ONTD: Politics

Woohoo!!!!

2011-07-20T19:08:01Z

Posted by: the_future_modernes

Madrid protesters force police to retreat in clashes over treatment of immigrants

Residents in multicultural district of Lavapiés inspired by 'indignant' protest movement

An escalating confrontation between police and residents in a Madrid neighbourhood who are incensed by the treatment of immigrants has seen locals driving police patrols from their streets.

Inspired by the "indignant" protest movement that camped out in Madrid's Puerta del Sol square in May, residents in the multicultural neighbourhood of Lavapiés have reacted to recent attempts to detain immigrants by jeering and chanting at police.

Police have twice had to call for reinforcements in riot gear so that arresting officers can leave safely.

About 200 protesters gathered after an immigrant texted to say that police were asking African residents for identity documents. In another incident a crowd formed to drive police out after they arrested a Senegalese immigrant in the metro. Police said they had been chasing a drug trafficker on one occasion and, on the other, had been called to arrest a man who failed to pay for his metro ticket.

But neighbours say police frequently hassle immigrants for no reason at all. "This is a reaction to the police's habit of illegally rounding up immigrants and checking people's papers on grounds of race," said Olmo Calvo, a photographer at Diagonal, a leftwing bi-monthly newspaper based in Lavapiés.

Spain's interior ministry denied ordering police to stop Africans and Latin Americans, or launch special immigrant roundups. But Lavapiés residents say that is not true. "Police controls have increased. Sometimes you get three or four police cars pulling up and they start stopping anyone who looks like an immigrant – mostly Africans or Latin Americans," said 32-year-old As, one of a group of Senegalese men gathered outside the Baobab restaurant. "Even if you have proper residency papers, like me, they start asking whether you have a job and things like that, which have nothing to do with them," he added.MORE

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Drudge makes Oak Park's "War on Veggies" go viral

2011-07-10T22:28:17Z

Posted by: neonvincent

Here's a story I've been following on my blog since July 30th, when I posted Oak Park Woman plants vegetable garden; city objects. In it, I summarized the situation.

the Bass family of Oak Park lost their lawn when the sewer line running under their front yard was replaced. Instead of replacing it with a lawn, they replaced it with a vegetable garden. Their neighbors complained to the city and the city has cited them with a criminal violation of city ordinances. The Basses and the city have a court date on July 26th.
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Mrs. Bass posted a more complete summary after I wrote (and she read) the above. Please read it.

( As someone familiar with the area, I'm not surprised this is happening in Oak Park. )

Beginning Friday, July 8th, the number of hits on that post began climbing dramatically. When I investigated how that happened, I found out that Drudge happened.

A couple of days ago, Matt Drudge placed a link to The Agitator's post on his front page with the headline "Woman faces 93 days in jail for planting garden in front yard..." Since then, the story has spread like wildfire. ( Here is a list of the media sources I've found covering this story with links to their articles )

As for how Drudge was indirectly responsible, he drove traffic to The Agitator, which drove traffic Julie Bass's blog OakParkHateVeggies, where she has a link to my post. Even from three steps away, Drudge increased my readership. Behold the power of Drudge.

In case you're wondering what you can do about it, there is a petition. 4,400 people signed it by Friday, less than a week after it was put up.

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Ireland: The Magdelene Women, the kyriarchial collusion of church and state.

2011-06-20T21:12:14Z

Posted by: the_future_modernes

Trigger warning for violence against women, including rape and beatings and starvation and torture

Ireland's Magdalene laundries scandal must be laid to rest

Church, family and state were all complicit in the abuse of thousands of women. The UN is right: Ireland must investigate

This week the United Nations Committee Against Torture (Uncat) issued a highly significant statement on the Magdalene laundries. It criticised the Irish government for refusing to acknowledge the pain and abuse suffered by women incarcerated in the laundries, the last of which closed in 1996, and called for a thorough investigation and compensation scheme. In doing so, the UN has focused international attention on what has become a festering injustice.

Ireland has experience of dealing with the sins of its past. A formal apology was issued by the Irish government in 1999 to the tens of thousands of victims of child abuse in the country's vast industrial (residential) school system, run by Catholic nuns, brothers and priests. An exhaustive statutory inquiry produced the damning Ryan report, and a redress scheme has now cost around £1bn.

