The Siege of Planned Parenthood
By GAIL COLLINS
Published: February 4, 2011
Maybe it’s all part of a grand theme. Last month, they voted to repeal the health care law. This month, they’re going after an organization that provides millions of women with both family-planning services and basic health medical care, like pap smears and screening for diabetes, breast cancer, cervical cancer and sexually transmitted diseases
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/05/opinion/05collins.html?_r=1&ref=opinion
Five myths about Ronald Reagan's legacy
By Will Bunch
Friday, February 4, 2011
On Sunday, America celebrates the 100th birthday of Ronald Reagan, whose presidency is a touchstone for the modern conservative movement. In 2011, it is virtually impossible for a major Republican politician to succeed without citing Reagan as a role model. But much of what today's voters think they know about the 40th president is more myth than reality, misconceptions resulting from the passage of time or from calculated attempts to rebuild or remake Reagan's legacy.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/story/2011/02/04/ST2011020403674.html?hpid=topnews
(Reuters) - Former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin's bid to trademark her name and that of her daughter, Bristol, ran into trouble at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office because the application forms were unsigned, government records show.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/02/04/us-palin-trademark-idUSTRE7135WI20110204?pageNumber=2
The news today tells us that we have not traveled far from the collective idiocy that led us to elect Reagan in 1980. He was never more than an actor playing the role his handlers scripted for him. He chose to ignore the outbreak of HIV/AIDS, to discharge thousands of mentally ill &/or mentally disabled from institution by dumping them onto the streets. In his terms we find the beginnings of Islamic terrorism, dealings with Iran carried on illegally, invasion of a small Caribbean island for no real purpose, and the savings & loan scandal that followed deregulation and led to the current monetary problems plaguing the U.S.
For those accomplishments the small portion of the GOP not trying to hand the nation over to our own breed of Taliban are trying to hang his name on anything that doesn’t move fast enough to escape the indignity.
Meanwhile, Palin, imagining herself to be his successor has demonstrate her mental acuity by failing to sign legal documents intended to allow her to sue anyone using her name in any manner. When she does crash and burn it is going to be truly spectacular, a meltdown of immense amusement!
Saturday, February 5, 2011
Friday, February 4, 2011
4 February 2011 Take that teavangelists
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/02/03/AR2011020304370.html
“Forcible rape' cut from antiabortion bill after backlash from women's groups
By Sandhya Somashekhar
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, February 3, 2011; 10:25 PM
Republican lawmakers have removed the term "forcible rape" from an antiabortion bill in Congress after women's groups accused them of trying to change the widely held definition of rape.
THIS STORY
• Legislative proposal puts abortion rights supporters on alert
• 'Forcible rape' cut from antiabortion bill after backlash from women's groups
• Pairing of religious conservatism with fiscal sets Iowa tea partiers apart
View All Items in This Story
The bill, called the No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act, seeks to permanently bar federal funds from being used to subsidize abortions. It allows exceptions in cases in which the pregnancy resulted from incest or when the life of the mother would be threatened if the fetus was carried to term.
In the original language, it also allowed exceptions in cases of "forcible rape." The term provoked an outcry from critics, who said that rape is by definition committed by force and that lawmakers were seeking to exclude from coverage certain kinds of rape by adding the modifier - for example, cases in which the victim was underage or unconscious.
The bill now would allow exceptions in all cases of rape.
A spokesman for Rep. Christopher H. Smith (R-N.J.), a chief sponsor of the bill, said Thursday that lawmakers decided to change the term because it was being "misconstrued."
sandhya@washpost.com
The House GOP's Plan to Redefine Rape
Drugged, raped, and pregnant? Too bad. Republicans are pushing to limit rape and incest cases eligible for government abortion funding.
— By Nick Baumann
http://motherjones.com/politics/2011/01/republican-plan-redefine-rape-abortion
Cassi Creek:
The small victory noted above is still important despite its apparent size. The GOPers/teavangelists will do everything they can to block all access to abortion and then to birth control medications and morning after pills. They understand that they can mobilize the religious right voter base once again, making them forget about the GOP’s servitude to business and finance. They are willing to trade theocracy for continued power and wealth. To that end, they will sell the nation to the Christian right and to their financial masters. Keep on top of this because they will not accept the reality of the message this defeat sends.
Note, too, that there is also an attack on abortions for women who are placed at risk by pregnancy. The driving agents behind this will sacrifice the life of a women over a fetus every time the decision must be made. Then they will abandon that child to a life of poverty, pain and perhaps prison. Once they are born they are no longer sacred.
“Forcible rape' cut from antiabortion bill after backlash from women's groups
By Sandhya Somashekhar
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, February 3, 2011; 10:25 PM
Republican lawmakers have removed the term "forcible rape" from an antiabortion bill in Congress after women's groups accused them of trying to change the widely held definition of rape.
