I write letters to the enemy
Dear Wingnuttia,
Congratulations. With this latest five-alarm inferno of assembly-line red-baiting stupid you have finally roasted the shark that you gleefully keep jumping over and covered its charred remains in a burial shroud that maybe-kinda-sorta looks like scary Muslim head gear. Try not to choke on any donuts in the midst of your perpetual orgy of faux-outrage.
Hugs and kisses,
mattt-che-hussein-arafat-motherfucking-free-mumia-bastard
(h/t maha)
Number 21 With a Bullet
by matttbastard
Nothing says teh funnah quite like a user-generated snuff film:
In the video, a group of male co-workers bored at work begin to chant Boys v. Girls as a challenge. Thing is, there’s only one female in the group, so it’s essentially all the boys ganging up on one girl to torment her…brutalize her…violate her…and eventually kill her. Then they’re seen dragging her body into a storage area for the dead bodies of all the other female co-workers with whom they’ve evidently played this fun game.
Web 2.0 just made satire do a full 360 in its grave (and yours truly throw up a little bit in his mouth). Again, Backlash = user manual for the zeitgeist–with Henry Makow playing the role of tour guide.
(Note: if you want to watch the vid, Liss has posted it at her pad–view at your own risk. )
Al Jazeera: The divisive road through Afghanistan
by matttbastard
Related: more on the “lawless” Highway 1 from CJ Chivers.
US Rejects Cluster Bomb Treaty
by matttbastard
The BBC reports that over 100 nations have reached an agreement to ban the use of cluster bombs–with a notable abstention (yeah, I think you know what’s coming):
[I]n a statement, the Pentagon stood firm, saying: “While the United States shares the humanitarian concerns of those in Dublin, cluster munitions have demonstrated military utility, and their elimination from US stockpiles would put the lives of our soldiers and those of our coalition partners at risk.”
You know, at this point, I for one am sick to death of this (selective) obsession with demonstrable military utilitarianism and how it trumps basic fucking human rights and the lives of civilians. (Remember them? Technically, you aren’t allowed to kill them–wild, I know.) Let me second Cernig’s demand that the next US president break ranks with the kewl kidz in Russia, China, India and Pakistan (thank Christ the Harpercrats tepidly support the treaty, for now, at least), hold his or her nose, and join noted dirty fucking hippies like Pope Benedict XVI and United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon in support of the ban.
On Misogyny and the US MSM
by matttbastard
[I]gnoring “the little things” in favor of “the big stuff” makes the big stuff that much harder to eradicate, because it is the pervasive, ubiquitous, inescapable little things that create the foundation of a sexist culture on which the big stuff is dependent for its survival. It’s the little things, the constant drumbeat of inequality and objectification, that inure us to increasingly horrible acts and attitudes toward women.
- Melissa McEwan, Feminism 101: “Feminists Look for Stuff to Get Mad About”
(h/t Alberta: Get Rich or Die Trying for the video)
The Absurdity of Nipple-Squick
by matttbastard
I wonder if this brilliantly ridiculous idea was conceived in the zealously modest environs of Orlando…
Conversations with History: Andrew J. Bacevich
by matttbastard
Historian Andrew J. Bacevich discusses the new American militarism.
Out of Sight…
by matttbastard
According to the Project for Excellence in Journalism’s News Coverage Index, coverage of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan has slipped to 3 percent of all American print and broadcast news as of last week, falling from 25 percent as recently as last September.
The.
Surge.
Is.
“[C]hoosing a name that accurately represents who we are”
by matttbastard
Monica Roberts on transitioning, ethnicity and why names hold so much importance:
African-American mothers, as descendants of Africans, realize that there’s great importance to the name you choose for your child. It says a lot about the individual, their family and their connection to the community at large.
They spend a lot of time carefully putting together combinations of names, poring through various baby name books, and considering various factors in consultation with the father and sometimes the soon to be grandparents before coming up with that combination of three names that gets entered onto your birth certificate soon after you exit the birth canal and enter the world.
Names carry a lot of weight in our binary gendered society, and transpeople know this reality all too well. It’s why one of the first things we do when we finally start making those moves to transition is choosing a name that accurately represents who we are. It’s one reason why our fundamentalist enemies spend so much time making it hard for us to legally change our names and the gender markers to go with those names.
I believe that some of the negative friction that happens between transpeople and their mothers is fueled in one small way by the fact that many of us unilaterally choose our new names as part of the process.
Granted, some of that friction is caused by the parents rejecting their child in the early wake of the child’s announcement of their wish to transition. But sometimes when we logically paint the worst-case scenario for transition and presume that we’re going to get cut off from our immediate family’s love and it doesn’t happen, then I submit that one way to facilitate bonding of our families into the transition process is to allow them that input in the name change decision.
