Republicans, Render Unto Caesar, Right-Wing, Science Under Siege, Local Politics, Transparency

Republicans

• Calling Radicalism by Its Name--"President Obama’s fruitless three-year search for compromise with the Republicans ended in a thunderclap of a speech on Tuesday, as he denounced the party and its presidential candidates for cruelty and extremism." NYT
• Bill Maher: The Republican Party Is ‘At War With Common Sense’
• GOP freshman class turned into ‘a monster’ for Boehner, other House leaders
• Democrats condemn GOP's plot to obstruct Obama as 'appalling and sad'
• Let’s just say it: The Republicans are the problem
  

Render unto Caesar

• Religious Leaders Slam Ryan For Using Catholic Faith To Justify Cutting Programs That Help The Poor--Don't they know that Jesus is Republican?
• Catholic groups spar with Paul Ryan over budget--""We would be remiss in our duty to you and our students if we did not challenge your continuing misuse of Catholic teaching to defend a budget plan that decimates food programs for struggling families, radically weakens protections for the elderly and sick, and gives more tax breaks to the wealthiest few."
• Analysis: Paul Ryan's not-very-Catholic Catholic budget

Right-Wing

• Dionne: The right's stealthy coup
• Real Romney: real scary--"Beneath the moderate veneer, a right-wing agenda lurks."
• Shocker: One of CA's most promising young Republicans abandons GOP in midst of heated SD mayoral race 
• Tea party support stable, but interest is waning
• Blue Dog Democrats face extinction in next election--"Two years after the 2010 midterm elections decimated their ranks, the coalition of conservative Democrats is poised to get pummeled again in November — moving the Blue Dogs dangerously close to extinction."
• The Righteous Mind NYT
• Red States Have Most Gay Porn & Bestiality Searches

Science Under Siege

• Study tracks how conservatives lost their faith in science
• US conservatives' trust in science has fallen dramatically since the '70s
• It's Not Your Imagination: Republicans Really Don't Like Science

Local Politics

• Michigan GOP circumvents democracy with shady vote corner-cutting
• Michigan, this is your democracy--"The Michigan Board of State Canvassers today rejected a petition drive that would have put the state's emergency manager law on the November ballot." Republicans "cited the wrong font size on the title of the petitions circulated by Stand Up For Democracy, a coalition of groups that launched the petition campaign, as the reason for not approving the initiative for the ballot.
• Cops Confiscate Cameras at Ohio Congressman’s Town Hall
• Georgia: Senate Votes to Cut Jobless Benefits
• Wisconsin lost more jobs than any state
• Arizona close to passing anti-UN-sustainability bill
• Waterbury Mayor Reverses Promise, Takes $91,000 Pension

Transparency

• "Mitt Romney's contemptuous attitude toward the importance of public disclosure is increasingly troubling."
• Liberating America's secret, for-pay laws
• DOJ OIP Director Pustay testifies that "people misinterpreted," "misconstrued," "didn’t necessarily understand," FOIA regulations allowing DOJ to lie to requesters. Issa report gives DOJ a "D" on FOIA.
• House approves transparency bill, citing GSA scandal--They threw an $800,000 party.
• Blast from the Past: Helen Thomas hits White House for lack of transparency

Vatican, Sex Abuse Scandal, Politics, Creationism, Mormons, International

Vatican

• Vatican Reprimands U.S. Nuns Group--For their support for Obamacare. NYT
• American Nuns Reject Vatican’s Orders – Say They Are Not Going To Stop 'Caring For The Least Among Us'--You go, girls.
• Pope hits out at 'radical secularism'
• Corruption scandal shakes Vatican as internal letters leaked
• U.S. adds Vatican to money-laundering 'concern' list
• Spiraling Scandal Reveals Machiavellian Manoeuvering within the Vatican
• The Vatican Started Penal Investigation

Sex Abuse Scandal

• Supervising Priest Goes on Trial in Philadelphia--Five weeks of testimony just concluded. NYT
• Irish priests say they will disobey new confession box law on child abuse--"Irish priests have vowed to defy a new law forcing them to report details of sexual abuse revealed in the confessional box." And in this particular case, they should.
• Catholic Church Still Paying for Sex Abuse Scandal
• Child sex abuse in the Church: alliance demands full inquiry--"Anglican and Catholic churches have lost the right to police themselves, say victims."
• Fr D'Arcy will continue to speak out on church issues--"Father Brian D'Arcy has said he will continue to speak out on controversial issues affecting the Catholic Church despite being rebuked by the Vatican."

Politics

• Right-Wing Religion's War on America--"Many in America's Catholic leadership and on the evangelical right claim there's a war on religion. In fact, they are waging a war on individual liberties."
• Andrew Sullivan: Christianity in Crisis
• Divided by God--"Americans have never separated religion from politics, but it makes a difference how the two are intertwined. When religious commitments are more comprehensive and religious institutions more resilient, faith is more likely to call people out of private loyalties to public purposes, more likely to inspire voters to put ideals above self-interest, more likely to inspire politicians to defy partisan categories altogether. But as orthodoxies weaken, churches split and their former adherents mix and match elements of various traditions to fit their preferences, religion is more likely to become indistinguishable from personal and ideological self-interest." NYT
• As politicians talk more about faith, voters seem to want less
• How Christian Groups Push Right-Wing Religion With the Help of Your Tax Dollars
• Arizona Kids Can Now Learn About the Bible at School -- but No Other Religious Texts
• How Religion's Demand for Obedience Keeps Us in the Dark Ages--And this is what enlightenment looks like (NYT).

