Right Wing takes a blow...

Watch Dog bets that some (most) of our loyal readers were present (or watching) the goings on in San Jose City Council Chambers last night well past mid-night. If you watched, you saw that the right wing in San Jose took a blow (ha!) in their efforts to decide what you can and cannot view on a computer. More moderate voices prevailed...and there were many.

The final vote was 7 to 3, with the 7 supporting a proposal by Vice Mayor Judy Chirco, Councilmember Ash Kalra, and Councilmember Sam Liccardo and opposing Councilmember Pete Constant/Mayor Chuck Reed's proposal. (Chirco was not at the meeting, but would have voted for her own Memo, bringing the vote to 8 to 3.)

There was drama and anger last night. There was intelligent public testimony given and no shortage of misinformed hysteria. But like Wasilla, Alaska, cooler heads prevailed. What started 19 months ago ended (at least for now)...

The big winners of the night were the 7 (8 with Chirco) who stood up the right wing and took a tough vote:

• Councilmember Ash Kalra
• Councilmember Sam Liccardo
• Councilmember Kansen Chu
• Councilmember Nora Campos
• Councilmember Madison Nguyen
• Councilmember Rose Herrera
• Councilmember Nancy Pyle

As they took their vote, they were told that they didn't care about kids, and heck, those kids that view pornography are likely to become serial killers... Also, it was good to see a grassroots group combat the far right. Kudos to Books Not Filters as well.

The losers of the night are Councilmember Pete Constant, Mayor Reed, Councilmember Pierluigi Oliverio, and the "Values" Advocacy Council.

• Constant: It took him 19 months to get 3 votes on a proposal. Which are probably the two other votes he would have had in 2007 when he raised the bad idea. He was clearly pissed at the end of the night and asked for one, last-ditch vote to save his proposal -- which was rejected by Councilmember Liccardo. (Perhaps Constant wants to re-think this. This might be legislative-courtesy karma coming back around...)

• Reed: We've said it before, this is an issue the Mayor should not have let come back to Council. It is divisive and anyone with any knowledge of the 18th floor would know it was going to fail. So, Watch Dog can only assume that the Mayor got threatened by a right wing opponent next year if he didn't bring the issue forward, just like Larry Pegram and the "Values" Advocacy wanted. It is never a good thing for the Mayor to be on the losing end of a 7-3 vote.

• Oliverio: Watch Dog doesn't care as much about how he voted, but does care that the guy seems to not be able to draw the line between appropriate and inappropriate. Now, Watch Dog isn't one to talk, we can be very inappropriate. (Heck, check out the title of this post.) But Councilmember Oliverio is a Councilmember and used words like "fisting" and "double penetration" and few others that Watch Dog didn't even recognize. Thank you Pierluigi...we guess you really are familiar with erotica...

• Larry Pegram/"Values" Advocacy Council: The Council rejected his efforts to impose filters on San Jose Libraries. It is that simple. Watch Dog knows that Pegram isn't going away, but a short respite in his right wing efforts in San Jose would be nice...plus, exclamation marks will be outlawed on Watch Dog today...