How Access To Contraception Helped Shrink The
Gender Pay Gap

post from ThinkProgress on 06 March 2012 01:00:04 PM. © ThinkProgress

Last week, with a lot of help from the Roosevelt Instutute’s Bryce Covert, we looked at how access to contraception has benefited the economy, as having more women in the workforce significantly boosted U.S. GDP. In fact, according to McKinsey, the increase in women?s workforce participation since the 1970s has grown the economy by 25 percent, “an amount equal to the combined GDP of Illinois, California and New York.?

Today, the New York Times’ Annie Lowery points to a study by researchers at the Universities of Michigan and Virginia which found that access to contraception also helped close the gender pay gap:

A study by Martha J. Bailey, Brad Hershbein and Amalia R. Miller helps assign a dollar value to those tectonic shifts. For instance, they show that young women who won access to the pill in the 1960s ended up earning an 8 percent premium on their hourly wages by age 50.
Such trends have helped narrow the earnings gap between men and women. Indeed, the paper suggests that the pill accounted for 30 percent ? 30 percent! ? of the convergence of men?s and women?s earnings from 1990 to 2000.

But of course, the pay gap persists, despite measures passed by the Obama administration to help address it. In 2010, women?s wages were about 77.4 percent of men?s, and the gap is even larger for African American and Latino women. Women make less than their male counterparts in all 50 states, with Wyoming having the worst disparity, at 63.8 percent.

As ThinkProgress’ Travis Waldron noted, “because of the gender pay gap, women with the same education doing the same job as men earn far less over their working lifetimes. The wage gap costs $723,000 over a 40-year career for women with college degrees. In some industries, the gap can cost women close to a million dollars.” So while access to contraception and family planning has certainly helped, there’s still a long way to go to ensure gender equality in the workplace.

Read The Full Article:
http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2012/03/06/438788/contraception-gender-pay-gap/

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Green Donors Bet Romney Is Faking His New Climate
Change Views And Will Flip Flop Back If Elected

post from ThinkProgress on 06 March 2012 01:00:04 PM. © ThinkProgress

According to his own standards on the campaign trail today, Mitt Romney was once a “radical” on energy issues.

In 2003, as governor of Massachusetts, he supported “investing in cleaning technologies” for an old coal plant in the commonwealth responsible for dozens of deaths, saying “I will not create jobs … that kill people.”

Also that year, Romney set up a $15 million green energy trust fund for renewable energy in order to create a “major economic springboard for the commonwealth.”

And in 2005, before deciding to pull out of the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, Romney called cap and trade “good business.” That was back when the Economist magazine named him a “climate friendly” Republican.

Today, Romney says “we don’t know what’s causing climate change on this planet,” explaining that his new energy policy is to “aggressively develop our oil, our gas, our coal.”

Romney’s changing positions on a broad range of issues have left supporters wondering where he’ll actually land on the issues if he becomes president. As Politico reported yesterday, some donors in the environmental community are putting their bets on another flip flop on climate and energy issues:

Julian Robertson, founder of the Tiger Management hedge fund, helped put cap-and-trade legislation on the map with $60 million in contributions over the past decade to the Environmental Defense Fund.
Now, Robertson has given $1.25 million to Romney?s Restore our Future super PAC, plus the maximum $2,500 to the Romney campaign.
Other green-minded financial backers may not be giving as much as Robertson, but they still share the view that climate-change science and a solid environmental agenda wouldn?t be a lost cause if Romney won the White House.
?My feeling is that on these issues that people learn,? said former Gov. Thomas Kean (R-N.J.), who maxed out last fall to Romney with a $2,500 check. ?And my hope is, as time goes on, he will understand that not everybody agrees on how you deal with these issues, but I hope he will agree with 99 percent of the scientists who believe this is an issue that we have to deal with.?

This sentiment echoes what other observers have predicted. For example, Andrew Light, an international climate expert with the Center for American Progress, said he doesn’t think a Republican president would put an end to American involvement in climate negotiations. Because they are now a “central driver of broader foreign policy,” it would be tough for a candidate like Romney to pull out.

