Ballots are due in a week for the May, 2007 special election on May 15. This is a very important election for the struggling Portland Public Schools. The Vicki Phillips era is thankfully ending, and two of her major supporters have worthy opponents in the race. I’ve already gone on record in my support of Neighborhood Schools Alliance founder Ruth Adkins, who is running against Phillips’ cheerleader Doug Morgan.

I’m also throwing my hat in the ring for Michele Schulz, who is challenging another Phillips supporter, David Wynde.

Victories for Schulz and Adkins will be a major win for the children of Portland, which is to say the future of Portland. Both represent grass-roots, community based ideas, and both represent a positive change from leadership that has given us the Jeferson Cluster debacle, fast-track school closures and radical school reconfiguration, all with token (if any) community involvement.

Please vote soon so that you don’t forget. As I mentioned in an earlier post of the subject, even if you just skip the city charter change questions, just mark the ballot for these two candidates and stick it in the mail. It’s that important!

With Oregon’s passage today of domestic partnership legislation, I join the celebration with thirteen cartoons on the topic. (Most of these are from the New Yorker, and I’ve just used text links for them. They’re worth clicking, and you can buy prints and t-shirts, etc.)

Again, congratulations to all the couples who will soon be able to enjoy the rights that hetero couples have long taken for granted. It is one small step, but a very significant one.

1. Here’s the New Yorker cartoon Wacky Mommy referenced on my post earlier today: “Gays and lesbians aren’t a threat to the sanctity of my marriage. It’s all the straight women who sleep with my husband.”

2. “Gays and lesbians getting married–haven’t they suffered enough?”

3. “So if you’re the best man at a gay wedding, is that like being first runner-up?”

4. “No, but I do think there should be a law against no-sex marriage.”

5. “There’s nothing wrong with our marriage, but the spectre of gay marriage has hopelessly eroded the institution.”

6. “Sometimes I think you only married me for the political statement.”

7. “I’m sorry, Jim. I love you, but I hate Vermont.”

8. “You knew I was straight when you married me.”

9. “I wouldn’t marry you if you were the last gay person on earth!”

10. “Relax, Captain Bush says he’s gonna ban gay marriage.”

11. “Our family is getting clobbered…”

12. “The nation is crumbling! amend the constitution!”

13.

And we’re gonna get… uh, domestic partnered…

The Oregon legislature has finalized legislation to set up a system under which same-sex couples will enjoy the legal benefits of marriage. While this is a sort of “separate but equal” treatment for gays and lesbians, it at least gives all citizens equal footing under state law regarding child custody, insurance, inheritance, visitation in the hospital, etc. Governor Ted Kulongoski has said he will sign the bill into law.

As a happily married heterosexual, I’ve always been baffled by the notion that gay marriage is a threat to “traditional” marriage. How in the world could my marriage be threatened by allowing other loving couples to enjoy similar benefits?

Congratulations to all those who worked long and hard for this small step forward on the road to equal rights for all citizens.

Today is a good day to reflect on all the good tidings brought to us by the labor movement. The eight-hour work day. The weekend. Child labor laws.

We should also reflect on the fact that in much of the world, workers do not enjoy these benefits. And let’s not forget that workers’ rights in the US have been under siege over the last few decades, with serious erosion of the right to organize in the work place, as well as in pay and benefits. We work longer hours for less pay than we did 30 years ago, and job security is non-existent.

The gap between obscene salaries paid to CEOs and regular workers just keeps getting wider, and is mirrored by the gap between take-home pay and bills most of us are accustomed to.

So consider this, working people of the world: We are the vast majority of humanity. The wealthiest two percent of the world, the idle rich, cannot control things without our consent (witting or subconscious). The power is ours, but only if we gather our voices in solidarity and cry “ENOUGH!”

Here’s a little history lesson from the IWW on this International Workers’ Day 2007. Have a great day, but take a moment to remember the people who died so that you can enjoy your weekend, send your kids to school instead of the factory, and be home in time for supper.

Ballots are arriving for the May special election in Portland. Don’t forget to vote for Ruth Adkins for school board! Ruth represents an opportunity for a fresh start and a new direction at Portland Public Schools. Even if you don’t vote for anything else on the ballot, please mark this one and drop it in the mail. With the departure of Vicki Phillips and the district in near chaos, we need Adkins’ vision, leadership and common sense more than ever.

Hi guys! You know what day it is, right? It’s 4:20! Party on, dude!

But seriously, folks, 4:20 entered the common vernacular some time after I was introduced to the (ahem) alternative culture it references. The Urban Dictionary has quite a few competing theories about the origin of the term, and Wikipedia has it in a more organized form.

On a serious note, it is a good time to reflect on the war that’s been forgotten in the shadow of the nonsensical “Global War On Terror”, the war on casual drug users. A recent study published last month in the Lancet finds pot less hazardous than booze or tobacco, and it’s well known that many of our leaders have at least “tried” pot (whether or not they inhaled). At least in Oregon, it’s not criminal to hold an ounce or less for personal use. But the US still has a ridiculous number of citizens in prison for personal use of recreational drugs.

While it’s obviously not a good idea to inhale too much of any kind of smoke, marijuana has well-known therapeutic effects. I don’t think it merits too much political capital (i.e. I’m not going to spend my life campaigning for NORML). But a little common sense in our nation’s drug policy would save lives, money and frustration for millions of otherwise law abiding, productive citizens.

Anyway, have a happy 4/20, and don’t forget to inhale.

I told Wacky Mommy, if Che had been Canadian, he’d have been out at the rink with the guys, smacking pucks around. She thinks I’m nuts.

