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Most GOP Presidential Candidates Identify As ‘Bush Republicans’, Call For Federal Amendment Outlawing Gay Marriage | Hermain Cain and Ron Paul said that marriage should be left to the states, while Tim Pawlenty, Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich, Rick Santorum all called for a federal amendment outlawing same-sex marriages. Michele Bachmann — who recently pressed other states to follow Minnesota’s example and put the question on the ballot — managed to argue that she does support a constitutional amendment but “would not be going into the states to overturn their state law.” Watch it:

LGBT

Five GOP Presidential Candidates Would Reinstate Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell

By Igor Volsky on Jun 13, 2011 at 10:16 pm

Earlier today, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said that he saw no roadblocks to formally repealing the ban on gay military members serving openly,” stressing that “if the military chiefs make their recommendation to move forward on the repeal before the end of the month, he will sign it.” Under that scenario, repeal would take effect as early as September. He added that “the training has gone well and people have been ‘pleasantly surprised’ at the lack of pushback from the troops.”

During tonight’s presidential debate in New Hampshire, however, five of the seven Republicans on stage rebuffed Gates and suggested that they would reinstate the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy:

– RICK SANTORUM: The military is “not for social experimentation.” Commanders should have a “system of discipline in place that punishes ‘bad behavior,’” he stressed.

– TIM PAWLENTY: Despite being the first presidential nominee to argue that he would bring back the policy and even go after the Congressional funding to implement repeal, Pawlenty stressed that he would listen to the commanders on the ground. “We’re in a nation in two wars. I think we need to pay deference to our military commanders, particularly our combatant commanders,” he said.

– MITT ROMNEY: “I believe it should have been kept in place until conflict was over.”

– NEWT GINGRICH: Even though the Pentagon’s comprehensive survey of the military attitudes found that 70 percent of service members responded they would be able to “work together to get the job done” with a gay service member in their immediate units, Gingrich managed to conclude that “the Army and the Marines overwhelmingly opposed changing [the policy].” He added that he would reinstate the policy, if asked to do so by the military.

– MICHELE BACHMANN: “I would keep the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy”.

Watch the exchange:

Only Ron Paul and Hermain Cain argued that they would not overturn the repeal.

NEWS FLASH

Amazon Ends Affiliation With Sites In Two States To Avoid Sales Taxes | Amazon.com has been fighting a high-profile war with a number of states that are considering closing the loophole that lets internet retailers like them avoid paying sales taxes. The internet giant has severed ties with websites in every state that has closed the loophole, except New York, and on Friday, Amazon ended its affiliation with sites in Connecticut and Arkansas, as those states try to close budget gaps by collecting sales tax from internet retailers.

By Alex Seitz-Wald on Jun 13, 2011 at 9:10 pm

Politics

Live-Blogging The GOP Primary Debate

By ThinkProgress on Jun 13, 2011 at 8:00 pm

9:59: Romney praises the rest of the field: “Anyone on this stage would be a better president than President Obama.”

9:58: Ron Paul can’t say whether there’s another person on stage that he would bring into his administration, needs to quiz them more about their views on the Fed Reserve.

9:46: Michele Bachmann criticizes President Obama for “leading from behind” in Libya. What would she say about Nelson Mandela who has also advocated for “leading from behind“?

9:44: Ron Paul doesn’t agree. “I wouldn’t wait for the generals. I’m the Commander-in-Chief. I’d bring them home as soon as possible!” Adds, “We can save hundreds of billions of dollars” by withdrawing from Afghanistan.

9:43: Romney says we should bring our troops home from Afghanistan when generals tell him we can hand the country off to the “Taliban military.” Then corrects himself, “Afghan military.”

9:40: Pawlenty finally shows some of the decisiveness that everyone has been waiting for. Unfortunately, it comes in response to the question “Coke or Pepsi?”