“I am certain that there would be members of the administration who are not isolationists on foreign policy,” said Light.

Although some experts believe Romney’s climate stance on the campaign trail might differ from his actual policies, signs don’t point to dramatic change. Last week, Romney chose oil billionaire Harold Hamm to chair his energy advisory panel ? joining a group of lobbyists who have worked for the coal and tar sands industries.

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http://thinkprogress.org/romm/2012/03/06/438479/green-donors-romney-climate-chang
eflip-flop-green-elected/

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Colorado Supreme Court Lifts Ban On Concealed
Weapons On College Campuses

post from ThinkProgress on 06 March 2012 01:00:04 PM. © ThinkProgress

The Colorado Supreme Court on Monday upheld an appeals court decision that would lift the ban on concealed weapons throughout the University of Colorado system. The 40 year old ban was challenged by three students in 2008, and after a lower court initially sided with the Board of Regents, subsequent rulings overturned the decision. The court ruled that the regents? ban on concealed weapons was in violation of the state?s Concealed Carry Act. Currently, only Utah explicitly forbids colleges and universities from restricting concealed guns on all public universities.

Read The Full Article:
http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2012/03/06/438699/colorado-supreme-court-lifts-b
an-on-concealed-weapons-on-college-campuses/

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CHART: As Income For The Top 1 Percent Grew,
Republicans Became More ‘Polarized’

post from ThinkProgress on 06 March 2012 01:00:03 PM. © ThinkProgress

Our guest blogger is Paul Breer, a former ThinkProgress intern and co-creator of PonySavers.org.

Last week, ThinkProgress reported studies by political science professors Keith Poole and Howard Rosenthal that show House Republicans are largely responsible for the ideological extremism that has occurred over the last 30 years in Congress. Another study by Poole, Rosenthal, and others finds that as the proportion of income made by the top 1 percent has increased, members in the House have become more “polarized.”

Combining the two studies, meanwhile, shows that as the income of the 1 percent rises, Republicans become more polarized by moving further to the extreme right. The data sets affirm we already know: the GOP is beholden to the interests of the 1 percent.

Poole and his colleagues explain this phenomenon by proposing that the top 1 percent tend to be highly partisan. As the income for the 1 percent rises, their campaign contributions become more partisan as well. This polarized campaign-giving has clearly contributed to the ideological extremism of the GOP, while the same type of donations have made only a negligible difference in the Democratic Party’s ideology.

Yet Republicans continue to ignore that America is now more unequal than Iran, Uganda, the Ivory Coast, and even Ancient Rome. And more to the point, as the income of the top 1 percent has seen a 275 percent increase from 1978 to 2007 (compared to a mere 18 percent increase for the bottom 20 percent), Rick Santorum says he is “for income inequality” and Mitt Romney attacks people who raise these facts as engaging in the “bitter politics of envy.”

Read The Full Article:
http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2012/03/06/437097/charts-income-republicans-pola
rized/

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These 4 Huge Economies are in Deep Trouble

post from Jutia Group on 06 March 2012 01:00:00 PM. © Jutia Group

It's time to stress-test all of the companies in your portfolio. It's crucial to determine their geographic exposure right now, because a handful of major economies are possibly headed for a long-term unwinding.

Each of these countries is beset by stunningly-large budget deficits, unfavorable demographics, a too-strong currency and weakening consumer demand. Before things get better (and they will) they may get a lot worse during the next few years. A portfolio with exposure to these economies may underperform the broader market.

I'm talking about four of the 12 largest economies in the world, which accounted for a combined $11 trillion in economic activity last year. That's 35 times larger than Greece, to put things in perspective. . . . → Read More: These 4 Huge Economies are in Deep Trouble

Read The Full Article:
http://jutiagroup.com/20120306-these-4-huge-economies-are-in-deep-trouble/

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Join Our Journey: Become a Member at Firedoglake

post from Firedoglake on 06 March 2012 12:45:15 PM. © Firedoglake

Dedicated local activism, thought-provoking talks and great new benefits! FDL Membership – A Journey I’ve Been A Part Of?.. I started reading FDL in 2006, first just reading the posts, getting my news-fix for the day, news I could trust. A[...]

