Well, I hate to say I told ya so, but Mayor Newsom is backpedling on his claims about the "Cops Gone Wild" videos.

According to Matier and Ross in the San Francisco Chronicle / SFGate, Mayor Newsom has realized that his claims were over the top and is now backpedaling. His "blue-ribbon panel" has been formed and there are suspension hearings underway. Some local television stations were reporting last night that as many as eight of the suspended officers were already back on patrol.

What does this show us? It shows us that Mayor Newsom is driven more by polling than personal convictions. The entire response to the issue was one of ratings, not reality. His claims of racism, sexism and homophobia were designed to anger San Franciscans in general, empower the Liberaliti, and garner him political capital that he could spend later (as he does with ALL of his "major issues"). However when this one didn't work like the others, he backed off immediately, thereby showing that the issue wasn't as big or as bad (or as dramatic) as he and Chief Fong made it out to be.

This sort of pandering politics is offensive. Rather than waste our time and tax dollars on "blue-ribbon panels" and idiotic handgun bans (amazing that the City Attorney and the City can spend so much to defend an idiotic handgun ban, but the City can't afford to prosecute nuisance crimes) I have some recommendations:

• Clean the streets. They're filthy.
• Fix the potholes. Seriously, how many times does a pothole have to be reported before it gets fixed?
• Close the illegal pot clubs. You are tasked by the City Charter with enforcing the laws of the City and County, so do it. If you don't want to close them, then make them compliant with the law.
• Get your budget under control. Why are you increasing spending this year when you are running a deficit? Why are you increasing departmental discretionary budgets? Hint: You can simply HOLD spending at last years levels and you would have been even or probably ahead.