Alison Bodine Update: Barred From Canada For Two Years
by matttbastard
@$%#@!!11 pale @ A Creative Revolution brings the bad news:
The Immigration and Refugee board says [Alison Bodine] “lied” or misrepresented herself when entering Canada, way back on September 10.
The Canadian Press has more details on the ruling:
Marc Tessler said the Immigration Act stipulated that her lack of full disclosure at the border crossing south of Vancouver amounted to “misrepresentation” as defined in the legislation.
[…]
He said Bodine arrived at the Peace Arch crossing south of Vancouver about 2 a.m. Sept. 10 with a vehicle loaded with personal belongings. The border officer said the amount of belongings and her limited funds made it unlikely she only planned to stay for the two months she indicated.
[…]
She was refused entry and headed south to the small community of Blaine, Wash., where a friend loaded much of her belongings and the anti-war literature into his car.
She returned to the border crossing, said Tessler, and was admitted into Canada but didn’t tell the border agent of her earlier attempt to cross. The bulk of her belongings and the anti-war literature were seized when the friend attempted to cross the border.
The adjudicator conceded he was “bewildered” by the earlier opinion of the border agent that she might not leave after two months. He said she had been at UBC for four years and had crossed the border many times.
He also said the anti-war literature and her belief that they were what led to her problems had nothing to do with his decision.
The adjudicator said that when she went to the border the second time she told the official her car contained only her possessions; she didn’t tell the agent that some of her belongings had been transferred to her friend’s vehicle.
She also said she planned to stay in Canada for two to three days and did not mention her earlier entry refusal, said Tessler.
While the initial refusal was “unjustified,” the “elements of the allegations of misrepresentation are established,” he said in ordering her removal.
So, Tessler’s decision has nothing to with the anti-war literature found in Bodine’s car. Right, but the adjudicator did admit to being “bewildered” by the first border guard’s “unjustified” initial refusal. Any way you look at it, the optics aren’t good – especially when coupled with the repeated refusal by Canadian border officials to allow Medea Benjamin and Ann Wright entry into Canada.
Keep watch for more updates @ ACR & Alison Bodine Speaks Out!
[edited to reflect additional information and for style, format and clarity]
Update: What Prole said.
Update 11.01:
“There is no reason to exclude me,” said Bodine, originally from Denver but who studied at the University of B.C. for four years. “I was just an easy target. We’ll continue organizing.”
[...]
She said her ordeal is meant to intimidate others who oppose Canada’s role in the war in Afghanistan.
“This is political targeting. They did this to intimidate people in the anti-war effort,” Bodine said.
“They shouldn’t have arrested me at all,” she said outside. “What the Immigration adjudicator ruled on upstairs was completely a technicality that they’ve chosen to pursue based on the fact I’m a political organizer. … I will not be allowed back in Canada for two years, for political organizing, for raising my voice, speaking out against war and occupation.”
Asked if her numerous bags, her pending job interview and the presence of a boyfriend in Vancouver signalled a desire to move here, she replied, “Eventually yes, I do want to live here in Canada.”
Also:
Alison Bodine Defence Committee Meeting
THUR NOV 1 6:30pm
in the Large North Hall of Joe’s Cafe
(on Commercial Drive at Napier St)
Join us to meet, discuss and analyze the legal outcome of the Admissibility Hearing Process. The Alison Bodine Defence Committee will meet, and invites all who are interested, to assess the campaign and discuss what’s next after this legal stage of this battle!
I’m several thousand kilometres away from spitting distance–anyone closer to the ‘hood going to attend the meeting?
Why I’m Wearing Red Today
by matttbastard
“We call these people ‘missing women’ – Aboriginal women are missing in so many ways in our society. … I really believe there are aspects of society that have to change so that things like this, in the best case, don’t happen, but more realistically, if they do happen, that they aren’t brushed aside – that the issue isn’t missing as well as the women.”
- Dr. Ellen Bielawski, Dean of the University of Alberta’s Faculty of Native Studies
I’m wearing red for Bernadette Lynda Ahenakew, Edna Bernard, Katie Sylvia Ballantyne, Delores Dawn Brower, Bonnie Joanne Jack, Rachel Liz Quinney, and other disposable Edmonton sex workers whose violent deaths are being investigated by Project KARE.
Many were First Nations women, women of colour. Some were allegedly (“allegedly” *blinks*) murdered by smiling (suspected, accused, etc) serial killer Thomas Svekla. But there are several suspects (“and potential rapists all are…“).
43 unsolved murders; the earliest one dates back to 1932.
The majority of the fallen will likely never receive justice. These women dared to reside outside of society, beyond the boundaries of bourgeois interest and patriarchal, proprietary outrage; far away from the glare of the 24 hr news cycle spotlight. Marginal corpses lying in a ditch, an alleyway, a cheap, tobacco-stained motel room, surrounded by the dirty implements of self-destruction (“they got what they deserved” *blinks*).
Outside of society.
Goddammit; their lives had-have-just as much value as a (blond-haired, blue-eyed) cheerleader, soccer mom, or business executive.
That’s why I’m wearing red*: for those used, then tossed, crumpled up like soggy, sperm-soaked tissue paper; to represent the blood of the forgotten and recycle their valuable legacies.
Related: More from Daniel MacIsaac of the Edmonton Sun here and here; CBC News backgrounder on Svekla and 25 years of unsolved Edmonton area sex worker slayings.
Update: Prole in comments:
You can help. Give to Pretty Bird Woman House.
Update 2: Kevin is wearing red for “the strong, brave women who refuse to stay silent about the increasing violence perpetuated against women, particularly women of color.”
Please read the whole thing–especially the links.
Recommend this post at Progressive Bloggers
*When I woke up today, I realized I don’t own anything red, not even socks nor underwear. So, I’m wearing red directly on my skin.
Hump Day Music Spotlight: “And I Never Cared About…Whatever.”
by matttbastard
Before delving into decidedly weighter subjects, please enjoy the following frivolous ear candy to hopefully help get your system primed and ready for Halloween sugar shock:
Los Campesinos! – International TweeXcore Underground (Arts & Crafts/Wichita Recordings)
annemarie – apple (suicide on your stereo set) (Music Is My Girlfriend)
Sambassadeur – New Moon (Labrador)
AATW FTW!
PSA: Urge Canada to Vote YES for Nuclear Disarmament at the UN
by matttbastard
From Ceasefire.ca:
Urge Canada to Vote YES for Nuclear Disarmament at the UN
There is an important meeting taking place right now at the United Nations to discuss nuclear disarmament, with voting on key resolutions scheduled to happen this week.
I am worried that Stephen Harper may be planning to reverse Canada’s longstanding support for nuclear disarmament.The world is watching how Canada will vote.
Our sources tell us that the government remains undecided on whether they will vote “YES” in favour of these critical resolutions. I urge you to send your letter to Foreign Affairs Minister Maxime Bernier, calling on him to vote “YES”, and continue Canada’s tradition as a champion of nuclear disarmament.
Best wishes,
Related: Tilman Ruff – Let’s ban all nuclear weapons — now; ICAN report: Securing Our Survival (SOS) The case for a Nuclear Weapons Convention.
Elsewhere: The Bulletin Online: A rebirth of the anti-nuclear weapons movement?
During the 1980s, a strong anti-nuclear war movement made the notion of a world without nuclear weapons seem possible. Today, the drumbeat for a nuclear-weapon-free world is growing loud again, with protests in Britain about the Labour Party’s decision to renew its nuclear capability, hunger strikes at the University of California in opposition to U.S. plans for a reliable replacement warhead, and prominent policy leaders such as Henry Kissinger and George Shultz calling for the nuclear states to rethink their reliance on nuclear weapons. Kate Hudson, the chair of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament and head of Social and Policy Studies at London South Bank University, Aaron Voldman, an undergraduate at Brandeis University and director of the Student Peace Alliance, Jessica Wilbanks, a co-coordinator of Faithful Security: National Religious Partnership on Nuclear Weapons Danger, and Lawrence S. Wittner, a history professor at the State University of New York/Albany and coeditor of the forthcoming book Peace Action: Past, Present, and Future, debate whether we are witnessing the start of a new anti-nuclear/peace movement.
