Fully Controlled at All Times (Updated)

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"They could get lucky... they could have easily got a hand gun... they could get lucky, you just never know. Who knows with these guys... just because they may be incompetent, doesn't mean something couldn't have happened. We shouldn't exaggerate the threat coming from home-grown groups." -- Lydia Khalil, former counter terrorism analyst for the NYPD from 2006 to 2008, on the Riverdale plotters, in NPR's The Takeway morning program segment, "New York City Terrorism and Security."

Here's Ethan Brown's diary in TalkLeft, talking about "thin, informant-driven" past terror plots (Sears Tower, Fort Dix and the 34th Street subway station in Manhattan) which resulted in guilty verdicts. The TL piece ends with:

These so-called "preemptive indictments"--in which defendants are charged based on their intentions and not their actions--are a perversion of justice and a cruel joke, every bit of a joke as the theory of "preemptive war" that led us to Iraq. And yet it is this legal theory that drives our anti-terror strategy in the U.S.

From Medialens Message Board [emphasis Medialens]:

Questions about the "Temple Plot"

The FBI and and media are going ape over this alleged "Temple bombing" plot in which four men from Newburgh, New York, planted what they thought were bombs outside a Jewish temple. Also, these "domestic terrorists" were planning to obtain Stinger missiles to shoot down U.S. military planes.

Interestingly, we see that the entire "plot" was hatched by an FBI informant:

The defendants, in their efforts to acquire weapons, dealt with an informant acting under law enforcement supervision, authorities said. The FBI and other agencies monitored the men and provided an inactive missile and inert C-4 to the informant for the defendants, a federal complaint said.

In June 2008, the informant met Cromitie in Newburgh and Cromitie complained that his parents had lived in Afghanistan and he was upset about the war there and that many Muslim people were being killed in Afghanistan and Pakistan by U.S. military forces, officials said.

Folks, let's take a hard look at this one, please. It is not as though C-4 explosives and Stinger missiles are available at every neighborhood drug store. Had any of the four "terrorists" ever obtained explosives or anything similar on their own? Somehow, I seriously doubt it. The New York Times pretty much gives it away, although unintentionally:

A federal law enforcement official described the plot as “aspirational” — meaning that the suspects wanted to do something but had no weapons or explosives — and described the operation as a sting with a cooperator within the group.

“It was fully controlled at all times,” a law enforcement official said.

Indeed, this Freudian slip perhaps is the most truthful line in the entire article.

More from the same Medialens MB thread:

Like Miami 7, New York Terror Plot Funded And Uncovered By The FBI

At the top of today’s CBS Early Show, co-host Maggie Rodriguez reported:

"We know that they had been working with an FBI informant for quite awhile. And they purchased inactive missiles and inert C-4 explosives from them. I wonder where they got the money. Who's funding these things?...Would you say that home-grown terrorists are a bigger threat now to us than foreign terrorists?"

Again, an FBI informant led these “home-grown” “Al-Qaeda-Wanna-Be” losers to purchase explosives and probably provided the money and the expertise, as they did in the Miami Seven “terror plot” to blow-up the Sears Tower.

In other words, these “terror cells” have been created, engineered and funded by the FBI.

In the Miami Seven case, defense attorneys said the group had no links to al-Qaida and were probably set up by a government informant.

After two hung juries, 5 of the Miami 7 were found guilty this month. To make their case, the government would have tried these losers twenty times until they got a conviction. They can afford to do it with our money.

These Miami 7 losers were promised money by an FBI informant to blow up the Sears Tower in Chicago, and despite the fact that they did nothing but try to extract money from the informant, the Jury convicted 5 of the remaining 6 defendants, one had been acquitted in an earlier trial.

I expect to see the same exact story line develop in the New York case.

Without the help of the FBI, there would have been no terror plot.

The Bush machinery is still in place “creating” terror to keep Americans in constant fear and to give Dick Cheney more credence while he defends torture.

The ML thread ends with exerpts from an article in the Independent:

Kim Sengupta: Official hype on terrorism will only stoke Islamic resentment

… The suspects were Muslim converts who had talked loosely about carrying out attacks. But they were also petty criminals who had no links with known terrorists and had no expertise or weaponry to carry out such acts. The C-4 plastic explosive "bombs" they placed outside the synagogues in the Bronx were duds, as were their Stinger missiles. They all were supplied by the FBI, who monitored the "plot"throughout.

This kind of official hype regarding terrorism is hardly confined to the other side of the Atlantic. Last month, the arrest of 12 terror suspects in the north of England took place amid massive media coverage and the Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, declaring that Britain faced a "very big" threat. All that unravelled fairly swiftly and embarrassingly with the admission that no evidence of terrorist plotting had been found.

What these cases do, however, is heighten public fear about Islamist terrorism.

…The four men arrested in New York have been charged with, among other things, conspiracy to use "weapons of mass destruction" – ironic in the context of the falsehoods used to justify the Iraq invasion, which a senior British diplomat called "a recruiting sergeant" for insurgents.

Commissioner Kelly described the FBI sting operation as showing "Our concern about homegrown terrorism".

…By treating the hapless New York plot as a huge domestic chapter of global jihad, the authorities risk fuelling the sense of resentment which may, indeed, help create the homegrown terrorism they say they are seeking to counter.

Update

Ethan Brown at TL:

The New York Post has a useful little primer on the informant at the center of the alleged plot to bomb a Bronx synagogue. According to the Post, the informant is an upstate New York motel owner named Shahed Hussain.

Hussain became an informant after being busted on fraud charges; Hussain worked as a translator for the DMV and helped immigrants cheat on driver's tests. His bid to become an informant, according to the Post, was driven by a desire to win leniency on the fraud charges and avoid being deported to Pakistan. [MORE]

With two astute TL commenters [my emphasis]:

"[S]pending a year talking some clowns into doing something violently stupid isn't preventing terrorism in the slightest...like the rest of our anti-terror policies, its only to make us feel better or safer...nothing is being accomplished. It's illusionary "feel good" nonsense that does more harm than good."

"But this way they get to time the arrests to fill a need in keeping the public scared of terror attacks and thinking the techniques being used (spying on us all, and torture) are keeping us safe."

(Cross-posted at Antemedius.)

Humourous Link of the Day

This ain't satire, these guys are serious (or seriously idiotic). Of course, the Democratic Party doesn't even come close to being socialist or Democratic Socialist.

From The Real News Network: The Republican National Committee to re-brand the Democratic Party as the "Dem Socialist Party"

TIMES ARGUS: Vermont senators split on funds for Gitmo closing

By Louis Porter VERMONT PRESS BUREAU - Published: May 21, 2009

MONTPELIER — A vote on funding to close the Guantanamo Bay detention center requested by President Barack Obama resulted in the $80 million being stripped out of a war funding bill in the U.S. Senate on Wednesday.

Vermont's two U.S. senators, Democrat Patrick Leahy and Bernard Sanders, an Independent, split on the spending provision. Leahy was one of six senators voting in support of funding the closure; Sanders voted against the money needed to shut down the prison.

The New York Times called the Senate vote a "strong rebuke of the Obama White House."

