Or maybe you’ve been the victim of rape or incest. Maybe it was nothing more dire than a broken condom or missed pill. Maybe you did everything you could possibly do to take care of yourself, and you still got pregnant. And for whatever reason (and really, your reasons are no one’s business but your own) you can’t go through with the pregnancy. What happens next?

It’s been barely three months since we were facing the very real possibility of a federal shutdown. And shockingly, it wasn’t over jobs or the economy, but sex and a woman’s right to choose the best course of action for her own life. It was about undermining a woman’s very basic right to safe, affordable, and accurate health care. The right to contraceptive services, sex education, STI and HIV testing, cervical and breast cancer screenings, and prenatal care. And of course, the right to abortion.

Here’s the thing—and this seems to get lost amidst a lot of self-aggrandizing conservative rhetoric and moralistic hand-wringing—abortion is safe. Safer than giving birth, even!—and one of the most common medical procedures in the country. What’s more, what’s absolutely huge, in fact, is that every public dollar spent on family planning services actually saves three dollars in Medicaid costs for what would otherwise have gone to expensive pre and neonatal care. Teen pregnancy actually cost U.S. taxpayers almost $11 billion in 2008—not a fact you hear the GOP spouting on the House floor. Eleven billion dollars. That’s a hell of a lot of money that, if it wasn’t simply going down the drain, we might be able to use to fund all kinds of good stuff like our public school systems, or literacy programs, or even smart and savvy sex education so those aforementioned teenage baby mamas actually have the resources and knowledge at their disposal to—wait for it—have safe, respectful, exciting sex and not get pregnant! Novel, I know.

But then we have stand-up guys like New Hampshire executive councilor Raymond Wieczorek saying he’s not going to pay for our “condom parties” (though he definitely doesn’t like abortions either), which pretty much means low-income women lose access to contraception, and hey, now we have more babies the state needs to help support. Given the GOP is all about shrinking spending, this doesn’t seem super logical.

Jill Krowinski, the Public Affairs Director of Planned Parenthood of Northern New England, summarized the situation aptly when she told me in an email interview, “[These] legislative attacks place political ideology over basic health care, putting the lives of millions of women and families at risk…these attacks are bad health policy, bad fiscal policy, and bad politics.”

It should also be said that the Hyde Amendment has prohibited federal funds from going towards abortion services for the past thirty years, except in cases of rape, incest, or when the life of the mother is in danger. 97% of the services Planned Parenthood offers have nothing to do with abortion at all; rather, they provide vital family planning and reproductive health resources, and are oftentimes the only provider millions of women have access to, whether because of their geographical location or socio-economic status.

However, the Hyde Amendment might as well be written in fairy dust given the rabid fervor with which anti-choice politicians and activists have proposed restrictive state legislation this season. Nearly 1,000 bills of varying absurdity (testifying fetus, anyone?) have made their way onto dockets across the U.S., with no state being spared, though a few have been hit particularly hard—Indiana, North Carolina, Wisconsin, Kansas, Texas, and South Dakota among them.

In Texas, where family planning saved the state $161,738,000 in 2008, and Title X-supported programs offered contraceptive services to nearly 1.5 million women, because of mandatory “Right to Know” legislation, women are provided with largely unsubstantiated information, such as there being a link between breast cancer and abortion (The American Cancer Society resoundingly disputes this), as well as being subjected to a 24-hour waiting period before undergoing the procedure.

Sarah McKetta, a former Planned Parenthood of Texas employee, noted that despite these requirements being filed under “education/right to know,” they were often little more than barriers to keep women from easily obtaining abortions.

“Women who wanted to make an abortion appointment had thought good and hard about it before picking up the phone to call us,” she said. “What these laws effectively did was make the most disadvantaged women have the hardest time, because they usually needed time to come up with the funding and to come up with childcare for their other children, and then they call to make the appointment and realize that they still have to wait.”

Indiana has gone so far as to ban all state Medicaid funding for Planned Parenthood—an illegal move which has been challenged by both Medicaid and the Obama Administration, since federal law requires all those eligible for Medicaid to be able to access services from any qualified provider, including Planned Parenthood. If Indiana persists with the legislation, the state will be cut off from all Medicaid funding, a loss amounting to roughly $4 billion in aid, and one that would disproportionally screw the state’s poorest residents.

