“The moment a mere numerical superiority by either states or voters in this country proceeds to ignore the needs and desires of the minority, and for their own selfish purpose or advancement, hamper or oppress that minority, or debar them in any way from equal privileges and equal rights -- that moment will mark the failure of our constitutional system.”
It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.
Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn't pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same.
Family-man, "traditional" marriage advocate, and strong supporter of Proposition 8, is caught living his real, gay life.
To complete the picture, he is also part of the robustly conservative California Republican establishment, serving as a state senator.
In fact, he has voted against every gay rights measure that he could, standing in the way of equal protection under the law for gay people, and now he finds himself in the most awkward of situations.
State Senator Roy Ashburn, representing the 18th district near Los Angeles, was stopped by the Sacramento police earlier this week in his state issued SUV in the middle of the night.
He is alleged to have been intoxicated while driving, he was accompanied by an unidentified man, and they were coming from a gay nightclub.
While his personal life would normally be irrelevant, the fact that he repeatedly used his elected office to advance the anti-gay agenda makes his personal life, well, relevant.
Constricting some minority's civil rights has a long, dark history in American politics.
At different times, in different parts of the country, majority politicians of one sort or another have worked to deny equal rights to myriad groups: from African-Americans, to the Irish, to women, to Japanese-Americans, to gay people, to Latinos, just to name a few of the groups that were in some way oppressed.
So a closeted gay man that - for reasons that are frankly beyond the scope of this blog - decides to use his power to deny civil rights to other gay people sparks an ethical dilemma.
Can a person so obviously conflicted by his sexuality and who has acted on that pain by punishing other gay people in his official capacity ever hold the public's trust?
How is Ashburn any different from a politician that lies or uses his public office for personal benefit (in this case in order to seem straighter than an arrow)?
To be clear, the issue is not about living a double life; that is his business.
But when Ashburn used his political power to deny civil rights to gay people, he was in fact covering up his real self for personal benefit - at the expense of the gay community and its fundamental right to equal protection under the law.
This may simply be a case of hypocrisy and hubris. Perhaps he thought that he could be a gay-basher during the day and a club dude at night and no one would be the wiser. But whatever his thoughts on the matter, Ashburn's official anti-gay bias can be rightly questioned.
In matters of public service, personal gain (if that is what he got from being a gay-basher) is never acceptable.
Personal gain in politics is unethical, if pervasive, and at the root of the pernicious forces that are chipping away at our democratic system.
If Ashburn ever hopes to redeem himself, he should do the right thing and resign. He should get a really good therapist and work out his demons. He should spare his constituents any more dishonesty.
Here's Ashburn's post incident admission that he's gay and still able to represent his constituency:
Sure seems that way judging by the fevered, election-like pitch of the health care reform debate.
After a painful (pre-existing condition alert) year of bitter back and forth between both parties, Democrats have decided to push forward with a simple majority vote to approve their health care reform bill.
Ironically, if the Democrats pass the legislation (as is now generally assumed that they will do), Republicans will either have a tremendous defeat handed to them or a powerful weapon for the mid-term elections.
Democrats as well will be in a position to show that they can get Washington to work or, if the Republican narrative is successfully framed in the media and voters' minds, a huge vulnerability that the GOP will wield like a club as they head into this electoral cycle.
What's clear is that this mother of all battles, a fight to determine the fate of one of the signature issues of the Obama Presidency, will play out over the coming weeks - setting the stage for either a Republican takeover of Congress or Democratic dominance that could last a generation.
For President Barack Obama, the success of this final push will condition his ability to move forward with his lengthy agenda of reform and either position him for a 2012 re-election or fatally weaken him into premature lame duck status.
So all eyes on Washington as Obama and the Republicans battle it out for the future of the country.
Republican Congressman Congressman Parker Griffith, who recently switched from the Democratic Party, makes the case for why the health care reform bill "must be stopped":
Former Democratic Rep. Parker Griffith rocked the political world in December when he switched parties and announced he would seek re-election as a Republican.
And now, only a few months later, his decision has prompted an unlikely coalition to form that is opposed to his re-election.
