All Entries in the "Civil Rights" Category

Congress exempt from Civil Rights Act

Lawmakers from both sides of the aisle took Rand Paul to task when he suggested earlier this year that Title II of the 1964 Civil Rights Act shouldn’t apply to private businesses.

But a new report from Congress’s Office of Compliance notes that Congress has never applied the provision to itself.

“The OOC Board of Directors has taken the position that the rights and protections afforded by Titles II and III of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 against discrimination with respect to places of public accommodation should be applied to the legislative branch,” OOC officials wrote in the report.

Full Story: Congress exempt from Civil Rights Act – Erika Lovley – POLITICO.com.

Opponents of same-sex marriage ask Prop. 8 judge to invalidate 18,000 marriages of gay couples.

As Judge Vaughn Walker prepares to hear closing arguments today in Perry v. Schwarzenegger, the landmark case against California’s Proposition 8, supporters of the measure are urging him to “go a step further and revoke state recognition of the marriages of 18,000 gay and lesbian couples who wed before” voters stripped same-sex couples of their right to marry in November 2008:

Such an order would honor “the expressed will of the people,” backers of the November 2008 ballot measure said Tuesday in their final written filing before Chief U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker.

Andrew Pugno, an attorney for Prop. 8’s backers, said in an interview that the sponsors aren’t asking Walker to nullify the 18,000 marriages, but only to rule that government agencies, courts and businesses no longer have to recognize the couples as married.

Full Story: Think Progress » Opponents of same-sex marriage ask Prop. 8 judge to invalidate 18,000 marriages of gay couples..

Breaking News from Florida: Crist Vetoes Ultrasound Bill

The Friday afternoon news dump, wherein someone tries to hide their major, super important news in the hustle and bustle and happy hours of a dawning weekend, was the tool of choice as Florida Gov. Charlie Crist (NPA) announced his veto of a horrifically bad piece of Republican legislation.

Known as the “ultrasound bill,” the law would have required women seeking an abortion to first pay for and obtain an ultrasound test, in which they would either have to view the embryo or listen to a doctor describe it. Tests range from several hundred dollars to $1,500, and would effectively block the abortion option for many, if not most, women.

In his veto statement, Crist, who earlier this week signaled his intention by removing harsh anti-abortion language from his campaign web site, acknowledged a woman’s right to decide.

Full Story: Pensito Review » Breaking News from Florida: Crist Vetoes Ultrasound Bill.

A Victory for Native Americans?

Mistreatment of Indians is America's Original Sin, and the narrative is consistent. They lose their land, get portrayed as caricatures of social maladies, and are ripped off by the likes of Jack Abramoff. So it's no surprise that a tale with a very different ending, namely the righting of a horrible wrong affecting 500,000 Native Americans, proceeds with virtually no notice.

Indeed, you'd think that even Tea Party diehards should rally to this cause, given their anti-government and pro-property rights passion. They might even want to pay homage to the intrepid female accountant-turned-banker, who inspired one of the most fiercely litigated disputes against the federal government in history. But they likely won't. Who will? Not even many Indians believe that belated fairness is now on the way, given more than a century of government abuse and deceit whose undisputed facts strain credulity.

The facts are these: Following the House's approval, the Senate is considering whether to approve a $3.4 billion settlement of a 15-year-old lawsuit, alleging the government illegally withheld more than $150 billion from Indians whose lands were taken in the 1880s to lease to oil, timber, minerals and other companies for a fee. Back then, the government started breaking up reservations, accumulating over 100 million acres, giving individual Indians 80 to 160 acres each, and taking legal title to properties placed in one of two trusts. The Indians were given beneficial ownership but the government managed the land, believing Indians couldn't handle their affairs. With leases for oil wells in Oklahoma, resorts in Palm Springs, and rights-of-ways for roads in Scottsdale, Arizona, some descendants of original owners receive six- and even seven-figure sums annually. But the prototypical beneficiary, now poised to share in the settlement, is a poor Dakotan who struggles to afford propane to heat his quarters and has been receiving as little as $20 a year. More than $400 million a year is collected from Indian lands and paid into U.S. Treasury account 14X6039.

Full Story: A Victory for Native Americans? – National – The Atlantic.

Former Bush Adviser: ‘Republicans Are So Far Out Of Step’ On ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’

Last week before the House passed an amendment to repeal “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” (DADT), the policy that bars gays and lesbians from serving openly, Republicans took to the floor to rail against repeal, calling it a “social experiment,” un-patriotic and an “insult” to the military. Rep. Mike Pence (R-IN) claimed that “the American people don’t want the American military to be used to advance a liberal political agenda.”

Today, on ABC’s This Week, former Bush adviser Matthew Dowd asked rhetorically, “They socialize with kids that are openly gay and all of the sudden they go in the armed services, somebody gives them a rifle and they’re not supposed to be around gay people anymore?” Then he took a shot at the GOP intransigence:

DOWD: It doesn’t make any sense. It’s long been decided in the public’s mind. I think the Republicans are so far out of step about this, where the country is…Republican office holders are so far out of step with this.

Full Story: Think Progress » Former Bush Adviser: ‘Republicans Are So Far Out Of Step’ On ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’.

Defying Pence, five Republicans join majority to vote for repeal of ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.’

In a historic vote last night, the House passed an amendment to repeal the military’s discriminatory “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy. Earlier this week, Rep. Mike Pence (R-IN), the House’s third-ranking Republican, had “promised unified GOP opposition to lifting the ban” on gays serving openly in the military. “The American people don’t want the American military to be used to advance a liberal political agenda. And House Republicans will stand on that principle,” Pence said. But dismissing Pence’s leadership, five Republicans joined 229 Democrats to vote for the repeal:

The vote was 234 to 194.

Reps. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL), Ron Paul (R-TX), Joseph Cao (R-LA), Rep. Judy Biggert (R-IL), and Charles Djou (R-HI) were the only Republicans to vote in favor of scrapping the law.

Full Story: Think Progress » Defying Pence, five Republicans join majority to vote for repeal of ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.’.

Police chiefs worried Arizona immigration law will increase crime meet with Attorney General

Chiefs claim Holder told them federal challenge is imminent

A group of police chiefs who have launched a campaign against the new Arizona immigration law which they believe will damage community relations with law enforcement agencies across the nation are set to meet with Attorney General Eric Holder on Wednesday morning.

A press release sent to RAW STORY states, “Arizona police chiefs are concerned that the new SB 1070 law in Arizona will drive a wedge between the community and the police, and will damage the trust that police agencies have worked to establish over many years with members of all their communities. More than a dozen other states are considering laws similar to Arizona’s. Police chiefs from some of America’s largest cities are joining with their Arizona colleagues to express these concerns and to seek the Attorney General’s advice and discuss the ramifications of state and federal immigration laws.”

The Washington Post's Spencer S. Hsu reports, “Arizona's new crackdown on illegal immigration will increase crime in U.S. cities, not reduce it, by driving a wedge between police and immigrant communities, police chiefs from several of the state's and the nation's largest cities said Tuesday.”

Full Story: Police chiefs worried Arizona immigration law will increase crime meet with Attorney General | Raw Story.

Stossel calls for repeal of public accommodations section of Civil Rights Act

KELLY: Rand Paul is a libertarian. You are a libertarian. He is getting excoriated for suggesting that the Civil Rights act — what he said was, “Look it’s got 10 parts, essentially; I favor nine. It’s the last part that mandated no discrimination in places of public accommodation that I have a problem with, because you should let businesses decide for themselves whether they are going to be racist or not racist. Because once the government gets involved, it’s a slippery slope.” Do you agree with that?

STOSSEL: Totally. I’m in total agreement with Rand Paul. You can call it public accommodation, and it is, but it’s a private business. And if a private business wants to say, “We don’t want any blond anchorwomen or mustached guys,” it ought to be their right. Are we going to say to the black students’ association they have to take white people, or the gay softball association they have to take straight people? We should have freedom of association in America.

KELLY: OK. When you put it like that it sounds fine, right? So who cares if a blond anchorwoman and mustached anchorman can’t go into the lunchroom. But as you know, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 came around because it was needed. Blacks weren’t allowed to sit at the lunch counter with whites. They couldn’t, as they traveled from state to state in this country, they couldn’t go in and use a restroom. They couldn’t get severed meals and so on, and therefore, unfortunately in this country a law was necessary to get them equal rights.
Full Story: Stossel calls for repeal of public accommodations section of Civil Rights Act | Media Matters for America.

Exclusive: FBI probed Harvey Milk, George Moscone prior to their murders

Federal agents were investigating the late San Francisco Supervisor Harvey Milk and the late mayor of San Francisco George Moscone for alleged political corruption when both men were murdered in November 1978, according to Federal Bureau of Investigation files.

The man convicted of killing both men, then-Supervisor Dan White, was also the subject of a separate FBI political corruption probe before he gunned down Moscone and Milk at San Francisco’s City Hall.

Agents in the FBI’s San Francisco bureau were looking into whether Moscone and Milk had collaborated to “defraud the federally sponsored San Francisco Community Development Fund,” according to documents obtained by San Francisco blogger and gay rights activist Michael Petrelis. (The relevant pages from those documents can be seen here.)

FBI officials were also investigating whether Moscone had received $10,000 “for favorable treatment in the building of a controversial McDonald’s restaurant,” according to the files.

Full Story: Exclusive: FBI probed Harvey Milk, George Moscone prior to their murders | Raw Story.

Oklahoma Is At It Again: State Legislature Passes Bill Stripping Abortion Coverage From Health Insurance

As ThinkProgress has reported, many far-right members of the Oklahoma legislature have made denying women rights a full-time mission. What the legislature has done in recent weeks:

– Both the House and the Senate passed a law mandating the collection of personal details about every single abortion performed in the state, which will then be posted on a public website.

– The legislature overrode the governor’s veto of an ultrasound mandate, which requires that doctor’s show women seeking an abortion ultrasounds of their babies and “describe the size of the fetus and any viewable organs and limbs. There are no exceptions for rape or incest.” The law also “limits who can do the ultrasound and which technology can be used — issues lawmakers are ill-equipped to decide.”

– The legislature also overrode the governor’s veto of a measure to prevent women from filing “wrongful life” lawsuits against “doctors who withhold information about a fetus or pregnancy that could cause a woman to seek an abortion.”

Full Story: Think Progress » Oklahoma Is At It Again: State Legislature Passes Bill Stripping Abortion Coverage From Health Insurance.

Police Across Arizona See Dangers of New Law

It’s not every day in Arizona that the police are so eager not to do their job. Yet the state’s latest anti-immigrant crack down has evoked protests from cops across the state, who fear that a new measure to criminalize undocumented immigrants will only make it harder to deal with local crime.

Broad opposition to the law, SB 1070, has produced some of the immigration debate’s strangest bedfellows: civil rights advocates have aligned with police chiefs to warn of the consequences of entangling local police in federal immigration policy. And law enforcement officials nationwide have warned that the growing trend of localizing immigration enforcement undermines years of progress in establishing “community policing” techniques that are believed effective in preventing crime.

Shortly before Gov. Jan Brewer signed the bill, the Arizona Association of Chiefs of Police warned in a statement that the policy “will negatively affect the ability of law enforcement agencies across the state to fulfill their many responsibilities in a timely manner.” Concerned about new liabilities created by the legislation (one provision enables local citizens to sue if they believe police are not enforcing immigration law strictly enough), the organization called on Congress “to begin the process of comprehensively addressin

Full Story: t r u t h o u t | Police Across Arizona See Dangers of New Law.

New Oklahoma Abortion Restrictions Temporarily Blocked

Oklahoma’s attorney general agreed Monday to temporarily block enforcement of a controversial new state law that requires pregnant women to get an ultrasound and hear a detailed description of the fetus before they get an abortion.

