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Was Filner's office bugged by long distance microphone?

Rumors fly as Filner continues to lose support, government gangs up

One of the rumors making the Twitter circles today (Aug. 9) is that Homeland Security has caught a person or persons eavesdropping on the mayor's office with a directional microphone from a room at the Westgate Hotel.

I could not reach anybody at Homeland Security and have no idea if this is a canard. It is worth reporting the rumor, however, because the current super-charged environment makes the rumor credible.

According to unconfirmed reports, the spy or spies listened in on conversations of Lee Burdick, Filner's chief of staff, who has been busy talking with Jan Goldsmith, city attorney who hates Filner, and should actually disqualify himself from this matter given the intense, open rivalry between the two, and Goldsmith's own history of snapping under mental pressure.

The office of the sheriff, the attorney general, U.S. Attorney and city attorney are all reportedly involved or considering involvement in the attempt to oust the mayor, who has hired a criminal attorney, allegedly to handle inquiries by the U.S. Attorney's office.

New locks have been put on the mayor's door, but it is not clear if Filner will have a key or not.

The last two holdout city councilmembers, Marti Emerald and Myrtle Cole, are now calling for Filner to resign.

Two things are increasingly certain: Filner can't survive this pressure, and probably nobody could. And once things settle down, it will make one helluva good movie.

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Concentric contemporary dims Dvorak

One of the rumors making the Twitter circles today (Aug. 9) is that Homeland Security has caught a person or persons eavesdropping on the mayor's office with a directional microphone from a room at the Westgate Hotel.

I could not reach anybody at Homeland Security and have no idea if this is a canard. It is worth reporting the rumor, however, because the current super-charged environment makes the rumor credible.

According to unconfirmed reports, the spy or spies listened in on conversations of Lee Burdick, Filner's chief of staff, who has been busy talking with Jan Goldsmith, city attorney who hates Filner, and should actually disqualify himself from this matter given the intense, open rivalry between the two, and Goldsmith's own history of snapping under mental pressure.

The office of the sheriff, the attorney general, U.S. Attorney and city attorney are all reportedly involved or considering involvement in the attempt to oust the mayor, who has hired a criminal attorney, allegedly to handle inquiries by the U.S. Attorney's office.

New locks have been put on the mayor's door, but it is not clear if Filner will have a key or not.

The last two holdout city councilmembers, Marti Emerald and Myrtle Cole, are now calling for Filner to resign.

Two things are increasingly certain: Filner can't survive this pressure, and probably nobody could. And once things settle down, it will make one helluva good movie.

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Jan Goldsmith scrambling to change City Charter to make recalling Filner easier back in early May

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Does San Diego's City Attorney have conflict of interest in hoteliers' legal attack on mayor?

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