Thursday, February 28, 2013 5:35:06 PM
Hiram R. Revels, First Black Senator, And Representatives: Black History Photo Of The Day
The First Colored Senator and Representatives, in the 41st and 42nd Congress of the US. Top standing left to right: Robert C. De Large, M.C. of S. Carolina; and Jefferson H. Long, M.C. of Georgia. Seated, left to right: U.S. Senator H.R. Revels of Mississippi; Benj. S. Turner, M.C. of Alabama; Josiah T. Walls, M.C. of Florida; Joseph H. Rainy, M.C. of S. Carolina; and R. Brown Elliot, M.C. of S. Carolina. Lithograph by Currier and Ives, 1872. [much larger/more complete image at http://i.huffpost.com/gen/1008462/original.jpg ]
02/25/2013
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/25/hiram-r-revels-first-black-senator_n_2761163.html [with comments]
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Jennifer Olsen, Montana GOP Official, Takes Heat For Alleged Racist Facebook Post
02/25/2013
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/25/jennifer-olsen-montana_n_2759484.html [witht comments]
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Racist GOP mailing depicts Obama surrounded by KFC, watermelon, and food stamps
Oct 16, 2008
http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2008/10/16/30814/obama-bucks/ [with comments]
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Police: Fire at day care center investigated as arson, hate crime
Sandra Wilson, owner of the Little Leapers Childcare and Bethel Worship Center on Riverland Road in Fort Lauderdale, arrived to find the building gutted by fire and vandalized on Sunday morning.
Joe Cavaretta, Sun Sentinel
By Mike Clary, Sun Sentinel
6:38 p.m. EST, February 24, 2013
FORT LAUDERDALE — Worship services were canceled and scores of parents were left scrambling to find work-week caretakers for their children Sunday after an early morning fire that is being investigated as arson.
Police also are looking into a possible hate crime at the Little Leapers Day Care and Performing Arts Academy because of swastikas that were spray-painted on the front of the building at 1300 Riverland Road.
"When I got here this morning, I just began to cry," said Sandra Wilson, who owns the day care with her husband, Ivory Wilson. "Who could hate so much to do something like this?"
Fort Lauderdale Fire-Rescue crews responded to a call at 3:15 a.m., according to spokesman Matt Little.
The fire apparently started in the kitchen of the building that on Sundays is also used as the sanctuary of the Bethel Worship Center. said Wilson.
Police investigators found signs of forced entry, according to police Lt. Frank Sousa. He added that investigators "would look at everything that is there," including the possibility that the break-in and fire were hate crimes.
Wilson said that keyboards, drums, speakers, mixing boards, microphones and other pieces of musical equipment were missing. She estimated the loss at $50,000 or more.
About three weeks ago, the school received a telephone threat from a caller who used a racial epithet and warned the four-year-old day care "to get out of the neighborhood," Wilson said.
The threat triggered a call to police, and the school was on lockdown for the day. "It was frightening," said employee Joyce Bryant, who took the call.
The school is attended by about 30 children ages 6 weeks to 6 years during much of the day. About a dozen elementary pupils come for after-school day care, said Wilson. She said the school is racially mixed, with a white majority.
The fire caused moderate damage to the building, but there were no injuries, Little said.
With extensive smoke damage and without electricity, Wilson said Sunday morning worship services were canceled. She was also calling parents to report that the school would be closed until further notice.
"This is devastating," said Wilson. "The parents are sad, hurt and they are worried about their jobs. They depend on this school being open so they can go to work. The whole thing is shocking."
mwclary@tribune.com or 954-356-4465
Copyright © 2013, South Florida Sun-Sentinel
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/breakingnews/fl-day-care-arson-20130224,0,6590496.story [with embedded video report]
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Why we still need the Voting Rights Act
By John Lewis
Published: February 24, 2013
On “Bloody Sunday,” nearly 50 years ago, Hosea Williams and I led 600 peaceful, nonviolent protesters attempting to march from Selma to Montgomery to dramatize the need for voting rights protection in Alabama. As we crossed the Edmund Pettus Bridge, we were attacked by state troopers who tear-gassed, clubbed and whipped us and trampled us with horses. I was hit in the head with a nightstick and suffered a concussion on the bridge. Seventeen marchers were hospitalized that day.
In response, President Lyndon Johnson introduced the Voting Rights Act and later signed it into law. We have come a great distance since then, in large part thanks to the act, but efforts to undermine the voting power of minorities did not end after 1965. They still persist today.
This week the Supreme Court will hear [ http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/supreme-court-considers-souths-legacy-and-progress-on-voting-rights/2013/02/23/3f1ba416-7c71-11e2-82e8-61a46c2cde3d_story.html ] one of the most important cases in our generation, Shelby County v. Holder. At issue is Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act [ http://www.justice.gov/crt/about/vot/sec_5/about.php ], which requires all or parts of 16 “covered” states with long histories and contemporary records of voting discrimination to seek approval from the federal government for voting changes. The court is questioning whether Section 5 remains a necessary remedy for ongoing discrimination.
In 2006, Congress debated this very question over 10 months. We held 21 hearings, heard from more than 90 witnesses and reviewed more than 15,000 pages of evidence. We analyzed voting patterns in and outside the 16 covered jurisdictions. We considered four amendments on the floor of the House; the Senate Judiciary Committee considered several others.
After all of that, Congress came to a near-unanimous conclusion: While some change has occurred, the places with a legacy of long-standing, entrenched and state-sponsored voting discrimination still have the most persistent, flagrant, contemporary records of discrimination in this country. While the 16 jurisdictions affected by Section 5 represent only 25 percent of the nation’s population, they still represent more than 80 percent of the lawsuits proving cases of voting discrimination.
It is ironic and almost emblematic that the worst perpetrators are those seeking to be relieved of the responsibilities of justice. Instead of accepting the ways our society has changed and dealing with the implications of true democracy, they would rather free themselves of oversight and the obligations of equal justice.
Calera, a city in Shelby County, Ala., provides a prime example. Once it was an all-white suburb of Birmingham. Rapid growth created one majority-black district that in 2004 had the power, for the first time, to elect a candidate of its choice to city government, Ernest Montgomery.
Just before the 2008 election, however, the city legislature redrew the boundaries to include three white-majority districts in an effort to dilute the voting power of black citizens. The Justice Department blocked the plan, but Calera held the election anyway, and Montgomery was toppled from his seat.
In 2012, Section 5 was used to block Texas from implementing the most restrictive voter law in the country, which threatened the rights of more than 600,000 registered voters, predominantly Latinos and African Americans.
Kilmichael, Miss., was blocked from canceling elections shortly after the results of the 2000 Census demonstrated a black-voting majority that could, for the first time, elect the candidate of its choice.
Such cases are numerous and exemplify the “unprecedented legislative record” amassed in 2006. That mountain of evidence paved the way for a bipartisan majority in Congress to reauthorize Section 5 by a vote of 390 to 33 in the House and 98 to 0 in the Senate.
Opponents of Section 5 [ http://www.americanbar.org/content/dam/aba/publications/supreme_court_preview/briefs-v2/12-96_pet_amcu_soa.authcheckdam.pdf ] complain of state expense, yet their only cost is the paper, postage and manpower required to send copies of legislation to the federal government for review, hardly a punishment.
But without Section 5, guaranteed civil liberties of millions of voters could be flagrantly denied, and those violations would remain in force and nearly unchecked unless a lawsuit provided some eventual relief. The act also rewards progress. In fact, every jurisdiction that has applied for bailout, demonstrating a clean record over 10 years, has been freed from Section 5 compliance.
Evidence proves there are forces in this country that willfully and intentionally trample on the voting rights of millions of Americans. That is why every president and every Congress, regardless of politics or party, has reauthorized Section 5.
The right to vote is the most powerful nonviolent tool we have in a democracy. I risked my life defending that right. Some died in the struggle. If we are ever to actualize the true meaning of equality, effective measures such as the Voting Rights Act are still a necessary requirement of democracy.
John Lewis, a Democrat, represents Georgia’s 5th District in the U.S. House.
© 2013 The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/why-we-still-need-the-voting-rights-act/2013/02/24/a70a930c-7d43-11e2-9a75-dab0201670da_story.html [with comments]
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Scalia’s ugly racial cynicism
(Credit: Reuters/Brendan Mcdermid/Salon/Benjamin Wheelock)
The Supreme Court justice treats voting rights as a goody given away by pandering politicians
By Joan Walsh
Thursday, Feb 28, 2013 12:24 PM CST
Four slow-moving ambulances brought up the rear as student leader John Lewis led 600 peaceful protesters dressed for church on the voting rights march that would become known as Selma’s Bloody Sunday, on March 7, 1965. They stayed peaceful; law enforcement officials didn’t. Trampled by police horses, choked by tear gas, beaten with billy clubs – Lewis had his skull fractured – the marchers would need more medical help than the four cars could provide. The ugly melee made national news that night: ABC broke into its presentation of “Judgment at Nuremberg” with footage of the violence, and viewers couldn’t be entirely sure where Nazi atrocities ended and their own country’s began.
Now, not far from Selma, Shelby County, Ala., is trying to take the teeth out of the Voting Rights Act that Lyndon B. Johnson hustled through Congress after Bloody Sunday. Even though the act was reauthorized by a Republican-dominated Congress in 2006 on a 98-0 vote in the Senate (it was 390-33 in the House), and signed by President Bush, and even though its constitutionality has been upheld by the Supreme Court four times, there is evidence that the current right-wing court majority would like to overturn at least part of it. Court conservatives once represented a reaction against the court’s supposed overreach into realms best left to Congress, and its willingness to ignore earlier court decisions. Now they seem set to say Congress has no business here, and that their Supreme Court predecessors who upheld the act were either mistaken or the blinkered creatures of their idiosyncratic eras.
Unbelievably, Antonin Scalia derided the act as a “racial entitlement,” prompting gasps from the crowd gathered to hear the arguments Wednesday. (As Rachel Maddow noted, Scalia seems to live for those gasps.) And he blamed Congress for pandering for votes by keeping that “racial entitlement” alive. The cynical Scalia sounded like Mitt Romney blaming his loss on President Obama delivering “gifts” to his coalition:
I don’t think there is anything to be gained by any Senator to vote against continuation of this act. And I am fairly confident it will be reenacted in perpetuity unless — unless a court can say it does not comport with the Constitution …They are going to lose votes if they do not reenact the Voting Rights Act. Even the name of it is wonderful: The Voting Rights Act. Who is going to vote against that in the future?
Indeed, the name of it is wonderful. With that remark, Scalia made clear (if he hadn’t already) that he’s more suited for the talk radio dial alongside Rush Limbaugh, Bill O’Reilly and Sean Hannity than he is for the Supreme Court bench.
The right-wing justice’s rant goes to the heart of long-held conservative ambivalence about democracy: that corrupt politicians will be able to buy off the rabble, with “spoils” or patronage or jobs; even outright gifts of cash. Only men of wealth, property and education could be trusted to rise above such rank bribery, which is why many states had property requirements and other limits on voting in the early days of our country; universal suffrage didn’t even reach all white men until 1830.
Still, Romney only railed against Obama providing “gifts” like healthcare to Latinos and contraceptives to women. Limbaugh called him “Santa Claus,” one of his nicer names for the president, for those popular new programs. A majority of Americans, O’Reilly opined during his election night self-pity party, “want stuff. And who is going to give them things? President Obama. He knows it, and he ran on it.”
But not even O’Reilly implied that the “stuff” Obama gave his voters included their constitutional right to vote.
As is his trademark, Chief Justice John Roberts put a more refined spin on Scalia’s elitist ranting. “Is it the government’s submission that the citizens in the South are more racist than the citizens in the North?” Roberts asked. To be fair, the gist of Roberts’ complaint seemed to be that federal oversight of a state function like voting regulations could only be compelled by compelling evidence of wrongdoing. Since it’s true that the South is no longer the place of violent Jim Crow – and it’s also true that some states that aren’t covered by Section 5 have taken steps to limit voting rights that civil rights advocates say have a discriminatory impact – Roberts and other court conservatives question whether it’s fair to single out the South for special, in-advance scrutiny of its changes to voter laws. “Why shouldn’t it apply everywhere in the country?” Justice Samuel Alito asked.
On JusticeWatch, Gilda Daniels criticizes the “assumption that because there are other wrongdoers that are not covered, Alabama, and states like it, should not be either. Essentially, they obliquely argue that if those other states get to have worse records than Alabama on voter registration and turnout then the federal government should not “punish” it with Section 5.” In fact, since 1965 other states and jurisdictions outside the South have come to be covered by Section 5 because of their egregious interference with the right to vote. But it is certainly true that some states that aren’t covered by Section 5 are imposing new voter restrictions: harsh ID laws in Pennsylvania, a cutback in early voting in Ohio and Wisconsin, and an end to the Sunday before Election Day voting hours that the black community had claimed for a last “Souls to the Polls” push in Wisconsin and other places. That doesn’t mean the covered states have stopped looking for ways to limit voting rights, but in a better world, Congress might well extend Section 5 to cover more states.
But this isn’t that world. Despite Johnson’s strong leadership, the 1965 Voting Rights Act passed with a higher percent of Republicans supporting it than Democrats, given that segregationist Democrats ran the South. But since then, the parties have to an extent traded sides. It’s true, and praiseworthy, that in 2006 Republicans supported the act’s reauthorization. But after President Obama was elected with record-breaking turnout by black and Latino voters in 2008, at least 38 states have tried to place new restrictions on voting, whether by increasing requirements to register or by limiting the number of days and locations where people can vote. Every single one of those laws, whether proposed or enacted, was sponsored by a Republican. Sadly, just since 2006, voting rights protection has become a partisan issue.
One of Shelby County’s central claims is that Section 5 is self-evidently outmoded in an age when we have a black president. But the act wasn’t designed to protect the rights of the occasional extraordinary African-American, like our first black president; a handful of blacks acceptable to the white power structure could vote back in Jim Crow Alabama, too. It was designed to protect the rights of all black voters, and of all voters.
The night before the 1965 Selma march finally made it to Montgomery, this time with federal protection, Harry Belafonte organized a gala celebration on a makeshift stage built of coffins. They had been donated by a black funeral home, one of those businesses that thrived under Jim Crow, since white undertakers wouldn’t bury the black community’s dead. Belafonte and Tony Bennett, Nina Simone and Joan Baez, Elaine May and Sidney Poitier, a dazzling roster of multiracial stars stood on those coffins and entertained a mostly black but multiracial crowd.
I’ve always found that image chilling and yet inspiring, as if Jim Crow lay in those coffins, and the entertainers were singing and dancing and telling jokes on its grave. Besides, the civil rights movement always defied death: Jimmie Lee Jackson, James Reeb and Viola Liuzzo died in the three weeks it took for several separate marches to finally cover the ground from Selma to Montgomery. Yesterday it felt as if Scalia lorded over that hearing on a bench built from figurative coffins, entombing the rights that Americans fought and bled and died for almost 50 years ago. If only his remarks could shock Americans in prime time, the way Selma interrupted “Judgment at Nuremberg” on that Sunday night almost 50 years ago, to inspire a new movement for voting rights.
Details on the Selma marches come from Rep. John Lewis’ fantastic 1998 memoir, “Walking With the Wind [ http://www.amazon.com/Walking-Wind-A-Memoir-Movement/dp/0156007088 ].” Read it.
Copyright © 2013 Salon Media Group, Inc.
http://www.salon.com/2013/02/28/scalia%e2%80%99s_ugly_racial_cynicism/ [with comments]
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MAP: Definitive Proof That We Don’t All Live In The Same Democracy
Alvin Melathe
Feb 25, 2013
What this map tells me is that, basically, Florida really needs to get its s#*t together.
ORIGINAL [ http://progressivestates.org/news/blog/infographic-how-long-were-election-day-lines-in-your-state ]: By Progressive States Network [ http://www.facebook.com/progressivestates ]. Data compiled by MIT’s Charles Stewart III [ http://www.pewstates.org/research/analysis/new-data-on-lines-at-the-polls-85899435524 ].
Copyright 2013 Upworthy
http://www.upworthy.com/map-definitive-proof-that-we-don-t-all-live-in-the-same-democracy
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Rep. Clyburn on Empowering Voter Rights
By Debbie Hines
Posted: 02/27/2013 6:05 pm
As the Supreme Court prepares to decide [ http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/supreme-court-majority-skeptical-of-voting-law-provision/2013/02/27/e89b038e-80fd-11e2-b99e-6baf4ebe42df_story.html ] the fate of Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, it is important now more than ever to pass new federal laws to protect the right to vote. We need to establish uniform voting standards for federal elections to address the widespread voting problems of 2012. Assistant Democratic Leader James E. Clyburn (D-SC), an original co-sponsor of the 2013 Voter Empowerment Act ("VEA" [ http://www.democraticwhip.gov/sites/default/files/Voter%20Empowerment%20Act%20113th.pdf ]), introduced this bill as a means to make voting easier. Far from being easy, we've seen some of the ways that casting a vote was made extremely difficult in the 2012 election with new voter ID laws, shortening of early voting days, long lines and casting provisional ballots. Rep. Clyburn recently spoke candidly in an exclusive interview on why it is necessary to pass the Voter Empowerment Act.
The Voter Empowerment Act would bring our voting system in federal elections up to the 21st century with Internet modernization and registration, mandatory early voting, greater disabilities assistance, restoration of voting rights to convicted felons and same day registration and voting. It would apply only to federal elections, which are held every two years.
Among the ways to make voting easier, Rep. Clyburn says the current 30 day cut-off to register persons to vote before an election disenfranchises potential voters who may not make up their mind until the last-minute. The campaigns, candidate and ads are still in full swing 30 days before the election and up to Election Day. The last two presidential debates on October 16 and 22nd were held less than 30 days before the election. The Voter Empowerment Act would allow for same day registration and voting. As Rep. Clyburn states, "something might happen in 15 days to wet someone's appetite and get them involved in the process."
For all federal elections, the Voter Empowerment Act would require that states must hold 15 days of early voting with a minimum four hours per day near public transportation. Rep. Clyburn believes that "early voting should be a federal law for all federal elections. And the states can decide what they want to do with their own election." Early voting days for the 2012 election were cut in half in some states since 2008. The decreased early voting days in the 2012 election added to the long lines, chaos and disenfranchisement of voters. In Florida, an estimated 200,000 voters [ http://www.democracynow.org/2013/2/15/naacp_new_election_commission_needed_to ] were disenfranchised in the last election due to long lines.
In modernizing and bringing voter registration up to 21st century standards, the VEA would allow citizens to register to vote by email, update any changes to their voter registration by email and require the State Board of Elections to notify voters who provide an email address of the place, address, hours and description of any ID needed to vote. And to further encourage greater participation of voters, universities would be treated as voter registration agencies and register students to vote at time of their enrollment of college. Those persons with disabilities would be able to vote by absentee ballot.
Probably the most controversial provision in the VEA is the right to restore the vote to convicted felons. The Voter Empowerment Act calls for a national standard to restore voting rights back to felony offenders who have paid their debt to society. "When people have paid their debt to society, they should get their voting rights back," says Rep. Clyburn. Those still serving time in prison would be ineligible to vote.
While everyone will not agree with all of the aspects of the Voter Empowerment Act, many will agree our present system needs to be fixed. It has 167 co-signers-all Democrats. The right to vote should not be a partisan issue. If Rep. Clyburn had his way, our right to vote would be as easy as 1-2-3.
Copyright © 2013 TheHuffingtonPost.com, Inc.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/debbie-hines/repclyburn-on-empowering-_b_2767732.html [with comment]
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Voting Rights Act: The 2012 Election Proves Exactly Why We Need It
Feb 19, 2013
http://www.policymic.com/articles/26906/voting-rights-act-the-2012-election-proves-exactly-why-we-need-it [with comments]
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Michigan Republicans Support Changing State's Electoral Vote Allocation
02/25/2013
The Michigan GOP backed a measure on Saturday that would allocate the state's electoral college votes by congressional districts, reviving energy for a plan considered by Republicans in several states after the inauguration but one that seemed dead about a month ago.
[...]
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/25/michigan-electoral-college_n_2758501.html [with comments]
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Racial Wealth Gap Tripled Since Reagan Era As Whites Increased Large Lead Over Blacks: Study
The median white family now is 8 times wealthier than the median black family, according to a new Brandeis University Study. In this photo, Pat, who refused to give her last name, carries her belongings as she walks down the street after eating lunch in the soup kitchen of St. Francis Center on September 13, 2011 in Los Angeles, California.
(Photo by Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images)
By Bonnie Kavoussi
Posted: 02/27/2013 10:56 am EST | Updated: 02/27/2013 7:34 pm EST
The wealth gap between blacks and whites has ballooned [ http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-02/bu-bus022213.php ] since the middle of the Reagan administration, nearly tripling between 1984 and 2009, according to a new Brandeis University study.
The study [ http://iasp.brandeis.edu/pdfs/Author/shapiro-thomas-m/racialwealthgapbrief.pdf ], released Wednesday, found that the median white household held a net worth of $265,000 by 2009, eight times more than the median black household's net worth of just $28,500. That division will continue to haunt black Americans for years to come, according to Tatjana Meschede, a co-author of the study.
"The gap presents an opportunity denied for many African American households and assures racial economic inequality for the next generation," Meschede said in a statement.
The study, which followed 1,700 households between 1984 and 2009, attributed the growing racial wealth gap to a variety of disparities:
-- Homeownership: White households are 28 percent more likely to own their home than black households, according to the study.
-- Income: The average white person's income [ http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/income/data/historical/people/ ] was $29,401 per year in 2011, while the average black person's income was just $18,357, according to the Census Bureau.
-- Unemployment: The black unemployment rate was 13.8 percent in January, while the white unemployment rate was only 7 percent, according to the Labor Department [ http://bls.gov/ ].
-- College education: Roughly 29 percent of whites [ http://www.census.gov/prod/2012pubs/acsbr10-19.pdf ] age 25 and older held a bachelor's degree or graduate degree between 2006 and 2010, compared to only 18 percent of blacks in the same age group, according to the Census Bureau.
-- Inheritance: Whites were five times more likely to receive an inheritance than blacks between 1984 and 2009, according to the Brandeis study.
The Census Bureau [ http://money.cnn.com/2012/06/21/news/economy/wealth-gap-race/index.htm (source of chart next below)] reported last year that the median white household held a net worth of $110,729 in 2010, while the median black household held a net worth of just $4,995,
a disparity even greater than that reported by the Brandeis University study.
Copyright © 2013 TheHuffingtonPost.com, Inc.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/27/racial-wealth-gap_n_2772840.html [with embedded video report, and comments]
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Gun debate spurs threats at Colorado Capitol
9:36 PM, Feb 15, 2013
DENVER - The debate over gun policy is cranking up tension at the state capitol. Several Democrats in the State House of Representatives say they've received death threats this week.
One was on a voicemail for Democrat Joe Salazar of Thornton, who shared the aggressive message with 9NEWS.
The caller starts out by calling Salazar a "f-ing fascist." The voicemail message continues, "You want to outlaw magazines? Come and f---ing take them. You willing to kill the f---ing outlaw magazines, because you will f---ing die."
Listen to voicemail
http://www.9news.com/video/default.aspx?bctid=2168316563001
Salazar says the threat is being investigated by state law enforcement. While he takes the threat seriously, it doesn't shake his position on the issue.
"This doesn't help their cause. It's not going to help their cause here in Colorado, and it's not going to help their cause across the nation," Salazar said.
Salazar read a transcript of the message to the House floor while debating a bill to impose universal background checks. He told the chamber that he hopes the anonymous caller, who clearly sounds agitated, would have to go through a background check before acquiring a gun.
Other members of his party in key committee posts have also received threats according to House leadership.
House Speaker Mark Ferrandino says threats have been made against Rep. Daniel Kagan (D-Cherry Hills Village) and Rep. Rhonda Fields (D-Aurora) who have both been highly visible in the gun debate this week.
Salazar was one of two Democrats to soften the magazine ban bill in committee this week.
There was more tension at the Capitol Friday as the debate raged on over guns.
A pro-gun lobbyist was thrown out of the capitol after threatening to run political ads against a Republican lawmaker.
KUSA-TV © 2013 Multimedia Holdings Corporation
http://www.9news.com/news/article/317326/339/Gun-debate-spurs-threats-at-Capitol [with embedded video report (text is a transcript), and comments]
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Colorado Lawmakers Get Threatened Over Gun Control Legislation
02/25/2013
When debating gun control and the rights granted by the Second Amendment, heated arguments and debates are expected -- but a few people have gone too far by threatening some state lawmakers over the gun control bills currently being considered by the state legislature.
Fox31 was the first to report that Franklin Sain, a 42-year-old Colorado Springs man, was arrested for making threats against Rep. Rhonda Fields [ http://kdvr.com/2013/02/25/man-arrested-for-threatening-rep-rhonda-fields-over-gun-legislation/ ] (D-Aurora), the sponsor of two of the four controversial gun measures that passed the state House last week.
[...]
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/25/colorado-lawmakers-get-th_n_2760325.html [with comments]
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GunOwnersForReform.com - "Rodney"
Help us run this ad in Kentucky: https://secure.actblue.com/contribute/page/gun_mcconnell_1
Join the fight: www.GunOwnersForReform.com
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UmVLznif9u0 [via http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/05/mitch-mcconnell-progressive-change-campaign-gun-control_n_2619039.html (with comments)]
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Gun Owner vs. McConnell
Help air this TV ad in Kentucky. Click here: https://secure.actblue.com/contribute/page/gun_mcconnell_2
Join the fight: http://GunOwnersForReform.com
Join over 20,000 gun owners (including the guy in this TV ad) and over 100,000 other Americans who signed the petition supporting President Obama's bold gun plan: criminal background checks, ban assault weapons, ban high-capacity magazines. http://GunOwnersForReform.com
The Progressive Change Campaign Committee (PCCC) has over 950,000 members who believe in fighting for bold progressive change. Together, we fight for our values. Learn about us here:
http://BoldProgressives.org/
http://www.facebook.com/boldprogressives
http://twitter.com/boldprogressive
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GlrCnCJsozw [via http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/25/mitch-mcconnell-assault-weapons_n_2743022.html (with comments)]
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Second Amendment Lawsuits Expose Rift At The Top Of Gun Rights Movement
02/25/2013
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/25/second-amendment-foundation_n_2745038.html [with comments]
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Fake Newtown Facebook Pages Will Be Removed, Officials Confirm
By Gabrielle Dunkley
Posted: 02/25/2013 3:23 pm EST
Facebook officials have agreed to take down [ http://www.sfgate.com/news/crime/article/Lawmakers-ask-Facebook-to-remove-Newtown-pages-4306316.php ] some unofficial tribute pages for victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting after Connecticut lawmakers submitted a formal letter on Monday alerting the social media giant to the pages' exploitive nature.
Sens. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) and Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) and Rep. Elizabeth Etsy (D-Conn.) said in the letter [ http://www.blumenthal.senate.gov/newsroom/press/release/blumenthal-murphy-and-esty-call-on-facebook-to-remove-pages-exploiting-newtown-victims ] that several fraudulent, unofficial pages containing messages asking for money, as well as posts that harassed the Newtown shooting victims' families, were in direct violation of Facebook's user policies:
It has come to our attention that Facebook has received multiple requests from grieving Newtown families to remove Facebook pages being used to harass them or to exploit their loss.?In the past several months, Facebook users have created hundreds of unofficial tribute pages dedicated to the victims of Sandy Hook. For example, The Greenwich Time reports over 100 tribute pages have been created using Victoria Soto’s name or likeness.
Many give the appearance they were created by loved ones in the names of the victims. Unfortunately, many of these pages have become vehicles for harassment, intimidation and possibly financial fraud. ?Pages providing platforms for people to violate the privacy of families as they grieve, or seek financial gain through soliciting donations under false pretenses, or generating Facebook “likes” for marketing purposes, should not be given quarter in the Facebook community.
...
We ask that you direct your staff to remove the pages referred to in complaints by Donna Soto and Kaitlin Roig down for violating the above terms of service. If you do not believe these pages violate your terms of service, please detail in a written response why. If Facebook is already looking into this matter, please detail what you have done thus far to address the take-down requests from of Donna Soto and Kaitlin Roig. Our staff and we will be pleased to work with appropriate Facebook officials to address these issues affecting the Soto and Roig families, and others who may be affected by such abusive, unacceptable practices.
Blumenthal said that he received a phone call on Monday from Facebook representatives, confirming that they will begin the process of removing the pages immediately, the Associated Press reported [ http://www.sfgate.com/news/crime/article/Lawmakers-ask-Facebook-to-remove-Newtown-pages-4306316.php ].
"Certainly there have been many, too many, of these pages that are intimidating or harassing or exploitive," Blumenthal said. "I'm pleased that Facebook has responded positively."
Copyright © 2013 TheHuffingtonPost.com, Inc.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/25/newtown-facebook-pages_n_2760116.html [with comments]
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Neil Heslin, Father Of Newtown Victim, Testifies At Senate Assault Weapons Ban Hearing
By Christina Wilkie
Posted: 02/27/2013 1:39 pm EST | Updated: 02/27/2013 2:24 pm EST
WASHINGTON - Neil Heslin, whose son Jesse McCord Lewis was killed in the mass shooting in Newtown, Conn., gave moving testimony on Wednesday during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on the assault weapons ban [ http://www.feinstein.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/assault-weapons ] proposed by Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.).
"As Jesse was getting out of the truck [the morning he died], he leaned in and hugged me," Heslin said, weeping openly as he held up a portrait of his son. "I can still feel that hug, and that pat on the back. He said, 'everything's going to be ok, Dad, it's all going to be ok.' And it wasn't ok."
The night of the shooting, Heslin said, "I waited in that firehouse until one in the morning, until I knew Jesse was confirmed dead ... I have to go home at night to an empty house, without my son."
Heslin's son Jesse was one of the 20 children and six educators who were shot and killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School in mid-December. A group of Newtown residents attended the hearing, and sat behind Heslin as he spoke. The hearing room was silent except for the sound of weeping.
Heslin has spoken about his son's death before, during a public hearing in Connecticut [ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/29/neil-heslin-father-of-newtown-victim-heckled_n_2572503.html ] in late January. Gun rights activists in the audience at that hearing shouted "Second Amendment!" at Heslin when he questioned why civilians should be permitted to carry military-style assault weapons.
The tragedy at Sandy Hook has galvanized public support for stricter gun controls, and Feinstein's bill is the most ambitious of a number of proposals currently under consideration by the Senate. Other proposals include an expansion of the background check system to cover all gun purchases, and a ban on high-capacity gun magazines.
Other witnesses testifying alongside Heslin included Western Connecticut Health Network EMS medical director Dr. William Begg, who treated some of the victims of Sandy Hook; Fordham Law School professor Nicholas Johnson; attorney David Hardy of Tucson, Ariz.; former Republican Florida Rep. Sandy Adams; and Mayor of Philadelphia Michael Nutter.
Michael McAuliff contributed reporting.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/27/neil-heslin-assault-weapons-ban-newtown_n_2774598.html [with embedded video of part of Heslin's testimony (his complete testimony next below), and comments]
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Watch Neil Heslin's full address to senators here
'I'm not here for sympathy, I'm here for my son': Heart-breaking moment father of Sandy Hook victim breaks down in Senate as he pleads for ban on assault rifles
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sLEuqKvSsDs
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Arkansas Gun Legislation: State Senate Passes Bill To Allow Concealed Weapons On College Campuses
02/26/2013
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/25/arkansas-gun-legislation-college-campuses_n_2762754.html [with comments]
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Coastal Carolina Shooting: Student Killed During Attack At Residence Hall; Gunman At Large
02/27/2013
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/27/coastal-carolina-shooting_n_2770909.html [with embedded video report, and comments]
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Man rescued from Olathe fire is charged with arson, attempted murder of responders
February 25, 2013
A man rescued from a burning Olathe home by firefighters earlier this month has been charged with setting the fire and attempting to kill the emergency workers who probably saved his life.
Johnson County prosecutors charged 58-year-old William J. Outhet Jr. with arson and attempted first-degree murder in connection with the Feb. 1 incident in the 1400 block of North Martway Drive.
“Clearly from the charges, his intent was to harm first responders,” said Johnson County District Attorney Steve Howe.
Howe said he could not discuss details of the investigation. Spokesmen for the Olathe police and fire departments, which conducted a joint investigation, also said they could not comment.
But according to documents filed in Johnson County District Court, Outhet allegedly “staged” firearms around the residence and fired shots from a shotgun “towards the perpetration of the crime of premeditated first-degree murder.”
The intended victims are listed in court documents as “emergency personnel.”
No emergency personnel were injured in the incident, officials said.
[...]
Nine years ago, a similar incident in south Kansas City left a paramedic gravely injured by gunfire.
On Feb. 23, 2004, paramedic Mary Seymour was hit by gunfire after responding to a burning house in the 9400 block of Grandview Road. As police officers laid down covering fire, firefighters pulled Seymour to safety.
The resident of the burning home, who had been involved in a dispute with city officials, was found dead in the home’s wreckage along with his girlfriend.
More recently, on Christmas Eve, a 62-year-old man in upstate New York started a house fire and then fatally shot two responding firefighters. Two other firefighters and a police officer were wounded.
The gunman then fatally shot himself, officials said.
In the Olathe case, Howe said it was fortunate that no first responders were injured.
“It could have been really bad,” he said.
http://www.kansascity.com/2013/02/25/4087048/man-rescued-from-olathe-fire-is.html [comments disabled]
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Police shooting suspect had history of trouble
A bullet riddled garage door and wall is seen in Santa Cruz, Calif., on Wednesday, Feb. 27, 2013 where a suspected murderer was shot Tuesday afternoon after he allegedly killed two Santa Cruz Police Department detectives. Sgt. Loran Butch Baker and Detective Elizabeth Butler were shot and killed outside the home of coffee shop worker Jeremy Goulet, 35, who was suspected of making inappropriate sexual advances toward a co-worker at her home, authorities said. The shootout occurred about 60 miles south of San Francisco. Goulet died in the shootout with police.
(AP Photo/Thomas Mendoza)
By MARTHA MENDOZA and JASON DEAREN
Posted: 02/27/2013 01:21:38 AM PST
Updated: February 28, 2013 6:32 AM GMT 02/27/2013 10:32:15 PM PST
SANTA CRUZ, Calif.—There was no warning for the two police detectives killed on Jeremy Goulet's doorstep when he flung open his door and opened fire. But there was more than a decade of signs that indicated Goulet was, as his father said Wednesday, a "ticking time bomb."
The quiet beach town of Santa Cruz was reeling as teary-eyed law enforcement leaders struggled to explain how Goulet, 35, had managed to kill two detectives, Sgt. Loran Butch Baker and Elizabeth Butler.
The detectives were shot to death Tuesday soon after arriving at Goulet's home in plain clothes to question him about a misdemeanor sexual assault, Santa Cruz County Sheriff Phil Wowak said.
The killings kicked off an intense half-hour chase by police that ended in a barrage of gunfire as Goulet, pinned against a garage door and a wall, tried to take even more lives.
"It's been devastating," Police Chief Kevin Vogel said Wednesday, ordering his remaining force of 92 sworn officers to step down for the day, allowing sheriffs and the highway patrol to take over the city's protection.
For those who knew Goulet, Tuesday marked the end of an escalating path of failed careers, violent relationships and criminal arrests of a disturbed former soldier consumed with irrational fury and sexual deviances.
"He had contempt for the cops and hated our justice system, and had been in jail before and swore he'd never go back," his father, Ronald Goulet, 64, said in halted, emotional bursts during an interview with The Associated Press.
Goulet's father said his son texted his twin brother Tuesday, saying, "I'm in big trouble, I love you," the father recalled.
"Jeff texted back and Jeremy wouldn't answer and next thing we know he was shot and killed," he said.
Wowak said that after shooting the detectives, Goulet stole their guns and jumped into Baker's car. But the neighborhood was boxed in by hundreds of quickly responding law enforcement officers, so, well-armed, he ditched the car and headed back toward his house, where emergency crews were desperately trying to save the two detectives.
A team of law enforcement officers spotted him and ordered him to give up. Instead he ran, and when cornered, opened fire. Goulet was killed in the shootout. On Wednesday, Goulet's blood remained splattered on a wall on a quiet residential street.
A fire truck was hit by several bullets, and firefighters took cover behind their vehicle, pulling bystanders down with them for safety.
"(Goulet) was distraught," the sheriff said. "No doubt the officers that engaged Goulet stopped an imminent threat to the community."
Goulet, who had served two years in prison in Oregon, was most recently in Santa Cruz County jail Friday on charges of public intoxication. Earlier that evening, a colleague at the coffee shop where he was working filed a complaint with police about inappropriate sexual advances. He was fired the next day, and the detectives had been following up.
Jeremy Goulet earned a bachelor's degree in criminal justice in 2000. But his admiration for the law turned to hatred amid his constant urges to stare at unsuspecting women, his father said.
"He's got one problem: peeping in windows," said his father. "I asked him, 'Why don't you just go to a strip club?'"
During college, Jeremy Goulet served in the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve. His father said Jeremy was arrested then for peeping, a misdemeanor.
After graduating from San Diego State University in 2000, he landed in the U.S. Army, where he trained as a helicopter pilot. He was moving forward in his career when he again stumbled into legal troubles in the Army and was discharged, his father said.
Goulet moved to Portland to be with his twin brother, Jeffery, despite a strained relationship.
In May 2008, he went to trial on charges of peeping on a young woman as she took a shower in her condo, and for trying to kill her boyfriend. The woman said that after showering she noticed the window screen was gone and a stick had been used to prop open the blinds.
Goulet was convicted of carrying a gun without a concealed weapon permit and invasion of personal privacy. After violating his probation, Goulet was sentenced to two years in jail.
After his release, Goulet moved to Berkeley, where until last fall, a neighbor said the twin brothers lived for at least a year in a brown-shingled house on a quiet street.
Alicia Morrison said she and her husband lived in the apartment just below the brothers and called the police in September when they got into a violent fight.
"I didn't think it was an everyday fight. It sounded like one of them was going to get killed," she said. "They would throw each other down on the ground and they had two dogs upstairs who sounded like they were really scared."
She said Jeremy left before the police arrived on that occasion.
She said neighbors had called police for the same reason before, and a few days after Morrison called the police she said they came by the apartment again because Jeremy Goulet's girlfriend had been screaming.
"Every time the police were called they acted like it was no big deal," she said.
Jeremy Goulet had recently moved to Santa Cruz and taken a job at a harbor cafe, attempting to start over, his father said.
About 75 miles south of San Francisco, Santa Cruz is known for its world-class surf spots, historic downtown with bookstores and coffee shops, and the University of California, Santa Cruz. Its boardwalk is a major summer draw for tourists hoping to escape inland heat or enjoy a classic California experience.
Lately, the city of 60,000 people had seen a spike in assaults that community leaders had planned to address during a downtown rally.
Meanwhile, hundreds of grieving community members gathered for a vigil near the police department Wednesday evening.
The photos of Baker and Butler sat perched on a table surrounded by a cluster of flowers and candles that grew throughout the evening, while at other tables, people wrote notes to the officers' families, and children drew cartoon hearts and daisies on a banner in their honor.
Some who attended the vigil wore blue and black armbands in solidarity with the police officers attending.
Jeffery Goulet, the suspect's twin brother, released a statement Wednesday saying his family was deeply saddened.
"We would also like to extend our deepest sympathies to the families of Sgt. Loran Baker and Detective Elizabeth Butler," it said.
Baker was a 28-year veteran of the force whose son, Adam Baker, served as a community service officer. Butler, a 10-year veteran of the force, came to Santa Cruz to study at the university and stayed.
Associated Press writers John S. Marshall in San Francisco, Lisa Leff in Oakland, Calif., and Nigel Duara in Portland, Ore., contributed to this report.
Copyright 2013 The Associated Press
http://www.mercurynews.com/news/ci_22677888/2-police-officers-killed-calif-suspect-dead
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Bob Goodlatte: Obama Universal Background Check Policy Would Inconvenience Law-Abiding Citizens
By ERICA WERNER
02/27/13 12:15 PM ET EST
WASHINGTON — The Republican chairman of the House Judiciary Committee said Wednesday he opposes universal background checks on gun sales and doesn't foresee such a measure being part of gun legislation in the House.
Requiring background checks on all gun sales is a top priority of the Obama administration in the wake of the Newtown, Conn., school shooting, and has appeared to be emerging in the Senate as a possible area of bipartisan consensus.
But Rep. Bob Goodlatte of Virginia said at a Christian Science Monitor breakfast with media that such a requirement could unnecessarily inconvenience law-abiding citizens and lead to the creation of a national gun registry – something Goodlatte and many other Republicans oppose.
"It's not a very practical thing to do and you'll have a lot of inconvenience to law-abiding citizens at the same time you're not going to keep many weapons out of the hands of people who are misusing them," Goodlatte said. "I think there are better ways."
Instead, Goodlatte said he supports strengthening the existing background check system for gun buyers and cracking down on illegal firearms sales.
President Barack Obama proposed near-universal background checks after the December shooting of 20 children and six adults in Connecticut. Currently, the checks are only required for purchases from federally licensed gun dealers, not sales between private individuals at gun shows, online or elsewhere.
Obama also has supported limiting the size of ammunition magazines and renewing a ban on assault weapons, issues that were being examined at a Senate hearing Wednesday. But both those measures are seen as tough to get through Congress and Goodlatte has said he opposes both.
