November 2011
“The mainstream media was declaring continually “OWS has no message”. Frustrated, I simply asked them. I began soliciting online “What is it you want?” answers from Occupy. In the first 15 minutes, I received 100 answers. These were truly eye-opening. The No 1 agenda item: get the money out of politics. Most often cited was legislation to blunt the effect of the Citizens United ruling, which lets boundless sums enter the campaign process. No 2: reform the banking system to prevent fraud and manipulation, with the most frequent item being to restore the Glass-Steagall Act – the Depression-era law, done away with by President Clinton, that separates investment banks from commercial banks. This law would correct the conditions for the recent crisis, as investment banks could not take risks for profit that create kale derivatives out of thin air, and wipe out the commercial and savings banks. No 3 was the most clarifying: draft laws against the little-known loophole that currently allows members of Congress to pass legislation affecting Delaware-based corporations in which they themselves are investors. When I saw this list – and especially the last agenda item – the scales fell from my eyes. Of course, these unarmed people would be having the shit kicked out of them. For the terrible insi”
—The shocking truth about the crackdown on Occupy | Naomi Wolf | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk (via raincoaster)
(TW: rape) Woman and child must spend 12 years in jail, or she must marry her rapist →
edition.cnn.com
The rapist was her cousin’s husband.
After the attack, she hid what happened as long as she could. But soon she began vomiting in the mornings and showing signs of pregnancy. It was her attacker’s child.
In Afghanistan, this brought her not sympathy, but prosecution. Aged just 19, she was found guilty by the courts of sex outside of marriage — adultery — and sentenced to twelve years in jail.
Now inside Kabul’s Badam Bagh jail, she and her child are serving her sentence together.
Sitting with the baby in her lap, her face carefully covered, she explains the only choice she has that would end her incarceration.
The only way around the dishonor of rape, or adultery in the eyes of Afghans, is to marry her attacker. This will, in the eyes of some, give her child a family and restore her honor.
Incredibly, this is something that Gulnaz is willing to do.
“I was asked if I wanted to start a new life by getting released, by marrying this man”, she told CNN in an exclusive interview. “My answer was that one man dishonored me, and I want to stay with that man.”
Tending to her daughter in the jail’s cold, she added: “My daughter is a little innocent child. Who knew I would have a child in this way. A lot of people told me that after your daughter’s born give it to someone else, but my aunt told me to keep her as proof of my innocence.”
Gulnaz’s choice is stark. Women in her situation are often killed for the shame their ordeal has brought the community. She is at risk, some say, from her attacker’s family.
We found Gulnaz’s convicted rapist in a jail across town. While he denied raping her, he agreed that she would likely be killed if she gets out of jail. But he insists that it will be her family, not his, that will kill her, “out of shame.”
This entire story is just horrifying.
NYPD pepper sprays man to death
The death of a Bronx man who suffered a fatal asthma attack after cops pepper-sprayed him has been ruled a homicide by the city medical examiner.
An autopsy found that Kemp Yarborough cause of death was by“acute bronchial asthma attack during a physical altercation including pepper spray,” the city medical examiner told….
More at link
Play
“While Texas experiences record droughts that cost $9 billion and while the evidence of climate change becomes more clear, the denialists quit discussing the science. Instead, billionaire oil tycoons continue their personal attacks against scientists. ”
—John Abraham, Climate Science Rapid Response Team, Been There. Done That. Got the (delta) T. Climate Hackers try again. « Climate Denial Crock of the Week (via silas216)
Seeing Captain Kangaroo on my dash made my fucking night. Thank you :-D
The Captain gets things done… ;-)
“The object of government is the welfare of the people. The material progress and prosperity of a nation are desirable chiefly so far as they lead to the moral and material welfare of all good citizens.”
—
Theodore Roosevelt, 1910 (via politicalprof)
Seriously. Quality of life for everyone should be our #1 priority. No more of this “bootstraps” shit.
(via speesbag)
Exactly.
Scalia and Thomas dine with healthcare law challengers as court takes case →
latimes.com
The day the Supreme Court gathered behind closed doors to consider the politically divisive question of whether it would hear a challenge to President Obama’s healthcare law, two of its justices, Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas, were feted at a dinner sponsored by the law firm that will argue the case before the high court.
They don’t care that we know what they’re up to. Knock yourselves out, peasants. This is how things get done in this country.
