Religious Freedom to Discriminate, Arizona, Marriage Equality; Uganda, Intolerance; Sports, LGBT; GOP, Walker; Science Under Siege; Racism, Vote Machinations

Religious Freedom to Discriminate

• Tea party group trying to revive bill that allows service refusal to same-sex couples on religious grounds
• CNN guest roasts Va. Republican: 'Are you wrapping your homophobia around the Bible?'
• Louie Gohmert Backs AZ Anti-Gay Bill For Confronting 'The Religion Of Secularism'
• Georgia Wants to Allow Businesses to Kick Gay People Out of Diners
• Another Anti-Gay Discrimination Bill Introduced, This Time In Missouri
• Bill sponsors agree to scrap Ohio version of Arizona's controversial religious freedom bill
• Mississippi Scraps Discriminatory 'Religious Freedom' Provisions Following Backlash In Arizona
• Gay rights and religious freedom: God damned it
• Religious Freedom Bills Rooted In Fears Of Obama Policies
• The 'Religious Liberty' Campaign May Be Backfiring For Conservatives
• Supreme Court Could Soon Open The Floodgates For More Anti-Gay Laws

Arizona

• Businesses lash out over Arizona's anti-gay bill—From Apple, American Airlines, the NFL.
• George Takei rips 'extremist' Arizona Repubs: 'How do people like that get elected?'
• Arizona State Senator Al Melvin cannot honestly answer Anderson Cooper's simple question
• Arizona Senator Defends 'License to Discriminate' Bill: Jewish Caterers Shouldn't Have To Serve Pork
• Fact-Checkers Inexplicably Conclude Arizona's Anti-Gay Bill Isn't Anti-Gay
• Jon Stewart Berates 'Homophobic And Dickish' Arizona Over Anti-Gay Bill
• Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer vetoes controversial SB 1062—For her, it was a tough call [Salon], and for the bigots behind the bill, a sad day.

Marriage Equality

• Texas' ban on gay marriage ruled unconstitutional—"A federal judge in San Antonio on Wednesday declared Texas' ban on gay marriage unconstitutional. The Lone Star state's refusal to recognize out-of-state same-sex marriages is also unconstitutional, he ruled." And for one brief Freudian moment, a Texas GOP Candidate accidentally endorsed gay marriage on twitter.
• Ky. ordered to recognize out-of-state gay marriages
• Holder: State AGs Can Decide Whether To Defend Gay Marriage Bans—For this directive, a coalition of black pastors want Holder impeached.
• Professor defends homes led by same-sex couples—"A sociologist testifying at Michigan's gay marriage trial says research clearly shows that children raised by same-sex parents suffer no disadvantage when compared to other kids." Salon
• A Majority Of Americans Now Support Gay Marriage
• Beware, the Marriage Equality Backlash Is Coming

Uganda

• Ugandan President: Gays 'disgusting'—"Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni urges the West to "respect African societies and their values" as he details his objection to homosexuality to CNN's Zain Verjee."
• Ugandan tabloid prints list of 'top 200 homosexuals'—"Red Pepper publishes names under headline of 'Exposed' day after president signs anti-gay bill."
• U.S. 'reviewing' Uganda aid, Norway, Denmark, Netherlands halt aid
• Kerry likens Uganda anti-gay law to anti-Semitism and apartheid
• Uganda says healthcare is for all despite anti-gay law

Intolerance

• From Uganda to Russia, Homophobia Spreading Worldwide
• One-Third Of Millennials Who Left Their Religion Did It Because Of Anti-Gay Policies: Survey
• California: Foes of transgender rights law fail to force vote WaPo
• Gay Denialism Is the New Homophobia—and It's Terrifying
• Limbaugh: Matthew Shepard's Murder Wasn't A Hate Crime

Sports

• Openly gay player Jason Collins plays in the NBA
• PGA Champion Shoots Off Disparaging Tweet About Michael Sam
• GOP lobbyist drafting legislation to ban gays from NFL

LGBT

• 'Homosexual OCD': Straight Men Who Suspect They Are Gay
• Why Does the Search for a Gay Gene Freak Everyone Out?
• The evolutionary puzzle of homosexuality

GOP

• The Death of Dog-Whistle Politics—"In today's media environment, every message you send to your base gets heard by everyone. That's a problem for the GOP."
• Bobby Jindal Gives Up, Joins the 'Stupid Party'—"More than a year after saying Republicans need to not be the 'stupid party,' the governor of Louisiana has given in to the dumb."
• Forget 'House of Cards': Watch a real reporter sweat a politician

Walker

• Fox to Scott Walker: 'But, sir, you're not answering my question'—"When a Fox News host asked him about private email accounts, Scott Walker responded with talking points."
• Scott Walker Broke Campaign Rules In College
• Super PAC targets Wisconsin Gov. Walker

Science Under Siege

• Chevron's Lobbyist Now Runs the Congressional Science Committee
• Arizona State Senator Says He Opposes Common Core Because… It Promotes Algebra
• Kansas Bill Would Make Cities Warn Of Dangers Of Fluoride In Water

Racism

• GOP Senate Candidate Defends Use Of 'Wetbacks' Slur As 'Normal As Breathing Air'
• Racists Like Ted Nugent Are Political Necessity for the Republican Party
• Designer of Georgia's Confederate License Plate Doesn't Understand Why People Are Upset—"'If I offend anyone, I don't understand why,' says Sons of Confederate Veterans leader."

