Free Republic

We told you that Mark Bogetich, a Republican "political vulnerability researcher," had requested a variety of information about the Department of Public Health's new "Healthy Penis" campaign. He wouldn't say why, but it could be used someday against Mayor Gavin Newsom in his run for governor. After all, health staffers walking around in giant penis costumes to promote syphillis testing might not play well in certain parts of the state.

New York City's famous Naked Cowboy was due in a San Francisco court on Monday after being arrested there Friday while singing in his underwear, the New York Post reported. Robert Burck, clad only in skin-tight underpants, cowboy boots and a hat, was busted on a sidewalk just outside of Union Square for performing his act in a restricted area. He said the West Coast cops didn't immediately recognize him as Times Square's most famous street performer — and mocked his familiar ensemble when they got him back to the station.

In case you haven't heard the Barack Obama quote surreptitiously taped at an April 6 San Francisco fundraiser, then broadcast on Huffington Post, here it is: Obama noted that in many high-unemployment small towns, jobs have been gone for decades and neither the Bush or Clinton administrations helped restore them, so "it's not surprising then they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations." You've heard this song sung before. Before he became Democratic National Committee chairman, Howard Dean...

San Francisco -- Talk about strange bedfellows. Hillary Rodham Clinton, the 2008 Democratic presidential candidate, and John McCain, the Republican presumptive nominee, joined forces this week to repeatedly remind voters that Barack Obama was - where else? - in San Francisco when he talked about "bitter" American workers who "cling" to religion and guns out of frustration. And in the latest 2008 presidential campaign brouhaha, the City by the Bay has again become a potent symbol for that perceived liability of Democratic candidates: a tendency to be flaky, out of touch and entirely too liberal to appeal to Joe Sixpack...

Living in any city, particularly one as small as San Francisco, comes with its challenges- the loud neighbors, the lack of parking, the graffiti, the panhandlers. Then, there are the sirens and air horns. If you live near a fire station - and if your home is in San Francisco, the odds are good, because there are 42 stations spread out over 49 square miles - you may have taken these periodic wails and honks as another given nuisance. But a large group of citizens in the city's center - the Tenderloin, Polk Street, South of Market and central Market...

San Francisco should not have to spend $1 million on a wheelchair ramp in the Board of Supervisors chambers to assure equal access for people with disabilities. There must be less expensive options than the 10-foot ramp that has been through 18 designs and consumed more than $200,000 in planning. One alternative would be to do what the board has done for the past three years - seat its president near floor level, instead of the ornate, elevated podium that would require a significant retrofit of the historic room. Board President Aaron Peskin said he would like to find a...

Is San Francisco anti-military? Mayor Gavin Newsom said Saturday, "I am sick and tired of this city being depicted as anti-military. The extreme right exploits the exception, when I believe there is a predominant respect in this city for the military, vets and those serving today." Newsom had a point when he said that critics of The Special City will not "allow the facts get in the way." Stories about Ess Eff turning away a crew filming a Marine recruitment ad apparently were much ado about nothing. The city did issue a permit - if not for the day the...