• Employers have no right to ask job applicants ... to read their diaries -- why should they be able to ask them for their Facebook passwords?
• Source: CNET   |   Nation   |   March 27, 2012
• U.S. Senator Charles Schumer, who called for a federal investigation of the "new disturbing trend" of prospective employers demanding job applicants to turn over user names and passwords for their social networks. Lawmakers in Maryland and Illinois are pushing state laws to ban the practice.

• Most of the folks who come in have little understanding of how things work, but are arrogant enough to think they can change 200+ years of American governing.
• Source: Governing.com   |   Nation   |   March 26, 2012
• Eric Herzik, a University of Nevada-Reno political scientist, on the drawbacks of governors who were previously business executives.

• We are removing any temptation to use legislative immunity for drinking and driving as a legislator.
• Source: Minneapolis Star Tribune   |   Minnesota   |   March 23, 2012
• Taylor Gittens, a Concordia University student who is campaigning to take away Minnesota lawmakers' immunity from drunken-driving charges during the legislative session. Bills to do so are in the state Senate and House.

• Was this pregnancy caused by normal relations in a marriage, or was it truly caused by a rape.
• Source: The Associated Press   |   Idaho   |   March 22, 2012
• Idaho state Sen. Chuck Winder's comments, which caused outrage, on a bill that would require women to get an ultrasound before an abortion. Some said Winder's comments suggested that women may lie to get abortions, but he said that was not the intent.

• He didn’t want a bunch of people coming to the caucus meetings mad at him about sex ed.
• Source: Salt Lake Tribune   |   Utah   |   March 21, 2012
• Quin Monson, associate director of the Center for the Studies of Elections and Democracy at Brigham Young University, who called Utah Gov. Gary Herbert "brilliant" for timing his veto of a controversial sex-education bill after the GOP caucuses and on a Friday evening.

• Though we're married, we're two separate individuals who don't always agree on everything.
• Source: Denver Post   |   Colorado   |   March 20, 2012
• Colorado state Rep. Nancy Todd, defending her husband's decision to run for her current legislative seat, while she runs for the state Senate. Critics have raised concerns that the couple's possible presence would hinder diversity in the Legislature.

• If you can’t stand up to Rush, how are you going to stand up to Russia?
• Source: ABC News   |   Nation   |   March 19, 2012
• Chicago Mayor and former White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel, taking a punch at GOP candidate Mitt Romney, saying he lacks the “the fortitude, strength or character” to be president because he couldn't stand up to conservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh who called a law student a "slut" for supporting employer-covered birth control.
• 3 Comments

• Why the hell would I sign it?
• Source: Detroit News   |   Detroit   |   March 16, 2012
• Detroit Mayor Dave Bing, referring to the state's proposed consent agreement, which would put a state-appointed panel of financial advisers in charge of the city's finances. "I was not voted as mayor of this city to have to report to the governor," he said.

• I feel like I'm in an episode of 'Mad Men' and we're somehow back in the 1950s.
• Source: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel   |   Wisconsin   |   March 15, 2012
• Wisconsin state Rep. Janet Bewley, who voted against a bill to ban insurance plans from covering some abortions. The bill, which Bewley called "a war on women," now heads to the governor's desk.

• I'm a hockey fan -- I like my violence on the ice.
• Source: Sacramento Bee   |   California   |   March 14, 2012
• Douglas Mower, a Californian who supports a bill in the state Legislature that would make California the first state to ban violent fans from attending any professional sports games.

• We need a human being who really pays attention to every individual. There will never be a substitute for that.
• Source: Oregonian   |   Portland, Ore.   |   March 13, 2012
• Tiel Jackson, the state reporting manager for Portland Public Schools, which raised its graduation rate by 5 percent in one year by having people look through paper records because the district's electronic recordkeeping system was counting students who transferred out of the district as dropouts.

• We are obviously disappointed with the court decision, which only perpetuates the nightmare New Jersey has endured for decades.
• Source: Philadelphia Inquirer   |   New Jersey   |   March 12, 2012
• Michael Drewniak, a spokesman for New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, on a recent appellate court's decision to overturn the governor's order to abolish the independent Council on Affordable Housing.

• I don't like the feeling that our schools are for sale.
• Source: Reuters   |   Massachusetts   |   March 9, 2012
• Susan Flaccus, a school board member who opposes her rural district's attempt to recruit international students. A trend has emerged in some small towns to charge students from abroad to attend U.S. public high schools with empty seats.

• It’s so easy it’s scary.
• Source: Government Technology   |   Nation   |   March 8, 2012
• Michael Calce, an ex-hacker who shut down Yahoo, CNN, Amazon, eBay and Dell websites as a 15 year old, on how easy it is to hack into most local government sites.

• Alabama's children should be helping our economy by working and not by learning useless skills such as reading.
• Source: The Associated Press   |   Alabama   |   March 7, 2012
• The wording of an Alabama House Resolution introduced by state Rep. Daniel Boman as a joke to mock Republicans. The resolution also professes that large class sizes are good for students who want to "make more friends."