Obama calls on Congress to approve $21B infrastructure bill

President Obama on Friday called for Congress to approve a $21 billion package aimed at building public-private partnerships to improve the nation's crumbling infrastructure.

“Let's get this done. Let's rebuild this country we love. Let's make sure we're staying on the cutting edge,” Obama told a boisterous crowd on a platform overlooking the Port of Miami.

The platform provided a view of a $2 billion tunnel project intended to improve congestion and allow for quicker trade. Obama said the project, funded by both public and private dollars, was a template for the rest of the nation.

“We can do this not just here in Miami Dade, but we can do this all across the country,” Obama said, calling for a “partnership to rebuild America.”

Obama suggested creating an infrastructure bank that could help seed major projects, and White House officials say they want Congress to allocate $10 billion for the program.

The president also unveiled a $4 billion investment program in support of the Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act (TIFIA). The program, expanded in last year’s transportation bill, is intended to leverage private and nonfederal funding for projects of regional or national significance through loans, loan guarantees and lines of credit.

“Instead of picking projects based on pork barrel politics, we'll pick them based on how good they are for the economy,” Obama said.

Obama additionally called for a set of $7 billion in tax incentives meant to support state and municipal bonds for projects. Among them is a measure that would do away with penalties, sometimes totaling up to 35 percent, on foreign investment in U.S. real estate and infrastructure projects.

The president suggested there was a bipartisan consensus for his proposals, noting the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the nation's largest labor organization both back infrastructure spending.

“If you've got the Chamber and the unions agreeing, then the politicians should be able to agree, too,” Obama said.

Still, the plan, which will be included in the president's budget when it is released April 10, is likely to face opposition from Republicans in Congress. On Friday, Obama suggested some hypocrisy from members who railed against government spending but then showed up to ribbon-cutting ceremonies in their districts.

“If you think it's good for your district, then it's probably good for other districts too,” Obama said. “We can't allow Washington politics to get in the way of progress.”

Obama also warned that the United States risked losing jobs and commerce to nations with superior infrastructure if Congress failed to act.

“What are we waiting for? There's work to be done, there's workers that are ready to do it,” Obama said. “Let's prove to the world that there's no better place to be than the United States of America.”

Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) said in January that he favored infrastructural improvements but questioned how they would be funded.

“It's easy to go out there and be Santa Claus and talk about all the things you want to give away, but at some point somebody has to pay the bill,” Boehner said.

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Kochs, Chamber of Commerce Bankroll Judges’ Seminars On Corporate Crime And Capitalism

The Louisiana federal judge overseeing the civil trial over BP’s alleged gross negligence in the 2010 Deepwater Horizon incident attended a seminar in 2009 called “Criminalization of Corporate Conduct” sponsored by the American Petroleum Institute, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and 13 other funders. In 2011, that same judge dismissed a wrongful-death claim in a suit brought against ExxonMobil and Chevron USA for exposure to radioactive substances. Another judge who attended that seminar voted in a 2-1 holding to reject emissions caps that both the American Petroleum Institute and the Chamber had opposed in briefs in the case.

In all, 11 percent of U.S. federal judges attended all-expense paid seminars whose top contributors included conservative foundations and major corporations between 2008 and 2012, according to an analysis by the Center for Public Integrity. Sponsors often pay for participants airfare hotel stays and meals. Tim Meko reports:

Leading the list of sponsors of the 109 seminars identified by the Center were the conservative Charles G. Koch Charitable Foundation, The Searle Freedom Trust, also a supporter of conservative causes, ExxonMobil Corp., Shell Oil Co., pharmaceutical giant Pfizer Inc. and State Farm Insurance Cos. Each were sponsors of 54 seminars.

Other top sponsors included the conservative Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation (51), Dow Chemical Co. (47), AT&T Inc. (45) and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce (46), according to the Center’s analysis.

