it's the women

it's always the women (and children). they usually don't fight back. they are easy targets. you hurt a woman and  you hurt her entire family. this time it's in africa. it has happened everywhere though. it IS happening everywhere though. skin color has nothing to do with this. it's greed and it's evil and it's power hungry and it's madness. it's the evil that men do

In a Guinea Seized by Violence, Women as Prey
By ADAM NOSSITER
CONAKRY, Guinea — Cellphone snapshots, ugly and hard to refute, are circulating here and feeding rage: they show that women were the particular targets of the Guinean soldiers who suppressed a political demonstration at a stadium here last week, with victims and witnesses describing rapes, beatings and acts of intentional humiliation.

“I can’t sleep at night, after what I saw,” said one middle-aged woman from an established family here, who said she had been beaten and sexually molested. “And I am afraid. I saw lots of women raped, and lots of dead.”

One photograph shows a naked woman lying on muddy ground, her legs up in the air, a man in military fatigues in front of her. In a second picture a soldier in a red beret is pulling the clothes off a distraught-looking woman half-lying, half-sitting on muddy ground. In a third a mostly nude woman lying on the ground is pulling on her trousers...........

monday morning michele (bachmann that is) humor

maybe she AND glenn beck can take their act on the road. why they're a regular martin and lewis! who knew?

Right fears secret abortions for 13-year-olds in reform

By Alex Koppelman

Wednesday night brought the latest installment of everyone's favorite political drama: "Michele Bachmann tries to warn Americans about a threat that isn't real." Speaking on the floor of the House of Representatives, the Minnesota Republican warned parents everywhere that if Democrats' healthcare reform legislation passes, school clinics will become controlled by Planned Parenthood and turned into sex clinics that promote abortions free of parental consent for 13-year-old girls (video of Bachmann's comments is below).

Bachmann said:

And written in this bill is a provision whereby Planned Parenthood could become a proprietor for school-based clinics in every school across United States. These have been more accurately called school sex clinics ... And as a matter of fact, the bill goes on to say what's going to go on -- comprehensive primary health services, physicals, treatment of minor acute medical conditions, referrals to follow-up for specialty care -- is that abortion? Does that mean that someone's 13 year-old daughter could walk into a sex clinic, have a pregnancy test done, be taken away to the local Planned Parenthood abortion clinic, have their abortion, be back and go home on the school bus that night? Mom and dad are never the wiser...

in the street, 1948

via wooster collective

the REAL story

this is also from

bifurcated rivets

it's so cool AND so creepy at the same time

soudainement tout le monde etait ecrasser par un camion

via

i read the headline

and thought it was some sort of spoof. however, after reading the (short) article, i guess it's possible ahmadinejad WAS born a jew. how weird (i can't think of another word but weird really doesn't do it) if it were true

Report: Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was born a Jew

By Stephen C. Webster
In a stunning report on Saturday, a British newspaper claimed to have uncovered proof that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad -- notorious among the international community for denying the holocaust -- was actually born a Jew.

According to The Telegraph, a high resolution photograph of Ahmadinejad holding up his Iranian identity card, taken just before the 2008 election, reveals that his family changed its name shortly after he was born, renouncing their Jewish faith and adopting Islam.............

roger ebert writes a mean column (by mean i mean insightful)

and NO, it's NOT about a movie (i wish it WAS just a movie)

The anger of the festering fringe
By

Roger Ebert

I've had these thoughts for some time, but have been reluctant to express them. Now so many others have voiced them that it's pointless to remain silent. I am frightened by the climate of insane anti-Obama hatred in this country. I'm not referring to traditional conservatives or Republicans. They're part of the process. I'm speaking of the lunatic fringe, the frothers, the extremist rabble who are sweeping up the ignorant and credulous into a bewildering and fearsome tide of reckless rhetoric.

There have always been nuts. Remember when the John Birch society thought Kennedy was a communist? In those innocent days most of the American people were reasonable. They'd shake their heads in wonder at such a weird notion. Kennedy might be one of those liberals, but he wasn't a commie. And when people said Johnson murdered Kennedy? Also ridiculous. But slowly, ominously, things began to change. After his death, it was said that Edward Kennedy was a Soviet agent. These theories have rabid subscribers.

