LAPD Nearly Causes Riot At Peaceful Immigrants Rights March

(Rick Loomis / LAT)

The Los Angeles blogosphere and mainstream media are buzzing about the violent actions of the Los Angeles Police Department during the May 1 Immigrants Rights march at Macarthur Park in Los Angeles. Last year's immigrants rights marches attracted hundreds of thousands of people and zero incidents of violence. This year's march only attracted tens of thousands of people and ended with numerous videotaped and documented incidents of violence by the police!

The Los Angeles Times and New York Times both are covering the story, shocked by how their fellow journalists were roughed up by police officers, particularly since the LAPD operates under court-ordered agreements and consent decrees that are designed to prevent exactly these types of situations that occurred on Tuesday.

House Passes Federal Hate Crimes Act 237-180

The Human Rights Campaign just sent out a press release applauding the passage of the Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act by the United States House of Representatives by a vote of 237-180. This is only 19 more votes than the 218 votes needed for passage. This bodes well for future passage by the House of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act which was introduced last week in Congress.

Federal Hate Crimes Bill to be Voted on in U.S. House

The federal hate crimes bill (Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act), H.R. 1592 is up for a vote in the United States House of Representatives on Thursday. The bill previously passed the House Judiciary committee by a vote of 20-14 last Thursday following a 10-hour hearing.
The legislation adds sexual orientation and gender identity to previously enacted categories which trigger classification of certain crimes as hate crimes.

UPDATE THU 5/3/07 10:16AM: The White House has released a statement that it will likely advise the President to veto the federal hate crimes bill if it were to reach his desk!

[...]

The White House, in a statement, said state and local criminal laws already provide penalties for the crimes defined by the bill and "there has been no persuasive demonstration of any need to federalize such a potentially large range of violent crime enforcement."

It also questioned the constitutionality of federalizing the acts of violence barred by the bill and said that if it reaches the president's desk "his senior advisers would recommend that he veto the bill."

The White House also noted that the bill would leave out other classes such as the elderly, members of the military or police officers

Geeesh, in 7 years the Preznit has vetoed two bills (one on stem cell research two years ago and the one on Iraq war funding just two days ago) and now he's threatening to veto this?

Anti-Gay Marriage Consititutional Amendment Filed in California

A poster named Karen in Kalifornia at Pam's House Blend alerted me to Equality California's acknowledgement that heterosexual supremacists Larry Bowler and Randy Thomasson at YesProtectMarriage.com have filed a Initiative Constitutional Amendment with the California Attorney General's Initiative Coordinator that would prohibit marriage equality between heterosexuals and gay men and lesbians.

Section 1 : Title
This amendment is The Voters' Right to Protect Marriage Initiative.

Section 2: Marriage for One Man and One Woman Benefits Children, Families, and Society
The People of California have a compelling responsibility to protect the essence of
marriage by ensuring that the civil institution of marriage between one man and one woman is not abolished or diminished. The People find that marriage between one man and one woman is diminished when government decreases statutory rights, incidents, or employee benefits of marriage shared by one man and one woman, or when government requires private entities to offer or provide rights, incidents, or benefits of marriage to unmarried individuals, or when government bestows statutory rights, incidents, or employee benefits of marriage on
unmarried individuals. The People further find and declare that it is in a child's best interest to have both a father and a mother, and that marriage rights for one man and one woman must be protected for the well-being of children, families, and society.

Section 3: Vote Yes to Protect Marriage fiom being Abolished or Diminished
Section 1.1 of Article I of the Constitution is added to read:
SEC. 1.1. Only marriage between one man and one woman is valid or recognized in
California, whether contracted in this state or elsewhere. Neither the Legislature nor any court, government institution, government agency, initiative statute, local government, or government official shall abolish the civil institution of marriage between one man and one woman, or decrease statutory rights, incidents, or employee benefits of marriage shared by one man and one woman, or require private entities to offer or provide rights, incidents, or benefits of marriage to unmarried individuals, or bestow statutory rights, incidents, or employee benefits of marriage on unmarried individuals. Any public act, record, or judicial proceeding, fiom within this state or another jurisdiction, that violates this section is void and unenforceable.

This is not a surprise but it is definitely not good news. In 2005 these whackos along with their even more homophobic buddies responsible for California's most recent anti-gay ballot measure Proposition 22 which voters passed by a stupefying margin of 61.4%-38.6% in 2000 filed several anti-gay ballot initiatives with the attorney general for the 2006 election but none of them qualified for the ballot.

