While we've been digesting the dueling banjos style competition for a Board of Supes Code of Conduct, we were left pickin' our skulls as to why the Supes don't already have a code of conduct? Seriously, right? The progressive bubble of San Francisco doesn't have a code of conduct for its Board of Supervisors, while such luminary cities as Simi Valley, Pismo Beach, Goleta and Fresno do? Sounds Crazy, right?

Well, not so much. Lost in the shuffle between Chris Daly and Michela Alioto-Pier ("MAP") dueling codes of conduct is that San Francisco is already policed by, not just one, but two different organizations dedicated to protecting citizens from actual ethics violations. The first is the state's Fair Political Practices Commission ("FPPC") while the second is the San Francisco Ethics Commission. Both organizations overlook officials conduct and, in particular, deal with conflict of interest, disclosure, campaign finance issues, and post-state employment.

Sorry, readers -- Rita's not around today -- hope you can enjoy this Ed Jew update nonetheless!

Still not a lot of info on Ed Jew's prelim court proceedings, but there is a new tidbit, a small glimpse behind the Tapioca Curtain. NBC11's Web site is telling of the Postal Inspector's testimony that Mr. Jew only received third-class mail at his Sunset residence! His Burlingame estate, on the other hand, was subject to both first-class and third-class deliveries.

(Oh, cool, the Chron posted on it too as we were writing this).

According to the Postal Inspector, the letter carrier that served Jew's Sunset place said that mail would pile up for weeks.

See, third-class mail, or, as we'd call it, "junk mail, is the stuff that's always addressed to "resident" or "occupant." Maybe it piled up because Mr. Jew didn't realize that "resident/occupant" referred to him, and thus just left it in the mailbox? Just a thought.

Picture from the Chron by Brant Ward

California Governor, Leo, mad fondler, and kindergarten cop Arnold Schwarzenegger turns a still-sexy 60-years-old today. The Grandpanator will spend the big day dealing with the state budget (giggle) and quite possibly getting some sweet Shriver love later this evening. But Carla Marinucci has the Gov’s five birthday wishes right here.

Happy birthday, Conan.

Dun Dun (.wav file. You know, that Law and Order sound!)

Picture by SFist Jim, who was at the plastic bag event taking pictures and noticed a teeny-tiny Ed Jew in the background of one of his shots, which he forwarded to us and we've gleefully cropped out for you to see!

Oh, Michela Alioto-Pier! Our favorite absentee supervisor finally straggled on in to an actual committee meeting, only to find out that the code of conduct she's proposing for the supervisors has loopholes big enough for a Mack truck to drive though.

As you may remember, Alioto-Pier (or MAP, as we like to call her) is spearheading the push to institute a code of conduct for supervisors, after the flap about Chris Daly saying that there were cocaine use allegations about Mayor Newsom. We can't find a copy of MAP's proposal online, but the Chron says it punishes "aggressive, abusive, or offensive conduct." (As you may recall, Daly in response is working on a code of conduct of his own, to prohibit sexual relationships between superiors and subordinates, and to require better attendance at board meetings.)

Problem is, MAP's proposal (to remove offending supes from committees) violates the City Charter (only the board president can do that) and state law (certain supes are required to serve on certain Bay Area-wide committees). And despite MAP's protests to the contrary, it seems like it might violate the First Amendment too. Sean Elsbernd also pointed out that the way the proposal is drafted, it could potentially be used by more strategic and procedurally-savvy supervisors (who could that be?) to harass others.

MAP's going to take a week to fix those loopholes, but as Tom Ammiano pointed out, fixing those loopholes would take away any punitive weight of the code of conduct. "I'm wondering, what's next? [Banning] eye rolls?" This type of commentary has people wondering if MAP'll actually even be able to get her code of conduct voted through -- but she's not dissuaded; she says she'll put it on the ballot if she gets voted down. (She needs 6 votes to get the rules passed by the Board, but only 4 to send it to us to decide.)

