Vote Machinations, Electoral College, Tea Party, Local Politics, Republicans

Vote Machinations

• One Thing Can Stop Corporations From Buying the 2012 Election: Transparency
• Vote suppression in the US revs up--"In recent years, the Republican Party has accelerated its efforts to make voting more difficult for Americans."
• The Republicans' Latest Ploy to Keep the Economy Lousy through Election Day
• Stupid voters enable broken government
• Diebold voting machines can be hacked by remote control Salon

Electoral College

• The GOP's Genius Plan to Beat Obama in 2012
• The GOP is trying to rig the electoral college
• GOP 2012 Strategy: Disenfranchise Democrats, Rig Electoral College
• Despite Internal GOP Opposition, Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett Stands By His Election Rigging Scheme
• Why the GOP's electoral college scheme is probably doomed Salon

Tea Party

• Jon Stewart Puts the Blame Where it Belongs – The Republican Base
• Americans Dislike the Tea Party More Than Ever Before
• Morgan Freeman: Obama Made Racism Worse, Tea Party Will Do 'Whatever [It] Can To Get This Black Man Outta Here'

Local Politics

• Wisconsin news: Unions' recall drive falls short; GOP holds state Senate
• Lawyers say Gould ordinances violate Constitution--The city council gets fascistic.
• All charges dropped against Julie Bass, the Michigan gardcener threatened with jail time for growing vegetables in her own yard
• Post A Picture That 'Causes Emotional Distress' And You Could Face Jailtime In Tennessee--These pics could get you locked up.
• Ohio House Passes Bill Allowing Guns Into Bars, Bar Owners Reply 'Guns And Alcohol Don’t Mix'

Republicans

• Judge Can’t Figure Out Why Deadbeat Dad Rep. Joe Walsh Won’t Appear In Court
• Married Ohio Family Values Republican Rep. Gets Busted With A Stripper
• Christian conservative group calls on Sen. David Vitter to follow Rep. Weiner's lead and resign from office.
• Beat up your girlfriend, receive an award
• Hinkle: I paid young man $80 for encounter
• Another Anti-Gay GOP State Senator Caught With His Pics on Gay Hook Up Site
• Anti-Immigrant New Mexico Governor Reveals Her Grandparents Were Undocumented Immigrants

Occupy Wall Street, Bad Cops, Retaliatory, Canada, Don't Tase Me, Bro

Occupy Wall Street

• Wall Street protesters cuffed, pepper-sprayed during 'inequality' march--The man responsible has been identified as Anthony Bolgona who's been accused of civil rights violations before, but information about his wife and children were published as well.
• Lawrence O'Donnell on Police Brutality at the protest
• Newsworthy? Determining the Importance of Protests on Wall Street
• Gunning for Wall Street, With Faulty Aim NYT
• Occupy Wall Street rediscovers the radical imagination--"The young people protesting in Wall Street and beyond reject this vain economic order. They have come to reclaim the future."

Bad Cops

• Let's Stop Assuming the Police are on Our Side--From mass arrests to surveillance, confidence in the Metropolitan police is at an all-time low
• Policing The Police: U.S. Steps Up Enforcement--"Federal civil rights lawyers are investigating 15 departments from Arizona to New Jersey, asking whether officers are discriminating against minorities or using too much force."
• 'That stupid b**** got what she deserved (I'll bet she was fat and black too)'. Shocking emails of Texas police hacked and dumped online
• "Sheer Insanity" as Reporters Arrested at Taxicab Commission Hearing--You can see for yourself.
• Infographic: Police Brutality

Retaliatory

• Cartoonist Targeted With Criminal Probe For Mocking Police
• Key witness in Tulsa police trial arrested on traffic misdemeanors--She is set to testify against the police in another case.
• North Carolina Man gets his leg broken by cops, then goes to jail because he wouldn't stand in court--" A man who was eating a taco at a Raleigh bus stop says a cop swept-kicked him to the ground, broke his leg and arrested him, then hauled him before a judge who sentenced him to 30 days in jail for contempt, because he could not stand on his broken leg."

Oh, Canada

• 'Courageous' judge takes on Halton cops--"A provincial court judge in Halton has taken on police in the region, releasing two bold rulings in less than a month rebuking officers for excessive force."
• Harper plans to bring back extraordinary anti-terror powers for police
• Canada mulls warrantless internet info-gathering powers for police
• Toronto police swear off G20 kettling tactic
• RCMP missed evidence in 911 call probe: documents--"The RCMP missed crucial evidence in its review of a bungled 911 call that left a victim clinging to life for four days before she died... ."

Don't Tase Me, Bro

• Police shelve Tasers for now after another suspect dies
• Cops Tasered Vietnam Vet 16 Times, Widow Says
• Taser Death Lawsuit Results in $10M Award
• Autopsy Results Revealed in Mountain Police Releated Death
• Taser's youngest victim dies from cop attack

Incarcerating Kids for Cash, Prison for Profit, Innocence, Self-Defense, Casey Anthony

Incarcerating Kids for Cash

• Judges Plead Guilty in Scheme to Jail Youths for Profit
• Mom Lashes Out At "Scumbag" Judge That Was Found Guilty Of Sending Kids To Jail For Payola--She says she got justice.
• A former judge who orchestrated a massive kickback scheme involving for-profit youth detention centers was sentenced Friday to 17 1/2 years in federal prison

Prison for Profit

• ACLU: Charging for Prison Visits is Bad Business--"[T]he Arizona Dept of Corrections is charging people money to visit their loved ones in prison."
• Sheriff Saves $1 Million By De-Privatizing County Jail
• Ohio becomes 1st in nation to sell state prison to private company; 4 others not sold
• Canada's crime plans bewilder international observers--More prison privatization.
• Federal Offenses: As U.S. Federal Criminal Laws Proliferate, More Are Ensnared--Connecting the dots.

