Colin Powell's UN presentation slide showing alleged mobile production facility for biological weapons. (Subequently shown to be an incorrect allegation.) (Image and description from Wikipedia)

“WHAT WE’RE GIVING YOU ARE FACTS AND CONCLUSIONS BASED ON SOLID INTELLIGENCE.”

(Global Research)

These ominous words—uttered by Secretary of State Colin Powell before the UN Security Council and dutifully trumpeted by a compliant media in the run-up to invasion of Iraq in 2003—are being surfed today in another journey on a war path; this time with Iran. Then it was aerial intelligence (solid) of nuclear implacements in Iraq and “mobile laboratories” for nuclear weapons development.  Now it is computerized drawings of what purport to be blueprints for Iranian nuclear weapons.  The content is different; the result is likely to be the same.  As a member of the British cabinet said (Downing Street Memos) that “facts and conclusions” about Iraqi development of mass destruction were being “fixed” to justify a “policy” of invasion of that country; so “solid intelligence” from unnamed sources is now being used to justify another military operation just ahead of a meeting next week in Baghdad between key western and Arab League powers to determine a course of action to deal with the Iranian “threat.”

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WHEN IS A KURDISH MILITANT A GOOD PERSON?  WHEN (S)HE IS A KURDISH OPPONENT OF THE REGIME IN SYRIA—NOT A KURDISH OPPONENT OF THE ONE IN TURKEY

(World Socialist)

The U.S. continues to provide military asssitance to Turkey  in putting down its Kurdish insurgency.   Now—according to an officially “sourced” article in the Washington Post—the U.S. seems to be moving to helping open upon another military “front” for the opposition in Syria that includes a signficant component of Kurdish resistance.

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SHOULD POLICE OFFICERS BE ALLOWED TO APPEAR IN COURT IN UNIFORM AS SPECTATORS WHEN A FELLOW OFFICER IS ON TRIAL

(Houston Chronicle)

This comes up in Houston in a case involving alleged excessive use of force by police officers.  The chief of HPD may forbid the practice–as some see it as “intimidating” jurors in favor of officers being tried.  Head of HPD union scoffs at this; says that police are there to “support the families” of defendants not to intimidate the jurors. The jury is still out on this one.

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HOW DO YOU RE-CREATE A STREET IN DOWNTOWN NIAGARA FALLS AS THE “GREENEST STREET IN WESTERN NEW YORK?”

(Buffalo News)

Well of course you tear down the “famed” downtown arboretum (the Wintergarden) and replace it with a street with limestone green benches and lots of native plants and schedule a summer long series of concerts and other “events” that will make the dying city look like New Orleans at Mardi Gras.  It’s a matter of attracting those “tourists” who may have been kept away from that “other Niagara Falls”—the smelly industrial plants on the “other side” of town.

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TAMPA GETTING READY FOR “BIG DOINGS” IN AUGUST: THE REPUBLICAN NATIONAL CONVENTION.

(Tallahassee Democrat)

The state party itself is “punished” for violations of party rules about the scheduling of its primaries and its delegates “banished” to hotels in outlying cities.  Still the late August event will bring 4400 delegates and alternates to the area along with 15000 “credentialed” media reporters.  A Tampa blogger does the math about the delegates and the press and suggests that the latter maintain a “man-on-man” strategy of assigning four reporters to “cover” each delegate.

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Quote of the day…

Conditions for the average Egyptian have become worse – economically, socially and in terms of security – than they were before the revolution.

Egyptian analyst Ammar Ali Hassan on conditions in the country 15 months after Tahir Square uprising that deposed Hosni Mubarak.

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A “LAKE SIDE SETTLEMENT” IN AFRICA HAS “MOVED” 22 KILOMETERS FROM THE BANKS OF THE CONTINENT’S LARGEST WATER RESERVOIR.

(Africa News)

Lake Chad in Nigeria and Chad continues to dry up at an alarming pace.  The extended drought put the lives of 30 million people in the Sahel region at risk and precipitates an intense struggle between neighboring countries for access to the dwindling water supply.

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MEXICAN DRUG WAR—WHAT MEXICAN DRUG WAR?

(USA Today)

As a presidential campaign proceeds in the country the candidates to succeed Felix Calderon are notably “mute” even as a recent massacre of  at the Texas border with 49 decapitated bodies punctuates the intensity of that war.  The silence of the candidates seems a product of the fact that none of them have any clue to what to do about the matter.  As well the country’s newspapers have almost stopped reporting drug-related deaths as news since they are so much a part of the daily routine of the country.

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FORGET THE FRIGGIN’ BELUGA WHALE.  STATE OF ALASKA RAKES IN $6.8 MILLION IN REVENUE BY LEASING MORE LAND FOR OIL EXPLORATION IN COOK INLET.

(Anchorage Daily News)

Environmentalists have for years protested oil development in the area on issues that range from air pollution to noise pollution from seismic testing that damages the local whale population.   The state is undaunted by these protests as it moves to lease out the few pockets of land in the area that had yet to be exploited.

PROTESTS:

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IS THIS POSSIBLE? THE NATIONAL ORGANIZATION FOR WOMEN OPPOSES PASSAGE OF THE VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN ACT?

(McClatchy)

This unlikely situation has come to pass as the Republican-majority House barely passes a version of VAWA that is significantly weaker than the Senate version of same in that it excludes special protection from violence against gays and immigrants and native Americans.  Other civil rights groups oppose the legislation for the same reason and the “threat” of a presidential veto is being mentioned.

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MANY LIS PENDENS FORECLOSURE CASES IN SOUTWEST FLORIDA AREN’T “PENDING” ANY MORE AS PACE OF FORECLURE FILINGS PICKS UP IN THE AREA.

(Sarasota Herald Tribune)

The ”improvement” in reduction of extremely high rates of mortgage foreclosure in Sarasota and Charlotte counties was seemingly an artifact of the temporary suspension of such proceedings in light of the “robo-signing” scandal and other irregularities that disrupted proceedings by putting them in “law suit pending” status.  Now banks are apparently re-filing suspended foreclosure suit producing a huge upturn in the number of active foreclosure cases in these counties.

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Quote of the day…

The president’s announcement satisfied a constituency that was mostly his already, and that makes significant campaign contributions as well. Some of his other supporters might grumble, but none of them will bolt. So politically, it was a no-risk, no-lose proposition, and it gives staunch Obamaphiles still another halo, this one in rainbow colors, to hang on the head of their shining black prince.

