Fuck pinching pennies while poverty reigns supreme!

Americans need to stop thinking of our government as a money making entity, like a corporation or company of some sort. The United States of America does not have to answer to shareholders or an investor’s board. America does not need to show a profit on it’s financial reports or guarantee dividends to anyone on a quarterly basis. In case everyone has forgotten, the sole purpose of a government is to protect the welfare of it’s citizenry. So, in these financially fucked times, the government should be expected to address the needs of the American people and maintain a standard of living in this nation that we can be proud of. We should not be concerned with whether or not they spend a shit load of money in this stimulus package (or in the following packages that will inevitably come) because that is what the fuck the money is in their hands for. Taxes are collected to service the communal needs of our people & holding back grant money or welfare funds or any other entitlement cash in the name of fiscal responsibility is unacceptable. How can we consider our nation among the greatest in the world when we allow the working class to become paupers & virtual serfs? How can we be proud when we allow our nation’s children to receive sub-standard educations or sit back while our system of higher education becomes the province of the wealthy because average folks can’t afford to continue their schooling? Is this really the “land of the free & the home of the brave” if we allow the wealthy few to run cowardly from their social duty crying foul, when they have been sitting pretty for the past eight years, benefitting from Bush’s tax cuts, from no-bid contract deals, from reduced regulation and other such bullshit? I’m sure you can agree that allowing our nation to slip into economic depression and then abandoning the masses in order to protect the wealth of the few is a detestable and shameful course of action. How is the GOP’s stance on the stimulus package any different? With that having been said, I leave you with some thoughts on the subject from some of the planet’s greatest minds:

 

“Poverty is the worst form of violence.”  -Mahatma Gandhi

“It is a poverty to decide that a child must die so that you may live as you wish”   -Mother Theresa

“Love conquers all things except poverty and a toothache.”   -Mae West

“In a country well governed, poverty is something to be ashamed of. In a country badly governed, wealth is something to be ashamed of.”    -Confucius

“The poor have sometimes objected to being governed badly; the rich have always objected to being governed at all.”    -G.K. Chesterton

“I believe that, as long as there is plenty, poverty is evil.”  - Robert Kennedy

“We hang the petty thieves and appoint the great ones to public office.”  -Aesop

“Our major obligation is not to mistake slogans for solutions.”   - Edward R. Murrow

“Laws for the liberal education of youth, especially for the lower classes of people, are so extremely wise and useful that to a humane and generous mind, no expense for this purpose would be thought extravagant.”  - John Adams

“States are not moral agents, people are, and can impose moral standards on powerful institutions.”  -Noam Chomsky

 

It’s the same old song & dance, my Friend

North Dakota’s House of Representatives has passed a bill (HB 1572) that grants legal rights & personhood status to fertilized eggs, fetuses, embryos, and zygotes. Republican State Representative Dan Ruby, House sponsor of the bill, says the bill will withstand any challenge based on Roe's precedent because, "This is the exact language that's required by Roe vs.Wade. It stipulated that before a challenge can be made, we have to identify when life begins, and that's what this does." According to HB 1572, life begins at conception & from that point on the fertilized egg is granted all the rights of a human being. The ignorance of such legislation can be clearly identified by pondering the following legal & practical questions… (some ripped off of Shakesville’s posts on the subject, others from the vast wasteland of my own mind, & still others from the mouths of those I’ve discussed the subject with)

1. In the event of a miscarriage, which happens 10-25% of the time according to the American Pregnancy Association, how are the authorities to deal with the situation? There must be an investigation & an autopsy to rule out foul play, because the embryo has the same rights as any other North Dakotan. Right?

2. What about all those embryos in the fertility clinics of North Dakota? They are technically being held against their will, being frozen & all. What to do with these new citizens?

3. How on Earth does the state of North Dakota plan on monitoring this shit? Since there is no test to determine pregnancy immediately after conception, there will be this big gray area when a crime against a fetus might be committed but no one will know! Will the vessel’s eating habits be monitored…er… the Mother’s eating habits, I mean. Will they be under scrutiny & subject to the latest scientific findings regarding the dangers of too much caffeine or sugar or sushi?

4. Since I don’t imagine North Dakota is a cash cow of a state, where will all the money come from to support the child welfare department & the foster system that will be increasingly over burdened after the Senate passes the personhood bill? What about funding for the prison system that will have to house all those “murderous” would-be mothers & abortionists? And the Medicare programs that will have to pay for the pre- & post- natal care of low income women forced to carry a pregnancy to term?

5. What about the personhood status of the woman who is forced by the state to carry a pregnancy to term? What about her rights? Are they not infringed upon by the state of North Dakota involving itself in her reproductive choices? I liked this point made by Melissa McEwan @ Shakesville:

"I'd like to note that, since a fertilized egg is actually dependent on another human body for its survival, the ND House technically voted to confer upon a fertilized egg more rights than any person. Unless, that is, ND has also passed a law allowing its citizens to, say, demand a spare kidney from any compatible donor, irrespective of the donor's consent."

I am totally 26-0

I have spent every one of my twenty-six years in the same sad shit-hole of a town and, hopefully, that doesn’t officially make me a sad shit-hole of a person (ew…that sounds really dirty & unpleasant). A departing comrade clowned me on this fact recently, as if I wasn’t already aware of the sucky-ness factor of my living situation! For those of you not in the know about just how much Stockton, California blows, allow me to present the following bits of regional current events:

* Currently, Stocktonians “benefit” from a $15,405 per capita income, with 18.9% of families and 23.9% of the population living beneath the poverty line. A Forbes Magazine review noted our soaring crime rate (6,570 crimes per 100,000 residents, the highest in California!) and a Central Connecticut State University study twice ranked us as the most illiterate U.S. city with a population over 250,000. The crash of the sub-prime lending market that began last year slammed Stockton like no other city in the nation, leaving one out of every 30 homes in foreclosure. CNN cited Stockton as the city expected to see the greatest decline in home values in the U.S. We have been named in Forbes most recent Worst Place to Live list, coming in second to Detroit. With all these glaring issues, you’d think the local government would be a bit concerned, right?

* Despite the above mentioned notoriety, our City Council has thrown Stockton’s sparse funds into the following cosmetic projects: there was The Stockton Arena to the tune of $69 million in construction costs and $4.8 million in additional losses since it opened, which does not include the $2.7 million in interest the city had to pay on the bond used to build the mother f**ker; the Port’s home @ Banner Island Ballpark cost $22 million to build and has lost another million since ‘06; we gave $2.5 million to lure Sacramento-based Paragary’s Restaurant to the Hotel Stockton, without any rent being charged to them until 2012; we tossed $500,000 in subsidies to the Sheraton Hotel after selling the land it was built on for a whole dollar; and the City just bought the Washington Mutual building for $30 million so that City Hall can be relocated there. Oh! We cannot forget the infamous Neal Diamond concert that netted The Jazz Singer a cool $1 million from the city coffers. Now, the folks at City Hall are doling out $26.5 million to build a downtown marina for the elite Stockton boating community. By the looks of things, Stockton must be rollin’ in the dough!

* Unfortunately, that is not the case according to the approved 2008-09 budget. Our “great” All American city has slashed $10 million from it’s budget; a little over a million from the library’s book & materials funds, $2 million from the Parks & Recreation funds, $2 million from the Safe Neighborhoods Measure W funding, almost $2 million from housing grants and emergency shelter funding… You get the point, don’t you? High crime, high poverty, low literacy, high unemployment, and a shit load of cuts for all our sorely needed public services in exchange for a multi-million dollar downtown full of amenities that most Stocktonians’ will never be able to use. Wow. If you wanted to learn about political corruption or terrible public policy, Stockton is the place to be! If your not entertained by living in a crime-riddled, economically stagnant, Real Estate developer’s playground where the air tastes worse than the water & the average resident is dumber than a box of rocks, I wouldn’t advise you to move here.