As they say, read the whole damn thing.
h/t Liss
I’m the Only Sour Cherry On Your Fruit Stand
by matttbastard
The Kills = Timbuk 3 if Timbuk 3 had actually possessed a shiny future worthy of dark spectacles (as opposed to fulfilling their insta-destiny as one-cassingle-wonders doomed to remainder bin purgatory).
Popcorn Sunday: Interstella 5555: The 5tory of the 5ecret 5tar 5ystem
by matttbastard
Out of consideration to those who are understandably exhausted by politics atm, a decidely non-political offering:
[Interstella 5555: The 5tory of the 5ecret 5tar 5ystem] is the visual realization of Discovery, an album by Daft Punk. Each track from the album has been animated as an episode in the story of the abduction and rescue of an interstellar pop band. The film was produced by the creators of the Discovery album, along with Toei Animation, under the supervision of Leiji Matsumoto. The film has no dialogue and minimal sound effects.
Read These Now
by matttbastard
Kinda sorta overdid it last night while celebrating a friend’s birthday. Think I might have sprained my cognitive muscles at some point not long after last call. So, in lieu of doing any heavy mental lifting myself, I instead suggest you check out the following (lots of good reads over @ Natalia’s place, too):
- Vanessa (who, like yours truly, is feeling nauseous from the ever-lurching path being traveled by the progressosphere) examines the apocalyptic anxiety that helped engender an overwhelming sense of apathy within many of us who were born in the mid-to-late 70s
- elle maps the division between Clinton and Obama supporters and tries to find understanding (and a renewed sense of common purpose) in the maelstrom of Democratic antipathy.
- Grace Nearing marks Friday, May 23, 2008 as the date “the official intensification of The Hounding” began
- Fern, JJ, April, Prole, Frank and pale all tackle the 2008 March for Life’s deja vu appropriation of the Canada wordmark
- Alison writes letters re: Canada’s ‘see no evil’ trade relationship with Colombia
- Sarah J takes a thoughtful (and thought-provoking) look at feminist slut-shaming
- Life is good for Bill Wolfrum–and we at bastard.logic couldn’t be happier
“Straight Talk” = “Ghetto”–If You’re a WOC
by matttbastard
In response to this TIME magazine article examining recent GOP attacks directed towards Michelle Obama, Jim Geraghty of NRO’s The Campaign Spot gleefully “reports” (in a fair and balanced manner, natch) more evidence of, as an anonymous wingnut blog commenter quoted by TIME so eloquently labels it, the “the bitter, anti-American, ungrateful, rude, crude, ghetto, angry Michelle Obama” meme. Yes, because apparently in the puny little mind of the *ahem* typical GOP voter a woman of colour who dares to speak her mind (ie, regularly engage in a little straight talk) is patently offensive (and, um, ghetto). Jesus fuck.
So much wrong on the internet lately–including this (I’m sure well-intentioned) Kossack photochop that depicts Michelle Obama being lynched.
Related: More on the white liberal lynching idiocy from PurpleZoe, Carmen D., and WAOD.
ZOMG PANTSUIT!!!11
by matttbastard
Fernanda Diaz of Glamour Magazine’s political blog Glamocracy thinks Senator Clinton should stop acting like such a man:
I resent the fact that Hillary is now inescapably a symbol of women in power, and that women for years to come will be compared to her. I have a problem with this because I’m used to a new kind of woman leader, one who doesn’t have to try so hard to fit in with the boys and prove that she can be aggressive and ruthless just to be taken seriously. By acting in such a decidedly un-feminine manner, Clinton has actually made it harder for us who had already felt accepted as leaders without resorting to those measures—now, it will be harder for women in my generation who don’t act like her to be taken seriously.
Apparently Backlash has replaced 1984 as the user manual for the zeitgeist.
h/t Feministing
CNN: McCain Officially Rejects Hagee Endorsement
by matttbastard
Yeah, but did Johnny McMaverick denounce and reject everybody’s favourite frothing antisemite Christian Zionist (who, btw, is damn lucky to be a conservative white Republican, or else his charges of mischaracterization and media bias would be arbitrarily dismissed out of hand)? [Update: Ok, so JSM did follow the entire D & R routine To. The. Letter. Frankly, I'm surprised no candidate has resorted to seppuku on The Situation Room (probably saving it for the general). Sweet Jesus, I hate this election.]
Related:
McCain: A “respectful disagreement?”
On Ellen Degeneres’ show John McCain said he has a respectful disagreement with her over the issue of gay marriage. But two of his supporters, John Hagee and Rod Parsley (whom McCain has referred to as a “spiritual advisor”), are two of the most outspoken agents of intolerance in America, spouting vicious homophobic rants on a weekly basis. And make no mistake: McCain actively sought their endorsements.John McCain’s embrace of these men does not indicate a “respectful disagreement.”
