Scott Roeder has confessed to killing a Kansas abortion doctor, according to the Associate Press. “The 51-year-old Kansas City, Mo., man told The Associated Press in a telephone call from jail Monday that he plans to use the so-called necessity defense at his trial,” the AP reported. Roeder told reporters that the killing of Dr. George Tiller was necessary because it protected the lives of unborn children.
via rawstory
“There are just over 100 people in the world serving sentences of life without the possibility of parole for crimes they committed as juveniles in which no one was killed. All are in the United States.” — Supreme Court to Hear Appeals on Juveniles’ Life Sentences - NYTimes.com (via notemily) (via bmckinney)
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“You tell us who the ones are that we have to worry about, prove you’re right, and Muslims can once again serve. Until that day comes, we simply cannot afford the risk. You invent a jihadi-detector that works every time it’s used, and we’ll welcome you back with open arms.” — Conservative Christian Group Calls for “No More Muslims” In Military via Mother Jones
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The New York Times has an excellent graphic up today profiling the 39 Democrats who voted against healthcare reform in the House of Representatives on Saturday night. The Times notes that 31 of these Democrats represent districts won by John McCain, as if that’s a sufficient excuse. But take a closer look at the numbers. Paradoxically, those Democrats voting against healthcare reform represent constituents most in need of health insurance.
continue reading…thenation
(via scottfriday)
Indeed.
“The weird thing about the coathanger amendment is that I thought Republicans didn’t want government between a doctor and patient. Hypocrisy?” — Markos Moulitsas
“the president could take a few pages from Lyndon Johnson’s book … and start knocking heads together.” —
Rep. John Conyers is urging President Barack Obama to get tough with those senators he says are standing in the way of passing legislation designed to overhaul the nation’s health care system.
Worldwide poll: Vast majority say capitalism not working
Only 11 percent of people surveyed across 27 countries thought free market capitalism is working well, while nearly a quarter — 23 percent — said the system is “fatally flawed.” A bare majority, 51 percent, believed its problems can be solved with more regulation and reform, the poll said.
In only the United States (25 percent) and Pakistan (21 percent), did more than one in five people agree that capitalism works well in its current form, the poll conducted for BBC World said.
continue reading…Raw Story
Malcolm X was bisexual. Get over it -
Malcolm’s complex, changing sexuality was never part of the narrative of his life until the publication of Bruce Perry’s acclaimed biography,…
While Perry did not make Malcolm’s sexuality a big part of his biography – in fact, it is a very minor aspect – he did not shy away from writing about what he heard in his many interviews.
He documents Malcolm’s many same-sex relations and his activities as a male sex worker, which spanned at least a 10-year period, from his mid-teens to his 20s, as I described in some detail in a previous articlefor the Guardian…
Had he not been murdered in 1965, Malcolm might have eventually, like Huey Newton of the Black Panthers and the black power leader Angela Davis, embraced the lesbian and gay liberation movement as part of the struggle for human emancipation. Instead, to serve their homophobic political agenda, for over half a century the Nation of Islam and many black nationalists have suppressed knowledge of Malcolm’s same-sex relations. It is now time for Black History Month to speak the truth. Malcolm X was bisexual. Get over it.
continue reading…guardian.co.uk
41 House Dems Pledge To Vote Against Bill With Anti-Abortion Amendment -
In a move that will intensify the coming war over how to treat abortion in the health care bill, more than three dozen House Dems have signed a letter to Nancy Pelosi firmly pledging to vote against the bill if it contains an anti-abortion amendment.
We will not vote for a conference report that contains language that restricts women’s right to choose any further than current law.
continue reading…theplumline
Rupert Murdoch could ban Google access to his newspapers' content -
Rupert Murdoch says he will remove stories from Google’s search index as a way to encourage people to pay for content online.
In an interview with Sky News Australia, the mogul said that newspapers in his media empire – including the Sun, the Times and the Wall Street Journal – would consider blocking Google entirely once they had enacted plans to charge people for reading their stories on the web.
In recent months, Murdoch his lieutenants have stepped up their war of words with Google, accusing it of “kleptomania” and acting as a “parasite” for including News Corp content in its Google News pages.
continue reading…Democratic Underground
There has never been a single documented case of fatal cannabis overdose. Also, the government’s own figures don’t tally. While drug figures from the Office Of National Statistics register 19 cannabis related deaths, the mortality stats from the same office log only 1 death.