Subject: Barack Obama

• Is Obama one of God’s Angels? Mark Morford Says Yes, But the Obama Campaign Won’t Confirm that

  June 6, 2008

• Funky Obama: "Yes We Can" Tour hits the Independent

  July 25, 2008

• Friday Night: Afrofunk Redux at the Independent

  July 26, 2008

• On Comics: Barry Gets Own Book; Will Probably Beat Up Superman

  July 30, 2008

• Obama is Coming! Obama is Coming!

  July 30, 2008

• Murs at the Independent in Oct.

  August 27, 2008

• Upper Playground Releases Limited Obama T-shirts Online

  September 12, 2008

• McCain, Eat Your Heart Out: Dinners With Barack Obama

  October 16, 2008

• Poll: Bay Area Women Think McCain would be a Sneaky Boyfriend

  October 18, 2008

• Ron English's "The Secret History of Kiss" at Shooting Gallery

  October 27, 2008

• MP3 of the Day: The One

  October 31, 2008

• Last-minute Election Laugh via MoveOn.org

  November 3, 2008

• 7 p.m. at Obama Headquarters on Market Street

  November 4, 2008

• Cellar Rat: Week Nine at Unti Vineyards

  November 7, 2008

• Barack Obama and Screamin' Doc Howie

  November 7, 2008

• Derek Hess Giving Away Free Obama Poster with Purchase of His New Book

  November 12, 2008

• Culture Critic Jeff Chang Awarded 50 Grand

  Jeff Chang is more than your average music scholar. Tip of the iceberg details? The Berkeley author helped start the SoleSides label -- which became Quannum Projects; penned a number of books on hip-hop culture; interviewed Barack Obama for the cover of Vibe,; and has gotten his byline in New York Times, Foreign Policy, The Nation, Huffington Post and Mother Jones, among other publications. Add to that list a new honor: Chang was awarded a $50,000 USA Fellowship grant for artistic excellenc

  November 13, 2008

• Fiona Ma for President?

  Now that Barack Obama has crossed the non-WASP-in-the-White House threshold, which other minority groups might get to produce a president? Mark Oppenheimer explores the question on Slate.com.. Bemusingly, Slate.com readers quickly called Oppenheimer out on his own racial insensitivity because he hadn’t included Hispanics or Asians in his first take of the piece. A revision was in order, and San Francisco Assemblywoman Fiona Ma made a list that includes Mitt Romney [first Mormon,] Al Fran

  November 13, 2008

• Obama Supports 'Separate But Equal' Principle For Gays

  Oh, the irony of it all: When it comes to his views on same-sex marriage, the first black man elected president in the U.S. uses the same principle employed in the past by whites to justify segregation in this country. Barack Obama opposes gay marriage, but he supports civil unions. Separate but equal. I know what many of you are thinking now: Obama couldn't support gay marriage during the campaign because if he did he'd never get elected. That could very well be the case. I'm just pointin

  November 17, 2008

• Everyone's a Critic

  A casual mention by Frank Bruni in today's NY Times concerning a certain Barack Obama's views about dining out, as expressed in 2001 on, as Mr. Bruni coyly said, "a restaurant-related television show in Chicago" (any foodie fool would know that was a reference, however veiled, to Check, Please!, the original incarnation and inspiration for our local show on KQED).Although not completely thrilled by the sentiments expressed by then-State Senator for Illinois' 13th district Obama, whose keynote a

  January 14, 2009

• Malcolm Gladwell on Obama: "Nothing Has Changed"

  Malcolm GladwellJanuary 15, 2008Herbst TheatreBetter than: Reading all those damn New Yorker articles from start to finish.I wish there was some sort of operation that could transport a portion of Malcolm Gladwell's intelligence into my head. The New Yorker writer and popular nonfiction author is one of our more interesting cultural theorists, and just hearing him speak makes you feel, as my friend pointed out in the Herbst Theatre lobby last night, "like your brain just grew a little bigger."Af