Innocence

• Trial by Fire: Did Texas execute an innocent man?--The story of Cameron Todd Willingham, the man killed by Rick Perry
• Former inmate Anthony Graves: 'I'm tired of state kicking me'--Credit goes Gov. Perry who promised help him out.
• Cory Maye Freed After 10 Years In Prison: The Back Story
• Murder charges dropped against teens held for 2 years
• Finding Happily Ever After

Self-defense

• Right to self-defence in homes to be 'much clearer'
• Gatecrashers flee whip-wielding dad--A father rightfully defends his home from hooligans, but the police were called in to see if what he did was "excessive".
• 'We did the right thing - we didn't want to die'
• Shed owners warned wire on windows could hurt burglars
• "A wealthy company boss arrested for allegedly stabbing to death a burglar yelled 'Get out, get out, get out!' to try to prevent his wife and son being attacked..."

Casey Anthony

• Why States Should Think Twice About 'Caylee's Law'
• One man's curse: His name is Casey Anthony--How stupid can some people be to not even realize that this Casey is a MAN?
• The threat of Nancy Grace--And once again, The Onion nails it.

Making a living out of Music, Public Domain, Copyright

Making a living out of Muisc

• How Much Does A Band Make From Various Music Platforms?
• Springsteen and Others Soon Eligible to Recover Song Rights NYT
• RIAA Accounting: Why Even Major Label Musicians Rarely Make Money From Album Sales
• Australian Idol Damien Leith didn't make a cent on 300,000 CDs
• LSE economists: file sharing isn't killing music industry, but copyright enforcement will
• Eminem's side wins $40M to $50M victory as Supreme Court lets royalties ruling stand
• A Big Fat Thanks To Record Execs

Moolah

• The REAL Death Of The Music Industry--CDs have been going out of style (NYT).
• Get Ready: Grooveshark Promises a Fight to the Finish...
• Manhattan Federal Judge Kimba Wood Calls Record Companies' Request for $75 Trillion in Damages 'Absurd' in Lime Wire Copyright Case
• Judge Cuts Damages In Minn. Music Downloading Case
• Why A Music Tax Is A Bad Idea

Overreaching

• Apology for singing shop worker
• Woman who plays classical music to soothe horses told to get licence
• Music Festival Producer Pre-Sues Bootleggers
• Movie/record industry rep says that you shouldn't expect to be able to play your media for as long as you own it
• Music Companies Suing 'Ellen' The Onion

Public Domain

• EU Officially Seizes The Public Domain, Retroactively Extends Copyright 20 years--What's stopping them from repeating this ad infinitum?
• Supreme Court Deciding Whether Congress May Copyright Public Domain Works--Follow up on Terrible News: Court Says It's Okay To Remove Content From The Public Domain And Put It Back Under Copyright
• Copyfraud: Poisoning the public domain
• Who owns Betty Boop?
• The Public Domain

Copyright

• Copyright Explained
• New Wikileaks Docs Show Ex-Minister Bernier Offered To Leak Copyright Bill to U.S.
• Italy Proposes Law That Will Ban People From The Internet Based On Single Accusation Of Infringement From Anyone
• Shock, awe: British government agrees that copyright has gone too far
• Library of Congress: Copyright is killing sound archiving
• False Take-Down Notice Hits Justin Bieber, Lady Gaga and Others--"Following its standard procedures, YouTube pulled down the artist's entire Vevo channel without requiring any form of verification that the claimant had the right to request the take-down."
• George Lucas loses interesting Star Wars copyright case at Supreme Court

Occupy Wall Street, Taxing the Rich, Obama, Deterring Democracy, Republicans

Occupy Wall Street

• Big media's shameful news brownout on the Wall Street protests
• Yahoo blocked e-mails about Wall Street protests
• NYPD Uses Law From 1845 To Arrest Masked Protestors In Financial District

Taxing the Rich

• Obama Tax Plan Would Ask More of Millionaires NYT
• Marc Cuban: The Most Patriotic Thing You Can Do
• Paul Ryan Calls For Increasing Taxes On Middle Class But Dismisses Millionaires Tax As 'Class Warfare'
• Class warfare, Elizabeth Warren style--Here are some choice tidbits.
• Martin Bashir annihilates GOP 'Class Warfare' claim
• Sorry, But The Republican Arguments Against A "Millionaire's Tax" Are Just Preposterous
• Multi-Millionaire Congressman John Fleming (R-LA) Says He Can’t Afford A Tax Hike Because He Only Has $400K A Year After Feeding Family

Obama

• Gallup: Majority now blame Obama for state of U.S. economy
• 'Confidence Men': Ron Suskind On White House Woes--"A new book by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Ron Suskind paints an unflattering picture of rivalries and dysfunction within President Obama's first economic team — rivalries that Suskind says then slowed the administration's response to the financial crisis."
• James Carville: It's time to panic.