Obama is a Muslim. Obama was born in Kenya. Obama was a terrorist. Obama will destroy Medicare. Obama will kill your grandmother. Obama is a racist. Obama wants atheism taught in the schools. Obama wants us to pay for the health care of illegal immigrants.............

via

here's the deal

from what i understand it is NOT sexual harassment unless one of the parties was unwilling, felt their person or their job was threatened, or in some way shape or form, had no choice in the matter.


i have railed against politicians and clergy for having affairs. NOT because of the affair per se, BUT because these very same clergy and politicians have spoken out against same sex marriage, homosexuality, other religions, comprehensive sex education, women AND/OR spoken of the SANCTITY OF MARRIAGE. i don't give a flying yoo hoo, who boinks who, when how or why (in general of course. there are exceptions). i DO give a flying yoo hoo about the holier than thou preachers and conservative evangelicals (of EVERY religion) who judge others but are fucking everything in sight.

that said, letterman's affair(s) don't bother me in the least. he has never said he's better than anyone else. he's never said god said no birth control. god said women are a lesser being. god said no same sex marriage. god said this or god said that. letterman is one of us. no better no worse.

there IS no issue unless as i said, the woman/women who he 'was with' didn't want to be WITH HIM.

that all said, i do have to admit i've always loved letterman. never liked carson, never liked leno and i sure as shite can't stand conan (he just creeps me out). letterman can be silly but he is THE most innovative, witty and cerebral one out there

Letterman Extortion Case Raises Questions for CBS
By BILL CARTER and BRIAN STELTER

If this happened to anyone else, it would just be a punch line.

David Letterman, who built his career skewering philandering politicians and show business “weasels” and “boneheads,” finds himself in the middle of his own celebrity scandal, after he admitted having multiple affairs with employees of his production company, Worldwide Pants.

For the intensely private Mr. Letterman, the revelations, which resulted from a bizarre extortion attempt, are sure to be extremely embarrassing, especially as he tries to extend his lead in the late-night contest. ”I have had sex with women who work for me on this show,” he told his audience on Thursday night, calling himself “creepy.” He added that he hoped “to protect my job.”

More seriously, they raised questions for both his company and CBS about whether his actions constituted sexual harassment or at least abuse of a power relationship over employees. .........

don't those silly indians know

life isn't complete for the rest of us without a $23,000 (yes, i said $23,000) pen? they really ARE silly!

worst idea of the year? the fucking $23,000 montblanc gandhi pen. what assholes

fail


Montblanc's Gandhi Pen Prompts Howls in India

By Emily Wax

Washington Post Foreign Service

NEW DELHI, Oct. 2 -- Images of Mohandas K. Gandhi, father of modern India and icon of asceticism and nonviolence, have ended up in some unlikely places before, from ads selling Apple computers to counter-culture T-shirts.

But it's fair to say that the latest incarnation may be the most ironic: Gandhi, in his signature loincloth, hawking a $23,000 fountain pen named in his honor.

The Montblanc pen, unveiled for the celebration of what would have been Gandhi's 140th birthday on Friday, has prompted howls from Hindu groups and Gandhists who say the sticker price is the lifetime income of many of India's poor. The limited-edition fountain pen in 18-carat solid gold is engraved with Gandhi's image and tricked out with a saffron-colored mandarin garnet on the clip and a rhodium-plated nib........

Special correspondent Ayesha Manocha contributed to this report.

who put the douche in douchebag?

why, glenn beck that's who!

oh my goddess, check out

the A M A Z I N G horror photography work of joshua hoffine

i am in love with his work
via

when will they get it through their thick skulls ABSTINENCE ONLY 'EDUCATION' DOESN'T EFFING WORK? it's been proven (just ask the palins). not only does it result in pregnancies, but i'm sure it increases (by a LOT) the risk of stds (including AIDS).


shame shame shame on you kent conrad and blanche lincoln
An Abstinence-Only Approach to Healthcare Reform: Republicans & Blue Dogs Vote to Waste $50 Million a Year to Lie to Students

BUZZFLASH NEWS ANALYSIS
by Meg White

Instead of working on a healthcare plan that uses funding wisely, the Senate Finance Committee showed its proclivity for wasting taxpayer money in order to prop up flagging conservative ideology this week.