  January 16, 2009

• The Presidents of the USA Offer Free Obama Single

  If your band is named The Presidents of the United States of America, you have to take great advantage of elections like this past November's. Sure, plenty of musicians are going to offer up their tribute to our 44th president, but there's perhaps a little extra interest in what the act named after our nation's highest leadership role will create. Wait no longer. PUSA has released a free song, "Movin In" (sample lyric: "Stuck it out, got the win/Today Obama's moving in ... Bad year for Republica

  January 20, 2009

• Political Consultants Give Obama Speech High Marks -- But Wonder if You Can Be Memorable When No One Remembers Anything You Said

  It's hard to be nostalgic when you can't remember anything. And a handful of San Francisco's top political consultants are now pondering if it's possible for President Barack Obama to have delivered a "memorable" address when they had trouble recalling its specific lines even 15 minutes after he uttered it. Oh, they'll remember this day -- the unbridled joy of shedding George W. Bush once and for all, the hat Aretha Franklin borrowed from the Statue of Liberty, the perfection of a wheelchair-bou

  January 20, 2009

• Mission Street Food's Inauguration Gala and Charity Work

  Mission Street Food is sharing in the country's revelry of Inauguration Day by making this week's installment a dedication to the election of Barack Obama, including a "Rocket's Red Glare" salad, remixes on classics like mac & cheese, BBQ and beans 'n weenies and even Baracky Road and I Have a Dreamsicle ice cream from Humphry Slocombe (2790 Harrison).MSF will also inaugurate a new policy to donate all of its proceeds to charity each week, starting with offerings to Project Open Hand and C.H

  January 20, 2009

• Last Night: Barack Obama Presidential Inauguration Skaters' Ball at FunkyTown Roller Rink

  (The Godfather of Skating gets down) Last Night: Barack Obama Presidential Inauguration Skaters' Ball FunkyTown Roller Rink (also known as the gym at International Studies Academy in Potrero Hill) January 20, 2009 Better than: Watching CNN on loop. As the brainchild behind the Midnight Rollers Friday Night Skate and the Golden Gate Park gatherings every Sunday, David Miles, Jr. has been synonymous with rollerskating in San Francisco for 30 years. He's rarely without wheels on his fe

  January 21, 2009

• Obama Inaugural Whimsy in the Mission

  Think Aretha Franklin's big-ass-bow hat is as whimsical as it can get for the inauguration? Why don't they invite groups like this to perform on Capitol Hill? While planned parties speckled the cityscape Tuesday night, an impromptu block party broke out on 22nd Street between Mission and Valencia outside Revolution Cafe -- until the cops ended the fun in the name of civil order. As the clock struck 11, the brass horns and beating drums of the alternative Extra Action Marching Band busted out the

  January 21, 2009

• Bay Area Lawmakers Among Obama's Worst Frenemies

  Bay Area residents rejoicing over the historic inauguration of Barack Obama might want to take heed of an assessment of their elected representatives featured yesterday on Politico, the political news Web site. Writer Glenn Thrush posted a top-ten list of Democrats who pose a threat to Obama's agenda. As it turns out, this elite group is stacked with legislators from the Golden State. Three Californians are on Obama's potential "White House Frenemies List," including Sen. Dianne Feinstein (No. 2

  January 22, 2009

• Barack Obama, Action Hero: It Is His Dessssstiny

  In what is either a Web site for an Asian toy company or the best parody site ever invented (and we really mean it -- the best), a hyperrealistic Barack Obama doll makes a speech, waves the flag, wields a variety of firearms, and engages the Dark Lord of the Sith in a battle to determine the fate of the universe. See the mind-blowing doll here (note: In the wee hours between last night and today, the Gamu Toys Web site cut off access to the Obama doll section. This is a photo archive on a differ

  January 23, 2009

• Bay Area Profs Speak Out Against Stimulus

  Did stimulus really help them?Washington's elected officials and punditocracy have of late been consumed in hashing out the shape of an economic stimulus package. While no love has been lost between Republicans and Democrats in the pit fight over the bill's final shape, both sides say they recognize that some form of government action is needed, and needed promptly. "I can tell you that doing nothing is not an option," President Obama said today during an appearance in the economic disaster zone

  February 9, 2009

• Obama and Hip-hop: Better than "Beef"?