Yves Behar: Creating objects that tell stories
by matttbastard
Designer Yves Behar digs up his creative roots to discuss some of the iconic objects he’s created (the Leaf lamp, the Jawbone headset). Then he turns to the witty, surprising, elegant objects he’s working on now — including the “$100 laptop.”
“If you don’t agree, don’t come back.”
by matttbastard
Even if in actuality everything likely came about as a result of intense backroom negotiations between foreign sponsors, one still can’t help but say “right the fuck on” to this:
Wheelchair-bound, they had neither guns nor influence. They lined up last week along the airport road as convoys of tinted-windowed SUVs carrying politicians headed to Qatar to try to break a political deadlock that was dragging Lebanon toward civil war.
They were mostly ignored, except by bodyguards who swung their weapons menacingly toward them.
But the striking image and powerful words of the activists, many hurt in the country’s 1975-90 civil war, sent an unmistakable message to leaders of both the pro-West coalition and the Iranian- and Syrian-backed camp led by the Shiite militia Hezbollah.
“If you don’t agree, don’t come back,” said their signs.
So what happened next?
On Wednesday, Lebanese politicians began trickling home with a compromise that will finally allow the election of a president but also appears to solidify Hezbollah’s status as an armed force overshadowing the power of the state.
The deal, signed after nearly a week of talks in the Qatari capital of Doha, cleared the way for army Chief of Staff Gen. Michel Suleiman to ascend to the presidency in a parliamentary vote Sunday.
The (mostly, unless you’re a US diplomat, or a staunch March 14th partisan) welcome developments come nearly 18 months after the advent of an electoral crisis that threatened to once again push Lebanon past the brink of civil war.
More:
Some suspected the agreement came about because of a secret deal between foreign capitals that hold sway over the country’s various political camps.
But politicians and analysts say that rising public disgust over the shenanigans of Lebanon’s political class may also have been key.
In particular, many noted the powerful image of the activists in wheelchairs, whose protest was organized by the 1,200-member Lebanese Physical Handicapped Union.
“I want finally to reassure the people of Lebanon,” Sheik Hamad ibn Khalifa al Thani, the Qatari emir who guided the negotiations, said Wednesday. “A group of them went out to address their leaders who came here, telling them not to come back if they didn’t agree. They have agreed, and they are now on their way back to start together with their people a new day that we hope will be clear and peaceful.”
As he spoke at the televised signing ceremony in Doha, the employees and volunteers at the nonprofit union’s second-floor office in Beirut roared with applause.
“It felt like a thank-you,” said Sylvana Lakkis, head of the disability group. “It felt great.”
The shock of this month’s violence prompted members to hold the roadside protest. The simple imperative of their action illustrated the frustration and growing anger of many Lebanese. They became the talk of the town.“It touched the right chord with the vast majority of people in this country,” said Karim Makdisi, a professor of political science at the American University of Beirut. “It really embodies what everyone is feeling deep down.”
And the politicians got the message. “None of the Lebanese wanted their leaders to come back with these problems to Beirut,” said Nawar Sahili, a pro-Hezbollah member of parliament.
[...]
“We did not expect this reaction,” said Imaddedine Raef, spokesman for the disability group, which receives support from the European Union and the U.S.-funded National Democratic Institute. “We’re used to being ignored.”
Huh — maybe we should all pay attention more often.
(Ok, look, I promise I’ll get back to hard-hitting, cynical policy analysis soon. Today, I just want to shut my eyes and enjoy even an ephemeral hint of something that resembles goodness in the world. So–just this one time–I’m playing the sap.
Fucking sue me. :P )
Quote of the Day: “So why did the other fucker?”
by matttbastard
Cos, right – here’s a radical thing – if you get raped, it’s the man’s fault. A man fucks you without your consent – that’s not porn’s fault, that’s not your top’s fault, that’s not your skirt’s fault, that’s not a prostitute’s fault. It’s the man’s fault. Cos he’s a scumbag. And some men are scumbags and some men will do that to you and they deserve to have their fucking bollocks cut off. And he can blame your top, your skirt, the porn, his bitch mam, that prostitute or whatever, but the fact is, you’ve probably walked past a million men wearing your skirt and top and those men who’ve looked at you and thought, “Wow!” watch porn, have dreadful mothers, live in a society where prostitution actually happens and think that that top you’re wearing makes you look like Mz Berlin or Darenzia or Marilyn Monroe or whoever floats your boat. But they aren’t raping you. So why did the other fucker?
Lina, What passes for Feminism these days (h/t belledame, written in response to this post by RenEv)
The Rules: John Hagee on an Anti-Semitic Remix Tip
by matttbastard
The Rev. John C. Hagee, whose anti-Catholic remarks created a controversy when Senator John McCain received his endorsement for the Republican presidential nomination with fanfare, has issued a letter expressing regret for “any comments that Catholics have found hurtful.”
