Political Fix

Source: http://objectiveconservative.blogspot.com/2012/03/liberal-democrat-blogger-needs-to.html

Liberal Democrat Blogger Needs to Choose Legislature or His Job

2012-03-07T03:42:00.001-08:00

We are no liberal blog.   We are no progressive blog.   Many question whether we are a Republican blog.   We are a CONSERVATIVE blog.   We're not ashamed of it and if Democrats or Republicans dislike what we say, too bad....

Noting the above we've followed the New Nebraska Network Blog for some time. It's authored by Kyle Michaelis who calls himself a 'progressive'.   But if you were to read him as we have you would know that he is and has been nothing more than a liberal spokesperson for virtually any Democrat and any Democratic candidate and cause.

Now Michaelis has decided to run for legislature in the 27th Legislative District of Nebraska against incumbent Senator Colby Coash.   But there is just one problem which another blogger, Joe Jordan, noted in his recent Nebraska Watch Dog iteration. Michaelis is a federal employee and he IS covered by the Hatch Act.     This means that he will have to decide whether he wants to be a state senator or a government employee.

Michaelis is telling everyone that he isn't covered by the Hatch Act because the legislature is non-partisan. We all know that when political parties are involved, there is no such thing as non partisan.

In fact, Michaelis' latest blog entry clearly, if unintentionally, points out that the nature of the legislature is partisan.   It's an attack on the Republicans. Read it.   Does this sound like a guy that believes for a moment that the legislature is non-partisan?   How many times does he attack the Republican Party?   Yet he claims he's a 'progressive' rather than a Democrat hoping to avoid declaring himself what he is. And one might note as further evidence of his partisanship he never once mentions HIS OWN DEMOCRATIC PARTY.

Michaelis should either quit his job or be a candidate. He can't be both unless he wants to violate the law.   If he tries to do both he should be fired from his job.

From Michaelis' New Nebraska Network:

Nebraska GOP Escalates War Against Nonpartisan Legislature & State Constitution

"Posted: 06 Mar 2012 01:32 AM PST

Art. III, Sec. 7 of the Nebraska State Constitution: Legislators; terms; effect of redistricting; election; salary; expenses; mileage.
...Each member shall be nominated and elected in a nonpartisan manner and without any indication on the ballot that he or she is affiliated with or endorsed by any political party or organization.

Early in my campaign for Legislative District 27, I have given absolutely no one a reason to doubt my intention to be an independent-minded state senator who will listen to every side of an issue and do what's right for Nebraska. I am a firm believer in the ideal and the genius behind our nonpartisan Unicameral and have devoted a considerable chunk of my life to defending that vision when it's been threatened by undue influence from outside political forces. That's included the heavy hand of a governor with unprecedented and dangerous sway over our state's Legislature, which has too often failed to live up to its responsibility as a separate and co-equal branch of government. It's also included a political party - specifically, the Republican Party - as it's resorted to a new approach of threats and intimidation to break the independent spirit upheld by our finest State Senators and cherished by Nebraska voters.

No matter the betrayal of our citizens, the current leadership of the Nebraska Republican Party has taken direct aim at the nonpartisanship of the Legislature - as enshrined in the state constitution - because it stands in the way of coveted one-party dominion over all political power in state government. I have pushed back as best I've been able through my voice and my ideas. With this campaign, I intend to continue pushing back as a vigorous defender of that essential nonpartisanship our state constitution demands and Nebraska voters deserve. But, ultimately, it is going to fall to the voters to stand up to this partisan encroachment by electing state senators who haven't lost touch with their values and will be focused on their constituents' interests rather than political games. I know in my heart that I can and will be such a state senator if District 27 voters in Lincoln only give me the chance.

Regardless of the outcome of that election - which is still many months away - I can already claim success in the NEGOP's laying plain its intent for the Legislature in terms that would come as quite the shock to most Nebraskans. A curious article by Nebraska Watchdog raises the question of how I'll be able to continue my current employment while a candidate for the Legislature - which is predicated on its being a nonpartisan office and my being a nonpartisan candidate. NEGOP Executive Director Jordan McGrain insists that constitutional prerogative is wrong, declaring the nonpartisanship of our legislative races "a fallacy." I say he's wrong because I know from talking to voters of every political stripe that it's not "a fallacy" when they're considering who will best represent their interests in the Legislature.

More than the attack on me, the danger of partisan encroachment that should cause the greatest concern for Nebraskans is the NEGOP's early endorsement of four candidates for open legislative seats in this year's election. In January - with almost six weeks remaining before the filing deadline for these offices - the NEGOP amended its constitution, so it could specifically support Mike Hilgers in District 21 (Lincoln), Acela Turco in District 31 (Omaha), Richard Carter in District 45 (Bellevue), and John Murante in District 49 (Gretna). This is unfathomable to me. In these districts, other Republicans NEGOP has targeted as its true enemy.

Blocked from doing so by the traditions and rules in the Unicameral - not to mention the state constitution - the NEGOP is attempting to instill party discipline from the get-go with candidates who will respond to its dictates while voters' voices are diminished. This is a very dangerous precedent against which I could not be more opposed. That's not as a Democrat. It's not even as a Progressive. It's as a Nebraskan. And, if these stakes are clear to voters, we're going to see that they feel the same way in this year's election.

I know who I am. I know what it is I've been standing for and fighting for all these years. It's never been a political party. It's been Nebraska. I have a seven year body of work supporting that commitment, and I will continue to put people ahead of politics every day of this campaign.

I'm not blind to how politics works. I can't and won't deny that political affiliation is a factor in relationships between State Senators and who supports their campaigns. It's often a pretty good indicator of ideological leanings as well. But, that doesn't make nonpartisanship "a fallacy." More than anything else, nonpartisanship is about priorities. I have a long record standing up for the independence of the Unicameral and the integrity of our state constitution. This isn't about me or my employment. This is about presenting a better vision for Nebraska's future. It's that vision that's going to be the focus of this campaign, and party has nothing to do with it."

New York Post Chicago Tribune Chicago Sun-Times

Bridgin’ the Gap Between the Brown And Black: #OccupyTheHoodMKE

2012-03-07T00:42:00.001-08:00

Brown and Black people from Milwaukee’s North and South side unite on the bridge that separates them to discuss issues that they all face. This was a powerful experience that brought plenty pf emotions. #OccupyTheHoodMKE #Unity #Peace

Source: http://www.wiretapmag.org/wire/88652/

Frontline Sunday Sunrise NewsNight

Open thread: All of Rush Limbaugh's vile attacks on Sandra Fluke

2012-03-06T21:42:00.001-08:00

Source: http://feeds.dailykos.com/~r/dailykos/index/~3/HhOLW8eIzPY/-Open-thread-All-of-Rush-Limbaugh-s-vile-attacks-on-Sandra-Fluke-

Time U.S. News & World Report Weekly Standard

Five Things You Should Know About Student Housing Cooperatives

2012-03-06T18:42:00.001-08:00

For many college students, housing options can seem extremely limited: Dorm rooms or off-campus apartments, which are typically run by exploitative landlords and—not coincidentally—overpriced.

But since 1968, there has been a go-to nonprofit umbrella for students seeking alternatives: the North American Students of Cooperation, which links together cooperatives primarily in the housing sector to offer training, resources, and start-up information.

(Despite the name, many NASCO member cooperatives are not student-only; others, like Berkeley Student Cooperatives, offer a semester-long grace period once a student graduates.)

Among the other services the organization offers, NASCO holds a yearly institute in Ann Arbor, Mich., which draws coopers from around the country for a weekend of education, procedural matters, and creative cross-pollination.

This year’s conference featured a keynote speech by Adrienne Maree Brown, an advocate with the intentional-community-building organization Common Fire; a tour of Detroit’s burgeoning cooperative scene; and a screen-printing workshop offered by the Beehive Collective, a well-known group of artists whose designs target biotechnology, the G8 and G20 summits, and more.

So what can non-coopers take away from this year’s institute? After attending it with other representatives of my cooperative in Iowa City, I’ll lay it out for you:

1. Student cooperatives are everywhere.

The NASCO web site lists 77 housing cooperatives in 22 states, the majority of them in the Northeast, Midwest, California, and the Pacific Northwest–but there are many housing collectives, including ones that cater to students, that aren’t listed on the NASCO site.

The largest cooperative networks are located in Berkeley, Oberlin, Ann Arbor, and Austin—not coincidentally, sites of some of the largest liberal student identification.

2. Student cooperatives come in a wide variety of forms, structures, and sizes.

Any cooperative aspires to the Rochdale Principles: voluntary and open membership; democratic member control; member economic participation; autonomy and independence; education, training, and information; cooperation among cooperatives; and concern for community.

These principles are notoriously broad, leaving room for interpretation by different group with different needs and locales—and creation of cooperatives with certain set identities that differ from others.

There are vegetarian, vegan, and omnivorous coops, religious coops like the Unitarian Universalist Lucy Stone, and substance-free coops. There are large cooperative networks and small cooperative networks, with anywhere from one to 20 houses.

Berkeley Student Cooperatives boasts 1,300 members across 20 houses, its own food distribution network, and full-time work positions that cover a member’s rent. In contrast, River City Housing Collective’s three houses (where I live, located in Iowa City) hold a maximum of 39 people, with little division of labor and a solitary paid position.

Houses in larger cooperatives can resemble dorms more than casual arrangements; houses in smaller cooperatives can take on the character of a family home. And every cooperative comes with its own unique organizational structure, with varying levels of bureaucracy and federalization.

Bloomington graduate student Seth Frey’s workshop, “Coop Living as Collective Action: Research and Practice,” discussed some of the social sciences behind cooperatives, including how they scale up. One independent dormitory in Japan that Frey visited holds more than 400 people who govern themselves hallway by hallway and who live packed into rooms like sardines for under $100 per month. (Needless to say, that’s not a common pattern across the United States.)

3. Student cooperatives encourage alternative ways of living—but not how you might think.

Sure, a quick perusal of cooperative blogs—like Berkeley Casa Zimbabwe’s “CZ Sleaze”—might give the initial impression of student debauchery and 60s-era free love, complete with a stripper pole on the dining room table. My collective’s annual Halloween party filled its cross-dressing quota, and ended in a frenzied sing-along to “Total Eclipse of the Heart.” But the meat (or tofu, depending on house) of cooperative living comes in its emphasis on intentional community, collective decision-making, and inclusivity.

Classes at the institute included “Albany Free School: A Working Model of Radical Community-Based Education,” “Disrupting Narratives: Building White Anti-Racist Praxis,” “Fighting Ableism and Creating Collective Access,” and “Creative Cooperatives: Digital Media and Subversion.”

There were caucuses for trans- and queer-identified people, people of color, people with disabilities, and religious people, which focused on the specific needs and issues of marginalized groups.

Over and over, attendees and facilitators recited an unofficial slogan: “cooperation, not competition.” The anti-capitalist elements of the institute didn’t advocate violent revolution or drug-fueled escape, but the slow, hard work of building alternative communities where they could meet their own needs, collectively.

That also means greater individual responsibility, mutual aid, and empathy—qualities often said to be lacking in modern individuals.

4. There’s a natural synthesis with the Occupy movement.

It’s not just in the hand signals (most Institute-goers used the common “spirit fingers” or “twinkles” to express approval, although some snapped their fingers)—almost every speaker at the institute mentioned the Occupy movement.

Keynote speaker Brown said she felt particularly excited by the 99 Percent movement around the country.

“Things could look a lot of ways right now: chaos in the street, blowing up big banks, armed struggle against the 1 percent … we would be justified in all of it, given the disparities and injustices that are happening every second in this society,” she said. “But instead what we are lifting up—in Tahrir Square, and at Occupy Wall Street in New York and Oakland and Detroit and Ann Arbor—we are lifting up consensus!”

Housing collectives have been using consensus, with alterations depending on location and size, for decades.

The occupations and the housing collectives share similar philosophies: People over profits, solidarity over competition, and greater democracy in every sphere of life. It even makes sense to think of the occupations as fledgling experiments in collective living, or—to use the hip terminology—intentional communities, using trial and error to solve logistical problems and work through interpersonal issues.

5. Cooperatives in general—including student cooperatives—may be the way of the future.

In February 2010, the United Nations adopted a resolution declaring 2012 the International Year of Cooperatives, recognizing their role in “poverty reduction, employment generation and social integration.”

While the UN declaration emphasizes worker cooperatives, it covers housing cooperatives as well: Not only does living without a landlord save money, but it also improves social situations. Disillusioned Americans, tired of climbing the same pointless ladders in a game that is less and less winnable, may well try something new—and soon.

“We—you and I, and all who are thinking about how we grow a new society in the shell of our capitalist global economy—we are living in the future,” Brown said in her keynote address.

Regardless of how inimical one feels toward capitalism, the growing frustration with the status quo may well drive people to more democratic (and more affordable) options.

That sort of plurality isn’t just good for individuals; it’s good for communities, too, as cooperatives’ commitment to the Rochdale Principles requires civic engagement and encouragement.

Source: http://www.wiretapmag.org/wire/88645/

Hardball CNN Fox News

Jay Z #OccupyALLStreets T-Shirt

2012-03-06T15:42:00.001-08:00

Jay Z is promoting the occupation of all streets. Is this his way of activating the hood or profiting off of a brand that everyone else is exploiting as well? I’m not sure what direction he’s going but I think it’s a slick play on words. It’s hard to believe that a ‘one percenter’ like [...]

Source: http://www.wiretapmag.org/wire/88640/

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/blogspot/omgxi/~3/1imFum2IT48/joel-kleefischs-week-of-fame.html

Joel Kleefisch's week of fame

2012-03-06T12:42:00.001-08:00

The Colbert Report 60 Minutes 20/20

Bruning's First Amendment Suit

2012-03-06T09:42:00.001-08:00

Perhaps we missed the article about Jon Bruning's suit over the First Amendment/So-called contraceptive issue in the local daily Thursday or Friday or Saturday or today. It was probably there somewhere Actually, there was a reference on Friday..

Anyway while Don Stenberg is crying that Bruning isn't a 'life-long conservative' (either was Ronald Reagan), Bruning is at least showing some conservative bona fides and putting them into action.

For those of you who missed the local daily's coverage, here is what the Lincoln Star Journal Reported on Thursday:

"Nebraska Attorney General Jon Bruning has made good on his word to file a legal challenge over a federal health care mandate that he says coerces church-affiliated groups to subsidize birth control.

In a lawsuit filed Thursday in U.S. District Court, Bruning sought a permanent injunction of the regulation.

Joining him in the suit are the attorneys general of South Carolina, Michigan, Texas, Florida, Ohio and Oklahoma, as well as Catholic Social Services, Pius X High School, Catholic Mutual Relief Society of America, Sister Mary Catherine of Lincoln and Catholic missionary Stacy Molai of Omaha.

Each would be affected by the rule, which comes as part of the health care reform law.
"This regulation forces millions of Americans to choose between following religious convictions and complying with federal law," Bruning said in a news release.

He called the regulation a violation of the First Amendment guaranteeing religious freedom, and he said it was "a threat to every American, regardless of religious faith."
"We will not stand idly by while our constitutionally guaranteed liberties are discarded by an administration that has sworn to uphold them," Bruning said.

The lawsuit wasn't a surprise, given that Bruning, who is seeking the GOP Senate nomination in Nebraska, pledged Feb. 8 to coordinate such a suit in response to a new rule that church-affiliated hospitals, universities and charitable institutions must cover FDA-approved forms of contraceptives and sterilization for employees.

Two days later, Bruning sent letters signed by 13 state attorneys general to U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and Labor Secretary Hilda Solis asking that the rule be rescinded.

That same day, the Obama administration announced a compromise that employees of such institutions would get access to free contraceptive services directly from their insurance providers.

"However, the proposed change did nothing to address the fundamental First Amendment violation and was never officially made," Bruning said.
The Justice Department hasn't yet responded to the Nebraska lawsuit, but last week it asked a federal judge to dismiss a similar case filed by a Catholic college in North Carolina.

Federal attorneys there argued that before a one-year safe harbor expires Aug. 1, 2013, the government would propose and finalize changes in the preventive services coverage to accommodate the concerns of non-profit religious organizations that object for religious reasons."

Read more: http://journalstar.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/bruning-sues-feds-over-contraception-coverage/article_922f5261-0a1a-5c97-8d0a-4776ef641684.html#ixzz1nWFRJVuV

Source: http://objectiveconservative.blogspot.com/2012/02/brunings-first-amendment-suit.html

Roll Call Time U.S. News & World Report

DeWine and Buerck still screwing up Ohio for Mitt Romney

2012-03-06T06:42:00.001-08:00

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ThirdBasePolitics/~3/9pTilJwArYA/dewine-and-buerck-still-screwing-up.html

George Magazine The Economist The MoJo Wire

Elections have consequences.

2012-03-06T03:42:00.001-08:00

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/blogspot/omgxi/~3/fHDxiqyVpcE/elections-have-consequences.html

Rock the Vote Crossfire Washington Week In Review

Rick Santorum admits he's a tool of his church

2012-03-06T00:42:00.001-08:00

Rick Santorum: "I'm not just a 'tool.' I'm also a tool of my church."

