Why have some of the nation's most vehement anti-gay activists—Ted Haggard, Larry Craig—had gay sex scandals of their own? An op-ed in the New York Times' Sunday Review section tries to explain. The authors of the piece, two research psychologists, say they have "empirical evidence that homophobia can result, at least in part, from the suppression of same-sex desire..."
Federal judge blocks Texas funding cuts to Planned Parenthood - latimes.com
A federal judge on Monday stopped Texas from removing Planned Parenthood clinics from a state women’s health program because the organization provides abortions.
In his ruling, U.S. District Judge Lee Yeakel in Austin cited evidence that the state rule banning Planned Parenthood from the program was unconstitutional. He imposed an injunction against enforcing the law until he can hear arguments in the case...
Jon Meacham: Why Barack Obama Owns Osama bin Laden | TIME Ideas | TIME.com
...Republicans are — forgive the cliché — shocked, shocked to discover that a presidential contender is “politicizing” an important national event. In this sense, “politicizing” might be best translated as “beating us up and we don’t have anything much to say to stop it.” The ad itself raises intriguing, substantive, legitimate questions — and the ferocious, sputtering Republican reaction is proof positive that they know it, or at least suspect it.
The ad’s theme is that Obama made a courageous and risky decision to send in the SEALs. Here the President has history and facts on his side: it was a courageous and risky call. Had the mission failed, had it been another Desert One, the very people now criticizing the President for trumpeting the achievement would be beginning their second year of excoriating Obama for weakness and fecklessness. And anyone weighing whether to re-elect the President should take the bin Laden operation into account: it is a powerful exhibit that Obama is a steely Commander in Chief — a critical test for many Americans...
Field workers for President Obama’s campaign fanned out across the country over the weekend in an effort to confront a barrage of new voter identification laws that strategists say threaten the campaign’s hopes for registering new voters ahead of the November election...
God and Man in Tennessee - NYTimes.com
EARLIER this month state senators in Tennessee approved an update to our sex-education law that would ban teachers from discussing hand-holding, which it categorizes as “gateway sexual activity.” The bill came fast on the heels of a new state law that effectively allows creationism to be taught in our classrooms. Though he voiced misgivings, our governor, Bill Haslam, refused to veto it...
Apple’s Tax Strategy Aims at Low-Tax States and Nations - NYTimes.com
...Yet, with a handful of employees in a small office here in Reno, Apple has done something central to its corporate strategy: it has avoided millions of dollars in taxes in California and 20 other states.
Apple’s headquarters are in Cupertino, Calif. By putting an office to collect and invest the company’s profits out of Reno, just 200 miles away, Apple sidesteps state income taxes on some of those gains...
Death of a Fairy Tale - NYTimes.com
...However, something has changed in the past few weeks. Several events — the collapse of the Dutch government over proposed austerity measures, the strong showing of the vaguely anti-austerity François Hollande in the first round of France’s presidential election, and an economic report showing that Britain is doing worse in the current slump than it did in the 1930s — seem to have finally broken through the wall of denial. Suddenly, everyone is admitting that austerity isn’t working...
Lehman elite stood to get $700 million - latimes.com
Less than a year before the 2008 collapse of Lehman Bros. plunged the global economy into a terrifying free fall, the Wall Street firm awarded nearly $700 million to 50 of its highest-paid employees, according to internal documents reviewed by The Times...
House Republicans investigating the Fast and Furious scandal plan to pursue a contempt citation against Attorney General Eric Holder, senior congressional aides told CBS News.
The resolution will accuse Holder and his Justice Department of obstructing the congressional probe into the allegations that the government let thousands of weapons fall into the hands of Mexican drug cartels...
Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
...I am exaggerating. In Rhode Island, well over 3 percent of the eligible voters flocked to the polls on Tuesday, as the overwhelming majority declared their enthusiasm for Mitt Romney as the Republican presidential nominee. We are totally talking mandate...