Deterring Democracy

• Democrats knock McKenna for asking camera to be turned off
• Ohio Congressman Has Cops Confiscate Cameras At Town Hall Meeting
• Quartzsite Videographer Arrested in Town Hal

Republicans

• Egghead and Blockheads--"The Republicans are now the 'How great is it to be stupid?' party. In perpetrating the idea that there’s no intellectual requirement for the office of the presidency, the right wing of the party offers a Farrelly Brothers 'Dumb and Dumber' primary in which evolution is avant-garde." NYT
• Tea Party Gets the Constitution Wrong
• Teabagger says: I hate my highly-subsidized, socialist health plan. Salon
• Congress Has an Answer for Public Wrath: Eliminate Town Halls
• Jesus Christ Files Lawsuit Against GOP For Slander

DADT, Marriage Equality, Intolerance, Politics, Comics

DADT is d-e-a-d

• Don't Ask Don't Tell Repeal
• After 70 years, US Navy clears military record of gay WW II veteran given an undesirable discharge
• Lesbian sgt. discharged after police tell military--This happened last year. I wonder if there's a way for her to get reinstated.

Marriage Equality

• Rory's Story
• Cheney on Marriage Equality: "I Certainly Don't Have Any Problem With It"
• Clint Eastwood: 'I don’t give a f*ck' if gays marry
• N.C. House approves gay-marriage-ban vote
• S.F. gay married couple loses immigration battle--"Citing the Defense of Marriage Act, the Obama administration denied immigration benefits to a married gay couple from San Francisco and ordered the expulsion of a man who is the primary caregiver to his AIDS-afflicted spouse."
• Judge decides to unseal video of Prop. 8 trial--"The public has the right to view video recordings of last year's Proposition 8 trial, a federal court judge in San Francisco ruled Monday."
• Florida Teacher Suspended for Anti-Gay Marriage Posts on Personal Facebook Page--I don't agree with the suspension.
• Yelp to pull critical reviews of anti-gay marriage bridal store
• The Most Hilariously Effective Signs Supporting Gay Marriage
• "If you don't like gay marriage..."

Intolerance

• Chess row over gay rights T-shirt: Chess chief claims he was barred from presenting prizes at British championships because of his Stonewall T-shirt
• American Family Association: Gays Unfit for Employment
• Gay Couple Told to Move to Back of Bus
• Twins' Guard Reprimanded For Scolding Lesbian Couple--"Well here in the stadium, we adhere to the 10 Commandments."
• Transgender woman settles DMV suit
• Study: Gay professors face discrimination from students
• 15 Year Old Gay Student Killed, "Gay Panic" Used as Defense
• California Christian Coalition Explains Repeal Effort Against Gay Education Law: Bullying Is Normal
• Anti-Gay Christian Right-Wing Activist Says 'There’s No Proof' LGBT People Exist
• The Most Transphobic Article You Will Read This Week, Courtesy Of Fox News

Politics

• The Revenge of Obama's Anti-Bullying Czar--"Not only did Kevin Jennings survive relentless attacks from the right, he brought the issue of anti-gay harassment in public schools out of the closet."
• John Boehner's $520/hr lawyer caught misrepresenting studies to a federal court--"[Former Solicitor General Paul] Clement cites a study by University of Utah psychology professor Lisa Diamond to claim that gay people can somehow transform into straight people. Diamond responded yesterday with an affidavit explaining that Clement 'completely misrepresented my research."misrepresented my research.'"
• Minnesota Mom Calls On Bachmann To Condemn Anti-Gay Bullying With 130,000 Signatures
• Christine O'Donnell explains why she walked out on Piers Morgan interview: Morgan was engaging in "borderline sexual harassment" when asking about her anti-gay religious beliefs
• GOP Legislator: Homosexuality Is 'More Dangerous' Than Terrorist Attacks Because We Have To Deal With It Every Day

Comics

• Openly Gay Superhero To Join DC's Relaunched 'Teen Titans'
• Gay Archie Character Kevin Keller Gets Married--Stay classy, Fox commenters.
• Batwoman Is the Black, Gay Sheep Of Batman's Comic Family

UBS, Piracy, Crackdown, MPAA, Downfall

UBS

• Alleged rogue trader costs UBS $2bn
• Rogue trader: How UBS systems failed to stop a £1.3bn loss--"Were basic management systems unable to spot huge anomalies?"
• The $2 Billion UBS Incident: 'Rogue Trader' My Ass

Piracy

• Pirate Party Enters Berlin Parliament After Historic Election Win
• Fox delays Hulu availability, piracy surges--It's a whole new market: people will watch when they want to watch, not when the advertisers tells them to do so.
• Netflix To Lose 1 Million Subscribers--After giving users a legit and affordable means to watch online, Netflix, as a middleman, is stuck between a rock and a hard place, with Hollywood killing off the golden goose.
• Jeremy Hunt urges web firms to join anti-piracy drive
• Music Blogs Caught Up in Labels' Online Piracy Fight
• Joss Stone "piracy is great"
• 'Piracy Isn't Killing Music' Radiohead's Guitarist Says

Crackdown

• US Government Censors 70 Websites
• Web-blocking and Illegal Sites
• F.B.I. Seizes Web Servers, Knocking Sites Offline NYT
• Police Return Seized Hardware to Victorious BitTorrent Admin, Trashed
• The FBI stole an Instapaper server in an unrelated raid

MPAA

• WikiLeaks: MPAA behind Aussie ISP lawsuit (but don't tell anybody)
  
• Movie Streamers Line Up Heavyweight Lawyers To Fight MPAA
• The RIAA and MPAA Have Failed To Understand A Cultural Shift
• Interesting: What's wrong with the MPAA?
• Matt Stone on Problems with the MPAA

Downfall

• Hitler reacts to the Hitler parodies being removed from YouTube
• The rise, rise and rise of the Downfall Hitler parody
• Hitler "Downfall" video meme is DMCA'd

Vatican Scandal, Science vs. Religion, Creationism, Evolution, Westboro

Vatican Scandal

• Vatican admits 'grave failures' in child sex abuse scandal
• Swiss Catholic Church reveals scale of sex abuse by priests
• Church sex-abuse victims urge ICC prosecution

Science vs. Religion

• A Point of View: Can religion tell us more than science?
• Science and religion: God didn't make man; man made gods
• A few Catholics still insist Galileo was wrong

Creationism

• Why the Anti-Science Creationist Movement Is So Dangerous
• Evolution Ascendant: Polls Show Darwin's Explanation of Human Origins Up, Creationism Down
• US judges rule for teacher who called creationism 'superstitious nonsense'
• Kentucky Gives Creationist Theme Park 75 Percent Tax Discount For The Next 30 Years
• Adam And Eve Did Not Literally Exist. Period.--Even some evangelicals are questioning their existence.
  