As we were dozing off our hangover this morning after the wild party we threw when we found out we were named the Guardian readers' "best local blog" (did you hear us? The "we're number one!" chants even drowned out the random shooting in the Lower Haight last night), we found ourselves perusing the letters section of the Examiner. Specifically, the two letters from today from one today claiming that the case against Ed Jew is a witch hunt. Our favorite is from one Patrick Monette-Shaw, who says that "if Newsom files an ethics complaint, it will again call into question his judgment."

After the jump - who is Patrick Monette Shaw?

Most people can't comprehend our near OCD level obsession with Chris Daly, Ed Jew, Gavin, and the Board of Supes. So, we're cool when people ask us questions like, "How do you know this?" or "Why do you care?" or "How do you stay awake during all those board meetings?" We've gotten over it and understand most people's position, which is why we just want to say that our mental health is okay and we are not locked in a room, Mel Gibson-style staring at a wall of newspaper clippings. However, this is kinda weird:

First, the Chronicle, on July 19th, runs an article stating:

After Daly's comments last month, implying that Newsom used cocaine -- which were made as Daly was contesting the mayor's spending plans for the new fiscal year -- Peskin removed Daly from his seat as chairman of the board's powerful Budget and Finance Committee.

Which, according to Chris Daly's blog posting from that same day, is incorrect since he was removed from head of the budget committee four days before his cocaine speech. The next day The Chronicle (July 20th) runs a correction stating that they made a mistake and wish to retract their incorrect fact. All's well and good.

Self-consciously located on the none-to-glamorous Howard Street strip between Seventh and Eights Streets, yet close enough to downtown and its blue-glass splendor, Hillary Clinton’s campaign headquarters opened up yesterday (complete with a Breasts Not Bombs melee [NSFW]) for those of you who want to volunteer, get a "Hillary 4 Prez" poster or five, or gawk.

We went over to take some photos of Hillary-whipped worker bees, but as of noontime today, the place seem closed -- or rather, the door was accidentally locked or no one came to answer it; the office is, after all, on the top floor -- which is no way to (not) win an election.

(Two more glorious photos after the jump; thanks to Zombie for the tip.)

Along with Assessor Phil Ting and Treasurer José Cisneros, Nancy Pelosi addressed a crowd at the Citizenship Workshop held today in San Francisco. Speaker Pelosi's office organized the event to assist permanent residents with becoming U.S. citizens.

America's shadow president took time out of her busy schedule to visit the citizenship workshop she hosted today. Upwards of 300 permanent residents completed their applications at the event. Good for them.

SFist Nick forwarded along an unintentionally-hilarious article by professional provocateur Christopher Hitchens from earlier this week in Slate. In this article, Hitchens mostly complains about Conrad Black, the Canadian press tycoon recently convicted of corporate fraud, but check out this kicker at the end!

Postscript: I am writing this from the San Francisco Bay Area, where all summer a local politician named Ed Jew has been in trouble over his filing of an allegedly bogus claim of residency. The headlines on the case invariably give his full name (he is of Asian descent), as in last Saturday's "City Attorney Toughens Case Against Ed Jew." But the headlines about Conrad Black have very often said "Black Convicted." Is this discrimination on a subtle level? Or should Mr. Jew be glad that he has such a short first name?

Ha! What would Christopher Hitchens have made of the headlines about Rob Black in the District 6 race last year? Remember (former SFist) Eve's "Jew and Black Lead" election night blog post from the early returns?

Also, in today's actual Ed Jew news: Gavin Newsom says he's going to propose laws to make it tougher to lie about your residency and take cash from constituents, and is waiting to see how the civil and criminal trials go before jumping into the fray. Jew and Black lead!

Picture of Christopher Hitchens.

SFist recieved two missives from Officer Andrew Cohen, who is best known for being the focal point of the so-called "VideoGate" scandal. As with his responses in our recent interview with him, we believe that this "Call to Arms" raises some very thought-provoking points and offers further candid insight into the imbroglio. Also attached below is a letter to his union's journal, in which he criticizes the union for its non-support:

Call to Arms!

Calling all citizens and other parties of interest, I, Officer Andrew Cohen hereby request that you get your pens, quills, pencils, computers or any other writing instrument that you prefer and take the time to write to the Mayor of San Francisco, His Honor Gavin Newsom, as well as to Chief Heather Fong and let them hear your voice as it may pertain to the political scandal known as “VideoGate”!

