Ed “Head” Lee schwag handed out at the Democratic Party Convention in Anaheim. Photo by Adriel Hampton.
May 21, 2015
There are a plenty of political blogs covering San Francisco. Randy Shaw’s Beyond Chron. Tim Redmond’s 48 Hills. The Alex Clemens’-initiated The Usual Suspects roundup of what’s news. San Francisco is a political town. It gets in your bones. The reporter left the news. Left San Francisco, even. But San Francisco political news never left the reporter.
Kamala Harris operatives at the Anaheim Convention Center were practically giddy on Saturday as video clips of U.S. Senate campaign rival Loretta Sanchez’s “war cry” gaffe began to flit from phone to phone. Now Sanchez has her own highly active parody Twitter account, LoLoLoLoLoretta.
You gotta love a politician who gives out “[Heart] Ma” tattoos at her events and is known for convention karaoke parties and “Ma Squad” youth volunteers. The reporter’s girlfriend said she’s having trouble taking him seriously with his new tricep tattoo, but his sister immediately recognized it, and Board of Equalization member Fiona Ma, on Facebook. “Ryan and I met her and got the same tattoo!”
Bill Barnes passed the reporter some Ed Lee schwag at this weekend’s California Democratic Party Convention. A canvass bag because you need to bring them for your groceries in SF. A glass water bottle for the fine Hetch Hetchy tap.
SF politics and media is all about characters. When I worked with Warren Hinckle at the SF Examiner, his office door was a set of bars said to have come from Alcatraz. He ran around in shorts with socks halfway up his calves and a basset hound. Hinckle’s eye patch got that dog into SF’s finer establishments along with him. … SF political and media characters include darkness, too, as was another topic of SF circles this past week. It’s a cycle that includes the Jim Jones cult and the Twinkie defense. They destroy themselves and others.
This is a names and notes blog. Send info to bodypolitic@adrielhampton.com. You can find the 2003-2005 archives of The Body Politic at adrielhampton.com.
Adriel Hampton
Adriel Hampton is a writer, investigator, strategic consultant and mindfulness practitioner. He runs The Adriel Hampton Group Ltd. in San Francisco and Los Angeles, and was a founding member of NationBuilder. Adriel is founder emeritus of SF Tech Dems and a board member at Legination Inc. Before joining NationBuilder, Adriel worked for SF City Attorney Dennis Herrera, and for the SF Examiner, Hayward Daily Review and Lodi News-Sentinel. He also founded SF City Camp and Gov 2.0 Radio, and, in 2009, ran for Congress in the East Bay.
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The Hunger Site
September 8, 2015 at 9:44 am
A “mindfulness practitioner” who wholeheartedly endorses our corrupt, inept and self serving Democratic Party. Hacks such as Fiona Ma and Ed Lee are a dime a dozen, but honest, concerned, openminded politicians are nowhere to be found.
But the one things I learned from this was the Ed Lee crap was being handed out by Bill Barnes, the self serving former aide to the noxious/vomitous Alioto-Pier and the up-and-coming Enrique Pearce.
Finally, calling the Usual Suspects “journalism” is ridiculous. Streetsblog, Beyond Chron and it are propaganda websites, not news. As a (self enriching) lobbyist, Clemens has been a disaster for the working people of San Francisco.