Posts Tagged ‘bill’
NY State’s Republican-controlled Senate passes the final hurdle — votes 33 to 29 — OK’s same sex marriage
Daylife/AP Photo used by permission
A number of old-fashioned Republican conservatives decided Friday night they would be contradicting their own beliefs in the American Constitution if they voted to deny fellow citizens the same rights of marriage they enjoy themselves – for any reason. The issue turned on gender identity. The decision was made as it should be – on the virtues and value of our Constitution.
The right-wing Conservative Party of New York State, activists from many religions who felt their beliefs take precedence over civil law, Tea Party activists of one or another stripe all tried to turn those Republicans away from acting in concert with Democrats who supported this bill. They failed.
Progressives, Democrats, LGBT activists and civil libertarians, who have toiled for years to bring this measure to pass in a state that has a long history of democracy and struggles for equal rights – won their case. They have prevailed.
Good for you, New York. And special kudos to those Republicans who turned away from the mean-spirited reactionaries and bigots who have captured so much of that Party throughout the United States. I write often about traditional American conservatives. Their history has affected the ethics of my family – and my extended family – throughout my life. Honesty, rejection of hypocrisy, care for the natural wonders of this planet, a willingness to understand and seek understanding in the joys of education, a fair chance at a good life for all – are what I was raised with.
Many in that extended family have walked away from what the Republican Party has become in these last ten years. I’d be the last to suggest there’s a qualitative change among today’s Republicans – outside of the states that never left those values in the first place.
Good for you, New York.
Bingaman backs nuclear in new clean energy standard
The White House on Monday won a key endorsement for its proposal to boost U.S. electricity generation by clean energy sources as the head of the Senate’s energy panel said he could back the idea of including nuclear power in the fuel mix.
In his State of the Union speech to Congress last week, President Barack Obama proposed the United States produce 80 percent of its electricity from clean energy sources, such as wind, solar, “clean” coal and nuclear, by 2035.
Democratic Senator Jeff Bingaman, who chairs the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, said he supports including nuclear power in the White House’s clean energy standard as long as renewable energy sources like wind and solar also benefit.
“If we can develop a workable clean energy standard that actually continues to provide an incentive for renewable energy projects to move forward, and provide an additional incentive for some of the other clean energy technologies, nuclear being one, I would like to see that happen,” Senator Jeff Bingaman told reporters…
Bingaman said he has been in discussions with the White House over the last week on how to come up with a legislative proposal that would win bipartisan support in the Senate…
Such a bill would have a more difficult time clearing the Republican-controlled House of Representatives…
Analyst Christine Tezak said the best way for a clean energy standard to pass Congress is for the president to address some of the energy concerns of Republican lawmakers, such as expanding oil drilling and speeding up government approval of permits for energy exploration…
Yes, let’s don’t forget the traditional bosses of the Republican Party. Take your history all the way back to Standard Oil, watch the oil barons nudge their buddies from Wall Street finance aside while they exercise royal prerogative and demand opposition to any alternatives to fossil fuel profits.
City plans to bill pastor for security for Quran burning stunt
Daylife/Getty Images used by permission
The city of Gainesville, Florida, plans to send a bill estimated at more than $180,000 to Pastor Terry Jones for security costs surrounding his controversial threat to burn Qurans on the anniversary of the September, 11, 2001, attacks, a police spokeswoman said Friday.
Police agencies spent more than a month working on security plans to ensure the community surrounding Jones’ Dove World Outreach Center — the planned site of the burning — was safe, according to Gainesville police spokeswoman Cpl. Tscharna Senn…
The Gainesville Police Department said it spent more than $100,000 while the Alachua County Sheriff’s Office spent an estimated $80,000 during the weekend of the planned demonstration.
“We have 286 sworn officers and almost everyone was working either at the Dove Center or at other soft targets,” Senn said. “Unless you were sick or injured you were working” the day the burning was to take place…
Jones said Friday that the church was “not aware that we would be billed for security. If we had known this in advance, then we would have refused to have security,” he said.
God will provide.
OK, aside from my silly little joke, the coppers have their heads up their collective butts. Police departments haven’t any legal right to choose who they protect and serve. The whole populace is their client base. And should be served equally well.
I’m not naive enough to presume inequities don’t occur – though, usually weighted on the side of Christian nutballs rather than, say, a study group of Black Muslim ex-cons. In my experience.
If this goes to any Federal court, the city of Gainesville will find itself in the position of wasting a lot more money than their budget for defending one of Florida’s looney fundamentalists.
Here’s the taxpayers’ tab for coppers for the G20 visit to Toronto
Chief William Blair provided answers Friday afternoon about Toronto Police’s $122-million policing budget for the upcoming G20 summit, as well as the police force’s plan for limiting the use of “sound cannons” during the event.
At a special meeting of the Toronto Police Services Board, Chief Blair told board members that $82-million will be spent on salaries for police officers. This includes 3,500 Toronto Police officers, 1,600 police officers from across the country, and 900 Toronto Police civilian employees.
The remaining $40-million will be spent on additional costs such as equipment, vehicles, housing for non-Toronto Police officers, and clothing.
Chief Blair emphasized that the full $122-million will be paid for by the federal government, and will not come out of Toronto Police Service’s budget.
OK. I was afraid there might be some excess.
Like for popsicles.
CBO says Dodd reform bill would reduce U.S. deficit
Republican plan for hidden assets
The Democrat’s Senate financial reform bill would cut the U.S. budget deficit by $21 billion over the next 10 years, according to a cost estimate by the Congressional Budget Office obtained by Reuters.
The estimated reduction in the budget deficit over the 2011-2020 period stems largely from charging the financial industry assessments for a fund to liquidate large, troubled financial firms, the office said.
The bill authored by Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd is designed to ensure no financial firm is too big to fail and the senate may start debating it next week.
However, the idea of creating a $50 billion liquidation fund has been criticized by banks and Republicans [quelle surprise?] and is not favored by the Obama administration…
Dodd’s bill would also create a bureau to regulate consumer financial products such as mortgages, as well as new rules to regulate derivatives and hedge funds. The bill aims to rein in banks’ risky activities and revamp financial regulation in wake of the worst economic crisis in decades.
This is the bill the Republicans said contained a bailout provision – when the truth is exactly the opposite: the fund “pays for the funeral” of failures – and insures investors.