So while the president’s announcement in favor of gay marriage really IS a good thing, it doesn’t make him a fearless warrior for human rights any more than his tainted Nobel Peace Prize made him Martin Luther King. After all, Henry Kissinger  and F.W. DeKlerk have those too

Bruce A. Dixon on President Obama’s endorsement of same-sex marriage.

Jamie Dimon, JP Morgan Chase CEO (AP photo)

The darkest and most frightening echoes of the 2008 financial crisis that rocked the global economy were stirred over the past week as mega-bank JP Morgan Chase broke the news of a stunning $2 billion loss in a trading debacle similar to the kind that conspired to wreak the American economy only three-and-a-half years ago.

JP Morgan — depending on how their assets are counted, either the largest or second-largest bank in the world — and its CEO Jamie Dimon reported the details of the bank’s “flawed” strategy of making risky bets on derivatives through its “Chief Investment Office,” bets that turned sour and generated an instant loss of $2 billion in bank capital.

CEO Dimon was forced to apologize for the embarrassment and explain how the nation’s largest bank that received significant public bailout funds to survive the last financial catastrophe could have engaged in risky actions nearly identical to those that sent Wall Street off a cliff in 2008.

 A massive trading bet boomeranged on J.P. Morgan Chase JPM +0.19% & Co., leaving the bank with at least $2 billion in trading losses and its chief executive, James Dimon, with a rare black eye following a long run as what some called the “King of Wall Street.

The losses stemmed from wagers gone wrong in the bank’s Chief Investment Office, which manages risk for the New York company. The Wall Street Journal reported early last month that large positions taken in that office by a trader nicknamed “the London whale” had roiled a sector of the debt markets.

The bank, betting on a continued economic recovery with a complex web of trades tied to the values of corporate bonds, was hit hard when prices moved against it starting last month, causing losses in many of its derivatives positions. The losses occurred while J.P. Morgan tried to scale back that trade.

The bank’s strategy was “flawed, complex, poorly reviewed, poorly executed and poorly monitored,” Mr. Dimon said Thursday in a hastily arranged conference call with analysts and investors after the stock-market close. He called the mistake “egregious, self-inflicted,” and said: “We will admit it, we will fix it and move on,” he said.

But despite the attempt to move attention away from his institution’s black-eye with a “nothing to see-here” mentality, the JP Morgan scandal won’t be disappearing from view anytime soon thanks to the incident spurring  renewed debate over Wall Street greed, taxpayer bailouts, and how tough government banking regulations ought to be.

Amping up the public tension over Dimon’s losses is the fact that JP Morgan received some of the highest totals of taxpayer money during the bank bailouts of 2008 and 2009. JP Morgan was given nearly $100 billion in bailout funds over the course of the TARP program, including money to purchase failing  Bear Stearns, and generated controversy by propping up its balance sheets through counting bailout cash as “profits.”

How could the nation’s largest bank lose $2 billion almost overnight? It was no accident. Only months after the financial crisis that led to JP Morgan’s massive infusion of taxpayer cash, Jamie Dimon and the bank were extensively lobbying Congress and the Obama administration to carve out specific loopholes in the new financial regulation legislation that was a response to 2008′s catastrophe.

Possessing deep ties in Washington and the most aggressive lobbying operation in the financial industry, JP Morgan  was quickly able to win concessions from lawmakers and the White House on gaping exemptions to the “Volcker Rule” that enabled the bank to carry out the risky bets in derivatives that eventually led to the $2 billion loss that has rocked the bank.

Financial experts and lawmakers immediately sounded warning signals about a trading loophole “big enough loophole that a Mack truck could drive right through it.”

Soon after lawmakers finished work on the nation’s new financial regulatory law, a team of JPMorgan Chase lobbyists descended on Washington. Their goal was to obtain special breaks that would allow banks to make big bets in their portfolios, including some of the types of trading that led to the $2 billion loss now rocking the bank. 

Several visits over months by the bank’s well-connected chief executive, Jamie Dimon, and his top aides were aimed at persuading regulators to create a loophole in the law, known as the Volcker Rule. The rule was designed by Congress to limit the very kind of proprietary trading that JPMorgan was seeking.

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 JPMorgan wasn’t the only large institution making a special plea, but it stood out because of Mr. Dimon’s prominence as a skilled Washington operator and because of his bank’s nearly unblemished record during the financial crisis.

“JPMorgan was the one that made the strongest arguments to allow hedging, and specifically to allow this type of portfolio hedging,” said a former Treasury official who was present during the Dodd-Frank debates.

Those efforts produced “a big enough loophole that a Mack truck could drive right through it,” Senator Carl Levin, the Michigan Democrat who co-wrote the legislation that led to the Volcker Rule, said Friday after the disclosure of the JPMorgan loss. 

Adding to the risk at JP Morgan was the unusual setup at the banking unit responsible for the huge trading loss. Despite repeated warnings from regulators and officials with the bank in charge of risk management, CEO Dimon allowed the “Chief Investment Office” to operate with virtually no oversight and report directly to him, an odd practice heavily criticized by experts.

JP Morgan and Dimon are now engaged in extensive damage control, seeking to mitigate the burgeoning stain upon the bank’s reputation and public image. That will be difficult given the questionable actions and comments from the bank and its CEO before and after the trading scandal surfaced.

Despite the fallout from the $2 billion loss incurred by the bank’s special investment arm yet to settle, JP Morgan executives have not yet decided whether they will seek to recoup the extensive bonuses and other compensation paid out to the officials responsible for the failed bet. While the bank may be reluctant to do so, pressure from the public, regulators and shareholders make it likely that the bank will have to initiate a “clawback” program to take back bonus money.

Also complicating the situation and adding to the damage done to JP Morgan’s public image is the history of CEO Jamie Dimon. Respected by fellow Wall Street executives and insiders, Dimon is known for many controversial statements and his impeccable  connections to leaders in Washington and on Capitol Hill.

Among the many tone deaf executives seeking to stem the public support for the “Occupy Wall Street” movement, Dimon rankled many earlier this month when he took a shot at “Occupy” and complained that Wall Street was facing “discrimination” in the wake of growing public anger at corporations and financial companies over the hundreds of billions of dollars they have received in tax cuts and bailouts.

Asked about the Occupy Wall Street movement against financial greed and economic inequality, Dimon acknowledged that the protesters have some “legitimate complaints.” He argued, however, that it’s unfair to paint all institutions with one brush: “It was everyone guilty. That’s another form of discrimination.”

He expressed optimism about his industry: “Investment banking is going to have a bright future. [...] It will always be a highly paid industry.”

“When things go wrong, finance gets blamed,” just like blaming speculators for high oil prices, Dimon said. The remark was an apparent reference to President Barack Obama’s recent call for new measures to prevent manipulation of oil markets.

