Even though we haven’t seen communists actively running the Mission for some time now, we know they’re out there, plotting. Here, a group of ordinary Americans come across the communist threat — “innocently” sitting – like an IED – on the side of the road. Like their liberal parents before them, these Americans throw money at the problem and hope it goes away. But Marx warned us, didn’t he? Please Mayor Newsom: sit-and-lie more than ever!
Earlier Today
Crunch Time
Attention Progressives: this is how the game is played. With less than three days before the House is scheduled to vote on the health care bill, the National Council of La Raza (NCLR) announced its opposition to the bill in its current form. Pointing out the law, if passed unamended, contains provisions that would deny access to health care for documented as well as undocumented immigrants, NCLR has thrown a last-minute monkey-wrench into the upcoming vote. That the administration needs every vote it can get from the Congressional Hispanic Caucus cannot be overstated. An NCLR spokesperson left the door open for a deal.
Earlier Today
The Mission Today
6 A.M. Only 50° but even in the cool and dark it feels warm and sunny which all prognosticators expect. Dolores Park will be happening into the evening. If you’re still there, by 7:30, check out Kristen Hathaway at the Dolores Park Cafe, 7:30. D’Lo begins his solo “Ramble-Ations” at the Brava, a comedy about growing up queer in a Hindu Tamil Sri Lankan family in Southern California. And today is National Forgive Mom and Dad Day — take a minute in your busy cubicle to recall Philip Larkin’s poem “This Be Verse” which begins “They %$% you up your mum and dad/They may not mean to, but they do”).
National Sunshine Week
The folks at Electronic Frontier Foundation remind us that this week is also National Sunshine Week. Not because it has been so bright and sunny in the Mission this week, but because we could use a lot more transparency in government. For Obamacrats, the news on the transparency front is more than a little disturbing. According to the Los Angeles Times, the Obama administration has denied more, far more, freedom of information requests than did Little Bush. And if that weren’t bad enough, Beyond Chron reports on the backroom deal to kill the public option in the health care bill.
Gutter Punks of the World Unite
If you think the “sit and lie” ordinance being pushed by the Mayor and the Cops is aimed at a few scruffy kids in the Haight, take a walk around the Mission sometime. This is how a Sanctuary City treats its residents? For an chilling summary and excellent argument against the law, read Chris Carlsson’s interview with Nate Miller in StreetsblogSF.
Cross-Cultural Dance Extravaganza
An “extravaganza” with only two guys? But wait til you see these four feet in action! Becca Hirschman leads off her Dance Flash interview with a one minute trailer for India Jazz Suites. The performance will be one night only at the Palace of Fine Arts on Saturday night, as part of the Chitresh Das Dance Company’s 30th Anniversary Gala.
Mission Possible
It appears the Road to Detroit runs through the Mission. At least for political purposes. Meeting for the first time last weekend, the Bay Area People’s Movement Assembly packed into Poder to begin planning for the U.S. Social Forum this June in Detroit. The USSF is an offspring of the World Social Forum that first declared “Another World is Possible” in 2001. The Forum’s prediction came true: another world proved not only possible but real. But it wasn’t the world they were thinking of. Here’s hoping the post-crash decentralized version has better luck.