San Francisco Window Washer falls more than 10 stories, lands on car roof - and lives!

I used to work two blocks away on Montgomery Street, and I walked past this building very often. What a story. Imagine falling off of this roof:

SF window washer, motorist both survive brush with death

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- An unbelievable accident closed off parts of California and Montgomery streets in San Francisco's Financial District Friday morning. A window washer fell from an 11th story building, landing on a moving car below. The victim survived but is in critical condition. It's hard to believe the driver of that car was not hurt.

The window washer fell from the roof and landed on a Toyota Camry. All but the driver's area was caved in. The driver, Mohammad Al Cozai, narrowly escaped being critically injured.

"As soon as I made my left turn, then I saw something hit my car very hard. The impact was really hard. I didn't know what it is," said Mohammad Al Cozai of Dublin.

After landing on the car, the window washer fell onto the street. Witnesses ran to help. [...]

Window washer survives 11-story fall from S.F. building

[...] The driver of the car, Mohammad Alcozai of Dublin, got out almost immediately after the impact. The victim hit the roof and back window of the 2002 four-door Camry, totaling the car. A split-second difference in timing and the worker might have landed on the windshield, with potentially terrible consequences for Alcozai.

“It was a miracle,” Alcozai told The Chronicle.

A traveling tech specialist, Alcozai said he was supposed to go on a call to Walnut Creek on Friday morning, but after it was canceled he wound up in San Francisco. As he was about to turn onto California Street from Montgomery, his car’s navigation system went blank, so he slowed down.

As the system turned back on, he sped up — “and that’s when something hit my car with a terrible thump,” he said.

“With all the changes in where I went and how I was going this morning, I think God wanted me to be there just at the moment that poor man fell,” Alcozai said. “It was a miracle that he was able to fall in my car, and it was a miracle that I was OK.

“I just hope he comes through all right.” [...]

Follow the links for photos and video. Yikes. It's quite miraculous that he hit it the way he did, when he did. And it looks like he's going to survive:


Window washer who fell from downtown San Francisco building set to leave hospital

OAKLAND, Calif. – A window washer who fell 11 stories from a downtown San Francisco building onto a moving car last month is preparing to leave the hospital for a rehabilitation facility where he hopes to walk again.

Pedro Perez, 58, fractured his pelvis, broke an arm, ruptured an artery in his arm, and sustained severe brain trauma when he landed on the Toyota Camry after falling from the top of a bank building in San Francisco's financial district on Nov. 21. The car's driver was not injured.

Perez spent a week in a medically induced coma and still can't move his right arm and leg. But just a month after the fall, he has amazed doctors who originally said it would be months before he could leave the hospital, his wife, Maricela Perez told reporters on Monday.

"They are saying it's a miracle," she said through a translator.

Maricela Perez spoke in Spanish about her husband's recovery at his union shop in Oakland. She said he is in good spirits, complaining about the hospital food and even joking about returning to work down the line, although the couple has agreed it won't be as a window washer.

She said she thought he was dead for the first hour after she heard about the accident. At first, her husband could not recognize members of their extended family, but his memory is slowly improving, she said.

"As a wife, I am very grateful to have my husband for the holidays," she said. [...]

I read somewhere that he doesn't remember the accident. The shock must have been enormous. Lucky to be alive, and recovering. I wonder if one day he will remember what happened?
     

What does the concept of Private Property mean in San Francisco?

Less, and less:

I Was Assaulted For Wearing Google Glass In The Wrong Part Of San Francisco

[...] If those people hadn't moved to San Francisco, people wouldn't be priced out of their neighborhoods, rental properties wouldn't be purchased by wealthy young millionaires, and tenants wouldn't be evicted from the homes they've lived in for several decades.

My love for gadgets makes me look and sound like one of the people whom residents of the city have come to feel oppressed by.

The individual who smashed my Google Glass on Friday — because of political beliefs or a personal impact that has been made by the tech industry — felt that it was appropriate to destroy my personal property in protest against what I seemed to stand for, based on my appearance; never mind the irony in choosing to assault someone based on their appearance as a way to preserve San Francisco's culture.

It's important to note that not everyone protesting the tech industry's impact on the city has taken such an oppositional stance.

At the march we covered on Friday, teachers, tenant rights activists, and other concerned citizens carried banners and chanted slogans that specifically asked Google to live up to the famous "Don't be evil" motto and step in where its employees were displacing longtime San Franciscans:
[photo]
You don't see a crowd of more than a hundred people go to an investment banker's house when he evicts longtime tenants, to publicly ask his or her employer for help, because of course no investment bank would do something like that.

Google, for all the backlash it's gotten over gentrification, last year's NSA revelations, and personal data collection for ads, still looks like a company that gives a damn.

