Workers and Wage Slaves, Layoffs; Class War; SOTU, GOP, Food Fight, Immigration, War on Women; Media, Fucks News, This was CNN

Workers and Wage Slaves

• Why are US corporate profits so high? Because wages are so low
• Nearly Half of America Lives Paycheck-to-Paycheck
• US Federal Prosecutors Are Investigating Whether Banks Helped Payday Lenders Siphon Billions From Americans
• CEO tells Daily Show 'mentally retarded' could work for $2: 'You're worth what you're worth'
• Going From Middle Class to Poverty—"One man shares his story about joining the ranks of the working poor."
• As goes Best Buy, so goes the U.S. economy—"Slumping sales at the big box retailer signal the declining purchasing power of countless Americans." Salon
• Moore: If Henry Ford Could Pay a $15 Minimum Wage 100 Years Ago, So Can We
• Ex-Bush Aide Wonders Why Nobody Is Talking About The 'Plight' Of The Job Creators

Layoffs

• Wal-Mart laying off 2,300 Sam's Club managers and hourly workers
• Canada: Job cuts at Sears, Best Buy target managers
• Big Companies Join Obama in Initiative to Help Long-Term Unemployed—"Walmart and Apple are among 300 businesses that have agreed to review policies that may screen out applicants who have not worked in a long time." NYT

Class War

• WSJ: Liberal Outrage Proves Perkins' Point About Progressive 'Kristallnacht'
• Why Do the Super-Rich Keep Comparing Obama to Hitler?—"Legendary venture capitalist Tom Perkins became just the latest 1 percenter to wonder whether higher marginal tax rates and Occupy Wall Street might be the start of something far, far darker."
• The 1 percent's most ruinous sin: How they sap our politicians of all decency—"How the sad story of Mitt Romney explains everything that's wrong with American democracy." Salon
• Krugman: Godwin Help Us NYT
• Robinson: The 1% as victims? That’s rich! WaPo
• Drum: Why the Rich Feel Besieged: A Checklist
• David Simon tells Bill Moyers: 'There was a class war, and the poor people lost'

SOTU

• The State of the Union, or: Obama Breaks Up with Congress
• Jon Meacham Says He Was Wrong About Lincoln, FDR And Executive Orders—In fact, Obama's given the fewest executive orders in 100 years.
• GOP's SOTU Response Reminds Us There's Two Americas and One Should Secede

GOP

• The Daily Show: Band of Blockers—"Republicans uninterested in bipartisanship decry President Obama's lack of bipartisanship, and one Congressman gives a NY1 reporter the traditional Staten Island goodbye."
• Cruz Vows Spending Fight on Debt Cap Boehner May Avoid
• Mitch McConnell Thinks You're Stupid
• Christie Linked to Knowledge of Shut Lanes—"David Wildstein, a former Port Authority official, says there is evidence to prove the New Jersey governor knew about the lane closings at the George Washington Bridge, which the governor has denied." Would he resign? NYT
• Rep. Grimm couldn't intimidate Scotto

Food Fight

• The New Face of Food Stamps: Working-Age Americans
• A Sad First: Working People Now Need Food Stamps More than Kids, Elderly
• Republicans Just Won the Food Stamp War—"Congress is set to approve $9 billion in cuts to the food stamp program even as a record number of Americans live in poverty."
• Wal-Mart: Food stamp cuts to hit profits
• This farm bill deserves a veto WaPo

Immigration

• House GOP Backs Legal Status For Undocumented Immigrants
• Republican Party plots immigration reform: GOP wants to appear reasonable
• House G.O.P.'s Immigration Plan Presents Tough Choices for Obama—"Speaker John A. Boehner's blueprint may force President Obama to decide whether to abandon a new path to citizenship and accept other concessions." NYT

War on Women

• Poll: Huckabee Is Now The GOP's Top Choice For 2016 After Libido Remark
• Fox News Panel Features Four Men (And Zero Women) Debating Notion Of "War On Women"
• Fox Host Says There Is No Gender Gap: 'Many Women Make Exactly What They're Worth'
• Cathy McMorris-Rodgers says she "absolutely" supports equal pay laws (she just won't vote for them) Salon
• Kansas lawmaker wants to make surrogate motherhood illegal
• Tea Party Republican Todd Kincannon: Wendy Davis is a "Looker," "Hooker," and a "Whore"
• Montana GOP Candidate Calls Hillary Clinton The 'Anti-Christ'

Vote Machinations

• Harry Reid slams Koch brothers—"Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid slammed the Koch brothers' political activities Thursday, accusing the influential conservatives of trying to 'buy the country.'"
• Koch-Tied Groups Funded GOP Effort to Mess With Electoral College Rules
• GOP aide charged with illegal voting

Media

• Jon Stewart confronts Pelosi on money in politics, delivers best interview in recent memory—"That, ladies and gentlemen, is how you do the news."
• Miami TV Station Ticks Off Florida GOP With 'Reprehensive Party' Graphic
• MSNBC President Apologizes To RNC Chair For Tweet, Fires Staffer—"The tweet that started it all suggested that conservatives would hate the image of an 'adorable new #Cheerios ad w/ biracial family.'"

