Monday, May 31, 2010
Saturday, May 29, 2010
"I wonder what it would be like to live in a world where it was always June." --L. M. Montgomery
The White House
Office of the Press Secretary
For Immediate Release May 28, 2010
Presidential Proclamation--Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Pride Month
As Americans, it is our birthright that all people are created equal and deserve the same rights, privileges, and opportunities. Since our earliest days of independence, our Nation has striven to fulfill that promise. An important chapter in our great, unfinished story is the movement for fairness and equality on behalf of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community. This month, as we recognize the immeasurable contributions of LGBT Americans, we renew our commitment to the struggle for equal rights for LGBT Americans and to ending prejudice and injustice wherever it exists.
LGBT Americans have enriched and strengthened the fabric of our national life. From business leaders and professors to athletes and first responders, LGBT individuals have achieved success and prominence in every discipline. They are our mothers and fathers, our sons and daughters, and our friends and neighbors. Across my Administration, openly LGBT employees are serving at every level. Thanks to those who came before us the brave men and women who marched, stood up to injustice, and brought change through acts of compassion or defiance we have made enormous progress and continue to strive for a more perfect union.
My Administration has advanced our journey by signing into law the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr., Hate Crimes Prevention Act, which strengthens Federal protections against crimes based on gender identity or sexual orientation. We renewed the Ryan White CARE Act, which provides life saving medical services and support to Americans living with HIV/AIDS, and finally eliminated the HIV entry ban. I also signed a Presidential Memorandum directing hospitals receiving Medicare and Medicaid funds to give LGBT patients the compassion and security they deserve in their time of need, including the ability to choose someone other than an immediate family member to visit them and make medical decisions.
In other areas, the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) announced a series of proposals to ensure core housing programs are open to everyone, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity. HUD also announced the first ever national study of discrimination against members of the LGBT community in the rental and sale of housing. Additionally, the Department of Health and Human Services has created a National Resource Center for LGBT Elders.
Much work remains to fulfill our Nation's promise of equal justice under law for LGBT Americans. That is why we must give committed gay couples the same rights and responsibilities afforded to any married couple, and repeal the Defense of Marriage Act. We must protect the rights of LGBT families by securing their adoption rights, ending employment discrimination against LGBT Americans, and ensuring Federal employees receive equal benefits. We must create safer schools so all our children may learn in a supportive environment. I am also committed to ending "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" so patriotic LGBT Americans can serve openly in our military, and I am working with the Congress and our military leadership to accomplish that goal.
As we honor the LGBT Americans who have given so much to our Nation, let us remember that if one of us is unable to realize full equality, we all fall short of our founding principles. Our Nation draws its strength from our diversity, with each of us contributing to the greater whole. By affirming these rights and values, each American benefits from the further advancement of liberty and justice for all.
NOW, THEREFORE, I, BARACK OBAMA, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim June 2010 as Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Pride Month. I call upon all Americans to observe this month by fighting prejudice and discrimination in their own lives and everywhere it exists.
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this twenty-eighth day of May, in the year of our Lord two thousand ten, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and thirty-fourth.
BARACK OBAMA
Office of the Press Secretary
For Immediate Release May 28, 2010
Presidential Proclamation--Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Pride Month
As Americans, it is our birthright that all people are created equal and deserve the same rights, privileges, and opportunities. Since our earliest days of independence, our Nation has striven to fulfill that promise. An important chapter in our great, unfinished story is the movement for fairness and equality on behalf of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community. This month, as we recognize the immeasurable contributions of LGBT Americans, we renew our commitment to the struggle for equal rights for LGBT Americans and to ending prejudice and injustice wherever it exists.
LGBT Americans have enriched and strengthened the fabric of our national life. From business leaders and professors to athletes and first responders, LGBT individuals have achieved success and prominence in every discipline. They are our mothers and fathers, our sons and daughters, and our friends and neighbors. Across my Administration, openly LGBT employees are serving at every level. Thanks to those who came before us the brave men and women who marched, stood up to injustice, and brought change through acts of compassion or defiance we have made enormous progress and continue to strive for a more perfect union.
My Administration has advanced our journey by signing into law the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr., Hate Crimes Prevention Act, which strengthens Federal protections against crimes based on gender identity or sexual orientation. We renewed the Ryan White CARE Act, which provides life saving medical services and support to Americans living with HIV/AIDS, and finally eliminated the HIV entry ban. I also signed a Presidential Memorandum directing hospitals receiving Medicare and Medicaid funds to give LGBT patients the compassion and security they deserve in their time of need, including the ability to choose someone other than an immediate family member to visit them and make medical decisions.
In other areas, the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) announced a series of proposals to ensure core housing programs are open to everyone, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity. HUD also announced the first ever national study of discrimination against members of the LGBT community in the rental and sale of housing. Additionally, the Department of Health and Human Services has created a National Resource Center for LGBT Elders.
