FTR News and More

Barack Obama Wants To Recruit Gays In Us Military

Mon, 12 Oct 2009 22:42:00 MST

US President Barack Obama, who was addressing a national gay rights group on Sunday, mentioned that he has plans for recruiting gays in the US military to put an end to those who have problems with homosexual orientation. Obama, who was addressing the annual meet of the Human Rights Campaign mentioned that "I will end, 'Don't ask, don't tell'," as the policy in force since 1993 is known. But he has not mentioned any deadline for implementing his proposal....

Sen. Ensign Admits Parents Gave Money To Mistress And Family

Thu, 09 Jul 2009 21:23:00 MST

Nevada Sen. John Ensign's wealthy parents gave his mistress and her family $96,000, the conservative lawmaker revealed Thursday, an admission that further darkened his once-bright career and caused even allies to question his continued effectiveness as a U.S. senator. The "gifts" to Cynthia Hampton; her husband, Doug, and two of their children in April 2008 were made "out of concern for the well-being of long-time family friends during a difficult time," said a statement f...

Nebraska Lawmakers Pass Abortion Ultrasound Bill

Sat, 30 May 2009 23:40:00 MST

It's difficult enough... Nebraska will soon require those performing abortions to display ultrasound images of fetuses in a way that the women can easily view them. Lawmakers passed the bill (LB675) Friday afternoon on a 40-5 vote, and Gov. Dave Heineman signed it a short time later. Four senators did not vote. Supporters of the bill introduced by Sen. Tony Fulton of Lincoln argued it would give women more information to consider before making decisions. Others criticized the bill,...

Torture Prompts Soul-Searching Among Some Christians

Fri, 22 May 2009 13:56:00 MST

Gotta love this line: "A survey conducted by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life found that white evangelical Christians are more likely to support torture than people who rarely or never attend religious services."...

NH Passes Gay Marriage Bill

Wed, 29 Apr 2009 12:55:00 MST

New Hampshire's Senate passed a bill on Wednesday that would legalize same-sex marriage after an amendment was added that prohibits polygamy and marriage of family members, among other measures. Governor John Lynch has not indicated whether he will veto the bill, which passed in a 13-11 vote and would would make New Hampshire the nation's fifth state where gay marriage is legal. But the Democrat has expressed opposition to the measure. The bill passed the state's House of Repre...

Amazonfail: Why Is Amazon Hiding Books About Homosexuality?

Sun, 12 Apr 2009 19:37:00 MST

A new rule by Seattle-based Amazon has the blogosphere going crazy. Amazon has decided to label certain materials as "adult" in order to get them out of the search results most people find when they look for books. By defining a book as "adult" and removing the sales rank from the item, the book is essentially hidden for most people. If you can't find the book, you won't buy it. So what does Amazon think counts as "adult"? Well, beyond the obvious pornography...

Bristol Palin: Abstinence For All Teens 'Not Realistic'

Tue, 17 Feb 2009 16:56:00 MST

Duh! In her first interview since giving birth, the teenage daughter of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin said having a child is not "glamorous," and that telling young people to be abstinent is "not realistic at all." "It's just, like, I'm not living for myself anymore. It's, like, for another person, so it's different," Bristol Palin told Fox News' Greta Van Susteren. "And just you're up all night. And it's not glamorous at all," she sai...

Obama Reverses Bush Abortion-Funds Policy

Fri, 23 Jan 2009 21:31:00 MST

President Barack Obama on Friday struck down the Bush administration's ban on giving federal money to international groups that perform abortions or provide abortion information — an inflammatory policy that has bounced in and out of law for the past quarter-century. Obama's move, the latest in an aggressive first week reversing contentious Bush policies, was warmly welcomed by liberal groups and denounced by abortion rights foes. The ban has been a political football between...

Pro-Life Group Up In Arms Over Krispy Kreme'S Abortion Doughnuts

Thu, 22 Jan 2009 20:30:00 MST

Krispy Kreme, being the genial purveyor of glazed goodness that it is, decided to get in on the Obama inauguration craze and is offering one free doughnut to every costumer on January 20, Inauguration day, and released this seemingly innocuous press release: "Krispy Kreme Doughnuts, Inc. (NYSE: KKD) is honoring American's sense of pride and freedom of choice on Inauguration Day, by offering a free doughnut of choice to every customer on this historic day, Jan. 20. By doing so, participa...

Child Online Protection Act Rejected By Supreme Court

Wed, 21 Jan 2009 19:15:00 MST

The Supreme Court said Wednesday it won't consider reviving a federal law intended to protect children from explicit material on the Internet. The Child Online Protection Act was passed in 1998 but never took effect because lower federal courts struck it down as unconstitutional. The American Civil Liberties Union fought the law, arguing it would "criminalize constitutionally protected speech on the Internet." The law would "reduce adults to hearing and seeing only speech t...

Court Denies Sen. Craig'S Effort To Withdraw Sex-Sting Plea

Tue, 09 Dec 2008 14:19:00 MST

The Minnesota Court of Appeals on Tuesday rejected U.S. Sen. Larry Craig's effort to withdraw his guilty plea to a misdemeanor offense of disorderly conduct in connection with a sex-sting operation. "Because we see no abuse of discretion in the denial and conclude that the statute is not overbroad, we affirm" a lower court's decision, the three-judge panel wrote in a 10-page ruling. In a written statement, Craig said he was "extremely disappointed" by the action and...

Bush Plan Would Blunt State Birth Control Law

Thu, 21 Aug 2008 22:03:00 MST

A proposed Bush administration regulation on contraception and abortion would stop California from enforcing a state law that requires Catholic hospitals and charities to provide birth control coverage for thousands of female employees, state Attorney General Jerry Brown and family-planning advocates said Wednesday. The U.S. Health and Human Services Department regulation, still in draft form, would define abortion as including certain methods of contraception and would prohibit states and ot...

U.S. Lists More Claims Against Stevens

Fri, 15 Aug 2008 14:10:00 MST

New filings by U.S. prosecutors in their case against Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, included claims he used inside help for profit in a development deal. Prosecutors also disputed Stevens' assertions his actions were protected by the Constitution because he was a member, citing nine instances that had nothing to do with lawmaking that was protected, the Anchorage Daily News. A federal grand jury in Washington indicted Stevens in July on seven felony counts of filing false financial discl...

Abortion Does Not Cause Mental Illness, Panel Says - Brief - Nytimes.Com

Tue, 12 Aug 2008 21:05:00 MST

Women who choose to abort an unwanted pregnancy may experience feelings of grief and loss, but there is no evidence that a single abortion causes significant mental health problems, a panel of the American Psychological Association reported after two years of study. The findings are almost identical to a similar review by the association in 1990....

Alaska'S Palin Faces Probe

Thu, 31 Jul 2008 08:49:00 MST

When Sarah Palin was elected governor as a Republican outsider in 2006, she didn't just take on an incumbent from her own party. She took on Alaska's Republican establishment. Ms. Palin vowed to clean up a long-cozy political system that had been sullied by an FBI corruption investigation. She endeared herself to Alaskans by making good on her reform promises and showing homey touches, like driving herself to work. Now, one of the bright new stars in the Republican Party has sudden...

Hollywood Reacts To Savage'S Autism Slam

Tue, 22 Jul 2008 16:22:00 MST

Conservative radio talk show host Michael Savage’s outrageous claims on autism have unleashed a fury of attacks from Hollywood. “Now you want me to tell you my opinion on autism since I’m not talking about autism … a fraud, a racket,” Michael Savage said last week on his radio show, “The Savage Nation.” The shock jock went on to say, “What do you mean they scream and they’re silent? They don’t have a father around to tell them don...

Dems Urge Bush To Halt Abortion Proposal

Tue, 22 Jul 2008 09:52:00 MST

More than 100 members of Congress wrote President Bush today, urging him to "halt all action" on a proposal they argue would change the definition of abortion, and drastically limit women's access to birth control. The Department of Health and Human Services draft proposal, which began circulating around Capitol Hill last week, would require hospitals receiving federal funds to certify that, in their hiring, they do not discriminate against people who refuse to provide forms of c...

Clinton Vows To Fight Insulting Abortion Plan

Fri, 18 Jul 2008 22:48:00 MST

A Bush administration plan to define several widely used contraception methods as abortion is a "gratuitous, unnecessary insult" to women and faces tough opposition, Sen. Hillary Clinton said on Friday. The former Democratic presidential candidate joined family planning groups to condemn the proposal that defines abortion to include contraception such as birth control pills and intrauterine devices. It would cut off federal funds to hospitals and states where medical providers are ...

Lesbian Kiss At Mariners Game Sparks Controversy

Thu, 05 Jun 2008 09:55:00 MST

Most of the time, a kiss is just a kiss at Seattle Mariners games. But this one has become the talk of the city. Last week, a lesbian complained an usher at Safeco Field asked her to stop kissing her date at the Mariners' May 26th game against Boston because it was making another fan uncomfortable. The incident has exploded on local T-V, talk radio and blogs, touching off a debate over public displays of affection in generally gay-friendly Seattle. One sex advice columnist even c...

Senator Gave Name Of Fellow Lawmaker During Arrest

Wed, 04 Jun 2008 12:15:00 MST

So this doesn't just happen in the Republican party. This idiot is a Democratic State Senator. Senator J. James Marzilli Jr. used the name of a fellow lawmaker when he was arrested Tuesday for allegedly trying to grope a woman on a park bench, telling police he was Martin Walsh, who is a state representative from Dorchester, a prosecutor said today in court. Police threatened Marzilli with pepper spray after a foot chase through downtown Lowell because he would not put his hands above...

Calif. Gay Marriage Ruling Goes Forward, State Supreme Court Refuses To Stay Ruling Until After Nov. Election, Clears Way For Marriages

Wed, 04 Jun 2008 12:10:00 MST

California's highest court has refused to delay finalizing its ruling to legalize same-sex marriage, clearing the way for gays and lesbians in the most populous U.S. state to marry in less than two weeks. Conservative religious and legal groups had asked the California Supreme Court to stop its order from becoming effective until voters have the chance to weigh in on the issue. An initiative that would amend the state constitution to limit marriage to between a man and a woman has qu...

Federal Appeals Court Rules Woman Can'T Be Fired For Having Abortion

Tue, 03 Jun 2008 11:35:00 MST

A federal appeals court has ruled that the same employment discrimination law that protects women who are pregnant from being fired also protects women who have abortions. The 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals issued a ruling in what may be one of the first cases of abortion discrimination. A three-judge panel of the appeals court revived the lawsuit a woman referred to as Jane Doe filed against CARS Protection Plus claiming she was fired after having an abortion. Doe said she reluctantly ...

Vatican Sends Threat Over Women Priests

Fri, 30 May 2008 09:39:00 MST

The Vatican announced Thursday in a general decree that it will excommunicate anyone who would attempt to ordain a woman as a priest and the woman herself. According to the decree, the excommunications would take place with immediate effect. The decree was signed by Cardinal William Levada, prefect of the congregation for the doctrine of the faith. It was not persuasive to Regina Nicolosi, a program coordinator for Roman Catholic Womenpriests (sic), who was ordained two years ago. &...

Sexual Terrorism in the 'War' on Terror

Tue, 13 May 2008 22:25:00 MST

The “New York Times’” recently revealed the existence of a little-known executive order issued by President Bush in the summer of ’07 that permitted U.S. intelligence operatives to circumvent restrictions on the use of humiliating and degrading interrogation techniques. Bush’s order permitted U.S. intelligence operatives to effectively side-step the legal and moral restrictions imposed by the Supreme Court and Congress (and formally approved by Bush) as well as...

Madams Fall While Their Johns Prosper

Fri, 02 May 2008 10:29:00 MST

Yesterday's suicide of so-called D.C. Madam Deborah Jeane Palfrey has again shown the great discrepancy between men and women when it comes to how the crime of prostitution is punished. Palfrey, who was to be sentenced in July on federal charges stemming from operating a prostitution service, was found dead yesterday in a shed outside a mobile home owned by her mother. Police say she hanged herself with a nylon rope. Meanwhile, some of her best-known male clients continue to hold powerfu...

31 Of 53 Teen Girls At Flds Ranch Are Pregnant Or Had Baby

Mon, 28 Apr 2008 22:06:00 MST

This whole saga is completely disgusting. Where is the Mormon church, speaking out against a splinter group of the church and helping with reeducation? We're using those techniques in Iraq, why aren't we using them here? More than half the teenage girls taken from a polygamist compound in west Texas have children or are pregnant, state officials said Monday. A total of 53 girls between the ages of 14 and 17 are in state custody after a raid 3 1/2 weeks ago at the Yearning For Zio...

Judge Denies Kline Abortion Documents

Mon, 28 Apr 2008 20:10:00 MST

cannot have the abortion reports they want for their criminal case against Planned Parenthood. The documents are key to District Attorney Phill Kline’s 107-count case against Planned Parenthood of Kansas and Mid-Missouri and its Overland Park clinic, Comprehensive Health, its attorneys have said. But Kline said today that he can proceed with his criminal case against Planned Parenthood even if KDHE doesn’t turn over the reports. Earlier this year, Kline subpoenaed 23 late-te...

Gta Iv Sex Video Gives Thompson, Other Critics Fresh Ammo

Mon, 28 Apr 2008 12:09:00 MST

Grand Theft Auto IV is one day away from release, and already Jack Thompson has begun to step up his war on the title. The embattled Florida attorney has written a letter to the US Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, R. Alexander Acosta, demanding that legal action be taken against Take Two and retailers for selling the game. This time, Thompson appears to have an unlikely ally thanks to video gaming news site IGN....

Detroit Mayor Faces Felony Charges

Mon, 24 Mar 2008 12:37:00 MST

Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick and an ex-aide were charged Monday with perjury and obstruction of justice after prosecutors said sexually explicit text messages between the two contradicted their sworn court testimony. Kilpatrick defiantly declared his innocence just an hour after the charges were announced. "This has been a very flawed process from the beginning," said Kilpatrick at a press conference Monday. "I look forward to complete exoneration." Kilpatrick, who i...

Mixing Medicine With Religion May Limit Our Potential

Mon, 24 Mar 2008 07:20:00 MST

FORTY YEARS ago, a successful bone-marrow transplant between two siblings marked the first time groups of inherited immune system disorders in babies no longer automatically led to a new life being cut short. Bone marrow transplants, or stem cell transplants, involve abnormal stem cells from a person's bone marrow being destroyed and replaced with healthy stem cells from that person or from a donor. The procedure, once revolutionary, is now used daily worldwide and saves countless lives. Yet...

Paterson Admits To Multiple Affairs

Tue, 18 Mar 2008 16:51:00 MST

Gov. David A. Paterson today admitted to adultery with multiple women while serving in the Senate, including a state employee, who presently works in the governor's office. With his wife, Michelle Paige Paterson standing beside him, the new governor told reporters his infidelity ended "several years ago" and never involved women he supervised or who were on a payroll he was responsible for. He also said he never tried to secure promotions for them or special treatment beyond helpi...

Ny'S New Governor To Be Sworn In

Mon, 17 Mar 2008 10:09:00 MST

David Paterson is due to be sworn in as New York's 55th governor later in the day, replacing Eliot Spitzer. Mr Spitzer sensationally resigned last week after evidence emerged that he was the client of a prostitution ring. Mr Paterson will make history as New York's first African-American governor and as the first legally blind person to hold such a post permanently. His first main test will be negotiating the state's $124bn (£61bn) budget that is due in two weeks' ...

Nrcc Says Ex-Treasurer Diverted Up To $1 Million

Fri, 14 Mar 2008 08:34:00 MST

The former treasurer for the National Republican Congressional Committee diverted hundreds of thousands of dollars -- and possibly as much as $1 million -- of the organization's funds into his personal accounts, GOP officials said yesterday, describing an alleged scheme that could become one of the largest political frauds in recent history. For at least four years, Christopher J. Ward, who is under investigation by the FBI, allegedly used wire transfers to funnel money out of NRCC coffe...

Homophobic Republican Official May Have Gay Son

Fri, 14 Mar 2008 08:07:00 MST

The Republican state legislator behind what has become one of the most notorious homophobic tirades in history may have a gay son. During the tirade, which was posted on the video sharing Web site YouTube on March 7, Rep. Sally Kern of Oklahoma City said “the homosexual agenda” poses a bigger threat to the U.S. than terrorism. Since being posted on YouTube and the Web site of the Washington, D.C.-based Gay and Lesbian Victory Fund, the clip has been viewed by more than 700,00...

The Associated Press: Ny Gov. Eliot Spitzer Resigns

Wed, 12 Mar 2008 09:40:00 MST

Gov. Eliot Spitzer has decided to resign, completing a stunning fall from power after he was nationally disgraced by links to a high-priced prostitution ring, a top state official said Wednesday. Spitzer was scheduled to announce his resignation midday, according to a second top Spitzer staffer. The officials spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the announcement had not yet been made. Spitzer and his wife, Silda, left their apartment around 11 a.m. and got into a...

More Than One In 100 Adults Are Behind Bars, Pew Study Finds

Thu, 28 Feb 2008 12:12:00 MST

For the first time in history more than one in every 100 adults in America are in jail or prison -- a fact that significantly impacts state budgets without delivering a clear return on public safety. According to a new report released today by the Pew Center on the States' Public Safety Performance Project, at the start of 2008, 2,319,258 adults were held in American prisons or jails, or one in every 99.1 men and women, according to the study. During 2007, the prison population rose by more ...

Us Religious Identity Is Rapidly Changing

Tue, 26 Feb 2008 08:37:00 MST

The United States, founded by dissident Protestants seeking religious freedom, is on the verge of becoming a nation in which Protestants are a minority. A growing fraction of Americans identify themselves as unaffiliated with any religious tradition, and a small but increasingly significant number say they are Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, or Orthodox Christian. And a flood of overwhelmingly Catholic immigrants, mostly from Latin America, is helping to offset a high dropout rate among US-born Cath...

Renzi (R) Allegedly Funded First House Race With Embezzled Money, By John Bresnahan - Cbs News

Fri, 22 Feb 2008 14:55:00 MST

The Federal Election Commission audited now indicted Rep. Rick Renzi's (R-Ariz.) 2001-02 campaign back in '04 and identified more than $369,000 in "impermissible corporate funds" given by Renzi to his campaign committee. Renzi and his attorneys said that the money was from "personal funds" and thus allowable, and the FEC, despite numerous questions about the source of the funds, took no formal action against him. Renzi had used that disputed money in 2002 to narrowly defe...

Us Military Accused Of Harboring Fundamentalism

Sun, 17 Feb 2008 09:47:00 MST

Since his last combat deployment in Iraq, Jeremy Hall has had a rough time, getting shoved and threatened by his fellow soldiers. The trouble started there when he would not pray in the mess hall. "A senior ranking staff sergeant told me to leave and sit somewhere else because I refused to pray," Hall, a 23-year-old US army specialist, told the media. Later, Hall was confronted by a major for holding an authorized meeting of "atheists and freethinkers" on his base. The of...

State Court Recognizes Gay Marriages From Elsewhere

Sun, 03 Feb 2008 14:48:00 MST

A New York appellate court ruled Friday that valid out-of-state marriages of same-sex couples must be legally recognized in New York, just as the law recognizes those of heterosexual couples solemnized elsewhere. Lawyers for both sides said the ruling applied to all public and private employers in the state. Even though gay couples may not legally marry in New York, the appellate court in Rochester held that a gay couple’s 2004 marriage in Canada must be respected under the state’...

Ask Boy, 12, If He Wants To Be Circumcised, Court Says

Sun, 27 Jan 2008 07:20:00 MST

Of course the boy should have some say in this... A 12-year-old boy should get a say in whether he gets circumcised, the Oregon Supreme Court has ruled. The court sent the parental custody dispute back to the trial court "to resolve the factual issue whether M agrees or objects to the circumcision." "M" is the child at the center of a long-running custody dispute between James and Lia Boldt, who divorced in 1999. Soon after, the father began studying Judaism and later co...

U.S. Military Mum On Gay Policy

Tue, 08 Jan 2008 23:04:00 MST

The U.S. military apparently is not enforcing its policy of discharging gay soldiers who speak of their sexual orientation, USA Today reported Tuesday. The report cited the case of Army Sgt. Darren Manzella, who appeared on the CBS program "60 Minutes" three weeks ago. In the interview, Manzella said his fellow soldiers knew he was gay and showed a home video of him kissing his boyfriend. He told USA Today he told his commander he was gay in 2006, and the Army investigated and saw ...

