I know this was reported yesterday, but I think it bears repeating...
In 2005, Jamie Leigh Jones was gang-raped by her co-workers while she was working for Halliburton/KBR in Baghdad. She was detained in a shipping container for at least 24 hours without food, water, or a bed, and "warned her that if she left Iraq for medical treatment, she'd be out of a job." (Jones was not an isolated case.) Jones was prevented from bringing charges in court against KBR because her employment contract stipulated that sexual assault allegations would only be heard in private arbitration.
And so newly elected Senator Al Franken proposed an amendment to the 2010 Defense Appropriations bill that would withhold defense contracts from companies like KBR "if they restrict their employees from taking workplace sexual assault, battery and discrimination cases to court."
And our favorite hopping mad leprechaun (he's magically delicious!) Jeff Sessions (R – AL) called it it "a political attack directed at Halliburton."
Anyway, to make a long story short, Franken's amendment passed, and here's a list of fine family values GOPers that support gang rape:
NAYs —30
Alexander (R-TN)
Barrasso (R-WY)
Bond (R-MO)
Brownback (R-KS)
Bunning (R-KY)
Burr (R-NC)
Chambliss (R-GA)
Coburn (R-OK)
Cochran (R-MS)
Corker (R-TN)
Cornyn (R-TX)
Crapo (R-ID)
DeMint (R-SC)
Ensign (R-NV)
Enzi (R-WY)
Graham (R-SC)
Gregg (R-NH)
Inhofe (R-OK)
Isakson (R-GA)
Johanns (R-NE)
Kyl (R-AZ)
McCain (R-AZ)
McConnell (R-KY)
Risch (R-ID)
Roberts (R-KS)
Sessions (R-AL)
Shelby (R-AL)
Thune (R-SD)
Vitter (R-LA)
Wicker (R-MS)
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Priorities
The Republicans have them:
House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) and House GOP Conference Chairman Mike Pence (R-Ind.) are voting against the House/Senate fiscal year 2010 defense authorization bill — because it contains hate crimes provisions designed to protect gays and lesbians.Boehner, speaking at his weekly press conference Thursday, said the inclusion of the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act in the defense bill was "an abuse of power" by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi that sought to punish offenders for what they thought — and not what they did.
In other words, they hate gays more than they love the troops, and you know how much they say they love the troops.
You all really need to watch the HBO documentary Outrage.
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CNN: Obama wins the Nobel Peace Prize "his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples."
"Only very rarely has a person to the same extent as Obama captured the world's attention and given its people hope for a better future," the committee said. "His diplomacy is founded in the concept that those who are to lead the world must do so on the basis of values and attitudes that are shared by the majority of the world's population."
Excuse me, but if it's true that nominations for the prize were closed two weeks after he was inaugurated, what did he actually do other than not be George Bush?
On the other hand, wingnut heads are exploding all over and blood pressure pills are being gobbled down like M&Ms.
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"I had no idea," says Denny Rehberg (R-MT), "that ###
Laura Flanders - What's Changed in Washington?
Think things have changed in Washington? You might be surprised by a quick review of today's headlines.
On Tuesday, the U.S. Senate approved a $636 billion defense-spending bill, a few billion less than what the Obama administration actually requested and significantly more than the Bush administration's last appropriation's bill.
The LA Times reports that the administration probably won't meet its deadline to shut down Guantanamo. "It's going to be difficult,"the Attorney General told reporters at the Justice Department Tuesday. The administration's plans have apparenlty been complicated by a House vote to prohibit the transfer of terrorism suspects to US prisons.
On the subject of executive authority, the administration had little interest in Sen. Russ Feingold's hearing on so-called "czars." When it comes to executive branch appointees who do not require senate confirmation, Robert Gibbs said, "I would assume that Congress and Senator Feingold have more weighty topics to grapple with than something like this."
Finally, Politico reports that during the president's visit to the United Nations Senior Advisor David Axelrod met with Fox CEO Roger Ailes over coffee. Apparently they discussed news coverage and the "relationship between the two organizations." HUH?
Now, I'm no defender of Fox as anyone who watches this show knows. But why is the president's top advisor meeting with the network? And which organizations is he talking about? Maybe we need a czar to find out.
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Rule of law and repug values
Where's the fire, Argentina?
