Link
January 12, 2012
1,261 notes
Canadian Gov't Dissolves Every Same-Sex Marriage of US Citizens

ryeandginger:

kelsium:

stfuconservatives:

Thousands of Americans have gone to Canada over the past few years to get married. As of today, their marriages are nullified, thanks to conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s new policy.

Dan Savage is one of the people whose marriage was unceremoniously dissolved last night.

I know there are a million other shitty things happening in the world, many with more gravity than this, but this is the thing that really deflated me today.

No. This is not what happened. There is no new policy. No one’s marriages have been dissolved. The Department of Justice is intervening in an Ontario same-sex divorce case, and they’ve put forward the argument that the marriage is not valid because they are citizens of a country that does not have same-sex marriage as legal. It’s a stupid legal argument to make, and yes it is alarming that a government department would even bring it up, but no one’s marriages have been dissolved. 

Re: Dan Savage, he was interviewed by the Globe & Mail today:

Mr. Savage noted that Prime Minister Stephen Harper appeared surprised when he was questioned about the legal opinion. Mr. Harper said he did not intend to reopen the issue.

“Hopefully this is just one rogue lawyer or two and not policy of Canada’s Conservative government. If it is Canada’s Conservative government then the issue has definitely been re-opened,” Mr. Savage said.

So to summarize:

  1. Stephen Harper is an idiot, and he probably did know that his government would advance this argument
  2. BUT, this argument is a submission to a court. It’s a flawed argument, and the judge won’t accept it.

The case in question involves two Americans who are trying to mount a constitutional challenge against Ontario’s residency laws for divorce following the breakdown of their same-sex marriage. In Ontario, you need to have resided in the province for 1 year in order to get divorced. The federal government intervened and submitted the argument that their marriage was never valid, because of what I said before.

It’s awful, horrible, and should not be happening, but everyone’s marriages are still valid. 

The blog that stfuconservatives linked to is hyperbolic and flat-out wrong.

So the argument might not work in the case at all.

(Source: stfuconservatives, via tableclothcape-deactivated20120)

Tags: important but yeah I'm disappointed Canada. Expected better from you.

Quote
November 11, 2011
89 notes
"

The assertion that Europe’s crisis proves that the welfare state doesn’t work comes from many Republicans. For example, Mitt Romney has accused President Obama of taking his inspiration from European “socialist democrats” and asserted that “Europe isn’t working in Europe.” The idea, presumably, is that the crisis countries are in trouble because they’re groaning under the burden of high government spending. But the facts say otherwise.

It’s true that all European countries have more generous social benefits — including universal health care — and higher government spending than America does. But the nations now in crisis don’t have bigger welfare states than the nations doing well — if anything, the correlation runs the other way. Sweden, with its famously high benefits, is a star performer, one of the few countries whose G.D.P. is now higher than it was before the crisis. Meanwhile, before the crisis, “social expenditure” — spending on welfare-state programs — was lower, as a percentage of national income, in all of the nations now in trouble than in Germany, let alone Sweden.

Oh, and Canada, which has universal health care and much more generous aid to the poor than the United States, has weathered the crisis better than we have.

The euro crisis, then, says nothing about the sustainability of the welfare state. But does it make the case for belt-tightening in a depressed economy?

You hear that claim all the time. America, we’re told, had better slash spending right away or we’ll end up like Greece or Italy. Again, however, the facts tell a different story.

First, if you look around the world you see that the big determining factor for interest rates isn’t the level of government debt but whether a government borrows in its own currency. Japan is much more deeply in debt than Italy, but the interest rate on long-term Japanese bonds is only about 1 percent to Italy’s 7 percent. Britain’s fiscal prospects look worse than Spain’s, but Britain can borrow at just a bit over 2 percent, while Spain is paying almost 6 percent.

What has happened, it turns out, is that by going on the euro, Spain and Italy in effect reduced themselves to the status of third-world countries that have to borrow in someone else’s currency, with all the loss of flexibility that implies. In particular, since euro-area countries can’t print money even in an emergency, they’re subject to funding disruptions in a way that nations that kept their own currencies aren’t — and the result is what you see right now. America, which borrows in dollars, doesn’t have that problem.

The other thing you need to know is that in the face of the current crisis, austerity has been a failure everywhere it has been tried: no country with significant debts has managed to slash its way back into the good graces of the financial markets. For example, Ireland is the good boy of Europe, having responded to its debt problems with savage austerity that has driven its unemployment rate to 14 percent. Yet the interest rate on Irish bonds is still above 8 percent — worse than Italy.

The moral of the story, then, is to beware of ideologues who are trying to hijack the European crisis on behalf of their agendas. If we listen to those ideologues, all we’ll end up doing is making our own problems — which are different from Europe’s, but arguably just as severe — even worse.

"

— PAUL KRUGMAN, “Legends Of The Fail,” in the New York Times (via inothernews)

Tags: THANK YOU absolutely yes important politics

Link
September 05, 2011
514 notes
Somalia famine: UN warns of 750,000 deaths

newsflick:

“In total, 4 million people are in crisis in Somalia, with 750,000 people at risk of death in the coming four months in the absence of adequate response,” the UN’s Food Security and Nutrition Analysis Unit (FSNAU) says.

Surely this statement alone should send shockwaves across the globe. This crisis has the potential to claim more lives than the 2005 asian tsunami, 2010 Haiti earthquake and the 2011 Japan earthquake and tsunami COMBINED. 

