More fun videos of kittens and fighting models

Little known fact. This is what they do all day long over at the Huffington Post. Watch videos of kittens and models.

First the kittens:



Then the models:

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Rule by laws vs. rule by men

Ian Welsh has had quite a lot to say lately that's worth listening to. (This on Afghanistan is itself worth a click.) But I'd like to focus on a theme we both share — are we ruled by law or ruled by men?

I won't re-create his piece (please read for yourself), but he does a fine job of connecting the fraudulent mortgage foreclosure mess with Bush-era crimes and their non-prosecution:

This is a logical consequence of refusing to go after banksters for fraud. The fraud was so systemic (the majority of CDOs based on housing) that virtually every major executive was involved. The DOJ and others chose not to prosecute criminally, and as a result the message was sent that the executive class, as a group, will not be prosecuted for fraud.

So, of course, they doubled down.

First the political elites skate; then the corporate elites. The result, in Welsh's view, is that we're fast-morphing into a nation ruled by men, not laws. He believes the decay can be stopped, but only via criminal prosecution — an actual option in states with actual Attorneys General.

But if that fails, his predicted next step is chilling: "Deficiency judgements: going after people for the amount that’s underwater." Check it out. (Oops, here's Masaccio's post–Face the Nation take. Ugh.)

By the way, Chris in Paris has been all over the fraudulent foreclosure story — here, here, here, and here. Stay tuned; this is far from over.

GP Read the rest of this post...

Eric Cantor supports bogus bank foreclosure documents

Need more proof that the GOP is completely own by Wall Street bankers? Why is it so hard to wait for valid documents before a foreclosure? If insisting that banks have legitimate documents before they destroy someone's life, Cantor and the GOP may realize that yes, Americans do like government intervention. It's unthinkable that anyone could even suggest banks have the right to foreclose without correct paperwork. Of course consumers need to be responsible for themselves but the same should also apply for banks, no? More from Think Progress:

On Fox News Sunday, Rep. Debbie Wasserman-Schultz (D-FL) called for a nationwide moratorium on foreclosures, saying “it’s absolutely imperative that we keep people in their homes.” House Minority Whip Eric Cantor (R-VA) disagreed strongly, however, saying he was “just perplexed” at Wasserman Schultz’s answer, and that “people have to take responsibility for themselves.”

CANTOR: I’m just perplexed to that answer, Bret… what we’re seeing if you do that, if you impose a moratorium on foreclosures what you are telling people and institutions that lend money is they do not have the protection to take the risk they need to, to extend credit for people will get a mortgage. You’ll shut down the housing industry if that is the case[...]

What we’re talking about, Debbie, you have 10 percent, if that, of the population who are now in a foreclosure situation or in a mortgage that they have been unable to meet the obligations… Now, come on, people have to take responsibility for themselves. We need to get the housing industry going again. We don’t need government intervening in every step of every aspect of this economy.

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Serial divorcé, and adulterer, Newt Gingrich goes birther

Note how Gingrich says we aren't permitted to blame FOX News, conservative talk radio, and Rush Limbaugh for the fact that a minority of Americans - probably all FOX News viewers - think Obama is a Muslim. Oh, okay Newt, we won't consider the possibility that you guys are lying to your followers, and your followers being under-educated lemmings, believe you.

Oh, and how's that third wife going?

Former House Speaker and potential GOP presidential hopeful Newt Gingrich used an appearance on Spanish-language television to sound off on questions surrounding President Obama's birthplace and religious faith, declaring the president has an "obligation" to figure out why so many Americans doubt his life story.

"If I were the president, that would really concern me, not because of Fox News or talk radio or Rush Limbaugh, but what is there that he's doing that would let that many people be confused?" Gingrich said on Univision's "Al Punto," according to a report from The Hill.

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BREAKING: Gays protesting Obama high-dollar fundraiser in Miami; sending weather balloons over NBA star's house; three boats of activists & reporters on way to home by sea

We're posting updates and more photos at AMERICAblog Gay.


7:29PM

As the sun sets in Miami, the GetEqual Seals return to harbor.  Mission accomplished.  Now the President knows what a fierce advocate really looks like.


