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Congratulations, Courtney ..Nuff said..For now. I'll be back.

Last weekend, I ran into Ted Tagami, whom I've known since Skyline High School -- he class of 81; me 80 -- at "The Vloggies" which is a great awards show for vldeo-bloggers, and then again at a brunch in Belevedere that Sunday. On the way out, Ted told me to check out the vlogs of his brother, Phil Tagami. I just happened to literally stumble over one of his vlogs on Google, and took at look at his Blip.tv vlog listings. I found this little gem of a vlog where Phil interviewed John Russo -- who's the luckiest golf player I know -- about Measure O and good government. Here's the video: Click To Play

Aimee, you ran a great and sprited campaign. Look, you only lost to Councilmember Pat Kernighan by 827 votes. To put this in perspective, that's about the number of people that generally see a first-run movie at the Grand Lake Theater. You're going to get there. Even your opponents point to your charisma and charm. Don't look down at all. If you're asking "What can I do that I didn't do this time?" the seeds of the full answer may rest in the fact that Councilmember Kernighan's party was -- according to the SFist -- at Pacific Renaissance Plaza in Chinatown, whereas yours was at Maxwells. Your choice was hip; hers was Asian. If you're asking how you might increase your presence in the Asian community, here's my answer: join the Chinatown Chamber of Commerce and get to know the players like Carl Chan and Judy Chu and others -- and listen. Face time is valuable, but ear time is golden. Meanwhile, it's time to go about the task of me...

Check this out: DEM - Phil Angelides 166636 55.68 REP - Arnold Schwarzenegger 112305 37.52 GRN - Peter Miguel Camejo 12525 4.19 LIB - Art Olivier 2750 0.92 PF - Janice Jordan 2545 0.85 AI - Edward C. Noonan 1661 0.55 Write-in 859 0.29 This is not a misprint. It's up on the Alameda County Registrar of Voters site as of 7 AM this morning. Wow. Look, I know and you know this didn't happen, but someone at Alameda County Registrar of Voters really didn't want Arnold Schwarzenegger to win. I wasn't one of them. I voted for him. Why would a stanch Democrat like me vote for Arnold Schwarzenegger for the second time? Because the California Democratic Party is in the 20th Century when it comes to an understanding of why candidates are and are not compelling to voters and seems to think it has a lock on every election in the state. We've got to get with it as a party....

If and when ground is broken to build an A's baseball stadium in Fremont, it will the fault of Oakland Mayor Jerry Brown. It was Brown, who when he announce in June of 2002 that there would be "no downtown Oakland A's ballpark as long as he was Mayor of Oakland" deliberately killed sports as we've known it in Oakland, and made our once great city just another normal second tier hamlet. It was Ignacio De La Fuente who not only got into some really stupid ego battles with A's owners, but early this year annouced to the East Bay Express that he "had no time for the A's." It was Ignacio who was known more for being upset that he was contantly out-manuevered in negotiating with the A's by Alameda County Supervisor Scott Haggerty than for any real interest in maintaining the A's in Oakland. Score one for Alameda County, who's officials always questioned Oakland's lack of leadership in this matter. So what did they do? Work to tak...

As I've reported here, the A's had already worked out a financing plan to build a stadium in Fremont. But the real story is the almost total lack of effort and real indignation toward the team that's been shown by certain members of the Oakland City Council, and of course the Mayor of Oakland. It's not that Fremont had the land; it had the termination. Report: Athletics will build stadium in Fremont ESPN.com news services The Oakland Athletics are expected to announce next week they will build a new stadium in suburban Fremont, Calif., the San Francisco Chronicle reported Tuesday, citing sources close to negotiations for the deal. The newspaper reported the team wants to acquire a 143-acre site near the former Baylands Raceway Park and build a privately-funded 36,000-seat ballpark at an estimated cost of $300 million. The property is currently owned by the city of Fremont and is leased to high-tech firm Cisco Systems. The Chronicle reported Athletics managing partne...

On the Monday before Election Day, I met Oakland City Council District Two Candidate Aimee Allison at her campaign headquarters to really just walk and talk with her while my camcorder rolled. The video was quickly done and there was virtually no editing required. The result is a the first vlog of an Oakland City Council candidate such that the person's explaining their views and completely without the mudslinging and negative questions that have come to dominate this campaign. Here's the vlog of Aimee Allison: Click here for the Blip.tv version.