Politics

Via OccupyWallSt: Liberate Space - July 4th - Cities Everywhere - Be Daring In a few weeks, on July 4th we call on all individuals to blockade, disrupt and disobey the architecture of repression in their own cities. We act against the surveillance state not because it has overstepped an imaginary line, we rebel against it for the simple fact that it is designed to intimidate, imprison and demoralize us. We act against it because we know that politicians, corporations and the ruling class will never listen or change. We know that it is up to us to be disobedient, that direct action is the only road to freedom. There is no better time than now to push forth an initiative which calls out the surveillance state for what it is; a web of police, prisons and politicians designed to protect the wealthy. At a time of upheaval and massive repression worldwide we don't ask for permission, we recognize that those who grant us permission are those that spy on us at the same time. The world we fight for is a world free from politicians, states and security agencies. On July 4th we call on individuals and groups to gather in the busy thoroughfares, parks and squares in your town. We suggest an overnight occupation designed to call out and confront the means in which surveillance is carried out. This could simply be holding a sign in front of a camera, your tactics are only limited by creativity. It is important to not fall into the marching around in circles trap. We hold our space in a busy area on the 4th because this is where people, commerce and surveillance are. Circulate Widely * Create Your Own Event * Write A Call To Action -Valley Anarchist Circle https://www.facebook.com/events/280921688720561/

Fresh off her landmark triumph at the French Open, Serena Williams is garnering attention for the wrong reasons.The 31-year-old tennis star made insensitive remarks about the victim in the widely publicized Steubenville rape case that appear in an upcoming issue of Rolling Stone. During an interview with Rolling Stone contributor Stephen Rodrick, a television news segment prompted Williams to discuss the case involving the sexual assault of a 16-year-old girl by high school football players.More...

Last week I packed up my suitcase, sublet my townhouse, wrapped up any loose ends, and hopped on a flight to the east coast to spend 10 weeks in my hometown, a suburb of New York City. I have now been in New Jersey for a week, yet it feels like it's easily been six months. Part of the reason I wanted to be a health coach was that I knew I would have more flexibility and would be able to basically work from anywhere, which appealed to me because all of my family members and most of my friends still live in the tri-state area. And it all came together in perfect timing, because my mother's health has been rapidly declining over the past year, and something inside me just knew it was time to head back to my hometown, my roots, and be with my family. I wrote a blog about it recently (you can visit it here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robin-hoffman/health-coaching_b_3385464.html) and what my intentions were/are for my time here this summer. People always say things like: "You can't ever prepare yourself," when it comes to facing an ill parent or family member. And I will say that I never fully understood what this meant until last week when I walked off the plane and into a situation that will forever change the core of who I am. Not just as a person, but as a soul -- and not just emotionally, but it will change the course of the rest of my life in a way I never knew was possible.Caretaking is an interesting concept when it comes to a parent. Before becoming a health coach, I was a nanny for 10+ years for various families and for babies, toddlers, and children in various parts of the country. I wiped noses and made grilled cheese sandwiches and gave baths and put on Band-Aids and kissed boo-boos and read more bedtime stories than I can count. I cleaned up messes, ran loads of laundry and tied shoe after shoe on tiny little feet. But what I didn't know at the time was that all of that experience would come in handy for me, though not as a mother myself, but instead as caretaker for my own mother. I never would have imagined my life would end up this way. Not once in my wildest dreams did I think this would "happen to me." I watched friends lose parents to illness and I have read books about it and seen movies about it but it was the sort of thing that I figured just wouldn't happen to me. My mother was Wonder Woman -- she could move trucks and fight cancer and do 400 things at once all while making sure the cookies didn't burn in the oven. She moved mountains and made anything possible, never forgetting to add in magic to everything she did. And when she was diagnosed with cancer in 2006, she fought with all she had and she kicked it, going into remission three years ago. I thought the "worst" was behind us at that point, but I had no idea that it was really just the beginning of a truly long, emotional, heart-breaking and exhausting (at times) journey that would lead to the summer of my 30th year being devoted to taking care of my mother. The woman who "never needed help" and "had it all handled" -- much like how I view myself.More...

Many supporters of gay rights, including President Obama, believe that sexual orientation should be treated as a "suspect classification" -- that is, when a government policy makes classifications on the basis of sexual orientation, courts should view those policies with suspicion. The problem for the Supreme Court, and especially Justice Anthony Kennedy, is how much suspicion.Classifications based on race demand strict scrutiny from the courts (a very high threshold), while classifications based on gender trigger intermediate scrutiny. Courts are instructed to allow all other types of group classifications if they have a rational basis (a very low bar to meet).More...

"Sin respiro y sin descanso" están trabajando dice Germán Miere, procurado a cargo de la investigación del asesinato de Javier Hernández, hermano de Pablo Montero. La órden vino directamente de las autoridades de Coahuila que no quieren que este crimen se quede impune.Y parece que las investigaciones ya están teniendo sus frutos, pues Miere le aseguró a Noticias Univision que ya tienen una fuerte pista que indica que el robo y posterior asesinato, lo habría hecho una peligrosa banda de asaltantes que ya habían utilizado el mismo modus operandi.More...

