AOL News has a new home! The Huffington Post.
Click here to visit the new home of Politics Daily!Hot on HuffPost:
See More Stories
Executive Behind Lavish Conference Leaves Agency
Warren And Brown Neck And Neck In New Poll
HateCrimes
Anti-Government Groups Show Surge, Watchdog Warns
By Scott Martelle - AOL NewsLOS ANGELES (March 2) -- The number of American anti-government militia and "patriot" groups, largely dormant since their heyday in the mid-1990s, mushroomed at an "astonishing" rate last year, raising "grave concern" about the potential for future domestic terrorism, according to a new report by the Southern Poverty Law Center. The nonprofit civil rights organization, which tracks the hate movement and anti-government groups, counted 512 militias and related groups in 2009, up from 149 groups the year before. And, it said, the movement has added a layer of racism largely absent a decade ago. ...
After Anti-Gay Cartoon, How Will Notre Dame Respond to Outcry?
By Aaron Steiner - Politics DailySOUTH BEND, Ind. -- The University of Notre Dame's student newspaper made national headlines when it printed an anti-gay comic strip on Jan. 13. The backlash was vocal, intense and deserved -- the comic depicted one character asking another how to turn a "fruit" into a "vegetable." The response: "a baseball bat." On campus, the response has also been adamant -- in support of the LGBT members of Notre Dame's student body, faculty and staff. And as a result of the incident, a group of students and faculty has launched several new initiatives. The burgeoning movement on this Catholic campus ...
Hate Crime Cases at Highest Rate Since 2001
By David Sessions - Politics DailyThirty-one hate crime cases were filed in 2009, making this year's tally the highest since 2001, the New York Times reports. Federal authorities said the number reflects a renewed effort to prosecute hate crimes. This month, the Government Accountability Office report said that there had been a drop in enforcement of several major antidiscrimination and voting rights laws from 2001-2007. Thomas Perez, the new head of the Justice Department's Civil Rights division, said he was "shocked" to see the downtick in hate crimes prosecutions during the Bush administration, and that under Obama the ...
Hate Crimes Spike: Religion, Race, Sexual Orientation Are Main Targets
By David Gibson - Politics DailyConservative religious leaders were some of the sharpest opponents of the federal legislation passed in October that expanded federal hate crimes law to include protections for homosexuals. But during the debate, none of them raised the idea of revoking the existing protections for religious victims under the law. And it seems unlikely that even those few religious leaders who think hate crimes laws are unnecessary would want to raise the subject now in light of new statistics showing attacks based on the religion of the victim rose nearly 9 percent in 2008 over the previous year. That is the ...
Senate Passes Bill Expanding Hate Crimes Law
By Christopher Weber - Politics DailyThe Senate has passed a bill that would expand hate crimes to include attacks based on a person's gender and sexual orientation. The Matthew Shepard & James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act passed on a 68-29 vote and will be sent to President Obama, who is expected to sign it. The House approved the bill earlier this month. The federal hate crimes law, passed in 1968 after the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., covers people who are attacked because of their race, religion or national origin. There were 7,624 hate crimes in 2007, almost 17 percent of which were based on sexual ...
Is the Hate Crimes Bill Enough?
By Andrea Stone - AOL NewsWASHINGTON – As President Barack Obama waited for the nation's first federal civil rights law protecting gays and lesbians to reach his desk, the mother of the hate crime victim for whom it's named defended the administration against charges by some activists that he had forsaken their cause. "Obama is doing the best he can," said Judy Shepard, whose son, Matthew, was beaten senseless, tied to a fence and left for dead outside Laramie, Wyo., 11 years ago. "You can't just go in there and say, 'This is what we're going to get done.' Congress is busy with other things." Jemal ...
The Freepers and the Electronic Hate Megaphone
By Ria Misra - Politics DailyUntil this morning I was, I have to admit, blissfully unaware of the existence of the Free Republic Web site. Now, I know it is an online message board that purports to be the meeting place for "independent, grass-roots conservatism" on the Web, and, that its members are nicknamed "Freepers" -- which may be the creepiest new media word to enter the lexicon since we the tweeple met Twitter. I also learned that some of the Freepers have a serious -- and baffling -- problem with 11-year-old Malia Obama wearing a T-shirt with a peace sign on it, and that this sparked a series of incredibly ...
Hate Is a Word, Not a Crime
By Donna Trussell - Politics DailyI don't dispute that the characterizations of Michelle Obama and her daughters on some conservative Web sites are odious in the extreme, but the question of how to discourage offensive statements in a civilized society is anything but settled. Who gets to decide what is or is not offensive? ...
Hate Crimes Down, Yet Extremist Groups Gaining Strength
By Ria Misra - Politics DailyLike many people, I was horrified by the shootings at the Holocaust Museum. It's not only that the violence occurred just a few miles from my home, it's also the strange contradiction that, even as the number of hate crimes in the United States has declined, the number of hate groups has been quietly on the rise. ...
Lobbying a Hate Crimes Bill with Real Grassroots Activists
By Tommy Christopher - Politics DailyThe U.S. House of Representatives passed the Matthew Shepard Act this week, adding protections to existing law for victims of crimes based on the victim's actual or perceived gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, or disability. The bill now goes to the Senate, where I spent the early part of this week. I followed a group of citizens who are trying to persuade their senators to support the inclusion of transgender people in the final bill. This isn't the kind of lobbying that has given this kind of work a bad name. These aren't well-funded corporate hacks trying to carve out a sweet deal ...
Follow Politics Daily
POPULAR
- Nancy Pelosi Confirms House May Skip Up or Down Vote on Senate Health Bill
- Debrahlee Lorenzana: A Double Take on Those Double D's
- Campbell Brown Quits CNN With Shockingly Frank Farewell
- Palin Earnings Estimated at $12 Million
- The Five Most Racist Obama Cartoons?
- Jimmy Carter Leaves Church Over Treatment of Women
- Soraya M., Stoned to Death for Being an "Inconvenient Wife''
- No posts are available.
News From Our Partners
- Dragon arrives at space station in historic 1st
- Picking new leader, Egyptians search for superman
- Egyptians vote in first free presidential vote
- Moon chips from Vegas casino mogul sent to NASA
- Egyptians vote to rid nation of autocratic rule
- More Stories »
- 'Masters of the Universe' Sure Have Fragile Egos
- Romney: My Mistakes 'Haunt Me'
- Newt Lauds Romney: He's Like Eisenhower
- Irked Senate Panel Votes 30-0 to Cut Pakistan Aid
- GSA Bash Organizer Steps Down
- More Stories »
- Know Your Enemy
- Obama’s Challenge in Egypt
- The Edwards Waiting Game
- Are Doctors Doing Too Much?
- The Pagan Cult of Reagan
- More Stories »
- Ambition Counteracting Ambition
- Robert Blagojevich Speaks Out
- In Iowa, Obama Calls Romney's Words 'A Cow Pie of Distortion'
- In Iowa, Obama Calls On Congress to Act on Clean Energy Tax Credits
- Romney Has Interesting Morning in Inner-City Philly
- More Stories »
Top News
More News
More on Aol
Local News
More Blog/Sites
Sites and Services
HuffPost Politics