Sunday, July 31, 2005

women: the republicans are after your birth control rights too. let's do something about this insanity.
Anti-choice Rep. Steve King (R-IA) told a witness, who had been denied birth control and emergency contraception by her pharmacist, that she had no "right" to her prescriptions - she only believed she did. Anti-choice Rep. Marilyn Musgrave (R-CO) told the witness that her "minor inconvenience" – that is, risking an unintended pregnancy – was nothing compared to the "conscience" of a pharmacist.

Friday, July 29, 2005

my friend phil ting, the newly-established city bigwig assessor-recorder, has my picture on his campaign's about page. how funny is that.

now, remember how i said my color coordination was out of sync with everyone else's in the picture? well, note how my colors now match the just developed campaign colors. as usual, i'm ahead of my time...

(actually i didn't even notice that connection with the colors until susan (my friend/his wife) told me about it. obviously i set the standard)

Thursday, July 28, 2005

new column:

S.P.E.C.I.A.L. E.D.
(Specious Pseudo Elections Cause Instant And Lasting Electoral Damage)


So maybe we’ll have a Special Election; or, um, maybe we won’t. So maybe we’ll have 8 state ballot issues before us; or maybe it will be 7, or even 6, or maybe it’s back up to 7 again. In these days of nein and poses, our path emerges for a while, then closes, all within some freakish dream.

Perchance to hopeful dream we remember when we used to have faith in the electoral process. When an election meant the electorate was truly having their say, all the votes were properly counted, politicians would listen, and it was good. Or bad. But at least it was understood as the faithful process at hand.

Everything has changed it seems. There is a lack of trust in government’s ability to properly hear the voters. Obviously, this electoral crisis did not start with Arnold’s spurious call for a Special Election, although it was exacerbated by it. It did not even start with the specious call for and conduct of a Recall of our former governor, although all sense of proper democratic process was thrown out the window with that one.

Clearly the 2000 presidential dis-count was the highpoint of electoral disaster, but I would argue that it is also not the start of this surreal nightmare. While we have always had contested elections and partisan motivations, we are now witnessing a strategic devaluation of the vote. And that devaluation is causing hemorrhages throughout our system.

It’s possible that the Republicans first learned how to destroy the vote through psychological manipulations on voters’ fears over race in the 1960’s and beyond. Their ‘Southern Strategy’ was quite effective for their political fortunes by getting voters to vote against their own personal and financial interests in order to supposedly protect themselves against African-Americans. They have continually used this Strategy effectively throughout the years in the abortion wars, ‘family values’ campaigns, and recently against same-sex marriage.

Although I think it’s also important to note that even outside of elections, the Republicans have played a political game of target-and-destroy with any successful Democratic politicians and the ideals of the American politic. For instance, even when they could not defeat President Bill Clinton in 1996 for his re-election, they spent the rest of his term continually and systematically tearing him down—all the way to impeachment—in order to discredit him personally, Democrats in general, and our Democratic ideals throughout. When in 1998 the American voter fought back by successfully sending a message against the impeachment, the Republicans decided to attack even further the very institution for the voice of the public.

Looking to 2000, they made a devious, under-handed play to win the presidential election at all costs. They prepared by working within states to make sure that certain types of Democratically-leaning voters would be disenfranchised come Election Day. They made sure that these voters would not be able to have their voice heard. And after that maddening season of electoral fraud we Democrats had hoped and prayed that they would soon get their comeuppance. Instead, they wanted even more power and played even more parlor tricks to get it.

Even in California where they were ironically losing more and more of their influence, they had some backup strategies to distract the voter and hurt the system. First they worked to allow for the destruction of the state—literally in allowing Enron to profit on their illegal manipulation of the energy market and ending up shutting down power throughout the state. Second, they successfully laid the blame on a Democratic governor in hopes of doing another ‘impeachment’-style target-and-destroy operation within our state. Third, they used these operations to make the ultimate mockery of electoral democracy through a destructive and manipulative Recall to force their own agenda and say it’s the power of the people.

Destroying the power of the vote is the ultimate goal. When Arnold drove his photo-op Hummer to make the call for the Special Election, one could easily see it as simply another chapter in the ongoing playbook of the Republicans to supposedly give ‘power to the people’ while in reality making another manipulative fabrication of democracy. Happily, in California at least, this playbook is getting old with the voting public and the Special Election is falling apart. It’s our job to make sure that whether there is one this November or not, and for the 2006 elections and beyond, our messages of proper and faithful elections, the voice of every voter, large D and small d-democratic values, every vote counting, and truth in electioneering win out continuously. This is not easy, but we have seen what happens throughout our country when these fundamental pieces of liberty are allowed to be lost in a sea of special nightmarish circumstances.

