Republicans Won’t Say If Voting Rights Act Is Constitutional

Republicans Won’t Say If Voting Rights Act Is Constitutional: As the Supreme Court considers the constitutionality of a key provision in the Voting Rights Act, many on both sides of the aisle are speaking out in defense of the law. But just seven years after joining in the Senate’s 98-0 vote to reauthorize the law, two Senate Republicans are refusing to say whether they [...]/p

The 'War on Women' Isn't Over Yet | Common Dreams

The 'War on Women' Isn't Over Yet | Common Dreams
"It was a year ago when Georgetown Law student Sandra Fluke testified in front of an all-male congressional panel about the importance of making birth control affordable to every American woman. After being publicly taunted and called a "slut" by radio personality Rush Limbaugh, people across the nation rallied in Ms Fluke's defense and started waking up to a growing "war on women"."

GOP Lawmaker: We Must Make It Harder To Divorce Or Teenage Girls Will Be ‘More Promiscuous’

GOP Lawmaker: We Must Make It Harder To Divorce Or Teenage Girls Will Be ‘More Promiscuous’: On Monday, the Iowa state House moved out of committee a bill that would make no-fault divorces illegal. That’s a huge relief for one state legislator, who fears that no-fault divorce will turn his 16-year-old granddaughter into a harlot. State Representative Tedd Gassman (R) spoke emotionally about the legislation — which would require all parents [...]/p

#GOPSequester: 98 Percent of What They Wanted

GOP Congresswoman: I Opposed Domestic Violence Bill Because It Protected Too Many Groups

GOP Congresswoman: I Opposed Domestic Violence Bill Because It Protected Too Many Groups: Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) on Monday openly admitted that she opposed the latest reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) because it included protections for LGBT, Native American, and undocumented victims of domestic violence. In an appearance on MSNBC, Blackburn pointed out that the latest iteration of the law protects “different groups” and thus [...]/p

Why Aren’t Doctors Telling Women About The Most Effective Form Of Emergency Contraception?

Why Aren’t Doctors Telling Women About The Most Effective Form Of Emergency Contraception?: Even though the copper intrauterine device (IUD) — a long-lasting, hormone-free form of birth control — is the most effective form of emergency contraception to prevent pregnancy after an unprotected sexual encounter, doctors typically don’t mention it to their patients. When most women choose to take emergency contraception, they opt for what is commonly down [...]/p

California GOP Leader: Pregnancies Resulting From Rape Are Rare Because ‘The Body Is Traumatized’

California GOP Leader: Pregnancies Resulting From Rape Are Rare Because ‘The Body Is Traumatized’: Celeste Greig, president of California Republican Assembly, the state’s oldest and largest GOP volunteer organization told The Bay Area News Group this week that pregnancies resulting from rape are rare “because it’s an act of violence, because the body is traumatized.” Bizarrely, Greig made the comments while criticizing similar remarks from Todd Akin, who falsely [...]/p

Dear Scalia: 'Entitlement' Comment Undermines Core Of Our Democracy

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The 32 Dumbest And Most Devastating Sequester Cuts

The 32 Dumbest And Most Devastating Sequester Cuts: With Congress unable to reach a deal to avert the indiscriminate spending cuts put in place in the Budget Control Act of 2011, President Obama on Friday signed an order authorizing the government to begin canceling $85 billion from federal accounts for this fiscal year. As Obama said during a press conference yesterday, “This is [...]/p

Who's afraid of Elizabeth Warren?

Sexual Harassment is Still Rampant in American Workplaces | Alternet

Sexual Harassment is Still Rampant in American Workplaces | Alternet
"An emerging case of extreme harassment reveals the sorry state of offices for many women."

Senator Ron Johnson Puts His Inner Pig on Public Display

Senator Ron Johnson Puts His Inner Pig on Public Display
"This is the whole video, but if you go to about the 16 minute mark you'll get treated to the full version of Senator Ron Johnson's inner loathing for women, poor women in particular."

