Ed Who?

San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom met briefly with embattled supervisor Ed Jew yesterday.

Jew is accused of attempting to extort $80,000 from a group of fast-food business owners. He pleaded not guilty in court on Friday.

The rookie supervisor, who was charged Thursday with one federal count of mail fraud, appeared briefly in U.S. District Court, and then was released on $1 million bond. The charge came after an FBI sting where prosecutors say the operators of a group of tapioca drink shops gave Jew $40,000 in cash and said they would paid him another $40,000 later.

"Enough is enough," Newsom told reporters this morning after the mayor spoke at the opening of the Moon Festival Street Fair in Chinatown, a short walk from Jew's flower shop.

"He needs to do the right thing and step aside."

Jew, 47, has acknowledged taking the money but said he did so at the businessmen's insistence and on behalf of a consultant he recommended they hire to help with their permit problem.

Jew's attorney Steven Gruel said the federal government's case was weak, calling the mail fraud charge a “throwaway charge because you can't get something else” and questioning what kind of influence Jew could have had over the issuing of city permits. He doesn't control the planning commission and he certainly doesn't control what types of permits are necessary for retailers.

Earlier in the day, Jew's attorneys had said they would not allow their client to meet with Newsom if they were not present. Nonetheless, Jew and Newsom sat down alone yesterday, for about 15 minutes.

• Check Out: KRON 4 Complete Interview.
• Photo Credit: Luke Thomas, Fog City Journal

GAVIN'S MUST SEE TV

Mayor Gavin Newsom and Fox Broadcasting Company agreed to terms today greenlighting 24 episodes of Gav 4 Guv.

Newsom said he's considered television since his marriage to Court TV Queen Kimberly Guilfoyle and throughout courtships with Reality TV Stars Erin Brodie and Paris Hilton as well as CSI's Sofia Milos. This one simply fit.

Newsom insists that his television aspirations are independent of any open government reality television projects concepts proposed by rival mayoral candidate and video blogger, Josh Wolf, who if elected promises 24/7 Reality Government.

My life has always been an open book. Reality TV affords us a new medium with a new chapter. In a nutshell, it’s kind of like The Apprentice meets The Crocodile Hunter meets Real World meets The Bachelor without the all the Harry Potter.

• The Apprentice - only imagine forced resignations citywide in which Department Heads are required to partake in a number of team on team contests designed to raise campaign dollars for the Gav 4 Guv campaign and members of the winning team earn the right to interview for their old job - you're hired!

• The Crocodile Hunter - only imagine a gatored community in which contestants are tasked with bagging and tagging dangerous and always unpredictable crack addicts indigenous to the Tenderloin and Civic Center neighborhoods as part of a Catch and Release program tracking homeless with homing devices.

• Real World - only imagine Gavin and love interest Jennifer Siebel share a posh victorian on Russian Hill with supervisers Chris Daly and Bevan Dufty and old socialite chums Billy Getty and wife Vanessa as well as former couple Alex Tourk and Ruby rippey-Tourk and ex-wife Kimberly Guilfoyle and husband Eric Villency and baby boy. Watch Gavin's psyche unravel as Booze, Cocaine and Extra Extra-Marital Affairs prevail. Oh, and ...hold it, hold it... add new age author and gay-lovin-gone-bad stalker Han Shin into the mix. Stir with Deep Purple latex gloves.

• The Bachelor - only imagine, half the ladies are single and the rest married and thier husbands are not only permitted on the set, it's encouraged. In fact, one or two may be part of the crew. Brittanie Mountz versus Ruby Rippey-Tourk? Stay tuned!

Not everyone shares Newsom's enthusiasm. Newsom neighsayer, Chris Daly, predicts "A Big Fat Obnoxious Disappointment."

Gavin Newsom Videography:

• Would Gavin Lie to You
• The Walkway Mayor
• Gavin Newsom and the Man Code
• Gavin's Meltdown
  

Mayor Bans Shopping Carts

San Francisco may be on the verge of becoming the first city in the country to ban shopping carts because they assist the homeless and hinders quality-of-life outreach programs.

