Observations 5.20

So a day after a judge ruled Oregon's same sex marriage ban was unconstitutional Judge John Jones ruled the same in a case against Pennsylvania's ban. This one was fascinating for a number of reasons but it was special too because I still consider Pennsylvania my home state. I'll try to get to the fascinating later but for now I want to post a quote from Judge Jones' ruling. It should be noted that Jones was appointed by President George W. Bush.

"In the sixty years since Brown (vs the Board of Education) was decided, 'separate' has thankfully faded into history, and only 'equal' remains. Similarly, in future generations the label same-sex marriage will be abandoned to be replaced by simply marriage.

We are a better people than what these laws represent, and it's time to discard them into the ash heap of history."

United States District Judge John E. Jones III

Observations from the Road 12.1

Something happened a few days ago that I found so funny I had to share the even if it says way too much about today's world and not in a good way. If you don't know I'm originally from a smallish town in Pennsylvania. I was at the final Penn State home game last weekend and due to the weather forecast decided to just go to my dad's afterwords, there was nothing I needed to do that I couldn't do from there. To understand why I found this story so funny you have to try and imagine it happening in a small town, one with a large elderly population, and in an area not exactly known as a hotbed of a liberal agenda. On top of that it happened the day before Thanksgiving.

I was driving through town when I saw three county sheriffs in riot gear standing outside a one chair barber shop. There is a small apartment above the barber and the black clad sheriffs seemed to be pointing up at it. My one uncle works in law enforcement so I texted him to see if he knew what was going on.

This is the quick version of the story I got by text over the next hour as I laughed hysterically. Apparently the sheriffs had shown up to serve a warrant to the man who lives in the apartment. He didn't answer the door and the sheriffs thought they heard a shotgun being loaded so they called for support. My uncle informed me the county rapid response team, read that SWAT team, was staging on a parking lot a block from the barber shop. This is where I couldn't stop laughing because all I could imagine is the scene in Home Alone where Macaulay Culkin  uses the TV for sound effects. As my uncle said, waste all that money, storm the building, and all they find is an empty apartment with a TV blaring what I hoped was Scarface (warning, clip is not approved for all audiences). On my way home I drove a back way to avoid the bedlam but at the last minute swung into town because I just had to see, only there was nothing to see but the original sheriffs. Apparently the long deceased suspect had been found before the team could fully assemble and the coroner had been called but hadn't yet arrived. However the event did make all the local news shows.

I can only imagine the conversations around the town's dinner tables the following day.

note - If you didn't understand what I meant by this little episode saying something about today's world it's this. Police departments, down to the smallest town it seems, are way too well armed and they look for any excuse to use their toys. Imagine what could have happened had the suspect simply been passed out drunk as the 'rapid response team' stormed his apartment.

Observations from the Coffee Shop 11.19

Last week I started a post about our broken political system, which turned into a vent about Obamacare, and I wanted to get back to that. Yes the system is broken, it's not really a question open to debate, but what is startling is how much of it has nothing to do with the times or the economy but is by pure Republican design. There is a very good article in the latest issue of Rolling Stone that explains it all very clearly and is worth reading. Rather than get into it I'm posting some highlights of "How Republicans Rig the Game" and hoping that's enough to get you to read the entire article.

Illustration by Victor Juhasz for Rolling Stone

Something to keep in mind, yes gerrymandering  has gone on forever but not in the nationally planned, calculated, well funded, and computerized way it was after the last census.

"National Republicans have waged an unrelenting campaign to exploit every weakness and anachronism in our electoral system. Through a combination of hyperpartisan redistricting of the House, unprecedented obstructionism in the Senate and racist voter suppression in the states, today's GOP has locked in political power that it could never have secured on a level playing field.

"Explicit racial gerrymandering is illegal under the 14^th Amendment and the Voting Rights Act. So Hofeller used a proxy for race, redrawing boundaries by identifying the wards where President Obama received the highest returns in 2008. According to court documents, this approach 'allowed black voters to be carved apart from their white neighbors and friends, on a block-by-block basis.'

