Women Born Transsexual

From Yes Magazine: http://tinyurl.com/42uvvrd

My neighbors and I know we can’t go back to the old economy. But what can we do to build a new one?

by Sarah Byrnes
posted Apr 20, 2011

On April 1, I sat down with a group of my neighbors—members of a newly formed Common Security Club in our Boston neighborhood—to watch Inside Job, the Academy Award-winning documentary about the 2008 economic meltdown. We were going for an April Fools Day theme: “Don’t get fooled again” by the bankers and executives who caused the crash.

For a lot of us, the theme hit home: “I have a feeling they are going to fool us again,” one person said. “We have the same CEOs, the same regulators. Are we just going to go around and around, from crash to a mild recovery to the next crash?”

It’s a level of vulnerability many of us just can’t feel comfortable with. In community centers, living rooms, and churches around the country, more than forty other groups gathered to view and discuss the documentary that day, seeking to better understand why the economic crisis happened—and how to make their communities more resilient in the future.

Inside Job exposes devastating greed and incompetence at the highest levels of government and the private sector. With a relentless barrage of facts, it shows how the “smartest people in the room” created the conditions for a huge economic collapse that they had no idea how to stop—but never paid a price for the destruction they caused in the lives of millions of Americans.

After the film, my neighbors and I talked about how difficult it is to be hopeful when the same exact people who caused the crash are still running the economy. We’re also concerned that the story we tell ourselves about the economy hasn’t fundamentally changed. So may of us expect things to go back to the way they were: an economy based on cheap oil and unbridled consumption.

But many others know that’s not an option. At my club the following Sunday, we talked about whether or not we want a “recovery.” People were clear that we want more jobs, fewer foreclosures, and less debt. But: “I don’t think we can go backwards to get what we want,” said one participant, the pastor of the church. “We need to take stock of our reality now, and figure out how to make it better.”

Continue reading at:   http://tinyurl.com/42uvvrd

From The Huffington Post: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/evan-wolfson/president-obama-on-the-fr_b_852200.html
Evan Wolfson
President, Freedom to Marry; author, ‘Why Marriage Matters’
April 21, 2011

Last night during a speech in which President Obama was ticking off the work still ahead for his administration, an audience member called him out on the freedom to marry. The president responded, “Our work is not finished.”

President Obama is right. The work — and even his own journey to support — is not finished. Freedom to Marry, with your help, is going to help the president get America where it needs to be.

Since we launched the “Say, I Do” campaign last month with an Open Letter to the President, over 86,000 Americans have signed on. They have added their voices to civil rights icons like NAACP Board Chair Emeritus Julian Bond and Helen Fabela Chavez; Hollywood stars such as Ellen DeGeneres, Jane Lynch, Anne Hathaway; athletes; high-profile business and technology leaders; and clergy — calling on the president to join the majority of Americans who support the freedom to marry for same-sex couples and their families.

President Obama has spoken about the gay and lesbian people in his life and their families and about how his feelings and position on the freedom to marry are “evolving.” Freedom to Marry knows that we can help fair-minded people — including President Obama — wrestling with questions and uncertainty, and change their hearts and minds. Later this spring, we will bring to the president the stories, images, and voices of Americans who want to help him complete his journey to fairness.

Continue reading at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/evan-wolfson/president-obama-on-the-fr_b_852200.html

From Physorg: http://www.physorg.com/news/2011-04-international-scientists-threat-wheat-rust.html

April 20, 2011

Researchers meeting at a scientific conference in Aleppo this week reported that aggressive new strains of wheat rust diseases – called stem rust and stripe rust – have decimated up to 40% of farmers’ wheat fields in recent harvests. Areas affected are North Africa, the Middle East, Central Asia and the Caucuses, including Syria, Egypt, Yemen, Turkey, Iran, Uzbekistan, Morocco, Ethiopia, and Kenya.

