Politics

846 posts

New York State Votes on Gay Marriage Tomorrow

As expected, New York State Assembly passed a gay marriage bill last night granting the right to same sex couples to marry, 80-63. Now it heads to the State Senate for a final vote. This isn’t the first time at the rodeo for same sex couples, as the Assembly previous passed a bill “allowing” same sex marriage in New York back in 2009, which, among a whole lot of party in-fighting, failed miserably in the Senate.

Back in 2006, New York’s highest court ruled there was no constitutional right to same sex marriage. In 2008, then-Governor Paterson issued a directive requiring New York to recognize same sex marriages performed in other states. (He didn’t see a difference). Continue reading →

Marie Antoinette Republicans to Low-Income Families, “Let Them Eat Azaleas!”

House Republicans are expected to vote this week for the fiscal year 2012 Agriculture appropriations bill, that has a provision on page 13 requiring the National Arboretum maintain a very specific portion of its azalea collection, because flowers are pretty and smell nice. Why does this matter? While provisions are being made to keep us fully stocked in flora, the bill would cut $832 million from the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) program which provides food assistance to low-income mothers and children nationwide. Continue reading →

There Are Now 10 States Where Abortion is ‘Virtually Illegal’

While Roe v. Wade is still technically the law of the land, there are ten states trying their hardest to make sure an abortion is more difficult to obtain than ever. In some states, women don’t even have reasonable access to abortion. In others, women are being prosecuted for attempting to terminate their pregnancies in non-medical settings, presumably for lack of viable options.  Would it be fair to only have three dentists in the entire state of Kansas?

The Repeal of DADT: Report from the Front Line

The United States Army has launched a new website to keep Soldiers and their families up to date with the ongoing implementation of the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell: http://www.army.mil/dadt/

I’ve had an insider’s view of this process. I was in Afghanistan during the run up to the repeal of DADT this past fall, as well as the signing of the bill repealing DADT into law. After a short break (and I do mean short, but that’s a story for a different time) I found myself in Iraq and have been watching the response of my peers as the repeal has been slowly implemented. Continue reading →

Zombie Paul Revere Has a Message for Sarah Palin

After making a serious flub and mangling American history for all to see, you would think that a person would keep quiet, and you know, maybe let the story just fade into the ether without further comment or display of utter, complete asinine commentary. But, well, that wouldn’t be the Sarah Palin that we all know and love. No sirree. The Sarah Palin rule of thumb is to stick to your story no matter how silly, and hope all the magical beans and dumbfuckery that exists on Wikipedia will carry you through the embarrassing irony of speaking wrongly about historic America while you have the Constitution emblazoned on the side of your bus of miraculous stupid.

Paul Revere would like to have a word. Continue reading →