Daily Archives: July 26, 2008

Marriage Equality

Prop 8 Title and Summary: Good Stuff

The Attorney General just released the ballot title and summary for Prop. 8, the amendment that would take away marriage equality.  The title and summary are a marked improvement upon the language that the proponents had circulated and that is still up on the Secretary of State’s website.  That should change shortly.

Here is the version that will be on the official ballot.

Proposition 8 ELIMINATES RIGHT OF SAME-SEX COUPLES TO MARRY.

   INITIATIVE CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT

Changes California Constitution to eliminate right of same-sex couples to marry. Provides that only a marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California.

Fiscal Impact: Over the next few years, potential revenue loss, mainly sales taxes, totaling in the several tens of millions of dollars, to state and local governments. In the long run, likely little fiscal impact to state and local governments.

The phrase “eliminate right” is a huge improvement to “limit on marriage” and more accurately describes what will happen.  See the circulated version:

Limit on Marriage. Constitutional Amendment.

Amends the California Constitution to provide that only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California. Summary of estimate by Legislative Analyst and Director of Finance of fiscal impact on state and local government: The measure would have no fiscal effect on state or local governments. This is because there would be no change to the manner in which marriages are currently recognized by the state.

When someone is standing in the voting booth or staring at their vote-by-mail ballot the title and summary is the last thing they will see.  It is extremely important that it reflect accurately what the initiative will do.

There is almost always a legal fight over the title and summary, because it can be good for a few percentage points either way.  We have to assume that the pro-side will take Jerry Brown to court over it, though they are unlikely to be successful.  Now that we have marriage equality in this state, same-sex couples have the right to get married.  This initiative would take this away.  While it would also limit marriage to between a man and a woman, its impact will not be felt on heterosexual couples, but on the same-sex couples.

And of course in general, same-sex marriage has no effect on hetero marriage, but that is besides the point.  This ballot and summary is good for us and they aren’t going to like it.

California, Coachella Valley

Election 2008: Palm Springs Village Fest With Julie Bornstein, Manuel Perez

The following was XPosted on MyDesert.com

Made it out last night for the first time in too-long-a-time to the Palm Springs Village Fest Voter Registration & Candidates Tabling with the Desert Stonewall Democratic Club, the Palm Springs Democratic Club, and the Democrats of the Desert Democratic Club.  What changes are wrought with success and volunteer enthusiasm!

First, I espied the big tent, symbolic of the Democratic Party in Palm Springs.  Afterall, we are the party of the LGBT community, the senior community, the African-American, and the Latino communities in the Coachella Valley!  Come one, welcome all!  Thanks to Cathedral City Councilmember Greg Pettis for the loan to the cause.

The tent was festooned with colorful red, white, and blue bunting and banners announcing the various Democratic Club involvements, candidates and initiatives.  Peter East, Secretary of the Palm Springs Democratic Club, was credited with creating the amazing signage for the Desert Stonewall Democratic Club and the Palm Springs Democratic Club.  Eye-popping posters and signs for Julie Bornstein, Democratic Candidate for the 45th Congressional District, Manuel Perez, Democratic Candidate for the 80th Assembly District, and No on Prop 8 signs abounded.  Manuel Perez?  Yes, Manuel Perez!  More on that to follow.

More below the flip…

see picture of Julie Bornstein, Democratic Nominee for the 45th Assembly District at

Desert Stonewall Democrats were fully represented by President George Zander, Treasurer Bob Silvermen, Membership Chair Lyn Worley, Public Relations Chair Donald W. Grimm, Ph.D., Steering Committee Member Richard Oberhaus, Steering Committee Member Bob Mahlowitz, and community activist Bill Cain-Gonzales.

Palm Springs Democrats members included Secretary Peter East and partner John Eldridge, Membership Chair Mahlowitz, and others.

Democrats of the Desert were represented by Eleanor Jackson.

The Sen. Barack Obama for President table had, it seemed, lots of enthusiastic volunteers.  Among the Obama zealots, Bob Morris.  Morris graciously gave me his personal rainbow Obama button to sport during the festivities.  Visitor after visitor, gay and straight, African-American, Latino, Asian/Pacific Islander, Native American, and White, children, adolescents, adults, and seniors, abled and disabled, took turns taking pictures with the life-sized cardboard image of Obama.  Kudos to John U. for the art!