The letter was issued after weeks of conversations between Mr. Hagee and Roman Catholic Republicans about repairing the damage to Mr. McCain’s campaign and the alliance built over many years between conservative Catholics and evangelicals.
[...]
“In my zeal to oppose anti-Semitism and bigotry in all its ugly forms,” he wrote, “I have often emphasized the darkest chapters in the history of Catholic and Protestant relations with the Jews.
“In the process, I may have contributed to the mistaken impression that the anti-Jewish violence of the Crusades and the Inquisition defines the Catholic Church. It does not.”
Mr. Hagee’s letter, dated May 12, was addressed to William Donohue, president of the Catholic League for Civil and Religious Rights, who drew attention to Mr. Hagee’s remarks after he endorsed Mr. McCain in February.
Mr. Donohue said of Mr. Hagee’s letter: “Well, miracles do happen. If I wasn’t a believer before, I sure am now.
“Republican activists have been working with him over the last several weeks, giving him books and articles and getting him up to speed and away from the black legends about the Catholic Church. I have to assume he’s acting sincerely, and now understands” that he has been recycling conspiracy theories.
At a news conference on Tuesday afternoon in North Bend, Wash., outside Seattle, Mr. McCain praised Mr. Hagee’s letter. “The fact that he has made an apology I think is very helpful,” Mr. McCain said. “Whenever someone apologizes for something they did wrong, then I think that that’s a laudable thing.”
Well, Hagee has apologized, Billy D. is happy (miraculous!), and good ol’ McCain is still smelling rosy (as far as the jerks in the MSM are concerned). Guess that just about wraps things up, right? Not so fast, says Talk 2 Action cofounder Bruce Wilson (via The Revealer):
Yesterday I discovered an astonishing audio recording of a sermon, by controversial McCain endorser Pastor John Hagee, in which Hagee elaborates on his view that Hitler and the Nazis were divine agents, sent by God to (with gruesome inefficiency it would seem) chase Europe’s Jews towards Palestine.
Check it out:
As Wilson further notes:
In his 2006 book “Jerusalem Countdown”, Hagee proposed that anti-Semitism, and thus the Holocaust, was the fault of Jews themselves – the result of an age old divine curse incurred by the ancient Hebrews through worshiping idols and passed, down the ages, to all Jews now alive.
Gee, damn good thing Pastor Hagee is a conservative white Republican, eh?
Background:
The Real News: Holy warriors in the US armed forces
by matttbastard
Michael L. Weinstein of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation on the infiltration of the U.S. military by right-wing Evangelicals.
Related:
- AlterNet provides an excerpt from With God on Our Side: One Man’s War Against an Evangelical Coup in America’s Military, written by Weinstein and David Seay
- Max Blumenthal on Operation Straight Up, Left Behind: Eternal Forces, and how D-list space cadet Stephen Baldwin is now perma-drunk on teh Jeebus Juice
- Sharon Weinberger spotlights a March 2007 “revival service” that took place at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan–and was subsequently celebrated in an official press release sent out by the U.S. military’s Bagram Media Center. The post also points to a 2005 NPR report which notes that “40 percent of active duty personnel — and 60 percent of chaplains — are evangelical, compared to only 14 percent of the U.S. population.”
You Keep Using That Word…
by matttbastard
The NY Times reports today that, after some delay while US officials tried to, as reported this past January in the NYT, ““transition out” of the Bagram detention center”, the US will be building a new all-but-permanent detention facility in Afghanistan:
The proposed detention center would replace the cavernous, makeshift American prison on the Bagram military base north of Kabul, which is now typically packed with about 630 prisoners, compared with the 270 held at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.
(Yes, that Bagram military base.)
Military officials have long been aware of serious problems [*cough*] with the existing detention center in Afghanistan, the Bagram Theater Internment Facility. After the prison was set up in early 2002, it became a primary site for screening prisoners captured in the fighting. Harsh interrogation methods and sleep deprivation were used widely, and two Afghan detainees died there in December 2002, after being repeatedly struck by American soldiers.
Yep, nothing says “corporate em ess em” quite like anodyne euphemisms and amoral utilization of the passive voice. “Harsh interrogation techniques and sleep deprevation.” Oh, and, out of the blue, those two detainees coincidently just happened to die.
After being “repeatedly struck”.
By American soldiers.
Correlation != causation, natch.
Conditions and treatment have improved markedly since then, but hundreds of Afghans and other men are still held in wire-mesh pens surrounded by coils of razor wire. There are only minimal areas for the prisoners to exercise, and kitchen, shower and bathroom space is also inadequate.