Say this for Rick Santorum: At least he's honest about his agenda.

During an appearance on Sunday on Chris Wallace's Fox News Sunday, Rick Santorum again defended his "moral objection" to contraception:

WALLACE: You say that you believe that birth control is wrong. [...] Senator, the Centers for Disease Control say that 99 percent of the women in this country, between the ages of 15 and 44 who had sexual activity -- and this includes Catholic women, they say that 99 percent of them at some point in their lives have used artificial birth control.
Are you saying that all of those women have done something wrong?

SANTORUM: I'm reflecting the views of the church that I believe in. And we used to be tolerant of those beliefs. I guess, now, when you have beliefs that are consistent with the church, somehow or another, you are out of the mainstream. And that to me is a pretty sad situation when you can't have personal health belief.

But that's not what the issue is about. The issue is about whether the government can force you to do things that are against your conscience. And that's what we've been talking about on the road. We haven't been talking about my own moral beliefs. We've been talking about what the government can do in forcing people to change or violate those beliefs.

Uh huh. So Rick Santorum demands that our national health care policies adhere to the views of his church and his "personal health belief"—whatever the hell that's supposed to mean, since most people would agree that actual medicine trumps "personal health beliefs"—but it's not about his "moral beliefs." No, it's just about reflecting the views of his church. Because that's how Rick Santorum believes laws should made in this country.

Not unlike his fellow Republican, Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, who wrote a bill to restrict women's health care a day after hearing his priest in church rail against women's health.

Santorum is right about one thing, though. When most Americans have a favorable view of birth control, and almost all American women, including Catholic women, have at some point in their lives used birth control, his absolute opposition to contraception, even for married couples, and his insistence that his church's views should dictate our health care policies, is definitely out of the mainstream.

Source: http://feeds.dailykos.com/~r/dailykos/index/~3/MoDx4UbZXWA/-Rick-Santorum-admits-he-s-a-tool-of-his-church

Fox News MSNBC CNN Headline News

Bruning's First Amendment Suit

2012-03-05T21:42:00.001-08:00

Source: http://objectiveconservative.blogspot.com/2012/02/brunings-first-amendment-suit.html

The Oregonian The Plain Dealer Seattle Times

#NewMusic Yancy Deron “Anti-Haterism”

2012-03-05T18:42:00.001-08:00

I stumbled upon this record today and I had to share it with you! Yancy Deron is reppin Pasadena and the haters are as aktive there as they are everywhere else. Dude go hard on this one.

Source: http://www.wiretapmag.org/wire/88636/

Foreign Policy Mother Jones National Review

Why Obama’s Re-Election is Going to Look a Lot Like 2008

2012-03-05T15:42:00.001-08:00

Judging from recent headlines, things are looking up for President Obama. The Republican presidential nominees have been serially embarrassing themselves; the White House communications department has successfully focused its messaging on jobs and economic fairness; and consumers are feeling ever more confident about the economy.

But it's not just anecdotal evidence that suggests Obama’s re-election chances have improved—most of the polling data suggests the same. Obama has been running consistently ahead of his most likely challenger, Mitt Romney, in national polls—by an average of 4 points according to the Pollster.com website. Indeed, the closer you look at the numbers, the more reassuring the news: Obama, it seems, is well on his way to reconstructing the very coalition that elected him in 2008.

Consider these results from a recent Pew Center poll. In this poll, Obama is 8 points ahead of Romney, close to his victory margin in 2008 (7 points). But what is especially fascinating in this poll is its internals—how Obama is faring with key subgroups of voters. Start with minorities. Obama gets 93 percent of the black vote (he got 95 percent in 2008) and 79 percent of minorities overall (he got 80 percent in 2008). (The poll does not provide data on Hispanics, but the two most recent national polls of Hispanics give him 67 percent of these voters, identical to his 2008 performance.)

He also gets 44 percent of the white vote, compared to 43 percent in 2008. Moreover, if you break the white vote down by working class and college-educated, his performance is even more impressive. Among white college-educated voters he ties Romney 49-49, compared to the 4 point deficit he ran against John McCain, and loses white working voters by only 41-55, compared to his 18 point deficit against McCain.

These demographics are excellent news for Obama. But what of the longer term? Here we must depart the realm of demographics and current polls and look to election forecasting models. The best way to sort them out is not to focus on one particular model—there are so many to choose from!—but rather to look at the factors driving these models and what they have to tell us. The one factor that stands above the rest is economic performance in the election year. Moreover, there is general agreement that what matters most is change in economic performance, not the absolute level of performance. Thus, change in the unemployment rate in the election year is more important than the level of unemployment, GDP growth is more important than the size of the economy, and so on.

Recent economic performance by these standard measures has been fairly good: The unemployment rate fell from 9 percent in September of last year to 8.3 percent this January; job growth accelerated steadily from 112,000 last October to 243,000 in January; and the overall economy grew by 3 percent in the last quarter of 2011, up from 1.8 percent the previous quarter. Current projections of economic growth for 2012 are in the 2.5 to 3 percent range. Based on these projections, models that incorporate GDP growth tend to see an Obama victory this November. Nate Silver’s model, for example, gives Obama a 60 percent chance of winning, given a 2.5 percent growth rate this year and current job approval levels.

There are a couple of other big factors that I think are particularly worth considering. One is that Obama is the incumbent and that his party has only occupied the White House for one term. This is generally viewed as a positive for the incumbent party, since it damps down sentiment that “it’s time for a change.” Alan Abramowitz, who incorporates this factor into his model, predicts that, based on 2.5 percent growth and current job approval levels, Obama will get around the same share of the vote in 2012 as he did in 2008.

Another factor, especially relevant for Obama, is that voters may consider the economic performance from an incumbent’s first year in office when they think about performance in an election year. This possibility has been raised by Larry Bartels, who finds that bad first year economic performance—and Obama’s was very bad—has a positive effect on an incumbent’s election chances, presumably because voters cut the incumbent some slack for digging the economy out of hole even if election year economic performance is not stellar. If this effect is real, Obama, according to Bartels’ model, will receive a 7 percentage point increase in his 2012 margin due to the poor economy in his first year, considerably boosting his chances of being re-elected.

None of these forecasts indicate that Obama is a lock to win in November. Plenty can go wrong between now and then, particularly with the economy. But the factors underlying these forecasts suggest that the recent re-emergence of Obama’s coalition is no fluke. If current trends continue, there's a good chance that election day 2012 will look a lot like the one from 2008.

Ruy Teixera is a Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress Action Fund and editor of America's New Swing Region: Politics and Demographics in the Mountain West, just out from Brookings.

Source: http://www.tnr.com/article/politics/101258/president-obama-general-election-2012-chances-prospects

The Atlantic The New Yorker American Conservative

Governor’s Poll Numbers Keep Improving

2012-03-05T12:42:00.001-08:00

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ThirdBasePolitics/~3/AgzUAvbVhAQ/governors-poll-numbers-keep-improving.html

The Plain Dealer Seattle Times Detroit Free Press

UC-Berkeley Chancellor Defends Violent Shutdown of Occupy Berkeley Protests

2012-03-05T09:42:00.001-08:00

The video is damning.

University of California—Berkeley students stand in front of a line of police officers on Wednesday afternoon, arms locked or slung around each other. Moments before—in less sensational video footage—they chanted, “PEACE-FUL PRO-TEST.” When the officers advance and begin snapping their batons at students’ torsos, the chants give way to screams and a cry of “Stop beating students!” One student is knocked over by the blows; as his friends rally to help him up, the baton strikes continue.

It’s clear there was no physical provocation for the assaults: Students were trying to prevent police from taking down a fledgling Occupy Cal encampment.

And then last Thursday, UC—Berkeley Chancellor Robert Birgeneau sent an e-mail to the entire campus defending the actions of the police both that afternoon and in a more violent clash later in the evening.

“It is unfortunate that some protesters chose to obstruct the police by linking arms and forming a human chain to prevent the police from gaining access to the tents,” Birgeneau wrote in the e-mail. “This is not non-violent civil disobedience.”

Birgeneau characterized the police actions as being “forced” and expressed regret for “all injuries, to protesters and police, that resulted from this effort.” (It’s worth noting that there are no reports of police injuries, though several protesters reported suffering broken ribs and severe bruising.)

The e-mail, ostensibly written to calm the outrage, only fueled it—and drew a battle line between the Berkeley administration and the rest of the campus community.

Three faculty members, tasked by a caucus of 45 instructors, wrote an open letter to the school administration, including Birgeneau:

We call on the Berkeley administration to immediately put an end to these grotesquely out-scale police responses to peaceful protest. We insist that the administration abandon the premise that the rigid, armed enforcement of a campus regulation, in circumstances lacking any immediate threat to safety, justifies the precipitous use of force.

We express NO CONFIDENCE in the Regents, who have failed in their responsibility to fight for state funding for public education, and have placed the burden of the budget crisis on the backs of students.

As of this post, the letter has received nearly 1,600 signatures from instructors and has also sparked a petition calling for the immediate resignation of top administrators.

“The actions taken go against all that we are taught in the UC system,” student Alexander Judd wrote on the online petition. “The recent course of events have shaken my support for our officers and our administration. Find a little humanity—please—before it is too late.”

Galvanized by the police crackdown and outpouring of support, students have called for a campus general strike on Tuesday. Occupy Oakland, following its massive clash with squads of violent riot police two weeks ago, is planning to join the students and the Stanford encampment has expressed solidarity.

But it’s hard to tell whether the controversy over the brutal police assaults has forced a shift in tactics.

While UC’s Police Chief Mitch Celaya said he hoped to avoid a repeat in police action, he also told the San Francisco Chronicle that the police force was considering the use of pepper spray and tear gas to handle the Tuesday action.

At the General Assembly before the Wednesday night assault, the thousand-strong crowd rehearsed a speaker’s words on the People’s Mic. “It is our duty to fight for our freedom! It is our duty to win!”

And on the same steps of Mario Savio’s famous speech, with decades of powerful history behind them, students and faculty in Berkeley are prepared to stand resolute against the administration that has betrayed them.

Source: http://www.wiretapmag.org/wire/88651/

Heartbeat Alaska PBS: Wide Angle Foreign Correspondent

Her focus is admirable.

2012-03-05T06:42:00.001-08:00

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/blogspot/omgxi/~3/9nktx0GIrGk/her-focus-is-admirable.html

48 Hours Awful Truth On the Record

Baby P's father gets £75,000 damages in People libel case

2012-03-05T03:42:00.001-08:00

Peter Connelly's natural father wins high court payout after paper falsely claimed he was a convicted sex offender

The father of Baby P has been awarded £75,000 in damages after the People falsely claimed he was a convicted sex offender.

Peter Connelly's natural father, who cannot be named for legal reasons, won the payout after the high court in London agreed on Monday that he was wrongly accused of raping a 14-year-old girl in the 1970s.

Mr Justice Bean ordered Mirror Group Newspapers, publisher of the People, to pay an initial £35,000 in damages plus costs of £35,000. The damages payout will rise to £75,000 if the publisher loses permission to take the ruling to the court of appeal.

The allegations were contained in two paragraphs in a crime supplement in the People about Baby P's mother, who had separated from the child's father, referred to in court as KC. They appeared in a 19 September 2010 article headed "Tortured to death as mum turned a blind eye".

Baby P was 17 months old when he was found dead in a blood-splattered cot at his mother's home in Tottenham, north London, in August 2007. He had more than 50 injuries.

Bean said in his written judgment: "It is difficult to think of any charge more calculated to lead to the revulsion and condemnation of a person's fellow citizens than the rape of a 14-year-old girl."

KC said in his witness statement that he was "shocked and upset beyond words" by the false libel, which he first learned about in phone calls from close friends.

The judge said the appropriate starting point for the damages was £150,000. But he reduced this by half, to £75,000 because Mirror Group Newspapers moved swiftly to apologise and correct the error.

• To contact the MediaGuardian news desk email editor@mediaguardian.co.uk or phone 020 3353 3857. For all other inquiries please call the main Guardian switchboard on 020 3353 2000. If you are writing a comment for publication, please mark clearly "for publication".

• To get the latest media news to your desktop or mobile, follow MediaGuardian on Twitter and Facebook.

Josh Halliday

Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2012/mar/05/baby-p-father-people-libel-case

Weekly Standard Face the Nation The McLaughlin Group

It's Working? - Frontier Airlines

2012-03-05T00:42:00.001-08:00

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/blogspot/omgxi/~3/oikVhymnl8k/its-working-frontier-airlines.html

Inside Washington The Least Likely Rock the Vote

Cordray, supposedly "non-political", engaged in political activity

2012-03-04T21:42:00.001-08:00

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ThirdBasePolitics/~3/Z0qw8PcoqSE/cordray-supposedly-non-political.html

The Plain Dealer Seattle Times Detroit Free Press

Tech at Night: Ron Johnson backing GOP’s SECURE IT Act, Anonymous fails again

2012-03-04T18:42:00.001-08:00

Harry Reid may be on a mad dash to bring the radical Liebmerman/Collins/Rockefeller cybersecurity bill, but a broad spectrum of Republicans continue to fight. Democrats may have toned down its Internet Kill Switch provisions, but still is a massive power grab online, and the new SECURE IT act is a much better idea.

What I absolutely love about SECURE it is that it hits all the key points: It strengthens criminal penalties for breaking into servers. It strengthens criminal penalties for breaking into servers (Yes, I said that twice on purpose because it’s that important). It creates private sector information sharing incentives without regulating the private sector at large. It turns inward and gets government to audit its own practices.

These are all the right ideas and none of the wrong ideas. Senator Ron Johnson of Wisconsin is speaking only the common-sense truth when he says “This bill recognizes that industry is at the center of any solution. It’s a sensible step forward that allows industry to invest in innovation and job creation rather than compliance. Imposing a costly and bureaucratic regulatory regime is the wrong approach to national security. New regulations will slow down innovation and investment while companies wait years for the government to introduce outdated standards. The regulatory process simply cannot keep up with the rapid pace of technology.”

It tells you just how basic and correct this bill is when it has co-sponsorship from such a broad spectrum of the caucus: Ron Johnson as mentioned, John McCain, Kay Bailey Hutchison, Chuck Grassley, Saxby Chambliss, Lisa Murkowski, Dan Coats, and Richard Burr.

Support Ron Johnson and the team. We want this bill passed. The common-sense alternative to the power grab cybersecurity bill.

Even extreme libertarians are cautious about the bill instead of strongly opposed, which I think we all can see is a big deal for a bill about strengthening national security. So it’s no wonder Harry Reid is promising to give the bill a fair chance. This could be the one that passes, especially if Greg Walden’s new House cybersecurity efforts make it clear that this is the one that can get through both chambers and to the President.

Criminal enforcement does matter. Why else would Anonymous online terrorists attack the Interpol webpage after an Interpol-led effort rolled up a 25-man Anonymous cell? When we arrest them and jail them, it hurts them. We need to do this more, and we need to make sure the penalties sting.

PATENT WARS: Well, again, this time it’s trademark wars. Apple is going after the EPAD in China after having won the iPad battle.

Why would we be in a rush to raise taxes on Facebook, an innovator and driver of job creation in this economy? Don’t believe me that they create jobs? Just look at Zynga and all the other companies around that exist because of Facebook and its popularity?

Should we have a whole FCC blackout regulation in place solely as a gift to major sports leagues that make billions of dollars? Probably not.

Kim Dotcom claims he’s as innocent as Saddam Hussein in defending his since-raided Megaupload operation. Look, the DMCA model of working with copyright holders is a reasonable one. If he wasn’t doing it, then he had it coming.

Thanks to George Soros, Public Knowledge, Gigi Sohn, and the rest of the anti-AT&T/T-Mobile team, AT&T is now having to stab we (as I’m one) unlimited data plan holders with throttling and caps. Lack of spectrum hurts, kids. And yet some of these people are going to complain that AT&T is doing what it has to after being the target of a team effort by Barack Obama and George Soros.

And they’re going to target AT&T’s next plan, too which is very simple one. AT&T would like to give wireless App developers he opportunity to subsidize data use by their apps, calling it the ’800 number model’ applied to mobile data. Some people are scared to death of this, because competition could force some data-heavy services to consider data costs when designing their apps. But it’s a great, innovative, market-based way to help people on metered data plans manage their use. Government shouldn’t interfere.

Some say we need a national sales tax compact to keep states from having to raise other taxes as the sales tax model breaks down. I’m not sure if it’s a bad thing to just have a smaller, simpler tax code, but it’s a fair point to consider. Some states may overreact, using the sales tax situation as cover for raising revenue.

Tech at Night continues to be on a shifted schedule this week thanks to my being detained last Friday and Monday.