Bornstein informed and held court with hundreds of visitors and voters.  Bornstein impresses with her knowledge of the issues and her availability.  Afterall, Bornstein has had the experience of having been the local Assemblymember, political experience in a series of progressive Democratic administrations in Sacramento, and the life experience of being a cancer survivor.  Bornstein, above her opponent, knows about the values and needs of the working class families of the Coachella Valley.  Plus, Bornstein is the only candidate to actually live in the District! (Mary Mack, R, lives in Florida with her husband, U.S. Rep. Connie Mack IV).

Zander, Oberhaus, and Cain-Gonzales all informed this writer that Perez was working the crowds of Village Fest.  As you might imagine, initially, I was ill-at-ease, given my earlier support of Pettis.  However, Perez glad-handed the crowds and was clearly comfortable with his role as Democratic nominee for the 80th Assembly District.  Shortly, I would discover that he was also comfortable with the issues that are extremely important to the voters of the West Valley and Palm Springs.  Teaser.  More to follow.

see Manuel Perez, Democratic Nominee for the 80th Assembly District picture at

Visitors from across the country and around the world flocked to the Democratic Club-sponsored tables.  Personally, I met two visitors from France and two different familes from The Netherlands.  Everyone was interested in Obama, Bornstein and Perez.  Much of the talk centered on Obama’s crowning achievements in the Middle East, especially, Afghanistan, Iraq and Israel, and, yesterday, in Germany.  Many talked about Obama’s success with the troops in Afghanistan where he met a rousing, standing-room-only, ovation when he entered the gymnasium.  In Iraq, videographers show Obama being swarmed by U.S. Embassy personnel and troops at his speech there.  U.S. troops clearly love Obama for his intent to return them home from Iraq as soon as feasibly possible, and most likely within 16 months.  Voters were amazed that Iraqi leader Nouri al-Maliki now supported Obama’s position of withdrawal of all active-duty troops within a solid time-frame.

More than Obama’s successes in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Israel, where somehow he managed to meet with, support, and, more importantly, not offend, neither the Israelis nor the Palestinians, was Obama’s heroes-welcome in Berlin.  Astonishing that 200,000 people from across Europe and the world would come to see history in the making.   Mobs of people striving to see, touch, and hear the next leader of the free world.  Imagine that, a leader of whom we no longer have to be ashamed.  A leader with credentials and ability.  An achiever, rather than an over-achiever.

see Obama yesterday in Berlin, Germany at

No wonder that sixteen more people registered to vote last night, including several party changes from Republican to Democratic!  One Latina teen shamed her friends into re-registering as Democrats.  They had initially registered as Republicans to help a friend who was paid for each voter registration.  They had only registered as Republican to help their friend.  Me, I appreciate that the Republicans spent money on registering voters who will vote for Obama, Bornstein, and Perez!  Hardy-har-har.

Kudos to DSD, PSD, and DoD for staffing and delighting the burgeoning Village Fest crowds.  Extreme thanks to the progressive volunteers and candidates who are out to change the Coachella Valley and to make it once again safe for democracy.

Here is the blast email from Zander regarding last night’s VFest:

The Village Fest Democratic Table rocks!  It is colorful with tons of red white and blue and candidate yardsigns and banners. The tri-club banner is a work of art. (Thank you Peter East!) For the third week in a row we hit double digits in new voters. The national trend is sweeping into the Coachella Valley.

Hundreds of buttons and bumper stickers lept off the table. Folks lined up for three hours to take pictures with Obama….thanks again to John U. for the GREAT Obama life sized cut out picture! The DSD, DOD and PSDC sponsored table has already eclipsed the 2004 table in voter registration and excitement- and it is only July. Thanks to all, but especially Bill G, Peter E, John E and Bob Morris for the fabulous erection and design of the tent. (And to Greg Pettis for the loan of the tent).

Our candidates, Julie Bornstein and Manuel Perez spent the full three hours talking to and listening to voters and visitors.

Thank you to all of the team that set up, pulled down, designed and built our new table. Thanks to all who registered voters lead by stalwarts Bob Silverman and Eleanor Jackson.

Jasmine Waits, COO of Village Fest sat the table for a time as well. She gave us full approval for our colorful and professional new look.

The place is a great time. If you have expereinced this yet, come on down.

