Oct 9, 2015
The City of San Jose is considering the adoption of a Crime Free Multi-Housing Program supposedly designed to facilitate the eviction of problem tenants. However, it is written so badly it places at risk victims of domestic violence, residents who engage in acts of civil disobedience and others who are in no way a threat to their neighborhood. The discussion…
May 29, 2015
The Whopper of the Week is back! Nothing seems to bring out whoppers like city discussions about land and housing. Recent debates over the conversion of land from commercial to residential use and over renter protection policies (like rent control) vividly demonstrate this correlation. Tweet
Mar 27, 2015
It didn’t take long after Officer Michael Johnson was fatally gunned down for the platitudes to begin. The shooting reminds us, Scott Herhold intoned, the “the job is fundamentally different than other dangerous lines of work.” Reminds us, the columnist wrote. Implying something all of us always knew. An editorial quickly followed. It righteously observed, “For all of our political…
Nov 11, 2014
A number of blogs have called attention to the precinct map of San Jose from the Election for Mayor on November 4th. That visual presentation reveals a harsh reality better than any lengthy text. The image shows a city as divided as if a Berlin Wall had been constructed down its center. Almost all of the precincts in the whiter…
San Jose Inside has entered the ranks of the mega-whopper with their endorsement of Sam Liccardo. The designation comes not from their decision to back Sam; one expects sycophants to endorse the man they adulate. Rather, it results from their consistent use of grotesque forms of distortion as they make their case. Let’s review a few specific examples: Tweet
Oct 17, 2014
Qualifying for a mega-whopper designation this week is Scott Herhold’s October 16th column titled, “Scare Tactics Adopted in Mayoral Race.” In this blatant effort to support mayoral candidate Sam Liccardo, Herhold employs distortion like an experienced practitioner. Tweet
Sep 12, 2014
This week we have a Galactic Whopper from George Will in the Washington Post. His column is titled “Senate Democrats Extremism on Display.” It contends that the effort by Senate Democrats to overturn the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision by a proposed constitutional amendment constitutes true extremism – an effort to radically shrink First Amendment protection of political speech. In…
Aug 19, 2014
The Whopper of the Week is back. I admit one reason I’ve returned to the Left Hook is that San Jose Inside’s interview with Mayor Chuck Reed provided such an irresistible target. First, let’s check out the whoppers in the Mayor’s discussion of the City Council’s deadlock on the sales tax issue. Chuck and 5 Councilmembers including Republicans Constant and Khamis…
Jun 20, 2014
This week’s whopper is an editorial by the San Jose Mercury News regarding Superior Court Rolf M. Treu’s decision declaring California’s tenure rules for teachers to be unconstitutional. Part of Judge Treu’s reasoning was that the tenure rules allegedly make it extraordinarily difficult to discharge incompetent teachers and incompetent teachers deny students a quality education. The first component of the whopper…
Jun 13, 2014
How San Jose’s suffered under Chuck Reed A once fine city now gone to seed No A’s, no cops, no libraries open From the Merc, not a word of dissent is spoken AND SAM DOESN’T GIVE A DAMN Tweet