January 2012
108 posts
5 tags
Chief Justice Roberts says high court not exempt... →
Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. assured the public that members of the Supreme Court are not “exempt” from the ethics rules for federal judges, including the requirement to step aside from a case if there are reasonable doubts about their impartiality.
But each justice gets to decide on his or her fitness to rule on a case, he said Saturday, and their decisions are subject to no further...
4 tags
Gingrich likes Palin as Secretary of Energy →
…. during a Wednesday night tele-town hall hosted by Ralph Reed’s Faith and Freedom Coalition, a caller asked the former Speaker if he would consider Palin as a running mate. Gingrich responded that Palin “is certainly one of the people you would look at” and told the caller that he is “a great admirer of hers.” He also floated the idea of appointing her Secretary of Energy because, he...
5 tags
Recall of Wisconsin Governor Now Possible →
Just four weeks into the recall campaign, and as Scott Walker continues to mislead voters, United Wisconsin announced that 507,533 people have already signed a petition to recall Scott Walker and is releasing its new signature collection goal of 720,277 — nearly 200,000 more than needed.
“Scott Walker continues to spend millions on misleading TV ads trying to convince voters that his...
December 2011
255 posts
5 tags
Keeping Students From the Polls →
Next fall, thousands of students on college campuses will attempt to register to vote and be turned away. Sorry, they will hear, you have an out-of-state driver’s license. Sorry, your college ID is not valid here. Sorry, we found out that you paid out-of-state tuition, so even though you do have a state driver’s license, you still can’t vote.
Political leaders should be encouraging young adults...
3 tags
Congress Really Is As Bad As You Think, Scholars... →
Congressional approval ratings are on the rocks, hovering in or near single digits for the first time since pollsters started measuring them. But just how bad is the current congressional stalemate?
Thomas Mann, senior fellow of governance studies at the Brookings Institution in Washington, is working on a book about Congress with a title that provides a succinct answer: It’s Even Worse...
4 tags
Court strikes down state restrictions on big... →
OLYMPIA — A federal appeals court struck down Washington state’s restrictions on large donations to ballot measures.
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said in a decision Thursday that the rules are unconstitutional because they restrain free speech. The laws had prohibited donations exceeding $5,000 in the 21 days before a general election.
Washington’s attorney general had...
1 tag
Sarcasm is Better for Your Brain Than Sincerity →
“For the past 20 years, researchers from linguists to psychologists to neurologists have been studying our ability to perceive snarky remarks and gaining new insights into how the mind works. Studies have shown that exposure to sarcasm enhances creative problem solving, for instance. Children understand and use sarcasm by the time they get to kindergarten. An inability to understand...
3 tags
Fewer Teens Have Driver's Licenses →
“In 2008, just 31 percent of American 16-year-olds had their driver’s licenses, down from 46 percent in 1983, according to a new study in the journal Traffic Injury Prevention. The numbers were down for 18-year-olds too, from 80 percent in 1983 to 65 percent in 2008, and the percentage of twenty- and thirtysomethings with driver’s licenses fell as well.” Lisa Hymas in...
7 tags
In Madrid’s Heart, Park Blooms Where a Freeway... →
MADRID — Even on a chilly Thursday afternoon in December, the old men, engulfed in cigar smoke and reading newspapers, were sitting around chess tables under tall pines. Nearby, a young woman had strung her line between the trunks of two mulberry trees to practice tightrope walking.
Behind her, hypnotized toddlers stared into a small oval fountain full of swirling water, and cyclists pedaled...
4 tags
3 tags
While the median net worth of members of Congress... →
Set Fire to the Rain
tyleroakley:
God bless the Internet.
Ladies & Gentlemen, I give you, the 2012...
