The Fair Employment Opportunity Act of 2011 - Prohibiting Employment Discrimination Based on a Candidate's Unemployed Status

H.R. 2501 ("The Fair Employment Opportunity Act of 2011"), if passed through the House and Senate and signed into law by the President, would prohibit all employment agencies and employers with 15 or more employees from discriminating against unemployed candidates on the basis of their unemployed status.  In particular, under the existing terms of the bill, employers and employment agencies would be barred from publishing job postings that indicate that unemployed individuals will be automatically disqualified from consideration.  In addition, employers would be prohibited  from requesting that recruiting agencies exclude unemployed candidates during the hiring process.  The author of The New York Times' June 26, 2011 editorial on this topic believes that this bill should be passed as a measure to help the jobless re-enter the workforce.  See http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/26/opinion/26tue3.html.

While the objective behind this proposed legislation is admirable, it is likely that the long-term unemployed would still be discriminated against if H.R. 2501 is eventually signed into law.  Employers would still have the right to eliminate a candidate based on his or her poor credit score or the fact that the candidate's skill-set had atrophied during the period of unemployment. 

Raj Rajaratnam and the Galleon Group - An Illumination of the Dark Side of Human Nature

I recently read an entertaining article in The New Yorker on the conviction of billionaire Raj Rajaratnam for insider trading.  According to George Packer's article entitled "A Dirty Business," "Rajaratnam’s view of human nature was not so different from that of Willie Stark, in 'All the King’s Men': 'Man is conceived in sin and born in corruption and he passeth from the stink of the didie to the stench of the shroud.' If there are examples of people whom Rajaratnam unsuccessfully tried to corrupt, they have not surfaced in the voluminous public record on Galleon."  Danielle Chiesi, Anil Kumar, and Rajat Gupta were a few of the many individuals who ultimately fell prey to the temptation of insider trading because of Raj Rajaratnam's powers of persuasion.

Read more http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2011/06/27/110627fa_fact_packer#ixzz1T2Os7aJ4

A "Womanizer" is Not Tantamount to a "Rapist" - Lessons Learned from the Prosecution of former IMF Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn and Wikileaks founder Julian Assange

There is no question that former International Monetary Fund Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn ("DSK") is a womanizer.  And we know that Wikileaks founder Julian Assange falls into that classification as well.  However, for prosecutors to pursue rape charges against either of these individuals based on their unsavory past, before thoroughly researching the backgrounds and the credibility of their alleged "victims," is just wrong -- plain and simple. 

While the Wikileaks founder has been prosecuted by Swedish authorities under Sweden's liberal rape laws, the Manhattan District Attorney's office is responsible for the prosecution of DSK and it now knows that the Sofitel maid who accused DSK of rape may very well have ties to drug trafficking and money laundering (and possibly have set-up DSK in some sort of extortion plot).  Under these circumstances, I absolutely agree with Bob Barr's article in the Huffington Post entitled, "Pulling DSK Case Back from Wonderland." http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bob-barr/pulling-dsk-case-back-fro_b_896336.html#
Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance, Jr. should drop the case against DSK immediately.  

Republican Presidential Candidate U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) Signs Controversial "Marriage Vow" Pledge Drafted by Extremely Right-Winged Christian Group

If you don't know much about Republican Presidential Candidate Michele Bachmann, here's some food for thought:  U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann just signed a pledge, drafted by a right-winged Christian group (of course), whereby she promised to vigorously oppose same-sex marriage and abortion rights, support legislation aimed at increasing hurdles for those individuals looking to obtain divorces, and support "robust childbearing and reproduction."

Read the document itself:

http://thinkprogress.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/The-Family-Leader-Presidential-Pledge.pdf