House Passes 20-Week Abortion Ban

House Republicans got to make their stand against abortion today—they passed a bill that would outlaw the procedure nationally after 20 weeks, reports the AP . The final vote was 228-196 and almost entirely along party lines. (Six Democrats and six Republicans bucked their respective parties on the vote.)...

8M Immigrants Would Gain Legal Status in Reform: CBO

About 8 million immigrants living unlawfully in the US would initially gain legal status under sweeping legislation moving toward a vote in the Senate, the Congressional Budget Office said today. The CBO also said the bill would push federal deficits lower in each of the next two decades. The eagerly...

Latest Claim in Abortion Fight: Fetuses Masturbate

As the House debates a bill that would ban abortions after 20 weeks , Texas Republican Michael Burgess has offered the most headline-grabbing defense of the legislation so far: "Watch a sonogram of a 15-week baby, and they have movements that are purposeful. They stroke their face. If they're a male...

Ailing GOP Needs a Religious Reformer

The Republican Party might win the odd national vote in the coming years, but it needs a long-term prescription: Eventually, "there won’t be enough white and gray voters to win national elections," writes Michael Gerson in the Washington Post . But as the party seeks to reform, it can't forget about...

Today's G8 Topic: Kidnapping

Terrorist ransoms, globe-trotting companies, huge sums of money. What might sound like the makings of a good action film is actually what's on the docket at the final day of the G8 summit today. A primer on what you should know: Kidnapping: David Cameron is looking for the attending nations...

Obama, Putin Tussle Over Syria ... and G8 Gym

Barack Obama and Vladimir Putin had a reportedly tense 2-hour meeting at the G8 summit today. The two leaders butted heads over the conflict in Syria, the Washington Post reports. "Our opinions do not coincide," said Putin. "But all of us have the intention to stop the violence in Syria....

No One Wants to Be a US Senator Anymore

It's a tough job and ... nobody wants to do it. Both Republicans and Democrats are having trouble finding people to run in next year's Senate races, a once-prized gig that has been tarnished thanks to gridlock and partisan politics, the Wall Street Journal reports. The GOP, which needs to pick...

Why Elites Love Illegal Immigration: Cheap Labor

When it comes to immigration reform, the real divide lies not between Republicans and Democrats, but between elites and non-elites, writes Victor Davis Hanson in the National Review . "For the corporate echelon, creating a guest-worker program and granting amnesty—without worrying about securing the border first—ensures continued access to...

Who Does Affirmative Action Help Most? White Women

The Supreme Court is about to hand down a major decision on affirmative action, based on the case of Abigail Fisher, who claims she was denied admission to the University of Texas because she's white. Which is kind of ironic, writes Sally Kohn at Time , because "Abigail Fisher is exactly...

Bloomberg's Latest: Mandatory Food Composting

New York City has been experimenting with pilot food-composting programs—and it's worked surprisingly well, officials say. Now, Michael Bloomberg is pushing to make composting mandatory, as it is in Seattle, San Francisco, and many other cities, the New York Times reports. The program, in which residents drop food waste...

Kerry Adviser's New Job: Closing Gitmo

John Kerry says that if anyone can close Guantanamo Bay, it's his adviser Clifford Sloan. The Washington lawyer is expected to be named as the Obama administration's new envoy tasked with reopening the State Department's Office of Guantanamo Closure, the AP reports. Sloan's long and bipartisan history in government includes...

Clinton Is Right: Obama Did Too Little, Too Late on Syria

News that both Bill Clinton and John McCain think Obama is being a wuss on Syria should be a wake-up call for the President, says Maureen Dowd in the New York Times . "When the man who polled where to take his summer vacation and whether to tell the truth about...

Dick Cheney: Snowden Is a 'Traitor,' Maybe a Chinese Spy

Edward Snowden's list of enemies grows ever longer: Today, Dick Cheney added his name to the pile, telling Fox News Sunday that the NSA leaker is a "traitor," as per Politico . "I think it's one of the worst occasions in my memory of somebody with access to classified information doing...

Palin on Syria: 'Let Allah Sort It Out'

Sarah Palin offered her thoughts on the question of US military intervention in Syria at the Faith and Freedom Coalition Conference today. The full quote, as per ABC News : "Militarily, where is our commander in chief? We're talking now more new interventions. I say until we know what we’re doing,...

Forget Prism: NSA Is Tapped Straight Into the Internet Pipeline

The existence of Prism has shocked many Americans, but perhaps it shouldn't have, because the program is a direct result of two things we already knew about, the AP says in an extensive new report. Firstly, the NSA is tapped straight into the fiber optic cables that carry a large...

