Here are the endorsements for the Bernal Heights Dem club:

United States Congress: no endorsement
California Senate: Carole Migden
California Assembly: Tom Ammiano
State Propositions:
98: Property rights: No
99: Eminent Domain reform: Yes

Local propositions
A: School Parcel Tax: Yes
B: Public Employee Retirement Health Care: no recommendation
C: Forfeiture of Retirement Benefits (Moral Turpitude): no recommendation
D: Diversity on City Boards and Commissions: Yes
E: Public Utilities Commission reform: Yes
F: Affordable Housing at Lennar Project: Yes
G: Lennar project at Candlestick Point and Hunters Point Shipyard: No
H: Mayor’s reform proposal: no recommendation

Yesterday, the Zimbabwe government announced the long-awaited results from their presidential election on March 29.

They acknowledged that opposition leader, Morgan Tsvangirai came in first with 47.9% of the vote with long-time president Robert Mugabe getting 43.2% of the vote. This means that there is a runoff between the two rivals at a date not yet announced. The opposition, the Movement for Democratic Change, claimed that their candidate, Mr. Tsvangirai received 50.3% of the March 29 vote. This is the first time in 28 years that Mugabe has acknowledged that he has not gotten the largest number of votes.

Boris Johnson has won the election for Mayor of London, defeating Ken Livingstone’s attempt to win a third term. Johnson is the MP for Henley, a post that he is expected to stand down from.

Johnson, the Conservative candidate won with 1,168,738 first and second preference votes, compared with Mr Livingstone’s 1,028,966 on a record turnout of 45%. The win comes on a surge of wins for the Conservative party during the May 1 elections in the UK.

One of the best developments of the last few weeks has been the return of Fafblog from the dead. From yesterday’s World News Update

ITEM! Last week George Bush said for the first time that he personally approved the torture of prisoners held in U.S. custody. And right now there’s only one question on everybody’s mind: who does this help in the Democratic primary! The conventional wisdom is that presidential super-torture powers are sure to help Hillary Clinton, the one candidate Americans trust to waterboard Muslims at 3 AM. But it’s also a big opportunity for Obama to make up lost ground by striking a tough, muscular pro-torture stance to counteract the dangerous pussification of his girly bowling abilities! Stay tuned, readers!

If you live in the West half of San Francisco or parts of San Mateo County, today is your chance to vote in the special election to replace Tom Lantos.

Here’s how to find your polling place if you live in San Francisco.

Here’s how if you live in San Mateo County.

This weekend, UESF gathered 30 teachers (and myself) to talk to voters in District 4 about parcel tax for public schools.

The parcel tax of $198 per lot will go towards teachers’ salaries, schools that are hard-to-staff and a bonus to those schools who increase their API. See earlier posts about the parcel tax.

I walked with Micheal from Hoover MS and Aaron from Feinstein. Aaron had taught for five years while Michael had taught for 17 years.

Today, The Advocate published an article about the transgender man who is having a baby. The original article can be found here. Beatie is to appear on Oprah on Thursday.

An FTM activist responds to the media coverage of Thomas Beatie after his article appeared in The Advocate.

By Robert Haaland

Transgender man Thomas Beatie set off a firestorm in the LGBT population and the world when he announced that he is having a baby and continues to identify as a man. His article in The Advocate, “Labor of Love,” left many, even some transgender people, wondering how someone can identify as male and yet be pregnant. Some have even gone so far to suggest that by bearing the child he is less, or even not, male, despite Beatie’s declaration that he continues to identify as male.

The Bernal Heights Democratic Club is having a candidates forum Thursday in preparation for the June election. Should be interesting! Here’s the notice:

Bernal Heights Democratic Club Candidates Forum

7:00 PM Thursday, April 3
Bernal Heights Neighborhood Center
515 Cortland Avenue

Candidates for California Senate:

Assemblyman Mark Leno
Senator Carole Migden (incumbent)
Former Assemblyman Joe Nation

Candidate for California Assembly:

Supervisor Tom Ammiano

Candidates for U.S. House of Representatives:

Shirley Golub
Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (invited) (incumbent)

Note: You must be a member of at least one month’s standing in order to vote at the May 6 BHDC endorsement meeting,

Two letters appeared in the gay press advocating for HRC to get the pink brick. If you haven’t voted already, please do so. Ballots are due by Monday. Read below for more information on HRC and tell your friends! Go to this link to get a printable ballot to mail in.

http://www.sfpride.org/parade/images/Ballot08-GM-eng.pdf

peace,

Robert

HRC deserving of Pink Brick

Admittedly, the Human Rights Campaign doesn’t belong in the company of media moron Bill O’Reilly, or any murderous dictator, extremist characters who frankly don’t care what we think. HRC should, however, care what we think. And we think HRC deserves the Pink Brink.

I’m a week late noting this, but Washington DC and New Jersey have followed San Francisco’s example, and guaranteed sick leave for people who work there.

Looks like the DC bill was weakened significantly, but it’s still great to see the movement for healthy workers spread across the country. I bet that within a decade, it’ll be a national law, and we’ll be shocked when we remember back to when this wasn;t a guaranteed right.