Fucks News

• Study: Watching Only Fox News Makes You Less Informed Than Watching No News At All
• Fox News once again most and least trusted name in news
• My personal Fox News nightmare: Inside a month of self-induced torture—"I'm a card-carrying member of the ACLU. Here's what happened when I watched 3 hours of Fox every day for a month." Salon

This was CNN

• CNN's Jeff Zucker Reveals Plans to Change from News Network into Place with 'Attitude'
• CNN Hits Lowest Rated Week In Demo Since Jeff Zucker Took Over—Getting eaten by SharkTank repeats.
• CNN laid off more than 40 journalists at end of 2013

Government Shutdown Day 10, GOP, Tea Party, Debt Ceiling, Obamacare, Fucks News, Politics, Vote Machinations, Economy; NSA Spying and Surveillance

Government Shutdown Day 10

• Republicans Give Up on Obamacare in Shutdown Fight—They're "scrambling for a fallback strategy." [WaPo]
• As Pressure Mounts, House G.O.P. Weighs Short-Term Debt Deal—"House Republicans began to consider a path to raise the debt ceiling as Congressional leaders from both parties started some preliminary discussions aimed at reopening the government." NYT
• House GOP pushes plan to raise debt ceiling; Jack Lew warns against default WaPo
• House Republicans' Ransom Demands Falling—"The House Republican leadership is trapped, having sold their party on promises of a ransom they cannot deliver [WaPo]."
• Kochs to Congress: Focus on spending, not Obamacare—Sounds like a retreat. They claim they haven't "lobbied on legislative provisions defunding Obamacare," but they gave $500k to a political group is pushing for defunding.
• Goodbye to the strategy Republicans knew was a fantasy
• GOP Splinters Over Hostage Strategy As Default Looms
• GOP begs for final debt limit concession: A shred of dignity Salon
• White House: Boehner 'Preventing' Republicans From Meeting With Obama
• The problem with President Obama's shutdown strategy—"[The Republicans are] just trying to find some way to eke out a win. This isn't about the policy anymore. It's about Obama. And Obama isn't giving Republicans a clear path [NYT] to backing down without looking like they lost." WaPo
• Obama can't cave, even a little, in the face of GOP extremism WaPo
• This Shutdown Is Not the Same as 1995 and 1996…It's Worse

GOP

• GOP gets 28 percent Gallup approval rating — worst ever recorded—And yet another poll pins the shutdown blame on them, but Cruz rejects this reality and replaces it with his own.
• House Republicans silence Rep. Grayson after he cites poll comparing them to 'dog poop'
• Business Groups See Loss of Sway Over House G.O.P.—"Washington's traditionally cautious and pragmatic business lobby could slip into open warfare with the Tea Party faction, which has grown in influence since the 2010 election." NYT
• Beware of Gerrymandering Denialists!
• Erick Erickson Predicts 'Real Third Party Movement' To Divide GOP
• Anger Can Be Power—"Many Republican voters are convinced that their political opponents are trying to destroy their way of life." NYT
• John Boehner And Ted Cruz-The Real Life Pinky And The Brain

Tea Party

• Tea Party Politics: Inside the Republican Suicide Machine—"It's open warfare within the GOP – and all of America is caught in the crossfire."
• Grover Norquist: Sen. Ted Cruz owes GOP an apology
• John McCain Blames Tea Party For Government Shutdown
• Tea Party Nation Withdraws Mitch McConnell Endorsement
• The Tea Party movement: deluded and inspired by billionaires—"By funding numerous rightwing organisations, the mega-rich Koch brothers have duped millions into supporting big business."
• Sen. Elizabeth Warren: 'We are not a country of anarchists'
• The Borowitz Report: Republicans Shut Down Prefrontal Cortex

Debt Ceiling

• Ignore the Spin: This Debt Ceiling Crisis is Not Politics as Usual
• Elizabeth Warren Warns Against Default—"We're in this position for one reason, and one reason only: Congress told the government to spend more money than we have. Congress told the Treasury to run up our debt to pay for it. But now Congress is threatening to run out on the bill. If that strikes you as bizarre, then you are not alone."
• Fidelity sells off short-term US debt ahead of ceiling

Obamacare

• Obamacare saved my family from financial ruin WaPo
• Uninsured Find More Success via Health Exchanges Run by States—"The experience is in stark contrast to reports of widespread technical problems that have hampered enrollment in the online marketplace run by the federal government." NYT
• Ohio's GOP Governor May Adopt Obamacare Via Executive Order
• Exchange Competition Cuts Health Insurance Costs
• Obamacare by the numbers

Fucks News

• Fox News host sorry for false report of Obama funding Muslim museum—Sorry that her attempt to make "Obama look like a monster" backfired. Her "real" apology to come Oct. 12. In the meantime, Kimmel and Leno have their say.
• The only thing crazier than the shutdown is Fox News' coverage of it—"Conservatives want to remind you that government is bad, except for the parts they are lamenting are closed right now."
• Selective Outrage And The Right-Wing Noise Machine—And they'll keep on raging.

Politics

• Congress approval rating plummets to 5%
• The Romney campaign's own polls showed it would lose WaPo
• IRS Documents Reveal Agency Flagged Groups for 'Anti-Obama Rhetoric,' Big Three Refuse to Report WSJ
• Scott Walker administration to accept just notice for Capitol protests—"To settle a free speech lawsuit, Gov. Scott Walker's administration agreed Tuesday to pay more than $88,000 in attorneys fees and drop its hard-and-fast requirement that larger groups protesting in the Capitol receive a permit."
• Mayor Bloomberg Uses Private Email To Avoid FOI Requests; Has No Plans To Retain Archive Of Office, NYPD Emails
• NM Gov. Martinez used State Police chopper to catch fundraiser flight
• The 13 reasons Washington is failing
• Hijack the Primaries—"Why America needs a Pirate Party."

Vote Machinations

• Kris Kobach laying groundwork for two-tier voting system in Kansas—Is two-tier voting the cool new disenfrancisement tactic?
• Wall Street Journal Lies About DOJ Efforts To Check Blatant Voter Suppression
• Gov. Rick Scott delivers mea culpa on voter purge

Economy

• Repeat After Me: The Deficit Is Falling. The Deficit is Falling.
• Carter: Middle class today resembles past's poor
• America's Infrastructure Is Crumbling—"Shortfalls in investment will lead to fewer jobs, gridlock, and inevitable catastrophe."

