gravity’s rainbow

Tomorrow, in addition to voting for a new president, people in Arizona will be voting on Proposition 102.  Prop 102 would add the following to the Arizona constitution:

Only a union of one man and one woman shall be valid or recognized as a marriage in this state.

A similar measure, Prop 107, was on the ballot in 2006.  It did not pass.  Arizona law already defines marriage as between one man and one woman.  The proposition would make further gains in civil rights for queer people more difficult.  More worrying to me is the homophobic sentiment the very well-funded Yes on 102 campaign is stirring up in my home.  Every day I receive fliers and phone calls suggesting that by not voting yes on 102, marriage will be ruined for straight people and our community will be damaged somehow.  This is simply untrue.  First of all, if 102 does not pass, gay marriage will become legal in Arizona.  Secondly, even if it did, in California, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Vermont, New Jersey, New Hampshire, Maine, Hawaii, the District of Columbia, Oregon, and Washington where some form of same-sex partnership is legal, divorce rates have not skyrocketed, there is no epidemic of pedophiles, people have not suddenly started hating children or being mean to their neighbors.  Society has not fallen apart.

If you live in Arizona, Florida, Arkansas, or California, I hope you vote no on the homophobic ballot initiative in your state.  Your vote is affecting the lives of people you know and care about.  To vote for these propositions will do you and your community no good.  It is just cruel.

I have adopted moms that mean the world to me, the day that they were able to get legally married was one of the happiest days in my life.  Even though the institution of marriage isn’t my favorite thing in the world, seeing the looks on their faces, being privileged to be one of their witnesses meant the world to me, and remains one of the most important days in my life.  A few months later the state of Oregon sent them a letter telling them that their partnership of over 13 years was not recognized, and that they were no longer married and my heart broke for them, and every other couple that received that letter.

Many people who support these initiatives, say they do so in the name of “family values.”  But if you vote for these propositions, you are hurting families.

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Monitor Mix is complaining about the same music being redone.  Have you ever heard of Cilla Black or Sandy Shaw?

Doing science in a nutshell at Seeds Aside:

If you don’t make mistakes, you’re doing it wrong.   If you don’t correct those mistakes you’re doing it really wrong.  If you can’t accept that you’re mistaken, you’re not doing it at all.

Pandagon discovers that voter ID laws have prevented a woman who has voted in the last 19 presidential elections from registering to vote in Arizona.  And I believe it.  I had to try 4 times before I’d given them all the paperwork and information they wanted.

The Edge of the American West presents “Things that it has been empirically demonstrated academics do not know,” including

Asking a question is not the same thing as giving a speech.

This is painfully evident at departmental seminars.

A video of McCarthy you should have seen over at The Edge of the American West.

Some plants can recognize genetic relatives and modify their behavior based on that information.  Full length explanation at A Neotropical Savanna.

Hottonia inflata is now on the list of plants I have to see in person.

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I went to the Grand Canyon for the first time the other day. It’s a little like seeing the ocean for the first time. It is so big that my (albeit already poor) depth perception was completely thrown off. Most people said I shouldn’t go on a cloudy day, but I liked the clouds. It was really windy and there were some gaps that created some fantastic light effects that a better photographer than me would have taken advantage of.

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I pretended I didn’t have any work to do and went to Red Mountain yesterday. Red Mountain is an old and oddly shaped cinder cone.

I’m helping with some research on pinyon pine, which I’d read were dying quite quickly in great numbers. There were many, many dead pinyon along the trail.

I took lots of pictures, mostly of plants, because that’s just what I notice the most. However, there are a few pictures of the absolutely bizarre rock formations. They are called “hoodoos,” which I think is a fantastic name for such strange things. I was also very pleased with myself for managing to climb up some rocks. Unfortunately, I did not realize going down is much harder than going up.

