an event from earlier this year that goes to the heart of Rob Black's close ties to downtown developers and why he can't be trusted. In the incident described in this article, Black was the Alioto-Pier board aide who worked with those five developer attorneys to craft legislation designed to kill the downtown parking limitations sought by livable city advocates and Planning Director Dean Macris, all at the demand of Don Fisher, the Republican who founded the Gap and uses his money to bankroll SFSOS and the attacks on Chris Daly. My article doesn't mention Black by name, but I have the e-mails in which he discusses the legislation and its wording with these developer attorneys. And if you want to hear Rob Black fumble to address the issue, listen to his endorsement interview here.

By Steven T. Jones
I spoke recently with Warren Hellman, the San Francisco investment banker that Business Week called “the Warren Buffet of the West Coast.” He’s a fascinating guy, someone who has drawn the ire of progressives by founding the downtown groups Committee on Jobs and SFSOS, but who has also joined with progressives to support the Healthy Saturdays closures in Golden Gate Park and other measures.
Among other topics, Hellman talked about SFSOS, which is leading the nasty and deceptive attacks on Sup. Chris Daly, just as it did on supervisors Jake McGoldrick and Gerardo Sandoval a couple years ago using mailers so heinous that both Hellman and Sen. Dianne Feinstein walked away from the group, leaving the Gap’s Don Fisher as its primary funder.
“SFSOS started doing the opposite of what I thought they would be doing, so it was fairly easy for me to part company with them. What I thought we were doing is trying to figure out ways to make the city better, not just being an antagonistic, nay-saying, attack organization. I’m not a huge fan of Gerardo Sandoval, but I thought the attacks on him were beyond anything I could imagine ever being in favor of myself. And it was a series of things like that and I said I don’t want anything more to do with this,” Hellman told the Guardian.
Hellman is still friends with Fisher, even though “there’s stuff that we just disagree on.” He considers Fisher a “very charitable man,” but Hellman has less than charitable things to say about SFSOS frontman Wade Randlett.
“If all things were equal, I’d just as soon that SFSOS went away,” Hellman said.
Hellman likes authentic, passionate people and has friends across the political spectrum, such as SEIU’s Josie Mooney. As for Daly, Hellman said, “I admire Chris Daly. I disagree with Chris on a lot of things he believes, but there are also probably a lot of things I would agree with Chris on. And I respect him.”

By Tim Redmond
I'm usually not much for political speeches, but Chris Daly has a really nice riff on quality of life in this video of his recent rally at 16th and Mission. His point: It's easy for people living in million-dollar condos to attack him and complain about the "quality of life" in District 6 (which is downtown shorthand for cracking down on the homeless). But what about the quality of life of all the people who live in residential hotels, who struggle every day, who live on the economic edge? Worth a listen, because it says a lot about why re-electing Daly is such a huge priority.

By Tim Redmond

Late on a Friday, at the slowest possible time in the news cycle, when politicians make moves that they hope will get very little media attention, Mayor Gavin Newsom vetoed a plan to require police foot patrols in high-crime areas. That marks a dramatic shift in his position. Just a few days ago, he was prepared to sign the bill.
The veto sets up a fascinating showdown: Are there eight votes on the board to override the mayor? The measure passed 7-3 on its first round, with only Supervisors Aaron Peskin, Michela Alioto-Pier and Sean Elsbernd in opposition and Jake McGoldrick absent. Willl eight votes hold?

By Steven T. Jones
Jimmy Carter said something truly remarkable on National Public Radio last night. The segment was about how the former U.S. president and his Carter Center are monitoring the elections in Nicaragua, just as they have in 67 other elections around the world over the last two decades.
For her final question, NPR’s Debbie Elliott asked about repeated voting irregularities here in the U.S. and whether maybe we should have international monitors to ensure our elections are free and fair. Carter agreed that “the United States electoral system is severely troubled and has many faults in it. It would not qualify at all for instance for participation by the Carter Center in observing.”
Among other things, the Carter Center requires uniform voting procedures through the country, roughly equal access to the media by major candidates, some kind of federal agency to ensure sound democratic standards, and the poor having equal access to polling places as the rich – none of which exists in the United States.
Think about this for a second: just as our current president is starting wars in the name of spreading democracy, a former president who is widely recognized as the premier international expert on democratic standards says that our system is worse that most others in place around the world. And that statement doesn’t even warrant a headline in the major newspapers on the day before a national election.

By Tim Redmond

Everyone's having fun with this story: Apparently, the Rob Black campaign in District 6 is paying people $15 an hour to act like volunteers. There's a great photo on Sfist that sets the scene. Then KPFA sent a reporter to interview Black "volunteers" and got some great stuff. Here's a partial transcript, thanks to leftinsf.

REPORTER JOSHUA SMITH: On a busy street corner in District 6, campaigners are out in full force. Eric Wilson is wearing an I Black Back Button and standing next to a large poster endorsing the candidate. He says he got involved with the campaign through the Glide Church. But from a glance you would never guess his political stance.

ERIC WILSON: “Allegedly I’m going to be paid fifteen dollars an hour cash. I support Chris Daly, but I’m doing this for Rob Black for the cash. And it’s an oxymoron, but well, you gotta do what you gotta do to eat in this city.”

In other words, Black doesn't actually have a lot of volunteers, so he's trying to buy them.

By Steven T. Jones
I just got another call from Warren Hellman, who said he was saddened to see a group he founded but later disavowed -- the sleazy conservative attack organization SFSOS -- is one of the only groups in town to oppose the school bond measure Proposition A, which Hellman actively supports (his band will even be playing the campaign's election night party at Slim's tonight).
"For once, there is goodwill all around on something," Hellman said of the school bond, which business groups such Committee on Jobs and progressives such as the SF People's Organization enthusiastically support.
But he's ashamed to see SFSOS opposing it, sending messages of concern to the group's leader, Wade Randlett, and funder, Don Fisher, asking the group to send a message to its list noting that most business groups support it.
"It's a personal vendetta on the part of the guy who runs SFSOS," Hellman said.
That guy, Randlett, suddenly started attacking the school district last year when the superintendent was at odds with the school board. Randlett was secretly having an extramarital affair at the time with the superintendent's spokesperson Lorna Ho (Randlett has since left his wife, Tamsin Randlett, and is still with Ho), which seemed to have been what prompted SFSOS to flip its focus from parks and potholes to the schools. And apparently, Randlett holds a grudge like few others, so he's urging voters to deny needed school facilities to the kids. It's a telling testament to the guy and the group that is leading the attacks on Chris Daly and openly supporting challenger Rob Black. It's not too late to grab a Daly sign from his 16th and Mission HQ and do everything you can to keep this kind of sleaze out of City Hall.

By Steven T. Jones
I just got another call from Warren Hellman, who said he was saddened to see a group he founded but later disavowed -- the sleazy conservative attack organization SFSOS -- is one of the only groups in town to oppose the school bond measure Proposition A, which Hellman actively supports (his band will even be playing the campaign's election night party at Slim's tonight).
"For once, there is goodwill all around on something," Hellman said of the school bond, which business groups such Committee on Jobs and progressives such as the SF People's Organization enthusiastically support.
But he's ashamed to see SFSOS opposing it, sending messages of concern to the group's leader, Wade Randlett, and funder, Don Fisher, asking the group to send a message to its list noting that most business groups support it.
"It's a personal vendetta on the part of the guy who runs SFSOS," Hellman said.
That guy, Randlett, suddenly started attacking the school district last year when the superintendent was at odds with the school board. Randlett was secretly having an extramarital affair at the time with the superintendent's spokesperson Lorna Ho (Randlett has since left his wife, Tamsin Randlett, and is still with Ho), which seemed to have been what prompted SFSOS to flip its focus from parks and potholes to the schools. And apparently, Randlett holds a grudge like few others, so he's urging voters to deny needed school facilities to the kids. It's a telling testament to the guy and the group that is leading the attacks on Chris Daly and openly supporting challenger Rob Black. It's not too late to grab a Daly sign from his 16th and Mission HQ and do everything you can to keep this kind of sleaze out of City Hall.

