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Sierra Club thinks Joe Tuman isn't "viable" Oakland At-Large Councilmember and Oakland Mayor's Race candidate called this blogger regarding the blog post entitled " Oakland Mayor's Race: Rebecca Kaplan Fears Joe Tuman ," where it was reported that Kaplan recommended that Joe Tuman not be the second choice for those voting for her. That information came from the Bay Area Wellstone Democratic Renewal Club's email forum, where long time Oakland local business supporter, political activist, and friend Pamela Drake wrote this: Rebecca Kaplan contacted me and said that she is NOT recommending Tuman and that she refers voters to the East Bay Express article to make their own decisions. I apologize for repeating an incorrect report, Pamela So Rebecca's phone call was puzzling, but as they say on the street, it is what it is. What Kaplan said to this blogger is that she encourages voters to make the selection they think is best. Also, Kaplan note

Greg Harland One big problem that's plagued the Oakland Mayor's Race and that apparently still exists is how some Bay Area media organizations ignore some of the candidates running for the office of Mayor of Oakland. That practice has angered Oakland Mayoral Candidate Greg Harland because he wan't contacted by either the Oakland Tribune / Bay Area News Group or The San Francisco Chronicle . Harland was upset to the point where he referred to one post as saying "that says it all," and it was a column by Mercury News / Oakland Tribune columnist Tammerlin Drummond which reads: "We began by whittling down the list of 10 candidates to the four who actually merited voter consideration: Kaplan, Perata, Councilwoman Jean Quan and political analyst/university professor Joe Tuman."  Ok, let's let loose here. That statement is a freaking joke. The only reason Joe Tuman was placed in the Tribune's "merited voter consideration" hoppe

The Oakland Mayor's Race is heating up, and with Joe Tuman in the spotlight, yet again. All of this because Tuman has become a serious threat to Mayoral Candidates Don Perata, and Councilmembers Rebecca Kaplan and Jean Quan, the elected officials considered front runners in the Oakland Mayor's Race. Yesterday in this space it was reported that Tuman so frustrated San Francisco Chronicle Reporter Matthai Kuruvali that he placed his head in his hands and on the table in a photo that, until closer inspection, looked like Kuruvali was banging his head. While the full report on the "heated discussion" is coming soon, knowing Tuman and the overall landscape, as well as what information's come in, the tone of the conversation between Tuman and Kuruvali was undoubtedly shaped by Kuruvali's desire to prove that when it comes to Oakland politics and policy, he thinks Tuman's a novice. Knowing Joe, he never relented to Kuruvali's dogged attempt to trip hi

If you think the Oakland Mayor's Race can't get under the skin of some people who say they're not "getting involved," try looking at this photo of San Francisco Chronicle Staff Writer Matthai Kuruvali, who placed his head on the table of the board room at the San Francisco Chronicle as if he'd had enough of something.  In the background is Oakland Mayoral Candidate Joe Tuman, who seems just calm and collected. What's interesting is that Matthai Kuruvali tweeted on Twitter. . matthai matthai kuruvila - Just to be clear, I'm not on the ed board and I'm not involved in the decision, but I'll be there for the interview and will ask questions. Yeah. Right. According to SFGate.com intern Ali Thanawalla, Matthai Kuruvali got into what Ali calls "a heated discussion" and a "funny moment" and Ai reports on both Flickr and on Twitter : After a heated discussion with Oakland mayoral candidate Joe Tuman, writer Matth

The Oakland Mayor's Race becomes even more fun. Councilmember Rebecca Kaplan (At-Large) got the endorsement of The Oakland Tribune , much to the surprise of some, not here, but how much help it will do is questionable. The Trib's not the power it was in the past, but hey, we're talking about it, right? Indeed, that, combined with the giant Grand Lake Theater sign ads for Joe Tuman, may have boosted him to near-front runner status. Why? Because Tuman was the Tribune's second choice (and The East Bay Express as well), and the same pub trashed Former Senator Don Perata, saying his lack of knowledge of key Oakland issues was "appalling." Not sure the Tribune, and that would be it's editor Martin Reynolds, is correct when he bashes the field of Oakland mayoral candidates as "weak" because when compared to past years, it's actually rather strong. Now, if Marty has some kind of wish list of candidates for this round, he has yet to present