Michelle Bachmann: "Don’t misunderstand. I am not here bashing people who are homosexuals, who are lesbians, who are bisexual, who are transgender. We need to have profound compassion for people who are dealing with the very real issue of sexual dysfunction in their life and sexual identity disorders.” (2004)
Ron Paul: "The rate of AIDS infection is on the increase again. From the gay point of view, the reasons seem quite sensible. First, these men don't really see a reason to live past their fifties. They are not married, they have no children, and their lives are centered on new sexual partners... because sex is the center of their lives, they want it to be as pleasurable as possible, which means unprotected sex. Third, they enjoy the attention & pity that comes with being sick." (1995 in a newsletter)
Rick Perry: "I'm not ashamed to admit that I'm a Christian, but you don't need to be in the pew every Sunday to know there's something wrong in this country when gays can serve openly in the military but our kids can't openly celebrate Christmas or pray in school. " (2011 in a campaign ad)
Mitt Romney: "I should tell my story. I'm also unemployed." (2011 while speaking to unemployed people in Florida. Romney's net worth is over $200 million.)
Newt Gingrich: "She's not young enough or pretty enough to be the wife of the President. And besides, she has cancer." (1994, about his first wife)
Rick Santorum: "Is anyone saying same-sex couples can’t love each other? I love my children. I love my friends, my brother. Heck, I even love my mother-in-law. Should we call these relationships marriage, too?" (2008)
Michelle Bachmann: "Carbon dioxide is portrayed as harmful. But there isn't even one study that can be produced that shows that carbon dioxide is a harmful gas." (2009 during a debate)
Mitt Romney: "PETA is not happy that my dog likes fresh air." (2006, when questioned about driving 12 hours with his dog in a cage strapped to the top of his car)
2 tags
Think Progress: 11 Facts From 2011 →
think-progress:
1. The CIA is monitoring up to 5 million tweets per day.
2. Income inequality in America is worse than in Ancient Rome.
3. Twenty-three straight polls find Americans overwhelmingly want to raise taxes to pay down debt.
4. 68% of millionaires support raising taxes on millionaires.
6 tags
3 tags
“Queer people do not need to offer excuses or defend their own existence. If one...”
– » Fauxgress Watch: “Born This Way” Social Justice League (via sexisnottheenemy)
3 tags
Watchihaveneverlovedyoumore:
Baby, It’s Cold Outside
It’s Christmas Eve. YOU MUST REBLOG THIS.
4 tags
Monday Jolt: [Seattle City] Council Bans Plastic... →
Joel Connelly, consider this your warning: The “social engineers” have won. That’s right: We’re all living under the nanny state now.
Yes, just like the federal bureaucrats who built the interstate highway system and the meanie lawmakers who make you slow down when an ambulance approaches, vaccinate your children, and get car insurance, the Seattle City Council voted unanimously today to ban...
11 tags
7 tags
4 tags
Cities that broke up Occupy camps now face... →
Most major Occupy encampments have been dispersed, but they live on in a flurry of lawsuits in which protesters are asserting their constitutional rights to free speech and assembly and challenging authorities’ mass arrests and use of force to break up tent cities.
Lawyers representing protesters have filed lawsuits — or are planning them — in state and federal courts from coast to coast,...
5 tags
Art of Transliness: T and your Genitals →
artoftransliness:
We’ve gotten a lot of questions recently about what testosterone does to one’s genitals. Instead of answering all the questions individually, here’s some information that should cover all of them (and then some):
-Most, if not all, trans* (I use the inclusive * here, though I know that some…
How testosterone affects female-bodied people
5 tags
Domestic partner benefits ban signed; ACLU... →
Many government employers in Michigan will be barred from providing health care benefits to the domestic partners of public employees under legislation signed by Gov. Rick Snyder on Thursday.
Snyder said the prohibition will not apply to employees of the state public universities or to state government employees.
The measure does apply to municipal and school employees, and to homosexual and...
5 tags
Which Two States Don't Have Any Out Elected... →
The Victory Fund reports that only two states lack any openly LGBT elected officials — and the two states may surprise you.
While all the Southern states have at least one openly LGBT elected official, neither Alaska or South Dakota have any.