This charade has gone on long enough, and now we are letting them know that we are sick and tired of their games and political misappropriation of tax payer’s money. We are being held as political hostages and you are being lied to by the “Powers-that-be”.

It has been said time and time again that this video that Gavin denounced as “racist, sexist and homophobic” has no merit and this can and will be proved once given the proper forum to showcase it. You will soon realize that we have been used as political pawns. As you, the tax payers find out that your hard earned dollars are being wastefully spent on their tireless attempts to cast us out when, in fact, we did nothing wrong. As the dollar amount continues to rise and the streets get overcome by violence, we are wasting away pushing paper. This is no way to treat highly qualified and seasoned police officers who participated in a silly comedy video. Just the cost to replace us will be relatively astronomical, and it will take much money, time and effort to find and train these recruits.

Oh No, Chris Daly! We don't even know what to say right now. We'd been hearing rumors all day (thanks to those hard-working folks over at the SFist Tips line) about a fight between District 6's rebearded progressive bad boy and the more moderate and clean-shaven Bevan Dufty of District 8, but didn't get confirmation of it until the Chron went live with their story.

Sigh -- we don't even want to go into this, it's just embarrassing for everyone. So Daly, maybe a little unhappy about not getting seconded for his budget motion, was going back and forth with Dufty throughout the meeting, and Dufty finally said "For someone who sees himself as the strongest opponent to the mayor, you've done more to re-elect him than everyone in this room combined." Ooooooh.

Near the end of the meeting, which went on pretty long (just like the Senate was doing with Iraq, huh?), Daly then approached Dufty and they got into it. It got sufficiently heated that Dufty called Daly "a third-grade bully" and said "Why don't you just do what you want to do? Why don't you just punch me in the face?" Daly then said, "How dare you -- I'm not a bully," and bouncer/prez Aaron Peskin had to jump in and separate the two of them. Ladies and gentlemen: Aaron Peskin, the man with the toughest job in the City and County of San Francisco!

Daly's calling it a "nonissue," and Peskin described it as a "sidebar spat," saying, "I'm not proud of it, but it's not the end of the world" -- even though Tom Ammiano said it seemed threatening, and Jake McGoldrick was sufficiently worried that he mentioned something to the sheriff.

Update!: Here's Daly's side of the story, which includes the full text of his email exchange with the Chron.

After the jump -- we rate the choice quotes about Daly from the other supervisors to C.W. Nevius, who's now somehow moved from the "is Anna Nicole Smith your girl friend" beat onto city politics for the Chron?

Oh No, Chris Daly! We don't even know what to say right now. We'd been hearing rumors all day (thanks to those hard-working folks over at the SFist Tips line) about a fight between District 6's rebearded progressive bad boy and the more moderate and clean-shaven Bevan Dufty of District 8, but didn't get confirmation of it until the Chron went live with their story.

Sigh -- we don't even want to go into this, it's just embarrassing for everyone. So Daly, maybe a little unhappy about not getting seconded for his budget motion, was going back and forth with Dufty throughout the meeting, and Dufty finally said "For someone who sees himself as the strongest opponent to the mayor, you've done more to re-elect him than everyone in this room combined." Ooooooh.

Near the end of the meeting, which went on pretty long (just like the Senate was doing with Iraq, huh?), Daly then approached Dufty and they got into it. It got sufficiently heated that Dufty called Daly "a third-grade bully" and said "Why don't you just do what you want to do? Why don't you just punch me in the face?" Daly then said, "How dare you -- I'm not a bully," and bouncer/prez Aaron Peskin hade to jump in and separate the two of them. Ladies and gentlemen: Aaron Peskin, the man with the toughest job in the City and County of San Francisco!

Daly's calling it a "nonissue," and Peskin described it as a "sidebar spat," saying, "I'm not proud of it, but it's not the end of the world" -- even though Tom Ammiano said it seemed threatening, and Jake McGoldrick was sufficiently worried that he mentioned something to the sheriff.

After the jump -- we rate the choice quotes about Daly from the other supervisors to C.W. Nevius, who's now somehow moved from the "is Anna Nicole Smith your girl friend" beat onto city politics for the Chron?