Oakland Children's Hospital is being plagued by a nurses strike as this is written. As a fan of Children's Hospital and its staff, the current situation does not reflect how hard they've worked to keep the establishment a going concern in a tough economy. This blogger is not anti-union, but some unions need to be called out when they're not playing to work with administration, but against it. Such is the California Nurses Association. Someone's paying attention. Namely, Nancy Shibata, RN, MSN, Chief Nursing Officer, Children’s Hospital Oakland, who sent this opinion piece to be ran in this space: CNA Nurses Union Out of Touch With Current Economic Realities At Children's Hospital Oakland By Nancy Shibata, RN, MSN Chief Nursing Officer, Children’s Hospital Oakland Ironically, the high cost of health insurance is a difficult problem for hospitals today. Over the past 5 years, health insurance benefit costs have risen for Children's by 80 perce

San Francisco is fortunate to be hosting not one, but two separate international art shows, one featuring antique, textile and oriental carpets and the other focusing on tribal arts from Africa, Oceania, the Americas, and Asia during this next week October 12th to 17th. It's the 2nd annual Antique Rug and Textile Show at The Motel Capri, at 2015 Greenwich St., in San Francisco’s Marina District. The event features more than 40 internationally renowned rug and textile dealers who will set up their wares in a bazaar-like setting in the Motel Capri. Show Starts Next Week Opening night of the rug and textile show begins at 6 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 12th, and the show continues Wednesday – Sunday, Oct. 13 - Oct, 17, 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. daily. The show and sale is free. For more information on this event, visit: www.artaa.org . A number of daily special exhibitions on Tibetan, Chinese and oriental carpets will be held as well as daily lectures for beginners, all offered free. The 6th a

The first Oakland All Female Bartender Competition at Pican and by Grand Marnier and Zennie62 was held Tuesday night, and by all accounts, was successful. Well, except for this blogger, who's Zennie62 name was given as a sponsor - online marketing work was provided - yet, from the impression I received, no one at the event knew that I sponsored it. That even with the emails exchanged where I did agree to sponsor it, and also agreed to put up the Grand Manier logo on the blog posts.  Plus, I agreed to make a blog about the event and did so . But for all this, didn't even get a bottle of Grand Marnier. United 747 Flight Delayed What was vexing was that my United 747 Flight 973 from Chicago was delayed over three hours, which hampered my plan to show up at 6:30 PM PDT, which was when the event started. Instead, the flight was delayed two hours, then we sat on the tarmac at the gate for another hour . I called and emailed Josh at Pican to explain I would be late; I gue

There can be no question that the greatest obstacle to rectifying Oakland’s public safety crisis is our grossly understaffed police department. There is a direct correlation between a decrease in the visibility of police officers on our streets and the disproportionate incidences of violent crime that plague Oakland. Simply put, greater police presence decreases the willingness of people to engage in violent crime; less police presence increases that willingness. This is particularly true among those individuals involved in criminal enterprises, such as drug-dealing and other gang-related activities. For these individuals, crime is a business and, like all rational capitalists, they seek the greatest return for the least investment, while attempting to avoid regulatory oversight. In terms of the street-level criminal capitalist, that oversight is provided by patrol officers. A consistently visible police presence inhibits the ability of these criminals to conduct the

In the Oakland Mayors Race, no one person brings out more passions than Former State Senator Don Perata. Everyone has some kind of opinion about Perata. Everytime the subject of the Oakland Mayor's Race comes up, someone says to this blogger "Perata's going to win," as if they're watching a horse race, rather than participating in an election. But for those who have seen Oakland's mayoral future, and it's Perata, there seem to be many more who are set to attack him or just proclaim their hatred for him. It's a level of dislike that has led to the creation of one website and two Twitter accounts, all against him. For example, there's the website Anybody But Perata , which reads as follows: The purpose of this website is very simple: to present reasons why former State Senator Don Perata should not be elected mayor of the City of Oakland, California. While the election of Don Perata as Oakland mayor would probably be very good for Mr. P

This is the big one. I've not liked an Oakland Mayor since Elihu Harris, whose politics I did not agree with most of the time, but who had the courtesy to actually answer the phone and speak to citizens. (Unlike Ron Dellums, whose office will tell you that he does NOT speak to citizens. But I did not vote for Ron, he's a burnt out comet, whom I remember with awe from the seventies, but who should never have taken the office in Oakland.) Jean Quan's a puzzle. I ate lunch with a friend a couple days ago, a woman who owns a local green company ( if saving the Bay is green), and we seemed to hit on the same note. Uhh, she's great for local stuff. Great! Run a city like Oakland? No way. Her idea of "taking a hit in pay" is was to take a 5% cut and a 4% COLA increase. wow. i'm so impressed. Oakland's pension burden is not going away and it is the single biggest problem the city faces. Quan's token efforts show her beliefs. Don Perata, I would not t

