Two Hours After The Supreme Court Gutted The Voting Rights Act, Texas AG Suppresses Minority Voters

Two Hours After The Supreme Court Gutted The Voting Rights Act, Texas AG Suppresses Minority Voters: Just two hours after the Supreme Court reasoned that discrimination is not rampant enough in Southern states to warrant restrictions under the Voting Rights Act, Texas is already advancing a voter ID law and a redistricting map blocked last year for discriminating against black and Latino residents. Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott issued a statement [...]/p

Ku Klux Kourt Kills King's Dream Law, Replaces Voting Rights Act With Katherine Harris Acts

Ku Klux Kourt Kills King's Dream Law, Replaces Voting Rights Act With Katherine Harris Acts
"The Jim Crow majority on the Supreme Court just took away the vote of millions of Hispanic and African-American voters by wiping away Section 4 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965."

What the Supreme Court Doesn’t Understand About the Voting Rights Act | The Nation

What the Supreme Court Doesn’t Understand About the Voting Rights Act | The Nation
"Today’s 5-4 decision by the Roberts Court gutting the VRA was the result of three factors, as I wrote in February: “a whiter, more Southern, more conservative GOP that has responded to demographic change by trying to suppress an increasingly diverse electorate; a twenty-five-year effort to gut the VRA by conservative intellectuals, who in recent years have received millions of dollars from top right-wing funders, including Charles Koch; and a reactionary Supreme Court that does not support remedies to racial discrimination"."

Congressman Justifies Getting Rid Of Sex Ed Because ‘Mankind Has Existed For A Long Time’ Without It

Congressman Justifies Getting Rid Of Sex Ed Because ‘Mankind Has Existed For A Long Time’ Without It: According to Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX), kids do not need sexual education because mankind has been fine for a long time without it. Right Wing Watch reports that Gohmert took offense at forcing “this sexuality stuff” onto kids. “Let the kids be innocent,” Gohmert said on a Christian radio show. “Let them dream. Let them [...]/p

Iowa Governor Must Personally Decide Whether Each Poor Woman On Medicaid Deserves Abortion Coverage

Iowa Governor Must Personally Decide Whether Each Poor Woman On Medicaid Deserves Abortion Coverage: Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad (R) has approved a measure to expand his state’s Medicaid program under Obamacare, which will extend health coverage to tens of thousands of his poor residents. But there’s a catch buried in the Medicaid expansion legislation that the governor signed last week. Now, when low-income women on Medicaid seek insurance coverage [...]/p

Conservatives Celebrate Gutting Of Voting Rights Act

Conservatives Celebrate Gutting Of Voting Rights Act: After the Supreme Court struck down a critical provision of the Voting Rights Act this morning, several prominent conservative groups and writers tap-danced on the historic civil rights legislation’s grave. Writing at National Review, a magazine that defended segregation and has more recently published pieces by white nationalists and “race realists,” John Fund suggested that [...]/p

Get Angry: The Arrogant Activist Supreme Court Majority Demolished Your Right To Vote

www.politicususa.com/2013/06/25/angry-arrogant-activist-supreme-court-majority-demolished-vote.html
"Their reasoning was deeply flawed, and their motives were laughably transparent. This was the conservative justices’ attempt to put a Republican back in the White House. Through this decision, they opened the door to all sorts of voter suppression laws that will largely target two key pieces of the new Democratic coalition that has grown up during the Obama years, Hispanics and African Americans."

Three Ways The Supreme Court Gutted Voting Rights Today

Three Ways The Supreme Court Gutted Voting Rights Today: The Supreme Court’s 5-4 ruling striking down key provisions of the Voting Rights Act, for the moment at least, eliminated the requirement that jurisdictions with a history of discrimination pre-clear election and voting law changes to ensure they do not disenfranchise minority voters. While the remaining provisions will still ban outright racial discrimination, those states [...]/p

Outrage As Texas Abortion Bill Threatens Care, Wellbeing Of Millions Of Women

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Texas Legislator Claims Rape Kits Are A Form Of Abortion

Texas Legislator Claims Rape Kits Are A Form Of Abortion: In the midst of all the chaos on Sunday night as the Texas legislature pushed through a series of stringent restrictions on abortion and women’s health, it was easy to miss what might have been the most inaccurate and dangerous claim of the evening: One state representative tried to argue on the State House floor [...]/p