A Guide to Surviving the Rental Experience (or Renting for Dummies)

On three separate occasions in the last month, I’ve had conversations with friends about the pitfalls of renting a living space. Since it seems to be such a hot topic within my circle of buddies, I figure there must be many more enquiring minds or newbie renters that could do with a little advice on the issue. Then I started thinking how much knowledge I’ve accumulated on the subjects of tenant law, roommate disputes, lease agreements, house hunting, and moving in general. I’m up on game, to say the least.

I sort of consider myself a connoisseur of Stockton’s rental units. If there was a degree program for Professional Renter, I’d have at least a Master’s. I’ve lived in plenty rental homes as a tenant, a sub-leasing tenant, and a temporary couch surfer. I’ve lived in apartments, houses, duplexes, triplexes, attics, bedrooms, closets, and condos. Some where tiny spaces, others were expansive abodes. In some cases the monthly rent was a steal and other times it was inflated. I’ve rented from property management companies, from private owners, from friends, from tenants willing to break their own lease to rent to me, and from corporate controlled apartment complexes. I’ve had nearly every possible combination of living arrangements; from my current solo existence to an out of control tweeker pad with god knows how many other people during my lost years, from living with my sibling to living with a significant other, and I’ve moved in with complete strangers, casual acquaintances, and best friends. My roommates have been a mixed bag of characters: a crazy middle-aged karate instructor/Gulf War veteran (AKA Karate Rock) that rented me a room, the newly outed super-flaming gay guy that shared a couple of residences with me, the irritable lesbian with a vicious bark and no bite in my first apartment, and the raging alcoholic boyfriend with a penchant for destroying furniture and fixtures during drunken fits. I’ve lived with first time renters, under-aged high school students, hippy retirees, clandestine lovers, and quasi-relatives. I’ve been burned by roomies, neighbors, and landlords enough to have learned some painful lessons, but I’ve also benefited from living with some of my former roommates. Yes, mine is quite an extensive renter “resume” because I’ve never renewed a lease agreement (or even wanted to). Anyhow, here are a few pieces of advice from me to you, as an expert.

• Whenever you have a roommate, you should draft up a Roommate Contract & Agreement. ANY ROOMMATE. Even if it’s your boyfriend, even if it’s your best friend from childhood, even if the person is “hella cool” and you guys “get along really well”, even if you are the one moving into the home they already live in. Even if you never have to use the contract against your roomie in a court of law, the document serves a very valid purpose. All the headaches that come with communal living are put on the table up front, so miscommunication and the accompanying conflicts are greatly reduced. I’m not advocating the use of a contract to enforce a fascist dictatorship of your home; it’s just a mutually agreed upon Way of Doing Things. If nothing else, writing up the contract with your co-tenants puts everybody on the same page as far as how y’all want to live. You’d be surprised how many of the things you see as common courtesy or essential upkeep are entirely foreign to others! It’s better to be up on game about your roommates pet peeves or annoyances up front, rather than discovering he/she is a neat freak or nark months down the road when he/she flips the fuck out and/or flushes your stash. Such a document should include the terms of paying rent (how much, when, repercussions for late rent or bounced checks, etc.), the expected length of the living arrangement, what utilities exist & who’s responsible for them, and ABOVE ALL the agreement must clarify what happens when it comes to moving out. The last part is crucial! How long should their notice be? Do they forfeit their security deposit if they bounce out on you early? Are their certain activities or behaviors that could lead to a roommate’s eviction? Optional sections of the agreement can divvy up housework, stipulate the rules about guests, address noise curfews or studying/sleeping schedules, and establish a smoking policy. Trust me, a Roommate Contract is totally necessary.
• Familiarize yourself with your rights as a tenant and the responsibilities of your landlord. Remember that there are laws to protect you from oppressive or shitty landlords & living conditions, just as there are laws to protect their investment from you.
• The amount of your security deposit cannot exceed the monthly rent, unless an additional pet deposit is required. When you move in, a landlord can charge you a security deposit OR last months rent – not both! If the landlord intends on keeping any of your deposit when you move out, you can request a detailed accounting of what they are keeping it for. They are required to present you with receipts (or copies) and detailed time sheets or fee statements if they employ someone to make repairs, if you request it. If the landlord fails to give you this documentation within 30 days of your request, they forfeit their right to the deposit money & it must be returned to you in full according to California state law.
• Any correspondence with your landlord should be written whenever possible & you need to retain a copy for your records. If you need repairs made, you can call them BUT also send a dated letter. If you have a complaint, you can talk to them BUT also send a dated letter. Trust me.
• When looking for a place, put the time and effort in to evaluate your options whenever possible. A little searching can pay off big time and a hasty move can land you in a shitty over-priced place that you despise.
• Plenty of corny kitchen decorations and Lifetime movies have told us that home is where the heart is. This is true, but let’s not forget it is also where all your worldly possessions are too! Keep that in mind when picking a neighborhood, a roommate, or a lock for your bedroom door. If you have a lot of pricey shit, get renter’s insurance. If your thrift store / hand-me-down chic like me, just remember to lock your doors/windows and be mindful of the company you keep inside your castle.
• Get to know your neighbors. It is terribly annoying when neighbors routinely call the cops on you for being loud or having a party or because they’re fucking crazy, so open up a dialogue ASAP. Besides, it’s nice to have someone looking out for you in da ‘hood.

Tequila is like kryptonite to Ms Maryjane Foxie

For whatever reason, I conveniently forget this fact when presented with an opportunity to drink the devil booze. I then re-learn the lesson, without fail, by the end of the evening. Yesterday’s foray into Drunk-ville ended quite early, since my alcohol consumption started earlier than usual, and the homies were left to fend for themselves while I got reacquainted with my toilet bowl. My bad.

Now that I’ve regained consciousness, I’m ready to start the day’s complaints with a new found sense of irritation.

* According to the New York Times article HERE, American hospitals nationwide have been snitching to the INS about injured or ill illegal immigrants seeking medical care. Since they lack insurance & most nursing homes won’t accept these patients, the hospitals will assist in their deportation to avoid the financial responsibility of treating them. I can’t help but think how fucked up it would be to get hurt or sick and seek treatment, only to be deported by people uninvolved with immigration matters. That would be like catching an STD and when you went to the clinic, your ass got fired from your job. Unrelated & unnecessary double Fuck You’s for folks already in a screwed up position.

* The House of Representatives passed the Paycheck Fairness Act, which would require employers to disclose employee salaries so that women will know sooner if they are being paid less for equal work. This Act was written in the wake of the Supreme Court’s 2007 ruling in Ledbetter v. Goodyear. The Ledbetter ruling stated that employees have to file discrimination charges within 180 days of the initial unlawful employment practice, meaning a female employee getting shitty wages must sue within 180 days of her first unequal paycheck…even if she isn’t aware of what her contemporaries are making. You have to sue before you know your being screwed? Sounds fucked, huh? The Paycheck Fairness Act intends on rectifying the problem, but Bush has vowed to veto the legislation if it makes it through the Senate. What a dick…

* This headline made me puke in my mouth: “More Rapes Linked To Young Women on Drinking Binges”. WHAT!?! Obviously, the editors of San Diego News don’t realize that rapists commit sexual assault, therefore are at fault, and the alcohol consumption of their victims doesn’t change that fact. Women have a right to exist in the public sphere, intoxicated or not, without being subjected to sexual violence. Our police forces are supposed to protect the community, drunk or not, and arrest the rapists without blaming the victimized women in the media. This isn’t 1956, after all.

