Paris sun bathers

Some Parisians aren't afraid to show it all when the sun comes out. The neighbors are certainly talking. Read More......

California state govt. may resort to IOUs as new fiscal year begins. It's a mess.

Can a state go bankrupt? We may find out how close California can come to it tonight at midnight when the state's new fiscal year begins. It's not looking good at all:

California prepared on Tuesday to resort to issuing IOUs as the giant but cash-strapped U.S. state struggled to approve a new budget in time for the new fiscal year that begins on Wednesday.

The IOUs, which are notes promising payment to vendors and local agencies, or shutting down some public services, are among measures that California and other states may have to rely on as they contend with staggering budget gaps caused by the U.S. recession.

Several U.S. states are due to start their fiscal years on July 1 with budget talks at an impasse. California, the most populous state, is especially hard hit.

The Golden State, hit by a leap in unemployment and a crash in property values, is suffering its worst tax revenue fall since the Great Depression and faces a $24.3 billion budget deficit.

"It's been a sort of perfect storm, of a very deep recession hitting us and exposing the weakness of depending on revenue sources sensitive to economic cycles," labor lobbyist Barry Broad said.

So much for Arnold saving the state. This crisis is going to really hurt those who can least afford it. That's the real tragedy. Read More......

Gay leader Ann Northrop has a question for President Obama

I want to clear up one thing re: DOMA.

Obama is required to obey the law. He is not required not to challenge the constitutionality of the law in court.

These are entirely different things. Our complaint about Bush was that he made up his own interpretations of laws--a rogue administration. That's not what we're asking of Obama. We're asking him to go into court to question whether the law is actually legal.

Why don't people understand this? And why does Obama either lie or just act confused about this himself?

Ann Northrop

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Housing decline slows in April

You know it's a troubled market when there is rejoicing over an 18.1% decline. It's bad but you have to start somewhere.

Home prices fell again in April, but at a slower rate, suggesting some parts of the housing market could be stabilizing, according to the Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller Home Price Index released today.

The closely watched home index found that, nationwide, prices declined 18.1 percent compared with April 2008. That was slower than the 18.7 percent decline seen in March.

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Help a servicemember kicked out because of Don't Ask, Don't Tell serve in Congress

Tonight is the end of the fundraising quarter for congressional candidates. And, I know people are getting deluged with fundraising requests. But, if you want to help one candidate, consider donating to Tony Woods. He's running for the seat being vacated by Ellen Tauscher in California. Here's an interview I did with Tony last week:

If you can help, donate here. There will be a lot of focus on the fundraising numbers and we want to make sure Tony is off to a very good start.

The FEC quarter ends at midnight tonight -- and, I'm told that's midnight where you are, not Eastern time. Read More......

Updates on gay man's brain injury after Ft. Worth police raided gay bar on Stonewall Anniversary

Fort Worth police better start clarifying gay bar 'check'.

Rainbow Lounge bouncer Justin McCarty said, “I’ve worked in gay bars in four different counties in Texas. I’ve never seen anything this aggressive.”

Update on Chad Gibson, injured in Rainbow Lounge raid, now has bleeding around his brain.

Fort Worth council members call for probe in raid of gay bar.

Condemnations of Rainbow Lounge Raid Pour In.

But in good news, President Obama gave a speech. Read More......

Maine Freedom to Marry launched its new website today

While the gay A-listers were having a party, real activists are actually trying to further the cause and save marriage equality.

The campaign to preserve Maine's same-sex marriage law is moving along. Yesterday, Maine Freedom to Marry launched its new website.

The Catholic Church in Maine is leading the effort to get a measure on the ballot to repeal the new law. They've been collecting signatures for the referendum at weekend masses, because, you know there are no other pressing social issues in Maine during the recession. They've teamed up with the smarmy National Organization for Marriage, too. And, you know it's just a matter of time before the Mormons weigh in, although they'll probably be less blatant about it this time around.

We've got an ActBlue page set up to help the Maine campaign. We have to win this one. The other side will have lots and lots and lots of money. But, the times they are a changin' and changin' fast -- and we can win.


Help us win in Maine. Read More......

WSJ: Charlie Crist is "The Republican Barney Frank"

There's an increasingly competitive Republican primary underway for Florida's open U.S. Senate seat. It wasn't supposed to be tough. It was supposed to be a cakewalk for somewhat moderate Republican Governor Charlie Crist. But, Crist got a very conservative opponent, Marc Rubio. Polling shows there is hope for Rubio. And, the right wingers are lining up against Crist.

Witness the Wall Street Journal editorial, "Hurricane Charlie: The Republican Barney Frank":

Florida Governor Charlie Crist is running for the U.S. Senate next year, and we wonder if one reason is that he doesn't want to be in Tallahassee when the next hurricane hits his state. His veto of a hurricane insurance reform bill last week all but guarantees a state disaster on top of any wrought by Mother Nature.

The bill would have trimmed the cost of a state-run enterprise that insures homeowners against storm damage. The program has an $18 billion unfunded liability and has taxpayers on the line for tens of billions in property losses from the next major hurricane. The Republican legislature tried to reduce those future losses, but Mr. Crist sounded like Barney Frank rolling the dice on Fannie Mae in declaring there's nothing to worry about.