Half of Senate Skips NSA Briefing

Remember when Obama assured us last week that the government's surveillance programs are safeguarded and members of Congress " have been consistently informed on exactly what we’re doing"? Perhaps he should have added "... so long as they show up." Only 47 out of 100 senators attended a briefing on the government's...

Microsoft, McAfee Exchange Data With Feds: Sources

Thousands of US companies—including banks, and software, internet, and telecommunications firms—are exchanging information with national security agencies, according to anonymous sources in a new Bloomberg report. Only, they aren't sharing your personal info or browsing data with the NSA, FBI, and CIA, but rather things like software vulnerabilities...

You Can Now Say 'Merry Christmas' in Texas Schools

Saying "Merry Christmas" (or "Happy Hanukkah" or even "Have a festive Festivus") is now legally protected in Texas schools, thanks to a new law signed by Rick Perry yesterday. The "Merry Christmas" bill also protects schools from decorating with seasonal religious symbols such as menorahs and nativity scenes—so long...

Jeb Bush: 'Immigrants Are More Fertile'

Jeb Bush may regret letting this slip out. While talking about the need for immigration reform at a Washington conference today, the former Florida governor put forth that immigrants can help solve the problem of America's declining worker population ... because they're more fertile. Politico has the quote: "We’re going to...

Confidence in Congress Can't Get Much Lower

Things Americans have more confidence in than Congress, according to the latest Gallup poll: the police, organized religion, banks, big business, HMOs ... and literally everything else pollsters asked them about. Congress came in last on the list of 16 institutions for the fourth consecutive year, and this year found the...

On NSA Spying, Yahoo Fought Law (Law Won)

When the government came to Yahoo with a request that Yahoo help it spy on foreign users without a warrant, the company refused and sent its top lawyers to argue the case in a secret court proceeding, sources tell the New York Times . Its argument: users' Fourth Amendment rights would...

US to Provide Syria Rebels With Weapons

Now that the US has determined that Bashar al-Assad's regime used chemical weapons, the Obama administration intends to help arm Syrian rebels, officials tell the New York Times . The US will send light arms and ammunition; antitank weapons are also a possibility. Rebel leaders have called for antiaircraft weapons, but...

Snowden: NSA Has Been Hacking China Since 2009

Edward Snowden is still in Hong Kong, where he's making more claims about NSA practices: In an interview with the South China Morning Post , he says the agency has been hacking systems in China and Hong Kong since 2009. "We hack network backbones—like huge internet routers, basically—that give...

In a First, CIA's No. 2 Will Be a Woman

CIA Deputy Director Michael Morell has announced his retirement, making way for the first woman to take the job. Avril Haines, 43, is a White House lawyer who has worked in the State Department and Senate Foreign Relations Committee. She hasn't worked in an intelligence post before, Bloomberg notes, but...

Surgeon General Announces Exit

Four years after her appointment by President Obama, Surgeon General Regina Benjamin is leaving the job next month, she announced last night. "My goal was to create a grassroots movement, to change our health care system from one focused on sickness and disease to a system focused on wellness and...

Bill to Ban Abortions After 20 Weeks Clears House Panel

A bill to ban abortions nationwide after 20 weeks cleared a House panel today on a party-line vote of 20-12. While it doesn't stand a chance in the Senate, it will give House conservatives a chance to make a point when that chamber votes as early as next week, reports...

Mikulski Halts Hearing ... to Rebut a Tweet

Today's appearance by the NSA chief on Capitol Hill didn't produce many surprises—he said data mining is necessary and used in such a way that it doesn't invade privacy—but it did produce one strange moment featuring Sen. Barbara Mikulski. At one point, the Maryland Democrat paused the hearing...

Critics Piling On US Intelligence Chief

Edward Snowden may be getting vilified in some camps over the NSA leaks, but the nation's intelligence director isn't having such a great time, either. Witness this piece in Slate by Fred Kaplan demanding that James Clapper be fired for lying. The issue, as the Washington Post and others have...

Let Transgender People Choose Their Bathroom

A court in Maine heard arguments today in the case of a 15-year-old student who is biologically male but identifies as female. The issue? Nicole Maines wanted to use the girls' bathroom, but her school forbade it, reports the AP . It's another sign that "the next frontier of the civil-rights...

Redskins Recruit GOP Spin Doc to Shop New Name

GOP strategist Frank Luntz—the guy who got the party to stop saying "estate tax" and "healthcare reform" and start using "death tax" and "government takeover of healthcare"—is tackling a different kind of linguistic problem at the moment. His strategy group is holding a focus group which may determine...