There has, however, been a strange resistance to any official acceptance of the injustice suffered by the Magdalene women. The state has wriggled and squirmed, claiming that the laundries were private institutions and all the women entered voluntarily. Uncat has now firmly rejected this, confirming what we in Ireland have long known in our hearts. We knew that women who escaped were caught by the police and returned to the punitive and often brutal regime within the laundries. Generations of Irish people colluded in this, using the laundries when it suited them to clean their clothes and control their daughters. MORE

What justice for Ireland’s Magdalenes? Forced labour, now and then

( Read more... )

The Magdalene Women

( Read more... )

State apology is only way to express wrong done to Magdalenes

The Irish Times - Monday, June 20, 2011

MARY RAFFTERY

OPINION: Damning information on State’s links to the laundries pops up in surprising places

( Read more... )

(ii) Officials do few favours for Magdalenes

The Irish Times - Saturday, June 18, 2011

It is vital that the person appointed to chair the Magdalenes committee is a formidable character, writes PATSY McGARRY

( Read more... )

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UN recognizes LGBT RIGHTS:

2011-06-18T03:51:30Z

Posted by: the_future_modernes

United Nations recognises gay rights

ASHLEY HALL: The United Nations human rights body has passed an historic resolution declaring there should be no discrimination or violence against gay men and lesbians.

The local Gay and Lesbian Rights Lobby says the resolution will put more pressure on the Federal Government to accept gay marriage.

Sarah Dingle reports.

SARAH DINGLE: This is the first time the United Nations Human Rights Council has recognised the equal rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people.

The vote passed with 23 countries in favour and 19 against.

Justus Eisfeld is a co-director for Global Action for Transgender Equality in New York. He says it was a tight vote.

JUSTUS EISFELD: There's actually more than we had hoped for.

You have to understand, the UN is governed by all member states - 180-something of them, many of which are very conservative in their attitudes. And a lot of countries have a hard time even talking about sexual orientation or gender identity.

So having an extra resolution that is passed by a membership governed UN body is revolutionary because it means that actually more than half of the countries, in this case in the Human Rights Council, are actually willing to talk about the human rights abuses that lesbians, gay, bisexual and transgender people face.

SARAH DINGLE: He says the vote was presented by South Africa and that in its original form it didn't contain any reference to gender identity.

JUSTUS EISFELD: At first we were very sceptical of this whole process and of course we immediately started to talk to the South African government about our concerns.

Amazingly enough the South African government was really willing to look very seriously at our concerns and to remove them one by one.

SARAH DINGLE: Amongst the countries who supported this resolution were there any surprises?

JUSTUS EISFELD: Yes, a few surprises such as China abstaining, Burkina Faso abstaining, Zambia abstaining, which is huge because it means that they're breaking with the Union of African States and the hugest of them is Mauritius, which actually voted in favour of this resolution.

And that is amazing because it breaks the argument that Nigeria as a head of the African Group was putting forward that all of Africa would be against this, and this is clearly not the case. MORE

The US newspapers are all about patting Obama on the back for this and making the usual "see those Africans and Muslims are so much more homophobic than us!!!
parlance pointed this out to me, so I made an effort to find a source that pays more attention to the nuances of the fight. This is from Australia's ABC News. You should read the rest, its really interesting to see what impact this is going to have on Australia's fight to demand rights for the LGBTQIA community, especially on the subject of gay marriage.

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Mitt Romney is a Twilight fan

2011-06-02T05:54:02Z

Posted by: neonvincent

Gawker has the video clip from the Today Show

Mods, we need a "politician: mitt romney" tag

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Palin and Bachmann: best political frenemies

2011-05-31T03:12:41Z

Posted by: neonvincent

Full-sized original at Hysterical Raisins

National Journal: Bachmann, Palin Coverage Playing Out Like a Bad 'Bridesmaids' Scene
By Elspeth Reeve
May 27, 2011 | 1:51 p.m.
Updated: May 30, 2011 | 10:37 p.m.

Sarah Palin and Michele Bachmann are both Republicans. They both have the support of Tea Partiers. They both have a gift for starting political flame wars. They both have large families. They both are female. They both have shiny brown hair. They both might run for president. Since they both have so much in common, they obviously hate each other. Right?