The Center for Reproductive Rights was set to argue for a temporary restraining order Monday, but attorneys for both sides agreed to accept the order before the court hearing, Oklahoma County District Judge Noma Gurich said. She signed the order Monday afternoon.

“We’re sorry to see implementation of the law delayed,” said Tony Lauinger, state chairman of Oklahomans for Life and vice president of the National Right to Life Committee. “This has been a long process and apparently it will be a little longer.”

Full Story: New Oklahoma Abortion Restrictions Temporarily Blocked.

Gates To Congress: Don’t Repeal Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell This Year

As part of the Obama administration’s plan to repeal Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell (DADT), the Pentagon has convened a “Working Group” that is meeting with servicemembers, chaplains, and others individuals about how to repeal the ban on gay men and women serving openly in the military. The process is going to take until at least Dec. 1, 2010, and White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs has said that the President is committed to letting the group complete its work before moving forward. Some members of Congress have raised the possibility of passing DADT repeal legislation this year — before the review process is complete — and delaying implementation until next year.

However, today Defense Secretary Robert Gates sent House Armed Services Committee Chairman Ike Skelton (D-MO) a letter (in response to an inquiry from Skelton) telling him that he doesn’t want Congress to take any action at all on DADT this year. From the letter obtained by ThinkProgress:

I believe in the strongest possible terms that the Department must, prior to any legislative action, be allowed the opportunity to conduct a thorough, objective, and systematic assessment of the impact of such a policy change; develop an attentive comprehensive implementation plan, and provide the President and the Congress with the results of this effort in order to ensure that this step is taken in the most informed and effective matter. [...]

Therefore, I strongly oppose any legislation that seeks to change this policy prior to the completion of this vital assessment process.

Full Story: Think Progress » Gates To Congress: Don’t Repeal Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell This Year.

Arizona Immigration Law Sparks National Uproar

Arizona lawmakers approved a sweeping immigration bill Monday intended to ramp up law enforcement efforts even as critics complained it could lead to racial profiling and other abuse.

The state Senate voted 17-11 nearly along party lines to send the bill to Gov. Jan Brewer, who has not taken a position on the measure championed by fellow Republicans. The House approved the bill April 13.

“This bill goes a long way to bringing law and order to the state,” said Sen. Al Melvin, R-Tucson, who cited costly services provided to illegal immigrants and the recent slaying of a southeastern Arizona rancher near the U.S.-Mexico border as reasons for the move.

Full Story: Arizona Immigration Law Sparks National Uproar.

End women’s right to vote, Nevada’s largest newspaper says

The editor of the Las Vegas Review-Journal says he was kidding when he penned an editorial calling for women’s right to vote to be repealed, but plenty of people aren’t laughing.

Thomas Mitchell has found himself defending his “satirical” look at the differences in the voting patterns of men and women after receiving a “swift and voluble” public reaction to his column on Friday, which was entitled “Time to repeal the 19th amendment?”

“People and candidates for public office should be judged on the basis of their ideas, stance on the issues, character, experience and integrity, not on the basis of age, race, creed, color, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, religion or disability,” Mitchell wrote. “Therefore, we must repeal the 19th Amendment. Yes, the one granting suffrage to women. Because? Well, women are biased.”

Full Story: End women’s right to vote, Nevada’s largest newspaper says | Raw Story.

Obama Directs HHS To Establish Rules Ensuring Hospital Visitation Rights For Gay, Lesbian Couples

President Obama has signed a memorandum directing the Department of Health and Human Services to establish rules that would bar hospitals from denying visitation rights to partners of gay and lesbian patients.

Many hospitals currently restrict hospital visitation to a patient’s family members by blood or marriage. Because gay marriage is not legal in most states, partners are often unable to visit their loved ones–even in emergency situations.

Any hospital that receives federal Medicare or Medicaid money will be subject to the new rule, according to a White House official who spoke to The Washington Post.

Full Story: Obama Directs HHS To Establish Rules Ensuring Hospital Visitation Rights For Gay, Lesbian Couples.

Prop 8 Challenge Could Have Global Impact – The BLT: The Blog of Legal Times

According to Theodore Olson, the legal challenge to a California measure banning same-sex marriage he is leading with David Boies clearly has global implications. “What happens in this case won’t just affect the people of California, it will affect the country. And what happens in the United States will affect the rest of the world.”

Olson, who co-chairs Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher’s appellate practice, made that assertion while talking to reporters shortly after addressing the annual Outlaw networking dinner. Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher has hosted the dinner in its Connecticut Avenue office for the past four years to give members of the Georgetown Law Center student group that focuses on legal issues affecting gays, lesbian, and bisexuals a chance to mingle with Big Law partners.

Full Story: Ted Olson: Prop 8 Challenge Could Have Global Impact – The BLT: The Blog of Legal Times.

Attempting To Strip Gays Of Hate Crimes Protections, Oklahoma Removes Protections For Race/Religion Instead

In October, President Obama signed The Matthew Shepard Act, expanding the reach of the 1969 hate crimes law to “authorize the Department of Justice to investigate and prosecute certain bias-motivated crimes based on the victim’s actual or perceived sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, or disability.” Previously, the law only allowed for the federal prosecution of anyone who “willingly injures, intimidates or interferes with another person, or attempts to do so, by force because of the other person’s race, color, religion or national origin.”

State lawmakers in Oklahoma argued that the Shepard Act would trample on the free speech rights of religious leaders “who preached out against the lifestyle of the victim who was attacked.” On March 10, the Oklahoma state Senate thought it was passing a bill prohibiting “local and state law enforcement agencies from sharing information about hate crimes with federal authorities if the state of Oklahoma did not recognize the crime as a hate crime by its own statutes.” Oklahoma state law does not recognize “sexual orientation or gender identity” as a special class and fails to provide gay and lesbians with hate crimes protections.

But in trying to strip gays and lesbians of protection, the Oklahoma State Senate inadvertently cited the wrong section of the U.S. code. The bill stripped rights under Title 18 U.S. Code Section 245, but protections for sexual orientation and gender identity is actually under Section 249. From the bill:

Full Story: Think Progress » Attempting To Strip Gays Of Hate Crimes Protections, Oklahoma Removes Protections For Race/Religion Instead.

Pa. judge refuses to grant woman same-sex divorce

A Pennsylvania judge has refused to divorce two women married last year in Massachusetts, leaving them in apparent limbo because they do not meet the residency required to divorce in the Bay State.

Berks County Judge Scott Lash said he could not grant a divorce to Carole Ann Kern and Robin Lynn Taney because their marriage is not recognized under Pennsylvania law.

“Relief under the divorce code can only be obtained by parties who are recognized to be married,” Lash wrote in a ruling issued Thursday.

Kern, a Berks County resident, had filed a petition in October seeking to divorce Taney on grounds their marriage was irretrievably broken. The pair had married four months earlier in Brewster, Mass.

Full Story: Pa. judge refuses to grant woman same-sex divorce | AP | 03/26/2010.

Teacher Sued For Bashing Christianity — Will Others Be Censored?

A teacher in California was found to have violated a student’s First Amendment rights by disparaging religion in the classroom. The ruling could silence outspo

ken teachers.

Most weekdays, some 2,700 students crowd the sidewalks and hallways of Capistrano Valley High School, which is a quick drive from Orange County, California’s finest beaches. Capo, as the school is informally known, boasts a champion surf team as well as a prestigious academic reputation, among other distinctions.

The world’s most powerful megachurch, Saddleback, is about eight miles south of Capo; nearby are the skyline-dominating Crystal Cathedral and the nation’s largest Christian broadcast network. Non-Christian faiths, too, have set up shop in the OC, home to growing numbers of Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist and Zoroastrian worshipers. In fact, for all the associations of Orange County with implants and Botox and for all the TV shows that depict a shamelessly decadent lifestyle, such as “The Real Housewives of Orange County,” this is foremost a highly religious place.

All of which has come to play out in the classroom of history teacher James Corbett, the defendant in a federal lawsuit that, depending on its outcome in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, could threaten traditional notions of academic freedom.

Full Story: Teacher Sued For Bashing Christianity — Will Others Be Censored? | Civil Liberties | AlterNet.

Lawmakers introduce legislation outlawing Florida’s ban on gay adoptions.

This afternoon, two Florida lawmakers introduced legislation to overturn the state’s ban on gay adoptions, something the legislature hasn’t debated in the law’s 33-year history. Rep. Scott Randolph’s measure, which amended a bill about gun ownership and adoptions, would have prevented “adoption agencies from inquiring about a person’s sexual orientation as a requisite for adoption.” Randolph was forced to withdraw his amendment after the Speaker ruled that it was not germane to the bill. Sen. Charlie Justice withdrew a similar bill in the Senate. “This amendment points out that government should not ask irrelevant questions in the adoption process which tell us nothing about a person’s ability to provide a permanent and loving home. Rather, it’s lawful and responsible gun ownership or a person’s sexual orientation,” Randolph announced on the House floor. He also explained how lifting the ban would benefit children:

RANDOLPH: Three thousand children are in need of adoption and are waiting for us to do the right thing. But Florida’s current adoption ban does not allow gay and lesbians to adopt in this state. In an era of very tight budgets, this cost of inaction on this issue is $2.5 million a year. It’s time to let family judges and child welfare advocates do their job by making the best standard for each child to be the only standard for deciding adoption cases. The legislature has the power to stop that right now today.

Watch it:

Full Story: Think Progress » Lawmakers introduce legislation outlawing Florida’s ban on gay adoptions..

Anti-Choice Doc Aims to Link Reproductive Rights to ‘Black Genocide’

Anti-abortion activists are screening an expertly-made documentary to black audiences across the country. Maafa 21 creates a highly selective, distorted history of the reproductive rights movement and frames abortion as a tool of eugenics and genocide.

or several years now, the religious right has been trying to appropriate the moral authority of the Civil Rights Movement. It’s an audacious strategy, given that Christian conservative politics were forged in the white Southern backlash to school integration. But it’s had some successes, particularly in rousing black churches against the gay rights movement. Now, the anti-abortion movement is making a push to enlist African Americans in their cause by framing abortion as a tool of eugenics and genocide.

The campaign is already having an impact. As the New York Times reported late last month, the overwhelmingly white Georgia Right to Life has spent more than $20,000 erecting 80 billboards around Atlanta that proclaim, “Black children are an endangered species.” The group has created a Web site, Too Many Aborted, with excellent production values, designed to portray legal abortion as a plot against the black community. Meanwhile, according to the Times, the new documentary Maafa 21: Black Genocide in 21st Century America, which purports to “trace connections among slavery, Nazi-style eugenics, birth control and abortion,” is finding an audience among black organizations nationwide. The Times quoted Markita Eddy, a sophomore at the historically black Morris Brown College, who had turned against abortion rights after seeing the film.

Full Story: Anti-Choice Doc Aims to Link Reproductive Rights to ‘Black Genocide’ | ReligionDispatches.

Judge Strikes Down Congressional Ban on Funding ACORN

| Center for Constitutional Rights -

Today, federal judge, for the second time, granted an injunction against Congress’ unconstitutional de-funding of the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) to apply to federal budget provisions signed into law by President Obama in December 2009 and ordered the United State of America and several named agencies to rescind orders cutting off funding to ACORN and its affiliates and allies. A preliminary injunction was won in December 2009 in the Center for Constitutional Rights’ (CCR) case charging Congress with violating the U.S. Constitution’s protections against Bill of Attainders and the First and Fifth Amendments in several recurring resolutions. Today’s opinion extends that protection by ordering a permanent injunction and directing agency heads to disregard the provisions denying funding and to rescind the memos that implemented the Congressional action.

