Category: Civil Rights

Number 3421 on the List of Things that I’d Never Say

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God Bless Jerry Brown.

He’s always rubbed me the wrong way, but his decision to accurately label the Califoria hate initiative is a very good thing:

Those voters were much more likely to oppose the measure when read Brown’s wording (58 percent against it and 30 percent for it) than those in the same category who were read the old version of Prop. 8 (42 percent against and 37 percent for it), according to the Field Poll.

The Brown language reads, in part: “Eliminates the right of same-sex couples to marry.” The original version read, in part: “Limit on marriage.”

No big surprise here…If you tell the truth people vote now on this abomination.

Breathalyzer Firm Must Turn Over Source Code

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In Arizona, Pima County Superior Court Judge Deborah Bernin has told breathalyzer manufacturer CMI to turn over the source code for their devices to the defendants.

This is more than just a legal ploy to get out of a drunk driving charge,* there actually appear to be some reliability issues with the device in question:

Allegedly inconsistent, odd or inexplicable results involving the Intoxilyzer 8000 have led to legal action in six states (Florida, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Tennessee and New Jersey as well as Arizona). A Florida judge also ordered CMI to hand over the source code running the controversial devices but the firm has refused to comply, earning it $1.2m in fines as a result.

I support this ruling, even without the history of problems. Having a closed box that just says, “guilty” is not acceptable.

*Full disclosure, my mom was killed by a drunk driver when I was 14.

Why State Secretaries of State Matter

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Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner, a Democrat who replaced the Uncle Tom Republican Ken Blackwell, has just moved against voter caging, “Brunner issued a release last week directing that 60-day notices sent by boards of election to voters that are returned as undeliverable cannot be used as the sole reason for canceling an Ohio resident’s voter registration.“

This is why having a Democrat as the chief election official in the state, and why Republicans try for these positions.

Republicans take a page out of Stalin’s book,* “Those who cast the votes, they decide nothing. Those who count the votes, they decide everything.”

*Actually, it’s not his book, it was the memoirs of his secretary, who quoted Stalin as saying this.

Barack Obama: Fire Cass Sunstein Now.

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Because he just called Roe v. Wade an unsupportable decision. He does day that it should remain as precedent, underthe principle of stare decisis, but that the decision is not based, “in either the text of the Constitution or its own precedents.”

First, this analysis is just plain wrong, the precedents of Griswold v. Connecticut and Eisenstadt v. Baird, which prohibited states banning contraception on the basis of privacy rights, and which he studiously, ignores is clearly on the path to Roe.

Second is that his embrace of stare decisis would invalidate rown v. Board of Education, the national minimum wage, and the National Labor Relations act.

For Barack Obama to continue to have him as an adviser, or to consider him as a member of the cabinet, or as senior Department of Justice appointment would be a betrayal of his supporters and the Democratic party.

H/T TalkLeft.

Zimbabwe Negotiations Appear to Go Nowhere

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Tsvangerai is insisting on real executive power as prime minister, which makes sense, as he won the election, but this is a major sticking point, which is why the SADC summit ended without a deal.

So the SADC is pressuring Tsvangerai to cut a deal with Mugabe that does not involve real power for the MDC, with the threat that the splinter MDC-Mutambara would ally with the ZANU-PF in parliament otherwise, which indicates to me that the SADC, or some of the members of the SADC, don’t really care about the quality of governance in Zimbabwe, they just want the problem to go away.

Zimbabwe Update

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First, the Mugabe government seized Morgan Tsvangerai’s passport at the airport, but returned it after threats from Botswana’s President Seretse Khama Ian Khama threatened not to attend a regional summit.

Tsvangerai is saying that he is committed to the negotiations, though with the entire passport debacle, Mugabe’s commitment is in doubt.

One interesting bit of information is that a mining company is holding talks with the MDC about platinum concessions, which indicates that someone thinks that there is a chance that someone other than Mugabe will have control of such things.

Generals Trash Talking Each Other at Gitmo Trials

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You know, this sounds like some some of these folks realize that Bush only has 4 months, and that they are trying to cover their asses about the inevitable career destroying investigations:

One general testified about another general at the war court Wednesday, describing a Pentagon official fast-tracking trials here as “abusive, bullying, unprofessional.”

Moreover, in testimony, Army Brig. Gen. Gregory Zanetti, deputy prison camps commander, described the approach employed earlier this year by his counterpart, Air Force Brig. Gen. Thomas Hartmann, this way:

“Spray and pray. Charge everybody. Let’s go. Speed, speed, speed.”

I wonder who will be the next rat to sing in court.

Just When You Thought that Zimbabwe Could Not Get Any More Screwed Up….

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There are now reports that Arthur Mutambara, whose party, the MDC-Mutambara, has 7 seats, and thus the margin of majority in the Zimbabwean parliament, may have cut a deal with Mubame, though his representatives are denying this, or claiming that there is a deal, but that it would not take effect unless Morgan Tsvangerai, or at least the MDC-Tsvangerai, was also a part of the agreement.

If this is a sellout by MDC-M of MDC-T, which I see as likely, then we know why Mugabe agreed to talks, because he needed time to stack the deck.

DoJ Subpoenas Bush Admin Vote Suppression Specialists

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I would note that the DoJ having to subpoena former DoJ lawers, even political appointees, is almost unheard of, but it’s pretty clear that former Civil Rights Division* head Bradley Schlozman, and Hans “der Novotenfuhrer” von Spakovsky, former counsel to the Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights are under some serious legal jeopardy, with credible allegations of perjury before Congress, and also appeared to be hip deep in the hiring scandal.

Dudes, bring your toothbrushes.

*Who says that irony is dead?

Zimbabwe Update

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Well, we now have a report that Zimbabwe: Robert Mugabe offered Morgan Tsvangirai the vice presidency, a position with no powers, in negotiations….What I expected.

It’s no surprise then that there are reports that the negotiations are deadlocked, though talks are supposed Zimbabwe’s crisis talks to resume Sunday.

One interesting development is that Botswana is threatening to boycott of the summit of the next Southern African Development Community (SADC) summit if Mugabe is allowed to attend, which indicates, I think, some level of dissatisfaction with Thabo Mbeki’s mediation efforts.

An unfortunate development is that Mugabe is considering stopping a court action on disputed parliamentary seats:

Fearing an imminent court defeat that would further increase MDC’s parliamentary majority Robert Mugabe’s military junta is considering a law forbidding the courts to invalidate his defeated Zanu (PF) party’s victories in 60 constituencies facing legal challenges, official sources say.
The MDC is challenging the results of the March 29 elections in 60 constituencies, where they say electoral fraud, violence and intimidation of voters compromised the returns.

These are not the actions of a man, or a party, willing to negotiate in good faith.

One final note, they have dropped 10 zeros off the currency, meaning that a 10 billion Zimbabwean dollar is now 1 new Zimbabwean dollar, to deal with inflation, but with inflation running at something like 15,000,000%, it will not help for long.

This may finally be what takes Mugabe and his cronies down.