Happy Leap Day! Marriage Equality, Men and Women, Husband and Wives, Sexy, Pr0n

Happy Leap Day!

Marriage Equality

• Maryland Senate approves same-sex marriage bill--A key vote came from a Republican had a change of heart after meeting and talking to a gay couple. Governor O'Malley plans to sign it this Thursday.
• New Hampshire to Vote on Bill to Revoke Gay Marriage Law NYT
• Chris Christie vetoes New Jersey same-sex marriage bill
• Bush Appointee Finds DOMA Unconstitutional--"The decision represents a serious setback for House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH), whose Bipartisan Legal Advisory Group (BLAG) defended DOMA after the Obama administration announced it would no longer defend the law."
• Supreme Court won't let NOM keep its funding secret--Now they have to reveal who their backers are.
• Obama administration moves to advance benefits for same-sex partners of federal workers
• Music director's marriage leads to his firing from St. Gabriel Catholic Church--"Longtime church employee was terminated for his same-sex wedding in NY."
• Stylist refuses to cut NM gov’s hair over same-sex marriage opposition
• In Australia: Guess who's coming to dinner?--"Gay couples in Australia wanted to get the ear of the prime minister who opposes same-sex marriage. So they paid more than $33,000 to share her table."

Men and Women

• With Age, Men May Lose Thinking Ability Faster Than Women
• How China's Gender Gap Is Creating Too Many Single Men—And Hurting Women
• Women Feel Pain More Intensely Than Men

Husbands and Wives

• Immigration officer fired after putting wife on list of terrorists to stop her flying home
• 99-year-old divorces wife after he discovered 1940s affair
• FL Judge Sentences Domestic Violence Man To Take Wife On A Date

Sexy

• A Timeline of Sexy Defined Through the Ages
• And the sluttiest Western nation is … Salon
• Dirty Jobs: King of Double-Entendre
• Sexy interracial poster sparks furor in South Africa
• Which came first?

Pr0n

• L.A. mandates porn actors must wear condoms--The porn industry is thinking of pulling out of the city.
• A new breed of porn CEO -- female Salon
• Judge: to ask for anonymity in porno copyright troll case, you must enter your name into the public record
• Stalker jailed for planting child porn on a computer
• Best Laid Plans--Or : Scrooge McFuck's Porno Bin

Cybersecurity, Netizens, Censorship, AT&T, Throttling, Verizon, Net Neutrality

Cybersecurity

• Obama Shuts Down NSA Cybersecurity Proposal
• How Internet Companies Would Be Forced to Spy on You Under H.R. 1981
• How New Internet Spying Laws Will Actually ENABLE Stalkers, Spammers, Phishers And, Yes, Pedophiles & Terrorists

Netizens

• Leave Our Net Alone--"[W]hy are governments so eager to claim authority over [the Internet]? Why would legacy corporations, industries, and institutions egg them on? Because the net is working better than ever. Because they finally recognize how powerful it is and how disruptive it is to their power."
• We, the Web Kids--"We grew up with the Internet and on the Internet. This is what makes us different; this is what makes the crucial, although surprising from your point of view, difference: we do not 'surf' and the internet to us is not a 'place' or 'virtual space'. The Internet to us is not something external to reality but a part of it: an invisible yet constantly present layer intertwined with the physical environment. We do not use the Internet, we live on the Internet and along it."
• The Information Revolution Against Internet Censorship Begins!

Censorship

• Google to Censor Blogger Blogs on a 'Per Country Basis'
• Google and Facebook remove content in India, Is this the beginning of the end?
• Regulation by stealth: The strange evolution of internet regulation in Britain
• Britain's Broadband Censors: a Bunch of Students
• What real Internet censorship looks like

AT&T

• FCC report slams AT&T's proposal to buy T-Mobile: the highlights--And AT&T issues a scathing response.
• Hey, AT&T, quit whining!
• AT&T CEO: Recent price jacks due to AT&T’s attempt to monopolize GSM in US
• AT&T's upgrade fee set to double on Sunday
• Consumer Reports cell-service Ratings: AT&T is the worst carrier

Throttling

• For AT&T Customers, 'Unlimited Data' Has Limits--Pissing people off like Shep Smith who calls his data plan 'crap'.
• Judge awards iPhone user $850 in throttling case
• HowTo: Sue AT&T for throttling your ‘unlimited’ data in 5 steps
• Study Shoots Holes In AT&T's Reasons for Throttling
• AT&T on Data Throttling: Blame yourselves

Verizon

• SNL laughs at Verizon confusing 'old people'
• Verizon to charge $2 for paying your bill online or over the phone--Their customers would have none of it.
• Verizon Wireless Blocks Rival Google Wallet, Citing Security
• Verizon Wireless send out a civil emergency "test" to NJ customers, but failed to say it was a test.
• Verizon Wireless Says Oops

Net Neutrality

• Rogers violating federal net neutrality rules, CRTC says
• Canada Court Rules ISPs Shouldn't Be Treated as Broadcasters
• Holland Bans Two Tier Internet With Net Neutrality Law--"The Dutch has become the first European nation to enshrine net neutrality as part of their national law."

Privacy: Police State, US Surveillance, UK, Canada, Google, Facebook

Police State

• Takedowns run amok? The strange Secret Service/GoDaddy assault on JotForm
• Stephen Fry says British judges don't understand Twitter
• V for Vendetta author Alan Moore interview on "the rise of Anonymous"
• Appeals Court Upholds Constitutional Right Against Forced Decryption--The Feds were against this.
• SMBC: People are still citizens when on the internet.

