"If I wanted the government in my womb, I'd f__k a senator!"

Livestream - O'Malley about to sign Maryland marriage equality bill

Thatcher was Supicious of Polish Solidarity Movement

Until now, Helmut Schmidt appeared to be the only top Western politician who was skeptical about the Polish trade union Solidarity in the early 1980s. But SPIEGEL magazine reveals British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher also had deep reservations about the movement and its leader Lech Walesa.

With the trade union Solidarity, the charismatic leader Lech Walesa helped rattle the foundations of Soviet communism. But new evidence, reported in Monday's SPIEGEL magazine reveals British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher was suspicious about the influential movement and Lech Walesa, the man who later became a Nobel Laureate.

In September 1981, British Premier Thatcher even considered supporting the Eastern bloc regime in Warsaw in quelling Solidarity, a German Foreign Ministry document, long treated as classified, showed.

According to the document, Thatcher's Foreign Secretary, Lord Peter Carrington, told colleagues in New York that Britain sympathizied with Solidarity. But if Solidarity got out of control and the government had to take repressive measures, it might make sense to help the government, he added.

U of Virginia Football Player Goes On Hunger Strike To Get Living Wage For University Employees

oseph Williams moved more than 30 times as a child, living in homeless shelters, church basements, and the homes of family friends. Now Williams, a junior safety on the University of Virginia football team, is taking up a cause supporting university workers who are barely making enough to get by.

Williams is one of 18 Virginia students participating in a hunger strike — now more than a week long — to protest the poor wages paid to many of the university’s service employees. The strike, organized by the school’s Living Wage Campaign, began on February 17 with the goal of getting a living wage for underpaid employees. “I know first-hand what the economic struggle is like for many of these underpaid workers,” Williams wrote in an essay explaining his participation:

In failing to implement a living wage for its lowest paid employees, the University of Virginia has also failed to uphold the moral standards to which it holds its students. We are engaging in this hunger strike to call attention to the administration’s moral hypocrisy and to finally produce results in the form of a Living Wage. Although I am exhausted, hungry, dry-mouthed, and emotionally taxed, I believe it is my responsibility as a member of the University community, and even more as a member of the human race, to stand up and speak for those whose voices have been silenced and whose livelihoods are marginalized by the policies of the current University administration.

Williams decried the pay disparity between “hundreds of contract workers who may make as little as $7.25/hour” and the university’s top administrators. According to the essay, six of the state’s 10 highest-paid employees are administrators at Virginia. Williams also told the story of one employee who, despite working 40 hours a week, couldn’t afford to pay rent or utility bills.

Ralph Nader Is At It Again, Endorses Ron Paul

This is deja-vu all over again. In 2000 when Nader ran for president he siphoned enough votes away from Al Gore that it made the difference between a resounding win for Gore and what resulted in the Supreme Court electing George Bush, Jr. And for all you that see Paul as the anti-war leader…I implore you to scratch the surface of who this man is. For those of you out there who think that a vote for Ron Paul is any more a vote for a Libertarian or freedoms…think again. If Al Gore had been elected in 2000 over Bush, there are thousands of dead victims from the wars that Bush initiated that would take issue with the decision to vote Nader.

This is not only reckless, it is careless and endangers all of our freedoms. A recent position taken by Nader is that Obama is just as bad as Bush so he is supporting Ron Paul...

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This is truly unbelievable to me. As I said, there was a time in Nader’s run in 2000 where it was abundantly clear that he had zero chance of winning – yet, did he do the right thing and throw his support toward Al Gore? Clearly he did not. So by staying in the race he pulled those crucial votes away and literally secured the election of GW Bush, Jr. Ralph Nader can pat himself on his arrogant narcissistic ass for assuring the deaths of thousands of American military men and women; the crippling and disabled who made it home and the tens of thousands of men, women and children who died as a result of a completely contrived war in Iraq.

Bob McDonnell Squirms in His Seat as Martin O'Malley Utterly Demolishes Him

Hot tub mysteriously installed, uninstalled at U of Michigan

The mystery of who installed--then removed--a hot tub from the roof of a building on the University of Michigan campus in Ann Arbor has yet to be solved.

Computer Science and Engineering building spokesman Steven Crang said Friday that a group of students are believed to be the culprits.

Initially reported by the Michigan Daily campus newspaper, the hot tub first was noticed Saturday, had visitors the next two days, and was gone Monday night.

Students called it the Bob and Betty Beyster Bubbler after the couple who donated $15 million to the school. The building is named after them.

Ford Field Frenzy: Romney arrives to wild cheers in Detroit... Not!

Romney camp's game plan: Make Ford Field look crowded

It won't be hard to fit 1,200 members of the Detroit Economic Club into 65,000-seat Ford Field for today's speech by GOP presidential hopeful Mitt Romney.

What will be hard is making it look like Romney isn't speaking to a nearly empty stadium.

The Romney campaign and the Economic Club think they've solved the problem. The guests will be seated at one end of the playing surface, roughly between the end zone and the 30-yard line, while Romney will speak from a stage in front of them.

Catholic Nuns File Brief Supporting Affordable Care Act

As further proof that conservative efforts to paint President Obama as the enemy of religion are a red herring, nearly two dozen leading Catholic nuns filed a brief in the Supreme Court last week supporting the president’s signature legislative accomplishment. The Catholic sisters who joined the brief include the leaders of many prominent religious orders providing health care and other services to the needy. As they explain in their brief:

Amici curiae represent the leadership of Catholic women’s religious orders from across the United States. Amici and the orders they serve have a long history of public service in healthcare in America dating back to the 1700s. These services include founding hospitals and free clinics and providing free healthcare to the underprivileged and uninsured. The work by Amici gives them a unique perspective on the unmet healthcare needs of the poor, as well as on the positive impact that will result from the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (“ACA” or the “Act”). . . .

Amici have witnessed firsthand the national crisis that prompted Congress to pass the ACA. In particular, Amici have seen the devastating impact of
the lack of affordable health insurance and healthcare on women, children, and other vulnerable members of society.

Amici believe that a civilized society must ensure the provision of basic healthcare to its citizens regardless of their ability to pay for it. They further believe it is a moral imperative that all levels of government institute programs that ensure the poor receive such care. They believe Medicaid expansion under the Act is critical to the communities they serve.