And while he received $100 billion in government bailout money on behalf of JP Morgan, Dimon has publicly endorsed European-style austerity for the United States in the form of the Bowles-Simpson proposal, a plan that  offers massive cuts in government spending and would eliminate many safety net programs that working Americans rely upon.

Dimon is also a significant player in American politics, culturing especially close ties with President Obama and the president’s top aides. The JP Morgan CEO has been called Obama’s “favorite banker” and has been one of the president’s most frequent visitors to the White House, making nearly 20 trips since  Obama took office.

Jamie Dimon was once the silver-haired hero of Wall Street, scooping up failing banks during the worst of the financial crisis and avoiding the kind of toxic mortgage bonds that sent competitors into bankruptcy and pushed the American economy to the brink.

He was also one of President Barack Obama’s most prominent Wall Street friends, a rare high-profile Democrat in an industry dominated by low-tax, free-market Republicans. Dimon spent several years in Obama’s hometown of Chicago, where he ran Bank One after a nasty breakup with his one-time mentor. He got to know Rahm Emanuel. He hired Bill Daley as a top executive before Daley became Obama’s second chief of staff. He gave hundreds of thousands of dollars in contributions to Democrats.

 Obama returned all the love, at least at first. Dimon made at least 16 trips to the White House and met at least three times with Obama — a bond that allowed the president to appear business-friendly. The New York Times in 2009 called Dimon Obama’s “favorite banker.”

The president has stood by his pal in high finance, downplaying Dimon’s role in the $2 billion mess and still calling the JP Morgan head “one of the smartest bankers we’ve got.” The president failed to detail what level of investment losses would be incurred by the nation’s “dumbest” bankers.

The president’s interview with “The View” taped Monday reflects that struggle. JPMorgan “is one of the best-managed banks there is” and Dimon “is one of the smartest bankers we’ve got,” Obama said in the interview that aired Tuesday — the same day Dimon faced shareholders at JPMorgan’s annual meeting in Florida and hung onto his chairman of the board title during the biggest challenge of his tenure.

The most important element to emerge from the JP Moirgan scandal is a more robust debate over the effectiveness of government financial regulations, supposedly strengthened with the implementation of the Dodd-Frank legislation, a program touted by the administration as its signature regulatory achievement and reviled by conservatives and corporate America as stagnating government overreach.

Both descriptions of Dodd-Frank verge on the absurd, as the new law makes a mockery of the term “regulation” with such gaping loopholes as the one lobbied for by JP Morgan that eventually authored what could be its own demise.

The JP Morgan shock is clear indication that Dodd-Frank and other timid efforts by the Obama administration — fought every step by conservative lawmakers and corporate America — has done nothing to eradicate the looming threat of “too big to fail” that did so much damage not even four years ago.

But even the worthless safeguards imposed by Dodd-Frank are too much for Republicans and some Democrats in Congress, well-oiled machines groomed by corporate lobbyists eager to squeeze as many favors out of Capitol Hill as possible.

Even as the $2 billion stunner from JP Morgan was being uncovered, House Republicans were prepared to vote on legislation that would completely gut the derivatives regulations that eventually stopped JP Morgan’s risky bets once the damage had already been done. In the wake of public rage at the banks, the GOP quietly shelved their proposed vote, although not before some lawmakers dismissed the uproar over the JP Morgan incident due to the public’s “tendency to overreact.” .

 It might not be the best week to vote for less financial regulation.

Republican lawmakers put off a vote Tuesday on a set of bills that would curtail derivatives regulations, after J.P. Morgan Chase’s announcement of a $2 billion trading loss was widely seen as bolstering the argument for stricter oversight of Wall Street.

The steep trading loss on complex derivatives seemed to quiet the “banks know best” argument that critics have been making in Washington against the 2010 Dodd-Frank regulatory overhaul that mandated greater oversight of the type of trades J.P. Morgan lost money on.

Lobbyists and Capitol Hill aides predicted the news of the trading loss would have a chilling effect on efforts to roll back Dodd-Frank, at least in the short-term.

The House Agriculture Committee Chairman said he was postponing a Thursday meeting to consider three regulatory bills to “ensure there are no unintended consequences of the legislation.”

Committee Chairman Frank Lucas (R., Okla.) said the legislation the committee was set to consider had nothing to do with the trading loss at J.P. Morgan.

“As always, Washington has a tendency to overreact,” Mr. Lucas said in a statement.

The "Qube," a miniature remote-controlled helicopter that could see more use after the FAA's approval of heavier drones.

WHAT’S THAT IN THE SKY? A BIRD? A PLANE? “NOPE, JUST OUR LOCAL POLICE DEPARTMENT’S 25-POUND DRONE…”

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AUSTERITY BLOWBACK WRACKS SPAIN: “WE ALL HAVE TO MAKE SACRIFICES, BUT THIS IS GOING TOO FAR.”

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DREAMING OF A HAWAIIAN BEACH VACATION? THANKS TO CLIMATE CHANGE, YOU HAD BETTER ACT FAST…

(New York Times)

Scientists and government experts are sounding a warning of the impending loss of much of the world-famous sandy beaches that ring the Hawaiian islands. Research shows that rapidly rising sea levels — tied to man-made climate change — and counterproductive beach re-nourishment programs are having a devastating effect on Hawaii’s remaining beaches. From the most remote strip of sand to the main beach at Waikiki, the island chain’s beaches are facing a “serious problem.” At least 14 miles of beaches along Hawaii’s three largest islands have already vanished over the past century. And scientists predict the pace of beach loss will quicken as sea levels rise and development increases. The disappearing sand poses a grave threat to the economy of a state whose prosperity has ben built mostly through its allure as a tourist getaway known for its world-class beaches.

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KANSAS’ ANTI-ABORTION CRUSADE COMES TO THE DRUG STORE: ‘WOULD YOU LIKE SOME REPRESSION WITH YOUR PRESCRIPTION, MA’AM?’ 

World leaders attending the G8 Summit meeting at Camp David. (Illustration by DokeyHotey -- Flickr)

FIGHT AT THE SUMMIT: IN THIS CORNER ANGELA MERKEL; THE DARK ANGEL OF DRACONIAN AUSTERITY MEASURES—IN THE RED TRUNKS  FRANCOIS HOLLANDE; THE SOCIALIST PRESIDENT OF FRANCE.  AND IN THE MIDDLE OF THE RING THE U.S.A.; BATTERED ON ALL SIDES BY A STRING OF NEVER-ENDING DISASTERS FROM ITS VAIN IMPERIAL ASPIRATIONS

(Counterpunch)

This how Gabriel Kolko “calls” the struggle today for international power. The U.S. in particular is caught in an endless series of disastrous military confrontations from which it never emerges with clear victories and which is a perpetual drain on its resources for dealing with domestic problems.