Creationism

• How to respond to requests to debate creationists
• Tennessee legislature boldly sets the science clocks back 150 years
• Student takes on Louisiana's Creationism Law

Mormons

• Florida Evangelical Leader Calls on Romney to Renounce 'Racist' Mormon Religion--They've got a history.
• Mormon Baptism Targets Anne Frank -- Again
• Romney’s cousin: Mormonism is a 'fraud'

International

• Libya bans religious parties under new law
• Kuwait MPs okay death penalty for cursing God
  
• In secular Britain, a clash over public prayer
• Mosque set on fire by Jewish militants
• Opus Dei members in court for 'brainwashing'
• India: euthanasia allowed in extreme cases

Marriage Equality, Religion, Psychology, Politics, Culture, International, Sports, Vids

Marriage Equality

• Americans increasingly in favor of gay marriage, gun rights
• Gay couples challenge same-sex marriage ban in court
• Anti-gay group attacks New Hampshire Republicans who 'betrayed marriage'
• Mormons working to overturn Md. marriage law
• Catholic church urges pupils to sign anti-gay marriage petition
• Some Catholic churches are refusing to join efforts to repeal marriage equality in Washington state
• California Teen Disqualified From High School Pageant For Pro-Gay Marriage Remark
• David Cameron: 'I Support Gay Marriage Because I Am A Conservative'
• Divide and Discriminate NYT
• Former child stars speak out against Kirk Cameron--What a bunch of CCOKCs.

Religion

• Catholic students fight back against archdiocese's anti-family rhetoric
• Ohio school district sued for banning 'Jesus Is Not a Homophobe' shirt
• The New Legal Theory That Enables Homophobic Evangelizing in Public Schools-"A campaign funded by the religious right has effectively rewritten the constitutional separation of church and state in education."
• Kansas house passes a law that allows discrimination against gays on grounds of "religious freedom."
• Today in Hyperbole: Over the rainbow--The religious right want to reclaim the rainbow.

Psychology

• Psychiatrist retracts study that supported "ex-gay" therapy
• Is Some Homophobia Self-Phobia?--"The study is the first to document the role that both parenting and sexual orientation play in the formation of intense and visceral fear of homosexuals, including self-reported homophobic attitudes, discriminatory bias, implicit hostility towards gays, and endorsement of anti-gay policies."
• Study of the Day: Strict Parenting and Same-Sex Urges Lead to Homophobia

Politics

• GayHomophobe.com--"# days since the last prominent homophobe came out pro-gay"
• Rick Santorum Tells Boy Not to Use Pink Bowling Ball
• Virginia passes bill to ban LGBT parents from adopting
• Tea Party Speaker Reportedly Tells LGBT Protesters: 'We Will Not Be Silenced By Faggots'
• Blast from the Past: NGRs = Not Gay Republicans

Culture

• Gays in America: Unprecedented Progress in One Generation--"In St. Petersburg, Russia, two men were arrested on Thursday for holding up a sign reading 'Homosexuality Is Normal.' It marks the first arrests on the strength of the city's new law against disseminating information on homosexuality."
• A Teen's Brave Response to "I'm Christian, Unless You're Gay"
• Hard Times for Gay Retirement Havens NYT
• Flag Wars
• SMBC: Gay Economics

International

• Discrimination in Russia: Arrests for Violation of St. Petersburg Anti-Gay Law
• Transgender Miss Universe contestant devastated by rules row, she says--"After initially disqualifying Talackova, organizers of the Miss Universe beauty pageant reversed course late Monday, saying she can participate."
• Brazilian City Seeks Heterosexual Pride Day
  

Sports

• Nebraska Coach Makes Public Stand Against Gay Rights NYT
• Ron Artest and Paul Pierce - Did You See That?
• Kiss Cam

Vids

• Louis C.K.: "Faggot"
• The Homosexual Menace
• Coming Out Insurance
• Pepsi Max
• MTV Anti Pot Commercial

CISPA, Tech Effects, PsyTech, Techies, Tech-tinction, CrApps, Yelp

CISPA

• US House passes controversial CISPA cybersecurity bill, now on to the Senate--Killing off democracy one bill at a time.
• Sneak attack: surprise amendment makes CISPA worse, then it is voted and passed a day ahead of schedule. Congress just deleted the Fourth Amendment--Learning their lesson from SOPA, Congress isn't going let the dirty masses stop them this time, and Obama may back down from a veto.
• How CISPA would affect you

Tech Effects

• Deep Thought is Dead, Long Live Deep Thought--"All of these facts point to a single trend: our ability to produce data is outstripping our ability to understand it."
• Happiness Takes (A Little) Magic--"Informationally, we are becoming lard-asses. In the pageview and ratings driven media economy, too much of the content these days is designed to be just like junk food to quickly boost quantifiable viewership."
• xkcd: Reviews

PsyTech

• Web addicts have brain changes, research suggests
• Study: Multitasking hinders youth social skills
• Nomophobia -- fear of being without your phone -- is on the rise
• Facebook's 'dark side': study finds link to socially aggressive narcissism
• Technology Isn't Anti-Social: People Are

