So earlier today, we heard that Alex Tourk resigned as Gavin's campaign manager. It was a bit curious, a bit odd, but these things happen, although whenever somebody mentions that they are leaving for "personal reasons" the mind does tend to go to certain places. But no matter where your mind wandered, we have a feeling it didn't wander as far as what really happened because the Chron is reporting that Tourk quit mainly because Gavin had an affair with Tourk's wife, Ruby Rippey-Tourk. Rippey-Tourk (and woah, what a name) was Gavin's appointments secretary at the time.

Today, Tourk confronted Gavin after his wife told him of the affair. Thus the quitting. She told him because she was in a substance abuse program and had to tell him as part of the program. The affair happened about a year ago while Gavin was in the midst of divorce proceedings with Kimberly. It was supposedly short.

Man, and we thought SFist Gate was the big scandal this week. Guess not. And we think it is an understatement to say that it does not look good at all for the Mayor. Not good at all....

If you want to see what the reaction is like now, check out SFGate's Local News Blog.

Here's an update-- Apparently, there were rumors all over City Hall the past six months about something like this happening. There are also rumors out there from everything from a harassment suit being filed to Gavin resigning to pregnancy rumors. Oy vey.

Tourk was a pretty high up there guy and pretty tight with Gavin, even hanging out socially with him. Among other things, he was the guy who came up with Project Homeless Connect and did some serious fund raising.

As for Ruby, she is a a weekly radio host for a radio show for Benefit Magazine here in the city (check out the magazine covers of the recent editions). Also, she likes hand bags.

And finally, this has hit Drudge so batten your hatches. Ten bucks says Fox News will be in overdrive tomorrow and if you could have a dime for everytime they say the words "San Francisco Values" you'd be a Rich Man. Daidle deedle daidle Daidle daidle deedle daidle dum.

Uhh, sorry, it's late.

Screen cap of Ruby Rippey-Tourk on "View From the Bay" from the ABC 7 news site.

KCBS is reporting that Peter "Byorn" Ragone has finally copped to using all those fake names and admitted that all the postings as "John Nelson" and others was him. He also said he wouldn't do it again and would only post under his real name. We wonder if that means he'll go as "Peter Ragone" while posting on MTV's "Sweet Sixteen" message boards.

Eh, we made that up.

Barbara Taylor actually got a hold of Gavin at some Global Climate Summit (probably the one about what to do with all the reservoirs and our lack of rainfall) who said that he "was not pleased" with Byorn's commeting, but that "it's a trivial matter." Especially-- and he actually sort of says this-- compared to such matters as Global Warming. Which is true, but nowhere near as much fun.

Anyways, we'll bring you updates as they happen, when they happen.

PIcture from Fog City Journal

Last Friday, the Examiner got their hands on a bunch of statistics and a calculator and crunched a whole bunch of numbers about crime in the city. Their verdict is that curiously, the number of homicides has gone up but the number of people arrested for said homicides has gone down. It doesn't take a math major to realize that's not very good.

So here's the numbers: in the three years that Gavin has been Mayor and Heather Fong the Police Commissioner, San Francisco has averaged 90 homicides and 23.5 homicide arrests a year. That's about 25 percent. For comparison, under Willie and his Police Commissioner, Fred Lau, there was an average homicide rate of 65 homicides a year with thirty-two arrests for homicide. That's a little under 50% percent.

Okay, so here's where we bust out our High School remedial math class to give you a visual low down of how this thing would work. If one were to look at this in chart form, one line would be shooting up to the upper right hand corner while another line would be shooting down to the lower-right hand corner. We think the technical mathematical term for this would be "not very good."

Also, neighborhoods that have seen new crime fighting initiatives introduced-- Bayview, Western Addition and Mission districts-- have had the number of homicides remain constant or have increased. Similarly, neighborhoods that haven't been the focus of police crime fighting measures have had a decrease in violent crime.

Okay, in Gavin and Heather's defense, murder rates are up everywhere, not just in San Francisco. And the number of homicides did drop from 2005 to 2006. It's just that those numbers are still much higher than before. Also, not-so violent crimes like robbery and burglaries are down.