When a Highway Patrol trooper told a driver Tuesday that there was no good reason for him to blaze down a busy stretch of South Carolina interstate at 85 mph, he got a surprising reply: "Tell him that."
The governor's driver did not get a ticket.
It's a new controversy for Sanford. And the episode will remind the public of criticism from Sanford's office in 2006 of Lt. Gov. Andre Bauer's speeding. The governor's spokesman at the time said Sanford "believe[s] very strongly that preferential treatment should never be a factor when enforcing the law."
This is beautiful. Glenn Beck is absolutely PWN3D by the lawyer for glennbeckrapedandmurderedayounggirlin1990 when he tries to it shut down (by going through the World Intellectual Property Organization. After no US court would touch it).
The attorney for the parody site, Marc Randazza:
There is no indication that the Respondent has intentionally attempted to confuse anyone searching for Mr. Beck's own website, nor that anyone was unintentionally confused – even initially. Only an abject imbecile could believe that the domain name would have any connection to the Complainant.
We are not here because the domain name could cause confusion. We do not have a declaration from the president of the international association of imbeciles that his members are blankly staring at the Respondent's website wondering "where did all the race baiting content go?" We are here because Mr. Beck wants Respondent's website shut down. He wants it shut down because Respondent's website makes a poignant and accurate satirical critique of Mr. Beck by parodying Beck's very rhetorical style.
Gordon Klingenschmitt
Chaplaincy of Full Gospel Churches
cc: Dr. Orly Taitz, Esq.
Law Dentist
Dear Chaplain Klingenschmitt,
I see Mikey Weinstein is suing you for asking our Lord, Jesus, to plunder his fields, seize his assets, kill him and his family, and then wipe away his descendants for 10 generations (audio).
Responding to a prayer with a lawsuit seems a little harsh to me, but then if God listens to you better than he listens to the fans of the Fort Oglethorpe Warriors, this whole lawsuit issue could become moot.
Unfortunately, God doesn't seem to be in a hurry to get his smite on, so I guess you have to prepare for court.
That means you'll need legal counsel. Might I suggest Dr. Orly Taitz, esq? You may have heard of her. She's leading the fight to expose Barack Hussein Obama as a black man. Her understanding of the law is so complex and cutting edge, no one in the legal community can figure out what the hell she's talking about. Heck, one judge fears her intellect so much, he's even barred her from his courtroom.
She's also a dentist. Take advantage of that. She can help you focus your prayers to cause the Weinsteins to lose their teeth more efficiently--she knows right where to place the abscesses. So instead of praying, "Lord, please take Mikey Weinstein's teeth from him," you could petition Jesus to "place great and terrible abscesses between the anterior medial and posterior roots of the maxillary second molar, adjacent to the anterior face of the mandibular lateral incisor..." That'll have Weinstein begging the judge for continuances until the final smiting.
One note of caution. Dr. Taitz website appears to be hotbed for viruses. I'd wear a hot suit around her.
Heterosexually yours,
Gen. JC Christian, patriot
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A Bad Compromise
You might've awoke to the news that the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has checked Max Baucus's healthcare reform bill and found it awesome -- at least, in budgetary terms. The Hill is reporting that the "bill took a giant step forward Wednesday as congressional scorekeepers concluded that it would extend coverage to millions of Americans while also cutting the deficit." It leaves 20 million uninsured, but who cares? It doesn't dent the deficit and that's what really matters.
By exercising stock options she received for sitting on the board of insurance giant Wellpoint Inc. and selling the stock when it was near its highest price of the year, Bayh took advantage of one of the parts of compensation given to the directors of many publicly traded companies. - Journal Gazette
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Dick Cheney and his daughters are opening a lobbying firm. Presumably, their clients are interested in legalizing the use of torture and repealing the rule of law.
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If this becomes a more virulent flu, we're in trouble – because we just don't have enough ventilators to treat a major pandemic:
A new government study shows that one quarter of Americans who were sick enough to be hospitalized with swine flu last spring wound up needing intensive care, and 7% of them died.
Health experts say that is a little higher than with ordinary seasonal flu. They say the biggest difference is that nearly half of those hospitalized with the new swine flu have been children and teens. Flu usually strikes hardest in the elderly.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention did the study, with local and state health departments. Results were published online Thursday by the New England Journal of Medicine.