Techies

• US Senate Proposes bill to eliminate overtime for IT Employees
• What tech skills gap? Train your workers--"IT professionals are feeling the pressure to boost their tech skills, but they aren't getting the support and resources."
• Old Techies Never Die; They Just Can’t Get Hired as an Industry Moves On NYT
• Blast from the Past: Microsoft Asks Some Laid Off Workers To Send Back Part Of Their Severance--Sensing the PR backlash, they decided to back off

Tech-tinction

• Black Future For Blackberry? A Tech History Lesson For RIM
• Sayonara Sony: How Industrial, MBA-Style Leadership Killed a Once Great Company
• The ignominious fall of Dell
• Kodak stockholders have most to lose in bankruptcy--Company was afraid to embrace the future.
• The Personal Computer Is Dead

CrApps

• The Curious Case Of The (Cr)apps That Make Money
• 2012: The Year Scam Apps Killed the App Store
• Fake Pokemon Yellow rises to No. 3 position on iTunes app charts
• Anarchy in the App Store
• Lawsuit against Apple for 'bait' apps moves forward

Yelp

• Judge dismisses Yelp class action suit for good--"A judge dismissed the class action lawsuit against social reviews site Yelp, putting an end to a case filed against it by a group of unhappy business owners."
• Yelp and the Business of Extortion 2.0
• Yelp Ads Are Not A Rip-Off, You Pay To Seal The Deal
• Lawsuit: Wine Expert Lashed Out At Woman After Bad Yelp Review
• How Yelp destroyed the thrill of exploring Salon

Media, Fucks News, Dooce-Bag, Murdoch Mysteries, Not Necessarily the News

Media

• Meet the US media companies trying to prevent political lobbying data from becoming public
• Way Too Many Media Companies Are Lobbying Against Transparency
• Media Madness: Promoting Society's Worst, Ignoring Its Best
• Lawrence O'Donnell Trashes Media For Fearing The Word 'Lie' To Describe False Talking Points
• Maddow: "Romney's lying. He knows he's lying. And yet he keeps telling this lie anyway."
• How "Breaking News" Broke the News--"Breaking news used to be 'news of transcendent importance.' Now it’s a joke."
• Clear Channel boss 'delighted' to have Rush Limbaugh

Fucks News

• Jon Stewart To Fox News: 'Shut The Fuck Up'
• Fox News host tries to walk back persistent Obama-Muslim talk
• Fox News May Be Implicated in Murdoch Hacking Scandal
• Fox Nation Sees Trash In San Francisco, Fabricates Entire Story To Blame Green Activist Liberals
• Blast from the past: How the Far Right Built a Media Empire to Manufacture Consent

Dooce-Bag

• Fox News MADE UP An Obama Quote To Make It Seem Like He Was Dissing Romney
• Fox News host admits he ‘did some paraphrasing’ by misquoting Obama
• Colbert Slams Fox's Doocy for Misreporting Obama Quote

Murdoch Mysteries

• Pay TV piracy hits News
• British Broadcaster With Murdoch Link Admits to Hacking
• Rupert Murdoch: Media magnate grilled on power, influence
• James Murdoch's revenge: Evidence that shook Government to its core--"Former BSkyB chief shocks Leveson Inquiry with frank disclosure of his close relationships with ministers, as Culture Secretary is urged to resign after explosive emails show his office briefed News Corp on £7.5bn BSkyB bid."
• Murdoch admits hacking cover-up--"Mr Murdoch said he was ''misinformed and shielded'' from what was going on at the former tabloid, the News of the World."

Not Necessarily the News

• Charlie Brooker: How To Report The News
• Awesomely Inappropriate Newspaper Headlines
• WJW Fox 8 Cleveland does a ridiculous story on a bear in a lady's backyard
• NBC station WRC, Pat Collins Wears Grape Costume to Interview Student Suspended For Banana Costume
• BBC confronts Facebook troll
• Breaking News: Some Bullshit Happening Somewhere The Onion
• TIME Announces New Version Of Magazine Aimed At Adults The Onion

Youth, Student Loans, Educamation, Teachers, Cheaters

Youth

• The War Against Youth--"The recession didn't gut the prospects of American young people. The Baby Boomers took care of that."
• 1 in 2 graduates are jobless or underemployed
• Germany set to tax young

Student Loans

• A huge student loan scam--"With the help of Virginia Foxx, R-N.C., for-profit colleges are massively ripping off U.S. taxpayers."
• Obama to Grad Students: Pay Up--"To save student-loan programs, the White House has saddled master's and Ph.D. candidates with added debt."
• Obama, GOP square off on student loans

Educamation

• Teenager paralyzed after punch by bully
• School bans disabled girl from using walker
• Teen Is Tied Down, Shocked by Teachers at "School" for Autistic Kids
• Students hospitalized after pepper spray incident at a Pine Bluff junior high school
• The Pineapple And The Hare: Can You Answer Two Bizarre State Exam Questions?

Teachers

• Exam pressure 'undermining teacher's integrity'
• California Sends Over 20,000 Pink Slips to Teachers
• South Carolina Teacher Suspended For Reading 'Ender's Game' To Middle School Students

Cheaters

• After Cheating Scandal, SAT and ACT Will Tighten Security NYT
• Cheating just part of school for many teens
• SMBC: Grade changer

Elections, Super PACs, Voter Suppression, States, Vote Machinations

Elections

• WTF, GOP?--"Dear Republicans: You shoulda had this election in the bag. But then you took a long detour to Crazytown."
• Is Obama in Trouble With Young Voters?
• Obama and Romney Need to Ignite Swing Voters’ Passion
• Every Candidate Who Claimed To Be Endorsed By God Has Dropped Out
• 'Birthers' sue to force state to verify candidates' eligibility--"The birthers' lawyer, Gary Kreep of Ramona, said Wednesday that his clients wanted the issue of Romney's eligibility raised because of his parents' long residency in Mexico."
• A Brief History of Proportional Representation in the United States
• Voting on the Weekend? Democrats Eye a New Election Day--"Tuesday was chosen as Election Day in 1845, when Congress decreed it the most convenient day for farmers — they needed three days to travel to their voting place without interfering with three days of religious worship."