"Pennsylvanians cast 83,000 more votes for Democratic U.S. House candidates but elected a 13-5 Republican majority to represent them in Washington; Michiganders cast over 240,000 more votes for Democratic congressional candidates than Republicans, but still elected a 9-5 Republican delegation to Congress. In Wisconsin Republicans prevailed by a five-to-three margin in House seats despite losing the popular vote by more than 43,000. In Ohio, only 52 percent of voters cast ballots for Republicans, but thanks to maps drawn in a Columbus-area Doubletree Hotel, referred to by GOP operatives in court documents as "the bunker," John Boehner's home-state delegation swings 12-4 for the GOP.

But gerrymandering only effects the House, the problems of the Senate are Republican made with the aid of the founding fathers. When the Constitution was written the largest state, Virginia, had 10 times the population of the smallest, Delaware, while today California has 65 times the population of Wyoming.

"Half of the U.S. population now resides in just nine states. Which is to say that the other 50 percent of Americans control 82 votes in the U.S. Senate.

"In today's Senate, 41 small-state Republicans can mount a filibuster on behalf of 28 percent of the country. And the departure from historical practice is shocking: LBJ faced one filibuster as Senate majority leader. Harry Reid, the current majority leader, has faced more than 430. Nearly half the filibusters of executive-branch nominations in the nation's history – 16 of 36 – have occurred under Obama."

The scariest idea of all may be the Republican one that would restructure the electoral system which decides presidential elections. Personally I think the entire system is outdated in the extreme and should just go but the Republicans have an idea of their own. Electoral votes would be divided among a state's congressional districts instead of on a state by state winner take all basis. Due to the above mentioned extreme gerrymandering under that system we would have a President Romney today.

But, frustrating as this rigged political system has become, there is always hope as the final lines of the article show.

"The GOP may have postponed its day of reckoning at the hands of a younger, browner, queerer electorate, 'They're holding back the tides,' says Larry Sabato, director of the University of Virginia's Center for Politics, but sooner or later, they're going to get swamped."

Read the article than vote whenever you can.

Observations from the Coffee Shop 11.7

Later today, possibly early afternoon, the full U.S. Senate will vote on the Employment Non-Discrimination Act which would prohibit discrimination in hiring and employment on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity. First proposed in 1974 ENDA has been submitted to every Congress since Senator Edward Kennedy introduced it to the Senate in 1994. It has failed to pass both Houses of Congress every year and this year probably won't be any different. ENDA should pass the Senate with a clear majority but I don't see it getting a vote in the House where Republican Speaker John Boehner is once again scared of his own shadow. Boehner, whose office likes to tweet with the hashtag #FairnessForAll, said Monday he wouldn't bring the bill up for a vote.

In a poll taken in May 73% of those polled favored some kind of job protection while only 22% were against it. In a recent poll, which I can't seem to find, 80% of those asked actually thought it was already illegal to fire someone for being gay. It should be noted that even in Mississippi, the state with the lowest level of support, 63% support protection. Boehner's usual claim that a bill will cost jobs is mute because most large corporations have rules against such discrimination and 21 states ban it.

I just wanted to take a moment this morning to honor the 29 states where it is still legal to fire someone because of their sexual orientation. It is legal to fire someone for simply being born.

Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, West Virginia, and Wyoming.

Well done.

Sunday Observations 8.11

This is an odd mix of things but it's Sunday and I'm cleaning up notes.

Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona is the first openly bisexual member of Congress. Sinema says she was always open about her sexuality but her first comment on it as an elected official is classic. In 2005, while she was a member of the Arizona State Legislature, a Republican colleague gave a speech in which he insulted LGBT people. "We’re simply people like everyone else who want and deserve respect," Sinema said. Later reporters asked her about her comment and she answered "Duh, I’m bisexual."

Jay Leno was talking about comedy but the Republican Party could have learned an important lesson had they listened to him a few nights ago. He said that when you play to one group, a part of the audience in his case, in the end all you do is pander to that group at the expense of the rest of the group.

