Showing posts with label News. Show all posts
Showing posts with label News. Show all posts

Declaration of Independence

The unanimous Declaration of the People of the United States of America,
When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political and economic bands which have connected them with one another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them (as various individuals understand Him out of their own freedom), a decent respect to the opinions of humanity requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to that separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all human beings are created equal, that they are endowed by the Creation with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, the pursuit of Happiness, and rights of privacy and information*.

That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among human beings, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience has shown, that human beings are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed.

But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. —Such has been the patient sufferance of the American People; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present rule of financial elites is a history of repeated injuries and thefts of rights, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these the People of the United States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

The Lords of Finance, through their corruption of the political and social processes of the Western Democracies, have imposed on the world, and on the American People, a system of banking and of monetary rules and policies entirely for their own benefit. Any study of the true history of the creation of Central Banking proves this assertion. Just consider that by this means of creating economic structures totally for their own benefit, the result is that 1% of the people in the world control 50% of its wealth.

They - the Lords of Finance - have, through their surrogates the Democrat and Republican Parties, impeded all efforts to reform our social and democratic processes (such as by stopping our making serious and real changes to campaign financing), thus permitting neither reason or truth to rule our social democratic process, but rather only wealth and the raw power it is able to purchase.

They - the Lords of Finance - have first promoted a false Cold War, and now an equally false War on Terror, for the sole purpose of creating in America a permanent Military and Arms industrial base, intended not for the protection of the People of People's, but rather for the use by the Lords of Finance as a tool for their imperial (world) rule.

They - the Lords of Finance - have used the military might and covert might of American power to manipulate, ruin and destroy - where ever and when ever they felt necessary - systems of government throughout the world that did not bow to their will.
They - the Lords of Finance - have raped the world's environment, enslaved third world peoples economically, destroyed the world's agricultural riches by the introduction of dangerous chemicals and unproven new genetic forms into the eco-system of the whole world, all in the search for ever greater power and money.

This is not to say, that no benefit to humanity has arisen from some of these changes and developments, but rather that at every juncture where it was a choice between improving the lot of life of ordinary people or enriching themselves, the Lords of Finance choose that path most beneficial to themselves, well all the while, corrupting government processes everywhere possible in the vain pursuit of this immoral goal.

It becomes a question then of how do We the People, already in possession of one hard won Constitution, remove this insidious influence from our shared social and political existence, for one of the evil means by which the Lords of Finance rule is by remaining anonymous and invisible.

On this basis we reject as no longer workable this beloved and now flawed and corrupted original Constitution, declare it null and void, and assert our right to replace it with that which we believe more carefully addresses and protects us from the over-reaching of concentrated wealth.

We recognize that this task will have as its main difficulty the removing of the existing financial structures in which all the Peoples of the world have become ensnared. The separation of the original 13 Colonies from the English aristocracy was far easier. Here we need to rise above something far more entangled in every aspect of our daily lives.
In addition, we will have to confess our addiction to the comforts this concentration of wealth has made possible for a majority of the American People. The truth is that we cannot move from our current conditions to those which are yet possible without owning our own responsibility and participation in the concentration of 80% of the world's wealth among only 20% of the world's people.

In this declaration then we have to assert two essential matters.
I. The Lords of Finance need to be taken out of their anonymous and secret rule and made to face, as named individuals, the judgment of the world for their crimes against our rights as human beings, the crimes against our free choice of government and their crimes against the planet and the environment we all share.

II. The People of America need to confess our own excesses and own up to our own responsibilities, and by this means replace the rule of elites and their surrogate political tools - the Democratic and Republican Parties, with Citizen Governance.
In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. These Merchant Princes, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a tyranny, are unfit to be the rulers of any free people.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our American political brethren. We have warned our elected officials from time to time of their attempts to serve themselves instead of the people by their legislative efforts to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over our civil liberties, at the same time they reward themselves with privileges and benefits (such as medical coverage) they deny to us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our privations and dissatisfactions. We have appealed to their native justice and noble generosity, and we have entreated them by the ties of our shared humanity to disavow these thefts of rights, such as their abuse of constant re-districting as a means to keep themselves from being challenged for election, which has placed them outside our rule through the ballot. They have also become deaf to the voice of justice and of shared needs, in that we ask for and need a protected ballot, safe from electronic theft with a paper trail so that all will know our real wishes. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces as essentially treasonous the behavior by which they, our elected officials, preferred the wishes of the Lords of Finance over the real needs of the America People, and hold them, as we hold the rest of humanity, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the People of the united States of America, via cyberspace communion, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the moral integrity of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by the Authority of the good People of these many States, solemnly publish and declare, That these the People of the United States of America are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent of the economic tyranny of the Lords of Finance and their surrogates, the Republican and Democrat Parties; that we are Absolved from all Allegiance to the economic rules created by the Lords of Finance and any allegiance to the present standing government of America, which has stolen excessive powers, failed in its sacred trust, and acted with conscious treason against the Republic, and that all political connection between us and the present sitting government of these many States, standing as it does solely for the benefit of the Lords of Finance, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent People, we have full Power to engage in civil disobedience, refuse to honor claims on our wealth by the many banks, ignore levies for armies, refuse to pay taxes, print our own money and any other acts of freedom necessary to resist the continued rule of the Lords of Finance, or the excessive and dishonorable abuses of power by the Republican and Democrat Parties, and to do all other Acts and Things which an Independent and free People may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.