NSA Spying and Surveillance

• Politicians, press dodge crucial debate on surveillance—"The Snowden leaks have exposed the need for a national discussion on privacy, but it isn't happening."
• Post reporter: Here's why we refused the NSA's demand to censor the names of PRISM companies WaPo
• NSA wants even greater powers … to defend Wall Street—"The villainous nexus of surveillance, politics and banking rears its head again in the NSA chief's public comments." Salon
• Edward Snowden's father arrives in Moscow 'hoping to see son'
• The Man Heading Up Congressional NSA "Reform" Package Authored CISPA
• NSA saves zero-day exploits for high-value targets
• The Gmail Extension That Aims to Drown the NSA in Nonsense
• Anti-NSA group adopts highway to get close to Utah Data Center

Government Shutdown Day 7, Tea Party, Fucks News, Obamacare, Debt Ceiling; Copyfight, Facebook, iPhone Follies, Valve and Linux; Patent Trolls; Surveillance and Privacy, Gravity

Government Shutdown Day 7

• A Federal Budget Crisis Months in the Planning—"The stand by conservatives that led to the current crisis was the outgrowth of a long-running effort, waged by a galaxy of well-funded groups, to undo President Obama's health care law." This started right after Obama got reelected. The puppet-masters? The Koch Brothers. NYT
• US shutdown is starting to hit business, says Commerce Secretary
• Dear President Obama: don't cave to the GOP's extortion politics—"The shutdown is political blackmail. If Democrats give in, the GOP will keep putting the US democracy and economy at risk."
• Fareed Zakaria: Government shutdown 'extortion'
• CBS host grills Cornyn: It's like shutting down government and demanding a 'cure for cancer'
• Clueless Republicans hatch incoherent shutdown strategy—"The GOP's fixation on extracting anything from Obama is blinding them to the incoherence of their game plan." Salon
• U.S. Chamber of Commerce backs Republicans who oppose shutdown
• Congressman Doyle Calls on House Republicans to End the Shutdown
• Give Us This Day, Our Daily Senate Scolding—"Senate chaplain shows his disapproval during morning prayer." NYT
• Why The Shutdown Will Last Another Week

Tea Party

• Robert Gibbs: Cruz is the 'Honey Boo Boo' of Washington
• Ted Cruz Says He Has 'Not Remotely' Hurt Republican Image With Shutdown Fight
• Ted Cruz: 'I Didn't Say Republicans Will Win' Shutdown Fight
• Some tea party congressmen find signs of political backlash at home
• Shutdown: The tea party's last stand
• Tea Party radicalism is misunderstood: Meet the "Newest Right"—"Our sense of the force currently paralyzing the government is full of misconceptions -- including what to call it." Salon
• To Understand the Shutdown You Have to Grasp the Mindset of the GOP Base

Fucks News

• The Brainwashing Of My Dad By Limbaugh, Fox & GOP Media
• Fox's Chris Wallace Accuses President Obama Of Trying To "Panic The Markets" Over Debt Ceiling
• Fox Falls For Fake Story About Obama Personally Funding Muslim Museum During Shutdown

Obamacare

• Despite GOP Resistance, Obamacare Competition 'Robust' Among Health Plans
• Some Tea Party-Backed Lawmakers Yield in Obamacare Fight
• GOP Rep. to Rep. Gohmert: We Gave Base 'False Interpretation' That ObamaCare Could be Defeated
• Republicans see shutdown fight shift away from 'Obamacare'
• GOP congressman: We stumbled into war over Obamacare—And Boehner doesn't want to be a casualty.
• Ted Cruz Doubles Down On His Failed Obamacare Strategy—Tying the debt ceiling to Obamacare.
• The Onion: The Republican Party Cannot Stand By And Let Obamacare Destroy This Country

Debt Ceiling

• U.S. Congress enters crucial week in battles over budget, debt limit
• Experts: Be Very, Very Afraid of the Debt Crisis—"Top U.S. officials and economists say the global economy will take a much bigger hit than it did during the recession."
• Lew: 'Congress is playing with fire'
• Goldman: If The Debt Ceiling Isn't Raised And The Treasury Runs Out Of Cash, Then Say Goodbye To 4.2% Of GDP
• U.S. Republicans will not pass 'clean' debt-limit increase: Boehner
• Schumer To Boehner: Prove That A Clean Spending Bill Won't Pass—"Someone goes into your house, takes your wife and children hostage and then, says, let's negotiate over the price of your house."
• White House calls on Boehner to hold vote on 'clean' funding bill
• Boehner: House will not pass bill to re-open government until Obama agrees to negotiate
• House Speaker John Boehner demands cuts for debt limit increase—Only if the cuts are for the military, agriculture subsidies and other corporate welfare baggage.
• Krugman: The Boehner Bunglers—"Don't underestimate the incompetence factor." NYT

Copyfight

• Everybody Let's Stop the TPP: Share These Videos and Spread the Word
• Mozilla Bug Bug 923590 - Pledge never to implement HTML5 DRM
• Record Label Picks Copyright Fight — With The Wrong Guy
• Piracy Isn't Killing The Entertainment Industry, Scholars Show
• Chilean Embassy revokes prize of photo plagiarist—This recidivist, who has a telling history, had appealed to keep the money.