By Tim Redmond

Well, my friends, once again it's election day, and once again, our site is under attack. It looks like a serious, well-orchestrated effort aimed at shutting us down just when readers look to us the most for ballot recommendations.

The attack started around 10 last night, and continues to this minute. Fortunately, we were well prepared this time, and with our IT director, Joe Pennant, our web designer, John Adams at eline.com, and our host, Ronnie Enriquez at Infraswitch, all doing heroic work, we're still up and running.

We have backup plans, so we should be available all day no matter what. But if the site goes down briefly, don't panic -- just check back a few minutes later.

By G.W. Schulz

For locals familiar with the small town of Pacifica, nestled quietly off Highway 1 a few miles south of the city, major commercial development isn't the first thing that comes to mind. It's mostly a residential town with a Safeway, a Taco Bell, and not much else comprising its business community as far as chains go.

Over the years, various developers have targeted a patch of empty land near the beach that once served as an 87-acre rock quarry (known as Rockaway Quarry) until its owner grew old and Pacificans began using the now naturally outgrown tract as a network of unmarked trails.

An East Coast developer named R. Donahue Peebles bought the quarry last summer for $7.5 million and has pledged to build 350 exclusive hotel suites, 130 single-family homes, more than 200 town houses, live-work lofts and apartments, and an untold number of stores, such as the Gap and Trader Joe's.

But Peebles is up against one thing that has stopped developers in the past: a 1983 city ordinance that requires any developer to receive voter approval before including a housing element in the quarry's future. Pacifica has so much residential property as it stands that its early hope was to attract some commercial businesses to help fortify city coffers with new tax revenue. But Peebles stands to make a hefty chunk of change if housing is included in the development; he's told the business press in the past that single-family homes on the property could range anywhere from $3 million to $8 million.

Peebles has so far shrewdly declined to submit an official plan to the city, but through a series of public meetings has been promising a mixture of housing and commercial elements, both designed with New Urbanism concepts.

When we first reported this story a few months ago, records we'd obtained from Pacifica's City Hall showed Peebles had already spent $163,000 attempting to overcome the 1983 law with Measure L, which Pacifica residents will vote on today. Since then, we've learned that Peebles has spent $1.3 million, and critics are now complaining about two push polls residents have received in recent months. (One reported question: "Would you prefer this project or the big-box store it's currently zoned for?")

We noted that Peebles had hired a costly public relations firm (two staffers worked as communications hacks for both the Democratic AND Republican parties; only big money consulting gigs can truly ease partisan woes) and a group of Sacramento lawyers known for their success at carrying ballot measures. Tens of thousands more went to professional petition circulators. Peebles is no virgin to development battles. He's played a role in erecting major hotels and commercial office buildings inside cities on the East Coast where cronyism and pay-to-play politics are a fact of everyday life.

And Peebles isn't the first developer to take on Pacifica's 1983 law. Just a few years ago, a publicly traded Texas developer named Trammell Crow spent nearly $300,000 in an attempt to build 165,000 square feet of retail space, over 300 apartments and townhouses and a town center. The effort was easily defeated by voters. Some concern over how development at the quarry would impact the area ecologically still exists today.

Rain or shine, opponents of Measure L say they'll be taking a walk along the quarry this evening after an election party.

By Tim Redmond

It's a beautiful day, no rain in sight. I was driving my kids to school this morning through the Castro, and Alix Rosenthal was winning the battle of the people with street signs, if that matters. Polling places in Bernal Heights, where there is no supervisorial race, were pretty busy, which means turnout in D6, D4 and D8 should be high, too.

Robert Haaland is predicting Daly 51, Black 39, which would be nice. The reality is that there are more Daly voters than Black voters in the district, and if the Daly campaign can get them to the polls, he'll win handily.

The Chris Daly campaign just issued the following statement:

Almost 20 percent of the polling places in San Francisco’s District 6 are experiencing problems and irregularities in the early hours of Election Day, according to Supervisor Chris Daly’s campaign.

According to the Daly campaign, at least 10 out of 52 precincts have experienced problems ranging from late openings to voting machine failures to incomplete ballots. In one case, a precinct did not open until almost 90 minutes after the official 7 AM opening time, preventing many voters from casting their ballots. At the same time, the Department of Elections was telling the Daly campaign that the precinct was open. In another instance, witnesses saw a voting machine that was not turned on.

The Daly campaign encourages all media outlets to remind voters that the polls are open until 8 p.m. The campaign encourages all voters within District 6 to vote throughout the day.

By Tim Redmond

So, the folks at sfist posted an item earlier today about the door-hangers with the Guardian logo and the Guardian slate on them. Sfist got it wrong, then apologized, but I want to clear up any confusion here:

The Guardian doesn't do slate cards.

We do endorsements, based on our own independent analysis of what's best for the city, the state and the country. When we're done, some of the candidates inevitably decide to quote from our endorsements or use our headlines or our logo to promote their campaigns. That's fine with me -- political campaigns use newspaper quotes, headlines and logos all the time. Even if it wasn't fine with me, I don't think there's anything we could do to stop it.

A few years ago, some of the progressive campaigns got together and decided to reprint the entire list of Guardian endorsements as a door hanger "slate card." Again: Fine with me. Again: Nothing I could do if it wasn't. Once or twice since then, as a matter of courtesy, the campaigns have called to let me know what they're doing. I always say the same thing: Please, out of courtesy, make it clear that the card you produce is neither paid for by nor produced by the Bay Guardian. Sometimes they do, sometimes they don't.

In this case, I guess, there was some confusion, leading some to wonder if we "sold" our endorsements. We take our endorsments more seriously than anything else we do; just ask anyone who's been through the process or anyone who's ever worked here. We don't control what individual campaigns do with our endorsements. But we aren't involved, make no money off it, don't control content, don't decide where the doorhangers go and many times (like this year) didn't even know it was happening.

Hope that clears things up.

By Tim Redmond

Well, so far, with East Coast results trickling in, the Democrats have picked up three seats in the Senate. The GOP has picked up nothing. Nada. Looking good for the Democrats.

The House is a little slower going. So far, the Democrats are up two.

live report by Jon Beckhardt

The energy at Harry Ha's restaurant on Irving isn't exactly captiviting. Janry Mak's core campaign has yet to show at the election night party being held there. "It's hard to know," one supporter, who refuses to give his name, says of Mak's chances of becoming a Supervisor. "They say we won't know the results until Friday. That's San Francisco politics."

By Tim Redmond

Not a whole lot going on here yet, no results yet and it will be a while. But nationally, the Democrats have picked up nine in the house. Good news so far.

The race that I find the most interesting is the Rhose Island Senate contest, where Lincoln Chaffee, a popular liberal Republican who opposed the war, lost anyway. People were so mad at Bush and the GOP that they voted against a Republican who had soaring popularity ratings.

Says something.

By Tim Redmond

Well, the very, very early results are in and it looks surprisingly good for Chris Daly. Daly didn't even run an absentee voters campaign, and the absentees are always conservative, but Black leads Daly just 784 to 700.

Bevan Dufty is well ahead of Alix Rosenthal, 1571 to 513.

By the way, the Dems just took the House.

By Tim Redmond

Still very early, but it looks like this:

The leaders in the race for school board are Hydra Mendoza, Jane Kim and Dan Kelly. Interesting that Kelly, an incumbent, is in third for three slots, and that's just the early votes. This bears watching. For now, though, good news for Jane Kim.

All the incumbents are way ahead in the Community College Board race. That will change, I think.

Big surprises in district four: So far, Ed Jew, who wasn't even on my radar for this race, is ahead, but it's very close: Ron Dudum is right behind him. Jaynry Mak and Doug Chan are well behind.

The only proposition that is behind (an d not far behind) is the tenant protection measure, H. It's trailing 51-48. That's not bad for early absentees.

Still no more results from here, but Chris Bowman, a Republican political consultant with a knack for calling races early, says Daly, Dufty and Alioto-Pier are headed for re-election. District 4, he says, is a "wild card"; with Ed Jew, Ron Dudum, Jaynry Mak and Doug Chan all neck and neck, it's anybody's to win or lose.