Expanding background checks has been seen as more politically doable, but Goodlatte's comments suggest tough prospects for that idea, too.
Copyright 2013 The Associated Press
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/27/bob-goodlatte-obama_n_2773546.html [with comments]
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Three killed, seven injured in Swiss factory shooting
Rescue service members walk in front of the wood processing plant of Kronospan following a shooting in Menznau near Lucerne February 27, 2013.
Credit: Reuters/Michael Buholzer
Wed Feb 27, 2013 9:32am EST
MENZNAU, Switzerland (Reuters) - A Swiss factory worker shot two colleagues dead and injured seven more on Wednesday at a wood processing plant near the city of Lucerne, police said.
The shooting was already over and the killer was dead by the time police arrived at the scene. Five of the injured were in a serious condition.
Lucerne police chief Daniel Bussmann told a news conference the 42-year-old attacker had worked at the factory in the town of Menznau, west of Lucerne, for 10 years, but said the motive for the attack was not clear.
A prosecution spokesman said the shooting took place over two to three minutes, with the dead and injured found on the factory floor, in a corridor and the site canteen.
Police did not immediately confirm how the gunman had died.
Mauro Caprozzo, chief executive of the wood processing company Kronoswiss, denied rumors that job cuts were due to be announced at the factory on Wednesday.
He said the killer was a quiet, unassuming character.
"One almost didn't see or notice him," Caprozzo said.
A gunman killed three women and injured two men last month in the Swiss village of Daillon, stirring a debate about Switzerland's firearm laws that allow men to keep guns after their mandatory military service.
There is no national gun register in Switzerland but some estimates indicate that at least one in every three of the country's 8 million inhabitants keeps a gun, many stored at home. Citizens outside the military can apply for a permit to purchase up to three weapons from the age of 18 in a country where sharp shooting and hunting are popular sports.
A shooting in the Zug regional parliament in 2001, in which 14 people were killed, prompted calls to tighten the law, but the majority of Swiss citizens rejected a proposal in 2011 for extra measures such as lock-ups for guns outside service periods.
(Reporting by Caroline Copley; Writing by Emma Thomasson; Editing by Tom Pfeiffer)
Copyright 2013 Thomson Reuters
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/02/27/us-swiss-shooting-idUSBRE91Q0KB20130227 [no comments yet]
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Texas school employee shot in gun safety class
In a district-sponsored workshop on arming school, an employee is accidentally wounded
Feb 28, 2013
http://www.salon.com/2013/02/28/texas_school_employee_shot_in_gun_safety_class/ [with comments]
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“The Myth of Persecution”: Early Christians weren’t persecuted
The Romans did not target, hunt or massacre Jesus' followers, says a historian of the early church
By Laura Miller
Sunday, Feb 24, 2013 03:00 PM CST
In the immediate aftermath of the Columbine High School massacre, a modern myth was born. A story went around that one of the two killers asked one of the victims, Cassie Bernall, if she believed in God. Bernall reportedly said “Yes” just before he shot her. Bernall’s mother wrote a memoir, titled “She Said Yes: The Unlikely Martyrdom of Cassie Bernall,” a tribute to her daughter’s courageous Christian faith. Then, just as the book was being published, a student who was hiding near Bernall told journalist Dave Cullen that the exchange never happened.
Although Candida Moss’ new book, “The Myth of Persecution: How Early Christians Invented a Story of Martyrdom [ http://www.amazon.com/dp/0062104527 ],” is about the three centuries following the death of Jesus, she makes a point of citing this modern-day parallel. What Bernall truly said and did in the moments before her death absolutely matters, Moss asserts, if we are going to hold her up as a “martyr.” Yet misconceptions and misrepresentations can creep in so soon. The public can get the story wrong even in this highly mediated and thoroughly reported age — and do so despite the presence among us of living eyewitnesses. So what, then, to make of the third-hand, heavily revised, agenda-laden and anachronistic accounts of Christianity’s original martyrs?
Moss, professor of New Testament and early Christianity at the University of Notre Dame, challenges some of the most hallowed legends of the religion when she questions what she calls “the Sunday school narrative of a church of martyrs, of Christians huddled in catacombs out of fear, meeting in secret to avoid arrest and mercilessly thrown to lions merely for their religious beliefs.” None of that, she maintains, is true. In the 300 years between the death of Jesus and the conversion of the Emperor Constantine, there were maybe 10 or 12 scattered years during which Christians were singled out for supression by Rome’s imperial authorities, and even then the enforcement of such initiatives was haphazard — lackadaisical in many regions, although harsh in others. “Christians were never,” Moss writes, “the victims of sustained, targeted persecution.”
Much of the middle section of “The Myth of Persecution” is taken up with a close reading of the six “so-called authentic accounts” of the church’s first martyrs. They include Polycarp, a bishop in Smyrna during the second century who was burned at the stake, and Saint Perpetua, a well-born young mother executed in the arena at Carthage with her slave, Felicity, at the beginning of the third century. Moss carefully points out the inconsistencies between these tales and what we know about Roman society, the digs at heresies that didn’t even exist when the martyrs were killed and the references to martyrdom traditions that had yet to be established. There’s surely some kernel of truth to these stories, she explains, as well as to the first substantive history of the church written in 311 by a Palestinian named Eusebius. It’s just that it’s impossible to sort the truth from the colorful inventions, the ax-grinding and the attempts to reinforce the orthodoxies of a later age.
Moss also examines surviving Roman records. She notes that during the only concerted anti-Christian Roman campaign, under the emperor Diocletian between 303 and 306, Christians were expelled from public offices. Their churches, such as the one in Nicomedia, across the street from the imperial palace, were destroyed. Yet, as Moss points out, if the Christians were holding high offices in the first place and had built their church “in the emperor’s own front yard,” they could hardly have been in hiding away in catacombs before Diocletian issued his edicts against them.
This is not to deny that some Christians were executed in horrible ways under conditions we’d consider grotesquely unjust. But it’s important, Moss explains, to distinguish between “persecution” and “prosecution.” The Romans had no desire to support a prison population, so capital punishment was common for many seemingly minor offenses; you could be sentenced to be beaten to death for writing a slanderous song. Moss distinguishes between those cases in which Christians were prosecuted simply for being Christians and those in which they were condemned for engaging in what the Romans considered subversive or treasonous activity. Given the “everyday ideals and social structures” the Romans regarded as essential to the empire, such transgressions might include publicly denying the divine status of the emperor, rejecting military service or refusing to accept the authority of a court. In one of her most fascinating chapters, Moss tries to explain how baffling and annoying the Romans (for whom “pacifism didn’t exist as a concept”) found the Christians — when the Romans thought about them at all.
Christians wound up in Roman courts for any number of reasons, but when they got there, they were prone to announcing, as a believer named Liberian once did, “that he cannot be respectful to the emperor, that he can be respectful only to Christ.” Moss compares this to “modern defendants who say that they will not recognize the authority of the court or of the government, but recognize only the authority of God. For modern Americans, as for ancient Romans, this sounds either sinister or vaguely insane.” It didn’t help that early Christians developed a passion for martyrdom. Suffering demonstrated both the piety of the martyr and the authenticity of the religion itself, and besides, it earned you an immediate, first-class seat in heaven. (Ordinary Christians had to wait for Judgment Day.) There were reports of fanatics deliberately seeking out the opportunity to die for their faith, including a mob that turned up at the door of a Roman official in Asia Minor, demanding to be martyred, only to be turned away when he couldn’t be bothered to oblige them.
Moss cannot be called a natural or fluent writer, but she is thorough, strives for clarity and is genuinely fired up in her concern for the influence of the myth of martyrdom on Western societies. “The idea of the persecuted church is almost entirely the invention of the 4th century and later,” she writes. This was, significantly, a period during which the church had become “politically secure,” thanks to Constantine. Yet, instead of providing a truthful account of Christianity’s early years, the scholars and clerics of the fourth century cranked out tales of horrific, systemic violence. These stories were subtly (and not so subtly) used as propaganda against heretical ideas or sects. They also made appealingly gruesome entertainment for believers who were, personally, fairly safe; Moss likens this to contemporary suburbanites reveling in a horror film.
Today, polemicists continue to use the deeply ingrained belief in a persecuted — and therefore morally righteous — church as a political club to demonize their opponents. Moss sees a direct link between the valorization of martyrs and preposterous right-wing rhetoric about the “war on Christianity.” It’s a tactic that makes compromise impossible. “You cannot collaborate with someone who is persecuting you,” Moss astutely points out. “You have to defend yourself.”
Where she is less shrewd is in her belief that by exposing the “false history of persecution,” we can somehow purge this paranoid approach to political differences. One of the most enlightening aspects of “The Myth of Persecution” is Moss’ ability to find contemporary analogies that make the ancient world more intelligible to the average reader, such as the Cassie Bernall story. But that story has an additional lesson to offer, about the true believer’s imperviousness to unpalatable facts. Bernall’s family and church are unmoved by the schoolmates who were present at the shooting and who have debunked the “She said yes” legend. “You can say it didn’t happen that way,” the Bernalls’ pastor told one reporter, “but the church won’t accept it. To the church, Cassie will always say yes, period.”
Copyright © 2013 Salon Media Group, Inc. (emphasis in original)
http://www.salon.com/2013/02/24/the_myth_of_persecution_early_christians_werent_persecuted/ [with comments]
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Bird Turd Jesus: Ohio Man Jim Lawry Says Dropping On His Windshield Is Image Of Christ
Jim Lawry on the windshield dropping: "It's like Jesus staring right at me."
By Ron Dicker
Posted: 02/25/2013 5:23 pm EST | Updated: 02/25/2013 6:18 pm EST
It isn't the Shroud of Turin [ http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-3445_162-57410982/controversial-new-theories-on-the-shroud-of-turin/ ]. It's the Turd of Brooklyn.
Jim Lawry of Brooklyn, Ohio, tells NewsNet5 that he's "amazed" by the image of Jesus Christ [ http://www.newsnet5.com/dpp/news/local_news/oh_cuyahoga/northeast-ohio-man-claims-bird-droppings-show-image-of-christ ] that he, family and friends see in a bird poop plopped on his windshield. He told the station he thinks it's a sign.
In a YouTube video posted Monday, Lawry marveled [ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hPnf2KKe7C0 ] at how it looked like a regular old dropping from the outside of the car -- but from the inside it looked, well, divine. The video has since been deleted.
"It's like a perfect portrait," he says in the video. "It's like Jesus staring right at me."
MSN writes that it looks more like a "dog wearing a wig" [ http://now.msn.com/jim-lawry-ohio-man-says-bird-poop-on-windshield-was-sign-from-jesus ] than the Son of God, and is perhaps more a sign that the car needs washing.
But sometimes one bird's excrement can mean one human's excitement. In August, Brandon Tudor of Illinois spotted a turd on his windshield that he thought was a dead ringer for Michael Jackson [ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/08/14/michael-jackson-bird-droppings_n_1774055.html ]. But Tudor's plan to auction it on eBay washed away in the rain.
Copyright © 2013 TheHuffingtonPost.com, Inc.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/25/bird-turd-jesus_n_2759963.html [with embedded slide show "Sacred Sightings?", and comments]
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How the Religious Right Is Helping De-Educate America's Youth
Photo Credit: Shutterstock.com
The bogus "school reform" movement isn't just about union-busting.
By K.C. Boyd
February 22, 2013
One can trace the development of today’s right wing Christian think takes to the Cultural Revolution of the 1960s. Religiously conservative people, motivated by their perceived degradation of society, quietly perfected their skills, all the while grooming their own young adherents, played an effective long-game that continues to win (and corrupt) the hearts and minds of a significant segment of our youth. Indeed, there is no better way to affect the future than by propagandizing the young. In this current post election season, the Biblically driven, often racist, members of society are once again regrouping to fight another day.
With the money of wealthy funders like Richard and Betsy DeVos (sister of Blackwater scion Eric Prince and daughter of Elsa and Edgar Prince of the Amway fortune) and the Walton, Koch and Scaife Foundations, simpatico politicians are hard at work bringing Dominionist [ http://beingchristian.net/glossary/ ] ideals quietly into the forefront of American education policy. While much of the country argues about budgets, deficits, and guns, a cleverly camouflaged package of School Choice and ”Bible-driven curricula“ make their way up the ladder.
On the surface, School Choice is purportedly about increasing opportunities for inner city and rural youth. The all-important subtext, however, is that School Choice is really about freeing up dollars for Christian-based education. An important arrow that energizes today’s religious quiver is the intentional misuse of language in changing the debate by referring to public schools as “government schools” and public education as a “government school monopoly,” thus instantly and directly speaking to Tea Partiers and Libertarians.
To still relatively scant notice, the call for “School Choice” or Vouchers continues to play out in state capitols across the nation in an effort to increase Biblically-based education through a redirection of tax dollars from public to private religious schools. In order to accomplish the end goal of Christianizing all students, stealth remains largely the rule of the day. In 2002, Dick DeVos told The Heritage Foundation [ http://www.talk2action.org/story/2011/5/3/12515/58655 ],
“We need to be cautious about talking too much about these activities. Many of the activities and the political work that needs to go on will go on at the grass roots. It will go on quietly and it will go on in the form that often politics is done - one person at a time, speaking to another person in privacy. And so these issues will not be, maybe, as visible or as noteworthy, but they will set a framework within states for the possibility of action on education reform issues."
During the 2011-2012 school year, thirty-two private school choice programs were in place with more than $800 million available for vouchers and scholarship tax credits, money that by all rights should have gone to our public school systems, many of which are in dire need. Groups with heart-warming names like The Alliance for School Choice and American Federation for Children encourage naive donors to support vouchers for reasons that are as deceptive as they are fundamentally non-democratic.
Additionally, over the years, far too many of these overzealous Christians have quietly insinuated themselves onto School Boards across the country and are hard at work challenging the historical mandate to provide a religion-neutral public education by insuring that the Bible become part of high school curricula.
In 2007, a piece of legislation backed by the Center for Reclaiming America for Christ and the American Family Association, passed in the Texas State House. The bill stated that Texas public schools must offer, as required curriculum the “history and literature of the Old and New Testaments.” Recently, the Texas Freedom Network (TFN) issued a chilling report on a study they coordinated with
Mark Chancey, Professor of Religious Studies at Southern Methodist University.
In his report [ http://www.tfn.org/site/PageServer?pagename=issues_religious_freedom_bible_courses ], Chancey stated that “at least 57 (Texas) school districts and three charter schools taught courses about the Bible in 2011-12, a number that more than doubled the districts teaching such courses in the 2006-07 school year.” The oversight spelled out in the bill that should have protected students from religious indoctrination was largely ignored leaving whole districts with Biblically driven curricula. At the time of the bill’s implementation, the bill’s co-author, Rep. Leo Berman, blatantly stated, “I don’t believe there’s such a thing as the separation of church and state.”
Of particular concern is the textbook-like use of scripture to condone homophobia, to slander blacks and Jews, and to deny basic climate and evolutionary science. And Texas is not alone. According to The National Council on Bible Curriculum in Public Schools’ website [ http://www.bibleinschools.net/ ] over a half a million students have already taken these courses nationally for credit. Take a half a million public school minds along with those who are already enrolled in religious schools or who are homeschooled, multiply it by a decade and it’s easy to see why it matters.
On a related note, a visit to the 27-million-dollar Creation Museum [ http://creationmuseum.org/ ] near the Greater Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport, adds yet another layer to the de-education of our young. While this so-called “museum,” and places like it, have been widely dissected and ridiculed in the press, try telling it to the throngs of school children enjoying a fun-filled field trip replete with ark-inhabiting animatronic dinosaurs.
One exhibit, in particular, stands out in its relevance to this piece. Inside the “museum” is a state-of-the-art theater wherein loops a slickly seductive film, Men in White. Treated to a reenactment of the Hurricane Sandy of Noah’s time, the theater seats bump up and down, when the Great Flood hits, while water squirts out from the seat ahead, all the while the largely student audience laughs uproariously. The film’s protagonist travels a journey that begins with her puzzling over evolution and ends with the affirmation of Genesis as the only viable Truth. Not only does the film deal effectively with the logical questions an inquisitive child might have about this one-way interpretation, but it also encourages and applauds a smart-alecky oppositional approach that students should take when confronted with supposedly “real“ science teachers. One leaves the theater – and the museum – gravely concerned and saddened by the excitement that emanates from the busloads of Christian and/or homeschooled children who lend the structure its credence as a museum.
Taken alone, each of the above, while certainly harmful, would not necessarily be call for alarm. However, when seen for the coordinated strategy these tactics represent, it is easy to understand how a very purposeful group of religionists have the potential to irreparably change the way America educates its young.
It is critical that Americans recognize not only the intent to privatize our schools but the vast Christian Right agenda behind it. Whether from curricula control and out of order teachers in our public schools, or from the voucherization leading to fundamentalist Christian-based schools, charter schools and Christian homeschooling, a generation of children so educated will graduate from high school ill-equipped to face the realities of a science based world.
Novelist K.C. Boyd is the author of the viral sensation, Being Christian: A Novel [ http://www.amazon.com/Being-Christian--A-Novel-Boyd/dp/0985521708 ]. According to Mikey Weinstein, President of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, "Boyd created a story so riveting that not only could I not put it down, but upon finishing it, I found myself, like an addict, craving more.
Copyright 2013 K.C. Boyd
http://www.alternet.org/belief/how-religious-right-helping-de-educate-americas-youth [ http://www.alternet.org/belief/how-religious-right-helping-de-educate-americas-youth?paging=off ] [with comments] [also at http://www.salon.com/2013/02/25/how_the_religious_right_is_undermining_education/ (with comments)]
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Creationism Case: John Freshwater Lawyers Spar With Mount Vernon School Board In Ohio Bible Case
By JULIE CARR SMYTH and ANDREW WELSH-HUGGINS
02/27/13 05:32 PM ET EST
COLUMBUS, Ohio — State Supreme Court justices sparred with lawyers on Wednesday in a heated hour of arguments over the extent to which a now-fired public school science teacher had the right to push his religious beliefs in class.
A lawyer for the school board that dismissed John Freshwater in 2011 said he waved a Bible at his students, handed out religious pamphlets and espoused creationism in his evolution lessons.
Freshwater violated the constitutional separation between church and state and was rightfully fired, said David Smith, an attorney for the Mount Vernon School Board.
Smith said Freshwater can't "teach evolution from a Christian perspective" without violating constitutional protections against government establishment of religion.
"There is no academic freedom of the teacher to do that," Smith argued. "This is not a case about industrial hemp. It's not a case about the Iraqi war. Political sociological viewpoint is something completely different."
Freshwater's attorney, Rita Dunaway, said accounts of Freshwater's class conduct were exaggerated and he was exercising his academic freedom to explore controversial ideas.
She said the board's decision to dismiss Freshwater showed hostility toward religion.
"The board's position basically boils down to the proposition that simply offering students evidence of the gaps or flaws in evolutionary theory is equal to religious indoctrination," she said.
Dunaway said Freshwater had a laudable teaching record and his students scored well on standardized science tests.
Freshwater was dismissed after investigators reported he preached Christian beliefs in class when discussing topics such as evolution and homosexuality and was insubordinate in failing to remove the Bible from his classroom.
Justices appeared perplexed, at times irritated, about what lawyers believed was the legal issue before them.
Justice Paul Pfeifer was incredulous when Smith argued that Freshwater's evolution class wouldn't have been covered under the school district's controversial-issues policy.
"So there's nothing controversial about evolution," he said. "It is a theory, isn't it?"
Freshwater also had been accused of using a science tool to burn students' arms with the image of a cross, but that allegation was resolved and was not a factor in his firing.
Justices nevertheless pursued the issue on Wednesday, asking what role it played in Freshwater being investigated. Smith speculated that attention surrounding that incident was what prompted the school board's investigation into Freshwater's 21-year career.
The board, in its review, concluded Freshwater had used a high-frequency generator, which other teachers have used to demonstrate electrical current, to burn a cross onto a student's arm. The cross lasted a few weeks.
The student's family settled a federal lawsuit against the district in an effort to move on.
In Freshwater's dismissal case, he is getting legal backing from the Charlottesville, Va.-based Rutherford Institute, a civil liberties group. Science education and humanist and secular groups have joined the side of the school board.
The school board argues that as far back as 1994 a middle school principal told Freshwater to stop distributing an "Answers in Genesis" pamphlet, which contained information about a creationist organization's seminar, according to a filing by board attorneys asking the court to uphold Freshwater's firing.
Freshwater also used a handout titled "Survival of the Fakest" to teach his students to doubt science, the board's attorneys said.
Two lower courts previously upheld Freshwater's dismissal.
At the back of the courtroom Wednesday, 17-year-old Esther Sorg and 18 other students from Wilmington Christian Academy, about an hour southwest of Columbus, listened in as part of a school field trip.
Sorg said her science classes include evolution and it seems public school classes could include the creationist perspective without harm.
"My eighth-grade science class was taught from a Christian perspective, but we discussed evolution as well," she said. "I thought that was good because I wanted to know what the current theories were."
Online:
Ohio Supreme Court: http://www.sconet.state.oh.us
Copyright 2013 The Associated Press
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/27/creationism-john-freshwater_n_2773977.html [with comments]
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Cardinal Levada: Cardinal Mahony Should Help Select Pope
Cardinal William Levada gestures during a media conference Monday, Feb. 25, 2013, at St. Patrick's seminary in Menlo Park, Calif.
By MARTHA MENDOZA
02/25/13 06:08 PM ET EST
MENLO PARK, Calif. — The former archbishop of San Francisco said Monday that Los Angeles Cardinal Roger Mahony has a rightful place among Vatican officials who will choose the next pope, even though Mahony has been battered in recent days by disclosures about his role in covering up clergy sex abuse.
The comments by Cardinal William Levada, a high-ranking Vatican official until recently, came in the wake of a grass-roots campaign to shame Mahony into refraining from participating because of his role protecting sexually abusive priests.
Mahony left for Rome over the weekend after recently released church documents showed he had covered up for other priests who raped and molested children.
"There are some victims groups for whom enough is never enough, so we have to do our jobs as best we see it," said Levada, 76, who spoke with reporters from a Menlo Park seminary as he prepared for his trip to the Vatican for the papal conclave.
"He has apologized for errors in judgment that were made," Levada said. "I believe he should be at the conclave."
On Monday, Mahony took to social media and his own personal blog to write about persecution and forgiving one's enemies. He said he has a special prayer group for people who "cannot forgive me for my past hurts and offenses," including members of the media, attorneys, protesters and those who "hate and despise me."
He also tweeted from Rome, writing: "Anyone interested in loving your enemies, or doing good to those who persecute you? See my blog for today. Wow, Jesus is demanding."
Levada said Cardinal Keith O'Brien's decision Monday to step down as archbishop of St. Andrews and Edinburgh and to opt out of the conclave will "provide the freedom to do a good independent investigation and decide on appropriate measures to take on this case."
Levada, who leaves for Rome on Tuesday, retired in 2012 after spending six years as the head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the Vatican's orthodoxy watchdog, which also defrocked pedophile priests.
He played a key role in several church sex-abuse reforms. While serving previously as an archbishop in California and Oregon, he kept some accused molesters in the church and failed to share some allegations with police or parishioners.
On Monday, Levada drew a sharp divide between gay men and pedophile priests.
"By nature homosexuality is a not a predatory activity, it is a sexual activity that the Catholic church does not condone," he said. By contrast, he said pedophile priests are violating the sanctity and purity of young people.
Levada also said bureaucratic reforms at the Vatican will require a lot of attention from the next pope. He said he'll be looking for a candidate with deep faith, someone who has shown leadership and has language skills. He said youth is also a factor, and he extinguished any rumors that the next pope might be from the U.S.
"I don't know what the Las Vegas oddsmakers are saying today," he said, "but I don't think it's likely that we would see an American pope. It would be an additional complexity for an American pope to have to deal with the perception that some of his decisions might be perceived to be dictated by American governmental policy."
Levada also said he respects Pope Benedict's decision to withhold findings from an investigation into Vatican leaks to cardinals voting on his successor.
"If his judgment is that there's nothing in that report that's necessary for the cardinals then I think we can rely on that," he said. "Pope Benedict is a man of very good judgment."
Levada and Mahony will join more than 100 cardinals on Thursday in Rome to begin the historical process that will choose a successor to Pope Benedict XVI, whose decision to retire took worldwide Catholics by surprise.
Levada, whose Vatican job was held by the former Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger before he became Pope Benedict XVI, said in all his years of service, he never anticipated being called to a conclave.
"Never. Never," he said. "It's very challenging. It's pretty exciting."
Prior to the election, the cardinals meet and discuss the qualities of the candidates.
"We begin to make some judgments," he said.
Then, in silence, the cardinals vote, sometimes repeatedly, tucking ballots into a closely observed box which is then openly counted in front of them.
Copyright 2013 The Associated Press
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/25/cardinal-levada-mahony-_n_2761495.html [with embedded video report, and comments]
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Video of Pope Benedict’s Public Farewell
Video [ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N1KwV5GYjwQ , as embedded]
By JENNIFER PRESTON
February 27, 2013, 12:12 pm
As our colleagues, Rachel Donadio and Alan Cowell report [ http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/28/world/europe/pope-benedict-XVI-final-general-audience.html ], Pope Benedict XVI held his final general audience in St. Peter’s Square on Wednesday a day before before he withdraws from public life for a cloistered life of prayer and meditation.
Before tens of thousands of people gathered in the square, the Pope acknowledged the difficulties [ http://en.radiovaticana.va/index.asp ] he faced during his papacy, describing “moments of joy and light but also moments that were not easy.”
From the full text [ http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/28/world/europe/pope-benedict-xvis-remarks.html ] of his address [and following the two-paragraph excerpt, the video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SNf9U9x0pUc , as embedded]:
When, almost eight years ago, on April 19th, [2005], I agreed to take on the Petrine ministry, I held steadfast in this certainty, which has always accompanied me. In that moment, as I have already stated several times, the words that resounded in my heart were: “Lord, what do you ask of me? It a great weight that You place on my shoulders, but, if You ask me, at your word I will throw out the nets, sure that you will guide me” – and the Lord really has guided me. He has been close to me: daily could I feel His presence.
[These years] have been a stretch of the Church’s pilgrim way, which has seen moments joy and light, but also difficult moments. I have felt like St. Peter with the Apostles in the boat on the Sea of Galilee: the Lord has given us many days of sunshine and gentle breeze, days in which the catch has been abundant; [then] there have been times when the seas were rough and the wind against us, as in the whole history of the Church it has ever been – and the Lord seemed to sleep. Nevertheless, I always knew that the Lord is in the barque, that the barque of the Church is not mine, not ours, but His – and He shall not let her sink. It is He, who steers her: to be sure, he does so also through men of His choosing, for He desired that it be so. This was and is a certainty that nothing can tarnish. It is for this reason, that today my heart is filled with gratitude to God, for never did He leave me or the Church without His consolation, His light, His love.
Benedict XVI
@Pontifex
If only everyone could experience the joy of being Christian, being loved by God who gave his Son for us!
11:27 AM - 27 Feb 13
Shortly after he announced his resignation, he asked on Twitter [ https://twitter.com/Pontifex/status/305638456225304576 ] for people “to pray for me and for the Church, trusting as always in divine Providence.”
[...]
© 2013 The New York Times Company
http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/02/27/video-of-pope-benedicts-public-farewell/ [with comment]
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Openly gay Mississippi mayoral candidate’s body found, homicide suspected
(Credit: AP)
A person of interest is in custody, but authorities released few other details about Marco McMillian's death
By Holbrook Mohr
Thursday, Feb 28, 2013 12:31 PM CST
JACKSON, Miss. — Whatever his prospects for winning the coming mayoral election in his hometown of Clarksdale, Miss., Marco McMillian was considered by many to be a man on the rise. So word spread fast when his SUV was involved in a wreck this week, and he was nowhere to be found.
The discovery of the openly gay candidate’s body near a Mississippi River levee Wednesday stunned residents of Clarksdale, a Blues mecca in the flatlands of the Mississippi Delta.
Authorities were investigating McMillian’s death as a homicide, and said a person of interest was in custody, but released few other details.
“There’s a lot of people upset about it,” said Dennis Thomas, 33, who works at Abe’s Barbeque.
“Why would somebody want to do something like that to somebody of that caliber? He was a highly respected person in town,” Thomas said.
The 34-year-old Democrat wasn’t running what many would consider a typical campaign for political office in Mississippi, which is known for its conservative politics.
Campaign spokesman Jarod Keith said McMillian’s campaign was noteworthy because he may have been the first openly gay man to be a viable candidate for public office in the state.
McMillian, who was black, had also forged ties while serving for four years as international executive director of the historically black Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity Inc. Photos on McMillian’s website and Facebook page show him with a younger Barack Obama, former President Bill Clinton and with U.S. Rep. John Lewis, a Georgia Democrat.
Coahoma County Coroner Scotty Meredith said McMillian’s body was found Wednesday morning near the levee between Sherard and Rena Lara. It was sent to Jackson for an autopsy.
Meredith said the case is being investigated as a homicide, but he declined to speculate on the cause of death.
Authorities had been looking for McMillian since Tuesday morning when a man crashed the candidate’s SUV into another vehicle on U.S. Highway 49. McMillian was not in the car.
The sheriff’s office said Wednesday that a person of interest was in custody, but had not been formally charged.
Will Rooker, a spokesman for the sheriff’s office, declined to release other details.
McMillian was CEO of MWM & Associates, described on its website as a consulting firm for nonprofit organizations. In addition to his role at the fraternity from 2007 to 2011, McMillian had previously worked to raise funds as executive assistant to the president at Alabama A&M University and as assistant to the vice president at Jackson State University, according to his campaign.
A statement from the fraternity said he had secured the first federal contract to raise awareness about the impact of HIV and AIDS on communities of color. It noted that Ebony Magazine had recognized him in 2004 as one of the nation’s “30 up-and-coming African Americans” under age 30.
Supporters say McMillian – a 1997 graduate of Clarksdale High School who graduated magna cum laude from Jackson State and held a master’s degree from St. Mary’s University in Minnesota in philanthropy and development – had big ideas for Clarksdale, a town of about 17,800 people.
The town is well known to Blues fans as the home of the crossroads, where Robert Johnson is said to have sold his soul to the devil for skills with a guitar. Academy Award-winning actor and Mississippi native Morgan Freeman is part owner of the Ground Zero Blues Club in town. Clarksdale is also hounded by the poverty typical of the Mississippi Delta.
McMillian was hoping to win the office being vacated by Mayor Henry Espy Jr., the brother of Mike Espy, a former congressman and U.S. agriculture secretary. Henry Espy decided not to seek re-election after more than two decades in office. Espy’s son, state Rep. Chuck Espy, and Bill Luckett, a partner in Freeman’s club, were among the other well-known candidates in the race. The primary is May 7.
The Gay & Lesbian Victory Fund and Institute tweeted: “Our hearts go out to the family and friends of Marco McMillian, one of the 1st viable openly (hash)LGBT candidates in Mississippi.”
McMillian’s campaign said in a statement that words cannot describe “our grief at the loss of our dear friend.”
“We remember Marco as a bold and passionate public servant, whose faith informed every aspect of his life,” the statement said.
Copyright 2013 The Associated Press
http://www.salon.com/2013/02/28/openly_gay_mississippi_mayoral_candidates_body_found_homicide_suspected/ [with comments]
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NFL Combine Gay Questions: Teams Prying About Sexual Orientation, TE Nick Kasa Says
02/27/2013
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/26/nfl-combine-gay-nick-kasa_n_2770102.html [with embedded video report, and comments]
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Illinois Gay Marriage Bill OKed In Committee, Advances To Full House Vote
A supporter for same sex-marriage wears a sticker on her jacket before attending a Senate Executive committee hearing at the Illinois State Capitol in Springfield, Ill. The Illinois House Executive Committee on Tuesday approved a marriage equality bill.
02/27/2013
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/26/illinois-gay-marriage-bil_n_2768163.html [with earlier related video report embedded, and comments]
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U.S. to Urge Justices to End California Gay Marriage Ban
By ADAM LIPTAK
February 28, 2013
WASHINGTON — The Obama administration will throw its support behind a broad claim for marriage equality, urging the Supreme Court to rule that voters in California were not entitled to ban same-sex marriage there, according to an administration official.
The federal government is not a party to the case, Hollingsworth v. Perry, No. 12-144, and was not required to take a position in it. But the lawyers who filed the challenge, Theodore B. Olson and David Boies, along with gay rights groups, lobbied hard for the brief, saying the administration could not stay silent on the issue.
The administration is expected to file the brief Thursday.
The broad outlines of the administration’s position were not a surprise, given that it filed a brief last week in a same-sex marriage case in which it is a party, United States v. Windsor, No. 12-307. But that case presents only the narrower question of the constitutionality of part of the federal Defense of Marriage Act [ http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/BILLS-104hr3396enr/pdf/BILLS-104hr3396enr.pdf ] of 1996, which defines marriage as the union of a man and a woman for the purposes of more than 1,000 federal laws and regulations.
The Supreme Court’s ruling in the Defense of Marriage Act case will at most decide whether the federal government can discriminate against same-sex couples even if they married in states that allow such unions. Nine states and the District of Columbia allow same-sex marriage.
The case from California presents the broader question of whether there is a constitutional right to same-sex marriage in the states that do not allow it, which is why the new brief is significant. It is hardly certain, however, that the Supreme Court will end up deciding that broad question. The court may well avoid the issue on technical grounds or rule in a way that applies only to California.
Until not long ago, the administration was thought likely to stay out of the California case, partly as a matter of historical practice and partly to be true to President Obama’s public position on same-sex marriage.
The federal government took no position in 1967 in Loving v. Virginia [ http://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/historics/USSC_CR_0388_0001_ZO.html ], the case in which the Supreme Court struck down bans on interracial marriage, or in 2003 in the last major gay rights case, Lawrence v. Texas [ http://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/02-102.ZS.html ], which struck down state laws making gay sex a crime.
Moreover, when Mr. Obama announced his support for same-sex marriage, he said the matter was for the states to decide.
“I continue to believe,” he told Robin Roberts of ABC News [ http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/transcript-robin-roberts-abc-news-interview-president-obama/story?id=16316043 ], “that this is an issue that is going to be worked out at the local level, because historically, this has not been a federal issue, what’s recognized as a marriage.”
That statement is not hard to reconcile with the administration’s position in the case concerning the 1996 federal law. As Mr. Obama said in May, the law “tried to federalize what has historically been state law.” But the views Mr. Obama expressed in May are in tension with the position taken by his lawyers in the new brief, which calls for federal intervention to override a state law.
(A second part of the 1996 law, which says states need not recognize same-sex marriages performed elsewhere, is not before the Supreme Court.)
On the other hand, Mr. Obama has long opposed Proposition 8, the 2008 California voter initiative that amended the state’s Constitution to overturn a State Supreme Court decision establishing a right to same-sex marriage.
“I am not in favor of gay marriage,” Mr. Obama told MTV News [ http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1598407/did-barack-obama-answer-your-question.jhtml ] in 2008. “But when you start playing around with constitutions, just to prohibit somebody who cares about another person, it just seems to me that’s not what America’s about. Usually, our constitutions expand liberties, they don’t contract them.”
More recently, Mr. Obama has embraced a more sweeping view of marriage equality.
“Our journey is not complete until our gay brothers and sisters are treated like anyone else under the law,” he said in January in his Inaugural Address [ http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/21/us/politics/obamas-second-inaugural-speech.html?pagewanted=all ], “for if we are truly created equal, then surely the love we commit to one another must be equal, as well.”
The new brief argues that courts should subject laws making distinctions between straight and gay people to “heightened scrutiny,” requiring a showing that such laws are “substantially related to an important government objective.” The Supreme Court has never ruled on whether sexual orientation should require such review, but the federal appeals court in New York, in the Windsor case, said that it did.
The administration argues that the factors that led courts to require heightened scrutiny for laws concerning gender and illegitimacy should also require it for those addressing sexual orientation. Gay men and lesbians, the brief said, have suffered a history of discrimination, have distinguishing characteristics and lack political power.
The California case is scheduled to be argued on March 26 and the one concerning the federal law on March 27. Solicitor General Donald B. Verrilli Jr. will probably present the federal government’s position in both cases, and he is likely to be questioned closely about changes and possible inconsistencies in the administration’s position.
Michael D. Shear contributed reporting.
© 2013 The New York Times Company
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/01/us/politics/administration-to-urge-justices-to-overturn-a-gay-marriage-ban.html [with comments]
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Brief Supporting Same-Sex Marriage Gets More Republican Support
February 27, 2013
*
Related
Republicans Sign Brief in Support of Gay Marriage (February 26, 2013)
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/26/us/politics/prominent-republicans-sign-brief-in-support-of-gay-marriage.html
*
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/28/us/politics/gay-marriage-brief-gets-more-republican-support.html [and see http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/27/marilyn-musgrave-gay-marriage_n_2773986.html (with comments)]
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Robertson: Worth it to Pray Away Demons on Clothes, Inanimate Objects
http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/robertson-worth-praying-over-clothes-rebuke-demons
Televangelist Pat Robertson agrees that demons can attach themselves to material goods and therefore it's not a bad idea to rebuke them before bringing them into your home
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EDpp9UWVjsQ
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Hobby Lobby's Anti-Obamacare Birth Control Stance Backed By McConnell, High-Profile Republicans
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) and 10 other Republican lawmakers filed a brief in support of Hobby Lobby's lawsuit against an Obamacare requirement that health insurance covers contraception.
02/25/2013
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/25/hobby-lobby-obamacare_n_2759780.html [with comments]
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Double Ultrasound Bill In Indiana Changed To Require Just One Procedure
The GOP-controlled Indiana Senate has dropped a provision requiring women to receive two ultrasounds for a medication abortion.
(GENT SHKULLAKU/AFP/Getty Images)
By Amanda Terkel
Posted: 02/26/2013 11:07 am EST | Updated: 02/26/2013 3:54 pm EST
Indiana state senators have dropped a requirement that would force women to undergo an ultrasound procedure both before and after [ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/21/double-ultrasound-bill-indiana_n_2734658.html ] having a medication-induced abortion, after the legislation attracted national criticism [ http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/02/21/maddow-blasts-indianas-mandated-double-trans-vaginal-probe-bill/ ].
"I think that physicians know [ http://www.courierpress.com/news/2013/feb/25/indiana-senate-republicans-change-language-abortio/ ] a little bit more about that particular area than legislators," state Sen. Ron Alting (R), who is the author of Monday's amendment to Senate Bill 371, told the Evansville Courier and Press.
The Senate Health and Provider Services Committee approved the legislation last week, sending it to the full chamber for a vote. It would impose heavy regulations on doctors and clinics that offer medication abortions.
One ultrasound would have occurred before the abortion and then another after the procedure, to ensure that the woman is no longer pregnant and has stopped bleeding.
Dr. Anne Davis, the consulting medical director for Physicians for Reproductive Health, told HuffPost that a second ultrasound was unnecessary because a woman could "do a blood test at any local facility after an abortion to show that the hormone levels are going down as they should, there's no medical reason to make her drive back to the abortion clinic and go through another ultrasound."
The procedures would have been especially invasive, since they would have likely needed to be performed with a transvaginal probe. Medication abortions -- which are generally used to end a pregnancy up to 10 weeks from a woman's last period -- usually occur too early for an external transabdominal ultrasound to provide a clear image.
The GOP-controlled state Senate will vote on the amended version of SB 371 on Tuesday. According to the Evansville Courier and Press, the bill still mandates a pre-abortion ultrasound -- a requirement that abortion rights advocates have fought against.
"It is intended to confuse and shame women who are already dealing with a difficult situation. It's the last thing they need," said Betty Cockrum, president of Planned Parenthood of Indiana.
SB 371's author, state Sen. Travis Holdman (R), said he was fine with Alting's change, but still wanted to make sure women received a pre-pregnancy ultrasound.
"We're dealing with an unborn child here, as well, and I felt that we just need to regulate abortion-inducing drugs,” he said.
State Sen. Jean Breaux (D) attempted to amend the bill to mandate prostate exams for men [ http://www.theindychannel.com/news/politics/indiana-senators-drop-second-ultrasound-requirement-for-women-taking-abortion-drug ] seeking erectile dysfunction medication, but she was unsuccessful.
Copyright © 2013 TheHuffingtonPost.com, Inc.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/26/double-ultrasound-indiana_n_2765061.html [with embedded video report, and comments]
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Abortion Bill Veto Overridden By Arkansas House
By ANDREW DeMILLO
02/27/13 07:06 PM ET EST
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — The Arkansas House voted 53-28 Wednesday to override Gov. Mike Beebe's veto of a bill that would outlaw most abortions starting in the 20th week of pregnancy, hours after a state Senate committee approved a package of even tighter abortion restrictions.
The Republican-controlled state Senate, which overwhelmingly backed the 20-week near-ban on abortions before Beebe, a Democrat, vetoed it, was expected to discuss whether to vote to override the veto Thursday. Like the GOP-led House, only a simple majority in the Senate is needed to override a veto.
The House-sponsored measure is based on the disputed argument that a fetus can feel pain by the 20th week of pregnancy, and thus deserves protection from abortion. Beebe vetoed the bill Tuesday, saying it contradicts the U.S. Supreme Court's 1976 Roe v. Wade decision, which legalized abortion until a fetus can viably survive outside of the womb, which is typically at 22 to 24 weeks.
