hue
hue's JournalSaudi cleric says women who drive risk damaging their ovaries
Source: Reuters
RIYADH | Sun Sep 29, 2013 12:34pm EDT
(Reuters) - A conservative Saudi Arabian cleric has said women who drive risk damaging their ovaries and bearing children with clinical problems, countering activists who are trying to end the Islamic kingdom's male-only driving rules.
A campaign calling for women to defy the ban in a protest drive on October 26 has spread rapidly online over the past week and gained support from some prominent women activists. On Sunday, the campaign's website was blocked inside the kingdom.
In an interview published on Friday on the website sabq.org, Sheikh Saleh bin Saad al-Lohaidan said women aiming to overturn the ban on driving should put "reason ahead of their hearts, emotions and passions".
Reuters earlier wrongly identified him as Sheikh Saleh bin Mohammed al-Lohaidan, a member of the Senior Council of Scholars, one of the top religious bodies in the birthplace of Islam.
By contrast, Sheikh Saleh bin Saad al-Lohaidan, the person quoted in the sabq.org report, is a judicial adviser to an association of Gulf psychologists.
Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/09/29/us-saudi-driving-idUSBRE98S04B20130929
Ho humm! Just another "high level" male con-cock-ting wisdom for women...
The House Republican tantrum that knows no end
http://maddowblog.msnbc.com/_news/2013/09/29/20742297-the-house-republican-tantrum-that-knows-no-end?liteThe New York Times published a helpful chart the other day, which highlighted a nine-step process Congress would have to follow this week to avoid a government shutdown. As it happens, steps one through eight were completed with relative ease.
It was that ninth step that gave lawmakers trouble.
House Republicans not only gathered on a weekend to take a vote that moves the government even closer to a shutdown, they did it in the dead of night.
The Republican-controlled House voted around midnight on Saturday to keep the government open for a few more months in exchange for punting the rollout of Obamacare for a year -- the kind of shot at the health care law conservatives had wanted for weeks, even if it's sure to be rejected by the Democratic-controlled Senate.
By all appearances, House Republicans are now actively seeking a government shutdown, specifically aiming for their goal rather than making any effort to avoid it. Indeed, the unhinged House majority appears to have gone out of its way to craft a spending bill designed to fail.
The bill approved after midnight would deny health care benefits to millions of American families for a year, add to the deficit by repealing a medical-device tax industry lobbyists urged Republicans to scrap, and in a fascinating twist, make it harder for Americans to get birth control. As the New York Times report noted, "The delay included a provision favored by social conservatives that would allow employers and health care providers to opt out of mandatory contraception coverage."
Yes, in the midst of a budget crisis, the House GOP decided it was time to go after birth control again. Wow.
Senate leaders and the White House patiently tried to explain to radicalized House Republicans that voting for this would all but guarantee a government shutdown -- so House Republicans voted for it en masse.
Audit: State has spent $0 of $400K set aside for literacy program Walker proposed in 2011
Source: Wisconsin STATE JOURNAL
The state has spent none of the $400,000 set aside as part of Gov. Scott Walker’s Read to Lead Development Fund aimed at boosting literacy and early childhood education, according to an audit released Friday.
The Legislative Audit Bureau reported that “no expenditures have been incurred nor any commitments made since the establishment of the fund.” The program was approved by the Legislature in 2011 and the fund established in April 2012, according to the audit.
The development fund is intended to provide grants to school boards and others to support programs that help boost reading.
But the audit said that the Read to Lead Development Council that is supposed to recommend how the grant money should be used has not yet been appointed by Walker.
“As of Aug. 31, 2013, no appointments were made to the Council,” the audit found. “However, staff in the Office of the Governor anticipate membership of the Council will be finalized in fall 2013.”
Read more: http://host.madison.com/wsj/news/local/govt-and-politics/audit-state-has-spent-of-k-set-aside-for-literacy/article_be40f689-308c-5f00-a23a-0a5bf8c42f02.html
In keeping with Walker's/Koch's REAL agenda zero $$ actually go for education of any kind whether the money is there or not.
Obamacare Could Help People Register to Vote—Unless the Administration Caves to the GOP
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2013/09/obamacare-motor-voter-registration-health-exchangeFederal law says that Obamacare's health exchanges have to offer voter registration services. Republicans have thrown a fit over that, and now the administration is considering backing down.
Update, September 25: The White House responded to this story on Tuesday, affirming to Talking Points Memo that Americans will be able to register to vote when applying for insurance through Obamacare. But the administration did not clarify whether it will fully comply with the federal law requiring that navigators, the people hired to help Americans sign up for coverage through the exchanges, be trained to help applicants with voter registration.
Republicans have slammed Obamacare's health care exchanges—where uninsured Americans can apply for subsidized coverage—as "Democrat Party front organizations." That's because the millions of mostly low-income and minority applicants—who tend to vote Democratic—will be asked if they want to register to vote when they sign up for insurance through the exchanges, which open up next week. The administration has been adamant that it will not cede to the GOP on this provision. Until now.
The 1993 National Voter Registration Act (NVRA), known as the Motor Voter law, says that DMVs and other state agencies that provide public assistance have to provide voter registration services. The Obama administration has said that means that both the state-run exchanges, and the federally-run exchanges that are being rolled out in states where Republican governors have refused to set them up, will have to comply with the Motor Voter law. But now it appears that the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is wavering on whether it will require the 35 federally-run exchanges to offer voter registration, according to a recent report by the left-leaning policy shop Demos and the voting rights organization Project Vote. Congress also recently launched an inquiry into the matter, Hill staffers told Mother Jones.