Due Process (And Sanity)? Stop Being So September 10th, d00d.
by matttbastard
Via Stageleft – The Globe and Mail:
Canadian officials are taking the unprecedented step of asking a judge to install closed-circuit video cameras inside a terrorism suspect’s family home, arguing national security necessitates the scrutiny.
Hang on, rewind my selekta:
Canadian officials are taking the unprecedented step of asking a judge to install closed-circuit video cameras inside a terrorism suspect’s family home, arguing national security necessitates the scrutiny. [emphasis mine]
K, closed circuit video cameras. Inside a private residence. No conviction.
Got it.
Wait, there’s more:
Canadian officials accuse [Egyptian asylum seeker Mahmoud] Jaballah of playing a “communications relay” role in a major terrorist massacre – al-Qaeda’s 1998 African embassy bombings. His potential access to fax machines, computers and telephones inside his family home, where he lives with his wife and five children, deeply worries the government.
Mr. Jaballah, who was never charged with a criminal offence, spent nearly all of 1999 to 2007 in jail. Attempts to deport him to Egypt, a country known to torture fundamentalists, failed on humanitarian grounds.
Hold up, hold up now – DJ rewind:
Mr. Jaballah, who was never charged with a criminal offence spent nearly all of 1999 to 2007 in jail.
K, closed circuit video cameras. Inside a private residence. 8 years in jail, no charges.
Now I’ve got it. We are no longer in Canada; we’re living in a hysterical realist 1984 pastiche.
Stage nails it:
I’m all for punishing terrorists but don’t you think that before we lock people away and/or put surveillance camera’s [in] their houses that they should be found guilty of something first?
Just remember, (uncharged/unconvicted) evildoers:
PSA: Document the Silence Tomorrow
by matttbastard
October 31st: Be Bold, Be Brave, Be Red:
- Wear red on October 31, 2007. Take a picture or video of yourself and friends wearing red. Send it to: beboldbered@gmail.com. We’ll post it!
- Take Your Red to the Streets! Know of a location where violence occurred against a woman of color? Have a public location where you feel women of color are often ignored? Make violence against women of color visible by decorating the space in red. Be sure to send us pictures and or video of your display!
- Rally! Gather your friends, family, and community to rally. Check out the Document the Silence website for the litany we’re asking participants to read together on October 31st. Be sure to send us pictures and/or video of the event! You could even gather where you created a display!
More details on how you can participate @ Document the Silence.
Sleep Is, Like, SO 20th Century
by matttbastard
The deficit keeps mounting; hopefully tonight I can get into the black again. Suffice to say, minimal blogging and/or thinking tonight (y’all think we could procure those monkeys some typewriters? All that booze might inspire some HST-esque gonzo brilliance).
For now, I want to further highlight a post featured in yesterday’s blogwhoring orgy. Superlative journalist/blogger Shaun Mullen asks: Why Is Gay Hating James Dobson Still Licensed As a Therapist in Colorado?
There may be no aspect of Dobson’s career where he has wanted and gotten it both ways more than in blurring the lines between his roles as an ordained minister and licensed marriage and family therapist.
Dobson believes that the gay rights movement has “sought to implement a master plan that has had as its centerpiece the utter destruction of the family.” He depicts gays as amoral, polygamous, disease prone and emotionally troubled. Despite his equivocating when it came to Haggard, he claims that he can “cure” gayness through “reparative therapy.“
Such declarations put him at odds with national marriage and family therapy organizations, as well as the American Psychological Association, which states unequivocally in its Diagnostic Statistical Manual that homosexuality is not an illness, mental disorder or emotional problem. The APA has not viewed being gay to be an abnormality since 1973.
Despite being totally out of step with his own profession regarding homosexuality, Dobson remains a licensed marriage and family therapist in Colorado.
Two former members of that state’s Board of Marriage and Family Therapists, speaking anonymously, said that Dobson’s dual role is improper and demeans the profession, but the board’s hands are tied because of a waiver in state law.
“He can’t have it both ways,” said one of the former board members of Dobson’s dual role as a gay-bashing preacher who claims he can cure homosexuality and a licensed therapist. “Is he dealing with someone as a therapist or as a minister? There has to be a distinction.”
Patients treated by therapists “with beliefs rather than nationally accepted principles and standards of diagnoses, prognoses, and treatment can be harmed by the very person they trust to help them,” said the other board member.
“We professionals in psychology and psychotherapy are often the ones who have to fix the breakage done by other psychotherapists. A therapist who tells patients that homosexuality is merely an act of will and as such can be subverted or reverted to something else works in the world of beliefs and not the world of professional standards and accepted practices.”
The entire post is amazing (in other words, please do read the whole damn thing). In the meantime, I’m going to look for some ether, a case of Jim Beam and 1,000 red IBM Selectrics. Oh, and a shiteload of bananas.
Go forth, my simian scribes.
Sunday Blogwhoring: Gotta Have Friends
by matttbastard
To all the folks @ Bread & Roses (Debra, Godammitkitty, fern, skdadl, berlynn, deBeauxOs etc etc etc); to JJ, Prole and pale; to boomgate, Isabel, and sassywho (best cobloggers EVAR) : thank you. For everything.
Love, muchly.
(big ups da one Shakespeare’s Sistah!)
Alas, a blog: Feminism is not your expectation. (thanks for the acknowledgment, Mandolin)
Kiko’s House: Why Is Gay Hating James Dobson Still Licensed As a Therapist in Colorado? (MUST read – who sez bloggers can’t do quality journalism?)
The Heathlander: Unworthy victims (h/t The Cylinder)
elle, phd: Really, This Is Not Wholly a Post to Gain Your Sympathy
Dawg’s Blawg: US activist “not welcome in Canada”
nexy’s cocoon: statistics
TransAdvocate: Methodist Judicial Council To Rule On The Sin of Transgenderism
Trans Group Blog: Call for Transsexual Narratives (h/t nexyjo)
misscripchick: here’s your cookie
Feline Formal Shorts: NPR on Nooses (Oh, hell no they didn’t go there? Yup, they did.)
The Unapologetic Mexican: Racism in a time of Need (h/t Tom)
Slap Upside The Head: The Editorialist’s Wacky Perspective
pogge: A solution in search of a problem
A Creative Revolution: Eat all your ethanol, there’s children starving in Africa!
Shakesville: Women are not prey. Oh, and by the way, they’re not toilets, either.
Staged Awareness: (untitled)
Objectify This: Showdown: Chauvinist Humor vs. Racist Rhetoric
Politics’n'Poetry: Navajos seek funds to clear uranium contamination
April Reign: Fighting Back or Prince hates Babies
Girl, Dislocated: Foreign dislocation
Too Sense: Jockey Syndrome And The Dream Act
Le Revue Gauche: Contracting Out Harpers War, Hidden Costs of Harper’s War and Fight or Else
Impolitical: Afghanistan out of control
The Galloping Beaver: As the Bush administration scrambles for a legacy…
Quote Of The Day: Unreliable Narrators
by matttbastard
To a New Yorker, the idea of Rudy as a liberal or even a moderate is unreal, topsy-turvy — like describing George McGovern as a hawk or Pat Buchanan as a Zionist. The case for Giuliani’s moderation rests mainly on three overblown issues — guns, gay rights and abortion — and even in those cases, his deviation from conservative orthodoxy is far milder than is usually suggested.The “social” and “cultural” issues that divide Americans encompass much more than guns, gay rights and abortion. They include state support of religion; the legitimacy of dissenting speech; the president’s right to keep information secret; the place of fair procedures in dispensing justice. The Bush administration’s hard-line stands on these matters have polarized the nation as much as the Iraq war has. And on these issues, Giuliani is just as hard-line as the man he’d like to succeed.