THIS STORY
• Legislative proposal puts abortion rights supporters on alert
• 'Forcible rape' cut from antiabortion bill after backlash from women's groups
• Pairing of religious conservatism with fiscal sets Iowa tea partiers apart
View All Items in This Story
The bill, called the No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act, seeks to permanently bar federal funds from being used to subsidize abortions. It allows exceptions in cases in which the pregnancy resulted from incest or when the life of the mother would be threatened if the fetus was carried to term.
In the original language, it also allowed exceptions in cases of "forcible rape." The term provoked an outcry from critics, who said that rape is by definition committed by force and that lawmakers were seeking to exclude from coverage certain kinds of rape by adding the modifier - for example, cases in which the victim was underage or unconscious.
The bill now would allow exceptions in all cases of rape.
A spokesman for Rep. Christopher H. Smith (R-N.J.), a chief sponsor of the bill, said Thursday that lawmakers decided to change the term because it was being "misconstrued."
sandhya@washpost.com
The House GOP's Plan to Redefine Rape
Drugged, raped, and pregnant? Too bad. Republicans are pushing to limit rape and incest cases eligible for government abortion funding.
— By Nick Baumann
http://motherjones.com/politics/2011/01/republican-plan-redefine-rape-abortion
Cassi Creek:
The small victory noted above is still important despite its apparent size. The GOPers/teavangelists will do everything they can to block all access to abortion and then to birth control medications and morning after pills. They understand that they can mobilize the religious right voter base once again, making them forget about the GOP’s servitude to business and finance. They are willing to trade theocracy for continued power and wealth. To that end, they will sell the nation to the Christian right and to their financial masters. Keep on top of this because they will not accept the reality of the message this defeat sends.
Note, too, that there is also an attack on abortions for women who are placed at risk by pregnancy. The driving agents behind this will sacrifice the life of a women over a fetus every time the decision must be made. Then they will abandon that child to a life of poverty, pain and perhaps prison. Once they are born they are no longer sacred.
Thursday, February 3, 2011
3 February 2011 “Free Press” = free target
The Indian Ministry of External Affairs is putting out an advisory telling Indian journalists in Egypt to avoid trouble spots.
U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon condemned the attacks.
"The freedom of speech, whether journalists or demonstrators -- they should be fully guaranteed and protected. That is a ground principle of democracy," he said.
Journalists became targets Wednesday -- they were beaten, bloodied, harassed and detained by men, most all in some way aligned with Mubarak.
Numerous news outlets -- including the BBC, ABC News and CNN -- reported members of their staffs had been attacked, most on the streets of Cairo. In several cases, news personnel were accused of being "foreign spies," seized, whisked away, and often assaulted.
"It was pandemonium. There was no control. Suddenly a man would come up to you and punch you in the face," said CNN's Anderson Cooper, describing being attacked by pro-Mubarak demonstrators along with two colleagues outside of Tahir Square.
CNN's Hala Gorani got caught Wednesday morning in a stampede of demonstrators, some of whom were riding on camels and horses.
"I got slammed against the gates and was threatened by one of the pro-Mubarak protesters who was ... telling me to 'get out, get out!'" Gorani said. "The pro-Mubaraks, whoever they are, whoever sent them, are being threatening toward camera crews, journalists, anybody who looks like they may be onlookers."
A BBC correspondent, Rupert Wingfield-Hayes, and his crew were "arrested by members of the secret police" on Wednesday after interviewing a presidential adviser, the BBC reported. They were later released, the network said.
The Dubai-based Al-Arabiya news network was among the worst hit, its office damaged and several of its staff targeted. Among them was correspondent Ahmed Abdullah, who his editor confirmed Wednesday was found bloodied and
transported to a hospital after being severely beaten by his captors.
Maurice Sarfatti told the Brussels-based Le Soir newspaper, which he writes for along with publications in Switzerland and France, that he "received a steam of blows to the face" from men claiming he backed leading opposition figure Mohamed ElBaradei.
"I am being guarded by two soldiers with Kalashnikovs (rifles) and bayonets," said Sarfatti, according to a translation from Le Soir. "They say I will be taken before the intelligence services. They say I am a spy."
http://us.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/africa/02/03/egypt.journalists/index.html?hpt=C1
Anderson Cooper attacked? Forget the protests -- this is news!
By Alexandra Petri
In Cairo, Molotov cocktails have reportedly been tossed at the Egyptian Museum. A wave of looters broke into King Tut's treasury, damaging pharaonic artifacts that archaeologists call priceless. Items that have survived for millennia smash and shatter, falling victim to a single cruel, thoughtless toss.