N.J. Senate Votes To Abolish Death Penalty

Mon, 10 Dec 2007 15:55:00 MST

The State Senate voted today to abolish the death penalty, moving New Jersey a big step closer to becoming the first state to end capital punishment since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated the ultimate punishment in 1976. "New Jersey can become a leader and an inspiration to other states," said State Sen. Robert Martin, a Republican from North Jersey who joined Democrats in seeking to abolish the death penalty. Legislators in the Democratic-controlled Senate voted 21-16 to end capit...

Abc News: He Said, They Said: Craig Denies Claims Of More Sexual Advances

Mon, 03 Dec 2007 22:54:00 MST

Craig's list of accusers is getting longer. Two men, including a former male escort, have confirmed to ABC News the allegations that they've had sexual encounters with Idaho's embattled Sen. Larry Craig. Mike Jones, 50, told ABC News that Craig paid him $200 for sex during the winter of 2004-2005. A second man, a 50-year old former Army captain, also told ABC News that Craig made sexual advances toward him in the men's room of a Republican gathering in Washington stat...

Hate Crime Rate Up, Fbi Says

Tue, 20 Nov 2007 12:32:00 MST

Hate crimes crept up slightly in the Bay State last year but shot up nearly 8 percent nationwide, with more than half the victims targeted because of their race, according to a new FBI report. Massachusetts law enforcement officials reported 379 hate crime incidents last year, a slight increase from the 372 the year before. The report comes amid escalating racial tension at the MBTA, the state’s largest transit authority. The Herald last week reported two incidents involving nooses, ...

Sex Scandal Rocks Atlanta-Area Megachurch

Tue, 20 Nov 2007 07:46:00 MST

The 80-year-old leader of a suburban Atlanta megachurch is at the center of a sex scandal of biblical dimensions: He slept with his brother's wife and fathered a child by her. Members of Archbishop Earl Paulk's family stood at the pulpit of the Cathedral of the Holy Spirit at Chapel Hill Harvester Church a few Sundays ago and revealed the secret exposed by a recent court-ordered paternity test. In truth, this is not the first — or even the second — sex scandal to engulf...

Thompson: Overturning Roe V Wade Is The Goal

Mon, 12 Nov 2007 13:53:00 MST

Republican presidential candidate Fred Thompson today defended his opposition to a federal constitutional amendment to ban abortion and contended it was more realistic to appoint conservative judges to outlaw abortion or let the states decide whether the procedure should be legal. Thompson's comments, made during a swing through Iowa, where his campaign has languished in its early stages, also came on the eve of his candidacy's expected endorsement by the National Right to Life Commit...

No Matter The War, America Mustn'T Stoop To Terror, Torture

Sat, 03 Nov 2007 01:05:00 MST

Does it matter what the rest of the world thinks of the United States of America? Does it matter that our recent foreign policy has frayed old alliances and created new enemies? Since we remain the world's only superpower, with the biggest and best military, should we care about our reputation? Yes, we should. Despite what Dick Cheney and nutty neocon Norman Podhoretz think, we can't shoot and bomb our way out of this war. While military force is sometimes an appropriate response to t...

Kansas Church Liable In Marine Funeral Protest

Thu, 01 Nov 2007 14:53:00 MST

Another win for the Jury system... A jury on Wednesday ordered an anti-gay Kansas church to pay $10.9 million in damages to relatives of a U.S. Marine who died in Iraq after church members cheered his death at his funeral. Church members said Marine Lance Cpl. Matthew Snyder's death was God's punishment of America for tolerating homosexuality, and they attended his 2006 funeral in Maryland with signs saying "You're going to hell" and "God hates you." The fede...

Is The U.S. A Christian Nation? No

Tue, 23 Oct 2007 07:48:00 MST

Browse the Internet and you will find hundreds of sites and essays debating whether the U.S. is a Christian nation. Many claim that the mixture of religion and politics is volatile, and no aspect of their relationship causes more furor than this issue. Evangelicals, mainline Protestants, Catholics, Jews, Muslims and secularists have all joined this heated debate. The most recent cause of contention is John McCain’s statement in an interview on Beliefnet. Responding to a survey reporting...

State, Anti-Abortion Groups Battle Over 'Choose Life' Plates

Tue, 16 Oct 2007 20:42:00 MST

Let them buy bumper stickers... Anti-abortion advocates and state attorneys argued before a federal appeals court Monday over Arizona's rejection of a specialty license plate that says "Choose Life." A federal appeals court in San Francisco heard arguments in the case stemming from the rejected application in 2003. Officials said the specialty plate constituted "political speech." Supporters say the plates are meant to promote adoptions. Arizona has a number of spe...

U.S. Rep. Pete Stark "Comes Out" As An Atheist

Fri, 28 Sep 2007 19:22:00 MST

"Coming out" as the first openly nontheist member of the United States Congress, Representative Fortney "Pete" Stark (D-CA) quipped, "I'm pleased that I'm in Cambridge and not in Salem!" On September 20, 2007, Congressman Stark spoke publicly for the first time about his atheism to an audience of approximately 300 members of the Humanist Chaplaincy at Harvard, the Harvard Law School Heathen Society, and various other atheist, agnostic, secular, humanist, and nonre...

Former Prostitute Details Vitter Affair

Wed, 12 Sep 2007 15:41:00 MST

A woman who once worked as a prostitute in New Orleans said Tuesday that Senator David Vitter had sex with her several times a week from July to November 1999, shortly after he was elected to Congress. Wendy Yow Ellis said she met Vitter through an escort service and saw him two to three times a week in an apartment at Dauphine and Dumaine streets in the French Quarter. Vitter was elected to the U.S. House in May 1999 and sworn in to office June 8. At first, Ellis said, he knew her only ...

Sen. Larry Craig Vows To Stay In Office, Idaho Republican Determined To Save Senate Seat If Guilty Plea Is Reversed

Thu, 06 Sep 2007 07:31:00 MST

To the dismay of fellow Republicans, Sen. Larry Craig launched a determined drive to save his seat on Wednesday, vowing to stay in office if allowed to withdraw his guilty plea in a men's room sex sting. Craig's campaign suffered an instant setback, however, when the ethics committee refused to set aside a complaint lodged against him. "Pending Sen. Craig's resignation, the committee will continue to review this matter," the committee's senior senators wrote. Crai...

Craig, Not Gay, But Not a Senator Either

Sat, 01 Sep 2007 10:35:00 MST

This could be disastrous if Kemthorne or some other rightwing bozo makes it into this seat and then becomes an incumbant. Idaho's Republican Sen. Larry Craig bowed to the inevitable pressure of his political party today and officially announced his retirement from the U.S. Senate effective Sept. 30. In an emotional and somber news conference in Boise, in stark contrast to the defiant posture he took Tuesday, Craig stood with his wife Suzanne and two of their three children and numerous...

Republican Senator In Lavatory Arrest To Quit

Fri, 31 Aug 2007 17:53:00 MST

A conservative Republican senator was poised to resign last night after his arrest in a men’s public toilet. Larry Craig, a family values campaigner from Idaho who opposes gay marriage, was under enormous pressure from Republicans to quit after it emerged that he pleaded guilty on August 8 to disorderly conduct during a police sting operation in a men’s toilet at Minneapolis airport. The scandal has become almost a national obsession - and fodder for late-night comics - becau...

Bishop Surrenders; Charged With Choking Atlanta Evangelist

Fri, 24 Aug 2007 13:55:00 MST

The husband of televangelist Juanita Bynum turned himself in Friday to face charges of aggravated assault and terroristic threats following a confrontation in which he left her badly bruised. Bishop Thomas W. Weeks III, founder of Global Destiny churches, surrendered to police at the Fulton County jail Friday morning. He refused to speak to reporters as he entered the jail. The struggle happened early Wednesday in a hotel parking lot near Atlanta's airport, and a hotel bellman pulle...

Abc News: Romney Muddles Abortion Stance

Thu, 23 Aug 2007 08:52:00 MST

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney said Tuesday in a Nevada television interview that he supports letting states "make their own decision" about whether to keep abortion legal. "My view is that the Supreme Court has made an error in saying at the national level one size fits all for the whole nation," Romney told Nevada political columnist Jon Ralston in a televised interview. "Instead, I would let states make their choices." Asked by Ralston if it was ...

Amnesty Backs Right To Abortion Despite Church

Sun, 19 Aug 2007 09:05:00 MST

Human rights group Amnesty International on Friday backed women's right to an abortion if their lives are in danger or if they have been raped in a move likely to anger the Catholic Church. The church, which considers abortion to be murder and never justified, has urged Catholic organizations to withdraw their support for Amnesty over the policy. The Vatican says Amnesty has "betrayed its mission." At the end of its annual meeting in Mexico City, Amnesty said it would work to &...

U.S. Military Practices Genetic Discrimination In Denying Benefits

Sat, 18 Aug 2007 15:38:00 MST

Eric Miller's career as an Army Ranger wasn't ended by a battlefield wound, but his DNA. Lurking in his genes was a mutation that made him vulnerable to uncontrolled tumor growth. After suffering back pain during a tour in Afghanistan, he underwent three surgeries to remove tumors from his brain and spine that left him with numbness throughout the left side of his body. So began his journey into a dreaded scenario of the genetic age. Because he was born with the mutation, the Ar...

U.S. Laws Protect Right To Wear Religious Garb At Work

Tue, 07 Aug 2007 10:45:00 MST

A refugee from war-torn Somalia, Bilan Nur, came to the United States and succeeded in getting a job as a customer sales representative with Alamo Car Rental in Phoenix. As a Muslim, she wore a hijab, or head scarf, during the holy month of Ramadan. But after the terrorist attacks against the United States on September 11, 2001, her employer refused to permit Nur to continue to cover her head at all, even though Nur was willing to wear an approved scarf with the Alamo Car Rental logo. The c...

Sen. Vitter (R-LA) Apologizes In Sex Scandal

Wed, 11 Jul 2007 07:34:00 MST

Senator David Vitter may have one short stay in the Senate as he has apologized for his involvement with the Washington D.C. escort service known as Pamela Martin Associates. Vitter was linked to the D.C. madam and confessed to his actions. The phone number of Vitter shows up on a list of phone records released by the owner of the service which put him in a lot of trouble. He stated in an e-mail that he takes full responsibility for his actions and that he had asked for and received forgi...

Bush Vetoes Stem Cell Legislation

Wed, 20 Jun 2007 16:47:00 MST

President Bush has vetoed legislation lifting restrictions on federally funded medical research that uses cells from human embryos. VOA's Paula Wolfson reports defenders of embryonic stem cell research are vowing to fight on. This is the second time in 11 months that President Bush has vetoed a stem cell bill. Stem cells have the ability to regenerate into all kinds of specific cells in the human body, and scientists say they hold promise for breakthroughs in the treatment and preventi...

Falwell Kicks the Bucket

Tue, 15 May 2007 23:11:00 MST

The Rev Jerry Falwell, whose evangelical convictions and organisational abilities, including as a founder in 1979 of the Moral Majority movement, did much to place religious conservatives in a role of great influence in American politics, died on Tuesday in Lynchburg, Virginia, of apparent heart failure at the age of 73. He was a figure of immense controversy over the last 40 years, outspoken to the point that his apologies appeared almost as regularly as his thundering denunciations. To him ...

White House threatens to veto hate-crimes bill

Thu, 03 May 2007 21:59:00 MST

The White House has threatened to veto a bill passed by the House of Representatives on Thursday that expands hate-crime laws to include attacks based on sexual orientation or gender. Under current law, hate crimes are subject to federal prosecution only if the acts of violence are motivated by race, religion, color or national origin. Federal prosecutors get involved only if the victim is engaged in a federally protected activity, such as voting or participating in interstate commerce. The...

Spitzer Introduces Gay Marriage Bill in NY

Fri, 27 Apr 2007 22:54:00 MST

Governor Eliot Spitzer introduced a bill to legalize gay marriage Friday, making him the first governor in the country to propose equal marriage rights for gay partners. The bill would establish equal responsibilities, benefits and protections for same-sex couples. The bill also says that churches can be compelled to perform same-sex marriages. "This is a historic day for gay and lesbian couples all throughout New York and with introducing this legislation Eliot Spitzer has cemen...

Rice Deputy Quits After Query Over Escort Service

Fri, 27 Apr 2007 22:47:00 MST

Randall L. Tobias, the deputy secretary of state responsible for U.S. foreign aid, abruptly resigned yesterday after he was asked about an upscale escort service allegedly involved in prostitution, U.S. government sources said. Tobias resigned after ABC News contacted him with questions about the escort service, the sources said. ABC News released a statement last night saying Tobias acknowledged Thursday that he had used the service to provide massages, not sex. Tobias has been Secretary ...

Conn. Judge: Post Offices Can't Promote Religion

Wed, 25 Apr 2007 09:31:00 MST

A federal judge has ruled that religion has no place in post offices across the country that are run by churches and other private contractors, citing the separation of church and state in the Constitution. U.S. District Judge Dominic J. Squatrito, in a case involving a church-run post office in Manchester, ordered the U.S. Postal Service to notify the nearly 5,200 facilities run by contractors that they cannot promote religion through pamphlets, displays or any other materials. He also to...

U.S. To Allow Wiccan Symbols On Military Graves

Tue, 24 Apr 2007 17:55:00 MST

The Bush administration has agreed to allow Wiccan pentacles in military cemeteries in a court settlement announced yesterday by Americans United for Separation of Church and State. The settlement was filed with the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin to settle a suit filed in November against the Department of Veterans Affairs on behalf of several families of Wiccan soldiers and Circle Sanctuary, a 200-acre Wiccan nature center 30 miles west of Madison, Wis. The sanc...

Supreme Court Upholds Late-Term Abortion Ban

Wed, 18 Apr 2007 09:50:00 MST

The Supreme Court on Wednesday upheld a law that banned a type of late-term abortion, a ruling that could portend enormous social, legal and political implications for the divisive issue. The sharply divided 5-4 ruling could prove historic. It sends a possible signal of the court's willingness, under Chief Justice John Roberts, to someday revisit the basic right to abortion guaranteed in the 1973 Roe v. Wade case. At issue is the constitutionality of a federal law banning a rarely perf...

Stem-Cell Debate Returning To Center Stage

Wed, 11 Apr 2007 21:48:00 MST

The Democratic-led Senate on Tuesday took up legislation that would expand federal funding for embryonic stem-cell research, defying a White House veto threat. Last year, that hot-button issue prompted President Bush to exercise his veto power for the first and only time in his administration. Congressional Democrats are hoping that this year, their expanded numbers and public pressure will give them a better shot at overriding a presidential veto. The bipartisan bill would expand the numb...

Bilingual Education = "Ghetto Talk," Newt Gingrich

Sun, 01 Apr 2007 09:12:00 MST

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich equated bilingual education Saturday with "the language of living in a ghetto" and mocked requirements that ballots be printed in multiple languages. "The government should quit mandating that various documents be printed in any one of 700 languages depending on who randomly shows up" to vote, said Gingrich, who is considering seeking the Republican presidential nomination in 2008. He made the comments in a speech to the National Federation o...

Leading Women'S Rights Groups File Complaints Against Bush Administration Sex Discrimination In Job Training Programs

Fri, 30 Mar 2007 14:12:00 MST

Legal Momentum and the National Organization for Women (NOW) today filed complaints with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) alleging sex discrimination in 34 of the first 100 programs funded by the Bush Administration under its new "Responsible Fatherhood" initiative. According to the program summaries on the HHS web site, the 34 programs are providing job-training services to men but not to women. The complaints, filed with HHS's Office for Civil Rights, charg...

Free-Speech Case Divides Bush And Religious Right

Sun, 18 Mar 2007 21:48:00 MST

A Supreme Court case about the free-speech rights of high school students, to be argued on Monday, has opened an unexpected fissure between the Bush administration and its usual allies on the religious right. As a result, an appeal that asks the justices to decide whether school officials can squelch or punish student advocacy of illegal drugs has taken on an added dimension as a window on an active front in the culture wars, one that has escaped the notice of most people outside the fray. A...

2 Democrats Clarify Beliefs About Gays

Thu, 15 Mar 2007 22:20:00 MST

Under pressure from gay rights groups, two rivals for the Democratic presidential nomination, Senators Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama, issued statements yesterday saying they believed homosexuality was not immoral. Mrs. Clinton, who has particularly cultivated gay voters and donors, found herself under the most intense fire yesterday after she said on Wednesday that the morality of homosexuality was for “others to conclude.” Later that day, after complaints from gay right...

Pace Won't Apologize For Gay Remark

Tue, 13 Mar 2007 09:31:00 MST

Senior aides to the chairman of the military Joint Chiefs of Staff said Tuesday that Marine Gen. Peter Pace won't apologize for calling homosexuality immoral — an opinion that gay advocacy groups deplored. In a newspaper interview Monday, Pace had likened homosexual acts to adultery and said the military should not condone it by allowing gays to serve openly in the armed forces. "General Pace's comments are outrageous, insensitive and disrespectful to the 65,000 lesbian a...

Gingrich Had Affair While Hounding Clinton Over Monica

Sat, 10 Mar 2007 10:58:00 MST

Newt Gingrich, the former Speaker of the House of Representatives, admitted yesterday that he was cheating on his own wife when he led the Republican charge to impeach Bill Clinton over the Monica Lewinsky affair. Mr Gingrich made his confession in an interview with James Dobson, one of America’s most powerful Christian conservatives, in an apparent attempt to clear the decks with the religious right ahead of a presidential bid. “The honest answer is yes,” Mr Gingrich t...

Mindreading Scientists Predict Behavior

Mon, 05 Mar 2007 16:20:00 MST

At a laboratory in Germany, volunteers slide into a donut-shaped MRI machine and perform simple tasks, such as deciding whether to add or subtract two numbers, or choosing which of two buttons to press. They have no inkling that scientists in the next room are trying to read their minds -- using a brain scan to figure out their intention before it is turned into action. In the past, scientists had been able to detect decisions about making physical movements before those movements appeared...

U.S. Supreme Court To Decide Whether Taxpayers Can Sue Government On Religious Spending

Thu, 01 Mar 2007 10:33:00 MST

An appeal preferred by the White House has come up for hearing in the U.S. Supreme Court Wednesday, basically to determine the constitutional right of taxpayers in challenging the White House's acts of offering federal financial aid to religious charities. Freedom from Religion Foundation, which is a group of atheists and agnostics, wants the court to say whether it has the legal standing by its being taxpayer to challenge the White House's "faith-based initiative" to enhance...

Once-Obscure US Atheist Group Takes On Bush's Faith-Based Initiative At Supreme Court

Thu, 22 Feb 2007 00:33:00 MST

Annie Laurie Gaylor speaks with a soft voice, but her message catches attention: Keep God out of government. Gaylor has helped transform the Freedom From Religion Foundation from obscurity into the nation's largest group of atheists and agnostics, with a fast-rising membership and increasing legal clout. Next week, the group started by Gaylor and her mother in the 1970s to take on the religious right will fight its most high-profile battle when the U.S. Supreme Court hears arguments on...

McCain Says Court Decision That Legalized Abortion Should Be Overturned

Mon, 19 Feb 2007 10:43:00 MST

Republican presidential candidate John McCain, looking to improve his standing with the party's conservative voters, said Sunday the court decision that legalized abortion should be overturned. “I do not support Roe versus Wade. It should be overturned,” the Arizona senator told about 800 people in South Carolina, one of the early voting states. McCain also vowed that if elected, he would appoint judges who “strictly interpret the Constitution of the United States a...

Civil Unions Available In NJ To Gay Couples Starting Monday

Sun, 18 Feb 2007 22:31:00 MST

Hundreds of gay couples were set to have the same legal protections as married couples Monday, as a law making New Jersey the third state in the nation to offer civil unions was to take effect. For gay couples and gay rights activists, it figures to be a day of celebration and lament. With the law in place, New Jersey is becoming one of just five states to offer all the legal benefits of marriage to gay partners. The state, though, stopped short of calling the institutions marriage. Civ...

Patenting Life

Tue, 13 Feb 2007 15:32:00 MST

The plain truth is that gene patents aren’t benign and never will be. When SARS was spreading across the globe, medical researchers hesitated to study it — because of patent concerns. There is no clearer indication that gene patents block innovation, inhibit research and put us all at risk. Even your doctor can’t get relevant information. An asthma medication only works in certain patients. Yet its manufacturer has squelched efforts by others to develop genetic tests that wo...