UPDATE from JOHN @ 6:35 PM: UPDATE: 6:30PM - GetEqual protest makes the White House pool report - this is big, because it means the story will now go nationwide - the pool report also confirms that the guests at the dinner can hear GetEqual's bull horns:

At the reception in a "small" white tent around the back of the house, Rep. Chris Van Hollen was touting Democrats' accomplishments before a small crowd when pool got there. Compared it with New Deal, Great Society. Covered health-care bill, student loan overhaul. Says things have gotten better on economy.

"The president needs a Congress that is going to work with him...it is now halftime in the first time of Barack Obama's administration...dos the Miami Heat quit at halftime?" Crowd cheers.

POTUS takes the stage to applause. Mistakenly refers to Ron Klein as Ron Klain and apologizes. Ron Klein is inside the home.

As he is speaking, air horns can be heard across the bay, and pool is told by a GetEQUAL spokesman that they are activists protesting the administration on Don't Ask Don't Tell. Appear to have several small boats, at one point pool can hear some yelling. Some members of the audience look over but noise is not loud enough to disrupt and POTUS continues uninterrupted.

POTUS says economy is begining to recover because lawmakers were willing to take tough votes. Says: "The question in this election is not whether or not things are where we want them" but who will take us there.

They said no each and every time...they don't have new ideas."

Hits GOP Pledge to America. "They're selling the same snake oil they were before." says the 700B to pay for the wealthy tax cuts would be borrowed from China and Saudi Arabia.

Uses the ditch analogy yet again. It's muddy, R's tell Dems they aren't pushing hard enough -- you know the drill. "We've got to tell them in this election you can't have the keys back. You don't know how to drive!"

Says he and Democrats won in 2008 because of voters who want the American dream.

"That wasn't the end of the dream. That was only the beginning of the dream." Implores people to help get out the vote. POTUS spoke for about 12 minutes.

Pool is told the Miami Dade police have circled the GetEQUAL activists' boats and sirens can be heard.

Now at main dinner tent awaiting a second set of remarks.

UPDATE from John @ 6:21 PM: They're in a tent. The fundraiser is a dinner, taking place in a tent, by the water, 500 feet away from GetEqual's 3 boats that are going crazy with bullhorns and loudspeakers. There is no way the dinner guests aren't listening to this.

This is the 40 foot banner on boat number two:

UPDATE from John @ 6:10PM: The three boats of protesters and media are now 500 feet from the shore at Alonzo Mourning's home, and are shouting on bullhorns with an extra strong speaker system, and are also broadcasting the President's own words promising gay rights advances that he has refused to deliver.

Obama's limo driving by protesters. This is when he cracked the window and waved.

UPDATES from John: One of the weather balloons released near the Obama fundraiser.

UPDATE: 5:42PM - Robin McGehee of GetEqual, who is on one of the boats heading for Mourning's house, has just texted "Mission Accomplished." We assume this means she has reached the position in the water off of the house, and the action is underway, including bull horns, weather balloons with signs, 40ft signs saying "stop the discharges now," and an extra large/loud sound system booming quotes of the President himself making gay rights promises. All of this underway under the watchful guise of two boats full of media, including the Miami Herald and all the local Miami TV affiliates, and two Spanish stations.

UPDATE 5:37PM: The three boats of protesters and media have just rounded by the bend and are within 5 minutes of reaching Mourning's house.

UPDATE: President cracked limo and waved to GetEqual protesters, so he definitely saw the signs and protesters.

GetEqual's press release explains what they're up to today - the press release reads in the past tense, when in fact the actions are ongoing:

“DON’T ASK, DON’T TELL” ACTIVISTS CONFRONT PRESIDENT OBAMA BY AIR, LAND, AND SEA AT NBA STAR'S FUNDRAISER IN MIAMI
GetEQUAL, along with a group of Florida and national Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender activists, surround Miami Heat star Alonzo Mourning’s house demanding President sign Executive Order Stopping Discharges

MIAMI, FL (October 11th, 2010)– Earlier Monday evening from 5:00 pm until 6:30 pm (ET), GetEQUAL, a national lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) civil rights organization, and other Floridian activists, unleashed a barrage of protests by air, land, and sea targeting President Obama for his failure to sign an executive order barring gay and lesbian servicemembers from being discharged under the military’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” law.

President Obama attended a star-studded Democratic Party fundraiser at NBA star Alonzo Mourning’s bayfront estate. During the hour and a half President Obama was at Alonzo's home for this big-money, Democratic Party fundraiser, LGBT activists confronted him at every turn, demanding he finally show some leadership and stop the discharges of openly gay and lesbian servicemembers by signing an executive order. Video and photos from today’s action will be released shortly and will be available at: www.getequal.org and www.youtube.com/getequal.