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The Military Commissions Act of 2006 restricts the right of habeas corpus (among other things). This is what it says:

No person may invoke the Geneva Conventions or any protocols thereto in any habeas corpus or other civil action or proceeding to which the United States, or a current or former officer, employee, member of the Armed Forces, or other agent of the United States is a party as a source of rights in any court of the United States or its States or territories.

I wrote to my representative, Rick Renzi, asking him to restore the right of habeas corpus. I’ve copied some of his response below.

As you may be aware, the Military Commissions Act of 2006 was signed into law on October 10, 2006 (P.L. 109-366). Based on the Uniform Code of Military Justice, this law establishes the procedures, rules, and legal framework for trying accused terrorists captured either here in the United States or abroad.

Those eligible for trial under this law are those people found violating the laws of war, committing a hostile act against the United States, or purposefully and materially supporting terrorists engaged in a hostile act against the United States. No American citizen may be tried under the Military Commissions Act.

First of all, why should people who aren’t American citizens be denied the right of habeas corpus? Habeas corpus allows detainees to seek relief from unlawful imprisonment. Citizens of other countries are as entitled to this right as American citizens.

Secondly, Renzi says that no American citizen may be tried under the Military Commissions Act. This isn’t quite true. As David Wu pointed out in a House debate

by so restricting habeas corpus, this bill does not just apply to enemy aliens. It applies to all Americans because, while the provision on page 93 has the word “alien” in it, the provision on page 61 does not have the word “alien” in it.

Let us say that my wife, who is here in the gallery with us tonight, a sixth generation Oregonian, is walking by the friendly, local military base and is picked up as an unlawful enemy combatant. What is her recourse? She says, I am a U.S. citizen. That is a jurisdictional fact under this statute, and she will not have recourse to the courts? She can take it to Donald Rumsfeld, but she cannot take it across the street to an article 3 court.

This bill applies to every American, regardless of citizenship status.

Write a letter to your representative about this.

EDIT:

Not that I should have expected better of him based on his voting record. Most recently,

• He voted against Implementing the 9/11 Commission Recommendation Act, which establishes a Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board and requires “reports on the implementation of the 9/11 Commission’s recommendations in regard to the detention and treatment of captured terrorists.”
• He voted for the Intelligence and Law Enforcement Resolution, which allows for government surveillance without a court order, “allows the Attorney General to direct a person to secretly provide the Government with all information and facilities needed to acquire foreign intelligence information,” “prohibits a court from imposing a penalty on any person for an activity relating to an element of the intelligence community between the period of September 11th, 2001 and 60 days after the enactment of this act,” and “prohibits officials from using information gathered with election surveillance for a criminal proceeding unless Attorney General authorizes it in advance.” So, it gives immunity to people in the government who do bad things and allows those bad people in the government to spy on ordinary people.

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So my representative here in AZ is Rick Renzi. He’s not a good guy. And when I write him letters, his response merely reiterates his position, IF I hear back from his office at all. Right now he’s getting into even more trouble - the FBI raided his wife’s insurance company a few weeks ago. While there do seem to be a lot of politicians in trouble right now, this seems to be a pretty big deal.

The Renzi matters now are part of a formal public-corruption probe being conducted by a federal grand jury in Tucson, reports the Wall Street Journal. On Thursday of last week, that grand jury authorized a search warrant on a Renzi family-owned business in Sonoita. And, as if that were not troubling enough, Renzi’s former chief of staff is reportedly cooperating with federal investigators.In fact, there are two on-going federal investigations related to businesses owned by Renzi and family members, both first reported in October. But of the two, the investigation of Renzi’s efforts to push a sale of a 480-acre parcel of Cochise County farmland appears to be the more troubling. There’s a lot of smoke billowing up from that fallow patch of farmland.

But like a lot of republicans in trouble recently, he has a faulty memory:

Renzi’s response to these curious events? Not much directly. But there is this from former Arizona Attorney General Grant Woods, now a Renzi attorney: “(Renzi) did not know Mr. Sandlin had an interest in that land.”

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