It is not just the sponsorship of these seminars that creates at least the appearance of a conflict. Many of these seminars are outwardly devoted to addressing corporations’ liability and/or economic theories. For example, a seminar called “Corporations and the Limits of Criminal Law.” was funded by AT&T, BB&T, BP America, Cigna, Coca-Cola, Dow Chemical, FedEx Corp. and others. Another called “The Moral Foundations of Capitalism” was funded by that same group of sponsors and the Chamber of Commerce. A host of others are generally themed around economics and tort liability.

Outcry about these all-expense paid judicial education programs was louder before 2007, when the body that oversees judges started requiring judges and seminar hosts to disclose information about their programs. As a result of these disclosures and the work of the Center for Public Integrity, we now know that conservative groups and corporations with a stake in major litigation are bankrolling these junkets. The new rule, however, does not require disclosure of how much each entity contributed.

Aside from contributions to particular seminars, the Center’s reporting traces millions of dollars more in contributions to two schools that host the bulk the majority of these seminars.  It found that ExxonMobil reported “giving $20,000 to George Mason specifically for its judicial training program. The oil company gave an additional $30,000 to the university’s Law & Economics Center, which hosts the conferences. Between 2003 and 2007, the ExxonMobil Foundation gave the think tank $150,000.” The Charles G. Koch Charitable Foundation has also contributed millions to George Mason University, and other foundations and corporations contributed hundreds of thousands of dollars to George Mason’s judicial education program and a similar program at Northwestern University. One major sponsor of these programs known for its corporate-influenced program ceased holding seminars on 2011.

Not every seminar fit into this category. The Open Society Foundation and the Robina Institute, both of which have social justice missions, sponsored one seminar — on human rights and international law. CPI has an excellent tool for viewing all contributions by seminar, judge, sponsor, and several other factors here.

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Presidential Proclamation -- National Sexual Assault Awareness and Prevention Month, 2013

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For Immediate Release March 29, 2013 Presidential Proclamation -- National Sexual Assault Awareness and Prevention Month, 2013 NATIONAL SEXUAL ASSAULT AWARENESS AND PREVENTION MONTH, 2013- - - - - - -BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICAA PROCLAMATION In the last 20 years, our Nation has made meaningful progress toward addressing sexual assault. Where victims were once left without recourse, laws have opened a path to safety and justice; where a culture of fear once kept violence hidden, survivors are more empowered to speak out and get help. But even today, too many women, men, and children suffer alone or in silence, burdened by shame or unsure anyone will listen. This month, we recommit to changing that tragic reality by stopping sexual assault before it starts and ensuring victims get the support they need. Sexual violence is an affront to human dignity and a crime no matter where it occurs. While rape and sexual assault affect all communities, those at the greatest risk are children, teens, and young women. Nearly one in five women will be a victim of sexual assault during college. For some groups, the rates of violence are even higher -- Native American women are more than twice as likely to experience sexual assault as the general population. Moreover, we know rape and sexual assault are consistently underreported, and that the physical and emotional trauma they leave behind can last for years. With Vice President Joe Biden's leadership, we have made preventing sexual violence and supporting survivors a top priority. Earlier this month, I was proud to sign the Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act, which renews and strengthens the law that first made it possible for our country to address sexual assault in a comprehensive way. The Act preserves critical services like rape crisis centers, upholds protections for immigrant victims, gives State and tribal law enforcement better tools to investigate cases of rape, and breaks down barriers that keep lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender victims from getting help. It also expands funding for sexual assault nurse examiner programs and sexual assault response teams, helping States deliver justice for survivors and hold offenders accountable. Just as we keep fighting sexual assault in our neighborhoods, we must also recommit to ending it in our military -- because no one serving our country should be at risk of assault by a fellow service member. Where this crime does take place, it cannot be tolerated; victims must have access to support, and offenders must face the consequencesof their actions. Members of our Armed Forces and their families can learn more about the resources available to them at 1-877-995-5247 and www.SafeHelpline.org. All Americans can play a role in changing the culture that enables sexual violence. Each of us can take action by lifting up survivors we know and breaking the silence surrounding rape and sexual assault. To get involved, visit www.WhiteHouse.gov/1is2many. Together, our Nation is moving forward in the fight against sexual assault. This month, let us keep working to prevent violence in every corner of America, and let us rededicate ourselves to giving survivors the bright future they deserve. NOW, THEREFORE, I, BARACK OBAMA, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim April 2013 as National Sexual Assault Awareness and Prevention Month. I urge all Americans to support survivors of sexual assault and work together to prevent these crimes in their communities. IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this twenty-ninth day of March, in the year of our Lord two thousand thirteen, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and thirty-seventh.  BARACK OBAMA

