Sen. Schumer Flips To Support Full Marriage Equality

Said Schumer (D-NY):

It’s time. Equality is something that has always been a hallmark of America and no group should be deprived of it. New York, which has always been at the forefront on issues of equality, is appropriately poised to take a lead on this issue.

The Daily News reports that “with the ascent of Kirsten Gillibrand to fill Hillary Clinton’s vacant US Senate seat, Schumer was the last remaining statewide elected official who backed civil unions over full marriage equality.”

Really? The last statewide official?! Well, gee, let’s get our gay marriage on!

Schumer also said he supports the full repeal of DOMA.

Source: Schumer Comes Out For Gay Marriage (NY Daily News)

More Photos Of Tongan Volcanic Eruption

As I promised earlier, here are more photos – first and fifth in a series – from last week’s underwater volcanic eruption near Tonga. Click the pic for the full size version or go here for the complete gallery.

Photo: Dana Stephenson/Getty Images

Photo: Dana Stephenson/Getty Images

I really can’t imagine the amount of force at work here.

As Sesquicentennial Nears, South Moves To Expand Confederate Celebration

The 150th anniversary of the [the start of the] Civil War is in 2011. Here are some fun facts, none of which I knew:

– Alabama, Virginia, Mississippi, Texas, Louisiana , Georgia, and Florida observe Confederate History Month in April
– Most Southern states recognize Confederate Memorial Day as a legal holiday
– Some Southern states celebrate Confederate Memorial Day on the June birthday of Confederate President Jefferson Davis (makes sense)
– Texas and Arkansas observe it on Jan. 19, the federal holiday for slain civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. (does not make sense)

With the big sesquicentennial celebration rapidly approaching, organizers are attempting to spread the holiday state-by-state to the entire nation.

Organizers say that the idea of the confederacy is often used as a political tool and that, when told accurately, there is more positive to be told than negative. However, since many simply associate the confederacy with slavery – which angers those who have ancestors who died in the war – organizers have tried to shine a new light on people’s currently held notions.

In recent years, they have sought to redefine the Confederacy in multicultural terms, pointing out that Jews, Hispanics and blacks fought for the South. They argue that the war had little if anything to do with slavery, and they have become vocal in their opposition to white supremacist groups that use the Confederate flag as a symbol of hate.

However, Jonathan Sarris, associate professor of history at North Carolina Wesleyan College, says that’s a just a big lie:

To say that it is not racist but about multiculturalism is an attempt to adopt a modern mind-set. You can call it a victory for the forces of multiculturalism when even the defendants of the Confederacy feel they have to pay some lip service to the idea of tolerance.

Georgia state Sen. John Bulloch, a Republican who sponsored the bill recognizing Confederate History Month in that state, said Confederate History Month is no different than Black History Month. He further noted that it would increase tourism, especially to areas with Civil War battlegrounds.

Black history is a very important part of the heritage of American citizens, so we recognize it. The War Between the States is a very significant part of the history of the United States, so why should anybody look at this any different? With Georgia being part of the Confederacy, this is something that is very significant to us.

I’m not sure how you can seriously expect this to be a nationwide celebration when 17 of the nation’s states weren’t even states at the start of hostilities and 14 of those only became states after the North won.

Source: Southerns Looking To Share Their Confederate Holiday (Chicago Tribune)

To Be Fair, The Caterer *Did* Refuse To Serve McNuggets

More at Tacky Weddings.

Palin, Jindal, And Others Reject Stimulus Money Allocated For Their States

CNN reported on Friday that Governor Palin will officially reject about half of the federal stimulus money allocated for her state and some believe she’s simply playing politics ahead of her 2010 reelection bid. Palin said she believes the funds will only put her state in a “deeper hole.”

In a statement released Friday, Palin said she is open to accepting more of the federal funds, especially the $170 million she is currently rejecting that is allotted to education.

Looks like that hole is sometimes okay.

The article states that other, generally conservative governors, including South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, Texas Gov. Rick Perry, and Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour have all vowed to reject some or all of the stimulus funds headed toward their states.

Texas, with a January unemployment rate of 6.4%, is entitled to $555 million of federal funds. Eligibility for the funds, however, is dependent upon the state expanding unemployment benefits and Gov. Perry does not want to accept the stimulus money because his state would have to raise taxes to cover the expanded benefits once the stimulus funds ran out.