Vote Machinations

• Joe Biden sees lingering "hatred" in voter ID laws
• Ohio cuts early voting method favored by blacks
• The War Against Early Voting Heats Up

War on Terror, Syria; NSA Spying; Grand Old Tea Party, Obamacare, Wisconsin, Corruption; Racism, Vote Machinations; Science and Politics

War on Terror

• Too Many Years Of Lies: From Mossadeq to 9/11—"Washington has been at war for 12 years. According to experts such as Joseph Stiglitz and Linda Bilmes, these wars have cost Americans approximately $6 trillion, enough to keep Social Security and Medicare sound for years. All there is to show for 12 years of war is fat bank balances for the armament industries and a list of destroyed countries with millions of dead and dislocated people who never lifted a hand against the United States."
• Chomsky: 9/11 Is the Basis for 'Obama's Massive Terrorist War'—"Chomsky weighs in on 9/11 anniversary, Syria’s "bloody partition" and why U.S. role ensures failure of mideast talks."
• Guantanamo judge makes secret ruling on secret motion in secret hearing—They've got a secret and they can't explain.
• Gov. Patrick says holding Massport fire training exercise on Sept. 11 anniversary was 'just dumb'
• Fa. pastor arrested before he could burn Qurans—"[T]he pastor had said he was planning to burn 2,998 of the Muslim holy books— one for every victim of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks."

Syria

• The Inside Story Of How A Fake PhD Hijacked The Syria Debate—"Analyst" Elizabeth O'Bagy, who supposedly has ties with Syrian rebels, faked her credentials.
• Syria crisis: Russia's Putin in personal plea for US caution
• CIA begins weapons delivery to Syrian rebels—"The U.S. is also shipping new types of nonlethal gear to opposition forces at a time of heightened tensions."

NSA Spying

• NSA shares raw intelligence including Americans' data with Israel
• NSA admits wrongly adding 16,000 phone numbers to 'alert list'—"In a chain of events starting in 2006, the numbers got on a list that could have subjected them to daily monitoring despite not being reasonably linked to terrorism."
• Lavabit's Owner Appeals Secret Surveillance Order That Led Him to Shutter Site
• Yahoo CEO Mayer: we faced jail if we revealed NSA surveillance secrets—"Mark Zuckerberg joins Mayer in hitting back at critics of tech companies, saying US government did 'bad job' of balancing people's privacy and duty to protect."
• Facebook Founder Talks About NSA Surveillance

Grand Old Tea Party

• G.O.P. Senators Fail to Head Off Primary Challenges by Tea Party Rivals—"Despite careful efforts, some of the best-known and most influential Republicans in the Senate have attracted rivals who portray them as a central part of the problem in Washington." NYT
• The conservative crackup: How the Republican Party lost its mind—"How a major, diverse political party became so dependent on the Tea Party's narrow range of strident voices." Salon
• The 1 percent played Tea Party for suckers—"When the super-rich feel threatened, they foment grass-roots uprising on their behalf. Here's why it always works." Salon
• Krugman: The Wonk Gap—"What the G.O.P. doesn't know can hurt us." NYT
• Florida AG Had Execution Delayed Because It Conflicted With Her Fundraiser

Obamacare

• Conservatives Force GOP To Delay Obamacare Gambit—"Conservative groups were furious Tuesday when the plan was unveiled and immediately organized against it, demanding that Republicans go the distance and threaten a government shutdown if Democrats don't blink. FreedomWorks, Club For Growth and Heritage Action vowed to punish lawmakers who support the GOP proposal. Republican leaders, on the other hand, recognize they'd probably be blamed for a shutdown and don't want to risk it."
• Trader Joe's To Drop Health Coverage For Part-Time Workers Under Obamacare: Memo
• Health law's ailments can be cured by single-payer system—"All the shortcomings of the healthcare restructuring result from the decision to leave it in the hands of private insurers."

Wisconsin

• Madison Wisconsin Arrests - Unrest In Scottwalkerstan—"Scott Walker very much would like to run for president and, therefore, does not like to be annoyed by people in the course of selling off the state piecemeal to the people who might one day fund his campaign."
• Scott Walker's Office Tries To Disappear Story Doubting Jobs Pledge
• Scott Walker Unironically Tweets About Labor Day. We Respond.

Corruption

• New evidence puts tangle in McDonnell story—"Rachel Maddow relays new reporting bt the Washington Post that shows that embattled Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell was not telling the truth when he said he wasn't aware of being given gifts, and how the coming election complicates the timing of the potential prosecution of McDonnell."
• Top Florida Senate aide gets $400,000 as moonlighting political consultant
• 3rd Fla. mayor arrested within the past month
• [Democratic U.S. Senate candidate] Booker Reports $3.9 Million Income as He Leaves Waywire
• Fraud Stealing $100 Million Shows Flaws in U.S. Crop Insurance—"Harry Dean Canady will learn next month whether he'll spend the rest of his life in prison for cheating taxpayers of more than $1 million and threatening to kill the U.S. agents who brought him to justice."

