Attorney General Eric Holder will brief President Barack Obama on the situation in Ferguson, Missouri, on Monday afternoon after perhaps the most violent night of demonstrations since the fatal shooting of unarmed 18-year-old Michael Brown. The president, who arrived at the White House early Monday morning for a scheduled break in his family vacation in…
Category: News & Opinion
Terrifying Tweets of Pre-Army Israeli Teens with images, tweets
On Thursday, July 10, I entered the Hebrew word for “Arabs”, ARAVIM, into Twitter and searched for uses of the word over the previous few hours. What I found was young Israelis proclaiming their desire for all Arabs to die and in some cases be tortured to death. by David Sheen @davidsheen CLICK> Terrifying Tweets of…
Israeli General: No Civilians in Gaza
Retired Israeli Major General Giora Eiland wrote in an op-ed that there is no such thing as an innocent civilian in Gaza. Late Monday, the former head of the National Security Council published an article on Ynet News arguing that the citizens of Gaza were as responsible for the recent violence as Hamas. He…
Judge Myron Thompson rules Alabama abortion clinic law unconstitutional
U.S. District Judge Myron Thompson today ruled an Alabama law requiring abortion doctors to have admitting privileges at nearby hospitals is unconstitutional, saying that it poses an undue burden on women’s right to abortion.Abortion providers sued to block the law, passed in 2013, saying it would force three of Alabama’s five abortion clinics to close.The…
NBC News Pulls Veteran Reporter from Gaza After Witnessing Israeli Attack on Children
Ayman Mohyeldin, the NBC News correspondent who personally witnessed yesterday’s killing by Israel of four Palestinian boys on a Gazan beach and who has received widespread praise for his brave and innovative coverage of the conflict, has been told by NBC executives to leave Gaza immediately. According to an NBC source upset at his treatment,…
Right Wing Policies Getting People Killed All Over Texas
It seems quite evident that Texas is the canary in the coal mine for the United States when it comes to right-wing/libertarian regulatory ideals. Lax power plant pollution rules in the east have been disturbing enough. In this report, Rachel Maddow explains that not only does the State of Texas not have ANY fire codes,…
Ikea To Raise Minimum Wage For U.S. Workers With Tie To Living Wage Calculator
The Swedish furniture giant Ikea is raising the minimum wage in all of its U.S. stores, and it’s doing so in a way that may raise the bar for American retailers. The famous seller of ready-to-assemble home goods will base the wage floor for each of its stores on the MIT Living Wage Calculator, which…
There Are Now More Displaced People Than Any Time Since WWII
The U.N. Refugee Agency reported Friday that the number of refugees, asylum-seekers, and internally displaced people worldwide has exceeded 50 million for the first time since World War II. “We are seeing here the immense costs of not ending wars, of failing to resolve or prevent conflict,” said UN High Commissioner for Refugees António Guterres….
Federal agency cancels Redskins trademark registration, says name is disparaging
The United States Patent and Trademark Office has canceled the Washington Redskins trademark registration, calling the football team’s name “disparaging to Native Americans. ”The landmark case, which appeared before the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board, was filed on behalf of five Native Americans. It was the second time such a case was filed. “This victory…
This computer programmer solved gerrymandering in his spare time
Yesterday, I asked readers how they felt about setting up independent commissions to handle redistricting in each state. Commenter Mitch Beales wrote: “It seems to me that an ‘independent panel’ is about as likely as politicians redistricting themselves out of office. This is the twenty-first century. How hard can it be to create an algorithm to…
New Orleans Becomes Nation’s First All-Charter School System
According to the Post, the Orleans Parish school district fired some 7,000 employees after Katrina, most of them African-American, while the teachers hired for the charters have been much more demographically white, many drawn from Teach for America. The fired teachers have won a judgment for wrongful termination, with expected penalties and compensation to amount…
In U.S., 42% Believe Creationist View of Human Origins
More than four in 10 Americans continue to believe that God created humans in their present form 10,000 years ago, a view that has changed little over the past three decades. Half of Americans believe humans evolved, with the majority of these saying God guided the evolutionary process. However, the percentage who say God was…
U.S. revives group to fight homegrown extremists
The United States is re-establishing a law enforcement group to fight those it designates as domestic terrorists, the Department of Justice announced Tuesday. Following hate-motivated shootings such as the one at a Jewish Community Center in Kansas City, Missouri in April, federal prosecutors have pressed the need to coordinate intelligence about such criminals on a…
By the Numbers: The EPA’s Proposed New Carbon Pollution Standards for Power Plants | The White House
Today, as part of the President’s Climate Action Plan, the EPA proposed new carbon pollution standards for power plants. These standards represent a commonsense proposal that will have huge benefits for all Americans. In fact, for every dollar of investment spurred by this proposal, there is roughly seven dollars’ worth of health benefits in return….
Weekly Address: Reducing Carbon Pollution in Our Power Plants | The White House
In this week’s address, President Obama discussed new actions by the Environmental Protection Agency to cut dangerous carbon pollution, a plan that builds on the efforts already taken by many states, cities and companies. These new commonsense guidelines to reduce carbon pollution from power plants were created with feedback from businesses, and state and local…
Lawmakers help oil industry duck pollution liability – Maddow
Lt. Gen. Russel Honore, (ret.) talks with Rachel Maddow about how Louisiana governor Bobby Jindal and state legislators protected the oil and gas industry from being held accountable for pollution that has destroyed vital protective coastal wetlands.
California lawmakers reject bill requiring labeling on GMO foods
California lawmakers on Wednesday rejected a bill that would require labels on foods made with genetically modified organisms GMOs, the second time in two years such legislation has failed to take hold in the state. Proponents of the bill had sought to make California the second state in the country after Vermont to require GMO…
Ohio Is Poised To Be The First State To Roll Back Its Renewable Energy Standard
Ohio’s first-term Republican Governor John Kasich said in a statement earlier this month that the renewable energy standards “are simply unrealistic and will drive up energy costs for job creators and consumers.” He made the case that the bill was a compromise from scrapping the RES entirely, and by “temporarily holding at our current level…
Court upholds “First Amendment” right to film police
A federal appeals court has ruled that the public has the right to film cops in public and has reinstated a lawsuit against a local New Hampshire police department brought by a woman arrested for filming a traffic stop. The plaintiff in the case, Carla Gericke, was arrested on wiretapping allegations in 2010 for filming…
John Kerry: Edward Snowden a ‘coward … traitor’
Edward Snowden is a “coward,” Secretary of State John Kerry said Wednesday in response to the NSA leaker’s first television interview. “Edward Snowden is a coward,” Kerry told Chuck Todd on MSNBC. “He is a traitor. And he has betrayed his country. And if he wants to come home tomorrow to face the music, he…