How An Anti-Choice Group Is Trying To Buy Virginia’s Governor’s Mansion

How An Anti-Choice Group Is Trying To Buy Virginia’s Governor’s Mansion: Virginia’s gubernatorial election, is eight months away, but a leading anti-choice group is already spending big money to buy the governor’s mansion for Tea Party Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli (R-VA). Susan B. Anthony List — an anti-abortion group that launched a program early this year to teach Republican candidates how to talk about rape without [...]/p

4 Ways the Sequester Worsens the Inequality that Is Killing the Economy | Alternet

4 Ways the Sequester Worsens the Inequality that Is Killing the Economy | Alternet
"Welcome to the vast inane. Today the “sequester” -- mindless, across-the-board cuts of military and domestic spending designed to be abhorrent -- will go into effect. Republicans claimed a “big victory” as House Speaker John Boehner shut down any negotiations and sent the House home.  The cuts will cost jobs and add to the headwinds facing the economy. The sequester will be followed by operatic melodrama over keeping the government open after the end of March and keeping the government from defaulting on its debt beginning in the middle of May.

The deficit is falling faster than any time since the demobilization after World War II, Americans are afflicted with mass unemployment and falling wages, but Washington will be traveling into the vast inane for the foreseeable future."

National Review: Victims Of Violent Military Rapes Struggle In Life Because Of ‘Their Own Bad Decision-Making’

National Review: Victims Of Violent Military Rapes Struggle In Life Because Of ‘Their Own Bad Decision-Making’: In Thursday’s paper, the New York Times ran the harrowing story of Tiffany Jackson, a female veteran grappling with the effects of military sexual trauma. Jackson had been violently raped while deployed overseas at the Suwon Air Base in South Korea, and upon her return to the states had difficulty finding and keeping a job, [...]/p

Bill Blum: The Political Forces Behind the Attack on the Voting Rights Act - Truthdig

Bill Blum: The Political Forces Behind the Attack on the Voting Rights Act - Truthdig
"Those organizations—whose ranks range from well-known right-wing think tanks such as the Federalist Society and the American Enterprise and Cato institutes to relatively obscure nonprofits such as the Virginia-based DonorsTrust foundation and the Project on Fair Representation—form a de facto alliance that aims at nothing less than a wholesale transformation of constitutional law to limit, if not altogether prohibit, the use of federal power on behalf of historically oppressed minorities. The Voting Rights Act is simply the target of the day."

Sen. Elizabeth Warren vs. Bernanke/Banksters

SCOTUS Conservatives Signal Intention To Dismantle Voting Rights Act

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The Nine Republican Men Who Won’t Consider Any Version Of The Violence Against Women Act

The Nine Republican Men Who Won’t Consider Any Version Of The Violence Against Women Act: Nine Congressmen — all male Republicans — voted Wednesday against a resolution to allow the U.S. House to consider re-authorization of the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA). The vast majority of House Republicans (214) and all 200 House Democrats voted for rule, which will allow votes Thursday on the watered-down GOP version of the bill [...]/p

Kansas Bill Would Protect Doctors Who Mislead Women About Their Pregnancies

Kansas Bill Would Protect Doctors Who Mislead Women About Their Pregnancies: The Kansas Senate Judiciary Committee recommended a bill yesterday that would effectively allow doctors to lie or withhold information about debilitating genetic conditions or birth defects in order to influence women’s decisions about their pregnancies. Kansas SB 142 provides blanket protection from “wrongful birth” lawsuits to doctors, with section 1(a) reading: “No civil action may [...]/p

Why We Still Need The Voting Rights Act: Perspectives From Supreme Court Spectators

Why We Still Need The Voting Rights Act: Perspectives From Supreme Court Spectators: The US Supreme Court heard a challenge to the 1965 Voting Rights Act today, attracting hoards of voting rights advocates, speakers, and a massive line of people vying for a spot in the courtroom. Today’s argument could lead to the elimination of Section 5, which protects minority voting rights in states with historically discriminatory election [...]/p

How The Looming Sequester Will Have A Disproportionate Impact On Women And Children

How The Looming Sequester Will Have A Disproportionate Impact On Women And Children: In constructing the sequester — a series of automatic, across-the-board spending cuts that will go into effect unless Democrats and Republicans can come to an agreement on the federal budget — lawmakers intended to design cuts that would be equally painful for Democrats and Republicans, by mandating cuts to both social programs and defense spending. [...]/p

