52% support marijuana legalization in a new Pew poll, compared with 45% who don’t. It’s the first national poll ever to show majority support for legalization.
I’d like to break Strom’s record, but I have discovered there are limits to filibustering, and I have to go take care of one of those
Senator Rand Paul who officially yielded the floor at 12:39 AM est (via antigovernmentextremist)
Rand Paul filibustered for 12 hours and 52 minutes. During a snowstorm in D.C. With President Obama’s usage of drones as the main topic, and the nomination of would-be CIA head John Brennan hanging in the balance. It was the first “real” filibuster—dude-talking-for-hours-style—since Bernie Sanders did it in 2010. More details here.
Chick-fil-A says it will stop funding anti-gay groups
(Photo: Cody Duty / AP)
Chick-fil-A has agreed to stop funding groups with anti-same-sex marriage stances, according to a statement released Wednesday by LGBT advocacy group The Civil Rights Agenda.
Chicago Alderman Joe Moreno, who had blocked the fast-food chain from opening stores in Chicago because of its anti-gay views, likewise announced he would now let Chick-fil-A open up new outlets after he received a letter this morning from the company stating that they would cease donating to the groups.
Yet to be seen: Will this actually end the boycott? Or will pro-LGBT chicken fans continue to deny the chain their business?
A court in Egypt has forbidden the Army from carrying out so-called virginity tests on female detainees. The verdict was delivered in the case of Samira Ibrahim, a 25-year-old marketing manager and activist brave enough to defy the country’s Army.
In March of this year, military forces violently broke up a sit-in of protesters who had continued to camp out in Tahrir Square after Mubarak’s ouster. Women as well as men were arrested. According to testimony they gave to international human-rights groups, the women were insulted, accused of prostitution, beaten, and tortured. At a military camp to which they were transported, seven of the women—those who were unmarried—were subjected to “virginity tests,” stripped and inspected by a male military doctor while soldiers and officers looked on.
One person makes a difference: There were numerous reports of said “tests” being carried out by the Egyptian army, but Samira Ibrahim was the only woman to come forward publicly and file a lawsuit. “On that day, I truly wished for death,” she said in a video testimony. “I kept telling myself, people get heart attacks and die, why don’t I get one?” Problem is, Egyptian courts don’t have jurisdiction over military personnel, so while policy will change to reflect the ruling, it’ll be up to the military itself to press charges against any of its officers. So far, it has announced that it will charge one army doctor with “public indecency and violation of orders.”
“If the president thinks you are a terrorist, let him present charges and evidence to a judge,” Libertarian Party Chair Mark Hinkle said in a statement Friday. “He has no authority to lock you up without any judicial review, just because he and Congress believe he should have unlimited power. That is the kind of power held by tyrants in totalitarian regimes. It has no place in the United States.”
This is the same bill as we noted in our last post. Rand Paul wasn’t able to kill the full thing, but he killed one of the nastier amendments in it, which would have allowed the U.S. to hold detainees even after they had been acquitted in a court of law.
Shopping at the mall? You may end up in a police database as a suspicious person.
Mall of America, the home to terrorism, apparently.
» This means there were 41% fewer websites accessible to China’s residents at the end of last year, compared to a year earlier. And the statistic comes directly from the Chinese government itself (well, a government-run think tank, at least), so it’s probably not an overstatement.
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