Nancy 'Bailout' Pelosi -- SF, its your deal. Take responsibility.

OPINION The recent Guardian editorial was absolutely correct in its analysis of development in the Presidio: San Francisco "wound up with the worst of all worlds" ["Playing Hardball in the Presidio," 7/12/06]. Essentially it was Rep. Nancy Pelosi who created the all-powerful, arrogant, and unaccountable Presidio Trust to simply have its way with the conversion of the park, one of most breathtaking, inspiring pieces of real estate in the world, situated right here in our own front yard.

The voices of San Franciscans hoping to inject any conscience into the transition process of the military base into a national park have been basically ignored from the beginning; any opinions expressed at the mandated community hearings that did not fit in with the trust's plans counted for nothing.

Pelosi knew about warrantless spying

Rep. Nancy Pelosi last month responded to the Bush administration's warrantless spying scandal by revealing that she'd known about it all along and had privately "expressed [her] strong concerns in a classified letter to the Administration and later verbally."

Pelosi was the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, and she recently asked that her Oct. 11, 2001, letter to Michael V. Hayden, then director of the National Security Agency, be declassified.

"During your appearance before the committee on October 1, you indicated that you had been operating since the September 11 attacks with an expansive view of your authorities with respect to the conduct of electronic surveillance under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act and related statutes, orders, regulations, and guidelines. You seemed to be inviting expressions of concern from us," Pelosi wrote at the time.

Although she expressed concern and asked for more information about whether "specific presidential authorization" had been given, Congress didn't intervene, and the illegal wiretaps continued for about four years, unbeknownst to the public until the New York Times revealed them last month. In other words, Pelosi appears to have participated in the cover-up of what Harvard professor Laurence Tribe this month, in a letter to Rep. John Conyers, called "as grave an abuse of executive authority as I can recall ever having studied."

While leaking the classified information to the media or otherwise revealing it publicly could have exposed Pelosi to criminal liability, the information finally came to light because the Times was given it by "nearly a dozen current and former officials."

Pelosi addressed the matter during a Jan. 14 town hall forum by saying, "They say she went along with this all along, but I did not. I objected in writing." (Steven T. Jones)

Why are Nancy Pelosi and Barney Frank throwing the transgender community under a train? Frank says it's because America isn't ready to have an employment-rights bill include trannies: "there is more resistance to protection for people who are transgender than for people who are gay, lesbian and bisexual."

This leaves mainstream gay organizations with the prospect of either supporting a bill that actively allows discrimination against trans people -- or pulling their support for a bill that protects (some) queer people. There's a press conference this afternoon on the issue; more to come.

Hey Tim,

With "progressives" like you out there following the Kronikle line of demeaning, marginalising and dismissing truly independent and alternative candidates; Feinstein, Newscum, Pelosi and their ilk who currently wear the crowns can probably rest easy. And that's cool with you ? Why don't you either grow a pair or step aside and let someone else try and salvage the Guardian's 'reputation' as a once powerful voice of dissent and radical activism, instead of the tepid vehicle for soft core political, sexual and intellectual porn that it has become.
Patrick Monk.RN. Noe Valley.

Nancy Pelosi hasn't had an open forum with her constituents since Jan. 2006. She has repeatedly refused to personally meet with any peace groups after ascending to the speakership and persists in keeping Impeachment "off the table" even though San Franciscans voted for it with prop J back in November 2006. It's time to tell her where to go.