aaglaas's Blog

Surrounded by about 300 people — many of them gay and lesbian couples and their children — Governor Chris Gregoire on Monday signed legislation giving registered same-sex domestic partners all the rights and benefits that Washington now offers married couples.

The bill signing by Gregoire at Seattle's Montlake Community Center was a festive event, marking a significant milestone for the state's same-sex couples.

The legislation expands on previous domestic-partnership laws by adding such partnerships to all remaining areas of state law that now address only married couples.

The measure also extends coverage to unmarried heterosexual couples when one person is at least 62.

As of Monday, there were 5,395 registered domestic partners, representing every county in the state.

Charlene Strong, a Seattle woman who was instrumental in the initial push for changes in the law after her partner drowned in the flooded basement of their Madison Valley home, said while she is thrilled with the advancements, she's eager for the next step: reversal of DOMA, and full civil marriage within a few years.

"It is important for us to sit and talk to those who oppose us," Strong said. "We need them to hear us, to meet our families . They speak from a place of fear. We need them to speak from a place of understanding."

The law will take effect July 26.

President Obama announced today that he has nominated one of the nation’s leading Republican governors to serve as the U.S. ambassador to China, selecting Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman for the key diplomatic post.

Mr. Huntsman, who learned to speak Mandarin Chinese from his time as a Mormon missionary in Taiwan, has accepted the nomination.

For Mr. Obama, whose advisers already have their eyes on his re-election in 2012, the selection of Mr. Huntsman is something of a political coup. At 49, he has emerged as one of the nation’s most visible Republican governors and was expected to at least consider seeking his party’s presidential nomination to run against Mr. Obama.

As the Republican Party forges through a period of necessary reinvention, Mr. Huntsman has been a leading voice for the direction of the party. He has been a political moderate on issues like immigration, gay rights and the environment, even though he has represented one of the most conservative states in the country.

An administration official familiar with the selection of Mr. Huntsman said that the president had been considering an array of Republicans for key ambassadorial posts, as a way to fulfill his pledge to make bipartisan appointments. The president already has two Republicans in his Cabinet.

-NYT

A 40,000-year-old figurine of a voluptuous woman carved from mammoth ivory and excavated from a cave in southwestern Germany is the oldest known example of three-dimensional or figurative representation of humans and sheds new light on the origins of art.

The intricately carved headless figure is at least 5,000 years older than previous examples and dates from shortly after the arrival of modern humans in Europe. It exhibits many of the characteristics of fertility, or Venus, figurines carved millenniums later.

The figurine "radically changes our views of the context and meaning of the earliest Paleolithic art," its discoverer, archaeologist Nicholas J. Conard of the University of Tubingen in Germany, wrote in the journal Nature.

Experts are excited about the find because of what it tells us about early humans -- and about ourselves.

"The origin and evolution of figurative art, portable art, appear on most lists of what constitutes modern human behavior," said archaeologist Daniel Adler of the University of Connecticut, who was not involved in the research.

"Any time you can push the clock back on some of these behaviors, we get a better understanding of why these were important and were developed, where they were developed . . . and the roles they played in the social glue that holds groups together," he said.

The figurine was excavated at Hohle Fels, a large cave in the Swabian Jura region about 14 miles southwest of the city of Ulm. The cave shows evidence of a long period of prehistoric occupation and is probably best known for three ivory carvings previously discovered by Conard: a horse's or bear's head; a water bird that may be in flight; and a half-human, half-lion figurine, all dating from about 30,000 to 31,000 years ago.

The new figurine was found in September in six pieces about 9 feet below the cave floor. Nearby were flint-knapping debris, worked bone and ivory, and remains of horses, reindeer, cave bears, mammoths and ibexes. Radiocarbon data indicate that the layer originated 35,000 to 40,000 years ago.

A multi-denominational religious organization is buying airtime for a new radio ad targeting an energy conglomerate in five Southern states. The spot lowers the boom on Southern Company, the top energy company in the southeastern U.S., for its lobbying efforts opposing climate change legislation in the works on Capitol Hill. The ad will run in Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, North Carolina, and Florida.