"This is not just any regular bill. It's one that has an eternal impact on each of us and to those children," Republican Rep. Andy Mayberry told House members as he urged them to override.
Two of the House's 48 Democrats joined with all 51 GOP members to support overriding Beebe's veto. Eighteen Democrats and the chamber's only Green Party member did not vote on the override, which has the same effect as voting against it. Republicans hold 21 of the 35 seats in the Senate, which approved the bill on a 25-7 vote last week.
Before the House vote, the Senate Public Health, Welfare and Labor Committee voted 5-2 to advance a bill that would ban most abortions starting in the 12th week of pregnancy, sending it to the full Senate. The Senate passed an earlier version of the bill that would have outlawed abortions as early as six weeks into a pregnancy, but amended it to push back the restriction and to add more exemptions.
Beebe declined to say Wednesday whether he also would veto the Senate's proposed 12-week ban, but he said he thinks it's on even shakier legal ground than the House's 20-week version.
"I'm pretty sure I know what I'm going to do on a bill that's even more problematic than the one I already vetoed, but I won't tell you officially until that time," Beebe said Tuesday.
Seven states have enacted similar 20-week restrictions based on the fetal pain argument, according to the Guttmacher Institute, which tracks laws affecting women's health. A similar law in Arizona has been blocked while a federal appeals court reviews a lawsuit challenging it.
The Arkansas bill is based on research Mayberry and other abortion opponents cite that fetuses can feel pain at 20 weeks. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, however, says it knows of no legitimate scientific information supporting the idea that a fetus experiences pain.
John DiPippa, dean emeritus of the University of Arkansas at Little Rock's law school, said he agrees with Beebe that the ban is unconstitutional and likely will be decided by the courts. He said he thinks the fetal pain argument will lose in the lower courts but that it's unclear how it might fare if it were to reach the U.S. Supreme Court.
"The core holding of Roe is that a state cannot place an obstacle in the way of a woman who wants to abort before viability," DiPippa said. "If you apply that standard, then these bills that draw the line at 20 weeks – which by all medical estimates is prior to viability – would clearly set up a substantial obstacle to a woman's ability to before that age."
GOP Sen. Jason Rapert said he hopes Beebe lets it stand but said he was confident the 12-week ban would have enough support to override a veto.
"The governor has his own conscience," Rapert, R-Conway, told reporters. "I think probably the best route would be that he just simply not sign the bill and let it become law, if that's what he decides to do. If he doesn't, then we'll override the veto and it'll become law in the state of Arkansas."
Associated Press writer Michael Stratford contributed to this report.
Copyright 2013 The Associated Press
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/27/abortion-bill-arkansas_n_2776619.html [with comments]
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15-Year-Old Alleged Maldives Rape Victim Sentenced To 100 Lashes For Premarital Sex Charge
By Cavan Sieczkowski
Posted: 02/27/2013 12:29 pm EST | Updated: 02/27/2013 12:34 pm EST
A 15-year-old Maldives girl who was allegedly raped by her stepfather has been sentenced to 100 lashes for engaging in premarital sex, but prosecutors allege that the punishment relates to a separate incident and not the rape case.
Last year, police began investigating allegations that a 15-year-old had been repeatedly raped by her stepfather [ http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-21595814 ] and impregnated after a baby was found buried on the island of Feydhoo in Shaviyani Atoll, the BBC reports. However, charges were brought against the teenage girl for premarital sex unrelated to the alleged rape.
During questioning, the alleged rape victim reportedly admitted to having sex with another man [ http://minivannews.com/society/raped-victims-punished-failed-by-law-in-the-maldives-53760 ], according to independent Maldives news organization, Minivan News. This man has not been identified, arrested or charged. Meanwhile, the stepfather is accused of killing the baby and faces 25 years in jail if convicted of rape and murder.
Zaima Nasheed, a spokesperson for the Maldives juvenile court, defended the punishment of 100 lashes and eight months house arrest, claiming the girl had "willingly committed an act outside of the law," the BBC writes. She will receive the flogging when she turns 18, unless she requests it sooner.
Masood Imad, a spokesman for Maldives President Mohamed Waheed, also rationalized the penalty.
"She is not going to be lashed to cause her pain... rather, it is for her to feel the shame for having engaged in activity forbidden by the religion," Imad told the Agence France-Presse.
However, human rights groups have condemned the premarital sex charge against the 15-year-old [ http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/afp/130227/alleged-rape-victim-maldives-be-flogged-court-0 ( http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5jludRDnJa6Xc3TPiZ6SMZbrJaSOA?docId=CNG.722c21ce71c2b2203f35cd3432c15546.5d1 )].
"The girl is already a victim and is traumatised, the authorities should be trying to protect her, not punish her," Meenakshi Ganguly, south Asia director for Human Rights Watch told the AFP, calling flogging "an inhuman, degrading practice... the kind of punishment that should not exist in their law books."
The Maldives -- an island nation located in the Indian Ocean -- is a popular tourist destination, but the country has faced criticism for its Islamic fundamentalism and practice of Sharia law.
Via The Independent [ http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/sentenced-to-100-lashes-in-the-maldives-15yearold-girl-raped-by-stepfather-who-then-murdered-baby-8513293.html ]:
Under the country’s laws, pre-marital sex is a a crime and those found guilty are often flogged. In September 2012, a court ordered the public flogging of a 16-year-old woman who had confessed to premarital sex, while in the summer of 2009 a pregnant 18-year-old woman received 100 lashes in public after she admitted to having sex with two different men.
Minivan News notes that the state's motives for punishing a rape victim, who has suffered physical and mental trauma, are unclear.
In January, when the premarital sex charges were first brought up, Amnesty International spoke out in defense of the young girl.
“This is an absolute outrage, regardless of the reason for her charges. Victims of rape or other forms of sexual abuse should be given counselling and support [ http://www.amnesty.org.uk/news_details.asp?NewsID=20551 ] – not charged with a crime," Abbas Faiz, Amnesty International’s Maldives researcher, said. “We urge the Maldivian authorities to immediately drop all charges against the girl, ensure her safety and provide her with all necessary support."
He added that the punishment could induce more damage, saying "The fact that this time a 15-year old girl who has suffered terribly is at risk makes it all the more reprehensible. Flogging is not only wrong and humiliating, but can lead to long-term psychological as well as physical scars.”
Copyright © 2013 TheHuffingtonPost.com, Inc.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/27/maldives-rape-victim-100-lashes-premarital-sex_n_2773631.html [with comments]
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Wichita Abortion Clinic
Letter
Published: February 21, 2013
To the Editor:
Reading about Julie Burkhart and her team gives me hope (“Four Years Later, Slain Abortion Doctor’s Aide Steps Into the Void [ http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/14/us/kansas-abortion-practice-set-to-replace-tiller-clinic.html?pagewanted=all ],” news article, Feb. 14).
As a doctor who provides abortions and a colleague of Dr. George R. Tiller, I have worried about the women left behind when he was murdered — not only the patients who came from far and wide for late abortions but the Wichita, Kan., women who depended on him for early procedures and family planning.
Their needs didn’t die when he was murdered, and I applaud Ms. Burkhart for her determination to bring reproductive health care back to these women.
She seems unfazed by the anti-abortion furor kicked up around her. Maybe, like me, she finds solace in Dr. Tiller’s memory and his conviction that women should be trusted with their health and lives.
WILLIE PARKER
Chicago, Feb. 14, 2013
The writer [ http://www.prch.org/willie-parker-md-mph ] is a board member of Physicians for Reproductive Health [ http://prh.org/ ].
© 2013 The New York Times Company
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/22/opinion/wichita-abortion-clinic.html
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Ming Guang Huang Arrested After Allegedly Attacking Wife With Meat Cleaver In Chinatown
02/25/2013
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/25/ming-guang-huang-arrested-meat-cleaver_n_2758317.html [with embedded video reports (including surveillance video of the attack), and comments]
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Mark Warden, New Hampshire State Legislator, Says People May Like 'Being In Abusive Relationships'
New Hampshire state Rep. Mark Warden
By John Celock
Posted: 02/27/2013 11:57 am EST | Updated: 02/27/2013 6:52 pm EST
A Republican state legislator in New Hampshire told a legislative committee Tuesday that people may "like being in abusive relationships" and can leave at any time.
State Rep. Mark Warden (R-Manchester) made the comments during a state House Criminal Justice and Public Safety Committee meeting on legislation that would reduce a charge of simple assault from a misdemeanor crime to a violation, the Concord Monitor reports [ http://www.concordmonitor.com/home/4725170-95/warden-bill-relationships-rep ]. Warden, a committee member, said that those in abusive relationships can leave at any time and that government regulations were not the solution.
The Concord Monitor reports:
"Some people could make the argument that a lot of people like being in abusive relationships. It's a love-hate relationship. It's very, very common for people to stick around with somebody they love who also abuses him or her," said Rep. Mark Warden, a Republican who represents Deering, Goffstown and Weare, during a meeting of the House Criminal Justice and Public Safety Committee, according to a video provided by Granite State Progress, a liberal advocacy group.
According to the video, Warden added, "Is the solution to those kind of dysfunctional relationships going to be more government, another law? I'd say no. People are always free to leave."
Warden could not be immediately reached for comment by The Huffington Post on Wednesday about his remarks, but he told the Monitor that they had been taken out of context. The committee recommended that the full House of Representatives defeat the legislation, with Warden voting to recommend its passage. Under New Hampshire legislative rules, all bills are debated on the floor and voted upon by the House, with committees providing advice.
Warden says on his website [ http://www.markwarden.com/page/mark-warden-state-representative ] that he is the chairman of the New Hampshire Liberty Alliance, a tea party-allied conservative group in the Granite State that named him legislator of the year. The Union Leader reported [ http://www.unionleader.com/article/20130223/NEWS06/130229559 ] that Warden is also affiliated with the Free State Project [ http://freestateproject.org/ ], a libertarian group that has sought to bring 20,000 people to New Hampshire as part of an effort to take over state government.
Among the legislation he is currently sponsoring are bills [ http://www.gencourt.state.nh.us/house/members/memberbillssponsored.aspx?member=377049 ] to legalize marijuana in New Hampshire and to abolish the state Department of Cultural Resources and distribute its functions to the secretary of state and the state Department of Resources and Economic Development.
Need help? In the U.S., call 1-800-799-SAFE (7233) for the National Domestic Violence Hotline [ http://www.thehotline.org/ ].
Copyright © 2013 TheHuffingtonPost.com, Inc.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/27/mark-warden-new-hampshire_n_2773889.html [with comments]
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Photographer as Witness: A Portrait of Domestic Violence
The following photographs were taken between Sept. 2012 and Dec. 2012.
At 31, Shane had spent much of his life incarcerated. His facial tattoos, along with his criminal record, made finding steady work extremely difficult, and work that paid a living wage nearly impossible. After his last stint in prison, Shane was determined to turn over a new leaf and create a better life for himself. That life, as he saw it, would have to include Maggie, a woman 11 years his junior who was his sister's neighbor.
Shane had been trying to make a career as a singer in a Christian rock band while providing for Maggie and her children.
Shane attepts to restrain Kayden so the barber could cut the back of his hair. "He needs a male role model. I'm trying to be that," Shane said.
One night, after an early birthday celebration for Memphis at a local fast food restaurant, the two began to argue. Shane said his main source of frustration stemmed from the fact that Maggie paid more attention to the children than she did to him.
After a night out at a local bar, Maggie left after becoming jealous of when another woman flirted with Shane. Upon arriving home, Shane flew into a rage, angry that Maggie had "abandoned him" at the bar and then drove home with his friend, whose house they were staying at for the week. Maggie told him to get out of the house, that he was too angry and that he would wake the children.
Rather than subsiding, Shane's anger began to grow, and he screamed that Maggie had betrayed him, at one point accusing his friend (not pictured) of trying to pursue her sexually.
At one point, Shane picked Maggie up and flung her back into the kitchen as she tried to run out of the room.
As the fight continued to rage, Shane told Maggie that she could choose between getting beaten in the kitchen, or going with him to the basement so they could talk privately.
When Maggie refused, Shane began grabbing her by the face and neck, choking her. "You can either get beat up here, or we can go talk alone," he said. "Your choice."
As Shane and Maggie continued to fight, Memphis ran into the room and refused to leave Maggie's side. She witnessed the majority of the assault on her mother. As the two fought, Memphis began to scream and stomp her feet.
Shane continued to scream in Maggie's face as Memphis wedged herself between them. At some point, the toddler had stopped crying and began trying to soothe her weeping mother.
Around half past midnight, the police arrived after receiving a call from a resident in the house (pictured at right). Maggie cried and smoked a cigarette as an officer from the Lancaster Police Department tried to keep her separated from Shane and coax out the truth about the assault.
Shane hugged Memphis goodbye before being arrested. He insisted he wasn't a bad person and that Maggie had been trying to leave the house and drive drunk with the children in the car.
Shane pled with Maggie not to let the police take him into custody, crying out, "Please, Maggie, I love you, don't let them take me, tell them I didn't do this!"
An officer from the Lancaster Police Department photographed the bruises on Maggie's neck from where Shane had choked her. "You know, he's not going to stop," the officer told Maggie as she wept. "They never stop. They usually stop when they kill you."
Convincing Maggie to be examined and sign a protection order took a great deal of coaxing from the officer. "I don't want to get him in trouble," she wept. "You aren't getting him into trouble. He got himself into trouble. I know Shane. He's a good guy, but he knows better than to do this," the officer replied.
The day following the attack, Maggie had to grapple with what would come next for her and her children. She had no source of income, no childcare, and was afraid to return to the home she and Shane shared to retrieve her possessions. She expressed intense fear that Shane would be let out on bail and come after her, and called the jail several times to make sure he hadn't been released.
In the days following the attack, Maggie had time to reflect on what had occurred and decided to make an official statement to the police. She said she had resumed communications with her estranged husband and the father of her children, and was considering moving with her children to Alaska, where he is stationed with the Army.
Photo Essay
By Sara Naomi Lewkowicz
Wednesday, February 27, 2013
Domestic violence is often shielded from public view. Usually, we only hear it muffled through walls or see it manifested in the faded yellow and purple bruises of a woman who “walked into a wall” or “fell down the stairs.” Despite a movement to increase awareness of domestic violence, we still treat it as a private crime, as if it is none of our business.
During my time as a freelance photojournalist and as a Master’s candidate at Ohio University, one of the biggest challenges of my career came in November of 2012, while working on a project about the stigma associated with being an ex-convict. Suddenly, an incident of domestic violence unexpectedly became my business.
I had met Shane and Maggie two-and-a-half months before. Southeastern Ohio was still warm that time of year and brimming with small regional festivals. I had gone to the Millersport Sweet Corn Festival to shoot my first assignment for an editorial photography class. Almost immediately, I spotted a man covered in tattoos, including an enormous piece on his neck that read, “Maggie Mae.” He was holding a beautiful little girl with blonde curls. His gentle manner with her belied his intimidating ink, and I approached them to ask if I could take their portrait.
I ended up spending my entire time at the fair with Shane, 31, and his girlfriend Maggie, 19. Maggie’s two children, Kayden, four, and Memphis, nearly two, were not Shane’s, but from her then-estranged husband.
Shane and Maggie had started dating a month prior to meeting me, and Shane told me about his struggles with addiction and that he had spent much of his life in prison. Maggie shared her experience losing her mother to a drug overdose at the age of eight, and having the challenges of raising two small children alone while their father, who was in the Army, was stationed in Afghanistan. Before they drove home, I asked if I could continue to document them, and they agreed.
I intended to paint a portrait of the catch-22 of being a released ex-convict: even though they are physically free, the metaphorical prison of stigma doesn’t allow them to truly escape. That story changed dramatically one night, after a visit to a bar.
In a nearby town where Shane had found temporary work, they stayed with the kids at a friend’s house. That night, at a bar, Maggie had become incensed when another woman had flirted with Shane, and left. Back at the house, Maggie and Shane began fighting. Before long, their yelling escalated into physical violence.
Shane attacked Maggie, throwing her into chairs, pushing her up against the wall and choking her in front of her daughter, Memphis.
After I confirmed one of the housemates had called the police, I then continued to document the abuse — my instincts as a photojournalist began kicking in. If Maggie couldn’t leave, neither could I.
Eventually, the police arrived. I was fortunate that the responding officers were well educated on First Amendment laws and did not try to stop me from taking pictures. At first, Maggie did not want to cooperate with the officers who led Shane away in handcuffs, but soon after, she changed her mind and gave a statement about the incident. Shane pled guilty to a domestic violence felony and is currently in prison in Ohio.
The incident raised a number of ethical questions. I’ve been castigated by a number of anonymous internet commenters who have said that I should have somehow physically intervened between the two. Their criticism counters what actual law enforcement officers have told me — that physically intervening would have likely only made the situation worse, endangering me, and further endangering Maggie.
I have continued to follow Maggie since the abuse, and I’ve also begun working closely with photographer Donna Ferrato, who first began documenting domestic violence 30 years ago [ http://lightbox.time.com/2012/06/27/i-am-unbeatable-donna-ferratos-commitment-to-abused-women/ ].
Since that November night, Maggie has moved to Alaska to be with the father of her two children, who is stationed in Anchorage. In March, I will travel to Alaska to document Maggie as she tries to put the pieces of her family and life back together. My goal is to examine the long-term effects of this incident on her current relationship, her children, and her own sense of self. Devoted to revealing these hidden stories of domestic abuse, Maggie asked me to move forward with this project and to tell her story, because she feels the photographs might be able to help someone else.
“Women need to understand this can happen to them. I never thought it could happen to me, but it could,” she told me. “Shane was like a fast car. When you’re driving it, you think ‘I might get pulled over and get a ticket.’ You never think that you’re going to crash.”
The Violence Against Women Act, which provides funding to help victims of domestic violence, was signed into law by President Bill Clinton in 1994, and is now up for re-authorization. Read more about the law and why it’s currently stuck in Congress [ http://nation.time.com/2013/02/27/whats-wrong-with-the-violence-against-women-act/ ].
© 2013 Time Inc.
http://lightbox.time.com/2013/02/27/photographer-as-witness-a-portrait-of-domestic-violence/ [ http://lightbox.time.com/2013/02/27/photographer-as-witness-a-portrait-of-domestic-violence/#1 ] [with additional photos, and comments]
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Vt. Lye Victim Gets New Face at Boston Hospital
By BRIDGET MURPHY
BOSTON February 27, 2013
Loved ones knew it was her at the hospital when they saw her teeth.
Carmen Blandin Tarleton's face was unrecognizable after the lye attack, burned away in the frenzy of an estranged husband's rage.
Nearly six years later, the Vermont nurse is celebrating a gift that has given her a new image following a full facial transplant this month.
Doctors at Brigham & Women's Hospital in Boston said at a Wednesday news conference that the 44-year-old's surgery included transplanting a female donor's facial skin to Tarleton's neck, nose and lips, along with facial muscles, arteries and nerves.
"I know how truly blessed I am, and will have such a nice reflection in the mirror to remind myself what selfless really is," Tarleton wrote on her blog Wednesday.
She did not attend the news conference but watched it during a live web broadcast. The hospital said it was not releasing a current picture of her.
Tarleton's sister, Kesstan Blandin, shared a statement from Tarleton that said she felt "really good and happy."
"I want to convey to the donor's family what a great gift they have given to me," the statement said. "...I feel strong and I am confident that I have the strength to deal with whatever comes my way."
The Thetford, Vt., woman suffered burns on more than 80 percent of her body and was left blind after her attacker beat her with a baseball bat and doused her with the industrial strength chemical in June 2007.
Tarleton, who once worked as a transplant nurse, has undergone more than 50 surgeries since then. The operations included skin grafts and work that has restored vision to one eye.
The latest surgery took 15 hours and included a team of more than 30 medical professionals. The lead surgeon, Bohdan Pomahac, called her injuries among the worst he's seen in his career.
"Carmen is a fighter," the doctor said. "And fight she did."
Pomahac's team has performed five facial transplants at the hospital. He said his team's latest patient is recovering well and is in great spirits as she works to get stronger.
Before the transplant, Tarleton drooled constantly because of scar tissue in her mouth. She also couldn't turn her head from side to side or lift her chin.
Pomahac said Tarleton was pleased when she saw her new face for the first time. Her appearance will not match that of the late donor's face, he said.
"I think she looks amazing, but I'm biased," the surgeon said with a smile.
The donor's family wants to remain anonymous now, but released a statement through a regional donor bank saying that her spirit would live on through Tarleton and three other organ recipients.
In 2009, Tarleton's now ex-husband Herbert Rodgers pleaded guilty to maiming her in exchange for a prison sentence of at least 30 years.
Police previously said Rodgers believed his wife was seeing another man and went to her house to attack him. Tarleton mistook the intruder for a burglar at first and told him he could have whatever he wanted. Then Rodgers launched into a fury, fracturing one of Tarleton's eye sockets and breaking her arm with the bat.
He had brought lye with him in a squeeze bottle and he poured it on Tarleton.
When police arrived, the brunette's heart-shaped face already was distorted, her skin turning brown. She was trying to crawl into a shower to wash away the chemical.
But now, the mother of two daughters talks about forgiveness and has a newly-published book called "Overcome: Burned, Blinded and Blessed."
"Forgiveness is about helping ourselves, not the people who hurt us," read an image on a website Wednesday that promotes her book.
Copyright 2013 The Associated Press
http://abcnews.go.com/Health/wireStory/vt-lye-victim-face-boston-hospital-18606355 [with embedded video report; no comments yet]
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'Cannibal Cop' Trial: FBI Agent Corey Walsh Describes Gilberto Valle's Taste For 'Girl Meat'
By LARRY NEUMEISTER and TOM HAYS
02/27/13 05:30 PM ET EST
NEW YORK — A defense attorney for a police officer accused in a cannibalism plot pressed an FBI agent to explain where fantasy ends and reality begins Wednesday after the investigator read aloud several dozen Internet chats in which participants boasted of plans to cook and eat human flesh.
Attorney Robert Baum attacked FBI agent Corey Walsh's statement that 40 of the thousands of Internet communications of Officer Gilberto Valle that he reviewed contained "elements of real crimes." Valle is accused in Manhattan federal court of conspiring to kidnap, kill and eat women he knew, including his wife.
Baum's cross examination aimed to show little or no distinction existed between chats or emails the FBI deemed real evidence of a crime and those dismissed as fantasy.
The agent conceded both had similar elements: Valle discussing how to cook women, how much it would cost to abduct them and which women would make good targets.
Walsh conceded that some chats or emails considered fantasies contained photographs and names of real women and dates and references to past crimes, the kind of factual information that prosecutors have insisted proves Valle meant to carry out gruesome crimes including kidnapping, rape, torture, murder and cannibalism.
"Isn't it a fact that some of the chats you found to be fantasies involved cooking women?" Baum asked.
"It could have been," Walsh answered.
The agent also conceded that no women were kidnapped or harmed and that Valle never had contact with his supposed co-conspirators outside the Internet.
In addition, the agent said, no evidence of a crime was found in Valle's apartment besides a computer. There was no rope, pulleys or chemicals to render someone unconscious despite Valle's Internet boasts that he wanted to assemble a torture chamber or that he had an upstate property where he could cook women, Walsh said.
Valle, 28, has pleaded not guilty. He could face life in prison if he is convicted of conspiracy and illegal use of a crime database, a crime prosecutors say stems from his use of a federal database to research potential victims.
Prior to cross examination, Walsh showed jurors graphic X-rated communications between Valle and a butcher in India early last year as they discussed plans to torture and cook Valle's soon-to-be wife and a former college roommate.
"I have longed to butcher and cook female meat," Valle told Aly Khan, Walsh said.
Khan offered to provide a place in Pakistan to kill a woman once she was taken to India, the agent said.
For two days, Walsh has testified about chats Valle participated in last year with a New Jersey co-defendant and two supposed co-conspirators, a man in Great Britain and Khan, both of whom posed on the Internet as veterans of cannibalism who could teach Valle cannibalism skills.
In several emails read by Walsh, Valle seemed eager to offer the woman he would marry a few months later to Khan, though he added: "She is a sweet girl. I like her a lot. But I will move on."
Valle wrote that he could take her to India and then Pakistan, where they could gag her in a basement, hang her from her feet and take turns sexually assaulting her before slitting her throat and cooking her.
"I just love the thought of stringing her upside down," Valle wrote in an email shown to jurors.
He said he would like "to see her suffer" and "slowly roast her until she dies."
In a later email, Khan taunted Valle.
"Are you really into it?" he asked.
"Yes," Valle answered.
"Are you sure?" Khan asked.
"Definitely," Valle said.
Khan, seemingly content, said: "Get your mind ready. I will guide the rest."
Later, Valle discussed plans to attack a Columbus, Ohio, woman he knew in college.
"I want her to experience being cooked alive," he said in one exchange. "She'll be trussed up like a turkey. ... She'll be terrified, screaming and crying."
He wrote that her death would "definitely make the news" and there will be "plenty of suspects" because she is a prosecutor.
The woman, Andria Noble, testified Monday she never knew Valle to be violent when they attended the University of Maryland.
If jurors are offended or horrified by the gruesome testimony, they haven't shown it. Three of them even yawned during the reading of the Internet exchanges.
The six men and six women sitting on the jury mostly sat stone-faced and silent as they listened to the agent's monotone recitation of seemingly grimace-worthy evidence – remarks by Valle like, "I'm dying to taste some girl meat" and discussions about using one potential victim's severed head as a centerpiece for a feast of body parts.
The government hasn't said what roles Khan and the man in Great Britain played in the investigation.
Copyright 2013 The Associated Press
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/27/cannibal-cop-trial-fbi-agent-corey-walsh-gilberto-valle_n_2772821.html [with embedded video report, and comments]
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House passes Violence Against Women Act
media.salon.com/2013/02/budget-battle.jpeg6-620x412.jpg
After Republicans blocked it for more than a year, the House passed the expanded reauthorization of the bill
Feb 28, 2013
After an up-or-down vote, the Violence Against Women Act passed out of the House by a margin of 286-138, with 199 Democrats and 87 Republicans voting in favor of it. The bill had already passed the Senate by a bipartisan vote several weeks ago, meaning that it now heads to President Obama’s desk to be signed into law.
VAWA was allowed to expire in September, 2011, and then stalled for all of 2012 over expanded protections for LGBT women, Native Americans and undocumented immigrants. House Republicans objected to these additional protections, and repeatedly blocked the bill.
On Thursday, after pressure from Democrats and from within the GOP itself, House Republican leadership allowed the bill to go for an up-or-down vote, after first voting on a Republican version of the bill that did not include the additional protections. That bill was expected to, and did, fail by a vote of 166-257.
In a statement, President Obama said that ”Renewing this bill is an important step towards making sure no one in America is forced to live in fear.”
[...]
http://www.salon.com/2013/02/28/house_passes_violence_against_women_act/ [with comments]
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Austerity, Italian Style
By PAUL KRUGMAN
Published: February 24, 2013
Two months ago, when Mario Monti stepped down as Italy’s prime minister, The Economist opined [ http://www.economist.com/blogs/charlemagne/2012/12/italian-politics-1 ] that “The coming election campaign will be, above all, a test of the maturity and realism of Italian voters.” The mature, realistic action, presumably, would have been to return Mr. Monti — who was essentially imposed on Italy by its creditors — to office, this time with an actual democratic mandate.
Well, it’s not looking good. Mr. Monti’s party appears likely to come in fourth; not only is he running well behind the essentially comical Silvio Berlusconi, he’s running behind an actual comedian, Beppe Grillo, whose lack of a coherent platform hasn’t stopped him from becoming a powerful political force.
It’s an extraordinary prospect, and one that has sparked much commentary about Italian political culture. But without trying to defend the politics of bunga bunga, let me ask the obvious question: What good, exactly, has what currently passes for mature realism done in Italy or for that matter Europe as a whole?
For Mr. Monti was, in effect, the proconsul installed by Germany to enforce fiscal austerity on an already ailing economy; willingness to pursue austerity without limit is what defines respectability in European policy circles. This would be fine if austerity policies actually worked — but they don’t. And far from seeming either mature or realistic, the advocates of austerity are sounding increasingly petulant and delusional.
Consider how things were supposed to be working at this point. When Europe began its infatuation with austerity, top officials dismissed concerns that slashing spending and raising taxes in depressed economies might deepen their depressions. On the contrary, they insisted, such policies would actually boost economies by inspiring confidence.
But the confidence fairy was a no-show. Nations imposing harsh austerity [ http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/02/23/austerity-europe-2/ ] suffered deep economic downturns; the harsher the austerity, the deeper the downturn. Indeed, this relationship has been so strong that the International Monetary Fund, in a striking mea culpa [ http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/01/03/an-amazing-mea-culpa-from-the-imfs-chief-economist-on-austerity/ ], admitted that it had underestimated the damage austerity would inflict.
Meanwhile, austerity hasn’t even achieved the minimal goal of reducing debt burdens. Instead, countries pursuing harsh austerity have seen the ratio of debt to G.D.P. [ http://www.voxeu.org/article/panic-driven-austerity-eurozone-and-its-implications ] rise, because the shrinkage in their economies has outpaced any reduction in the rate of borrowing. And because austerity policies haven’t been offset by expansionary policies elsewhere, the European economy as a whole — which never had much of a recovery from the slump of 2008-9 — is back in recession, with unemployment marching ever higher.
The one piece of good news is that bond markets [ http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/02/24/euro-delusions/ ] have calmed down, largely thanks to the stated willingness of the European Central Bank to step in and buy government debt when necessary. As a result, a financial meltdown that could have destroyed the euro has been avoided. But that’s cold comfort to the millions of Europeans who have lost their jobs and see little prospect of ever getting them back.
Given all of this, one might have expected some reconsideration and soul-searching on the part of European officials, some hints of flexibility. Instead, however, top officials have become even more insistent that austerity is the one true path.
Thus in January 2011 Olli Rehn, a vice president of the European Commission, praised the austerity programs of Greece, Spain and Portugal and predicted that the Greek program in particular would yield “lasting returns.” Since then unemployment has soared in all three countries — but sure enough, in December 2012 Mr. Rehn published an op-ed article with the headline “Europe must stay the austerity course [ http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/35b77c12-42d6-11e2-a3d2-00144feabdc0.html ].”
Oh, and Mr. Rehn’s response to studies showing that the adverse effects of austerity are much bigger than expected was to send a letter [ http://notthetreasuryview.blogspot.com/2013/02/i-pointed-late-last-year-that-european.html ] to finance minsters and the I.M.F. declaring that such studies were harmful, because they were threatening to erode confidence.
Which brings me back to Italy, a nation that for all its dysfunction has in fact dutifully imposed substantial austerity — and seen its economy shrink rapidly as a result.
Outside observers are terrified about Italy’s election, and rightly so: even if the nightmare of a Berlusconi return to power fails to materialize, a strong showing by Mr. Berlusconi, Mr. Grillo, or both would destabilize not just Italy but Europe as a whole. But remember, Italy isn’t unique: disreputable politicians are on the rise all across Southern Europe. And the reason this is happening is that respectable Europeans won’t admit that the policies they have imposed on debtors are a disastrous failure. If that doesn’t change, the Italian election will be just a foretaste of the dangerous radicalization to come.
© 2013 The New York Times Company
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/25/opinion/krugman-austerity-italian-style.html [with comments]
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A Costly and Unjust Perk for Financiers
By LYNN FORESTER de ROTHSCHILD
Published: February 24, 2013
OF the many injustices that permeate America’s byzantine tax code, few are as outrageous as the tax rate on “carried interest” — the profits made by private equity and hedge fund managers, as well as venture capitalists and partners in real estate investment trusts. This huge tax benefit enriches an already privileged sliver of financiers and violates basic standards of fairness and common sense.
President Obama recently suggested that he would ask Congress to close this loophole. Eliminating the carried-interest tax rate should be an easy sell. It should play to Republicans’ supposed hatred of government handouts and to Democrats’ commitment to social justice.
But because of the financial lobby’s clout, the loophole most likely won’t be closed. If it isn’t, shame on both parties for giving us another reason to distrust our democracy and our capitalist system.
While the tax legislation passed on Jan. 1 increased the top individual-income tax rate to 39.6 percent from 35 percent for couples making more than $450,000 and individuals making more than $400,000, it left carried-interest income taxed at just 20 percent.
Carried interest is taxed at ordinary capital-gains rates, rather than at the significantly higher ordinary income-tax rates that apply to the wealthiest Americans. The issue came up last year, because Mitt Romney, the Republican presidential nominee, had made much of his fortune through private equity.
This special tax treatment for carried interest protects the general partners of private equity, venture capital, real estate, hedge funds and other investment vehicles organized as limited partnerships. (The investment-holding company I run does not receive carried-interest income.)
Millions of general partners in investment funds receive carried-interest income when they earn profits for their clients. Since these partners do not have to risk any of their own capital, carried interest is really a taxpayer-subsidized fee for managing their clients’ money — often 20 percent of the profits generated in the fund, and sometimes significantly more than that.
No other affluent Americans enjoy this benefit. A brain surgeon, stockbroker, corporate lawyer or actor will have to pay the new top marginal rate percent, while a general partner who manages other people’s money pays, on carried-interest income, only the 20 percent rate on long-term capital gains.
This discrepancy dates from 1922, when the top ordinary-income tax rate was 58 percent and capital gains were taxed at 12.5 percent — a big change from the years 1918 to 1921, when both kinds of income were taxed, in the top bracket, at 77 percent. But the amount of lost government revenue has widened significantly since 2000 as a result of the growth of nontraditional finance.
Although the industry keeps a close lid on the total amounts, experts have estimated that there are more than 1,400 private equity and venture capital funds, which collectively manage more than $1 trillion in limited-partnership equity investments and earn an average of $18 billion a year on them that is taxed as carried interest. There are also 8,000 or 9,000 hedge funds managing about the same amount of these investments generating another $18 billion in carried-interest income. And let’s not forget the 1.2 million real estate partnerships, with more than $1.3 trillion in limited-partnership investments, which yield a further $20 billion each year in such income. The difference in revenue to the United States government when this combined income is taxed at 20 percent rather than at 39.6 percent is about $11 billion annually. Indeed, the Real Estate Roundtable, a leading industry lobbying group, puts the estimate even higher, at $13 billion — $5 billion in real estate alone.
The first legislative effort to treat carried interest like ordinary income was a bill submitted by Representative Sander M. Levin, Democrat of Michigan, in 2007. Annual spending by the private equity, hedge fund and real estate industry lobbies exploded in that year. Predictably, the legislation has been shelved or voted down repeatedly ever since. Although Mr. Obama paid lip service to the removal of the preferential treatment for carried interest during both of his presidential campaigns, he has yet to achieve it.
This state of affairs denies our Treasury much-needed revenue; fuels public cynicism in government; and is evidence of the “crony capitalism” that favors some economic sectors over others. When plutocrats join with both parties to protect their own vested interests, the result is a corrosion of confidence in the free-market system.
The carried-interest loophole may seem small compared with this year’s projected $900 billion deficit, but ending it would be a major signal that Washington is ready to put an end to business as usual.
Lynn Forester de Rothschild [ http://www.elrothschild.com/management-team ] is the chief executive of E. L. Rothschild [ http://www.elrothschild.com/ ], a family-owned investment holding company.
© 2013 The New York Times Company
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/25/opinion/carried-interest-an-unjust-privilege-for-financiers.html
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Grand Old Parity
By SHEILA C. BAIR
Published: February 26, 2013
WASHINGTON
LAST month Emmanuel Saez [ https://www.econ.berkeley.edu/faculty/852 ], a celebrated economist at the University of California, Berkeley, issued another depressing report on income inequality [ http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/16/business/economy/income-gains-after-recession-went-mostly-to-top-1.html ; study at http://elsa.berkeley.edu/~saez/saez-UStopincomes-2011.pdf ]. Among other things, Mr. Saez examined how real family incomes changed in the United States from 2009 to 2011, the first two years of the recovery. The richest 1 percent of Americans, he found, saw their incomes grow, on average, by more than 11 percent. As for the other 99 percent? You guessed it: incomes shrank by nearly half a percent.
The phenomenon is hardly new. The yawning gap between rich and poor has been growing since the 1970s and reached a 90-year peak in 2007, just before the financial crisis. The Great Recession narrowed the gap a bit, but now, once again, the richest Americans are vacuuming up what wealth is out there, a trend that Mr. Saez expects to continue.
I am a capitalist and a lifelong Republican. I believe that, in a meritocracy, some level of income inequality is both inevitable and desirable, as encouragement to those who contribute most to our economic prosperity. But I fear that government actions, not merit, have fueled these extremes in income distribution through taxpayer bailouts, central-bank-engineered financial asset bubbles and unjustified tax breaks that favor the rich.
This is not a situation that any freethinking Republican should accept. Skewing income toward the upper, upper class hurts our economy because the rich tend to sit on their money — unlike lower- and middle-income people, who spend a large share of their paychecks, and hence stimulate economic activity.
But more fundamentally, it cuts against everything our country and my party stand for. Government’s role should not be to rig the game in favor of “the haves” but to make sure “the have-nots” are given a fair shot.
President Obama, who has rightly made income inequality a signature issue, cannot be pleased that the über-rich have gained under the policies pursued by his administration, while the bottom 99 percent have not. Unfortunately, his economic team, populated by acolytes of the former Treasury secretary Robert E. Rubin, has relied on the same “growth” policies that got us into trouble precrisis: generous treatment of the financial sector and easy money from the Federal Reserve. These strategies have done little to encourage sustainable economic growth, but they have worked wonders to increase Wall Street profits and inflate the value of stocks and bonds — which are disproportionately owned by the rich.
Why haven’t Republicans made an issue out of this? No doubt some fear that discussing it openly would catalyze support for redistributionist policies, which are anathema to a party that prides itself on increasing the pie, not redividing it. But there are other policy options to demonstrate Republicans’ commitment to the average Joe and Jane that are very much in the party’s tradition.
For instance, as part of renewed fiscal discussions over sequestration, Republicans should put fundamental tax reform on the table and make it our priority to end preferential treatment of investment income, which lets managers of hedge funds pay half the tax rate of managers of shoe stores.
Defenders of this giveaway make the unsubstantiated claim that it encourages job-creating investments. But what we have now is merely an immense pool of investment funds that has created far too few jobs. A report [ http://www.bain.com/publications/articles/a-world-awash-in-money.aspx ] last year by Bain and Co. projected that by 2020 there will be $900 trillion in financial assets around the globe, chasing investments in a real economy worth only $90 trillion in gross domestic product. Why in heaven’s name do we need to keep a tax preference to encourage more?
If we eliminate this and other unjustified tax breaks, we can produce enough new revenues to lower marginal rates and reduce the deficit, according to both the Simpson-Bowles [ http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/n/national_commission_on_fiscal_responsibility_and_reform/index.html ] and Domenici-Rivlin [ http://bipartisanpolicy.org/library/report/domenici-rivlin-debt-reduction-task-force-plan-20 ] debt-reduction plans.
Republicans should also put rebuilding the nation’s transportation and energy infrastructure high on our political agenda. From Lincoln’s transcontinental railroad to Eisenhower’s highway system, Republicans have understood that investing in critical infrastructure projects creates jobs and expands commerce.
And given that the Federal Reserve insists on giving us cheap money, let’s use it for the benefit of the country by issuing long-term debt to finance such projects and repay it over decades through dedicated taxes and user fees.
Some may say I am tilting at the windmills of Tea Party orthodoxy in making these suggestions, but I believe that most Republican politicians would be sympathetic to them, if only they could overcome their fear of primary challenges and the loss of Wall Street money. Having worked for Senate Republicans in the 1980s, I remember a time when Republicans stood up to special interests and purged the tax code of preferences for investment income and other special breaks.
They managed to survive re-election by showing leadership, taking principled positions and defending them vigorously. It’s time for the Grand Old Party to return to those roots.
Sheila C. Bair [ http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/b/sheila_bair/index.html ], the chairwoman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation [ http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/f/federal_deposit_insurance_corp/index.html ] from 2006 to 2011, is the author [ http://books.simonandschuster.com/Bull-by-the-Horns/Sheila-Bair/9781451672480 ] of “Bull by the Horns: Fighting to Save Main Street From Wall Street and Wall Street From Itself [ http://www.amazon.com/dp/1451672489 ].”
© 2013 The New York Times Company
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/27/opinion/republicans-must-bridge-the-income-gap.html
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Major Banks Aid in Payday Loans Banned by States
Subrina Baptiste of Brooklyn says JPMorgan Chase allowed payday lenders to seize child-support funds in her account.
Michelle V. Agins/The New York Times
By JESSICA SILVER-GREENBERG
Published: February 23, 2013
Major banks have quickly become behind-the-scenes allies of Internet-based payday lenders that offer short-term loans with interest rates sometimes exceeding 500 percent.
With 15 states banning payday loans, a growing number of the lenders have set up online operations in more hospitable states or far-flung locales like Belize, Malta and the West Indies to more easily evade statewide caps on interest rates.
While the banks, which include giants like JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America and Wells Fargo, do not make the loans, they are a critical link for the lenders, enabling the lenders to withdraw payments automatically from borrowers’ bank accounts, even in states where the loans are banned entirely. In some cases, the banks allow lenders to tap checking accounts even after the customers have begged them to stop the withdrawals.
