Tretakoff Musings

Count me as one of the fans of the exploding gourmet food truck revolution: the quality of these lunch or light dinner bites, combined with the short term availability, make them a compelling draw for me. Here in SF, we have amazing choices, like the Bacon Bacon truck, the Rib Whip , and An The Go , among dozens of others. One of my favorite parts of the summer was the Friday night Food Truck Crush at the Larkspur Ferry building: 5 or so of the region's finest, lined up to tantalize me with their offerings as I disembarked from the City. Delicious. Recently, the food truck phenomenon is getting a little uglier. Traditional restaurants, paying rent for fixed space in a desirable location, are seeing their customers siphoned off by trucks parked just outside. Free economy, right? Sure, but these trucks are sometimes coming to the same spot daily, staying for hours, and taking up parking and commerce spots, in some cases obscuring the storefronts of their competition. Restau...

News from the Christian Science Monitor today talks about California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's new open stance to a "debate" about the possibility of decriminalizing (and, most importantly, taxing) marijuana in CA. As I pointed out in January , this is the perfect way for backdoor legalization at a time that this country, despite having no real grounds to keep the ban going, can finally take a look at this lucrative approach to appeasing the populace and filling the badly depleted coffers. I won't attempt to re-make my original arguments as to why this is a perfect solution, but I will point out that this is clearly going to be a bellwether for the future...across the country.

There are certain historical moments that, in retrospect, could have only happened with the unique combination of circumstances, individuals, and timing. The saying "Only Nixon could have gone to China" exemplifies this: only a man who had been so rabidly anti-Communist could have been the one to reach out to the leader of the most populous Communist nation on Earth, at the time that war raged through proxies of each, to usher in a new détente. Only Lincoln could have ended slavery, and endured a civil war as a result. And only FDR could have led this nation back from the Great Depression with unprecedented powers we would have entrusted to no one else. FDR 's situation is particularly poignant today. He was a little-known politician, most famous for being a cousin of a former president. He was a member of a minority, being handicapped. He ran for office, promising change, in the worst economic time in the country's history. In fact, the country was so desperate for ...

Slate V sums up the very reasons I still miss Clinton as President, and am hopeful for Obama. Is it so much to want to have the leader of the Free World be an inspiring speaker? If not, at least avoid these dunderheaded statements? Tuesday can't come soon enough...

Ladies and Gentlemen, I present for you the former candidate for Vice President of the United States, sipping Starbucks and giggling, as she remains unaware of the darker side of the turkey grist mill behind her. Yep, she's that clueless.

Gizmodo points out that, in all of the other high profile CA state issues that went down to defeat, one victory was lost in the shuffle: Proposition 1A, which lays the groundwork for a bullet train between Southern and Northern California. I am a huge fan of any rail transit, but this one simply makes sense. Kudos to the supporters for making this excellent video which dramatically demonstrates the allure, the benefits, and the real expectations for what could be a monumental day of change for rail travel in this country.

Slate V , the video version of Slate Magazine , has a remarkable profile of Spot Runner , a site that allows you to make personalized television ads for $500. Using a mixture of stock video clips and professional voiceovers, you can easily produce ads designed to evoke just what you are looking to convey, complete with professional messaging. Want to get elected? Choose one of the political ads: from attack ads to messages of hope and change. The disturbing part of this is just how generic the ad space has become for these specific issues, and how this "cut and paste" approach can now be so effective in today's market. Think of the great Apple ads (Think Different, 1984), or the classic political ads ( Daisy , A Man From Hope): these are all replaced with these slick, professional and utterly effective ads that any candidate can run. No ad agencies, no creative: choose your theme, add some details, and enter your credit card. It's either a brave new world, or a sure ...

With the Olympics looming large, there's been a lot of discussion on my daily ferry commute about the rise of China in the international stage, and, of course, the debate if the USA has already gone past it's nadir as the pre-eminent international power. In other words, has the USA already begun its decline, like the great empires before it? Many factors lead to this possibility, primarily the lack of investment in a manufacturing base: when a society becomes so wealthy that they find it less expensive to send work to another country, or to employ illegal aliens, no matter how trivial or important the work, I maintain that it is officially on the decline. As part of this exercise, we look at key indicators that might represent the telltale signs of when the USA "jumped the shark." For the Roman empire, it might have been the gladiatorial games and vomitoriums; the British empire saw the East India Company become it's de facto ambassador to the world. What might th...

Keith Olbermann. You may know him as just the guy who does the "Worst Person in the NFL" segments on Sunday Night Football. Or, if you are a long-time ESPN watcher, you may remember him for defining the hip SportsCenter anchor position. But he is so much more. Specifically, he is the Paul Revere of a new revolution. Think of him as the anti-Rush Limbaugh, or, as he would prefer, the perennial foil to blowhards like Bill O'Reilly. Olbermann's speech tonight is the type of language people like me crave to hear from leaders. As we are left with a President who can't even properly pronounce "nuclear," it falls to men like Keith Olbermann to make those words reality. Take 10 minutes and listen for yourself: The amazing prose that stands out for me: - "You told Congress, if you do not act by Friday, our ability to track terrorist threats would be weakened, and our citizens would be in greater danger," Olbermann said. "Yet you you are willing to...

