I am officially the new Vice President of External Affairs at Planned Parenthood of Southern Arizona, effective December 19.

I will be responsible for and have oversight of the agency's marketing, communications, media advocacy, public policy agenda, and education program.

So go me.

Labels: career, hope, jobs, personal

I have been offered the position of Vice President of External Affairs at Planned Parenthood of Southern Arizona. I plan to accept the position. After four years at the Southern Arizona Center Against Sexual Assault and about six years overall in the anti-rape field, it's time for me to move on. Needless to say, this is an opportunity for me ripe with possibilities. Thanks to all my readers who were references and moral supporters.

And if you're not too busy on Friday night and want to help me celebrate, some of us will be gathering at the B Line on Fourth Avenue in Tucson around 5:30-6:00 PM.

Labels: career, hope, jobs, personal

All right!

How can I resist a chance to invoke boy band mania?

The point of this post is that the Blogger Beta bug that halted this slice of cyberspace from appearing on LeftyBlogs has now been fixed by LeftyBlogs.

Thanks LeftyBlogs!

Now everyone go to LeftyBlogs to catch the latest and greatest in local e-punditry.

Labels: Blogger beta, boy bands, bugs, fixes, LeftyBlogs

I expect to have a major personal announcement to make on Monday or Tuesday of next week. Some of my more loyal readers already know what it probably is. I'm not keeping it a secret, and as sure a thing as it is at this point, nothing has been set in stone yet. So stay tuned...

Labels: career, hope, jobs, personal

Now that the sore losers at CAP have finally conceded that their hate amendment failed, opponents of the pernicious proposition can proceed with their post-mortems. The first place to start might be looking at the exit polls, which CNN has graciously posted online. Some interesting but not very surprising results in that data.

Labels: CAP, exit polls, LGBT, movement-building, Prop 107

Capricorn (Dec 22 - Jan 19)

Your physical desires become a bit more complicated over these next weeks -- and today can foreshadow the complexity. It's not that you are more mysterious; rather, you just aren't satisfied with the practical mechanics that appear on the surface. You have a deeper vision of what love might be and want to manifest your ideal. If you can't, your tendency might be to slip into fantasies and make it seem real in your imagination.

Well fuck.

Former Bush Health and Human Services Secretary and Wisconsin Governor Tommy Thompson is throwing his hat into the ring of potential 2008 Republican candidates for President.

Reason for voting for him:

More than 90 percent of spending on health care — roughly 16 percent of the gross national product — is for treating disease, while only about 8 percent is spent on prevention, Thompson said.

“To me that’s just backwards,” he said. “I want to try and transpose that.”

He's spot on with that assessment. Health care is the major domestic issue for me, and on this point I could not agree more.

Reasons for voting against him:

His tenure as HHS secretary was marked by anthrax attacks, a flu vaccine shortage and passage of the Medicare prescription law.

Incompetent governance seems to be the hallmark of the modern Republican party, and Secretary Thompson, if you'll pardon the health pun, is not immune. He may understand the issue, but his track record doesn't demonstrate that he is able to effectively address it.

And don't even get me started with McFaker.

Labels: Pres-08, primaries, Republicans

Cathi Herrod finally concedes that Prop 107 was defeated by the voters of Arizona. She also says she "would not change a word of the measure" and "no decision has been made whether to try again in two years".

If they try again in two years with identical wording, they'll face an identical demoralizing defeat.

I suspect they'll be playing defense two years hence to some kind of equal rights proposition put forth by the victorious grassroots crews that defeated CAP's hate amendment.

Labels: CAP, human rights, LGBT, Prop 107

Our vote margin in defeating Prop 107 continues to grow, now standing at more than 50,0000 votes. When will the haters finally concede?

I made the unfortunate decision to switch to Blogger Beta last week. First, my feeds won't post to LeftyBlogs, and now my newest YouTube video won't embed. Videos I added before the switch to the new beta are still intact, but the one I uploaded last night won't display. The code is all correct, so I think it's got to be something on Blogger's end. I know it's a beta, which means lots of bugs to still work out, but I sure hope they work out those bugs ASAP. Or at least give me the option of going back to the old format, where everything works as it should.

Labels: Blogger beta, bugs, LeftyBlogs, YouTube

Update: Click here to go to the YouTube page with the video that refuses to embed here. Stupid Blogger Beta.

Labels: history, hope, Howard Zinn, vlog

I've been following the daily updates of vote tallies on Prop 107. On election night, our margin of victory was about 30,000 votes. Today, that margin has expanded to almost 40,000. It's time for CAP to concede defeat and realize there's no way that their hate will win this round.

