The news in brief

• Yes, there is a weather catastrophe going on out there and I advise all people who live on or around I-90 from Massachusetts to Montana to take care when commuting. It was a bad enough weather day, that pick-ups for the Habitat ReStore have to be rescheduled.
• I saw a headline this morning on MSNBC's Morning Joe (on the crawl at the bottom) that said "Air Pollution Causes More Heart Attacks Than Cocaine" and the first thing I thought was, "Ummm...of course, it does, almost everyone is exposed to poor air quality, while I know very few people who use blow."  Then I thought about it more and realized what a cheat that crawl was.  Anyway, it was more reporting on the story that I posted yesterday about air quality and cyclists, but the cocaine thing was a nice touch. The D
• The GOP on Obama's DOMA defense (or lack thereof), "Meh."
• In this morning's Washington Post, Eugene Robinson has an opinion piece on what the U.S. and the world should do regarding Libya. "Unambiguous, muscular words and credible threats are the least we can do for the people of Libya. Even by that low standard, we are falling woefully short."
• Banksy has a Twitter Feed.  Who knew?
• Westboro Baptist Church (Fred Phelps and company, you know "God Hates Fags", et cetera) claims Anonymous (Hackers and 4Chan-ers who are easily upset about things like Scientology and Wikileaks prosecutions) is threatening them.  Anonymous states that this is not the case. WBC persists in this argument. Anonymous hacks WBC because, "Your continued biting of the Anonymous hand, however, has earned you a swift and emotionless bitchslap, in the form of this very message. Despite having had the capability to hack your sites previously, we chose not to and instead responded maturely to your threats, but you have not respected this."
• RENT is returning to Off-Broadway.  I don't know how I feel about this, even though I did sing Santa Fe in the shower this morning.
• And answer me honestly, did anyone see the "Two and a Half Men" debacle turning out any differently? Charlie Sheen's interview was a classic.

And Barry Does the Right Thing

Funny story, Barry and Michelle's first date was Do the Right Thing (which I love as a film, for the record, and I know what the riot started) and Barry has finally come around to doing it.

Obama has finally order the Justice Department to stop defending DoMA.

Yay.

I know this was not a priority for the Obama Administration with two wars, a global economic collapse, and the fallout from the previous administration.

So, first thing being handled was DADT, which is kind of gone right now, and now DoMA, but...

Why did he wait so long? Is this a throwaway to the left so it looks like the Administration is doing something as the GOP on a state level goes after unions and the right to collective bargaining. (Which is another post, but most of you know where I stand on this, both personally and politically, and how I feel about teachers specifically.)

That's what it feels like to me. Indiana and Wisconsin are trying to destroy strong labor, Kansas is being even more strict about reproductive rights, and on the Federal level, the House is de-funding Planned Parenthood, NPR, and PBS, as well as a number of social initiatives that are near and dear to me.

So, is Barry placating the left?