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NOTE TO PARENTS WITH YOUNG CHILDREN IN A PARK: KEEP AN EYE ON THEM IN THE SANDBOX BUT KEEP YOUR BUTT ON THE PARK BENCH.

(Toronto Star)

Toronto psychologist urges parents to drop the “worry ball” about their children of all ages and let the kids worry about the things (like the construction of a proper sand castle) that are their worries and not those of adults.  Parental micro-management practices the likes of keeping a calendar of “play dates” for their children are counter-productive for the mental health of either adults or children.  Call encouragement and be available for skinned knees and other emergencies but do it from the symbolic distance of a “park bench.”

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PUTTING A MINORITY RIGHTS ISSUE TO A MAJORITY VOTE.

(Omaha World Herald)

This is the complaint of a city council member in Lincoln, Nebraska after the city by unanimous vote passed a non-discrimination ordinance for full civil rights of gays and lesbians.  Local clergy launch a petition campaign to have the action referred to the voters for ballot approval or disapproval.  Since (perhaps) a majority of Lincoln residents are opposed to non-discrimination legislation where homosexuals are concerned there is the real possibility that a local majority may vote against the legal rights of a local minority.

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WHAT IF SYSIPHUS HAD  “TURNED HIS PUNISHMENT AND DRUDGERY INTO POSSIBILITIES AND FREEDOM?”

(In These Times)

This is the premise of a theatre professor’s new play Labor Rites being enacted by students at Northwestern University. The “myth” is often seen as a metaphor for the futility of human efforts as Sysiphus is condemned to roll the same stone forever to the top of a hill down which it rolls forever.  In reviewing the history of labor strife and triumph in its many battles the play is able to result in this inspiring message of the awesome power of labor solidarity.

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FLORIDA’S STATE PARKS ARE NOW OPEN (LITERALLY) FOR “BUSINESS” (CARTOON)

(Florida Today)

New law signed by the Governor allows Parks division to sell advertisements for commercial products on the grounds of the parks.  A cartoonist wonders whether a state ranger’s uniform is going to look like the outfit of a NASCAR driver.

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Quote of the day…

There’s been a lot of talk about homosexual “practices.” The practices are the same, whether you’re heterosexual or homosexual. You love your loved ones. You buy your house. You mow your lawn. You go to work.

J. Eileen Durgin-Clinchard, the first president of Lincoln Nebraska chapter of Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays, as controversy about a city ordinace forbidding discrimination based on gender orientation erupts.

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 Do you receive the daily headlines in the form of an early-morning e-mail? If you don’t and you would like to receive them, just send a note to sunstateactivist2@yahoo.com and you’ll be enrolled in the “Progressive breakfast club.”

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Cartoon by Chan Lowe, Palm Beach Post

HOW DOES A CAPITALIST COUNTRY DEAL WITH A CRISIS IN EMPLOYMENT?  BY CUTTING UNEMPLOYMENT BENEFITS, OF COURSE.

(World Socialist)

A political “deal” between the Obama administration and a Republican congress is now coming home to roost as some 200k American workers are slated to be cut off from “extended” unemploymet benefits—half of them in the state of California alone.  The “thinking” behind the deal was that states whose unemployment rates fell below 10% would no longer need the prop of extended benefits and that a state could suspend same when their unemployment rates dropped to that level.  Largely by dint of manipulation of those rates be eliminating long-term or “discouraged” workers from the ranks of the counted unemployed people in a number of states will be unceremoniously dropped from assistance roles—some with no form of public assistance whatsoever.  But perhaps it is best they die and “reduce the surplus population.”

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NAQBA: THE GREAT CATASTROPHE REDUCED A 2000 YEAR OLD PALESTINIAN VILLAGE TO RUBBLE.

(IPS News)

An elderly survivor of the conflict that created the state of Israel 64 years ago can only look longingly at the crumbling ruins of an ancestral home at Lifta where the people of a thriving town  became overnight refugees. The Israeli state  is unwilling to grant the “right of return” of people to their ancestral homes lest this endanger the “existential existence” of Israel.  Former residents survivors can only hope to maintain the ruins of Lifta as a museum in commemoration of Naqba.  But they have barely been able (so far) to stave off implementation of a plan—denied by an Israeli court—to tear up the remnants of Lifta for yet another Jewish “development” project.

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OH NO! ANOTHER “IVY LEAGUE JANITOR GETS A DEGREE FROM HIS UNIVERSITY” STORY

(Atlanta Journal Constitution)

Surfing the “legally blond” hair-dresser who got a law degree in the movies, an ethnically Albanian immigrant from Montenegro achieves a similar distinction at Columbia University.  He pauses in his janitorial work at the University to accept congratulations for his achievement—then goes back to work sweeping the floors and cleaning the toilets.  Well that’s U.S. education, you know: if you can’t back it through expensive elite universities by your meagre wealth you can sweep your way to the top.

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NATIVE AMERICANS HAVE LITTLE PROTECTION FROM CRIMINAL ACTIONS OF NON-NATIVES ON THEIR LAND.

(Indian Country Today)

This is the view of activists who note alarming rates of crimes with native Americans as victims: for example 34% of Indian women are said to have been raped at one time; mostly by non-Natives.  They are pushing Congress to pass a Violence Against Women Act that would allow the native justice system jurisdiction in the prosecution of such crimes.  Congress has been resistant on the false premise of many that accused criminals would be denied their constitutional rights for due process in native Courts.

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WILL PALM BEACH COUNTY CHARTER SCHOOLS LOSE THEIR FREE RIDE FOR PUBLIC FINANCING OF COSTS OF TRANSPORTATION TO SCHOOL?

(Palm Beach Post)

This issue is under consideration as school district officials report the compensation they get from the state to provide bus transportation for the charters does not nearly cover their actual expenses.  The district is required to provide this service only to a couple of “transition” charters created out of the closing of public schools.  Their largesse in providing subsidized transportation for the other charters is now being reconsidered.

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Quote of the day…

NATO is the armed wing for European and American elites who control the destiny not only of the capitalist nations they represent but of people around the world. It is NATO which continues to occupy Afghanistan, and send drones which kill civilians. It is NATO which over threw the Muammar Gaddafi government in Libya and killed an unknown number of civilians in the name of protecting them.

Margaret Kimberley advocating planned protests against NATO summit meeting to convene in Chicago on May 20.