Hmm, the International Committee of the Red Cross wasn’t exactly brimming with praise this past January regarding the “marked improvement” in conditions and treatment at Bagram. Some folks are just never satisfied. But, hey, at least the US took the constructive criticism to heart.
Faced with that, American officials said they wanted to replace the Bagram prison, a converted aircraft hangar that still holds some of the decrepit aircraft-repair machinery left by the Soviet troops who occupied the country in the 1980s. In its place the United States will build what officials described as a more modern and humane detention center that would usually accommodate about 600 detainees — or as many as 1,100 in a surge — and cost more than $60 million.
“Our existing theater internment facility is deteriorating,” said Sandra L. Hodgkinson, the senior Pentagon official for detention policy, in a telephone interview. “It was renovated to do a temporary mission. There is a sense that this is the right time to build a new facility.”
American officials also acknowledged that there are serious health risks to detainees and American military personnel who work at the Bagram prison, because of their exposure to heavy metals from the aircraft-repair machinery and asbestos.
“It’s just not suitable,” another Pentagon official said. “At some point, you have to say, ‘That’s it. This place was not made to keep people there indefinitely.’ ”
Yes, so, the answer then is, obviously, to build a *ahem* more “humane” facility designed to, um, keep people there indefinitely:
The Pentagon is planning to use $60 million in emergency construction funds this fiscal year to build a complex of 6 to 10 semi-permanent structures resembling Quonset huts, each the size of a football field, a Defense Department official said. The structures will have more natural light, and each will have its own recreation area. There will be a half-dozen other buildings for administration, medical care and other purposes, the official said.
A luxury resort! It appears that the Pentagon is finally going to import the “beautiful, sunny Guantanamo Bay” experience to Central Asia. With a few bargain discounts, that is:
Military personnel who know both Bagram and Guantánamo describe the Afghan site, 40 miles north of Kabul, as far more spartan. Bagram prisoners have fewer privileges, less ability to contest their detention and no access to lawyers.
Some detainees have been held without charge for more than five years, officials said. As of April, about 10 juveniles were being held at Bagram, according to a recent American report to a United Nations committee.
Apparently designating a detention facility as “humane” doesn’t preclude the acknowledgment of basic human rights. A 2007 report published by The New Republic provides more details on the legal limbo detainees in Bagram find themselves in:
Prisoners don’t even have the limited access to lawyers available to prisoners in Guantánamo. Nor do they have the right to Combatant Status Review Tribunals, which Guantánamo detainees won in the 2004 Supreme Court ruling in Hamdi v. Rumsfeld. Instead, if a combat commander chooses, he can convene an Enemy Combatant Review Board (ECRB), at which the detainee has no right to a personal advocate, no chance to speak in his own defense, and no opportunity to review the evidence against him. The detainee isn’t even allowed to attend. And, thanks to such limited access to justice, many former detainees say they have no idea why they were either detained or released.
DJ rewind:
“It’s just not suitable,” another Pentagon official said. “At some point, you have to say, ‘That’s it. This place was not made to keep people there indefinitely.’ ”
Well, at least they’ve seen fit to–ahem–humanely remedy that particular problem.
Man Kills Prostitute, Gets Less Than 2 Years. What the FUCK?
by Isabel
The day after admitting he killed a woman and dumped her body on a rural road, a St. Catharines, Ont., man was released from jail.
Judge Stephen Glithero sentenced Wayne Ryczak, 55, to one day in jail on Thursday for the death of 29-year-old Stephine Beck.
The one-day sentence is in addition to time Ryczak already served since his March 5, 2007, arrest — time the judge said was equivalent to 30 months.
“Devastated, we’re devastated,” Beck’s mother, Alice Dort, said from her home in Nova Scotia shortly after a police detective broke the news by phone. “This is just so unbelievable.” “There’s no justice. None whatsoever. I’m just so disgusted.”
The Crown asked for seven to 10 years in jail.
Ryczak’s lawyer requested two years less a day to be served in the community.
After deliberating for 20 minutes, Glithero said a 30-month sentence in the penitentiary would be appropriate and Ryczak had already served it. Ryczak was also given three years’ probation.
Exactly what I needed to wake up to. Thanks, Canada!
This is fucking disgusting. A 30-month sentence is appropriate for killing a woman? Sure, if she has sex for money! After all, if you ladies happen to think you can do whatever you want with that vagina of yours, you deserve whatever it is that you get.
Fuck, I am so angry.
Update 05/17 (matttbastard): Ontario NDP Calls for Ontario AG to appeal 1 day sentence:
The Ontario NDP is calling on the attorney general to appeal the one-day sentence of a St. Catharines, Ont. man who plead guilty this week to manslaughter in the strangling death of 29-year-old Stephine Beck.[...]
