Tag Archives: feds

Posted this afternoon to the DOMA Project’s Facebook page.

From the Office Of Personnel Management: Health Insurance (FEHB): All legally married same-sex spouses will now be eligible family members under a Self and Family enrollment. In addition, the children of same-sex marriages will be treated just as those of opposite-sex marriages and will be eligible family members according to the same eligibility guidelines. This includes coverage for children of …

Wikileaks founder Julian Assange has helped NSA leaker Edward Snowden get out of Hong Kong.  But he apparently won’t be in Moscow for very long: Edward Snowden left for Moscow on Sunday and his final destination may be Cuba, Ecuador, Iceland or Venezuela, according to various reports. The move is bound to infuriate Washington, wherever he ends up. “It’s a …

The federal government has formally charged NSA leaker Edward Snowden with espionage and theft of government documents. Snowden has been charged with three violations: theft of government property and two offenses under the espionage statutes, specifically giving national defense information to someone without a security clearance and revealing classified information about “communications intelligence.” Each of the charges carries a maximum …

From the Department of Housing and Urban Development: This is the first large-scale, paired-testing study to assess housing discrimination against same-sex couples in metropolitan rental markets via advertisements on the Internet. The research is based on 6,833 e-mail correspondence tests conducted in 50 metropolitan markets across the United States from June through October 2011. For each correspondence test, two e-mails …

Rep. Peter King (R-NY) today called for the prosecution of openly gay journalist Glenn Greenwald for publishing the story about NSA leaker Edward Snowden. King appeared this afternoon on Fox News to make his threat. “Not only did [Greenwald] disclose this information, he said he has names of CIA agents and assets around the world and threatening to disclose that,” …

President Obama today addressed the latest flap: “When it comes to telephone calls, nobody is listening to your telephone calls. That’s not what this program is about. What the intelligence community is doing is looking at phone numbers, and durations of calls; they are not looking at people’s names and they’re not looking at content.  If the intelligence committee actually …

Last night the Obama administration confirmed that it has been using Facebook, Google, and Apple to secretly collect data on foreigners overseas. The story was first broken by openly gay journalist Glenn Greenwald in articles published by the Guardian and the Washington Post. Today the New York Times reports on the acknowledgement by the feds: The confirmation of the classified …

Word leaked out this week that President Obama is set to nominate former Deputy Attorney General James Comey, a Republican who served under Bush II, to head up the FBI.  Today the Human Rights Campaign points out an interesting detail on Comey: Six decades after J. Edgar Hoover created a “Sex Deviate” program to investigate, red-flag and target gay and …

The Peace Corps has issued a press release that invites same-sex couples to apply to serve overseas together. Peace Corps Deputy Director Carrie Hessler-Radelet today announced that the agency will begin accepting applications from same-sex domestic partners who want to serve together as volunteers overseas. Same-sex couples may begin the application process starting Monday, June 3.  “Service in the Peace …

From Family Research Council’s Facebook page: “After multiple administrations have used the IRS to investigate and punish opponents, isn’t it time to reconsider abolishing the IRS?”

It goes into circulation in October. “We made numerous process changes to address the creasing issue and we are back in full production,” said Dawn Haley, a spokeswoman for the Bureau of Engraving and Printing. Haley said those changes include modifying the paper feeder on printing presses to accommodate variations in the paper associated with the 3-D security ribbon. The …

Read the full complaint.

The wingnuts are going ballistic.

In 2008 then-Sen. Obama promised to deliver an executive order banning federal contractors from discriminating against employees on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity.  Since then the White House has repeatedly said that a legislative solution that would affect all employers is the goal. But that goal, ENDA, very clearly is out of reach while the GOP controls …

A federal court today ordered the FDA to drop the prescription requirement for girls 16 and younger that wish to purchase the over-the-counter medication Plan B, which prevents pregnancy. In a decision in a lawsuit filed by advocates, the judge, Edward R. Korman of Federal District Court, ruled that the government’s refusal to lift restrictions on access to the pill …

As you can see, the news is causing an uproar across Teabagistan. The memo above was “obtained” and posted today by the right wing Pajamas Media. “Special emphasis programs” don’t belong in the Justice Department, or anywhere in a government based on equality, where a deep egalitarian tradition informs hiring decisions. Dedicated employment recruitment programs based on sexual orientation are …

Democratic New York state Sen. Malcolm Smith and NYC Councilman Daniel Halloran (R-Queens) were both arrested by the FBI this morning on charges that they had conspired to fix this year’s New York City mayoral race. Mr. Smith was taken from his Queens home in handcuffs before sunrise and Mr. Halloran was arrested at about the same time, the people …