You got served, Mormons!
Big news: According to a source who has seen the 136-page decision, U.S. District Court Judge Walker has ruled Proposition 8, the California voter-approved ban on gay marriage, unconstitutional under both the due-process and equal-protection clauses. We're staying tuned and will report more details when we get them.
We have little doubt that this trial judge is going to knock down Prop. 8. I hope I'm proven wrong tomorrow. This has been a judge that looks pretty eager to make a historic decision.
– Maggie Gallagher, chairman of the National Organization for Marriage
Poor Maggie Gallagher, what a tough summer she has had. First, Carrie Lady Fingers Prejean gets married, and of course NOM's own Feel the Hate bus tours to spread the word of the evils of marriage equality have been poorly attended. And now Chief U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker is set to rule today on the landmark case that might overturn the controversial limiting of civil liberties against gay and lesbian people.
LAST week I got angry on the floor of the House. In this age of cable and YouTube, millions of people evidently saw the one-minute-plus clip. But there has been relatively little focus on why the substantive debate that sparked it matters.
More broadly, while I appreciate the concern over the future of civility in politics, I believe a little raw anger right now is justified. Democrats make a mistake by pretending there is a bipartisan spirit in Congress these days, and would be better served by calling out Republican shams.
Instead of engaging in a real debate about how to address the challenges we face, Republicans have turned to obstruction, no matter the issue, and then cry foul after the fact. They claim to want an open legislative process with more consultation and debate, but the truth is they simply don't want to pass anything.
Meanwhile, conservative television and talk radio programs are full of false anger, intended to scare Americans. I think some genuine frustration at this misleading tactic is overdue.
That's why I got mad last week. That's also why I'm going to fight for this bill when we come back in session in September. I'm still angry. Playing politics on important issues is never right. But on health care for 9/11 responders, it's an outrage.
The Repugs have their marching orders, which I call Project Obama Fail. They've pulled the same stunt before and will again. They don't care about the 9/11 responders, your kids, working folks, etc., etc., or the good of the nation or anything beyond the upcoming election. They think obstructionism is the Glory Road to regaining power.
I do not, but it depends on their behavior becoming so outrageous and egregious that reg'lar folks who aren't immersed in politics finally notice it and get the message and reject them at the polls. The 9/11 Responders bill was a big straw in the pile they.ve already loaded on the camel's back. I'm hoping for the one that collapses the camel very soon.
Keep up the cheap shit, Repugs. We'll test your theory come November.
I wish this daughter of a prominent, mean-spirited, vindictive and painfully hypocritical Republican politician no ill will. I knew kids who shoplifted where it was a way of acting out/cry for help and if this is the case here, I hope this young woman gets the help she needs. Anyway, the reaction of the store employees is no surprise:
The daughter of New York's toughest-talking, law-and-order mayor was arrested for petty larceny and hauled out of the store in handcuffs. She was taken to the 19th Precinct stationhouse, where she was expected to be issued a desk appearance ticket.
Once store employees learned who the suspect's father is, they told cops they didn't want to press charges, a source said.
Fun fact: Caroline lives in an UES townhouse with her mother Donna Hanover, who divorced "sanctity of marriage" Rudy in 2002 shortly after she caught him screwing his secretary in the basement of City Hall.
###
Stephen Colbert Criticizes Laura Ingraham for ###
Another moment when Conservatives don't like the constitution
"Proposition 8 cannot withstand any level of scrutiny under the Equal Protection Clause," wrote Judge Walker. "Excluding same-sex couples from marriage is simply not rationally related to a legitimate state interest."
The conservatives who are foaming over gay marriage are on the wrong side of history and they probably know it. In a short span of years, they will be explaining to everyone why they were in favor of banning gay marriage, that they now know that they were oh, so wrong, and apologizing. It is a familiar pattern, after all.
The world won't come to an end because gays can marry and form stable relationships that are sanctioned by law. If anything, it will be improved.
Despite President Obama's pledge to retain more hi-tech jobs in the U.S., a federal agency run by a hand-picked Obama appointee has launched a $22 million program to train workers, including 3,000 specialists in IT and related functions, in South Asia.Awesome! We're we're spending our tax dollars to give free training to the very people who are taking our fucking jobs??? We are going to train them in Java EE and English so they can do a better job slashing the throats of our own IT people?
The traitor who is throwing our tax dollars into training Sri Lankans to take our jobs is an asshole named Rajiv Shah. This backstabbing little schmuck is the director of USAID, the agency for international development.
Congress should zero out USAID's budget, now. And as for Director Shah, maybe he needs to find a new job. Maybe in Sri Lanka.
Gee, Ricky you assrocket, you mean like when the Supremes overthrew the Constitution and installed the unelected George W Bush, aka Chimpy McStagger, as the illegitimate president?
###
Vote for this guy.
###
Hooray! The well is dead for now!
Only Steve King's corn bible can fix America.