Incidentally, Indiana is currently ranked 49th in the nation in terms of providing contraceptive services, and it has the 31st highest teen pregnancy rate, according to the Guttmacher Institute. More than half of all Indiana births are paid for by Medicaid, and even then, teen childbearing cost Indiana taxpayers $3.6 billion between 1991-2004.

Wisconsin recently jumped on the “defund Planned Parenthood” bandwagon, despite the fact that this would effectively cut off health care access to 12,000 women while simultaneously threatening the state’s BadgerCare family planning program, which actually saves nearly $140 million a year. North Carolina made a similar decision earlier in the summer. And with Mr. Wieczorek at the helm, New Hampshire is the newest state to join the club—and after only a few days, women are already having trouble getting access to antibiotics to treat UTI’s and STD’s. Bravo, guys! Family planning clinics like Planned Parenthood only saved your state 183,505,000 in public funds in 2008.

“This goes way beyond Planned Parenthood itself,” Ms. Krowinski noted, calling the legislation an “assault on all progressive health care, service, and advocacy organizations that aim to provide vital care and services to women and men across the country” and a “clearly coordinated, highly political effort designed to undermine one of our nation’s largest women’s health care providers — with dangerous implications for women and families.”

“Women are not idiots who need legislators to make health decisions for them,” Ms. McKetta agreed. “Can you imagine if someone was putting all of these barriers up for every man who wanted to get a vasectomy (which, by the way, is a much more invasive procedure than abortion that takes a longer time to heal and actually DOES impact fertility, unlike abortion)?…No, you can’t imagine it. Because this boils down to an affront on women’s health.”

And the best way to counter the crazy, you may ask? (And you should be!)

Start by speaking out, and especially talk to your elected officials, urged Tait Sye, a spokesman for the Planned Parenthood Federation of America in a telephone interview.

He cited a recent CNN poll that suggested 65% of Americans—a significant percentage—recognize the valued services Planned Parenthood provides for men, women, and teens, and support continued funding for the organization.

Ms. Krowinski also urged the public to speak out, noting, “When women tell their stories about how Planned Parenthood was there for them, it helps legislators understand the critical role we play in their communities for women and families.”

She went on to relate a story involving a Planned Parenthood patient at the West Lebanon Health Center in New Hampshire, who had gone to the drug store to get pills, only to learn that they were $100 a pack, more than she could afford. “The patient was told that with Title X we could slide her pills down to $0 and we would take any donation she could give us. The patient pulled out her wallet and counted out $1.35 and said it’s not much, but you can have it.”

MORE FROM MICHELLE KOUFOPOULOS

In Defense of YA Literature

Indiana Defunds Planned Parenthood, Gov. Mitch Daniels Eyes the Presidency?

Girl Who Refuses to Cheer For Her Rapist Loses Supreme Court Appeal

The post Why Defunding Planned Parenthood Will Bankrupt America appeared first on The Faster Times.

The death toll is on the rise.

The official toll is around 300, but according to a Voice of America report, Italy’s foreign minister Franco Frattini claims there are credible reports that about 1,000 people have been killed in the ongoing crackdown.

Here are excerpts from some more emails from my source in Tripoli. These little snippets reminded me again of the resilience of the human spirit, of our innate ability to find humor and camaraderie in amid the darkest of conditions.

—-

Feb 21st 9.15 am PST

Well for now i have internet so i can get all the info from here. Its just crazy. Im so upset cause this shouldn’t be happening. The gunfire im hearing directed at the people its just so so so saddening. I know people who are going out tonight and im really worried about their lives.

Just one thing when you talk about this with people please please please make sure EVERYONE knows that this is not a CIVIL WAR. We are united against him and his people. Its something i keep on hearing in the news and its driving me crazy.

for now we are safe so it should be alright.

lots of love

——

Feb 21st 9.43 am PST

Well were in the house now and it should be safe. The worst case scenarios are the mercenaries and looters but I doubt they have the time or energy to do anything but fight the protesters.

Will keep you posted as long as I have internet. Which no one i know has btw. I dont understand why it works for me. The landlines here are cut and so are the mobile phones which makes me believe that they’re trying to stop people organizing themselves tonight.

Now im gonna gonna go and bake some bread! Its soo funny we packed the house with so much food basics and were making all these things from scratch. It kind of feels like the Diary of Anne Frank a la Libyan style. Its hilarious.