With three bites at the apple next year at statewide elections (February 5th Presidential Primary, June 3rd Legislative Primary and November 6th Presidential and Legislative Election) Mad Professah has been predicting for awhile that California heterosexual supremacists hope that they will be able to qualify one of these nasty ballot measures and put the civil rights of a minority up to a majority vote by "the people." Gotta love, Democracy California-style, right?

REVIEW: Iain M. Bank's THE ALGEBRAIST

Iain M. Bank's The Algebraist was nominated for science fiction's highest award in 2005 and one of my favorite sci-fi authors, Peter F. Hamilton, the creator of the Night's Dawn space opera, has cited the fellow British writer as an influence and inspiration. So I greatly looked forward to reading Banks' latest science fiction work, especially considering the title has something to do with mathematics, my regular day job. Banks is an unusual author in that he is well-known (and commercially successful) in both "genre fiction" as well as general fiction.

Reviews on the web of The Algebraist are not uniformly glowing, although almost all refer to its ambitious nature and sharp wit.

For one thing, the book is 434 hardcover pages, not quite Hamiltonian-length but still quite an imposing size for a bit of a relaxing read. Frankly, I'm surprised I finished it, at all. It's simply not worth the amount of time it takes to read.

My fourth grade teacher once told me a long time ago that if I felt that I was about to give up on a book to skip 50 pages and keep on reading. I tried this strategy with The Algebraist and it did allow me to finish it, but not enjoyably.

GRADE: B.

Rafa Beats Raja in Grass-Clay Court Exo

Rafael Nadal beat Roger Federer in a very close 7-5 4-6 7-6(10) in the much hyped Battle of Surfaces exhibition match in Mallorca, Spain. Thanks to Craig Hickman's instructions, I was able to see the final set live on the web in streaming video. Very cool!

It looked to me like the match played more like a clay court match then a grass court match. The grass was VERY green and simply killed bounces. The organizers claimed they spent $1.36 million on the dual-surface court but I question how similar to the Roland Garros and Wimbledon courts these half-courts were. That being said, I do think that Nadal does a better job of being on grass than Federer does being on clay. What I think happens is that being on grass harms Nadal's game less than being on clay harms Federer's. Both players had match points in the final set tie-break (Nadal squandered one of his four with a double fault!) and it was really anyone's match.

Their head-to-head exhibition record is now tied 1-1.

Head of British Petroleum Resigns Over Perjury and Male Palimony Scandal

365gay.com alerts me to the story of the resignation of Lord John Browne of Madingley, the former chief executive officer of corporate behemoth British Petroleum, in the wake of a scandal involving Lord Browne's lying to a court to prevent knowledge of his intimate relationship with another gay man named Jeff Chevalier from being printed in the British tabloid The Mail on Sunday. Towleroad and has excellent coverage of the story as well. Pink News and The London Times also reports:

The multi-millionaire businessman told the court that he had met Mr Chevalier while exercising in Battersea Park, but later admitted that was a lie.

[...]

"My initial witness statements, however, contained an untruthful account about how I first met Jeff.

"This account, prompted by my embarrassment and shock at the revelations, is a matter of deep regret. It was retracted and corrected.

"I have apologised unreservedly, and do so again today.

[...]

"I shall not be commenting on my personal issues further. I wish to pursue my personal life in private."

It is doubtful that in light of British tabloid doggedness that he will get away with not having to say anything further on the topic. Joe.My.God asks whether this is "the most expensive outing ever" since Lord Browne will forfeit as much as $31 million dollars (£15 million) due to the executive's earlier than expected retirement. However others are questioning the $10 million dollar "golden parachute" that Lord Browne will receive from the oil giant.

1000 posts!

The Mad Professah Lectures has reached a milestone of 1000 posts since January 2005 when the blog was (re)started.

Barack Obama Takes Lead For First Time In National Poll

For the first time, former First Lady and U.S. Senator Hillary Clinton (D-NY) is no longer the frontrunner for the Democratic nomination for the Presidency in a recently released national poll by Rasmussen Reports. U.S. Senator Barack Obama (D-IL) leads the pack with 32% of respondents followed by Clinton at 30% and former Senator and Vice Presidential candidate John Edwards trails at 17%. The poll was completed before the first debate between Democratic presidential candidates in South Carolina last Thursday.

