Salon.com > Video http://www.salon.com Tue, 02 Jul 2013 12:56:54 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 Economic inequality was created http://www.salon.com/2013/07/02/economic_inequality_was_created_partner/ http://www.salon.com/2013/07/02/economic_inequality_was_created_partner/#comments Tue, 02 Jul 2013 11:45:00 +0000 http://www.railrode.net/?p=13348272

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/07/02/economic_inequality_was_created_partner/feed/ 1 Justices Antonin Scalia and Elena Kagan hunt together http://www.salon.com/2013/07/02/justices_antonin_scalia_and_elena_kagan_hunt_together/ http://www.salon.com/2013/07/02/justices_antonin_scalia_and_elena_kagan_hunt_together/#comments Tue, 02 Jul 2013 11:14:00 +0000 http://www.railrode.net/?p=13349441 The social lives of Congressmen is a topic best avoided, but a certain class of Washingtonian gets a little tingle from knowing that the benchwarmers on the Supreme Court hang out after hours. Judges: They're just like us!

Justice Elena Kagan first went hunting with Justice Antonin Scalia when she needed to get some Second Amendment credibility. First they shot birds but now Kagan has graduated to killing bigger, hairier animals.

“He said, ‘It’s time for big-game hunting,’” she recalled in an on-stage interview at the Aspen Ideas Festival. “We went out to Wyoming this past fall to shoot deer and antelope, and we did. . . I shot myself a deer.” Look at that syntax; soon she'll be droppin' the g's in her opinions.

Another delicious detail: She flies commercial.

Here's the video of her appearance:

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/07/02/justices_antonin_scalia_and_elena_kagan_hunt_together/feed/ 4 Bodies of Arizona firefighters recovered http://www.salon.com/2013/07/01/bodies_of_arizona_firefighters_recovered_ap/ http://www.salon.com/2013/07/01/bodies_of_arizona_firefighters_recovered_ap/#comments Mon, 01 Jul 2013 19:20:00 +0000 http://www.railrode.net/?p=13347747 YARNELL, Ariz. (AP) — As the windblown blaze suddenly swept toward them, an elite crew of firefighting "hotshots" desperately rushed to break out their emergency shelters and take cover on the ground under the foil-lined fabric.

By the time the flames had passed, 19 men lay dead in the nation's biggest loss of firefighters in a wildfire in 80 years.

The tragedy Sunday evening all but wiped out the 20-member Granite Mountain Hotshots, a unit based in the small town of Prescott, Prescott Fire Chief Dan Fraijo said as the last of the bodies were retrieved from the mountain. Only one member survived, and that was because he was moving the unit's truck at the time, authorities said.

The deaths plunged the town into mourning, and Arizona's governor called it "as dark a day I can remember" and ordered flags flown at half-staff.

"We are heartbroken about what happened," President Barack Obama said while on a visit to Africa. He predicted the tragedy will force government leaders to answer broader questions about how they handle increasingly destructive and deadly wildfires.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/07/01/bodies_of_arizona_firefighters_recovered_ap/feed/ 7 Report: Snowden asks for political asylum in Russia http://www.salon.com/2013/07/01/report_snowden_asks_for_political_asylum_in_russia_ap/ http://www.salon.com/2013/07/01/report_snowden_asks_for_political_asylum_in_russia_ap/#comments Mon, 01 Jul 2013 18:00:00 +0000 http://www.railrode.net/?p=13347414 The Interfax news agency says a Russian consular official has confirmed that National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden asked for political asylum in Russia.

Interfax cited Kim Shevchenko, the duty officer at the Russian Foreign Ministry’s consular office in Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport, as saying that Snowden’s representative, Sarah Harrison, handed over his request Sunday.

Snowden has been caught in legal limbo in the transit zone of Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport since his arrival from Hong Kong on June 23. The U.S. has annulled his passport, and Ecuador, where he has hoped to get asylum, has been coy about offering him shelter.Russia’s President Vladimir Putin says Snowden will have to stop leaking U.S. secrets if he wants to get asylum in Russia, but adds that Snowden has no plan to quit doing so.

