Politics Blog

Zynga implosion shows the danger in SF's technophilia

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We’ve long been skeptical of the overblown and self-interested claims by tech titans and their political allies that this dot-com boom changes everything and that it could never go bust, like last time. Read more »

Google and Wikileaks: The takedown

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By now half the Internet has read the New York Times piece Julian Assange wrote on Google. In theory, it's sort of an analysis of "The New Digital Age," a book by Google Chairman Eric Schmidt and former State Department official Jared Cohen, which got a lukewarm review in the Times a month ago. Read more »

Some wins, some losses in Sacto

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The state Assembly and Senate passed the usual flurry of bills on May 31, the last day for initial-house approval, with some unusual drama that temporarily sidelined a medical-marijuana bill by Assemblymember Tom Ammiano.

By the time it was all over, several other Ammiano bills passed, a measure by Assemblymember Phil Ting to ease the way for a Warriors arena on the waterfront won approval, and state Sen. Mark Leno got most of his major legislation through.Read more »

Mt Everest and tantrum-tossing talk junkies

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The world has been rather ugly of late, hasn't it? From man-made horrors in Turkey as the government sprays its people with agent orange to Syria's unending conflict to Mother Nature's wrath in Oklahoma--more trouble every day as the Mothers sang in 1966. So when I saw an article on Mt. Read more »

Lou Reed's not so perfect day

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Last Friday, it was revealed that Velvet Underground co-founder and occasionally proclaimed "godfather of punk rock" Lou Reed had undergone a life-saving liver transplant in Cleveland. Reed, 71 was "dying" according to his third wife, Laurie Anderson. She says that Reed is already improving and up and around doing tai chi, but that "he will never be completely better''.Read more »

Jean Stapleton, RIP

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Jean Stapleton, best known as "Edith Bunker" on TV's "All In The Family", passed away in New York. She was 90.

Not only was she an actress of amazing skill and poise, but consider the obvious: There would never be an "All In The Family" today (discounting cartoons like "The Simpsons" or "Family Guy").Read more »

Nothing without daddy

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Reading Rand Paul's prescription for a bigger and better GOP, I was struck by an interesting thought--since 1988, only one Republican nominee (coincidentally the only one I thought of voting for, Bob Dole), owed virtually none of his success in life to his dad. ( Rand Paul to say the least, owes everything to his dad). The rest--wow!Read more »

Staggering Hypocrisy

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Apparently, the Republicans in Congress are railing against food stamps--fosters a "culture of dependency", they say.

Read more »

Activists to governor: Please un-frack California

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A statewide coalition of more than 100 environmental organizations has formed to pressure California Gov. Jerry Brown to ban fracking – an environmentally harmful oil extraction method technically known as hydraulic fracturing.Read more »

Both sides DON'T do it

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As someone with a lot of friends and contacts in the real world and on the Net, I hear pretty much every opinion under the sun. From die-hard Communist all the way to equally didactic (and tellingly similar) Objectivist, I get it all day every day. Read more »