Following a surprisingly strong fundraising report released at the end of March, Obama steadily gained ground during April. The last Rasmussen Reports poll released in March found Clinton enjoying a dozen-point lead. Since then, Clinton’s support has fallen seven percentage points while Obama’s total has increased the same amount. Obama now leads among voters under 40. Clinton is strongest among those 65 and older. Clinton has a two-point edge among Democrats. Obama has a nineteen-point lead among independents likely to vote in a Democratic primary.

Last week, the two top candidates were tied at 32%. Two weeks ago, Clinton had a two-point lead. Three weeks ago, it was Clinton by five. The week before that, the former First Lady was up by seven.

A separate survey found that Clinton is seen as politically liberal by 52% of American voters. Forty-four percent (44%) say the same about Obama while 39% see Edwards as politically liberal. Perceptions of Clinton’s ideology have shifted a bit closer to the political center in recent months. Obama has moved in the opposite direction—more to the left.

UPDATE: Nadal Federer Exhibition TOMORROW

UPDATE: Apparently the Battle of Surfaces showdown between the best grass court player in the world versus the best clay court player in the world on a court which is half grass, half-clay will be happening TOMORROW (Wed May 2nd) at the Palma Arena in Palma de Mallorca, Spain not Monday May 1 as Mad Professah reported last Friday.

Current voting seems to think that Federer wil beat Nadal in the exhibition, although Nadal hold s a 6-3 lead in their official ATP head-to-head Federer has beaten Nadal at least one other time in exhibition.

Village Voice Impugns Math and Social Justice Conference

Bizarrely, the progressive free weekly ("the nation's largest weekly newspaper") Village Voice printed an article on the Creating Balance in an Unjust World conference that Mad Professah attended this past weekend entitled "Weighting for Lefty" by Suzanne La Barre which impugns the characters of the organizers and basically warns people away from attending:

Math conferences aren't typically hotbeds of controversy. But add a Harvard-trained civil rights philosopher, a notorious Weather Underground fugitive, and a clutch of young, idealistic math teachers, and you have a banner-waving radical math convention—not to mention a formula for backlash.

[...]

Proponents point to American children's poor international standing in math proficiency and the persistence of the black-white achievement gap as evidence for the need to upend current teaching practices. "A lot of people hate math," says K. Wayne Yang, an assistant ethnic-studies professor at the University of California, San Diego, and founder of the progressive charter school East Oakland Community High, where Tupac numerology counts as a class assignment. That's the conspiracy theory that Tupac Shakur, who was murdered in 1996, faked his death and left clues in the number seven: Tupac was 25 when he died (2+5=7) seven months after the release of the album All Eyez on Me, an album that includes the song "Heartz of Men," in which Tupac says, "I died and came back" three minutes and 13 seconds into the track (3+1+3=7). "This is something that applies to their lives," Yang says of such projects that students can relate to, "and ideally, gets them to love math."

[...]

Some educators, however, aren't down with the program. "I don't believe that the classroom in a public school should be used for any political indoctrination, whether by activists for social justice or activists for creationism or activists for a particular foreign policy," says Diane Ravitch, a research professor at New York University. "What if you discovered that test scores soar in classrooms where the teachings insist on teaching creationism or fascism? It would still be wrong. The classroom should not be a podium for the personal political beliefs of the teachers. Period."

And even among the like-minded, the notion of radicalizing algebra class is a tough sell. "I believe in social justice," says Wilfried Schmid, a Harvard math professor and member of the American Mathematical Society Committee on Education. "But if the teaching of mathematics constantly carries an undertone of political action, the mathematics suffers."

What?? There are numerous problematic aspects of this article. First of all, the only sign of "backlash" that has appeared in the media about the conference has been this article. Second, the reporter finds not one but two professors to deliver negative quotes about the concept of connecting mathematics and social justice, including giving opponents the final word in the story. Third, the reporter deliberately focusses on obscure or titillating examples (Deconstructing Barbie! Tupac numerology!) in order to tear down the entire enterprise. Fourth, the article includes no factual information or statistics about current mathematical achievement in urban cities or the U.S. as a whole which have been a catalyst for re-examination of many different aspects of public education, leading to many different innovative (and some controversial) interventions.

