Thursday, May 07, 2009
Same-Sex Marriage momentum Maine’s vote only the latest in New England. Apart from demonstrations that followed the defeat in California and Obama’s election, no dramatic events have pushed this. Yet, it proceeds.
John Nichols comments:
It was not necessarily supposed to be this way.
After California joined the agonizingly long list of states that barred same-sex marriage following a referendum vote last year, supporters of LGBT rights were frustrated and angry.
And it seemed as if America might not be ready for the future -- and for the demand that this country's promise of equality under the law be made real for all our citizens.
Then came the Iowa Supreme Court ruling striking down barriers to marriage equality in that state. http://www.thenation.com/blogs/thebeat/433268/the_year_of_same_sex_marriage
Obama on the Sidelines: He’s certainly not led. Meanwhile, the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy continues, discharging gay service members; 12,000 is a common figure cited. The latest is the Arabic-fluent Dan Choi:
Dan Choi, a West Point graduate and officer in the Army National Guard who is fluent in Arabic and who returned recently from Iraq, received notice today that the military is about to fire him. Why? Because he came out of the closet as a gay man on national television.
Some readers might think it unfair to blame Obama. After all, the president inherited the "don't ask, don't tell" law when he took office. As Commander-in-Chief, he has to follow the law. If the law says that the military must fire any service member who acknowledges being gay, that is not Obama's fault.
Or is it?
A new study, about to be published by a group of experts in military law, shows that President Obama does, in fact, have stroke-of-the-pen authority to suspend gay discharges. The "don't ask, don't tell" law requires the military to fire anyone found to be gay or lesbian. But there is nothing requiring the military to make such a finding. The president can simply order the military to stop investigating service members' sexuality.
An executive order would not get rid of the "don't ask, don't tell" law, but would take the critical step of suspending its implementation, hence rendering it effectively dead. Once people see gays and lesbians serving openly, legally and without problems, it will be much easier to get rid of the law at a later time. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/aaron-belkin/obama-to-fire-his-first-g_b_199070.html?view=print
Obama’s feeling...
...pressure to engage on a variety of gay issues that are coming to the fore amid a dizzying pace of social, political, legal and legislative change.
Two of Mr. Obama's potential Supreme Court nominees are openly gay... Same-sex marriage is advancing in states — the latest to allow it is Maine — and a new flare-up in the District of Columbia could ultimately put the controversy in the lap of the president.
Mr. Obama's new global health initiative has infuriated activists who say he is not financing AIDS programs generously enough. And while the president has urged Congress to pass a hate crimes bill, a high priority for gay groups, he has delayed action on one of his key campaign promises, repealing the military's 'don't ask, don't tell' rule.
Social issues like same-sex marriage bring together deeply held principles and flashpoint politics, and many gay activists, aware that Mr. Obama is also dealing with enormous challenges at home and overseas, have counseled patience.
But some are unsettled by what they see as the president's cautious approach. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/07/us/politics/07obama.html?_r=1&hp
Inconclusive Bank Stress Tests: One remains focused on how funds continue to be transferred from the public treasury (Us) to the banks.
After subjecting the nation’s biggest banks to the most public scrutiny in decades, federal regulators ordered 10 of them on Thursday to raise a total of $75 billion in extra capital and gave the rest a clean bill of health.
The long-awaited results of the “stress tests” set off an immediate scramble by major institutions for more capital. By June 8, they must give regulators their plans for raising the money, and raise it by November.
The verdict was far more upbeat than many in the industry had feared when the tests were first announced in February. And the banks that came up short will have to raise much less than some analysts had expected as recently as a few days ago.
The stress tests were aimed at estimating how much each bank would lose if the economic downturn proved even deeper than currently expected. But regulators gave the banks a break by letting them bolster their capital with unusually strong first-quarter profits and also by letting them predict modest profits even if the economy again turns down.
