Did they even wind up using California Street footage in the final version? I don't think so; the two SF-ish locales I recognize look like the Marin headlands and one of the Presidio-area beaches, both of which are IIRC still under Fed jurisdiction. Good on 'em for not dignifying La Coyote's head trip.

Well, clearly, Stefanie Coyote needs to honor requests like this.

Idiot.

Nortius: About 0:27 into the spot, there's a shot of the Marines on a nondescript street on an incline in front of what looks like a warehouse. I'm not that familiar with SF but I'm aware that many of its streets are on steep grades; could this be the California Street shot? (I realize that if it is, it technically wrecks the image of the line of Marines stretching from NYC to SF, because from the shot's place in the sequence, it should be somewhere in the Midwest. But the scene I'm talking about looks generic enough so that most viewers probably won't know the difference.)

hypocrisyrules: Thanks for elevating the level of the dialog above that which I had essayed, by calling me a name. Or did you mean to call Ms Coyote that?

Edit: On reflection, you could have been referring to D. Sensing, or Gerard Van Der leun, or the other poster. So... whatever. Names were already called, have at it, knock yourself out.

As you evidently possibly didn't understand the intent of my communication, allow me to explain it: Clearly, if Ms. Coyote didn't want them there, they would have been entirely justified in tossing any footage they took in her precious back yard. Claro? Bene.

Joshua: That doesn't look like a building on any part of San Francisco's California Street that I've seen; it looks Midwestern to me (which would fit the timeline, too). There are probably a lot of white buildings with old painted signs on them on inclines. :) Next time I'm in San Francisco, maybe I'll scout it for that.

Stefanie Coyote needs to honor requests like this.

Well, no city needs to honor any such request. But why wouldn't they? Most cities would leap at it for the free promotion alone.

The city of San Francisco understands that perfectly well, but must forgo such opportunities because they are beholden to a constituency that is not so much idiotic as hate-filled.

In the 1840s, William Tecumseh Sherman was asked by the governor of California to raise a state militia and pacify the city of San Francisco. At the time the city was run by the San Francisco Vigilance Committee, whose members outnumbered sane people a hundred to one, but who were quite reasonable compared to the people who run it now.

Sherman recruited the men, but the general in charge of the state armory backed out of his promise to supply muskets, so the deal fell through. This has to be the greatest missed opportunity in American history.

Glen -- The Vigilance Committee was made up of mostly small shop owners who as Mexican War vets had enough of the Irish Gangs who ran things (corruptly) at the time. The murder of newspaper publisher, James King of William (his actual name) in broad daylight by a Gang leader led to the Committee. Most were small businessmen being bled dry and seeing their futures leading to poverty instead of wealth.

It was surprising that the Committee was as restrained as they were. And of course the Committee only existed because of the failure of the Governor to act to keep law and order. Recent Army vets seeing their entire lives in ruin? Whatever could go wrong?

Now San Francisco is a gay-hard left lunatic asylum. Where public sex is considered "normal." As is hatred for America or the Marines.

"Well, no city needs to honor any such request."

True. So true. We Southerners established that principle when we evicted the Northern troops from Fort Sumter, S.C. in 1861. Sadly, it held true for only 4 years, but has now been resurrected by San Francisco.

Perhaps that's true, willis, but for entirely different reasons.

The former eviction was for a higher purpose -- defense of the constitution; the latter for purely personal, hedonistic, socially reprehensible reasons.

Folsom Street, indeed.

Very well said rollo, you should run for public office.

Secede! Make a clean break! Draw a border, San Francisco, and defend it! Put up a wall! These yahoo American rednecks shouldn't be allowed into your country! You people know better how to do things and run things and how people should live their lives.... SECEDE NOW, while you still can!

"Well, no city needs to honor any such request."

Yet, on the other hand, their precious ethics seem to get shelved every year when the Navy Blue Angels come to town. I'm sure this annual forebearance has nothing to do with the $$$s that come with the Blues. Sure of it.

I would not be the first to observe that if San Francisco were to secede, the internal arguments over the uniform of the San Francisco Confederacy would entirely eclipse the actual secession.

I remember when I was at Sac State long ago, there was always talk of Northern CA, as a whole, splitting from Southern. Not being a native Californian, I didn't pay too close attention to where the boundary would have been; I thought pretty much all Californians were a little nutty, at least. But if SF were to have fallen to the North, I'd have been very surprised indeed.

C'mon, what do you people expect? It's San Fransisco; land of fruits, nuts, and moonbats. They took a 'trip' in the 60's and never came back.

