After careful consideration and extensive dialogue within the scouting family, along with comments from those outside the organization, the volunteer officers of the Boy Scouts of America’s National Executive Board concluded that due to the complexity of this issue, the organization needs time for a more deliberate review of its membership policy.Boy Scouts of America - In a new statement, announcing the organization’s decision to postpone a vote to determine whether or not to repeal a three-decade old policy barring gay members and leaders from joining the BSA. The vote was apparently delayed due to a request from a coalition of leaders representing roughly one-fifth of the Boy Scouts’ currently registered members. source
Native American tells anti-immigration protesters “You’re all f***ing illegal”
Epic protest, complete with stroller and baby. (warning: swears)
EDIT: This version was removed. The original is here, though.
Barring an unexpected turn of legislative affairs, a ban on military-style semi-automatic assault weapons will not make it into law, top Hill aides and gun policy advocates say.
The ban will get a vote. But the purpose of that vote will be in part to facilitate its demise. The expectation is that there won’t be 60 members of the upper chamber to support the bill’s inclusion in the final legislative language.
The likelihood that an assault weapons ban ends up in the legislative scrapheap is hardly unexpected — the Wall Street Journal also reported on the issue on Monday morning. The ban is the most controversial of four major components of the gun control platform that the Obama administration introduced and that congressional Democrats have touted.
Long story short, Sen. Harry Reid is hoping that a Senate sub-committee strips out the assault weapons ban so that three more-popular gun control proposals might be passed by both chambers of Congress. Hit the jump for a detailed breakdown of the plan, and what it could mean for the gun control debate going forward.
Unsurprisingly, major telecom providers like AT&T and Verizon aren’t big on having to compete with the government for customers who don’t actually need the overpriced services being offered by their companies. Some GOP members have suggested that it would be more fiscally responsible for the FCC to sell the broadcast spectrum, allowing the government to raise billions in new revenue. What say you, dear reader? source
Tagg Romney, son of former GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney, is considering a Senate run in Massachusetts’s upcoming special election, according to the Boston Herald.
The Herald reported Monday that Romney was considering a bid to replace John Kerry in the seat that opened up after Kerry became Secretary of State. The Herald would not identify the source of its information.
Something tells us that the guy who admitted to wanting to slug the President over an election debate probably isn’t going to have the most positive effect on Senate already rendered rather ineffective by partisanship and bickering. We’d like to say his election would at least be a step up from Geraldo Rivera, but even that seems questionable at best…
It’s February 1, so you know Twitter is lighting up with white people — mostly teenagers, which makes me so incredibly depressed — who are just baffled or angry about the fact that there’s no white history month when there’s a black history month.
There are thousands of these; I just grabbed a few for posterity.
Related side note: Victoria Jackson, the Tea Partiest former cast member of SNL, put up a little ode to White History Month on her blog yesterday. Then people noticed. Then she deleted it.
Once everyone was on Twitter, everyone’s problems were on Twitter. The early adopters might have been tech-utopians, but the succeeding waves were angry cynics and partisan cranks who used the technology to make the world even louder and worse than it was before Twitter.
Compounding the problem is that — unlike everyone else — if you work in journalism, you can check out anytime you like, but you can never leave. Being on Twitter is now part of the job, meaning that you can’t not be on Twitter. What was once an inspiring place that gave you a competitive advantage became a prison.
Twitter has become like high school, where the mean kids say something hurtful to boost their self-esteem and to see if others will laugh and join in. Aside from trolling for victims after some tragedy, Twitter isn’t used for reporting much anymore. But it is used for snark.
The existence of Twitchy, which is the toilet of the internet, basically validates Matt K. Lewis’ entire point here. – Ernie @ SFB
Speculation abounds surrounding Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s future ambitions, but one group of fans has already launched a super PAC anticipating a potential 2016 presidential campaign.
The group, “Ready for Hillary,” filed paperwork with the Federal Election Commission Friday. Professor and historian Allida Black is leading the super PAC,the Center for Public Integrity reported.
It’s certainly looking more and more like our Secretary of State has some big plans for her post-diplomatic endeavors, though Sec. Clinton has yet to confirm any plans to seek the presidency. Think she should run?
Yahoo wants to buy Hulu now too. They’re going on an “I...
I’m moving back to New York in a few days. Unlike past...
OMG. I got so...
In this week’s Newsweek, a little...
Tumblr this morning. [h/t anne]
#@#$%!.tumblr.com
Here’s a hidden feature that shipped in...
Obama wants to put every private, personal firearms transaction right under the thumb of the federal government and he wants to keep all of those names in a massive federal registry. There’s only two reasons for a federal list on gun owners – to either tax ‘em or take ‘em.NRA executive Wayne LaPierre • Cherry-picking a single phrase from President Obama’s inaugural address to become the subject of his latest rant against the President and the push for stricter gun control. While we’re not big fans of LaPierre ourselves, we’d hate to see the man work himself into an early grave over these fears, and just like to remind him that sometimes tracking the sale of certain products can be extremely beneficial. Even when the products being tracked were manufactured with nothing but the best intentions (We’re looking at you pseudoephedrine). source
Senior defense officials say Pentagon chief Leon Panetta is removing the military’s ban on women serving in combat, opening hundreds of thousands of front-line positions and potentially elite commando jobs after more than a decade at war.
The groundbreaking move recommended by the Joint Chiefs of Staff overturns a 1994 rule prohibiting women from being assigned to smaller ground combat units. Panetta’s decision gives the military services until January 2016 to seek special exceptions if they believe any positions must remain closed to women.
A senior military official says the services will develop plans for allowing women to seek the combat positions. Some jobs may open as soon as this year. Assessments for others, such as special operations forces, including Navy SEALS and the Army’s Delta Force, may take longer.
While it’s not an across-the-board authorization that some were undoubtedly hoping for, the changes being authorized by Sec. of Defense Leon Panetta still seem like a step in the right direction. An official announcement about the change is expected on Thursday.
We’re still looking for more info on the story, but this is a pretty big deal guys. The decision reverses a combat exclusion policy passed back in 1994. source
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