Evolution

• Victory for evolution in Texas
• The evolution of Darwin's theory
• How did humans really evolve?
• Why did mammals evolve to enormous sizes - then get smaller again?
• Why stupidity can be the smartest survival strategy
• Why the NCAA tournament is a metaphor for human evolution
• Dinosaur feather evolution trapped in Canadian amber

Westboro

• 300 Bikers Foil Westboro Baptist Church’s Obama Joplin Protest
• The day Nashville united against the hate-filled Westboro Baptist Church and honored our fallen hero-An essential guide on how you can organize your communit
• Illinois Law Undermines Westboro Baptist Church Ruling

Hacking, Corporations and Government, Bank of America, Wikileaks vs. Mayawati, Super-crime

Hacking

• James Murdoch to Be Called Before Parliament Again NYT
• News Corp shareholders file new claims--"The board of News Corp knew more than 10 years ago that its US subsidiaries were illegally hacking competitors' computers, according to new court papers filed by the media company's shareholders."
  
• JK Rowling among UK hacking inquiry "core" figures--"'Harry Potter' author J.K. Rowling and actor Hugh Grant will be among more than 50 "core participants" at a public inquiry into press standards set up after the phone-hacking scandal that has engulfed Rupert Murdoch's British newspaper arm."
• Issa: We Won’t Investigate News Corp’s Alleged Hacking Of 9/11 Victims Because We Don’t Want To Pick On The Media--The NYT has an expose on Issa, which his office had objected to, but they're standing firm.
• Exposed after eight years: a private eye's dirty work for Fleet Street--"A former police officer has revealed how the authorities have known for more than eight years the vast scale on which media organisations employed private detectives to obtain the personal information of thousands of individuals, including the families and friends of murder victims."
  

Corporations and Government

• Jon Kyl: I’d quit supercommittee over defense cuts--This supercommittee is "under lobbyist assault." (Salon)
• Noam Chomsky on How the Military Is Bankrupting Us and Why Corporate Interests Want to Destroy Public Programs
• Government Pays More in Contracts, Study Finds--"The study found that in 33 of 35 occupations, the government actually paid billions of dollars more to hire contractors than it would have cost government employees to perform comparable services. On average, the study found that contractors charged the federal government more than twice the amount it pays federal workers." Government waste is pouring in the the private sector. NYT
• Sen. Bernie Sanders Leaks Oil Trading Data: Americans Have A Right To Know Who Drove Up Gas Prices--A closer look.
• Back off opposition to AT&T merger, Democratic lawmakers tell Obama

Bank of America

• It's Time to Break Up Bank of America
• BofA Ordered to Pay $930,000 to Fired Whistleblower
• BofA to Lay Off 30,000 Employees in Spite of Corporate Tax Breaks--Oh, pity the poor job creators.
• Bank of America 'called grieving widow 48 times a day to remind her of husband's debt'
• The Lawsuits Plaguing Bank Of America

Wikileaks vs. Mayawati

• Wikileaks: The chief minister of India's Uttar Pradesh state sent an empty private jet to get a pair of sandals from Mumbai.
• India minister Mayawati seeks police squad for statues--"An Indian politician is calling for a police force to be created to protect statues she has erected of herself and her mentors."
  
• Mayawati wants Assange in Agra asylum, he says he will be thrilled

Super-crime

• Evil Scumbag Robs Mentally Disabled Superman Fan Of Enormous Comics Collection
• Super Mike Week!--Artists contribute to Mike Meyer to rebuild his collection.
• Police arrest "Superman burglar" accused of robbing mentally disabled man of epic geek stash

Educamation, Teachers, ADHD, Testing, Learning is Fun

Educamation

• Changing Education Paradigms
• SAT reading and math scores down in 2011, says College Board--Signs of the times.
• Dan Meyer: Math class needs a makeover
• What's the Key to Ending the Math and Science Teacher Shortage?
• Eric Schmidt's criticism of UK education
• Five myths about America’s schools
• Feds: All kids, legal or not, entitled to school

Teachers

• Fresno Co Superintendent to take about $219,000 in pay cuts--"Powell says he's financially secure and will be able to afford health insurance through his wife. The cost cutting move is intended to save the school districts hundreds of thousands of dollars over the next three years."
• US Public School Teachers Spend $1.3 Billion Out of Pocket on Classroom Materials
• Michigan GOP Lawmaker: Public School Teachers "Are More Than Greedy"
• Ann Coulter Attacks 'Kindergarten Teachers' As Having Useless Jobs
• 'Emergency control' administrator attacks East St. Louis schools--"In yet another attack on education, 99 public school workers in East St. Louis, Ill., are losing their jobs. Out of those, 85 are badly needed teachers’ aides who work with children with special learning issues."
• Matt Damon Schools Reporter While Defending Teachers
• Scenes from Los Angeles's teacher-librarian witch-hunt--It wasn't pretty.

