we all know i'm NOT going to patronize

the marriott

another hotel to the list

now i'm going to add Hyatt hotel fires entire housekeeping team and outsources

by Chris in Paris

They could get jobs on Wall Street or as lobbyists with this kind of sneaky trick. There are plenty of business hotels to choose from so keep this horrible story in mind the next time you book.

Several hundred hotel workers and their supporters turned out yesterday for a raucous rally in front of the Hyatt Regency Boston for the 100 housekeepers who were fired by the hotel chain. Politicians called for businesses to boycott the Hyatt, and workers banged on drums, rattled detergent bottles filled with rocks, and chanted “Hyatt, shame on you’’ as they marched in front of the hotel with picket signs.
..................

Rachel Maddow: Why Do 1/3 of New Jersey Conservatives Think Obama Might Be the Anti-Christ?
Posted by Rachel Maddow

i guess it's ok to be an illegal immigrant

if you're christian. hmmmmmmmmmmmm

(by the way my views - as if you needed me to state them - are; if you've HELPED americans, as in being a translator in iraq for example, OR if you're going to be tortured or put to death in y our home country, YOU SHOULD BE GIVEN ASYLUM in the united states. if you want to become a citizen you should be allowed to try)

‘You lie’ Wilson shows two faces on illegal immigration

By Kathleen Miller
The anti-illegal immigration movement is singing Congressman Joe Wilson’s praises, but the lawmaker who was rebuked by the House this week recently helped extend the stay of one of those very “illegals” the activists hope to remove from the country.

Hundreds of illegal immigration opponents are gathering in Washington right now for the annual Federation for Immigration Reform (FAIR) effort to lobby Congress for tighter border controls and other policies designed to keep undocumented immigrants out of the U.S.

This year, they’re making Wilson, a South Carolina Republican, their new poster boy after he famously shouted “You lie!” during President Obama’s speech on healthcare reform last week. Wilson’s outbust occurred as Obama was saying he has no intention of giving illegal immigrants access to health care benefits in his reform plan, and CNN personality and avowed anti-illegal immigration crusader Lou Dobbs is giving Wilson “great credit” for advancing the cause, per The Washington Independent and Politics Daily.

Wilson may have a conflict of interest, however. Two months before he heckled Obama, he introduced legislation to keep Sainey Fatty, an illegal immigrant from Gambia, in the country. Fatty came to the U.S. for school in the early ’90s and lived here for seven years while under a deportation order, according to his friend Bill Cook’s blog..........

fair and balanced?

1) faux? NOPE
2) rick sanchez? YUP with this:

CNN anchor calls out Fox News: ‘You lie’

By Muriel Kane
When Fox News ran a full-page ad in the Washington Post — as well as in two newspapers owned by Fox’s parent company — claiming that it had been the only network to cover the 9.12 tea party rally in Washington, DC, it was more than one CNN anchor was willing to take.

“I usually don’t suffer fools gladly,” CNN’s Rick Sanchez began. “Especially when it comes to the fools who perpetuate falsehoods. Well, today thousands of you flipped through the pages of the Washington Post, only to come up a lie so bold and so upsetting that frankly I’m just not going to sit here in silence and allow my craft or my news operation to be unfairly maligned.”

Over a large photo of the rally, the ad asks, “How Did ABC, CBS, NBC, MSNBC and CNN Miss This Story?”

“Enough is enough,” Sanchez went on, sounding as though he had been taking lessons in righteous indignation from Keith Olbermann. “And yes, I’m talking to you, Fox News. You, who claim to be fair and balanced. At what, I wonder? … They are saying we did not cover this story. They are using a lie to try and divide people into camps. … That’s an offense to myself and my colleagues, who risked their lives in Iran and Afghanistan and around the world to bring the news.”..........

it doesn't have a snowball's chance of passing

but to point out the lunacy of some people is MY EFFING JOB
you know what? taking and/or practicing birth control is just like gay marriage. yup it is.

IF YOU DON'T WANT TO TAKE THE PILL (OR WEAR A CONDOM OR HAVE AN IUD OR WHATEVER) don't. PERIOD. it's that simple. YOU TAKE CARE OF YOUR FUCKING BODY BUT YOU KEEP YOUR FUCKING HANDS AND LAWS OFF OF MINE (oh and if you don't believe in gay marriage. DON'T MARRY 'A GAY')

Anti-Choice Floridians Peddling Constitutional Amendment to Criminalize Birth Control Pill

Posted by Liliana Segura, AlterNet

This post originally appeared in PEEK.