CCR Legal Director Bill Quigley,

Full Story: Judge Strikes Down Congressional Ban on Funding ACORN | Center for Constitutional Rights.

The Selma Marchers Weren’t Just Activists — They Were Believers

Forty-four years ago, on March 7th, Alabama state troopers and a sheriff’s posse broke up a march by civil rights demonstrators from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama. Also known as Bloody Sunday because the troopers and posse attacked the 600 marchers with billy clubs and tear gas, it was the first of three March marches that are hallmarks in the U.S. civil rights movement. The second March was attempted two days later. The third march, begun on March 21st and lasting for five days completed the 54-mile journey. For the majority of the seminarians I teach now, these marches and the civil rights movement in general are the stuff of history. For me, they are memories. This presents a challenge for my teaching because I am now in the position of not being able to draw on my students’ recollections about events of the 1960s (as well as the 70s as most are born post 1980) so that we can blend their experience with the ethical theories we are exploring in the books and films we use to develop more faithful moral decision-making abilities. Instead, I find that my students bring little historical awareness of our history as a nation and the role that the churches have played in that history. In short, we are bad historians and this is a problematic place to be as people of faith. It means that we are cut off from what it means to be a people of history that spans for centuries and has much to teach us for the present day and the ways in which we must be working for a better future. Our histories, religious and secular, should be part of the faith tool kit we have at our disposal as we sort through our options for how we live our lives and the values we pass on to the generations coming behind us.

Full Story: Emilie Townes: The Selma Marchers Weren’t Just Activists — They Were Believers.

Virginia attorney general instructs state colleges to stop protecting gay students from discrimination.

Just weeks after Gov. Bob McDonnell (R-VA) refused to renew an executive order that would have protected gay and lesbian state workers from discrimination, Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli is asking the state’s colleges and universities “to rescind policies that ban discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.” Cuccinelli — who has previously argued “homosexual acts are…intrinsically wrong” — wrote a letter to all of the state’s public colleges and universities:

“It is my advice that the law and public policy of the Commonwealth of Virginia prohibit a college or university from including ’sexual orientation,’ ‘gender identity,’ ‘gender expression,’ or like classification as a protected class within its non-discrimination policy absent specific authorization from the General Assembly,” he wrote. Colleges that have included such language in their policies — which include all of Virginia’s leading schools — have done so “without proper authority” and should “take appropriate actions to bring their policies in conformance with the law and public policy of Virginia,” Cuccinelli wrote.

Full Story: Think Progress » Virginia attorney general instructs state colleges to stop protecting gay students from discrimination..

Drinking While Brown (or Gay) in Texas Will Get You Arrested

The nation’s broadest public intoxication law gives TX cops virtually free range to arrest anyone for drunkenness — even if they’re quietly nursing a beer in a bar.

Late on a balmy Saturday night last June, six Fort Worth cops and two officers from the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission went looking for trouble. They had just raided two Hispanic bars in an industrial stretch of town and nine detainees now sat in the paddy wagon (pdf), hands bound with plastic ties. The rest of the city’s bars would soon shut down. It seemed like the night was over, except for the paperwork. Then Sergeant Richard Morris had an idea. “Hey,” he said. “Let’s go to the Rainbow Lounge.”

A half-dozen police cruisers, an unmarked sedan, and the prisoner van slid to a stop in front of the Rainbow Lounge, Fort Worth’s newest gay club, at about 1:30 a.m. on June 28, 2009 — 40 years, almost down to the minute, after New York City police raided the Stonewall Inn with billy clubs and bullhorns. Inside the bar, the officers fanned out, grabbing and arresting six patrons for public intoxication. Benjamin Guttery, a 24-year-old Army vet, says an officer told him to put down his drink, then “bulldozed” him through the crowd to the paddy wagon but then let him go. “I’m 6’8″, 250 pounds, and I had just finished my second drink,” Guttery told a local reporter. “I might have had enough to have a loose tongue, but not a loose walk or anything like that.” Another man alleges that he was slammed against a wall, elbowed, and fell on the ground, landing him in intensive care for a week with bleeding in his brain. He was charged with public intoxication and assault.

Full Story: Drinking While Brown (or Gay) in Texas Will Get You Arrested | Investigations | AlterNet.

Oklahoma declares anti-choice law posting details of women’s abortions online unconstitutional.

Last year, the Oklahoma legislature passed a controversial abortion law that mandated collecting personal details about every single abortion performed in the state and posting them on a public website. Although women wouldn’t have to disclose their name, address, or other specific identifying information, many were concerned that patients could still be revealed. The law was supposed to go into effect on Nov. 1, 2009, but delayed because of a legal challenge by the Center for Reproductive Rights. Yesterday, an Oklahoma County district judge ruled the law unconstitutional:

The court ruled that the bill passed by the legislature addressed too many disparate topics and therefore violated the Oklahoma Constitution’s “single-subject” rule which requires laws only address one topic at a time. [...]

The law also would have banned abortions based on a woman’s gender preference for her child; created new responsibilities for state health agencies to gather and analyze abortion data and enforce abortion restrictions; and redefined a number of abortion-related terms used in Oklahoma law. [...]

Full Story Think Progress » Oklahoma declares anti-choice law posting details of women’s abortions online unconstitutional..

Mass. Says Federal Marriage Law Unconstitutional

Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley says a federal law that defines marriage as a union between a man and a woman interferes with her state's right to regulate the institution.

Coakley's office filed a lawsuit in July challenging the federal Defense of Marriage Act. In papers filed late Thursday, Coakley asks a judge to deem the law unconstitutional without holding a trial on the lawsuit.

Coakley argues that regulating marital status has traditionally been left to the states. She also says the federal law treats married heterosexual couples and married same-sex couples differently on Medicaid benefits and burial in veterans' cemeteries.

Massachusetts was the first state to legalize gay marriage and is the first to challenge the law.

Full Story Mass. Says Federal Marriage Law Unconstitutional – NYTimes.com.

Civil rights activist seeks to prove anti-terrorism law a violation of free speech

Ralph Fertig, a 79-year-old professor who has fought for civil rights most of his life, wants to be a public advocate for the oppressed Kurdish minority in Turkey.

The problem?

He's worried the US government, which calls the group a terrorist organization, will throw him in prison for 15 years as a collaborator.

So Fertig has challenged the law as the lead plaintiff in a case the Supreme Court will hear early next week.

Full Story Civil rights activist seeks to prove anti-terrorism law a violation of free speech | Raw Story.

Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell Rolls Back Non-Discrimination Protections For Gay State Workers

Gay and lesbian state workers in Virginia are no longer specifically protected against discrimination, thanks to a little-noticed change made by new Gov. Bob McDonnell.

McDonnell (R) on Feb. 5 signed an executive order that prohibits discrimination “on the basis of race, sex, color, national origin, religion, age, political affiliation, or against otherwise qualified persons with disabilities,” as well as veterans.

It rescinds the order that Gov. Tim Kaine signed Jan. 14, 2006 as one of his first actions. After promising a “fair and inclusive” administration in his inaugural address, Kaine (D) added veterans to the non-discrimination policy – and sexual orientation.

Full Story Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell Rolls Back Non-Discrimination Protections For Gay State Workers | TPMDC.

75% back letting gays serve openly

Three-quarters of Americans say that they support openly gay people serving in the U.S. military, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll, a finding that could lend momentum to the Obama administration’s effort to dismantle the policy known as “don’t ask, don’t tell.”

The level of public support for allowing gay men and lesbians to serve openly far outpaces that in the spring of 1993, when Congress and the Clinton administration established the policy.

Civilian and military officials held their first meetings this week to begin a year-long review of “don’t ask, don’t tell,” which forbids commanders to ask about service members’ sexuality and requires the discharge of openly gay men and women. President Obama called for the policy’s repeal last month in his State of the Union address, and the military’s top civilian and military leadership has also expressed personal support for a repeal

Full Story 75% back letting gays serve openly – washingtonpost.com.

Smoke the Bigots Out of the Closet

Frank Rich -

A funny thing happened after Adm. Mike Mullen called for gay men and lesbians to serve openly in the military: A curious silence befell much of the right. If this were a Sherlock Holmes story, it would be the case of the attack dogs that did not bark.

John McCain, commandeering the spotlight as usual, did fulminate against the repeal of “don’t ask, don’t tell.” But the press focus on McCain, the crazy man in Washington’s attic, was misleading. His yapping was an exception, not the rule.

Many of his Republican colleagues said little or nothing. The right’s noise machine was on mute. The Fox News report on Mullen’s testimony was fair and balanced — and brief. The network dropped the subject entirely in the Hannity-O’Reilly hothouse of prime time that night. Only ratings-desperate CNN gave a fleeting platform to the old homophobic clichés. Michael O’Hanlon, an “expert” from the Brookings Institution, speculated that “18-year-old, old-fashioned, testosterone-laden” soldiers who are “tough guys” might object to those practicing “alternative forms of lifestyle,” which he apparently views as weak and testosterone-deficient. His only prominent ally was the Family Research Council, which issued an inevitable “action alert” demanding a stop to “the sexualization of our military.”

Full Story Op-Ed Columnist – Smoke the Bigots Out of the Closet – NYTimes.com.

Tea party opening speaker suggests blacks be kept from voting

The opening night speaker at the Tea Party convention suggested a return to a “literacy test” to protect America from presidents like Obama — a segregation-era method employed by southern US states to keep blacks from voting.

In his speech Thursday to attendees, former Republican congressman Tom Tancredo invoked the loaded pre-civil rights era buzzword, saying that President Barack Obama was elected because “we do not have a civics, literacy test before people can vote in this country.”

Southern states used literacy tests as part of an effort to deny suffrage to African American voters prior to Johnson-era civil rights laws.

Full Story Tea party opening speaker suggests blacks be kept from voting | Raw Story.

OPS:  If they get away with this, will the Jews be next?

Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Mullen: ‘It is my personal belief’ that repealing DADT is ‘the right thing to do.’

Today, the Senate Armed Services Committee held hearing on the military’s Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy, the first such session in 17 years. During the hearing, Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Michael Mullen made the powerful announcement that he personally it is time to allow gay men and women to serve openly:

MULLEN: Mr. Chairman, speaking for myself and myself only, it is my personal belief that allowing gays and lesbians to serve openly would be the right thing to do. No matter how I look at this issue, I cannot escape being troubled by the fact that we have in place a policy that forces young men and women to lie about who they are in order to defend their fellow citizens.

Watch it:

Full Story Think Progress » Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Mullen: ‘It is my personal belief’ that repealing DADT is ‘the right thing to do.’.

All the funding for anti-marriage equality campaign in the nation’s capital came from outside of D.C.

On Dec. 19, Washington, D.C. officially legalized same-sex marriage. Mayor Adrian Fenty supported the legislation from the beginning, and it received the overwhelming support of the D.C. Council in an 11-2 vote. Congressional Republicans, however, immediately began calling for a referendum on the issue, suggesting that the majority of D.C. residents were actually against same-sex marriage. However, D.C. LGBT blog GLAA Forum reports that all the money funding Rev. Harry Jackson, who led the anti-marriage equality efforts, came from outside of Washington, D.C.:

It turns out that the $199,530.00 funding for his efforts come from only four main sources, all from outside of D.C. according reports filed with the D.C. Office of Campaign Finance. … Jackson’s largest contributor is his own Maryland church based non-profit group, High Impact Leadership Coalition. [...]

The next largest contributor is the Colorado headquartered national group, Focus on the Family. … [T]hey were able to contribute $40,000 to harming gay families in D.C. … National Organization for Marriage (NOM), the national group dedicated to keeping gay people from marrying contributed $32,138.00. … Family Research Council, the D.C. based national gay bashing group, donated $25,000 through it’s 501(c)(4) lobbying organization, Family Research Council –Action.