“Without the assistance of the banks in processing and sending electronic funds, these lenders simply couldn’t operate,” said Josh Zinner, co-director of the Neighborhood Economic Development Advocacy Project [ http://www.nedap.org/index.html ], which works with community groups in New York.
The banking industry says it is simply serving customers who have authorized the lenders to withdraw money from their accounts. “The industry is not in a position to monitor customer accounts to see where their payments are going,” said Virginia O’Neill, senior counsel with the American Bankers Association.
But state and federal officials are taking aim at the banks’ role at a time when authorities are increasing their efforts to clamp down on payday lending and its practice of providing quick money to borrowers who need cash.
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau are examining banks’ roles in the online loans, according to several people with direct knowledge of the matter. Benjamin M. Lawsky, who heads New York State’s Department of Financial Services, is investigating how banks enable the online lenders to skirt New York law and make loans to residents of the state, where interest rates are capped at 25 percent.
For the banks, it can be a lucrative partnership. At first blush, processing automatic withdrawals hardly seems like a source of profit. But many customers are already on shaky financial footing. The withdrawals often set off a cascade of fees from problems like overdrafts. Roughly 27 percent [ http://www.pewstates.org/research/reports/how-borrowers-choose-and-repay-payday-loans-85899452131 ] of payday loan borrowers say that the loans caused them to overdraw their accounts, according to a report released this month by the Pew Charitable Trusts. That fee income is coveted, given that financial regulations [ http://topics.nytimes.com/topics/reference/timestopics/subjects/c/credit_crisis/financial_regulatory_reform/index.html?inline=nyt-classifier ] limiting fees on debit and credit cards have cost banks billions of dollars.
Some state and federal authorities say the banks’ role in enabling the lenders has frustrated government efforts to shield people from predatory loans — an issue that gained urgency after reckless mortgage [ http://topics.nytimes.com/your-money/loans/mortgages/index.html ] lending helped precipitate the 2008 financial crisis.
Lawmakers, led by Senator Jeff Merkley, Democrat of Oregon, introduced a bill in July aimed at reining in the lenders, in part, by forcing them to abide by the laws of the state where the borrower lives, rather than where the lender is. The legislation, pending in Congress, would also allow borrowers to cancel automatic withdrawals more easily. “Technology has taken a lot of these scams online, and it’s time to crack down,” Mr. Merkley said in a statement [ http://www.tomudall.senate.gov/?p=press_release&id=1195 ] when the bill was introduced.
While the loans are simple to obtain — some online lenders promise approval in minutes with no credit check — they are tough to get rid of. Customers who want to repay their loan in full typically must contact the online lender at least three days before the next withdrawal. Otherwise, the lender automatically renews the loans at least monthly and withdraws only the interest owed. Under federal law, customers are allowed to stop authorized withdrawals from their account. Still, some borrowers say their banks do not heed requests to stop the loans.
Ivy Brodsky, 37, thought she had figured out a way to stop six payday lenders from taking money from her account when she visited her Chase branch in Brighton Beach in Brooklyn in March to close it. But Chase kept the account open and between April and May, the six Internet lenders tried to withdraw money from Ms. Brodsky’s account 55 times, according to bank records reviewed by The New York Times. Chase charged her $1,523 in fees — a combination of 44 insufficient fund fees, extended overdraft fees and service fees.
For Subrina Baptiste, 33, an educational assistant in Brooklyn, the overdraft fees levied by Chase cannibalized her child support income. She said she applied for a $400 loan from Loanshoponline.com [ http://loanshoponline.com/ ] and a $700 loan from Advancemetoday.com [ http://advancemetoday.com/ ] in 2011. The loans, with annual interest rates of 730 percent and 584 percent respectively, skirt New York law.
Ms. Baptiste said she asked Chase to revoke the automatic withdrawals in October 2011, but was told that she had to ask the lenders instead. In one month, her bank records show, the lenders tried to take money from her account at least six times. Chase charged her $812 in fees and deducted over $600 from her child-support payments to cover them.
“I don’t understand why my own bank just wouldn’t listen to me,” Ms. Baptiste said, adding that Chase ultimately closed her account last January, three months after she asked.
A spokeswoman for Bank of America said the bank always honored requests to stop automatic withdrawals. Wells Fargo declined to comment. Kristin Lemkau, a spokeswoman for Chase, said: “We are working with the customers to resolve these cases.” Online lenders say they work to abide by state laws.
Payday lenders have been dogged by controversy almost from their inception two decades ago from storefront check-cashing stores. In 2007, federal lawmakers restricted the lenders from focusing on military members. Across the country, states have steadily imposed caps on interest rates and fees that effectively ban the high-rate loans.
While there are no exact measures of how many lenders have migrated online, roughly three million Americans obtained an Internet payday loan in 2010, according to a July report [ http://www.pewtrusts.org/our_work_report_detail.aspx?id=85899406010 ] by the Pew Charitable Trusts. By 2016, Internet loans will make up roughly 60 percent of the total payday loans, up from about 35 percent in 2011, according to John Hecht, an analyst with the investment bank Stephens Inc. As of 2011, he said, the volume of online payday loans was $13 billion, up more than 120 percent from $5.8 billion in 2006.
Facing increasingly inhospitable states, the lenders have also set up shop offshore. A former used-car dealership owner, who runs a series of online lenders through a shell corporation in Grenada, outlined the benefits of operating remotely in a 2005 deposition. Put simply, it was “lawsuit protection and tax reduction,” he said. Other lenders are based in Belize, Malta, the Isle of Man and the West Indies, according to federal court records.
At an industry conference last year, payday lenders discussed the benefits of heading offshore. Jer Ayler, president of the payday loan consultant Trihouse Inc., pinpointed Cancún, the Bahamas and Costa Rica as particularly fertile locales.
State prosecutors have been battling to keep online lenders from illegally making loans to residents where the loans are restricted. In December, Lori Swanson, Minnesota’s attorney general, settled with Sure Advance [ http://www.ag.state.mn.us/Consumer/PressRelease/121220InternetPayDay.asp ] L.L.C. over claims that the online lender was operating without a license to make loans with interest rates of up to 1,564 percent. In Illinois, Attorney General Lisa Madigan is investigating a number of online lenders.
Arkansas’s attorney general, Dustin McDaniel, has been targeting lenders illegally making loans in his state, and says the Internet firms are tough to fight. “The Internet knows no borders,” he said. “There are layer upon layer of cyber-entities and some are difficult to trace.”
Last January, he sued the operator of a number of online lenders, claiming that the firms were breaking state law in Arkansas, which caps annual interest rates on loans at 17 percent.
Now the Online Lenders Alliance, a trade group, is backing legislation that would grant a federal charter for payday lenders. In supporting the bill, Lisa McGreevy, the group’s chief executive, said: “A federal charter, as opposed to the current conflicting state regulatory schemes, will establish one clear set of rules for lenders to follow.”
© 2013 The New York Times Company
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/24/business/major-banks-aid-in-payday-loans-banned-by-states.html [ http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/24/business/major-banks-aid-in-payday-loans-banned-by-states.html?pagewanted=all ]
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JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon: 'We Actually Benefit From Downturns'
JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon waves away trouble with his hand, helping his bank benefit from downturns.
By Mark Gongloff
Posted: 02/26/2013 11:47 am EST | Updated: 02/26/2013 6:53 pm EST
Like most soft-spined Americans, you probably have painful memories of the financial crisis and consequent recession. Perhaps you even think of those things as "bad." Fortunately, Jamie Dimon is not like the rest of you losers.
That is because, unlike you, Jamie Dimon is CEO of JPMorgan Friggin' Chase, America's greatest bank, which just so happens to snack on financial crises and recessions like so much KIND bar.
"This bank is anti-fragile, we actually benefit from downturns," Dimon bragged to his bank's investors [ http://seekingalpha.com/currents/post/851601 ; http://investor.shareholder.com/jpmorganchase/presentations.cfm ] at a conference on Tuesday.
And it is true! The bank definitely benefited from the last downturn. It got to buy Bear Stearns in a government-backed fire sale, getting itself a brokerage business on the cheap [ http://money.cnn.com/2009/03/13/news/companies/jpmorgan_bear_stearns/index.htm ] in exchange for shouldering only a few tiresome legal burdens [ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/20/justice-department-jp-morgan_n_2728993.html ]. It also got billions of dollars in government handouts, from $25 billion in TARP funds [ http://www.nytimes.com/packages/html/national/200904_CREDITCRISIS/recipients.html ] to billions in savings from low-interest-rate borrowing programs [ http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124865021223682323.html ] to a permanent subsidy arising from the idea that the government will bail out the bank if it ever gets in trouble.
That permanent subsidy amounts to about $17 billion per year [ http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-02-20/why-should-taxpayers-give-big-banks-83-billion-a-year-.html ], according to a recent Bloomberg View study, representing nearly all of the bank's profits. No other bank gets such a large subsidy, according to Bloomberg's study (although, to be fair, some find Bloomberg's methods unsound [ http://dealbreaker.com/2013/02/why-should-taxpayers-give-big-banks-a-subsidy-of-83-billion-per-year-or-any-other-made-up-number-for-that-matter/ ], to quote from Jamie Dimon's favorite movie [ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mark-gongloff/jamie-dimon-favorite-movie-apocalypse-now_b_2743572.html ]).
Of course, this may not have been the sort of benefit Dimon was talking about. Instead, he has repeatedly opined that his bank thrived [ http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2012/09/11/dimon-defends-big-banks/ ] -- was in fact a "port in the storm" -- during the downturn simply because it was so gigantic.
Funny enough, JPMorgan is sometimes not at its tip-top best when things are actually looking up. For example, it managed to lose $6 billion on credit default swaps last year, at a time when markets were doing just fine. So maybe "anti-fragile" is not the best term for JPMorgan?
Dimon's use of that term did not go unnoticed by another Jedi master of self-regard, Nassim Taleb, whose latest book is called, wait for it, "Antifragile [ http://www.amazon.com/Antifragile-Things-That-Gain-Disorder/dp/1400067820 ]." According to Taleb, being "antifragile" means, if I'm summing this up correctly, being able to not only withstand but thrive in adversity, particularly of the unexpected, "black swan" variety. Taleb thinks our institutions and people are not antifragile. And he apparently does not agree that Dimon's bank fits the definition of antifragile, either. Taleb tweeted:
Nassim N. Taleb
@nntaleb
MY NIGHTMARE ! RT @ErikSchatzker Dimon channels Taleb: "This bank is anti-fragile. We actually have benefited from downturns."
2:05 PM - 26 Feb 13
And then followed up:
Nassim N. Taleb
@nntaleb
What Kills the system makes Dimon stronger.
2:29 PM - 26 Feb 13
Update: Apparently, Dimon had only just begun to namecheck Taleb's books. According to CNBC's Kayla Tausche, Dimon later cited Taleb's most famous book, "Black Swan [ http://www.amazon.com/Black-Swan-Improbable-Robustness-Fragility/dp/081297381X ]:"
Kayla Tausche
@kaylatausche
Dimon calls #Europe a black swan and a rollercoaster. On the latter, "sometimes you feel good, sometimes you feel sick to your stomach."
8:17 PM - 26 Feb 13
Business Insider's Joe Weisenthal retweeted Tausche, to which Taleb replied:
Joseph Weisenthal
@TheStalwart
More Taleb talk. RT @kaylatausche: Dimon calls #Europe a black swan and a rollercoaster...
-
Nassim N. Taleb
@nntaleb
@TheStalwart @kaylatausche Joe, this is getting a bit... He misquoted using 2 titles of my book the SAME day.
8:51 PM - 26 Feb 13
Taleb accused Dimon of:
Joseph Weisenthal
@TheStalwart
.@nntaleb What specifically is Dimon getting wrong?
-
Nassim N. Taleb
@nntaleb
@TheStalwart misuse of "black swan" (not Europe) and antifragile (he is taking it from taxpayer)
8:56 PM - 26 Feb 13
In other words, Taleb is telling Dimon, you can't call yourself "anti-fragile" if you thrive in crises mainly because of the good graces of the taxpayer.
Copyright © 2013 TheHuffingtonPost.com, Inc.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/26/jamie-dimon-benefit-downturns_n_2765462.html [with embedded video report, and comments]
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They're Baaack: U.S. Banks Had Their Second-Best Year Ever in 2012
By Derek Thompson
Feb 27 2013, 10:29 AM ET
U.S. banks celebrated their second-most-profitable year in 2012 with a whopping $141 billion in net income last year. That's scarcely smaller than the record, $145 billion, set just before the crash, in 2006, according to the FDIC.
I wondered: What do the last three decades in bank profits look like? Based on FDIC data [ http://www2.fdic.gov/qbp/index.asp ] (and adjusting for inflation), they look like this.
This weekend, Evan Soltas drew a wonderful graph showing that the financial industry takes home a third [ http://esoltas.blogspot.com/2013/02/the-rise-of-finance.html (the graph next below)]
of all corporate profits -- up from 10 percent after World War II. When you build an economy that subsidizes debt through homeownership, gives preferential treatment to investment income, and guarantees that the biggest banks will never fail, you get what you ask for. A country where finance plays by a separate set of rules and runs away with a third of the profit.
Copyright © 2013 by The Atlantic Monthly Group
http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2013/02/theyre-baaack-us-banks-had-their-second-best-year-ever-in-2012/273561/ [with comments]
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JPMorgan to cut up to 17,000 jobs [net] by end of 2014
The entrance to JPMorgan Chase's international headquarters on Park Avenue is seen in New York October 2, 2012.
Credit: Reuters/Shannon Stapleton
By David Henry
NEW YORK | Wed Feb 27, 2013 5:23am EST
(Reuters) - JPMorgan Chase & Co (JPM.N) said on Tuesday that it plans to cut 17,000 jobs by the end of 2014, representing about 6.6 percent of the company's overall workforce, as the bank sheds staff that helped it deal with bad home loans.
The bank is optimistic that it can generate record income this year and is planning to add 4,000 employees in commercial and investment banking and credit cards to help it win business, bank executives said at an investor conference.
That hiring will be more than offset by job cuts in areas like mortgage servicing and retail banking, where the bank is positioning for a recovering housing market and new forms of branch banking. The net impact of the additions and cuts will be 17,000 fewer employees on the bank's payrolls.
The job cuts reflect the pressure that banks are under, even as the U.S. housing market and overall economy show signs of recovery. Many banks are looking to automate more of their businesses to make their staff more productive and improve profits.
For example, at JPMorgan's branches, where it plans to cut about 6,000 tellers and other employees, the bank hopes customers will use automated teller machines for every day transactions and that remaining staff can focus on higher-margin activities like selling wealth management services.
JPMorgan is one of the few big U.S. banks that is still adding branches to its network, but it is hoping to staff the branches with fewer workers. The bank's 5,614 branches have 63,500 employees, representing about a quarter of JPMorgan Chase's total. Chase's branch network is second to Wells Fargo & Co's (WFC.N) in size.
For overall staffing levels, JPMorgan Chase had 258,965 employees globally at the end of 2012. Its headcount rose following the financial crisis to 262,882 in the second quarter of 2012 from 219,569 in the first quarter of 2009. Since last year's second quarter, staffing levels have drifted lower.
JPMorgan Chase overall earned $21.9 billion last year, excluding accounting charges linked to changes in the value of its debt. The bank said it has the potential to earn about $27.5 billion, thanks in part to efficiency gains. It aims to cut overall expenses by $1 billion in 2013.
To reach the $27.5 billion profit figure, the bank is also counting on costs for lawsuits to fall as disputes over bad mortgages are resolved, as well as seeing a one percentage point rise in interest rates, said Chief Financial Officer Marianne Lake.
The profit scenario also depends on the bank not being hit by another trading debacle like the $6.2 billion loss last year on derivatives trades placed by the London Whale, the nickname given a London-based JPMorgan trader for the size of the positions.
Chief Executive Jamie Dimon acknowledged that many of his top lieutenants who spoke to investors on Tuesday were in new jobs after changes he made last year in his management team and the bank's divisions.
"It is a little bit too much change in one year," Dimon said. "Some of it was the Whale. Some of it was the re-org" to better align product divisions with customer interests, he said.
All of the top executives, however, have been at the company several years and know its businesses, Dimon said.
JPMorgan Chase shares were down 0.2 percent at $47.60 at the close of trading on Tuesday on the New York Stock Exchange.
(Reporting By David Henry; Additional reporting by Rick Rothacker in Charlotte, North Carolina; Writing by Dan Wilchins; Editing by Gerald E. McCormick, John Wallace and Matthew Lewis)
Copyright 2013 Thomson Reuters
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/02/27/us-jpmorgan-jobs-idUSBRE91P0GX20130227 [with comment]
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Will 2nd Circuit limit on UBS liability in terror case have ripples?
February 20, 2013
http://blogs.reuters.com/alison-frankel/2013/02/20/will-2nd-circuit-limit-on-ubs-liability-in-terror-case-have-ripples/ [no comments yet]
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Creationism, Ayn Rand and gun control: Actual laws proposed this month
In Missouri, it would be a felony to propose gun control. Oklahoma wants to protect students from science. Really
Feb 24, 2013
http://www.salon.com/2013/02/24/creationism_ayn_rand_and_gun_control_six_terrible_state_laws_proposed_this_month/ [with comments]
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The Right-Wing Money Putting John Stossel In School Classrooms
How The Right's "Dark Money ATM" Spent More Than Half A Million Dollars On Stossel Educational Materials
ALEXANDER ZAITCHIK
February 25, 2013 9:17 AM EST
Two foundations that have been described [ http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2013/02/donors-trust-donor-capital-fund-dark-money-koch-bradley-devos ] as "the dark money ATM of the right" have spent more than $500,000 combined funding a non-profit organization whose primary function is distributing libertarian education materials featuring Fox Business host John Stossel.
Donors Trust and Donors Capital Fund, the affiliated funding groups, were until recently obscure entities. But over the past month a series [ http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2013/02/donors-trust-donor-capital-fund-dark-money-koch-bradley-devos ] of reports [ http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2013/feb/14/funding-climate-change-denial-thinktanks-network ] have detailed [ http://www.publicintegrity.org/2013/02/14/12151/following-donors-trust-money-trail ] how those organizations have paid out more than $400 million to over 1,000 conservative groups since their 1999 founding. Those reports have described how the two organizations have allowed wealthy individuals to discreetly underwrite trending conservative causes like climate change denial [ http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2013/02/19/1611441/secretive-donors-trust-pumps-far-more-money-into-climate-denial-and-inaction-than-kochs-and-exxon-mobil-combined/ ].
The groups have also been the primary funders behind an effort to flood American classrooms with packaged libertarian lessons branded with John Stossel's mustachioed face. In 2011, Donors Trust gave $40,000 to the Philadelphia-based Center for Independent Thought (CIT), with the funds earmarked for the distribution of "Stossel in the Classroom" teaching materials, according to IRS filings [ http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2013/02/donors-trust-2011-dark-money-heritage-cato-unions ] obtained by Mother Jones.
[video "What are Children Learning From "Stossel in the Classroom"? ( http://mediamatters.org/embed/static/clips/2013/02/22/29008/stossel-20130222-classroom )" embedded]
Video produced by Oliver Willis.
According to CIT's website [ http://www.centerforindependentthought.org/about_us.html ], its mission is to "bring the ideas of liberty to freedom-loving people around the globe." They do so primarily through the distribution of free "Stossel in the Classroom" videos, DVDs and discussion guides, which the program claims [ http://stosselintheclassroom.org/ ] are currently used by more than 150,000 teachers in middle school, high school, and college classrooms around the country.
The Center spent $360,872 on the "Stossel" program that year, making it by far the largest of the three active programs listed on its website.
"Stossel in the Classroom" began in 1999 when Stossel was still with ABC News [ http://abcnews.go.com/2020/Stossel/story?id=1739076 ]. It was seeded [ http://www.salon.com/2000/02/25/stossel/ ] with financial support from the libertarian Palmer R. Chitester Fund [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palmer_R._Chitester_Fund ] and grew slowly until CIT took over the program in the mid-2000s.
CIT was a natural home for "Stossel in the Classroom." Founded with Koch money as the Libertarian Review Foundation in the 1970s, real estate developer Howard Rich took control of the organization in 1990 [ http://www.pbs.org/now/shows/238/ ] and gave it its current name. Rich is part of the libertarian donor elite, founded Americans for Limited Government, and sits on the board at Cato [ http://www.cato.org/board-of-directors ], the Club for Growth [ http://www.clubforgrowth.org/aboutus/?subsec=0&id=122 ], and the Friedman Center for Educational Choice [ http://howardrich.org/?page_id=1147 ]. (Rich's wife, Andrea, runs CIT, but does not draw a salary.)
At the same time the group took over "Stossel," new right-wing funding began flowing into its coffers. While Donors Trust had not donated to the group before 2011, CIT has also received money [ http://bridgeproject.com/?organization&id=278288 ] from Donors Capital Fund ($500,000 from 2007 to 2010) and foundations linked to the Koch brothers.
The purpose of groups like Donors Trust and Donors Capital Fund is to allow wealthy benefactors to support conservative causes anonymously. The Tides Foundation is a liberal analogue, donating millions of dollars to left-leaning groups (including Media Matters). According to Mother Jones [ http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2013/02/donors-trust-donor-capital-fund-dark-money-koch-bradley-devos ], whose non-profit arm has also received Tides funding, "Donors Trust's strategic intent is far narrower and more coherent than Tides'. The groups funded by Donors Trust more or less pursue the same agenda--eliminate regulations, kneecap unions, shrink government, and transfer more power to the private sector."
The Center for Public Integrity produced this graphic [ http://www.publicintegrity.org/2013/02/14/12151/following-donors-trust-money-trail (larger, more legible, interactive original)] detailing the flow of money in recent years from Koch-backed and other right-wing foundations through Donors Trust to a variety of conservative groups:
CIT's funders -- whoever they are -- will find nothing in their program's activities to make them question their investment in helping produce the next generation of libertarians.
The new caretakers built a slick new website, archived more videos spanning Stossel's career, instituted a professional organization of requests and distribution, and began producing specially designed economics DVDs and teaching guides.
Stossel himself provides a brief welcome message from his Fox Business studio [ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UslTJIjNGJ8 (below, as embedded)] in the first segment of 2013's DVD "Good Intentions Gone Wrong," available free [ http://stosselintheclassroom.org/freedvd/ ] on the "Stossel In The Classroom" website:
"Stossel in the Classroom" also produces libertarian economics courses. The small team of economists [ http://stosselintheclassroom.org/economics/supplements/ ] that writes materials such as "Making Economics Come Alive with John Stossel" has multiple [ http://www.coss.fsu.edu/economics/people/joe-calhoun ] close [ http://mailer.fsu.edu/~jgwartne/garnet-jgwartne/index.html ] ties [ http://www.coss.fsu.edu/stavros/great-teachers-series/mark-c-schug ] to the Stavros Center for the Advancement of Free Enterprise and Economic Education at Florida State University.
The videos on the site are stacked with pundits echoing Stossel's radical laissez-faire views. A typical lesson pairs videos of Fox Business pundits tearing into a regulatory effort -- a video [ http://stosselintheclassroom.org/videos/regulations_regulations_and_more_regulations/ ] on the 2010 health care law features serial liar Betsy McCaughey and industrial-fan entrepreneur Bob Luddy -- with teacher's guides that ask if government regulation is necessary.
Students who answer "Yes" are unlikely to win many of the 225 cash prizes totaling $23,000 distributed annually in the "Stossel in the Classroom" essay contest [ http://stosselintheclassroom.org/essay_contest/ ]. Last year's competition, entitled, "Politicians' Promises Gone Wrong," asked students to write an essay of between 500 and 1,000 words about the government's ability to deliver on its promises. Students could take either side, but the rules stipulated that the essays must reference or cite an example [id.] in Stossel's latest anti-government tract, No They Can't: Why Government Fails -- But Individuals Succeed, or his associated TV special.
Last year's winners, who received all-expenses-paid trips to New York and appeared on Stossel's show, were both home school students. The winning entry [ http://stosselintheclassroom.org/img/essaycertificate_firstplace_2012.jpg ], by a 13-year-old student, used the Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009 as an example of harmful government overreach, and in support of her case cited a Heritage Foundation analyst who suggested that as a result of the law employers would simply hire fewer women and minorities -- thus hurting both groups. Second place honors went to an essay [ http://stosselintheclassroom.org/essay_contest/second_place/ ] that built its critique of government social spending around the metaphor of a class president candidate promising free candy to the student body. "While the students may enjoy the sugar and the candidate may have won the election," wrote the 15-year-old author, "the candy may give them cavities at the expense of the taxpayer."
It is unclear whether John Stossel is being paid for his role as the face of "Stossel in the Classroom." CIT did not return calls regarding $230,000 in expenses for the program categorized on its tax returns as "Other." Fox Business and Stossel himself likewise did not respond to requests for comment.
© 2013 Media Matters for America
http://mediamatters.org/blog/2013/02/25/the-right-wing-money-putting-john-stossel-in-sc/192777 [with comments]
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Club For Growth Launches New Effort To Recruit GOP Primary Challengers Against Republicans
By Nick Wing
Posted: 02/27/2013 1:42 pm EST
Club for Growth, a conservative anti-tax group that has injected itself into a number of intra-GOP fights in the past, launched a new digital campaign on Wednesday attacking a number of House Republican lawmakers and soliciting submissions for potential conservative challengers.
Launched by Club for Growth Action, the group's super PAC arm, the Primary My Congressman [ http://www.primarymycongressman.com/ ] site features a list of nine representatives deemed insufficiently conservative.
In a statement, the Club for Growth said they hoped the push would "raise awareness of Republicans In Name Only (RINOs) who are currently serving in safe Republican seats."
“Big government liberals inhabit the Democratic Party, but they are far too common within the Republican Party as well,” Club for Growth President Chris Chocola said. “The Republicans helped pass billions of dollars in tax increases and they have repeatedly voted against efforts by fiscal conservatives to limit government."
The site features profiles for Reps. Mike Simpson (R-Idaho), Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.), Rick Crawford (R-Ark.), Frank Lucas (R-Okla.), Steve Palazzo (R-Miss.), Martha Roby (R-Ala.), Larry Bucshon (R-Ind.), Renee Elmers (R-N.C.) and Aaron Schock (R-Ill.). Each page contains a Club for Growth rating for the lawmaker, a breakdown of how Republican-leaning their district is, a list of their past votes, and a large button to "recommend an opponent."
The Club for Growth recently released its 2012 congressional scorecard [ http://www.clubforgrowth.org/projects/?subSec=13 ]. All of the campaign's targets have received relatively low ratings from the group. For the Club for Growth's highest-ranking members, click through the slideshow below.
[slideshow embedded]
Copyright © 2013 TheHuffingtonPost.com, Inc.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/27/club-for-growth-primary_n_2774662.html [with comments]
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Louie Gohmert: Debt Is 'One Of The Most Immoral Things This Country Has Ever Done'
By Nick Wing
Posted: 02/27/2013 12:01 pm EST | Updated: 02/27/2013 12:01 pm EST
Tea Party Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas) said this week that his generation's contribution to the national debt is "one of the most immoral things" the nation has ever done. Gohmert went on to include debt in a conversation of national tragedies such as slavery.
“Slavery and abortion are the two most horrendous things this country has done but when you think about the immorality of wild, lavish spending on our generation and forcing future generations to do without essentials just so we can live lavishly now, it's pretty immoral," Gohmert said [along with plenty more] in an interview with Newsmax [ http://www.newsmax.com/Newsfront/gohmert-debt-sequestration-immigration/2013/02/26/id/492137 ].
The aside came during a broader defense of "sequestration" cuts, in which Gohmert argued that "people have got to understand that we're serious about stopping the massive load we are putting on our children and their children. It is one of the most immoral things this country has ever done."
Gohmert has displayed a knack for similar hyperbole in the past, frequently suggesting that the nation's supposed lack of morality puts it on the brink of falling back into darker times.
Last year, Gohmert warned that the nation [ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/10/17/louie-gohmert-slavery_n_1974425.html ] was farther away from God now than it had been when slavery was in practice.
"We strayed away different times. Andrew Jackson’s time was not a great time, different times slavery was a blot on our existence," Gohmert said. "But the trouble is we have never as an entire nation overall been so far away from God's teaching and so openly rebelling, even from the top, against God's teachings in the Bible."
Copyright © 2013 TheHuffingtonPost.com, Inc.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/27/louie-gohmert-debt_n_2773639.html [with comments]
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Why Obama Must Meet the Republican Lies Directly
By Robert Reich
Posted: 02/25/2013 1:06 pm
The White House apparently believes the best way to strengthen its hand in the upcoming "sequester" showdown with Republicans is to tell Americans how awful the spending cuts will be, and blame Republicans for them.
It won't work. These tactical messages are getting in the way of the larger truth, which the President must hammer home: The Republicans' austerity economics and trickle-down economics are dangerous, bald-faced lies.
Yes, the pending spending cuts will hurt. But even if some Americans begin to feel the pain when the cuts go into effect Friday, most won't feel it for weeks or months, if ever.
Half are cuts in the military, which will have a huge impact on jobs (the military is America's only major jobs program), but the cuts will be felt mainly in states with large numbers of military contractors, and then only as those contractors shed employees.
The other half are cuts in domestic discretionary spending, which will largely affect lower-income Americans. There will be sharp reductions in federal aid to poor schools, nutrition assistance, housing assistance, and the like. But here again, most Americans won't see these cuts or feel them.
Moreover, the blame game can be played both ways, and Republicans are adept at slinging mud. When it comes to high-visibility consequences of the spending cuts -- such as a sudden dearth of air-traffic controllers -- Republicans will dodge blame by happily giving Obama authority to shift spending and find the cuts himself, thereby making the White House appear even more culpable.
Besides, there's no end to this. After Friday's sequester comes the showdown over continuing funding of the government beyond March 27. Then another fight over the debt ceiling.
The White House must directly rebut the two big lies that fuel the Republican assault -- and that have fueled it since the showdown over the debt ceiling in the summer of 2011.
The first big lie is austerity economics -- the claim that the budget deficit is the nation's biggest economic problem now, responsible for the anemic recovery.
Wrong. The problem is too few jobs, lousy wages, and slow growth. Cutting the budget deficit anytime soon makes the problem worse because it reduces overall demand. As a result, the economy will slow or fall into recession -- which enlarges the deficit in proportion. You want proof? Look at what austerity economics has done to Europe.
The second big lie is trickle-down economics -- the claim that we get more jobs and growth if corporations and the rich have more money because they're the job creators, and job growth would be hurt if their taxes were hiked.
Wrong. The real job creators are the broad middle class and everyone who aspires to join it. Their purchases keep economy going.
As inequality continues to widen, and income and wealth become ever more concentrated at the top, the rest don't have the purchasing power they need to boost the economy. That's the underlying reason why the recovery continues to be so anemic.
These two lies -- austerity economics and trickle-down economics -- are being told over and over by Republicans and their mouthpieces on Fox News, yell radio, and the editorial pages of the Wall Street Journal. They are wrong and there are dangerous.
Yet unless they are rebutted clearly and forcefully, the nation will continue to careen from crisis to crisis, showdown to showdown.
And we will have almost no chance of reversing the larger challenge of widening inequality.
President Obama has the bully pulpit. Americans trust him more than they do congressional Republicans. But he is letting micro-tactics get in the way of the larger truth. And he's blurring his message with other messages -- about gun control, immigration, and the environment. All are important, to be sure. But none has half a chance unless Americans understand how they're being duped on the really big story.
Copyright © 2013 TheHuffingtonPost.com, Inc.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-reich/obama-sequestration_b_2759734.html [with comments]
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Republican losses obscure US drift to right
Republican angst over presidential election losses obscures the fact that many conservative ideals have prospered for decades.
By CHARLES BABINGTON
Originally published Wednesday, February 27, 2013 at 10:55 PM
WASHINGTON — Republican angst over presidential election losses obscures the fact that many conservative ideals have prospered for decades.
Conservative efforts have pushed the government rightward on taxes, spending and other policies, despite losses on some social fronts. One might say Republicans keep losing battles but winning wars.
This rightward drift serves as a curious, often ignored backdrop for GOP leaders' claims that the country is burdened by massive spending and taxation.
Republican lawmakers, for instance, adamantly oppose President Barack Obama's call for higher tax revenues as part of an alternative to big spending cuts about to hit government agencies. Yet the federal tax burden, as a portion of the overall economy, has been lower during Obama's four years in office than at any time since 1950.
And what about claims that spending on food stamps, environmental oversight and other nuts-and-bolts federal operations is out of control? Nonmilitary discretionary spending ranged from 3.8 percent to 5.1 percent of the overall economy throughout the 1970s. Starting in 1986, it didn't exceed 3.8 percent again until the 2008 recession dramatically slowed the economy.
Conservatives, however, have been unable in recent years to slow the rapid growth of "entitlement" programs such as Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security. These popular but costly programs pose long-term fiscal dilemmas if not addressed.
Policy on some social matters - gay rights, most notably - has moved leftward. But the opposite is true for another big issue, gun control.
A 10-year ban on assault weapons that expired in 2004 is unlikely to be renewed, even in the wake of school massacres. In 1969, a Republican-led presidential commission recommended the confiscation of most handguns, a nearly unthinkable idea today.
"The political spectrum as a whole has moved to the right," said Bruce Bartlett, an economic adviser to Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush.
Even conservative activists differ on why this has happened. Some say Republicans' constant focus on a few simple ideas, such as never raising taxes, appeals to ordinary people who follow politics only sporadically.
Grover Norquist, author of a famous no-new-tax pledge, has long urged Republicans to use the strategy to build a powerful brand - "We won't raise your taxes" - similar to universally recognized products such as Coke. Whatever the Democratic "brand" is, Norquist says, it's much more muddled.
Others say Democrats, by nature, are more willing to compromise in pursuit of "good government" solutions. Republicans, who are less pro-government, are less likely to bend. When one side compromises and the other side doesn't, the center of debate moves toward the unyielding party.
Emory University political scientist Alan Abramowitz says the Democratic Party has become "essentially a centrist party, and has remained so despite losing its right wing since the 1960s as a result of the realignment of the South." Meanwhile, he said, the GOP "has moved rather dramatically to the right since the `60s." The political middle ground, he said, "has also shifted well to the right of where it was 30 or 40 years ago on most issues."
Abramowitz, who is writing a book on the GOP's transformation, also points to "the growing racial divide between the parties as the country has become more racially and ethnically diverse; the growing influence of right-wing think tanks, funders and media outlets; and a growing cultural/religious divide in the country."
Some Democrats say current deficit-spending debates take insufficient notice of the nation's long-running rightward shift on fiscal policies. Partisan disagreements have led to recent showdowns over the debt ceiling, the end-of-2012 "fiscal cliff" and some fast-approaching, across-the-board spending cuts called the "sequester."
Obama, saying both spending cuts and revenue hikes are needed, repeatedly has tried to reinstate a limited portion of the income tax rates that applied under President Bill Clinton, who left office with a budget surplus.
Republicans, thanks to a law they helped enact in 2011, were forced last month to accept tax increases on the richest Americans. Now, however, they say all further deficit reduction must come entirely from spending cuts.
It's a policy that would puzzle past Republican presidents such as Reagan and Richard Nixon. They mixed tax reductions and tax increases as circumstances changed. But over the past 20 years, the Republicans' "no new taxes" mantra has become virtually sacrosanct.
GOP leaders and tea party activists routinely describe Americans as overtaxed. By historical standards, at least, it's a questionable claim. In 1981, the top marginal income tax rate was 70 percent. Today it is 39.6 percent.
Federal tax revenues exceeded 20 percent of the gross domestic product in 2000. Under Obama, they have not exceeded 15.8 percent a year.
When revenues fall and spending grows, or even stays flat, deficits result. Big tax cuts in 2001 and 2003 contributed to rising deficits, and today the national debt exceeds $16 trillion. To help narrow the gap, Democrats and some independents have implored Republican lawmakers to mix higher taxes on the rich with further spending cuts.
Some Republicans fear their party's antipathy to tax increases, despite the huge debt, will put it out of step with middle America. A Pew Research poll for USA Today finds that 3 in 4 Americans support Obama's call for a mix of spending cuts and tax increases.
"The truth is, Republicans just don't care about deficits," said Bartlett, who has parted ways with many former GOP associates.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and other top Republicans say the deficit is a threat. America has a spending problem, they say, not a taxing problem.
Even the often-criticized "Obamacare" law is built on foundations - chiefly, universal health coverage - proposed years ago by Nixon and the conservative Heritage Foundation. When Congress approved the new law in 2010, not a single Republican voted for it.
Some social issues are too much in flux to say, definitively, whether U.S. society has moved to their right or left. Momentum for more liberal immigration laws rose in the late 1990s, collapsed in 2007, and now seems to be rebounding.
On climate change, some conservatives dispute evidence about humans' role in rising temperatures, and the potential threat to the planet. But Obama and others are pointing to severe storms, record temperatures and other weather events in hopes of building public support for actions against greenhouse gasses.
"If you look at Republican positions on things like health care, climate change and cap and trade, they're moving away from their own positions due to internal political gravity," said David Di Martino, who was an aide to centrist Democratic Sen. Ben Nelson of Nebraska. "So when Obama arrives at a place where they were, say, on tax cuts, they have moved further right. So the president is always perceived to the left, even though the reality is that he's not."
Republicans have lost the popular vote in five of the last six presidential elections. They have done a far better job of pushing government policy to the right.
Copyright 2013 The Associated Press
http://seattletimes.com/html/politics/2020449651_apusconservativesuccess.html [no comments yet]
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Budget Cuts, Political Fighting To Hold Back U.S. Economic Growth, 95 Percent Of Economists Agree
02/25/2013
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/25/budget-cuts-economic-growth_n_2756836.html [with comments]
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Half Of U.S. Republicans [and 71% of Americans overall] Back Minimum Wage Of $9 Per Hour: Poll
02/25/2013
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/25/republicans-minimum-wage_n_2758307.html [with comments]
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Rick Scott Shifting Stance On Obamacare: From 'Devasting' To 'High-Quality Health Care'
Florida Gov. Rick Scott (R) wants to expand Medicaid under President Barack Obama's health care reform law after four years attacking it.
02/25/2013
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/25/rick-scott-obamacare-quotes_n_2756006.html [with comments]
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The Bush Years And What A "Lapdog" Press Really Looked Like
February 22, 2013
http://mediamatters.org/blog/2013/02/22/the-bush-years-and-what-a-lapdog-press-really-l/192769 [with comments]
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Mitt Romney Adviser Stuart Stevens: Media Not 'In The Tank' For Obama
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/25/stuart-stevens-media-obama-mitt-romney_n_2758266.html [with embedded video report, and comments; the YouTube, also embedded, at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=36di04RJKE8 ]
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Tom Casperson: I "don't know" if Obama was born in the United States
On Michael Patrick Shiels' show, state Sen. Tom Casperson (R-Escanaba) says he doesn't know if President Obama was born in the United States, and calls the lack of media attention to the issue "strange."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BMX8P5QPzsk
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Erick Erickson, RedState Editor: Conservative Media 'Failing To Advance Ideas And Stories'
02/27/2013
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/27/erick-erickson-conservative-media-failing_n_2772781.html [with comments]
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Behold Movement Conservatism's Information Disadvantage: Chuck Hagel Edition
His confirmation was widely anticipated. Yet Jennifer Rubin and other neocons repeatedly published analysis that led their readers astray.
Feb 27 2013
http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2013/02/behold-movement-conservatisms-information-disadvantage-chuck-hagel-edition/273548/ [with comments]
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Rep. Keith Ellison Gets Shut Down during Heated Interview with Hannity, Calling Him Immoral
Sean Hannity Battles Disrespectful Keith Ellison.
Right in the beginning, Democratic congressman Keith Ellison told Hannity: 'You're The Worse Excuse For A Journalist', launched into an angry tirade against the host, accusing him of being "immoral" and a liar. He told Hannity he continuously says things that aren't true, pointing to his consistently blaming the massive debt on President Obama. Hannity immediately stopped the interview at this point and told Ellison that having him on was a waste of time.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x3l5A9f_Kac [also at e.g. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vg1j6pIYkCs ] [and see e.g. "Keith Ellison Explodes At Sean Hannity: 'The Worst Excuse For A Journalist I've Ever Seen' (VIDEO)", http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/27/keith-ellison-sean-hannity-worst-journalist-fox-news_n_2772687.html (with portions of the above, and comments)]
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Keith Ellison Interview with Sean Hannity
From Hannity's show on 04/20/2011.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WG2PHF7Plsw
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Bachmann: “I didn’t get anything wrong”
media.salon.com/2013/02/michele_bachmann3.jpg
The congresswoman touts her flawless run for the presidency and love of Beyoncé
Feb 26, 2013
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The First Colored Senator and Representatives, in the 41st and 42nd Congress of the US. Top standing left to right: Robert C. De Large, M.C. of S. Carolina; and Jefferson H. Long, M.C. of Georgia. Seated, left to right: U.S. Senator H.R. Revels of Mississippi; Benj. S. Turner, M.C. of Alabama; Josiah T. Walls, M.C. of Florida; Joseph H. Rainy, M.C. of S. Carolina; and R. Brown Elliot, M.C. of S. Carolina. Lithograph by Currier and Ives, 1872. [much larger/more complete image at http://i.huffpost.com/gen/1008462/original.jpg ]
02/25/2013
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/25/hiram-r-revels-first-black-senator_n_2761163.html [with comments]
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Jennifer Olsen, Montana GOP Official, Takes Heat For Alleged Racist Facebook Post
02/25/2013
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/25/jennifer-olsen-montana_n_2759484.html [witht comments]
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Racist GOP mailing depicts Obama surrounded by KFC, watermelon, and food stamps
Oct 16, 2008
http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2008/10/16/30814/obama-bucks/ [with comments]
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Police: Fire at day care center investigated as arson, hate crime
Sandra Wilson, owner of the Little Leapers Childcare and Bethel Worship Center on Riverland Road in Fort Lauderdale, arrived to find the building gutted by fire and vandalized on Sunday morning.