Fight Over Energy Finds a New Front in a Corner of Idaho
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/26/us/fight-over-energy-finds-a-new-front-in-a-corner-of-idaho.html?ref=usLAPWAI, Idaho — In this remote corner of the Northwest, most people think of gas as something coming from a pump, not a well. But when it comes to energy, remote isn’t what it used to be.
The Nez Perce Indians, who have called these empty spaces and rushing rivers home for thousands of years, were drawn into the national brawl over the future of energy last month when they tried to stop a giant load of oil-processing equipment from coming through their lands.
The setting was U.S. Highway 12, a winding, mostly two-lane ribbon of blacktop that bisects the tribal homeland here in North Central Idaho.
That road, a hauling company said in getting a permit for transit last month from the state, is essential for transporting enormous loads of oil-processing equipment bound for the Canadian tar sands oil fields in Alberta.
When the hauler’s giant load arrived one night in early August, more than 200 feet long and escorted by the police under glaring lights, the tribe tried to halt the vehicle, with leaders and tribe members barricading the road, willingly facing arrest. Tribal lawyers argued that the river corridor, much of it beyond the reservation, was protected by federal law, and by old, rarely tested treaty rights.
The YouToons Get Ready for Obamacare: Health Insurance Changes Coming Your Way Under the Affordable
http://kff.org/health-reform/video/youtoons-obamacare-video/
Ted Cruz Has a Plan to Get the America He Wants: Minority Rule
http://www.thenation.com/blog/176316/ted-cruz-has-plan-get-america-he-wants-minority-rule#axzz2frVdv74VTed Cruz has figured out how to get the America he wants: he wants to impose minority rule.
No, not majority rule, minority rule.
The senator from Texas hatched a “plan” to “defund Obamacare” by threatening to shut down the federal government. He got a lot of true-believer conservatives—especially in the Republican-controlled US House—to buy into the scheme. But the Texan never rounded up significant support for his approach in the upper chamber.
So the whole defunding scheme—which was never grounded in budgetary reality—has begun to look more and more like the sort of mess that costs political parties seats. House Republicans are furious.
After Cruz waged a national campaign to get the House to follow his strategy, and after they did indeed vote as he said they must, the Texan acknowledged that Senate Democrats could simply strip the House’s defunding language from the continuing resolution, pass a measure that would avert a shutdown and call the House’s bluff.
Even as Cruz was abdicating responsibility his own strategy, he was telling House Republicans to “stand firm.”
They were incredulous.
Kathleen Vinehout making moves to run for Wisconsin governor
http://journaltimes.com/news/local/writers/jack_craver/3936d6fb-0d37-5c8f-b086-4afffa47e62f.htmlState Sen. Kathleen Vinehout, D-Alma, is already making moves to run for governor again.
The second-term legislator represents a district in northwestern Wisconsin that includes Eau Claire and much of its largely rural surroundings. Vinehout ran for the Democratic nomination in last year's recall election but never gained traction, finishing with four percent of the primary vote, way behind frontrunners Tom Barrett and Kathleen Falk.
If she does run again, Vinehout will confront the same challenges that doomed her campaign last year, notably a lack of money and statewide name recognition.
However, her supporters hope that if she begins early (which was not possible during the frenzied recall campaign) and meets activists and voters across the state, she may be able to mount a formidable grassroots campaign that could compete with more monied candidates with early backing, notably former Trek Bicycles executive Mary Burke.
Next week, for instance, a group of progressive activists in Madison are holding two meet-and-greets with Vinehout.
Michael Olneck, a retired UW-Madison sociology professor, is hosting an "Evening with Kathleen Vinehout" on Thursday, Sept. 26, at his home on Madison's west side. The description given on the event's Facebook page is quaint:
"Here's a chance to meet Kathleen Vinehout, who is considering a run for governor. She's the State Senator from Alma who is a budget whiz, a former college professor and a former dairy farmer. We think you'll enjoy getting to know her a bit, and hearing what she has to offer Wisconsin."
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I think this will be a tough fight as Kathleen needs name recognition & massive amts. of money!!
EPA sets first ever curbs on power plant pollution
Source: Reuters
(Reuters) - The Obama administration on Friday unveiled new regulations setting strict limits on the amount of carbon pollution that can be generated by any new U.S. power plant, which are certain to face legal challenges and a backlash from congressional supporters of the coal industry.
The Environmental Protection Agency's long-awaited guidelines are expected to make it more difficult for new coal-fired power plants to be built.
The rules, which are a revision of a previous attempt by the EPA to create emissions standards for fossil fuel plants, are the first salvo in President Barack Obama's climate change package, announced in June.
EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy will discuss the new rules and defend Obama's climate plan, which opponents in Congress say amounts to a "war on coal," during a speech at the National Press Club in Washington on Friday morning.
In a column in the Huffington Post on Friday that also previewed many details of the plan, McCarthy said that without steps to minimize carbon pollution "we will continue to pay an ever-increasing price for climate impacts."
"We know that carbon pollution is the most prevalent heat-trapping greenhouse gas, warming our planet and fueling climate change," McCarthy said.
Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/09/20/us-usa-energy-emissions-idUSBRE98J03A20130920
Why does Wisconsin send so many black people to jail?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-24119398For decades in the US, the incarceration rate for African Americans has been much higher than for whites, a racial disparity the US Attorney General Eric Holder has described as "shameful".
In part to address this, Mr Holder unveiled a policy shift that will mean the US locks up fewer people convicted of non-violent, drugs offences.
The state that locks up the highest percentage of black men is Wisconsin. The national average is 6.7%, but in Wisconsin it's 12.8% - more than three percentage points higher than the second-placed state, Oklahoma.
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cross posted in GD
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