ADHD

• Ken Robinson on reforming education: ADHD is a "fictitious epidemic."
• School Support for ADHD Children May Be Missing the Mark: Inattention, Not Hyperactivity, Is Associated With Educational Failure
• ADHD or Immaturity? Resources for Teachers & Parents to Divine the Difference

Testing

• Ed. Secy: States to Get Waivers on No Child Tests--"The Obama administration effectively gutted the Bush-era No Child Left Behind law Monday, giving states a way out of a decade-long policy that focused on holding schools accountable but labeled many of them failures even if they made progress."
• Do we really need another NCLB hearing?
• Michelle Rhee: Education reform huckster Salon
• The Testing Machine: This is your school on TAKS.
• How Finland became an education leader: Harvard professor Tony Wagner explains how the nation achieved extraordinary successes by deemphasizing testing

Learning is Fun

• Atlanta Teacher Uses Angry Birds for Physics Lessons
• Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal: Making Math Fun
• The Oatmeal: What we SHOULD have been taught in our senior year of high school

Kids These Days, Bad Language, The Next Generation, Precious Little Snowflakes

Kids These Days

• Teacher Draws Ire with Blog Calling Students Lazy--She was suspended for telling the truth, but now she's back at work.
• The Deliberate Dumbing Down of America--It's been going on for quite a while.
• 75 Percent of Oklahoma High School Students Can't Name the First President of the U.S.
• Teenagers are less intelligent than a generation ago, claims study
• "These grades are terrible!"--Also, 1970 vs 2010.
• What Did You Learn in School Today? (The Texas Version)
• American Students Not Proficient In History The Onion

Bad Language

• Books and Music That Make You Dumb
• Nearly half of people in Detroit cannot read
• Understanding Illiteracy Infographic
• Death to high school English Salon
• No spellcheck on school sign
• Text messaging 'improves children's spelling skills'--O RLY?
• Inspirational pro-book poster

The Next Generation

• Self-esteem: Teens feel great about themselves — but are they headed for a fall?
• Get Over it Millennials, You're Not Entitled to Anything
• Louts are taking over the planet
• Generation Whine – Why I'm Relieved not to be a Millennial
• What Is It About 20-Somethings?
• This is Why I'll Never be an Adult
• Will young men ever grow up?--"They're often called lost boys, the many young men who keep postponing adulthood. As Donna Nebenzahl writes, social scientists are trying to figure out why their numbers keep growing."

Precious Little Snowflakes

• Can a Playground Be Too Safe? NYT
• How to Land Your Kid in Therapy--"Why the obsession with our kids' happiness may be dooming them to unhappy adulthoods. A therapist and mother reports."
• Gever Tulley 5 dangerous things you should let your kids do
• A Quirky Museum Exposes Kids to Thrills, Chills and Trial Lawyers
• German boy, 11, calls police over housework
• Teach your child self-discipline without tiger-parenting her to death
• Whiny, Selfish 8-Year-Old Always Wants His Parents To Stop Yelling At Each Other The Onion

Employment, Outsourced, Job Hunt, Work It Out

Employment

• Obama Seeks to End Tax Breaks to Pay for Jobs Plan
• Why Congress Won’t Pass A Jobs Bill: 'Obama Is On The Ropes; Why Do We Appear Ready To Hand Him A Win?'
• The Unemployed "Army" is Now Bigger Than the Actual Army--"There are now two million "99ers"—those who have maxed out their unemployment benefits after 99 weeks without work. How did America get here?"
• Indeed.com bans job listings discriminating against unemployed job seekers
• Software Is Eating All the Jobs Too--So you wanted to be a computer programmer.

Outsourced

• As U.S. stumbles, companies invest in consumer growth overseas
• HSBC posts $11.5 billion profit, announces plan to slash 25,000 more jobs
• GE CEO Jeffrey Immelt, The Head Of Obama’s Jobs Council, Is Moving Jobs And Economic Infrastructure To China At A Blistering Pace
• America Inc. Outsourced to India
• Obama Promises To Stop America's Shitty Jobs From Going Overseas The Onion

Job Hunt

• Young, Educated, and Unemployed: A New Generation of Kids Search for Work in their 20s
• American Dream Is Elusive for New Generation
• Young Entrepreneurs Create Their Own Jobs
• You're hired: How the apprentice gets ahead in Germany
• Welcome to the job market, college grads
• Schumpeter: Angst for the educated
• The Post-College Job Hunt--Or graduates can opt to be cryogenically frozen till things get better. The Onion

Work It Out

• Overworked? Make a Leap to America's 10 Least Stressful Jobs
• Rejection Letter Rejection Letter
• 10 Ways to Make Money Without a Job
• How I Would Evaluate Potential Employees
• In Praise of Quitting Your Job
• "Grow up and get a real job."
• A Guide To Employee Morale

War on Terror, Crimes, Follow the Money, CIA

War on Terror

• Colin Powell talks to Al Jazeera--"Former US secretary of state discusses his regrets at being the face of false intelligence on Iraq."
• The Obama Administration vs. the War on Terror Critics
• 12,000 Iraqi Civilians Died in Suicide Bombings, Study Says NYT
• Saudis paid to hide bin Laden: U.S. analyst
• Air travel changed forever by Sept. 11--Are we safer or sorry?
• Harper says 'Islamicism' biggest threat to Canada
• Chuck Norris on Terrorism & DHS Surveillance: The feds have lost their minds

Crimes

• Obama Advisors Feared a Coup If the Administration Prosecuted War Crimes
• Obama DOJ: John Yoo Memos on Spying Must Stay Secret
  
• The secret interrogation policy that could never be made public--"Tony Blair evaded questions over his role in document, and ministers have refused to say if they were aware of details."
• Judge allows Rumsfeld torture suit to proceed
• Cheney Won't Take Anything Back, Laughs At War Crimes Accusation--So much for that idea.

