World Politics

Romney, Obama Rubber Halloween Masks Sales Will Reveal the Next President

When you hear Mitt Romney refer to poor people as deadbeat freeloaders, that's when you know for sure politics has gone to a whole new level of scary.The only thing that might make Romney appear more ghoulish is if he donned this kinda frightening rubber Mitt Romney Halloween mask while talking smac ... More >>

Another Poll Shows Marijuana Legalization Has Overwhelming Support

If only President Barack Obama was marijuana, then he'd win reelection by a landslide.Marijuana legalization enjoys a 20-point advantage in the polls among American adults, according to a recent survey Rasmussen Reports. Fifty-six percent of Americans polled support the notion of marijuana being tax ... More >>

Nancy Pelosi Is Least-Liked Congressional Leader, Poll Shows

Remember that scene in the The Sandlot when Smalls said he didn't know who the Great Bambino was, prompting all the other kids to incredulously list off the rest of Babe Ruth's many nicknames? The Sultan of Swat! the Colossus of Clout! The King of Crash! And so Smalls, not wanting to seem ignorant i ... More >>

Tea Party to Land in San Francisco Waving NOBAMA Foam Fingers

You can always bank on it being a good time when Tea Partiers descend on San Francisco for the day. Those obnoxiously hardcore conservatives are planning to flood Justin Herman Plaza on Saturday, where 10 Bay Area Tea Party groups will spend three hours demonstrating ... oh, where to start?"The whol ... More >>

Ron Paul Counts Bay Area Tech Companies Among Top Donors

This week Republican presidential cult favorite Ron Paul will campaign through California, with stops at well-known party school Chico State, as well as UCLA, and Berkeley. While the venues reflect Paul's solid and passionate base among college kids, a closer look at Paul's donor list shows that the ... More >>

Biden: Drug Legalization "Worth Discussing" Btut There's "No Possibility" Of US Support

​Joe Biden's a reasonable guy. When presidents of Latin American nations suggest drug legalization as a solution to the drug-fueled violence wreaking havoc on their land, the Vice President will listen... long enough to dismiss the idea out of hand.The leaders of Costa Rica, Guatemala, El Salvador ... More >>

Ammiano Bill to Allow Marijuana Businesses and Sales That Are Already Legal

Mr Fix-It​Call it an industry, call it a movement, call it a gigantic scam. Law enforcement and politicians can't agree what to call California's medical marijuana scene, except to say it exists in a legal gray area.And how. A dispensary operator in Vallejo was arrested last week -- twice -- becau ... More >>

Dave Mustaine Confirms Idiocy Twice in One Week

​As you may have already heard, a couple of days ago, Megadeth's Dave Mustaine told musicradar.com that he was "hoping that whatever is in the White House next year is a Republican" (he knows politicians aren't robots right? Surely that should be a "whoever," not a "whatever"?) and gave his own ra ... More >>

Nancy Pelosi Investment Allegations Spur Congress to Address Insider Trading

Nancy Pelosi​Members of Congress are taking up legislation this week aimed at dealing with allegations that a form of "insider trading" is taking place among lawmakers whose knowledge of pending bills could give them a leg up in the stock market.The Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge (STOCK) ... More >>

Mitt Romney Will Win Republicans Over By Teaming Up With Nancy Pelosi

Mitt Romney is all set to be the Republican nominee for president, except for one stubborn hitch: Republican primary voters -- like most people -- don't like him, perhaps because he's actually an actor playing a presidential candidate on a soap opera in 1986. Instead, lately, lots of Republicans se ... More >>

Ron Paul Says He Didn't Create Offensive "China Jon" YouTube Video

GOP presidential hopeful has done some crazy shit in his past, as we've noted here before, but his campaign claims he never released this offensive YouTube video about ex-Utah Gov. Jon Hunstman, showing him dressed as the Communist leader Mao Zedong. Paul's campaign filed a lawsuit in San Francisco ... More >>

Progressively Worse: The Tumultuous Rise and Acrimonious Fall of the City's Left

Governor Jerry Brown Signs Slew of Illegal Immigrant-Friendly Bills

​While the federal government stagnates on any immigration reform, Governor Jerry Brown signed into law a bevy of illegal immigrant-friendly bills that will make their under-the-radar way of life less of a headache starting January 1, 2012. Opponents have already started filing in. Perhaps th ... More >>

Miracle Faker: Rick Perry's Texas Teaches America the Wrong Lessons

Republicans Love Mayor Ed Lee

Ed Lee welcomes support ... from everyone ​In a liberal bastion like San Francisco, what Democratic candidate would want the support of the Republican Party? Turns out, plenty. Supervisors David Chiu and Ross Mirkarimi, and mayoral candidate Michela Alioto-Pier, to name a few. But as far as the ma ... More >>

Assemblymember Paul Fong Talks About the Shark's Fin Ban

Assemblymember Paul Fong​On Monday, the California State Assembly voted to pass AB-376, a proposed ban on the sale and import of shark's fin. The ban, which has been publicly condemned by state senator Leland Yee and SF mayor Ed Lee, is intended to prevent the practice of shark finning, which is d ... More >>