It is the latest effort by Burns Striders' American Values Network, which last week teamed up with a coalition of military leaders and religious Democrats, including Reps. Heath Shuler (D-N.C.) and Tom Perriello (D-Va.), in a radio ad blitz on Christian radio stations. The group is doing so based on the results of a new poll showing wide support for action on climate change among religious voters.

The new ad highlights the efforts of Congress and faith leaders on climate change legislation, but the background music turns ominous as the narrator turns to Southern Company, which has unleashed an army of lobbyists to fight the faith community and threaten lawmakers working to provide resources to American families and the least of these among us.

According to the Center for Responsive Politics, Southern Company has spent over $98 million on lobbying over the past ten years, including over $3.6 million so far in 2009.

The top recipients of Southern Company cash are Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga. ) and Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), who received $85,600 and $80,015, respectively, according to the CRP.

A team of archaeologists has uncovered the world’s earliest known shell ornaments in a limestone cave in Eastern Morocco. The researchers have found 47 examples of Nassarius marine shells, most of them perforated and including examples covered in red ochre, at the Grotte des Pigeons at Taforalt.

A human culture and technology known as the Ateria Tradition had previously been known to date back to a time a little over 80,000 years ago and by 30,0000 years ago, the Aterian sites were abandoned and the period came to an end. By the time the Aterian Tool Tradition emerged, stone implements had already undergone Man's development by both trial-and-error and cognitive thinking spanning an overall time exceeding one million years. 

The fingernail-size shells, already known from 82,000-year-old Aterian deposits in the cave, have now been found in even earlier layers.

The most famous invention of the Aterian tool technology is the development of primitive tanged projectile points and scrapers meant to be hafted.  These tanged arrowheads represent a milestone in early human cognitive thinking as well as Paleolithic history. An unmistakable knapped tang on Aterian points is proof that these points were hafted on shafts and eventually developed into arrowheads. 

Some scientists believe that the bow and arrow was first invented around the time of the Aterian tradition as evidenced by the discovery of small tanged points from this same region in North Africa.  The Aterian Tradition is also responsible for various scrapers with obvious knapped tangs also intended for hafting the tool onto handles of bone, ivory or wood. 

The shells are currently at the center of a debate concerning the origins of modern behavior in early humans. Many archaeologists regard the shell bead ornaments as proof that anatomically modern humans had developed a sophisticated symbolic material culture.

There are now at least four other known Aterian sites in Morocco with Nassarius shell beads. The newest evidence, in a paper by the authors to be published in the next few weeks in the Journal of Quaternary Science Reviews, shows that human beings were producing not only advanced stone tools and weapons, but also personal adornments at least 110,000 years ago. 

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- New unemployment numbers are due out Friday, and President Obama used the opportunity to announce new steps to help unemployed Americans.

The target of the rules will be people who are out of work and want to go back to school.

The rules now create a Catch-22: In most cases, if you are receiving unemployment compensation, you have to be actively looking for a job.

Currently, if you want to get more education or training, you have to give up unemployment benefits. But if you return to school, you don't qualify for federal education grants since, in most cases, your qualification is based on the previous year's income.

The president outlined a plan under which the Department of Education will send colleges legal guidance, encouraging them to increase financial aid packages for the unemployed so they can enroll in educational and training programs while keeping their unemployment benefits.

The colleges would consider the person's current financial situation to make it possible for them to receive Pell grants, which are available for low-income students. The unemployed person would not lose his or her unemployment benefits, and the maximum Pell grant would be increased in July by $500 to $5,350.

The Labor Department will issue guidance strongly encouraging states to modernize their rules to allow more unemployed people to continue their education without forfeiting their benefits.

Obama, in prepared remarks, said, "Our unemployment insurance system should no longer be a safety net but a stepping stone to a new future. It should offer folks educational opportunities they wouldn't otherwise have and give them the measurable and differentiated skills they need to not just get through these hard times but to get ahead when the economy comes back."

The government has started a Web site with information on the plan: www.opportunity.gov .

-CNN reporter Jill Doherty

Breaking News!! Maine Governor John Baldacci signed Wednesday into law a bill legalizing gay marriage in the state. The move makes Maine the fifth state to allow gay marriage.