Racism

• Friends Mourn Man Fatally Assaulted in Possible Random Hate Crime—"Mr. Babbitt was walking through Union Square near Forbidden Planet last Wednesday when he was punched in the face seemingly at random by an assailant who, the police said, declared his intention to 'punch the first white man I see.'" NYT
• Charlotte pastor: "Only white people" at front door of church—In anticipation of "having an increase in the number of people visiting and attending Freedom House over the next few weeks," Pastor Pennycooke wants "the best of the best on the front doors" becasue "first impressions matter." Shorter pastor: White = The best of the best.
• NY case puts N-word use among blacks on trial—"In a case that gave a legal airing to the debate over use of the N-word among blacks, a federal jury has rejected a black manager's argument that it was a term of love and endearment when he aimed it at black employee."
• A Day in the Life of the Ku Klux Klan, Uncensored
• Woman Arrested After Spraying Baby With Soy Sauce—"Witnesses said a woman walked into the restaurant and said 'go back to China,' then started flipping over diners' plates. She's also accused of spitting on a man and squirting him and his baby with soy sauce."
• New York Magazine Changes Mayor Bloomberg's 'Racist' Quote
• Blacks Asked To Leave South Carolina Restaurant Because White Customer Felt Threatened—But, what's the other side of this story?
• Red Lobster employee suspended after posting racist receipt online—Corporation's bill got paid; she got tipped "none" for being a "nigger."

Vote Machinations

• Top Iowa Republican Poised To Begin New Voter Purge
• 350,000 Would-Be Voters Dropped from Books in Virginia 30 Days Before Registration Deadline
• North Carolina voters fear new ID law will keep them from polls
• GOP State Officials Blame Republican Obstructionism For Blocking Voting Restrictions
• Florida GOP-Led Voter Fraud Investigation Finds Nothing—Except GOP Fraud

Science and Politcs

• Why Science and Politics Don't Mix—"Steven Pinker, professor of psychology at Harvard University and author of such popular science books as 'The Blank Slate,' recently wrote an essay for the New Republic in defense of science. From left and right, he notes, from intellectuals as well as from anti-intellectuals, science is under attack for its arrogance, vulgarity and narrowness of vision."
• More cuts loom for US science—"Stalemate in Congress puts spending plans on hold."
• Scientists leave GOP due to attitudes toward science
• Young Students Against Bad Science—"Meet some high school and college students who have taken stands on issues connected to science education." NYT
• Science Confirms: Politics Wrecks Your Ability to Do Math—"Farewell, Enlightenment: New research suggests that people even solve math problems differently if their political ideology is at stake."

Every Child Needs a Teacher, Educamation, School Budget, Testing, Zero Tolerance, Racism; Parenting, Think of the Children, Family

Every Child Needs a Teacher

• Teachers: Will We Ever Learn? Salon
• Teacher's resignation letter: 'My profession … no longer exists'
• The Exhaustion of the American Teacher

Educamation

• Why conservatives hate college—"The right's decades-long war on academia and 'liberal professors' is about defining an elite 'populists' can oppose." Salon
• Notes From an Employed Philosopher—"McCrory can hide behind the claim that this is about creating jobs, but it's not. It's about class, it's about power, and it's about who has access to education."
• In Wisconsin, Voters Reject ALEC/Walker Education Agenda

School Budget

• Chicago closing 54 schools; union leader blasts 'outrageous' plan
• West Virginia Republican: Make Kids Work As Janitors For School Lunches
• Jon Stewart ridicules bill linking welfare to good grades

Testing

• 3 Dozen Indicted in Atlanta Cheating Scandal
• Michelle Rhee and the unproven teacher evaluation
• What Michelle Rhee doesn't want you to know—"What's good enough for other people's kids apparently isn't good enough for the daughter of Michelle Rhee."

Zero Tolerance

• Newtown, Conn. residents reject budget with extra school security
• With Police in Schools, More Children in Court—"Youth advocates and judges say more children are being sent into the criminal justice system for acts like scuffles and truancy that are better handled in the principal's office." NYT
• Teacher Sues School over Suspension for 'Weapons' Charge: Showing Students Garden Tools

Racism

• Writing Assignment at Albany High School: Explain Why 'Jews Are Evil'
• Dress witches in pink and avoid white paper to prevent racism in nuseries, expert says
• Esther Irene Stokes, 'Racist' Teacher, Denies Molestation Charge, Claims She Doesn't Touch Black Kids

Parenting

• Weird Parents, Normal Children—"Does looking to the past help us become better parents?"
• Parental ethnotheories and how parents in America differ from parents everywhere else
• Poor parenting -- including overprotection -- increases bullying risk
• Kids With Low Self-Esteem: The Parental Praise Paradox—"From the journal: 'Person praise contributes to a self-perpetuating downward spiral of self-derogation.' D'oh!"
• Baby dies from whooping cough in Orange Co.—"Whooping cough, also called pertussis, and other diseases are making comebacks, because so many parents are deciding not to vaccinate their kids."

Think of the Children

• The Hell of American Day Care—"An investigation into the barely regulated, unsafe business of looking after our children.
• Toddlers becoming so addicted to iPads they require therapy
• Twenty percent of New York pre-teens have mental issues
• Why fake ID is an American rite of passage—"New York is pioneering 'unforgeable' driving licences in a bid to clamp down on fake IDs - currently used by millions to buy alcohol before the legal age of 21."
• 15 Mid-Century Modern Dream Homes that will Kill Your Children—Child-proof everything!

Family

• Telling the Inlaws We're Pregnant
• Korean twin sisters separated at birth find each other via Facebook
• Reasons my son is crying

Rmoney, Campaign Finance, Public-Private Partnerships, Voter Suppresion, States, Immigration, Elections

Rmoney

• Mitt Romney stayed at Bain 3 years longer than he stated--Claims of inaccuracy by the Romney camp can't overturn the facts, as the Washington Post's factchecker discovered.
• Tax Avoider in Chief?--"Republicans aren’t just in favor of lowering taxes; now they’re applauding wildly complex efforts by the wealthiest Americans to avoid paying billions in taxes by shipping capital to other countries." NYT
• What's Romney Hiding in His Tax Returns?
• New Republic: Mitt Romney, Crybaby Capitalist
• Media Barred From Photographing Romney With Cheney At Fundraiser
• Romney's 'Free Stuff' Speech Is a New Low
• Romney: Schrödinger's Candidate--Don't let Rush see this one though.

