A day after Rachel Maddow went on the air to give the speech she said President Obama should have given Tuesday about the Gulf oil spill, the MSNBC host sat down with the president for lunch at the White House along with a handful of other members of the press.
Nelson said that while there could be a flurry of action by activists as a result of District Court Judge Vaughn Walker’s decision, she doesn’t expect anything substantial or noteworthy to come about politically.
“I don’t see any real immediate response legislatively no matter what the Prop 8 decision looks like,” she said. “In some cases, what legislators can do is start the ball rolling. But that doesn’t necessarily mean that there’s going to be any real immediate consequence to it.”
Five states and the District of Columbia allow for same-sex marriage. Other states have civil union laws.
But for 30 states, Nelson said, it will be next to impossible to get legislation on the table because those states have the Defense of Marriage Act on the books. Enacted by Congress in 1996, the act bars federal recognition of same-sex marriage and allows states the right to do so.
"I regret the impact that my statement this morning implied that BP should not pay for the consequences of their decisions and actions in this incident," he said.
"I am shocked by Congressman Joe Barton's reprehensible comments that the government should apologize for the 'shakedown' of BP. BP has caused the greatest ecological and environmental disaster our nation has ever seen. Mr. Barton's remarks are out of touch with this tragedy and I feel his comments call into question his judgment and ability to serve in a leadership on the Energy and Commerce Committee. He should step down as Ranking Member of the Committee," said Miller.
A five-member firing squad at the Utah State Prison took aim and fired .30-caliber bullets at a target pinned on the chest of Ronnie Lee Gardner, a convicted murderer, just after midnight on Friday.
Mr. Gardner ate his last meal on Tuesday, prison officials said, having decided to fast prior to his death. The meal included steak, lobster tail, apple pie, vanilla ice cream and 7-Up, all prepared and served at the Utah State Prison, where the execution took place, about 20 miles south of Salt Lake City. After being moved to an observation cell on Wednesday night, Mr. Gardner spent his time sleeping, reading and watching the “Lord of The Rings” trilogy...
"Even as a pullback of American troops marks a winding down of the war, more and more Iraqis are seeking medical treatment for trauma-induced mental illnesses, and the medical community is unable to keep up."
"Across Iraq, 100 psychiatrists are available to serve a population of about 30 million people, Iraq's psychiatric association says. Many people self-medicate, and prescription drug abuse is now the number one substance abuse problem in Iraq. The most abused drug is called Artane, known generically as trihexyphenidyl but referred to in Iraq as the "pill of courage," with a marked sedative effect."
"At a long work table, Humaidi gathered the men and women to sing and to recite poetry. The songs often circled back to grief, abandonment and fear."
Dhia Hardan, 38, suffers from manic depression. He comes to the hospital for very short stays to play music for the patients and collect his medication. He hears the whispers in the streets about his illness. He sees the looks of passersby worried they could catch what he suffers from, as many people here believe."Hardan was always prone to depression, but his music helped. When the sadness comes, the Shiite Muslim pulls out his ornately carved oud, a pear-shaped string instrument, and pours his grief into his songs. But after the U.S. invasion, the civil war and the militant sectarianism that followed, he stopped talking to people and he rarely left his home, the art teacher said. The Mahdi Army, a Shiite militia that enforces a prohibition on music, controlled the streets of his poor Shiite neighborhood. Hardan worried he would be killed or reprimanded for his music, as so many others were. He put away the instrument, the only thing that understands him, he said. To this day, despite the drop in violence, the only places he plays are at the hospital and in his living room with a fellow artist. "I feel the whole universe is shrouded in darkness, without hope, without life. I even hate to walk out the door," he said."
