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GOP-Led Efforts To Cut Food Stamps Would Hurt Active Military & Veterans | According to a new data reviewed by the Huffington Post, the Republican-led push to cut food stamps could have deep ramifications on the military. Studies have revealed that active military soldiers and veterans have used more than $100 million in federal food aid in the past year just on military bases since June 2011. Census statistics also indicate that 1.5 million households which include a veteran have been receiving benefits from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. Despite the clear advantages that the program provides for some Americans unable to afford basic needs, House Republicans have passed a budget resolution for 2013 that would downsize the program by $134 billion over the next ten years.

— Angela Guo

By Guest Blogger on Jun 19, 2012 at 6:45 pm

Economy

GOP Financial Services Chairman Admits Wall Street Watchdog Is Underfunded, As Republicans Cut Its Budget

By Pat Garofalo on Jun 19, 2012 at 6:10 pm

House Republicans on the Appropriations Committee today voted to cut funding for the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, the regulator charged with overseeing Wall Street derivatives and commodities trading. The Obama administration has asked for $300 million for the agency for fiscal year 2013, but the GOP only approved $180 million, which is less than the $205 million that the agency received last year.

This funding cut would come just as the CFTC is attempting to implement huge portions of the Dodd-Frank financial reform law, including a new regulatory regime for derivatives, the complex financial instruments that were at the heart of the financial crisis. And Rep. Spencer Bachus (R-AL), chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, acknowledged today that the CFTC, along with the Securities and Exchange Commission, do not have the budgets to keep up with the tasks they’ve been given:

Let me say that there is agreement, I think, among all the panel that your agencies are all functioning under an increased workload, a greatly increased workload, and that you are facing many challenges with not only the economy, but with adopting new rules and increased supervision. And that you are functioning under a budgetary restraint, particularly, I think, the SEC and the CFTC. Your workload has greatly increased and your budget doesn’t reflect this.

Watch it:

Bachus, who has said that Washington’s role should be to “serve the banks,” has led the charge to cut funding for Wall Street regulators, backed up by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), who believes America is better off the less money regulators have.

CFTC Chairman Gary Gensler has said that the result of the House’s effort will be “to effectively put the interests of Wall Street ahead of those of the American public.” Rep. Barny Frank (D-MA) has added, “At a time when JPMorgan Chase has reported the loss of $3 billion or more in the derivatives markets, the Republicans are refusing to appropriate a small percentage of that amount to provide the protections we need against a return to financial chaos.”

LGBT

New Report Tracks Hospitals’ LGBT-Inclusion And Training

By Kellan Baker, Guest Blogger on Jun 19, 2012 at 6:00 pm

The Human Rights Campaign released its 2012 Healthcare Equality Index today in an event at DC’s Howard University Hospital. Dr. Wayne Frederick, the hospital’s deputy senior vice president for health sciences, and HRC president Chad Griffin hosted the event, which included remarks from Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius.

Griffin and Shane Snowdon, the director of HRC’s new LGBT Health and Aging Program, described how the annual Healthcare Equality Index rates hospitals and other healthcare facilities across the country on the quality of care they provide to LGBT people and their families. This year’s report surveys over 400 facilities in 32 states and the District of Columbia across four areas of care:

  1. LGBT-inclusive patient nondiscrimination policies
  2. Visitation policies that provide equal access for same-sex partners and their children
  3. LGBT-inclusive employment nondiscrimination policies
  4. Training in LGBT patient-centered care

Facilities that meet all of these “Core Four” criteria for equitable and inclusive care are designated “Leaders in LGBT Healthcare Equality.” Of this year’s 407 rated facilities, more than half received Leader status, including Howard University Hospital, which is HBCU-affiliated.

New to this year’s report is the emphasis on training. So far in 2012, HRC has provided training in LGBT patient care to over 1,000 hospital staff, including health care providers and senior administrators. Such training is a crucial part of knocking down barriers to care for LGBT people, since recent studies have indicated that the majority of medical schools do not sufficiently train their students in providing culturally and clinically competent care for LGBT patients.

Snowdon also emphasized the importance of ongoing LGBT cultural competency training in heath care facilities in the 18 states not represented in this year’s report. Many of these states have no legal protections for LGBT people and their families, making staff and provider training a crucial part of ensuring that LGBT patients receive the respectful and high-quality care they need.

