COURT JESTERINGS

With h. brown

h. "Court Jester" brown.
Photo(s) by Luke Thomas

Prog pols petty posturing prevents progress

By h. brown

February 22, 2008

Peskin denied entry to Tenderloin SRO

“Hey, that’s Aaron Peskin down there in the street!” Luke Thomas was looking out
the window of ‘Chez brown’ while talking on the phone to Chris Daly.

Turned out that is was Peskin and he’d just been denied admittance to my humble abode
because Luke was talking on my phone and the front desk couldn’t reach us to verify it
was OK for the Board President to join us. I mean, like damn!

Shit, dude. Here we’d spent the better part of a week trying to get Daly and Peskin to kiss and make up so’s Chris could get some kind of committee assignments and now we missed a golden opportunity to talk to the man himself.

“You call me!”

“No, you call me first!!”

Remember a couple of years back when the SFUSD’s board was so divided that they
identified their clique by voting either ‘yea’ or ‘ney’ depending upon whether they
were in Downtown’s pocket or not?

The situation between Daly and Peskin is lots like that now. Peskin wants to appoint Daly to something but he wants Daly to phone him. Daly wants Peskin to make the first move. Let me just say this about that … PUHLLLEEEEZZEE!

Daly not having a committee assignment is like Patton not having an army when the Allies invaded Europe. He’s the Prog’s best weapon and he should be in the field and fully engaged. Enuff said.

Murphy plagiarism growing tiresome

Every day Pat Murphy over at the SF Sentinel plagiarizes work from major publications and passes it off as his own. AP, Washington Post, magazines, newspapers, he steals from them all. Fortunately, he steals some pretty good copy.

C’mon Pat, we all know you can’t write worth shit and that none of this stuff is yours. Just do simple attribution and we’ll let you slide. Don’t make me keep having to read first-class writing that we all know can’t be yours without a byline.

You’re a hack. Own up to it. A bow tie does not a newspaperman make. Marshal Kilduff proved that decades ago.

Grandiose delusions.

Mary Mallen for Superior Court Judge

I have absolutely no idea what this woman stands for but she’s running against a Republican and Gerardo Sandoval and that gets her my vote in the fast-approaching June election.

Mary Mallen

Counselor Mallen stood up under some of my usual vitriolic and senseless diatribes at a party Chris Daly had last evening at the Temple Bar and that’s enough for me. Meanwhile Debra Walker called Terrie Frye a sexist for not supporting Hillary Clinton and Sue Vaughan said that I wasn’t a feminist. Things were tough down across from the Culinary Academy on Polk last evening. In the rain. After Barack and Hillary set the stage. And, as usual, young Jack Daly stole the show.

Bruce Wolfe told me to shut up and I don’t know if that’s possible but I was making up for lost time arriving at the party late after passing out early and watching a little of the Obama/Clinton fiesta. My room’s about painted half pink now and it’s causing some questioning looks from my usual suspects but it’s the only paint I had left in my closet from the Keefer/Pelosi fight and screw those guys anyway.

Chuck Gonzalez and Jeremy Pollock kick ass

Have you seen Chuck Gonzalez play within the last year? The man is on fire. Likewise with Jeremy Pollock and he’s playing:

Hey friends,

Just a quick email about my band's show tomorrow night. I'd be honored if you could join us.

Friday 2/22 at Annie's Social Club, 917 Folsom at 5th
$8 cover

We go on right at 9, opening for three top notch, heavy duty bands: Birushanah from Japan, Drain the Sky, and Grayceon. There's also "rock and schlock" karaoke in the back room!

Also, we've added a couple more new songs to our myspace page:

Have a great weekend!

- Jeremy

I’ll give you more info on Chuck as he sends me his dates and times but these two guys
are presently rocking as we say.

Quote of the Day

“They got groupies for their band and all I got is my right hand. Everybody’s making it big but me.”
(Dr. Hook and the Medicine Show)

Planning Commission intrigue

You see the outpouring of support for Christina Olague at Rules yesterday? She got the best across-the-board turnout of any candidate I’ve ever seen for any commission and she deserved it. Later that evening, Francisco DeCosta brought two huge trays of sandwiches over to the Daly crowd at Temple Bar and I don’t see how any of this is related, but the sandwiches were really good.

On a more direct connection, a reader sent this to summarize the situation at the Planning Commission where the ever-fair Olague will be esconced for the next 4 years (thanks, Aaron)

Dwight Alexander has been removed from the Planning Commission by Mayor Gavin Newsom. Newsom reportedly accepted the Planning Commission President's resignation on January 7, then rescinded his acceptance when he realized that he needed Alexander's vote to move the 55 Laguna (UC Berkeley Extension) project forward, and apparently re-accepted it yesterday. Alexander developed a reputation for independence while serving as President of the Commission which ran counter to the complete loyalty Newsom has recently demanded of his appointees. Prop D, passed by the voters in 2002, requires that appointees to the Planning Commission (and Board of Appeals) only be removed for cause in order to prevent such interference from the Mayor's office. The nominee to replace him is Ryan Brooks, the former chair of the Public Utilities Commission, whose re-appointment was recently rejected by the Board of Supervisors. Brooks works for an outdoor advertising firm which is regulated by the Planning Department. The highest number of enforcement cases dealt with by the Planning Department is billboard cases.

Epilogue

Unlike Pat Murphy, I love to attribute work from others that I reprint in my own rants. However, most of my friends don’t want anyone to know that they’re my friends. You have that problem? You don’t!? What’s your secret?

Salon 1-3pm at La Reina’s

Hillary for Vice President

Sure, why the hell not?

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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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