This Friday marks what could possibly be the most important of all hair-related holidays: Comb Your Hair Like Gavin Newsom Day! If you’re interested in participating, SFist reminds you that the Gav uses L’Oréal Studio Line Total Control Clean Gel.

And if you’re not interested in pushing your hair’s helmet-of-cloudiness to the maximum, you can check out SF Weekly’s Flickr pool once the pictures start rolling in.

Image Source: thepartycow under Creative Commons
Excitement Builds as ‘Comb Your Hair Like Gavin Newsom Day’ Draws Near [SF Weekly]
Comb Your Hair Like Gavin Newsom Day, 10/9 [SFist]

Gavin Newsom and his wife just had their first baby girl. Le’ts hope by the time she’s grown up, she’ll be able to get married, no matter what her sexual orientation happens to be. [San Jose Mercury News]

Have you ever wanted to convert a parking space into a public park? Yeah, we neither. But lucky for you, San Franciscans do a lot of things you probably wouldn’t think of doing. [SFist]

Do you hate this obnoxious heat wave we’ve been in for the past few days? Well we hate to be the bearers of bad news, but it’s not going away any time soon. [San Jose Mercury News]

Earlier: Wait a Tic … What Budget Cuts??

In addition to his Tweet: “It’s official- running for Gov of CA. Wanted you to be the first to know. Need your help,” Newsom also made a campaign video for YouTube (yeah, that’s Mandarin you hear) and wrote a note on his Facebook. He raised approximately $15,000 the first day in online donations.

Following in the footsteps of Barack Obama, whose presidential campaign spawned the term “Facebook Election,” Newsom hopes to reach a wider audience and secure the youth vote. Alright Newsom, we hear you Tweeting. You know how to use a computer, we get it.

Newsom For California [YouTube]
Newsom makes his official governor bid online [SFGate]

If you’re embarrassed about your mom being on Facebook, at least there’s a silver lining: so is Gavin Newsom. The Chron pointed out that Newsom has a buttload of Facebook “friends,” to the tune of 25,000. Except that the Chron fails to note the difference between friends and supporters, real pages and public pages.

There is a difference.

Below, an abbreviated list of politicians you may actually or care about who are on Facebook as public figures. Like your mom. Hi-o!

1. President Barack Obama – 5.2 million
2. Sarah Palin, governor of Alaska – 491,000
3. Silvio Berlusconi, prime minister of Italy – 91,500
4. Nicolas Sarkozy, president of France – 63,300
5. Vladimir Putin, prime minister of Russia – 29,500
6. Hugo Chavez, president of Venezuela – 28,000
7. Gavin Newsom, mayor of San Francisco (and possible 2010 gubernatorial candidate) – 25,000
8. Gordon Brown, prime minister of Great Britain – 3,399
9. Jerry Brown, California Attorney General (and possible 2010 gubernatorial candidate) – 700
10. Robert Mugabe, president of Zimbabwe – 630

To note: We actually counted 161 supporters on Mugabe’s public page. Compare that to the litany of groups against him.

Image Source: jdlasica under Creative Commons
Facebook friends in high places [SF Chron]
Earlier: New Blog Thrives on Modern Anxiety, Clog Feels Your Pain

The proposition which will ban gay marriage was passed with a 52% vote yesterday, effectively limiting a constitutional right and leading many to call for a succession of NorCal from the rest of the California. (OK, we made that last part up.)

Although the rest of the state may not agree with us, we can take solace in the fact that the proposition was rejected by 61.9 percent of Alameda County voters and that San Francisco mayor, Gavin Newsom’s anti-Prop 8 rallying in Berkeley apparently had a positive affect on student voters. Now the fate of the over 18,000 marriage licenses issued to gay couples over the last five months lies in question. Retroactive constitutional amendment? That’s pretty low.

Earlier: SF Mayor Newsom Will Grace Steps of Sproul to Defeat Prop 8

Image Source: brainchildvn under Creative Commons
After Prop 8, Future of Gay Marriages Unclear [Daily Cal]

Academic competitiveness is a notion at the heart of Chancellor Birgeneau’s argument against Proposition 8, a proposition which would overturn an earlier decision by the California Supreme Court that basically reaffirmed that whole “can’t be separate and equal” dealy.