Angelina Jolie Calls On U.N. To Fight Sexual Violence In Conflict

Angelina Jolie Calls On U.N. To Fight Sexual Violence In Conflict: Famed actress Angelina Jolie took up her lesser-known role of a United Nations representative on Monday, promoting strong action against rape and sexual violence in war zones. The fifteen-member United Nations Security Council met on Monday to hold an open debate on the use of sexual violence as a tool of warfare. Jolie was named [...]/p

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi Warns The War On Women Isn’t Over

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi Warns The War On Women Isn’t Over: SAN JOSE, CA — Despite massive protests, abortion opponents pushed through yet more radical restrictions on women’s reproductive rights last week. House Republicans passed a national ban on abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy — a largely symbolic move destined for failure in the Democrat-controlled Senate. Early Monday morning, even as the capitol flooded with [...]/p

POLL: Majority Of Texans Don’t Support The Abortion Restrictions Moving Through The Legislature

POLL: Majority Of Texans Don’t Support The Abortion Restrictions Moving Through The Legislature: Most Texas residents don’t support Senate Bill 5, the omnibus anti-abortion bill currently advancing in the legislature, according to a new bipartisan poll. In fact, 80 percent of Texans don’t want their lawmakers to be considering abortion-related bills during the special session that Gov. Rick Perry (R) convened at the beginning of the month. SB [...]/p

An Open Letter to Anyone Ready to Write Off Texas: Don’t, Because it’s "Your" Future at Stake | Common Dreams

An Open Letter to Anyone Ready to Write Off Texas: Don’t, Because it’s "Your" Future at Stake | Common Dreams
"It’s no accident or coincidence that so-called flyover states have passed highly restrictive abortion bills in advance of Congress’ vote. That’s part of the plan. Anti-choice politicians and activists have been working for years to reduce access to abortion in red states where they know they’ll find little opposition from friendly legislators looking to ramp up the war on women.

Texas is not a throw-away state full of throw-away people who can be shrugged off with a contemptuous, “Well, what do you expect?” Texas is not an outlier. Texas is a test case for right-wingers with their eyes on the coasts and, as Congress showed this week, Washington, D.C."

'A Slow-Motion Train Wreck': The Real Consequences of the Sequester | The Nation

'A Slow-Motion Train Wreck': The Real Consequences of the Sequester | The Nation
"The Republican-led House voted to eliminate $1.5 trillion in discretionary spending through 2022 during the much-publicized sequester, causing widespread pain and havoc through American communities, the effects of which we’re starting to see. In some cases, these cuts are literally stripping the clothes from children’s backs and taking food and shelter from the needy."

12-Year-Old Girl Kicked Off Football Team Because Boys Had ‘Impure Thoughts’ About Her

12-Year-Old Girl Kicked Off Football Team Because Boys Had ‘Impure Thoughts’ About Her: A private school outside Atlanta recently informed 12-year-old Madison Baxter that she would not be welcome at tryouts for the 7th-grade football team, even though she started on the sixth-grade team and has been playing football since second grade. The reason she won’t be allowed on the field? Because her male teammates are beginning to [...]/p

Bill Cunningham Should Be Fired From Fox News

Bill Cunningham Should Be Fired From Fox News
"Do you see a pattern here? What Cunningham said was reprehensible, but it's pretty standard Fox News stock-in-trade. By having the women in the morning slot denounce that behavior, they get to pretend as though they give a damn about women -- while they simultaneously troll and manhandle them verbally."

Republican Strategy For 2016: Change Nothing, Piss Everyone Off

www.addictinginfo.org/2013/06/23/shannons-failing-gop-piece/
"Republicans will once again lose the popular vote in the 2016 election, just as they have the last five of six presidential elections unless they put their listening caps on and and pay attention to what they are being taught. It does not matter how they convey their message if their message is: We hate poor people, we hate minorities, we hate women. Hate is no way to win an election and there isn’t a nice enough way in the world to sugarcoat it."