* With regard to rights of privacy and information, here is a proposed Bill of Information Rights, to be considered for inclusion in the Second American Constitution, should the American citizenry have the boldness and courage to take up such a task:

"It is the right of every citizen to sufficient information to be able to make informed decisions.
"It is the right of every citizen to a sphere of informational privacy, inviolate from the intrusions of the State or commercial and employment interests. This sphere is to be defined by the individual citizen themselves. Citizens who widely construct their private sphere of information rights must expect the normal consequences that flow from such an act (such as limitations on possible forms of employment).

"No government or private institution may withhold information needed by a free citizenry for the exercise of its duties. The Congress shall pass laws mandating appropriate and severe punishment for the violation of this right of information. Likewise, the Congress shall make laws mandating appropriate and severe punishment for violations of the right of privacy.

"When any citizen believes his or her information rights have been violated, the Courts must make inquiry, without cost to the citizen. In order to not overburden the Courts, the Office of Informational Ombudsman will be created by the Congress, which will mediate all preliminary inquires into requests, and violations, that arise from the exercise of these rights.

"Where a conflict arises between the right of privacy and the right to information, the Courts will seek the balancing principle in the Platonic ideal of the Good. For the purposes of this bill of information rights no non-living entity, such as a corporation, or other institution or organization, shall be deemed a person or a citizen."
“We’re going to live on; we’re going to survive. Today we celebrate our Independence day.”—“President Bradford” in the film Independence Day
Some photographic subjects, such as fireworks or lightening, can’t easily—at least for me—be captured by using any of the standard exposure metering systems, but many cameras, including several from Olympus, offer a Fireworks Mode that will slow the shutter speed and set the focusing point to infinity. But heck – you don’t need a special camera for that – you can do that yourself.

Here are the basics that I use to photograph fireworks: I suggest that you first switch from autofocus to manual focus, then go to manual exposure mode (M) and then select BULB as a shutter speed. With these setting, the shutter will stay open as long as the release is depressed. Since this increases the danger of camera movement, you should mount the camera on a sturdy tripod to minimize getting a bunch of squiggly liens in the photograph and use a remote control device or a simple cable release to trip the shutter. With fireworks you should manually set the exposure time to somewhere between 6 and 15 seconds and point the camera toward the part of the sky where the fireworks light up. One of the biggest mistakes people make is shooting fireworks before it’s too dark; heck I did that for years and got really crappy-looking washed out images.

Whenever I plan to photograph anything under tricky lighting conditions, I always refer to my old copy of the “Kodak Professional Photoguide,” which contains an Existing Light Exposure Dial. This offers suggested starting apertures and shutter speeds for different ISO settings. It’s set up for film, but ISO is ISO is ISO. Amazon has some used copies and you might be able to find a copy if there are any “real” camera stores near where you live.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama is renewing an old fight with the business community by insisting that $400 billion in tax increases be part of a deficit-reduction package. His proposals have languished on Capitol Hill, repeatedly blocked by Republicans, often with help from Democrats.

Some would raise big money. Limiting tax deductions for high-income families and small business owners could raise more than $200 billion over the next decade. Others are more symbolic, such as scaling back a tax break for companies that buy corporate jets.

The corporate jet proposal would raise $3 billion over the next decade, according to GOP congressional aides. That's a relatively small sum in the big scheme of Washington budgets, but Obama and Democrats call attention to it repeatedly in their effort to portray Republicans as defenders of corporate fat cats.

No matter how Democrats characterize their proposals as revenue raisers or plugging tax loopholes, GOP leaders oppose them all, arguing that raising taxes in a bad economy would only make matters worse.

"If we choose to keep those tax breaks for millionaires and billionaires, if we choose to keep a tax break for corporate jet owners, if we choose to keep tax breaks for oil and natural gas companies that are making hundreds of billions of dollars," Obama said this week, "then that means we've got to cut some kids off from getting a college scholarship, that means we've got to stop funding certain grants for medical research, that means that food safety may be compromised, that means that Medicare has to bear a greater part of the burden."

The White House has identified about $600 billion in tax increases it wants over the next decade. About $400 billion of them were offered as part of deficit-reduction talks led by Vice President Joe Biden. That would be paired with more than $1 trillion in spending cuts.