Birgeneau’s plea basically boils down to this: Berkeley competes with schools like MIT and Harvard, which are in Massachusetts. Massachusetts allows gay marriage. MIT and Harvard are thus more attractive to more people, and therefore more brains. Ergo, concordantly, vis-a-vis, ickso fatso, if Berkeley wants to stay competitive then California needs to defeat Proposition 8.

However, Birgeneau’s call to vote against Proposition 8 was more academic than Gavin Newsom’s op-ed in today’s Daily Cal. In essence, Newsom analyzes the political landscape and concludes it’s Us vs. Them, and We are the underdogs. How to win, then? By talking to people of course. And by talking, he naturally means texting, Facebooking, e-mailing and blogging (SURPRISE TWIST).

Image Source: Michael Kang, Daily Cal; Kanaka’s Paradise Life under Creative Commons, edited by Evante Garza-Licudine
Chancellor Birgeneau informs campus of likely impacts of Proposition 8 [NewsCenter]
Local Buzz On State Propositions And City Measures [Daily Cal]

*It’s been burning on Angel Island since 9 p.m. Yikes.  SFist has already posted views of it from different parts of the bay. We sincerely hope all the campers were able to G.T.F.O. in time. Apparently they were moved to Tiburon?

*Not to make light of a serious subject, but speaking of “flaming,” the SFBG Music Blog just posted its fourth installment of the Gayest. Videos. Ever. Trust us, they’re pure dance-worthy excellence.

*A new issue of The Heuristic Squelch came out this week. Get the PDF version here, if you want to save paper. Or if you’re fundamentally against accepting things from people on Upper Sproul Plaza.

*Aw, man … And just when we thought Gavin Newsom was like, the hottest thing alive, he has to go all conservative on our asses. Tisk, tisk.

Billy Joel We Didn’t Start The Fire [YouTube]
Earlier: Sunday Shout-Out: Make Your Voice Heard

As students in Political Science 179 filed into Wheeler Auditorium Tuesday afternoon, the air was abuzz with speculation about the day’s “surprise” guest speaker, who they’d been told they wouldn’t want to miss. They scanned the room, their straining eyes finally coming to a dead stop upon a familiarly well-coiffed, well-dressed, well–well, everything‘d person.

Spotted: Mayor Gavin Newsom, causing a hot fuss on campus … again. That’s right–just days after the prospect of catching a glimpse of his Christian Bale-like countenance drew a huge crowd to Upper Sproul Plaza, the ever-sexy civil rights champion was back in front of a ready and willing Berkeley audience, driving his message home.

Lucky lecture attendees were treated to a heaping helping of charisma, as the hottest mayor this side of anywhere played a significantly more left-leaning kind of maverick. Newsom started out by sharing a bit of his life’s story, which segued into his views on politics (authenticity is the key), which segued into a convincing argument against Proposition 8. He then sauntered suavely down the aisles, answering questions, “pwn”-ing nay-sayers and reducing on-lookers (OK, us included) to pathetic sighing heaps with every step.

We’ll admit that parts of the mayor’s speech would have bordered on self-aggrandizement, if only he weren’t so damn charming. He might have talked extensively about the awesome things he’s done, but the fact that he wasn’t lying and he threw in more than a few genuinely self-deprecating jokes made it all OK. Not to mention, most of the talk was still devoted to a vehement and heart-felt attack on Proposition 8, which we’d wager (based on applause levels) almost everyone in the audience totally agreed with.

Whatever the audience thought of his politics, one thing was for certain–the man’s got sex appeal. And huge political potential. Do we sense a Governor Newsom in California’s future?

Image Source: Tim Maloney, Daily Cal
Political Science 179 [UC Berkeley Webcasts]
Students Rally Against Prop. 8 [Daily Cal]

The event will take place Friday, October 3rd on Upper Sproul from 12:30 to 1:45pm and will include student speakers, community members and local politicians speaking about the issue. And yet another man who scandalized the country will lead a rally to support something controversial on the steps of Sproul, and so the Berkeley legacy continues.

And check out our post on Prop. 8 from earlier this week.

Image Source: domasan under Creative Commons
The Battle Over Same-Sex Marriage [San Francisco Chronicle]