OH MY GOSH, THEY ATTACKED ANDERSON COOPER!
Stop the presses! Forget all that. This is Anderson Cooper we're talking about here! THE Anderson Cooper, of CNN fame! Sure, the museum may contain manuscripts, but Anderson's eyes contain volumes.
I know the Egyptian Museum hosts valuable artifacts, but how does it look in a tight black t-shirt? They may have sphinx memorabilia. But Anderson Cooper is a real-life sphinx, shrouded in questions and mystery.
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/compost/
Cassi Creek: this separates democratic nations from third world dictatorships. While the press may disclose all the secrets a government agency might wish to avoid airing; blocking media access to transmission systems, will make real journalists dig for the things that no one has yet leaked. Every nation has them and doesn’t want them exposed.
Egypt has just assured that the world’s journalists will latch onto these restrictions as if their lives depended upon it. In this type of political turnover thousands of lives will depend upon journalists doing their jobs to discover all the suppressed information that Mubarak and friends have managed to hide away over the decades.
Whether they be tabloid reporters, senior international correspondents, Pulitzer winners, or local stringers; this is the chance for every journalist to be as careful, accurate, and brave as the men and women who’ve covered the births and deaths of nations over the last two centuries. Help keep Anderson Cooper, and all his colleagues safe and reporting in with the latest verified news. Keep watching, reading, and listening!
U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon condemned the attacks.
"The freedom of speech, whether journalists or demonstrators -- they should be fully guaranteed and protected. That is a ground principle of democracy," he said.
Journalists became targets Wednesday -- they were beaten, bloodied, harassed and detained by men, most all in some way aligned with Mubarak.
Numerous news outlets -- including the BBC, ABC News and CNN -- reported members of their staffs had been attacked, most on the streets of Cairo. In several cases, news personnel were accused of being "foreign spies," seized, whisked away, and often assaulted.
"It was pandemonium. There was no control. Suddenly a man would come up to you and punch you in the face," said CNN's Anderson Cooper, describing being attacked by pro-Mubarak demonstrators along with two colleagues outside of Tahir Square.
CNN's Hala Gorani got caught Wednesday morning in a stampede of demonstrators, some of whom were riding on camels and horses.
"I got slammed against the gates and was threatened by one of the pro-Mubarak protesters who was ... telling me to 'get out, get out!'" Gorani said. "The pro-Mubaraks, whoever they are, whoever sent them, are being threatening toward camera crews, journalists, anybody who looks like they may be onlookers."
A BBC correspondent, Rupert Wingfield-Hayes, and his crew were "arrested by members of the secret police" on Wednesday after interviewing a presidential adviser, the BBC reported. They were later released, the network said.
The Dubai-based Al-Arabiya news network was among the worst hit, its office damaged and several of its staff targeted. Among them was correspondent Ahmed Abdullah, who his editor confirmed Wednesday was found bloodied and
transported to a hospital after being severely beaten by his captors.
Maurice Sarfatti told the Brussels-based Le Soir newspaper, which he writes for along with publications in Switzerland and France, that he "received a steam of blows to the face" from men claiming he backed leading opposition figure Mohamed ElBaradei.
"I am being guarded by two soldiers with Kalashnikovs (rifles) and bayonets," said Sarfatti, according to a translation from Le Soir. "They say I will be taken before the intelligence services. They say I am a spy."
http://us.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/africa/02/03/egypt.journalists/index.html?hpt=C1
Anderson Cooper attacked? Forget the protests -- this is news!
By Alexandra Petri
In Cairo, Molotov cocktails have reportedly been tossed at the Egyptian Museum. A wave of looters broke into King Tut's treasury, damaging pharaonic artifacts that archaeologists call priceless. Items that have survived for millennia smash and shatter, falling victim to a single cruel, thoughtless toss.
OH MY GOSH, THEY ATTACKED ANDERSON COOPER!
Stop the presses! Forget all that. This is Anderson Cooper we're talking about here! THE Anderson Cooper, of CNN fame! Sure, the museum may contain manuscripts, but Anderson's eyes contain volumes.
I know the Egyptian Museum hosts valuable artifacts, but how does it look in a tight black t-shirt? They may have sphinx memorabilia. But Anderson Cooper is a real-life sphinx, shrouded in questions and mystery.
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/compost/
Cassi Creek: this separates democratic nations from third world dictatorships. While the press may disclose all the secrets a government agency might wish to avoid airing; blocking media access to transmission systems, will make real journalists dig for the things that no one has yet leaked. Every nation has them and doesn’t want them exposed.
Egypt has just assured that the world’s journalists will latch onto these restrictions as if their lives depended upon it. In this type of political turnover thousands of lives will depend upon journalists doing their jobs to discover all the suppressed information that Mubarak and friends have managed to hide away over the decades.