Some of the tax proposals are vague and budget experts have yet to calculate just how much they would raise. For example, limiting deductions for high-income families and small businesses could raise anywhere between $210 billion and $290 billion, depending on what threshold is established as high income.

Obama is proposing to eliminate $41 billion in tax breaks for oil and natural gas companies, raise taxes on investment fund managers by $21 billion and change the way many businesses value their inventories for tax purposes. The change in inventory accounting would raise an estimated $70 billion over the next decade, hitting manufacturers and energy companies, among others.

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner has given Congress an Aug. 2 deadline for raising the current debt ceiling, currently $14.3 trillion, to avoid defaulting on the government's financial obligations for the first time in the nation's history. He warns that a default could trigger potentially dire consequences for an already anemic economy, including higher interest rates, tighter credit and new rounds of job layoffs. The government hit the debt ceiling in May and has been juggling accounts since then to make all its payments.

Obama says he is proposing a balanced approach that spreads the pain among people who rely on government services and those most able to finance them.

While Republican leaders argue that raising taxes is bad policy, bad politics and too unpopular to pass the Republican-controlled House, several GOP senators have said they are willing to consider eliminating unspecified tax breaks to reduce the deficit.

Two weeks ago, 33 Republican senators joined a 73-27 majority to repeal a $5 billion annual tax subsidy for ethanol gasoline blends. On Wednesday, Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., said, "I would like to do away with special tax breaks but not legitimate business deductions."

But GOP leaders insist there is no support among Republicans to impose the kind of tax increases Obama is proposing.
"The president is sorely mistaken if he believes a bill to raise the debt ceiling and raise taxes would pass the House," Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, said. "The votes simply aren't there, and they aren't going to be there because the American people know tax hikes destroy jobs."

Among the tax increases proposed by the White House and the amount they'd raise over the next decade:
— Limit itemized deductions, including those for charitable contributions and mortgage interest, for families and small business owners making more than $500,000. Under current law, if a taxpayer's top income tax rate is 35 percent — the highest rate — a $100 deduction is worth $35 in tax savings. For several years, Obama has proposed limiting itemized deductions for people making above $250,000 to 28 percent, meaning a $100 deduction would be worth only $28 in tax savings at most. That would raise $293 billion. Increasing the income threshold to $500,000 would raise "in the ballpark of $210 billion," said Maryland Rep. Chris Van Hollen, one of the House Democratic negotiators in the Biden talks.

— Change the way businesses value their inventory, raising an estimated $70 billion. Current law allows businesses to lower their taxable profits — and their tax bills — by using an accounting method that can inflate the cost of goods sold. Obama proposes to phase out the practice, known as last-in, first out, or LIFO.

— Increase taxes on investment fund managers, mainly hedge funds and private equity firms, raising about $21 billion. Investment managers typically pay capital gains taxes on their fees, with a top rate of 15 percent. Obama wants to tax the fees as regular income, with a top tax rate of 35 percent.

— Eliminate about $41 billion in tax breaks for oil and natural gas companies. Obama has called for eliminating tax breaks for all oil and gas companies every year since he took office in 2009. The biggest is a deduction for production expenses that is available to all manufacturers. In May, the Senate rejected a smaller proposal that targeted the five biggest companies: Shell Oil Co., ExxonMobil, ConocoPhillips, BP America and Chevron Corp.
Charles Manson has broken two decades of silence, giving a telephone interview to Spain’s Vanity Fair magazine in which the convicted killer and cult leader called President Obama foolish and expressed fears about the environment.

Manson, who was convicted 40 years ago in the gruesome murders of eight people — among them the pregnant actress Sharon Tate — also talked about killings and his group of followers who came to be known as the “Manson family.”

The cult leader has a new attorney who has asked the president to set Manson free. Asked by the magazine to give an opinion of the president, Manson, 76, called Obama foolish in reference to Wall Street, saying he considered the president “a slave of Wall Street.”

“He doesn’t realize what they are doing. They are playing with him,” he said, according to the magazine.

Manson went on to express fears about the health of the global environment. “If we don’t wake up to that, there’s going to be no weather because our polar caps are melting because we’re doing bad things to the atmosphere,” Manson said in the interview from Corcoran State Prison in California. “We’ve got to put everything in one, everything in one world, everything in one world now. If it doesn’t come to one world now, there’ll be no planet, there’ll be no life on the planet.”

Manson: ‘I’m a Bad Man’

Other comments revealed the familiar, chilling Manson.

“I am a bad man. I’m nasty. I’m in the bull ring. I don’t play. I shoot people … I’m an outlaw. I’m a criminal. I’m everything bad,” he said.

Manson didn’t carry out any of the killings during a two-day rampage in Southern California, but he was sentenced to death for ordering the murders. He’d apparently hoped to use the killings to ignite a race war between blacks and whites.