Some experts say the carts are one of the biggest obstacles to outreach programs in the city.

By making sidewalks less profitable and less hospitable, Mayor Gavin Newsom wants to hopes to usher more homeless off the streets and into shelters like Glide Memorial Church banishing shopping carts, baby carriages and cardboard boxes from the city once and for all.

What it takes in retrieving, and the cost to replace these carts, begs the larger question: what are we going to do about the homeless and the economic and health adverse effects on our community?

Newsom's proposal calls on grocers to use an assigned number of carts indoors only and with full-service valet from check stand to curbside. Merchants would be subject to unannounced city audits and fined for each cart under their quota or recovered off property.

But the proposal is vigorously opposed by the grocery industry. Peter Larkin, president of the California Grocers Association, says his member stores already have an active security program.

"In our opinion, it will frustrate our efforts to continue to reduce, re-use and recycle carry-out bags," Larkin said. "Second, it will raise the cost of doing business for us, which will translate into increased costs for the consumers.

What is not in dispute is the potential domino effect if San Francisco bans grocery carts. Larkin says he expects a potential ban here would significantly hurt the recycling industry. Shopping carts have already been outlawed in South Africa, London and Ireland.

Top Five Growing Blogs

Pop the Champaign!

Inspired by the 59th Emmy Awards, we're pleased to announce Wordpress voted Gavin Newsom Sucks.com to the Top Five Growing Blogs.

We want to thank the ManUpstairs in City Hall. Without Gavin none of this would be possible.

It's not often we get to stand here next to dazzling celebrity blogger, Beth Spotswood. Doesn't she look absolutely radiant in Gucci?!

Big props to the nominees: Chris Daly Blows, SF Party Party, Laughing Squid and SF Crime as well as supporting cast members Peter Ragone, Brittanie Mountz, Ruby Rippey-Tourk, Jennifer Siebel and Chris Daly and all the other Chickens.

Of course, we want to thank GavinWatch for always believing in us. What a class act! What else can we say...

[Queue the music]

... Except, we apologize for leaving anyone out. Ooops! Our friends at SFist and Cecilia M. Vega at the Chronicle. We're just so nervous. Good night and God bless!

This one's for you Mom & Dad!

Breaking News: Congratz to Conan O’Brien for bring home another award!!!

Mayor's Chinese Dragons

Is San Francisco becoming a Gatored Community?

In a continuing effort to combat urban blight and homeless encampments, Mayor Gavin Newsom approved legislation to purchase 2500 Floridian Alligators to be released by the Public Utilities Commission and 1000 Komodo Dragons (the world’s heaviest lizards at 10 feet, 200 Lbs.) for the Recreation & Park Commission.

The mayor credits trips to Manila, Osaka, Davos and even NYC for stimulating a ‘Mayoral Renaissance’ in which we hope to bring home the ‘Best-of-the-Best’ to make our City even better.

The Komodo’s prodigious appetite will take a bite out of crime!

Newsom says a 90 lb dragon can eat a 100 lb crack addict or tagger in less than 20 minutes. With that kind of production, the dragons should eat through our 1500 homeless in record time!

As with the Mexican Fan Palms introduced to the Mission’s aesthetic nearly a year ago, Newsom says he chose the Komodo Dragons with Japantown’s rich cultural heritage in mind as dragons evoke a ‘Survival of the Fittest’ solution to controlling our growing homeless population - long inhabiting parks, sidewalks, living under overpasses and amongst the our famed buildings within the Civic Center and Tenderloin neighborhoods.

Newsom added, these Carnivores are exactly the kind of Dark Ages ‘Out-of-the-Box’ thinking, tailor-made for a Green, Progressive City like San Francisco and the sister-cities across the bay who have already turned to sheep as a low cost alternative to lawn mowers.