Sanders said he voted against funding to close the facility in Cuba — despite voting differently on a related measure in 2007 — because he wants a clear and thorough examination of why the roughly 240 prisoners there are being held and an accounting of what will happen to them.

"A couple of years ago I was one of the few to vote against a resolution dealing with Guantanamo because I wanted to make it very clear that I believed that (President) Bush's decision to keep Guantanamo open was a disaster for the image of the United States and for our entire foreign policy," Sanders said.

"I agree with President Obama that Guantanamo must be shut down," he added, "and in my view should be shut down as soon as possible. I want to make absolutely certain that torture is never again part of America's interrogation practices and all detainees are treated under the rules of the Geneva Convention."

But before funding the closure of Guantanamo is approved, a commission examining issues such as why the detainees of the camp were taken there, whether their status as enemy combatants is legitimate and what will happen to them should complete its work, Sanders said.

"I think it is prudent to review the plan they develop before we spend $80 million of taxpayers' money," he said. "A number of important questions remain unanswered about the rather complicated issue of not only how you close down the facility — you can close down a facility in five minutes — but what you do with the prisoners."

For similar reasons he will likely vote against the underlying war funding bill when it comes before the Senate, perhaps as early as today, Sanders said.

"I don't believe we are seeing the kind of exit strategy we need for the war in Iraq and Afghanistan," he said.

"Whether it is George Bush or Barack Obama, my job is to take a hard look at the plans that an administration brings forth," Sanders said. "I happen to be a strong supporter of Barack Obama, but that doesn't mean he is right on every issue."

Leahy was one of the six senators voting with Obama on the matter.

Leahy "believes it would be a mistake to start negating options before we know what the options are," said David Carle, a Leahy spokesman. [Continue reading the Porter article here.]

H/T to Blurt/Shay Totten, who also reports the Sanders - Leahy split.

Guantanomo inmate to appear before NY court

From Radio Netherlands Worldwide International News

Published Thursday 21 May 2009

For the first time, a suspected terrorist held at the Guantanamo detention centre will be brought before a US civil court. US media report that President Barack Obama will announce on Thursday that Tanzanian Ahmed Ghailani will have to stand trial in New York. He was allegedly involved in the attacks on the US embassies in Tanzania and Kenya in 1998. Ahmed Ghailani was detained in Pakistan in 2004 and later transferred to Guantánamo.

The president will today give a speech in which he will provide further details of his plans to close the infamous detention centre. On Wednesday, the Senate refused to provide funds for closing down Guantanamo. A majority fears some suspected terrorists may be released into the United States or possible escape from US prisons.

According to The New York Times [JayV edit: NYT blatant fear mongering], an undisclosed Pentagon report shows that 74 of the 534 suspected terrorists released from Guantanamo have joined terrorists or other militants. Two hundred-and-forty prisoners are still being held at Guantanamo.

RebelReports - In Closed-Door Meeting With Rights Groups, Obama Suggests He'll Use 'Preventive Detention'

By Jeremy Scahill

Just when you think President Obama’s policies on war, civil liberties and Guantanamo couldn’t possibly look any more like the Bush/Cheney regime’s than they already do, the administration goes ahead and proves you dead wrong. In a meeting Wednesday with several human rights groups including the ACLU, the Center for Constitutional Rights and Human Rights Watch, Obama said he was “mulling the need for a ‘preventive detention’ system that would establish a legal basis for the United States to incarcerate terrorism suspects who are deemed a threat to national security but cannot be tried,” according to two participants in the “private session.” [read all of Scahill here]

RNW: Balkenende Interview

I don't agree with Jan-Peter Balkenende's politics, but I was impressed with this interview and hope RNW does more like it with him.

In an exclusive video interview with the English Department of Radio Netherlands Worldwide, Dutch Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende announced on Wednesday evening that he will suggest to other European countries that they adopt the Dutch ‘polder model' of government.

BREAKING: New Hampshire House balks on marriage equality bill

Bay News
Wednesday afternoon, May 20, 2009

The New Hampshire Senate passed it, the governor was standing by to sign it, and many expected approval of a final same-sex marriage bill in the House today could be swift and routine.

But in a surprise turnabout, the New Hampshire House voted narrowly Wednesday afternoon to defeat the measure, 186 to 188.

When the House Speaker announced the vote in the House, the chamber erupted with sounds of both distress and applause. Supporters and opponents then launched immediate efforts to both save and kill the measure for this legislative session.

Yikes!

From today's Independent : 'I was waiting for a signal,' says skydiver who forgot to pull the cord – and lived

The veteran skydiver from Staffordshire had already made more than 2,500 jumps. He was calm and fully prepared for the astonishing thrill that comes with hurtling towards the ground, safe in the knowledge that his parachute would help him land safely.

Except this time there was one small problem. While he was concentrating on filming, his dive partner was supposed to be keeping a close eye on the rapidly approaching ground. But as the crucial moment approached the signal from his friend to draw his parachute failed to get through and Mr Boole slammed into the snow covered rocks at 100mph.

Remarkably, despite a broken back, a punctured lung and several broken ribs, the 31–year–old survived his ordeal. Recuperating at his home in Tamworth, Staffordshire, he recalled the moment he realised he had survived. "What went through my mind was my wife and daughter," he said. "I really thought I was going to die."

A self–confessed adrenaline junkie, Mr Boole had flown to eastern Russia to film a documentary about one of the most extreme forms of sky diving – "wingsuit base jumping".

Unlike standard dives, where jumpers release their parachutes far above the ground and float gently down to earth, Mr Boole prefers the base jumper ethos, where practitioners open their chute at the last minute to maximise their freefall time. He was also wearing a wingsuit – a specially designed bodysuit which allows jumpers to "fly" as they hurtle towards earth. In the right conditions, for every metre that a jumper falls while wearing a wingsuit they are also able to travel up to three metres forward.

Dowd's Deep Doo Doo

I don't anymore, but when I did read the NYT regularly, I'd check out Maureen Dowd for her sarcastic opinion pieces.

Dan Kennedy: ... I continue to be troubled by her explanation of how she came to lift a paragraph from Josh Marshall's megablog, Talking Points Memo.

OK, so Dowd was "talking" in a "spontaneous" manner with a friend, as she put it to the Huffington Post. Fine. I had decided to assume for the purpose of moving on that by "talking" she meant "e-mailing." It would be completely believable if she had copied and pasted from a friend's e-mail who had volunteered to help her write her column.

COMMENT: Weird times we live in, and of course, liberal bloggers and the busy media gotcha gang are having a field day with yet another diversion from the real news. But I do think this bowdlerization of language is troubling. 'Talking,' 'e-mailing.' On Gmail, when you want to write an email, you click "Compose Mail." After you click "send," the confirmation reads, "This message has been sent."

It gets worse. After you delete an email, the confirmation reads, "This conversation has been moved to the Trash" (with a capital 'T,' for typographical emphasis!).

Apples of Orange

On May 12th, Princess Máxima of The Netherlands and Co-Patron of the Orange Fund [English] presented [Dutch] the Apples of Orange - Appeltjes van Oranje - to three innovative projects at Noordeinde Palace.

"An Appeltje van Oranje is primarily a gesture of esteem for the work and efforts of the winning organisation and also an example to inspire others to start similar initiatives."