Blog posts on this issue March 29, 2013 5:47 PM EDTWeekly Wrap Up: ‘The Promise of America”

Here’s a quick glimpse at what happened this week on WhiteHouse.gov.

March 29, 2013 4:11 PM EDTIn Miami, President Obama Talks About his Plan to Put People to Work Rebuilding America

Despite strong efforts to fix our broken national infrastructure over the past four years, much work needs to be done if we are to prove to the world that there is no better place to do business than in the United States.

March 29, 2013 3:02 PM EDTOpen Government: A Time for Self-Assessment

The Obama Administration has harnessed new technology to engage the public, worked to disclose information more quickly, and given citizens a greater voice in decision-making. There is more work to do, and we remain committed to continuing this in the second term.

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The lamestream media admit that Tim Tebow is being excluded not primarily because of his quarterbacking skills. [1] Why should the public support the NFL as it discriminates against outspoken Christians?

Senator Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) died this morning. Now Governor Chris Christie must appoint someone to replace him. Whom will that be? [2][3]

Liberal hatred of the First Amendment: [4]

Evolutionists failed to overturn Louisiana pro-creationism law - again! Also, another creationist mother is eager to have her daughter read a draft of the Question evolution! campaign book for middle school students.[5]

Forbes: Religion is an essential driver of economic growth. Evangelicalism is improving the cultures of third world countries and boosting their economies. [6]

UN Agenda 21 threatens San Francisco Bay. But two activists are preparing to sue to fight it. [7]

Liberal censorship continues, by making a big deal out of an offhand reference to "no homo" by a triumphant basketball player. [8] But there's no exception to the First Amendment allowing censorship to promote the homosexual agenda.

Are the Koch Brothers hoping to buy the Los Angeles Times? If so, conservatives should applaud, not decry, them for that. [9]

Anti-Darwinism has now entered into a mainstream public university. Indiana's Ball State University is now offering a course which is intelligent design friendly.[10]

Same-sex marriage is defeated in the liberal state of Illinois, despite Obama's push for it in his home state. [11] Has Obama become irrelevant?

The academic journal Sociology of Religion shows secularism losing momentum and beginning to decline in both Europe and America by 2050. Other academic research shows it may begin to happen much earlier.[12]

August 2012: A summer of triumph for biblical creation belief. Will August 2013 be a watershed month as well?[13]

Media-promoted Tiger Woods "shot his worst nine-hole score as a professional" but afterward his comments were again self-serving: "I'm sure I'm not the only one who struggled out there." [14] Actually, Woods' score is worse than 69 other players.

The number of adherents of liberal Christianity who will be spit out of Jesus's mouth will be many.[15]

The country with the world's biggest atheist population is very interested in information debunking Darwinism.[16]

The first review of the Question evolution! campaign book for middle school students is in! Rachel finds the book "very interesting". Sarah is "very interested" in reading the book.[17]

Evolutionists, learning science is exciting. The force feeding of stale, evolutionary bunkum is not.[18][19]

New Jersey voters! This Tuesday is Primary Day. Herewith a voter guide. [20][21][22]

The IRS and the White House definitely worked together. The visitor logs show how often IRS Commissioner Shulman visited – and how rarely anyone else did with whom he would have had meetings, of not with Barack Obama. [23]