If you’ve managed to keep liking President Bush, you’d have no trouble loving President Giuliani.
- David Greenberg, Rudy a Lefty? Yeah, Right.
More from Lower Manhattanite on just how much some New Yorkers with personal ties to Rudy absolutely adore America’s Mayor™:
…Rudy Giuliani is that rare beast that engenders ill-will at every stop in his climb to lord it over the last bunch of people he worked with. And in so doing, his list of fucked-over folk who hold a grudge against him is as long as his now-defunct combover was once wide.
Related: McClatchy – GOP candidates run hard to the right.
Operation Prayer Shield 2: We Can Has Privat Sekurity Contrakterzs!
by matttbastard
They have the power of the Holy Spirit; we have drunken monkey mercenaries.
(I’m really surprised the US State Dept doesn’t immediately cancel its contract with Blackwater in favour of an arrangement similar to ours–bad publicity and $1000 per day per contractor vs all the Mai Tais a monkey can drink? I know a bargain when I see one.)
Aussie Aussie Aussie, Oi Oi Oi!
by boomgate
Late last night while trying to find something decent on TV, I was saw this video on Rage. Oh, sweet memories.
Rage is all night music video show where bands/artists are asked to program a show for at least four hours. Last night, Architecture In Helsinki were in charge.
From Australia’s most successful unsuccessful group, The Go-Betweens.
Late Night Logic: “Crickets Kissing In The Rain”
by matttbastard
Tonight’s edition goes out to the one Vanessa, who sent me a-wanderin’ down memory lane with this delightful exercise in mid-90s nostalgia. Yeah, punk was my first love; but later (ie, shortly after reaching legal age) I sunk deep into the goth/fetish/industrial club scene–and yes, I was always the sole person of colour swimming in a sea of pale monochrome faces. Funny how a brotha rockin’ a leather mini-skirt, fishnets and black make-up inevitably gets compared to Prince (“ZOMG you look just like him!” Er, no, I didn’t. But thanks for coming out anyway.)
Bauhaus – She’s In Parties
(more delicious darkness and despair after the cut)
To Former Poodle (And Current Lap Dog) Tony Blair, On Behalf Of Myself And 86%* Of The Nation
by matttbastard
Here’s an extension for you.
“The worst thing you can ever do is back away in the face of opposition just because the thing is too tough to do even though you know it is the right thing to do…
“If we’re going to fight this terrorism effectively, we have to show that we are as determined as they are, believe in what we’re doing as much as they do – and do not give up, but stay the course… .
“If we give up in Afghanistan, then we will be under increasing pressure right around that region.”
Um, we already are under “increasing pressure right around that region,” Tony.
38 years, 160,000 troops and “thousands of engineers, police instructors, economists and agricultural experts”; you can’t slip past these menacing impediments to utopian vanity by once again breaking out the sandpaper lubricant of hoary, can-do rhetoric.
Dude, face it: as a (non) strategy, “stay the course” was old–hell, DO-fucking-A– long before it was even conceived; all the 9/11 non-sequiturs in the world won’t change the cold, hard fact that Afghanistan is lost. After six+ long, bloody years, the political measures necessary to perhaps at least partially salvage the quagmire will not fucking happen.
This is what they call reality, Tony; hopefully you (and Uncle Steve) can one day reconcile with it after such a lengthy separation–before more lives are needlessly pissed away.
Update 10.28: Canada poised for world domination? Sweet–no more having to apologize for Bryan Adams.
*Yes, 86%.
Cognitive dissonance affects reading comprehension
by sassywho
Faux News reports that some study (which I can’t find right now – just take my word for it) purportedly shows that people who cannot reconcile their own personal beliefs with contradictory circumstance have difficulty reading.
It appears a recent post of mine caught the attention of some wingnuts. The first response was a Big Blue “Oh, no you didn’t“, quickly followed by a hearty “Fo’ realz grrl!” from fellow fetus fetishist Jill Stanek.
I know, you are asking yourself the same question as I: “Who the hell is Jill Stanek?“
Grab your gut folks – she’s a columnist for WingNutDaily, the author of theocon agitprop fair and balanced opinion pieces like “March Of Dimes marches for death”:
Tomorrow, April 28, the March of Dimes will launch its 2007 WalkAmerica fund-raisers around the country.
MOD’s stated mission is “to improve the health of babies by preventing birth defects and infant mortality.”
In the interest of full disclosure, MOD should add, “… in politically correct ways.”
MOD has been at odds with the pro-life community since the 1970s for its inexplicable love affair with the pro-death movement in many areas.
One is that MOD turns a blind eye toward the link between induced abortion and premature delivery.
For a refresher, I was speculating that the death of Laura Smith, a young woman who underwent a 2nd trimester abortion, was possibly a result of less safe procedure being performed by her physician (covering his ass due to the SCOTUS ban on D&X). These procedures could include the use of drugs such as Digoxin and/or not dilating the cervix enough.
The primary bone of contention (other than my being an unrepentant infanticidal feminazi) seems to be that I said there was no way of knowing what kind of procedure she had. Let’s recap: the article only reported that her mother said she had a “suction-type” abortion. I may be missing something, but I’m pretty sure that is not a name for standard therapeutic abortions; there are medical (ie, drug-induced) and surgical, with all surgical abortions (and, apparently, the arguments of most pro-life bloggers) utilizing some variation of sucking:
Vacuum Aspiration:
In the first trimester, usually 6 to 13 weeks, vacuum aspiration is the procedure used to empty the uterus. This traditional first trimester abortion involves three main steps: (1) an injection to numb the cervix, (2) insertion of a soft flexible tube through the cervix into the uterus, (3) suction created by an aspirating machine to remove the pregnancy from the uterus. It is done in an outpatient clinic, doctor’s office or hospital and takes less than five minutes to complete the actual procedure.IPAS Syringe – Early Abortion with Manual Vacuum Aspiration (MVA):
As soon as the pregnancy can be detected by ultrasound (typically 4-5 weeks), an abortion can be performed using a manual aspiration device called the IPAS Syringe. Similar to the suction aspiration procedure, the IPAS system consists of thin flexible tubing, but instead of using a machine to create suction, the suction is created by a handheld syringe. The procedure usually takes less than 5 minutes to complete. Aftercare is the same as with suction aspiration. Availability of this procedure is based upon doctor’s discretion. Abortion by syringe is sometimes referred to as the quiet abortion.D & E (Dilate and Evacuate):
From 13 to 24 weeks, Cedar River Clinics use the Dilation and Evacuation (D&E) procedure. Appointments are made for 2-3 consecutive days. On the first day, an ultrasound (sonogram) is performed to determine the size of the fetus. Then, the abortion procedure is begun by numbing the cervix with injections and inserting dilators into the cervix. Overnight these dilators gently expand, opening the entrance to the uterus. The next day, the cervix is again numbed, the dilators are removed, and the doctor uses special instruments to evacuate the uterus and remove the pregnancy. The final step is suction using the aspirating machine. In more advanced pregnancies, additional dilators are inserted on the second day and the fetus is removed on the third day. The medical procedure lasts about 10-15 minutes.
Don’t get me wrong: it’s tragic that Laura Smith died. My heart sincerely goes out to her family and friends. But perhaps the main reason baby-worshipping wingnuts are so disturbed by her death is not because abortions inevitably kill teh wimmins, but because she was one of them.
Once again, mere speculation.
(And it’s Stacy, without the gratuitous ‘E’. Maybe you should stick with ‘sassywho’ – it’s easier.)