Democrats, Republicans and politically likeminded groups aligned with both political parties announced they will protest a fundraiser scheduled for March 8, in Huntsville. The headliner: House Minority Leader John Boehner.
Huntsville Tea Party, Left In Alabama, Athens-Limestone Tea Party Patriots, AAMU Democrats Student Club, The Dale Jackson Show, North Alabama Healthcare for All, Madison County Republican Executive Committee, and the Limestone County Republican Executive Committee issued a joint statement Friday announcing their intent to protest.
The involved parties share a goal, but have vastly different motivations. The Huntsville Tea Party said they will use the event to send GOP leaders the message that Griffith isn't their first choice.
"We are sending a message to the national Republican establishment: stay out of our primary," said Christie Carden, founder of the Huntsville Tea Party. "We also want to support the true conservative candidates that Tea Party activists and the local GOP have gotten behind ... We're pushing back against the political machine."
On the other side of the aisle, the AAMU Democrats Student Club took a swing at Griffith for abandoning the Democratic Party.
Democratic Party chairman Tim Kaine said Wednesday he expects the health care overhaul will be passed and he's not worried about Republican threats to make it a premier issue in this year's midterm elections.
In a nationally broadcast interview, the former Virginia governor said, "If they want to run a campaign of bring back the day of kicking people off because of pre-existing conditions, I relish it."
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., had declared Tuesday that Democrats will enact the medical system reset at their own political peril, vowing to make it an issue in every congressional race this fall.
Here's Kaine on the potential impact to the Democrats in the election:
Obama has called on Congress to vote on the long-debated plan in the coming weeks. His Press Secretary Gibbs said he thinks the House is on track to approve the Senate-passed health bill by March 18, though action on a "reconciliation" bill to make adjustments to the Senate-approved bill could take longer.
Republicans accuse Obama of attempting to "ram through" a bill that the public opposes. In the Republican's weekly address, Rep. Parker Griffith (R-Ala.), a physician who switched parties in December, renewed the GOP demand for Obama to move incrementally.
"Republicans understand that the right way to fix health care is with a step-by-step approach focused on lowering costs," he said.
In his remarks, Obama criticized Republicans for demanding that he scrap the effort and start over.
"The insurance companies aren't starting over," he said. "I just met with some of them on Thursday and they couldn't give me a straight answer as to why they keep arbitrarily and massively raising premiums - by as much as 60 percent in states like Illinois. If we do not act, they will continue to do this."
Obama said that the changes would also require health plans to offer free preventive care to their customers, while ending limits on the amount of care people receive.
"If we act now, all of this will happen this year," Obama said. "Millions of lives will improve. Some will be saved. Many families and small business owners will have health insurance for the very first time in their lives. Doctors and patients will have more control over their health care decisions, and insurance company bureaucrats will have less. This future is within our grasp."
In his weekly address, the President pushes for a "final" majority vote for the bill:
From the White House's web site, a list of benefits of the President's health care reform bill:
Here are a few more points about how health insurance reform measures will benefit Americans this year:
Hold Insurance Companies Accountable:
Eliminate lifetime limits and restrictive annual limits on benefits in all new plans;
Prohibit rescissions of health insurance policies in all individual plans;
Prohibit pre-existing condition exclusions for children in all new plans;
Require premium rebates to enrollees from insurers with high administrative expenditures and require public disclosure of the percent of premiums applied to overhead costs;
Establish a process for the annual review of unreasonable increases in premiums, requiring State insurance commissioners to work with the HHS Secretary and States.
Protect Consumers:
Provide grants to States to support health insurance consumer assistance and ombudsman programs to help consumers;
Ensure consumers have access to an effective internal and external appeals process to appeal new insurance plan decisions;
Require all insurance plans to use uniform coverage documents so consumers can make easy comparisons when shopping for health insurance;
Establish an internet portal to assist Americans in identifying coverage options;
Prohibit insurers from discriminating in favor of highly compensated employees by charging them lower premiums.
Ensure Affordable Choices and Quality Care:
Provide immediate access to insurance for uninsured Americans who are uninsured because of a pre-existing condition through a temporary high-risk pool;
Create a temporary re-insurance program for early retirees;
Require new plans to cover an enrollee’s dependent children until age 26;
Require new plans to cover preventive services and immunizations without cost-sharing;
Offer tax credits to small businesses to purchase coverage;
Facilitate administrative simplification to lower health system costs.
