The Out-Of-Touch Board of Supervisors

Why are all the email addresses found on the SF Board of Supervisor's web page inactive? Seriousely, if I wanted to send an email to my representative, how would I do it? Check it out for yourself here.

I'd like to propose...

That we make March 29, 2006 Sophie Maxwell day. In fact, give her the key to the city. Today's Examiner has an article saying she wants to have every financial, insurance and textile (Levi Strauss) company doing business in SF to disclose whether they were ever involved in the slave trade, and to make a voluntary donation to ameliorate the effects today of slavery.

Ms. Maxwell is asking these companies (Levi Strauss) to make a voluntary donation to "fund economic development and educational initiatives for city residents that are the decendents of slaves. This ordinance brings truth and transparency to the way wealth was accumulated in America." says Maxwell.

Ms. Maxwell - your initiative a great example of why businesses don't want to do business in SF. Go back to business school and learn this:

Government that is pro-business = thriving business community = more jobs = more tax revenue = programs that benefit your constituents.

Look at tax policies in Ireland over the past 10 years as an example. Stop trying to play Robin Hood in 2006 - it simply isn't the reality the rest of our country lives in.

The Lunacy Continues...

SF Supervisors Finoa Ma and Jake McGoldrick want to ban smoking at transit (bus) stops and golf courses. Now, you may be asking yourself what the hell a bus stop and a golf course have in common. I did. Turns out the measure started out as a ban on smoking at bus stops. Fair enough. Then comes along Jake McGoldrick, and in his infinite wisdom, decides that "banning smoking at bus stops would constitute class inequality. It’s usually people that have lesser income that are using the bus stop and people with greater income that use the golf course".

Now, I'm a golfer. And I've played every public course in San Francisco multiple times. I can assure you - as sure as I'm sitting here in front of my computer right now - that Mr. McGoldrick has never played a single round of golf at Harding, Lincoln, or Sharp Park. If he had, he would know that the duffers at these courses are the same people who ride the bus, myself included. How he decided that only rich people play golf and only poor people ride the bus is a perfect example of how out of touch this idiot is from the real world the rest of us live in. McGoldrick should stop watching Caddyshack and start spending time with the citizens of SF.

I wish that just once, McGoldrick would realize that the time and money wasted on trying to create some kind of socialist utopian society does nothing to help the citizens of San Francisco go about their daily lives. This is another PERFECT example of how the Board of Supervisors wastes my property tax money again and again. I've got a great idea - how about drafting a measure to fill the city's pot holes? Or how about drafting a measure to clean up the streets in Chris Daly's district (including the drug dealers and prostitutes, err... the disadvantaged and underprivileged).

An Open Letter To Michela Alioto-Pier

Dear Ms. Alioto-Pier,

As a resident of District 2, you are my representative at City Hall. It has come to my attention that San Francisco is going to end the 2005-2006 fiscal year with a surplus of $137 million. According to a recent article in the Examiner, the surplus is due to better than expected revenues, departmental savings, and unspent money during the current fiscal year.

Ms. Alioto-Pier, this is a perfect opportunity to show some real-world, level headed fiscal stewardship of taxpayer money! There has been a rush among your fellow supervisors to "earmark" this money for specific projects, including low income housing, infrastructure improvements, art programs and city employee pay raises. As a tax paying resident of San Francisco, I have a list of my own:

1. Return the money to the taxpayers.

Now, before you start laughing too hard, please realize that I know you and your fellow supervisors don't live under the same financial laws the rest of us "private sector" folks do. So, with that in mind, I'll propose another list - one that takes into account the world you live in:

1. Earmark the money toward the 2006 - 2007 budget, which is tentatively projected to already be $35 million overbudgeted (somebody please explain to me how the hell that happens??)
2. Infrastructure improvements. Fill the potholes, plant some trees, clean the streets. These expenses will help the city for years, or at least until there is another surplus. San Francisco needs to stop floating bonds to pay for infrastructure improvements when these type of expenses should come out of the normal operating budget.
3. Fix BART, which caught on fire today. By the way, the coverage on CNN has been excellent.