Like maggots treating gangrene, these nocturnal bottom-feeders were bred to feed on the very downtrodden, social decay that has long eaten away our City's taxes, tourism for years leaving us to grapple with AIDS, TB and Malaria outbreaks.

Manhattan, albeit by accident, was the first to turn to reptiles for homeless control. It was once a fad among New Yorkers vacationing in Florida to bring back baby alligators for their children to raise as pets. The infant gators would outlive their cuteness, sad to say, at which point their desperate owners would flush them down the toilet.

Some of the gators survived the dank sewer system and bred, producing scattered colonies of full-grown alligators. Mayor Rudy Giuliani attributed pockets of declining crime rates throughout the city to the alligators. He lauched Gator Aid purchasing 2500 alligators and strategically releasing them within the sewer lines and parks.

Their descendants live down there to this day. According to some reports the animals are blind and afflicted with albinism and have grown to enormous size.

Newsom 08 Phone Bank

Gavin's looking for a few annoying volunteers.

Six days a week, starting this weekend and running until November, the The Gavin Newsom 08 Phone Bank will be reaching out and touching San Franciscans.

If you'd like to donate your time to the cause, don’t hesitate. Dial right down the middle to Gavin's campaign headquarters at (415) 351-0359 to sign up. Callers are standing by!

But wait, if you do sign up to staff the phone bank, you also get be an unpaid volunteer… so, act now!

Hello my name is ________ calling from Gavin Newsom campaign headquarters.

As you know, Gavin is running unopposed with 78% approval ratings. So, we're really, really counting on your donation.

He’s been Chris Daly tested and Senator Feinstein approved. I’m not a doctor, but I play one on TV and Nine out of Ten of us actors agree - Gavin won’t stick to Jennifer Siebel's dental work.

He’s revolutionary!

But, don’t take my word for it. Check out SFist: The Calling Hour By mattymatt.

Push it... Pull it... Tow it... If it don’t eat, we’ll buy it! Everything must go... Crazy Gavin’s slashing prices.

Heads Will Roll

Heads are rolling at City Hall. Mayor Newsom asked for resignation letters from his senior staff, city department heads, and those that he had ‘anointed’ to serve on a city commission or board.

According to the Chronicle, Newsom will deal with "a few officials he has battled with since taking office in 2004" and with the resignations "on a case-by-case basis."

SFPartyParty speculates, “Gavin ain’t firing no minorities, even if they are important scapegoats,” so Police Chief Heather Fong will keep her job even though homicides are at a ten year high.

With no serious opponent this November, BeyondChron suggests Newsom is having trouble raising money – and the threat of losing your job may be an incentive for city commissioners and department heads to contribute. Fear is what will keep these subjects loyal, and sending $500 to the Newsom re-election campaign would make the boss very happy. It’s a deeply cynical move, but it explains why the Mayor would suddenly ask everyone to “tender their resignation" two months before the election.

Inspired by SFist Godfather parody, we thought to offer a few movie quotes too good to refuse:

The Godfather:

Don Corleone, I am honored and grateful that you have invited me to your
daughter... 's wedding... on the day of your daughter's wedding. And I hope
their first child be a masculine child. I pledge my ever-ending loyalty.

Taxi Driver:

Listen, you fuckers, you screwheads. Here is a man who would not take it
anymore. A man who stood up against the scum, the cunts, the dogs, the filth,
the shit. Here is a man who stood up.

Straw Dogs:

Ok, you've had your fun. I'll give you one more chance, and if you don't clear
out now, there'll be real trouble. I mean it.

• Chronicle: Newsom Calls For Resignations by Cecilia M. Vega, Heather Knight
• BeyondChron: Was Newsom Firing Spree a Ploy to Raise Campaign Cash? by Paul Hogarth
• SFist: Gavin Newsom To Clean House by Brock
• SFPartyParty: Why Did Mayor New$om Fake Fire Everyone at City Hall? Gue$$