U.S. Congress

Pi in Your Face

Ron Paul Won't Legalize Marijuana -- Because He Can't

​As if the promise to dismantle most of the Washington-based government wasn't enough, Texas Congressman Ron Paul has also made waves in his bid for the Republican presidential nomination with his maverick stance on drug policy.During his 30 years in the House of Representatives, Paul has authored ... More >>

KSFO Talk Radio to Feature Conservative Former Congressman JD Hayworth

​San Francisco, oddly enough, has something of a rich history when it comes to conservative talk-radio hosts. Who can forget the memorable international affair involving our own Michael Savage, who was banned from entering the United Kingdom in 2009 because of his right-wing statements on the air? ... More >>

Boozy New Year's Recipes, Shit Vegans Say, and Vegans are No Longer Freaky Freaks!

​• Make these puffy pillow pancakes for me on New Year's morning. It'll help you get over the (sexy?) shock of waking up and seeing me in your bed. How did I get in? Hide your kids! • According to U.S. News and World Report, veganism is mainstreaming and we're no longer freaky freaks! Hooray! ... More >>

Media Companies Outspend Tech Giants in Fight Over SOPA

Can content pirates be stopped?​The tech industry has been paying quite a bit of attention to the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), a bill wending its way through the U.S. Congress that would allow media companies to pursue legal remedies against online search engines and social networks that link to ... More >>

Support SB 596: Bill Would Fund Shelter and Counseling for Child Prostitutes

Can content pirates be stopped?​The tech industry has been paying quite a bit of attention to the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), a bill wending its way through the U.S. Congress that would allow media companies to pursue legal remedies against online search engines and social networks that link to ... More >>

WIC Turns Corner Stores Into Real Markets

Paul Lowry/Flickr There's a lot of talk about "food deserts" in food policy circles these days -- impoverished areas where residents have no access to fresh fruits and vegetables. Corner stores in poor neighborhoods tend to be one of the major sources for food, but they stock nonperishables: chips, ... More >>

Big Reforms in the Egg Industry, Big Scandal in the Competitive Eating World

​Today's notes on national stories, local trends, random tastes, and other bycatch dredged up from the food media. 1. Good news for egg lovers. After almost a decade of activism, the Humane Society of the United States, an animal-welfare group that is not connected to local animal shelters, has f ... More >>

Dianne Feinstein Tells Francisco to Go Smoke a Fat One

Put that in your pipe and smoke it, San Francisco.​Wait, not all of your tax dollars are wasted in San Francisco. Your local bureaucrats make it part of their job to send a letter every February to state and federal politicians restating the city's desire that the government legalize marijuana. No ... More >>

This Just In: The U.S. House of Representatives Hates NPR

National Public Radio is good. Very good. They entertain us with such shows as This American Life, inform us with Morning Edition, and drop some musical knowledge on All Songs Considered. But the United States House of Representatives doesn't feel the same way: today it voted to cut off government f ... More >>

Newsom Tweets His Support for Planned Parenthood; Asks Followers to Sign Petition

A message from Gavin Newsom​With the U.S. Congress on the precipice of stripping away federal funds for Planned Parenthood, Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom is asking Californians to sign an open letter opposing the controversial legislation. True to form, the former San Francisco mayor tweeted out a message ... More >>

Week in Gay: Ted Haggard is Bisexual and Anderson Cooper has a 'Companion'

Coming after cousin Geri​This edition of The Week in Gay is a potpourri (either a miscellaneous collection of stories or a mixture of dried flowers and spices) of four categories - plus an extra special bonus!Included are updates on the repeal of Don't Ask Don't Tell, the latest stories from San F ... More >>

Return to Sender

Coming after cousin Geri​This edition of The Week in Gay is a potpourri (either a miscellaneous collection of stories or a mixture of dried flowers and spices) of four categories - plus an extra special bonus!Included are updates on the repeal of Don't Ask Don't Tell, the latest stories from San F ... More >>

How Would Immigration Reform Look if the Feds Got Off Their Duffs?

Coming after cousin Geri​This edition of The Week in Gay is a potpourri (either a miscellaneous collection of stories or a mixture of dried flowers and spices) of four categories - plus an extra special bonus!Included are updates on the repeal of Don't Ask Don't Tell, the latest stories from San F ... More >>

DADT Is Dead! Long Live DADT!

​On Saturday, following months of gyrations, the U.S. Senate repealed the military ban on open service by gays and lesbians known as Don't Ask Don't Tell.Sort of.This policy has been under heavy scrutiny since the end of President George W. Bush's second term, and promises to repeal DADT were made ... More >>

Giants To Be Honored -- By Congress?

