Thomas Hawk Digital Connection

A little over a week ago I blogged a post about Victoria Kolakowski, a candidate for Alameda County Superior Court Judge here where I live. I was annoyed after having received an unwanted robodial from her campaign on a Sunday afternoon on my cell phone in the middle of my son’s baseball game. I hate robocalls in general and thought I’d use my free speech rights on my blog, Twitter account, Facebook account, etc. to express my dissatisfaction at having received this impersonal and unwanted solicitation from her.

Nobody likes getting robocalls. It’s annoying to pick up your phone to be blasted by some recording trying to get you to buy something or vote for someone, or whatever impersonal thing they are trying to get you to do. I’m not sure why politicians use them. They turn people off, make them angry and provide no value.

While researching robodialing in general I learned that in California at least that robodialing is actually illegal. So I posted another blog post about the illegality of Kolakowski’s calls and posted my concern about this illegality on her Facebook campaign page.

So how does Kolakowski respond? Rather than addressing the illegality of her campaign’s actions she blocks me on her facebook campaign page and censors my comments asking her to explain her illegal actions. What’s more, she not only blocked and censored me, she also killed other comments by other people as well who were also questioning her ethics and illegal campaigning.

So rather than address why she as a sitting law judge, sworn to uphold the law, knowingly breaks the law — and interestingly enough, she is presently a law judge at the California PUC, the *exact* same agency that issued this bulletin about robodials being illegal in California — she instead chooses to try to simply censor the allegations to make them go away. This is not right. Kolakowski should provide an explanation as to why she feels her robodials are not illegal if this is in fact how she feels, or she should apologize for using illegal robodials and pledge not to use them in the future. But trying to censor those who are trying to hold her accountable for her shady campaign tactics will only backfire.

I also contacted Oakland City Attorney John Russo’s office. Russo was the person whose voice and name were used on the robodial asking for a response from him. In Russo’s case, I at least received a reply back from his communications director telling me that they were looking into the matter and would get back to me. That’s certainly better than the censorship and no response that I got back from Kolakowski.

Last Sunday (as previously blogged) I was disappointed after having my son’s baseball game interrupted by an annoying impersonal robocall from Victoria Kolakowski’s Superior Court Judge campaign. I’ve sort of been going at it with Vicky on my blog and on her Facebook page over the past week on what I feel is unethical campaigning on her part.

Earlier today I was made aware that the robo calls that she has been making are very likely in fact illegal according to California State law (thanks to EndTheRoboCalls for the information on this illegality). Certainly someone who is currently a judge and running for another more serious judge position ought to obey California State law. Our judges are elected to know, enforce and most certainly abide by state law themselves.

To make matter worse, Kolakowski’s current position as a law judge is actually with the California PUC, the very agency that documents the illegality of the robo dials she is making.

I just fired off the following email to the three candidates currently running for Superior Court Judge in Alameda County.

Gentlemen and Vicky:

I was recently made aware that robocalls are illegal in the state of California per the California code.

Here is the relevant section of the code.

Here is a document by the California PUC documenting that robocalls by political candidates are in fact illegal according to California State law: http://goo.gl/hyWp

Here is also an article from the San Jose Mercury News discussing the illegality of these calls: http://goo.gl/Zuvi

In fact, just last week, the Santa Clara District Attorney settled for $900,000 with one such company who was illegally using robocalls.

Last Sunday I received one of these illegal calls from Victoria Kolakowski’s campaign, on a Sunday during the middle of my son’s baseball game on my cell phone at that. I have saved a recording of the call if any of you would like a copy. Vicky has acknowledged that such a call was made both on my blog as well as on her Facebook page.

Question. Why would someone running for judge violate California State law? Shouldn’t a judge, who is given tremendous legal responsibility in our society, know, abide and uphold the law?

Update: I sent off an email earlier this morning to Oakland City Attorney John Russo. City Attorney Russo was the person whose voice was used for the illegal robodial by Kolakowski’s campaign. Certainly someone who is City Attorney of Oakland and sworn to uphold the law should not be participating in this illegal activity by Kolakowski. If you’d like to hear his message you can hear it here: Illegal Robodial By Victoria Kolakowski’s Campaign

I will update this post with Russo’s position when I hear back from him.

Just had my son’s baseball game interrupted due to plea for help by Victoria Kolakowski, apparently she’s running for Judge in Alameda County and she just lost my vote for sure.

1. I expect that when I put my phone number on the do not call list that politicians respect that. (Yes, I know that those crafty bastard politicians are legally exempt from the do not call list, but it doesn’t mean that they can’t abide by it voluntarily).

2. To show so little respect for me, my time, my wishes tells me that a candidate has no interest in the things that are important to me. They have no interest in representing me.

3. It’s even worse when they don’t even have the decency to have a real person call you, instead using a robo dialer and recorded message.

4. On my cell phone.

5. On a Sunday during my son’s baseball game (while he was batting actually).

Join me and thousands of other Alameda County residents in voting “No” on Victoria Kolakowski. Together we can take back our right to not have intrusive unwanted phone spam.

Update: Vicky Kowlakowski responds on Facebook:

“I am sorry that you were inconvenienced. I was told that the phone numbers were obtained from the voter files from the county. Those are public records with information provided by the voters on their voter registration forms. As you know (you mention it on your blog link), the Do Not Call list does not apply to political calls, and it appears that you listed your cell phone as your contact number with the county, which is why you were called at that number. I apologize for the interruption of your time with your family – that was never my intention, and the timing was contrary to my instructions.”