US Surveillance

• Justice Dept, FBI Say Interest in Online Privacy an 'Indicator' of Terrorism--"Flyer also urges businesses to treat people who 'always pay cash' as suspicious."
• SOPA replacement uses child porn as excuse to spy on 99.7 percent of Americans
• Law Would Put Homeland Security in Charge of Business IT Security--But claims it would leave the Internet alone.
• Lawmaker Demands DHS Cease Monitoring of Blogs, Social Media
• FBI turns off 3,000 GPS trackers after Supreme Court ruling
• Congress Left in Dark on DOJ Wiretaps
• Obama unveils Consumer Privacy Bill of Rights

UK

• UK: Phone and email records to be stored in new spy plan--"Details of every phone call and text message, email traffic and websites visited online are to be stored in a series of vast databases under new Government anti-terror plans."
• Most radicalism linked to Internet, say UK lawmakers--"Internet service providers should do more to prevent the Web from playing a role in promoting violent extremism..."
• Report: London no safer for all its CCTV cameras

Canada

• Tories on e-snooping: 'Stand with us or with the child pornographers'--The nuclear option.
• Don't let Stephen Harper creep your emails: Liberals launch petition against Internet surveillance
• Rick Mercer: Online Privacy

Google

• Google Didn't "Track" iPhones, But It Did Bypass Safari's Privacy Settings
• Setting the Record Straight on Google's Safari Tracking
• How to Remove Your Google Search History Before Google's New Privacy Policy Takes Effect

Facebook

• Why Facebook Is Never Safe
• Facebook Read Users' Text Messages
• Facebook's 'man in the middle' attack on our data
• Over 3 years later, "deleted" Facebook photos are still online
• Worm steals more than 45,000 Facebook logins

At the Movies, Of All Time, Netflix, Trailers, Sean Connery

At the Movies

• Roger Ebert: I'll tell you why movie revenue is dropping...
• Empire Magazine: The 20th Birthday Portfolio
• 12 Years After 'Blair Witch,' When Will the Found-Footage Horror Fad End?
• Premakes: new movies with old actors
• If 2012's Oscar-nominated movie posters told the truth
• Oscar's Mistakes
• IMDb Relents And Allows BitTorrent Movie The Tunnel a Listing
• Penny Arcade: Beauty And Another Kind Of Beauty

Of All Time

• All-time greatest Oscar heists
• The 50 Most Stylish Fight Scenes Of All Time
• Empire Magazine: The 500 Greatest Movies of all Time

Netflix

• Netflix Q4 profit beats reduced expectations, stock jumps--Recovering from its massive PR debacle last year.
• Netflix will stream The Artist and other Weinstein Company films before they appear on cable
• Warner Bros. now adding restrictions to your Netflix DVD queue

Trailers

• Grayson
• PoolJumpers
• Pokémon Apokélypse

Sean Connery

• Cracked.com: Sean Connery
• EXPOSED: The iMac disaster that almost was
• What Sean Connery’s Keyboard Looks Like

Religion vs. Politics, Conservatives, Abortion and Birth Control, Virginia, Mormonization

Religion vs. Politics

• Moyers: Freedom of religion is freedom from religion Salon
• GOP Backs 'Moral Conviction' Waiver for All Insurance Coverage WSJ
• Authoritarian Right Wingers Want Government to Impose "Moral Values" on Us -- And Call It "Freedom"

Conservatives

• How The GOP Went Back To The 1950s In Just One Day
• Why America Keeps Getting More Conservative
• DeMint at CPAC: Compromise Is the Enemy

Abortion and Birth Control

• Judge strikes down law mandating sale of contraception --"A federal judge declared on Wednesday that a Washington state rule requiring pharmacists to dispense emergency contraceptives against their religious beliefs is unconstitutional."
• Democratic women boycott Rep. Darrell Issa's House contraception hearing, after Republicans prevent women from testifying
• Female Witness Hits Back At Issa: 'I'm A Woman Who Uses Contraception, That Makes Me Qualified' To Testify
• Abstinence-Only Sex Education Bill In Utah Prohibits Teaching Contraception
• Texas Throws Women Under the Bus -- Again--"New legislation leaves over 130,000 without access to wellness exams, cancer screening, contraception."
• Conservative judicial activist: No One Would Notice If Roe V. Wade Were Overturned
• Teen Pregnancy is Higher in Red States Than in Blue States
• Fewer Teens Getting Pregnant, Abortion Rate Down 66%
• The Daily Show: The Vagina Ideologues
• Mozambique takes first step against backroom abortions--"Mozambique's legislature is expected to pass a bill to legalize abortions in March in an effort to reduce the country's high rate of unsafe backroom abortions."

Virginia

• Va. House passes "personhood" abortion bill
• Virginia ultrasound law: women who want an abortion will be forcibly penetrated for no medical reason--They dropped the requirement after an uproar (Salon).
• Virginia Lawmaker: Abortion Debate Ruined Seduction

Mormonization

• Holocaust Survivor Calls Out Romney Over Proxy Baptisms--"Elie Wiesel wants the GOP hopeful to tell the Mormon church to stop posthumously baptizing Jews killed in the Holocaust." Which was supposed to have been already agreed upon.
• Mormons baptize Wiesenthals: Is there a way to stop baptism by proxy?
• Mormon Baptism Controversy Now Includes Catholic Witness To Holocaust
• Stephen Colbert Converts All Dead Mormons to Judaism
• All dead Mormons are now gay--Fighting fire with flaaame.

