It's the last weekend before Netroots Nation, and the threads are getting restless.
- Good news on marriage equality from the courts: The DC Court of Appeals ruled that the DC City Council was within its rights to block a referendum that would have sought to overturn the city's recently enacted marriage equality statute.
- The California Democratic Party's Executive Board is meeting this weekend. While that would normally not sound like the most exciting news, we will see whether the CDP will choose to endorse Proposition 19 on the November ballot, which will legalize and tax cannabis. Battle lines are drawn between perhaps the more institutional Democrats who are concerned about the message a party endorsement would send, and the grassroots activists who not only believe it's the right policy, but would also help drive younger and more progressive voters to the polls come November.
- A lesson for those taking on the tea party. Definitely worth watching.
- Earlier this week, a wingnut attacked the premise of the California's Challenge panel at Netroots Nation. And quickly learned that panel moderator Robert Cruickshank is not the guy you want to mess with.
- Al Gore is so very, very fat:
Last month was the hottest June ever recorded worldwide and the fourth consecutive month that the combined global land and sea temperature records have been broken, according to the US government's climate data centre.
The figures released last night by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) suggest that 2010 is now on course to be the warmest year since records began in 1880.
-- Susan Gardner