And Now One Big Reason Why I Hate the Governor

I meant to mention this in the previous entry.

For me, any glimmer of sanity, reason, or intelligence on Mr. Schwarzenegger's part — and sufficient reason, in my opinion, for him to be run out of office on a rail — is his veto last fall of a measure to allow condom distribution in prisons by nonprofit entities.

Make no mistake, this veto was unforgiveable, irresponsible, and absolutely immoral. Anyone who thinks that "voting for Arnold wasn't that bad because he's a moderate" should be forced to spend a couple hundred hours doing community service in a group home for HIV-infected families of ex-cons.

I couldn't agree more with the relatively level-headed assessment of the Los Angeles Times in its editorial from October 5, 2006:

"Conservative lawmakers have been trying to kill the condom bill all year -- for the head-in-the-sand reason that the program would effectively endorse the crime of having sex in prison.... Stopping the spread of HIV in one of the places where it grows the fastest is a far more pressing issue than re-electing a governor who should know better than to let public health be held hostage by moral hysterics"

So essentially, the State is going to have the burden of providing medical treatment to many of the inmates and potentially all those they may infect after getting out of prison (given that the statewide average time of incarceration is only 2 years).

Needless to say, the eventual economic cost isn't what should most outrage us regarding this cowardly political maneuver.