Monthly Archives: August 2010

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How Nice of Her to Join Us Commoners

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San Francisco has a lot of courts, and a lot of litigation is done here.  So, there is always a need for jurors.  I’ve been called several times, and a word for the wise: Hope for the civil courts: the facilities are much nicer as you wait there.

But, it seems that Queen Meg Whitman deigned to join the common folk for jury duty yesterday:

Her campaign said Whitman was called, showed up, filled out the questionaire today — and is actually still in the jury pool. She may still be called to return later in the week, they said.

The funny part: the judge actually asked the former eBay CEO if she had any hardships, or scheduling problems with serving. That’s when she informed him that…uh, she was running for governor of California.

Darrel Ng, spokesman for Whitman, issued this statement: “Meg Whitman was called to do jury duty today. She enjoyed meeting her fellow potential jurors this afternoon, but looks forward to returning to the campaign trail where she can continue to tell Californians about her plans to create 2 million jobs during the next 5 years.” (SFGate)

Isn’t it sweet that she introduced herself to the fellow jurors? Super sweet! I wonder if she introduced herself to the court employees that she hopes to fire as well. But, you know, she’ll tell them how she’d definitiely, totally, going to create a new job for them (perhaps as her private plane pilot?!) once they are laid off. It’s going to be great. Seriously!

Props to Carla Marinucci and the SF Gate crew for the follow-up joke: at least we know she is registered to vote now.

But that brings up the larger question, doesn’t it?  For years she hadn’t even registered to vote.  Of course, that generally means no jury duty as well. But what else does Meg Whitman not do because she is…umm…Meg Whitman?

Oh, the possibilities when you are uber wealthy!

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Out of touch in the Inland Empire

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In a dramatic illustration of my campaign theme that Republican incumbent assemblyman Paul Cook is out of touch with his district, he was quoted in Monday’s Riverside Press-Enterprise on his reason for voting against Sen. Mark Leno’s SB 1275, which would help homeowners by requiring banks and mortgage companies to better communicate with delinquent borrowers about modification options before beginning the foreclosure process.  Said Cook, “I needed a good reason to vote for it and I just didn’t see it.”

Well, Mr. Cook, let me suggest a few good reasons.  Our Assembly District 65, in the heart of the Inland Empire, has the highest unemployment rate of any large metropolitan area in California (15.1%, second nationally only to metro Detroit).  We are Ground Zero for the foreclosure crisis; when the New York Times did a series on foreclosures, they came to Moreno Valley for their interviews.  

Widespread foreclosures lead to failing neighborhoods, which in turn burden already underfunded schools.  Many schools in the 65th lag behind the rest of the state, mortgaging (no pun intended) the futures of our area’s youth.

Cook’s response to these multiple crises in his district?  Not a single bill that addresses the economic crisis or relief for its victims.  Although he proclaims his passion for recognizing the service of military veterans, his legislative record contains nothing that addresses the needs of the thousands of veterans in the 65th District facing unemployment, foreclosure and possible homelessness.

The 65th AD is poised to turn Democratic.  From a 23% Cook win in 2006, the Republican margin was cut to 6.5% when I ran against him in 2008.  If ever there was an area needing the solutions that only progressive Democrats can provide, it is the Inland Empire in 2010.

                       Please visit www.wood4assembly.org

Election 2010

5 Reasons Why “Carly Fiorina No Es Mi Amiga” (Carly Fiorina Is Not My Friend)

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Written by Robert Greenwald and Axel Caballero

Carly Fiorina, the 2010 Republican nominee for the Senate representing California, has launched a strong campaign to lure Latinos under two main premises: 1) She has always been a friend of Latinos 2) she holds the same values as Latinos.

Her campaign has launched a website titled “Amigos de Carly” (Friends of Carly) where she appears in a picture banner surrounded by what appear to be Latino business folks. The conservative group American Principles Project has also summoned millions for her and have launched the campaign titled “Tus Valores” (Your Values) in an attempt to make Fiorina appear as if she has always cared for Latino issues.

The problem is that there is absolutely no way to substantiate this. In fact as recently as the primaries Fiorina was speaking out against many of the issues and “values” that Latinos truly hold dear.

