Eideard

Less than a week after New York became the nation’s sixth state to legalize same-sex marriage, Rhode Island state lawmakers on Wednesday voted in favor of a bill that permits civil unions between gay and lesbian couples.

The measure, which passed the state Senate by a count of 21-16, is widely seen as a compromise intended to provide same-sex couples with added rights and benefits, while also preventing an expanded legal definition of marriage.

Gov. Lincoln Chafee, an independent, is expected to sign the bill into law, according to his spokesman, Michael Trainor.

…The law would take effect on July 1, making Rhode Island the fifth state in the union to allow civil unions between same-sex couples. Such unions are currently permitted in New Jersey and Illinois, and will be allowed in Delaware and Hawaii beginning January 1, 2012. Three West Coast states — California, Oregon and Washington — plus Nevada, also allow for “comprehensive domestic partnerships,” largely considered an equivalent to their civil union counterparts…

The legislation, which passed overwhelmingly in the state’s lower house on May 19, affords same-sex couples a host of new state tax breaks, health-care benefits and greater ease of inheritance…

The usual clot of religious nutballs and homophobes threw up their hands in a collective whine after passage.

This may not seem like a big problem for our urban-dwelling readers; but, here in Santa Fe County the only for-real hospital is owned by flunkies for the Catholic Church. They’ve already removed a number of procedures formerly allowed – on the basis of ideology and superstition.

Daylife/Reuters Pictures used by permission

Five same-sex couples wed in Mexico on Thursday as Mexico City became the first Latin American city to defy religious taboos and macho stereotypes by legalizing gay marriage.

The head of Mexico City’s civil registry married four couples in a simple ceremony on the patio of a colonial city hall to cheers and applause from family, friends and local politicians. A fifth couple arrived late for the event — but were quickly married afterward…

The couples, who handed in their papers to get married as soon as the law took effect last week, are all activists pushing for gay rights in Mexico, which has the second-biggest Catholic population after Brazil and a largely conservative culture.

The legislature in the liberal bastion of Mexico City, which is dominated by the nation’s biggest left-leaning party, passed gay marriage. But the law applies only in the capital district…

Gay marriage is the latest push by Mexico City’s left-wing government, which has also made divorce easier, legalized early abortions and allowed the terminally ill to refuse treatment…

Overdue!

Narcotics investigators have raided three South Florida pain clinics suspected of feeding a black-market pipeline of prescription painkillers stretching to Kentucky and other Appalachian states.

Agents with the DEA, the Broward County Sheriff’s Office and the Palm Beach Sheriff’s Office carted away boxes of records after serving search warrants at American Pain in Lake Worth, Executive Pain in West Palm Beach and the East Coast Pain Clinic in West Palm Beach on Wednesday morning.

The clinics are owned or managed by Christopher and Jeffrey George, 29-year-old twin brothers from Royal Palm Beach. Neither one is a licensed medical professional. Both have criminal records.

What sort of patent-leather regulatory authority allows thugs like this to run medical clinics?

The Miami Herald highlighted the George brothers in an investigation of the pain clinic business published last year. The Herald investigation showed that loose regulations have made South Florida a haven for storefront clinics selling oxycodone and other painkillers at a pace unseen anywhere else in the country.

Several sheriffs in Kentucky — a prime hot spot for illegal painkillers — told The Herald they routinely arrested people trafficking oxycodone bought from a Wilton Manors clinic called South Florida Pain, also owned by Christopher George, records show. South Florida Pain later merged with American Pain in Boca Raton, and then relocated to Lake Worth…

The George brothers have run afoul of law enforcement before. In 2003, Jeffrey George pleaded guilty to felony charges of dealing in stolen property and resisting arrest, records show. Christopher George also pleaded guilty to grand theft and possession of steroids with intent to sell, records show.

Their criminal pasts, however, did not prevent the Georges from owning or managing pain clinics selling dangerous narcotics — a loophole some lawmakers hope to close during the legislative session.

Under current law, the state licenses only medical facilities that take insurance — and most pain clinics only take cash. So while the state requires criminal background checks for employees at licensed facilities, there is no such requirement at cash-only pain clinics.

Sounds like the Florida legislature is willingly incompetent. Ready and able to comply with the demands of gangsters at a moment’s notice. Until someone gets caught.

Ray Sansom resigned from the Florida House of Representatives on Sunday night, a dramatic decision on the eve of an ethics trial by his colleagues over his dealings with a Panhandle college.

The move, rendered in a letter hand-delivered by Sansom’s attorney to the Capitol shortly before 8 p.m., ends a career that once put Sansom at the apex of Florida politics but unraveled in scandal as he took a job at Northwest Florida State College on the same day in November 2008 that he was sworn in as House speaker.

Sansom, Republican-Destin, did not acknowledge wrongdoing but said he was stepping down out of love for the chamber. The resignation was effective immediately.

The chairman of the disciplinary panel called it the right move.

“This is a resolution that’s in the best interest of everyone involved. He is no longer a member of the Florida House,” said Rep. Bill Galvano, Republican-Bradenton…

Sansom, 47 and a father of three, will lose his health insurance benefits but will still be eligible for a pension for his time as a public servant.

