Gay couples can now register as domestic partners in Oregon

Can't you just see Mitt Romney's marriage falling apart as a result? (Actually, I'm just joking about Romney because he doesn't really believe anything he says, so no one really knows if Romney is pro-gay or anti-gay. I truly hope that he is the GOP candidate because it's only a matter of time before he reads the polls and flips again.)

Gay couples who register as domestic partners will be able to file joint state tax returns, inherit each other's property and make medical choices on each other's behalf, along with a host of other state benefits given to married Oregonians....

Oregon becomes the ninth state to approve spousal rights in some form for gay couples, joining Connecticut, Vermont, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Maine, California, Washington and Hawaii. Massachusetts is the only state that allows gay couples to marry.

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Amazing Obama video

In all fairness, find me the best Hillary video out there and I'll post it too.

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Americans traveling to Mexico for dental visits

What a great system for the wealthiest country in the world. A real model for others to follow, isn't it? How many members of Congress or executive board members of leading American businesses have to head across the border like this? My own mother put off dental work because of high medical costs during my fathers cancer treatment and now is facing $19,000 worth of dental work. She's retired and insurance hardly covers anything so it's not likely that she can afford such an investment, but how many people can whip up that kind of money?

The right wingers in America never fail to jump on any problem story about health care in Canada, UK or Europe though they always overlook issues like this at home. What exactly is it going to take for people to see that there is a serious problem and demand change? Read the rest of this post...

May be hard on Tuesday to figure out who won

From AP, an explanation of just how complicated the Democratic delegate rules are.

By contrast, a Democratic candidate who gains 15 percent of the popular vote in a congressional district generally is guaranteed at least one delegate.

In a race with two equally matched rivals — Obama and Clinton are both running well-funded national campaigns — that tends to leave the winner of the popular vote with only a narrow delegate advantage over a loser who runs a strong race.

Multiply that across dozens of congressional districts — 53 in California — and predicting the winner of the delegate struggle is a virtual impossibility.

Then it gets harder.

For the Democrats, in a congressional district with three delegates, two go to the popular vote winner, and the loser gets the third as long as they win 15 percent of the popular vote.

But in a congressional district with four delegates, the winner and loser in a two-way race are likely to divide the spoils evenly. The winner must receive nearly 63 percent of the vote to get a 3-1 split in delegates, and 85 percent of the vote to win all four.

Then there's the winning by losing scenario.

This can happen in states that award an odd number of delegates in some districts and an even number in others.

Imagine a candidate loses the statewide vote narrowly, but manages to win the districts that have an odd number of delegates.

A version of that happened in Nevada earlier in the year.

There, Clinton had more supporters attend caucuses, but Obama won the delegate contest, 13-12.

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Gay Republicans now embracing McCain

Whatever. Crazy people are acting crazy. Anyone surprised? Self-loathing knows no limits. Read the rest of this post...

Pentagon says if America gets nuked it IS ready to respond... just not quickly, efficiently or effectively

You'll recall that a new report found that the Pentagon is not ready to respond if America is attacked with chemical, biological or nuclear weapons. Well, the Pentagon now says that they are ready, kind of:

The Pentagon on Friday insisted it is ready to respond to a chemical, biological or nuclear attack inside the United States, rejecting an independent panel's criticism of its preparations....

"We are prepared to respond," McHale said. "We are not prepared to respond with the speed, the efficiency and the effectiveness that we intend to achieve."

So they're currently slow, inefficient and ineffective, but other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, they're ready. Well I know I feel better. Read the rest of this post...

Saturday Morning Open Thread

Good morning.

Big weekend for campaigning across the country. Almost half the country votes on Tuesday so a lot happening out there. Anyone doing campaign work this weekend? Seeing ads? Getting bombarded with direct mail or robo-calls?

The poem of the week is an excerpt from "Ulysses" by Lord Alfred Tennyson. The poet behind the poem-of-the-week blog tells us "the poem is a rally call for one last heroic action. It's Tennyson at his most grand and inspirational." Heroic, grand and inspirational. We could use some of that.

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Lead Belly - Midnight Special

Lead Belly was one of the musical greats in America. Countless musicians borrowed heavily or were inspired by him. Midnight Special was later successfully recorded by CCR though some of his other songs (including existing folks songs that he recorded) include Grey Goose, Take This Hammer, Pick a Bale of Cotton, Where Did You Sleep Last Night and more. Once you start listening it's impossible to stop jumping to the next song. Check out Where Did You Sleep by Lead Belly which sounds just as great when performed by Nirvana. Lead Belly's music is timeless. Read the rest of this post...

No agreement in latest climate change conference

The Bush sponsored event finished pretty much the same as any other event. It required the crowd booing the US in order to get the Bush administration to move forward with 190 other countries. None of this should come as a surprise from the oil-friendly administration. It's not even a surprise to hear the US team talk about how enthusiastic about global warming they have been since 2001. The truth and facts never get in the way of their ridiculous statements. Read the rest of this post...