Super PACs

• Sugar Daddies: The old, white, rich men who are buying this election
• Eight of the Top Ten 2012 Super PAC Donors Are Republicans
• One Donor Ponied Up 35 Percent of Crossroads GPS's 2011 Haul
• Republican Super Pacs' haul at $100m as Romney and Obama battle for cash--"GOP-leaning fundraising groups plan to make the most of their advantage after Democrats' late embrace of Super Pacs."
• Super Freak Super Pac

Voter Suppression

• How to Expand the Voter Rolls--"A country that should be encouraging more people to vote is still using an archaic voter registration system that creates barriers to getting a ballot. In 2008, 75 million eligible people did not vote in the presidential election, and 80 percent of them were not registered." NYT
• The Republican War on Voter Registration--"Republican state legislatures aren’t only trying to prevent voting at the polling place, they are also stopping people from becoming registered voters in the first place."
• The War on Women Voting
• On Voter ID: College Republicans discuss whether the poor should be allowed to vote
• Progressive Movement Compels Coca-Cola To Pull Support From ALEC Over Voter Suppression Effort--A bunch of other companies have also left.

States

• Wisconsin Voters Reportedly Asked To Show Photo ID, Despite Suspension Of Law
• Wisconsin Supreme Court refuses to take up voter ID cases--"The state Supreme Court refused Monday to immediately take up a pair of cases that struck down the state's new voter ID law, a decision that will likely mean citizens won't have to show ID when they cast ballots in recall elections this spring."
• Texas Voter ID: State Tries To Keep Info Secret
• DOJ: Florida Voting Restrictions May Discriminate Intentionally
• Florida's voter registration problem
• Arizona Will Ignore Federal Court’s Ruling on Restrictive Voter Law--"State election officials say the Court’s order only affects federal voter registration forms—not the state version. "
• Ohio Senate votes on repeal of controversial election law--"Democrats unanimously voted against the repeal, although they opposed the election law because of concerns about voter suppression. They said repealing the law would unconstitutionally circumvent voters' right to referendum."

Vote Machinations

• 6 fake Democrats allowed on ballot in Wisconsin recall elections
• Palm Beach Elections Overturned After Hand-Count Reveals Op-Scans Mistallied Results
• Waukesha Co. District Attorney investigating Romney sub incident--The Democratic Party of Wisconsin "alleges Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney violated election bribery law when he was involved in handing out free sub sandwiches at a Cousins Subs store in Waukesha Tuesday, during Wisconsin’s presidential primary election."

Elizabeth Warren, Wall Street, Bad Company, CEOs and Salaries, Taxes, Corporate Personhood

Elizabeth Warren

• When fighting Wall Street pays--"Being the biggest enemy of the big banks just paid off nicely for Elizabeth Warren's campaign." Salon
• Warren takes center stage in Obama campaign video--"Are we a people who say 'I got mine; the rest of you are on your own,' or 'We can invest in our future.'?"
• Poll: Warren Leads Brown By 5 Points--They're running 'neck-And-neck'
• Scott Brown hit over female pay after his campaign calls Elizabeth Warren ‘elitist’
• Elizabeth Warren’s gamble Salon

Wall Street

• Eliot Spitzer: Obama 'Has Been On Wall Street's Side Since Day One'
• US to make profit from bailouts, Treasury says
• Wall Street bankers: 'They could not figure out why anyone might be mad at them'
• Giant Banks Now 30% Bigger than When Dodd-Frank Financial "Reform" Law Was Passed
• Rep. Frank Blasts Bills to Blunt Law on Derivatives--"House Republican attempts to blunt Dodd-Frank's regulatory requirements on derivatives would remove transparency and 'allow these prices to continue to be secret,' Rep. Barney Frank told CNBC Thursday."
• For He’s a Jolly Good Scoundrel--"How evil is this? At a time when two-thirds of U.S. homeowners are drowning in mortgage debt and the American dream has crashed for tens of millions more, Sanford Weill, the banker most responsible for the nation’s economic collapse, has been elected to the American Academy of Arts & Sciences."
• Inside the foreclosure factory, they're working overtime

Bad Company

• Marginal improvement: Corporate profit margins are extremely high. Can they be sustained?
• The Koch Brothers – Exposed!
• Conservative Nonprofit Acts as a Stealth Business Lobbyist--All about ALEC. NYT
• Wal-Mart hushed up vast Mexico bribery case
• Karen Pletz found dead in Florida--"Karen Pletz, 64, was indicted on 24 counts in March 2011 in connection with an alleged fraud scheme that includes unauthorized compensation payments, reimbursements from the university for personal expenses, fraudulent charitable contributions, tax violations and money laundering at the medical school."