Florida has done it again, folks.

Yes, the state that brought you Bush v. Gore, the sex offender colony under the bridge, and the shoot-first-ask-questions-later legislation known as the "Stand Your Ground Law" has another idea up its sleeve. And this one's for the ladies.

Tampa Bay Online reports:

TALLAHASSEE - Anti-abortion conservatives are proposing a new constitutional amendment that critics claim would make it a crime to take birth control pills in Florida.

The "Personhood Amendment" that conservative activists are filing today in Tallahassee would add language to the state constitution that defines someone as a "person," regardless of age or health status, "from the beginning of the biological development of that human being."

This, of course, is just another twist on the conventional argument by anti-choice groups that birth control pills are basically murder weapons. "The pill will irritate the lining of the uterus so that the newly formed human being cannot attach to his/her mother's womb and dies," reads an explanation on the website of the American Life League, which is supporting similar efforts in other states. "This is called a chemical abortion."

This is the same group that runs thepillkills.com, a site that "focuses on blood clots and other health risks that birth control pills pose to women."

Even if these people manage to collect the 676,811 signatures they need to get by Feb. 1 in order for this idea to be considered by Florida residents, even anti-choice politicians seem to be a bit ambivalent about the idea of criminalizing birth control......

pic: www.dcpages.com/.../DSC03280.jpg.html

speechless

Limbaugh: We need segregated buses

By Raw Story
In a remark extraordinary even by the standards of conservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh, the right-wing radio heavyweight declared on his program Wednesday that the United States needed to return to racially segregated buses.

Referring to an incident in which a white student was beaten by black students on a bus, Limbaugh said: “I think the guy’s wrong. I think not only it was racism, it was justifiable racism. I mean, that’s the lesson we’re being taught here today. Kid shouldn’t have been on the bus anyway. We need segregated buses — it was invading space and stuff. This is Obama’s America.”

A full transcript of Limbaugh’s comments on his radio show is available at MediaMatters.org.

Limbaugh’s comments came after a called complained to say that local law enforcement said the attack probably wasn’t racially motivated. The incident had been hyped by the conservative Drudge Report, which posted a video of the fracas.

“Police initially said the beating of the white student by two black students appeared to be racially motivated,” the Associated Press wrote. “But police on Tuesday backed away from that.”

That didn’t stop Limbaugh from making his comments Wednesday..............

rest in peace henry

you made me laugh and i thank you for that! (plus you were in nashville and kicked ass in it)

Henry Gibson dies at 73; original cast member of 'Laugh-In'
By Dennis McLellan
Henry Gibson, a veteran character actor who came to fame in the late 1960s as the flower-holding poet on TV's landmark satirical comedy show "Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In," has died. He was 73.

Gibson died late Monday night at his home in Malibu after a short battle with cancer, said his son Jon.

Gibson, who more recently played a recurring role as cantankerous Judge Clark Brown on "Boston Legal," was part of the original ensemble cast of “Laugh In,” which ran on NBC from 1968 to 1973.

The hourlong show, whose original cast included Ruth Buzzi, Judy Carne, Goldie Hawn, Arte Johnson, Jo Anne Worley and others, was an immediate hit.

"Henry was an integral part of 'Laugh-In' for a long time, and he was brilliant," said Gary Owens, the show's announcer, who remained close to Gibson over the years. "He was a very funny man."


note: this video is NOT political. it's henry gibson from the movie nashville. (damn good movie by the way)

pic: henry as haven hamilton in nashville

this is an embarrassment

to me AND my country and its people. surely there has to be more people with brains than not?
New Charles Darwin film is 'too controversial' for religious American audiences

By Daily Mail Reporter

A new British film about Charles Darwin has failed to land a distribution deal in the States because his theories on human evolution are too controversial for religious American audiences, according to the film's producer.

Creation follows the British naturalist's 'struggle between faith and reason' as he wrote his 1859 book, On The Origin Of The Species.

The film, directed by Jon Amielm was chosen to open the Toronto Film Festival and has now been sold to almost every territory in the world.

But US distributors have turned down the film that could cause uproar in a country that, on the whole, dismisses scientific theories of the way we evolved.

Christian film review website Movieguide.org described Darwin as 'a racist, a bigot and a 1800s naturalist whose legacy is mass murder.'

