Nancy Pelosi visited San Francisco's Balboa Cafe

Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA)

A tip from a good source informed this blogger that Nancy Pelosi, the Speaker of The U.S. House of Representatives and San Francisco representative, paid a visit to The Balboa Cafe in San Francisco Saturday night, March 27th, and it was out of the blue.

It started with a phone call informing the manager that Nancy Pelosi was coming with a party of an undisclosed size. But when they arrived the party also included "a lot of Secret Service people. This place has never seen that kind of security" the source said.

But it's not the first time The Balboa Cafe has entertained important elected officials. When San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom was an entrepreneur who was co-owner of The Balboa Cafe, he was known for election night parties that attracted U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein and former Mayor Willie Brown.

When Jerry Brown was Mayor of Oakland, he was a known to visit The Balboa. One night on a July Saturday in 1999, this blogger, who was at the time working to bring the Super Bowl to Oakland, was sitting near the side entrance door when Jerry walked in. "What are you doing here in San Francisco?", Jerry said, "You're supposed to be raising money for The Super Bowl."

"Jerry," I said, "That's why I'm here."

The Balboa Cafe, of which this blogger is a regular, has also hosted celebrities like the late Anna Nicole Smith and Star Wars-creator George Lucas, who likes (from personal experience) Irish Coffees.

I started visiting "The Balboa" while working for Mayor Elihu Harris as Economic Advisor between 1995 and 1999; that was also how I learned about The Balboa's election parties.

Maybe one day Mayor Newsom will get President Obama over for a visit?

Stay tuned.

San Francisco's Pelosi stalker Gregory Lee Giusti bipolar?

Also: san francisco, nancy pelosi, speaker pelosi stalker, gregory lee giusti bipolar, pelosi health care bill threat

48-year-old Gregory Lee Giusti, the San Francisco man who was accused of threatening and stalking House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, may be bipolar. According to CNN, Gregory Lee Giusti "wept" in court Thursday, as he talked to his lawyer before a federal court hearing. Afterward, Magistrate Judge Bernard Zimmerman reportedly asked prosecutors to interview Giusti to determine if he was bipolar, which could lead to placement in a halfway house rather than jail.

Gregory Lee Giusti was said to have called San Francisco and Washington, D.C offices of Speaker Pelosi as many times (48) as he is old. Giusti allegedly said "don't bother coming back to California cause you ain't gonna have a place to live" if the Health Care Bill is passed.

It passed.

This blogger thinks Gregory Lee Giusti's problem is he never grew up to learn that people get placed in jail for making threats. It's more that he's immature than bipolar and was probably lucky enough to get away with this stuff until this week when he was arrested Wednesday. His Mom guessed that Gregory Lee Giusti got his negative ideas from watching Fox News.

No surprise there.

Stay tuned.

The Masters Tiger Woods Ad by Nike Golf hypocritically slammed

Also: the masters, tiger woods ad, nike golf ad, masters tiger woods, earl woods ad

Note: don't forget the Tiger Woods poll.

The Masters Tiger Woods Ad has been described in this space and on video at Zennie62 on TouTube as an American Classic and a work of genius...



The Masters Tiger Woods Ad by Nike Golf is being hypocritically slammed in the media. If you've not seen the controversial ad, which has now generated over 1 million views on YouTube as of this writing, here it is:



Some in the media, actually a number of people, have called the ad "tasteless", "rank", and other choice words and then harp on the commercialism of it all as AOL's National Columnist did in the first blog post on the Tiger WOods ad in this space.

What's funny about the blast against Nike and consumerism is the news websites and blogs that are leveling those claims have ads on their pages, thus making money from the online traffic the Tiger Woods-Nike-ad-related article draws.

In other words, the New Media critics charging that Nike's just trying to sell products are themselves helping other companies (and maybe Nike if the Nike ad's on their website) sell products and services. That's why I claim the Tiger Woods Ad is being hypocritically slammed. The News Media itself is part of the same consumerism some in News Media rail against.

HLN's Jane Valez-Mitchell,  who's Issues show I really love, was for me uncharacteristically annoying in her blast against the Nike ad, slamming the use of Tiger Woods' father's voice to "sell products" and screaming "consumerism" while at the same time promoting Geico auto insurance (which uses that awful commercial series that makes Cavemen a minority group), and day-trading software.