See the photo at the right; the bronze award has been designed by Queen Beatrix, the "Sculptor Queen." HM The Queen and HRH The Prince of Orange were in attendance. One of the Appeltje recipients was a volunteer group in Zeeland.

I was intrigued because this service organisation - Ruilwerk, an exchange/resale shop - is in Goes, near my father's birthplace. (Wolphaartsdijk, where my uncle was a family practice doctor, is in the same municipality.) So I did an on-line search and found a YouTube site with interviews of the workers there.

Here are two very, very nice videos by Goes TV (the station has interviews by local youth). The interviews are in Dutch, but it makes my heart glad to see the clips: clearly the volunteers are proud of their important work and this recognition!

Before they left to travel to The Hague...

Dinsdag 12 mei vertrekken vrijwilligers van de ruilwinkel in Goes naar Den Haag. Daar ontvangen ze uit handen van prinses Maxima een geldbedrag en een beeldje (het Appeltje van Oranje) dat door de koningin is gemaakt. De burgemeester van Goes en een wethouder gaan ook mee. Reportage: Mandy, Bram & Yamie.

The volunteers' reactions after the ceremony give us an insight about what happens to an honored group when they go to the ceremony.

De vrijwilligers van de Ruilwinkel in Goes zijn dinsdag 12 mei naar paleis Noordeinde in Den Haag geweest om uit handen van prinses Maxima een prijs in ontvangst te nemen (het Appeltje van Oranje)....

Roman Catholic Hypocrisy

Regarding the tiff over Obama's honorary doctorate from the University of Notre Dame.

Every good Catholic knows that the church is strictly opposed to capital punishment. Since Bush set records for carrying out death sentences when he was governor of Texas, you would think that the same guardians of virtue that are protesting Obama, who has never personally signed an abortion certificate, would have been out in force for a man who presided over 152 executions. But there was nary a peep. There were no bishops signing petitions opposing Bush’s appearance. There were no protests on campus. There were no students refusing to participate in graduation ceremonies. And there were no cameras from national news networks circling like buzzards.

If these Catholic Crusaders are truly interested in demonstrating their piety without prejudice, they should immediately call for Notre Dame to revoke Bush’s honorary degree. If the press is honestly endeavoring to be objective, they should pose this question to the protesters.

Slave labor conditions in Holland

Eastern European workers - mainly Roma - are to The Netherlands what Hispanic or Asian laborers are in the United States: targets of exploitation and inhumane working conditions. The annual asparagus harvest in Holland has prompted the authorities to raid a farm.

The owner of an asparagus farm in the province of Brabant is being investigated by the Social Intelligence and Investigation Service (SIOD) to see if criminal charges can be brought against her after 50 East European workers were discovered to be living in "near-slavery" conditions.

The SIOD - a body of the Ministry of Social Affairs and Employment charged with criminal investigations - had been given the go-ahead to raid the farm on Friday because the sleeping quarters were in breach of fire regulations. It was then that the extent of the conditions came to light.

The 50 farmhands, many of them Romanian, were not allowed to leave the premises and were sleeping in a filthy room without a window. The workers were being paid less than the agreed wage.

The farm owner has already been fined five times by the labour inspectorate since 2005 for employing illegal immigrants, paying under the minimum wage and failure to report an on-site accident. The fines amounted to more than 500,000 euros.

Dutch police shoot a taser for the very first time

As the use of tasers by Burlington police has increased, the first 'target' for police in The Netherlands was a 'suicidal' man:

The man, aged 30, stood on a balcony, pressing a number of knives against his throat. Despite talking to the man for hours, the police was unable to resolve the situation, which led them to resort to the taser gun. Subsequently, the man was brought into safety.

The use of the taser gun is subject to criticism in other countries. In the US a number of detainees died after receiving a shock from the weapon. An American study found in 1999 that shocks even weaker than those administered by the taser can induce cardiac arrests in people with a heart condition.

Police in Woerden, however, say the 30-year-old has not suffered any lasting damage from the arrest. The use of taser guns in the Netherlands is experimental, and limited to seven special arrest teams and the military police. The one-year test period is expected to end in May 2010.

BURLINGTON LEAD PROGRAM SEEKS HOME FURNISHINGS

The request via my local Front Porch Forum:

The Burlington Lead Program (BLP) needs your help! Enrollment for BLP services has skyrocketed over the past several months and households undergoing Lead-Hazard Reduction activities require short-term housing during the lead-hazard reduction work. Since most of the tenants that we serve live in the Old North End and do not have access to private transportation, we decided to rent an apartment to provide safe and convenient housing for low-income families.

We will need to furnish this unit over the next few weeks and are asking for anyone who is willing to donate household items to contact us. Among other things, we will be needing beds, a pull-out sofa, a kitchen table and chairs (to name just a few). Any funding we don't need to spend on furnishings, is money that can be continued to be put towards making our community safer through outreach, education and Lead-Hazard Reduction activities.

We greatly appreciate the community's continued support in our efforts to make Burlington a lead-safe community. If you can donate any home furnishings, please contact us at 865-LEAD.

Christian Avard interviews Dennis Perrin

Dennis Perrin, the author of Savage Mules: The Democrats and Endless War, chats with Christian Avard about Jon Stewart, The Nation magazine's turn to the center, the Palestine-Israel situation, and Dennis' assessment of the first 100 days of Dear Leader's administration. It's in P U L S E, and it's all here.

And while you're at it, Dennis Perrin's blog - http://dennisperrin.blogspot.com/ is also worth following for his commentary and humour.

International Day Against Homophobia '09

It's tomorrow!

From the House of Le May

Yeah. This is the sixth annual event with this year's theme being "Homosexuality knows no borders." (Maybe that's why I have often been told I've overstepped my bounds?)

So, what are we supposed to do?

The proposed goal for the 2009 Campaign is to make the general population and, more specifically, ethno-cultural communities of all backgrounds more aware of gay and lesbian issues, and sexual diversity. Ethno-cultural communities occupy an increasingly significant place in our societies. What’s more, contributions by these communities are invaluable to our country.

Got it? Do it!

They're not pretending anymore

Israel has wiped Palestine off the map. It's already been done:

Posters have recently appeared in London Underground tube stations advertising Israel as a tourist destination. The map on the advert depicts Israel as incorporating the West Bank and East Jerusalem, the Gaza Strip and the Golan Heights.

Both sides await Prop. 8 decision on anniversary of ruling

KTVU.COM

SAN FRANCISCO -- Friday was the one-year anniversary of a California Supreme Court ruling that allowed same-sex marriage - only to be struck down six months later by a voter initiative that made a ban on gay marriage part of the state constitution.

Supporters and opponents of gay marriage are now awaiting a second State Supreme Court decision on whether the initiative itself, enacted by voters Nov. 4 as Proposition 8, was constitutional.

The court heard arguments on the case in San Francisco on March 5 and must issue a ruling no later than June 3.

Weekend Music: YVES DUTEIL

From 24oranges

The city of Amstelveen, next to Amsterdam, has been playing host to an entire week of French cultural events.

And Yves Duteil played last Thursday. I googled him and found the above - wonderful - song on You Tube.