The company has taken some steps to address concerns of protestors and people's negative reactions to Google Glass. It started paying the city for the use of its bus stops. It has put out guides for Glass users on the behavior that should be avoided so that you don't look like a "Glasshole."

But those don't do anything to address the underlying issues. Something clearly needs to be done to address rising housing costs and gentrification in the city — people on all sides are being forced from their homes and made to feel unsafe on the streets and on their commutes to and from work. [...]

It's delusional for any renter to think they have the same rights as property owners. But then San Francisco is full of delusional people. Many of them think ownership of property is evil.

I lived there for 24 years, as a renter for 14 of those years. After being forced to move several times, we decided we wanted more control over our lives, so we eventually bought a house.

Many people were envious that we were "lucky" enough to buy a house. But luck had nothing to do with it. We scrimped and saved for years, forgoing vacations, eating out in restaurants, nice clothes and cars, gagets, and many of the other things that San Franciscan's typically spend their money on.

It amazes me how easily that those that make no sacrifices to save and buy property complain that other people who buy homes are "lucky", and that it's not fair; they believe that they themselves should somehow have the same thing, without the effort and sacrifice.

People aren't being displaced from THEIR homes. If they don't OWN the home, it isn't THEIRS. That's why it can be sold out from under them. It's not THEIRS. It belongs to someone else.

When renters have the same rights as property owners, then the concept of private property ceases to have any meaning. But of course that's fine with many San Franciscans, it's what they want. And one of many reasons why I left. Too many delusional people, wanting reality to change to suit them.

I thought it was funny that the author thought it was ironic that San Franciscan's would attack someone based on their appearance, as a way of preserving San Francisco. It makes perfect sense. Delusional people often have no sense of irony. It's one of the perks of being delusional.
     

San Francisco's "Tales of the City" Ends

Author Armistead Maupin ends San Francisco ‘Tales of the City’ saga with ninth volume

In 1974, when Armistead Maupin began writing what became Tales of the City, he thought of it as “an in-joke about the way life worked in San Francisco”. Four decades later, that in-joke has been shared by more than 6 million readers. His stories of interlocking gay and straight lives in the city constitute one of the best-loved of literary sagas. The New York Times described reading them as “like dipping into an inexhaustible bag of M&Ms, with no risk of sugar overload”. Now though, after four decades, that bag is finally about to be exhausted. The series will conclude with Maupin’s ninth book, Days of Anne Madrigal, published at the end of this month. [...]

I really enjoyed the PBS series based on the books. It really seemed to capture many of the special particulars, the eccentricities, of life in San Francisco in those days.

     

A San Francisco Treat... But Not for Me

I'm not really surprised. One of the reasons I left SF, was because of the political corruption. This sort of thing seemed inevitable:

Voter Fraud Allegations Hit San Francisco Mayor’s Race

Shocking voter fraud allegations are rocking the mayor's race in San Francisco. District Attorney George Gascon has launched an investigation and demands are growing for federal authorities to move in.

One campaign official fears the election could be stolen if nothing is done.

Supporters of incumbent Mayor Ed Lee, who is running for a full four-year term next month, are accused of illegally handling vote-by-mail ballots.

Witnesses say workers for the group, SF Neighbor Alliance, set up a makeshift sidewalk voting site in the city's Chinatown and accuse it of illegally casting absentee ballots for elderly Chinese voters.

The witnesses claim cell-phone videos show workers telling voters to vote for Lee, filling out ballots for the voters and even using a stencil to hide the names of rival candidates so the voters could only chose one -- Lee.

They also say that the completed ballots were stuffed in plastic bags, which is prohibited by state election law.

"At first we thought they were just helping them understand what absentee ballots were," witness Malana Moberg told Fox News, saying that she saw a worker filling out a voter's ballot.

But she said, "It was pretty blatant."

"I noticed that someone who was working at that booth, who had an Ed Lee shirt on, fill in an absentee ballot on behalf of the voter, and I was immediately shocked and couldn't believe that someone would actually fill in the ballot. I thought it was probably illegal, and if not at the very least, unethical," Moberg said, adding that "someone filling out a ballot for somebody else seemed completely inappropriate."

One of videos was shot by Adam Keigwin, a campaign official for State Sen. Leland Yee, one of Lee's opponents.

"Individuals were marking ballots for elderly voters. They would literally mark the ballot, seal it, and put it in bags behind them. There are so many violations there, almost too numerous to mention," he said.

Keigwin told us the alleged ballot stuffing happened right out in the open, for anyone to see. [...]

At least they got caught. This time. But it does shake your confidence when it can even happen so blatantly.

I wish I could say that I'm more confident about Oregon's voting sytem. But I'm not, as I've posted about previously:

Who Elected Kitzhaber as Oregon's Governor?