Slacker Friday: “Islamophobia Promotion Week”; Breast Cancer Is Sexier (And More Marketable) Than Domestic Violence UPDATED 10.27
by matttbastard
Earlier this year, the upstanding, freedom-loving folks at FrontPage magazine and the Terrorism Awareness Project proudly announced that, from Oct 22-28th, that ever-so-lovable wing-nutty Islamophobe modern-day Cassandra, David Horowitz, would valiantly and courageously shine the spotlight on the evil evilness of stupid neologisms “Islamo-Fascism” in a surge of Islamophobic idiocy Horowitz cleverly dubbed Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week. Apparently this existentially-threatening scourge is being unwittingly enabled–nay, directly and deliberately aided and abetted–by *gasp* stateside liberalpinkosocialistfeminazi fifth columnists like Michael Moore (who is fat and Communist), in concert with “THE ANTI-AMERICAN CURRICULUM OF THE TENURED LEFT [sic] which teaches that America is a racist, sexist, homophobic, imperialist “Great Satan” whose little Eichmanns deserve what they get at the hands of Medieval religious fanatics armed with the latest technologies of death.”
Be still my Merika-hatin’ heart.
According to Hatewatch, Horowitz has been “traveling to American university campuses to attack those who criticize the “War on Terror” and — parenthetically — those who see global warming as a major world threat.” Global Warming?! Yeah, betcha didn’t know Osama and Al Gore were homeboys; reportedly they bonded years ago over a shared interest in hatin’ ur Americaz and a deep, abiding affection for the University of Tennessee Lady Volunteers.
(No word on whether BNP head honcho Nick Griffin’s recent campus speaking tour was at all affiliated with Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week, nor whether Griffin also decided to throw in some superfluous anti-climate change propaganda just for the hell of it.)
Alas, as the folks at Sadly, No! pointed out back in late September, Horowitz has nagging issues reconciling paranoid bigotry and eliminationist rhetoric with the deadliest weapon in the fifth column’s arsenal: reality.
Goddamn facts – how maddeningly inconvenient.
More: Channelling Tom Lehrer, Kieren Healy of Crooked Timber has penned a tribute in verse to honour these brave warriorz 4 freedumz; Josh Marshall of TPM provides a tongue-in-cheek investigative video report on David Horowitz and Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week. Also check out this statement from Interfaith Communities United for Justice and Peace, which accuses Horowitz and co. of adopting “a calculated strategy to inflame fear of Muslims and ultimately to soften up the American public to support the next assault in the “War on Terror:” war against Iran” (gee, ya think?) Oh, and you know this week-long exercise in excruciating eliminationist hysteria is a bust when even Uncle Jimbo sez Horowitz’s anti-Sharia sideshow “sucked Hoover.”
[Update: Oh hell no - he didn't just go there, did he? Watch the footage, then check this instant-classic post Mandolin wrote earlier this year. To paraphrase, criticism !=nooses.]
[Update 2 - 10.27: Chet Scoville believes that tactics like those utilized by the students @ Emory only play into the hands of professional martyrs like Horowitz:
...these sorts of protests worked well forty years ago, when neither the media nor political figures knew what to do about them. Now they know; they have the skill to spin them and fit them into their own narratives. The way to disrupt their message is to do something that doesn't fit their narratives -- like emptying the campus for a day and having them speak to an empty auditorium. Now that would have made for crappy footage, and it wouldn't have been shown.]
Related: In case y’all weren’t aware, some of the Islamophobes are apparently down with teh Belgian racist right, to the (dubiously admirable) consternation of LGF head honcho Charles Johnson, who isn’t quite ready to make a logical ideological progression. Still, good old fashioned non-Islamic fascism seems to be a-ok with Pamela Geller, Paul Weyrich and Co. (even Roger Scruton…? Jesus), as long as teh Brownshirts from Brussels feign mad love for teh j00s and pay lip-service to the Holocaust (oh, and most importantly, phear teh Muslims)
Talk about the ultimate marriage of convenience.
[Update 3 - 10.27: Oooo, the spat between Johnson and Geller is gettin' good /popcorn
To quoth D. Aristophanes, "When Johnson actually addressed a topic other than the latest truck backfiring in Damascus, it was as if he had suddenly ripped an IV from his arm that had been pumping 9/11 freakout juice into his veins for the past six years." Hell, Johnson unequivocally effing OWNS here. And now I'm going to go wait for the inevitable collapse of the known universe.]
Elsewhere:
- Lucinda Marshall, founder of the indispensable, superlative Feminist Peace Network, has a must-read article up @ AlterNet detailing how women’s magazines use breast cancer as a cheap marketing ploy–while domestic violence against women receives little focus:
October means falling leaves, ghosts and goblins, and pink, lots of Pepto-Pink as we observe National Breast Cancer Awareness Month (NBCAM). From Campbell’s Soup to Breast Cancer Barbie, it seems as if just about everyone has jumped on the pinkified bandwagon. And although October is also Domestic Violence Awareness Month (DVAM), we’d much rather be aware of breasts, even sick ones, than talk about black eyes and things that aren’t supposed to go on behind closed doors. That point is reflected in women’s magazines, which devote much more space in their October issues to breast cancer than they do to domestic violence.
Of nine publications that I recently found on a grocery store magazine rack, all of which advertised breast cancer articles on the covers of their October issues, only two also contained coverage of Domestic Violence Awareness Month (and mentioned that on their covers).* And, what’s worse, of the coverage dedicated to breast cancer, much of it was offensive, superficial, misleading, or flat-out wrong.
This year there is even called Beyond Breast Cancer that cheerfully proclaims that there are “10 Good Things About Breast Cancer.” Who knew? And just what are the pluses of getting this dreaded disease? According to the bubblegum-colored magazine, one perk is a pair of new boobs that “will face the horizon, not the South Pole.’ Better yet, they will be paid for by insurance. Oh, and you get lots of cards and flowers.
[...]
While it is questionable that additional awareness of breast cancer is useful, in the case of domestic violence, more coverage would be helpful. Domestic violence is the most common type of violence experienced by women both globally and in the United States. The Family Violence Prevention Fund reports that one out of every three women worldwide is “beaten, coerced into sex or otherwise abused during her lifetime.” Here in the United States, the rate is one in four. In 2005 (the latest year for which statistics are available), 976 women in the United States were killed by by men that they knew. Yet because we tend to see this violence as a private, shameful issue, only 20 percent of rapes and 25 percent of physical assaults against women in this country are reported to the police.
Related:
- Be bold, be brave, be red. Wear red on October 31, 2007. Take a picture or video of yourself and friends wearing red. Send it to: beboldbered@gmail.com. We’ll post it!
- Take Your Red to the Streets! Know of a location where violence occurred against a woman of color? Have a public location where you feel women of color are often ignored? Make violence against women of color visible by decorating the space in red. Be sure to send us pictures and or video of your display!
- Rally! Gather your friends, family, and community to rally. Check out the Document the Silence website for the litany we’re asking participants to read together on October 31st. Be sure to send us pictures and/or video of the event! You could even gather where you created a display!
More details on how you can participate @ Document the Silence.
(h/t FPN and The Thin Black Duke)
- Dana @ The Galloping Beaver on cognitive dissonance and Afghanistan:
At the same time Rickie is saying 10 more years and Stevie is saying 4 more years there is a former United Nations High Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina from Great Britain who says, “We have lost, I think, and success is now unlikely.”
And on the same day Britain’s most senior armed forces leader, Air Chief Marshall Sir Jock Stirrup said: “There is a common misperception that the issues in Afghanistan, and indeed elsewhere around the world, can be dealt with by military means. That’s a false perception.”
Regardless of how long is deemed necessary to delay the inevitable (perhaps close to 40 years, according to Brigadier John Lorimer, commander of UK forces in Helmand), the wide gap between Hilliar’s estimate on how long it will take to train Afghan security forces and that of the PMO is indicative of just how desperate the effort to maintain the illusion of progress has become for the Stephen Harper Party.
The fact is, Hillier’s assessment is believable because it’s based on the current metrics. Whether the ANA kandaks being trained by the Canadian Army are, in fact, “top-notch” doesn’t really enter the picture. What is true is that it takes three years to train a single Afghan infantry battalion and we’re only half-way there. That doesn’t even take into account that the ANA has virtually nothing in the way of combat support and logistical support elements. Adding those in would make Hillier’s assessment optimistic.