So I thought I’d make a t-shirt design with Che as a skater. It would say something like “Left Winger”. But it turns out Cafe Press will have nothing to do with selling images of Che, at least not that one famous one in particular. Back in 2000, Alberto Diaz Gutierrez (a.k.a. Alberto Korda) claimed copyright to the famous image which is based on his original photograph. There’s a lot of convoluted debate about fair use, not to mention the fact that Fidel never signed on to international copyright accords. Nevertheless, Korda successfully claimed copyright in British court, and stopped Smirnoff from using the image in a vodka ad. Which I think is a good thing. (Korda said it never bothered him when people used the image in solidarity with Cuba, just when it was used against Cuba or to sell something. Which I guess is what I wanted to do, so…..)

So since Cafe Press said no, and my research made me feel a little guilty about wanting to sell t-shirts with that (ahem) maybe a tad tasteless image, my wacky shirt idea has transformed into a minor site redesign. Hope you like it, and find the irony in it. In case you don’t, here is my Thursday Thirteen, all about irony.

1. Che probably never played hockey. But he looks good on skates, no?
2. I am a pacifist, and this is an anti-war site. Yet Che Guevara made his name as a warrior.
3. I am a vegetarian, pacifist hockey addict.
4. The longer I live the more I see the pure, unadulterated truth that lies at the heart of every contradiction.
5. I’m a socialist, yet I sell crap on my crappy Web site.
6. I don’t think I’m going to make it
7. to thirteen tonight.
8. And I hope you don’t care
9. if I just go to bed
10. and bid you farewell
11. and
12. Good
13. night.

It’s not a great time to be a Bush fan in America, as evidenced by near rock-bottom approval ratings (even before the Libby verdict was read). As the wheels start to fall off of the Bush administration, I thought it would be appropriate to take stock of the state of things. So here are just a few things that aren’t going so hot for our Chimp in Chief.

1. Scooter Libby, Dick Cheney’s former #1 confidant and adviser, is a convicted liar and obstructer of justice. Libby was one of the highest ranking and most influential members of the Bush administration, and his trial and conviction have exposed criminal corruption all the way to the top of the Bush administration. There can be no doubt, from testimony given and evidence presented, that Scooter Libby lied to take the fall for Dick Cheney and Karl Rove (and ultimately Bush). Juan Cole has an excellent illustrated history of the Cheney/Rove/Libby/Wilson affair.
2. If congress convenes hearings about the Valerie Wilson affair, the malfeasance of all major administration figures could be cast in a most unflattering light.
3. The White House response to the Libby verdict of continued stonewalling has brought criticism from the most unlikely of places: Scott McLellan. The man most famous for his non-answers to the Washington press corps now says this: “I would be advising the White House to get out there and find some way to talk about this in enough detail to answer some of questions that . . . are still hanging out there.”
4. Oversight. The firing of federal prosecutors for questionable reasons (to put it in the best possible light) is just the beginning of what real congressional oversight will bring to light. That’s government working, folks.
5. The mistreatment of wounded soldiers at DOD and VA hospitals has shown the flagrant disregard the Bush administration has for our troops. It also further exposes the lack of planning that went into the war in Iraq. All administration predictions had it ending long ago. Remember, we were going to be greeted as liberators! Flowers and candy bars! USA! USA! Somehow Bush didn’t plan on there being a little something called civil war erupting between ethnic factions once the strong man was gone. (Somehow the neocons neglected to read any history of the region before trying to remake it to their liking.)
6. Iraq is going from bad to worse. More attacks every day in a growing civil war, and Bush remains in denial, committed to sending still more troops to fight and die in what most Americans now view as an unwinnable war.
7. Which brings us to polls. The USA Today/Gallup Poll published Monday shows a solid majority of nearly two-thirds disapprove of Bush’s handling of his job as president.
8. 59% of Americans believe going into Iraq was a mistake.
9. Only 28% of Americans have any confidence the US will “win” in Iraq.
10. Fully 84% of Americans think we need to withdraw from Iraq.
11. One in five Americans think we should withdraw immediately.
12. The members of our armed services have been used, abused and stretched to the breaking point. Members of the National Guard and Reserve, citizen soldiers who signed up for a weekend a month and a few weeks a year have had their lives upended with repeated and extended tours of duty in war zones. With so many communities touched in some way by this extended morass, it’s not surprising that…
13. …only 13% of Americans think we should send more troops to Iraq.

If so many lives weren’t at stake, it might be enjoyable to see the chickens coming home to roost for the Bush administration. But the shameful truth is that they tipped off a series of events that have destroyed hundreds of thousands of lives. Millions of people will continue to be affected by the long-term devastation that the Bush doctrine has wrought.

This damage will take many years to repair. But perhaps things have bottomed out. It’s difficult to imagine things getting much worse under Bush, so maybe — just maybe — we are beginning to see signs of the pendulum swinging back in the other direction. We can only hope.

Portland was once admired among cities for the fact that the middle classes had not yet given up on its public schools. But after a series of ballot measures in the ’90s requiring severe property tax limitations, a major economic downturn, and a complete lack of leadership from two Democratic governors (not to mention a Republican state house with a strong libertarian bias against public anything), Portland’s public schools seem to be throwing in the towel.

Today, in part one, I focus on the funding crisis.
Read the rest of this entry »

Andy Borowitz makes the compelling (and amusing) case. Whether you agree or not, you’ve got to admit it takes deft skill to work Bush, Rumsfeld, Robert Gates, Roseanne, Scrappy Doo and Kareem Abdul Jabar into a blog entry.