We thought that Chris Daly's Board of Supervisor life might be looking up with his new committee assignment. But it's budget season and everyone is just a little bit testy right now, as there is a 6 billion dollars pie to be cut up among a three quarters of a million people. So I guess we shouldn't be that surprised that something would happen during today's Board of Supervisor meeting. And it did.

Basically Daly asked for a "simple motion" and received no second. (We are having some difficulty with sfgtv and can't seem to go back and watch exactly what happened and are going forward based on our memory until the full meeting comes online.) Without the ability to get a motion seconded, Supervisors lose an important legislative tool and Daly was, at least partially, locked out of the budget process. So he left.

For those who don't follow the Board of Supes as much as we do, not being seconded is pretty much a slap in the face. Not only can we not remember the last time a motion failed to receive a second, but also the budget meeting is probably the single most important Board of Supervisors meeting.

Speedy trial? Say it fast: OhNoEdJew!

At yesterday's hearing, residentially-challenged Supervisor Ed Jew's legal team went against conventional criminal defendant wisdom, and requested an early trial. The trial could go as early as October of this year.

Ed Jew's state criminal attorney (as opposed to his federal criminal attorney and his state civil attorney) Bill Fazio, who ran for DA and lost to Kamala Harris, says he wants a trial to exonerate Ed as soon as possible, and says that his other opponent for DA, Terence Hallinan, didn't live in San Francisco either. Hey, where does Bill Fazio live?

In other coverage, C.W. Nevius recovers from his poor performance on the US citizenship exam to give us his rambling thoughts on Ed's case (to wit: Ed seems to like politics), and the Chron confirmed what commenter Sweet Melissa predicted: most of the people at the pro-Ed Jew rally don't live in the Sunset. Also, we're sorry we missed the sign the Chron saw that said "Ed Jew Makes The Sun Rise Over The Sunset." Ed Jew is GOD!

Update: At today's hearing, the court set Ed's next court date for July 27, at which point a judge will decide whether there's enough evidence to proceed to trial. Also, the court gave back Ed's $135,000 bail money in exchange for his passport.

Picture from the Chron by Brant Ward.

Chris Daly was finally reassigned to a new committee today, in a total step down. After getting removed from the "powerful" budget committee chairmanship Chris was totally lonesome, floating in a committeeless void. But yesterday that changed as he was introduced as a member of the Government Audit and Oversight Committee. Note that Daly is not mentioned on the agenda of the meeting, but if you go to sfgtv and watch Monday's session you can clearly see him sitting there with Michela Alioto-Pier and Sean Elsbernd.

So, you want to know why this is funny? There are soooooo many reasons:

-- Alioto-Pier and Sean Elsbernd? His new committee-compadres? Both originally appointed by Gavin. So you know the working relationships there must be.. ummm... working?

-- The new committee Daly is on? Not nearly as important as the budget committee chair. Monday's government Audit and Oversight Meeting lasted 14 minutes and had one agenda item. ONE AGENDA ITEM!!

-- The highlight of his new committee? Sylvia Johson sighting! (Go to about the 7:20 mark and make sure to check out the expression on the lady sitting behind the speaker. Priceless.)

Image from Chris Daly's Myspace page

E to the Dizzo, J to the Ew-wo -- not guilty, we gots to feel him! Ed Jew, in an American flag tie, appeared in state criminal court today and pled not guilty to the charges of lying about his residency, but not before waving at and hugging members of a 100-deep cheering crowd outside the courthouse.

Just to remind, today's hearing was just on the charges that DA Kamala Harris filed -- the FBI is still investigating the federal criminal charges of bribery, and Jerry Brown's office is still looking into the non-criminal proceedings that the City Attorney wants to bring. Beat those charges like Rocky, Ed!

Cops want to knock me, DA want to box me in! Clip of Jay-Z's Izzo (sorry we can't find a more exciting video clip to use.)

A Senator and her constituent: Carole Migden and the brightest film star residing in NorCal were all smiles before they tackled a serious subject over the weekend.

