Cheat Sheet

And then there were six: New Hampshire Governor John Lynch signed legislation late Wednesday to make his state the sixth to legally recognize gay marriage. Surrounded by cheering gay marriage proponents, Gov. Lynch signed the thrill bills into law one hour after they passed in New Hampshire’s House. Lynch, a Democrat, successfully got language protecting the rights of religious opponents of gay marriage into the bill before signing them. The laws will take effect in January, on the second anniversary of the state’s recognition of gay civil unions. New Hampshire now joins Massachusetts, Maine, Vermont, Connecticut in recognizing same-sex marriages.

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Another player for Team Sotomayor: First lady Michelle Obama. At a high school commencement held at Howard University today, Obama pronounced her allegiance to the hotly debated Supreme Court nominee. Many say Michelle’s support is part of a coordinated White House effort to humanize Sotomayor in the public eye. The endorsement came hours after GOP house speaker Newt Gingrich apologized for his remark that Sotomayor was a racist in similar fashion to Republican talk show host Rush Limbaugh’s comments today that the candidate would bring “racism” and “bigotry” to the court. Sotomayor is “more than ready” for the job, Obama said. Sotomayor, 54, would be the third woman and first Hispanic to serve on the Supreme Court.

Execs from GM and Chrysler said today that closing dealerships nationwide is crucial, amidst pleas from dealers to spare their local branches. “This is our last chance to get it right,” GM President Fritz Henderson told lawmakers hearing the cases from two dealers whose franchises will soon close. Neglecting to reduce the number of dealerships would hurt the automakers once they no longer have bankruptcy protection—and if franchises can’t meet their quota, the companies can’t expect to turn a profit, said Chrysler President James Press. Press went on to say that Chrysler hoped to provide a “soft landing” for dealers, which Sen. Frank Lautenberg characterized as “wishful thinking.” Lawmakers on the Senate Commerce Committee suggested that the companies were deserting their dealers and customers and laying the blame for the companies’ problems on the shoulders of the dealers. "It's unbelievable how we have been treated,” said Spencer Lopez, whose West Virginia GM-Chrysler dealership is on the chopping block. Despite meeting all financial obligations put forth by the companies, Lopez said, “they want to shut me down.”

Susan Boyle sabotage! Videos uploaded to YouTube during the season finale of Britain’s Got Talent reportedly displayed an incorrect phone number for viewers to dial in order to cast votes for Boyle. The last two digits, meant to read “08” either came up as “07” or “09”—the numbers of other contestants. Dance group Diversity won with a margin of just 4.7 percent of the vote, leading some to think that Boyle’s loss was the result of the clerical error. Meanwhile, Britain’s Got Talent judge Amanda Holden went on Larry King Live to defend the show against claims that it “exploited” Boyle. The so-called Hairy Angel’s post-finale health problems led to speculation that the show provided inadequate care for its contestants. Holden fired back by accusing tabloid media attention for Boyle’s meltdown and hospitalization. “We are a very loyal show, we love Susan very much,” Holden said. “All the contestants that appear on the show are extraordinarily well looked after.”

French aviation officials said today that they may never find the cockpit voice and data recorders from an Air France jet that disappeared over the Atlantic Ocean on Monday, en route from Rio to Paris; 228 people were aboard the flight when it went missing. Although debris from the flight has begun to surface about 400 miles from Brazil’s coast, officials say that—while they’ll conduct a thorough investigation—poor weather conditions and deep waters will make locating the recorders difficult. “This catastrophe—which is the worst that our country has witnessed in terms of aviation—took place in a very difficult region... so the investigation will not be easy... but we are not giving up,” said Paul-Louis Arslanian, chief of the French civil aviation ministry's bureau of investigation. Meanwhile, President Sarkozy and first lady Carla Bruni attended a memorial service for Flight 447’s lost passengers and crew at Paris’ Notre Dame Cathedral on Wednesday, featuring condolences from the pope.

President Obama's first stop on his reconciliation tour of the Middle East was Saudi Arabia, where he met with King Abdullah on Wednesday, citing the "long history of friendship" between the two countries. Abdullah shared Obama's warm tone, saying that America is "represented by a distinguished man who deserves to be in this position." (This odd statement can be seen as either a subtle jab at George W. Bush or an odd acknowledgment of Obama's race.) The meeting with Abdullah is the president's first stop before heading to Cairo, where he will deliver a highly-anticipated speech aimed at easing tensions between the West and the Muslim world. Meanwhile, Al-Jazeera—knowing how to break news just at the right moment—aired a new Osama bin Laden tape as Obama arrived.