Valley folk handle the business!

As you may have guessed, I totally appreciate grassroots activism and rebellion. I do not appreciate my local government’s ignorance to the community’s well-being, so when people from ‘round these parts go up against the powers that be I am in hog heaven! Some recent examples of regional muckraking are as follows:

• Books Not Bars, an activist group dedicated to the demise of California’s Division of Juvenile Justice, rallied outside the site of the former DeWitt Nelson Youth Correctional Facility in Stockton on Thursday. The group of protesters were turned away from the facility’s main gates by correctional workers, but they continued the rally directly across the street in a field. Books Not Bars advocates youth rehabilitation, as opposed to the current system of incarceration. I am in full agreement. It seems awfully fucked up that juvenile offenders are locked up in our already bloated prison system when unemployment rates, homelessness, inadequate educational systems, and poverty have more than a little to do with their criminal activity at such a young age. If they aren’t old enough to vote, to drink, to give consent, then I don’t think they are old enough to serve hard time.
• Union employees gathered outside the Stockton Caltrans building on Thursday to protest Governor Schwarzenegger's executive order to slash their pay to the federal minimum wage ($6.55/ hour). The idea behind the Gobonator’s order is that pay cuts (& elimination of scores of part-time positions) would save the state $1 billion and ease the financial difficulties (a $15.2 billion deficit, to be specific) projected in the upcoming fiscal year. Unfortunately, I doubt Arnold took into consideration the cost of living in California. Nobody can survive on $6.55 here, that’s why our minimum wage is $8.00/hour. Why not freeze the pay of elected officials & state judges (who are usually upper-middle class folk that can manage on a temporary wage cut)? Or repeal the retarded block on taxation increases brought on by Proposition 13? Of course, the state wouldn’t be entirely fucked if it just carried the deficit into the next few years, but Arnold’s up for re-election & that type of financial crisis isn’t good for his image, I suppose. Never the less, state workers do not deserve to carry the financial faux pas of Sacramento’s politicians on their backs.
• The California Black-Brown Summit on Re-Entry and Recidivism starts tomorrow in Stockton and will address the fact that black and Hispanic prisoners make up 67% of California’s prison population. Workshops will focus on education, housing, gangs, and employment. Groups such as Homeward Bound (executioners of a prisoner re-entry program), the NAACP, and the League of United Latin American Citizens organized the two-day event at UOP’s Grace Covell Hall. Here’s to citizens actively addressing crime and interracial cooperation in the San Joaquin Valley! Good work, y’all.

Haven’t they heard the phrase “Shit rolls downhill”?

                       

Here’s the problem I’m having with the media’s coverage of our state’s financial woes: California has one of the lowest home ownership rates in the nation & has been criticized for years because a huge cross section of it’s population is doomed to permanently rent their homes. So, when the talking heads on my late night news shows discuss the foreclosure crisis (which has slammed Stockton, CA harder than any other city nationwide with 1 out of every 75 homes being foreclosed on in the month of May 2008), why aren’t they talking about how it is affecting us renters? Kitty-corner from my apartment, a four unit apartment building has just been foreclosed on & the people living there are pretty much up shit creek sans paddle. The property owner is obviously strapped for cash, so I doubt the four families will see their security deposits anytime soon, and the bank that has assumed ownership of the property has kicked out the renters but doesn’t owe them any thirty day notice or financial compensation for their loss, even though none of them are at fault for their eviction. Disposed renters are given only 72 hours to vacate their homes and then they face the task of finding a new rental unit, not to mention coming up with another first month’s rent and security deposit. What are these people supposed to do? They were already renting a low-income apartment, so I doubt that any of them are wealthy enough to up and move at the drop of a hat. What are we, as a community, doing for these people? AND WHY does the mainstream media act like the only people facing economic troubles related to the foreclosure crisis are those folks that defaulted on their loans? What about the renters? People that have been paying their rent, people that have abided by the tenants of their leases, people on Section 8, people already in dire financial straits because of rising gas and food costs, people that don’t have the credit or income necessary to get a fucking loan in the first place are being evicted left & right. Many of these people don’t know that their homes are in the foreclosure process, since the property owner is not required to relinquish this information to their tenants, and then one day…*POOF*… their rights to their place of residence are gone because foreclosing lenders typically evict tenants in order to re-sell the property. Someone that looses the house they bought & live in to foreclosure can rent another house. They already make enough money to qualify for a home loan, so they have the cash needed to rent & property managers don’t give a damn about that aspect of your credit, so they won’t have trouble getting a spot. Renters thrown out because their landlord defaulted on a loan are not in a similar financially secure position. So what if you’ll have trouble getting another home loan ‘cause your credit is fucked? Those renters are having trouble getting another roof over their heads because someone else fucked up! Now that is a situation that deserves some hard-hitting journalistic attention! I’ve scoured the Internet in search of articles, segments, or op-eds on the subject, but it’s slim pickings.

Approximately 1/3 of Americans rent their homes and in California that figure shoots up to 42%. The available evidence suggests that the majority of foreclosed properties are likely to be rentals (or multi-unit dwellings, like duplexes or triplexes), since a property owner isn’t likely to default on their own home loan before the loan they have out on their rental properties.** Estimates for how many renters are being royally screwed by the crisis are inaccurate and incomplete at this point. Experts warn that the current data grossly underestimates the numbers of disposed renters. What figures we do have suggest that as of 2007, 22% of defaulted mortgages in California were on rental properties. In other words, at least 1/4 of the homes lost are those of people that have no part in the whole loan-situation to begin with! And you know that plenty of rentals house more than one tenant (apartment buildings & multi-unit houses, for example), so counting the number of foreclosed rentals doesn’t even begin to show us how many people are being screwed over. Worse still, all those former homeowners are now joining the ranks of the renting class and, according to the laws of supply and demand, are driving up the cost of renting for everybody. U.S. Census Bureau statistics show a 14% jump in the nation’s median asking rate for rentals since 2003 and California is famous for it’s inflated rental rates, so you know it’s worse around here! Woe is the West Coast renter, I suppose.

On July 8th, Governor Swart..z… the fucking Gubernator signed into law Senate Bill 1137, the so-called Perata/Bass Mortgage Relief Bill, which requires tenants to be notified once a bill of sale is issued on the property and, once sold, tenants now have 60 days notice before their eviction…BUT only if the defaulted loan was taken out between January 2003 and December 2007. Now, these innocent parties have two months to pull a shit load of money out of their asses, find a new place in an increasingly cramped rental market, AND prepare to pay more rent each month to boot! Good looking out, California!

Here are a couple Stockton-specific annoyances this subject has planted in my head:

1. Why does the city General Plan include a few more Spanos & Grupe housing developments between now & 2013 if we can’t afford the homes we’ve built thus far? Why are we OK-ing more single family home development if predictions suggest the need for more multi-unit rentals? Shouldn’t a General Plan consider this type of shit? Isn’t that why we make a fucking General Plan? To generally plan for the future’s needs?

2. Why is The Record ignoring the foreclosure crisis as it relates to us renters? Aren’t the editors aware of the fact that many Stocktonians rent? Don’t they have a duty, as our main news outlet, to inform the citizenry of regional disaster like this, rather than use any article on the subject to paint faux-silver linings all over the fucking place? How about giving renters a heads up, in case they didn’t know they should be worried?