BY LAND

As the Presidential motorcade drove into the private estate located in Coconut Grove, activists held four 10 ft. signs demanding President Obama “End the Discharges Now,” and reminding him that “We’ll Give When We GetEQUAL”. The LGBT activists were stationed on the motorcade route directly outside of the private estate and at a park roughly a quarter of a mile down the road.

Inside the event, Democratic congressional candidate and Army veteran, Anthony Woods, who was discharged under the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” law, approached President Obama to inform him what the protests were about, and to remind him of his campaign promises. [NOTE FROM JOHN: This didn't happen because the White House refused to let Woods attend the event.]

BY SEA

While the President was inside the private fundraiser, another round of protests were unleashed from the bay just outside the event. From the bay abutting Mourning’s home, a second swarm of LGBT activists arrived by boats with two 40 ft. signs and shouted via bullhorns “End the Discharges Now” and “We’ll Give When We GetEQUAL”.

BY AIR

During the second swarm by boat, LGBT activists also launched two, large 8 ft weather balloons carrying 10 ft. long banners reading “GetEQUAL.org”. Those weather balloons were anchored in the water directly in front of the tent hosting the dinner reception and highly visible to guests.

The Advocate reveals that the White House turned away an African-American former congressional candidate, Anthony Woods, from the fundraiser. He thinks it was because he had been discharged under DADT. More from Kerry Eleveld:

A group of LGBT equality activists working to end “don’t ask, don’t tell” launched an elaborate protest early Monday evening as President Barack Obama attended a private Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee fund-raiser in Miami, FL, at the home of NBA star Alonzo Mourning.

As the president headed toward Mourning’s Coconut Grove residence where donors had paid as much as $5,000 and $18,000 per person to see him, members of GetEqual, a national LGBT rights organization, along with local activists intended to line the street holding four, 10-foot signs that read “End the Discharges Now,” and “We’ll Give When We GetEQUAL” – a reference to the group’s recent campaign encouraging people not to donate money to either the Democratic or Republican parties or their campaign committees until the president signs an executive order immediately stopping the discharges.Video of GetEqual and media - one of three boats just launched - heading towards Mourning's home and Obama fundraiser.

Three full boat-loads of press and protesters have now launched, and are heading towards Alonzo Mourning's house (site of the fundraiser) by sea....

UPDATE FROM JOHN: Obama has just driven into the estate, and according to witnesses on the ground, the President absolutely saw the protesters.

NOTE FROM JOHN: I've just been informed that GetEqual is in the process of protesting the President's high-dollar fundraiser at the home of Miami Heat star Alonzo Mourning. GetEqual members, and local Florida allies, are at this moment lining the streets, protesting the President's inaction on "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," and GetEqual has just launched a weather balloon with a GetEqual banner hanging from it - the balloon is drifting in the direction of the Mourning bayside mansion where the fundraiser is being held, and where Obama is currently heading.

Below is GetEqual's Robin McGehee speaking with reporters near Mourning's home.

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US Drops to 49th in the world for life expectancy; #s are really crappy for white Americans too

Were number 49!

There's a myth that all these "bad" US numbers for life expectancy and such are really the result of America being a "diverse culture" - meaning, "it's all those minorities who aren't doing so well, while we white folks must be riding pretty darn high in the international statistics!"

Yeah, not so much. According to a new study, we white folk in America are doing pretty badly as well.  In fact, we seem to be doing worse than non-whites.

For example, compared to 12 other comparable countries (Austria, Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom), here's how white men and white women in America ranked in terms of 15-year survival rates at the ages of 45 and 65:

45 year old white men: ranked 11th of 13
45 year old white women: ranked 11th of 13
65 year old white men: ranked 11th of 13
65 year old white women: ranked 13th of 13

Oh, and here's a funny thing: The US numbers only get better when you INCLUDE non-whites.

As a consequence, the relative survival gains of non-Hispanic American whites, compared to all residents of the comparison countries, ranked next to last or last for each of the sex and age groups over the full period—even worse than overall performance (note that not all data were available for all countries for all years). Contrary to the diversity hypothesis, including the experience of diverse groups in the US data improves the comparative performance of the United States, since the superior survival gains of other Americans relative to non-Hispanic whites boosts the overall performance of the United States relative to that of other countries.

