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POPSHouse passes health care reform bill! This is our first victory of historical significance. We did it! It will be much less injustice and suffering in the society, where taking advantage off weak and defenseless is not viewing as breaking the right of every human for decent existence.
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POPSSedition Act of 1918 U.S. citizens, including members of the Industrial Workers of the World union, were also imprisoned during World War I for their anti-war dissent under the provisions of the Sedition Act. Anti-war protesters were arrested by the hundreds as speaking out against the draft and the war became illegal under this law.
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POPSTroubling Signals on Free Speech The ambiguously worded United Nations Human Rights Council resolution could plausibly be read as encouraging or even obliging the U.S. to make it a crime to engage in hate speech, or, perhaps, in mere "negative racial and religious stereotyping." This despite decades of First Amendment case law protecting such speech. To be sure, the provisions to which I refer were a compromise, stopping short of the flat ban on defamation of religion sought by Islamic nations, and they could also be construed more narrowly and innocuously. It all depends on who does the construing. Is it "negative stereotyping" to say that the world's most dangerous terrorists are Islamists, for example? Many would say yes. more at source
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POPSIf You Can't Beat Em, Don't Count Them They hope to not only push the undocumented further into the shadows, but erase from the rolls a whole community of people, immigrant or otherwise, who are shaping the largest population shift this country has ever seen. The Republicans are not seeing past the idea that these people are "other" or that they are "foreigners" because if they did, they would realize they have the potential for attracting scores of first generation immigrants, who typically have conservative, Christian ideals and come from center-right countries.
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POPSNurse Encourages Suicides Online While the victims' families are frustrated that no charges have been filed, legal experts said prosecuting such a case would be difficult because Melchert-Dinkel didn't physically help kill them. In the meantime, he has been stripped of his nursing license. Last May, a Minnesota task force on Internet crimes searched Melchert-Dinkel's computer and found a Web chat between him and the young Canadian woman describing the best way to tie knots. In their search warrant, investigators said Melchert-Dinkel "admitted he has asked persons to watch their suicide via webcam but has not done so."
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POPSProp 8 lawyer admits he doesn't know how same-sex marriage would threaten opposite-sex marriage More: Walker pressed on, asking again for specific "adverse consequences" that could follow expanding marriage to include same-sex couples. Cooper cited a study from the Netherlands, where gay marriage is legal, showing that straight couples were increasingly opting to become domestic partners instead of getting married. "Has that been harmful to children in the Netherlands? What is the adverse effect?" Walker asked. Cooper said he did not have the facts at hand. "But it is not self-evident that there is no chance of any harm, and the people of California are entitled not to take the risk," he said. "Since when do Constitutional rights rest on the proof of no harm?" Walker parried, adding the First Amendment right to free speech protects activities that many find offensive, "but we tolerate those in a free society."
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POPSMark Morford: The gang rape and 30 Republican senators who don't give a damn about battered women
More: Turns out, when faced with such vileness, all filters fail. All balance is thrown off. You thought you had some sort of way to process and attain perspective? You are proven wrong. So perhaps all we can do is ponder how pathetic and sad these various senator's lives must be, how these bitter old men will now go home at night and announce around the dinner table that, yes, today they worked very hard to help improve the welfare of the nation by essentially enabling rape and sexual abuse, tried their darndest to prevent women who've been viciously attacked from having much legal recourse. And lo, Satan will chuckle happily. Then maybe these senators will try and hug their wives, or their daughters. And maybe, if there's any justice in the universe, their wives and daughters will slap them as hard as humanly possible, lock them in a shipping container, and never let them touch them again.
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POPSCalif. Lawyer Who Challenged Obama Citizenship Fined $20,000
For those of you who haven't had the pleasure of watching one of her press conferences, then you can't truly appreciate the "train wreck" that is Orly Taitz, Attorney-at-Law. Ms. Taitz is a leader in the so-called "Birther Movement," the movement that challenges President Obama's right to hold office on the grounds that he is not a U.S. citizen. The ABA Journal Law News Now reports that a federal judge in Georgia fined Taitz $20,000 for her wild accusations in court and ordered her not to pursue any further frivolous actions in court - ever. In my opinion, this should render Taitz unable to practice law. Not to be dissuaded, Taitz filed a motion for reconsideration the next day. This motion was apparently denied, the judge writing, “Counsel’s wild accusations may be protected by the First Amendment when she makes them on her blog or in her press conferences, but the federal courts are reserved for hearing genuine legal disputes, not as a platform for political rhetoric and
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POPSFreedom of Speech and Religion "While he has a first amendment right to voice his comments, we feel the need to challenge them and will continue to monitor his subversive and extremist activities."