It's things like this that are the reasons for all the verbal noogies between the Board of Supervisors, the SFPD, and the Mayor. In fact, we went to do a search through SFist for stories about said conflict and got so many that we decided to not link to any of them because we're lazy. But you remember when the police showed up wearing t-shirts making fun of Chris Daly? Good times...good times. Anyways, the Examiner, however, does provide a decent recap of anti-crime measures the city has been trying as well as the battles between Gavin and the Supes.

Hey, Dan Noyes, here's a gotcha technique to consider -- cyberspace! Gavin took a break from Davos to do a virtual interview with the Second Life news center. Alas, there are no chicken avatars present. Good work, virtual Wade Crowfoot!

That's Gavin's avatar to the left -- we got a little confused about the avatars because his Reuters interviewer is wearing a blue tie, and that threw us off. Also, we're not normally Second Life watchers, so can someone explain to us what it means when the interviewee throws his head back and starts rubbing his stomach? Is that equivalent to "[laughter]"?

Anyways, the interview is Gavin in wonk mode, but virtual Gavin was comfortable enough in Switzerland that he dropped a virtual bombshell -- he says he doesn't think he's going to run for any other office after this election "because I’m a time bomb and too controversial" after gay marriage. Gavin also says that one Democratic candidate (he wouldn't name the person, but provided a list of Gore, Obama, and Clinton) will not be photographed in public with him because of it. Does that mean the fundraising trips to LA are over too?

Gavin, though, is excited to be campaigning on Second Life ("It’s a natural narrative from the Howard Dean ascendancy and the Internet in terms of fund raising, that was a bit one-dimensional, now to have more interactivity and a narrative that’s much more organic like Second Life."), and is also excited to be in Davos:

This is an opportunity to gain real global perspective. It’s important to recognize the interdependence, not just your own shores and focusing on your own continent, but recognizing that web of mutuality with have, particularly as it relates to the water we drink and the air we breathe. It rejuvenates me and gives me perspective.

Not really sure what that means, but it sounds like he's having a good time!

Video still of Gavin's avatar from the Second Life/Reuters interview.

Some of you might have noticed a new commenter to the site, Peter Ragone. As in Gavin Newsom's communications director Peter Ragone. Now the first question some of you might have is "is it really him?" And the second question you might have is "doesn't he have better things to do with his time?" Well, we're pretty sure that most, if not all, of the comments in his name were made by him, since we've received second-hand confirmation that he's commenting on SFist. We don't, however, know if he has better things to do with his time.

Now, the internets is a free place so if Peter wants to respond, he's more than welcome to. In fact, welcome aboard, Peter-- we're actually a little flattered that he's joining our little SFist community and a little excited too

But there's a little bit more to the story. In checking the authenticity of Peter Ragone's comments, we did a search on the IP address from which his comments originated (and yes, readers, we do get your IP addresses when you comment). And guess what we found out? Someone with the exact same IP address as Peter's, a "John Nelson," has been leaving comments on SFist, too. Mr. Nelson's comments have a similar style and tone to Peter's: mainly that Gavin Newsom is great and SFist Rita is really biased (oh, and one about how ABC 7's Dan Noyes is biased against the mayor, and one about the T-Third). Nelson's posts started up in earnest right around the election, but his first post was back in May 2006. We've included a screen shot of our search results after the jump. (Here are links to Peter's comments from that same IP address for comparison.)

Now, this IP address thing isn't a completely exact science. Maybe Peter has a roommate named "John Nelson"? Maybe Peter's DSL provider assigned two unconnected people the exact same IP address and it's just an amazing coincedence that they have similar views and writing styles? Maybe Peter's slacker neighbor is piggybacking on Peter's connection? We just don’t know for sure.

Over the past week, we've emailed Peter several times to check on this, emailed the various gmail and yahoo addresses left by "John Nelson" in the comment registration box to follow up, and left several voice mail messages too. We even checked in with another contact we have in the Mayor's administration, and asked him to pass along our need for confirmation to Peter Ragone. While we know that these messages have reached him, SFist has not received any response from Peter.