I think Oregon's voting system is one of the worst there is:

Vote-by-mail's vulnerability to fraud

Oh well. Vigilance must never go out of style, if we're smart.
     

Airport congestion and delays: don't I know it

I don't know that the economy is improving, but I could relate to the rest of it:
Study: Flight delays to get worse as economy improves

(CNN) -- Percy von Lipinski figures he flies about 100,000 miles a year. He knows he's going to see a healthy share of flight delays regardless of where he goes.

But he especially anticipates them at the larger airports, such as Chicago's O'Hare International -- "You can't possibly put that many planes there and not have a delay," he said -- and New York's John F. Kennedy International. So when he has a choice between two connecting cities, he said he'll generally choose the smaller one.

Delays at the larger airports, he said, are compounded by other hassles such as longer distances between terminals.

"There's wear and tear on your travel psyche -- which bus you need, which terminal you should be at," said von Lipinski, a 54-year-old Vancouver, British Columbia, resident who owns businesses around the globe. "By the time you get to your destination, you're bound to come up frazzled." [...]

Well that certainly describes my experience last month when I traveled back east to visit family. I had a stop over in Chicago. I took a night flight in, and was supposed to fly out early that morning. But the airport was fogged in until noon, by which time there was a huge backlog of delays. I overheard one passenger, who lived in Chicago, say that the fog had been like that for the past several days, and often is at this time of year.

Then on my flight back, I had to change planes in Philadelphia. The flight was delayed, so when it arrived in San Francisco, I had only twenty minutes to find the gate of my connecting flight there.

The gate number was not on my ticket. The airline told me to go to another terminal to find out which gate the flight was leaving from. They didn't tell me that the terminal was far away. They just said "follow the signs".

To do that, I had to leave the homeland security barrier, walk a long distance through another terminal, and then, go outside and walk a long way past another terminal that was empty, and closed for construction. Not another person to be seen anywhere, it was creepy. By this time I was running. I get to the next terminal, only to find there are two long hallways I have to run down before I get to the actual terminal.

By now I am wheezing. I get to the homeland security checkpoint, and can hardly speak, but have to try to explain that my flight is leaving. To their credit they put me at the head of the line so I could get through quickly, but they couldn't tell me where my flight was departing from.

By now I'm running around the terminal carrying my shoes, because my flight leaves in 8 minutes. None of the monitors listed the flight, there was no United Airlines help desk in sight, and nobody could tell me where I could find one.

I missed the flight. I never did find out which gate it was leaving from.

To make a long story short, all the flights leaving for my destination had left for the day, and all the flights for the next day were fully booked. So they booked me on a flight that evening to Portland OR, where I could catch a flight to my destination the following morning. They said I should ask U.S. Air for a hotel voucher, since it was their flight that arrived late, causing me to miss my connection.

So before leaving San Francisco, I went to the desk for U.S. Air, where an angel named "Rachel" got me a voucher for a nice room at the Ramada Inn in Portland. She was so nice, and treated me like a first-class passenger. I was very grateful.

In the end, all the airlines involved did right by me. But it sure was a stressful ordeal. I'm glad I didn't collapse from all that running around. If I ever fly again, I'm going to wear slip-on shoes, without shoe laces, so I won't have to run after planes in my socks. ;-)
     

People Leaving San Franciso-Oakland Area

America's Abandoned Cities

[...] San Francisco boasts balmy weather, seaside diversions and the best baseball stadium in the country.

But despite the perks, the Bay Area is losing people at an even greater clip than Miami--and ranks second on our list. Rental vacancy rates swelled from 4.7% to 7.1%; homeowner vacancies more than tripled from 1.1% to 3.4%. Why the dramatic change?

"One of the things we're noticing is that rents are still high," says Ken Shuman, a Bay Area-based spokesman for real estate data provider Trulia.com. "What we're also seeing is the economy. San Francisco, of all cities, is the most transient. People flock here when times are good--they don't mind paying high rent as long as pay is high. Now, in many cases, wages are frozen or reduced."

And that's if you're lucky enough to still have a job. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics' latest reports, Bay Area unemployment has more than doubled since last year, up from 4.6% to 9.4% as of April. Many laid-off workers aren't sticking around.

"People are migrating. It happened after the dot-com bust too," says Shuman. "As much as it's a beautiful place to live, you really have to think about lifestyle. There's no point in being here if you can't enjoy it." [...]

It's funny how prices in the SF Bay Area never seem to go down, regardless of how the economy is doing. The cost of living is so high there, it's difficult to drop the price of anything, because none of the other prices ever drop. It's just plain expensive. Overpriced and overcrowded. I'm glad we don't live there anymore.
     

Is Linda the Penguin a Gay Homewrecker?

Same-sex penguin couple split

[...] Male penguins Harry and Pepper had been so content together they were allowed to incubate and hatch an egg laid by another Magellanic penguin last year, zookeeper Anthony Brown said.

