That’s the word out today and it sounds fairly damning for Jackson because how would folks come to Blago and promise this if it wasn’t backed up by Jesse Jr.? From Chicago Sun Times: Former Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s camp was told last year that U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. (D-Ill.) would raise up to $5 [...]

In the wake of the Iowa Supreme Court decision last week, combined with the subsequent Vermont legislative passage of same-sex marriage, there’s been a lot of talk, even amongst more conservative pro-same-sex marriage folks, about judicial activism and whether it’s the appropriate role of the courts to get involved in deciding social hot-button issues. There [...]

One thing to remember is that D.C.’s council only voted to recognize other state’s gay marriages. And maybe this is why they haven’t taken the next step. Due to D.C.’s strange system of governance, the District’s laws are subject to approval by Congress. If D.C. passes a gay marriage ordinance, the House Committee on Oversight [...]

More good news… Domestic partnerships are already legal in the nation’s capital. But yesterday’s vote, billed as an important milestone in gay rights, explicitly recognizes relocated gay married couples as married. The initial vote was 12-0. The unanimous vote sets the stage for future debate on legalizing same-sex marriage in the District and a clash [...]

It’s all done for Coleman, and yet… From Star Tribune: Democrat Al Franken today extended his lead over Republican Norm Coleman in Minnesota’s U.S. Senate election, after the counting of about 350 formerly rejected absentee ballots this morning. Franken captured 198 of the ballots, while Coleman took 111. The ballots added 87 votes to Franken’s [...]

And this time it was done through the legislative branch. So this is a much more significant win for equal rights advocates because people can’t pin this on “activist” judges. From WCAX: The Vt. Senate voted to override the governor’s veto of the same-sex marriage bill. This morning, the Senate voted 23 to 5 to [...]

A genuine surprise from the Hawkeye State today because the ruling was unanimous. Expect more of this type of thing to happen in the next couple years and challenge Obama’s opinion that gay marriage shouldn’t be legal… “The Iowa statute limiting civil marriage to a union between a man and a woman violates the equal [...]

A truly dumb move by St. Louis airport employees is recorded and shared here by Fox News… Is Missouri’s militia/Ron Paul tie still in full effect? One note, the commentator in the middle who tries to tie this to Obama’s economic policies at the very end was a truly hacky move. He didn’t need to [...]

As expected, it’s the “gateway drug” theory v. reality of human existence. Guess which one sounds more credible… I do still love Ron Paul in many ways, and I wish he wouldn’t have been mixed up in that remarkably dumb newsletter operation he was. Because then he’d be a viable third party candidate. Oh well.

For years I’ve been arguing that the government should simply get out of the institution of marriage all together, and some folks in Cali are trying to put that idea into motion. From The Herald: California’s top election official gave two Southern California college students the go-ahead Tuesday to start collecting signatures for a proposed [...]

I can’t believe this thing is still going on, and it’s now going to be decided by the courts…which is an awful way of doing this. But hey, if it’s good enough for the Oval Office… Still, Franken can’t be happy that this is how it’s going to go down. Talk about a cause for [...]

We all know Cramer has a big mouth, but back in 2006 he gets dangerously close to admitting that he has engaged in “fomenting” the market, which he calls “blatantly illegal.” First, most of the quote: You can’t foment. That’s a violation. [...] You can’t create an impression yourself that a stock’s down, but you [...]

I think they should just have another revote, but I’ve heard that’s a tough nut to crack because of costs and legal issues. So I understand why some want to lean on the courts. From Minnesota Independent: “The most obvious, clean resolution is resolution by the [current] three-judge court, with no appeal,” says [Guy] Charles, [...]

CNBC with a great look at the ins and outs of the “industry” in Marijuana, Inc. Listen, I can understand bans on harder narcotics, but not marijuana. Everybody knows that marijuana is FAR less dangerous to your health and the public’s safety than alcohol. I could literally go out right now and buy enough alcohol [...]

I honestly thought he’d have more problems, but it became pretty clear last week that the Marc Rich stuff really wasn’t as big of an issue as many thought. Long story short, he sailed through with 75 votes for and 21 against. NY Times has more… At one time, Republicans indicated that they wanted to [...]

Just when I didn’t think I could be shocked by the previous administration’s decisions… From Wash Post: President Obama’s plans to expeditiously determine the fates of about 245 terrorism suspects held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and quickly close the military prison there were set back last week when incoming legal and national security officials — [...]

I like the idea in theory, but I always thought that Governors replaced Senators because it’s too costly to have special elections and somebody needs to serve in the interim. Still, this seems like the type of amendment that could easily garner bi-partisan support. From Political Wire: The controversies surrounding some of the recent gubernatorial [...]

Also, the words “we don’t torture” will finally be true. From NY Times: The orders, which are the first steps in undoing detention policies of former President George W. Bush, rewrite American rules for the detention of terrorism suspects. They require an immediate review of the 245 detainees still held at the naval base in [...]

As promised, this is one of the first orders of business. And given that we eventually freed the majority of those we kidnapped and held indefinitely without access to legal counsel, this move is yet another signal that America is starting a new chapter. From AP: The U.S. moved Tuesday to halt the Guantanamo Bay [...]

If you know anything about the case of former border agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean, you’ll know that Bush’s commutation of the remaining amount of their sentence is justice being served. And let’s face it, if Scooter Libby got his sentence commuted, these guys should too. First, the backstory… Ramos and Compean were sentenced [...]