Microsoft, Starbucks among 70 major organizations to join suit AGAINST DOMA (shopping season alert!)

Seattle Times ^ | November 4, 2011 | Janet I. Tu

[NYer]

Microsoft and Starbucks are among 70 corporations, financial institutions, medical centers, and other major organizations that have signed on to a friend-of-the-court brief in support of a challenge to the federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA).

The organizations are, or represent, major employers who argue that DOMA imposes significant administrative costs, and that it harms their ability to attract and retain talent.

"Microsoft has joined dozens of corporations, organizations and governments in support of a challenge on constitutionality grounds to the federal Defense of Marriage Act, known as DOMA," the company said in a statement. The amicus brief "points out the significant costs and administrative burdens DOMA imposes on employers as well as the ways DOMA interferes with employers' efforts to promote diversity and equal opportunity in the workplace."

The organizations -- which also include Google, CBS, Time Warner Cable, Nike, and the cities of Boston, Cambridge and New York -- filed the brief Thursday in the case of Commonwealth of Massachusetts vs. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, one of two consolidated cases from Massachusetts challenging the constitutionality of DOMA.

DOMA, passed by Congress in 1996, defines marriage as between one man and one woman. It bars the federal government from treating same-sex marriages as legal or granting gay couples federal benefits. That means, for instance, that same-sex couples who married in states such as Massachusetts, where gay marriage is legal, aren't eligible for the benefits that come with federally recognized marriage, such as filing joint federal tax returns or Social Security and immigration-law benefits.

There are about a dozen cases around the country challenging DOMA.

[ken21]

i never shop at starbucks.

[Recovering_Democrat]

Yes indeed folks, the desire to equate REAL marriage with FAKE marriage is being brought full force.

You will swallow the demands of pro-homosexual relationships and be forced to embrace their behavior.

Hussein started this by refusing to enforce the law of the land.

And now his cult has infiltrated big businesses and other institutions.

Three things are needed, in this order:

We need a spiritual revival in America.
We need to fire Hussein in a year and a day.
We need to teach future generations the truth.

[BenKenobi]

Have you tried to maintain it?

I had to fix my mother’s machine. We ended up having to wipe the HD just to get rid of her corrupted FF install. The thing was hopelessly broken.

Ditched FF, runs just fine. FF used to be decent, but now it’s bloatware.

[adorno]

I’m a fan of MS and I will be using alternatives, like Open office.

I've tried to use Open Office, and my experience has always been that, it's second best and apparently will always be second best. The price can't be beat.

However, pertaining to using Microsoft software, there is no reason to use Microsoft software all the time, and perhaps certain we can split the types of software that we do use to include several makes and vendors. So, maybe we don't have to used IE and Opera might be a good alternative (I will never trust Google, and thus, Chrome is out of the question). We also don't have to use Hotmail, and Yahoo mail can be a good substitute. All we need to do is to use as few MS applications as possible, as long as there are adequate alternatives.

The problem with this idea is that, the vast majority of people won't be familiar with the DOMA issue, or won't care about the issue, since, to most, it's not something that affects them directly. To them, it's always somebody else's problem, although they are directly and indirectly affected by any regulations which affect businesses and increase the cost of goods and services, and changes the ethical and moral and religious and cultural rules which have guided societies since forever.

[Persevero]

I had Starbucks gift cards on my list. No more.

[BenKenobi]

Which is why I’ve stuck with them and shunned Google for the most part.

If you’ve got a browser that works better than the latest IE, and isn’t a load of bloatware like FF, I’m all ears.

[Salvation]

I stopped going to Starbucks when I learned they gave money to Planned Parenthood.

[BenKenobi]

I don’t see anywhere that MS is better than Open office for any of the work that I do. I can’t/won’t drop my hotmail account, because I’ve had it now for close to 15 years.

But as for the rest, I’m open to it.

“primary financial support for the browser came through revenue from Google (which is by contract Opera’s default search engine”

Sorry, Opera’s not an option. Just Google by another name.

[fatnotlazy]

I stopped going to Starbucks when I got cold coffee...twice.

[MoochPooch]

That settles it. In the future I shop at Coffee Beanery.

[NYer]

I had Starbucks gift cards on my list. No more.

Christmas is the season for giving! Why not consider a gift of ..

Mystic Monk Coffee is roasted by the Carmelite Monks, a Roman Catholic monastery in the silence and solitude of the Rocky Mountains of northern Wyoming. The monks live a hidden life of prayer and contemplation in the pursuit of God. The monastery is inundated with young men who seek to leave everything to pray for the world, in a tradition at least a thousand years old.

They offer quite an assortment from which to choose, including Fair Trade. Check out the options at:

Mystic Monk's Coffee.

Plan on a 'blessed' Christmas :-)

[Andy'smom]

I guess Nationwide isn’t on your side after all?

[Absolutely Nobama]

Ping!

[BenKenobi]

ABT Associates
Aetna, Inc.
Akamai Technologies, Inc.
Alere Inc.
Bank of New York Mellon
Biogen Idec, Inc.
Blue Cross Blue Shield of Mass., Inc.
Boston Community Capital, Inc.
Boston Medical Center Corp.
Bright Horizons Children’s Centers
Calvert Investments, Inc.
CBS Corporation
The Chubb Corporation
Communispace Corp.
Constellation Energy Group, Inc.
Diageo North America, Inc.
Eastern Bank Corp.
Exelon Corp.
FitCorp Healthcare Centers, Inc.
Gammelgården, LLC
Google Inc.
Integrated Archive Systems, Inc.
Kimpton Hotel & Restaurant Group,
Levi Strauss & Co.
Loring, Wolcott & Coolidge Trust,
Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance
Massachusetts Envelope Company,
Massachusetts Financial Services
Microsoft Corp.
National Grid USA, Inc.
Nationwide Mutual Insurance Co.
New Balance Athletic Shoe, Inc.
New England Cryogenic Center, Inc.
NIKE, Inc.
The Ogilvy Group, Inc.
Onyx Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
Partners HealthCare System, Inc.
Reproductive Science Center of New England
Skyworks Solutions, Inc.
Starbucks Corp.
State Street Bank and Trust Co.
Stonyfield Farm, Inc.
Sun Life Financial (U.S.) Services
Time Warner Cable, Inc.
Trillium Asset Management Corp.
W/S Development Associates LLC
Xerox Corp.
Zipcar, Inc.

[dennisw]

I like the Windows 7 look the best but Linux desktop looks a lot better than Apple’s latest. Apple GUI is clunky, boxy, crude, in the dumps

[SuziQ]

Thanks for that reminder! I’ll check out the Monks’ coffee right now!

[antidemoncrat]

‘Led by House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-Md.), more than 130 Democratic lawmakers filed an amicus brief in a lawsuit before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 1st Circuit to rebut the Republican defense that the federal ban on gay marriage is constitutional.”

Nancy Pelosi: another Progressive that claims she is a Christian and hears “the Word”, and yet continues to back agendas that include baby killing and deviant sexual behavior.

[steve86]

No problems whatsoever, have been running since the old Phoenix predecessor. It is typically the add-ons that are causing problems, although not the ones I use.

[Blood of Tyrants]

It ought to be thrown out on lack of standing. I mean, what harm can they show because there is a FEDERAL DOMA when each state can still make that decision for themselves?

[the invisib1e hand]

The organizations are, or represent, major employers who argue that DOMA imposes significant administrative costs, and that it harms their ability to attract and retain talent.

You know what? Tough sh1t. The law is to serve citizens first, not corporations first.

Now then, where are all the Randian capitalist apologists who refuse to believe that corporations are annexes of the government?