The site also stated that his 'half-baked theory' influenced Adolf Hitler and led to 'atrocities, crimes against humanity, cloning and generic engineering.'......

pic from the article linked above

judge clay land, another hero of the week

could it be, we're actually going to fight back? actually let our voices be heard? one by one actually telling the crackpots they ARE fucking crackpots (well some would use nicer terms. i would not)?


let's call a spade piece of steamin' shite, a spade piece of steamin' shite (not the person of course, but their outrageous, asshole accusations based on fear and NOTHING else - as in evidence)

Judge tosses birther suit, threatens lawyer with sanctions

By Daniel Tencer
A federal judge in Georgia has threatened Orly Taitz, de facto leader of the birther movement, with sanctions if she ever brings another “frivolous” case before him, news reports say.

Judge Clay Land of the US District Court in Columbus, Georgia, threw out a case brought by US Army Captain Connie Rhodes, who earlier this month sued for the right to refuse deployment orders to Iraq, on the argument that the commander-in-chief of the armed forces, President Barack Obama, was not born in the United States and is therefore not the legitimate head of the army.

According to the Columbus Ledger-Enquirer, Judge Clay stated in his ruling that the plaintiff “has presented no credible evidence and has made no reliable factual allegations to support her unsubstantiated, conclusory allegations and conjecture that President Obama is ineligible to serve as president of the United States.”.......

go kick some halliburton/kbr ass jamie!

there IS a goddess! thank you for being strong and for continuing to fight FOR YOUR RIGHTS

(which the big dick attempted to take away)

Court Okays Halliburton Rape Trial
By Stephanie Mencimer

Remember Jamie Leigh Jones, the Halliburton/KBR contractor who alleged she was gang raped by her co-workers in Iraq and then imprisoned in a shipping container after she reported the attack to the company? Well, it looks like she's finally get to sue the company, in a real courthouse, over her ordeal.

Her legal saga started after Halliburton failed to take any action against her alleged attackers, and the Justice Department and military also failed to prosecute. Jones then tried to sue the company for failing to protect her. But thanks to an employment contract created during the tenure of former Halliburton CEO Dick Cheney, Jones was forced into mandatory binding arbitration, a private forum where Halliburton would hire the arbitrator, all the proceedings would be secret, and she'd have no right to appeal if she lost........

the nutmeg grater: you were kick ass mary, AND you held your own

the nutmeg grater: you were kick ass mary, AND you held your own

i wish this was humor too

it SOUNDS like it COULD be humor, but alas, it is not. it's real and it's one of the reasons we're fucked.

ok? (oh and NOT because as Mark Frauenfelder says ......"This, in all sincerity, is what I expect in return for my taxes: a five-year-long absurdist theater performance about a magically, awesomely, mesmerizingly powerful nipple that was revealed for less than one second to millions of half-drunk spectators on a Sunday afternoon in 2004. The budget: Millions of dollars and rising. Starring: the FCC, the highest court in the United States, major media companies, and a cast of thousands of lawyers. Script: A 12-foot-high stack incomprehensible legal documents. I hope the show never ends. Bravo! "........

The US Government's bizarre obsession with Janet Jackson's nipple


pic from rosebuds.net/pricksframe.htm">rosebuds dot net julian snelling jewelry maker (amazing stuff but NSFW by any way shape or means)

wednesday evening humor

shocked! shocked i tell ya!

they can deny it ALL they want. they're gonna slip up and use the 'n' word. you mark my words.

sooner rather than later

and oh by the way, your boy wilson voted NOT to get rid of the confederate flag. yup

(and i'm not even gonna mention the strom thurmond bullshite again)
GOP Shocked by Charges of Racism
By Osha Gray Davidson

GOP leader Michael Steele claims to be shocked, shocked by former President Jimmy Carter's statement that racism may play a role in some of the extreme and personal attacks on President Barack Obama.

Steele thrashed Democrats for "injecting race into the debate over critical issues facing American families..."

You know those Dems. They'll probably find some crazy 'racial' subtext to Rush Limabaugh complaining that "in Obama's America the white kids now get beat up with the black kids cheering, 'Yay, right on, right on, right on, right on.'"........

ha!

no doubt. it's a 'duhhhhhhhhhhhhh' moment

of COURSE if barack obama was someone like al gore, they wouldn't like him but they sure as shite wouldn't call him hitler or a muslim or a fascist or yell 'you lie' on the floor to him (when he was giving a speech. HEY IT WASN'T A DEBATE AND HE IS THE PRESIDENT. ONE DOES NOT YELL IN THAT CIRCUMSTANCE. i wouldn't have even done it to king george. the fucker)




Elephant in the room: Race also present in rebuke of Wilson

By William Douglas | McClatchy Newspapers

WASHINGTON — In their effort to admonish Rep. Joe Wilson, both white and black lawmakers in the House of Representatives voiced deep concern over a string of what they think are racially motivated attacks on the nation's first black president.