Murdered on Aug. 9, 1969, were Tate — who was the wife of film director Roman Polanski — and their houseguests, Jay Sebring, a hairstylist; heiress Abigail Folger; writer Wojciech Frykowski and teenager Steven Parent. Leno and Rosemary LaBianca were killed the next day.

All the victims were brutally stabbed to death.

Also attributed to Manson and his followers was the July 25, 1969, death of Gary Hinman. Manson associate Bobby Beausoleil was convicted in connection with the crime. Manson was found guilty of Hinman’s death in a separate trial.

The death sentences imposed against Manson and members of his group were commuted to life sentences when California abolished the death penalty in 1972.

Speaking of his infamous followers, Manson said, “I live in the underworld. I don’t tell people what to do. They know what to do. If they don’t know what to do, they don’t come around me, because I’m very mean. I am very mean. You understand what I’m saying when I say mean?

“We’re told, everybody, that all things are bad. Bad is not good and good is not bad. Bad and good go together. You have to accept one to understand the other. You’ve got to accept yourself as God. You’ve got to realize you’re just the devil just as much as you’re God, that you’re everything and you’re nothing at all.”

In the middle of the interview, Manson began to ramble in Spanish.

“I’m very mal hombre, nasty,” he said, meaning “bad man.”

He added, “La mala hierba nunca muere,” a take on a Spanish phrase that translates as “a weed never dies,” which can be taken to mean that the devil looks after his own.

Asked by the reporter if Manson knew Spanish, Manson replied: “Muy poco, muy poco,” or “very little, very little.”

Manson said he learned Spanish from his fellow prisoners.
SPARKS, Nev. – A truck driver tried to stop his big rig before it slammed into the side of an Amtrak passenger car in the Nevada desert, killing him and at least five other people on the train and injuring about 20 others in the fiery crash, authorities said Saturday.

The Churchill County Sheriff's office said in a release late Saturday that officials were working to confirm the victim's identities and notify family members. Meanwhile, United Transportation Union said on its website that conductor Laurette Lee, 68, of South Lake Tahoe, Calif., was one of the victims.

More than two dozen other people were still unaccounted for, but Earl Weener of the National Transportation Safety Board called the figure "spongy" because some passengers may have gotten off the train before the crash or walked away from the scene without checking in with officials.

"This is not quite like you are used to when you get on an airplane. They record exactly who gets on, and what seat they sit in," he said. "On a train you can get off without necessarily being tracked."

He said he expected the number to decrease as the investigation continued.
Amtrak's California Zephyr was en route from Chicago to Emeryville, Calif., with some 200 passengers and 14 crew members when the accident happened late Friday morning about 300 miles east of its destination.

The semitrailer, which the NTSB said was owned by John Davis Trucking in Battle Mountain, plowed into the train about 70 miles east of Reno, sparking a fire that gutted two Amtrak cars and caused damages that hampered investigation efforts into Saturday, Nevada Highway Patrol Trooper Dan Lopez said.

NTSB spokeswoman Vernae Graham told the Reno Gazette-Journal that the train's second car, which is a dorm car for employees, and the third car, which was the first coach, had burst into flames.

"The fire weakened the structure of the cars and they could collapse," Lopez told The Associated Press earlier Saturday. "The safety of workers is a big thing, and we don't want to put someone else in an unsafe situation."
Lopez also said investigators at the scene about 70 miles east of Reno found skid marks at the railroad crossing on U.S. 95, indicating the driver tried to stop his semitrailer before Friday's crash,
About 20 people were injured and able to escape.

Sixteen National Transportation Safety Board investigators took over at the scene Saturday and are expected to take up to a year to pinpoint the cause of the crash.

Lopez said the investigation would focus on the truck driver, whose rig crashed through a crossing gate before plowing into the Amtrak car. A witness told authorities that the crossing gates and warning signals were working at the time.
"That's what everybody wants to know. Why did the truck collide with the train?" Lopez said. "Unfortunately, since he was pronounced dead, he's the only one who can tell us that prior to the investigation."
Following medical evaluations or treatment, most passengers continued their travel west on chartered buses or chose to make their own arrangements, Amtrak said in a news release.

Eugene Rheault of Manchester, N.H., was on a trip from Yellowstone National Park to San Francisco when the accident occurred.

"My wife and I were playing cards in the observation deck when there was a big bang and an explosion and an unbelievable amount of fire went by the window," Rheault told the Reno Gazette-Journal. "It scared the living daylights out of me."

Alex Graham, 18, of Fort Wayne, Ind., was reading a book while on a trip to the West Coast with his mother when the Amtrak was hit.

"And then a wall of fire went by the window," he said. "I could feel the heat instantly."
Passengers have provided conflicting accounts of which car was hit, ranging from the second to fourth car.
The collision was on a portion of tracks that cross U.S. 95 about three miles south of Interstate 80.
The driver was the only occupant of the semi, which was hauling two empty gravel trailers.