3. Where is the federal bailout for the poor victims of this crisis, like Stockton’s needy masses? How does Washington justify multi-million dollar bank bailouts for lenders that profited from the mortgage refinancing schemes and sub-prime loans that caused the crisis, when innocent displaced Stocktonians are too broke to cough up the cash for their security deposits? Why aren’t our tax dollars being used to protect us from poverty? From homelessness? From predatory financial entities bent on profit at any cost?

 

** Also, this assumption was stolen from a 2008 report issued by the  National Low-Income Housing Coalition, located HERE.

Americans are oblivious to their impending destruction, tonight on Sick Sad World!

Folks, it is as bad as us cynics on the Left are saying it is. Don't believe the hype, the American Century is coming to an end & the Age of Prosperity is no more. We are in an economic recession. A good look at our economic plight is all that is needed to convince any sane person that I am right.

* BBC News reported that another 62,000 American jobs were lost in the month of June, following the 62,000 jobs lost in May, and the losses of the past six straight months. These aren't people becoming unemployed, these are jobs that no longer exist in the United States because they've been shipped overseas, the company had to downsize, or what not. Department of Labor statistics show the U.S. economy is, on average, dropping 73,000 jobs per month and has already suffered the loss of 438,000 jobs this year.

* When the investment bank Bear Sterns was teetering on the brink of bankruptcy in March of this year, the Federal Reserve stepped in with a loan (of sorts) and kept the mammoth lender from capsizing. Why? Because the Feds were concerned that Bear Sterns' failure would cause widespread disruption of financial markets. This notorious case of corporate welfare signified the begriming of the end for the economy. You know it's bad when the largest economy ever is endangered by the collapse of a single business. The ensuing collapse of the subprime mortgage industry, the bank credit crisis, and the resulting foreclosure crisis have bitchslapped the American stock market into quite a sorry state & it has yet to recover. Predictions for recovery aren't suggesting an upturn until at least 2014.

* There are laws intended to keep the market stable by regulating what companies can & cannot do, but Washington hasn't been terribly concerned with enforcing them. They are supposed to be preventing monopolies and trusts from manipulating prices to increase profits. Big Oil is a clear example of the Feds failure to uphold anti-trust law.

* The price of oil has surpassed $150 per barrel & the effects on the economy are in no way minor. At the very least, oil price fluctuation results in inflation. Before 2005, inflation rates had been steady for a decade at 2.5%, but a jump to 3.3% in 05-06 prompted the Federal Reserve to increase interest rates many times in an attempt to curb increased inflation. Now, economists are pointing to these rate cuts as royal faux pas that have added to the economic woes we face. More on this subject can be found HERE, because I lack the background in economics to effectively explain the problem.

* A worldwide food price crisis has already created a rice shortage in the U.S. The cost of dairy products, fruit & veggies, grains, meat... all of it is rising through the roof. Droughts & floods are impacting the supply, increasing populations have impacted the demand, and commodities speculation is driving up prices while lining the pockets of an elite few investors.

* The unemployment rate is currently at 5.5% and more losses are expected. That is bad enough at face value, but when you consider what the number actually measures, it gets worse. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the definition of an unemployed person is one that does not have a job but did actively look for one in the past 4 weeks. This 5.5% statistic does not include unemployed folks that haven't sought employment in the last month, those that have given up hope of getting a job, or those people that are underemployed.

* The U.S. dollar is plummeting in value, falling like a rock. Our exploding deficit (currently at 7% of the entire economy) isn't helping the matter. So far Saudi Arabia, South Korea, China, Venezuela, Sudan, Iran, and Russia have abandoned the dollar to protect their own economies.

Obviously the indicators of economic downfall are there. What is the government intending to do about it? Obama's economic plan is to repeal Bush's tax cuts to the wealthy, exempt working class families from payroll taxes on the first $8,100 of income, provide a 10% mortgage credit, and expand access to health insurance so that health costs aren't monopolizing consumer spending. McCain wants to cut the corporate tax rate, give Americans a $5000 tax credit for health insurance, & expand upon Bush's tax cuts.

Yup, it's pretty clear we're fucked.

When I was in school, we made friendship bracelets

The scandal-icious story about a supposed “pregnancy pact” between 18 teenaged girls attending Gloucester High School in Massachusetts has been all over the media lately. As you know, the mainstream media is selective about the stories they regurgitate & the chosen few stories they do tell us are usually told to shape public opinion on a specific issue or idea. So, when a story like this is so widely discussed I can’t help but wonder what I’m expected to take from it. Initially, I figured the story was another one of those convenient election year tales of teen girl promiscuity intended to scare the be-jesus out of parents & turn their attentions toward candidates that preach about Family Values and the evils of premarital sex (A.K.A. the politicians that still blame Eve for society’s ills). Upon closer inspection, I sensed the underlying message of the story was that teen pregnancy rates, which had been on the decline for fourteen years prior to Bush’s ascension to the throne, were increasing because pregnancy had gained a sort of “cool” status among underage girls. Instead of blaming the government policies that fund ineffective abstinence-only sex education, at the expense comprehensive sex ed programs that actually work, we were supposed to be pointing the finger at irresponsible teen’s that find procreation “trendy”. Now, I realize that a story about sexually active teen girls can be used as an all-purpose parable to justify any ridiculous assumptions you have about young women, teens, pregnancy, pre-marital sex, etc. etc. etc. For example, TIME magazine ran an article penned by Nancy Gibbs that uses the Gloucester girl’s story to gush about Crisis Pregnancy Centers (or CPCs).

CPCs are notorious for their use of misinformation and intimidation to keep women from seeking abortion services and the scary thing is, they out number actual clinics 2 to 1. They are not usually staffed by medical professionals. They are designed to look like clinics inside (waiting room, white lab coats, etc.), are often located near actual clinics, and use deceptive names to imply that they are full-fledged health care facilities. CPCs do not offer women referrals for abortion services or birth control. They have been known to pull fucked up shit to force women to continue their pregnancies, like extending the waiting period for pregnancy test results so that the women have time to take in all the anti-choice or religious propaganda CPC staffers can throw at them. Flat out lies about emergency contraception are common and women are told ridiculous shit like abortions cause breast cancer & infertility. In a nut shell, Crisis Pregnancy Centers pretend to offer assistance and help to pregnant women, only to confuse, lie, and guilt-trip ladies into adhering to their own moral dogma.

Now, the TIME magazine article suggests that the knocked-up teens of Gloucester were not planning pregnancies as much as they were rejecting abortion. None of the gals in question utilized the services of a CPC, as far as I can tell, but Gibbs uses the final paragraph of her story to bring them up anyhow. She writes:

This has been the mission of the crisis-pregnancy-center movement, the more than 4,000 centers and hotlines and support groups around the country that aim to talk women out of having abortions and offer whatever support they can. If not in Hollywood, then certainly in Gloucester, teen parents and their babies face long odds against success in life. Surely they deserve more sympathy and support than shame and derision, if the trend that they reflect is not a typical teenager's inclination to have sex but rather a willingness to take responsibility for the consequences.

Hmm… because a bunch of under-aged girls trying to get pregnant despite their lack of income, housing, a complete high school education, life experience, or legal sovereignty is CLEARLY a case of being responsible. Clearly.

Another Free Trade Agreement that will fuck over the domestic economy, our companies, our workers, our consumers, AND help support the domestic terrorism of Columbia! McCain says “Hells Yeah!”