As a response the campaign The Real Carly: “Carly No Es Mi Amiga” (Carly Is Not My Friend) duly points out how Fiorina's attempt to lure Latinos is yet another charade of California GOP candidates who can't hide from their recent anti-Latino words and actions.

As part of this effort, The Real Carly: “Carly No Es Mi Amiga” project has put together a video, a more “adequate” picture banner for Fiorina's site, as well as the following top 5 reasons why Fiorina is not a friend of Latinos:
 
1. Fiorina pretends to be a friend to Latinos, but her positions on immigration, education and health care put her in direct opposition to the values that Latinos hold dear. DO NOT BE FOOLED, Fiorina is not good for Latinos in California.

2. Carly Fiorina fiercely supports SB 1070 and racial profiling in Arizona. In fact Fiorina was quoted saying, “This law [SB 1070] is necessary because the Federal Government isn’t doing its job and the people in Arizona are in danger.” (Fox News)

3. Carly Fiorina opposed emergency state aide to help teachers for our schools and Medicaid for our community’s poor. The emergency state aid bill saved the jobs of approximately 13,700-16,500 teachers in California and also funded Medicaid programs serving approximately 7 million Californians.*

4. California’s Latinos need a strong economy, and not a job killer CEO Senator with a history of outsourcing jobs and firing thousands of workers. While CEO of HP, Fiorina outsourced jobs and called the move “smartsourcing.” In 2003, she dismissed almost 18,000 people from HP. She had already created job loss in California, and we don’t need her to cause any more.**

5. Carly Fiorina wants to repeal President Obama’s health care bill which would help this nation’s uninsured. ***

Uncategorized

August 30 Open Thread

Links:

* How do we set the rates for insurance? Well, under the federal legislation, we weren’t supposed to be authorizing rates state by state.  A recent law (SB1163) would allow insurance companies to require a “acuarily sound” rate.

* John Myers looks at Dan Schnur’s efforts to expand disclosure.

* Carly Fiorina brought something of a do whatever it takes to make a buck philosophy to HP that seems to have persisted there.  They got fined $55 million for defrauding the federal goverment, but hey, they picked up a $800 million deal.  Cost of doing business, right?

* A little tiff in the OC DA’s office between former Asm. Todd Spitzer and current DA Tony Rackauckas.

* Capitol Weekly takes a look at some various last minute legislative pushes.

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Pete Wilson’s Resurgence

Pete Wilson has a long and sordid past in this state.  Casting aside some of his early work in San Diego, his run as Senator left something to be desired, to say the least. He considered himself a “fiscal conservative”, going so far as to go by the moniker of “Watchdog of the Treasury.”  Yet all the while, he was one of the bigger supporters of the Strategic Defense Initiative (“Star Wars”) in the Senate, despite the fact that SDI never showed any glimmer of actually being able to do anything.

And then, as he comes back to California to be governor as some sort of victory lap, where he proceed to well and truly make the situation worse.  He never met an insurance reform bill that he wouldn’t veto for a bit of campaign cash from the industry, and apparently couldn’t find room in his heart from a plea from Mother Theresa on a death penalty case.

Besides his cruel veto of a workplace discrimination protection measure for gay and lesbian Californians, he went on to pass the vile Proposition 187 along with his re-election bid of 1994.  He used the measure to beat Kathleen Brown over the head with the issue, despite the fact that the measure was unconstitutional on its face.  That it was later ruled as such by federal courts didn’t really make a difference for Wilson. After all, he had been re-elected.

Toss in a few anti-labor measures, and there you have a quick summary of Wilson’s career. I suppose at this juncture, I should point out the work he did for reparations for Japanese internment victims, but his record is hardly one of a lifelong commitment to civil rights.  So, this is where he re-enters the game in a big way.  He is now the co-chair of the campaigns of both Meg Whitman and Steve Cooley. And he’s doing everything he can for both of them.

To reduce Wilson’s role in Whitman’s campaign to the immigration issue or to one “tough as nails” radio ad, however, is to miss the significance of his involvement.

Early in the contest, Wilson’s support was significant in signaling to GOP insiders that Whitman, with no political experience, could run a credible campaign.

