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* Iowa's Senate majority leader rules out an amendment to ban gay marriage. We learn that Iowans get to vote on having a constitutional convention every 10 years -- nice touch along Jefferson's ideas of permanent revolution. We also get:
Former state legislator Chuck Hurley, president of the conservative Iowa Family Policy Center, said gay marriage opponents would step up the pressure on Gronstal.
"He is denying 2.1 million Iowans of voting age of the right to vote on an issue of great importance to 550,000 schoolchildren,"
Schoolchildren? What? I can only think he's blowing on the "pedophile" dog whistle, in a spectacularly illogical fashion. -- Gronstal's speech is online, I'm told it's moving.
* In other Iowa news, the Senate votes to provide health care to nearly all children. The Republicans say... absolutely nothing new.
* The state supreme court eviscerated standard talking points. Pandagon samples Free Republican and legislative responses.
* In today's news, Vermont's legislature overrode the governor's veto of gay marriage legalization, making it the first state to pull that off. (Lost in the Prop 8 hoopla is that California's legislature had legalized it -- but Arnold vetoed, claiming he wasn't opposed but the voters or courts should make a decision like that. Way to go, they split the difference. (ETA: ah, he had a point of sorts, conflict with Prop 22.) DC's council voted unanimously to recognize gay marriages from other states, though I don't know if that takes effect -- Congress gets to run DC. I predict California will be the first state to have the voters legalize gay marriage; Prop 8 only got 52% after all, and the trends are against bigotry. (Though reportedly there's a bias to vote "No" on any amendment.)
* Overseas, Sweden voted for gay marriage the same day of the Iowa decision.
* Journalists allowed to cover returning dead soldiers
* Senate Republicans seek to keep torture memos secret.
* Obama defends and expands Bush wiretapping policies, invoking a hugely broad interpretation of sovereign immunity. The EFF calls his DoJ worse than Bush.
* Red Cross indicts medical role in CIA torture; article also notes the "disappearance" done to our captives, where we wouldn't tell governments or families who we'd taken.
* Black soldiers were kept out of the liberation of Paris. The Pope didn't want them in Rome, either. That's Piux XII.
* 'Sexting' hysteria extends to teachers.
* Boys being abducted in China.
* NYC to try to reduce salt intake, in what might be a big uncontrolled experiment. Lots of links in that article; this is Gary Taubes' article debunking salt and CVD in Science in 1999.
* Temperature/climate variation, and why a steady average temperature for the past 10 years doesn't disprove long-term warming trends. Look on the pictures.
* People who feel good about themselves may misbehave more
* CO2 air capture
Former state legislator Chuck Hurley, president of the conservative Iowa Family Policy Center, said gay marriage opponents would step up the pressure on Gronstal.
"He is denying 2.1 million Iowans of voting age of the right to vote on an issue of great importance to 550,000 schoolchildren,"
Schoolchildren? What? I can only think he's blowing on the "pedophile" dog whistle, in a spectacularly illogical fashion. -- Gronstal's speech is online, I'm told it's moving.
* In other Iowa news, the Senate votes to provide health care to nearly all children. The Republicans say... absolutely nothing new.
* The state supreme court eviscerated standard talking points. Pandagon samples Free Republican and legislative responses.
* In today's news, Vermont's legislature overrode the governor's veto of gay marriage legalization, making it the first state to pull that off. (Lost in the Prop 8 hoopla is that California's legislature had legalized it -- but Arnold vetoed, claiming he wasn't opposed but the voters or courts should make a decision like that. Way to go, they split the difference. (ETA: ah, he had a point of sorts, conflict with Prop 22.) DC's council voted unanimously to recognize gay marriages from other states, though I don't know if that takes effect -- Congress gets to run DC. I predict California will be the first state to have the voters legalize gay marriage; Prop 8 only got 52% after all, and the trends are against bigotry. (Though reportedly there's a bias to vote "No" on any amendment.)
* Overseas, Sweden voted for gay marriage the same day of the Iowa decision.
* Journalists allowed to cover returning dead soldiers
* Senate Republicans seek to keep torture memos secret.
* Obama defends and expands Bush wiretapping policies, invoking a hugely broad interpretation of sovereign immunity. The EFF calls his DoJ worse than Bush.
* Red Cross indicts medical role in CIA torture; article also notes the "disappearance" done to our captives, where we wouldn't tell governments or families who we'd taken.
* Black soldiers were kept out of the liberation of Paris. The Pope didn't want them in Rome, either. That's Piux XII.
* 'Sexting' hysteria extends to teachers.
* Boys being abducted in China.
* NYC to try to reduce salt intake, in what might be a big uncontrolled experiment. Lots of links in that article; this is Gary Taubes' article debunking salt and CVD in Science in 1999.
* Temperature/climate variation, and why a steady average temperature for the past 10 years doesn't disprove long-term warming trends. Look on the pictures.
* People who feel good about themselves may misbehave more
* CO2 air capture