YES Men Take Survivaballs for a Stroll On San Francisco Streets

Fun video by Polidoc featuring the Yes Men's Halliburton Survivaballs Escorted down Market Street by "Chevron Minions" during this San Francisco action on November 1, 2009.

Serving up the message of corporate responsibility to San Ramon, CA based Chevron Oil, the YES Men marched down San Francisco streets after the premiere of their activist movie "The Yes Men Fix the World" on November 1, 2009. In conjunction with Global Exchange and other Bay Area environmental and human rights groups, the Yes Men hope to link Chevron's plan to expand its refinery in the East Bay to human and environmental rights abuses in other countries and part of the United States.

In "The Yes Men Fix the World," the infamous pranksters, amongst them Andy Bichlbaum, heaps doses of irony to shine a light on the negligence of companies that place profit over people. Clever vignettes, something that crosses between "Ocean's Eleven" "Pink Panther" and "Get Smart" weave the documentary pieces of their actions together into a great piece of entertainment. This movie now showing across the nation serves up a hopeful and eviscerating commentary on the corporate players of our world.

International Climate Action Day Storms into San Francisco

Saturday marked a day of unprecedented international climate actions by activists in 181 countries who are building momentum to inspire political leaders to take substantial steps towards climate reform at the U.N. Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen this December.

In the Bay Area of California, cyclists from as far away as Arcadia descended upon Justin Herman Plaza in San Francisco in the culmination of the kickoff. In a speech by San Francisco City Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi, who initiated the plastic bag ban in this country, urged people to push their municipal and state legislatures to take aggressive action to reform climate regulation, regardless of what the international community does (or does not) do. He is a consistent advocate for local control for attaining a green agenda.

The international day was spearheaded by the group 350.org and supported by numerous environmental activist groups, including GreenPeace. The number 350 represents the parts per million of carbon dioxide emissions that the atmosphere can bear if we want to avoid runaway global warming.

Diverse Communities Team UP to Clean UP

Diverse Communities Team UP to Clean UP from Polidoc on Vimeo.

On a uniquely beautiful August day in San Francisco, a handful of community , government, job training groups and neighborhood volunteers joined to tackle the grit on the urban facade of the complex Fifth District.

Festooned with rakes, brooms, shovels and garbage bags, over 300 people fanned across the district's widely dispersed neighborhoods.

Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi was on hand to celebrate and put some muscle in. Interviews with organizers and volunteers lend a real taste of the event in this video.

What's Odd About This Picture?

Until recently, billboards promoting gambling were not seen in San Francisco. This billboard, while for a charity benefit takes the infiltration of gambling into California politics to a whole new level - perhaps of transparency.
Notice the roulette table feeding right into City Hall? What do you think? Do you find this ironic?

San Francisco Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi Asserts Cost Value of Studying Publicly Owned Utilities

San Francisco Supervisors Redress Smear Flier from Polidoc on Vimeo.

At a press conference held on Tuesday July 22 in front of San Francisco City Hall, some city officials defended a proposed charter amendment which would allow for a feasibility study on the city ownership of all utilities.

City Supervisors Ross Mirkarimi, Aaron Peskin, Tom Amiano, Bevon Duffy, Assemblyman Mark Leno and former PUC chief Susan Leal rebuked the assertions made in a flier distributed last week that suggested that the supervisors were irresponsible and out for a power grab.

Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi asserted that the charter amendment , "Is not a hostile take over. This is not a $4 billion grab. What this mandates is a feasibility study to determine how San Francisco should share the drivers seat and in how we can deliver 100 per cent Green and clean renewable energy over the next 25 years. We know that the technology is there; we know that the capacity is there. But we are also well reminded of the hurdles that are there, certainly because of the franchise that PG&E has in perpetuity - in other words they have a monopoly here until planet Earth dies."

"This legislation includes taking back what is ours - what the rate payers paid for, " said former PUC chief, Susan Leal. "We need to get out from under the grips of a monopoly that has not allowed the expansion of renewable energy as it should be in this city."

"The glacial pace at which our federal government has moved and our state governments have moved, despite their best intentions, only deflects to the responsibility of smart municipal governments," Mirkarimi continued. "There are over 900 cities in the United States which have opted by the vote of the people to decide that they want to chart their own energy destiny, either through complete municipalization or some reconfiguration. We are not even approaching the embryo of that consideration. "

California's publicly owned utilities serving retail load include the Cities of Alameda, Anaheim, Azusa, Banning, Biggs, Colton, Corona, Glendale, Gridley, Healdsburg, Hercules, Industry, Lodi, Lompoc, Los Angeles, Moreno Valley, Needles, Palo Alto, Pasadena, Redding, Riverside, Roseville, Santa Clara, Shasta Lake, Ukiah, Victorville, Vernon; the Lassen and Sacramento Municipal Utility Districts; the Imperial Merced, Modesto and Turlock Irrigation Districts; and the Truckee Donner Public Utility Districts.