Rhode Island Civil Unions. Is the Good the Enemy of the Perfect?

Rhode Island will have civil unions, but marriage advocates are not celebrating. They see this as a "less than" approach, an untenable compromise, and they are right.
 
Office-holders are touting this as "incremental progress" that will lead to a later, better outcome. They may be right, too.

I say, in classic "Let's Make a Deal" fashion, "Take the Civil Unions." Nothing is nothing, and if this doesn't go through, any marriage bill is likely to collect dust on the shelf. Not good enough? Certainly. Progress? Yes.

Gay Marriage in New York: Dates to Know and Where to Go.

July 5th is the first date that you can obtain a marriage license. The City Clerk's office has the details of what to do to get one. We hear they've been running the presses to get gender-neutral language copies printed, whatever those might look like. I don't think they will be available in colors or anything. Note that the license requires a wait of 24 hours afterward for the actual marriage ceremony, and it is only good for sixty days, unless you are in the military (in which case, DADT has not been implemented, so you can't actually invoke that provision without another kind of headache). Marriage itself becomes legal on July 24th, 2011, 30 days after the signing of the bill by Gov. Cuomo.

That's why, perhaps, you should look into scheduling the actual ceremony to fall within that scope. You can line up for a marriage ceremony at the same office of the City Clerk. No reservations are required or accepted. There are fees that seem to add up to about $60, but please read any details for yourself.

There's also a fun option I heard about. The Pop-up Chapel, which will do weddings for free, with some trimmings, in Central Park. It looks like it's only serving cupcakes during the first weekend after marriage becomes legal. Read up on this option, since I have no idea whether this will be slammed with couples who heard about it on twitter.

Do whatever you like, where gay marriage is concerned, whenever you want to, but do some research first. Rushing into these things is for drunken celebs in Vegas!

Half a Billion Dollars "Tainted" in CityTime Scandal

I'm surprised the press hasn't linked the CityTime scandal to the massive cutbacks. Or maybe not so surprised:

 Reddy Allen and Dr Padma Allen have been indicted on federal fraud and kickback charges in relation to the scandals surrounding Mayor Michael Bloomberg administration's CityTime project to modernise the municipal payroll system.

A grand jury said on Monday that more than $600 million of the project's bloated budget is "tainted" by fraud. The couple secured a lucrative, no-bid subcontract for the CityTime that made it look like their firm, TechnoDyne, was "a successful and fast-growing company," the New York Post
reported.

Gee, another "no-bid" contract. How did that happen? Anyone know?

Gov. Cuomo's Marriage Equality Speech.

 

A stunning, moving speech by Governor Cuomo, setting the marriage equality victory in the context of history.

Worth ten minutes of your time.

In New York, Marriage Has Always Been a Function of the State. Period.

Even in early Euro-American history, marriage was regarded as a state function. Churches, even official ones, married couples, but only under the laws of whatever colony it was. Other officials were also allowed to marry people.

No one could just go around marrying people without recognition by law, and that is true to this day.

I know of at least one case where a very minor official tried doing it. It was beyond his office and he was immediately up on charges. The marriage was also considered null and void.

Nontraditional forms of other-sex marriage also had to gain approval over time.

At least in this country, marriage has always been a function of the state to define by its own rules. Anyone pretending otherwise is lying to you.

Sheldon Silver Gives Away the Store on Rent Regs.

He seriously sent me an email touting this gawdawful deal on rent regs.

I wrote him back that it had to be some sort of joke. 2500 is the threshold or 200K income? Not indexed?

I told him the message to anyone who works for him was that they should move. Maybe he'll be able to get recent immigrants sleeping in shifts to staff his office.

Democrats... NOW FIVE PER CENT BETTER THAN REPUBLICANS!

New Music Venue on Ave. A?

Not so fast.

Disclosure. I got a letter to go down to the meeting and speak in support. I'm not at all against having a new serious music venue for alternative performance, since we've lost so many. I really did not know enough about the plans to show up in support. Having that over a sports bar? Sure.

There's so much nonsense coming from the opposition to all bars in the neighborhood that denies the reality of what's happening here. Building owners charge so much that the only businesses that can make enough are bars. People can't stand the noise on the weekends from all these bars, but when they are denied a license, absolutely nothing ever fills the empty space. (Although this particular case is quite different.)

Why are the owners never mentioned or engaged in a solution to the broader issue at hand?

Calgary Zoo's Blatant Animal Exploitation Is Fun!

Yeah, I know. Post anything entertaining about an animal, and draw the wrath of somebody, but the breakdancing gorilla is dumb and fun.