Despite an almost tangible sense of relief among the banks and investors, the report card is unlikely to silence an intense debate over whether the Treasury Department and the Federal Reserve let the banks off too easily and glossed over their problems. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/08/business/08stress.html?hp=&pagewanted=print
Torture: Compromised Pelosi: The long-held suspicion is that she, Harry Reid and Jane Harmon remain silenced and against torture investigations as they were briefed into submission back in 2002. Now, despite her assertions to the contrary, an anonymously released document suggests that she knew waterboarding was being used.
ABC News’ Rick Klein reports: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was briefed on the use of “enhanced interrogation techniques” on terrorist suspect Abu Zubaydah in September 2002, according to a report prepared by the Director of National Intelligence’s office and obtained by ABC News.
The report, submitted to the Senate Intelligence Committee and other Capitol Hill officials Wednesday, appears to contradict Pelosi’s statement last month that she was never told about the use of waterboarding or other special interrogation tactics. Instead, she has said, she was told only that the Bush administration had legal opinions that would have supported the use of such techniques.
The report details a Sept. 4, 2002 meeting between intelligence officials and Pelosi, then-House intelligence committee chairman Porter Goss, and two aides. At the time, Pelosi was the top Democrat on the House intelligence committee.
The meeting is described as a “Briefing on EITs including use of EITs on Abu Zubaydah, background on authorities, and a description of particular EITs that had been employed.”
EITs stand for “enhanced interrogation techniques,” a classification of special interrogation tactics that includes waterboarding.
Pelosi, D-Calif., sharply disputed suggestions last month that she had been told about waterboarding having taken place.
“In that or any other briefing . . . we were not, and I repeat, were not told that waterboarding or any of these other enhanced interrogation techniques were used," Pelosi said at a new conference in April. "What they did tell us is that they had some legislative counsel . . . opinions that they could be used, but not that they would." http://blogs.abcnews.com/thenote/2009/05/intelligence-re.html
Torture Lawyers: Will the Conclusions be drawn? The evidence that dribbles out or that one can deduce point to the OLC lawyers being pushed to re-define torture. The Office of Professional Responsibility Report suggests that that there was an evolution towards the Cheney position. But, again, whether the dots are being connected is unclear.
Murray Waas:
The investigators closely tracked drafts of the four legal opinions until they reached final form. In some instances, the drafts changed progressively over time to afford those who wanted to engage in aggressive interrogation techniques additional legal cover, according to people who have read the draft OPR report. One source indicated that at least two of the earlier drafts were "equivocal" and "nuanced" -- but noted over time they became "more advocative" of the views of then-Vice President Dick Cheney and others in the Bush administration that aggressive interrogation techniques were necessary to prevent new terror attacks.
Extraordinarily, however, the most compelling evidence that Yoo skewed his legal advice to facilitate the use of aggressive interrogation techniques is a public statement that Yoo made in 2006 after he retired from government service. One investigator said that a state bar association is likely to consider Yoo's comments perhaps the most "damning evidence" in considering his intentions while coauthoring his OLC memos.
In a 2006 memoir of his government service, entitled "War by Other Means," Yoo advocated that a president could take a number of steps so that people criminally charged with allegedly torturing prisoners would go free. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/05/06/pressure-increases-on-tor_n_197764.html
Income Inequality Worsens- in Britain The Labor Party is certainly no longer the friend of labor.
Britain under Gordon Brown is a more unequal country than at any time since modern records began in the early 1960s, after the incomes of the poor fell and those of the rich rose in the three years after the 2005 general election.
Deprivation and inequality in the UK rose for a third successive year in 2007-08, according to data from the Department for Work and Pensions that prompted strong criticism from campaign groups for the government's backsliding on its anti-poverty goals.
In a further blow, the government failed to make a dent in the number of children or pensioners living in poverty after big increases the previous year. Almost 17,000 more children in England are on free school meals this year compared with last, according to government data also published yesterday. http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2009/may/08/poverty-equality-britain-incomes-poor
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