Romney's Abortion Stance Takes Sharp Right Turn

Thu, 08 Feb 2007 13:55:00 MST

Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney has had an epiphany on abortion — not once, but twice. The first time was when Romney was a young man in the 1960s and his brother-in-law's sister — an engaged-to-be-married teen who became pregnant — died in a botched illegal abortion. Roughly three decades later, while campaigning for the Senate in 1994, Romney described that tragedy as the event that triggered his conclusion that regardless of personal beliefs, abortion...

Haggard Convinced He's 'Completely Heterosexual' After Counseling For Sex, Drugs

Tue, 06 Feb 2007 13:34:00 MST

These people are amazing. Based on the meth addiction recidivism stats alone these idiots are lying to themselves... One of four ministers who oversaw three weeks of intensive counseling for the Rev. Ted Haggard said the disgraced minister emerged convinced he is "completely heterosexual." Haggard also said his sexual contact with men was limited to the former male prostitute who came forward with sexual allegations, the Rev. Tim Ralph of Larkspur told The Denver Post for a story ...

Proposal To Bar Religion Challenges Is Dangerous

Mon, 05 Feb 2007 13:16:00 MST

The Arizona Legislature is made up of many ordinary citizens. It would be unfair to expect them to be legal scholars, but they should at least be comfortable with the idea of living in the United States and respecting constitutional principles. Some of them, clearly, are not. One of the key principles embedded in the Constitution holds, in effect, that the United States is not a theocracy. The founders, both those who were religious and those who were secular humanists, never intended th...

'Faith-Based' Government Spending: Hein V. Freedom From Religion Foundation

Sat, 03 Feb 2007 00:16:00 MST

The Freedom From Religion Foundation today filed its brief in Hein v. the Freedom From Religion Foundation before the U.S. Supreme Court, which will hold oral arguments on Feb. 28. The case involves the right of federal taxpayers to challenge Bush's creation of federal faith-based offices. All briefs from both sides are now filed in the faith-based challenge. Filing friend-of-the-court briefs in favor of the Freedom From Religion Foundation are the American Civil Liberties Union with...

Feds Prepare To Indict Businessman Linked To Cunningham

Fri, 02 Feb 2007 09:28:00 MST

Federal prosecutors in San Diego are preparing to seek indictments against a San Diego defense contractor and a former top CIA official linked to the bribery scandal that sent former U.S. Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham to prison, two government officials familiar with the investigation said. The officials, who spoke Wednesday to The Associated Press only on condition of anonymity because grand jury proceedings are secret and the charges have not been finalized, said prosecutors plan to ...

NARAL Pro-Choice America Releases National Status Report On Women'S Reproductive Rights In U.S.

Wed, 31 Jan 2007 13:43:00 MST

NARAL Pro-Choice America earlier this month released its 16th annual "Who Decides? The Status of Women's Reproductive Rights in the United States" report, issuing failing grades to 19 states for enacting legislation to restrict access to abortion and other reproductive health services, CQ HealthBeat reports. According to the report, 13 states received a A+, A or A- grade; four states received a B+, B or B- grade; six states were given a C+, C or C-; and nine states were given a D+, D...

If You Drink, Some Cabbies Won't Drive

Thu, 25 Jan 2007 23:04:00 MST

We're sorry, but we can't condone this behavior by Minneapolis taxi drivers. If someone - a pharmacist or taxi driver - feels that their job forces them to do things contrary to their religion, then they should change jobs. It's always interesting to me, that in my own country, I often get assignments where I walk into a room, and everyone looks and sounds different from me. Different language. Different culture. And sometimes, different beliefs. On this story, I crossed such ...

History Of Abortion Law In Kansas

Sun, 21 Jan 2007 13:32:00 MST

At one point in the 1970s, more than 50 Kansas hospitals offered elective abortions. Now, only a handful of clinics do -- one in Wichita and at least three in the Kansas City area. No Wichita hospitals do elective abortions. Medical residents learn how to terminate a nonviable pregnancy during their training, said Wichita obstetrician-gynecologist Travis Stembridge. The same techniques are used for elective abortions. The students also learn to counsel patients about their options. But they do n...

Ex-No. 2 Interior Official Target Of Abramoff Probe

Wed, 10 Jan 2007 17:16:00 MST

The Interior Department's former No. 2 official has been told by federal investigators that he is a target in the Jack Abramoff corruption probe. J. Steven Griles, former deputy interior secretary during President Bush's first term, was notified by letter and told of possible charges at a meeting last week with Justice Department prosecutors, sources familiar with the probe said Wednesday, speaking on condition of anonymity because the inquiry continues. Griles' attorney and a ...

Former Top U.S. General No Longer Opposes Letting Gays Serve Openly In U.S. Military

Wed, 03 Jan 2007 09:24:00 MST

The U.S. Army general who was Joint Chiefs chairman when the Defense Department adopted its "don't ask, don't tell" policy on gays in the military says he no longer opposes allowing them to serve openly. John Shalikashvili, who retired in 1997 after four years as the top U.S. military officer, had argued that allowing homosexuals to serve openly would hurt troop morale and recruitment and undermine the cohesion of combat units. He said he has changed his mind after meeting wit...

No Charges Against Kansas Abortion Doctor

Thu, 28 Dec 2006 10:50:00 MST

Kansas Attorney General Phill Kline spent more than two years investigating a nationally known abortion provider, but he'll likely leave office next month with little to show for it. A judge on Wednesday refused to reinstate the 30 criminal charges Kline filed against Dr. George Tiller, and Kline's successor said Thursday that he won't keep the special prosecutor Kline appointed to the case. Democrat Paul Morrison, who defeated Kline in November and takes office as attorney g...

Abortion Not Winning Issue

Tue, 26 Dec 2006 11:34:00 MST

Something very interesting happened in the Alabama elections this November. And it happened four years ago as well. Three candidates with leads in the polls lost. And all three used anti-abortion statements prominently in their ads leading up to the election. These three were in the same party as the winning gubernatorial candidate, who won by a large margin. They should have gotten some help from his coattails, but I believe their anti-abortion stance hurt them. Why else would they lose afte...

Muslim Group Seeks Apology From Va. Congressman

Wed, 20 Dec 2006 19:19:00 MST

A Muslim group is asking Virginia Republican Rep. Virgil Goode Jr. to apologize after he told hundreds of his constituents that more Muslims will follow Rep.-elect Keith Ellison, D-Minn., to Congress if strict immigration laws aren't passed. "The Muslim representative from Minnesota was elected by the voters of that district and if American citizens don't wake up and adopt the Virgil Goode position on immigration there will likely be many more Muslims elected to office and demandi...

Haggard Rules Out PETA Video Narration

Tue, 19 Dec 2006 14:06:00 MST

Animal rights crusader PETA is looking for a new preacher. > The organization had arranged for Ted Haggard, the Colorado Springs evangelical pastor disgraced by accusations of soliciting gay sex from a prostitute, to narrate a 15-minute PETA slaughterhouse video called "What Would Jesus Do?"
The video was to appear on peta.org and be widely distributed to the evangelical community. It was to show graphic slaughterhouse conditions of chickens, turkeys, cattle, c...

Another Minister At Ted Haggard's Church Resigns

Tue, 19 Dec 2006 14:03:00 MST

In an e-mail to church members, executive Pastor Lance Coles of Ted Haggard's New Life Church wrote of the success of Wonderland, the Christmas program, and how it had the most attendees ever. Two paragraphs later he informed them that the director of the young adult leadership program resigned after admitting that he "displayed poor judgment" in several decisions throughout his tenure and in an instance of sexual misconduct several years ago. Mr. Coles said the misconduct did n...

Bush 'Happy' For Pregnant Mary Cheney

Fri, 15 Dec 2006 13:30:00 MST

Vice President Dick Cheney's pregnant lesbian daughter Mary will make a "fine mom," President Bush said, sidestepping his past comment that a child ideally would be raised by a mother and father. Mary Cheney, 37, and her longtime partner, Heather Poe, are expecting their first child, which would be the sixth grandchild for the vice president. Cheney was hired last year as an executive for America Online -- whose parent company Time Warner also owns People as well as CNN. "...

N.J. Assembly Approves Civil Union Bill

Thu, 14 Dec 2006 16:00:00 MST

Under pressure from New Jersey's highest court to offer marriage or its equivalent to gay couples, the state Assembly approved a bill Thursday to create civil unions. The measure passed 56-19. The state Senate was expected to take up the bill later in the day. The legislation _ which would extend to gay couples all the rights and privileges available under state law to married people _ would make New Jersey the third state with civil unions. "Love counts," Democratic Assembl...

What The Hell Happened To Christianity?

Thu, 14 Dec 2006 11:04:00 MST

What the hell happened? Where did we go wrong? How was Christianity co-opted by a political party? Why are Christians supporting laws that force others to live by their standards? The answers to these questions are integral to the survival of Christianity. While the current state of Christianity might seem normal and business-as-usual to some, most see through the judgment and hypocrisy that has permeated the church for so long. People witness this and say to themselves, "Why would I want...

Second Colorado Evangelical Resigns Over Gay Sex

Wed, 13 Dec 2006 10:26:00 MST

A second Colorado evangelical leader in little over a month has resigned from the pulpit over a scandal involving gay sex, church officials said on Tuesday. Paul Barnes has resigned from the 2,100-member Grace Chapel, a church he founded in suburban Denver, said church spokeswoman Michelle Ames. Barnes' resignation follows last month's admission by high-profile preacher Ted Haggard that he was guilty of unspecified "sexual immorality" after a male prostitute went public wit...

House Panel Finds Republicans Negligent In Scandal

Fri, 08 Dec 2006 16:46:00 MST

A House ethics panel has concluded that Republicans failed to adequately respond to warnings about a lawmaker blamed for the Internet sex scandal that shook the U.S. Congress this year, a source said on Friday. Concluding a two-month investigation, the bipartisan panel found that no one violated specific ethics rules but were negligent in protecting young interns in the matter, the congressional source said. Republican Rep. Mark Foley of Florida, a six-term lawmaker, resigned from the Hous...

Gay Daughter's Pregnancy Throws Cheney Supporters

Thu, 07 Dec 2006 11:15:00 MST

NO REPUBLICAN in Washington is more beloved by social conservatives than the Vice-President Dick Cheney, who with his wife Lynne, has backed and breathed every issue dear to them for six tumultuous years. News that Mr Cheney's gay daughter, Mary, is pregnant has therefore touched a raw nerve as advocates for conservative family values struggle to reconcile their loyalty to the Cheneys with their visceral opposition to same-sex relationships - and particularly to raising a child without a ...

Carleton Students Won't Fund Anti-Abortion Groups

Wed, 06 Dec 2006 10:29:00 MST

Canada... Student leaders at Carleton University have passed a controversial proposal denying funding to campus groups opposed to abortion. The decision was reached shortly before midnight after a four-hour debate that exposed sharp divisions among the student body. The 32 members of Carleton's students' association voted overwhelmingly for the proposal with 25 members in favour and five opposed. One abstained from the vote and another was absent. Opponents of the new policy ...

Editor Who Published Comics Of Mohammed Visits Colorado

Tue, 05 Dec 2006 09:45:00 MST

After careful consideration, we believe that while the feelings of other ethnic or religious groups should be respected, non-affiliated and secular organizations should not be held to the standards of those groups. It is personal choice to live under Jewish Orthodox rules, Sharia law, or Buddhist guidelines, and those rules should not be imposed upon those who choose not to do so. The editor of the Danish newspaper who angered the Muslim world last year with cartoon depictions of the Prophet...

Supreme Court Refuses Aerial-ad Case

Tue, 05 Dec 2006 09:41:00 MST

The U.S. Supreme Court yesterday refused to consider the case of an anti-abortion group seeking to fly planes over Honolulu towing aerial banners with images of aborted fetuses. With the court not taking the case, Honolulu will be able to continue to ban aerial tow-banner operations. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a federal judge's ruling that the city's ordinance does not violate the First Amendment and is a "reasonable and viewpoint neutral restriction on speech...

Obama and Evangelicals

Mon, 04 Dec 2006 09:25:00 MST

If Barack Obama ends up running for the White House, expect to see this footage run over and over on a television screen near you: the charismatic black Democratic senator from Illinois talking the language of God and receiving a standing ovation from a packed crowd at one of the country's most prominent conservative evangelical mega-churches. Mr Obama entered the political equivalent of the lion's den - the sprawling campus of Saddleback Church in the most conservative far reaches o...

Women Take On Major Battlefield Roles

Sun, 03 Dec 2006 22:34:00 MST

A goodwill mission to deliver kerosene heaters to Iraqi schools erupts into the fiery chaos of a roadside bombing - and Maj. Mary Prophit shields a comrade so he can rescue a critically burned Iraqi soldier. A convoy outside Baghdad is ambushed by machine-gun wielding Iraqi insurgents - and Spc. Ashley Pullen races down a road to save an injured sergeant. A Black Hawk helicopter is struck by a rocket-propelled grenade in Iraq - and co-pilot Tammy Duckworth, bloody and severely wounded, str...

Haggard Scandal Rekindles Debate Over Therapy To Change Gay Orientation

Thu, 30 Nov 2006 21:48:00 MST

Evangelical leader Ted Haggard, in apologizing for contacts with a gay prostitute, said he had sought help to combat a "repulsive and dark" side of his life - but no approach had proven effective. Even as he pledges to undergo further counseling, Haggard's comments have rekindled debate over the controversial premise people can overcome same-sex attractions through "reparative therapy." It's a concept espoused by many religious conservatives, and disputed by many menta...

America, Not Keith Ellison, Decides What Book A Congressman Takes His Oath On

Tue, 28 Nov 2006 23:59:00 MST

An insane editorial by an idiot who knows what it is to be a Nazi, but not an American... Keith Ellison, D-Minn., the first Muslim elected to the United States Congress, has announced that he will not take his oath of office on the Bible, but on the bible of Islam, the Koran. He should not be allowed to do so -- not because of any American hostility to the Koran, but because the act undermines American civilization. First, it is an act of hubris that perfectly exemplifies multicultura...

Ohio Republican Fundraiser Gets 18 Years

Mon, 20 Nov 2006 16:51:00 MST

The rare coin dealer and Republican fundraiser at the center of a political scandal in Ohio was sentenced Monday to 18 years in prison. Thomas Noe's state sentence is to run consecutively with a federal sentence of 27 months for violating campaign finance laws with contributions to President Bush, The New York Times reported. Noe, a manager for the Ohio worker's compensation fund, was convicted of using money from the fund to pay off business debts and for personal expenses inste...

California Supreme Court Asked To Overturn Ban On Gay ‘Marriage’

Wed, 15 Nov 2006 09:26:00 MST

The Supreme Court of California has been asked to overturn that state’s ban on homosexual ‘marriage.’ The suit, brought by a group of homosexual activists after the state passed a ban on the practice, will go forward without its original principal litigants. Lancy Woo and Cristy Chung, described in the gay media as the “poster children” of the cause, after “marrying” illegally in San Francisco, have broken up and dropped out of the case. The suit i...

Missouri Committee Blames Abortion For Need For Illegal Immigration

Wed, 15 Nov 2006 09:24:00 MST

Using this logic, you could as easily 'blame' the availability of abortion for the decrease in welfare rolls and the shift to the religious Right in the US. Argh. A Missouri state panel is under fire for issuing a report that blames 33 years of legalized abortion for the United States’ increasing dependence on illegal immigration. Missouri’s House Special Committee on Immigration Reform also credited "liberal social welfare policies" for discouraging Americans fro...

Government Study: Internet 1 Percent Porn

Wed, 15 Nov 2006 09:10:00 MST

About 1 percent of Web sites indexed by Google and Microsoft are sexually explicit, according to a U.S. government-commissioned study. Government lawyers introduced the study in court this month as the Justice Department seeks to revive the 1998 Child Online Protection Act, which required commercial Web sites to collect a credit card number or other proof of age before allowing Internet users to view material deemed "harmful to minors." The U.S. Supreme Court blocked the law in 200...

Disgraced Ex-Lobbyist Begins 6-Year Prison Stint

Wed, 15 Nov 2006 09:04:00 MST

Disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff, convicted of federal charges after using expensive gifts, campaign donations and exotic trips to win access to the powerful in Washington, went to prison Wednesday. Abramoff arrived at about 6:30 a.m. EST at a relatively secluded prison facility in western Maryland and began to serve a nearly six-year prison sentence for a fraudulent deal to buy a fleet of casino ships in Florida. Abramoff was delivered out of sight of waiting reporters and camera crews an...

Appeals Court Rules On Ohio Abortion Law

Tue, 14 Nov 2006 12:22:00 MST

A federal appeals court upheld one Ohio abortion regulation and struck down another Monday, agreeing that women must get a doctor's counseling before an abortion, but rejecting a regulation that gave minors only one chance to avoid a parental consent requirement. The issues before the three-judge panel of the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals stem from a ruling last year by U.S. District Judge Sandra Beckwith. An appeal was filed on behalf of Cincinnati Women's Services Inc., a now-cl...

Wiccan Widows Sue The US Government

Tue, 14 Nov 2006 12:21:00 MST

Two women are suing the government after they were not allowed to have Wiccan symbols on their husband's tombstones in a military cemetery. The families of deceased military members have one of 38 symbols to choose from for their loved one's headstone. Most of them are for religions such as Christianity, Buddhism, Islam and Judaism. The widows said this is unconstitutional. Roberta Stewart and Karen DePolito filed suit in Wisconsin on Monday. Stewart's husband was in the Neva...

A 12-Step Apology Leads To A Guilty Plea

Tue, 14 Nov 2006 11:44:00 MST

A man who sexually assaulted a fellow University of Virginia student in 1984 and then apologized to her two decades later as part of the 12-step Alcoholics Anonymous program pleaded guilty to the crime Tuesday. "This began as an effort to make amends," William Beebe said in a statement outside of court. "Twenty-two years ago I harmed another person and I have tried to set that right." Beebe, 41, of Las Vegas, Nevada, entered his plea in Charlottesville Circuit Court to one ...

Local Car Salesman Is Upset After Focus On The Family Comments

Fri, 10 Nov 2006 13:11:00 MST

With each passing day, the controversy surrounding Ted Haggard and his dismissal as senior pastor for New Life Church seems to get less attention. But a comment by a Focus on the Family official Thursday about Haggard's spiritual restoration treatment has angered at least one person. The article was written Thursday by the Associated Press. In it, Focus on the Family relates those who fail the restoration process, like the one Haggard will be going through, with people who sell cars and ...

South Dakota Rejects Abortion Ban

Wed, 08 Nov 2006 20:25:00 MST

South Dakota voters on Tuesday rejected the toughest abortion law in the land - a measure that would have outlawed the procedure under almost any circumstances. The Legislature passed the law last winter in an attempt to prompt a challenge aimed at getting the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn its 1973 Roe v. Wade decision legalizing abortion. Instead of filing a lawsuit, opponents gathered petition signatures to put the measure on the general election ballot for a statewide vote. The mea...

Evangelical Ousted Amid Gay Sex Scandal

Sat, 04 Nov 2006 22:36:00 MST

The Rev. Ted Haggard was dismissed Saturday as leader of the megachurch he founded after a board determined the influential evangelist had committed "sexually immoral conduct," the church said. Haggard had resigned two days earlier as president of the National Association of Evangelicals, where he held sway in Washington and condemned homosexuality, after a Denver man named Mike Jones claimed to have had drug-fueled trysts with him. He also had placed himself on administrative leave f...

Republican Ney Resigns After Pleading Guilty In Corruption Probe

Fri, 03 Nov 2006 21:08:00 MST

A Republican lawmaker who pleaded guilty last month to be to being corrupted by a now-disgraced lobbyist resigned from the US Congress on Friday. Bob Ney, who represented Ohio in House of Representatives submitted his resignation to Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert on Friday afternoon, Ney's chief of staff told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa. The resignation was effective immediately, David Popp, Ney's chief of staff, confirmed in an e-mail message. Ney, 52, was the first mem...

Accused Pastor Admits To Buying Meth

Fri, 03 Nov 2006 21:04:00 MST

After claiming that he never met the prostitute who outed him, Pastor Ted Haggard now claims that he did. Haggard claims he bought the meth from a gay escort, 49-year-old Mike Jones, after contacting him for a massage. Jones says he has had a three-year "sexual business" relationship with Haggard. "I did call him," said Haggard. "I called him to buy some meth, but I threw it away." However, Haggard could not remember where he threw the meth away. Haggard s...