——–

Feb 21st 11.51 am PST

For now were staying. Were safe in the house. If things get much much worse ill guess will have to leave. But only if its get really bad. I mean now all we do is hear the gunshots. Tonight seems quite in terms of protesters im guessing there not risking going out if theres planes shooting at them. Will try to keep you updated. Btw don’t get to wrapped up in the rumors you hear on the news, we still have water, electricity (at least in our area). During the day time people are going out. So there is some sort of normalcy. Dont freak out if I stop emailing. It might be that my internet connection decided to finally put out. It seems to be one of the last few standing protesting tech-style.

———–

Feb 22nd 12.39 pm PST

Thanks for the invite. ______ does sound good now. Im not sure the airport is even open. But well see.

Were ok. Internet is not that strong so its on and off. There seems to be either sounds of fireworks or gunshots outside. The pro-regime people are going around in there cars, chanting and singing, honking.

So frustrating.

We are still safe.

(Photo courtesy CrethiPlethi.com)

The post More Notes: ‘It Kind of Feels like the Diary of Anne Frank a la Libyan Style’ appeared first on The Faster Times.

I received this email about the situation on ground in Tripoli from a trusted source last night. I’m reproducing it as is:

Just wanted to let you know what’s going down here in T-town as of late. Things are beginning to heat up and the people are slowly waking up and reacting to the violence of the past couple of days.

Last night from around 9pm onwards people started barricading and patrolling their neighborhoods. In the beginning all we could hear were fireworks and chants from both pro-regime and anti-regime groups. But the confusion is such that sometimes we couldn’t tell them apart. At the end of the night I can almost guarantee that most of the (paid) pro-regime chanters here either decided to hide and switch sides or were beaten up by the protesters.

As the night progressed the rumors of anti-regime uprisings in the green sq increased. People took his son’s speech, which basically made us sound like a bunch of crack-sniffing criminals, as a insult. It was around that time when the sound of live ammunition began. This lasted well into the early morning. We don’t much about how many people were shot, who was actually shooting etc etc. This is part of the problem. All information here is from word of mouth. Were hearing talks of there being a massacre of unprecedented scale, were not sure if they mean in numbers or in indiscriminate shooting. Talks of various govt building being burnt down. Mercenaries shooting right and left.

So thats the status quo of things here. Its currently 11am in the morning and things have calmed down. Quiet before the storm.

The general sentiment here is a mixed one. One of hope, fear and excitement. Fear not of being hurt or shot but of the unknown. Hope for change. Excitment for what’s to come. There is a complete blackout of information. Nothing official, nothing confirmed. Who’s winning, how many are dead. Who’s still here? Who’s left running with there tail between there legs. The only source of information that we have is that between each other.

I’m disgusted by the leaders of the international community and how they’re being silent about this. Hillary Clinton yesterday directed a whole speech about Bahrain. Why didn’t she mention Libya? Or are we only worth mentioning when it has to do with oil and terrorism. They need to speak out now. They need to stop releasing petty statements and actually take a STAND. We know that they have no real leverage buthaving the international communities eyes on us is the only this can actually get noticed.

I have to end this quickly as im not sure how long this connection is going to last. Just let everybody know that the Libyan people are out in the streets and they’re united, despite last night’s statement that we are not. The people are going out now. They will go out later on tonight. Nothing can stop whats starting now. This the beginning for some and the end for others. Lets just pray that this can be done with the least deaths possible.

Photo courtesy CrethiPlethi.com

The post Note from Tripoli: This is the Beginning for Some and The End for Others appeared first on The Faster Times.

A new order rises in Egypt today. The joyful cries from the crowd at Tahir Square are resounding, and being echoed, around the world. A movement born of the masses reaches its desired goal. What a historic day; what a victory!

Hopefully, as things have been for the past three decades in Mubarak-ruled Egypt, so they shall not remain. Hopefully, the military will keep its promise to work towards a peaceful transfer of power, and Egyptians will make a successful transition to democracy.

But as we celebrate, let’s keep in mind that such victories don’t come without costs.

Human Rights Watch estimates that over 300 people have been killed in this 18-day struggle. The figure is based on unofficial information obtained by HRW from doctors at two hospitals in Cairo, two in Alexandria, and one in Suez and by the International Federation for Human Rights, which visited a further three hospitals in Cairo. The toll could be higher. For hundreds of Egyptian families who have lost loved ones to the cause, today is a day of both joy and pain. Many of them are now considering legal action against their kin’s killers. Click here for a growing list of lives lost.

