San Francisco Supervisor Chris Daly’s hopes of halting the U.S. Navy’s Blue Angels show from performing its aerial acrobatics over the city during Fleet Week crashed today when the board of supervisors failed the resolution.

Supervisors voted down the resolution just before 2:30 p.m. Newly appointed interim Supervisor Carmen Chu, who attended her first meeting today as the representative for District 4, voted against the resolution.

Daly camouflaged his anti-military motives by playing the safety card, but the board did not buy it:

Daly submitted the resolution because he said it is “not a necessary risk that the city needs to take.” He believes that having the fighter pilot exhibition over a densely populated area like San Francisco poses an unwarranted risk to life and property.

“It is strictly for entertainment and an accident would cause significant loss of life,” Daly said.

The Blue Angels had its first air show in Jacksonville, Fla., in 1946. About 15 million spectators see the Blue Angels in air shows each year.

Blue Angels’ air shows have resulted in 26 fatalities nationally during the past 60 years.

Will Daly give it a rest now? Not bloody likely. As sure as fog rises over the bay, you can count on hardcore leftists in San Francisco to keep attacking the military. It’s in their DNA.

New York said “yes,” but we said “no.” Why were the U.S. Marines denied permission to film a recruiting commercial on the streets of San Francisco? San Francisco is, once again, the center of a controversy over how city leaders treat the U.S. military. This time, it involves an elite group of Marines who wanted to film a recruitment commercial in San Francisco on the anniversary of 9/11.

The tension has been building in the two weeks since the city turned away members of the Silent Drill Platoon, and it boiled over Monday afternoon at a meeting of the San Francisco Film Commission. The U.S. Marine Silent Drill Platoon performed Monday morning in New York’s Times Square. They filmed part of a recruitment commercial through the start of the morning rush hour — something they could not do in San Francisco on the anniversary of 9/11. “It’s insulting, it’s demeaning. This woman is going to insult these young heroes by just arbitrarily saying, ‘no, you’re not going to film any Marines on California Street,” said Captain Greg Corrales of the SFPD Traffic Bureau.

Captain Greg Corrales commands the police traffic bureau that works with crews shooting commercials, TV shows and movies in the city. He’s also a Marine veteran and his son is serving his third tour of duty in Iraq. He says Film Commission Executive Director Stefanie Coyote would only allow the Marine’s production crew to film on California Street if there were no Marines in the picture. They wound up filming the empty street and will have to superimpose the Marines later.

“Ms. Coyote’s politics blinded her to her duty as the director of the Film Commission and as a responsible citizen,” said Captain Corrales.

San Fran officials are claiming that “traffic concerns” are to blame, not their politics.

Bull, say the Marine veterans, and rightly so:

Captain Corrales and several other Marine veterans came to the Film Commission Monday afternoon. They see this as just the latest insult along with the city blocking the USS Iowa from docking here, banning the junior ROTC from high schools, and trying to ban the yearly Blue Angels air show.

“This — a slap in the face of every veteran and every parent of men and women who are doing their duty — is shameful,” said Captain Corrales.

The Marines we spoke with also make the point that the city allows street demonstrations, anti-war protests and other events which snarl traffic, such as Critical Mass. They still don’t understand why the Marines got turned away.

Flashback: Blue Angels coverage
Flashback:
Flashback: San Francisco hates the troops
Flashback: Navy to San Francisco: See ya, haters!
Flashback: Intolerant San Francisco and JROTC
Flashback: San Francisco kills JROTC program

KCBS reports:

The Blue Angels daredevil air show should perform in October on schedule after a proposed resolution to ban them was tabled by the committee Monday. Supervisor Chris Daly wants Congress to stop the Blue Angels’ Fleet Week flyovers and introduced the resolution, citing a fatal accident at an aerial display in South Carolina last year. A hearing Monday let Veterans for Peace and other anti-war groups face off with tourism and commerce supporters. Opponents of the Blue Angels voiced their concern over the trauma the show inflicts on war refugees, the waste of fuel, and noise pollution.

“The Blue Angels are totally unnecessary,” said a resolution supporter. “I believe they are sent here to terrorize this town because we are an anti-war city.”