By G.W. Schulz

District 10 incumbent Sophie Maxwell was winning by a large margin when I showed up at the Fanatics Sports Bar near Third Street and Cesar Chavez. About 75 supporters were around at that time among tables spread with confetti and food.

A group of large TVs were showing results on the walls, with former mayor Willie Brown flapping his jaw as a commentator on one of them.

Live report from Sarah Phelan

Krissy Keefer, the candidate for Congress, District 8, rose amid a flurry of Peruvian pan pipes at Café Boheme, dressed in bright green, to address the crowd of her supporters. Her platform had been: US out of Iraq, impeach Bush, stop global warming. With Democrat Nancy Pelosi leading at 77 percent -- looks like she may be the next Speaker of the House – Keefer had this to say:

“The most important thing now is to see if measure J passes. Pelosi has to look at what her district wants -- impeachment for Bush. Her district was against the Iraq war from the start.

It’s time for Nancy Pelosi to take the interests of San Francisco and put them at the center rather than the margins. People from SF will be watching.”

Live report from Amanda Witherell

Slim's is hosting a party for local ballot measure Prop A, the bond for SF schools. The bar is aswirl with San Francisco's school crowd -- those that are of age, at least, meaning current board members and hopefuls.

Live report from Tim Redmond

I just spoke by cell phone to a Daly campaign staffer. The campaign has been monitoring the returns at the precinct level, checking the tags as they're printed out of the machines before they go to City Hall. According to those reports, Daly is 950 votes ahead in the 27 precincts they've counted. That's very good news.

The big news on the School Board is that Jane Kim is now in first place, followed by Hydra Mendoza and Dan Kelly. Kim is almost guaranteed victory. It's possible that Kelly won't make the final cut, and three new members will join the board.

By Steven T. Jones
D8 challenger Alix Rosenthal have been watching the returns from our home with friends, waiting for some numbers before we headed down to her party at the 500 Club. The first big jump on the numbers puts Dufty at 65, Rosenthal at 30, and Starchild at 5. We've always know it would be an uphill battle and it's not looking good, even though we expect Alix to gain ground as the half of the ballots that remain are counted. Alix has run hard in an exhausting race, but is still holding strong and feeling good about her underdog run at an incumbent with a ton of Establishment support. "It's been an exhilarating experience We gave him a run for his money and made him a better supervisor for District 8 and the rest of the city," Alix just told me.

By Tim Redmond

The results are starting to roll in, and it's a night for local progressives to remember. Chris Daly is well ahead in District 6, with 46 percent of the vote (to 41 percent for Rob Black). The School Board race is shaping up as a progressive victory, too, with Jane Kim in first followed by Hydra Mendoza and Kim-Shree Maufas. Dan Kelly has dropped to fifth place, and it appears his career on the School Board is over.

With the exception of the Parking Tax, all the progressive measures are passing, even Prop. H, the tenant-relocation bill that had a serious campaign against it.

The only downer is that Bevan Dufty is well ahead in District 8.

By Tim Redmond

Just got the word that the Democrats are being hammered all over the state, which is terrible news. Prop 90 is ahead by two points, but L.A. hasn't been counted yet, so maybe there's hope.

Here in SF, we just got new numbers on D8: Dufty's a 65.3, which means he's a clear winner. Alix Rosenthal is at 29.9. That seems to be the only race in which the progressives aren't winning.

By Tim Redmond

The big news of the night is that Mayor Gavin Newsom is taking a serious beating. The two candidates he invested the most time and political capital in -- Rob Black and Doug Chan -- are both going down to a clear defeat. In District 4, Chan has pretty much dropped off the map, with Ed Jew, Ron Dudum and Jaynry Mak locked in a close struggle for first place. This race will almost certainly come down to the IRV runoff.

"The mayor may be popular, but he has no coat tails," Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi told me.

The bigger story is how little impact big money has had in district elections. If Daly pulls it out, and it looks like he will, and Chan loses, which is almost certain at this point, then it's a sign that downtown really can't buy district races.

By G.W. Schulz

I showed up at Marie Harrison’s beautiful Bayview-Hunter’s Point home on Quesada Street early at around 7 o’clock. A handful of supporters began to appear along with her husband, son, daughter-in-law and a few others.

If you’ve never seen Harrison’s block, go there. It will change your entire perception of the southeast neighborhoods if you haven’t seen the strip of stunning homes and meticulously maintained gardens that split Quesada complete with veggies and big flowers.

Live report from Sarah Phelan

The booze flowed freely and the jumbo shrimp glistened on the napkins of a crowd of adoring fans at Bevan Dufty's celebration at Lime. Well in the lead to be reelected as Supervisor in District 8, Dufty appeared to be cock of the walk, with his newborn in his arms and his child's birth mother at his side. He told the crowd, "I'm ready to make my move" and then mumbled something about the SFPD, clearly aimed at the members of the SFPD in the audience. Then he acknowledged the presence of fellow Supervisor Sean Elsbernd in the crowd and lauded him for his "bravery in supporting gay marriage, when he has to drive west of Twin Peaks on his way home."

live report by James Woodard

As early numbers roll in, Pat Kernighan is being cautiously optimistic at his election night party being held at Sushi Zone on Ninth Street in downtown Oakland. Supporters of Kernighan, including Oakland City Council President, Ignacio de la Fuente, are calling her a woman of action and someone who works hard for Oakland, whether or not everyone likes her position.

By Tim Redmond
And there was just a huge whoop of happiness when word flashed across the screen at City Hall that Chris Daly has 49.9 percent of the vote, and is virtually guaranteed re-election.

There's more: The School Board looks like Jane Kim, Hydra Mendoza and Kim-Shree Maufas. John Rizzo has displaced Johnny Carter, adding another badly needed reformer to the Community College Board.

In District 4, it's still a toss-up -- Ron Dudum is narrowly ahead of Ed Jew and Jaynry Mak, and this one will go into overtime.

By Tim Redmond

Nobody's talking much about D-21 and D-10, and for good reason; They were foregone conclusions. Michela Alioto-Pier and Sophie Maxwell have cruised easily to re-election. So the new board will have four of five incumbents returning: Daly, Maxwell, Alioto-Pier and Dufty. Only the open seat, D-4, will send a new representative to City Hall.

live report by Jessica Chandler

Doug Chan trailing behind Ed Jew, Ron Dudum, and Jaynry Mak in District 4's tight race seems relaxed and happy tonight. Supporters packing Dragon Lounge, a local bar at 24th and Taraval, are leaving early, feeling that with rank voting the results are still fully unknown.

Live report by Jon Beckhardt

Nothing but optimism all night among the diverse crowd gathered at Tennessee Grill to witness Ron Dudum's potential win for Supe in District 4 – which has now only been heightened with news that he’s 6 points ahead. "Seems good, Feels good” says Tuan Nguyen, Field Director for Dudum's campaign.

Live report from Amanda Witherell

A big cheer from the mixed-bag crowd just drowned out the DJ at DNA Lounge on 11th Street. Someone just announced from the balcony that Daly has the edge on Black, 49 to 39, with about 10,000 votes in and
88 percent of the precincts reporting. The mood instantly lightens and the dance floor numbers swell.

live report by G. W. Schulz

Rob Black's election night party is easily the best dressed I've been to so far. Lots of ties. Lots of heels. Lots of good hair. Lots of white people, frankly. What's more, the party is being held at the very swanky Momo's just across the street from Giants' stadium.

By Tim Redmond

The evening started out as a resounding victory for the national Democrats, a train wreck for California Democrats, and a defining night for San Francisco progressives. But the state results are getting a little tigher, and it now appears that Arnold Schwarzenegger's huge victory won't drag down every Democrat running for statewide office. John Garamandi may survive to be lieutenant governor (keeping far-right loon Tom McClintock out of that office). Jerry Brown will be the next attorney general, and Bill Lockyer the next treasurer.

And Prop. 90 seems to be sinking.

So all in all, a good night -- except for Mayor Gavin Newsom, who must be sitting around wondering why none of the voters seem to want to do what he tells them to.

