- The HR3 Ten: Meet Joe Donnelly: Not Quite As Big A D*** as Heath Shuler
- [RHRealityCheck.org - Sarah Jaffe]
…if jobs, the deficit, and education are the top priorities for Blue Dogs like Donnelly, why are they going along with a radical antichoice agenda that would deprive pregnant people of access to health care?
You can ask him here [link] or contact:…
- Egypt’s Revolutionary Women: This is what reality looks like
- [Gender Across Borders - Amy Littlefield]
While Al Jazeera and other media showcased the beauty of the revolution — strangers kissing in the street, protesters handing out bread to each other, people of all ages and backgrounds uniting around a common sense of urgency…
…two prominent stereotypes of the Egyptian protesters…emerged in the U.S. [media]… One was that the protesters were naive, driven by emotion and idealism instead of common sense. The other — perpetuated by television coverage and photo galleries on major news sites — was that most of them were male.
Democracy Now! gleefully debunked the latter myth by showing footage of dozens of women protesting in Tahrir Square, and by interviewing women who were part of the movement, such as feminist Nawal El Saadawi, U.C.-Davis Professor Noha Radwan, columnist Mona Eltahawy… 26-year-old Asmaa Mahfouz, who helped ignite the Jan. 25 protest when her Youtube protest appeal went viral.
- Video: Iran Protests Immediately Turn Violent
- …the unofficial word out of Tehran is that one protester has already been killed by police, who also fired tear gas into the crowds amassed in the capital. In response, protesters burned photos of Ali Khamenei and set ablaze garbage bins to serve as barriers between themselves and authorities. As you can see in the video below, demonstrators also outright attacked Basiji, members of the Supreme Leader's paramilitary militia.
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- Kentucky Employers Claim They Can’t Find Workers, Must Hire Illegal Immigrants
- [Firedoglake - Rayne]
Try this yourself: browse through some of the job posting sites like Monster.com, Indeed.com, and SimplyHired.com and look for jobs…in the “Lexington, KY” area.
You’ll find nothing…
Kentucky’s legislature ought to slam employers hard for discriminating against Kentucky’s residents by seeking out only cheaper illegal immigrant labor; hefty fines ought to make it cheaper to advertise for legal workers than to [recruit] illegal immigrants by word of mouth…
There wouldn’t be illegal immigrants in Kentucky if there weren’t illegal employers hiring them. Punishing illegal immigrants only forces the illegal employers and the workers to go deeper under cover — and these illegal employers are already well under cover if you can’t find their job postings.
And the editor at Courier-Journal should be embarrassed (if not fired) for not asking the reporter to find the listings of these unfilled jobs gone wanting.
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- Ending Double Victimization of Domestic Violence Survivors
- [ACLU blog - Sandra S. Park]
For years, we have argued that discrimination based on domestic violence can be a form of sex discrimination, in violation of civil rights laws. We called on HUD to issue guidance explaining that this kind of discrimination is unlawful. Last Wednesday, HUD issued a memo to its regional offices describing how discrimination against domestic violence survivors can violate the federal Fair Housing Act. It stated that the following conduct can be unlawful:…
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- Defector admits to WMD lies that triggered Iraq war | World news | The Guardian
- • Man codenamed Curveball 'invented' tales of bioweapons
• Iraqi told lies to try to bring down Saddam Hussein regime
• Fabrications used by US as justification for invasion[...Not that any informed person should be surprised. -L]
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- Pro-love, anti-hate
- [Echidne - Suzie]
A couple of years ago in my church, a man got up during joys and sorrows to decry illegal immigration. I leaped up to correct him…
As a UU committed to critical thinking, I want to point out the marketing aspect of being "pro-love" or "anti-hate." It's akin to conservative Christians calling themselves "pro-family," people opposed to abortion saying they are "pro-life," or one group of feminists calling themselves "pro-sex." These are nebulous terms applied to specific political positions, in an effort to grab the upper hand…
I'm especially wary of using "love" to fight oppression, as this UU site [link] suggests. Over the millennia, men have said they loved women, or they loved particular women, but denied them rights or "disciplined" them. The same is true for other classes of people.
