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POPSWe are Not a Center-Right Country We built the United Nations, We started the idea of human rights, We expanded voting rights and civil rights for everybody, We spread the idea of individual rights throughout the world, We even rebuilt our enemies after World War II. It is no exaggeration to say that America is one of the most progressive countries in the history of the world.
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POPSMaterialists in catch-22 Note that "classroom banter" now qualifies as grounds for a federal civil-rights lawsuit, whereas soliciting oral sex from interns in the Oval Office -- hey, what kind of right-wing prude would object to that? Sexual harassment law does not prevent professors or anyone else from using positions of power to obtain sexual favors. That happens every day. What it does is punish the unattractive and awkward -- those who fail in the pursuit of seduction -- whereas the attractive and charming succeed, and are cagey enough to avoid legal entanglements. There are probably oboe professors who are getting all the undergrad action they can handle, but they are the cute and clever ones. It is only the clumsy rejects who get accused of harassment. If Title VII abolished one sort of inequality, it institutionalized another. And remember: Equality is for Ugly Losers!
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POPSFamily Law - Civil Rights Issues of the Next Generation Reintegrating families, protecting their financial resources, safety in their own homes, preserving the bond between children and fathers, equal protection - these are all family law issues that will face a generation of Americans and need their resolution. What can you do?
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POPSFirst CN Gay Marriages Wednesday, November 12, 2008 is the first day the state of Connecticut issues marriage licenses to same-sex couples.
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POPSRudd's UN Vote Risks Anger of Jewish community In Israel, meanwhile, tens of thousands gathered yesterday at the square in Tel Aviv where PM Rabin was assassinated, to remember the man and his legacy 13 years after his murder. On Nov 4, 1995, Rabin was gunned down by an ultra-nationalist Jewish opponent of his policy of trading land to the Palestinians for peace. "Yitzhak, you are missed. The country misses you, you are missed by every one of us, but your way has not been lost," said President Peres, Rabin's partner in peacemaking, who was by his side the night he was assassinated. The rally in the square in front of the Tel Aviv town hall has become an annual event for Israelis wishing to pay their respects to their late leader.
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POPSIs Proposition 8 Behind the 8 Ball? It should be!
When I read the questions on my Fl. ballot, I thought, “Why is Prop 8 there in all it's intolerance?” This election should be about issues not the same old worn out divisions, propagandized by the religious right for far too long. The GUNS, GAYS AND GOD mantra Karl Rove and his like, peddled, until the United States did not resemble anything UNITED, more like The Divided States of Amer. How naive of me, believing their divisive plan didn’t work and was therefore, over. With Separation of church & state a survivor. But here it was a religious question written into a civil ballot. Then, I thought, PROP 8 WILL SURELY BE DEFEATED... Wrong again. What will it take to keep religion out of the lives of people who do not wish to buy into it? What will it take to keep the prying eyes of the law out of our sexual orientation? It probably will never end but when the blind faith of religion wishes to erase that separation, we who are in possession of common sense must always fight back.
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POPSTake a Bow, America It can be easy in such a moment of triumph to lose sight of the agony wrought by the unrelieved evil of racism and to forget how crucial a role anti-black racism played in shaping American life since the first slaves were dumped ashore 400 years ago. Blacks have been holding fast to the promise of America for all that time. Not without anger. Not without rage. But with a fidelity that in the darkest moments — those moments when the flow of blood seemed like it would never stop, when enslaved families were wrenched apart, when entire communities were put to the torch, when the breeze put the stiffened bodies of lynched victims in motion, when even small children were murdered and Dr. King was taken from us — even in those dire moments, African-Americans held fast to the promise of America with a fidelity that defied logic.
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POPSCivil Disobedience Great commentary - it shows how amazing it is that our national government has just continued to grow and expand for more than 100 years, and our rights have been eroding rather than being protected.
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POPSThe Obama "Alinskyite" Realignment Watch what Michael Barone called the Obama "thugocracy" use the Justice Department to stifle dissent. Anybody who complains about vote fraud will be charged with "vote suppression." Anybody who complains about DoJ's actions will be charged with interfering with an investigation. Anybody who denies having interfered will be charged with perjury. Likewise, anybody who peacefully protests abortion clinics or the use of state-sponsored racial quotas will be charged with a civil rights violation. And the accused won't be able to look to the Supreme Court for help: Anthony Kennedy's "evolving standards" of justice will evolve to match the new zeitgeist, providing a 5-4 majority for the administration. Meanwhile, of course, Obama's other appointments will be filling up the rest of the judiciary at a rapid clip, with nobody able to stop them.
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POPSObama Gives Victory Speech: Hundreds of Thousands in Chicago Awesome... Frigging awesome. (I guess it can be found on YouTube tomorrow) Black leaders from the Civil Rights struggle days of Martin Luther King have been on TV. They all say the same thing: They never thought they would live to see such a day. And with pride say that now their children can see pictures of a black family in the White House. And this is all they wanted, every wanted: equality, full participation in America, to see their story as fully integrated and seen as part of the American story. And then, these old hardened men, they cry.
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POPSEconomic Justice, Income Redistribution, Reparations! it is good for everyone. — A bombshell was released this weekend when a copy of an interview by Obama on WBEZ-FM, Chicago Public Radio, from 2001 was found (bold italics added): "The Supreme Court never ventured into the issues of redistribution of wealth, and of more basic issues such as political and economic justice in society ... and one of the, I think, tragedies of the civil rights movement was, um, because the civil rights movement became so court focused, I think there was a tendency to lose track of the political and community organizing and activities on the ground that are able to put together the actual coalition of powers through which you bring about redistributive change. In some ways we still suffer from that. ... I think that you can craft legal theoretical justifications for it legally, any three of us here could come up with a rational for bringing about economic change through the courts."
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POPSMC Yogi: Obama '08 - Vote for Hope Funky, retro, East-Coast hip-hop from a Northern California yoga teacher & musician. Definitely going to be checking his website to see if he's playing anywhere near us soon!
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POPSModern Darwinism Humanity has the question of whether to use empathy to reach out others that cannot help themselves, or to damn them as inferior and victims of the survival of the fittest.