"The former eviction was for a higher purpose -- defense of the constitution"

The current eviction serves to illustrate that the residents of S.F. are primed with self righteousness, which they can pump forth at firehose pressures at will.

The former eviction served to keep a people in boundage for years, until the horrible Southern system was rightly smashed to bits. Exactly what are you nostaglic for?

California's natural political division would be Coastal California and Inland California, not north and south.

Come on people, don't you have anything else to complain about?

the entire thing could/should have been done on a base and edited into the scenery, which is what about half of this looked like (lined up across the butte)

I understand the need to complain about liberals wherever you seem to locate them, but this is asinine

the Marines don't need the approval of SF or anyone else, they are Marines. They could care less about this political crap.

grow up

What was said about South Carolina in the 1850's seems to apply to San Francisco in the 21st Century -- it's to small to be its own country but too big to be an insane asylum.

I suppose that if some Iranian speedboats sailed in past the Golden Gate and started machine-gunning Fisherman's Wharf that the San Franciscans would graciously condescend to allow the US Army and the Marines into their city. But should we send them?

If I were President Bush, I would have ordered the Marines to perform their march as planned, but with loaded weapons, and to shoot dead any San Francisco city officials who tried to stop them. The rest of the country would have cheered.

The small-town street looks like the main drag of Quantico, VA

The current election season is a wonder to behold.

The Rs are disgruntled and the Ds are running a farce that is sold out for the next 9 months.

Identity politics is foundering on its own contradictions. Lenin would love it.

One can only hope that if a major conflict was to ever occur here in our homeland, and if it was to impact the peoples republic of san francisco, that our great military would heed the multiple requests to stay out of the bay area.

You want to read about Stefanie Coyote (wife of actor Peter Coyote)?
link

search for "stefanie" and read in wonderment.

What a mutt.

[Bare link corrected. --NM]

"Exactly what are you nostaglic for?"

The same thing that the great wave of black folks returning to the South are nostalgic for...the absence of arrogant, condescending, blue state yankees.

The scene in from of the warehouse was shot in Columbia, TN

willis, Why did the great wave of black folks leave the South in the first place? I forget.

Why did the great wave of black folks leave the South in the first place?

"willis, Why did the great wave of black folks leave the South in the first place? I forget."

They thought the wonderful, compassionate, yankees who freed them from slavery would welcome them with open arms and be the answer to all their problems. Remember now?

Sorry, late to this thread but to clear up some information passing through:

That is not California Street, SF, CA at 00:27. I used to live at California and Gough for 5 years. During the halcyon days of Willie Brown when the weird insanity of hedonism and socialism was less refined. One observer was right - the images are of the Marin headlands and the beach below the Presidio appears to be near Fort Point National Historic Site or the Golden Gate Promenade.

The only reason to use California Street would have been to have Transamerica tower in background with a cable car coming by. I am glad they were not given permission since it would some how honor San Francisco as a national treasure which it is only in their pea brained minds.

I thought that was a classy "high-road" approach. Not only did they still include San Francisco, they prominently featured it in the background during the most dramatic part, the finale... it's almost as though they were trying to say "SF, You're morons, but we love you anyway."

This is my schadenfreude fantasy:
"Hello, Marines? San Francisco here. Say, we have this little invasion problem. Could you send two or three divisions to protect us, to sacrifice your lives to save ours? Look, you knew we were only joking about denying you entry and access to the city, right? And that when three generations of San Franciscans screamed that you were murderers and rapists and baby-killers, it was all in good fun. So can you help us out?"

"Uh, sorry Mayor, but the USMC protects and defend American territory only. Might I suggest you ask for local volunteers? Good luck." click

Sigh Ah, what a sweet dream. But I know in reality the Marine response to such a plea would be: "They're already on the way. Semper fi."

San Francisco doesn't deserve the Marine Corps.

What else can you expect when the city's Film Commission Executive Director can't even spell her own name right.

For the eunuchs in Frisco: Grow a penis.

I gave up on San Francisco's decency (at least as expressed through its city government and most city organizations; there are indeed fine individuals who still live there) a long time ago. So I'm not surprised.

But DAMN that's a fine advertisement.

Retired 101st Vet: somehow, I don't think lack of penises is much of a problem in SF. Although, come to think of it, there may be a greater demand than supply, as I recall a surprising large # of shops sell artificial ones there. In fact, if anyone could grow a penis there, he (or she) would probably be quite popular.

Superb ad.

I appreciate the sentiment expressed here, but a little worried that the title of the post will backfire and be used by the left to disparage the USMC.

My initial reaction when I saw the Glen Reynolds link was "Uh oh -- did the Marines do something embarrassing?"