“These epidemics increase the price of food and pose a real threat to rural livelihoods and regional food security,” said Mahmoud Solh, Director General of the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA).

In most of the countries in Africa, the Middle East, and Central Asia and the Caucuses, where wheat can contribute more than 40% of people’s food calories and 20% of the protein, the epidemics cause economic hardship for farmers and their families.

More than 100 scientists and policymakers from 31 countries are meeting at the International Wheat Stripe Rust Symposium 18-20 April at ICARDA, in Aleppo, Syria, to discuss strategies for wheat rust surveillance and monitoring, development of rust-resistant wheat varieties, and crop diversity strategies to slow the progress of rust across large areas of Africa, the Middle East and Asia.

“Some of the countries affected by rust epidemics have invested very little in agricultural research and development,” said Hans Braun, director of the Global Wheat Program at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) in Mexico. At the meeting, he challenged policymakers to recognize the link between scientific research and food security and to invest more heavily in agricultural research.

Climate change, in terms of rising temperatures, and the timing and increasing variability of rainfall, is contributing to the spread and severity of rust diseases. Emerging races of rust are showing adaptations to extreme temperatures not seen before. Scientists around the globe are working on monitoring and surveillance of stem rust and stripe rust to insure rapid detection and reporting so farmers, policymakers, and agricultural research centers can respond more quickly to initial outbreaks.

“To combat the problem of wheat rusts, farmers in these regions need to adopt new varieties of wheat that have durable resistance to both stem and stripe rust,” said Ronnie Coffman, vice chair of the Borlaug Global Rust Initiative.

New rust resistant varieties are in the pipeline at international and national agricultural research centers. Breeders are selecting for other important characteristics including improved yield performance, drought tolerance, and regional suitability.

Continue reading at:   http://www.physorg.com/news/2011-04-international-scientists-threat-wheat-rust.html

From In These Times: http://www.inthesetimes.com/working/entry/7224/the_real_deficit_culprits_offshoring_and_corporate_tax_evasion/

By Jack Rasmus
April 21, 2011

What’s the connection between the 25 million Americans still jobless today, U.S. multinational corporations and the estimated $1.6 trillion 2012 budget deficit?

The deficit and budget cutting have been given massive amount of attention in the press. At least a dozen different proposals—from the Obama administration, Republicans in the House, Democrats in the Senate, deficit commissions,and others—are now debated daily. But as proposals and programs for deficit cutting at the expense of social programs proliferate, no one is discussing how creating jobs for the 25 million currently unemployed would essentially resolve the budget deficit and eliminate altogether the need to cut Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and other programs.

One of the major causes of current high, chronic levels of unemployment in the United States is offshoring by U.S. corporations. Less well known, however, is that these same multinational corporations are a significant cause of not only millions of lost jobs, but of trillions of dollars of lost tax revenue as well—thus contributing significantly to current and future budget deficits.

A recent report by the U.S. Commerce Dept., a pro-business source, indicated that big multinationals like General Electric, Caterpillar, and big tech and drug companies over the past decade reduced their American work forces by 2.9 million while increasing their jobs offshore by 2.4 million. Apart from the harm inflicted on US working families, this development has resulted in the loss of huge amounts of tax revenue to the federal government, contributing in a major way to the country’s current budget deficit and rising government debt levels.

For example, if one averages the total 2.9 million jobs lost in the U.S. over 10 years, and assumes an average pay of $43,000 a year over the decade, assuming further an average 20% personal income tax rate, the 2.9 job loss equates to an average annual loss in total income in the US Treasury of around $25 billion a year. That’s a total revenue loss of about $250 billion over the past decade alone.

That total does not include the loss of additional state and local tax revenue, or the additional federal revenue sharing with the states that was required the past decadeby the federal government to make up for the state-local tax revenue loss.