On to victory.  George W. Zander

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Open Thread: News Of The Good

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We spend an inordinate amount of time on the bad of California politics here on the site.  And with a system this dysfunctional, there’s a lot of bad to go around.  But as the budget hostage crisis continues, and state workers don’t know if they’ll be able to afford their bills come Monday, I wanted to at least recognize some of the positive developments around the city and state:

• The Governor signed a bill today banning trans fats in all state restaurants and bakeries by 2011.  Combined with the law signed earlier this week to crack down on the sale of downer cattle in US groceries, and the LA City Council moving forward on a one-year moratorium on new fast-food restaurants in South Los Angeles, this is a good week for food safety, nutrition and public health.

• As mentioned by Shayera, the Los Angeles City Council voted to ban plastic bags by 2010, if the state does not mandate a $0.25 charge for every bag by then.  Additionally on the environmental front, there’s also the statewide green building code adopted by the California Building Standards Commission, and another passage for the third year in a row, of a port container fee which would be invested in fighting pollution (Hopefully this time the Governor will sign it).  This too is good.

• Leland Wong was convicted yesterday on 14 counts of public corruption and bribery while he was LA City Commissioner.  Accountability is good.

• In Orange County, the Laguna Beach City Council, which is majority Republican, became one of the first to publicly oppose Prop. 8, the hate amendment.  Saying no to hate is good.

• Unfortunately, not everything is good.  Foreclosure rates are skyrocketing nationwide, more than doubling in the second quarter.  In one incredible example, almost 1 in 20 homes in Merced have been lost to foreclosure, the highest rate in America.  Wow.  Not good.

• A couple more good things: PDLA is kicking off a Legislative Education Project and assigning progressive scores to individual Congressmembers (The first, David Dreier, has a 0).  They’re also going after Lou Dobbs for his criticism of their deeply unserious notion that health care is a human right.

What set off Dobbs’ eruption? Apparently it was his correspondent reporting that PDA “is urging the Democratic Party to adopt a plank at the party’s convention in Denver, guaranteeing accessible health care for all.”

You can help us push back against Dobbs and other media demagogues.

Within a day, you’ll be receiving a follow-up email from Norman Solomon, co-chair of PDA’s “Healthcare NOT Warfare” campaign, about our efforts to bring the principle of guaranteed health care for all into the heart of the Democratic Convention in Denver. And ways you can participate throughout the country.

For now, I want to ask you to click here and help PDA talk back to the media attacks now underway against us.

They should take the lead on Dobbs the way Color of Change took the lead on Fox News.

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Ex-gays and Proposition 8

Today I was reading through the ballot proposition arguments that have been posted by the Secretary of State’s office.  Since Prop 8 has such personal interest for me, that was one of the first I read through in its entirety.  I found their focus on ‘protecting children’ as a reason for supporting Prop 8 to be disgusting.  It was with little surprise that I looked at the list of people writing the Rebuttal to the Arguement against Prop 8.  Their rebuttal was focused very strongly on the point of protecting children and the signers of that rebuttal show why.  

The first listed was Dr. Jane Anderson, a Fellow of the American College of Pediatricians.  The ACP should not be confused with the American Academy of Pediatricians.  Yeah, it is easy to confuse them, but the ACP was formed by religious doctors who don’t like the fact that the AAP says it is okay for children to be gay, and that it is not necessary to force children into ex-gay programs that will try to force them to change.  

The next signer was Robert Bolingbroke, from the Boy Scouts of America.  Well duh, the Boy Scouts have been fighting for the right to discriminate against Gays and Lesbians for years now.  

The final signer was Jeralee Smith from PFOX.  That’s the Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays, a religious-based group formed to oppose the gay friendly PFLAG.  PFOX has been fighting to make schools not say it is okay to be gay or lesbian for a while now.  They are behind a lot of the anti-gay efforts in schools nationwide and are big supporters of the ex-gay movement.  You have heard of the ex-gay movement, right?  

More below the fold.

The ex-gay movement has been around since the 1970’s.  Its flagship organization, Exodus has survived many scandals where most of their early leadership were caught secretly going to gay bars, or quit because they’d fallen in love with their fellow leaders.  The movement now, especially PFOX, exist from funds donated by orginazation like, or controlled by, Focus on the Family (our dear Dr. James Dobson).

I have found the site www.exgaywatch.com to be fairly good at keeping track of what the religious right is doing with these organizations.  Long story short, they push that ‘change’ is possible, although the only lasting stories of change tend to come from those that are paid for their change or make money from doing their work for the ex-gay movement.  They tend to use misinformation and bad science to present their cases.  

These are the folks we are fighting, which really isn’t a surprise.  They’re the same folks that want everyone in this country to live by their religious codes, and would rather gays didn’t exist.  I’ve always believed in knowing our enemy, and this is them.