Did you see Bridesmaids? There's a scene where the maid of honor (Kristen Wiig) and the wannabe maid of honor (Rose Byrne) battle to give a better toast to the bride-to-be. It's catty and pathetic and sort of makes you hate humanity--it's, you know, funny. A "well-placed observer" tells Politico's Ben Smith and Maggie Haberman that this is happening out on the campaign trail this very moment: "Every time Bachmann gets some press, Palin will get herself out there a little more," in reference to Palin's announcement of a multi-state bus tour Thursday being "not unconnected" to Bachmann's moves toward a 2012 candidacy. That very night, Bachmann pre-announced she would announce whether she's running for president in a speakerphone conference with reporters in Iowa.
( Bachmann and Palin may be political rivals. And they may even be concerned that the other poses a threat to their own political standing. (Obsessing over one's status is the defining characteristic of all politicans, male and female.) But reading through the coverage, this Bachmann-Palin narrative has a very familiar ring to it. )

The Politico article from which the above article quotes is here. It's three screens long, but well worth reading. Also, putting the "Oh no they didn't" into ontd_political.

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The Newer, Stronger Patriot Act: Change We Can Believe In

2011-05-28T18:11:24Z

Posted by: mistersandman

The U.S. Congress yesterday approved, and President Barack Obama signed into law, a four-year extension of provisions in the USA Patriot Act that allow law enforcement to track suspected terrorists with roving wiretaps.

The legislation was first passed by the Senate, 72-23, followed by the House, 250-153. Because Obama was in France for meetings of the Group of Eight nations, he directed that an autopen machine, which holds a pen and replicates his signature, be used to sign the bill, the White House said.

The bill was signed yesterday before a previous extension, approved by Congress in February, expired at midnight, the White House said. The new law continues the surveillance powers until June 1, 2015.

The measure "will safeguard us from future attacks," Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky said before his chamber's vote. "By extending this invaluable terror- fighting tool, we're staying ahead" of terrorists who want to attack the U.S., he said.

The bill's roving-wiretap section allows federal agents to obtain a single warrant to monitor telephone calls of suspects using a series of mobile phones.

Other provisions allow authorities to obtain business and library records, and to target so-called "lone wolf" suspects who aren't affiliated with any terrorist group.

Senator Rand Paul, a bill opponent, tried to delay the Senate vote, pressing for the bill to be amended. The Kentucky Republican said the legislation goes too far in violating privacy rights to keep the U.S. secure.

"Do we want a government that looks at our Visa bill?" he said in a May 24 floor speech. "Do we want a government that looks at all of our records and is finding out what our reading habits are?"

The Patriot Act was passed after the Sept. 11 attacks, and many of its provisions are permanent law. Some of its surveillance powers have been opposed by some lawmakers and outside groups, including civil liberties activists.

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I tried writing a letter to Obama describing my feelings on his decision but it came off as too venomous so I decided to post here instead. What the fuck, Obama? What was the point of all that talk about change and hope if you keep or strengthen the worst of your predecessor's policies?

The President doesn't want to appear weak on terror for the sake of the same howling ninnies who insist that he's a Nazi terrorist Islamic Christian socialist. There's no satisfying those people. It seems like Obama spends more time courting the people who hate him than satisfying the people who put him into office.

I took an environmental history class once and the professor (the spitting image of Clint Eastwood) growled, "I don't like Obama. He's too conservative for me." He got a few good laughs with that one, but I'm not laughing anymore. The worst part is, there's no viable alternative. I could vote for Jon Huntsman in 2012 to punish Obama, but as much as I like Huntsman, there's no way he'd ever repeal the Patriot Act. I thought the recent hit on bin Laden would make America feel safer and more confident, but it seems like it's only convinced Congress that the War on Terror is a really great idea that must be pursued vigorously.

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Openly gay clergy, and Joe Smith?

2011-05-11T22:24:56Z

Posted by: ironjeff

Presbyterian Church Lifts Ban On Gay And Lesbian Clergy

Presbyterian Church (USA), the nation’s largest Presbyterian organization, voted yesterday to overturn its ban on ordaining non-celibate gays and lesbians for church leadership positions, reversing more than three decades of official policy.