Continue reading at:    http://www.inthesetimes.com/working/entry/7224/the_real_deficit_culprits_offshoring_and_corporate_tax_evasion/

From The Business Insider: http://www.businessinsider.com/us-health-care-scam-2011-4

Michael Snyder, The American Dream| Apr. 12, 2011

What is the appropriate word to use when you find out that the top executive at the third largest health insurancecompany in America raked in 68.7 million dollars in 2010?

How is one supposed to respond when one learns that more than two dozen pharmaceutical companies make over a billion dollars in profits each year?  Is it okay to get angry when you discover that over 90 percent of all hospital bills contain “gross overcharges”?

Click here to see the facts >

Once upon a time, going into the medical profession was seen as a “noble” thing to do.  But now the health care industry in the United States has become one giant money making scam and it is completely dominated by health insurance companies, pharmaceutical corporations, lawyers and corporate fatcats.  In America today, just one trip to the hospital can cost you tens of thousands of dollars even if you do not stay for a single night.

The sad thing is that the vast majority of the money that you pay out for medical care does not even go to your doctor.  In fact, large numbers of doctors across the United States are going broke.  Rather, it is the “system” that is soaking up almost all of the profits.  We have a health care industry in the United States that is fundamentally broken and it needs to be rebuilt from the ground up.

Fuck you Maggie Gallagher andPorno Pete LaBarbera, you are nothing but a pair of bigots.  I hate you and everything you stand for.

You are my oppressor.  I hate not only you but all of your bigot followers.  I’m not some wimpy pacifist who is afraid to say mean things about you and your gang of neo-Nazi Christo-Fascist thugs.

There is not one drop of humanity in either of you.  You are more like an anti-Christ than a Christ.

You are reason enough for me to repudiate any religion or god.

From She Wired: http://www.shewired.com/Article.cfm?ID=27130

NOM’s Maggie Gallagher Claims She’s a Victim of Hatred and Intolerance

by SheWired Editors
Article Date: 04/21/2011 10:33 PM

Maggie Gallagher says she didn’t set out to attack the idea of marriage rights for same-sex couples — the issue simply came to the forefront when she was trying to create a “marriage culture.” What’s more, she says, she and her allies are victims of “hatred.”

<snip>

She also contended that opponents of same-sex marriage are unfairly characterized as intolerant: “You are like a bigot who is opposed to interracial marriage.” She painted her side of the debate as victimized, saying supporters of marriage rights for gay couples are “raising the cost of speaking out … by directing a relentless torrent of accusations and hatred against anyone who speaks, no matter how civilly, for marriage.”

Continue reading at: http://www.shewired.com/Article.cfm?ID=27130

And we hear from Porno Pig, Pete LaBarbera:

From Wayne Besen’s Truth Wins Out: http://www.truthwinsout.org/blog/2011/04/16105/

Hate Group Leader Concerned About Tone of Pro-Equality, Pro-Fairness Blog

Posted April 20th, 2011 by Evan Hurst

Peter LaBarbera, leader of the hate “group” known as Americans for Truth [sic] about Homosexuality, is very upset that GLAAD has given an award to the Joe.My.God blog, which routinely makes fun of Peter LaBarbera!  Tone matters, you guys! [No link, you know where Peter’s Online Leathersex Amusement Park is.]

Peter LaBarbera, president of Americans For Truth About Homosexuality (AFTAH), today assailed the blatant hypocrisy of GLAAD, a homosexual “anti-defamation” organization, for giving an award to Joe Jervis – who runs a viciously anti-Christian blog.

First off, Joe is an atheist. This is not in and of itself a breach of tone, as religion is not above criticism. EVEN Fundamentalist Christianity is completely fair game when it comes to criticizing religion. Guess who else is an atheist? I AM.

GLAAD (Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation) gave its 2011 Media Award for “Outstanding Blog” to Jervis, a New York-based homosexual atheist and creator of the blog “Joe.My.God.” – a daily compilation of homosexuality-related news. JMG is filled with name-calling and nasty barbs directed especially at religious conservatives who oppose homosexuality.

