owlmoose | Entries tagged with current events

justira asked me to ~~rant about~~ share my opinions on California politics.

The first thing an outsider needs to know is that California is not a monolith. Like most states, we have an urban/rural divide, and it plays out pretty predictably: staunchly liberal urban areas (SF Bay Area, Los Angeles), a few conservative urban enclaves thanks to wealthy suburbanites (Orange County) and/or a strong military presence (San Diego), aging hippies and libertarians along the rural coast and in the mountains, and a solid Red State interior. So there is a sharp political divide in California, but the lines are not all drawn where you would expect them to be. There are cultural differences between Northern and Southern California, to be sure. But they don't really show up in our political discourse.

Okay, now that's out of the way, I'm going to focus on the real subject of this post: California's proposition system, and why I hate it with the fire of a thousand burning suns.

(Technically, there are three kinds of propositions: propositions, initiatives, and constitutional amendments. There are technical differences between them, but on the state ballot they are all referred to as "Proposition N" where N is the identifying number, so I will use "proposition" as a generic term throughout the post.)

( Here's the deal. )

30 Days of... Project! Complete list of questions / Ask a question on LJ or on DW.

Current Mood: pessimistic

I hope you have all seen by now the most excellent news that "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" was found unconstitutional by a district court judge yesterday. News that was, for me, made all the more welcome by the fact that I didn't even know the law had been challenged in court, and so it came as a wonderful surprise.

Two things jumped out at me from the article linked above. First:

The case was filed by the Log Cabin Republicans, the largest political organization for gays in the GOP, in 2004.

Really? I mean, really? This is not a complaint, mind, but it really shocked me at first glance. A Republican group? Challenging DADT? But on reflection, it makes more sense: Republicans often believe in a strong military, perhaps are more likely to want to serve in the military, and DADT keeps gay Republicans from being able to serve. Still, it threw me for a loop.

Second, the article mentions President Obama and his oft-stated desire to repeal DADT. Now, that's great and all, Mr. President, but if you're that committed to getting rid of the law, why did the Justice Department just defend it vigorously in Federal Court? Someone explain that one to me, because unlike the first thing that caught my eye, I really don't see how that follows.

Still, good news. Great news. As always, it's just a first step, but maybe one that will get Congress and the Pentagon to get cracking on repealing the law for good.

Current Mood: happy
Current Music: "Luminosa" - Libera

As anyone with an Internet connection probably knows by now, Proposition 8 was overturned today. Best comprehensive coverage is probably from the Los Angeles Times; best analysis is on Prop 8 Trial Tracker. The decision is long, so more analysis is likely to come, but the quick reaction seems to be that this was about the best outcome supporters of marriage equality could hope for: the proposition was found to be unconstitutional on multiple grounds, and there is some wonderfully strong language in the decision about legal marriage, for example:

Tradition alone, however, cannot form a rational basis for a law.... Instead, the evidence shows that the tradition of gender restrictions arose when spouses were legally required to adhere to specific gender roles. California has eliminated all legally mandated gender roles except the requirement that a marriage consist of one man and one woman. Proposition 8 thus enshrines in the California Constitution a gender restriction that the evidence shows to be nothing more than an artifact of a foregone notion that men and women fulfill different roles in civic life.

Outstanding.

It will be appealed, of course; the chances that this does not run all the way to the Supreme Court are pretty much nil. And I'll be shocked if there isn't some sort of stay on the ruling that will keep same-sex marriages from being performed until that happens. But it's one step closer. One giant, important, awesome step.

Current Mood: jubilant

http://owlmoose.livejournal.com/458947.html

Time to start packing!

(the backpedaling on this one should be fun)

Health care reform: passed. Even if it turned out to mostly be health insurance reform, it's definitely a huge step forward.

This bill is flawed. For awhile, I was ready to declare it worse than nothing and wash my hands of the whole thing, thanks to the Stupak Amendment and the lack of a public option. Fortunately, I was talked down from that position: the expansion of Medicaid, the insurance exchanges, and most especially the new regulations that will block the insurance companies from dropping people once they get sick are all good and important, and we will be better off to have them.

This doesn't keep me from being irritated at how the Democrats let Obama's stubborn hope for "bipartisan support" (support that the Republicans were never going to provide) take over the process for so long, not to mention their total inability to get their message into the media (but what else is new?). And of course the whole Stupak/Nelson/abortion-as-political-football aspect of the negotiations makes me see red; please, Michigan Democrats, somebody please mount a primary challenge against this guy! It seems likely that history will judge this a victory for Obama and the Democrats, although how the voters will feel in November is anybody's guess.