Full Story Think Progress » All the funding for anti-marriage equality campaign in the nation’s capital came from outside of D.C..

Prop 8 Trial Week 3: The Cliffhanger

The fabled trial to overturn Proposition 8 in California is wrapping up after almost three weeks of testimony, and it’s looking good for the plaintiffs who support same-sex marriage. (The defense is backing Prop 8, the initiative that defines marriage as between a man and a woman, denying that same right to gay people.)

The attorneys working to overturn Prop 8 concluded most of their evidence and testimony last week, and this week the supporters of the gay marriage ban presented only two witnesses, pared down from a much larger number.

MONDAY JAN 25

Attorneys David Boies and Theodore Olson, who argued on opposite sides of the Bush v. Gore case before the Supreme Court back in December 2000, kicked off the week by showing some videos to give the court an idea of the type of advertising run during the 2008 campaign for Prop 8. The idea was to show that the motivation behind the initiative was not to save marriage, but rather to discriminate against gay people, largely for religious reasons. The videos included Ron Prentice, CEO of the California Family Council and executive director of ProtectMarriage.com, saying things like, “what gays and lesbians do in private does not bother me, but I do not want children exposed to it.”

Then the defense introduced their first witness, Claremont McKenna College professor Kenneth Miller. Before he could say a word, however, plaintiff’s attorney Boies objected on the grounds that Miller is not an expert on the subject of gay and lesbian political power, and that he has done no research on the subject. Boies was overruled and Miller took the stand.

Full Story OpEdNews – Article: Prop 8 Trial Week 3: The Cliffhanger.

Will The Justice Department Investigate A Possible Cover-Up Of Homicides At Guantánamo Bay?

Will The Justice Department Investigate A Possible Cover-Up Of Homicides At Guantánamo Bay?

harry1 On June 9, 2006, “three prisoners at Guantánamo [Bay] died suddenly and violently.” The commander of Guantánamo at the time, Rear Admiral Harry Harris, immediately declared that the deaths were “suicides,” adding that he believed that the suicides were “not an act of desperation, but an act of asymmetrical warfare waged against us.”

The conclusion that the deaths were suicides was largely uncritically accepted by the press at the time, and the matter was considered closed. Then, late last year, an investigation by Seton Hall law school faculty and students found “serious and unresolved contradictions” in the military’s report on the incidents, and even declared that it was an “obvious cover-up.”

Now, following the Seton Hall investigation, Sergeant Joe Hickman and other soldiers stationed at Guantánamo have informed Harper’s Magazine’s Scott Horton that they suspect the three prisoners did not commit suicide but rather were killed by interrogators. Horton reports that Hickman — a stalwart solder who enlisted after being inspired by Ronald Reagan (whom he called “the greatest president we’ve ever had“) — was told by Navy guards and clinic staff that the men had been died because they had rags stuffed down their throats:

Full Story Think Progress » Will The Justice Department Investigate A Possible Cover-Up Of Homicides At Guantánamo Bay?.

US Cloaks Case Files Involving Civil Rights

Nearly half a century after the height of the civil rights movement, hundreds of thousands of pages of government files about the volatile era remain shielded from the American public, buried in FBI field office cabinets, blocked by resistant bureaucracies, or available only with large sections blacked out, according to US officials and researchers.

The situation has prompted a new push in Congress, led by Senator John F. Kerry of Massachusetts, to require that all records relating to the life and death of Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. be located, reviewed, and released by a review board at the National Archives similar to those established for the assassination of President John F. Kennedy and for Nazi war criminals.

Kerry’s plan to introduce legislation this week, however, is seen as only the first step in a broader movement to force the government to disclose what it knows – and did – about violence against blacks during the civil rights era, including scores of unsolved lynching and bombing cases.

Full Story US Cloaks Case Files Involving Civil Rights | CommonDreams.org.

Martin Luther King “I have a dream” (video)

The full version of Martin Luther King’s famous “I have a dream” speech.

39 Congressional Republicans want to trample on D.C.’s right to pass same-sex marriage law.

In December, the Washington, D.C. City Council voted 11 to 2 to legalize same-sex marriage in the District. Mayor Adrien Fenty signed the legislation two days later, saying that “the District, from this day forward, will set the tone for other jurisdictions to follow in creating an open and inclusive city.” But 39 Congressional Republicans do not want D.C. to be an “open and inclusive” example. The Republicans, including House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH), House Minority Whip Eric Cantor (R-VA) and Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK), “have filed an amicus brief in D.C. Superior Court calling for a voter referendum on whether to legalize same-sex marriage in the District”:

In the filing, U.S. senators James Inhofe (Okla.) and Roger Wicker (Miss.) and 37 House Republicans align with Bishop Harry Jackson, pastor of Hope Christian Church, in asking the court to reverse a D.C. Board of Elections and Ethics decision prohibiting the same-sex marriage question to be put before voters.

Full Story Think Progress » 39 Congressional Republicans want to trample on D.C.’s right to pass same-sex marriage law..

Reclaiming Legal Abortion as a Fundamental Right By Frances Kissling

How did we get to the point where denial of abortion funding for poor women has apparently become an acceptable tradeoff in the campaign for health insurance reform? Here, the former president of Catholics for Choice traces the history and tells us why justice demands the immediate repeal of the Hyde Amendment.

January 4, 2010

The debate about abortion coverage in health insurance reform is the latest disappointing moment in the efforts of feminists to ensure that the social transformation Roe promised women was equally available to all women, including those who were dependent on the government for health care. To hear President Obama call the Hyde Amendment, which prohibits the use of federal Medicaid funds for abortion, an “American tradition” is only the most recent of many misstatements about what a fundamental right entails. It seems that prochoice legislators, following the president’s lead, now explicitly consider that throwing women who cannot afford to pay for their own abortions under the bus is a reasonable compromise between those who favor and those who oppose legal abortion and a sensible concession to those who think abortion is immoral.

The compromise is the logical outcome of one of Roe’s essential weaknesses: the fact that the constitutional right to abortion was based on the principle of privacy rather than non discrimination. A private right, even a fundamental one, did not, according to the Supreme Court, require the state to pay for its implementation.

The Hyde Amendment, which was introduced in Congress starting in 1973 and passed for the first time in 1976, was the first and most important defeat the abortion rights movement sustained—and it embodied the profound disapproval and stigmatization of abortion that no other restriction on the right to choose represents. When affirmed by the Supreme Court in 1980 in the Harris v. McRae case, it sent the message that abortion was immoral and that no taxpayer should be obliged to pay for something they think is immoral.

Full Story Reclaiming Legal Abortion as a Fundamental Right By Frances Kissling.

Chertoff: More Ethnic ‘Profiling’ Could Be ‘Misleading And Arguably Dangerous’

As ThinkProgress has repeatedly noted, the right-wing has used the failed terrorist attack by Nigerian Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab to renew calls for greater ethnic profiling of Muslims. “There should be a separate line to scrutinize anybody with the name Abdul or Ahmed or Mohammed,” said conservative talk radio host Mike Gallagher on Fox News last week.

But when David Gregory asked former Bush CIA director Michael Hayden on Meet The Press today if we are “effectively ethnically profiling” potential terrorism suspects, Hayden pushed back against the idea of ethnic profiling as a solution:

HAYDEN: I’m not quite sure the context in which you’re asking the question David about ethnically profiling, but with regard to intelligence…

GREGORY: Isn’t there a profile of who we think the terrorists are?

HAYDEN: Of course there is, but it’s based more on behavior. I mean, for example, the individual in question here, Abdulmutallab, I mean he would not have automatically fit a profile if you were standing next to him in the visa line at Dulles, for example. So it’s the behavior that we’re attempting to profile. And it’s the behavior, these little bits and pieces of information that were in the databases that we didn’t quite stitch together at this point in time. But it wasn’t a question of ethnicity or religion. Those are contributing factors, but it’s what people do that we should be paying attention to.

via Think Progress » Chertoff: More Ethnic ‘Profiling’ Could Be ‘Misleading And Arguably Dangerous’.

10 Defining Feminist Moments of 2009

A look back on the times in 2009 when feminists asserted ourselves and our belief in equality, often in the face of powerful opposition.

This year, I’m not keeping score of feminist victories and defeats. That strategy feels artificially black-and-white and imposes a false sense of closure on an ongoing process. Instead, I’m looking back on those times in 2009 when feminism felt strong and when feminists spoke out — the times when feminists asserted ourselves and our belief in equality, often in the face of powerful opposition, and even when it seemed like no one was listening.

A feminist moment isn’t only when we’re dancing in the streets celebrating a victory, although that certainly counts. We also reaffirm our commitment as feminists when we continue to advocate for equality despite roadblocks, setbacks and challenges. A woman running for president of the United States is a defining feminist moment, and it is also one when she loses. At such turning points, we must reassess the state of our movement and rethink its direction. What follows is a list of some of my defining feminist moments for the year. They’re not all positive — some, like the health care reform process, were mega-downers — but they were the moments when I felt the most sisterhood.

Full Story 10 Defining Feminist Moments of 2009 | Reproductive Justice and Gender | AlterNet.

Obama orders creation of declassification center

President Obama created by executive order Tuesday a National Declassification Center to oversee efforts to make once-secret government documents public.

The order comes as part of Obama’s promise to push government to err on the side of disclosure as it tackles the need to keep certain information from the public.

In a post on the White House blog, William H. Leary, the senior director of records and access management at the National Security Council, writes that the effort is aimed at shifting the burden of defending secrecy to the government.

“While the Government must be able to prevent the public disclosure of information that would compromise the national security, a democratic government accountable to the people must be as transparent as possible and must not withhold information for self-serving reasons or simply to avoid embarrassment,” Leary wrote.

Full Story 44 – Obama orders creation of declassification center.

OPS:  Talk is cheap. We’ll see.  So far, the transparency promised has not materialized.

Rosa DeLauro, Key Pro-Choice Dem, Makes Case For Senate Abortion Language

A key pro-choice House Democrat, working on health care in Congress, hinted on Monday that said she might be willing to support the Senate’s abortion language.

Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) who has been tasked by leadership with helping hammer out a compromise on abortion between the two chambers, said she was not thrilled with either the House or Senate legislation’s provisions. But in an interview with the Huffington Post, the Connecticut Democrat did say she would support the Senate’s version of abortion-related language provided that she could confirm her belief that it did not go beyond current law.

“There are some questions I still have,” DeLauro said. “And that’s why I want to see this side-by-side with the language. It’s not Stupak-Pitts [the House's language]. So, it’s already [an improvement]. And it would appear to be current law. I would have to look at the questions that surround it, et cetera. But if it is current law then it would be something that was my goal at the outset: let’s maintain current law and then let’s pass health care.”

Full Story Rosa DeLauro, Key Pro-Choice Dem, Makes Case For Senate Abortion Language.

Feds defy order to provide same-sex benefits

The Obama administration refused Friday to follow a federal judge's order to provide insurance benefits to the wife of a lesbian court employee in San Francisco and said its hands were tied by a discriminatory law.

“This issue shows exactly why Congress needs to repeal” the law, which prohibits federal benefits to same-sex couples, government lawyer Elaine Kaplan said in a message to attorneys for court employee Karen Golinski.

One of Golinski’s lawyers, Jenny Pizer of the gay-rights group Lambda Legal, said Kaplan’s response was “something we might have expected from the Bush or Reagan administration, and not from a ‘fierce advocate’ of LBGT rights,” as President Obama has described himself.

The case is one of two in which the Office of Personnel Management has balked at orders by judges on the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to provide coverage to the same-sex spouses of federal employees.

Full Story Feds defy order to provide same-sex benefits.

Marriage equality is now legal in the nation’s capital.