Read more: http://www.addictinginfo.org/2013/06/23/shannons-failing-gop-piece/#ixzz2X9WKuDxS

Despite Massive Protests, Texas GOP Rushes Through Abortion Restrictions In The Middle Of The Night

Despite Massive Protests, Texas GOP Rushes Through Abortion Restrictions In The Middle Of The Night: More than 600 women’s health advocates crowded into Texas’ state capitol building on Sunday night, hoping to prevent a vote on a package of abortion restrictions before the state’s special session ends early this week. Ultimately, however, their efforts were unsuccessful. In the early hours of Monday morning, Republicans used their majority to cut off [...]/p

The Scariest Pending Supreme Court Case That You’ve Probably Never Heard Of

The Scariest Pending Supreme Court Case That You’ve Probably Never Heard Of: When the Supreme Court starts handing down decisions just one hour from now, most Court watchers will be awaiting four high profile cases — the two race cases that will decide the fate of affirmative action and the Voting Rights Act, and the two marriage equality cases. A fifth case, however, could prove just as [...]/p

Under GOP Plan, States Would Be Free To Take Money Away From Poorest Schools

Under GOP Plan, States Would Be Free To Take Money Away From Poorest Schools: Republicans are reintroducing a bill to allow states to redistribute federal education dollars currently targeted at the country’s poorest school districts. The A-PLUS Act, originally crafted by the arch-conservative Heritage Foundation, was first introduced in 2007, and Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) and Rep. Rob Bishop (R-UT) have revived it for 2013. The measure represents the [...]/p

Minimum Wage Workers Should Get a Raise | Economic Policy Institute

Minimum Wage Workers Should Get a Raise | Economic Policy Institute
"Finally, it’s worth noting that if the minimum wage had kept up with productivity growth over the last 45 years, it would now be around $19 per hour. That sounds outrageously high; it’s higher than the median wage, which is currently around $16.30 per hour. But we should be clear about why a $19 minimum wage sounds outrageous – in particular, why it is higher than the median wage—it is because the median wage is so low."

Surviving in a Nuclear Armed World: An Unexamined Assumption | Common Dreams

Surviving in a Nuclear Armed World: An Unexamined Assumption | Common Dreams
"As long as nuclear weapons exist we face a real and imminent danger of catastrophe either by design or accident. It is a matter of shear luck that we survive. Luck is not a viable security policy. We owe it to our children and future generations to abolish all nuclear weapons. The time to act is now."

PERRspectives: GOP Abortion Bills Mandate Medical Malpractice

PERRspectives: GOP Abortion Bills Mandate Medical Malpractice
"What is really being rendered meaningless, of course, is the very doctor-patient relationship Republicans pretend they want to protect. To prevent abortion procedures from being performed in the United States, GOP leaders insist that American physicians must engage in medical malpractice."

Texans Push Back Against Republican Effort To Destroy Women’s Health Across The State

www.addictinginfo.org/2013/06/22/hundreds-of-texas-citizens-travel-to-capitol-to-rally-against-draconian-anti-abortion-bill/
"In their effort to ban abortion throughout the state of Texas, Republican lawmakers are attempting to force through sweeping anti-abortion legislation during a special session designed to give them more power to do so."

Read more: http://www.addictinginfo.org/2013/06/22/hundreds-of-texas-citizens-travel-to-capitol-to-rally-against-draconian-anti-abortion-bill/#ixzz2Wy1HNZ1u

Care For Millions Of American Women At Stake In Texas Abortion Fight

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Anti-Choice Bills Move Forward In Texas

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Women’s Health Groups Fight Kansas’ Anti-Abortion Law That Forces Doctors To Mislead Their Patients

Women’s Health Groups Fight Kansas’ Anti-Abortion Law That Forces Doctors To Mislead Their Patients: Planned Parenthood filed a lawsuit on Thursday against a new Kansas law that would require doctors in the state to tell women medically disputed information about abortion, and the Center for Reproductive Rights followed up with their own lawsuit against the measure on Friday. The package of abortion restrictions — which will also instate costly [...]/p

Insurers To Rebate Consumers $500 Million As A Result Of Obamacare

Insurers To Rebate Consumers $500 Million As A Result Of Obamacare: This summer, over 8.5 million Americans will get back $500 million in rebates from insurance companies that charged them too much thanks to an Obamacare consumer protection that limits how much insurers can profit off of premiums, according to new government data. But the size of Americans’ rebate checks varies wildly by geographic region, highlighting [...]/p

In All But Six States, You Can Be Fired For Being A Victim Of Domestic Violence

In All But Six States, You Can Be Fired For Being A Victim Of Domestic Violence: Last week, Carie Charlesworth, a teacher in California and a victim of domestic violence, was fired from her job because her abusive husband invaded the school parking lot and put the school on lockdown. While her abuser was sent to prison, she was also punished for his crime by losing her employment. The school’s action [...]/p

