Yaki keeps making noises while Coates is testifying..sheesh..not necessary
fat guy so busy fiddling with papers he runs out of time before he gets his question in..bahahaha
http://articles.sfgate.com/2008-07-18/news/17172739_1_party-platform-meetings-michael-yaki
Dems solicit ideas for party platform
San Francisco Chronicle (CA) - Friday, July 18, 2008
Author: Carla Marinucci, Chronicle Political Writer
(snip)
If the idea sounds politically challenging, or even risky - think Rush Limbaugh and his dittoheads weighing in - San Francisco attorney Michael Yaki , who heads the party’s platform committee, says not to worry.
In fact, he’s even invited Limbaugh and his dittoheads to come on down and take part in the meetings that will happen around the country July 19-27.
“I’m excited,” said Yaki , a former San Francisco supervisor and a current U.S. Civil Rights commissioner. “We’re having meetings in all 50 states, in a number of cities. ... We’re hoping that people in rural areas, in the farm belt and in other places will get together. ... I think that’s fine. Americans shouldn’t be strangers to each other.”
Yaki , who practices in both San Francisco and Washington, D.C., says he’s not afraid of the political heat that the meetings might spark. He was, after all, a supervisor in San Francisco for six years - a city where politics is not a sport for the faint-hearted; and before that, he was the district director and senior adviser for Rep. Nancy Pelosi , now speaker of the House, another hot-seat job.
“The reason I volunteered to do this is very simple,” Yaki said in a recent telephone interview from Washington. “I think that Barack Obama represents the best hope for this country. I believe that his message of change and hope and inclusion has struck a chord with the American people that hasn’t been seen in a long time.
“So I thought about what I could do - and it’s clear that the platform would be one area where I know more than a little about: It involves policy and politics.”
Yaki said the idea for turning the party platform into a national conversation was generated by the Obama campaign and echoed in conversations he had with party activists. “We decided ... we needed to do it Obama-style - for the first time, going out to the people and asking them, ‘What do you care about? What are the issues that matter to you?’ “ he said.
(snip)