The student protests of the 32% fee increases approved by the University of California Board of Regents this week are notable for many reasons, not least because they are one of the few mass responses to widespread applications of the "Shock Doctrine" in the wake of massive budget cutbacks at the state and local level. First a quick review of how massively irresponsibility in drafting the stimulus set the stage for this event--and many similar cutbacks that have gone relatively unnoticed. Then, on the flip, a look at the fee hikes in historical perspective as part of a long-term process of privatization.
As I argued back during the stimulus debate, the failure to use federal dollars to help close state budget gaps was a terrible mistake. First off, every dollar taken out of state spending roughly offsets the stimulative effect of every dollar spent by the Federal government--meaning that until you've closed the state budget gaps (either actually or virtually), every dollar of stimulus spending accomplishes roughly nothing. I say "roughly," because the stimulative effect of spending a dollar can very tremendously, as shown in this chart from a Feb 4 diary:
So, $100 billion to extend the Bush tax cuts forever instead of assisting state governments would cost the economy roughly 700,000 jobs. If the $100 billion were used for temporary across-the-board tax cuts, it would "only" have cost about 230,000 jobs.
But making matters even worse than the massive loss in jobs saved or created alone, the state budget culs have wrecked havoc with all manner of state and local agencies and the services they provide. In many cases, the loss of continuity of service is itself quite costly, although ways of measuring these costs are partial and pimative at best. But one thing is quite clear--when the cost is cut-backs in higher education, that cost will continue to be paid for years, if not decades into the future in the form of lost productivity in a less educated and less cretive workforce--at the every least.
The future of voter registration and civic engagement may just stand a chance. California (a populous state of many voters-to-be) will soon allow all 17-year-old citizens to preregister to vote so that they will be automatically enrolled as legal voters once they turn 18. This newer trend in legislation, which boasts bipartisan support, has recently passed in North Carolina and has been successfully implemented in five other states, including Florida.
On Thursday, September 24th, an estimated five thousand people attended a rally on Sproul Plaza at the University of California, Berkeley. The rally and subsequent march through campus and downtown Berkeley-scheduled to coincide with and planned in support of the University of California (UC) Faculty Walkout that took place on all ten UC campuses-brought together undergraduate and graduate students, faculty, university workers and alumni to protest the budget cuts at Berkeley and stand up for public education across California.
Prop H8 had passed in California. And even though I didn't have any immediate marriage plans, I nonetheless felt like all my future hopes and dreams were ripped away from me. I didn't know what to do... Until I got activein workingto undo the damage.
Yet even though I'm seeing progress in my new home state, I still have raw feelings about what happened in California last fall. I still have wounds that are only starting to heal.
The California Legislature approved a bill last week to extend voter registration privileges to 17-year-old citizens. If signed by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, the bill would help put California youth on the road to a lifetime of democratic participation.
It's time to stop talking about make believe death panels, and talk about the real ones.
Six of California's biggest insurance companies have rejected more than one in five claims the past seven years -- according to data the insurance giants, Blue Cross, PacifiCare, Kaiser Permanente, Health Net, Cigna, and Aetna report to the state Department of Managed Care.
California is on fire again. It's fitting that the state is in flames on the 4th anniversary of the Katrina Hurricane and destruction of New Orleans, but the truth is that California burns every year. Remember when all the snotty white folks blamed the poor black people from New Orleans for not leaving despite being warned? It happens all the time in any area where there are these types of disasters. We will inevitably see interviews of people explaining they didn't leave their burning neighborhood because they wanted to use the garden hose to save their home. So a group of firefighters have to risk their lives to save these people. Like what happened in New Orleans except, since these people are white property owners, nobody will say too much about them.
You'd think someone would get a clue, and stop building houses in the middle of the fire zones. Like they have flood zones, where no one can get permits to build new homes there for obvious reasons: it floods.
Why no fire zones? Because California real estate is valuable. And actually the yearly infernos generate money for the state which is not exactly chump change. First the insurance companies will pay a lot of money to re-build. Contractors, architects, engineers, fire "consultants" (who never seem to tell people that they should not build in a fire zone), interior decorators, floor guys, wallboard folks, roofers, pavers, home furniture sellers with "Gran Venta" signs going up as we speak, nurseries, landscape designers -- they all make money, millions and millions and millions of dollars every year when the houses in California built in the fire zone -- burn to the ground. The funny thing is that the laws require new construction to include smoke alarms, but they let the developers build the houses in the middle of the fireplace.
In Greek mythology, Zeus gave Prometheus the job of creating humans by using water and earth, plus we assume some chemical process that we have not yet reproduced. Prometheus was quite proud of his creation and wanted to even things up a bit, give humans some of the same powers that Zeus had. So Prometheus gave human beings fire. And look what they've done with it.