This morning at the All Souls Unitarian church in Washington, DC, approximately 150 activists and same-sex couples congregated to witness marriage equality become law in the nation’s capital. “I say to the world: An era of struggle ends for thousands in Washington, D.C.,” said Mayor Adrian Fenty (D), who also invoked his biracial upbringing and noted that it was illegal for his parents to get married 40 years ago because they were an interracial couple. Several other officials spoke, including David Catania (I), the council member who sponsored the bill. When Fenty signed the bill, he held it over his head and the room erupted in cheers. Watch some highlights from the event:

Full Story Think Progress » Marriage equality is now legal in the nation’s capital..

An Orlando McDonalds Manager To A Trans Applicant: “We Do Not Hire F**gots”

I’m always a little amazed by blatant discrimination against anyone, especially if it’s easily documented. The Transgender Legal Defense and Education Fund (TLDEF) is filing a complaint (lawsuit) today (December 7th, 2009) with the Florida Commission on Human Relations. It’s because an Orlando McDonald’s restaurant for refusing to hire 17-year-old Zikerria Bellamy because she is transgender. And, in the process of discriminating against her, she received a voicemail message from one of the McDonald’s managers:

By the way, I don’t use the the other f- word unless I’m quoting someone saying it. This is definitely a quote.

Maybe McDonalds corporate will again try to remind us that they are an lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) friendly organization, but individual restaurants seem to have a history of discriminating against LGBT people. Remember Kentucky’s “faggot” story? Remember New York’s Christina Sforza story? I do.

Full Story Pam’s House Blend:: An Orlando McDonalds Manager To A Trans Applicant: “We Do Not Hire F**gots”.

Reproductive Rights Showdown Looms in Senate

WASHINGTON — Senators debating health care legislation are headed for a clash over abortion, the issue that threatened to derail the bill in the House.

Anticipating the showdown, hundreds of abortion rights supporters gathered on Capitol Hill Wednesday to call on senators to keep new abortion restrictions out of the health care bill. Sen. Ben Nelson, D-Neb., plans to unveil an anti-abortion amendment as early as Thursday that abortions rights supporters inside the Senate and out say they can’t support.

Nelson says he won’t vote for the underlying bill without his strong abortion language. But opponents say his amendment doesn’t have the votes to pass. The outcome could be critical in determining the fate of President Barack Obama’s signature health overhaul agenda.

At issue is how abortions would be handled in the health care bills. In the House, a bloc of anti-abortion Democrats forced Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., to accept restrictions that outraged liberals as the price for passing the Democratic health care bill last month.

Full Story Reproductive Rights Showdown Looms in Senate | CommonDreams.org.

Report Examines Civil Rights Enforcement During Bush Years

When the Bush administration ran the Civil Rights Division at the Justice Department, career lawyers wanted to look into accusations that officials in one state had illegally intimidated blacks during a voter-fraud investigation.

But division supervisors refused to “approve further contact with state authorities on this matter,” according to a new report by the Government Accountability Office auditing the activities of the division from 2001 to 2007.

Congress is set to release that report, which did not identify the state in question, on Thursday as the House of Representatives takes up its first oversight hearing of the Civil Rights Division under the Obama administration.

The 180-page report, obtained by The New York Times, is densely packed with statistics about civil rights enforcement by the division’s sections. The accountability office also examined a sampling of matters that were closed without further action, finding several cases — including the curtailed voter intimidation inquiry — in which supervisors rejected the recommendations of career lawyers to go forward.

Full Story Report Examines Civil Rights Enforcement During Bush Years – NYTimes.com.

New York State Senate Votes Down Gay Marriage Bill

The State Senate defeated a bill on Wednesday that would legalize same-sex marriage, after an emotional debate that touched on civil rights, family and history. The vote means that the bill, pushed by Gov. David A. Paterson, is effectively dead for the year and dashes the optimism of gay rights advocates, who have had setbacks recently in several key states.

The bill was defeated by a decisive margin of 38 to 24. The Democrats, who have a bare, one-seat majority, did not have enough votes to pass the bill without some Republican support, but not a single Republican senator voted for the measure. Still, several key Democrats who were considered swing votes also opposed the bill.

Mr. Paterson made an unusual trip to the Senate floor minutes after the last vote was cast, saying, “These victories come and so do the losses, but you keep on trying.”

The state’s Roman Catholic bishops, who had actively lobbied against the bill, said they were pleased by the vote.

Full Story New York State Senate Votes Down Gay Marriage Bill – NYTimes.com.

Rick Warren wonders why there’s so much fuss over the rights of gays.

Rick Warren wonders why there’s so much fuss over the rights of gays.

In recent days, Pastor Rick Warren has come under fire for refusing to condemn an Anti-Homosexuality Bill in Uganda that would make some homosexual acts punishable by death. “[I]t is not my personal calling as a pastor in America to comment or interfere in the political process of other nations,” said Warren. On his Twitter feed, Warren is now trying to change the subject, claiming that “no one” cared when 146,000 Christians died last year (so why should he now care about gay men and women in Africa?):

Full Story Think Progress » Rick Warren wonders why there’s so much fuss over the rights of gays..

CNN finds modern-day slaves in US

Thirty Thai men who were “tricked into a life of forced labor” after being promised lucrative jobs in the United States are just one symptom of the problem of modern-day slavery, CNN reported Monday.

According to the State Department, there are as many as 200,000 forced laborers in the US, with some 17,500 arriving every year.

“This is a hidden crime,” Louis C. de Baca, the State Department's ambassador for human trafficking, told CNN. “The very nature of this crime masks it from us.”

CNN reported on the case of 30 Thai men, who were promised jobs picking tobacco on North Carolina by a company called Million Express Manpower. The company required the men to pay the equivalent of $11,000 for the necessary visa and transportation.

Full Story CNN finds modern-day slaves in US | Raw Story.

Pittsburgh Man Gives Cop Middle Finger, Cop Gives Man Ticket, City Gives Man $50,000

PITTSBURGH (Associated Press) — Pittsburgh City Council has tentatively approved paying $50,000 to settle a free speech lawsuit filed by a man cited for giving a city police officer the middle finger.

Thirty-five-year-old David Hackbart, of Butler, made the gesture at a driver in April 2006, then did it again when someone yelled at him — realizing only later the second person was a police officer.

The American Civil Liberties Union sued saying Hackbart’s gesture was constitutionally protected speech. A federal judge postponed a September trial indefinitely at the request of attorneys on both sides.

Council gave initial approval to the settlement Tuesday, but must vote again next week to finally approve the payment.

No court documents settling the case have been filed.

Full Story Pittsburgh Man Gives Cop Middle Finger, Cop Gives Man Ticket, City Gives Man $50,000.

Greg Craig and Obama’s worsening civil liberties record

Glenn Greenwald – Salon.com

Over at Daily Kos, Barbara Morrill complains that The Washington Post’s Richard Cohen “is Karl Rove dressed up in pseudo-sadness” because — according to her — Cohen today “whines that the Attorney General announced that the United States follows the rule of law” by giving trials to 5 Guantanamo detainees. I don’t disagree with Morrill’s general assessment of Cohen, but his point today is actually the exact opposite of what she describes. Cohen wasn’t accusing Obama of lacking moral clarity because he’s giving trials to a few of the 9/11 defendants; rather, Cohen argues that the lack of moral clarity comes from denying trials to many, perhaps most, of the detainees, who will receive only military commissions or be subjected to indefinite detention with no trials:

The Barack Obama of that Philadelphia speech would not have let his attorney general, Eric Holder, announce the new policy for trying Khalid Sheik Mohammed and four other Sept. 11 defendants in criminal court, as if this were a mere departmental issue and not one of momentous policy. And the Barack Obama of the speech would have enunciated a principle of law and not an ad hoc system in which some alleged terrorists are tried in civilian courts and some before military tribunals. What is the principle in that: What works, works? Try putting that one on the Liberty Bell.

I point to this because it highlights an extreme logical fallacy coming from some Obama supporters ever since Holder announced the Guantanamo policy — a fallacy that is the inevitable by-product of the administration’s incoherent positions. In order to defend Obama, it’s necessary simultaneously to embrace these self-negating premises:

Full Story Glenn Greenwald – Salon.com.

Ninth Circuit Judge’s Order: DOMA unconstitutional

Judge Stephen Reinhardt of the Ninth Circuit in an order Wednesday seems to have declared the half of DOMA that declares that a same-sex marriage cannot be a marriage under federal law or for purposes of granting federal benefits unconstitutional, a violation of the equal protection component of the due process guarantee of the Fifth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

I T had a diary on this order yesterday,  but I don’t think it made it clear enough what the sweeping implications of this order are.

Read I T’s diary for the background of the order (or an article like this one in the L.A. Times, Judge orders compensation for gay couple who were denied healthcare, other benefits), but I here point out two passages from Reinhardt’s order that seem to me to declare that half of DOMA is unconstitutional.

First, there is this footnote 5 on page 10 of the order:

Full Story Daily Kos: State of the Nation.

Give in on same-sex benefits, judge orders feds

The chief federal appeals court judge in San Francisco bluntly ordered the Obama administration Thursday to stop resisting his finding that the wife of a lesbian court employee was entitled to government insurance coverage.

The federal agency that oversees benefits for government employees “shall cease at once its interference with the jurisdiction of this tribunal,” Judge Alex Kozinski said in response to the Office of Personnel Management’s rejection of his earlier ruling in the case.

He told the agency to let Karen Golinski, a staff attorney at the court’s headquarters in San Francisco, enroll her wife, Amy Cunninghis, in the family health plan that already covers their 6-year-old son.

He also ordered court officials to reimburse Golinski for the costs of buying insurance for Cunninghis since she applied for coverage in September 2008. That coverage now costs $429 a month, Golinski’s lawyer said.

Full Story Give in on same-sex benefits, judge orders feds.

Texas gay marriage ban may have outlawed all marriages in Texas.

Texas gay marriage ban may have outlawed all marriages in Texas.

In 2005, the state of Texas adopted an amendment to its Constitution that said marriage in the state could only be between one man and one woman. The amendment also declared: “This state or a political subdivision of this state may not create or recognize any legal status identical or similar to marriage.” Now, Barbara Ann Radnofsky, a Houston lawyer and Democratic candidate for attorney general, is saying that the second section effectively “eliminates marriage in Texas”:

She calls it a “massive mistake” and blames the current attorney general, Republican Greg Abbott, for allowing the language to become part of the Texas Constitution. Radnofsky called on Abbott to acknowledge the wording as an error and consider an apology. She also said that another constitutional amendment may be necessary to reverse the problem.

“You do not have to have a fancy law degree to read this and understand what it plainly says,” said Radnofsky, who will be at Texas Christian University today as part of a five-city tour to kick off her campaign.

Full Story Think Progress » Texas gay marriage ban may have outlawed all marriages in Texas..

School Employee Loses Job Over Vulgar Comment Online

A school employee lost his job after he posted a one-word vulgarity in the comments section of an online article at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch ran an article asking readers what was the “craziest thing you’ve ever eaten” and invited them to submit the oddest foods they’ve consumed, saying,

How about you? Have you gone out on a limb for a meal? What’d you try? Did you like it? Have you had friends or family who have tried stuff on a dare?

The school employee, who later lost his job, posted an anonymous, one-word comment that referred, in vulgar terms, to a woman’s anatomy.

The comment was deleted by administrators, then reposted by the reader.

After it was posted a second time, the administrators didn’t just delete the comment, but took it one step further: Kurt Greenbaum, the director of social media at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, found the commenter’s IP address and traced it to a local school.

Full Story School Employee Loses Job Over Vulgar Comment Online.