I was relieved to see that they had not, and was PROUD to see the commercial during the playoffs Sunday. (And yes, I now understand that "morons" in the title is directed at the city of San Fran. They deserve it!)

Big_Mike: I thought I remembered your quote, but differently, so I looked it up. I found it as "South Carolina is too small for a republic and too large for an insane asylum." (James Louis Petigru)

I wrote to the Mayor's Office and got this response:

Hello,

Thank you for contacting Mayor Gavin Newsom regarding the United States
Marine Corps' recent filming of a television commercial in San Francisco.

There has been a great deal of misinformation about the filming and we
would like to set the record straight:

The United States Marine Corps' film production company, Tight Productions,
did recently film part of a commercial in San Francisco. Reports claiming
that a film permit was denied are incorrect.

Initially, Tight Productions requested a permit for a specific location at
a time that could not be accommodated. (The request would have required
closing a busy downtown intersection for the majority of a workday
including commute hours.) Tight Productions was immediately offered a
variety of other San Francisco locations that could accommodate their
filming at the time requested OR the specific downtown location at another
time. They chose to film at their original location at another time and a
film permit was promptly issued.

Tight Productions never had a problem with this process. The company has in
fact written a letter to the President of the San Francisco Film Commission
assuring him that their production needs were fully met by our office. I
have attached a copy of that letter to this email for your review.

The San Francisco Film Commission issues film permits without regard to
content. It is our mission to both promote and facilitate filming of all
kinds here in our great city. When issuing permits, our primary concerns
are safety and managing disruption to the residents and workers of San
Francisco. Please be assured that Mayor Newsom and the San Francisco Film
Commission welcome the United States Marine Corps to San Francisco at
anytime.

We appreciate your concern with regard to this matter and hope this
information is helpful.

Best regards,

San Francisco Film Commission
415-554-6241 Phone
415-554-6503 Fax
www.filmSF.org

I did a search for the text of Roland’s email and found a copy of it posted on another forum (click on my name for the link) dated October 9, 2007. It looks like this might be a misunderstanding/overreaction on the part of a lot of folks. It would seem that an update (and possibly a retraction) would be in order.

It looks like this might be a misunderstanding/overreaction on the part of a lot of folks.

That's OK, "Fake but Accurate" is the Liberal standard - they'll just have to deal with it.

Nortius,

The idiot comment was for Stefanie Coyote.

But, now it looks like it might be completely false charge, and I've gotten conned by one of those lack of info/media outrages generated by the right neo-cons.

At least, if Roland is correct in 39.

So I'm the idiot. Woo-hoo!

When will I get to NEVER, EVER trust the hyperventilating steams of outrage issued by neo-cons. What an effin' moron I am!

You too Donald Sensing.

Please update this post, as "San Francisco refused to cooperate in the making of this film", looks to be simply false.

Interesting. I'd love to see what the production company has to say; since my brother is also a location manager, I'll see what he can find out through his network as well.

"measure twice, cut once," and all that...

A.L.

I don't know if you can blame the Neocons, whoever they are. Follow the original link at you'll find a story by an ABC affiliate, with interviews and everything. I don't have any more info to suss about the truth of the matter, except to say that politicians have been known to issue CYA letters from time to time.

Who ya gonna trust, a foot soldier in the MSM or a politician? That's a hard one!

Roland, would you be willing to forward on the email you received from the mayor’s office with the attached letter from the production company to either AL or Donald Sensing? I think it might go a long ways to helping to clear up this issue.

Just talked to a friend who does location work (my darn brother isn't answering the phone) and his comment was "of course they production company will say nice things after the fact. They want to film there again. He suggests that we find the original location manager or someone who was at the hearing. He says it's almost unheard of for something straightforward to go to a hearing up there; it's all handled administratively.

The mystery deepens.

A.L.

A.L., my reading of the ABC article is not that the decision went up to the hearing, but that at a hearing (unrelated to this issue?), protesters confronted the commission about the issue. Although why a film commission would hold hearings is anyone's guess.

Interestingly, the Vigilance Committee is described in passing, in Clint Eastwood's Magnum Force, by an overzealous City supervisor,(Hal Holbrook's) who is running a 'Brazilianized' death squad of former troopers who happen to be Vietnam Vets.Dirty Harry, who is anything but an ACLU liberal is justifiably appalled at this paramilitary solution. The irony that Gavin Newsom, who owe's at least part of his family fortune to a partnership with Getty Oil; is so adamant to prevent the US government from using any of it's facilities. Not really surprising though. Not really surprising about Peter Coyote and co; his most recent role was as a genocidal OHS official in the sci fi series the 4400; his politics
are the reverse, as it usually turns out. Meaning more in the Chavez, Fidel, and Ahmadinejad fan club.
Come to think of it; it's actually more fitting than he realizes.