###
###
Even by Sharron Angle's terribly low standards, this comment from her last April is frighteningly dumb.
"And these programs that you mentioned — that Obama has going with Reid and Pelosi pushing them forward — are all entitlement programs built to make government our God. And that's really what's happening in this country is a violation of the First Commandment. We have become a country entrenched in idolatry, and that idolatry is the dependency upon our government. We're supposed to depend upon God for our protection and our provision and for our daily bread, not for our government."
God, government, Constitution, bible, 1st Amendment, 1st Commandment…it's all one huge holy mess for these mental misfits.
###
The government's claim is complete and total bullshit. The fact is that 99 percent of the oil is still there, just broken up into kajillions of highly toxic molecules that will poison everything forever. "Almost three-quarters of the oil spilled in the Gulf of Mexico has been cleaned up or broken down by natural forces, the US government has said. A government report says only a quarter of the oil from the BP well remains and that it is "degrading quickly". The majority has been captured, burned off or evaporated, it states. But more clean-up is necessary, officials warn. The report was released after BP announced "encouraging" progress on its "static kill" effort to seal the leak. BP Senior Vice-President Kent Wells said the company had almost finished pumping mud from the Gulf surface into the ruptured oil well and was weighing whether to seal it permanently with cement also pumped in from the surface."
###
Congressional Democrats just saved your state's ass
If you're a teacher and still have your job, thank Congressional Democrats. If Medicaid keeps you out of the hospital, thank Congressional Democrats. If you'd rather your state didn't fall headfirst into a no-money pit and sink without a trace, thank Congressional Democrats.
Go ahead, call out your state's repug senators: the fuckers all voted against it. You from Maine there in the back, sit down; I don't know what Snowe and Collins are, but they aren't repugs after today.
First, from David Dayen at Firedoglake, the dramatic tic-toc:
The Senate has begun their cloture vote on the state fiscal aid bill, which would provide $26.1 billion dollars in Medicaid and education jobs funding. The bill, a gut-and-amend of an FAA Authorization Bill, is fully paid for through a series of measures, including an $11.9 billion dollar cut to the food stamp program, starting in 2014. Allies pushing for this vote vow to restore that funding in later years.I'll update as it goes along. All eyes are on three Senators: Susan Collins, Olympia Snowe, and Ben Nelson.
...Even if this vote passes, the House would have to concur, and they're not supposed to be in session until September. There was talk yesterday of calling the House back to pass this.
...Scott Brown votes no, he actually authored a state aid bill that was fully paid for that was substantially similar to this.
...Ben Nelson votes Aye, as does Lieberman and Pryor. Basically, if Collins or Snowe votes Aye, this will pass.
...Susan Collins votes Aye, so this is going to pass today. We'll see if the House goes into session for it. And of course, it just delays a cut to the poor out four years, so there's work to be done.
...Snowe also voted Aye.
...The motion passes 61-38. I would expect final passage to happen sometime this week.
Then, the moment of truth: would the Democratic House, which has already adjourned and left town, leave states hanging until Congress returns in September? Or would they ride to the rescue?
Surprise! Steve Benen:
Today, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D) announced she's calling everyone back. In a Twitter message, Pelosi said:
I will be calling the House back into session early next week to save teachers' jobs and help seniors & children
Great move. At issue is a state aid package, including $10 billion to save school teachers' jobs, and $16.1 billion in state Medicaid funding. There's been a very real possibility that, by the time the House passed the Senate measure, thousands of teachers will have already been laid off. It's precisely why the Speaker is doing the right thing by announcing an emergency session.Though some members are traveling abroad and may not be on hand for next week's vote, House passage is considered a near-certainty.
I'll also look forward to some heartening drama -- Democrats rushing back to D.C. for an emergency session, to save the jobs of thousands of school teachers? Shortly before an election? Aaron Sorkin couldn't write it any better.
Think I'll double-down on my prediction that not only will Democrats hang on to Congress in November, but will keep the current seat margines: Now I'll say that Democrats will actually add five seats in the House and one in the Senate.
###
End the Wars
Bob Herbert makes the argument for ending the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.
What we have in Afghanistan is a war that most Americans believe is not worth fighting — and certainly not worth raising taxes to pay for. President Obama has not made a compelling case for the war and has set a deadline for the start of withdrawal that seems curiously close to the anticipated start of his 2012 campaign for a second term.
It's time to bring the curtain down for good on these tragic, farcical wars. The fantasy of democracy blossoming at the point of a gun in Iraq and spreading blithely throughout the Middle East has been obliterated. And it's hard to believe that anyone buys the notion that the U.S. can install a successful society in the medieval madness of Afghanistan.
For those who haven't noticed, we have a nation that needs rebuilding here at home. Maybe we could muster some shared sacrifice on that front.
It's time to bring the troops back, and nurse the wounded, and thank them all for their extraordinary service. It's time to come to our senses and put the lunatic's manual aside.
