Things that might be decidedly odd…

Why I won’t vote Hillary Clinton

From David Brooks’ Op-Ed in the NY Times (emphasis mine):

She peddled her sham gas-tax holiday and repeated her attempt to blame Indiana’s job losses on outsourcing and Nafta. Stephanopoulos asked her to name a single economist who thinks a tax-holiday plan would work, and the daughter of Wellesley and Yale took the chance to shove the geeks into their lockers: “I’m not going to put my lot in with economists.”

When Stephanopoulos pointed out that Paul Krugman, a Times columnist, has raised doubts about the plan, Clinton lumped Krugman in with the Bush administration and said she wasn’t going to listen to the people responsible for the last seven years.

This wasn’t just shameless spin, it was shamelessness with a purpose. Clinton signaled that she wasn’t going to concede even an inch to the vast elitist conspiracy. She wasn’t going to feel guilty about ignoring the evidence. She was going to stomp on it, flay it and leave it a twisted mass of jelly quivering on the ground. She was going to perform the primordial duty of an alpha dog leader — helping one’s own.

I can deal with negative campaign ads and attempts to change the rules afterwards (e.g, trying to get Michigan and Florida delegates seated). Any candidate for President is going to do what they need to in order to win. It’s not an office sought by the unambitious or undetermined. However, the willful ignorance surrounding this whole proposed gas tax holiday bothers me greatly.

Somehow, the whole thing just smacks of something the current administration would do.

No major economist and no major environmental group has come out in favor of this proposal. It will not lower prices, but rather transfer those 18.4 cents from government highway funds to oil company profits. It will not lower demand, but instead continue to prolong our dependence on cheap sources of fossil fuels for energy.

I’ve felt similar about many of her misguided plans for dealing with the mortgage crisis. Freezing interest rates will only exacerbate the credit crisis and make it harder for others to borrow money. Delaying foreclosures for a couple months will only mean a flood of more of them later. Giving money to local governments to buy foreclosed properties will only saddle local and federal taxpayers with homes nobody can or wants to buy.

News in NC

While browsing around this morning, I ran across this article on a gay marriage ban in North Carolina. Interestingly, North Carolina has been the only southern state (well, there’s also Florida but that’s sort of a grey area when it comes to ‘the South’) to not pass one of these yet, largely because the governor’s mansion and both houses of the legislature are solidly held by the Democrats (red presidential voting doesn’t always mean red state office voting). Now, many (probably most) of those Democrats would vote for the constitutional ban if it came up, but their platform has been to not bring it up because it distracts from other more important issues. It will be unfortunate if the Republican minority can through procedural maneuvering force a vote on this issue, because there’s almost no question what the outcome will be if that happens–both houses will approve it and voters will support it in the election.

Soulforce in Seattle

Last night, I grabbed a late dinner with Kade and some his friends at Broadway Grill. It was fun to meet some of his friends and of course hang out with him again as well. He knew all the other guys except for one from Utah. Two of them are riders (Michael and Emil) on the Soulforce Equality Ride (West). They’re in Seattle to do demonstrations/dialog at Seattle Pacific University and Northwest University in Kirkland because of the anti-gay policies at those schools. We actually didn’t talk too much about the ride, although it came up a few times. Still, I continued to be impressed with this group and the work they’re doing.

I’m certainly not the biggest supporter of activism in general. Perhaps, living in Berkeley for five years jaded me too much to what I perceived as counterproductive, ineffective activism. However, what these folks are doing seems so important. The views regarding homosexuality held by the religious right are far more damaging to those glbt people trapped within that world than those of us on the outside (despite lots of political action for things like a constitutional amendment against same-sex marriage).

Donation

When I was younger, I never really got involved in any sort of cause. I did volunteer work in college, but most of it had to do with local music (KALX, WXYC, 924 Gilman Street), which wasn’t exactly the most noble cause. Even now, I find myself wanting to get back into volunteer work, especially something more meaningful but it’s just hard to find the time with work and social obligations.

However, now that I’m working in a career-oriented job, I find that I have the resources to give financial support to more than ever before. I comfort myself somewhat by noting that even organizations with a good amount of human capitol still need money to be effective.

A while ago, I came across Soulforce and their activism through some sort of news article. Basically, they work against religious oppression of GLBT people through activism and demonstration. Mostly, they bring attention to entities that do this sort of oppression. Currently, they’re doing two different bus rides around the country, stopping primarily at small religious colleges. Just today I was reading an article about how their bus was defaced in Iowa, which is really unfortunate. It reminded me that I wanted to donate to them and now seemed like a good time. Since they’re a 501(c)(3), my company apparently will even match the donation.

In particular, I chose to use my donation to sponsor a guy named Matt Hill Comer who runs the blog on which the article I linked above was posted. I think it’s great that some riders are blogging about their experiences on the trip. Moreover, his story resonates with me. Having lived in North Carolina, I’ve known many people raised in religious families who faced a lot of hardship coming out. It’s all too easy to forget while living in a gay-friendly place like Capitol Hill in Seattle and working for a gay-friendly employer like Microsoft how things are so different in so many other places.

As many political battles are being waged in court houses and state houses across the country over issues like anti-discrimination laws and marriage equality, the harder but core underlying issue is really a cultural one. I can only hope that this sort of work helps draw attention to that and lends some support to a cultural change already underway.

‘The Times of Harvey Milk’

I just got done watching my latest Netflix flick, The Times of Harvey Milk. It’s a documentary about the rise and eventual assassination of San Francisco Supervisor Harvey Milk along with mayor George Moscone by a second Supervisor Dan White, who (if you don’t already know) was one of the first openly gay politicians in the US. Although a bit out of date now (it was made in 1984), it’s a well done and magnetizing look at a very interesting slice of American history that most people know little to nothing about. I won’t recount the story here, but the twists and turns of it are better than the plot of most works of fiction. If you haven’t seen this movie, it’s worth checking out regardless of sexual orientation or political beliefs.

Interestingly, many of the people interviewed or just shown in the documentary are still very much involved in politics today such as Tom Ammiano (now a Supervisor, although at the time of the documentary he was a teacher and activist) and Sen. Dianne Feinstein (who became mayor after the assassination, thus boosting her political career). However, they all look so young back then. Again, a highly recommended movie.