(Source: newsflick)

Tags: Somalia important

Video
August 15, 2011
189 notes

kuancheen:

Bono: “It’s hard to believe that this is the 21st century and you know we mustn’t let the complexity of the situation absolve us from responsibility to act. That’s really the message … When you hear stories, and as you’ve reported, of women leaving their dead children on the road to come beg for food, to choose between children, can you imagine? ‘I have to leave this one, he looks the weakest or she looks the weakest, I’ll take this one.’ This is outrageous! This can’t be happening, it must be stopped. And it’s not our intentions, it’s our actions. It’s not the possibilities of the United Nations or the AU, it’s our priorities that define us. This is a defining moment.”

(Source: act.one.org, via pantslessprogressive)

Tags: Somalia important

Photo
August 09, 2011
130 notes
pantslessprogressive: Take a close look at that number. Your vote counts. Your neighbor’s vote counts. Every vote counts. Wisconsin recall elections.

pantslessprogressive:

Take a close look at that number.

Your vote counts. Your neighbor’s vote counts. Every vote counts.

Wisconsin recall elections.

(via pantslessprogressive)

Tags: politics important

Photo
July 29, 2011
1,726 notes
csmonitor: Horn of Africa Crisis: By the Numbers Graphic by Rich Clabaugh/Monitor staff

csmonitor:

Horn of Africa Crisis: By the Numbers

Graphic by Rich Clabaugh/Monitor staff

(Source: csmonitor.com, via utnereader)

Tags: Somalia important

Video
July 27, 2011
582 notes

mohandasgandhi:

wfp:

This is a video to Tumblr from Dadaab, Kenya, the largest refugee camp in the world. Thousands of people are streaming into Dadaab as they flee the famine in southern Somalia. We’re working hard to make sure they get the life-saving food and nutrition they need, but we need your help—and your blog—in order to do it!

Donate today! And when you’re done, pull up the dashboard and blog about it. Put one of our banners on your site and let all of your followers know that millions of people across the Horn of Africa need their help!

Spam this like you have never spammed anything before.

(via monkeyknifefight)

Tags: Somalia important

Link
April 19, 2011
100 notes
Wondering whether you should still care about the BP spill? Read this.

Some highlights:

  • “People are sick. Nearly three-quarters of Gulf coast residents that the Louisiana Bucket Brigade, an environmental justice group, polled this year reported health concerns that they believe are related to the spill.”
  • “The death toll for dolphins and whales in the Gulf may have been 50 times higher than the number of bodies found, according to a recent paper in Conservation Letters.”
  • “While those most affected by the spill are still waiting for payments, some state and local officials have been making bank off the disaster. As the Associated Press reported recently, some local governments have been using the $754 million from BP to buy iPads, SUVs, and laptops.”

(Source: motherjones)

Tags: read it important shameful lack of action politics

Link
February 22, 2011
1,362 notes
the gentleman will sit down: Bahrain, Libya News Roundup: February 21.

pantslessprogressive:

Here is a news roundup for Bahrain, Libya, and other countries for Monday, February 21. Also check out NewsFlick’s Middle East Situation Update: 21st Feb

Live blogs:

Gaddafi’s statement released on Libyan State TV [source]:

  • “I am satisfied, because I was speaking in front of the youth in the Green Square tonight, but the rain came, praise to God, it bears well. I want to clarify for them that I am in Tripoli, not in Venezuela. Do not believe these channels. They are dogs. Goodbye.”

Libya:

What Officials Say - Libya:

Bahrain:

China, Yemen, Zimbabwe:

Other good reads:

Resources:

(Source: pantslessprogressive)

Tags: IMPORTANT politics

Photo
February 21, 2011
16 notes
eddyizm: Save AmeriCorps Targeting: The U.S. Senate Started by: Caleb Jonas Early in the morning on Saturday, Feb. 19th, the Republican Majority in the US House passed H.R. 1, a continuing resolution to fund the government through the end of 2010. As part of their plan, Republicans suggested the complete elimination of the AmeriCorps program. Now, the U.S. Senate is the only thing standing in the way of the end of national service. To cut federal support for AmeriCorps would be a devastating blow to America’s very core. AmeriCorps members commit themselves to improving communities across America for very little pay. In exchange, these volunteers develop professional skills, learn about challenges facing fellow Americans, and make a measurable difference in thousands of ways. Please sign this letter if you believe that AmeriCorps is a critical thread in our national fabric, and its impact is even more powerful in challenging economic times. We call upon the Senate to Stand for AmeriCorps by supporting the President’s vision to increase and strengthen AmeriCorps. In these times, more than ever, we need this critical tool to combat poverty, end homelessness, protect the environment, educate our children, support seniors, and provide hundreds of irreplacable community services.

eddyizm:

Save AmeriCorps Targeting: The U.S. Senate Started by: Caleb Jonas

Early in the morning on Saturday, Feb. 19th, the Republican Majority in the US House passed H.R. 1, a continuing resolution to fund the government through the end of 2010. As part of their plan, Republicans suggested the complete elimination of the AmeriCorps program. Now, the U.S. Senate is the only thing standing in the way of the end of national service. To cut federal support for AmeriCorps would be a devastating blow to America’s very core. AmeriCorps members commit themselves to improving communities across America for very little pay. In exchange, these volunteers develop professional skills, learn about challenges facing fellow Americans, and make a measurable difference in thousands of ways.

Please sign this letter if you believe that AmeriCorps is a critical thread in our national fabric, and its impact is even more powerful in challenging economic times. We call upon the Senate to Stand for AmeriCorps by supporting the President’s vision to increase and strengthen AmeriCorps. In these times, more than ever, we need this critical tool to combat poverty, end homelessness, protect the environment, educate our children, support seniors, and provide hundreds of irreplacable community services.

Tags: IMPORTANT politics