Politics Plus

I had never heard of the first eight of these, but May 17 is the ninth annual Endangered species day.  This year the focus is on the species that are likely to die out due to the effects of global climate change.  For Republican readers, “Endangered Species Day” is not the title of an exclusive restaurant’s special menu.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has designated today the ninth annual Endangered Species day, a day to recognize America’s most imperiled animals. When given this task, many will likely think of the polar bear, and its increasingly fragile arctic habitat — a phenomenon not-so-subtly connected to climate change.

As HBO host John Oliver so poignantly put it last week, “no climate report is complete without the obligatory photo of a polar bear balancing on a piece of ice.” And he’s right — the disappearing polar bear has indeed become an emotional symbol of how man-made emissions of carbon dioxide are threatening the natural world.

But it’s not just the polar bears that are hurting. Scientists recently warned that one-third of animal species across the world are likely to lose half or more of their habitat range if global temperatures increase by more than 4°C by 2100. And while many of these animals have been migrating with haste to avoid these challenges, the globe is still in the throes of one of the worst rates of species die-offs since the end of the dinosaur age. If global carbon emissions aren’t reduced, those rates only stand to increase.

So in honor of Endangered Species Day, here are five species most at risk from climate change in the U.S. — some of which you may be surprised to see… [emphasis added]

Inserted from <Think Progress>

Click through for pictures and bios of the five most endangered species.  Thousands more are at risk.  Sadly Republican science deniers are not on the list.

As a rule, Oregon tends to lead the way for progressive values.  However, one area in which my state has lagged behind many others is in the right of people to marry based on love, not gender.  In 2004, Republicans got an Oregon Constitutional Amendment outlawing gay marriage on the ballot, and it passed.  It appears we are about to rectify that injustice.

U.S. District Judge Michael McShane on Wednesday rejected an attempt by an anti-gay marriage group to intervene in the lawsuit seeking to overturn Oregon's ban on same-sex marriage.

McShane's ruling raised expectations by gay marriage supporters that his next step will be to overturn the 2004 voter-approved constitutional amendment limiting marriage to one man and one woman.

The judge's decision to reject an attempt by the National Organization for Marriage [pseudo-Christians delinked] to intervene leaves all of the official parties in the case — including Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum — arguing that Oregon's prohibition violates the federal equal protection of rights of gay and lesbian couples seeking to marry.

"We feel very confident this is headed in the right direction," said David Fidanque, executive director of the Oregon chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, which is representing some of the plaintiffs in the case. He noted that 13 federal judges in a row — including one in Idaho on Tuesday — have now issued rulings granting additional legal status for gay marriages… [emphasis added]

Inserted from <The Oregonian>

Oregon’ initiative process can be a great thing.  Oregon voters can change the law or amend the Oregon Constitution by ballot initiative.  However, it has problems that need to be addressed, such as the huge amounts of money Republicans spend on them.  Also, Republicans love to get ballot measures in off year and special elections that most voters ignore, so they can win with fewer votes.  In my opinion, ballot measures should only be included on ballots for major elections.

I look forward to seeing this injustice overturned.

I am pleased to report that a Federal Appeals Court has stopped the state of Texas from killing Robert James Campbell.  While the court did duck the issue that using unknown drugs from a secret source runs the rick of depth by slow torture, they did discover that Texas had hidden evidence that he is not mentally competent to face execution.

A little more than two hours before he was scheduled to be put to death here, a convicted murderer was granted a stay of execution by a federal appeals court on Tuesday so the courts could review his claim that he is mentally disabled — a disability, his lawyers argued, that state agencies had long known and concealed.

The United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in New Orleans granted the request from lawyers for Robert James Campbell, 41, who had been set to be the first inmate put to death in America since a botched execution in Oklahoma last month drew attention to the methods, drugs and secrecy surrounding lethal injections.

The court had refused to intervene in the execution based on Mr. Campbell’s lawyers’ contention that the state was withholding crucial evidence on the drug to be used. But it issued the stay on a second argument made by Mr. Campbell’s lawyers on what the law refers to as mental retardation… [emphasis added]

Inserted from <NY Times>

Rachel Maddow covered this Republican blood lust.

Texas already had three other tests that showed the same results, but had denied that they existed. that’s how desperate these so-called Pro-Life Republicans are to kill. The same Republican executioners lied to a pharmaceutical manufacturer, claiming to be a hospital to get drugs fore execution. That’s how desperate these so-called “Pro-Life” Republicans are to kill. They are a moral stain on the face of this nation.

Republicans define life as something that begins at conception and ends at birth.