Whether they be tabloid reporters, senior international correspondents, Pulitzer winners, or local stringers; this is the chance for every journalist to be as careful, accurate, and brave as the men and women who’ve covered the births and deaths of nations over the last two centuries. Help keep Anderson Cooper, and all his colleagues safe and reporting in with the latest verified news. Keep watching, reading, and listening!
Wednesday, February 2, 2011
2 February 2011 Palin’s history defended
Posted at 8:14 AM ET, 02/ 2/2011
Right-wing bloggers defend Sarah Palin's fake history
By Stephen Stromberg
According to the right-wing blogosphere, Sarah Palin knows more about history than I do.
Last week, I wrote that Palin got some history wrong when she claimed that the Soviets incurred crippling debt in their effort to launch Sputnik. Palin seemed to want to suggest a lesson to apply to the U.S. debt debate. But as I wrote, her narrative doesn't have much to do with what actually happened. ..”
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/postpartisan/2011/02/the_right-wing_conspirosphere.html
The danger found in this article stems not from the lack of factual knowledge actually resident in the gray drive of Palin, but in the willingness of those who should know better to allow her leniency on her lack of basic knowledge while simultaneously demonstrating their own lack of concern for facts in ideological conflicts. Palin is adept at making things up while blaming the error on others. There is no reason to allow historical revisionism for the purpose of backstopping her innate lack of education.
We are not only encountering willful destruction of the American public education system, we are seeing it replaced whenever possible by a system that is constructed to replace fact with lies, science with myths, and to denigrate the benefits and value of higher education in this nation. Higher education may soon come to mean “able to read the directions on a microwave meal.
Today in Puxatawney, Palin failed to see either her shadow or any shred of truth about the history of this nation.
Right-wing bloggers defend Sarah Palin's fake history
By Stephen Stromberg
According to the right-wing blogosphere, Sarah Palin knows more about history than I do.
Last week, I wrote that Palin got some history wrong when she claimed that the Soviets incurred crippling debt in their effort to launch Sputnik. Palin seemed to want to suggest a lesson to apply to the U.S. debt debate. But as I wrote, her narrative doesn't have much to do with what actually happened. ..”
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/postpartisan/2011/02/the_right-wing_conspirosphere.html
The danger found in this article stems not from the lack of factual knowledge actually resident in the gray drive of Palin, but in the willingness of those who should know better to allow her leniency on her lack of basic knowledge while simultaneously demonstrating their own lack of concern for facts in ideological conflicts. Palin is adept at making things up while blaming the error on others. There is no reason to allow historical revisionism for the purpose of backstopping her innate lack of education.
We are not only encountering willful destruction of the American public education system, we are seeing it replaced whenever possible by a system that is constructed to replace fact with lies, science with myths, and to denigrate the benefits and value of higher education in this nation. Higher education may soon come to mean “able to read the directions on a microwave meal.
Today in Puxatawney, Palin failed to see either her shadow or any shred of truth about the history of this nation.
Tuesday, February 1, 2011
1 February 2011 Tehran – ran - ran - ran, Cairo - run - run
For Egypt's Mubarak, push has come to shove
By Eugene Robinson
Tuesday, February 1, 2011
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/01/31/AR2011013104490.html
…The Muslim Brotherhood is the best-organized opposition political force in the country, but it has been relegated to the margins of the popular uprising. So far, this is a secular revolution. A post-Mubarak Egypt whose foundation is laid now would include the Brotherhood but not in a central role. If Mubarak were to hang on until September - and the multitudes in the streets went glumly back to their everyday lives - the purposeful and tenacious Brotherhood would end up playing a much bigger role in charting the nation's future…
Already, demonstrators have noted that the rubber bullets and tear-gas canisters fired by Mubarak's hated police are stamped "Made in the USA." It is true that Mubarak has been a useful and fairly reliable ally for three decades. But it is also true that cold-eyed analysis would conclude that the 82-year-old Mubarak's day is done, that the clamor for democracy in Egypt has reached a point of no return and that it is better for U.S. interests to be on the right side of history.
The United States will in any case retain some influence in Egypt, if only because of the $1.5 billion in aid we give annually. It would be good if we retained some moral influence as well - but we won't if the administration is seen to back a corrupt dictator whose mandate is utterly expired.
There's another reason to give Mubarak a mighty shove: We believe in freedom and democracy. We really do.
It is thrilling to watch as Egyptians assert the rights that we hold to be inherent and universal - to assemble, associate and speak freely, to give their consent to be governed, to withdraw that consent when it is abused.
We can't take the position that democracy is good only when we approve of the leaders who are elected. We'd never convince the Egyptians that this was anything but rank hypocrisy. We'd never even convince ourselves.