10th Anniversary: Burlington celebrates the useful tools of 'community policing'

From Burlington Free Press

Burlington is approaching its 10th anniversary of community policing — an approach that stresses police-community interaction. Theoretically, community policing is proactive, while the traditional police model, sirens blaring, was reactive....

Some officers are already reaching out. Officer Mike Hemond, for example, posted a message on the Front Porch Forum for the Five Sisters area, providing a link to the department’s Web site, updating residents on graffiti arrests, alerting them that he was going on vacation for a few weeks and making himself available to chat about whatever when he got back. “Heck,” he wrote, “e-mail me in advance, and I’ll bring coffee.”The department’s first Street Crime Unit will start work mid-month, [police chief Michael]Schirling said. Conceived as a floating squad with the ability to respond to spikes in burglaries or drug use or other crimes, it will have uniformed and plain clothes officers emphasizing, as the reassessment reports puts it, “face-to-face contacts with members of the community as well as persons engaged in suspicious, disorderly or criminal behavior.”

The family of a Burlington teenager has filed a formal complaint against a city police sergeant alleging the officer fired a stun gun at the boy while he was handcuffed and pinned to the ground this week....

... Schirling said his department acquired Tasers about three years ago, has used them fairly frequently, and they have proved an effective law-enforcement tool. Initially a skeptic, Schirling said seeing the devices in action sold him on their usefulness.

"It is designed to minimize injuries to officers and to people the force is used on," the chief said.

COMMENT: Clearly, inflicting pain from this gadgetry of tyranny works -- for the authority figures.

And, as for community involvement, in the next 10 years we might expect Blockwarts to be recruited by the police for our local Neighborhood Watch programs.

Friday Music Groove: Santana

Santana: Fried Neckbones and Home Fries

From the 'Where are They Now?' Dept.

Actually, it's from the Guardian

"Boy George has been released from prison four months into a 15-month sentence. The singer, whose real name is George O'Dowd, had been jailed after falsely imprisoning a male escort in his east London flat. He left Edmunds Hill prison in Suffolk yesterday, having been detained there since January.

"The former Culture Club singer was accused of assault and false imprisonment in 2007 by male escort Audun Carlsen. According to Carlsen, O'Dowd handcuffed him to a bed after accusing him of taking photographs from the singer's laptop. In his court testimony, Carlsen said he was then punched and beaten by O'Dowd and another man, before being manacled to a wall. He managed to escape wearing only his underwear, before taking refuge in a local newsagent. The singer was found guilty in December 2008 and sentenced earlier this year."

Gov. Lynch Statement Regarding Same-Sex Marriage Legislation

For Immediate Release
May 14, 2009

Gov. Lynch Statement Regarding Same-Sex Marriage Legislation

CONCORD - Gov. John Lynch released the following statement today regarding same-sex legislation in New Hampshire:

“The gay marriage debate in New Hampshire has been filled with passion and emotion on all sides.

“My personal views on the subject of marriage have been shaped by my own experience, tradition and upbringing. But as Governor of New Hampshire, I recognize that I have a responsibility to consider this issue through a broader lens.

“In the past weeks and months, I have spoken with lawmakers, religious leaders and citizens. My office has received thousands of phone calls, letters and emails. I have studied our current marriage and civil union laws, the laws of other states, the bills recently passed by the legislature and our history and traditions.

“Two years ago, we passed civil unions legislation here in New Hampshire. That law gave same-sex couples in civil unions the same rights and protections as marriage. And in typical New Hampshire fashion, the people of this state embraced civil unions and agreed we needed to continue our tradition of opposing discrimination.

“At its core, HB 436 simply changes the term ‘civil union’ to ‘civil marriage.’ Given the cultural, historical and religious significance of the word marriage, this is a meaningful change.

“I have heard, and I understand, the very real feelings of same-sex couples that a separate system is not an equal system. That a civil law that differentiates between their committed relationships and those of heterosexual couples undermines both their dignity and the legitimacy of their families.

“I have also heard, and I understand, the concerns of our citizens who have equally deep feelings and genuine religious beliefs about marriage. They fear that this legislation would interfere with the ability of religious groups to freely practice their faiths.

“Throughout history, our society’s views of civil rights have constantly evolved and expanded. New Hampshire’s great tradition has always been to come down on the side of individual liberties and protections.

“That is what I believe we must do today.

“But following that tradition means we must act to protect both the liberty of same-sex couples and religious liberty. In their current form, I do not believe these bills accomplish those goals.

“The Legislature took an important step by clearly differentiating between civil and religious marriage, and protecting religious groups from having to participate in marriage ceremonies that violate their fundamental religious beliefs.

“But the role of marriage in many faiths extends beyond the actual marriage ceremony.

“I have examined the laws of other states, including Vermont and Connecticut, which have recently passed same-sex marriage laws. Both go further in protecting religious institutions than the current New Hampshire legislation.

“This morning, I met with House and Senate leaders, and the sponsors of this legislation, and gave them language that will provide additional protections to religious institutions.

“This new language will provide the strongest and clearest protections for religious institutions and associations, and for the individuals working with such institutions.
It will make clear that they cannot be forced to act in ways that violate their deeply held religious principles.

“If the legislature passes this language, I will sign the same-sex marriage bill into law. If the legislature doesn’t pass these provisions, I will veto it.

“We can and must treat both same-sex couples and people of certain religious traditions with respect and dignity.

“I believe this proposed language will accomplish both of these goals and I urge the legislature to pass it.

Below is the language Gov. Lynch has proposed for the same Sex legislation.

# # #

I. Notwithstanding any other provision of law, a religious organization, association, or society, or any individual who is managed, directed, or supervised by or in conjunction with a religious organization, association or society, or any nonprofit institution or organization operated, supervised or controlled by or in conjunction with a religious organization, association or society, shall not be required to provide services, accommodations, advantages, facilities, goods or privileges to an individual if such request for such services, accommodations, advantages, facilities, goods or privileges is related to the solemnization of a marriage, the celebration of a marriage, or the promotion of marriage through religious counseling, programs, courses, retreats, or housing designated for married individuals, and such solemnization, celebration, or promotion of marriage is in violation of their religious beliefs and faith. Any refusal to provide services, accommodations, advantages, facilities, goods or privileges in accordance with this section shall not create any civil claim or cause of action or result in any state action to penalize or withhold benefits from such religious organization, association or society, or any individual who is managed, directed, or supervised by or in conjunction with a religious organization, association or society, or any nonprofit institution or organization operated, supervised or controlled by or in conjunction with a religious organization, association or society.

II. The marriage laws of this state shall not be construed to affect the ability of a fraternal benefit society to determine the admission of members pursuant to RSA 418:5, and shall not require a fraternal benefit society that has been established and is operating for charitable and educational purposes and which is operated, supervised or controlled by or in connection with a religious organization to provide insurance benefits to any person if to do so would violate the fraternal benefit society’s free exercise of religion as guaranteed by the first amendment of the Constitution of the United States and part 1, article 5 of the Constitution of New Hampshire

III. Nothing in this chapter shall be deemed or construed to limit the protections and exemptions provided to religious organizations under RSA § 354-A:18.

IV. Repeal. RSA 457-A, relative to civil unions, is repealed effective January 1, 2011, except that no new civil unions shall be established after January 1, 2010.