9:32: Herman Cain comes out for repealing birthright citizenship in direct violation of the 14th Amendment. When asked whether he thinks the children of illegal immigrants who are born in America should be citizens, he said, “I don’t think so.”

9:31: Pawlenty claims that birthright citizenship was created by “liberal justices.” But the first Supreme Court case recognizing birthright citizenship was in 1898. Pawlenty also suggested he would appoint justices who would roll back this more than 100 year old decision.

9:28: Ron Paul references the “border between Iraq and Afghanistan.” Which does not exist.

Read more

NEWS FLASH

Bolton: U.S. Should Have Taken Out Syria’s Assad After Saddam Fell | On Fox News today, war hawk John Bolton said that it’s in America’s interest to overthrow the regime in Syria but apparently the U.S. passed up a good opportunity to do so in 2003. “The best time to have done it would be right after we overthrew Saddam Hussein when we had hundreds of thousands of of American troops in Iraq,” he said. Watch:

Economy

JP Morgan Records Largest Profit Ever, While Community Devastated By Its Predatory Lending Sheds 1,000 Workers

By Zaid Jilani on Jun 13, 2011 at 7:00 pm

One of the many tragic stories of the Great Recession involves Jefferson County, Alabama. As Matt Taibbi explained in an article in Rolling Stone last year, mega bank JP Morgan Chase used a predatory refinancing deal on sewer bonds to reap billions while the local area was financially devastated.

Now, Jefferson County, still reeling from the effects of JP Morgan’s dirty deals, is moving to place nearly 1,000 public workers on administrative leave without pay, as the state Legislature failed last week to come to the municipality’s aid with any fiscal support. In doing so, the county hopes to save “just over $12 million.”

Yet while the public workers of Jefferson County will soon face the prospect of losing their wages and livelihoods through no fault of their own, JP Morgan Chase continues to rake in lavish profits. In 2010, the mega bank posted a profit of a whopping $17.4 billion; during this past quarter, the bank “reported the biggest quarterly profit in its history,” with a 67 percent rise in net income.

ThinkProgress has assembled the following graph laying out the bank’s net income in the first quarter of 2011 — $5.6 billion — next to the paltry $12 million Jefferson County cannot find to pay nearly a thousand of its hard-working public employees:

The savings that Jefferson County hopes to get from placing the thousand employees on unpaid extended leave amount to approximately 0.2 percent of JP Morgan’ Chase’s 2011 first quarter profits. Speaking of placing public employees on extended leave, County Commissioner David Carrington said, “It’s disappointing for citizens in light of the services that will be lost. Of course for [the families of the affected public workers], it’s going to be a lot more personal than that.” Ironically, Rep. Spencher Bachus (R-AL), who currently chairs the House Financial Services Committee, represents Jefferson County in Congress and is trying to slow down the regulation of derivates like those that decimated his constituents’ community.

Update

Amazingly, due to the county’s financial strains, “Sheriff Mike Hale will formally notify the Alabama Department of Public Safety today that sheriff’s deputies no longer will respond to traffic accidents beginning Saturday.”

Politics

Rep. Leonard Lance (R-NJ) Grilled By Constituents On Taxes, Health Reform, Medicare, And Planned Parenthood

By Lee Fang on Jun 13, 2011 at 6:35 pm

At a town hall in Westfield, NJ last Thursday, Rep. Leonard Lance (R-NJ) faced a torrent of critical questions from constituents. CranfordPatch reporter John Celock described the event, where Lance was quizzed on his support for reducing funds to Planned Parenthood, his vote to end Medicare, and on health reform.

One audience member ripped Lance for supporting Bush-era tax cuts for upper income families, and even volunteered to pay more:

“I pay a lot of taxes this year and I don’t have a problem paying more taxes,” an attendee said. “People who make a lot of money should make a contribution back to society.” He and other attendees proposed raising taxes for high-income earners and repealing the Bush-Era Tax Cuts.