( yadda yadda yadda... )
While this is a “major change” in church policy, leaders will “still have to stand by basic tenets of our faith,” Ruark said. “What this does is, if the people of Minneapolis feel Joe Smith is right to lead this church they have the right to make this call,” even if “Joe Smith” is openly gay.
( blah, blah, blah... )
Source should really take a History of the United States class before assigning 'generic names' to religious figures.
The change in the church’s constitution will take effect July 10.

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China eases trade rules, allows U.S. fund sales

2011-05-11T15:30:29Z

Posted by: mistersandman

The pledges were made in two days of talks between the world's two biggest economies which ended with both sides hailing progress in their often tense relationship.

The difficulties in relations, particularly in human rights issues, were underscored by U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who described Beijing's rights record as "deplorable" in a magazine interview. China's current crackdown on dissent, she said, amounted to "a fool's errand".

But on economic matters, officials were upbeat after talks.

"We are seeing very promising shifts in the direction of Chinese economic policy," U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said.

The annual Strategic and Economic Dialogue yielded more results on economic issues than some analysts had expected, although many remained skeptical China's market-opening vows would translate into concrete benefits for U.S. business.

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When I first heard China call the United States out on some of its own problems with human rights and discrimination, I was euphoric. Finally, a superpower who can stand up to the United States! But it's clear to me now that this is the same situation as the Cold War, where both sides go back and forth calling each other names and things progress as usual, if not slower, just so one side doesn't lose face. Case in point, it looks like China's going to stand firm with this yuan reevaluation stuff for a while, because there's no way Xi Jinping is going to "back down" to the US within the first three years of his presidency.

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Boehner opens door to cutting U.S. oil tax breaks

2011-04-26T14:30:34Z

Posted by: mistersandman

Congress should consider cutting multibillion-dollar subsidies to oil companies amid rising concern over skyrocketing gas prices, House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner said on Monday.

"It's certainly something we should be looking at," Boehner said in an ABC News interview. "We're in a time when the federal government's short on revenues. They ought to be paying their fair share."

"Everybody wants to go after the oil companies and frankly, they've got some part of this to blame," he said.

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Yes. I never thought I'd hear this from John Boehner. About the oil, anyway. The sniping at Obama is pretty par for the course. Maybe now Pennsylvania will stop subsidizing its natural gas (even though it has a monopoly on the eastern seaboard) and put some money back into education?

SUGGESTED TAG: politician: john boehner

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China targets Change.org, screws up Amazon

2011-04-23T00:25:14Z

Posted by: neonvincent

Art Info: China Steps Up Its Cyberwar on Change.org

Apparently, now China is trying to shut down free speech outside its borders as well as within.

On Tuesday, we reported that the Web site Change.org, which is hosting a petition for the release of detained artist Ai Weiwei, stated that it was facing “highly sophisticated denial of service attacks from locations in China,” and that it was appealing to the U.S. State Department’s Bureau of East Asian Pacific Affairs for help. Well, the latest news is that the attacks haven’t stopped — they have only escalated, and the site says that it has engineers “working around the clock to fend off the attacks.” Below, find the complete text of Change.org’s message sent out to supporters today (in this case, our own ace associate editor Emma Allen) to update them on the situation:

( Email behind the cut )

As far as I can tell, Amazon.com hosts Change.org, along with a whole bunch of other sites. As a result, a whole bunch of domains are off-line, as documented in Amazon servers take down Reddit, Foursquare, and more. I tried to copy and paste the article, but LJ hiccoughed and wouldn't accept it. Darn.

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Audience and critics go Galt on "Atlas Shrugged, Part I"

2011-04-19T16:55:51Z

Posted by: neonvincent

Box Office Mojo: 'Atlas Shrugged' Derails?

Atlas Shrugged: Part I was the top-grossing limited release of the weekend, generating an estimated $1.7 million at 300 single-screen locations.

For a pure independent release, Atlas Shrugged: Part I's opening was fine. But for the first-ever adaptation of Ayn Rand's influential mega-selling 1957 novel that had far more media hype than any other independent movie could dream of, it was disappointing.

There aren't many direct comparisons, because it's rare that an adaptation of such a famous book gets such a modest release. Atlas Shrugged: Part I opened higher than recent limited Christian movies The Grace Card and To Save a Life, and it was distributor Rocky Mountain Pictures' third highest-grossing launch, behind End of the Spear and Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed. But none of those movies are significant in the grand scheme of things. They're all still blips, even if Atlas was a slightly bigger blip than many.

