A US District Court judge just ruled that Section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), passed during the Clinton Administration, violates equal protection and is therefore unconstitutional.

You know what happens when your elected representatives fight for your privacy? Counterterrorism investigators actually grant you some!

The Senate can’t even get unemployment benefits extended because of deficit concerns. You think a climate bill will somehow be a lighter lift?

Graft in Afghanistan is not limited to the Afghan government. Military contracts written by ISAF are subject to such poor oversight that US companies are pocketing the proceeds without paying Afghan subcontractors, while ISAF stands by idly claiming the Afghan subcontractors have no recourse since they don’t have the resources to hire attorneys in the US.

Hundreds of workers in the Gulf Coast cleaning up BP’s oil disaster have reported symptoms of nausea, vomiting, nose bleeds, and headaches, but those “almost all have been heat related,” according to Deputy Assistant Secretary of Labor for OSHA Jordan Barab.

Barab – a former worker health and safety blogger at Firedoglake and his blog, Confined Space – says that despite widespread assumptions that workers are sick from exposure to oil, “we haven’t really found that yet.”

And for all the nutty things Jim DeMint has said, the idea that being to his left is an impeachable offense just might be the nuttiest.

Apparently, controlling the Federal Reserve, funding their bonuses with billions in taxpayer dollars and quite nearly bringing down the global economy with their degenerate gambling habits isn’t enough.

Wall Street now wants to punish any Democrat who lifts a hand against them, and they’re willing to fund primary challenges to do it.

Much like how the health care debate coincided with a last-minute failure on Medicare buy-in, the financial reform debate coincided with a last-minute failure on taxing the banks. In both cases, reformers and advocates haven’t given up on the idea. In the case of the bank tax, those reformers picked up a powerful champion.

The Louisiana legislature just passed, and Bobby Jindal just signed, a law permitting people to carry concealed firearms into churches, synogogues, mosques etc. That must mean there’s an epidemic of god-fearing folks being murdered in their pews, or rugs, or something.

The announcement of a United Kingdom torture inquiry has been met with approval by many, but many questions remain about whether the inquiry will really produce what the UK government promises. Meanwhile, in the U.S., frustrated by government obstructionist policies aimed against accountability for torture crimes, some are turning to legal actions against psychologists who were involved in torture.