But we can worry about that later. For now, we can thank Nancy Pelosi, and hope that the GOP's plan of total obstruction screws them over as badly in the long term as David Frum seems to think it will.

Current Mood: thoughtful
Current Music: Tears for Fears - "Woman in Chains"

Rush Limbaugh will leave the country if healthcare reform passes.

Please? Please please please? P.S. And take Glen Beck with you while you're at it.

Although, given that practically every other industrialized nation on Earth already has the eeeeevil universal healthcare, I do have to wonder where he would go.

Current Mood: amused
Current Location: Panera
Current Music: Coldplay - "A Whisper"

Via luciab, seen on metaquotes. I can only hope this is how it goes down.

Posted via LiveJournal.app.

A consolidated feed of several pro-equality bloggers and organizations livetweeting the Proposition 8 trial.

Current Mood: impressed
Current Location: Panera
Current Music: "Mortal City" - Dar Williams

Today marked the opening of the biggest lawsuit against Proposition 8 yet. This is the biggie, the one that could open the floodgates and bring the walls a'tumbling down: the argument that Proposition 8, and by extension all laws banning same-sex marriage, violates the Equal Protection clause (the 14th Amendment) of the U.S. Constitution.

( Thoughts and discussions... )

So what do you all think? Crazy, doomed crusade, a sorely-needed change in direction for the movement, or some of each?

Meanwhile, we watch and wait. There's a number of livebloggers and live Twitter feeds for anyone interested in following along; I found the ACLU's live Tweets to be particularly informative and entertaining, but they also signed off halfway through the proceedings and it's not clear whether they're going to be back. A few other options: Firedog Lake, The Prop 8 Trial Tracker, The American Foundation for Equal Rights. Thanks to Jed for the New Yorker link as well as the live blogs/Twitter streams!

Current Mood: hopeful
Current Music: "You Made Me The Thief of Your Heart" - Sinead O'Conner

Mexico City has legalized same-sex marriage.

The bill calls for changing the definition of marriage in the city's civil code. Marriage is currently defined as the union of a man and a woman. The new definition will be "the free uniting of two people."

That is just about the most awesome wording to describe legal marriage ever.

(Link via Shakesville, which has a most excellent picture.)

Current Mood: happy
Current Music: "Zanarkand" - FFX Piano Version

Scott Madin speaks for me.

I haven't been talking about this issue here much, because it would mostly mean dropping into incoherent rage a lot. (As people who've discussed it with me IRL can attest. Sorry, people IRL.) Just. So. Frustrating.

Current Mood: angry
Current Music: Empire Strikes Back soundtrack

One of the best speeches I've ever seen on gay marriage, from New York State Senator Diane Savino, on the occasion of their vote on a bill to legalize it.

(This has been linked all over the web, so I apologize if it's a repeat for some of you. But it's so powerful and worth watching, that I hope you don't mind seeing it again.)

Sadly, the bill failed, and it wasn't even close. Time to step up the court cases.

Current Mood: tired

Why do I love Barbara Boxer?* Because she does things like back petitions to overturn the Stupak Amendment.

Earlier this month, the House passed the Stupak Amendment to their health care reform bill, which would be one of the biggest setbacks to women's health in recent decades — unless we stand together and stop it.

That's why we're launching this petition, because women must not be denied access to safe and legal medical procedures.

Join us by signing the petition and help build pressure to remove the discriminatory, extreme, anti-choice Stupak Amendment from the final health care reform bill!

Link to the petition here, which you can bet I'm going to sign right now.

Rumor has it that Stupak has no chance of surviving the Senate, which is encouraging. As is this report on the 10 votes (not 20 or 40, as Rep. Stupak keeps claiming) that would likely need to be found if the amendment isn't in the final bill. Assuming one-man wrecking machine Joe Lieberman doesn't bring the whole thing crashing down regardless. But no matter what comes next, I'm still glad that Senator Boxer is willing to actively stand up for women's rights.

*I do have another senator. We won't talk about her right now.

Current Mood: pleased
Current Music: "Oh Well" - Joe Jackson

The outcome of the election in Maine is proof positive that we should not be making decisions regarding people's civil rights at the ballot box.