Congress Passes Legislation to Enhance Teaching of Math and Science

The Los Angeles Times reported passage of the America Creating Opportunities to Meaningfully Promote Excellence in Technology, Education, and Science (COMPETES) Act by the United States Senate 88-8 which would authorize an additional $16 billion for math and science programs at America's schools. The United States House of Representatives also passed a similar bill on Wednesday by a vote of 389-22 that would cause the budget of the National Science Foundation to be doubled by 2012.

This is fantastic news that the federal government is actually taking the challenge of global competition seriously.

Venus Williams Reportedly Dating White Pro Golfer

5-time Grand Slam tennis champion 26-year old Venus Williams is reportedly dating 31-year old professional golfer Hank Kuehne. Venus attended the EDS Byron Nelson Championship this week in Irving, Texas to support her "friend."

New Hampshire enacts civil unions law

The Manchester Union-Leader reported yesterday that New Hampshire will become the fourth state in New England to enact civil unions, after Vermont (2000), Connecticut (2005) and New Jersey (2007)

Gov. John Lynch said last week he will sign the bill as "a matter of conscience, fairness and preventing discrimination." The Senate's 14 to 10 vote on HB 437 went along party lines, with the Democratic majority winning passage. [...]

The Senate vote came just 22 days after the House passed the bill by a two-to-one margin, 243-129. It had support there from 30 Republicans.

When the law takes effect Jan. 1, 2008, New Hampshire will be the fourth state with a civil unions law, behind Vermont, Connecticut and New Jersey.

Massachusetts has legalized same-sex marriage.

Bizarrely, the article doesn't go on to mention California's comprehensive domestic partnership law (which is basically a civil union bill without that name) or Washington state's limited domestic partnership law that was enacted just last week. Oregon is also likely to enact one in the next few weeks.

Federer-Nadal Grass-Clay Split-Court Exhibition Match

Craig Hickman has the goods on "The Battle of Surfaces" to be held on Monday May 1, 2007 in Mallorca, Spain. It is a 2-set exhibition played between Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer on a court which is half-grass and half-red clay. World #2 Nadal has a 70-match winning streak on clay including 2 consecutive Roland Garros titles while Federer has 4 consecutive Wimbledon titles and a 48-match winning streak on grass.

The match should be interesting to watch to say the least. I believe most people expect them to split sets.

Mad Professah in Big Apple For Radical Math conference

Mad Professah will be in New York City (well, Brooklyn) this weekend for a Radical Mathematics conference which tries to put Mathematics and Social Justice in the same sentence.

I'm definitely looking forward to Saturday night's speech by McArthur "genius grant" fellow Bob Moses, the author of Radical Equations and the founder of the Algebra Project.

Iowa Legislature Passes LGBT Rights Bill

Ahhh, Spring, the time of year when the flowers are blooming, the birds are singing and state legislatures are in full swing, churning out legislation. Just last week Oregon's legislature passed a "gay rights bill" to a willing governor, Washington's legislature enacted domestic partnership legislation and New York's governor may introduce a marriage equality bill into that state's law-making body. Late Wednesday comes word that the unlikely state of Iowa will join Oregon in the ranks of "free states," just days after re-entry of the federal gay rights bill. The Des Moines Register reported:

Legislation to add sexual orientation to Iowa’s civil-rights laws passed the House on a bipartisan vote Wednesday, breaking a long-running stalemate over the issue.

“It is a historic vote,” said House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, a Des Moines Democrat. “I also think it was a mainstream vote. This was not some sort of liberal/social agenda. This is just saying that under housing and employment people should not be discriminated based upon their real or perceived sexual orientation.”

Senate File 427 would make it illegal to discriminate in employment, public accommodation, credit, housing and education based on a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity.

The vote passed in a 59 to 37 vote. Nine Republicans voted in favor of the plan. Three Democrats voted against it.

[...]

Interestingly, the sticking point in Iowa was aspects of the gender identity provisions. The lower House stripped “appearance, expression, or behavior” from the gender identity section, causing the bill to go back to the Senate for a concurrence vote, which it did on a vote of 34-16.
Democratic Iowa Governor Chet Culver has previously promised to sign the bill into law.

You know the heterosexual supremacists are fighting a losing battle if LGBT rights bills are passing easily in a red state like Iowa!