Yeah, but Joe doesn’t actually advocate taking fundamental constitutional rights away from unhinged wingnut conservatives. He just makes fun of them, like I do.

But if GLAAD, like AFTAH, is against hateful name-calling (AFTAH has condemned Fred Phelps of “God Hates Fags” notoriety)

Bully for you. You hold the exact same beliefs as the Phelps clan, so the difference in your rhetoric — Phelps says “God Hates Fags,” whereas you, Peter, are more wordy and annoying about it — is of little consequence.

For example, Jervis routinely uses the atheist term “Jeebus” in the place of Jesus to mock Christians…

Again, religion is not above criticism. Moreover, he’s not lying about Christians, and neither do I. Moreover, he doesn’t broadbrush all Christians with the same stripe, because he understands, as I do, that the idea that Peter LaBarbera speaks for all, most, or even half of Christians is pathetic wishful thinking.

Complete article at:  http://www.truthwinsout.org/blog/2011/04/16105/

The way to get people to stop thinking of you as a bigot is to stop being a bigot.

May I suggest looking to David Brock and  Louis Marinellias examples of people who left bigotry behind

From Bloomberg News: http://preview.bloomberg.com/news/2011-04-19/u-s-supreme-court-signals-rejection-of-state-climate-emissions-lawsuits.html

By Greg Stohr and William McQuillen
Apr 19, 2011

The U.S. Supreme Court signaled skepticism about a lawsuit by six states seeking to force five companies including American Electric Power Co. to cut their emissions of the gases that contribute to climate change.

Hearing arguments today in Washington, justices across the ideological spectrum said the Environmental Protection Agency was better equipped than a federal court to sort through the costs and benefits of reducing carbon emissions.

“Congress set up the EPA to promulgate standards for emissions,” Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg told the lawyer representing the six suing states. “The relief you’re seeking seems to me to set up a district judge, who does not have the resources, the expertise, as a kind of super EPA.”

The Obama administration joined the power industry in urging rejection of the suit, along with a related one being pressed by three land trusts. The other defendants include Xcel Energy Inc. (XEL), Duke Energy Corp. (DUK) and Southern Co. (SO), and the government-owned Tennessee Valley Authority.

A ruling against the states would be a boost to companies beyond the power industry. Trade groups representing automakers, oil companies, farmers, mining companies, chemical companies and manufacturers all are urging the court to dismiss the suits, in some cases saying their members might face similar claims.

EPA Rules

The states, whose ranks include New York and California, sued in 2004, invoking both state and federal law. The Supreme Court case focuses on the federal law claim.

Continue reading at: http://preview.bloomberg.com/news/2011-04-19/u-s-supreme-court-signals-rejection-of-state-climate-emissions-lawsuits.html

In the Robert Rodriguez movie “Machete”, the lead character “Machete” played by Danny Trejo, utters the famous or perhaps infamous line, “Machete, don’t text!”

Like Machete, I don’t text or Tweet either.  Don’t bother sending me text messages because I don’t read those either.

Therefore it should not come as a surprise that, I don’t want a stinkin’ iPhone or Blackberry or ‘Droid.

I don’t spend hours pouring over a phone playing games. (I have a ‘puter for that one).  I have an actual GPS in the car.

I don’t even use the phone’s camera.  Why would I with both a compact digital and a DSLR?

I use the phone to make freakin’ phone calls.  I almost never make those calls while driving.

If that makes me a friend of Ned Ludd, so be it.

I don’t wander through life oblivious to my environment because I am wearing ear buds either as that violates a major martial arts rule of self defense.  Be aware of your environment so you can avoid danger.

So why am I not surprised to learn people are paying big bucks so they can carry around a device that lets the police and other agencies track them?

I mean I’m pretty oblivious when it comes to noticing how I get used as a willing participant in my own oppression and I’m only slightly more aware of the corporate mind fucking that gets us to buy expensive crap on credit thereby increasing the hold the rich have on us, but I read enough to question authority and I wouldn’t have one of those Smart Phones if my service provider gave it to me with six months free feature usage.