From Health Affairs:

Click chart to see readable version

In 1950, the United States was fifth among the leading industrialized nations with respect to female life expectancy at birth, surpassed only by Sweden, Norway, Australia, and the Netherlands The last available measure of female life expectancy had the United States ranked at forty-sixth in the world. As of September 23, 2010, the United States ranked forty-ninth for both male and female life expectancy combined.

Meanwhile, per capita health spending in the United States increased at nearly twice the rate in other wealthy nations between 1970 and 2002. As a result, the United States now spends well over twice the median expenditure of industrialized nations on health care, and far more than any other country as a percentage of its gross domestic product (GDP).

We compared the performance of the United States to that of twelve nations that have populations of at least seven million and per capita GDP of at least 60 percent of the US per capita GDP since 1975. These nations are Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom.

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Wall Street has high expectations for bonus season

And quite frankly, why not? Who has done more to help the global economy rebound than Wall Street? If ever there was a group of people who fully appreciated their role in a global crisis that will drag on for years, it's Big Finance.

Half of financial professionals on Wall Street expect to get a higher bonus this year, and some of those expect a much bigger payout, according to an annual survey by financial job board, eFinancialCareers.com.

Eleven percent expect bonuses that are at least 50 percent higher than those paid out at the start of 2010, according to eFinancialCareers, a unit of Dice Holdings Inc, even though 2010 was seen as a "sideways" year for the stock market.

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The new face of racism in America

From Glenn Greenwald via Twitter, a tweet for the ages. Worse than you could imagine. Keka's Blog at Salon:

I saw it. But I couldn’t believe it.

There I was, in a fast food drive through, behind a man whose back window decal, in small white letters, sent me a message that sent a chill down my spine—just as he’d hoped it would, no doubt. It said:

THIS COUNTRY WAS BUILT BY WHITE MEN WITH GUNS

Click through for Keka's writing and seriously grotesque images. Amazing that stuff this bad is still with us.

Keka describes herself as "a former reporter for both the Chicago Sun Times and Arizona Daily Star, published author and optioned screenwriter who spent 8 years on the Hopi reservation as wife of a Hopi artist, and over 20 years as a teacher and administrator." An accomplished woman. I presume the car decal was in Arizona — a state known far more for wealthy snowbirds than backwoods types.

I do want to add one comment. One of the generation-arching discussions from about 1965 until now is "hate speech." The phase "politically correct" — thrown around so carelessly today — actually has a meaning. It refers to the desire to ban hate speech, especially racist speech (images, incitements and pseudo-science), from university campuses.

In other words, "politically correct" means The things I'm forced to say because they won't let me talk like a racist. This is what the Right is defending when they oppose "political correctness." At the level of the masses, this is what freedom means to them. (At the level of Money, freedom means the right to move capital across borders for any purpose, whether the masses are hurt or not.)

And since Reagan, the Right has fought against being "PC". It's entirely possible that in the not-young generations, racism is as bad as it was in the 40s and 50s, but it's been tamped down by social restriction, even when those restrictions have been resisted. It's not gone, just unexposed. (There are stories about Palin, for example, making comments about Obama's defeat of Hillary, overheard by waitstaff at dinners, that are rather raw; and also rather unverifiable.)

So perhaps what we're seeing in these images is not just outliers and corner-cases, but as Keka suggests, something that's always been there, re-emerging now because it once more has permission to stick its ugly head into the light. And not to put too fine a point on it — this is what the Billionaires' Coup is funding.

Food for thought.

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How climate change legislation got FUBAR

From Ryan Lizza in the New Yorker:

On March 31st, Obama announced that large portions of U.S. waters in the Gulf of Mexico, the Arctic Ocean, and off the East Coast—from the mid-Atlantic to central Florida—would be newly available for oil and gas drilling. Two days later, he said, “It turns out, by the way, that oil rigs today generally don’t cause spills. They are technologically very advanced. Even during Katrina, the spills didn’t come from the oil rigs, they came from the refineries onshore.” From the outside, it looked as if the Obama Administration were coördinating closely with Democrats in the Senate. Republicans and the oil industry wanted more domestic drilling, and Obama had just given it to them. He seemed to be delivering on the grand bargain that his aides had talked about at the start of the Administration.