Your Glossary To Decoding The GOP’s Anti-Abortion Rhetoric

Your Glossary To Decoding The GOP’s Anti-Abortion Rhetoric: Anti-choice Republicans are chipping away at reproductive rights from all angles, particularly on the state level. Often, lawmakers advance several different abortion restrictions simultaneously — as is currently the case in Arkansas and North Dakota — and it can be difficult to unwrap the rhetoric to figure out exactly what all of those proposed measures [...]/p

Conservative Blog Compares Ashley Judd’s Feminism To Todd Akin’s ‘Legitimate Rape’ Comment

Conservative Blog Compares Ashley Judd’s Feminism To Todd Akin’s ‘Legitimate Rape’ Comment: Whether or not film star and progressive activist Ashley Judd decides to challenge Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) for his seat in 2014, conservatives seem to be gearing up for a fight. On Tuesday morning, right-wing website The Daily Caller compared Judd’s unabashed feminism and environmentalism to former Senate candidate Rep. Todd Akin (R-MO), whose campaign [...]/p

Five Ways The Sequester Will Harm Women

Five Ways The Sequester Will Harm Women: If sequestration is allowed to take effect as scheduled on March 1, $1.2 trillion will be automatically removed from the federal budget in across-the-board spending cuts that would potentially reverse our economic recovery. These cuts — which take money out of critical investments in education, public health services and research, disaster preparedness, and national security [...]/p

Female Yahoo! CEO Kills Work from Home Option? Why Americans Need a More Flexible Workplace | Alternet

Female Yahoo! CEO Kills Work from Home Option? Why Americans Need a More Flexible Workplace | Alternet
"How are you supposed to raise a family these days without a flexible work schedule?"

For Iraqi Women, America's Promise of Democracy is Anything But Liberation | Common Dreams

For Iraqi Women, America's Promise of Democracy is Anything But Liberation | Common Dreams
"Human rights, including women's rights, are a litmus test for democracy. Statements by senior officials, including the prime minister himself, show that – contrary to what some Iraqis had hoped for – the "liberators" have actually set the conditions for the continuity of injustice. And that, in turn, gives rise to extremism."

Republicans Call For Government Study To Justify Their Efforts To Defund Planned Parenthood

Republicans Call For Government Study To Justify Their Efforts To Defund Planned Parenthood: Republicans have made Planned Parenthood into a top target in their ongoing War on Women, repeatedly attempting to strip funding from the national women’s health organization because some of its affiliates provide abortion services. Despite the fact that federal law already prevents taxpayer dollars from funding abortion — which means that Planned Parenthood’s federal and [...]/p

Most Mass Shootings Target Women and Families; Study Finds Men With Legal Guns Are to Blame | Alternet

Most Mass Shootings Target Women and Families; Study Finds Men With Legal Guns Are to Blame | Alternet
"Data suggests that a gun present in a domestic violence situation increases the risk of homicide for women by 500 percent."

College Rape Victim Faces Expulsion for Speaking Out | Alternet

College Rape Victim Faces Expulsion for Speaking Out | Alternet
"A sophomore at the University of North Carolina is facing potential expulsion from her school for what the college calls 'intimidating' behavior."

Breakthrough In Breast Cancer Treatment Could Increase Life Expectancy, Reduce Side Effects

Breakthrough In Breast Cancer Treatment Could Increase Life Expectancy, Reduce Side Effects: A breakthrough in cancer treatment could potentially have a big impact on the 1 in 8 women who are diagnosed with breast cancer at some point in their lives. The New York Times reports that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved a new drug that, when used in conjunction with the popular breast [...]/p

Violence Against Women Act Isn't Just A Good Bill In Name Only

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What's It Like to Wake Up From a Tea Party Binge? Just Ask Florida!

Indiana Bill Would Force Women to Endure Two Medically Unnecessary Transvaginal Probes

Indiana Bill Would Force Women to Endure Two Medically Unnecessary Transvaginal Probes
"Indiana Gov. Mike Pence may be set to follow in Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell's shoes and take over the title of Governor Ultrasound if he ends up supporting this bill that just passed his state's Senate."

