Year: 2007

Foreclosure Rate Hits Historic High – washingtonpost.com

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You have to remember that this is going on when interest rates are about a percent above historic lows.

We have a crash, the only question is when it becomes a panic.

Foreclosure Rate Hits Historic High

By Dina ElBoghdady and Nancy Trejos
Washington Post Staff Writers
Friday, June 15, 2007; D01

The percentage of U.S. mortgages entering foreclosure in the first three months of the year was the highest in more than 50 years, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association.

As the association released its numbers, the Federal Reserve held a hearing to determine whether regulators could do anything to crack down on abusive lending practices, which have exacerbated the problem

The problems arose last year as the housing market softened, driving down home prices and making it more difficult for cash-strapped borrowers to sell their homes or refinance their way out of trouble.

The most dramatic fallout took place in the subprime market, which caters to people with blemished credit or other factors that make them a risk to lenders.

Those borrowers entered foreclosure at a rate of 2.43 percent, up from 2 percent the previous quarter. The percentages seem small, but they are far above norms, particularly in a healthy economy. The concern is that the mortgage industry’s troubles could damage the economy if they are not contained.

For more credit-worthy, prime borrowers, foreclosures rose slightly, to 0.25 percent, in the first quarter from 0.24 percent in the previous one.

New foreclosures for prime and subprime borrowers combined hit record highs. They rose to 0.58 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis, compared with 0.54 percent in the previous quarter and 0.41 percent a year earlier.

The high translates into about 254,591 mortgages, or one in 172 loans, the association said.

The problems weren’t uniformly spread around the country. Doug Duncan, chief economist for the mortgage bankers group, said the rate of new foreclosures would have dropped had it not been for big jumps in California, Florida, Nevada and Arizona. He said high rates in Ohio, Michigan and Indiana also drove up the overall percentage of loans in foreclosure.

Some who track the industry say the worst is yet to come.

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This is a Bad Headline and Bad Journalism.

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The bill is NOT about bloggers. It’s about journalists. Bloggers should not be the lede, nor the headline.

Myopic computer press.

Bush administration attacks ‘shield’ for bloggers
By Anne Broache
Staff Writer, CNET News.com
Published: June 14, 2007, 12:19 PM PDT
Last modified: June 14, 2007, 1:52 PM PDT

WASHINGTON–The Bush administration on Thursday blasted a congressional proposal that would shield a broad swath of news gatherers, including some bloggers, from revealing their confidential sources.

The latest draft of the Free Flow of Information Act would pose a grave threat to national security and federal criminal investigations by protecting far too large a segment of the population, a U.S. Department of Justice official told Congress.

“The definition is just so broad that it really includes anyone who wants to post something to the Web,” Rachel Brand, assistant attorney general in the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Policy, said at a House Judiciary Committee hearing here. She also argued it would protect “a terrorist operative who videotaped a message from a terrorist leader threatening attacks on Americans.”

Justice Department opposition has bedeviled Congress throughout its numerous attempts in recent years to enact federal shield laws. Supporters say such legislation is needed in light of high-profile cases involving New York Times reporter Judith Miller and what free-press advocacy groups characterize as a sharp rise in subpoenas to reporters in recent years.

Laws recognizing some form of “reporter’s privilege” already exist in 49 states and the District of Columbia–but, crucially, do not shield journalists from federal prosecutors. The Bush Administration claims there’s no evidence that source-related subpoenas to reporters are on the rise and argues that it already has robust internal guidelines, including a requirement that the attorney general personally approve such subpoenas and provide an appropriate balance between press freedom and investigative needs.

This year’s Free Flow of Information Act, which has been introduced in both the House and Senate, proposes a protection for a broader swath of people than earlier versions. It covers anyone engaged in journalism, which is defined as “gathering, preparing, collecting, photographing, recording, writing, editing, reporting or publishing of news or information that concerns local, national or international events or other matters of public interest for dissemination to the public.”

Even those covered individuals could be forced to give up their sources under certain circumstances, including when it’s clear that crimes have been committed, when “imminent and actual harm” to national security could occur, or when trade secrets, nonpublic personal information or health records are compromised in violation of existing laws.

Some Rockers are Smart, Some are REALLY Stupid

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This rock and roller understands how music distribution is changing, and what his fans want.

Rock star says piracy battle is lost

‘The horse has bolted’
By OUT-LAW.COM
Published Friday 15th June 2007 08:52 GMT

Major record labels are still fighting the piracy battles of 1997 according to a leading rock musician and digital rights activist.