Why doesn't Jane have a problem with a Geico commercial that subversively makes fun of the concerns of American minorities who've been stereotyped in the media?  Is it because Geico sponsors her show?

The American News Media has been so drunk on the revenue from ad spending for print for so long that it has been under the impression that news produced was totally disconnected from ad sales and what was produced was free of corporate influence. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Now that the ad money for newspapers and magazines has dramatically decreased and television has become a trend-follower's free-for-all, News Media journalists and editors are at a loss to figure out how to replenish lost ad dollars online, yet still act as of they're not part of the same corporate system that sponsors Tiger Woods, when they really are.

It's silly; it really is. If the News Media took off their blinders, dropped the ego, and realized that they need the same Nike company to buy ads, they'd see the whole Tiger Woods Nike Ad issue differently.

No, I'm not saying don't criticize the ad, but just stop mentioning how Nike is trying to sell product. It's really weird, silly, and hypocritical to have News Media people whining about that.

In other words, leave Tiger Woods alone, unless you're going to admit, as I do, that blogging about him generates traffic and ad revenue. In other words, be real!

Stay tuned.

San Francisco Neo-Nazi Girl upsets Marina District

Related searches: neo-nazi, san francisco nazi, marina district, sf marina district, chestnut and pierce, sf nazi party

Does San Francisco have a Nazi problem? Why does it seem like there's a rise in the number of white people who claim to be Nazi, or more accurately Neo-Nazi and young people regardless of color who don't know how awful Nazi symbols are or why?

The most famous example of the latter was the Taylor Swift Swastika photo scandal where Taylor Swift's representative claimed Taylor Swift did not know that A.J. English's t-shirt (English is the man who took the photo with Swift) had a Swastika symbol on it, and English himself said that people at the party just painted it that way!

Then there was the more recent photo of Jesse James wearing a Nazi Waffen SS hat, and giving the "Heil Hitler" salute. And of course, there was his alleged first mistress Michelle "Bombshell" McGee, who posed in a Nazi bikini and worked as a model for the "Angry White Boy" clothing website.

Whatever's going on, this disturbing trend has hit San Francisco.

Two of this blogger's best friends sent a Facebook note today, Thursday, about a woman who's reportedly on the corner of Chestnut and Pierce in the Marina District and who they describe as a "Nazi." One friend wrote:

If you see this crazy gal who thinks She can do Nazism in SF. Report her! She almost got beaten by ppl on the street....she has to live with Hitler and not in the US!

The other friend was even more upset, writing this:

unreal situation at chestnut and pierce SF. Woman with nazi lit and promoting obama impeachment. get a life outside US. almost got n fight!

According to the photos - I just learned about the Nazi chic this evening - she's connected with the Lyndon LaRouche effort. Lyndon LaRouche is a political activist who this blogger has always considered something of a nutcase who thinks he should be President of The United States.

Lyndon LaRouche is considered to be an anti-Semite, who in the past has made comments against Jewish faith and Jewish culture. LaRouche has also allegedly attacked efforts to expose and prosecute Nazi war criminals. So, Lyndon LaRouche has apparently become the intellectual foundation for the ideas of the "San Francisco Nazi Girl."

The San Francisco Neo-Nazi Girl can express her view and it's good to offer disagreement. But threatening her with violence is really not a good thing to do. I personally ask people to avoid such actions. If they can't calmly talk with her, just keep walking.

For those who want to talk to San Francisco Neo-Nazi Girl, just explain that the reason people are upset with her is that she's backing an idea that at its very heart is designed to hurt someone else just because they're different. The fear is that people who think like her may try to kill someone who's not like them. There's certainly enough evidence to back that claim.

But threatening to hurt San Francisco Neo-Nazi Girl is just not right.

Stay tuned.

The Masters draws edgy Tiger Woods Ad by Nike Golf

Related searches: tiger woods, nike golf, phil bronstein, san francisco chronicle, the masters, wieden kennedy

Phil Bronstein, SF Chronicle Editor-at-Large wrote a funny blog post about the new Tiger Woods Ad by Nike Golf shown during The Masters Golf Tournament. The Tiger Woods Nike Golf Ad, which is already over 1 million views on YouTube as of this writing, features Tiger looking straight ahead, almost frozen, but eyes blinking. As he looks - and he appears tired, with bags under his eyes - a voice, that of his father Earl Woods says "Tiger. I am more prone to be inquisitive, to promote discussion. I want to find out what your thinking was. I want to find out what your feelings are. Did you learn anything?"

