Trevor Thomas on The War Room (openly gay 28-year-old running for Congress)

In Seoul, Obama will say US can reduce its nuclear stockpile

Source: MSNBC

President Barack Obama is scheduled to speak at Hankuk University in Seoul, Monday, and early reports indicate he will say that the United States could further reduce its nuclear stockpile while keeping promises to international partners, Reuters reported.

The Washington Post reported the president will speak out against the spread of nuclear weapons in light of North Korea’s plan to launch a satellite with a long-range rocket next month.

A White House official told Reuters that the president will discuss also arms control with Russia.

"He will reaffirm his commitment to reduce America's nuclear weapons and the role they play in our national security strategy," the official told Reuters. He will commit to a "new framework for civil nuclear cooperation that allows nations to tap the energy we seek without pursuing a fuel cycle that endlessly produces more nuclear materials,” the official said.

Read more: http://worldnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/03/25/10858624-in-seoul-obama-says-us-can-reduce-nuclear-stockpile

Not good enough

It's not good enough that Chief of Police for Sanford, FL Bill Lee has "temporarily" stepped down. The way he and his police department have handled the shooting of Trayvon Martin has been nothing less than scandalous. They had the 911 tapes. They heard the utter fear in Trayvon's voice as he was gunned down in cold blood. Just based on the taped evidence it was clear that the shooting had nothing to do with self-defense. It was vigilante "justice" meted out by a man who had already had run-ins with the police and should not have had any access to a weapon, and certainly not the right to carry it on his person concealed.

It's not good enough that now, in the wake of the murder, politicians like Gov. Rick Scott are "open" to revisiting the law. According to Gov. Scott:

"If there’s something wrong with the law that’s in place, I think it’s important we address it," Scott said Tuesday. "If what’s happening is it’s being abused, that’s not right."

No, Mr. Scott. The time to have addressed this law was when it was introduced in the Florida Legislature, handed to it in a pretty bow by ALEC and the NRA. The time to have addressed it was when it was being debated and sped through, to sit on Jeb Bush's desk. The time to have addressed it was when Jeb Bush signed the bill into law. The time to have addressed it was before it became law, when it was obvious to anyone with an ounce of reason that it was a bill to legalize vigilantism. The time to have addressed it was when conservative lawmakers ceded their responsibility of crafting legislation that does the most good for the most people to outside groups like ALEC, whose agenda has nothing to do with helping people and all to do with stoking resentment and maintaining control.

It Gets Better - Catholic Priest

It Gets Better - Catholic Priest

Employees fired for... wearing orange

Fourteen employees that worked at Florida law firm Elizabeth R. Wellborn P.A. were apparently fired for wearing matching orange shirts to work, reports Doreen Hemlock at the Sun Sentinel.

What's so bad about wearing orange? Well, it depends on who you ask.

Four of the employees told the Sun Sentinel that they regularly wear orange shirts on Fridays so that they look like a group when they go out for Happy Hour drinks after work.

The firm had just gotten new management, and they interpreted things in a much different way, claims the employees. The 14 staffers who donned orange were called into a conference room, and an executive told them that he understood there was a "protest" involving the orange color, and that they were all fired, according to the Sun Sentinel.

Man cut off rival's penis in fit of anger

A man told a jury in France he cut off the penis of his girlfriend's lover and flushed it down a toilet in a fit of madness.

Blaise Fragione, 38, said when he found out that his partner of 14 years was having an affair "everything broke down," thelocal.fr reported Friday.

...

Fragione faces up to 15 years in prison if found guilty of the charge of aggravated assault accompanied by mutilation.

A verdict in the case is expected shortly officials said.

Slavery's last stronghold

Moulkheir Mint Yarba returned from a day of tending her master’s goats out on the Sahara Desert to find something unimaginable: Her baby girl, barely old enough to crawl, had been left outdoors to die.

The usually stoic mother — whose jet-black eyes and cardboard hands carry decades of sadness — wept when she saw her child’s lifeless face, eyes open and covered in ants, resting in the orange sands of the Mauritanian desert. The master who raped Moulkheir to produce the child wanted to punish his slave. He told her she would work faster without the child on her back.

Trying to pull herself together, Moulkheir asked if she could take a break to give her daughter a proper burial. Her master’s reply: Get back to work.

TIME Magazine Does It Again: Different covers for the US as opposed to other countries

Their US cover for their March 26 edition:



Their cover for most of the world:



Parts of other countries will see either Joseph Kony or Indian politician Narendra Modi on on the cover of TIME.

Why don't they want us to see anything about locavores? Hmmmmmmm....

Not to mention that the American cover seems to imply that women have caught up to men when it comes to pay - which, sadly, is false.

Truthout: Court Rejects Voter Suppression Efforts

Almost 47 years to the day after a peaceful voting rights march in Selma, Alabama, ended in violence on the Edmund Pettus Bridge, a federal court in Philadelphia struck a major blow against modern day voter intimidation tactics.

Last Thursday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit upheld a long-standing consent decree prohibiting the Republican National Committee (RNC) from engaging in underhanded campaign practices aimed at depressing voter turnout in communities of color. The consent decree, which arose out of a 1981 voting rights lawsuit against the RNC, bars the organization from using voter challengers, poll watchers, and vote caging plans to target and intimidate voters of color. It specifically precludes the RNC’s poll watchers from overstepping their role as election observers and prohibits them from asking voters for identification, filming or recording voters, and distributing literature about voter fraud penalties. After a federal district court denied the RNC’s request to dissolve the consent decree in 2009, the RNC appealed to the Third Circuit.

In unanimously rejecting the RNC’s appeal, the Third Circuit highlighted the continuing threat that voter intimidation poses to our election system. The court’s opinion described how poll watchers and poll challengers have the potential to disenfranchise lawful voters by causing delays, crowding, and confusion inside the polling place and creating a charged partisan atmosphere that can intimidate many new voters. The Brennan Center has highlighted these problems in the past and applauds the court for upholding this important safeguard against voter suppression.

The court’s decision represents a significant victory for voters but also serves as a critical reminder about the need to protect against the kinds of pernicious voter intimidation tactics that the court discussed in its opinion. With the 2012 election fast approaching, it is important that state officials take steps to ensure that other political groups—not just the RNC—follow the law and refrain from using poll watchers to intimidate or discriminate against voters. In 2010, reports surfaced about political campaigns and other private organizations attempting to engage in the kinds of activities that the Third Circuit described. The Department of Justice investigated the poll-watching efforts of one such organization in Harris County, Texas, after fielding complaints that the group’s members were interfering with the voting process in predominantly black and Latino voting precincts. As these organizations ramp up their efforts to recruit poll watchers for the upcoming presidential election, election officials must be prepared to enforce the law and protect voters.