The San Francisco Police Department gets trashed (again), this time care of Karl Vick's Washington Post post article on the foibles of our very own Keystone Cops. In it, basically, he reveals that our police force, in a word, sucks. more ›

• Gothamist found that an explosive set off outside the Times Square army recruiting center may be similar to five past bombings in New York City.
• Seattlest worried when severed right feet and bottles of rat poison started washing up on local beaches.
• Shanghaiist was surprised by Bjork's rooting for Tibetan independence at her concert (see video), and the political fallout has only just begun.
• SFist debated the merits of new bronze plaques that will be placed in locations where San Francisco's homeless have died.
• DCist was obliged to respond to the worst Washington Post Outlook column ever published, in which conservative writer Charlotte Allen tried to make the case that women are dumb.
• LAist found Satan's ice cream truck trolling the streets, and they recorded the music.
• Some crafty Torontoist readers didn't like the dearth of ski hills in downtown Toronto, so they just built one of their own on their deck and (of course) recorded a video of them all taking turns on it.
• Bostonist knows the city's subway and bus system, the MBTA, has problems. So does this 17-year-old who submitted a report and told the MBTA brass how to fix it.
• Phillyist explored the possibility of an Ivy League prostitute, while their commenters debated the most ethical approach to proving or debunking the story.
• Londonist spent a little too much time looking at airbrushed operatic private parts, and enjoyed an enlightening comment from someone who was there. more ›

Photo of San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom behind the wheel of a Tesla Motors Roadster protoype in Fisherpersons Wharf more ›

-- Ed Jew preliminary. [Chron] more ›

You've undoubted heard by now of the controversy where AG AG (That's Attorney General Alberto Gonzales) fired a bunch of people for apparently less than above-board reasons. Well, maybe he had a good excuse for canning Kevin Ryan, former local U.S. Attorney. An article in the Washington Post cites the tesitmony that David Margolis, a Justice Department official, gave to congressional investigators. His testimony indicated that his opinion circa 2004 or 2005 was that Kevin Ryan was "having trouble managing [his office]." Furthermore, according to the article, Margolis said that Ryan wasn't on the initial "to be fired" list--and that Margolis indicated surprise on learning that. more ›

Nancy Pelosi tours Syria rocking the two hottest accessories for spring: a fabulous scarf, and a frozen face. So haute. more ›

It seems like, all across the network, folks were up to no good. Maybe it was all the green beer from last weekend... more ›

As 2006 ends and 2007 begins, the -ists look back not at the past week, but at the past year. So here it is, your Best of 2006 Spectacular. And from all of us at the -ists, happy New Year! more ›

A few interesting tech stories have come out recently. Hey, we can't do Gavin all day. The Washington Post is reporting today that the State Department has come up with a new, super technologically advanced way of spying on Iran, mainly Googling people. Aahh...Google, is there anything you can't do? The hope, we guess, is that they'll stumble on some Iranian's nuclear scientist’s MySpace page and hope it mentions under their likes "developing nuclear bomb to fend off the Great Satan." The CIA, however, says that this is probably not a good way to look for intelligence and then fell over in laughter. There's actually a lot more to the story, mainly involving turf wars between the State Department and the CIA (again) over sharing information and the meaning of it all. more ›

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. more ›

As we sat down to write this week's Best of the -ists post, a car blaring "21 Questions'" passed by our house. And that started us thinking about how some of the best -ist posts out there have at their hearts questions, some of which are answered, and some of which are left open. Check out the Best of the -ists from this week, and see if you agree. more ›

It looks like San Francisco's case of Impeachment Fever is catching on a state-wide level, a bill has been introduced calling for the House of Representatives to start with impeachment proceedings. Two key things about this one-- first off, it also calls for Cheney to be impeached too (which, by our reckoning would give us President Hastert. Unless it happens next year in which case it could mean President Pelosi!). The second thing is that somebody in Illinois did their research and discovered a little known clause in the House rules that says that state legislatures can call for impeachment proceedings. We're sure the House will get right to it. more ›

Phillyist notes a fistfight between local pols that leaves one man down for the count. Jehovah's Witnesses get a Philly contributor out of bed, things get a little geeky with a film festival and geeky gets taken to a whole new galaxy when they talk with the Dragon Queen of the Dark Kingdom. more ›

One of the ways bloggers can leverage their collective influence is through a good, old-fashioned pile on. We don't have to necessarily break the story, but if a critical mass of bloggers start addressing it simultaneously, the s**tstorm will finally hit the mainstream. Just ask Dan Rather. more ›

The very definition of a 'chilling effect' on free speech is when legislation or enforcement of new laws are so potentially onerous that people and organization self-censor out of fear and potential liability. Today, the users of Tribe.net were one of the first groups on the internet to feel that cool breeze, as Tribe have instituted their new Terms of Use with amendments to the provisions regarding mature public content, and presumably, any content deemed offensive by a Tribe user. more ›

While reading Wonkette yesterday, we found ourselves shocked-- shocked!-- to discover that Nancy Pelosi has accepted $8,580 dollars worth of trips paid for by lobbyists "outside sponsors." Expenses paid for included hotel expenses, air fare, and food. Most of it, however, came on one really expensive trip to Taiwan. You know, if it weren't for that videotape of us at a Dead Show with a three-foot bong, some blue unicorns, and that hippie chick Sunshine Lebowitz, we'd totally get into politics. Who wouldn't want to make $180,000 a year and get to travel around the world for free? more ›

We San Franciscan's like to think that we come from a brave and hearty stock. Constantly living under the fear of the next Big One, we're the inheritors of a proud tradition of frontiersmen, sailors, miners, and hookers- the whole "Deadwood" c----sucking crowd. Which is why were a bit chagrined to read how our congresswoman, our representative as it were, handled the emergency evacuation of Capitol Hill yesterday. According to the Washington Post (via a tip by Wonkette), Nancy Pelosi was so encumbered by her "pinkish" high-heels that the Capitol police had to lift her out of them so they could evacuate her, causing the House Minority Leader to lose one of her heels. Luckily, shoe and congresswoman were soon reunited, which we don't think we can say about Nancy and her dignity. We also can't but help sigh over how it looks that the leader of a party commonly depicted as being nothing but a bunch spinelessness, brie-eating, elitists, had to be carried out by the police due to their fashionable shoes. After all, could you imagine Dick Cheney being carried out because of his shoes? Tom DeLay? Dennis Hastert? Sadly, we think not. more ›

So what did we learn from South By Southwest? We learned to trust our baser instincts. You want stars, and we're doing our best to give them to you. But geek stars may be even more fleeting than those that you're used to. We are working with an entirely brand new medium here, and Moore's law applies socially almost as rigidly as it does in terms of semiconductor evolution. more ›

If you're more in the buyin' mood than the shootin' mood, head one down to the Centennial Society's store. You can't buy the Fallen Rapper PEZ dispensers, but you can buy all sorts of other incredibly ironic schwag. We're surprised Seattle's Archie McPhee's hasn't caught on, especially since even the Washington Post already has. more ›

SFist is so thankful to be living in the greatest freakin' city in the world! One of the things that makes San Francisco great is our fantastic public libraries, from which we can quickly and easily reserve whichever books we'd like. We're also thankful for our great local independent bookstores, where we can buy, sell, and trade or books and other media. more ›

Softball article on Maureen Dowd. more ›