Thorley (#45)

I forwarded the email response from the SF mayor's office to Donald Sensing, including the letter from Tight Productions.

AL at 46

Sigh. Another non-story turned into one, along with the requisite bashing of SF, along with a nice set of homo-jokes and liberal slamming. Hey, they have guys wearing PINK over there! Gettum!

Here's something from back in September
. If you're curious, this includes a bit that they had a full permit for September 9th (a Sunday), but no Marines(due on Tuesday). No imposition by the city about if there could be Marines in the shot or not.

And also, a production company that didn't do it's legwork.
"Because the director didn't choose the locations until a few days before they were scheduled to film, Block says the company didn't have time to get the required approvals from local residents who would have been inconvenienced during the filming."

Wow, who would guess that a cluster might come about from something that seems planned last minute, in a major city with layers of bureaucracy, laws, and occurring in the middle of a crushing rush hour. Or without carrying a Hollywood sized check to make it all better. Strange.

I'm going to dig a bit into this for grins. I'll do a post with whatever turns up.

Having dealt with film permitting pretty extensively (designed a permit system for LA), it's something I know a bit about and have some contacts in.

There may or may not be a resolution, but it'll be interesting to walk it back.

A.L.

My friends and I here in San Francisco were furious when this first came to light. I wrote the supervisors, mayor and Ms. Coyote and received the exact response as Comment #39 from Roland at 8:24 pm on Jan 22, 2008. However, I replied back:

"Thank you very much for your informative letter explaining more about the U.S. Marine Corps' recent filming request for San Francisco. While providing details about the rumors floating around, this letter does not contradict my previous knowledge of the situation.

I always was aware that they were requesting filming permission for the 9/11 anniversary, a Tuesday, and the date has never been part of the rumors that were circulating among the hundreds of people with whom I have discussed this matter. Additionally, we again always knew the request was for shutdown of a major street for that day's filming.

Our disappointment and upset results from the fact that we imagine a commercial Hollywood enterprise would most likely be granted such permission. More importantly, however, the City of San Francisco permits the Critical Mass bicycle riders to--on a monthly basis--paralyze traffic over multiple city streets inconveniencing residents and commuters alike during key Friday rush hours. Additionally, permits are granted regularly for antiwar protests, support marches for illegal immigration, parades for every disparate social group, etc., shutting down streets and crippling or rerouting transportation arteries for that period. Only for more conservative causes are permits less frequently granted or come with supervisor castigation (e.g., annual pro-life Walk for Life march).

I still feel this group should have been accommodated and the advertising for San Francisco would only have been positive--a needed boost in these times when our city is labeled "San Fransicko" around the world!

Thank you again for your response and for listening.

***************
"Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty is a well armed lamb contesting the vote."
**************

I didn't hear back at all from that one!

To another_dan:

Actually, we're both wrong. According to (link)
Petigru actually said "South Carolina was too small to be a sovereign_nation and too large for an insane asylum." I'm a little more wrong, though, since I placed the quotation in the 1850's when he actually said it in 1861.

Getting back to SF and the military, I really question why in this modern world of BRAC base closures and the like there is any need for any military presence in Northern California. There are so many places that are eager to retain their local military base, why should the military have to put up with the idiots of the world?

-

(Link fixed: David Blue)

Donald, both you and GearMaven lean too heavily on assuming that the city hands out permits for everything.

It does seem that (link)
the natives choose to protest without permits (link)
let alone that Critical Mass, almost by definition, is permit less. (link) Though it would be wonderful if they arrested more of them for blocking traffic.

As to
Thanks to Roland for his legwork on this matter. One of the strengths of the blogosphere is its ability to fact check writers, and it was well done in this case.
And yet, there are now thousands of people who have seen this story on HotAir, Instapundit, and conservative sites all around - let alone here. People who have commented on this (link), and will never come back to post a 'well, yeah, it's plausible everything just screwed up, especially when you balance Coyote's awful attempt to avoid a shitstorm, Capt. Corrales personal emotions, and Block's future work prospects'.

I think that this strength you speak of is more than overwhelmed by the ability to instantly overreact, the knowledge that this instant may never corrected by someone coming to see the followup and (more importantly in my opinion) only choose to view and report on the news that fits an individual's worldview.

-

(Four links fixed: David Blue)

Meh, messed up that link. Apologies, fix it if you can.