Joe Cavaretta, Sun Sentinel
By Mike Clary, Sun Sentinel
6:38 p.m. EST, February 24, 2013
FORT LAUDERDALE — Worship services were canceled and scores of parents were left scrambling to find work-week caretakers for their children Sunday after an early morning fire that is being investigated as arson.
Police also are looking into a possible hate crime at the Little Leapers Day Care and Performing Arts Academy because of swastikas that were spray-painted on the front of the building at 1300 Riverland Road.
"When I got here this morning, I just began to cry," said Sandra Wilson, who owns the day care with her husband, Ivory Wilson. "Who could hate so much to do something like this?"
Fort Lauderdale Fire-Rescue crews responded to a call at 3:15 a.m., according to spokesman Matt Little.
The fire apparently started in the kitchen of the building that on Sundays is also used as the sanctuary of the Bethel Worship Center. said Wilson.
Police investigators found signs of forced entry, according to police Lt. Frank Sousa. He added that investigators "would look at everything that is there," including the possibility that the break-in and fire were hate crimes.
Wilson said that keyboards, drums, speakers, mixing boards, microphones and other pieces of musical equipment were missing. She estimated the loss at $50,000 or more.
About three weeks ago, the school received a telephone threat from a caller who used a racial epithet and warned the four-year-old day care "to get out of the neighborhood," Wilson said.
The threat triggered a call to police, and the school was on lockdown for the day. "It was frightening," said employee Joyce Bryant, who took the call.
The school is attended by about 30 children ages 6 weeks to 6 years during much of the day. About a dozen elementary pupils come for after-school day care, said Wilson. She said the school is racially mixed, with a white majority.
The fire caused moderate damage to the building, but there were no injuries, Little said.
With extensive smoke damage and without electricity, Wilson said Sunday morning worship services were canceled. She was also calling parents to report that the school would be closed until further notice.
"This is devastating," said Wilson. "The parents are sad, hurt and they are worried about their jobs. They depend on this school being open so they can go to work. The whole thing is shocking."
mwclary@tribune.com or 954-356-4465
Copyright © 2013, South Florida Sun-Sentinel
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/breakingnews/fl-day-care-arson-20130224,0,6590496.story [with embedded video report]
===
Why we still need the Voting Rights Act
By John Lewis
Published: February 24, 2013
On “Bloody Sunday,” nearly 50 years ago, Hosea Williams and I led 600 peaceful, nonviolent protesters attempting to march from Selma to Montgomery to dramatize the need for voting rights protection in Alabama. As we crossed the Edmund Pettus Bridge, we were attacked by state troopers who tear-gassed, clubbed and whipped us and trampled us with horses. I was hit in the head with a nightstick and suffered a concussion on the bridge. Seventeen marchers were hospitalized that day.
In response, President Lyndon Johnson introduced the Voting Rights Act and later signed it into law. We have come a great distance since then, in large part thanks to the act, but efforts to undermine the voting power of minorities did not end after 1965. They still persist today.
This week the Supreme Court will hear [ http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/supreme-court-considers-souths-legacy-and-progress-on-voting-rights/2013/02/23/3f1ba416-7c71-11e2-82e8-61a46c2cde3d_story.html ] one of the most important cases in our generation, Shelby County v. Holder. At issue is Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act [ http://www.justice.gov/crt/about/vot/sec_5/about.php ], which requires all or parts of 16 “covered” states with long histories and contemporary records of voting discrimination to seek approval from the federal government for voting changes. The court is questioning whether Section 5 remains a necessary remedy for ongoing discrimination.
In 2006, Congress debated this very question over 10 months. We held 21 hearings, heard from more than 90 witnesses and reviewed more than 15,000 pages of evidence. We analyzed voting patterns in and outside the 16 covered jurisdictions. We considered four amendments on the floor of the House; the Senate Judiciary Committee considered several others.
After all of that, Congress came to a near-unanimous conclusion: While some change has occurred, the places with a legacy of long-standing, entrenched and state-sponsored voting discrimination still have the most persistent, flagrant, contemporary records of discrimination in this country. While the 16 jurisdictions affected by Section 5 represent only 25 percent of the nation’s population, they still represent more than 80 percent of the lawsuits proving cases of voting discrimination.
It is ironic and almost emblematic that the worst perpetrators are those seeking to be relieved of the responsibilities of justice. Instead of accepting the ways our society has changed and dealing with the implications of true democracy, they would rather free themselves of oversight and the obligations of equal justice.
Calera, a city in Shelby County, Ala., provides a prime example. Once it was an all-white suburb of Birmingham. Rapid growth created one majority-black district that in 2004 had the power, for the first time, to elect a candidate of its choice to city government, Ernest Montgomery.
Just before the 2008 election, however, the city legislature redrew the boundaries to include three white-majority districts in an effort to dilute the voting power of black citizens. The Justice Department blocked the plan, but Calera held the election anyway, and Montgomery was toppled from his seat.
In 2012, Section 5 was used to block Texas from implementing the most restrictive voter law in the country, which threatened the rights of more than 600,000 registered voters, predominantly Latinos and African Americans.
Kilmichael, Miss., was blocked from canceling elections shortly after the results of the 2000 Census demonstrated a black-voting majority that could, for the first time, elect the candidate of its choice.
Such cases are numerous and exemplify the “unprecedented legislative record” amassed in 2006. That mountain of evidence paved the way for a bipartisan majority in Congress to reauthorize Section 5 by a vote of 390 to 33 in the House and 98 to 0 in the Senate.
Opponents of Section 5 [ http://www.americanbar.org/content/dam/aba/publications/supreme_court_preview/briefs-v2/12-96_pet_amcu_soa.authcheckdam.pdf ] complain of state expense, yet their only cost is the paper, postage and manpower required to send copies of legislation to the federal government for review, hardly a punishment.
But without Section 5, guaranteed civil liberties of millions of voters could be flagrantly denied, and those violations would remain in force and nearly unchecked unless a lawsuit provided some eventual relief. The act also rewards progress. In fact, every jurisdiction that has applied for bailout, demonstrating a clean record over 10 years, has been freed from Section 5 compliance.
Evidence proves there are forces in this country that willfully and intentionally trample on the voting rights of millions of Americans. That is why every president and every Congress, regardless of politics or party, has reauthorized Section 5.
The right to vote is the most powerful nonviolent tool we have in a democracy. I risked my life defending that right. Some died in the struggle. If we are ever to actualize the true meaning of equality, effective measures such as the Voting Rights Act are still a necessary requirement of democracy.
John Lewis, a Democrat, represents Georgia’s 5th District in the U.S. House.
© 2013 The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/why-we-still-need-the-voting-rights-act/2013/02/24/a70a930c-7d43-11e2-9a75-dab0201670da_story.html [with comments]
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Scalia’s ugly racial cynicism
(Credit: Reuters/Brendan Mcdermid/Salon/Benjamin Wheelock)
The Supreme Court justice treats voting rights as a goody given away by pandering politicians
By Joan Walsh
Thursday, Feb 28, 2013 12:24 PM CST
Four slow-moving ambulances brought up the rear as student leader John Lewis led 600 peaceful protesters dressed for church on the voting rights march that would become known as Selma’s Bloody Sunday, on March 7, 1965. They stayed peaceful; law enforcement officials didn’t. Trampled by police horses, choked by tear gas, beaten with billy clubs – Lewis had his skull fractured – the marchers would need more medical help than the four cars could provide. The ugly melee made national news that night: ABC broke into its presentation of “Judgment at Nuremberg” with footage of the violence, and viewers couldn’t be entirely sure where Nazi atrocities ended and their own country’s began.
Now, not far from Selma, Shelby County, Ala., is trying to take the teeth out of the Voting Rights Act that Lyndon B. Johnson hustled through Congress after Bloody Sunday. Even though the act was reauthorized by a Republican-dominated Congress in 2006 on a 98-0 vote in the Senate (it was 390-33 in the House), and signed by President Bush, and even though its constitutionality has been upheld by the Supreme Court four times, there is evidence that the current right-wing court majority would like to overturn at least part of it. Court conservatives once represented a reaction against the court’s supposed overreach into realms best left to Congress, and its willingness to ignore earlier court decisions. Now they seem set to say Congress has no business here, and that their Supreme Court predecessors who upheld the act were either mistaken or the blinkered creatures of their idiosyncratic eras.
Unbelievably, Antonin Scalia derided the act as a “racial entitlement,” prompting gasps from the crowd gathered to hear the arguments Wednesday. (As Rachel Maddow noted, Scalia seems to live for those gasps.) And he blamed Congress for pandering for votes by keeping that “racial entitlement” alive. The cynical Scalia sounded like Mitt Romney blaming his loss on President Obama delivering “gifts” to his coalition:
I don’t think there is anything to be gained by any Senator to vote against continuation of this act. And I am fairly confident it will be reenacted in perpetuity unless — unless a court can say it does not comport with the Constitution …They are going to lose votes if they do not reenact the Voting Rights Act. Even the name of it is wonderful: The Voting Rights Act. Who is going to vote against that in the future?
Indeed, the name of it is wonderful. With that remark, Scalia made clear (if he hadn’t already) that he’s more suited for the talk radio dial alongside Rush Limbaugh, Bill O’Reilly and Sean Hannity than he is for the Supreme Court bench.
The right-wing justice’s rant goes to the heart of long-held conservative ambivalence about democracy: that corrupt politicians will be able to buy off the rabble, with “spoils” or patronage or jobs; even outright gifts of cash. Only men of wealth, property and education could be trusted to rise above such rank bribery, which is why many states had property requirements and other limits on voting in the early days of our country; universal suffrage didn’t even reach all white men until 1830.
Still, Romney only railed against Obama providing “gifts” like healthcare to Latinos and contraceptives to women. Limbaugh called him “Santa Claus,” one of his nicer names for the president, for those popular new programs. A majority of Americans, O’Reilly opined during his election night self-pity party, “want stuff. And who is going to give them things? President Obama. He knows it, and he ran on it.”
But not even O’Reilly implied that the “stuff” Obama gave his voters included their constitutional right to vote.
As is his trademark, Chief Justice John Roberts put a more refined spin on Scalia’s elitist ranting. “Is it the government’s submission that the citizens in the South are more racist than the citizens in the North?” Roberts asked. To be fair, the gist of Roberts’ complaint seemed to be that federal oversight of a state function like voting regulations could only be compelled by compelling evidence of wrongdoing. Since it’s true that the South is no longer the place of violent Jim Crow – and it’s also true that some states that aren’t covered by Section 5 have taken steps to limit voting rights that civil rights advocates say have a discriminatory impact – Roberts and other court conservatives question whether it’s fair to single out the South for special, in-advance scrutiny of its changes to voter laws. “Why shouldn’t it apply everywhere in the country?” Justice Samuel Alito asked.
On JusticeWatch, Gilda Daniels criticizes the “assumption that because there are other wrongdoers that are not covered, Alabama, and states like it, should not be either. Essentially, they obliquely argue that if those other states get to have worse records than Alabama on voter registration and turnout then the federal government should not “punish” it with Section 5.” In fact, since 1965 other states and jurisdictions outside the South have come to be covered by Section 5 because of their egregious interference with the right to vote. But it is certainly true that some states that aren’t covered by Section 5 are imposing new voter restrictions: harsh ID laws in Pennsylvania, a cutback in early voting in Ohio and Wisconsin, and an end to the Sunday before Election Day voting hours that the black community had claimed for a last “Souls to the Polls” push in Wisconsin and other places. That doesn’t mean the covered states have stopped looking for ways to limit voting rights, but in a better world, Congress might well extend Section 5 to cover more states.
But this isn’t that world. Despite Johnson’s strong leadership, the 1965 Voting Rights Act passed with a higher percent of Republicans supporting it than Democrats, given that segregationist Democrats ran the South. But since then, the parties have to an extent traded sides. It’s true, and praiseworthy, that in 2006 Republicans supported the act’s reauthorization. But after President Obama was elected with record-breaking turnout by black and Latino voters in 2008, at least 38 states have tried to place new restrictions on voting, whether by increasing requirements to register or by limiting the number of days and locations where people can vote. Every single one of those laws, whether proposed or enacted, was sponsored by a Republican. Sadly, just since 2006, voting rights protection has become a partisan issue.
One of Shelby County’s central claims is that Section 5 is self-evidently outmoded in an age when we have a black president. But the act wasn’t designed to protect the rights of the occasional extraordinary African-American, like our first black president; a handful of blacks acceptable to the white power structure could vote back in Jim Crow Alabama, too. It was designed to protect the rights of all black voters, and of all voters.
The night before the 1965 Selma march finally made it to Montgomery, this time with federal protection, Harry Belafonte organized a gala celebration on a makeshift stage built of coffins. They had been donated by a black funeral home, one of those businesses that thrived under Jim Crow, since white undertakers wouldn’t bury the black community’s dead. Belafonte and Tony Bennett, Nina Simone and Joan Baez, Elaine May and Sidney Poitier, a dazzling roster of multiracial stars stood on those coffins and entertained a mostly black but multiracial crowd.
I’ve always found that image chilling and yet inspiring, as if Jim Crow lay in those coffins, and the entertainers were singing and dancing and telling jokes on its grave. Besides, the civil rights movement always defied death: Jimmie Lee Jackson, James Reeb and Viola Liuzzo died in the three weeks it took for several separate marches to finally cover the ground from Selma to Montgomery. Yesterday it felt as if Scalia lorded over that hearing on a bench built from figurative coffins, entombing the rights that Americans fought and bled and died for almost 50 years ago. If only his remarks could shock Americans in prime time, the way Selma interrupted “Judgment at Nuremberg” on that Sunday night almost 50 years ago, to inspire a new movement for voting rights.
Details on the Selma marches come from Rep. John Lewis’ fantastic 1998 memoir, “Walking With the Wind [ http://www.amazon.com/Walking-Wind-A-Memoir-Movement/dp/0156007088 ].” Read it.
Copyright © 2013 Salon Media Group, Inc.
http://www.salon.com/2013/02/28/scalia%e2%80%99s_ugly_racial_cynicism/ [with comments]
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MAP: Definitive Proof That We Don’t All Live In The Same Democracy
Alvin Melathe
Feb 25, 2013
What this map tells me is that, basically, Florida really needs to get its s#*t together.
ORIGINAL [ http://progressivestates.org/news/blog/infographic-how-long-were-election-day-lines-in-your-state ]: By Progressive States Network [ http://www.facebook.com/progressivestates ]. Data compiled by MIT’s Charles Stewart III [ http://www.pewstates.org/research/analysis/new-data-on-lines-at-the-polls-85899435524 ].
Copyright 2013 Upworthy
http://www.upworthy.com/map-definitive-proof-that-we-don-t-all-live-in-the-same-democracy
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Rep. Clyburn on Empowering Voter Rights
By Debbie Hines
Posted: 02/27/2013 6:05 pm
As the Supreme Court prepares to decide [ http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/supreme-court-majority-skeptical-of-voting-law-provision/2013/02/27/e89b038e-80fd-11e2-b99e-6baf4ebe42df_story.html ] the fate of Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, it is important now more than ever to pass new federal laws to protect the right to vote. We need to establish uniform voting standards for federal elections to address the widespread voting problems of 2012. Assistant Democratic Leader James E. Clyburn (D-SC), an original co-sponsor of the 2013 Voter Empowerment Act ("VEA" [ http://www.democraticwhip.gov/sites/default/files/Voter%20Empowerment%20Act%20113th.pdf ]), introduced this bill as a means to make voting easier. Far from being easy, we've seen some of the ways that casting a vote was made extremely difficult in the 2012 election with new voter ID laws, shortening of early voting days, long lines and casting provisional ballots. Rep. Clyburn recently spoke candidly in an exclusive interview on why it is necessary to pass the Voter Empowerment Act.
The Voter Empowerment Act would bring our voting system in federal elections up to the 21st century with Internet modernization and registration, mandatory early voting, greater disabilities assistance, restoration of voting rights to convicted felons and same day registration and voting. It would apply only to federal elections, which are held every two years.
Among the ways to make voting easier, Rep. Clyburn says the current 30 day cut-off to register persons to vote before an election disenfranchises potential voters who may not make up their mind until the last-minute. The campaigns, candidate and ads are still in full swing 30 days before the election and up to Election Day. The last two presidential debates on October 16 and 22nd were held less than 30 days before the election. The Voter Empowerment Act would allow for same day registration and voting. As Rep. Clyburn states, "something might happen in 15 days to wet someone's appetite and get them involved in the process."
For all federal elections, the Voter Empowerment Act would require that states must hold 15 days of early voting with a minimum four hours per day near public transportation. Rep. Clyburn believes that "early voting should be a federal law for all federal elections. And the states can decide what they want to do with their own election." Early voting days for the 2012 election were cut in half in some states since 2008. The decreased early voting days in the 2012 election added to the long lines, chaos and disenfranchisement of voters. In Florida, an estimated 200,000 voters [ http://www.democracynow.org/2013/2/15/naacp_new_election_commission_needed_to ] were disenfranchised in the last election due to long lines.
In modernizing and bringing voter registration up to 21st century standards, the VEA would allow citizens to register to vote by email, update any changes to their voter registration by email and require the State Board of Elections to notify voters who provide an email address of the place, address, hours and description of any ID needed to vote. And to further encourage greater participation of voters, universities would be treated as voter registration agencies and register students to vote at time of their enrollment of college. Those persons with disabilities would be able to vote by absentee ballot.
Probably the most controversial provision in the VEA is the right to restore the vote to convicted felons. The Voter Empowerment Act calls for a national standard to restore voting rights back to felony offenders who have paid their debt to society. "When people have paid their debt to society, they should get their voting rights back," says Rep. Clyburn. Those still serving time in prison would be ineligible to vote.
While everyone will not agree with all of the aspects of the Voter Empowerment Act, many will agree our present system needs to be fixed. It has 167 co-signers-all Democrats. The right to vote should not be a partisan issue. If Rep. Clyburn had his way, our right to vote would be as easy as 1-2-3.
Copyright © 2013 TheHuffingtonPost.com, Inc.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/debbie-hines/repclyburn-on-empowering-_b_2767732.html [with comment]
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Voting Rights Act: The 2012 Election Proves Exactly Why We Need It
Feb 19, 2013
http://www.policymic.com/articles/26906/voting-rights-act-the-2012-election-proves-exactly-why-we-need-it [with comments]
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Michigan Republicans Support Changing State's Electoral Vote Allocation
02/25/2013
The Michigan GOP backed a measure on Saturday that would allocate the state's electoral college votes by congressional districts, reviving energy for a plan considered by Republicans in several states after the inauguration but one that seemed dead about a month ago.
[...]
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/25/michigan-electoral-college_n_2758501.html [with comments]
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Racial Wealth Gap Tripled Since Reagan Era As Whites Increased Large Lead Over Blacks: Study
The median white family now is 8 times wealthier than the median black family, according to a new Brandeis University Study. In this photo, Pat, who refused to give her last name, carries her belongings as she walks down the street after eating lunch in the soup kitchen of St. Francis Center on September 13, 2011 in Los Angeles, California.
(Photo by Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images)
By Bonnie Kavoussi
Posted: 02/27/2013 10:56 am EST | Updated: 02/27/2013 7:34 pm EST
The wealth gap between blacks and whites has ballooned [ http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-02/bu-bus022213.php ] since the middle of the Reagan administration, nearly tripling between 1984 and 2009, according to a new Brandeis University study.
The study [ http://iasp.brandeis.edu/pdfs/Author/shapiro-thomas-m/racialwealthgapbrief.pdf ], released Wednesday, found that the median white household held a net worth of $265,000 by 2009, eight times more than the median black household's net worth of just $28,500. That division will continue to haunt black Americans for years to come, according to Tatjana Meschede, a co-author of the study.
"The gap presents an opportunity denied for many African American households and assures racial economic inequality for the next generation," Meschede said in a statement.
The study, which followed 1,700 households between 1984 and 2009, attributed the growing racial wealth gap to a variety of disparities:
-- Homeownership: White households are 28 percent more likely to own their home than black households, according to the study.
-- Income: The average white person's income [ http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/income/data/historical/people/ ] was $29,401 per year in 2011, while the average black person's income was just $18,357, according to the Census Bureau.
-- Unemployment: The black unemployment rate was 13.8 percent in January, while the white unemployment rate was only 7 percent, according to the Labor Department [ http://bls.gov/ ].
-- College education: Roughly 29 percent of whites [ http://www.census.gov/prod/2012pubs/acsbr10-19.pdf ] age 25 and older held a bachelor's degree or graduate degree between 2006 and 2010, compared to only 18 percent of blacks in the same age group, according to the Census Bureau.
-- Inheritance: Whites were five times more likely to receive an inheritance than blacks between 1984 and 2009, according to the Brandeis study.
The Census Bureau [ http://money.cnn.com/2012/06/21/news/economy/wealth-gap-race/index.htm (source of chart next below)] reported last year that the median white household held a net worth of $110,729 in 2010, while the median black household held a net worth of just $4,995,
a disparity even greater than that reported by the Brandeis University study.
Copyright © 2013 TheHuffingtonPost.com, Inc.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/27/racial-wealth-gap_n_2772840.html [with embedded video report, and comments]
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Gun debate spurs threats at Colorado Capitol
9:36 PM, Feb 15, 2013
DENVER - The debate over gun policy is cranking up tension at the state capitol. Several Democrats in the State House of Representatives say they've received death threats this week.
One was on a voicemail for Democrat Joe Salazar of Thornton, who shared the aggressive message with 9NEWS.
The caller starts out by calling Salazar a "f-ing fascist." The voicemail message continues, "You want to outlaw magazines? Come and f---ing take them. You willing to kill the f---ing outlaw magazines, because you will f---ing die."
Listen to voicemail
http://www.9news.com/video/default.aspx?bctid=2168316563001
Salazar says the threat is being investigated by state law enforcement. While he takes the threat seriously, it doesn't shake his position on the issue.
"This doesn't help their cause. It's not going to help their cause here in Colorado, and it's not going to help their cause across the nation," Salazar said.
Salazar read a transcript of the message to the House floor while debating a bill to impose universal background checks. He told the chamber that he hopes the anonymous caller, who clearly sounds agitated, would have to go through a background check before acquiring a gun.
Other members of his party in key committee posts have also received threats according to House leadership.
House Speaker Mark Ferrandino says threats have been made against Rep. Daniel Kagan (D-Cherry Hills Village) and Rep. Rhonda Fields (D-Aurora) who have both been highly visible in the gun debate this week.
Salazar was one of two Democrats to soften the magazine ban bill in committee this week.
There was more tension at the Capitol Friday as the debate raged on over guns.
A pro-gun lobbyist was thrown out of the capitol after threatening to run political ads against a Republican lawmaker.
KUSA-TV © 2013 Multimedia Holdings Corporation
http://www.9news.com/news/article/317326/339/Gun-debate-spurs-threats-at-Capitol [with embedded video report (text is a transcript), and comments]
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Colorado Lawmakers Get Threatened Over Gun Control Legislation
02/25/2013
When debating gun control and the rights granted by the Second Amendment, heated arguments and debates are expected -- but a few people have gone too far by threatening some state lawmakers over the gun control bills currently being considered by the state legislature.
Fox31 was the first to report that Franklin Sain, a 42-year-old Colorado Springs man, was arrested for making threats against Rep. Rhonda Fields [ http://kdvr.com/2013/02/25/man-arrested-for-threatening-rep-rhonda-fields-over-gun-legislation/ ] (D-Aurora), the sponsor of two of the four controversial gun measures that passed the state House last week.
[...]
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/25/colorado-lawmakers-get-th_n_2760325.html [with comments]
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GunOwnersForReform.com - "Rodney"
Published on Feb 5, 2013 by BoldProgressives
Help us run this ad in Kentucky: https://secure.actblue.com/contribute/page/gun_mcconnell_1
Join the fight: www.GunOwnersForReform.com
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UmVLznif9u0 [via http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/05/mitch-mcconnell-progressive-change-campaign-gun-control_n_2619039.html (with comments)]
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Gun Owner vs. McConnell
Published on Feb 25, 2013 by BoldProgressives
Help air this TV ad in Kentucky. Click here: https://secure.actblue.com/contribute/page/gun_mcconnell_2
Join the fight: http://GunOwnersForReform.com
Join over 20,000 gun owners (including the guy in this TV ad) and over 100,000 other Americans who signed the petition supporting President Obama's bold gun plan: criminal background checks, ban assault weapons, ban high-capacity magazines. http://GunOwnersForReform.com
The Progressive Change Campaign Committee (PCCC) has over 950,000 members who believe in fighting for bold progressive change. Together, we fight for our values. Learn about us here:
http://BoldProgressives.org/
http://www.facebook.com/boldprogressives
http://twitter.com/boldprogressive
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GlrCnCJsozw [via http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/25/mitch-mcconnell-assault-weapons_n_2743022.html (with comments)]
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Second Amendment Lawsuits Expose Rift At The Top Of Gun Rights Movement
02/25/2013
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/25/second-amendment-foundation_n_2745038.html [with comments]
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Fake Newtown Facebook Pages Will Be Removed, Officials Confirm
By Gabrielle Dunkley
Posted: 02/25/2013 3:23 pm EST
Facebook officials have agreed to take down [ http://www.sfgate.com/news/crime/article/Lawmakers-ask-Facebook-to-remove-Newtown-pages-4306316.php ] some unofficial tribute pages for victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting after Connecticut lawmakers submitted a formal letter on Monday alerting the social media giant to the pages' exploitive nature.
Sens. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) and Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) and Rep. Elizabeth Etsy (D-Conn.) said in the letter [ http://www.blumenthal.senate.gov/newsroom/press/release/blumenthal-murphy-and-esty-call-on-facebook-to-remove-pages-exploiting-newtown-victims ] that several fraudulent, unofficial pages containing messages asking for money, as well as posts that harassed the Newtown shooting victims' families, were in direct violation of Facebook's user policies:
It has come to our attention that Facebook has received multiple requests from grieving Newtown families to remove Facebook pages being used to harass them or to exploit their loss.?In the past several months, Facebook users have created hundreds of unofficial tribute pages dedicated to the victims of Sandy Hook. For example, The Greenwich Time reports over 100 tribute pages have been created using Victoria Soto’s name or likeness.
Many give the appearance they were created by loved ones in the names of the victims. Unfortunately, many of these pages have become vehicles for harassment, intimidation and possibly financial fraud. ?Pages providing platforms for people to violate the privacy of families as they grieve, or seek financial gain through soliciting donations under false pretenses, or generating Facebook “likes” for marketing purposes, should not be given quarter in the Facebook community.
...
We ask that you direct your staff to remove the pages referred to in complaints by Donna Soto and Kaitlin Roig down for violating the above terms of service. If you do not believe these pages violate your terms of service, please detail in a written response why. If Facebook is already looking into this matter, please detail what you have done thus far to address the take-down requests from of Donna Soto and Kaitlin Roig. Our staff and we will be pleased to work with appropriate Facebook officials to address these issues affecting the Soto and Roig families, and others who may be affected by such abusive, unacceptable practices.
Blumenthal said that he received a phone call on Monday from Facebook representatives, confirming that they will begin the process of removing the pages immediately, the Associated Press reported [ http://www.sfgate.com/news/crime/article/Lawmakers-ask-Facebook-to-remove-Newtown-pages-4306316.php ].
"Certainly there have been many, too many, of these pages that are intimidating or harassing or exploitive," Blumenthal said. "I'm pleased that Facebook has responded positively."
Copyright © 2013 TheHuffingtonPost.com, Inc.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/25/newtown-facebook-pages_n_2760116.html [with comments]
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Neil Heslin, Father Of Newtown Victim, Testifies At Senate Assault Weapons Ban Hearing
By Christina Wilkie
Posted: 02/27/2013 1:39 pm EST | Updated: 02/27/2013 2:24 pm EST
WASHINGTON - Neil Heslin, whose son Jesse McCord Lewis was killed in the mass shooting in Newtown, Conn., gave moving testimony on Wednesday during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on the assault weapons ban [ http://www.feinstein.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/assault-weapons ] proposed by Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.).
"As Jesse was getting out of the truck [the morning he died], he leaned in and hugged me," Heslin said, weeping openly as he held up a portrait of his son. "I can still feel that hug, and that pat on the back. He said, 'everything's going to be ok, Dad, it's all going to be ok.' And it wasn't ok."
The night of the shooting, Heslin said, "I waited in that firehouse until one in the morning, until I knew Jesse was confirmed dead ... I have to go home at night to an empty house, without my son."
Heslin's son Jesse was one of the 20 children and six educators who were shot and killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School in mid-December. A group of Newtown residents attended the hearing, and sat behind Heslin as he spoke. The hearing room was silent except for the sound of weeping.
Heslin has spoken about his son's death before, during a public hearing in Connecticut [ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/29/neil-heslin-father-of-newtown-victim-heckled_n_2572503.html ] in late January. Gun rights activists in the audience at that hearing shouted "Second Amendment!" at Heslin when he questioned why civilians should be permitted to carry military-style assault weapons.
The tragedy at Sandy Hook has galvanized public support for stricter gun controls, and Feinstein's bill is the most ambitious of a number of proposals currently under consideration by the Senate. Other proposals include an expansion of the background check system to cover all gun purchases, and a ban on high-capacity gun magazines.
Other witnesses testifying alongside Heslin included Western Connecticut Health Network EMS medical director Dr. William Begg, who treated some of the victims of Sandy Hook; Fordham Law School professor Nicholas Johnson; attorney David Hardy of Tucson, Ariz.; former Republican Florida Rep. Sandy Adams; and Mayor of Philadelphia Michael Nutter.
Michael McAuliff contributed reporting.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/27/neil-heslin-assault-weapons-ban-newtown_n_2774598.html [with embedded video of part of Heslin's testimony (his complete testimony next below), and comments]
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Watch Neil Heslin's full address to senators here
Published on Feb 27, 2013 by theukdailymail
'I'm not here for sympathy, I'm here for my son': Heart-breaking moment father of Sandy Hook victim breaks down in Senate as he pleads for ban on assault rifles
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sLEuqKvSsDs
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Arkansas Gun Legislation: State Senate Passes Bill To Allow Concealed Weapons On College Campuses
02/26/2013
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/25/arkansas-gun-legislation-college-campuses_n_2762754.html [with comments]
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Coastal Carolina Shooting: Student Killed During Attack At Residence Hall; Gunman At Large
02/27/2013
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/27/coastal-carolina-shooting_n_2770909.html [with embedded video report, and comments]
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Man rescued from Olathe fire is charged with arson, attempted murder of responders
February 25, 2013
A man rescued from a burning Olathe home by firefighters earlier this month has been charged with setting the fire and attempting to kill the emergency workers who probably saved his life.
Johnson County prosecutors charged 58-year-old William J. Outhet Jr. with arson and attempted first-degree murder in connection with the Feb. 1 incident in the 1400 block of North Martway Drive.
“Clearly from the charges, his intent was to harm first responders,” said Johnson County District Attorney Steve Howe.
Howe said he could not discuss details of the investigation. Spokesmen for the Olathe police and fire departments, which conducted a joint investigation, also said they could not comment.
But according to documents filed in Johnson County District Court, Outhet allegedly “staged” firearms around the residence and fired shots from a shotgun “towards the perpetration of the crime of premeditated first-degree murder.”
The intended victims are listed in court documents as “emergency personnel.”
No emergency personnel were injured in the incident, officials said.
[...]
Nine years ago, a similar incident in south Kansas City left a paramedic gravely injured by gunfire.
On Feb. 23, 2004, paramedic Mary Seymour was hit by gunfire after responding to a burning house in the 9400 block of Grandview Road. As police officers laid down covering fire, firefighters pulled Seymour to safety.
The resident of the burning home, who had been involved in a dispute with city officials, was found dead in the home’s wreckage along with his girlfriend.
More recently, on Christmas Eve, a 62-year-old man in upstate New York started a house fire and then fatally shot two responding firefighters. Two other firefighters and a police officer were wounded.
The gunman then fatally shot himself, officials said.
In the Olathe case, Howe said it was fortunate that no first responders were injured.
“It could have been really bad,” he said.
http://www.kansascity.com/2013/02/25/4087048/man-rescued-from-olathe-fire-is.html [comments disabled]
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Police shooting suspect had history of trouble
A bullet riddled garage door and wall is seen in Santa Cruz, Calif., on Wednesday, Feb. 27, 2013 where a suspected murderer was shot Tuesday afternoon after he allegedly killed two Santa Cruz Police Department detectives. Sgt. Loran Butch Baker and Detective Elizabeth Butler were shot and killed outside the home of coffee shop worker Jeremy Goulet, 35, who was suspected of making inappropriate sexual advances toward a co-worker at her home, authorities said. The shootout occurred about 60 miles south of San Francisco. Goulet died in the shootout with police.
(AP Photo/Thomas Mendoza)
By MARTHA MENDOZA and JASON DEAREN
Posted: 02/27/2013 01:21:38 AM PST
Updated: February 28, 2013 6:32 AM GMT 02/27/2013 10:32:15 PM PST
SANTA CRUZ, Calif.—There was no warning for the two police detectives killed on Jeremy Goulet's doorstep when he flung open his door and opened fire. But there was more than a decade of signs that indicated Goulet was, as his father said Wednesday, a "ticking time bomb."
The quiet beach town of Santa Cruz was reeling as teary-eyed law enforcement leaders struggled to explain how Goulet, 35, had managed to kill two detectives, Sgt. Loran Butch Baker and Elizabeth Butler.
The detectives were shot to death Tuesday soon after arriving at Goulet's home in plain clothes to question him about a misdemeanor sexual assault, Santa Cruz County Sheriff Phil Wowak said.
The killings kicked off an intense half-hour chase by police that ended in a barrage of gunfire as Goulet, pinned against a garage door and a wall, tried to take even more lives.
"It's been devastating," Police Chief Kevin Vogel said Wednesday, ordering his remaining force of 92 sworn officers to step down for the day, allowing sheriffs and the highway patrol to take over the city's protection.
For those who knew Goulet, Tuesday marked the end of an escalating path of failed careers, violent relationships and criminal arrests of a disturbed former soldier consumed with irrational fury and sexual deviances.
"He had contempt for the cops and hated our justice system, and had been in jail before and swore he'd never go back," his father, Ronald Goulet, 64, said in halted, emotional bursts during an interview with The Associated Press.
Goulet's father said his son texted his twin brother Tuesday, saying, "I'm in big trouble, I love you," the father recalled.
"Jeff texted back and Jeremy wouldn't answer and next thing we know he was shot and killed," he said.
Wowak said that after shooting the detectives, Goulet stole their guns and jumped into Baker's car. But the neighborhood was boxed in by hundreds of quickly responding law enforcement officers, so, well-armed, he ditched the car and headed back toward his house, where emergency crews were desperately trying to save the two detectives.
A team of law enforcement officers spotted him and ordered him to give up. Instead he ran, and when cornered, opened fire. Goulet was killed in the shootout. On Wednesday, Goulet's blood remained splattered on a wall on a quiet residential street.
A fire truck was hit by several bullets, and firefighters took cover behind their vehicle, pulling bystanders down with them for safety.
"(Goulet) was distraught," the sheriff said. "No doubt the officers that engaged Goulet stopped an imminent threat to the community."
Goulet, who had served two years in prison in Oregon, was most recently in Santa Cruz County jail Friday on charges of public intoxication. Earlier that evening, a colleague at the coffee shop where he was working filed a complaint with police about inappropriate sexual advances. He was fired the next day, and the detectives had been following up.
Jeremy Goulet earned a bachelor's degree in criminal justice in 2000. But his admiration for the law turned to hatred amid his constant urges to stare at unsuspecting women, his father said.
"He's got one problem: peeping in windows," said his father. "I asked him, 'Why don't you just go to a strip club?'"
During college, Jeremy Goulet served in the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve. His father said Jeremy was arrested then for peeping, a misdemeanor.
After graduating from San Diego State University in 2000, he landed in the U.S. Army, where he trained as a helicopter pilot. He was moving forward in his career when he again stumbled into legal troubles in the Army and was discharged, his father said.
Goulet moved to Portland to be with his twin brother, Jeffery, despite a strained relationship.
In May 2008, he went to trial on charges of peeping on a young woman as she took a shower in her condo, and for trying to kill her boyfriend. The woman said that after showering she noticed the window screen was gone and a stick had been used to prop open the blinds.
Goulet was convicted of carrying a gun without a concealed weapon permit and invasion of personal privacy. After violating his probation, Goulet was sentenced to two years in jail.
After his release, Goulet moved to Berkeley, where until last fall, a neighbor said the twin brothers lived for at least a year in a brown-shingled house on a quiet street.
Alicia Morrison said she and her husband lived in the apartment just below the brothers and called the police in September when they got into a violent fight.
"I didn't think it was an everyday fight. It sounded like one of them was going to get killed," she said. "They would throw each other down on the ground and they had two dogs upstairs who sounded like they were really scared."
She said Jeremy left before the police arrived on that occasion.
She said neighbors had called police for the same reason before, and a few days after Morrison called the police she said they came by the apartment again because Jeremy Goulet's girlfriend had been screaming.
"Every time the police were called they acted like it was no big deal," she said.
Jeremy Goulet had recently moved to Santa Cruz and taken a job at a harbor cafe, attempting to start over, his father said.
About 75 miles south of San Francisco, Santa Cruz is known for its world-class surf spots, historic downtown with bookstores and coffee shops, and the University of California, Santa Cruz. Its boardwalk is a major summer draw for tourists hoping to escape inland heat or enjoy a classic California experience.
Lately, the city of 60,000 people had seen a spike in assaults that community leaders had planned to address during a downtown rally.
Meanwhile, hundreds of grieving community members gathered for a vigil near the police department Wednesday evening.
The photos of Baker and Butler sat perched on a table surrounded by a cluster of flowers and candles that grew throughout the evening, while at other tables, people wrote notes to the officers' families, and children drew cartoon hearts and daisies on a banner in their honor.
Some who attended the vigil wore blue and black armbands in solidarity with the police officers attending.
Jeffery Goulet, the suspect's twin brother, released a statement Wednesday saying his family was deeply saddened.
"We would also like to extend our deepest sympathies to the families of Sgt. Loran Baker and Detective Elizabeth Butler," it said.
Baker was a 28-year veteran of the force whose son, Adam Baker, served as a community service officer. Butler, a 10-year veteran of the force, came to Santa Cruz to study at the university and stayed.
Associated Press writers John S. Marshall in San Francisco, Lisa Leff in Oakland, Calif., and Nigel Duara in Portland, Ore., contributed to this report.
Copyright 2013 The Associated Press
http://www.mercurynews.com/news/ci_22677888/2-police-officers-killed-calif-suspect-dead
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Bob Goodlatte: Obama Universal Background Check Policy Would Inconvenience Law-Abiding Citizens
By ERICA WERNER
02/27/13 12:15 PM ET EST
WASHINGTON — The Republican chairman of the House Judiciary Committee said Wednesday he opposes universal background checks on gun sales and doesn't foresee such a measure being part of gun legislation in the House.
Requiring background checks on all gun sales is a top priority of the Obama administration in the wake of the Newtown, Conn., school shooting, and has appeared to be emerging in the Senate as a possible area of bipartisan consensus.
But Rep. Bob Goodlatte of Virginia said at a Christian Science Monitor breakfast with media that such a requirement could unnecessarily inconvenience law-abiding citizens and lead to the creation of a national gun registry – something Goodlatte and many other Republicans oppose.
"It's not a very practical thing to do and you'll have a lot of inconvenience to law-abiding citizens at the same time you're not going to keep many weapons out of the hands of people who are misusing them," Goodlatte said. "I think there are better ways."
Instead, Goodlatte said he supports strengthening the existing background check system for gun buyers and cracking down on illegal firearms sales.
President Barack Obama proposed near-universal background checks after the December shooting of 20 children and six adults in Connecticut. Currently, the checks are only required for purchases from federally licensed gun dealers, not sales between private individuals at gun shows, online or elsewhere.
Obama also has supported limiting the size of ammunition magazines and renewing a ban on assault weapons, issues that were being examined at a Senate hearing Wednesday. But both those measures are seen as tough to get through Congress and Goodlatte has said he opposes both.
Expanding background checks has been seen as more politically doable, but Goodlatte's comments suggest tough prospects for that idea, too.
Copyright 2013 The Associated Press
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/27/bob-goodlatte-obama_n_2773546.html [with comments]
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Three killed, seven injured in Swiss factory shooting
Rescue service members walk in front of the wood processing plant of Kronospan following a shooting in Menznau near Lucerne February 27, 2013.
Credit: Reuters/Michael Buholzer
Wed Feb 27, 2013 9:32am EST
MENZNAU, Switzerland (Reuters) - A Swiss factory worker shot two colleagues dead and injured seven more on Wednesday at a wood processing plant near the city of Lucerne, police said.