He came with a Rolodex full of donors and consultants, many of whom helped Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger win election. He also had the perspective of being a former two-term governor and U.S. senator. If Whitman cared to talk strategy, he is the the only Republican to have defeated her Democratic opponent in an election.(SacBee)

You think that’s some big involvement? How about the fact that Steve Cooley has said on numerous occasions that it was the former Governor that recruited him for the AG’s race, rather than the other way around.  Wilson has taken to the role of elder statesmen (or Obi-Wan as the article called him) of the GOP.

But this course is not without risks.  Californians should not forget his role in Prop 187, and his cynical use of families as a wedge issue. Or his fight against the right to organize through his so-called “paycheck protection” measure.  Wilson had it all planned out, and he is still trying to pull the strings on the marionettes. One can only hope we are better at seeing through Whitman than we were cutting through Wilson’s bull.

Election 2012, Orange County

Why Orange County Is Getting Bluer

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Having been born and raised in Orange County, one of my lifetime goals is to see it become a bastion of progressive politics. So I’m glad to see that today the New York Times is finally noticing Orange County is indeed becoming less right-wing and more Democratic:

SANTA ANA, Calif. – Orange County has been a national symbol of conservatism for more than 50 years: birthplace of President Richard M. Nixon and home to John Wayne, a bastion for the John Birch Society, a land of orange groves and affluence, the region of California where Republican presidential candidates could always count on a friendly audience.

But this iconic county of 3.1 million people passed something of a milestone in June. The percentage of registered Republican voters dropped to 43 percent, the lowest level in 70 years.

Adam Nagourney attributes the political shift away from the right-wing and from Republicans to demographic changes, primarily immigration:

At the end of 2009, nearly 45 percent of the county’s residents spoke a language other than English at home, according to county officials. Whites now make up only 45 percent of the population; this county is teeming with Hispanics, as well as Vietnamese, Korean and Chinese families. Its percentage of foreign-born residents jumped to 30 percent in 2008 from 6 percent in 1970, and visits to some of its corners can feel like a trip to a foreign land.

There’s no doubt that Orange County has become much less white over the last 30 years, though this phenomenon isn’t exactly new. And those voters have helped retire right-wingers like Bob Dornan – and helped elect a new generation of Democrats like Irvine mayor Sukhee Kang, who is mentioned in the NYT article.

Although immigration plays a role in the OC’s political shifts, it’s not the whole story. Nagourney didn’t mention that Kang isn’t the first Democrat to lead Irvine – the city has had a series of Dems leading it for many years, including Larry Agran and Beth Krom (who is running a strong campaign for Congress against absentee incumbent John Campbell in CA-48), and their base isn’t just non-white residents, but white OC residents as well.

As a result, Democrats have begun to thrive in local government in OC. Debbie Cook parlayed her popularity as a Huntington Beach city councilmember into a strong challenge to incumbent right-wing wacko Dana Rohrabacher in CA-46 in 2008. Deborah Gavello was elected to the usually right-wing Tustin city council in 2008, and teacher Bill Hedrick came very close to knocking off Ken Calvert in CA-44 the same year, like Cook winning lots of votes from whites as well as nonwhites.

That speaks to an even more fundamental shift that has been taking place in OC. Many of us whites who were born and raised there have become very progressive, and have joined older voters and nonwhites to begin turning OC blue. People like myself, Ezra Klein, and many others who grew up there came to reject the right-wing values that surrounded us, and are showing up to vote for progressives and Democrats.

My own experience illustrates this. In the early ’90s I spent a few months in a Rush Limbaugh Fan Club and even the OC Young Republicans, at a time when I was uncritically absorbing the county’s right-wing ideological heritage. But it didn’t take long for me to grow up and grow out of that youthful conservatism, as I came to realize that a politics of white privilege and unlimited corporate power wasn’t my idea of an ideal society. In this, I was just catching up to most of my friends and peers, who had already started identifying as being left of center.

We were part of a broader trend. Our generation (often called Millennials) is the first generation since European settlement to have a majority born here in California.  As a recent USC study showed, this new homegrown majority is more progressive, having a greater attachment to public services and engagement in their communities than previous generations who were educated elsewhere and who moved to California seeking their own prosperity without feeling an attachment to California’s public services and and institutions.

