Mediaboss Marketing

TIME Ideas politics Real Progressives Should Support Indianas Law Michael ConroyAP A window sticker on a downtown Indianapolis business, Wednesday, March 25, 2015, shows its objection to the Religious Freedom bill passed by the Indiana legislature.

Ilya Shapiro is a senior fellow in constitutional studies at the Cato Institute and co-author of "Religious Liberties for Corporations? Hobby Lobby, the Affordable Care Act, and the Constitution."

Im for marriage equality having filed many briefs supporting challenges to restrictive state laws but I have no problem with Indianas new religious-freedom law. And neither should progressives.

After all, would you want Unitarians to work the audio equipment at a Southern Baptist revival? Would you force a Jewish printer to produce anti-Semitic flyers? Would you require Muslim butchers to serve pork ribs?

The Supreme Court said in 1990 that the First Amendment doesnt grant exemptions from generally applicable laws, so religious objectors have to seek relief from the legislature. Accordingly, a near-unanimous Congress passed, and President Bill Clinton signed, the federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act to ensure that laws and other government actions only burden religious exercise where absolutely necessary to achieve a compelling goal.

Twenty states have followed suit including Illinois, with the support of state Senator Barack Obama plus courts in 11 other states interpreted state constitutions to provide similar protections. So mark me unimpressed by Hillary Clintons tweeted disappointment that this new Indiana law can happen in America today.

Indeed, the American Civil Liberties Union and other progressive groups long supported these laws, which have been used to protect religious practices involving hallucinogenic substances, animal sacrifices, eagle feathers, and symbolic daggers but not discrimination in hiring employees or serving customers.

None of these laws, at either the federal or state levels, have ever allowed exemptions from anti-discrimination laws. Indiana isnt even one of the 21 states that prohibit employers from discriminating based on sexual orientation, so theres no exemption to be granted here.

Some who protest the new law point to its explicit application to disputes between private parties. But most courts including the most progressive federal appellate court in the nation, the California-based Ninth Circuit have interpreted the federal RFRA in this manner too. And that makes sense: If someone invokes a law to force you to do something, your objection would be to that law, without which there would be no burden on your religious exercise.

But again, never has a RFRA allowed a private party to discriminate against gays (or anyone else) in employment, service, housing, or any other scenario in the parade of horribles raised by opponents of Indianas law.

Read the original:
Real Progressives Should Support Indianas Law

The All Progressives Congress says it strongly condemnsThursdaysterrorist attack that left 147 people dead at the Garissa UniversityCollege in Kenya, calling it dastardly and unjustifiable.

In a statement in Lagos on Friday by its National PublicitySecretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the party described the Somali terrorgroup, Al-Shabaab, which claimed responsibility for the killings, as abunch of cowardly extremists, who have no place in a decent society.

APC said, Nothing can justify such a deadly and senseless attack on innocentand defenceless citizens, and those who planned and executed theheinous killings in Kenya stand condemned globally.

Terrorism has become a global scourge, and any terrorist attackanywhere is a terrorist attack everywhere. Therefore, terrorists willnot find any hiding place, it said.

It expressed its deepest condolences to the government and people ofKenya, and prayed that the families of the victims would find succourwhile wishing those injured in the attacks a speedy recovery.

Excerpt from:
APC condemns terrorist attack on Kenyan varsity

PROGRESSIVES REJECT THE PRINCIPLES OF THE FOUNDING

By: red3lima

Read the rest here:
PROGRESSIVES REJECT THE PRINCIPLES OF THE FOUNDING - Video

April Progressives at Maryland Live! Casino
Progressive Drawing Date: April 21,2015 at 7:00PM Earn 5000 points or 10 hours of Table Play between March 1 and March 31, 2015 to be entered into our New and Improved $50000 Chain...

By: Maryland Live! Casino

Link:
April Progressives at Maryland Live! Casino - Video

New York Mayor Bill de Blasio plans to host a meeting of leading progressive elected officials and activists at Gracie Mansion on Thursday with the explicit goal of forcing the issue of income inequality to the forefront of the national political debate and the 2016 elections.

In a telephone interview Wednesday, de Blasio said his frustrations with the messaging by Democratic candidates during the 2014 midterms and the overall failure among elected officials to tackle income inequality head-on led him to conclude that progressives must be more aggressive in elevating the issue.

As a Democrat, I am very disappointed that my party has not spoken with a clearer voice on this issue, de Blasio said.

The mayor said that influencing the dialogue in the 2016 presidential race is not the sole purpose of the effort he hopes to organize.

He would not directly address whether he thinks former secretary of state Hillary Rodham Clinton should outline bold proposals to reduce income inequality.

The mayor was Clintons Senate campaign manager in 2000, and she attended his inauguration in 2013, along with her husband, former president Bill Clinton. De Blasio was elected mayor running on an unabashedly liberal platform, while both Clintons have been identified more with centrist Democratic ideas. Hillary Clinton is expected to launch her presidential campaign this month.

On presidential candidates in general, my take is, I dont talk about anyone until they are a declared candidate, de Blasio said. But I think many of us feel profound dissatisfaction at the state of the debate in general. I cannot identify any declared candidate who is presenting a holistic vision here. In 2014, many [Democrats] went out of their way to avoid the issue.

He praised President Obama for highlighting income inequality in this years State of the Union address and noted that some Republicans and some business leaders have at least begun to make reference to the issue. But he said that beyond Obamas January speech, nothing since then suggests a course correction on the part of elected officials or prospective candidates.

Asked to assess why Democrats in particular have not been more aggressive on the issue, he said, A lack of leadership and a lack of imagination underlying all of it.

He cited two other obstacles: timidity on the part of political strategists and party consultants to confront the issue more robustly; and the influence of money in politics. Platform, vision and message have been replaced by decisions about resources, he said. Thats not a winning hand.

The rest is here:
N.Y.s de Blasio gathers progressives to kick-start debate on income inequality