The near-certain defeat of Rob Black in District Six is a huge deal: It's proof that a storng progressive with grassroots support and troops on the ground can beat back even a massive political assault by some of the most sophisticated and well-funded forces in the city. It's also going to mena a few tough years for Newsom, the Golden Gate Restaurant Association, SFSOS, Don Fisher and the rest of the anti-Daly gang: Daly has proven himself an effective politician, and he has never particularly liked it when jerks like these guys try to mess with him.

One of the more interesting aspects of this election was the money that Michela Alioto-Pier spent on ads for a race in which she had no real opposition -- big, pricey, video ads on sfgate, for example. What's that about? Well, part of what it's about is that Mark Leno is in his last term in the state Assembly, and that seat will open up in two years, which means that in the spring of 2008, a Democratic primary contest will determine the next Assembly member from the east side of San Francisco. Tom Ammiano has already announced his candidacy. Bevan Dufty has loudly proclaimed that he won't run. Is Alioto-Pier looking at that race?

If so, she'd probably have the support of the mayor -- but from the looks of things tonight, that isn't going to help much.

In fact, from the looks of things, Newsom needs to back away from the SFSOS types and try to make peace with the progressives if he wants to accomplish anything as mayor.

by Amanda Witherell

It's after the witching hour and the Guardian has said "good night" to the District 6 celebration, but when we left Chris Daly was still dancing his victorious ass off with hundreds of his supporters on the floor of DNA Lounge.

No on 85/Yes on F Election Party
by Ailsa Chang

The scene at Medjool Bar tonight is upbeat, confident and loud. This election party hosted by the San Francisco Labor Council and Medjool's owner, Gus Murad, is the party for everyone who didn't have a party: No on 85, Yes on F, supporters for Bob Twomey for School Board, State Assembly Candidate Fiona Ma.

by James Woodward

Aimee Allison's campaign party was the second one I attended tonight. Maxwell's, located four blocks away on 13th St. in Downtown Oakland, was festooned with orange balloons while a young crowd of supporters,
clad in bright orange tee shirts, stood out front to smoke. Inside people filled the dance floor as the DJ played Latin rhythms and funk. The crowd here is much younger than the Kernighan party. Everybody's having a pretty good time, although the food is gone and the drinks aren't cheap, but everybody seems to partying like it's a
done deal.

Three years 364 days and counting
By Sarah Phelan
Alix Rosenthal’s election night party at the 500 Club was feisty, even if She Who Would Usurp Dufty In District 8 didn’t win. This time around.
The fun started when Rosenthal arrived, to chants of “Al-Ix! Al-Ix!”. Then someone shouted, “Alix for Governor!” and the crowd went wild.
“We’ve got three years and 364 days to go,” said Rosenthal, radiant in a pretty pink suit.
“We started late in this race against an incumbent who had the support of the entire establishment. We did amazingly well. And I’m sticking around. It’s in my blood. I’ll be running again in four years, so I’ll be watching Bevan Dufty and all his moves.”
And we’ll be watching to see if Board of Supes Chair Aaron Peskin makes good on his promise to take Rosenthal to the best restaurant in the city, if she won 35 percent of the vote, even though she clocked in at 30.57 percent. This time around.

By Sarah Phelan

Singing. Shouting. Ranting. Magic tricks. These were just some of the weirdities at the Board of Supes meeting, which just happened to fall on election day. But it was Sup. Bean Dufty’s almost 5-week old baby Sidney who really stole the show—and got Dufty explaining to Sup. Sophie Maxwell, that it wasn’t him, when a bottle of formula led to burps and gas. So, if you’ve got a case of post-election withdrawal, check out the schedule at sfgov.org to watched televised coverage of it all, burps and all.

By the Velvet Hammer
What do the Republicans share with Kevin Federline?
They both got dumped election day 2006

By G.W. Schulz

Ahhhhh, yes. Another energy draining election night for the Bay Guardian, as many of our former reporters can fondly remember. Run across the city to three or more parties, squeeze through the crowds, pray no one spills wine down your back, bug the candidate for a comment, watch supporters anxiously stand around and wonder if the night’s going to end in a drunken disappointment, track down a payphone in the bathroom (as I did at Momo’s for Rob Black’s party – I gave up my cell phone months ago), and hope a few friends will be at the bar when you finish things up.

Then, after all of that, beg the gods not to let some dipshit who hates the 1st Amendment bring down the Guardian’s Web site as our staffers are trying to post new material on the blog. We were attacked, but it didn’t work, so whoever you are, you’ll just have to start your own newspaper. Poor baby.

First things first. THE INFAMOUSLY CONSERVATIVE SEN. RICK SANTORUM LOST HIS REELCTION BID! And you have the beloved Dan Savage of The Stranger to thank, at least in part. Thank you, blessed Dan. Of course, Savage has posted what is frankly a very fucking funny caption contest on The Stranger’s staff blog. But Wonkette gets credit for catching another very hilarious photo. Not enough? Go here. Many of you likely remember Dan inviting readers awhile back to identify a sexual substance that deserves the title “Santorum.”

By Steven T. Jones

Pollster David Binder was about to begin his regular election post-mortem in the SPUR offices this afternoon when I ran into Mayor Gavin Newsom’s press secretary, Peter Ragone. “Not a very good night for the mayor, huh?” I noted.
But rather than admitting the obvious, Ragone began to spin and dissemble like crazy, shrugging off the defeats of supervisorial candidates Rob Black and Doug Chan – who Newson endorsed and campaigned heavily for – and the approval of a slate of progressive ballot measures that the centrist mayor opposed.
“We endorsed them, but didn’t put a lot into it,” Ragone said, despite the fact that Newsom spent the last two weekends campaigning for Black and Chan (who finished in fourth place) and obviously made a high priority of defeating his main political nemesis of recent years: Sup. Chris Daly.
“The real key for us was Hydra Mendoza, who won [a seat on the school board],” Ragone said. “From my perspective, we now have the mayor’s education advisor on the school board. It’s a good thing.” Perhaps, although I noted that even with support from the mayor and lots of mainstream groups, Mendoza still finished behind a green: Jane Kim. He shrugged again, sticking to his line.
But Ragone can’t spin away the fact that, as Binder said a few minutes later, “I don’t think Newsom had a very good night.”
It was a night for the progressives, with Daly and most of his ballot measures winning decisively and San Franciscans proving themselves to be way to the left of even the leftward national trend. One indicator among many was that nearly 60 percent San Franciscans approved Prop. J, urging Congress to pursue impeachment even though soon-to-be Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi says she’s taken it off the table.
“It showed that we had a progressive turnout and this is a progressive town,” Binder said.

By the Velvet Hammer

Virginia falls, or better yet, rises. And now there will be no excuses for not asking questions, chairing investigations and getting answers about the past. Right? (I mean, left.)

Josh Wolf at 81 days

By Sarah Phelan

Spoke to jailed freelance videographer/blogger Josh Wolf by phone on his 81st day at Dublin Federal Correctional Institute. (Wolf clocked 31 days during his first stint, was released on bail, only to get sent back inside when the 9th Court rejected his appeal.)
“This is like the world’s worst summer camp,” joked Wolf, who keeps busy with lots of reading, writing and Scrabble-playing. “Though the people I play Scrabble with keep leaving.”

Wolf hopes to be free when the Democrats take over Congress in January 2007, in part because Martin Garbus, a big shot First Amendment lawyer, is now his lead attorney.

“I’m lucky to have such illustrious counsel. Garbus had been referred to me before I went to jail the first time, but I wanted to meet him face-to-face. Then, while I was inside, an inmate had a copy of Garbus’ 300-page long book, Heroes and Traitors. I read it in four hours straight.”

Another reason for hope: On October 11, Wolf’s legal team filed paperwork with the 9th Circuit in the hope of a rehearing, given that the panel’s decision in his case appears to conflict with a prior decision of the court, in which sessions in which a police officer sought counseling following a contentious and fatal shooting were given protection from investigators’ prying eyes.

In Wolf’s case, he’s being asked to produce video-out takes of a July 2005 anarchist protest turned violent--something he fears the police want to access so they can profile members of the anarchist community.