Blur drummer Dave Rowntree told OUT-LAW that they should have realised in 1997 that their battle was already lost.

“If you turn back the clock when all this stuff was still on the horizon, the key realisation to have made was that we had lost the war already,” Rowntree told OUT-LAW Radio, the weekly technology law podcast. “That’s what I was going round telling everybody 10 years ago, saying ‘the horse has bolted, there’s no way of undoing what has been done already, the only thing you can do is to try and turn your business around so that you turn this into a plus rather than a minus’.”

Rowntree advises digital rights advocacy group the Open Rights Group and has been a vocal opponent of the mainstream record industry’s policies of chasing individual file sharers. When told that the last Blur album was leaked on to the internet he reportedly said “I’d rather it gushed”.

Rowntree said that the major labels’ policies of putting digital rights management (DRM) technology on music CDs to attempt to stop them being copied and shared backfired spectacularly.

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And then we have the Blithering idiots that are Don Henley, Celine Dion, Martha Reeves, Christina Aguilera and Wyclef Jean, and the “musicFirst Coalition“

SiliconValley.com – Performers seek royalties on airplay from radio

MUSIC GROUP PLANS TO LOBBY FOR NEW LAWS
By Alex Veiga
Associated Press
Article Launched: 06/15/2007 01:35:48 AM PDT

LOS ANGELES – A coalition of recording artists, music companies and industry groups said Thursday it will push for compensation of performers whose music is played on the radio.

The musicFirst Coalition, which counts recording artists Don Henley, Celine Dion, Christina Aguilera and Wyclef Jean among its members, intends to lobby Congress for new laws requiring the payments by broadcasters.

The group said U.S. performers, from superstar vocalists to background singers, deserve to be paid when their work is aired on AM or FM radio.

‘The artists and the musicians and the community in general have come together to say now is really time to make sure that when music is played on the radio, that people who perform that music are paid fairly to do it,’ Mark Kadish, the coalition’s executive director, said during a conference call with reporters.

Under current law, only songwriters are paid royalties when songs are played on AM or FM radio.

How long will it take Clear Channel, and its satanic ilk to use this to create a new form of Payola, which will come from Artist’s royalties.

This is why we need to stop looking at IP as property.

Episcopal panel rejects Anglican demand | Chron.com – Houston Chronicle

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I ordinarily don’t comment on the inner workings of churches, after all, I’m not Christian, but the politics here are more general.

Specifically, there has been an effort, spearheaded by non Episcopals right wing Evangelicals in the US and by Nigerian flaming bigot Bishop Peter Akinola.

The US Church provides much of the money for the world wide Anglican communion, and a schism would do far more damage to the worldwide communion than to the US one.

Episcopal panel rejects Anglican demand

By RACHEL ZOLL AP Religion Writer
© 2007 The Associated Press

NEW YORK — A key Episcopal panel defied conservatives Thursday, saying that Episcopal leaders should not cede authority to overseas Anglicans who want the church to halt its march toward full acceptance of gays.

The Episcopal Executive Council said that Anglican leaders, called primates, cannot make decisions for the American denomination, which is the Anglican body in the United States.

“We question the authority of the primates to impose deadlines and demands upon any of the churches of the Anglican Communion,” the council said in a statement, after a meeting in Parsippany, N.J.

The worldwide Anglican Communion has moved toward the brink of splitting apart since the Episcopal Church consecrated its first openly gay bishop, V. Gene Robinson of New Hampshire, in 2003.

In February, Anglican leaders demanded that Episcopalians allow a panel — that would include Anglican conservatives from other countries — to oversee conservative Episcopal parishes in the U.S. Episcopalians also were given until Sept. 30 to unequivocally pledge not to consecrate another openly gay bishop or authorize official prayers for same-sex couples.

The Executive Council did not speak directly to the other demands in its statement Thursday, but said it has struggled “to embrace people who have historically been marginalized.”

“Today this struggle has come to include the place of gay and lesbian people and their vocations in the life of the church,” the council wrote.

The document approved by the 38-member panel of clergy and lay people is not the final word from the U.S. church. Episcopal bishops will give the denomination’s official response during a meeting Sept. 20-25 in New Orleans. The prelates strongly indicated at a March gathering that although they wanted to stay in the communion, they considered the demands unacceptable.