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 Do you receive the daily headlines in the form of an early-morning e-mail? If you don’t and you would like to receive them, just send a note to sunstateactivist2@yahoo.com and you’ll be enrolled in the “Progressive breakfast club.”

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James Hansen, director of NASA’s  Goddard Institute for Space Studies and a well-known expert in climate studies, writes in a New York Times op-ed this week that a forthcoming decision by the federal government to approve the Keystone XL pipeline pumping Canadian oil derived from tar sands through the heartland of the United States could be the most consequential moment yet in a losing battle to alter the destructive course of climate change.

Hansen explains the dire evidence; oil derived from Canada’s vast tar sands is twice as “dirty” — producing twice the amount of deadly carbon emissions — as any convention oil source exploited in our history.  The long-term ecological and climatic consequences of using tar sands as our next energy source are disastrous.

Global warming isn’t a prediction. It is happening. That is why I was so troubled to read a recent interview with President Obama in Rolling Stone in which he said that Canada would exploit the oil in its vast tar sands reserves “regardless of what we do.”

If Canada proceeds, and we do nothing, it will be game over for the climate.

Canada’s tar sands, deposits of sand saturated with bitumen, contain twice the amount of carbon dioxide emitted by global oil use in our entire history. If we were to fully exploit this new oil source, and continue to burn our conventional oil, gas and coal supplies, concentrations of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere eventually would reach levels higher than in the Pliocene era, more than 2.5 million years ago, when sea level was at least 50 feet higher than it is now. That level of heat-trapping gases would assure that the disintegration of the ice sheets would accelerate out of control. Sea levels would rise and destroy coastal cities. Global temperatures would become intolerable. Twenty to 50 percent of the planet’s species would be driven to extinction. Civilization would be at risk.

But instead of pitching into the fight and embarking on a meaningful and substantive effort to prevent these easily identifiable climate catastrophes looming in our future, Hansen writes that leaders like President Obama have dropped the ball and  let the American people — and the entire world — down. Instead of providing incentives for countries to leave emissions-laden tar sands in the ground, the interference of politics means that America is likely to become the leading consumer of tar sands oil.

Hansen writes that America’s political establishment  – led by President Obama — have failed miserably and has not “provede(d) the leadership needed to change the world’s course.”

President Obama has the power not only to deny tar sands oil additional access to Gulf Coast refining, which Canada desires in part for export markets, but also to encourage economic incentives to leave tar sands and other dirty fuels in the ground.

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 President Obama speaks of a “planet in peril,” but he does not provide the leadership needed to change the world’s course. Our leaders must speak candidly to the public — which yearns for open, honest discussion — explaining that our continued technological leadership and economic well-being demand a reasoned change of our energy course. History has shown that the American public can rise to the challenge, but leadership is essential.

The science of the situation is clear — it’s time for the politics to follow. This is a plan that can unify conservatives and liberals, environmentalists and business. Every major national science academy in the world has reported that global warming is real, caused mostly by humans, and requires urgent action. The cost of acting goes far higher the longer we wait — we can’t wait any longer to avoid the worst and be judged immoral by coming generations.

Dr. James Hansen is not the only individual sounding serious warnings about the future of the planet. In just the first few months of this year, with record temperatures across the US and many spots around the globe, the dire nature of climate change and the consequences which will only mount as the problem is ignored are desperately apparent.

Experts now predict that the surging heat that has marked the beginning of 2012 will likely make this year the hottest ever recorded in the United States.

Of course, the effects of warming are not isolated to America. With the last decade the hottest in recorded history, global  experts with  the International Energy Agency have warned that the time may be approaching when the future impacts of climate change will become irreversible. 

The evidence and the warnings have fallen on mostly deaf ears in the United States, where the gridlock of a presidential election year has meant the rise and fall of gas prices — not the long-term projections of climate change — are the hot button topics.

The Keystone XL pipeline that would transport tar sands oil from Canada to the US — once rejected by the Obama administration — has sprung back to life as both Republicans and Democrats seek to make increased oil production a campaign issue. TransCanada, the company proposing to build the pipeline, has reapplied to the federal government for permission to construct Keystone XL.

Even without the pipeline, “support” from the oil industry has led to an explosion of oil production in Canada’s tar sands region. New projects and commitments from US companies could leads to nearly 3 million barrels of oil a day being extracted from the Alberta tar sands. The expanding production in Canada combined with the likely approval of Keystone XL could mean that tar sands oil could eventually make up nearly half of the oil consumed by the United States.

The company behind the planned Keystone XL oil pipeline said it received enough support from the industry to move ahead with an oil terminal in Alberta, Canada.

Pipeline company TransCanada said it has received binding commitments for more than 500,000 barrels per day “leading to the opportunity to expand the proposed 2 million barrels of crude oil batch accumulation tankage and pipeline infrastructure to a 2.6 million barrel terminal” in Hardisty, Alberta.

The terminal could become operational by 2014, a year before TransCanada aims to deliver oil through the planned Keystone XL pipeline.

The existing Keystone oil pipeline ties so-called tar sands oil from Alberta to oil refineries in Illinois and the key storage hub in Cushing, Okla. Keystone XL would extend the route to the southern U.S. coast.

“There is overwhelming industry support to transport crude oil safely and reliably to markets across North America,” Russ Girling, president and chief executive officer at TransCanada, said in a statement.

As scientists and experts warn of the dangers of tar sands and global warming, America’s lawmakers and policymakers are retreating in the other direction, away from an agenda of sustainability and towards greater reliance on fossil fuels.

The most glaring example of special treatment of the energy industry is the $113 billion in direct government subsidies the oil, gas and coal industries will receive over the next decade — a figure that dwarfs anything Congress appropriates for clean energy technology. Every effort made to pull the plug on these subsidies has failed, with tens of millions of dolars spent by the energy industry to protect their taxpayer-funded privileges.

A new bicameral bill introduced simultaneously in the House and Senate seeks to change the system, proposing to eliminate all government subsidies for oil, gas and coal companies. Introduced by Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Keith Ellison, the legislation has the support of climate activists and scientific experts, but it stands little chance at actually becoming law.

Over the next ten years, the oil, gas and coal industries are slated to receive $113 billion in taxpayer subsidies—that’s six times the rate at which clean energy initiatives are subsidized. Americans will fund everything from development research for the industry to loan guarantees. There are all kinds of absurd tax breaks—for example, since 1951 the coal industry has been allowed to treat income from coal mines as capital gains, which is now taxed at a 15 percent maximum, instead of as regular income like most other businesses in the country.

Democrats have often presented bills to end a various portions of these subsidies, but a new bicameral bill—introduced by Bernie Sanders in the Senate and Keith Ellison in the House—would wipe out every last subsidy and tax break the industry receives.