Cassi Creek:
“ Shaking in the forest, what have you to fear?
Here there may be tigers, to punch you in the ear.
With gloves of stainless steel, bats carved out of bricks
Knock you down and beat you up and give your ass a kick.
When push comes to shove, you're afraid of ..”
Like any “ leader for life,” Hosni Mubarak is afraid of many things. He has to maintain continual guard against the chance of assassination by agents of one or more opposition party. He has to assume that his food may be poisoned, that his bodyguards may be plants, just waiting for the right moment to pull the trigger. He can’t trust his physician. His life is a continual waltz through the halls of paranoia.
“Shaking in the bedroom, covers on your head,
Are you still in fear of the hand beneath the bed?”
Now he has come to the apparent end of his “for life” job. If he is smart enough to look around him and agree that the time to leave is now, while he can still walk out, he may be able to find a safe, if extremely costly, place to live out his natural days. He needs a remote location with heavily controlled access where he and a retinue of family, retainers, and the necessary number of “still loyal” servants can live in royal style, on money somehow obtained from Egypt’s treasury, and pretend that the world has not shifted beneath his feet. Even if he finds such a place, most likely in a small but ever-practical European nation that will pretend he is not residing there as long as the “rent” is paid in full, on time, and in specie; he will never be secure from the threat of assassination. “Leaders for life” create many enemies during their period of leadership. There will be a long line of people who were interned and interrogated, a line who’s families were displaced or interrogated, and beggared. There will be religious assassins ready to kill him for this or that insult to the prophet or the prophet’s thoughts. He will have angered one facet of the faithful or another for many reasons.
It is time for the United States, which has supported Mubarak for decades, to invite him to vacate his job and palace. Our support of him along with our support of Israel, makes us unwelcome to much of the population of Egypt today.
While we need to encourage his departure, we cannot afford to harbor him in his retirement. We offered shelter to the Shah of Iran in 1979 when the Islamic revolution took place. While I don’t care how many Iranian mullahs we may insult, we do not need assassination teams bent on sending Mubarak to Paradise or perdition. We do not need religious fanatics of any breed thinking that they have license to hunt in our nation; or to hunt for our citizens in any nation.
While we supported Mubarak, we have no obligation to offer him shelter. We will only do further harm to our policies and positions in the Middle East. Nor do we wish to openly interfere in any ongoing regime changes in Arab nations that may decide that now is the time to become members of the emerging world rather than remain in the third world of tribalism, illiteracy, and religious fanaticism.
.
By Eugene Robinson
Tuesday, February 1, 2011
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/01/31/AR2011013104490.html
…The Muslim Brotherhood is the best-organized opposition political force in the country, but it has been relegated to the margins of the popular uprising. So far, this is a secular revolution. A post-Mubarak Egypt whose foundation is laid now would include the Brotherhood but not in a central role. If Mubarak were to hang on until September - and the multitudes in the streets went glumly back to their everyday lives - the purposeful and tenacious Brotherhood would end up playing a much bigger role in charting the nation's future…
Already, demonstrators have noted that the rubber bullets and tear-gas canisters fired by Mubarak's hated police are stamped "Made in the USA." It is true that Mubarak has been a useful and fairly reliable ally for three decades. But it is also true that cold-eyed analysis would conclude that the 82-year-old Mubarak's day is done, that the clamor for democracy in Egypt has reached a point of no return and that it is better for U.S. interests to be on the right side of history.
The United States will in any case retain some influence in Egypt, if only because of the $1.5 billion in aid we give annually. It would be good if we retained some moral influence as well - but we won't if the administration is seen to back a corrupt dictator whose mandate is utterly expired.
There's another reason to give Mubarak a mighty shove: We believe in freedom and democracy. We really do.
It is thrilling to watch as Egyptians assert the rights that we hold to be inherent and universal - to assemble, associate and speak freely, to give their consent to be governed, to withdraw that consent when it is abused.
We can't take the position that democracy is good only when we approve of the leaders who are elected. We'd never convince the Egyptians that this was anything but rank hypocrisy. We'd never even convince ourselves.
Cassi Creek:
“ Shaking in the forest, what have you to fear?
Here there may be tigers, to punch you in the ear.
With gloves of stainless steel, bats carved out of bricks
Knock you down and beat you up and give your ass a kick.
When push comes to shove, you're afraid of ..”
Like any “ leader for life,” Hosni Mubarak is afraid of many things. He has to maintain continual guard against the chance of assassination by agents of one or more opposition party. He has to assume that his food may be poisoned, that his bodyguards may be plants, just waiting for the right moment to pull the trigger. He can’t trust his physician. His life is a continual waltz through the halls of paranoia.
