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We have more on this over at Zennie's Zeitgeist , but here a video of the Obama camp slamming the offensive cartoon:

If you find you parked your car in the wrong place at UC Berkeley today, this may be the day you're in the clear. Workers went on strike represented by the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees union Local 3299, and are being joined by lab techs. The story reported i n the SF Chronicle only refers to a judge's order that was violated not to strike, but it does not refer to the reasons why they did. Sloppy. This story from San Diego's Channel 10 does: UCSD Medical Center custodian Angie Mendoza said union members have been working without a contract since Jan. 31, and have been unsuccessfully negotiating a new contract since last Aug. 31. The union had a one-day strike three years ago, Mendoza said. "It helped a lot," she said. According to union spokesman William Schlitz, demands include a livable wage of at least $15 per hour, a "step pay" system that includes an annual compensation increase, and protection for benefits like

California (Oakland) 13/3-08 , originally uploaded by NicolaiKiessling . If you've never been to Arizmendi's on Lakeshore near Lake Merritt for pizza or just a morning coffee, go there. The pizza's served starting at 11:30 each day, and it's worth the wait. The place is known for its pizza much more than for its coffee.

If you've never taken a canoe ride on Lake Merritt, and I have yet to do so, this is what it looks like, thanks to YouTuber laurenneutral -- the screen name:

In yet another example of piling on, we have the California Report comparing Oakland's governance to a Keystone Cops movie. I'm not sure I'd go that far at all. But 30-year Sacramento veteran and former speaker Willie Brown staffer Bill Cavala -- who has a haircut right from a Keystone Cops movie -- thinks so. In the California Report, Cavala writes: “Cronyism” is one the charges made about virtually all elected officials. Unlike most work, political activity engenders opponents, those that would like you or your allies out of political office and replaced by themselves or their allies. To protect yourself from those opponents, politicians seek what others find in privacy in the company of people they trust. “Loyalty”, a political virtue, really means trustworthy under pressure. So when picking subordinates or employees, those of us in the political world add “loyalty” to the list of attributes we look for – along with skills, intelligence, judgment that everyone looks

I happened over to Flopping Aces , a political blog, and noticed their reference and post on a study that questioned the infuence of bloggers in politics. The study was done in the "olden" days of blogging, circa 2006, and so is already questionable because there were 2 million blogs then, versus over 100 million today. But the main point missed by Flopping Aces is that with ad dollars moving toward the Internet, and reporters being laid off left and right, blogs remain the one place to go to get news. Yes, biased -- for example, we tend to be pro-Barack Obama -- but that is why people surf blogs. The bottom line is that the way we're getting our news is changing fast and in this sea of alteration is difficult to question the power of blogs. We're at a point where almost every major news channel on television looks like blogs for news, then uses their content or story idea to some degree. That fact is not in the study's discussed.

In what has to be the greatest example of editorial contrast in mainstream media, we have the Oakland Tribune's loving praise for Senate Pro Tem Don Perata's political style during sessions on the California budget, and then East Bay Express reporting on his rumored investigation by the FBI. On that, Robert Gammon, who was with the Tribune until about six years ago, seems to have spent much of his adult life trying to get Perata for this of that. If not him, then it was the SF Bay Guardian for a time takikng wacks at him. It's like an old saw. It can only sell papers for so long. Now, the industry's in free fall. But I digress. You be the judge. Here's the Oakland Tribune : Perata takes "textured" approach to foes By Steven Harmon MediaNews Sacramento Bureau Article Last Updated: 07/14/2008 06:54:25 AM PDT SACRAMENTO — Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata has what experts say is a textured approach to dealing with his Republican foes on the budget. Th