Whatever you do, do not increase pay for city workers. A pay increase this year means pay levels remain raised for future years. Who's going to pay for this? Are Tom Ammiano and Jake McGoldrich assuming budget surplusses every year?? This is the kind of irresponsible fiscal thinking that makes my skin crawl, and is a perfect example of why I started this blog in the first place.

Regards,

HelpSFO

Conspiracy Theory #1

Everyone seems to have an opinion about why Brokeback Mountain didn't win the Oscar. Here's mine...

When Michael Moore released Farenheit 9-11, it was during an election year. Many people assumed that Democrats endorsed the film, or at the very least were happy to see it do so well at the box office (when I saw the film in SF, it received a round of applause). I don't recall any Democrats saying outright that Moore's film was an example of why they should not vote for Bush, but I don't recall them distancing themselves from the film / Moore either.

Fast forward to last Sunday. Hollywood - the self-appointed proxy for the Democratic party - decides that they need to do whatever they can to help get the Democratic party back on its feet. By giving the Oscar to Brokeback Mountain, Hollywood would have sent a strong signal to America (the straight, middle class, suburban, white demographic) that homosexuality is OK. Not everyone in Hollywood is stupid, and they know that people associate the Hollywood message with the Democratic party. So, they do the safe thing and give the Oscar to Crash. Which, by the way, was a great film. Personally, I think this was a smart move.

View From The Right

George Will made an interesting comment in his column yesterday. In reference to poverty in America, he said that liberal government tends to think that "poor people are like everyone else; they just lack goods and services (housing, transportation, training, etc.) that government knows how to deliver."

Hey, I'm all for helping people out when they need it. But for the life of me, I cannot believe for one second that the homeless drunk sitting on the corner of Powell and Market is just like me. I don't believe for one second that with a little help (and creativie thinking by the Board of Supervisors!), that guy is going to become a productive member of society. For more information about why that guy on Bush & Market ended up the way he did, read Will's column.

Issue Du Jour

Julie Andrews once said "Let's start at the very beginning, a very fine place to start. When you read you begin with A-B-C..."

When you govern, you begin with certain basic assumptions about what government ought to do. These include keeping the population safe, providing for education, and keeping the streets clean and safe. And it should do all these things well before doing anything else. The Examiner printed an article yesterday of partiular interest. The first talked about Fred Abadi, the new director of public works - the man in charge of keeping San Francisco streets clean and pothole free. Good luck Mr. Abadi! It's not the dirty streets that are the problem. It's the Board of Supervisors. This group has put impeaching President Bush ahead of cleaning up the streets. In his article, Ken Garcia righly noted that "clean streets and uncluttered sidewalks are more important to average citizens than showy but meaningless resolutions."


What I'd like to see is Sen. Feinstein and Rep. Pelosi come down hard on the Board of Supervisors - tell them that their initiative to impeach Bush is meaningless from the Washington DC point of view and is a waste of SF taxpayer money.

First Post

Since this is my first post, I should probably explain the purpose of this blog. Here goes...

I am a moderate Republican living in one of the world's most beautiful cities (I am pro-choice, pro-environment, and pro-small government) Sadly, San Francisco is a city that is being run by a group of liberal idiots (I'm not talking about the Democratic Party - I'm talking about that special form of far left liberalism / socialism / communism that rules SF politics). This blog is intended to focus on some of the political hot-topics in San Francisco today and hopefully provide a real-world perspective on why San Francisco continues to be an amazing place to live despite it's leadership. Are my ideas biased? You betcha. Dont' like them? Start your own blog. What gets discussed here?

Homelessness
The public school system
Special interest groups
Tax policy
Sports
The Board of Supervisors

and anything else that's bugging me. My intention is to offer a real-world criticism of all these topics and hopefully shine some light on the absurdity of what happens here. Enjoy!