Military Pressed Over Expressions Of Faith

Thu, 02 Nov 2006 11:41:00 MST

The U.S. military is being buffeted by dueling legal claims over religion, with one set of plaintiffs contending that the Pentagon is suppressing evangelical Christianity and another set arguing just the opposite -- that the brass gives the most aggressive evangelicals free rein to proselytize in uniform. Although Congress intervened this fall, directing the Air Force and Navy to rescind controversial new policies on religion, chaplains on both sides of the issue said the congressional action...

Rebublican Florida Lawmaker Quits Over Racial Slur

Thu, 02 Nov 2006 11:04:00 MST

A lawmaker resigned from the Florida Legislature on Wednesday, bowing to pressure to quit because of messages filled with obscenities and a racial slur that were left on a colleague's voice mail. State Rep. Ralph Arza had been urged to resign by fellow House Republicans and by Gov. Jeb Bush. Arza has admitted leaving the messages on fellow Republican Rep. Gus Barreiro's voice mail earlier this month, but said he was drunk. Arza had learned that Barreiro filed a complaint allegin...

Scandal Rocks Nevada Governor Race

Tue, 31 Oct 2006 16:17:00 MST

Congressman Jim Gibbons goes to court today, demanding that police release surveillance tapes from the night he allegedly assaulted a local woman. Chrissy Mazzeo says she and Gibbons were walking together inside a parking garage near the McCormick and Schmick's restaurant on the night of October 13th when the congressman grabbed her arms. Monday. Mazzeo filed a formal complaint with Metro police. Now, detectives are looking at the surveillance footage from that night. Mazzeo was ther...

Skilling of Enron Gets 24 Years

Mon, 23 Oct 2006 14:28:00 MST

Jeffrey Skilling, Enron Corp.'s former chief executive officer, was sentenced to 24.3 years in prison for his role in the securities fraud that led to the energy trader's collapse. U.S. District Court Judge Sim Lake sentenced Skilling today at a hearing in Houston after listening to testimony of seven victims of the Enron fraud. A jury convicted Skilling, 52, in May on 19 counts of fraud, conspiracy and insider trading after a four-month trial. He faced a range of 24 to 30 years in p...

State Court Rules Against Catholic Church On Insurance

Sun, 22 Oct 2006 16:40:00 MST

New York State’s highest court ruled yesterday that the Roman Catholic Church and other religious organizations must abide by a state law that requires most employee health insurance policies to cover the cost of contraception. The 6-to-0 decision by the Court of Appeals upheld rulings by the State Supreme Court and the Appellate Division, and left intact the state’s Women’s Health and Wellness Act of 2002, which requires company health insurance policies that provide covera...

Democrat Says Page Overseers Discussed Allegations Unrelated To Foley

Tue, 17 Oct 2006 09:12:00 MST

Allegations of improper conduct toward teenage congressional assistants, which do not involve ex-Rep. Mark Foley, were discussed by the board overseeing the program, a Democratic lawmaker said. Rep. Dale Kildee, the only Democrat on the House Page Board, would not elaborate on whether the discussion involved lawmakers. He said, however, that none of the allegations discussed have been proven. Kildee testified Monday on the Foley matter before the congressional ethics committee as it cont...

Republican Lawmaker Denies Helping Daughter Win Contracts

Tue, 17 Oct 2006 09:00:00 MST

Republican U.S. Rep. Curt Weldon denied helping his lobbyist daughter win lucrative contracts on Monday, just hours after federal agents searched her home and that of a party activist. "My daughter doesn't need my help now and she never has," Weldon told a news conference in Springfield, Pennsylvania. A U.S. law enforcement official said the Justice Department "is conducting an investigation into the relationship between Congressman Weldon with his daughter and various cont...

Kolbe Says He Warned Of Foley Years Ago

Tue, 10 Oct 2006 22:25:00 MST

Arizona Rep. Jim Kolbe said Tuesday he told the House official in charge of the page program as early as 2001 about Rep. Mark Foley's "creepy" e-mail to a former page. Kolbe, the only openly gay Republican in Congress, said a former page he had sponsored contacted his office to complain of e-mails from Foley and that he "passed along" the complaint to Foley, R-Fla., and then-House Clerk Jeff Trandahl. Kolbe said he did not take the matter to other lawmakers. Elsewhere...

U.S. Supreme Court Refuses to Reconsider Abortion Rights

Tue, 10 Oct 2006 10:10:00 MST

The U.S. Supreme Court refused to reconsider the constitutional protection for abortion rights, rejecting an appeal from a Georgia woman who says she regrets her role in a case decided alongside the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling. The justices made no comment in turning away arguments by Sandra Cano, the ``Mary Doe'' of the Doe v. Bolton case that struck down Georgia restrictions on abortion. Cano, now in her late 50s, said in court papers that she never wanted to have an abortion ...

Pressure Grows On GOP Leaders

Thu, 05 Oct 2006 10:08:00 MST

A longtime chief of staff to disgraced former Rep. Mark Foley, R-Fla., approached House Speaker Dennis Hastert's office more than three years ago, repeatedly imploring senior Republicans to help stop Foley's advances toward teenage male pages, the staff member said Wednesday. The account by Kirk Fordham, who resigned Wednesday from his job with another senior lawmaker, pushed back to 2003 or earlier the time when Hastert's staff reportedly became aware of Foley's questionable ...

Gay Groups Denounce Foley

Tue, 03 Oct 2006 22:56:00 MST

Some of the nation’s largest gay rights groups this week denounced former Republican congressman Mark Foley of Florida following reports that he sent sexually explicit instant messages and e-mails to 16 and 17-year-old males who worked as pages at the U.S. Capitol. “Gay or straight, Democrat or Republican, it is completely inexcusable for an adult to have this kind of communication with a minor,” said Joe Solmonese, president of the Human Rights Campaign, the nation’...

Washington's Weekend Ambush Wipes £4Bn Off The Value Of Online Gaming Shares

Mon, 02 Oct 2006 22:12:00 MST

The online gaming industry's bet that American legislators would never get around to outlawing internet games such as poker went spectacularly wrong yesterday. An estimated £4bn was wiped off the sector's value as share prices crashed after a weekend ambush by Washington. PartyGaming and 888 Holdings both admitted they will have to suspend their operations in the lucrative US market if a new bill, passed by Congress on Saturday, which is designed to cut off players' access to f...

New Foetal Scans 'Clouded Debate On Late Abortion'

Mon, 02 Oct 2006 22:06:00 MST

Sophisticated ultrasound scans that show foetuses as early as 12 weeks appearing to “walk” in the womb have had a dangerous impact on the public debate over abortion, leading doctors and scientists said yesterday. The emotive photographs, taken with new fourdimensional imaging technology, have created a misleading impression that foetuses become viable and potentially self-aware at a much earlier stage than is actually the case, according to experts on foetal development. ...

FBI Investigating Foley's (R-FL) E-Mail

Mon, 02 Oct 2006 10:05:00 MST

FBI cybersleuths are investigating a powerful Republican congressman who resigned last week amid charges he sent pervy messages to boy pages on Capitol Hill. Ex-Rep. Mark Foley (R-Fla.), who led the House caucus on missing and exploited kids and wrote sexual predator laws enacted in July, quit after details emerged about a lurid e-mail and instant messages he allegedly traded with current and former pages in Congress. The FBI interest was described as preliminary. "It's an assessm...

Policy Of U.S. Military Rejects Gay Woman's Ambition To Serve

Thu, 21 Sep 2006 10:11:00 MST

Last month, Meg Sneed made a public vow to try to enlist in the U.S. Coast Guard as part of the national "Right to Serve" campaign. The campaign hopes to challenge the nation's "don't ask, don't tell" policy regarding gays in the military. But when Sneed, who is openly gay, planned to enlist at Phoenix's U.S. Coast Guard recruiting office on Central Avenue on Wednesday morning, the lights were off, the door was locked and no one answered the phone....

High Court Sets Rules For Abortion-Notification Law

Thu, 21 Sep 2006 10:04:00 MST

Sparking debate on a divisive political issue, the Illinois Supreme Court on Wednesday issued key rules designed to revive a 1995 law that prohibits minors from obtaining abortions without notifying a parent. The state Supreme Court's refusal to issue the rules had left the law dormant for 11 years, to the consternation of advocacy groups seeking stricter limits on abortion. Supporters of parental notification cheered the court Wednesday, saying it had cleared the way for state Atty. G...

Many U.S. Couples Seek Embryo Screening

Thu, 21 Sep 2006 09:38:00 MST

Can we design people to better respect the planet? Boy or girl? Almost half of U.S. fertility clinics that offer embryo screening say they allow couples to choose the sex of their child, the most extensive survey of the practice suggests. Sex selection without any medical reason to warrant it was performed in about 9 percent of all embryo screenings last year, the survey found. Another controversial procedure — helping parents conceive a child who could supply compatible cord bl...

Republican Governor Ryan Sentenced for Corruption

Thu, 07 Sep 2006 11:19:00 MST

George Ryan, the former Illinois governor nominated for a Nobel Prize after he commuted 157 death sentences over doubts about the state's criminal-justice system, was sentenced to 6 ½ years in prison for public corruption. Ryan, 72, said it was ``the saddest day of my life'' shortly before U.S. District Judge Rebecca Pallmeyer today pronounced sentence. On hearing the term length, Ryan sat calmly, staring at the defense table. The courtroom was packed with about 125 detracto...

US May Lift Ban On Federal Funding For Stem-Cell Research

Sat, 26 Aug 2006 09:24:00 MST

THE breakthrough made in a small Massachusetts laboratory could put American embryonic stem-cell research back on track by removing the key objection that has stood in the way of federal funding. American scientists have been unable to use government money to create new stem-cell lines since 2001, when President Bush ordered a ban on federal funding for research on embryos created after that date. All their publicly funded work has been confined to the 61 stem cells already in existe...

Senator's Racial Slur Could Hand Virginia To The Democrats

Fri, 25 Aug 2006 15:34:00 MST

George Allen, the ambitious Republican junior senator for Virginia, is losing ground to his opponent in a key race that could help determine whether Democrats can seize control of the Senate in November's congressional elections. The latest Rasmussen poll shows Mr Allen's lead over the Democrat Jim Webb has shrunk from 11 points a month ago to only five points; 47 per cent favoured Mr Allen with 42 per cent now preferring Mr Webb, a former marine and Reagan-era secretary of the navy, ...

Sex Assault Rife At U.S. Military School

Thu, 24 Aug 2006 09:12:00 MST

Almost one in five women and one in 25 men attending The Citadel military college have been sexually assaulted since enrolling, a survey published on Wednesday found. The survey, which was commissioned by the state-funded school, also found that 68 percent of female cadets and 17 percent of male cadets reported sexual harassment while attending The Citadel. The incidence of sexual assault and harassment at the Citadel was higher than at any of three federally funded armed services academ...

Plan B Contraceptive Gains U.S. Approval After Years of Debate

Thu, 24 Aug 2006 09:11:00 MST

U.S. regulators approved sales of Barr Pharmaceuticals Inc.'s ``morning after'' emergency contraceptive pill without a prescription, capping a policy debate that has dogged the Bush Administration for three years. The Food and Drug Administration today said Barr could begin selling the drug, called Plan B, over the counter to those 18 and older. Plan B is designed to prevent pregnancy when taken within 72 hours of sex. The decision capped a prolonged fight over whether the pi...

Experts: Sex Slaves Are Girls Next Door

Wed, 23 Aug 2006 14:31:00 MST

Raids conducted last week on 20 Northeast brothels uncovered more than 70 suspected sex slaves, exposing a long-ignored national problem found in towns large and small, with immigrants and U.S. citizens alike as victims, experts say. "It's a very overwhelming subject for a lot of people to recognize that there is slavery at this time in our country," said Carole Angel, staff attorney with the Immigrant Women Program of the women's rights advocacy group Legal Momentum in Was...

A Damning Admission: New York Times Concealed NSA Spying Until After 2004 Election

Tue, 22 Aug 2006 09:04:00 MST

A column by New York Times public editor Byron Calame August 13 reveals that the newspaper withheld a story about the Bush administration’s program of illegal domestic spying until after the 2004 election, and then lied about it. On December 16, 2005, the Times reported that President Bush had authorized the National Security Agency (NSA) to monitor thousands of telephone conversations and e-mails in the US without court approval. At the time, the Times acknowledged that it had, at the ...

Experts: Sex Slavery Widespread In US

Mon, 21 Aug 2006 10:02:00 MST

Raids that uncovered more than 70 suspected sex slaves focused on 20 brothels in the East, but they illustrated a long-ignored national problem found in towns large and small, experts say. "It's a very overwhelming subject for a lot of people to recognize that there is slavery at this time in our country," said Carole Angel, staff attorney with the Immigrant Women Program of the women's rights advocacy group Legal Momentum in Washington. "It's hard for us as humans to ...

Mo. Plans Appeal In Inmate Abortion Case

Thu, 17 Aug 2006 09:19:00 MST

The state will appeal a federal court ruling requiring that pregnant inmates be taken to abortion clinics when they request the procedure, Attorney General Jay Nixon said. U.S. District Judge Dean Whipple of Kansas City concluded last month that a Missouri policy against transporting inmates for abortions violated constitutional safeguards for due process and against cruel and unusual punishment. Nixon filed a notice of appeal to the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in St. Louis. The a...

Where Does God Stand On Abortion?

Mon, 14 Aug 2006 08:48:00 MST

The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to take up one aspect of the abortion issue in its next term — specifically the constitutionality of a rare procedure opponents call "partial-birth" abortion — and as a result will find itself embroiled in a marathon religious duel marked by vitriol, apocalyptic visions and relentless maneuvering. Religious leaders will speak passionately on both sides of the issue, quote Scripture against each other and claim to express God's will. A ...

Pragmatic Americans Liberal And Conservative On Social Issues

Tue, 08 Aug 2006 10:02:00 MST

Americans cannot be easily characterized as conservative or liberal on today's most pressing social questions. The public's point of view varies from issue to issue. They are conservative in opposing gay marriage and gay adoption, liberal in favoring embryonic stem cell research and a little of both on abortion. Along with favoring no clear ideological approach to most social issues, the public expresses a desire for a middle ground on the most divisive social concern of the day: abortio...

US Senate Legislating Away Church State Separation

Thu, 03 Aug 2006 09:29:00 MST

Americans United for Separation of Church and State today urged the Senate Subcommittee on the Constitution not to make it more difficult for Americans to bring church-state violations into court. The subcommittee is hearing testimony today from lawyers affiliated with TV preachers Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson on a proposal to deny legal fees and out-of-pocket expenses to plaintiffs who win lawsuits under the First Amendment's Establishment Clause. They are supporting S. 3696, "Th...

FDA To Consider Over-The-Counter Morning-After Pill After All

Mon, 31 Jul 2006 15:29:00 MST

The government is considering allowing over-the-counter sales of the morning-after pill, but only to women 18 and older -- a surprise move Monday that revives efforts to widen access to the emergency contraceptive almost a year after it was thought doomed. The Food and Drug Administration notified manufacturer Barr Laboratories Inc. early Monday that it wanted to meet within seven days to iron out new steps the company must take in its three-year battle to sell the pill, called Plan B, wi...

Abortion Advocates Say 21 Victories Put Congress Under Pro-Abortion Control

Fri, 28 Jul 2006 16:13:00 MST

A leading abortion advocacy group is saying that just 21 victories by pro-abortion candidates in November would put control of Congress in pro-abortion hands. Pro-life advocates agree and say that pro-life legislation and the ability to confirm judges who would uphold pro-life laws would be at jeopardy if that happens. In a plea for money, NARAL sent a message to its members on Wednesday trying to encourage them to make donations given the closeness of their efforts to take over Congress. E...

Gay Marriage Ban Upheld In Washington State

Wed, 26 Jul 2006 11:07:00 MST

Washington state's highest court has upheld a ban on gay marriage. In the latest defeat for supporters of same-sex marriage, the state Supreme Court ruled that lawmakers have the power to restrict marriage to heterosexual couples. Several lawsuits sought to make Washington only the second state after Massachusetts to grant full marriage rights to gay and lesbian couples. Nineteen gay and lesbian couples had challenged the constitutionality of a 1998 ban....

Senate Set To Pass Minors Abortion Bill

Tue, 25 Jul 2006 09:10:00 MST

The Senate today is expected approve a bill that punishes anyone who helps a girl cross state lines to obtain an abortion without notifying her parents. The House passed the measure last year. Opponents say the bill cuts off an escape route for pregnant teens with abusive parents and punishes those who might try to help the youngsters....

Abortion Opponents Slam Amnesty

Tue, 25 Jul 2006 08:57:00 MST

Famed for its human rights work, Amnesty International is under siege from religious groups outraged by a proposal that would expand Amnesty's mandate to include supporting access to abortion in cases such as sexual violence. A small but growing band of anti-abortion campaigners and Roman Catholic clerics -- including some who have backed Amnesty's activities in the past -- claim the Nobel Prize-winning group is drifting away from its principles of unbiased advocacy. They have thre...

Female Soldiers Treated 'Lower Than Dirt'

Mon, 24 Jul 2006 11:10:00 MST

U.S. Army Specialist Suzanne Swift will spend her 22nd birthday tomorrow confined to the Fort Lewis base in Washington, where she is awaiting the outcome of an investigation into allegations that she was sexually harassed and assaulted by three sergeants in Iraq. Swift says the sergeants propositioned her for sex shortly after arriving for her first tour of duty in February 2004. She remained in Iraq until February 2005. "When you are over there, you are lower than dirt; you are expendabl...

Senate Wades Back Into Abortion Debate

Fri, 21 Jul 2006 16:39:00 MST

The Senate reopened the abortion debate Friday in advance of the midterm elections, this time over a bill that would make it a federal crime to take a teenager across state lines to end a pregnancy without a parent's knowledge. Supporters of the bill say such incidents often occur when a girl, or the man involved, wants to evade homestate parental consent laws. Opponents say the bill would make criminals of well-meaning confidants, such as relatives and clergy members, who might help a pr...

NAACP Greets Bush With Skeptical Eye

Fri, 21 Jul 2006 08:47:00 MST

Declaring it a tragedy that the Republican Party has alienated black voters, President Bush ended his five-year boycott of the NAACP on Thursday with a pledge to repair his relationship with the country's oldest civil rights group. Even as Bush won a rousing ovation for his promise to sign a renewal of the Voting Rights Act, the Civil Rights-era law that cleared Congress shortly after his speech, he received a chillier reception from thousands gathered for the group's annual meeting a...

Mississippi Abortion Protesters Hold Memorial For Fetus At Park

Fri, 21 Jul 2006 08:46:00 MST

A memorial service for an aborted fetus concluded today without the planned burial in Smith Park. The 11 a.m. service was part of an eight-day protest led by the anti-abortion group, Operation Save America, in an effort to shut down Jackson Women's Health Organization, the state's last remaining abortion clinic. Counterprotesters showed up toward the end of the hour-long service, causing tempers to flare. The pro-choice group walked through the recessional with an accordion pl...

A Nasty Abortion Battle Rages In The South Dakota GOP

Fri, 21 Jul 2006 08:41:00 MST

A local political party resounds with calls for purges. Party enforcers insist on ideological purity. Must be those crazy, left-wing Democrats in Connecticut looking to boot pro-war pols out of their ranks, right? Actually, we're talking about the South Dakota Republicans. State Sen. Bill Napoli is demanding that Gov. Mike Rounds kick fellow senator Stan Adelstein out of the party. And that's got Adelstein kind of upset. He's going around comparing the local GOP to Saddam Hussein...

Rights Body Harshly Criticizes U.S. Human Rights Record

Wed, 19 Jul 2006 23:07:00 MST

A United Nations human rights body expressed grave concerns today about the record of human rights in the United States. The American Civil Liberties Union with a delegation of 10 and working with a broad coalition of other groups is in Geneva to monitor the examination of the United States the U.N. Human Rights Committee (HRC). In a two-day session that concluded today, the committee members pressured the United States for answers on the following issues: The sentencing of children to li...

Bush Vetoes Stem Cell Bill

Wed, 19 Jul 2006 22:54:00 MST

President Bush, swiftly defying a bipartisan majority in Congress and a strong current in public opinion, exercised the first veto of his presidency yesterday by blocking an expansion of federal support for embryonic stem cell research that he considers immoral. Within hours of Bush's announcement, a House effort to override the veto fell 51 votes short of the required two-thirds majority, effectively killing the bill for the rest of the year. The vote was 235 for the override and 193 oppo...

