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Indybay Feature

The ART of Politics: Chicken and the Wolf Runninng For Mayor In Parallel Possible Worlds

by Podopo
Chicken John and Josh Wolf, two remote outsiders to political games, are stepping in to the ring and trying to raise enough money before Friday (Aug.10), to run for mayor. Should we care ?!!

As the XL Terrestrial analysis reports, Hell Yes ! i It's the only game in town for anything to shake up the Bay Area "main ring" politics, and better to go down laughing than crying. And art may be the most effective weapon at The End Of Democracy.
1034279708_ff22fb2323.jpg
1st here's a few updates to the story:

Chicken John, SF's version of a thrifty town Barnum Bailey redux, came out with his hysterical full-page ad in the SF Bay Guardian today, and the night before Laughing Squid
( http://www.laughingsquid.com ), an almost entirely apolitical cultural blog, cultural calendar, and popular arts hub ran the story. Both Josh Wolf and Chicken John need to raise $5000 by Friday to enter into the election game. And after reading the analysis from the XL Terrestrials below you might consider that the next few months will be more than entertaining with them BOTH in the race, it might actually be the best and only if not imperative catalyst on the table for the people of San Francisco to begin that crucial step towards deconstructing the great democracy hoax. See below for how you can support their campaigns. Really, just imagine for a second the big picture political paralysis if they DON'T make it into the debates!

Previously posted at http://www.xlterrestrials.org/plog

Make no mistake, in 2003 there wasn’t a chance in hell the political and financial power elites of San Francisco and beyond were ever going to cede the helm of a major US city to an outsider like Matt Gonzalez, whose campaign looked like it was running neck and neck until that very suspect, but oh-so-predictable end, when those absentee ballot rabbits were pulled out of the hat. But the movement it spawned was unlike anything the grassroots community had even dreamed of, the only real problem was that it took the Democracy THEATER and City Hall more seriously than itself. And when the inevitable defeat came down the people swallowed and wallowed in their stunned depression/paralysis for weeks, months, four f*cking years! instead of moving ahead with all that creative Green will with or without that conservative and decrepit shell that couldn’t catch the new paradigm wave.

…

Initially when we heard that Chicken and Josh were going to take on the system in this year’s mayoral primetime election sitcom episode we thought: this is going to suck, this has no teeth, this has no radical attack, this is only going to bounce right off the Election Spectacle like a rubber vomit prop without ever aligning with or voicing of the very real political crises from homelessness to gentrification to cronyism to labor issues to healthcare to the filthy rich getting filthier…, etc etc.

BUT after experiencing the debate the other night, just hearing such authentic voices (and sharp humor) coming from extremely opposite worlds than professional politicians will, when up against a big business-bidding puppet, make for extraordinary comedy at the very least …and perhaps at best a glorious surrealist train wreck.

This might seem like a real stretch, but perhaps similar to what La Otra Campagna (The Other Campaign) is accomplishing in Mexico, they have the potential to catalyze and cultivate the hunger for, and actual activity towards, something detached from the sham democracy and self-serving govt. system, something the people themselves construct as alternative functioning communities, which in any number of pragmatic forms just ignores the adversary and proceeds with better ideas.

…

The real subversiveness here lies in the fact that Chicken and Josh aren’t out to win the election, but Are entirely serious about the alternative platforms which they represent. Unless the system were to try to adopt and co-opt them, which would be nearly impossible since they’re coming from so far out in “leftfield” ( if your measuring from that pea-brained nucleus of uber-dull politics ), the primary agenda of making their platforms and ideas heard cannot be impeded or entangled in the stupidity and hollowness and desperation of the usual politics. In fact the more juxtapositions they can manage with that whole absurd theater should highlight the necessity of abandoning that traditional nest of lunacy, where one groomed and “elected” and wholly fictitious Yes Man is supposed to run the whole monstrous urban show.

...

The race is on for both of these candidates to raise enough money to enter into the Voting Game ($5000 ante) by FRIDAY, and while you might initially think this couldn’t possibly be a worthy expenditure, THINK AGAIN! It is in fact the only game in town… for trading in this year’s dead horse democracy for new paradigms, not to mention quite possibly the best comedy show to ever hit City Hall !