NY Airport Geese to Be Cooked and Given Away

Not a bad idea. But isn't this fowl socialism?

Republicans, Catholic Church Still Blocking Gay Marriage in New York

photo Roger D in NYC. Gov.'s office detail.

The Times seems to think it will turn around, saying Gov. Cuomo is sounding confident.

I'm thinking that the Republicans went from 'this is a vote of conscience,' to, 'OMG, some gay people will try to rent out St. Pat's Cathedral.' The Senate majority is stuck in a dilemma: Let the bill go forward and the far right will blame the whole R delegation, regardless of the lack of a called party-line vote. Stop the bill, and several Senators in downstate districts are in jeopardy of losing their seats and tipping the majority away.

The Republicans seemed to have it in hand last week, but then big bad Bishop Dolan chimed in with Medieval-style bombast, threatening to rend his garments and call down clouds of locusts.

To wit:

Please, not here!  We cherish true freedom, not as the license to do whatever we want, but the liberty to do what we ought; we acknowledge that not every desire, urge, want, or chic cause is automatically a "right." And, what about other rights, like that of a child to be raised in a family with a mom and a dad?

The Church is always a factor, but the bigoted shrieks have been deafening this week. After what this RICO-worthy institution has gotten away with? Who is Dolan fooling? No one around here. He could have just said: "It's a free country for the right people who do things our way."

Meanwhile, liberty waits for a reply.

Please! Here!

UN Human Rights Council Passes GLBT Rights Resolution

UN Human Rights Council passes gay rights resolution. Via CNN:

Suzanne Nossel, deputy assistant secretary of state for international organizations, told CNN, "It really is a key part in setting a new norm that gay rights are human rights and that that has to be accepted globally."

"It talks about the violence and discrimination that people of LGBT persuasion experience around the world," she said, "and that those issues ... need to be taken seriously. It calls for reporting on what's going on, where people are being discriminated against, the violence that is taking place, and it really puts the issue squarely on the U.N.'s agenda going forward."

Thanks for that, but it took long enough. I don't know if the entire General Assembly would pass something like this, but this at least requires reporting, so it's a step forward. It doesn't immediately change anything but perception, but that's a start.

Greenspan Emerges From Crypt to Utter a Curse Upon Us All

He's decided that the Greeks will default, after which everything else tanks. Even if such a scenario plays out, he knows full well that people take what he says as truth, and act accordingly. Can't he stop himself?

Then in the next interview he'll champion the virtues of no regulations on anything.

Can this man be shipped to St. Helena at long last?

Is Newt His Own Favorite Charity Case?

Looks like he may have funneled money from his "charity" to his for profit businesses.

ABC relates:

The charity, Renewing American Leadership, not only featured Gingrich on its website and in fundraising letters, it also paid $220,000 over two years to one of Gingrich's for-profit companies, Gingrich Communications. It purchased cases of Gingrich's books and bought up copies of DVDs produced by another of the former House speaker's entities, Gingrich Productions.

Renew that leadership with bales of cash, Newt. There's more heinous behavior of the kind in the article, including fundraising letters on his own stationery chopping up a quote from Pres. O. to state that ours is not a Christian nation. (Famous quote, very stirring, adding and including others, just like the founders expressly stated that they wanted.)

I ask you, Who would Jesus bilk?

Newt can also be found in many gardenscapes.

Percolating Now: Nasty Antigay Firing at a Starbucks in Long Island

There has been a huge dust-up in L.I., which has poured through the innertubes, over the nasty evil firing of a gay Starbucks employee in front of people, basically for being gay. The blogger became an instrument of change. She walked out of the shop to console the guy, and then described the scene via a letter to the company.

Seattle TV then covers it. Facebook protest ensues. Starbucks is on the defensive.

The blogger was courageous in standing up and speaking up, the only actions that begin to stop bullying and bigotry. Cowards depend on the silence of the crowd.

Robert Reich is Right, Again!

He asks, "Doesn't the White House get it?" Short answer: No. Long answer: Yes, but we can't do any of that.

Worse still, but most likely answer: Yes, and we can do some, most, or all of that for growth and job creation, but we don't want to go through the bother, and please stop asking for anything, you awful rabble who voted us in.

In Albany, a Day of Lobbying and Action for Stronger Rent Laws in NYS

The Local from the Times gives this story by Khristopher J. Brooks: "Locals Join Albany Rent Law Protests."

Good story, captures the essence of what's going on in this battle. The Assembly passed a decent bill, the Senate is pushing back with a tepid renewal of the weak law in place.