I enjoy Abby Huntsman on The Cycle so much more than I did Sarah Elizabeth Cupp.

Something I want to read is Five Star Billionaire, a new novel set in Shanghai and written by Malaysian writer Tash Aw. I was reading a column about it and others in the current rash of Asian superwealth novels when I saw the following line. "Does the rapid ascent of the $30,000 handbag spell some sort of apocalyptic, karmic doom? Or a societal dynastic pattern in which Asian superwealth will end up where America is now, divided and waiting for the revolution." The review was written by Chinese author Janice Y. K. Lee who resides in Hong Kong. Nice to know that the residents of Hong Kong think Americans are awaiting the revolution, they might be right.

Another book i just added to my wish list is Taipei by Tao Lin. Technically Tao Lin is an American writer but his parents are Taiwanese so I guess you could say I'm currently looking at Asian writers. But then I haven't read any of them yet, right now I'm reading The Story Of Paris by Thomas Okey which was written in 1906.

Finally a link I've been saving so long I forgot what it was, "Architecture: Pre-emptive Moves, Predemolition." It's about the New York practice of tearing the decorative pieces off of classic buildings so there is no reason to give them historic designations and clearing the way for the developer to tear down the entire building. I saved the article because it reminded me of a cool store in Adamstown, Pennsylvania. The 'store' is a warehouse next to a huge century old barn both of which are filled with things salvaged from buildings about to be torn down. Everything from doors and windows to mantels and antique crystal door knobs, this place has it all. According to it's website Oley Valley Architectural Antiques even has 150 antique bars.

I warned you it was an odd mix of topics.

Observations 7.13

On Tuesday the ACLU filed a lawsuit in Harrisburg challenging Pennsylvania's same-sex marriage ban on behalf of 23 plaintiffs. On Thursday Pennsylvania Attorney General Kathleen Kane announced that her office would not defend Pennsylvania's Defense of Marriage Act. Since 1980 Pennsylvania's Attorney General has been an elected office and Kane, a Democrat, is the first woman or Democrat to ever hold the position. Kane's decision may well doom Governor Tom Corbett's reelection bid next year. Corbett, an unpopular (30% approval rating) Republican in his first term, will most likely defend the law with his general counsel but that will give him almost no chance of winning in suburban Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. If he doesn't defend it his own wingnut base will destroy him.

Pennsylvania state law and politics will make this so interesting to watch as it plays out. As I said Attorney General is an elected office in Pennsylvania unlike most states where the AG is appointed by the Governor. You have a Democrat AG with aspirations of higher office, Kane, and a Republican Governor up for reelection, Corbett. The whole episode is like a political chess match in which Kane has just smiled and said "your move Governor."

I couldn't find Kane's complete statement anywhere but below are the highlights and here is a link to the Pennsylvania Attorney Generals Office website which has more information. I'm sure I'll have more to say about this story.

"I cannot ethically defend the constitutionality of Pennsylvania's version of DOMA where I believe it to be wholly unconstitutional. It is my duty under the Commonwealth Attorneys Act whenever I determine it is in the best interest of the Commonwealth to authorize the Office of General Counsel to defend the state in litigation. Additionally, it is a lawyer's ethical obligation under Pennsylvania's Rules of Professional Conduct to withdraw from a case in which the lawyer has a fundamental disagreement with the client.

"I know that in this state there are people who don't believe in what we are doing, and I'm not asking them to believe in it. I'm asking them to believe in the constitution.

"The issue of same-sex marriage is squarely in the tradition of the struggle for civil rights in the United States. We have always stood strong in the face of discrimination, which in its various forms has never withstood the test of time. It is our duty, each and every one of us, to protect the constitutionality, to protect the rights and dignity of others, and to protect the equality of all men and women in this Commonwealth.

"Today, the attorney general chooses to protect all those without high-priced lawyers, all those who suffer discrimination and inequality, those thousands of families who have been denied of the dignity and respect that the constitution protects and guarantees in marriage equality. Today we represent everyone who does not have representation."