Hillier has forwarded something which the Harperites know will cause Canadians to balk: the idea of war-without-end. If the ANA is unable to deal with security situation in Afghanistan on its own, the dismal picture being presented is that Canadian troops will continue to be involved in the same kind of asymmetrical warfare they are now engaged in and will continue to suffer losses – unless we can convince other allies to take on that part of the mission – even for a while.
- Antigone Magazine updates Uncle Steve’s ongoing war on the Canadian womens movement and offers the following defiant postscript:
After publishing this post I realized that there was something that I forgot to add. Ah, yes…. They can take away our funding but they can’t take away our feminisms! (and the political pie will wind up on their face!). That was my idea of a war cry. Let it reverberate through the blog0sphere!
PREACH!
- Last but definitely not least, please extend a warm welcome to the newest member of the bastard.logic family, the inimitable sassywho, who has graciously agreed to help expand our humble crime-fighting trio to a more-foreboding quartet. Check out her intro post and first three offerings and feel free to show her some comment love–or, conversely, level baseless accusations of hatin’ teh babiez. Hey, c’mon now – we here at bastard.logic absolutely adore pre-bornz – especially marinaded overnight in brown-sugar hickory sauce, grilled lightly on both sides and served on a bed of wild rice garnished with fresh cilantro.
On that note, dinner.
Happy Friday!
U.S. Supreme Court Abortion Ban: Death Toll 1?
by sassywho
22 year old Laura Smith died last month:
HYANNIS — Eileen and Tom Smith had just sat down to watch the evening news when they received a call no parent ever wants to get. The woman on the other end of the line was hysterical. She said the Smiths’ 22-year-old daughter, Laura, was in the emergency room at Cape Cod Hospital. The doctors were looking for next of kin.
And there was more. Laura Smith had been pregnant for 13 weeks. And, earlier that day, she had been at a clinic that provides abortions.
Her death is still being investigated:
The state medical examiner hasn’t determined the cause of Smith’s death, a state spokesman said. And Cape & Islands District Attorney Michael O’Keefe is awaiting those results before determining whether further action should be taken, he said.
Eileen Smith met with Osathanondh in the lobby of the Boston Harbor Hotel in Boston about 10 days after Laura’s death.
Smith said she learned from Osathanondh that her daughter had a suction-type abortion, and that she was anesthetized during the procedure. She saw the waiver her daughter signed, the permissions she gave and the list of drugs she was given, Smith said.
She declined to give further details, citing the court case.
Abortion-related death is rare in the United States, according to government statistics.
The Supreme Court ruling earlier this year, fraught with paternal condescension and obfuscating language, was unpopular with physicians and pro-choicers for a reason: women’s safety was at risk. This was widely known!
The Supreme Court’s decision to uphold a federal ban on so- called partial-birth abortion in April is causing medical practitioners to explore alternate second-trimester abortion methods, placing them in uncharted legal and medical waters that could compromise women’s health.
The ban is expected to bring more risky abortion methods — with little clinical data on safety — into wider use for the sole purpose of legally protecting providers, doctors and experts say.
These alternative second-trimester abortion methods include fetalcide — killing the fetus while it is still in the womb — and hysterotomy, opening the uterus through an abdominal incision.
I have no way of knowing what specific procedure Dr. Osathanondh used, but one doubts that, facing a potential a 2 year jail term, he would choose the safer–but legally riskier–option to terminate a 2nd trimester pregnancy.
While practitioners can continue to perform D&Es, they must now be careful about their methods, Drey said.
Dilating a woman’s cervix too far could show intent to perform a D&X — a violation of the law. Even the way clinicians hold forceps could show intent, Drey said.
“This is where it becomes frightening for physicians,” she said. “To do a safe D&E, you like to have more dilators. Now we are being told that more dilation means you have intent to do a criminal procedure.”
Not dilating a woman’s cervix far enough can result in discomfort, pain and medical risk, she said.
Because there are so many gray areas in the law, it is yet unknown what the parameters will be for prosecuting physicians, said Beth Parker, partner with Bingham McCutchen, who represented Planned Parenthood in the San Francisco case challenging the law.
Women’s health is directly tied to restrictions on abortion, as a study published in the Lancet this month is telling:
“We now have a global picture of induced abortion in the world, covering both countries where it is legal and countries where laws are very restrictive,” Dr. Paul Van Look, director of the W.H.O. Department of Reproductive Health and Research, said in a telephone interview. “What we see is that the law does not influence a woman’s decision to have an abortion. If there’s an unplanned pregnancy, it does not matter if the law is restrictive or liberal.”
But the legal status of abortion did greatly affect the dangers involved, the researchers said. “Generally, where abortion is legal it will be provided in a safe manner,” Dr. Van Look said. “And the opposite is also true: where it is illegal, it is likely to be unsafe, performed under unsafe conditions by poorly trained providers.”
It’s actually quite simple: restrict abortion, women die. Ultimately, Dr. Kennedy has compromised women’s health by turning medical practice into a crapshoot. Perhaps Laura Smith is the first casualty.
Recommend this post at Progressive Bloggers
Thursday Blogwhoring: 3.6 Hrs != Enough
by matttbastard
Remind me to stop sacrificing sleep for obsessive late night blogging/research. Candle = burnt. Both ends; no wick nor wax remains.
Love, etc.
(Blah blah blah Melissa McEwan = teh r0x0r)
Feministe: What Color Are the Holes in Your Parachute? (La Lubu is a national treasure [h/t myca - so much for teh link embargo])
The Angry Black Woman: The Grass is Always Greener
The Silence of Our Friends: Bitter Laughter (h/t Donna Darko)
Creekside: Harper chooses gay superhero to be new symbol of Canada
Impolitical: Must…repeat…North…Star…:)
Shakesville: Shocking: Hate Peddlers Also Lying Douchebags
A Creative Revolution: Reality has a well known liberal bias……
Bene Diction Blogs On: Elections Canada – opps. 1 million voters not eligible (h/t April Reign)
AverageBro: The Gubb’ment Doesn’t Care About Your Nana’s Right To Vote
unrepentant old hippie: Code Pink activists detained
Women of Color Blog: “Hopelessly Deadlocked”
Cubically Challenged: Women, Belonging, Ownership
Slant Truth: The Blackface Files Return (oh for fucks sake)
Anti-Choice is Anti-Awesome: Meet Beard-o
AngryBlackBitch: Bad Boy vodka?
Dymaxion World: Trying to lose
Birth Pangs: Girls and Women, Girls and Women, Girls and Women
April Reign: Anger, Resentment & Politics (PREACH!)
ex-lion tamer: why i like science fiction
Girl, Dislocated: As uneventful as it gets, part 1 and part 2
Quote of the Day: Cul-de-sacs and Three Way Intersections
by matttbastard
To sit back and ignore this crisis because “it’s not happening here” does a grave injustice to the cause of anti-oppression work. If we allow the U.S. government and ourselves to sit back and ignore this crisis, we might as well sit back and ignore the crises that happen here as well. As long as oppression and hate and genocide are allowed anywhere in the world, it will be allowed and justified at home.
But on the other hand, I feel that I also must remind that it is often easier to stand against oppression that isn’t happening in your own back yard. It’s a two-way street, with a cul-de-sac up the road and one of those three-way intersections a half a mile away where you have to take a left exit to go where you want. It ain’t always easy. Stand up against world-wide oppression, but don’t think that gives you a pass to ignore what is going on in your own neighborhood. You will be tired. You might also find yourself confused at times. But you won’t be nearly as tired and confused as those slaves were after an 18-hour day in the fields.