What's this all mean? Well, based on all this, we think it’s entirely possible that Peter has created a sock puppet. In other words, he's pretending to be somebody he's not, to defend Gavin. Which isn't illegal or against any sort of campaign rules or anything. It's just a bit, well -- cheesy. However, it's certainly ethically questionable, and most PR people know better than to pull anything like that. Not to mention a little sad that Team Gavin is so desperate to find somebody who can say nice things about him that they’ve had to make up people.

Of course, the possibility that Peter is sock puppeting raises all sorts of interesting questions, mainly, "why?" Is Peter just bored and sneaking peeks at ye ole 'Fist when he’s bored like the rest of you? Maybe it's some sort of political strategy to clumsily reach out to those crazy blogging kids? Or maybe he’s just as obsessed with Gavin's ties as we are? We're all just speculating here, because the only way Peter Ragone seems to be willing to speak with us in in our comments section. In fact, according to Dan Noyes over at ABC 7, it’s sounding like he’s a little less than willing to speak to pretty much anyone.

So take all of this with a grain of salt. But we're just saying we think Peter's trying to pull one over on us. And you too.

As promised -- when we find people defending Newsom, we diligently write 'em up in the column we call.... Who's Defending Newsom Now! Who's swinging for the mayor?

--The mayor himself!: Before heading out to Switzerland this week, Gavin sat down with the gay-focused Bay Area Reporter (picture features a blue tie) for a chat about what's going on with him. Beyond the now-standard complaint that the Chronicle is out to get him, Gavin also lashed out at non-walker/gum chewer Ross Mirkarimi for acting like he's the only person who cares about the murder rate in this town, complained about the chickens, defended Chief of Police Heather Fong, and conceded that he was "disappointed" with Bevan Dufty about the foot patrol vote but assured the reporter that the whole thing about them being angry with each other was "overblown."

And finally, Gavin says he doesn't read blogs, but did jokingly admit that he saw some pictures of Kimberly Guilfoyle with Matt Gonzalez. "I am like 'Geez.' So I do read that to see are they dating or something?" We're going to use this opportunity to give you a YouTube clip of the indie rock band Matt & Kim now.

The Examiner editorial page!: The Examiner's editorial today says it's totally fine for Gavin to go to Davos and not the U.S. Conference of Mayors in DC, because those conferences only help rich cities, Gavin doesn't need to lobby for federal funding because he should be on good terms with Nancy Pelosi already, and even though Davos is uncool, it encourages Gavin to think of creative things like citywide wi-fi. Plus, how cool that he paid for the trip himself!

You know, now we can't tell if this editorial is defending Gavin Newsom or not. No, wait, it does -- it encourages him to bring "My Mayor Went To Switzerland And All I Got Was This Lousy T-Shirt" swag for the Board when he gets back. He can drop those off for them on the third Tuesday of next month, right?

Picture by SFist Jackson.

Well, we're sorry to report that everyone's day jobs managed to succeed where Wade Crowfoot did not -- namely, in preventing anyone wearing a chicken suit from gaining access to the city's very first Question Time before the Board of Supes! What is democracy coming to?

Doesn't mean the board didn't manage to thoroughly amuse itself, though -- to laughter, Board prez Aaron Peskin jocularly asked Sup. Sean Elsbernd if he'd like to stand in for Newsom for the questioning, since Elsbernd got appointed Acting Mayor while the Gavsta (new awesome SFBG-coined term) and Jennifer Siebel cuddle in the Swiss apres-ski this week. Pass the cocoa and schnapps!

Elsbernd took it in good humor, protesting, “I’m not sure how hard I should laugh right now. If we took this logically, I could stand up here and have a conversation with myself.” While McGoldrick egged Peskin on, Daly then jumped to Elsbernd's defense, saying that usually, acting mayors don't get to exercise all the regular mayor's powers (while noting dryly, "Though there are some notable exceptions.") This has put the SFWall in the unusual place of supporting Chris "Satan" Daly -- whoa! Are those pigs flying outside your window?

This led to a nice nostalgic chucklefest about the times they used to let everyone be the acting mayor on a rotating basis instead of just letting the mayor pick people he likes, and Tom Ammiano said he was totally willing to be Queen For A Day again. Meanwhile, Ed Jew asked if they could move on in the very-thick list of items on the agenda, and Michela Alioto-Pier looked significantly over at the press box as she chastised the funnin' group of elected representatives for making the Board look silly over a non-mandatory measure.