New Democratic Party Justice Critic Peter Kormos, in an open letter to Attorney General Chris Bentley, called on the province to ensure the sentence is appealed immediately.
“I tell you, sir, that the community is outraged,” Kormos wrote in his letter. “How can this sentence of one day, and it can barely be called a sentence, be justified?”
h/t pale via IM
Update 2 (matttbastard): From The St Catharines Standard:
“They just dismissed [Stephine Beck's] life with that sentence,” said Dee Holman, a member of the community’s sex-trade task force. “They minimized her death.”
[...]
Holman said the sentencing made Ryczak appear to be the victim and minimized his use of drugs and prostitutes.
“(Beck) will never have a chance to get her drug and alcohol counselling,” Holman said. “Her life is gone.”
In sentencing Ryczak Thursday, Judge Stephen Glithero said he was not measuring the value of Beck’s life. “All life is valuable to us as a community,” he said.
He noted there were people in the courtroom for Wednesday’s plea hearing wearing T-shirts that read, “Sex work shouldn’t equal murder.”
“This was not a case whatsoever of anyone preying on a sex-trade worker,” Glithero said.
[...]
But Valerie Scott, executive director of Sex Professionals of Canada, which is in favour of legalizing prostitution, said a victim’s lifestyle is factored into court decisions.
“It happens all the time,” she said. “The laws against sex work continue to tell people that we’re disposable. It’s OK to kill us and murder us.”
The Ryczak sentencing puts the “gold seal of approval” on those actions, she said.
“If this were anyone else, it wouldn’t have gone down like that in court.”
Update 3 05/18 (matttbastard): Via ange @ light my heart on fire (all emphases mine):
Unfortunately, the case of Stephine Beck is not an anomaly. Within the last decade, six other women involved in sex work and living with substance abuse problems have been found murdered in the Niagara Region: Dawn Stewart, 32; Nadine Gurczenski, 26; Diane Dimitri, 33; Margaret Jugaru, 26; Cassey Cichocki, 22, and most recently, Shari Bacon, 36. Although the Niagara Regional Police convened a task force in 2007 and have since made one other arrest, Glithero’s sentence is reflective of a community-wide failure to value and protect the lives of some of the region’s most vulnerable citizens. The St. Catharines Standard routinely runs articles about “hookers loyal to their drug problems” (6 March, 2007) while the police department justifies its regular sweeping arrests of prostitutes (and subsequent public naming in The Standard, which does not report the names of men arrested for domestic abuse) by claiming that if you take away the supply, demand will vanish (July 2007). This appalling disdain for and ignorance of the realities and risks faced by sex workers is all the more horrifying when compared to the hysteria and moral outrage expressed by the entire Niagara community during and after the arrests, trials and verdicts of Paul Bernardo and Karla Homolka. That Homolka’s plea bargain was considered a deal with the devil while Ryczak was set free immediately upon pleading guilty is shameful and hypocritical, and reflects a clear double standard when it comes to which lives are valued and which are not.
LOLPolicy
by matttbastard
President Bush feted Israel on Thursday in honor of the 60th anniversary of its founding and predicted that its 120th birthday would find it alongside a Palestinian state and in an all-democratic neighborhood free of today’s oppression, restrictions on freedom and extremist Muslim movements.
[…]
Bush made no acknowledgment of the hardship Palestinians suffered when hundreds of thousands were displaced or otherwise left following the creation of the Jewish state in 1948, a counterpoint to Israel’s two weeks of jubilant celebrations. Though Bush has set a goal of reaching an Israeli-Palestinian deal before the end of his term in January, he did not mention the ongoing negotiations or how to resolve the thorniest disputes.
The president also offered no detail on how the broader Mideast would move from today’s realities to his vision.
“From Cairo and Riyadh to Baghdad and Beirut, people will live in free and independent societies, where a desire for peace is reinforced by ties of diplomacy, tourism and trade,” he said. “Iran and Syria will be peaceful nations, where today’s oppression is a distant memory and people are free to speak their minds and develop their talents. And al-Qaida, Hezbollah and Hamas will be defeated, as Muslims across the region recognize the emptiness of the terrorists’ vision and the injustice of their cause.”
White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe said Bush made such a brief mention of the Palestinians because his purpose was to sketch “broad themes and not the specifics of the process.”
Hey, who needs pesky specifics when you have cheap stock applause lines and Godwin-baiting partisan digs?
Related: Eric Martin, Man of a Thousand Blogs, on McSame’s recent contributions to the OMG-PONIES! school of U.S. foreign policy initiatives.
Update: in comments @ ObWi, Katherine notes that McSame’s bold 2013 proposal is “totally a ripoff of fafblog’s plan for victory.”