A valid concern but it doesn’t address the goal of the stimulus money or other ways to help the 6.4% of people in his state that are unemployed.

It’ll be interesting to see how this is received by the voting public.

Completely Unrelated: Everyone read The Onion‘s Point/Counterpoint: “Gov. Palin Has No Foreign Policy Experience, Refuses To Acknowledge Global Warming, And Supports The War In Iraq” – versus – “Please Keep Your Voice Down, My Poor Retarded Child Is Sleeping,” right? Well, you should.

The World, According To Americans

Um, yeah… pretty much. (I think the poles are my favorites.) Click to enlarge.

Via JMG.

Daniel Merriweather Featuring Adele

Not usually a big R&B/”blue-eyed soul” fan but when Australia’s Daniel Merriweather works with Adele, it’s not to be missed. This track is from Daniel’s upcoming album, “Love and War,” to be released April 28th (27th in the UK) and I LOVE it.

Daniel Merriweather – Water and the Flame (ft. Adele)

More: Daniel Merriweather MySpace

Enjoy!

Obama’s “Katrina Moment” And The Quest For Ever-Elusive Transparency

A letter to the editor last week suggested that Obama is now experiencing his “Katrina Moment.” Frank Rich seems to dismiss this but admits that Obama needs to follow-through on his promise of transparency:

To get ahead of the anger, Obama must do what he has repeatedly promised but not always done: make everything about his economic policies transparent and hold every player accountable. His administration must start actually answering the questions that officials like Geithner and Summers routinely duck.

Inquiring Americans have the right to know why it took six months for us to learn (some of) what A.I.G. did with our money. We need to understand why some of that money was used to bail out foreign banks. And why Goldman, which declared that its potential losses with A.I.G. were “immaterial,” nonetheless got the largest-known A.I.G. handout of taxpayers’ cash ($12.9 billion) while also receiving a TARP bailout. We need to be told why retention bonuses went to some 50 bankers who not only were in the toxic A.I.G. unit but who left despite the “retention” jackpots. We must be told why taxpayers have so little control of the bailed-out financial institutions that we now own some or most of. And where are the M.R.I.’s from those “stress tests” the Treasury Department is giving those banks?

[…]

Another compelling question connects all of the above: why has there been so little transparency and so much evasiveness so far? The answer, I fear, is that too many of the administration’s officials are too marinated in the insiders’ culture to police it, reform it or own up to their own past complicity with it.

The “dirty little secret,” Obama told Leno on Thursday, is that “most of the stuff that got us into trouble was perfectly legal.” An even dirtier secret is that a prime mover in keeping that stuff legal was Summers, who helped torpedo the regulation of derivatives while in the Clinton administration. His mentor Robert Rubin, no less, wrote in his 2003 memoir that Summers underestimated how the risk of derivatives might multiply “under extraordinary circumstances.”

CNN’s Campbell Brown also weighed-in on the yet-to-materialize transparency. She cited the testimony of Earl Devaney, Obama’s hand-picked chair of the Recovery Accountability and Transparency (yes, RAT) board. Devaney said that Recovery.gov is currently getting 4,000 hits a second but that they don’t even have control of the website yet. Devaney:

The board is still trying to acquire staff, get our equipment … phones, computers … trying to acquire space, which we haven’t managed to get yet and just trying to get our heads above water and make sure the board fulfills its responsibilities under the Recovery Act. Our first official board meeting will actually be held next week.

Tell me you oversee a budget of $787 billion dollars but that you don’t have a computer or an office yet to oversee that $787 billion dollars and I’ll say, “You must work for the Federal government.”

Devaney also warned against unreasonable expectations:

I’m concerned that there may be a naïve impression that given the amount of transparency and accountability called for in this act, little or no fraud or waste will occur. I’m afraid that my 38 years of federal enforcement experience informs me that some level of waste or fraud is, regrettably, inevitable.

Campbell Brown notes:

Devaney told The Wall Street Journal that on average, fraud in business adds up to about 7 percent. Apply that to the $787 billion Recovery Act and that’s a jaw-dropping $55 billion in waste and fraud — $55 billion! Kind of makes those AIG bonuses pale in comparison.

Sigh.

I think I need a hope infusion.