Tea Partier Portrays Obama as Ape in E-Mail to Friends

Courtesy OC WeeklyTea Partier Marilyn Davenport sent this photo to fellow conservatives​Time for some link love to one of the southern garrisons of the Village Voice Media empire. We've written before about the paranoiac, semiliterate reasoning that supports the related belief systems of the Tea P ... More >>

Examiner's Phil Anschutz Dumps Money into California Politics -- Except San Francisco

No money for you, chumps.​San Francisco Examiner owner Phil Anschutz, his companies, and his employees, donated $92,582 to 30 California politicians between 2003 and 2009, according to campaign finance filings compiled by Anschutz's competitor, Bay Area News Group.But the railroad, telecommunicati ... More >>

Gavin Newsom -- You Can Still Watch Him on Demand

Technologically active again​When former Mayor Gavin Newsom left City Hall, his staid YouTube addresses that people had grown accustomed to went right with him. But Newsom's hiatus from YouTube was short-lived. Just barely a month as the state Lieutenant Governor, Newsom sent out his first video a ... More >>

Diplomacy by the Bay

Gavin Newsom Goes Back On His Word To Avoid Back Room Deals

​After winning the seat for lieutenant governor in November, Mayor Gavin Newsom told reporters, point blank, that there would be no back room deals or political bargaining when selecting an interim mayor to fill the remainder of his term.He's also vowed to steer a clean-cut transition as he assume ... More >>

Doyle Drive's Goofy Privatization Deal Stalled By Judge

Will Jerry Brown stop the fiscal insanity? ​A judge Wednesday issued a temporary restraining order halting Caltrans from signing a finance deal that would let a foreign consortium take over construction and maintenance of part of the Doyle Drive project in the Presidio.This marks the second time i ... More >>

Tom Ammiano Makes It Official: He Won't Be Next Mayor

Count me out, says Tom Ammiano​Assemblyman Tom Ammiano told SF Weekly, in no uncertain terms, he doesn't want to be the next damn mayor. He told his former board colleagues the same. He hasn't yet hired out a pilot to do skywriting -- but his drift is unmissable. Supervisor Chris Daly remains unda ... More >>

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

Fantasy Voter Fraud

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 >>

List: What will President Obama's new political group accomplish in S.F.?

Grinding Justice: Operation Streamline Costs Millions, Tramples the Constitution, Treats Migrants Like Cattle, and Doesnít Work

Republicans Following Porn on Twitter (NSFW)

By following @_PrettyAlison, the California GOP studied the body politic...​If you're going to get hit with a sex scandal, you should at least make sure to enjoy the sex. Yet the California Republican Party has been monitoring the online offerings of dozens of porn purveyors in a situation that ga ... More >>

List: The best democracy money can buy

Obama 'Even Worse' Than Bush On Secret Wiretapping Case, Says S.F. Lawyer

Is 'Mr. Change' listening?​San Francisco attorney Jon Eisenberg thinks he's learned a thing or two about Barack Obama over the past 15 months. Eisenberg, who won a landmark decision against the government in Northern California's U.S. District Court Wednesday on a wiretapping case, says that when ... More >>

Distressed Properties

The state's quick budget fix of selling off public buildings is a horrible idea.

Letter to the Media: Stop Coddling Tea-Party Crazies

But not to stop tea-partiers' batshit lunacy​Those who pick up their news exclusively from such esteemed outlets as The Economist magazine, the Web site Politico, or ABC television could be forgiven these days for having a charitable view of the new American political force known as the Tea Party ... More >>

"One Day: A Collective Narrative of Tehran"

One Day reveals Iran's gridlock and anxiety

Chronic City: After Further Review, Smoking Pot Doesn't Make You Crazy -- Blimey!

oldies.comWhich came first, the lunatics or the grass? The time-honored notion of reefer madness, given new life recently in the British tabloid press, has taken another hit from reality. Widespread marijuana use by the public has not been followed by a proportional rise in diagnoses of schizophreni ... More >>

Oops: Pentagon Accidentally Sent Taiwan Nuclear Material. Again.

Pakistani Bloggers Speak Out on “Emergency Rule”: BetterKnowanSFBlog - Metroblogging

Nuclear Holocaust Short 34 Tons of Plutonium -- Russia, U.S. Deal

Benedictus

Tibetans Say, "Go A's!" to Protest 2008 Beijing Olympics

Letters to the Editor

Wednesday, August 30, 2006

Mexico Burning? Don't believe it.

S.F.'s Global Exchange wins publicity by pushing a vote recount Mexico doesn't need

Obsessive Pursuit

Years after her brother was murdered in Chile's "dirty war," a diminutive former professor went after the killer

Vote Here

An election enables Secret Ballot to explore social relations in modernizing Iran

Divided Loyalties

Forced to choose between native ties and the American Dream, Filipinos like S.F. court clerk Rene Pascual are fighting for dual citizenship

The Grid