Mirkarimi in the lead for another Nikita Award

According to Fog City Journal, District 5 Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi has called on President Bush to resign: "Asked if he had a personal message to send to President Bush, Mirkarimi told Fog City: 'It's time for you [Bush] to resign.'"

This must have been a shock to President Bush. (Karl Rove: Bad news, Chief. Ross has called for you to resign. President Bush: Ross said that? Geez, that really hurts. I guess it's time for me to go, Karl. Make arrangements for a final press conference and for a chopper to get me and Laura and the dog out of here.)

More importantly, Mirkarimi is the front-runner to get another Nikita Award from District 5 Diary. The Nikita was created by Herb Caen to reward those who compose English sentences that read like translations from the Ukrainian. The Murk's potentially prize-winning entry:

In this time it could not be more of an opportunistic[sic] time as news reports on the adverse relations between Iran and the United States, between two presidents---you might disagree with me but I don't support at all---and the likelihood that as long as these two presidents and the geopolitical outlook continues to drive what I think is certainly the most negative of foreign relations, that I am more convinced that with the creativity and the wherewithal, and just the innovative way that I know that the Persian people can demonstrate in the warmth that has exuded for generations between Iranian people and the people in this country who have Iranian heritage, with the people of Iran itself, shall become now the front line leaders in forging a citizen's diplomacy in the same way that was forged during the cold war between the U.S. and the Soviet Union.

Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi, the first Iranian-American to be elected to office in San Francisco, and the event keynote speaker, used the speaking opportunity to reflect on current hostilities between the United States and Iran over Iran's nuclear ambitions. Mirkarimi said of the standoff: "In this time it couldnot be more of an opportunistic[sic] time as news reports on the adverse relations between Iran and the United States, between two presidents---you might disagree with me but I don't support at all---and the likelihood that as long as these two presidents and the geopolitical outlook continues to drive what I think is certainly the most negative of foreign relations, that I am more convinced that with the creativity and the wherewithal, and just the innovative way that I know that the Persian people can demonstrate in the warmth that has exuded for generations between Iranian people and the people in this country who have Iranian heritiage, with the people of Iran itself, shall become now the front line leaders in forging a citizen's diplomacy in the same way that was forged during the cold war between the U.S. and the Soviet Union."

San Francisco Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi: "I think the the decision making policies of our federal representatives---that if they're going to syphon dollars away for the kind of illegal or misguided direction, such as the war in Iraq, or impending hositilities with Iran---then it would be derelict of my duty to not step up to the plate and say that 'I need those dollars for the unmet needs here at home.' I also believe that, as a local legislator, it might seem a far reach to anybody to hear somebody who is really a lowly elected official in the scheme of things in the State of California to be talking like this. I think the Iranian community is more than just a sleeping giant, but one that is about to awaken." Asked if he had a personal message to send to President Bush, Mirkarimi told Fog City: "It's time for you [Bush] to resign."