Much work remains to fulfill our Nation's promise of equal justice under law for LGBT Americans. That is why we must give committed gay couples the same rights and responsibilities afforded to any married couple, and repeal the Defense of Marriage Act. We must protect the rights of LGBT families by securing their adoption rights, ending employment discrimination against LGBT Americans, and ensuring Federal employees receive equal benefits. We must create safer schools so all our children may learn in a supportive environment. I am also committed to ending "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" so patriotic LGBT Americans can serve openly in our military, and I am working with the Congress and our military leadership to accomplish that goal.
As we honor the LGBT Americans who have given so much to our Nation, let us remember that if one of us is unable to realize full equality, we all fall short of our founding principles. Our Nation draws its strength from our diversity, with each of us contributing to the greater whole. By affirming these rights and values, each American benefits from the further advancement of liberty and justice for all.
NOW, THEREFORE, I, BARACK OBAMA, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim June 2010 as Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Pride Month. I call upon all Americans to observe this month by fighting prejudice and discrimination in their own lives and everywhere it exists.
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this twenty-eighth day of May, in the year of our Lord two thousand ten, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and thirty-fourth.
BARACK OBAMA
What we talkin' 'bout
Herfi wrote:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100528/ap_en_ot/us_people_gary_colemanmaybe short in size
but if greatness were height
you would be Yao Ming.
sweet prince of sitcoms,
join your costars in the sky---
say hey to Dana!
D-lists and rap sheets
Sordid stories on the news.
Willis all alone.
(NI)
DJ wrote:
i can almost laugh again . . .
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
Playing fair
Five Questions for Obama on the Oil Spill
by Karen Tumulty
from http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/05/26/AR2010052603800.html
As his administration comes under increasing criticism for its handling of the spreading environmental catastrophe in the Gulf of Mexico, President Obama will hold a White House news conference Thursday, his first since February, in an attempt to retake command of the message. He'll do so as the crisis reaches yet another moment of high risk, both in the Gulf and in Washington.
At the scene of the oil spill, the oil firm BP -- attempting the latest of inventive but thus far ineffective maneuvers to stop the gusher that has been spewing from the gulf floor for five weeks -- has begun to pour 50,000 barrels of dense mud into the well. The exercise, known as a "top kill," has effectively stopped other spills in the past but has never been tried at the mile-down depth of this one.
Meanwhile, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar is scheduled to deliver the results of a review demanded by Obama that gives an accounting of the federal government's policies with regard to energy exploration on the outer continental shelf, including whether there are adequate safeguards with respect to regulations and inspections. Obama is expected to announce a series of new policies in response.
The news conference will also come on the day before the president travels to the gulf to inspect the scene and also to send a message of engagement. With reporters having their first opportunity to put a full range of questions to Obama about the spill and his administration's handling of it, here are five that should be asked:
1. In explaining and defending your decision in March to open up additional offshore areas to drilling, you argued that improvements in technology have made drilling significantly less risky. Just 18 days before the explosion of the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig, you said: "It turns out, by the way, that oil rigs today generally don't cause spills. They are technologically very advanced." What kind of assurances were you given that this was the case and by whom? What do you think of those assumptions now?
2. BP is now in the position of making many of the key decisions on how to deal with it -- a situation that is drawing growing criticism. White House officials note the administration is following a process established under the 1990 Oil Spill Act, which was passed in response to the Exxon Valdez incident; they also concede that the government, effectively, has no choice but to let BP take the lead because it lacks the equipment and expertise to do the job. In at least one instance in which the federal government has attempted to overrule BP, which was over its use of dispersant chemicals that the Environmental Protection Agency says are too toxic, the company has not complied. What do you say to those who say too much control has been ceded to BP? And what kind of changes, if any, should be made in the process for dealing with future oil spills?
3. Salazar has pledged reform of the Minerals Management Service, the agency responsible for offshore drilling, which is now recognized as having been too compliant with the wishes of the oil industry. But his proposals -- for instance, splitting the agency into separate leasing, revenue collection and oversight -- have dealt largely with the organizaton of the MMS. If the problem is, as you have said, a cozy culture in the agency, is it enough simply to redraw the organization chart? How can you quickly change a culture that has taken decades to develop?
4. On May 6, Salazar announced a moratorium on the issuance of final permits for "new offshore drilling activity." Critics such as the Center for Biological Diversity note, however, that this policy has never been put into writing, and that its definition "has become steadily narrower as the Interior Department changes it to exclude whatever drilling permits MMS issues on any given day." And the New York Times has reported that since the April 20 explosion on the rig, waivers have continued to be granted for drilling projects. What, exactly, does this moratorium cover?