It's not worth the anger, if no follow-through

North Country Public Radio and Vermont Public Radio, the two NPR affiliates in my area, offer some excellent local (and award-winning) programs, but I get extremely frazzled when I listen to - usually when on the road and rarely on my home radio - the NPR news and pundit programs. An interview with a smug, smart-ass Adam Davidson of NPR's Planet Money and "bailout" monitor and Harvard law professor Elizabeth Warren happened over a week ago. TalkLeft calls it "infuriating," which indeed it is. (The comments at TL are also worth a read.) Corrente has a transcript of the ugly parts. I'd never listened to Planet Money or this interview until today. Actually, I admire Warren and think she's a breath of fresh air and definitely spot on in the thankless work she's doing now. I first heard her on Terri Gross's Fresh Air talking about the credit card industry (2007) and the rising costs of credit card debt (2008), and right away, I knew she was worth listening to.

Have you seen NPRCheck? It's a "watch-dog" blog full of gotcha comments by "liberals" and "progressive" listeners people - pissed off by the regular NPR correspondents and news analysts. It's true that NPR has earned the sobriquet "Nice Polite Republicans." I've read NPRCheck occasionally, just for fun, but never really take their rants seriously, because they love to complain, and that's all. I just wish these fuckin' arm-chair liberal types - whingers all - would take the advice of a commenter in the TL discussion on the Warren interview, it's [n]ot worth the anger, if no follow-through

Do what I did -- file a formal complaint with NPR. It does no good to blow our own gaskets merely amongst ourselves; you might as well just shrug your shoulders and move on, for all the good it does.

Rather, we should harness that anger for righteous purpose. If more liberal / progressive listeners complained consistently about the wasted airspace taken up by the biased likes of Adam Davidson, Mara Liasson and Cokie Roberts, I guarantee that it would eventually get NPR's attention.

I've commented on programs and have written the (useless, but well-paid) NPR Ombudsman, who rarely responds (with the usual excuses and formula letters). I'm even on some NPR Listen's panel and receive periodic questionnaires via email. I don't hesitate to complain about their biases when I have a chance. NCPR and VPR are always asking for money, but donations cannot be earmarked to local programming. So, next time they ask for a hand-out, I'll tell 'em, don't expect any dosh from me until they - as an affiliate - tell NPR to clean up its act.

(Cross-posted at Antemedius.)

Referendum on Curaçao's future opens old wounds

NRC/international:-

Curaçaoans are being asked to say yes or no to the question: "I approve of the result of the round-table conference to come to an autonomous Curaçao within the kingdom". But the dispute has moved far beyond that proposition.

The negotiations have opened up all sorts of old wounds, and the historic differences within Curaçao society now seem stronger than ever. In a country rooted in a history of slavery and colonialism, the divide between yes and no runs mostly along racial and economic lines. The whiter, richer and more educated people are more likely to vote in favour of the deal, while the less privileged black population leans towards no. Traditionally, it has been the poorer segment of the population that clings to the security of close ties with the Netherlands, while the local intelligentsia says it is fed up with Dutch "interference".

Words from Thomas Merton

The source of life

Daily Reading for May 14

The union of the Christian with Christ is not just a similarity of inclination and feeling, a mutual consent of minds and wills. It has a more radical, more mysterious and supernatural quality: it is a mystical union in which Christ Himself becomes the source and principle of divine life in me. Christ Himself, to use a metaphor based on Scripture, “breathes” in me divinely in giving me His Spirit. The ever renewed mission of the Spirit to the soul that is in the grace of Christ is to be understood by the analogy of the natural breath that keeps renewing, from moment to moment, our bodily life. The mystery of the Spirit is the mystery of selfless love. We receive Him in the “inspiration” of secret love, and we give Him to others in the outgoing of our own charity. Our life in Christ is then a life both of receiving and of giving. We receive from God, in the Spirit, and in the same Spirit we return our love to God through our brothers [and sisters].

From New Seeds of Contemplation by Thomas Merton (New York: New Directions Books, 1961).

[via Speaking to the Soul]

Dutch threaten Eurosong boycott over gay rights

NRC/international


'They probably won't make it to the finals, but the Dutch entry for the Eurovision Song Contest - The Toppers - are raising hell over Russia's gay rights record.

'Singer Gordon of the trio The Toppers will boycott Saturday night's Eurovision song contest in Moscow if violence is used against a gay rights march planned for that day. Gordon told a reporter from NOS Dutch public radio: "If people of my kind are being discriminated against in such a way, I have nothing to expect from this Russia, and I will be on the first plane home."

'Russian gay activist groups are seizing the opportunity of the Eurovision song contest - which is hugely popular in the gay community - to organise a march for gay rights. Public demonstrations in support of gays and lesbians are illegal in Russia and the police often crack down on them with violence, or stand by when neo-Nazis attack demonstrators.

Oh, Sheet!

Radio Netherlands

The [Dutch] Justice Ministry is distributing toilet paper in prisons printed with information on safe sex, hygiene and dealing with aggression. The rolls carry illustrated slogans such as "wash your hands more often" and "always use a condom, also with a blow-job". The one-week trial scheme is aimed at investigating whether this way of providing information could be used to influence prisoner behaviour.

Christian Democrat MP Rikus Jager has raised objections to the scheme with Justice Minister Nebahat Albayrak, the Telegraaf newspaper reports. Apart from the extra expense, Mr Jager thinks the explicit toilet paper could distress victims of sexual abuse.



COMMENT: Is this Dutch toilet humour? But just think: The SOS (sex lessons on a sheet) messages could be expanded to schools and hospitals. The Telegraaf reports the scheme has been successful at Rotterdam's Erasmus Hospital ('wash your hands'). America's public health officials take note! Social Libertarians, too!

Photo: Radio Netherlands

Where's the news gone?

From Sam Smith in Undernews

Let's put aside the issue of what's happening to the printed news media for a moment to deal with a more important question: where has the news gone?

Years ago, before the arrival of the Internet, I noticed a phenomenon around the middle of each June: the pile of mail arriving in our office suddenly declined.

The cause was fairly obvious: a drop off in news releases as public relations adjusted its efforts to the thermological nature of our culture. Which is to say, the warmer the weather, the less interested we are in what somebody else is trying to sell.

Then, of course, there's Thanksgiving and Christmas when many sorts of news disappear entirely. A foreigner arriving on such a day and watching TV could logically assume that we were a society with naught but violence and tragedy as the only visible hard news are accidents, murders and fires.

To a journalist, however, such occasions are reminders of how artificial and manipulated much news is. Over the past few months, I have begun to get that same holiday feeling about the news. Ever since Obama was inaugurated, hard news seems to have faded and we find ourselves in deep discussion over his daily activities, his wife's bare arms, other inanities and an amazing assortment of vagaries about what he is planning to do, appoint, go to, or talk about.

It is becoming ever harder to realize that we have recently added a new country to our Muslim war hit list, that job losses are increasing, that the budget is more out of balance than ever, that we will soon have as many troops in Afghanistan as we did in Vietnam in 1965, that banks are getting record subsidies while ordinary folk facing foreclosure or job loss are getting minimal aid, and that "health reform" is turning into a TARP program for insurance companies.