Actor and part time journalist Sean Penn spent some time in the Bay Area working on antiwar issues this past weekend. To say he was a little ahead of the country with his opposition to the increasingly unpopular conflict in Iraq would be a gross understatement, to say the least. Eavesdropping is rude but we know that Mr. Penn and the Senator discussed battle plans on opposing the war going into next year, and also her Joint Senate Resolution 10 concerning the overextension of California's National Guard troops and ways of getting CA's part-time servicemembers back home. We didn't notice any Celtic tattoos on Sean (ala Mystic River) but we did spot a small inked-on logogram on his left forearm. How to pronounce it is a mystery to us, but its a very simple Chinese character meaning strength or power. Mmmmm.

Last night when we and a few of our more tolerably-alcoholic friends took a break over at the St. Regis (why not?) -- which included SFist emerita and SF Gate/Chron rescuer Eve Batey for a few, short seconds -- we were jarred to find former San Francisco Mayor Willie Lewis Brown kicking it right next to us. It should go without saying that insouciance was seeping out of William's ears, nose, and ass. What's more, this precious SF-celeb encounter totally put last month's St. Regis B.D. Wong sighting to shame.

While not at all sure what he talked on and on about with his guy-pal, because eavesdropping is just rude, we did manage to capture a sun-drenched and breezy Brown image on our phone while he busied himself with wild gesticulating. Also, the words "real estate" were (arguably) heard coming from Brown's mouth, said our inarguably wasted friend. Willie even checked out SFist commenter bedorable's XX-chromosome form more than twice, claimed her husband, while she relaxed in her old man's arms. (Oh, you saw it coming, didn't you, smarty-pants. Let's say it together, then.) See, you can take the San Francisco mayor out of City Hall, but you can't take...you know.

Also, after he got up to leave, we felt his chair's butt warmth. Because we're just that hilarious. And sad.

The City Attorney's Office has filed a reply to Ed Jew's response to the State AG from last week that if you don't think he lives in the city, you're a racist.

And yowza! In their papers, they describe Ed Jew's response as "inadequate, incomplete, misleading and inflammatory." They couldn't find a synonym for the word "misleading" that also started with an i? (Okay, now we can't think of one either. Impertinent? Informationally-challenged? Impossible? Well, you see what we mean.) They also described his positions as "increasingly preposterous." No way, really?

Copies of the papers are here (.pdf.) We're still leafing through it, but it notes that, despite what Ed Jew said about the City Attorney only interviewing Caucasians, two of the neighbors they interviewed were in fact Asian-American, and notes that they think it's weird that Ed hasn't been able to produce any actual evidence that he lives in the house (i.e., pictures of the living room, curtains on the windows, toiletries in the bathroom.) Does Ed Jew not use toilet paper either? Yikes!

The State AG says they'll decide whether or not the City Attorney can file suit to kick Ed out of office within two months. Meanwhile, Gavin Newsom's trying to figure out what he can do (section 15.105) too, Ed's scheduled for his first appearance in criminal court next Monday, the FBI investigation is continuing. And hey, couldn't the voters try and recall Ed Jew too? (maybe they've missed the deadline for the upcoming election, though,)

Picture of Ed the day before last year's election from the Chron by Frederic Larson.

Confirming what we heard yesterday, quote-unquote "District 4" Supervisor Ed Jew, along with Michela Alioto-Pier and Jake McGoldrick, showed up for yesterday's committee hearing to find out who exactly took those 300 trash cans off the streets of San Francisco. (Turns out it was DPW, who just went ahead and did it without telling anyone first.)

So it turns out part of the reason why they took those 300 trash cans off the street was because there's a huge amount of garbage service noncompliance among small business owners -- in even a brief survey, DPW found 125 businesses who used city cans to throw away their commercial garbage. (125!!!) They signed up 88 of those businesses on the spot.

At this point, our source tells us that Ed, the champion of the small business, objected, saying that the small businesses he knows have problems with garbage and recycling and compost services in the city because "it takes up too much room." Yeah, and so does the cable and the phone and the water service. (Note: you can get smaller recycling and garbage cans if you need them.) Does everyone he knows skirt the law?