I don’t know about others but, there is something about the mentality of “If you’ve got nothing to hide, you’ve got nothing to fear.” that just plan seems incomparable with any sort of concept of personal freedom.

Ripped from Today’s headlines…

From Truth Dig: http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/starship_america_20110419/

Starship Amerika

By Juan Cole
April 19, 2011

President Barack Obama is actually siding with police who want to use GPS devices to track you without a warrant. It always disturbed me when on “Star Trek” the captain asked the ship’s computer where a crew member was and was told the person’s exact location. Even civilians such as the ship’s physician and the empathy counselor were not immune from these inquiries, the answers to which could after all sometimes have been embarrassing. Is America heading toward being one big star ship, where government officials can casually inquire at will into our whereabouts and private doings?

Among the many elements of the Obama administration that have disappointed civil libertarians is its interest in spying on Americans. The Bush administration had instituted massive warrantless wiretapping and gathering of telephone records, with the complicity of most telecom corporations. Those who care about the Bill of Rights had hoped that Eric Holder’s Department of Justice would take a stand for the Fourth Amendment, which should be on the endangered species list along with the golden tree frog and the St. Helena dragonet.

The administration is appealing a Washington, D.C., federal appeals court ruling that threw out the case that law enforcement had built against a suspected cocaine distributor because the officers attached a global positioning satellite tracking device to his automobile without a warrant and then followed his movements for a whole month. That they tracked the suspect for so long without bothering to involve a judge was one basis for the ruling.

Supporters of warrantless surveillance of this sort argue that a person’s movements in public are not protected by the Fourth Amendment. But GPS tracking is very precise and can follow a car everywhere—onto farms or estates and into enclosed garages on private property. If there is evidence that a crime is being committed in, say, a garage, then a warrant should be obtained from a judge. In the absence of such evidence it is unconstitutional for the government to monitor the precise location of a piece of private property being driven on or parked on private property.

Continue reading at: http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/starship_america_20110419/

From The Guardian UK: http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2011/apr/20/iphone-tracking-prompts-privacy-fears

iPhone keeps record of everywhere you go

Privacy fears raised as researchers reveal file on iPhone that stores location coordinates and timestamps of owner’s movements

Charles Arthur
guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 20 April 2011

Security researchers have discovered that Apple’s iPhone keeps track of where you go – and saves every detail of it to a secret file on the device which is then copied to the owner’s computer when the two are synchronised.

The file contains the latitude and longitude of the phone’s recorded coordinates along with a timestamp, meaning that anyone who stole the phone or the computer could discover details about the owner’s movements using a simple program.

For some phones, there could be almost a year’s worth of data stored, as the recording of data seems to have started with Apple’s iOS 4 update to the phone’s operating system, released in June 2010.

“Apple has made it possible for almost anybody – a jealous spouse, a private detective – with access to your phone or computer to get detailed information about where you’ve been,” said Pete Warden, one of the researchers.

Only the iPhone records the user’s location in this way, say Warden and Alasdair Allan, the data scientists who discovered the file and are presenting their findings at the Where 2.0 conference in San Francisco on Wednesday. “Alasdair has looked for similar tracking code in [Google’s] Android phones and couldn’t find any,” said Warden. “We haven’t come across any instances of other phone manufacturers doing this.”

Simon Davies, director of the pressure group Privacy International, said: “This is a worrying discovery. Location is one of the most sensitive elements in anyone’s life – just think where people go in the evening. The existence of that data creates a real threat to privacy. The absence of notice to users or any control option can only stem from an ignorance about privacy at the design stage.”