Oklahoma May Deny Women Affordable Birth Control Because It ‘Poisons Their Bodies’

Oklahoma May Deny Women Affordable Birth Control Because It ‘Poisons Their Bodies’: Oklahoma already prevents women from using their insurance plans to help cover abortion services, but Republicans aren’t stopping there. One state lawmaker wants to continue stripping insurance coverage for reproductive health services, advancing a measure that would allow employers to refuse to cover birth control for any reason — based solely on the fact that [...]/p

House Republicans Strip Protections From LGBT Victims In New Violence Against Women Act

House Republicans Strip Protections From LGBT Victims In New Violence Against Women Act: The Violence Against Women Act expired at the end of 2012 after House Republicans refused to accept the Senate bill’s protections for LGBT, Native American, and undocumented victims. Though the Senate passed another VAWA reauthorization over a week ago, House Republicans may derail passage once again. On Friday, House GOP leaders released their own VAWA [...]/p

Mike 'Two Times' Pence To Steal 'Gov. Ultrasound' Title

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Indiana Bill Would Force Women To Undergo Two Transvaginal Probes To Take A Pill (UPDATED)

Indiana Bill Would Force Women To Undergo Two Transvaginal Probes To Take A Pill (UPDATED): A medication abortion pill, officially known as RU-486, is the earliest available abortion option for a woman. A patient could be as little as one week pregnant and take the pill to terminate. But despite the incredibly early stage at which the pill is administered, a new bill proposed in the Indiana State Senate would [...]/p

Top GOP Senator: Native American Juries Are Incapable Of Trying White People Fairly

Top GOP Senator: Native American Juries Are Incapable Of Trying White People Fairly: INDIANOLA, Iowa — Republicans have offered a number of reasons why they oppose the Violence Against Women Act. Some think it’s unconstitutional. Others argue that it’s just a meaningless bill with a patriotic title. On Wednesday, Sen. Chuck Grassley added a new one: Native Americans supposedly aren’t capable of holding fair trials. Last week, Grassley [...]/p

Middle Out Economics 101

200,000 Demand House Republicans Pass Violence Against Women Act | Alternet

200,000 Demand House Republicans Pass Violence Against Women Act | Alternet
"Remember when the House Republicans blocked the passage of approximately a million pieces of legislation last session—including the renewal of the act to prevent violence against women? Remember when the U.S. public considered blocking that legislation to be so pathetic, so despicable, just so downright offensive that President Obama coasted to victory on one of the largest gender gaps in modern electoral history?

Yes, all that happened. But here’s the clincher: It’s still not over. In fact, in some ways, this whole rape-denying thing is getting even more egregious."

You've Got a Long Way to Go, Baby! | Alternet

You've Got a Long Way to Go, Baby! | Alternet
"What the next half century will bring for the women's movement."

How Abortion Opponents Have Forced A Double Standard For Advances In Reproductive Health

How Abortion Opponents Have Forced A Double Standard For Advances In Reproductive Health: Nearly ten percent of the hysterectomies in the U.S. are now performed with robot-assisted technology, according to the results from a new JAMA study. Recent years have seen a dramatic increase in the number of women who are opting for the new technology, which can help make the procedure slightly less invasive than a traditional [...]/p

Indiana Bill Would Force Women To Undergo Transvaginal Probe Before They Take A Pill

Indiana Bill Would Force Women To Undergo Transvaginal Probe Before They Take A Pill: A medication abortion pill, officially known as RU-486, is the earliest available abortion option for a woman. A patient could be as little as one week pregnant and take the pill to terminate. But despite the incredibly early stage at which the pill is administered, a new bill proposed in the Indiana State Senate would [...]/p

Anti-Abortion Trap Laws Spread To Circumvent Legal Rights

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Coming Sequester Cuts Will Make Most of Americans' Lives Worse -– And People Are Mobilizing | Alternet

Coming Sequester Cuts Will Make Most of Americans' Lives Worse -– And People Are Mobilizing | Alternet
"In just over a week the government is probably going to enter full-scale austerity. Republicans are refusing to end tax loopholes for big corporations and billionaires, choosing to let the “sequester” occur instead. Unless something changes, and soon, $1.2 trillion in cuts to defense and domestic spending begin to kick in. This will hit jobs, growth, and above all it will hit real people."