Florida judge blocks drug tests for state workers | Reuters
A federal judge in Miami has tossed out an executive order from Florida Governor Rick Scott requiring drug testing of state employees, saying it violated the constitutional prohibition on unreasonable searches and seizures...
2 House Democrats Defeated After Opposing Health Law - NYTimes.com
The defeat of two conservative House Democrats by more liberal opponents in Tuesday’s Pennsylvania primary illustrates the strong hold the new health care law still has over committed Democratic voters and foreshadows an even more polarized Congress next year in the aftermath of the latest round of redistricting...
John Edwards slimy but not criminal | The Salt Lake Tribune
...Even the campaign-finance obsessives at Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) consider the case an overreach. CREW points out an absurdity that follows from the government’s argument. If keeping Rielle Hunter quiet is rightly considered a campaign expenditure, as the prosecutors maintain, then the Edwards campaign could have funded her living expenses directly without breaking any rules. "Love child" could have been a legitimate line item in the budget somewhere between "get out the vote" and "phone banks."
The prosecution is a naked exercise in attempting to punish a loathsome man for his loathsomeness. As such it is an offense against the rule of law, which depends on clear rules and dispassionate judgments. Every wrong — even flagrant wrongs, played out in public and involving mind-boggling deceit — is not a crime. By stretching the laws to try to reach Edwards, the government is creating the predicate for future ambiguous, politicized prosecutions, perhaps of figures much less blameworthy than the reviled man currently in the dock.
John Edwards belongs under a rock, but not in jail.
Dana Rohrabacher, California Rep., Barred From Entering Afghanistan By Hamid Karzai
Afghan President Hamid Karzai may not be able to silence his critics in Washington, but he can stop them from entering his country. On Friday, Karzai barred Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.) from traveling to Afghanistan with his fellow congressmen. Rohrabacher, a longtime critic of Karzai, called the move a "pretty desperate" attempt to prevent his views from being aired in front of the Afghan people...
Accretive Placed Debt Collectors in Hospitals, Minnesota AG Says - Bloomberg
Patients at a Minnesota hospital chain were met in the emergency room and even at their bedsides by debt collectors from a company that didn’t disclose its role,the state’s attorney general alleges.
Employees of Fairview Health Services, a nonprofit chain of seven hospitals based in Minneapolis, were required to use a computer system derisively called “Blue Balls” to track whether patients paid their bills and pressure them for payment before they received care, Minnesota Attorney General Lori Swanson said. The payment system began after Fairview hired the collection agency Accretive Health Inc. (AH) in May 2010, Swanson said today in a report describing the companies’ relationship.
First I agree with a WSJ editorial and now I agree with David Brooks. The temperature in Hell must be dropping: The Creative Monopoly - NYTimes.com
...Let’s get this straight: in the midst of a technology revolution, with a shortage of engineers and computer scientists, UF decides to cut computer science completely?...
... Paula Reid, the new Secret Service boss for the South American region, was in Cartagena preparing for the president’s visit when she received an urgent report: A prostitute, upset because she had not been paid by a Secret Service agent, had created a disturbance in a nearby hotel, knocking on doors and yelling in the hallways at daybreak...
...The U.S. has reached a dead end in trying to fight drug use by treating every offender as a serious criminal. Blanket drug legalization has some superficial charm—it fits nicely into a sound-bite or tweet—but it can't stand up to serious analysis. The real prospects for reform involve policies rather than slogans. It remains to be seen whether our political process—and the media circus that often shapes it—can tolerate the necessary complexity.
Cannonfire: "American Parasite"
...Right-wingers often say that the government should be run like a business. God help us if the U.S. is run like a Bain-bought business. Mitt Romney runs a company only one way: Into the ground.
Calling him a financial vulture is an insult to vultures: Carrion birds perform a useful function, and they eat only the dead. People like Romney kill healthy organisms.,,
Rachel Maddow Demands Dismissal of $50 Million Defamation Lawsuit - Hollywood Reporter
MSNBC host Rachel Maddow has hit back hard against a $50 million defamation lawsuit brought by heavy metal rocker-turned-radio host and conservative preacher Bradlee Dean. Maddow and NBC Universal are looking to punish Dean for bringing an allegedly meritless suit by filing an anti-SLAPP motion to end the case and force him to hand over legal fees...
