COURT JESTERINGS
With h brown
Photo(s) by
Luke Thomas
Court Jester reviews BOS and other misdemeanors
February 28, 2007
"In Deuteronomy, it says: 'If a man lies
with a woman
who is the wife of another man,
that man and the woman
should be stoned to death.'"
(Public speaker at yesterday's Board of Supervisors
meeting)
The guy looked the part of a religious nut. Mid-50's, white,
lean, short-sleeved sport shirt with a pamphlet sticking out of
the breast pocket. You could make out the headline: "Does
God Love You?" He explained to us that he'd tried to deliver
his message to the Mayor in person but, for some reason, Gavin
wouldn't see him. And, this guy came all the way from a trailer
park outside San Jose to share the biblical remedy with us.
While normally I'm all in favor of going over to Alioto Plaza
across the street from City Hall and getting stoned, this is not
what I have in mind. Plus, if we put all of San Francisco's adulterers
in the square, there wouldn't be anyone left to throw stones.
But, it would be a hell of a great place to meet girls, I'd imagine.
Oh, there were other ideas for the Mayor. We all waited in silence
for 5 minutes to see whether he'd make the monthly 'Question Time'
the voters approved last year, but he chickened out again. Frankly,
I think he should be fined for the 5 minutes everyone on the Board
and in the audience wasted waiting for him. Hey, I was a teacher
and I know an unexcused absence when I see one.
Streaming the rest of Board
The Board approved an extension of the Smarte Carte, Inc. concession
at the airport for another year. Smarte Carte has the cart concession
at over a thousand airports. While Dianne Feinstein was overseeing
the FAA, her hubby, Dick Blum, bought the company. That was in
1999. The Minneapolis-St. Paul Business Journal wrote on 2-11-05
that over the next 5 years, Blum loaded Smarte Carte with 168
million in debt. He then filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, which
allowed him to dump 163 million of the debt and pass the company
on to his major investors. The Board applauded with an
11-0 approval of the contract. I wonder who lost the 163 million?
Blum was a central cog in Calpers, last I heard.
No one mentioned Elie Wiesel, Choirgate, or the Falun Gong.
Aaron Peskin carried an 11-0 vote for a new ordinance tightening
up on sign companies. I wondered vaguely, how the new law would
affect Mark Leno's sign business. I always thought it unethical
when Leno presented legislation regulating sign companies, seeing's
he owns one. When I first wrote that, he said: "Oh, but I
don't have that kind of sign company." Nevertheless, Peskin
began to sponsor the sign legislation and does so to this day.
Speaking of Leno, Mary Ratcliff of SF Bay View wrote to say
that her newspaper has covered the Hunters Point Ship Yard development
from day one and helped pass Prop 'P' in 2000 with an 87% majority.
Prop P, "prohibits development of any part of the shipyard
until all of it is completely clean to residential standards."
Lennar didn't like that. They wanted to move right to building
high-cost condos and rental units. So, suddenly, Leno is sponsoring
legislation at the state level to circumvent Prop 'P'. When Bay
View heard, they raised holy hell and Leno backed off. Nevertheless,
Lennar and the Newsom administration went right ahead with beginning
the development of Parcel A in the shipyard.
Now, the whole argument of not starting any development in any
part of the shipyard 'til it was all cleaned, was that the dust
stirred up by bulldozers and the like could very well be a toxic
cloud for the people in the Bay View to endure.
With the dust in the air, long-time Bay View activist, Dr. Ahimsa
Porter-Sumchai brought in some fancy equipment to test some kids
and faculty at a school adjoining Parcel A. She found students
and faculty were already showing high traces of poisonous heavy
metals in their lunges and brains. More later.
Peskin Marina Privatization Continues
Having handed the SF Yacht Club a 50 year lease and the legal
ability to discriminate for a small yearly stipend … having
shepherded that through the Board, Aaron and Rec and Park moved
to defend an EIR (environmental impact report) … moved to
defend a Park and Rec plan to tear out some 282 small berths in
Marina Harbor, and replace them with what one speaker called "A
Yacht Lot." I saw the original hearings on this subject way
back in '99 or 2000. I realized right away that the EIR was missing
two vital elements.
Bored President Aaron Peskin
How could they not include the sea wall or new breakwater in
the study? I recall that at first hearing, experts came from up
and down the coast and said that constructing the proposed new
breakwater (you need a wider road to get the big yachts in) …
experts warned that the breakwater would change the flow of the
current enough to not only destroy the sea wall, but probably
do lots more damage. For an example, just jog west from the Yacht
Club for a couple of miles 'til you get to the useless tidal pond
the Presidio Trust built a decade or so back.