  EKAphotography copyright 2007. all rights reservedOur shoulder-brushin', fist-bumpin' POTUS in Oakland, 2007 For a long time, hip hop debates have tended toward the tawdry and tabloidesque--i.e., Is Kanye Gay?; Is Alicia Keys creepin' with Swizz Beats?; Joe Budden vs. Saigon, T.I. vs. Mysonne, Charli Baltimore vs. Lil' Kim, Lil Kim vs. Faith Evans, 50 Cent vs Everybody; Is LL Cool J Gay?; Stop Snitching: pro or con?; Are Video Vixens Hip-Hop's 5th Element?; Is Busta Rhymes Gay?, etc. While we'

  February 3, 2009

• Obama's Visage Now So Ubiquitous Even SFSU Campus Republicans Are Using It

  Truly, Obama can be used to sell anythingBarack Obama's stimulus package may or may not cure what ails this nation. But the other Barack Obama stimulus -- a windfall of presidential merchandising for hucksters of all races, creeds, and colors -- has been a truly American spectacle. When it comes to cashing in on Obama, Yes We Can! Truth be told, however, this level of iconography devoted to a state leader is a bit disturbing; it's more befitting a nation where parades involve grimly marching tro

  February 10, 2009

• SF Gov InAction: Supes Dream of Presidency, Take the Week Off -- Except For a Major Budget Showdown that Could Doom Us All

  For the last eight years in San Francisco, "President's Day" was a cruel joke on a city with no sense of humor about politics. Sure, America could boast Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, and TWO Roosevelts -- but we were stuck with Bush. None of our traditional coping strategies worked. No matter how much we visualized change, no matter how many social networks we joined, no matter how "sex-positive" we were, and no matter how much fun we made of people who weren't visualizing sex-positive so

  February 17, 2009

• Anti-War Smackdown: Baez vs. Sheehan on Whether Obama Deserves His Own Camp Casey

  She's closed Camp Casey outside George W. Bush's Crawford ranch and recently lost her bid to unseat Nancy Pelosi in Congress. Now Cindy Sheehan is taking on Barack Obama, claiming the U.S. president is the same sort of warmonger as her previous foes. But no less an anti-war authority than Joan Baez suggests Obama and San Francisco's Sheehan should be considered fellow travelers on the same peace train. On Fox News Sheehan was recently shown describing Barack Obama as a mindless wa

  March 31, 2009

• S.F. historian Gray Brechin's New Deal

  January 28, 2009

• Live and let live at CAV

  January 28, 2009

• Hope, Change, and Parking

  How support for a modest condo project should give us all hope for the city's future.

  January 21, 2009

• Tattoo You

  November 12, 2008

• The Doggie Bag

  Our favorite food blog posts of the day: Staying regular: How about a long, cool drink of dietary fiber? Nothing like getting hammered and scrubbing your colon. Cheers to The Ethicurean for showing us how. Commander-in-chickpea: Ever wonder what Obama and Hilary Clinton would look like sculpted entirely out of hummus? Wonder no more, thanks to Obamafoodorama. Searing memory: Oh no she din't: Did LA pastry chef Nancy Silverton really make Julia Child cry by blistering her palate with hot syrup

  May 18, 2009

• Overthrow Capitalism! Maybe.

  November 5, 2008

• Barack Stars

  October 22, 2008

• Obama’s Poster Boy

  September 17, 2008

• SF Enviros Blast Obama's Swiss Cheese Lobbying Rules

  Barack Obama kicked off his presidency by limiting his administration's vulnerability to lobbyists. By May, however, it seemed clear that resourceful Democratic Party insiders would circumvent the limited ban. San Francisco's Amazon Watch has just denounced former Clinton Administration trade representative Mickey Cantor for violating the spirit of the Obama rules by lobbying his old bureaucracy on behalf of Chevron Texaco. Cantor has been lobbying the U.S. government to help quash $27 billion i

  May 12, 2009

• S.F. Examiner Op-Ed Crosses Into Looney Tune Territory, Claims Obama Fomenting Bloody Class Warfare in U.S.