A Tea Party activist withdraws his earlier call for a temporary criminal registry, in wake of the scandals surrounding the Internal Revenue Service. This is the same agency that will police Obamacare. [24]

Liberal double standard: when undefeated Michele Bachmann declined to run for reelection, there was liberal claptrap galore by the media. Then her Dem opponent pulled out of the race too, and the media are nearly speechless. [25]

Eric Holder gave a private party for his friends in the Mainstream Media, and less than half of them showed up. What does that say about those who did? [26]

After cutting Tim Tebow, the New York Jets now try to stop the building of a family amusement park. [27] Why should the increasingly anti-Christian NFL receive favoritism??

Associated Press reports that Americans may lose the health plan they like under Obamacare.[28]

Student Loan money profits are being siphoned off to pay for ObamaCare.[29]

An activist advises people to elect a sheriff who remembers his Constitutional duty to those who elect him. [30]

"Memorial Day 2013: How it was. What it will be" by Bishop Bert [31]

1960s liberalism is not only financially unsustainable, but its champions are a dying breed.[32]

Understanding gold market dynamics.[33]

Evolutionary racism directed towards an accomplished footballer puts a sour note on a football game.[34] Why are so many liberals racists?

When a republic turns into a democracy, it will surely fail. [35]

Remembering a fallen police officer in Phoenix, Arizona. [36]

Media bullying alert: the lamestream media spend all day picking on undefeated conservative Michele Bachmann, who repeatedly won in a liberal district. Rather their cheap criticism, the media should be asking why they could never defeat her.

Wikipedia continues to lose influence in the world in 2013.[37] Also, interest in Project 200 plus keeps expanding.

Undefeated five-term congressman Michele Bachmann announces that she will retire from her position, and may run for higher office. [38] The liberal machine was never able to defeat her in a Dem state.

Professor attacked by liberals. His "crime"? Teaching students to think for themselves. [39]

Judge-Shopping, or, How Eric Holder Got Away With Spying On A Reporter's Emails: [40]

The liberal nanny mayor of New York City doesn't like street cafes now. [41]

The IRS scandal that the news is not covering, because it's tied in with Obamacare: [42]

Eric Holder now faces investigation for perjury before Congress. Is Barack Hussein Obama paying attention? [43]

France struggles to find a strategy to turn around their economy even though it is right under their nose.[44] The Bible, Adam Smith and Friedrich Hayek

Many things happen in life that cannot be explained by science or philosophy. Atheists and agnostics self intellectually cripple themselves and are clueless about much of reality.[45]

Example of how modern conservatism is more conservative than Republicans from yesteryear: Bob Dole, Republican nominee in 1996, admits that "Reagan couldn't have made it. Certainly, Nixon couldn't have made it .... We might've made it, but I doubt it." [46]

A United States Senator finally says it: Barack H. Obama is throwing away his moral authority to lead. But in fact he never had legal authority to lead, either. [47]

Conservapedia pauses in prayer (not a liberal "moment of silence") in honor of Memorial Day.

RichardDawkins.net keeps getting smited! Has a plague of locusts eaten Richard Dawkins' daily website visitors?[48]

How long will you refuse to humble yourself before the Lord, Richard Dawkins?

Vox Day and a supporter of the Question evolution! campaign agree: The speed at which the secular left is collapsing is happening at an unexpectedly fast rate. [49]

Google USA estimates 101,000,000 search results for the search "Evolution and just so stories".[50]

"President Obama forgets to salute," but the lamestream media downplay gaffes by liberals. [51]

A Tea Party activist urges Congress to seize the moment, now that Obama's luck seems to have run out. [52]

Another study finds that obesity may decrease brain function.[53] See also: Atheism and obesity and Lesbianism and obesity

Have liberal policies destroyed Sweden? "Stockholm rioting continues for fifth night." [54]

The inventor of the concept "Attention Deficit and Hyperactivity Disorder" admitted, before he died, that he made the whole thing up. Think about that when the school district tells you to drug your kids. [55]

Dems admit they lack the votes to pass their amnesty-for-illegal-aliens bill, where 60 votes are the minimum needed in the U.S. Senate. [56]

The cold temperatures this spring have even hurt the sale of sporting goods. [57] Yet liberal denial about the cold weather persists, in order to perpetrate a fictional global warming.