Jack Clark of Cal Rugby On Tuesday, as this blogger was traveling away from the San Francisco Bay Area and Cal Berkeley, UC Berkeley was in the process of nuking it's prized Rugby Program, and destroying Cal Athletics as we know it. Rugby Coach Jack Clark was fired - his position ends June 2011 -  and the program dumped to varsity sports status. The reason given was Title IX requirements to financially equalize male and female sports, but given that Coach Clark had a plan to fund and to elevate Women's Rugby to intercollegiate status that was jettisoned by the Cal Administration, using Title IX as an excuse is pure horseshit. The overall issue has been Cal's need to cut the overall budget of the athletic department, but the one revenue-generating program, Men's Rugby, and its coach who has a plan to elevated women's rugby, was a major target. For someone not familiar with this issue at all, Cal Men's Rugby has achieved legendary status in the sport

Dr. Candell - I didn't endorse him Note: no endorsement for any mayoral candidate from this space, yet. When this blogger attended the second Oakland Mayor's Race Forum at The Lakeshore Baptist Church, a sheet of paper was being passed around the audience. It was a petition to have the name of Dr. Terrance Candell on the ballot for the election for Mayor of Oakland. I asked what I was signing before I put my name to the paper; such a signature is not an endorsement of any candidate. For some reason, my name is listed in the voter guide as endorsing Dr. Candell for Mayor. It's not true. The news of this problem came from Oakland businessman and once-challenger of Councilmember Ignacio De La Fuente (District Five - Fruitvale, Central East Oakland) Mario Juarez, who via Facebook asked if I'd lost my mind. Of sound mind, certainly. A call to the City of Oakland City Clerk Office did confirm Mr. Juarez's report. The person on the phone then said they

From Pamela Drake- Oaklanders who want fair elections and who believe that candidates for election to Oakland offices should not violate the laws that they have promised to uphold, should show up at the City Council Rules Committee tomorrow, Oct 1st, at 10:45 AM. We're asking the Council to close the loophole that lets Don Perata's buddies violate the law on behalf of him and then announce that all bets are off on violating the spirit and intent of our campaign reforms.In what world does this sound remotely ethical; but it may just barely be legal unless we close that loophole now! Please read: Open Letter to the Mayor, Oakland City Council, City Attorney, and the Public Ethics Commission: The Oakland Campaign Reform Act of 2008 was devised to promote good government and to protect Oakland’s electorate from the undue influence of money in the choice of our elected leaders. Former Senator Don Perata has shown by his actions that he will not abide by those laws, even while he is

Jean Quan and her supporters put together a video about her work with youth, neighbors, and merchants on how to take Oakland back and lower crime and violence block by block. About Pamela Drake- I'm one of Jean's supporters. We urge you to call her campaign office at 444-Quan or go to jeanquanforoakland.org. Jean will be the hardest working mayor Oakland has ever had!

Anyone that opposes the West Oakland Eminent Domain Project is invited to sign the online petition. City Council meeting for public comment is October 5th, 6:30 PM City Hall

Oakland Mayor's Race Forum first take. (Which means, there's going to be more of these posts on last night, because a lot was happening.) This just in: The Oakland Tribune's out of touch with Oakland. A number of attendees of the 450 estimated said they learned of the Oakland League Of Women Voters via "the newspaper." All of the people who made that statement were over 50 years old. Still, the forum, which attracted every candidate except Dr. Terrance Candell, was a success. The auditorium at 300 Lakeside Drive seats 380 people, so if you do the math, it was about 70 over capacity. The crowd was a happy mix of supporters of candidates and long-time observers of the Oakland political scene. The one complaint they had was there wasn't enough time to hear what the candidates were about. That wasn't because there were too many candidates, but due to the format. Either Oakland Tribune Editor Martin Reynolds or the League of Women Voter

Oakland Mayor Candidate Terrance Candell The Oakland Mayor's Race gets crazier. In 90 minutes something is about to happen that's never went down in Oakland's history. At 6:30 PM, three Oakland Mayoral Forums will take place at the same time. One, the "first planned" one, is the infamous Oakland League Of Women Voters Forum that was going to have just two candidates, then opened it to all of them. The other, the "counter-forum" as this blogger calls it, is being produced by Terrance Candell.  The third is the "other candidates" forum at Calvin Simmons Theater at 10 Tenth St. The Oakland LWV Forum is being held at The Kaiser Center Auditorium at 300 Lakeside Drive; Terrance's one-man Q&A is being held at the Laney College Tower Forum. And the "other candidates" forum is at The Calvin Simmons Theater across from Laney College. All three start, as mentioned, at the same time. Dr. Candell's forum started in re