- The Thin Black Duke, Blogging Against Genocide
Besides the links included in Kevin’s post, make sure to check out Eric Reeves’ invaluable site (though I don’t agree with all of Reeves’ conclusions/solutions):
Eric Reeves is Professor of English Language and Literature at Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts. He has spent the past eight years working full-time as a Sudan researcher and analyst, publishing extensively both in the US and internationally. He has testified several times before the Congress, has lectured widely in academic settings, and has served as a consultant to a number of human rights and humanitarian organizations operating in Sudan. Working independently, he has written on all aspects of Sudan’s recent history. His book about Darfur (“A Long Day’s Dying: Critical Moments in the Darfur Genocide”) was published in May 2007 (available here). He is also at work on a longer-range project surveying the international response to ongoing war and human destruction in Sudan over the past 18 years (“Sudan — Suffering a Long Way Off”).
OTOH, Ken Silverstein contends that some Darfur advocacy campaigns like Save Darfur render an extremely convoluted and chaotic situation to a simplistic battle between good and evil, victim and oppressor. Silverstein points to a recent op-ed by David Rieff:
To communicate a more complicated message may be more accurate but it is inevitably less compelling, and according to the conventional wisdom, campaigns need to be compelling if they are to have a hope of success.
In the case of Darfur, there is in fact considerable controversy about whether the government of Sudan and the janjaweed have committed genocide. Save Darfur, the Holocaust Museum and the U.S. Congress say they have; the European Union and many of the most important relief groups working on the ground in western Sudan say they have not. There is also a heated debate among statisticians, demographers and activists about how many people have been killed or displaced. Understandably, those who are campaigning for an international intervention to rescue the Darfuris tend to accept the higher figures; indeed, for many it is the brute number of dead that drew them to activism in the first place.
To suggest that things may be more complicated is in no sense to deprecate their commitment. But it is to say that if, proverbially, the first casualty of war is truth, then the first casualty of activism is complexity. If Save Darfur had said, “Look, the situation in Darfur is very convoluted and, while the government of Sudan deserves the lion’s share of the blame, the rebels are no prize either,” how many contributions would the group have received, and how many volunteers would they have inspired?
Precious few, most likely. And yet — although it probably was the case that in 2004, the conflict in Darfur could accurately be described as a campaign of terror and murder against Darfuri civilians orchestrated by the Khartoum government — in 2007, the conflict has degenerated into one in which rebel factions are fighting one another while factions within the janjaweed are doing the same. In other words, it’s a war of all against all.
[...]
None of this is to say that the crisis in Darfur is manufactured. It is all too real. But a crisis that involves innocent victims and evil victimizers is different from one in which there is evil enough to go around — which, as the headlines demonstrate, is what is actually going on in Darfur.
Also see Lenin’s classic Sudan and lurid morality tales for young imperialists*:
The current crusading about Sudan reminds me of the old saying from the pan-African movement: nothing about us, without us. That it is also a slogan of the disability rights movement is somehow appropriate, since oppressed or marginalised groups tend to suffer from a great deal of imperious generosity by philanthropists and charitable overseers who think of them as children.
Recommend this post at Progressive Bloggers
*And here’s where my anti-imperialist/interventionist leanings come into play, which is why, after much thought, I ultimately chose not to directly participate in the Blog Against Genocide campaign. A difficult decision, one that will likely breed much inner turmoil and second-guessing (which neatly sums up my overall relationship over the years with the situation in Darfur; confusion, cul-de-sacs and three way intersections, indeed.)
Carnival of Feminists #46
by matttbastard
The 46th Carnival of Feminists is up @ Cubically Challenged. A plethora of primo selections await, including one from *ahem* yours truly. A good effort has been made to include a diverse variety of global perspectives, although, as apu notes, the selection pool is unfortunately limited due to language restrictions. So head on over and revel in the latest fiesta of bloggy feminista!
Stop Touching Those Monkies
by boomgate
UN Gives Canada A Failing Grade On Housing
by matttbastard
x-posted @ Comments From Left Field
(h/t F-email Fightback)
Miloon Kothari, UN special rapporteur on adequate housing, has spent the past two weeks in Canada conducting a cross-country fact-finding mission on homelessness. ‘Underwhelmed‘ doesn’t begin to describe his reaction. According to the Toronto Star, Kothari believes “[a]n ambitious national housing program and a strategy to combat poverty is urgently needed to tackle the disaster-like conditions of homelessness and inadequate housing found across the country.”
More from the Star:
“What is beginning here has already happened in the U.S., where you speak to people (and) they say, `the homeless are there by choice,’ or `it’s those drug addicts,’” Kothari said in an interview yesterday. “That is a very serious mental shift.”
[...]
During his visit, he travelled to Toronto, Vancouver, Edmonton and Montreal as well as aboriginal reserves. He visited shelters, talked to housing advocates and reviewed reports. And at the end of his visit yesterday, he questioned how a country like Canada, with its rich surpluses and history of progressive housing policies, had let the housing crisis get so out of hand.
“You have had a history of very progressive housing policies which were summarily abandoned in the mid-’90s, and the consequences of that are here tragically for all of us to see,” he said.
“I hope there is a radical shift in government policy,” Kothari said.
Unfortunately, as inferred by Kothari, there already has been a radical policy shift–in the wrong direction.
Mr. Kothari admitted that his recommendations were not likely to be popular with Canada’s federal government. Most of his recommendations, he said, are founded on human rights obligations, not the market perspective that he thinks dominates policy in most developed countries — and which, in his opinion, is the reason there is a housing crisis in the first place.
Precisely so. Nationally, the prologue to the crisis was written in 1995 by Paul Martin in the form of his Bay St-approved laissez-faire budget, which, according to Murray Dobbin, “characterized the government as being parasitic, an out-of-control entity that had to be disciplined, rather than a democratic body, an expression of Canadian society.” The Stephen Harper Party has since eagerly run with this Neoliberal narrative, taking it to pathological extremes.
As pale @ A Creative Revolution rhetorically asks:
How many pre-conceived notions about the homeless and those living in poverty have taken on the perspective of Neoliberalism? When did we stop seeing those in need as human? And start to see laziness, and criminality?
Related: pale has more @ the above link on the pre-2010 Olympic gentrification of Vancouver, where the “Homeless and poor, and the drug addicted that live in the city are now seen [by city and Olympic officials] as a ‘PR issue.’” David Eby notes that Kothari made it clear the UN is well aware events like the Olympics result in “forced evictions for construction of infrastructures, city beautification and speculation of land and property and measures to remove homeless people from cities prior to and during the event” and offered the following (likely to be ignored) recommendations:
Vancouver Olympic officials, and the relevant city authorities, need to continue to implement specific targets and strategies on housing and homelessness, and to commit funding and other resources to support these targets. The social development plan of the Vancouver Games should be developed and implemented in public, so that the progress of Vancouver officials can be effectively monitored. I would recommend the formation of an independent monitoring body to assist VANOC in complying with its commitments to improve the housing rights situation in the region where the Olympics will take place.
Also, this 1999 Salt Lake Tribune article by Shawn Foster, Atlanta’s Olympic Legacy: More Poverty, Less Freedom, outlines the lasting negative impact Olympic gentrification can have on a former host city’s homeless and low-income citizens.
“People are exhausted by a conversation that we’ve never had.”
by matttbastard
The Fall 2007 issue of The Public Eye has an interview with Maryland-based civil rights lawyer and law prof Sherrilyn Ifill, author of On the Courthouse Lawn: Confronting the Legacy of Lynching in the 21st Century. In a telling passage, Ifill recounts the cognitive dissonance she has encountered over the years when discussing incidents of racial terrorism with blacks and whites:
I found while working on many cases in Texas, Louisiana, Nebraska, Arkansas, and here in Maryland, that when I asked my clients about the history of discrimination in their communities, I would very often hear a story about a lynching or another story of racial terrorism, sometimes decades in the past. I was struck by the accuracy and the detail with which the events were described – usually events they didn’t see or they weren’t even alive at the time.
