Thursday night at Virgil's Sea Room on Mission Street a slew of good looking and well-read people came together to drink beer and eat hamburgers. It was our first SFist reader meet-up since anybody could remember and your editors were joined by a raft of anonymous commenters (in costume!), unsung regular readers, noted Bay Area media, and even one city supervisor.

Special thanks to photographer and occasional SFist contributor Erik Wilson for capturing all our tender moments. Many thanks also go out to Speakeasy Ales & Lagers for spotting us all those cheap pints that are currently ringing through my head, to Wes Burger for feeding us, and to the lovely folks at Virgil's Sea Room for keeping the drinks flowing until everyone was good and drunk for some karaoke afterwards.

Also, if you didn't get one of our (wildly popular) tote bags, fear not! We promise to do it again sometime soon. And for those of you who did, please send us pics of you using your bags in most strange and unusual ways. For example.

Again, thank you. We can't do this without you.

P.S.: If anybody lost a tiny umbrella, please email andrew@sfist.com, I seem to have somehow gone home with someone else's last night. (Sorry!)

SFist commenter fizzandpop captures the mule-like tone of the entertaining Tea Party sect via the following comment on President Barack Obama's re-election bid. Behold:

I think he's going to have a fight on his hands. Those Tea Party folks sure do have a lot of fresh new ideas that will turn Washington on it's head. I think they really speak for average Americans like me who want a smaller government that will keep paying checks to people like me but stop handing out money and services to people who are not like me. A government who will let me do what I want, but stop people who are not me from doing what they want. It's about time someone stood up for the rights of rapists and curtailed the rampant abuses of family planning doctors. With natural disasters occurring on a weekly basis, the last thing we need is oversight of our energy resources. And let me remind you, Obama is a black man, and I just don't like his whole idea about creating a generation of militant muslim robotchildren.

Perfect. And yet frightening.

Generic's blog features lots of interesting local anecdotes. For instance, this man looks perfectly presentable, yet he's talking to himself. He's also wearing an AC Transit pin -- even better!

Sadly, a local photo developing shop declares itself obsolete. Parking at UC Berkeley is way confusing. And as mentioned last week, teaching high school kids, who have never heard of Pulp Fiction, teaches the teacher that he is old.

Generic's blog is also full of chuckle-worthy images. And the dollar bill will be interesting!

This post marks a brand new feature, in which we give SFist's blogging commenters some props, as a thank you for helping make SFist great.

Upon viewing AngryBat's blog, 40 Going on 28, for just a few minutes, we learned some interesting things. First, on sporadic weekday mornings, you can get a pastry and a hot beverage for just $1 at the 24th St Bart Station from the "Amuse Bouche" guy pictured at left. We agree, what a deal!

Additionally, AngryBat has great taste in music, and he's in a band! He also mentions fellow SFist commenter Generic's blog post, in regards to getting old and how young people have never heard of Pulp Fiction, which saddens us, too.

Yet another feed to add to our newly configured Google Reader!

One of the perks of being behind-the-scenes here at SFist is that we get to read all of the angry comments that come after a story has moved away from the home (or first five) pages. Typically they are the of the 4a.m. meth'd-out variety (our favorite kind, really). But after a post lingers in purgatory, frequently a MSM news source will pick up on it and it will cull all kinds of fresh voices. Take, for example, the "Map of Prop 8 Donors" post, which has garnered some news comments as of late. Comments we'd like to share with you.

SFist commenter italian415 pounded his (presumably hairy) chest yesterday with this gem.

I made a contribution to YES on Prop 8 as well. I invite any activist, whether they be gay, straight, black, white, whatever, to do what you deem necessary with the information you have been given. May I warn you, should you trespass or harass me in any way, shape, or form, I will use physicality to force my opinion on you. I will not hold back. So come one, come all. You have got my address, name, and company. Bring it. I am always fully stocked, locked, and loaded.

italian415 fails, however, at giving his name or the address to his compound. And we're simply dying to see said physicality IRL. Alas.

We like one of the SFGate commenters' take on the sitch: hit by a car "after getting thrown under the bus by Newsome [sic]." We hit the recommend button on that one! You may recall that Newsom has been pestering Leal to resign, either because she wasn't considered a sufficiently loyal Newsomite (she ran against him for mayor), or because she was pushing for public power. You know, if Newsom actually is cleaning house for his second term, the PUC is not the place where we figured he'd start.
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Newsom's got an alibi, anyways -- he's in Iowa with Hillary Clinton -- but the message has been sent! Chris Daly, be careful out there!

Ever since that childish display of local politicking, all sides have been more or less civil and relatively respectful of one another. It goes without say how disappointed we are in both sides. Where's the name calling? Where are the sock puppeting commenters? Where's the unbridled hate? Sigh.

Anyway, our sources tell us that "[t]his is it. Migden will either get 60% of the vote to get the endorsement, or she won't and then nobody will get endorsed this go around." And if you're not attending one of the many open-bar holiday parties blessing bars and nightclubs around city, we highly recommend attending this endorsement meeting.

The Harvey Milk Club votes on endorsements for the February 2008 election and the June 2008 State Senate primary tomorrow, December 11, 7 p.m. to 9 at the Women's Building. Ladies, clip your nails; men, wear your cups. It might get dirty.

The Milk Club's (AKA the, ahem, HMLGBTDC) press release about tomorrow's meeting after the jump.

Yeah, we plan on running this bit into the ground. And then some.