Agencies Funded By Feds Say Cancer, Infertility Can Result From Abortion

Tue, 18 Jul 2006 08:08:00 MST

Federally funded "pregnancy resource centers" are incorrectly telling women that abortion results in an increased risk of breast cancer, infertility and deep psychological trauma, a minority congressional report charged Monday. The report said 20 of 23 federally funded centers contacted by staff investigators requesting information about an unintended pregnancy were told false or misleading information about the potential risks of an abortion. The pregnancy resource centers, whic...

Stem Cell Veto Would Be Bush First

Mon, 17 Jul 2006 08:55:00 MST

Will he or won't he? Supporters of a bill to allow federal financing of embryonic stem cell research are hoping something will happen to change President Bush's mind about vetoing the measure awaiting Senate approval. It would be Bush's first veto of any legislation but - so far - the president appears to be standing firm in his determination to block the stem cell bill. Neither the House nor Senate has demonstrated enough support for the bill to override a veto, though the H...

Last Mississippi Clinic Standing

Fri, 14 Jul 2006 09:04:00 MST

After years of violently blockading abortion clinics, terrorizing women and doctors, and agitating for biblical rule, there is a smug sense of triumphalism coming from the pro-life organization Operation Save America/Operation Rescue. Between July 15 and 20, OSA/OR will be staging an extended protest in Jackson, Miss., aimed at closing the state’s last abortion clinic—a move the group hopes will “send a message” to abortion providers and lawmakers throughout the count...

Moral Courage in the War on Terror

Fri, 14 Jul 2006 09:01:00 MST

It's been a while since we've seen many statements like this... that morality is valid for morality's sake and not relative based upon the actions of others. Strange how the Bush administration claims to be so moral and religious, but to actually apply a completely relativistic approach to action and deed in the so-called "War on Terror."...

House Backs Voting Rights Act Extension

Fri, 14 Jul 2006 08:56:00 MST

The U.S. House of Representatives on Thursday overwhelmingly approved a 25-year extension of the 1965 Voting Rights Act, which would preserve for another generation a law that opened voting booths to minorities. Often described as the crown jewel of the civil rights era, the Voting Rights Act outlawed poll taxes, literacy tests and other obstacles that had prevented African Americans and other minorities from exercising their right to vote. Since then, minorities have voted in larger numbe...

Are Docs In Abortions Murderers?

Thu, 13 Jul 2006 09:15:00 MST

Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott has been asked to rule whether laws passed in 2003 and 2005 could subject doctors to capital murder charges for performing late-term abortions or abortions on minors without their parents' consent. State Affairs Chairman David Swinford, R-Amarillo, asked for the opinion, citing an analysis by a state prosecutors group that said murder prosecutions of doctors could be an "unintended consequence" of the law changes. Swinford said he disagrees w...

Bush Won't Meet With Degette

Tue, 11 Jul 2006 22:25:00 MST

President Bush rebuffed Rep. Diana DeGette's request for a meeting on her pending stem cell bill, one day after presidential adviser Karl Rove told The Denver Post that the president would veto the legislation if it is passed by the Senate. “Although the president would appreciate meeting with you, we are unable to accommodate your request. Thank you for understanding,” the White House wrote in a four-sentence letter DeGette received today. The letter did not explain why Bush...

Iowa Pro-Life, Abortion Advocates Will Compete In Dueling Book Sale

Tue, 11 Jul 2006 15:05:00 MST

Iowa Planned Parenthood has raised hundreds of thousands of dollars a year to promote abortions through an annual book sale. Until now, state residents haven't had an alternative and the state's pro-life organization is changing that this year. The Iowa Right to Life Committee will host a book sale this September on the same dates of Planned Parenthood's fundraiser in order to provide an alternative. Not only will the book sale be an alternative to the one sponsored by the abort...

Fetal Rights Going Too Far?

Mon, 10 Jul 2006 12:10:00 MST

In Arkansas, lawmakers are considering making it a crime for a pregnant woman to take a drag off a cigarette. In Utah, a woman is serving 18 months' probation for child endangerment after she refused to undergo a Caesarean section to save her twins, one of whom died. In Wisconsin and South Dakota, authorities can take pregnant women into custody for abusing alcohol or drugs. And July 1 in Alabama, Brody's Law took effect. It enables prosecutors to level two charges against anyone who...

New York, Georgia Bans On Gay Marriage Upheld

Thu, 06 Jul 2006 10:09:00 MST

New York's and Georgia's highest courts ruled Thursday that gay marriage is not allowed under state law. The New York Court of Appeals in a 4-2 decision rejected arguments from gay and lesbian plaintiffs throughout the state that their inability to get marriage licences in New York violated their constitutional rights. And in Atlanta, the Georgia Supreme Court reversed a ruling by a lower court judge and upheld the state's constitutional ban on gay marriage. In Albany, Judge...

ACLU Fights 'Don't Ask Don't Tell"

Sat, 01 Jul 2006 05:49:00 MST

Attorneys for an Air Force flight nurse who lost her job under the military's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy were in federal court in Tacoma Friday. A lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union seeks to reinstate Major Margaret Witt, a McChord reservist originally from Spokane. Her five-year relationship with another woman ended in 2003. That same year she was awarded the Air Force Commendation Medal. ACLU attorney Aaron Caplan says Witt has been a role model f...

Operation Rescue Buys Building, Evicts Abortion Clinic

Thu, 29 Jun 2006 20:27:00 MST

An anti-abortion group has evicted a Wichita clinic that provided abortions and was a focal point of the massive 1991 demonstrations known as the "Summer of Mercy." Operation Rescue announced Thursday that it has purchased the building that had been leased since 1983 by Central Women's Services. The anti-abortion group has evicted the clinic and plans to renovate the building for use as its headquarters and a memorial display, said Cheryl Sullenger, Operation Rescue spokeswoman...

Buffett giving away a fortune

Mon, 26 Jun 2006 12:32:00 MST

In what some are calling the biggest philanthropic gift ever, Warren Buffett, the 75-year-old business titan who is the world's second-richest person, has pledged to begin giving away 85 percent of his US$40 billion (HK$312 billion)-plus fortune in July - most of it to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The donations, to be made over a period of years in the form of more than 12 million class B shares of Berkshire Hathaway stock, will also benefit four foundations controlled by Buffet...

See-No-Evil Lawmakers: Voting Rights Act

Thu, 22 Jun 2006 08:00:00 MST

CONSIDERING the disturbing evidence of racial discrimination in the past two presidential elections -- remember Florida 2000 and Ohio 2004 -- it would seem that renewal of the federal Voting Rights Act would be a given. Even before recent congressional hearings, it was clear that the United States still needs to scrutinize its elections for intentional and inadvertent acts of disenfranchisement. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 has been credited with eliminating some of the most overt forms of ...

Bush Will Respect Rights In 'War On Terror'

Tue, 20 Jun 2006 20:31:00 MST

The United States will pledge to respect human rights in its "war on terror", according to the draft of a final statement prepared for a European Union-United States summit on Wednesday, at which the Europeans are expected to complain about US treatment of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay. The draft of the joint statement by American President George Bush and European Union leaders says: "Consistent with our common values, we will ensure that measures taken to combat terrorism comply f...

Pregnancy Crisis Centers(?) & FDA Blocks Plan B

Tue, 20 Jun 2006 08:52:00 MST

Amongst other news on this page: The National Abortion Federation in a June 15 study found that "crisis pregnancy centers" use deceptive practices to intimidate women seeking abortions and misuse government funds. Over 4,000 crisis pregnancy centers are operating in the United States, according to the Washington-based group, compared to 2,000 abortion clinics. The federation charges the crisis centers with such practices as opening a storefront near an abortion clinic and giving it a ...

S. Dakota Abortion Ban In Voters' Hands

Tue, 20 Jun 2006 08:49:00 MST

Opponents of South Dakota's abortion ban have succeeded in suspending implementation of the law, leaving it up to a statewide referendum this fall. The statute, which outlaws abortion unless it's necessary to save the life of the pregnant woman, was signed into law in March and was scheduled to take effect July 1. But the secretary of state's office in Pierre, the state capital, announced Monday that petitions containing at least 16,728 signatures had been certified--enough to ref...

Top Court To Decide Second Abortion Law Case

Mon, 19 Jun 2006 10:04:00 MST

The U.S. Supreme Court said on Monday it would expand its review of a federal law banning some abortion procedures and would decide a California case on whether the law was too vague and imposed a burden on women. The justices in February agreed to rule on a Nebraska case on whether the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act of 2003 is unconstitutional because it lacks an exception to protect the health of a pregnant woman....

Bush Fails Women In Afghanistan

Wed, 14 Jun 2006 23:09:00 MST

The Taliban are back. Less than five years after British and U.S. troops drove them out of Afghanistan, they are launching increasingly audacious attacks, including an ambush of British troops in Helmand province last weekend. British soldiers were jumping from helicopters when they came under fire, beginning a battle in which 21 Taliban fighters were killed. One observer warned that British troops must regain control of Helmand or "the whole of southern Afghanistan will be lost to the Talib...

Artificial Conflicts Generated By Politicians Divert Us From Real Issues Of Conscience And Faith

Tue, 13 Jun 2006 14:44:00 MST

Friction between religion and government is not uncommon in the United States. When it occurs we have come to expect the usual dichotomy between those who believe that faith is under assault and those who believe that religious teachings are being substituted for public policy. My interest in this topic is the product of pure hypocrisy. I complain when some religious firebrand like Jerry Falwell jumps headlong into political campaigns and attempts to use his pulpit to benefit one politician over...

Bush's play to the Christian right is a red herring

Sat, 10 Jun 2006 23:25:00 MST

Well, it gave US President George W. Bush the presidency once before, so why not use it again? Our old friend gay marriage is back, evoked anew by the man in the White House to scare "values voters," most of them Christian conservatives, into voting Republican one more time. It did the business in 2004, when Bush's efforts to turn the election into a referendum on same-sex unions may well have tipped the pivotal state of Ohio, chiefly by persuading social conservatives to get out an...

South Dakota Churches Must Be Careful On Abortion Vote, IRS Says

Fri, 09 Jun 2006 19:05:00 MST

The Internal Revenue Service has done more to crack down on political activities by nonprofit groups in the last election cycle and IRS officials are warning churches in South Dakota not to overstep their bounds when it comes to a campaign against a likely November ballot initiative to overturn the state's abortion ban. Church groups in South Dakota say they plan to be very involved in the abortion vote. "I don't think there's any mystery about what the church's position is...

Senate Blocks Same-Sex Marriage Ban

Wed, 07 Jun 2006 17:12:00 MST

The Senate blocked on Wednesday a bid to amend the Constitution to essentially ban same-sex marriage. Republicans pushed the plan even though supporters conceded the measure did not have enough votes to pass. Proponents failed to get the 60 votes needed to end debate and move to a vote on the actual amendment. The Senate vote was 49-48 to end debate. Opponents called the measure an election-year ploy that wasted precious time on the legislative calendar. "This is not about the preservation o...

Supreme Court To Hear Seattle Schools Race Case

Tue, 06 Jun 2006 14:31:00 MST

Her anger has eased, but Kathleen Brose's voice still shakes slightly when she describes the turmoil Seattle Public Schools caused six year ago by denying her daughter's enrollment to her neighborhood school, Ballard High, because she was white. Brose was one of several parents who sued in 2000, contending that the district violated state and federal laws by considering race when assigning students to popular schools. Over the years, courts have struck down and upheld the policy, intende...

Wasteful Election Year Politics: Senate To Tackle Gay Marriage Ban

Mon, 05 Jun 2006 14:52:00 MST

President Bush and congressional Republicans are aiming the political spotlight this week on efforts to ban gay marriage, with events at both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue all for a constitutional amendment with scant chance of passage but wide appeal among social conservatives. "Ages of experience have taught us that the commitment of a husband and wife to love and to serve one another promotes the welfare of children and the stability of society," Bush said in his weekly radio address. ...

President Bush Backs Federal Marriage Amendment

Sun, 04 Jun 2006 02:04:00 MST

President Bush backed a federal marriage amendment in his Saturday radio address, and announced plans to meet with religious leaders on Monday. "Marriage cannot be cut off from its cultural, religious, and natural roots without weakening this good influence on society," said President Bush. "Government, by recognizing and protecting marriage, serves the interests of all." "A constitutional amendment will put a decision that is critical to American families and American societ...

Signatures Handed In To Repeal Abortion Ban

Wed, 31 May 2006 15:02:00 MST

Abortion rights advocates on Tuesday submitted more than 37,000 signatures supporting a ballot initiative to overturn South Dakota's ban on abortions. If the secretary of state verifies the signatures, which number more than twice the amount needed to place a measure on the ballot, South Dakota residents will decide in November whether to keep the strictest ban in the nation. The measure, which outlaws all abortions — even in cases of rape or incest — unless the mother's life...

Florida City Approves Abortion Protest Laws After Judge Strikes Down Others

Tue, 23 May 2006 18:56:00 MST

City officials in West Palm Beach have adopted a pair of abortion protest laws to keep pro-life advocates away from a local abortion business. The laws come after a judge found unconstitutional the city's first attempts to restrict protests. City commissioners approved a pair of less strict laws on Monday. The revised laws prohibit anyone from blocking traffic or approaching vehicles traveling on roads outside the local abortion center. They also prohibit using loudspeakers or bullhorns or ...

Amnesty Sees Duplicity In 'War On Terror'

Tue, 23 May 2006 18:48:00 MST

Amnesty International has accused the United States and other major powers setting aside human rights protections in the war on terror. The London-based human rights group has released its annual report. The secretary-general of Amnesty International, Irene Khan, told a London news conference the world's biggest powers have much to answer for in the field of human rights. "Powerful governments are playing a dangerous game with human rights," Ms. Khan says. "Those with power and ...

Company To Sue U.S. Government Over .XXX Extension Ruling

Mon, 22 May 2006 15:12:00 MST

ICM Registry, the internet domain registry behind the unsuccessful attempt to create a .xxx domain extension for pornographic sites, is planning to sue the U.S. government over rejection of its plea by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), the U.S.-based non-profit group that oversees the domain name system. ICM Registry said it will ask ICANN to reconsider its application to operate the .xxx extension and file a judicial appeal to force the government to restore redac...

Reprehensible Representative: RBI Says It Recorded Democrat Lawmaker Taking Bribe

Mon, 22 May 2006 15:09:00 MST

A congressman under investigation for bribery was caught on videotape accepting $100,000 in $100 bills from an FBI informant whose conversations with the lawmaker also were recorded, according to a court document released Sunday. Agents later found the cash hidden in his freezer. At one audiotaped meeting, Rep. William Jefferson, D-La., chuckles about writing in code to keep secret what the government contends was his corrupt role in getting his children a cut of a communications company's d...

Senate Spat Over Gay Marriage Ban Ammendment

Fri, 19 May 2006 21:50:00 MST

A Senate committee approved a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage yesterday, after a shouting match that ended when one Democrat strode out and the Republican chairman bid him "good riddance." "I don't need to be lectured by you. You are no more a protector of the Constitution than am I," Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) shouted after Sen. Russell Feingold (D-Wis.) declared his opposition to the amendment, his affinity for the Constitution and...

Frivolous Legislation: Senate Votes Hike In Indecency Fines

Fri, 19 May 2006 18:49:00 MST

"Wardrobe malfunctions" and other indecency may soon cost broadcasters 10 times more in federal fines. Both the Senate and House have now passed legislation to dramatically increase penalties for broadcasters that break federal rules and air profane or indecent material during certain hours. The two bills still have to be merged into one. With no dissent, the Senate late Thursday approved a bill to raise indecency fines 10-fold to $325,000 per violation for television and radio broadcast...

Georgia Gay Marriage Ban Voided

Wed, 17 May 2006 20:33:00 MST

A Fulton County Superior Court judge on Tuesday struck down the state's gay marriage ban, a constitutional amendment overwhelmingly approved by Georgia voters in 2004. Judge Constance Russell did not rule on the merits of allowing gay couples to marry. Instead, she said the measure violates the state constitution's "single-subject rule" because it required voters to decide on marriage and civil unions in a single amendment. Her decision on one of the state's most politically ...

Execute Gays?: The Battle Cry Of G.I. Jesus

Mon, 15 May 2006 17:29:00 MST

Gary DeMar stated he'd execute gays only if they were caught indulging in sodomy, but others envision sinners in line for the death penalty would include women who commit adultery or lie about their virginity, blasphemers, witches, children who strike their parents, and gay men. Thus, DeMar is considered somewhat of a liberal in this extreme authoritarian movement. Gary DeMar is not a fringe Christian. He is in the same realm with Mainstream Extremist Christian leaders such as Televangelist...

Court Strikes Sex Work Pledge

Sun, 14 May 2006 05:51:00 MST

A federal judge in New York ruled that a 2003 federal law requiring U.S. health groups fighting AIDS to sign a pledge that condemns prostitution violates the free speech rights of those groups, Long Island Newsday reported May 10. The groups must sign the pledge in order to receive funding for assistance and education programs. The plaintiffs--Pathfinder International in Watertown, Mass., the New York-based Open Society Institute and an affiliate--argued that denouncing prostitution placed restr...

McCain Bends Over and Takes One for Christian Conservatives

Fri, 12 May 2006 20:17:00 MST

In Christianity, forgiveness and reconciliation are part of the path to redemption. In politics, they can pave the way to winning elections. Six years after he verbally attacked two prominent leaders of the religious right, charging that they'd helped to kill his presidential campaign, Sen. John McCain is making up with one of them and hoping that Christian conservatives will help him win the 2008 Republican presidential nomination. The Arizona senator will give the commencement address Satu...

Dirty Republican Campaign Tactics in AZ

Wed, 10 May 2006 16:38:00 MST

Campaign workers for Jim Pederson, a Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate, say state Republican Party workers are engaging in “bush league” tactics to undermine Pederson’s campaign. Republicans posted their own political signs above, below and in front of Pederson’s campaign signs on major street corners in Scottsdale and Phoenix during the weekend. On some corners, the Republican signs obscure the bottom of Pederson’s signs, which provide his campaign Internet ...

God's Political Affiliation?

Fri, 05 May 2006 05:28:00 MST

This is an interesting, honest look at both parties affiliation with God... basically that there is none. Let unto Caesar what is Caesar's, God what is God's....

Allan Guttmacher Institute press briefs

Thu, 04 May 2006 19:38:00 MST

After a yearlong investigation, on April 4 the Government Accountability Office (GAO) released its analysis of spending on HIV prevention programs funded by the President’s Emergency Fund for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR). The report recommends that Congress reevaluate the stringent requirements for how this money should be spent. Specifically, it exposes the challenges created by the requirement that at least one-third of global HIV prevention funds be reserved for “abstinence until marriage...

In Partisan Vote, House Oks Ethics Bill By 4 Votes

Thu, 04 May 2006 19:26:00 MST

It slipped through the House by four votes, divided largely along party lines, but now comes the real test: Is the new ethics bill enough to rejuvenate Congress' battered image after a series of high-profile lobbying scandals? By a 217-213 vote Wednesday, legislators passed a bill that suspends privately funded travel for members of Congress and their staffs until the end of the year; makes it more difficult for lawmakers to attach pet projects to spending bills; and adds more detailed disc...

Supreme Court Rejects Abortion Poster Case, Allows Damages

Tue, 02 May 2006 14:39:00 MST

The Supreme Court on Monday ended a decade-long fight over the use by anti-abortion protesters of "wanted" posters to identify clinic doctors. Activists who created Wild West-style posters and a Web site targeting abortion doctors had been ordered to pay nearly $5 million in damages, and the court refused without comment to take up their appeal. The 12 activists and two anti-abortion groups were sued under a racketeering law and the 1994 Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act, which m...

Pro-Choice Is Not A Synonym For Pro-Abortion

Mon, 01 May 2006 20:19:00 MST

I've had two unplanned pregnancies in my lifetime, one when I was a junior in college, another when I was packing my bags to leave my first marriage. Their names are Sean and Brendan. Abortion was illegal when I got pregnant the first time, in 1968. It was legal the second time, in 1973. In neither case did I consider having an abortion. It never occurred to me to end either pregnancy. Didn't do it then. Wouldn't do it now. There are those who might presume from this that - surprise,...

