I'm surprised Jamie didn't beat me to posting this...

[fabfemmeboy]

Towleroad is reporting that Arizona Governor Jan Brewer has signed a law that restricts the definition of "dependents" for state employees, thereby stripping domestic partners of benefits. Naturally, she invokes G-d, saying that He has placed her in this powerful position and therefore it is her duty to help the state weather hard times...but at

Comments

[ferdiaferlin]

Hmm if Arizona taxed someone or charged them a fee everytime they invoked God then maybe that would help with their money problems.

[entropius]

I received this email yesterday from the president of the University of Arizona, where I am an employee:

TO: Campus Community

[harmonyheifer]

Jan Brewer is the price Arizonans had to pay to see our former and much beloved Governor promoted to President Obama's cabinet. If it's any consolation, even the Republicans here hate Brewer. She has zero chance of winning when she tries for a term of her own. The other good news is I think her political career is over. About damn time, what a nasty useless bitch she is

[nikolche]

Speaking as fabfemmeboy's native Californian partner: we would if we could. If there were any options for going back to San Francisco (where I know everything and adore it) we'd be there. He's in government work, jobs for him don't exist outside DC.

[fabfemmeboy]

Given your completely understandable concern for gay rights, I think you should skip redneck Arizona altogether and just aim for Northern California and be done with it.

I'm...not entirely sure what you're on about here. I would never live in AZ, mostly because I don't handle heat well whatsoever. I live in the DC area, where I'm likely to remain because I'm a national politics wonk and plan to go back to working in Congress as soon as I can get a position.

[tko_ak]

I'm not a huge fan of Brewer, either, but I don't think we need to resort to calling her a "nasty useless bitch."

And there are parts of Arizona that aren't "redneck."

I also wouldn't be so positive on northern California. The bay area, perhaps, but north of Berkley/east of Eureka it can be pretty redneck.

[tko_ak]

I saw it at work, but being at work, I didn't post it.

It's disappointing, but not exactly shocking. It just goes to show you that executive orders may be a nice gesture, but they don't mean much when a future executive can overturn them with a stroke of the pen.

Decimal Places

[gleef]

The Arizona Star Leger [sic] points out that the cost to the state is about .5% for coverage of domestic partners compared to heterosexual spouses and dependents - it costs the state about $3 million to cover domestic partners, compared to $6.25 million.
A stray decimal point wandered in from somewhere, and planted itself in a spot on your post where it diminishes the story. The Arizona Daily Star reported that "It costs the state $3 million to cover domestic partners and $625 million for other employees and their dependents". The difference is much more dramatic the way they present the data ;-)