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IRS Abuses Power in Targeting Tea Party
This piece was originally posted on CNN.com. The extraordinary revelation this week that the Internal Revenue Service targeted tea party groups for more aggressive enforcement highlights exactly why caution is needed in any response to the much-vilified Supreme Court decision in Citizens United v. Show More Summary
Mother's Day is Over - But Pregnancy Discrimination Isn't.
Women make up almost half the workforce today, and, if they become pregnant, most will work throughout their pregnancy. Given this reality, you probably think the stories below are works of a bygone era. Well, you’d be wrong. A woman was 16 weeks pregnant and worked as a cashier at a large retailer in New York City. Show More Summary
Conrad N. Hilton Foundation Supports Safe Water in Ghana
When the people of Atosale, Ghana were told that a second borehole would be built in their community, they screamed and clapped, smiled and bounced their children up and down on their laps. I recently witnessed this joy when I accompanied a delegation from the Conrad N. Show More Summary
ACLU Joins Human Rights Coalition Opposing Force-Feeding at Guantánamo
The hunger strike in Guantánamo is now in its fourth month. At the military’s latest count, 100 of the 166 prisoners are on strike, motivated in large part by their indefinite imprisonment without charge or trial. Twenty-nine of those men are being force-fed, the largest number yet during this hunger strike. Show More Summary
Da Gr8 Gatsbee
AP Photo/Warner Bros. Pictures
T he book will still be around in the morning. That's the best advice I can give anyone appalled by the mere existence of director Baz Luhrman's 3-D, darn near transcendently tasteless screen adaptation of The Great Gatsby—or Da Gr8 Gatsbee, as I've grown fond of calling Luhrman's version. Show More Summary
Ringside Seat: Taxghazi
Within hours after the news broke that the Internal Revenue Service singled out Tea Party and other conservative groups that had applied for tax-exempt 501(c)(4) status for extra scrutiny, conservatives were already complaining that the story wasn't getting enough play in the media. Show More Summary
A Boy Named Issak
I am a high school senior at Red Lion Area High School in Pennsylvania. As a student who happens to be transgender, my life isn’t all that different from other students in my class, except that I came out the summer before my junior year and have been going by my male name ever since. Show More Summary
A Minute on Syria: Children Need Our Help
Many of us think that the crisis in Syria is a political one. But it is not — it is a children's crisis, and it is among the biggest in the world. Over 3.8 million children are affected by the violence in Syria, and over 700,000 children are refugees. Show More Summary
Tale of Two Marriages
This piece was originally posted on the Huffington Post. This is the story of two couples; two couples who come out of the same post-war generation, and who built their lives around the same emotional core of love, commitment, and devotion to one another. Show More Summary
The IRS Controversy and the Tax-Exempt Charade
As we're learning more about the IRS giving heightened scrutiny to conservative groups filing for tax-exempt status, we should make one thing clear: If what we've heard so far holds up, the people involved should probably get fired, and new safeguards should be put in place to make sure nothing like it happens again. Show More Summary
The Asymmetry Between Past and Future, and Why it Means Mass Surveillance Won’t Work
Former Senator Joseph Lieberman recently charged that mistakes by U.S. security agencies were responsible for failing to stop the Boston Marathon bombing. I recently wrote about how mass surveillance makes this kind of recriminationShow More Summary
Immigration Reform: Week One is Done
Only a few short weeks ago, the so-called Senate Gang of Eight – four Republicans and four Democrats committed to producing a bipartisan immigration reform bill – released a bill exceeding 800 pages representing work dating back to November. Show More Summary
IRS abuses power in targeting tea party
The extraordinary revelation this week that the Internal Revenue Service targeted tea party groups for more aggressive enforcement highlights exactly why caution is needed in any response to the much-vilified Supreme Court decision in Citizens United v. Show More Summary
This Mother’s Day, It’s Motherhood, Not Rape, That Makes Congo the Worst Place to Be a Woman
The gross abuses associated with wartime violence against women don’t even factor into Congo’s ranking; the report cites among the highest rates of maternal mortality, child mortality, poverty, poor education and, interestingly, women’s very limited political participation.
Labor's Plan B
AP Photo/Mark Kegans
A week ago, labor-rights group Working America launched FixMyJob.com. The text of the site reads a bit like an infomercial: “Tough day at work? Are you feeling overworked, underpaid, unsafe or disrespected by your boss?” But instead of selling a new set of knives, the writers are hawking organizing skills. Show More Summary
Schooling Richwine
The academic and policy worlds have been roiled by last week’s announcement that a Heritage Foundation study on the cost of immigration reform was co-authored by Jason Richwine, who wrote a dissertation on the purported low I.Q. of immigrants. Show More Summary
The Upside Down Economy
AP Photo/Richard Drew
O ne aspect that defines our current economy is that things are happening that shouldn’t be happening. I don’t mean that things are happening that are illegal or immoral. (Well, some of them are immoral, but that’s...Show More Summary
Right to Die, Grayling v Legal Aid and Abu Qatada Finally Off (?) – The Human Rights Roundup
Welcome back to the UK Human Rights Roundup, your regular chocolate selection gift box of human rights news. The full list of links can be found here. You can also find our table of human rights cases here and previous roundups here. This week, the Government announced plans to curb Article 8 of the ECHR, Grayling continues to cause […]
Greetings from Guatemala!
Hola from the Land of Eternal Spring/Land of Eternal Shenanigans in Genocide Trials. That’s right – I’m in Guatemala. Yesterday morning I went to observe the Rios Montt/Rodriguez Sanchez genocide trial. (Why, what do you do on your vacation?) The … Continue reading ?
You Don’t Have To Be A Mother To Be A MADRE
My beloved coworkers have a saying: “You don’t have to be a mother to be a MADRE.” They’ll say it lightning-quick, in tones that range from reassuring to affirming to just plain old firm. And certainly we practice what we preach; most of us are not mothers – but we are MADREs. I’ve been a big [...]
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