Wednesday, July 27, 2005

i'm thinking about getting a frog for a pet

Monday, July 25, 2005

as mentioned before: all the best news and commentary these days is coming from the regular people in the letters to the editor section

Editor -- In Marc Sandalow's article, "The Bush legacy" (Insight section, July 17), I appreciate very much the writer's attempt to paint President Bush in a favorable light. He is largely successful in portraying Bush as a realist, maybe a bit too obsessed with winning.

If any of Sandalow's 10 suggestions for Bush to incorporate in his remaining 3 1/2 years in order to leave a positive legacy were adopted, it would be a welcome relief. What Sandalow misses in his generalizations of liberals and progressives as "Bush-haters" -- a term conservatives love to hear -- is not that we don't love Bush. It's that we are alarmed -- nay terrified -- of the policies coming out of his mouth.

Why focus so much on who the man is? It's like trying to figure out who Michael Jackson is, or who Katie Couric is. Why not focus on what this administration is doing?

Every day since November 2001, when the United States went after the Taliban, and then invaded Iraq, lives have been lost. Every day, someone dies because of what this administration is doing. Soldiers are dying. Children are dying. People are dying.

Framing the events in terms of what George W. Bush is really like or how he will be perceived plays into the campaign created by Republicans and Karl Rove. By focusing on celebrity and myth, we lose sight of the real issues of the day, not the least of which is that our war is responsible for much more of a travesty than a bad legacy spin.

CHAS NOL, San Francisco

Saturday, July 23, 2005

cedric checking things out

Wednesday, July 20, 2005

the only response to this amazing excerpt is: WOW.

[Openly Gay L.A. Councilman Bill Rosendahl] held up his 35-year-old Bible and told his colleagues the pages were stained with his tears — a mark of the time he spent wrestling with his identity. “In my struggling to come to my understanding of my relationship with God,” Rosendahl said, “I finally realized that God created nature, and God makes no mistakes. So we’re not a mistake, we’re not an accident, we’re just another expression of God’s will.”

all the best news and commentary these days is coming from the regular people in the letters to the editor section:

Editor -- Your front-page headline, "Bush alters standard for firing in leak case" (July 19), says it all about this corrupt administration. It shows President Bush's total complicity in this entire affair and his absolute willingness to do anything to cover his nether parts for starting an illegal war.

Because that's what this coverup is all about -- Bush lied to get us into his illegal war. He is even willing to cover up for the possible crime his closest political adviser, Karl Rove, committed by exposing covert CIA agent Valerie Plame to the press.

Why is the president not being impeached? What is it about the American people and the American press that allows this egregious behavior to continue without any accountability by the perpetrators?

GAIL HENIGMAN, San Francisco

Monday, July 18, 2005

GOP's updated targets Editor -- It's so nice to see that President Bush and Republican National Chairman Ken Mehlman have renounced the racially divisive "Southern strategy" that helped the GOP capture the South ("GOP renounces '60s racial strategy," July 15). The problem is they've replaced it with a moral-values strategy that is demonizing gays and lesbians in the same way that the GOP created the myths of welfare moms and of illegal aliens taking American jobs.

The new strategy is to convince "values voters" that Democrats are part of a "gay agenda" -- undermining marriage, promoting pedophilia, advocating for unisex toilets and other loony claims.

Just as the GOP managed to turn out angry white voters in the last three decades by exploiting racial stereotypes, it is now winning elections by exploiting and perpetrating a fear of gays and lesbians.

The targets may have changed, but the strategy has stayed the same.

MICHAEL COLBRUNO
Oakland


While I agree with the sentiment of this message, I would actually take it a step further in another direction. When I read about the republican 'apology' I didn't think about their new 'southern strategies'; instead I considered how empty the 'apology' was in the first place. It's not as if the republicans are 'apologizing' for anything more than that they feel badly about it-- they're not making any kind of recompense, fixing voting problems, overseeing attempts at racial integration and equal voting opportunities, etc. They used the strategy to get what they wanted, screwing over a population for their political benefit, and now that they have what they want they want to pretend that they shouldn't have done it. The 'apology' was hollow and simply a publicity stunt to try to get more voters to back their incindiary politics. Not even close to a real satisfactory 'apology'.

Sunday, July 17, 2005

an excerpt from an article in my mother's new magazine subscription i gave her for her birthday. just the kind of sociological/political/religious themes i can appreciate:

SO WHY THE deafening silence from the pulpit when the bankruptcy laws were being altered in Congress? The lack of forgiveness to debtors is surely as big a moral crisis as we have had to face in public life this year. The Bible is unambiguous that making profit off the debt of others is reprehensible. Sacred scripture also condemns using interest on debt to drive people into poverty. The Hebrew scripture even calls for the cancellation of all debt in a periodic "Jubilee year" because God is the ultimate owner of all that we own.