Since the media treated Obama as the Second Coming from the beginning, I suppose I shouldn't be too surprised about echoes of Christmas coverage, but all holidays have to come to end sometime. It would seem to be a good time for the media to go back to work.

While the media gave Bush a full pass on post 9/11 horrors like the Patriot Act, Gitmo and Iraq, the indifference to real news in the Obama administration extends far beyond matters of falsely purported national security. The lack of interest in Arne Duncan's planned interference in public school systems, the billions for first class high speed rail with little for coach class, rail freight or bus riders, and the highly dangerous medical records act have been left to a few eccentric journals like the Review to even mention. If the print media wants us to cry over its current problems, at least give us some real reporting to be sad at the thought of losing.

Instead, we have a media that falls without fail for various manipulations contrived by the White House, including covering each stage of an Obama decision as though it was new news, i.e.

"Obama is talking about. . . "
"Obama is consulting with. . ."
"Obama is reaching out to various groups. . . "
"Obama is planning to. . . "
"Obama is expected to announce on Monday that. . . "

And, finally, yet another repetitive front page story beginning, "Obama has announced. . . "

Not bad. A half dozen stories that lead you to an announcement that you can't quite figure out what it means anyway.

Which, of course, is intentional. Which is why we look forward to 3.5 million jobs created or "saved" by Obama, as the media treats the preservation of the status quo as news and a great achievement.

Or take the promised two trillion dollars saved by the health insurance industry over a ten year period. This in a media that doesn't even care who won the last American Idol.

As a general rule, political predictions of greater than two years should be banned entirely by the media. That might free up a little space to help people understand how we ended up in a war in Pakistan without any debate or congressional vote or when the subsidies of the Wall Street welfare fathers is going to end. After all, these were the guys who told us - with unquestioning support of the mainstream media - that free markets would take care of it all.

But as long as the media sees its role as Obama's Ryan Seacrest, it won't happen. It will just remain on a perpetual holiday.

Design Inspiration

David Mellor, a thoroughly British designer known chiefly for his cutlery, has died a few days ago.

I like this from his obituary in the Guardian:

Mellor was no mere knife and fork stylist; he understood the behaviour of metals and the physics of tools.

He was in every sense a modern industrial designer, and technologically adept, but his spiritual roots were in the arts and crafts movement and its belief, not so much in work-life balance as in work-life integration. To him, the profession of design "is concerned not just with making objects ... but just as importantly with making choices, with choosing what we use, choosing how to live". There is a special significance in the environments Mellor made for himself, his colleagues and his family (although boundaries were fluid, since life and art and work were inseparable).


When I lived in London and and would hang out in Chelsea, on exiting the Sloane Square tube station: First thing - make a bee-line to David Mellor's shop (take a right, then another right, cross the street) before I did anything else. I have a few sets of the Paris design (shown on the right). Recommended: the company website, a celebration of exquisite craftmanship, is a fine presentation indeed.

Chavez vs Obama

Obama Invests in Banksters, Chavez Invests in Food and Jobs.

A diary at FDL/Oxdown Gazette by Justinajustice, Saturday May 9, 2009

As an American living in Venezuela, I read the news that the Obama administration is funneling several trillion dollars of taxpayer's money into the U.S. biggest financial institutions. I see that millions of Americans are losing their jobs, their homes, their health insurance and lining up at charity foodbanks to get food. What good is that government money doing for the vast majority of Americans?

In contrast, here in Venezuela, unemployment decreased last quarter, Chavez increased the minimum wage, already the highest in South America, by 20% on May 1st, and the government is taking strong measures to insure that everyone has their basic needs met.

Living in Venezuela, I now directly benefit from policies of the Chavez government: I can go to a doctor, at no cost, whenever I need to and I can purchase basic foodstuffs at very low cost at the government-run "Mercals" in my neighborhood.

This week at my local Mercal, I purchased a kilo (2.2 lbs) of rice, a kilo of sugar, a half kilo of coffee, a kilo of powdered milk and two quarts of yogurt, and a two foot loaf of bread for about $6.00 U.S. In my home state of Hawaii, that $6.00 would not have paid for the milk, let alone anything else.

Under the Chavez government's drafted Constitution, passed by a national referendum in 2000, citizens have a constitutional right to adequate nutrition. The government insures this right by controlling the cost of basic foodstuffs and providing extremely low cost government markets (Mercals) such as the one I visited this week, as well as restaurants (Comedores) where an ample three course meal (soup, entre, dessert) and beverage can be obtained for about $2.00.

While Obama's economic team of Geithner and Summers respond to the current economic crisis, which their deregulation efforts helped to create, by funneling several trillion dollars of tax payer funds to the big financial institutions to insure their continued operation, Venezuela, although hit hard by the reduction in oil prices from $150 a barrel to circa $50 a barrel, has reacted in a more directly productive fashion for its citizens.

Chavez has recently redoubled efforts to insure that the prices and availability of basic food stuffs, whose prices are regulated by the government, are strictly enforced. Companies who attempt to avoid price regulation by "enriching their products to remove them from the realm of price controls, are being warned that they face expropriation by the government if they deliberately avoid price controls. This is not mere idle talk.

Chavez recently sent soldiers into the factories of Arroz Primor, a rice-producing subsidiary of the huge Polar company, after it was discovered that factory was under-producing rice by thousands of tons a month and producing flavored rice instead of basic rice in order to sell at a higher, un-regulated price.

Large companies, whose owners tend to support opposition efforts to dismantle the Chavez government, have frequently held back the distribution of needed goods in order to create the appearance of shortages, in the attempt to foment anger against Chavez. Thus, last year, sugar, which Venezuela produces in abundance, was missing from the stores for several weeks.

Previously, the Chavez government countered efforts to hold back food from the markets by using its massive oil profits to purchase foodstuffs from neighboring countries. With the enormous reduction in oil prices, importing food has become a luxury. Now companies, such as Polar, who deliberately under-produce goods or who seek to avoid controls by "enriching" their products, face direct nationalization by the government.

In the past, the Venezuelan government paid hard cash to the owners of companies it nationalized at fair market value, but now President Chavez has announced that owners will be paid in government bonds rather than cash. This bond method of payment will not only protect the government's cash reserves in face of this world crisis, but also may provide an incentive to such owners to oppose efforts to de-stabilize the government. Such de-stabilization efforts, if successful, would reduce the value of their government bonds.

President Chavez has vowed that the world economic crisis and the reduction in the price of oil will not interfere with Venezuela's commitment to improve the living standards of its citizens.

Venezuela's latest government budget continues support for the provision of free medical, dental and eye care, for the literacy and high education programs, for the building of new homes and apartment to replace the decades old slums. It also calls for the reduction in government salaries and bonuses at the managerial level and the elimination of un-necessary travel, cars and similar extraneous expenses.

Looking ahead to the time when the world may not need Venezuela’s oil, Chavez’s government is investing in new businesses, such as a cell phone company which is producing a well-equipped cell phone that costs $14.00.

This past week President Chavez inaugurated a new generic drug production company which will reduce the need for expensive imports while allowing Venezuela to export cheap generics elsewhere in the world. Chavez anticipates creating several more such drug companies. In partnership with a Chinese company, Venezuela is now producing inexpensive desk-top and laptop computers which cost 40% less than equivalent imported models.

