Politics: August 2009 Archives

Against a tide of lies and vitriol, President Obama is working hard to dispel popular myths about healthcare reform. Chief among them is the crackpot idea that universal health care actually means health care for everyone.

In a chat with right-leaning radio host Michael Smerconish this week, Obama set the record straight on Republican propaganda about insuring “the illegals”:

this has been an example of just pure misinformation out there. None of the bills that have been voted on in Congress and none of the proposals coming out of the White House propose giving coverage to illegal immigrants, none of them. That has never been on the table; nobody has discussed it.

So everybody who's listening out there, when you start hearing that somehow this is all designed to provide health insurance to illegal immigrants, that is simply not true and has never been the case.

So people, don't think for a minute that the government would act to prevent undocumented immigrants from dying of untreated diseases. Rest assured that hospitals will continue deporting them from hospitals, perhaps to die at the mercy of far worse healthcare systems, which they clearly deserve as a consequence of their lawbreaking.

The New York Post—that paragon of journalistic excellence—ran an editorial today blasting the latest piece of pork to come out of Albany. Under the headline “Your Tax Dollars At Waste,” the paper took aim at a State Senate earmark for a cause any self-respecting law-and-order legislator would reject: an organization devoted to studying how race influences society.

The Center for NuLeadership on Urban Solutions, housed at Medgar Evers College of the City University of New York, aims to foster research on racial disparities in criminal justice and other policy arenas. Its most ambitious, and common-sensical, aspect is its leadership. Diverging from the insular think tank world, the research on racial impacts will actually be directed by some of the most impacted people:

The Center is the first and only public policy, research, training, advocacy and academic center, housed in the largest university system in the United States, conceived, designed and developed by formerly incarcerated professionals. It was established as an inter-disciplinary forum for scholars, policy makers, legal practitioners, law enforcement, civil society leaders, clergy and previously incarcerated professionals seeking to influence and impact urban contemporary criminal, economic and social justice issues.

The Center is dedicated to creating new paradigms for solving community development related criminal justice challenges in communities of color. It seeks to produce research that reveals the contradictions and confrontations within and among the various disciplines comprising the study of urban affairs and criminal justice and to develop new “community specific” models for academic inquiry and public policy.

When financial crisis hit, the California legislature didn't raise taxes, end tax giveaways, or cut corporate welfare. Instead, they cut services to the people made most vulnerable by the recession -- children, the elderly, the sick, victims of domestic violence, AIDS patients, and people just trying to get back to work. Now -- where could our legislature have learned their priorities? Too many movies? ColorLines' Darlene Pagano takes on the Governator in this new video.

Former California State Senator Sheila Kuehl has written an excellent essay detailing exactly who the cuts affect. Spoiler alert: it's not anyone who can bear the burden. Also check out this L.A. Times article that digs into the question of whether Schwarzenegger's last-minute vetoes were constitutional.

It's about time. The Mayor of Birmingham, Alabama seeks to put a small stitch in wounds left over from the Civil Rights Movement, by issuing a blanket pardon to activists arrested during demonstrations, sit-ins and marches of the era.

In addition to erasing vestigial arrest records, Mayor Larry Langford has also called for refunding the fines imposed on protesters. People can voluntarily apply to get compensation for the fines, which ranged from $10 to $30, according to the Birmingham News. Overall, the pardons and apologies could impact thousands of protesters.

Framing the pardon as a symbolic but important milestone (an earlier state law allows for the expungement of arrest records for nonviolent civil rights protests), Langford said:

Once again the world is watching Birmingham. Only this time they are watching us do the right thing and correct the ills of the past.

In the wake of a shameful historical legacy, the process of reconciliation is a complex dance of looking back and lurching forward.

Yasmine Farhang, reporting for ColorLines, talks about the ongoing discussion around New York state's GENDA. Advocates are moving swiftly to get it passed, but there are queer groups that oppose the bill:

The Gender Expression Non-Discrimination Act (known as GENDA) would protect people who are routinely kicked out of housing, fired from jobs and harassed in schools and other public institutions because of their gender expression. The bill has passed the state assembly and is up for a vote on the Senate floor. Thirteen other states and the District of Columbia have already enacted similar legislation.

But a group of queer justice organizations is not supporting the bill because it would also add “gender identity and expression” to the list of hate crime offenses and result in longer prison terms. Because the same communities vulnerable to violence face increased policing, it’s a move that would “expose our communities to the inherent racism and classism that is rooted in the criminal justice system,” said Pooja Gehi, staff attorney at the Sylvia Rivera Law Project, which opposes the hate crime portion of the proposed bill.

Check out more at ColorLines.com

Sometimes, it just feels good to punish someone.

That emotional impetus has colored our criminal justice system, and some of the clearest examples are laws that enhance penalties for crimes deemed especially heinous. But the eye-for-an-eye mentality can also aggravate endemic inequalities in the legal system. So how should activists work within an unjust legal infrastructure to deal with injustice perpetrated against their communities?

On Alternet, Liliana Segura explores the politics of hate crimes laws and reaches conclusions that put many human rights advocates on a moral precipice.

First, hate crimes laws don't seem to have a significant deterrent effect, challenging the notion that cracking down on perpetrators makes targeted groups safer in the future. Second, they're often wielded as a political talisman by officials who don't dare take on other, structural and cultural factors that drive hate and its violent manifestations. And third, generally speaking, critics have argued that criminalizing the motivations behind illegal activity doesn't do much to make the world a happier or less violent place.

By Michael Arceneaux, Originally published @ The Grio

Earlier this year, Sean Penn and Dustin Lance Black received Academy Awards honoring their work in the film Milk, which chronicled the life of Harvey Milk, the first openly gay man to be elected to public office in California.

Many looked to this as a testament to the legacy of Harvey Milk, and suggested the film's success points to yet another crack in this country's collective homophobia.

While there's no denying that Harvey Milk's political career advanced the gay rights movement, for those with complexions filled with more melanin than milk, does his biopic mean anything more than the next film on their Netflix queue?

Chances are the answer leans towards no, which makes the candidacy of another gay California candidate all the more significant.

In April, Anthony Woods, a 28-year-old West Point graduate who recently earned his master's degree in public policy from Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government, announced his candidacy for a soon-to-be vacant seat in California's 10th Congressional District.