Facebook

• Facebook apologizes for dating website ad featuring photo of Rehtaeh Parsons—She committed suicide over getting bullied on Facebook.
• Facebook Admits Its Ads Are Too Annoying—"Facebook says its ad targeting technology has irked its users and will be upgraded."
• Science proves Facebook is a major downer—"New research reveals the more we interact with the social network, the less satisfied we tend to feel." Salon
• Facebook Requires Social Fixer Browser Extension To Remove Key Features
• The Faces of Facebook—Almost 1.27 billion pictures for facial recognition software to sift through.

iPhone Follies

• Fake Apple Ad Says iOS 7 Will Make Your iPhone Waterproof And People Fell For It
• iOS 6 holdouts complain about large, unwanted iOS 7 download—"Apple's built-in update tool is downloading iOS 7 before people even ask to install it, taking up space that can't be reclaimed."
• Move over, Apple Maps: iPhone 5S motion sensor malfunction may be widespread
• Apple Maps flaw results in drivers crossing airport runway
• iOS 7 and motion sickness: What you can do, and where you can learn more

Valve and Linux

• Valve: How going boss-free empowered the games-maker
• Valve's Steam Machine prototype is tiny, potentially powerful
• Why skeptics should embrace Valve’s new Steam controller
• Can SteamOS drag the PC game industry over to Linux?
• Nvidia seeks peace with Linux, pledges help on open source driver–"Nvidia's move this week (on the same day that Valve announced a new Linux-based operating system for gaming) is a change of heart from the position it took last year after Torvalds' criticism."

Patent Trolls

• Judge tosses Apple motion, allows patent troll Lodsys to continue rampage
• Patent troll Lodsys chickens out, folds case rather than face Kaspersky Lab—"After two years, its notorious patents were going to a jury. Lodsys blinked."
• Angry entrepreneur replies to patent troll with racketeering lawsuit—"Patent trolls are legal. Can one be nailed for extortion? One man is betting yes." Lumen fired back by claiming being called patent trolls was a hate crime.
• Large patent holders hate this reform proposal. That's a good sign.
• Judge orders patent troll to explain its 'Mr. Sham' to jury
• Troll-Killing Patent Reform One Step Closer
• Patent goliath Intellectual Ventures looks to raise another $3 billion
• F.T.C. Votes for Inquiry Into Patent Businesses—"Edith Ramirez, the chairwoman of the Federal Trade Commission, said it would seek information on businesses whose main purpose was to sue other companies to collect patent royalties." NYT

Surveillance and Privacy

• Schneier: Want to Evade NSA Spying? Don't Connect to the Internet
• Technologists To NSA Review Group: Don't Forget About The Interests Of Non-US Persons
• Security issue kills domestic spying inquiry—"NSA won't grant Justice Department lawyers required security clearance."
• Deep Web Users Are Ready To Launch Silk Road 2.0
• VPNs: Is it OK to Monitor 'Bad' Users on Ethical Grounds?
• Selling Secrets of Phone Users to Advertisers—"Advertisers and tech companies are finding new ways to track us on our smartphones and reach us with individualized ads." NYT
• MasterCard joining push for fingerprint ID standard—Preparing for the day when cash is no longer legal tender?

Gravity

• Bad Astronomy Movie Review: Gravity
• 'Gravity' reality check: Alfonso Cuarón and Sandra Bullock talk fact vs. fiction
• Edelstein: Alfonso Cuarón's Gravity Will Delight Physicists, Terrify Everybody Else
• The Camera's Cusp: Alfonso Cuarón Takes Filmmaking to a New Extreme With Gravity
• Meet the Flute-Playing Astronaut Who Coached Sandra Bullock for "Gravity"

Government Shutdown Day 5, Tantrum, GOP, Tea Party, Fucks News, Obamacare, Repercussions, Debt Ceiling; World Teachers' Day, Zero Tolerance, Schools, Sports, Think of the Children!

Government Shutdown Day 5

• No way to run a country—"The Land of the Free is starting to look ungovernable. Enough is enough."
• Washington enters fifth day of shutdown, no end in sight—Still deadlocked.
• House Republicans predict government shutdown will go on for weeks
• 'I won't pay a ransom,' says Obama—He said members of Congress "don't get to hold our democracy or our economy hostage over a settled law. They don't get to kick a child out of Head Start if I don't agree to take her parents' health insurance away."
• How Democrats grew a spine—"The intransigence of Democrats, from Obama on down to red-state senators, has surprised the GOP."
• Dems move to force Republicans to reopen the government
• How the shutdown hurts the economy, in one chart
• US shutdown: 10 unexpected consequences

Tantrum

• Angry Boehner Tells White House Shutdown Isn't a 'Damn Game'—Playing pissed.
• John Boehner Blamed For Shutdown In New 'Temper Tantrum' Ad To Air During Sunday Football
• Parenting Advice for Democrats: How to Handle the Republican Temper Tantrum

GOP

• The GOP Doesn't Know It's Losing
• The GOP's Misinformation Problem in Action—Cruz claims GOP has already 'compromised' by voting to defund and not repeal the ACA. Oy.
• The Republicans Are Starting to Reek of Desperation—Ironically and desperately portraying the Democrats as the party of 'no'.
• Dumbest extortion attempt ever: Republican scheme's perverse logic—"GOP's demands are putting the economy and American presidency on the line -- and now they can't back away from them." Salon
• Why Republicans Shut Down the Government—"If you want to understand why the government is shut down or why elected Republicans would even consider doing something as reckless as using a debt default to extract policy concessions from the White House -- without necessarily even knowing which policy concessions they want -- Stan Greenberg has a memo for you."
• Boehner Urges G.O.P. Unity in 'Epic Battle'—"Speaker John A. Boehner offered no clue on Friday as to how he expected Congress to get out of the dead end it has found itself in, with the government shut for a fourth day." NYT
• Government shutdown puts squeeze on Republican moderates
• Jon Stewart: Blaming GOP For Shutdown Like 'Blaming Floods On Water'

Tea Party

• Darkness in Washington: Why Boehner Can't Defy the Suicide Caucus
• Lupica: Speaker John Boehner needs to stand up to Republican Party zealots
• 32 Republicans Who Caused the Government Shutdown
• 'People don't fully appreciate how committed the tea party is to not compromising'
• Opinion: The rise of the New Confederacy
• Give the Tea Party Credit: Their Grassroots Tactics Worked—But it ain't no way to govern.
• Flipside: Tea Party’s Ross Says Debt Worth Yielding on Obamacare—"U.S. Representative Dennis Ross, a Florida Republican, said he would support a broad spending deal that didn’t include changes to the health-care law, becoming the first Tea Party-backed House lawmaker to publicly back off the fight that has shut down the government for five days."