Source: http://www.redstate.com/neil_stevens/2012/03/02/tech-at-night-ron-johnson-backing-gops-secure-it-act-anonymous-fails-again/

The Situation Room Dateline NBC Smoking Gun TV

Nancy Pelosi: Ryan-Wyden Medicare plan 'lipstick on a pig'

2012-03-04T15:42:00.001-08:00

Nancy Pelosi and Steny Hoyer (Joshua Roberts/REUTERS)

If Rep. Steny Hoyer really wants to take us down a path to austerity by cutting Social Security and Medicare, thank goodness he's going to have to get past Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi first.

She spoke with Greg Sargent on Friday, and had strong words for efforts, namely by Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) and Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) to move Medicare to a voucher program, arguing that however they want to spin it, it's still going to do irreparable damage to the program.

Pelosi [argued] that Ryan-Wyden still would ultimately end Medicare as we know it, and that this is a case Dems can take to the American people.
“What they’re trying to do is put lipstick on a pig—that would be Ryan—and call it Monique—that would be Wyden,” Pelosi said. “But it’s still a pig.”

The Ryan-Wyden plan would offer seniors quasi-vouchers to pay for private health insurance but would also preserve traditional Medicare as an option. Pelosi argued that this still ensures that Medicare will “wither on the vine,” adding: “The Republican plan would break the Medicare guarantee.”

Pelosi's message couldn't be stronger, or a better repudiation of Hoyer (who is probably launching his "grand bargain" campaign in hopes of being in a position to challenge Pelosi for the speakership should Democrats regain the House). Pelosi's got the messaging track record here, as Sargent points out. She "helped engineer the defeat of George W. Bush’s Social Security plan by insisting that Dems not offer a plan of their own. Speaking about the Dem Medicare message, she advised: 'Keep it simple.'" It worked to derail the privatization of Social Security, and helped Democrats in the 2006 election. It'll work now, if the Steny Hoyers and Ron Wydens of the party don't get in the way.

Source: http://feeds.dailykos.com/~r/dailykos/index/~3/qeL8cj5HVZM/-Nancy-Pelosi-Ryan-Wyden-Medicare-plan-lipstick-on-a-pig-

The Economist The MoJo Wire Atlantic Unbound

BREAKING: Mitt Romney Urged Obama to Embrace the Individual Mandate

2012-03-04T12:42:00.001-08:00

Had Michigan not been as close, the Democrats would have waited to spring this on us in the general election. Luckily we have it now and I hope Ohio voters are paying attention.

In July 2009, Mitt Romney wrote an op-ed in USA Today urging Barack Obama to usean individual mandate at the national level to control healthcare costs.

On the campaign trail now, Mitt Romney says the individual mandate is appropriate for Massachusetts, but not the nation. Repeatedly in debates, Romney has said he opposes a national individual mandate.

But back in 2009, as Barack Obama was formulating his healthcare vision for the country, Mitt Romney encouraged him publicly to use an individual mandate. In his op-ed, Governor Romney suggested that the federal government learn from Massachusetts how to make healthcare available for all. One of those things was “Using tax penalties, as we did, or tax credits, as others have proposed, encourages “free riders” to take responsibility for themselves rather than pass their medical costs on to others.”

Friends, if Mitt Romney is the nominee, we will be unable to fight Obama on an issue that 60% of Americans agree with us on.

Source: http://www.redstate.com/erick/2012/03/02/breaking-mitt-romney-urged-obama-to-embrace-the-individual-mandate/

Newsweek Roll Call Time

Read Stuff, You Should

2012-03-04T09:42:00.001-08:00

Happy Birthday to leap baby Bart Stupak, 60. Most of you only know Stupak from the ACA fight, but I've been following him for some time; one of my undergrad students wrote about him, Fenno-style, in something I worked on long ago when I was back in grad school. So I've always payed at least a little attention to Stupak over the years. I thought he was a good Member.

Moving on to the good stuff:

1. Reihan Salam reads the epic Bawn, Cohen, Karol, Masket, Noel, and Zaller party theory paper. I have my differences with them, but it's good to see great political science work getting a wide audience.

2. Greg Sargent notes that the birth control wars are coming to Senate races.

3. Shani Hilton reads the WaPo coverage of black women and is, shall we say, not impressed.

4. Matt Glassman and I have been having a sort of "how fast would unicorns be if they were real?" argument about deadlocked conventions, and he took another run at it yesterday. I think I've maybe half-convinced him, which is fine because I'm only half-convinced myself.

5. And via Bouie -- this is absolutely brilliant. I've always argued that Lucas's mistake was that he really should have cut Phantom Menace down into a 10-15 minute prelude to Episode II, which leaves room to make a movie set during the Clone Wars...but Rod Hilton's ideas here, I think, make that entirely irrelevant.

Source: http://plainblogaboutpolitics.blogspot.com/2012/02/read-stuff-you-should_29.html

MSNBC CNN Headline News Fox Business Network

Rush Limbaugh losing advertisers, keep up the good work!

2012-03-04T06:42:00.001-08:00

Republicans might be so scared of Rush Limbaugh that they don't care about public opinion and refuse to take him on, but private companies are a different matter.

The national mattress chain Sleep Train was the first to bail.

We don't condone negative comments directed toward any group. In response, we are currently pulling our ads from Rush
with Rush Limbaugh.
— @theSleepTrain via Twuffer

They've been joined by Select Comfort/Sleep Number.

Recent comments by Rush Limbaugh do not align w/our values, so we made decision to immediately suspend all advertising on that program.
— @SleepNumberSara via web

And Quicken Loans.

Due to continued inflammatory commentsâ€“ along w/valuable feedback from clients & team membersâ€“ QL has suspended ads on Rush Limbaugh program
— @quickenloans via web

And the Cleveland Cavaliers, at least temporarily:

The Cleveland Cavaliers have decided to suspend any and all on-air advertising with the Rush Limbaugh radio program, citing “inflammatory comments” coupled with valuable feedback from both clients and team employees.

Then there's ProFlowers, which seems pretty darned committed to not taking a strong stand on this one. Here's a representative tweet to a disgruntled customer.

@utbrp We would like to assure you that we do not endorse the views expressed by Rush Limbaugh and we appreciate your feedback.
— @ProFlowers via web

Seriously, a flower company? Is there really a market for sending your girlfriend flowers from someplace known for siding with the guy who calls people 'sluts'? That there is a questionable marketing decision.

Other companies are working hard to distance themselves from Limbaugh:

The Twitter feed of online dating site eHarmony read, "We’ve never paid for ads on Limbaugh show. We’re looking into the matter of 'network buys' and will let you know what we discover." (Updated at 4:25 p.m. ET.: Spokeswoman Becky Teraoka said via e-mail, "We do have that confirmation" that a network buy did not land eHarmony advertising on Limbaugh's show.)
Ray Pohlman, spokesman for AutoZone, said the company had never advertised with Limbaugh and was working with its media buyers to find out if any ads did air. "If a commercial ran, it was in error," he said. "We're running it down."

Keep up the pressure. Sign the petition telling advertisers to dump Rush.

6:25 PM PT (Barbara Morrill): Another company pulls their advertising!

We have listened to our customers & have decided to cease our advertising on The Rush Limbaugh Show immediately. https://t.co/...

— @citrix via web

7:01 PM PT (Barbara Morrill): One more ... keep up the pressure!

@drpfox As of today, LegalZoom has suspended all advertising on the Rush Limbaugh show.
— @LegalZoom via HootSuite

Source: http://feeds.dailykos.com/~r/dailykos/index/~3/iXf8B40iHw0/-Rush-Limbaugh-losing-advertisers-keep-up-the-good-work-

San Francisco Chronicle Newark Star-Ledger Boston Globe

Competitive Conservative Governors

2012-03-04T03:42:00.001-08:00

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ThirdBasePolitics/~3/ORDgZaeUE2w/competitive-conservative-governors.html

On the Record Heartbeat Alaska PBS: Wide Angle

Sen. Russ Feingold, New Obama Election Co-Chair: "The President is Wrong" to Accept Super PAC Money

2012-03-04T00:42:00.001-08:00

One of the newly named co-chairs of President Obama's re-election campaign is openly criticizing the President's decision to accept super PAC funds, his record on civil liberties, and his handling of the war in Afghanistan. Former U.S. Senator Russ Feingold of Wisconsin has described Obama's decision on super PACs as "dancing the with the devil." At the time Feingold was named a campaign election co-chair on Wednesday, the lead headline on his organization's website read: "The President is Wrong." "I think it's a big mistake to go down the road of unlimited, undisclosed corporate contributions," Feingold says. "That's not who Barack Obama is. That's not what the Democratic Party should be. And I think it doesn't help him get re-elected. And I think it delivers the Democrats, as well as the Republicans, to corporate power and corporate domination." Feingold served in the U.S. Senate for 18 years. During that time, he wrote the landmark campaign finance law, McCain-Feingold. He also opposed the war in Iraq and was the only senator to vote against the USA PATRIOT Act. After he lost his re-election bid in 2010, he founded the organization Progressives United. His new book is called "While America Sleeps: A Wake-Up Call for the Post-9/11 Era." [includes rush transcript]

Source: http://www.democracynow.org/2012/2/23/sen_russ_feingold_new_obama_election

New California Media Inside Washington The Least Likely

Try again?

2012-03-03T21:42:00.001-08:00

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/blogspot/omgxi/~3/rRLQkhRB4yQ/try-again.html

St. Petersburg Times The Oregonian The Plain Dealer

Senate Narrowly Defeats Anti-Contraception Bill as Reproductive Rights Come Under Sustained Attack

2012-03-03T18:42:00.001-08:00

The U.S. Senate has narrowly rejected an effort to vastly expand conscience exemptions in President Obama's new birth control coverage rule that already allows exemptions for religiously affiliated institutions. The Blunt Amendment, sponsored by Republican Sen. Roy Blunt of Missouri, would have let any U.S. employer deny contraceptive health coverage on religious or moral grounds, but it failed in a 51-48 vote largely along partisan lines. "What's really surprising to me about the Blunt Amendment is that it did not fail 99 to one," says Terry O'Neill, president of the National Organization for Women. "It's appalling that politicians really think they can get away with restricting birth control." In other reproductive rights news, a Virginia bill mandating ultrasound exams for women seeking abortions has cleared its final legislative hurdle and is expected to be signed into law. "I can't think of any other area, in the 20 years that I've been practicing medicine, where I've been forced by the government, someone who has no medical training or background, to use a particular test or to inform a patient about information," notes Dr. Willie Parker, an abortion provider and board member of Physicians for Reproductive Choice and Health. [includes rush transcript]

Source: http://www.democracynow.org/2012/3/2/senate_narrowly_defeats_anti_contraception_bill

NewsNight Politically Incorrect Frontline

Now playing at today's Mitt Romney event...

2012-03-03T15:42:00.001-08:00

Hahahahahahahaha:

"Do You Love Me?" now playing at Romney event
— @daveweigel via TweetDeck

If you have to ask, Mitt...

Source: http://feeds.dailykos.com/~r/dailykos/index/~3/-gblgKbF07o/-Now-playing-at-today-s-Mitt-Romney-event-

Fox and Friends This Week The Colbert Report

Report from Kabul: Deadly Protests over U.S. Koran Burning May Be Turning Point for U.S. Occupation

2012-03-03T12:42:00.001-08:00

The U.S.-led NATO occupation in Afghanistan is facing a storm of violence and outrage over the burning of copies of the Koran by U.S. troops at the Bagram Air Base last week. Retaliatory attacks and public protests have swept Afghanistan, leaving more than 40 Afghans dead. On Sunday, six U.S. soldiers were injured in northern Afghanistan when a demonstrator threw a grenade at a U.S. base. Two senior U.S. Army officers were shot dead on Friday inside the Afghan Interior Ministry. In private, U.S. officials are expressing worry about the situation in Afghanistan. We go to Kabul to speak with John Wendle, a reporter for TIME and photographer for Polaris Images. "I think we're going to continue to see attacks," Wendle says. "[This] makes it difficult for the United States to pull out and achieve the one goal that it's kind of set for itself, which is training the Afghan security forces so they can stand on their own two feet and provide security in this country." [includes rush transcript]

Source: http://www.democracynow.org/2012/2/28/report_from_kabul_deadly_protests_over

Awful Truth On the Record Heartbeat Alaska

Daily Kos Elections Morning Digest: Dem Rep. Mike Michaud won't run for Senate in Maine

2012-03-03T09:42:00.001-08:00

Want the scoop on hot races around the country? Get the digest emailed to you each weekday morning. Sign up here.

Leading Off:

• ME-Sen, ME-02, ME-01: Hel-lo! After an absolutely frenzied couple of days filled with endless maneuvering and speculation, Dem Rep. Mike Michaud has announced that, in the end, he's decided not to run for Senate. This means two things for sure: (1) Michaud's fellow Rep. Chellie Pingree is now the undisputed front-runner for the Democratic nomination (even though she hasn't formally said she's running yet), though ex-Gov. John Baldacci seems quite interested as well; (2) all those hopefuls who started gathering signatures for a run in Michaud's 2nd Congressional District are now out-of-luck, especially former SoS Matt Dunlap, who previously was running for Senate.

The one open question is whether state Senate President Kevin Raye, a Republican who had been looking at the Senate contest, will opt for that race, or whether he'll stick with his plans to challenge Michaud for the House seat. In other words, will Raye become Pingree's problem, or will he remain Michaud's? I'm sure we'll find out soon.

As for the GOP side of the Senate field, things have been slower to develop. In fact, not a single candidate had, as of Thursday, taken out papers from the Secretary of State's office to begin signature gathering. (One GOP strategist tried to explain away , saying: "Republicans are more thoughtful in our policies and our politics." That made me LOL.) Roll Call's Abby Livingston, though, has what's probably the most up-to-date list of legitimate contenders who are weighing the race. One of them, incidentally, is state Treasurer Bruce Poliquin... but does he really want to run with headlines like this? The lede kind of says it all:

The Maine House of Representatives unanimously passed an order Thursday requesting the state’s highest court to issue an opinion on whether Treasurer Bruce Poliquin has violated the state constitution by engaging in commerce while in office.

Livingston's story also brings us up to speed on the status of Eliot Cutler, the independent who nearly won 2010's gubernatorial race, and whose presence in the Senate race could scramble the calculus. (All we had to go on previously was a year-old report that he wasn't interested in running in a hypothetical Senate race against Olympia Snowe.) A former Cutler aide says his old boss is "considering" but remains "undecided," though he adds that Cutler probably wouldn't run if ex-Gov. Angus King does. King is the state's other prominent indie, who said went on record to say that he's "actively considering."

Finally, as for ME-01 (which looks likely to be vacated by Chellie Pingree), the Portland Press-Herald has what they say is a complete list of all candidates who have taken out papers so far. (David Nir & David Jarman)

Source: http://feeds.dailykos.com/~r/dailykos/index/~3/Zfq1LcTQ_EM/-Daily-Kos-Elections-Morning-Digest-Dem-Rep-Mike-Michaud-won-t-run-for-Senate-in-Maine

New York Times San Jose Mercury News Washington Post

Midday open thread

2012-03-03T06:42:00.001-08:00

Today's comic by Matt Bors is The diary of Anne Frank: Mormon heaven:
What's coming up on Sunday Kos ...
- Ohio and Super Tuesday preview, by DemFromCT
- George Will, Paul Krugman, and "opportunity," by Hunter
- New York City's flawed data fuels the right's war on teachers, by Laura Clawson
- Super PACs and the law of intended consequences, by Georgia Logothetis
- On "Wrecking Ball," Bruce Springsteen takes aim at robber barons and
  bankers, by Laura Clawson
- Women of color in women's history. Part one: Native American, by Denise Oliver Velez
- Defying the odds: A vision for victory in North Carolina, by Scott Wooledge
- Part II of the encroachment of religion on our secular government, by Armando
- How Olympia Snowe should have fought against polarized politics, by Dante Atkins
The Dover Air Base mortuary supervisor who should have been fired long ago gives his bosses an out by resigning.
He was one of three supervisors at Dover whom the Air Force in November accused of “gross mismanagement” at the military’s primary mortuary for handling America’s war dead. An 18-month investigation, spurred by whistleblowers who worked for Keel, documented instances of missing body parts and the sloppy handling of human remains, among other problems.
U.S. Troops in transit find it's far cheaper to call home from Afghanistan than from German airport pay-phones.
Pollution from tar sands mining shows up on NASA photos. The emissions come from excavators, dump trucks, extraction pumps and wells, and the facilities where the oil sands are partially refined.
The homecoming kiss that went viral is still getting a lot of positive feedback, according to Sgt. Brandon Morgan, the gay Marine who kissed and wrapped his legs around his partner inside an aircraft hangar at a base in Hawaii. The outpouring has included 40,000 "likes" on the Gay Marine page on Facebook and a deluge of reporter requests for interviews. Morgan also has had a discussion with higher-ups:

Feedback from fellow Marines has been positive too, Morgan said, though he has some regret for jumping on Wells. He called that "excess amount of public display of affection." His superiors have talked to him about it, he said, and he agrees he went a little too far. The Marines have rules, even at homecomings, Morgan said.
"I love him so much. It was my chance to show him how much I love him openly. But then again, I'm still a Marine," he said.
Suck-ups in the right-wing media did everything they could think of to ingratiate themselves with Sarah Palin, according to her emails released as part of an open-records request by Mother Jones.
Jaroslav Flegr should make sure to avoid any pootie diaries. He believes that a single-celled protozoan, Toxoplasma gondii, excreted by cats in their feces, messed with his personality, making him behave in strange and self-destructive ways. He was ignored for a long time, but is now gaining respectability:

[I]f Flegr is right, the “latent” parasite may be quietly tweaking the connections between our neurons, changing our response to frightening situations, our trust in others, how outgoing we are, and even our preference for certain scents. And that’s not all. He also believes that the organism contributes to car crashes, suicides, and mental disorders such as schizophrenia. When you add up all the different ways it can harm us, says Flegr, “Toxoplasma might even kill as many people as malaria, or at least a million people a year.”
Another fossil-fuel billionaire has joined Mitt Romney's energy policy team. This time it's newly mega-rich Harold Hamm, who made his $12 billion fortune off North Dakota shale oil. He will be leading a team that includes coal lobbyist Jim Talent and tar sands lobbyist David Wilkins.
Oceans may be turning acidic faster than they did at any time in the past 300 million years, a period in there were four major extinctions, says a new study in Science. In the earlier periods "natural pulses of carbon sent global temperatures soaring," but the current rise comes from human-caused emissions.