In OC, this led to a lot of white middle-class folks of older generations moving to the area and buying into its Reaganite ideology of “the government does nothing for you,” even as the region’s economy owed much to defense spending and the federal mortgage housing deduction, and believing that their benefits were under threat from people of color.

Both the growing nonwhite population and younger whites have increasingly rejected this, seeing the right-wing ideology of racist anti-government privilege as being totally unrealistic and undesirable. They prefer good public schools to right-wing tax cuts and vouchers, and view the racial diversity they grew up with as being a positive, welcome thing. And that is fueling the rise of progressive, Democratic politics in places like Orange County.

That’s not to say the region’s right-wing nature is gone. Even among Millennials, right-wing politics is still there. One of my best friends from high school, David Waldram, is running for Tustin city council on a right-wing platform (though he thankfully rejects the appeals to racism of other right-wingers). Still, the overall trend is one of a county whose population – across the demographic categories – is moving away from it’s Bircher, Nixonian, Reaganite past and toward a more progressive future.

Along with Congressional candidates Beth Krom and Bill Hedrick, Assembly candidates like Melissa Fox, running against an old-school right winger in the AD-70 race and Phu Nguyen, running in AD-68 are the leaders who will consolidate the trends and turn OC blue. They understand that OC residents want jobs, good schools, and environmental protections, not silly appeals to the latest right-wing ideological fantasy of the day.

At a time when it seems like the right-wing is poised to have a better November election than they’ve had in several cycles, it’s good to see that here in California, even in their strongholds, the public is rejecting what the right-wing extremists have to offer.  

Environment

A cautionary tale of corn and corruption

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A couple of weeks ago, a small story appeared in the Stockton Record: Ethanol Supports Approved:

Pacific Ethanol Inc. said Wednesday that its two California production plants, including a currently idle facility in Stockton, have been accepted by the state Energy Commission for a new price support program.

The California Ethanol Producer Incentive Program would provide payments to ethanol producers when market conditions are poor but would require the payments be reimbursed when economics improve….

The incentive program itself is stalled, however, by the ongoing state budget impasse….

Pacific Ethanol’s operating subsidiaries, including its California production plants in Stockton and Madera, emerged from Bankruptcy Court reorganization in late June. Both remain offline, waiting for market conditions to improve.

Below the fold, multiple layers of wrong.

1.  What’s wrong with ethanol?

Pacific Ethanol describes itself as “a leader in producing and marketing low-carbon ethanol”:

Ethanol is a critical part of the country’s energy future. As an alternative fuel or a fuel additive, it has many advantages. Ethanol is made from renewable resources, reducing air pollution and carbon dioxide emissions that contribute to global warming. Ethanol also helps consumers by increasing domestic fuel supplies and refining capacity. The Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 significantly increases the mandated use of renewable fuels to 9 billion gallons in 2008, with an incremental rise to 36 billion gallons by 2022.

However, corn ethanol has fallen out of favor (except, perhaps, in Iowa) as a reliable replacement for fossil fuels.  “A growing body of scientific opinion holds that clearing fields to grow corn, harvest it, distill it into ethanol and ship it to oil refineries consumes as much energy and causes as much environmental damage as burning oil,” and corn ethanol fared poorly in a California Air Resources Board ranking of environmentally friendly fuels, reports the Los Angeles Times.  A Natural Resources Defense Council report contends that the national corn ethanol subsidy “has not only concentrated the ethanol industry in just a handful of states, but siphoned scarce resources away from more competitive biofuel technologies that create far less pollution and would allow more than double the number of U.S. states to meaningfully participate in ethanol production,” and that corn ethanol creates more global warming pollution than the gasoline it’s supposed to replace.

That’s wrong no. 1: the idea that corn ethanol can ever be an environmentally friendly fossil fuel replacement.  But it gets worse.

2.  What’s wrong with Pacific Ethanol?

Pacific Ethanol was founded by Bill Jones, a Republican Party stalwart and former Secretary of State who’s given $70,000 to Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s campaigns, reports the Los Angeles Times.  It’s the largest of four ethanol companies in line for $15 million in subsidies.  Bill Gates invested in Pacific Ethanol, then stopped investing, the price of corn rose while the price of ethanol didn’t, and bankruptcy was filed.  

