As California is scheduled to have the first meaningful presidential primary in 40 years, it seems prudent to look at past political developments in California. The 1961 Los Angeles Mayoral race is mostly forgotten and is used as merely a historical footnote. This is unfortunate as it was a major turning point in Los Angeles politics and a truly incredible result. While today Los Angeles is regarded as a liberal bastion, it was not always this. Los Angeles was at one time a conservative city with few notable progressives actually getting elected. In many ways it was similar to San Francisco, which also used to be a very conservative city. Minorities, the working poor, and progressives had little say. Most credit the 1973 election as the great liberal breakthrough. That was the election that saw Tom Bradley defeat Sam Yorty to become the first and only black mayor of Los Angeles (and only the second of a major U.S. city). That campaign and the preceding one are fairly well known due to the horrendous race baiting of the incumbent, Sam Yorty. However, upon closer look it was not 1973 but 1961 that saw the great liberal breakthrough and turning point in Los Angeles politics.
I suggest you read the article but the gist of it is that Americans are no longer the tallest in the world and that because of this, something is wrong and needs to be fixed. The Dutch, who are the world's tallest, are lauded for their stature and presumed to be better off. This reporter, a 6'3 man, also makes a good number of claims that are either inaccurate, unfounded, and or heightist. But that's besides the point. To me it indicates that we have a problem with heightism in society. That is, short people being considered inferior or diseased simply because of their stature. Some advocates would point to studies that show short people make less money than tall people and are generally mistreated. Today we see parents of short children rushing to give their children Human Growth Hormone and other examples of discrimination based on height. Though it may not have been the intention of this journalist, these kinds of articles only contribute to heightism.
Today is Martin Luther King Jr. Day. It has been nearly 43 years since his speech at the March on Washington and the Civil Rights Act and the Great Society. It has been 42 years since the Voting Rights Act not to mention nearly 38 years since the Stonewall Riots and yet there is still much inequality in society. All these movements suffered setbacks from the Long Hot Summers Riots, Vietnam, and the AIDS epidemic. The assasinations of Dr. King and both JFK and RFK discouraged many. Today the problems of inequality are even greater. There is still no legislation passed at a federal level that protects GLBT people. There is still segregation among income and race. There are still African Americans and minorities trapped in cycles of violence and poverty. Further multiplying the negative effects of inequality is the AIDS epidemic. AIDS has continued to afflict communities of the most discriminated people in society and yet there is little done to address these critical issues. With continued poverty, homelessness, AIDS, defacto segregation, and discrimination, many are negative. MLK Jr. Day is a nice day off and little else. To many, Dr. King's dream is dead.
Sorry, I shouldn't gloat but I am pretty giddy. I am not a football fan at all but I am a UCLA fan all the way. This afternoon, the UCLA Bruins defeated the USC Trojans, 13-9, in a total shocking upset. Carol Shea-Porter, Paul Hodes, Chris Murphy, Jason Altmire, John Yarmuth, John Hall, Kirsten Gillibrand, Tim Walz, Harry Mitchell, Jerry McNerney, David Loebsack, Nancy Boyda, Jim Webb, and Jon Tester may have all pulled off huge upsets. But today UCLA, a Democratic school, pulled one off too over USC, a Republican school. I couldn't be happier. Well actually I was happier on Election Night this year but that is totally beside the point. This is especially heartening because USC was all set to go play for another National Championship. Hallelujah. And UCLA snapped it's 7 year losing streak against USC. UCLA is assured to play in the Emerald Bowl which is very exciting.
A wise professor once told me that the environment often comes second to economics. That is, people are pro environment until the economy sours and people see the environmentalism taking away jobs and harming our overall economic growth. In the minds of voters, the environment has traditionally taken a back seat. We all know the importance of the environment. It's a major public health issue as well as a quality of life issue. A healthy environment is critical to sustaining life on earth. However, time and time again, we have seen the environment ignored by our politicians. There is a fear of having to make "sacrifices" (which politicians never want to talk about) and there is a negative connotation towards being an environmentalist. People hate treehuggers. I think though that environmentalism could be an economic boon for this country, especially in the new globalized economy, as well as a winning campaign issue for Democrats.
