Swine Flu threat in Mexico may be easing

Maybe. They say these things can go back and forth quickly. But still, the first good news I've seen.

Mexico said a swine flu epidemic appears to be easing, but urged citizens Saturday not to let their guard down against a virus that has killed 17 people and is spreading across Asia and Europe. Experts warned the virus could mutate and come back with a vengeance.

With no suspected swine flu deaths since Wednesday and fewer people turning up at hospitals with virus symptoms, Mexican officials were guardedly optimistic that the worse was over in the outbreak's epicenter. Cases outside Mexico suggested the new swine flu strain is weaker than feared. But governments moved quickly anyway to ban flights and prepare quarantine plans....

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also said it's too early to declare victory.

"We have seen times where things appear to be getting better and then get worse again," said Dr. Anne Schuchat, the U.S. agency's interim science and public health deputy director. "I think in Mexico we may be holding our breath for sometime."

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The "New" GOP: “people learn more from listening to Rush Limbaugh than they do in high school or college.”

Today was the first day for the new saviors of the GOP to show their stuff:

Former presidential candidate Mitt Romney, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and rising star Rep. Eric Cantor (Va.) explained their vision for reviving the GOP to a mostly young crowd that packed into a pizza restaurant on Saturday morning.

The leaders said the purpose of the session was to find out first-hand the pressing concerns of voters around the country and to discover solutions that rely on free-market principles and individual responsibility.

But, the new GOP sounds a lot like the old GOP:

The leaders received positive feedback from the crowd, which included reporters, Republican aides and their friends, but not many new ideas.

On the subject of education, one attendee declared that “people learn more from listening to Rush Limbaugh than they do in high school or college.”

It always come back to Rush. Read the rest of this post...

Connecticut continues its "tradition of tolerance and freedom from discrimination" by codifying same-sex marriage rights

There's been a lot of buzz over the past couple weeks about the progress of same-sex marriage in Iowa, Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine. But, we can't overlook Connecticut. Last October, the Connecticut Supreme Court ruled that the state's civil unions law wasn't enough:

We conclude that, in light of the history of pernicious discrimination faced by gay men and lesbians, and because the institution of marriage carries with it a status and significance that the newly created classification of civil unions does not embody, the segregation of heterosexual and homosexual couples into separate institutions constitutes a cognizable harm.

Same-sex marriages began on November 12, 2008 without a whiff of protest or controversy.

The Connecticut legislature just put the Supreme Court's ruling into statute and Republican Governor Jodi Rell signed that bill into law. The Hartford Courant expressed strong support for those actions:

The bill codifying a state Supreme Court ruling opening the door to same-gender marriage in Connecticut was passed in late April, and Gov. M. Jodi Rell has signed it. We take note of the big margins in favor of the legislation — 100-44 in the state House and 28-7 in the Senate - and tip our hat to elected leaders who kept uppermost the idea of equality before the law.

Approval of the measure was consistent with Connecticut's tradition of tolerance and freedom from discrimination.

The bill was not passed until language exempting religious organizations from having to participate in gay weddings if they do not accept homosexuality was unnecessarily added to a text that already protected religious liberties.

And, one last comment from the chair of House Judiciary Committee, Mike Lawlor, one of the people who made all of this happen in Connecticut:

The legislation does Connecticut proud. This state is one of the first to resolve this sensitive and contentious issue. State Rep. Michael Lawlor observed that "this is probably the last time these issues will ever be discussed in the state legislature." We hope so. Let's move on.

Connecticut can move on. Other states need to get to the same place. Read the rest of this post...

"Extraordinary" deal for the UAW in Chrysler restructuring

When (and if) Chrysler emerges from bankruptcy, its workers will have an enormous stake in the new company. And, the UAW was able to secure protection for its members' health and pension benefits. The union had to make some initial concession for some impressive long-term potential gains and protections:

The U.A.W., for example, has received upfront protection from the Treasury Department for its pension plan and the fund that will take over responsibility for retiree medical benefits.

Moreover, that fund, called the voluntary employee beneficiary association, or VEBA, will control 55 percent of the equity in the new Chrysler once it emerges from bankruptcy, and hold a seat on the Chrysler board.

Of course, those hard-fought gains, and the big ownership stake, could be worthless if Chrysler does not make it. And the company’s fortunes continued to sag in April, when sales fell 48 percent compared with the same month in 2008. Chrysler will also have to wait roughly two years or more for new cars designed by its partner, the Italian automaker Fiat, to show up in Chrysler dealerships.

But for now, even though Chrysler workers had to agree to lower pay and less generous benefits as part of the deal, the U.A.W. appears to be enjoying relative safety in helping steer the course of the Chrysler bankruptcy.

“I’m very comfortable,” Ron Gettelfinger, the U.A.W.’s president, said Friday on National Public Radio. “It’s not like we’re going into this bankruptcy fighting with Chrysler and Fiat and the U.S. Treasury. We’re going in there in lockstep to put our agreements in place.”

Labor and restructuring lawyers said such a comprehensive deal going into bankruptcy was rare.

“This is extraordinary, truly extraordinary,” said Mary Jo Dowd, a partner in the financial and bankruptcy restructuring practice at Arent Fox in Washington. “I never would have thought a year ago that this would occur. These are truly unusual times.”