I don't wanna be partisan, but note the common thread that Iowa, Oregon, Washington and New York all have Democratic governors. I guess that's just a coincidence, Log Cabin, eh?

Trans-inclusive ENDA introduced in 110th Congress

The Employment Non-Discrimination Act (a.k.a. "the federal gay rights bill" or ENDA) was introduced into the 110th Congress with 4 bipartisan authors, openly gay Democrats Tammy Baldwin (WI-12) and Barney Frank (MA-4) and Republicans Deborah Pryce (OH-15) and Christopher Shays (CT-4) on Tuesday afternoon. It has been repeatedly introduced in Congress since 1974 and only once received a vote, in the senate, where it failed on a 49-50 vote (during the debate on the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act!

Interestingly, although the bill would prohibit discrimination nationwide in employment (or employment decisions) on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity there has not been much complaint by the naysayers who for years said that a "trans-inclusive" bill had no chance of passing Congress. This may have something to do with the fact that there are more gay rights laws in the "several states" that are "gender identity of expression" inclusive than not (The Task Force lists 10 trans-inclusive to 8 non), and all the ones enacted in recent years (except for New York's bizarre 2002 law) have been trans-inclusive. I presume with Democratic Governor Eliot Spitzer making noises about introducing a marriage equality bill that getting a trans-inclusive bill through the legislature to his desk for his willing signature should be a snap--or a compromise position?

With Democrats controlling Congress in the majority can we actually see ENDA pass one chamber of Congress this year?

Los Angeles area Congresswoman dies of cancer

Rod 2.0 covers the story of the shocking death (due to colon cancer at the age of 68) of U.S. Representative Juanita Millender-Mcdonald (CA-37) who represented southern Los Angeles which includes cities like Carson, Compton and parts of Long Beach.

Governor Schwarzenegger has 14 days to set the date for a special election. Not waiting for the body to be cold, The Politico is already speculating about who will run to hold the congressional seat.

The leading candidate mentioned is state Sen. Jenny Oropeza, the only Hispanic elected official district-wide. Oropeza previously served for six years in the state Assembly and is vice chairman of the legislature's Latino Caucus.

[...]

Two black women in legislative leadership positions are considered possible contenders. State Assemblywoman Laura Richardson is assistant speaker pro tempore in the Assembly and previously worked as former lieutenant governor Cruz Bustamante's regional director. State Assemblywoman Karen Bass is the first black woman serving as the majority floor leader, but her district does not cover Long Beach.

State Sen. Alan Lowenthal has also been mentioned as a potential candidate. His legislative district covers most of Long Beach, and he could be the only white candidate in a field filled with minority candidates if he chose to run.

[...]

Other potential Democratic candidates include Carson Mayor Jim Dear, Los Angeles City Council member Janice Hahn and Compton City Council member Isadore Hall III.

Congresswoman Millender-McDonald was head of the Committee on House Administration, which was considering the controversial election results in Florida's 13th district that was decided for the Republican by 369 votes in November 2006. the chairmanship of the Committee is now up for grabs as the interim Chairman Rep. Robert Brady is running for Mayor of Philadelphia. California Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren is next in line to chair this important committee.

Update on gay rights in Puerto Rico

Andrés at Blabbeando has a great chronological summary of the current struggle to pass gay rights legislation in Puerto Rico. The latest development is that the Archbishop of Puerto Rico Roberto González Nieves has endorsed domestic partnership legislation (El Nuevo Día)

En un giro inesperado, el arzobispo de San Juan, Roberto González Nieves, comparecerá hoy por segunda ocasión ante la comisión revisora del Código Civil para proponer una variante de las uniones de hecho, que definió como “uniones domésticas”.

Una “unión doméstica”, según González Nieves, está constituida por dos o más personas que residan bajo un mismo techo y que exista entre ellas un conjunto de derechos y deberes que nacen de la vida en común o de un pacto expreso.

According to babelfish.altavista.com, this translates as:

In an unexpected turn, the archbishop of San Juan, González Robert Nieves, will appear today for the second time before the revisory commission of the Civil Code to propose a variant of the unions in fact, that he defined as "domestic unions".

A "domestic union", according to González Nieves, is constituted by two or more people tha[t] reside under a same ceiling and that exists among them a set of rights and duties that are born of the life in common or of an express pact.