So if I'm not mistaken, I'm not the only suffering from anxiety right now. I finish college in less than two months so I'm already quite anxious. This election and its meaning is giving me even greater anxiety. I'm sure that a lot of you are quite nervous and anxious as well. But if I could, I want to offer some inspiration and some words of hope and enjoyment. I want people to realize something. Should we win on Tuesday, it will be our victory.
Now what do I mean by this? I want people to think about the far reaching consequences of what a massive Democratic victory would be. Yes, some politics will never change. There will still be lobbyists, still politicians who are distant from their constituents, some misguided legislation, and even some senators who tell stupid jokes in poor taste. Let's not forget though: a victory in 2006 will change this country and give us true representation.
In case you're wondering why I'm pissed off, it's not the usual reasons. I could go on about every bad thing that the Republican Party has done to the United States but that would be a 4,000 page book and would take me years to write. I could go on about the hypocrisy of gay Republicans, the war in Iraq, the failures in the war on terrorism, the economic woes, the elitism displayed by so many Republicans, poor urban planning, the voting woes in this country, the non stop attacks on our hardworking latino citizens. Really, I could go on and on and on and on. But instead, I will focus on an article in the LA Times I was just sent by my mom. It's 5 days old but I did not recall seeing anything blogged about it. It really pisses me off.
Today was an especially good day as I finally received my absentee ballot. I will spare you the details of how I'm voting, just a straight Democratic ticket. Yes, I am voting for Cruz Bustamante. I have to say this election is a major dissapointment for me. After horrible primary campaigns, I am stuck voting for Angelides (who I have little hope for). His campaign has been absolutely dreadful. Still this Foley scandal has legs and if Republicans stay home, Arnold could still lose. I am pretty much voting in zero competitive races. I am voting only to make a statement against the GOP and unfortunately there are no Republicans to take out. But now, I have some questions on the ballot propositions. Namely how should I vote?
Today is National Coming Out Day. There really aren't any festivities or anything and there isn't a lot of recognition of the holiday (I doubt anyone takes the day off). However, the day is important to me and I'm sure many other gays and lesbians as well. And what better way to observe the holiday than to submit a Daily Kos diary entry. In light of all the Foley scandal and all these top Republicans being outed as gay men, I think it's important that we observe National Coming Out Day and those of us who are out remind ourselves of why we decided to come out. It's also important to encourage others to come out and provide support to those struggling with their sexual orientation or decision of whether to stay in. Although I've used the occassion to launch nasty tirades against gay Republicans, I almost feel sorry for them. They spend their lives living in the closet and with this whole Foley scandal, they're slowly being outed. They are being forced out of the closet rather than choosing for themselves.
Well over the past few days, as some may be aware, there has been a major facebook controversy. Recently facebook decided to make changes that reduced the level of privacy, namely a news feed. This new feature broadcast every detail and every action made by every friend in one's facebook network. These changes were universally detested by facebook users. Students, the bulk of facebook users, were upset by the dramatic loss of privacy by having their status and ever move broadcast. Students organized and created petitions demanding that the creators of facebook return to its old form. These universal groups attracted tens of thousands (perhaps more) of students. When I got up this morning and checked my facebook, here was the message I received:
Well it's a Thursday night and I seem to have little better to do than sit around and worry about the upcoming elections. Having browsed CNN and come across the following article from TIME, I feel a little bewildered. I mean, Dubya is continuing to fail and fuck things up and the Republicans who have supported his every move should be on the ropes. Yet the Democrats come across as weak, disorganized, and somewhat divided.
So this morning, after a long walk, I sat down to rest in the breakfast room. I hadn't even started drinking my gatorade yet when I noticed an article in the opinion section of the paper (I forget if it was LA Times or NY Times) from Jonah Goldberg, a man who's public persona simply reads "asshole". The articles headline was enough for me: "How McGovern beat Lieberman". Man this is infuriating, the Democrats win a real victory and the Republicans want so badly to take it away. The title is stupid and I can already see the first sentence claiming that this election is a result of the Democrats moving left over the past 30 years. I was about to snatch the article out of my dad's hand and go through it point by point and show how wrong Jonah Goldberg is and what an idiot and asshole he is.
