Good for Governor Newsom

 Today the governor of California, Gavin Newsom, denied parole to RFK murderer Sirhan B. Sirhan, who has been in prison for over fifty years in connection with the assassination.  This was in the news because two of RFK's children had supported his parole while almost all of the rest of them, plus RFK's widow, Ethel, were adamantly opposed.

A snip of what Newsom had to say when he denied Sirhan parole:

California’s Board of Parole Hearings recently found that Sirhan is suitable for parole. I disagree. After carefully reviewing the case, including records in the California State Archives, I have determined that Sirhan has not developed the accountability and insight required to support his safe release into the community. I must reverse Sirhan’s parole grant.

Kennedy’s assassination not only changed the course of this nation and robbed the world of a promising young leader, it also left his 11 children without a father and his wife without a husband. Kennedy’s family bears his loss every day. Millions of Americans lost a unifier in a time of national turmoil and grief, just nine weeks after the assassination of the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., and four-and-a-half years after the murder of Kennedy’s brother, President John F. Kennedy.

It was a crime against the United States and denied the American voter a choice. Sirhan can rot in prison for the rest of his miserable life.

Gavin Newsom's Proclamation Can Be Found

right here.

It is similar to what is being dictated in San Francisco, and it could be an overreach on people's civil liberties, considering there are so few cases in a state with nearly 40 MILLION people.

The only reason there is so much attention and overreaction by elected officials about this virus is because it is wealthy people who brought this disease to the United States in the first place.  This includes celebrities and others who could afford to travel all over the world and pick this virus up.  Note in poor,  third world countries, Iran excepted, there are very, very few cases.  It is almost entirely wealthy, industrialized countries that are hit with this virus, and even so, only about a quarter million cases have been reported since late last year.

It is kind of the same thing with AIDS back in the 1980s.  Nobody  in power truly gave a shit about the gay men, the Haitians, the drug users sharing needles,  and the people needing blood transfusions until celebrities like Rock Hudson and Liberace got sick and died.  Then all of a sudden, tons of money started flowing in for research, and eventually treatments came about to successfully hold HIV at bay.  You have people like Magic Johnson who announced he had HIV nearly THIRTY years ago still alive thanks to these discoveries and treatments.  These days, we don't hear much about AIDS at all; in fact, it isn't called AIDS anymore but HIV.

So, too, will happen here with the coronavirus, COVID-19.  It is being hyped because the "desirable" people are getting sick, and everybody else has to modify their lives in some remote chance they will get sick with it.

If this article is true, then it is pretty stark how the rich and the poor are treated.

Thanks to Destructive Measures

such as Proposition 13, it is becoming increasingly apparent California is becoming ungovernable.

The voters tossed Gray Davis on his ass over the state's mess, but Arnold Schwarzenegger has not been able to reverse course. The state may well be unfixable. If it is, then the entire country is hopeless.

As for Gavin Newsom, he doesn't have a chance in hell; his big mouth about same-sex marriage guaranteed it.

California Political Nonsense

It is official, I guess. Gavin "Like It or Not" Newsom has announced he is running for governor.
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California Politics

The move is on for a successor to Arnold Schwarzenegger, including talk of Gavin Newsom running for the governorship, although it is clear to yours truly his political future after Proposition 8 is essentially DOA:

Newsom, 41, youthful and dynamic, helped trigger the debate over same-sex marriage in 2004 when he authorized marriage licenses for homosexual couples. He presided over gay and lesbian weddings and gave the speech that became notorious when backers of Proposition 8 ran a TV ad with a video of a wild-eyed Newsom crowing that there would be gay marriages "whether you like it or not."

Speaking to reporters on the day after the election, Newsom said he was not concerned about the issue's potential effect on his career.

"It's trivial and irrelevant," the mayor said. "It was never about me. It's not about politicians. This is about people. It's about real human beings."

Larry Gerston, a professor of political science at San Jose State University, agreed that video of Newsom's "Howard Dean moment" could hurt him in a general election, but he said the mayor's same-sex marriage stand might boost him in a Democratic primary.

"It could even be a badge of honor," Gerston said.

It doesn't do any good to win a primary if one can't win the general election. Newsom's "Dean scream" moment sealed it for him.

More Proposition 8

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is very disappointed Proposition 8 passed, and she felt she had to defend Mayor Gavin Newsom from deserved criticism over his actions which contributed mightily to its passage.

While there are court challenges to this, I don't think there is much the opponents of 8 can do about it. Proposition 8 is part of the California constitution, and it would seem to me, thinking about the Volstead Act which began prohibition, the only way a constitutional amendment can be overruled is by another amendment. The courts can't do anything about it; they are not in the business of repealing constitutional amendments. That's what happened with the Volstead Act (the 18th Amendment); it was repealed by another constitutional amendment (the 21st Amendment). I don't know if Prop 8 could be challenged at the USSC level, but unfortunately, the USSC wouldn't touch the issue with a ten-mile pole.

Supporters of same-sex marriage in California are shit out of luck, I'm afraid, without having their own initiative repealing it put to a vote. And there's no chance whatsoever of it passing at this time.

Foot-in-Mouth Politics

Gavin Newsom really needs to shut up. The more he talks about same-sex marriage, the worse his chances for any political future:

Newsom says he’s optimistic because only 52 percent of voters favored Proposition 8, compared with 62 percent of voters who favored a ban on same-sex marriage in 2000.

Speaking to reporters in his office, the mayor says he sees hope in “the millions and millions of Californians who said it’s wrong to take rights away from people.”

