Midday open thread

• Hoisted by their own petard:

  Over the past few months, several anti-gay right-wingers have been pushing the ridiculous argument that federal Judge Vaughn Walker?s decision to overturn Prop 8 should be vacated because he is gay and thus a ?direct beneficiary? of his ruling. [...]

  As the San Francisco Chronicle reported this week, that observation is becoming a growing problem for the pro-Prop 8 crowd:

  Campaigners for California's ban on same-sex marriage in 2008 told traditional families they had much at stake: the future of marriage itself and the need to "protect our children," as one ad put it, from the impact of legalized gay and lesbian unions.

  Now, as the sponsors of Proposition 8 try to convince the courts that the judge who overturned the measure had a built-in bias as a gay man with a longtime partner, their opponents are invoking that same campaign message: If Prop. 8 was meant to preserve opposite-sex marriages, they argue, then any judge, gay or straight, would have the similar conflict of interest.

• Learn more about NY-26's newly-elected Congresswoman, Kathy Hochul.
• Offered without comment?but with a lot of eye rolling:

  Most people who amass the pure gold and silver coins produced by the United States Mint do so for collections or investments, not to buy Slurpees at 7-Eleven.

  ?You?d be a fool,? Tom Jurkowsky, a spokesman for the Mint, said of the Slurpee idea, ?but you could do it.?

  After all, while the one-ounce American Eagle coin produced by the Mint says ?One Dollar,? it is actually worth more like $38 based on the current price of silver. (An ounce of gold is worth more than $1,500.)

  Now, however, Utah has passed a law intended to encourage residents to use gold or silver coins made by the Mint as cash, but with their value based on the weight of the precious metals in them, not the face value ? if, that is, they can find a merchant willing to accept the coins on that basis.

  The legislation, called the Legal Tender Act of 2011, was inspired in part by Tea Party supporters, some of whom believe that the dollar should be backed by gold or silver and that Obama administration policies could cause a currency collapse. The law is the first of its kind in the United States. Several other states, including Minnesota, Idaho and Georgia, have considered similar laws.

• More bad news out of Japan:

  Radioactive soil in pockets of areas near Japan's crippled nuclear plant have reached the same level as Chernobyl, where a "dead zone" remains 25 years after the reactor in the former Soviet Union exploded.

  Soil samples in areas outside the 20-kilometer (12 miles) exclusion zone around the Fukushima plant measured more than 1.48 million becquerels a square meter, the standard used for evacuating residents after the Chernobyl accident, Tomio Kawata, a fellow at the Nuclear Waste Management Organization of Japan, said in a research report published May 24 and given to the government.

  Radiation from the plant has spread over 600 square kilometers (230 square miles), according to the report.

• And in (what should be) related news:

  The German government said Monday it intends to phase-out nuclear power over the next decade, and immediately close eight of its oldest and most glitch-prone reactors. [..]

  The decision, to close all Germany's nuclear plants by 2022, is effectively a return to an agreement made in 2002 by a center-left Social Democrat-Green coalition. It also marks a drastic u-turn by Chancellor Angela Merkel, after her government late last year agreed to extend nuclear plants' operating lives, stretching the era of nuclear power in Germany into the 2030s.

• A new chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff is nominated:

  President Barack Obama on Monday nominated General Martin Dempsey, who commanded troops in the Iraq war, as the top U.S. military officer.

  If confirmed by the Senate, Dempsey would replace Admiral Mike Mullen as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff when he steps down on October 1.

  At a White House ceremony, Obama hailed Dempsey as "one of our nation's respected and combat-tested generals."

• The Philippines is the last country standing against divorce (have to agree with Americablog that The Vatican doesn't count:

  Voters in Malta approve divorce in referendum

  This deeply religious island nation has shaken the Roman Catholic Church by voting in favour of legalizing divorce.

  Sunday?s referendum count found 52.6 per cent want a law that would allow married couples to divorce after they?ve been separated for at least four years.
  

• Condolences to family and friends:

  Former Texas Governor Bill Clements, who was the state's first Republican governor since Reconstruction when he took office in 1979, has died at the age of 94.

• From the world of sports:

  Jim Tressel, who guided Ohio State to its first national title in 34 years, resigned Monday amid NCAA violations and mounting revelations that sullied the image of one of the nation's top football programs.

• ESPN is carrying the Men's Lacrosse Championship game today at 3:30 PM (EDT) between Maryland and Virginia (go Terps). Don't miss "the fastest game on two feet."
  

Source: http://feeds.dailykos.com/~r/dailykos/index/~3/SNhBY8omNMw/-Midday-open-thread

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