Prolonging The Distraction

Vermont Governor Jim Douglas vetoed a marriage equality bill today, hiding behind the "separate but equal" civil union law affording rights and benefits to same-sex couples. Last week Douglas claimed his veto threat was based on wanting to "focus" on the struggling economy. Now Vermont legislators will have to focus on a veto override for a week. Makes sense to me!

The State Senate, which passed the bill 26-4, will vote to override tomorrow. But the House vote was lower than the 2/3 threshold needed for override. According to the Kos diarist,

Several members of the Vermont House who voted no on the bill last week have indicated that they would vote to override the Governor's veto on principle stating they could not in good conscience vote for the bill itself, but were willing to vote to allow the will of the majority to become law over the veto. However, other members who voted for the bill may switch and vote against the override attempt using the governor for cover.

Hopefully the House will come through.

Steele Curtain

Michael Steele is having a great first month. Aside from creating an "off the hook" party message to appeal to the hip-hop generation, and aside from cooperating with the FBI, his latest public appearances have gotten him in trouble with people he must have figured weren't listening.

First, Steele answered a question on civil unions from right-wing loon Mike Gallagher this way:

GALLAGHER: Is this a time when Republicans ought to consider some sort of alternative to redefining marriage and maybe in the road, down the road to civil unions. Do you favor civil unions?

STEELE: No, no no. What would we do that for? What are you, crazy? No. Why would we backslide on a core, founding value of this country? I mean this isn’t something that you just kind of like, “Oh well, today I feel, you know, loosey-goosey on marriage.” […]

GALLAGHER: So no room even for a conversation about civil unions in your mind?

STEELE: What’s the difference?

Weeks before, Steele said he would reach out to gay people and woo them to the Republican Party. I guess through telling them they are second-class citizens. I mean, even George W. Bush supported civil unions.

Then, on Fox News, Steele signaled his support for primary challenges and blocking campaign funds for the three GOP Senators who supported the stimulus package. Unaware that those GOP Senators might actually hear him, he got an earful from them and their allies. He has since backtracked, but only when he's not talking to a member of the conservative establishment, when he intimates all over again.

Steele must think that any interview he gives is only a conversation between him and a host, that nobody else can hear. He must think it's a pre-broadcasting era.

I seem to remember that it was Howard Dean who was going to provide journalists with endless copy for his vituperative comments and slips of the tongue. Haven't seen that article about Steele. Hm.

Schwarzenegger's Budget Plan: Create More Working Poor

The latest as we slog through the dog days of the budget summer, from the SacBee:

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger plans to sign an executive order next week that will reduce pay for more than 200,000 state workers to the federal minimum wage of $6.55 per hour to preserve cash in the midst of a month-long budget standoff, according to a draft copy of the order obtained by The Bee.

Administration officials said the governor expects to take the action Monday.

"The administration is looking into many different options to preserve cash to ensure we have enough to cover our costs," Schwarzenegger communications director Matt David said.

Really, that's disgusting. Balancing the budget on the backs of the working poor is intolerable. I recognize that Republicans have no intention of doing anything but cutting services to deal with this problem. But this goes even further - cutting salaries in the midst of a budget crisis, along with putrid economic indicators and rising prices everywhere. Because of the total failure of leadership, we get failed solutions, like raiding local government and transportation funds, to put a band-aid on a persistent structural deficit. And now this. It doesn't stop with cutting salaries, either:

The order would require state agencies to stop authorizing overtime for most employees.

The governor also plans to issue a hard hiring freeze except for state jobs "directly related to the preservation and protection of human life and safety." He also will suspend work for all retired annuitants, permanent intermittent employees, seasonal employees, temporary help workers, student assistants and some contractors.

What's so sick here is that Schwarzenegger would only create a pool of about 200,000 workers who would require additional government assistance, assistance that the state cannot currently afford. This is Shock Doctrine stuff. And it's totally unacceptable.

The lawsuits should begin tomorrow. This is a breach of trust. And if you think Arnold's poll numbers were bad before, wait until you see them after this stunt. 200,000 workers have a lot of friends and family. What a scumbag.

UPDATE: Speaker Bass weighs in, via email:

"I don't think the Governor should put public servants in the crossfire of this budget battle. But his action speaks to the need for all us -- including the Governor -- to negotiate a balanced, responsible budget that protects our schools and the safety net before we run out of cash."