What's more, Atlas Shrugged: Part I's box office dropped six percent from Friday to Saturday, further indicating niche appeal. The movie would require exceptional holds moving forward to right its course.

Atlas Shrugged: Part I was reportedly produced for $10 million in a rush to retain the movie rights before they reverted back to Ayn Rand's estate, and its producers eschewed Hollywood (only one theater showed it in the Los Angeles area) after decades of failed attempts. Instead, they took a grass roots approach and tried to capitalize on the Tea Party movement, which was credited with the Republicans' landslide win in last November's election.

( The conservative media championed Atlas Shrugged Part I, and it received plenty of general coverage as well. It's also a topical movie, given the goings on in Washington (it was defiantly released on April 15, normally tax day), but topicality isn't necessarily a theatrical draw, especially when the core audience is already flush with the topic. )

The critics were not impressed. As The Nation noted in Rand Appalling: New 'Atlas Shrugged' Movie Booed Off Planet:

It takes a lot to get a 0% at the mass market critics' consensus site Rotten Tomatoes. Pick an awful movie you can think of and it probably managed a 5% or maybe even a 25%. Somehow, Atlas Shrugged, Part I (yes! more to look forward to!), which opens Friday, has at this writing achieved the rare feat.

In other words, not a single critic to date, from major and minor outlet, high or lowest of low of lowbrow, likes it one bit.

As of Monday, the movie had improved its rating to 8%, which still made it the lowest rated movie out of the top 50 in theaters.

The ratings didn't include this one from io9, Atlas Shrugged: A movie this demented ought to be against the law, which basically said it was so bad it's good.

Charlie Jane Anders — Every cult needs its own wacky trainwreck of a movie. Scientology got Battlefield Earth, and now the cult of Ayn Rand gets Atlas Shrugged, Part 1. But how does Atlas stand up to Battlefield Earth?

Quite well, actually. Atlas Shrugged Part 1, which just opened in theaters today, is a grand addition to the roster of movies that are both kooky and clunky. A movie this hideously wonderful really ought to be against the law.

I'm not sure that even Rotten Tomatoes would count that as a positive review.

I have more comments here.

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Glenn Beck Conspiracy Theory Generator!

2011-04-01T18:05:07Z

Posted by: mistersandman

http://politicalhumor.about.com/library/bl-glenn-beck-conspiracy.htm

Between his daily three hour broadcast of the Glenn Beck Show and his nightly hour on CNN's Headline News, you could spend 16% of your week listening to Glenn Beck. Don't.

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The New Jim Crow

2011-03-30T15:15:12Z

Posted by: mistersandman

“More African American men are in prison or jail, on probation or parole than were enslaved in 1850, before the Civil War began,” Michelle Alexander told a standing room only house at the Pasadena Main Library this past Wednesday, the first of many jarring points she made in a riveting presentation.

Alexander, currently a law professor at Ohio State, had been brought in to discuss her year-old bestseller, The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness. Interest ran so high beforehand that the organizers had to move the event to a location that could accommodate the eager attendees. That evening, more than 200 people braved the pouring rain and inevitable traffic jams to crowd into the library’s main room, with dozens more shuffled into an overflow room, and even more latecomers turned away altogether. Alexander and her topic had struck a nerve.

Growing crime rates over the past 30 years don’t explain the skyrocketing numbers of black — and increasingly brown — men caught in America’s prison system, according to Alexander, who clerked for Supreme Court Justice Harry Blackmun after attending Stanford Law. “In fact, crime rates have fluctuated over the years and are now at historical lows.”

( Read more... )

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1,500 protest US occupation in Iraq, Libya

2011-03-22T00:17:58Z

Posted by: mistersandman

Marking the 8th anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Iraq, protesters rallied Saturday against continued American involvement there in Chicago.

The protesters also spoke out against the U.S. military getting involved in Libya.

Their message is simple. They want U.S. military involvement in the Middle East to end.

"We cannot continue to spend billions of dollars on war," said protester Julie Harley.

Many peace activists in Chicago took to Michigan Avenue Saturday to mark the 8th anniversary of the U.S. war and occupation of Iraq.