Sadly, the Congressional bill congratulating the Giants does not make mention of 'The Machine'​Congressional Bill: "Whereas the rest of the country learned to 'fear the beard'" Rep. Nancy Pelosi -- you've heard of her -- yesterday introduced a Congressional bill "Congratulating the San Francisco G ... More >>

Mexican Macroeconomics

Sadly, the Congressional bill congratulating the Giants does not make mention of 'The Machine'​Congressional Bill: "Whereas the rest of the country learned to 'fear the beard'" Rep. Nancy Pelosi -- you've heard of her -- yesterday introduced a Congressional bill "Congratulating the San Francisco G ... More >>

Don't worry, America. San Francisco knows what's best for you

Sadly, the Congressional bill congratulating the Giants does not make mention of 'The Machine'​Congressional Bill: "Whereas the rest of the country learned to 'fear the beard'" Rep. Nancy Pelosi -- you've heard of her -- yesterday introduced a Congressional bill "Congratulating the San Francisco G ... More >>

Election Results Show Tea Party Fails to Gain Traction in Western States

Is that Harry Reid in the middle?​Some of you might have found it particularly hard to greet the Red Dawn of Nov. 3. We admit that it's difficult to face the idea of Tea Party-propelled candidates marching off to Washington with plans to combat imagined New World Order conspiracies within the vaul ... More >>

How the Tea Party Is Screwing Over Republicans

Tea Party candidate Christine O'Donnell: "I'm not a witch"A new Harris Poll indicates that Democrats are gaining ground ahead of the November mid-term elections, and that the assortment of right-wing extremists who call themselves the "Tea Party" have something to do with this last-minute success.

San Francisco Gays on Fire on YouTube

​The Week In GayWho says creativity has died in the city that brought us the beat generation (as a matter of fact, Howl -- a story about Allen Ginsburg falling in love -- opens today in San Francisco) and the flower children? Don't forget who built this damn city, people! Two of San Francisco's bl ... More >>

Senate Votes Against Taking Up DREAM Act. Local Students Bummed.

Nope. Not today. ​The U.S. Senate today voted against taking up the the defense budget bill -- curtailing Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's last-minute plan to tack on an amendment to give illegal immigrants who go to college or into the military a chance at citizenship. The Wall Street Journal ... More >>

Don't Ask Don't Tell Told Off

​The Week In GayLate yesterday, another radical hippie judge in California ruled that queers are protected by the U.S. Constitution. A lawsuit against the military ban on gay service members, Don't Ask Don't Tell, was ruled to be a violation of the First Amendment rights of gay people. The suit wa ... More >>

Her House Divided

The most powerful female politician in the country now teeters between long-term victory and instant defeat.

The Education Trap

In California, many undocumented immigrants are offered cheap college tuition, only to find they can’t get jobs after they graduate.

Election 2010: Democrats Look Safe in Bay Area -- For Now

Rep. Jerry McNerney: First off the island?​With all the sturm und drang gripping the Democratic party as the fall election approaches -- some observers are forecasting a Republican take-back of the House of Representatives, prompted by widespread anger over the economy and some of President Barack ... More >>

The Week in Gay: Defense of Marriage Act Indefensible

Judge Joseph Tauro​The story of the week: A federal judge in Massachusetts declared that the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) - passed by Congress in 1996 and signed into law by President Bill Clinton - violates the U.S. Constitution. In his decision, Judge Joseph Tauro (A fiery young radical aged ... More >>

Resolution To Support Gay Binational Couples Heads To California Senate

​A resolution supporting the federal bill that would allow gay U.S. citizens to sponsor their partners for a visa passed the California Senate Judiciary Committee Thursday and now heads to the Senate floor for a vote.Our cover story this week, "Worlds Apart," tells the story of three Bay Area coup ... More >>

Election 2010 Results: Demon Sheep, Gavin Newsom, Open Primaries Triumph

Meg Whitman never liked voting, but plenty of Californians voted for her​Results are starting to roll in from today's voting on ballot initiatives and primaries for statewide office. Wanna know the latest, greatest bad decisions California's electorate has chosen to impose upon itself? SF Weekly h ... More >>

The Week in Gay: You Call *That* a Repeal of 'Don't Ask Don't Tell'?

You'll still have to stay in the closet for now, sailor​Thursday night the U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill that claims to repeal the ban on gays serving in the military (Don't Ask Don't Tell). But the details of the bill reveal that the policy is not really repealed and it won't be unt ... More >>

Dems Launch 'Demon Sheep II' Attack Ad on GOP Candidates

What does it say about the current state of California politics that what passes for debate among our foremost U.S. Senate candidates is a contest to see who can best portray their opponents in Internet videos as demonic sheep? Seriously, guys -- dueling sheep? Thomas Jefferson would not be pleased. ... More >>

"Iron Man 2" will lead to 3, but that doesn't mean it's good

What does it say about the current state of California politics that what passes for debate among our foremost U.S. Senate candidates is a contest to see who can best portray their opponents in Internet videos as demonic sheep? Seriously, guys -- dueling sheep? Thomas Jefferson would not be pleased. ... More >>

The Week in Gay: New Trend in 2010 -- Same-Sex Bedpans!

