It's not too late to see the Green Presidential Debate that Matters...

Oh No, Chris Kavanaugh! Berkeley's own Ed Jew, a Green Party member of the Berkeley rent board who was actually living (and litigating with his landlord) in Oakland, pled not guilty to three charges of voter fraud, one charge of perjury, and one of grand theft (for taking a stipend from the Berkeley rent board) yesterday. Kavanaugh spent Friday night living in the Santa Rita jail before being released on $30,000 bond, and will report......

Not to be outdone by San Francisco's own zip code fibbing person of the people, Green Party follower and Berkeley Rent Stabilization Board member Chris Kavanagh, according to today's Matier and Ross, "was hauled out of an Oakland coffee shop [Cole's Coffee Shop] in handcuffs today" and thrown in the clink on fraud charges for lying about his Berkeley residence. It seems that he actually lived on 63rd Street in Oakland, where he was......

As this Sesame Street YouTube clip asks, who are the people in your neighborhood, Ed Jew? And -- good idea, commenter Apioca Ted! Here's a summary of the declarations filed by Ed Jew's neighbors: --Barry Hermanson: Barry was the State Assembly candidate for the Green Party, and has lived a couple houses down from Ed Jew's "address" for 17 years. Barry met Ed when both of them were running for District 4 back in......

What's Ed Jew doing today, now that he's been excused from jury duty? This has got to be the first time anyone's been trying to get San Francisco jury duty, ever. --The Chron's got the news on the City Attorney's quo warranto petition. Among the tidbits revealed: Ed Jew's wife has been taking a deduction on the Burlingame house as her primary residency for San Mateo County tax purposes -- and, hey, remember how......

Well, you could either go to Carnaval this weekend -- or you could go to the State Green Party Convention. Ross Mirkarimi (seen here going into the dunk tank) is giving the keynote address, and the delegates plan to debate issues like ranked-choice voting, lowering the voting age to 17, and immigration. They may also get to issues about global warming. The convention starts at 11:30 a.m., goes through the Memorial Day weekend and is......

Friend of SFist judy b. is moderating a discussion about San Francisco's criminalization of poverty at the Little Roxie tonight, which is co-sponsored by the People of Color Coalition of the SF Green Party, POOR Magazine, and the SF People's Organization. Sup. Ross Mirkadreamy is scheduled to speak, as is PD Jeff A-Hotty-dachi. 6:30 p.m. and $5-15, but since it's about poverty, no one will be turned away for lack of funds). (Note: the......

-Barack Obama Superstar is a hit in the Bay Area. -UC Merced runs afoul of some shrimp. ...

We can't be bothered to type up all these intriguing little political news tidbits into that many separate posts for the day! So we're compiling them all here. --That map above is from David Latterman's analysis (.pdf) of the yes votes on our favorite proposition this season: Question Time Proposition I! Greens are nos, blues are yes. Look at all those haters in Districts 7 and 8 who didn't want us to ask Gavin......

Happy Thanksgiving! --Speaking of Thanksgiving, thanks very much to Pat Murphy of the San Francisco Sentinel, who was nice enough to pass along William Wilson's picture of Gavin and squeeze of the moment Jennifer Siebel. Here's another picture of the couple at Stanlee Gatti's art exhibition. --It looks like after the provisional ballots are counted, incumbent Johnnie Carter may just squeak by John Rizzo (the Green Party candidate) for the SF Community College board,......

We're being civic-minded tonight, which translates to giving you the scoop on election night parties. SFist Rita has already filled us in on the District 6 celebrations, though we don't know where Manuel Jimenez' shindig is happening. We hope he's not still mad at us. Music for America is hosting a big screen, non-partisan as far as District 6 is concerned, election results-watching party at 12 Galaxies (2565 Mission St. @ 22nd) with DJs.......

Since we've been doing a bunch of postings about our super-exciting congressional race, we'd love to come up with some clever title along the lines of "Everybody Hates Chris" but we are coming up with nothing. Sorry-- we're a little jet-lagged these days. Needless to say, we do have some Pelosi & Pals news today as the Washington Post has a big feature on some anti-lobbying bill she's been working on for awhile that could see the light of day if she does become Madame Speaker. Lots of bans on travel and gifts are involved and we'll see what happens the moment she does become Madame Speaker. Our guess is that it'll pass with loopholes a' plenty....

