Democracy & Civics

Proposition B: ‘Chump Change’ or ‘Massive Budget Hole’?

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By Tim Kingston
The Truthiness Report: No. 7 in a series on election advertising. The battle over public power and the hospital bond have vacuumed up much of San Francisco’s attention and political capital this season. But there’s an equally significant, if under-the-radar, item up for grabs: Proposition B.
The “Establishing [an] Affordable Housing Fund” measure mandates that 2.5 cents out of every $100 in property taxes go to create what is essentially a dedicated San Francisco affordable housing account. Proponents and opponents alike agree that it would raise roughly $2.7 billion over its 15-year lifespan — in fact, that’s about all they agree on.

The Truthiness Report

Prop. K: Untested Theories Drive Prostitution Debate

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By Bernice Yeung, Newsdesk.org/The Public Press
Proposition K, which seeks to decriminalize prostitution in San Francisco, has spawned a heated debate over how to curb human trafficking and protect the lives and health of sex workers. A close look at campaign advertising around the proposition reveals sharp disagreements between supporters and opponents over what the local impacts of the law would be, as well as a schism in feminist circles over prostitution itself. Drafted by the Erotic Service Providers Union (ESPU), a local sex workers’ alliance, Proposition K would require San Francisco law enforcement to disregard state laws prohibiting prostitution. The measure also calls for the estimated $1.6 million to $3.2 million currently spent on prostitution-related arrests and prosecutions to be directed toward other crimes, including violence against prostitutes. Despite an impact that would be purely local, the dialogue surrounding the proposition reflects the increasing globalization of the sex industry.

Featured

The Business of Ballot Booklet Brokering

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Campaigner and ex-City Hall aide David Noyola illustrates how insiders spin local elections
By Matthew Hirsch, Newsdesk.org/The Public Press
Like many who work in San Francisco City Hall, David Noyola last month was answering two phones, a land line for his official duties, and an iPhone to talk politics. Noyola has since left his position as a legislative aide for Board of Supervisors President Aaron Peskin, and for election 2008 has put his specialized knowledge to use as a professional campaigner. His work in these two capacities illustrates how insiders can have sizable impacts on local elections. In Noyola’s case, his influence is currently most visible in the city’s voter information guide — the thick booklet published before each election that lists all the candidates and initiatives, as well as the official and paid arguments in support or opposition. Working separately as a partisan electioneer and as an aide for Peskin, Noyola placed 22 arguments in the voter guide, collectively supporting of five propositions.

Democracy

For Gypsies, Eugenics is a Modern Problem / Czech Practice Dates to Soviet Era

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By Mindy Kay Bricker
PRAGUE (Newsdesk.org) — Gypsy women who say they were sterilized against their will by Czech doctors were heartened last December when a government investigator released a study that largely vindicated their claims.
Six months later, however, advocates for Gypsies — known more formally as Roma — say the practice is continuing, and are dismayed by what they consider only token steps by Czech officials to stop it. “There’s been basically dead silence at the level of elites,” said Claude Cahn, program director of the European Roma Rights Center, an advocacy group based in Budapest. Officials at the Health Ministry acknowledge the problem, but have not taken responsibility. “[Sterilization] was by no means a national policy, but errors [were] committed by individual medical facilities,” said Jaroslav Strof, the Health Ministry’s director of healthcare and pharmacy, in an e-mailed statement. Yet the Czech government’s independent ombudsman, Otakar Motejl, released a detailed report last year charging that “potentially problematic” sterilizations of Roma women have been public knowledge for more than 15 years.

Culture

‘A Very Long and Very Bloody War’

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A former CIA analyst is critical of the Bush administration’s war on terrorism. But his solution — a re-evaluation of foreign policy and then even bloodier engagement — doesn’t endear him to the left or the right. Interview by Michael Stoll, Newsdesk.org
Michael Scheuer is the author of Imperial Hubris: Why the West is Losing the War on Terror (Potomac Books, 2004). He headed the CIA’s Osama bin Laden task force from 1996 to 1999, and last summer published the book anonymously. Scheuer argues that Osama bin Laden is not a madman with an apocalyptic vision, but rather a sane and charismatic figure whose anti-American rhetoric appeals to large numbers of Muslims. In contrast to Bush administration pronouncements that America’s enemies despise our way of life, Scheuer says bin Laden has been quite clear that he is opposed to policies of the United States, not its character.

Culture

The Dutch Grapple with Intolerance / Race, religion spur immigration debate

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By Jennifer Hamm
AMSTERDAM, Netherlands — After a 19-year-old man of Moroccan descent was run down and killed by a Dutch woman driver trying to recover her stolen purse, mourners blamed Immigration Minister Rita Verdonk for the death. Gathered at a makeshift memorial here earlier this winter, the mourners said Verdonk’s tough immigration reforms have increased Dutch xenophobia against Muslims, spurring the woman’s violent reaction against the alleged purse thief. Though the Dutch are famous for allowing euthanasia, gay marriage and soft-drug use, it is ironically their tolerance that may have laid the foundation for current ethnic tensions. “The problem is we have been tolerant of the intolerant and now we are paying the bill,” said Bart Jan Spruyt, director of the conservative Edmund Burke Foundation in The Hague. “That bill has to be settled first before we can become tolerant again.”

Culture

Budget Said to Shortchange Veterans / Mental Health Services May Fall Short

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By Michael Standaert
According to a recent Pentagon estimate, 30 percent, or about 100,000 troops, have or will develop mental health issues such as post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD, after coming home. And with the federal Veterans Affairs budget falling short of what both its staff and critics have called for, veterans’ advocates fear the government is unprepared for what might be a growing problem. Since the invasion of Iraq, the Veterans Affairs Department has been offering two years of free health care, including mental health, to combat veterans. And the Defense Department recently began giving a questionnaire on “post traumatic stress disorder [and] psychological and social readjustment” to veterans three to six months after returning, according to Dr. William Winkenwerder Jr., the assistant defense secretary for health affairs. Michael O’Rourke, a health care expert with the Veterans for Foreign Wars in Washington, D.C., said six months is not long enough, because PTSD is “insidiously slow in coming on …