Thursday Morning Open Thread

Good morning.

The President is heading to Holland, Michigan today. He's going to give a speech at Compact Power, a company that makes new advanced batteries. Obama is there because the factory got funding from the "advanced battery and electric vehicle awards" in the stimulus.

The Senate will vote today to end the filibuster of the Wall Street reform bill. The 60 votes include Scott Brown, Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe. Ben Nelson is apparently on board, but Russ Feingold is voting no.

Early this morning, Argentina's Senate passed the bill legalizing same-sex marriage. The country's President, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, has promised to sign the new law, which already passed in the Lower House. The Catholic Church (with help from the Mormons) led the opposition. But, in heavily Catholic Argentina, the Catholic Church doesn't control elected officials (would that we could say the same thing in the U.S.) And, imagine a country where the President isn't afraid to support full marriage equality for all citizens. What a concept.

What do we need to know?