Will Arizona keep President Obama off the 2012 ballot?

Arizona's secretary of state insists that he's not a birther... while simultaneously threatening to bar Obama from the November ballot over birth certificate suspicions

Hawaii has received so many requests
for President Obama's birth certificate that
it passed a law in 2010 essentially
exempting Obama from the state's public-records rules

Though Arizona is a reliably Republican stronghold, President Obama's re-election team is making an against-the-odds push to win the state in November. They won't find much success, however, if Obama isn't even on the ballot, an outcome Secretary of State Ken Bennett (R) says is "possible" if he doesn't get sufficient proof that Obama was born in Hawaii. You heard that right, says Nick Martin atTalking Points Memo. A year after Obama released his official long-form birth certificate to end such nonsense, "the man in charge of running Arizona's elections has gone to the birthers." Could Bennett really keep Obama off the November ballot? Here's what you should know:

What did Bennett say, exactly?In a radio interview late last week with conservative Phoenix talk show host Mike Broomhead, Bennett said that he asked Hawaii eight weeks ago to certify that Obama's birth certificate is real and legitimate. The state of Hawaii, in turn, requested proof that Bennett is who he said he is. Bennett blames Hawaii for making this an issue, telling Broomhead, "I was frankly expecting that they would very quickly and very simply say 'yes.'" If, after eight weeks, "they can't say yes to that simple question then it makes me wonder if we have to take it to another level." Asked if he would keep Obama off the ballot if Hawaii's response is inadequate, Bennett answered: "That's possible."

Why hasn't Hawaii responded to Bennett?The Aloha State was flooded with so many requests for Obama's birth certificate that it passed a law in 2010 largely exempting Obama from the state's public-records law. Hawaii spells it all out on a special page on the state's website, says Robert Schlesinger at U.S. News. Bennett knows about this page, and has yet to "explain why this is insufficient evidence in his eyes." In any case, Hawaii's attorney general did respond on Sunday, saying that Bennett's request "did not meet the requirements under Hawaii law."

What is Bennett thinking?He says he's just doing his job, and responding to some 1,200 constituents urging him to demand Obama's birth certificate. "I believe the president was born in Hawaii — or at least I hope he was," he told Broomhead. "But my responsibility as secretary of state is to make sure the ballots in Arizona are correct and that those people whose names are on the ballot have met the qualifications for the office they are seeking." Maybe he's just trying to make Arizona "the loopiest, looniest oh-so-laughable state in the land," says Laurie Roberts in The Arizona Republic. As "my mother would ask: If you got 1,200 emails asking you to jump off a cliff, would you do it?"

Is Bennett a birther?He insists that he isn't. That may be true, says Schlesinger in U.S. News, but "he's certainly catering to them."

Has he asked to see Mitt Romney's birth certificate?No. But if Hawaii fails to comply with his request, Bennett said, he might "ask all of candidates, including the president, maybe to submit a certified copy of their birth certificate. But I don't want to do that."

Why is birtherism still alive?"Sometimes, when you want to believe something badly enough, no amount of evidence to the contrary will change your mind," says Brian Montopoli at CBS News. Bennett isn't alone either. He was moved to act by Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, who is going full-birther, and three GOP congressmen have recently said they're not sure if Obama is American. "The birther movement would be funny if it weren't so dangerous," says Catherine Poe at The Washington Times. It's "rampant paranoia," and it's unsettling that some Americans will always believe that Obama "is not one of us and he tricked us to become president."

Could Arizona really keep Obama's name off the ballot?Technically, yes, as Bennett is the top Arizona elections officer. But even given Arizona's history of embracing birtherism, it seems unlikely that Obama will be kept off the ballot in the end. Obama's 2008 opponent, Sen. John McCain (R-Az.), told a local TV station on Friday that "the president of the United States is not going to be taken off the ballot," and the Obama camp said Bennett's "flirtation with a conspiracy theory that has been debunked time and time again will have no bearing on the election." 