NEWS FLASH

Woman Dressed In Giant Birth Control Costume Will Follow Romney On The Campaign Trail | Planned Parenthood’s action fund is sending a costumed package of birth control dubbed “Pillamina” out on the campaign trail to highlight Mitt Romney’s opposition to President Obama’s birth control coverage provision. In a statement introducing Pillamina, Planned Parenthood Action Fund President Cecile Richards noted that her organization wants to emphasize the fact that birth control is “an economic issue for women — period. That’s something that President Obama clearly understands, and that Mitt Romney simply doesn’t.” Romney has said that he opposes requiring insurers to offer birth control coverage without additional co-pays. Image via Planned Parenthood:

NEWS FLASH

US Seeks Death Penalty in Case of Man in the Middle of Tug-of-War Between Gov. Chafee and Federal Authorities | Yesterday federal prosecutors responded to a federal court ruling that ordered the Justice Department to indicate whether they would seek the death penalty in the case of Jason Wayne Pleau by announcing that they would be seeking the death penalty. Pleau, accused of fatally shooting a gas manager during a 2006 robbery, has been in the center of a year-long tug-of-war between Gov. Lincoln Chafee (I-RI) and federal officials. Gov. Chafee preferred to try him under state law because of the possibility of a death penalty prosecution under federal law. Rhode Island doesn’t allow capitol punishment.
–Alex Brown

By Guest Blogger on Jun 19, 2012 at 5:30 pm

LGBT

New York Legislature Passes Cyberbullying Protections

By Zack Ford on Jun 19, 2012 at 5:17 pm

The New York Senate and Assembly have both passed a new cyberbullying provision that extends the effects of the Dignity For All Students Act passed two years ago. The LGBT-inclusive amendment defines cyberbullying as “harassment or bullying that occurs through any form of electronic communication” and will have the following effects:

[It will] establish protocols to respond to cyberbullying, harassment, bullying and discrimination, including designating a school official to receive and promptly investigate reports; take actions to prevent recurrences; coordinate with law enforcement when appropriate; and develop a bullying prevention strategy; and provide notice to all school community members of the school’s policies. It would also set training requirements for current and new school employees.

Cyberbullying is difficult to track, but various studies have shown that is nevertheless prevalent. The Pew Research Center found that 90 percent of teens encounter cyberbullying, 21 percent of whom admitted to joining in. An AP-MTV poll found that half of all young people regularly encounter discriminatory slang online, and just as many believe it’s okay to use such language with their friends. In such a vastly unmoderated space as the Internet, training educators to recognize and intervene when cyberbullying takes place is essential for protecting young people from its detrimental effects.

Security

National Review’s New Contributor: White Nationalist David Yerushalmi

By Matt Duss on Jun 19, 2012 at 5:15 pm

Back in April, National Review finally parted ways with longtime contributor John Derbyshire after Derbyshire penned an especially racist piece advising non-black American parents on how to talk to their kids about black people. Explaining his decision to sever ties, editor Rich Lowry called Derbyshire’s piece “nasty and indefensible,” and wrote that Derbyshire:

“is effectively using our name to get more oxygen for views with which we’d never associate ourselves otherwise. So there has to be a parting of the ways. Derb has long danced around the line on these issues, but this column is so outlandish it constitutes a kind of letter of resignation.”

While National Review’s decision to can Derbyshire was commendable (if long overdue), ThinkProgress noted at the time that it continued to feature the writings of prominent Islamophobes such as Robert Spencer, David Horowitz, and Daniel Pipes, and called on the magazine to sever ties with these figures as well.

Unfortunately, not only has National Review continued to publish these Islamophobic authors, it has now taken on as a contributor one of the Islamophobia network’s worst offenders, David Yerushalmi.

Back in September 2010, ThinkProgress examined Yerushalmi’s long history of extremists statements, which include a proposal making it “a felony punishable by 20 years in prison to knowingly act in furtherance of, or to support the, adherence to Islam.” In a 2006 article, Yerushalmi lamented in the inability to engage in “a discussion of Islam as an evil religion, or of blacks as the most murderous of peoples (at least in New York City), or of illegal immigrants as deserving of no rights” without being labeled a racist. He also wrote that the American founders were on to something when they limited the vote to white men. “There is a reason the founding fathers did not give women or black slaves the right to vote.”

As Mother Jones noted, the Anti-Defimation League said Yerushalmi has “record of anti-Muslim, anti-immigrant and anti-black bigotry.”

In short, he has espoused white nationalist views very similar to John Derbyshire’s, with the added bonus of anti-Muslim “creeping sharia” nonsense. Were the editors of National Review simply unaware if these statements? Or don’t they consider this stuff “nasty and indefensible”?

Climate Progress

The State Of Play In Rio: Draft Agreement Sparks ‘Alarm And Concern’

By Stephen Lacey on Jun 19, 2012 at 5:14 pm

What will history say about Brazil's job hosting the Rio+20 summit? Photo: Stephen Lacey

World leaders are set to convene at the Rio+20 Earth Summit tomorrow to begin high-level negotiations on a global sustainability framework. But if the reaction from civil society groups to the draft text is any indication, the negotiations will be all style and very little substance.

After working through the night on Monday, international negotiators agreed on a framework for “sustainable development goals” that could help guide a wide-range of policies on issues like poverty eradication, clean energy deployment, sustainable cities, and fisheries management. But with very few specifics on how to actually implement these sustainability goals, the text has angered almost every single civil society group observing the negotiations.

