Daily French Roast

Anne is reading …

Global Middle Class

The Atlantic takes a look at The New Power of the Global Middle Class focusing initially on the BRICS — four distinct trillion-dollar plus economies in Brazil, Russia, India & China — while admitting that already Turkey should be considered the “silent T” in TBRICS.

George Mason University’s Jack Goldstone begs to differ, suggesting that TIMBIs be the new acronym — Turkey, India, Mexico, Brazil and Indonesia. Gone from Goldstone’s list are Russia and China due to Russia’s aging population and China’s, too.

Looking out four decades, you see what a small share of middle class consumption is America’s. Watching the deep American purple space shrink rapidly from 2000 to 2012 is a vivid example of America’s shrinking middle class in the last decade.

Race & Affirmative Action

In a 2003 Supreme Court decision, the majority wrote that their decision to allow public colleges and universities to consider race in admission decision could be expected to last 25 years. Today the Court sent a signal that it might end affirmative action ahead of schedule.

Supreme court justice Elena Kagan will recuse herself from the case, and it’s generally believed that the court’s five more-conservative justices may be prepared to end racial preferences in higher education.

A Supreme Court decision forbidding the use of race in admission at public universities would almost certainly mean that it would be barred at most private ones as well under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which forbids racial discrimination in programs that receive federal money. via New York Times

Fast Company

The Women of Twitter Vogue Magazine

Focusing on Twitter executives Katie Jacobs Stanton and Chloe Skadden, Vogue does a non-puff piece on the role of Twitter in global politics and the role of women in the Twitter organization.

More DFR

Del. Eileen Filler-Corn, D-Fairfax, left, addresses a “Stands for Women’s Rights” rally at the Bell Tower in Capitol Square in Richmond, in Richmond, Va. Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/02/20/women-protest-anti-abortion-legislation-in-virginia/#ixzz1n4hGWOXl

Virginia Abortion Laws Update

Over a thousand people — perhaps 1500 writes AP — conducted a silent protest in Richmond, Virginia yesterday.

The silent demonstration was over bills that would define embryos as humans and criminalize their destruction, require “transvaginal” ultrasounds of women seeking abortions, and cut state aid to poor women seeking abortions.

Again Facebook and social media were the organizing vehicles for the protest. Molly Vick of Richmond said it was her first ever protest. On her shirt Vick wore a sticker that said “Say No to State-Mandated Rape.” Below her beltline of her jeans was a strip of yellow tape that read “Private Property: Keep Out.”

The protest also came after Saturday Night Live brought the ultrasound bills into popular culture last weekend. Meghan McCain appeared tonight on Rachel Maddow and let me say that prolife Meghan is mad about the proposed Virginia laws. We’ll play the segment tomorrow, but Meghan — who also supports women’s right to contraception — does not want probes in her vagina without her permission.

Saying these laws are bad for women, this Republican daughter went on the record saying extremists in the Republican party are trying to roll back the clock for American women. Rachel asked Meghan if she would work with her this issue that affects alll American women and Meghan said “yes”. In 2011 Meghan wrote Shut Up About My Body Glenn Beck: Don’t Call Me Fat.

Lawmakers in Virginia delayed a final vote Tuesday, as Republican Governor Bob McDonnell, a Roman Catholic father of five, had the pen in his hand. At the end of the day, it wasn’t clear when the bill might come up for a vote again.

The Virginia law is openly being called state-sponsored rape. Were legislators surprised to have silent protests outside the capitol over the Republican War on Women? Apparently.

Speechless