"There's no question that if you look at some of the actions and comments being made, there's a fringe element that has staked out a racial position towards African-Americans that never has been open for public display" until now, said Rep. Henry Johnson, D-Ga., a member of the Congressional Black Caucus. Wilson "didn't help the cause of diversity and balance with his remarks."

The 240 to 179 vote Tuesday, largely along party lines, formally reprimanded Wilson, a South Carolina Republican, for shouting "You lie!" to President Barack Obama during his address last week to a joint session of Congress.

Wilson and the House GOP leadership protested, saying the measure was a diversionary tactic designed to deflect attention from the health care debate.............

watch the video

never in a million years, NEVER would i EVER imagine MY america to turn into this. NEVER. where are OUR voices? why aren't WE speaking up? telling the TRUTH

where were these people when king george and the big dick were interfering in all of our lives each and every way? why weren't they protesting THAT? being spied upon for example? lying about wmd for another example?

9/12 Protest: Here's What Fox News Didn't Broadcast
Posted by Max Blumenthal
While Fox News cameras covering the so-called 9.12 Project on the National Mall lurched away from signs morphing President Barack Obama's face into Adolph Hitler's, I zoomed in. Histrionics and manufactured paranoia were hard to avoid at the massive September 12 anti-Obama rally orchestrated by Fox News host Glenn Beck and former Republican House Majority Leader Dick Armey's corporate lobbying front group, Freedom Works.

When I dove into the angry mob with a camera, I captured scenes of self-proclaimed "real Americans" declaring that the community organizing group ACORN was Obama's version of Hitler's SS; that the President planned to establish concentration camps for right-wing dissidents; and that Obama was raising a private army in the guise of a civilian volunteer force. The death panel rumor is just one of a rapidly growing array of conspiracy theories reverberating through the Republican base. Each one is more hysterical than the last.
.......

my new hero is;

rep. pete stark (well for the rest of the week he is. he's done some things in the past i didn't care for, LIKE APOLOGIZE for something he NEVER DID THAT WAS WRONG). he won't listen to shite and neither should anyone with a brain. our health care system MUST be changed. our nation MUST change. we MUST NOT let ourselves be bullied simply because someone has a louder voice.

sure, i want to hear ALL sides AS LONG AS IT'S THE TRUTH

you go pete!

Rep. Stark: ‘I wouldn’t dignify you by peeing on your leg’

By David Edwards

Town halls are starting to look less like literal representations of democracy and more like so-ridiculous-it-has-to-be-scripted reality shows.

Congressman Pete Stark (D-CA) told a constituent at a recent town hall meeting that he wouldn’t “waste the urine” to pee on the man’s leg.

As the San Francisco Chronicle reports, and a video confirms, the man stood near the congressman and listed off what he felt were “smoke and mirrors” promises in the Obama administration’s healthcare reform proposal. At the close of his remarks, which he delivered in a civil tone, the constituent said: “Mr. Congressman, don’t pee on my leg and tell me it’s raining.”............

my question is

WHO paid them to sink the ships? what big big-nez did it? what country was responsible?

how can we clean it up now that it's done? if they've been sinking ships with toxic and hazardous waste on them for 20 years (give or take), holy shite! no wonder jeremy piven got 'mercury poisoning'.

Mafia sank boat with radioactive waste: official

Italian authorities have discovered a ship that was sunk by the mafia off the coast of southern Italy with 120 barrels of radioactive waste on board, a local prosecutor said.

The 110-metre (360-feet) long ship was found on Saturday 500 metres (1,640 feet) under water and around 28 kilometres (17 miles) from the coast of Calabria, Paola city prosecutor Bruno Giordano told AFP.