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The 400 Richest Americans Are Now Richer Than the Bottom 50 Percent Combined

2011-03-15T02:32:40Z

Posted by: mistersandman

According to the most recent information, the Forbes 400 now have a greater net worth than the bottom 50% of U.S. households combined.

In 2009, the total net worth of the Forbes 400 was $1.27 trillion.

The best information now available shows that in 2009 the bottom 60% (yes, now it's 60%, not 50%) of U.S. households owned only 2.3% of total U.S. wealth.

Total U.S. household net worth -- rich, middle class and poor combined -- at the time the Forbes list came out was $53.15 trillion. So the bottom 60% of households possessed just $1.22 trillion of that $53.15 trillion, less than the Forbes 400.

Thus the Forbes 400 unquestionably have more wealth than the bottom 50%.

By contrast, in 2007 the bottom 50% of U.S. households owned slightly more wealth than the Forbes 400; the economic meltdown has hurt the bottom more than the top. (And in fact, in 2010 the net worth of the Forbes 400 jumped to $1.37 trillion.)

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That top 400, by the way, represents .0000035 percent of all households in the United States. And if you look at the Forbes 400, all of them are white and only three are women.

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Wisconsin Senate Majority Leader admits his union-busting agenda is intended to hurt Obama reelectio

2011-03-14T18:54:07Z

Posted by: treesahquiche

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Those underhanded bastards.

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Op-Ed: Fiddling While Libya Burns

2011-03-14T16:02:13Z

Posted by: mistersandman

PRESIDENT Obama says the noose is tightening around Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi. In fact, it is tightening around the Libyan rebels, as Colonel Qaddafi makes the most of the world’s dithering and steadily retakes rebel-held towns. The United States and Europe are temporizing on a no-flight zone while the Organization of the Islamic Conference, the Gulf Cooperation Council and now the Arab League have all called on the United Nations Security Council to authorize one. Opponents of a no-flight zone have put forth five main arguments, none of which, on close examination, hold up.

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The United States should immediately ask the Security Council to authorize a no-flight zone and make clear to Russia and China that if they block the resolution, the blood of the Libyan opposition will be on their hands. We should push them at least to abstain, and bring the issue to a vote as soon as possible. If we get a resolution, we should work with the Arab League to assemble an international coalition to impose the no-flight zone. If the Security Council fails to act, then we should recognize the opposition Libyan National Council as the legitimate government, as France has done, and work with the Arab League to give the council any assistance it requests.

Any use of force must be carefully and fully debated, but that debate has now been had. It’s been raging for a week, during which almost every Arab country has come on board calling for a no-flight zone and Colonel Qaddafi continues to gain ground. It is time to act.

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SUGGESTED TAGS:
country: libya

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NH Lawmaker Advocates Eugenics

2011-03-12T06:41:33Z

Posted by: mistersandman

Barrington Republican Martin Harty told Sharon Omand, a Strafford resident who manages a community mental health program, that “the world is too populated” and there are “too many defective people,” according to an e-mail account of the conversation by Omand. Asked what he meant, she said Harty clarified, “You know the mentally ill, the retarded, people with physical disabilities and drug addictions – the defective people society would be better off without.”

Harty confirmed to the Monitor that he made the comments to Omand. Harty told the Monitor the world population has increased dramatically, and “it’s a very dangerous situation if it doubles again.” Asked about people who are mentally ill, he asked, apparently referring to a lack of financial resources, “Can we afford to bring them through?”

Harty said nature has a way of “getting rid of stupid people,” and “now we’re saving everyone who gets born.”

Harty’s conversation with Omand became public at a hearing on the state budget yesterday when Laurie McCray, a registered nurse and board member of the Disability Rights Center, read Omand’s account to the House Finance Committee. Afterward, McCray said she wanted people to know about the representative – whom she did not identify publicly – because he “didn’t deserve to represent people in New Hampshire.”

In an interview and in an e-mail Omand sent to her friends, Omand said she called Harty, who represents her district, to tell him her concerns about the House Finance Committee’s proposed cuts to mental health services. Omand said Harty said he disagreed with her and made the comments about eugenics.

Omand says Harty then stated, “I wish we had a Siberia so we could ship them all off to freeze to death and die and clean up the population.”