Colbert Destroys R.I. Governor For Denying Gay Couples Death Rights (VIDEO)

Rhode Island Governor Don Carcieri vetoed legislation last week that would give same-sex couples the rights to claim the bodies of and make funeral arrangements for their deceased partners. He said such legislation was a “disturbing trend” signifying the erosion of traditional marriage.

Full Story Colbert Destroys R.I. Governor For Denying Gay Couples Death Rights (VIDEO).

Ten-year-old refuses to recite pledge until gays allowed to marry

Ten-year-old Will Phillips may have just become the new cause célèbre of the gay rights movement.

It all started when he refused to say the Pledge of Allegiance in a West Fork, Arkansas elementary school.

Speaking to CNN’s John Roberts on Monday, Will said he remained seated four straight days while his classmates repeated the words, “with liberty and justice for all.”

“I was analyzing the meanings of it, because I want to be a lawyer,” he said. “… There isn’t really liberty and justice for all. There’s … Gays and lesbians can’t marry. There’s still a lot of racism and sexism in the world. Yeah.”

Eventually, the substitute teacher started giving Will “grief” over his refusal to repeat the words. “What did you say to that teacher?” Roberts asked.

via Ten-year-old refuses to recite pledge until gays allowed to marry | Raw Story.

Retired Military Chaplains Announce Support For Repealing Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell

Military veterans call for the repeal of Don't Ask, Don't TellLast week, Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA) revealed the legislative timeline for a repeal of the military’s discriminatory Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell (DADT) policy. “Military issues are always done as part of the overall authorization bill,” Frank told the Advocate. “’Don’t ask, don’t tell’ was always going to be part of the military authorization.”

Now, the movement to repeal the ban on gay men and women from serving openly in the military has gained even more momentum. Three former military chaplains are announcing today that they support a full repeal of the DADT. In a Q&A released by VoteVets, the three men, Charles D. Camp, Chaplain (Colonel), USA (Ret.), John F. Gundlach, CAPT, CHC, USN (Ret.), and Jerry Rhyne, Chaplain (Colonel), USAF (Ret.), also addressed implementation concerns regarding a repeal:

What would be the impact of changing the current law on unit cohesion and morale?

The 2009 Joint Forces Quarterly article states clearly, “After a careful examination, there is no scientific evidence to support the claim that unit cohesion will be negatively affected if homosexuals serve openly.” A 1993 RAND Corp. report concludes the same, as do several other military-commissioned reports. In addition, 68 percent of Iraq and Afghanistan troops said, according to a 2006 Zogby poll, they either knew for certain (23%) or suspected (45%) there were gays in their own unit. That means there are tens of thousands of known gay service members currently working and fighting alongside their straight peers, and there is no demonstrable negative impact on unit morale, cohesion or combat readiness. In fact, 73% of troops in the poll said they were “comfortable” in the presence of gay peers. [...]

via Think Progress » Retired Military Chaplains Announce Support For Repealing Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.

Free Speech Under Assault by Police Chief in Brooksville, Florida

The video here involving the simple effort to use a PA system for an event that I organized to allow Veterans the opportunity to present their side (unfiltered) to the public was squelched by City officials. There is no free speech if one side’s speech is allowed to be heard and another’s is not.

In April of 2008, the County Parks Director, Mr. Fagan gave us permission to use a PA system in the same location where we see Mr. Sagar speaking here this past Saturday, Nov. 7, 2009.

Full Story YouTube – Free Speech Under Assault by Police Chief in Brooksville, Florida.

The Price of Health Reform: Abortion Rights?

Why Bart Stupak’s last-minute amendment to the health care bill is even more radical than you think.

Will health care reform come at the expense of abortion rights? The Democrats’ historic health care bill squeaked through the House on Saturday only after pro-life forces scored a major victory. Despite months of wrangling over the public option and the price tag, in the end the legislation’s fate turned on an eleventh-hour push by conservative Democrats to broaden the bill’s existing limits on government funding of abortion, in the form of an amendment authored by Rep. Bart Stupak (D-Mich.). Here’s what happened and what it means:

The Stupak amendment mandates that no federal funds can be used to pay for an abortion or “cover any part of any health plan” that includes coverage of an abortion, except in cases where the mother’s life is in danger or the pregnancy was the result of rape or incest.

The first part of the amendment isn’t new. The 1976 Hyde Amendment already prevents the use of federal dollars to pay for most abortions. Where pro-lifers won big was on the second part, which could significantly limit the availability of private insurance plans that cover the procedure.

Full Story The Price of Health Reform: Abortion Rights? | Mother Jones.

OPS:  Keep in mind that Stupak is a member of  “The Family”
Meet the Senators in the Creepy Right-Wing Cult Trying to Defeat Health Care Reform

A Petition Establishing Health Care as a Civil Right

Dennis Kucinich

Whereas, Universal Health Care was proposed by President Teddy Roosevelt in 1912; and

Whereas today, nearly 100 years later, 47 million Americans are uninsured and another 50 million are underinsured bringing great social and economic harm to the American family; and

Whereas, HR 676, authored by Congressmen John Conyers and Dennis Kucinich provides for Medicare for All, a universal, single payer, not-for-profit health care system which means the end of premiums, copays and deductibles; and

Whereas we are already paying for a universal standard of care but are not getting it because one of every three dollars in the health care system goes to the activities of the for-profit insurance system; and

Whereas HR676 firmly establishes health care as a Civil Right, consistent with the Preamble to the Constitution of the United States and Article 1, Section 8 of the U.S. Constitution which defines a purpose of government “to promote the General Welfare,” now therefore,

I HEREBY EXPRESS MY STRONG SUPPORT FOR HR676, SINGLE PAYER HEALTH CARE, AND THE PRINCIPLES OF ECONOMIC JUSTICE FOR WHICH IT STANDS:

Full Story kucinich.us – A Petition Establishing Health Care as a Civil Right.

Gay-Marriage Fight Heads to New Jersey

The battle over gay rights will move to New Jersey and the federal government, advocates said, after Tuesday’s narrow rejection of same-sex marriage by Maine voters in a hard-fought contest.

The Democrat-controlled legislature in New Jersey, which currently recognizes same-sex couples in civil unions, is under pressure to pass a bill authorizing gay marriage before Gov. Jon Corzine ends his term in mid-January.

Mr. Corzine, a Democrat unseated in Tuesday’s election, said he would sign such a bill. His successor, Republican Chris Christie, opposes same-sex marriages.

Full Story Gay-Marriage Fight Heads to New Jersey – WSJ.com.

Maine voters reject gay-marriage law

Maine voters repealed a state law Tuesday that would have allowed same-sex couples to wed, dealing the gay rights movement a heartbreaking defeat in New England, the corner of the country most supportive of gay marriage.

Gay marriage has now lost in every single state – 31 in all – in which it has been put to a popular vote. Gay-rights activists had hoped to buck that trend in Maine – known for its moderate, independent-minded electorate – and mounted an energetic, well-financed campaign.

With 87 percent of the precincts reporting, gay-marriage foes had 53 percent of the votes.

“The institution of marriage has been preserved in Maine and across the nation,” declared Frank Schubert, chief organizer for the winning side.

Full Story Maine voters reject gay-marriage law.

Louisiana justice who refused marriage license to interracial couple resigns.

Louisiana justice who refused marriage license to interracial couple resigns.

Last month, Louisiana justice of the peace Keith Bardwell stirred controversy when he refused to issue a marriage license to an interracial couple because he believes that such marriages don’t usually last very long. “I don’t do interracial marriages because I don’t want to put children in a situation they didn’t bring on themselves,” Bardwell said. Now, the Louisiana secretary of state’s office says that Bardwell has resigned:

A Louisiana justice of the peace who drew criticism for refusing to issue a marriage license to an interracial couple has resigned, the secretary of state’s office said Tuesday.

Keith Bardwell, a justice of the peace for Tangipahoa Parish’s 8th Ward, was widely criticized after he refused to grant a marriage license to Beth McKay and Terence McKay, an interracial couple who ultimately got a marriage license from another justice of the peace in the same parish.

The McKays hired an attorney and protested the justice’s actions.

Full Story Think Progress » Louisiana justice who refused marriage license to interracial couple resigns..

Obama to Sign Hate Crimes Bill Wednesday

Eleven years after Matthew Shepard’s death, President Obama will sign the Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes bill into law during a White House signing ceremony Wednesday afternoon, White House officials confirm.

The long-sought hate crimes provision is part of the fiscal year 2010 defense authorization bill and will extend federal hate crimes law to include crimes motivated by a victim’s gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or disability.

Matthew Shepard a gay twenty-one year old college student was brutally. killed in 1998 Some of the Shepard family will be in attendance at the White House signing on Wednesday. Afterward there will be a reception with gay rights groups as well as civil rights leader to commemorate the occasion.

via Obama to Sign Hate Crimes Bill Wednesday – Political Punch.

Colbert Eviscerates Gay Marriage Opponents (VIDEO)

Stephen Colbert returned to air last night after a week off with a particularly funny and diverse episode, tackling everything from George Will’s sartorial hypocrisy to gay rights. The latter segment focused on recent legislation passed in the state of Washington called “Everything But Marriage” which expanded the state’s domestic partnership law to offer same-sex couples the same rights as straight married people.

This legislation was met with deep dismay by Protect Marriage Washington, an anti-gay marriage group which collected signatures to get a referendum on the ballot to overturn the law, but refuses to produce the list of those who signed the petition to prove its validity to detractors. Enter Stephen Colbert. The host used rhetoric usually reserved to discuss the rights of homosexuals to turn the whole debate on its head and expose the inherent hilarity:

“I don’t believe it is a choice, I believe you’re born thinking gays don’t have the right to get married or even be joined in union. And folks, the gays have no right to out those people.”

WATCH:

via Colbert Eviscerates Gay Marriage Opponents (VIDEO).

Federal Bill Would Penalize States for their Anti-Gay Adoption Laws

U.S. Rep. Pete Stark (D-Calif.) has introduced a new bill to the House called the Every Child Deserves a Family Act. It is designed to restrict a state or adoption agency’s federal funding if they discriminate on the basis of the sexual orientation, gender identity or marital status of the prospective parents.

What Would the Every Child Deserves a Family Act Do?

Introduced on Oct. 15, the act (H.R. 3827) aims to stop discrimination in adoption and foster care placements based on the sexual orientation, gender identity or marital status of the prospective adoptive/foster parent in question.

Why is this an issue? Currently, several states have restrictions on lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) couples adopting. Such states include Florida and Mississippi. In Rep. Stark’s introduction to the bill, he contends that this bias is damaging to the children that are waiting to be adopted or fostered:

Full Story: Federal Bill Would Penalize States for their Anti-Gay Adoption Laws.

Hate Crimes Bill Approved By Congress, Extends Protection To Gays

Physical attacks on people based on their sexual orientation will join the list of federal hate crimes in a major expansion of the civil rights-era law Congress approved Thursday and sent to President Barack Obama.

A priority of the late Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., that had been on the congressional agenda for a decade, the measure expands current law to include crimes based on gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or disability. The measure is named for Matthew Shepard, the gay Wyoming college student murdered 11 years ago.

To assure its passage after years of frustrated efforts, Democratic supporters attached the measure to a must-pass $680 billion defense policy bill the Senate approved 68-29. The House passed the defense bill earlier this month.

Many Republicans, normally staunch supporters of defense bills, voted against the bill because of the hate crimes provision. All the no votes were Republicans except for Sen. Russ Feingold, D-Wis., who supported the hate crimes provision but opposes what he says is the open-ended military commitment in Afghanistan.

Full Story: Hate Crimes Bill Approved By Congress, Extends Protection To Gays.

Keith Bardwell Explains Refusal To Perform Interracial Marriage (VIDEO)

The Louisiana Justice of the Peace who refused to perform an interracial marriage was interviewed on CBS News Monday morning and tried to explain his actions.