Campaign Finance

• DISCLOSE Act fails again in Senate--Republicans filibuster against transparency (NYT), but even the ACLU is against passing the bill.
• Harry Reid Worries About '17 Angry Old White Men' Buying The Nation
• The Power of Anonymity NYT
• The Selling of American Democracy: The Perfect Storm
• There's No Hiding It: Citizens United Wasn't About "Speech" -- It Was About Takeover of American Democracy
• Investigation takes closer look at GOP donor Adelson's billions
• The Super PAC That Aims to End Super PACs NYT

Public-Private Partnerships

• A Radical Fix for the Republic--"Lawrence Lessig thinks American democracy requires a constitutional overhaul to counter the 'economy of influence.'"
• Northrop Grumman Awards Lobbyist $500K Bonus Weeks Before Becoming Low-Paid Congressional Staffer Shaping Military Policy
• 130 Members of Congress Bought Stocks in Companies that Lobbied their Committees
• Senator Sherrod Brown Explains Why Big Business Owns Congress
• In Georgia, Tea Party And Progressives Go On Bus Tour To Fight Lobbyists

Voter Suppression

• Robinson: The GOP's crime against voters--"Spare us any more hooey about “preventing fraud” and “protecting the integrity of the ballot box.” The Republican-led crusade for voter ID laws has been revealed as a cynical ploy to disenfranchise as many likely Democratic voters as possible, with poor people and minorities the main targets."
• Drum: Voter ID Laws Are the Last Gasp of a Fading GOP Strategy
• Attorney General Holder On State Voter ID Laws: 'We Call This A Poll Tax'
• What could tighter voter ID laws mean in November?
• Fox Guest's Voter ID Law Defense: "Voting Is A Privilege"

States

• Will a GOP-backed voter-ID law turn Pennsylvania red?--"It's been 24 years since the Keystone State picked a GOP presidential candidate, but a move to bar voters who lack a driver's license could help Mitt reverse that trend."
• Mississipppi’s Voter ID Catch 22--"Mississippi’s voter identification law might prove literally impossible for some of its residents to adhere to."
• Wisconsin: Judge bars enforcement of voter ID requirements
• Oops! George W. Bush’s name on list of Texas residents who would be ineligible to vote
• Florida: Woman cut twice from voter rolls is dead certain she's alive

Immigration

• After the SB1070 ruling, undocumented Americans say 'No more Arizonas!'
• Scalia's Arizona Immigration Dissent
• Ronald Reagan Jr.: If people knew GOP's real immigration stance, 'nobody would vote for them'

Elections

• Fox's Charles Krauthammer Says Young Americans Support Obama Because They Don't Know Anything
• Michigan Rep. McCotter Resigns From Congress--"The five-term Republican from the Detroit suburb of Livonia said Friday he's leaving office for the good of his family. McCotter dropped his bid for re-election last month after learning his staff hadn't filed enough valid petition signatures to get him on the Aug. 7 primary ballot."
• Report: Schmidt, Bolger attempted 'fraud' in race for House seat, but did not break law
• Arpaio: Obama birth record definitely forged
• Washington State will enable voter registration via Facebook

Wisconsin, Occupy Movement, NATO, Workers, Taxing the Rich, Corporations, Wall Street

Wisconsin

• Walker Survives Recall In Politically Weary Wisconsin
• A wake-up call for Dems, labor, and the left
• Senate power shifts to Dems as Lehman narrowly defeats Wanggaard

Occupy Movement

• In Second Occupy Wall Street Protest Trial, Police Claims Again Rejected
• City of Sacramento loses case against Occupy Sacramento protester
• 20,000 march at Frankfurt Occupy protest rally

NATO

• Occupy Journalists Stopped, Searched, Handcuffed & Interrogated at Gunpoint--Stay classy, Chicago.
• Terror Suspects Claim 'Entrapment To The Highest Degree' By Undercover Cops
• Shep Smith On NATO Summit Arrests: Federal Government 'Is Trampling On Our Liberty'
• Chicago's fishy NATO arrests--"The CPD has been congratulated for handling NATO protests. But what about reports of intimidation and entrapment?" Salon
• Collateral Damage in the War on Protesters: Neighbors of the NATO3 Cuffed, Held at Gunpoint

Workers

• Why working-class people vote conservative-"Across the world, blue-collar voters ally themselves with the political right – even when it appears to be against their own interests. Is this because such parties often serve up a broader, more satisfying moral menu than the left?"
• Louisiana Bill Would Make It Illegal For Cities To Require That Workers Have Paid Sick Days
• Houston: Wage Theft in the City of Millionaires
• Unemployment benefits end for hundreds of thousands, but unemployment doesn't
• Workers Who Occupied Their Factory and Beat Bank of America Now On Their Way to Owning the Factory

Taxing the Rich

• GOP Claims $50 Billion For Infrastructure Is Too Pricey, While Pushing $800 Billion Tax Cut For The Rich
• Romney's Tax Cut For Millionaires Would Be Nearly Twice The Size Of George Bush's
• 35,000 people who had income of more than $200,000 in 2009 paid no federal income taxes
• How the ultra-rich betray America
• Ten Thousand "One-Percenters" Pay Zero Income Tax