Photo by Flicker user Desmond Leo

The post Egyptians’ Struggle did Availeth, but at a Cost appeared first on The Faster Times.

On Saturday’s (Nov. 13), following a day of negotiations, Burma’s military junta unconditionally released pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi after seven years under house arrest.

The 65-year-old noble peace laureate has been either in jail or under house arrest for 15 of the last 21 years that she’s been in Burma (renamed Mayanmar by it’s current regime) and is a worldwide symbol of Burmese peoples’ decades long struggle to rid the country of it’s oppressive military rule.

Her release comes a week after a junta-backed party won Burma’s first election in 20 years. The election was a sham orchestrated by the military that’s held on to power in the country for the last half-century. Back in 1990, when the South Asian nation had it’s last open elections Suu Kyi’s party, the National League for Democracy (since forcefully disbanded), won a landslide victory that the junta never honored. Instead, the election was nullified and Suu Kyi was placed under house arrest.

But no matter how hard the junta has tried to gain legitimacy over these two decades, for most Burmese and, dare I say, for much of the world (barring some exceptions like China, North Korea and India), The Lady, as she’s lovingly known, is the one true leader of Burma. One can’t help but be awed by her grace and fortitude in face of such prolonged persecution. Even President Obama, while welcoming her “long overdue” release yesterday called her “a hero of mine”.

But it’s not clear how much freedom Suu Kyi will actually have or what political role she will play in a country that the junta still has in a stranglehold.

Human rights groups say there are at least another 2,200 political prisoners languishing in Burma’s prisons. The rigged elections have led to renewed fighting between the Burmese military and ethnic Karen rebels, sending about 20,000 Karen refugees fleeing across the border into Thailand on November 8 (most of who were shipped back to Burma by Thai authorities within a few days).

One of Burma’s main ethnic minorities, Karen rebels have long sought to gain independence from Burma’s military regime. Thailand is already sheltering a quarter-million refugees from what human rights groups describe as “brutal campaigns” by the junta to drive the Karen people from their territories.

Suu Kyi’s release is probably an attempt by Burma’s army generals at playing nice in hopes having Western sanctions against the country lifted and perhaps also at diverting attention from the Karen issue.

But honestly, right now, it’s enough for me that Suu Kyi is free to mingle with her people. Her very presence holds out hope for peace and freedom in an oppressed nation.

For the moment, the people of Burma are rejoicing. And so am I.

Photo: A portrait of Suu Kyi taken in 2000 by Ian Umeda. Read about his meeting with The Lady and subsequent ordeal here.

The post Suu Kyi freed by Burmese junta, let’s take a moment to rejoice appeared first on The Faster Times.

According to news received by the International Committee against Stoning and International Committee against Execution on 1 November 2010, the authorities in Tehran have given the go ahead to Tabriz prison for the execution of Iran stoning case Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani. It has been reported that she is to be executed this Wednesday, 3 November.”

Ashtiani’s case has provoked a worldwide campaign to save her and to ban stoning sentences in Iran. The Islamic republic is the only political regime in the world that has been constantly meting out stoning sentences during the 31 years of its existence. Majority of the victims are women. Stoning victims are buried up to their chest in a hole and have stones hurled at their heads until they die from their injuries.

A 43-year-old mother of two, Ashtiani was convicted of adultery in 2006. She had earlier been sentenced to 99 lashes for having an “illicit relationship” with two men after her husband was murdered in 2005.

Following a huge international outcry against the sentencing, in September Iran said it would review Ashtian’s conviction though she would still face the charge of being an accomplice in her husband’s murder. In fact, during his visit to New York for a UN conference on disarmament the same month, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad went so far as to say that stoning didn’t exist in Iran. “Ms. Mohammadi was never sentenced to stoning. This was news that was produced and incorrect,” he told ABC news’ Chirstiane Amanpour during an interview.

Yet in the weeks that followed, Ashtiani’s son, Sajjad, and attorney Houtan Khain, both of whom have been fighting to save her, have been arrested (along with two German journalists who were trying to talk with them). It’s being reported that they may have been tortured in prison. Sajjad’s whereabouts are currently unknown. And now the news of Ashtiani’s pending execution.