“In these difficult economic times, it is imperative that we support the taxpayers of this country, the working people of this country, and not the fossil fuel industry—one of the most powerful and profitable industries in the world,” said Sanders at a rally Thursday morning outside the Capitol building.

Bill McKibben, leader of 350.org, a key player in the White House protests that helped stop the Keystone XL pipeline, appeared with Sanders and Ellison at the rally and explained that the push was about more than halting the waste of taxpayer dollars.

“One of the most important things we can do to grapple with our energy and our climate problems is to end the craziness of sending taxpayer money off to the richest industries on earth,” he said. “It’s an industry whose carbon is doing deep damage around the planet. We need to stop paying them a performance bonus for the environmental damage that they’re creating.”

Intransigence and ignorance on climate change and environmental issues from Congress has led Sierra Club chairman Carl Pop to label the current crop of lawmakers in Washington the worst-ever Congress for the environment, guilty of “by far the worst environmental votes cast in any Congress in American history. ”

Matching the Congress for inaction is the White House, where President Obama has ignored past promises to act on climate change and taken the politically safe road of embracing the fossil fuel status quo. Obama has touted to voters his “all of the above” energy policy, heavily reliant on  fossil fuels, and that domestic oil production has surged to its highest levels in years under the Obama administration.

Things were different when the president first took office. Campaigning on an agenda of reducing carbon emissions and making clean energy technology a government priority, President Obama  promised that “America is a ready to lead” on climate change in a high-profile address shortly after being inaugurated in 2009.

As Dr. Hansen pointed out i his op-ed, such leadership from the White House has been distinctly lacking as experts warn that American policies are digging a deeper and deeper hole in the race ro combat climate change.

Shickingly, President Obama rarely even mentions the terms “climate change” or “global warming” in public these days, an indication of the radical shift in his administration’s attitude towards the environment and climate issues since Obama took office.

While a conservative Congress shares a good deal of the blame for climate inaction in the US, a checklist of broken promises and backtracking in favor of fossil fuel industries is scattered throughout President Obama’s first term.

 President Obama will have you believe, therefore, that Congress is the culprit, and he has a point. But the relevant regulatory body within the White House, the little-known Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA), has, during more than 500 interest group meetings under Obama’s watch, watered down, delayed, or eliminated more than 80 percent of the EPA’s emissions regulations at the request of fossil-fuel influence peddlers. Moreover, the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA), responsible for supporting the basic functioning of all other federal agencies, reduced its purchase of hybrid and electric cars last year by 59 percent, despite President Obama’s 2011 speech tour touting new efficiency standards for automobiles, an increase in the purchase of alternative-fuel cars, and the goal of adding 1 million electric cars to the country’s roads by 2015.

Perhaps most tellingly, President Obama’s performance at international climate negotiations has been dismal. At both Copenhagen and Durban, Obama arrived with embarrassingly low emissions targets compared to other countries, effectively destroying the Kyoto Protocol, and repeatedly dismissed calls to place a deadline to establish a global, binding deal on climate change. The president’s ostensible detachment prompted more than a dozen environmental groups and over 1,200 business leaders and activists to endorse a letter arguing that, with his lack of leadership on the issue, “America risks being viewed not as a global leader on climate change, but as a major obstacle to progress.”

On the domestic front, Obama has intimated that he might be willing to eventually concede approval for the Keystone XL pipeline, even as environmentalists saw the delayed decision as a major victory. He has already established that TransCanada may reapply for the permit after accepting an alternative pipeline route. As a Cornell study has persuasively shown, Keystone XL is chiefly designed to boost export trade from the Gulf of Mexico and yield enormous profits for oil companies and their financial subsidiaries, not create jobs or reduce our dependence on foreign oil.

According to a comprehensive Brown University report, there has been a demonstrable shift in President Obama’s rhetoric since taking office regarding “climate change” and “global warming.” “These terms are stunningly absent from the political arena,” writes Graciela Kincaid, a co-author of the study. President Obama simply refuses to throw any red meat to the Republicans, though they always manage to find some to devour anyway.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Crown Prince of Bahrain Sheikh Salman bin Hamad bin Isa Al-Khalifa

WHILE THE U.S. SUPPORTS THE PROTESTS AGAINST “OUR ENEMY” (THE SYRIAN GOVERMENT)  IT TOASTS ONE OF “OUR BASTARDS” (THE KING OF  BAHRAIN) IN HIS CONTINUED SUPPRESSION OF PRO-DEMOCRACY PROTESTS IN THAT COUNTRY.

(Asia Times)

The Crown Prince of Bahrain receives full state “honors” on a visit to Washington just as a Bahrani leader says that the government will continue and escalate its repression of pro-democracy protests—repression which amounts to assault on the Shi-ite minority. The reason for the discrepancy is pretty obvious: that Bahrain “hosts” the headquarters of the U.S. Navy’s 5th fleet in the Gulf area in which it hopes to dominate international affairs.  The Bahraini government as well is allied with the U.S. and other Sunni Arab nations in their Arab League opposition the Shi’ite enemy: Iran.

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HERE’S A PRESENT FOR YOU—A SHINY NEW DRONE MISSILE. SIGNED: THE CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY.

(Indy Week)

In its vast expansion of drone attacks in the 3 years plus of the Obama administration the C.I.A. indulges in what it calls “signature” raids on civilian populations in which there is a perceived high “probability” that some Taliban and al Qaeda leaders may be among those killed by the raids.  Thus raids on funerals of Taliban funerals and of persons who go for medical assistance to the sides of those wounded in C.I.A. raids. While the U.S. government steadfastly refuses to acknowledge that it has any “data” on civilian casualties from its operations a spokesman states categorically that no civilians have been killed by “collateral damage” from such raids; these raids are estimated to be 300 in number with 3000 fatalities over the last 3 years.  Franz Kafka should be alive to take notes toward his next horror novel on governmental atrocities.

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THE LUSTY LADY AND STRIPPER SOLIDARITY: WAS THERE A LESSON FROM THE SAN FRANCISCO EXPERIMENT IN WORKER’S RIGHTS FOR SEX WORKERS?

(In These Times)

Rachel Aimee is an activist for labor rights of sex workers and a former stripper in clubs across the country.  She cites the excitement in that industry after the Lusty Lady strip club in 1997 changed its employee policy from one of employing strippers as “private contractors” who paid fees to club to perform their acts—often fees higher than they were able to take home from their club earners.  LL made strippers salaried workers with full workers’ rights to compensation and benefits.  While hailed as the wave of the future in the industry the innovation has not caught on and sex workers are still exploited in most places: being denied the opportunity of a “contractor” to make money in tips especially from the “lap dances” that they provide on the side of their stage dance routines.  One club provides a promising compromise of the worker v. contractor dilemma for stripper employment.  Strippers are employed as “contractors” but they are allowed flexibility to determine for themselves where and for whom they want to work which gives club management the incentive to make their work lives more favorable.