( First on Zennie62.com ) Meg Whitman , the California gubernatorial candidate and former eBay CEO, already loathed in this space for her passive-agressive Oakland campaign headquarters, is under fire now for a statement she made about Fresno, California, saying "It's awful..it looks like Detroit." The comment was ill-considered in several ways: First, she made it before the Editorial Board of The San Jose Mercury News. Second, she insulted a not one but two cities: Fresno and Detroit. Third, it's the second time she's dissed a California city in some way. The first time was in Oakland, when Whitman's staffers set up an office on Lakeshore that looks like a fortress and at one point had signs that reported 24-hour surveillance, but with the word misspelled! Here's the video : Jerry Brown Fails To Capitalize Meg Whitman's many shortcomings and history of issues have not been drilled into the collective conscious of Californians. The on

( Post originally at Zennie62.com ) Obama Terror Attack Quote: the definition of "absorb" - keep that in mind. The Internet's ablaze with news, blog, and soon video and audio chatter about President Barack Obama's quote in Bob Woodward's new book Obama's Wars . The Right Wing of the blogsphere's especially excited over the so-called statement by the President that America "could absorb" a Terrorist attack. The right, looking for whatever edge it can get politically, is prone to great leaps in misjudgement. Want an example? Look no further than Senator John McCain's selection of Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as his vice presidential running mate. Not to digress, the problem of Couch Potato Conservatives rests in their lack of desire to think. Thus, failing to ask one simple question: what's the definition of "absorb." Here are all of the possible definitions: 1. To take (something) in through or as through pores or

Are NFL Head Coaches Benching Black QBs Faster Than White QBs? It's a pattern that's starting to emerge, though not in a neat way. On Sunday, Tennessee Titans QB Vince Young (black) is benched after a 3 interception one fumble performance against the Pittsburgh Steelers for Kerry Collins (white). Oakland Raiders QB Jason Campbell (black) is sent to the sidelines after lackluster first-half play against the St. Louis Rams, and replaced by Bruce Gradkowski (white). The Philadelphia Eagles trade Donovan McNabb (black) to make room for Kevin Kolb (white), who doesn't play because of a concussion last week, and gives way by need to Michael Vick (black). Vick, even though he's playing lights-out football, is forced to be humble and say "This is Kevin Kolb's team" because Andy Reid says so, even as Vick's proved in two straight games (and in preseason) that he's a better quarterback. The point is that many NFL head coaches seem quick to pull t

The 3D Entertainment Summit is a great place to be in on the ground-level conversation about an industry in its infancy. The overall concern, paced by DreamWorks Animation CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg, is one of quality. No one of the movie players in this room at the Hilton Universal City wants to be known as the one who makes the next Clash Of The Titans . Clash Of The Titans is the now infamous 2010 remake of the 1981 movie about a conflict between a god and a man-god, Originally created in a 2D format, Warner Bros execs rushed to do it in 3D after seeing the box-office revenue from Avatar . Scott Hedrick moderates panel  on 2d to 3d monetization The result was a 3D version that was so bad it spawned complaints from, of all people, Avatar producer and director James Cameron. It was Cameron who specifically called out the movie as an example of bad 3D. That episode in the short history of 3D has driven the conversation here at the 3D Summit. The issue, even right now, is

Oakland City Hall Gwillym Martin's an Oakland Resident and taxpayer who first found this blogger on Facebook and sent via email a copy of a complaint filed against the City of Oakland. Now people file lawsuits all the time, and at times for silly reasons; not in this case. But any media person who seeks to pick up on this story should make sure they understand it first. Read on. Martin filed a lawsuit in Alameda County Superior Court that specifically names City Administrator Dan Lindheim, CEDA (Community and Economic Development Agency) Director Walter Cohen, Building Services Director Ray Derania, and City Controller Osborne Solitei, and because "revenues generated from permit and code enforcement activities have been misappropriated for purposes other than those permitted by law and seeks an injunction to prevent further misuse of funds," as the email reads. Looking beyond the email and at the documents, Gwillym Martin's simple and controverial point is

Oakland's bar scene has really improved over the last five years. Where there were one or two good bars downtown ten years ago, now there's arguably six of them. You know the environment's good when there's a bartender competition. The problem is such events have been all-male or mostly male. Not anymore. On October 5th, 2010, Pican Restaurant will play host to the first Oakland Female Bartender Competition sponsored by Grand Manier and Zennie62.com . A Great Idea. How the idea started goes back to a video I created of another Oakland bartender competition held at Sidebar on Lake Merritt. This one: Where at the end of the video, I said Oakland needs an all female bartender competition. Well, Josh Perry and the good folks at Pican Restaurant at 2295 Broadway at 23rd, in Oakland CA, figured it should be done and at Pican! One thing: the first person to say they saw this at Zennie62.com, of which this blog is part of the network, gets a bottle of Grand M