The International Committee Against Stonings has been calling on the public to come and protest the latest development and has requested foreign governments to put pressure on Iran to stay the execution.

On Tuesday, several Western nations including the US, Canada and UK, condemned the planned execution, calling it “unacceptable” and “completely out of line.” But none of the countries have made any mention of taking any strong action, like cutting off diplomatic ties.

In the US, given it was election day, this dismaying news got buried beneath poll-related headlines. Like me, many might have missed it and failed to take action.

And now I fear it might be too late. It’s already tomorrow in Iran.

UPDATE, Nov 3: A Reprieve, for now

Iranian officials announced today that no final decision has been reached on Ashitani’s case.

The Associated Press reports that the Iranian  foreign minister, Manouchehr Mottaki, made a statement confirming this ata news conference in Tbilisi, the capital of Georgia. Mottaki said:

Everyone has to be punished for murder. The person has killed her husband and I think this fact will be considered as a crime in every country … But in this case the final decision has not been made yet.

Iranian officials are now accusing the West of spreading false news about Ashtiani. However, concern over her fate remains.

The post Iran Plans to Execute Sakineh Ashtiani [updated] appeared first on The Faster Times.

Nancy Mulane, an independent producer at the KALW public radio station in San Francisco, where I work once a week, has been asked by the State of California to be present at San Quentin State Prison to witness the execution of Albert Greenwood Brown, who raped and strangled a 15-year old in 1980.

A number of members of the media have to, by law, be present at state executions to serve as witnesses to the procedure.

Mulane has been to San Quentin prison over 50 times. She recently completed a documentary on lives of men convicted of murder. From her blog about preparing for the experience:

I never thought I would be asked to witness an execution. I imagine it to be one of those dark and hopeless moments that happens out of sight in a room deep inside a prison. The state’s execution of a fellow human being is something you read about in the paper, or see out of the corner of your eye on television, but you never imagine yourself sitting in the room while another person is put to death.

The execution was stayed on Tuesday (Sept 28) by a San Jose federal judge just two days before Brown was scheduled to be administered a lethal injection. Unless reversed by a higher court by Friday (Oct 01), the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation will not be able to execute anyone until Jan 2011 because the state’s stock of lethal chemicals used in the injection cocktail will expire on Friday and it reportedly won’t be possible to replenish the stock until sometime next year. Most likely, Brown will have at least a few months’ reprieve.

However, Mulane’s invite to witness a state conducted, pre-mediated killing filled me, as well as some of my newsroom colleagues, with deep unease. And made me think again about why I’m not in favor of capital punishment.

Given the way race, politics, location and economics plays out in the criminal justice system, it’s hard to ensure that the guilt of those who are sentenced to death is beyond doubt, and also far worse than the culpability of other murder convicts who aren’t given death verdicts.

A few facts about death penalty in the US from Amnesty International to help explain my point:

- Since 1977, the overwhelming majority of death row defendants (79 percent) have been executed for killing white victims, even though African-Americans make up about half of all homicide victims.

- Since 1973, 138 people have been released from death rows across the country following new evidence of their wrongful conviction (such as DNA testing and proof of official misconduct). Several of those released were within hours of being executed. In this same time period, more than 1,000 people have been executed.

- Almost all death row inmates could not afford their own attorney at trial. Local politics, the location of the crime, plea bargaining, and pure chance affect the process and make it a lottery of who lives and dies. Since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976, 80 percent of all executions have taken place in the South (37 percent in Texas alone).

In Brown’s case, there is little doubt that he is guilty.

According to the prosecutor’s report, waylaid 15-year-old Susan Jordan as she walked to Arlington High School in Riverside. He dragged his victim to a nearby orange grove, then raped and strangled her with her own shoelace. Later that night he called Susan’s mother several times, taunting her with messages like: “Susie isn’t home from school yet, is she?” before finally telling her where she could find her daughter’s body.

The evidence was compelling too. Several witnesses had been seen him approaching Susan. Among other things, police found semen-stained clothes, Susan’s missing schoolbooks and phone directory open to the page with her parents’ phone number in Brown’ possession. At the time of the murder, he was on parole. He’d been released four months earlier after serving four years in prison for the 1977 rape of a 14-year-old girl.

As I discovered the details of Brown’s crime, my rage boiled over. Despite my intellectual opposition to death penalty, part of me felt he deserves to die.