Labels: CAP, Prop 107

I didn't get to attend Creating Change this year (and I'm OK with that). But I do receive the daily updates via e-mail. I'm reproducing the following summary of the closing plenary speech in its entirety. I couldn't agree more with Ms. Ross. All emphases mine:

Creating Change 2006 closed out today with a passionate plenary speech by Loretta Ross, national coordinator and co-founder of SisterSong Reproductive Health Collective, who called on activists to work together to build a human rights movement.

Ross chastised both the right and the left for moving conversations about sex off the radar screen and espoused the need to “talk about the human right to sexual pleasure,” saying, “What does this whole concept of sexual rights mean? I’m not sure we’ve had that conversation yet in this country.” Noting that the first rape crisis center formed in 1972, she said that, in a very short period of time, we’ve changed the whole world: “Now we’ve got to do it again, but bigger.”

Ross expressed concern that we are “indulging in the excesses of identity politics” and engaging in separate and parallel social justice movements.

She said, “When people think many different ideas and move in one direction, that’s a movement. When people think the same idea and move in the same direction, that’s a cult. So we are building a movement or are we building cults?”

Continuing, Ross said, “While we’re fighting each other in our own Oppression Olympics, the neofascists and neoliberals are kicking our asses. They’re killing us. And only a united movement for all of our human rights will save us.”

She said when we fail to embrace a human rights framework, we ultimately cannot succeed.

Ross listed the eight categories of guaranteed human rights and pointed out how political developments such as the war in Iraq and the English-only movement directly violate them, saying that widespread ignorance of our human rights serves only those who already have power over us: “As long as [the government] can treat us as the undeserving people claiming things that aren’t ours, they can defang us our struggle.”

Ross insisted that we share one struggle despite our individual causes and said, “To the extent that you allow other people’s human rights to be violated, yours will be diminished too,” elaborating that we cannot do work against homophobia in a racist way, we cannot do antiracist work in a homophobic way, and so on.

Challenging us to “do what hasn’t been done before,” Ross urged everyone to “create change by building a new movement and calling it the human rights movement of America.”

Labels: Creating Change, human rights, LGBT, movement-building

Jan Brewer is still furiously counting absentee and provisional ballots in a futile attempt to close the gap on Prop 107, but the margin actually continues to expand the more ballots they tally. Poor Cathi Herrod...couldn't get a homophobic ballot initiative passed in Arizona...there goes that federal judgeship!

As the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force convenes their annual Creating Change conference this week, I was thinking about the incredible sense of camaraderie (not to mention infrastructure) that was built over the past two years working to defeat Prop 107 AND defeat the most noxious and hateful of the Congressional Republicans.

This would have been more appropriate a week ago, but a week ago I was neck deep in event planning. The following is one of my favorite speeches in all of Shakespeare's canon (the histories always have the best speeches - my audition monologue is one of Richard II's). A little trite, perhaps, but the spirit I think perfectly reflects the week we just had. We had some major wins and some painful losses (Props 100, 102, 103 and 300 are disgusting and I'm ashamed of Arizona voters for passing them and passing them by such wide margins), but we won and lost together. We will long hereafter look back on November 7, 2006, for better or worse, with a sense of pride about what we accomplished and what we set the stage to accomplish in the future.

Take it away, King Henry:

O, do not wish one more!
Rather proclaim it, Westmoreland, through my host,
That he which hath no stomach to this fight,
Let him depart. His passport shall be made,
And crowns for convoy put into his purse.
We would not die in that man's company
That fears his fellowship to die with us.
This day is call'd the feast of Crispian.
He that outlives this day, and comes safe home,
Will stand a tip-toe when this day is named,
And rouse him at the name of Crispian.
He that shall live this day, and see old age,
Will yearly on the vigil feast his neighbours,
And say, "To-morrow is Saint Crispian."
Then will he strip his sleeve and show his scars,
And say, "These wounds I had on Crispian's day."
Old men forget; yet all shall be forgot,
But he'll remember with advantages
What feats he did that day. Then shall our names,
Familiar in his mouth as household words,
Harry the King, Bedford, and Exeter,
Warwick and Talbot, Salisbury and Gloucester,
Be in their flowing cups freshly rememb'red.
This story shall the good man teach his son;
And Crispin Crispian shall ne'er go by,
From this day to the ending of the world,
But we in it shall be remembered,
We few, we happy few, we band of brothers.
For he to-day that sheds his blood with me
Shall be my brother; be he ne'er so vile,
This day shall gentle his condition;
And gentlemen in England now a-bed
Shall think themselves accurs'd they were not here,
And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks
That fought with us upon Saint Crispin's day.