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DETROIT WILL PAY A FEARSOME PRICE FOR ITS CUT IN SERVICES AVAILABLE TO UNDER-PRIVILEGED YOUNG PEOPLE.

(Detroit Free Press)

This is the perspective of  Detroit Free Press writer Jeff Gerritt. He notes that Detroit’s service-cutting effort to balance its budget through the reduction of services to youth will only exaggerate the problem in the city that young people resort to anti-social behaviors when their situtation is such that there is nothing productive in their lives for them to do.

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IS FLORIDA TOURISM INDUSTRY RECESSION-PROOF?

(Tampa Bay Times)

It almost seems that way as the industry is not suffering the general malaise of a “faltering” economy in Florida as elsewhere.   A Tampa Tribune writer undertakes an explanation of this prosperity in the midst of recession for the state.  They include vigorous promotion of Florida visits in northern markets (like “Visit St Pete/Clearwater” advertising blitz in NYC and Chicago)—the investment of the industry in new “fun” things to do like the Harry Potter Museum and Legoland)—and the fact that many westerners are moving away from accustomed vacations in “violence prone” Mexico toward perceived safer ones in Florida.

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Quote of the day…

Bahrain is a valued ally of the United States. We partner on many important issues of mutual concern to each of our nations and to the regional and global concerns as well. I’m looking forward to a chance to talk over with His Royal Highness a number of the issues both internally and externally that Bahrain is dealing with and have some better understanding of the ongoing efforts that the government of Bahrain is undertaking. So again, His Royal Highness, welcome to the United States.

Hillary Clinton welcoming Crown Prince Salim bin Hamad al-Khalifa as his government vows to “crack down” on pro-democracy dissents in Bahrain.

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 Do you receive the daily headlines in the form of an early-morning e-mail? If you don’t and you would like to receive them, just send a note to sunstateactivist2@yahoo.com and you’ll be enrolled in the “Progressive breakfast club.”

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IN BRITAIN THE QUEEN MADE A SPEECH BUT SHE DIDN’T SAY MUCH.

(UK Independent)

The Queen appears in Parliament to give her regular “speech” that articulates whatever is the policy agenda of the elected Prime Minister and cabinet.  The speech given this week marks a signficant slow-down from drastic efforts at reform in the country’s welfare and health care systems.  Nor does it offer much more than “talking and tweaking” when it comes to any measures designed to address the country’s bleak economic situation.”

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REVERSING THE DIRECTION OF THAT “SUCKING SOUND.”

(Counterpunch)

Years ago Ross Perot popularized this term to describe the effects of NAFTA in creating a flow of jobs from the United States to Mexico.  Ralph Nader now notes that—where employment in high tech work is concerned—the “brain drain” is being reversed as efforts are made to attract foreign workers to Silicon Valley-type jobs and to keep them in the U.S. after the completion of their education in this country.  This movement—demonstrated by the push for more “high tech” immigration exemptions—threatens to deprive countries elsewhere of some desperately needed highly educated workers and exaggerates as well the growing problem of home-grown “brains” in finding work to match their educational qualifications.

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TELL ME NO MORE LIES—I’LL GIVE YOU NO MORE PRISON TIME. 

(St. Louis Post-Dispatch)

A St. Louis woman learns this lesson the hard way.  Faced with a relatively minor charge for a falsification on a mortgage application she compounds her legal problems by stuffing her abdomen with pillows to fake a pregnancy—hoping thereby to avoid jail time from a sympathetic judge.  The judge only increases her jail sentence as a result leading a prosecutor to say that this is a case of “the cover up being worse than the crime.”  (John Edwards take note).

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THERAPY CLINICS IN RIO GRANDE VALLEY SECTION OF TEXAS RAKING IN MUCH TAXPAYER CASH FOR SERVICES OFFERED TO AREA CHILDREN.

(Houston Chronicle)

Hidalgo County far outpaces any other county in the state in payouts for transportation of unaccompanied children (illegal under state law) to the clincs as well as  Medicaid payments for fees for provision of different medical therapies.  The Texas department of health and human services tries to curtail the practices; they are being resisted in local court cases.

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WHATEVER HAPPENED TO JOBS-JOBS-JOBS?   PALM BEACH COUNTY FL PAYS $49.5k TO AN ACCOUNTING FIRM TO TELL THEM HOW TO CUT EXPENSES BY $32 MILLION

(Palm Beach Post)

The firm’s recommendation is for the elimination or “out-sourcing” of  about 1000 public services jobs most of which pay wages of less than $15 per hour. Their recommendation does not include any clear indication of just how out-sourcing of jobs is going to eliminate the expenses for jobs like those of park maintenance workers.

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Quote of the day…

Gay rights advocates protest President Obama's New York fundraiser last year Photograph: Mary Altaffer/AP Photo Photograph: Mary Altaffer/AP

Two prominent members of President Barack Obama’s administration have made forceful and highly public declarations of their support for marriage equality and legalizing gay marriage, placing the White House in an embarrassing position and highlighting the deep divide between the LGBT community and the president.

Among the myriad issues where President Obama has let down the progressive community, his steadfast refusal to join the national debate over marriage equality has infuriated gay rights activists and disappointed many in his own Democratic Party that overwhelmingly supports the legalization of  gay marriage.

Across the nation, the issue of gay marriage has consistently taken a back seat to more high-profile items like the economy and foreign policy, but as the November election approaches, the base of support the Obama reelection team is counting on has become more vocal in their desire for the president to take a firm in favor of same-sex marriage as new threats to LGBT rights pop up across America.

Over the weekend, Vice President Joe Biden delivered the most aggressive language yet from the administration backing gay marriage and voicing support for marriage equality — a sentiment many had hoped to hear directly from President Obama.

Biden told NBC’s “Meet the Press” that he was “absolutely comfortable” with same-sex marriage and hinted that the president may soon be prepared to join him in this position.

Vice President Joe Biden gave a nod to same-sex marriage Sunday by saying he is comfortable with the idea of “men marrying men” and “women marrying women” having the same rights as heterosexual couples.

In an interview on “Meet the Press,” Biden declined to rule out the possibility that, in a second term, President Obama might move from his position of supporting civil unions to backing same-sex marriage.