“Shaking in the bedroom, covers on your head,
Are you still in fear of the hand beneath the bed?”
Now he has come to the apparent end of his “for life” job. If he is smart enough to look around him and agree that the time to leave is now, while he can still walk out, he may be able to find a safe, if extremely costly, place to live out his natural days. He needs a remote location with heavily controlled access where he and a retinue of family, retainers, and the necessary number of “still loyal” servants can live in royal style, on money somehow obtained from Egypt’s treasury, and pretend that the world has not shifted beneath his feet. Even if he finds such a place, most likely in a small but ever-practical European nation that will pretend he is not residing there as long as the “rent” is paid in full, on time, and in specie; he will never be secure from the threat of assassination. “Leaders for life” create many enemies during their period of leadership. There will be a long line of people who were interned and interrogated, a line who’s families were displaced or interrogated, and beggared. There will be religious assassins ready to kill him for this or that insult to the prophet or the prophet’s thoughts. He will have angered one facet of the faithful or another for many reasons.
It is time for the United States, which has supported Mubarak for decades, to invite him to vacate his job and palace. Our support of him along with our support of Israel, makes us unwelcome to much of the population of Egypt today.
While we need to encourage his departure, we cannot afford to harbor him in his retirement. We offered shelter to the Shah of Iran in 1979 when the Islamic revolution took place. While I don’t care how many Iranian mullahs we may insult, we do not need assassination teams bent on sending Mubarak to Paradise or perdition. We do not need religious fanatics of any breed thinking that they have license to hunt in our nation; or to hunt for our citizens in any nation.
While we supported Mubarak, we have no obligation to offer him shelter. We will only do further harm to our policies and positions in the Middle East. Nor do we wish to openly interfere in any ongoing regime changes in Arab nations that may decide that now is the time to become members of the emerging world rather than remain in the third world of tribalism, illiteracy, and religious fanaticism.
.
Monday, January 31, 2011
31 January 2011 Is looting a univeral instinct?
Over the past decades, in nearly all natural or man-made disasters, news agencies have presented video after video of stores and government buildings being looted. It doesn’t seem to matter where the disaster occurs, when it occurs, or how it occurs. Someone will decide that the time is right to help their self to whatever they can pick up and carry away.
I can recall seeing new footage of looting in Detroit, in Washington D.C., in Los Angeles, and in many other places visited by disaster.
After the Hussein government was over thrown in 2003, Iraqis took to the streets. They were not celebrating their “freedom from tyranny,” they were looting. They could be seen in countless videotapes ripping plumbing from the walls, carrying off furniture from offices, and, of course, irreplaceable antiquities from the national museum. Part of the responsibility belongs to the Bush Administration officials who fired the police and the military, leaving no agency to prevent lawlessness.
Today, in Iraq and Afghanistan, infrastructure improvement projects remain incompleted and unlikely to be completed due to continual looting of building and storage sites. Pointing out the theft to Iraqis and Afghanis seems to make no impression upon the citizenry or the governments involved.
When Israel evacuated its citizens from Gaza it left behind a fully functioning hydroponic greenhouse operation designed to grow salad greens for human food. The evacuation agreements hammered out included donations to fully pay for the greenhouse farms. These buildings would have provided both food and employment for Gazans for decades. Yet before the last IDF vehicle crossed the border they farms were looted and then absolutely destroyed.
In the U.S., most recently looting occurred in New Orleans. Food and clothing were taken first – since none was being provided for sale or by FEMA. It did not take long for alcohol, firearms, and electronics to become the items of choice. People who have no electrical power have no way to use stolen electronics.
A friend of mine, a professor of Classical Studies, who has been excavating historical sites in Greece for years, expressed his concern for the Egyptian antiquities. It seems that not only is urban looting and looting of museums taking place but that organized teams are pillaging those historic sites that have previously been protected from wanton looting and careless excavation by the Egyptian government. Those items that are found and sold on the black market are likely to be lost forever to Egypt and to posterity.
Poverty, crushing poverty in the Middle East and in South West Asia, are powerful motivators, driving many to engage in looting for survival. But in many cases what we see taking place seems to be looting for the sake of looting. It’s not confined to any ethnic group. All religious groups have prohibitions regarding theft. It may result in being killed by property owners or by government agencies tasked with stopping looters. It seems to transcend all social and cultural boundaries.
I have no sympathy for looters who take advantage of civil unrest to destroy, who carry off items they have no need for nor use for. I’m equally repelled by those black marketers who intend to get rich selling pieces of history that then fail to be catalogued and incorporated into our human history. For looting history, shooting the looters on sight has a well deserved historical continuity.
I can recall seeing new footage of looting in Detroit, in Washington D.C., in Los Angeles, and in many other places visited by disaster.
