worldwide pablo

Embarrassment of riches: See? We told you those tax cuts would stimulate the economy.

We are fam-uh-ly! You knew this was going to happen sooner or later. Now what?

Same to you, buddy: Finally, a website that upholds "the one true apostolic anglo-catholic faith."

Not to be left out: Gay marriage … everyone's doing it these days.

What's in a name? If it's good enough for Sir Edmund, it oughtta be for those tough Aussies. No? How queer.

Not to be outdone… The enthusiastic phrase "110 percent" is usually applied to athletic teams or hard workers. Now a certain local politician thinks she can do even better.

Bad idea of the week: What are they smoking down there at the Portland Development Commission? [Note: Broken link fixed.] If this is civic leadership, then it's time for shakeup, WWP thinks.

Today GWB formally requested Congress to pony up the cash to pay for the U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and as expected, the tab is a real whopper: $87 billion. We're talking some real money here, folks. Given that the "war on terrorism" has already cost an estimated $75 million or so, according to CostofWar.com, and the fact there appears to be no cogent exit strategy for the U.S., it seems unlikely that this request will be GWB's last.

All the pre-war talk about yellowcake uranium, weapons of mass destruction, links to Al Qaeda, blah blah blah – it all suddenly seems a trifle irrelevant now. Eighty seven billion greenbacks is a big hunk-o-cash, friends, and such a sum has the power of changing the debate, to say nothing about suddenly making doubters out of even the most ardent right-wing, God-fearing Saddam-busters who have backed GWB from Day 1. Increasingly, there are signs that regular, everyday citizens are beginning to doubt the wisdom of paving streets and rebuilding electricity grids in a faraway land where the outcome is anything but certain. Add to this the ongoing infrastructure needs at home, the cry for prescription coverage for senior citizens, and looming $500 billion deficit, and the bivouac in Baghdad seems all the more foolhardy.

Costofwar.com calculates that for the money spent so far in Iraq alone:

7,541,577 additional children could attend a year of Head Start; or

22,863,964 additional children could be provided with a year of health care; or

1,016,031 additional school teachers could be hired for one year; or

1,352,990 additional four-year scholarships at public universities; or

762,023 additional affordable housing units could be built.

This, apparently, is the cost of "having it our way" in the Middle East. Is it worth it? In the light the GWB mega-tax cuts, can we afford to continue? Are Americans willing to sacrifice domestic programs in order to rebuild Iraq and Afghanistan? In each case, WWP suspects not, and he senses that increased talk about rolling back the tax whoppers is a sign that others agree.

WWP thinks Wesley Clark has figured this out, too.

As WWP always suspected: Position is everything.

You don’t say? Like no one noticed, Tab.

“Two-ness.” The saddest magazine cover of the week.

With every passing day, California seems to devolve into a state of disorder more chaotic than the last. Today the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals suspended the gubernatorial recall election in the Golden State, saying "inherent defects" in the state's punch-card voting system threaten to disenfranchise approximately 40,000 voters statewide. Whether the election will take place on October 7 as originally planned, or be postponed until next March (at the same time as the statewide Democratic Party primary), is anyone's guess. It would be funny, except for, as Blarbblog notes:

"Too bad so much money is being spent on something so unnecessary while children starve, schools crumble and patients suffer. Otherwise I could laugh harder without feeling an urge to puke."

Next stop, an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, where the next person most likely to open that appealing envelope is … Sandra Day O'Connor. Oy! Shades of Bush v. Gore!

Worldwide Pablo is grateful to citizens of California for taking the spotlight off of Oregon, until late the summer the poster child for When Good States Go Bad. Still, there is no shortage of electoral mischief brewing in Oregon. In today's Daily O there appears the Monday profile, featuring the estimable Rives Kistler, newest member of the Oregon Supreme Court. WWP is not personally acquainted with Kistler, but he is with scores (if not hundreds) of folks who are. Bottom line: Rives Kistler is the very model of a judge – smart, ethical, well-read, well-regarded and even-handed, and professional to the hilt.

So what's the problem? Rives Kistler is openly gay.

Now, one would think that in Oregon, a land of some progressive thought, where the sexuality battles appear to have been fought and put mostly behind us, that Oregon courts would be open for anyone, and to a large degree they are. Gay and lesbian judges, lawyers, paralegals and all kind of legal professionals are present (and open) in Oregon's legal system. It's a source of some pride for organizations like the Oregon Gay and Lesbian Law Association, which has worked long and hard to make this so.

But some still persist in thinking otherwise, that sexual identity somehow is a determinant in foretelling job performance, that gays and lesbians possess a fatal flaw for public service.

From today's Daily O article:

Today, many political observers say voters are not interested in Kistler's sexual orientation, even though he is the first state supreme court justice in the country to be publicly identified as gay.

"I think there are so many other crises going on that this won't be particularly important to them," said Tim Hibbitts, a Portland pollster.

Lou Beres, executive director of the Oregon Christian Coalition, disagrees, saying that many voters view Kistler's homosexuality as being incompatible with being a judge.

"I will go on looking for someone to go against him," Beres said.

It's occasions like this that remind WWP why the need exists, and continues to exist, for a non-discrimination law for the workplace. And it reminds him that the work of informing and educating the public about realities, and the myths, of homosexuality isn't over.

And that, sadly, it might not ever be.