A recent poll shows a huge shift in American attitudes toward gay marriage, from a 32 percent approval in 2004 to 53 percent today. I am one of those people who changed their minds.

In many ways, the hearing led by Senate Democrats on Tuesday was the dramatic antithesis of one House Republicans held earlier this month on homegrown Islamic radicalism.

A Texas judge has issued a sweeping gag order barring anyone who could be called to testify at the trial of 18 men and boys accused of sexually assaulting an 11-year-old girl from talking to the news media.

Yesterday, the Ohio Senate passed by a single vote a radical bill that would strip most of the state's public employee unions of their collective bargaining rights. [...]

State officials are investigating whether religious agencies that receive public funds to license foster care parents are breaking anti-discrimination laws if they turn away openly gay parents.

Last week, legislators in Tennessee introduced a radical bill that would make "material support" for Islamic law punishable by 15 years in prison. The proposal marks a dramatic new step in the conservative campaign against Muslim-Americans.

here's Boehner's absurd criticism of Obama: "A spokesman for Boehner's office criticized the administration change of position.

Radio Report and News Article: Obama Declares Defense of Marriage Act Unconstitutional - NPR All Things Considered:

There was widespread support among scores of human rights groups and many others for recent efforts to have Switzerland open a preliminary investigation for torture against former President George W. Bush during his planned (and now canceled) visit to Geneva.

...if Republican elected officials* in Iowa get their way:

Postulate: Over time, democracy always degenerates into authoritarianism.

Apparently, Tony Leys of the Des Moines Register has finally discovered this incredible documentary by Luis Argueta of the ICE raids at Agriprocessors in Postville, Iowa & the impact which it had on that midwestern town & the families involved.

In a statement today, Political Research Associates condemned the murder and demanded an end to "the export of homophobia to Uganda by American conservatives."

For all his accomplishments — Peace Corps director, ambassador, leader of the war on poverty — R. Sargent Shriver ultimately became known first as an in-law.

Government programs to pay the poor have lifted millions of people out of poverty in countries around the globe.

In a newly-published interview with the legal magazine California Lawyer [...] In 1868, when the 39th Congress was debating and ultimately proposing the 14th Amendment, I don't think anybody would have thought that equal protection applied to sex discrimination, or certainly  …

Today, the Family Research Council Senior Fellow for National Security Bob Maginnis is warning that it's repeal means that America is now no better than Sodom and Gomorrah:     [...]

Click here for video. Click here for a full transcript of remarks by the President and Vice President at Signing of the Don't Ask, Don't Tell Repeal Act of 2010. THE PRESIDENT:  Thank you, thank you, thank you.  (Laughter.)  

yesterday, in a last minute effort to derail the repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) tried to subvert today's great civil rights achievement.

President Obama has just signed the law allowing openly gay men and women to serve in the U.S. military. "This morning I am proud to sign a law bringing an end to 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell," he said. No one should have to "sacrifice their integrity" to wear the uniform of the U.S.

Turkey's prime minister asked President Barack Obama on Monday to prevent a possible House vote on a resolution declaring the World War I-era killings of Armenians a genocide.

Two articles: Senate Passes DADT Repeal, Sending Bill To Obama For His Signature

If David Bahati succeeds in passing the death penalty for homosexuals in Uganda, we need to pray for our own deliverance in the United States. [...]

On Thursday, the House took up the International Protecting Girls by Preventing Child Marriage Act of 2010. The bill would ensure that child marriage is recognized as a human rights violation, and develop comprehensive strategies to prevent such marriages around the world.

Don't Ask Don't Tell repeal is on a glide path to passage. With Olympia Snowe joining Scott Brown and Lisa Murkowski as fully supportive of the standalone bill, at least 61 votes are in hand, and Harry Reid filled the amendment tree to minimize any possibility of amendments.

U.S. President Barack Obama announced Thursday he was reversing the U.S.'s position and endorsing the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter said in a recent interview with Big Think that he believes the country is at a point where it will soon be acceptable to elect a gay president.

In 1948, the idea of interracial marriage in the United States was almost unimaginable. The few polls on this topic at the time showed that Americans were nearly unanimous in their disapproval of it.

A former foreign office minister has said the US should not rely on any apparent secret deal to store banned cluster munitions on British territory.