"Of all of the parents that year, they were the best. They took very good care of their chick," Brown told the San Francisco Examiner in a story published Saturday.

Enter the widow Linda, who began courting Harry in her partner's old burrow shortly after his death this past winter, Brown said.

"To be completely anthropomorphizing, Linda seems conniving," Brown said. "She's got her plan. I don't think she was wanting to be a single girl for too long." [...]

The zoo keeper goes on to explain that Linda's plan could yet be thwarted, as molting season is coming, which often results in couple's re-shuffling.

Will Pepper win Harry back, thwarting Linda's plan? Stay tuned for the next installment of the continuing drama...
     

Harsh Truth About California. And Our Nation?

Accounting for California’s Suicide: A weird sort of utopian mindset.

Victor Davis Hanson at National Review describes the healthy and prosperous California of two decades ago, and compares it to the flailing and swiftly deteriorating basket case it has become today. Then he gets to the crux of the reason why:

[...] If we can agree that Californians have somehow squandered a rich natural and inherited wealth, what were the root causes of this collective suicide?

Critics disagree. Some cite expanding but inefficient state government, out-of-control state pensions and oppressive taxes. Or are the chief problems costly prisons and astronomical rates of incarceration, illegal immigration, unchecked welfare, and excessive regulation and environmental restrictions?

All these explanations may be valid. But less discussed is the underlying culprit: a weird sort of utopian mindset. Perhaps because have-it-all Californians live in such a rich natural landscape and inherited so much from their ancestors, they have convinced themselves that perpetual bounty is now their birthright — not something that can be lost in a generation of complacency.

Californians count on the wealth of farming but would prefer their rivers to remain wild rather than tapped. They like tasteful redwood decks but demand someone else fell their trees for the wood. Californians drive imported SUVs but would rather that you drill for oil off your shores rather than they off theirs. They pride themselves on their liberal welfare programs, but drive out with confiscatory taxes the few left to pay for them.

Californians expect cheap imported labor to tend their lawns and clean their houses, but are incensed at sky-high welfare and entitlement costs that accompany illegal immigration. Lock ’em up, they say — but the state is bankrupted by new prisons, constant inmate lawsuits, and unionized employees.

In short, after Californians sue, restrict, mandate, obstruct, and lecture, they also get angry that there is suddenly not enough food, fuel, water, and money to act like the gods that they think they have become.

This is spot-on in so many ways. When I moved to San Francisco in 1981, California was the strong and prosperous state Hanson describes at the beginning of his article. Over the twenty four years I lived their, I witnessed the deterioration he speaks of in the middle of his article.

One of the reasons I had moved to California was to further my education. I had gone to a very expensive college in Boston for a year, and was extremely disappointed in the quality of the education. California colleges and universities were supposed to be good, and less expensive.

I enrolled in SF city college a couple of times, but always ended giving up on it. The quality of the education was inferior. At best I felt it was a dumb-downed grade factory for functional illiterates; at worst, a politically correct brainwashing camp. I couldn't bear it.

I could earn such fabulous sums of money going to work at jobs most people didn't want to do, that school seemed like a waste of time. Bothering to show up for work and speaking English were job skills that served me well, I didn't need the brainwashing, thank you.

But unfortunately, the brainwashing had an effect on much of the population, and the "good life" that people had to work for in the past, suddenly began to be talked about as a "right" that everyone was entitled to, rather than a goal to work towards. I watched California become a land of spoiled people spoiling a once prosperous and healthy state. Hanson observes:

[...] Biannual state proposition initiatives, often put on the ballot by narrow special interests, allowed voters to vote for additional entitlements and benefits without providing the money to pay for them. Yet Californians are not an informed electorate, as the state’s mediocre public high schools experience 30 percent dropout rates. [...]

California lost the capacity to maintain that prosperous and healthy state, by killing the heart of the engine that drove it. And the "Utopia" mindset is the dagger that was used to do it.

San Francisco is full of people who "live for today"; they are mostly renters, and they spend their money on fancy cloths, cars, electronic gadgets, concerts, movies, vacations, restaurants, etc. They lavish all their money on themselves, or even worse, live on extended credit, so they can "live the good life" to the maximum, while simultaneously complaining about people who have more than they do. People like Pat, Andy and me, who worked hard and saved money, bought a house and built up a business. They would whine that "it's not fair" that we have what they don't.

We sacrificed, we did without all the above luxuries, so we could attain the things we wanted. They could do the same too, if they wanted. But if you were "rude" enough to point that out to them, they would start screaming at you, "What are you, some kind of REPUBLICAN?".

Those are the same people Hanson describes in his article. People who feel they are entitled to that which they did not earn. People who live on credit. People who have voted for entitlements and benefits without providing the money to pay for them.