Corporations

• Sherrod Brown Held Corporations Accountable, Now They’re Spending Millions to Unseat Him
• Average CEO pay $9.6M in 2011
• Corporate profits have skyrocketed over last three years
• Caterpillar : Record profits, CEO pay hiked by 60%, company wants wage concessions from workers
• 20,000 Sacrificed In Annual Blood Offering To Corporate America The Onion

Wall Street

• Woman Who Couldn’t Be Intimidated by Citigroup Wins $31 Million
• One Homeowner's Uphill Battle with Wells Fargo and Goldman Sachs Shows How Badly The Courts are Stacked Against Ordinary People
• How Bank of America Execs Hid Their Losses—In Their Own Words--"A new lawsuit filed against Bank of America reveals internal emails proving that execs were knowingly feeding shareholders bad information."
• Bust 'Em Up: Who Needs Wall Street Giants?
• Whale Wars: Hedge Funds Rob Banks, and the Poor Suffer Most

World News, Quebec, Wisconsin, Inequality, Eurozone, Hacking, Corruption

World News

• Scottish Independence: Holyrood endorses independence
• Majority of MPs back renaming of Big Ben Clock Tower as Elizabeth Tower for Jubilee
• Egypt's Hosni Mubarak sentenced to life in prison for role in killing of protesters
• Egypt lifts unpopular emergency law--Which was in place for more than 30 years.
• Syrian leaders will not be allowed amnesty, says UN human rights chief

Quebec

• Why The Rest Of North America Should Care About Quebec's Huge Student Protests
• Charest 'disappointed' as Quebec student talks hit impasse
• Quebec's Bill 78 threatens freedom of expression--The UN weighs in.

Wisconsin

• Why Are Democrats Losing the Wisconsin Recall?--The best they're hoping for is to "avoid embarrassment."
• Obama’s Wisconsin Betrayal
• Scott Walker signs burned in Wisconsin
• Dirty Tricks In Wisconsin: Secret Group Shuts Down Phones Of Scott Walker’s Democratic Challenger With Spam Texts
• Walker says campaign funds won't pay legal bills for aides--"Walker made the comment a day after a report show he had transferred $100,000 from his campaign account to a criminal defense fund he has set up."

Inequality

• In Rich Europe, Growing Ranks of Working Poor NYT
• Great Divide: How the City of London Widened the Gap between Britain's Rich and Poor
• Success for Chelsea and Manchester City comes at a high price--"Football's billionaire owners are part of the global elite only too keen to distract us from how they make their riches."
• Russian Millionaire Tosses Paper Money Planes Out of Office Window, Laughs as People Brawl Over Them
• Ferrari Deaths Fuel Anti-Foreigner Anger As Singapore Votes
• Bo Xilai Downfall Shows Crony Communism Widening Rich-Poor Gap
• Population and consumption key to future, report says--"Over-consumption in rich countries and rapid population growth in the poorest both need to be tackled to put society on a sustainable path...."

Eurozone

• Troubled Greece: fears of 'first domino' to fall as austerity is counted a failure
• Ireland approves European Union fiscal treaty
• Spain's Game of Chicken
• World stock markets plunge as global crisis deepens
• Euro zone unemployment hits record high, seen rising
• Ferrari Crackdown: Italy Declaring War on Tax Cheats
• France moves to cap executive pay at state firms

Hacking

• Rebekah Brooks charged with perverting the course of justice
• Piers Morgan told me how to hack a phone, says Jeremy Paxman
• What Rupert Hath Wrought!--A review of Dial M for Murdoch: News Corporation and the Corruption of Britain

Corruption

• Quebec corruption inquiry could expose links between Mafia, politics and construction
• A Murder Foretold: Unravelling the ultimate political conspiracy
• European anti-corruption watchdog eyes Estonia

Birther Pains, Elections 2012, Citizens United, Colbert, Wisconsin, Vote Machinations, Trayvon Martin

Birther Pains

• Arizona deputies in Hawaii seeking Obama birth certificate--Arpaio on wasting taxpayer funds: 'So what?'
• Hawaii Trolls Arizona's Presidential Birth Certificate-Seeking Secretary of State
• Bennett Backs Off Birther Threat, Apologizes To Arizona--He was planning to keep Obama off the ballot.

Elections 2012

• Is This the Most Boring Election Ever?--"Obama and Romney feels like a contest between two calculating centrists, fighting for the right to serve as figurehead atop a bloated state apparatus that will operate according to the same demented imperial logic irrespective of who wins the White House."
• With memo, race issue flares in campaign--Romney: "I'm actually — I’m not familiar with precisely, exactly what I said. But I stand by what I said, whatever it was."
• Is Mitt Romney really a job creator? What his Bain Capital record shows.
• Obama's Bain Capital mutiny--Says it's fair game.
• Who's winning the 2012 presidential money race?--"The assumption was that Obama would have a big fundraising advantage over Romney, but GOP-friendly super PACs are proving prognosticators wrong."
• Why Joe Biden Needs to Stay--"He isn't just vital to the White House -- he's been the most effective vice president in American history."
• Marco Rubio as vice president: the Bilderberg conspiracy

Citizens United

• 22 States Back Montana's Citizens United Challenge
• Corporate Lobbying Group Asks Supreme Court Not To Use "Empirical Evidence" When Reconsidering Citizens United
• How John Roberts sold us out--"Jeffrey Toobin's Citzen's United blow-by-blow leaves no room for doubt: The "moneyed interests" have won." Salon