Labels: CAP, Creating Change, LGBT, Prop 107, Shakespeare, Task Force

I started looking into grad school a few months ago, then let the idea slip for a few months as other priorities sprung up. Now I'm back to thinking about it again.

When I started thinking about graduate programs a few months ago, I was really into the Nonprofit Management Master's program at Milano The New School for Urban Policy and Management in NYC. In looking over the materials for that program again today, I find I'm far less enthused about it. I did notice in the Milano "give us all your money and we'll let you try to earn a degree" book that they offer some of their courses online.

Moving is a harrowing thought right now, though I would like to get out of Tucson and Arizona (despite the voters just rejecting that odious benefit ban). But with online courses, I could live just about anywhere, continue working and earning money to be able to afford to move, and make progress toward my graduate degree at a pace that is more comfortable.

So I went to The New School "Online Campus" website and they do actually offer one Master's Degree program both entirely online and on-campus.

The program is the
MA in Media Studies. Media studies is always something that has interested me. My undergrad degree is in Drama (no, seriously, that's completely without irony). Before I entered the Theatre Department, I was a Cinema and Photography major.

I guess this comes down to the age old question of what I want to be when I grow up.

So tell me, what do you think I should be? I welcome your thoughts, including all you lurkers who read but never comment and all you readers who I've never met but who somehow find your way here.

The bonus to all of this is now I have more to meditate on. Sweet.

According to this AP wire story at the Daily Star website, Plan B (the brand name for one of two emergency contraceptive medications) is on its way to Arizona pharmacies.

True to form, Fry's pharmacies will only be stocking limited supplies. As you may recall, a Fry's pharmacist earlier this year refused to dispense EC to a rape victim with a prescription in Tucson. Then the FDA finally approved over-the-counter sales for any woman age 18 or older.

While there's still an unnecessary and dangerous age limit on dispensing the drug, the FDA decision did remove at least one major barrier to access to appropriate healthcare for women.

Incidentally, Walgreen's is also reporting that they will carry a limited supply because "locally prescription sales of the pill have not been brisk". Well duh. Who's going to go to the doctor after a one-nighter to get a prescription? And most rape victims never seek treatment or report their assault. It's absolutely stupid of them to not carry at least a weeks-worth of packets as demand is sure to go up.

That's not to say that women will be having unprotected casual sex more than they already were. Much to the chagrin of the religious right, there's absolutely no scientific evidence to support that assertion.

It's just that now they have easier access another tool in their arsenal to prevent unwanted pregnancies that would be happening whether the pill is available over the counter or not.

Action to take: boycott Fry's and Walgreens until they agree to carry - and dispense - a reasonable stock of EC.

I'm not kidding now. If you haven't seen SHORTBUS yet (or even if you have), you have at least another week to get your ass down to The Loft and see it (or see it again).

I could go on all night poring over these results, but I do need to do a little meditating and get to bed.

This was a very good night for the Democrats up and down the board. I am, for the first time in my life - believe it or not - represented by a Democrat in Congress. And in Arizona, of all places, after having lived in two of the bluest states in the country most of my life. (Though I went to college and worked afterwards in Maurice Hinchey's upstate New York district, I actually lived in former Congressman Amo Houghton's district after I graduated).

Anyway, congratulations to the Giffords campaign and thank you for your tireless work over the past 11 months.

Every incumbent for statewide or federal office was re-elected (a mixed bag to be sure), EXCEPT J.D. Hayworth. Ha ha. That's about all I can say to that. Harry Mitchell is going to be a great servant of the people in the United States Congress, much like his fellow Democratic members of the Arizona delegation, which is now evenly split on the House side.

And the four most beautiful words in the English language tonight?

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi

And not that I particularly enjoy kicking people when they're down, but Len Munsil deserves it. For all his gay-baiting, xenophobia and fear-mongering, the voters of Arizona gave both him and his former employer a pretty harsh rebuke. Not only did we crush him in his race against Governor Napolitano, but the voters of this state rejected his hate-filled attempt to take away rights from Arizona's families.

In other words, and please pardon the vulgarity, but it's warranted: Len Munsil can suck my big fat...(you fill in the blank).

Doug Quelland has also lost in LD10.

Just...wow.

Laura Knaperek, the only woman in the committee that voted to initially kill the marital rape repeal last year (before they ressurected it) has lost her seat in the state House.

One more notch in the Dem's belts. Or headboards. Or whatever.

Looks like both Mark Anderson and Russel Pearce have been re-elected. Democrat Tammy Pursley ran a strong campaign, but it was an uphill battle from the start in a deeply Republican district. Tammy's loss is a loss for the entire state of Arizona.

It looks like Warde Nichols is within about 70 votes of being put out to pasture.