“The Blue Angels, the sound of them, makes me smile,” said another man. “Keep them coming to San Francisco forever and ever.”

Here’s the resolution.

It’ll come up again, I’m sure.

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I last chronicled one moonbat politician’s war on the Blue Angels in San Francisco in June. Well, folks, he’s baaaack (hat tip: Bookworm):

The annual flyover of the U.S. Navy’s Blue Angels sinks millions into the local economy and draws a million spectators, but one supervisor wants to stop these fighter planes from ever soaring through the skies over San Francisco again.

The Blue Angels, a team of Navy fighter pilots, fly over San Francisco during Fleet Week, which this year is scheduled for Oct. 4 through Oct. 9. For four of the six days, the flashy blue planes soar through the skies at speeds reaching 700 miles per hour, and perform maneuvers such as vertical rolls.

Today, the Board of Supervisors Government Audit and Oversight Committee will vote on a nonbinding resolution introduced by Supervisor Chris Daly that would call on San Francisco’s congressional representatives, including Sens. Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein, to “use all resources at their disposal to bring a permanent halt to unnecessary flyovers by military aircraft.”

If sent out of committee, the full board will vote on it Tuesday.

Political observers in the Bay Area say the resolution is going nowhere.

We’ll see.

Meanwhile, far Left members of Global Exchange continue to collect signatures petitioning SF mayor Gavin Newsom to “Halt the Blue Angels.”

If you’re a Bay Area constituent, here’s the SF Board of Supervisors contact info page.

The moonbats continue to bash the Blue Angels in San Francisco. Here’s video of one of the leaders trying to kick the Blue Angels out of the city for Fleet Week. The Examiner’s letters page shows that there are a few sane people left there. A sampling:

I find it interesting and somewhat amusing that Supevisor Chris Daly continues to occupy himself by looking for just one more perceived offense to his sensibilities, now citing the annual Blue Angels air show as “dangerous and unnecessary” (“Daly backs move to ground Angels,” June 7).

However, it’s obvious he uses this event to mask his real motivation of objecting to anything supporting the U.S. military, acknowledging the service of our servicemen and women, or supporting any display of national pride.

It wasn’t enough that the board stood by and indeed encouraged the dismantling of our high school JROTC program, depriving hundreds of young people of a program where they could develop life skills emphasizing teamwork, respect and responsibility. Now that they have teamed up with Code Pink, et. al., to try to cancel the annual air show.

Until San Franciscans wake up to the fact that The City is now firmly controlled by the fringe left, we can expect more of the same. I wonder if they would prefer to invite Hugo Chavez and the Venezuelan air force to perform instead.

John Peloquin

The City

Supervisor Chris Daly wants to ban the Blue Angels because he says they are “dangerous and unnecessary.” The crack and smack dealing in Daly’s District 6 is even more dangerous and unnecessary.

After nearly six years of Daly as supervisor, the district is still a drug-infested mess. I suggest Crusading Chris turn his attention to the urine-soaked and trash-strewn sidewalks of his district, rather than looking to the skies to ruin Fleet Week for an entire city.

Paul Kim

Supervisor Chris Daly, along with support from an anti-capitalism, pro-socialist organization such as Code Pink and Global Exchange, wants to end the Fleet Week air show by the Blue Angels.

Of course the initiative is veiled in a concern for public safety and fuel economy, but the real agenda is a classic expression of left-wing disdain for the military and the adolescent belief that somehow John Lennon’s “Imagine” will come true in a world of jihadists, despots and multinational calculation.

It appears that it is OK to express one’s outrage at the military through symbolic gestures protected by our laws and military, yet to demonstrate support for same is not permissible by the elitists of the left.

What is it about murderous dictatorships and failed socialist governments do they not understand?

Matt Mitguard

The City

Like they say, jet noise is the sound of freedom:

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Contact info for the SF Board of Supervisors is here.

Maybe if the Blue Angels pilots flew naked, San Francisco would change it’s mind.

Previous: Attack on the Blue Angels

Anti-military loons in the Bay Area are working together to drive the Blue Angels out of San Francisco for Fleet Week:

The annual aerial show by the U.S. Navy’s Blue Angels — a San Francisco tradition dating back to 1981 that pumps millions into the local economy — is running into opposition from three local peace advocacy groups that are calling for a permanent halt to the popular Fleet Week flyover.

