The San Francisco Citizen

Read all about today’s protest at KPIX / CBS 5 (along with Eye on Blogs from Brittney Gilbert). Are there really two women in this photo, as alleged here? [Update: No, just one, that makes more sense.] See the mise-en-scene from a good angle here.

Local updates as they happen on the -ist network’s San Francisco website. Up-and-coming San Francisco Supervisor Chris Daly has a few thoughts about these Olympics. And sexy train rider Elaine Santore writes in her CrackBerry Chronicles that she is bracing for Wednesday, when the Olympic Torch makes it only visit to North America. It looks like it’s going to be a humdinger of a day.

Beijing, Are You Ready for this? It’s hard to say. Word on the street today is that the planned route for the relay is now history. 

Finally,  check out hard working Frederic Larson as he once again provides great photos to the San Francisco Chronicle.

The protest people look down as some bridge workers come up:

This dude’s on his cell phone:

Things looked a little shaky at first, before the banners and flags were unfurled:

Helmet-cam? Sure, why not.

See higher resolution photos after the jump!

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This was the scene today in historic Portsmouth Square in San Francisco’s Chinatown - the mayor signing autographs after announcing a list of some of the torchbearers who will relay around the city on April 9th.

In the foreground is another kind of torchbearer, the Goddess of Democracy. Some might have preferred to cover her up with a tarp as was done before, but she was pretty much ignored today.

Let’s not forget about her, in all this Olympic excitement.

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Coming Saturday, April 12, is “Beijing, Are You Ready,” a newly-released series by Oakland’s D3 Production, Inc.

Officially approved by the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Olympic games, this special series features Chinese athletes in training, the construction of the bird’s nest (Beijing national stadium) and much more behind the scenes with rare access to key people and places. Viewers also will experience the variety of ways that China’s capital city is preparing to host the 2008 Olympic games – the first ever Olympics held on Chinese soil. Film producer Duffy Wang and others will be available for discussion. Cosponsored by the Chinese Center.

Well, if it’s “officially approved by the Beijing Organizing Committee”, it must be good, right?

Let’s get some early reviews, how about from national state television, a sub-ministry of People’s Republic of China’s central government within the State Administration of Radio, Film, and Television and as such it does not have any editorial independence from the PRC government.

“Beijing is counting down to the 2008 Olympic Games!”

“And the people of Beijing are busy preparing for this international sports event with great enthusiasm!”

Meanwhile, back on the planet Earth, the authorities in Beijing are “absolutely wetting their pants” over the possibility of protests at torch events around the world. And those corporate sponsors of the torch relay are getting a little nervous, it seems:

“What started off as a small number of organizations threatening to create some disruption has escalated significantly,” said Dan Parr, the head of Asia-Pacific for brandRapport, a marketing consulting agency. “This must be taking some of the gloss off for some of these sponsors.”

Now let’s hear from Steven Spielberg:

“I find that my conscience will not allow me to continue with business as usual. At this point, my time and energy must be spent not on Olympic ceremonies, but on doing all I can to help bring an end to the unspeakable crimes against humanity that continue to be committed in Darfur.”

Mmm. It’s almost like there’s a chance that the Olympics can backfire on a host nation. 

Beijing, are you ready?

Jim Dolan will be one of the scores of people to carry the Olympic torch on the streets of San Francisco.

Check out his Coca Cola red shirt complete with trademark Spencerian script. (His Samsung pennant and IBM/Lenovo baseball cap must have gotten lost in the mail.)

Do you think some people will try to “disrupt” his run by holding up signs and placards that mention Darfur, Tibet, and Burma? Maybe, but he looks like he’ll be able to handle it.

Way for News/NYDailyNews

Supervisor Chris Daly is not known for mincing words. See exactly why, after the jump.

Chris Daly with son Jack at the California Democratic Convention in San Jose.

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Over at the San Francisco Sentinel , writer Pat Murphy offers his Believe it or What solution for an issue of the day:

Solutions

THE TORCH

Run it through the Mission District dragging a hundred dollar bill, to drown Tibetan clamor.

Well, O.K. then

News comes from Dave Eggers in the New York Times.

“In 418,000 copies of the April 4 edition of The San Francisco Chronicle, subscribers will get a placard that on one side explains the connections between China and the genocide in Sudan, and on the other side says, “China: Extinguish the Flames of Genocide in Darfur.” How’s that for an early morning jolt?”

These placards are going to look a little something like this:

Will people need to register in advance in order to hold up these signs along the torch route? Will people need to be herded into “free speech zones,” like these pens used in Boston a while back, before they are allowed to hold up these signs?

Only time will tell.

Or, improvised incendiary weapon, if you prefer.

Not much damage at all. Here’s a detail of the metal door. Click for a better view.

It looks like somebody’s paw prints got onto the door post-fire. Assuming that the video cameras were operational, investigators will have a pretty good idea of what occurred pretty soon.

March 10 is the anniversary of the Tibetan National Uprising so there were protests all over the world today. San Franciscans saw about 400 people march from City Hall to the Chinese Consulate.

We’ll get to see the Olympic Torch passing through in April. San Francisco is the only stop in North America for the flame so expect to see a lot more protesting going on then.