Blek le Rat & Above
May 1 – June 5, 2010
White Walls Gallery
839 Larkin Street
San Francisco, CA
Open Tues – Sat 12PM – 7PM

“Every time I think I’ve painted something slightly original, I find out that Blek Le Rat has done it as well, only twenty years earlier.”
Banksy

“My stencils are a present, introducing people to the world of art, loaded with a political message. This movement is the democratisation of art: if the people cannot come to the gallery, we bring the gallery to the people!”
Blek le Rat

Back before there was Banksy, there was Blek le Rat. One of the earliest urban street artists, Blek le Rat is considered the godfather of stencil graffiti. The first artist to produce life sized stencils, Blek has been decorating the streets of Paris and the rest of the world for over two decades.

Fortunately for us here in San Francisco, Blek is currently showing his work at the White Walls Gallery on Larkin Street. I stopped by White Walls to check out his work and was impressed with a gallery full of interesting and politically provocative images.

Sharing a show with Blek is Above, a younger version of Blek, doing his own stencils in his own unique new way. Above started traditional graffiti of tagging freight trains in California in 1995 and then moved to Paris at the age of 19 where he started painting his trademark arrow (pointing above) all around the city. Since then Above has been consistently traveling around the world doing many large self-financed “tours” with each tour exploring a new medium or style of artworks.

I spent some time Tuesday afternoon hanging out with Dan Plasma. I first ran into Dan a few years back when he was painting a piece on a wall on Valencia Street in the Mission.

Dan’s been painting around SF for a while and yesterday did this killer Francis Baconish piece on the side of this great box UHaul truck.

While Dan was painting, a brown UPS truck drove by and the driver kind of gave us the eye. I think it was an interesting contrast. Every day I see so many Fedex and UPS trucks running up and down the streets of San Francisco. Shouting their corporate message at us every chance they get.

And then we have artists like Dan and others out there painting their own message back on the side of construction trucks, delivery trucks, trucks full of recycled cardboard that live in Chinatown or Oakland or run around delivering vegetables in the Mission District. And these trucks, I believe, are sent to us to counteract those Fed Ex and UPS trucks. To provide an authentic and artistic voice to balance out the increasing encroachment on our public space by big corporations.

I remember a few years back when I was speeding down 101 and all of a sudden I noticed this great truck in front of me painted by ORFN. It made me happy to see that truck out on the road. To see public art shared with the world. It made me happy watching Dan work yesterday and being there to document his new work and knowing that thousands of people will see it as it rolls around the streets of San Francisco in the months ahead.

fiftyseven-thirtythree store Grand opening from Fiftyseven-thirtythree on Vimeo.

5733
4125 Piedmont Ave, 2nd Floor
Oakland, CA
510-547-5733

We make all our gear in East Oakland using water based, solvent free inks. No art directors, consultants, or teleconferencing were used in the production process. We hope it makes you look good, feel good, get laid…whatever makes you happy. Cheers. – 5733 Facebook page.

On Saturday May 1, I had the opportunity to attend the Grand Opening party of 5733 on Piedmont Avenue in Oakland, CA (that’s me in the moving pictures video above shooting SF sex blogger Violet Blue and Pal Ben Metcalfe).

5733, with the tagline “made in Oakland,” is the latest venture by local graffiti artist Eddie and features a number of his new stencil pieces on display as well as a store where some of his art and t-shirts can be purchased. The evening featured music by TBBS and Lankston and was a great event to support one on of the top local artists currently doing work in the Bay Area.

I first started noticing Eddie’s work on the street back during the campaign for the presidential election in 2008. I wasn’t aware of it at the time, but the interesting Obamas in starter caps were actually his. Since then Eddie continues to put up fresh new innovative pieces around town combining political themes with his own artistic sensibility. Eddie told me that he’s also got a few up and coming new commissions going up around town as well, which is great.

If you missed the opening, it’s not too late to stop by 5733 and check out some of Eddie’s great new works (tip: definitely visit the dressing room, some of my favorites are in there) as well as pick up some up some great new threads supporting one of the Bay Area’s great local artists. 5733 is open Tuesday – Saturday noon-6pm.

5733 Blog here.
5733 on Facebook here.
Eddie on Flickr
My Eddie set on Flickr here.

I first met my friend Robert Scoble back in 2004 at a Geek Dinner at Barney’s Burgers in San Francisco back when he worked for Microsoft. Since then I’ve been able to spend a lot of time getting to know him. We’ve worked on photowalking videos together, travelled together, hung out with Ansel Adam’s son together, spent the night in an iPhone line together, and almost everywhere we’ve gone we’ve both had cameras (him usually video, me usually still).

I’ve really enjoyed getting to know Robert over the years. He’s a warm, kind, genuine and generous person. He’s always on top of what the next big thing, the early adopter’s early adopter, is and is a wonderful contributor to technology media.

Along the way I’ve gotten to know Robert’s family too as well. It was amazing to me yesterday to see how fast his son Patrick Scoble is growing. I’ve got a photo of Robert and Patrick from the Maker Fair in 2006 and you can hardly tell they are the same person. Patrick’s in 10th grade now and has taken up running.

Anyways, had a great day shooting the Half Moon Bay Dream Machines show again yesterday (it’s the third year in a row that Scoble and I’ve shot it). So many great car photos to now be processed. Scoble left for Israel last night. It will be interesting to see what he gets over there.