Even if you have no interest in the teams playing in today's Superbowl, you may be intrigued by a panel discussion of the NFL's inclusionary hiring practices which are credited with increasing the number of black coaches and general managers in professional football. The American Constitution Society offers a streaming video of the discusson, featuring "a senior NFL official, a legendary NFL player, a leading civil rights attorney and a respected sports journalist."

An ACS email explains the significance of today's coaching matchup and its broader implications for inclusionary hiring practices.

For the first time in NFL history, the winning coach of the Super Bowl will be African-American. While the history of African-American coaches in the NFL dates back to Frederick Douglass “Fritz” Pollard in 1921, the next African-American head coach of an NFL team was not hired until 1989, when Art Shell was hired by the Oakland Raiders.

TalkLeft wrote here about the phenomenon of "contagious shooting." In an excellent essay, "Breathing While Black," Christopher Rabb argues that "contagious shooting" is "symptomatic of something larger that undoubtedly correlates to when such contagions most often occur and to what degree": institutional racism.

Mike Jones exposed Ted Haggard's sad hypocrisy to more than one media outlet before the story finally broke. Jones talked to Patricia Calhoun, who recounts the experience here.

The exemplary Christian James Dobson doesn't have time to join Haggard's salvation panel. Other prominent evangelists are convening to save Haggard from his wicked ways, but Dobson backed out. Isn't Dobson supposed to Focus on the Family? Haggard's family doesn't warrant his brotherly love?

Here's one view of the "counseling" that might be in Haggard's future.

Advocates of stem cell research appear to have won a narrow victory in Missouri.

The amendment, known as the Missouri Stem Cell Research and Cures Initiative, guarantees that any federally allowed stem cell research and treatment can occur in Missouri, including research using human embryos.

The state constitutional amendment was proposed in response to legislative efforts to criminalize stem cell research in the state.

Claire McCaskill's victory in her race for the U.S. Senate was also narrow. McCaskill supports stem cell research, while her vanquished opponent, Jim Talent, opposes it.

The stars seem to have aligned in opposition to hypocrisy. First Mark Foley, now Rev. Ted Haggard:

The leader of the 30 million-member National Association of Evangelicals, a vocal opponent of the drive for same-sex marriage, resigned Thursday after being accused of paying for sex with a man in monthly trysts over the past three years.

Here's an obnoxious idea: make all tenants obtain the government's permission before renting an apartment. Hazleton, PA enacted an ordinance that does just that, with the notion that permits to rent apartments will be denied to those who can't prove their citizenship -- and to those who can't afford the permit.

The ordinance also requires every business in town to obtain a permit, and denies permits to those businesses that employ undocumented aliens. The likely result: businesses won't hire anyone who looks Latino, for fear that job applicants are using forged documents to establish their eligibility to work, jeopardizing the business' ability to survive.

Federal Judge James Munley issued a temporary restraining order that blocks enforcement of the ordinance.

"We find it in the public interest to protect residents access to homes, education, jobs and businesses," he wrote in a 13-page opinion.

Arizona is stealing money from innocent people, then challenging them to prove their entitlement to its return. And this, the state's Attorney General says, is a "model of due process." It's more a model of thievery.

Arizona has been seizing wire transfers into the state, as well as some wire transfers into Mexico. So far, the state has taken about $17 million. It claims to grab only cash transfers that it deems "suspicious" -- those it believes facilitate the smuggling of immigrants into the country -- but it seems to regard any large transfer from or to someone with an Hispanic name as evidence of illegality. If your money is taken and you want it back, you have to satisfy the state that you acquired it legitimately. So much for the presumption of innocence.

Minnesota state senator Paul Koering asks a salient question: "How can you be gay and be in the Republican Party?" The answer: you can't -- at least not if you're openly gay and want to hold a public office.

Never more than a tiny fraction of GOP politicians, openly gay Republicans are about to disappear from Congress with the retirement of Rep. Jim Kolbe of Arizona, and Koering is the lone openly gay GOP state legislator -- out of 7,382 seats nationwide.

There's no room for tolerance in the GOP.

Instead of an all-welcoming "big tent," the GOP "is more of a revival tent," [Chuck] Wolfe said. "It has chased out more and more gay Republicans."

by TChris

Lloyd Gaines sued to gain admission to the University of Missouri-Columbia School of Law. Gaines wanted to be the all-white law school's first black student. His case made it to the Supreme Court in the separate-but-equal days of 1938. The Court ordered Missouri to admit Gaines or to make other arrangements for Gaines to receive an equal legal education in Missouri.

Disgusted by the "law school" that Missouri created for black students (occupying a building that formerly housed a beauty academy), Gaines moved to Michigan, where he earned a master's degree in economics. Gaines was last seen in October 1939. The mystery of his disappearance has never been solved.

Yesterday, the Missouri Supreme Court awarded Gaines a posthumous law license. Welcome to the profession, Attorney Gaines. You displayed the commitment to justice that should characterize the profession.

by TChris

An editorial in today's NY Times calls attention to the true purpose of felon disenfranchisement laws in southern states: "felony disenfranchisement is an enormous obstacle to voting for black people in the Deep South."

In Alabama, an archaic law strips the right to vote from people convicted of crimes involving "moral turpitude,'' without explaining what that is or what crimes are covered. A man who was convicted of a felony for driving under the influence of alcohol, for example, was stripped of his right to vote. When he reapplied for the vote, different agencies gave him contradictory answers, and he was initially prohibited from registering.

People who work and pay taxes deserve to participate in the political process. Erecting barriers to voting that disproportionately disenfranchise black voters is antithetical to democracy. The solution is clear:

The only honorable solution is to automatically restore voting rights to Alabamians who have completed their sentences. That's the only way to take this issue out of the hands of bureaucrats and make amends for one of the most shameful voting rights records in American history.

by TChris

For more than a hundred years, veterans desiring to pursue disability claims haven't been able to hire a lawyer to bring those claims -- unless they can find one who will work for $10 or less. The Department of Veterans Affairs' legislative director wants to keep it that way. He says a proposed change in the law, allowing lawyers to be paid for helping veterans win disability claims, "sends the wrong message to our brave troops fighting in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere -- that they need to hire an attorney to obtain the benefits a grateful nation has provided." Of course, if DVA gratefully paid disability claims, disabled veterans wouldn't need lawyers, making it difficult to understand why DVA would oppose the change.

Here's why it might be helpful for a veteran to have a lawyer fighting to win benefits from DVA:

On Aug. 16, the Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims rendered a 31-page decision in a veteran appeal which determined that the Department of Veteran Affairs has been unlawfully denying presumptive disability compensation for exposure to Agent Orange for service members who served in the waters offshore of Vietnam and earned the Vietnam Service Medal.

In the most ridiculous item of the day so far....

A seventh-grade geography teacher at Carmody Middle School was suspended with pay today when he refused to take down three foreign flags on display in his classroom. Eric Hamlin said the flags of China, Mexico and the United Nations were relevant to the unit on the fundamentals of geography he teaches during the first six weeks of the semester. He's used the same display for most of the nine years he's taught in Jefferson County, Hamlin said.

The foreign flags are in addition to the standard U.S. flag found in all classrooms.

Mr. Hamlin was escorted out of the building. Stupid is as stupid does, and Jefferson County apparently hasn't learned from Columbine yet that intolerance breeds hate and worse. I wonder if Tom Tancredo will praise the decision.