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Podesta Responds To Roberts’ ‘Troubling’ Comment With Call For Supreme Court To Be Televised - 03/14/2010 04:15 PM

At the State of the Union earlier this year, President Obama denounced the Supreme Court’s Citizens United ruling that invalidated a sixty-three year-old ban on corporate money in federal elections as the members of the court looked on. “I don’t think American elections should be bankrolled by America’s most powerful interests or, worse, by foreign [...]

Air Force sergeant discharged under DADT after police see her marriage license and out her to the military. - 03/14/2010 02:01 PM

Air Force Sgt. Jene Newsome never told anyone in the military that she is a lesbian, but she nevertheless received an honorable discharge from the military under the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell (DADT) law. The Air Force found out about Newsome’s marriage to another woman when police officers in Rapid City, SD, discovered her [...]

Christian leaders urge Congress to ignore misinformation on abortion provisions and pass health reform. - 03/13/2010 06:17 PM

In recent weeks, the number of Democratic lawmakers willing to join Rep. Bart Stupak’s (D-MI) crusade to bring down health care reform unless Congress amends the Senate bill’s abortion language keeps shrinking. Stupak began the debate with that 15 to 20 supporters; that number is down to fewer than a dozen now. As Igor Volsky [...]

Sen. Tom Udall Calls Reid’s Promise To ‘Take A Look At The Filibuster’ A ‘Warning Shot’ To Republicans - 03/13/2010 03:46 PM

Motivated by unprecedented GOP obstruction this year in the U.S. Senate, Sen. Tom Udall (D-NM) recently announced a proposal to revamp the Senate’s filibuster rules at the start of the next Congress. Citing Article I, Section 5 of the Constitution, Udall would like to revamp the 60-vote requirement for cloture and other procedural issues, where [...]

Church Uses Marquee To Speak Out Against Beck: ‘Sorry Mr Beck, Jesus Preached Social Justice’ - 03/13/2010 12:01 AM

This week, Christian religious leaders have been criticizing Fox News host Glenn Beck for his controversial remarks that churches that promote social and economic justice are somehow dangerous. “If you have a priest that is pushing social justice, go find another parish,” said Beck. Progressive Christian group Sojourners has even launched a campaign calling on [...]

Texas Board of Education cuts Thomas Jefferson out of its textbooks. - 03/12/2010 11:04 PM

The Texas Board of Education has been meeting this week to revise its social studies curriculum. During the past three days, “the board’s far-right faction wielded their power to shape lessons on the civil rights movement, the U.S. free enterprise system and hundreds of other topics”: – To avoid exposing students to “transvestites, transsexuals [...]

Huckabee Inadvertently Argues For Health Insurance Mandate: ‘Everybody Has To Live’ - 03/12/2010 10:00 PM

Included in both the House and Senate health care reform bills each chamber passed last year is a mandate for individuals to buy health insurance. Offering support for the measure, President Obama has compared the idea to states’ requirements that those who drive cars must purchase auto insurance. “Under my plan, individuals will be required [...]

City Removes Spanish-Language Census Sign After ‘Angry’ Citizens And Lawmakers Raise A Fuss - 03/12/2010 08:58 PM

Until recently, downtown Prescott, AZ had two large banners encouraging people to participate in the 2010 Census — one in English and the other in Spanish. However, the Spanish-language banner has been taken down “after at least four dozen citizens and two city council members questioned its appropriateness“: City of Prescott Executive Assistant Patty Crouse [...]

Top Insurance Lobbyist Says Industry Won’t Point Fingers, Then Blames Hospitals For Higher Premiums - 03/12/2010 08:02 PM

During the AHIP’s insurance conference on Tuesday, AHIP President and CEO Karen Ignagni claimed that health insurers were “very concerned about insurance premiums and the trajectory” of health care spending and promised that the industry remained committed to controlling costs. “We understand that begins also with us. So we are fully committed to cost containment,” [...]

Conservative Catholic League President Bill Donohue Defends Beck: Many Of His Critics Are ‘Phonies’ - 03/12/2010 06:57 PM

On his radio show recently, Glenn Beck controversially warned his audience to leave churches that care about social justice: I beg you, look for the words “social justice” or “economic justice” on your church website. If you find it, run as fast as you can. Social justice and economic justice –they are code words. [...]

