++For a complete and subjective view of the Supreme Court rulings on same sex marriage, read Andrew Sullivan's live blogging about it. And congratulations to Andrew, a pioneer in advocating same sex marriage as a conservative position. About Edie Windsor's reaction, check out the NewYorker's blog.
++In the interest of re-branding the Republican Party in Virginia, Ken "The Cooch",candidate for Governor,yesterday has petitioned the Supreme Court to reinstate Virginia's anti-sodomy law. This is a man who said he would run as a moderate. So no BJs for you guys.
++The patriarchy strikes back. Texas was minutes away from passing a draconian anti-abortion bill, which would have effectively closed all abortion clinics in the state. It even surpassed recent laws in North Dakota and elsewhere. A lonely State Senator Wendy Davis filibustered the bill the old-fashioned way--speaking for 13 hours straight without any breaks. Constantly challenged by the Republicans throughout her speech. They tried to say the testimony of women affected by the law was irrelevant. They actually did close down her speaking with 1 hour and 20 minutes remaining. But the clock ran out, even though they said the bill had passed in time. So now the issue is whether the bill passed after midnight is legal. The Texas Senate claims not and Governor Perry, straight after executing his 500th person,announced he would call the Senate back into special session just for this bill. Women circled the Senate and erupted in cheers as Wendy Davis seemed to have succeeded in stalling the bill. Naturally, the protestors had to be arrested.
++Meanwhile Ed Markey, veteran Democratic congressman, romped to victory, taking Senator Kerry's old Senate seat in Massachusetts.
++Immediately after the Supreme Court tossed out Section 4 of the Voting Rights Act,Texas announced it would immediately adopt its Voter ID law. Mississippi, South Carolina, North Carolina,also followed suit. John Lewis who had his head bashed in as a civil rights activist to get the law in the first place said he never thought he would see the day where he would have to fight this fight all over again. The only Republican who voiced dismay over the ruling was African-American Michael Steele, the former RNC chairman. What a sorry story!
++Yesterday, Senate Democrats challenged the IRS about why IRS investigators highlighted the targeting of tea party groups when in fact the IRS went after groups with Occupy,Progressive and Israel in their name. The answer was forthcoming--Republican staffers in the House asked them to.
++But as the IRS scandal slides away from the White House and the Obama Administration, Rep. Issa's response is to subpoena State Department officials about Benghazi. Anything to keep the Right happy.
++President Obama gave a groundbreaking speech yesterday on Climate Change and outlined steps he was going to take to combat this threat. Michael Mann, who is a foremost Climate Change scientist who faced attacks by our Virginia Attorney General, called the speech and its plans the most important ever coming from the Executive Branch. Al Gore applauded the speech as the boldest ever coming from a President of the United States. The seminal speech at Georgetown University was only covered by the Weather Channel. This morning when the same sex marriage cases were announced, Fox instead covered a story about what companies would profit if the Keystone Pipeline were cancelled--naturally they are linked to President Obama.
++We were told before the speech President Obama would not mention the Keystone Pipeline. But, he did. He said it would not be approved if it increased carbon emissions. Expect a lot of pushback from Republicans on this.
++Like a lot of President Obama's actions on climate change, the little initiatives add up to a lot. Buried in the speech were mundane sounding things like increasing the efficiency of appliances and better housing insulation,etc. His initiative in his first term to increase gas efficiency of cars would incredibly boring but significantly reduced carbon emissions already.
++Now President Obama is in flight to Senegal and then will make a swing to South Africa and Tanzania. Potential stops in Nigeria and Kenya had to be ruled out because Nigeria faces an Islamic threat in the North and Kenya has a President wanted by the ICC for human rights violations.
++This week clearly showed the differences between Republicans and Democrats--the comparison did the GOP no good.
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