Hawaii's Republic Governor and a Pro-Choice Bill

Sat, 29 Apr 2006 23:56:00 MST

In doing so without fanfare or comment, the Republican governor avoids provoking the most conservative of her party who are fiercely anti-abortion, while acknowledging Hawaii's long-standing support of a woman's right to privacy. The governor's conduct is commendable in that she did not cast the controversial issue as a political matter to stir up party loyalty, but rather as a law that appropriately allows women to make deeply personal decisions without government interference. Ling...

Iraq War Contractors Ordered To End Abuses

Wed, 26 Apr 2006 14:44:00 MST

The top U.S. commander in Iraq has ordered sweeping changes for privatized military support operations after confirming violations of human-trafficking laws and other abuses by contractors involving possibly thousands of foreign workers on American bases, according to records obtained by the Tribune. Gen. George Casey ordered that contractors be required by May 1 to return passports that have been illegally confiscated from laborers on U.S. bases after determining that such practices violate U.S...

3 Abortion Myths

Tue, 25 Apr 2006 17:26:00 MST

Murderer." "Butcher." "Baby-killer." Sometimes it seems there's no end to the invectives thrown at the pro-choice movement. But believe it or not, members of the pro-choice community don't join up because we think we fall under those labels. With the South Dakota abortion ban rapidly making its way to the Supreme Court, it is more important than ever for us to explain what we're really about. So without further ado, Princeton Pro-Choice Vox presents three myths ab...

Pro-Choice, Pro-Environment

Fri, 21 Apr 2006 16:01:00 MST

This Saturday, April 22, is Earth Day — an opportune time to examine the connection between environmental justice and reproductive rights. A recent report by the Guttmacher Institute makes a strong case that family planning and reproductive health are "intimately tied to environmental conditions," and that by working together, pro-choice and pro-environment advocates could better advance a joint cause. To shed more light on the subject, Choice! Magazine spoke with Annette Souder, s...

Judge Rules For Kan. Abortion Rights Group

Wed, 19 Apr 2006 15:13:00 MST

In a victory for an abortion rights group, a federal judge ruled Tuesday that abortion clinic doctors and other professionals are not required under Kansas law to report underage sex between consenting youths. The ruling by U.S. District Judge J. Thomas Marten was a setback for Kansas Attorney General Phill Kline, an abortion foe. Kline contended a 1982 Kansas law requiring doctors, teachers and others to alert the state and law enforcement about potential child abuse covers consensual sex betwe...

Debate Set For Today On Push To Limit Abortion in LA

Wed, 19 Apr 2006 14:59:00 MST

Lousiana's first major attempt in 15 years to pass a strict abortion bill that outlaws the procedure in all cases except to save a mother's life will get a hearing today in the Senate Committee on Health and Welfare. Supporters said they are unsure how lawmakers will react to Senate Bill 33 by Sen. Ben Nevers, D-Bogalusa, one of several anti-abortion measures filed for the session. The big question is whether the measure can survive without amendments expanding the number of exception...

Supremes Won't Hear Falwell Appeal

Wed, 19 Apr 2006 14:55:00 MST

The US Supreme Court has refused to hear the appeal of Reverend Jerry Falwell against an Appeals Court ruling that allowed a gay rights activists to continue operating a site about the television evangelist under the domain name fallwell.com. Jerry Falwell has suggested that people who are gay and lesbian are sinning and that one's sexual orientation is something that can be changed, according to Christopher Lamparello, who set up the 'gripe site' to challenge Falwell's views. Fa...

Angering the Religious Right: White House Event a Tolerance Milestone

Tue, 18 Apr 2006 16:55:00 MST

In an effort organized by the DC gay-rights group Family Pride Coalition, over 100 lesbian and gay families attended the annual White House Egg Roll for the first time in its 130-year history yesterday, wearing rainbow-colored leis to show their solidarity. Children accompanied by their parents rolled Easter eggs through the grass with long-handled spoons, dyed eggs, and hobnobbed with their favorite cartoon characters, such as Clifford the Big Red Dog and Arthur from PBS. New York University Pr...

Lip Service: Flag Burning, Gay Marriage, Abortion Top Senate GOP Agenda

Sun, 16 Apr 2006 15:51:00 MST

Protection of marriage amendment? Check. Anti-flag burning legislation? Check. New abortion limits? Check. Between now and the November elections, Republicans are penciling in plans to take action on social issues important to religious conservatives, the foundation of the GOP base, as they defend their congressional majority. In a year where an unpopular war in Iraq has helped drive President Bush’s approval ratings below 40 percent, core conservatives whose turnout in November is vital ...

Gay, Lesbian Parents Question Egg Roll Tickets

Sun, 16 Apr 2006 15:43:00 MST

Some of the same-sex couples who waited all night to get tickets to this year's Easter Egg roll are questioning how the tickets were distributed. Gay and lesbian families are making a coordinated effort to attend the annual Easter Monday event. They plan to wear rainbow-colored leis to show their family pride. All of those who spent hours waiting in line got tickets. But members of the Family Pride Coalition said they received some of the first timed-entry tickets distributed, but they are f...

Christian Coalition Shrinks

Mon, 10 Apr 2006 00:00:00 MST

In an era when conservative Christians enjoy access and influence throughout the federal government, the organization that fueled their rise has fallen on hard times. The once-mighty Christian Coalition, founded 17 years ago by the Rev. Pat Robertson as the political fundraising and lobbying engine of the Christian right, is more than $2 million in debt, beset by creditors' lawsuits and struggling to hold on to some of its state chapters. • More politics news In March, one of its...

Employment Discrimination Against Pregnant Women

Mon, 03 Apr 2006 15:44:00 MST

Jack is the joy of Pamela Alexander's life, but she had no idea how much becoming Jack's mom would change her life. Two years ago, she was a top salesperson for a Wisconsin company called Name Protect, winning, she says, accolades and promotions until she revealed she was pregnant. Within two weeks, Alexander was fired in a cost-cutting move. "You shouldn't have to make this choice between keeping your job and having a child," she says. "To have them let me go for budgeta...

Mccain moves Right and Softens Language On Jerry Falwell

Mon, 03 Apr 2006 05:12:00 MST

Potential presidential candidate John McCain says he longer considers evangelist Jerry Falwell to be one of the "agents of intolerance" that he criticized during a previous White House run. The Republican senator from Arizona will be the commencement speaker in May at Liberty University, the Lynchburg, Va., institution that Falwell founded in 1971. "We agreed to disagree on certain issues, and we agreed to move forward," McCain said Sunday on NBC's "Meet the Press....

No Massachusetts marriages for out-of-state gays

Fri, 31 Mar 2006 17:28:00 MST

Gay couples from American states that ban same-sex marriages cannot legally be wed in Massachusetts, where such unions are legal, the state's highest court ruled on Thursday. The ruling was made in response to a lawsuit filed by gay couples from Connecticut, Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont, which prohibit same-sex marriage. It appeared to end the prospect that the liberal New England state could become a U.S. destination for gay couples to marry. The Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts ...

Congressman Ratchets Up Campaign Against Abortion Drug

Thu, 30 Mar 2006 16:27:00 MST

With two new deaths linked to the abortion drug RU-486, the leading congressional opponent to the drug stepped up his call to yank it off the market, saying manufacturers have made pregnancy "a near fatal disease." At his news conference Wednesday, Rep. Roscoe Bartlett, R-Md., held aloft a picture of 18-year-old Holly Patterson, who died after taking the drug. He urged an immediate vote on his bill, HR 1079, "Holly's Law," which would force the Food and Drug Administration t...

Government Should Stay Out Of Religion

Thu, 30 Mar 2006 16:26:00 MST

The United States was established by people who considered religion central to their lives. Although the early population was made up mostly of Christians, there were already so many varieties of the religion that the settlers had to struggle over how to accommodate all of them in the emerging body politic. Freedom of religion finally won out and was built into the Constitution and its amendments. Today, America is 40-plus years into a significant and continuing shift in the country's religi...

SD Abortion Law May Not Apply On Reservations

Tue, 28 Mar 2006 16:52:00 MST

If South Dakota's abortion ban stands, a tribal president says she wants to set up a clinic on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. Oglala Sioux Tribe President Cecelia Fire Thunder says because the reservation is sovereign land, state law would not apply. South Dakota Attorney General Larry Long agrees with that assessment. He says the relationship between Indian tribes and the states means abortion clinics could operate inside the state even after the law would take effect. Long says it woul...

Mississippi Abortion Bill Dies This Session

Tue, 28 Mar 2006 16:51:00 MST

A bill to ban most abortions in Mississippi died tonight after House and Senate negotiators failed to reach a compromise before a deadline. The lawmakers were trying to reach common ground on a House-passed bill that would ban abortions in the state except when a woman's life is at risk or she is the victim of rape or incest. The Senate voted for the negotiations to try to put language in the bill that would protect the state's current informed consent law if the new legislation was ever...

S.D. Governor Signs Abortion Ban Into Law

Mon, 06 Mar 2006 20:12:00 MST

Gov. Mike Rounds signed legislation Monday banning nearly all abortions in South Dakota, setting up a court fight aimed at challenging the 1973 U.S. Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion. The bill would make it a crime for doctors to perform an abortion unless the procedure was necessary to save the woman's life. It would make no exception for cases of rape or incest. Planned Parenthood, which operates the state's only abortion clinic, in Sioux Falls, has pledged to challenge th...

US States Join Abortion Revolt To Bring Back Ban

Sun, 05 Mar 2006 07:41:00 MST

Mississippi is about to ban abortion as pro-life politicians across middle America vie to overturn Roe v Wade, the landmark 1970s decision that gave women the right to choose. Inspired by President George W Bush s appointment of two conservative justices, John Roberts and Samuel Alito, to the Supreme Court, several states have seized the opportunity to overturn their local laws. The Mississippi bill proposes to ban abortion unless the mother s life is in danger or unless she is a victim of ra...

Abortion As A Crime: A Nightmare Reborn

Sun, 05 Mar 2006 00:00:00 MST

South Dakota just took a huge step backward. The state's new criminal abortion bill is patterned on laws first passed in the 1860s and 1870s -- laws that produced a public-health disaster. Let's be clear: Making abortion illegal, except when a woman's life is threatened, does not protect women or their lives. And now, with a Supreme Court remade by a president who is dedicated to overturning Roe vs. Wade, it is a good time to look at the centurylong history of illegal abortion in the...

Randy 'Duke' Cunningham Gets 8.5 Years in Prison

Fri, 03 Mar 2006 23:28:00 MST

Former Rep. Randy Duke Cunningham was taken into custody Friday after being sentenced to eight years and four months in federal prison and ordered to pay $1.8 million in restitution for accepting bribes from defense contractors. Prosecutors had sought a 10-year sentence for Cunningham, the maximum available under his plea agreement. His lawyers asked for six years. ...

Prosecutors Want Max For Republican Ex-Congressman

Fri, 03 Mar 2006 23:24:00 MST

Prosecutors hoped to secure the longest prison term ever for a congressman Friday at the sentencing of former Rep. Randy ``Duke'' Cunningham, who pleaded guilty to taking bribes on a scale unparalleled in the history of Congress. Cunningham, a Republican who resigned last year in disgrace, accepted $2.4 million from defense contractors and others in exchange for steering government contracts their way. Federal prosecutors asked for the maximum - 10 years behind bars....

High Court Wades Into Texas Political Shootout

Thu, 02 Mar 2006 17:22:00 MST

The Supreme Court on Tuesday appeared reluctant to throw out the Texas congressional map that resulted in a Republican majority in the state's congressional delegation. But concerns were expressed by the justices over several districts that Democrats say disenfranchised Hispanic voters. The justices spent a rare two-hour afternoon session trying to sort out the controversy over the Texas voter redistricting plan promoted by Republicans, including former majority leader Rep. Tom DeLay. The m...

Bush Differs from SD on Abortion Allowances

Wed, 01 Mar 2006 17:14:00 MST

President George W. Bush said on Tuesday said his view on abortion differs from that of a South Dakota measure that would ban the practice in all cases except when the mother's life was at stake. The South Dakota bill -- the most restrictive measure on abortion in decades -- has been described by the state's governor as a direct assault on the landmark 1973 Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion. Asked about the provisions in the state law, Bush replied, "Well, that, of course, i...

No Racketeering Violations for Anti-Abortion Protests

Tue, 28 Feb 2006 15:31:00 MST

The Supreme Court dealt a setback Tuesday to abortion clinics in a two-decade-old legal fight over anti-abortion protests, ruling that federal extortion and racketeering laws cannot be used to ban demonstrations. Anti-abortion groups brought the appeal after the 7th Circuit had asked a trial judge to determine whether a nationwide injunction could be supported by charges that protesters had made threats of violence absent a connection with robbery or extortion....

No Challenge To Roe Foreseen In Texas

Mon, 27 Feb 2006 17:45:00 MST

The GOP-led Texas Legislature hasn't been quiet about its opposition to abortion or shy about restricting women's access to it. In recent years, lawmakers have required parental consent, a 24-hour waiting period, state-directed counseling and state funding for abortion alternatives. All this, according to some abortion rights groups, makes Texas one of 21 states most likely to ban abortion if the U.S. Supreme Court ever gives them the chance. ...

Plan B for Colorado Morning After Legislation

Fri, 24 Feb 2006 17:45:00 MST

CO state lawmakers are weighing legislation again this year that would provide easier access to emergency contraception. Sponsors have changed the bill in a sensible effort to overcome objections that doomed it a year ago. Gov. Bill Owens, citing the encroachment of freedom of religion, vetoed a version that would have required hospitals - including those run by the Catholic Church - to inform rape victims who sought medical attention that the so-called morning-after pill was available. Denver...

South Dakota Legislature Passes Bill To Ban Abortion

Thu, 23 Feb 2006 20:08:00 MST

The glove has been thrown down in the war for women's rights in the US... Lawmakers in the midwestern U.S. state of South Dakota have passed legislation that would ban all abortions except when a woman's life is in danger. After final legislative approval, the state's governor must sign the bill in order for it to become law. The governor, Republican Mike Rounds, has said he opposes abortion. If approved, the South Dakota bill would directly challenge the U.S. Supreme Court decision...

Losing Our Values In The War On Terror

Sat, 18 Feb 2006 17:36:00 MST

"I never imagined I would live to see the day... One cannot find strong enough words to condemn what Britain and the United States have accepted... habeas corpus is part of our freedom..." How humbling that it takes an African churchman from one of our former colonies, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, to warn that Britain is tearing up centuries of civil liberties and squandering its moral authority by the way it conducts the war on terror at home and abroad. Consider the events of a truly dep...

Wal-Mart Told To Stock Morning-After Pill

Wed, 15 Feb 2006 21:36:00 MST

Wal-Mart has been instructed by the Board of Pharmacy in Massachusetts that it must stock the 'morning after' contraceptive pill. The store had refused to stock the pill, purportedly for moral reasons. Now if we can just get a law passed that says it's criminal for pharmacists to refuse to fill a contraceptive prescription on moral grounds... I'd be happy....

Gay Marriage Lawyers Grilled By NJ High Court

Wed, 15 Feb 2006 19:55:00 MST

New Jersey Supreme Court justices grilled lawyers Wednesday on what business the state has preventing homosexual couples from marrying as the nation's latest battle over gay marriage reached the Garden State's highest court. The arguments came in the case known as Lewis v. Harris, in which seven longtime gay couples sued the state, claiming the state Constitution should afford them the right to marry....

The Truth About Bush And Abortion

Thu, 09 Feb 2006 20:08:00 MST

Politicians lying about the facts surrounding abortion to push a religious agenda???? NO WAY!!! Bush should know... he's an expert on abortion... after all, his college girlfriend had one....

Abortion Opponents Make Progress

Wed, 08 Feb 2006 22:51:00 MST

With some success, abortion foes are pushing bills in more states to require doctors to tell abortion seekers the procedure can cause pain to fetuses. 'Fetal pain' bills were introduced in 19 states in 2005, and were passed in Arkansas, Georgia, Minnesota and Wisconsin, USA Today reports. The Wisconsin bill, however, was vetoed last month by Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle, who cited a report in the Journal of the American Medical Association that there is no conclusive evidence of when a fetu...

Stones' Fury At Censorship

Wed, 08 Feb 2006 18:34:00 MST

In an overly politically correct world, it seems even the iconic Rolling Stones from the rebellious '60's are censored for broad audiences. Pathetic. Are those NFL folks a bunch of panzies?...

Kansas Supreme Court Ruling Allows State AG To Seek Abortion Records

Mon, 06 Feb 2006 18:03:00 MST

The Kansas Supreme Court on Friday ruled unanimously that state Attorney General Phill Kline (R) can seek access to the medical records of 90 women and girls who underwent late-term abortions in 2003 at two clinics, but if a state judge rules that Kline is allowed to see the files, the patients' names and personal information will be withheld from the records, the Kansas City Star reports (Klepper, Kansas City Star, 2/4). Kline in 2004 subpoenaed the records from the two clinics -- Comprehen...

Alito's First Move: Stop Prisoner's Execution

Sat, 04 Feb 2006 05:53:00 MST

Within hours of joining the US Supreme Court on Wednesday, judge Samuel Alito split with the court's conservatives, refusing to let Missouri execute a death-row inmate contesting lethal injection. Justice Alito, handling his first case, sided with inmate Michael Taylor, who had won a stay from an appeals court earlier in the evening. Chief Justice John Roberts and judges Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas supported lifting the stay, but Justice Alito joined the remaining five members in turn...

Is Abortion Bad? - Pro-Life Swingers For Birth Control

Thu, 02 Feb 2006 19:26:00 MST

Voters on the Right and the Left can agree that the act of abortion is a 'bad' thing. Those on the Right attempt to push it into the moral territory of being 'wrong,' while on the Left, it is viewed as an unfortunate consequence of poor education, overpopulation, and occasionally poor personal decision making. Most reasonable Americans would like to see an alternative, such as better acess and use of contraception, pushed as a viable alternative to abortion, without outlawing a...

US Tech Firms Snub Discussion on Human Rights

Wed, 01 Feb 2006 17:30:00 MST

Four of the top U.S. technology companies refused an invitation to attend a congressional briefing on the subject of human rights and the Internet in China. Google, Microsoft, Yahoo, and Cisco Systems did not respond to formal invitations sent by the Congressional Human Rights Caucus but called, or emailed, their refusals to attend the briefing on Wednesday. We never got formal confirmation from anyone, said Lynne Weil, spokesperson for Rep. Tom Lantos (D-California), one of the caucus lea...

Partial Birth Abortion Act Ruled Unconstitutional By U.S. Courts

Wed, 01 Feb 2006 05:57:00 MST

Two federal appeals courts yesterday upheld rulings that the Partial Birth Abortion Act, passed by Congress in 2003 but barred by the courts, is unconstitutional because it does not include an exception when the health of a pregnant woman is at risk. The rulings, which came on the same day from three-judge panels in the Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, in New York, and the Ninth Circuit, in San Francisco, were substantially based on a United States Supreme Court decision in a Nebraska ca...

Sweeping Anti-Abortion Laws Proposed

Wed, 01 Feb 2006 05:56:00 MST

Legislators in at least five states are proposing bold anti-abortion measures as the Bush administration reshapes the U.S. Supreme Court, a report said. With the goal of challenging the Roe vs. Wade ruling that ensured a woman`s right to an abortion, lawmakers in Georgia, Indiana, Ohio, South Dakota and Tennessee propose banning all abortions except when the woman`s life is in danger, Stateline.org reported. If enacted, legal experts said the laws would be the first absolute abortion bans since ...

God's Senator

Tue, 31 Jan 2006 18:00:00 MST

Sam Brownback seems to be the next chosen one, according to a minister in Times Square who has joined hands in prayer with Senators and Presidents alike. Read this Rolling Stone article for an inside view of the American theocracy....

President Bush Tells Abortion Foes That Their Cause Is 'Noble'

Tue, 24 Jan 2006 00:00:00 MST

President George W. Bush told anti- abortion activists marching in Washington today that their devotion to what he called a ``noble cause'' will help them prevail. ``You believe, as I do, that every human life has value, that the strong have a duty to protect the weak, and that the self-evident truths of the Declaration of Independence apply to everyone, not just to those considered healthy or wanted or convenient,'' Bush said in a telephone call broadcast to the demonstrators g...

Emotion Builds For New Battle On Roe

Mon, 23 Jan 2006 00:00:00 MST

Thousands of abortion opponents shouldering signs with slogans such as ''Peace Begins in the Womb'' marched in San Francisco in protest of Roe vs. Wade, while abortion-rights supporters waved clothes hangers and shouted, ``Bigots go home.'' The confrontation -- marking Sunday's anniversary of the Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion -- reflected the growing tension as the makeup of the high court is about to change. The largest abortion demonstration was expecte...

