Barack's new SF HQ opens...

The Pope, Linda Blair, and the Vatican’s "exorcist-in-chief." [BeyondChron] SF park improvement ballot measure benefits few. [Curbed]Macworld Keynote 2008 predictions form contest. Very nice. [Laughing Squid] The Chicken McNoggin and other vile food products. [SFoodie] Google Maps will display live Iowa caucus results. [ValleyWag] Swish says see ya. [SFGate] New science-fiction blog! [io9] And finally, Obama and Huckabee pull off surprising wins in Iowa caucuses. [Salon] Image: BeyondChron......

Did she find a horse's head in her office chair the day before? Embattled Susan Leal, who's refused to bow to pressure from Gavin Newsom to resign her position as the general manager of the SF Public Utilities Commission, was hit by a car outside City Hall as she was leaving meetings just before noon today. She was rushed to the hospital, where they found she was okay, if a little shaken. We like one......

Let's hope no oil tankers crash into the Bay Bridge this week -- Gavin's out of town again, this time bundled up for snow as he campaigns for Hillary Clinton in Iowa. Not quite as temperate in the middle of the country right now as it was in his last two vacation spots this month -- guess Gavin still owes the Clintons for backing him in 2003 against non-Democrat Matt Gonzalez, huh? The Republicans......

-- King Corn (2007): Sounds like a tasty breakfast cereal, doesn't it? But in fact, it's a documentary about two college buddies who "plant and grow a bumper crop of America's most-productive, most-subsidized grain [corn] on one acre of Iowa soil. But when they try to follow their pile of corn into the food system, what they find raises troubling questions about how we eat--and how we farm." Screens tonight at 7:15 p.m. and......

--Are you into those Iowa Futures Market invisible-hand-of-the-marketplace economic-based ways of predicting political races? Usual Suspects has started one for the SF mayoral race. Gavin Newsom is pegged to win at $36.78. --The ACLU is going to sue a San Jose company for arranging those "rendition" flights for outsourcing torture. --Don Perata and his spendthrift ways win him a Golden Pig! --Midwifery in San Francisco suffers another blow. --Wow, the real estate market must......

In some ways, we're kind of happy that we here in California have no say in any of the Presidential elections. Sure, it would be nice if our vote counted but at least we can turn on the TV without fear of being bombarded with that many campaign ads. We actually feel sorry for places like Ohio or Iowa and all those swing states for having to put up with all the attention they get during the elections. It's not fair they have to take the brunt of it. ...

There's a move afoot to move up the date of the California Primary from June, where it is now, to February. The reason for it is because by the time California has it's primary, the whole thing has pretty much been settled. We've been in California for a long time and the only time we could remember having much in the way of a say in things was 2000 when thanks to the open primary rule, you could actually vote for McCain just to get your first chance of voting against Bush. ...

Our occasional series on the District 6 Board of Supervisors election! This week's episode: Everybody Hates Varnish. Yesterday, we were wandering with some friends in SoMA trying to find a place to get some post-work libations. As we entered the Varnish art and wine bar on 77 Natoma Street, we noticed a sign in the window: DRAKE '06, www.drake2006.com. Could it be? Could it be another candidate running against Chris Daly? After we ran through two, maybe three, glasses of Varnish's fine red house wine and shamelessly eating all the tasty chex mix they offered, we staggered home, logged in, and can report the following information! Candidate Matt Drake is a former mechanical engineer turned lawyer. Man, everyone running against Chris Daly is a lawyer! Drake doesn't say where he's working now, but says he's never worked in government. Other than that, he's an enigma. We're piecing this together from his (kind of boring) website and blog, but it looks like Drake supports pretty much everything Newsom supports, wants to build more market-rate housing in the Mission, wants a Home Depot in Bayview, and wants them to berth the USS Iowa here. Also, he loves trees and wishes more people filmed movies in town. Drake's throwing a fundraiser next Thursday at Varnish if you want to stop by; your suggested minimum donation is $30. If you go, get the house wine; it was pretty tasty. ...

t's time for American Football Spectacular's bowl preview! Assisted by red wine, our American college football consultant Doug "MC Fried Chicken" Mungin, and the sheer will to succeed, we push ever forward to bring you these scintillating projections. ...

-The Mayor of San Jose, Ron Gonzales, was censured last week by the San Jose City Council for sheninigans involving a contract he negotiated with Norcal Waste Systems. The censure was the first in the city's 155 year history. Breaking with political tradition and going against every rule in the political book, Gonzales accepted responsibility for the censure and said that he "wholeheartedly'' accepted it, adding "it is my obligation to earn back that trust" that he lost over his actions. In calling for censure, however, the City Council also voted to end the independent investigation into the contract because they don't want to "wallow in our shortcomings.'' They also voted to take away some of the Mayor's powers and to consider booting him off several committees. ...

Well, it's come to this. Remember the brouhaha over docking the USS Iowa at Fisherman's Wharf? It was DiFi's idea to send $3 million worth of pork our way. Nevermind pacifist sentiment, the Navy's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy and the fact that floating military museums are a money-losing proposition -- everybody and their mother got on the Supes' case about turning the offer down. So of course The Daily Show sent out cub......

It’s the kind of thing that's supposed to be bang-bang: local congressperson gets congress to vote on the naming of local post office after local hero and congress votes yes because nobody really cares what a post office is named. It happens so frequently and so easily that nobody can remember when anybody last raised a stink. So congresswoman Barbara Lee tried to get the Berkeley Post office named after long-time councilwoman, activist, and Berkeley......

This is going to be a great day. First Tom DeLay gets indicted, and now this! The Examiner reports that Tom Ammiano and Chris Daly just got interviewed by the Daily Show!!!!! OMG! OMFG!!! OMFG!! You know in those segments how you always wonder, "who the heck would agree to be interviewed by Samantha Bee, anyways?" Well, now you know! Ammiano, a former stand-up comic, gamely answered all their questions about the gay-rights controversy over the USS Iowa and said he tried to be funny but that "they have total control over the camera." Ammiano also told his aides, "I think we're going to get punked." Daly, no doubt hardened by years and years of Matier and Ross mockery (and his own special archives category on SFist.com!), said, "I told them I didn't care if they made fun of me, as long as it's funny." (Oh man, Daly must hate us.) No word on when the segment's going to air -- but it's never too early to prepare! Your official SFist Daily Daly Show drinking game after the jump! (Sorry, Tom, it's Chris only.) ...