That's Oil Folks, War on Terror, Wikileaks, Unfriendly Skies, TSA

That's Oil Folks

• Obama mocks GOP on gas price issue
• Goldman Sachs Admits Record Speculation To Blame For Skyrocketing Gas Prices--But guys like Rove and Hannity don't care about that.
• U.S. Gas Exports Force Drivers Into Bidding War With Mexico At Pump
• Fear of Iran is inflating gas prices--And them stopping oil exports to England and France is conflating things.
• Fox Still Struggling With Basic Chart Concepts: Gas Price Edition

War on Terror

• Hypnotized into an endless dirty war Salon
• How the FBI Invents Terrorists Like the U.S. Capitol 'Suicide Bomber'
• Feingold: Voting against the PATRIOT Act 'one of the best things I’ve done'
• CIA Claims Release of its History of the Bay of Pigs Debacle Would "Confuse the Public"
• Marines Nazi-Flag Whistleblower Comes Forward

Wikileaks

• Wikileaks Banned From UN Conference on Wikileaks--UNESCO ironically justifies this as "an exercise of 'freedom of expression.'"
• WikiLeaks suspect charged with 'aiding enemy'
• WikiLeaks Diplomatic Cables FOIA Documents

Unfriendly Skies

• Court Revives Challenge to No-Fly List--"A federal appeals court on Wednesday revived a Malaysian woman's legal fight against the United States' no-fly list, ruling that she may challenge her two-hour airport detention on allegations she was wrongly singled out as a suspected terrorist."
• Tigard businessman blocked from returning to U.S. after humanitarian trip to Libya--"When FBI agents told him he needed to take a lie detector test before being allowed to return to the United States, Tarhuni agreed -- against the advice of a Tunisian attorney and his Portland lawyer, his daughter said. But he later refused after another FBI employee tried to get him to sign a paper without reading it, his daughter said. When he finally saw it, she said, it appeared to be a waiver of his constitutional rights, which angered him."
• Passengers face body scans before flights--"Passengers at airports across Australia will be forced to undergo full-body scans or be banned from flying under new laws to be introduced into Federal Parliament this week."

TSA

• Female Passengers Say They Were Targeted for TSA Body Scanners--They're, of course, denying it, which is pretty much their response to any criticism: deny, downplay, and deflect.
• Alaska Bill Would Criminalize TSA Screening Procedures
• TSA expands PreCheck expedited airport screening program
• Bill would give loose change left at airports to USO not TSA--"In 2010, the TSA's most recent count, it amounted to $409,085."
• C&H: Airport Insecurity

Taxes, Plutocracy, Inequality, Red State of Mind, Eurozone Crisis

Taxes

• Obama unveils $3.8 trillion budget--"President Obama unveiled a $3.8 trillion budget request (NYT) Monday that hikes taxes on the rich, spends new money on infrastructure and education, but does little to reform the entitlement programs that pose the biggest long-term threat to the federal budget."
• Millionaire Investor Calls for Higher Taxes on the Rich--"We are systematically destroying our customer base in this country by undercutting the middle class.... 'If it was true that the rich and business were job creators, we'd be drowning in jobs today."
• Obama says Bush era tax cuts must go
• The Weakening of Nations: How Tax Work-Arounds Undermine Our Society
• House Republicans Yield on Extending Payroll Tax Cut NYT

Plutocracy

• Moyers: Meet the Shameless Plutocrats Choking What's Left of Our Democracy--"The race for the White House may cost more than two billion dollars. What's getting trampled into dust are the voices of people who aren't rich."
• Graphic: The richest 1% of Americans' share of income since the Great Depression.
• Greenwald: Billionaire Romney donor uses threats to silence critics Salon
• America’s Billionaire-Run Democracy Salon
• Rothschild loses libel case, and reveals secret world of money and politics

Inequality

• Mind-Blowing Charts From the Senate's Income Inequality Hearing
• Income Inequality: The government had better ideas for fixing it 100 years ago
• Corporate Margins And Profits Are Increasing, But Workers' Wages Aren't

Red State of Mind

• Even Critics of Safety Net Increasingly Depend on It--It's only socialist when they don't benefit from it. NYT
• Krugman: Moochers Against Welfare NYT
• How Blue America Subsidizes Red America

Eurozone Crisis

• Greece shows us how to protest against a failed system--"The rage displayed in Greek cities against austerity measures inspires all who are suffering for the benefit of banks and the rich."
• How Goldman Sachs helped mask Greece's debt
• Leaked Memo Blows The Lid Off Of The Entire Greek Bailout
• Icelandic Anger Brings Debt Forgiveness--"Since the end of 2008, the island’s banks have forgiven loans equivalent to 13 percent of gross domestic product, easing the debt burdens of more than a quarter of the population."
• Krugman: Pain Without Gain--"The results are in: austerity policies have been an utter failure." NYT

World News: Europe & UK, Russia, India, East Asia, Australia, Mexico

Europe & UK

• Jingoism is no answer to England's ebbing power
• Polish prosecutor 'shoots self after news conference'
• Bridge owner Moroun to spend night in jail after appeals court denies bid for release
• Spain's Judge Baltasar Garzon convicted for wiretapping--"Spain's Supreme Court has found the country's best-known judge, Baltasar Garzon, guilty of authorising illegal recordings of lawyers' conversations."
• After 13 Years in Germany: Town Hides Family in Fight Against Deportation

Russia

• A New Generation Aims to Revitalize Russia--"Russia's young people are growing up with more freedom than ever. Twenty years after the end of communism, the first post-Soviet generation is transforming the country -- whether the once and future president likes it or not."
• Polishing Putin: hacked emails suggest dirty tricks by Russian youth group--"Nashi runs web of online trolls and bloggers paid to praise Vladimir Putin and denigrate enemies, group claims."
• Russian clocks stay on summertime--"Russia has not put its clocks back for winter this year, after President Dmitry Medvedev decided the country would stay permanently in summertime."