Every single year much of the state of California burns to the ground. Thank God, I can hear the local businesses saying. Thank God, I can hear the clean-up crews, the unemployed carpenters, the granite-tile-counter stores, the stainless-steel-appliance dealers, the developers, the kitchen cabinet-installers, the home improvement centers, the tile installers, the linoleum-layers, the painters, Thank God for the fires.
Schwarzenegger has been all over TV "announcing" that the state of California has been destroyed. Well, yes, Arnold -- and you did it. Congratulations. But he's out now hustling for federal bucks, and Obama will give it to him. The money will be used to re-build houses in areas where no houses should ever be built. You won't hear much about the victims not deserving the help. These are white people. It's different. And I seriously doubt the federal government will be trucking in the poisoned FEMA trailers and telling the white folks to live there and quit whining. Or bussing them down to Houston and giving them $2,000, telling them they are now residents of Texas. Good luck with that, folks.
So who suffers from the yearly fires? Every living four-legged creature in the state, many of whom are burned to death, or will starve to death this winter because their entire environment has been destroyed. Birds, bugs, bees, butterflies, worms. All the plants are destroyed. People with any kind of breathing or lung problems suffer. Sometimes you can actually see the ashes falling from the sky, far away from the fires, floating through the air, suffocating everything, coating the trees and leaves, absorbing any moisture, sometimes carrying a spark for miles to create a new fire, ensuring that future generations of young Californians will suffer from vague pulmonary illnesses, shortness of breath, of "unknown" origins. Without any health care, in many instances.
When I broke two bones recently, who came to my rescue, who literally carried me to transport to the ER, who put a big puffy brace around my leg so it would hurt less during the trip? The firefighters. I can't say enough about the firefighters. I've never seen a one of them who wasn't professional, helpful, terrific. And to think that they go out, year after year, and put their lives on the line to save a bunch of houses that should not have been built in the first place -- they deserve every penny they get. Two firefighters have already died in these current fires.
So, knowing that this irresponsible construction of homes in areas that are surrounded by fuel, often inaccessible and lacking in water, in hot, dry areas, why do communities allow this construction? Because they value money more than they value the lives of the firefighters.
When the firefighters talk about a "brotherhood," they usually means history, rituals, customs. But it is formalized by mutual-assistance agreements so that firefighters from all over, inside California and from other neighboring states, will come to fight these fires. And vice versa.
I think when the fires are out, there should be a moratorium on building homes. And sterilize everyone in the state of California. Too many people. Stop breeding. People really are not "better" than animals. We are destroying everything by our self-indulgent need to reproduce and then destroy everything in our path. Send everyone who is burned out to Montana, or Utah or Idaho. Maybe those states don't have as many fires. They for sure don't have as many people.
Overpopulation is destroying the entire earth. Is global warming causing more fires? Some say yes. But there is no question that the tens of millions of people who have moved to California in recent decades and bought houses inland -- where it's hot and dry, in fire zones -- have contributed to the destruction of much of the state, and will inevitably lead to the deaths of all the "other" animals that used to live in that area. Not just mountain lions and coyotes, which deserve their own land, but also deer, birds, butterflies, everything living, all now consumed and destroyed.
So I'm thinking maybe Prometheus should have minded his own business. Humans and fire are a bad mix.
Last week, the San Jose Mercury News reported that Jeffrey Rodriguez, a man from San Jose who spent five years in prison for a crime he did not commit, was awarded a $1 million settlement from Santa Clara County for his wrongful conviction. Jeffrey's wrongful conviction and his subsequent settlement is not a unique story in Santa Clara: since 2005 the county has paid more than $4.6 million in settlements for wrongful convictions by the District Attorney's office. Nor is Jeffrey's story unique to the state of California. Earlier this month a Louisiana circuit court of appeals upheld a $14 million jury settlement against the Orleans Parish DA for misconduct resulting in the wrongful conviction and death sentence of John Thompson.
Like clockwork, wrongful convictions continue to occur at the hands of a system that is prone to error. In addition to the unconscionable act of incarcerating a person for years for a crime they did not commit, wrongful convictions impose an enormous financial burden on taxpayers. Year after year, month after month, the criminal justice system must pay for its mistakes.
In just 77 days, Maine voters can set the national agenda for marriage equality. The state legislature passed same-sex marriage earlier this year, but now the right has collected enough signatures to put a referendum ("Question One") on the November 2009 ballot - and has hired the same political consultants who successfully passed Proposition 8. Supporters of marriage equality, however, are determined not to repeat the same mistakes we made in California - and will run an inclusive field campaign with a pro-active and pre-emptive message that (with the right resources) can bring about victory. It does not cost a lot to win campaigns in Maine (only $3 million), and voter turnout is expected to only be about 500,000 people. In other words, the campaign is winnable - but has not yet received the national attention it deserves. While Californians are divided on whether to repeal Prop 8 in 2010 or 2012, they can set aside their differences by helping us win in Maine. If we prevail on November 3rd, it will be easier to take our rights back in California.