CEOs and Salaries

• Inside the head of an overpaid CEO
• CEO Compensation Rose Almost 40 Percent in 2010 and 2011
• Average Fortune 500 CEO Now Paid 380 Times As Much As The Average Worker
• Bankrupt Pinnacle should rethink big raises for execs, lawmakers say
• Citigroup's Chief Rebuffed on Pay by Shareholders--"In a stinging rebuke, Citigroup shareholders rebuffed on Tuesday the bank’s $15 million pay package for its chief executive, Vikram S. Pandit, marking the first time that stock owners have united in opposition to outsized compensation at a financial giant." NYT
• Citigroup CEO, directors, sued over exec pay --"Days after being rebuked by shareholders, Citigroup Inc Chief Executive Vikram Pandit and the bank's directors have been sued for allegedly awarding outsized pay to top executives."
• Corporations Use Private Jets, Security Systems To Give CEOs Massive Tax Breaks

Taxes

• Six Rigged Rules Corporations Use to Dodge Taxes
• Corporations that Spent Big on Lobbying Saw Big Drops in Their Taxes
• Undocumented Immigrants Paid $11.2 Billion In Taxes While GE Paid Nothing

Corporate Personhood

• Calif. lawmakers vote to overturn Citizens United
• Bi-Partisan Vermont Senate Calls for Amendment to End 'Corporate Personhood'; Obama Should Too
• If Corporations Are People, They Are Psychopaths

Earth Day: Climate Change, Environment, BP, Ecology

Climate Change

• After Public Outcry, Oklahoma Senate Lets Climate-Denial Bill Die
• A Message from a Republican Meteorologist on Climate Change
• Public embraces idea of climate change making weather ‘worse’
• Climate change coverage down 90% in 2011 on the Sunday talk shows. All Republicans, no scientists
• Is NASA really in an open revolt over climate change?
• As ice cap melts, militaries vie for Arctic edge
• Stopping Climate Change Is Much Cheaper Than You Think

Environment

• Tim DeChristopher Placed in Isolated Confinement--"Tim DeChristopher (climate activist currently serving a 2-year prison sentence for outbidding oil and gas companies at an illegitimate BLM auction in 2008) was summarily removed from the minimum security camp where he has been held since September 2011, and moved into the FCI Herlong’s Special Housing Unit.... because an unidentified congressman had called from Washington DC, complaining of an email that Tim had sent to a friend."
• Oil Scare Turns FedEx On To Energy Efficiency
• Needing Last Minute Political Support, Rep. Tim Holden Introduces Bill To Allow Pollution Into Chesapeake Bay, Collects Big Ag Cash

BP

• BP announces class-action settlement in 2010 Gulf oil disaster
• The Unlearned Lessons of the BP Oil Spill
• Slideshow: The Animals Still Suffering From the BP Oil Spill
• The horrific ramifications of the Gulf oil spill--"Two years after the BP oil spill, deformed fish point to lasting environmental and health consequences." Salon
• Two Years After the BP Spill, A Hidden Health Crisis Festers

Ecology

• More evidence links a family of insecticides to bee colony collapse
• Indian Man Single-Handedly Plants a 1,360 Acre Forest
• 615 dead dolphins found on Peru beaches; acoustic tests for oil to blame?

War on Terror, Police State, Travel Travails, TSA, Security Theater, Criminal Officials

War on Terror

• Man whose WMD lies led to 100,000 deaths confesses all--"Defector tells how US officials 'sexed up' his fictions to make the case for 2003 invasion."
• 'Taliban sympathiser' arrest prompts new questions about FBI tactics--"Khalifah al-Akili emailed the Guardian shortly before his arrest to say he thought he was the target of an 'entrapment' sting."
• It's official. There is a Muslim exemption to the First Amendment.--What did Tarek Mahenna do?
• Quote of the Day: "We're Funding Both Sides of This War."
• Bloggers, TV, Go Nuts Over Misleading 'Patriot Act' Arrest Claim

Police State

• 6 Things You Need to Know About the Government's New Spy Law (CISPA)--The White House has gone on record to be against this.
• Why I'm suing the US government to protect internet freedom--"The NDAA means the US military can put anyone under suspicion of being a terror threat and detain them for ever."
• How Obama Became a Civil Libertarian's Nightmare
• Homeland Security's 'Pre-Crime' Screening Will Never Work--Guilty for thoughtcrimes.
• Congress to FAA: Don't Let Domestic Drones Spy on Americans
• NSA Whistleblower Speaks Live: "The Government Is Lying To You"
• Rachel Maddow: How America's Security-Industrial Complex Went Insane--"If no one knows if our security-industrial complex is making us safer, why have we built it? Why are we still building it, at breakneck speed?"

Travel Travails

• United States V. $35,131
• Judge: Bradley Manning supporter can sue government over border search
• U.S. filmmaker repeatedly detained at border--"Poitras is now forced to take extreme steps — ones that hamper her ability to do her work — to ensure that she can engage in her journalism and produce her films without the U.S. Government intruding into everything she is doing." Salon
• The Unwelcome Mat: How America Scares Away Tourists NYT
• Forget Travel If You Owe The IRS

TSA

• The TSA's mission creep is making the US a police state
• Bruce Schneier: Harms of Post-9/11 Airline Security
• TSA Freaks Out, Gets Longtime Critic Bruce Schneier Kicked Off Of Oversight Hearing
• Student's Science Project Shuts Down Dallas Airport
• Video shows agonising TSA pat-down - as woman sobs in 'sexual violation' at hands of TSA agent

Security Theater

• Former TSA Boss Admits Airport Screening Is Broken
• Why Airport Security Is Broken— And How To Fix It--"Air travel would be safer if we allowed knives, lighters and liquids and focused on disrupting new terror plots." A former head of the Transportation Security Administration, Kip Hawley, says, "More than a decade after 9/11, it is a national embarrassment that our airport security system remains so hopelessly bureaucratic and disconnected from the people whom it is meant to protect." WSJ
• TSA Admits $1B Nude Body Scanner Fleet Worthless
• Portland man strips naked at PDX to protest TSA search
• TSA: Grope & Pillage--An inforgraphic from OnlineCriminalJusticeDegree.com.