Asked if he could recall any other union that fared as well, David L. Gregory, a labor law professor at St. John’s University, replied: “Nobody’s even close.”

The union did its job. Unions matter. Too many workers have been screwed over by corporate leaders because they had no one fighting for their interests. Corporate America, aided and abetted by the GOP, wants to keep it that way. The Democrats in the Senate need to make sure the Employee Free Choice Act passes this year. Read the rest of this post...

AP: Gay marriage an "opportunity" for Dems, problem for Republicans

Now I've seen everything. A gay rights issue - let alone, gay marriage - is now a potential political liability for Republicans, and a potential opportunity for Democrats.

And this, coming from AP's Liz "the Donut" Sidoti, of all people.

Sidoti does a good job recapping where things stand in the gay marriage battle, and why the issue is a growing problem for Republicans. Who'd have ever imagined. Of course the larger issue is that social issues, and the brain trust behind them - the religious right - are the true problem that Republicans face. Frankenstein has savaged the land and the party for going on three decades, and the villagers have finally had just about enough. You're seeing this in opinion polls turning away from the GOP and extremist issues like opposition to gay marriage, and in the growing outspokenness of Republicans who are finally willing to take the conservative wing of their party on publicly.

Up until this year, it was dogma that "Republican" equaled "conservative." Now, that "given" is finally being challenged. And the irony is that gay marriage is the barometer, and the metaphor, for the Republicans' demise.

Do we live in a great country or what? Read the rest of this post...

The President's weekly address: On the H1N1 flu.

We're prepared. Don't panic. Wash your hands.

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Saturday Morning Open Thread

There was a lot of talk about "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" this week, mostly because the Obama administration's website seemed to indicate a change in policy. Although, thanks to Joe.My.God and John Aravosis, that's been fixed.

One of our readers, Timothy Beauchamp (cowboyneok), had to leave the military because he was gay back in the later 80s. Tim was a sailor on the nuclear sub USS Henry Clay at the end of the cold war. He's also a poet. Even after he was forced out of the military, the Smithsonian's Museum of American History included one of Tim's poems in an exhibit on subs and the cold war. The curator initially told Tim his poem was one of the best artifacts she had seen from a service member on the Cold War. But, she later made it seem like Tim had tricked her into publishing his poem because he had a secret political agenda about being gay and serving on submarines. Again, that was back in the late 80s/early 90s. We haven't progressed all that far in terms of military policy. Tim is why repealing "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" matters.

So, with that build up, this week's poem is Sub Sailor Tim's poem -- a true artifact of the cold war, which someday soon will hopefully be an artifact of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell":

Sub Sailor's Views on Glasnost

When rhetoric from both sides
Begins to offend
Opinions at home
Seem to change like the wind
Still we patrol
the ocean deep
We made a promise
we plan to keep
Its kind of ironic
We protect
Freedom at home
Through our isolation
But just to know
Freedom is protected
For me, at least,
is some consolation
Reagan and Gorbachev
Back and forth volley
While Nancy and Raisa
Put on their best
Capitalist - Communist
Political Folly!
What does it matter
Its East against West
Get rid of that bomb
Dismantle that one
That leaves you this many
And leaves us that
Wait one!
Hold on now!
What about Star Wars?
Take it or leave it
There’s the door
Here’s your hat
Opinion at home
Seems to be changing
Russia’s no longer the wicked beast
American stores - stocks rearranging
Communist t-shirts
Embracing the East
Would it be nice
To put away the war heads?
Let’s be friends and melt this Cold War?
Would it be nice
To change human nature?
It stays the same so what’s it all for?
They call how we’re living
Social Darwinism
Good luck to you
May the best man win
Seems to me Soviet Socialism
Favors the powerful
Politburo men
So what’s the difference
Between our two nations?
Is it a question of status quo?
Where can a poor man
Escape deprivation?
Can the Russian peasant
Put down his hoe?
I guess in a way
We have lots in common
Their Afghanistan War
And our Viet Nam
I guess in a way
We share the same lessons
From Afghan rebels and the Viet Cong
And when it comes
To loving our children
Both of our countries
They do pretty well
But do they have a future
In this cold world we live in?
Only God knows
And time will tell.

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Babatunde Olatunji, Akiwowo

The legend from Nigeria. This is one of my favorite recordings and although I like the later recordings, the 1959 version stands above the rest. Read the rest of this post...

UBS chops 2000 more jobs

But wait...I thought if we didn't allow the banksters to receive federally funded bonuses they would all leave for foreign banks. Oops. Better try another lie to keep the cash flowing.

Swiss bank UBS said on Thursday it had axed 2,000 U.S. jobs as part of its latest mammoth round of job cuts announced earlier in April.

"I can confirm the 2,000 job cuts," said UBS spokesman Andreas Kern. The world's biggest wealth manager employs nearly 30,000 people in the United States.

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The recession made me do it

Great. One more annoying problem triggered by the recession that we could do without. Pass the cookies and read on.

One in 10 U.S. workers said they are snacking more during the day due to concerns over the economic situation, and nearly half complained of gaining weight in their jobs, according to a survey by CareerBuilder.com, an online jobs site.

It said 43 percent of employees surveyed reported they have gained weight while in their present jobs. A quarter said they gained more than 10 pounds and a sixth gained more than 20 pounds.

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