Continue reading at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2011/apr/20/iphone-tracking-prompts-privacy-fears

And here’s the reaction of a real freedom loving Democrat, Al Franken

From AmericaBlog: http://networkedblogs.com/gWZvs

Sen. Franken calls for investigation of Apple iPhone spying

by Gaius Publius
4/21/2011

CNN:

Democratic Sen. Al Franken, Minnesota, fired off a letter [pdf] to Apple CEO Steve Jobs late Wednesday demanding to know why the company’s iPhones and iPads are reportedly compiling secret data tracking customers’ whereabouts when they use or carry their devices.

A self-described hacker and a former Apple employee say they recently discovered secret lines of code in Apple’s latest operating system known as IOS-4 and, in an article released Wednesday, say it contains data showing consumers’ whereabouts every time they use or even just carry a web enabled iPhone or iPad. … The Minnesota Democrat wants to know why Apple is collecting the data, how it is generated, why it’s not encrypted, and why Apple customers, “were never affirmatively informed of the collection and retention of their location data.”

Franken also asks Jobs to explain who this information has been disclosed to, including Apple.

This is a big deal, and quite possibly the tip of the iceberg. As John said originally, this has Homeland Security written all over it.

Our original coverage is here; click for the background and more information on the app that lets you see this hidden file. Our follow-up is here, on how this hidden iPhone data appears to be accessed by Michigan police during traffic stops.

Stay tuned.

GP

From BBC: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-13158138

21 April 2011

A Spanish court has banned an atheists’ group from marching through the capital Madrid as the city’s Catholics celebrate Easter Week.

The Madrid superior court of justice upheld a ban imposed last week by the Madrid region authorities, who had argued the march could provoke clashes.

One of the march’s organisers said the ban showed there was no separation of Church and state in Spain.

The march would have coincided with Maundy Thursday religious processions.

Imposing the original ban, the Madrid region interior ministry noted the route of the proposed march through the capital’s Lavapies district would pass by several Catholic churches.

It argued that clashes might break out with conservative Catholics.

Another reason given for banning the march was the appearance of lewd promotional posters for the event that bore slogans such as the “fraternity of saint paedophilia”, the Spanish newspaper El Pais reports.

However, organisers of the march repeatedly disassociated themselves from the posters.

Luis Vega, president of the Madrileno Association of Atheists and Freethinkers, called the ban “worrying” and “a step back to the beginning of the transition [to democracy from the Franco years] for the country”.

Showing total disregard for either the emerging trend towards accepting Marriage Equality or any desire to save the tax payer’s hard earned dollars John Boehner wishes to send tax payers dollars in a quixotic crusade in support of the decidedly unconstitutional Defense of Marriage Act. (DOMA)

Substitute another minority group for LGBT/T people and the unconstitutionality as well as sheer un-Americanism of DOMA becomes readily apparent.  Would a law banning marriage between African American people be constitutional?  I think not.

From The New York Times: http://fivethirtyeight.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/04/20/gay-marriage-opponents-now-in-minority/

Gay Marriage Opponents Now in Minority

April 20, 2011

A poll from CNN this week is the latest to show a majority of Americans in favor of same-sex marriage, with 51 percent saying that marriages between gay and lesbian couples “should be recognized by the law as valid” and 47 percent opposed.

This is the fourth credible poll in the past eight months to show an outright majority of Americans in favor of gay marriage. That represents quite a lot of progress for supporters of same-sex marriage. Prior to last year, there had been just one survey — a Washington Post poll conducted in April 2009 — to show support for gay marriage as the plurality position, and none had shown it with a majority.

As we noted last August, support for gay marriage seems to have been increasing at an accelerated pace over the past couple of years. Below is an update to the graph from last year’s article, which charts the trend from all available public polls on same-sex marriage going back to 1988.

Continue reading at: http://fivethirtyeight.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/04/20/gay-marriage-opponents-now-in-minority/

From Politico: http://readersupportednews.org/off-site-news-section/53-53/5668-boehner-wants-justice-department-to-fund-fight-for-defense-of-marriage-act

Boehner wants Justice Department to fund fight for Defense of Marriage Act

Josh Gerstein
April 18, 2011

House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) wants the Justice Department to pick up the tab for defending the Defense of Marriage Act in the wake of President Barack Obama’s decision that the executive branch will no longer defend a portion of the 1996 law banning federal recognition of same-sex marriage.