Not only have they refused to embrace measures that would cut the costs of healthcare while expanding coverage (public option, single payer, closing the donut hole), conservative committee members voted to spend $50 million a year on a program that has proved not only that it does not work, but it does the opposite of what it is supposed to do.

Working late into the evening on amendments to the proposed America's Healthy Future Act Tuesday, the Finance Committee took the time to undermine President Obama's request that the $50 million a year that goes to support state programs offering abstinence-only education in public schools be redirected to a program that offers a more comprehensive approach. The amendment reinstating abstinence-only education funding was presented by Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT), but it got two crucial votes from Blue Dog Democrats on the committee, Kent Conrad of North Dakota and Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas, passing by a narrow 12-11...........

stray sent this article link to me.

this is not shocking (well not shocking in that it shouldn't be a SURPRISE to us. it still is shocking that we allow this to happen. we allow big bid-nez to ply our politicians with goddess only knows what, so they'll vote in their favor. it's GOT to stop. lobbying all together).

our health care system MUST be changed and it MUST be changed now. there is no reason for it NOT to change EXCEPT a few good ol' whiteboyz will have less gold in their purses.

why do a great many americans except the lies that are out there now?

it's time for not only the democrats but barack obama to grow some stones.

Revealed: millions spent by lobby firms fighting Obama health reforms
Six lobbyists for every member of Congress as healthcare industry heaps cash on politicians to water down legislation
Chris McGreal

America's healthcare industry has spent hundreds of millions of dollars to block the introduction of public medical insurance and stall other reforms promised by Barack Obama. The campaign against the president has been waged in part through substantial donations to key politicians.

Supporters of radical reform of healthcare say legislation emerging from the US Senate reflects the financial power of vested interests ‑ principally insurance companies, pharmaceutical firms and hospitals ‑ that have worked to stop far-reaching changes threatening their profits.

The industry and interest groups have spent $380m (£238m) in recent months influencing healthcare legislation through lobbying, advertising and in direct political contributions to members of Congress. The largest contribution, totalling close to $1.5m, has gone to the chairman of the senate committee drafting the new law........

I SAY ENOUGH!!!!

Watchdogs: Health industry giving more to Congress than thought
By Daniel Tencer

A joint study by two political watchdog groups has found that Sen. Max Baucus -- the Montana Democrat who authored the principal health care reform bill being debated in the Senate -- was a major recipient of "contribution clusters" from lobbyists linked to health care groups.

The study, from the Center for Responsive Politics and the Sunlight Foundation, says members of Congress working on health care reform are receiving more money from the health industry than people realize.......

sometimes i think we are de-evolving

U.S. Requests to Remove Books from Libraries, 2007-2009

and if you go to the map here and click on the markers, the banned book name will come up, the story behind it comes up and if a decision has been made or not comes up

yet another person behind the shite-attacks

not that it matters if rick scott discriminated or not. the people he's preaching to ARE in fact (mostly) racists and/or id-jits any damn way

make NO mistakes. the good ol' boyz backing this shite are ONLY in it for one thing. that one thing is not to protect or help out the american public by a long shot. they're in it to line their pockets babies. that's it


A healthcare reform foe's alleged history of discrimination

Plaintiffs claim conservative activist Rick Scott had strange criteria about who could work in his clinics

Editor's note: Research support was provided by the Investigative Fund at the Nation Institute. This is Part 2 of a two-part series. Read Part 1 here.

By Tristram Korten

Oct. 1, 2009 | This summer, St. Petersburg, Fla., neurosurgeon David McKalip caught heat for sending an e-mail depicting President Obama as a witch doctor with a bone through his nose. McKalip, a neurosurgeon and founder of the anti-healthcare reform group Doctors for Patient Freedom, sent the photo to a conservative listserv with a note saying "Funny stuff" and the caption "Obamacare – Coming soon to a clinic near you." The C in Obamacare was a hammer and sickle.

Given that racial unease has bubbled under much of the right-wing opposition to Obama's political agenda, it's not surprising that it should surface in the online joshings of a healthcare reform foe, even one as respectable as Dr. McKalip, a member of the American Medical Association's House of Delegates and president of the Pinellas County Medical Association. (McKalip resigned from the local post, took a leave of absence from his AMA position in the wake of the e-mail, apologized profusely and withdrew from a public role in the anti-reform movement.) But a Salon investigation of a far more prominent healthcare foe has found allegations of discrimination that go beyond a tasteless e-mail. Plaintiffs have charged that the healthcare company owned by Rick Scott, who continues his multimillion-dollar, self-funded campaign against reform, practiced hiring discrimination based on ethnicity and appearance.

