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via E.J. Dionne Jr., The Washington Post Conservatives are not accustomed to being on the defensive. They have long experience with attacking the evils of the left and the abuses of activist judges. They love to assail “tax-and-spend liberals” without ever discussing who should be taxed or what government money is actually spent on. They … Continue reading
via Max J. Rosenthal, The Huffington Post After a marathon session of debate, the Connecticut Senate passed a bill early on Thursday morning abolishing the death penalty, making the state all but certain to end capital punishment within weeks. Connecticut would be the 17th state to repeal the death penalty and the first since Illinois … Continue reading
via Amanda Terkel, The Huffington Post A Wisconsin law that made it easier for victims of wage discrimination to have their day in court was repealed on Thursday, after Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) quietly signed the bill. The 2009 Equal Pay Enforcement Act was meant to deter employers from discriminating against certain groups by … Continue reading
via AP, The Huffington Post A federal judge in San Francisco says the denial of insurance benefits to same-sex spouses is discriminatory. The ruling Tuesday involves 38-year-old federal court law clerk Christopher Nathan and 39-year-old Thomas Alexander, who were married in 2008 when same-sex marriages were legal in California. Voters later approved Proposition 8, overturning … Continue reading
via Andrew Belonsky, Towleroad A little update on a story out of Ohio: a federal judge yesterday ruled that high school student Maverick Couch can continue wearing his “Jesus is not a homophobe” t-shirt as the court decides a lawsuit filed by Lambda Legal against the Waynesville School District. Couch says he originally took off … Continue reading
via Dan Pearce, Single Dad Laughing Today I want to write about something that has bothered me for the better part of a decade. I’ve carved out no fewer than a dozen drafts of this post, all strangely unalike, all ultimately failing to accomplish the job I’ve set out to do. Truth is, I’ve been … Continue reading
via Darius Dixon, Politico Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz fired back Wednesday at Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch’s claim that Democrats would attack Mitt Romney’s Mormon faith in the fall election, saying the charge was “nonsense” and that the issue of religion was off-limits. “That is just preposterous,” the Florida Democrat, who chairs the Democratic National Committee, … Continue reading
via Eric Jaffe, The Atlantic Late last week [The Atlantic’s] Richard Florida wondered on Twitter whether pedestrian walking speeds might indicate a city’s economic activity — reflecting some sort of “urban metabolism,” as he put it. Turns out there’s a rather long history of research into the speed of walking in cities, and that the … Continue reading
via Bryan Curtis, Slate Eric Fehrnstrom Talks GOP Candidates & Etch A Sketch If Mitt Romney adviser Eric Fehrnstrom, the man behind the Etch A Sketch gaffe, is having a dark night of the soul, he ought to call Steve Schmidt. Schmidt was John McCain’s senior strategist—aka the man who OK’d Sarah Palin and presided over a … Continue reading
via The Huffington Post Rep. Joe Walsh (R-Ill.) found himself in hot water over the weekend for a controversial comment he made regarding Democrat Tammy Duckworth’s military service, and attempted Monday to explain his words, though didn’t offer an apology for them. The congressman stirred up controversy on Thursday by seeming to belittle the service … Continue reading
via Jessica Pieklo, Care2 Causes Last week Missouri picked up where Arizona left off, tackling two abortion bills, including one that would allow employers to deny coverage for birth control pills unless employees provide proof the pills are used for a “medical need”. Missouri Republicans strongly believe that employers should be the ones left in … Continue reading
via Jessica Pieklo, Care2 Causes Arizona Republicans lost an effort to force women to explain to their employers why they need and use birth control so that their employer could chose whether or not to allow insurance coverage for that contraception. The final bill was defeated on a 17-13 vote but not without causing significant … Continue reading
via Alexia Tsotsis, TechCrunch It’s hard to tell if the Wikipedia article on April Fools’ Day is itself an April Fools’ prank. Tidbits of the ubiquitous holiday’s history seem like jokes in and of themselves; “In France and Italy, children and adults traditionally tack paper fish on each other’s back as a trick and shout … Continue reading
via Jonathan Cohn, The New Republic Before this week, the well-being of tens of millions of Americans was at stake in the lawsuits challenging the Affordable Care Act. Now something else is at stake, too: The legitimacy of the Supreme Court. Nobody knows how the justices will rule. And nobody can know, not even the … Continue reading
via The Huffington Post A recall election was officially ordered Friday against embattled first-term Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker after more than 900,000 signatures were collected on petitions to force a vote. The Government Accountability Board voted 5-0 to order the recall, a move that has been expected for weeks given the high number of signatures … Continue reading
via Jon Clinkenbeard, Techcitement If I were going to describe the perfect contraceptive, it would go something like this: no babies, no latex, no daily pill to remember, no hormones to interfere with mood or sex drive, no negative health effects whatsoever, and 100 percent effectiveness. The funny thing is, something like that currently exists. … Continue reading
via Gail Collins, The New York Times The debate over the shooting death of Trayvon Martin seems to be devolving into an argument about the right to wear hoodies, but it really does not appear to be a promising development. Congress, which never draws any serious conclusions from terrible tragedies involving gunplay, did have time … Continue reading
via Steven Rattner, The New York Times New statistics show an ever-more-startling divergence between the fortunes of the wealthy and everybody else — and the desperate need to address this wrenching problem. Even in a country that sometimes seems inured to income inequality, these takeaways are truly stunning. In 2010, as the nation continued to … Continue reading
via David G. Savage, L.A. Times The Supreme Court’s conservative justices said Wednesday they are prepared to strike down President Obama’s healthcare law entirely. Picking up where they left off Tuesday, the conservatives said they thought a decision striking down the law’s controversial individual mandate to purchase health insurance means the whole statute should fall … Continue reading
via Laura Bassett, The Huffington Post While women still earn 77 cents for every dollar that men make in the United States, the gender wage gap has closed significantly over the past several decades. Now, for the first time ever, a new study has connected the narrowing of that pay gap to increased access to … Continue reading
via Mark Sherman and Jesse J. Holland, The Huffington Post Sharp questioning by the Supreme Court’s conservative justices cast serious doubt Tuesday on the survival of the individual insurance requirement at the heart of President Barack Obama’s historic health care overhaul. Arguments at the high court focused on whether the mandate for virtually every American … Continue reading
via Lylah M. Alphonse, Yahoo! Shine In Wisconsin — yes, the same state where lawmakers have introduced a bill penalizing single mothers for being unmarried — a Republican state representative has come out against divorce for any reason — even domestic abuse. Instead of leaving an abusive situation, women should try to remember the things … Continue reading
via CBS News The Supreme Court finished Monday the first of three days of arguments on the fate of the Obama administration’s overhaul of the nation’s health care system. The justices appear unlikely to allow an obscure tax law to derail the case. A decision is expected by late June, in the midst of a … Continue reading
via Sara Robinson, Alternet 150 years of research proves that long hours at work kill profits, productivity and employees If you’re lucky enough to have a job right now, you’re probably doing everything possible to hold onto it. If the boss asks you to work 50 hours, you work 55. If she asks for 60, … Continue reading
via Jim Garrison, The Huffington Post President Obama’s National Defense Resources Preparedness Executive Order of March 16 does to the country as a whole what the 2012 National Defense Authorization Act did to the Constitution in particular — completely eviscerates any due process or judicial oversight for any action by the Government deemed in the … Continue reading
The Brandt Standard 