Bartlett explained that he had seen “countless” interracial couples where the children were rejected by family members, and he didn’t want to see that happen again. He defended himself by pointing out that he did not prevent the couple from getting married; he merely would not do it himself. Asked if he would refuse to perform a marriage for any other reason, he said no, but then corrected himself.

“One of them is intoxicated or seems to be or on drugs or whatever, yeah, I can recuse myself and make them come back when they’re in a sober state,” he added.

At the end of the segment, Bartlett asked to say one more thing.

“I’m sorry that I offended the couple, but I did help them and tell them who to go to,” he said. “And they went and got married, and they should be happily married and I don’t see what the problem is now.”

Full Story: Keith Bardwell Explains Refusal To Perform Interracial Marriage (VIDEO).

Louisiana justice of the peace denied marriage license to interracial couple, worried they might have children.

Louisiana justice of the peace denied marriage license to interracial couple, worried they might have children.

The AP reports that Louisiana justice of the peace Keith Bardwell has refused to issue a marriage license to an interracial couple because he believes that such marriages don’t usually last very long:

“I do ceremonies for black couples right here in my house,” Bardwell said. “My main concern is for the children.”

Bardwell said he has discussed the topic with blacks and whites, along with witnessing some interracial marriages. He came to the conclusion that most of black society does not readily accept offspring of such relationships, and neither does white society, he said.

Full Story: Think Progress » Louisiana justice of the peace denied marriage license to interracial couple, worried they might have children..

Schwarzenegger signs gay rights bills

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has signed two gay rights bills, one honoring late activist Harvey Milk and another recognizing same-sex marriages performed in other states.

In the last of hundreds of bill actions taken before midnight Sunday, Schwarzenegger approved the two bills by Sen. Mark Leno, D-San Francisco.

The governor last year vetoed the measure declaring May 22 a state day of recognition for Milk, suggesting that the former San Francisco supervisor be honored locally. But he subsequently named him to the California Hall of Fame.

Full Story: Schwarzenegger signs gay rights bills – Latest News – sacbee.com.

New Oklahoma abortion law being challenged

Feminists For Choice » – As if women didn’t have enough threats to their right to choose in this country, Oklahoma is doing its part to make sure women slowly but surely are demonized and criminalized for their right to choose to have an abortion.

If you live in Oklahoma, i officially extend my condolences.

H.B 1595 is a new provision on Oklahoma abortion laws that now requires, among other restrictions and requirements, an official record and reporting system of all abortions occuring within the state. This report will be available for anyone in the world to view, as it will be made public on a website as of March 1st. The Dept of Health, who among others has supported these new provisions, has declared that since the name and “personal information” will not be reported, there is no cause for concern or protest in regards to privacy issues. However, in reviewing the actual text of the law, the first 8 questions that will be asked and reported could easily be used to identify any member of a smaller community.

1. Date of abortion
2. County in which abortion performed
3. Age of mother
4. Marital status of mother (married, divorced, separated, widowed, or never married)
5. Race of mother
6. Years of education of mother (specify highest year completed)
7. State or foreign country of residence of mother
8. Total number of previous pregnancies of the mother

Live Births

Miscarriages

Induced Abortions

Full Story: Feminists For Choice » New Oklahoma abortion law being challenged.

Gay Marriage D.C.: Same-Sex Marriage Bill In Washington Seems Unstoppable

A bill that would allow same-sex couples to marry in the nation’s capital was introduced Tuesday, a measure that even opponents acknowledged seems almost unstoppable.

The bill was nearly certain to pass the D.C. city council, but whether it becomes law is more complicated because Congress gets an opportunity to review D.C. legislation before it takes effect. Still, even challengers in Congress acknowledged the bill was likely to become law.

The city began in July recognizing same-sex marriages performed elsewhere. Congress had a chance to act on that legislation but didn’t.

U.S. Rep. Jason Chaffetz, a Republican from Utah who said he would work to defeat the new bill, anticipates that will happen again with the proposal. A spokesman for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said she believed it was a matter for D.C. to decide.

Full Story: Gay Marriage D.C.: Same-Sex Marriage Bill In Washington Seems Unstoppable.

Stewart Pummels Obama For Not Repealing ‘Don’t Ask Don’t Tell’ (VIDEO)

Comedians have made no bones about their frustration with President Obama of late. Bill Maher, referring to the health care debate, pleaded with the president to

“stand up for the 70% of Americans who aren’t crazy.” SNL ran a skit Saturday saying Obama has done “nothing, nada” since taking office. And Jon Stewart has taken on the president for not staying on message, and failing to get a public option passed.

Stewart continued on this trend tonight, taking on Obama and his administration for not repealing “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell,” despite many promises to do so on the campaign trail. The president and his team have said he still plans to do so, but that he has too much on his plate. Stewart’s response? “It’s f**king chow time, brother.”

WATCH:

Full Story: Stewart Pummels Obama For Not Repealing ‘Don’t Ask Don’t Tell’ (VIDEO).

D.C. Council to Introduce Bill Allowing Same-Sex Marriage

Measure Is Expected to Pass Congress, but Its Viability May Depend on Tilt of Future Chambers

Democrats and Republicans on Capitol Hill said it appears unlikely that Congress will block a bill to be introduced Tuesday that would allow same-sex marriages in the District.

D.C. Council leaders have vowed to expedite the bill and said they hope to put it to a final vote before Christmas. But even if same-sex couples start marrying next year, the long-term survival of the practice would be in doubt for years, depending on the makeup of the House and Senate, congressional officials said.

“I hate to say this, but I think this is going to be rough sledding,” said Rep. James P. Moran Jr. (D-Va.). “I don’t think [conservatives] are going to give us a pass. . . . I don’t think we can always escape this issue coming to the floor.”

Full Story: D.C. Council to Introduce Bill Allowing Same-Sex Marriage – washingtonpost.com.

Texas Battle on Gay Marriage Looms

- NYTimes.com – A judge in Texas paved the way for a court battle over the state’s ban on same-sex marriage when she ruled this week that two men married in another state can get divorced in Dallas.

The state attorney general said Friday that he would appeal the decision, even as gay rights advocates applauded the judge, Tena Callahan of Family District Court, for declaring that the state’s four-year-old ban on same-sex marriages and civil unions violated the right to equal protection under the 14th Amendment.

The case highlights a subtle way gay men and lesbians often face complications when it comes to marriage: gay couples who have managed to marry in the few states where it is legal have trouble divorcing and dividing their property if they move to a state where it is not.

Full Story: Texas Battle on Gay Marriage Looms – NYTimes.com.

Military lawyer says Defense Department ignored calls for war crimes investigation

| Raw Story - The military lawyer that represents an Afghan youth who spent roughly seven years in U.S. custody says the Defense Department has repeatedly ignored his requests for a war crimes investigation into the detainee’s treatment.

Air Force Maj. David Frakt, the attorney for former detainee Mohammed Jawad, says over the past 16 months he sent multiple memos to Defense Department and military leaders asking them to account for what a military judge called “abusive conduct and cruel and inhuman treatment” of his client. Jawad, who was arrested when he says he was 12 years old for allegedly tossing a grenade at U.S. military, was moved from cell to cell 112 times during a 14-day period to disrupt his sleep patterns, according to military documents. Frakt said he believes the treatment constituted torture, violated the Geneva Convention, war crime laws and Defense Department regulations.

Full Story: Military lawyer says Defense Department ignored calls for war crimes investigation | Raw Story.

Poll: 92 percent of Iowans say legalizing same-sex marriage has had no impact on their lives.

Think Progress » Poll: 92 percent of Iowans say legalizing same-sex marriage has had no impact on their lives.

One of the most common arguments advocates use against marriage equality is that it will threaten the institution of traditional marriage. In April, Iowa’s Supreme Court unanimously overturned a 10-year-old ban on same-sex marriage, which the far right decried as an undemocratic decision anathema to the views held by the majority of America. But a new Des Moines Register poll finds that despite the histrionics from conservatives, 92 percent of Iowans “say gay marriage has brought no real change to their lives.” The poll also shows that residents are evenly split in their views toward same-sex marriage.

Full Story: Think Progress » Poll: 92 percent of Iowans say legalizing same-sex marriage has had no impact on their lives..

The Harding Affair: Evidence of Racism Rising

By JOHN W. DEAN

This is the first in a two-part series of columns on the Harding affair and letters.—Ed.

Typically, I have little interest in book reviews. But I am interested in the reviews that have greeted a new book for which I have written a foreword. The book was just published: The Harding Affair: Love and Espionage during the Great War. It examines long-suppressed love letters written by no less than Warren G. Harding, our twenty-ninth president.

The analysis of the letters was written by an attorney friend of mine from Cleveland, James D. Robenalt, who — when not handling major litigation for his law firm, Thompson Hine LLC — is frequently thinking about or digging into Ohio history. As I’ve explained in the foreword, Jim obtained these extraordinary letters through unusual circumstances.

Harding wrote these letters a century ago to his long-time lover and mistress, Carrie Phillips. There are over one hundred letters, many deeply passionate and some remarkably explicit. This was a serious romance that lasted about fifteen years, beginning before Harding was elected to the U.S. Senate, and running until shortly before he was elected president in 1920. Some of his handwritten letters run forty pages in length. Collectively, they provide a new view and understanding of Harding – and, unless you are a committed prude, deeply hypocritical, or a racist, that new understanding is not for the worse.

Full Story: The Harding Affair: Evidence of Racism Rising.

Gay Rights on the Double: Bill to Repeal DOMA to Hit Capitol Just as Same-Sex Marriage to Be OK’d in Capital

BUZZFLASH NEWS ANALYSIS by Meg White

This weekend, gay-rights activists in our nation’s capital may be toasting a double to some of their elected representatives. As federal lawmakers gear up to try to repeal the Defense of Marriage Act in Washington, local lawmakers in D.C. are counting the ayes ahead of a vote on same-sex marriage. Rep. Nadler w/ HRC on DOMA repeal

The Washington Post reports today that the D.C. City Council will likely pass the “Religious Freedom and Civil Marriage Equality Amendment Act of 2009″ shortly, a bill which would allow same-sex marriage as well as the transfer of domestic partnerships to district-sanctioned marriage by 2011. The votes are there; in fact the bill main sponsor, Councilman David Catania, says it may pass unanimously.

But because of the unique way in which D.C.’s local legislation is subject to approval by federal legislators, the likelihood of legal gay marriage in the district for the long term is far from assured. Congress has recently reaffirmed their control over the city in a craven move attaching an unpopular anti-gun control measure to a bill which would grant D.C. a full vote in the House.

via Gay Rights on the Double: Bill to Repeal DOMA to Hit Capitol Just as Same-Sex Marriage to Be OK’d in Capital | BuzzFlash.org.

Lawmakers to introduce legislation next week repealing DOMA.

Lawmakers to introduce legislation next week repealing DOMA.

Next week, Democratic Reps. Jerrold Nadler (NY), Tammy Baldwin (WI), and Jared Polis (CO) will be introducinglegislation to repeal the Clinton-era Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), which “defines marriage as a legal union between one man and one woman for purposes of all federal laws.” From their press release sent out today:

Next Tuesday, Congressman Jerrold Nadler (D-NY), Chair of the House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Civil Liberties, Congresswoman Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), and Congressman Jared Polis (D-CO) will introduce legislation to repeal the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), a law which discriminates against lawfully married same-sex couples.The legislators will be joined by married same-sex couples harmed by DOMA and many of the country’s premier LGBT and civil rights advocates in a press conference to announce the new bill, at 11:00am on Tuesday, September 15, 2009, at the House Triangle, near the southern steps of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C.

via Think Progress » Lawmakers to introduce legislation next week repealing DOMA..