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The peak of stupidity

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I have on more than one occasion lamented the fact that our shiny new Democratic Congress in Washington has a hard time getting much more done than renaming post office buidlings and declaring National Asparagus Week.

And, sometimes, I guess, they even have trouble with that.

A bill introduced by Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer would officially change the name of the fourth-highest peak in California to honor longtime Sierra Club leader and Friends of the Earth founder David Brower.

North Palisade, which at 14,242 feet ranks behind Mt. Whitney, Mt. Williamson and White Mountain among the state’s highest points, would be renamed Brower Palisade in recognition of Brower’s contributions to the preservation of much of America’s best-loved and most well-known wilderness areas.


Brower, the Sierra Club’s first executive director, died eight years ago at the age of 88. A tireless crusader who was frequently criticized as arrogant, he led the fight to keep dams out of the Grand Canyon, rallied support for Redwood National Park and the Point Reyes National Seashore, sounded warnings on nuclear energy and, over decades, became one of the nation’s most influential environmental warriors.

A no-brainer, right? Right – unless you, um, actually have no brain. From the same LA Times article:


“I most likely wouldn’t support it,” Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Visalia) said Thursday. “If you look at a lot of these radical groups that were formed, they’ve cost my district thousands of jobs. Take the timber industry: We let our forests burn up and meanwhile buy all our wood from Canada — it’s kind of a sad deal.”

Yes, he really said that. To a reporter. On the record.

Wonder if there might be a sewage treatment plant Rep. Nunes would like to have his name attached to?

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Message to the Governor: Leave State Workers Alone

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(27 members of the California Congressional delegation weigh in.  Thanks, Rep. Solis.  Slight edit to move things over to the flip. – promoted by David Dayen)

I’m appalled that Governor Schwarzenegger thinks cutting wages for state workers’ is the way to fix our budget.  Today, 26 of my colleagues in Congress joined me in sending the below letter to the Governor and expressing strong opposition to his misguided plan.  Join me in calling on the Governor to leave state workers alone.

July 25, 2008

Dear Governor Schwarzenegger:

As Members of the Congress representing California, we write to express our strong opposition to your proposed plan to cut the wages of 200,000 state workers to the federal minimum wage of $6.55 per hour as a temporary budget savings.  The earnings of hardworking state employees should not be leveraged for political gain in the current budget stalemate.  

(over)

In May 2007, Congress passed the first increase in the federal minimum wage in ten years.  On July 24, 2008, the second phase of the increased federal minimum wage began, raising the federal minimum wage to $6.55.  While the increases to the federal minimum wage are an improvement for hourly workers, they do not make up for the recent and rapid increases in food, energy and healthcare costs, which have risen even higher in California.  In addition, our state has been disproportionately impacted by the nationwide foreclosure crisis and statewide unemployment just reached 6.9 percent.  Working families in California who are employed by the state simply cannot afford to have their salary reduced to the federal minimum wage during these incredibly hard economic times, even with the promise of back pay once the budget negotiations are completed.  

We have always been incredibly proud to represent California because our state sets the standard for fair wages in the United States.  The $8 per hour minimum wage in California, as well as municipal living wage laws, set a benchmark for the rest of the country.  By reducing state workers pay to $6.55 per hour, you would not only hurt the 200,000 workers who serve California, but you would also hurt the reputation of California as one of the best states to live and work in the United States.

As Members of the California Congressional delegation, we understand that our state is facing significant budget challenges.  However, the California state controller has already stated that cutting workers’ salaries will “do nothing meaningful to improve our cash position or help us make our priority payments.”  We strongly urge you to reconsider your plan to cut 200,000 state workers wages to the federal minimum wage.  

Sincerely,

HILDA L. SOLIS

ZOE LOFGREN

GEORGE MILLER

HENRY WAXMAN

ANNA ESHOO

HOWARD BERMAN

LYNN C. WOOLSEY

DORIS O. MATSUI

GRACE F. NAPOLITANO

SAM FARR

LORETTA SANCHEZ

JOE BACA

MIKE THOMPSON

LOIS CAPPS

DENNIS CARDOZA

BOB FILNER

MICHAEL HONDA

BABARA LEE

ADAM B. SCHIFF

LINDA T. SANCHEZ

ELLEN O. TAUSCHER

LAURA RICHARDSON

PETE STARK

BRAD SHERMAN

XAVIER BECERRA

LUCILLE ROYBAL-ALLARD

JIM COSTA

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