“The alleged arson of a police car is serious, but so is the chilling effect of trying to get a reporter to work as an arm of the government,” says Wolf, who has only 14 days to go before he tops former New York Times’ reporter Judith Miller’s 95-day stint inside.

“I’m looking forward to being out in the fresh air, walking around –and meeting you face to face,” says Wolf, who believes TV coverage of his case has been adversely affected by Dublin’s ruling that he can only give interviews by phone and that they can’t be taped.

“TV news doesn’t want to report what Josh Wolf says if there’s no voice and no face to go with it,” he observes. As for the fact that the two Chronicle reporters who printed leaked grand jury testimony in the BALCO steroids scandal remain outside, while Wolf remains inside playing Scrabble, is that evidence of preferential treatment of the corporate media, or evidence that the feds had something to gain in their “war on drugs’ by the leaked testimony getting out in print? Stay tuned.

By Sarah Phelan

Spoke to jailed freelance videographer/blogger Josh Wolf by phone on his 81st day at Dublin Federal Correctional Institute. (Wolf clocked 31 days during his first stint, was released on bail, only to get sent back inside when the 9th Court rejected his appeal.)
“This is like the world’s worst summer camp,” joked Wolf, who keeps busy with lots of reading, writing and Scrabble-playing. “Though the people I play Scrabble with keep leaving.”

Wolf hopes to be free when the Democrats take over Congress in January 2007, in part because Martin Garbus, a big shot First Amendment lawyer, is now his lead attorney.

“I’m lucky to have such illustrious counsel. Garbus had been referred to me before I went to jail the first time, but I wanted to meet him face-to-face. Then, while I was inside, an inmate had a copy of Garbus’ 300-page long book, Heroes and Traitors. I read it in four hours straight.”

Another reason for hope: On October 11, Wolf’s legal team filed paperwork with the 9th Circuit in the hope of a rehearing, given that the panel’s decision in his case appears to conflict with a prior decision of the court, in which sessions in which a police officer sought counseling following a contentious and fatal shooting were given protection from investigators’ prying eyes.

In Wolf’s case, he’s being asked to produce video-out takes of a July 2005 anarchist protest turned violent--something he fears the police want to access so they can profile members of the anarchist community.

“The alleged arson of a police car is serious, but so is the chilling effect of trying to get a reporter to work as an arm of the government,” says Wolf, who has only 14 days to go before he tops former New York Times’ reporter Judith Miller’s 95-day stint inside.

“I’m looking forward to being out in the fresh air, walking around –and meeting you face to face,” says Wolf, who believes TV coverage of his case has been adversely affected by Dublin’s ruling that he can only give interviews by phone and that they can’t be taped.

“TV news doesn’t want to report what Josh Wolf says if there’s no voice and no face to go with it,” he observes. As for the fact that the two Chronicle reporters who printed leaked grand jury testimony in the BALCO steroids scandal remain outside, while Wolf remains inside playing Scrabble, is that evidence of preferential treatment of the corporate media, or evidence that the feds had something to gain in their “war on drugs’ by the leaked testimony getting out in print? Stay tuned.

By Steven T. Jones

Our colleagues at the San Francisco Chronicle flogged the phrase “San Francisco values” in the runup to this election, exploring its meaning in two front page stories and an editorial. But when you compare the paper’s endorsements to how San Franciscans actually voted on Tuesday, it becomes clear that the Chronicle doesn’t subscribe to San Francisco values. Actually, they’ve adopted something closer to Walnut Creek values as they strive to be a paper of and for the suburbs of our great city.

By Laura Beth McCaul
While the Democrats’ congressional takeover and Donald Rumsfeld's resignation are making headlines, election day set off another trend that may not be on the tip of voters' tongues, but could change the way democracy works in the United States.
Instant runoff voting (IRV), or ranked choice voting – which has been in place in San Francisco for two years -- was on the ballot in four jurisdictions and all won with significant approval. Minneapolis, Oakland, Davis and Washington’s Pierce County all approved measures that will eliminate separate primary elections and allow voters to rank the candidates from their first to last choice.
Steven Hill, director of the Political Reform Program at the New America Foundation, said IRV "speaks to a lot of people who feel like the current system is not working and they want a political system that is going to open it up and give more choices. Instant runoff voting really fulfills a need that makes them feel like their vote counts."

by Amanda Witherell

The city's Elections department just released the ranked choice results for district 4 and Ed Jew is the unofficial winner with 52 percent of the vote. Ron Dudum was the last to drop, but the results show enough of the voters selected Jew as their preferred second choice.

The ranked choice votes also showed Chris Daly still has a firm grip on his seat in District 6. Daly was the only supervisor outside the Elections department to shake Jew's hand and welcome him to the fold after the results were released. "Really looking forward to working with you," Daly said to the new supe.

What’s up with UC Berkeley Extension in SF?
By sarah Phelan

It’s not common knowledge that the UC Regents are proposing to close UC Berkeley Extension’s historic San Francisco campus and convert it into condos and a retail shopping center.

Thankfully, along comes Eliza Hemenway and her documentary, Uncommon Knowledge: Closing the Books at UC Berkeley Extension, just in time to get you up to speed before public comment closes in December.

So, get yourself down to the The Roxie Film Center for a special preview screening Thursday, Nov. 16, at 6:30 PM.
For advanced tix, visit www.roxie.com/Nov06.cfm (scroll down to Uncommon Knowledge).

By Sarah Phelan

With the Board of Supervisors set to vote Tuesday on the mayor veto of Sup. Ross Mirkarimi's foot-patrol legislation, the mayor 's office has reportedly gone into overdrive to try to ensure his veto will hold .

The math is tough for Mayor Gavin Newsom: Supes Mirkarimi, Chris Daly, Tom Ammiano and Gerardo Sandoval are solidly behind the legislation. That’s four votes. Bevan Dufty, Sophie Maxwell and Fiona Ma all voted for it the first time around, when it passed 7-3, and all have spoken loudly in support of getting the cops out of their cars and into the neighborhoods. Jake McGoldrick was out of town for the vote, but he tells us he’ll side with the majority – which adds up to eight votes, enough to sustain a veto and deal the mayor an embarrassing political setback.

So Newsom is trying hard to get one of the eight to switch sides. Among the plays: Chief Heather Fong held a hastily arranged press conference Monday to announce her own, slightly watered-down foot-patrol plan, in a clear effort to undercut the supes. And we’re told that Senator Dianne Feinstein has been calling board members to lobby against the plan.

McGoldrick and Maxwell both told us that they were planning to vote to override the mayor’s veto, and chided Feinstein for getting involved. "If Feinstein wants to be mayor, she oughta run," he said.

As for the police's hastily announced foot patrol plan, Maxwell said, maybe it would be fine, but it was coming too late for her to backpedal.

"The mayor and Heather Fong had ample time. Why did we even get to this point? Because we've been asking and asking and finally we came up with legislation. The police have promised things before and didn't do anything, so this isn't the time for me to be backpedaling."

Reached Friday Nov. 10, Dufty told the Guardian that he's "always supported foot patrols" and has "no confidence" in Fong. But three days later, when Fong was promoting her alternative, all Dufty would say about his vote was, "no comment"

The wildest rumor had Newsom offering to fire Fong if some of the supes would back away from the veto override. The Mayor's spokesperson, Peter Ragone insisted to us that “There's no truth to that." Then his line mysteriously went dead.

So who else could be the swing vote the mayor needs to keep his vanity intact?

Well, on Oct. 24, when the bill was approved, Sean Elsbernd, Michela Alioto-Pier, along with BOS chair Aaron Peskin voted against it.

Elsbernd and Alioto-Pier are known to be solidly in the mayor's court. But what about Peskin?

Reached Monday night, Peskin wasn't about to give up his voting plans, but he did say that he found it disingenuous of the mayor to veto the measure on the grounds that the board shouldn't tell a paramilitary organization what to do, then turn around and say that he, the mayor, was planning to go ahead with foot patrols anyway.

Either way, Tuesday’s 2 pm board meeting will be worth watching.

