Obama's second term: A productive six months.

[ProSense]

Obama blasts Republicans for obstruction to ACA implementation in weekly address
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/08/17/1231753/-Obama-blasts-Republicans-for-obstruction-to-ACA-implementation-in-weekly-address

Bottom line: Obamacare really is for the 99%
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023441345

Marriage equality is coming to the military

by Laura Clawson

How far we've come since the military was clinging to Don't Ask Don't Tell just a few short years ago, and the Defense of Marriage Act was making marriage unequal even for same-sex couples married legally in states that honored their relationships:

The Pentagon plans to extend to legally married same-sex couples the same privileges and programs that are provided to legally married heterosexual couples, including benefits tied to health care and housing, the official said.

In addition, the official said that service members who are stationed in one of the 37 states where same-sex marriage is illegal will be offered up to 10 days of leave so they can travel to one of the 13 states, plus the District of Columbia, that grant same-sex marriage licenses.

Kudos to the Pentagon for giving the leave needed to make marriage a possibility for people stationed in bastions of inequality—let's hope it's not needed for long, but for now it puts access to marriage in reach for more service members.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/08/14/1231158/-Marriage-equality-is-coming-to-the-military

Pentagon To Announce Equal Benefits For Married Gay Couples

The Pentagon is expected to announce Wednesday that married gay military service members and their spouses will be offered the same benefits as straight married couples as early as September, NBC News reported.

Also included in the announcement will reportedly be a "marraige leave" program for gay couples. Service members stationed in one of the 37 states where gay marriage is illegal will be allowed to take up to 10 days of leave to travel to one of the 13 states or Washington, D.C. where gay marriage is legal.

http://livewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/entry/pentagon-to-announce-equal-benefits-for-married-gay

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023463135

Smarter Sentencing

By THE EDITORIAL BOARD

You know a transformational moment has arrived when the attorney general of the United States makes a highly anticipated speech on a politically combustible topic and there is virtually no opposition to be heard.

That describes the general reaction to Eric Holder Jr.’s announcement on Monday that he was ordering “a fundamentally new approach” in the federal prosecution of many lower-level drug offenders. What once would have elicited cries of “soft on crime” now drew mostly nods of agreement. As Mr. Holder said, it’s “well past time” to take concrete steps to end the nation’s four-decade incarceration binge — the result of harsh sentencing laws enacted in response to increased violent crime in the late 1960s and 1970s.

The statistics have been repeated so often as to be numbing: 1.57 million Americans in state and federal prisons, an increase of more than 500 percent since the late 1970s, at a cost of $80 billion annually. In 2010, more than 7 in 100 black men ages 30 to 34 years old were behind bars. The federal system alone holds 219,000 inmates, 40 percent above its capacity, thanks to strict sentencing guidelines and mandatory minimum sentences. Of these inmates, nearly half are in prison for drug-related crimes.

In Mr. Holder’s words, “too many Americans go to too many prisons for far too long, and for no truly good law enforcement reason.” Many criminal-justice experts have long felt the same way. What made Mr. Holder’s speech timely and important was that it reflected a fundamental shift in thinking about crime and punishment at the highest levels of government.

- more -

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/14/opinion/smarter-sentencing.html

ACLU: How to Process Eric Holder’s Major Criminal Law Reform Speech
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023451453

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau gets busy
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023372682

Elizabeth Warren op-ed slams attempt to roll back CFPB mortgage rules.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023470932

President Obama Installs Solar Panels On White House
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/08/15/1231460/-President-Obama-Installs-Solar-Panels-On-White-House