Another McCain fuck up I couldn’t help but comment on is his recent endorsement of a free trade agreement with Columbia. First and foremost, “free trade” is a bullshit market model & it’s detrimental to the general populations of both nations. What a free trade agreement does is remove all taxes & tariffs on products and allows any regulatory legislation to be ignored by the nations involved. It is essentially trade exempted from all the rules that everyone else must abide by. So, Columbian products can enter this country & be sold just as cheaply as products manufactured here, which makes it harder for American companies to turn a profit domestically. Tariffs are intended to protect American companies claim to American markets, so that they can employ American workers & keep our internal economy afloat. On the opposite end of the deal, Columbian markets would be flooded with the products & services offered by huge American corporations (that manufacture shit overseas for cheap) & then Columbia is in danger of ending up like modern Mexico (an economic disaster). My second concern with McCain’s support for such a deal is the heinous human rights record of Columbia. Amnesty International has scores of complaints about human rights abuses in Columbia (documented HERE). Wasn’t McCain among the war mongers that cited human rights abuses as a reason to “liberate” the Iraqis? Wasn’t he all anti-torture because of his experience as a POW (torture is one of the big abuses that AI talks about)? Shouldn’t our Commander-In-Chief think about the ramifications of economic policy that undercuts the safety of other human beings? If he’s blatantly on the side of elite Capitalist interests, rather than that of The People, before he’s even won the presidency, he will be so much worse in office!

Opponents of Rational Taxation pose as Working Class Heroes

A “tax advocate” sounds like a person sympathetic to the taxation woes of the Average Joe, like someone that fights the good fight against America’s original annoyance – the burden of excessive taxation. It’s interesting how labels can be so misleading at times… According to The Record, one of California’s most prominent tax advocates, Mr. Jon Coupal of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association, will be speaking in Calaveras County to a taxpayers group at the end of this month. If you care to be fed a bunch of bullshit disguised as ambrosia, the event’s information is listed in the article HERE. Once again, The Record sings the praises of an individual that does not represent the interests of the average Valley resident. The piece states that Coupal will be speaking “on how taxpayers can protect themselves from new [taxation] threats” and it mentions the work of the Association’s namesake in creating Proposition 13, but it fails to address the fact that one of the biggest “threats” to California right now was caused by Proposition 13 in the first place! Prop. 13 was passed in 1978 & it restricts the state’s taxation abilities, specifically it limits increases in property taxes statewide. Initially, people were gung-ho about cutting their annual tax bill. Who wouldn’t want to keep more of their money? Unfortunately, our school districts are funded with the revenue collected from property taxes and as educational costs have increased, Proposition 13 has prevented any increase in funds to cover the expenses! We always vote for those bond measures on our ballots that provide money to schools, because we’d hate to under fund education, but those bonds are loans that our tax dollars will be paying on for generations THAT WOULDN’T BE NESSASARY had we not cut off the major revenue source with Prop 13 back in the day. Proposition 13 has backfired & instead of relieving the citizen’s tax burden, it has diverted much needed monies to interest payments on education bonds and left public schools high & dry. Thanks to the “advocacy” of Howard Jarvis and his disciples at the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association, California’s school systems (which used to be considered some of the nation’s best) are consistently at the bottom of the list in nearly every national scholastic review! I wonder what “threats” Coupal will be decrying at his Calaveras event… the dangers of funding public safety programs and police departments with sales taxes? Or how unfair it is to collect motor vehicle taxes to cover the state’s transportation expenses? Or, maybe, Coupal will rally against the current property tax rates! After all, the property owners of California, the landed class, could always use some more advocacy in their defense! Seriously though, the state is in a deficit & tax payers are worried about getting stuck carrying the state’s debt on their shoulders. This is a prime time for “tax advocates” that double as politicians & lobbyists to promote legislation that serves their immediate interest without regard for it’s long term fiscal effects, because voters will buy into their bullshit. Consider yourself warned.

Big Picture Darwinism comes to Stockton…and it’s not here for a Spanos fund raiser!

                           

I have a T-Shirt that reads: Think Global, Act Local. I fully stand behind this message. It’s important that we think about things, like pollution or political corruption, in terms of their global effects because seeing The Big Picture reinforces the importance of issues. The only way any one person can change things on this planet is by doing their little part in their little corner of the world, by acting locally. I like to think that I try my best to Think Global and Act Local, but sometimes I feel alone in my efforts… especially here in Stockton, CA. So many Stocktonians are apathetic, unconcerned, or just convinced that the city is doomed to be Fucked for eternity. Doesn’t every native to the city dream of the day they can escape? Isn’t “Stockton sucks” our unofficial regional motto?

I have noticed that more & more of my fellow Mudville residents have been turning away from that kind of negative civic attitude in the last few years. A diverse music scene has developed because local musicians, promoters, and business owners have been doing their part to bring about change. While the economy is still dismal, small business owners in the area have done their part to improve the situation by banding together in merchant’s organizations like the Downtown Stockton Alliance or the Miracle Mile Improvement Association. Business coalitions like these are support networks and advocacy groups for Stockton’s small business owners, which is necessary in a city as hostile to entrepreneurship as this one. Citizens have been organizing senior-assistance meal programs, hosting teen leadership summits, and holding fund raisers to improve their neighborhood parks. Four years ago, I would have laughed at any asshole that preached about Stockton’s potential or suggested that local citizens were willing to work towards improvement. Now, I’m convinced that Stockton’s evolution will be brought about by the efforts of People Like You & Me. That kicks ass!

The most recent example of Stocktonians handling the mother f***ing business was reported in Tuesday’s Record under the headline Groups plan suit against Stockton. According to the paper, The Coalition for a Sustainable Delta and The California Sportfishing Protection Alliance have both decided to go head-to-head with the City of Stockton and San Joaquin County in two separate suits that cry foul on the way local government has been disposing of storm run-off and sewage. The Coalition for a Sustainable Delta is composed of South valley farmers & residents suing the city for allowing heavy metals, chemicals and pesticides to escape through storm drains and into the fragile Delta eco-system. The California Sportfishing Protection Alliance is beefing with the local government over claims that the city’s miles of sewer lines have overflown 1,487 times in the past five years. The waste usually ends up in the Delta’s waters, as do the pollutants from our wastewater treatment plant, & the Alliance is mighty pissed about what this does to the water quality.

Anyone that has ever drank Stockton’s tap water…or anyone that has spent an afternoon boating on the Delta, but were too grossed out to actually get in the water…or anyone that has heard urban legends about mutated Delta fish with arms & legs and didn’t doubt the authenticity of such tales… will agree that there is a problem & something has to be done to solve our water-related woes. We should all appreciate those hometown heroes doing their part to improve their little section of the planet & be inspired by their efforts. Visit the websites linked below for more information about the law suits, about the Delta, and about the water pollution that should concern us all.

The Coalition for a Sustainable Delta

The California Sportfishing Protection Alliance

Final thought courtesy of the groundbreaking anthropologist Margaret Mead:

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.”

Wouldn’t having a beer (or two) with Randi Rhodes kick ass?

Remember, during the 2000 election, when somebody asked voters which Presidential candidate they’d rather have a beer with? George Bush was the obvious favorite (even I’d rather have a Bud with Bush than Al Gore’s up tight ass). But, I would much rather drink with Randi Rhodes, the radio star and political activist, than any Presidential hopeful! Even Barack. In the above video Randi breaks it down about what American’s expect from their government – from responsible & humane foreign policy to adequate veteran’s benefits, from economic stability to rational homeland security, from an end to poverty to an end of the Iraq War. I spent the entire video nodding in agreement.