Colbert

• Stephen Colbert Raises More Than PAC Backing Ron Paul
• Stephen Colbert inspires new fad across U.S. college campuses
• Stephen Colbert super PAC numbers pick up
• Stephen Colbert named among Maxim’s list of hottest 100 women--Wait, what?
• Stephen Colbert helps Reddit organize gift exchange for U.S. troops

Wisconsin

• Wisconsin's Recall
• Wisconsin Democrats Furious with Democratic National Committee for Refusing to Invest Big Money in Walker Recall--And the Republicans have the momentum. UPDATE: The DNC changes its mind.
• Donations to Scott Walker Flagged as Potential Fraud
• Scott Walker’s politically suicidal exchange--"He tells a billionaire donor about his 'divide and conquer' anti-union strategy – on camera." Salon
• Gov. Walker Disregards Official Jobs Data Now That It Shows Wisconsin Losing Most Jobs In The Nation

Vote Machinations

• Pa. Supreme Court judge charged with campaign corruption in case that ensnared senator sister
• Julius Henson Convicted In Maryland Robocalls Case--"Henson's lawyers argued that 'dirty tricks' are a form of free speech."
• FACT CHECK: 'Non-Citizen' Voter In James O'Keefe's Voter Fraud Video Is Actually A Citizen
• Court Action May Lift Anonymity For Some Campaign Donors
• GOP in CA Hired 'Professional Con Artist' Who Turned in Thousands of Fraudulent Voter Registrations in $50,000 'Bounty' Scheme

Trayvon Martin

• Cops, Witnesses Back Up George Zimmerman's Version of Trayvon Martin Shooting
• In Defense of George Zimmerman--"How the gun lobby, conservatives, and right-wing media have rallied to defend the man who killed Trayvon Martin."
• Trayvon Martin gun range targets sold online--"Seller admits he wants to profit off controversy."

Elections 2012, Rmoney, Marriage Equality, Voter Suppression, Vote Machinations

Elections 2012

• Gingrich's Quest for Glory Ends as a Punch Line
• Scott Walker Using $100 Million Of Taxpayer Money To Fight Off Recall?
• Wisconsin Democrats Easily Outpoll Scott Walker as Recall Race Is Set
• Richard Lugar Loses GOP Indiana Senate Primary by Landslide--"If Mr. Mourdock is elected, I want him to be a good Senator," Lugar's statement said. "But that will require him to revise his stated goal of bringing more partisanship to Washington. He and I share many positions, but his embrace of an unrelenting partisan mindset is irreconcilable with my philosophy of governance and my experience of what brings results for Hoosiers in the Senate. In effect, what he has promised in this campaign is reflexive votes for a rejectionist orthodoxy and rigid opposition to the actions and proposals of the other party."
• Carville: Wake up Democrats; you could lose

Rmoney

• Romney's Biggest Fib?--"Under Obama, the GOP candidate says, government will 'control half the economy.' Economic experts rate this scare tactic somewhere between 'ridiculous' and 'stupid.'"
• Tagg Romney, Solamere, and His Father's Money
• Romney: "I'll take a lot of credit' for saving the auto industry"--Says the man who told every to let Detroit go bankrupt (NYT).
• Mitt Romney's campaign calls gay teen bullying report 'exaggerated'
• Romney's 1994 Senate Loss Left Lasting Marks
• Strange But True: Mitt Romney Spent The Vietnam War In A French Palace
• xkcd: Romney Quiz

Marriage Equality

• Obama's historic affirmation of same-sex marriage--"Not 20 years ago, same-sex marriage was a fringe issue, almost unthinkable. That it now has presidential support is epochal."
• Report: Obama Camp Raised $1 Million In First 90 Minutes After Endorsing Gay Marriage
• Seven Democrats Who Are Now Under Pressure to Support Gay Marriage
• Gay Republicans Offended That Obama Supports Gay Marriage. Seriously.
• Will Black Voters Punish Obama for His Support of Gay Rights?--Or will they stick around?

Voter Suppression

• Voter suppression is real and must be stopped
• She marched with Martin Luther King Jr, now due to Republican driven voter ID laws she can’t vote
• Ohio Republicans try to repeal controversial new voter law
• Rep. John Lewis Speaks Out Against GOP Voter Suppression Efforts
• Voting Rights Uprising: Activists in Three States Help GOP's Targets Get Voter ID

Vote Machinations

• Machine Casts Phantom Votes in the Bronx, Invalidating Real Ones: Report
• Marco Rubio Busted for Taking Improper Donations--Fined $8,000 for accepting more than $210,000 in improper contributions.
• Major GOP donor arrested in $100 million veteran charity scam
• Romney Supporter Caught Handing Out Fake Ballots in Nevada Wearing a Ron Paul Shirt
• Voting Fraud by Government Officials Caught on Tape

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

Trayvon Martin; Elections 2012, Campaign Finance, Voter Suppression, Vote Machinations, Conservatives, Racism

Trayvon Martin

• Orlando Watch Shooting Probe Reveals Questionable Police Conduct--Why has the shooter of Trayvon Martin who acted as judge, jury and executioner not been charged?
• What Everyone Should Know About Trayvon Martin (1995-2012)
• FBI monitoring fatal Florida shooting case, as police criticized
• Killing Of Florida Teen Trayvon Martin Becomes National Story About Race
• Trayvon Martin Killing Puts 'Stand Your Ground' Law In Spotlight
• The Trayvon Martin Killing, Explained
• DOJ, FBI Opens Investigation Of Trayvon Martin Death

Elections 2012

• Illinois GOP results posted on local news affiliate… the day before the election--Is this for real?
• How to Tell It's Time to Quit the Presidential Race--Buh-bye Newt.
• Drift away from GOP by women voters may give Obama advantage in fall
• The Power of Recalls in Wisconsin
• The real danger to US Democracy: Incompetent People Too Ignorant to Know It

Campaign Finance

• Poll: 69% of Americans want to outlaw super PACs
• Unveil Corporate Money in Politics: Gomory, Hindery
• Are Corporations Claiming Tax Breaks for Super PAC Donations?