Feds Seek Google Records In Porn Probe

Thu, 19 Jan 2006 00:00:00 MST

The Bush administration, seeking to revive an online pornography law struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court, has subpoenaed Google Inc. for details on what its users have been looking for through its popular search engine. Google has refused to comply with the subpoena, issued last year, for a broad range of material from its databases, including a request for 1 million random Web addresses and records of all Google searches from any one-week period, lawyers for the U.S. Justice Department said i...

Human Rights Report Attacks U.S., Europe And China

Wed, 18 Jan 2006 00:00:00 MST

China, the United States and the European Union were accused Wednesday of violating or tolerating violations of human rights by Human Rights Watch, the nongovernmental watchdog group. The group accused the Bush administration of employing a deliberate strategy of abusing terror suspects during interrogations...

Supreme Court Requires that NH Abortion Law be Reexamined

Wed, 18 Jan 2006 00:00:00 MST

A unanimous U.S. Supreme Court, in its first abortion decision since 2000, sent a case back for more hearings on a New Hampshire law requiring notification of a parent before a minor can end her pregnancy. "We do not revisit our abortion precedents today," retiring Justice Sandra Day O'Connor wrote for the court in the 10-page opinion. She said that invalidating the entire law, as a U.S. appeals court had done, is not always necessary or justified in cases involving medical emergenc...

Roe V. Wade: A Battle Worth Fighting For

Wed, 18 Jan 2006 00:00:00 MST

Ohio could ban abortions, denying women this constitutional right, an act clearly out of step with the majority of Americans. According to a December 2005 NBC News/Wall Street Journal survey, 66 percent of those polled said the Supreme Court should not completely overturn Roe....

Oregon's Right-To-Die Law Upheld By Supreme Court

Tue, 17 Jan 2006 00:00:00 MST

In a stinging rebuke to the Bush administration, the Supreme Court sided with Oregon in upholding the nation's only physician-assisted suicide law. Oregon voters have twice upheld a law that permits the terminally ill to take an overdose of drugs if two doctors agree with the diagnosis and conclude the patient is of sound mind. To date, more than 200 terminally ill patients in Oregon have used the law, and now millions may be affected by the Supreme Court's decision. ...

Alito Will be too Right on Morality

Tue, 17 Jan 2006 00:00:00 MST

Judge Samuel Alito Jr., who surely faces successful confirmation to the US Supreme Court, will tilt the balance of the Court far to the Right....

GOP Puts Lobbying Scandal In Bull's-Eye

Mon, 09 Jan 2006 00:00:00 MST

At the start of an election year, the GOP is drawing up all sorts of plans to combat corruption in Congress. The biggest problem this time is that the curruption is resident in their own party. It's interesting how completely silent George Bush has been on the issue....

Five Issues Foes Will Try To Use To Torpedo Alito

Mon, 09 Jan 2006 00:00:00 MST

Samuel Alito, like any judge, has made a diversity of rulings, some of which may put him in the firing line....

Opinion: US was Founded as a Secular State

Fri, 06 Jan 2006 00:00:00 MST

As this writer notes, several early treaties and the Constitution itself identify the US as a non-Religious state governed by Constitutional Law....

Democrats Offering more 'Republican-like' Candidates

Thu, 05 Jan 2006 00:00:00 MST

For better or worse, political pressure is driving the Democratic party to consider candidates who have more Republican leanings on key issues, such as abortion and gun control....

Abramoff Pleads Guilty In Casino Case

Wed, 04 Jan 2006 00:00:00 MST

Once-powerful lobbyist Jack Abramoff pleaded guilty in federal court Wednesday to conspiracy and wire fraud stemming from his 2000 purchase of a fleet of gambling boats. ...

Nebraska Set To Ban Cloning

Fri, 30 Dec 2005 00:00:00 MST

A hotbed of bio-tech activity, Nebraska, is set to consider bills that would ban cloning and embryonic stem cell research. Apparently animal and plan husbandry is OK in ag states until you reach the cellular level....

Miss. Abortion Foes Plan More Restrictions

Fri, 30 Dec 2005 00:00:00 MST

Mississippi lawmakers are set to consider some laws that would impose more restrictions on doctors who perform abortions and patients who seek them. One of the conditions would be a statement that abortions increase the risk of breast cancer, which is highly disputed in the medical community....

Schwarzenegger Erased From Graz

Tue, 27 Dec 2005 00:00:00 MST

Arnold Schwarzenegger's refusal to use his powers as California governor to commute the death sentence of Tookie Williams has caused his home town to rename a stadium that had previously been named in his honor and to erase his name from the town's website....

Recent Lawsuit Did Not Settle ID Controversy

Tue, 27 Dec 2005 00:00:00 MST

Although the recent Dover, PA, ruling was against the teaching of Intelligent Design, that case did not settle the battle for our children's minds quite yet....

Miss. Abortion Clinic Awaits License Ok

Tue, 27 Dec 2005 00:00:00 MST

Mississippi is trying to put the squeeze on the last abortion clinic in the state. I thought that Roe v. Wade had already settled this question?...

Abortion In South Dakota

Thu, 22 Dec 2005 00:00:00 MST

South Dakota is an example of many states that have now put nearly insurmountable obstacles in front of women seeking an abortion....

Fitness Club Members Criticize Tree With Birthright Message

Mon, 19 Dec 2005 00:00:00 MST

"Three Lawrence women have canceled their memberships at a women-only gym after finding a Christmas tree in the lobby adorned with plastic figures meant to represent fetuses."...

Bush Concedes On Bill Banning Torture Of Terror Suspects

Thu, 15 Dec 2005 00:00:00 MST

President Bush has bowed to political and moral pressure and will sign any bill passed with language banning the use of torture by US military and civilian personnel....

Post-abortion Depression: Similar % to Postpartum Depression

Thu, 15 Dec 2005 00:00:00 MST

Although many articles like this suggest that abortion can cause depression amongst women, the articles seem to omit the fact that the percentages of depression seem to be similar to the upper bounds of percentages of women who suffer from postpartum depression. Is it possible that horomonal changes combined with conflicted feelings about childbirth and pregnancy can cause ANY woman to suffer doubts or regrets? Gee whiz, Batman....

Torture Ban a Reality?

Thu, 15 Dec 2005 00:00:00 MST

The White House may actually be bowing to political pressure by agreeing to John McCain's torture ban....

A Small Church'S Worries

Thu, 15 Dec 2005 00:00:00 MST

The adherents of some small Christian sects are concerned about the Bush administration's push to lift up Christianity as a state-sponsored religion....

Bush Christmas Card Rankles Many Conservative Christians

Mon, 12 Dec 2005 00:00:00 MST

Conservative Christians seem to be upset that the Bush family Christmas card says 'happy holidays' and not 'merry Christmas.' Give me a break. I'd be upset if I was actually on the list....

Administration Makes Much Ado About Nothing, But No Ado About Anything

Mon, 12 Dec 2005 00:00:00 MST

As this article shows once again, administration officials get excessively upset about leaks and dissent, but don't seem to acknowledge the problems that the leaks address. This is a sad distraction technique that draws attention away from the issues that really affect us. Integrity is about more than just loyalty, Mr. Bush....

If It's Not Torture, Then It's Ok To Use It On Cheney

Wed, 07 Dec 2005 00:00:00 MST

If the techniques, such as waterboarding, that we use on prisoners are not torture, then perhaps we should use them on Cheney and Rove to find out what's really happening in the White House....

Complaint Filed Against Former Christian Coalition Head

Fri, 02 Dec 2005 00:00:00 MST

A complaint has been filed against the former head of the Christian Coalition for failing to file as a lobbyist. Mr. Reed received millions of dollars in payments from none other than... Jack Abramoff....

Court Weighs Girls' Access To Abortion

Tue, 29 Nov 2005 00:00:00 MST

The Supreme Court will begin tomorrow to consider arguments in a case that may allow increased restrictions on minor's ability to access abortions....

Woman Sentenced to Night in the Woods for Abandoning Kittens

Wed, 23 Nov 2005 00:00:00 MST

A woman in Ohio will spend tonight in the woods alone with just a fire for abandoning 35 kittens in a park, nine of which died....

Vaccine Could Cause Promiscuity???

Tue, 22 Nov 2005 00:00:00 MST

Religious conservatives are claiming that the 100% effective vaccine against cervical cancer will promote sexual promiscuity among young women. I guess conservatives would rather save their own consciences than save 4000 women a year....

Gitmo Detainee Denied Bible

Tue, 22 Nov 2005 00:00:00 MST

A Guantanamo Bay prison detainee, or enemy combatant, has been denied access to an English-language bible. Military officials have indicated that the Bible has not been cleared for access to prisoners....

Alito Looks Right

Mon, 14 Nov 2005 00:00:00 MST

As more papers come out revealing the legal side of Samuel Alito, he appears to be more and more on the Right. Alito describes himself as a lifelong registered Republican....

Anti-Gay Group Protesting Soldier's Funerals

Fri, 11 Nov 2005 00:00:00 MST

An Anti-Gay group from the Westboro Baptist Church of Topeka is showing up in Greely, CO, to protest at the funeral of a dead soldier. The protesters have stated that the soldiers deserve to die because the US supports homosexual rights. The soldier was not gay. Sick....

Senate Denies Basic Rights to Non-Citizen Detainees

Fri, 11 Nov 2005 00:00:00 MST

The senate has approved an amendment to a bill that would eliminate the ability of US 'enemy combatant' detainees to sue the government. The amendment will suspend 'habeas corpus' for such detainees, proving that our current leaders believe that American values are only good enough for Americans....

Utah Judge Has 3 Wives

Wed, 02 Nov 2005 00:00:00 MST

Utah judge, Walter Steed, has three wives, all sisters, and is fighting a request that he step down from the bench for violating the law....

Miers Pledged to Support Abortion Ban Ammendment

Tue, 18 Oct 2005 00:00:00 MST

Harriet Miers, nominee to the US Supreme Court, pledged in 1989 support for an abortion ban for all abortions except for medical emergencies....

Dobson to Squeal about 'Assurances' from Bush

Wed, 12 Oct 2005 00:00:00 MST

Dr. James Dobson, leader of Focus on the Family, has declared that he will divulge information given to him regarding Harriet Miers nomination to the US Supreme Court. Karl Rove met privately with Dr. Dobson and reassured the religious leader on some unknown facts that swayed his endorsement....

Abortion Fight goes to California

Mon, 10 Oct 2005 00:00:00 MST

California voters will consider proposition 73, which attempts to limit minor's access to abortions and redefines abortion as the death of an unborn child....

Wisconsin Legislature in Overdrive on Anti-Abortion

Thu, 29 Sep 2005 00:00:00 MST

The WI legislature has approved 5 new restrictions/requirements on abortion-related activities....

Bush To Attempt to Reinstate Partial-birth Abortion Ban

Tue, 27 Sep 2005 00:00:00 MST

The Bush administration is set to spend more taxpayer money attempting to reinstate a ban on partial-birth abortions that would stop a relatively rare emergency procedure. Most liberals agree that they type of abortion is wrong, but they desire that the procedure be available for emergencies that threaten the life of the mother. ...

Evolution 'Debate' Hurts Science

Fri, 23 Sep 2005 00:00:00 MST

The Intelligent Design camp's attack on evolutionary theory hurts science as a whole by questioning the entire pathway of reasoning and study that supports evolution. ...

Administration Funds New Anti-Porn FBI Squad

Fri, 23 Sep 2005 00:00:00 MST

The FBI is being forced to fund and prioritize a new anti-pornography squad. The agents are being told that the investigation is to rank somewhere above civil-rights violations and below public corruption....

House Bill Allows Religious Descrimination in Government Funded Program

Fri, 23 Sep 2005 00:00:00 MST

A House Bill allows government funded religious agencies that operate Head Start preschools to discriminate by religion when hiring. Outrageous. ...

Intelligent Design Teaching to be Tested in Court

Fri, 23 Sep 2005 00:00:00 MST

A group of parents is suing the Pennsylvania school system to keep intelligent design out of their children's science classes....

PETA Display Invokes Debate at Colleges

Thu, 22 Sep 2005 00:00:00 MST

A PETA display contrasting animal abuse with acts of human-on-human violence is creating inspired debate on college campuses. ...

Interfaith Bible Course Released for Use in Schools

Thu, 22 Sep 2005 00:00:00 MST

A group called the Bible Literacy Project seems to have done it the right way. They have introduced a textbox designed to teach about the Bible in public schools that takes an objective look at it's origins. Now if they'll only allow the same for the Koran and other texts, we know we'll be on the right track. ...

ACLU Against Abstinence-only Education

Thu, 22 Sep 2005 00:00:00 MST

The ACLU is campaigning to dissuade states from accepting federal government funding for abstinence-only sex education because the education program promotes religion and discriminates against homosexuals. ...

Review of Religious Viewpoints

Thu, 22 Sep 2005 00:00:00 MST

This article reviews the different points of view of religion and promotes a tolerant viewpoint. ...

Abortion Battle Must be Won on Moral Grounds

Tue, 20 Sep 2005 00:00:00 MST

The chairman of the International Planned Parenthood Council has stated that he believes that abortion laws won't be settled in the United States until the argument is won on moral ground....

Missouri Abortion Law Put on Hold

Tue, 20 Sep 2005 00:00:00 MST

A controversial and draconian abortion law recently passed in Missouri has been temporarily put on hold by the courts while they evaluate the constitutionality of attempting to control someone's behavior while out of the state. ...

Roberts to Keep Open Mind

Tue, 13 Sep 2005 00:00:00 MST

Proposed US Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts intends to keep an open mind and to observe established precident, if he is chosen to preside over the Court. Roberts' Senate hearing is underway this week....

Specter Won't Quiz Roberts on Roe v. Wade

Sun, 11 Sep 2005 00:00:00 MST

Moderate Republican Senator Arlen Specter, chair of the Senate judiciary committee, says that he will not quiz John Roberts directly on his intent to overturn Roe vs. Wade, as he does not believe that Supreme Court Justices should have to commit on decisions before the hear a case....

KS Attorney General on Anti-Abortion Witch Hunt

Fri, 09 Sep 2005 00:00:00 MST

Kansas anti-abortion Attorney General Phill Kline has subpoenaed the records from two abortion clinics so that he can find out if he can prosecute them for performing late term abortions or failing to report child sex crimes. ...

Missouri to Add New Abortion Restrictions

Thu, 08 Sep 2005 00:00:00 MST

The Missiouri legislature is set to pass another law restricting doctors and others who assist young women in obtaining abortions....

A Radical Cancer: Feminism or the Right?

Thu, 08 Sep 2005 00:00:00 MST

The author describes feminism as: 'A malignancy spreads by invading its neighboring cells, taking over their internal control processes, and inducing the cells to assume grotesque shapes and sizes.' Wow, sounds like a good description for the religious Right in American politics. ...

Catholic Church Believes Contraceptive Use Causes Divorce

Thu, 08 Sep 2005 00:00:00 MST

A Catholic speaker believes that medical contraceptives increase the divorce rate because they DULL a woman's sex drive, therefor she chooses bad mates. Huh? That's like saying I should drive a gas guzzler because a feul efficient car would take me past my destination....

Schwarzenegger to Veto Gay Marriage Bill

Thu, 08 Sep 2005 00:00:00 MST

California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has stated that he will veto the gay marriage bill passed by the California legislature this week. Schwarzenegger will rely on Proposition 22, passed in 2000, in which voters approved that marriage was between a man and a woman. ...

CA Legislature OK's Gay Marriage

Wed, 07 Sep 2005 00:00:00 MST

California has become the first state in the country to have both legislative houses approve a bill allowing gay marriage. The controversial bill must now go before Gov. Schwarzenegger who has hinted that he may veto it. However, Schwarzenegger's popularity has been falling and signing the bill may give him a populist boost that would help his fall ballot initiatives....

Another Book to Burn

Tue, 06 Sep 2005 00:00:00 MST

'The Marketing of Evil' does not speak about the diversion of the power of the religious Right to wage war and to increase corporate profits, but it attacks gay rights and a woman's right to choose. Why is it that people on the Right are so fixated on sex and pedophilia?...

Rehnquist Will Be Replaced by Like, Younger Conservative

Sun, 04 Sep 2005 00:00:00 MST

The passing of Supreme Court Justice William Rehnquist gives Bush the opportunity to appoint a younger, conservative Chief Justice, however the new appointment is unlikely to affect the court as much as Justice O'Connor's replacement will....

Self-Determination Foes Proud of Infringing Women's Rights

Fri, 02 Sep 2005 00:00:00 MST

Religious extremists are proud to be infringing on a woman's right to choose throughout the country. This blog points out some of the victory dances in their recent attempts to attack abortion....

CCN Plans to Protest Opening Planned Parenthood in St. Augustine

Fri, 02 Sep 2005 00:00:00 MST

The Christian Communication Network is organizing to protest the opening of a Planned Parenthood in St. Johns County, Florida. Apparently family planning is just not Christian....

Karen Hughes to Address Islamic Group

Fri, 02 Sep 2005 00:00:00 MST

Karen Hughes, longtime Bush advisor and recent appointee for a public diplomacy and affairs position, will address the largest US Islamic federation. Society representatives hope that Hughes can spread the message that US muslims exist and prosper in a secular democratic society. ...

California Advocates Repeal of 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell'

Thu, 01 Sep 2005 00:00:00 MST

California state senator Christine Kehoe (D-San Diego), offered a state resolution that requests that the US military repeal it's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy as unconstitutional discrimination....

CA Senate Passes Gay Marriage Bill

Thu, 01 Sep 2005 00:00:00 MST

The California Senate has passed a gay marriage bill, however it still faces a fight in the state Assembly. The passage, however, does legitimize the argument that legislatures CAN and WILL pass pro-gay-marriage laws....

FDA Official Resigns Over Contraceptive Decision

Wed, 31 Aug 2005 00:00:00 MST

Susan Wood, director of FDA's Office of Women's Health, resigned promptly after the decision last week by FDA Commissioner Les Crawford to indefinitely postpone a decision to allow the morning-after-pill to be sold over-the-counter. In a statement that is frighteningly reminiscent of comments by disenfranchised scientists at NOAA and other federal agencies, Wood states 'I can no longer serve as staff when scientific and clinical evidence, fully evaluated and recommended for approval...

We Can't Lose Sight of Reality

Tue, 30 Aug 2005 00:00:00 MST

The author of this column suggests that we often are highlighting the sensationalist issues while ignoring real problems. He addresses outcry over sex education compared to a lack of complaint over sex crimes in his area....

Grass Roots Killing Reproductive Freedoms

Tue, 30 Aug 2005 00:00:00 MST

A surge in grass roots activism is killing a woman's right to abortion and contraception around the country. South Dakota has passed a law stating that it will ban abortion if Roe v. Wade is overturned. Other states require that fetal tissue be sent to law enforcement agencies or that women be informed that fetuses feel pain (disputed)....

FDA Delaying Decision on Morning After Contraceptive

Tue, 30 Aug 2005 00:00:00 MST

Mike Leavitt, head of Health and Human Services, has defended the FDA's decision to postpone a decision about changing the prescription status of the morning after pill. Leavitt had previously promised action to Sens. Clinton and Murray in exchange for their approval of the appointment of Les Crawford as FDA commissioner in return for a promise of a prompt decision on the contraceptive....

Womens' Rights Under Fire

Fri, 26 Aug 2005 00:00:00 MST

Womens rights are increasingly under fire with the intent of keeping them second class and pregnant. Now even contraceptive rights are up for question in the political arena....

ACLU Lawsuit Successfully Stops Federal Funding of SRT

Wed, 24 Aug 2005 00:00:00 MST

A lawsuit by the ACLU has forced the federal government to stop funding for the Silver Ring Thing (SRT), an overtly Christian group that promotes abstinence until marriage. Findings reported in the article suggest that teens who make pledges of abstinence are more likely to not use contraceptives and to engage in (risky) anal sex than teens who do not....

Fetuses Can't Feel Pain

Wed, 24 Aug 2005 00:00:00 MST

An apolitical scientific study on fetal neurology seems to show that fetuses before 20 weeks can't feel pain. The study has sparked more debate on the use of anethesia during abortions and on other aspects of the abortion debate....