Uppity Fag has his eye on the one on the bottom left...​Late yesterday afternoon President Barack Obama signed a mandate that extends hospital visitation rights to same-sex couples in hospitals throughout the country. Whatever. While some may hail this as a victory for gay rights, the bot ... More >>

R.I.P. Alex Chilton

Maybe Alex Chilton, dead at 59 of a heart attack, would recoil at the fond remembrances of him now sneezing out through the digital ether: Salutes from the floor of the House of Representatives, odes from pretty much everyone on the self-serious list of revered alternative or indie acts over the las ... More >>

Now You Can Be Gay-Married on Your Census Form

Count it.​Hooray! It's that magical day when the census form arrives! This year we're even more excited about it, because as you may have read, there's now an option for gay married people to proclaim their actual status. Also, even if a gay couple with no official marriage license considers itsel ... More >>

The Road to Hell: S.F. Potholes Going Unfilled

Well, eventually​Known as Senator Pothole, New York's Al D'Amato rode a reputation for attending to picayune constituent services to an 18-year career in the the U.S. Senate.Gavin Newsom, who is poised to seek to extend his political career another four years with a bid to become lieutenant govern ... More >>

Scorsese's head-trip Shutter Island is the good kind of insane

Well, eventually​Known as Senator Pothole, New York's Al D'Amato rode a reputation for attending to picayune constituent services to an 18-year career in the the U.S. Senate.Gavin Newsom, who is poised to seek to extend his political career another four years with a bid to become lieutenant govern ... More >>

Report: GOP Candidates Both Have Vaginas, But Different Styles

Who will be the face of the state's GOP?​That pretty much sums up the Chron's story today about Meg Whitman and Carly Fiorina. I gotta agree with Rep. Jackie Speier on this one -- there wouldn't be a story about the contrasting styles of two dudes running for public office. Some insiders followi ... More >>

House of Representatives Helps Small Indie Radio Stations

Stefan Kühn​Yesterday the Local Community Radio Act passed in the House of Representatives. Now it's up to the Senate to see if this bill, which will "will open the airwaves for hundreds of new non-commercial stations across the country" according to the group Media Alliance, will follow suit and ... More >>

You Want Fresh Faces? Our Suggestions for the 2010 GOP Slate.

On Wednesday, the latest in a batch of Republican political neophytes expressed his desire for high-ranking political office in California. Damon Dunn, the former Stanford and NFL receiver and current Orange County real-estate mogul, said he plans to run for Secretary of State.But as the San Francis ... More >>

If Clergywomen Beat the Gong For an Antidemocratic, Pro-Union Bill and Dianne Feinstein Isn't There To Hear It...

Three wishes, Dianne!If Sen. Dianne Feinstein is susceptible to gong-accompanied incantations, then opponents of the union-bolstering bill currently wending its way through the U.S. Congress had best take warning.Noon today marked the end of a 24-hour vigil organized by local labor groups to s ... More >>

Leno Says He'll Have Measure on Ballot to Kill 2/3 Threshold for State Budget Votes By 2010

Sen. Mark LenoMark Leno just told SF Weekly he's slept two hours out of the past 48 and he may or may not be hallucinating. He's tired, he's angry, and he's about to cash in some of his political connections and kick start a fund-raising drive to ensure it never happens again. The San Francisco Stat ... More >>

RATM's Tom Morello Stumps for Cindy Sheehan Next Saturday at Fat City

Sen. Mark LenoMark Leno just told SF Weekly he's slept two hours out of the past 48 and he may or may not be hallucinating. He's tired, he's angry, and he's about to cash in some of his political connections and kick start a fund-raising drive to ensure it never happens again. The San Francisco Stat ... More >>

Happy Birthday, Emperor Norton!

Sen. Mark LenoMark Leno just told SF Weekly he's slept two hours out of the past 48 and he may or may not be hallucinating. He's tired, he's angry, and he's about to cash in some of his political connections and kick start a fund-raising drive to ensure it never happens again. The San Francisco Stat ... More >>

Recount Needed

Is a city bureaucrat putting our next vote count at risk by insisting S.F. hurry and spend up to $15 million on new equipment?

Immigrant Song

It's not just the national anthem being sung in Spanish that's got anti-immigration folks riled up. Which side of the fence are you on?

House of Tudor

Japanese ukulele ladies, a Canadian electro androgyne, and Iraq's most popular singer

Project Censored

Lefty weeklies are always bitching about the mainstream press. Here're some rotten chestnuts we wish the alternative press would quit serving up.

House Of Tudor

Gypsy caravans, heavily shellacked starlets, and eccentric emperors

South to the Future

Conservatives Help Fund Anti-WTO Rally