Enfranchising America's least represented citizens is as simple as following the law: that's the message Project Vote and a coalition of voting rights groups sent today as they filed lawsuits against Indiana and New Mexico for failing to comply with the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA).
As we celebrate America's independence and the birth of its democracy this weekend, some states are moving toward enfranchising its future voters. A growing legislative trend following the jump in youth voter participation in the 2008 presidential election, preregistration allows soon-to-be voters to take full advantage of registration opportunities when they get their driver's licenses, fosters civic engagement in the classroom, and catalyzes lifelong participation in democracy.
The McCain-Palin campaign and the Republican National Committee (RNC) spent the better part of the fall screaming about alleged "voter registration fraud," and to this day the GOP and the right-wing media machine continue to raise the specter of voter registration shenanigans that are somehow undermining the integrity of American elections. Now, after months of reckless invective and fruitless investigations, incontrovertible facts have been admitted in court, and someone has finally been convicted of voter registration fraud.
Fraud did take place in the 2008 election-conducted for, and paid for by, the Republican Party.
When Ellen Tauscher announced she was headed for the State Department it seemed there would be no shortage of Democrats running to replace her in this safe district, including California's Lt. Gov, John Garamendi, who ducked out of the race for governor when he got no traction and decided not to contest Republican held CA-03. Recently though, CNN's Campbell Brown (bleck!) interviewed a candidate I hadn't heard anything about until now, and after watching the clip I walked away impressed.
I had so many questions before last weekend. And honestly, I still don't know exactly what lies ahead. However, I had many of my questions answered as I saw a glimpse of hope rising after the storm.
And yes, believe it or not, my questions were answered in Fresno!
The theme of equality was central to our nation’s founding, with the declaration that “all men are created equal.” Our country’s history has witnessed the gradual evolution of that core principle from a ruling class that countenanced slavery and subordination toward an egalitarian vision that embraces the inherent equality of all people. We fought a civil war in part to give life to this proposition. It is embodied in our Constitution’s guarantee of equal protection under law, and in the other Civil War amendments. And epic social movements of the past two centuries have moved our country, in fits and starts, further still toward the reality of truly equal opportunity. As Abraham Lincoln said of the Founders’ vision:
“They meant to set up a standard maxim for free society, which should be familiar to all, and revered by all; constantly looked to, constantly labored for, and even though never perfectly attained, constantly approximated, and thereby constantly spreading and deepening its influence, and augmenting the happiness and value of life to all people of all colors everywhere.”
It's because of this rich history that recent happenings in Nevada and California are so discouraging. First, the California Supreme Court upheld Proposition 8's ban on same-sex marriage. Meanwhile, this week Nevada Governor Jim Gibbons vetoed a law that would give domestic partners similar rights and benefits to those enjoyed by Nevada married couples.
In a statement (PDF) released by the Governor, he writes: "My disapproval of this bill should not be taken to suggest that domestic partners are in any way undeserving of rights and protections." But this is a canard. As Justice Carlos Moreno, the sole dissenter in this week's California Supreme Court ruling, said:
"Granting same-sex couples all of the rights enjoyed by opposite-sex couples, except the right to call their officially recognized and protected family relationship a marriage, still denies them equal treatment."
He continued to say the ruling "places at risk the state constitutional rights of all disfavored minorities."
Granting gay couples anything but the ability to marriage is fundamentally separate and unequal. These actions in California and Nevada are a troubling trend and particularly discouraging in light of the recent advances in gay rights in so many other states.
This week's roundup covers some state immigration news and a few book reviews.
The Migration Policy Institute released a policy paper on making U.S. immigration policy more responsive to changing economic and labor conditions while protecting workers' rights. MPI Senior Fellow and former Commissioner of the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service Doris Meissner stated, "The current economic crisis brings into stark relief the inflexibility of the U.S. immigration system in comparison with the highly dynamic and constantly evolving global economy. Now, more than ever, the United States needs an immigration system that better serves U.S. economic and social interests by being sensitive to economic fluctuations, both up and down." The report can be found here (PDF).
In Rhode Island, lawmakers are considering a bill to require private companies to use E-Verify to check employees' immigration status. Immigration advocates argue that the system is flawed and discriminates against minority candidates.
The rising levels of voter participation among the nation's youth continue to be challenged by the current voter registration system, perpetuating the difficulty of fostering lifelong voters. Some states are proposing to take this challenge into their own hands by making voter registration accessible to citizens as young as 16. Already widely accessible at schools and departments of motor vehicles, the move would allow future voters in some states to automatically be enrolled on the voter rolls on their 18th birthdays, a change that advocates say could "close the registry gap between young voters and the rest of the population."
Last Saturday, I had the privilege to do Orange County's first Courage Campaign Equality Team canvass. We met. We prepared. And then, we went out and talked with voters. Yes, we really did go door to door to talk with voters in our area.
Right after the last election, I was devastated. I thought we had won, but instead I lost my fundamental rights and felt like garbage. I didn't know what do to next.
