Wendy came close having her efforts twarted because of a “three strikes” rule. The Texas filabuster rules don’t allow more than one person, no substitutes, no stopping, even to go to the bathroom, no leaning and no going off topic, just to name a few of the requirements. The problems emerged when the republican lt. governor called strikes. According to the Washington Post:
Lieutenant Gov. David Dewhurst ruled that Davis has three times violated the Texas Senate’s procedural rules for a filibuster, which requires a senator to stand continually without assistance and remain on topic.
“There’s a three strikes, you’re out precedent in the Senate that allows senators two warnings about staying germane to the bill topic,” Texas Tribune reporter Becca Aaronson explains. “On the third strike, a simple majority of the Senate can vote to end debate and the senator must yield the floor.”
Supreme Court Strikes down DOMA!
Same sex marriages can also resume in California.
The cases weren’t decided on gay rights but rather on equal justice under the law. There are only 1000 different benefits that go hand and hand with marriage.
The Supreme Court also decided that no one is harmed from same sex marriage.
Clarifications are on the way.
It is an historic day, for sure. Lawrence v. Texas was only decided ten years ago. Amazing.
President Obama: “We don’t have time for a meeting of the flat-Earth society,”
TheHILL.com:
President Obama angrily blasted climate change skeptics during his energy policy speech Tuesday at Georgetown University, saying he lacked “patience for anyone who denies that this problem is real.”
“We don’t have time for a meeting of the flat-Earth society,” Obama said. “Sticking your head in the sand might make you feel safer, but it’s not going to protect you from the coming storm.”
Earlier in his remarks, Obama said the “overwhelming judgement of science, of chemistry, of physics, and millions of measurements” put “to rest” questions about pollution affecting the environment.
“The planet is warming. Human activity is contributing to it,” Obama said.“We know that the costs of these events can be measured in lost lives and lost livelihoods.”
The president noted that the 12 warmest years in recorded history have all come within the last 15 years, and said that rising temperatures were increasing the severity and impact of storms.
He noted that rising tide levels in New York increased the impact of Hurricane Sandy, while record temperatures killed crops and increased food prices in the Midwest.
“In a world that’s warmer than it used to be, all weather events are affected by the warming planet,” Obama said.
“Those who are feeling the effects of climate change don’t have time to deny it — they’re busy dealing with it.”
Just when you thought it was safe to …….
RICHMOND — Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli II filed an appeal Tuesday to the U.S. Supreme Court aimed at preserving Virginia’s anti-sodomy law.
Cuccinelli, a Republican running for governor, asked the court to overturn a March decision by the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to strike down the law, which had been used in 2005 to convict a 47-year-old man of soliciting oral sex from a 17-year-old girl.
The appeals court ruled that prosecutors could not use Virginia’s “Crimes Against Nature” statute to convict William Scott MacDonald because the Supreme Court had, in a landmark 2003 ruling, invalidated sodomy statutes that criminalize sexual activity between consenting adults. Virginia’s statute outlaws all acts of oral and anal sex.
Cuccinelli acknowledged that since the Supreme Court’s 2003 decision, the law cannot be used against consenting adults engaged in private sex acts. But he said the law remains a useful tool for prosecutors seeking to obtain felony convictions against sexual predators.
Help me understand something. Forcible intercourse is illegal. Why isn’t forcible sodomy? This is a stretch. Perhaps the criminal laws against forcible sex acts needs to be strengthened in addition to laws about sex with under-age individuals. If this case is about solicitation, then it’s about solicitation, not forcible sex acts. Details are mercifully sketchy.
Once again, Ken needs to get out of everyone’s bedroom. He doesn’t want to become known as the Sodomy Attorney General.