From Middle Class To Peasant Class: How Republicans Made America A Top Poverty Creator

www.politicususa.com/2013/06/20/middle-class-peasant-class-republicans-america-top-poverty-creator.html
"America became an exceptional nation with the rise of the great middle class, and it is sliding into a nation of peasants as Republicans thirty year effort to destroy the middle class is reaching fruition. Nearly a quarter of America’s children are living in poverty, millions of Americans earn a pathetic minimum wage insufficient to put a roof over their heads, and the idea of ever achieving anything more is being thwarted by Republicans in all areas of government, but particularly the states. Right to work laws, banning minimum wage, eliminating healthcare, prohibiting paid sick leave, robbing food and housing assistance for seniors and the poor to provide more of the nation’s wealth for the rich and their corporations are all part of the Republicans’ three decade effort to destroy the middle class"

Prepare for the Slanderous Return of the Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy if Hillary Clinton Runs in 2016

Prepare for the Slanderous Return of the Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy if Hillary Clinton Runs in 2016
"The right had fought the Clintons tooth and nail for decades. In 2000, when Hillary went out on her own and ran for the Senate from New York State, "Hillary hunting" became a reliable right-wing mantra."

Global Report Calls Violence Against Women a Crisis of “Epidemic Proportions” | Alternet

Global Report Calls Violence Against Women a Crisis of “Epidemic Proportions” | Alternet
"According to  statistics released Thursday by the World Health Organization (WHO), more than one in three women around the world have been raped or physically abused; 80 percent of this abuse happens in the home at the hands of an intimate partner or spouse."

Is the filibuster making the Senate filibusted?

Women Senators Organize To Make The Immigration Reform Bill More Equal

Women Senators Organize To Make The Immigration Reform Bill More Equal: A group of twelve female Senators on Thursday announced that they will introduce an amendment to try to make the Senate’s immigration reform bill more fair to female immigrants. In a release, the senators say that the immigration bill, in its current form, “inadvertently disadvantages women who are trying to immigrate to the United States.” [...]/p

World Health Organization: Violence Against Women Is An ‘Epidemic’ Global Health Problem

World Health Organization: Violence Against Women Is An ‘Epidemic’ Global Health Problem: One in three women worldwide have faced intimate partner violence or sexual violence, a new report from the World Health Organization (WHO) finds. After analyzing the mental, sexual, reproductive, and physical health consequences faced by victims of violence, the report characterized this issue as a global health epidemic. “This is a shockingly high figure,” Karen [...]/p

REPORT: DC’s Paid Sick Leave Law Had No Negative Effect On Businesses

REPORT: DC’s Paid Sick Leave Law Had No Negative Effect On Businesses: A new audit of Washington, DC’s paid sick leave law finds that it didn’t discourage business owners from basing their businesses in the city, nor did it encourage them to move to another location, as detractors had warned could happen. The Office of the District of Columbia Auditor interviewed business owners from when the law [...]/p

Health Care Plans Under Obamacare Will Cost Even Less Than Expected

Health Care Plans Under Obamacare Will Cost Even Less Than Expected: A new analysis of health care premiums proposed under the Affordable Care Act concludes that health plans will cost even less than originally expected. That’s likely because the insurance marketplaces will encourage more competition between insurers. Avalere Health looked at insurers’ proposed rates for Obamacare’s statewide insurance marketplaces in nine different states, and found that [...]/p

Doctors Warn That Ohio’s New Anti-Abortion Bill Will Have ‘Disastrous Effects’ On Their Patients

Doctors Warn That Ohio’s New Anti-Abortion Bill Will Have ‘Disastrous Effects’ On Their Patients: Testifying against a sweeping new anti-abortion measure recently introduced by Ohio Republicans, three women’s health experts warned that the legislation represents a dangerous overreach into their medical practice. The doctors explained that HB 200 would force them to lie to their patients, and could potentially put women’s lives at risk. “I’m very worried about the [...]/p

Republicans Continue Quest To Cut $2 Billion A Year From Food Stamp Program

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What Poverty Looks Like In America

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A Reminder: Todd Akin and Richard Mourdock Aren't Outliers in Today's GOP

A Reminder: Todd Akin and Richard Mourdock Aren't Outliers in Today's GOP
"this rhetoric accurately reflects Republican Party platform positions. As long as the party vows to criminalize all abortions, they're going to have people explaining why--which is what got Akin in trouble."

