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LGBT

House Republicans Vote To Continue Defending Unconstitutional DOMA

By Josh Israel on Jan 3, 2013 at 6:16 pm

Speaker of the House John Boehner (R-OH)

Speaker of the House John Boehner (R-OH)

On a 228-196 vote, the Republican-controlled U.S. House of Representatives adopted a rules package for the 113th Congress that explicitly authorizes the House’s legal arm to spend taxpayer dollars to defend the unconstitutional Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA). They embraced this unnecessary spending minutes after newly re-elected Speaker of the House John Boehner (R-OH) warned that the rising national debt was an “anchor” weighing down the American Dream.

Since its passage in 1996, DOMA has defined marriage on a federal level as between one man and one woman, purposefully excluding gay and lesbian couples. DOMA also denies same-sex couples who have legally wed in their states countless federal benefits and protections, such as Social Security survivor benefits if one partner dies, and allows other states to refuse to recognize those unions.

The rules authorize the Bipartisan Legal Advisory Group, controlled by Boehner, Republican Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA), and Republican Whip Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) to:

(i) to act as successor in interest to the Bipartisan Legal Advisory Group of the 112th Congress with respect to civil actions in which it intervened in the 112th Congress to defend the constitutionality of section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act (1 U.S.C. 7) or related provisions of titles 10, 31, and 38, United States Code, including in the case of Windsor v. United States, 833 F. Supp.2d 394 (S.D.N.Y. June 6, 2012), aff’d, 699 F.3d 169 (2d Cir. Oct. 18, 2012), cert. granted, No. 12–307 (Dec. 7, 2012), cert. pending No. 12–63 (July 16, 2012) and 12-ll (Dec.___2012);

(ii) to take such steps as may be appropriate to ensure continuation of such civil actions; and

(iii) to intervene in other cases that involve a challenge to the constitutionality of section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act or related provisions of titles 10, 31, and 38, United States Code.

(B) Pursuant to clause 8 of rule II, the Bipartisan Legal Advisory Group continues to speak for, and articulate the institutional position of, the House in all litigation matters in which it appears, including in Windsor v. United States.

The House Republican leadership has already authorized $2 million in payments to Bancroft PLLC and former Solicitor General Paul Clement (R) for their legal services in defending the 1996 law. The U.S. Department of Justice stopped defending DOMA in February 2011 after determining the law to be in conflict with the U.S. Constitution.

An array of House Democrats spoke out against the provisions, including Rep. Jared Polis (D-CO), who called the bill a “typical tax-and-spend” Republican policy. Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) said in a statement that “BLAG does not speak for all Members of the House of Representatives and we will continue to oppose this wasteful use of taxpayer funds to defend DOMA.” Just one Republican, Rep. Walter Jones (R-NC), joined the Democrats in opposing the package.

Both Republicans who have endorsed DOMA repeal, Reps. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL) and Richard Hanna (R-NY), sided with their party leadership to adopt the rules.

NEWS FLASH

House Republicans Block Early Voting Bill | Earlier this afternoon, the newly sworn in House of Representatives passed, on a largely party-line vote, a Republican-backed rules package which authorizes a House body to continue to defend the anti-gay Defense of Marriage Act and which embraces a continued witchhunt against Attorney General Eric Holder. Immediately before this vote, however, House Democrats attempted to insert the SIMPLE Voting Act of 2013, which would require early voting for 10 hours a day for a period of 15 days before a federal election, and which would require polling places to provide sufficient voting systems and poll workers to ensure that no voter waits more than one hour to vote, into the rules package. This voting rights bill was defeated 194-229, also on a largely party line vote.

Health

The Dangerous Link Between Lead Emissions And Crime Rates

By Jeff Spross on Jan 3, 2013 at 5:55 pm

From 1960 to the early 1990s, the rate of violent crime in the U.S. rocketed from 150 to 750 per 100,000 people. Then it dropped just as precipitously, falling below 450 per 100,000 by 2009. A host of theories were been put forward to explain the turnaround: New crime fighting practices, economic booms and slumps, the crack epidemic, legalized abortion leading to fewer unwanted children, prison expansion, gun control, the list goes on. All of them have been knocked down by econometric and statistical analysis, or by the failure of follow-up studies to replicate results. But, as Kevin Drum lays out in a new piece for Mother Jones, the public health risks posed by lead emissions could be the missing link.