I hate it when I end up agreeing with people like Terry Jones. Like the Duke Lacross case, the rush to judgment here has beaten the speed of sound, if not light. Controversial pastor weighs in on Trayvon Martin case - Florida - MiamiHerald.com
I like the idea contained in this post. Check it out. Simply Left BehindThe Non-Rapturist's Guide To The Galaxy: Nobody Asked Me, But...
...2) Since I'm talking about Obama's second term, let me rant again for a moment: President Obama could make a major statement about the economics of this country and usher in a whole new business model AND shut the Republicans up about tax cuts...
Cannonfire:"Put Nugent in jail. He can share a cell with Markos Moulitsas."
Here's an interesting discussion on whether Ted Nugent can be sent to jail. I think it has been established beyond reasonable doubt that this creep has made death threats against Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. There is indeed a law against that...
Huckabee harmonizes with Nugent - POLITICO.com
Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee defended his “hunting buddy and good friend” Ted Nugent on his radio show on Wednesday...
Check out the comment thread.
Citi shareholders block executive pay plan - Yahoo! News
Citigroup shareholders refused to endorse a pay plan for Chief Executive Vikram Pandit and four other officials Tuesday, dealing a blow to a management that has failed to pull up the bank's stock since the financial crisis.
Shareholders turned back the board's compensation plan for the top five executives, which included a $14.9 million package for Pandit for 2011, after he kept his salary in 2010 at just $1.00...
Coming - ‘Taxmageddon’ - NYTimes.com
...Either way, the changes will affect the vast majority of Americans, given that the deficit reflects a basic disconnect between the government we have and the taxes we are willing to pay. Social Security, Medicaid and Medicare may become less generous. The Pentagon may no longer be able to get just about whatever it wants. Taxes may have to rise from their recent levels, which have been lower, as a share of the economy, than at any point in 60 years. That could mean higher rates. Or, if tax reform actually happens, it could mean smaller tax breaks for health care, housing and retirement savings..
Blogs: Ted Nugent is Mitt Romney's Hilary Rosen - Tim Mak - POLITICO.com
Progressive bloggers erupted in fury over controversial comments about President Barack Obama by rocker Ted Nugent and complained about a lack of media coverage, especially compared with the super-saturation reporting on Hilary Rosen’s remarks last week about stay-at-home moms...
Analysis: Sex tapers can thank 3rd Circuit for 1st Amendment protection | Reuters
...Those record-keeping requirements, Magaziner said, are no small thing. Must a married couple that makes a sex tape post IDs at their "business premises"? Must they make their records available to government inspectors? And can the government use the criminal record-keeping laws to punish people targeted for other crimes? As the ACLU's eloquent 34-page brief explained, "history shows that government agents have been known to use laws that are rarely otherwise enforced to punish people who are being investigated for unrelated crimes." That's a pretty scary thought: Police raid your house, find no evidence to back the crime they initially alleged, but you spend a year in prison for a homemade sex tape that didn't include a label noting where you keep your driver's license? Sure, the Justice Department may have promised not to prosecute private sex tapers, but the ACLU brief suggests we can't necessarily rely on such promises...
Tax Wars Kick Off As US Senate Readies Vote on Buffett Rule - WSJ.com
-The nation's tax wars kicked off in earnest on Monday, as Senate Democrats readied a vote on forcing a minimum 30% income tax on ultra-high income earners and Republicans and their allies fired back by warning of higher taxes for all Americans...
Rep. Camp: Cool to Romney Plan to Pare Home-Interest Deduction - Washington Wire - WSJ
House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dave Camp (R., Mich.) did not rush to embrace Mitt Romney’s proposal to pare back a home-mortgage interest deduction, a sign of how politically contentious the issue is for Americans...
Bill Cosby says the debate over the killing of Trayvon Martin by George Zimmerman, a neighborhood watch volunteer, should be focused on guns, not race.