Oh, that's what they meant. Hurricane insurance is somehow akin to Fannie Mae. Sure. That seems like a bit of a stretch, doesn't it? I think the WSJ is playing some games here. Read More......

Breaking: Minnesota Supreme Court rules in favor of Al Franken

Finally!

The Minnesota Supreme Court on Tuesday ordered that Democrat Al Franken be certified as the winner of the state's long-running Senate race, paving the way for a resolution in the seven-month fight over the seat.

The high court rejected a legal challenge from Republican Norm Coleman, whose options for regaining the Senate seat are dwindling.

Justices said Franken is entitled to the election certificate he needs to assume office. With Franken and the usual backing of two independents, Democrats will have a big enough majority to overcome Republican filibusters.

Coleman hasn't ruled out seeking federal court intervention.

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Krugman: Treason against the planet

Paul Krugman:

The fact is that the planet is changing faster than even pessimists expected: ice caps are shrinking, arid zones spreading, at a terrifying rate. And according to a number of recent studies, catastrophe — a rise in temperature so large as to be almost unthinkable — can no longer be considered a mere possibility. It is, instead, the most likely outcome if we continue along our present course.
Thus researchers at M.I.T., who were previously predicting a temperature rise of a little more than 4 degrees by the end of this century, are now predicting a rise of more than 9 degrees. Why? Global greenhouse gas emissions are rising faster than expected; some mitigating factors, like absorption of carbon dioxide by the oceans, are turning out to be weaker than hoped; and there’s growing evidence that climate change is self-reinforcing — that, for example, rising temperatures will cause some arctic tundra to defrost, releasing even more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.

Temperature increases on the scale predicted by the M.I.T. researchers and others would create huge disruptions in our lives and our economy. As a recent authoritative U.S. government report points out, by the end of this century New Hampshire may well have the climate of North Carolina today, Illinois may have the climate of East Texas, and across the country extreme, deadly heat waves — the kind that traditionally occur only once in a generation — may become annual or biannual events.

In other words, we’re facing a clear and present danger to our way of life, perhaps even to civilization itself. How can anyone justify failing to act?

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Gay White House attendee says our leaders were "wide-eyed" at Obama's feet

Tony-nominated producer Tom Gregory:

The Obama Administration assembled a group of two hundred or more of America's well-heeled leaders for equality, but like little doggies most were wide-eyed at his feet.

Politicians work for us. If they do their job with good intention, they demand our respect. They deserve fervent applause when they are heroic. Today I expected to hear the explanations of a champion knocked off his path by a country in financial distress, but instead I heard platitudes, cracked promises, and disappointments- still the crowd cheered for more....

In today's speech President Obama said gay America would be happy by the time his administration is over, if he doesn't stop offering excuses and empty promises, they will be.

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FDA confirms E. coli in Nestlé Toll House cookie dough

How exactly does something from inside the intestines of cows make it in cookie dough? The factory food industry continues to be a problem but at least there's some interest in Washington in changing that system.

The Food and Drug Administration said yesterday that it had confirmed the presence of E. coli 0157, a deadly strain of bacteria, in samples of Nestlé Toll House refrigerated cookie dough produced at the company's plant in Danville, Va.

Investigators did not find the bacterium inside the factory or on equipment but in a tub of chocolate cookie dough made at the site in February, said David Acheson, assistant commissioner for food safety at the FDA. The dough had a June 10 expiration date.
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Nestlé voluntarily recalled 30,000 cases of its refrigerated cookie dough on June 19 after officials at the FDA and the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention suspected that dozens of cases of E. coli-related illness were linked to the product.

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63 women out of 176 invitees (that's 36%)

I was just going through the invite list to the White House gay party last night. I counted around 63 women out of around 176 invitees. (Some names were hard to determine the gender, and it's always possible my back-of-the-envelope count is off by one or two, but that won't change the overall percentage enough to make a difference.)

113 men (64%)
63 women (36%)

That would be a bit more than one-third women invited to a major civil rights event hosted by a Democratic president. Let me explain something. For good or for bad, and I happen to think it's good, when a big liberal group or politician holds a public event, they try to get a representative mix of people showing up. That means you pay attention to how many women you have, or haven't, invited, how many African-Americans, etc. Even in the 1990s, inviting nearly twice as many men as women would raise more than a few eyebrows. But in 2009?

(Perhaps all the lesbians got too uppity about their civil rights and got blacklisted too.)

Which leads us to ask the question, yet again, just who is advising Obama on gay civil rights issues? If a gay rights group had done this, they'd be excoriated by the community. And rightly so.

It will be interesting to see how many people of color, and other minorities, were invited as well. Read More......

Holiday declared in Iraq as US troops leave cities

It's a holiday, but people aren't exactly in the streets celebrating. But, finally, there's been a first major step towards getting U.S. troops out of Iraq. Our soldiers pulled out of the cities today:

Iraq declared a public holiday Tuesday to celebrate the official withdrawal of American troops from Iraqi cities and towns, emptying the streets as many people stayed home because they feared violence.

