Blue Spot

Florida, Arizona & California ban gay marriage, as vote count on Ca.'s Proposition 8 finalized

West Coast voters reversed a May court decision allowing gay marriage by passing a constitutional amendment that limits weddings to heterosexual couples. The stunning turnaround was one of several votes against gay rights in ballot propositions, with Arizona and Florida blocking same-sex unions.

In Arkansas, voters banned unmarried couples from serving as adoptive or foster parents - a move aimed at keeping gays and lesbians from taking in children.

In California, the vote capped the most expensive social issues campaign in U.S. history - with the two sides raising more than $70 million.

"It's a blow to civil rights. I'm very sad that people can't recognize that," said Stephanie Anne Davies, 47, a writer from Brooklyn. She married her partner of 13 years, Bea Anne Hanson, in San Francisco last month.

California Attorney General Jerry Brown has said the measure should not affect the estimated 16,000 gay couples who married after the California Supreme Court legalized gay marriage earlier this year.

In another intriguing California initiative, handcuffs for hookers in San Francisco will remain both a boon and a bother. Voters rejected a proposal to bar police from arresting prostitutes, which would have offered tacit legitimacy for the world's oldest profession.

In other states:

Connecticut: Voters protected last month's court ruling approving gay marriage.
Washington: Voters said yes to medically assisted suicide.
Colorado: Voters rejected a first-of-its-kind proposal that defined life as beginning at conception.
Massachusetts: Suspects arrested with an ounce or less of marijuana won't face criminal charges - just surrender of their stash and payment of a $100 fine.
Michigan: Medical patients can register to legally grow, buy and use marijuana.

Labels: Civil Rights, Gay marriage, Gay rights

Blacks savor Obama win, fear disappointment | Reuters

ATLANTA (Reuters) - Black Americans savored Barack Obama's unprecedented victory in the Democratic race for U.S. president, but said on Wednesday the higher stakes raised the prospect of deep disappointment in November.

The knowledge that Obama will be the first black American to lead a major party in a U.S. presidential election as he faces Republican John McCain in November provoked a flood of reflection from black voters at Atlanta's "K&K Soul Food" restaurant.

"It's great. We finally have a 'brother' nominated to be president. It's the best thing I've ever seen," said Alan Stephens, 46, who had parked the truck he uses for his welding business directly outside the big side window.

"But it will be even better when he is president," he said, adding that Obama's victory should be put in the context of other milestones in African American history, a popular view among a U.S. minority with a keen sense that discrimination and the struggle to overcome it has defined its identity.

In winning the nomination, Obama has left many African Americans elated but at the same time fearful that their own preoccupations might derail the candidate in a general election, said William Jelani Cobb, author of books about contemporary black culture.

"Black Americans are treading on thin ice, moving very delicately. This (Obama's) opportunity is frail and fragile (and many say) let's make sure that nothing happens to ruin it," said Cobb, a professor of history at Atlanta's Spelman College.

Labels: African-American issues, Civil Rights, Obama, Obama supporters, Race

ABC News: FBI Raids Bush Official's Office

FBI agents raided the downtown Washington, D.C. offices of Special Counsel Scott Bloch Tuesday, a spokesman for the official confirmed.

The Office of Special Counsel (OSC) was created to protect whistle-blower rights and investigate improper political activity by government employees. Bloch allegedly attempted to destroy certain computer files in his office following complaints by whistleblowers in his own office. President Bush appointed Bloch to head the office in 2003.

"We are cooperating with law enforcement," said OSC spokesman Jim Mitchell by e-mail. "We do not know what this is about. Meanwhile, we are continuing to perform the independent mission of this office."

Labels: Civil Rights, FBI, Investigations, whistleblowers

A salute to one of the greatest men of all time.

Labels: African-American issues, Civil Rights, MLK

Democracy Now! Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. 1929-1968

Labels: African-American issues, Civil Rights, MLK

American Civil Liberties Union : ACLU Condemns Senate for Passing Spy Law Changes

“We are deeply disappointed that the president’s tactics of fearmongering have once again forced Congress into submission,” said Anthony Romero, executive director of the ACLU. “That a Democratically-controlled Senate would be strong-armed by the Bush administration is astonishing. This Congress may prove to be as spineless in standing up to the Bush Administration as the one that enacted the Patriot Act or the Military Commissions Act.”

Labels: Civil Rights, Homeland Security, Intelligence, Surveilance

House OKs wider wiretap powers - Politics - MSNBC.com

WASHINGTON - The House handed President Bush a victory Saturday, voting to expand the government's abilities to eavesdrop without warrants on foreign suspects whose communications pass through the United States.

