I had a very surreal experience today. I was at a meetup of local political bloggers when two women, dressed in matching trench coats, glasses, and wigs approached Dean from GavinSucks.com. Confirming that it was him, they proceeded to berate him for criticizing the mayor, and then doused him with a beer and a glass of wine. The rest of us could only sit there, stunned, shocked at the surrealism of it all.

Since they are bloggers (they write for The Mayor & the Hair) they got the video up on YouTube before Dean’s shirt was even dry. Unfortunately, they totally blew the money shot, so there’s only a vertigo-inducing flailing camera rather than actual footage of Dean getting doused.

I have been very busy, so I apologize for the light posting, but I can’t resist commenting on the amazing revelations that Newsom press flack Peter Ragone has been posting to SFist (and possibly other sites) under assumed names. What’s even more amazing is that he lied about it on camera, then admitted he lied.

Think about that: the press secretary for the Newsom Administration flat-out lied on camera. If Channel 7 (and the other TV stations) don’t have the credits “Peter Ragone - Admitted Liar” under him when he speaks, I’ll be disappointed. Why would anyone believe anything he says ever again? Talk about a loss of credibility! It’s time for Gavin to give him the heave-ho, I think.

The city of San Francisco has lately been installing surveilance cameras. However, studies, including this British study (pdf) show that by and large, such cameras are ineffective at reducing crime.

The police commission has already aproved a number of cameras. A proposed camera at 16th and Mission is to be discussed on Wednesday’s Police Commission meeting. It seems likely that a camera at that location would simply push activity into the surrounding neighborhood. There will be a meeting in advance of the Police Commission meeting on Monday, December 4 at 6 p.m.
at Marshall Elementary School cafeteria (1575 15th Street , 15th and Capp). There is further information on reasons to oppose video surveilance at the website of the ACLU of Northern California.

The pentagon has decided the hot way to recruit kids into the military is to make games where the kids can play with all the whizbang planes and tanks and robots and whatnot the US military is developing.

It turns out that the games are made intentionally easy, to give the kids the idea war’s all about twiddling a joystick while a robot goes and kills the bad guys.

The new PC title, Future Force Company Commander, or F2C2, is a nifty God-game that puts players in the driver’s seat of 18 systems at the heart of the military’s new net-centric warfare approach. The Army added the game to its recruiting tool kit last month as a high-tech follow-up to its successful America’s Army shooter.

I’m here at RootsCamp, and I finally met Matt Lockshin, the guy who created Say No to Pombo, which played a big part in McNerney’s upset victory.

I was very pleased when he cited Left in SF as an inspiration for setting up his site. “I realized these guys were just reporting on meetings they were going to, and I realized it really let me know what was going on in San Francisco.” We actually do more than report on our meetings, but I’m really pleased to hear we helped play a role in the race.

I wrote yesterday about voting machines in Florida that change Democratic votes into Republican ones. It seems that it’s not just Florida. Apparently it’s in Texas as well:

FDM continues to get complaints from Jefferson County voters who say the electronic voting machines are not registering their votes correctly. Friday night, KFDM reported about people who had cast straight Democratic ticket ballots, but the touch-screen machines indicated they had voted a straight Republican ticket.

Daly Kos says: South Dakotans look like they’re rejecting hate.

Florida’s touch screen voting machines change votes for Democrats into votes for Republicans.

Wonder how it’s done? Here’s an article on How to Steal an Election by Hacking the Vote.

Y’know who else Says No to Pombo? Ben Affleck and Jennifer Garner. And they’re gonna say it on Saturday in Stockton.

The UK hired Al Gore to advise them on how to deal with global warming.

Update: That’s Thursday, not Friday.

Local non-profit Media Alliance is having their thirtieth anniversary event this Thursday, October 12th. Guests include senior White House correspondent Helen Thomas (the one who asks all the good questions) and local journalist Belva Davis. You can find more information here.

I will be there, because Media Alliance plays a crucial role in the fight against corporate consolidation of the media and for digital inclusion. When it came time to renew the Comcast franchise, who organized community folks to demand our fair share? Media Alliance. When Gavin Newsom announced that he wanted to create a city-wide wi-fi network, who was the first to speak up for digital inclusion? Media Alliance. And when the FCC came to LA, who was there to tell them we need diverse media? Yep, Media Alliance.

I just finished watching The End of Suburbia: Middle-aged White Guys Talk About Oil (Actually, the subtitle is Oil Depletion and the Collapse of The American Dream, but every single person who speaks in the movie is an old white guy, except for the Iranian Minister of Oil, and he only has one line). I thought the film was a great example of how a mediocre film about a compelling topic can be pretty interesting.

The Boston Women’s Health Collective, who brought you Our Bodies, Ourselves, has a blog, called Our Bodies, Our Blog. They also have an online companion to the book. It’ll be interesting to see how a group that came up with such a groundbreaking book will use a new medium like blogs.