  We've noted before that the San Francisco Examiner is not exactly a paper in step with the rest of this city. This is no knock on the paper's hard-working local reporters -- they do good work and God knows they write fast. But the editorial direction of the paper appears synonymous with the views of messianic right-wing billionaire owner Philip Anschutz -- whether it's endorsing John McCain for president with flowery prose seemingly culled from the 19th century or denying that humans have a hand

  July 23, 2009

• Facebook Friends Cannot Elect Gavin Newsom -- Or Anyone Else

  You can win friends and influence people on Facebook. But it won't get you elected governor of this state.​ Last week's shakeup in Gavin Newsom's campaign for governor was, in a sense, a triumph of old media over new media. Eric Jaye, Newsom's longtime campaign guru who loved Twitter and Facebook, was out; Garry South, the bare-knuckled political consultant who wanted to shift Newsom to a more traditional TV campaign, was in. The reality is certainly more nuanced than that, but it seems

  August 4, 2009

• Obama Administration Fails In Attempt To Have Its Gay Wedding Cake and Eat It, Too

  But does President Obama 'feel your pain'?​In the gay marriage wars, you can never make everybody happy. But a court filing by the Obama administration today may well piss off everyone.  Social conservatives surely have had their tighty-whiteys worked into a twist by the Department of Justice's legal brief stating the administration supports the legislative repeal of the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act. That's the law --much-loathed in these parts -- that denies federal recognition and benef

  August 17, 2009

• Versus: Who's Crazier -- Birthers or Truthers?

  Natural born American​This summer, anti-Obama protesters have showed up at the president's town-hall addresses on health-care reform with signs pushing the "birther" conspiracy theory, which asserts that Obama's presidency is illegitimate since he was born abroad. Last weekend, White House "green-jobs czar" and veteran Bay Area activist Van Jones was forced out of the Obama Administration after conservatives raised questions about his signing a 2004 letter suggesting that Bush knew about and

  September 11, 2009

• Seen in Modesto: Birther Idiocy Creeps Closer to Bay Area

  But we've still got plenty here​Notwithstanding a barrage of intemperate comments on our recent post discussing the comparative claims to insanity of the "birther" and "truther" movements, we here at The Snitch had thought that adherents of these conspiracy theories were comfortably removed from the Bay Area. In backwater patches of states like Arizona or New Hampshire, both home to birther outbursts this summer, it seems plausible that anti-Obama paranoia would gain a foothold.But the shadows

  September 15, 2009

• Bay Links: Steak, Scientologists & NOMA

  Mission Mission​Noooooooooooooooooooooo! Palace Family Steakhouse closes. [Mission Mission]Yikes. We weren't the only ones who didn't like Kylie Minogue's U.S. debut. [Merc]Ruh-roh. Scientologists  suck in an unwitting passerby. [SF Citizen]Dude behind the Obama "death poll" is from Palo Alto. [Baynewser]SOMA, meet NOMA, not to be confused with NOPA. [Eye on Blogs]Baked goods and Obama. [People Reading]European cyclists poo-poo our grand plans for increasing ridership. [Daily Clog]Everyon

  October 1, 2009

• Bay Links: Obama-rama, More Muni Fight & Michael Pollan

  ​Do ask, do tell: San Franciscans on Obama's promise to end "Don't Ask, Don't Tell." [Mission Loc@l]Crescent City man accused of threatening Obama via email. [SFist]Missed your stop? Blame Obama. [Richmond Blog]An interview with the woman who intervened in last week's Muni fight. [Muni Diaries]Picture this: new local photoblog showcases awesome shots. [Caliber]Epic Roasthouse and Waterbar pay up for not having enough patio seating. [Curbed]Cal Poly at San Luis Obispo yanks Michael Pollan talk

  October 15, 2009

• No Justice

  October 28, 2009