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http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/firedoglake/fdl/~3/MmtGsIVd8TM/

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Western Civilisation: Decline or Fall

post from Jutia Group on 06 March 2012 12:45:06 PM. © Jutia Group

I had my nose in Niall Ferguson’s newest book, Civilization: The West and the Rest, at every possible moment during my recent trip to Hong Kong and Singapore. It’s powerful and very, very timely, and I strongly recommend it. To help get the word out, I asked Niall for a short, somewhat personal piece on the thinking behind the book – in other words, what moved him to write it?

What you’re going to find in the piece below for this week’s Outside the Box, as well as in the book, is an author who is very concerned about our civilization’s prospects – and unafraid to say so. I mean, the last time I looked, "saving the world" had . . . → Read More: Western Civilisation: Decline ? or Fall?

Read The Full Article:
http://jutiagroup.com/20120306-western-civilisation-decline-or-fall/

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Preview of Super Tuesday, Part 2 (OH, OK, TN, VT,
VA)

post from Crooks and Liars on 06 March 2012 12:30:17 PM. © Crooks and Liars

State: Ohio

Type of election: Primary

How it works: 63 delegates are at stake. 48 delegates are awarded in winner-take-all congressional districts. Santorum submitted only a partial slate of delegates by the deadline. If he wins in those districts, he can only be awarded only the number of delegates he submitted. The remaining delegates will be designated unbound until a three-member panel from the Republican party's central committee decides who the delegates will be appointed by. The remaining 15 delegates will be allocated to any candidate who gets a majority of the statewide vote or distributed proportionately among any candidates who get at least 20 percent of the vote.

Official election results: Ohio Secretary of State

Republican candidates: Newt Gingrich, Ron Paul, Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum (all others have dropped out or are polling at less than 1 percent)

Democratic candidates: There is no Democratic presidential primary.

Previous performance: In 2008, Romney dropped out prior to the primary, but still received 5 percent of the vote and finished fourth. Paul finished third with slightly fewer votes. Obama finished second with 45 percent of the vote.

Newspapers: Cincinnati Enquirer, Cleveland Plain Dealer, Columbus Dispatch, Toledo Blade, full list

Television stations: Full list

Progressive blogs: Buckeye State Blog, Ohio Daily Blog, Plunderbund

Latest polling: New York Times:

Rasmussen: Santorum 32 percent, Romney 31, Paul 13, Gingrich 13

Merriman: Romney 38, Santorum 33, Gingrich 18, Paul 8

PPP: Romney 37, Santorum 36, Gingrich 15, Paul 11

ARG: Romney 35, Santorum 28, Gingrich 18, Paul 13

Suffolk: Santorum 37, Romney 33, Gingrich 16, Paul 8

Quinnipiac: Romney 34, Santorum 31, Gingrich 15, Paul 12

CNN: Santorum 32, Romney 32, Gingrich 14, Paul 11

Ipsos: Santorum 32, Romney 32, Gingrich 17, Paul 6

NBC: Santorum 34, Romney 32, Gingrich 15, Paul 13

Nate Silver gives Romney a 65 percent chance of winning, while Santorum gets a 35 percent chance.

Bottom line: This appears to be closer than Silver suggests (although he's been right on the money so far) and this could be the biggest battleground and the biggest competitive prize of the day.

State: Oklahoma

Type of election: Primary

How it works: 40 delegates are at stake. 15 delegates are chosen by congressional district with a majority winner getting three delegates and the delegates being distributed to as many as the three top vote-getters as long as they are above 15 percent of the vote. 25 delegates are given to a statewide majority winner or distributed proportionately to candidates getting at least 15 percent.

Official election results: Oklahoma State Election Board

Republican candidates: Newt Gingrich, Ron Paul, Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum (all others have dropped out or are polling at less than 1 percent)

Democratic candidates: Barack Obama and minor candidates.

Previous performance: In 2008, Romney finished third with 25 percent of the vote. Paul finished fourth with just over 3 percent. Obama finished second with 31 percent.