India

• India Factory Workers Revolt, Kill Company President
• Women labourers give opium to infants to keep them quiet while working
• The Two Indias: Astounding Poverty in the Backyard of Amazing Growth

East Asia

• North Korea reportedly punishing those who didn't sufficiently mourn Kim Jong Il
• Cage dogs of Hong Kong: The tragedy of tens of thousands living in 6ft by 2ft rabbit hutches
• Kong Qingdong, Chinese professor, sparks outrage in Hong Kong
• Chinese dissident on trial after using Skype to send poem
• The Tragic Story of a Beijing Neighborhood's Destruction--"As the Chinese capital develops, the demolition of historic neighborhoods and displacement of once-secure families is becoming one of the city's most controversial issues."

Australia

• Australian politician caught using speech from Michael Douglas film--"Australian Transport Minister Anthony Albanese has been accused of parroting Michael Douglas' speech in the 1995 film The American President."
• US legal dramas confuse juries--"Australian juries have been so influenced by American television shows such as Law and Order they are adopting US legal terms that have no relevance in Australian courts."
• Former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd resigns as Foreign Minister

Mexico

• Mexican authorities: Former goalkeeper worked for kidnapping gang
• Mexico's Illicit Economy Is Worth $50 Billion Per Year
• Mexican official stopped with $1.9 million in luggage--The prelude of what's to come.

Fat Tuesday, Kids, HCR, Bad for your health, Mobile Phones, Muscle

Fat Tuesday

• The Fat Trap--"While researchers have known for decades that the body undergoes various metabolic and hormonal changes while it’s losing weight, the Australian team detected something new. A full year after significant weight loss, these men and women remained in what could be described as a biologically altered state. Their still-plump bodies were acting as if they were starving and were working overtime to regain the pounds they lost." NYT
• Fat Doesn't Mean Unhealthy: Obesity, Judgment, and Chicken McNuggets
• Why a Big Mac Costs Less Than a Salad NYT
• Scientists find fat is the sixth human taste
• Clothing sizes getting bigger: Why our sizing system makes no sense
• Trans-fat blood levels plummet after FDA food-labeling regulation
• Woman Who Made Fun Of American Apparel Contest Wins, American Apparel Act Like A Bunch Of Babies

Kids

• Boring playgrounds tied to sedentary kids, study shows
• Preschooler’s Homemade Lunch Replaced with Cafeteria "Nuggets"
• Study Finds That School Junk Food Doesn’t Lead To Childhood Obesity

HCR

• Ralph Nader: Why Are US Health Costs So High?
• New Study: Health Care Costs Fall When Poor Get Health Care Coverage
• Americans put their health-care costs in spotlight after flap over skier Sarah Burke's hospital bill--It's very telling that fans are paying for medical-bills her family can't afford.
• Another Patient Dies From Arizona’s Medicaid Cuts As Gov. Brewer Ignores Possible Solutions
• Study links 45,000 U.S. deaths to lack of insurance
• Court action could prolong health care fight
• Blast from the Past: Health Care and the Profit Motive

Bad for your health

• Anti-vaccination attitudes percolate amongst those with superiority fetishes
• More Doctors 'Fire' Vaccine Refusers: Families Who Reject Inoculations Told to Find a New Physician; Contagion in Waiting Room Is a Fear
• Critical Shortage of Children's Leukemia Drug--"All five pharmaceutical companies that make the injection drug methotrexate, which treats acute lymphoblastic leukemia by slowing the growth of cancer cells, have either slowed and stopped manufacturing of the drug, according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. The companies have cited high demand or manufacturing delays as reasons for the shortage. "
• PIP breast implant boss Jean-Claude Mas charged--"The silicone inside the implants is not medical grade - but was intended for use in mattresses."
• The High Cost of Bad Handwriting

Mobile Phones

• Mobile phone brain cancer link rejected
• Judge to SF: Back off on cell phone radiation warning
• NTSB recommends full ban on use of cell phones while driving

Muscle

• Researchers have discovered a natural hormone that acts like exercise on muscle tissue - burning calories, improving insulin processing, and perhaps boosting strength
• "Need a boost?"
• Powerthirst--Aaargh!
• VH1's "Ton of Cash" - The Greek Mystique's Final Animal
• Arm-wrestling game recalled for breaking arms

Presidents' Day, Jobs, Fired, Work-Life, Retirement, Customer Disservice

Presidents' Day

• FDR as a Michael Bay 'Transformers' Hero Offers You a 'New Deal You Can't Refuse'--Check out the rest of the series.
• "Washington, Washington, 6-foot-8, weighs a fucking ton"
  
• Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter
• William Taft
• The Apotheosis--Whu... buh... what?

Jobs

• Unemployment is world's fastest-rising fear, BBC finds
• Millions of young people worldwide are unemployed - are we creating a lost generation?
• Manufacturing illusions--"The fundamental problem isn't the decline of US manufacturing, and reviving manufacturing won't solve it. The problem is the declining power of workers to share in the gains of the economy."
• How the 1% Destroys Jobs and the Real Heroes are Everyday People--"Mitt Romney & Co. want us to think that making the rich richer will create jobs. That's not true. And it's not the American way."
• Why Companies Can't Find the Employees They Need

Fired

• Firing contest by boss leads employees to quit
• Chicago Woman Fired for Doing Work at Lunch Wins Unemployment Claim
• YouTube video goes Venti after singing Starbucks employee fired in Chowchilla
• Long Island Bus Driver Fired After Rescuing 3 Police Detectives During Hail Storm 
• Three Types of People to Fire Immediately