When I talked with Whites about the very same incidents, they had vague recollections, particularly where lynchings were concerned. I thought this was alarming because Whites were for the most part the ones who saw lynchings, not Blacks. I’d often seen this in my civil rights work: Whites see their world one way and Blacks see their world a very different way. I thought this disconnect really lies at the heart of race in America.
As they say, read the whole damn thing.
Related: Ifill details a close-to home reminder that the noose is still to this day a powerful icon of terror.
“And Cows Disagree With Me”
by matttbastard
Yeah, Bill Maher is a misogynistic asshat, but just this once he’s pure muthafuckin’ WIN!
Flashback: Matt Taibbi also = WIN!
(h/t unrepentant old hippie)
Equal Opportunity In Zimbabwe: Tsvangirai-Lead Opposition Dissolves Women’s Assembly
by matttbastard
“Gender equality is critical to our national development. The MDC, which evolved out of civil society organisations, including women’s groups, is committed to making gender equality a reality. We will eliminate all barriers that prevent women from playing an equal role in society and enjoying equal rights.
The empowerment of women is fundamental to the MDC’s vision of creating a new Zimbabwe in which there is equal opportunity for all.“
- Lucia Matibenga, Without gender equality, Zimbabwe on road to nowhere
The Morgan Tsvangirai-lead MDC leadership has recently forsaken this fundamental component of its equal opportunity vision, as eloquently outlined by Matibenga. Lance Guma reports that “[t]he MDC…has dissolved the 24 member Women’s Assembly executive led by trade unionist Lucia Matibenga.” The suprise move may have come as a result of more internal power struggles within the MDC:
Those displeased with the decision say it’s an over-reaction to minor disagreements that are being fanned by people plotting to overthrow Matibenga. It has already been suggested that Theresa Makone, the wife of Ian Makone, is being lined up to replace Matibenga. Her husband Ian recently spent over 4 months in remand prison over cooked up terror charges before a judge freed him accusing the police of manufacturing evidence. Another point raised is that the standing committee has no power to dissolve the women’s assembly executive and was only supposed to make recommendations to the National or Executive Council.
More from Zim Daily:
Impeccable sources say the dissolution of the women’s assembly was preceded by a vote of no confidence passed by provincial chairpersons of the women’s assemblies of the MDC’s 12 provinces at a meeting held at the MDC headquarters at No. 44 Nelson Mandela Avenue in Harare two weeks ago.
Women’s assembly chairperson for Chitungwiza Province Lilian Chinyerere-Mashumba confirmed that provincial chairladies had passed a vote of no confidence in the national assembly led by Matibenga in a move likely to fuel factionalism and worsen emerging divisions in the party.
“We passed a vote of no confidence in the national executive because as provinces we are not happy with way things are going on between the chairperson and the secretary.
“We are convinced now that their personal differences will take us backwards instead of taking the struggle forward”, said Chinyerere-Mashumba who added that 8 out of 12 provinces had voted for the dissolution of the national assembly.
Harare Province women’s assembly chairperson Rorina Dandajena said the Matibenga led assembly was being accused of non-performance, factionalism, and abuse of party funds among other allegations.
[...]
A veteran trade unionist who fought in from the same corner with Tsvangirai during the ugly row and final split of the MDC in 2005 Matibenga said provincial chairpersons had no power to pass a vote of no confidence in the national assembly on their own as they did not constitute the required quorum.
[...]
Those sympathetic to Mativenga suggest that the fact that members of the dissolved executive will be allowed to contest for re-election means the move is not meant to deal with the differences between Mativenga and Masaiti or their non-performance.
They claim it a strategic ploy by a powerful clique in the MDC to reshuffle the women’s assembly and replace Matibenga at the helm with Makone or [women’s assembly secretary general Evelyn] Masaiti who are closer to the top leadership.
A modest politician Matibenga who is popular with the grassroots structures is not known to have powerful allies in the top leadership of the MDC.
As intimated by Zim Daily, the MDC has a contentious history, most famously evidenced by a 2005 post-election schism that split the party into two independent factions–a move that, at the time, some said “undermined its challenge to President Robert Mugabe’s 26-year rule” and has since made Mugabe “stronger than ever.” Earlier this year, both factions (represented by Tsvangirai, who founded the MDC, and Arthur Mutambara respectively) “established an uneasy working relationship with the ruling ZANU-PF party of President Robert Mugabe, voting together to pass a constitutional amendment over strident objections from civil society and co-drafting a new constitution.” (More on Constitutional Amendment 18 from Zimbabwe Journalists.)
Perhaps to mitigate what could further dilute the Zimbabwean opposition, the Tsvangirai faction is convening “a special congress of the women’s assembly on October 28.”
Via LabourStart, in preparation for the October 28th congress, a solidarity campaign in support of Matibenga has been undertaken:
Dear Friends of Lucia,
An injustice to one is an injustice to all of us.
You strike a woman. You strike a rock.‘I myself have never been able to find out precisely what feminism is, I only know that people call me a feminist whenever I express sentiments that differentiate me from a doormat.’ Rebecca West, Suffragist, 1913.
What has Lucia not been through? She has survived several March 11ths. She has survived the horrors of Zanu PF’s tyranny and brutality. She has been a source of our inspiration our leader, the voice of reason that has refused to be cowed out of the peoples struggle. She has remained consistent and steadfast that people and especially marginalised women are who this struggle is all about and for. Lucia is also the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions, ZCTU, first Vice President and the regional President of the Southern African Trade Union Council.As part of the ongoing campaign by many of us who understand the unfortunate removal of Lucia Matibenga from the national chairpersonship of the MDC Women’s Assembly, we have formed the ‘Friends of Lucia Campaign.’ If you believe in fairness and justice you can be one of us.
The Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) has set the date for the illegal women’s congress to be held on the 28th of October. While Mai Mati or Lucy has received nominations and overwhelming support from the grassroots in the party, going into that election without her support base firstly knowing how flawed the process of removing her was, and secondly why she is constantly attacked by MDC patriarchs, would be a gross omission on our part.
Why are they so frightened of Lucia?
Lucia will not benefit from silent support, those who claim to be her friends have to say, enough is enough. Democracy in the MDC will not benefit from silent solidarity. The assault on the Women’s Assembly chair should be viewed within the broader context of women’s liberation and emancipation.
Comrades in South Africa have started to write in support of the MDC women’s struggle, well done to Philile the South African daughter of the slain anti-apartheid activist Siphethelo Mbokazi. Others have sent in heart warming e-mails and text messages. We know we are not alone.
How can you help?
We believe if everyone is encouraged to use the tools and resources within their means, we can run a very effective campaign. To demand the respect for women like Mai Mati. Your solidarity costs nothing just be principled.
What are the objectives of this campaign:
- Put the women’s agenda back on the agenda.
- Link up, nationally, regionally and internationally, with other activists, feminists, politicians who share the same aspirations as the female politicians in Zimbabwe.
- Campaign that women in politics be recognised as grown adults.
Demand their rightful place in leadership not as a favour but a right.
Invigorate activists who have endured the backlash from both the patriarchy in their midst and the Robert Mugabe dictatorship.- Campaign for an end to all forms of violence against women in politics and Zimbabwe at large. Especially the attack on female politician’s sexuality.
- Build solidarity with like minded men who are not threatened by what Zimbabwean female politicians stand for.
Grace Kwinjeh, deputy secretary for international relations in the MDC, puts the controversy–and the role of women in the struggle against Mugabe and the ruling ZANU-PF government–in perspective:
Even before the MDC was formed eight years ago, Zimbabwean women made great strides in fighting for their emancipation. We took on Mugabe before the boys even woke up to their own oppression.
The women’s struggle was led by women like Everjoice Win, Shereen Essof, Priscilla Misihairabwi, Nancy Kachingwe, Yvonne Mahlunge, Isabella Matambanadzo, Thoko Matshe, Janah Ncube, Lydia Zigomo, Rudo Kwaramba, and Sekai Holland, fellow torture survivor and head of the Association of Women’s Clubs. Our first fight was for recognition as equal human beings to our male counterparts.