Another beautiful day in the neighborhood

Or not. Current events aren’t really worth discussing anymore unless they pose a negative threat to our planet’s peaceful existence, right? On that note…

• Zimbabwe is no model of Democratic values. Since 1988, shortly after Zimbabwe gained it’s independence from the UK, Robert Mugabe has served as the country’s president and has benefited from nearly non-existent political opposition. Economic mismanagement, a hard-currency shortage, the HIV/AIDS epidemic, a nationwide drought, and prohibitions on foreign aid have left the country in dire straits. This year’s presidential election was expected to be full of drama and challenge Mugabe’s long-held position. So far, Zimbabwe’s election story rivals our own recent presidential elections in it’s treatment of democratic principles. The first round of elections was held on March 29th and it’s candidates were Mugabe of the Zimbabwe African National Union – Patriotic Front (or ZANU-PF), Morgan Tsvangirai of the Movement for Democratic Change (or MDC), and Simba Makoni running as an independent. For nearly a month after the election, it’s results were withheld from the public. This indicated that the MDC had won the popular election, since the ZANU-PF was already in power and had no reason to withhold the results otherwise. A re-do election, or run-off election, was declared when Mugabe & his supporters alleged that MDC-affiliated officials had tampered with the votes. The period between the first and the second round of elections has been marked by political violence on both sides. The second election was held on June 27th, but Tsvangirai formally withdrew from the race, calling it a “violent sham” and claiming that his supporters risked being killed if they voted for him. He cited 86 instances of his political supporters being murdered and the displacement of another 200,000 in the state-sponsored campaign of violence, which has included politically-motivated rapes of MDC supporters. Tsvangirai’s name remained on the ballots, none the less. As expected, the June 27th results were prompted released & they proclaimed Mugabe the winner in a landslide. Now, the African Union is considering what, if any, they should do about the obviously falsified election results. Archbishop Desmond Tutu has even expressed his support for using UN troops to restore peace in Zimbabwe by force. You know it’s serious when a Nobel Peace Prize winner like Tutu calls for a unilateral ass kicking! Zimbabwe reminds me that my home country is not the only politically retarded nation on the planet. Keep your eyes on the Southern region of Africa, Zimbabwe in particular, if you watch current events like other folks watch soap operas (as I do). This season should be interesting.
• South Korea recently repealed it’s ban on American beef imports & it’s an understatement to describe the South Korean population as “pissed”. So far, two separate protests have postponed the lifting of the ban. Critics point out how the ban was intended to protect the people of South Korea and since the U.S. beef industry has yet to make any real changes related to the initial concerns that prompted the ban, lifting it ignores the threat posed to the population’s health. Many people are annoyed with their government’s apparent willingness to cave to the demands of Washington. Today, a reported 13,000 people demonstrated in Seoul during Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice’s visit to the country. It seems to me that the people of South Korea aren’t about to be punked by the American government or it’s over-bearing industries without a fight and I find that commendable. That used to be the American Way. Maybe I outta’ start calling rebellious acts against oppression “the South Korean Way”. Lacks the same ring to it…
• Everybody my age remembers the Exxon Valdez oil spill of 1989. The blackened animals, miles of oil slick along Alaska’s coast, and the environmental damage that can be seen even today. Many of us will be surprised to hear that the Supreme Court has overturned the $2.5 billion in fines that Exxon still owes for the accident, calling them “excessive”. In my opinion, Exxon Mobil’s $40.6 billion in profits during the past year (while I paid out my ass for gas) is excessive. I hate corporate immunity to justice.

Title IX: The amendment that changed our world

“No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance”    -Start of the original Title IX law

The story of Title IX sounds like it was made up as a leftist-feminist conspiracy tale, intended to prove just how fucked up gender discrimination was (is) in America. But, I kid you not, this is how it happened:

In 1965, presidential Executive Order 11246 prohibited federal contractors from discrimination in employment based on race, color, religion, or national origin. President Johnson later amended the Executive Order to include discrimination based on sex in 1968. Soon there after, Bernice Sandler of the University of Maryland realized that, as federal contractors, most universities and colleges were subject to the Order and her efforts to bring this to light caught the attention of Rep. Martha Griffiths (D-Michigan), who then gave the first Congressional speech about discrimination against women in education on March 9, 1970. The conversation that the speech started inspired Rep. Edith Green (D-Ohio) to draft anti-discrimination legislation and hold the first congressional hearings on discrimination against women in education and employment during June and July of 1970. Senators Birch Bayh (D-Indiana) and George McGovern (D-South Dakota) managed the bill in the Senate and after several months of debate and compromise, the Education Amendments of 1972, including Title IX, were signed into law by President Nixon without much fanfare. Supporters of Title IX intentionally kept mum on it’s benefits & relied heavily on the ignorance of it’s would-be opponents. What they didn’t notice, wouldn’t piss them off until it’s too late! Sorta’ like the strategy used to pass the Patriot Act, except instead of circumventing the freedoms of Americans, Title IX expanded them. It is a common misperception that Title IX only applies to women’s participation in sports programs. It did open the Wide World of Sports to the fairer sex, but it also prohibited the common practice of steering girls away from science or math programs and into Home Economics courses against their will. It did forcibly open up the Debate Teams, the student government, and all those extra-curricular programs that colleges look for on student applications. Educational institutions receiving federal money were no longer allowed to keep women from receiving higher education, less they jeopardize their grant funding. It did de-gender scholastic subjects making it easier for American girls to become Mathematicians, Scientists, Engineers, and Intellectuals in traditionally male-dominated fields. It is difficult for me, a girl born into the post-Title IX era, to imagine what the educational system looked like prior to 1972. We certainly didn’t have to attend our Mamma’s high school! That maybe why I can’t hem a skirt, but that’s another story!

The wording of the Education Amendments was intentionally vague, since any specifications in the initial bill would jeopardize it’s passage, and it took three more years before the specific regulations of Title IX were signed into law by President Ford on May 27, 1975. These specific regulations/ protections required school districts (or other such systems) to appoint at least one Title IX coordinator, who’s name & contact information is available to all students / parents / staff members, to oversee compliance efforts and investigate any sex discrimination claims. Districts were also required to make grievance procedures and discrimination policies public. After these regulations were announced, districts (and the like) were allowed to undertake a one-time self evaluation of discriminatory policies and were given the opportunity to layout plans to rectify bias, this way the schools weren’t slammed by a wave of lawsuits they were unprepared to face. Title IX went largely ignored and under enforced during the politically conservative Reagan and Bush Sr. Administrations, but since the 1990’s it has become an indispensable piece of gender-equality legislation.

Title IX has since been renamed the Patsy T. Mink Equal Opportunity in Education Act, in honor of the late Rep. Patsy Mink (D-Hawaii), the co-author of the original bill. Thirty-six years after Rep. Mink and Rep. Edith Green watched their historic legislation signed into law, we are still reaping the benefits of their hard work. The drop-out rate for pregnant teens and young women with children has dropped 30% since the 1970’s, largely because Title IX prohibited the automatic expulsion of mothers or would be- mothers. In the 1970’s, only 18% of American women completed four or more years of higher education. But, for the first time in American history, women now outnumber men in undergraduate programs & women receive 55% of all Bachelor’s Degrees. Women went from earning only 7% of all law degrees (in 1972) to a whopping 43% (as of 1994); they formerly held only 9% of all medical and 1% of dental degrees, but as of the early nineties women have received 38% of the degrees in both fields. There has been a four-fold increase in women’s participation in athletics since 1971, undeniably a result of Title IX’s protections. Probably more important than any tangible statistical comparison is the change in social beliefs about women and education. Many modern American families want their sons AND daughters to participate in sports programs, successfully complete high school, and go on to an institution of higher learning to earn their degrees. Prior to the ‘70s, this was necessarily the case in households across America. There isn’t exactly a study or bar graph I can cite to prove the change in American attitude toward women & education, but the proof is unnecessary if your mother, your grandmother, your aunts, or other ladies educated in prior generations are available to talk about the subject. This month marks the 36th anniversary of Title IX’s passage and I suggest we take a moment to reflect on how we have benefited from it’s existence. Devote a minute, an hour, an afternoon to thinking about how education has impacted your life and consider the not-so-distant past when women, just like you, were denied the opportunity to learn. Threats to equality never cease to exist, so peep yourself up on game about the campaign to Save Title IX at the EXercise My Rights webpage.

