Spc. Eisenhower Atuatasi, 26, of Westminster, Calif.: “There’s no way we’re leaving in two years no matter what any recommendation says.” Staff Sgt. Rony Theodore, 33, of Brooklyn, N.Y.: “All of us want to change what we’re doing because we’re not doing very much.” DailyKos has more.
Mary Cheney’s Partner ‘Will Have No Legal Relationship With Her Child’ Under Virginia Law
The Washington Post reported today that Mary Cheney and her partner of 15 years, Heather Poe, are expecting a baby. The right wing is already on the attack:
Janice Crouse of Concerned Women for America described the pregnancy as “unconscionable.”
“It’s very disappointing that a celebrity couple like this would deliberately bring into the world a child that will never have a father,” said Crouse, a senior fellow at the group’s think tank. “They are encouraging people who don’t have the advantages they have.” …
Carrie Gordon Earll, a policy analyst for the conservative Christian ministry Focus on the Family: “Just because you can conceive a child outside a one-woman, one-man marriage doesn’t mean it’s a good idea.”
Cheney and Poe will also face discrimination from Virginia state law. According to Equality Virginia:
While there are no specific Virginia laws addressing the custody and adoption rights of gays and lesbians, Virginia courts have routinely discriminated against gays and lesbians by finding that the parent’s status as gay or lesbian is not in the “best interests” of the child.
The result, according to Jennifer Chrisler of Family Pride, is that Poe will “have no legal relationship with her child.”
“In the state of Virginia, it’s very difficult for lesbian couples to have children together,” says Chrisler. “Heather Poe will have no legal relationship with her child. She can’t adopt as a second parent. She won’t have her name on the birth certificate.“
Asked what the couple could do to give Poe some legal rights as a parent, Chrisler advised: “Move to Maryland.”
UPDATE: AmericaBlog has more.
The Senate has confirmed Robert Gates
to be the next Secretary of Defense.
UPDATE: Final vote: 95-2.
UPDATE II: Sens. Rick Santorum (R-PA) and Jim Bunning (R-KY) cast the only “no” votes.
The Market Won’t Clear–Neither Will The Weather
Climate change is starting to affect Insurance companies, and the media is starting to notice. The Washington Post recently ran a long article expanding on the themes in a Plenty magazine piece.
The Post‘s “A Dream Blown Away” describes some of the insurance industry’s lingo that sheds light on the conundrum companies are facing. For example:
‘Insufficient capacity’ and ‘the market won’t clear’ refer to climate risks so difficult to calculate that traditional commercial providers won’t sell you new insurance or renew your old insurance at any price.
Allstate insurance has suspended new coverage in Manhattan, Brooklyn, the Bronx, Queens and Staten Island, even refusing to renew coverage in particularly vulnerable zones, according to the Post‘s article. Why? they are worried about a
Category 3 [hurricane] funneling straight north up New York Harbor. Pushing a wall of water perhaps 15 feet tall up Broadway toward the second-story windows of Wall Street.
As global warming warms the Atlantic, hurricanes will last longer and travel further from the tropics, so Allstate’s fears are not unrealistic.
The bottom line: The insurance industry is not so much preparing as it is running from the problem, given its financial interests. Even so, at least they are aware of the problem and taking precautions–a lesson that delayers, deniers and policymakers need to learn.
More ISG
Don’t miss further incisive commentary from Spencer Ackerman and Greg Sargent. Plus more Ackerman where he reports Lee Hamilton’s statement that “We have one last chance at making Iraq work, and, more importantly, one last chance to unite this country on this war.”
Yes, avoiding political dispute about the war is more important than adopting a good war policy. No doubt Hamilton would deny that’s actually what he believes, but I think we can put this in the Freudian slip file.
“Important Bush Administration officials
are ready to leave the government rather than undergo two years of hell from Democratic committee chairmen in Congress. Leading the exodus are officials of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), fearing investigation by two chairmen, Representatives Henry Waxman (D-CA) and John Dingell (D-MI),” according to the Evans-Novak Political Report.
Right-Wing Operatives Form ‘Crisis Management Firm’ To Profit Off Scandal-Ridden Conservatives
The Washington Post reports that, “just as the Hill is staffing up…to investigate administration officials,” former Justice Department spokespersons Mark Corallo and Barbara Comstock are forming a law/PR firm — Corallo Comstock — to help defend Bush administration aides.
Roll Call has more details:
Corallo and Comstock are forming the crisis management firm Corallo Comstock, Inc. They aim to open shop on Jan. 1, just before the new Democratic chairmen will start banging their gavels and demanding information from the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue. “Just in time for subpoena season,” Corallo told HOH. … Together, they’ll be doing crisis management, communications strategy, strategic consulting, government relations and basically helping GOP folk who are up a creek without a paddle.
Corallo and Comstock cut their teeth investigating the Clinton administration on the House Government Reform Committee in the 90s under then-Chairman Dan Burton (R-IN). Each has gone on to represent prominent scandal-stricken conservatives in recent years. Corallo, who has criticized Attorney General Alberto Gonzales for a “reckless abuse of power,” was Karl Rove’s spokesman during the Valerie Plame investigation. Comstock worked for Scooter Libby in the Plame affair. She has also represented indicted former Congressman Tom DeLay (R-TX) and Rep. Jerry Lewis (R-CA), who is under federal investigation.
Corallo and Comstock’s new firm may be begging for more work than they can handle. TPMMuckraker has the growing list of “scandalized administration officials.” See it here.
U.S. Holocaust Memorial Distances Itself From Right-Wing Pundit
Yesterday, ThinkProgress noted that right-wing talk radio host Dennis Prager — who demands that Rep.-elect Keith Ellison (D-MN), a Muslim, swear in using a Christian Bible — was appointed by President Bush to the taxpayer-funded U.S. Holocaust Memorial Council.
The Holocaust Memorial Museum has now issued a statement distancing itself from Prager. The museum emphasizes that Prager “speaks solely for himself,” and that his statements “do not reflect the position of the US Holocaust Memorial Museum.”
The statement also points out that the museum does not have the authority to remove Prager from its board, since he is a presidential appointee.
Yesterday, the Council on American Islamic Relations said “Prager’s continued presence on the council would send a negative message to Muslims worldwide about America’s commitment to religious tolerance.” The Anti-Defamation League, a group that combats anti-Semitism and other forms of bigotry, called Prager’s views “intolerant,” “misinformed on the facts,” and “downright un-American.”
NYT reporter Anne Kornblut:
Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) “is nothing if not an independent-minded maverick.“
Lost in the Pony Fields
Now that I’ve read the whole thing, the good news about the Iraq Study Group report is that it’s filled with accurate observations about the situation in Iraq. As Kevin Drum writes it’s “more reality-based than the Bush administration, which represents at least a little bit of progress.” On the level of concepts on logic, however, it’s more-or-less a sick joke. As the report outlines, the fundamental problem in Iraq is the absence of broad-based national reconciliation. Absent such reconciliation, it’s impossible for the US military to provide security to the country, impossible to create effective Iraqi institutions, and impossible to isolate hard-core extremists on either side of the sectarian divide.