Researchers identified 272 patients hospitalized for at least a day from April through mid-June, when the novel virus caused its first wave of cases. That's about one-fourth of the total hospitalizations for swine flu reported during that time, but researchers only studied lab-confirmed cases and patients who agreed to be part of the study.
Three-fourths of these patients had other health problems, such as diabetes — typical of seasonal flu, too. However, only 5% were 65 and older; ordinary seasonal flu usually hits hardest in the elderly.
We're already seeing problems in other countries:
Oct. 9 (Bloomberg) — Swine flu drove a 15-fold increase in intensive care admissions for viral lung inflammation in Australia and New Zealand, especially among pregnant women, the obese and people with chronic lung disease, a study found.
During the peak of severe illness, patients with the new H1N1 influenza strain filled 8.9 percent to 19 percent of all intensive-care hospital beds in each state of Australia and New Zealand, according to the study published yesterday in the New England Journal of Medicine. Almost 65 percent of intensive-care H1N1 patients required mechanical ventilation.
The Southern Hemisphere's winter flu season, studied from June 1 to Aug. 31, may give health officials in the Northern Hemisphere an indication of what to expect in coming months, the researchers said yesterday. The pandemic filled all available beds in some units and prompted doctors to postpone nonessential surgery, New Zealand's health ministry said in July.
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NASA bombed the moon this morning.
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Jeb Bush: The country needs to put on its big-boy pants and leave my brother alone
This morning on Fox News, the Fox and Friends hosts and former Florida governor Jeb Bush joined together to gripe about the fact that the country won't forget what President Bush did to the country for eight years. They said that since it's already been a whopping 10 months, everything that's happening is now basically the fault of the Democrats:
KILMEADE: It's been 10 months. Should Leader Hoyer be looking backwards, and is he accurate?
BUSH: I was on the plane coming up to Washington yesterday, and I heard someone complaining that their child's acne was because of George Bush. Of course, last week the Olympics didn't come to Chicago — that was my brother's fault. And at some point, people are going to have to put on their big-boy pants and assume responsibility for the great challenges and opportunities our country has. I don't know how much longer leaders — responsible leaders in Congress — can continue to say these things.
No, President Bush is no longer in office making decisions. But Obama and Democratic leaders are forced to make many of their decisions based on what they inherited from Bush. Eight years is a long time, and the consequences of Bush's actions didn't disappear just because he went back to Texas. Ron Brownstein of the National Journal recently noted what the country is still dealing with, according to recent Census figures, after Bush's two terms:
On every major measurement, the Census Bureau report shows that the country lost ground during Bush's two terms. While Bush was in office, the median household income declined, poverty increased, childhood poverty increased even more, and the number of Americans without health insurance spiked. By contrast, the country's condition improved on each of those measures during Bill Clinton's two terms, often substantially.
In terms of the deficit that conservatives are always so upset about, Matt Yglesias has put together a pie chart looking at what has actually caused the growth:
So while Fox News pundits complain about the current administration and Congress having to spend so much money, they need to keep in perspective why that spending is necessary.
Transcript: More »
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Offensive SOB racist apologizes for being offensive, racist
Macaca! Georgia GOP congressman Nathan Deal is apologizing for using the term "ghetto grandmothers" while talking about all them illegal darkies trying to get citizenship, dagnabbit.
Deal, a candidate for governor, apologized for using the phrase during a campaign stop Saturday. In a statement he says he regretted his choice of words and "in no way meant to offend anyone."
According to a recording, he said: "We got all the complaints of ghetto grandmothers who didn't have birth certificates and all that."
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports videotapes of the speech were shared with reporters by two Republican opponents. Deal urged them "to put down their video cameras and stop taking my words out of context."
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Still searching for terrorists where they aren't
You remember the joke: A guy walking down the street at night comes across another guy searching the ground under a streetlight. First guy says, "What are you looking for?" Second guy says, "I dropped my keys in the alley back there." First guy: "So why are you looking for them over here?" Second guy: "The light is better."
The light was better in Iraq, so Smirky/Darth searched there for the terrorists they lost in Afghanistan.
Now the light is better in Afghanistan, so the Pentagon, repugs and Blue Dog warmongers are searching there for the terrorism supporters who are laughing at them from their U.S. taxpayer-funded safe havens in Pakistan.