As Sup. Mirkarimi told the Guardian, "People have told me that the police's press conference was surreal, strange and desperate. The only reason we're even in this position is because of an absence of leadership on the part of the chief of police and the mayor. And now they have the audacity to say that their plan is better than ours.
Public safety should never be compromised because of the Mayor's vanity and the chief's inaction. It's an unreal, practically juvenile situation."

By Tim Redmond

Sup. Tom Ammiano has a real simple measure coming to the board that ought to pass unanimously. It's worked fine in Berkeley for many, many years. It works fine in Seattle, Santa Cruz, and Santa Barbara. And yet, it faces what could be a tight board vote and a mayoral veto. Crazy.

What Ammiano wants to do is make enforcing the marijuana laws the city's lowest police priority. We're just talking about possession laws, not sales. The city's narcotics cops say it won't be a problem. It will just send a message to the chief and the street patrols that they should worry more about violent crime than about busting someone smoking a joint in the park.

So far, Ammiano can count Sups. Jake McGoldrick, Chris Daly, Ross Mirkarimi, Aaron Peskin, Gerardo Sandoval and himself in favor. That's six. But Mayor Newsom will probably veto it, so he needs two more.

Bevan Dufty and Sophie Maxwell really ought to get behind this.

by Amanda Witherell

Mayor Newsom is getting pummeled left and right. (Actually, they're probably all lefts.) Only one of his three acolytes won the election last Tuesday. The 49ers are waving good-bye after they promised they weren't talking with any other cities. The Olympic bid went south with them. Supe. Aaron Peskin switched sides and Supe. Jake McGoldrick showed up for the Board of Supervisors vote for foot patrols.
Oh, what else...after Newsom said abolishing JROTC in public schools "sends the wrong message..." You guessed it: the Board of Education just voted to nix the program and send the military packing. What's next for Mr. Popularity...

By Sarah Phelan
It hasn’t exactly been a good couple of weeks for Mayor Gavin Newsom.
His picks for Board of Supervisors got thumped.
The 49ers said they’re running away with Santa Clara but keeping San Francisco’s name.
Newsom nix sayed the city’s Olympic bid
And then the Board of Supervisors overrode Newsom’s veto of police foot patrol legislation in a 9-2 vote that means the city will go ahead with a one-year citywide pilot project.
Worse, the nine sups that defied his veto got to explain their reasons, which included slamming the mayor and the police chief for lack of leadership..
Sup. Ross Mirkarimi talked about giving the mayor and Chief of Police plenty to time to take action. When they didn’t, and the Board took the lead, Mirkarimi says he was surprised by the mayor’s veto.
As for SFPD Chief Heather Fong’s hastily announced counter plan, which was made public on Monday, Mirkarimi said, “An acute difference between the two plans is that ours calls for accountability.”
Sup. Bevan Dufty, citing increased incidences of violent crime and inadequate response in the Castro, said “the visible presence of foot patrols is helpful."
“No one is higher than the chief of police but the chief needs to speak up and to speak clearly without regard for where the chips may fall,” said Dufty, alluding to a lack of morale in the SFPD. “This vote is not offered as a criticism of the Mayor or the Chief. This is the best we can do as a Board right now. Let us rise above that and recognize that we need leadership.”
Sup. Chris Daly couldn’t resist asking how the increased number of officers under the Chief’s plan (44 isntead of the 33 specified in the Board's plan) “isn’t playing politics.”
Sup. Tom Ammiano wondered what kind of cooperation will be forthcoming, and Sup. Fiona Ma noted that if there was a garbage problem or a flu epidemic, this board would propose a plan, which is why the board reacted to crime wave with foot patrols.
Sup. Michela Alioto-Pier, who along with Sup. Sean Elsbernd voted to uphold the mayor’s veto, said one of the problems was the way the ordinance was written.”
Elsbernd argued that the mayor and police chief should make policing decisions, not the Board of Supervisors.
But Sup. Gerardo Sandoval was upset that SFPD Chief Heather Fong had said that if the Board overrode the mayor’s veto, she didn’t want to disobey the Board’s legislation, but her captains might ignore it.
“We need to be very protective of our roles in this city,” Sandoval told his colleagues.
“To have a Chief of Police say something like that should not go unnoticed.”
Sup. Sophie Maxwell, noting that she probably has the highest incidence of gun violence in her district, recalled walking the precincts this fall and people telling her that they wanted to see the police,
"I have no choice. I have to do this," said Maxwell of supporting the legislation.
Board Chair Aaron Peskin, who previously voted against the Board’s legislation, but ultimately voted to support it found it ironic that the legislation embraced by the police and the mayor “supports the Board’s idea.”
Sup. Jake McGoldrick found the SFPD’s counter proposal, “a day late, a dollar short.”
“For 5 months, 7 months, 18 months , we were looking for tools, all we got was reaction, not action. But there’s something hopeful about this dialogue.”
After the historic vote, SFPD Chief Heather Fong told the assembled media that she would disagree about their being a morale problem in the department.
Acknowledging that the SFPD is currently 300 officers under its mandated staffing levels, Fong said, “ I believe the captains have to have flexibility.”
Noting that the SFPD’s plan would kick in Nov. 24 and involve 44 officers, Fong added,” I believe the deployment plan will be incompliance with the legislation.”
As for the mayor, it would have been interesting to be a fly on the proverbial wall of his office.

By Sarah Phelan

Moments after the Board of Supes overode the mayor's veto of their foot patrol legislation, Sup. Tom Ammiano got an 8-3 vote to make marijuana offenses the lowest law enforcement priority. Phwew! Because there we were worrying about all those police walking beats and busting hippies for rolling up big fat ones in the park. Close one.

by Amanda Witherell

Here's another, less lauded "San Francisco value." Page A18 of the November 14 New York Times (sorry, folks...they don't seem to have it online...) had a tally of the most expensive House races in millions spent. It shows that those who spent the most, lost the most. Just like here in San Francisco!

Republicans outspent Democrats in nearly all the seats the chart lists, and the races they won, they only spent marginally more than their foes. The only Dems to beat them in dollars were Maria Cantwell over Mike McGavick, Bill Nelson over Katherine Harris, and Hillary Clinton over John Spencer (We know where that money's really going...)

The races where spending was relatively equal, for the most part, Republicans edged Democrats -- and yet that party is still opposed to reasonable campaign finance reforms. Maybe they like spending money. I've never run for office...maybe it's like a really posh shopping spree.

By Sarah Phelan
In the war on terror, even cats are suspect. Or at least their kitty litter is.
That’s because of trace amounts of uranium and other suspect stuff that apparently triggers alarms at ports worldwide
But now comes news of better technology--and bigger profits—in the war on terror.
Today, the Bay Area-based Veritainer unveiled equipment at the Port of Oakland which can, according to Veritainer CEO John Alioto, detect “dirty bombs” in shipping containers

Yes, we know that Oakland is a domestic port, and thus less likely to be the site of smuggled nukes, but the Veritainer folks say they are using Oakland as a test case.

No, that doesn’t mean they’ll be bringing in dirty bombs to Oakland so they can test their technology. Instead, they’ll be bringing in small sources of naturally occurring nuclear material, such as americium, which is found in smoke detectors (and was, ironically enough, named for the Americas).

“This is to protect ports around the world from the low probability but high impact of nuclear smuggling,” said Veritainer Chairman and CEO John Alioto, who plans to charge $20 per container to screen for dirty bombs, provided his company gets certified by the Department of Homeland Security in January 2007.

In other words, Veritainer stands to make oodles of bucks, given that Oakland handles 2 million containers a year, L.A. handles 6 million and Rotterdam handles 20 million. Add to that the fact that radiation screening is now required at international ports, thanks to the Safe Port Act which President Bush signed in October, and you get the picture.
Right now, according to John Alioto, the customer is the government, with the National Nuclear Safety Agency setting aside $2.5 billion to cover initial costs.

Alioto also told me that there’ll be no danger to port workers from this technology,
“The equipment is purely passive,” he said. “Unlike dentists’ X-ray equipment, this is passive, purely detective equipment. So, there’ll be no shooting of radiation at the waterfront!” (The International Longshoremen and local residents will be happy to hear that.)