World's most popular site devoted to atheism/agnosticism sees a massive loss of global market share according to Alexa. Also, new Question evolution! campaign group leader expected to be installed in June of 2013.[58]

Obama's paternalistic, sexist reference Thursday to a heckler as a "young lady" is no problem for the liberal media, [59] but an Hispanic golfer's offhand racial quip about Tiger Woods is unforgivable.

7 creationist groups have now joined Project 200 plus. Also, 7 ways the Question evolution! campaign is strengthening itself.[60]

An IRS official takes the Fifth Amendment. Or does she? Besides botching her plea, she shows hypocrisy in claiming a freedom she does not grant to others. [61]

Liberal double standard: racist remarks by Joe Biden are no problem, but the lamestream media and Tiger Woods make a big deal about an offhand joke by an Hispanic golfer. [62] Will media bullying enable Tiger Woods to end nearly 5 years without his winning a major?

The BBC News opened a story with this nonsense: “A study of Neanderthal skulls suggests that they became extinct because they had larger eyes than our species.”[63] Why does Darwinism spawn such lame just so stories?

Thomas Sowell recommends parents having their children read the book The New Leviathan which has a number of essays which debunk various liberal sacred cows.[64]

Barack Hussein Obama's "I am an idiot" defense about his recent scandals undermines his "cult of expertise" and statist redemption fantasies that he has been peddling.[65]

Ask yourselves right now: is this still America? Representative Mike Kelly asked that of IRS Acting Commissioner Miller. We should ask it of ourselves. [66]

Contrast the regal behavior of Barack Hussein Obama with the humble behavior of George Washington. [67]

Expert says that the discovery of a 20-year long rainfall in Ireland points to the Great Flood of the Bible being historical.[68]

Why do so many faux Christians deny the Great Flood and try to turn it into a non-Great Flood?[69] Did Jesus, Peter and Moses lie?[70]

Animals are where they are today, not because they evolved there, nor yet because of continental drift, but because they went there after the Great Flood. [71]

A description of "Common Core Education," the harm it can do, and a list of New Jersey primary candidates pledged to stop it. [72]

Outspokenly Christian Kevin Durant gives $1 million to the tornado victims. Durant uaually outscores LeBron, but the liberal media do not promote outspoken Christians.

Why does Glenn Beck, who loves to chart conspiracies on his famous chalkboards, ignore a conspiracy right under his nose? [73]

28 million Americans will be caught in a "massive game of health coverage pingpong" under ObamaCare, and even the liberal media are beginning to panic about this. [74]

Classic communist tactic by the Obama Administration: it files a document in court alleging that a reporter at Fox News is a possible co-conspirator in the "crime" of informing the public. [75] In fact this goes back further – to Henry II. Are we all Thomas Becket now? [76]

Teen awarded for improved capacitor - Intel gave a $50,000 scholarship to a girl whose titanium dioxide capacitor can store almost three times as much electrical energy as previous capacitors and is intended as a battery alternative. [77]

Most mainstream media got the story wrong, claiming incorrectly that her invention can charge a cell phone battery in 30 seconds. (Charging a battery too quickly reduces its life, which is why Motorola and Samsung and the rest keep the amperage low.)