The proposal on closing parks was just a game, but now we're talking about people's livelihoods. Playing around like this is unacceptable.

...OK, so the Speaker just revised her press release by changing "should" to "would," signaling that she thinks he's bluffing. Why they would re-send a press release for that is kind of absurd, as the implication was already made. I really hope this isn't the result of some talking-to from Arnold's office, or that this is all one elaborate kabuki, because 200,000 soon-to-be minimum wage employees are not amused.

General Strike

There was some question whether or not this would actually happen, but I'm proud of the ILWU for putting principles first and pulling this off.

Thousands of dockworkers at all 29 West Coast ports, including Los Angeles and Long Beach, took the day off work today in what their union called a protest of the war in Iraq, effectively shutting down operations at the busy complexes.

The action came two months before the contract expires between the dockworkers, represented by the International Longshore and Warehouse Union, and the Pacific Maritime Assn., which represents port operators and large shippers, many of them foreign-owned.

"We are supporting the troops and telling politicians in Washington that it's time to end the war in Iraq," said union President Bob McEllrath.

This is the first major general strike against the war I can think of in my personal memory. Two years ago most truckers stayed away on May Day to protest immigration policy and attend rallies in LA. But this is the entire west coast of the US and Canada.

The longshoremen understand what our politicians must: this war is immoral, unnecessary, catastrophic, and damaging to our national character. It needs to end.

(This is also why a strong labor movement needs to be sustained. Not only does it provide an engine to upward mobility for the working class, it takes the role of our national conscience.)

UPDATE: Here's an example of why the ILWU is out in the streets today.

Sgt. 1st Class David L. McDowell, 30, of Ramona, California died Tuesday in Afghanistan of “wounds suffered when enemy forces attacked using small arms fires.” The San Diego Tribune reports, “He had been deployed to Afghanistan and Iraq seven times and was a recipient of two Bronze stars and a Purple Heart.”

Seven tours of duty. No end in sight. What a tragedy.

UPDATE II: Oh yeah, none of this has made us safer, either.

Al-Qa’ida (AQ) and associated networks remained the greatest terrorist threat to the United States and its partners in 2007. It has reconstituted some of its pre-9/11 operational capabilities through the exploitation of Pakistan’s Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), replacement of captured or killed operational lieutenants, and the restoration of some central control by its top leadership, in particular Ayman al-Zawahiri. Although Usama bin Ladin remained the group’s ideological figurehead, Zawahiri has emerged as AQ’s strategic and operational planner.

AQ and its affiliates seek to exploit local grievances for their own local and global purposes. They pursue their own goals, often at large personal cost to the local population. These networks are adaptive, quickly evolving new methods in response to countermeasures. AQ utilizes terrorism, as well as subversion, propaganda, and open warfare; it seeks weapons of mass destruction in order to inflict the maximum possible damage on anyone who stands in its way, including other Muslims and/or elders, women, and children.

Despite the efforts of both Afghan and Pakistani security forces, instability, coupled with the Islamabad brokered cease-fire agreement in effect for the first half of 2007 along the Pakistan-Afghanistan frontier, appeared to have provided AQ leadership greater mobility and ability to conduct training and operational planning, particularly that targeting Western Europe and the United States. Numerous senior AQ operatives have been captured or killed, but AQ leaders continued to plot attacks and to cultivate stronger operational connections that radiated outward from Pakistan to affiliates throughout the Middle East, North Africa, and Europe.

This war is awesome.

UPDATE III: Good progress.

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Two suicide bombers killed 30 people and wounded 65 others when they detonated explosive vests in a busy market in a town northeast of Baghdad on Thursday, Iraqi police said.

Wave of the Future

I'm going to try and blog a little bit here for leaving for San Diego.

In a generation, this won't be a story anymore, but with New Hampshire's vote for civil unions yesterday, now all of New England has some version of civil unions, domestic partnerships, or gay marriage. And Eliot Spitzer is planning to introduce a gay marriage bill in New York, suggesting that there's movement downward into the states below New England on the issue. Eventually, the law will change as a more tolerant generation grows up. A party that tries to scare its constituents by stoking the fear of the gay is on the wrong side of history. And I'm not surprised to see Eliot Spitzer on the right side, and with the courage to be an early mover. I believe he's a future star of the party.

I'm looking forward to the time when I see a couple headlines like this and think, "So what?"