Saturday, July 16, 2005

my dear friend phil ting was appointed san francisco assessor/recorder yesterday by the mayor. yay!


below photos include phil with his wife and my dear friend susan, and my boss assemblyman mark leno

back in 1997, at the beginning of their 9th season, there was a classic episode of the simpsons where they have to travel to new york city to pick up homer's abandoned car in the world trade plaza, right in between the world trade center's twin towers. in the episode there's lots of jokes and commentary about the towers, including a laundry line between them, and homer trying to find a bathroom that's open in one tower only having to go to the other one.

after 9/11/2001, there was much speculation that we would never be able to watch that episode again. in fact, i remember there was commentary at the time about how that would be a 'lost episode' that would never play in reruns. and i understood at the time about how hard that would be to watch as a comedy, before our 'innocence' was supposedly lost.

yesterday, while watching my daily 'simpsons' reruns that i catch about 3 times every day, they ran the episode. i immediately sat up realizing from the beginning of the episode which one this was, even though i hadn't seen it run since 2001. i kept thinking, am i mistaking this for another episode? are they going to make some kind of comment? are they going to try to hide the towers somehow? maybe at the end, they'll say something? but as i watched, i watched through my 2005 eyes, mixed in with my 1997 eyes, and that terrible day in 2001 seemed to be another issue now. it's not that i had forgotten 2001 or how hurt i was, but more that i had grown since then, that time had helped make it ok to see this episode again, that while there's still so much aftermath and problems since then and while we will never forget 2001, it was ok to regain some innocence again. and it was ok for this episode to be shown again on television, without any post-2001 comment, and it was ok for us all to watch it, and laugh again.

Wednesday, July 13, 2005

got a free pass recently and ended up seeing the movie happy endings tonight. i liked it a lot. you should check it out in your neighborhood as it opens around the country. very good compilation of stories...

"no, no-- we like the torture"

Tuesday, July 12, 2005

run, claire, run
please, omg, please run




Monday, July 11, 2005

over the last year or so i've been recruited several times by a board member, and old colleague from my kc political days, of the aclu based in kansas city, the aclu of the full state of kansas and western half of missouri, to be their next executive director. what an amazing opportunity and a humbling belief in my abilities.

i've done much thinking about this over the last year, and especially within the last few months, since they are ready to hire soon. and, in the end, i don't want to move back to kansas city. and i love living here in san francisco, even though i'm going broke trying to live in this expensive world.

but i can't leave my dreams here in sf to go back. i have many dreams here that are still unfulfilled and i am working to make them happen. i'm also enjoying just the day-to-day life here. i'm afraid that if i did go back, even for an amazing job, i would be depressed and sad and bored. so i've decided not to apply and had to let my colleagues and friends know i wouldn't be coming home. part of me feels sad about letting this go; the other part is thrilled that i have made a decision and i know more and more about what i want in life. and that always seems to be the hardest thing to know.

Sunday, July 10, 2005

check out jessie's rapid-fire version of the below pictures of my cat playing with her new toy. it's fun and hard to stop watching!

got my baby a new toy today. why didn't i think of this earlier? it's a small blue ring with a yellow plastic ball inside that spins around the circle constantly. and it has lots of holes for her paws to try to grab it. she hasn't stopped messing with it since i brought it home. this'll tire her out! yeah.

Saturday, July 09, 2005

this, via animatedatlas, is a fun history lesson of the united states which only takes about 10 minutes and offers geographical concepts along with. the problem though is that it just abruptly ends. i was also hoping it would have a little more about population changes throughout, but still it's a cute history lesson

Friday, July 08, 2005

so i'm officially part of the aids research study, "project t," that i mentioned i was joining recently. and as it turns out i'm not even on the pill yet. for various research methodologies, half of the participants are randomly chosen to be part of the study but not be on the pill for first 9 months. so for the next 9 months i'll still be going in for evaluations, checkups, survey-answering, etc., but won't actually be on any medication. once those 9 months are over, sometime like next april, then i'll be randomly assigned the pill, or a placebo, and we won't know which.

anyway, i'm part of the study and spent a few hours last night getting prepared and having a full physical, blood and urine tests, and got to describe every hypochondriatic-possibility that might be going through my head as to possible feelings-- physical and mental-- so they are fully aware of my current health in preparation for understanding possible side-effects of the drug-- once i start taking it.

anyway, long story short, i'm a part of the study. and, for all my millions of gay male readers here in sf, they're still looking for volunteers, so if you're into it, email them

Wednesday, July 06, 2005

my new newsletter is out for july, with lots of pics from pride!

Monday, July 04, 2005

Saturday, July 02, 2005

Luther Vandross would want me to go shopping today. This old black woman needs a pickmeup.