You can help support these 2 candidates here:

Joshwolf.net

voteforchicken.com

...

More analysis of last sunday's debate, the campaign platforms, and updates coming soon.
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Comments (Hide Comments)
by podopo
Updates:

At the time of writing this we were not aware of Dr. Ahimsa Porter Sumchai also running,and there may be others we've missed. Hell knows most mainstream media isn't going to keep us very well informed on that.

Thanks indybay crew for exanding our coverage!

Ahimsa has a press conference at City Hall Friday at noon, and more info about her here:
http://indybay.org/newsitems/2007/07/25/18437193.php

As far as further analysis of platforms, we won't be able to examine further until next week (and lets hope they are ALL still in the running !) , so you can watch last Sunday's debates on Josh Wolf's site ...

http://joshwolf.net/JoshWolf4Mayor/node/71

And you will see they are surprisingly adept public speakers and know how to manoeuver the political stage with charismatic and penetrating character, that would definitely give the hollow Newsom some interesting and surreal challenges.

As a quick glimpse to grasp the new and fast style thinking, that could burst the bubble of the normal political somnambulism or mummification process here's a blog entry on Chicken John's site that might inspire you to support the OUTSIDERS:

"In 1966, NASA was faced with an interesting problem. They needed a pen that would write in zero gravity. They spent millions of dollars developing a pen that would do just that. A scientific, precision instrument that didn’t need gravity to imprint a glyph on paper.

The Russian space program used a pencil.

When I started talking to people about running for Mayor, I got a lot of hard questions about my experience. I was told that I would not be taken seriously. That I would be viewed as less than qualified. That only a highly sophisticated and expensive tool could possibly get the job done. Untrue. Sometimes you only need a simple tool. People of San Francisco, I am that simple tool.

...

Relevant experience? I’ve successfully run a touring circus staffed entirely by rebellious youth, which requires exactly the same skill set I’ll need as Mayor when dealing with the Board of Supervisors. Same same. It’s true, I haven’t spent the last 10 years in City Hall. Instead, I’ve bought and maintained a 100-year-old live-work space in San Francisco. I’ve operated (and continue to operate) a small business in this city, going through the crushing trials of navigating city bureaucracies and the permit process in order to make interesting things happen in (what could easily be) the most interesting city in the world. Last summer, I spent a few months building a 110’ shows of all sizes in all places. I support and advocate art and the championing of the amateur artist, with my mantra of “Art for all purposes.” I helped facilitate the opening of a dozen art spaces. I converted my 1975 GMC pick up truck to run on wood gas (page 66) in a weekend. Made of junk, runs on garbage. Soon to run on coffee grinds: the Café Racer. Alternative energy is easier then it sounds.

Me and my dog have invested all our time, attention & money for a decade to make this city the interesting, whimsical, adventure-filled place I want it to be, and that I know so many people came here to participate in.

Watching it turn into a NIMBY suburb isn’t on the menu. It’s unacceptable. You may agree with me.

read more here:

City Of Art and Innovation

http://voteforchicken.com/2007/07/11/city-of-art-and-innovation/







by reality check
This is a sad state of affairs when these candidates allow themselves to be used as the butt of jokes in the media. These candidates have trivialized the process of really challenging Mayor Newsom. Any of the positive ideas they have will be further marginalized and they will set back the causes they profess to support. They are either fools or tools.

After all the hype about Ahimsa Sumchai - who would be by far the best standard bearer for progressives - she doesn't appear to be a serious candidate either. Apparently she will not be on the ballot. What a shame and an embarrassment for the City by the Bay.

Here's the list from sf chron, Ms. Sumchai ain't on it:

Candidates in the Nov. 6 San Francisco mayor's race:

Harold Brown, retired teacher and blogger

George Davis, nudist activist

Tony Hall, former supervisor

Lonnie Holmes, San Francisco Juvenile Probation Department manager

Harold Hoogasian, flower shop owner

Grasshopper Kaplan, taxi driver

Quintin Mecke, program director for the nonprofit Safety Network Partnership

Gavin Newsom, incumbent

Wilma Pang, music teacher

Michael Powers, owner of Power Exchange sex club

Chicken John Rinaldi, showman

Billy Bob Whitmer, educator

Josh Wolf, blogger
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