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Israel Launches Spy Satellites

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The fact that the increasing number of satellites will allow them to be used tactically now is VERY important.

I rather imagine that there will be applications in terms of real time intel in the disputed territories.

Analysis: Eyes in the sky

Israel’s successful launch of the Ofek 7 on Monday should not be taken lightly. While Israel has proven numerous times that it has the ability to independently develop, manufacture and launch satellites into space, the timing of Monday’s launch was difficult to ignore.

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But beyond the contribution the new satellite will make to IDF operations and to the work being done at Military Intelligence, it also places Israel at the forefront of global satellite development.

Israel is one of seven countries with independent satellite launch capabilities and is part of an exclusive club that includes the United States, France, Japan, China, India and Russia.

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Despite the tiny budget, Israel has had some great successes and last year doubled the US in the number of academic articles Israelis wrote about space and satellites. Ofek 7, defense officials pointed out, would work in conjunction with Ofek 5, launched in 2004 and would grant the IDF the capability to use the satellites as tactical tools during operations and not just strategic tools that gathered intelligence and assisted Israel in assessing its neighbors’ intentions.

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Things That Make You Say Whiskey Tango Foxtrot

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Once again, Hamas shows that it understands governance in a way that Fatah cannot.

Governance requires a near monopoly on violence, and Fatah just wants a near-monopoly on graft.

Hamas calls for Johnston’s release | Israel and the Middle East

Stephen Brook and agencies
Friday June 15, 2007

The Islamist movement Hamas today demanded the release of kidnapped BBC journalist Alan Johnston after seizing control of Gaza from rival Palestinian group Fatah.

Hamas, which has fought violent battles against Fatah for control of Gaza in the past few days, said at a press conference today that those holding Johnston should release him immediately.

“We will not allow his continued detention. We warn against not releasing him,” a Hamas spokesman, Abu Obeid, demanded.

Johnston, 45, was kidnapped in Gaza City more than three months ago.

Since then, nothing had been heard of him until two weeks ago, when a video of the BBC reporter was posted on the internet by a group claiming to be holding him, the Army of Islam.

In the June 1 video, Johnston said his captors were treating him well and that he was in good health – although it is still not known when the clip was filmed.

And in the Stupidity Olympics, We Have a Medal Winner

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Installing P2P software on one’s work machine? Really, Really stupid.

Also, the folks at the Register are a bit too cute…Privacy cock-up….

Pfizer worker data leaked via P2P

Privacy cock-up for Viagra makers
By John Leyden → More by this author
Published Thursday 14th June 2007 13:48 GMT
Why Businesses need Business Continuity – Free whitepaperMobile computing: Opportunities and risk – Free whitepaper

Casual use of file sharing by the spouse of an unnamed Pfizer worker has been blamed for leaking personal information on more than 17,000 current and former employees at the pharmaceutical giant.

Unauthorised installation of a P2P package on a company laptop led to the exposure of worker data, presumably after a directory holding the information was inadvertently offered up for sharing to world+dog.

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My Former Employer/Client Under Criminal Investigation

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I worked on the Future Combat System Recovery and Maintenance Vehicle, FRMV, from 2003-2006. I worked at BAE Systems in York, PA (Formerly United Defense), under the direction of BAE Systems employees, but my paycheck was from another firm TAC Worldwide, who does technical placement, both temp and perm.

BTW, the folks at TAC are pretty decent, and if you are looking for technical work on the East coast, contact Harry Torbit at their Baltimore Office. He’s a good guy.

We know the money was dirty, because it went through Riggs Bank.

Also the “Bob Cratchett” imagery is prize.

The House of Saud may very well be the most corrupt organization on earth.

BAE faces criminal inquiry in US over £1bn payments

Justice department alarmed at claims over MoD’s role

David Leigh and Rob Evans
Thursday June 14, 2007
The Guardian

The US department of justice is preparing to open a corruption investigation into the arms company BAE, the Guardian has learned. It would cover the alleged £1bn arms deal payments to Prince Bandar of Saudi Arabia.

Washington sources familiar with the thinking of senior officials at the justice department said yesterday it was ‘99% certain’ that a criminal inquiry would be opened under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA). Such an investigation would have potentially seismic consequences for BAE, which is trying to take over US arms companies and make the Pentagon its biggest customer.