Three years ago, a tax on car owners was passed, commonly known as AB118, that goes to an Alternative and Renewable Fuel and Vehicle Technology Program.  When the fund was set up, its backers said it would not be used for corn ethanol, but instead other biofuels.  However, last summer Pacific Ethanol’s chief executive visited the office of Schwarzenegger’s environmental adviser to press the case for access to the fund.  Next thing, the Stockton Record is reporting that Pacific Ethanol’s plants have qualified for $15 million in subsidies from that $100 million fund.

That’s wrong no. 2: a politically well connected business siphoning millions of dollars that it wasn’t supposed to get from a well-intentioned funds.

3.   What’s wrong with free money?

Pacific Ethanol has operated plants in Stockton and Madera.  However, both have been idle since filing bankruptcy, which ended in June 2010.  They’ll start up if and when they get the state’s $15 million in price supports.  Again, the state will pay Pacific Ethanol when ethanol prices are low, as they have been, but require the company to reimburse the state when prices climb.  That is, if prices climb; corn ethanol appears to have stagnated as other biofuels experience scientific breakthroughs.

We’re now on wrong no. 3: a $15 million bailout, possibly in perpetuity, for a waning industry.  Just because it’s well-connected to Republicans in power.  Which makes wrong no. 4 slightly less wrong than it should be.

4.  What’s wrong with the California budget?

It’s 58 days overdue, and no one seems to care.  Pacific Ethanol won’t get its free money until a budget is passed.  Neither will a lot of people who need the money more than California’s small, but well connected, ethanol industry.  Legislators looking for waste, fraud, and abuse can start with a skeptical eye on Pacific Ethanol.  

Can sunshine and public pressure undo what lobbyists have done?  If the layers of wrong in this story bother you, contact:


Alternative and Renewable Fuel & Vehicle Technology Program

Fuels & Transportation Division

California Energy Commission

Phone: 916-654-4634

E-mail: AB118 at energy dot state dot ca dot us

Uncategorized

Action Alert – Prison reform

If you care about prison reform, Yee’s SB 399 (JLWOP) should be a no-brainer. Plus it’s one step of many needed to build the narrative we need to rein in the prison budget and help elect Kamala Harris. Secure Democrats are utter fools to vote no on this.

Yee’s office is saying the bill may come up again on Monday, August 29. We have time to act if we get on it first thing.

Good strategic point made on the CDP Progressive Caucus discussion list:

The strategic thing to do is to look first to Dems in safe seats who aren’t standing up — that includes Mendoza, De La Torre, Nava, and Chesbro as well as Ma. If you’re a vote or two short, you might be able to get one of the endangered freshmen.

My Assemblywoman, Nancy Skinner, says Marty Block and Ted Lieu should also be contacted.  Contact info below. We can have some fun on Facebook & Twitter this weekend and make calls 1st thing Monday morning.

Block, Marty Dem 78th (916) 319-2078

[email protected]

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/profil…

Chesbro, Wesley Dem 1st (916) 319-2001

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/…

De La Torre, Hector Dem 50th (916) 319-2050

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/…

Lieu, Ted W. Dem 53rd (916) 319-2053

[email protected]

http://www.facebook.com/profil…

Twitter: @tedlieu

Ma, Fiona Dem 12th (916) 319-2012

[email protected]

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/profil…

Twitter: @fionama

Mendoza, Tony Dem 56th (916) 319-2056

[email protected]

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/MrTony…

Twitter: @MrTonyMendoza

Nava, Pedro Dem 35th (916) 319-2035

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pedron…

Twitter: @pedronava

Here’s what the San Francisco Bay Guardian had to say about Fiona Ma’s vote last week:

http://www.sfbg.com/politics/2…

Legislators behaving badly

There’s only one country in the world that allows children to be sentenced to life without parole. Only one place on Earth where a 16-year-old can be sent to prison for life, without any chance at redemption. Only one place that doesn’t recognize that brain development, including judgment, isn’t complete until a person reaches his or her 20s.

