Ann Friedman

REPORT DOMESTIC VIOLENCE, RISK DEPORTATION? Salon’s Broadsheet has the unfortunate news that an amendment may be tacked on to the immigration bill that would make women’s immigration status known to federal authorities if they report domestic violence to local police. Currently the Violence Against Women Act protects women who call the cops on their abusers […]

JUDICIAL ACTIVISM. The Roberts Court handed down a set of pro-big business, anti-free speech, anti-environment decisions today. The court ruled taxpayers can’t challenge the federal government’s funding of faith-based organizations. Businesses don’t have to worry much about the Endangered Species Act. Schools can punish students for speech with a perceived “pro-drug” message. And interest groups […]

WHY “HEY BABY!” IS A BIG DEAL. D.C.’s alt-weekly, the City Paper has a package of stories this week on street harassment. One, a catcall diary a woman kept for a year. Two, a very poorly-written essay by that same woman about how now she’s a racist because of all the harassment she gets from […]

SUDDENLY THE ABSTINENCE-ONLY MOVEMENT CARES ABOUT FACTS? Sometimes I give anti-choicers too much credit. This week, when articles started cropping up on pro-fetus websites about how a government study showed comprehensive sex ed programs disseminate false information, I was actually kind of concerned. After all, the whole “false information about condoms” thing is the abstinence-only […]

CULTURE OF LIFE. If anyone still thinks we should refer to the anti-abortion movement as “pro-life,” this event next week should change their mind. The forced-pregnancy movement is holding a four-day rally to honor Paul Hill, who murdered abortion provider Dr. John Britton and his clinic escort in Pensacola, Florida in 1994. Why Milwaukee? Why […]

EVENT: TORTURE IN THE WAR ON TERROR. Tomorrow TAP Senior Editor Tara McKelvey will be participating in a panel discussion: Sunlight in the Torture Chamber Expert Views on the United States’ Use of Secrecy, Detention, and Interrogations in the War on Terrorism Thursday, June 14th, 7:00-8:30 p.m. Fordham Law School McNally Amphitheatre 160 W. 62nd […]

THE GAY BOMB. This is unbelievable: A Berkeley watchdog organization that tracks military spending said it uncovered a strange U.S. military proposal to create a hormone bomb that could purportedly turn enemy soldiers into homosexuals and make them more interested in sex than fighting. Pentagon officials on Friday confirmed to CBS 5 that military leaders […]

SO HELP ME IVY. The Post reports that President Bush is beefing up his besieged White House legal team with some crack lawyers to defend the administration against a variety of congressional inquiries. As the Post‘s Peter Baker notes, all eight [of the newly-hired attorneys] received degrees from Ivy League schools or from West Point. […]

THROWIN’ BOLTS. The forced-pregnancy crowd has been chirping about how God began casting lightning bolts at Rudy Giuliani just as he was about to profess his support for abortion rights during Tuesday’s debate. Now Jill has compiled a list of other people who are apparently on God’s smite-list. Metallica fans, look out. –Ann Friedman

KRISTOL’S AWAKENING. The convenient narrative employed by critics (and many reluctant defenders) to define Bill Clinton was that he was a self-absorbed Baby Boomer, a man so selfish in his appetites that if having sex with an intern meant potentially jeopardizing his administration, his legacy and his party’s chances to hold the White House in […]