Is it any wonder that people like us, who worked and saved, sold up and left? And Hanson points out that educated people with job skills are still leaving California in droves. The state is teetering on financial collapse. But unfortunately, I don't think this problem is limited to California. The mindset that Hanson speaks of is taking root elsewhere, and spreading across the country, like so many California trends do.

Today the Democrat Party is being led by San Francisco (Pelosi) style Democrats. I've posted about what they did to San Francisco, and much of the rest of California as well. I've posted about how the radical "Greens" among the Democrats caused California's energy crisis, which plagues the state to this day, and how Obama and the Washington DC Democrats are adopting a similar plan for our nation, which will likely have similar consequences.

Please read the entire article by Hanson, it's not very long but well worth your time. We have a lot to learn from California. Mostly, not to follow their example of the past two decades. Entitlement utopianism and people living beyond their means on credit ruined California, and now that same mindset is threatening to ruin the rest of our country. And it will, if we don't stop the rot now.

I see the same trend happening here in Oregon, and many other states that are accumulating debt by passing entitlement legislation without financing to support it. If that trend continues unabated, the consequences will likely be devastating.


Related Link:    Daily duh! - debt is the problem not the solution
     

The disappearance of Hitchcock's San Francisco

Former San Francisco resident Takuan Seiyo talks about the San Francisco of the late 50's and early sixties, when Hitchcock made movies there. He compares it then to what it has become now, and how and why it got there:

From Meccania to Atlantis - Part 7: The True Horror in Hitchcock Films

I used to live in San Francisco. The San Francisco that despite having been roiled by hippies, beatniks, anti-this-and-that, still had the feel of the charming, civilized town that it had been when Alfred Hitchcock was shooting his masterpieces there.

Observe the setting of Davidson’s Pet Shop in The Birds. It’s a staged scene, but this is San Francisco’s Union Square in 1962-3 and that is the way middle class people looked and dressed in San Francisco. Tippi Hedren is an upper class society girl in this movie, so perhaps her suit has a finer cut and her clutch purse a higher price tag – but watch the other people milling about (and don’t miss Hitch himself).

Union Square was where middle class San Franciscans, dressed in suits, white shirts and ties for men, and high heels, ankle-length dresses, gloves and often hats for women, shopped.

[...]

Union Square now reeks of urine and reverberates with the shrieks of lunatics who use its sidewalks and benches as their bedroom, kitchen and toilet. It’s no longer politically acceptable to call them crazy or to put them in institutions. Besides, California doesn’t have the money. It has given the bounty robbed from its taxpayers to Mexican and other “Hispanic” legal and illegal immigrants (now 37% of California’s residents), and to public employees’ unions who thrive from dispensing the ransom to the colonizing aliens.

Put Tippi Hedren, dressed so that only her calves are exposed, next to a 2009 spoiled rich girl, say Paris Hilton, whose body hundreds of millions of people know virtually in its entirety, save for a crevice or two. Which figure is charged with more female sexuality, not to use such no-longer-comprehensible terms as class and elegance?

[...]

San Francisco had its upper crust, mainly of the demographic known as WASP, but it was also a town of immigrants and ethnics: primarily Irish and Italian, some White Russians, some Jews, some Chinese, some Californios harking back to the 19th century, and some blacks whom the currents of the U.S. military effort in World War 2 had deposited in Northern California. Its people had manners, and its working class had a touch of the contentment that comes from being able to support a large family decently on one blue-collar salary.

It was a town of peaceful ethnic neighborhoods and eateries, and exotic, for America, churches like the Holy Trinity Orthodox Cathedral. It was charming, beautiful and diverse. But not “diverse.”

San Francisco is “diverse” now. And this is what it means: [...]

He goes on to describe the disappearance of the city he knew, and what it's been replaced by, and the how and why of it. I've seen a lot of what he talks about; I lived there for 24 years, and left for many of the reasons of which he speaks.

I enjoy reading Seiyo's writing because of his sharp wit and politically incorrect bluntness, even if I don't always agree with all of his conclusions. He's great at identifying causes of problems, but the solutions, if there are any, are much harder to come by. There's fragments, suggestions, but no whole answers.

The entire world is changing in ways I don't care for. It's a lament that every generation goes through as they age. In the end, one does one's best to save what is best of the past and to bring it into the future. I don't know that we CAN do anything more. The older you get, the less future you have, and the more you see that the future belongs to you less and less. For the sake of peace of mind, a certain amount of acceptance of that fact is required. And yet, we don't just let go of what we value. Like so much of life, it's a continuous balancing act.
     

Syrah Palin bombs in San Francisco

Palin Syrah: Wine Drinkers Balk at a Chilean Wine With Hints of Alaska

An organic wine from Chile has oenophiles in San Francisco turning up their noses. But there’s nothing wrong with the wine. It’s the name that bothers them:

Palin Syrah.

