New Frames

Bill Gates on the big M's choice between gay rights and evangelicals: Oops

Microsoft executives tried to fly under the radar this past February when, under pressure from a pastor at a local Redmond mega-church, the company pulled its support from Washington state's HB 1515 which would have granted equal protections to the state's gays and lesbians.  Little did they know that the story would show up in Seattle's alternative weekly, The Stranger, and hit the blogosphere in full force (yours truly wrote about it here last Thursday.)  By the weekend the media was all over it as well, and it seemed to dovetail nicely with the wingnut's Justice Sunday.

Surprise, surprise.  Bill Gates is having second thoughts about the decision his company made to pull their support from the bill.  They voted for it before they voted against it.  According to the Seattle Times the big M is considering supporting such a bill in the next legislative session:

Microsoft may re-evaluate whether to support state legislation that would ban discrimination against gays and lesbians, Chairman Bill Gates said yesterday.

Gates said Microsoft was surprised by the sharp reaction after it became known that the company took a neutral position on the perennial measure this year, after actively supporting it in previous years.

I'm surprised that they were surprised.  Really!  They must have taken a gamble, thinking that a national boycott from wingnuts would hurt them more than the low moral many of their employees would experience from such a decision, not to mention the general outcry from progressives and moderates across the country.  Certainly there are wingnuts who work at the big M, but a majority of their employees are forward thinking moderates who believe their company represents equality for the people in our society. 

Had Microsoft always held a neutral position on the matter, that would be another issue.  Instead, the company changed its position after being pressured by an evangelical pastor, leaving many of the big M's employees feeling uncomfortable about, disappointed in and hurt by their employer's decision. 

Gates clearly understands what has happened here:

"Next time this one comes around, we'll see.  We certainly have a lot of employees who sent us mail. Next time it comes around that'll be a major factor for us to take into consideration."

I still can't believe they didn't see this coming.

Microsoft rolls over for mega-church

The Stranger, Seattle's alternative weekly, has reported that Microsoft, under pressure from a Redmond evangelical mega-church, pulled its support from Washington's HB 1515, an anti-discrimination bill that would afford protections to gays and lesbians.  Sadly, the bill was defeated this afternoon in the Washington Senate, 25-24.

It is unthinkable that one of the world's most powerful corporations caved when threatened by an evangelical pastor from a mega-church.  The pastor, Ken Hutcherson, a former washed up NFL line-backer, met with a top executive from Microsoft in February and threatened that he would organize a national boycott against Microsoft if the company didn't pull its endorsement from the bill.

Microsoft, historically, has been at the forefront of supporting gay rights through its own non-discrimination policies and by offering domestic-partnership benefits to its gay and lesbian employees.  High tech companies are well known for their forward thinking policies in this area.  They want intelligent, well educated employees who work hard and contribute to the success of the company.  It doesn't matter what religion a person practices or who a person chooses to love.  It's all about getting the best and the brightest.

The saddest part about all of this is that HB 1515 isn't even about the marriage issue.  It's about protecting gays and lesbians from discrimination in employment, housing, banking, insurance and other issues by adding "sexual orientation" to a state law that already bans discrimination based on race, gender, religion, nationality, marital status and mental or physical handicap.

Microsoft claims that they did not base their decision on "any external factors" and claimed that this year they want to focus their "resources and efforts on a limited number of issues," ones that most closely align with their "business objectives."  That's a bunch of crock if I ever heard it.  In the meantime, companies that supported the bill were Boeing, Nike, Coors Brewing, Washington Mutual, Hewlett-Packard, Corbis, Qwest... just to name a few.

When a company like Microsoft, due to threats from right wing evangelicals, pulls its support for a bill that expands civil rights, I'd have to say it's an ugly day in America.

Dino-Do-Over Rossi wants a revote

The Republicans in Washington state and Dino-Do-Over are refusing to concede to governor-elect Christine Gregoire.  They've started running an emotionally hyped ad campaign that features the father of a Washington state soldier who was injured while fighting in the Fallujah battle and didn't get his ballot in time.  That should get everyone worked up.  But there's a problem:  Didn't the battle in Fallujah happen after the election?  Maybe I'm missin' something here.

Discrepancies have been found in several counties in the number of votes cast and the number of voters on the rolls.  On Friday a 'reconciliation' process will take place in the counties with discrepancies.  Various factors can cause these differences such as overlooking names in poll books, failing to note registered names in computer records, domestic violence victims who are in hiding and who's names do not appear on voter lists, and nonregistered armed-forces members who voted by mail.

Stay tuned.

Three cheers for the Washington state Dems!

Christine Gregoire is declared the governor-elect by Washington state's Secretary of State, Sam Reed (he's a Republican for those of you who might want to believe he's a partisan hack.)

The Dem lawyers in this case were the kind of junk-yard dogs we could have used in 2000, but of course that's the past.  So let's use these guys in the future.  They know how to fight to get every vote counted (note to DNC.)

Remember when Dino Rossi told Gregoire that she should be gracious and concede the election?  And now he refuses to concede when the Secretary of State from his own party said that he thought "the election process had been fair."

Keeping up with the WA state recount

O.K., I'm losing my breath trying to follow this story.   162 King County ballots are missing.  They belong to the same group of 573 absentee ballots that were wrongly rejected.  The 573 ballots belong to people with last names that begin with C-D, and the missing ballots begin with A-B.  It's believed that they have been left in a locked "cage" which will be opened today.

On another front, Ralph Munro, the former Secretary of State and (R) Dino Rossi supporter, has called for a new vote, because he believes all confidence in the election has been lost.   Or maybe it's because the King County ballots will likely put (D) Gregoire into the lead?

If only Washington state used a vote-by-mail system like we do in Oregon where we have some of the highest voter turnout in the nation and few reports of fraud.

*Update - A county judge has blocked the counting of the over 700 ballots  from heavily Democratic King County.  The judge claimed that because this is a recount and the ballots were not counted in the first place, they don't qualify to be counted in the recount.  The Dems promised they would appeal the decision to the Washington State Supreme Court.  It doesn't suprise me that the GOP wanted to prevent those ballots from being counted.  Because these are all absentee ballots, many of those who cast these ballots now know that their ballot may not be counted.  There are 723 poster boys and girls in the making!  What would you do?  I would sue to have my vote counted!

**Update (12/21/04) Attorneys for Washington's Secretary of State are arguing that if the 735 disputed King County ballots are blocked from the recount by Washington's Supreme Court (a decision will be made on Wednesday) other counties that have included new ballots, originally not counted, in the hand recounts must go back and exclude those ballots. 

My opinion -- count every valid ballot.

***Update (12/22/04)
If the Democrats of Washington are correct, Christine Gregoire is the winner of the state's governor's race by 8 votes.  If on Wednesday the Washington state Supreme Court allows the counting of the remaining 573 disputed King County ballots, it will likely put more votes into Gregoire's column.

The state's GOP is going to go into fits and convulsions.