Colorado Republicans Try (And Fail) To Turn Sexual Assault Into A Joke

Colorado Republicans Try (And Fail) To Turn Sexual Assault Into A Joke: Colorado Republicans are rushing to condemn the offensive comments about rape recently made by one of their Democratic colleagues — but their attempts are quickly devolving into even more inappropriate responses to the serious crime of sexual assault. After Colorado Rep. Joe Salazar (D) suggested that women are too paranoid to responsibly carry a gun [...]/p

Why Women Aren’t Being ‘Selfish’ When They Wait Longer To Have Kids

Why Women Aren’t Being ‘Selfish’ When They Wait Longer To Have Kids: Yet another article has been published bemoaning the declining birthrate in the United States. Perhaps as a result of treating anecdotal evidence gathered from four people at a hookah bar as if it were actual research, this latest piece gets a number of things wrong. According to the authors, young people no longer want to [...]/p

Your Guide To The Looming Spending Cuts: Where They Came From And What They Will Mean

Your Guide To The Looming Spending Cuts: Where They Came From And What They Will Mean: The United States is rapidly approaching March 1, the date on which the automatic spending cuts put in place by the summer 2011 debt ceiling deal will begin taking effect. There is little indication that Congress will avert the cuts as it did in January, as Republican leaders have thus far been unwilling to negotiate [...]/p

The Cooperative Way to a Stronger Economy | Common Dreams

The Cooperative Way to a Stronger Economy | Common Dreams
"Co-ops—just like people—can get more done together than anyone can do alone. The good news is that co-ops come in many forms and are more common than you might imagine. They are owned by workers, residents, consumers, farmers, craftspeople, the community, or any combination. What they have in common is that they circulate the benefits back to their member-owners, and these benefits ripple out to the broader community."

Republican Party 2013: D.O.A.? | Alternet

Republican Party 2013: D.O.A.? | Alternet
"There's the oft-mentioned electoral data—those vast demographic changes that are seeing the GOP's ability to win grossly compromised. Mitt Romney's strongest age demographic was seniors, his weakest was the youngest voters. The circle of life guarantees that Democrats will come out of that divide looking quite good. And of course, not entirely unrelated, is the rise of the Latino and Asian vote, as those young groups begin entering the voting age population in force.  Remember, every month, 67,000 Latinos turn 18, while 100,000 (predominantly white and conservative) seniors die. Do the math."

They Are Coming for Your Birth Control | Common Dreams

They Are Coming for Your Birth Control | Common Dreams
"Think that anti-choice politicians and activists aren’t trying to outlaw contraception?  Think again."

Chipping Away At Roe: Arkansas And North Dakota Advance ‘Fetal Pain’ Abortion Bans

Chipping Away At Roe: Arkansas And North Dakota Advance ‘Fetal Pain’ Abortion Bans: So far this year, GOP lawmakers in Arkansas and North Dakota have practically tripped over each other to see which state can introduce more anti-abortion legislation. Among other abortion restrictions, each state is currently advancing a “fetal pain” measure to outlaw abortion procedures after 20 weeks of pregnancy — based on the scientifically disputed notion [...]/p

Alabama Lawmaker Thinks a Fetus is 'Largest Organ in the Body'

Alabama Lawmaker Thinks a Fetus is 'Largest Organ in the Body'
"There need to be some improvements to Alabama's health education programs, and soon, because this little slice of inanity actually came from a female lawmaker."

Scott Walker’s Budget Cuts Force Planned Parenthood To Close Four Clinics In Rural Wisconsin

Scott Walker’s Budget Cuts Force Planned Parenthood To Close Four Clinics In Rural Wisconsin: Republican lawmakers in Wisconsin have singled out Planned Parenthood in their crusade against women’s reproductive health — a popular anti-choice tactic that states like Texas, Oklahoma, and Arizona have also employed over the past year. And now that Gov. Scott Walker’s (R-WI) budget has stripped over a million dollars of funding from the women’s health [...]/p

Wisconsin GOP Lawmakers Make Mandatory Transvaginal Ultrasounds 'Top Priority'

Wisconsin GOP Lawmakers Make Mandatory Transvaginal Ultrasounds 'Top Priority'
"Wisconsin Republicans never fail to disappoint when it comes to bizarre, authoritarian, ultra-conservative behavior."

