by theprotrusion on June 4, 2009
Jackson, Mississippi – The Mississippi legislature today approved a hotly contested piece of legislation that legalizes marriage between two people with the same father. Governor Haley Barbour signed the legislation late this afternoon, making Mississippi the first state to legalize marriage between a brother and sister.
“This is about equality, and this is about progress, in a way,” Mr. Barbour said after signing the bill. “Not in terms of evolution, maybe, but progress nonetheless. A brother and a sister who love one another and want to form a committed relationship, they should have the opportunities and benefits that are granted to everybody else. It’s not their fault they fell in love with the person who grew up down the hall from them.”
The legislation explicitly forbids marriage between two siblings of the same sex. Governor Barbour said that would have been taking the bill too far. [click to continue…]
by theprotrusion on June 3, 2009
Washington – Senator Chuck Grassley, Republican of Iowa, and Senator Max Baucus, Democrat of Montana, traded sandwiches in the Capitol cafeteria today, according to several people present at the time of the trade.
The two have worked together in the past, and are currently hard at work on fashioning critical health care legislation as leaders of the Senate Finance Committee. Sen. Baucus is the committee chairman and Sen. Grassley the ranking Republican.
According to witnesses who were in the cafeteria at the time of the sandwich trade, it was Grassley who made the generous overture when he saw a need on the part of his Democratic colleague.
“Senator Grassley had ordered a tuna melt,” a senator also in the cafeteria at the time of the trade, said. The senator spoke on condition of anonymity. “And Senator Baucus looked over when he sat down and said, ‘Wow, that looks good. I should have gotten that.’ I think he had a turkey club or something. And Grassley looked over and smiled, and pushed his plate towards Baucus, and took Baucus’s plate for himself.” [click to continue…]