And that’s the United States.

State Sen. Leland Yee, a child psychologist, had a very moderate bill in the Legislature this year that would have given juveniles sentenced to LWOP a chance after 15 years to be reconsidered for parole. That would put California somewhere close to the rest of the civilized world.

“SB 399 is not a get-out-of-jail-free card; it is an incredibly modest proposal that respects victims, international law, and the fact that children have a greater capacity for rehabilitation than adults,” Yee noted.

It cleared the state Senate, and should have cleared the Assembly Aug 24. But even with the Democrats firmly in control of that body, Yee failed to get enough votes for SB 399. And one of the people who refused to vote for it was San Francisco Assembly member Fiona Ma.

You expect this sort of shit from Republicans and from some conservative law-ond-order Democrats. But it’s inconceivable that a San Francisco Democrat would be against a bill like this.

What on Earth was Ma thinking? I couldn’t get her on the phone, but her communications aide, Cataline Hayes-Bautista, sent the following Ma statement:

“I did not come to my decision on SB 399 easily – it’s legislation that I have carefully reviewed and considered for months. While I acknowledge that some juveniles in the correctional system may have the capacity to be rehabilitated after decades of being incarcerated, I feel that we cannot reset a defendant’s clock 25 years later expecting a victim’s family will reset their hearts.

I know our District Attorneys do not take life sentences lightly. These crimes are limited to first and second degree murder offenses with a special circumstance which include the most troublesome crimes: murdering a peace officer, murdering to achieve a hate crime, committing a murder that’s especially heinous, murdering for financial gain, and murdering while escaping lawful custody.

All of these sentences were handed down after murder victims’ families had the chance to speak out and address the court on the impact of these murders. To re-open these closed cases to new sentencing hearings would re-open the wounds already suffered by murder victims’ families, forcing these victims to re-visit and re-live cases they were told had been closed forever. I think it would be unfair to these victims’ families to have to re-live these horrific crimes and for that reason I felt compelled to oppose this legislation.

There are already deliberative checks in place throughout the system where prosecutors, defense attorneys, jurors, and particularly our judges, have the ultimate discretion to choose a lesser juvenile sentence when sentencing a juvenile murderer. In addition, the Governor has the power to grant pardons and commute sentences. This already provides an avenue for juveniles to seek extraordinary relief if justice calls for it.

While I appreciate Senator Yee’s intent to create opportunities to rehabilitate juvenile criminals, these particular crimes rise to a standard in which we need to hold those responsible accountable for their actions.”

Sorry, but that’s just terrible. To say that the victims’ families are better off if juveniles — people who were too young to be fully responsible for what they did, and who in some cases didn’t even kill anyone (just being present when someone kills someone can be a life sentence) are locked up until they die is just kind of sick. I don’t know what else to say. Except to give an example of who is serving life without parole (from Yee’s press release):

One such case involves Anthony C., who was 16 and had never before been in trouble with the law. Anthony belonged to a “tagging crew” that paints graffiti.  One day Anthony and his friend James went down to a wash (a cement-sided stream bed) to graffiti.  James revealed to Anthony that he had a gun in his backpack and when another group of kids came down to the wash, James decided to rob them. James pulled out the gun, and the victim told him, “If you don’t kill me, I’ll kill you.” At that point, Anthony thought the bluff had been called, and turned to pick up his bike. James shot the other kid.

The police told Anthony’s parents that he did not need a lawyer. He was interviewed by the police and released, but later re-arrested on robbery and murder charges. Anthony was offered a 16-to-life sentence before trial if he pled, but he refused, believing he was innocent. Anthony was found guilty of first degree murder and sentenced to life in prison without parole. Charged with aiding and abetting, he was held responsible for the actions of James.

Okay, this kid doesn’t belong in prison for life, without any chance of parole. Thanks, Fiona.

Arnold Schwarzenegger

What is the Schwarzenegger Legacy for the LGBT Community?

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Cross-posted from the Courage Campaign’s Prop 8 Trial Tracker blog.