CodePink, Global Exchange and Veterans for Peace, Chapter 69, are working with Supervisor Chris Daly on a Board of Supervisors resolution to address concerns over the Blue Angels.

Daly acknowledged he is considering a call to halt the flyovers because, he said, “they seem dangerous and unnecessary.” Daly said he plans on introducing the resolution as early as Tuesday, but is still drafting the language. A resolution is not legally binding, but states a board position.

The Blue Angels, a team of navy fighter pilots, fly over San Francisco during Fleet Week, which this year is scheduled for Oct. 4 through Oct. 9…

…Veterans for Peace takes issue with the pro-military message and the recruiting efforts that come along with the annual visit as well as what it refers to as the “noise pollution.” The group calls the event a public safety risk, pointing to the April crash of a Blue Angels plane during an air show in Beaufort, S.C.

Just a slight miscalculation or a mechanical failure can cause a plane to “go barreling into the Golden Gate Bridge or a high-rise and cause a significant amount of damage,” said Paul Cox, a Vietnam veteran and member of the Veterans for Peace.

Edward Leonard, chairman of the San Francisco Fleet Week Committee, said that since the April plane crash, the Blue Angels are back flying and “we think it’s safe.” He added that the planes’ maneuvers require approval by the Federal Aviation Administration, the more challenging maneuvers are conducted over the Bay waters and that “commercial airlines fly over The City all the time.”

Veterans for Peace, working with Code Pink and other anti-military groups, is threatening to sue.

I’ve said before it’s time for the military to leave San Francisco in the dust. Back in December, the Navy got the message and pulled plans to commission a warship in the city “because of a perception that the city is anti-military.” You’ll recall that last November, the San Fran school system killed the JROTC program over the protests of students and parents.

Fact:

Fleet Week attracts about 1 million people to The City’s waterfront and sinks about $4 million into The City’s economy…

They don’t support the troops. Why should the troops support them?

***

The moonbats’ animosity towards the Blue Angels is long-standing and deep-seated. In Seattle (the San Francisco of the Northwest), they start brainwashing them in preschool. I wrote about the anti-Blue Angels curriculum in 2003:

According to the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC), which oversees preschool teacher training, curriculum standards, and daycare accreditation, “That’s Not Fair! A Teacher’s Guide to Activism with Young Children” is “an exciting and informative” resource for “developing community-building, deep thinking, and partnership.to change the world for the better.”

On page 106 of the guide, co-author Ann Pelo details an activism project she initiated at a Seattle preschool after her students spotted a Blue Angels rehearsal overhead as they played in a local park. “Those are Navy airplanes,” Pelo lectured the toddlers. “They’re built for war, but right now, there is no war, so the pilots learn how to do fancy tricks in their planes.” The kids returned to playing, but Pelo wouldn’t let it rest. The next day she pushes the children to “communicate their feelings about the Blue Angels.”

Pelo proudly describes her precociously politicized students’ handiwork:

“They drew pictures of planes with Xs through them: ‘This is a crossed-off bombing plane.’ They drew bomb factories labeled: ‘No.’

“Respect our words, Blue Angels. Respect kids’ words. Don’t kill people.”

“If you blow up our city, we won’t be happy about it. And our whole city will be destroyed. And if you blow up my favorite library, I won’t be happy because there are some good books there that I haven’t read yet.”

Pelo reports that the children “poured out their strong feelings about the Blue Angels in their messages and seemed relieved and relaxed.” But it’s obvious this cathartic exercise was less for the children and more for the ax-grinding Pelo, who readily admits that she “didn’t ask for parents’ input about their letter-writing – she didn’t genuinely want it. She felt passionately that they had done the right thing, and she wasn’t interested in hearing otherwise.”

***

Here’s the Blue Angels’ official website.

If you live in San Francisco and you do support the troops, now’s the time to speak up.

Contact info for the SF Board of Supervisors here.

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Previous:

Navy to San Francisco: See ya, haters!
Intolerant San Francisco & JROTC
San Francisco kills JROTC program

Good time to brush up on what your preschool teacher might be telling your kids about our brave Navy pilots.