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More on Hastings

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There are a few who don’t believe it was an accident and are not questioning whether it was the McChrystal incident, rather, they question the Clinton connection.

I found these here and here and here. 

I dunno, folks, Hastings does ask some pointed questions about what else the Clinton State Dept. left behind if they failed to pick up something as crucial as Stevens’ diary for evidence of what happened. ..

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With that, I’m off for a few days…I’m way more upset than I can adequately express here about the stuff I put up yesterday.  What the hell happened to my country?

Anyway, I’ll be back in a few.

 

AP sources grow silent

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In Communications, they call an infringement on the First Amendment the “Chilling Effect”, because the flow of information suddenly grows quiet.  That’s what has happened with the sources supplying the AP with news tips. (hat tip to FDL)

Since the disclosure of the DoJ’s subpoena, Pruitt on Wednesday said AP reporters have experienced a chilling effect on newsgathering. Sources are “nervous and anxious” about talking with reporters, he said, and it goes beyond just the AP. “What I learned from our journalists should alarm everyone in this room and should alarm everyone in this country,” he said.

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A thriving democracy demands the free flow of information.  A thriving democracy requires a press that can report on the happenings of the government to the people that are governed by it.

Wright requests Swartz documents

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…but doesn’t seem to be getting anywhere.

Related to the whole secrecy for us, nothing for you…apparently Barack Obama was wiretapped in 2004.

Well, it’s official, folks…the NSA is running this country, and we’re all guilty until proven innocent.

I don’t care if Obama was a candidate for the Senate, unless there was a warrant, what the NSA  did was illegal and against the Fourth Amendment.

From the column:

What did the NSA find out? All Obama’s phone calls and emails were scooped up – was there anything damaging? Such an action would be a great way to gain leverage over a politician and make sure they don’t cancel your program – Tice alleges it was also done to a wide variety of politicians and officials.

“I was worried that the intelligence community now has sway over what is going on,” Tice said.

Knowledge is power, especially knowledge about embarrassing and/or illegal activities by politicians. No wonder Congress is scared to hold the NSA accountable.

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BINGO!!  Did I say this was Watergate on steroids?!! Yes I did. Over and over.  Well, now, Congress, your Patriot Act has now come around and bit you on the ass….ready to rein in the NSA yet?  Oh, wait….

…and now we have a new word: data plantation.  Good grief.

Fighting for public schools

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L.A. Parents fought back when Parent Revolution tried to take over yet another public school.

From the article link:

Gone are the days when slick, professional organizers can disguise school upheaval as parent empowerment by marketing laptops to every student, bullying parents into signing petitions, threatening families with loss of immigration status, or silencing teachers and principals trying to answer parents’ questions. These are just some of the tactics parents and teachers have reported experiencing at the hands of Parent Revolution.

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Love that they didn’t let the bullies intimidate them when they tried to intimidate them by cutting in line and other tactics.

 

 

More on Flight 800

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Democracy Now has a piece up featuring the controversy over Flight 800.  When I wrote the piece yesterday, I was unaware that Borjesson was the director of the documentary.

There are some serious questions raised about what happened.  These folks raising the questions are not hysterical people.  They are intelligent folks with great analytical skills who see something that just isn’t right.  I just wish we had a press that did the same thing.

**a side note~ a heart tug at hearing “You’ll Never Walk Alone” during the interval between the segments.  It was the song I sung to my Mom as she began to pass from this world.

Robin Thicke’s Blurred Lines

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I heard about this song last month, and was shocked and disgusted by the lyrics.

“you know you want it”  (shows she’s resisting his advances)

“you’re an animal baby”  “let me liberate you”

“I’ll give you something big enough to tear your ass in two” (no explanation needed)

“Do it like it hurt”

“you’re a good girl” (but you want the “nasty”–he categorizes women into good and bad…bad being those that like sex and willingly come to bed with him….the good girls, however, he wants them — he alludes to wanting to break them–to make them into “bad girls” who like sex.  )

It’s just another reinforcement of domination instead of consensual sex.  He sees her and wants her and she has no say in the matter. He’ll be “pimping” her…

Also, there is a subtext of comparing her to the other women…she being the best looking “bitch” there and better than the “bitch” he had before….

Apparently, I’m not the only one objecting to this song and what it represents. (I would quibble at the “kind of rapey”–it IS about rape–very subtle, but it’s there.)

…and it doesn’t surprise me that NPR “thinks it’s fun”.  Good grief.

I haven’t seen the video, but by the description, all the men are clothed while the women are pseudo naked in skin colored thongs.  And this is not degrading them?

From the article:

Thicke has insisted, a bit guilelessly, that by having the women naked, he was pushing the boundaries. “We pretty much wanted to take all the taboos of what you’re not supposed to do—bestiality, you know, injecting a girl in her bum with a five-foot syringe—I just wanted to break every rule of things you’re not supposed to do and make people realize how silly some of these rules are.”

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Oh.My.God.  My head is spinning.  Injecting a girl in her bum with a five-foot syringe…yeah, that’s not rape.  It’s just sex with violence….

And finally, the “robin thicke has a big dick”.  Seriously?

Nigella Lawson

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To Love. Honor. Cherish–vows given when walking down the aisle.

