The Croatian government created this powerful video to show the horrors of domestic violence. The video shows pictures taken everyday in the year of the life of a woman. Later images show bruising on the woman's face. The English translation of the video description.
A year in which I was abused . Please help me.
Good for the Croatian government for creating this video and raising awareness.
Campaign Dollars Matter More Than Women to Rand Paul
Litbrit has a great post on the media's fair and balanced coverage of Rand Paul supporter Tim Profitt's assault on a Moveon.org protester Lauren Valle.
The kudzu-like proliferation of Both-Sides-ism that has all but choked off any hope of redemption, via committing real journalism (ha!), for just about every pundit, pretty face, and "reporter" these days is why I had to stop watching Morning Joe altogether. Joe Scar and Mica are, I believe, contractually obligated to say "...and we hear rhetoric like this on both sides" or "...this is a problem with both parties" or "extremists on the far right AND the far left", and so on, after any and every story in which wingnuts might conceivably look bad (which is to say, virtually all stories in which the powerful hurt the less-so, and you have to pity the poor Villagers because there's really no way to temper the sheer viciousness and lawlessness of these people other than to make vague allusions to George Soros and the incivility of lefty blogs while counting the hours until your next Georgetown cocktail party).
First: the two wrongs make a right argument is lame. No one on the Left or Right should use violence to suppress a person's right to free speech. Second: Valle was a peaceful protester. She was taken down by several men and Profitt slammed his foot into her head as she was on the pavement. I do not believe for a second that Valle posed a physical threat to these men. This was assault. Plain and simple.
Profitt wasn't just any Tea Partier. He was Paul's Bourbon County coordinator. Team Paul has kicked Profitt off the campaign because of the bad media buzz. Paul is still keeping his $1,950 campaign contribution. Previously, the Paul campaign told Fox News that they would return Profitt's contribution.
Money matters more than protecting women from assault. A true profile in courage from Rand Paul Paul.
The Tea Party strategy of terror and intimidation continues. Teabaggers plan to protest in front of the the home of Senate Parliamentarian Alan Frumin. The role of the Parliamentarian is to advise the Preciding Officer (Which can be a member of the Senate or Vice-President) on the Standing Rules of the United States Senate. The Parliamentarian does not make policy. He merely advises the Senate or their rules of procedure.
That hasn't stopped the Tea Party activists from posting Frumin's address online. Sen. Kent Conrad told Fox News threats have been made against Frumin.
"The irony here is that he has people threatening him, but here's a guy who's held against us," Conrad said, referring to Frumin's ruling Wednesday night that will effectively send the bill back to the House because of minor changes.
The Tea Party blab on about how they support the Constitution. The Constitution states the Senate selects their officers. Frumin was appointed by both political parties.
Except for the Vice President, the Senate elects its own officers. The President pro tempore is usually the longest-serving member of the majority party. Other elected officers include a chaplain, secretary of the Senate, and sergeant at arms, who are not senators.
The Tea Party doesn't care about the Constitution. President Obama lowered taxes. These sociopaths just want to get their hate on.
The Tea Party movement as reacted to the passage of health care reform with insanity. House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer told The Hill that there is in security.
"Any member who feels themselves at risk is getting attention from the proper authority," Hoyer said during brief remarks on Wednesday.
The FBI is investigating a severed gas line, at the house the brother of Rep. Tom Perriello. The Lynchburg Tea Party anonymously posted the address of Perriello brother on their blog. The blogger mistakenly believed Rep. Perriello lived at the address. The blogger urged teabaggers to pay the Congressman a visit. That is a sure invitation to trouble.
“Just in case any of his friends and neighbors want to drop by and say hi and express their thanks regarding his vote for health care,” the author writes. “I personally believe it’s so important for representatives to remain fully grounded and to remember exactly what it is their constituents are saying and how they are telling them to vote. Nothing quite does that like a good face-to-face chat. It has a much more personal touch to it.”
I have had commenters post addresses and death threats at people on this blog. I have always deleted those comments. I could care less if commenters diss me. Putting people's personal information that might endanger a person is something I have never allowed on this blog. There is zero excuse for the actions of the Lynchburg Tea Party bloggers.