Source: http://feeds.dailykos.com/~r/dailykos/index/~3/TW_YxWte_DU/-Midday-open-thread

CBS Evening News CBS Sunday Morning NewsHour

Homs shelled again as Syrian troops keep Red Cross out

2012-03-03T03:42:00.001-08:00

Regime refuses entry for medical convoy, while bodies of journalists Marie Colvin and Remi Ochlik have been retrieved

Syrian activists say troops are shelling several districts in the rebellious central city of Homs where the government is stopping a Red Cross convoy from reaching thousands stranded in the area.

Abu Hassan al-Homsi, a doctor at a makeshift clinic in Khaldiyeh district of Homs, said he had treated a dozen wounded from the latest onslaught.

The Local Co-ordination Committees activist network said mortars began slaimming into Khaldiyeh, Bab Sbaa and Khader districts of the city early on Saturday.

The shelling comes amid a standoff between the government and the Red Cross, which says authorities have prevented its convoy from delivering badly needed food, medical supplies and blankets to thousands of people still stranded in Baba Amr, the rebel-held district of Homs that was overrun by troops on Thursday.

Despite receiving permission from the government to send a convoy with seven truckloads of aid into Baba Amr, the Red Cross was prevented from entering the neighbourhood, an action it described as "unacceptable".

The refusal to allow the convoy in to treat and evacuate the wounded came as the organisation announced that the Syrian authorities had handed over the bodies of Marie Colvin and Remi Ochlik, who were killed in an attack on a press centre in Baba Amr over a week ago.

"We have the bodies of two journalists, Marie Colvin and Remi Ochlik. They are being taken by ambulance of the Syrian Arab Red Crescent, accompanied by the ICRC, and are heading to Damascus," chief spokeswoman Carla Haddad told Reuters in Geneva. "They were handed over in Homs by the Syrian authorities."

The French journalist Edith Bouvier, who was badly wounded in the same attack, arrived back in France on Friday with her colleague William Daniels.

The Commenting on the halting of the convoy, Red Cross president, Jakob Kellenberger, said: "It is unacceptable that people who have been in need of emergency assistance for weeks have still not received any help.

"We are staying in Homs tonight in the hope of entering Baba Amr in the very near future. In addition, many families have fled Baba Amr, and we will help them as soon as we possibly can.

"We reiterate the appeal we made several days ago, for a daily two-hour halt in the fighting to allow humanitarian assistance," added Kellenberger. "The humanitarian situation was very serious then and it is worse now."

The Red Cross had hoped to bring urgent medical and food aid to civilians trapped in Baba Amr after fighters with the Free Syrian Army announced on Thursday that they were withdrawing from their positions.

Reports from other opposition-held neighbourhoods in the city of one million suggested that fighters may also have pulled back from their positions there.

Anti-Assad activists have accused Syrian troops of burning houses, arresting all males over the age of 12 and of extrajudicial killings, including the alleged beheadings of 17 men captured after the suburb's fall.

Bassel Fouad, a Syrian activist who fled to Lebanon from Baba Amr two days ago, said a colleague there told him that troops and pro-government gunmen known as shabiha were conducting house-to-house raids. "The situation is worse than terrible inside Baba Amr," he said. "Shabiha are entering homes and setting them on fire."

His colleague said the gunmen lined 10 men up early on Friday and shot them dead outside a government co-operative that sells subsidised food. He said Syrian forces were detaining anyone over the age of 14 in the three-storey building. "They begin at the start of a street and enter and search house after house," he said. "Then they start with another street."

None of his claims could be independently verified.

"There's no resistance here," one activist in the northern neighbourhood of Khalidiyeh told the Guardian yesterday. "There is only shelling and bombing."

The situation in Baba Amr itself was described by an onlooker. "Today the Syrian army are in control. There are a lot of wounded who could not flee. The Syrian army is firing against anything they can find in front of them. They are arresting any young men they find."

In other parts of the city, such as Khalidiyeh, residents said the fighters who remained were low on ammunition: "We have members of the FSA here, but they have a small amount of ammunition and they are trying to use every bullet against the right target." He accused the army of murdering a family in Baba Amr, and added: "The Syrian army are arresting any man they find from 14 years upwards."

Syria has faced mounting international criticism over its bloody crackdown on the uprising, which started with peaceful protests but has become increasingly militarised. The UN has estimated that more than 7,500 people have been killed in the past year. Activists put the death toll at over 8,000.

France said on Friday it is closing its embassy in Syria. The US and Britain have already closed their embassies.

French president Nicolas Sarkozy called the events in Syria a "scandal", adding that the European Council "condemned in the harshest terms what is happening in Syria".

Ambassador Eric Chevallier had only recently returned to Damascus after being recalled to Paris for consultations. He was sent back to help try to get Bouvier and Daniels out of Syria.

The west has stepped up its criticism of Assad's regime amid mounting reports of atrocities by security forces. The US has called for Assad to step down and Hillary Clinton has said he could be considered a war criminal.

Russia's prime minister Vladimir Putin criticised the west on Friday for backing the Syrian opposition against the government, saying it had fuelled the conflict.

But his foreign ministry made it clear it will not be able to stop other countries from launching a military intervention if they try to do so without UN approval.

Putin called for both Syrian government and opposition forces to pull out of besieged cities to end the bloodshed, adding that western refusal to make that demand of Assad's opponents has encouraged them to keep fighting. "Do they want Assad to pull out his forces so the opposition moves right in?" he said at a meeting with editors of western newspapers in remarks carried by state television. "Is it a balanced approach?"

Activist groups said protesters who took to the streets in towns across Syria on Friday were met with teargas, gunfire and mass arrests. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 10 people were killed in the town of Rastan near Homs when a mortar landed near marchers. The Local Co-ordination Committees of Syria said 16 were killed in the same event, among 52 reported dead nationwide.

Protesters dubbed Friday the day of "Arming the Free Syrian Army", reflecting a widening perception that only military action can stop the crackdown on dissent and hasten Assad's downfall.

Peter Beaumont

Mona Mahmood

Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/mar/03/baba-amr-syria-red-cross

George Magazine The Economist The MoJo Wire

Oy, Bai

2012-03-03T00:42:00.001-08:00

Matt Bai complained in the NYT Magazine on Sunday (yeah, as usual I'm a bit behind on the Sunday papers)* about the proposed Ike Memorial, saying "I mean, Ike was a terrific general, but was he really one of our greatest presidents?"

Really?

Assuming we're talking here about just the world of public affairs (so leaving aside Louis Armstrong, Willie Mays, Martin Scorsese, Bob Mould, and other great Americans from other walks of life), are your really going to top Ike? Let's see...for the twentieth century, the consensus Greatest President is certainly FDR, and there's probably something very close to a consensus that King is the greatest non-president. Both have memorials. But I think an excellent case can be made for Ike as a logical third choice.

First, his value added as president. It's pretty high. The consensus of academic and other expert surveys puts him at 5th among 20th century presidents, behind FDR, TR, Wilson, and Truman. Since I think Wilson belongs somewhere, er, below that...I think you can make an argument that Ike is in a group for #2, and it's hard to argue he's much lower than 5th. That's pretty good! But then his value added outside of his presidency is extremely high for a president. Not, I'd say, as high as King. But in a group there of the other important non-presidents of the twentieth century, along with Warren, Humphrey...I don't know; pick your favorites. Want to argue Thurgood Marshall? George Marshall? Fine, but Ike is going to be at the very least in the running for top ten -- this, again, just for outside of his presidency. No? (Remember, we're just considering public affairs, so no So we have a top-five president who may well be top-five for outside of his presidency as well. Certainly puts him above, say, Truman and TR, not to mention Wilson, at least unless you put a lot of emphasis on having a pre-political career as a political scientist.

Now, I can understand an argument that warriors should be de-emphasized in our political culture, but that would be a real change, for better or worse. And Bai's concerns about Taft notwithstanding, I don't think we've really gone overboard on twentieth century figures, at least so far. So, yeah, Ike seems like a pretty reasonable choice to me. I don't know that it's necessary for him to have a major memorial, but neither do I think of him as a marginal case to celebrate in some serious way.

[Update]:
*Sorry, couldn't find a link to it; it's just a short little thing on the one-page magazine page.

Source: http://plainblogaboutpolitics.blogspot.com/2012/02/oy-bai.html

Federal Times Governing The New Republic

Why Don’t Liberals Write Big Books Anymore?

2012-03-02T21:42:00.001-08:00

Fifty years ago, liberals and radicals were eager and able to think big. Jane Jacobs’s The Death and Life of Great American Cities, published in 1961, sparked a campaign to defend and develop diverse urban neighborhoods. In 1962, Michael Harrington’s The Other America, with its startling revelations about the depth and extent of poverty, as well as Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring, the first environmental best-seller, appeared. That summer, a band of twentysomethings, led by Tom Hayden, produced “The Port Huron Statement,” the manifesto of the white New Left, which offered participatory democracy as the antidote to an over-managed, bureaucratic society. Then, in 1963, James Baldwin’s angry yet hopeful The Fire Next Time branded racism “a recipe for murder”; and Betty Friedan’s The Feminine Mystique provided a candid, stirring diagnosis of female submission which helped galvanize the fledgling women’s movement.

The prose in all these works was forceful and often eloquent in its urgency. “Our work is guided by the sense that we may be the last generation in the experiment with living,” wrote Hayden and his comrades. Friedan’s “problem that has no name” would soon acquire one, sexism, which identified a set of grievances shared by millions of women. All six authors did much to set the agenda for the American left, broadly defined, for the next two decades and more. Every major social movement echoed some or all of their ideas, and Democrats in the White House or with aspirations to live there had to respond. So why, a half-century later, has no one emulated these authors’ achievements?

Part of the answer, of course, is that American politics has marched decisively rightward since the 1970s and turned liberals into a defensive breed. The most prominent liberal writers—Paul Krugman, for example—now dedicate themselves to defending the reforms enacted from FDR to LBJ’s administration and rebutting free-market fantasies, rather than proposing fresh models or theories. The best-known radicals—like Michael Moore or Naomi Klein—produce witty critiques of global capitalism, but they lack both a credible alternative and a sensible strategy to achieve it. Perhaps another Hayden or Baldwin will emerge from the ranks of the Occupy protestors. But so far, that movement has generated memorable slogans rather than persuasive statements. It’s hard today to invoke a sustained passion for beginning the world over again.

The present cultural environment also discourages writers from attempting the kind of lucid, extended essays about “social problems” that were the basis of those landmark books from the early 1960s. Not a single one of the now-famous authors from that era had earned a Ph.D. But today, most intellectuals on the left hold academic jobs, and the pressure to write primarily for one’s peers is hard to resist. Professors who do break from the pack tend to produce syntheses of existing knowledge fit for a PBS special instead of seeking to engage the public with original ideas and compelling prose. Or they throw themselves into an activism of the moment—narrowing their role as critics to giving speeches, drafting op-eds, and appearing on cable television.

The screeching sirens of celebrity-making abet this process as well, turning an elegant, if sometimes polemical, writer like Christopher Hitchens into a star whose personality threatened to outshine his work. So too does a media universe that prizes the quick and the clever while frowning on serious but artfully written pieces whose authority depends on the thick description of people and the structures within which they must live and work.

Some influential thinkers on the left have argued that, amid the current rage for austerity, there is no time or role for visionary thinkers. In one of his last works, Tony Judt soberly wrote, “imperfect improvements upon unsatisfactory circumstances are the best that we can hope for, and probably all that we should seek.” Against a dogmatic right, equipped with almost unlimited funds, defending the limited welfare state will, argue Judt and others, be quite hard enough.

But the bullheadedness of the right is precisely why big, original ideas by liberal and radical writers are needed. Conservatives gained ideological dominance by proudly declaring their principles and criticizing the left for having the wrong ones or none at all. From Hayek to Friedman to Kristol to Murray, their intellectuals fashioned a bold, if simplistic, world-view that has endured and often prospered, despite their politicians’ inept governance and duplicitous attitude toward spending and taxes.

This fall, progressives who rally behind Obama may stave off the latest assault on programs that the majority of Americans want and need. But they will have to continue waging the same defensive struggle unless they change the questions under debate. Certainly, the problems we face today are no less urgent or difficult than they were a half-century ago: How to spur growth and minimize poverty, while preserving the environment? How to combat the armies of fundamentalism that imperil the freedoms and security of their own citizens? How to create jobs for women and men who will never have a profession but should not have to spend their days in peril or boredom? Intellectuals obviously cannot resolve these questions by themselves. But only with the aid of talented, visionary writers will they gain the attention they deserve. Then, perhaps, what Michael Harrington called “the left wing of the possible” might again become a thrilling as well as a useful place to be.

Michael Kazin is author of American Dreamers: How the Left Changed a Nation. He teaches history at Georgetown University and is co-editor of Dissent.

Source: http://www.tnr.com/article/books-and-arts/101171/liberal-books-thinkers-friedan-hitchens-krugman-critics

Commentary CounterPunch Dissent

Ways to lose elections, Volume 258

2012-03-02T18:42:00.001-08:00

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/blogspot/omgxi/~3/oZFH4eEogsE/ways-to-lose-elections-volume-258.html

The American Prospect The Atlantic The New Yorker

These Are a Few of Mitt’s Favorite Things…

2012-03-02T15:42:00.001-08:00

Mitt Romney Visits Michigan

“I love this state. It seems right here. The trees are the right height. I like seeing the lakes. I love the lakes. There’s something very special here. The Great Lakes, but also all the little inland lakes that dot the parts of Michigan. I love cars. I dunno, I mean, I grew up totally in love with cars.”

—Mitt Romney, February 16, 2012

Mitt Romney Visits Arizona

“I love this state, too. It seems right here. Even more right than Michigan. The heat is the right temperature. The spines on the cacti are just the right sharpness. I like drought. I enjoy canyons. I grew up totally in love with canyons. There were pictures of canyons on my bedroom wall. I also love mountains.”

Mitt Romney Visits the Dentist

“I love this place. I love drills and fillings. I love plaque, and also the removal of plaque. I like teeth that are inside the mouth, but I also like teeth that are outside the mouth. I grew up totally in love with novocaine. I’m addicted to novocaine. I wish I could go to the dentist every day, and get a shot of novocaine. My dentist is just the right height. He’s also approximately the right width.”

Mitt Romney Visits the Bathroom in the Coach Section of a Commercial Airplane

“I am absolutely in love with this place. The toilet is just the right size. I love cramped spaces that smell like human waste. I’m totally in love with used paper towels. I like it when other passengers flush the toilet, but I also like it when they don’t.”

Mitt Romney Visits a Department of Motor Vehicles

“I love this place, so much. The lines are just the right length. Not too short. I hate short lines. I love how this place hearkens back to a simpler time in our history, before we knew how to efficiently process people through a system that could very easily be automated. I grew up in love with civil servants struggling to perform simple tasks. There’s something very special in here. The eye charts. I love eye charts.”

Mitt Romney Visits Rick Santorum’s House

“I really love this place. I love tiny houses that only cost one or two million dollars. I grew up in a bedroom about the size of three of these houses. I love the domestic staff that works inside a house, but also the staff that works outside a house. Where is all the staff? I don't see them. I think this house is terrific, especially given the size of Rick Santorum. I think he is the perfect depth.”

Jeremy Blachman is a freelance writer and the author of Anonymous Lawyer, a comic novel about corporate law.

Source: http://www.tnr.com/article/politics/101072/things-mitt-romney-loves-likes-humor

Fox News MSNBC CNN Headline News

Elsewhere: ACA for Obama, and More on Santorum's Slim Support

2012-03-02T12:42:00.001-08:00

At Plum Line today, I argued that ACA is unlikely to be a significant liability for Barack Obama this fall -- and at any rate, the current polling on it is unlikely to predict how it will play then.

