---

COURT JESTERINGS

With h brown

Photo(s) by Luke Thomas

Court Jester reviews Code Pink anti-war rally,
meets father of imprisoned journalist Josh Wolf

 

By h. brown

 

March 22, 2007

"I'm on the pavement, looking at the government."

(Bob Dylan)

I smoked a cigar and watched as red-necked U.S. marshals in blazers replete with flags and 9-11 buttons (part of the uniform?) scurried to and fro beneath the ziggurat-defended federal building on Golden Gate at Hyde in San Francisco's combo Civic Center/Tenderloin neighborhood.

I'd come to meet Josh Wolf's old man, Len Harrison who was beginning a humble vigil for his son, the longest held U.S. journalist.

Len Harrison

Full Story, click here.

---

Virgin America wins tentative approval
for SFO-based airline

United Airlines union not happy with decision

Virgin America CEO Fred Reid, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger
and Mayor Gavin Newsom, have a lot to be bubbly about as Virgin America wins tentative approval from the U.S. Department of Transportation for SFO-based operations.
However, not everyone is happy with the decision.
Photo(s) by Luke Thomas (file photos, 10/11/6)

By Ari Burack, Bay City News Service

March 21, 2007

Virgin America's plan to establish a U.S. airline based at San Francisco International Airport moved forward Tuesday with an announcement of tentative approval of the airline's plans by the U.S. Department of Transportation.

A department spokesman announced that Virgin America's proposed ownership and management changes to reduce its dependence on investors from the United Kingdom and distance itself from its parent company The Virgin Group would put the airline in compliance with a federal law requiring that an airline show it is controlled by U.S. citizens.

Full Story, click here.

---

Testimony begins in graft, corruption case
involving building inspection official

Former San Francisco Department of Building Inspection manager Augustine Fallay
is accused of 33 counts of bribery, fraud and perjury.
Photo(s) by Luke Thomas

By Brent Begin, Bay City News Service

March 20, 2007

SAN FRANCISCO (BCN) - The lawyer for a former San Francisco Department of Building Inspection manager accused of graft and corruption said today his client was set up by an unscrupulous loan broker.

The statement comes in response to 33 counts of bribery, fraud and perjury handed down by the San Francisco district attorney's office.

Full Story, click here.

---

And in other news...

- Court Jester seeks Amnesty International intervention in Wolf case

- San Francisco police arrest anti-war protestors on fourth anniversary of Iraq war

- Lennar slapped with racial discrimination lawsuit,
accused of violating toxic asbestos cleanup restrictions

- Fog City celebrates Saint Patrick's Day

---

FCJ Quotes of the Day

FCJ Quotes of the Day:

"The American people have lost confidence in President Bush's plan for a war without end in Iraq. That failed approach has been rejected by the voters in our nation, and it will be rejected by the Congress."
-Speaker Nancy Pelosi, 3/20/7

"The troops want to come home. Supporting appropriations is supporting the administration. Supporting the troops will be bringing them home."
- U.S. Army Corporal (ret) Ezra Morrison, 3/18/7

"If in fact that our population does not realize the cataclysmic and apocalyptic potential that we are on the cusp of now experiencing, then we ourselves are to blame for not taking revolution in hand and making sure that our own federal representatives hear us so that they do what we expect."
- Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi, 3/19/7

"I am very disturbed and angry at the reactionary voices in the Jewish world, like AIPAC, that have pushed very hard to not only accelerate this war, but pushing the administration towards a war in Iran. I think that that is a disgrace…"
- Rabbi Michael Lerner, 3/19/7

"What have you and your colleagues allowed this government to become? Don't give us anymore rigmarole about supporting the troops because our billions of tax dollars don't go to the troops."
- Krissy Keefer, 3/19/7

"…she isn't an anti-war vote and we're not stupid enough to believe that quietly telling everybody else in congress they can do whatever they want on these votes but casting one little vote over here somehow absolves her of responsibility. I'm not going for it. I hope that you don't either."
- Matt Gonzalez, 3/19/7

"Yes, Nancy Pelosi does have to deal with political realities in Washington D.C. But she also has to deal with political realities in her congressional district. In 2004, with San the Francisco Chronicle and the San Francisco Examiner saying 'no,' 63 percent of San Franciscans said 'yes' to immediate withdrawal."
- Chris Daly, 3/21/7

---

Letters, letters, letters

- Open letter to Mayor Newsom

- It's about Peter Shields, not Josh Wolf

---