After six months and lots of money, Scott, founder of Conservatives for Patients' Rights (and an ally of McKalip), has finally seen the fruits of his multimillion-dollar campaign against reform. Scott, a millionaire healthcare entrepreneur, predicted that when Congress reconvened this September the public option would be dead. "While Victory is near, we must not rest," Scott crowed on CPR's Web site. Scott himself never rested. He met with lawmakers, coordinated conference calls with conservative activists, wrote opinion pieces and spoke to the faithful about the evils of socialized medicine. Conservatives for Patients' Rights targeted elected officials in 11 states with TV ads hoping constituents would pressure the lawmakers to oppose proposed changes. Sure enough, when the public option failed in the Senate Finance Committee Tuesday, Scott took credit in this video..........

pic:

Salon composite/YouTube screenshot

Rick Scott (left) talks about Solantic to Texas Rep. Michael Burgess, chairman of the Congressional Health Care Caucus.

yes, it's 2009

nothing to look at here. keep moving. keep moving. i don't read him so i don't know what other pearls of wisdom he has dispensed in the past.

National Review’s John Derbyshire: Women Should Not Have The Right To Vote

John Derbyshire, a British-American conservative author and columnist for the National Review, has written a new book titled We Are Doomed: Reclaiming Conservative Pessimism. The book contains a section called “The Case Against Female Suffrage.” Yesterday on his radio show, Alan Colmes asked Derbyshire to articulate his argument.

“What is the case against female suffrage?” Colmes asked. “The conservative case against it is that women lean hard to the left,” Derbyshire responded nonsensically. “They want someone to nurture, they want someone to help raise their kids, and if men aren’t inclined to do it — and in the present days, they’re not much — then they’d like the state to do it for them.”

Colmes then pressed Derbyshire on whether women should have the right to vote. “Ah…” Derbyshire sighed, attempting to dodge the question initially. “I’m not putting forward a political program here,” he said. But then Derbyshire slowly began to open up:....................

within the past couple of weeks i (coincidentially) read

the story about cameron willingham, his life, the crime they alleged he committed and his death. it was eye opening. texas very well could have executed an innocent man (how many others one wonders?)

one would think the governor would WANT to find out if an innocent man was put to death or not. i guess the governor of texas doesn't want to find out at all.

then again doesn't texas kill more people than any other state?

where are the watchdog agencies now? where are they when people's rights and our court system are at stake?

it's an ap article so i can't print any of it.

what it says though is gov perry of texas dismissed three people from the tx forensic commission who were investigating the arson (and subsequent conviction and execution of) cameron todd willingham.

it appears a REAL arson investigator was hired AFTER the initial conviction (based on what appears to be SHITE forensic evidence of a couple of good ol' boy tx sheriff types who really were NOT trained in arson investigation) named craig beyler. he found many many many holes in the story. i believe he came out and said he didn't think willingham did it.


Texas governor stops review of possible wrongful execution
AP

and here's the article i read a couple of weeks ago from the new yorker. it's long but man, how can we be capable of executing an innocent man? what is a ZILLION times worse is; us letting the governor of texas BURY IT (so to speak)

Trial by Fire

Did Texas execute an innocent man?

by

The fire moved quickly through the house, a one-story wood-frame structure in a working-class neighborhood of Corsicana, in northeast Texas. Flames spread along the walls, bursting through doorways, blistering paint and tiles and furniture. Smoke pressed against the ceiling, then banked downward, seeping into each room and through crevices in the windows, staining the morning sky.

Buffie Barbee, who was eleven years old and lived two houses down, was playing in her back yard when she smelled the smoke. She ran inside and told her mother, Diane, and they hurried up the street; that’s when they saw the smoldering house and Cameron Todd Willingham standing on the front porch, wearing only a pair of jeans, his chest blackened with soot, his hair and eyelids singed. He was screaming, “My babies are burning up!” His children—Karmon and Kameron, who were one-year-old twin girls, and two-year-old Amber—were trapped inside.