In an interview on CNN's 'State of the Union', Cosby said calling Zimmerman a racist doesn't solve anything. Cosby says the bigger question is what he was doing with a gun, and who taught him how to behave with it...
Whistleblower report prompts call to action - CBS News
Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa), the senior Republican on a Senate committee overseeing immigration and visa policy is calling for action following a CBS News report featuring whistleblower Jay Palmer.
Palmer, a principal consultant for Infosys, accuses the tech giant of putting Americans out of work by illegally bringing in foreign workers at lower wages.
"CBS This Morning" featured Palmer's story on Thursday...
...McConnell and other Republicans also say they could never ask millionaires to pay more because that would violate the spirit of Republican icon Ronald Reagan, which just proves that they don't know Ronald Reagan any better than some evangelists know Jesus.Do I ever see a Democratic ad lurking here-- especially if they can find some video.
President Reagan, in fact, did not oppose the principle of the Buffett Rule. He was the first to champion it. Speaking at Northside High School in Atlanta, Ga., on June 6, 1985, Reagan vowed to get rid of loopholes that created unfairness in the tax code. "Some of those loopholes were understandable," he acknowledged, "but in practice they sometimes made it possible for millionaires to pay nothing, while a bus driver was paying 10 percent of his salary -- and that's crazy!"
A few weeks later, speaking at the White House, Reagan doubled-down on tax fairness, citing a letter he'd received from a wealthy American who, like Buffett, simply by taking advantage of loopholes, was able to pay a lower tax rate than his secretary. "He wrote me the letter to tell me he'd like to come to Washington and testify before Congress as to how that's possible for him to do -- and why it is wrong!"
An ugly foreclosure story, starring Bank of America - latimes.com
Dirma Rodriguez had five minutes to gather her things and vacate the West Adams house she and her severely disabled daughter had lived in for more than 25 years...
North Korean missile launch failure: what it means for West - CSMonitor.com
A North Korean satellite launch on Friday ended in epic failure as the booster rocket broke up over the Yellow Sea, embarrassing the Pyongyang regime at the moment it is celebrating the 100th birthday of its late founder, Kim Il-sung...
Catholic bishops issue rallying cry for 'religious freedom' – USATODAY.com
The nation's Catholic bishops are calling on the faithful to pray and mobilize in a "great national campaign" to confront what they see as a series of threats to religious freedom, and they are setting aside the two weeks before July 4 for their "Fortnight for Freedom" initiative...
What some people want is more freedom from religion.
Apple's Steve Jobs conspired on e-book price-fixing, lawsuits say - latimes.com
Former Apple Inc. Chief Executive Steve Jobs and top executives at five major book publishers illegally conspired to raise the prices of e-books, costing consumers tens of millions of dollars, federal and state officials alleged in antitrust suits filed Wednesday.
The collusion began in 2009 and price fixing took effect with the launch of the iPad in early 2010, boosting the average cost of e-books by $2 to $3 each "virtually overnight," said Sharis Pozen, the acting head of the Justice Department's antitrust division...
And Jobs remains Unrisen.
Simply Left BehindThe Non-Rapturist's Guide To The Galaxy
...Guillen should pay no price, either. He's apologized, but I don't think he needed to. If Guillen is to pay a price, if we are to clearly remove politics from sports (which might not be a bad thing, but right now, is not a necessary thing), then Tim Thomas should be forced to remove his helmet while playing for the Boston Bruins. He paid no official price for refusing to meet with President Obama, either. If Guillen is punished, then so should Tim Thomas.My suspicion, however, is that we want the right kind of politics (in all senses) from our athletes, which is even stupider. If we're going to claim Tim Thomas has the right to wear a Teabagger symbol on his helmet, then fairness-- a doctrine America was built on-- demands that Guillen be allowed to speak out, or tattoo a hammer-and-sickle on his arm, or whatever else.For if we're going to have "politics for me, but none for thee," then this country is in very grave danger.