Work-Life

• The 23 Best Countries for Work-Life Balance (We Are Number 23)
• Swiss want six holiday weeks: survey
• Answering work emails after hours is overtime: Brazil
• Volkswagen turns off work email after work hours for staff--"Volkswagen has agreed to stop its Blackberry servers sending emails to some of its employees when they are off-shift."
• Germany battles burnout--"Germany, holding up better than its eurozone partners in the current debt crisis, is battling the increasingly widespread phenomenon of 'burnout' which it says is costing its economy billions of euros each year."
• Cut the working week to a maximum of 20 hours, urge top economists
  

Retirement

• Can Retirement Kill You? Are people more likely to die after they stop working?
• Seniors decide retirement doesn't suit them, keep working
• Most Employees Unprepared For Retirement
• Most Retirement Advice is Worse than Useless
• How to solve the boomer retirement crisis Salon

Customer Disservice

• Car service Uber passes economics test, fails marketing
• Ocean Marketing makes fatal gaming PR mistake
• Rude Employee Behavior Quietly Sabotages the Bottom Line
• Customer Relations Fiascos
• Clients from Hell--The customers aren't always right, no matter what you're told.

Educamation, NCLB, Koch, Inequality, Budgets, Debt

Educamation

• Why the United States Is Destroying Its Education System--Here's a sad indicator of the times.
• Florida school official says state standardized tests are unfair, worthless
• More schools likely to lose accreditation, experts say--"As anxiety over the academic performance of public schools grows, experts say it's likely that more schools and school districts will lose public or private accreditation."
• Beauty 'as good as a uni degree' for career
• Basset Hound Gets Texas High-School Diploma
• Outsourcing Education: Does It Matter If Someone in India Corrected Your College Paper
• What Americans Keep Ignoring About Finland's School Success

NCLB

• Still "Lying to Children": How No Child Left Behind Corrupted Education
• The President Will Waive 10 States from 'No Child Left Behind'--This is the beginning of the end.
• House GOP Lawmakers Push Ahead With Plan To Update Education Law

Koch

• The ugly truth about "school choice"--"The Koch brothers want you to think the movement's about racial justice and empowering parents. They're lying." Salon
• Are the Koch brothers teaching you?
• Koch-head watch: beach retreat on education--ALEC and legislators meet behind closed doors.

Inequality

• Occupy Kindergarten: The Rich-Poor Divide Starts With Education
• America's dangerously removed elite --"It's easy to cut public education funding when your kids go to private school. Just ask Christie and Emanuel." Salon
• Education Gap Grows Between Rich and Poor, Studies Say NYT

Budgets

• Teachers Decide To Work For Free After Budget Cuts Leave Pennsylvania School District Without Funds For Salaries
• Alabama Republican Senator: Low teacher pay mandated by God
• Wisconsin: Voucher enrollment jumps after rules are relaxed--"Voucher participation grew by 2,200 students in the last year to a total of about 23,200, increasing the program's total cost to $150.9 million, the report says. The report also found that overall enrollment growth in the private schools that participate in the Milwaukee and Racine school choice programs was a direct result of the expanded voucher program, in which qualifying students receive a taxpayer-financed subsidy worth $6,442 to attend a private school."
• Public slams school board for approving raises
• Despite Angry Protests, UC Regents Raise Administrators' Salaries
• Give Queen a new royal yacht for diamond jubilee, says Michael Gove--"Education secretary proposes taxpayers fund gift – likely to cost at least £60m – to mark 'momentous occasion'."
• Biggs and Richwine: Public School Teachers Aren't Underpaid

Debt

• A Student Proposal Could Make a University of California Education Affordable Once Again
• Mounting student debt oppresses and distresses
• Financial Sex Aid: Florida Co-Eds Seek “Sugar Daddy” for College Degree

Medical Marijuana, 420, Legalization, War on Drugs, Mexico

Medical Marijuana

• Obama's War on Pot--"In a shocking about-face, the administration has launched a government-wide crackdown on medical marijuana."
• Patient Advocates File Appeal Brief in Federal Case to Reclassify Medical Marijuana
• Caught with six kilos of cannabis and you could still avoid jail--"Courts [in the UK] will be told for the first time to reduce sentences for cannabis possession if it is being used for medicinal purposes."

420

• New York's Illegal Pot Crackdown: The NYPD continues to make bogus marijuana busts
• NYPD Marijuana Crusade Led to Cops Killing a Teenager in the Bronx
• Marijuana: The facts they don't want you to hear

Legalization

• Pot legalization: Why doesn’t anyone in Washington take marijuana policy seriously?
• 13 States Working Towards Smart, Sane Marijuana Laws
• Marijuana Push in Colorado Likens It to Alcohol--The initiative has gotten enough signatures to be included in November's ballot. NYT
• Washington state marijuana legalization headed for ballot
• Cowboy Cop Makes the Conservative Case for Marijuana Legalization at CPAC--He explains how it's being kept it illegal.