Elizabeth Warren's Big Moment

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GOP ‘Savior’ Marco Rubio Falls Back On The Same Old Anti-Woman Policies

GOP ‘Savior’ Marco Rubio Falls Back On The Same Old Anti-Woman Policies: In an interview on Thursday with conservative magazine Newsmax, Tea Party standard-bearer and so-called ‘savior’ of the Republican party Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) revealed that he will become a cosponsor of the “Child Interstate Abortion Notification Act.” The bill is a concerted effort to prevent girls in dangerous family situations from going across state lines [...]/p

Sen. Ron Johnson Joins The Violence Against Women Act Is Unconstitutional Club

Sen. Ron Johnson Joins The Violence Against Women Act Is Unconstitutional Club: Four senators, Jim Risch (R-ID), Rand Paul (R-KY), Mike Lee (R-UT), and Ted Cruz (R-TX) previously suggested that any effort to prevent violence against women exceeds the federal government’s power under the Constitution. Earlier this week, Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) joined their club of senators who think legislation reauthorizing the Violence Against Women Act is [...]/p

Putting a $9 minimum wage in context | Economic Policy Institute

Putting a $9 minimum wage in context | Economic Policy Institute
"Raising the minimum wage to $9.00 per hour, as the President called for in his State of the Union address, would be a good step toward reversing some of the huge decline in the purchasing power of the minimum wage that has occurred over the past 45 years."

Texas Pushes Restrictive Abortion Regulations That Could Force More Than 60 Clinics To Close

Texas Pushes Restrictive Abortion Regulations That Could Force More Than 60 Clinics To Close: Texas Republicans have introduced a measure to impose unnecessary, overly restrictive regulations on the state’s abortion clinics — a move that could ultimately force more than 60 clinics to close, as RH Reality Check reports. Even though the state senators pushing for the legislation claim it will “force abortion clinics in Texas to put women’s [...]/p

Wisconsin Republicans: Forcing Women To Undergo Transvaginal Ultrasounds Is Our ‘Priority’

Wisconsin Republicans: Forcing Women To Undergo Transvaginal Ultrasounds Is Our ‘Priority’: At the Wisconsin Right to Life Legislative Conference this week, the state’s top Republican lawmakers assured attendees that they will do everything in their power to enact a forced ultrasound bill, which would mandate an invasive transvaginal probe for some women seeking first-trimester abortions. “This bill is a priority,” Wisconsin Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald [...]/p

Around the World, A 'Billion Rise' to Fight Violence Against Women and Girls | Common Dreams

Around the World, A 'Billion Rise' to Fight Violence Against Women and Girls | Common Dreams
"Across the globe today women are dancing, striking, and in other ways "rising" to call attention to the plight of violence against women and girls across the many cultures of the planet."

Sen. Warren Questions Bank Regulators About Whether Wall Street Is ‘Too Big For Trial’

Sen. Warren Questions Bank Regulators About Whether Wall Street Is ‘Too Big For Trial’: Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D) used her debut on the Senate Banking Committee to question financial regulators about the lack of accountability for Wall Street banks’ role in the financial crisis, challenging them to name the last time a Wall Street bank was taken to trial over allegations of fraud and other crimes instead of [...]/p

Child-Sex Offender Part of Joe Arpaio's Armed School Posse

Child-Sex Offender Part of Joe Arpaio's Armed School Posse
"What’s worse is that Arpaio has been facing heavy criticism for his alleged laxity on prosecuting sex crimes, particularly sex crimes against children."

Could You Live on $2.13 Per Hour -- Even With Tips? That's the Minimum Wage for Waiters | Alternet

Could You Live on $2.13 Per Hour -- Even With Tips? That's the Minimum Wage for Waiters | Alternet
"The president's call to raise the general minimum wage will do nothing for tipped workers. Congresswoman Donna Edwards wants to change that."

Break the Chain | Common Dreams

Break the Chain | Common Dreams
"Today's V-Day celebrations for the One Billion Rising campaign were sparked by an appalling statistic: One in three women in the world - one billion in total - are victims of violence during their lifetimes."

Federal Appeals Court: For Profit Companies Cannot Flout Birth Control Law

Federal Appeals Court: For Profit Companies Cannot Flout Birth Control Law: Late last week, the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit denied a for-profit company’s request for an order permitting it to ignore federal regulations requiring it to provide birth control coverage to its employees. As with many of these cases filed in other courts, the corporation argued that it should be immune [...]/p

Rubio's Response Shows GOP Failure To Solve It's Policy Problem

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Denying Minimum-Wage Workers A Raise Is Craven and Grotesque | Common Dreams

Denying Minimum-Wage Workers A Raise Is Craven and Grotesque | Common Dreams
"The president ignited a controversy in his state of the union speech by saying he wants to raise the minimum wage by $1.50, to $9 an hour. He argued that it is shameful that someone working full-time for the current minimum wage of $7.25 would still be below the poverty line."