Franklin Graham, one of America's most prominent evangelical Christians, says the targeting of conservative groups by the Internal Revenue Service included two of his ministries.[78]

Are many evangelical Christian churches primarily growing in America due to birth rates or due to evangelism?[79]

"Quiverfull" evangelical Christianity, which does not believe in contraception, is now spreading in the UK.[80] In the past 30 years, the number of Anabaptists in North America, including the Amish, has grown significantly, from 313,000 baptized members in 1978 to more than 535,000 in 2010. [81]

Unfortunately for militant atheists, secularist philosophy breeds sub-replacement levels of fertility. See: Decline of atheism

Obama says black men cannot use racism to explain away their failures. [82]

CDC says the number of children being diagnosed with mental disorders has been steadily growing. [83]

Reuters reports: "Europe is in the midst of its longest recession since it began keeping records in 1995 — even surpassing the calamity that hit the region in the financial crisis of 2008-2009."[84]

Biblical creationism is growing in Europe and its growth rate will accelerate amidst Europe's economic woes.[85]

The UK has experienced one lost economic decade, and it's about to enter a second. [86] When is the UK going to remove Charles Darwin off its currency?[87]

Turkey, a world leader in anti-evolutionism, had its Moody’s credit rating upgraded to investment-grade quality. [88][89]

More Question evolution! campaign news from Canada. The stomachs of Darwinists are going to be tied into knots in 2013. [90]

Question evolution! campaign book draft is off to California student readers tonight. Also, new proof and evidence that 2013 is a better year for creationism.[91]

In addition, an atheist wiki still appeals to atheist nerds.

What is the real IRS scandal? It's the tax code itself. [92]

A video was recently produced on the topic "Why Christianity and the Bible are true." [93]

Abortion: an indispensable right or violence against women?[94]

A New Jersey activist promotes the primarying of a RINO State Senator. See his side-by-side of a typical RINO and his challenger. [95]

The first rule of grassroots anti-evolution social movements: What's behind us in inane evolutionist commentary is NOT important![96]

Is the Question evolution! campaign entering a new phase? If so, what new tactics are being employed by a Question evolution campaign group?

Bradlee Dean has this scathing commentary on Minnesota's gay "marriage" law. [97]

Previous Conservapedia Breaking News

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The Wit And Wisdom Of Congressman Don Young

Rep. Don Young (R-AK) on Thursday invited a wave of criticism after using a racial slur to characterize Latinos, saying that he and his father, “used to hire 50 to 60 wetbacks to pick tomatoes.” Young refused to apologize outright for the slur, and several GOP leaders have since called on him to do so.

But it’s not new for Young, one of the most senior Republicans in the House, to go off the rails. He has said a long string of crazy, offensive, or outright bizarre things during his 40-year tenure as a member of Congress. Here’s a look back at just a few of his most outrageous comments:

1. Drink alone to avoid domestic violence.

On the same day as his racial slur comment, Young also held a press conference in which he advised that the best solution to domestic violence is for people to do more imbibing in private: “”Watch the alcohol and the drugs,” he said. “You look at the relationship between violence against the loved ones you love, (it) is usually related to either one of those. And I’m going to suggest for those that may be drinking together – Stop it! If you want to drink by yourself, you may do it. But when you drink together, the possibility of harm becomes greater every day.”

2. Members of Congress should be hanged.

Young once misattibuted a quote to Abraham Lincoln on the floor of the House of Representatives. That quote called for members of Congress who opposed war to be hanged. “Congressmen who willfully take action during wartime that damage morale and undermine the military are saboteurs, and should be arrested, exiled or hanged,” Young claimed Lincoln had said. In fact, a conservative academic, not the storied former president, was responsible for the quote.

3. Environmentalists are “waffle-stomping, Harvard-graduating, intellectual idiots.”

Young, who is a big advocate for drilling in the arctic and strongly disbelieves in climate change, said that environmentalists are a “self-centered bunch of waffle-stomping, Harvard-graduating, intellectual idiots” and “are not Americans, never have been Americans, never will be Americans.”