And at PostPartisan, I talked about another aspect of what I find the most fascinating thing in this GOP nomination cycle: the almost complete endorsement shutout for Rick Santorum. This time, I suggested that in addition to the lack of support causing his recent slide in the polls, it may also have predicted it: perhaps one of the reasons the people who have worked with him aren't supporting him is because they didn't think he was national candidate material. Of course, as I mention there and have said before, there's also the possibility that many of them, even strong conservatives, really support Romney but just don't want to say so out loud.

I still basically think that Santorum could have had an excellent chance of winning the nomination had high-profile conservatives rallied to him after Iowa (yes, even if he had apparently finished a few votes behind Romney). That can't be proved, nor can we prove why they didn't. We sure know that it happened -- or, rather, didn't happen, however.

Source: http://plainblogaboutpolitics.blogspot.com/2012/02/elsewhere-aca-for-obama-and-more-on.html

Governing The New Republic Boston Review

Senate defeats Blunt amendment in a too close for comfort 51-48 vote

2012-03-02T09:42:00.001-08:00

Women's health and reproductive rights are hanging by a very slim thread right now, as the narrow 51-48 vote to table the destructive Blunt amendment demonstrates.

Democrats Bob Casey, Joe Manchin, and Ben Nelson, along with those so-called "moderate" Republicans—Scott Brown, Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski—really proved that the Democratic tent has gotten just a little bit too big when it comes to protecting women's reproductive rights. It also shows that Democrats can't just make nice noises about protecting our rights, and women's groups can't just use these fights to fundraise.

They have to start fighting for real. When it's to the point that we've almost lost birth control, for fuck's sake, it's gone way, way too far.

Source: http://feeds.dailykos.com/~r/dailykos/index/~3/ofEbV_02UzQ/-Senate-defeats-Blunt-amendment-in-a-too-close-for-comfort-51-49-nbsp-vote-

Source: http://objectiveconservative.blogspot.com/2012/02/bleak-prospects-for-gop-presidency.html

Bleak Prospects for a G.O.P. Presidency??

2012-03-02T06:42:00.001-08:00

We like Larry Sabato and generally agree with his iterations. For that reason we're not exactly delighted at his Crystal Ball discussion today. He certainly isn't optimistic about the chances of replacing the current occupant of the White House come this fall.

We think gas prices and the economy are going to still energize independents and moderates to vote for ABO--anybody but Obama. Also, given the volatility of Iraq and the Middle East anything can happen--good or bad for the president.

As, Sabato says, eight months is a long way away. But here is his Thursday iteration.

The Santorum Surge and Its Larger Meaning by Larry Sabato, Director, U. VA., Center for Politics

"What a long, strange trip it's been -- and it is only February. Real votes make clear what polls cannot fully pick up. The Republican election season has been shaped by two forces, other than the obvious one to oust President Obama. First, the strongest potential candidates did not enter the fray, and the remaining contenders do not satisfy most GOP voters. At every polling opportunity, Republicans have expressed their desire for a wider choice. Put another way, Republicans would love to combine the economic acumen of Mitt Romney, the social conservatism of Rick Santorum, the debating skills of Newt Gingrich and the enthusiasm of young voters for Ron Paul into one candidate. That feat must await several generations of advances in genetic engineering.

The second force that has defined the GOP contest cannot be denied. A sizable section of the party base, arguably a majority, does not connect with or trust the establishment pick for the nomination, Mitt Romney. The old "dog food" anecdote is overused, but never has it applied more precisely. Romney's can of dog food has the handsomest label, the best placement in the store by the grocers, the most astute TV advertising, but the only problem is the dogs turn up their noses at the can's contents. Perhaps canines are still in a snit about Romney's positioning of Seamus in a cage on top of the family car back in 1983.

Republicans Consider Santorum

Buyer's remorse is very common in the history of presidential nominating politics. Just when it appears that one candidate is headed for the party nod, the voters pause and say, "wait a minute, let's think about this some more, the frontrunner's inadequacies trouble us." Then they opt to keep the contest alive by elevating one of the other candidates -- for a while, at least. Rarely, though, has buyer's remorse been as acute as in 2012. In fact, it is not at all clear that most Republicans have ever bought into Romney at all. Temporary non-Romney frontrunners included Rick Perry, Herman Cain and Michele Bachmann, not to mention ghost frontrunners (such as Chris Christie) who never entered the race. Romney has only floated to the top in the absence of a well known substitute.

Of the three remaining non-Romney alternatives, only Ron Paul has never held the title of king-for-a-day. Newt Gingrich has risen from the dead twice, and he will persist as long as his iron will and Super PAC angel Sheldon Adelson's money hold out. His chances of becoming a three-time Lazarus are not bright, but remembering the first two resuscitations, who would risk real money to bet against him?

However, it is Rick Santorum who wears the current anti-Romney crown.

Propelled by an unexpected trio of victories in Colorado, Minnesota, and Missouri on Feb. 7, Santorum now leads Romney in most national surveys, some by a wide margin. More disturbing for Romney, Santorum is ahead of him in Romney's native Michigan.

As we've just suggested, Santorum is partly on top because he is the latest "great anti-Romney hope." But it is more than that. As the economy improves and President Obama's ratings creep upwards, many Republicans have become less certain that any nominee is going to defeat the incumbent. This may change if worse economic numbers crop up later in the year and high gas prices begin to take a presidential toll. But for the moment, the trend is encouraging activists to look beyond Romney, the economic manager, to someone whose social-issue conservatism and blue-collar image may enable the GOP to serve up a different kind of presidential option.

A few intellectual leaders of the Republican party's right-wing have begun to convince themselves that Santorum may be a risk worth taking. He gives activists some fallback reasons to vote should economic recovery continue, and he will stir the base, especially Tea Partiers and evangelical Christians. GOP enthusiasm has been on the wane lately but with Santorum, goes the thinking, GOP turnout may increase. (The swing independents in competitive states are another matter. Many independent analysts think Santorum is too far right on social issues to be elected in November.)

A Brokered Convention?

There is an additional rationale for the Santorum surge. It is no secret that some highly placed Republicans are rooting for the fabled "brokered convention," a situation that can only arise if no candidate gets the 1,144 delegate majority and the leading contenders -- perhaps because they have learned to hate one another -- cannot agree upon a joint ticket that would produce a delegate majority in Tampa. If Santorum can start to win more contests, and Gingrich and Paul stay in and grab their share too, Romney may not be able to go over the top, opening the door to -- whom exactly? We keep hearing the same names (Mitch Daniels, Jeb Bush, Chris Christie and Paul Ryan) except that none of them seem interested in the slightest.

If no candidate wins a delegate majority, the brokers may well be the candidates themselves. Their delegates are bound for at least one ballot, and most are personally loyal to the candidate and may follow his lead for multiple ballots, if it comes to that. Romney, Santorum, Gingrich and Paul will have slogged through all 50 states by convention time. Why would they permit someone who slept in his own bed and had regular meals for the past year to swoop in and take the big prize? More likely, perhaps through trusted intermediaries, the four contenders would negotiate a solution -- a ticket, platform and prime-time speech schedule. The alternative is chaos of the first order, with thousands of journalists hovering in Tampa to report every epithet uttered by delegates determined to get their man nominated.

Probably, one way or another, this apocalyptic vision will be dashed. It may well be that Romney is able to replay Florida, targeting Santorum in Michigan the way he did Gingrich in the Sunshine State. Romney will outspend and out-advertise Santorum for sure, and his attack machine may work its black magic anew. Romney remains the nomination favorite and the only candidate with the organization, money, and national backing to compete effectively in most states most of the time. But so far, even Romney's most ardent backers have to admit that the opposition to their candidate is deeper and broader than they expected. It is less improbable than before that Republicans will have a "1964 moment" and upend the best laid plans of party strategists.

Conclusion

We're more than eight months away from election day, and it is too soon for any fair-minded analyst to project an election outcome. Still, the year isn't turning out the way Republicans had hoped. There is no unifying candidate in sight, and the contenders are savaging each other in ways that are saving the Obama campaign the cost of TV consultants' creative fees. Slow but steady economic progress is also producing the 50%+ job approval ratings for an incumbent that historically have led to reelection.
In the topsy-turvy world of politics, things can shift overnight, and 2012 is already setting records for the wanton destruction of carefully crafted conventional wisdom. Republicans, in their winter of discontent, must hope the seasons change with a vengeance. Meanwhile, the warm winter has thawed the once-frozen prospects of a second Obama term."

CBS Evening News CBS Sunday Morning NewsHour

Headlines for February 21, 2012

2012-03-02T03:42:00.001-08:00

European Finance Chiefs Approve $172 Billion Greek Bailout, Yemen Holds "Election" in Deal to End Saleh's 33-Year Rule, Report: Israel to Release Palestinian Hunger Striker Khader Adnan, Afghans Protest Koran Burnings at U.S. Airbase at Bagram, Spain: Police Criticized for Brutal Beating of Students, Donors Pour $22 Million into Super PACs for Republican Candidates, Former IMF Chief Held, Questioned in Prostitution Inquiry, Syria: 12 Killed in Homs as Red Cross Pushes for Ceasefire, Senegal: 3 Dead as Pre-Election Protests Intensify, Study: 94% of Oscar Voters Are White, 77% Are Male, 4 U.S. Soldiers Killed When Spy Plane Crashes in Djibouti, Obama to Host Israeli PM for Talks on Iran, Santorum Spokeswoman Attacks Obama's "Radical Islamic Policies", Canada Threatens Complaint over Tar Sands Labeling, 2011 Polk Awards Given to Shadid, Mayer, AP, Al Jazeera

Source: http://www.democracynow.org/2012/2/21/headlines

Awful Truth On the Record Heartbeat Alaska

[TOP 10] Veterans in HIP HOP (Right Now)

2012-03-02T00:42:00.001-08:00

“10 year veteran/ I been said I been through with this bullshit game but I never can” -Jay Z 1. Diddy (1988) 23 Years 2. Jay Z (1989) 22 Years 3. Busta Rhymes (1989) 22 Years 4. Lil Wayne (1990) 21 Years 5. Nas (1991) 20 Years 6. Snoop Dogg (1991) 20 Years 7. Eminem [...]

Source: http://www.wiretapmag.org/wire/88637/

San Jose Mercury News Washington Post New York Daily News

Slim Romney Win Signals GOP Challenges in Reaching Michigan's Working Class, Arab-American Voters

2012-03-01T21:42:00.001-08:00

Mitt Romney claimed victory in Tuesday's Republican primaries, winning Arizona by a wide margin, but only narrowly edging out Rick Santorum in his native state of Michigan. Against the backdrop of a struggling economy, the Michigan primary foreshadowed the challenges Republicans will face when they confront Obama in the fall. Michigan's economic woes preceded the rest of the country's downturn, and its current 9.3 percent unemployment rate is noticeably higher than the national rate of 8.3 percent. The revival of the automobile industry played a central role in the campaign, with Romney and Santorum opposing the 2008 government rescue. Michigan also has a large Arab-American population, which overwhelmingly supported President Obama in the 2008 election. We go to Michigan to speak with Chris Savage, a Michigan-based political writer and founder of Eclectablog, and Dawud Walid, executive director of CAIR Michigan. [includes rush transcript]

Source: http://www.democracynow.org/2012/2/29/slim_romney_win_signals_gop_challenges

Good Morning America Nightline Fox and Friends

Slim Romney Win Signals GOP Challenges in Reaching Michigan's Working Class, Arab-American Voters

2012-03-01T18:42:00.001-08:00

Source: http://www.democracynow.org/2012/2/29/slim_romney_win_signals_gop_challenges

Rock the Vote Crossfire Washington Week In Review

Ohio Dem Gives Occupiers Tickets to Disrupt Kasich Speech - UPDATED

2012-03-01T15:42:00.001-08:00

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ThirdBasePolitics/~3/B3PY9Y2QKCw/ohio-dem-gives-occupiers-tickets-to.html

Seattle Times Detroit Free Press San Francisco Chronicle

Read Stuff, You Should

2012-03-01T12:42:00.001-08:00

Happy Birthday to the great Kent Desormeaux, 42. I lived in Washington when Desormeaux was riding in Maryland, and, well, it doesn't get much more dominant than that. (Although I was also in the Bay Area in the 1990s, so there's that).

On to the good stuff:

1. Nate Silver has an excellent overview of the GOP delegate rules; Josh Putnam has an excellent rant about misconceptions about the delegate rules. I'm with Josh about calendar being more important than delegate allocation in this cycle, certainly so far.

2. Really good piece by Greg Marx last week looking at how liberals -- and some in the neutral media -- got Rick Santorum's "phony ideology" comment wrong, and what Santorum was actually saying.

3. Ed Kilgore notes that the only attacks that have worked, and almost the only ones that have been used, in GOP WH 2012 have been from the right .

4. CNN moderators talked the least, Fox moderators the most, during GOP debates. Eric Ostermeier reports a Humphrey School study. I've previous noted that CNN (at least in the early debates; I haven't tracked since then) tended to ask the most straight-up issue questions (that is, what is your position on X). Granted, they do toss away a big chunk on the front end with their silly introductions and the national anthem, but I think on the whole CNN has done the best job.

5. And a wonderful post by Matt Glassman on the occasion of Arizona's 100th birthday, all about how Arizona (and New Mexico) wound up looking like they do now thanks to the politics of the 1850s and 1860s.

Source: http://plainblogaboutpolitics.blogspot.com/2012/02/read-stuff-you-should_27.html

Source: http://feeds.dailykos.com/~r/dailykos/index/~3/jyiqsGwySQs/-Senate-Republicans-about-to-walk-plank-on-letting-employers-ban-insurance-coverage-for-birth-control

Senate Republicans about to walk plank on letting employers ban insurance coverage for birth control

2012-03-01T09:42:00.001-08:00

And with his flip-flop yesterday, Mitt Romney is walking the plank too

The Senate is scheduled to vote at 11 AM ET today (update: now they're saying 11:30, apparently) on the Blunt amendment to overturn President Obama's birth control coverage mandate. This being the Senate, you never know if they'll keep to their schedule, but one thing we do know is that most Republicans are firmly on the wrong side of this issue.

Public Policy Polling for Daily Kos & SEIU. 2/16-19. Registered voters. MoE ±3.1% (no trendlines):
Q: Do you think employers should be allowed to deny health care coverage to their employees for doctor-recommended health care services if those services are contrary to the employer’s religious beliefs or moral convictions, or do you think all workers should be allowed access to all doctor-recommended health care services, regardless of their employer’s beliefs?

Employers should be allowed to deny coverage based on their beliefs ..........25%

All workers should be allowed to access health care services regardless
of their employer’s beliefs ......................................................................... 67%

Not sure .................................................................................................... 8%

Those numbers shouldn't be a shock: most people believe that this is an issue for individuals and families to decide in consultation with their doctors. Most Republicans—including Mitt Romney after his record-breaking flip-flop on the issue—want to give employers the legal authority to make moral and religious judgments about whether their employees have access to birth control.

Republicans and Mitt Romney are wrong. Democrats and President Obama are right.

Email your senators and tell them to stand up for women and vote no on the Blunt Amendment.

Newsweek Roll Call Time

The ultimate Republican candidate

2012-03-01T06:42:00.001-08:00

(Click for bigger Bucks)

There is much fretting in Republican quarters about the lousiness of their presidential candidates. While it's true that Romney and Santorum both have weird if not downright repulsive personalities, it seems to me that Republican voters are getting more or less what they historically like: a Talibanesque theocrat, and Mr. 1% himself. Yes, yes, they both have their impurities, but really, either one would probably be more ideologically-consistent than Obama. Radical corporate-personhood types would be appointed to the Supreme Court, the social safety net would be slashed, the Global Gag rule reinstated. What Republicans want is a good ol' boy to make it all palatable to the masses. They're waiting for their cowboy to ride in on a horse and save the day with a Reaganesque smile and tip of the hat. But unless there's a brokered convention, they're stuck with major dweebs.

Order a signed print of this cartoon from the artist.

Source: http://feeds.dailykos.com/~r/dailykos/index/~3/BuABbuNsGXU/-The-ultimate-Republican-candidate

Chicago Sun-Times Dallas Morning News Houston Chronicle

Oy, Bai

2012-03-01T03:42:00.001-08:00

Source: http://plainblogaboutpolitics.blogspot.com/2012/02/oy-bai.html

Roll Call Time U.S. News & World Report

Lady Republican senators not on board with Blunt Amendment to block birth control coverage

2012-03-01T00:42:00.001-08:00

Uh oh. Looks like Senate Republicans are having a hard time keeping the ladies in line on the Blunt Amendment, set for a vote tomorrow. While the amendment is clearly designed to negate the Obama administration's new policy that mandates insurance coverage of birth control, the Blunt Amendment would allow employers to block insurance coverage of any health care they deem morally objectionable.

