Infographic: What Congress Would Look Like If It Really Represented America

America is getting more and more diverse—for instance, our Hispanic population grew by 43 percent in the past decade alone—but you'd never be able to tell it by looking at our Congress. Here's what the House and Senate look like today, and what they would look like if they were demographically representative of our nation.

One thing not noted on this infographic is that, besides being nothing like America in terms of race, sex, or religion, our senators and representatives are also wholly different from most Americans in terms of wealth. We've said this before, but it bears repeating: The average American's net worth is $96,000. But the average Senator's net worth? $13.4 million. For House members that sum drops to "just" $5 million.

Does this represent your community?

Correction: This post originally suggested that there were no atheists in Congress. There is! His name is Pete Stark. We regret the error

Origin
Source: Good Politics 

Conservative Complaint Over Sponsorship At NDP Event 'Groundless,' Union Head Says

OTTAWA — The Conservative Party launched a "groundless, strategic assault" against the labour movement, the head of Canada’s largest private sector union said Sunday after the Tories accused the NDP of accepting improper sponsorships from trade unions.

Wayne Hanley, the national president of UFCW Canada, issued a press release Sunday evening after The Huffington Post Canada first reported that the Conservative Party had asked Elections Canada to investigate whether the NDP had broken the law by accepting money from unions to advertise at its national convention in Vancouver last June.

The allegations, Hanley said, are "a groundless, strategic assault on the labour movement, and on ordinary Canadians who are fed up with the vicious, partisan politics the Harper Conservatives are so proud of."

Hanley said the Tories are well aware that ads at fair market value are allowed and there was no election law breach.

NDP solidarity cracks over role of unions in picking leader

The first clean split among federal New Democrats since Jack Layton passed away last month rests on an issue that strikes at the historical heart of the party: the role of union members in choosing the next leader.

The matter is the first in what promises to be a number of sharp policy debates among the various candidates and factions that Mr. Layton managed to hold together during his time as NDP leader.

The party set aside 25 per cent of the vote for organized labour at its last leadership convention in 2003, but NDP MP and House Leader Thomas Mulcair is calling for the abolition of union privileges this time around.

President Brian Topp – executive director of ACTRA (the Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists) – argues that the party's historic link with labour must be preserved, and that affiliated unions should get a set percentage of the vote at next year's leadership convention.

A final decision will be made by the NDP federal council on Friday.

Tories, New Democrats banned from Liberal events

All’s fair in love, war and an Ontario election campaign.

Breaking with a tradition of professional courtesy on the hustings that stretches back decades, the governing Liberals have banned Progressive Conservative and New Democratic MPPs, candidates and staffers from all electoral events featuring Dalton McGuinty.

“The Ontario Liberal campaign will strike a very serious tone and we’re only interested in presenting our positive plan to Ontarians,” Chris Morley, McGuinty’s chief of staff, told the Star on Sunday.

Concerned that opposition politicians or aides “would play political games” at the Liberal leader’s events, Morley last week called senior officials with Progressive Conservative Leader Tim Hudak and NDP Leader Andrea Horwath to advise them they were not welcome to attend.

The Big Society - Anarchy With A Middle Class Twist?

Anna is the model citizen. The 31-year-old self-described professional volunteer spends Mondays running a free bike workshop, Wednesdays counselling others in the community, and in her spare time is helping to build a community garden in Camberwell, South London.

For her it's about taking responsibility for where she lives. "If I didn't believe that what I spent most of my time doing made people's lives more pleasant, I'd be pretty lost. I'm hoping that I make life easier for others."

Among her projects: Free computing workshops, a shop set up to help young mothers who cannot afford their kids' back-to-school clothes, free skill-share workshops.

Cash-strapped counter terror unit has to hire private security staff

CASH-strapped West Midlands Police is secretly having to hire private security staff to bolster its stretched counter-terrorism unit, the Sunday Mercury can reveal today.

The force has been taking on private sector contractors to help out at the unit, which is based at Birmingham International Airport and deals with sensitive investigations.

Outside workers, who must undergo security services-style vetting, are being drafted in to help with time-consuming tasks including CCTV viewing and computer analysis.

The agency workers are being hired from a company called G4S Policing Solutions, an arm of global security giant G4S, which was previously known as Group 4 Securicor.

West Midlands Police began taking on agency workers for counter-terror work at the end of last year – after it announced plans to forcibly retire 1,200 experienced officers.

Libya: Files Reveal Cosying Between Gaddafi Regime And MI6

Documents retrieved by Human Rights Watch from Colonel Gaddafi’s former intelligence chief reveal embarrassingly close ties between the regime and western intelligence services.

The documents, found in the offices of Moussa Koussa, Gaddafi’s former right-hand man who has since defected, implicate the CIA in the rendition of suspects to the Libyan security forces, and suggest that MI6 gave the Gaddafi regime details of Libyan dissidents.

Koussa, Libya’s spy chief before he became Foreign Minister is suspected by human rights groups of involvement in the torture of Libyan prisoners; the British Government came under pressure to arrest him when he defected to the UK earlier this year. He has since moved to Qatar.

The files are believed to originate from a period of rapprochement between Gaddafi and the West, with Tony Blair instrumental in bringing the despot back into the international fold.

Human Rights Complaint Filed Against Angelo Persichilli, Harper's New Director Of Communications

MONTREAL - A separatist firebrand in Quebec has filed an official complaint against Prime Minister Stephen Harper's new choice for communications director.

Gilles Rheaume wants the Canadian Human Rights Commission to investigate the appointment of Angelo Persichilli.

The ex-president of the St. Jean Baptiste Society says the fact that Persichilli can't speak French is unfair to French-speaking Canadians and journalists.

Rheaume also says that Persichilli, a former journalist, has engaged in "Quebec bashing" in some of his work.

Rheaume isn't the first Quebecer to complain about the appointment.

Several politicians and pundits have criticized the choice, saying it's a sign the province isn't a priority for Harper.

Origin
Source: Huffington 

CIA, MI6 helped Gadhafi persecute dissidents, says watchdog

TRIPOLI—Documents found in the abandoned Tripoli office of Muammar Gaddafi’s intelligence chief indicate the U.S. and British spy agencies helped the fallen strongman persecute Libyan dissidents, Human Rights Watch said Saturday.

The documents were uncovered by the human rights activist group in the abandoned offices of Libya’s former spy chief and foreign minister, Moussa Koussa.

The group said it uncovered hundreds of letters between the CIA, MI6 and Koussa, who is now in exile in London. Letters from the CIA began, “Dear Moussa,” and were signed informally with first names only by CIA officials, Human Rights Watch said.

The current military commander for Tripoli of Libya’s provisional government, Abdel Hakim Belhadj, was among those captured and sent to Libya by the CIA, Human Rights Watch said.

35,000 convicted worldwide for terror after 9/11 attacks

At least 35,000 people worldwide have been convicted as terrorists in the decade since the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States. But while some bombed hotels or blew up buses, others were put behind bars for waving a political sign or blogging about a protest.

In the first tally ever done of global anti-terror arrests and convictions, The Associated Press documented a surge in prosecutions under new or toughened anti-terror laws, often passed at the urging and with the funding of the West. Before 9/11, just a few hundred people were convicted of terrorism each year.

The sheer volume of convictions, along with almost 120,000 arrests, shows how a keen global awareness of terrorism has seeped into societies, and how the war against it is shifting to the courts. But it also suggests that dozens of countries are using the fight against terrorism to curb dissent and throw political opponents in jail.