Criminal Officials

• TSA Manager Arrested for Running Prostitution Ring
• Two of the men working for TSA at Dulles Airport have now been arrested for sex crime
• Seniors get the TSA runaround, lose $300

420, Medical Marijuana, Crackdown, Legalization and Decriminalization, War on Drugs, Mexico, South America

420

• Cops seize waitress' $12K tip because it smells like pot
• Mitch McConnell To Constituent: Marijuana Leads To Death--So does dihydrogen monoxide.
• Dutch Law Would Stop Sale of Marijuana to Tourists NYT

Medical Marijuana

• Poll: 50% of Americans -- a record high -- favor legal marijuana
• Lawmakers In 5 States Tell Feds To Back Off Medical Marijuana
• "No Medical Value?" 27 Studies Show Pot Kills Pain
• Medical Marijuana Patient Fired by Wal-Mart Deserves His Day in Court
  
• Why Medical Marijuana Providers Are Opposing Legalization Efforts in Washington and Colorado

Crackdown

• New York police officers defy order to cut marijuana arrests--"Nearly half of people charged with marijuana posession were reportedly not displaying the drug when they were stopped."
• Butte, CA Snatches Children from Marijuana Patients--"Daisy and her husband are medical cannabis patients in Butte County. Their 3 wk-old and 15 mth-old children were taken and held by Butte County CPS for more than four months, following the parents arrest for cannabis."
• My suburban pot secret--"I thought starting my own medical marijuana operation would be easy and safe. Then the DEA crackdown started." Salon
• Court Orders Marijuana Smoker's Son Taken, Police Kill Man When Serving Order
• Up in smoke: Why are the feds cracking down on marijuana in states that allow it?

Legalization and Decriminalization

• Gov. Gary Johnson: Fed Raid on CA Legalization Advocate an Outrage
• 'This Debate Will No Longer be Suppressed': Legalizing Drugs Breaks Into the Mainstream
• Over 300 Economists Agree: It’s Time to Legalize Marijuana--The Budgetary Implications of Marijuana Prohibition shows "that marijuana legalization — replacing prohibition with a system of taxation and regulation — would save $7.7 billion per year in state and federal expenditures on prohibition enforcement and produce tax revenues of at least $2.4 billion annually if marijuana were taxed like most consumer goods."
• Marijuana Must Be Legalized
• Co. State's Proposal To Legalize Pot Gets Big Push
• Richard Branson: America Needs to Open Debate on Cannabis Decriminalization
• George F. Will: Should the U.S. legalize hard drugs?
• B.C.'s chief medical officer joins call to legalize pot
• Cannabis: Legal high--"Quietly, cannabis has in effect been decriminalised in Britain."

War on Drugs

• Kansas man gets 7 years plus for bath salts
• Heroin Works Better Than Methadone, So Why Won't Politicians Allow It?
• Animal behaviour: Clever hounds--Drug-sniffing dogs can get cued by their handlers to spot drugs.
• Rick Scott Vetoes Bill Sending Non-Violent Drug Offenders To Rehab After Serving Half Sentence In Jail
• Drug War Incompatible with Human Rights, Says Law Enforcement Against Prohibition
• Drugs war 'a failure' that bred criminals

Mexico

• Mexican Drug Lord Officially Thanks American Lawmakers for Keeping Drugs Illegal
• "Drug Lords" Targeted in Fast & Furious Worked for FBI
• Two US Soldiers Were Caught Setting Up A Hit Squad For The Mexican Cartels
• In Mexico, extortion is a booming offshoot of drug war
• Mexican policemen killed after beheadings

South America

• Guatemala's president urges debate on drug legalisation
• Colombia's former president calls America's drug war a 'failure'
• At Americas Summit, Allies Nudge U.S. To Change--"President Obama emphasized at a summit of leaders from across the Americas that the U.S. would not shift strategies in the war on drugs." Claims legalization is not the answer to the cartels.

Inequality, Republicans, Taxing the Rich, Public-Private Partnerships, Oily, The 1%, That's Rich

Inequality

• Why Economic Populism Is a Winning Strategy for Obama
• Sen. Bernie Sanders blasts economic inequality: This is not what democracy looks like
• The powerless American worker--"For the most part, employees can get fired for anything from wearing the wrong color shirt to having an affair."
• U.S. Standard of Living Has Fallen More Than 50%: Opinion
• Raise the Minimum Wage--"Here’s an unhappy observation about the minimum wage: Congress last increased the rate in stages in 2006, topping it out at $7.25 an hour in 2009, or $15,080 a year. That amount, when adjusted for inflation, is actually lower than what a minimum-wage worker earned in 1968 and is too meager to offer anyone the chance to climb out of poverty, let alone afford basic goods and services."
• What If the Greedy Rich Paid Their Share? 8 Things to Know About Wealth and Poverty in the US 