Forget the GOP, House Republicans Are Rebranding Wombs

www.politicususa.com/2013/06/19/forget-gop-house-republicans-rebranding-wombs.html
"House Republicans want government small enough to fit in your womb. And we need to make sure women remember that in 2014."

New Jersey Lawmakers: If We Can Afford A Special Election, We Can Find The Money For Family Planning

New Jersey Lawmakers: If We Can Afford A Special Election, We Can Find The Money For Family Planning: After Gov. Chris Christie (R) slashed $7.5 million from women’s health programs in 2010 — mainly to prevent the money from going to Planned Parenthood — several health clinics in the state were forced to close. Now, New Jersey lawmakers are pushing to restore state funding for those family planning clinics, pointing out that many [...]/p

Now That Plan B Is Available To All Women, Conservatives Want To Restrict It On The State Level

Now That Plan B Is Available To All Women, Conservatives Want To Restrict It On The State Level: Earlier this month, the Obama Administration dropped its fight to restrict over-the-counter emergency contraception for young women. Now, Plan B will be available without a prescription for women of all ages — but that move hasn’t exactly made social conservatives happy. Anti-choice groups are already trying to figure out how they can lobby for state [...]/p

House Passes Most Restrictive Abortion Bill In 10 Years

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GOP brings anti-science perspectives to war on women

Anti-Abortion Group In Ohio Is Fundraising By Selling Assault Rifles

Anti-Abortion Group In Ohio Is Fundraising By Selling Assault Rifles: Personhood Ohio, a far-right group attempting to outlaw all abortions by defining life as beginning at conception, is still attempting to get a “personhood” amendment on the state ballot after falling short last year. And the leader of the group, Patrick Johnston, is trying out a few creative fundraising efforts to raise money for Personhood [...]/p

Republicans Want To Cut $20 Billion From Food Stamps

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Big Lie: America Doesn't Have #1 Richest Middle-Class in the World...We're Ranked 27th! | Alternet

Big Lie: America Doesn't Have #1 Richest Middle-Class in the World...We're Ranked 27th! | Alternet
"America is the richest country on Earth. We have the most millionaires, the most billionaires and our wealthiest citizens have garnered more of the planet's riches than any other group in the world. We even have hedge fund managers who make in one hour as much as the average family makes in 21 years!  

This opulence is supposed to trickle down to the rest of us, improving the lives of everyday Americans. At least that's what free-market cheerleaders repeatedly promise us. Unfortunately, it's a lie, one of the biggest ever perpetrated on the American people."

Sen. Warren on Corporate Capture of the Federal Courts

Wall Street Journal Columnist Calls Allegations Of Sexual Assault ‘A He-Said/She-Said Dispute’

Wall Street Journal Columnist Calls Allegations Of Sexual Assault ‘A He-Said/She-Said Dispute’: pConservative commentator James Taranto, in an op-ed for the Wall Street Journal on Monday night, detailed a set of allegations of sexual assault in the military before concluding that they amounted to a “he-said/she-said dispute” that only revealed “a political campaign against sexual assault in the military that shows signs of becoming an effort to [...]/p

Boehner Tries to Justify the War on Women as House Uses Female Lawmaker in PR Stunt

www.politicususa.com/2013/06/18/boehner-justify-war-women-house-female-lawmaker-pr-stunt.html
"The fact that the measure was initially approved by a committee made up of 23 Republican men and not one woman wasn’t helping the GOP escape their “war on women” branding."

GOP’s war on women has a new face: Marsha Blackburn

GOP’s war on women has a new face: Marsha Blackburn
"Blackburn would seem to be an odd choice to help Republicans improve their popularity with women. On “Meet the Press” just two weeks ago she made headlines by insisting women “don’t want” equal pay laws (she of course voted against the Lilly Ledbetter fair pay act.) Now she’s insisting that the House GOP’s anti-abortion bill is meant to help women, too."

The Health Care Cost Slowdown Could Be Here To Stay, Saving Companies And The Government Billions

The Health Care Cost Slowdown Could Be Here To Stay, Saving Companies And The Government Billions: U.S. health costs have been slowing down — and will continue to do so thanks to changes in the health care industry spurred by Obamacare, according to a new analysis by consulting giant PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC). PwC’s report finds that a combination of factors — including Americans’ increasing use of inexpensive retail clinics for basic medical [...]/p