Follow the Money

• Secret memos expose link between oil firms and invasion of Iraq
• The decade's biggest scam Salon
• The True Cost of 9/11: Trillions and trillions wasted on wars, a fiscal catastrophe, a weaker America
• U.S. Wasted at Least $31 Billion in War Contracts
• 193,000 Jobs: The True Cost of the Wasted $60 Billion in Iraq and Afghanistan
• After 9/11: airports 'wasting billions' on needless security checks for passengers
• Ten Years Ago: War on Waste--"According to some estimates we cannot track $2.3 trillion in transactions," Rumsfeld admitted.
  

CIA

• Council of Europe demands truth on CIA 'black sites'
• Censored by the CIA Salon
• Court sanctions CIA for destroying torture tapes
• CIA shifts focus to killing targets-- "Although the CIA continues to gather intelligence and furnish analysis on a vast array of subjects, its focus and resources are increasingly centered on the cold counterterrorism objective of finding targets to capture or kill."
• Top CIA official: Obama "changed virtually nothing" Salon

9/11, Muslims in America, Middle East, TSA, Private Sector

9/11

• Bush's Tragic Legacy: How 9/11 Triggered America's Decline
• A decade after the 9/11 attacks, Americans live in an era of endless war
• Patriot Act - 9/11 Encyclopedia--1,618 delayed-notice search warrents were issused for drug-related cases, 122 for fraud... and 15 for terrorism.
• The Worst Mistake America Made After 9/11: How focusing too much on the war on terror undermined our economy and global power
• News Corp Set To Air 9/11 Documentary Glorifying Bush; Producer Says He’s Not Interested In ‘Facts’

Muslims in America

• Who funds Muslim-baiting in the US?
• Gov. Chris Christie Blasts Critics of New Judge--NJ Governor is "tired of dealing with the crazies" who think the judge will let Islamic law trump the US constitution.
• sWith CIA Help, NYPD Moves Covertly In Muslim Areas

Middle East

• Top Ten Myths about the Libya War
• Saudi beheading fuels backlash in Indonesia
• Syrian forces beat up political cartoonist Ali Ferzat
• Gaza’s Hamas rulers ban students with scholarships to study in the US from leaving Gaza
• Iran sentences American hikers to 8 years in prison for illegal entry and espionage
• In Egypt, Police are the Revolution's Greatest Obstacle
• The cost of revolution --- Facts and figures of the Arab Spring
• U.S. Is Appealing to Palestinians to Stall U.N. Vote NYT
• Secret trial revelations prompt US-Israeli diplomatic storm--" A court case against a translator who leaked US government secrets was conducted in secret because it centred on the revelation that the FBI had eavesdropped on Israeli embassy phone calls[...]"
• Human rights irony for the US and Arab world

TSA

• Female Blogger Threatened With Defamation Suit For Writing About TSA 'Rape'
• Heroic young man sues TSA, airport after being illegally detained during peaceful protest of unconstitutional security protocols
• TSA Apologizes For Confiscating Pregnant Woman's Insulin, Ice Packs
• Radiation Overdose at the Airport--"As the rate of cancer spikes among Transportation Security Agency (TSA) officers who work near the full-body scanners at the Boston Logan Airport, union reps are alarmed at having been misinformed by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and TSA regarding the safety of these machines."
• TSA launching behavior-detection program at Boston airport
• At the airport, shoeless and irked
• Napolitano's Future: Airline Passengers Can Keep Shoes On

Private Sector

• Blackwater Founder Forms Secret Army for Arab State--Blackwater is also known as "Xe Services LLC" NYT
• Leaked cable: Ex-Blackwater guards kept working in Iraq--"A leaked US diplomatic cable says that 'hundreds' of former employees of Blackwater, which was barred from Iraq over a deadly 2007 shooting, later worked with other firms guarding US diplomats here."
• Halliburton Loses as Supreme Court Backs Securities Suits

Economy, Elections 2012, Vote Machinations, Eschewing Extremism, Republicans vs. Science

Economy

• Obama To Congress: Jobs Can’t Wait Till Next Election
• The Limping Middle Class NYT
• Many in U.S. slip from middle class, study finds
• The Great Properity (1947-49) vs. The Great Regression (1980-now)
• Chant of 'Tax the Rich' Growing Louder in Nation
• 4 Ways Government Policy Favors the Rich and Keeps the Rest of Us Poor
• The Boy Who Cried Wolf

Elections 2012

• What Democrats can do about Obama:
  A Democrat argues that the party's 2012 nomination should be debated -- with all options open Salon
• Nevada Dem Accidentally Sends Out Internal Notes Detailing How Faking Support For Israel A "Useful" Ploy For A Democratic Candidate…
• During Secret Retreat With Billionaires, Koch Lobbyist Admits Tea Party Group ‘Designed’ To Elect Republicans In 2010
• Firm gives $1 million to pro-Romney group, dissolves--Edward Conrad, who identified himself afterwards, claims that "he did not intend to circumvent election laws when he created a company, W Spann LLC, which paid the contribution without Conard’s name attached."
• 2 more fake companies donated millions to Romney
• Bank of America ready to 'help' Rick Perry --"Bank of America policy director caught on camera offers to help the GOP candidate. But does Rick Perry want help from troubled Bank of America?"
• God Caught Backing Multiple GOP Candidates for President

Vote Machinations

• The war on voting
• Daily Kos: The GOP War On Voting Is In Full Swing
• Columnist: Registering Poor To Vote 'Like Handing Out Burglary Tools To Criminals'
• Mainers will vote to repeal GOP-backed law that ends Election Day voter registration
• Al Franken Smacks Down Hans von Spakovsky Over Flawed Voter ID Stats
• Lawmakers approve new political boundaries--"Georgia lawmakers fought the most partisan of fights Thursday but the day ended as expected: Republicans successfully passing new plans to redraw legislative districts."
• Wisconsin State Employee Fired
  For E-Mail Defying Voter-ID Policy--"The policy in question: The state's decision for DMV employees to not tell citizens about the availability of free photo identification to satisfy the state's new Voter-ID law, unless they ask first."