5. Should anyone in the government be fired as the result of this disaster?
by Karen Tumulty
from http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/05/26/AR2010052603800.html
As his administration comes under increasing criticism for its handling of the spreading environmental catastrophe in the Gulf of Mexico, President Obama will hold a White House news conference Thursday, his first since February, in an attempt to retake command of the message. He'll do so as the crisis reaches yet another moment of high risk, both in the Gulf and in Washington.
At the scene of the oil spill, the oil firm BP -- attempting the latest of inventive but thus far ineffective maneuvers to stop the gusher that has been spewing from the gulf floor for five weeks -- has begun to pour 50,000 barrels of dense mud into the well. The exercise, known as a "top kill," has effectively stopped other spills in the past but has never been tried at the mile-down depth of this one.
Meanwhile, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar is scheduled to deliver the results of a review demanded by Obama that gives an accounting of the federal government's policies with regard to energy exploration on the outer continental shelf, including whether there are adequate safeguards with respect to regulations and inspections. Obama is expected to announce a series of new policies in response.
The news conference will also come on the day before the president travels to the gulf to inspect the scene and also to send a message of engagement. With reporters having their first opportunity to put a full range of questions to Obama about the spill and his administration's handling of it, here are five that should be asked:
1. In explaining and defending your decision in March to open up additional offshore areas to drilling, you argued that improvements in technology have made drilling significantly less risky. Just 18 days before the explosion of the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig, you said: "It turns out, by the way, that oil rigs today generally don't cause spills. They are technologically very advanced." What kind of assurances were you given that this was the case and by whom? What do you think of those assumptions now?
2. BP is now in the position of making many of the key decisions on how to deal with it -- a situation that is drawing growing criticism. White House officials note the administration is following a process established under the 1990 Oil Spill Act, which was passed in response to the Exxon Valdez incident; they also concede that the government, effectively, has no choice but to let BP take the lead because it lacks the equipment and expertise to do the job. In at least one instance in which the federal government has attempted to overrule BP, which was over its use of dispersant chemicals that the Environmental Protection Agency says are too toxic, the company has not complied. What do you say to those who say too much control has been ceded to BP? And what kind of changes, if any, should be made in the process for dealing with future oil spills?
3. Salazar has pledged reform of the Minerals Management Service, the agency responsible for offshore drilling, which is now recognized as having been too compliant with the wishes of the oil industry. But his proposals -- for instance, splitting the agency into separate leasing, revenue collection and oversight -- have dealt largely with the organizaton of the MMS. If the problem is, as you have said, a cozy culture in the agency, is it enough simply to redraw the organization chart? How can you quickly change a culture that has taken decades to develop?
4. On May 6, Salazar announced a moratorium on the issuance of final permits for "new offshore drilling activity." Critics such as the Center for Biological Diversity note, however, that this policy has never been put into writing, and that its definition "has become steadily narrower as the Interior Department changes it to exclude whatever drilling permits MMS issues on any given day." And the New York Times has reported that since the April 20 explosion on the rig, waivers have continued to be granted for drilling projects. What, exactly, does this moratorium cover?
5. Should anyone in the government be fired as the result of this disaster?
Atticus Finch + George Bailey = epic man win
It's The Summer of To Kill A Mockingbird
from http://jezebel.com/5547558/its-the-summer-of-to-kill-a-mockingbird
This year marks the 50th anniversary of Harper Lee's classic children's book. And although To Kill a Mockingbird has a famously private author, the book's birthday shall be acknowledged!
Says the NY Times,
In Santa Cruz, Calif., volunteers will re-enact every word and movement in the famous courtroom scene. In Monroeville, Ala., residents dressed in 1930s garb will read aloud from memorable passages. In Rhinebeck, N.Y.,Oblong Books will host a party with Mocktails and recorded music by the indie band the Boo Radleys.
As the piece continues, there are more than 50 events planned for the summer — and that's not counting the less well-organized ones! — with a special concentration in the author's home-town of Monroeville, AL. There are also several new editions of the book and a spate of PR from publisher Harper-Collins.
Harper Lee is 84 and very much alive. But she remains very much elusive, too, having foresworn publicity decades ago. What she'd make of the PR blitz is impossible to say, just as it's hard to know whether she was bemused, amused or irritated by being portrayed in the past decade by both Katherine Keener and Sandra Bullock. While she surfaced in 2007 to receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom, no one thinks she's planning a surprise appearance to commemorate her book's anniversary. After all, she is on record in her belief that books should speak for themselves and that authors should leave face-time to celebrities. In this, it's hard not to think of two other public figures: professional recluse J.D. Salinger, of course, and also Banksy. While the street artist may seem an unlikely corollary, I was reminded of a recent quote of his: "I don't know why people are so keen to put the details of their private life in public; they forget that invisibility is a superpower." Far from seeming to wish to incur supernatural status, Lee has always, as Wally Lamb points out to the Times, seemed more akin to the mysterious Boo Radley, a character who bestows gifts anonymously — but is available to save children when it really matters. In that spirit, perhaps the best tribute to Ms. Lee would be a re-reading of the novel, or even a screening of the film, or both. And incidentally, the tie-shaped cakes are hitting the shelves right about now. And with that in mind, there's maybe no better book for Father's Day. [<-- brilliant, brilliant idea, boo. --ed.]
