It's All About The Finger

"[Berkeley's] recent dustup with the U.S. Marine Corps has so far cost the city more than $200,000, while businesses say they've been slammed by related protests.

And that's on top of the $1 million the city spends annually on domestic and foreign policy matters hatched by its 45 citizen commissions, which outnumber those in virtually every other city in America and debate everything from regime change in Iran to the plight of nonneutered dogs."

- From Carolyn Jones, pointing the finger at Berkeley, in the San Francisco Chronicle

"Nothing brings out the political grandstanding like the national - or even better, the international - spotlight. And so it is that as the Olympic torch is headed for the city, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors has forthrightly gone on record against human rights violations in China.

And the point is?

Not that anyone is in favor of human rights violations. And China certainly has a miserable record.

But who asked the supes? Falun Gong has been handing out leaflets and flyers in front of City Hall in protest of the torch for weeks. "Team Tibet" has an active and vocal group of supporters and is coordinating protests. Archbishop Desmond Tutu is coming to town along with actor Richard Gere.

Was the thinking that there wasn't going to be enough publicity? Because, right now, this looks suspiciously like a group of local pols running to the front of a parade.

This week, Supervisor Chris Daly went to a lot of work getting a resolution passed that condemns human rights violations in China. He introduced it first in the City Operations and Neighborhood Services Committee, where it was turned to mush with amendments by Supervisor Carmen Chu. He then reintroduced it in the Rules Committee, of which he is chairman, and got it to the board that way.

That it passed Tuesday at the full board meeting 8-3 seems to indicate that this wasn't exactly a ticking time bomb of controversy. After all, who doesn't want to vote against human rights violations?

The larger question is: Who should? Even Daly admitted afterward to the Fog City Journal blog - he is a public official who only speaks to media members he considers friendly - that the issue was 'a bit out of reach of the San Francisco supervisors.'"

-- San Francisco Chronicle columnist, C.W. Nevius, pointing that finger right back at San Francisco.