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- KS GOP Rep. Connie O’Brien Says She Can Tell Who Is ‘Illegal’ Because They Have ‘The Olive Complexion’
- [Think Progress - Zaid Jilani]
She explained that she took her son to a financial aid office, and as she was waiting in line, she believed there was a girl waiting in line with them who was “not originally from this country.”
- South Dakota legislators move to legalize some terrorism and domestic violence
- South Dakota legislators are trying to amend some changes to the “justifiable homicide” definition to include killing someone to prevent the killing of a fetus. …the bill [only allows killings by] a family member of the woman getting the abortion. And, it seems that it might include allowing the killing of the woman, too, though it’s tough to say…
If this bill passes into law, a wife beater whose wife is trying to abort for the entirely sensible reason that you don’t want babies with a batterer could walk into a clinic, shoot the doctor to prevent the abortion, and plead justifiable homicide, with the blessing of the South Dakota legislature and presumably the anti-choice movement that lobbied them.
Anyone who uses the term “pro-life” really has no excuse. It’s honestly one of the best examples of doublespeak in our current parlance, and it needs to end.
- Republicans To Put Entitlements On The Chopping Block | TPMDC
- Monday, Reps. Eric Cantor (R-VA) and Paul Ryan (R-WI) were almost reading from two different scripts on entitlements. But in reality, Republicans seem to be coalescing around the same objective: to put Social Security and maybe even Medicare on the chopping block.
…we're nearing unanimity among top Republicans on this point, which suggests there will be a fight over entitlements as soon as this spring.
- UC Irvine Faculty Object To Prosecution Of Muslim Students | TPMMuckraker
- One hundred faculty members at UC Irvine signed a letter last week asking [the county's] District Attorney to drop the charges against 11 Muslim students…who last year disrupted a speech on campus by Israeli Ambassador Michael Oren…
In their letter, the faculty members [said] that the students have already been sufficiently disciplined by the university. In addition to individual punishments, the Muslim Student Union was suspended from being a student organization for an academic quarter.
"The use of the criminal justice system will be detrimental to our campus as it inherently will be divisive and risk undoing the healing process which has occurred over the last year," the letter reads…
The letter's signatories include five deans and 14 Chancellor's Professors and Distinguished Professors.
…"If we don't enforce this law we're basically looking at anarchy and chaos," [the DA's chief of staff] said.
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- Concealed-Carry License Gets You Fast-Track Access To Texas Capitol | TPMMuckraker
- Concealed handgun license holders can enter the Capitol via an expedited "CHL access" line, while "schoolchildren and tourists" have to pass through metal detectors, according to the report.
The metal detectors were installed last year, after a gun was fired on the Capitol's steps. …
Some lobbyists and even journalists have also applied for the licenses, despite having no intention to carry a gun.
State Sen. Dan Patrick (R) said he carries a handgun with him at the Capitol at almost all times.
- Zynga Releases Words With Friends For Android
- Words With Friends, the wildly popular iOS game by everyone’s favorite company Zynga, has come to Android, after weeks of anticipation. WWF is one of the most addicting and well made word games on the planet, and as of a few hours ago, you can download it for free from the Android Market.
Here’s the best part: Words With Friends is cross-platform, so you can play up to 20 simultaneous games and kick your iOS buddies’ butts all at the same time.
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[In case it needs to be said: I don't agree with every word of everything I link to. Signal boosts are awesome! --L.]
The Of interest (Mon, Feb 14th, 5pm to Tue, Feb 15th, 11am) by Lee Salazar, unless otherwise expressly stated, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License. Terms and conditions beyond the scope of this license may be available at leesalazar.com.