Voter Suppression

• The Voting Wars Could Get Bloody
• Justice Dept. Blocks Texas Voter ID Law
• Judge Temporarily Blocks Wisconsin Voter ID Law
• Proposed voter ID bill has stirred up plenty of controversy in PA
• Tea Party Spawns New Effort Against Voter Fraud

Vote Machinations

• Absolute Proof Diebold Voting Machines Are "Criminally" Rigged
• Kaptur Defeats Kucinich 94% to 4% on 100% Unverifiable E-Vote Systems in Toledo, OH?
• US e-voting system cracked in less than 48 hours: "We successfully changed every vote and revealed almost every secret ballot."

Conservatives

• Poll: Obama's a Muslim to many GOP voters in Alabama, Mississippi
• How the South became too Republican for Republicans--Can the immigrants help?
• Why Conservatives Are Still Crazy After All These Years

Racism

• College Kids Demand To See U.S. Citizen's Green Card While He's Playing Basketball
• Federal Judge Sent Joke Email Implying Obama's Mother Had Sex With Dog
• Miss. lawmaker: 'Gulf of America' bill was a joke--In this case, it really was.

Congress, Earmarks, Public-Private Partnerships, Republicans, Energy, Alabama

Congress

• Congress' Job Approval at New Low of 10%
• Poll: Random People In A Phonebook Would Do Better Than Current Congress
• G.O.P. Leaders in House Remove Part of Ethics Bill NYT
• Eric Cantor strips strict lobbying rules from STOCK Act
• It's deja vu as Congress tackles payroll tax cut extension again
• The Judicial Confirmation Crisis in One Easy Chart--Obstructionism at work.
• Increasing number of ethics probes rattles House Republicans--"An increasing number of House Republicans are getting wrapped up in allegations of ethics violations ahead of the November elections, handing Democrats easy campaign fodder and putting the GOP in an unexpected bind."

Earmarks

• Congress Appears to Be Trying to Get Around Earmark Ban NYT
• Congressional earmarks sometimes used to fund projects near lawmakers' properties
• Earmark investigation: Rep. Norm Dicks and Puget Sound

Public-Private Partnerships

• Oops: Florida Republican Forgets To Remove ALEC Mission Statement From Boilerplate Anti-Tax Bill
• Rep. Lamar Smith, Top Border Security Hawk, Invested In Border Monitoring Tech Company Before Gov. Grant
• $6 Billion for a Nuke-Building Shed?--"American taxpayers are getting fleeced for a New Mexico bomb facility we don't need."

Republicans

• President Obama Takes Republican Senator Mike Lee To The Woodshed Over His Threat To Obstruct--"Lee threatened to block all of President Obama's nominees if he doesn't remove Richard Cordray from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Republicans think the President violated the Constitution by appointing Cordray during the recess."
• Wisconsin releases recall petition names amid safety concerns--"Wisconsin released the names of more than 1 million people who signed a recall petition against Gov. Scott Walker, state officials said, despite safety concerns among petition signers."
• New Hampshire Republicans Propose Bill To Eliminate Workers' Lunch Breaks

Energy

• Auction 2012: Energy Lobby Finds Power In Money And Fear
• Landmark diesel exhaust study stalled amid industry and congressional objections--"Twenty-year investigation of miners exposed to toxic fumes still unpublished."
• 'Gasland' Journalists Arrested At Hearing By Order Of House Republicans
• Dangers of Fracking
• Why Is America's Transportation System Stuck in the 1950s?--An upcoming Republican transportation bill "zeroes out funding for biking and walking infrastructure and cuts Amtrak's budget by 25 percent, while lavishing care on cars and the highways that carry them using revenues from increased gas and oil drilling."

Alabama

• U.S.-Born Children Denied Food Stamps Under Alabama Immigration Law
• Alabama Immigration Law Costs $11 Billion, Study Shows
• This American Life: Reap What You Sow--"Alabama's new immigration law aims to make life so difficult for illegal immigrants that they will 'self-deport.' And in a way it's working. Immigrants are fleeing Alabama...but not just the undocumented ones."

Elizabeth Warren, Voter Suppression, Gerrymandering, Vote Machinations, Wisconsin Recall

Elizabeth Warren

• Elizabeth Warren is scary!
• Elizabeth Warren’s winning formula
• Watch Elizabeth Warren handle a Tea Party heckler Salon

Voter Suppression

• Voter Suppression 101
• The truth about voter suppression--"The GOP is pushing restrictive voting legislation unlike anything since the Voting Rights Act of 1965." Salon
• Opinion: GOP's voter suppression--"A massive Republican campaign likely to suppress minority and low-income voting is under way. If it works, the GOP may be able to prevent many millions of Americans, largely Democrats, from voting — potentially affecting 171 electoral votes."
• Restrictions Could Keep Five Million Traditionally Democratic Voters From The Polls In 2012
• Democrats ask all 50 states to oppose newer voter identification laws
• Judge Rules That Alabama Republicans Acted With Racist Intent to Suppress Voter Turnout
• Colorado secretary of state bars overseas soldiers from voting
• 96-Year-Old Tennessee Woman Denied Voter ID Because She Didn’t Have Her Marriage License
• 91-Year-Old Who Can’t Stand Unable To Get Voter ID In Tennessee
• Student IDs Unacceptable As Voter Identification Under New Tennessee Law
  