It's Newsom's fault all right:

As San Francisco and the blue state majority of California nurse their election euphoria hangover, let's point out the obvious about the passage of Prop. 8:

Gavin Newsom screwed it up.

Voters are the ones who make the decision but no one person handed the Yes on 8 campaign a more persuasive and compelling sound bite than our own mayor. Even if there were other flaws in the anti-8 operation, he was unquestionably the poster child for the pro-8 push, whether you like it or not.

"Whether you like it or not" will be his epitaph.

California's Proposition 8, Same-Sex Marriage Ban [Updated]

So far with 95 percent of precincts reporting, the ban is passing. This doesn't surprise me. Minorities who came out in droves to vote for Obama also often supported the ban. Blacks and hispanics have closer church ties in general than whites (hence Obama's shameless pandering to black evangelicals in the SC primary campaign using an anti-gay spokesperson).

Anyway, I understand the feeling. It doesn't necessarily mean people are bigots or religious fascists as much as they feel this is being forced on them and they're tired of it; they feel sometimes gays are too much in their faces. That isn't a nice thing to say, but the feelings are real (read many of the comments on the Chronicle's website regarding this). The attitude is this: "I don't care what they do as long as they don't shove it down my throat." It's similar to people's attitudes about religion.

This post from the Chronicle's comments sums it up:

Like it or not. Isnt that your battle cry? The people have spoken, yet again in California, so deal with it. But this amendment to the state constitution is no where near the end. You SP's will never stop with the gay agenda. You have equal protection in the state and you just want a title chang. If the gay movement (see Newsom) was more humble and not so in your face about it I think many Californians would have a different outlook about so called gay rights. Today is a great day for humanity. Like it or not Newsom.

As the comment illustrates, a LOT of people were pissed off with SF Mayor Gavin Newsom's speech about same-sex marriage:



That could have done the trick if the measure passes. Many, though, think the measure will be declared unconstitutional.

There are still many ballots to count, however, and it could ultimately fail:

Election officials estimated there could be as many as 2 million ballots left to count after election day, mainly from mail ballots that arrived Tuesday.

Supporters of the ban stayed cautiously optimistic.

"We're confident voters did go to the polls to vote 'yes' to protect traditional marriage," said Chip White, a spokesman for the Prop. 8 campaign.

Similar bans were passed in Arizona and Florida.

I have long felt this country wasn't really ready for same-sex marriage; it's probably a couple of decades away at least.

Update: With 96 percent of the vote counted, the measure has officially passed, 52 percent to 48 percent.

I think Gavin Newsom's future political aspirations have just gone down the toilet.

Miscellaneous News

As far as I'm concerned, women who are in polygamous "marriages" are women and children who have been sexually abused and exploited.

Why is this even debatable?
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San Francisco mayor Gavin Newsom got married again to just one bride, of course.
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Why hell's bells, why should this guy even be allowed to live at all, let alone live independently?
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Washington gubernatorial loser Dino Rossi is plotting a rematch against incumbent Christine Gregoire.
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Spaniard Carlos Sastre has won the Tour de France. He is the third cyclist in a row from Spain to win the event.
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Campaign Notes.

The media are now working to take Hillary Clinton down in favor of Barack Obama, the one surefire loser in the GE.

Not that Hillary would have a chance, but she certainly would fare better than Barack.
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Edwards is going to come fighting down the homestretch in the Iowa Iowa caucuses.
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Here is is Wednesday, yet the NYT Magazine already has its Matt Bai article on Hillary Clinton up.
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Anybody who thinks they can pick the Republican nominee for president is probably full of shit.

It's impossible at this point.

I will, however, predict Tom Tancredo will not win the nomination.

I am surprised more Republican candidates haven't come to Nevada since they, too, moved up the caucus.
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The Edwards surge is, in fact, real.
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If I can remember and if the event doesn't take too long, I will attend the appearance by San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, who is campaigning on behalf of Hillary Clinton.
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After months of the political buzzards circling around his political carcass, is it possible John McCain's campaign is coming back to life?
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As the World Turns.

Actress and musical star Betty Hutton, famous in the 1940s and 1950s before living in obscurity, has died at the age of 86.

I remember her best in the 1944 Preston Sturges classic, The Miracle of Morgan's Creek, but she is probably better known for her musical roles, especially the title role in Annie Get Your Gun.

Hutton lived in Palm Springs in her last years. She had many personal problems at the peak of her popularity, and, like Louise Brooks, wound up in total obscurity for years, but like Brooks, didn't let the end of her career become the end of her life.

Some snips:

But her personal life was rocky at times, including four failed marriages, financial problems and difficulties between her and her three daughters. In a 1980 AP interview, Hutton said she had kicked a 20-year addiction to pills. ``Uppers, downers, inners, outers, I took everything I could get my hands on,'' she said.

She credited a Rhode Island priest, the Rev. Peter Maguire, with befriending her and turning her life around. She converted to Roman Catholicism. In 1986, she earned a liberal arts degree from Salve Regina College, in Newport, R.I., commenting that she liked college because ``the kids studying there accepted me as one of them.''

``Practically all the stars are in trouble,'' she recalled telling the priests she met in Rhode Island. ``You happen to see me talking honestly to you. It's a nightmare out there! It hurts what we do in our private lives.''

When Maguire died in 1996, she said, ``It was just so painful to me, I couldn't handle it. My kids all live in California, so I decided to come back here.''

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Mayor Newsom's girlfriend needs to keep her mouth shut.
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