The press release:

"I have followed closely the debate on this issue. I have listened to both sides, as they have presented their arguments during the public hearing and on the floor of the Maine Senate and the House of Representatives. I have read many of the notes and letters sent to my office, and I have weighed my decision carefully," Governor Baldacci said. "I did not come to this decision lightly or in haste."

"I appreciate the tone brought to this debate by both sides of the issue," Governor Baldacci said. "This is an emotional issue that touches deeply many of our most important ideals and traditions. There are good, earnest and honest people on both sides of the question."

"In the past, I opposed gay marriage while supporting the idea of civil unions," Governor Baldacci said. "I have come to believe that this is a question of fairness and of equal protection under the law, and that a civil union is not equal to civil marriage."

"Article I in the Maine Constitution states that 'no person shall be deprived of life, liberty or property without due process of law, nor be denied the equal protection of the laws, nor be denied the enjoyment of that person's civil rights or be discriminated against.'"

"This new law does not force any religion to recognize a marriage that falls outside of its beliefs. It does not require the church to perform any ceremony with which it disagrees. Instead, it reaffirms the separation of Church and State," Governor Baldacci said.

"It guarantees that Maine citizens will be treated equally under Maine's civil marriage laws, and that is the responsibility of government."

"While the good and just people of Maine may determine this issue, my responsibility is to uphold the Constitution and do, as best as possible, what is right. I believe that signing this legislation is the right thing to do," Governor Baldacci said.

The Washington D.C. Council gave its final approval to recognize legal gay marriages performed in other states and countries Tuesday, reports the AP.

Former Mayor Marion Barry stood alone in opposing the bill, which passed on a vote 12 to 1.

Mayor Adrian M. Fenty, a Democrat, has said he will sign the bill into law.

Despite his opposing vote, Barry called himself a “friend” to the gay community.

The bill recognizes out-of-state marriages performed in states that recognize gay marriage. Backers say it is the first step towards legalizing gay marriage in the District.

“This is the march towards human rights and equality,” openly gay Councilperson David A. Catania (Independent at large) told city leaders last month. “... and that march is coming here.”

Breaking News!!

Senator Arlen Specter is switching from the Republican to the Democratic party. The specter of Specter as a Democrat will enrage Republicans and should come as big relief to Democrats.

With 60 votes in the Senate, Obama won't be stymied by a Republican minority.  His move isn't opportunism but a concession to reality. Just as Democrats used to say that they hadn't left the party but it had left them, so reasonable or moderate Republicans can no longer remain a part of an ossified party that continues to lurch toward the radical right. Specter faced a primary challenge from the reactionary right in Pennsylvania. As a Democrat, he should win reelection handily.

Specter's move was prefigured by his opposition to the Bush administration's aggrandizement of power. In the latest issue of the New York Review of Books, Specter has a lengthy and perspicuous essay titled "The Need to Roll Back Presidential Power Grabs." In it, Specter notes that he worries that Obama will rely on signing statements and on a "state secrets" privilege to stymie lawsuits "challenging controversial policies like warrantless wiretapping." But as a Democrat, he will likely have more influence in pushing legislation that would, in his words, allow "Congress and the courts to reassert themselves in the system of checks and balances."

For now, the Democrats have won a major battle without firing a shot. The blunt fact is that President Obama isn't simply rebuilding America. Along the way, he's destroying the Republican party that has existed for the past several decades. Perhaps the GOP will eventually recover in some new, more moderate incarnation. But this will be remembered as a turning point in the historic Obama presidency. Who will defect in the next 100 days?

-reported by Jacob Heilbrunn

Shane Murphy, second-in-command aboard the ship seized by Somali pirates this month, is happy to be home. But he's not happy to be sharing turf with land-lubber Rush Limbaugh, who politicized the pirate affair by referring to the pirates as "black Muslim teenagers."

"It feels great to be home," said Murphy in an interview with WCBV in Boston. "It feels like everyone around here has my back, with the exception of Rush Limbaugh, who is trying to make this into a race issue...that guy is disgusting and full of hatred and bigotry."

Limbaugh made the remark to suggest why President Obama might have appeared preoccupied at church on the day of the operation to rescue the ship's captain, who was taken hostage by the pirates until Navy SEAL snipers shot them in a daring rescue effort.