War on Drugs

• Sir Richard Brannson: It’s time to end the failed war on drugs--"Treating addicts as criminals has done absolutely nothing to address this crisis."
• Why is Obama So Chicken, Unwilling to Even Address the Question of Pot and the Failed Drug War?
• Active duty cop: 'The war on drugs is a war on people'--"I did not get in law enforcement to destroy a person's future because that person had marijuana or a pill in their pocket. Why would you want to destroy that person’s future and cause them great harm because of that? It's not worth it."
• Ten Years After Decriminalization, Drug Abuse Down by Half in Portugal
• Latin American leaders assail U.S. drug 'market'--"Latin American leaders have joined together to condemn the U.S. government for soaring drug violence in their countries, blaming the United States for the transnational cartels that have grown rich and powerful smuggling dope north and guns south."
• Afghanistan's Opium Child Brides--"As the heroin trade suffers in Afghanistan, poppy farmers are marrying off their daughters, sometimes to unsavory and far-away men, to pay their debts."
• 100 years of the war on drugs

Mexico

• Carlos Fuentes: legalise drugs to save Mexico--"Carlos Fuentes, Mexico's greatest writer, claims that legalising drugs is the only way to end the devastating violence that has claimed 50,000 lives in five years."
• Occupy Mexico? How about 'End the Drug War'?--"Most Mexicans would rather stop the bloodshed than occupy the country."
• Mexico President Felipe Calderon's message to US: 'No more weapons!'
• Drug gang banners in Mexico ahead of Pope visit--"A drug gang unfurled banners in a Mexican city that Pope Benedict XVI is scheduled to visit next month, telling rival traffickers to keep out and keep the peace during the papal visit."
• Mexico drugs: cartel 'meth boss' Jaime Herrera arrested
• Mexico makes historic methamphetamine seizure--" Mexican troops have made an historic seizure of 15 tons of pure methamphetamine in the western state of Jalisco...."
• Mexico drug war boosts security business--"Amid the violence, Mexico's rich get ID chips, armored cars and gunmen on call."
• Security contractors see opportunities, and limits, in Mexico--The Military Industrial Complex moves in.
• Zetas now 'largest drug cartel' in Mexico
• Blind mules' unknowingly ferry drugs across the U.S.-Mexico border

Voter Suppression, Vote Machinations, Elections 2012, Campaign Finance, Obama, Citizens United, Tea Party

Voter Suppression

• South Carolina sues DOJ on voter photo ID law
• Under the Radar: South Carolina Rushes Through Yet another Voter Suppression Bill
• Democrats successfully kill Voter ID legisliation in New Mexico
• The Wealthy One Percent That’s Behind Minnesota’s Racist Voter ID Push--"A new report details how Minnesota's wealthiest are pooling funds to shape state-level politics where basic civil rights issues like the right to vote are at stake."
• The Fraud of 'Voter Fraud'

Vote Machinations

• Lawmakers were made to pledge secrecy over redistricting: Public comments were to be ignored, GOP memo shows
• Jury finds Charlie White guilty on six of seven counts--"A Hamilton County jury has found Secretary of State Charlie White guilty on six of seven counts in his voter fraud case. The jury returned the verdict early Saturday morning after getting the case on Friday."
• Why the Right Wing Is Petrified of Letting Voters, Instead of the Electoral College, Pick Presidents

Elections 2012

• Friedman: We Need a Second Party--"Watching the Republican Party struggling to agree on a presidential candidate, one wonders whether the G.O.P. shouldn't just sit this election out — just give 2012 a pass." NYT
• Maine Republican Party Cancels Missing Votes In Three Counties--"The man responsible for canceling the Washington County caucus was a Mitt Romney supporter."
• Karl Rove 'offended' by Clint Eastwood's Chrysler ad--Guess optimism is off-message.
• Obama Campaign Launches 'Truth Teams'
• Senior Gingrich Campaign Official Scrubbed Infidelity, Tiffany Credit Line From Wikipedia Page
• Democrats' chances of retaking the House improve
• Independents Abandoning Romney

Campaign Finance

• Lawrence Lessig: The tyranny of tiny minds and big money--"After three years, it's time for Obama to deliver on his promise to curb money in politics." Salon
• 'Secret money' is funding more election ads
• Meet the Men Behind Romney: Four Contributors Mitt Probably Doesn't Want You to Know About--He's getting pretty blatant about his wealth (hilariously 'shopped).
• Return of the DISCLOSE Act--"The legislation, which failed in the last Congress, would bring badly needed transparency to federal campaign donations."
• Koch brothers driving anti-Obama hate machine

Obama

• Obama Yields in Marshaling of 'Super PAC' NYT
• Obama fundraising powered by small donors, new study shows
• Obama losing financial backing of big S.F. donor--"I've just given so much money away, and I've never asked for anything.... I'm asking for something: He's got to be a leader."

Citizens United

• EJ Dionne: The Citizens United catastrophe--"[W]e have to hope that a future Supreme Court will overturn this monstrosity, remembering that the first words of our Constitution are 'We the People,' not 'We the Rich.'"
• Nancy Pelosi Launches 'Stop Colbert' Campaign In Favor Of DISCLOSE Act--"Stephen Colbert used to be my friend. I even signed the poor baby's cast when he hurt his hand."
• GetTheDoughOut.org - Campaign to overturn "Citizens United", sponsored by Ben & Jerry's

Tea Party

• Tea Party 'Is Dead': How the Movement Fizzled in 2012's GOP Primaries
• Strong In 2010, Where Is The Tea Party Now?
• Payroll Tax Has Republican Leaders Urging Tea Party Members To Be Less Extreme, More Politically Savvy

Oil, Iran, Iraq, Middle East, Military Machine

Oil

• European crude drives up U.S. gas prices
• Get Ready for $5 Gas This Year: Ex-Shell CEO
• Oil Prices Are Rising Despite Lowest Demand Since 1997

Iran

• The Generals try to stop an Iran War
• Iran sanctions crippling food imports
• Iran cuts off internet access
• Iran's Undisputed Weapon: Power to Block the Strait of Hormuz
• Iran Warns 6 Countries in Europe It Will Cut Off Oil--Did they or didn't they? NYT
• Israeli Ad Jokes About Attacks Against Iran's Nuclear Facilities
• Greenwald: U.S. media takes the lead on Iran--"[T]ime and again, Americans support whatever new war of aggression their government proposes, then come to regret that support and decide the war was a 'mistake,' only to demonstrate that they learned no lessons from their "mistake" by eagerly supporting whatever the next proposed war is." Salon
• Krauthammer: Israel 'will strike' Iran to 'prevent a second holocaust'--The little drummer boy.