The shooting was already over and the killer was dead by the time police arrived at the scene. Five of the injured were in a serious condition.
Lucerne police chief Daniel Bussmann told a news conference the 42-year-old attacker had worked at the factory in the town of Menznau, west of Lucerne, for 10 years, but said the motive for the attack was not clear.
A prosecution spokesman said the shooting took place over two to three minutes, with the dead and injured found on the factory floor, in a corridor and the site canteen.
Police did not immediately confirm how the gunman had died.
Mauro Caprozzo, chief executive of the wood processing company Kronoswiss, denied rumors that job cuts were due to be announced at the factory on Wednesday.
He said the killer was a quiet, unassuming character.
"One almost didn't see or notice him," Caprozzo said.
A gunman killed three women and injured two men last month in the Swiss village of Daillon, stirring a debate about Switzerland's firearm laws that allow men to keep guns after their mandatory military service.
There is no national gun register in Switzerland but some estimates indicate that at least one in every three of the country's 8 million inhabitants keeps a gun, many stored at home. Citizens outside the military can apply for a permit to purchase up to three weapons from the age of 18 in a country where sharp shooting and hunting are popular sports.
A shooting in the Zug regional parliament in 2001, in which 14 people were killed, prompted calls to tighten the law, but the majority of Swiss citizens rejected a proposal in 2011 for extra measures such as lock-ups for guns outside service periods.
(Reporting by Caroline Copley; Writing by Emma Thomasson; Editing by Tom Pfeiffer)
Copyright 2013 Thomson Reuters
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/02/27/us-swiss-shooting-idUSBRE91Q0KB20130227 [no comments yet]
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Texas school employee shot in gun safety class
In a district-sponsored workshop on arming school, an employee is accidentally wounded
Feb 28, 2013
http://www.salon.com/2013/02/28/texas_school_employee_shot_in_gun_safety_class/ [with comments]
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“The Myth of Persecution”: Early Christians weren’t persecuted
The Romans did not target, hunt or massacre Jesus' followers, says a historian of the early church
By Laura Miller
Sunday, Feb 24, 2013 03:00 PM CST
In the immediate aftermath of the Columbine High School massacre, a modern myth was born. A story went around that one of the two killers asked one of the victims, Cassie Bernall, if she believed in God. Bernall reportedly said “Yes” just before he shot her. Bernall’s mother wrote a memoir, titled “She Said Yes: The Unlikely Martyrdom of Cassie Bernall,” a tribute to her daughter’s courageous Christian faith. Then, just as the book was being published, a student who was hiding near Bernall told journalist Dave Cullen that the exchange never happened.
Although Candida Moss’ new book, “The Myth of Persecution: How Early Christians Invented a Story of Martyrdom [ http://www.amazon.com/dp/0062104527 ],” is about the three centuries following the death of Jesus, she makes a point of citing this modern-day parallel. What Bernall truly said and did in the moments before her death absolutely matters, Moss asserts, if we are going to hold her up as a “martyr.” Yet misconceptions and misrepresentations can creep in so soon. The public can get the story wrong even in this highly mediated and thoroughly reported age — and do so despite the presence among us of living eyewitnesses. So what, then, to make of the third-hand, heavily revised, agenda-laden and anachronistic accounts of Christianity’s original martyrs?
Moss, professor of New Testament and early Christianity at the University of Notre Dame, challenges some of the most hallowed legends of the religion when she questions what she calls “the Sunday school narrative of a church of martyrs, of Christians huddled in catacombs out of fear, meeting in secret to avoid arrest and mercilessly thrown to lions merely for their religious beliefs.” None of that, she maintains, is true. In the 300 years between the death of Jesus and the conversion of the Emperor Constantine, there were maybe 10 or 12 scattered years during which Christians were singled out for supression by Rome’s imperial authorities, and even then the enforcement of such initiatives was haphazard — lackadaisical in many regions, although harsh in others. “Christians were never,” Moss writes, “the victims of sustained, targeted persecution.”
Much of the middle section of “The Myth of Persecution” is taken up with a close reading of the six “so-called authentic accounts” of the church’s first martyrs. They include Polycarp, a bishop in Smyrna during the second century who was burned at the stake, and Saint Perpetua, a well-born young mother executed in the arena at Carthage with her slave, Felicity, at the beginning of the third century. Moss carefully points out the inconsistencies between these tales and what we know about Roman society, the digs at heresies that didn’t even exist when the martyrs were killed and the references to martyrdom traditions that had yet to be established. There’s surely some kernel of truth to these stories, she explains, as well as to the first substantive history of the church written in 311 by a Palestinian named Eusebius. It’s just that it’s impossible to sort the truth from the colorful inventions, the ax-grinding and the attempts to reinforce the orthodoxies of a later age.
Moss also examines surviving Roman records. She notes that during the only concerted anti-Christian Roman campaign, under the emperor Diocletian between 303 and 306, Christians were expelled from public offices. Their churches, such as the one in Nicomedia, across the street from the imperial palace, were destroyed. Yet, as Moss points out, if the Christians were holding high offices in the first place and had built their church “in the emperor’s own front yard,” they could hardly have been in hiding away in catacombs before Diocletian issued his edicts against them.
This is not to deny that some Christians were executed in horrible ways under conditions we’d consider grotesquely unjust. But it’s important, Moss explains, to distinguish between “persecution” and “prosecution.” The Romans had no desire to support a prison population, so capital punishment was common for many seemingly minor offenses; you could be sentenced to be beaten to death for writing a slanderous song. Moss distinguishes between those cases in which Christians were prosecuted simply for being Christians and those in which they were condemned for engaging in what the Romans considered subversive or treasonous activity. Given the “everyday ideals and social structures” the Romans regarded as essential to the empire, such transgressions might include publicly denying the divine status of the emperor, rejecting military service or refusing to accept the authority of a court. In one of her most fascinating chapters, Moss tries to explain how baffling and annoying the Romans (for whom “pacifism didn’t exist as a concept”) found the Christians — when the Romans thought about them at all.
Christians wound up in Roman courts for any number of reasons, but when they got there, they were prone to announcing, as a believer named Liberian once did, “that he cannot be respectful to the emperor, that he can be respectful only to Christ.” Moss compares this to “modern defendants who say that they will not recognize the authority of the court or of the government, but recognize only the authority of God. For modern Americans, as for ancient Romans, this sounds either sinister or vaguely insane.” It didn’t help that early Christians developed a passion for martyrdom. Suffering demonstrated both the piety of the martyr and the authenticity of the religion itself, and besides, it earned you an immediate, first-class seat in heaven. (Ordinary Christians had to wait for Judgment Day.) There were reports of fanatics deliberately seeking out the opportunity to die for their faith, including a mob that turned up at the door of a Roman official in Asia Minor, demanding to be martyred, only to be turned away when he couldn’t be bothered to oblige them.
Moss cannot be called a natural or fluent writer, but she is thorough, strives for clarity and is genuinely fired up in her concern for the influence of the myth of martyrdom on Western societies. “The idea of the persecuted church is almost entirely the invention of the 4th century and later,” she writes. This was, significantly, a period during which the church had become “politically secure,” thanks to Constantine. Yet, instead of providing a truthful account of Christianity’s early years, the scholars and clerics of the fourth century cranked out tales of horrific, systemic violence. These stories were subtly (and not so subtly) used as propaganda against heretical ideas or sects. They also made appealingly gruesome entertainment for believers who were, personally, fairly safe; Moss likens this to contemporary suburbanites reveling in a horror film.
Today, polemicists continue to use the deeply ingrained belief in a persecuted — and therefore morally righteous — church as a political club to demonize their opponents. Moss sees a direct link between the valorization of martyrs and preposterous right-wing rhetoric about the “war on Christianity.” It’s a tactic that makes compromise impossible. “You cannot collaborate with someone who is persecuting you,” Moss astutely points out. “You have to defend yourself.”
Where she is less shrewd is in her belief that by exposing the “false history of persecution,” we can somehow purge this paranoid approach to political differences. One of the most enlightening aspects of “The Myth of Persecution” is Moss’ ability to find contemporary analogies that make the ancient world more intelligible to the average reader, such as the Cassie Bernall story. But that story has an additional lesson to offer, about the true believer’s imperviousness to unpalatable facts. Bernall’s family and church are unmoved by the schoolmates who were present at the shooting and who have debunked the “She said yes” legend. “You can say it didn’t happen that way,” the Bernalls’ pastor told one reporter, “but the church won’t accept it. To the church, Cassie will always say yes, period.”
Copyright © 2013 Salon Media Group, Inc. (emphasis in original)
http://www.salon.com/2013/02/24/the_myth_of_persecution_early_christians_werent_persecuted/ [with comments]
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Bird Turd Jesus: Ohio Man Jim Lawry Says Dropping On His Windshield Is Image Of Christ
Jim Lawry on the windshield dropping: "It's like Jesus staring right at me."
By Ron Dicker
Posted: 02/25/2013 5:23 pm EST | Updated: 02/25/2013 6:18 pm EST
It isn't the Shroud of Turin [ http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-3445_162-57410982/controversial-new-theories-on-the-shroud-of-turin/ ]. It's the Turd of Brooklyn.
Jim Lawry of Brooklyn, Ohio, tells NewsNet5 that he's "amazed" by the image of Jesus Christ [ http://www.newsnet5.com/dpp/news/local_news/oh_cuyahoga/northeast-ohio-man-claims-bird-droppings-show-image-of-christ ] that he, family and friends see in a bird poop plopped on his windshield. He told the station he thinks it's a sign.
In a YouTube video posted Monday, Lawry marveled [ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hPnf2KKe7C0 ] at how it looked like a regular old dropping from the outside of the car -- but from the inside it looked, well, divine. The video has since been deleted.
"It's like a perfect portrait," he says in the video. "It's like Jesus staring right at me."
MSN writes that it looks more like a "dog wearing a wig" [ http://now.msn.com/jim-lawry-ohio-man-says-bird-poop-on-windshield-was-sign-from-jesus ] than the Son of God, and is perhaps more a sign that the car needs washing.
But sometimes one bird's excrement can mean one human's excitement. In August, Brandon Tudor of Illinois spotted a turd on his windshield that he thought was a dead ringer for Michael Jackson [ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/08/14/michael-jackson-bird-droppings_n_1774055.html ]. But Tudor's plan to auction it on eBay washed away in the rain.
Copyright © 2013 TheHuffingtonPost.com, Inc.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/25/bird-turd-jesus_n_2759963.html [with embedded slide show "Sacred Sightings?", and comments]
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How the Religious Right Is Helping De-Educate America's Youth
Photo Credit: Shutterstock.com
The bogus "school reform" movement isn't just about union-busting.
By K.C. Boyd
February 22, 2013
One can trace the development of today’s right wing Christian think takes to the Cultural Revolution of the 1960s. Religiously conservative people, motivated by their perceived degradation of society, quietly perfected their skills, all the while grooming their own young adherents, played an effective long-game that continues to win (and corrupt) the hearts and minds of a significant segment of our youth. Indeed, there is no better way to affect the future than by propagandizing the young. In this current post election season, the Biblically driven, often racist, members of society are once again regrouping to fight another day.
With the money of wealthy funders like Richard and Betsy DeVos (sister of Blackwater scion Eric Prince and daughter of Elsa and Edgar Prince of the Amway fortune) and the Walton, Koch and Scaife Foundations, simpatico politicians are hard at work bringing Dominionist [ http://beingchristian.net/glossary/ ] ideals quietly into the forefront of American education policy. While much of the country argues about budgets, deficits, and guns, a cleverly camouflaged package of School Choice and ”Bible-driven curricula“ make their way up the ladder.
On the surface, School Choice is purportedly about increasing opportunities for inner city and rural youth. The all-important subtext, however, is that School Choice is really about freeing up dollars for Christian-based education. An important arrow that energizes today’s religious quiver is the intentional misuse of language in changing the debate by referring to public schools as “government schools” and public education as a “government school monopoly,” thus instantly and directly speaking to Tea Partiers and Libertarians.
To still relatively scant notice, the call for “School Choice” or Vouchers continues to play out in state capitols across the nation in an effort to increase Biblically-based education through a redirection of tax dollars from public to private religious schools. In order to accomplish the end goal of Christianizing all students, stealth remains largely the rule of the day. In 2002, Dick DeVos told The Heritage Foundation [ http://www.talk2action.org/story/2011/5/3/12515/58655 ],
“We need to be cautious about talking too much about these activities. Many of the activities and the political work that needs to go on will go on at the grass roots. It will go on quietly and it will go on in the form that often politics is done - one person at a time, speaking to another person in privacy. And so these issues will not be, maybe, as visible or as noteworthy, but they will set a framework within states for the possibility of action on education reform issues."
During the 2011-2012 school year, thirty-two private school choice programs were in place with more than $800 million available for vouchers and scholarship tax credits, money that by all rights should have gone to our public school systems, many of which are in dire need. Groups with heart-warming names like The Alliance for School Choice and American Federation for Children encourage naive donors to support vouchers for reasons that are as deceptive as they are fundamentally non-democratic.
Additionally, over the years, far too many of these overzealous Christians have quietly insinuated themselves onto School Boards across the country and are hard at work challenging the historical mandate to provide a religion-neutral public education by insuring that the Bible become part of high school curricula.
In 2007, a piece of legislation backed by the Center for Reclaiming America for Christ and the American Family Association, passed in the Texas State House. The bill stated that Texas public schools must offer, as required curriculum the “history and literature of the Old and New Testaments.” Recently, the Texas Freedom Network (TFN) issued a chilling report on a study they coordinated with
Mark Chancey, Professor of Religious Studies at Southern Methodist University.
In his report [ http://www.tfn.org/site/PageServer?pagename=issues_religious_freedom_bible_courses ], Chancey stated that “at least 57 (Texas) school districts and three charter schools taught courses about the Bible in 2011-12, a number that more than doubled the districts teaching such courses in the 2006-07 school year.” The oversight spelled out in the bill that should have protected students from religious indoctrination was largely ignored leaving whole districts with Biblically driven curricula. At the time of the bill’s implementation, the bill’s co-author, Rep. Leo Berman, blatantly stated, “I don’t believe there’s such a thing as the separation of church and state.”
Of particular concern is the textbook-like use of scripture to condone homophobia, to slander blacks and Jews, and to deny basic climate and evolutionary science. And Texas is not alone. According to The National Council on Bible Curriculum in Public Schools’ website [ http://www.bibleinschools.net/ ] over a half a million students have already taken these courses nationally for credit. Take a half a million public school minds along with those who are already enrolled in religious schools or who are homeschooled, multiply it by a decade and it’s easy to see why it matters.
On a related note, a visit to the 27-million-dollar Creation Museum [ http://creationmuseum.org/ ] near the Greater Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport, adds yet another layer to the de-education of our young. While this so-called “museum,” and places like it, have been widely dissected and ridiculed in the press, try telling it to the throngs of school children enjoying a fun-filled field trip replete with ark-inhabiting animatronic dinosaurs.
One exhibit, in particular, stands out in its relevance to this piece. Inside the “museum” is a state-of-the-art theater wherein loops a slickly seductive film, Men in White. Treated to a reenactment of the Hurricane Sandy of Noah’s time, the theater seats bump up and down, when the Great Flood hits, while water squirts out from the seat ahead, all the while the largely student audience laughs uproariously. The film’s protagonist travels a journey that begins with her puzzling over evolution and ends with the affirmation of Genesis as the only viable Truth. Not only does the film deal effectively with the logical questions an inquisitive child might have about this one-way interpretation, but it also encourages and applauds a smart-alecky oppositional approach that students should take when confronted with supposedly “real“ science teachers. One leaves the theater – and the museum – gravely concerned and saddened by the excitement that emanates from the busloads of Christian and/or homeschooled children who lend the structure its credence as a museum.
Taken alone, each of the above, while certainly harmful, would not necessarily be call for alarm. However, when seen for the coordinated strategy these tactics represent, it is easy to understand how a very purposeful group of religionists have the potential to irreparably change the way America educates its young.
It is critical that Americans recognize not only the intent to privatize our schools but the vast Christian Right agenda behind it. Whether from curricula control and out of order teachers in our public schools, or from the voucherization leading to fundamentalist Christian-based schools, charter schools and Christian homeschooling, a generation of children so educated will graduate from high school ill-equipped to face the realities of a science based world.
Novelist K.C. Boyd is the author of the viral sensation, Being Christian: A Novel [ http://www.amazon.com/Being-Christian--A-Novel-Boyd/dp/0985521708 ]. According to Mikey Weinstein, President of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, "Boyd created a story so riveting that not only could I not put it down, but upon finishing it, I found myself, like an addict, craving more.
Copyright 2013 K.C. Boyd
http://www.alternet.org/belief/how-religious-right-helping-de-educate-americas-youth [ http://www.alternet.org/belief/how-religious-right-helping-de-educate-americas-youth?paging=off ] [with comments] [also at http://www.salon.com/2013/02/25/how_the_religious_right_is_undermining_education/ (with comments)]
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Creationism Case: John Freshwater Lawyers Spar With Mount Vernon School Board In Ohio Bible Case
By JULIE CARR SMYTH and ANDREW WELSH-HUGGINS
02/27/13 05:32 PM ET EST
COLUMBUS, Ohio — State Supreme Court justices sparred with lawyers on Wednesday in a heated hour of arguments over the extent to which a now-fired public school science teacher had the right to push his religious beliefs in class.
A lawyer for the school board that dismissed John Freshwater in 2011 said he waved a Bible at his students, handed out religious pamphlets and espoused creationism in his evolution lessons.
Freshwater violated the constitutional separation between church and state and was rightfully fired, said David Smith, an attorney for the Mount Vernon School Board.
Smith said Freshwater can't "teach evolution from a Christian perspective" without violating constitutional protections against government establishment of religion.
"There is no academic freedom of the teacher to do that," Smith argued. "This is not a case about industrial hemp. It's not a case about the Iraqi war. Political sociological viewpoint is something completely different."
Freshwater's attorney, Rita Dunaway, said accounts of Freshwater's class conduct were exaggerated and he was exercising his academic freedom to explore controversial ideas.
She said the board's decision to dismiss Freshwater showed hostility toward religion.
"The board's position basically boils down to the proposition that simply offering students evidence of the gaps or flaws in evolutionary theory is equal to religious indoctrination," she said.
Dunaway said Freshwater had a laudable teaching record and his students scored well on standardized science tests.
Freshwater was dismissed after investigators reported he preached Christian beliefs in class when discussing topics such as evolution and homosexuality and was insubordinate in failing to remove the Bible from his classroom.
Justices appeared perplexed, at times irritated, about what lawyers believed was the legal issue before them.
Justice Paul Pfeifer was incredulous when Smith argued that Freshwater's evolution class wouldn't have been covered under the school district's controversial-issues policy.
"So there's nothing controversial about evolution," he said. "It is a theory, isn't it?"
Freshwater also had been accused of using a science tool to burn students' arms with the image of a cross, but that allegation was resolved and was not a factor in his firing.
Justices nevertheless pursued the issue on Wednesday, asking what role it played in Freshwater being investigated. Smith speculated that attention surrounding that incident was what prompted the school board's investigation into Freshwater's 21-year career.
The board, in its review, concluded Freshwater had used a high-frequency generator, which other teachers have used to demonstrate electrical current, to burn a cross onto a student's arm. The cross lasted a few weeks.
The student's family settled a federal lawsuit against the district in an effort to move on.
In Freshwater's dismissal case, he is getting legal backing from the Charlottesville, Va.-based Rutherford Institute, a civil liberties group. Science education and humanist and secular groups have joined the side of the school board.
The school board argues that as far back as 1994 a middle school principal told Freshwater to stop distributing an "Answers in Genesis" pamphlet, which contained information about a creationist organization's seminar, according to a filing by board attorneys asking the court to uphold Freshwater's firing.
Freshwater also used a handout titled "Survival of the Fakest" to teach his students to doubt science, the board's attorneys said.
Two lower courts previously upheld Freshwater's dismissal.
At the back of the courtroom Wednesday, 17-year-old Esther Sorg and 18 other students from Wilmington Christian Academy, about an hour southwest of Columbus, listened in as part of a school field trip.
Sorg said her science classes include evolution and it seems public school classes could include the creationist perspective without harm.
"My eighth-grade science class was taught from a Christian perspective, but we discussed evolution as well," she said. "I thought that was good because I wanted to know what the current theories were."
Online:
Ohio Supreme Court: http://www.sconet.state.oh.us
Copyright 2013 The Associated Press
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/27/creationism-john-freshwater_n_2773977.html [with comments]
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Cardinal Levada: Cardinal Mahony Should Help Select Pope
Cardinal William Levada gestures during a media conference Monday, Feb. 25, 2013, at St. Patrick's seminary in Menlo Park, Calif.
By MARTHA MENDOZA
02/25/13 06:08 PM ET EST
MENLO PARK, Calif. — The former archbishop of San Francisco said Monday that Los Angeles Cardinal Roger Mahony has a rightful place among Vatican officials who will choose the next pope, even though Mahony has been battered in recent days by disclosures about his role in covering up clergy sex abuse.
The comments by Cardinal William Levada, a high-ranking Vatican official until recently, came in the wake of a grass-roots campaign to shame Mahony into refraining from participating because of his role protecting sexually abusive priests.
Mahony left for Rome over the weekend after recently released church documents showed he had covered up for other priests who raped and molested children.
"There are some victims groups for whom enough is never enough, so we have to do our jobs as best we see it," said Levada, 76, who spoke with reporters from a Menlo Park seminary as he prepared for his trip to the Vatican for the papal conclave.
"He has apologized for errors in judgment that were made," Levada said. "I believe he should be at the conclave."
On Monday, Mahony took to social media and his own personal blog to write about persecution and forgiving one's enemies. He said he has a special prayer group for people who "cannot forgive me for my past hurts and offenses," including members of the media, attorneys, protesters and those who "hate and despise me."
He also tweeted from Rome, writing: "Anyone interested in loving your enemies, or doing good to those who persecute you? See my blog for today. Wow, Jesus is demanding."
Levada said Cardinal Keith O'Brien's decision Monday to step down as archbishop of St. Andrews and Edinburgh and to opt out of the conclave will "provide the freedom to do a good independent investigation and decide on appropriate measures to take on this case."
Levada, who leaves for Rome on Tuesday, retired in 2012 after spending six years as the head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the Vatican's orthodoxy watchdog, which also defrocked pedophile priests.
He played a key role in several church sex-abuse reforms. While serving previously as an archbishop in California and Oregon, he kept some accused molesters in the church and failed to share some allegations with police or parishioners.
On Monday, Levada drew a sharp divide between gay men and pedophile priests.
"By nature homosexuality is a not a predatory activity, it is a sexual activity that the Catholic church does not condone," he said. By contrast, he said pedophile priests are violating the sanctity and purity of young people.
Levada also said bureaucratic reforms at the Vatican will require a lot of attention from the next pope. He said he'll be looking for a candidate with deep faith, someone who has shown leadership and has language skills. He said youth is also a factor, and he extinguished any rumors that the next pope might be from the U.S.
"I don't know what the Las Vegas oddsmakers are saying today," he said, "but I don't think it's likely that we would see an American pope. It would be an additional complexity for an American pope to have to deal with the perception that some of his decisions might be perceived to be dictated by American governmental policy."
Levada also said he respects Pope Benedict's decision to withhold findings from an investigation into Vatican leaks to cardinals voting on his successor.
"If his judgment is that there's nothing in that report that's necessary for the cardinals then I think we can rely on that," he said. "Pope Benedict is a man of very good judgment."
Levada and Mahony will join more than 100 cardinals on Thursday in Rome to begin the historical process that will choose a successor to Pope Benedict XVI, whose decision to retire took worldwide Catholics by surprise.
Levada, whose Vatican job was held by the former Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger before he became Pope Benedict XVI, said in all his years of service, he never anticipated being called to a conclave.
"Never. Never," he said. "It's very challenging. It's pretty exciting."
Prior to the election, the cardinals meet and discuss the qualities of the candidates.
"We begin to make some judgments," he said.
Then, in silence, the cardinals vote, sometimes repeatedly, tucking ballots into a closely observed box which is then openly counted in front of them.
Copyright 2013 The Associated Press
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/25/cardinal-levada-mahony-_n_2761495.html [with embedded video report, and comments]
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Video of Pope Benedict’s Public Farewell
Video [ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N1KwV5GYjwQ , as embedded]
During his final farewell address, Pope Benedict XVI describes the joys and challenges of his papacy via CNN on YouTube.
By JENNIFER PRESTON
February 27, 2013, 12:12 pm
As our colleagues, Rachel Donadio and Alan Cowell report [ http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/28/world/europe/pope-benedict-XVI-final-general-audience.html ], Pope Benedict XVI held his final general audience in St. Peter’s Square on Wednesday a day before before he withdraws from public life for a cloistered life of prayer and meditation.
Before tens of thousands of people gathered in the square, the Pope acknowledged the difficulties [ http://en.radiovaticana.va/index.asp ] he faced during his papacy, describing “moments of joy and light but also moments that were not easy.”
From the full text [ http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/28/world/europe/pope-benedict-xvis-remarks.html ] of his address [and following the two-paragraph excerpt, the video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SNf9U9x0pUc , as embedded]:
When, almost eight years ago, on April 19th, [2005], I agreed to take on the Petrine ministry, I held steadfast in this certainty, which has always accompanied me. In that moment, as I have already stated several times, the words that resounded in my heart were: “Lord, what do you ask of me? It a great weight that You place on my shoulders, but, if You ask me, at your word I will throw out the nets, sure that you will guide me” – and the Lord really has guided me. He has been close to me: daily could I feel His presence.
[These years] have been a stretch of the Church’s pilgrim way, which has seen moments joy and light, but also difficult moments. I have felt like St. Peter with the Apostles in the boat on the Sea of Galilee: the Lord has given us many days of sunshine and gentle breeze, days in which the catch has been abundant; [then] there have been times when the seas were rough and the wind against us, as in the whole history of the Church it has ever been – and the Lord seemed to sleep. Nevertheless, I always knew that the Lord is in the barque, that the barque of the Church is not mine, not ours, but His – and He shall not let her sink. It is He, who steers her: to be sure, he does so also through men of His choosing, for He desired that it be so. This was and is a certainty that nothing can tarnish. It is for this reason, that today my heart is filled with gratitude to God, for never did He leave me or the Church without His consolation, His light, His love.
On Twitter, the Pope’s account, @Pontifex [ https://twitter.com/Pontifex ], with more than 1.5 million followers, posted:
Benedict XVI
@Pontifex
If only everyone could experience the joy of being Christian, being loved by God who gave his Son for us!
11:27 AM - 27 Feb 13
Shortly after he announced his resignation, he asked on Twitter [ https://twitter.com/Pontifex/status/305638456225304576 ] for people “to pray for me and for the Church, trusting as always in divine Providence.”
[...]
© 2013 The New York Times Company
http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/02/27/video-of-pope-benedicts-public-farewell/ [with comment]
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Openly gay Mississippi mayoral candidate’s body found, homicide suspected
(Credit: AP)
A person of interest is in custody, but authorities released few other details about Marco McMillian's death
By Holbrook Mohr
Thursday, Feb 28, 2013 12:31 PM CST
JACKSON, Miss. — Whatever his prospects for winning the coming mayoral election in his hometown of Clarksdale, Miss., Marco McMillian was considered by many to be a man on the rise. So word spread fast when his SUV was involved in a wreck this week, and he was nowhere to be found.
The discovery of the openly gay candidate’s body near a Mississippi River levee Wednesday stunned residents of Clarksdale, a Blues mecca in the flatlands of the Mississippi Delta.
Authorities were investigating McMillian’s death as a homicide, and said a person of interest was in custody, but released few other details.
“There’s a lot of people upset about it,” said Dennis Thomas, 33, who works at Abe’s Barbeque.
“Why would somebody want to do something like that to somebody of that caliber? He was a highly respected person in town,” Thomas said.
The 34-year-old Democrat wasn’t running what many would consider a typical campaign for political office in Mississippi, which is known for its conservative politics.
Campaign spokesman Jarod Keith said McMillian’s campaign was noteworthy because he may have been the first openly gay man to be a viable candidate for public office in the state.
McMillian, who was black, had also forged ties while serving for four years as international executive director of the historically black Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity Inc. Photos on McMillian’s website and Facebook page show him with a younger Barack Obama, former President Bill Clinton and with U.S. Rep. John Lewis, a Georgia Democrat.
Coahoma County Coroner Scotty Meredith said McMillian’s body was found Wednesday morning near the levee between Sherard and Rena Lara. It was sent to Jackson for an autopsy.
Meredith said the case is being investigated as a homicide, but he declined to speculate on the cause of death.
Authorities had been looking for McMillian since Tuesday morning when a man crashed the candidate’s SUV into another vehicle on U.S. Highway 49. McMillian was not in the car.
The sheriff’s office said Wednesday that a person of interest was in custody, but had not been formally charged.
Will Rooker, a spokesman for the sheriff’s office, declined to release other details.
McMillian was CEO of MWM & Associates, described on its website as a consulting firm for nonprofit organizations. In addition to his role at the fraternity from 2007 to 2011, McMillian had previously worked to raise funds as executive assistant to the president at Alabama A&M University and as assistant to the vice president at Jackson State University, according to his campaign.
A statement from the fraternity said he had secured the first federal contract to raise awareness about the impact of HIV and AIDS on communities of color. It noted that Ebony Magazine had recognized him in 2004 as one of the nation’s “30 up-and-coming African Americans” under age 30.
Supporters say McMillian – a 1997 graduate of Clarksdale High School who graduated magna cum laude from Jackson State and held a master’s degree from St. Mary’s University in Minnesota in philanthropy and development – had big ideas for Clarksdale, a town of about 17,800 people.
The town is well known to Blues fans as the home of the crossroads, where Robert Johnson is said to have sold his soul to the devil for skills with a guitar. Academy Award-winning actor and Mississippi native Morgan Freeman is part owner of the Ground Zero Blues Club in town. Clarksdale is also hounded by the poverty typical of the Mississippi Delta.
McMillian was hoping to win the office being vacated by Mayor Henry Espy Jr., the brother of Mike Espy, a former congressman and U.S. agriculture secretary. Henry Espy decided not to seek re-election after more than two decades in office. Espy’s son, state Rep. Chuck Espy, and Bill Luckett, a partner in Freeman’s club, were among the other well-known candidates in the race. The primary is May 7.
The Gay & Lesbian Victory Fund and Institute tweeted: “Our hearts go out to the family and friends of Marco McMillian, one of the 1st viable openly (hash)LGBT candidates in Mississippi.”
McMillian’s campaign said in a statement that words cannot describe “our grief at the loss of our dear friend.”
“We remember Marco as a bold and passionate public servant, whose faith informed every aspect of his life,” the statement said.
Copyright 2013 The Associated Press
http://www.salon.com/2013/02/28/openly_gay_mississippi_mayoral_candidates_body_found_homicide_suspected/ [with comments]
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NFL Combine Gay Questions: Teams Prying About Sexual Orientation, TE Nick Kasa Says
02/27/2013
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/26/nfl-combine-gay-nick-kasa_n_2770102.html [with embedded video report, and comments]
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Illinois Gay Marriage Bill OKed In Committee, Advances To Full House Vote
A supporter for same sex-marriage wears a sticker on her jacket before attending a Senate Executive committee hearing at the Illinois State Capitol in Springfield, Ill. The Illinois House Executive Committee on Tuesday approved a marriage equality bill.
02/27/2013
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/26/illinois-gay-marriage-bil_n_2768163.html [with earlier related video report embedded, and comments]
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U.S. to Urge Justices to End California Gay Marriage Ban
By ADAM LIPTAK
February 28, 2013
WASHINGTON — The Obama administration will throw its support behind a broad claim for marriage equality, urging the Supreme Court to rule that voters in California were not entitled to ban same-sex marriage there, according to an administration official.
The federal government is not a party to the case, Hollingsworth v. Perry, No. 12-144, and was not required to take a position in it. But the lawyers who filed the challenge, Theodore B. Olson and David Boies, along with gay rights groups, lobbied hard for the brief, saying the administration could not stay silent on the issue.
The administration is expected to file the brief Thursday.
The broad outlines of the administration’s position were not a surprise, given that it filed a brief last week in a same-sex marriage case in which it is a party, United States v. Windsor, No. 12-307. But that case presents only the narrower question of the constitutionality of part of the federal Defense of Marriage Act [ http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/BILLS-104hr3396enr/pdf/BILLS-104hr3396enr.pdf ] of 1996, which defines marriage as the union of a man and a woman for the purposes of more than 1,000 federal laws and regulations.
The Supreme Court’s ruling in the Defense of Marriage Act case will at most decide whether the federal government can discriminate against same-sex couples even if they married in states that allow such unions. Nine states and the District of Columbia allow same-sex marriage.
The case from California presents the broader question of whether there is a constitutional right to same-sex marriage in the states that do not allow it, which is why the new brief is significant. It is hardly certain, however, that the Supreme Court will end up deciding that broad question. The court may well avoid the issue on technical grounds or rule in a way that applies only to California.
Until not long ago, the administration was thought likely to stay out of the California case, partly as a matter of historical practice and partly to be true to President Obama’s public position on same-sex marriage.
The federal government took no position in 1967 in Loving v. Virginia [ http://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/historics/USSC_CR_0388_0001_ZO.html ], the case in which the Supreme Court struck down bans on interracial marriage, or in 2003 in the last major gay rights case, Lawrence v. Texas [ http://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/02-102.ZS.html ], which struck down state laws making gay sex a crime.
Moreover, when Mr. Obama announced his support for same-sex marriage, he said the matter was for the states to decide.
“I continue to believe,” he told Robin Roberts of ABC News [ http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/transcript-robin-roberts-abc-news-interview-president-obama/story?id=16316043 ], “that this is an issue that is going to be worked out at the local level, because historically, this has not been a federal issue, what’s recognized as a marriage.”
That statement is not hard to reconcile with the administration’s position in the case concerning the 1996 federal law. As Mr. Obama said in May, the law “tried to federalize what has historically been state law.” But the views Mr. Obama expressed in May are in tension with the position taken by his lawyers in the new brief, which calls for federal intervention to override a state law.
(A second part of the 1996 law, which says states need not recognize same-sex marriages performed elsewhere, is not before the Supreme Court.)
On the other hand, Mr. Obama has long opposed Proposition 8, the 2008 California voter initiative that amended the state’s Constitution to overturn a State Supreme Court decision establishing a right to same-sex marriage.
“I am not in favor of gay marriage,” Mr. Obama told MTV News [ http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1598407/did-barack-obama-answer-your-question.jhtml ] in 2008. “But when you start playing around with constitutions, just to prohibit somebody who cares about another person, it just seems to me that’s not what America’s about. Usually, our constitutions expand liberties, they don’t contract them.”
More recently, Mr. Obama has embraced a more sweeping view of marriage equality.
“Our journey is not complete until our gay brothers and sisters are treated like anyone else under the law,” he said in January in his Inaugural Address [ http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/21/us/politics/obamas-second-inaugural-speech.html?pagewanted=all ], “for if we are truly created equal, then surely the love we commit to one another must be equal, as well.”
The new brief argues that courts should subject laws making distinctions between straight and gay people to “heightened scrutiny,” requiring a showing that such laws are “substantially related to an important government objective.” The Supreme Court has never ruled on whether sexual orientation should require such review, but the federal appeals court in New York, in the Windsor case, said that it did.
The administration argues that the factors that led courts to require heightened scrutiny for laws concerning gender and illegitimacy should also require it for those addressing sexual orientation. Gay men and lesbians, the brief said, have suffered a history of discrimination, have distinguishing characteristics and lack political power.
The California case is scheduled to be argued on March 26 and the one concerning the federal law on March 27. Solicitor General Donald B. Verrilli Jr. will probably present the federal government’s position in both cases, and he is likely to be questioned closely about changes and possible inconsistencies in the administration’s position.
Michael D. Shear contributed reporting.
© 2013 The New York Times Company
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/01/us/politics/administration-to-urge-justices-to-overturn-a-gay-marriage-ban.html [with comments]
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Brief Supporting Same-Sex Marriage Gets More Republican Support
February 27, 2013
*
Related
Republicans Sign Brief in Support of Gay Marriage (February 26, 2013)
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/26/us/politics/prominent-republicans-sign-brief-in-support-of-gay-marriage.html
*
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/28/us/politics/gay-marriage-brief-gets-more-republican-support.html [and see http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/27/marilyn-musgrave-gay-marriage_n_2773986.html (with comments)]
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Robertson: Worth it to Pray Away Demons on Clothes, Inanimate Objects
Published on Feb 25, 2013 by RWWBlog
http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/robertson-worth-praying-over-clothes-rebuke-demons
Televangelist Pat Robertson agrees that demons can attach themselves to material goods and therefore it's not a bad idea to rebuke them before bringing them into your home
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EDpp9UWVjsQ
===
Hobby Lobby's Anti-Obamacare Birth Control Stance Backed By McConnell, High-Profile Republicans
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) and 10 other Republican lawmakers filed a brief in support of Hobby Lobby's lawsuit against an Obamacare requirement that health insurance covers contraception.
02/25/2013
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/25/hobby-lobby-obamacare_n_2759780.html [with comments]
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Double Ultrasound Bill In Indiana Changed To Require Just One Procedure
The GOP-controlled Indiana Senate has dropped a provision requiring women to receive two ultrasounds for a medication abortion.
(GENT SHKULLAKU/AFP/Getty Images)
By Amanda Terkel
Posted: 02/26/2013 11:07 am EST | Updated: 02/26/2013 3:54 pm EST
Indiana state senators have dropped a requirement that would force women to undergo an ultrasound procedure both before and after [ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/21/double-ultrasound-bill-indiana_n_2734658.html ] having a medication-induced abortion, after the legislation attracted national criticism [ http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/02/21/maddow-blasts-indianas-mandated-double-trans-vaginal-probe-bill/ ].
"I think that physicians know [ http://www.courierpress.com/news/2013/feb/25/indiana-senate-republicans-change-language-abortio/ ] a little bit more about that particular area than legislators," state Sen. Ron Alting (R), who is the author of Monday's amendment to Senate Bill 371, told the Evansville Courier and Press.
The Senate Health and Provider Services Committee approved the legislation last week, sending it to the full chamber for a vote. It would impose heavy regulations on doctors and clinics that offer medication abortions.
One ultrasound would have occurred before the abortion and then another after the procedure, to ensure that the woman is no longer pregnant and has stopped bleeding.
Dr. Anne Davis, the consulting medical director for Physicians for Reproductive Health, told HuffPost that a second ultrasound was unnecessary because a woman could "do a blood test at any local facility after an abortion to show that the hormone levels are going down as they should, there's no medical reason to make her drive back to the abortion clinic and go through another ultrasound."
The procedures would have been especially invasive, since they would have likely needed to be performed with a transvaginal probe. Medication abortions -- which are generally used to end a pregnancy up to 10 weeks from a woman's last period -- usually occur too early for an external transabdominal ultrasound to provide a clear image.
The GOP-controlled state Senate will vote on the amended version of SB 371 on Tuesday. According to the Evansville Courier and Press, the bill still mandates a pre-abortion ultrasound -- a requirement that abortion rights advocates have fought against.
"It is intended to confuse and shame women who are already dealing with a difficult situation. It's the last thing they need," said Betty Cockrum, president of Planned Parenthood of Indiana.
SB 371's author, state Sen. Travis Holdman (R), said he was fine with Alting's change, but still wanted to make sure women received a pre-pregnancy ultrasound.
"We're dealing with an unborn child here, as well, and I felt that we just need to regulate abortion-inducing drugs,” he said.
State Sen. Jean Breaux (D) attempted to amend the bill to mandate prostate exams for men [ http://www.theindychannel.com/news/politics/indiana-senators-drop-second-ultrasound-requirement-for-women-taking-abortion-drug ] seeking erectile dysfunction medication, but she was unsuccessful.
Copyright © 2013 TheHuffingtonPost.com, Inc.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/26/double-ultrasound-indiana_n_2765061.html [with embedded video report, and comments]
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Abortion Bill Veto Overridden By Arkansas House
By ANDREW DeMILLO
02/27/13 07:06 PM ET EST
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — The Arkansas House voted 53-28 Wednesday to override Gov. Mike Beebe's veto of a bill that would outlaw most abortions starting in the 20th week of pregnancy, hours after a state Senate committee approved a package of even tighter abortion restrictions.
The Republican-controlled state Senate, which overwhelmingly backed the 20-week near-ban on abortions before Beebe, a Democrat, vetoed it, was expected to discuss whether to vote to override the veto Thursday. Like the GOP-led House, only a simple majority in the Senate is needed to override a veto.
The House-sponsored measure is based on the disputed argument that a fetus can feel pain by the 20th week of pregnancy, and thus deserves protection from abortion. Beebe vetoed the bill Tuesday, saying it contradicts the U.S. Supreme Court's 1976 Roe v. Wade decision, which legalized abortion until a fetus can viably survive outside of the womb, which is typically at 22 to 24 weeks.
"This is not just any regular bill. It's one that has an eternal impact on each of us and to those children," Republican Rep. Andy Mayberry told House members as he urged them to override.
Two of the House's 48 Democrats joined with all 51 GOP members to support overriding Beebe's veto. Eighteen Democrats and the chamber's only Green Party member did not vote on the override, which has the same effect as voting against it. Republicans hold 21 of the 35 seats in the Senate, which approved the bill on a 25-7 vote last week.