Mike Webster Nails It at the Braidwood Inquiry
by matttbastard
A police psychologist blasted Taser International at the public inquiry probing the controversial use of Tasers, claiming Tuesday that Canadian police have been “brainwashed” by the manufacturer to justify “ridiculously inappropriate” use of the electronic weapon.
Mike Webster accused the company that makes Tasers of instructing police in Canada that when they encounter a person suffering from a “mythical” condition that Taser calls “excited delirium,” police have few options other than jolting the person with the controversial electrical weapon, which delivers a five-second shock that incapacitates a person.
“When you think the only tool you have is a hammer, then the whole world begins looking like a nail,” Webster told the inquiry in Vancouver.
[...]
“It may be that police and medical examiners are using the term [excited delirium] as a convenient excuse for what could be excessive use of force or inappropriate control techniques during an arrest,” Webster said.
“My own opinion on this is that Canadian law enforcement, and its American brothers and sisters, have been brainwashed by companies like Taser International and the Institute for the Prevention of In-custody Deaths,” he added.
“These organizations have created a virtual world replete with avatars that wander about with the potential to manifest a horrific condition characterized by profuse sweating, superhuman strength and a penchant for smashing glass that appeals to well-meaning but psychologically unsophisticated police personnel,” Webster said.
The chair of Taser, Tom Smith, told the inquiry Monday that Tasers save lives and reduce injuries to police and suspects.
Webster, however, said he has been shocked and embarrassed by recent “ridiculously inappropriate applications of the Taser” in low-risk situations involving people who are mentally imbalanced, likely suffering from “plain old delirium.”
Please make sure to read the entire article, which includes some examples of incidents in which Webster contends a stun gun should never have been deployed. Transcripts of the Brainwood Inquiry are available here (note: as of today, archive only includes transcripts sessions on or before 05/09).
h/t Alison, who also provides an extensive list detailing more intances of “embarrassing” TASER misuse.
Flashback (originally posted here): The Lede has more on…‘excited delirium’, which, as noted earlier this year by an NPR report, “is not recognized by professional medical associations, and [is not] listed in the chief psychiatric reference book.” Part 2 of the report is also entirely relevant, focusing on the vested interest law enforcement officials and Taser International have in marketing the dubious disorder and includes the following abridged list of individuals who have died in police custody after being [stunned], with the cause of death listed as ‘excited delirium’:
- June 13, 2005 – Shawn C. Pirolozzi, 30, of Canton, Ohio, dies after police tried to subdue him with a Taser. His death certificate listed excited delirium as the cause of death. The Taser was not listed as a contributing factor.
- April 21, 2006 — Alvin Itula, 35, dies after a struggle with Salt Lake City police. Itula led officers on a foot chase, then fought with them when the officers caught up, according to police. Officers tased Itula and also used pepper spray and a baton. Itula stopped breathing soon after. The medical examiner found that Itula died of excited delirium brought on by methamphetamine and cocaine.
- April 24, 2006 — Jose Romero, 23, dies in Dallas police custody. He was in his underwear, screaming and holding a knife on his neighbor’s porch. Police tased him multiple times. He died shortly thereafter. The Dallas County medical examiner ruled Romero died of excited delirium.
- Sept. 5, 2006 — Larry Noles, 52, dies in Louisville, Ky., after a struggle with police. Noles, an ex-Marine, was standing naked in the middle of a street when police were called. Police said he was agitated. They tased him two or three times. He died a few minutes later. The Jefferson County medical examiner ruled Noles died because of excited delirium and not the Taser.
- Oct. 29, 2006 — Roger Holyfield, 17, dies after police in Jerseyville, Ill., shocked him twice with a Taser. Holyfield had been walking down a street, holding a phone in one hand and a Bible in the other, yelling that he wanted Jesus. After policed shot him with the stun gun, Holyfield went into a coma; he died the following day. A medical examiner ruled the death was probably a result of excited delirium.
- Dec. 17, 2006 — Terill Enard, 29, dies following a disturbance at a Waffle house in Lafayette, La. He was naked and yelling, with a broken leg bone piercing his skin. Police stunned Enard with a Taser; he died several hours later. Police said the forensic report from the Lafayette Parish coroner’s office found Enard died as a result of “cocaine-induced excited delirium.”
Kathleen Frydl – Is Iraq Another Vietnam?
by matttbastard
Dr. Kathleen Frydl, Assistant Professor of History at U.C. Berkeley, draws parallels between the Vietnam War and the current war in Iraq.
Related: Der Spiegel interview with Lawrence F. Kaplan: “Before the war, Iraq was an abstraction, an idea. Once you have seen the place you can’t help but be much more cautious with the ideas that you put on the table.”