Gay marriage backers: NY vote has national impact

NEW YORKMany obstacles still lie ahead for supporters of same-sex marriage, and eventually they will need Congress or the Supreme Court to embrace their goal. For the moment, though, they are jubilantly channeling the lyrics of "New York, New York."

"Now that we've made it here, we'll make it everywhere," said prominent activist Evan Wolfson, who took up the cause of marriage equality as a law student three decades ago.

With a historic vote by its Legislature late Friday, New York became the sixth — and by far the most populous — state to legalize same-sex marriage since Massachusetts led the way, under court order, in 2004.

With the new law, which takes effect after 30 days, the number of Americans in same-sex marriage states more than doubles. New York's population of 19 million surpasses the combined total of Massachusetts, Connecticut, Vermont, New Hampshire and Iowa, plus the District of Columbia.

The outcome — a product of intensive lobbying by Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo — will have nationwide repercussions. Activists hope the New York vote will help convince judges and politicians across the country, including a hesitant President Barack Obama, that support of same-sex marriage is now a mainstream viewpoint and a winning political stance.
"New York sends the message that marriage equality across the country is a question of `when,' not `if,'" said Fred Sainz, a vice president of the Human Rights Campaign.

Wolfson, president of the advocacy group Freedom to Marry, said the goal is attainable by 2020, or sooner, "if we do the work and keep making the case."

The work — as envisioned by leading activists — is a three-pronged strategy unfolding at the state level, in dealings with Congress and the Obama administration, and in the courts where several challenges to the federal ban on gay marriage are pending.

"This will be a big boost to our efforts nationally," said Richard Socarides, a former Clinton White House adviser on gay rights. "It will help in the pending court cases to show that more states are adopting same-sex marriage, and it will help in the court of public opinion."

The New York bill cleared the Republican-controlled Senate by a 33-29 margin, thanks to crucial support from four GOP senators who joined all but one Democrat in voting yes. The Democratic-led Assembly, which previously approved the bill, passed the Senate's stronger religious exemptions in the measure, and Cuomo swiftly signed it into law.
Gay rights activists have been heaping praise on Cuomo for leading the push for the bill, seizing on an issue that many politicians of both parties have skirted. Yet the Senate vote marked the first time a Republican-controlled legislative chamber in any state has supported same-sex marriage, and several prominent Republican donors contributed to the lobbying campaign on behalf of the bill.

For those engaged in the marriage debate nationally, recent months have been a political rollercoaster.
Bills to legalize same-sex marriage failed in Maryland and Rhode Island despite gay rights activists' high hopes. However, Illinois, Hawaii and Delaware approved civil unions, joining five other states — California, Nevada, New Jersey, Oregon and Washington — that provide gay couples with extensive marriage-like rights.

Adding those eight states to the six that allow gay marriage, more than 35 percent of Americans now live in states where gay couples can effectively attain the rights and responsibilities of marriage. Just 11 years ago, no states offered such rights.
For now, gay couples cannot get married in 44 states, and 30 of them have taken the extra step of passing constitutional amendments banning gay marriage. Minnesota's Republican-controlled Legislature has placed such an amendment on the 2012 ballot.

Brian Brown, president of the conservative National Organization for Marriage, vowed to seek defeat of the New York Republicans who helped the marriage bill pass. He also predicted victory for the amendment to ban gay marriage next year in Minnesota, and said this would belie the claims that the same-sex marriage campaign would inevitably prevail nationwide.
"We've won every free, fair vote of the people," Brown said Saturday. "Backroom deals in Albany are not an indication of what people in this country think about marriage."

Efforts may surface in some states to repeal the existing marriage bans, but the prospect of dismantling all of them on a state-by-state basis is dim. In Mississippi, for example, a ban won support of 86 percent of the voters in 2004.
Thus, looking long term, gay marriage advocates see nationwide victory coming in one of two ways — either congressional legislation or a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that would require all states to recognize same-sex marriages.
"The way you do that is creating a critical mass of states and a critical mass of public opinion — some combination that will encourage Congress and the Supreme Court," Wolfson said. "By winning New York, we add tremendous energy to the national conversation that grows the majority."

Shorter term, gay rights activists and their allies in Congress would like to repeal the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act, which denies federal recognition to same-sex marriages. The act is being challenged in several court cases, and Obama ordered his administration in February to stop defending the law on the grounds it is unconstitutional.
Democrats in Congress have introduced a bill to repeal the law, while the Republican leadership in the House has pledged to defend it.
Obama, when elected, said he supported broadening rights for gay couples but opposed legalizing same-sex marriage. More recently, he has said his position is "evolving," and he asked gay activists at a New York City fundraiser Thursday for patience.

Nonetheless, frustrations are mounting. Freedom to Marry says more than 112,000 people have signed its "Say I Do" appeal to the president, and gay marriage supporters have launched an EvolveAlready campaign on Twitter.