“That doesn’t mean these states aren’t served by LGBT elected officials, just that none have self-identified publicly either in speeches or in the...
9 tags
ONE-THIRD OF SENATORS SUPPORT REPEALING DOMA →
Box Turtle Bulletin’s Timothy Kincaid points out that one-third of all senators have now signed on to legislation repealing the Defense of Marriage Act, including 13 Democrats who voted for the legislation in 1996 as senators or representatives. Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ) was the latest Democrat to announce his support for repealing the law, which prohibits the federal government from recognizing...
6 tags
Kathy Griffin Reading the Grindr Rules +... →
Too funny
2 tags
5 tags
6 tags
Sweden legalizes and regulates cannabis →
Stockholm, December 19 - The Swedish Parliament has approved a law which will regulate the growing, usage and trade of cannabis. This is according to the Health and Social Services of Sweden, Jonas Grönhög, who was quoted, “We don’t want to make the same mistakes which the USA has done, we do not want to be prohibitionists because the war on drugs has been lost long ago. It is...
5 tags
Study: Anti-gay groups far more effective than... →
According to a report released last week by the Movement Advancement Project (MAP), American anti-gay groups are still far more effective than LGBT rights organizations at mobilizing their funding base.
The National LGBT Movement Report, which according toThinkProgress‘s Zack Ford “analyzes the financial documents of 40 prominent LGBT organizations,” MAP estimates the number of individual...
6 tags
Iceland indicts former bank execs over 2008 crash →
Iceland’s special prosecutor issued indictments on Monday against two former top executives of collapsed Glitnir Bank claiming they committed fraud by handing out an unauthorized loan of more than 100 million euros in early 2008.
Iceland’s financial system imploded in late 2008, its currency slumped and the island nation is only just beginning to recover after a loan from the...
8 tags
Primary vs. secondary sexual attraction model →
This hypothetical model defines sexuality in terms of types of sexual attraction and desire.
Under this model, primary sexual attraction is an instant attraction to people based on instantly available information such as their appearance or smell which may or may not lead to arousal or sexual desire. Secondary sexual attraction is considered to be an attraction that develops over time based on...
5 tags
Supreme Court To Rule On Corporate Personhood For... →
The Supreme Court on Monday morning agreed to hear a case over whether corporations can be sued in federal courts for human rights violations occurring overseas.
The case, Kiobel v. Royal Dutch Petroleum, arises out of a suit by a dozen Nigerian plaintiffs claiming that Royal Dutch and two of its Shell Oil subsidiaries worked with the Nigerian government to torture and extrajudicially execute...
8 tags
OBAMA, THE COURTS, AND GAY MARRIAGE →
Just as an earlier court decision striking down “don’t ask, don’t tell” (Log Cabin Republicans v. United States) dramatically accelerated the President’s push to repeal it, the pending marriage cases are having a substantial impact on his strategy.
If these federal appellate rulings come down in favor of gay rights, and especially if they are unambiguous in holding that the Constitution...
6 tags
Boehner’s office cuts off C-SPAN cameras as GOP... →
A strange thing happened Wednesday morning on Capitol Hill.
As Rep. Stenny Hoyer (D-MD) attempted to call for a vote to extend a payroll tax cut to middle class and working Americans, his Republican colleagues adjourned the House and walked out of the chamber. And if that weren’t odd enough, it got even stranger: As Hoyer railed against them for failing to help working Americans, footage from...
6 tags
Why Rappers Are Suddenly Speaking Out in Support... →
Since the genre’s explosion into the public consciousness in the early ’80s, rap music has stood apart as one of popular culture’s most unregulated forums for anti-gay hate speech. From Ice Cube’s paean to male anal rape, “No Vaseline,” to Big Daddy Kane proclaiming himself “anti-f——t” and Eminem’s scorching repudiation of homosexuality on 2000’s “Criminal”—“Whether you’re a fag or...
“Unease, anxiety, tension, stress, worry — all forms of fear — are cause by too...”
– Eckhart Tolle (via nirvikalpa)