The Opinionated Liberal The SEC's porn problem - Pornography As the global economy crashed and burned, certain top staffers at the Securities and Exchange Commission were busy watching porn. Instead of policing Wall Street, some were surfing for smut. This is the revelation making headlines today after the leak Thursday night of a summary of 33 probes of SEC employees using government computers to access pornography over the past five years. For the most part, the summary (PDF) resurfaces information that was already public; and it’s worth noting that it was requested by Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley, and is now being used as political ammunition by the GOP. The details are as follows: 31 of the investigations took place during the financial meltdown and, as the extent of the crisis became clear in 2008, the number of investigations ballooned from two the previous year to 16. The summary includes salacious details about hundreds of images and videos stored on work hard drives. Well, now, this is all very exciting.
The Daily Dish | By Andrew Sullivan In another video from Dave Cullen, Truvada user and bestselling author, he addresses the anticipated backlash from Fox News and Limbaugh when PrEP drugs are more widely used: The idea that gay sex requires more justification than straight sex is deeply embedded in the culture – even within gay culture. Two other themes have emerged as well in talking about this with my fellow homos. The first is that taking a Truvada pill means, for some, the taking of an HIV pill. And being HIV-negative is sometimes defined as not having to take an HIV pill. I think there’s also a resistance to the good news in the same way that there was intense resistance to the good news of the cocktail therapy eighteen years ago. cover-essay for the New York Times magazine. Meanwhile, readers are responding in droves via Facebook and the in-tray: Thank you so much for your writing on Truvada and celebrating it for the godsend that it is. Another: I’m a married straight guy. Read On
Americans' Acceptance of Gay Relations Crosses 50% Threshold PRINCETON, NJ - Americans' support for the moral acceptability of gay and lesbian relations crossed the symbolic 50% threshold in 2010. At the same time, the percentage calling these relations "morally wrong" dropped to 43%, the lowest in Gallup's decade-long trend. Gallup's annual Values and Beliefs survey, conducted each May, documents a gradual increase in public acceptance of gay relations since about 2006. However, the change is seen almost exclusively among men, and particularly men younger than 50. Additionally, Gallup finds greater movement toward acceptance among independents and Democrats than among Republicans, and a big jump in acceptance among moderates. Notably, there has been a 16-point jump in acceptance among Catholics, nearly three times the increase seen among Protestants. The same May 3-6 Gallup poll finds the slight majority of Americans still against legalizing gay marriage; however, at 53%, the extent of that opposition is down slightly this year. Bottom Line
AMERICAblog News Deep Background news, analysis, and opinion from Politics Daily. Just In Mitt Romney: Adult or Empty Suit? -David Corn In his speech at CPAC last week, Romney offered bromides rather than specific proposals on fixing the economy. He seemed content to bash Obama rather than offer alternatives. Obama Hate Machine Exploits Egyptian Crisis Glenn Beck and others never let a crisis go to waste. The Hugh Hewitt Show Inside the Information Loop - Conor Friedersdorf - Metablog - Tr On the subject of the American right, and whether or not its rank-and-file receive accurate information from the opinion leaders they trust, the events I’m about to lay out are telling. On May 5, aka Cinco de Mayo , five students at a high school in Morgan Hill, California wore American flag attire to class. “The vice principal asked two of the boys to remove American flag bandannas that they wearing on their heads and for the others to turn their American flag T-shirts inside out,” the local NBC affiliate reported . “When they refused, the boys were ordered to go to the principal’s office.” The story got picked up in the national media, bloggers debated whether the boys were being patriotic or deliberately insensitive, and almost everyone at least agreed that in this country they were well within their rights to wear the American flag. I am very interested in one aspect of the discussion that followed this story. Says the most trusted man in conservative radio, Rush Limbaugh : Dr.
The Progressive Professor Sarah Palin, Inc. - Politics In the new issue of New York magazine, Gabriel Sherman takes a revealing look at the business of being Sarah Palin. Upshot: it's lucrative. He estimates that Palin, who he dubs "the president of right-wing America," earned $12 million over the last year. What really jumps out, though, is not the size of Palin's haul but her overweening money lust, which would be at home on the Goldman Sachs trading floor. Others have cashed in on political fame, Gabe notes. But no one else has rolled politics and entertainment into the same scintillating, infuriating, spectacularly lucrative package the way Palin has or marketed herself over multiple platforms with the sophistication and sheer ambitiousness that Palin has shown, all while maintaining a viable presence as a prospective presidential candidate in 2012. A couple notes. Why indeed? And she's hardly alone. (Image courtesy of Geico)
Read: Judge Asks Questions of Defense and Plaintiffs in Federal Rick Jacobs of the Courage Campaign points out some of the questions issued today to plaintiffs and defense by Judge Vaughn Walker in Perry v. Schwarzenegger, the federal challenge to Proposition 8: What empirical data, if any, supports a finding that legal recognition of same-sex marriage reduces discrimination against gays and lesbians? What are the consequences of a permanent injunction against enforcement of Proposition 8? What remedies do plaintiffs propose? If the evidence of the involvement of the LDS and Roman Catholic churches and evangelical ministers supports a finding that Proposition 8 was an attempt to enforce private morality, what is the import of that finding? Writes Jacobs: "I am not a lawyer, but I can without doubt say that never before has homosexuality been on trial in America in this way. Closing arguments are scheduled for June 16. The full list of questions, AFTER THE JUMP...
POLITICAL TRUTH-THE BLOG THAT ROCKS Huffington Post President Barack Obama has been the target of endless tirades from the Republican opposition, nonetheless, the president has remained poised as he has made progress on a wide range of important issues. But will the "Yes we can!" voters of 2008 be energized enough this fall to overcome those whose rallying cry is "Hell no!"? The incumbent party almost always loses House and Senate seats in a midterm elections, and that will certainly be the outcome this coming November. Conservative leaders, like Mississippi Governor Haley Barber, know just how to tap into the emotions of their state's voters. The Republicans, supported by right-wing talk show hosts, are accusing the president of a government takeover, socialism, and, even worse, arrogance. Yes, President Obama's popularity has fallen below the 50% mark, as those who disapprove of his performance are now at about an equal number. On the positive side, President Obama's base has reason to be pleased. Is this the work of an arrogant man?
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