Lead emissions from cars increased by a factor of four between the late 1930s and the early 1970s, then plummeted back down with the introduction of unleaded gasoline, the catalytic converter, and stricter regulations. Allow a 23-year time lag to give the lead time to work its way into people’s bodies, and those changes in lead emissions explain 90 percent of the changes in violent crime, according to a 2000 paper by economist Rick Nevin:

Nevin also replicated his study at the international level and found that Canada, Australia, Britain, Finland, Italy, France, New Zealand and West Germany all fit the same pattern.

Since then, other researchers have also demonstrated the connection between crime and lead in six different U.S. cities. In New Orleans, connections emerged on the basis of individual neighborhoods. Lead emissions didn’t drop uniformly across the country — and in the states where lead reductions occurred slowly, there was a slower drop in crime than in the states where lead was reduced more quickly.

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Economy

International Monetary Fund Admits It Severely Underestimated Cost Of Austerity

By Zack Beauchamp on Jan 3, 2013 at 5:40 pm

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) released research today suggesting that it had significantly underestimated the damage European austerity would do to EU growth rates. The paper, by top researcher Olivier Blanchard and staff economist Daniel Leigh, surveyed IMF forecasts released in 2010, when many European nations implemented significant austerity measures.

Most estimates assumed, roughly, that every 1 percent of GDP in spending cuts or tax hikes would lower a country’s GDP growth rate by .5 percent. But it turns out that the costs were closer to 1.5 percent — three times the IMF prediction:

Our forecast data come from the spring 2010 IMF World Economic Outlook (IMF, 2010c), which includes forecasts of growth and fiscal consolidation—measured by the change in the structural fiscal balance—for 26 European economies. We find that a 1 percentage point of GDP rise in the fiscal consolidation forecast for 2010-11 was associated with a real GDP loss during 2010-11 of about 1 percent, relative to forecast. Figure 1 illustrates this result using a scatter plot. A natural interpretation of this finding is that multipliers implicit in the forecasts were, on average, too low by about 1.

As the Wall Street Journal noted, the IMF wasn’t alone in this estimate: “The European Commission, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development and the Economist Intelligence Unit also appear to have made roughly the same blunder.” This comports with the Blanchard and Leigh’s finding that the cost really was closer to .5 percent in the past, with the exception of the 1930s, when it was roughly 1.6. Economists, as the Journal suggests, may simply have failed to differentiate between data from financial crises and other data.

This isn’t the first time high-level IMF officials have raised red flags about the effect of austerity on growth. Fund director Christine Lagarde has, in response to the eminent failure of European austerity as compared to American stimulus, suggested that European countries need to deprioritize debt reduction in favor of measures that actually boost economic growth.

The United States is poised to enact a significant austerity package in 2013, even by European standards, due to an increase in the payroll tax and the still-looming spending cuts that were part of the “fiscal cliff.”

Justice

Violence Against Women Rages On

By Guest Blogger on Jan 3, 2013 at 5:30 pm

Our guest blogger is Julie Ajinkya, Policy Analyst for Progress 2050 Action at the Center for American Progress Action Fund

Protesters in India are demanding justice for the 23-year-old medical student who ultimately died as the result of a brutal gang-rape in the nation’s capital on December 16 by calling for a nationwide shutdown today. The savage attack immediately sparked mass protests across the country, with thousands of Indians pouring out onto the streets, continuing to demand that the government take swift action not only against the perpetrators, but also to make the country safer for women in general.

Protestors have said that political leaders would not be allowed to take part in the bandh, lest the public outrage become exploited for political gain. It remains to be seen whether Indian politicians will take the public cry for better protection of women’s rights seriously.

Here at home, some of our political leaders have decided to speak up in the fight to end violence against women — except, in the case of the House GOP, they’re on the wrong side of that fight. On Tuesday night, House Majority Leader Eric Canter actually killed the legislation that has done a huge amount to help victims of such violence. This is first time since its original passage in 1994 that the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) has not been reauthorized, despite a long history of bipartisan support.

Why did this important piece of legislation die? Because some congressional Republicans opposed extending protections to three groups: Native American, undocumented, and LGBT victims of violence. If you thought that we had reached the point where sexual assault was finally considered an assault on humanity, no matter whom it involved, you were wrong — according to the House GOP.