The Legal Age of Majority Act now recognises us as adults, we can vote, open bank accounts and even marry should we choose to – none of which were possible without the consent of a male connection, be it brother father or uncle. We were perpetual minors.
The Matrimonial Causes Act now recognises our right to own property, independent of our husbands or fathers. After we challenged physical abuse, Parliament passed the Domestic Violence Act. This background made some of us suitable candidates for leadership in the MDC.
At what point, then, did we women become minors once again, answerable to male authority, becoming subjects of agendas that have nothing to do with our empowerment or liberation for that matter?
With the MDC’s attack on its Women’s League, we are relegated once again to second class citizen position. The first contact women like Lucia Matibenga (former head of the MDC women’s league), Sekai Holland and myself have with our bodies each morning after we wake up and take a bath, is the scarring inflicted by Mugabe’s police.
These scars are deep, physical and psychological, but their political significance is that they can be the source of our liberation. They are our badges of honour, marking us as comrades who have been on the frontline facing the enemy head on.
To quote Brownfemipower, “Follow the women. They know the way.”
Flashback: the Mail & Guardian and the AFL-CIO with background on the brutal September 2006 assault on and torture of peaceful ZCTU demonstrators (including Lucia Matibenga) by Zimbabwe security officials; more on the immediate aftermath of the March 11th police crackdown from the NY Times and Human Rights Watch.
Late Night Logic: Her Life Was Saved By…
by matttbastard
Rock & Roll. Full fucking stop.
Electric Eel Shock – Suicide Rock & Roll
(Rock out with yr cock out after the cut)
Quote Of The Day: “An Injury to One is an Injury to All”
by matttbastard
There are no current representations of [union workers] in the mainstream media. We have long since fallen out of favor as subjects of photographs or other works of art. There are no interviews, roundtables or summits disseminated in the news media featuring the knowledge and opinions of our leaders, let alone that of the rank and file. Newspapers have long since eliminated their “labor beats.” There are no holidays in honor of our national heroes of labor; no day off for Mary Harris “Mother” Jones, Asa Philip Randolph, Cesar Chavez. No chapters in our children’s schoolbooks that give recognition to our history, our struggles, our triumphs, or our defeats.
Making us faceless, makes us disposable.
Without our presence, media imagery of unions and union workers is distorted. This distortion serves to make our interests—and those of our unorganized brothers and sisters, unimportant. Whining, even. Aren’t we glad to just have a job?
[...]
Back in the day, [union workers] had our own forms of media. We published our own newspapers (in several languages), held rallies and night classes for our memberships. We did not rely on other to tell our truths. As corporate control of the media tightens, as our publically-owned analog airwaves are scheduled to be auctioned off to the highest bidder, I can’t help but wonder why we are not more active in pursuing our own interests in this realm. We need to do a better job of supporting the pro-labor media that exists, and create new forms of our own. Our survival, individually and collectively, depends on it. We will not hear from the mass media how the erosion of the eight-hour day contributes to rising injury and death rates at work. We will not hear how understaffing and doing more work with fewer people results in more illness, injury and repetitive-use injuries. We will not hear critiques of the repeal of the Illinois Scaffolding Act; we will not get answers to our question on why Illinois still does not have an Electrical Licensing Act. We may be informed that we have a new OSHA director and a new MSHA director, yet we won’t hear about their backgrounds or why they were chosen to lead these critical agencies. New OSHA director Edwin G. Foulke made his bones being the OSHA expert at Jackson Lewis, a huge law firm specializing in union busting. Richard Stickler, our new MSHA director, was the head of mine safety in Pennsylvania during the time of teh Quecreek mine near-disaster, where fortunately nine trapped miners were rescued. He was notable for presiding over mines wih an injury rate double the national average. Every year, we celebrate the memory of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., a giant who lived among us—and every year, during the retelling of the story of his assassination, the mass media neglects to mention that the sanitation workers’ strike that Dr. King went to Memphis to support, was in response to the deaths of two workers. Even here in Springfield, with the plethora of historical information offered to tourists, there is no mention of John L. Lewis, or that his house still stands near Washington Park. There is no plaque to identify it; it remains an unacknowleged part of our past.
- La Lubu, A Worker’s Memorial
Goddamn. La Lubu really, really needs to post more often.
Related: if you haven’t already, make sure to bookmark and/or subscribe to LabourStart, a pro-labour global media hub definitely worthy of attention, support, solidarity.
Radical Fun Day: Cheering For Equality, USE, And Some Shameless Plugging
by matttbastard
BRING. IT. ON!
Bonus:
IT IS ON!
Yeah, it doesn’t get more RadFun than United State of Electronica.
Srsly.
Of course, the lovecats of newmindspace and robotpilot industries also fit the bill, as do those shameless Jagerfiends @ Nocturnal Commissions (pray for their livers). Just remember: there’s more than enough radical fun in the world to make every day Radical Fun Day. Go forth, brethren, make is so, and remember these words of wisdom from Slim Goodbody:
(Damn, that motherfucker freaked me out when I was a kid.)
Radical Fun Day: 9/11 Simultaneously Changed Everything And Nothing
by matttbastard
Terror via gumballs: radically fun, or outrageously dumb?
Radical Fun Day: Simlish Edition
by matttbastard
Relatively moldy and, in all honesty, exceedingly g33ky. Admit it — Simlish is the new Klingon. Still, all in good, clean (radical) fun!
At Least The Acronym Was Right
by sassywho
Former Kansas Attorney General and current Johnson County D.A. Phil Kline is making good use of his concession position, continuing to demonstrate a complete lack of trust for elected officials and duly appointed regulatory agencies. Despite losing his reelection bid last fall, Kline is once again up to his old tricks, using his new position of (reduced) authority as a political and ideological platform to once again put the screws to Planned Parenthood in Overland Park. Of course, these latest charges (107, including 23 felonies) would seem completely reasonable– if one believes that the entire state of Kansas is under the spell of malicious elves who eat fetuses for breakfast, lunch and dinner (alas, stillborns are mere snacks).
If only such elves existed outside of Kline’s imagination.
During his Attorney General days, Kline abused public funds to harass those who respect reproductive rights, flaunting his embarrassing control/savior complex in the process. Klein’s successor as state AG, Paul Morrison, cleared Planned Parenthood shortly after taking office. Morrison, to my knowledge is not receiving kickbacks from fetus-fattened elves.
Most reasonable citizens would give more weight to the case if the evidence had not been collected under the aegis of an obvious phishing expedition.
Where did Kline obtain the information that he used to file charges – from the regulatory agencies that are responsible for monitoring medical records? Via a patient complaint? Or was it from the files that Kline made copies of on his way out the door when he was democratically demoted?
Planned Parenthood is an important resource not only to women of a certain socioeconomic class but also society as a whole, one that equally values women, children and family. Of course, for the poor souls who actually believe in blood-thirsty, fetus-hungry elves, there is an efficient way to put a wrinkle into the number of abortions that Planned Parenthood performs: support PP financially, so it can afford to focus on its birth control efforts, rather than wasting funds defending itself in court. From a purely economic standpoint, a live birth is 30 x’s more profitable (apparently P.P. is in the wrong business). It’s a challenge for those who value penance over prevention to make that distinction.
However, having children should never be a punishment. A District Attorney has no business determining for women or their health care providers whether or not medical procedures meet the qualifications of arbitrary considerations, but rather legal considerations. And, as far as I’m concerned, the top law official of the state has already spoken — in direct contradiction to D.A. Kline’s conclusions.
But what does that matter in a world full of elves who love the blood of tasty aborted babies?
#rebelleft
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Monday Blogwhoring
by matttbastard
Love endures forever, like a candy apple grey cockroach waiting for the end of a nuclear winter.
(Bow down to the Queen Cunt of Fuck Mountain, brethren.)
Baghdad Burning: Bloggers Without Borders… (h/t Michael van der Galiën)
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