"For the moment, we do not know the origin of the waste, but it is probably from abroad. It is a first lead," he said..........

green porno is back!

with season 3

this is quite beautiful

i loved you in point blank BUT

i loved you even more (well HATED you, because of the character you played) in donnie darko

you did a lot of drek in your days BUT it paid the bills i'm guessing. you were capable of so much more and you DID get the chance now and again to show us.

you sure did show us how kick ass you were working on your last series, the beast

Patrick Swayze And Pangs Of Familiarity
by Linda Holmes

I was sixteen when Dirty Dancing came out. I had just started driving -- to the point where, the first time I went to see it with my friend Erin, we didn't get to see it because I locked my keys in the car at the theater with the car running. I was young; I was the target demographic. Somebody was always trying to put me in a corner. Sixteen feels like that.

So it may be an accident of timing that I was disproportionately attached to Patrick Swayze, whose death, while not at all unexpected, hits surprisingly hard. I could say I admired the way he kept working even after he was diagnosed with cancer, which is true. Or that I admired the fact that unlike a lot of famous actors, he stayed married to the same lady from 1975 until today, which is also true. Or that I admired the sense of humor about himself that he demonstrated in a famous sketch on Saturday Night Live where he and Chris Farley played aspiring Chippendales dancers -- that's true, too.............

'Dirty Dancing,' 'Ghost' Highlighted Film Career

By Adam Bernstein

Washington Post Staff Writer
Patrick Swayze, 57, an actor who enjoyed success in Hollywood as the snake-hipped charmer of "Dirty Dancing" and a romantic lead from beyond the grave in "Ghost," died Sept. 14, his publicist reported from Los Angeles. He had pancreatic cancer.

A former ballet and Broadway dancer, Mr. Swayze rarely received more than tepid reviews for his onscreen emotional range. But he found enduring mass approval for a handful of movie roles that took advantage of his muscular build, tousled hair and charismatic swagger.

Rita Kempley, a former Washington Post film critic, once described Mr. Swayze's appeal as "a cross of Brando and Balanchine. From the neck up, he looks like a guy who could fix your carburetor; from the neck down he has the body of an Olympian.".........

and guess what? no one puts baby in the corner!

watch it! (and i mean it)

here are a couple of not so very bright peeps

and their tweets

the first is eric (who has now protected his tweets, too bad he wasn't smart enough to protect them BEFORE threatening the president and others). he's a 21 year old in arizona (according to his twitter profile)

from gottalaff at the political carnival

the second one is from kathy frendling a real estate agent in i think florida. click on the link above to see her threats to the president of the united states of america posted at the political carnival

whoops seems like kathy is no longer on twitter at all. i hope her ass has been hauled off to gitmo for being a terrorist.

oh yeah, thank you too faux 'news'

keep keepin' these assholes INFROMED



via

scary mary

i just HAD TO
mary poppins from the books was NO julie andrews. she really WAS more like this one




via

wat chu talkin' 'bout willis?

and it is SHOCKING this was on faux 'news' and not another news network. but then again, faux is SO fair and balanced (my big fat ass it is)

Fox: Rep. Joe Wilson Talks 'You Lie!' and Health Care
From "Fox News Sunday"
CQ Transcriptswire

CHRIS WALLACE (host): Here now to talk about his outburst during President Obama's speech is South Carolina Republican Joe Wilson.

And, Congressman, welcome to "FOX News Sunday."

REP. JOE WILSON (R-S.C.): And, Chris, it's an honor to be with you, and I -- I just am grateful to be here.

WALLACE: Well, let's get right to it. House Democrats have changed their mind. They've decided that they are going to make you choose early this week -- either you formally apologize on the floor of the House to all of your colleagues for calling the president -- saying, "You lie," or they are going to formally discipline you.

What are you going to -- what are you going to do, sir?

WILSON: Chris, I'm a civil person. I believe on civility on the floor. Additionally, on Wednesday night, I had just completed town hall meetings, the largest congressional town hall meetings in the history of South Carolina -- 1,700 people in Colombia, 1,500 in Lexington, 1,500 in Beaufort, 1,200 in Hilton Head.

People were passionate. They do not want government control of health care. And so on Wednesday night I had what one of my sons said was a town hall moment. After the speech -- I stayed for the whole speech............

i'm sorry to see him go

he wasn't the greatest poet (or junkie or musician or punk) but he WAS important. he DID make a difference. he SHOULD be read and MUST be remembered



Jim Carroll, Poet and Punk Rocker Who Wrote ‘The Basketball Diaries’, Dies at 60
By WILLIAM GRIMES

Jim Carroll, the poet and punk rocker in the outlaw tradition of Rimbaud and Burroughs who chronicled his wild youth in “The Basketball Diaries,” died on Friday at his home in Manhattan. He was 60.

