In San Francisco this past weekend, the Occupy movement bolstered by labor unions and the rebranded California ACORN group ACCE once again terrorized private businesses and got into direct clashes that included throwing furniture, bricks and Bibles at police officers. This was another “Day of Action” for Occupy San Francisco, in a move that was designed to show the world that #Occupy is still relevant despite being thrown out of their encampments. 23 protesters were arrested and two police officers were injured. As one activist said to the San Francisco Examiner, “I think things went well on Friday.”

The significant thing to note here is how blatantly unions and ACCE were involved in these riots and actions against police officers. Back in November, I videotaped how ACCE and the unions — including the SEIU and UAW –choreographed the takeover of Bank of America using Occupy as their front group. The Examiner article contains a quote from an Occupier that does the plain truth about the involvement of ACCE and the unions.

I really don’t understand the controversy there,” said Stardust, a member of Occupy’s communications team. “They have been involved with Occupy since the beginning. The 99 percent includes labor.”

This plan, organize lawlessness raises disturbing questions. Do businesses in San Francisco’s financial district have any recourse to stop these acts of periodic terroristic violence perpetrated on them with malice aforethought by labor and community organizing groups? Are the leaders of these groups engaging in a criminal conspiracy and if so, is anything being done about it? Is anyone in the mainstream press even addressing who is really behind these protests?

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SAN FRANCISCO (AP) – More than 100 police officers gave protesters at the Occupy encampment in San Francisco five minutes to gather belongings before authorities took down about 100 tents and arrested 70 people as the camp was dismantled in an overnight raid.

A few officers remained at daybreak Wednesday as trash crews raked up paper and plastic bottles, removed chairs and other belongings that accumulated at the camp over the past two months and pressure-washed the sidewalks.

Dozens of police cars, fire engines and ambulances surrounded the campsite at Justin Herman Plaza and blocked off the area during the raid, which began shortly after 1 a.m.

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From the San Francisco Examiner:

Ferry Building merchants and managers are fed up with the mayhem that has come with the nearby Occupy SF encampment.

A spike in shoplifting, break-ins and reports of abandoned human waste — and a reported drop in foot traffic — has management fuming about the Justin Herman Plaza encampment. There even are reports of occupiers using the building’s restrooms as washrooms — with folks taking sponge baths from toilets.

And last Monday, eight men were allegedly escorted out of the building after they attempted to use the bathrooms wearing nothing but their boxer shorts.

Property manager Jane Connors has written two letters to The City, one sent Nov. 1 and the other sent Monday. In both, she highlighted merchant complaints and asked police to increase their presence at the building.

But that hasn’t happened.

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This Fourth of July weekend think about what truly represents freedom: Old Glory, the Liberty Bell, and an ice-cold glass of lemonade.

This month’s lineup of busybodies includes two regulars: the FDA, which is slapping new, more graphic, possibly counterproductive, warning labels on cigarette packs and the goldfish grabbers on San Francisco’s Animal Control and Welfare Commission.

But top dishonors go to the sour bureaucrat who put the squeeze on a group of kids for running a lemonade stand. Sure they were raising money for a worthy cause (pediatric cancer research), but they were doing it without a permit, and that’s why they got slapped with a $500 fine.

Presenting Reason.tv’s Nanny of the Month for June 2011: Jennifer Hughes of Montgomery County, Maryland’s Department of Permitting Services!

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We have been hearing a lot about “social justice,” during the tenure of the Obama Administration. From Eric Holder to John Holdren, Lisa Jackson to Van Jones to President Obama himself, the goal of social justice appears to be at the forefront of Mr. Obama’s agenda for the country. But while the term sounds innocuous enough, the goal itself is quite sinister and the road to getting there creates havoc and waste but for the chosen few.

A recent San Francisco Chronicle article proves this point beyond doubt:

“San Francisco’s much-heralded ‘social justice’ requirements for city contracts are costing local taxpayers millions of dollars a year in overcharges, according to workers in departments ranging from the Municipal Transportation Agency to the Department of Emergency Management.

“In one case, a Muni worker said the city paid $3,000 for a vehicle battery tray. Such parts can be found online for $12 to $300, depending on the type of vehicle…

“Other city purchasing policies, if followed, would mean paying about $240 for getting a copy of a key that actually cost a worker $1.35 to get done at a hardware store on his break, the employee said. Another city worker called the use of catalog pricing for supplies ‘Pentagon-style purchasing.’

“Markups from approved vendors range from 10 to 150 percent, employees said, with one calling the city’s requirement that contractors provide health care benefits for domestic partners ‘the expensive white elephant standing in the middle of the room (that) no one wants to mention.’

“Some vendors are suspected of being little more than middlemen who comply with San Francisco’s very specific requirements for contractors – like disclosing historic ties to slavery and providing domestic partner benefits, a provision known as 12B because of its chapter in the Administrative Code – then turn around and buy the products from companies that don’t meet the restrictions, city officials acknowledge.

“An analysis by the General Services Agency found that in the last complete fiscal year, 2009-10, the city paid $9.8 million to ‘possible third-party brokers’ – vendors that may be pass-through companies.”