Attorney General Plans Reshaping of Civil Rights Division

Justice Dept. to Recharge Enforcement of Civil Rights – - NYTimes.com

Seven months after taking office, Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. is reshaping the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division by pushing it back into some of the most important areas of American political life, including voting rights, housing, employment, bank lending practices and redistricting after the 2010 census.

As part of this shift, the Obama administration is planning a major revival of high-impact civil rights enforcement against policies, in areas ranging from housing to hiring, where statistics show that minorities fare disproportionately poorly. President George W. Bush’s appointees had discouraged such tactics, preferring to focus on individual cases in which there is evidence of intentional discrimination.

To bolster a unit that has been battered by heavy turnover and a scandal over politically tinged hiring under the Bush administration, the Obama White House has also proposed a hiring spree that would swell the ranks of several hundred civil rights lawyers with more than 50 additional lawyers, a significant increase for a relatively small but powerful division of the government.

via Attorney General Plans Reshaping of Civil Rights Division – NYTimes.com.

There Are More Slaves Today Than at Any Time in Human History

There Are More Slaves Today Than at Any Time in Human History – By Terrence McNally, AlterNet

One writer spent four years inside the world of modern-day slavery; an industry that produces huge profits and countless wasted lives.

The world suffers global recession, enormous inequity, hunger, deforestation, pollution, climate change, nuclear weapons, terrorism, etc. To those who say we’re not really making progress, many might point to the fact that at least we’ve eliminated slavery.

But sadly that is not the truth.

One hundred forty-three years after passage of the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and 60 years after Article 4 of the U.N.’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights banned slavery and the slave trade worldwide, there are more slaves than at any time in human history — 27 million.

Today’s slavery focuses on big profits and cheap lives. It is not about owning people like before, but about using them as completely disposable tools for making money.

via There Are More Slaves Today Than at Any Time in Human History | Rights and Liberties | AlterNet.

Utah Paper Rejects Same-Sex Wedding Announcement

The Spectrum: Utah Paper Rejects Same-Sex Wedding Announcement

SALT LAKE CITY — A southern Utah newspaper has rejected a gay California couple’s wedding announcement, saying its policy is to publish announcements only for marriages legal under Utah law.

The Spectrum in St. George initially accepted a paid wedding announcement for Tyler Barrick and Spencer Jones last week, but then changed course, Jones said. The San Francisco couple were legally married June 17, 2008. They wanted the announcement printed in Jones’ hometown paper ahead of a family party next week.

via The Spectrum: Utah Paper Rejects Same-Sex Wedding Announcement.

Philadelphia workers file racial discrimination case

Philadelphia workers file racial discrimination case -  - CNN.com

(CNN) — Black employees at a Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, waste transfer plant were harassed, humiliated and discriminated against by their supervisor for decades, says an attorney representing two workers who filed a complaint against the city.

Among the allegations in the complaint is that for decades, John Gill, the Northwest Transfer Station’s superintendent, limited one restroom to whites only, said the attorney, Howard K. Trubman. The restroom — which he called the “supervisors’ bathroom” — was supposedly for the sole use of upper-level officials with the city’s Streets Department, Trubman said.

As far back as 1996, it became apparent to black employees that they were being slighted, said Trubman. They would watch white co-workers walk into the segregated bathroom, conveniently located one floor above Gill’s office.

“If you tried to use the bathroom, you might get suspended,” said Leslie Young, a former worker at the facility. Young, along with Gibson Trowery, who still works at the station, filed a complaint with the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission in October 2007.

via Philadelphia workers file racial discrimination case – CNN.com.

Professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. speaks out on racial profiling after his arrest by Cambridge police.

Skip Gates Speaks

The Root Editor-in-Chief Henry Louis Gates Jr. talks about his arrest and the outrage of racial profiling in America.

I’m saying ‘You need to send someone to fix my lock.’ All of a sudden, there was a policeman on my porch. And I thought, ‘This is strange.’ So I went over to the front porch still holding the phone, and I said ‘Officer, can I help you?’ And he said, ‘Would you step outside onto the porch.’ And the way he said it, I knew he wasn’t canvassing for the police benevolent association. All the hairs stood up on the back of my neck, and I realized that I was in danger. And I said to him no, out of instinct. I said, ‘No, I will not.

via Professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. speaks out on racial profiling after his arrest by Cambridge police..

Swim club accused of discrimination sics cops on media

Swim club accused of discrimination sics cops on media

A swimming club in suburban Philadelphia called the police on a Fox television crew attempting to report on allegations the club had rejected inner-city children because of the color of their skin.

More than 60 children enrolled in day-care in the basement of a Northeast Philadelphia elementary school were told to pack up and not return, after the Valley Swim Club in Montgomery County accused them of changing the “complexion” and “atmosphere” of the club.

Most of the children enrolled in the day care are black or Hispanic.

When Fox’s Philadelphia affiliate showed up at the club, “we were ordered off, we were told it’s a private club and we’re not welcome,” Fox reporter Claudia Gomez said.

The Valley Club’s president, John Duesler, said in a statement: “There was concern that a lot of kids would change the complexion … and the atmosphere of the club.”

One day-care attendee told the NBC affiliate in Philadelphia that he had overheard parents at the club complaining about the new children’s race.

via Raw Story » Swim club accused of discrimination sics cops on media.

Sessions Uses Sotomayor Nomination To Continue His Lifelong Crusade Against Civil Rights

Sessions Uses Sotomayor Nomination To Continue His Lifelong Crusade Against Civil Rights

Conservatives have chosen a strange leader to spearhead their charge against Judge Sotomayor — Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL). With only days remaining until Sotomayor’s confirmation hearings begin, Sessions has focused his attacks on Sotomayor’s past service on the board of the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund (PRLDEF), a leading civil rights organization that Sessions calls “extreme” because it “brought several race discrimination lawsuits for minorities” while Sotomayor sat on its board.

Setting aside the facial absurdity of this attack — race discrimination is illegal, a fact which apparently also bothers Sessions — it’s puzzling that conservatives would let Sessions be their public face of opposition against the first Latina nominated to the Supreme Court, especially in light of his own checkered history with race.

In 1986, Sessions’ nomination to the federal bench was rejected by the Senate because of Sessions’ deep-seated hostility to the very notion of civil rights. In comments that are strikingly similar to his recent attacks on PRLDEF, Sessions attacked the NAACP as an “un-American” and “Communist-inspired” organization that “forced civil rights down the throats of people.” When confronted about these statements at his confirmation hearing, Sessions reluctantly conceded that they “probably w[ere] wrong.” Watch:

via Think Progress » Sessions Uses Sotomayor Nomination To Continue His Lifelong Crusade Against Civil Rights.

Gay marriage case will go to Supreme Court: attorney

Gay marriage case will go to Supreme Court: attorney

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – The attorney representing two same-sex couples who were denied a right to wed in California said on Thursday he expected the case to end up before the U.S. Supreme Court, which has yet to hear a case on the gay marriage issue.

“When it does get to the United States Supreme Court, we expect to win,” Theodore Olson, who was solicitor general under former President George W. Bush, told reporters after the first hearing on federal lawsuit that was filed in May.

A high court ruling potentially could trump state laws prohibiting same-sex unions. Five out of 50 U.S. states have legalized gay marriage, which opponents view as a threat to what they view as the traditional family.

via Gay marriage case will go to Supreme Court: attorney | U.S. | Reuters.

Wilkerson says DADT ‘should be repealed’ immediately.

Wilkerson says DADT ‘should be repealed’ immediately.

Col. Lawrence Wilkerson (ret.), former chief of staff to Secretary of State Colin Powell, appeared on the XM/Sirius radio show “Stand Up! With Pete Dominick” today and stated forcefully that the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy barring gay men and women from serving openly in the military “should be repealed”:

DOMINICK: You’re a 31 year veteran of the military, Army, like I’ve said, you served in Vietnam. What’s your opinion of the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy currently in place? Should it be repealed or should it remain in place?

WILKERSON: Let me say just right off the bat, it should be repealed. Gays should be able to serve – gays and lesbians should be able to serve openly in the American armed forces just like anyone else does. [...]

DOMINICK: It should be repealed immediately.

WILKERSON: Yep.

Listen here:

via Think Progress » Wilkerson says DADT ‘should be repealed’ immediately..

Dodd comes out in support of marriage equality.

Dodd comes out in support of marriage equality.

Yesterday, Sen. Chris Dodd (D-CT) wrote an op-ed in the The Meriden Record-Journal announcing that he had shifted his position on gay marriage. He now supports full marriage equality:

Public officials aren’t supposed to change their minds. But I firmly believe that it’s important to keep learning. Last week, while I was in Connecticut meeting with members of the gay and lesbian community from across the state, I had the opportunity to tell them what I’ve learned about marriage, and about equality.

While I’ve long been for extending every benefit of marriage to same-sex couples, I have in the past drawn a distinction between a marriage-like status (“civil unions”) and full marriage rights.

I believe that, when my daughters grow up, barriers to marriage equality for same-sex couples will seem as archaic, and as unfair, as the laws we once had against inter-racial marriage. And I want them to know that, even if he was a little late, their dad came down on the right side of history.

via Think Progress » Dodd comes out in support of marriage equality..

McClatchy

McClatchy.

Court finds convicts have no right to test DNA

OPS: Otherwise  you can’t keep the Privatized Prison Corporations in business.

Court finds convicts have no right to test DNA

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court says convicts have no constitutional right to test DNA evidence in hopes of proving their innocence long after they were found guilty of a crime.

The decision may have limited impact because the federal government and 47 states already have laws that allow convicts some access to genetic evidence. Testing has led to the exoneration of at least 232 people who had been found guilty of murder, rape and other violent crimes.

The court ruled 5-4 Thursday against an Alaska man who was convicted in a brutal attack on a prostitute 16 years ago.

via The Associated Press: Court finds convicts have no right to test DNA.

Barney Frank rips prez’s ‘big mistake’

Barney Frank rips prez’s ‘big mistake’  – BostonHerald.com

Fuming over anti-gay wed filing

U.S. Rep. Barney Frank, one of the nation’s leading gay rights champions, blasted President Obama yesterday over a controversial anti-gay marriage court filing and is calling on the commander in chief to explain himself.

“I think the administration made a big mistake. The wording they used was inappropriate,” Frank (D-Newton) said of a brief filed by Obama’s Department of Justice that supported the Defense of Marriage Act.

The DOJ brief, which has touched off a firestorm of anger in the gay community, argued that states should not have to recognize same-sex marriages from other states, just as states don’t have to recognize incestuous marriages or unions involving underage girls.

via Barney Frank rips prez’s ‘big mistake’ – BostonHerald.com.

Georgia court ban on ‘exposing’ children to ‘homosexuals’ axed by state Supreme Court.

Georgia court ban on ‘exposing’ children to ‘homosexuals’ axed by state Supreme Court.

In 2007, Eric and Sandy Ehlers Mongerson divorced, and a Georgia trial judge awarded custody of their four children to Sandy and visitation rights to Eric. Inexplicably, the judge also held that Eric was “prohibited from exposing the children to his homosexual partners and friends.” Yesterday, the Georgia Supreme Court unanimously threw out the trial judge’s ban:

There is no evidence in the record before us that any member of the excluded community has engaged in inappropriate conduct in the presence of the children or that the children would be adversely affected by exposure to any member of that community. The prohibition against contact with any gay or lesbian person acquainted with Husband assumes, without evidentiary support, that the children will suffer harm from any such contact. Such an arbitrary classification based on sexual orientation flies in the face of our public policy that encourages divorced parents to participate in the raising of their children…and constitutes an abuse of discretion.

via Think Progress » Georgia court ban on ‘exposing’ children to ‘homosexuals’ axed by state Supreme Court..