The cause was a heart attack, said Rosemary Carroll, his former wife.

As a teenage basketball star in the 1960s at Trinity, an elite private school on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, Mr. Carroll led a chaotic life that combined sports, drugs and poetry. This highly unusual combination lent a lurid appeal to “The Basketball Diaries,” the journal he kept during high school and published in 1978, by which time his poetry had already won him a cult reputation as the new Bob Dylan.

“I met him in 1970, and already he was pretty much universally recognized as the best poet of his generation,” the singer Patti Smith said in a telephone interview on Sunday. “The work was sophisticated and elegant. He had beauty.”......

oh yeah, get 'em up, move 'em out!

via

no words, except that it is happening right now

Child Bride, 12, Dies While Giving Birth

A 12-year-old child bride has died after struggling to give birth to a baby for three days, a human rights organisation in Yemen has said.

Fawziya Abdullah Youssef suffered severe bleeding while giving birth to a stillborn infant in Hodeida province, 140 miles (223km) west of the capital San'a, on Friday.

She was only 11 when her father married her to a 24-year-old man who works as a farmer in Saudi Arabia, according to Ahmed al Quraishi from the Siyaj organisation, which promotes the rights of children in Yemen.

He said he stumbled upon Fawziya in the al Zahra district hospital while investigating cases of youngsters who had fled from fighting in the north of the country.

"This is one of many cases that exist in Yemen," Mr al Quraishi said.

"The reason behind it is the lack of education and awareness, forcing many girls into marriage in this very early age.".......

via

what humiliation just for a lil'

frozen blueberry yogurt on a stick



via

a hero to our nation is dead

perhaps she would have died when she did anyway OR perhaps she died a bit prematurely because her INSURANCE COMPANY wouldn't cover her much needed meds

and who the f**k thinks we DO NOT NEED HELP with our health coverage (or lack thereof)???

tell me

Real ‘Norma Rae’ dead of cancer after battle with health insurer

By Daniel Tencer
Insurers’ delays are ‘almost … like murder,’ Sutton said

The woman whose life inspired the 1979 film Norma Rae has died of cancer after struggling with her health insurance company, which had delayed her treatment.

Crystal Lee Sutton was 68. She had struggled for several years with meningioma, a form of brain cancer.................

........

As Daily Kos blogger hissyspit points out, last year Sutton gave an interview to the press where she described a struggle with her health insurer over treatment. The Times-News in Burlington, North Carolina, wrote in 2008:

[Sutton] went two months without possible life-saving medications because her insurance wouldn’t cover it, another example of abusing the working poor, she said.

“How in the world can it take so long to find out (whether they would cover the medicine or not) when it could be a matter of life or death,” she said. “It is almost like, in a way, committing murder.”

She eventually received the medication, but the cancer is taking a toll on her strong will and solid frame............

and big bid-nez (in this case the coal companies)

get away with murder LITERALLY

this is 2009 america and we KNOW we're killing mother earth, yet we allow it to continue. not just that, we're allowing our CHILDREN to slowly be eaten away by toxins. i don't know obama's record on this type of thing but i know king george didn't give a flying f**k. he unsigned several agreements put into place (by clinton) to have big bid-nez be accountable for their actions.
the nyt has an EXTENSIVE article (linked below) on this. they also have done some comprehensive studies (links in the article itself). it is might impressive. (by state, then by city, then by violator then the number of violations and the fines. in connecticut there were NO fines levied)



Clean Water Laws Are Neglected, at a Cost to Health

By CHARLES DUHIGG

Jennifer Hall-Massey knows not to drink the tap water in her home near Charleston, W.Va.

In fact, her entire family tries to avoid any contact with the water. Her youngest son has scabs on his arms, legs and chest where the bathwater — polluted with lead, nickel and other heavy metals — caused painful rashes. Many of his brother’s teeth were capped to replace enamel that was eaten away.

Neighbors apply special lotions after showering because their skin burns. Tests show that their tap water contains arsenic, barium, lead, manganese and other chemicals at concentrations federal regulators say could contribute to cancer and damage the kidneys and nervous system.........

toxic waters

pic:

Damon Winter/The New York Times

Ryan Massey, 7, shows his caps. Dentists near Charleston, W.Va., say pollutants in drinking water have damaged residents’ teeth. Nationwide, polluters have violated the Clean Water Act more than 500,000 times.