The moment was years in the making. It was 11.45pm Tuesday night, and the Texas Senate was poised to enact perhaps the most restrictive anti-abortion bill in the United States. State senator Wendy Davis had filibustered the bill for 11 hours in a remarkable attempt to run out a 30-day special legislative session.
Tag US politics
WASHINGTON (AP) — Thousands of people, many holding signs with names of gun violence victims and messages such as “Ban Assault Weapons Now,” joined a rally for gun control on Saturday, marching from the Capitol to the Washington Monument.
Two pro-gun US senators have called for changes to firearm laws, as the first victims of the Newtown school shootings were buried in Connecticut.
Democrats Mark Warner and Joe Manchin, who have “A” ratings from the National Rifle Association (NRA), now say action is needed after the massacre.
Noah Pozner and Jack Pinto, both aged six, were buried on Monday after funeral services attended by hundreds.
They were among 20 children and six adults killed at Sandy Hook school.
Other victims’ funerals will be held throughout the week, and the town has already begun removing Christmas decorations in mourning.
Two adults who were injured in the attack survived are recovering in hospital and would be crucial witnesses as police continue their investigation, it was confirmed on Monday.
In Kentucky, a homeland security law requires the state’s citizens to acknowledge the security provided by the Almighty God–or risk 12 months in prison.
The law and its sponsor, state representative Tom Riner, have been the subject of controversy since the law first surfaced in 2006, yet the Kentucky state Supreme Court has refused to review its constitutionality, despite clearly violating the First Amendment’s separation of church and state.
Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) raised eyebrows Monday when he told GQ he couldn’t answer a question about the age of the earth because “I’m not a scientist, man.”
Having a top prospect for the 2016 presidential nomination say the age of the planet is “one of the great mysteries” comes at an awkward time for a party attempting to rebuild from its Nov. 6 drubbing at the hands of voters turned off by the GOP’s embrace of social conservatives. But Rubio is hardly alone among potential Republican presidential contenders. Other big names for 2016 have weighed in publicly at various times over the years to position themselves as supportive of creationism proponents.
(RNS) Rep. Pete Stark, D-Calif., the only openly atheist member of Congress, lost his race for another term on Tuesday (Nov. 6).
But nonbelievers will not remain unrepresented in the Capitol. Democrat Kyrsten Sinema, a former Arizona state senator, Mormon-turned-nontheist and a bisexual, has narrowly won her pitch for a House seat by 2,000 votes.
Here is an excellent set of analysis of the demographics of the voters in the US Presidential Election 2012 from the BBC. What I found fascinating is the religious vote not being quite what I expected, though I would like to see results for evangelicals and fundamentalists.
It’s a weird situation that speaks volumes when you are more scared about a political party and their leader getting into power in a foreign country than you are in who does get in in your own country!
Now that Sandy has exacted a steep toll in lives and property, the question is unavoidable: why do so many people in America refuse to take climate science seriously?
Rick Santorum at the RNC, in August 2012: the former presidential candidate has voiced Christian Dominionist ideas. Photograph: Eric Thayer/Reuters
I am not assuming that Sandy was the direct consequence of human-caused climate change. But with this fresh evidence of the impact of climate issues on real people, how is it possible for anyone to think that thousands of scientists around the world are engaged in an elaborate hoax?
The standard reply is that some powerful organizations – above all, in the fossil fuel industry – think that they can benefit from misleading the public, and have funded a successful disinformation campaign. There is a lot of truth to this answer, but it isn’t the whole truth.
In the context of all of the claims made by Republicans about rape, this video is rather amusing (though about…
Dear GOP candidates and party members,
I’m going to give you some free campaign advice: stop talking about rape.
The latest Republican rape commentary comes from Romney-endorsed Indiana senatorial candidate Richard Mourdock, who tells us:
“I think even when life begins in that horrible situation of rape, that it is something that God intended to happen.”
Cue outrage, then cue “apology” from Mourdock – not for his comments, but for “any interpretation other than what I intended”. National Republican senatorial committee chairman John Cornyn voiced his support for Mourdock and added that he also believes “life is a gift from God.”
For those who have not seen this, enjoy the sheer hilarity of bad taste spewing forth from the mouths of…
In a Tuesday night debate with his Democratic rival and a Libertarian candidate for one of Indiana’s U.S. Senate seats, Republican candidate Richard Mourdock suggested that pregnancies resulting from rape are “something that God intended to happen,” despite the “horrible situation” from which they derived.
Ever heard of the “Committee on Science, Space and Technology” of the United States Congress ? This committee has jurisdiction over: “all energy research, development, and demonstration, and projects therefor, and all federally owned or operated non-military energy laboratories”.
http://science.house.gov/jurisdiction
So… you would expect the members of this committee to be well educated, right ? Or at the very least you would expect them to have at least a rudimentary understanding of science, wouldn´t you ?
The Huffington Post recently reported this:
Congressman Paul Broun (R-Ga.) said last week that evolution and the big bang theory are “lies straight from the pit of Hell.”
“God’s word is true. I’ve come to understand that. All that stuff I was taught about evolution and embryology and the big bang theory, all that is lies straight from the pit of Hell,” said Broun, who is an MD. “It’s lies to try to keep me and all the folks who were taught that from understanding that they need a savior.”