Iraq

• DOD Official Says U.S. Overestimated Al Qaeda's Capabilities After 9/11
• RAF helicopter death revelation leads to secret Iraq detention camp--"Death in RAF helicopter and secret prison camp in Iraq desert raises questions about legality of British and US operations."
• Anonymous says it will leak giant cache of Iraq war e-mails

Middle East

• The Afghanistan Report the Pentagon Doesn't Want You to Read
• Army Whistleblower Lt. Col. Daniel Davis Says Pentagon Deceiving Public on Afghan War
• Why American 'democracy promotion' rings hollow in the Middle East

Military Machine

• U.S. to pull half its troops out of Europe by 2014
• Gates: GOP Claims That Obama Is Ushering U.S. Military Decline Are 'Ridiculous'
• White House To GOP: Only One Way Around Defense Cuts — And You’re Not Gonna Like It
• Iran War Would Cost Trillions: Will the GOP Pay More Taxes for That?
• Why Pentagon, facing 'doomsday' spending cuts, refuses to plan for them
• Military Wants $3 Billion for a War It Isn't Fighting
• 'Starve the Beast': Instead of firing teachers, closing libraries and senior centers, and cutting bus routes, let's put the Pentagon on a diet.
• 2013 Pentagon budget: Why so much spending on big-war weapons?

Foreclosure Settlement, Feckless SEC, Wall Street, Insider Trading, Bank Transfer

Foreclosure Settlement

• Mortgage deal is great — for politicians and banks--It's just a "poke in the eye".
• The foreclosure deal: Every little bit counts--"The banks don't get the punishment they deserve, but the White House finally gets some traction on housing woes." Salon
• The Five Things You Need To Know About Today's Foreclosure Settlement
• Taibbi: Mortgage Fraud Settlement is More Like a Bailout Than Justice
• Is the $25 Billion Foreclosure Settlement a Stealth Bank Bailout?
• "Deadbeat Bailout": Right-Wing Media Attack Struggling Homeowners, Whitewash Alleged Foreclosure Abuse
• Missouri Becomes 2nd State to Divert Foreclosure Funds Away From Homeowners to Balance its Budget

Feckless SEC

• S.E.C. Is Avoiding Tough Sanctions for Large Banks--"Even as the Securities and Exchange Commission has stepped up its investigations of Wall Street in the last decade, the agency has repeatedly allowed the biggest firms to avoid punishments specifically meant to apply to fraud cases." NYT
• Preet Bharara's toothless bite of Wall Street: Time magazine's favorite federal prosecutor chases the bottom feeders and avoids the sharks Salon
• SEC Keeps Giving Wall Street Banks A Break

Wall Street

• Wall Street's Reputation Still Falling--"More than three years after the financial crisis, Wall Street banks are still in the doghouse. In a survey intended to track the reputations of leading companies, only 17 percent of respondents had a positive impression of the financial services industry." NYT
• Volcker Rule Draws Barrage of Lobbying From Banks After Details Released
• Why Wall Street Should Stop Whining
• Wall Street's song of Obama woe: Self-pitying bankers lament a bygone era of fat bonuses and easy money Salon
• Wall Street 'Likely To Set Records' For Political Spending Aimed At Defeating Obama In 2012
• When The Bankers Plotted To Overthrow FDR--"It was a dangerous time in America: The economy was staggering, unemployment was rampant and a banking crisis threatened the entire monetary system..."
• Wall Street's Secret Spy Center, Run for the 1% by NYPD

Insider Trading

• House bans federal lawmakers from insider trading--Will it survive the Senate?
• Rep. Spencer Bachus faces insider-trading investigation
• Eric Cantor's Wall Street Insider Trading Loophole

Bank Transfer

• Earnings Show 'Bank Transfer Day' Results
• 5.6 Million Americans Have Switched Their Banks in the Last 90 Days
• City Of Berkeley Plans To Pull $300M Out Of Wells Fargo

Happy Valentine's Day, Proposals, Men and Women, Marriage Equality, Mmmm... Chocolate

Happy Valentine's Day

• An Unexpected Time-Lapse Memory--Here's a similar set.
• How Google Created Its Epic(-ish) Valentine’s Day Doodle
• Lego Couple's Necklace
• Divine Moment
• xkcd: Valentine Dilemma

Proposals

• Greatest Marriage Proposal EVER!!!
• Best Marriage Proposal EVER!!!!!
• YES, now give me my iPad!!!
• Geekiest marriage proposals of all time
• Legos, Muppets and more awww-inspiring proposals
• Corey Goldfeder recreates Back to the Future for marriage proposal
• Super Mario Living Room Proposal
• Chatroulette Love Song
• The Greatest Best Wedding Proposal of All Time Ever Forever
• Chicacgo Comic Con proposal

Men and Women

• Men Spend The Big Bucks When Women Are Scarce
• Men fall for Miss Right after a single date
• Women prefer men desired by others
• Men behaving nicely: Selfless acts by men increase when attractive women are nearby
• Harvard Sailing Team: Boys Will Be Girls

Marriage Equality

• Gay marriage legalized in Washington State--Gov. Christine Gregoire promised to sign the measure after the legislature passed it (NYT). The biggest hurdle was getting Republican support at the Senate.
• New Jersey Senate approves bill legalizing gay marriage--But Gov. Christie vowed to veto it.
• Why the Proponents of a Gay Marriage Ban Will Soon Be Speechless
• CPAC 2012: Are The Republican Party's Views On Gay Marriage Shifting?--Seems to be the case.
• Why gay marriage is inevitable--"With more openly gay people and strong support for same-sex unions among the young, the war is over even as the fighting continues."