Al Franken has been a lot of things in his unusual career. A Saturday Night Live writer in the heyday of the "Not Ready For Prime Time Players," he went on to become a performer and sometime actor. But he really hit a nerve when he became an author of Rush Limbaugh Is A Big Fat Idiot , and the absolute perfect Lies (and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them) Fair and Balanced Look at the Right . Suddenly, the Left was not a meek hippie squawking about Greenpeace: Al was using the intellectual rapier of wit to combat absolute idiocy. He became the signature of Air America, the radio network that counters the Right's mouthpiece, Fox. I used to listen to his show, via podcast, religiously, as it was not only humorous, and fun, but an absolute taskmaster for the outright lies spewed by the likes of O'Reilly and Ann Coulter. His show was always spot on. I say "was," as he ended it yesterday, after a long success. Why did he end it? Al Franken is running for the Senate in...

From the "I can't believe these concepts ever get put together" files, I present to you an excellent example of the First Amendment in action...courtesy of Danny Bonaduce. Yes, you read that right: the child star of the 1970's turned shock jock of the 80's and all around reality star of the 90's shows how you can absolutely have a cogent argument. I'll say this: I disagree with what he is saying, but he handles the intrusion into his private time with class, politeness, and directness. He makes his case, and when he can stomach no more, he lets loose. Watch for the part where, before he decides to tell this conspiracy theorist what he really thinks, he first turns to a fellow diner to apologize in advance for his language. Danny Bonaduce, 9/11, Free Speech, and YouTube. Man, the internet is a wonderful thing.

Now that the Democrats are back in charge in Congress, and ready to screw things up as they are wont to do, we can cast our eyes to the next election that matters: 2008. For the first time in many years, the President will not be running for re-election, nor will his Vice-President be running. The top candidates for the Democrats? Two rising stars: Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama; a woman and a black man, neither of which have yet to be elected to the highest office in the land. This is not to say they are not the best of the best, but there are added obstacles to overcome. On the Republican side, John McCain is the only good bet (though he's a warhawk and seriously damaged his "straight-talk" reputation by pandering to the religious Right). Mitt Romney, the former governor of Massachusetts, is often mentioned: a Mormon and a sitting Republican Governor when his state legalized gay marriage. Yeah, that'll work. It's time for a fresh new approach. In the last elec...

In the wake of the Democratic retaking of the Congress, Michael Moore decided to rub it in this week: "In fact, those of us on the other side of the fence don't really know what it's like to win, so if we seem a bit awkward right now (were we supposed to vote for the majority leader the speaker said to vote for, or stick to our promise to the other guy?), forgive us." I used to really like Moore's work. I found him slightly grating. But when I watched Michael Moore Hates America , it opened up a whole other side for me. He's been using the same deceptive tactics as he decried for years. Worse, he does not live by the ideals he espouses. Hopefully the Democrats will distance themselves from him, and let him get back to just being a filmmaker.

Not so SMART. Turns out the train measure I blogged about needs a 2/3 majority to pass. Over 60 percent said yes, but that's not enough. Embarassing. [Posted with hblogger 2.0 http://www.normsoft.com/hblogger/]

Out of character, Amy insisted I blog this, as I am so frustrated, I can't contain it. Maybe it's because I listen to so much Penn Jillette. Maybe it's because of my experience at seeing my neighbors do unspeakable things to a locally registered sex offender. Maybe it's because I am a student of history, and have seen time and time again Americans handing over their freedoms, without understanding they did not have to. Yet tonight, we Californians have gone and done it again. Tonight, we passed Proposition 83, heaping a ton of penalties on sex offenders. Why, you are asking, is a man of reasonable intellect stupidly arguing AGAINST a proposition that punishes violent sex offenders? Many reasons: these are penalties put on them AFTER they are released from prison, and they are attempting to somehow dissuade these sick individuals from offending again, even though we all acknowledge they have a sickness, not a choice, and penalties will not dissuade that. But the real r...

I caught the tail end of this, this morning on HBO. For those of us who thought the 2000 and 2004 elections had more than a few discrepancies, this documentary is an amazing eye opener about the supposed security of voting machines...including those that are used in the elections today. Your vote...may not count. Absolutely amazing to watch. read more  |  digg story.

In addition to the overwhelming victory of the Democrats in the House elections tonight, a more local victory was won. I live in Marin County, CA: one of the most desirable places to live on the planet. Yet the public transportation we have here is next to none. Want to go to San Francisco? Hop on a Ferry (which, while decadently enjoyable, is completely focused on commuters only and is expensive) or grab a bus (if you are lucky to find one that runs the time you want...and it's a bus). Yet our neighbors in the East Bay have one of the most luxurious train systems in the world, BART. Peninsula? Hop on the Baby Bullet Train on CalTrain, or drive up to the airport for BART. Marin? Sad. And Sonoma county? NOTHING. Not after tonight. The SMART train, from Northern Sonoma to Larkspur (where the aforementioned ferry leaves from) passed this evening. In typical Marin style, Larkspur is fighting the last, most key station in the plan. With such a resounding victory tonight, I hope Larkspu...