But there had been no communication with the senators actually writing the bill, and they felt betrayed. When Graham’s energy staffer learned of the announcement, the night before, he was “apoplectic,” according to a colleague. The group had dispensed with the idea of drilling in ANWR, but it was prepared to open up vast portions of the Gulf and the East Coast. Obama had now given away what the senators were planning to trade.

This was the third time that the White House had blundered. In February, the President’s budget proposal included $54.5 billion in new nuclear loan guarantees. Graham was also trying to use the promise of more loan guarantees to lure Republicans to the bill, but now the White House had simply handed the money over. Later that month, a group of eight moderate Democrats sent the E.P.A. a letter asking the agency to slow down its plans to regulate carbon, and the agency promised to delay any implementation until 2011. Again, that was a promise Kerry, Graham, and Lieberman wanted to negotiate with their colleagues. Obama had served the dessert before the children even promised to eat their spinach. Graham was the only Republican negotiating on the climate bill, and now he had virtually nothing left to take to his Republican colleagues.

Kerry, Graham, and Lieberman were not alone in their belief that transforming the economy required coöperation, rather than confrontation, with industry. American Presidents who have attempted large-scale economic transformation have always had their efforts tempered—and sometimes neutered—by powerful economic interests. Obama knew that, too, and his Administration had led the effort to find workable compromises in the case of the bank bailouts, health-care legislation, and Wall Street reform. But on climate change Obama grew timid and gave up, leaving the dysfunctional Senate to figure out the issue on its own.

As the Senate debate expired this summer, a longtime environmental lobbyist told me that he believed the “real tragedy” surrounding the issue was that Obama understood it profoundly. “I believe Barack Obama understands that fifty years from now no one’s going to know about health care,” the lobbyist said. “Economic historians will know that we had a recession at this time. Everybody is going to be thinking about whether Barack Obama was the James Buchanan of climate change.”

Actually, on health care reform Obama did next to nothing for a year (yes, he gave some speeches, but there was little congressional arm-twisting, and no details as to what he actually wanted) until the entire issue was about to come crashing down around him, then he settled for much less than he promised, without even trying for more. And on Wall Street Reform, better minds than I think he settled for far too little as well.

What happened on climate change is no different than what happened on "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," on immigration, the stimulus and so on: capitulate first, then settle for anything, but whatever you do, don't fight.

I still can't figure out what the problem is.  Does he lack courage?  Is he psychologically averse to conflict?  Does he not have any deeply held convictions on matters of policy?  Or is he simply a bad tactician who honestly thinks capitulation is a winning strategy?

I don't know what's motivating the man.  But I do know that on every issue, this is the way he has operated.  The die is cast.  This is who he is.  Don't expect anything different. Read the rest of this post...

Media Matters: How the right-wing media and Glenn Beck's chalkboard drove Byron Williams to plot assassination

A Media Matters exclusive with the man who was on his way to shoot up the ACLU and the Tides Foundation. Turns out he's a huge Glenn Beck fan.

Now, in exclusive interviews and written correspondence with journalist John Hamilton, Williams speaks for himself. He asks Hamilton to be his "media advocate" and repeatedly instructs him to watch specific broadcasts of Beck's show for information on the conspiracy theory that drove him over the edge: an intricate plot involving Barack Obama, philanthropist George Soros, a Brazilian oil company, and the BP disaster.

Williams also points to other media figures -- right-wing propagandist David Horowitz, and Internet conspiracist and repeated Fox News guest Alex Jones -- as key sources of information to inspire his "revolution."

In a separate exchange with Examiner.com's Ed Walsh, Williams sought to defend Beck from "Obama and the liberals," whom he said are afraid of Beck "because he often exposes things that are simply forbidden in news." Williams said that Beck advocates non-violence and that he had already researched the conspiracy theories that informed his alleged plot -- before seeing them "confirm[ed]" on Beck's show.

Similarly, Williams tells Hamilton that "Beck would never say anything about a conspiracy, would never advocate violence. He'll never do anything ... of this nature. But he'll give you every ounce of evidence that you could possibly need."

Back at the Santa Rita Jail, Byron again weighs in on Beck. "You know, I'll tell you," he says, "Beck is gonna deny everything about violent approach and deny everything about conspiracies, but he'll give you every reason to believe it. He's protecting himself, and you can't blame him for that. So, I understand what he's doing."

