Specter's switch

From Racewire yesterday:

Channing Kennedy
What Does Specter’s Switch Mean for Racial Justice?

Conservative-challenges-Specter-in-Pa.jpg
For those just joining the fray: This morning Pennsylvania senator Arlen Specter announced that he is officially switching parties, from Republican to Democratic. Pending the long-disputed seating of Minnesota’s Al Franken, this puts the Democrats at a 60-seat filibuster-proof Senate supermajority — filibuster-proof, that is to say, if all Democrats vote the same way. But Specter’s a bit of a loose cannon, to be polite, and an opportunist, to be blunt. In press conferences today, he all but spelled out that he decided to switch based on polling numbers indicating he’d do better in the 2010 election running as a Democrat than as a Republican. So, in terms of votes, it may not make much of a difference.

One of the most concrete ramifications of this development for the racial justice movement is around the Employee Free Choice Act, which would empower unions and help protect the economies of communities of color. Specter once supported EFCA, then flipped on it, and has devoted time today to confirming that he will not flop back to supporting it, regardless of his party alignment. He thus joins the likes of the Blue Dog Democrats and Joe Lieberman — Democrats in name who vote conservative, many of whom came out against EFCA once Specter’s renouncement of it made its passage mathematically difficult.

From his statement today:

My change in party affiliation does not mean that I will be a party-line voter any more for the Democrats that I have been for the Republicans. Unlike Senator Jeffords’ switch which changed party control, I will not be an automatic 60th vote for cloture. For example, my position on Employees Free Choice (Card Check) will not change.

On the other hand, Specter's major schism with the GOP manifested large in his vote to support the stimulus, a piece of legislation that the party fought hard to present a united front against. And just today, Specter's vote helped confirm former Kansas governor Kathleen Sebelius as Secretary of Health and Human Services, an appointment much contested by the Republican pro-life movement. Would Specter have voted for her anyway, given his relatively pro-choice voting record? Could be.

At the end of the day, Specter's still nearing the end of his term, and while it's accepted that part of the deal for his defection was that he'd face no primary opponent as a Democrat, he's still got to face Toomey, the hardline Republican who wanted to oust him in the Republican primary, who'll now probably grab the nomination unopposed. While Specter may well defeat Toomey, one can argue that Democrats and labor would have been better off if Specter had stayed Republican and gotten defeated by Toomey in the 2010 primary, leaving Toomey open to defeat by a more hardline, pro-EFCA Democrat. As it is, Pennsylvania labor and EFCA supporters may be backed into a corner -- forced into supporting the Democrat, even if that Democrat is anti-EFCA Specter, because there's no other option.

Rockefeller Reform

From Racewire

Dropping the rock

This week, New York took a decisive step toward reforming the Rockefeller Drug Laws—the notorious mandatory-minimum sentencing rules that have driven the mass incarceration of people of color over the past generation.

Despite some marginal reforms in recent years, the state’s prisons remain packed with thousands of nonviolent drug offenders, many of them imprisoned for extremely low-level offenses. About nine in ten drug offenders in New York State prisons are Black or Latino, according to the advocacy campaign Drop the Rock. Reformers and civil rights activists have long criticized the laws as racist and inhumane, not to mention wasteful and generally ineffective for dealing with the social impacts of substance abuse.

The state Commission on Sentencing Reform has now officially laid out prospects for reform in a report that concludes:

“Community-based drug treatment, especially when required in a criminal justice setting where the offender faces clearly defined sanctions for program failure, works and should be an available option in every region of the state.

“The state’s network of existing diversion programs and drug courts has been effective for thousands of drug-addicted offenders, and any new diversion model must be structured so as not to undermine these programs.

“New York should adopt a comprehensive plan to provide statewide access to substance abuse treatment programs.

“New York must continue to reserve costly prison resources for high-risk offenders and make greater use of alternatives to incarceration for non-violent offenders while not jeopardizing the state’s significant gains in public safety.”

Yet the New York Civil Liberties Union criticized the report for not going far enough in opening legal avenues to community-based alternatives to incarceration. The group argues that more positive interventions would remain out of reach for many drug offenders because the proposed guidelines would:

"Preclude youthful offenders with certain prior convictions from diversion to rehabilitation.

"Require a 'certification of addiction' procedure that will result in a complex and costly factual dispute that prosecutors will always be better armed to win.

"Exclude from eligibility for diversion those who are not addicted but could nevertheless be better served by community based rehabilitation programs. Successful diversion models employed across the country and in New York State demonstrate that providing mental health, vocational and educational services offer the best outcomes."

But even if the movement toward an overhaul is not radical enough for many activists, recent shifts on drug policy in Albany's political climate have been unmistakable.

Reform measures have a better chance of passing this year, as Governor David Paterson has long criticized the drug laws, and in the State Senate, the new Democratic majority means less political resistance. The fiscal crisis now besetting New York and many other state governments may also convince policymakers that the government cannot afford wasteful incarceration policies under a budget crunch.

After decades of some of the most regressive drug laws in the country, New York may soon find itself at the helm of a nationwide wave of reform, as states—and even the federal government--realign drug policy in light of social realities, racial inequity, and economic priorities.

By Michelle Chen

Also - here is a link to a really interesting conference on race and the economy and how economic obstacles are affected communities of color disproportionately

http://racewire.org/mp3/raceandeconomyconference1_3.mp3

Show the World What Racial Justice Looks Like

CALL FOR POSTERS
Submissions are due by midnight, Monday, January 5, 2009

One submission will be selected for reproduction as a poster that will
be provided at no cost to community organizations, foundations, and
other allies. The artwork may also be reproduced on other Akonadi
public education materials, such as a commemorative card. All submis-
sions will be featured on the Akonadi Foundation website. The artist
selected will receive a $1,000 prize that includes $500 for the artist
and $500 as a donation to the Oakland community organization
designated by the artist.

SELECTION CRITERIA
Selection of artwork will be based on: creativity and originality, and
artistic and design quality, and potential to inspire and inform racial
justice movement building.

Selection will be made by
*Quinn Delaney, Akonadi Foundation founder and Board Chair
*Juan Fuentes, artist/former director of Mision Grafica
*Mateo Nube, Director, Movement Generation
*Mervyn Mercano, Training Director, Center for Media Justice

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES
Poster submissions must focus on racial justice movement building in
Oakland or the Bay Area. Submissions must include a visual image
accompanied by words conveying the theme. All artwork must be
original. Artists must have permission to use any copyrighted images
displayed in the artwork. The artist’s name should not appear on the
artwork for the purposes of judging. The final dimensions of the poster
will be 11 x 17 (please keep this in mind as you execute your design).
Artwork must be submitted as a jpeg attachments, high resolution (300
dpi), to info@akonadi.org or as hard copy photo ready art.

Artists must include a completed submission form. Download here.

Hardcopy art can be submitted to the foundation at:
Akonadi Foundation
ATTN: RACIAL JUSTICE POSTER PROJECT
436 14th Street, Suite 1417
Oakland, CA 94612

Akonadi Poster Project Official Rules

Download the flyer