July 13, 2010 archive

We are back, just a bit late, to wrap up the discussion we began about the pair of rulings issued in Boston by Federal District Judge Joseph Tauro this week that declare the federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) unconstitutional.

In the first half of the conversation, we examined the ruling in Commonwealth of Massachusetts v Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), today we examine the companion case, Gill v Office of Personnel Management (OPM).

I don’t usually tell you the end of the story at the beginning, but this time I will: there are a lot of happy Plaintiffs this week, and the Federal Government, as Defendant (whom I will refer to as “the Feds” from time to time), is not so happy at the moment.

As with last time, there’s a lot of ground to cover, and the sooner we get to it, the better.

Ed Schultz was stunned by the recent about face of BP —

First they promise to make everyone whole —

Now they are saying hold on, there a minute partner —

Where are your Papers?

Ed Schultz — BP: Broken Promises — Fisherman Not Getting Paid

summarized transcript over the fold  

  I’m going to make this a short diary in order to get straight to the point.

 As you probably know, the House has passed H.R. 4213, which would keep in place the unemployment extensions until the end of November.

 The Senate Republicans, with the help of Democrat Ben Nelson were able to filibuster the Senate version of the bill by a single vote. The reason why the Democrats were a vote short was because Senator Robert Byrd from West Virginia died.

  By the start of next week 2.5 million Americans will exhaust their unemployment benefits, 3.5 million by the end of the month.