Eschewing Extremism

• "Reflections of a GOP Operative Who Left the Cult"
• Time for Good Republicans to Oust Whacko Republicans
• Apocalyptic GOP Is Dragging Us Into a Civil War

Republicans vs. Science

• Political science: why rejecting expertise has become a campaign strategy (and why it scares me)
• A Stern Commentary: Howard Stern Calls Out Rick Perry for His Anti-Science Views
• In Their Own Words: GOP Candidates And Science

Net Exposure, Online Anonymity, Securing Hardware, Money Trail, Privacy

Net Exposure

• Anonymous on the Net: Not!
• Foggy thinking about the Right to Oblivion
• How Your Username May Betray You
• You’re Leaving a Digital Trail. What About Privacy
• Data Protection: Betrayed by our own data
• How to Erase Your Digital Past
• How Embarrassing/Job-Threatening Facebook Photos Are Part Of Your Job Application

Online Anonymity

• Internet Evolution: The War on Web Anonymity
• Naming Names on the Internet NYT
• Online Anonymity (and Personal Reinvention) in Decline
• Google Plus Tells Pseudonym Lovers to Shove It--Advertisers are their customers and you are the product.
  
• Randi Zuckerberg Runs in the Wrong Direction on Pseudonymity Online
• Canadian Court Sides With Online Anonymity
• Web star Felicia Day speaks up for online anonymity

Securing Hardware

• EFF: Know Your Rights!--"Your computer, your phone, and your other digital devices hold vast amounts of personal information about you and your family. [...] EFF has designed this guide to help you understand your rights if officers try to search the data stored on your computer or portable electronic device, or seize it for further examination somewhere else."
• Hard drive destruction 'crucial'
• How to hide your digital 'collection'

Money Trail

• Florida Earns $62 million Selling Driver’s License Info--Is it a surefire state revenue generator?
• How to protect your privacy and make money doing it--They have to pay to for them to play with your data.
• Free Advice: Watch the Mail and Opt Out of Verizon Sharing Your Personal Data
• Advertisers Are Watching Your Every Tweet
• BT drops plan to use Phorm targeted ad service after outcry over privacy--Not sure deep-packet inspection for advertising is going away.

Privacy

• Microsoft disables 'supercookies' used on MSN.com visitors
• Microsoft Quashed Effort to Boost Online Privacy
• The Market for Online Privacy Heats Up
• Hunt For Student File-Sharers Thwarted By Data Privacy Ruling
• Mug-Shot Industry Will Dig Up Your Past, Charge You to Bury It Again
• Why Has Google Been Collecting Kids' Social Security Numbers Under the Guise of an Art Contest?
• Big Data mining: Who owns your social network data?

Bad Cops: Caught on Tape, Cops and Kids, Lawsuits and Deaths

Caught on Tape

• You have a right to record the police
• Even a top cop concedes a right to video arrests - but the street tells a different story--"Although it's legal to record Philadelphia police performing official duties in public, all three were charged with disorderly conduct and related offenses, and officers destroyed Hurling and Riley's cellphones, erasing any record of Medley's violent arrest, the pair said."
• Appeals Court: Arresting Guy For Filming Cops Was A Clear Violation Of Both 1st & 4th Amendments
• Man faces 75 years for recording police
  
• Woman who recorded cops acquitted of felony eavesdropping--She could have faced 15 years in prison for attempting to report a cop who allegedly sexually assaulted her.
• Court says state law used to ban recording of police officers in public is unconstitutional
• Las Vegas Police Finally Determine Cop Was Out Of Line For Beating Videographer
• Police officer seeks criminal charges against woman who videotaped police beating
• Long Beach Police Chief: we detain photographers, and I don't have any guidelines for that policy, photography is classed with attempts to acquire weaponized smallpox
• Case Dismissed Against Journalism Student Arrested For Taking Photos

Cops and Kids

• Why I'm taking the police to court for kettling me--"I'm 16 and went to protest peacefully with my friends about our future, but we were held for 10 hours without food or water"
• Eighth Grader Executed for Scaring a Cop--Who had faced "immediate termination" for four times before.
• Cop Breaks a Kid's Arm and Tasers Him. His Offense? Saggy Pants.
• Teen Arrested For Asking Cop About Unwarranted Raids--The officer has been suspended.
• Handling of 'abduction' case involving teen has been absurd
• Police get paid vacations and overtime for gangland-style beating of honors student
• Police Told Daughter To Stop Calling Before Murder-Suicide
• Teen missing after being turned away by police
• Cops Say It’s Illegal for Kids to Play Outside, Unsupervised
• America's Attack On Lemonade Stands-- Capitol Police arrest Lemonade Freedom Day protesters

Lawsuits

• NYC Settles With Mom Who Got Pepper-Sprayed-- "New York City agreed to pay $40,000 to settle the civil rights claims of a mother who went into premature labor after a cop pepper-sprayed her."
• Lawsuit accuses security guard of handcuffing first-graders for talking in class--"[T]he students were handcuffed for hours and told that 'they were going to prison and would never see their parents again.'"
• Crosswalk bombshell: Officer texting before hitting wheelchair man
• Men stripped by Oakland cops in public win lawsuit
• Student Sues Trigger-Happy Cops