While these data are cold comfort for the millions of American families without a steady job, the process of recovery seems to have taken hold.
These economic positive signs are also relevant politically. The upcoming mid-term elections are likely to be played out through the evolving economic situation.
And for the American public, of course, an improving economy will be great news indeed as we emerge from one of the most painful recessions in history.
U.S. employers cut fewer jobs than expected during snow-battered February and the unemployment rate held steady at 9.7 percent, bolstering views the economy was on the brink of creating jobs.
President Barack Obama, whose approval ratings have dropped partly because of high unemployment, said the figures showed measures his administration took to boost the economy were working but that unemployment was still too high.
Nonfarm payrolls fell 36,000, the Labor Department said on Friday, adding it was unclear how the severe snowstorms that hit much of the country last month had affected employment.
Financial markets had expected payrolls to drop 50,000 in February and the unemployment rate to edge up to 9.8 percent.
"If we did not have bad weather, then this number would have been solidly positive. It tells me the economy and the jobs market have evolved to the point where we are now ready to produce jobs," said Phil Orlando, chief equity market strategist at Federated Investors in New York.
The government’s monthly snapshot of the job market found that another 36,000 jobs disappeared in February — hardly cause for a celebration.
Yet compared to the monthly losses of more than 650,000 jobs a year ago, and against a backdrop of recent news that increased the possibility of a slide back into recession, most economists construed the report as an improvement.
“It’s strikingly good,” said Dean Baker, a director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research in Washington, who has been notably skeptical of signs of a recovery in recent months. “It’s much better than it had been looking.”
Some economists suggested that the report would look even better were it not for heavy snowstorms that blanketed major cities in February, keeping would-be job seekers at home and slowing business, particularly construction. Most experts now expect job losses will give way to gains in the spring, as still cautious American employers edge gingerly back toward hiring.
“We’re still losing jobs in the economy, but it’s down to a trickle,” said Stuart G. Hoffman, chief economist at PNC Financial Services Group in Pittsburgh. “We’re finally going to reach the turning point where we go from job losses to job gains.”
From the White House, a look at the unemployment situation over the last three years:
Although the labor market remains severely distressed, today’s report on the employment situation is consistent with the pattern of stabilization and gradual labor market healing we have been seeing in recent months.
The unemployment rate remained constant at 9.7 percent. Many had expected that some of January’s 0.3 percentage point decline would prove to be a transitory drop. That it was maintained for a second month makes it more likely that it was a genuine decline, not statistical noise. The number of workers unemployed for more than 26 weeks fell by 180,000, the first decline in over a year.
Payroll employment declined by 36,000, slightly more than last month. However, as many analysts have discussed in recent weeks, the large snowstorms in the Mid-Atlantic region in mid-February likely had a substantial negative impact on this number. Someone who has a job but missed the entire pay period that included the 12th of the month because of the weather, and so did not receive a paycheck, is not counted as being on the payroll. The Council of Economic Advisers estimates that the impact of bad weather on the February employment number was likely substantially negative. Importantly, negative weather effects this month would be expected to be counteracted next month, as workers who temporarily disappeared from payrolls because of the snow are once again counted. In addition, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, temporary Census employment was an unusual factor adding about 15,000 to the payroll employment total in February. Census employment is expected to rise substantially over the next few months, before declining again over the summer as the Census is completed.
Of course, an unemployment rate of 9.7 percent is unacceptably high and we need to achieve robust employment growth in order to recover from the terrible job losses that began over two years ago. That is why it is essential that Congress pass additional responsible measures to promote job creation. It is also vital that we continue to support those struggling with unemployment.
As always, it is important not to read too much into any individual data release, positive or negative. Because of the disruptions from the weather, this is especially true of today’s employment data. Although the overall trajectory of the economy has improved dramatically over the past year and appears to be continuing to improve, there will surely continue to be bumps in the road ahead.
Tuesday, March 9, 2010 at 8:07AM 
It sounds a bit like a scene from the 1950's. 