Before the House vote, the Senate Public Health, Welfare and Labor Committee voted 5-2 to advance a bill that would ban most abortions starting in the 12th week of pregnancy, sending it to the full Senate. The Senate passed an earlier version of the bill that would have outlawed abortions as early as six weeks into a pregnancy, but amended it to push back the restriction and to add more exemptions.
Beebe declined to say Wednesday whether he also would veto the Senate's proposed 12-week ban, but he said he thinks it's on even shakier legal ground than the House's 20-week version.
"I'm pretty sure I know what I'm going to do on a bill that's even more problematic than the one I already vetoed, but I won't tell you officially until that time," Beebe said Tuesday.
Seven states have enacted similar 20-week restrictions based on the fetal pain argument, according to the Guttmacher Institute, which tracks laws affecting women's health. A similar law in Arizona has been blocked while a federal appeals court reviews a lawsuit challenging it.
The Arkansas bill is based on research Mayberry and other abortion opponents cite that fetuses can feel pain at 20 weeks. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, however, says it knows of no legitimate scientific information supporting the idea that a fetus experiences pain.
John DiPippa, dean emeritus of the University of Arkansas at Little Rock's law school, said he agrees with Beebe that the ban is unconstitutional and likely will be decided by the courts. He said he thinks the fetal pain argument will lose in the lower courts but that it's unclear how it might fare if it were to reach the U.S. Supreme Court.
"The core holding of Roe is that a state cannot place an obstacle in the way of a woman who wants to abort before viability," DiPippa said. "If you apply that standard, then these bills that draw the line at 20 weeks – which by all medical estimates is prior to viability – would clearly set up a substantial obstacle to a woman's ability to before that age."
GOP Sen. Jason Rapert said he hopes Beebe lets it stand but said he was confident the 12-week ban would have enough support to override a veto.
"The governor has his own conscience," Rapert, R-Conway, told reporters. "I think probably the best route would be that he just simply not sign the bill and let it become law, if that's what he decides to do. If he doesn't, then we'll override the veto and it'll become law in the state of Arkansas."
Associated Press writer Michael Stratford contributed to this report.
Copyright 2013 The Associated Press
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/27/abortion-bill-arkansas_n_2776619.html [with comments]
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15-Year-Old Alleged Maldives Rape Victim Sentenced To 100 Lashes For Premarital Sex Charge
By Cavan Sieczkowski
Posted: 02/27/2013 12:29 pm EST | Updated: 02/27/2013 12:34 pm EST
A 15-year-old Maldives girl who was allegedly raped by her stepfather has been sentenced to 100 lashes for engaging in premarital sex, but prosecutors allege that the punishment relates to a separate incident and not the rape case.
Last year, police began investigating allegations that a 15-year-old had been repeatedly raped by her stepfather [ http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-21595814 ] and impregnated after a baby was found buried on the island of Feydhoo in Shaviyani Atoll, the BBC reports. However, charges were brought against the teenage girl for premarital sex unrelated to the alleged rape.
During questioning, the alleged rape victim reportedly admitted to having sex with another man [ http://minivannews.com/society/raped-victims-punished-failed-by-law-in-the-maldives-53760 ], according to independent Maldives news organization, Minivan News. This man has not been identified, arrested or charged. Meanwhile, the stepfather is accused of killing the baby and faces 25 years in jail if convicted of rape and murder.
Zaima Nasheed, a spokesperson for the Maldives juvenile court, defended the punishment of 100 lashes and eight months house arrest, claiming the girl had "willingly committed an act outside of the law," the BBC writes. She will receive the flogging when she turns 18, unless she requests it sooner.
Masood Imad, a spokesman for Maldives President Mohamed Waheed, also rationalized the penalty.
"She is not going to be lashed to cause her pain... rather, it is for her to feel the shame for having engaged in activity forbidden by the religion," Imad told the Agence France-Presse.
However, human rights groups have condemned the premarital sex charge against the 15-year-old [ http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/afp/130227/alleged-rape-victim-maldives-be-flogged-court-0 ( http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5jludRDnJa6Xc3TPiZ6SMZbrJaSOA?docId=CNG.722c21ce71c2b2203f35cd3432c15546.5d1 )].
"The girl is already a victim and is traumatised, the authorities should be trying to protect her, not punish her," Meenakshi Ganguly, south Asia director for Human Rights Watch told the AFP, calling flogging "an inhuman, degrading practice... the kind of punishment that should not exist in their law books."
The Maldives -- an island nation located in the Indian Ocean -- is a popular tourist destination, but the country has faced criticism for its Islamic fundamentalism and practice of Sharia law.
Via The Independent [ http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/sentenced-to-100-lashes-in-the-maldives-15yearold-girl-raped-by-stepfather-who-then-murdered-baby-8513293.html ]:
Under the country’s laws, pre-marital sex is a a crime and those found guilty are often flogged. In September 2012, a court ordered the public flogging of a 16-year-old woman who had confessed to premarital sex, while in the summer of 2009 a pregnant 18-year-old woman received 100 lashes in public after she admitted to having sex with two different men.
Minivan News notes that the state's motives for punishing a rape victim, who has suffered physical and mental trauma, are unclear.
In January, when the premarital sex charges were first brought up, Amnesty International spoke out in defense of the young girl.
“This is an absolute outrage, regardless of the reason for her charges. Victims of rape or other forms of sexual abuse should be given counselling and support [ http://www.amnesty.org.uk/news_details.asp?NewsID=20551 ] – not charged with a crime," Abbas Faiz, Amnesty International’s Maldives researcher, said. “We urge the Maldivian authorities to immediately drop all charges against the girl, ensure her safety and provide her with all necessary support."
He added that the punishment could induce more damage, saying "The fact that this time a 15-year old girl who has suffered terribly is at risk makes it all the more reprehensible. Flogging is not only wrong and humiliating, but can lead to long-term psychological as well as physical scars.”
Copyright © 2013 TheHuffingtonPost.com, Inc.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/27/maldives-rape-victim-100-lashes-premarital-sex_n_2773631.html [with comments]
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Wichita Abortion Clinic
Letter
Published: February 21, 2013
To the Editor:
Reading about Julie Burkhart and her team gives me hope (“Four Years Later, Slain Abortion Doctor’s Aide Steps Into the Void [ http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/14/us/kansas-abortion-practice-set-to-replace-tiller-clinic.html?pagewanted=all ],” news article, Feb. 14).
As a doctor who provides abortions and a colleague of Dr. George R. Tiller, I have worried about the women left behind when he was murdered — not only the patients who came from far and wide for late abortions but the Wichita, Kan., women who depended on him for early procedures and family planning.
Their needs didn’t die when he was murdered, and I applaud Ms. Burkhart for her determination to bring reproductive health care back to these women.
She seems unfazed by the anti-abortion furor kicked up around her. Maybe, like me, she finds solace in Dr. Tiller’s memory and his conviction that women should be trusted with their health and lives.
WILLIE PARKER
Chicago, Feb. 14, 2013
The writer [ http://www.prch.org/willie-parker-md-mph ] is a board member of Physicians for Reproductive Health [ http://prh.org/ ].
© 2013 The New York Times Company
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/22/opinion/wichita-abortion-clinic.html
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Ming Guang Huang Arrested After Allegedly Attacking Wife With Meat Cleaver In Chinatown
02/25/2013
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/25/ming-guang-huang-arrested-meat-cleaver_n_2758317.html [with embedded video reports (including surveillance video of the attack), and comments]
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Mark Warden, New Hampshire State Legislator, Says People May Like 'Being In Abusive Relationships'
New Hampshire state Rep. Mark Warden
By John Celock
Posted: 02/27/2013 11:57 am EST | Updated: 02/27/2013 6:52 pm EST
A Republican state legislator in New Hampshire told a legislative committee Tuesday that people may "like being in abusive relationships" and can leave at any time.
State Rep. Mark Warden (R-Manchester) made the comments during a state House Criminal Justice and Public Safety Committee meeting on legislation that would reduce a charge of simple assault from a misdemeanor crime to a violation, the Concord Monitor reports [ http://www.concordmonitor.com/home/4725170-95/warden-bill-relationships-rep ]. Warden, a committee member, said that those in abusive relationships can leave at any time and that government regulations were not the solution.
The Concord Monitor reports:
"Some people could make the argument that a lot of people like being in abusive relationships. It's a love-hate relationship. It's very, very common for people to stick around with somebody they love who also abuses him or her," said Rep. Mark Warden, a Republican who represents Deering, Goffstown and Weare, during a meeting of the House Criminal Justice and Public Safety Committee, according to a video provided by Granite State Progress, a liberal advocacy group.
According to the video, Warden added, "Is the solution to those kind of dysfunctional relationships going to be more government, another law? I'd say no. People are always free to leave."
Warden could not be immediately reached for comment by The Huffington Post on Wednesday about his remarks, but he told the Monitor that they had been taken out of context. The committee recommended that the full House of Representatives defeat the legislation, with Warden voting to recommend its passage. Under New Hampshire legislative rules, all bills are debated on the floor and voted upon by the House, with committees providing advice.
Warden says on his website [ http://www.markwarden.com/page/mark-warden-state-representative ] that he is the chairman of the New Hampshire Liberty Alliance, a tea party-allied conservative group in the Granite State that named him legislator of the year. The Union Leader reported [ http://www.unionleader.com/article/20130223/NEWS06/130229559 ] that Warden is also affiliated with the Free State Project [ http://freestateproject.org/ ], a libertarian group that has sought to bring 20,000 people to New Hampshire as part of an effort to take over state government.
Among the legislation he is currently sponsoring are bills [ http://www.gencourt.state.nh.us/house/members/memberbillssponsored.aspx?member=377049 ] to legalize marijuana in New Hampshire and to abolish the state Department of Cultural Resources and distribute its functions to the secretary of state and the state Department of Resources and Economic Development.
Need help? In the U.S., call 1-800-799-SAFE (7233) for the National Domestic Violence Hotline [ http://www.thehotline.org/ ].
Copyright © 2013 TheHuffingtonPost.com, Inc.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/27/mark-warden-new-hampshire_n_2773889.html [with comments]
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Photographer as Witness: A Portrait of Domestic Violence
The following photographs were taken between Sept. 2012 and Dec. 2012.
At 31, Shane had spent much of his life incarcerated. His facial tattoos, along with his criminal record, made finding steady work extremely difficult, and work that paid a living wage nearly impossible. After his last stint in prison, Shane was determined to turn over a new leaf and create a better life for himself. That life, as he saw it, would have to include Maggie, a woman 11 years his junior who was his sister's neighbor.
Shane had been trying to make a career as a singer in a Christian rock band while providing for Maggie and her children.
Shane attepts to restrain Kayden so the barber could cut the back of his hair. "He needs a male role model. I'm trying to be that," Shane said.
One night, after an early birthday celebration for Memphis at a local fast food restaurant, the two began to argue. Shane said his main source of frustration stemmed from the fact that Maggie paid more attention to the children than she did to him.
After a night out at a local bar, Maggie left after becoming jealous of when another woman flirted with Shane. Upon arriving home, Shane flew into a rage, angry that Maggie had "abandoned him" at the bar and then drove home with his friend, whose house they were staying at for the week. Maggie told him to get out of the house, that he was too angry and that he would wake the children.
Rather than subsiding, Shane's anger began to grow, and he screamed that Maggie had betrayed him, at one point accusing his friend (not pictured) of trying to pursue her sexually.
At one point, Shane picked Maggie up and flung her back into the kitchen as she tried to run out of the room.
As the fight continued to rage, Shane told Maggie that she could choose between getting beaten in the kitchen, or going with him to the basement so they could talk privately.
When Maggie refused, Shane began grabbing her by the face and neck, choking her. "You can either get beat up here, or we can go talk alone," he said. "Your choice."
As Shane and Maggie continued to fight, Memphis ran into the room and refused to leave Maggie's side. She witnessed the majority of the assault on her mother. As the two fought, Memphis began to scream and stomp her feet.
Shane continued to scream in Maggie's face as Memphis wedged herself between them. At some point, the toddler had stopped crying and began trying to soothe her weeping mother.
Around half past midnight, the police arrived after receiving a call from a resident in the house (pictured at right). Maggie cried and smoked a cigarette as an officer from the Lancaster Police Department tried to keep her separated from Shane and coax out the truth about the assault.
Shane hugged Memphis goodbye before being arrested. He insisted he wasn't a bad person and that Maggie had been trying to leave the house and drive drunk with the children in the car.
Shane pled with Maggie not to let the police take him into custody, crying out, "Please, Maggie, I love you, don't let them take me, tell them I didn't do this!"
An officer from the Lancaster Police Department photographed the bruises on Maggie's neck from where Shane had choked her. "You know, he's not going to stop," the officer told Maggie as she wept. "They never stop. They usually stop when they kill you."
Convincing Maggie to be examined and sign a protection order took a great deal of coaxing from the officer. "I don't want to get him in trouble," she wept. "You aren't getting him into trouble. He got himself into trouble. I know Shane. He's a good guy, but he knows better than to do this," the officer replied.
The day following the attack, Maggie had to grapple with what would come next for her and her children. She had no source of income, no childcare, and was afraid to return to the home she and Shane shared to retrieve her possessions. She expressed intense fear that Shane would be let out on bail and come after her, and called the jail several times to make sure he hadn't been released.
In the days following the attack, Maggie had time to reflect on what had occurred and decided to make an official statement to the police. She said she had resumed communications with her estranged husband and the father of her children, and was considering moving with her children to Alaska, where he is stationed with the Army.
Photo Essay
By Sara Naomi Lewkowicz
Wednesday, February 27, 2013
Domestic violence is often shielded from public view. Usually, we only hear it muffled through walls or see it manifested in the faded yellow and purple bruises of a woman who “walked into a wall” or “fell down the stairs.” Despite a movement to increase awareness of domestic violence, we still treat it as a private crime, as if it is none of our business.
During my time as a freelance photojournalist and as a Master’s candidate at Ohio University, one of the biggest challenges of my career came in November of 2012, while working on a project about the stigma associated with being an ex-convict. Suddenly, an incident of domestic violence unexpectedly became my business.
I had met Shane and Maggie two-and-a-half months before. Southeastern Ohio was still warm that time of year and brimming with small regional festivals. I had gone to the Millersport Sweet Corn Festival to shoot my first assignment for an editorial photography class. Almost immediately, I spotted a man covered in tattoos, including an enormous piece on his neck that read, “Maggie Mae.” He was holding a beautiful little girl with blonde curls. His gentle manner with her belied his intimidating ink, and I approached them to ask if I could take their portrait.
I ended up spending my entire time at the fair with Shane, 31, and his girlfriend Maggie, 19. Maggie’s two children, Kayden, four, and Memphis, nearly two, were not Shane’s, but from her then-estranged husband.
Shane and Maggie had started dating a month prior to meeting me, and Shane told me about his struggles with addiction and that he had spent much of his life in prison. Maggie shared her experience losing her mother to a drug overdose at the age of eight, and having the challenges of raising two small children alone while their father, who was in the Army, was stationed in Afghanistan. Before they drove home, I asked if I could continue to document them, and they agreed.
I intended to paint a portrait of the catch-22 of being a released ex-convict: even though they are physically free, the metaphorical prison of stigma doesn’t allow them to truly escape. That story changed dramatically one night, after a visit to a bar.
In a nearby town where Shane had found temporary work, they stayed with the kids at a friend’s house. That night, at a bar, Maggie had become incensed when another woman had flirted with Shane, and left. Back at the house, Maggie and Shane began fighting. Before long, their yelling escalated into physical violence.
Shane attacked Maggie, throwing her into chairs, pushing her up against the wall and choking her in front of her daughter, Memphis.
After I confirmed one of the housemates had called the police, I then continued to document the abuse — my instincts as a photojournalist began kicking in. If Maggie couldn’t leave, neither could I.
Eventually, the police arrived. I was fortunate that the responding officers were well educated on First Amendment laws and did not try to stop me from taking pictures. At first, Maggie did not want to cooperate with the officers who led Shane away in handcuffs, but soon after, she changed her mind and gave a statement about the incident. Shane pled guilty to a domestic violence felony and is currently in prison in Ohio.
The incident raised a number of ethical questions. I’ve been castigated by a number of anonymous internet commenters who have said that I should have somehow physically intervened between the two. Their criticism counters what actual law enforcement officers have told me — that physically intervening would have likely only made the situation worse, endangering me, and further endangering Maggie.
I have continued to follow Maggie since the abuse, and I’ve also begun working closely with photographer Donna Ferrato, who first began documenting domestic violence 30 years ago [ http://lightbox.time.com/2012/06/27/i-am-unbeatable-donna-ferratos-commitment-to-abused-women/ ].
Since that November night, Maggie has moved to Alaska to be with the father of her two children, who is stationed in Anchorage. In March, I will travel to Alaska to document Maggie as she tries to put the pieces of her family and life back together. My goal is to examine the long-term effects of this incident on her current relationship, her children, and her own sense of self. Devoted to revealing these hidden stories of domestic abuse, Maggie asked me to move forward with this project and to tell her story, because she feels the photographs might be able to help someone else.
“Women need to understand this can happen to them. I never thought it could happen to me, but it could,” she told me. “Shane was like a fast car. When you’re driving it, you think ‘I might get pulled over and get a ticket.’ You never think that you’re going to crash.”
The Violence Against Women Act, which provides funding to help victims of domestic violence, was signed into law by President Bill Clinton in 1994, and is now up for re-authorization. Read more about the law and why it’s currently stuck in Congress [ http://nation.time.com/2013/02/27/whats-wrong-with-the-violence-against-women-act/ ].
© 2013 Time Inc.
http://lightbox.time.com/2013/02/27/photographer-as-witness-a-portrait-of-domestic-violence/ [ http://lightbox.time.com/2013/02/27/photographer-as-witness-a-portrait-of-domestic-violence/#1 ] [with additional photos, and comments]
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Vt. Lye Victim Gets New Face at Boston Hospital
By BRIDGET MURPHY
BOSTON February 27, 2013
Loved ones knew it was her at the hospital when they saw her teeth.
Carmen Blandin Tarleton's face was unrecognizable after the lye attack, burned away in the frenzy of an estranged husband's rage.
Nearly six years later, the Vermont nurse is celebrating a gift that has given her a new image following a full facial transplant this month.
Doctors at Brigham & Women's Hospital in Boston said at a Wednesday news conference that the 44-year-old's surgery included transplanting a female donor's facial skin to Tarleton's neck, nose and lips, along with facial muscles, arteries and nerves.
"I know how truly blessed I am, and will have such a nice reflection in the mirror to remind myself what selfless really is," Tarleton wrote on her blog Wednesday.
She did not attend the news conference but watched it during a live web broadcast. The hospital said it was not releasing a current picture of her.
Tarleton's sister, Kesstan Blandin, shared a statement from Tarleton that said she felt "really good and happy."
"I want to convey to the donor's family what a great gift they have given to me," the statement said. "...I feel strong and I am confident that I have the strength to deal with whatever comes my way."
The Thetford, Vt., woman suffered burns on more than 80 percent of her body and was left blind after her attacker beat her with a baseball bat and doused her with the industrial strength chemical in June 2007.
Tarleton, who once worked as a transplant nurse, has undergone more than 50 surgeries since then. The operations included skin grafts and work that has restored vision to one eye.
The latest surgery took 15 hours and included a team of more than 30 medical professionals. The lead surgeon, Bohdan Pomahac, called her injuries among the worst he's seen in his career.
"Carmen is a fighter," the doctor said. "And fight she did."
Pomahac's team has performed five facial transplants at the hospital. He said his team's latest patient is recovering well and is in great spirits as she works to get stronger.
Before the transplant, Tarleton drooled constantly because of scar tissue in her mouth. She also couldn't turn her head from side to side or lift her chin.
Pomahac said Tarleton was pleased when she saw her new face for the first time. Her appearance will not match that of the late donor's face, he said.
"I think she looks amazing, but I'm biased," the surgeon said with a smile.
The donor's family wants to remain anonymous now, but released a statement through a regional donor bank saying that her spirit would live on through Tarleton and three other organ recipients.
In 2009, Tarleton's now ex-husband Herbert Rodgers pleaded guilty to maiming her in exchange for a prison sentence of at least 30 years.
Police previously said Rodgers believed his wife was seeing another man and went to her house to attack him. Tarleton mistook the intruder for a burglar at first and told him he could have whatever he wanted. Then Rodgers launched into a fury, fracturing one of Tarleton's eye sockets and breaking her arm with the bat.
He had brought lye with him in a squeeze bottle and he poured it on Tarleton.
When police arrived, the brunette's heart-shaped face already was distorted, her skin turning brown. She was trying to crawl into a shower to wash away the chemical.
But now, the mother of two daughters talks about forgiveness and has a newly-published book called "Overcome: Burned, Blinded and Blessed."
"Forgiveness is about helping ourselves, not the people who hurt us," read an image on a website Wednesday that promotes her book.
Copyright 2013 The Associated Press
http://abcnews.go.com/Health/wireStory/vt-lye-victim-face-boston-hospital-18606355 [with embedded video report; no comments yet]
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'Cannibal Cop' Trial: FBI Agent Corey Walsh Describes Gilberto Valle's Taste For 'Girl Meat'
By LARRY NEUMEISTER and TOM HAYS
02/27/13 05:30 PM ET EST
NEW YORK — A defense attorney for a police officer accused in a cannibalism plot pressed an FBI agent to explain where fantasy ends and reality begins Wednesday after the investigator read aloud several dozen Internet chats in which participants boasted of plans to cook and eat human flesh.
Attorney Robert Baum attacked FBI agent Corey Walsh's statement that 40 of the thousands of Internet communications of Officer Gilberto Valle that he reviewed contained "elements of real crimes." Valle is accused in Manhattan federal court of conspiring to kidnap, kill and eat women he knew, including his wife.
Baum's cross examination aimed to show little or no distinction existed between chats or emails the FBI deemed real evidence of a crime and those dismissed as fantasy.
The agent conceded both had similar elements: Valle discussing how to cook women, how much it would cost to abduct them and which women would make good targets.
Walsh conceded that some chats or emails considered fantasies contained photographs and names of real women and dates and references to past crimes, the kind of factual information that prosecutors have insisted proves Valle meant to carry out gruesome crimes including kidnapping, rape, torture, murder and cannibalism.
"Isn't it a fact that some of the chats you found to be fantasies involved cooking women?" Baum asked.
"It could have been," Walsh answered.
The agent also conceded that no women were kidnapped or harmed and that Valle never had contact with his supposed co-conspirators outside the Internet.
In addition, the agent said, no evidence of a crime was found in Valle's apartment besides a computer. There was no rope, pulleys or chemicals to render someone unconscious despite Valle's Internet boasts that he wanted to assemble a torture chamber or that he had an upstate property where he could cook women, Walsh said.
Valle, 28, has pleaded not guilty. He could face life in prison if he is convicted of conspiracy and illegal use of a crime database, a crime prosecutors say stems from his use of a federal database to research potential victims.
Prior to cross examination, Walsh showed jurors graphic X-rated communications between Valle and a butcher in India early last year as they discussed plans to torture and cook Valle's soon-to-be wife and a former college roommate.
"I have longed to butcher and cook female meat," Valle told Aly Khan, Walsh said.
Khan offered to provide a place in Pakistan to kill a woman once she was taken to India, the agent said.
For two days, Walsh has testified about chats Valle participated in last year with a New Jersey co-defendant and two supposed co-conspirators, a man in Great Britain and Khan, both of whom posed on the Internet as veterans of cannibalism who could teach Valle cannibalism skills.
In several emails read by Walsh, Valle seemed eager to offer the woman he would marry a few months later to Khan, though he added: "She is a sweet girl. I like her a lot. But I will move on."
Valle wrote that he could take her to India and then Pakistan, where they could gag her in a basement, hang her from her feet and take turns sexually assaulting her before slitting her throat and cooking her.
"I just love the thought of stringing her upside down," Valle wrote in an email shown to jurors.
He said he would like "to see her suffer" and "slowly roast her until she dies."
In a later email, Khan taunted Valle.
"Are you really into it?" he asked.
"Yes," Valle answered.
"Are you sure?" Khan asked.
"Definitely," Valle said.
Khan, seemingly content, said: "Get your mind ready. I will guide the rest."
Later, Valle discussed plans to attack a Columbus, Ohio, woman he knew in college.
"I want her to experience being cooked alive," he said in one exchange. "She'll be trussed up like a turkey. ... She'll be terrified, screaming and crying."
He wrote that her death would "definitely make the news" and there will be "plenty of suspects" because she is a prosecutor.
The woman, Andria Noble, testified Monday she never knew Valle to be violent when they attended the University of Maryland.
If jurors are offended or horrified by the gruesome testimony, they haven't shown it. Three of them even yawned during the reading of the Internet exchanges.
The six men and six women sitting on the jury mostly sat stone-faced and silent as they listened to the agent's monotone recitation of seemingly grimace-worthy evidence – remarks by Valle like, "I'm dying to taste some girl meat" and discussions about using one potential victim's severed head as a centerpiece for a feast of body parts.
The government hasn't said what roles Khan and the man in Great Britain played in the investigation.
Copyright 2013 The Associated Press
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/27/cannibal-cop-trial-fbi-agent-corey-walsh-gilberto-valle_n_2772821.html [with embedded video report, and comments]
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House passes Violence Against Women Act
media.salon.com/2013/02/budget-battle.jpeg6-620x412.jpg
After Republicans blocked it for more than a year, the House passed the expanded reauthorization of the bill
Feb 28, 2013
After an up-or-down vote, the Violence Against Women Act passed out of the House by a margin of 286-138, with 199 Democrats and 87 Republicans voting in favor of it. The bill had already passed the Senate by a bipartisan vote several weeks ago, meaning that it now heads to President Obama’s desk to be signed into law.
VAWA was allowed to expire in September, 2011, and then stalled for all of 2012 over expanded protections for LGBT women, Native Americans and undocumented immigrants. House Republicans objected to these additional protections, and repeatedly blocked the bill.
On Thursday, after pressure from Democrats and from within the GOP itself, House Republican leadership allowed the bill to go for an up-or-down vote, after first voting on a Republican version of the bill that did not include the additional protections. That bill was expected to, and did, fail by a vote of 166-257.
In a statement, President Obama said that ”Renewing this bill is an important step towards making sure no one in America is forced to live in fear.”
[...]
http://www.salon.com/2013/02/28/house_passes_violence_against_women_act/ [with comments]
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Austerity, Italian Style
By PAUL KRUGMAN
Published: February 24, 2013
Two months ago, when Mario Monti stepped down as Italy’s prime minister, The Economist opined [ http://www.economist.com/blogs/charlemagne/2012/12/italian-politics-1 ] that “The coming election campaign will be, above all, a test of the maturity and realism of Italian voters.” The mature, realistic action, presumably, would have been to return Mr. Monti — who was essentially imposed on Italy by its creditors — to office, this time with an actual democratic mandate.
Well, it’s not looking good. Mr. Monti’s party appears likely to come in fourth; not only is he running well behind the essentially comical Silvio Berlusconi, he’s running behind an actual comedian, Beppe Grillo, whose lack of a coherent platform hasn’t stopped him from becoming a powerful political force.
It’s an extraordinary prospect, and one that has sparked much commentary about Italian political culture. But without trying to defend the politics of bunga bunga, let me ask the obvious question: What good, exactly, has what currently passes for mature realism done in Italy or for that matter Europe as a whole?
For Mr. Monti was, in effect, the proconsul installed by Germany to enforce fiscal austerity on an already ailing economy; willingness to pursue austerity without limit is what defines respectability in European policy circles. This would be fine if austerity policies actually worked — but they don’t. And far from seeming either mature or realistic, the advocates of austerity are sounding increasingly petulant and delusional.
Consider how things were supposed to be working at this point. When Europe began its infatuation with austerity, top officials dismissed concerns that slashing spending and raising taxes in depressed economies might deepen their depressions. On the contrary, they insisted, such policies would actually boost economies by inspiring confidence.
But the confidence fairy was a no-show. Nations imposing harsh austerity [ http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/02/23/austerity-europe-2/ ] suffered deep economic downturns; the harsher the austerity, the deeper the downturn. Indeed, this relationship has been so strong that the International Monetary Fund, in a striking mea culpa [ http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/01/03/an-amazing-mea-culpa-from-the-imfs-chief-economist-on-austerity/ ], admitted that it had underestimated the damage austerity would inflict.
Meanwhile, austerity hasn’t even achieved the minimal goal of reducing debt burdens. Instead, countries pursuing harsh austerity have seen the ratio of debt to G.D.P. [ http://www.voxeu.org/article/panic-driven-austerity-eurozone-and-its-implications ] rise, because the shrinkage in their economies has outpaced any reduction in the rate of borrowing. And because austerity policies haven’t been offset by expansionary policies elsewhere, the European economy as a whole — which never had much of a recovery from the slump of 2008-9 — is back in recession, with unemployment marching ever higher.
The one piece of good news is that bond markets [ http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/02/24/euro-delusions/ ] have calmed down, largely thanks to the stated willingness of the European Central Bank to step in and buy government debt when necessary. As a result, a financial meltdown that could have destroyed the euro has been avoided. But that’s cold comfort to the millions of Europeans who have lost their jobs and see little prospect of ever getting them back.
Given all of this, one might have expected some reconsideration and soul-searching on the part of European officials, some hints of flexibility. Instead, however, top officials have become even more insistent that austerity is the one true path.
Thus in January 2011 Olli Rehn, a vice president of the European Commission, praised the austerity programs of Greece, Spain and Portugal and predicted that the Greek program in particular would yield “lasting returns.” Since then unemployment has soared in all three countries — but sure enough, in December 2012 Mr. Rehn published an op-ed article with the headline “Europe must stay the austerity course [ http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/35b77c12-42d6-11e2-a3d2-00144feabdc0.html ].”
Oh, and Mr. Rehn’s response to studies showing that the adverse effects of austerity are much bigger than expected was to send a letter [ http://notthetreasuryview.blogspot.com/2013/02/i-pointed-late-last-year-that-european.html ] to finance minsters and the I.M.F. declaring that such studies were harmful, because they were threatening to erode confidence.
Which brings me back to Italy, a nation that for all its dysfunction has in fact dutifully imposed substantial austerity — and seen its economy shrink rapidly as a result.
Outside observers are terrified about Italy’s election, and rightly so: even if the nightmare of a Berlusconi return to power fails to materialize, a strong showing by Mr. Berlusconi, Mr. Grillo, or both would destabilize not just Italy but Europe as a whole. But remember, Italy isn’t unique: disreputable politicians are on the rise all across Southern Europe. And the reason this is happening is that respectable Europeans won’t admit that the policies they have imposed on debtors are a disastrous failure. If that doesn’t change, the Italian election will be just a foretaste of the dangerous radicalization to come.
© 2013 The New York Times Company
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/25/opinion/krugman-austerity-italian-style.html [with comments]
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A Costly and Unjust Perk for Financiers
By LYNN FORESTER de ROTHSCHILD
Published: February 24, 2013
OF the many injustices that permeate America’s byzantine tax code, few are as outrageous as the tax rate on “carried interest” — the profits made by private equity and hedge fund managers, as well as venture capitalists and partners in real estate investment trusts. This huge tax benefit enriches an already privileged sliver of financiers and violates basic standards of fairness and common sense.
President Obama recently suggested that he would ask Congress to close this loophole. Eliminating the carried-interest tax rate should be an easy sell. It should play to Republicans’ supposed hatred of government handouts and to Democrats’ commitment to social justice.
But because of the financial lobby’s clout, the loophole most likely won’t be closed. If it isn’t, shame on both parties for giving us another reason to distrust our democracy and our capitalist system.
While the tax legislation passed on Jan. 1 increased the top individual-income tax rate to 39.6 percent from 35 percent for couples making more than $450,000 and individuals making more than $400,000, it left carried-interest income taxed at just 20 percent.
Carried interest is taxed at ordinary capital-gains rates, rather than at the significantly higher ordinary income-tax rates that apply to the wealthiest Americans. The issue came up last year, because Mitt Romney, the Republican presidential nominee, had made much of his fortune through private equity.
This special tax treatment for carried interest protects the general partners of private equity, venture capital, real estate, hedge funds and other investment vehicles organized as limited partnerships. (The investment-holding company I run does not receive carried-interest income.)
Millions of general partners in investment funds receive carried-interest income when they earn profits for their clients. Since these partners do not have to risk any of their own capital, carried interest is really a taxpayer-subsidized fee for managing their clients’ money — often 20 percent of the profits generated in the fund, and sometimes significantly more than that.
No other affluent Americans enjoy this benefit. A brain surgeon, stockbroker, corporate lawyer or actor will have to pay the new top marginal rate percent, while a general partner who manages other people’s money pays, on carried-interest income, only the 20 percent rate on long-term capital gains.
This discrepancy dates from 1922, when the top ordinary-income tax rate was 58 percent and capital gains were taxed at 12.5 percent — a big change from the years 1918 to 1921, when both kinds of income were taxed, in the top bracket, at 77 percent. But the amount of lost government revenue has widened significantly since 2000 as a result of the growth of nontraditional finance.
Although the industry keeps a close lid on the total amounts, experts have estimated that there are more than 1,400 private equity and venture capital funds, which collectively manage more than $1 trillion in limited-partnership equity investments and earn an average of $18 billion a year on them that is taxed as carried interest. There are also 8,000 or 9,000 hedge funds managing about the same amount of these investments generating another $18 billion in carried-interest income. And let’s not forget the 1.2 million real estate partnerships, with more than $1.3 trillion in limited-partnership investments, which yield a further $20 billion each year in such income. The difference in revenue to the United States government when this combined income is taxed at 20 percent rather than at 39.6 percent is about $11 billion annually. Indeed, the Real Estate Roundtable, a leading industry lobbying group, puts the estimate even higher, at $13 billion — $5 billion in real estate alone.
The first legislative effort to treat carried interest like ordinary income was a bill submitted by Representative Sander M. Levin, Democrat of Michigan, in 2007. Annual spending by the private equity, hedge fund and real estate industry lobbies exploded in that year. Predictably, the legislation has been shelved or voted down repeatedly ever since. Although Mr. Obama paid lip service to the removal of the preferential treatment for carried interest during both of his presidential campaigns, he has yet to achieve it.
This state of affairs denies our Treasury much-needed revenue; fuels public cynicism in government; and is evidence of the “crony capitalism” that favors some economic sectors over others. When plutocrats join with both parties to protect their own vested interests, the result is a corrosion of confidence in the free-market system.
The carried-interest loophole may seem small compared with this year’s projected $900 billion deficit, but ending it would be a major signal that Washington is ready to put an end to business as usual.
Lynn Forester de Rothschild [ http://www.elrothschild.com/management-team ] is the chief executive of E. L. Rothschild [ http://www.elrothschild.com/ ], a family-owned investment holding company.
© 2013 The New York Times Company
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/25/opinion/carried-interest-an-unjust-privilege-for-financiers.html
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Grand Old Parity
By SHEILA C. BAIR
Published: February 26, 2013
WASHINGTON
LAST month Emmanuel Saez [ https://www.econ.berkeley.edu/faculty/852 ], a celebrated economist at the University of California, Berkeley, issued another depressing report on income inequality [ http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/16/business/economy/income-gains-after-recession-went-mostly-to-top-1.html ; study at http://elsa.berkeley.edu/~saez/saez-UStopincomes-2011.pdf ]. Among other things, Mr. Saez examined how real family incomes changed in the United States from 2009 to 2011, the first two years of the recovery. The richest 1 percent of Americans, he found, saw their incomes grow, on average, by more than 11 percent. As for the other 99 percent? You guessed it: incomes shrank by nearly half a percent.
The phenomenon is hardly new. The yawning gap between rich and poor has been growing since the 1970s and reached a 90-year peak in 2007, just before the financial crisis. The Great Recession narrowed the gap a bit, but now, once again, the richest Americans are vacuuming up what wealth is out there, a trend that Mr. Saez expects to continue.
I am a capitalist and a lifelong Republican. I believe that, in a meritocracy, some level of income inequality is both inevitable and desirable, as encouragement to those who contribute most to our economic prosperity. But I fear that government actions, not merit, have fueled these extremes in income distribution through taxpayer bailouts, central-bank-engineered financial asset bubbles and unjustified tax breaks that favor the rich.
This is not a situation that any freethinking Republican should accept. Skewing income toward the upper, upper class hurts our economy because the rich tend to sit on their money — unlike lower- and middle-income people, who spend a large share of their paychecks, and hence stimulate economic activity.
But more fundamentally, it cuts against everything our country and my party stand for. Government’s role should not be to rig the game in favor of “the haves” but to make sure “the have-nots” are given a fair shot.
President Obama, who has rightly made income inequality a signature issue, cannot be pleased that the über-rich have gained under the policies pursued by his administration, while the bottom 99 percent have not. Unfortunately, his economic team, populated by acolytes of the former Treasury secretary Robert E. Rubin, has relied on the same “growth” policies that got us into trouble precrisis: generous treatment of the financial sector and easy money from the Federal Reserve. These strategies have done little to encourage sustainable economic growth, but they have worked wonders to increase Wall Street profits and inflate the value of stocks and bonds — which are disproportionately owned by the rich.
Why haven’t Republicans made an issue out of this? No doubt some fear that discussing it openly would catalyze support for redistributionist policies, which are anathema to a party that prides itself on increasing the pie, not redividing it. But there are other policy options to demonstrate Republicans’ commitment to the average Joe and Jane that are very much in the party’s tradition.
For instance, as part of renewed fiscal discussions over sequestration, Republicans should put fundamental tax reform on the table and make it our priority to end preferential treatment of investment income, which lets managers of hedge funds pay half the tax rate of managers of shoe stores.
Defenders of this giveaway make the unsubstantiated claim that it encourages job-creating investments. But what we have now is merely an immense pool of investment funds that has created far too few jobs. A report [ http://www.bain.com/publications/articles/a-world-awash-in-money.aspx ] last year by Bain and Co. projected that by 2020 there will be $900 trillion in financial assets around the globe, chasing investments in a real economy worth only $90 trillion in gross domestic product. Why in heaven’s name do we need to keep a tax preference to encourage more?
If we eliminate this and other unjustified tax breaks, we can produce enough new revenues to lower marginal rates and reduce the deficit, according to both the Simpson-Bowles [ http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/n/national_commission_on_fiscal_responsibility_and_reform/index.html ] and Domenici-Rivlin [ http://bipartisanpolicy.org/library/report/domenici-rivlin-debt-reduction-task-force-plan-20 ] debt-reduction plans.
Republicans should also put rebuilding the nation’s transportation and energy infrastructure high on our political agenda. From Lincoln’s transcontinental railroad to Eisenhower’s highway system, Republicans have understood that investing in critical infrastructure projects creates jobs and expands commerce.
And given that the Federal Reserve insists on giving us cheap money, let’s use it for the benefit of the country by issuing long-term debt to finance such projects and repay it over decades through dedicated taxes and user fees.
Some may say I am tilting at the windmills of Tea Party orthodoxy in making these suggestions, but I believe that most Republican politicians would be sympathetic to them, if only they could overcome their fear of primary challenges and the loss of Wall Street money. Having worked for Senate Republicans in the 1980s, I remember a time when Republicans stood up to special interests and purged the tax code of preferences for investment income and other special breaks.
They managed to survive re-election by showing leadership, taking principled positions and defending them vigorously. It’s time for the Grand Old Party to return to those roots.
Sheila C. Bair [ http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/b/sheila_bair/index.html ], the chairwoman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation [ http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/f/federal_deposit_insurance_corp/index.html ] from 2006 to 2011, is the author [ http://books.simonandschuster.com/Bull-by-the-Horns/Sheila-Bair/9781451672480 ] of “Bull by the Horns: Fighting to Save Main Street From Wall Street and Wall Street From Itself [ http://www.amazon.com/dp/1451672489 ].”
© 2013 The New York Times Company
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/27/opinion/republicans-must-bridge-the-income-gap.html
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Major Banks Aid in Payday Loans Banned by States
Subrina Baptiste of Brooklyn says JPMorgan Chase allowed payday lenders to seize child-support funds in her account.
Michelle V. Agins/The New York Times
By JESSICA SILVER-GREENBERG
Published: February 23, 2013
Major banks have quickly become behind-the-scenes allies of Internet-based payday lenders that offer short-term loans with interest rates sometimes exceeding 500 percent.
With 15 states banning payday loans, a growing number of the lenders have set up online operations in more hospitable states or far-flung locales like Belize, Malta and the West Indies to more easily evade statewide caps on interest rates.
While the banks, which include giants like JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America and Wells Fargo, do not make the loans, they are a critical link for the lenders, enabling the lenders to withdraw payments automatically from borrowers’ bank accounts, even in states where the loans are banned entirely. In some cases, the banks allow lenders to tap checking accounts even after the customers have begged them to stop the withdrawals.
“Without the assistance of the banks in processing and sending electronic funds, these lenders simply couldn’t operate,” said Josh Zinner, co-director of the Neighborhood Economic Development Advocacy Project [ http://www.nedap.org/index.html ], which works with community groups in New York.
The banking industry says it is simply serving customers who have authorized the lenders to withdraw money from their accounts. “The industry is not in a position to monitor customer accounts to see where their payments are going,” said Virginia O’Neill, senior counsel with the American Bankers Association.