Nichols, who represents the district my parents live in, notoriously initially voted to kill the marital rape repeal in committee last year by claiming that "everyone knows" that a woman forfeits all her rights to determine when she will consent to have sex when she signs her marriage contract.

If Democrat Hettsmansperger can maintain that lead in the remaining precinct, it will be good riddance to bad rubbish.

Now that Steve Farley has been elected to join David Bradley in representing me in LD28, I will never again have to be embarassed by either of my State Representatives.

Thanks for your service, Ted, but please don't come a-knockin' anymore.

Toni Hellon's loss in the LD26 primary was perhaps one of the biggest and most painful shockers, even for us Democrats. Toni oozes integrity and her defeat by absolutely regressive conservative Al Melvin in her Republican primary was just nauseating.

That makes tonight's win by Democrat Charlene Pesquiera all the more sweet.

The same can be said for the House race, where Pete Hershberger, another moderate Republican with a ton of integrity, will be joined by newly-elected Democratic Representative Lena Seradnik. I was sad to see my friend Lisa Lovallo lose to David Jorgenson in the Republican primary, but this result makes up for that.

We just called it. The first-ever defeat of an anti-gay marriage ballot proposition in the country.

Simply incredible.

Kudos to No on 107.

Those were the words of US Congressman Jim Kolbe just now speaking to the crowd at the No on 107 party.

Don't really love the guy, but he makes a nice turn of phrase.

I've been instructed by my pseudo-twin Miriam to give an update on Prop 107, the so-called "Protect Marriage" amendment.

The good news is that right now it's going down by about 3 percentage points.

The not so good news is that Maricopa County won't release their early ballot results until 10:45 P.M. local time and the Neanderthals at the Center for Arizona Policy won't concede till then.

One thing's for sure: it's been a very bad night for Lenny Munsil. The creep deserves everything he's getting tonight. Maybe Ted Haggard can give him some advice on how to unwind.

I've been put to work checking on all 20 ballot referendums for the gathering here at Central Bistro. Haven't had much time to comment. More later...

The numbers are looking good right now for the first defeat in the country of an anti-equality ballot measure, with No on 107 ahead by 8,000 votes in the most populous county in Arizona and 51.4% of the vote reported statewide.

But there was definitely a line, albeit a short one, at Precinct 216 (on Pima between Craycroft and Wilmot) around 9:30 this morning.

I didn't witness any problems, but then most of the people voting were older and white, so not the traditional targets for disenfranchisement.

I zoomed through my ballot (including writing in Sam Schwartz for State Mine Inspector - I'm serious about that one!). People who arrived before me were still standing in their booths by the time I filled in all my little circles. I definitely did my homework before I went in, and I didn't need to bring my sample ballot or any other cheat sheet with me.

As I put my ballot in the machine on my way out, the man staffing it asked, "you've done this before?"

I grinned and replied, "once or twice."

I love election day.

I know I said I'd post about the election yesterday, but I needed a day off and I (more or less) took it. Yay for self care!

The headline of this post refers to the fact that I received exactly 0 candidate calls or direct mail pieces about candidates between the primary and today. What's up with that? Before the primary, I was getting a phone call every half hour on the half hour (or so it seemed), in addition to a deluge of direct mail.

I have received plenty of direct mail about several of the ballot propositions, but nothing about any candidates. My mind was made up as soon as primary night was over, so it's not like any of that would have had any influence on me anyway. I also live in an apartment complex, which is usually the first to be taken off a list of direct mail targets.

I also only have a cell phone as my home phone, unlisted of course, and I'm on the Do Not Call Registry. Still, they had my number and used it for the primary. Just seems odd that nobody wants my vote as much in the general.

I'm going to hop in the shower, get dressed and head down the block to my polling place (the Tucson Boy's Chorus, which always puts a smile on my face for some reason). I'll probably circulate to a couple of the various parties and gatherings around town tonight (bloggers at Trident, No on 107 at Central Bistro, etc.). I may bring the laptop to liveblog from those places that have hotspots.

Please make sure you go vote today. If you need a ride to your polling place, I'm happy to volunteer. If you want to talk propositions, I never got around to posting my recommendations, but I'm happy to discuss those too.

Bottom line: just go cast your ballots with the best information you have.

Oh yeah, and write in Sam Schwartz for State Mine Inspector. Sure he knows nothing about mines or inspecting, but he's a Democrat and the Republicans haven't exactly distinguished themselves in the area of mine safety (Sago anyone?).

Remember, remember the fifth of November,
Gunpowder Treason and Plot,
I see no reason why gunpowder treason
Should ever be forgot.

I'm just going to be preoccupied through tomorrow. I'll post some election-related thoughts on Monday. Feel free to continue hijacking my threads with election-related comments till then.