Just when the Sotomayor flame war seemed intractable, two of the Supreme Court nominee's most ardent—and arguably offensive—detractors ate their words today. After calling Sotomayor a "reverse racist" last week, former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich wrote in a letter to supporters Wednesday that he’d been “perhaps too strong and direct." Gingrich noted, however, that he's still concerned Sonia's decisions on the bench will show bias. Meanwhile, though conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh said he stands by his "racist" comments, he noted on his Wednesday show that he "can see a possibility of supoprting this nomination if I can be convinced that she does have a sensibility toward life in a legal sense." The reason for Rush's suddenly open mind? "She's a Catholic, she's a devout Catholic, she's a Hispanic Catholic... she hasn't got a record on this." So, Rush can get behind a racist—so long as she's pro-life. Duly noted.

Sacha Baron Cohen's latest shock-humor movie won't hit theaters until July, but already the backlash has begun. A Palmdale, California woman says that, during a segment filmed at a charity bingo tournament, she struggled with Cohen and his film crew to the point that it permanently disabled her. Richelle Olson's lawsuit claims she needs a wheelchair or a cane, now, and seeks more than $25,000 in damanges according to the Associated Press. Though most of Cohen's lawsuits from his 2006 flick, Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazahkstan were ultimately thrown out, Cohen's brand of take-no-prisoners parody has already pulled Eminem and the MTV Movie Awards into its sphere of "did he or didn't he?" humor brinksmanship. According to Olson's lawsuit, Cohen—posed as flamboyant Austrian alter-ego Bruno—was calling numbers for the charity bingo game when he broke into a stream of profanities. Olson struggled to take the microphone back from Cohen and says he called his crew over to physically attack her for "at least a minute" to "create a dramatic emotional response." Olson says she ran from the stage, fell and hit her head, and suffered a brain bleed and emotional duress.

Finding the truth uncomfortable, Bill O’Reilly has apparently decided just to lie about it: On his show last night, O’Reilly claimed that he could be sure that he did not incite Dr. George Tiller’s assassin because he never called him “Tiller the Baby Killer”; he only “reported what groups were calling him.” Here’s a sampling of O’Reilly’s quotes: “[Kathleen Sebelius] wants the babies done for. This is—she supported Tiller the baby killer out there”; “Tiller got acquitted in Kansas, Tiller the baby killer”; “Now, we have bad news to report, that Tiller the baby killer out in Kansas—acquitted. Acquitted today of murdering babies”; “[Kathleen Sebelius] is the most pro-abortion governor in the United States. Based upon Dr. Tiller, the baby killer in her state, and all of that.”

The won the battle, but now the prize city stands empty. Pakistani soldiers successfully drove the Taliban out of critical Swat Valley polis Mingora, but the Associated Press reports that the city—which usually has hundreds of thousands of residents—has been utterly drained, and some 3 million Swat Valley residents have fled the region. With top Taliban leaders still at large, Pakistan's strategic victory rings a little hollow now—or is that just the echo of combat boots on empty streets? Meanwhile, American envoy Richard Holbrooke rejected Osama bin Laden's claim that the Swat Valley refugee crisis is America's fault. Speaking from Islamabad, Holbrooke said, "The idea that anyone is responsible for the refugee crisis other than al-Qaeda and the Taliban and other people that have caused such tragedy in Pakistan is ludicrous." Holbrooke defended the Pakistani army and announced a push in Congress dial up America's promised $110 million for Swat Valley refugees to $200 million.

The verdict for Samantha Orobator was harsh, but not as harsh as it could have been. A Lao court sentenced the 20-year-old British woman—who became pregnant while incarcerated—to life in prison today for heroin trafficking. The crime is punishable by death in Laos, but Orobator was spared thanks to a Lao law banning the execution of pregnant women. Orobator had been locked up since August 2008, but her case attracted wide attention last month after the British legal charity Reprieve publicized her plight and the possibility that she could be killed by firing squad if convicted. The Briton and her state-appointed lawyer have three weeks to decide whether to appeal or apply for repatriation.

“My name is mud,” Andrew Madoff, son of Ponzi schemer extrodinaire, recently told a friend. Indeed, it is. David Margolick’s Vanity Fair article on Andrew and Mark Madoff reveals the sons of America's most notorious feeling betrayed by the fauther “they were always trying to please, but never could." Among their trials: Andrew having to book reservations in his fiancée’s name; stress on friendships ("Jeff [Wilpon] has tired of Mark's excessive self-pity”); and parents of other students at Dalton not allowing their children to attend Andrew’s daughters’ parties,"evidently fearful of assassins crouching in vestibules." Also, both sons are not speaking to their mother, Ruth, “not because they think she was involved [they don't] but because they believe her tendency to side with [Bernie], no matter what, when they complained to her about him, enabled his dirty deeds.”