The 227-183 vote, which followed the Senate's approval Friday, sends the bill to Bush for his signature. He had urged Congress to approve it, saying Saturday, "Protecting America is our most solemn obligation."

The administration said the measure is needed to speed the National Security Agency's ability to intercept phone calls, e-mails and other communications involving foreign nationals "reasonably believed to be outside the United States." Civil liberties groups and many Democrats said it goes too far, possibly enabling the government to wiretap U.S. residents communicating with overseas parties without adequate oversight from courts or Congress.

Labels: Civil Rights, Homeland Security, Intelligence, Surveilance

NYCLU: Public should see stop-and-frisk data - AM New York

Controversy over the New York Police Department's stop-and-frisk tactics flared anew Wednesday when the New York Civil Liberties Union asked the department to release data the union deems necessary to better understand why officers stop people on the streets.

The request, in a letter to Police Commissioner Ray Kelly, was made under terms of the Freedom of Information Act, and comes as the NYPD is close to releasing a study of its stop-and-frisk practices that was conducted by a company it hired, the nonprofit RAND Corp.

Labels: Civil Rights, Local

Court limits schools on race, stops execution - Yahoo! News WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court on Thursday rejected school assignment plans that take account of students' race in two major public school districts. The decisions could imperil similar plans nationwide. The Court also blocked the execution of a Texas killer whose lawyers argued that he should not be put to death because he is mentally ill.

Today is probably the Court's last session until October.

The school rulings in cases affecting schools in Louisville, Ky., and Seattle leave public school systems with a limited arsenal to maintain racial diversity.

The court split, 5-4, with Chief Justice John Roberts announcing the court's judgment. Justice Stephen Breyer wrote a dissent that was joined by the court's other three liberals.

Labels: Civil Rights, Education, Supreme Court

CIA opens the book on a shady past - Politics - MSNBC.com

The CIA declassified nearly 700 pages of secret records Tuesday recording its illegal activities during the first decades of the Cold War, publishing a catalog of adventures that run the gamut of spy movie clichés from attempts to kill foreign leaders and intercept domestic mail to garden-variety break-ins and burglaries.

“Most of it is unflattering, but it is CIA’s history,” the CIA’s director, Gen. Michael Hayden, said last week in announcing plans to release the documents, which had been considered so sensitive that they were known internally as the agency’s “family jewels.”

Click here for full CIA report

Labels: Civil Rights, Domestic spying, Intelligence, Surveilance

Valerie Plame discusses her suit against the CIA and her new book, "Fair Game."

Labels: Civil Rights, Intelligence, Libby Trial, Plamegate

Newsweek correspondent, Michael Isikoff, interviews professor and author of "Nation of Secrets," Ted Gup.

Labels: 9-11, Civil Rights, Constitutional attacks, Domestic spying, Intelligence, Military secrets, Patriot Act, Surveilance

Harvard University Constitutional Law Professor, Laurence Tribe, discusses the "rule of law" and how Bush & AG Gonzales are damaging this country.

Labels: AG Gonzales, Alberto Gonzales, Civil Rights, Constitutional attacks, Domestic spying, Human Rights, Patriot Act, Signing Statements, Surveilance, Torture, US Attorney scandal

White House may veto hate crimes bill - Politics - MSNBC.com

WASHINGTON - Just hours after the White House issued a veto threat Thursday, the House voted to add gender and sexual orientation to the categories covered by federal hate crimes law.

The House legislation, passed 237-180, also makes it easier for federal law enforcement to take part in or assist local prosecutions involving bias-motivated attacks. Similar legislation is also moving through the Senate, setting the stage for another veto showdown with President Bush.

“This is an important vote of conscience, of a statement of what America is, a society that understands that we accept differences,” said House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md.

The White House, in a statement warning of a veto, said state and local criminal laws already cover the new crimes defined under the bill, and there was “no persuasive demonstration of any need to federalize such a potentially large range of violent crime enforcement.”

Labels: Civil Rights, Hate crimes

Gov. Spitzer Unveils Gay Marriage Bill - News - MSNBC.com

NEW YORK - Democratic Gov. Eliot Spitzer, following through on a campaign pledge, unveiled a bill Friday to legalize gay marriage in New York.

But the powerful Republican leader of the state Senate immediately declared himself still opposed to the notion of having New York join neighboring Massachusetts as the only states permitting same-sex marriage.

Labels: Civil Rights, Gay marriage, Local

The ACLU has looked into whether there was a pattern of illegally preventing critics from speaking at Bush public forums.



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Labels: Civil Rights, Dissent

A salute to one of the greatest men of all time.

Labels: African-American issues, Civil Rights, MLK