In the Beyond Chron yesterday, Randy Shaw floated the idea of the Residential Builders Association teaming up with the Bay Guardian to go after PG&E. Shaw cites the utility’s inability to speedily accomodate the needs of developers, general incompetence and arrogance as causes for the RBA’s frustration.

Since the utility defeated a municipalization ballot initiative during the height of the energy crisis, PG & E has acted as if its future in San Francisco was safe. But public power advocates may soon find they have a new ally: builders fed up with PG &E’s inability to meet San Francisco’s construction needs.

So just when I get completely discouraged about the transgender movement in SF or being transgender in SF, something happens that gives me hope. As most readers know, I have sometimes been willing to take politicians to task for their votes on transgender issues or on transgender representation. I sometimes just don’t have the willingness to tolerate ignorance. Or the willingness to tolerate indifference.

It is shocking sometimes how dismissive or disrespectful I have seen people be towards transgender persons. It isn’t like people sit around consciously thinking, transgender people aren’t as worthy as others. It’s more like trans people have to work five times as hard/be five times as good to be considered competent. And even then, well….

Warning: Please do not read this if you are under eighteen, offended by the sight of transboy’s bodies, or unwilling to confront your stuff.

Excerpt from a website about transboys transitioning:

this is a shout out to all my mixed people, people of color, and
trans people (and anyone else) who has been made to feel that our identities & lives are too tragic and fragmented to lead with power & beauty. fuck all those out there who think we’re just gonna crawl into a corner, believe their bullshit & hate ourselves. look for me — i’ll be the one standin tall, walkin with my head up, shinin. we are capable of so much more than even WE can imagine. self love & love for community are powerful revolutionary acts. watch close as we survive and disprove each and every lie those fools tried to put on us. “

SFUSD is proposing to close 5-10 schools at the end of this school year.

Since parents of incoming kindergarteners, middle schoolers and high schoolers must submit their seven choices for schools on January 13 (and there is BOE’s and SFUSD’s two week holiday break from Dec. 23 to Jan. 2), there are a limited number of times that you can give your input to the SF School Board. The scheduled meetings are all at SFUSD’s HQ, 555 Franklin:

Monday, Dec. 5 at 4 p.m.-Buildings and Grounds Committee will winnow the list to 5-10 schools. (Yes, I know that the meeting is not listed on the SFUSD website.)

It is almost unbelievable how bad it has become, but I have to admit I was stunned to read that Col Lawrence Wilkerson, a top aide to former Secretary of State Colin Powell, has accused Vice President Cheney of ignoring a decision by President Bush on the treatment of prisoners in the war on terror and when asked if Cheney could be accused of war crimes, he basically said yes. Read the acual text:

When asked by the BBC’s Today if Mr Cheney could be accused of war crimes, he said: “It’s an interesting question.”

I know I make mistakes. All the time.

But do you believe in redemption? I do.

And if there was ever a case made for redemption, it has been made for Tookie Williams.

A friend of mine, Van Jones, is doing incredible work on behalf of Tookie Williams. Please take a moment and add your voice to this debate. Also, please forward it.
Thanks,
Robert

Dear ColorOfChange.org member,
Momentum is building to save the life of Stanley Tookie Williams, a former gang leader turned world-renowned peacemaker. You can make a difference by adding your voice now.

Click Here.

This is an important event, part of the critical campaign to save the life of “gang leader turned peacemaker,” Stanley Tookie Williams.

For more information about this death-row inmate who has become a Nobel Prize-nominated advocate for peace, please go to SaveTookie.com.

“Redemption: The Stan Tookie Williams Story”
Hosted by Danny Glover
Dec. 4, 2005, 5pm
Victoria Theatre, 2961 16th Street in San Francisco
(next to the 16th Street and Mission BART Station)
Help STOP THE December 13th EXECUTION of Nobel Peace Prize Nominee Stan Tookie Williams

It’s kind of last-minute notice, but there are hearings on changes to the city’s condo conversion law today at 10:30 at City Hall.

Real estate interests, represented by Bevan Dufty, are trying to make it easier to convert TICs into condos. People on the tenant side, in contrast, want buildings where people were not evicted to make them more valuable to have priority in the condo lottery.

Even landlords should be rewarded for good behavior.

Last month I had a great exchange with judy b, a well known figure in progressive circles whose opinion I very much respect. So when I wrote my lastest blog on the cultural phenomenon of slash, I sent her a copy hoping she would give me some feedback. Sure enough, she found a great article that further developed some of the points that I was trying to articulate. The article appeared in Bitch magazine and is definitely worth read. A couple of points intrigued me. The author wrote, “Slash lets women assert power over men the way the patriarchy asserts power over women. Slash lets women humanize and redraft masculinity.” In a recent correspondence with a slash writer, I asked if slash was a way for straight women to “be the boy.” The response was an overwhelming yes. Interesting I said. This is clearly going to be the end of patriarchy…

The fight for marriage equality is often dismissed as a cultural one, or somehow only of interest to well-off people. Robert is fond of pointing out that it’s fundamentally an economic issue, and pretty often a story comes along to prove his point. Via Americablog, here’s an example of why marriage matters:

When lung cancer finally kills Laurel Hester — and it will, in a matter of months — she wants to know that her domestic partner, Stacie Andree, won’t lose their home in Point Pleasant.

That legacy, however, is in doubt.