Oh, Mister Steele, I know your chairmanship of the RNC is about to meet a brutal end, but on behalf of snarkaholics everywhere, I’m praying that you pull out a miracle win, just so we can be treated to more stories like this one: In an interview with RNC Chairman Michael Steele taped this week [...]

The eloquent words Dr Meyer uses to describe the constant, everyday hassles, discrimination, and prejudice encountered by gay and lesbian people and couples, especially when they decide to hide or mask who they are in order to avoid same, really struck me: the ‘private hell’ of an inauthentic life.

Why did Goldman thought it was necessary to take out protection against investment-grade mortgage securities it was selling by purchasing insurance-like contracts known as credit-default swaps. FCIC Commission chair Phil Angelides likened it to selling a car with knowledge it had faulty brakes and then taking out an insurance policy on the buyer.
“There seems an unwritten premise that Wall Street, exactly how it exists today, is necessary for the economy to work. That’s not true. … Wall Street has done an incredible job at pulling the wool over the eyes of the American people.”

The White House negotiated this excise tax deal directly with labor; Jim Messina was the lead negotiator on the White House side. The House and Senate were working on their own issues and not necessarily involved in this. Richard Trumka said on the call that he had been assured that the House and Senate signed off on the changes. However, Live Pulse talked to Joe Courtney, who was singled out by labor as their lead man on the subject, and it doesn’t exactly sound like he’s on board.

Marriage is a central part of life, it has huge social meaning from early childhood. What child is ever going to say, “I want to be civil unioned and live happily ever after!”?

Now that the U.S. Chamber of Commerce has been exposed as nothing but a hack-for-hire for the insurance industry, it’s worth looking at where exactly the insurance company/Chamber ads ran and how much media they bought to gauge the full breadth of duplicity and impact.

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On the 50th anniversary of the Greensboro sit-in, James Parks interviews Franklin McCain, one of the four students who refused to leave a whites-only Greensboro lunch counter until they were served, sparking key civil rights legislation.

In a conference call, leaders of America’s top unions announced their deal on the excise tax, one of the biggest flashpoints in the negotiations over a final health care bill. House and Senate leaders as well as the White House are on board with the new plan, which raises the threshold for which plans get captured, allows for a transition period for collectively bargained as well as state and local employee plans, and most interestingly, basically opens the exchanges to all employers after 2018.

[Ed. Note: FDL has complete team coverage of Perry v. Schwarzenegger--including more legal analysis, court documents, videos, and liveblogging direct from the federal court in San Francisco. You can find it all on our dedicated Prop 8 page.] For those joining FDL for our Prop 8 coverage, please help us defray the costs of covering [...]