Mike Wallace, '60 Minutes' interrogator, dies - WSJ.com
The "60 Minutes" journalist's reputation as a pitiless inquisitor was so fearsome that it was often said that those were the most dreaded words in the English language, capable of reducing an interview subject to a shaking, sweating mess.
Wallace, who won his 21st and final Emmy Award at 89, died Saturday in the New Canaan, Conn., care facility where he had lived the last few years of his life. He was 93...
The GOP Campaign and the Damaging of American Community - Macomb, IL - McDonough County The Voice
...But to me, the nuttiest, scariest, and most revealing Santorum comment is his assertion that America’s colleges and universities are “indoctrination mills”---hence, enemies of religious faith. As is so common with the purveyors of the “I am righteous” and “you are evil” view of any person they disagree with, the reverse is true. The wall of separation between church and state, which Santorum wants to dismantle, was established by American founders who knew only too well that schools and other institutions had been used time and again to favor or protect a popular religious view---and to indoctrinate and discriminate.
The decision of Santorum and his wife to home school all of their children suggests that he wants very much to indoctrinate and that he is afraid for any of his kids to encounter a broad American spectrum of views and do their own thinking. No wonder former Republican senator Alan Simpson recently said, “I do not think it realistic for Rick Santorum to represent America...”
Andrew Sullivan: Christianity in Crisis - The Daily Beast
...When we think of Jefferson as the great architect of the separation of church and state, this, perhaps, was what he meant by “church”: the purest, simplest, apolitical Christianity, purged of the agendas of those who had sought to use Jesus to advance their own power decades and centuries after Jesus’ death. If Jefferson’s greatest political legacy was the Declaration of Independence, this pure, precious moral teaching was his religious legacy. “I am a real Christian,” Jefferson insisted against the fundamentalists and clerics of his time. “That is to say, a disciple of the doctrines of Jesus...”
Shelby Steele: The Exploitation of Trayvon Martin - WSJ.com
...And this points to the second tragedy that Trayvon's sad demise highlights. Before the 1960s the black American identity (though no one ever used the word) was based on our common humanity, on the idea that race was always an artificial and exploitive division between people. After the '60s—in a society guilty for its long abuse of us—we took our historical victimization as the central theme of our group identity. We could not have made a worse mistake.
It has given us a generation of ambulance-chasing leaders, and the illusion that our greatest power lies in the manipulation of white guilt. The tragedy surrounding Trayvon's death is not in the possibility that it might have something to do with white racism; the tragedy is in the lustfulness with which so many black leaders, in conjunction with the media, have leapt to exploit his demise for their own power.
Romney using ethics exception to limit disclosure of Bain holdings - The Washington Post
Republican presidential front-runner Mitt Romney, whose wealth has become a central issue in the 2012 campaign, has taken advantage of an obscure exception in federal ethics laws to avoid disclosing the nature and extent of his holdings.
By offering a limited description of his assets, Romney has made it difficult to know precisely where his money is invested, whether it is offshore or in controversial companies, or whether those holdings could affect his policies or present any conflicts of interest...
The revelation that NBC News altered the recorded 911 call that George Zimmerman made to police before he fatally shot Trayvon Martin has brought down heavy criticism on NBC – and points up the dangers of a case being tried outside the legal system, say media and legal analysts.
“This guy looks like he’s up to no good.... He looks black,” is what the edited version of the tape presents Mr. Zimmerman as saying. It aired on the “Today” show last week. But it was edited in such a way that suggests Zimmerman was racially motivated. The actual conversation is: “This guy looks like he’s up to no good. Or he’s on drugs or something. It’s raining and he’s just walking around, looking about,” Zimmerman said.
The dispatcher asked, “OK, and this guy – is he black, white, or Hispanic?” Zimmerman replied, “He looks black...”
Olbermann tells Letterman he "screwed up" on Current TV deal - CNN.com
Days after a very public termination from the Current TV network, controversial on-air personality Keith Olbermann admitted he "screwed up," in an appearance on "The Late Show with David Letterman" Tuesday evening.