 

Facts and information cited in the above post was gathered from the following sites: Historical info found in the WEEA Digest from August 1997 located HERE, progress statistics were found in an archived progress report from the U.S. Department of Education dated June 1997 located HERE. Sorry, I couldn’t find more recent information on the subject.

The Scarlet Letter

The evangelical, right-wing, conservative Pro-Lifers in this country would have you believe that these days the scarlet letter is still an “A”, but instead of standing for “adulteress” it now vilifies those ladies that undergo abortion procedures. Contrary to popular belief (and according to statistics from The Guttmacher Institute), 4 in 10 unplanned pregnancies in the U.S. end in abortion. If the current rate of unintended pregnancy termination continues, 1/3 of America’s women will have had an abortion by the age of 45. 61% of women seeking abortions already have one or more children, which implies that their concern for the welfare of their current offspring plays into their decision to terminate. 78% of the women having abortions in the U.S. report having a religious affiliation but only 33% report ever having been married, which indicates that although most of these ladies got knocked up out-of-wedlock they aren’t the Godless heathens evangelicals would have you believe. Anyhow, my point is that many American women seek out abortion procedures and they aren’t primarily irresponsible atheist ho-bags trying to skirt the repercussions of pre-marital sex. For some reason, anti-choice douche-bag politicians ignore these facts and keep perpetuating the stereotype of ignorant  pregnant women being mislead into aborting by evil clinic workers and left-wing commie bastards, since the women obviously lack the ability to make such a grave decision on their own. When will they learn?

Honestly, once a woman discovers she is knocked up, there is little else you can think about even if you tried. This idea that women don’t (or can’t) weigh the pros and cons of termination before getting an abortion is not only wrong, it is damned right insulting. When I ended up preggo at the age of eighteen, I was fucking scared. I was confused. I was emotionally distraught. This is all true & I am sure that many chicks facing an unintended pregnancy at such a young age have rode a similar emotional roller coaster. Even though I was experiencing the gamut of human emotion, my brain remained fixated on the fate of the pregnancy. I could hardly focus on any other subject, because deciding what I was going to do about my fertilized state was my all-consuming task. I called the Planned Parenthood information hotline 15 or 20 times a day to listen to  pre-recorded statements telling me what to expect if I choose to terminate the pregnancy, what to prepare for if I decided to go through with it, and how I could prevent such a situation in the future. I come from a hilariously dysfunctional family and this was my version of talking things over with an informed trustworthy adult. I spent nearly six weeks as a pregnant teen. Back in the day, when a zygote couldn’t be located on a sonogram, they assumed that you were too early in the pregnancy to terminate & they sent you back home until you were approximately 6-12 weeks along, and this is precisely what happened in my case. I spent the entire six weeks thinking about my decision, possible side effects, unwanted repercussions, and the like. I still believe I made the best decision & that I made it on my own, independent from the input and opinions others made have had on the subject. These days advances in sonogram & hormone detection technology, not to mention the legalization of RU-486 (used for medicinal abortions), has sped up the process a bit, but in this modern age I have witnessed a couple gals grapple with their decision & undergo an abortion. These women spent most of their waking hours thinking about their options, their decisions, their situations just as I did years before. They sought out information and advice, as needed, and eventually made a sound and informed choice to end their pregnancies, just as women have throughout human history. This is why it is so insulting and condescending, personally offensive and down-right ridiculous, when anti-choice legislation is based on the premise that women aren’t able to make judgement calls in the reproductive department without help from the State, their male caretakers, or some other outside moral figure. It just pisses me the fuck off.

The current spark that lit my reproductive freedom flame came out of South Dakota (no surprise there!). Since the failed attempt to criminalize all abortions in the state, anti-choicer's have been on a mission to push their morality down the throats of S.D.’s women, like it or not. They included the same anti-choice proposition on the very next election’s ballot. They drafted & introduced all manner of regulatory legislation. Grassroots opposition has managed to keep most of the bullshit at bay, but unfortunately the moral crusaders managed to get an “informed consent” law on the books in 2005. This nifty piece of legislation requires that doctors performing abortions inform their perspective patients that "abortion will terminate the life of a whole, separate, unique, living human being” and "that the pregnant woman has an existing relationship with that unborn human being and that the relationship enjoys protection under the United States Constitution and under the laws of South Dakota." The doctor is also required to certify in writing that (S)he "believes she [the pregnant woman] understands the information imparted." The “informed consent” legislation has been tried up in the state’s judicial system since it’s passage and the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals began hearing the arguments in the case since Wednesday. Today, the Appeals Court ruled to uphold South Dakota’s informed consent regulations and was entirely responsible for pissing me off this afternoon. Essentially, South Dakota’s legislature is under the impression that pregnant women are unaware of the gravity of their situation (what pregnancy entails and all that) and are unable to attest to their own understanding of such information. Until a doctor vouches that a woman understands what pregnancy and abortion is, she is unable to make decisions about her own reproductive future. WTF? Haven’t we come far enough to acknowledge the fact that women are capable and competent enough to make their own decisions and govern their own lives, just as we allow men to do? There will always be those friend-of-a-friend girls that are rumored to use abortion as a method of birth control. There will always be a few women that allow boyfriends or parents decide to terminate a pregnancy they may have wanted to continue. There will always be a few exceptions, just as there are dudes that refused or didn’t think to use a condom or guys that didn’t fully understand the birds and the bees before jumping in the sheets. There will always be these exceptions, but most people can (and should) be The Decider in their lives. Politicians & the Powers That Be really need to start respecting our sovereignty and our right to self-determination. They are not elected to office because we need Mommies and Daddies in the Capitol dictating our daily activities. They are there to protect us from the tyranny of State enforced morality and to uphold the Constitution of the United States, which protects our privacy and our independence on such matters as determined by the Supreme Court in Roe vs. Wade nearly 35 f**cking years ago.

In conclusion, here’s a “Fuck That Shit” Award for South Dakota, the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals, and backwards misogynistic politicians that continue to insist women are all fucking child-like morons. Honorable mentions go to the other southern states with similar “informed consent” legislation – Florida, Oklahoma, Alabama, Louisiana, and Mississippi.

Further reading on the subject can be found in the following locations:

- Consenting Adults: An article for The American Prospect by Sarah Blustain explores the legal aspects of the case and what they translate to in laymen’s terms.

- The Guttmacher Institute has an interesting (and informative) policy review, penned by Rachel Benson Gold and Elizabeth Nash, about the principles of informed consent laws.

- Feministing.com had a post back in April, when Oklahoma’s law was passed, that makes some very good points. Read the reader comments for a wider perspective on the matter.

George Carlin tellin’ it how it is

Proof! See! I’m not crazy!