Robin Gibb, Bee Gees Co-Founder, Dead at 62

Singer had been battling cancer

Robin Gibb performs in Rotterdam, Netherlands in 1991.

Rob Verhorst/Redferns

By

Robin Gibb, one-third of the Bee Gees, died Sunday after a long battle with cancer, his spokesperson has confirmed via a statement. Gibb was 62 years old.

"The family of Robin Gibb, of the Bee Gees, announce with great sadness that Robin passed away today following his long battle with cancer and intestinal surgery," reads the statement. "The family have asked that their privacy is respected at this very difficult time."

Two years ago, Gibb battled colon and liver cancer, but despite making what he called a "spectacular recovery," a secondary tumor recently developed, complicated by a case of pneumonia in April. The singer was hospitalized last month and fell into a coma at one point, although he was later said to have regained consciousness and communicated with family members. 

Gibb was born in the Isle of Man in 1949, along with twin brother Maurice. (Maurice died in 2003 of complications from a twisted intestine; eerily, Robin had surgery for the same medical issue in 2010.) Along with their older brother Barry, the brothers began harmonizing as a trio in Australia, where the family moved in 1958. Although the Bee Gees had some success in Australia – they hosted a weekly variety show there – they didn't truly arrive until they returned to England and signed with manager Robert Stigwood. Robin's quivering, vulnerable voice was featured prominently on several of the group's earliest and most Beatles-eque hits, including "New York Mining Disaster 1941," "I Started a Joke," "Massachusetts," and "I've Gotta Get a Message to You."

Although he looked and sounded like the meekest Bee Gee, Robin grew into the family rebel. By 1969, he and Barry were feuding over whose song should be singles, and Robin, then 20, was declared a "ward of the state" by their father when his drinking and partying seemed to take over his life. "It happened so fast that we lost communication between us," Gibb later recalled. "It was just madness, really."

But it was also Robin who, in 1971, made the first call to Barry to reunite with his brothers. Robin's solo career had stalled, and Barry and Maurice's attempts to continue the Bee Gees as a duo had floundered as well. "If we hadn't been related, we would probably have never gotten back together," Robin said at the time. Robin's voice was heard, beautifully, on the chorus of their minor 1972 hit "Run to Me." 

The Bee Gees' massive second wind arrived with their proto disco hit, "Jive Talkin'," in 1975; two years later, their contributions to Saturday Night Fever made them bigger stars than ever. Most of the hits from that era featured Barry's falsetto voice, but the brothers' vocal blend remained an indelible part of their sound.

The group entered another fallow period during the early Eighties, although during this time, Robin produced a semi-hit album by Jimmy Ruffin, brother of the Temptations' David Ruffin. The last Bee Gees album, This Is Where I Came In, was released in 2001. Two years later, Maurice died, and with his passing the Bee Gees ended. (Their other, younger brother Andy died in 1988.)

Robin and Barry reunited periodically – in 2010, they made an appearance on American Idol and inducted ABBA into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame – and talked about a duo tour, but nothing materialized. Robin, though, kept his hand in music. With his son Robin-John, he wrote an ambitious piece, The Titanic Requiem, a mix of orchestral and vocal pieces telling the story of the doomed liner on the 100^th anniversary of its sinking. "It's a serious subject and it's not a rock opera," Gibb said before its debut. "There are no backbeats. This could have been written 300 years ago."

Featuring the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, the work had its world premiere in London on April 10th. But in a sign that Gibb's health had taken a turn for the worse, he wasn't able to attend. 

Read more: http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/robin-gibb-bee-gees-co-founder-dead-at-62-20120520#ixzz1vXi2TkG9

Shorter University's 'Personal Lifestyle Statement' Which Bans Gay Employees Leads To Faculty Exodus

A Georgia college's controversial "personal lifestyle statement" which includes rejecting homosexuality has led to an exodus of faculty members.

Inside Higher Ed cites an anonymous survey which found that a mere 12 percent of the faculty said they planned to stay at Shorter University, a 139-year-old Baptist school located in Rome, Ga. In addition, more than two dozen staff members had already resigned before their new contracts -- which included the "pledge," condemning homosexuality, premarital sex and public drinking -- were even distributed. 

