if terrorists were to attack san francisco and kill thousands of americans, falafel bill would be cool with that.

Hey, you know, if you want to ban military recruiting, fine, but I'm not going to give you another nickel of federal money. You know, if I'm the president of the United States, I walk right into Union Square, I set up my little presidential podium, and I say, "Listen, citizens of San Francisco, if you vote against military recruiting, you're not going to get another nickel in federal funds. Fine. You want to be your own country? Go right ahead."

And if Al Qaeda comes in here and blows you up, we're not going to do anything about it. We're going to say, look, every other place in America is off limits to you, except San Francisco. You want to blow up the Coit Tower? Go ahead.

i had never even heard of the coit tower and now i want to go there, so i wouldn't be surprised if they see an increase in tourism, now that bill has given them such free publicity.

i almost posted this when i heard about it friday, but i'm glad i didn't then, as bill has since stood by his comments and added that they "needed to be said." courtesy dkos, which points to think progress:

I mean, look, everybody knows what's going on there. What I said isn't controversial. What I said needed to be said. I'm sitting here and I’m looking at a city that has absolutely no clue of what the world is. None. You know, if you had been hit on 9/11 instead of New York, believe me, you would not have voted against military recruting. Yet the left-wing, selfish, Land of Oz philosophy that the media and the city politicians have embraced out there is an absolute intellectual disgrace.

yep, condoning terrorist acts isn't controversial in the least!

also, in a textbook example of projection, the falafel-man claims that taking "cheap shots" is "the hallmark of the left". because effectively saying "i hope al qaeda kills you" is the height of intellectual discourse.

You know, this is the hallmark of the left: Cheap shot everybody. Come out with the most insane things you can. Convince your Kool-Aid drinking crowd to follow you. Look, San Francisco is a beautiful city. It is now a disgraceful city. You can't even walk around the city without seeing people doing appalling things in the streets. I mean, you’re not going to wise up, I understand that. The city's been hijacked, it's going to stay that way. But the rest of the country doesn’t have to approve of it.

i have walked around san francisco on a couple dozen occasions. the most "appalling" things i saw were panhandling and the occasional gay couple holding hands as they walked through the castro. but the appalling thing about the panhandling was not that people were doing it; it was the realization of just how big san francisco's homeless population is. that's a bit disturbing, to think of how many hundreds or thousands of san franciscans have to sleep on the cold concrete streets and beg for food money.

which leaves us with gay hand-holding, which was the only other thing i saw people doing on the streets that could be considered remotely offensive. personally, i found it heartwarming, the idea that people who might be discriminated against or even beaten in other places can feel so free & open in san francisco that they can express their love for each other without being antagonized or even lynched. that made me feel good, but maybe it makes bill feel like flying a plane into the coit tower.¶

i'm pretty sure i've told you about coit tower before... my former boss highly recommended the beautiful murals inside. we'll have to put it high on our list of things to see whenever we finally make it back to sf.

and after living there for a couple of years, yes, there are some crazy, potentially offensive things you'll see on the streets sometimes. a lot of them happen as part of street festivals, though... maybe we'll get to see the folsom street fair someday and you'll see what he's up in arms about. of course, to me that's part of what makes sf such a wonderful place, but i'm probably helping the terrorists win. ¶

street festivals don't count. o'reilly comments clearly suggested that, on a typical day walking down a typical street, it is impossible not to see people doing appalling things. ¶

hmm, well, just in terms of walking down the street on a regular day, sf isn't that bad (berkeley is much worse, and even there it's unusual to actually see naked people and whatnot). ¶