Compared to the breakwater proposed to protect the big yachts,
the work done in the Presidio was minor. And, it quickly went
to crap. They were hauling bolders and sand for 2 years to stop
the erosion that occurred as an unintended consequence. I know,
because I jogged by it everyday until I learned how much healthier
it is to be a couch potato.
Bottom line here is that Peskin will win this one for the Swells
(notice him as deciding OK for Cameron Beach for the MTA?) …
bottom line is that the Swells will get their way. 282 small boat
owners will be sent packing, and dealing with the effects of the
breakwater is gonna cost lots and lots. Of course, by leaving
the breakwater and the sea wall out of the EIR, the new private
management (I'm betting on the St. Francis Yacht Club) can claim
that taking care of the breakwater and the sea wall are not their
job.
So, the Yacht Club has their 50 year lease and, I'm betting,
will get the management contract for the 'Yacht Lot' at a reduced
rate and with the legal power to keep you out … and you?
You get to pay for adjusting the breakwater until it stops knocking
down chunks of the sea wall and whatever.
Josh Wolf news
The Bush administration's in-house columnist for the Chron (Debra
Saunders) has been taking lessons from Arthur Evans and Rob Anderson,
it would seem. You know, when you're in love with someone and
they won't pay any attention to you, you 'act out'. Well, OK,
Debra, you got our attention and, no, you can't come to our parties,
or to Salon. I learned long ago from Rob and Arthur not to give
someone like you too much time. It will only encourage you and
reinforce your ugly side.
Arrest the Chronicle reporters now
The government should take another look at what Lance Williams
and Mark Fainaru-Wade actually did when they published testimony
passed to them by Victor Conte's lawyer, with whom they had what
Saunders calls: "a confidential source agreement".
The agreement was, in fact, a conspiracy designed to subvert
the work of the federal grand jury, impaneled to examine the Balco
drug scandal. You know what Fainaru-Wade and Williams said when
they heard the guy who gave them the information go before the
judge and ask him to declare a mistrial, because of the leak?
They didn't say anything. If they weren't parties to a conspiracy
before, they certainly were at that moment.
They knew at that moment that the guy who'd given them the information
was using his own transgression as an excuse to free his client.
He was, in effect, scolding the judge for not being able to stop
leaks in his courtroom, when he knew the leak to be himself! Integrity
of the Grand Jury be damned. He knew what he was doing and he's
in prison for it. Disbarred, and behind bars. And, the Chron 'heroes'
said nothing, for two reasons. First, they had a book coming out.
And second, because prison is just so lower class.
Steroids are a problem; not just in sports but also (one of
my pet peeves) in law enforcement. I wrote Bronstein (Editor of
Chron) and the 2 reporters and told them they should expand their
steroid investigation to encompass the cops. I write Bronstein
everytime the cops beat the hell out of someone (they did an entire
series on it) … I write and ask why they don't introduce
the steroid question. They don't answer.
These guys aren't heroes, Debra. They're just a couple of mercenaries
looking to make a buck by smearing sports heroes. Naw, these guys
are criminals and guilty of, what would the term be … Grand
Jury tampering? Let's hope the judge they left twisting in the
wind gives them a little of the justice they deserve.
Campos fiasco in District 6
David Campos is a shill for Downtown interests. A Wells Fargo
(read, Warren Hellman) graduate, Campos went to the SFUSD as chief
counsel. There, he engineered the 'Friday robbery' in which the
defeated members of the Downtown majority, gave Arlene Ackerman
$375,000 cash - plus benefits for life - just for quitting.
Now, he's on the Police Commission. Appointed by Peskin, so
ideally, you'd think he'd be a Progressive vote. He ain't. In
his most important vote to date, he led the charge against police
reform by being the first
vote in favor of retaining Louis Renne as President of the
Commission. He didn't blink when he double-crossed LGBT sister-in-arms,
Theresa Sparks in her reach for the gold ring.
Commissioner David Campos
I can see why Mark Leno would endorse Campos, but why did Ammiano
do so? Give me your reads at Salon, or here. Was it in exchange
for Leno's early endorsement for Tom's race for Leno's Assembly
seat?
I like Krissy Keefer as a successor to Ammiano. Or, Renee Saucedo?
Richard Marquez would be great. Anyone but Campos. Yeah, this
is a great chance for the Green Party to pick up a seat.
Krissy Keefer
Renee Saucedo
The Democratic machine is forming up behind Campos 2 years out
front. It ain't soon enough.
Who knew?
h. brown is a 62 year-old keeper of sfbulldog.com,
an eclectic site featuring a half dozen City Hall denizens. h
is a former sailor, firefighter, teacher, nightclub owner, and
a hard-living satirical muckraker. Email
h at h@ludd.net.
####
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