Newspapers: The Oklahoman, Tulsa World, full list

Television stations: Full list

Progressive blogs: Blue Oklahoma

Latest polling: New York Times:

ARG: Santorum 37 percent, Romney 26, Gingrich 22, Paul 9

YouGov: Santorum 38, Romney 30, Gingrich 22, Paul 9

Rasmussen: Santorum 43, Gingrich 22, Romney 18, Paul 7

Nate Silver gives Santorum a 91 percent a chance of winning, Romney an 8 percent chance and Gingrich 1 percent.

Bottom line: A bit more conservative state than the rest looks to go for Santorum, which shouldn't be a surprise. Santorum's challenge is to win in a more moderate state.

State: Tennessee

Type of election: Primary

How it works: 55 delegates are at stake. 27 delegates are awarded by district. If a candidate gets two-thirds of the vote in a district, they winn all three delegates. Otherwise the top two candidates in the district split the vote 2-1. The remaining delegates are given to the candidate who gets at least two-thirds of the statewide vote or given proportionately to candidates who get at least 20 percent of the vote.

Official election results: Tennessee Secretary of State

Republican candidates: Newt Gingrich, Ron Paul, Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum (all others have dropped out or are polling at less than 1 percent)

Democratic candidates: There is no Democratic presidential primary.

Previous performance: In 2008, Romney finished third to Huckabee with 24 percent of the vote, Paul finished fourth with over 5.5 percent. Obama finished second in the Democratic primary with just under 40.5 percent.

Newspapers: Nashville Tennessean, Knoxville News Sentinel, full list

Television stations: Full list

Progressive blogs: KnoxViews, Southern Beale, Tennesse Guerilla Women

Latest polling: New York Times:

We Ask America: Romney 30 percent, Gingrich 29, Santorum 29, Paul 12

PPP: Santorum 34, Romney 29, Gingrich 27, Paul 8

Rasmussen: Santorum 34, Romney 30, Gingrich 18, Paul 8

ARG: Santorum 35, Romney 31, Gingrich 20, Paul 9

YouGov: Santorum 37, Romney 30, Gingrich 19, Paul 15

Nate Silver gives Santorum a 56 percent chance of winning, Romney a 39 percent chance and Gingrich 5 percent.

Bottom line: Santorum looks to win a Southern state, but Romney looks surprisingly strong. Gingrich is doing better in the South as well, but only looks to play a spoiler.

State: Vermont

Type of election: Primary

How it works: 17 delegates are at stake. Three are super delegates bound by the primary results on a winner-take-all basis. The remaining delegates are awarded to a majority winner or distributed proportionately among any candidate who gets at least 20 percent.

Official election results: Vermont Secretary of State

Republican candidates: Newt Gingrich, Ron Paul, Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum (all others have dropped out or are polling at less than 1 percent)

Democratic candidates: There is no Democratic presidential primary.

Previous performance: In 2008, Romney had dropped out of the race before the primary, but still got under 4.5 percent. Paul finished third with over 6.5 percent. Obama won the Democratic primary with 59 percent.

Newspapers: Burlington Free Press, full list

Television stations: Full list

Progressive blogs: Green Mountain Daily

Latest polling: Little polling has been done in Vermont.

Nate Silver gives the state easily to Romney, with Paul doing second best.

Bottom line: Romney should win easily and net a few more delegates over his rivals.

State: Virginia

Type of election: Primary

How it works: 46 delegates are at stake. 33 are awarded in a winner-take-all fashion in each congressional district. The rest are given to a statewide majority winner or given proportionately if no one wins a majority.

Official election results: Virginia State Board of Elections

Republican candidates: Ron Paul and Mitt Romney. The other candidates did not qualify because of stricter ballot rules.

Democratic candidates: There is no Democratic presidential primary.

Previous performance: In 2008, Romney had dropped out, but got over 3.5 percent. Paul finished third with 4.5 percent. Obama won the primary with nearly 64 percent.