And THEN, Ed says, with a straight face, that's why he lets his neighbors use his recycling and composting bins. HA! Ed Jew pays for recycling pickup? In Burlingame?

Our source also says that the meeting went so long that the person voted SFist Commenters' favorite public commenter, Sylvia Johnson, had to leave. We're totally looking forward to learning more about her next!

Here we have le Gav looking lover-ly while kicking it with some tired Ethel Merman tranny (excuse me, fabulous "Ethel Merman impersonator") in Jesse McKinley's stellar New York Times article about our personality-littered mayoral race. (And while a very interesting piece, why Rita's or Jeremy's brilliant coverage and point of views aren't mentioned is beyond any and all logic. We're just saying is all. We digress.) Almost all of the usual and self-consciously zany suspects are in there: Kenny the Clown (Kenneth Kahn), Chicken John (who, for some reason, I will always confuse with Big Brother's Chicken George [which, by the way, is so good this season!]), and almost the rest of the wacy gaggle. Interestingly enough, there’s no mention of journalistic martyr Josh Wolf, which we found bizarre.

Basically, McKinley points out that no "major contender" is going for Newsom's jugular this time around (a la Matt Gonzalez) -- even spot-on Chris Daly admits this as a “very difficult campaign” -- and that, of course, Newsom will be our mayor for four more years. Probably.

But you knew that already.

(Photo credit: Erin Lubin/Bloomberg News)

YES!!!! Thank you, CUIP-SF, for passing along your YouTube clip of the guy singing his pro Ed Jew version of Madonna's Borderline at the public comment session of yesterday's Board of Supervisors meeting! Thank you thank you thank you!!!

The Chron's Local News Blog's got a clip up too. Hooray!

Officer Andrew Cohen made headlines in recent years for the videos he produced spoofing the SFPD. The videos were intended to be a humorous sendoff to former police captain Rick Bruce and poke fun at the officers at his station. They were also intended to be internal -- but they got out, and things got out of hand.

Cohen recently published a guest editorial over at Fog City Journal, discussing his recent court victory. His initial four-day suspension at the hands of Police Chief Heather Fong after the scandal broke was overturned, as it skirted department rules. Cohen is still waiting for a commission hearing that will determine if he's guilty of misconduct for posting the videos.

All of this is well documented. We wanted to take this opportunity with Cohen to ask about more than the "VideoGate" scandal, rather than just rehashing what most of us already know. We sought the 12-year-vet's opinion on the state of policing in the city, his perspective on local politics and political figures, and what comes next for him.

1) From your perspective, what are the major hurdles facing the police department today? Specifically, there's been much made about shootings, and our readership is constantly debating where the problem lies: lack of funding, lack of manpower, and/or ineffective deployment of the resources already in place. What's your take on those theories? Is there something else? Especially since you were stationed in the Bayview for so long, we're very interested in your perspective.

Shootings are a very difficult topic to cover. While many are quick to point the finger, normally in an attempt to lash out at a rival or disliked politician, there are also a number of activists who are motivated by sheer hopeful recognition of their respective causes. Meanwhile, the real victims, normally the quietist amongst them all, are the residents in the areas that are hardest hit by these senseless killings. In my experience, these are the folks who are scared to death, literally, of the retaliatory violence that is most certain to come if they are caught opening their mouths ("snitches get ditches"). And, as always, the lowly Police Officer will take the brunt of the blame simply due to the graphic adage, and Physics 101: “Shit rolls downhill”.

More -- much more -- from Cohen after the jump. Photo courtesy of Andrew Cohen.

Alas, no, we don't have the YouTube clip of the guy singing the Ed Jew Borderline song yet (has anyone figured out what the heck is going on with Channel 26's programming right now?) -- but we can report that the Chron's back on the Ed Jew beat, hooray!

Tomorrow's report (up live now, which is why this post is going up when it is) is that Gavin Newsom said that he's considering options for getting Ed Jew out of office. We imagine Gavin giving this press conference while lying flat on the floor to ease his lower back pain (man, we don't wish lower back pain on anyone -- get well soon, Gavin!)

Gavin said that irrespective of the residency issues, he's very concerned that Ed seems to have admitted that he took a $4