"He was worried about the order he had given to wipe out three teenagers on the high seas," Limbaugh said. "... because they're Black Muslim teenagers."

"You gotta get with us or against us here, Rush," Murphy said. "The president did the right thing in authorizing the rescue...It's a war.... It's about good versus evil. And what you said is evil. It's hate speech. I won't tolerate it."

For the first time in years, more Americans than not say the country is headed in the right direction, a sign that Barack Obama has used the first 100 days of his presidency to lift the public's mood and inspire hopes for a brighter future.

Intensely worried about their personal finances and medical expenses, Americans nonetheless appear realistic about the time Obama might need to turn things around, according to an Associated Press-GfK poll. It shows most Americans consider their new president to be a strong, ethical and empathetic leader who is working to change Washington.

Nobody knows how long the honeymoon will last, but Obama has clearly transformed the yes-we-can spirit of his candidacy into a tool of governance. His ability to inspire confidence — Obama's second book is titled "The Audacity of Hope" — has thus far buffered the president against the harsh political realities of two wars, a global economic meltdown and countless domestic challenges.

"He presents a very positive outlook," said Cheryl Wetherington, 35, an independent voter who runs a chocolate shop in Gardner, Kan. "He's very well-spoken and very vocal about what direction should be taken."

The percentage of Americans saying the country is headed in the right direction rose to 48 percent, up from 40 percent in February.

Not since January 2004, shortly after the capture of former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, has an AP survey found more "right direction" than "wrong direction" respondents.

So far, Obama has defied the odds by producing a sustained trend toward optimism. It began with his election.

The AP-GfK poll shows that 64 percent of the public approves of Obama's job performance, down just slightly from 67 percent in February. President George W. Bush's approval ratings hovered in the high 50s after his first 100 days in office.

Obama is not the first president who sought to tap the deep well of American optimism — the never-say-die spirit that Americans like to see in themselves.

Even as he briefly closed the nation's banks, Franklin Delano Roosevelt spoke in the first days of his presidency of the "confidence and courage" needed to fix the U.S. economy. "Together we cannot fail," he declared.

"When Obama came in," said D.T. Brown, 39, a Mount Vernon, Ill., radio show host who voted against Obama, "it was just a breath of fresh air."

-Associated Press

On Tuesday, President Obama reassured CIA agents that if they interrogated prisoners within the "four corners" of the legal authority given by the Bush administration then they needn't fear prosecution.

But a Senate report released on Tuesday night shows that those four corners were constructed after the torture program had begun and were set so that they would encompass the program, rather than the program being built within pre-established legal guidelines. Memos previously released by the Obama administration confirm that the legal analysis was built around the practice and that for a time the torture took place without those "four corners" in place.

The report shows that there was strong opposition to those four corners -- which were established by Bush administration and justice department lawyers -- from the military, which argued that the behavior it purported to justify was illegal. The administration squashed that debate and eventually spread the illegal interrogation tactics from Guantanamo to Afghanistan, Iraq and secret prisons scattered around the globe.

The idea that torture is illegal, unethical and ineffective is well established in military circles. When elements of the military saw the interrogation plan being crafted by the White House, serious objections were raised. Those objections will be key to any prosecutions because they demonstrate that the White House should have been aware that what they were proposing was against the law.

The architects of the torture program, however, seem aware of the power of those dissenting views and, according to the Senate report, repeatedly denied receiving them.

Then-Captain and now-Rear Admiral Jane Dalton, for instance, told the committee that her staff discussed the military's concerns with DoD General Counsel Jim Haynes, one of the architects of the program, and that he was aware of the military's objections. Haynes, meanwhile, testified that he didn't know that the military was opposed and had written memos to that effect. He later qualified that denial to say he wasn't "sure" that he hadn't been made aware. His deputy, Eliana Davidson, also told him his torture project "needed further assessment," but Haynes, again, said he didn't recall Davidson telling him that.

As early as November 2002, the military was pushing back. The Air Force cited "serious concerns regarding the legality of many of the proposed techniques" because they "may be subject to challenge as failing to meet the requirements outlined in the military order to treat detainees humanely."

