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A blooger who calls himself "Marine Layer" -- not his name -- says that Oaklanders don't go to Oakland A's games, but there's a reason for that. Marine Layer writes : Pro-Oakland types often say that ownership has in effect spit on them and driven them away. Some non-Oaklanders have concluded that the fandom really hasn't been there in the first place. Honestly, I think it has more to do with numbers: Oakland's population is only 1/6th of the East Bay, even less of the Bay Area's 7 million. One thing I've pondered is how many former Oakland residents attend ballgames. As the Oakland Hills has taken in transplants from San Francisco and the rest of the country, certainly many longtime Oakland residents were displaced. Some have left the flats for opportunities elsewhere, especially with the erosion of the manufacturing sector. It's likely a combination of the above factors, which is rather inconvenient for partisans looking for an easy scapegoa...

Look, I'm not writing this to defend fired Oakland City Administrator Deborah Edgerly' entire performance, but to act as a reasoned corrective. Phil Mattier and Andy Ross ' column today listed what Edgerly was entitled to in the way of monetary compensation: The bennies include: -- Nine weeks of vacation. -- Two weeks of management leave. -- Three weeks of executive leave. -- Ten weeks of sick leave (paid out at 33 cents on the dollar). It's a grand total payment of $90,024, city officials confirmed. Right. But what "city officials" forgot to tell Matier and Ross is that because Edgerly worked so many hours, she didn't take sick leave or management leave, or vacation pay. I like Phil and Andy, but I have to not only disagree with the way they present this information, but point an accusatory finger at the "city officials" who confirmed this information, because they could have took effort to tell Matier and Ross of the nature of the compensati...

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I received an email on YouTube from"joshuahaskellcarr" which was a Death Wish, pure and simple, and explains how much this person wanted me "gone." So I informed YouTube, blocked the user, and now I'm informing you. I'm also "Defining The Relationship" between guests and me in my channel, or "my house." Please do not use nasty words or harass me or any other commenter. And behavior like the one I described in this video will be met with a ban and a report to YouTube and the FBI. I'm serious about this. We can disagree and still be civil toward one another. Please bring your debate hat and your "A" game, as Ron Paul supporters have done. They're the masters of civil debate; love em.

According to Katy Murphy , Alice Spearman, the incumbent for the East Oakland - Elmhurst seat on the Oakland School Board, avoided a run-off in the contest against Doris Limbrick and Beverly Williams. She won 50.4 percent of the vote. Talk about winning by a hair!

On Thursday July 3rd, U.S. District Court Judge Louis L. Stanton forced YouTube to give Viacom -- which owns shows like "The Daily Show", and "The Colbert Report" -- records that show what videos you and I have been watching. Here in this video , I explain that the implications are dangerous and could help, for example, the Chinese Government find and kill Tibetan protesters. In this, a private company could purchase the data from Viacom and then resell it to the Chinese Government. The Chinese Government could use the IP address information to find the general location of Tibetan protesters, go to their areas, and kill them. That's a possible scenario. I considered the court's "restriction" on use of the material by Viacom. But that's the problem: the block is on how the data is used -- there's no specific prohibition of the sale of the information. The reason for all of these actions, if you've not followed the story is t...

Donna Brazile , originally uploaded by AFSCME.org . CNN's Donna Brazile Comes To SF For Obama Fundraiser July 15th, Palace Hotel CNN's Donna Brazile is coming To San Francisco For a Fundraiser for the "Obama Victory Fund" July 15th from 12 noon to 1:30 PM at The Palace Hotel, (2 New Montgomery, downtown San Francisco and just off Montgomery BART Station), and you can join us with a $150 contribution or a $1,000 contribution for a VIP reception to host Ms. Brazile. To join us, just click on this link: https://donate.barackobama.com/page/contribute/BrazileJuly15 And as you sign up and donate, type in "Zennie Abraham" in the field "PLEASE LET US KNOW WHO ENCOURAGED YOU TO MAKE THIS CONTRIBUTION:" About Donna Brazile Donna Brazile is Founder and Managing Director of Brazile and Associates, LLC and is the first African-American to direct a major presidential campaign, having done so for Gore-Libermann 2000. Brazile is perhaps best known as the weekl...