Gerrymandering

• Court ruling throws 2012 elections into chaos--"The Ohio Supreme Court's decision to allow Democrats to go forward with a petition drive to stop the Republican congressional redistricting plan has thrown the 2012 congressional elections into chaos."
• Judges Say Texas Can't Move Forward With Redistricting Plans The Feds Say Are Discriminatory
• Arizona GOP Removes Redistricting Board Chair For Making Elections Too 'Competitive'

Vote Machinations

• The war on voting continues apace
• Congress is corrupted by a system of privately funded elections.
• The Republican 'voter fraud' fraud--"All over the US, GOP lawmakers have engineered schemes to make voting more difficult. Well, if you can't win elections fairly… "
• "There Is Almost No Voter Fraud in America."
• Judge Finds Manipulation in Recall Vote in Arizona--Spurious candidacy discovered. NYT

Wisconsin Recall

• Scott's misdirection on voting rights
• Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker's Last-Ditch Schemes to Prevent Recalls
• Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker recall effort off to a surprise start--"A recall committee formed by one of his own supporters will give Gov. Scott Walker a valuable fundraising head start on his main recall opponents."

Debt, Military, Wisconsin, Fat Tuesday, 9-11 Responders

Debt

• What Happened to Obama's Passion? NYT
• Obama’s role in debt-ceiling talks scrutinized
• $1 Billion bet in July of US downgrade brings questions of insider information
• S&P Blames GOP For U.S. Credit Problem, Associated Press, Politico Cover It Up
• Dollar Weakens to Record Versus Franc as S&P Lowers U.S. Rating
• Our view: S&P confirms what everyone already knew--"And still Republicans and Democrats act like two men fighting desperately for control of a raft that's headed for Niagara Falls."
• Why S.&P.'s Ratings Are Substandard and Porous NYT 

Military

• DefSec Panetta: We must cut Social Security and Medicare in order to protect the military budget. Salon
• Rep. Frank: Military Spending ‘Biggest Reason’ for US Downgrade
• Military spending threatens America's future strength

Wisconsin

• 7 Things to Know About Tuesday's Recall Elections--Go out and vote!
• Wis. GOPer: If You Don’t Like What We Did, Wait For 2012 Instead Of Recalling Me
• Walker, Ryan absent in run up to recalls

Fat Tuesday

• Obesity: America just keeps getting fatter, report says
• IT Night Shift Workers: Overweight and Undersexed
• Cookie Monster curbs cookie habit

9-11 Responders

• Program won't cover 9/11 responders for cancer
• The Daily Show: I Thought We Already Took Care of This S@#t--The 9/11 Health Care Bill for Ground Zero first responders covers coughing, laryngitis, and carpal tunnel syndrome -- but not cancer.
• Cancer-stricken WTC worker gets $0 settlement check

Debt Debacle, Democrats, Economy, Murdoch, Wisconsin

Debt Debacle

• What we wish Obama had said--Rather than surrending. Salon
• Why the Debt Ceiling Deal Sucks
• Wake up GOP: Smashing system doesn't fix it
• Zakaria: Tea Party held America hostage
• Anyone Who Thinks The Debt Deal Is A Victory For America Understands Neither Economics Nor Politics
• What We Learned from the Debt Ceiling Deal Debate
• Debt ceiling deal to hit grad students hard--And supposed savings is worth just 3 months in Afghanistan.
• Ben Stein blames debt crisis on careless people--Ben Stein puts the blame of the debt ceiling crisis on "a stupendous pileup of immensely careless people who have been heading for trouble for a decade now
• Mitch McConnell Vows To Hold Debt Ceiling Hostage In The Future: ‘We’ll Be Doing It All Over’
• Democrats, Republicans Celebrate Pitiful Excuse For Common Ground The Onion

Democrats

• Debt Ceiling Deal: The Democrats Take a Dive
• Tuning Out the Democrats--"Oddly, many voters prefer the policies of Democrats to the policies of Republicans. They just don't trust the Democrats to carry out those promises." NYT
• An Open Letter To The Democratic Party: I Hate You
  
  

Economy

• Tycoons Laughing All the Way to the Bank--"Cancelling the loophole would save the treasury $20 billion over 10 years, and the public would surely be unmoved by the pain inflicted on hedge fund managers — the top 25 of whom took home an average pay last year of $880 million each."
• Socialism for the Rich - Capitalism for Everyone Else
• Fault Lines - The Top 1%
• $230,000 For a Guard Dog: Why the Wealthy Are Afraid Of Violence From Below
• Major Study Links Decline of Unions to Rising of Income Inequality

Murdoch

• Murdoch Hacked Us Too--"Excoriating attack on News Corp. Not just a UK issue. And there's a lot more to it than mere tabloid vulgarity and right-wing attack-dog politics."
• Phone given to missing girl's mother by Rebekah Brooks then hacked by News of the World--But wait, there's more. Salon
• Murdoch's News International ordered tech firm to mass-deleted emails
• New moves by British parliament to shield the Murdochs
• What Rupert Murdoch Means For You Personally

Wisconsin

• Wisconsin recall: Conservatives sending Dems absentee ballots with instructions to return them late
• Fire destroys downtown buildings on Jay Street--Where We Are Wisconsin had its headquarters in the city. Curious.
• Wisconsin GOPer Admits She Compared Public Schools To Nazi Germany