"I screwed up really big on this," the former "Countdown" host conceded. "It's my fault that it didn't succeed, in the sense that I didn't think the whole thing through..."
...This is the anatomy of a political sting.
Nothing this fellow said was true. Public records reveal that his real name is John M. Howting. He is active in the conservative movement and does not want to organize a union. His company — for which he built an elaborate Web site — and its officials do not exist. Ms. Byer-Ettinger suspects that he secretly recorded their conversation.
For several years, young conservatives have made a cottage industry of going undercover and trying to goad people working at perceived liberal institutions — like Acorn, NPR and Planned Parenthood — into saying something stupid. Trained by well-financed foundations, these dirty tricksters pose as pimps, sex traffickers and Muslim activists and record conversations surreptitiously. Then they release videos that have often been heavily edited...
If you believe that, then read this: 10 Hard Truths Developers Must Learn to Accept CIO.com
Justices Approve Strip-Searches for Any Offense - NYTimes.com
The Supreme Court on Monday ruled by a 5-to-4 vote that officials may strip-search people arrested for any offense, however minor, before admitting them to jails even if the officials have no reason to suspect the presence of contraband...
...and the argument.
Simply Left BehindThe Non-Rapturist's Guide To The Galaxy: Freedumb Fighters
In all the hoopla over the ACA arguments in the Supreme Court last week was lost a tactical blunder that liberals and Democrats could have...should have...been making all along: defining freedom:..
How billionaires destroy democracy - Wall Street - Salon.com
...So far, however, the privileged elite have mostly managed to protect and even enhance their financial position, with the Wall Street crowd using its clout to win a massive $4.7 trillion bailout. The elite have also managed to derail attempts to raise their taxes. The very rich seem poised to dismantle programs that are vital to the well-being of millions of ordinary Americans and that for decades seemed politically untouchable.
Mark Hanna may well have identified a crude truth about American politics when he said “There are two things that are important in politics. The first is money and I can’t remember what the second is.” Perhaps the second thing, which the Republican strategist so casually forgot, is that it matters how widely money is distributed. We therefore offer up a corollary to Hanna’s rule: When money is distributed more equally in society, ordinary citizens speak with louder voices, making meaningful democracy possible.
Ron Paul: I’m trying to save the GOP from itself | The Raw Story
Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul said Sunday that he was intent on bringing the Republican Party back to its founding principles of limited government.
“I think Republicans have dug a hole for themselves because they’re trying to out-militarize the President, saying we should do more,” he said on CBS News’ Face the Nation. “Yet 75 percent of the American people have said we’ve had enough, it’s cost us too much money, it’s time to come home.”
Paul, a Texas congressman, has gained an enthusiastic and dedicated following for his libertarian views. While his budget-cutting economic policies are similar to other Republican candidates, his view of civil liberties and foreign policy is markedly different...
Thought provoking for sure.
Why Nations Fail - NYTimes.com
...Co-authored by the M.I.T. economist Daron Acemoglu and the Harvard political scientist James A. Robinson, “Why Nations Fail” argues that the key differentiator between countries is “institutions.” Nations thrive when they develop “inclusive” political and economic institutions, and they fail when those institutions become “extractive” and concentrate power and opportunity in the hands of only a few.
“Inclusive economic institutions that enforce property rights, create a level playing field, and encourage investments in new technologies and skills are more conducive to economic growth than extractive economic institutions that are structured to extract resources from the many by the few,” they write...
How the U.S. Almost Betrayed Britain in the Falklands War - WSJ.com
Thirty years ago this Monday, Argentine marines invaded the Falkland Islands, killed or captured its British defenders and declared the islands to be Argentine territory: Les Malvinas. Britain dispatched a naval "task force" to regain them less than a week later. The Falklands War had begun.
According to newly released documents from the Reagan Library in Simi Valley, Calif., the U.S. almost took sides against its most important ally, driven by the diplomatic maneuvering of Secretary of State Alexander Haig...
Why am I not surprised?
