The California Supreme Court will issue its long-awaited decision on gay marriage today. Some recent news coverage:

• Hundreds pray on eve of Prop 8 ruling
• Weariness and confidence as foes and backers of Proposition 8 await court ruling
  
• California Supreme Court to issue same-sex marriage decision today
• Gay-Marriage Fight to Persist in California
• California Couples Await Gay Marriage Ruling

Predictions, anyone?

I'll be watching The Bachelorette and posting on PopLeft.

The Lakers and Nuggets square off again in Game 4 of the WCF at the Pepsi Center. the Lakers are leading 2 to 1. Go Nuggets! (But they can't compete with The Bachelorette.)

I hope you all had a good weekend, we had three days of rain.

A legal question from the TL kid for any lawyers reading: Defendant is being re-tried and the victim is unavailable. Can the prosecutor call a juror from the first trial as a witness at the retrial to testify about a gesture the victim made while on the stand? The record of the victim's testimony at the first trial does not reflect the gesture.

This is an open thread, all topics welcome.

In January 2008, after writing for many months about Barack Obama's Clinton/Third Way campaign, I found agreement from E.J. Dionne:

Obama's not particularly original insight was a central premise of Bill Clinton's 1992 campaign. . . . In many ways, Obama is running the 2008 version of the 1992 Clinton campaign. You have the feeling that if Bill Clinton did not have another candidate in this contest, he'd be advising Obama and cheering him on.

Of course the problem here is it is 2008, not 1992. As I have written, I believe Bill Clinton would NOT be running his 1992 campaign today. . . The politics of today demand a politics of contrast from Fighting Democrats. . . . It is ironic that it is Barack Obama who is reliving 1992.

Today, Dionne argues that Obama is succeeding in creating a Third Way:

In the wake of the housing collapse there's naturally been a lot of debate about the role of homeowners who took on risky mortgages (or houses they simply couldn't afford) in inflating the bubble.

But this is a distraction from the real causes of the credit and housing bubbles which as Calculated Risk recently pointed out were driven by: [More...]

Glenn Greenwald points to Sen. Russ Feingold's letter (PDF) to President Obama regarding, in part, the issue of preventive detentions. Feingold's letter is one I hope we can all applaud. For example, Feingold writes:

It is hard to imagine that our country would regard as acceptable a system in another country where an individual other than a prisoner of war is held indefinitely without charge or trial.

(Emphasis supplied.) I agree. It has been my view since the issue of "preventive detention" came into view (during the Bush Administration) that the issue of defining "enemy combatants" and establishing a proper process of review for such a designation by the Executive are the critical questions raised. To be clear, they are raised in Gitmo, in the United States AND in Bagram, Afghanistan. More . . .

A little history of Memorial Day:

It was first observed in 1865 as Decoration Day by liberated slaves, who independently set up, decorated and proclaimed an ad-hoc graveyard – a field of "passionless mounds" – to honor dead Union soldiers.

Here's the original Memorial Day Order: [More...]

A name to remember. Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty.

Gov. Tim Pawlenty vetoed an emotionally charged proposal late Friday to allow terminally ill patients to use marijuana for medical purposes, but signed into law a plan to disburse hundreds of millions of dollars from the Legacy Amendment passed by Minnesotans last year.

A bill Pawlenty didn't veto:

He also signed a bill late Thursday that allows police to pull over drivers solely because they or their passengers are not wearing seat belts. Currently, officers must spot another traffic offense before they can stop a vehicle and ticket someone for not being strapped in. The new law is effective June 9, and carries a $25 fine.

In 2008, Pawlenty has the most vetoes of any MN Governor. Here's what he had to say about the pot bill: [More...]

If you're looking for another source of unnecessary anxiety -- if Harry Reid's dread of Guantanamo detainees being housed in American prisons isn't enough to make you hide under your bed -- you should read the Wall Street Journal's alarmist warnings that the dark forces of Islam will find "fertile ground for terrorist recruitment" in the nation's prisons. This latest fear arises from the "possibility" that the four men charged with plotting bombings in New York are Muslim and that "some may have converted in prison." As usual, the WSJ story ignores the likelihood that the "plot" was devised and/or encouraged by the government informant who gave them away.

Terrorist recruiters looking for a collection of people with antisocial tendencies will certainly find them in prison. To convert criminals into terrorists, however, the recruiter must himself be sent to prison, and must build relationships with violent inmates who are willing to betray their country by engaging in risky mayhem without profit. His recruitment pool will be limited to inmates who will be released while they're still young enough to do some harm -- a serious limitation since the most violent criminals will be serving lengthy sentences. And since prisons are filled with snitches, the recruiter must do his work without being exposed to prison officials who will happily lock him up in segregation on an informant's say-so. On the whole, the threat that inmates will join an Islamic terrorist cell seems less dire than the threat that they'll join a violent group of white supremacists like the Aryan Brotherhood.

[more ...]

Combine The Terminator with Robocop, throw in a little Iron Man, top it off with "The Million Dollar Man," and you get this guy: the soldier of tomorrow (if tomorrow arrives in 2030 or so).

As a soldier enters a crowded marketplace, sensors mounted on his helmet automatically scan faces in the crowd, identifying a known insurgent; a cursor in the heads-up display highlights the target and cues the weapon, which can be set to stun or kill; a simple voice command unlocks the trigger.

Given the nation's experience with Pentagon procurement, it's fair to predict that the futuristic weaponry won't work while the advanced body armor will give way to a butter knife. More troubling is the notion that future soldiers will be "enhanced with prosthetics" and fed "smart drugs." The Pentagon should put those ideas aside until it enhances its ability to provide mental health care to veterans. [more ...]

Connecticut's Republican Gov. Jodi Rell promised to veto a bill that would eliminate capital punishment as a sentencing option. Overriding the veto would require a two-thirds majority vote in both legislative chambers. Since the state senate passed the bill by a 19-17 vote, an override is unlikely.

Rell says the veto is for the families of victims who believe there are crimes "so fundamentally revolting to our humanity" as to warrant death. What about the family members who believe that the death penalty is fundamentally revolting to human values? And given the haphazard application of the death penalty, does Rell seriously believe that only the worst offenders who commit the worst crimes will be executed?

What a difference a verdict makes.

A little over a month ago, [Helio Castroneves] was facing deportation or prison over tax-evasion charges. A brilliant racing career and his freedom rested in the hands of a Miami jury.

The Brazilian racer was acquitted on April 17. Today he won his third Indianapolis 500.

[more...]

The FTC is going after a company that uses those annoying (and illegal) robocalls to market its extended vehicle warranties. The company -- Florida based Transcontinental Warranty Inc. -- wasn't easy to find. Employees are instructed not to disclose the company's name, and they're fired if they break that rule.

Fortunately, a former employee got fed up after only four days on the job and contacted the FTC. The information he provided corroborated customer complaints about the company's deceptive practices.

[more ...]