The top legal adviser to the Criminal Investigation Task Force weighed in, arguing that the techniques "may subject service members to punitive articles of the [Uniform Code of Military Justice]." The "utility and legality of applying certain techniques" was, the lawyer advised, "questionable." Getting more to the point, he added that he couldn't "advocate any action, interrogation or otherwise, that is predicated upon the principle that all is well if the ends justify the means and others are not aware of how we conduct our business." -reporter Ryan Grim

13 minutes ago

MONTPELIER, Vt. (AP) — Vermont has become the fourth state to legalize gay marriage — and the first to do so with a legislature's vote.

The Legislature voted Tuesday to override Gov. Jim Douglas' veto of a bill allowing gays and lesbians to marry. The vote was 23-5 to override in the state Senate and 100-49 to override in the House. Under Vermont law, two-thirds of each chamber had to vote for override.

The vote came nine years after Vermont adopted its first-in-the-nation civil unions law.

It's now the fourth state to permit same-sex marriage. Massachusetts, Connecticut and Iowa are the others. Their approval of gay marriage came from the courts.

By Kay Henderson

Breaking news!!  This is a great day for the triumph of freedom and equality over bigotry and discrimination in America.

DES MOINES, Iowa (Reuters) - The Iowa Supreme Court cleared the way for gay marriage in the state on Friday by declaring a law that limits marriage to a man and a woman unconstitutional.

The ruling makes Iowa the third U.S. state after Connecticut and Massachusetts, and the first in the Midwest, to allow gay and lesbian couples to marry.

Gay marriage was briefly legal in California, but voters repealed it in a November 2008 referendum, though efforts are under way to revive the issue.

The Iowa case, Varnum v. Brien, involved six same-sex couples who sued the Polk County Recorder of Deeds Timothy Brien in 2005 for refusing to grant them marriage licenses.

A county judge sided with the couples and the state supreme court affirmed that decision and declared the 1998 Iowa Defense of Marriage Act -- which restricted marriage to one man and one woman -- unconstitutional.

The key principle at the heart of the case was the doctrine of equal protection under the law, which the court said "is essentially a direction that all persons similarly situated should be treated alike."

The court compared the right of same-sex couples to marry with historical precedents that struck down slavery and segregation and recognized women's rights.

Susan Sommer, senior counsel with Lambda Legal in New York, which sued in the Iowa case, said a number of states, including New York, Vermont and New Hampshire, have "very active efforts" underway to pass gay marriage provisions.

"Iowa is a terrific state with a great historical leadership in advancing the equal protection rights of minorities and we are seeing Iowa live up to what it holds dear," Sommer said.

Gay marriages in the state could begin within weeks.

By Kay Henderson

Breaking news!!  This is a great day for the triumph of freedom and equality in America.

DES MOINES, Iowa (Reuters) - The Iowa Supreme Court cleared the way for gay marriage in the state on Friday by declaring a law that limits marriage to a man and a woman unconstitutional.

The ruling makes Iowa the third U.S. state after Connecticut and Massachusetts, and the first in the Midwest, to allow gay and lesbian couples to marry.

Gay marriage was briefly legal in California, but voters repealed it in a November 2008 referendum, though efforts are under way to revive the issue.

The Iowa case, Varnum v. Brien, involved six same-sex couples who sued the Polk County Recorder of Deeds Timothy Brien in 2005 for refusing to grant them marriage licenses.

A county judge sided with the couples and the state supreme court affirmed that decision and declared the 1998 Iowa Defense of Marriage Act -- which restricted marriage to one man and one woman -- unconstitutional.

The key principle at the heart of the case was the doctrine of equal protection under the law, which the court said "is essentially a direction that all persons similarly situated should be treated alike."

The court compared the right of same-sex couples to marry with historical precedents that struck down slavery and segregation and recognized women's rights.

Susan Sommer, senior counsel with Lambda Legal in New York, which sued in the Iowa case, said a number of states, including New York, Vermont and New Hampshire, have "very active efforts" underway to pass gay marriage provisions.

"Iowa is a terrific state with a great historical leadership in advancing the equal protection rights of minorities and we are seeing Iowa live up to what it holds dear," Sommer said.

Gay marriages in the state could begin within weeks.