Congressional Candidates for San Francisco's lesser parties-- Green, Libertarian and Republican held a press conference yesterday to highlight Nancy Pelosi's refusal to debate them. Or do pretty much anything to acknowledge their existence like responding to letters. The press conference featured Krissy Keefer (Green Party), Philip Berg (Libertarian Party) and Mike DeNunzio (Republican Party) and was held in front of the federal building. Instead of attending, Pelosi sent an aide with a letter to the meeting, which was read out loud. The letter basically said Pelosi was too busy campaigning elsewhere to campaign in the city she represents. You know, we'd pay to see a Keefer/Pelosi debate, especially if they let Keefer bring the Taiko drums. ...

As fall settles in and another calendar page gets turned, thoughts turn from bbq's and vacations to holidays and the realization that '06 is coming to an end. With all that going on, with change in the air, we wonder what is it that made that makes the -ists ponder? ...

Some people say the Green Party is a legitimate, serious national organization that could some day overtake the Democrats as the party of the Left and smash the hegemony of the country's two-party system. Other people say the Green Party is nothing but a bunch of flaky, crazy artist types so out of teach with reality that the only constructive thing they do politically is throw the occasional election to Republican candidates. The reason we bring this up is because while playing around on the internets, we found this viral campaign video for Green Party congressional candidate Krissy Keefer on YouTube. All we can say is it's very, very interesting. ...

And the second in our school board interviews -- Kim Knox! Knox is currently a member of the local SF Green Party County Council, and blogs with Robert Haaland and Sasha Magee at Left in SF. Just to remind you guys, everyone gets the same questions and we run the answers unedited! The floor is yours, Kim! Introduce yourself, and tell us what you currently do. My name is Kim Knox, an education and environmental......

Like a lot of you, we stumbled into the election booth last Tuesday and discovered much to our surprise that we had to vote for Nancy Pelosi. Did we know that? Does she actually ever campaign here? We can't really recall ever seeing any ads or posters or even bumper stickers promoting Pelosi, like, ever. Is there anyone out there who could challenge her? Well, have no fear, the Green Party is here. ...

Hey, time to fuel up that ol' SUV and drive with the freon-leaking A/C on to see local filmmaker Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth, opening on Friday at the Embarcadero Center (and at the Sequoia in Mill Valley). MoveOn.Org is asking people to buy tickets in advance to pump up the buzz, and Paramount has announced it'll be donating 5% of the profits to the Alliance for Climate Protection. Thanks, Green Party, for making it......

Nancy Pelosi maybe the second most powerful Dem in the country, but that doesn't mean she's getting any love from us hometown folks. For some, it's because if it wasn't for the fact she was constantly referred to as a "San Francisco Liberal" most of us wouldn't know she was our Congressman (Congresswoman? Congressperson? Congresswomyn?). For others, it's because she hasn't used her position as minority leader of a minority party to end the war, impeach the President, AND pass laws only allowing dolphin free tuna. As a result, progressive types have started up a movement to draft up Matt Gonzalez to run against Pelosi. Because nothing makes progressives swoon more than when the Shaggy Haired One bats his big, beautiful eyes in their direction. ...

Thanks to our super-secret sources for sending along the Vanity Fair picture that we didn't have earlier, of Gavin Newsom moodily contemplating eco-friendliness with two fatter guys! We kind of want to draw a little thought bubble above him: "How ya like me now, San Francisco Green Party????" (unrelated musing: was it SFist Jackson who noted that every single Newsom initiative has the word "connect" in it? Can someone please arrange for a meeting between Newsom and three other people? We have the "Project Connect Four" post already all written in our head.) After the jump -- the Vanity Fair cover photo, with Julia Roberts dressed up like a tree! The Earth is our home! Picture from Vanity Fair by Art Streiber...

One of our readers just forwarded along an email announcing the creation of a new political animal in town -- not the Green Party, not the Democratic Party (and the press release seems to assume without saying that it's certainly not the Republican Party), but the SF Party Party. Check out their leader, Crash, to your right. The motto is: "Like the Green Party.... without that funny smell. ....Like the Democratic Party without all that......

Like the Arctic Monkeys say: Fake Tales of San Francisco / Echo through the room. In honor of the soon-to-be-released JT LeRoy movie, "The Heart Is Deceitful Above All Things," we've got a new contest! "The Heart Is Deceitful" is based on JT LeRoy's biography creation myth, about how he "ran away" from his "foster home" with his "drug-using trick-turning teenage mother Sarah" to "come out" in "San Francisco." The movie was written and directed by Asia Argento, who also plays Sarah, and it will be officially premiering on March 24 at the Castro (though it did also show at last year's IndieFest). What can you win in this contest? The adorable DECEITFUL t-shirt and undies set shown above, and possibly passes to the movie as well (we're still working on that second part). It's a heart on the crotch of the undies. And what do we want in exchange? Give us your fakest tale of San Francisco! A one-line description of the character ("a Green Party blogger who practices vegan-friendly S&M in the basement of the rental apartment she's going to be Ellis Act evicted out of"), sample dialogue from your San Francisco slash fiction novel ("'Kiss me again, Chris!,' breathed Gavin. 'Like Kimberly does!'"), or even a whole paragraph of your tale -- we'll publish the top three entries (if we get enough entries in the first place, you slackers), and the winner takes the underwear and possibly the passes too if we get 'em. Do a good enough job and we might ask your character to write a column for the 'Fist! Enter early and often! We and our intersex dog-walker friend who sells meth in clubs to finance an experimental documentary about the tech industry can't wait to read what you've got! ...