I took some pics and vids of my own.

photos: Roger D in NYC

The NONMIRACLE on the Hudson

Okay. I have to say it. A brilliant pilot landed a plane on the water. I saw the video. There were no angels waving him in. He did it. The plane is not made of magic nanoparticles, and it could not even survive a couple of geese vacuumed into its engines.

The incident does nothing to prove or disprove the existence of invisible beings. Stop trying to fit it into the wrong framework. Did angels also hurl the Canada geese into the jets in order to knock the plane down in the first place?

Newt's Entire Senior Staff Resigns

A summary courtesy of theatlanticwire.com (quoting a.p. and politico):

Just a day after he returned from vacation--and only a month into his presidential campaign--Newt Gingrich's senior staff has resigned "en masse," the Associated Press reports. Politico's Jonathan Martin says Rob Johnson, Sam Dawson, Dave Carney, Katon Dawson, and Craig Schoenfeld have all quit the campaign.

The Associated Press' David Espo says the resignations--which include staff in early voting states South Carolina, Iowa, and New Hampshire--leaves Gingrich's "hopes of winning the Republican nomination in tatters." Nevertheless, "Gingrich told the group he intends to stay in the race, they added."

Gee, wonder what made them all walk at once. Seems like a concerted effort, waiting until his cruise of the Greek isles docked. I think the major media tale about the cruise is rather soggy and squishy. The story runs something like Tiffany credit line payoff plus luxury cruise foils his "common man" image plan for the campaign. See my last post on this stuff.

Who on earth ever thought that Newt was a man-of-the-people, salt-of-the-earth type? In what universe? Right, the same one where he's a Washington outsider. Too much spin. I am dizzy. Isn't there a sex scandal we should be paying attention to somewhere?

So, the staff was angry that Newt wouldn't live in the fantasy world they were dreaming up for him, but preferred his own fantasy world? Come on! Who's fooling who? My intuition tells me there's more to it. Maybe even, gasp!, shirtless pics. I'm saddened, and wish he'd stick around, just to keep things interesting as we watch him turn beet red at each embarrassing event.

I'm waiting for someone to spill before I believe any of these yarns being spun on any side. In the mean time, have a good chuckle as the good ship Newt now circles the drain.

The Highline, Now Even Longer!

Curbed shows off the new Phase II of the Highline. The extension doubles the length of the unique urban park.

The park allows above-the-fray views that take in the west side and the Hudson. Enjoy.

From Discovery News: "Puzzle of the Week! Uranus Gas Mining"

I'm not making this up. That's what it says, right there on the page!

Insert your own, ahem, jokes here.

White Kiwi Chick. (Not a new movie.)

A rare white kiwi chick was born in N.Z., and it's adorable! Go look at it now. (Click the pic for a video.)

Mortgage Crisis, part 2. Securities based on dark matter.

Naked Capitalism collects the story well.

According to court testimony, it looks like a lot of notes did not get properly transferred into the securities, meaning many of those instruments were, perhaps, based on nothing. Let's call these things dark matter securities. That would mean that there's literally no there there, and the investors who bought pieces of these heaps of nothing now hold less than nothing, if I follow rightly.

Of course, some of those holders would have to enter the fray and find proof in their cases. Gov't looks like it's trying to frame a "settlement" that waves a magic wand over it all.

But what of the government resale of all this nonstuff? The repackaging of dark matter with a bow on it? Could be the biggest cover-up in history in progress. Nobody look behind the curtain, and somebody call the fabric store!

Newt by popular demand. All blinged out.

So now we know that Newt's wife had a big post at the committee overseeing MINING. And MINING leads to JEWELRY. And Tiffany sells JEWELRY. And Newt had a no-interest line of credit for thousands upon thousands, reportedly half a mil. This story has been circling the drain lately, but it seems that the pipes are starting to back up.

Tiffany's denial rings of tin rather than silver.

I'm sure Justice will get right on this, after the Edwards indictment.

(Link to Salon. Thanks to S.F. for the tip.)

John Edwards indicted.

Red hot details here.

Apparently, a plea deal fell through. There was alleged money shipped in chocolate boxes, and other sketchy behavior, according to the story.  What I don't get was why it cost hundreds of thousands to play hide the mistress. Couldn't they have just bought her a wig, oversized sunglasses, a big floppy hat, sweatpants, and stashed her in a series of moderately priced, but decent, traveler's hotel?

With all the sameness of American strips, anonymity seems much more easily done. I guess a candidate's mistress gets her hideouts gold-plated.