The sources say US officials were particularly concerned by the allegations in the Guardian that UK Ministry of Defence officials actively colluded in the payments. One said: “The image of all these Bob Cratchits in Whitehall sitting at their high stools processing invoices from Bandar has been a startling one to us.“

The Guardian has revealed allegations that BAE used the US banking system to transfer quarterly payments to accounts controlled by Prince Bandar at Riggs Bank in Washington. Another senior US source said this brought the payments within the ambit of the FCPA. “Prosecutors have previously taken the view that the FCPA does reach that far,” the source said.

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More Bush Law Breaking

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I miss Richard Nixon.

I can’t believe I said that, but I miss Nixon’s competence and relative honesty.

I can’t believe I just said that.

Stop the world, I want to get off.

Dem Claims Meddling in Waiver Request

By ERICA WERNER
The Associated Press
Tuesday, June 12, 2007; 9:04 PM

WASHINGTON — The Transportation Department acknowledged Tuesday encouraging members of Congress to weigh in with the EPA on California’s request to implement global warming controls on automakers.

California officials criticized the intervention by one executive branch agency with another as improper and possibly illegal, but a Transportation Department attorney said it wasn’t.

The Environmental Protection Agency is accepting comments through Friday on whether to grant California a waiver to put in place a state law that would cut greenhouse gas emissions by 25 percent from cars and 18 percent from sport utility vehicles beginning in 2009.

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Waxman wrote that the call “raises serious concerns” as an improper or possibly illegal use of federal resources, and at the very least “suggests the presence of an improper hidden agenda.” He asked for records of any other contacts and said he wanted to depose Shahmoradi.

California Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez called the Transportation Department’s intervention “a whispering campaign by administration officials to try and derail one of the most important tools out there to fight global warming.”

The EPA has not indicated when, or if, it will grant the waiver.

Study supports existence of Martian Ocean

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If this is true, Mars must have had life at some point.

New study supports existence of Mars ocean shoreline

WASHINGTON – Long, undulating features on the northern plains of Mars probably are remnants of shorelines of an ocean that covered a third of the planet’s surface at least 2 billion years ago, scientists said today.

The geological features, stretching thousands of kilometres, were first revealed in the 1980s in Viking spacecraft images. But topographical data collected by Nasa’s Mars Global Surveyor in the 1990s cast doubt on whether the features truly marked a long-gone sea coast.


An illustration shows how Mars might have appeared more than 2 billion years ago, with an ocean filling the lowland basin. Photo / Reuters

“Shrinkage”, aka Theft is Rising at U.S. Wal-Mart stores

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Gee, you treat you employers and suppliers like crap, and we are supposed to be surprised when they rob you blind?

Payback is a bitch, huh.

Theft rising at U.S. Wal-Mart stores

Theft rising at U.S. Wal-Mart stores
June 14, 2007: 06:25 AM EST

Jun. 14, 2007 (AFX International Focus) —

NEW YORK (AP) – businessminute
Shoppers at Wal-Mart stores (NYSE:WMT) across America are loading carts with merchandise — maybe a flat-screen TV, a few DVDs and a six-pack of beer — and strolling out without paying. Employees also are helping themselves to goods they haven’t paid for.

The world’s largest retailer is saying little about these kinds of thefts, but its recent public disclosures that it is experiencing an increase in so-called shrinkage at its U.S. stores suggests that inventory losses due to shoplifting, employee theft, paperwork errors and supplier fraud could be worsening.

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Edwards to Detail Health Care Plan – New York Times

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A good start, and a substantive proposal.

Not what I would favor, as I favor a UK/Canadian style National Health Service, but it’s an OK start, and good on the details.

Edwards to Detail Health Care Plan – New York Times

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: June 14, 2007

Filed at 11:56 a.m. ET

DETROIT (AP) — Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards wants to reduce the cost of U.S. health care by removing patents for breakthrough drugs …

Considering the fact that the Federal Government funds something like 80% of all Pharma research (need cite, this is memory), this is a good thing.

Also, this is a direct challenge to the idea of intellectual product (IP)law, such as copyright and patents, as being property law. It isn’t.

Instead, IP Law is Public Interest Law. It says so in the constitution, in Article I, Section 8, Clause 8 of the Constitution. Congress is empowered “to promote the Progress of Science and
useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries.”

This is not the money in your wallet, or your home. This is an exclusive license for use, more akin to a liquor license than property.

and requiring health insurance companies to spend at least 85 percent of their premiums on patient care.