4. Members of Congress are like mink. They bite.

When Young was in an education funding battle in 2007, he likened members of Congress to “the mink in my state that kill their own.” He went on: “There’s always another day when who that bite will be killed, too. And I am very good at that.” Later in the same speech, Young called on voters not to re-elect New Jersey’s representatives:

5. Funny hats prove a point.

Young once wore a hat with a propeller top while questioning Interior Secretary Ken Salazar to show how lightly he took the concerns about “the Obama energy program”:

6. Props prove a point.

Young once waved a walrus penis bone at the incoming chief of the Fish and Wildlife Service, Mollie Beattie.

7. The BP oil spill is not an environmental disaster.

Given his poor record on climate issues, it’s no surprise that Young is a fan of Big Oil. When the Deepwater Horizon oil spill happened, Young brushed it off by saying, ““This is not an environmental disaster, and I will say that again and again because it is a national phenomena. Oil has seeped into this ocean for centuries, will continue to do it.”

On a more serious note, Young has also been under investigation multiple times for ethics violations, including allegations that he used taxpayer money to fund private trips. Young was also responsible, along with his colleague former Sen. Ted Stevens (R-AK) for earmarking the money for the infamous “bridge to nowhere.”

Thanks to the tip from @Apinak, here’s one more for the list:

In 1995, Young disparaged a 1990 exhibit in Cincinnati that included homoerotic photographs by Robert Mapplethorpe. In front of a group of 15- to 18-year-old high school students, Young said, “butt fucking… You think that’s art?”

Then, too, Young refused to apologize, saying, “I don’t apologize. You’re all adults, and if you have to ask the questions, I’m going to answer.”

By Friday afternoon, Young had issued a full apology for using the racial slur ‘wetbacks’:

“I apologize for the insensitive term I used during an interview in Ketchikan, Alaska. There was no malice in my heart or intent to offend; it was a poor choice of words. That word, and the negative attitudes that come with it, should be left in the 20th century, and I’m sorry that this has shifted our focus away from comprehensive immigration reform.”

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‘Orphan Black’ Star Tatiana Maslany On Science Fiction, Class, and Female Anti-Heroines

This Saturday at 9PM, BBC America debuts its second original series, Orphan Black. A science fiction thriller, Orphan Black follows a young woman named Sarah (Tatiana Maslany), who is returning home after ten months away to try to reclaim custody of her daughter, who is being raised by Sarah’s own foster mother, when she witnesses another young woman, Beth, commit suicide at a train station. If that wasn’t unsettling enough, the other woman shares Sarah’s face. And as Sarah, desperate for cash, appropriates the dead woman’s identity, apartment—and as it turns out, the police department review she’s under for an unjustified shooting of a civilian—she learns that she doesn’t just have a twin: there are a disturbing number of other women wearing Sarah’s face.

I spoke to Maslany about the challenge of playing multiple characters in a single show, how viewers relate to unsympathetic female characters, and how science fiction depicts the near future and handles class. This interview has been edited for clarity and length.

In Orphan Black, you’ve got a core role playing Sarah, but you have to portray a number of other women as well. Was that one of the things that drew you to the series?

Absolutely…They’re all compelling, they’re all complex, they’re all very different. Sarah was definitely my entry point into the series. What fascianted me about her so much was her extreme flaws that were right out there, her behavior that was completely immoral and self-absorbed, always defending herself. What’s fascinating to me is she’s got that beautiful heart as well. She completely wants to be a mother to her daughter, and every part of her upbringing is saying she can’t do that, and she’s not worthy of that. It’s a really nice tension to play. And to get into all the other characters, each has a different worldview, and that’s how I approached them. How do they see the world? Is it a fearful place? is it fascinating? Do they love people?

Was part of the appeal the opportunity to build audience sympathy for an unlikeable female character? Men get to be anti-heroes far more often.

