Archive for May 14th, 2009
Nancy Pelosi Didn’t Know Anything, She Swears!
6:30 pm By la Macha · Uncategorized · 1 Comment
14 May 2009Call me cynical and evil, but I don’t believe Ms. Pelosi–me thinks she does stumble over her way too many protests too much.
Pelosi called for the CIA to release detailed notes from her own September 2002 briefing about interrogation techniques.She said today that, at that 2002 briefing, she was told the CIA was not waterboarding detainees despite later government reports showing that a high value al Qaeda detainee had been subjected to waterboarding 83 times in the weeks leading up to Pelosi’s briefing.
“At every step of the way, the administration was misleading the Congress. And that is the issue,” Pelosi said in a heated news conference, linking the alleged misinformation on waterboarding to now discredited intelligence reports in fall 2002 about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.
I think she knew all about the “enhanced” interrogations (AKA TORTURE), as did everybody else, INCLUDING President Obama. How could you not? Were these people just miraculously unaware of all the reports being put out by the ACLU, the lawyers of people being detained, the doctors, the interrogaters, the media that was oh so reluctantly reporting on this shit (CBS was not the first time accusations of prisoner abuse surfaced, it was just the first time pictures were made available!)…I don’t believe any of them. The good thing is that Obama seems to be willing to hold people in the higher up positions accountable–which is making all those involved stumble and growl and send daughters to the media in panic.
We’ll see how this all shakes down as the year progresses…but I’m not holding my breath for a Pelosi exoneration.
L.A. Police kick suspect in head
6:05 pm By la Macha · Drugs|Justice|Los Angeles|race|Violence · 9 Comments
14 May 2009
The notorious L.A. police are embroiled in yet another case of caught-on-video act of police brutality. From the BBC News (which also has video):
The incident came at the end of a car chase through Los Angeles suburbs.
The footage shows the suspect, Richard Rodriguez, 23, trying to escape on foot, then lying down to surrender when he sees there is no escape.
One pursuing police officer kicks him, and another punches his side. The local police department is investigating.
The incident, in the suburb of Pico Rivera, was recorded by news helicopters and broadcast on local TV stations
Already people are justifying this by saying that the man who was kicked was a criminal and deserved it or otherwise asked for it. In reply to that, I just have to ask, have these people never watched or read any Super Hero comics? It’s not up to the police to decide what punishments people deserve for their crimes. The police are not judge, jury and executioner. We supposedly *separate* each of these entities so that even the worst of the worst criminal out there gets a fair trail and sentence that is appropriate to the crime. That’s what a *democracy* is right? That system that we are bombing others into accepting because it rocks so hard?
Good GOD, I’m glad I don’t live out in L.A.
A Cultural Revolution in Venezuela…through Books?
4:02 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Books|Controversia|Culture|Latin America|Venezuela · 5 Comments
14 May 2009
While conservatives here in the U.S. sling the word “socialism” around like an insult, in Venezuela, President Hugo Chavez is leading a crusade for children to learn all about it via books. Chavez’s “Plan Revolucionario de Lectura” (“Revolutionary Reading Plan”) is getting off the ground now, with the goal, according to Chavez, of “constructing the new man”.
Chavez says he’ll be doing this by encouraging the reading of “revolutionary books”, while at the same time ridding libraries of classics such as “The Little Prince” by Antoine de Saint-Exupery and Cervantes’ classic Don Quijote for “ideological reasons”. I wonder what ideology he is referring to. No, I mean really…I don’t get what ideology is espoused in either of those books that he might disagree with. Maybe I need to read them again?
Chavez’s critics say he’s trashing lots of other books as well, citing that they must be thrown out because they are infested with mold or moths. According to La Tercera, among them are Hitchcock’s The Mummy, another one I don’t get. The books were allegedly sold to a recycling company for pennies on the kilo.
First it was RCTV, now it’s library books? Is this a harder push towards a cultural revolution in Venezuela? What do you think of what Chavez is doing? Let us know in the comments.
Via / La Tercera
Latinos: Somos Mas o Menos? Malos o Buenos?
11:11 am By Maegan la Mamita Mala · arizona|Cities|Media|States|Women · 4 Comments
14 May 2009
One of the biggest lines fed by the anti-immigrant movement is that there are already so many of “us”, that the U.S. can’t afford to school any more of “our” children, and give “us” anymore of “their” jobs. And today I have come across a flurry of stats being released that seem to be all over the place in terms of just how many of “us” there are.
Today, the U.S. Census Bureau reported that: The minority population reached an estimated 104.6 million — or 34 percent of the nation’s total population — on July 1, 2008, compared to 31 percent when the Census was taken in 2000. Nearly one in six residents, or 46.9 million people, are Hispanic, the agency reported.
Even more telling for the future: 44 percent of children younger than 18 and 47 percent of children younger than the age of five are now from minority families.
The quickly expanding Latino population is having a healthy impact on the economy, according to Ken Gronbach, author of “The Age Curve: How to Profit from the Growing Demographic Trend.”
“Latinos have saved our country,” he said. “They represent 14 percent of the population but 25 percent of the live births. The United States is the only western industrialized nation with a fertility rate above the 2.2 percent replacement rate.”
So people should be thanking us no? Well let’s look at some of the areas that are experiencing growth and the reception that growth is getting.
Read more…
Miss California Keeps Crown, Pageant Head Steps Down
5:44 am By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Celebrities|Controversia|society · 2 Comments
14 May 2009Well, folks, it turns out that gay marriage opponent and Miss America loser Miss California, Carrie Prejean, isn’t getting her just desserts. The Miss America pageant’s owner and worst hairstyle-haver in the world, Donald Trump, did what was not done for Vanessa Williams: he let her keep her role as Miss America, saying the images weren’t racy enough to warrant her dethroning.
Nice hypocrisy there, Donald. Shanna Moakler, reality TV star, former Miss USA and the head of the pageant isn’t happy with that decision and has stepped down as a result of it:
“I cannot with a clear conscience move forward supporting and promoting the Miss Universe Organization when I no longer believe in it, or the contracts I signed committing myself as a youth,” Moakler said.“I want to be a role model for young women with high hopes of pageantry, but now feel it more important to be a role model for my children. I am sorry and hope I have not let any young supporters down but wish them the best of luck in fulfilling their dreams,” she said.
CNN reports that Carrie Prejean claims that the last of the photos, published just before the decision, were
made without her knowledge during a modeling photo shoot. She said wind must have accidentally blown her unbuttoned top open.
Carrie must think all Americans are as dumb as she is if she believes we’ll buy that.
Anyway…can this story die yet? Apparently not:
Carrie Prejean uses Obama to defend her stance
Sarah Palin comes to Prejean’s aid
Keith Olbermann asks Carrie: WTF?
Miss Rhode Island also posed topless, FOX News cries “double standard”.
Oh, and check out the argument on MSNBC in the video above. Real passion around this topic!
Via / CNN
Hola!
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