All of these new government created businesses are producing new jobs for Venezuelan workers while filling the real needs of its citizens.

Would that Obama would take those trillions of dollars he is funneling down the deep, dark hole of bankster’s pockets and use it to invest in job production and the real economy in America. We need government investment in improved infra-structure, renovated schools, alternative energy development, and the like.

It is time the U.S. put the taxpayers’ money to work filling human needs rather than creating more profits and bonuses for the ultra-wealthy.

Mothering Relationships

Normally, I don't get caught up in the cheap sentimentality and commercialism surrounding today, Mother's Day. (My wise mother used to say to my father, my twin brothers and me, "Every day is mother's day," and she served that role in our lives indeed!) Motheramelia, whose blog I discovered at Mad Priest, has written a very nice mother's day sermon. She's an Episcopal priest in Maine, where the legislature in that state voted this week for marriage equality. You can read the whole sermon here. Here are the parts that struck me deeply.

For some people though, it is difficult to appreciate and to honour their mothers, and even more difficult to love them. Not all parents act in a loving and sacrificial way At such times it is hard to celebrate a day like today - - hard because anger and pain and hurt get in our way - hard because we do not understand how it is that someone who is supposed to love us has left us behind. If they’ve been fortunate, they’ve found someone else, some other woman, or even a man, who has given them the love and support that mothers are supposed to give to help them grow into a healthy adult.

Another important event happened this week. The Governor signed a bill passed by the Maine Legislature allowing same sex marriage here in Maine. Governor Baldacci said he had changed his mind because he felt it was a matter of justice. I want to read to you some of the testimony Bishop Lane wrote for a hearing on the bill:

The Episcopal Church, long ago, concluded and publicly proclaimed through its own legislative body that gay and lesbian persons are children of God and, by baptism, full members of the church. We have also concluded that sexual orientation, in and of itself, is no bar to holding any office or ministry in the church, as long as the particular requirements of that office or ministry are met. And we have repeatedly affirmed our support for the human and civil rights of gay, lesbian, bi-sexual and transgendered persons. In many of our congregations, both here in Maine and around the country, faithful same sex couples and their families are participating in the life of the church and sharing in the work of ministry and service to their communities.

If we, as Mainers, believe that faithful, lifelong monogamous relationships are among the building blocks of a healthy and stable society, then it is in our interest to extend the rights and obligations of civil marriage to all Maine citizens. To deny those rights to certain persons on the basis of sexual orientation is to create two classes of citizens and to deny one group what we believe is best for them and for society.

The Episcopal Church continues its conversations about doctrine in relation to same sex marriage and the blessing of same sex relationships, and there is yet no consensus. We continue to search for ways to honor the varied viewpoints of all our members and to provide a place of dignity and respect for each of them.

The bishop went on to say that no clergy would be required to act against his or her conscience and be required to perform marriages for gays and lesbians. I’ve been questioning for years why clergy act as agents of the state in marrying people. I’ve thought that that function should be the responsibility of civil authorities and the church’s responsibility is about blessing relationships. I have decided that I will not perform the function of the state.
I hear people say. “I support Civil Unions, but not gay marriage.” I hear others say “I support equal rights for gays and lesbians, but not gay marriage.” And I hear others ask “why do gays and lesbians want marriage so much when they can have civil unions? “ When most people marry, they do it because they love one another and are committed to each other. But marriage is also a legal contract, with rights and responsibilities. Even though each state has its own laws around marriage, if someone is married in one state and moves to another, their marriage is legally recognized. This is not so with Civil Unions. Civil Unions are only recognized in the state in which they are done and the way people in our society move about, this can be problematic.

There is a whole long list of benefits and protections for heterosexual couples (more than 1000) that ranges from federal benefits, such as Social Security survivor benefits, sick leave to care for ailing partner, tax breaks, veterans benefits and insurance breaks. The list includes things like family discounts, getting family insurance through employers, visiting spouses in the hospital and making medical decisions if your partner is unable to. Some of these benefits can be had through Civil Unions, but not all of them and to get many of them the assistance of a lawyer is needed. Yet for a married couple a marriage license is all that is necessary. I agree with the governor and our bishop that marriage should be available to any couple. That doesn't mean that any couple should get married. The divorce rate is high enough.

Same sex marriage is about relationship. Mother’s Day is about relationship. God is about relationship. Being a Christian is about relationship. Thursday, Tobias Haller a Brother of St. Gregory gave an address to the Province II Synod in which this wonderful paragraph stands out about our relationships with God and one another:

In the long run, there is no such thing as a solitary Christian. There is no Christian without the church, no church without Christ, no Christ without God. For as we believe that God is love, there can be no love without relationship. This love divine, all loves excelling, is the ultimate compassion — feeling-with — the love that embraces the other, that gives itself for the life of the other, that becomes itself in losing itself, saving its life in losing it. This is the embodied love of the Incarnation, the love that died on the Cross, the love that rose again from the dead, and in whom we will one day be raised: love that becomes so united with the beloved that the old categories that ruled the world — Jew and Greek, slave and free, male and female — are overshadowed by the love which passes all understanding, yet shelters our hearts and minds under the shadow of everlasting wings.[Tobias Haller BSG, Address to Provincial Synod II, May 7, 2009]

To love someone else as God loves us doesn’t require that we understand them. It doesn’t require that we approve of their actions or their lifestyle or their decisions. And it most certainly does not require that they love us, though it is always very nice when they do. To become a branch of the vine that bears fruit means we need pruning. And vine branches need pruning every year. So those ideas and attitudes that used to bear fruit in the past will only bear abundant fruit with pruning. In that way the love that overshadows all helps us to grow into the fullness of our potential. The love that gives life to all of love's children will help remove outworn categories. The love that we feel as a mother's love is a love with arms wide open to embrace and shelter all of love’s children.

Sunday Morning Music: Ben Harper - Picture of Jesus

Ben Harper (with Ladysmith) - Picture of Jesus - video shows back streets of Brazil.



Lyrics:

It hangs above my altar
Like they hung him from a cross
I keep one in my wallet

For the times I feel lost
In a wooden frame with splinters
Where my family kneels to pray
And if you listen close
You'll hear the words he used to say
Ive got a picture of Jesus
In his arms so many prayers rest
We've got a picture of Jesus
And with him we shall be forever blessed

It has been spoken
He would come again
But would we recognize
This king among men
There was a man in our time
His words shine bright like the sun
He tried to lift the masses
And was crucified by gun

He was a picture of Jesus
With him so many prayers rest
He is a picture of Jesus
In his arms so many prayers rest
With him we shall be forever blessed

Some days have no beginning
And some days have no end
Some roads are straight and narrow
And some roads only bend
So let us say a prayer
For every living thing
Walking towards a light
From the cross of a king

We long to be a picture of Jesus
In his arms so many prayers rest
I long to be a picture of Jesus
With him we shall be forever blessed

YEE HAW

The Vancouver Sun

Texas hospitals charging sexual assault victims for rape detection kits

As if coming forth with an allegation of sexual assault wasn't demeaning enough in many parts of North America, Texas has quietly decided to allow hospitals to charge a fee as high as $1800 to victims for the rape kits used to prove an attack.