Willingham told the Barbees to call the Fire Department, and while Diane raced down the street to get help he found a stick and broke the children’s bedroom window. Fire lashed through the hole. He broke another window; flames burst through it, too, and he retreated into the yard, kneeling in front of the house. A neighbor later told police that Willingham intermittently cried, “My babies!” then fell silent, as if he had “blocked the fire out of his mind.”

Diane Barbee, returning to the scene, could feel intense heat radiating off the house. Moments later, the five windows of the children’s room exploded and flames “blew out,” as Barbee put it. Within minutes, the first firemen had arrived, and Willingham approached them, shouting that his children were in their bedroom, where the flames were thickest. A fireman sent word over his radio for rescue teams to “step on it.”..........

hey rep grayson, i don't know anything about you

but if you're ever in my hood, i'd love to buy you a coffee (or a beverage of your choice). dang i like the cut of your jib

perhaps we can open our wallets and show this man we like his 'apology' (and his brass ones as well)




Grayson on 'die quickly' quip: 'I apologize to the dead'
By Daniel Tencer

US House Rep. Tom Price, the Georgia Republican who introduced a motion to condemn Democratic Rep. Alan Grayson for saying that the Republican health care plan amounts to hoping that the sick "die quickly," said he would withdraw the motion to give Rep. Grayson (D-FL) a chance to apologize.

Well, Grayson has apologized -- just not to the Republicans he offended.

"I apologize to the dead and their families that we haven't voted sooner to end this holocaust in America," a defiant Grayson said on the House floor Wednesday.

The "holocaust" Grayson was referring to was the 44,000 Americans that a recent study says die each year because of inadequate access to health care. The representative cited the Harvard study (PDF) in what appeared at first to be an apology, but quickly turned into a retort.

The number of dead "is 10 times more than the number of Americans who have died in Iraq and who died in 9/11," Grayson said. "But that was just once. This is every single year. That's right. Every single year.".............

who are they really

and what do they want REALLY? where does a firm which JUST sprang from NOWHERE come up with tens of millions of dollars?

are they xe? xe says no. what do YOU say?

Reports: Mysterious, unregistered security firm policing Montana town

Associated Press Writer Amy Taxin contributed to this story from Santa Ana.

APF & Hardin Constitution Violations

By Nick Lough\

BILLINGS - A Livingston state representative is questioning whether Hardin officials and American Police Force have violated the Montana constitution.

Representative Robert Ebinger says he became aware of the situation after Cascade and Park County law enforcement officials came to him asking questions about APF.

"Well right now I'm confused," said Ebinger and that confusion led the representative to ask for action Tuesday when the Law and Justice Committee met in Helena.

"My suggestion was for them to come to our December 18th meeting," said Ebinger. The committee decided that wasn't necessary and instead will be sending a letter to Hardin officials looking for answers............

Mysterious Private Security Firm Gets Control Of Empty Jail In Small Montana Town

Justin Elliott

A shadowy private security company that has no known clients but claims to have helped foreign governments combat terrorism and will protect anything from cruise ships to Pakistani convoys has taken over a jail in a small Montana town, with plans to build a law enforcement training facility on the property.

The state legislature is looking into the matter and residents of Hardin, MT, were alarmed last week when executives from the firm, American Police Force, showed up in the town, which does not have its own police department, with Mercedes SUVs bearing "City Of Hardin Police Department" decals.

And the town has had to tamp down reports on conspiracy Web sites that APF plans to impose experimental H1N1 vaccines on residents under threat of quarantine in the jail.

Under a lease signed with Hardin, APF, based in Santa Ana, California, and incorporated just six months ago, is now in control of a 400-bed detention facility the town built a few years ago but never used, a town official confirmed to TPMmuckraker today. The town reportedly stands to make over $2 million per year.

Just what American Police Force plans to do with the detention facility, which comes with 50 acres of land in the small south-central Montana town, is unclear. Also not clear is who, if anyone, APF plans to put in the jail. (Watch a video tour of the jail here.)

Hardin, which is in default on the bonds it used to build the jail, recently undertook an unsuccessful campaign to make the jail a new home for Gitmo detainees. When that failed, the town turned to APF............