It’s Playoff Time.

I’m not a sportswriter… and it’s a far cry from politics to the gridiron… but yesterday witnessed the re-emergence of one of the truly preeminent football franchises in the history of the sport.

The San Francisco 49ers, Alex Smith and their no-nonsense head coach Jim Harbaugh, pulled off what may be the most remarkable finish to win a division playoff game in recent memory… possibly since 1981. Then, it was Joe Montana to Dwight Clark in what came to be known as ‘The Catch’.



This football franchise has seen its share of remarkable moments. The image of Terrell Owens at the goal line, snagging a last minute pass from Steve Young in the last three seconds of the 1999 NFC wild-card playoff game against the Packers at ‘The Stick’, is still fresh in the 49er faithfuls’ minds as the ‘The Catch 2′.

There can be no greater indication of the ‘new’ 49ers resurgence than the fans in Candlestick Park. The old place really rocked… you could hear the roar from miles away on the wind. The 49ers are back… and that ‘old’ stadium which has seen so many great 49ers teams over the years has, at least temporarily, a new lease on life.

It’s the ‘Niners’ at ‘The Stick’, and nothing can be better. Gone, for the moment, is the conflict over San Francisco losing the Niners to a monstrously politically-motivated boondoggle down in Santa Clara. The citizens of Santa Clara are about to be fleeced for well over a billion dollars they don’t have and can’t make up, no matter what the pols or the ‘experts’ say.

I love the San Francisco Forty Niners as only a native can, but that new stadium deal stinks to high heaven. It’s ‘new’ green technology is strongly reminiscent of another liberal boondoggle nearby; anyone remember Solyndra? Apparently, the EPA has its long nose in the mix here as well. That cannot bode well for the citizens of Santa Clara county. Wherever the EPA goes, economic conditions go with them… downhill.

I can’t blame the Forty Niners organization. They are, after all, a business and their owners reasonably expect to show a profit (oh no!… not the awful profit word). But there’s a much bigger story here.

There’s a double-edged sword and it’s called jobs. Santa Clara is home to some of the most dynamic and profitable businesses here in the erstwhile Golden State. It’s also home to the exodus of many of the state’s most wealthy and successful citizens. Governor Jerry ‘Moonbeam’ Brown’s malgovernance has caught up with him… his backdoor regulation, taxation and ‘proposed’ tax increases on the ‘wealthiest’ Californians have really opened the flood gates to people voting with their feet, and incidentally taking their money, their companies and their ‘brain trust’ with them, to business friendly states where fiscal sanity rules and ‘profit’ is not an evil word.

San Francisco is, if anything, in far worse shape than California as a whole. Liberal governance has that effect no matter where it is practiced. But, for all its kinky quirkiness, the City by the Bay can unite and agree on one thing… the San Francisco Forty Niners are the real deal, and we’ll see you next Sunday at ‘The Stick’.

Semper Vigilans, Semper Fidelis

© Skip MacLure 2012

The Cost Of A Bus Ticket.

A local news item caught my attention yesterday, on San Francisco’s CBS5 television station. It concerned the city’s municipal transport system, or ‘Muni’.



While the transport organization rumbles on with a $21 million deficit, new ticket kiosks are being built at two locations. Looks  like possibly a good idea at first glance. Sell more tickets, more passengers, more fares, more income to cut the deficit.

These are not the common or garden type kiosks though. The sort that look like either a burger trailer or Uncle Henry’s shed. They are state-of-the-art contraptions, constructed of stainless steel with bullet proof glass. The cost for the pair… $829,000!

Has the Muni gone loony? Well, perhaps not. You see, it’s not their money that they used to purchase these hi-tech boutique des billets. Neither is it funded from the city coffers… if there are any left, that is. It’s another wonderful investment, courtesy of the federal stimulus program. In other words, you bought them.

The terms of the grant insisted that Muni build new structures (with all the expensive bureaucratic procedures associated with anything ‘new’ in San Francisco), rather than perhaps ‘stimulating’ an existing empty office or retail unit, of which there are plenty.

This is just one of the ludicrous earmarks that are hitting every American in the pocket. The ‘use it or lose it’ excuse doesn’t vindicate the recipients of these giveaways, either.

While businesses and individuals are trying to make ends meet, don’t they feel any shame at using taxpayers’ money for projects that would still be highly questionable if it was their own money during an economic boom? Perhaps not.

(Editor Dee is in for Skip today)

Delusion.

It must go down in history as one of the most delusional celebrations in history, ranking up there with the White Star Line directors hailing the maiden voyage of RMS Titanic as a success, or Napoleon claiming that Waterloo was his finest hour.



How Nancy Pelosi could celebrate the achievements of the 111th Congress, while keeping a straight face, is a total mystery to me. Going one incredulous step further, she announced her intention to remain as Minority Leader.