Catch of the Day
by Isabel
Trannycat Doll lead singer(?), Nicole Scherzinger, has taken the first step in dispelling all the rumors that everyone in this group has cocks by getting out of a car at Villa in Hollywood. Despite what my ex-girlfriend tells you, I’ve seen a lot of vaginas up close, so I’m comfortable saying this chick has one. I guess this is good news. She also looks like Pocahontas, so if you’re thinking about raping her, you can say it was just for a history project.
Wow. Just woowwww.
Update (matttbastard): Liss breaks out the teaspoon and serves up some stats on rape and Indigenous women. Also see this video, Sexual Violence Against Indigenous Women. Oh, and fuck you and your transphobia, too, Todd.
“To protect the privacy of the person stunned”
by matttbastard
Alison at the Beav notes that the RCMP has stripped several key details from the Robert Dziekanski TASER™ report, recently obtained by The Canadian Press and CBC under the Access to Information Act:
Missing from the RCMP report :
1) Dziekanski’s name [!]
2) the name and rank of the officer who fired the TASER™
3) the name of his supervisor
4) details about the duration of the firing
5) the number of times the weapon was used in stun mode
6) whether Dziekanski was armed
7) a written summary of the incident
8) “assessments as to whether use of the TASER™ helped the RCMP either “avoid use of lethal force” or “avoid injuries to subject or Police.”
In other words, pretty much everything of use for the general public to understand exactly what happened (and, more importantly, why), all purportedly redacted in order to to protect the late Mr. Dziekanski’s “privacy”.
Yeah. To protect [redacted]‘s privacy–sure. As Alison further notes,
It’s worth remembering that none of these inquiries would be happening at all had not Paul Pritchard of Victoria first recorded Dziekanski’s murder, stood his ground and hired a lawyer to get the recording back from the RCMP on being told it might be several years before they would return it, and then released it to the public.
Previous to Pritchard’s YouTube going worldwide, the RCMP were already covering their tracks, muttering darkly about the likelihood of Dziekanski being a drug mule and how the officers were forced to use stun guns because the room was crowded with airline passengers.
Sorry–after all that’s gone down with regards to Dziekanski’s death, a hubris-laden request from the Feds that basically amounts to “hey, trust us” doesn’t fucking cut it. The only way to clear up the haze of corruption that has been hovering over the Mounties for far too many years now is for the government to call for a full public inquiry into the activities of the RCMP. Are you finally listening, Stockboy?
Post-Race Era? Once Again, My Black Ass.
by matttbastard
Contra Barack Obama and Frank Rich, the reaction to the Sean Bell verdict shows that Americans still have a long way to go to “[transcend] the racial and cultural rifts that [have] divided them for centuries”, says Max Blumenthal.
Related:
- A joint investigation by Colorlines magazine and the Chicago Reporter into police shootings that occurred in the US’ 10 largest cities found that in NYC “the percentage of black people killed by police was at least double that of their share of the city’s total population.” (Gabriel Thompson has more)
- More footage from the Jamaica, Queens protest courtesy Maegan la Mala (by way of cripchick)
- Statement on the Sean Bell verdict from independent presidential candidate Cynthia McKinney:
[W]hile we might be outraged at the Sean Bell decision itself, it comes directly from the flawed jurisprudence that gave us the Dred Scott Decision in 1857, Plessy v. Ferguson in 1896, Bakke in 1978, Croson in 1989, Adarand in 1995, Gratz in 2003, and all of the Ward Connerly-inspired attacks on the very same affirmative action hard won by students facing water hoses and dogs, men and women facing jail, lynch mobs, and death.
#rebelleft
GlobalComment
- An American Downton Abbey? ABC’s Gilded Lilys tries on the costume drama s.e. smith
- Sex Online? The Ultra-Orthodox Rally Against the Internet Emily Manuel
- A Study in Pink: Sherlock and Steven Moffat’s Woman Problem s.e. smith
- What’s behind the rise of Golden Dawn in Greece? Feature Writer
- Reflections on an Arab Spring in Peril Nasser Ali Khasawneh
Alterdestiny
- All The Power To The Top noreply@blogger.com (Redbeard)
- Now The Serpent Was More Subtil... noreply@blogger.com (Redbeard)
- Who Made That Butterball For You? noreply@blogger.com (Redbeard)
- Historical Image of the Day noreply@blogger.com (Erik Loomis)
- Reagan by Eugene Jarecki noreply@blogger.com (Redbeard)
WorldBridge: Refugees International’s Blog
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LabourStart
- Chile: Outsourced Chilean Copper Workers '21st Century Slave Labour'
- Egypt: Union movement finds its own strength; workers are now crafting a new network to secure workplace rights
- Australia: World's richest woman makes more profits by off-shoring Australian jobs
- Korea (North): Amnesty report: 200,000 prisoners in Kim's Gulag
- Cambodia: Security guards clash with workers at factories that supply Levi’s, Gap and H&M
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