Anyways, the board moved on, and so are we. Meanwhile, Newsom's announced that his second Fake Question Time townhall will be on Saturday Feb. 10 in the Bayview, on the topic of combating poverty crime, at the Whitney Young Child Development Center. You can get there on the new T-Third MUNI line, it looks like, but you may have to do a little walking from either the Kirkwood or Palou stops.

Picture of Elsbernd , Peskin, and Newsom at Ed Jew's swearing-in by obviously_human.

As previously reported on SFist, today is the day the official, real Question Time is supposed to happen. Sometime today, the Board of Supes will read off all the names of people who should be in attendance and add one name to the list, that being Gavin's. Gavin won't be there, of course, because he will be at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, hobnobbing with the stars, both poltical and movie. His attendance at the confab, however, isn't going over very well with some people.

And it's not necessarily because he's missing Question Time. No, he's also missing out on the U.S. Conference of Mayors, a less exciting but probably more relevant meeting featuring a Special Guest Appearance by Ms. Pelosi herself. This is bringing the usual jabs from the usual jabbers, mainly Messer’s Daly and Peskin.

Gavin's press guy, Peter Ragone, however, says it's in the best interests of the city for Gavin to go. Besides the fact it's an honor to be invited (it's not like the Mayor of Poughkeepsie New York is invited) but in all the networking and brainstorming, Gavin will be able to put together innovative and cutting edge ideas like city-wide Wi-Fi and environmental plans. We actually aren't surprised Gavin would find this more exciting than answering questions from Chris Daly as this is the kind of stuff Gavin thrives in-- wonkishly earnest discussions about ending such stuff as third world debt, global warming, and orphan kidnappings by publicity seeking celebrities. And actually, would you rather hang out with Brangelina or would you rather hang out with the above mentioned Mayor of Poughkeepsie? Or go to Washington D.C. or Switzerland?

Indeed, there are things that will be discussed at the meeting that are expected to help Gavin out, such as "The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Symposium on Ending Malaria and Making the 38 Geary Run on Time, " as well as the "The Bill Clinton Seminar on Third World Debt Relief and Annoying I-Team Reporters."

Hell, we'd go if we could but as of this writing, there is no Davosist.

Well, it's hard to think what could top the chickens last weekend -- so it seems a little anticlimactic to announce that the Board of Supervisors will be hosting its very first Question Time session tomorrow afternoon.

According to the agenda, they'll call for Gavin to show up at 2:00 p.m. sharp. If he doesn't appear within five minutes, the clerk will remove the item from the agenda and the board will move on to the rest of the meeting (a lot of which looks like it's driving and parking-related) -- but if he does, public comment and questioning will begin.

Don't hold your breath, though -- tomorrow, Gavin's scheduled to be in Davos, Switzerland for the World Economic Forum. And not the US Conference of Mayors?

As GavinWatch is yodeling -- RIIIIIII-COLA!

Video by the GavinWatch blog -- thanks for passing it along!

It's the return of our column where we compile all the attacks and defenses of Gavin Newsom in one handy place! This week it's all attacks, though. Send your Newsom defenses here! (or post 'em in the comments.)

So... who's on this week's list? Let's bring 'em out!

--Aaron Peskin and Ross Mirkarimi!: Luke Thomas at Fog City Journal reports that Supervisors Peskin and Mirkarimi decided to take advantage of Gavin Newsom's much-touted "open door policy" over at Room 200 of City Hall to discuss the city's crime prevention plan, as well as (possible SFist commenter?) Peter Ragone's statement to the LA Times that "Ross Mirkarimi can't walk and chew gum at the same time."

Peskin told Thomas that the conversation was heated but civil (but conceded that "feelings were hurt") -- but other sources say that the conversation was "a lot of red-faced finger pointing interspersed with well-placed expletives," and concluded when Gavin asked them to leave. Well, it's true that Newsom never specified how long the door was open in his open-door policy.

--Tony Hall!: In the same Fog City Journal piece, former Newsom ally and possible 2007 mayoral candidate Tony Hall mentioned that the latest poll results he's seen show Newsom with only a 38% approval rating. Dude, a Bloomberg poll has even George Bush higher than that! (at 39%).