Chris Bryant was responding to a leak on the Wikileaks website suggesting the US could be exempted from the ban. The Labour MP said: "If the Americans are relying on that then they were being led up the garden path."

When a majority of troops told Pentagon interviewers this summer they didn't care if gays were allowed to serve openly in the military, it represented a sharp break from the past when America's fighting forces voiced bitter opposition to accepting racial minorities and women in t …

For the last 10 years sexual orientation has been included in a list of discriminatory grounds for executions – gay rights activists say the vote to remove that listing is "dangerous and disturbing."

He may not have the rhetorical chops of President Obama, or the make-up artist of Adam Lambert, or the wit of the cast of Modern Family, but Vice President Joe Biden took to YouTube this week to become the latest in a line of politicians, celebrities and activists telling LGBT Yo …

Once again, the United Nations has damaged its own purported values and reason to exist when it praised Libya's human rights record last Tuesday while condemning America's.

Advocacy groups have welcomed reports that the US government plans to boost the policing of online privacy with new laws and a new watchdog.

The Wall Street Journal reported that the Obama administration was set to unveil its new strategy in the coming weeks.

...that's just what happened recently in Raleigh at the Cameron Village shopping center to a couple of women who were being affectionate with each other when a guard happened by.

Looking forward to changes to the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell policy?” Don’t hold your breath. The Wall Street Journal’s Laura Meckler reports today that the drive in Congress to repeal the policy appears all but lost for the fores …

Bishop Gene Robinson of the Episcopal Diocese of New Hampshire said he would retire in 2013, when he will be 65. "The fact is, the last seven years have taken their toll on me, my family and you," Robinson wrote in a message posted on the diocese website.

The U.S. Department of Education will protect Jewish students against anti-Semitism under Title VI, after a six-year campaign.

US military documents leaked to whistleblowing website Wikileaks reveal thousands of previously unreported civilian deaths, according to independent research organisation Iraq Body Count.

Speaking at a Wikileaks news conference, Prof John Sloboda from Iraq Body Count estimated the logs would "bring to the public knowledge more than 15,000 deaths".

Wikileaks says the secret US military logs also suggest US commanders ignored evidence of torture by the Iraqi authorities.

A US Department of Defense spokesman dismissed the documents as raw observations by tactical units, which were only snapshots of tragic events.

"With God on Our Side," the new anti-Israel movie produced by an evangelical pastor and aimed at evangelical audiences, is touring America this month, with anti-Israel British Anglican priest Stephen Sizer in tow.

Under orders of Nouri al- Maliki and on the eve of his trip to Tehran, yet another good will gesture to Iranian regime, was thrashed onto Camp Ashraf residents this evening. Iraqi forces attacked Ashraf residents by firing bullets, and ‎using sticks and truncheons.

"I have made mistakes in this campaign - I have made mistakes all my life..."

Carl Paladino, GOP-Tea Party candidate for governor of New York, gave a speech to religious fundamentalists yesterday, in which he expressed his opinions about the gay and lesbian community.

The nation's leading Jewish civil rights group has awarded a Spanish newspaper reporter its annual Daniel Pearl Award, named for a journalist killed in Pakistan after Sept. 11.

A board meant to protect crime victims defended itself Wednesday for failing to act against its former chairman, who resigned after sending sexually harassing text messages to a domestic abuse victim.

A Seattle cartoonist who became the target of a death threat with a satirical piece called "Everybody Draw Mohammed Day" has gone into hiding on the advice of the FBI.

Many of the tropes of classic anti-Semitism have been revived and given new force on the American right.

Does that smart phone in your pocket contribute to rape and murder in the depths of Africa? Soon, you'll know: A new U.S. law requires companies to certify whether their products contain minerals from rebel-controlled mines in Congo and surrounding countries.

North Korea threatened Saturday to mount a powerful nuclear response to upcoming joint U.S.-South Korean military drills, calling the exercises an "unpardonable" provocation on top of wrongly blaming Pyongyang for the sinking of a South Korean warship.

Shahram Amiri says he was subjected to "the harshest mental and physical torture".

An Iranian scientist who claims he was kidnapped by the CIA has said he was subjected to extreme mental and physical torture by the Americans.