The wine from a boutique vineyard in Chile was once a strong seller, but now it’s an outcast in the City by the Bay because its name comes way too close to a certain governor from the state of Alaska, says Celine Guillou, co-owner of the Yield Wine Bar.

Palin Syrah — pronounced Pay-LEEN — takes its name from a ball used in a Chilean-style hockey game, and it has been on the bar’s wine list for a while. But sales have plummeted ever since John McCain named Sarah Palin to be his running mate. [...]

I'm not surprised. Sounds like a typical knee-jerk reaction by unthinking San Francisco morons. It's the kind of thing I've come to expect from "the city that knows how". It can be painful and hazardous to be surrounded by unthinking knee-jerks who kick a lot. After 24 years of it, we finally left, without regrets.

Hopefully the good Pay-LEEN will find sane buyers elsewhere. I hope we can get it here. Chilean wines are often excellent.
     

Massive Earthquake in China

Huge Earthquake Hits Central China

China: Quake death toll jumps past 7,600

This looks to be a really bad quake, I won't be surprised if the death toll goes much higher. One student who was interviewed said the quake went on "for a long time". I've yet to read how long it actually was.

I remember in the San Francisco Quake of '89, it seemed like the longest 15 seconds of my life. I think our house would have collapsed if it had gone on much longer. As it was, it showed signs of breaking apart.

I'm sure San Francisco is buzzing with this news, as so many people there have family back in China. They have my sympathy and prayers.
     

"Angry and Bitter" are Obama's Specialties

Once again we get a look at how Barack Obama really thinks, when he's addressing like-minded audiences in private. From the NY Times:

Opponents Call Obama Remarks ‘Out of Touch’

[...] At the fund-raiser in San Francisco last Sunday, Mr. Obama outlined challenges facing his presidential candidacy in the coming primaries in Pennsylvania and Indiana, particularly persuading white working-class voters who, he said, fell through the cracks during the Bush and Clinton administrations.

“So it’s not surprising then that they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations,” Mr. Obama said, according to a transcript on the Huffington Post Web site, which on Friday published the comments. [...]

Now he's been criticized by Clinton and McCain for those remarks. His response? Arrogance:

[...] “No, I’m in touch,” Mr. Obama said. “I know exactly what’s going on. I know what’s going on in Pennsylvania, I know what’s going on in Indiana, I know what’s going on in Illinois. People are fed up, they’re angry, they’re frustrated, they’re bitter and they want to see a change in Washington. That’s why I’m running for president of the United States of America.” [...]

I don't doubt for one minute that he believes he knows it all. He certainly acts like a Know-it-all. And I'm not surprised he sees anger and bitterness everywhere, since he attracts it and surrounds himself with it. If you want to see anger and bitterness, just look at his wife. Just look at his "God Damn America" church. Just look at the Democrat party these days, which seems to define itself by negatives. They NEED people to be angry and bitter, to get them to vote. Unfortunately, they also need to KEEP their base angry and bitter, to keep them voting. Thus, they never solve the purported problems of their base; they just posture and stoke the anger, to help keep the Democrat fund raising machine rolling.

Pat commented on his blog about Obama's controversial remarks:

Obama just lost any Blue Dogs Democrats he had

[...] It was not a "problematic judgment call." Obama was in his element among the San Francisco elites. That's the way he and they think. That's why they love him. When I first moved to San Francisco I was told that everything east of Berkeley is populated by gun-toting, bible-thumping redneck troglodytes. No wonder Obama banned the press from the San Francisco fund-raisers.

Exactly. I had also commented on the the fund raising visit, because having lived there for 23 years, I know the people and political climate quite well. Obama knew exactly what he was saying at the fundraiser, because he understood who he was saying it too.

It seems his arrogant approach to defending his remarks didn't fly so well, so now Reuters is trying to help him spin it:

Obama says he erred in comments on "bitter" voters

[...] "I didn't say it as well as I should have," said Obama, who is vying with Clinton for the Democratic nomination and the right to run in November against presumptive Republican nominee McCain.

Obama said he believed many voters were indeed bitter about the economy and he meant to say "when you're bitter you turn to what you can count on."

"So people -- they vote about guns, or they take comfort from their faith and their family and their community," he said. But he said he had not meant to imply that was a bad thing.

"The truth is that these traditions that are passed on from generation to generation, those are important. That's what sustains us," he said. [...]

Well that's one way to spin the remark about "clinging" to religion and guns. But I'm not buying it. He didn't mean for it to sound like a bad thing? Consider the rest of the remark he made at the fund raiser: "... antipathy to people who aren’t like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations," Basically, he's saying the white working class of Pennsylvania are racist people who are frustrated by their own ignorance.