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POPS Things to Worry About in the CBO's Score That's a very bad thing, particularly in the first years of the plan. It means that, with no warning, subsidies will be cut by 15 percent, and insurance that families were able to afford the year before will become totally unaffordable. That needs to be changed. By Ezra Klein | October 7, 2009
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POPSWill Dog Fighting Videos be Protected by Freedom of Speech? If the Supreme Court rules to uphold the conviction of Stevens, the law will be reinstated and animals will once again be protected from people who make money from their suffering. It seems like it should be an easy decision for the Supreme Court, but since the concept of free speech has come into question everyone from book publishers to movie producers, photographers, artists and journalists have gotten involved. They have taken animal cruelty out of the equation and replaced it with their own interests that they believe will be damaged if Stevens loses. Even the ACLU has gotten involved. The New York Times went as far as filing a “brief” in support of Stevens. They said, “The 1999 law imperils the media’s ability to report on issues related to animals.” Media publications cite that they are concerned that hunting and fishing magazines will be censored and general reporting on animal issues will be limited.
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POPSNo More Gridiron Warriors for Christ The administration at this school did the right thing. But if it wasn't for someone speaking out their arrogant practice of public show-boating of their religion would have continued.
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POPSGuess who's now banned from Capitol Christmas tree! Freedom of religion now means no religion, I guess. Jeremiah 10:2 Thus saith the LORD, Learn not the way of the heathen, and be not dismayed at the signs of heaven; for the heathen are dismayed at them. Jeremiah 10:3 For the customs of the people are vain: for one cutteth a tree out of the forest, the work of the hands of the workman, with the axe. Jeremiah 10:4 They deck it with silver and with gold; they fasten it with nails and with hammers, that it move not.
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POPSBanned Books Week: Celebrating the Freedom to Read For more information on getting involved with Banned Books Week: Celebrating the Freedom to Read, please see Calendar of Events and Ideas and Resources. You can also contact the ALA Office for Intellectual Freedom at 1-800-545-2433, ext. 4220, or bbw@ala.org.
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POPSDoJ Official Blows Cover Off PATRIOT Act more @ source. Only three of the 763 "sneak-and-peek" requests in fiscal year 2008 involved terrorism cases, according to a July 2009 report from the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts. Sixty-five percent were drug cases.
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POPSFree Speech: Court Reverses $5 Million Ruling Against Gay, Jew, and Soldier-Hating Westboro Baptist 
They'll also target Jewish temples: "The bigots will protest on Saturday in front of Congregation Beth Elohim on Eighth Avenue in Park Slope at 9:45 am, at Union Temple on Eastern Parkway in Prospect Heights at 10 am and the Kane Street Synagogue in Cobble Hill at 12:30 pm on the eve of Yom Kippur, the holiest day on the Jewish calendar. On Wednesday, church spokeswoman Shirley Phelps-Roper said the rallies were not anti-Jewish or anti-gay. 'How about we call it an ‘Obey your God’ rally?' she said. 'You Jews and gays have got to put away your false gods, your idols and your filthy way of life.' She added that 'God hates the disobedient.' ... 'We picked these weekends because these are the high holidays,' she said. 'You Jews broke the covenant with God. The beast is going to bring the nations to march upon Jerusalem. Your houses will be destroyed and your women ravaged. It’s going to make the Holocaust, the Babylonian captivity and the destruction of the Temple look like a tea party.
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POPSStall........Distract.....We're BUSY! What does it take...??? This proves they probably knew about ACORN all along. The package was "handed to them.........on a silver platter, and now they are IGNORING it. "We are busy with IMPORTANT THING right now!".......UNBELIEVEABLE!!!!
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POPSObama Plan, Nation's Sick To Be Transferred to "Health Camps" Radical, experimental medical "procedures" would be made readily available as a means of attaining a final solution to a patient's problem, while also furthering the canon of medical knowledge for the doctors. The camps would also feature ample opportunity for physical activity outdoors, very condensed sleeping quarters to allow patrons to more closely interact with one another, and even luxurious "day-spas." These spas would let clients relax in an enclosed, private environment and breathe in the therapeutic mists which aromatically pervade the room. All of this to be enjoyed wearing nothing but a towel and with mud on your face. "It's a gas," said Obama of the spa facilities.