The majority of voters did not vote for Donald Trump for president; the majority of voters did not vote for Republican candidates for the Senate; and fewer than 51% of voters cast their ballots for Republican candidates for the House of Representatives. The Republican Party now controls the White House, both houses of Congress and the Supreme Court, no matter how that came to be. I believe it is worth bearing in mind that a majority of U.S. citizens did not support the Republican winners.   read more

Every year, a group of conspiracy theorists gathers on November 22 at Dealey Plaza in Dallas, Texas, to commemorate the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. But the group has been denied a permit for 2013 because the city plans to observe the 50th anniversary of the tragic event, and it doesn’t want alternative theories over who was behind the killing to be a distraction.   read more

“Why should churches be exempt from basic financial reporting requirements? Equally important, why would churches not wish to be accountable?” Annie Laurie Gaylor, FFRF co-president, said in a press release. “Having tax-exempt status is a great privilege, and in exchange for that privilege, all other groups must file a detailed report annually to the IRS and the public on how we spend donations.”   read more

More than half of the 232 were imprisoned in just three countries. Turkey has the distinction of being the worst offender when it comes to jailing reporters, arresting 49. Second was Iran, with 45, and China third, with 32. The longest held of the Turkish prisoners is Hatice Duman, the editor of a socialist newspaper, who was arrested on April 12, 2003.   read more

The December 25 attacks may have been in response to Iranian hackers going after computers in Saudi Arabia’s oil industry and some American banks a few months ago. On December 31, the Iranian government claimed that during a six-day naval drill staged to show off new torpedoes, the Navy’s “cyber defense group” repelled a mock attack on its defensive computer network.   read more

If the job of Congress is to pass laws, then the 112th Congress is the laziest in modern history. Of the 6,600 bills introduced, lawmakers passed only 231. At least 45 of the successful bills involved the naming of federal buildings, while many others were similarly insignificant, such as six commemorative coin bills and five correcting “technical errors” Congress made in past legislation. This paltry productivity means the 112th Congress will be the least productive in modern history.   read more

The public and political outrage that followed the Newtown school shooting has largely ignored the fact that children across the country have been victims of gun violence on a regular basis. Between 2006 and 2010 an average of two children a week were killed by firearms, according to statistics from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). During this period, 561 children under the age of 13 died as a result of gunfire.   read more

ICE agents are no longer allowed to issue detainer requests against unauthorized aliens arrested for minor misdemeanors like traffic offenses and other petty crimes, such as selling food out of one’s home or smoking in a non-smoking area. The new policy instructs agents to issue detainers only for those convicted or charged with a felony; those with three or more non-minor misdemeanor convictions; and those with serious misdemeanors.”   read more

The lawsuit, using blunt language, goes on to say, “The Japanese government kept representing that there was no danger of radiation contamination to the U.S.S. Reagan (CVN-76) and/or its crew, that ‘everything is under control,’ ‘all is OK, you can trust us,’ and there is ‘no immediate danger’ or threat to human life, all the while lying through their teeth about the reactor meltdowns.”   read more

In 2012 AllGov readers appeared to be looking for stories that were overlooked on television news reports, particularly those that dealt with questions of individual liberty and the erosion of traditional rights. 1. Indiana First State to Allow Citizens to Shoot Law Enforcement Officers 2. Tax Evaders Renounce U.S. Citizenship 3. Congress, At Last Minute, Drops Requirement to Obtain Warrant to Monitor Email   read more

If Congress is unable to reach agreement on a deal to avoid the so-called “fiscal cliff,” the biggest losers will not be taxpayers, whose tax rates are merely returning to 2002 levels, but the 2.1 million Americans—and their families—whose unemployment benefits ran out as of December 29. That was the expiration date of the federal Emergency Unemployment Compensation program, a Labor Department program that extends unemployment compensation to long-term unemployed workers.   read more

The last time Congress voted this time of year was in 1970, at the end of the second session of the 91st Congress, during a contentious fight over the federal budget and a filibuster over federal financing for the development of an American supersonic transport airplane to compete with the European-made Concorde. Congress passed several bills, including the Clean Air Act, but President Richard Nixon vetoed four of them.   read more

The last three domestic slaughterhouses in the U.S. closed in 2007. Since then, unwanted horses have been shipped to Mexico and Canada for slaughter. In 2012, 68,429 horses were shipped to Mexico and 64,652 to Canada. Lawmakers in Washington decided to allow horse slaughtering again after they learned that the animals sent over the borders were subjected to horrible conditions that were documented by the Humane Society.   read more

Female avatars exposed more than twice as much skin as males. Among male avatars, 71% covered between 75–100% of their skin while only 5% of females did. On the flip side, only 1% of males covered only 0–24% of their skin while 10% of females did.   read more

Neile L. Miller, who has been the principal deputy administrator for the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) since August 2010, will become acting administrator on January 18. 2013. In the private sector, Miller has worked for Cogema, Inc., and as a consultant for clients including DOE, Sandia National Laboratory, and the government of Germany.   read more

The National Lawyers Guild (NLG), which is helping the group, said the appellate decision marked the first time a court has affirmed Americans’ ability to sue the military for violating their First Amendment (freedom of speech and assembly) and Fourth Amendment (freedom from unreasonable search and seizure) rights.   read more

On September 2, an American missile destroyed a Toyota truck loaded with 14 Yemenis from a village near Radda. The attack killed 11, including a woman and two children. The Yemeni government tried to claim that its own air force carried out the assault, and that those killed were al-Qaeda militants. Many locals refused to accept the official explanation, and eventually Yemeni officials were forced to acknowledge that the strike killed only civilians.   read more