Most folks listen to my conspiracy theories regarding the City of Stockton, it’s beloved developers, and the complacent local media just to be kind. They nod their heads, offer half-hearted agreements, & their internal monologue goes something like this: “What the fuck is this bitch talking about? Did she skip her meds today?”. Fortunately, I am undaunted by the skepticism of others; I have plenty of my own, Thank you very much! Anyhow, all y’all nay-sayers (or nay-thinkers) can’t possibly deny the blatant example of my Stock-town conspiracy perched on the front page of today’s paper. The headline read: Brown puts pressure on Stockton. According to The Record, the city’s General Plan is being attacked by leftist-tree huggers backed by the state Attorney General Jerry Brown. The tone of the article suggests that Brown is involving himself in issues that do not concern him and is probably motivated by his own political ambitions (Governor in 2010!). I planned on relaying The Record’s retarded opinion sarcastically, but those two sentences annoyed me enough. Here’s the deal: Stockton, like other cities of similar size, has developed a General Plan (The Record calls it “landmark”, just like they called the stadium downtown a “can’t lose situation for the city of Stockton”). Our General Plan conveniently falls in line with the business plans of A.G. Spanos and Grupe; it allows previous zoning regulations to be disregarded so that these cocksuckers can erect more housing developments on the edges of town (houses that Stocktonians can’t afford, that the current infrastructure can’t support, and that the local community cannot possibly benefit from). The Sierra Club and the Morada Area Association (residents of the eastern edge of SJ County) sued the city, charging that the Plan was environmentally hazardous, detrimental to the community, and just plain sucky. These concerns should have been taken seriously by City Council, by the mayor, by the local news media, by the citizenry since our air & water quality is atrocious. We’ve been cited by the State plenty of times for our ham-handed approach to the Valley’s environment & any resident will attest to the nasty taste of our air. Still, the local government and it’s subordinate media arm present the law suit as an annoyance, not an actual concern. Attorney General Jerry Brown is considering intervening in the law suit to force Stockton to address the concerns of it’s inhabitants and abide by state laws that are clearly broken in the General Plan– y’know, doing the job we elected him to do. But, The Record clearly implies that his involvement is not wanted by the political machine running this joint, as evidenced by the following excerpts from the article:

• “It is not unusual for Brown to involve himself in local land-use policies. Since the state in 2006 enacted legislation requiring California to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, Brown has pressured agencies across the state to account for the impact of growth on emissions blamed for global warming.” READ: This mother-fucker is always getting in other people’s business.
• “Stockton's General Plan refers several times to the phasing of development. It also addresses global warming, having been revised to do so prior to the plan's adoption, after activists complained. The plan obligates the city to adopt policies requiring that new development reduce greenhouse gas emissions.” READ: What more do these whiny Environ-pussies want us to do? Gawd!
• “Representatives of developers A.G. Spanos Cos. and The Grupe Co. - two companies with significant interests in the General Plan - had heard Brown was interested in Stockton but said they did not know to what end.” READ: The only people that need to be concerned with the city’s General Plan are the one’s posed to make a killing on it.
• “Brown, a Democrat, is a former governor of California and mayor of Oakland and is widely considered a likely candidate for governor in 2010.” READ: So all this bullshit is just part of his political agenda!

Dudes & dudettes, read the article and try to believe the bullshit contained within. It is next to impossible.

The legacy of Baxter Dunn continues

Everyone’s favorite former Sheriff, Baxter Dunn, is up to his ridiculously slippery ways again! This time the bastard has weaseled his way into another Slap-On-The-Wrist jail sentence and another excuse laden Record article of support. Dunn’s participation in a corruption scandal a few years back earned him a mini-stay in a minimum security prison, followed by house arrest and probation. His probation status is still in effect until December. Earlier this year, Dunn rear-ended a vehicle on the highway & scored himself a D.U.I. conviction. This is a violation of his parole & Thursday’s hearing was supposed to punish him for this transgression. A federal judge sentenced him to a meager 30 day stay in a minimum security prison, even though he could have gotten up to nine months. If I was a parolee with a D.U.I., I doubt such leniency would be shown! The Record published the following excuses to ease our questioning minds, to assure the public that Dunn’s bullshit punishment is completely fair & unbalanced (italics are my comments):

• [U.S. District Judge Morrison C.] England said he chose the shorter term because Dunn showed "outstanding" behavior on federal probation since pleading guilty in 2005 following an FBI corruption probe. Drunk driving accidents aren’t really considered ‘outstanding’ actions in my book.
• England said he was disappointed to seeing Dunn again, but he called the recent arrest an "aberration." The definition of “aberration” is an instance that strays from the right or normal way, so the judge believed that acknowledging Dunn’s DUI as a parole violation was not the usual way the courts handle these cases. I’ve known plenty of parolees & he’s right. Usually, the court throws the book at them.
• Stockton attorney Albert Ellis said Dunn's health challenges also played a role in the judge's short sentence. Ellis declined to say specifically what ails Dunn, but Ellis said his client's unresolved health problems are "serious and significant." Since when do the personal issues of a convicted felon effect the sentencing? Honestly?
• Ellis said the month long sentence was adequate, considering other repercussions the drunken driving conviction have had in Dunn's life. His driver's license was suspended, so he can't operate his water truck, Dunn's new vocation. Once again, run this one past a parolee & see what they think about it.

Puke over the entire article HERE.

Common sense ain't all that common

The House Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies (TRANSLATION: the H.O.R. click that decides how much money is spent on non-military shit that actually benefits the American population) voted yesterday to continue funding the Community-Based Abstinence Education (CBAE) program, even though plenty of recent research has proved it to be counter-productive. Apparently, ideology is much more important than the welfare of America’s adolescents!

The CBAE program, according to the Department of Health and Human Services, distributes tax dollars directly to public & private organizations that develop and implement sex education programs that focus solely on abstinence (discussion of sexual activity is not allowed within these programs & is reason to have funding revoked). These programs (according to the government site on the subject) teach that sexual activity outside of the context of marriage is likely to have harmful psychological and physical effects; that bearing children out-of-wedlock is likely to have harmful consequences for the child, the child’s parents, and society; and that a mutually faithful monogamous relationship in the context of marriage is the expected standard of human sexual activity. Most adults can see the problems with this curriculum quite clearly, but apparently Congress cannot. They still set aside millions each year to fund programs that tell our children that having sex with anyone but your spouse will fuck up your head, your life, your body, your parents, and society itself. But we can’t get universal health care…

Even if common sense isn’t enough to convince a Representative on the Appropriations Subcommittee that CBAE is a waste of public funds, one would think that all the research on the subject might sway their opinions on the matter. For example:

• Mathematica Policy Research, Inc. released their study of abstinence-only policies in early 2007. The 164-page report concluded that such programs were ineffective in preventing teen sexual activity. The programs didn’t have an impact on when teens “got down to business” or how many partners they hooked up with.
• The National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy released their study in late 2007 that also concluded that abstinence-only programs had no effect on the sexual behavior of teens. One of the researchers even suggested that comprehensive sex ed arms adolescents with information that allows them to be more confident in their ability to say ‘no’ to unwanted sexual behavior.
• 17 States have refused to accept CBAE funding because the program is ineffective. This should be a pretty clear message to Congress that CBAE ain't cool. Wouldn’t you think?

The clearest diss on the Appropriations Subcommittee decision was articulated by the director of the ACLU's Washington Legislative Office, Caroline Fredrickson:

"It’s hard to imagine a good reason why, in these tight economic times, Congress would intentionally flush taxpayer dollars down the drain by spending them on disproven, ineffective abstinence-only-until-marriage programs. We are floored that they continue to ignore study after study, and the consensus of the pubic health community, all concluding that these programs censor vital health care information, teach gender stereotypes, discriminate against lesbian and gay teens, and in some cases promote religion in the classroom in violation of the Constitution."

That's what I'm saying.