As town hall attendees lobbed policy questions, Lance simply replied at times with political rebuttals. Asked about GE’s corporate tax avoiding, all Lance rebutted with a reminder that GE chairman Jeff Immelt has an appointment to a White House advisory board:

One attendee pointed to General Electric, the subject of a New York Times investigative story in March that revealed that G.E. paid no taxes in 2010 and claimed a tax benefit of $3.2 billion. “Those guys don’t pay a goddamn dime,” the attendee said to loud applause. “I apologize for swearing.”

Lance deflected the question, stating it would be better referred to Obama, who appointed G.E. chairman Jeffrey Immelt to lead an economic policy advisory board. He added that House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dave Camp, R-Mich., plans to hold hearings on corporate tax issues soon.

Lance’s dodgy responses sometimes lacked a factual basis. Asked why members of Congress are privileged with a health system protected with a regulated exchange and generous subsidies, Lance mocked the audience member and accused them of being in favor of “single-payer option”:

Members of the audience asked Lance about the health care coverage he receives as a member of Congress, arguing that all Americans should have access to similar medical benefits. “From a time an American is born, why can’t that person get the exact same benefits as a member of Congress?” one attendee said. “If you tell us what you get, why can’t we get it?”

Lance replied that it sounded like the attendee favored a single-payer or government-run option for healthcare – a response confirmed by loud applause from members of the gallery. The congressman went on to argue that health insurance should be provided by employers, not the government.

Although no video is available from the town hall, Lance was booed multiple times.

Alyssa

Closing Credits

By Alyssa Rosenberg on Jun 13, 2011 at 6:27 pm

-The Cryptonomicon apparently exists for real.

-The case for a dramedy category at awards shows.

-Occult detectives!

-Terry Pratchett wades into the assisted suicide debate.

-I probably would have enjoyed The Hunger Games more if Katniss had been sassier/more willing to consider keeping both Gale and Peeta around. I would pay these dudes to do Femme Fatale as a parody album about young adult novels, particularly if “How I Roll,” with its “Got nine lives like a kitty cat” chorus could be about Alanna of Trebond:

Climate Progress

USGS: Global Warming Drives Rockies Snowpack Loss Unrivaled in 800 Years, Threatens Western Water Supply

By Joe Romm on Jun 13, 2011 at 6:16 pm

Melting snow fields in the Rocky Mountains.

A US Geological Survey study released today suggests that snowpack declines in the Rocky Mountains over the last 30 years are unusual compared to the past few centuries. Prior studies by the USGS and other institutions attribute the decline to unusual springtime warming, more precipitation falling now as rain rather than snow and earlier snowmelt.

The warming and snowpack decline are projected to worsen through the 21st century, foreshadowing a strain on water supplies. Runoff from winter snowpack – layers of snow that accumulate at high altitude – accounts for 60 to 80 percent of the annual water supply for more than 70 million people living in the western United States.

That’s from a USGS news release for an important new study in Science, “The Unusual Nature of Recent Snowpack Declines in the North American Cordillera” (subs. req’d).

What’s most worrisome is that we now have three major trends driven by human emissions of greenhouse gases that threaten to significantly worsen drought and water problems in the West and Southwest:

  1. Less precipitation in many areas (see NCAR analysis warns we risk multiple, devastating global droughts even on moderate emissions path)
  2. Less snowpack, as this USGS study found
  3. Hotter temperatures (see SW could see a 60-year drought like that of 12th century — only hotter — this century)

Assuming the anti-science disinformers continue to block any serious action,  these catastrophic changes will last a long, long time (see NOAA: Climate change “largely irreversible for 1000 years,” with permanent Dust Bowls in Southwest and around the globe).

For the record, it was the possibility of losing the Sierra snowpack in the second half of the century that led our Nobel prize-winning Energy Secretary to warn in 2009, “Wake up,” America, “we’re looking at a scenario where there’s no more agriculture in California.”

Here’s more on the new study:

Read more

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