Take it away, Melissa McEwan:

Historically, we have depended on the courts to make decisions about the application of constitutional guarantees in spite of popular opinion, and they have repeatedly secured protections for marginalised groups decades before Congress and state legislatures, which more closely track public opinion, would have done. John Rogers once noted that "when the supreme court struck down the bans against interracial marriage in 1968 through Virginia v Loving, 72% of Americans were against interracial marriage. As a matter of fact, approval of interracial marriage in the US didn't cross the positive threshold until – sweet God – 1991".

That's exactly 30 years after our current president was born to an interracial couple.[1]

Waiting for the whole of society to be on board with granting equal rights to everyone is simply not in our collective best interest.

[1] And now, almost 20 years later, we have a justice of the peace who resigned rather than perform interracial marriages. Which just goes to show that prejudice against interracial couples is hardly dead. It isn't even hiding very well.

Attitudes do change. I have even seen them changing over my adulthood, to the point where a Washington state initiative legalizing strong civil unions is barely a blip on the national news radar. Remember when Vermont created civil unions and threw the entire nation into a tizzy? That was in 2000. Not even 10 years ago. So the tide will turn, eventually. We're seeing them in motion now. But (to switch metaphors) would the door even have started to open if judges -- first in Vermont, then in Massachusetts -- hadn't forced it a few cracks? Would Jim Crow laws ever have been defeated by popular vote? Guaranteeing our rights is what the court system is for. We should let it do its job.

Current Mood: pensive
Current Music: "Venteles" - Lisa Gerrard

Bay Bridge closed "indefinitely" for emergency repair.

I can't imagine that it'll be more than a couple of days, realistically. But it sure sounds dramatic, doesn't it? (Of course, no matter how long it is, it's really going to suck for people who use that bridge to commute. And if it's more than a couple of days, my weekend plans could get... interesting.)

I could also go off on my rant about how we'd have a shiny new bridge by now if it weren't for Willie Brown and our need to grandstand against Pete Wilson, but I'll spare you all that one.

Current Mood: curious
Current Music: "Cruel" - Thomas Dolby

If you read only one article about the Roman Polanski debacle, make it this one. Even if you're sick to death of hearing about Roman Polanski.

http://www.salon.com/mwt/broadsheet/feature/2009/09/28/polanski_arrest/

Every time I think Kate Harding cannot possibly be more awesome, she finds a way to prove me wrong.

Current Mood: contemplative

State of Pennsylvania passes a budget, funds for Philadelphia libraries and other city services are saved.

Current Mood: relieved
Current Music: "Ana Ng" - TMBG

This is absolutely horrifying.

All Free Library of Philadelphia Branch, Regional and Central Libraries Closed Effective Close of Business October 2, 2009

All Free Library of Philadelphia Customers,

We deeply regret to inform you that without the necessary budgetary legislation by the State Legislature in Harrisburg, the City of Philadelphia will not have the funds to operate our neighborhood branch libraries, regional libraries, or the Parkway Central Library after October 2, 2009.

It's not just the library, either. Effects of the Plan C Budget, which I've also seen called the "Doomsday Budget", include shutting down the parks and recreation department, gutting fire and police, and reducing garbage pick-up to twice a month.

If it were any other city, I'd still be horrified, but this is Philly. I never lived in the city proper, but I called its suburbs home for four years and still feel quite an attachment to the place. I went there on a regular basis. I still have many friends and acquaintances there. So it's more of a kick in the gut than it might be otherwise.

And then there's the fear that San Francisco might be next. If Philadelphia can fall, if the city of Seattle can be forced to close its libraries for a week, is anyone safe?

Is this really what we want the future of our country to be?

Current Mood: worried
Current Music: "Have You Seen My Love" - BNL

A sad day. Even though we knew it was coming. He will be sorely missed.

So okay, can we please stop screwing around and get this health care reform thing done already? For Teddy? Please?

Current Mood: sad
Current Music: "Signs of Love" - Moby

This is not a good time to be reading library news blogs. Closures, layoffs, unpaid furloughs. Yet another reason to add to the list of why I'm glad I didn't go into the public library sector.

Why, when people need the services a library can provide more than ever, are they the target of the most ferocious budget cuts? I will never understand.

Current Mood: depressed
Current Music: "Why Worry" - Dire Straits

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KJ

Entries tagged with current events

30 Days: Propositioned

Some tidbits from the DADT decision

Great Day!

I forgot the most important part!

Yay! (kinda)

Is that a threat or a promise?

Just reward

For the obsessed among us

And so it begins

Wow!

Healthcare disaster

Kick-ass speech

I love my Senator

We already knew this, but...

This could be interesting

Read this

Philly doomsday averted

Who's Next?

RIP Ted Kennedy

Ugh