Jane Lynch: Being gay isn't one of my flaws

Actress Jane Lynch told CNN’s Piers Morgan on Tuesday that she was “blown away” by President Barack Obama’s recent endorsement of same sex marriage. Even though “nothing is going to happen” because of his support for marriage equality, she s …

A Wee History of the Census

Steven Taylor reports today on a boneheaded effort by House Republicans to kill off the American Community Survey, an annual program supported not just by mushy-headed liberals, but by conservative think tanks and the business community. It's an invaluable source of information …

Gay-Marriage Ban Prompts Push to Move DNC Out of North Carolina

North Carolina voters have spoken. Now it's other people's turn. And, around the country, many of them are so mad at Tuesday's results on Amendment One that they're calling for the Democratic National Convention to be yanked out of Charlotte. By 1:15 p.m., nearly 20,000 people  …

Franklin Graham: Obama shook fist at God by supporting gay marriage

Franklin Graham, president and CEO of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, issued a statement Thursday about the president’s decision. It said, in part, “In changing his position from that of Senator/candidate Obama, President Obama has, in my view, shaken his …

House Votes To Cut Census Survey Done Since Thomas Jefferson

The House voted Wednesday to eliminate the detailed surveys of America that have been conducted by the Census Bureau since the nation’s earliest days. House Republicans, increasingly suspicious of the census generally, advanced a measure to cut the American Community Sur …

North Carolina votes on same-sex marriage amendment with support strong for ban

North Carolina voters approved a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage Tuesday, dealing a setback to a gay rights movement that has enjoyed significant momentum in recent years. With less than a third of the returns tallied, the measure had enough support to pass, according  …

RNC Hispanic outreach director: Romney is 'still deciding what his position on immigration is'

A Republican National Committee roundtable on Tuesday aimed at highlighting the GOP’s Hispanic get-out-the-vote effort ended up backfiring as the RNC’s director of Hispanic outreach struggled to explain to reporters Republicans’ message to Hispanics when it co …

How Wall Street Drives Up Gas Prices -- Ripping Us Off and Killing Jobs

It's a common belief that oil prices are set on the world market by supply and demand. Less supply and/or more demand causes prices to rise. Oil is getting harder to find; OPEC is holding back supply; China and India are guzzling it up; Iran is threatening to blow it up. And re …

Stephen King Writes Awesome Op-Ed, Joins Legions of Wealthy Who Want to Be Taxed

The disproportionate and unfair tax rate disparity between the rich and poor is going to be a major hot-button issue this election, particularly when Romney's meager 13% tax rate is even lower than Obama's (because he's richer). Over the past year, a number of super-rich progre …

Why Are Conservatives Petrified of Sexual Freedom?

There’s a tendency among prominent anti-choicers to speak elliptically of their beliefs, knowing that straightforward statements of hostility to sex and women’s rights tend to run ordinary people off. But occasionally one of them gets a little slack and ends up sayi …

The Self-Made Myth: Debunking Conservatives' Favorite -- And Most Dangerous -- Fiction

The self-made myth is one of the most cherished foundation stones of the conservative theology. Nurtured by Horatio Alger and generations of beloved boys' stories, It sits at the deep black heart of their entire worldview, where it provides the essential justification for a gre …

The Fetish of National Security: How America's Worst Crimes Are Perpetrated and Excused

Consider the less than six degrees of separation between the idea of national security and the lurid crimes of Abu Ghraib. Each of the reasons the Bush administration gave for going to war against Iraq—the threat of weapons of mass destruction (WMD), Saddam’s allege …

What If the Greedy Rich Paid Their Share? 8 Things to Know About Wealth and Poverty in the US

We are a very rich nation but it doesn’t seem that way because our wealth is so concentrated in the hands of a few. This is America’s disaster. But wait. Doesn’t the wealth belong to the super-rich? Didn’t they earn it fair and square? Isn’t that  …

Conservatives' Losing Bet on Birth Control: History Suggests They Might've Woken a Sleeping Giant

Republican strategists and political prognosticators are quick to assure us that Romney’s gender gap—which at 19 points is now more like a gender chasm—will evaporate as general election campaigning gears up and the attention of voters returns to bread-and-but …

How Occupy Wall Street Plans to Take Down Bank of America--And How You Can Help

Bank of America: the very name is meant to conjure up comforting, red-white-and-blue fantasies of a bank of the people, by the people, and for the people. But as Matt Taibbi pointed out in his latest feature for Rolling Stone, while there's almost nothing the megabank does tha …

What's Even Grosser Than Pink Slime?

Let's start with pink slime. Democratic and Republican politicians agree on little these days, but they do find common ground on this point: Pink slime is good stuff. Government officials, from USDA chief Tom Vilsack and the USDA's chief food-safety functionary to Texas' ridicu …

Thomas Frank: How Americans Have Gotten Played -- Over and Over and Over Again

My aim here isn’t to take some kind of victory lap or to get in the granite faces of our eternal pundit corps one more time. Nor is it to blame Republicans for our problems. It is true that, from the scandal of CEO pay to the scandal of lobotomized regulators, each of the …

Paul Ryan's Healthcare Plan: Die Quickly

As a favor to struggling Americans, U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., proposed a federal budget last week ravaging programs for the poor, elderly, disabled, young, veterans, jobless, students and other vulnerable people. Ryan did it, he said, because these programs, food stamps, hea …

Why the Koch Brothers' Coup of the Cato Institute Is So Dangerous

The Kochs have sued for the right to buy the shares in Cato held by the widow of co-founder William Niskanen. Their aim is basically to make Cato into another arm of their explicitly partisan messaging machine, along with Americans For Prosperity.

Organic Farmers Lose More Ground to Monsanto

Monsanto’s bullying tactics received a legal nod of approval on February 24th, when Judge Naomi Buchwald dismissed a suit brought against the company by the Organic Seed Growers and Trade Association (OSGATA). The association was joined by 82 other plaintiffs.

The Best and Worst Economic Ideas of This Election Season

The official debate over the economy shifted decisively last summer away from proposals for job creation to obsessing over the size of the federal government’s deficit (how much we are borrowing each year) and debt (how much we owe overall).

Making Sustainability Legal: 9 Zombie Laws That Keep Cities From Going Green

You’ve done your part, you good greenie, you. You’ve changed out the light bulbs, bought energy-saving appliances, learned to recycle, tuned up your bike, joined a co-op, and bought a transit pass and/or a fuel-efficient car.

7 Dangerous Lies About Plastic

Nearly everything we consume or even interact with these days is made of plastic. The industry that produces plastic, largely represented by the American Chemistry Council (ACC), has an annual budget of over $120 million to protect its interests.

Santorum is for federal funding of birth control, except when he isn't

I was getting ready to write something nice about Rick Santorum.

Michigan's Hostile Takeover

When the city of Pontiac, Michigan, shut down its fire department last Christmas Eve, city councilman Kermit Williams learned about it in the morning paper. "Nobody reports to me anymore," Williams says.

Recent Votes

Profile

Chum

Articles Posted: 9
Links Seeded: 903
Member Since: 2/2006Last Seen: 5/18/2012

I work in local government--and enjoy it most days.

Recommendations

Chum is not offering any recommendations at this time.

Chum's Feeds

Subscribe to Chum's content using the feeds below. Use RSS for your newsreader and JSS to insert onto your own blog:
  • Articles
  • Seeds

Latest Comments