In their Opinion LA blog, the LA Times calls Governor Schwarzenegger “the gay friendly governator.”  Sure, he has recently been getting a lot of respect for declining, repeatedly, to get involved on behalf of Proposition 8.  But how much is that worth?  

Here’s the Times take on the issue:

Who could have called it in 2003: Arnold Schwarzenegger, the body-building terminator who originally showcased his brutish masculinity as a campaign centerpiece and once called Democrats “girlie men,” could go down in history as California’s most gay-friendly governor to date. Sure, Schwarzenegger’s done more for gay men and women when he’s done nothing: Though he vetoed then-Assemblyman Mark Leno’s bill to legalize same-sex marriage in 2005 (legislation that was almost certainly illegal under Proposition 22), he and Atty. Gen. Jerry Brown have refused to defend Proposition 8 in federal court.

This is in the context of a bill, AB 2199, that would delete from the state law books an official policy of curing homosexuality that recently passed out of the Legislature and is now heading for the Governor’s desk. He’ll likely sign the bill, as, truthfully, it isn’t all that controversial.  It sailed through both houses, with but one dissenting vote.  The one vote would be the anachronistic and bigoted Assemblyman from San Diego, Joel Anderson.

It is great that Arnold has been on our side in the last few years.  But, he has never been willing to put any of his own political capital on the line.  Instead, he’s content to wait it out.  He vetoed the Harvey Milk Day bill before signing it.  And with Mark Leno’s marriage bills, he ran for the hills. His rationale was that somebody, the judges, the people, anybody but him, should say something first.  Regardless of whether he thought Prop 22 was unconstitutional back in 2005 or not, he was not willing to take the lead by just signing the bill.  If marriage inequality was odious to the constitution 6 months ago, it was odious in 2005 as well.  Would it have stirred up some controversy? Most definitely.  But real leaders have a tendency to do that.

Or perhaps he could have expended a bit of energy in 2008 campaigning against Prop 8? He did make a token endorsement of Prop 8, but beyond that was out of the picture.

But, LGBT issues go beyond the single issue of marriage, and on transgender rights he hasn’t been quite so good, even of late:

On 12 October 2009, California Governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, fell short of ensuring full protection of LGBTQ people in the California’s prison system. Choosing to veto  the LGBT Prisoner Safety Act (AB 382, Ammiano) and the Equal ID Act (AB 1185, Lieu), he has failed to cement two crucial policies into law. Needless to say, the LGBTQ community has been failed, and must now overturn the Governor’s cruel and unusual decision.

First and foremost, the Governor’s reasons for vetoing the LGBT Prisoner Safety Act (AB 382, Ammiano), was due to the fact that California’s prison system already takes gender identity and sexual orientation into account when housing prisoners. Whilst that is very likely the case, GLBTQ inmates shall remain vulnerable until this becomes actual law. Until then, human rights violations may continue.

As for the vetoing of the Equal ID Act (AB 1185, Lieu), the Governor’s reasons were similar. Thanks to a past landmark victory, Somers v. Superior Court, it had already been ruled unconstitutional to deny transgender inmates the right to petition a gender change. Despite this fact, the Transgender Law Center asserts that the “Equal ID Act would have alleviated any confusion in the statutory language itself.” (Examiner blogs)

These veto messages are hardly the stuff of civil rights heroes. You hope, you think gender identity is considered in jails and prisons?  Well, that might be nice in theory, but in reality the situation isn’t quite so smooth. Transgender prisoners face very difficult conditions in the prisons, and very little extra caution is given to them.

In the end, I find it difficult to call this Governor gay friendly. Real friends are there for you, good times or bad.  This one swoops in when the tide is clearly turning. At best, I would call him a frenemy.  

Uncategorized

August 27 Open Thread

Links:

* The Democrats in the Legislature are scheduling votes on both the Democratic budget and the Schwarzenegger budget for Tuesday. As of right now, neither has enough to pass.

* Whitman is merging her field campaign into the Republican Party’s operations. Not totally sure what this means, but I guess the CRP is hitching their star to ol’ Moneybags.

* The CDP, meanwhile, is filing a complaint against Joel Fox’s astroturf organization for violation of 501(c)4 non-profit organization rules.

* The Governor is going to Asia with or without a budget for a September trade mission.