Edward Snowden: I'm Not A Spy For The Chinese

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/07/01/report_snowden_asks_for_political_asylum_in_russia_ap/feed/ 10 Planned Parenthood gets the Tami Taylor seal of approval http://www.salon.com/2013/07/01/planned_parenthood_gets_the_tami_taylor_seal_of_approval/ http://www.salon.com/2013/07/01/planned_parenthood_gets_the_tami_taylor_seal_of_approval/#comments Mon, 01 Jul 2013 17:03:00 +0000 http://www.railrode.net/?p=13347315 Connie Britton -- whose "Friday Night Lights" character, Tami Taylor, is widely regarded as the patron saint of television moms/ultimate fictional wise woman/best head of hair in the business -- has partnered with Planned Parenthood on a campaign to support women's reproductive rights in Texas. (Texas forever!)

Britton commissioned a T-shirt to help support the campaign, which plays on her character's pop culture status as moral compass and asks: "What Would Tami Taylor Do?" (Answer, per the campaign website: "She would stand with Texas women.")

In a statement on the partnership, Britton said: "The character Tami on ‘Friday Night Lights’ is a Texas woman deeply committed to her community and to standing up for what is right for her neighbors and the people she loves. I have been inspired by how people around the country have united to stand with the women of Texas, and I can't help but think that, in this moment, we all have the opportunity to join with and become strong, powerful Texas men and women.”

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/07/01/planned_parenthood_gets_the_tami_taylor_seal_of_approval/feed/ 2 Bush defends his surveillance program: “Civil liberties were guaranteed” http://www.salon.com/2013/07/01/bush_defends_his_surveillance_program_civil_liberties_were_guaranteed/ http://www.salon.com/2013/07/01/bush_defends_his_surveillance_program_civil_liberties_were_guaranteed/#comments Mon, 01 Jul 2013 13:08:00 +0000 http://www.railrode.net/?p=13347084 Former President George W. Bush defended the NSA surveillance program that collects phone and Internet data on American citizens, arguing that when he implemented the program, "civil liberties were guaranteed."

Bush was speaking with CNN in an interview from Zambia, and said that there "needs to be a balance" between privacy and security, "and as the president explained, there is a proper balance."

Bush was asked about the NSA's phone and Internet surveillance program specifically, and replied: "I put that program in place to protect the country. One of the certainties was that civil liberties were guaranteed."

He also commented on Edward Snowden, who first leaked information on the program to the press. "I think he damaged the security of the country," Bush said.

Watch:

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/07/01/bush_defends_his_surveillance_program_civil_liberties_were_guaranteed/feed/ 12 3 biggest myths about immigration reform http://www.salon.com/2013/07/01/3_most_dangerous_myths_about_immigration_reform_partner/ http://www.salon.com/2013/07/01/3_most_dangerous_myths_about_immigration_reform_partner/#comments Mon, 01 Jul 2013 12:08:00 +0000 http://www.railrode.net/?p=13347075

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/07/01/3_most_dangerous_myths_about_immigration_reform_partner/feed/ 5 Taming mother nature, one flight at a time http://www.salon.com/2013/06/30/taming_mother_nature_one_flight_at_a_time_partner/ http://www.salon.com/2013/06/30/taming_mother_nature_one_flight_at_a_time_partner/#comments Sun, 30 Jun 2013 16:00:00 +0000 http://www.railrode.net/?p=13340282 Nautilus When Rick Curtis, Chief Meteorologist for Southwest Airlines, walks down the hallway, he is often asked, “What does this week look like?” For Curtis, it’s the universal question that comes to him from every level of management—frankly, just about everyone at Southwest has a stake in the answer.

What concerns the executives is the one uncertain element that Southwest, the largest domestic carrier in the United States and one of the best run and most profitable airlines in the world, cannot control. And that, of course, is the weather.

Weather delays are not only infuriating for travelers stewing in airports eating bad pizza—they also cost the airlines more than $1 billion a year. Revenues evaporate with every plane grounded by snow or hurricanes, and are siphoned by jets flying around thunderstorms. Southwest won’t release an exact dollar amount, but they say weather delays make up a considerable part of annual revenue loss.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/06/30/taming_mother_nature_one_flight_at_a_time_partner/feed/ 1 NOM lawyer: Prop 8, DOMA decisions were “judicial tyranny” http://www.salon.com/2013/06/30/nom_lawyer_prop_8_doma_decisions_were_judicial_tyranny/ http://www.salon.com/2013/06/30/nom_lawyer_prop_8_doma_decisions_were_judicial_tyranny/#comments Sun, 30 Jun 2013 15:34:00 +0000 http://www.railrode.net/?p=13346590 John Eastman, an attorney for the anti-gay marriage group the National Organization for Marriage, called the Supreme Court decisions on Proposition 8 and DOMA "judicial tyranny."