I don’t like my premiums paying for multimillion dollar bonuses for already rich executives. I like the fact that it’s paying for generally uninformative TV ad blitzes even less.

Thank Heaven for Little Girls

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I was going shopping tonite. My wife, my son Charlie, my daughter Natalie, and I were all in the store together.

The kids were a little bit hyper, and this was being magnified as it bounced back and forth between them, like an echo chamber.

Natalie’s birthday is coming up, and so we were getting cupcakes for a little party in her class.

Our already hyper 9 year old ran, grabbed the cupcakes, and put them in the shopping cart.

Then she grabbed the cupcakes, and ran back and put them back, to see if she could find something better.

She eventually ended up back at the cart, empty handed.

When reminded that we needed something for her party, she headed off at a sprint, back to the cupcakes.

I turned to my wife, and said, she reminds me of a hummingbird on crystal meth.

Sometimes, kids are exhausting.

Good Court Decision on Eminent Domain

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I was appalled by the actions taken in Kelo v. City of New London, but not the court decision.

The idea of taking someone’s home, and giving it to a real estate developer is a POLITICAL calculus, and not a judicial one.

If you look at the case, the right wingers on the court sided against the “taking”, and they did so with an ulterior motive.

They were looking to make it a wedge for the “Fair Use” crazies, who want to be reimbursed for not putting a toxic waste dump on their land.

This decision is far more narrow, and simply says that fallow land is not blighted land under the NJ constitution.

Ruling limits use of eminent domain

Thursday, June 14, 2007

By SCOTT FALLON
STAFF WRITER

New Jersey towns will have a harder time seizing private property for redevelopment after the state Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that targeted property must be blighted and not merely underused.

The ruling will have far-reaching effects, state officials said, and could aid property owners fighting eminent domain in Lodi, North Arlington and Passaic.

The 42-page unanimous decision said that town officials cannot seize homes and businesses simply because they believe those properties can be put to better use.

“The court is giving notice that municipalities no longer have unfettered access to private property,” said Harvey Pearlman, a lawyer who represents a Passaic homeowner whose house was condemned by the city without his knowledge.

The court wrestled with what constitutes blight in deciding a case from Gloucester County, where the town of Paulsboro sought to condemn a 63-acre tract made up mostly of wetlands.

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TheStar.com – News – DNA `junk’ appears to have uses

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I’ve always wondered if DNA outside the nucleus, like the malformed DNA that causes Creuzfelt-Jakov (mad cow) disease might have other, more basic, effects on how creatures develop.

Then again, I’m an Engineer, Not a Doctor, Dammit!!!!!!

I Love it When I can Mangle a “Dr. McCoy” line.

DNA `junk’ appears to have uses

Jun 14, 2007 04:30 AM
Joseph Hall
health reporter

A groundbreaking study says scientists may have to substantially alter their long-held conception of life’s basic blueprint, DNA.

In a departure from traditional thinking, the four-year study says that genes can no longer be considered the only active parts of DNA and that huge segments thought to be ‘junk’ may play a significant role in such individual traits as susceptibility to diseases.

‘A lot of these regions that previously we were thinking were junk DNA, or vast deserts of non-functionality, have been found to be a lot more active,’ says Steven Jones, associate director of the British Columbia Cancer Agency’s Genome Sciences Centre, and one of numerous authors of the scientific paper published today in the journal Nature.

‘This was the surprise … they seem to be doing things from a biological level.’

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PPI rises in May on higher energy costs – Jun. 14, 2007

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Prices are rising, but don’t worry, it’s only on sh%^ that we need to live.

PPI rises in May on higher energy costs

Producer Price Index up on higher energy costs; core prices increase in line with forecasts.
June 14 2007: 8:39 AM EDT

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — Prices paid by businesses rose in May due to higher energy costs, as the latest inflation reading was roughly in line with Wall Street expectations.

The Producer Price Index, the government’s key measure of inflation at the wholesale level, was up 0.9 percent in May, compared to a 0.7 percent rise in April. Economists surveyed by Briefing.com had forecast a 0.6 percent increase. Energy prices were up 4.1 percent.

The more closely watched core PPI, which strips out often volatile food and energy prices, was up 0.2 percent, in line with forecasts of economists, although it’s up from the April report that showed no change in those prices.

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I just love how the “important” inflation number strips out the stuff that we need to live.

China Blasts US for Stupid Comment.

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Someone needs to tell the Bush admin that this kind of false macho bullsh$# does not fly in the real world.