The war on women is not over, folks. In fact, while we celebrate the gender gap that helped re-elect the President, the record number of women ushered into the Senate, and the host of restrictive laws against reproductive rights that were defeated, we cannot overlook the battles that persist to turn our country back in time.

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Climate Progress

Top 12 Most Viewed Climate Progress Posts Of 2012

By Joe Romm on Jan 3, 2013 at 5:03 pm

While every major denier blog has seen stagnating or declining traffic, Climate Progress had its best year yet in 2012. Overall, traffic is up 30% to 50% on most days.

The reasons for the growth are clear: The partnership with ThinkProgress and the rapid growth of our following on social media — something the deniers have utterly failed to match. I guess they are anti-social as well as anti-science!

Social media, such as Twitter and Facebook, plus mobile devices, are our most rapidly growing sources of traffic. Social media is particularly effective at disseminating headlines, which are the most important part of any blog post, as I discuss in my book Language Intelligence.

The power of social media is clear from a brief review of our most widely viewed posts, which are inevitably the ones that get the most retweets on Twitter and most “Likes” on Facebook. Climate Progress gets a level of retweets and Likes typically seen on websites with far higher nominal traffic.

Given that 2012 was a very lively presidential election year, it’s no surprise that the top post was:

That post had more than 100,000 page views — and a remarkable 3570 retweets and 43,000+ likes. The retweets alone mean that the headline probably went to more than 1 million people through Twitter. When you throw in Facebook and search engines, plus the hundreds of reposts and excerpts by news aggregators, I wouldn’t be surprised if that headline was seen by more than 2 million people.

Climate science came in a close second with this post:

That piece also had more than 100,000 page views — plus 1735 retweets and more than 8,900 Likes!

Here are the other top posts of the year:

Even that last post, the 12th most viewed Climate Progress post of 2012, had 1330 retweets and 2.9k Likes, and the headline may well have been seen by over one million people!

NEWS FLASH

Minnesota Senator Promises Marriage Equality Bill | Minnesota state senator Scott Dibble (DFL) has promised that the Democratic Farmer Labor Party will advance marriage equality legislation, but not for a month or two. Minnesota Democrats were very successful in the 2012 election, in part because Republican lawmakers allowed a government shut down when they refused to adequately fix the budget deficit. One of the distractions they pursued instead was a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage, which failed to pass in November.

Economy

More Evidence Shows That Pro Sports Teams Don’t Boost The Economy

By Pat Garofalo on Jan 3, 2013 at 4:30 pm

The owners of professional sports teams, along with their favorite politicians, often claim that sports franchises are good for the local economy. That assertion is then used to extract subsidies for new sports facilities (or to make upgrades to existing stadiums or arenas). Case in point, the National Football Leagues Atlanta Falcons want $400 million in public money for a new stadium.

But according to research published by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, having a pro sports team in town may be a net negative for the local economy. Paul Staudohar, professor emeritus of business administration at California State University, found in an examination of last year’s National Basketball Association lockout that shutting down sports leagues can be good for a city’s finances:

Even if the 2011–2012 season had been canceled, it likely would have had little, if any, effect on the economic health of the cities that host NBA teams. A 2001 study of past work stoppages found that, in 37 metropolitan area economies with professional sports franchises, there was no overall financial impact. Indeed, the cities appeared to perform better financially in years that games were canceled. There were other options that people spent their entertainment dollars on, in a substitution effect, while security needed for public safety at sporting events cost less because games were not played.

Hosting the NCAA Final Four tournament has also been found to be a net negative for a city. So perhaps cities kvetching over the NHL lockout don’t have as much to worry about as they think (though of course individual businesses can be substantially harmed). Recent data also shows that Canada’s economy is taking an extremely slight hit due to the NHL stoppage.

Health

First Republican-Controlled States Progress Toward Implementing Obamacare

By Tara Culp-Ressler on Jan 3, 2013 at 4:15 pm

Despite the fact that President Obama’s reelection ensures his landmark health care reform law is here to stay, intransigent Republican governors across the country have been digging in their heels against Obamacare. GOP officials continue to refuse to implement two of the law’s most important provisions — expanding the Medicaid program and setting up state-run health exchange markets — even as deadlines are fast approaching.