Republicans

• 10 Things Republicans Don't Want You to Know About Taxes
• Not A Millionaire? You're A Jackass If You Vote Republican
• GOP Rep. Tiberi Defends Tax Hikes For The Poor Because They ‘Don’t Have Skin In The Game’

Taxing the Rich

• Robert Reich: Why We Must Raise Taxes on the Rich
• Romney Tax Tips: 10 Ways to Stiff the IRS
• Loopholes: Spending Dressed Up as Tax Cuts?
• Tax-Us '5 percenters' group holds S.F. rally
• For Two Economists, the Buffett Rule Is Just a Start Salon
• Americans Favor "Buffett Rule" by 60% to 37%--Apparently, the Senate doesn't favor it at all.
• France tightens grip on super rich--"French election candidates François Hollande and Jean-Luc Mélenchon promise to cap fat cat salaries and change tax system."

Public-Private Partnerships

• This American Life: Take the Money and Run for Office--"For anyone who has ever heard the term 'Washington insider' and felt outside — we are with you. So this week, we go inside the rooms where the deals get made, to the actual moment that the checks change hands — and we ask the people writing and receiving the checks what, exactly, is the money buying?"
• Why Lobbyists Dodge Calls From Congressmen--"We imagine the lobbyist stalking the halls of Congress trying to use cash to influence important people. But it doesn't always work that way. Often, the Congressman is stalking the lobbyist, asking for money."
• Supreme Court case with the feel of a best seller--Gaming the legal system
• How Political Corruption Is Responsible for 80% Of Your Cell Phone Bill
• Corruption Is Why You Can’t Do Your Taxes in Five Minutes
• Who Wants Taxes To Be More Complicated?--"An unholy alliance of tax prep firms and conservative activists, that’s who."
• Ethics Complaint Filed Against 43 Republican WI Legislators Alleging Inappropriate Gifts from ALEC
• Mayor's speed cameras would help political ally

Oily

• The High Cost of Gambling on Oil--"Because of speculation, today’s oil prices of about $100 a barrel have become disconnected from the costs of extraction, which average $11 a barrel worldwide. Pure speculators account for as much as 40 percent of that high price...." NYT
• These Five Guys Bribed Congress And Got $20 Billion Dollars For It
• America’s gas entitlement problem--"Even at $4 a gallon, Americans are paying far, far less at the pump than the rest of the world." Salon

The 1%

• How billionaires destroy democracy Salon
• Scientific American: How Wealth Reduces Compassion
• Five Reasons Why The Very Rich Have NOT Earned Their Money
• 6 Things Rich People Need to Stop Saying
• Cenk slams millionaire CNN host Erin Burnett for 'protecting the rich'

That's Rich

• Spanish king criticized for elephant hunting trip
• $30,000 Watch Vanishes Up Church Leader’s Sleeve NYT
• Pile-up on Japanese expressway claims 14 luxury cars, including eight Ferraris and a Lamborghini, in what may be the most expensive car wreck of all time.
• California mansion fire sale: the fall of a billion-dollar realtor
• Unveiled: Britain's first £2m underground mansion designed to keep away prying eyes

Obamacare, Abortion and Birth Control, States, Abs-teen-ence

Obamacare

• The Barbarism of the Health-Care Repeal Crusade
• Appeals court fires back at Obama's comments on health care case
• A Conservative Law Professor on the Obvious Constitutionality of Obamacare

Abortion and Birth Control

• Wisconsin Planned Parenthood Bombing Draws FBI Vow To Protect Public Access To Abortion Clinics
• A clinic's landlord turns the tables on anti-abortion protesters
• Komen quietly resumes Planned Parenthood funding
• That was fast: One month later, Limbaugh sees advertisers starting to return
• Catholic Bishops Lose a Big Battle Over Contraception
• Women Like Having Access to Contraception
• The Best Birth Control In The World Is For Men

States

• Judge says Oklahoma cannot force abortion patients to view ultrasound
• Idaho kills forced ultrasound bill
• Georgia: Terrible New Law Requires Women to Give Birth to Nonviable Fetuses
• Georgia State Rep Votes Against Radical Anti-Abortion Measure, Citing Daughter's Experiences
• Texas State Agency May Publicize Detailed Information About Abortion Patients
• Nebraska Couple Watches Their Baby Die Because of New Law
• Jan Brewer signs abortion ban defining pregnancy before conception --Arizona still wins.

Abs-teen-ence

• Teen Pregnancies Highest In States With Abstinence-Only Policies
• Abstinence isn’t working--"Teen births are down, thanks to contraception use. Why does the right ignore the facts and insist it's abstinence?." Salon
• Tennessee Senate Approves Bill To Warn Students That Hand-Holding Is A 'Gateway Sexual Activity'

Strip Search, Cop-ricious, Bad Cops, Trayvon Martin, Arpaio, Recording, Jail Tales

Strip Search

• Supreme Court Ruling Allows Strip-Searches for Any Arrest--Dehumanization is a step towards facism. NYT
• Naked Until Proven Innocent
• How the US uses sexual humiliation as a political tool to control the masses
• The Obama DOJ and strip searches Salon
• The Daily Show: CourtCenter--"While conservatives and liberals exchange convictions about judicial review, the Supreme Court rules to allow strip searches following any arrest."