Shahram Amiri, who has flown from the US to Tehran, also denied being heavily involved in Iran's nuclear programme.

"I was in the room playing with my cousin and they called us to come," Delan said. "They cut my cousin. I was very afraid. I was crying and crying. My mother is very fat; I knew if I could run she could not catch me, but she held me too strong. I could not get away.

Diplomatic efforts to find a solution to the Iraq crisis and legal arguments ahead of the 2003 invasion are being explored by the Chilcot inquiry.

The most senior civil servant at the Foreign Office in the lead-up to the war, Lord Jay of Ewelme, is appearing.

This year the message of Iranian upsiring was loud and clear "CHANGE for DEMOCRACY and FREEDOM" and " NO" to the "Religious Velayat Faghih in Iran". The Huge gathering in Paris this year was special backing to those who have in past 30 years strived for Freedom.

Commonwealth Fund Reports U.S. Health Care Last Among 7 Nations Studied

Utah is set to execute a condemned killer by firing squad shortly after midnight Thursday, reviving a style of justice that hasn't been used for at least 14 years and that many criticize as archaic.

Julian Assange, who the Feds fear may release State Dept. secrets, denies having them—but he's readying video of a deadly U.S. airstrike in Afghanistan.

After several days underground, the founder of the secretive website WikiLeaks has gone public to disclose that he is preparing to release a classified Pentagon video of a U.S. airstrike in Afghanistan last year that left as many as 140 civilians dead, most of them children and teenagers.

A pair of gay best friends were voted prom king and queen by such a wide margin at an upstate New York high school that the school didn't bother choosing runners-up.

Candidate Barack Obama repeatedly promised he'd call the almost century-old massacre of Armenians in Turkey a genocide. President Obama twice now has refused to do so.

Armenian Genocide day commemorates the 24 April 1915 commencement of the Turkish Armenian Genocide in which 1.5 million Armenians were systematically murdered by the Turks in the period 1915-1923.

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has come up with fascinating and complicated solution to the broadband and Net neutrality problem. We break it down for you.

When caught between a rock and a hard place, try to find a third way. This is the primary lesson behind the Federal Communications Commission's decision to do some policy somersaults in order to solve a seemingly unsolvable problem: how to have some kind of "positive impact" on broadband, its proliferation in America, and Net neutrality.

Last Friday, April 30th, was the 35th anniversary of the Fall of Saigon and the end of the Vietnam War, and last Tuesday, May 4th, was the 40th anniversary of the shooting of protesting students at Kent State University. The Vietnam War and America's involvement in it affected the lives of millions for well over a decade, exacting a massive human cost with millions of deaths and countless injuries - both physical and mental - that plague many of those involved to this day. United States military involvement and troop strength grew rapidly after 1964 - at its highest level in 1968, with over 500,000 troops on the ground. The Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C. now bears the engraved names of 58,267 of those troops. It's nearly impossible to encapsulate an event of such scale in a handful of photographs, but here, 35 years after the end of the conflict, is my attempt. (47 photos total)

My current situation has caused me to look at certain things in a very different light. Recently my wife has had issues with her teeth. A few of them had (and still are) become pretty severely infected to the point she can barely open her mouth.

Recently my family was evicted from our home. I wrote an article last week about out. Partially to vent a little and partially to explain to friends why I have spent so little time here on newsvine.

More than three years after he was barred from entering the United States, South African political science professor Adam Habib finally got to speak to audiences around Boston this week.

The Digital Due Process coalition is pushing Congress to modernize privacy laws in the United States. The coalition -- comprised of technology companies and special interest groups, including Microsoft, Google, EFF (Electronic Frontier Foundation), ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union), eBay, and others -- feels that existing privacy regulations do not adequately protect data in the digital era, and could stop businesses from embracing cloud computing.

It seems like vendors can't develop a new product or offer a new service these days without tacking the word "cloud" onto it. There are major players -- like Microsoft, Amazon, and Google -- backing the move to cloud-based services, and businesses are rushing to capitalize on the operational and financial benefits offered by cloud computing. However, businesses need to consider whether existing privacy law adequately protects data in the cloud.

BEIJING — China's government censors have taken fresh aim at the Internet, rolling out new measures that limit its citizens' ability to set up personal Web sites and to view hundreds of Web sites offering films, video games and other forms of entertainment.