GOP 'Savior' Rubio Votes No on Violence Against Women Act

GOP 'Savior' Rubio Votes No on Violence Against Women Act
"Florida senator Marco Rubio led a group of 22 male Republicans who voted against the bill, which established a system for helping women in danger from domestic violence. No women or Democrats opposed the bill and it passed 78-22. That's right, the guy that Time magazine hailed this week as the "GOP Savior" voted against helping protect women from violence."

Why The Minimum Wage Is A Women’s Issue, In Three Charts

Why The Minimum Wage Is A Women’s Issue, In Three Charts: During Tuesday night’s State of the Union, President Obama called on Congress to raise the minimum wage from $7.25 to $9 per hour. Not only is the proposal potentially good for business, but, according to a report released Wednesday from the Center for American Progress Action Fund, raising the minimum wage would also be a [...]/p

Arkansas May Pass The Nation’s Most Restrictive Abortion Ban, Even Without The Governor’s Support

Arkansas May Pass The Nation’s Most Restrictive Abortion Ban, Even Without The Governor’s Support: After Republicans won big gains in the Arkansas legislature in the 2012 elections, they’ve wasted no time pushing their anti-abortion agenda in the state. Arkansas Gov. Mike Beebe (D) has already signed one new abortion restriction into law already, and he hasn’t specifically confirmed whether or not he’ll sign the other proposed anti-choice legislation in [...]/p

The 2013 State of the Union Address

Of Rape and Roe - In These Times

Of Rape and Roe - In These Times
"Forty years after Roe v. Wade, even as polls show a majority of Americans supporting women’s reproductive rights, the possibilities for women’s reproductive justice feel surprisingly dim. Each day, it seems, brings another effort to undermine and attack women’s life choices, one of the most recent being abill introduced in New Mexico to jail rape survivors who choose abortions. The bill follows months of Republican legislators' trotting out recycled rape myths, undermining rape survivors to bolster anti-abortion policies. These disembodied debates over rape and abortion dangerously overlook the complex contexts in which young women struggle to make choices that will impact the rest of their lives."

Women Promise Revolt over GOP Stance on Violence Against Women Act | Common Dreams

Women Promise Revolt over GOP Stance on Violence Against Women Act | Common Dreams
"Women's groups are promising swift revenge come election season to a group of male Republican Senators who voted against the reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA), which passed the Senate Tuesday despite their best opposition efforts."

Fall on Hard Times, Have Your Kids Taken Away? How America Treats Poor Parents Like Criminals | Alternet

Fall on Hard Times, Have Your Kids Taken Away? How America Treats Poor Parents Like Criminals | Alternet
"At the root of the problem is America's vastly inequitable education system. School districts in poor areas are routinely shortchanged--and that’s even according to the U.S. Department of Education."

President Obama throws his support behind increasing the minimum wage | Economic Policy Institute

President Obama throws his support behind increasing the minimum wage | Economic Policy Institute
"That analysis showed that more than half of those who would be affected are women, more than four in five are 20 years of age or over, more than a quarter are parents, and over a third are married.  Moreover, the average affected worker earns about half of his or her family’s total income.  While the demographic breakdown for a $9.00 minimum wage would differ slightly, these breakdowns would still be in the right ballpark."

Speaker Boehner Rejects Obama’s Proposal To Raise The Minimum Wage

Speaker Boehner Rejects Obama’s Proposal To Raise The Minimum Wage: President Obama called for an increase in the minimum wage from $7.25 to $9 per hour during his State of the Union last night, a proposal that was quickly rejected by top Republicans like Sen. Marco Rubio and Rep. Paul Ryan. Today, House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) also came out against the proposal. “When you [...]/p

GOP Rep Mocks Congresswoman’s Outfit At State Of The Union

GOP Rep Mocks Congresswoman’s Outfit At State Of The Union: A Texas-based conservative talk radio host, Michael Berry, ran a betting pool during Tuesday night’s State of the Union over what color Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee’s (D-TX) outfit would be. But while that action alone might be blatantly sexist — would one ever make a bet over hue of a Congressman’s suit? — what makes [...]/p