"We hope that, through this public pressure, we'll be able to move the president to understand that he's falling behind the majority of Americans who see marriage equality as a key civil right," said Robin McGehee of the advocacy group GetEqual.

Several recent opinion polls — by Gallup and The Associated Press, among others — have shown that a majority of Americans now approve of same-sex marriage, which a decade ago lagged below 40 percent support. Particularly strong backing for gay marriage among young people, who've grown up watching gay friendly films and TV programs, has prompted many analysts across the political spectrum to suggest the trend is irreversible.

Some conservatives, however, say the opinion polls are belied in the voting booth and point to the steady stream of approvals of state-level bans on same-sex marriage.

"The opposition has created an illusion of momentum but not a real base of support or track record of victory in the courts," said Brian Raum, senior counsel with the conservative Alliance Defense Fund.

Mary Bonauto would disagree.
An attorney with Boston-based Gay and Lesbian Advocates and Defenders, she has spent two decades battling for legal recognition of same-sex relationships. She helped win the landmark court rulings that led to civil unions in Vermont in 2000 and same-sex marriage in Massachusetts in 2004.

Even in the 1990s, she recalled thinking the cause eventually would prevail nationwide.
"I could see attitudes change," she said. "Eventually we have to have one standard of justice in this country and establish that sexual orientation is not a basis for discrimination."

She recalled setbacks just a few years ago in New York — a 2006 Court of Appeals ruling that there was no constitutional right to same-sex marriage in the state, and the decisive defeat of a same-sex marriage bill in the state Senate in 2009.
"The switch this time tells us there's a lot of momentum pointing toward marriage equality," Bonauto said.
Vermont lawyer Beth Robinson, now counsel for Gov. Peter Shumlin, worked with Bonauto in the late 1990s on the case that led to the state's pioneering civil union law. She expects the move toward nationwide same-sex marriage will be bumpy but inexorable.

"As people get to know their gay and lesbian neighbors, friends and family, the notion of denying those families equal rights becomes untenable," she said. "For New York to go there, on a vote rather that a court order, is huge ... It's a victory not just for New York, but for the whole country."

Robinson said Vermont, which legalized same-sex marriage in 2009, offered a lesson to wary Americans in other states.
"It isn't that the sky isn't falling — it's more positive than that," she said. "Vermont is a better place for it. Each of us has the opportunity to be our best selves."

Among the New Yorkers who will now get that opportunity are Richard Dorr, 84, and John Mace, 91, who have been partners for 61 years while pursuing successful careers as voice teachers in Manhattan.
"We thought about getting married in Massachusetts, but it just didn't seem to jibe right," said Dorr. "It should be in the state where you live."

They plan to seek a marriage license as swiftly as possible but don't envision a lavish ceremony.
"Just a couple of witnesses and a justice of the peace," Dorr said.
When they fell in love, back in 1950, "marriage never crossed our mind," he added. "It was just that we had to be together. We could not stay away."
A very nice dermatologist called me about the small growth on my father’s ear, which he had biopsied. He left a phone message asking me to call him at home (over a holiday weekend! I liked this guy already). His message said that “more removal needs to be done.”

From our subsequent conversation:
Doc: It’s a benign growth. A nevus, a mole. But it’s irritated, and he seems to be picking at it. And irritation can turn it into something worse.

Me: How frequently does it happen that a benign mole becomes malignant? What are the odds?

Doc: Well, if the odds are one in 100 and you’re that one, then your odds are 100 percent.


(If the odds of a meteor landing on my head are one in 80 million, I think, and I’m the one, then my odds are 100 percent. But I don’t walk around wearing a hard hat.)
Me: Let me talk to my father about it and get back to you.

How can anyone make a rational decision without better information than that?

The dermatologist explained, as I probed a bit, that the risk of this small mole becoming cancerous was low, and the risks of the minor office procedure he was proposing were also low — the worse part, apparently, being the injection of local anesthesia. The excision would take a few weeks to heal. There weren’t big drawbacks to the procedure, he said, but also not much downside to doing nothing.

I talked to my father. Given that he is almost 89, we agreed that this sounded nonurgent. He’ll live with his mole for now.

But later I thought: Isn’t this why health care costs keep climbing?

Maybe you’ve had a similar health care experience when you felt that a doctor or hospital was steering an elderly parent toward a test or procedure that just didn’t seem necessary or advisable. If so, I’d like to hear about it. Please share your story below.

Confession: Oprah O.J. Simpson

Oprah's representatives moved quickly to quash rumors that the talk show queen is conducting an interview with O.J. Simpson in which he confesses to murder.

The rumor raced around the Internet after the Daily Mail picked up a National Enquirer report that Simpson will admit to killing his late wife Nicole in a jailhouse interview.