Imagine that, a city with a $306 million budget deficit, from a state with a $15.4 billion deficit, justifying the over-payment of taxpayer dollars to what is essentially special interest affirmative action groups in the private sector by claiming it satisfies the quest for “social justice.”

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Feature story in the alternative newspaper SF Weekly:

In recent years, San Francisco government has passed numerous laws to make us healthier, greener, and — in the city’s eyes — all-around better people. Whether we like it or not. This includes banning the sale of cigarettes in drugstores, and, later, supermarkets; banning plastic bags in large chain stores; banning bottled water in City Hall, and the sale of soft drinks on government property; banning the declawing of cats; making composting mandatory; and forbidding city departments from doing business with companies that were involved in the (pre–Civil War) slave trade, yet haven’t publicly atoned.

The city may yet ban the sale of any pets except fish, and the sale of bottled water during events on public property. Banning foie gras, meanwhile, didn’t catch on, even here. Neither did allowing the city to prosecute anyone who depicts images of animal cruelty if they set foot in San Francisco — essentially the same niche Belgium has carved out for itself with accused war criminals.

San Francisco’s acumen for imposing bans has grown so pronounced that when an anticircumcision zealot began disseminating a petition to criminalize the practice within city limits, observers nationwide didn’t write it off as fringe lunacy but, instead, saw it as just another day at the office in San Francisco.

That ban didn’t make the cut. And San Francisco does not have a monopoly on banning things. But nowhere else can you ban so much with such ease and so little political blowback.

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They touch our lives in so many ways, and now Reason.tv acknowledges those who tell us that if it looks good, tastes good, or feels good, it should be illegal.

Live (to tape) from the fourth floor of the Sepulveda Center in Los Angeles, California—it’s the 2010 Nanny of the Year Awards!

Over the past year, Reason.tv has recognized plenty of busybodies who relish minding other people’s business, but who deserves to succeed 2009’s winner (Meddlin’ Mike Bloomberg), and take home the 2010 Nanny?

Will it be the heartland mayor who sacked the Lingerie Football League? The Peach State pol who sued a man for growing vegetables in his own yard? A member of the food police?

Remember, it’s a dishonor just to be nominated. So get your awards season started off right, and tune in to the only black-tie ceremony that delivers busybodies, bikini babes, and bacon!

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Last month the food police sued a North Carolina man for growing fresh vegetables, and this month San Francisco’s food cops have committed a different kind of atrocity by making the City by the Bay the first major metropolis to ban toys in happy meals.

This month’s top busybody is the pol who sponsored the ordinance to make happy meals sad, the one who hopes his “food justice” agenda goes nationwide.

Presenting the Nanny of the Month for October 2010: San Francisco Supervisor Eric Mar!

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They’ve targeted bottled water and the selling of all kinds of pets, er, “animal companions.” And now, with the soda scold who’s yanking sugary beverages from vending machines, the City by the Bay pulls off the first-ever Nanny of the Month trifecta!

Presenting Reason.tv’s Nanny of the Month for July 2010: San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom!

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And that’s the point, I guess. Watch this ad for a “clean diesel” car by Audi, and good luck getting this slightly modified version of the Cheap Trick classic “Dream Police” out of your head. I couldn’t get it out with a lobotomy. It’s been playing off and on in my brain since it first aired during the Super Bowl.

But beyond the diddy, I also can’t get the vision of a fascist “green” future out of my head — even if it’s portrayed with a heavy dollop of of “Reno: 911“-style cop-show parody. Good comedy has to have a grain of truth in it to work, and this spot has plenty. It’s not just a peek at a ridiculous future, but a look at our “be green or else” present. An overreaction? Tell that to the chief of America’s Green Police, San Francisco mayor Gavin Newsom, who Tweeted:

“Ok .. That ‘green police’ Audi commercial hits home..”

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The San Francisco Bay Area may just prove to be the 3 am the wake call the Obama Administration doesn’t want.  This November 3, a potential trend setting – special election – is taking place in Congressional District 10.  CD 10 is the old Ellen Tauscher (D) seat  she vacated when she became #3 in the State Department.

It is a battle featuring a Big Government Liberal, aka John Garamendi,  and the Republican David Harmer who is employing an interesting, new strategy.   Before I get to Harmer:  I know what you are thinking:  The SF Bay Area?  A Republican pick up?  The answer quite possibly could be YES.

Polling shows the race just outside the margin of error and the Generic Congressional ballot is even closer.  With one month to go (1) enthusiasm is running high among Harmer supporters and (2) John Garamendi is a classic target for a rebound election.

According to Garamendi, we have to “change the mindset” of Californians on Prop 13 – the landmark property tax reform passed by the CA voters in 1978 to keep higher property taxes from running people out of their homes.   Garamendi wants to end Prop 13 as we know it and the two-thirds majority vote needed for the CA Legislature to pass a budget or levy taxes.  He also supports higher income taxes “without apology”  – most of the time.  Recently, however, he was caught double dealing on the issue as highlighted by this Harmer Campaign video. Beyond that, Garamendi wants “European-style” health care for America. 

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