Newspapers: Virginian-Pilot, Richmond Times-Dispatch, full list

Television stations: Full list

Progressive blogs: Blue Virginia, Not Larry Sabato

Latest polling: New York Times:

NBC: Romney 69 percent, Paul 26

Roanoke: Romney 56, Paul 21

Nate Silver gives Romney a 100 percent chance of winning.

Bottom line: Without Santorum or Gingrich on the ballot, this one doesn't really count towards anything other than the delegate count. It could be a sign of the superior organization of the Romney campaign, though.

Read The Full Article:
http://crooksandliars.com/kenneth-quinnell/preview-super-tuesday-part-2-oh-o

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Rush Limbaugh: Vile parrot in the war on women's
health. But he's only one in a woman-hating army

As the campaign continues to get advertisers and stations to end their relationship with Rush Limbaugh's hate-radio program, it's important to remember exactly what sparked this outcry against the bully from Cape Girardeau. It was not, as the spewmeister repeatedly tried to frame it and even a few progressive critics bought into, the sex life of Sandra Fluke. Because she said exactly zero about that in her testimony before the House Democratic Steering and Policy Committee. Not one word.

What she did say she herself best summed up:

[W]hen you let university administrators or other employers rather than women and their doctors dictate whose medical needs are legitimate and whose are not, women?s health takes a back seat to a bureaucracy focused on policing her body.

The issue is equitable coverage of women's reproductive health needs and women's private decisions made together with their physicians about how best to manage their health care versus the demands of politicians and clerics and other busybodies to intervene in private medical matters that are none of their concern.

That Rush Limbaugh and his imitators, emulators and dittoheads have chosen to make it about Sandra Fluke's sex life, about which they know absolutely nothing, about which they should be making no comments whatsoever, epitomizes the war on women they have been running for so very, very long. Fluke is hardly the first woman to feel their boot, their scorn and their slanders. They want to make reproductive health care decisions for women. They want to maintain, or rather, regain the control that women and their allies have worked for decades to put and keep in the hands of women.

In this particular case, it's also well to remember that the guy who makes 6300-times the mininum wage for each of his programs, didn't originate the vicious attack on Fluke. He just used his electronic soapbox to amplify and embellish it. It started with Craig Bannister, the Communications Director of a right-wing outfit, the Conservative News Service (CNS), whose parent entity is the Media Research Center. Founded by Brent Bozell and funded by Exxon-Mobil and right-wing foundations like the Sarah Scaife Foundation and Castle Rock Foundation, the mission is to "balance" the so-called "liberal media."

Craig Bannister's diatribe against Fluke would have never been noticed by anyone who matters had it not been for Limbaugh's need for three more days of sewage (for which he was paid approximately $450,000). But both Bannister and Limbaugh are only two of an army of woman-haters engaged in this warfare.

As we watch the advertisers and stations break off their relationship with Limbaugh, we should never forget that what really generated this unprecedented grass-roots pushback against the attacks on Fluke wasn't just the hateful bleatings of the nation's most overpaid gasbag. Limbaugh's misogyny is not exceptional except in its ability to gain an audience and his willingness to use language others shy away from. It is all part of the long-term, broad-based attack on women's basic rights engaged in by misogynist religious organizations, right-wing funders, the politicians they buy at the local, state and federal levels and Limbaugh wannabes at stations across the nation. He is just the point man.

???

Send an e-mail to the Armed Forces Network, telling them there is no place on military airwaves for talk like Limbaugh's.

Read The Full Article:
http://feeds.dailykos.com/~r/dailykos/index/~3/hpZDftO0zvg/-Rush-Limbaugh-Vile-pa
rrot-in-the-war-on-women-s-health-But-he-s-only-one-in-a-woman-hating-army

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The Chances of Driving Rush Limbaugh Off
Commercial Radio

Rush Limbaugh has faced criticism before. But the backlash at the activist feels new. At least eleven advertisers have stopped hawking their wares on his program. Two radio stations have dropped the show entirely. Republican leaders have (sorta)[...]

Read The Full Article:
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/firedoglake/fdl/~3/-HwuE8CNVn4/

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