But representatives for Harpo, Oprah's company, flatly told the Hollywood Reporter, "that's not true."

However, it's no secret that Oprah has been pining to do exactly this kind of interview. During an appearance at a cable convention earlier this month, she said that her dream is to have Simpson confess to her.

"And I am going to make that happen people," she said. "I don't just want the interview. I want the interview on the condition that you are ready, Mr. Simpson."

Glen Campbell Diagnosed With Alzheimer's Disease

In an interview with PEOPLE magazine, due to hit newsstands on Friday, country singer Glen Campbell, 75, and his wife, Kim, reveal that he has Alzheimer’s disease.

He received the diagnosis six months ago and went public with it now because Campbell is scheduled to begin his farewell tour – in support of what he says will be his final album, Ghost on the Canvas, due August 30 – and the Campbells want people to be aware of Glen’s condition.

“Glen is still an awesome guitar player and singer,” Kim told PEOPLE. “But if he flubs a lyric or gets confused on stage, I wouldn’t want people to think, ‘What’s the matter with him? Is he drunk?’”

Campbell battled an addiction to alcohol for many years, but reports say he has been sober for years.

The country star, who is a professing Christian, has released more than 50 studio albums, has had multiple number one hits – including “Rhinestone Cowboy,” “Southern Nights” and “Wichita Lineman,” – won eight Grammy Awards and three Dove Awards, and was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2005.

During an interview in 1998, Campbell was asked, “Was your ultimate goal to become a recording, touring artist?” to which he responded, “Well, I don't really know. My ultimate goal is to follow the teachings of Jesus Christ, and then see God. That's my ultimate goal.”

Heaven was certainly on Campbell’s mind when he sang these words on a track called “A Better Place” on Ghost on the Canvas.

 I’ve tried and I have failed Lord
 I’ve won and I have lost
 I’ve lived and I have loved Lord
 Sometimes at such a cost
 One thing I know
 The world’s been good for me
 A better place awaits
 You’ll see


He’s anxious to go back out on tour for the final time.

“I still love making music,” Campbell told PEOPLE. “And I still love performing for my fans. I’d like to thank them for sticking with me through thick and thin.”
An earthquake with a 6.7 magnitude struck off the east coast of Japan, near Honshu, early Thursday morning.
The Japanese Meteorological Agency warned that a tsunami about one-half meter (20 inches) could follow, CNN is reporting.


The quake struck in many of the same areas that were hit hard by the March earthquake and tsunami that left more than 23,000 dead or missing in Japan, AFP reports.
There were no immediate reports of damage or injuries, according to CNN.
The U.S. Geological Survey just released this map showing the epicenter of the quake near Honshu:


NEW YORK - Young New Yorkers seeking public assistance are being directed away from GED programs by city workers, youth advocates claimed in a report released Wednesday, while the city agency responsible for public aid said its work-first approach is “the key to self-sufficiency.”
People under the age of 21 who are getting public cash assistance can satisfy their work requirement by enrolling in a GED program. But the Community Service Society advocacy group said in its report that some young people who want to pursue their degrees are instead pushed into workforce training programs. One-in-five city residents between the ages of 17 and 24 are not attending school and have no job, the report said.

The group conducted interviews with 100 young people who had previously applied for cash assistance or were in the process of applying.

Matthew Brune, executive deputy commissioner for the Human Resources Administration, said young people without high school degrees who aren’t already in a GED program are required to attend workforce training during the 30 days or so in which their aid applications are being processed. After that, he said, if they choose to do so they can enroll in a GED program — a choice the agency hopes they’ll make.

HRA spokeswoman Connie Ress argued that the report’s authors were seeking a return to old strategies that prior to the welfare overhaul of the 1990s had drawn some 1.2 million people onto the city’s rolls.

“A mandated education-first approach is not the most effective method to increase the income of low-income people with minimal work histories,” she said in a statement. “New York City has shown that a strong work-first approach, combined with education and training as needed, is the key to self-sufficiency.”

Still City Council Speaker Christine Quinn called on the agency to improve its system connecting youth to educational services.

“This report reveals the ways in which our system is failing to prepare our youth for whatever they choose to do,” she said in a statement.
Ousted Christian Dior designer John Galliano is expected to attend his trial for "public insults" in Paris on Wednesday. Following his alleged anti-Semitic tirade at a cafĂ© there in the winter, and getting fired from Dior, Galliano entered rehab, reportedly in Arizona. A source tells British Vogue Galliano is still in rehab: "The treatment will be long and arduous — and ongoing for a long time in the future — but he is humble, apologetic and hopeful that he can recover."

Since the trial is "minor," three judges will hear the case instead of a jury. The hearing is expected to last four to five hours, with witnesses from both sides testifying, probably including the couple that claims to be victims of Galliano's insulting remarks and has expressed sympathy for the designer following his downfall.