Better yet, someone should show them.

Oh…I forgot. Muqtada al Sadr already has

China says U.S. remarks on its military irresponsible

Reuters
Thursday, June 14, 2007; 5:31 AM

BEIJING (Reuters) – China denounced U.S. comments on its defense spending as “irresponsible” on Thursday and defended its military budget, saying it was open and transparent.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang also called on the United States to stop selling weapons to Taiwan, the self-ruled island China considers its own, and to refrain from “sending any wrong signals to Taiwan secessionist forces.”

“China sticks to the role of peaceful development,” Qin told a news conference.

“On the military expenditure of China, we are transparent and open. The U.S. official’s remarks disregard the facts and spread the China threat theory,” Qin said.

On Wednesday, Richard Lawless, the U.S. deputy undersecretary for defense for Asia, was reported to have accused China of concealing its spending on its weapons programs.

“What we see is a deliberate effort on the part of China’s leaders to mask the nature of Chinese military capabilities,” Lawless told the U.S. House Armed Services Committee.

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2 Committees Subpoena Ex-Officials on Dismissals – New York Times

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Phony offer.

2 Committees Subpoena Ex-Officials on Dismissals

By DAVID JOHNSTON
Published: June 14, 2007

WASHINGTON, June 13 — The Senate and House Judiciary Committees issued subpoenas on Wednesday to Harriet E. Miers, the former White House counsel, and Sara M. Taylor, the former political director, ratcheting up the pressure on the White House to cooperate with the Congressional inquiry into last year’s firings of federal prosecutors.

The White House has rejected previous Congressional requests to interview presidential aides, offering to let them be interviewed in private if no transcript is kept.

The judiciary panels, acting two days after Republicans blocked an effort to hold a no-confidence vote on Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales, also sought White House documents about its involvement in the dismissals and efforts to respond to Congressional inquiries into whether as many as nine United States attorneys were removed for political reasons.

A White House spokesman, Tony Fratto, said in a statement that “committees can easily obtain the facts they want without this confrontational approach by simply accepting our offer.” The committees’ Democratic leaders “are more interested in creating media drama than getting the facts,” Mr. Fratto said.

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The offer is no transcript, in secret, and not sworn in.

This means:

  • No Ability to Investigate Conflicting Testimony

  • No Ability To Document Lies

  • No Ability to Prosecute Lies

  • No Public Disclosure of Illegality

Translation, “I’m gonna make you squeal like a pig.”

More Signs that We are in for a Bumpy Economic Ride

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These “financial instruments” are not hedges, they are a highly speculative instruments to boost profits to satisfy share holders.

Between their core business tanking with problems with sub prime and Alt-A loans, and speculative derivatives, this will get ugly.

Freddie Mac falls into loss

Jun 14, 2007 08:17 AM
Associated Press

WASHINGTON – Freddie Mac, the nation’s second largest buyer and guarantor of home mortgages, reported a first-quarter loss of $211 million (U.S.), mainly from erosion in the value of financial instruments it uses to hedge against interest rate swings.

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It’s Gonna be, I Believe — The Bigots Lose the Pennant!!!!! The Bigots Lose the Pennant!!!!! The Bigots Lose the Pennant!!!!!

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The Bigots Lose the pennant!!!!!
The Bigots Lose the pennant!!!!!
The Bigots Lose the pennant!!!!!

Legislators vote to defeat same-sex marriage ban

By Frank Phillips, Globe Staff

A proposed constitutional ban on same-sex marriage was defeated today by a joint session of the Legislature by a vote of 45 to 151, eliminating any chance of getting it on the ballot in November 2008. The measure needed at least 50 votes to advance.

The vote came after House Speaker Salvatore F. DiMasi, Senate President Therese Murray, and Governor Deval Patrick conferred this morning and concluded that they have the votes to kill the proposal. Cheers echoed in the State House when the vote was tallied.

“In Massachusetts today, the freedom to marry is secure,” Patrick told reporters after the results were official.

The three leaders – along with gay rights activists – spent the last several days intensely lobbying a dozen or more state representatives and state senators who had previously supported the amendment but signaled that they were open to changing their positions.

Because fewer than 50 of the state’s 200 lawmakers supported the amendment, it will not appear on the 2008 ballot, giving gay marriage advocates a major victory in their battle with social conservatives to keep same-sex marriage legal in Massachusetts.

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