I don't know if anyone remembers it but years ago, maybe over a decade ago, there was a great animated series on Comedy Central called Dr. Katz. I used to love the show and watched it as often as possible. Dr. Katz was this little, liberal, Jewish psychiatrist in San Francisco who dealt with his nutty patients, his bitchy and passive agressive secretary Laura, and his loser son Ben. Ben was 24 years old, had no job, and didn't work. He simply lounged around the house all day, not doing anything (Dr. Katz was very lenient with his son) and would occasionally ask out Laura. Well one of the funny reccuring themes in the show was that Dr. Katz would often promote his book, "Everybody has a Tooshie". I know it was a joke on a tv show that hasn't aired for years but I think it really rings true.
Okay, so like to quote Cher Horowitz (the heroine in Clueless), I am totally buggin here. Seriously, maybe it's because I'm still young and naive (despite my desperate attempts to harden myself) but I was really hopeful that this election season, we'd have a change in politics. I almost had this really positive dream. Arnold would decide that he wouldn't run for reelection and that there would be some really good candidates, Democrats, Republicans, and Independents who would run and for the first time in a generation we'd have this great campaign. There would be new policy proposals, exciting new ideas, record turnout of people excited to vote, and the future of California would be bright.
Okay, so I've been thinking a lot about this gubernatorial race we have coming up. There's been a lot of talk about Arnold's low approval ratings, and the stinksville ads of Angelides and the Republican lite ads of Westly. And we all discuss the different strategies in this race. We clearly have a lot of winners on our down ticket races. There are clearly a lot of factors that we all discuss. Stuff that can benefit Arnold (incumbency, likeability, movie star), things that can benefit Angelides (union support, latino sounding name, heavy fundraising among Greeks), and things that can benefit Westly (Ebay, money made while at Ebay, grassroots support). But I feel that there is one x-factor at play that no one is talking about or really looking at. Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa.
It has already been diaried twice today that Jane Jacobs, a famous author and urbanist, passed away today at 89 (a little over a week from her 90th birthday). But I wanted to do a different kind of diary. A tribute in some ways. Jane Jacobs is my favorite philosopher. I recently (about a month ago) finished reading The Death and Life of Great American Cities. It was written in 1961 but to me is still such an important and relevant work. Although Jacobs never took credit for her accomplishments, there were many. All one has to do is stroll through Greenwich Village and think how much it would suck if it wasn't there and was instead a massive housing project and freeway. It is the same way walking around neighborhoods saved from demolishment, Boston's North End comes to mind. I have never been to Torronto but she has often been credited for saving neighborhoods from destruction there. What did I glean from her work though?
Well it seems like with all the talk of important elections both at home and abroad, it seems like the Ukraine Parliamentary Elections received very little attention. These elections were very important as they were a test to see if the Orange Revolution could hold up. This was especially true as President Victor Yushchenko's administration has come under a lot of criticism and Victor Yanukovich (the Russian backed candidate in the 2004 election who has been accused of fraud, attempting to poison Yushchenko, and a whole lot of other trangessions) appeared to be resurgent. Also although Victor Yushchenko will remain president, the parliament will now have much greater powers. It's my opinion but I think these elections were highly successful. There was over 67% turnout and the election was judged the most free and fair in Ukraine's history. Voters got to go to the polls and make their picks as they wanted them. A stabile, Democratic, and prosperous Ukraine is also in the best interest of the U.S.
So on occasion, I've compared the devotion of Republicans to Bush to the devotion of Manson Family members to Charles Manson. But lately with Port Gate, a lot of Republicans are falling away. Not only that but Democrats, Independents, and Moderate Republicans who were with the President because of the National Security are now questioning their loyalty to the President and the GOP. Suddenly all the scandals building this year have the potential to massively explode even more. Well, I was thinking besides this headline or a headline confirming Micheal Moore's conspiracies, what would be a totally disastrous headline? And what would be the GOP response? Not only that but with all the strife both at home and abroad and problems in the world, we all need a little humor and satire during the work day. And a reminder, this is just humor and satire, not serious.
"DNA Swab shows President Bush to be (fill in blank with some unsolved serial rapist/killer). Charges Pending as Nation is Shocked."