We know right now that there are no signs of Al Qaeda in Afghanistan. As long as we're listening to the commanders, General Petraeus said this back in May, and so has General McChrystal just last month. Both of them maintain that Al Qaeda maintains undefined "links" to insurgents, but they aver as an absolute that Al Qaeda forces are not in the country, having moved to areas of western Pakistan and the border region. Just today, the President said that Al Qaeda has less than 100 core fighters overall and has "lost operational capacity," and that their presence has diminished significantly in Afghanistan.And yet, we know right now that the Taliban may control as much as 80% of Afghanistan. This report by the International Council on Security and Development from September of this year authoritatively estimated this.
SNIP
So the Taliban has been in control of at least half the country for at least two years, more than enough time for Al Qaeda to pack up from the border region and reinstall themselves into these safe havens. Skelton stated specifically that if the Taliban regains hold in "all or part of Afghanistan," Al Qaeda would return to plot attack. Well, the Taliban control lots of the country. But Al Qaeda aren't there. They don't need to be.
This persistent lie about Al Qaeda's aims in the region underpins the entire case for escalation, just the way the domino theory underpinned consistent troop buildup in Vietnam. And yet nobody in the media, up to and including Chris Matthews today, has bothered to challenge this basic falsehood. Nobody has asked the question, "If Al Qaeda is so desperate to find a safe haven, why haven't they returned to Afghanistan now, when the Taliban controls large swaths of the country?" It's not like they aren't under as much threat from drone attacks in Pakistan as they would be in Afghanistan.
There are also the points to be made, that the Taliban was ejected from the country the last time they gave Al Qaeda safe harbor and wouldn't appear likely to do so again, and that this Taliban is a home-grown movement with little influence from foreign fighters, and that the whole idea of "safe havens" in a world where terror attacks have been planned from inside Spain, Germany, Britain and even the United States is a false one. But accepting this argument on its own terms, and putting aside these points, it's still undermined by the facts.
Will anyone present these basic facts to the "serious foreign policy" dittoheads when they go on and on with a demonstrably false argument about safe havens and how we must send as many troops as possible into danger or we'll all be killed in our beds?
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Thrice-married adulterer destroys another Irony Meter
"A victory of [Obama's] values would mean the end of American civilization as we know it."
A black hole of hypocrisy was formed yesterday when serial playa and wife-abuser Newt Gingrich opened his blubbery piehole and said something stupid. Again.
In an interview with the fawning conservaturd nationalrepukeonline, the playdoh-ish 'former' playboy – now "directly infused with Christ" (eww) -- piously discusses the importance of religion while blasting the left and the Kenyan Muslim socialist commie President who is destroying Saint Ronnie of Reagan's America. Like eight years of Bush/Cheney never happened, with their myriad of GOP scandals, illegal hankypanky and other ethics probs.
Oh, and Newt? If Americans did not want to have a Prez Obama in office they could have voted in McCain, or Hillary, or Romney, or any of the other contenders back then. So screw you, jerkoff.
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Stop low-balling the public option
Back in February, reputable economists across the board agreed that the bare minimum stimulus required to prevent the country from suffering long-term unemployment was one trillion dollars. Paul Krugman said the bare minimum was two trillion dollars with no the tax cuts. President Obama, still playing nice with Senate repugs and Blue Dogs, low-balled the stimilus to $750 billion, only $400 billion of which was real job creation.
Guess who was right? We're still hemorrhaging jobs and exploding foreclosures and sabotaging Democrats for the 2010 elections because President Obama low-balled the stimulus.
And now he's doing the same thing to the public option for health care reform:
http://theygaveusarepublic.com/diary/3928/stop-lowballing-the-public-option
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With an attitude like that, of course "peace is an illusion." 'Israel's foreign minister has said there is no chance of an early solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and told people to "learn to live with it". Avigdor Lieberman does not lead Israeli peace negotiations, but his statement casts a pall over latest US diplomatic efforts to revive negotiations.'
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Why does Tim Geithner still have a job? "(Treasury Secretary) Geithner's calendars, obtained by The Associated Press under the Freedom of Information Act, offer a behind-the-scenes glimpse at the extraordinary influence of three companies. More than any other company or any of their rival banks, Goldman, Citi and JPMorgan can get Geithner on the phone several times a day if necessary, giving them an unmatched opportunity to influence policy."
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"The NFL often looks like a game between the Bloods and the Crips without any weapons. There, I said it." the vulgar racist Pigboy - new owner of the St Louis Rams? Link
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