--The GavinWatch blog!: GavinWatch is not only providing all the latest Gavin Newsom YouTube mania (check out the "dialogue" drinking game, along with the Question Time card-stacking footage!), but is keeping much better tabs than we are on Who's! Attacking! Newsom! Now! in their new "Gavin News Roundup" feature.

This weekend's entries include Gavin-blogger Beth Spotswood's triumphant debut on the Chronicle's Culture Blog, Left in SF on the crime rate, and a blogger named SFWillie decrying the Yale singing group beatdown as a failure of feminism because Gavin Newsom is a girl (and then saying, "To call Gavin Newsom 'a woman' is an insult to women everywhere, and I apologize.").

Look out for more Newsom-attacking this Tuesday, when the Board of Supes holds its first official Question Time! Will the chicken suits be coming back? Let us know! Too bad Gavin won't be able to make it, though -- he's off to a glam trip to Davos, Switzerland this week for the 2007 World Economic Forum. The skiing looks good!

Pictures from Fake Question Time from last week.

We would never have picked up the February 07 issue of GQ (even though adorable lodge-burning survivor Jake Gyllenhaal's on the cover) -- if a friend hadn't tipped us off that our favorite current mayor of San Francisco is interviewed in it!!!

The article isn't online, but it's a piece called "All You Really Need To Know About WINE" and Gavin's on page 138, as "Plumpjack Winery Founder and Mayor of San Francisco." It's accompanied by a moody picture of Gavin sitting alone, opening a bottle of wine. (The picture's in black and white so we can't tell what color tie he has on.)

Gavin's in favor of screw-top bottles for fine wine. "I own a winery; corks are a really serious issue for me." Plumpjack started seeing issues with cork quality back in the 90s and went to a screw top system, with which Gavin is very pleased.

In terms of aging, some of these bottles are ten years old now, and every time we have a tasting, nobody gets it right -- nobody knows that they have screw tops. We all come in with preconceived notions about what screw tops do and what corks do over time, and we're always dead wrong.

You know, in looking closer at this picture, we think it might be one of Gavin's red ties. It's too dark to be our favorite light blue. Full picture after the jump.

It's the triumphant return of the column where you send us your stories and/or pictures of run-ins with perennial man-about-town Mayor Gavin Newsom! Yay!

It seems like the trick for getting something into this column is to hang out at Tosca's -- check out the following story we got passed along. Thanks, gentle reader!

Last night our friend Sheila held a going-away party for her own self, in honor of her imminent departure for a new job in Chicago. The Evite said Tosca Cafe and when I arrived, never having been there, I was amazed at the crush to get in, and through, to where our little group was. Someone pointed out that the Mayor had just been there (not my mayor, of course, I don't live in The City) so I figured that it was the remnants of some scene sweeping through.

It turns out we were in the middle of someone else's work party. As awkward as anything on The Office, maybe not, but we were in it, not watching it.

About 30 minutes into our collective mingle (off in the back corner of this packed-in crowd), it turns out that the Mayor is indeed still in the house, as he takes up a microphone and asks for quiet. He then reads, in an ironic voice, a lengthy proclamation commending the work of Steve somebody. This was followed by Willie Brown giving a speech, then another dude, and then this Steve guy. We could do nothing but keep quiet (as frequent shushing demanded of all us) and wait it out.

The party-crashing continues after the jump! Along with another picture of Gav.

SFist Jim snapped this picture of Gavin Newsom swearing in the latest batch of city commissioners this afternoon. SFMike has his usual tart lowdown on the actual event -- along with more pictures of our favorite tie.

Another of SFist Jim's pictures of the scene after the jump (tie is partially obscured).

Angela Alioto got the biggest applause line of the morning at the Gavin Newsom Fake Question Time townhall meeting last Saturday when she roared out, "Instead of sitting around in chicken outfits, what have you done?"

So color her amused when she was reminded after the event that she had in fact rented a chicken suit from the exact same costume store and asked one of her consultants to dress up in it all night, to protest a certain person refusing to attend a mayoral candidates' debate back in 2003.

The non-attendee? .....Gavin Christopher Newsom.