Our Governor has often said that he's torn about capital punishment. He has, in fact, said that the debate inside of him is a duel between his "Austrian brain and the American brain." Well, as we all know, the American brain recently won out. And while the Republicans and the Law-and-Order types are happy, the Austrians are not amused. So not amused they're trying to protest his decision by getting the name of Arnold Schwarzenegger Stadium changed. This after an attempt to get his Austrian citizenship revoked was shot down. ...

So class, how was your first day of school? Kindergarten class went fine, and the SF school district's wildcat strike wasn't as effective as it might have been -- but as we all know, the second day is always the hardest, after all the first-day hoopla dies down. So the rumor making its way around town is that School Superintendant Arlene Ackerman is going to finally make good on her threats and leave town. (scroll down past Centerfolds and the 7 Haight bus.) No one has confirmed this rumor, but there is a 6 p.m. closed meeting of the school board scheduled for tonight. As you may recall, Ackerman hasn't really gotten along with a lot of people on the school board or in the community. And Matt Gonzalez's law firm had filed suit over the procedural legality of what it called a "platinum parachute" provision of Ackerman's contract, which gave her a $375,000 buyout option if she unilaterally decided that her relationship with the board was "unworkable," for which they were roundly criticized for running up the bill against our schools. Well, as is currently being discussed at sfwall.net, it's not really clear who looks worse here now, if the rumor's true -- is it the Greens, for apparently running the super out of town? Or is it Ackerman, who now looks like she was just waiting for the first day of school to pass before making herself some bank? Or is it the school board moderates, who said we should all give Ackerman a chance and forced the parachute contract through in the first place? Maybe everyone needs a time-out here....

Last week's winner, the Guardian: Cover articles: SF school superintendant Arlene Ackerman haaaaaaates the Guardian. Okay, we've now read too much about the school board, we had a nightmare about her and members of the Green Party chasing us around and around in a circle last night. Bill Graham Presents is working exclusively with the Weekly, grr! Hey, we actually went to one of the events listed in "The Mix," that little box of things that the cooler-than-you-are SFBGers went to last week. We're sure this is completely mortifying to the cooler-than-you-are SFBGers to hear, like when the cool kids would go to the Esprit store in high school, only to find that group of math club nerdgirls already there. Tura Satana nee Yamaguchi! Miranda July! And Norwegian Annie, loved by Pitchfork! Next up, the EBX: The EBX brags up all the awards it won. The SF Hooters is now boycotting the SF Weekly because the EBX ran a I Like Eating cartoon making fun of their bad food! (The Weekly and the EBX are both owned by New Times Media.) More horse coverage. Cover article: everyone gets along in Newark, CA. The Hootersly-banned I Like Eating dines at the 7-11. Miranda July! But no Annie. And Savage Love: eeps, more tips on rectal tampons! After the jump, the triumphant return of the Metro and the Weekly....

It's no secret that people tend to display their political leanings on their car bumpers, and it's also no secret that emotions are running high. SFist will also confess that when we see the rare Bush/Cheney bumper sticker on the road, we sometimes speed up and pass them just so we can see what they look like. But a Mountain View resident who got the personalized license plate NO*BUSH went outside Sunday morning and found that a disgruntled Republican had taken a baseball bat to the rear window of his SUV and dented the plate. ...

The League of Pissed Off Voters continues with their 40 Parties in 40 Days (though we're now only at a fortnight more of parties) with a big Thursday-night bash. ...

Speaking of Ralph Nader, looks like his options in California are running out. Last night the state Green Party executive committee, in an 11-7 vote, rejected Nader's request that the party hold its own nominating convention, which may have led to Nader's being on the ballot for President under the Green banner rather than David Cobb, who took the nomination in the national party convention in Milwaukee two months ago....

For those of you who thought the lamp posts, telephone poles, and coffee shop windows in town look too empty, fret no more! It's almost time for Supervisor elections!!...