Browsing PBH By Articles

Love In The Time Of Gay Marriage

Posted on September 28, 2012 in Articles

The Article: And Baby Makes Five: Modern Love In The Era Of Gay Marriage by Julie Weiner in Vanity Fair.

The Text: I first met Martin’s ex-boyfriend at a tuxedo shop on lower Fifth Avenue. I had known Martin had been living with Ted six months before we starting dating. Through his and Martin’s shared DVD collection, I had known Ted’s affinity for French New Wave and the Weekend at Bernie’s series; through Martin’s closet, Ted’s old Yale sweatshirts; through Martin’s maritime trinkets and hand-selected seashells, I had learned of Ted’s family’s cottage on Martha’s Vineyard.

But before that blustery October day, when I introduced myself to Ted and greeted him with a hug, I had never known of Ted’s easy warmth, unreserved kindness, and sleepy, autumnal smell. I walked into the tuxedo shop the day before my wedding to Martin for a last-minute alteration. What I ended up altering was all three of our lives.

I invited Ted home to the prewar town house that Martin and I had recently purchased on King Street, in a liminal, industrial area between SoHo and the West Village.

A Bill Of Rights For Billionaires

Posted on September 27, 2012 in Articles

The Article: The Billionaires Bill Of Rights by Dick Meister in TruthOut.

The Text: Billionaire corporate interests and other well financed anti-labor forces are waging a major drive to stifle the political voice of workers and their unions in California that is certain to spread nationwide if not stopped – and stopped now.

At issue is a highly deceptive measure, Proposition 32, on the state’s November election ballot, that its anti-labor sponsors label as an even-handed attempt to limit campaign spending. But actually, it would limit – and severely – only the spending of unions while leaving corporations and other moneyed special interests free to spend as much as they like.

Unions would be prohibited from making political contributions with money collected from voluntary paycheck deductions authorized by their members, which is the main source of union political funds.
But there would be no limits on corporations, whose political funds come from their profits, their customers or suppliers and the contributions of corporate executives. Nor would there be any limit on the political spending of the executives or any other wealthy individuals. What’s more, corporate special interests and billionaires could still give unlimited millions to secretive “Super PACs” that can raise unlimited amounts of money anonymously to finance their political campaigns.

The Rise Of Rove

Posted on September 26, 2012 in Articles

The Article: Boss Rove by Carl Unger in Vanity Fair.

The Text: n Wednesday, April 21, 2010, about two dozen Republican power brokers gathered at Karl Rove’s Federal-style town house on Weaver Terrace in northwest Washington, D.C., to strategize about the fall midterm elections.

Rove, then 59, had hosted this kind of event many times before. Six years earlier, he’d held weekly breakfasts for high-level G.O.P. operatives to plan for the 2004 fall elections. Back then, as senior adviser to President George W. Bush, Rove oversaw Bush’s re-election campaign. More important, he was attempting to implement a master plan to build a permanent majority through which Republicans would maintain a stranglehold on all three branches of government for the foreseeable future. This was not simply about winning elections. It represented a far more grandiose vision—the forging of a historic re-alignment of America’s political landscape, the transformation of America into effectively a one-party state.

But now Rove was no longer in the White House. He had been one of the most powerful unelected officials in the United States, but, to many Republicans, his greatest achievement—engineering the presidency of George W. Bush—had become an ugly stain on the party’s reputation.

The Fanatical GOP

Posted on September 25, 2012 in Articles

The Article: The Fanatical GOP by Robert Reich in TruthOut.

The Text: We’re witnessing the capture by fanatics of what was once a great and important American political party.

The Republican Party platform committee now includes a provision calling for a constitutional amendment banning all abortions, without an exception for rape or incest. This is basically Missouri senatorial candidate Todd Akin’s position. (At least the GOP platform doesn’t assert that women’s bodies automatically reject “legitimate” rapists’ sperm.)

Paul Ryan, Romney’s selection for vice president, has co-sponsored 38 anti-abortion measures while in the House of Representatives, including several containing no exception for pregnancies caused by rape or incest.

Where Free Speech Goes To Die

Posted on September 24, 2012 in Articles

The Article: Where Free Speech Goes To Die: The Workplace by Mike Dolgow in Business Week.

The Text: In America you can say pretty much whatever you want, wherever you want to say it. Unless, that is, you’re at work. Simply put, there is no First Amendment right to “free speech” in the workplace—potentially perilous for many employees in a polarized political year with a tight presidential race.

Current news provides plenty of examples of just how much leeway managers have to limit their workers’ freedom of speech, or to encourage political activity among employees. On Aug. 2, an Arizona-based medical supplies manufacturer, Vante, dismissed CFO Adam Smith for berating a Tucson Chick-fil-A employee for working at what he considered a homophobic company. Chick-fil-A has made national headlines recently for its president’s controversial comments about same-sex marriage.

“I don’t know how you live with yourself and work here,” Smith says in a video of the exchange, which was posted on YouTube (GOOG). “This is a horrible corporation with horrible values. You deserve better.” Vante quickly fired Smith, and posted its regrets about the incident in a statement on the home page of its website.