Then I took a second look at the figures. Brown’s lawyers have managed delay his sentencing for 30 years. Which means Susan’s family has been waiting for three decades for some kind of closure to their pain. They’ve had to relive their trauma over and over again through years of appeals and two reversals of the sentences by the California Supreme Court. And it’s still not over.

Surely, life without parole provides certain punishment without the endless reopening of wounds for victims’ families?

Apart from the emotional toll there’s also the question of finances. Death penalty costs more than life sentences and diverts resources from genuine crime control.

In California, for instance, seeking a death sentence costs counties over $1 million more than seeking permanent imprisonment, according to a report by the California Commission on Fair Administration of Justice. The commission estimates the state could save about $125 million per year if it used the alternative of permanent imprisonment rather can capital punishment. That money could be spent on solving more murders and fund programs that could help victims’ families deal with their trauma.

California Crime Victims for Alternatives to the Death Penalty , a coalition of families, friends, and loved ones of murder victim who oppose capital punishment sums it up best on their website:

1,000 murders go unsolved each year in California due to lack of resources for criminal investigations while we spend hundreds of millions of dollars pursuing death sentences for a small percentage of killers. We need justice for all victims, not just symbolism for a few.

Update: The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) has removed the scheduled execution from the calendar after the California Supreme Court on Wednesday (Sept 29) afternoon  denied the state’s request to move the execution forward as scheduled.

Photo: Prison mug shot of Albert Greenwood Brown

The post California’s Attempt to Execute Alfred Brown Revives Death Penalty Debate appeared first on The Faster Times.

Clever.

Cleverer still, was how he managed to conveniently be away in New York while hundreds of protestors gathered in front of his church, Dove World Outreach Center on Sept. 11, despite the event being cancelled. Neat, physical ass-saving move, one has to admit.

Jones is in the Big Apple because he wants to meet with Feisal Abdul Rauf , imam of the Farah mosque in Lower Manhattan and leader of the proposed Islamic Center near Ground Zero that’s at the center of yet another ongoing controversy.  Apparently, the author of Islam is of the Devil,who’s never even read the Koran, believes he can talk peace with Rauf and convince him to relocate the proposed Islamic Center.

I’m not convinced his intentions are quite that altruistic. Methinks, the Right Reverend thinks: “heck, I’m out of further incendiary ideas. What rabble-rousing bandwagon can I jump on to now so that the spotlights continue to be trained on me?”

In the meantime, since word of the last-minute cancellation didn’t spread fast enough, violent protests continued in Afghanistan for the second day on Sept. 11. According to an Associated Press report, the largest protest, in Logar province near the Afghan capital of Kabul, drew a crowd of more than 10,000 people.  In New York, an unidentified copycat ripped out pages from the Muslim Holy book and set them aflame while a horrified crowd looked on.

Really, other than having his face plastered across TV screens and newspapers, the only thing this bigot has achieved with his callous stunt, is undermine the current US governments’ efforts to bridge the valley of hate and distrust that divides America from the world’s 1.5 billion Muslims.

Shame on him.

The post After Milking Koran Burning Proposal, Terry Jones Looks for Alternatives appeared first on The Faster Times.

Next Thursday (Aug 19) I’m planning to make my way to City Hall in San Francisco to hopefully cheer on same sex couples as they say apply for marriage licenses.

That is provided the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit (a federal court that reviews decisions and can change outcomes of decisions of district courts) doesn’t intervene and stay District Judge Vaughn Walker’s August 4 ruling declaring California’s 2008 gay-marriage ban unconstitutional.

Same-sex marriage in California is set become legal at 5:00 p.m. PDT on August 18th, 2010. It’s about time, I say.

Of course, ProtectMarriage.com, the group that had organized the Prop 8 campaign, has already appealed Judge Walker’s ruling on the 2008 voter-approved law. They’ve also appealed his Thursday (August 12) ruling that lifts a stay on the ban next week.  But really, it doesn’t seem like gay marriage opponents have much of a leg to stand on in this case.

Especially, because the actual defendants of the lawsuit brought by two same sex couples in 2008 – California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, a Republican, and Attorney General Jerry Brown, a Democrat -refused to appeal Judge Walker’s ruling. Instead, both issued separate statements this week calling for the ruling to be put into effect immediately.