While Democrats are eager to hold this vote, giving Republicans just enough rope to hang themselves, the majority of the already tiny and dwindling group of Republican women in the Senate aren't quite on board.

Via Greg Sargent, Sen. Olympia Snowe—who announced yesterday that she will not seek re-election—said today that she will vote against the bill because, "It’s much broader than I could support."

Sen. Lisa Murkowski hasn't indicated how she will vote, but said, "We’ve got way too much else to be doing." Gee, ya think?

Meanwhile, Sen. Susan Collins remains undecided.

It's no surprise that these women aren't enthusiastically jumping on the "let's screw over women" bandwagon. Polls have consistently shown that a majority of Americans support the president's new policy, and Public Policy Polling for Daily Kos & SEIU confirmed that yup, Americans of all stripes like birth control, and nope, they definitely do not support the Blunt Amendment.

Certainly even the Republican women in the Senate understand the absurdity of trying to deny preventative health care used by almost every single American woman at some point in her life, including, most likely, those women senators.

The Blunt Amendment is nothing more than an attempt by a handful of woman-hating men—some of whom are acting directly under orders from their churches, like Sen. Marco Rubio—to make Christian sharia law the law of the land. It is so blatantly wrong, so contrary to our founding principles, like the separation of church and state, and such unbelievably bad health care policy, that even the Republican women aren't eager to support this particular battle in the War on Women.

Email your senators and tell them to stand up for women and vote no on the Blunt Amendment.

Source: http://feeds.dailykos.com/~r/dailykos/index/~3/J8nTjWRkCQ0/-Lady-Republican-senators-not-on-board-with-Blunt-Amendment-to-block-birth-control-coverage

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/blogspot/omgxi/~3/4JBUE_sl_Nc/its-not-working.html

It's NOT working.

2012-02-29T21:42:00.001-08:00

MSNBC CNN Headline News Fox Business Network

The Budget That Isn't a Budget

2012-02-29T18:42:00.001-08:00

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ThirdBasePolitics/~3/eIXwFwAHvUg/budget-that-isnt-budget.html

Globalist Harvard International Review Human Events

Read Stuff, You Should

2012-02-29T15:42:00.001-08:00

Source: http://plainblogaboutpolitics.blogspot.com/2012/02/read-stuff-you-should_27.html

Politically Incorrect Frontline Hardball

Lady Republican senators not on board with Blunt Amendment to block birth control coverage

2012-02-29T12:42:00.001-08:00

Via Greg Sargent, Sen. Olympia Snowe—who announced yesterday that she will not seek re-election—said today that she will vote against the bill because, "It’s much broader than I could support."

Sen. Lisa Murkowski hasn't indicated how she will vote, but said, "We’ve got way too much else to be doing." Gee, ya think?

Meanwhile, Sen. Susan Collins remains undecided.

Email your senators and tell them to stand up for women and vote no on the Blunt Amendment.

Source: http://feeds.dailykos.com/~r/dailykos/index/~3/J8nTjWRkCQ0/-Lady-Republican-senators-not-on-board-with-Blunt-Amendment-to-block-birth-control-coverage

Congressional Quarterly George Magazine The Economist

Sherrod Brown Endorsed by Saturday Night Live

2012-02-29T09:42:00.001-08:00

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ThirdBasePolitics/~3/mvQrFmgebWw/sherrod-brown-endorsed-by-saturday.html

CNN Fox News MSNBC

"A Rather Old Constitution"

2012-02-29T06:42:00.001-08:00

Ruth Bader Ginsburg is an example of what Democrats, liberals and the current president of our country want when it comes to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court. Ginsburg's presence is particularly troubling given her belief that justices should look to foreign law in making their decisions.

Ginsburg's lack of respect for the most treasured and respected political document in the history of the world, the U.S. Constitution, was shown in her recent trip to Egypt. Sadly, she came home...

Here are her own words:

"
“Now I can’t speak about what the Egyption experience should be because I am operating under a rather old constitution. The United States in comparison to Egypt is a very new nation and yet we have the oldest written constitution still enforced in the world.”

“I would not look to the United States Constitution if I were drafting a constitution in the year 2012.”

“I might look at the constitution of South Africa. That was a deliberate attempt to have a fundamental instrument of government that embraced basic human rights, [and] had an independent judiciary. It really is, I think, a great piece of work that was done much more recently than the U.S. Constitution… So yes, why not take advantage of what there is elsewhere in the world?”

ENOUGH SAID.......

Source: http://objectiveconservative.blogspot.com/2012/02/rather-old-constitution.html

CNN Headline News Fox Business Network BBC News

Straight and narrow: how pop lost its gay edge

2012-02-29T03:42:00.001-08:00

From the blues to the Beatles, from the Who to Nirvana, the biggest acts in pop have been hugely shaped by gay culture. Why has that spirit now disappeared?

Nicky Wire laughs. "I'm not sure where we got the slogan from," he says, of the T-shirt the Manic Street Preachers produced in 1993 bearing the striking legend: "All rock'n'roll is homosexual." Wire, the band's bass-player and lyricist, goes on. "I'm sure it's slightly nicked. I remember Richey [Edwards, the band's late guitarist] talking about self-love being such an essential part of rock'n'roll. That seemed to be his twist. It fitted into a lot of what we believed in: narcissism, nihilism, self-love, self-delusion. All those things made for thrilling rock'n'roll."

To the artist Jeremy Deller, the slogan was "just the most offensive, brilliant thing you could put on a T-shirt regardless of whether it was true". Deller has borrowed it for the title of a discussion that takes place tonight as part of his new show, Joy in People, at London's Hayward gallery. "It's as much about pop's ability to provoke as it is about homosexuality in rock and pop," he says, although you could argue that those two things are linked.

As the critic Jon Savage points out, even rock'n'roll's very roots, the blues, contained a weird gay subculture. The genre was home to songs such as George Hannah's Freakish Man Blues, Luis Russell's The New Call of the Freaks, and Kokomo Arnold's Sissy Man Blues. "I woke up this morning with my pork grindin' business in my hand," offers Arnold, adding, "Lord, if you can't send me no woman, please send me some sissy man."

In Britain, rock's relationship with gay culture really began with the rise of the gay rock manager: first Larry Parnes, with his "stable of stars" (Billy Fury, Tommy Steele, Georgie Fame, Marty Wilde) then Brian Epstein (the Beatles), Simon Napier-Bell (the Yardbirds), Kit Lambert (the Who). Napier-Bell, who started out as a musician and went on to be Wham!'s manager, explains the job's attraction: "At a time when being gay was illegal, and the only way to live as an out gay man was to work in the theatre or as a hairdresser, pop management offered a new opportunity. So a lot of gays started to dabble in it."

And then there were the managers who, while not necessarily gay themselves, simply saw the promotional value of playing the gay card, encouraging campness and flamboyance in their charges: Andrew Loog Oldham, who was fascinated with gay culture, is credited with encouraging such qualities in the Stones. Ken Pitt did a similar thing with David Bowie, introducing the singer to the work of the Velvet Underground and the dancer Lindsay Kemp, whose troupe Bowie ended up joining.

Why the bands were drawn to gay managers is a moot point. The Who's Pete Townshend has claimed there was a confusion in sexual identity in the early 1960s. "The first manifestation of it was kids who were born in 1945 deciding they want to enter manhood using a different set of semiotics," he told Savage last year, in an interview for Mojo. On the mod scene from which the Who sprung, he explained, "it was seen to be incredibly cool – you had to be brave to be a rent boy".

Napier-Bell thinks the reasons were more prosaic. "All the young guys in those days could see that gay men were a lot more interesting than straight men. They had nicer cars, more disposable income, flats that young guys could only dream of having, and no family to hold them back. Most kids aspired to have such a life – but of course, without the gay sex."

Whatever the cause, the effect on the bands was dramatic. For one thing, Napier-Bell claims such managers encouraged their bands to be more confrontational, stoking the surly, anti-establishment attitude that was to become a definitive part of rock's makeup. "Faced with the absurdity of being a criminal just because your dick faced the wrong way," he says, "gays didn't have much respect for other aspects of the law, drugs included. And groups were encouraged to do outrageous things to publicise themselves."

The new breed of managers, he says, also created a new masculine archetype for musicians. "Andrew [Loog Oldham] was going through a very camp phase – he slung his fur coat around his shoulders and waved his hands a lot. Jagger never used those mannerisms before Andrew took them on. It was Mick falling in love with Andrew's campness."

By the early 1970s, following the rise of David Bowie, the influence of gay culture on rock music had become so pronounced that you could find Ian Hunter of Mott the Hoople grumbling, in his Diary of a Rock'n'Roll Star, about bands "who were hard-driving and straight" turning "poovy" to fit in. A decade later, the charts were full of gay rock and pop. In 1984, the biggest band of the year was Frankie Goes to Hollywood, the hot new pop act was Bronski Beat, the Smiths (whose frontman projected a deeply ambiguous sexuality) dominated indie music, and there was a plethora of explicitly gay-themed disco and hi-NRG hits, Divine's You Think You're a Man among them.

At the dawn of the 1990s, the biggest band in the world were Nirvana, who certainly weren't homosexual, but whose frontman was given to wearing a dress and writing lyrics suggesting "everyone is gay" (All Apologies). When Savage met Cobain in 1993, the singer said Nirvana had "the most pro-gay stance by a commercially successful rock band" and suggested that one of the effects of their success might be a loosening of attitudes in the US rock scene. "It's getting better now that alternative music is finally getting accepted," said Cobain.

It all rather poses the question: what happened? Twenty years on, rock seems more rigidly heterosexual than at any point in its history. Gay acts from Antony Hegarty to Rufus Wainwright to Perfume Genius exist on the commercial margins; and, while Lady Gaga's gay-friendly, high-camp dominates the pop charts, the really big rock stars are "straight in the widest sense", as Savage puts it. "I think the crucial point about contemporary pop culture," he adds, "is that people are scared to be different because they'll be called gay. How has that happened? It's a reversal of everything that made British rock music great."

One theory is that Cobain couldn't have been more wrong. You could argue that the mainstream success of putatively "alternative" rock in mid-1990s Britain actually saw a narrowing of attitudes, not merely because it coincided with the rise of lad culture, but because – in the wake of Oasis's stratospheric success – indie bands realised they could achieve hitherto-unimaginable commercial success if they toned their sexuality down to appeal to a mass market. We still live in a post-Britpop era, where rock music is prosaic and "honest" rather than glamorous and imaginative.

Savage thinks rock's ongoing prosaicness is symptomatic of a wider cultural shift. "There's a current mode of solipsism, where you don't want to be challenged, you just want to have your own life reflected back at you. It's down to the way the internet has grown up, the whole apparent democratisation of the idea of skill – that skill and experience don't matter and that you're as good as anyone else. There's the disastrous impact of reality shows, the whole impulse to be famous, the idea that fame is the way to go."

Wire echoes this notion: "It's like that Ballardian idea that ultimately everyone will be the star of their own movie. And if you are, you don't need to live through other people like rock stars. Your ego's being fed by yourself."

Most depressing of all, there might be a wider implication, in terms of the decline in tolerance of homosexuality among teenagers. A 2009 survey found that eight in 10 UK secondary-school teachers reported hearing such homophobic insults as "poof", "dyke", "queer" and "faggot"; while 90% had witnessed children being subjected to homophobic bullying.

But there is another way of looking at it, says Napier-Bell, who thinks the lack of gay influence on rock music is a sign of increasing tolerance. "There's not much gay influence to be seen in the music business these days because gays are accepted, nobody cares. Young people are so aware of all things gay that there's nothing new for them to take from it. Gays have gone normal. It's all rather boring."

On that last point at least, Savage agrees. Without the influence of gay culture, he says, rock music is somehow lacking. "What do you want to do? Do you want to open everything up or close everything down? When you open everything up, you get a surge of excitement. When you close everything down, it's just business as usual." He lets out an exasperated sigh. "It's all so dreary."

• All Rock'n'Roll is Homosexual, an evening hosted by Alexis Petridis with Jon Savage and Nicky Wire, is at the Queen Elizabeth Hall, London SE1, tonight. Details: southbankcentre.co.uk/deller

Jeremy Deller

Alexis Petridis

Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2012/feb/28/how-pop-lost-gay-edge

Chicago Sun-Times Dallas Morning News Houston Chronicle

2011: The year that didn't exist?

2012-02-29T00:42:00.001-08:00

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/blogspot/omgxi/~3/RPFGocwjr3g/2011-year-that-didnt-exist.html

Detroit Free Press San Francisco Chronicle Newark Star-Ledger

Sherrod Brown and the Attack on Everything!

2012-02-28T21:42:00.001-08:00

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ThirdBasePolitics/~3/0h1k8EYYZuk/sherrod-brown-and-attack-on-everything.html

The Atlantic The New Yorker American Conservative

Omaha Doesn't Need a Sexual Orientation/Indenty Ordinance

2012-02-28T18:42:00.001-08:00

We weren't going to publish the whole of Ben Gray's proposed ordinance to create a new protected class of individuals not to be discriminated against in the whole of the city of Omaha, but somehow we feel our readers might like to have it for reference so we've provided it below our commentary.

First of all, here is Gray's definition of "Gender Identity":    Gender identity: Means the actual or perceived appearance, expression, identity or behavior of a person as being male or female, whether or not that appearance, expression, identity or behavior is different from that traditionally associated with the person’s designated sex at birth.    Our guess is that the courts and lawyers will have plenty of trouble deciding what perceived appearance, expression or identity of behaviour are. But of course anyone that wants to file a discrimination action under this definitions is probably pretty open to claim just about any thing.

Secondly, we have the definition of "Sexual Orientation": Sexual Orientation: Actual or perceived heterosexuality, homosexuality, or bisexuality.     Again, courts and lawyers are going to have a field day with this one.

Given the above definitions, the city government AND ANY BUSINESS OPERATING WITHIN THE CITY LIMITS will have to follow this ordinance.  The personnel policies for all these businesses, regardless of size, will have to be updated so they can be presented in court once the entity is sued in order to prove that it acknowledged the law. No personnel policy, the business will be guilty!

Of course Gray like his heroes Barack Hussein Obama and Nancy Sebelius has included a "Religious Accommodation":   If a place of public accommodation owned by or operated on behalf of a religious organization is made available for use only to members of the same faith as that of the administering body, the provisions concerning discriminatory practices that relate to sexual orientation and gender identity shall not apply.   Note that the religious accommodation applies ONLY TO ACCOMMODATIONS MADE AVAILABLE FOR USE ONLY TO MEMBER OF THE SAME FAITH OF THAT ADMINISTERING BODY.    So it appears to us the Creighton University or Methodist Hospital can't claim that religious accommodation.   What about Catholic or private schools which educate and open their classrooms to children not of their faith? Sounds like they can't claim the religious accommodation either, or can they?

Gray's ordinance goes on to say: " Furthermore, the provisions in this Chapter relating to unlawful practices based on sexual orientation and gender identity do not apply to any religious organization with respect to its employment of individuals to perform work connected with the carrying on by such religious organization of its religious activity.

Later in the ordinance it goes on to state: Furthermore, the provisions in this Chapter relating to unlawful practices based on sexual orientation and gender identity do not apply to any school, college, university or other educational institution if that school, college, university or other educational institution is, in whole or substantial part, owned, supported, controlled or managed by a particular religion or by a particular religious institution and if the curriculum of the school, college, university or other education institution is directed toward the propagation of a particular religion and the choice of employees is necessary to promote the religious principles for which it is established or maintained.     That certainly seems to confirm what we noted in the paragraph above.   At least the wording WILL BE CONSTRUED by those PERCEIVING DISCRIMINATION as enabling to their law suits.

Just another thought here.   What about organizations like Catholic Charities?   Sounds to us that they probably will not be excluded. How about the Jewish Community Center, The Ancient Order of Hibernians?

Not that we want to suggest it but if Gray is so concerned about gender discrimination, why isn't he bold enough to add same sex partners which his ordinance says, " provided, however, that this section shall not be interpreted to require an employer provide employment benefits to same sex partners;? Frankly, we suspect he'll want to change that soon.

We believe that this ordinance will never do what it is intended.   It will result in huge legal costs for ALL BUSINESSES, regardless of size, operating in Omaha.    It will be a disincentive for any new business to come to Omaha.   It will be an incentive for Omaha businesses to flee.   It will reward only the lawyers and the pro-gay, pro-transgender, pro-cross dresser, pro-anyone who might want to sue for any other reason.   And as is the case with current angst and confusion over the Obama administrations dictate on contraceptives and abortion, this ordinance will put religious organizations in limbo and under the rule of government edict.

We would go even further by saying that ANY COUNCILMAN (excuse our gender bias) WHO VOTES FOR THIS AND AND ANY MAYOR THAT SIGNS IT SHOULD BE REPLACED IN NEXT YEAR'S ELECTIONS.

Let's let the State (LB 912) or the federal government define and address these issues.