He insisted he acted properly despite ample signs showing he used his power as House budget writer in 2007 and 2008 to funnel tens of millions in taxpayer money to the small college…

The prospect of a messy, public ethics investigation was something few fellow Republicans wanted to endure, and it had the potential to embarrass current and former lawmakers who would have been called to testify, including U.S. Senate candidate Marco Rubio, who picked Sansom as his budget chief when he was speaker.

And on and on. The interlocking directorate of corruption, sleaze and graft that characterizes “mainstream” American politics continues unabated.

Electing an Obama for President, a Udall for Senate – whoever – doesn’t do much to nationwide promises about ethics and democracy when the pigs at the trough are in charge of writing and administering the laws governing conduct.

Sarah Palin blows fairy dust at Republican true believers
Daylife/AP Photo used by permission

Just one week after Sarah Palin stepped down as governor of Alaska, Alaskan lawmakers succeeded in overriding her veto of federal stimulus dollars.

The legislature has voted 45-15 in favor of overturning the former governor’s veto of more than $28 million in Recovery Act funds targeted toward energy efficiency projects.

The Alaska legislature met for a one-day special session in Anchorage. Heading into the vote, Rep. Mike Hawker, who voted in support of finally accepting the stimulus funds, anticipated a close decision, coming down to a couple of votes either way…

RTFA if you think you can penetrate the medieval curtain of ideology cloaking Palin’s brain.

State lawmakers dispute Palin’s objections to the stimulus money. In a letter to Alaska House Finance Committee Co-Chair Rep. Mike Hawker and obtained by CNN, the Department of Energy wrote that the Alaska legislature “does not need to adopt, impose and enforce a statewide building code” in order to qualify for the energy funds.

Palin originally threatened to reject more than $400 million of the state’s $930 million share of the stimulus package. Eventually Palin signed off on all but the three percent under consideration Monday by state lawmakers.

She would rather reject the portion of the stimulus that provides assistance to folks for weatherizing their homes – than deal with her fear of building codes. Another 14th Century mind in a 20th Century Republican skull.

“As Maine goes, so goes the nation…”
Daylife/AP Photo used by permission

Gay-rights advocates moved remarkably close to their goal of making same-sex marriage legal throughout New England on Tuesday, when the Maine House of Representative voted to legalize such unions.

Supporters of same-sex marriage have won victory after victory this spring, with the legislatures of Vermont, New Hampshire and now Maine embracing it. The region is close to offering such marriages full support; Massachusetts was the first state in the nation to let gay couples marry in 2004, and Connecticut began allowing same-sex marriage last fall.

But in Maine and New Hampshire, the governors, both Democrats, will be pivotal in determining whether same-sex marriage proponents succeed in winning over an entire region of the country. Neither Gov. John Baldacci of Maine nor Gov. John Lynch of New Hampshire has made his intentions public. Both men opposed same-sex marriage in the past but have indicated they might be reconsidering…

With the movement enjoying momentum from the string of recent victories — including the Iowa Supreme Court’s decision last month that same-sex marriage should be legal there — Mr. Baldacci and Mr. Lynch are facing considerable pressure from advocates and from their own party, which increasingly supports same-sex marriage.

Overdue!

UPDATE: Maine’s governor John Baldacci signed the bill shortly after it landed on his desk.

Daylife/AP Photo

The Vermont Legislature today overrode Gov. Jim Douglas’s veto of a bill allowing gay couples to marry, mustering one more vote than needed to preserve the measure.

Approval had been expected in the Senate, where the vote was 23 to 5. But the outcome in the House of Representatives was not clear until the final moments of a long roll call, when Rep. Jeff Young, a Democrat who voted against the bill last week, reversed his position. In the end the vote was 100 to 49, just slightly more than the required two-thirds majority of members present.

After the final tally, cheers erupted in both legislative chambers of the State House and in the hallways outside, and several lawmakers on both sides of the debate looked stunned.

“It’s a great day for equality,” said State Representative Margaret Cheney, a Democrat from Norwich. “People saw this as an equality issue, and we’re proud that Vermont has led the way without a court order to provide equal benefits.”

Reactionaries who have focused on this as a single-issue plan for a neocon resurgence are mumbling in the corner looking for someone to blame.

I’m willing to bet most Vermonters are bright enough, well-enough educated to see the virtue in supporting Republicans as well as Democrats who believe in civil rights.

Officials at three Texas universities say they have serious concerns about a bill to let students carry guns on campus.

“As one faculty person told me, ‘Do you think I want to pass out those Fs and Ds with somebody in the classroom having a gun?’ ” state Rep. Lon Burnam, D-Fort Worth.

The bill, backed by the National Rifle Association, would be limited to students 21 and older, said the bill’s sponsor, state Rep. Joe Driver, R-Garland, who argues such a law would make campuses safer.

More than 70 Texas House members have signed on as co-sponsors to the bill, Driver said, noting 76 are needed to pass the legislation.

Next year, they’re gonna let ‘em have books.