In his Thursday ruling refusing to extend a stay on the marriage ban, Judge Walker indicated that since the state hadn’t opposed his decision, there’s a possibility that there may be no appellate hearing. He suggested that without the state government’s support, legal advocates of the ban didn’t meet the legal standards to appeal their case. More so because they hadn’t been able to show that same sex marriage would do them and society irreparable harm.

Looks like the case is heading toward the Supreme Court where a pro-marriage decision could reverse laws prohibiting gay marriage in 45 states. Or not. Either way, right now, it’s advantage gay rights camp.

Yet, amid all this positive news, President Obama’s continuing opposition to same-sex marriage, casts a perplexing shadow. Here’s White House adviser David Axelrod on MSNBC:

The President does oppose same-sex marriage, but he supports equality for gay and lesbian couples, and benefits and other issues, and that has been effectuated in federal agencies under his control.

Axelrod goes on to say that Obama has always opposed Prop 8 because he felt it was “divisive and mean-spirited.”

Now wait a minute, so Obama is against gay marriage, but also against any legislation that bans gay marriage?

I’m still trying to figure this one out.

Photo by Flickr user kathleenjoyful

The post Judge rules Prop. 8 unconstitutional and Obama performs political acrobatics appeared first on The Faster Times.

The UN General Assembly passed a resolution on Wednesday (July 28) declaring access to clean drinking water and sanitation a basic human right.

I don’t suppose many Americans have heard of this yet.

Though the news has been making headlines across the world it’s not really been reported in mainstream US media the last I checked. Unless you consider Democracy Now! mainstream or if you think a 137-word snippet on ABC online counts as Big Media coverage.

Could this oversight be because the United States was among the 41 nations that abstained from voting on the non-binding resolution introduced by Bolivia (a nation that has witnessed a protracted, but ultimately successful, citizen’s struggle against privatization of water)? It can’t be denied that water is crucial for life and yet hundreds of millions of people across the world don’t have access to clean water and sanitation. Some quick figures from the UN:

- Over 800 million people live without access to clean water

- 2.5 billion lack access to clean sanitation facilities

- Over 2 million people die each year because of illness linked to unsafe water

- 1.5 million children under the age of five die of water- and sanitation-related diseases every year.

It’s not as if the US is immune to water shortage either. Back it 2007 the US government projected that at least 36 states would face water shortages within five years due to a mix of factors including rising temperatures, drought, wastage and population growth.

So why did the United States join 40 other countries – mostly wealthier, developed nations like Canada, United Kingdom, Sweden, Iceland, Japan and Australia – abstain from signing a resolution that acknowledges water sustains life? Ostensibly because they believe the resolution could undermine ongoing efforts by the UN’s Human Rights Council in Geneva to build a consensus on water rights (UN independent expert on human rights, water and sanitation, Catarina de Albuquerque, is due to report to the Human Rights Council in Geneva next year on different nations’ obligations related to water and sanitation). Here’s what John Sammis, US deputy representative to the UN Economic and Social Council had to say:

The United States regrets that this resolution diverts us from the serious international efforts underway to promote greater coordination and cooperation on water and sanitation issues.

Hello? Did someone miss the part that says the resolution is non-biding? That it’s symbolic at best? I fail to understand how this can be viewed as a diversion instead of a simple reinforcement of a goal our global community should be working toward. Incidentally, the 122 nations that did vote passed the resolution unanimously.

Maude Barlow, co-founder of the Blue Planet Project and board chair of Food and Water Watch, remarked about the abstainers on Democracy Now!:

Oh, it was the usual gang…all of the Anglophone, neoliberal, you know, [countries that have] bought into this whole agenda that everything is to be commodified, countries who are able to continue to supply clean water to their citizens, which makes it doubly appalling that they would deny the right to water to the billions of people who are suffering right now.

Water as commodity – to be sold for profit. Hm, now the abstaining begins to make some make sense.

This rapidly dwindling natural resource, after all, is a $400 billion global industry that attracts major corporate players. It’s right up there after oil and electricity. If access to water is assured to all as a basic human right, whatever would happen to the profit margin and corporate wealth that most of the abstaining nations rely on?

P.S: For an insight into the growing privatization of the world’s dwindling fresh water supply and its implications, check out Irena Salina’s documentary, For The Love of Water (FlOW)

Photo: Tribal woman collect water from a tube well in a forest village in Chhattisgharh, India (by author)

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