*muffled weeping*
The Idiots Responsible for the BP Oil Leak Disaster
from http://gawker.com/5547381/the-idiots-responsible-for-the-bp-oil-leak-disaster
It's been one month since the Deepwater Horizon oil rig blew up, and oil is still leaking at an astonishing rate. Entire state economies might be crushed, and whole ecosystems wiped out. So whose fault is it?
Do you remember the Gulf of Mexico? It used to be a pretty nice stretch of water, down near Louisiana. Now it is the "The Official Deepwater Horizon Oil Leak Family Fun Park." BP, which was leasing the exploded rig from TransOcean, won't even let scientists down near the leak to figure out exactly how much Gulf of Mexico is screwed. (Our unofficial estimate: "a lot.")
So who's at fault? BP says it's Halliburton, or maybe TransOcean, or Cameron International, or God, maybe, or literally anyone but BP. The truth? They're all at fault. (Well, except God, who was just doing what he always does.) Here's the rogue's gallery of people responsible for the Deepwater Horizon.
Chris Oynes, associate director of Offshore Energy and Minerals Management: Chris Oynes, a stellar exemplar of civil service, once cost taxpayers $10 billion dollars by forgetting to force oil companies to pay royalties on the oil they found in the Gulf of Mexico. And then, because of our awesome meritocratic government, he was put in charge of all offshore drilling! Don't worry about the poor oil industry, though: Oynes was "close to the industry officials he regulated." Which is maybe why he allowed the oil companies to fill in their own inspection reports, in pencil, to be traced over by government regulators in pen.
Former Vice President Dick Cheney: What a surprise, that Dick Cheney would be involved with one of the worst environmental catastrophes in U.S. history. The man behind such other unmitigated disasters like "The Bush Presidency," "Shooting His Friend in the Face" and "Liz Cheney" once ran an energy task force that decided that the $500,000 remote shut-off switches that could have stopped the leak were a little bit too expensive for struggling oil companies like BP. Ha, did I say "struggling"? I meant, "immensely profitable."
Marc Edwards, Halliburton's senior vice president for Completion and Production: It's like a family reunion! Halliburton, who are basically an incredibly scary energy conglomerate from a sci-fi movie, but in real life, were supposed to cement the drill hole at the Deepwater Horizon rig—an operation that's part of their Completion and Production division. What could go wrong, when you hire a company whose previous shoddy cement work possibly caused a 1.2 million-gallon spill in the East Timor sea?
BP CEO Tony Hayward: A long time ago—OK, just a few years ago—BP branded themselves as the hip "green" energy company that lived in Portland and rode a bike to work and drank kombucha tea. What happened there? Tony Hayward took over! Hayward shut down all the alternative energy programs under the company's aegis and decided to go full speed ahead with the "fuck safety" strategies—exemplified in this memo—that have helped make the oil industry one of the globe's most-beloved. Not that BP was all that great when it had the green flower logo! But at least they were pretending.
John D. Carne, president of Cameron Drilling & Production Systems: Doesn't a blowout preventer sound like the kind of thing that would have help in this incident? You know, to "prevent" the "blowout." Too bad it was made by Cameron International, who according to the feds didn't calculate force properly. Carne, the head of the Drilling & Production Systems arm of Cameron, should probably think about hiring better math students next time he wants to make some blowout preventers.
TransOcean's Gary Leach: According to theWashington Post, Leach suggested in an trade journal article certain time-and-money-saving shortcuts, likeleaving an upside-down valve on the blowout preventer to avoid having to take pipe out to test. Which certainly saved a lot of time, and money, when BP spent a crucial day after the explosion trying to figure out how the upside down valve was connected to the control panel.
Samuel Brown, father of the gas engine: This British jerk thought he was doing the world a favor when he invented the first fuel-powered internal combustion engine in 1826. Almost two centuries later, America is incredibly fat and all our birds are covered in oil. Thanks a lot, Samuel.
President Barack Obama: It's not really Obama's "fault" that everyone ignored regulations and safety considerations in a magical quest to make as much money as possible. But let's not forget the time he stood in front of a big military jet to let us all know that the path to American energy security was massive, untested, unsafe drilling operations just a few hundred miles off some of our most beautiful shores.
You, and your insatiable demand for cheap gasoline: Good job! I hope you are enjoying your warm house and efficient transportation options.
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