“We are manufacturing the right to redefine marriage,” Eastman said Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union.” He added: “That’s judicial tyranny, not the kind of system we have.”

Watch, via Mediaite:

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/06/30/nom_lawyer_prop_8_doma_decisions_were_judicial_tyranny/feed/ 31 Top 5 investigative videos of the week: Female farmworkers sexually abused http://www.salon.com/2013/06/30/top_5_investigative_videos_of_the_week_female_farmworkers_sexually_abused_partner/ http://www.salon.com/2013/06/30/top_5_investigative_videos_of_the_week_female_farmworkers_sexually_abused_partner/#comments Sun, 30 Jun 2013 13:00:00 +0000 http://www.railrode.net/?p=13340371 The Top 5 investigative videos of the week

This week’s videos feature a number of iconoclasts: from intrepid journalists working in one of the most dangerous cities in the world to a woman fighting against the odds to educate the girls of her country.

For a first look at more stories like these, make sure that you are subscribed to The I Files, a cost- and spam-free one-stop news source. We plow through hours of online video to free you up for more interesting pursuits. Watch our videos, then go fight the good fight. Just be safe out there.

“Mexico’s Female Crime Journalists,” Vice

“We’ve become war correspondents in our own land.”

Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, is one of the most violent cities in the world outside a declared war zone, with 10,000 people killed over the past four years alone. While there has been a decline in the number of murders recently, the city still averages four killings a day.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/06/30/top_5_investigative_videos_of_the_week_female_farmworkers_sexually_abused_partner/feed/ 1 Where is the racial diversity in the senate? http://www.salon.com/2013/06/29/where_is_the_racial_diversity_in_the_senate/ http://www.salon.com/2013/06/29/where_is_the_racial_diversity_in_the_senate/#comments Sat, 29 Jun 2013 18:00:00 +0000 http://www.railrode.net/?p=13346245 With the departure of Mass. senator William Cowan, who was appointed to replace John Kerry as Secretary of State, the number of African-Americans in the U.S. Senate will be "slashed to half," says "Up with Steve" host Steve Kornacki, to just one person, Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC). "In all of modern history, there have only been six African-Americans to have served in the U.S. senate, and half of them weren't even elected -- they were appointed to their seats. Two others served back during Reconstruction, almost 150 years ago," said Kornacki.

MSNBC contributor Perry Bacon, Jr. explained on the show that "It's still really hard as an African-American politician to win in a big state":

"We only have on black governor, Deval Patrick (D-Mass.). This is not an accident. It's really hard. A lot of members of CBC districts are pretty liberal, don't have big fundraising bases, so they have a hard time winning races, but it's really galling. And it also really matters in terms of policy as well. Think about the Voting Rights Act this week -- was struck down -- who in the senate is going to take that out? You watch the female senators handing sexual assault in the military? The female senators are really driving that because there are 20 of them and they can speak to the issues."

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/06/29/where_is_the_racial_diversity_in_the_senate/feed/ 7 Lady Gaga returns to public eye to celebrate gay pride http://www.salon.com/2013/06/29/lady_gaga_returns_to_public_eye_with_speech_for_lgbt_rights/ http://www.salon.com/2013/06/29/lady_gaga_returns_to_public_eye_with_speech_for_lgbt_rights/#comments Sat, 29 Jun 2013 14:29:00 +0000 http://www.railrode.net/?p=13346163 Stepping into the public eye for the first time in months after her hip surgery, on Friday night pop star Lady Gaga delivered a speech at New York's Gay Pride kick-off rally. Gaga, a longtime LGBT icon and activist, paid tribute to the LGBT community celebrating the Supreme Court's historic ruling in favor of marriage equality earlier this week.

"As my LGBT fans and friends always said to me, 'I knew Laday Gaga when,'" Gaga said. "Well, look who the star is now. Now I get to say that I knew you when. Now I get to say that I knew you when you suffered, when you felt unequal, when you felt there was nothing to look forward to."