Mmmm... Chocolate

• Chocolate lovers: more kinds of cacao
• Chocolate Beer
• Chocoholics sour on new Hershey’s formula--Vegetable oil replaces cocoa butter in some products.
• Chocolate Advertisements in the 20th and 21st Centuries
• The History of Chocolate--Catch the full episode if you can.

Fucks News, Conservatives, Red vs. Blue, Racism, Wingnuts

Fucks News

• Survey: Republicans Trust Fox News And Nothing Else
• Fox News Viewers Uninformed, NPR Listeners Not, Poll Suggests--Misinformed, more like.
• How Fox News Is Destroying the Republican Party
• Former Bush Speechwriter Slams Fox For Creating 'Alternative Knowledge System'
• Miss Piggy: Attack on Muppets movie 'as laughable as Fox being news'

Conservatives

• How conservatives lie about government Salon
• The Psychology Behind the Right's Fear of the Future
• Video: The Power of Nightmares--How conservatives and radical islamists changed the world.
• Krugman: Severe Conservative Syndrome NYT
• Why do conservatives vote against their own interests?
• The Truth About the Conservative Mind: Why Reactionaries from Edmund Burke to Sarah Palin Have Fought Real Liberty
• How Conservative Elites Stoke Racist Anxieties to Gain Power and Split Blacks and Whites--"Conservatives have created a story of white victimhood, because it is easier than critically engaging the real problems facing America."
• How To Make It in the New GOP--"It helps if conservatives love you. One day in the life of a Republican hopeful."
• Low IQ & Conservative Beliefs Linked to Prejudice
• Carville & Begala: Yes, there's a lot we don't understand about the GOP

Red vs. Blue

• The blue-state trap--"Coastal cities and college towns are more alluring than ever. But are they also why the country is so polarized?" Salon
• Fear factor: The science behind America's red/blue divide
• 'It's more purple than blue and red': Americans' political views are closer than you might think

Racism

• Asian-American Elected GOPer Turns On Hoekstra After Ad
• East Haven Mayor: 'I Might Have Tacos' For Dinner--Two days later, his constituents oblige, but a week since, he's put his foot back in his mouth on another issue.
• Rural Kentucky church drops ban on mixed-race couples
• Hillbilly Heaven signs: Funny or off base?
• Blast from the past: US city rejects English-only law

Wingnuts

• Five Missouri Democrats Discover Crosshairs Outside Their Capitol Offices--The same week Giffords resigned from Congress and who also had gunsight graphics trained on her district.
• Arizona cop investigated over bullet-riddled picture of Obama
• Arkansas Democratic Campaign Manager Comes Home To Find Child’s Cat Murdered, ‘LIBERAL’ Written On Dead Body
• Right-Wing Continues To Deny Right-Wing Terrorism
• Extremist Groups Flourish In Northwest U.S. The Onion

Catholic Guilt, Christians and Contraception, Abortion and Birth Control, Komen, Religion and Politics

Catholic Guilt

• Vatican official: Sexual abuse silence deadly for Church
• Cardinal Egan Criticized for Retracting Apology on Sexual Abuse Crisis--"I never should have said that. I don't think we did anything wrong." NYT
• 8,000 instances of abuse alleged in Archdiocese bankruptcy hearing
• German priest admits 280 counts of sexual abuse
• 'Tens of thousands' of children victims of child sexual abuse at the hands of paedophile priests in the Netherlands since 1945
• Catholic Church child protection chief caught with 4,000 child porn pictures
• Catholic leaders meet at Vatican conference to discuss pedophilia

Christians and Contraception

• Catholics need to preach what we practice--"When 98 percent of Catholics use birth control, why is Obama in hot water for making sure insurance covers it?" Salon
• Catholics, the Contraception Mandate, and Public Opinion
• Hey Christians, Others Don't Want Your Ban on Birth Control
• Most of Obama's "Controversial" Birth Control Rule Was Law During Bush Years--As evidenced in the state of Georgia.
• Will Obama compromise on birth control? Salon
• Obama announces contraception compromise
• Obama Punks the GOP on Contraception

Abortion and Birth Control

• The Republican War on Contraception: Not satisfied with restricting abortion rights, the GOP is now coming after your birth control
• Maddow: The GOP War on Birth Control
• Marco Rubio's Plan Could Cut Off Birth Control Coverage for Millions
• Judge’s ruling allows enforcement of pre-abortion sonogram law
• Sex-ed less effective in red states, study says
• House GOP Memo: "Abortion Is the Leading Cause of Death in the Black Community"
• At CPAC, leaders urge steering birth control conversation toward abortion--"[A]n all-female panel discussed the Obama administration’s birth-control-coverage mandate and suggested that the best way to defeat it is by calling it an "abortion mandate.'"
• Congressman Falls for The Onion's Planned Parenthood 'Abortionplex' Story--And the Yelp reviews come rushing in again.
• Dem state senator adds 'Every sperm is sacred' clause to 'personhood' bill--And that life begins at ejaculation.
• The Gutters: Buffy the Vampire Slayer goes to an abortion clinic

Komen

• Komen vice president Karen Handel resigns--Setting up herself as a martyr.
• Ari Fleischer Admits He Personally Advised Komen CEO On Planned Parenthood
• What Would It Take to Trust Komen Again?

Religion and Politics

• Jesus vs the GOP Salon
• Adoption agencies 'conscience clause' passes Senate
• War on Religion? No, It's Self-Defense