As Polls Show Increasing Support For Health Care Reform, Cavuto Claims ‘Polls Are Increasingly Looking Worse’ - 03/12/2010 05:50 PM

On Fox News yesterday, Neil Cavuto argued that Democrats want to get health care reform done before the Easter break because “they sure as heck don’t want to see those town hallers.” Cavuto, who was interviewing Sen. Jon Kyl (R-AZ), then claimed that Democrats “agree the polls are increasingly looking worse for health care support.” [...]

Rove Is ‘Proud’ Of Waterboarding, But Falsely Claims It Was More ‘Constrained’ Than SERE Training - 03/12/2010 04:45 PM

In an interview with the BBC yesterday, former Bush adviser Karl Rove defended the administration’s use of waterboarding, saying that he was “proud” that Bush “used techniques that broke the will of these terrorists and gave us valuable information.” “Yes, I’m proud that we kept the world safer than it was, by the use of [...]

ACLU will sue high school that canceled prom to stop lesbians from attending. - 03/12/2010 03:52 PM

As ThinkProgress reported yesterday, a Mississippi school district has canceled this year’s prom at Itawamba Agricultural High School following the Mississippi American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) request that the school allow a lesbian couple to attend. The school cited “distractions to the educational process caused by recent events” as reason for canceling the event, [...]

ThinkFast: March 12, 2010 - 03/12/2010 03:00 PM

“Israel has sealed off the West Bank for 48 hours, preventing Palestinians from entering Israel” due to increasing unrest in the Palestinian territory. There have been ongoing clashes between police and protesters in the West Bank for weeks, “sparked by deadlock in peace talks and Israel’s inclusion of two West Bank shrines on a list [...]

Thiessen’s Inconsistency Undermines Claim That Detainee Lawyers Can’t Be Compared To John Adams - 03/12/2010 12:50 AM

Despite the backlash from prominent conservative lawyers against Liz Cheney and Keep America Safe’s “al Qaeda 7″ ad that questions the loyalty of Justice Department lawyers who worked on behalf of detainees, some on the right have risen to Cheney’s defense. On Monday, torture advocate Marc Thiessen dedicated his new Washington Post column to defending [...]

Skater Johnny Weir not invited to participate in Stars on Ice because he is ‘not family friendly.’ - 03/11/2010 11:46 PM

Glaad reports that sponsors have “refused to allow” American figure skater Johnny Weir to join the Stars on Ice Tour because they deemed him “not family friendly.” While Weir — a three-time national champion — has never “officially announced his sexual orientation, he has garnered a significant amount of LGBT fans” and is also [...]

Beck: Fox News executive told me ‘you are the key’ to surviving ‘a global economic holocaust.’ - 03/11/2010 10:31 PM

Fox News host Glenn Beck has made a trademark of propagating outlandish conspiracy theories and far-right rhetoric, but his employers at Fox have long claimed that his views do not reflect the network’s. On his radio show today, however, Beck revealed that in a private meeting, a Fox vice president endorsed his apocalyptic fear-mongering, [...]

Health Insurance Industry Spin: Funding Attack Ads And Newt Gingrich Is Consistent With Supporting Reform - 03/11/2010 09:37 PM

In September, ThinkProgress reported that, despite its public support for health care reform, the insurance industry was engaged in a “duplicitous” campaign to undermine the effort. Recently, the National Journal confirmed our reporting by revealing that six of the top health insurance corporations had secretly pumped up to $20 million dollars into the U.S. Chamber [...]

Torii Hunter Regrets — But Doesn’t Apologize For — Calling Black Latino Baseball Players ‘Impostors’ - 03/11/2010 08:47 PM

The Associated Press reports that Los Angeles Angels center fielder Torii Hunter “insists he meant no harm toward Latino players when he referred to them as ‘impostors.’” Hunter’s controversial remarks were made two weeks ago during a series of USA Today roundtables about baseball: People see dark faces out there, and the perception is that [...]

Mississippi school district cancels prom after same-sex couple planned to attend. - 03/11/2010 08:00 PM

A Mississippi school district has canceled this year’s prom at Itawamba Agricultural High School after the Mississippi ACLU urged school officials to allow a lesbian couple to attend. Administrators turned down requests from 18-year-old Constance McMillen and her girlfriend, another student at the school, who planned on wearing a tuxedo. The school cited “distractions to [...]