Conservative Claims Contraceptives To Blame for Sexual Promiscuity

Wed, 24 Aug 2005 00:00:00 MST

This conservative anti-reproductive-rights columnist seems to believe that contraceptives are to blame for sexual promiscuity and wants to return to a pre-1965 "time of virtuous sexual behavior." Apparently she hasn't heard of Kinsey....

Gay Parents Responsible for Child Support

Tue, 23 Aug 2005 00:00:00 MST

In an interesting twist that's hard to argue against from any position, California courts have decided to hold gay parents equally responsible for child support. This even applies to parents who are not biologically related to the child....

Pat Robertson Violating Separation of Church and Taxes

Mon, 22 Aug 2005 00:00:00 MST

Pat Robertson is under fire from an independent religious watchdog group for attempting to profit from a nutritional drink that he advertises regularly on his tax-exempt 700 Club....

Official Abortion Consent Website in Alaska

Mon, 22 Aug 2005 00:00:00 MST

The Alaska state government has started an abortion consent and information website, as required by a new state law, designed to highlight alternatives to abortion and to provide prenatal developmental information....

Fed Appeals Court Backs Military Abortion Restrictions

Fri, 19 Aug 2005 00:00:00 MST

A federal appeals court has backed the military's policy of only providing insurance funding for abortions when the mother's life is at risk, even in a case where the fetus had a fatal defect....

KS Atty General Attempts to Cut Abortion Funding

Fri, 19 Aug 2005 00:00:00 MST

Kansas Attourney General Phil Kline is suing the state governor and other officials to prevent the use of Medicaid funding to help poor women obtain abortions. Kline is attempting to apply a part of the state constitution that bans the destruction of 'men' to apply to humans at any stage in developement....

Paris Hilton Angers PETA

Fri, 19 Aug 2005 00:00:00 MST

Hotel heiress Paris Hilton has angered PETA by dumping her dog Tinkerbell in favor of a slimmer chihuahua named Bambi. No joke on all counts....

Gay Church Kicked Off Catholic Grounds

Thu, 18 Aug 2005 00:00:00 MST

The Archdiocese of New Orleans has broken the lease of the Metropolitan Community Church of Greater New Orleans, which is known to bless the unions of gays and lesbians. The Catholic Church feels that allowing the MCCGNO to continue in their lease on Church property would send a mixed message about their homophobia....

Republican OH Governor Charged with Ethics Violations

Wed, 17 Aug 2005 00:00:00 MST

Ohio's Republican Governor Bob Taft has been charged with numerous ethics violations for failing to report multiple gifts and paid-for outings with campaign contributors....

Prayer in School is OK if not Sanctioned

Tue, 16 Aug 2005 00:00:00 MST

This article discusses some of the ways that school prayer may be acceptible, centering around (the lack of) official endorsement. Amen....

Bush Administration Opposes .XXX Domains

Tue, 16 Aug 2005 00:00:00 MST

The Bush administration is questioning the offering of .xxx Internet domain names because somehow the domain names could increase the spread of porn throughout US homes. The Bush administration believes it has unilateral authority to block the creation of the new domain suffix....

US Lutheran Church Rejects Gay Marriage

Sat, 13 Aug 2005 00:00:00 MST

The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, the largest US Lutheran denomination, has passed a measure rejecting gay marriage, but allowing the 'blessing' of gay couples. The group also continued a ban on actively gay church members to become ministers....

Kansas Education Board OK's Criticism of Evolution

Wed, 10 Aug 2005 00:00:00 MST

The Kansas Board of Education has approved language in textbooks that will criticize evolution and open the door for discussion of Intelligent Design, discuised Creationism, in science classrooms....

Dobson Compares Stem Cell Research to Holocaust

Sun, 07 Aug 2005 00:00:00 MST

Dr. James Dobson, a leader of the anti-womens-rights movement, has drawn fire from Jewish groups and others for comparing the destruction of embryos during stem cell research to the Nazi Holocaust....

Santorum Might not be Creationist

Sat, 06 Aug 2005 00:00:00 MST

"Republican Sen. Rick Santorum, a possible 2008 presidential contender who faces a tough re-election fight next year in Pennsylvania, said intelligent design, which is backed by many religious conservatives, lacked scientific credibility and should not be taught in science classes."...

Bush Poll Ratings Slipping

Sat, 06 Aug 2005 00:00:00 MST

Less than 50% of Americans think that Bush is honest. That says that almost 50% of Americans need their head examined....

Polls Confuse the Issue

Thu, 04 Aug 2005 00:00:00 MST

Polls, such as the one discussed in this oddly calculated articly, confuse the issue by assuming that if a majority say one thing, then it must be so or should be done. We live in a representative society where minority rights are protected. Get used to it....

Bush: Give Equal Time to Creationism

Wed, 03 Aug 2005 00:00:00 MST

President Bush suggested in a Monday interview that competing theories of evolution should be given equal weight in school. I agree, one should be taught in science class, the other in religion class....

CA Court Decision Broadens Gay Rights

Wed, 03 Aug 2005 00:00:00 MST

A California court decision has reinforced two laws that went into effect in the state this year, guaranteeing same-sex partners the same priviledges as opposite-sex married couples....

Pataki's Turn to Flip Flop

Tue, 02 Aug 2005 00:00:00 MST

Lame-duck New York Governor George Pataki is copycatting Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney in pandering to the Right by vetoing a bill that would provide women over-the-counter access to the 'morning after' pill. Pataki has also signed contraceptive legislation in the past, but this is a clear move to the Right in preparation for the 2008 campaign. Good thing his potential constituents are so stupid as to fall for it....

Roberts would be 4th Catholic Judge

Mon, 01 Aug 2005 00:00:00 MST

An interesting discussion of the pressures that will come to bear on John Roberts if approved as the 4th Catholic Justice on the current Supreme Court....

Umpire Bans Spanish in Little League Game

Fri, 29 Jul 2005 00:00:00 MST

A Little League umpire banned a coach and pitcher from speaking spanish this week at a ball game. National Little League officials later stated that the umpire was wrong to do so....

Anti-Abortion Legislation on the Rise

Fri, 29 Jul 2005 00:00:00 MST

Over 500 state-level anti-abortion legislative initiatives were submitted so far this year. Measures include notification to the woman that fetuses feel pain to restrictive parental consent laws. Apparently Roe V. Wade is not necessarily the 'established law of the land.'...

Stem Cells: Frist on the Presidential Campaign

Fri, 29 Jul 2005 00:00:00 MST

Senate majority leader Bill Frist broke with the President and anti-science conservatives by supporting a House version of a bill that expands human embryonic stem cell research. This could be a move to differentiate Frist as 'one of those moderate conservative wackos' in his start to run for the White House in 2008....

Contraceptives and Unplanned Pregnancies

Tue, 26 Jul 2005 00:00:00 MST

Interesting article discussing rates of abortion, unplanned pregnancies, and more in the US. I'm not sure that I agree with the study conclusions about access to contraception and rates of unplanned pregnancy, but there's some food for thought here....

Mitt Romney Violates Campaign Pledge to Veto Bill

Tue, 26 Jul 2005 00:00:00 MST

Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney (R) violated a campaign pledge to enable access to emergency contraception to women when he vetoed a bill granting women access to the morning-after contraceptive pill. Gov. Romney seems to think that a 24-hour-old zygote is the same thing as a baby....

OK Courts Uphold Abortion Limiting Laws

Mon, 25 Jul 2005 00:00:00 MST

Oklahoma courts have upheld two laws that restrict access to abortions for minors. One law requires parental notification and the other requires that abortion clinics reimburse the medical expenses of minors whose parents were not notified before the abortion, even in the case of emergencies....

Rumsfeld for Women's Rights in Iraq

Thu, 21 Jul 2005 00:00:00 MST

US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld stated that although womens rights in Iraq were the purview of the White House and the State Department, it would be a mistake for the Iraqi government to adopt a constitution denying women significant rights....

Women's Rights Threatened in Iraq

Wed, 20 Jul 2005 00:00:00 MST

The draft of the Iraqi consitiution eliminates a requirement for women to hold public office and seems to incline toward Islamic Sharia law regarding women's rights. Is this freedom for all people Mr. Cheney?...

Crawford to Head FDA

Tue, 19 Jul 2005 00:00:00 MST

Currently acting Commissioner Lester M. Crawford has been confirmed by the Senate as the head of the FDA. Crawford has been criticized by some senators as promoting a culture that is not necessarily guided by science, but by administration moral policy....

Should Abortion be Emotionless???

Mon, 18 Jul 2005 00:00:00 MST

Why is it a surprise to the Right that Pro-Choice democrats don't actually like the process of abortion? How can any compassionate human possibly be gleeful when an abortion is performed. The process of terminating a pregnancy is about preventing a living, mistake-making human being from being enslaved to something that at the time is only the makings of new creature....

The Totalitarianism of Pro-Life Thought

Mon, 18 Jul 2005 00:00:00 MST

This chilling essay, from a member of the hard-line Opus Dei sect of Catholicism, claims that democratic procedures can lead to totalitarianism. However, while simultaneously criticizing modern relativistic thinking, the author promotes the enforcement of human-interpreted religious law on others through the perversion of the democratic process. Doesn't the book of Genesis suggest that the exercise of free will is the only way that God may be honored?...

Americans Still Divided over Abortion

Sun, 17 Jul 2005 00:00:00 MST

Americans remain strongly divided over a woman's right to choose, however a clear majority remain Pro-Choice....

Cunningham Won't Run Again

Fri, 15 Jul 2005 00:00:00 MST

Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham (R-CA), darling of the defense contracting community, has decided that he won't run for office again. He's probably hoping that if he's not in office, he can't be investigated for bribery....

Australia: Pro-life Filming of Women Entering Clinics

Fri, 15 Jul 2005 00:00:00 MST

Sadly it's not confined to the US. Pro-lifers have been filming women entering abortion clinics, presumably as a tactic to prevent violence against the protesters, but more likely as an intimidation technique....

What About the Boy Laura Bush Killed?

Fri, 15 Jul 2005 00:00:00 MST

I'm so sick of conservative commentators dragging up Sen. Kennedy's unfortunate accident that killed a likely mistress decades ago. Why don't they talk about 17 year-old Michael Douglas who was killed in a collision with Laura Bush's (then Laura Welch) car when she ran a stop sign. Odd that no charges were filed even though a young man was killed....

Flip-flops at the White House

Fri, 15 Jul 2005 00:00:00 MST

Conservative moms are aghast that most of the Northwestern University women's lacrosse team wore flip-flops in a meeting with the President. Perhaps some of them were upset that the girls' heads weren't covered to protect the President from the power of their hair, too....

Leaked Memo Shows Resistance to Tobacco Fine Decrease

Thu, 14 Jul 2005 00:00:00 MST

A leaked memo shows that there is internal resistance in the Justice Department to a policy that has caused the reduction in a large US tobacco fine from US$130 billion to US$10 billion....

CAFTA does not Reflect a Culture of Life

Thu, 14 Jul 2005 00:00:00 MST

The Republicans should have known they were in trouble as soon as they mixed politics and religion. This editorial claims that Catholic members of congress should not support CAFTA because it restricts the manufacture of cheaper, generic HIV drugs in Central America, promotes indiscriminate use of natural resources (read 'rape the land'), and will contribute to more outsourcing of US jobs. These facets of the treaty are not consistent with a "Culture of Life."...

Liberalism = Pedophilia?

Wed, 13 Jul 2005 00:00:00 MST

Senator Kennedy ridiculed Rick Santorum (R-PA) for claiming that Boston had a high rate of child sex abuse by priests because of Boston's liberal culture. The remarks come from a proposed presidential candidate for the 2008 campaign... clearly another uniter. Apparently liberalism equals tolerance for pedophilia....

Animals Do Deserve Compassionate Treatment

Wed, 13 Jul 2005 00:00:00 MST

George Will (shock and awe) discusses a column by former Bush presidential speech writer Matthew Scully called "Fear Factories: The Case for Compassionate Conservatism - for Animals." Scully's and Will's columns argue that there is a case for the ethical treatment of animals as a reflection of how we treat the world as a whole. Thanks to The Yellow Line for pointing this out....

Anti-abortion Activists Fight Judgement

Tue, 12 Jul 2005 00:00:00 MST

Anti-abortion activists are fighting a US$108 million judgement against them stemming from a 2002 case that determined that 'wanted posters' and listing doctors' names and telephone numbers online constituted an illegal threat....

Appeals Court Strikes Down Abortion Ban

Tue, 12 Jul 2005 00:00:00 MST

Yet another court has struck down yet another illegal ban on partial-birth abortions for the simple reason that the ban does not protect a woman in the event of a threat to her health....

Terri Schiavo Inquest Ends

Fri, 08 Jul 2005 00:00:00 MST

The Terri Schiavo case has finally been closed. The FL state prosecutor who was asked to look into the case by Governor Jeb Bush has determined that there was no evidence of abuse and that the most likely reason for her collapse was a well documented eating disorder....

Republican "Culture of Life" Senators Prevent Ban on Pesticide Testing on Humans

Thu, 07 Jul 2005 00:00:00 MST

Republican Senators, known for their "culture of life" rhetoric, have voted against a ban on human testing of pesticides. Their action is consistent with the Bush reversal of a Clinton-era ban on testing pesticides on children....

Ten Commandments Illegal in Courthouses

Mon, 27 Jun 2005 00:00:00 MST

The Supreme Court has ruled in a divided victory for the Constitution that displays of the Ten Commandments with a primarily religious purpose are illegal in courthouses....

Split decision on Ten Commandments

Mon, 27 Jun 2005 00:00:00 MST

In a second decision on another Ten Commandments case regarding an antique display of the Commandments outside the Texas legislature, the Supreme Court says that the display may stay because it was not known if it was religiously motivated. Seems ambiguous....

Hong Kong to deliver us from Bush

Mon, 27 Jun 2005 00:00:00 MST

With the intent of funding research into stem cells and brain development, charitable foundation of Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka-shing has donated $40 million to the University of California at Berkeley. Li has stated that he believes that research being conducted at Berkeley will benefit all mankind, hopefully excepting the Bushes who have attempted to ban stem cell research. ...

Those Denigrating, Demonizing Democrats

Tue, 21 Jun 2005 00:00:00 MST

Rep. John Hostettler, R-IN, has accused the Democrats for "denigrating and demonizing Christians" because some representatives wished to introduce a proposal to help curtail excessive proselytizing at the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, CO. How surprising to once again find a Republican opposed to the Bill of Rights....

Jeb Wants Inquiry into Schiavo Case

Thu, 16 Jun 2005 00:00:00 MST

Jeb Bush, Governor of Florida and future US President (gag), is refusing to allow the Terri Schiavo case to die. After a conclusive autopsy of the woman, who lived in a vegitative state for 15 years, that found no evidence of abuse or higher brain function, Bush is insisting that state prosecutors investigate the circumstances around her initial collapse....

13 Year-old in State Custody for Chemotherapy

Sat, 11 Jun 2005 00:00:00 MST

There seems to be some uproar in the anti-government groups about the state of Texas' removal of a 13 year old girl from her parents after the parents refused appropriate treatment for Hodgkin's lymphoma. Although the girl believed her cancer to be in remission (which it was not) from the news reports it seems that enough doctors were involved who uniformly agreed that there was significant threat to her health without the treatment....

Voters May be Overturned on Assisted Suicide

Fri, 10 Jun 2005 00:00:00 MST

In the next Supreme Court term, the federal government is challenging a law passed by Oregon voters that allows physician assisted suicide. The recent ruling on medical marijuana does not bode well for the Oregon law. ...

Pharmacy Workers Must Provide Birth Control

Wed, 08 Jun 2005 00:00:00 MST

Lawmakers in Wisconsin have been forced to introduce a bill that would allow the state to sanction pharmacy workers who refuse to fill birth control medication prescriptions. Sadly, many politicians have approved of a practice by a growing number of pharmacists of forcing their moral views on their patients by refusing to issue birth control medication....

Prosecuting the Sick Over MaryJane

Mon, 06 Jun 2005 00:00:00 MST

Rather than fight drunk driving (responsible for about 50% of US traffic fatalities each year) or find Osama Bin Laden, the Bush administration has insisted on pursuing a court battle to allow them to prosecute sick people who use marijuana for medicinal purposes, and has won. The US Supreme Court has ruled that Federal Law trumps local preferences and that the Federal government has the right to prosecute medicinal users of marijuana....

Boycott of Ford Due to Liberal Policies

Thu, 02 Jun 2005 00:00:00 MST

The so-called American Family Association has called for a boycott of Ford Motor Corp because the company generously supports equal rights for LGBT families and persons. Check out the boycott page. ...

Vapor Funding for AIDS

Thu, 02 Jun 2005 00:00:00 MST

Despite citing religion as a major driver for why the US should help in the African AIDS crisis, Bush's pledges of help are largely going unfulfilled two years later. Experts now anticipate that the US will fall far short of pledged funding help, including increases in funding that have been fought by the Bush Administration. ...

More on Filibuster Compromise

Wed, 25 May 2005 00:00:00 MST

Although I believe that compromise such as happened yesterday regarding the filibuster is good, the nomination of Priscilla Owen to the Appellate Court is a judicial low in the modern era. Owen has been protested by civil and womens rights groups who claim that Owen will roll back the clock on individual rights established by US law....

No Compromise on Filibuster

Wed, 25 May 2005 00:00:00 MST

True to form, Conservative Christian Republican leaders have come out en masse to protest the compromise on the filibuster. Not surprisingly, they are most upset at members of their own party who helped engineer the compromise and are threatening to sink them in the next presidential election in 2008....

The Stem Cells are Screaming

Wed, 25 May 2005 00:00:00 MST

President Bush has threatened to veto legislation passed by the House of Representatives and expected to be passed by the Senate that would expand funding for embryonic stem cell research, ignoring poll results that show that approximately 2/3 of the country favor such funding. ...

Republican's Hate Mothers

Mon, 23 May 2005 00:00:00 MST

The US Supreme Court is agreeing to see a case that asks to reinstate a New Hampshire law that places limits on abortions without specifically including stipulations for protecting the health of the mother....

No Gay Marriage in Texas

Sun, 22 May 2005 00:00:00 MST

The Texas senate approved sending a constitutional amendment that would ban same-sex marriage to voters. Apparently, same-sex marriage would hurt heterosexual marriage in the Lone Star State....

Commentary on Recent News

Thu, 19 May 2005 00:00:00 MST

The showdown over the judicial filibuster is heating up. The Republican Right must think that once they have true majority domination, they can change enough laws to make sure that they never lose it. Of course that may happen anyway the way the country is going. Think about it... it's about to become way more expensive to get a driver's licence. We've lost tons of middle class jobs. The 2006 budget cuts adult education subsidies. Pretty soon the former middle class will be begging t...

US Attempts to Force Brazillian Stance on Prostitution

Wed, 04 May 2005 00:00:00 MST

Brazil refused US$40M in anti-AIDS funding because the Bush administration insisted that if Brazil used the money, the country would have to adopt official language condemning prostitution. Brazil refuses to do so because the government fears that stigmatizing prostitution would inhibit sex workers from seeking help for HIV infection....

Senator Convicted On Corruption Charges

Tue, 27 Oct 1998 16:20:00 MST

Though a jury in Washington, D.C. has convicted Alaska Republican Sen. Ted Stevens on federal corruption charges, casting doubt on the future of his 40-year political career, the senator maintains his innocence and blames the verdict on "prosecutorial misconduct." A federal grand jury indicted Stevens, 84, in July on seven counts of making false statements, for allegedly lying on U.S. Senate financial disclosure forms for the years 1999 to 2006. The jury of eight women and four men...

States, Medical Groups Oppose Abortion Rule

Fri, 25 Sep 1998 20:32:00 MST

Several medical associations and 13 state attorneys general voiced their opposition Wednesday to a proposed federal rule that they fear would open the door for hospitals and physicians to deny access to contraception. In late August, the Bush administration proposed stronger job protections for doctors and other health care workers who refuse to participate in abortions because of religious or moral objections. Abortion foes called it a victory, but abortion rights supporters said they feared...

High Court Rejects Evolution Suit Against Cal

Mon, 23 Mar 1998 13:44:00 MST

A long-standing lawsuit against a UC Berkeley evolution web site by a Roseville woman who takes the Bible literally has been rejected without comment by the U.S. Supreme Court, the court announced today. One page on Cal's 840-page "Understanding Evolution" web site says Darwinism can be compatible with religion. The four-year-old suit by Jeanne Caldwell said the government-funded web site contradicts her religious belief about the incompatibility of religion and Darwinism and amou...