Small victories

A frivolous and dangerous challenge to last year’s ruling by a gay federal judge that shot down the state’s ban on gay marriage has been tossed out.

Chief U.S. District Judge James Ware said former Chief Judge Vaughn Walker did not have to divulge whether he wanted to marry his own gay partner before he declared last year that voter-approved Proposition 8 was unconstitutional.

Lawyers for backers of the ban argued at a hearing Monday that Walker should have recused himself or disclosed his relationship because he and his partner stood to personally benefit from the verdict. Walker publicly revealed after he retired in February that he is in a 10-year relationship with a man. Rumors that he was gay had circulated before and after he presided over the trial in early 2010.

Ware said the ruling by Walker, who did not attend Monday’s hearing, raised important questions and called it the first case in which a judge’s same-sex relationship had led to calls for disqualification.

He said there probably were similar struggles when race and gender were the issues.

Just so the issue is clear: This ruling was not about same-sex marriage, but about the attempt to undercut judges. If the challenge had been upheld and Walker’s ruling was overturned, it would have made it impossible for gay judges to rule on gay issues — and opened the door for challenges to decisions made by black judges on racial issues, Latino judges on immigration issues, women judges on gender issues and so on.

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  • Read poetry at The Subterranean.
  • Certainties and Uncertainties a chapbook by Hank Kalet, will be published in November by Finishing Line Press. It can be ordered here.
  • Suburban Pastoral, a chapbook by Hank Kalet, available here.
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Everything is on the block

Maybe I should just accept it, but there is something unsavory about turning school property into an opportunity to make a buck.

South Brunswick approved a plan last night to allow advertising on its property, hoping it will lead to a boost in revenues that will allow the district to increase spending on education. The advertising initiative is allowed under a relatively new state law and is part of a historical trend in which public facilities are put of for sponsorship.

While the district has no plans to create, say, a Patch.com Field House or the AOL Elementary School, you have to wonder just how long it will be before we have that discussion.

  • Send me an e-mail.
  • Read poetry at The Subterranean.
  • Certainties and Uncertainties a chapbook by Hank Kalet, will be published in November by Finishing Line Press. It can be ordered here.
  • Suburban Pastoral, a chapbook by Hank Kalet, available here.
Email me at grassroots at comcast dot net.

Even lefties can be creeps

The list of politicians who have been caught publicly with their pants down extends beyond the usual family-values suspects and now includes a progressive Democrat. Anthony Weiner now joins the long list of elected creeps and he needs to be held just as accountable as Larry Craig, Chris Lee and the others.

  • Send me an e-mail. 
  • Read poetry at The Subterranean.  
  • Certainties and Uncertainties a chapbook by Hank Kalet, will be published in November by Finishing Line Press. It can be ordered here.  
  • Suburban Pastoral, a chapbook by Hank Kalet, available here.
    Email me at grassroots at comcast dot net.

    War powers should not be partisan issue

    Democrats in Congress ignored their responsibilities in military matters today when they failed to force the Obama administration to include the House of Representatives in it’s Libya deliberations.

    Republicans, playing their own partisan games, are at least nodding in the direction of constitutional limits on presidential war-making, though it is pretty clear based on recent history that this is about Obama and not the constitution.

    This partisan bickering is an affront. It should not matter who is in the White House or who runs Congress. It is the House of Representatives’ responsibility to take the nation into war, or keep the president from doing so.

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    The trouble with journalism

    Dean Baker at the Center for Economic Policy Research cuts to the chase in describing the failure of big-foot journalists in a post today to his blog.

    Basically, he says, journalism has been infected by the disease of he-said-she-said, allowing politicians to spout whatever nonsense they want because they know that none of the major media organizations will do anything to place their blathering in context.

    The Republicans blamed the economy’s weak job performance in May on the deficit and regulations. Is there any coherent story that they can tell on this or does the WSJ not care?

    Suppose the Republicans blamed the weak jobs numbers on the Chicago Bulls loss in the NBA semi-finals. Would this also just be repeated without comment. How about if they blamed it on the color purple? Sure, it’s just a he said/she said world.

    For the record, if a serious person made this argument then they would back it up with evidence. For example, firms that make longer hiring commitments would be doing less hiring than firms in industries with rapid turnover. (Try to explain the loss of temp jobs in May.) We should also see a big increase in average hours worked, since this does not require any commitment by employers. (We don’t.)

    You’d have thought we’d learn from all the times this failure has led to disaster — the war in Iraq, the economic meltdown and subsequent stagnation — but we haven’t. Baker again:

    If reporters did their jobs, politicians would actually have to make coherent arguments when they talked about the economy, instead of just saying whatever nonsense advanced their political agenda.

    It’s not an issue of bias, after all; it’s just laziness.

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