“Unlike radiation portal monitors, which were called kitty litter detectors because they couldn’t differentiate between dangerous and non-dangerous sources, these devices can identify isotopes, and say, yes, it americium. At which point, port officials can check the ship’s manifest and see if it’s certified to carry smoke detectors. And eventually, the machine will be able to do manifest comparison itself, too.”
So, next year, if you’re riding a ferry to Jack London Square, chances are port officials will be monitoring radioactive levels at the port, 24/7. So, leave the kitty litter at home.

By Sarah Phelan
The SF PUC opened its Nov. 14 Sewer System Master Plan update with a cautionary tale: a sewage spill at Ocean Beach occurred when a manhole cover blew out, affecting about 150 ft of the beach from beneath the Cliff House going west--and further proving the need, according to PUC officials, for major upgrades to the city's sewer system.
The good news: PUC officials claim the thousands of gallons of shit that spewed across the Great Highway onto the beach during heavy downpours of rain never reached the ocean. All of which means that surfers can continue to hang ten with their eyes and mouths wide open.

By Tim Redmond

Late last night, after all the debate about surveillance cameras was over, the San Francisco Police Commission narrowly voted down a plan that would have made a strong statement against secrecy in police discipline.

The vote was 4-3,. with the usual pro-cop suspects, Louse Renne, Joe Marshall and Yvonne Lee joined by the swing vote, Joe Alioto Veronese. He should have voted the other way.

Here's what happened: After the state Supreme Court came out with its atrocious ruling in a case called Copley, essentially enshrining all cop discipline cases in a veil of secrecy, Commissioner David Campos proposed an intriguing idea: A lot of disciplinary cases are settled before a formal trial. That's usually to the benefit of the cop, who can accept a lower penalty in exchange for, in effect, pleading guilty. Campos suggested that the commission simply state, as a matter of policy, that no cases would be settled unless the officer involved agreed to waive his right to confidentiality and let the public know about the charges and the outcome.
That would simply continue the way things have been done for the pas 14 years, prior to this horrible court decision.
When the idea first came up, Alioto Veronese supported it, but over the past few weeks, he's backed away. And last night, with a bit of a convoluted explanation, he cast the deciding vote to shoot down the Campos proposal. Not good.

By the way, the meeting ended with Campos and Commissioner Theresa Sparks demanding that Chief Heather Fong explain her rather bizarre statements on police foot patrols.The chief had initially argued that foot patrols would never work, because the department didn't have enough staff. Then she presented her her own foot-patrol plan. Then she was quoted in a TV interview as appearing to say that if the supervisors passed the law, she'd ignore it anyway.

What, exactly, was the chief's position, and how did it change so radically from one day to the next? Fong ducked beautifully. But the commissioners promised to bring the issue back.

By Sarah Phelan
It looks like Josh Wolf, the jailed freelance videographer and blogger, will be stuck inside Dublin Federal Correctional Institute until July 2007.
That at least is the word from Wolf’s lead attorney Martin Garbus today, following news that the 9th Circuit has denied Wolf’s petition for a rehearing in USA v Josh Wolf.
Wolf’s legal team asked for a rehearing on the basis that the 9th Circuit court, which previously ruled that Wolf does not the right to withhold video outtakes of a July 8, 2005 anarchist protest turned violent, had however granted that privilege in the Jaffee case, when a police officer didn’t want the family of a fatal shooting victim to access notes from a series of counseling sessions that the officer in question underwent following the shooting.
Evidently, the 9th Circuit didn’t agree. Not only did it deny the petition and rule that the motion to reinstate bail is moot, it also wrote that “no further filings shall be accepted in this case.”
Sounds like Wolf will be playing lots of Scrabble and reading lots of books until next summer.
Meanwhile, Chronicle reporters Lance Williams and Mark Fainaru-Wade have yet to serve any jail time for refusing to testify before a federal grand jury that’s investigating who leaked them secret testimony of Barry Bonds, Jason Giambi and others in the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative scandal.
What’s ironic about this discrepancy between how the BALCO reporters and Wolf are being treated is that the feds could at least argue a connection to the BALCO case, whereas the protest that Wolf covered and which subsequently sparked their interest took place in San Francisco and should, by all rights, have been investigated locally.
Could it be that these differences are purely a case of the corporate media getting preferential treatment over freelancers? Perhaps. But questions as to whether reporters are shielded from revealing their sources date back to 1972, when US Supreme Court Justice Byron White ruled, in Branzburg v. Hayes, that reporters must answer relevant questions that are asked in a valid grand jury investigation.
Since then, judges largely ignored Branzburg, believing that it’s important to balance the First Amendment rights of journalists against the public right’s to know. But then came Bush, 9/11 and the “war on terror,” at which point First Amendment freedoms began to take a back seat.
Consider that in 2003, a federal appeals court, citing Branzburg, ordered Chicago Sun-Times and Chicago Tribune reporters to divulge recordings of interviews of a witness in a terrorism case. The same case was made in the federal investigation as to who leaked the name of CIA agent Valerie Plame, and New York Times reporter Judith Miller spent 85 days in jail in 2005 for refusing to testify in that case, which resulted perjury and obstruction of justice charges against Vice President Dick Cheney’s top aide, Lewis I. “Scooter” Libby. And this year, the US Justice Department has been investigating whether classified information was illegally leaked to the Washington Post about the secret CIA prisons in Eastern Europe, as well as who told the New York Times about President Bush’s secret plan to eavesdrop on Americans. All of which could be seen as an effort to suppress leaks to journalists.
To add to the confusion, accusations have been made in the BALCO case that it was the federal government which leaked the testimony to the Chronicle reporters. While those accusations have not been proven to date, the truth is that the feds certainly have benefited from the Chron’s revelations, given that Major League Baseball have subsequently adopted stricter steroid rules and the feds have been able to push through harsher penalties for steroid dealers.
What’s striking about the path to Josh Wolf’s incarceration is how he became the target of a federal investigation although his case had no obvious connection to the feds. So far, the feds have trotted out disturbingly vague arguments about how they should be involved because of alleged arson to a squad car that may or may not have been purchased with federal funds. But the truth is that arson was never proven and all the SFPD reports mention is a broken rear taillight, which Wolf’s mother has repeatedly offered to pay for, if that would get her son out of jail.
In fact, court filings show that the police’s real interest is finding out who attacked and seriously hurt an SFPD officer in the course of the protest—a valid concern and one that SF District Attorney Kamala Harris’ office should be handling. Instead, the feds were called in, triggering justifiable fears in Josh Wolf, who the FBI has questioned about his anarchist tendencies, that the real reason that he’s sitting in jail, is that the feds want him to release his video outtakes and identify the anarchists, who lifted up their ski masks and spoke directly into Josh’s camera, before the violence went down. And then there’s the fact that the portion of Wolf’s tape that he posted online at his blog and got picked up by several TV stations does not paint a flattering portrait of the police.
Interestingly, while Wolf has argued that journalists should not be forced into becoming investigative tools of the government, both the SFPD and the US Attorney General’s Office have voiced doubts to the Guardian as to whether Wolf is a “real” journalist, citing his direct involvement with the anarchist cause as well as the fact that he is not employed by a media outlet. These arguments should sound the alarm bells of freelancers nationwide.
Meanwhile, Wolf sits in jail, where he is only allowed 15-minute phone interviews with the media, thereby preventing live visual images and recordings of his voice to be aired across the nation, effectively blacking him out of the consciousness of all those who don’t get their news from the print media. And when the federal grand jury expires in July, there’s a chance that a new grand jury might demand that Wolf release his outtakes and testify or rot in jail for another year.
It’s a sad day for journalists, corporate and freelance, and the First Amendment.