Fucks News

• Fox News Got GOP Into Shutdown Mess, But It Can't Get The GOP Out
• Fox News owns this shutdown—"What happens when right-wing media accept every illogical thing a Republican says? Logic gets thrown out the window."
• Fox Absolves GOP Of Blame With New Spin: "Senate Shutdown"
• Daily Show: Shutstorm 2013: America Sits on Its Balls - Bias on Bulls**t Mountain
• How the Broken Media Helped Break the Government—"There's a direct connection between the shutdown and hyperbolic, partisan journalistic outlets driven more by profits than the search for truth."

Obamacare

• Why The Administration Isn't Sweating Obamacare's Ugly First Week
• Obamacare's Web site is really bad—Shuts down for the weekend. Sec. Sebelius says, "We’re building a complicated piece of technology and hopefully you’ll give us the same slack you give Apple." Good luck with that.
• GOP Congressman: Massive Traffic To Obamacare Exchanges Was Members Of Congress And The Media—Grasping at strawmen.
• Top Republican Calls For Replacing Obamacare With Obamacare
• Right-Wing Media Ignore Georgia's Refusal To Implement Medicaid Expansion To Blast Obamacare
• Shock and Awful: Conservatives Already Lying About Obamacare Enrollee Chad Henderson
• Health care holdouts: Uninsured but resisting—One guy who doesn't believe government should get involved health care has kids covered by Medicaid. Cognitive dissosance.

Repercussions

• Analysis: US reliability questioned overseas
• Sen. Sanders: Shutdown Hits Federal Workers—Calls out those dirty Kochs.
• More than 5K Ariz. families denied welfare checks
• Ariz. Gov Rejected in Offer to Reopen Grand Canyon
• Walker defies DC order to close down federally funded parks in Wisconsin
• Watchdog files ethics complaint against lawmaker who confronted park ranger
• National Fallout Over Comments From Senator Mike Lee—He's demanding a retraction for saying, "I’m working. I’ll continue to be paid."
• Shutdown stopping flow of weather information as dangerous storms threaten nation
• Hidden in National Weather Service forecast: P-L-E-A-S-E-P-A-Y-U-S—The word of the day is 'acrostic.'
• Air Force Academy faces toilet paper shortage from government shutdown—This has gone too fucking far!

Debt Ceiling

• Boehner Suggests Taking The Country Into Default Unless Republicans Get Additional Spending Cuts
• Robert Reich predicts Obama will unilaterally lift debt ceiling rather than allow a U.S. default
• Three Not-So-Crazy Ways Out of the Debt Ceiling Crisis
• Absolutely everything you need to know about the debt ceiling
• Confused About the Shutdown? Debt Limit? Here's Our Essential Reader

Zero Tolerance

• Boys suspended for airsoft guns in yard—On private property and not in school, but an unidentified neighbor called 911 on him because even though she knew the gun wasn't real, she said, "I know that it makes me (uncomfortable), as a mom, to see a boy pointing a gun."
• Kid Suspended for Pop-Tart Pistol Is Given Lifetime NRA Membership—If it puts the spotlight on idiotic school policies, so be it.
• PA School Being Sued For Suspending 7-Year-Old Student 'Armed' With A Novelty Buzzing Pen
• 7th-grader suspended for having gun keychain
• School asks officer not to wear uniform on campus—"There were some parents who were concerned about that fact that there was a fully armed officer on campus and they spoke to the principal about it."
• Boy suspended after using finger as pretend gun
• Rep. Setzler zeroing in on changing school zero tolerance law—"The idea that we trust a 16-year-old to drive a 5,000 pound car onto a high school campus and at 70 mph on I-75 but don’t trust them with a 3-inch lock blade knife in their glove box is madness!"

Schools

• Father of Brooklyn teen who died on class field trip gets call asking why son has been absent
• School district accountant accused of stealing $3 million in school lunch money by stuffing it in her bra
• Sparkman High student facing charges for streaking at football game dead of apparent suicide

Sports

• The Case Against High-School Sports—"The United States routinely spends more tax dollars per high-school athlete than per high-school math student—unlike most countries worldwide. And we wonder why we lag in international education rankings?"
• Ole Miss students, including approximately 20 football players, disrupt theater department play—The play starred a gay lead.
• Taking a stand: Union High coach suspends entire football team in lesson about character

Think of the Children!

• New California youth football mercy rule inflames parental passions, but not in the way you think
• Zeeland teachers set 'No Tag, No Chasing' policy for kindergartners
• New York librarian fired after speaking up for child who read too much—"9-year-old Tyler Weaver was accused of 'hogging' the Hudson Falls Free Library summer reading contest after winning five years in a row. The library fired Lita Casey after she spoke up for her little friend."
• Arkansas school district bans three students from returning to class because they may be HIV-positive Salon
• School bans popular 'Hump Day' phrase

Jesus the Zealot, Church and State, Sex Abuse Scandals, Creationists, Christianists, Ultra-Orthodox, Islamists, Haram, Blasphemy, Religion, Atheism; NSA Spying

Jesus the Zealot

• "Zealot": The real Jesus—"Reza Aslan argues that the historical Jesus was not an unworldly pacifist preaching a creed of universal love." Salon
• Fox News Anchor Dumbfounded That A Scholar, Who Is Muslim, Had The Audacity To Write A Book About Jesus
• Jesus book hits No. 1 in wake of viral Fox News interview—Aslan says it's their 'jump the shark' moment.