But state and federal officials are taking aim at the banks’ role at a time when authorities are increasing their efforts to clamp down on payday lending and its practice of providing quick money to borrowers who need cash.
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau are examining banks’ roles in the online loans, according to several people with direct knowledge of the matter. Benjamin M. Lawsky, who heads New York State’s Department of Financial Services, is investigating how banks enable the online lenders to skirt New York law and make loans to residents of the state, where interest rates are capped at 25 percent.
For the banks, it can be a lucrative partnership. At first blush, processing automatic withdrawals hardly seems like a source of profit. But many customers are already on shaky financial footing. The withdrawals often set off a cascade of fees from problems like overdrafts. Roughly 27 percent [ http://www.pewstates.org/research/reports/how-borrowers-choose-and-repay-payday-loans-85899452131 ] of payday loan borrowers say that the loans caused them to overdraw their accounts, according to a report released this month by the Pew Charitable Trusts. That fee income is coveted, given that financial regulations [ http://topics.nytimes.com/topics/reference/timestopics/subjects/c/credit_crisis/financial_regulatory_reform/index.html?inline=nyt-classifier ] limiting fees on debit and credit cards have cost banks billions of dollars.
Some state and federal authorities say the banks’ role in enabling the lenders has frustrated government efforts to shield people from predatory loans — an issue that gained urgency after reckless mortgage [ http://topics.nytimes.com/your-money/loans/mortgages/index.html ] lending helped precipitate the 2008 financial crisis.
Lawmakers, led by Senator Jeff Merkley, Democrat of Oregon, introduced a bill in July aimed at reining in the lenders, in part, by forcing them to abide by the laws of the state where the borrower lives, rather than where the lender is. The legislation, pending in Congress, would also allow borrowers to cancel automatic withdrawals more easily. “Technology has taken a lot of these scams online, and it’s time to crack down,” Mr. Merkley said in a statement [ http://www.tomudall.senate.gov/?p=press_release&id=1195 ] when the bill was introduced.
While the loans are simple to obtain — some online lenders promise approval in minutes with no credit check — they are tough to get rid of. Customers who want to repay their loan in full typically must contact the online lender at least three days before the next withdrawal. Otherwise, the lender automatically renews the loans at least monthly and withdraws only the interest owed. Under federal law, customers are allowed to stop authorized withdrawals from their account. Still, some borrowers say their banks do not heed requests to stop the loans.
Ivy Brodsky, 37, thought she had figured out a way to stop six payday lenders from taking money from her account when she visited her Chase branch in Brighton Beach in Brooklyn in March to close it. But Chase kept the account open and between April and May, the six Internet lenders tried to withdraw money from Ms. Brodsky’s account 55 times, according to bank records reviewed by The New York Times. Chase charged her $1,523 in fees — a combination of 44 insufficient fund fees, extended overdraft fees and service fees.
For Subrina Baptiste, 33, an educational assistant in Brooklyn, the overdraft fees levied by Chase cannibalized her child support income. She said she applied for a $400 loan from Loanshoponline.com [ http://loanshoponline.com/ ] and a $700 loan from Advancemetoday.com [ http://advancemetoday.com/ ] in 2011. The loans, with annual interest rates of 730 percent and 584 percent respectively, skirt New York law.
Ms. Baptiste said she asked Chase to revoke the automatic withdrawals in October 2011, but was told that she had to ask the lenders instead. In one month, her bank records show, the lenders tried to take money from her account at least six times. Chase charged her $812 in fees and deducted over $600 from her child-support payments to cover them.
“I don’t understand why my own bank just wouldn’t listen to me,” Ms. Baptiste said, adding that Chase ultimately closed her account last January, three months after she asked.
A spokeswoman for Bank of America said the bank always honored requests to stop automatic withdrawals. Wells Fargo declined to comment. Kristin Lemkau, a spokeswoman for Chase, said: “We are working with the customers to resolve these cases.” Online lenders say they work to abide by state laws.
Payday lenders have been dogged by controversy almost from their inception two decades ago from storefront check-cashing stores. In 2007, federal lawmakers restricted the lenders from focusing on military members. Across the country, states have steadily imposed caps on interest rates and fees that effectively ban the high-rate loans.
While there are no exact measures of how many lenders have migrated online, roughly three million Americans obtained an Internet payday loan in 2010, according to a July report [ http://www.pewtrusts.org/our_work_report_detail.aspx?id=85899406010 ] by the Pew Charitable Trusts. By 2016, Internet loans will make up roughly 60 percent of the total payday loans, up from about 35 percent in 2011, according to John Hecht, an analyst with the investment bank Stephens Inc. As of 2011, he said, the volume of online payday loans was $13 billion, up more than 120 percent from $5.8 billion in 2006.
Facing increasingly inhospitable states, the lenders have also set up shop offshore. A former used-car dealership owner, who runs a series of online lenders through a shell corporation in Grenada, outlined the benefits of operating remotely in a 2005 deposition. Put simply, it was “lawsuit protection and tax reduction,” he said. Other lenders are based in Belize, Malta, the Isle of Man and the West Indies, according to federal court records.
At an industry conference last year, payday lenders discussed the benefits of heading offshore. Jer Ayler, president of the payday loan consultant Trihouse Inc., pinpointed Cancún, the Bahamas and Costa Rica as particularly fertile locales.
State prosecutors have been battling to keep online lenders from illegally making loans to residents where the loans are restricted. In December, Lori Swanson, Minnesota’s attorney general, settled with Sure Advance [ http://www.ag.state.mn.us/Consumer/PressRelease/121220InternetPayDay.asp ] L.L.C. over claims that the online lender was operating without a license to make loans with interest rates of up to 1,564 percent. In Illinois, Attorney General Lisa Madigan is investigating a number of online lenders.
Arkansas’s attorney general, Dustin McDaniel, has been targeting lenders illegally making loans in his state, and says the Internet firms are tough to fight. “The Internet knows no borders,” he said. “There are layer upon layer of cyber-entities and some are difficult to trace.”
Last January, he sued the operator of a number of online lenders, claiming that the firms were breaking state law in Arkansas, which caps annual interest rates on loans at 17 percent.
Now the Online Lenders Alliance, a trade group, is backing legislation that would grant a federal charter for payday lenders. In supporting the bill, Lisa McGreevy, the group’s chief executive, said: “A federal charter, as opposed to the current conflicting state regulatory schemes, will establish one clear set of rules for lenders to follow.”
© 2013 The New York Times Company
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/24/business/major-banks-aid-in-payday-loans-banned-by-states.html [ http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/24/business/major-banks-aid-in-payday-loans-banned-by-states.html?pagewanted=all ]
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JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon: 'We Actually Benefit From Downturns'
JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon waves away trouble with his hand, helping his bank benefit from downturns.
By Mark Gongloff
Posted: 02/26/2013 11:47 am EST | Updated: 02/26/2013 6:53 pm EST
Like most soft-spined Americans, you probably have painful memories of the financial crisis and consequent recession. Perhaps you even think of those things as "bad." Fortunately, Jamie Dimon is not like the rest of you losers.
That is because, unlike you, Jamie Dimon is CEO of JPMorgan Friggin' Chase, America's greatest bank, which just so happens to snack on financial crises and recessions like so much KIND bar.
"This bank is anti-fragile, we actually benefit from downturns," Dimon bragged to his bank's investors [ http://seekingalpha.com/currents/post/851601 ; http://investor.shareholder.com/jpmorganchase/presentations.cfm ] at a conference on Tuesday.
And it is true! The bank definitely benefited from the last downturn. It got to buy Bear Stearns in a government-backed fire sale, getting itself a brokerage business on the cheap [ http://money.cnn.com/2009/03/13/news/companies/jpmorgan_bear_stearns/index.htm ] in exchange for shouldering only a few tiresome legal burdens [ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/20/justice-department-jp-morgan_n_2728993.html ]. It also got billions of dollars in government handouts, from $25 billion in TARP funds [ http://www.nytimes.com/packages/html/national/200904_CREDITCRISIS/recipients.html ] to billions in savings from low-interest-rate borrowing programs [ http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124865021223682323.html ] to a permanent subsidy arising from the idea that the government will bail out the bank if it ever gets in trouble.
That permanent subsidy amounts to about $17 billion per year [ http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-02-20/why-should-taxpayers-give-big-banks-83-billion-a-year-.html ], according to a recent Bloomberg View study, representing nearly all of the bank's profits. No other bank gets such a large subsidy, according to Bloomberg's study (although, to be fair, some find Bloomberg's methods unsound [ http://dealbreaker.com/2013/02/why-should-taxpayers-give-big-banks-a-subsidy-of-83-billion-per-year-or-any-other-made-up-number-for-that-matter/ ], to quote from Jamie Dimon's favorite movie [ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mark-gongloff/jamie-dimon-favorite-movie-apocalypse-now_b_2743572.html ]).
Of course, this may not have been the sort of benefit Dimon was talking about. Instead, he has repeatedly opined that his bank thrived [ http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2012/09/11/dimon-defends-big-banks/ ] -- was in fact a "port in the storm" -- during the downturn simply because it was so gigantic.
Funny enough, JPMorgan is sometimes not at its tip-top best when things are actually looking up. For example, it managed to lose $6 billion on credit default swaps last year, at a time when markets were doing just fine. So maybe "anti-fragile" is not the best term for JPMorgan?
Dimon's use of that term did not go unnoticed by another Jedi master of self-regard, Nassim Taleb, whose latest book is called, wait for it, "Antifragile [ http://www.amazon.com/Antifragile-Things-That-Gain-Disorder/dp/1400067820 ]." According to Taleb, being "antifragile" means, if I'm summing this up correctly, being able to not only withstand but thrive in adversity, particularly of the unexpected, "black swan" variety. Taleb thinks our institutions and people are not antifragile. And he apparently does not agree that Dimon's bank fits the definition of antifragile, either. Taleb tweeted:
Nassim N. Taleb
@nntaleb
MY NIGHTMARE ! RT @ErikSchatzker Dimon channels Taleb: "This bank is anti-fragile. We actually have benefited from downturns."
2:05 PM - 26 Feb 13
And then followed up:
Nassim N. Taleb
@nntaleb
What Kills the system makes Dimon stronger.
2:29 PM - 26 Feb 13
Update: Apparently, Dimon had only just begun to namecheck Taleb's books. According to CNBC's Kayla Tausche, Dimon later cited Taleb's most famous book, "Black Swan [ http://www.amazon.com/Black-Swan-Improbable-Robustness-Fragility/dp/081297381X ]:"
Kayla Tausche
@kaylatausche
Dimon calls #Europe a black swan and a rollercoaster. On the latter, "sometimes you feel good, sometimes you feel sick to your stomach."
8:17 PM - 26 Feb 13
Business Insider's Joe Weisenthal retweeted Tausche, to which Taleb replied:
Joseph Weisenthal
@TheStalwart
More Taleb talk. RT @kaylatausche: Dimon calls #Europe a black swan and a rollercoaster...
-
Nassim N. Taleb
@nntaleb
@TheStalwart @kaylatausche Joe, this is getting a bit... He misquoted using 2 titles of my book the SAME day.
8:51 PM - 26 Feb 13
Taleb accused Dimon of:
Joseph Weisenthal
@TheStalwart
.@nntaleb What specifically is Dimon getting wrong?
-
Nassim N. Taleb
@nntaleb
@TheStalwart misuse of "black swan" (not Europe) and antifragile (he is taking it from taxpayer)
8:56 PM - 26 Feb 13
In other words, Taleb is telling Dimon, you can't call yourself "anti-fragile" if you thrive in crises mainly because of the good graces of the taxpayer.
Copyright © 2013 TheHuffingtonPost.com, Inc.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/26/jamie-dimon-benefit-downturns_n_2765462.html [with embedded video report, and comments]
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They're Baaack: U.S. Banks Had Their Second-Best Year Ever in 2012
By Derek Thompson
Feb 27 2013, 10:29 AM ET
U.S. banks celebrated their second-most-profitable year in 2012 with a whopping $141 billion in net income last year. That's scarcely smaller than the record, $145 billion, set just before the crash, in 2006, according to the FDIC.
I wondered: What do the last three decades in bank profits look like? Based on FDIC data [ http://www2.fdic.gov/qbp/index.asp ] (and adjusting for inflation), they look like this.
This weekend, Evan Soltas drew a wonderful graph showing that the financial industry takes home a third [ http://esoltas.blogspot.com/2013/02/the-rise-of-finance.html (the graph next below)]
of all corporate profits -- up from 10 percent after World War II. When you build an economy that subsidizes debt through homeownership, gives preferential treatment to investment income, and guarantees that the biggest banks will never fail, you get what you ask for. A country where finance plays by a separate set of rules and runs away with a third of the profit.
Copyright © 2013 by The Atlantic Monthly Group
http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2013/02/theyre-baaack-us-banks-had-their-second-best-year-ever-in-2012/273561/ [with comments]
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JPMorgan to cut up to 17,000 jobs [net] by end of 2014
The entrance to JPMorgan Chase's international headquarters on Park Avenue is seen in New York October 2, 2012.
Credit: Reuters/Shannon Stapleton
By David Henry
NEW YORK | Wed Feb 27, 2013 5:23am EST
(Reuters) - JPMorgan Chase & Co (JPM.N) said on Tuesday that it plans to cut 17,000 jobs by the end of 2014, representing about 6.6 percent of the company's overall workforce, as the bank sheds staff that helped it deal with bad home loans.
The bank is optimistic that it can generate record income this year and is planning to add 4,000 employees in commercial and investment banking and credit cards to help it win business, bank executives said at an investor conference.
That hiring will be more than offset by job cuts in areas like mortgage servicing and retail banking, where the bank is positioning for a recovering housing market and new forms of branch banking. The net impact of the additions and cuts will be 17,000 fewer employees on the bank's payrolls.
The job cuts reflect the pressure that banks are under, even as the U.S. housing market and overall economy show signs of recovery. Many banks are looking to automate more of their businesses to make their staff more productive and improve profits.
For example, at JPMorgan's branches, where it plans to cut about 6,000 tellers and other employees, the bank hopes customers will use automated teller machines for every day transactions and that remaining staff can focus on higher-margin activities like selling wealth management services.
JPMorgan is one of the few big U.S. banks that is still adding branches to its network, but it is hoping to staff the branches with fewer workers. The bank's 5,614 branches have 63,500 employees, representing about a quarter of JPMorgan Chase's total. Chase's branch network is second to Wells Fargo & Co's (WFC.N) in size.
For overall staffing levels, JPMorgan Chase had 258,965 employees globally at the end of 2012. Its headcount rose following the financial crisis to 262,882 in the second quarter of 2012 from 219,569 in the first quarter of 2009. Since last year's second quarter, staffing levels have drifted lower.
JPMorgan Chase overall earned $21.9 billion last year, excluding accounting charges linked to changes in the value of its debt. The bank said it has the potential to earn about $27.5 billion, thanks in part to efficiency gains. It aims to cut overall expenses by $1 billion in 2013.
To reach the $27.5 billion profit figure, the bank is also counting on costs for lawsuits to fall as disputes over bad mortgages are resolved, as well as seeing a one percentage point rise in interest rates, said Chief Financial Officer Marianne Lake.
The profit scenario also depends on the bank not being hit by another trading debacle like the $6.2 billion loss last year on derivatives trades placed by the London Whale, the nickname given a London-based JPMorgan trader for the size of the positions.
Chief Executive Jamie Dimon acknowledged that many of his top lieutenants who spoke to investors on Tuesday were in new jobs after changes he made last year in his management team and the bank's divisions.
"It is a little bit too much change in one year," Dimon said. "Some of it was the Whale. Some of it was the re-org" to better align product divisions with customer interests, he said.
All of the top executives, however, have been at the company several years and know its businesses, Dimon said.
JPMorgan Chase shares were down 0.2 percent at $47.60 at the close of trading on Tuesday on the New York Stock Exchange.
(Reporting By David Henry; Additional reporting by Rick Rothacker in Charlotte, North Carolina; Writing by Dan Wilchins; Editing by Gerald E. McCormick, John Wallace and Matthew Lewis)
Copyright 2013 Thomson Reuters
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/02/27/us-jpmorgan-jobs-idUSBRE91P0GX20130227 [with comment]
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Will 2nd Circuit limit on UBS liability in terror case have ripples?
February 20, 2013
http://blogs.reuters.com/alison-frankel/2013/02/20/will-2nd-circuit-limit-on-ubs-liability-in-terror-case-have-ripples/ [no comments yet]
===
Creationism, Ayn Rand and gun control: Actual laws proposed this month
In Missouri, it would be a felony to propose gun control. Oklahoma wants to protect students from science. Really
Feb 24, 2013
http://www.salon.com/2013/02/24/creationism_ayn_rand_and_gun_control_six_terrible_state_laws_proposed_this_month/ [with comments]
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The Right-Wing Money Putting John Stossel In School Classrooms
How The Right's "Dark Money ATM" Spent More Than Half A Million Dollars On Stossel Educational Materials
ALEXANDER ZAITCHIK
February 25, 2013 9:17 AM EST
Two foundations that have been described [ http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2013/02/donors-trust-donor-capital-fund-dark-money-koch-bradley-devos ] as "the dark money ATM of the right" have spent more than $500,000 combined funding a non-profit organization whose primary function is distributing libertarian education materials featuring Fox Business host John Stossel.
Donors Trust and Donors Capital Fund, the affiliated funding groups, were until recently obscure entities. But over the past month a series [ http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2013/02/donors-trust-donor-capital-fund-dark-money-koch-bradley-devos ] of reports [ http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2013/feb/14/funding-climate-change-denial-thinktanks-network ] have detailed [ http://www.publicintegrity.org/2013/02/14/12151/following-donors-trust-money-trail ] how those organizations have paid out more than $400 million to over 1,000 conservative groups since their 1999 founding. Those reports have described how the two organizations have allowed wealthy individuals to discreetly underwrite trending conservative causes like climate change denial [ http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2013/02/19/1611441/secretive-donors-trust-pumps-far-more-money-into-climate-denial-and-inaction-than-kochs-and-exxon-mobil-combined/ ].
The groups have also been the primary funders behind an effort to flood American classrooms with packaged libertarian lessons branded with John Stossel's mustachioed face. In 2011, Donors Trust gave $40,000 to the Philadelphia-based Center for Independent Thought (CIT), with the funds earmarked for the distribution of "Stossel in the Classroom" teaching materials, according to IRS filings [ http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2013/02/donors-trust-2011-dark-money-heritage-cato-unions ] obtained by Mother Jones.
[video "What are Children Learning From "Stossel in the Classroom"? ( http://mediamatters.org/embed/static/clips/2013/02/22/29008/stossel-20130222-classroom )" embedded]
Video produced by Oliver Willis.
According to CIT's website [ http://www.centerforindependentthought.org/about_us.html ], its mission is to "bring the ideas of liberty to freedom-loving people around the globe." They do so primarily through the distribution of free "Stossel in the Classroom" videos, DVDs and discussion guides, which the program claims [ http://stosselintheclassroom.org/ ] are currently used by more than 150,000 teachers in middle school, high school, and college classrooms around the country.
The Center spent $360,872 on the "Stossel" program that year, making it by far the largest of the three active programs listed on its website.
"Stossel in the Classroom" began in 1999 when Stossel was still with ABC News [ http://abcnews.go.com/2020/Stossel/story?id=1739076 ]. It was seeded [ http://www.salon.com/2000/02/25/stossel/ ] with financial support from the libertarian Palmer R. Chitester Fund [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palmer_R._Chitester_Fund ] and grew slowly until CIT took over the program in the mid-2000s.
CIT was a natural home for "Stossel in the Classroom." Founded with Koch money as the Libertarian Review Foundation in the 1970s, real estate developer Howard Rich took control of the organization in 1990 [ http://www.pbs.org/now/shows/238/ ] and gave it its current name. Rich is part of the libertarian donor elite, founded Americans for Limited Government, and sits on the board at Cato [ http://www.cato.org/board-of-directors ], the Club for Growth [ http://www.clubforgrowth.org/aboutus/?subsec=0&id=122 ], and the Friedman Center for Educational Choice [ http://howardrich.org/?page_id=1147 ]. (Rich's wife, Andrea, runs CIT, but does not draw a salary.)
At the same time the group took over "Stossel," new right-wing funding began flowing into its coffers. While Donors Trust had not donated to the group before 2011, CIT has also received money [ http://bridgeproject.com/?organization&id=278288 ] from Donors Capital Fund ($500,000 from 2007 to 2010) and foundations linked to the Koch brothers.
The purpose of groups like Donors Trust and Donors Capital Fund is to allow wealthy benefactors to support conservative causes anonymously. The Tides Foundation is a liberal analogue, donating millions of dollars to left-leaning groups (including Media Matters). According to Mother Jones [ http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2013/02/donors-trust-donor-capital-fund-dark-money-koch-bradley-devos ], whose non-profit arm has also received Tides funding, "Donors Trust's strategic intent is far narrower and more coherent than Tides'. The groups funded by Donors Trust more or less pursue the same agenda--eliminate regulations, kneecap unions, shrink government, and transfer more power to the private sector."
The Center for Public Integrity produced this graphic [ http://www.publicintegrity.org/2013/02/14/12151/following-donors-trust-money-trail (larger, more legible, interactive original)] detailing the flow of money in recent years from Koch-backed and other right-wing foundations through Donors Trust to a variety of conservative groups:
CIT's funders -- whoever they are -- will find nothing in their program's activities to make them question their investment in helping produce the next generation of libertarians.
The new caretakers built a slick new website, archived more videos spanning Stossel's career, instituted a professional organization of requests and distribution, and began producing specially designed economics DVDs and teaching guides.
Stossel himself provides a brief welcome message from his Fox Business studio [ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UslTJIjNGJ8 (below, as embedded)] in the first segment of 2013's DVD "Good Intentions Gone Wrong," available free [ http://stosselintheclassroom.org/freedvd/ ] on the "Stossel In The Classroom" website:
The program now offers hundreds of free clips from Stossel's shows and specials that claim to seriously address a range of academic subjects, including Art ("Why does Hollywood Hate Capitalism? [ http://www.stosselintheclassroom.org/videos/why_does_hollywood_hate_capitalism/ ]"), Biology ("Debunking Food Myths [ http://stosselintheclassroom.org/videos/debunking_food_myths/ ]"), and History ("The Real Story of Thanksgiving [ http://www.stosselintheclassroom.org/videos/the_real_story_of_thanksgiving/ ]," which explains "how the Pilgrims were hurt by sharing").
"Stossel in the Classroom" also produces libertarian economics courses. The small team of economists [ http://stosselintheclassroom.org/economics/supplements/ ] that writes materials such as "Making Economics Come Alive with John Stossel" has multiple [ http://www.coss.fsu.edu/economics/people/joe-calhoun ] close [ http://mailer.fsu.edu/~jgwartne/garnet-jgwartne/index.html ] ties [ http://www.coss.fsu.edu/stavros/great-teachers-series/mark-c-schug ] to the Stavros Center for the Advancement of Free Enterprise and Economic Education at Florida State University.
The videos on the site are stacked with pundits echoing Stossel's radical laissez-faire views. A typical lesson pairs videos of Fox Business pundits tearing into a regulatory effort -- a video [ http://stosselintheclassroom.org/videos/regulations_regulations_and_more_regulations/ ] on the 2010 health care law features serial liar Betsy McCaughey and industrial-fan entrepreneur Bob Luddy -- with teacher's guides that ask if government regulation is necessary.
Students who answer "Yes" are unlikely to win many of the 225 cash prizes totaling $23,000 distributed annually in the "Stossel in the Classroom" essay contest [ http://stosselintheclassroom.org/essay_contest/ ]. Last year's competition, entitled, "Politicians' Promises Gone Wrong," asked students to write an essay of between 500 and 1,000 words about the government's ability to deliver on its promises. Students could take either side, but the rules stipulated that the essays must reference or cite an example [id.] in Stossel's latest anti-government tract, No They Can't: Why Government Fails -- But Individuals Succeed, or his associated TV special.
Last year's winners, who received all-expenses-paid trips to New York and appeared on Stossel's show, were both home school students. The winning entry [ http://stosselintheclassroom.org/img/essaycertificate_firstplace_2012.jpg ], by a 13-year-old student, used the Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009 as an example of harmful government overreach, and in support of her case cited a Heritage Foundation analyst who suggested that as a result of the law employers would simply hire fewer women and minorities -- thus hurting both groups. Second place honors went to an essay [ http://stosselintheclassroom.org/essay_contest/second_place/ ] that built its critique of government social spending around the metaphor of a class president candidate promising free candy to the student body. "While the students may enjoy the sugar and the candidate may have won the election," wrote the 15-year-old author, "the candy may give them cavities at the expense of the taxpayer."
It is unclear whether John Stossel is being paid for his role as the face of "Stossel in the Classroom." CIT did not return calls regarding $230,000 in expenses for the program categorized on its tax returns as "Other." Fox Business and Stossel himself likewise did not respond to requests for comment.
© 2013 Media Matters for America
http://mediamatters.org/blog/2013/02/25/the-right-wing-money-putting-john-stossel-in-sc/192777 [with comments]
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Club For Growth Launches New Effort To Recruit GOP Primary Challengers Against Republicans
By Nick Wing
Posted: 02/27/2013 1:42 pm EST
Club for Growth, a conservative anti-tax group that has injected itself into a number of intra-GOP fights in the past, launched a new digital campaign on Wednesday attacking a number of House Republican lawmakers and soliciting submissions for potential conservative challengers.
Launched by Club for Growth Action, the group's super PAC arm, the Primary My Congressman [ http://www.primarymycongressman.com/ ] site features a list of nine representatives deemed insufficiently conservative.
In a statement, the Club for Growth said they hoped the push would "raise awareness of Republicans In Name Only (RINOs) who are currently serving in safe Republican seats."
“Big government liberals inhabit the Democratic Party, but they are far too common within the Republican Party as well,” Club for Growth President Chris Chocola said. “The Republicans helped pass billions of dollars in tax increases and they have repeatedly voted against efforts by fiscal conservatives to limit government."
The site features profiles for Reps. Mike Simpson (R-Idaho), Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.), Rick Crawford (R-Ark.), Frank Lucas (R-Okla.), Steve Palazzo (R-Miss.), Martha Roby (R-Ala.), Larry Bucshon (R-Ind.), Renee Elmers (R-N.C.) and Aaron Schock (R-Ill.). Each page contains a Club for Growth rating for the lawmaker, a breakdown of how Republican-leaning their district is, a list of their past votes, and a large button to "recommend an opponent."
The Club for Growth recently released its 2012 congressional scorecard [ http://www.clubforgrowth.org/projects/?subSec=13 ]. All of the campaign's targets have received relatively low ratings from the group. For the Club for Growth's highest-ranking members, click through the slideshow below.
[slideshow embedded]
Copyright © 2013 TheHuffingtonPost.com, Inc.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/27/club-for-growth-primary_n_2774662.html [with comments]
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Louie Gohmert: Debt Is 'One Of The Most Immoral Things This Country Has Ever Done'
By Nick Wing
Posted: 02/27/2013 12:01 pm EST | Updated: 02/27/2013 12:01 pm EST
Tea Party Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas) said this week that his generation's contribution to the national debt is "one of the most immoral things" the nation has ever done. Gohmert went on to include debt in a conversation of national tragedies such as slavery.
“Slavery and abortion are the two most horrendous things this country has done but when you think about the immorality of wild, lavish spending on our generation and forcing future generations to do without essentials just so we can live lavishly now, it's pretty immoral," Gohmert said [along with plenty more] in an interview with Newsmax [ http://www.newsmax.com/Newsfront/gohmert-debt-sequestration-immigration/2013/02/26/id/492137 ].
The aside came during a broader defense of "sequestration" cuts, in which Gohmert argued that "people have got to understand that we're serious about stopping the massive load we are putting on our children and their children. It is one of the most immoral things this country has ever done."
Gohmert has displayed a knack for similar hyperbole in the past, frequently suggesting that the nation's supposed lack of morality puts it on the brink of falling back into darker times.
Last year, Gohmert warned that the nation [ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/10/17/louie-gohmert-slavery_n_1974425.html ] was farther away from God now than it had been when slavery was in practice.
"We strayed away different times. Andrew Jackson’s time was not a great time, different times slavery was a blot on our existence," Gohmert said. "But the trouble is we have never as an entire nation overall been so far away from God's teaching and so openly rebelling, even from the top, against God's teachings in the Bible."
Copyright © 2013 TheHuffingtonPost.com, Inc.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/27/louie-gohmert-debt_n_2773639.html [with comments]
===
Why Obama Must Meet the Republican Lies Directly
By Robert Reich
Posted: 02/25/2013 1:06 pm
The White House apparently believes the best way to strengthen its hand in the upcoming "sequester" showdown with Republicans is to tell Americans how awful the spending cuts will be, and blame Republicans for them.
It won't work. These tactical messages are getting in the way of the larger truth, which the President must hammer home: The Republicans' austerity economics and trickle-down economics are dangerous, bald-faced lies.
Yes, the pending spending cuts will hurt. But even if some Americans begin to feel the pain when the cuts go into effect Friday, most won't feel it for weeks or months, if ever.
Half are cuts in the military, which will have a huge impact on jobs (the military is America's only major jobs program), but the cuts will be felt mainly in states with large numbers of military contractors, and then only as those contractors shed employees.
The other half are cuts in domestic discretionary spending, which will largely affect lower-income Americans. There will be sharp reductions in federal aid to poor schools, nutrition assistance, housing assistance, and the like. But here again, most Americans won't see these cuts or feel them.
Moreover, the blame game can be played both ways, and Republicans are adept at slinging mud. When it comes to high-visibility consequences of the spending cuts -- such as a sudden dearth of air-traffic controllers -- Republicans will dodge blame by happily giving Obama authority to shift spending and find the cuts himself, thereby making the White House appear even more culpable.
Besides, there's no end to this. After Friday's sequester comes the showdown over continuing funding of the government beyond March 27. Then another fight over the debt ceiling.
The White House must directly rebut the two big lies that fuel the Republican assault -- and that have fueled it since the showdown over the debt ceiling in the summer of 2011.
The first big lie is austerity economics -- the claim that the budget deficit is the nation's biggest economic problem now, responsible for the anemic recovery.
Wrong. The problem is too few jobs, lousy wages, and slow growth. Cutting the budget deficit anytime soon makes the problem worse because it reduces overall demand. As a result, the economy will slow or fall into recession -- which enlarges the deficit in proportion. You want proof? Look at what austerity economics has done to Europe.
The second big lie is trickle-down economics -- the claim that we get more jobs and growth if corporations and the rich have more money because they're the job creators, and job growth would be hurt if their taxes were hiked.
Wrong. The real job creators are the broad middle class and everyone who aspires to join it. Their purchases keep economy going.
As inequality continues to widen, and income and wealth become ever more concentrated at the top, the rest don't have the purchasing power they need to boost the economy. That's the underlying reason why the recovery continues to be so anemic.
These two lies -- austerity economics and trickle-down economics -- are being told over and over by Republicans and their mouthpieces on Fox News, yell radio, and the editorial pages of the Wall Street Journal. They are wrong and there are dangerous.
Yet unless they are rebutted clearly and forcefully, the nation will continue to careen from crisis to crisis, showdown to showdown.
And we will have almost no chance of reversing the larger challenge of widening inequality.
President Obama has the bully pulpit. Americans trust him more than they do congressional Republicans. But he is letting micro-tactics get in the way of the larger truth. And he's blurring his message with other messages -- about gun control, immigration, and the environment. All are important, to be sure. But none has half a chance unless Americans understand how they're being duped on the really big story.
Copyright © 2013 TheHuffingtonPost.com, Inc.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-reich/obama-sequestration_b_2759734.html [with comments]
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Republican losses obscure US drift to right
Republican angst over presidential election losses obscures the fact that many conservative ideals have prospered for decades.
By CHARLES BABINGTON
Originally published Wednesday, February 27, 2013 at 10:55 PM
WASHINGTON — Republican angst over presidential election losses obscures the fact that many conservative ideals have prospered for decades.
Conservative efforts have pushed the government rightward on taxes, spending and other policies, despite losses on some social fronts. One might say Republicans keep losing battles but winning wars.
This rightward drift serves as a curious, often ignored backdrop for GOP leaders' claims that the country is burdened by massive spending and taxation.
Republican lawmakers, for instance, adamantly oppose President Barack Obama's call for higher tax revenues as part of an alternative to big spending cuts about to hit government agencies. Yet the federal tax burden, as a portion of the overall economy, has been lower during Obama's four years in office than at any time since 1950.
And what about claims that spending on food stamps, environmental oversight and other nuts-and-bolts federal operations is out of control? Nonmilitary discretionary spending ranged from 3.8 percent to 5.1 percent of the overall economy throughout the 1970s. Starting in 1986, it didn't exceed 3.8 percent again until the 2008 recession dramatically slowed the economy.
Conservatives, however, have been unable in recent years to slow the rapid growth of "entitlement" programs such as Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security. These popular but costly programs pose long-term fiscal dilemmas if not addressed.
Policy on some social matters - gay rights, most notably - has moved leftward. But the opposite is true for another big issue, gun control.
A 10-year ban on assault weapons that expired in 2004 is unlikely to be renewed, even in the wake of school massacres. In 1969, a Republican-led presidential commission recommended the confiscation of most handguns, a nearly unthinkable idea today.
"The political spectrum as a whole has moved to the right," said Bruce Bartlett, an economic adviser to Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush.
Even conservative activists differ on why this has happened. Some say Republicans' constant focus on a few simple ideas, such as never raising taxes, appeals to ordinary people who follow politics only sporadically.
Grover Norquist, author of a famous no-new-tax pledge, has long urged Republicans to use the strategy to build a powerful brand - "We won't raise your taxes" - similar to universally recognized products such as Coke. Whatever the Democratic "brand" is, Norquist says, it's much more muddled.
Others say Democrats, by nature, are more willing to compromise in pursuit of "good government" solutions. Republicans, who are less pro-government, are less likely to bend. When one side compromises and the other side doesn't, the center of debate moves toward the unyielding party.
Emory University political scientist Alan Abramowitz says the Democratic Party has become "essentially a centrist party, and has remained so despite losing its right wing since the 1960s as a result of the realignment of the South." Meanwhile, he said, the GOP "has moved rather dramatically to the right since the `60s." The political middle ground, he said, "has also shifted well to the right of where it was 30 or 40 years ago on most issues."
Abramowitz, who is writing a book on the GOP's transformation, also points to "the growing racial divide between the parties as the country has become more racially and ethnically diverse; the growing influence of right-wing think tanks, funders and media outlets; and a growing cultural/religious divide in the country."
Some Democrats say current deficit-spending debates take insufficient notice of the nation's long-running rightward shift on fiscal policies. Partisan disagreements have led to recent showdowns over the debt ceiling, the end-of-2012 "fiscal cliff" and some fast-approaching, across-the-board spending cuts called the "sequester."
Obama, saying both spending cuts and revenue hikes are needed, repeatedly has tried to reinstate a limited portion of the income tax rates that applied under President Bill Clinton, who left office with a budget surplus.
Republicans, thanks to a law they helped enact in 2011, were forced last month to accept tax increases on the richest Americans. Now, however, they say all further deficit reduction must come entirely from spending cuts.
It's a policy that would puzzle past Republican presidents such as Reagan and Richard Nixon. They mixed tax reductions and tax increases as circumstances changed. But over the past 20 years, the Republicans' "no new taxes" mantra has become virtually sacrosanct.
GOP leaders and tea party activists routinely describe Americans as overtaxed. By historical standards, at least, it's a questionable claim. In 1981, the top marginal income tax rate was 70 percent. Today it is 39.6 percent.
Federal tax revenues exceeded 20 percent of the gross domestic product in 2000. Under Obama, they have not exceeded 15.8 percent a year.
When revenues fall and spending grows, or even stays flat, deficits result. Big tax cuts in 2001 and 2003 contributed to rising deficits, and today the national debt exceeds $16 trillion. To help narrow the gap, Democrats and some independents have implored Republican lawmakers to mix higher taxes on the rich with further spending cuts.
Some Republicans fear their party's antipathy to tax increases, despite the huge debt, will put it out of step with middle America. A Pew Research poll for USA Today finds that 3 in 4 Americans support Obama's call for a mix of spending cuts and tax increases.
"The truth is, Republicans just don't care about deficits," said Bartlett, who has parted ways with many former GOP associates.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and other top Republicans say the deficit is a threat. America has a spending problem, they say, not a taxing problem.
Even the often-criticized "Obamacare" law is built on foundations - chiefly, universal health coverage - proposed years ago by Nixon and the conservative Heritage Foundation. When Congress approved the new law in 2010, not a single Republican voted for it.
Some social issues are too much in flux to say, definitively, whether U.S. society has moved to their right or left. Momentum for more liberal immigration laws rose in the late 1990s, collapsed in 2007, and now seems to be rebounding.
On climate change, some conservatives dispute evidence about humans' role in rising temperatures, and the potential threat to the planet. But Obama and others are pointing to severe storms, record temperatures and other weather events in hopes of building public support for actions against greenhouse gasses.
"If you look at Republican positions on things like health care, climate change and cap and trade, they're moving away from their own positions due to internal political gravity," said David Di Martino, who was an aide to centrist Democratic Sen. Ben Nelson of Nebraska. "So when Obama arrives at a place where they were, say, on tax cuts, they have moved further right. So the president is always perceived to the left, even though the reality is that he's not."
Republicans have lost the popular vote in five of the last six presidential elections. They have done a far better job of pushing government policy to the right.
Copyright 2013 The Associated Press
http://seattletimes.com/html/politics/2020449651_apusconservativesuccess.html [no comments yet]
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Budget Cuts, Political Fighting To Hold Back U.S. Economic Growth, 95 Percent Of Economists Agree
02/25/2013
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/25/budget-cuts-economic-growth_n_2756836.html [with comments]
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Half Of U.S. Republicans [and 71% of Americans overall] Back Minimum Wage Of $9 Per Hour: Poll
02/25/2013
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/25/republicans-minimum-wage_n_2758307.html [with comments]
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Rick Scott Shifting Stance On Obamacare: From 'Devasting' To 'High-Quality Health Care'
Florida Gov. Rick Scott (R) wants to expand Medicaid under President Barack Obama's health care reform law after four years attacking it.
02/25/2013
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/25/rick-scott-obamacare-quotes_n_2756006.html [with comments]
===
The Bush Years And What A "Lapdog" Press Really Looked Like
February 22, 2013
http://mediamatters.org/blog/2013/02/22/the-bush-years-and-what-a-lapdog-press-really-l/192769 [with comments]
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Mitt Romney Adviser Stuart Stevens: Media Not 'In The Tank' For Obama
02/25/2013
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/25/stuart-stevens-media-obama-mitt-romney_n_2758266.html [with embedded video report, and comments; the YouTube, also embedded, at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=36di04RJKE8 ]
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Tom Casperson: I "don't know" if Obama was born in the United States
Published on Feb 26, 2013 by ProgressMichigan
On Michael Patrick Shiels' show, state Sen. Tom Casperson (R-Escanaba) says he doesn't know if President Obama was born in the United States, and calls the lack of media attention to the issue "strange."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BMX8P5QPzsk
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Erick Erickson, RedState Editor: Conservative Media 'Failing To Advance Ideas And Stories'
02/27/2013
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/27/erick-erickson-conservative-media-failing_n_2772781.html [with comments]
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Behold Movement Conservatism's Information Disadvantage: Chuck Hagel Edition
His confirmation was widely anticipated. Yet Jennifer Rubin and other neocons repeatedly published analysis that led their readers astray.
Feb 27 2013
http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2013/02/behold-movement-conservatisms-information-disadvantage-chuck-hagel-edition/273548/ [with comments]
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Rep. Keith Ellison Gets Shut Down during Heated Interview with Hannity, Calling Him Immoral
Published on Feb 26, 2013 by YouHotNews
Sean Hannity Battles Disrespectful Keith Ellison.
Right in the beginning, Democratic congressman Keith Ellison told Hannity: 'You're The Worse Excuse For A Journalist', launched into an angry tirade against the host, accusing him of being "immoral" and a liar. He told Hannity he continuously says things that aren't true, pointing to his consistently blaming the massive debt on President Obama. Hannity immediately stopped the interview at this point and told Ellison that having him on was a waste of time.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x3l5A9f_Kac [also at e.g. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vg1j6pIYkCs ] [and see e.g. "Keith Ellison Explodes At Sean Hannity: 'The Worst Excuse For A Journalist I've Ever Seen' (VIDEO)", http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/27/keith-ellison-sean-hannity-worst-journalist-fox-news_n_2772687.html (with portions of the above, and comments)]
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Keith Ellison Interview with Sean Hannity
Uploaded on Apr 21, 2011 by mnmajoritydotorg
From Hannity's show on 04/20/2011.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WG2PHF7Plsw
===
Bachmann: “I didn’t get anything wrong”
media.salon.com/2013/02/michele_bachmann3.jpg
The congresswoman touts her flawless run for the presidency and love of Beyoncé
Feb 26, 2013
http://www.salon.com/2013/02/26/bachmann_i_didnt_get_anything_wrong_in_wh_run/ [with embedded video (the above YouTube of the same video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X4jvf9SkMXE ), and comments]
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Greensburg, KS - 5/4/07
"Eternal vigilance is the price of Liberty."
from John Philpot Curran, Speech
upon the Right of Election, 1790
F6
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