Now consider the audience he was saying it to. "Everyone" in San Francisco knows that ignorant racist people "cling" to guns and religion. That's why "enlightened" people like San Francisco's socialist elites believe guns need to be pried out of those clinging hands, and "ignorant" religious beliefs need to suppressed, or better still, banned.

Obama knows who he was talking to. His remarks were meant for them, not the press. In San Francisco, people are always talking about how ignorant, racist and greedy the rest of America is. They complain about how the rest of America has too much freedom, because ignorant people don't know what to do with freedom, and therefor shouldn't have it. They need RE-EDUCATION. They need to be TOLD what to do and MADE to do the "right" things.

At best, Obama was pandering to them. At worst, he agrees with them, and didn't give what he said a second thought, because it was behind closed doors to like-minded people. I tend to think the later is the case.

He can try to spin it all he wants, about how he didn't mean what he said. The San Francisco elites will forgive him. I'm sure they are now all telling each other, "Poor Obama, he HAS to make excuses and pretend he made a mistake, because the rest of America is dominated by ignorant racist redneck bible thumpers. I know he doesn't really mean it, but he HAS to say he was misunderstood, so he can WIN".

Yeah, the ends justifies the means. Tell'em anything, just get the power.

Are the Obamas just black Clintons? Bill Clinton could deliver some pretty good speeches. Thus, the Clinton's were able to overcome the Democrats negativity problem by feigning optimism, although over time the negativity and ugliness it was covering became apparent. The lies and the cynicism showed.

Obama may seem positive with his shallow "Yes we can" slogans and speeches, but when you dig deeper, it's really just the same tired ideas, methods and Democrat misanthropy that the party has been suffering from for years. Where is the "change" we hear so much about? It's still the same old crap the Democrat Party has been shoveling for decades. The stuff that doesn't DO anything, except keep people angry and voting Democrat.
     

Obama visits San Francisco for donations

Obama visits the Getty's home in San Francisco's wealthiest neighborhood. The city's wealthy flock there to meet him and donate money. Here is the Getty's home, before people began to arrive:



Here are two links from Zombie Time of the event in San Francisco. His reports include lots of photos:

Obama Visits Billionaires Row

Here is one of the views residents of that neighborhood enjoy:



Seven Things About Obama I Never Knew Before

As is always the case with Zombie's photos and reporting of San Francisco events, it makes me feel like I'M THERE. I lived in San Francisco for 23 years. I've been down Billionaire's Row many times, I recognize the houses. I recognize the people. Limousine Liberals. Have a look at who owns Obama.

I wish I could convey why this is important. No doubt some people will say "So what, ALL politicians accept money from rich people". And yes, that's true. But the Obama campaign has been selling him as different, someone who doesn't take money from the rich, who gets his support primarily from "the little guy". The reality is, Obama isn't any different from his other Democrat predecessors. He still till serves the same Masters.

I doubt that any of this will matter to his supporters. As Zombie points out in his report, people, including the millionaires, are more interested in the IDEA of Obama than the reality.

I'm more interested in the reality, which is the problem I have always had with these folks. I'm not envious of rich people. I'm not bothered by their wealth, but I am bothered by what THESE people do with THEIR wealth, and WHY.

Most of them inherited their money, and didn't earn it. They are often completely out of touch with everyday reality, because they live in a world of IDEAS, fantasies, about the way the world SHOULD work, according to their feelings. Don't try and confuse them with the facts, they aren't interested in how reality actually works. They don't care, because they don't have to.

They are all for redistributing wealth, because they have so much of it that they know that not enough of THEIRS will ever be taken away to adversely affect them. So they easily make decisions that redistribute the wealth of other WORKING people, without feeling any consequences to themselves.

As Zombie points out when the crowd gathers, it's the millionaires that have to wait outside on the sidewalk. It's the Billionaires, the real movers and shakers, who are already inside. But they are all part of the Ruling Class of San Francisco, and they are high up in the Democrat party.

San Francisco is famous for it's hippies, protesters, nuts and crazy people. Many of Zombies reports feature the antics of such people, but the crazies themselves are not the ones who make things happen, they are just the SIDE EFFECT. Follow the links and see the real people who make it all possible. Visit Zombie's links and get a taste of this genuine San Francisco treat.

I got these links from Pat's post on this topic:

Obama's "secret" visit to San Francisco

He gives a synopsis and his own commentary. Loved the comment about Diane Feinstein and Nancy Pelosi being the chambermaids of these folks... yes the shoe fits. If you think Obama gets most of his money and support from the average guy on the street, think again. He also serves the same Masters.
     

Why I didn't leave my heart there...

...because of crap like this. After 23 years of living in San Francisco, it became unbearable as it only got worse, and we left. I shook the dust from my feet and didn't look back. It's a beautiful city, full of insane, ugly-minded people.

