I Feel The Earth Move

It's not like we're tribal enemies or anything like that, but we agree on very little. He doesn't return phone calls or emails from me, but in the world of big time blogging/politics/punditry that is hardly news. I don't invite him over to drink 18 year old whiskey either.

I'm speaking, of course, about San Francisco Supervisor Chris Daly.

From his point of view (if he even thinks about it), Critical Cloud sunk to an all time low when we awarded him the WTF Award some time back. And then there was that little matter of not supporting Daly during the last set of supervisor elections.

So you can well imagine the seismic shock waves that rippled through the blogosphere, when it became apparent that Supervisor Daly and I actually agreed on something. You can read it here and while the agreement thing is incidental to the public policy issue under discussion, I found myself experiencing a newfound belief in the perfectibility of all mankind and the unity of the universal unanimity.

I also went right out and put $40 on a 300-1 shot at Bay Meadows.

Olympic Torch Photos

Photos from yesterday's almost Olympic torch run.

Closing Ceremony Cancelled

That's it. One of the finest non-event events.

The closing ceremony at Justin Herman Plaza for the Olympic torch was canceled, leaving thousands of protesters and average citizens hoping to get a glimpse with...nothing.

The flak over how the torch was handled will begin in earnest tomorrow, we'd guess.

For now, Gavin has delivered clean television footage to Chinese TV.

Photos of the entire day to follow shortly.

We're Guessing Here, Folks

2:40 PM
The torch is in the Van Ness/Bay Street area. Coming down Bay Street to the Embarcadero?

Torch Route Changed!

2:10 PM
Lots and lots of protesters of all stripes, but no torch.

2:10 PM
The torch was apparently loaded into a van at Pier 48 and driven to Van Ness and Pine. Now heading north on Van Ness and either coming to the Marina and then to the Embarcadero or else through downtown (won't that be a trip).

Olympic Cigar Lighting Goes Off Without a Hitch

While not well attended, the Olympic Cigar Lighting went off as planned.

I Went Down to the Demonstrashun

10:30 AM Justin Herman Plaza and the forces are massing.














The Save Darfur groupies were manning the BART entrances.












Pro-China had nice professionally made banners.















One "boycott China" guy wandered into the middle of the China group.
















Somebody is making a killing selling Tibetan flags.













San Francisco's finest looking for a donut shop before the fun starts.

We Drink the Kool-aid So That You Don't Have To

The big day is here. It's torch time and Critical Cloud will be "on location" (that's big time Walter Cronkite talk) with the minute by minute excitement that only San Francisco can bring.

And in connection with the 2008 Olympics, you'll want to attend the virtual lighting of the Olympic Cigar, also to be held at Justin Herman Plaza. Stayed tuned.












the Olympic Cigar in a secret location prior to the lighting ceremony

We Don't Give No Stinkin' Endorsements

This writer has never felt compelled to make political endorsements. To be honest, no one in their right mind would even THINK of reading Critical Cloud to find out who to vote for. This space is more of a negative, burn-your-bridges, take-no-prisoners approach to politics. You recall the now-famous Motherless Fuckmonkey article.

But every now and then a friend asks if you'll go out of your way and tell the blogosphere what a fantastic candidate someone is. While that's not such a ringing endorsement, when Sweet Melissa made a point to shamelessly beg me to support Jackie Speier for District 12 (California) Congressional seat, I thought well...she's gonna owe me. And I love having markers that I can call in.

If you live in District 12 (southwest San Francisco city and parts of San Mateo County), then you get to vote tomorrow. Go ahead and vote. We'll keep putting out satire.


UPDATE: Wednesday April 9

District 12 voters put Jackie over the top with 75% of the vote yesterday, making her the next Congresswoman from the district. In exit polling conducted by Critical Cloud of as many as three voters, it became clear that the Critical Cloud non-endorsement endorsement put Jackie over the required 50% by as many as 25 percentage points. The margin of error for the poll was plus or minus 25%.