OAKLAND//2014 ELECTION | Last July, I walked up to an opponent of the Plan Bay Area transportation strategy approved by the various mayors, council members from around the region later that night and showed him a photo I had just snapped of Oakland Mayor Jean Quan in a state of dreamland. “Oh,” the activist deadpanned, “it’s not an official meeting until Jean Quan falls asleep.”
According to numerous people I’ve spoken with recently, Quan’s propensity for dozing off in public is nearing ubiquity and may become a huge problem of optics for her re-election campaign. After all, any political consultant without much talent could compose an effective campaign mailer accusing Quan of being asleep at the wheel as violent crime continues to be a problem and the town’s beloved sports team seek addresses elsewhere. Leadership, Quan’s detractors and opponents for her seat, say has been missing from her first term in office. What says checking out like literally falling asleep on the public stage?
One source this week speculated she just may be working both ends of the candle too hard or maybe the trips to Snoozeville are a medical condition. To which I replied, whether the problem is medical in nature or not, her campaign team better make it so in the same fashion a pot smoker must search for a doctor who will conveniently prescribe medical cannabis for an itchy ear lobe.
This subject will become a big issue in the next year. Mark it down. All the campaigns are poised to seize upon the Quan sleepy meme. Bring up the subject and the response is typically a weird mixture of quiet disgust and growing glee at the enormous opening Quan is leaving for her opponents to exploit.
Rabid Oakland City Council audience members have longed mocked Quan for appearing like she was sleeping while at the dais. However, most times it appeared she was simply resting her eyes. As many of us well know, those meetings can be long and tedious. But, she was clearly in deep sleep at the Oakland Convention Center last July for the approval of Plan Bay Area–a night, it should be noted that ended over three years of regional discussions over the future of high-density housing and transportation in the area for the next 30 years!
Worst of all, forget going night-night at highfalutin meetings of government bureaucracy, but there are claims Quan fell asleep recently at a funeral for a toddler recently killed in Oakland. Whereas Quan’s inability to fight the Sandman sounds ludicrous and almost humorous, checking out during the services of a murdered baby is infinitely worse than not even showing up in the first place.
ebcitizen.com 
By MW:
After I told Jean Quan that she is much too apathetic about what goes on in Oakland, she then looked at me blankly. So therefore I then asked her if she knows what the word apathetic means, and she said NO she does not, and furthermore that she does not give a hoot what it means.
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By MW:
In regard to the comments of 8:37PM and 9:19AM and as they relate to Jean Quan's performance and “abilities,” among major metropolitan areas the Bay area is very likely the most extreme case in the entire country of a place that is accepting of having people in its top ranks and highest ranking positions who are completely unqualified and totally useless turkeys.
In other words in most places those who are extremely unqualified get fired or remain as buck privates, however in the Bay area a lot of them get promoted and/or are elected to high public office.
For instance, think of Nadia Lockyer and who in a lot of places outside the Bay area would not have been considered qualified to even be the assistant manager of a small child's sidewalk lemonade stand.
And of course the Bay area also made a big hero out of that scumbag, con man, and charlatan Jim Jones (and later of Jonestown infamy), and who in a more normal place would have been laughed at, scorned, and instantly seen for the scumbag and con man he was, and although while he was still in the Bay area the local politicians made him a big hero, praised him to the skies, and even gave him testimonial dinners.
In fact if Jean Quan loses the upcoming election, that does not mean she would lack a high paying job for very long. Since she could always get a job with Alameda County government, and then if she could convince the highest ranking managers in her department that was an alcoholic, she would most likely get promoted to one of the higher ranking and higher paying supervisory jobs.
NOTE: In some organizations, and especially in Alameda County government, the alcoholics and incompetents protect and cover for each other, and including strongly preferring that at least most of those they promote, and therefore join them in the upper ranks, be fellow alcoholics and/or fellow incompetents.
For instance, you might have heard the expression that first rate people hire first rate people and second rate people hire third rate people. However the upper management of at least most AC agencies is even far worse than second rate, and is mostly composed of crooks, thieves, drunks, incompetents, phonies, and professional pathological liars. And therefore they usually select people similar to themselves to join them in upper management, and including since a person who was sober, intelligent, honest, competent, and ethical would not only make them uncomfortable, but also be seen as a potential threat to their lies and scams.
However since Jean Quan is at least ninety nine percent asleep at least the overwhelming majority of the time, therefore the big boys in Alameda County government would not see her as threat to their lies, scams, and ripoffs if she joined them as a member of upper management.
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Yes, Quan's speaking skills are robotic, but if you have ever tried to have a conversation with her, YOU will end up depressed.
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Bad for Quan is that her demeanor is very lethargic and depressive which one can believe that she sleeps on the job or suffers from depression. Also, she lacks in speaking skills.
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By MW:
Actually, it is quite possible that Jean Quan died years ago, but the other big boys decided not to admit it, so therefore they placed tiny battery powered electric motors in her head to move her eyelids and keep them open, but perhaps sometimes the batteries get weak, and then her eyelids close.
I mean let's be realistic, in other words considering how “active,” “involved,” animated,” and “lively” Jean Quan is, if she did actually die would anybody be able to tell the difference!!!
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Much of the population of our beloved home town suffers from the same sort of sleeping sickness as Mayor Quack. Quack may be a tad more “transparent” with her public snoring, but all of our electeds, including every Council member, are equally disconnected from what's actually going on around them. They may have their eyes open in public but their hearing aids don't even have batteries in them. And we, the ever-alert voting public, voted in not only Dullems but all the current office-holders. Then there's our outstanding somnolent Democratic club, which calls itself Metropolitan Greater Oakland, whose primary policy effort in the past few years was the instant runoff voting system which swept Quack into office. Maybe it's the water.
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She is not sleeping. She is just in low-energy mode, imitating her Prius.
At least Ron Dellums had the good sense to spend his days sleeping at home.
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Too much work-needs a vacation-
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By MW:
I had a further relevant thought in regard to Jean Quan's sleeping. I have known people who would get into bed late at night and go to sleep, and then while still asleep get out of bed and engage in sleepwalking, and then get back in bed and continue sleeping, and sometimes later with no memory that, and while still asleep, they had earlier engaged in sleepwalking. However to the best of my knowledge such sleepwalking normally occurs between about 2AM and about 6AM.
But most likely Jean Quan's sleepwalking occurs every single day, and in fact all twenty four hours of every single day. But it's just that when she closes her eyes while sleepwalking that people realize she is asleep, SINCE AS LONG AS SHE KEEPS HER EYES OPEN MOST PEOPLE ARE FOOLED INTO THINKING THAT SHE IS AWAKE.
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By MW:
Actually, she has most likely been totally asleep during the entire she has been mayor, but since she evidently sometimes sleeps with her eyes open, therefore not everyone realized she was asleep.
However since evidently she sometimes while asleep, and after awhile, also closes her eyes, that is when the rest of the people in attendance at the meeting finally realize she is asleep.
But I would not wake her up and would continue to let her sleep, since she and her so called “brain” would probably do a lot more damage if she ever woke up and actually began to participate in things, and rather than continuing her present pattern of doing absolutely nothing.
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