Yeah, that’s what I love about it. I think, for me, it was unlike any character I’d seen on screeen, any female character especially. She’s not immediately likable. She’s not good or bad. She’s very much an animal of impulse and instinct, of self-preservation and survival. People can relate to that. There’s something glamorous abou people on Breaking Bad or whatever, because I think it tapes into the darker parts of ourselves that we don’t get to experience on a day to day basis, or that society tells us is bad. And I think that’s what’s so compelling about Sarah. We’re all so flawed. we’re all like that. We’re all bad people sometime. It’s a matter of circumstance, it’s a matter of our rsesponse to the world and what it’s told us about who we can be and who we are. She’s really grown up in a world of hostility and violence. I’m happy that she gets to be the protagonist, that her action saren’t condemned.

Do you think that audiences are more comfortable with male anti-heroes because they don’t reflect back on us? None of us are going to cook meth to deal with our own insecurities, but we might be bad friends, or indecisive, or weak, or bad mothers, ways that female characters are often painted as flawed.

It’s way more personal. I think the mother relationship is extremely personal to so many people. I’m not a mother, but I have extreme feelings about it. Whether you’re a mother or not, I think women have an understanding of that relationship. I think, yeah, there’s something interesting in the kind of crone aspects of things, where we see different variations on who I could have been and who I am. It’s an external manifestation of that identity crisis. Whether people can relate to Sarah’s dreams of bein ga mother and not being able to do that, or Alison’s stranglehold on her life, none of it is glamorous, none of it is outside of reality. As much as it’s a sci-fi show, it’s so personal.

What about the role of the foster care system in the show? It’s how Sarah gets close to her foster-brother, and it’s clearly shaped her significantly as a character.

Sarah, also being form the UK and London specifically, and from a working class perspective, you can tell by someone’s accent in the UK where they came form, what school they went to, how they were educated. She was immediately pinopointed as an outsider. To have somebody like that as a protagonist and as someone going through this…She kind of uses that as an entry point….You can relate to the psychology of belonging, or having a place that’s yours. When presented with these other women, there’s a a chance she could belong somewhere, a sense that she could have, in some way, a family. I think she’s resistant to that because she doesn’t have that structure in her life. It’s the reason she can’t stay still with Felix. She has to run away…When she assumes Beth’s life, she sees not as a woman who killed herself, but who had money, a beautiful apartment, a boyfriend, who had her life together on paper…she starts to empathize with Beth. She starts to understand herself better through being Beth and through the complexity of someone else’s life. She could go, she has everything.

But she also learns that money doesn’t protect you. Beth may have her life together on paper, but she also killed someone on duty, and is suicidal.

Exactly. But she never would have known that had she seen that life from the outside. It’s kind of an ease, it comes back to the other women she meets. There’s a way that we see people from the outside that lets us define them and not have to touch them. I don’t have to be vulnerable with you, I don’t have to be intimate with you. Sarah, I don’t think she’s been intimate with everyone in the emotional sense. It’s very much about power. That’s another cool thing, coming to know all these other versions of herself. She actually gets to know them. We start to get to see that.

Tell me about the pace at which the sci-fi elements of the show are going to be revealed. Through the first two episodes I was struck by the way the show uses those elements in service of Sarah’s upbringing and self-image, rather than trying to impress us with flashy mythology.

Yeah, to me, it’s a more human way of going at it. We’re following Sarah, who is not part of that world, who does not have any frame of reference for what the sci-fi side of this world is, for what the scientific implications are. She’s seeing it from the human level, which is: “I’m totally lost, I’m confused, who am I?” To me, that’s what I love about it. I never really thought, as much as it is sci-fi show, I always thought of it as a character piece. Unraveling the character within the context of clones. It’s for me about the personal implications and how it changes the women and how it changes the people around them. We have episodes that get more sci-fi heavy and that are more into that zone. But the cool thing is, it’s always about not-too-far-away potential science. It’s like the present day. Cloning has been happening. It’s not a new phenomenon. What it raises in such an interesting way is where science, religion, humanity, what’s in our control, what is not for us to touch?

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