Waving a rainbow flag, Gaga then sand the national anthem:

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/06/29/lady_gaga_returns_to_public_eye_with_speech_for_lgbt_rights/feed/ 1 Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr.: Detroit’s coming back! http://www.salon.com/2013/06/29/dale_earnhardt_jr_jr_detroits_coming_back_partner/ http://www.salon.com/2013/06/29/dale_earnhardt_jr_jr_detroits_coming_back_partner/#comments Sat, 29 Jun 2013 13:00:00 +0000 http://www.railrode.net/?p=13345914

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/06/29/dale_earnhardt_jr_jr_detroits_coming_back_partner/feed/ 0 House GOPer on DOMA: Justices wouldn’t even “pass law school” http://www.salon.com/2013/06/28/house_goper_on_doma_justices_wouldnt_even_pass_law_school/ http://www.salon.com/2013/06/28/house_goper_on_doma_justices_wouldnt_even_pass_law_school/#comments Fri, 28 Jun 2013 20:46:00 +0000 http://www.railrode.net/?p=13340348 Rep. Tim Huelskamp railed against the Supreme Court decisions on Proposition 8 and the Defense of Marriage Act, saying that he doesn't even think the Justices would "pass law school with decisions like that.”

Speaking on the conservative radio show The Steve Deace Show, Huelskamp, a Republican from Kansas, accused the Court of trying to “rewrite the Constitution” and “ramming their views down the throats of Americans.”

“If you read these decisions together," he continued, referring to both the Prop 8 and DOMA decisions (with majority opinions written by Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Anthony Kennedy, respectively), "[it's] twisted logic, tortured the Constitution, I can’t even stand to read the decisions because I don’t even think they’d pass law school with decisions like that.”

Huelskamp is currently pushing the Federal Marriage Amendment, a constitutional amendment that would restore the effects of DOMA by defining marriage as between a man and a woman. In a 5-4 decision on Wednesday, the Supreme Court ruled that the section of DOMA that did the same is unconstitutional under the Equal Protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/06/28/house_goper_on_doma_justices_wouldnt_even_pass_law_school/feed/ 44 Bloomberg on stop-and-frisk: “Nobody racially profiles” http://www.salon.com/2013/06/28/bloomberg_on_stop_and_frisk_nobody_racially_profiles/ http://www.salon.com/2013/06/28/bloomberg_on_stop_and_frisk_nobody_racially_profiles/#comments Fri, 28 Jun 2013 18:00:00 +0000 http://www.railrode.net/?p=13340062 New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg contends that racial profiling is not a problem in the NYPD's stop-and-frisk program, and, if anything, "we disproportionately stop whites too much and minorities too little."

Bloomberg appeared on John Gambling's WOR-NY radio show, Capital New York reports, to discuss two bills passed by the New York City Council -- one that would create an inspector general to oversee the NYPD, and another to allow people to sue over racial profiling by the police. "The racial profiling bill is just so unworkable," Bloomberg said. "Nobody racially profiles."

From Capital New York:

The mayor went on to cite the city's murder rate, which has fallen dramatically during his tenure, and argue that now is not the time to conduct a "social experiment."

"There is this business, there's one newspaper and one news service, they just keep saying, 'Oh it's a disproportionate percentage of a particular ethnic group,'" he went on. "That may be, but it's not a disproportionate percentage of those who witnesses and victims describe as committing the murder. In that case, incidentally, I think we disproportionately stop whites too much and minorities too little."

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/06/28/bloomberg_on_stop_and_frisk_nobody_racially_profiles/feed/ 19 The mad genius of Vi Hart http://www.salon.com/2013/06/28/the_mad_genius_of_vi_hart/ http://www.salon.com/2013/06/28/the_mad_genius_of_vi_hart/#comments Fri, 28 Jun 2013 16:01:00 +0000 http://www.railrode.net/?p=13339980 The "mathemusician" Vi Hart first came to my attention when my son showed me a hexaflexagon he had made after watching one of her YouTube videos. I soon discovered that there are good reasons why Hart's YouTube channel has more than 500,000 subscribers. She's funny, geeky and has a knack for explaining complex concepts in the span of just a few minutes. The four-minute-and-thirty-seven-second long Doodling in Math Class: Infinity Elephants" provides a classic example.

