Predominant Respect?

Michelle Malkin has an extended post up on the state of various anti-war protests across the country and also the push back from groups supportive of the war, something lacking in the 60's. I found one quote from San Fran Mayor Gavin Newsom particularly interesting:

“Shame on the extreme right,” Newsom told The Chronicle. “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.”

I realize San Fran has the ultimate respect for both the dominant and submissive position on things, given their recent much in the news and annual Folsom Street Fair, but I think when a Big City Mayor has to acknowledge an anti-military and Vet point of view as a genuine competing agenda in his city, it somewhat makes the point Newsom is trying to dispel.

Comments

[Kevin R.C. 'Hognose' O'Brien]

I'm sure there are many good patriotic folks in the San Francisco area. Indeed, I encountered an SF Guard team from the Bay Area, with a bunch of really interesting guys, in Afghanistan a few years back.

But Newsom seems to be blind to the dominant culture in his city and in the surrounding area. We're talking about political entities that regularly bash and insult the military and veterans.

Didn't we just have the Blue Angels controversy in Oakland?

Didn't Newsom's own government banish JROTC from high schools in a welter of vicious anti-military rhetoric? Actually, the Board of Education did that:
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2006/11/19/antimilitary_bigotry/

(Actually, Newsom spoke against this afterward, when confronted by some of the 1,600 students he cut off at the knees, but didn't take any concrete action. What a guy!)

San Francisco's satraps did, however, call down an FCC investigation on radio station KNEW because the station opposed the ban and criticized Newsom and the supervisors.

Don't area colleges ban military professional recruiters from job fairs, either by fiat or by administration-encouraged riot? Didn't the city's denizens vote to ban recruiters from city schools? (The lavish Soros-funded site promoting that, collegenotcombat, is now in the hands of a domain speculator. "Mission Accomplished" for the left).

Don't you remember the city's angry rejection of a World War II warship-museum, the USS Iowa, in an overwhelming Board of Supervisors vote characterized by nasty anti-military pronouncements, some of them Newsom's?

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,184951,00.html

"I am sad to say I am not proud of the history of the United States of America since the 1940s." -- Supervisor Chris Daly, a Newsom ally, in condemning the USS Iowa.

You probably don't remember 1995, when "Army Street" was renamed out of hostility to the Army. It's "Cesar Chavez St." now. That was a unanimous Board of Supervisors vote:

http://www.journalism.sfsu.edu/www/pubs/gater/fall95/oct31/01.html

I could go on and on. How about the way that San Francisco pols like Nancy Pelosi and Barbara Boxer rip off the DOD by packing bills with earmarks, like the approximately $1 Billion in handouts that Pelosi has given her husband through the military budget?

So why pretend that these people are pro-military? Why is Newsom now complaining about the public's clear perception of his community's relationship to the military?

Maybe because it's starting to cost them money? Like when the Navy decides where a new ship that needs a home port will be welcome, and where it isn't?

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2006/12/02/BAGE2MNTQK1.DTL

I'm voting with my dollars and feet: I'll be passing on so much as changing planes in Newsom's satrapy. It's pretty clear that the only military guy he'd make welcome is the Sailor Dude from the Village People. And not being a Navy guy, I'm not sure, but something seems a little ... off... about that guy's authenticity.

But hey, Jesse Macbeth will be getting out of pokey in a few months. There's a "soldier" that Newsom can support.

[ZZMike]

I was born in San Francisco - a long time ago. It was a fine city then. We had cable cars, Herb Caen, and everybody belonged to one union or another (except me) - but nothing's 100% perfect.

We called it "The City" (and everyone knew what that meant). Nobody called it "Frisco".

Now you've got cable cars, Gavin Newsom, Mark Morford, legions of homeless, and everybody probably still belongs to one union or another.

Today, I doubt I'll ever go back to Frisco.

[seekeronos]

I have this notion that in the year or so immediately preceding the return of our great God and Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ... that Frisco is not going to be a very swell place to be.

Not that it is an enviable place without the Wrath of God upon it.