Church and State

• How Justice Antonin Scalia Is Imposing Catholic Morality in the Supreme Court… and Getting Away With It
• RNC chairman says the Republican Party is a religion
• The "anti-God" party—"You can't be a Christian and a Democrat at the same time, Virginia's GOP candidate for lieutenant governor says." Salon
• Pastor: 'In God We Trust' Signs on Tennessee Courthouse Are Part of 'Majority Rule'
• Pray The Gay Away? Alabama Government Agency Begins Meeting With Anti-Gay Marriage Prayer
• Cullman County School District in Alabama Is the Site of Even More Violations of Church/State Separation
• Federal court halts Christian prayers at North Carolina county meetings

Sex Abuse Scandals

• Catholic Church, private schools lobby against California childhood sex abuse bill—"The Los Angeles archdiocese and other private groups say they have been unfairly targeted because the bill does not apply to public schools."
• New sex abuse crisis in Scottish Catholic church—"Priest claims he was abused by older cleric, and church is punishing him for speaking out."
• Brooklyn D.A. releases names of sex offenders in Orthodox community

Creationists

• Creationist Demands That Houston Museum Ban Atheists and Science Supporters
• Alarm Bells Are Ringing: Creationists Get Influential Positions in Texas Science Textbook Review
• Botanical Society Panel Derides Creationism, Louisiana Science Education Act

Christianists

• Refusal of religious orders to compensate Magdalenes 'beggars belief'
• Christian healer who groped patients at Brighouse home is jailed
• Players' shocking allegations against former NCAA women's basketball coach—"As many as 15 former players and others close to the Oakland University women's basketball program allege Beckie Francis fixated on their weight, pushed her religious views and used intimidation."
• Alabama state champion coach and AD fired for being a member of the wrong church
• 10 worst examples of Christian or far-right terrorism—"Conservatives claim that all terrorists are Muslim, but most violent attacks in the US are carried out by white men." Salon

Ultra-Orthodox

• NY orthodox rally against military service sounds anti-Zionist themes
• Israel Passes Military Draft Bill—"Israel's Cabinet has approved a plan that would gradually end a contentious system that has granted automatic draft exemptions to Jewish ultra-Orthodox seminary students." NYT
• Ultra-Orthodox protesters shatter bus windows after female passenger refuses to sit in back

Islamists

• A teenager thrown from a roof in Alexandria—His father asks, "[W]ho are these people who use Islam to pull us back into the dark ages?"
• European Union Adds Hezbollah Wing to Terror List NYT
• Inside the Nanga Parbat Murders—"One of the worst massacres in mountaineering history happened this summer in Pakistan. Will it happen again?"

Haram

• Kindergarten drop pork: It must be the same for all
• Dinner lady sacked for serving pork to Muslim girl at Cambridge primary school
• Alvin And Vivian Jailed: Malaysian Sex Bloggers Charged With Sedition For Inciting Religious Enmity With Ramadan Image

Blasphemy

• Column: Why it's time to get rid of Ireland's blasphemy laws
• Saudi activist receives 7-year sentence, 600 lashes for insulting Islam
• Jailed Russian female punk rock member loses parole appeal

Religion

• Some Mormons Search the Web and Find Doubt—"The church is grappling with a wave of disillusionment among members who encountered information that sabotages what they were taught about their faith." NYT
• 11 Things The Bible Bans, But People Do Anyway
• Satanists Turned the Founder of the Westboro Baptist Church's Dead Mom Gay—Taking a cue from the Mormon's despicable baptisms?

Atheism

• Former Congressman Barney Frank Finally Comes Out as an Atheist
• The United States Marine Corps Officially Declares 'Lack of Spiritual Faith' as a Sign of Instability
• Republican-Led House Approves Amendment Banning Non-Religious Military Chaplains—But will this stick?
• The six types of atheist—"A new study in the US seeks to break down atheists into distinct categories. Which one do you fall into?"
• Atheism: Why the UK is losing its religion

NSA Spying

• PBS: Spying on the Home Front
• NSA chief: Snooping is crucial to fighting terrorism
• Concerns over NSA prompt Wikimedia to speed up using HTTPS by default—"You'll have to log in, but HTTPS will hide what you read or write from snooping."

Plying Politics; Republicans; Racism, Immigration, Aryan Brotherhood; Conservatives; Fucks News

Plying Politics

• 'We Have Met the Enemy, and It is Us:' Why We Don't Have Better Candidates
• Why Is American Politics So Religious and Divisive?
• Apparently Voters Don't Know Much About the People They Vote For
• Conspiracy Theory Poll Results
• Blast from the Past: People Aren't Smart Enough for Democracy to Flourish, Scientists Say

Republicans

• AZ state senator tied to school confrontation—"An Arizona school is considering hiring armed guards after an influential state senator barged into a classroom and verbally threatened a teacher over a dispute involving his teenage grandson."
• 'Rude' lawmaker Louie Gohmert pulls rank on cops over parking ticket
• Todd Akin, Allen West Lavished Government Money On Staff After Losing Reelection

Racism

• Alaska Rep. Don Young rebuked over slur—"My father had a ranch; we used to have 50-60 wetbacks to pick tomatoes."
• Texas Sheriff Threw Latino Men in Jail for 39 Days -- No Charges, No Hearing, No Probable Cause
• Conservative Media Watchdog Questions Whether African-American Host Is Dark Enough

Immigration

• "Illegal Immigrant" Is Now Out, But AP Doesn't Tell Us What's In
• Border security quandary could kill immigration bill
• Missing Dallas teen accidentally deported to Colombia

Aryan Brotherhood

• Suspicion in DA Murder Shifts to Aryan Brotherhood
• Why I Fear the Aryan Brotherhood—and You Should, Too
• Prison gangs a growing problem in Texas and nation—"Why would a violent white supremacist from Colorado escape to Texas?"