Here's the video:



Bronstein wonders who's voice was actually used in the ad. According to ABC News, the ad, created by the ad agency Wieden + Kennedy, uses the actual voice of Earl Woods. The people who came up with the idea of using Earl Woods' voice, then finding it, was a genius team team headed by Creative Director Hal Curtis at Wieden + Kennedy in Portland, according to an email sent from the firm's PR rep.   Hats off to them; they've created a classic.

And the classic ad's getting a lot of buzz and reaction. Phil Bronstein says of the Tiger Woods Ad "I guess it's kind of brilliant, if shameless, though I haven't run out yet and bought a new Nike product." Greg Couch, National Columnist with AOL angrily writes "Disgusting. Woods is using his dead father to bail him out of his image problem. Nike has dropped to a new low, too."

Personally, this blogger likes the commercial. A lot. It's the latest in a long line of Nike Commercials that tap into the American cultural conversation of the Zeitgeist and essentially asks a question we've all thought at one point or another during the Tiger Woods Sex Scandal: "What would Earl Woods Think?" Bravo for Nike presenting a believable answer.

Bronstein and I want to know what you think of the Tiger Woods Ad by Nike Golf. Take the poll below:

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Watch The Masters and Tiger Woods online live here

Related searches: watch masters online, watch masters live, watch the masters live, masters odds, 2010 masters favorites

Thanks to ESPN and a some simple coding by this blogger, you can watch the 2010 Masters live online below. All you have to do is click on the image of Tiger Woods at The Masters Press Conference and since this post goes to Facebook, it should work there as well:






As of this writing, 67-year-old Tom Watson heads the leaderboard at The Masters. Watson is followed by Lee Westerwood and Phil Mickelson. Tiger Woods, once even, then 2 under par a moment ago, is now 3 under par and just 7 shots back of Watson with 9 holes to go. Here's the leaderboard (you need a frames capable browser to see this, otherwise click here).



Stay tuned. And let me know what you think; I'm trying to make my blog posts more multimedia.

Tiger Woods at The Masters - are you rooting for him? A poll

Related searches: tiger woods, the masters, masters tv schedule, masters golf tournament 2010, masters leaderboard, tiger woods ad, tiger woods commercial nike

On The Dan Patrick Show, with which this blogger has a running feud regarding their ill-considered blast at President Obama on The White Sox issue (more later), the question is "Will you root for Tiger Woods to win or lose?"

What's interesting is that some people are playing a new mind game with respect to Tiger Woods: if he wins, it means he's really not a good person because he has no conscience. Someone I will not mention from The Golf Channel said on The Dan Patrick Show that he wants Tiger Woods to lose, then crafted a rationale for why he should lose and how it would not be "good for Golf."

Oh, brother.

I'm rooting for Tiger Woods to win. Why? Because Tiger Woods has been talked about, made fun of, skewered, and even criticized by a black Associated Press writer because none of his mistresses were black. Boo Hoo. Everyone's had their turn at Tiger Woods; now it's his turn. He's apologized and is ready to move on with his life, which has always been Golf.

Even through all of this, Tiger Woods is a role model. He's the first black guy to be publicly skewered around the World for cheating on his wife. Don't tell me some kid isn't thinking "You know, if I'm really good at some sport, as good as Tiger Woods at Golf, I can get all the chicks and not be married." Don't tell me that idea's not rolling around some kid's head.

Hey, Tiger Woods even has copycats: Jesse James comes to mind.

Tiger Woods is a role model for anyone of color who wants to be successful, and legions of white kids who don't care what color he is. The fact that the whole World is focusing on this man playing a sport that was believed to be for white guys, and kicking butt, is amazing.

Tiger Woods is so good at Golf, some people were wishing for some bad news, like his many affairs, to happen, thinking that would derail him. It did happen. But Tiger Woods rolls on, still on the rails. That's why I root for him to win.

Tiger Woods winning The Maters is the ultimate middle finger to society. And people will love it. What do you think? Take my poll:

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