Deaths

• "They Killed Him." The Aftermath of a Fullerton Police Beating
• Sheriff's Deputy Kills Former NFL Player Outside a Convenience Store
• Florida Teen Dies In Jail After Being Arrested For Marijuana--"Records show that Superintendent Anthony Flowers of the Palm Beach Juvenile Detention Center instructed staff not to call 9-1-1 as young Eric Perez lay dying."
• Family gets $333,000 for 2009 raid in which cops killed dog
• Mistaking Gun for Taser Could Cost Cop--"A California couple can sue the police officer who shot and killed their unarmed son while he was handcuffed in the back of a patrol car because the officer mistook her semiautomatic pistol for a Taser, the 9th Circuit ruled."

Science Under Siege, Religion in Politics and the Military, Birth Control, Tea Party

Science Under Siege

• Hunting Galileo: The Right's War on Science
• GOP Assault on Truth: Why Do Conservatives Pretend They Know More About Science Than Scientists?
• Republicans against Science NYT
• Why the G.O.P hates the National Science Foundation
• What's with these Right-wing Science denialists?

Religion and Politics

• The New Apostolic Reformation: The Evangelicals Engaged In Spiritual Warfare
• A Christian Plot for Domination?--"Michele Bachmann and Rick Perry aren't just devout—both have deep ties to a fringe fundamentalist movement known as Dominionism, which says Christians should rule the world."
• Concerns About the Religious Right Are Not Overblown
• From Jesus’ socialism to capitalistic Christianity
• Let's keep 'faith' out of politics: People who are keen to bring faith groups into politics are often the ones who don't know all that much about faith
• Christian Right Calls Al Franken a Liberal Bully for Exposing Their Big Lie
• J. Michael Straczynski's CBLDF Liberty Annual Comic: 'Separation of Church and State'

Praise the Lord and Pass the Ammo

• Air Force's "Jesus Loves Nukes" training no more?
• Millions of taxpayer dollars used to convert soldiers and their children to Christianity
• Texas Legislators and Christian Groups Fight to Insert God Into Vets' Funerals -- Against Families' Wishes

Birth Control

• Obama DOJ Cracks Down on Protestors Blocking Abortion Clinics NYT
• Judge blocks Texas sonogram law
• Judge temporarily halts NC Planned Parenthood cut
• Kan. ordered to resume funding Planned Parenthood
• New Abortion Method in Rochester Raising Concerns
• U.S. ranks low for newborn survival
• GOP congressman says free birth control will end the human race Salon

Tea Party

• Americans Dislike the Tea Party More Than Gay People, Muslims, Atheists, & Liberals
• The New McCarthyism: Oregon Tea Partiers invade quiet MoveOn picnic, break it up with threats -- and boast about it.
• What I Learned in Two Years at the Tea Party--"I finally know what the Tea Party wants: A Christian nation."
• The Tea Party moves to ban books--"As the Tea Party looks more and more like the old religious right, censoring what children can read in school is on the agenda."
• You Might be Conservative If…

Economy, Banks, Wikileaks, Hacking, Corruption

Economy

• With No New Jobs in August, White House Calls for Action--Really looks like the Republican plan to sabotage the economy just to win 2012 is working. NYT
• Who To Blame?
• Record Profits, $1.8 trillion in cash. Cutting taxes will not create jobs without increased demand
• Why Iceland Should Be in the News, But Is Not
• Goldman Sachs VP Changed His Name, Now Advances Goldman Lobbying Interests As Top Staffer To Darrell Issa

Banks

• Why Is the White House Defending the Banks from Investigations?
• Vince Cable: disingenuous bankers are trying to derail reforms
• U.S. Is Set to Sue a Dozen Big Banks Over Mortgages NYT

Wikileaks

• WikiLeaks decides to make public all US state department cables--Information related to confidential informants will not be redacted, despite fears for their safety
• WikiLeaks: unredacted cable release is Guardian's fault
• Leak at WikiLeaks: A Dispatch Disaster in Six Acts

Hacking

• Hacking's Stunning Victim List--"Scotland Yard has a list of 3,870 people whose phones were tapped. From the 'schoolboy killer' to Prince William, Brian Cathcart reports on the scandal's huge scope."
• News Corp. PAC hands out cash during phone hacking scandal--"In the first month after a phone hacking scandal rocked News Corp., four congressional campaign committees or leadership PACs received contributions from the political action committee of the company’s American subsidiary, newly filed federal campaign documents show."
• Scotland Yard paid John Yates's legal bills--"[Former assistant commissioner John] Yates, who resigned over the phone-hacking scandal last month, used the legal firm to send letters of complaint to the Guardian and other outlets over allegations made about his role in the affair."
• News Corp. Hunkers Down: Murdochs to Testify Under Oath
• Chalk it up to the hacks: New York scraps $27 million education contract with Murdoch firm

Corruption

• India's Parliament Agrees to Anna Hazare's Demands--The anti-corruption activist ended a standoff with government that started after his arrest "that sparked protests and left the ruling party with a major crisis."
• Inspired by Anna, Pakistani to fast against corruption
• Argentina: Judge orders all ISPs to block the sites LeakyMails.com and Leakymails.blogspot.com--"Leakymails.com was a project designed to obtain and publish relevant documents exposing corruption of the political class and the powerful in Argentina."
• Indonesia's politics: Corruption everywhere
• Russian mayor killed after alleging corruption