But Vi Hart's ambitions do not always fit into small sizes. On Thursday, she dropped her latest effort, and there's simply no other way to describe it than as a masterpiece of mad genius. At one point during the 30-minute video she observes that she wouldn't presume to tell you what her creation is "about," but that's not going to stop me.

Here are a few things I think Vi Hart's "Twelve Tones" video is about:

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/06/28/the_mad_genius_of_vi_hart/feed/ 3 Must-see morning clip: Jon Stewart calls into “The Daily Show” http://www.salon.com/2013/06/28/must_see_morning_clip_jon_stewart_calls_into_the_daily_show/ http://www.salon.com/2013/06/28/must_see_morning_clip_jon_stewart_calls_into_the_daily_show/#comments Fri, 28 Jun 2013 13:01:00 +0000 http://www.railrode.net/?p=13339766 In an earnest moment on "The Daily Show," host Jon Stewart, currently on hiatus to direct "Rosewater," his first feature film, dialed into the show via Skype from the Middle East. "I don't watch it all the time because it's too weird," said Stewart, donning a full beard. "It's like watching someone have sex with your wife's desk. But I miss you guys like crazy, I love you guys, I can't wait to see you, this has been exciting and invigorating but weird as hell."

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/06/28/must_see_morning_clip_jon_stewart_calls_into_the_daily_show/feed/ 3 “World War G”: The gay marriage apocalypse is here http://www.salon.com/2013/06/27/world_war_g_the_gay_marriage_apocalypse_is_here/ http://www.salon.com/2013/06/27/world_war_g_the_gay_marriage_apocalypse_is_here/#comments Thu, 27 Jun 2013 20:20:00 +0000 http://www.railrode.net/?p=13339174 A Funny or Die sketch, probably in partnership with Rick Santorum's Christian film company, presents "World War G," a parody of Brad Pitt's zombie apocalypse movie in which a lone crusader fights against the proliferation of homosexuals as a result of the SCOTUS ruling against DOMA.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/06/27/world_war_g_the_gay_marriage_apocalypse_is_here/feed/ 3 Phyllis Schlafly: Latino voters “don’t understand” the Bill of Rights “at all” http://www.salon.com/2013/06/27/phyllis_schlafly_latino_voters_dont_understand_the_bill_of_rights_at_all/ http://www.salon.com/2013/06/27/phyllis_schlafly_latino_voters_dont_understand_the_bill_of_rights_at_all/#comments Thu, 27 Jun 2013 20:19:00 +0000 http://www.railrode.net/?p=13339110 Conservative activist Phyllis Schlafly is still telling anyone who will listen that the Republican Party should only pay attention to white voters (something that it is already pretty good at doing, according to recent data).

This is a popular refrain for Schlafy, even though, as Jordan Fabian at ABC News notes, this is precisely the strategy that lost Republicans the popular vote in five of the last six presidential elections, to say nothing of how offensive it is to suggest the GOP disregard entire segments of the voting population based on race and ethnicity.

Schlafly was a guest on a conservative California radio show when she fired off her latest proclamation about the future of the GOP, announcing that courting Latino voters is a waste of the grand ol' party's time because they "don’t have any Republican inclinations at all,” and are "running an illegitimacy rate that’s just about the same as the blacks are.”

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/06/27/phyllis_schlafly_latino_voters_dont_understand_the_bill_of_rights_at_all/feed/ 115 Zimmerman trial witness tells attorney: “That’s real retarded, sir” http://www.salon.com/2013/06/27/star_witness_annoyed_with_defense_lawyer_in_trayvon_martin_trial/ http://www.salon.com/2013/06/27/star_witness_annoyed_with_defense_lawyer_in_trayvon_martin_trial/#comments Thu, 27 Jun 2013 17:44:00 +0000 http://www.railrode.net/?p=13338954 Rachel Jeantel, the woman whom 17-year-old Trayvon Martin was talking to on the phone moments before he was shot and killed, offered testimony at the trial where George Zimmerman stands accused of murder. But the prosecution's star witness was less than impressed with the defense. Things intensified (and got politically incorrect) when Zimmerman's lawyer suggested that perhaps Martin was lying about his whereabouts when on the phone with her:

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