And the discussion of "how this could happen to John Galliano, of all designers" still has legs: Fashion writer Colin McDowell wondered in Sunday's London Times why Christian Dior didn't try to help Galliano sooner:
Galliano was the goose laying the golden eggs. Didn't anyone care enough for the future of Dior, and the unique position of couture, that his genius had helped to create, to try to help him out? Are we to believe that colleagues at all levels were too afraid to address the problem? Why was Galliano, vulnerable and drunk, possibly upset by some intractable design problem, allowed to wander Paris, alone, done up in a way that would immediately draw attention?

A source who worked under Galliano told McDowell, "He was put under impossible pressure, not only by the demands made by Dior, but also what he demanded of himself. John is a method designer, like a method actor. He doesn't just design a collection  he becomes the collection. He role-plays every part of it."

Wyatt the Rhodesian Ridgeback

Wyatt didn’t win Best of Breed at the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show in February, but he won an even more prestigious award, an American Canine Excellence (ACE) for being a top service dog.

At 2-years-old he is the youngest dog to win the award.

Wyatt and his owner Janice Wolfe work with hundreds of autistic and disabled children. Wolfe is the founder of Merlin’s Kids, a non-profit foundation that provides free therapy and service dogs to special needs kids.

Wolfe calls Wyatt “The Evaluator.” They go to the family home and observe how the child interacts with the dog.  By studying the interaction Wolfe determines whether the child  would benefit from having a therapy dog.

She says: "[Wyatt] is part dog, part Zen master and part healer…He understands children. It's the coolest thing. He's a natural."

Many children are frightened of him at first, but Wyatt waits calmly as they realize he is not a threat. Then Wolfe goes to shelters to find a dog to train specifically for the needs of the individual child.

In the past two years she has placed more than 60 rescued dogs as service, therapy and companion dogs, all free to families in need.

Wolfe lives with her husband, a retired police officer, in New Jersey. She donates her earnings as a dog trainer, human tutor and consultant to the cause.

“I call it saving two lives," she says. "A dog's life and a child's. I will basically go broke doing this because I love it. The effect these dogs have on these kids can’t possibly be measured in dollars.”

She is currently raising funds to build a camp where special needs kids and their families can stay to get help. She is also collaborating on a book with the remarkable autism advocate/author Temple Grandin about how dogs can help autistic children.

Winter Solstice

Is today for us in the southern hemisphere, which means that for our northern hemisphere friends it is the Summer Solstice - the longest day of the year.  For Vikings today is a:

Celebration of the Summer Solstice, when the power of the Sun is at its height.  It was at this time that most foreign trade was conducted, as well as shipping, fishing expeditions, and raiding.  Thus, Midsummer was the festival of power and activity.

Happy Summer Solstice

The summer solstice shouldn't come as a surprise. It arrives at pretty much the same time every year. But some of the little-known facts behind and surrounding the solstice are fascinating. First, the basics:
Summer in the Northern Hemisphere will officially arrive on Tuesday at 1:16 p.m. EDT: the June solstice.  At the same time, winter officially begins for the Southern Hemisphere.
PHILADELPHIA – Police say "Jackass" cast member Ryan Dunn has died of injuries sustained in a car crash in suburban Philadelphia.

West Goshen Township police say Dunn and a passenger in his 2007 Porsche died early Monday after the car left the roadway and burst into flames. The crash occurred near the Philadelphia suburb of West Chester.

Happy Father's Day

In 2011, if you know for sure who your daddy is, you're apparently ahead of the game. This can be especially challenging if your mom hangs out with or near, politicians. Then, your suspicion must be confirmed through DNA tests, TMZ reporters and guessing who you look like. And not usually in that order. 
Some coffee shops coffee bag and put them to customers. But, as a reader, Mike Ryan of Damascus has stressed, is a dubious proposition. Ryan mentioned, for a regular supply of Coffee Shops manager of a local Albertsons Tully to ensure

By Madeline Novey With the price of coffee on the rise, local coffee shops don't want their caffeine-driven customers to pay a penny more for their daily sustenance — but it looks to be an unavoidable reality. A combination of bad weather in
PERUGIA, Italy — A convicted child murderer testified Saturday at the appeals trial for Amanda Knox, saying that a fellow inmate had told him the American student had nothing to do with her British roommate's slaying.

Witness Mario Alessi, who is serving a life sentence for one of Italy's most shocking crimes, the kidnap-murder of an Italian toddler snatched from his home, was called by defense lawyers. His credibility was soon challenged in court.
GUATIRE, Venezuela (AP) - Thousands of National Guard troops stormed a Venezuelan prison Friday seeking to disarm inmates days after a bloody riot, setting off gunfights with resisting inmates that left at least two soldiers dead and 18 wounded.

Bursts of gunfire erupted inside the El Rodeo I prison while hundreds of inmates' relatives wept desperately outside, some of them shouting, "Help them!"