--------------------------------------------------

ORDINANCE NO. ____________

AN ORDINANCE to amend 13-82, 13-84, 13-85, 13-89, 13-90, 13-91, 13-92, 13-93, 13-94, 13-95 13-97 and 10-192 of the Omaha Municipal Code to add prohibitions for discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, and gender identity within the City of Omaha and in City of Omaha contracts; and to provide the effective date hereof.

BE IT ORDAINED BY THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF OMAHA:

Section 1. That section 13-82 of the Omaha Municipal Code is hereby amended as follows:

Sec. 13-82. General definitions.

For the purposes of this article, the following words and phrases shall have the meanings respectively ascribed to them:

(a) Age:

(b) Charge: A written statement under oath or affirmation which alleges an unlawful practice and which is filed with the director.

(d) Charging party: The individual making a charge alleging an unlawful practice, or the director.

(e) Director: The human rights and relations director or a designate.

(f) Discrimination: Any act or failure to act, whether by itself or as a part of a practice, the effect of which is to differentiate between or among individuals or groups of individuals by reason of race, color, creed, religion, sex, marital status, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age or disability.

(g) Disability: The physical or mental condition of an individual who:

(1) Has a physical or mental impairment which substantially limits one or more major life activities;

(2) Has a record of such impairment; or

(3) Is regarded as having such impairment.

(h) Gender identity: Means the actual or perceived appearance, expression, identity or behavior of a person as being male or female, whether or not that appearance, expression, identity or behavior is different from that traditionally associated with the person’s designated sex at birth.

(i) Hearing board: The civil rights hearing board created by this article.

(j) Individual: Includes individuals.

(k) Marital status: The state of being married, single, divorced, separated or widowed or the changing of such state.

(l) National origin: Ancestry, lineage, name, place of birth or any factor indicative of any of these; includes the national origin of an ancestor.

(m) Person: Any individual, association, committee, corporation, joint apprenticeship committee, joint-stock company, labor organization, legal representative, mutual company, partnership, receiver, trust, trustee, trustee in bankruptcy, unincorporated organization, and any other legal or commercial entity, the city or any governmental entity or agency, excluding the United States of America and the State of Nebraska, or any agent or representative of any of the foregoing.

(n) Religious organization: A bona fide religious corporation, association, institution or society which does not limit or exclude or discriminate against individuals on the basis of race, color, national origin, sex or disability.

(o) Respondent: Any person against whom a charge has been filed.

(p) Sex: The state of being either male or female.

(q) Sexual Orientation: Actual or perceived heterosexuality, homosexuality, or bisexuality.

(r) Unlawful practice: A practice or act within the city which is designated as discriminatory under the terms of this article.

Section 2. That section 13-84 of the Omaha Municipal Code is hereby amended as follows:

Sec. 13-84. Unlawful practices.

It is an unlawful practice for any person, wholly or partially because of race, color, creed, religion, sex, marital status, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age or disability, to do any of the following:

(a) To deny an individual a full and equal enjoyment of any place of public accommodation;

(b) To discriminate against or segregate any individual in a place of public accommodation;

(c) Directly or indirectly to refuse, withhold from or deny to any individual the accommodations, advantages, facilities, services or privileges of a place of public accommodation;

(d) To attempt to refuse, withhold from or deny to any individual, directly or indirectly, the accommodations, advantages, facilities, services or privileges of a place of public accommodation; or

(e) To print, circulate, post, or mail or otherwise cause to be published a statement, advertisement, or sign which indicates that the full and equal enjoyment of the goods, services, facilities, privileges, advantages, and accommodations of a place of public accommodation will be refused, withheld from, or denied an individual because of race, color, creed, religion, sex, marital status, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, or disability, or that an individual's patronage of or presence at a place of public accommodation is objectionable, unwelcome, unacceptable, or undesirable, because of race, color, creed, religion, sex, marital status, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age or disability.

Section 3. That section 13-85 of the Omaha Municipal Code is hereby amended as follows:

Sec. 13-85. Authorized exceptions—Religious preference.

It is not an unlawful practice for any place of public accommodation owned by or operated on behalf of a religious organization to give preference in the use of such place to members of the same faith as that of the administering body. If a place of public accommodation owned by or operated on behalf of a religious organization is made available for use only to members of the same faith as that of the administering body, the provisions concerning discriminatory practices that relate to sexual orientation and gender identity shall not apply.

Section 4. That section 13-89 of the Omaha Municipal Code is hereby amended as follows:

Sec. 13-89. Unlawful practices--Employers.

It is an unlawful practice for an employer, wholly or partially because of race, color, creed, religion, sex, marital status, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, or disability, to do any of the following:

(a) To fail or refuse to hire an individual;

(b) To discharge an individual;

(c) To discriminate against an individual with respect to compensation, benefits, or the terms, conditions or privileges of employment; provided, however, that this section shall not be interpreted to require an employer provide employment benefits to same sex partners; or

(d) To limit, segregate or classify an employee or any prospective employee in a way which would deprive or tend to deprive an individual of employment opportunities or otherwise adversely affect an individual's employment status.

Section 5. That section 13-90 of the Omaha Municipal Code is hereby amended as follows:

Sec. 13-90. Same--Employment agencies.

It is an unlawful practice for an employment agency, wholly or partially because of race, color, creed, religion, sex, marital status, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age or disability, to do any of the following:

(a) To fail or refuse to refer an individual for employment;

(b) To fail to list or properly classify an individual for employment; or

(c) To comply with a request from an employer for referral of applicants for employment if the request indicates either directly or indirectly that the employer discriminates in employment.

Section 6. That section 13-91 of the Omaha Municipal Code is hereby amended as follows:

Sec. 13-91. Same--Labor organizations.

It is an unlawful practice for a labor organization, wholly or partially because of race, color, creed, religion, sex, marital status, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age or disability, to do any of the following:

(a) To exclude or to expel from membership, or otherwise to discriminate against, a member or prospective member;

(b) To limit, segregate or classify its membership or prospective membership, or to classify or to fail or refuse to refer for employment an individual in a way:

(1) Which would deprive or tend to deprive an individual of employment opportunities; or

(2) Which would limit employment opportunities or otherwise adversely affect the status of an employee or of a prospective employee;

(c) To cause or attempt to cause an employer, or to cooperate with an employer, to violate any of the provisions of section 13-89; or

(d) To fail or refuse to represent a person in a dispute with respect to compensation, benefits or other terms, conditions or privileges of employment.

Section 7. That section 13-92 of the Omaha Municipal Code is hereby amended as follows:

Sec. 13-92. Same--Training programs.

It is an unlawful practice for an employer, labor organization or joint labor-management committee controlling apprenticeship, on-the-job training or other training or retraining program, wholly or partially because of race, color, creed, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, national origin, age or disability, to discriminate against an individual in admission to, or employment in, a program established to provide apprenticeship or other training.

Section 8. That section 13-93 of the Omaha Municipal Code is hereby amended as follows:

Sec. 13-93. Same--Advertisements.

It is an unlawful practice for any person to print, publish, circulate or display or cause to be published, printed, circulated or displayed any advertisement, notice or statement relating to employment, employment opportunities, job openings, union membership, apprentice programs, job-training programs, or any of the terms, conditions or privileges thereof, the language of which advertisement, notice or statement expresses any limitation, specification, discrimination or preference as to race, color, creed, religion, sex, marital status, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age or disability. A limitation, specification, discrimination or preference as to religion, national origin, sex, age or marital status is not a violation where religion, national origin, sex, age or marital status is a bona fide occupational qualification for the particular job advertised.

Section 9. That section 13-94 of the Omaha Municipal Code is hereby amended as follows:

Sec. 13-94. Same--Applications.

It is an unlawful practice for an employer, labor organization, employment agency or joint labor-management training committee to make or use a written or oral inquiry or form of application that expresses or implies a preference, limitation or specification based on race, color, creed, religion, sex, marital status, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age or disability, where the employer, employment agency, labor organization or joint labor-management training committee cannot show that religion, national origin, sex, age or marital status is a bona fide occupational qualification for the particular job.

Section 10. That section 13-95 of the Omaha Municipal Code is hereby amended as follows:

Sec. 13-95. Authorized exceptions--Employers.

It is not an unlawful practice for an employer to do any of the following:

(a) To fail or refuse to hire an individual or to discharge an individual on the basis of disability if:

(1) The disability actually prevents the disabled individual from performing the essential functions of the job in question; and

(2) There is no reasonable accommodation that the employer can make with regard to the disability;

(b) To fail or refuse to hire an individual on the basis of national origin, sex, marital status or age in those certain instances where national origin, sex, marital status or age is a bona fide occupational qualification for the particular job;

(c) To apply different standards of compensation or different terms, conditions or privileges of employment pursuant to a bona fide seniority or merit system, or a system which measures earnings by quantity or quality of production, or to employees who work in different locations, provided that such differences do not discriminate because of race, color, creed, religion, sex, marital status, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age or disability;

(d) To refuse an individual employment based on a policy of not employing both husband and wife if such policy is equally applied to both sexes;

(e) To adopt a voluntary affirmative action plan designed to aid in the elimination of patterns of exclusion, segregation or discrimination based on race, color, creed, religion, sex, marital status, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age or disability.

Section 11. That section 13-97 of the Omaha Municipal Code is hereby amended as follows:

Sec. 13-97. Same—Other.

It is not an unlawful practice for:

(a) A religious organization to employ an individual on the basis of the individual’s religion to perform work connected with the carrying on by such religious organization of its religious activity Furthermore, the provisions in this Chapter relating to unlawful practices based on sexual orientation and gender identity do not apply to any religious organization with respect to its employment of individuals to perform work connected with the carrying on by such religious organization of its religious activity.

(b) A school, college, university or other educational institution to hire and employ employees of a particular religion if the school, college, university or other educational institution is, in whole or substantial part, owned, supported, controlled or managed by a particular religion or by a particular religious organization and if the curriculum of the school, college, university or other education institution is directed toward the propagation of a particular religion and the choice of employees is necessary to promote the religious principles for which it is established or maintained. Furthermore, the provisions in this Chapter relating to unlawful practices based on sexual orientation and gender identity do not apply to any school, college, university or other educational institution if that school, college, university or other educational institution is, in whole or substantial part, owned, supported, controlled or managed by a particular religion or by a particular religious institution and if the curriculum of the school, college, university or other education institution is directed toward the propagation of a particular religion and the choice of employees is necessary to promote the religious principles for which it is established or maintained.

(c) A labor organization to classify its membership or to classify or refer for employment an individual or for a labor organization or joint labor-management committee controlling apprenticeship or other training or retraining program to admit or employ an individual in any such program on the basis of religion, national origin, sex, age or marital status in those certain instances where religion, national origin, sex, age or marital status is a bona fide occupational qualification for the particular job.

(d) A labor organization or a joint labor-management committee to adopt a voluntary affirmative action plan designed to aid in the elimination of patterns of exclusion, segregation or discrimination based on race, color, creed, religion, sex, marital status, national origin, age or disability.

Section 12. That section 10-192 of the Omaha Municipal Code is hereby amended as follows:

Sec. 10-192. Equal employment opportunity clause.

All contracts hereafter entered into by the city shall incorporate an equal employment opportunity clause, which shall read as follows:

During the performance of this contract, the contractor agrees as follows:

(1) The contractor shall not discriminate against any employee or applicant for employment because of race, religion, color, sex, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability or national origin. The contractor shall ensure that applicants are employed and that employees are treated during employment without regard to their race, religion, color, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, or national origin. As used herein, the word "treated" shall mean and include, without limitation, the following: recruited, whether by advertising or by other means; compensated; selected for training, including apprenticeship; promoted; upgraded; demoted; downgraded; transferred; laid off; and terminated. The contractor agrees to and shall post in conspicuous places, available to employees and applicants for employment, notices to be provided by the contracting officers setting forth the provisions of this nondiscrimination clause.

(2) The contractor shall, in all solicitations or advertisements for employees placed by or on behalf of the contractor, state that all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, religion, color, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, or national origin, age, disability.

(3) The contractor shall send to each representative of workers with which he has a collective bargaining agreement or other contract or understanding a notice advising the labor union or workers' representative of the contractor's commitments under the equal employment opportunity clause of the city and shall post copies of the notice in conspicuous places available to employees and applicants for employment.

(4) The contractor shall furnish to the human rights and relations director all federal forms containing the information and reports required by the federal government for federal contracts under federal rules and regulations, including the information required by sections 10-192 to 10-194, inclusive, and shall permit reasonable access to his records. Records accessible to the human rights and relations director shall be those which are related to paragraphs (1) through (7) of this subsection and only after reasonable notice is given the contractor. The purpose of this provision is to provide for investigation to ascertain compliance with the program provided for herein.

(5) The contractor shall take such actions with respect to any subcontractor as the city may direct as a means of enforcing the provisions of paragraphs (1) through (7) herein, including penalties and sanctions for noncompliance; however, in the event the contractor becomes involved in or is threatened with litigation as the result of such directions by the city, the city will enter into such litigation as is necessary to protect the interests of the city and to effectuate the provisions of this division; and, in the case of contracts receiving federal assistance, the contractor or the city may request the United States to enter into such litigation to protect the interests of the United States.

(6) The contractor shall file and shall cause his subcontractors, if any, to file compliance reports with the contractor in the same form and to the same extent as required by the federal government for federal contracts under federal rules and regulations. Such compliance reports shall be filed with the human rights and relations director. Compliance reports filed at such times as directed shall contain information as to the employment practices, policies, programs and statistics of the contractor and his subcontractors.

(7) The contractor shall include the provisions of paragraphs (1) through (7) of this section, "Equal employment opportunity clause," and section 10-193 in every subcontract or purchase order so that such provisions will be binding upon each subcontractor or vendor.

Section 13. This Ordinance shall be in full force and take effect fifteen (15) days from and after its passage.

INTRODUCED BY COUNCILMEMBER

____________________________________ APPROVED BY:

______________________________________

MAYOR OF THE CITY OF OMAHA DATE

PASSED ____________________________

ATTEST:

___________________________________________

CITY CLERK OF THE CITY OF OMAHA DATE

APPROVED AS TO FORM:

____________________________________

ASSISTANT CITY ATTORNEY DATE

Source: http://objectiveconservative.blogspot.com/2012/02/omaha-doesnt-need-sexual.html

FrontPage Magazine Globalist Harvard International Review

The Problem with Oscar Voters: They All Look The Same

2012-02-28T15:42:00.001-08:00

You may recollect that at the Academy Awards show last year, the hosting job went to Anne Hathaway and James Franco. She was 29 and he was 33, and there was a vague hope that they were young and hot enough to pull in the junior crowd for the television marathon. It didn’t work: Franco seemed bored, while Hathaway was trying too hard. There was no chemistry between them, and very little fun. So this year the host was going to be Eddie Murphy, but he backed off when the producer’s job was withdrawn from Eddie’s chum, Brett Ratner, on account of anti-gay remarks. That’s how Billy Crystal got the job. And that’s made many members of the Academy smile. Because Crystal is a 63-year-old man, which puts him in the same demographic as the majority of the voters. He knows how to tell a joke; he remembers Bob Hope, Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris, and the war, the war in Korea.

The Academy is very careful in protecting its membership, but recently the Los Angeles Times did a long-term research project on the 5,765 people who can vote. The results tell us a great deal about the archaic and geriatric condition of the American picture business. For instance, 54 percent of the members of the Academy are over 60; another 36 percent are in their forties and fifties; and just 2 percent are under 40. More or less, that pattern is the inverse of the numbers reported for the age of filmgoers.

Let me be clear: I am over 60. I am, in fact, over 70; and my esteemed colleague in film for this magazine, Stanley Kauffmann, has allowed a rumor to get around that he is older still. So I don’t have to explain to you that people of our age can possess razor-edged critical instincts and write like angels. But even with the best will in the world we may not understand kids, and we probably don’t see many of the movies that weekend-after-weekend feature in the “top grosser.”

To come clean, I haven’t seen one of the five films that headed the grosses for last weekend, and which all took in over $17 million: Safe House; The Vow; Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance; Journey 2: The Mysterious Island; and This Means War. I rather suspect Stanley hasn’t seen them either. The first film in the list I have seen is Star Wars: Episode I, and I’m not going back, even if it is now in 3-D.

There are other anomalies, more striking than that of age. If I were to tell you that the racial makeup of Academy membership breaks down on a ratio of 94 to six, could you guess which is which? The six actually represents all categories “other” than white, so it covers the entire range of ethnic variety (except for the whites). I think I could have predicted some drastic disproportion in that area, though I’m surprised at how bad it actually is. But the next fact is a shocker, because I assume that the audience is fairly well balanced in terms of gender, just as there are movies with female characters, writers and directors. And yet, the Academy has 77 percent male membership and 23 female.

At which point, you may sigh and reason that just because of its high mean age, the Academy represents the history of the film business, going back to when women were not as much employed behind the camera. One consolation in this debt to the past is that it must mean the Academy is well supplied with experienced filmmakers, and people who have themselves been among the Oscars. But the numbers don’t say that: just 14 percent of the members have won Oscars; 19 percent have been nominated; and 64 percent have nothing.