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Axelrod defends banks, 'not sure' about foreclosure moratorium

Siding with the GOP and Wall Street bankers is a unique way of inspiring the base to get out and vote but hey, they're the experts. There's little question about the foreclosure abuse outside in the real world. The White House bubble that we heard so much about during the Bush years seems to be continuing under Obama.

White House senior adviser David Axelrod signaled Sunday that the Obama administration is opposed to a national moratorium on foreclosures, even as pressure from Congress, labor unions and consumer groups mounts for the federal government to take action.

Calling the growing evidence that lenders have used inaccurately prepared and even fraudulent documents to foreclose on homes a "serious problem," Axelrod said it had already "thrown a lot of uncertainty into the housing market that is already fragile."

"I'm not sure about a national moratorium, because there are, in fact, valid foreclosures that probably should go forward, and where the documentation and paperwork is proper," Axelrod said Sunday on CBS' "Face the Nation."

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Monday Morning Open Thread

Good morning.

It's Columbus Day, which is a federal holiday. Most of official Washington is closed, but not the White House.

The President is holding a meeting on infrastructure with a group of cabinet secretaries, mayors and governors. He's also meeting with some of the students who appeared in the documentary, Waiting for Superman. Then, he's flying to Miami for a fundraising event for the DCCC at a "private residence." But, we know via the DCCC invitation that it's at the home of Alonzo Mourning, who used to play basketball for the Miami Heat. (That's probably how the DCCC lured Obama to the event.)

The Veep is in Pennsylvania today. He's got an event in Scranton for Rep. Chris Carney this morning. Then, he's heading to Pittsburgh for an early afternoon gig with Reps. Kathy Dahlkemper and Mark Critz. Later, at 5:30 PM, Biden will be with the gubernatorial candidate Dan Onorato.

Yesterday, the GOP/teabagger running for Governor of New York, Carl Paladino, launched into a vicious homophobic rant. Great timing, considering the rash of youth suicides and that horrific gay-bashing in the Bronx last week. I guess this disproves the idea that teabaggers aren't homophobes. And, it shows that elections do matter. Yeah, I'm ticked at the Democratic leaders here in DC, starting with Obama. But, there are many candidates running this year who can directly impact equality. They (and we) shouldn't suffer because of Obama -- and many good, progressive candidates are suffering because of Obama's presidency -- let's not pretend otherwise. The race for Governor of New York is one of those. Andrew Cuomo or Paladino? If I still lived in Maine, I'd sure as hell be voting for Libby Mitchell, who supports full equality. Her main opponent, teabagger Paul LePage, does not. In California, Jerry Brown won't defend the Prop. 8 lawsuit. Meg Whitman will. In Hawaii and Illinois, the Democratic candidates support civil unions. Their GOP opponents don't. Those are just some examples.

Anyway, 22 days til the election. Early voting, both absentee and in-person, is underway in many states. The Early Voting Information Center has a state-by-state chart. Read the rest of this post...

England and Wales have a major race problem

There's no other way to explain such statistics. The Guardian:

The proportion of black people in prison in England and Wales is higher than in the United States, a landmark report released today by the Equality and Human Rights Commission reveals.

The commission's first triennial report into the subject, How Fair is Britain, shows that the proportion of people of African-Caribbean and African descent incarcerated here is almost seven times greater to their share of the population. In the United States, the proportion of black prisoners to population is about four times greater.

The report, which aims to set out how to measure "fairness" in Britain, says that ethnic minorities are "substantially over-represented in the custodial system". It suggests many of those jailed have "mental health issues, learning disabilities, have been in care or experienced abuse".

Experts and politicians said over-representation of black men was a result of decades of racial prejudice in the criminal justice system and an overly punitive approach to penal affairs.

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Nobel Peace Prize winner informed of prize, wife under house arrest

Why does the world trust China when it continues to behave this way? BBC:

A US human rights group, Freedom Now, said Liu Xia visited her husband in jail on Sunday.

Freedom Now said Mr Liu wept during his wife's visit and dedicated his award to those killed at Tiananmen Square.

Mrs Liu also posted a message on Twitter with some details of their visit.

Prison officials told Mr Liu that he had won the Nobel prize on the night of 9 October, she said on Twitter.

In the message, she also confirmed that she had been placed under what she described as "house arrest" since the announcement of her husband's award on 8 October.

"My mobile phone has been ruined; I have no way of making or receiving calls," she wrote.

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