In an era when the GOP is searching for its next great leader, the erection of a seven-foot-tall, 500-lb bronze statue honoring former Preident Ronald Reagan turned Republican heads on Capitol Hill today. Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell and House Republican leader John Boehner accompanied a tearful Nancy Reagan at the unveiling of her late husband's bronze likeness in the United States Capitol today. Boehner held a piece of the Berlin Wall during and praised Reagan's work for "free trade, low taxes, deregulation, and curbing runaway inflation," while Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) highlighted personal ties with the former president. Despite the presence of Democratic leaders, The New York Times' The Caucus blog reports, "Democrats generally were hard to find in the audience, even Democrats from Reagan's home state." Asked whether he was invited, Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass) responded, "When was it? I didn't even know it was happening."

George W. Bush may soon be taking the stand, though it won’t be the grilling over torture that some are hoping for. Instead, Bush was ordered to appear by a Texas district judge presiding over a property dispute involving his presidential library at Southern Methodist University. According to the Associated Press, “Gary Vodicka, who was forced out of his condominium by SMU to make way for the project, contends the university coveted the property as the future site of the library even before Bush ran for the White House, and lied about its intentions.” The order has been stayed pending an appeal, “but if it stands, it could be historic: No sitting or former president ever has been forced to testify in a state court proceeding, according to John Martin, one of Bush's attorneys.” “I was humbled by the ruling," said Vodicka, 49. “No one person is supposed to be above the law. And Bush is trying to act like he is.” We hear you, Gary.

So it’s not quite the Capulets and the Montagues, but are two (very large) American families about to go to war? Octomom Nadya Suleman has attacked Kate Gosselin, calling her a “cheater” for relying on plastic surgery to get back into shape after having eight kids (in two batches, unlike Suleman, who need only one batch). Suleman calls Kate “desperate for attention” and says she’s “boxy.” Suleman, it was rumored, had plastic surgery to make herself look more like Angelina Jolie.

Ricardo Moraes / AP Photo

On May 27, five days before Air France Flight 447 disappeared en route from Rio De Janeiro to Paris, the company received a bomb threat by phone, delaying a plane from Argentina to Paris. It appears, so far, to be simply a coincidence, though the cause of Flight 447’s crash is still unknown. The prevalent theory is that it went down in fierce thunderstorms in the topics.

President Obama's appointment of another Republican to become army secretary on Monday appeared to be an olive branch to the GOP, but was it really a Trojan horse? Politico looks at the appointment and suggests a "stealth war." John McHugh's appointment "burnishes [Obama's] bipartisan credentials, opened up a seat prime for Democratic pickup and drained the GOP reservoir of one of the few remaining Northeastern moderates." Politico extrapolates: "It's an event that's happening with enough frequency to suggest the presence of a design, a plan that not only sketches the outline of a reelection strategy but manages to drive a wedge into the opposition at the same time. ... an audacious attempt by Obama to burn down any lines of escape for Republicans from their one refuge of popularity, the deep South." Obama has reached out to Republicans like Ray LaHood, John Huntsman, Arlen Specter, Judd Gregg, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Charlie Crist. "[I]t's beginning to look like a strategy that isolates conservatives, reinforces the impression that the GOP is defined by the borders of the Deep South and all the while underscores Obama's stated goal of working across party lines."

Richard Drew / AP Photo

Here’s one reason why financial companies appear to have been performing better as of late: “Not long after the bottom fell out of the market for mortgage securities last fall, a group of financial firms took aim at an accounting rule that forced them to report billions of dollars of losses on those assets,” reports The Wall Street Journal. “Marshalling a multimillion-dollar lobbying campaign, these firms persuaded key members of Congress to pressure the accounting industry to change the rule in April. The payoff is likely to be fatter bottom lines in the second quarter.” 31 financial firms spent $27.6 million in the first quarter of 2009 lobbying against the rule and other issues. That includes $18,500 to Paul Kanjorksi, the chairman of the House Financial Services subcommittee who pushed for the changes.

Irakli Gedenidze, Pool / Reuters

The debate over "enhanced interrogation tactics" is likely to rage on, particularly in light of The Washington Post's new discovery that former vice president Dick Cheney personally oversaw at least four briefings on the matter to senior members of Congress in 2005. According to an official who attended the briefings, Cheney defended the program but did not outline specific interrogation techniques. The briefings were held at a time when congressional committees had threatened to investigate and possibly end the program. Last month, the CIA delivered documents to Congress purporting to list every lawmaker briefed on the tactics. Yet, as the Post writes, "For meetings that were overseen by Cheney, the agency told the intelligence committees that information about who oversaw these briefings was 'not available.'" The CIA declined to comment on the matter.