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NPR CEO Resigns After VP Criticizes Tea Party

2011-03-10T01:15:00Z

Posted by: mistersandman

NPR's president and CEO resigned Wednesday in an effort to limit the damage from hidden camera footage of a fellow executive deriding the tea party movement as "seriously racist." Conservatives called the video proof that the network is biased and undeserving of federal funds.

NPR's board had pushed for the resignation of Vivian Schiller, whom conservatives also criticized in October for firing analyst Juan Williams over comments he made about Muslims. She was not in the video, which was posted Tuesday by a conservative activist, but she told The Associated Press that staying on would only hurt NPR's fight for federal money.

"We took a reputational hit around the Juan Williams incident, and this was another blow to NPR's reputation. There's no question," she said.

The timing of the video was exceptionally bad from NPR's perspective, with Republicans in the new House majority looking to cut all federal funding of public radio and television. Public broadcasting officials say that would force some stations to fold.

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This is some bullshit.

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Outcome of Jasmine Protests Unsatisfying

2011-02-27T07:05:36Z

Posted by: mistersandman

If organizers planned big protests in China to echo those in the Mideast and North Africa, they failed.

On Saturday microbloggers passed around tweets calling for protests at 2 p.m. (0600 GMT) Sunday in a dozen major Chinese cities, including Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou. But no specific place was cited until several hours beforehand.

In Beijing, the place was supposed to be in Wangfujing, a typically busy shopping street less than a kilometer from Tiananmen Square.

Wangfujing may have been a perfect place to trigger a mass action. The four-lane street is a designated pedestrian street, with thousands of people walking there at any given business hour; no cars and buses are allowed. For decades it has been a favorite shopping district, especially for out-of-town Chinese and foreign tourists. (Locals prefer to shop elsewhere.)

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Twitter, Facebook and You Tube are regularly blocked in China, even though savvier internet users could overcome the firewall with a VPN, or virtual private network. The popular Sina Weibo microblogging service is erratic, with retweeting and the posting of photos blocked.

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Success or no, in the wake of the protests, the Chinese government blocked the word "jasmine" from all search engines. I'd say that's definitely a Pyrrhic victory at the very least. The next protest should be the Harmonious Society Protest. That would really throw the government for a loop! :D

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Military chaplain: Soldier’s rape ‘must have been God’s will’

2011-02-21T15:09:50Z

Posted by: mistersandman

WASHINGTON – A lawsuit targeting the Pentagon contains an astonishing anecdote about a retired Sergeant's experience after being sexually assaulted by a colleague during a deployment to Afghanistan.

The lawsuit, available here, was filed by 17 military women against Secretaries of Defense Robert Gates and Donald Rumsfeld in Virginia. It assails "the military's repeated failures to take action in rape cases created a culture where violence against women was tolerated, violating the plaintiffs' Constitutional rights."

Sergeant Rebekah Havrilla alleges in the complaint that in 2006, after her military supervisor repeatedly sexually harassed her, she was raped by a colleague she was working with at the time.

"He pulled her into his bed, held her down, and raped her. He also photographed the rape," it reads. Havrilla reported the incident within a month.

In February 2009, she reported for active duty training and, upon seeing her rapist, went into shock.

"She immediately sought the assistance of the military chaplain," the lawsuit reads. "When SGT Havrilla met with the military chaplain, he told her that 'it must have been God's will for her to be raped' and recommended that she attend church more frequently."

The complains adds that "SGT Havrilla suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder and chronic depression."

Havrilla's harrowing story, and the broader lawsuit, sheds light on the ongoing and widely reported problem of sexual assault in the military.

Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell said it was "a command priority" to "ensure all of our service members are safe from abuse" and pledged to commit more resources to the goal.

"Sexual assault is a wider societal problem and Secretary Gates has been working with the service chiefs to make sure the U.S. military is doing all it can to prevent and respond to it," Morrell told NBC News.

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Meet Mr. Clean - China's Future Leader

2011-02-20T08:32:30Z

Posted by: mistersandman

What does the United States make of Xi Jinping, the man widely expected to take over from Hu Jintao late next year and lead China for the next five or 10 years?

An unpublished WikiLeaks batch of U.S. diplomatic cables portrays the 57-year-old Xi as untainted by corruption -- he is referred to as "Mr Clean" -- and disdainful of China's nouveau riche and consumer culture.

