Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) called Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia a "homophobe" Friday for opposing gay rights.
"I do think that this argument that it's unconstitutional for the federal government to pick and choose which marriages it will recognize is a good one," Frank said Friday in an interview with a gay news website, 365gay.com.
"At some point it's going to have to go to the United States Supreme Court," he continued. "I wouldn't want it to go to the United States Supreme Court now because that homophobe Antonin Scalia has too many votes on this court."
Scalia, one of the Supreme Court's most conservative jurists, has written often in opposition of using the constitution as a vehicle to expand gay and lesbian rights for Americans.
Frank also said that ending the current ban on gays and lesbians serving openly in the military is "absolutely" possible during this administration and Congress.
Special Olympics Chairman Timothy Shriver said he was "a little heartbroken" by President Obama's joke about the games on Thursday's "Tonight Show" appearance.
"I have to say I was a little heartbroken," Shriver said during a Friday night appearance on "Larry King Live."
"The president, I think notwithstanding this situation, has opened the door for a teachable moment here," he explained, adding that the president understands the nature of his remarks.
Obama likened his low bowling score to something a Special Olympics athlete could accomplish.
Shriver encouraged the White House to hire an individual with a physical or intellectual disability as a signal for of their commitment to helping that community.
"Couldn't the president create a path-breaking statement by saying these are valuable people, they can contribute in the workplace and we've found someone who can do a great job here in the White House and serve the country and serve his administration?" Shriver asked. "That would be a great way to signal, I think, a change of heart and really lead a discussion."
Sen. Russ Feingold (D-Wisc.) introduced legislation Thursday seeking to abolish the death penalty for federal crimes in the United States.
Building off the announcement that New Mexico would now forbid capital punishment, Feingold introduced the Federal Death Penalty Abolition Act of 2009, which would effectively commute all federal death penalty sentences to life sentences, and forbid the use of capital punishment in later convictions.
Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg hinted Friday that their could be an opening on the nation's highest court soon, but would not say which justice would likely leave.
"We haven't had any of those for some time, but surely we will soon," said Ginsburg, who is undergoing treatments for pancreatic cancer.
Ginsburg made the comments while speaking at New England Law School's yearly "Law Day," the Associated Press reported.
A departure by Ginsburg or any other justices would give President Obama an opportunitiy to reshape the court with younger, liberal voices to replace the currently aging progressive stalwarts.
With nearly 60 votes in the Senate to break any filibuster of a nomination, Obama could choose virtually any candidate and expect much less of a fight than his predecessor, President Bush, did when he nominated Chief Justice John Roberts and Associate Justice Samuel Alito.
Don't worry, America: a mass revolt by world economic leaders is still "a ways off," Rep. John Campbell (R-Calif.) explained Monday after remarking last week that the U.S., under President Obama, is starting to resemble the dystopian America depicted in the novel "Atlas Shrugged."
Campbell sought to clarify his remarks about the remark
Women are vital to solving all political and social issues facing the world. President Obama said Sunday.
"From the global challenge of climate change, to a world that is not yet free from poverty and conflict, our challenges are many," the president said in a statement commemorating International Women's Day, which is celebrated Sunday. "Women are vital to the solutions to these problems, and we will not sow the seeds for a brighter future or reap the benefits of the change we need without the full and active participation of women around the world."
The president said that he and First Lady Michelle "honor the sacrifices, talents and leadership of women around the world."
The White House has begun vetting invocations given by ministers before presidential events, said to be an unusual by members of past administration and religious authorities.
The White House Office of Public Liason has requested that the ministers of various religious traditions who are asked to give opening invocations at events submit their prayers for approval beforehand, according to a report by U.S. News, which characterizes the vetting as a "departure from previous presidents."
The White House refused to directly comment on the issue, though a spokeswoman said that the practice of preapproving the invocations has "been standard since the campaign."
"If a similar thing had been done by President Bush's White House, I guarantee you there would have been a lot of people crying foul," Bill Wichterman, deputy director of the Office of Public Liaison under President George W. Bush, told U.S. News. "Democrats can do this with immunity, but when Republicans do it, it becomes controversial."
"The only thing worse than having these prayers in the first place is to have them vetted, because it entangles the White House in core theological matters," Barry W. Lynn, executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State. "Why would you even request getting a copy of the prayer in advance if you didn't want to exercise the power to change it or even cancel it?"
The stimulus passed by Congress will provide for communities historically overlooked by federal assistance, House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.) said Monday, seemingly clarifying controversial remarks he made regarding race and the stimulus
"You talk this morning a whole lot about 1933," Clyburn said on "Morning Joe" Monday morning. "I just want to be sure that as we do this, we don't leave communities out like we did in 1933."
"It did not do for all communities what it could have done," he added, insinuating that New Deal programs often overlooked rural and black communities -- many of which often overlapped in some areas. "We were operating uder a law that said you did not do certain things for certain people."
Clyburn caused a small stir last week after calling Republican governors' rejection of some stimulus funds a "slap in the face" to African-Americans.
Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) said that while the U.S. may not be a nation of "cowards" when it comes to race, remnants of the country's troubled racial past persist through today.
"I don't know that I would use the word cowards, but it is a subject that we avoid," Cummings said Thursday during an appearance on Morning Joe. "We see the remnants of it all the time."
Cummings, who like Attorney General Eric Holder is an African-American, was referring to Holder's remarks yesterday that Americans have been traditionally timid in addressing racial issues in society.
The Maryland lawmaker said, though, that the election of President Obama as the first black president could make a difference in how Americans address race.
"An election of a man of color to the presidency is going to make a difference," Cummings argued, saying Obama's speech during the campaign after the Jeremiah Wright episode was one of the best speeches on race he's ever heard.
The man the Obama administration is looking at to possibly become the next Drug Czar is being met with cautious optimism by proponents of the decriminalism of marijuana and a treatment-based national drug policy.
Seattle Police Chief Gil Gil Kerlikowske is being looked at for a job in the Obama administration, a Democratic official confirmed Wednesday, while the Seattle Times reported that Kerlikowske had accepted the position tasked with crafting drug policy, likely assuming the position in spring or summer.
The nomination received positive, though measured, reactions from groups advocating the end of the War on Drugs.
"I would clearly identify it as a step in the right direction," said Norm Stamper, who preceded Kerlikowske as Seattle's chief of police, and now serves on the advisory board of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML). "He is a thoughtful individual; i think he can be influenced by research and would be more inclined than previous drug czars to rely on evidence-based solutions."
"This is a police chief that's had to work with users of medical marijuana and growers; he lives in the real world," said Allen St. Pierre, the executive director of NORML. "It would mark a clean break from the Barry McCaffrey and John Walters style of leadership on this issue," he added, in reference to earlier drug czars whose tenures had emphasized a law enforcement approach.
"Based on what I have read, the nominee would be a far better choice than anyone the Republicans would have put forward for the position," said William Redpath, the chairman of the Libertarian Party of the United States, who said he was not previously familiar with Kerlikowske. "The best choice of all for this post...would have been to nominate nobody and to announce that the Administration was going to work with the Congress to end federal drug prohibition in order to pass responsibility to the states, which is what occurred at the end of the federal prohibition of alcohol."
Stamper said that he hopes the move will mean an end to the War on Drugs, though he is not optimistic, and added that he had not spoken with Kerlikowske about the job.
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