YouTube clip by obviouslyhuman. More clips at GavinWatch too.

It's looking like Gavin's townhall meeting on Saturday is becoming the gift that keeps on giving. From GavinWatch, we get word of this YouTube clip of the great kerfluffle that arose when the now famous chickens tried to enter the townhall meeting and were blocked by Mayoral aides. We are completely kicking ourselves for missing all of this as we were already seated.

Memo to self: when going to political meetings, always follow the people in chicken suits.

This morning, we dragged our flu-ridden butts all the way out to the Richmond hoping to see what had all the makings of a circus. We didn't get it. What we got, instead, was a serious policy discussion about the homeless. How do you prevent a circus from taking place? You bore the crap out of everyone.

We have to give credit to Team Gavin. They diffused any potential for the meeting getting out of hand with two brilliant gestures. The first one was to have it early in the morning all the way out in the Richmond. We expected a full-house full of the usual suspects but didn't get it, partly, we think, because saying you're going to go out to the Richmond at ten in the morning and actually getting up and going out to the Richmond on a very, very cold morning at ten in the morning is a completely different thing.

The second thing they did was just completely overwhelm everyone in the audience with boredom. This was a serious-minded townhall, full of serious discussions about serious issues by serious people using serious statistics. It was mind numbing. Anyone who wanted to be starting something lost any sort of motivation to be starting something after statistic after statistic was brought out by either Gavin or Gavin's panel (Angela Alioto, Friar John Hardin, Ron Miguel, Ken Reggio, and Trent Rohrer). And it was typical Gavin-- he threw out detail after detail of every nook and cranny of some sort of city governance that there's no other option than getting lost in it all. We have no idea if anything Gavin was saying was right or not, but gosh, doesn't he sound smart?

More details of the event and more pictures by SFist Rita after the jump

As we've mentioned, better watch this clip (or upload it to YouTube) before ABC 7 takes it down -- media hound Dan Noyes from the "I Team" (we think the I stands for "investigation") works his magic on Gavin Newsom yet again!

The interview is ostensibly about the Yale a capella singer situation, but the fun really starts around 3:30, when Dan asks Gavin to comment about the stories going around town about his excessive drinking, and then Gav's all like, "This interview is over," but then inexplicably continues to talk (and talk and talk and talk) for about a minute more before finally storming off into his limo and slamming the door. Just GO, Gavin! By the end, we were kind of hoping he'd get on his cell phone and call for his boys to come in 20 deep.

The transcript of the whole interview is up here too. Oh, Gavin, you didn't accidentally call Kimberly Guilfoyle your wife, did you? Tragic. (Also, we liked Gavin's exhortation "to remind our parents to be good stewards of underage drinking." Will you be giving Mr. and Mrs. Mountz a call next?)

Screen grab of Gavin not letting it go, from the ABC 7 interview video.

If you're man enough to go to the Fake Question Time townhall meeting this Saturday at the Richmond Recreation Center (281 18th Ave., between Geary and Clement), you're man enough to pop open a beer or three at 10 in the morning and play the Question Time Townhall Meeting Drinking Game with SFist!

And you know who's really gonna want to play this drinking game? The star of the event! See you guys there -- we'll bring the booze.

Thanks to a little birdie, who suggested the drinking game in the first place! And thanks to a reader, who forwarded along the picture!

At the request of our august editor, in honor of this Saturday's townhall meeting and Gavin Newsom chicken-out from Question Time, we're running the YouTube clip of the Chicken Dance from Arrested Development.

Gavin Newsom totally needs a GOB in his administration. Aw, COME ON!

Hey, all of you fun-loving participatory government fans -- whether you're for Newsom or not, we just got word that you should RSVP for this Saturday's Fake Question Time Town Hall Meeting (10 a.m., 251 18th Ave.)

You can email MONS and let them know you're planning on attending, or call 415-554-6110. The word on the street is that they may close the room off if it's full. (We hope this isn't a plan to keep Question Time advocates out -- Newsom would never do something like that, right?)

If you can't get in, no worries -- you can help the Living Wage Coalition leaflet outside! Bundle up, though, it might be cold.

Update: The good folks at the Guardian have confirmed that Newsom's folks are sending out invitations to his supporters telling them to RSVP because "space is limited."