Typical San Francisco People

I'm sorry to say, it's all too typical. It's actually the norm in SF.


Ever notice how the political left gets all bent out of shape of over the religious right, while it has no problem at all embracing the religious Wright? That's because all the America haters stick together.
     

Cannabis, Communism and Conspiracy Theory all go Together to make this San Franciso Treat

And they were all three proudly on display recently at the 9/11 Truth March and Power to the Peaceful Festival in San Francisco on September 8th.


I lived in San Francisco for 23 years. We moved away from there about 4 years ago. Pat was telling me I must go and look at the pictures and commentary of the event at the ZombieTime blog. At first I didn't want to, largely because that's the sort of thing that made me want to move away in the first place. Pat said it was a good reminder of why we don't live there anymore. I still wasn't interested.

But then he made the following post on his blog:

Going to pot

I used to be a Libertarian. San Francisco was chock full of them. Most of them were pot-heads, didn't like rules and never met a conspiracy theory that they didn't like. At first I thought I fit right in because I'd smoked tons of pot in my youth, didn't like rules and was fascinated by conspiracy theories. I read all about how the Free Masons control the world (at least when the Catholics or the Jews aren't) and how the Bushes are fourth cousins to the Queen and how the cult of Skopsis started the communist revolution in Russia.

You name it, I read it and eventually it dawned on me what the one thing was that conspiracy nuts all had in common: they were pot-heads with wild imaginations and heavy cases of paranoia. I soon parted company with both the Libertarians and pot-heads but I retained many of my small "l" libertarian ideals, one of which was that socalled "victimless crimes" like drug-taking should be legal. Even as recently as a few months ago, I posted on this blog that drugs should be legal.

I've changed my mind. [...]

It's worth reading his reasons in the rest of the post. We were discussing it at dinner last night, so I decided to go look at the photos. Talk about San Francisco Flashback! I've been to/lived near all the places in the photos. And the people, the faces, the events... oh so typically San Francisco.

There was a strong Marijuana presence at the Peace Fesitval:


Zombietime reported that illegal activity was openly being conducted:

[...] Theoretically, one must have a prescription to purchase "medical marijuana" from a licensed dispensary, but these folks were just taking money and handing out cannabis to anyone -- no presciptions required, no ID to check your age, come and get it.[...]

I'm not at all surprised. When we lived there, I knew many people with "Medical Marijuana" perscriptions who were dealing it to their friends. The legal guidelines were routinely flouted, because everyone knew that no one would enforce them. See the Zombietime link for more info and photos about this.

As for the politics of the festival, the Libertarians had a strong presence, as did a large assortment of socialist/communist groups:


As noted by Zombietime:

[...] But Truthism and Ron Paul-itis were not the main themes at the Power to the Peaceful festival. No, the real focus of the event was communism. Yes, communism. And for the sticklers out there: I use the term as a sort of generalized catch-all to describe the many varieties and gradations of communism to be found at the event, including socialism, Stalinism, anarcho-syndicalism, Marxism, Maoism, "people's revolution," and so on. There's no single word that best emcompasses all these political views better than the simple "communism," so that's the word I'm going to use, like it or not. [...]

How can Libertarians and Communists be so closely aligned? Aren't they opposites? Well logically, yes... but what has logic got to do with it?

It's like this. The Libertarian's believe recreational drugs should be legal. The pot-heads of SF are all for that. They are all for anything that lets them flout laws they don't want applied to them. That portion of libertarianism is very convenient for them. But what about the rest of the Libertarian philosophy, against big government? How can so many San Franciscan's seriously claim that you can't be a Libertarian if you aren't a socialist as well? I was told that many times.

It's easily explained. When you live in a Marijuana fog, you don't have to be ruled by pesky logic, you just follow your feelings. Logic is only to be used here and there in bits and pieces, to prop up your half-baked notions and emotional assertions: it's not a frame work to hang your world view on. Thus, you can easily embrace Libertarianism to support your drug use, and socialism to support your welfare checks, and communism to ensure that you don't have to compete (work) for anything, and can just live in your own little stoned Nirvana. Sex, drugs and rock'n roll. The John Lennonist reality. "Imagine all the people..." Imagine being the key word.

And of course, the paranoia often associated with frequent Marijuana use fits in perfectly with conspiracy theory, which was also much on display at the festival:



Every kind of conspiracy theory an emotional thinker could desire. No need to think too deeply, just FEEL and let political correctness be your guide.

Yes, this festival was a real genuine San Francisco treat all right... looking at all the photos, I feel like I was there once again. But it's not a treat for me, which is why I don't live there anymore. A fact for which I am very grateful.


Related Links:

I beg to disagree

Why I left San Francisco #769