Conservatives

• Pastor to rabbi, imam: U.S. is a 'Christian nation' but we 'let' you worship
• Proposal would allow state religion in North Carolina—"A bill filed by Republican lawmakers would allow North Carolina to declare an official religion, in violation of the Establishment Clause of the U.S. Bill of Rights, and seeks to nullify any federal ruling against Christian prayer by public bodies statewide."
• GOP Lawmakers In North Carolina Want To Make It Harder To Get A Divorce
• Dr, Deandre Poole: 'I Was Doing My Job'—His fault apparently was underestimating how close-mindedly stupid Christianists have gotten.
• Conservatives freak out after Google honors Cesar Chavez on Easter—Case in point.

Fucks News

• Jim Carrey Slams 'Fux News' Over Gun Fight: It's a 'Media Colostomy Bag'
• The Union Protester Who Punched Fox News Comedian Steven Crowder Was Acting in Self-Defense, Will Not Be Prosecuted
• Fox News Ratings: Hannity, Van Susteren Plunge To New Lows In Demo

Filibuster, Sequester, Politicking, Corruption; Racism, Voting Rights Act, Vote Machinations; Fucks News, Journalism, Propaganda

Filibuster

• Stewart Applauds Rand Paul For Using Filibuster Over Drones Issue 'Worth Kicking Up A Fuss For'
• Senators bash fellow Republican for comments on drones—Paul fires back says McCain and Graham think the 'whole world is a battlefield.'
• Rand Paul Filibuster Leaves Senate Democrats Struggling To Explain Absence
• Holder Responds To Paul About Drone Strikes On U.S. Soil
• John Brennan confirmed as CIA head after filibuster

Sequester

• Cuts a damning indictment of Washington
• That Deep in the Bubble?
• Alan Grayson, Florida Congressman: Replace Sequester Cuts With Ending Afghanistan War

Politicking

• Mitt Romney barks in bite-sized clips from Fox News Sunday interview—Still clueless as to why he lost.
• "In the real world we were kidding ourselves"—"Newt Gingrich talks to Salon about why he and his party were so wrong about the election and the future of the GOP." Salon
• One study explains why it's tough to pass liberal laws—"Liberal state legislators systematically overestimate how conservative their constituents are. And conservative ones basically think their districts are full of Jim DeMints."

Corruption

• Jesse Jackson Jr. Pleads Guilty: 'I Lived Off My Campaign'—"Jesse L. Jackson Jr., the former Democratic representative from Illinois, pleaded guilty on Wednesday to one felony fraud count in connection with his use of $750,000 in campaign money to pay for living expenses and buy items like stuffed animals, elk heads and fur capes." NYT
• How badly will casino mogul Sheldon Adelson's bribery admission hurt Republicans?
• Disgraced Ex-Rep.: Boehner Offered Me A Job If I Resigned From Congress

Racism

• Prosecutor Rebuked By Sotomayor For Racially Biased Comment Was Referred For Internal DOJ Review
• The Good, Racist People—"What does it mean when Forest Whitaker is frisked at a deli?" NYT
• In Lamenting The Effects Of Mass Incarceration Of African-Americans, A Republican Candidate Says It 'May Have Made Us Safer'

Voting Rights Acts

• Touré rips Scalia's remarks on Voting Rights Act: 'Completely racist'
• Republican Senators Bob And Weave On Voting Rights Act
• Colbert Report: Voting Rights Act

Vote Machinations

• Wisconsin GOP wants end to weekend voting
• GOP election fraud reported in Florida—"Two employees of a company once aligned with the Republican Party of Florida admitted to law-enforcement authorities that they forged voter registration forms."
• James O'Keefe to pay $100K over ACORN sting—"The conservative prankster settles with a former ACORN employee for $100,000 and apologizes." Salon

Fucks News

• Rep. Keith Ellison To Hannity: You're A Shill For The Republican Party
• You May Have Seen These Fox Graphics Before -- In A GOP Press Release
• O'Reilly: 'I'm sorry I said Alan was lying'—In what New York Magazine calls the "Fox News-iest Segment in Fox New History."
• Juan Williams’ plagiarism problem—"Fox News pundit blames researcher for word-for-word similarities." Salon
• Fox Tells Viewers To Take Lowest Unemployment Rate Since 2008 With A Grain Of Salt

Journalism

• Daily Caller Spars With Washington Post On Menendez Story—Was it all made up ?
• The "most trusted name in news" fires the most trusted name in news
• Washington Post Replaces Ombudsman With Part-Time Employee Pulled From Retirement
• The Real Trouble with Jonah Lehrer— I am the author of a book on creativity that contained several fabricated Bob Dylan quotes.... I committed plagiarism on my blog, taking, without credit or citation, an entire paragraph from the blog of Christian Jarrett. I also plagiarized from myself."
• Don't blame the victim, or the photographer—"Responding to a photo essay on domestic violence, commenters attacked everyone except the abuser." Salon

Propoganda

• Conservative Pundits Wrote Malaysian Propaganda
• After the Arab Spring: Al-Jazeera Losing Battle for Independence—"For over a decade, the Arab television broadcaster Al-Jazeera was widely respected for providing an independent voice from the Middle East. Recently, however, several top journalists have left, saying the station has developed a clear political agenda."
• China's Paid Trolls: Meet the 50-Cent Party—"The Chinese government hires people to distort or deflect conversations on the web. Ai Weiwei persuades an 'online commentator' to tell all."