 Biden prefaced his comments with the caveat that the president sets administration policy, and then said: “I am absolutely comfortable with the fact that men marrying men, women marrying women, and heterosexual men and women marrying one another are entitled to the same exact rights, all the civil rights, all the civil liberties.

The vice-president’s remarks could be considered a watershed moment for this administration — while the White House had consistently supported efforts to ban discrimination against gays and lesbians, no prominent official had ever specifically stated public support for gay marriage.

And only a day after Biden’s comments, Education Secretary Arne Duncan followed suit and agreed that “gay couples should be allowed to marry.”

Education Secretary Arne Duncan made his position clear on Monday morning, one day after Vice President Joe Biden made waves by declaring that he is “absolutely comfortable” with gay marriage.

While on MSNBC’s Morning Joe on Monday, Duncan was asked directly whether he thinks gay couples should be able to marry. His response: “Yes, I do.” Duncan added that he’d never before been asked that question publicly.

With two significant members of his administration offering public backing of gay marriage and marriage equality — including his own vice-president — pressure has increased dramatically on President Obama to more clearly state his own personal feelings concerning the gay marriage debate and whether the words of Biden and Duncan reflect the president’s views.

Prersident Obama has been met with howls of outrage and derision from the gay rights community over his silence on the issue and for refusing to stand with his own cabinet in backing marriage rights. The White House has faced an immediate backlash for failing to adequately explain the president’s position even as they seek support from the LGBT community for Obama’s reelection campaign.

With no official declaration of support for the vice-president’s words, many activists are wondering whether the White House is signaling that they intend to oppose any efforts to legalize gay marriage.

Taking a remarkably cavalier view of an issue many Democrats and progressives see as a question of basic civil rights, Obama aides and supporters are expressing disappointment that gay marriage has become a campaign issue again, explaining that they had the “best of both worlds” prior to Biden’s comments  and that continuing to dodge a formal position on marriage equality allowed them not to “rock the boat” before the November election.

 “They had the best of both worlds going up until this weekend where they didn’t have to rock the boat of actually coming out for it. The gay community was fully happy in their belief that he ‘wink, wink’ supported it,” a top Democratic communications strategist said. “Now, in their efforts to contain the [Joe] Biden fallout, they seem to be digging in against gay marriage, emphasizing how they are not for it. That is the opposite of what they have successfully been doing all along.”

The controversy over the president’s reluctance to endorse his vice=president’s position in fully backing gay marriage rights  reflects the overall concern among the gay rights community over Obama’s personal feelings on the issue. This is not the first time that Barack Obama has taken heat over his perceived waffling on gay rights or outright hostility to same-sex marriage.

Ever since taking office, the White House has drawn fire for repeatedly explaining President Obama’s position on gay marriage as “evolving.” Obama supporters point to achievements in his first term like ending “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” and making various strides in combating discrimination against gay Americans. But outright endorsement of gay marriage has never been among his priorities.

Confusion over just where Obama’s stance on gay marriage is “evolving” from and where its going have persisted since even before he was elected to the presidency. Obama’s position when he first ran for state office in 1996 was strong support for legalizing gay marriage.

But in an infamous 2004 video,  then-Senate candidate Obama said that his “religious faith” told him marriage was strictly between a man and a woman,and that gay marriage was not a “civil right.”

Combined with Obama’s own personal history and track record of dodging the question of gay marriage, the new controversy following Vice President Biden’s comments threatens to stir even greater anger among the LGBT community and the supporters Obama has left among that group. If the White House really is taking gay support for granted, they may be shocked to learn that the recent string of gaffes is causing a backlash against the president.

Numbers show that 1 in 6 of the big-money “bundlers” used to such great financial effect by President Obama’s campaign is gay. Those financial backers are now threatening to use their prominent positions to punish Obama for his weak record on gay rights and failure to support marriage equality. Many gay Obama donors are now plotting to withhold their money from his campaign over these and other issues.

The idea that these supporters could flee to President Obama’s Republican presidential opponent, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, is almost impossible to believe. Romney has a checkered history with gay rights, backing civil unions and voicing some support for legalizing gay marriage while Massachusetts governor, but quickly adopting a conservative position of virtually no acknowledgement of LGBT rights whatsoever since declaring his bid for the presidency.

Romney and the GOP are also in their own significant controversy over gay rights, with the Romney campaign under fire even from some within the GOP for letting go an openly gay adviser after complaints from religious anti-gay organizations.

Such anti-gay sentiment is still a significant force in American politics, with the latest blow to gay rights coming in North Carolina yesterday. Voters there approved a sweeping and bitterly controversial amendment banning gay marriage and all forms of domestic partnerships – gay civil unions as well as legal recognition of partnerships among heterosexual couples.

President Obama immediately released a statement saying that he is “disappointed” with the North Carolina vote. But gay activists are outraged that the president’s reelection team canceled a planned campaign trip to the Tar Heel State the day before the gay marriage vote took place.

As the president hesitates on gay rights and more “red states” shut the door on same-sex marriage, national public opinion polls continue to show broad support for legalizing gay marriage among ordinary Americans.

A new Gallup poll finds that for the second consecutive year, more than 50 percent of Americans say they support gay marriage and believe that it should be legal.  More important politically, almost 60 percent of independent voters say they support legalizing gay marriage, their personal beliefs on this issue “evolving” at a faster pace than the president seeking to gain their votes this November.

 Fifty percent of Americans believe same-sex marriages should be recognized by law as valid, with the same rights as traditional marriages — down slightly from 53% last year, but marking only the second time in Gallup’s history of tracking this question that at least half of Americans have supported legal same-sex marriage. Forty-eight percent say such marriages should not be legal.

These results — based on Gallup’s annual Values and Beliefs poll, conducted May 3-6 — come at a time when Vice President Joe Biden’s remarks on “Meet the Press” Sunday have at least temporarily brought the issue of same-sex marriage back into the news spotlight. Biden said he was “absolutely comfortable” with the idea that same-sex couples and heterosexual couples are “entitled to the same exact rights, all the civil rights, all the civil liberties.” President Obama, however, has stopped short of saying that he favors legalizing same-sex marriage.

Last’s year’s Values and Beliefs survey marked the first time in Gallup’s history of tracking this issue that a majority favored legalization. Prior to last year, the highest level of support had been 46%, measured in 2007. In 1996, when Gallup first asked the question, 27% supported it, while 68% were opposed.

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UPDATE —-

Speaking with ABC News on Wednesday, President Obama announced that his feelings towards same-sex marriage had stopped “evolving” and he formally endorsed marriage equality for gays and lesbians. “I think same sex couples should be able to get married,” Obama told Robin Roberts in an interview.