Well, well, well. Well. Huh. It looks like Mr. Van Sant is having yet another open casting call for his Harvey Milk biopic, Milk. Seeing as how are the Gena Rowlands of bit-part/background acting, we're going to attend the casting call. Again. Clearly, our picture taken at the last audition was either destroyed by a envious auditioners, or it was lost among the riff-raff of local flavor. It looks like we have to do it all over again. But this time we're a) totally for reals getting a speaking part, and b) snapping a picture of the Palme d'Or-winning auteur no matter what the cost. (Except jail, we're not going to jail. Or putting out.)

We hear, via our fine commenters, that you might have an edge at the casting call if you dress up circa San Francisco in 1970s. So don't forget the oversized sunglasses, poppers, and bushy chest hair, kids.

What: Milk Casting Call
When: Saturday, December 8
Where: The Sanchez School, 325 Sanchez (at 16th Street)
Time: 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
For more info, call 415-263-6877

In an effort to tame the trolls, SFGate's site (as well as a few others like ThinkProgress) use software from an outside company that implements a unique "block user" function. This feature blocks all comments made by a user from view by anyone but themselves (upon login). That is to say, whenever the quasi-banned user logs in to the site, they see their comments intact; but to everyone else, the offending comment is simply invisible. When we heard about this "deception" recently, we thought what most blog editors thought: genius. And heads up.

Investigate the Media broke the story -- its only story, in fact. (Hmm. Just who is this JimJams? Curious.) ITM broke it down like this:

Why would SFGate do such a thing? Because ever since public input was first allowed at SFGate, many commenters who had their comments deleted would come back onto the comment thread and point out that they had been silenced for ideological reasons -- i.e. they weren't sufficiently "progressive" -- or because they had pointed out ethical lapses at SFGate and the Chronicle.

"Silenced for ideological reasons?" Banned for not being "sufficiently 'progressive?'" (Do you hear that? That's the din of collective chortling by SF progressives.) And here we thought that this was simply a more gentle yet passive way of dealing with the gaggle of trolls that park under the bridges of any site with user comments. Admittedly, we do understand ITM's point of view here. But the issue here seems to stem from hurt feelings, not noble anguish over dastardly censorship as we're being led to believe. The blocked commenter is upset that their comments and thoughts simply haven't been read. We don't think censorship is the real issue here. He or she simply didn't know that they were banned.

Anyway, we asked former SFist Editor and current Deputy Managing Editor for Online, Eve Batey, just what in God's name is going on. (Full disclosure: Batey is a friend of the site and personal friend.) When asked whether or not commenters are banned for varying viewpoints, she told SFist that "neither The Chronicle nor SFGate would delete a comment based on an idealogical stance. ... Why would we bother to have comments on the site if we didn't want varying viewpoints to be expressed?" She goes on to tell us that "[w]e've stopped using the 'block user' function as of today, even at the risk of having comments 'disappear' and at having some article comment section conversations suffer as a result."

Batey's entire statement after the jump.

After paying up last year for disclosure violations, Senator Carole Migden is once again under investigation for not disclosing or itemizing credit card charges that total $397,000. According to the LA Times, she faces $60,000 in administrative fines if she's in breach, our Miss Migden has investigators looking all up in her credit card charging for over the past seven years. Yikes.

The main cause of concern for not keeping tidy books is that it could mean that money is being spent for personal, not campaign-related, use. Apparently, Migden's reports only list the amount spent and the name of the credit card company...and that's all. (Hey, she sounds better at managing her finances than us. But we digress.)

Oh, and the cattiest part of all, "[t]he Fair Political Practices Commission launched an investigation of Migden's expenses after receiving a formal complaint from Assemblyman Mark Leno...who is a candidate to unseat her in the June 2008 election." Oh, you two. Can't you hug it out over Grasshoppers at the Lex? Don't the gays and the dykes have an strained enough relationship as it is?

Note to our dear commenters: we understand a few of you use SFist as a platform to promote your candidates, and we couldn't be more flattered. You're all golden. But! Opposing candidates' sock puppets might risk outing if you make comments on this post without disclosing your affiliation. (Yes, we know who you are, SFist's beloved sock puppets -- friends, colleagues, all of you.) We're just trying to keep SFist real and fair; that's all. Thanks.

UPDATE: Oh man! How could we have missed this one? There's also going to be a Falun Gong march! We're sick and tired of trying to figure out whether we want to make fun of the pro-FG crowd or the anti-FG crowd -- oh, they're oppressed; but wait, their leader said nasty things about gays; and then there's that weird Epoch Times newspaper that they're involved with -- so we leave the thankless task of making Gong Show jokes to you, our tasteful commenters.

Once again, a bored city casts its gaze to Muni, the cultural arbiter of our time. What's up this weekend? A festival for dead people, and a marathon. Well, a half-marathon, at least. That means that runners are only allowed to use one of their feet.

Anyway, eleven eighteen bus lines are afflicted this weekend. Fun!

But wait, there's more: they're closing 18th Ave and 25th Ave. Not for any events that we can figure out ... so it's probably just because. Details after the jump!

We're looking for contributors in the following areas: Politics (and the local political machinations, people, and slap fights), arts & entertainment (what's happening in clubs or on the Internets), and general city news.

Want to give it a shot? Email us with the position you're interested in the subject line, tell us a little more about yourself, show us a fistful of samples. (And,hey, if you have a proposal for something else that you think SFist needs more coverage of, please feel free to pitch it to us, too!)