It’s when you amass or marry these statistics that you begin to realize what a strange club the Academy is: very white; elderly; male; and none too successful at what might be thought of as their expertise. Frank Pierson, a fine writer and director (Dog Day Afternoon, Conspiracy), a past president of the Academy and aged 86, responded to the Times’ report by saying it doesn’t matter—these awards are not the general election; they are the considered opinions of mature professionals. Thank God for that, because in most categories the mature professionals don’t have to have seen the films to vote. In that respect the Oscars are like a general election—ignorance is no impediment.

So it’s vital to recall how often the Academy has committed howlers. This is not simply a difference of opinion where opinions have every right to differ. But consider: what do the following people have in common? Preston Sturges; Alfred Hitchcock; Fritz Lang; Stanley Kubrick; David Lynch; Jane Campion; Howard Hawks; King Vidor; Ernst Lubitsch; Madonna; Orson Welles; Jean Renoir; Carol Reed; Barbara Loden; Michael Powell; Spike Lee; Akira Kurosawa; Kenji Mizoguchi; Robert Altman; Leni Riefenstahl, and Charles Chaplin. They are all film directors, and none of them ever won an Oscar for directing.

Well, that’s not right, you’re saying; that’s just not fair—and with such unfairness you’ve got to be very brave in the land of the free if you’re a film director. To which the Academy could answer, well, a lot of those people ended up with honorary Oscars, when they were past the mean age of the membership. And many of them were nominated several times for directing. After all, it is an honor to be nominated, isn’t it?

I suppose so, but then I have to ask you another question: what do these movies have in common? The Shop Around the Corner; His Girl Friday; The Lady Eve; Shanghai Express; Rear Window; The Night of the Hunter; Touch of Evil; Some Like It Hot; Mulholland Dr.; Wanda; Magnolia; In the Cut; A Separation. My answer would be (and this is opinion) that they are all very good films, yet not one of them was nominated for Best Picture.

Only one film in that list is “foreign,” by which I mean that it came from outside the United States. They were American pictures in an age of such hollow confidence that the rest of the world could fight over the bone of best foreign picture. But you knew not to trust elderly, white, male clubs a long time ago. Didn’t you?

David Thomson is the author of The New Biographical Dictionary of Film and The Moment of Psycho: How Alfred Hitchcock Taught America to Love Murder.

Source: http://www.tnr.com/article/film/100996/84-academy-awards-oscars-voters

This Week The Colbert Report 60 Minutes

Two Questions About the GOP Debates

2012-02-28T12:42:00.001-08:00

1. Why would a modern political party turn over a large chunk of influence over their nomination process to the candidate best able to...pack the room for debates, thus ensuring that his points would be interpreted as resonating with real voters and that whoever failed in this minor organizational achievement would risk getting booed if they attacked that candidate?

2. How is it that Mitt Romney didn't figure out that he was supposed to be packing the room until about the 17th or 18th debate of this cycle (and after living through the same thing in 2008)?

Source: http://plainblogaboutpolitics.blogspot.com/2012/02/two-questions-about-gop-debates.html

Dallas Morning News Houston Chronicle Philadelphia Inquirer

Illinois bill to make sex with the dead illegal.

2012-02-28T09:42:00.001-08:00

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/blogspot/omgxi/~3/tYfYO2_bCB0/illinois-bill-to-make-sex-with-dead.html

Dallas Morning News Houston Chronicle Philadelphia Inquirer

Another New Face For the Omaha Public School Board?

2012-02-28T06:42:00.001-08:00

We seem to have come across a treasure trove of advance press releases for education filings effecting the Omaha area. We announced a little while back that Randi K. Scott had filed for the District 12 O.P.S. seat being vacated by Sandra Kostos Jensen. Since then, another Republican Dorrel Nutter, whom we are not familiar filed for that seat as well. Now we have news that there will be a new face filing for the O.P.S. District 4 School Board seat, Sarah Brumfield. As of now no one else has filed for this seat.

Below you'll find her press release:

"(February 23^nd, 2012) Sarah Brumfield will officially file with the Douglas County Election Commission to run for the OPS Board of Education in District 4 on Friday, February 24^th.

As a parent Sarah is concerned with the current state and direction of Omaha Public Schools. Sarah will push for transparency and focus her efforts on ensuring students are getting a quality education. Sarah also will make sure that taxpayer dollars are used in the most prudent and effective way possible.

Sarah spent several years working in the medical field. She graduated with a Bachelors of Science degree from the University of Nebraska at Omaha and is a 2001 graduate of Ralston High School. Sarah has had many leadership roles over her career including the National Region One Vice President 2001-2002 for HOSA (Health Occupations Students of America). Sarah’s husband, T.J, is a Systems Engineer at PayPal. Their daughter, Zoe, is 6 years old and in first grade at Liberty ElementarySarah is the former Director of Public Relations for the Omaha Nighthawks professional football team."

For Further comment contact Sarah at (402) 490-7035

Source: http://objectiveconservative.blogspot.com/2012/02/another-new-face-for-omaha-public.html

Human Events Newsweek Roll Call

#NewMusic Lil B “I Got Aids”

2012-02-28T03:42:00.001-08:00

I’m definitely not the biggest fan of Lil B. In fact, if the biggest fan is equivalent to an air conditioner, I would be the little fan they pass around at church. However, I am capable of acknowledging when an artist is making an attempt to do good, even if there are motives attached. In [...]

Source: http://www.wiretapmag.org/wire/88650/

Florida Lawmakers Defeat Prison Privatization amid National Push for For-Profit Jails

2012-02-28T00:42:00.001-08:00

The Florida State Senate has defeated a measure to privatize at least 27 prisons, which would have created the largest corporate-run prison system in the country. Despite the vote, Republican Gov. Rick Scott could still privatize the prisons through executive authority. According to the U.S. Department of Justice, the number of prisoners being added to privately run jails is outpacing the overall prison population by 17 percent compared to 4 percent. The nation's largest operator of for-profit prisons, Corrections Corporation of America, recently sent letters to 48 states offering to buy up their prisons in exchange for a 20-year management contract, plus an assurance that the prison would remain at least at 90 percent capacity. We discuss prison privatization with two guests: Florida Republican State Senator Mike Fasano, who led the charge against the bill to handover South Florida's state prisons to private companies, and ACLU of Ohio spokesperson Mike Brickner, co-author of the report, "Prisons for Profit: A Look at Prison Privatization." [includes rush transcript]

Source: http://www.democracynow.org/2012/2/17/florida_lawmakers_defeat_prison_privatization_amid

Dallas Morning News Houston Chronicle Philadelphia Inquirer

Rick Santorum calls Obama 'a snob' for wanting people to attend college

2012-02-27T21:42:00.001-08:00

American Taliban (Sarah Conard/Reuters)

This is yet another one of the things Rick Santorum says that he says often enough that it counts as an actual talking point, as opposed to the deranged ramblings of a tattered mind. Well, I suppose it could be both:

“I understand why Barack Obama wants to send every kid to college, because of their indoctrination mills, absolutely [...] The indoctrination that is going on at the university level is a harm to our country.”

Santorum's point, as near as can be discerned, is that getting an education is bad. It's bad because "62 percent of kids who go into college with a faith commitment leave without it," which sounds like one of the 82.7 percent of statistics that were simply pulled out of someone's posterior. It's bad because college indoctrinates people, presumably to believe in math and literature and the tensile strength of various metals, and we can't have that. No, really. He's genuinely put out about it:

President Obama wants everybody in America to go to college. What a snob," Santorum said as the crowd howled with laughter and applause. [...]
"That's why he wants you to go to college. He wants to remake you in his image," Santorum said to more applause. "I want to create jobs so people can remake their children into their image, not his."

Seldom has the conservative hostility to general book-learning been rendered so tersely. In addition to the apparent conviction that faith and knowing stuff cannot possibly coexist, there is also the general presumption of children as empty objects. They should be indoctrinated, and "remade"; the only question in Santorum's mind is who should do it. The beliefs Rick Santorum intends to pour into his children are apparently so fragile that they cannot survive exposure to literally any other contrary knowledge. He will homeschool his children; they will grow up to have random "jobs" that reflect the jobs their parents wish them to have; they will correctly fear and despise the suspicious black president, because their parents tell them to.

The forms of "indoctrination" students are exposed to in American colleges are never clear. I have at this point heard countless conservatives rant about it, but never with any explanation attached to it that made a lick of sense. Something about secularism (apparently Jesus would solve math problems differently), or liberal professors (scores of liberal professors, doing liberal things like ... what? Citing statistics that make people feel bad? Giving interpretations of history that clash with the preferred One True Narratives of the parents?) or college-aged students, gone away from their parents, who suddenly engage in terrible, contrary-to-parental-advice behavior the moment they leave home.

Whatever it is, Rick Santorum is, as usual, up to his eyeballs in it. It almost impresses me how uncannily Santorum reflects all the worst aspects of modern Republican conservatism. From the theocracy-as-freedom pronouncements to his own religious hypocrisies (don't ask him about any Catholic social doctrines not revolving around sex, because he couldn't tell you them), to tax cuts as regimentally required magic fairy dust, to the evils of social programs, and the scandalous doings of women nowadays, and outright hostility toward scientists and teachers and pretty much every other post-Dark-Ages invention of society. He is the perfect social conservative candidate. And that scares everyone except his base.

Source: http://feeds.dailykos.com/~r/dailykos/index/~3/11_7NFxkBmk/-Rick-Santorum-calls-Obama-a-snob-for-wanting-people-to-attend-college

Dissent Foreign Affairs FrontPage Magazine

Bank's £500m tax loophole closed by Treasury in rare retrospective action

2012-02-27T18:42:00.001-08:00

Legislation rushed through to close down two 'aggressive' tax avoidance schemes that high-street bank disclosed to HMRC

The Treasury has rushed in legislation to close down two "aggressive" tax avoidance schemes that a high-street bank had disclosed to HM Revenue and Customs in an effort to avoid tax.

As it announced highly unusual steps to take retrospective action to shut down the "highly abusive" schemes, the Treasury refused to the name the bank involved, although the Guardian understands that it is Barclays. The bank has refused to comment.

The government was immediately accused of making a "mockery" of its own code of conduct on tax – which 200 banks have signed to promise to comply with the spirit and not just the letter of the law – by refusing to identify the bank that the Treasury claimed would face a £500m tax bill.

The Treasury also said that the move would prevent "further billions of tax from being lost and maintain fairness in the tax system".

The detail was complex, but could have implications for any bank that is buying back its own debt – which has fallen in value because of the financial crisis – and making a profit as a result.

One of the schemes being shut down allowed the bank to avoid paying corporation tax on the profit it makes from buying back its own debt.

The second scheme involves authorised investment funds where the bank aims to convert non-taxable income into an amount carrying a repayable tax credit to secure a repayment from the exchequer even though tax has not been paid.

Barclays is among dozens of banks across Europe that have bought back debt – it started doing so on 5 December. The Treasury has said that the retrospective element of its changes would date back to the start of December.

The Treasury made clear that the bank had signed up to its code on conduct on tax. "The government is clear that these are not transactions that a bank that has adopted the code should be undertaking," a Treasury spokesman said.

But Lord Oakeshott, the Liberal Democrat peer, said last night that the Treasury's refusal to name the bank "made a mockery" of the code.

David Gauke, exchequer secretary to the Treasury, said: " We do not take today's action lightly, but the potential tax loss from this scheme and the history of previous abuse in this area mean that this is a circumstance where the decision to change the law with full retrospective effect is justified."

Jill Treanor

Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2012/feb/28/treasury-closes-barclays-tax-schemes

Inside Washington The Least Likely Rock the Vote

Sherrod Brown and the Attack on Everything!

2012-02-27T15:42:00.001-08:00

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ThirdBasePolitics/~3/0h1k8EYYZuk/sherrod-brown-and-attack-on-everything.html

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ThirdBasePolitics/~3/5umg6w6qV7o/cordrays-first-move-at-cfpb-demand-more.html

Cordray’s First Move at CFPB? Demand More Power

2012-02-27T12:42:00.001-08:00

Arizona Republic Denver Post Newsday

Morning Briefing for February 27, 2012

2012-02-27T09:42:00.001-08:00

RedState Morning Briefing
February 27, 2012

Go to www.RedStateMB.com to get
the Morning Briefing every morning at no charge.

I’m filling in for Neal Boortz today on the radio. You can listen live on the WSB live stream from 8:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. and call in at 1-877-310-2100.

1. 10 Ways Obama Could Reduce Gasoline Prices Now

2. Obama Campaign Declares the GOP ‘Obsessed,’ then Goes on to Rant Obsessively about the Koch Bros

3. FROM SEN. RICK SANTORUM: For Religious Minorities in the Middle East – With Friends Like Obama, Who Needs Enemies?!

4. NJ Teachers’ Union Thugs Protest At Student’s Home To Send Father A Message

5. Time to end caucuses for President

———————————————————————-

1. 10 Ways Obama Could Reduce Gasoline Prices Now

Tulsa World headline:

Obama: No magic bullet to lower gas prices

Speaking of bumper stickers, remember “Yes We Can”, Mr. President? No one understands the concept better than the oil and gas industry. The main thing holding domestic energy companies back from making a stronger commitment to future domestic supplies is uncertainty. Capital hates uncertainty, avoids it like the plague. Your rhetoric may appease your doctrinaire base, but it makes domestic energy producers hold back, fearful that you will punish their success, or that you will change the rules on them in the middle of the game.

Erasing uncertainty is the #1 thing you can do as a national leader if you truly desire to lower gasoline prices. Not only could it change the psychology of energy investing, there is still time for companies to change their 2012 investment plans.

Below the fold is my humble 10-point plan: Things President Obama could (but won’t) do to reduce domestic gasoline prices by November 2012.

2. Obama Campaign Declares the GOP ‘Obsessed,’ then Goes on to Rant Obsessively about the Koch Bros

In an epic self-awareness fail, the Obama campaign sent an email this afternoon from campaign manager Jim Messina which bore the subject line “They’re Obsessed,” and which mentioned the left’s current bogeymen, the Koch Brothers, in the first line and in five of the email’s eight total sentences.

3. FROM SEN. RICK SANTORUM: For Religious Minorities in the Middle East – With Friends Like Obama, Who Needs Enemies?!

President Obama has an amazing ability to make Jimmy Carter’s foreign policies look good.

Opposition to imperfect allies and support of radical Islamists has resulted in the almost-extinction of religious freedom for religious minorities – from the Copts in Egypt to the defenseless women and children who were slaughtered in Homs, Syria – in the Middle East.

Another example is the devolving situation in Iraq. President Obama was so committed to fulfilling an arbitrary campaign promise to get our troops out of Iraq that he ignored the advice of his senior military officials about the consequences of establishing a firm withdrawal date and about how long it might take before Iraq was ready to manage the situation on their own. As a result, Al-Qa’ida is resurgent, Iran’s influence is greater than ever, religious tensions between Sunni and Shi’a are increasing, the existential threat facing Iraq’s indigenous minority communities has never been greater, and our ability to affect the situation there is weaker now. Recent coordinated car bomb attacks are just the latest in a string of such events since the start of the new year, and they portend many more violent assaults to come.

4. NJ Teachers’ Union Thugs Protest At Student’s Home To Send Father A Message

In Delsea, New Jersey, the teachers’ union (a sub-chapter of the NEA) has been fighting over the amount of their pay increases (not decreases) since 2010.

On Valentine’s Day, according to NJ.com, the union teachers decided to make their grievance personal by protesting in front of the Delsea school board president’s home.

Unfortunately, the school board president was not home—but his children were, including his daughter whose teachers were among those protesting outside her home.

5. Time to end caucuses for President

The discussion of Republican Party rules reform is beginning in the aftermath of the catastrophe of the new rules that were created by the RNC leadership in 2010. Many people attribute the lengthening process to just the new rules, but I would argue that there are several other factors. Some of the obvious ones are the weakness of the candidate field and new campaign finance structures. It is hard to imagine how Newt Gingrich would have been able to compete in South Carolina or Rick Santorum pretty much anywhere without SuperPAC support. Their campaigns would have run out of money in previous years, and their shows would have been up. Blaming the “proportional” rules misses the point somewhat, as none of the states that have gone yet other than Florida previously operated under proportional rules.

The real disaster of this cycle has been the presidential preference caucus. In Iowa, Nevada, and Maine, we have had disastrous voting procedures, with results unknown or in flux for days. In Iowa, this led to the resignation of the state party chair Matt Strawn. In Nevada, the state party’s failed efforts to run a caucus have been widely panned, although the state party chair had already announced that she was stepping down, so there hasn’t been the same kind of accountability. In Maine, I am hearing that state party Chairman Charlie Webster, who I quite like personally, is coming under tremendous pressure from county party chairs, elected officials and the party executive committee to step down.

Source: http://www.redstate.com/erick/2012/02/27/morning-briefing-for-february-27-2012/