“The overall response from the NGO community to the negotiations is one of alarm and concern,” said Jeffrey Huffines, a representative for Non-Governmental Organizations to the United Nations. “Our concern is that the means of implementation are not clearly articulated.”

In other words, there’s very little in the text that would get us from here to there.

Civil society groups are expressing concern about almost every issue in the draft agreement. Leaders representing labor, agriculture, women’s rights, science & technology, local governments, and indigenous peoples all raised serious concerns today about the watered down text.

“There are a some things that are strengthened like the role of social protection and the mention of green jobs. But the document is not really ambitious in terms of implementation,” said Annabel Rosemberg, the Environment Coordinator with the International Trade Union Confederation.”

“We are deeply disappointed,” said Gita Sen, a founding member of Development Alternatives with Women for a New Era. Sen lamented that much of the language on women’s rights had been stripped from the text, calling it a “war on the human rights of women.”

“There’s a lack of detail,” said Andre Leu, President of the International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements. “But for us, the document is a starting point for what happens afterward.”

The text might be a start for some. But with almost every portion of the document watered down to be politically acceptable, most civil society groups fear that it does very little to establish any concrete end goals.

Even the UN’s hallmark program for addressing energy poverty, Sustainable Energy For All, has taken a hit. The initiative, which would require roughly $50 billion in public and private-sector commitments per year, was designed to eradicate energy poverty by 2030. However, the new text gives countries plenty of room to wiggle out of any commitments:

We note the launching of the initiative by the Secretary General on “Sustainable Energy for All”, which focus on access to energy, energy efficiency and renewable energies. We are all determined to act to make sustainable energy for all a reality, and through this, help eradicate poverty and lead to sustainable development and global prosperity. We recognize that countries’ activities in broader energy-related issues are of great importance and are prioritized according to their specific challenges, capacities and circumstances, including energy mix.

Compare that to the old working text from June 2nd, which created a road map for a multilateral process to actually realize the program’s goals:

Read more

Alyssa

Adam Carolla, Sexism, and the Failure of the Hollywood Meritocracy

By Alyssa Rosenberg on Jun 19, 2012 at 5:07 pm

I recognize that Adam Carolla’s entire schtick is to be awful and pretend he’s achieved some sort of profound insight, but I think his latest ugly comments about women in the writers’ room are worth highlighting, if only as an illustration of what men can get away with essentially without consequence in Hollywood. He told the New York Post:

They make you hire a certain number of chicks, and they’re always the least funny on the writing staff. The reason why you know more funny dudes than funny chicks is that dudes are funnier than chicks. If my daughter has a mediocre sense of humor, I’m just gonna tell her, “Be a staff writer for a sitcom. Because they’ll have to hire you, they can’t really fire you, and you don’t have to produce that much. It’ll be awesome.”…I don’t care. When you’re picking a basketball team, you’ll take the brother over the guy with the yarmulke. Why? Because you’re playing the odds. When it comes to comedy, of course there’s Sarah Silverman, Tina Fey, Kathy Griffin — super-funny chicks. But if you’re playing the odds? No. If Joy Behar or Sherri Shepherd was a dude, they’d be off TV. They’re not funny enough for dudes. What if Roseanne Barr was a dude? Think we’d know who she was? Honestly.

I cannot even imagine what would happen if a prominent female comedy writer was this openly dismissive of network brass, much less a request by network brass that you behave like every other employer in America is expected to behave, or add a little perspective to your team. Actually, I have a pretty good idea: she’d be branded a bitch, impossible in a way that Dan Harmon, recently defenestrated from Community, can’t even begin to contemplate. You can see that in Jessica Borsiczky being careful to say that even though she’s known women who were retaliated against for taking maternity leave, things are much better in television today. You can see it in Amy Sherman-Palladino trying as hard as she can not to be seen criticizing another female showrunner even as a (female) interviewer goads her as hard as possible into a catfight narrative.

And yet Adam Carolla, a comic so pathetic he thinks it’s clever to suggest nerds are undatable, to say that men are somehow neutered by the rise of feminism, that it’s uproarious to suggest the acronym LGBT be replaced with YUCK, is somehow, by virtue of these clear demonstrations of wit and the fact that he’s a dude with a frattish fanbase, free to behave like this. It’s not like the pretense that Hollywood is a meritocracy is anything but torn to shreds, but really, Carolla is one of the most humiliating illustrations of its utter, miserable failure.

NEWS FLASH

Ron Paul: ‘No Way’ Would I Endorse Mitt Romney | Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX) brushed aside the possibility that he would endorse Mitt Romney before the GOP presidential convention, telling CNN’s Wolf Blitzer Tuesday afternoon that he was not ready to join his son Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) in backing the former Massachusetts governor. “No way,” Paul said and pledged to “continue to debate and decide what we as a party actually believe in.” Watch it:

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