Of all of the claims and counterclaims spouted during yesterday's floor debate in the House of Representatives, I was most stunned by Rep. Joe Barton's assertion that 10-15 million uninsured young adults don't want health insurance:

Okay, that's an incendiary headline, isn't it? I'm not one to enter the circular firing squad on Republicans (okay, so yes, I am, but not fresh-out-of-the-box governors who are serving as a bellweather for the Democratic agenda's chances in 2010), but there are certain issues on which I feel, as a libertarian feminist, on which I have to seek clarification, the question of whether a certain candidate actively works against the interest of women being one of them.

For almost 15 years, Rody Alvarado Peña fought to stay in the United States. She fled here seeking asylum after suffering from horrific abuse at the hands of her husband. To save her life, she had to leave her two children with her parents. Her hope was that once she established herself in the US, they could join her. Instead, she found herself caught in a legal debate over whether domestic violence is a legitimate claim for asylum seekers. On October 30, 2009, The New York Times reported that the Obama administration recommended that Ms. Alvarado be granted asylum.

Right now, I'm watching Democrats hemorrhage Independents in key races, most notably in Virginia. Now, normally, I'd be making conciliatory gestures, convincing myself that I have to focus on 2010, and that the races that mattered haven't happened yet. In fact, they are so far down the road, that its impossible to tell whether tonight will have any impact on them, or whether we've spent every last shred of capital we have nabbing a few races. I'll leave the election analysis to someone else, though. I'm concerned with implications.

There are layers of information and emotion covering the speculation that Democratic Senator from Hawaii and Senate Appropriations Chairman Daniel Inouye may strip an amendment from the Department of Defense's appropriations bill that freshman Al Franken (MN) successfully got attached to the House version.  Franken's amendment would prevent federal dollars and contracts from flowing from the DOD to any contractor who requires mandatory binding arbitration in exchange for giving up a right to be heard in court regarding

Last week was a big e-book discussion week. Barnes and Noble released it's new dedicated e-book reader, the Nook. There was a dust up about Kindle usage. And then there was the shocking revelation that *gasp* readers have rights too.

Think ahead to December. Cast your mind to Copenhagen. This December, the United Nations Climate Change Conference will be held in Copenhagen, Denmark. Unlike the last time there was a conference of this magnitude ( in Kyoto), the United States will take part in the deliberations and agree to abide by the resolutions.

It has been several weeks since the nation recoiled in horror at the videotaped brutal beating death of 16-year-old Derrion Albert, the Chicago honor student who was caught in a melee between two factions of warring youth. Last week, President Obama dispatched Attorney General Eric Holder to the city to declare that he understood the urgency of the problem:

Last week, the US Senate Judiciary Committee approved a bill reauthorizing controversial provisions of the USA PATRIOT Act that, according to civil libertarians, unnecessarily compromise American citizens' privacy rights. What's worse, the legislation reportedly has the support of the Obama administration, despite the fact that its most troubling provisions were opposed by then-Sen. Obama in 2005.

It has been an eventful year for sexual minorities in India. After successfully challenging in the Delhi High Court a Colonial-era law that criminalizes homosexuality, the community cleared another hurdle last month when the Central Government declined to take a stand on the issue and left it up to the Supreme Court (which is hearing a challenge to the high court ruling) to decide.

Marked by bizarre hypotheticals, the Supreme Court struggled yesterday with a law banning videos depicting animal cruelty. At question is not animal cruelty itself (which is already illegal) but how the law might impinge on that most sacred of American rights: Free speech.

Her nomination to the Court may have been controversial (at least at first, until nearly everyone realized that not only was she qualified, but she was replacing, of all people, David Souter), but brand new Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor is not allowing that to hamper her first week on the bench. Instead, she's proving that she was born for her job.