President Barack Obama is reportedly shuffling the military’s big names, starting by nominating Gen. David H. Patraeus to replace Leon Panetta as CIA director and naming Panetta as secretary of defense. This is all coming at an important time for Obama’s foreign policy with the U.S. in the midst of a war with Libya, turmoil in Africa and the Middle East and a projected U.S. troop withdrawal from Iraq by the end of the year.—-
Louisiana is on the brink of putting a full-on ban on abortions thanks to Rep. John LaBruzzo. The ban would make no exception for cases of rape, incest or even when the health of the mother is in the balance. And the abortion of the baby would be punishable by up to 15 years in prison for both the doctors and the patients under the charge of “feticide.”
A Texas bus driver won a $21,000 settlement against his former employer, Capital Area Rural Transportation System, after being fired in January when he refused to transport a woman to Planned Parenthood on the grounds that he “in good conscience, could not take someone to have an abortion.” The driver, Edwin Graning, is an ordained Christian minister and won the settlement after claiming that CARTS discriminated against him based on religion.
Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer Monday night went on CNN’s John King, USA to discuss her recent veto of the “birther bill,” which would have made it obligatory for presidential candidates to prove their U.S. citizenship before appearing on the Arizona ballot. Brewer said that the birther movement is “just something that I think is leading our country down a path of destruction, and it just is not serving any good purpose.”
Lawrence O’Donnell on his show this week took Donald Trump fan Reverend Franklin Graham to task for saying that President Obama is not a real Christian or a real American. Aren’t they one in the same?
The AP reported yesterday that the number of 100-year-olds is booming in the United States. The Census Bureau estimates that there were 71,991 centenarians as of December 1. Medical professionals attribute the rising number to good genes and environment. Lynn Peters Adler, founder of the National Centenarian Awareness Project, says, “Centenarians are not quitters.” Adler also added that they have a positive but realistic attitude, spirituality and courage.
Being able to boogie helps, too.