By Sarah Phelan

There’s something deliciously violent about stand-up comedian Margaret Cho’s voice. Even when she picks up the phone in her hotel room in Philadelphia and says, “Hell-low? This is Margaret,” in that familiar Cho twang, you feel the tigress at the end of the line.
OK, maybe I’m just projecting. Because let’s face it: to call Margaret is to risk ending up as fodder in her next comedy act, especially if you have a British accent and work for the San Francisco Bay Guardian.
But that’s OK, because I love this bitch, and I’m glad that Good Vibrations, San Francisco’s legendary retailer and distributor of sex toys and sex education, gave me an excuse to interview her by appointing her to be on their Board of Directors.
“I did it for the free vibrators,” jokes Cho, by way of explaining the Good Vibrations gig. “Seriously, I worked a long time ago at another sex store, Stormy Leather, in the retail store. Before it was just a leather company, making dildo harnesses and clothes and S&M gear, and then it opened a retail store. In fact, I think that was my last daytime job, other than stand-up comedy. Through working there, I learned about Good Vibrations, the sisters’ store, which had a different location, but with the same ideas and philosophies about women and sexuality that help empower us and learn. And I bought a lot of stuff at Good Vibrations. I love Carol Queen and I love the diversity of the people who work there. It’s very much my crowd, my queer friends, lovers and people I know. It’s so familiar. The people who work there are my cup of tea. I enjoy just hanging out there.”
Asked about the thumping the Republicans got in the November 2006 election, Cho laughs. “I’m glad. It only took a couple of all-time gay scandals to turn it around. It was about time. It should have happened a lot sooner. Homophobia is something that worked in our favor this time. Americans are so homophobic. They realize that Republicans could be closet gays –and so they don’t want to vote Republican any more. That’s fine right now. If it works in our favor, it’s gotta be OK. Hopefully, it will lead to people understanding the queer culture more, and at least there’s been some shift in balance.”
In light of the news that the 49ers want to leave San Francisco and SF Sup. Michela Alioto-Pier wants to form a sports commission to keep teams in town, I asked Cho if she could think of any sports that might work better for our city, like competitive gay brunching, perhaps, as recently defined by the Bay Guardian’s cultural editor Marke B.?
.“How about a really bad-ass lesbian softball league,” suggests Cho. “No holds barred. Armed with weapons. Something violent, really empowering and kick-ass.”

The word on the street is that Johnnie Carter has passed John Rizzo for a seat on City College's Board. According to Ross Mirkarimi's aide, Boris Delepine, on Friday Carter was up 100 votes and angled to take the third available seat on the Board. The final results of the ballot count will be out on Tuesday.

By G.W. Schulz

Real estate mogul Clint Reilly's attempt to stop a major media buyout involving MediaNews and the Hearst Corp. turned a corner earlier this week when Reilly's attorney, Joe Alioto, asked a federal judge for a temporary restraining order to stop certain business activities taking place at both companies that could change the dimensions of the Bay Area newspaper establishment.

Alioto fears that if changes at several of the local daily papers become too significant, no decision made during trial could turn them back, including recently announced job cuts at the papers. The judge has yet to rule, but a decision will likely to be handed down by Monday.

The hearing on Thursday devolved at times into a heated exchange between Alioto and the Hearst attorney, Daniel Wall. Alioto says an April letter confirms that Hearst and MediaNews have been discussing the possibility of combining some circulation and ad functions. Wall fired back that the San Francisco Chronicle is bleeding millions of dollars annually and the only way to save it is to reduce costs through "pro-competition collaboration."

More on this soon.

By Sarah Phelan

Got a letter today that Josh Wolf wrote on Thanksgiving in which he reports that he got a “fairly tasty and very substantial Thanksgiving dinner at noon, followed by a sack lunch at 2:30 pm for dinner.”

That said, he wrote about having only had three phone interviews since his return to Dublin—one from the Bay Guardian, one from the Chronicle, one from MTV.

“Hardly a high demand even given the limited resources of a cash-strapped prison budget,” observes Wolf of the prison’s decision to deny him on-camera interviews and to forbid phone interviews from being taped.

Fiona Ma's last Board of Supervisors' meeting

By Sarah Phelan
Sometimes you have to be thankful that you can only have ONE last day at work.
Take Fiona Ma’s last Board of Supervisor’s meeting, at which her colleagues variously praised her, waxed misty-eyed, or made some San-Francisco-values jokes:
Sup. Bevan Dufty called Ma “The Energizer Bunny.:
Alioto-Pier bemoaned the loss of a fellow female Supervisors. “Sophie and I are now it!”
Sophie Maxwell recalled how the “boys” on the Budget Committee once tried to push her and Ma’s concerns aside. “Fiona said, ‘I don’t think so’” said Maxwell, who described how Ma then made the committee boys wait.. “I was the good cop, she was the bad cop.”
Sup. Tom Ammiano recalled how Dufty and Ma were sworn in on the same day.“Somebody suggested that one of them was going be late as they were having their hair done. I said, “Damn that Bevan! He doesn’t have that many hairs left.”

By Sarah Phelan
Diamonds, so the saying goes, are a girl’s best friend, especially during the holiday season, which is when 25 percent of the sales of these gems reportedly take place.
But does it make sense to give your sweetie a diamond as a symbol of your love, when so many of these brilliant sparklers have caused death and destruction for so many African souls?

“Conflict diamonds” are sparklers that are mined in war zones and sold to finance African paramilitary groups. But while that practice is said to be lessening, unethical child labor practices and unacceptable environmental degradation continues unabated in Africa, which is where 49 percent of the world’s diamonds originate. These harsh realities became clear to San Francisco resident Beth Gerstein when she was shopping for an engagement ring. This discovery led her to found Brilliant Earth, which specializes in independently mined diamonds of what she calls “ethical origin,” most of them from Canada, which has some of the toughest labor standards in the world.
“Diamonds are supposed to be a symbol of love and commitment, but the industry has fueled a lot of civil wars, and many workers continue to live in abject poverty and work in dangerous and environmentally degrading conditions,” says Gerstein, noting that the movie Blood Diamond, which premiers Dec. 8, “has created a lot of defensive reaction within the diamond industry.”
"People should be proud to wear diamonds. An ethically-mined, conflict-free diamond will carry a slight premium, but it’s still competitively priced,” says Gerstein, who notes that if the whole notion of wearing diamonds turns you off, you can also donate your previously worn diamonds or family heirlooms to the Diamonds for Africa Fund, which Brilliant Earth cofounded with the Indigenous Land Rights Fund. Proceeds benefit the San Bushmen in Botswana, improve health conditions and education in villages in the Congo, and help children in Sierra Leone, who’ve been affected by conflict diamonds.

By Steven T. Jones
I have a prediction for the new session of the California Legislature, which begins on Monday: there won't be as much anti-gay rhetoric as we sometimes hear from the social conservatives in Sacramento. Why? Because the Assembly's two remaining gay men -- John Laird from Santa Cruz and our own Mark Leno -- have risen to the chairs of two of the most powerful committee. Leno will chair the Appropriations Committee, through which most bills must pass, and Laird will chair the Budget Committee. Or as one insider told me, the word have gone out: you gotta deal with the gay guys. And that might not be easy to do if some loudmouth legislator is out there railing against the "homosexual agenda" because he thinks such nastiness plays well with his conservative constituents.
Compounding that reality will be Leno's latest bill legalizing gay marriage, which he said he will introduce on the first day of the session. Last time, the Legislature passed it only to have it vetoed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who said the issue was a matter for the courts. Then, a month later, the Court of Appeals ruled against San Francisco's effort to legalize gay marriage by saying it was a matter for the legislature. Stay tuned, folks, this could get interesting.

By Tim Redmond

When New York City cops fired 50 shots outside a Queens nightclub, killing an unarmed 23-year-old African American man, the mayor, Michael Bloomberg, quickly met with black leaders and publicly announced that the shooting was excessive and "unacceptable". That's a stunning move for any mayor; most civic leaders want to give the cops the benefit of the doubt, and they duck these situations by claiming they need to wait for the results of some long investigation.
But Bloomberg didn't mess around: He told the truth, that “I can tell you that it is to me unacceptable or inexplicable how you can have 50-odd shots fired.”

Not surprisingly, the mayor is getting a pretty positive response.

Contrast that with how Mayor Gavin Newsom has dealt with past police shootings, including the Asa Sullivan killing, and you get a sense that the Democratic mayor of San Francisco doesn't have any where near the guts of the Republican mayor of New York.