Boehner sent House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) a letter Monday asking her to support a reallocation of funds from the Justice Department to the House to cover the defense of the statute.

“The burden of defending DOMA, and the resulting costs associated with any litigation that would have otherwise been born by DOJ, has fallen to the House,” Boehner wrote. “Obviously, DOJ’s decision results in DOJ no longer needing the funds it would have otherwise expended defending the constitutionality of DOMA. It is my intent that those funds be diverted to the House for reimbursement of any costs incurred by and associated with the House, and not DOJ, defending DOMA.”

Pelosi responded Monday afternoon with a letter asking Boehner to answer her questions about how much the defense is expected to cost.

Continue reading at: http://readersupportednews.org/off-site-news-section/53-53/5668-boehner-wants-justice-department-to-fund-fight-for-defense-of-marriage-act

From Care2: http://www.care2.com/causes/civil-rights/blog/boehner-hires-lawyer-to-defend-doma-to-the-tune-of-5-million/

by: Steve Williams
April 20, 2011

With two federal cases concerning the Defense of Marriage Act looming, House Speaker John Boehner has hired former Solicitor General Paul Clement, a top appellate litigator during the Bush years, to defend the federal gay marriage ban. Given that Clement’s annual salary is rumored to be around $5 million, it’s unlikely this defense comes cheap.

From Metro Weekly:

Today, the House of Representatives Bipartisan Legal Advisory Group, through Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), announced that it would be intervening in cases challenging the Defense of Marriage Act’s constitutionality, a move authorized earlier this year by the Republican members of the BLAG. Word then came that former Solicitor General Paul Clement — the top appellate litigator during part of the George W. Bush administration — will be serving as the outside counsel to the House BLAG in its DOMA defense, news that preceded a court filing by Clement seeking to allow the BLAG to intervene in a DOMA challenge.

Boehner, in a letter to Minority Leader Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) referencing the Feb. 23 decision by the Justice Department that it would no longer defend Section 3 of DOMA in court, wrote, “The burden of defending DOMA, and the resulting costs associated with any litigation that would have otherwise been born by DOJ, has fallen to the House.”

Pelosi, however, shot back, writing, “Unfortunately, your letter did not respond to the central question in my March 11th letter: the cost to taxpayers of hiring outside legal counsel. Again, I am requesting that you disclose the cost of hiring outside counsel for the 12 cases where DOMA is being challenged.”

Continue reading at: http://www.care2.com/causes/civil-rights/blog/boehner-hires-lawyer-to-defend-doma-to-the-tune-of-5-million/

From CBS News: http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-20055377-503544.html

by Brian Montopoli
April 19, 2011

The Republican-led House has agreed to pay a law firm up to $520 per hour to defend the Defense of Marriage Act banning federal recognition of same sex marriage, according to a contract posted by Politico.

Some quick background: The Defense of Marriage Act, the 15-year-old federal law that defines marriage as being between one man and one woman, is currently facing a legal challenge in New York. Traditionally the federal government defends challenges to federal law, but not in this case – after defending it for two years, the Obama administration announced in February it would no longer defend the law because it believes it is unconstitutional.

That decision left House Republicans, who largely oppose same-sex marriage, without “any choice” but to step in and defend the law, in the words of House Speaker John Boehner. In a letter earlier this week, Boehner asked for Department of Justice funds to be diverted to the House to pay for the costs of the defense, though that is not likely to happen.

The contract shows that the House has agreed to pay the firm King & Spalding up to $500,000 for its services in defending DOMA. It also says that Paul Clement, a partner at the firm, “will be principally responsible for conducting the Litigation.”

Complete article at: http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-20055377-503544.html