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Daily Blah FAQ
Who are you?
I'm the newly-appointed Future editor at Business 2.0 and the former San Francisco correspondent for Time Magazine.
Wow, so does this mean everything you write reflects Time Inc's opinion? Or do you perhaps have some sort of standard disclaimer to the effect that it doesn't?
Naturally, the opinions contained in this blog are not those of my employers. In fact, some opinions may be the polar opposite of my employers. Some may be the same, for all I know. Hey, it's not like I ask my employers their opinions about everything in the news, okay? Let's just say that if this were a Venn diagram with one circle marked "my opinions" and the other one marked "my employers' opinions", there would doubtless be some overlap. But neither I nor my employers are able to pinpoint exactly where that overlap is.
What is this Daily Blah thing?
An experiment for a column I wrote about blogging back in December 2001. All these years later, I haven't been able to kick the habit.
If it's called Daily Blah, how come you don't ... hey, wait, you're writing every day!
See? Told you I'd try harder.
Mister, you talk funny. Are you one of them furrners?
Why yes I am, as it happens. I was born, raised and educated in Great Britain. I've been living in the U.S. since 1996 and identify as British.
I say, old chap, you forgot the "u" in "colour."
No I didn't. I may identify as British, but I am also an American journalist writing for an American audience about mostly American issues. These two different sides of me are a constant source of tension. Nevertheless, Daily Blah will adhere to American English grammar and spelling.
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Daily Blah for... Sunday, November 30, 2003
San Francisco Goes Green
Apologies to the regulars for not posting in a week. I have two pretty good excuses. The day after my last post was my 30th birthday, and the surprise party P arranged that night took some time to recover from. Then there was last week -- not just Thanksgiving, but my one and only chance to get something in the magazine on the San Francisco mayor's race, which is shaping up to be one hell of a battle. But after a short week crammed with interviews and soul searching, my story got slashed into the 60-line stump you see below. I'll post the longer version tomorrow.
The Greening Of San Francisco
The rise of mayoral candidate Matt Gonzalez
By CHRIS TAYLOR
Sunday, Nov. 30, 2003
As if Arnold Schwarzenegger's victory weren't enough, California Democrats now have to contend with the very real possibility of losing the mayor's race in San Francisco — and to someone who has outflanked them on the left. A TV poll last week put Green Party candidate Matt Gonzalez ahead of Democratic rival Gavin Newsom, 52% to 45%, among those who say they are "certain" to vote in the runoff election on Dec. 9.
Gonzalez, 38, is a floppy-haired former public defender who once played bass in a punk rock band and doesn't own a watch or a car. Elected to the city's board of supervisors during the dotcom boom, Gonzalez (who was a Democrat until he became disillusioned with the party's campaign tactics in 2000) helped lead the charge against upscale real estate development to house the high-tech rich. But he still manages to charm campaign contributions out of two of the city's biggest developers. He promises to make San Francisco a "laboratory for what government will look like under Green leadership." So far, that appears to be a pledge not to be like the incumbent mayor, Willie Brown, in promoting political cohorts to choice city posts.
Gonzalez seems to be riding the anti-incumbent wave that swept Schwarzenegger into office. He joined the race only 12 weeks before the primary, and finished second to Newsom, who until recently was the all-but-anointed heir of the term-limited Brown. Newsom, 36, was well known for his backing last year of a popular proposition dubbed Care Not Cash that sought to solve homelessness in San Francisco by offering shelter vouchers in place of welfare payments. He is endorsed by such top Democrats as Al Gore and House minority leader Nancy Pelosi of California. And he has a $3 million campaign war chest. Gonzalez has raised a mere $300,000.
But in the counterculture capital, Newsom's advantage may be a drawback. "I tell Democrats, 'Want to have an easier race against a Green? Don't outspend him 10 to one,'" Gonzalez says. "It's such an unlevel playing field, the electorate starts to identify with the small guy."
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