After the Hussein government was over thrown in 2003, Iraqis took to the streets. They were not celebrating their “freedom from tyranny,” they were looting. They could be seen in countless videotapes ripping plumbing from the walls, carrying off furniture from offices, and, of course, irreplaceable antiquities from the national museum. Part of the responsibility belongs to the Bush Administration officials who fired the police and the military, leaving no agency to prevent lawlessness.
Today, in Iraq and Afghanistan, infrastructure improvement projects remain incompleted and unlikely to be completed due to continual looting of building and storage sites. Pointing out the theft to Iraqis and Afghanis seems to make no impression upon the citizenry or the governments involved.
When Israel evacuated its citizens from Gaza it left behind a fully functioning hydroponic greenhouse operation designed to grow salad greens for human food. The evacuation agreements hammered out included donations to fully pay for the greenhouse farms. These buildings would have provided both food and employment for Gazans for decades. Yet before the last IDF vehicle crossed the border they farms were looted and then absolutely destroyed.
In the U.S., most recently looting occurred in New Orleans. Food and clothing were taken first – since none was being provided for sale or by FEMA. It did not take long for alcohol, firearms, and electronics to become the items of choice. People who have no electrical power have no way to use stolen electronics.
A friend of mine, a professor of Classical Studies, who has been excavating historical sites in Greece for years, expressed his concern for the Egyptian antiquities. It seems that not only is urban looting and looting of museums taking place but that organized teams are pillaging those historic sites that have previously been protected from wanton looting and careless excavation by the Egyptian government. Those items that are found and sold on the black market are likely to be lost forever to Egypt and to posterity.
Poverty, crushing poverty in the Middle East and in South West Asia, are powerful motivators, driving many to engage in looting for survival. But in many cases what we see taking place seems to be looting for the sake of looting. It’s not confined to any ethnic group. All religious groups have prohibitions regarding theft. It may result in being killed by property owners or by government agencies tasked with stopping looters. It seems to transcend all social and cultural boundaries.
I have no sympathy for looters who take advantage of civil unrest to destroy, who carry off items they have no need for nor use for. I’m equally repelled by those black marketers who intend to get rich selling pieces of history that then fail to be catalogued and incorporated into our human history. For looting history, shooting the looters on sight has a well deserved historical continuity.
Sunday, January 30, 2011
30 January 2011 Nobody knows you when you’re done and out
EDITORIAL WASHINGTON POST
The Two Abortion Wars: A Highly Intrusive Federal Bill
Published: January 29, 2011
The Smith bill also would take certain restrictions on federal financing for abortions that now must be renewed every year and make them permanent. It would allow federal financing of abortions in cases of “forcible” rape but not statutory or coerced rape, and in cases where a woman is in danger of death from her pregnancy but not of other serious health damage. It would free states from having to provide abortions in such emergency cases.
A separate Republican bill would deny federal funds for family planning services to any organization that provides abortions. It is aimed primarily at Planned Parenthood’s hundreds of health centers, which also provide many other valuable services. No federal money is used for the abortions. This is a reckless effort to cripple an irreplaceable organization out of pure politics.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/30/opinion/30sun1.html?_r=1&nl=todaysheadlines&emc=tha211
Cassi Creek: Once again the GOP\teavangelists have shown us what they really want to do during this legislative session. Despite all the claims that jobs are the top priority, despite all the claims that tax cuts for the rich will magically cause jobs to spring from nowhere, we find that when the “symbolic” attack on health care reform is opened, the next target becomes abortion.
Jobs, say every poll, are the primary concern of most Americans. Making enough money to feed and house one’s self and one’s family is of far greater concern than is helping the theocratic right intrude into everyone else’s life.
Roe v. Wade is the Christian right’s perpetual target, along with birth control education, and “defending “marriage” from the depredations of the “godless socialists perverts.” While the bill of Rights prohibits any state religion being established, the Christian right has decided that the “establishment clause” does not apply to Christianity.
The teavangelists plan to make abortion so difficult that it will essentially become impossible to perform in the U.S. In order to do this they are willing to force women to gestate and deliver fetuses that are the result of incest, the result of rape, and that are so genetically damaged as to be either non-viable after delivery or that will require extreme levels of medical support from the instant of delivery until they die. The GOPer\teavangelists are constantly citing the sanctity of all life and their demands that government intrusion into private lives be eliminated. Yet they demand a state that intrudes into the most personal of decisions – to have or not have children because of the dictates of an equally intrusive agency, Christianity.