Cop-ricious

• Police Handcuff NBC Chicago Photojournalist--An officer said that, "Your First Amendment rights can be terminated if you're creating a scene or whatever." What the fuck are these cops being taught?
• FBI Taught Agents They Could 'Bend or Suspend the Law'
• Documents show cops making up the rules on mobile surveillance

Bad Cops

• Echoes of Trayvon Martin in the police killing of Kenneth Chamberlain Sr
• Police State America: James Stewart Survives Torture in LA County Jail Exposed to Hypothermia, Food Deprivation, Raw Human Sewage
• 'Officers, Why Do You Have Your Guns Out?' NYT
• Judge might send feds in to get Denver's police files in excessive-force case
• Don't quota him on that--A Bronx Cop blew the whistle on his supervisors who "developed color-coded computer reports in 2008 to monitor the officers' compliance with the quotas...." Unfortunately, the court ruled that he had no
• Six Completely Legal Ways The Cops Can Screw You
• "Necessary Force"

Trayvon Martin

• George Zimmerman charged with murder
• Attorneys say Zimmerman contacted prosecutor, Sean Hannity
• Miami-Dade Fire Captain Blames Trayvon Martin Killing On 'Shitbag' Parents Of 'Urban Youths'
• Bill Cosby: Trayvon Martin case is about guns, not race
• NBC issues apology on Zimmerman tape screw-up--And later on fires one of its producers.

Arpaio

• Justice Department to sue infamous Arizona sheriff
• Sheriff Joe Arpaio's top lawyer disbarred, facing criminal charges--He's a bit of a character.
• Joe Arpaio's Failed Probes Continue To Plague Him

Recording

• Illionois House kills audio recording bill--This would have countered the onerous law which prohibited the public recording of the police. "Even without the legislation, however, the law's days might be numbered. Two judges, one in Cook County and the other in Crawford County, have declared it unconstitutional in recent months."
• But for Audio--"An incidental recording taken while a Florida woman was on the phone with her insurance company shows that the police who arrested her and charged her with a felony for resisting arrest lied in their reports, and then again under questioning."
• City of Boston pays $170,000 to settle landmark case involving man arrested for recording police with cell phone
• Photojournalist sues cop, Suffolk County, N.Y., over right to videotape police
• Ex-Reporter Sues After Alleged Police Brutality Deleted Off Camera
• UK: Student wins Police payout after being arrested for filming
• Houston Cop goes CRAZY

Jail Tales

• To Be Read While Blasting ‘Prison Song’ By System Of A Down--"The U.S. has the largest number of people behind bars in the world, the presentation pointed out, so the foundation has already been laid. We even have more people locked up than China—and China is a 'police state'" with four times our population. Funny how that works."
• Uncompromising Photos Expose Juvenile Detention in America
• Zakaria: Incarceration nation--"We are creating a vast prisoner under­class in this country at huge expense, increasingly unable to function in normal society, all in the name of a war we have already lost...."
• 7.1 Million Americans are in the Prisons system so Corporations can Profit from your Tax money
• There Are Now More Americans In Jail Than There Were In Stalin's Gulag Archipelago
• The Unsustainability of Incarceration
• Lobbyists, Guns and Money NYT

Megaupload, Copyfight, Australia, MPAA, DMCA, Cases, Copyright and Ownership

Megaupload

• MPAA Asks For Megaupload Data To Be Retained So It Can Sue Users... Then Insists It Didn't Really Mean That
• Megaupload: Erasing our servers as the US wants would deny us a fair trial
• Police mysteriously lose video of Megaupload raid
• U.S. judge finds for MegaUpload, orders DOJ to cooperate on user files
• Government trying to deny Megaupload fair legal representation

Copyfight

• Odd Future: US group foresakes online sales for merchandise
• Judge: BitTorrent Downloads Are Protected Anonymous Speech
• Cinavia DRM: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Blu-ray's Self-Destruction
• The disappearing virtual library
• Ctrl+Alt+Del: The eternal war

Australia

• Austrailian Gov't: Not In The Public Interest For The Public To Be Interested In Secret Anti-Piracy Negotiations
• The Department For ACTA
• ACTA will diminish Australia's digital economy: legal expert
• Police to cruise streets for unsecured Wi-Fi
• A Copyright First: Bogus Copyright Takedown Leads To Australian Court Awarding $150k Damages

MPAA

• MPAA Tech Officer Paul Brigner switches sides in internet fight
• Anti-SOPA Internet Society under fire for hiring MPAA executive
• Google defends hosting site under attack by MPAA

DMCA

• DMCA: The Horrors of a Broad and Automated Censorship Tool--"One third of the notices sent to Google are false, companies like Microsoft censor perfectly legal sites, and others use the DMCA to get back at competitors."
• Anti-Piracy Co. Blames Hack For Bogus DMCAs, But They’re Just Sloppy
• Key Techdirt SOPA/PIPA Post Censored By Bogus DMCA Takedown Notice

Cases

• Publisher backs down on Mein Kampf plans
• Photographer Appeals Ruling Saying It's Not Infringement To Have Vaguely Similar Photos
• Hobbit pub copyright row: Stephen Fry and Ian McKellen to pay licence
• Judge Orders Failed Copyright Troll to Forfeit 'All' Copyrights
• Publisher Drops Ownership Claims to Time-Zone Data--Caused quite a stir before.

Copyright and Ownershp

• The End Of Copyright
• Eternal Copyright: a modest proposal
• The End of Content Ownership
• Spotify founder: Future of music is access, not ownership
• Better Than Owning: Ownership is not as important as it once was--Interesting points and feasible for certain things, but not everything