He is also depicted as an elitist who believes that the offspring of Maoist revolutionaries are the rightful rulers of China. His father was a major Communist leader who fought alongside Mao Zedong and helped implement Deng Xiaoping's economic reforms.

On human rights, the cables leave the question open. They note that Xi's father was critical of the military crackdown against Tiananmen Square protesters in 1989 and that the Dalai Lama had "great affection" for the elder Xi.

The cables, which Reuters obtained through a third party, trace Xi's rapid rise from provincial official to national leader, covering a period from October 2006 to February 2010. They are based on conversations with numerous Chinese sources -- scholars, senior journalists, businessmen, relatives or friends of senior officials and the occasional government official.

There are very few fly-on-the-wall accounts of meetings with Xi or other top leaders, and none since he rose to national-level power in October 2007. Perhaps the most fascinating aspect of this cache of roughly 1,000 pages of cables is the window they provide into official U.S. efforts to size up Xi, the likely next leader of the world's most populous country, second largest economy and America's most important -- and complicated -- bilateral relationship.

What emerges is not a coherent biography. Rather, the documents contain granular details -- Xi likes Hollywood World War II movies for their "grand and truthful" tales of good versus evil, and wishes Chinese films would promote such values -- that the diplomats offer as potential insights into his character.

Aside from basic biographical information and background included to provide necessary context, this report relies solely on the content of the cables.

( Read more... )

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I don't know about any of you, but none of that inspires confidence.

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Positive Start for Post-Mubarak Egypt!

2011-02-13T21:24:05Z

Posted by: mistersandman

It is still very early, but day one of the post-Mubarak Egypt has already yielded some positive signs for the future of the country and the Middle East. Those who are fearful of the revolution have said that the country could fall into the hands of radical Islamists and that Israel may be threatened by the new government of Egypt. However, according to early reports some of these fears may have been overblown.

In place of the Mubarak regime the Supreme Council of the armed forces has been put in power. Today the Supreme Council announced that they intend to honor all of Egypt's international treaties, including the 1979 treaty with Israel. The Egyptian-Israeli treaty is considered a key piece in maintaining what little stability remains in the Middle East. Israeli Primi Minister Benjamin Netanyahu welcomed the announcement from Egypt's military saying,

"The long-standing peace treaty between Israel and Egypt has greatly contributed to both countries and is the cornerstone for peace and stability in the entire Middle East."

In addition to this positive news, the Muslim Brotherhood has announced that they will not seek the presidency in Egypt in the next election. Conservative commentators have warned that the revolution in Egypt would allow the Brotherhood, considered a threat by some, to take over the country. However, in the following statement the Muslim Brotherhood announce their intention to abide by the temporary military government and not to seek the highest office in the Egypt,

"The Muslim Brotherhood ... are not seeking personal gains, so they announce they will not run for the presidency and will not seek to get a majority in the parliament and that they consider themselves servants of these decent people. We support and value the sound direction that the Higher Military Council is taking on the way to transfer power peacefully to create a civilian government in line with the will of the people."

Finally, many critics were concerned that the military in Egypt would try to stay in power permanently rather than handing over control to a civilian authority. Today the Egyptian military tried to allay those concerns by releasing a statement saying they are "looking forward to a peaceful transition, for a free democratic system, to permit an elected civil authority to be in charge of the country, to build a democratic free nation."

Of course, actions ultimately mean a lot more than words. The best test of the Egypt's democracy will be time, not statements released by various parties. Still, the initial steps of the new government in Egypt have to be at least a bit heartening to those who hope for the best.

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Newt Gingrich: EPA Should Be Scrapped

2011-02-10T21:43:48Z

Posted by: mistersandman

WASHINGTON — Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich is criticizing President Barack Obama's policies as a "war on American energy."

Gingrich, who is weighing a bid to challenge Obama in 2012, used an appearance Thursday at a conservative meeting to pitch his own energy alternative. Gingrich says a revised energy policy could help create jobs and increase national security.

He told the Conservative Political Action Conference, the unofficial start to the 2012 White House campaign, that he would scrap the Environmental Protection Agency and its regulations and replace it with an Environmental Solutions Agency that rewards innovation.

Gingrich warned that hundreds of thousands of jobs are in danger if Obama is allowed to continue his environmental policies.

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