Historically, incumbent leaders have usually done the honorable thing after such a shellacking. Given that her Congress was possibly the most unpopular ever, perhaps she thinks that the disapproval of the public aimed at everyone else except her. After all, she does retain a lot of support in her own district. Uh… Nancy, it’s San Francisco. As my mother used to say, “You could put a donkey up there and they’d vote for it”.

Soon to be gavel-less, it will be interesting to see how things unravel from January. Her election as Leader draws me to one of two conclusions. Either the majority of the remaining Democrats intend to carry on attempting to push their agenda as if nothing had happened, with no hope of getting enough votes to proceed to the Senate, or they have given up the ghost entirely and don’t care who is leading them.

Pelosi’s overwhelming desire to hold on to authority is a classic example of the dictatorial Marxist philosophy that once you have power never relinquish it, regardless of the consequences to anyone else.

Her ideology, and that of her cohorts, is demonstrated by her reverse logic approach to Congressional proceedings. “You can see what’s in the bill after we pass it”. Similarly, Obama’s statement that we’ll see the benefits of Obamacare further down the road. Well, we have seen the evils contained in Pandora Pelosi’s box, and we don’t intend getting that far down the road to discover the hidden delights (not) of Obamacare.

I shouldn’t be griping about her, or Obama for that matter. We have now re-taken the House and they don’t have the ability to drive through their socialist plans any longer. Besides, the more they cling to their blindfolded ideologies, the easier it will be for us in 2012.

(Editor Dee is in for Skip today)

The New Barbary Coast.

Oakland, California was a place of refuge for tens of thousands of badly frightened San Francisco residents, in the days just following the 1906 earthquake. Arriving in just about anything that would float in those pre-bridge days, they were welcomed as best the people of Oakland could manage. Many decided to stay and build homes there. For years, Oakland existed as a bucolic community in the shadow of her garishly dramatic neighbor across the bay.

The 'Barbary Coast' - Pacific Street in 1913.

The San Francisco of the 1850s was a wild and dangerous place for the unlucky or unwary. The influx of gold seekers had caused an explosion in the population of what had been a sleepy Spanish village. From 1847 to 1870, the population of San Francisco increased from 500 to around 150,000. “Follow the money”, and that’s exactly what hundreds of thieves, murderers, prostitutes, confidence men, purveyors of opium and just about any other vice you could imagine, or pay for, did. Sometimes you paid with your life. This ‘anything goes’ district on the waterfront, in what is now the downtown district, came to be known as the ‘Barbary Coast’.

It was an area no self-respecting citizen of San Francisco would frequent. Corrupt city officials ran interference for the well-heeled criminal king pins of the day. When the situation became intolerable, the ‘solid citizens’ of San Francisco rose up and formed ‘The Committee of Vigilance’ in 1851 (about the time of my own family’s arrival in San Francisco, overland). After a few hangings and forcing some corrupt officials to resign, in addition to arresting and deporting a few dozen undesirables and turning others over to city authorities, the Committee that had formed for a ‘term’ of three months disbanded, as agreed.

Vigilance Committee members.

Numbering some 700 men, they showed remarkable restraint. In addition to causing the city’s underworld population to step lightly and keep a very low profile, they walked street patrols, keeping watch for fires and other disorders. In time, the rats returned to their nests and the committee was revived again in 1856, this time with an approximate 6,000 members. The old Barbary Coast is a dim memory now and the subject of walking tours through downtown San Francisco.

Oakland had no Barbary Coast. Most people know Oakland as the home of the Raiders football team, and know little else about the city. The Oakland police force has to deal with a number of high crime areas. At full strength, it should be fielding between eight and nine hundred officers. Police numbers have suffered, as do most critical services under successive liberal administrations, going all the way back to former Governor Jerry ‘Moonbeam’ Brown, who became Oakland’s 44th Mayor. Now, with the impending firing of eighty police officers, things on the streets may reach critical mass.



I’ve spent my entire career in emergency service in the private sector. I can tell you for a fact that there are neighborhoods and entire areas in Oakland we would not go into. Certainly not after dark, in any case. I’m not advocating vigilance committees, but residents in some of these neighborhoods may have to band together as armed responsible citizens to protect themselves, their families, homes and property from the influx of crime which is sure to result from the OPD’s just-published list of crimes it will no longer be able to dispatch units to… which seems to cover just about everything except assault, rape, mayhem and murder.

There is an axiom which has proven true, despite all the statist spin to the contrary:
“An armed society is a polite society.”
Let’s hope that Oakland does not indeed become the ‘New Barbary Coast’.

Semper Vigilans, Semper Fidelis

© Skip MacLure 2010