Nigel Coleman is one of the two people responsible for posted the address. Coleman was unapologetic of his actions.
According to the Politico Web site, when Coleman learned that the address actually belonged to the congressman’s brother, he responded on a blog: “Do you mean I posted his brother’s address on my Facebook? Oh well, collateral damage.”
The other person who posted the address is Mike Troxel. Like Coleman, Troxel showed an equal lack of sensitivity. Troxel refuses to take the address off the blog. Troxel will only take it down if he has Rep. Tom Perriello.
“If they would like to provide me with the address of Tom, then I’d be more than happy to take it down,” he said. “I have no reason to believe it’s not his house.”
Coleman and Troxel have been informed that Perriello's brother has received a threatening latter and a cut gas line. Yet, they refuse to delete their posting of the home address. These men are aware they are endanger the lives of the Perriello family. These are not freedom loving patriots. They are sociopaths.
"We wanted people to go by and talk to their congressman," Coleman said.
Previously, Perriello's brother was "collateral damage." Now Coleman wants a friendly chat. Amazing how an FBI investigation can change one's disposition.
A caller on Rep. Louise Slaughter's voice mail threatened to use "snipers" against her. Slaughter also had a brick thrown through her district office window. It is obvious some nutcase is attempting to stalk Slaughter. The threat against her is serious.
Tea Party protesters called Congressman and civil right legend "nigger." Several members of the member heard Tea Party protesters chant the word to the Black Caucus. Bill O'Reilly claims there is no proof. O'Reilly failed to bring any eyewitnesses to his show. Fox News helped create the Tea Party movement. How long will Fox News be able to explain away the militia mentality of this movement remains to be seen.
Ever since 1948, we've been hearing this balderdash from the Israelis -- just as Arab nationalists and then Arab Islamists have been peddling their own lies: that the Zionist "death wagon" will be overthrown, that all Jerusalem will be "liberated." And always Mr Bush Snr or Mr Clinton or Mr Bush Jnr or Mr Blair or Mr Brown have called upon both sides to exercise "restraint" -- as if the Palestinians and the Israelis both have F-18s and Merkava tanks and field artillery. Hamas's home-made rockets have killed just 20 Israelis in eight years, but a day-long blitz by Israeli aircraft that kills almost 300 Palestinians is just par for the course.
This is the highest level of Palestinian fatalities and casualties in four decades of Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip. The escalation of violence comes at a time when the civilian population already faces a daily struggle for survival due to the Israeli blockade which has prevented even food and medicines from entering Gaza.
So this latest Israeli hissy fit bout of violence may be unprecedented (since 1948, at least). And speaking of the Israelis blockading aid, the Guardian reports...
Israel accused of ramming Gaza aid ship
The Free Gaza Movement said its vessel, the Dignity, was intercepted by several Israeli vessels as it was heading to the Gaza Strip, which has been under Israeli aerial bombardment since Saturday.
One gunboat rammed the Dignity on the port bow side, causing heavy damage, although no one was hurt, the group said.
"[The Dignity] is taking on water and appears to have engine problems," the movement said on its website. "When attacked, the Dignity was clearly in international waters, 90 miles off the coast of Gaza.
Vanity Fair has obtained confidential documents, since corroborated by sources in the U.S. and Palestine, which lay bare a covert initiative, approved by Bush and implemented by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Deputy National Security Adviser Elliott Abrams, to provoke a Palestinian civil war. The plan was for forces led by Dahlan, and armed with new weapons supplied at America's behest, to give Fatah the muscle it needed to remove the democratically elected Hamas-led government from power. (The State Department declined to comment.)
But the secret plan backfired, resulting in a further setback for American foreign policy under Bush. Instead of driving its enemies out of power, the U.S.-backed Fatah fighters inadvertently provoked Hamas to seize total control of Gaza.
But, as we all know, the real question is how many anti-Arab, pro-death trolls will this post rake in? Fuck talking about reality! Meanwhile, the bodycount mounts... And Arab leaders still don't know what the hell to do. (Well, except for the Egyptians, who seem content with shooting at Gazans at the border and not opening up their hospitals to them. Classy.) But to be fair, Bush doesn't know what to do either -- he won't even cut his vacation short because of the crisis. Which is also classy.