But a few Republican leaders are inching toward reform. On Thursday, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services approved the first four Republican-controlled states to run their own health insurance exchanges, the online marketplaces that will allow Americans to purchase insurance starting in 2014. HHS has given New Mexico, Nevada, Utah, and Idaho the conditional approval to continue working toward setting up their exchanges this year. The Democratic-controlled California, Hawaii, and Vermont also earned HHS approval to move forward.

This brings the list of states working toward health exchanges up to 18. Two additional states, Arkansas and Delaware, will operate partnership exchanges with the federal government.

On the other hand, stubborn Republican governors in states like Florida and Texas have refused to participate in Obamacare, despite the fact that the health exchanges are projected to extend coverage to 25 million Americans by the end of the decade. When the deadline for submitting a state health exchange plan came and went last month, 30 governors decided not to turn one in. States still have until February 15 to choose to follow in Arkansas’ and Delaware’s footsteps and opt for a partnership with the federal government.

And ultimately, the GOP politicians who aren’t putting in any work toward an exchange in order to continue resisting Obamacare are making a purely symbolic statement. The states that refuse to set up their own exchanges simply cede their control to the federal government, which will step in and set up one for them.

Justice

Montana Medical Marijuana Grower Will Receive A Minimum Sentence Of Five Years

By Jeff Spross on Jan 3, 2013 at 4:00 pm

Chris Williams, interviewed in "Code of the West."

Chris Williams, a medical marijuana grower from Montana, faces at least five years in federal prison after being caught up in a March 2011 federal raid on 26 dispensaries throughout the state. Montana voters passed an initiative in 2004 allowing distribution for medical needs, but marijuana remains illegal under federal law. Due to previous policies announced by the Obama Administration that federal resources would not focus on individuals operating within state law, Williams and his associates believed their medical marijuana business, “Montana Cannabis,” was in the legal clear. But after complaints from local citizens who could see marijuana plants being grown in greenhouses, the federal government decided to crack down.

Though Williams reportedly never handled them himself, several firearms were also found during the raid on Montana Cannabis. Assistant U.S. Attorney Joseph Taggard reasoned the weapons were used to protect the business’ operation — though Williams’ lawyer, Michael Donahoe, said they were the individual possessions of the other employees — and as a result charges of possessing a firearm in the furtherance of drug trafficking were added to the initial drug trafficking charges. The combined effect brought the total mandatory minimum sentence Williams was facing to over 80 years.

Eventually, the government proposed a deal reducing Williams’ minimum to 10 years in exchange for waiving his right to appeal. Williams initially refused the offer. But when a new deal was put forward in December of 2012, reducing the minimum to 5 years, Williams relented. He said his primary concern was for his 16-year-old son, a freshman at Montana State University: The new minimum holds out at least the possibility that Williams will be out of jail in time to attend his son’s college graduation.

Williams and his associates — Tom Daubert, Chris Lindsey, and Richard Flor — envisioned Montana Cannabis as a “gold standard” for medical marijuana dispensaries, and regularly gave tours to local and state politicians and law enforcement officials. Daubert, who has advocated for medical marijuana reform for years, was interviewed by ThinkProgress in October 2012 about his experiences. He and Lindsey both accepted plea deals to reduce their sentences, and had to testify against Williams at his trial as part of their agreements with prosecutors.

The 68-year-old Flor, who suffered from multiple medical problems including dementia and depression, was sentenced to five years in prison. He died in custody this past August.

Of all the people caught up in the March 2011 federal crackdown, Williams is the only one who took his case all the way to trial. In a letter to the Helena Independent Record, Williams wrote that his initial refusal to take a plea deal was a matter of principle. “I have decided to fight the federal government, because for me not defending the things that I know are right is dishonorable,” the letter read in part. “Every citizen has a responsibility to fight for what is right, even if it seems like the struggle will be lost.

Tom Daubert was one of the subjects of an award-winning documentary, “Code of the West,” and the filmmakers also shot a mini-documentary on Williams’ story for The New York Times.

An online petition was started for the White House to grant Chris Williams a full pardon. It met its December 12 deadline, garnering the 25,000 signatures needed for a response from the Obama Administration. As of November last year, President Obama had pardoned 22 people and given one commutation — a smaller total than any president since John Adams.

(Hat tip to Reason’s Jacob Sullum.)

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