Michelle Bachman, Limbaugh, Beck, Palin, and the entire teabagger demagoguery mob spread rumors about secret camps built by the Democrats for the re-education and indoctrination of citizens. Perhaps they should pause and consider the possibility that there will be, instead, breeding camp where women who do not wish to carry or deliver fetuses will be interned for attempting to terminate a pregnancy. Given the denial of women’s rights to choose to reproduce or to not reproduce by the GOPers\teavangelists, I am far more concerned that we may see such breeding camps throughout the nation, beginning in the red states.
What will not happen, regardless of how many women are forced to carry and deliver unwanted children is any government program to house, feed, educate, and otherwise support the unwanted children of parents who can not now afford them. Nor will there be any factual birth control information provided by schools or community-based groups.
The GOPers\teavangelists wail about a generation of throw-away children. They seem unable to understand that they are the force creating more and more of the unwanted.
I do not object to federal funding for abortion, I support it for many reasons. I do oppose and will continue to oppose fertility treatments being paid for by any governmental agency. Given the huge number of children available for adoption along with the religious right’s insistence that even more be added to the pool of unfortunates, there is no justification for any insurance plan, private of public funded to cover fertility treatments.
Abortion is a poor solution to many societal problems but it must always be available to women who choose it. The distance from prohibition to breeding camps is much shorter than we wish to admit. There is still a huge portion of the Christian fundamentalist world that views women only as a continual source of new little fundamentalist males.
The Two Abortion Wars: A Highly Intrusive Federal Bill
Published: January 29, 2011
The Smith bill also would take certain restrictions on federal financing for abortions that now must be renewed every year and make them permanent. It would allow federal financing of abortions in cases of “forcible” rape but not statutory or coerced rape, and in cases where a woman is in danger of death from her pregnancy but not of other serious health damage. It would free states from having to provide abortions in such emergency cases.
A separate Republican bill would deny federal funds for family planning services to any organization that provides abortions. It is aimed primarily at Planned Parenthood’s hundreds of health centers, which also provide many other valuable services. No federal money is used for the abortions. This is a reckless effort to cripple an irreplaceable organization out of pure politics.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/30/opinion/30sun1.html?_r=1&nl=todaysheadlines&emc=tha211
Cassi Creek: Once again the GOP\teavangelists have shown us what they really want to do during this legislative session. Despite all the claims that jobs are the top priority, despite all the claims that tax cuts for the rich will magically cause jobs to spring from nowhere, we find that when the “symbolic” attack on health care reform is opened, the next target becomes abortion.
Jobs, say every poll, are the primary concern of most Americans. Making enough money to feed and house one’s self and one’s family is of far greater concern than is helping the theocratic right intrude into everyone else’s life.
Roe v. Wade is the Christian right’s perpetual target, along with birth control education, and “defending “marriage” from the depredations of the “godless socialists perverts.” While the bill of Rights prohibits any state religion being established, the Christian right has decided that the “establishment clause” does not apply to Christianity.
The teavangelists plan to make abortion so difficult that it will essentially become impossible to perform in the U.S. In order to do this they are willing to force women to gestate and deliver fetuses that are the result of incest, the result of rape, and that are so genetically damaged as to be either non-viable after delivery or that will require extreme levels of medical support from the instant of delivery until they die. The GOPer\teavangelists are constantly citing the sanctity of all life and their demands that government intrusion into private lives be eliminated. Yet they demand a state that intrudes into the most personal of decisions – to have or not have children because of the dictates of an equally intrusive agency, Christianity.
Michelle Bachman, Limbaugh, Beck, Palin, and the entire teabagger demagoguery mob spread rumors about secret camps built by the Democrats for the re-education and indoctrination of citizens. Perhaps they should pause and consider the possibility that there will be, instead, breeding camp where women who do not wish to carry or deliver fetuses will be interned for attempting to terminate a pregnancy. Given the denial of women’s rights to choose to reproduce or to not reproduce by the GOPers\teavangelists, I am far more concerned that we may see such breeding camps throughout the nation, beginning in the red states.
What will not happen, regardless of how many women are forced to carry and deliver unwanted children is any government program to house, feed, educate, and otherwise support the unwanted children of parents who can not now afford them. Nor will there be any factual birth control information provided by schools or community-based groups.
The GOPers\teavangelists wail about a generation of throw-away children. They seem unable to understand that they are the force creating more and more of the unwanted.
I do not object to federal funding for abortion, I support it for many reasons. I do oppose and will continue to oppose fertility treatments being paid for by any governmental agency. Given the huge number of children available for adoption along with the religious right’s insistence that even more be added to the pool of unfortunates, there is no justification for any insurance plan, private of public funded to cover fertility treatments.
Abortion is a poor solution to many societal problems but it must always be available to women who choose it. The distance from prohibition to breeding camps is much shorter than we wish to admit. There is still a huge portion of the Christian fundamentalist world that views women only as a continual source of new little fundamentalist males.
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