As official Iraq celebrated, the American military announced the death of four soldiers on Monday from combat operations in Baghdad, a reminder of the continuing hazards for American troops here and the vulnerability of soldiers as they wrap up operations in the field.

In the past few weeks, with the approach of the official date for withdrawal, nationalist sentiments have spread within the Iraqi government and military, with officials all but boasting publicly that Iraq is ready to handle the security situation on its own. The date of June 30 was set in an Iraqi-American security agreement that went into effect on Jan. 1, 2009.

Let's hope they are ready to handle it.

Even as this was unfolding, four more U.S. soldiers were killed in Iraq today. Read More......

Tuesday Morning Open Thread

Good morning.

Last night, we finished another semester at Language ETC. My partner, Carlos, and I teach English to immigrants every Monday night. Carlos has been doing it for ten years and is a masterful teacher. I'm still a relative newbie. We teach a basic class, spending a lot of time on the verbs "to be" and "to have." We also do lots of vocabulary about food, housing, money and family. This semester we had a particularly enthusiastic -- and younger -- group. Most spoke Spanish, but we did have one young man from Afghanistan. Through the course of the semester, he not only learned English, the other students taught him Spanish. In return, he taught them a lot about his culture. Sometimes, I think this is the most productive two hours of my week. It's impressive to watch the students work so hard at learning English, while holding down a job or, sometimes two. Anyway, I don't want to sound to corny, but, I'm very proud of the students. They really do inspire me.

Okay, what's the news today? Read More......

CNBC Editor: if you just smile, the recession will be gone!

For the umpteenth time, CNBC is declaring an end to the recession. That's right, we've turned the corner again. For those following CNBC we've turned so many corners that some might say we're going in circles. In the minds of the Wall Street cheerleaders, a few positive signs are enough to stand up and say "mission accomplished" and start promoting the next run. It's really cute and the new varsity letter that CNBC will receive from Wall Street will surely look nice but there's a lot more reason for concern than celebration these days.

This ongoing theory that the economy is can be magically improved with a few smiles is ridiculous. Absolutely, the market can be moved with sentiment but to cherry pick a few small positive points and overlook the fact that the banks were on life-support a few months ago is quite a stretch. They are only alive because of massive government intervention and the pumped up numbers by a few may not last. The market needs more than a smile to move forward in any meaningful way.

The global central bankers have delivered their updated report and there's plenty to suggest a double dip recession is a likely outcome. We still have banks that aren't lending and while consumers are feeling more confident, anyone who thinks they will return to the credit bubble days is deluding themselves. It is not going to happen anytime soon. For 2009 the best we can expect is a leveling off and no more surprises but with unemployment sniffing 10% in the autumn, that will be a challenging psychological barrier for everyone. Everyone except CNBC who failed to see the recession coming despite being the self-proclaimed experts.

Maybe, just maybe investor Wilbur Ross is more accurate when we pushes out the recovery until deep into 2010. Even that sounds like a best case scenario. Read More......

Honduran military detains journalists under gunpoint

Intimidating journalists using guns is so retro, but there's a lot of that retro behavior going around these days. Meanwhile, world leaders continue to protest the military coup that removed Manuel Zelaya from office.

Honduran troops detained seven international journalists covering the aftermath of a military coup Monday, freeing them unhurt a short time later. The government also took at least two television stations off the air and interrupted the broadcasts of others.

At least 10 soldiers, most with rifles drawn, arrived at the hotel where journalists from The Associated Press and the Venezuela-based television network Telesur were staying and unplugged their editing equipment in an apparent attempt to stop their coverage of protests in support of deposed President Manuel Zelaya.

One of the Telesur journalists was speaking on a telephone at the time of the detention, and AP's Nicolas Garcia saw a soldier lightly slapping her hand so she would hang up.

Read More......

Exxon agrees to pay interest on Valdez oil spill

And it only took them twenty years to come around.

Oil giant Exxon Mobil Corp. has decided not to appeal hundreds of millions of dollars in interest on punitive damages resulting from the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill.

The Irving, Texas-based company will pay about $470 million in interest on more than $507.5 million in punitive damages following the 11 million gallon spill of crude in Prince William Sound, company spokesman Tony Cudmore said Monday.

The company expects to make payment on the interest in the next few days, said plaintiffs' lawyer David Oesting. Exxon's decision was first reported Monday by the Anchorage Daily News.

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The cat days of summer

Our summer has been pretty spotty so far with lots of rain and cooler temperatures but the last few days have been hot. Well, hot for Paris in June. One day I'm wearing a wool sweater and the next, we're roasting. Today, Sushi was so hot that he curled up in my rhododendron flower pot seeking some cool dirt. His mouth is open because he's now into "talking" with us and was talking up a storm when he saw me approach with the camera.

For the friendly gardeners who gave the good advice on cutting back the stems after the flowers dropped you might notice that it's full of nice new growth. Thanks again for that because I think 2010 may look even better when she blooms. Read More......