Californians: We have an election coming up in one week. Don’t know much about what’s up for grabs? Then grab a cup of coffee, settle in and relax, for I have read the fine print for you. Have extra information? Comment here or send it to theyellowmenace1@gmail.com. These opinions are subject to change, pending the discovery of heretofore unforeseen facts or mood swings.
That’s Iowa’s state motto and it seems apt in light of today’s events.
The Hawkeye State’s Supreme Court upheld a 2007 Polk County ruling which essentially said that denying marriage licenses to same-sex couples violated the equal protection clause of the state constitution. When that ruling was handed down, Iowans had less than a day of legal same-sex marriage because the county appealed the decision to the highest court in the state, and the judge postponed any further marriage licenses until that court could rule on the matter. I briefly touched on this when it happened and I mentioned that only one couple, Tim McQuillan and Sean Fritz, came back with a completed marriage license within the 22-hour deadline. No major news outlets and only one blog has bothered talking to them since.
In its unanimous opinion, the court explicitly pointed at the arguments against same-sex marriage rooted in religious tradition and stated that the state government cannot have any religious views of its own. If recent bans on same-sex marriage (including California’s) are any indicator, religious conservative groups will continue to motivate action on this issue using religious dogma but will either veil that language or remove it from their final actions. We, as a country, still have little recourse for half-truths.
Republican State Senator Paul McKinley issued a statement to the Des Moines Register saying that he thinks all Iowans should have a voice on the matter, so the state’s legislature should immediately pass a constitutional amendment defining marriage as a bond between one man and one woman. In other words, he thinks everyone should have a voice — as long as it’s his.
You can read the Iowa Supreme Court opinion here.
Ever since the economy “soured,” as the New York Times tends to say, we’ve had many opportunities to hear about countless layoffs, “tough choices,” and vacant glass storefronts. This week, we received two rare and unusually personal and frank stories about corporate comings and goings.
The first actually came from Gizmodo on Feb. 4 in textual form. Gizmodo solicited writings and reflections from Circuit City employees as an independent liquidation firm led the company into shutdown. The folks at This American Life produced a radio version with actual former employees telling their stories.
The second comes from a former employee of the American International Group’s Financial Products division. He sent a copy of his resignation letter to the New York Times, providing an analysis of events the rest of us simply did not catch via the papers or TV news. Check out the readers’ comments for an even more telling counterpoint.
Both stories provide surprising glimpses of personal strength, a healthy dose of good old American bad behavior and some of the shocking ways in which we fail each other.
Let’s not lie: New York City’s Metropolitan Transit Authority has some ugly cuts to make and there’s no easy way to do it. On the one hand, lots of people are going to cry war on the middle class because the 30-day unlimited pass goes up $22 — 55 cents per ride, if you consider that weekends are free, but lots of hourly stiffs use the commuter pass, too. On the other hand, it’s pretty clear that lots of poorer folks will see some major changes with the elimination of the Z train. The Z goes from the Financial District into Williamsburg, then dips down into Bushwick and northern Bed-Stuy, then up through Glendale, Kew Gardens and Jamaica but specifically provides skip-stop service with the J during peak hours. This means that all residents in these areas are going to spend a lot of extra time getting to and from work. Considering that it takes longer for the JMZ to get from Jamaica Center to Wall Street than the E does, that’s going to make commutes a lot more crowded for a lot longer everyday.
Just how many people take the soon-to-be $2.50 one-way ride, I’m not sure. I guess that’s why the MTA had to take a poll to find out what people are using those rides for.
Watch the California state Supreme Court hearing on the validity of Proposition 8, which overturned the rights of same-sex couples to marry:
Update:
Initial impressions: Earlier counsel wasn’t terrible, but very boring and couldn’t stand up to even the slightest resistance from the panel.
I’d forgotten how much Ken Starr sounds like Tim Gunn. I kept half-expecting him to tell the justices to “make it work,” and then — ZING! — he references “Damn Yankees”!? Even the justices seem to recognize how cheesy he’s being.
Therese Stewart is about as excellent as she can be. She let her frustration show toward the end but she does not wilt under judicial scrutiny. The court went hard on her, but it had to: You can’t just overturn something the voters approved on hazy “that’s the ticket” ideas and without acknowledging whether this could set a precedent for limiting the people’s power.
I still can’t believe that a cable channel billed as the C-SPAN for California state affairs isn’t on digital basic.
Starbucks announced today that it plans to close 300 more company-run locations this year. This comes in addition to the 600 locations it planned to close last year. Out of the chain’s approximately 11,434 retail locations, 7.8 percent of them will have shut down this year after the quarterly revenue fell 5.5 percent from one year ago. Say what you will about the coffee retailer, a cutback that big has to hurt.
While today’s announcement estimates about 6,000 people put out of work in actual stores and 700 in corporate offices, Starbucks is also one of the largest companies to offer health insurance to part-time workers.
If you read the top story from today’s L.A. Times, you might have seen some unlikely news about Prop. 8: Calif. State Attorney General Jerry Brown has filed a 111-page brief asking the State Supreme Court to discard it altogether.
From the article:
“The attorney general has a legal duty to uphold the state’s laws as long as there are reasonable grounds to do so. Last month, Brown said he planned to ‘defend the proposition as enacted by the people of California.
But in his filing, Brown, who personally supports same-sex marriage, offered a novel legal theory to back his argument that the measure should be invalidated.”
That argument states that you can’t use the amendment process to take away rights without a good legal reason.
O RLY?
This is the same Jerry Brown who asked appellate courts to apply a new, fourth requirement when considering people for equal protection under the law: they cannot be able to normally access the legal process. You know, because gay people, dual-income, no kids (DINKs) — they can buy their rights, can’t they?
Remember, Brown also said that Prop. 8 was not a constitutional revision, though that could be just as well, because that could have proven to be a difficult fight, given that California has several precedents of sweeping constitutional changes approved as amendments.
Maybe we should ask Whitewater prosecutor Kenneth W. Starr, who will testify sometime this year on behalf of Protect Marriage, an anti-same-sex marriage group. And while we’re at it, we can ask him where his sister Brenda went.
In an odd twist, one could immediately recognize the faces of two kinds of New Yorkers on Wednesday morning — homosexuals and registered Republicans — as the ones not beaming on their way to work.
Click here to read about election results
Get ready, Brooklyn: As if straight people didn’t get to celebrate their straightness on days that aren’t the last Sunday in June, they’re getting their own Straight Pride Parade at the end of August. No, I’m not telling you when or where it is because I expect you not to show up. I don’t even want you to go and protest; not only would that invite the possibility of violence but the parade would be a dismal failure if no one bothered to turn up.
Click here to read more about the Straight Pride Parade
This isn’t new but it bears repeating.
It’s not just that oil prices are going up, it’s also that all oil (and other energy futures) is priced in U.S. dollars. The dollar is down, so it buys less oil. The Euro is strong, so it buys more. The increase in oil prices in Europe have only been about half as bad as what’s been seen in the U.S.
The Yellow Menace currently costs $4.299 a gallon. Contact him at theyellowmenace1@gmail.com