OK, this is an old joke, so forgive me if you've heard it. A psychologist is giving a talk and describes how every couple has its own unique frequency of making love. She then asks people in the audience to state how often they have sex. Hands shot up as she called out "Once a day?" "Several days a week?" "Once a week?" and so on. At the end of her questioning, a fellow in the back of the room was frantically waving his hand. When she called on him, he screamed exuberantly, "Once a year!""If you only make love once a year, why are you so excited?"More...

I am so tired of the same ancient, wrinkled BS arguments against every single inch of progress we try to make as a nation. Gun debate? No problem, that one's easy, just cue up the argument that they're "trying to take away your guns." Health care reform? Yeah, "government takeover of health care." Now we get the usual baloney argument over immigration reform. OH NOES, we'll have to have a national identification card!!! This time, it's coming from Democrats who have concerns about E-Verify. New York Times: Driver’s license photographs and biographic information of most Americans would be accessible through an expanded Department of Homeland Security nationwide computer network if the immigration legislation pending before the Senate becomes law. The proposed expansion is part of an effort to crack down on illegal immigration by requiring all employers to confirm the identity and legal status of any new workers by tapping into a Homeland Security Department system called E-Verify, which is now used voluntarily by about 7 percent of employers in the United States. But the proposal already faces objections from some civil liberties lawyers and certain members of Congress, who worry about the potential for another sprawling data network that could ultimately be the equivalent of a national ID system. “Over time, this could become a single, national, searchable database of vital biographic information and photographs of nearly every American,” said Senator Chris Coons, Democrat of Delaware. “I want to make sure we embed privacy protections in the system, both in how it is built and administered so that data cannot easily be stolen, and also that the information is only used for legitimate purposes.” We can have a debate about E-Verify. There are some aspects to it I don't like, and I don't see enough balancing to discriminate against workers who are already working for next to nothing. We can have a debate about what data identification cards should have, and how often it should be updated. But please, do not drag out the National ID card debate against it. Please. Why? Because we already have this system. It's called RealID, it was passed in 2005, and has been implemented by half the states and the rest of the states have gotten waivers or objected. Most of the objecting states are the ones most anxious, however, to pass Voter ID laws. (Go figure.) It was the brainchild of James Sensenbrenner, if that tells you anything. While everyone deals in abstract fears, I can attest to the very real impact of RealID as it is currently structured. It does real harm to women, because women are the ones who change their names. It sent me into a bureaucratic hell from which I would not have emerged, but for the kind woman at the Social Security office who ultimately recognized my problem and accepted a second, third and fourth certified form of identification to free me forever from my maiden name. I'm still ticked off about it, not because I had to prove my identity, but because when I presented four different certified documents as proof, they weren't the right ones as defined by that stupid law. The verification process is insanely stupid, particularly if you've ever been married, divorced, or just changed your name legally. But I repeat -- It's not the idea of proving my identity that bothers me, nor does it bother me to have that identity in a database. It does, however, bother the hell out of me that they made it so difficult for me to prove. Let's see, the last time we had a big debate over a national identification card was when Bill Clinton tried to pass a form of universal health care, and the right wing bugabooed it with the fearmongering over a national ID card. (That was just a few years before they championed the RealID act.) Along with the scary "government will take away your right to a doctor" ads, the next biggest issue was that everyone would carry a national identification card. Horrors. Because a social secur

Alexandra Roxo: As two queer female filmmakers making work in the world right now, we were interested in doing a series of interviews with queer women in the TV world. Over the next month we will be chatting with some amazing women in the TV world who have penned and directed your favorite shows (hint, hint: Portlandia, Hung, True Blood). We decided to start with writer/director Jamie Babbit after hearing she has recently been in New York directing a few episodes of Girls.Natalia Leite: When I think about where I want to be in my career 15 years or so from now, I think about Jamie Babbit.More...

Los Angeles is on the verge of becoming the largest city in the United States to ban plastic grocery bags.The City Council approved the ordinance in an 11-1 vote on Tuesday. The ordinance, once signed into law by the mayor, would ban single-use plastic bags in any store that sells groceries and mandate that retailers charge 10 cents per paper bag if customers don't bring their own reusable totes. Either outgoing Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa or Mayor-Elect Eric Garcetti, who takes office July 1, is expected to sign the ordinance.More...

It's no secret that marriage rates have been on the decline for decades -- in 2011, just 51 percent of Americans were married, compared to 72 percent in 1960. And new research predicts that marriage rates will remain at a historic low in the years ahead.Private research company Demographic Intelligence studied the state of marriage in the U.S. and, in an analysis released Monday, predicted that the marriage rate will remain at 6.8 marriages per 1,000 people in 2013, where it's been since 2009 (compared to 7.3 in 2007).More...