The Religion News Service notes that the school usually has about 100 full-time faculty members.

An online campaign called "Save Our Shorter" seems to blame the departure of many employees on the pledge, even though the university's president told the Religion News Service that some of those who resigned did not state their reason for leaving.

"I feel that Shorter, the GBC, the Board of Trustees, and/or whoever can do what they want to the school," one student writes on the site. "It’s their school, but I cannot personally attend a school so full of hate. The personal lifestyle statement is picking and choosing which sins are worse than others, but a sin is a sin. Why were homosexuality, premarital sex, and adultery singled out? What about child molesters?"

One of the school's tenured professor felt similarly. "Lest anyone think I am 'promoting' homosexuality, please know that I am not," professor Sherri Weiler, who resigned last week, wrote in the Rome News-Tribune, according to the "Save Our Shorter" site. "I am simply not going to judge anyone who expresses his/ her sexuality in this way."

She continued, "All I know is that I cannot sign a document that “reject[s] as acceptable” any one of God’s creatures, be they adulterers, sexual 'sinners' of any stripe, or drinkers of alcohol in public. All I know is that I cannot 'reject as acceptable' people who have sinned in any way, because I’ve sinned, too, and no doubt will again."

Still, Nelson Price, who was chairman of the Board of Trustees when the lifestyle statement was approved, denounced the survey cited by Inside Higher Ed, describing it as "skewed" to the Rome News-Tribune . "The senders sent it to a group they selected and left out persons known to be in support of the direction the school is going," Price noted. "It was not an objective blind survey...the questions were highly biased."

Donald Dowless, Shorter’s president,released a statement to Inside Higher Ed saying he could not comment on any other individual faculty members’ employment situations. “I can tell you that I and the board of Shorter University understand that some members of our faculty and staff disagree with the university’s personal lifestyle statement and therefore have chosen to resign,” he said. “While we hate to lose members of our community, we wish them well.”

Dowless previously told WSBTV that the goal of the "lifestyle statement" is "not to offend people," but to "declare who we are."

Take a look at some cases of people being fired for being LGBT below: 

LGBT Discrimination In The Workplace

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Obama Divorce: New Biography Claims Obamas Were On Brink Of Divorce

A controversial new biography of President Obama claims that Michelle Obama planned to divorce the future president in 2000.

In "The Amateur: Barack Obama in the White House," which hit shelves Tuesday, author Edward Klein claims that the divorce talk came eight years into the Obamas' marriage, after President Obama failed to listen to his wife's warnings about challenging Democratic congressman incumbent Bobby Rush for a Chicago House of Representatives seat in 2000. Obama lost the election by a 2-1 margin.

“During the dark days that followed his defeat, he turned to Michelle for comfort. But she was in no mood for sympathy," Klein reportedly writes. "He had refused to listen to her warnings about taking on” Rush.

But is it true? The unauthorized biography, which Klein claims is based on nearly 200 interviews, has been dismissed by presidential spokesperson Eric Schultz. On Monday, Schultz told the Washington Examiner, "Ed Klein has a proven history of reckless fabrication in order to sell books. Nobody in their right mind would believe the nonsense in this one."

It's not the first time the Obamas' marriage has been called in question. In 2010, theNational Enquirer reported that Michelle Obama threatened to leave the president if he decided to seek a second term in office.

The couple have been married for nearly 20 years and have two daughters, Malia, 13, and Sasha, 10.

President Obama is hardly the first politician who has dealt with divorce rumors. Click through the slideshow below to read about the rumors surrounding Sarah Palin and her husband, Todd, throughout the years.

Sarah's Lover?

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Sarah was thrust into the spotlight in 2008 when she became a Republican Vice Presidential nominee. That year, she was allegedly caught with her pants down. TheNational Enquirer claimed that the First Lady of Alaska had been keeping a lover. Her Presidential running partner, Sen. John McCain, denied the rumor immediately on her behalf.