Bullying, Law and Disorder, Child Abuse, Educamation, Fucks News, Cheating, Tech Parenting

Bullying

• To This Day Project - Shane Koyczan—"Help this message have a far reaching and long lasting effect in confronting bullying."
• OK school says 'zero tolerance' for bullying after teen shoots self in bathroom
• Zero-tolerance policy leaves students wondering who's bullying whom
• Childhood Bullying Can Leave Lifelong Scars—"Study found both victims and bullies can suffer psychological disorders as adults."
• How to Stop the Bullies
• Magician wants to make bullying vanish
• NM House bill would criminalize bullying

Law and Disorder

• Juvenile Justice
• Cops handcuff and interrogate boy, 7, for hours over missing $5: family
• Florence student suspended over picture of gun
• Kids' suspensions renew debate over zero tolerance
• Fifth-graders admit plot to kill girl who was 'really annoying'

Child Abuse

• Priest who admitted groping boy appointed to high-profile position in Newark Archdiocese
• Senior British rabbi filmed telling alleged child abuse victim not to go to the police
• Paterno family: Freeh report 'factually wrong'

Educamation

• Warnings from the Trenches—"A high school teacher tells college educators what they can expect in the wake of No Child Left Behind and Race to the Top."
• Obama endorses required high school coding classes
• High school musical with Elvis songs cancelled for being sexually suggestive
• Kansas attorney general files appeal of school funding ruling—"The judges said the state isn't spending enough on public schools to meet its obligation under the Kansas Constitution to finance a suitable education for every child."
• Canada: Disney world prank angers parents—They ain't going to Disney World.

Fucks News

• Fox Host Calls Universal Preschool 'Immoral Crazy Talk'
• Fox News' Eric Bolling: Schools 'pushing the liberal agenda' by teaching algebra
• Aided by Fox News, For-Profit Colleges Use Shameless Propaganda to Mask Shameful Conduct

Cheating

• Republican-backed for-profit school caught deleting bad student grades
• Harvard details suspensions in massive cheating scandal—"More than half of the roughly 125 Harvard University students investigated by the college's disciplinary board for cheating on a take-home exam last spring were forced to temporarily withdraw...."
• Law School Recalls Grades Because Teachers Couldn't Figure Out How To Inflate Them In Time

Tech Parenting

• Dad hires hit men to kill son's video game characters
• Dad pays 14-year-old daughter $200 to quit Facebook
• California teen girls charged with drugging parents to evade Internet curfew
• Half of Facebook parents joined to spy on kids?
• Facebook software detects photos of kids holding guns

Corporatocracy vs. the Environment, Ecuador; Global Warming, Climate Change, Fucks News; Ecology

Corporatocracy vs. the Environment

• EPA Contaminated by Conflict of Interest—"In 2011, the Environmental Protection Agency was poised to cite evidence of cancer risks in hexavalent chromium, a chemical found in tap water. Yet a special EPA panel urged the agency to delay action, citing, among other issues, pending research by the American Chemistry Council, a powerful industry lobby. Just how influential was the ACC in the EPA's decision?"
• Ouster of Scientist from EPA Panel Shows Industry Clout
• Town board imposes gag order on residents concerned with fracking—"Residents of Sanford, New York, were told they can no longer bring up issues related to fracking in town meetings."
• Study: 66 Percent of Your Fill-Up Goes Into Oil Company Coffers
• Gas company targets protected Manú park in Peruvian Amazon—"Leaked document reveals Pluspetrol is eyeing a region where biodiversity 'exceeds that of any other place on Earth'."
• Murkier Than Oil—"The Koch brothers are very rich spiders at the centre of a terrifying web of influence."
• Activist Defends Keystone Pipeline Protest At White House

Ecuador

• 'Give Me The Money Or I'll Shoot The Trees'—"Ecuador's Yasuni National Park is one of the most diverse ecosystems on Earth. But there's a complication: The park sits on top of the equivalent of millions of barrels of oil."
• "To get the gold, they will have to kill every one of us"—"The most-storied warrior tribe in Ecuador prepares to fight as the government sells gold-laden land to China." Salon
• Chevron Loses in Ecuador Amazon Case—"An Argentine appeals court has upheld a move by Buenos Aires to freeze $19 billion in Chevron (IW 1000/7) assets at the request of Ecuador, which blames the oil giant for environmental damage in the Amazon."

Global Warming

• Warmest Decade on Record Brings Record Temperatures and Weather Extremes
• Arctic Death Spiral Bombshell: CryoSat-2 Confirms Sea Ice Volume Has Collapsed—On the other side of the world, Antarctic ozone hole is shrinking.
• U.S. Sea Level Rise Along East Coast To Accelerate With Gulf Stream Slowdown
• Kiribati to receive Australian aid to adapt to climate change
• CNN anchor asks if global warming is to blame for asteroid—wat?

Climate Change

• Obama Climate Change Poll Finds Majority Supports 'Significant Steps' To Tackle Problem
• Obama's climate change promises—"What the president has said, done and not done to combat climate change since taking office." Salon
• Marco Rubio's Weird, Defeatist Vision—"The GOP star's smug dismissal of climate change exposes his bankrupt philosophy."
• Jane Goodall on climate change: 'We've just been stealing, stealing, stealing from our children, and it's shocking'
• Exxon Cease-And-Desist Order Gets Climate Change Ad Pulled From State Of The Union Coverage

Fucks News

• Brian Kilmeade, Fox News Host, Suggests Only 'Corrupt' Scientists Believe In Climate Change
• Confronted With 97 Percent Of Climate Scientists, Fox Makes Up Stats
• Fox News Claims Solar Won't Work in America Because It's Not Sunny Like Germany

Ecology

• 11,000 Elephants Slaughtered in African Forest
• Three charged in rhino horn smuggling ring
• Indonesia's Sumatran orangutan population hit by deforestation—"Numbers decline by a shocking 80% in Tripa peat swamp forest of Aceh province as illegal poaching, logging and deliberate fires to clear tracts for palm oil plantations take its toll on the critically endangered Sumatran orangutans."