Thanks to our tipsters for passing it along!

Like Frank Perdue always said: It takes a tough man to make a tender chicken. The Board of Supervisors cock-a-doodle-doo'ed a 10-1 vote in favor of putting Gavin Newsom and the Question Time he's intent on avoiding on their monthly agenda. So Gavin is now currently scheduled to appear every third Tuesday, and will be marked absent if he doesn't show up within five minutes of his scheduled time.

Gavin buck-buck-buck'ed a testy response to this latest coop challenge, saying only, "Been there, done that. I've talked about it for one month." But not yet answered any questions from supervisors!

And finally -- don't forget! Why did the chicken cross the road? To get to the fake Question Time "town hall meeting" on Saturday at 10 a.m., at the Richmond Recreation Center (251 18th Ave, between Clement and Geary)!

While Gavin may be dodging disgruntled supervisors, he's not going to be able to avoid the disgruntled public -- not only is everyone and their animal companion coming to watch the show, but the Living Wage Coalition has announced that it'll be protesting low wage conditions in the city as well. We can't wait!!!!

Get yer chicken mayor gear at the Chicken Mayor store, brought to you by the fun-lovin' agitators at the SFPartyParty.

Thanks to a tipster, we got word that Gavin was going to be on KQED for an hour to answer questions, e-mails, and phone calls. So we dropped what we were doing (mainly watching "Charmed" on TNT) to give a listen in.

The Mayor was at his wonkish, earnest, puppy-dog best. To each question, he spent five minutes or so riffing off stats, programs, and pat responses so well that we could just picture him in the studio making all the "politician mannerisms" that you know he's spent hours in the mirror practicing. You know, like the thumb over clenched fist thing or the air karate chop. He was throwing so much stuff out that his voice was going out on him by the end of it.

After the jump, we give the highlights. Well, forty minutes of highlights as we missed the first fifteen minutes or so and then our reception cut out for another few minutes. Stupid hills

Sulky, sulky -- Gavin Newsom was sober and mad after yesterday's Board of Supervisors inaugural ceremony, which the Chronicle tactfully described as having a "tone of political contentiousness running just beneath a veneer of polite ceremony."

In reading the summary of the meeting, though, we're not seeing much of a veneer of anything -- unless Chris Daly was smiling extreeeeemely magnanimously as he went through "San Francisco's version of apartheid" (economic disparity in District 6), made the comment that "[p]ress releases alone will never lead to social change," and made fun of the mayor's program for one free day at museums once a year for families.

Sophie Maxwell, for her part, pointed out the deplorable conditions in public housing, Bevan Dufty encouraged Newsom to try and get along better with people in the future, and President Aaron Peskin said "We will lead by deeds and actions, not by hollow pronouncements and press releases."

After the meeting, Newsom (in a red tie) blamed the media for overemphasizing conflict, and also said if the board cared so much about the city, they shouldn't be so mean to him. Plus, he called Chris Daly a hater for slamming Project Homeless Connect.

The Chron said that Newsom left the meeting "miffed," and said he was "lost and befuddled by the comments." You know what'll help with that? Shot of bourbon.

Picture of Daly and Newsom at yesterday's festivities by SFist Jim Herd.

Oh, those wags at the SFPartyParty! To gear up for this weekend's Fake Question Time "Policy Townhall meeting," they've started up a CafePress "The Chicken Mayor" online store for you to get your gear in time for Saturday's scripted encounter with the mayor in the Richmond. Check out their excellently bewattled Newsom logo! You can get it on a ringer tee, a dog shirt, a tote bag, or a trucker cap, among many other options -- ha!

Don't forget -- your insufficient substitute for Question Time will take place at 10 a.m. this Saturday at the Richmond Recreation Center at 281 18th Avenue, between Geary and Clement.

We can't wait until the weekend -- we love drunken chicken! To tide you over until then, though, we found some YouTube footage of the chicken dance music they play at AT&T Park whenever someone walks Barry Bonds.

So there's a big, somewhat juicy story buried in Matier & Ross' column today about the Mayor. Now first off, it's kind of interesting that they have the story second and lead with a not terribly interesting story about how much the Governator's broken leg costs. But whatever-- we don't mean to mean to get all-conspiratorial about the story.