It all seems surreal, for some, when reality sets in:

ABC News has this up on the choking incident with Nigella Lawson and her husband.  Her husband actually tried to dismiss what happened by saying it was a “playful tiff”.  Her face tells her anguish.

His dismissal is typical of abusers–they either dismiss their abuse as being “exaggerated” or they will say she deserved it.

I don’t care what she said that made him angry.  He has no right to put his hands on her. None. Nada. Zilch.  If he is that angry, he needs to stop himself and back away from the situation…put distance between him and her until he can calm down enough to have a rational discussion about the disagreement.  When a man feels he can put his hands on a woman, he fails to see her as a person in her own right with a right to her own opinion and a right to voice that opinion.  This goes along with rape, as well.  That’s why I say rape is a cultural problem–it’s the view that women are not equals, that they should be subservient to men.

It’s when I see stories like this that I am glad that I’m single.  If my man abused me, I could walk away.

Yeah, I’ll probably be single until I die.

Or until  our rape /domestic violence culture  changes

Not holding my breath on that one…

 

 

Congress to the hungry:

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Eat Sh*t.  (Yeah, I know, I’ve said it before, but it speaks so well of the contempt of the poor).  As they debate the Farm Bill, once again they target the vulnerable and less able to fight back:  the food stamp recipients….giving them even less money for food that they can’t afford now…

I was watching CSPAN this morning with Rosa Delauro who is adamant on keeping the food stamp funds as is…and targeting the fraud in other areas that nobody speaks about.  You never hear the so-called conservatives, who love to kick the poor when they’re down, talk about this.   They try to categorize the Food Stamp program as full of fraud and waste….but never quite get around to putting facts out there.  Ronald Reagan started the “welfare queen” lie by taking a true story (a woman on welfare arrived to pick up her food stamps when they were still paper, in a Cadillac.  What Reagan and his ilk failed to report was that the woman was being given a ride by a wealthy lady so she could pick up her stamps.  Nice way to skew public perception to hate these lazy good-for-nothings that are driving around in luxury vehicles../snark.)  Good on Rosa when a woman caller called in spewing the conservative talking points that there was massive fraud and waste in the program.  A man also called in saying, “I don’t want to see anybody starve, but there are other ways for them to get food.  You have to cut these programs.”  Yeah, he doesn’t want to see people starving, so they best do it behind closed doors to soothe his conscience.

From the article:

Government audits and court records show hundreds of millions of dollars in losses due to fraud in a variety of farm programs, including crop insurance and subsidies that help agribusinesses promote their products abroad. The rate of food stamp fraud, on the other hand, has declined sharply in recent years, federal data shows, and now accounts for 1 percent of the $760 billion program, or $760 million a year.

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It would be damn near impossible to commit fraud with the food stamp program.  (Note that the error rate is at 3 percent.  3 % !! ) You must give them employment information, bank statements, rent information, number in household, etc., and you are checked up on.  And if they see anything that doesn’t sound right to them, they will call you and question it.

For instance, when I told them how little I made when in FW, they were questioning me on how I could make it on that low amount.  I told them that I washed my clothes in the tub (with the exception of once a month washing my jeans and towels in the washing machines); I cut my own hair (with sometimes hilarious results); went without deodorant except for important things like job interviews; washed my hair every other day, even though it needs it every day especially in the hot weather; I walked nearly everywhere so I didn’t use gas;  I brush my teeth with baking soda,  I count the number of squares of toilet paper I use, and other things like using cloth pads (but I didn’t tell them that as it’s really none of their business).

Everything that I needed (thyroid and other supplements) my son helped pay for.  I am actually quite proud of myself for handling this as I have–this isn’t how I was raised and it’s been a learning experience.

A caller called in who said she was a former food stamp recipient but now has a college degree and is working.  But, alas, she says now that the program should be cut.  Hello?  It never ceases to amaze me how those who have made it forget how difficult it was and lose their empathy for those in that position. (As a side note:  it also never ceases to amaze me how quick conservatives are to take money for themselves at taxpayer expense, but still have the nerve to deny people something as basic as FOOD.)

And I have a college education, but look where I am now….done in by stupid amalgams put in my mouth that made me ill, and wages that stagnated (otherwise, I might have been able to keep from losing my home and weathered the storm until I got well…perhaps not, but it would have been worth the shot.)

They mentioned on CSPAN that most folks on food stamps are disabled.  A man in the building I used to live in said he only gets $16 per month in food stamps.  He’s in a wheelchair.    Others on disability are not living it up.  You can’t buy cigarettes and alcohol on food stamps.  You also can’t buy toilet paper, soap,shampoo, trash bags, and other necessities.  Some people were using the plastic grocery bags for their trash in my building…much to the disdain of the management (throwing them down the trash shoot created mega problems).

Also mentioned in the CSPAN program is the fact that good ole Teflon Bill Clinton had changed the Food Stamp program drastically…while signing away jobs per NAFTA….Reagan would have been sooo proud.  It wasn’t until 2008 that they had addressed it again.

This whole debate is nonsensical.  No one with a shred of conscience can seriously say that denying people a basic need such as food is something that “has to” be done…especially when there is so much corporate welfare out there and a bloated defense department.  (OMG, did she really say cut the defense dept?  Watch out for drones, dear…)