Anyways, what the story is about is that on the night Officer Bryan Tuvera was shot, the Gav was at a holiday party and when he showed up at the hospital, he was a little un-sober. Said one witness: "was he staggering drunk? No. But you could smell it on him, and you could see it on him." He was apparently pretty emotional and hugging everyone-- a little too much it is said. He also posed for pictures with the hospital staff.

Apparently, the story has been making the rounds for the past couple of weeks, enough so that Matier & Ross felt obliged to comment about it. We'll let you figure if there's any machinations behind that too.

Now, on the one hand, stories like this are always a little embarrassing to the person involved, mainly the Mayor. It's easy for tongue to wag and we're sure tongues are wagging. On the other hand, well it was a Friday night and Gavin was doing what we all would do-- having a bit of fun on a Friday night. How much of a personal life is he allowed to have? We hardly think he's the first politician to be somewhat indisposed when some sort of emergency or the other popped up. You can't tell us Willie was constantly on call 24/7 and was never, ever doing something he shouldn't have been doing (although we have a feeling Willie, consumate pro that he was, could hold his liquor like nobody and that he was usually indisposed in other ways and we think you know what we mean, nudge...nudge...wink...wink). And unlike a certain President we all know and love, Gavin was both awake and not on an endless vacation.

Still, the story is a bit on the embarrassing side, especially if you're running for re-election.

As we all know, Gavin is up for re-election this year (and why 2007? Aren't big elections supposed to be in even-numbered years? Is this one more "only in SF" type of thing?). So today's Examiner gets all up in Gavin's grill and checks him out. They recap his bout of recent bout of bad news, interview him (blue tie sighting!), and hand out report cards on his 2003 campaign promises.

So let's look through these stories, shall we?

First the campaign promises (and remember, this is all based on what he promised so this thing ain't that in-depth. Remember too, it's the Examiner we're talking about):
-Housing: Not so good on housing as his two big housing bond measures failed
-Crime: hired all the cops and set up all the cameras he promised to although there's no follow up on all the recruits he promised.
-Public transportation: Third Street light rail is going to run but two years late. No mention of anything else pub trans related so if the N broke down for the tenth time this past month, don't look at him.
-Wi-fi: Is "seconds away" from being implemented
-Biotech: Some good, some not so good but better than before.
-City responsiveness: The 311 city government hot line is kind of a joke, but it'll be up sometime this year
-The Homeless: Care Not Cash seems to be somewhat working.

And here's the interview:
-Proud of all of his budgetary work
-And proud of his health care plan
-He'll get right on that police commission thingy
-He's taking a bite out of crime
-Question time was merely a "public opinion poll" and he won't "demean" his office by indulging in the circus that will be question time
-Being Mayor is hard
-He never got to first base with Brittanie even though everyone totally thinks he did
-Loves going to movies but was booed when he went to go see "Passion of the Christ."
-He's a buttered popcorn kind of guy until he started putting on weight
-Loves the turkey sandwhich.

And who doesn't, actually?

While most of us were either not working or goofing off at work last week, Gavin stepped up and sent the 49ers yet another proposal to keep the team from moving. This proposal? How's about building a new stadium at the Hunters Point Naval Yard. The Niners were nonplussed.

In a letter to John York, Gavin said that a new stadium plan at Hunter's Point would alleviate many of York's issues with rebuilding the new stadium at Candlestick. The benefits, according to Gavin is that they're already doing redevelopment there, it's easier to get to than the 'Stick (?), there's enough room for parking and tail gaiting, and the building of it won't affect what's going on at Candlestick. Gavin also said that if the Niners jump at the proposal, he'll fast track everything so he could get the deal pushed through.

John York, however, was having none of it, saying in response that they've looked at the site and don't think it would work. Mentioned as negatives in the site-- it's not as accessible as Candlestick, there's no way anything this huge could get politically put on the fast track, and there's no guarantee the site will be cleaned up and ready to go by 2012. Oh yeah, and then there's the little matter of all the toxic waste that's on the site. On the other hand, building on a toxic waste dump has worked out fine for the Meadowlands.

Image by Thu Hoang Ly of the Mercury News