Despite Texas' crime victim compensation fund being flush with cash, and most parts of the United States seeking to lessen the stress involved in a sexual assault investigation rather than increase it, Texan women have to hand over a credit card before their investigation can commence - or face debt collectors afterwards.

The office of Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott says the standard practice is for the state to cover the costs of the kit automatically, but "many follow-up or added costs are not covered." Staff added that the victims compensation fund only pays as a last resort, when police and the victim's health insurance company refuse to do so.

Texas isn't the first place where this rule is in place - the town of Wasilla, Alaska, home to former mayor and current state Governor Sarah Palin, also charged assault victims for their rape kits until the state government outlawed the practice.

During her campaign for the vice presidency, Palin told a reporter at the Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman newspaper that such a rule was ridiculous, stating, "The entire notion of making a victim of a crime pay for anything is crazy. I do not believe, nor have I ever believed, that rape victims should have to pay for an evidence-gathering test."

And yet, when she was Mayor, Wasilla did just that, billing rape victims between $300 and $1200 after the fact for their test.

Wasilla is not alone. In North Carolina, the vast majority of rape victims were being asked to cover some or all of the cost of their rape kits, until the local Raleigh News & Observer newspaper brought the practice to light. A state victims compensation fund had reportedly run low on cash, meaning it could only cover around $1000 of the $1600 hospitals now charge in that state for the kit. Similar situations have been reported in Arkansas, Illinois, and Georgia.

Rape kits generally include bags for clothing, a comb to collect pubic hair, test tubes for blood collection, swabs for DNA checks and fluid, and a series of tests for sexually transmitted diseases, pregnancy and DNA collection.

Weekend Music: ENRICO MACIAS

In 1972, I had the privilege of seeing Enrico Macias sing in Carnegie Hall. A sold-out performance, it seemed every French-speaker in NYC was there. Get a load of the guitar licks on this song:

Killing them softly

Antemedius

[...] Obama's surge in Afghanistan will ensure a steady supply of "collateral damage", even though sane military voices condemn "democracy at gunpoint" and Taliban "tacticians" mock Gen. David Petraeus' counterinsurgency tactics.

The Bush "war on terror" has been rebranded as "overseas contingency operations" (OCO) by the Obama administration.

Pepe Escobar argues everything remains the same, but with a new twist: Washington selling OCO in AfPak to US public opinion not as an American war - but as a Pakistani war.

Queen's Day death toll rises to 8 (Updated)

Updated (on Saturday May 8): Video summary of a tribute to innocent people.

News Summary Royalblog.nl

As The Netherlands commemorated the victims of the April 30 attack on the royal family a seventh person passed away in a Dutch hospital, bringing the death toll to 8, including the 38-year old attacker.

In Apeldoorn’s Orpheus Theatre six candles stood for the six known victims of the attack during a sober memorial service, which was attended by Queen Beatrix, Prince Willem-Alexander, Princess Máxima, Princess Margriet and Professor Pieter van Vollenhoven. Dutch Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende and other members of the government were also present.

Families and friends of the victims and wounded were invited to the service, along with people who played a role after the drama that brought the festivities for Holland’s national holiday, Queen’s Day, to such a tragic and sudden halt. Police, Royal Military Police, Red Cross workers, ambulance personnel, hospital staff and the like gathered in the Theatre for the non religious service, Friday.

US soldier raped and murdered, found guilty

Blogger/Journalist Evan Bright reports: An American soldier has been found guilty on 16 counts by a Federal court in Kentucky of the assault, rape and murder of a fourteen year old girl and the execution-style murder of her family. Sentencing will be Monday and he could get the death penalty on eight of the counts.

Three other soldiers/participants in the rape have already been sentenced to life.

In 2006, Steven Green, now 24, from Texas, assaulted the Hamza al-Janabi family in their house near Baghdad with his comrades from the 101 Airborne Brigade. The five American soldiers, wearing black "ninja uniforms,” had been drinking and hatched a plan to teach an Iraqi family a lesson.

Two of the solders raped Abeer Qassim Hamza al-Janabi while Green shot dead the other members of the family (mother, father and six year old daughter) in a bedroom. After he had murdered the family, he raped and murdered the girl. The soldiers then burned the girl's body to hide the evidence of rape.

Photo: EPA

The Real News Network: Single-payer advocates protest Senate hearing

Chair of Finance Committee takes single-payer plan off the table and calls for "more police"

Raw Story: Justice Dept. drops case against war resister Watada

From Raw Story.

The Department of Justice has dropped its case against 1st Lt. Ehren Watada, a war resister who refused Iraq deployment in June 2006 and denounced President George W. Bush’s decision to invade as illegal and immoral.

In Feb. 2007, military judge Lieutenant Colonel John Head halted Watada’s case following possible inconsistencies concerning a “stipulation of fact” agreed before the hearing. The decision led to a mistrial, ending Watada’s court martial. The Army appealed, but a judge said Watada could not be tried again on the same charges, as it would violate his right to be free of double jeopardy.

The Justice Department is dropping its appeal of that judge’s decision.

“Because there are no longer any criminal charges pending against Lt. Watada, and because (his) military service has been extended far beyond his normal release date, he anticipates that he will soon be released from active duty,” Watada’s attorney, James Lobsenz, said in a media advisory published Wednesday. “He plans to return to civilian life and to attend law school.”

More civilians bombed in Afghanistan (Updated with video)

Updated Thursday afternoon: Afghan villagers yesterday mourned relatives buried in mass graves after US-led airstrikes.

The mules pick it up after Bush and Co. It's been a record month for bombings in Afghanistan. A bombardment on Monday killed over 100 civilians. So, when the media headlines a report on the bombings by the Red Cross, we get hypocritical abject apologies from Clinton and Obama with the usual promise of an investigation.

Another Amazing Day for Marriage Equality

Boston Globe

In a banner day in New England for advocates of gay marriage, Maine legalized the practice Wednesday, and the New Hampshire Legislature voted to do the same.

If New Hampshire Gov. John Lynch signs the bill or lets it become law without his signature, his state would become the sixth overall to allow gay marriage and the fifth in New England. Rhode Island would be the region's only holdout.

Maine Gov. John Baldacci, a Democrat who hadn't indicated how he would handle his state's bill, signed it shortly after the legislation passed the Senate on a vote of 21-13 -- a margin not large enough to override a veto.

Comment: Gov. Baldacci didn't mess around, did he. Let's hope Lynch moves on this to make Northern New England stand up for Equality!

FOR SALE

As the economy worsens in Michigan, more of the state's residents are opting to supplement their income by participating in medical studies and selling their hair, eggs or plasma. The number of plasma donations in the country has increased from 10 million in 2005 to more than 17.5 million in 2008, an official from the Plasma Protein Therapeutics Association said. Sixty plasma clinics opened in the U.S. last year, the official said.

Van Gogh’s ear keeps historians busy

From Radio Netherlands:-- Vincent van Gogh did not cut off his own ear - it was his friend and fellow painter Paul Gauguin who did it. That's what two German academics are saying after years of research on the subject. According to historian and novelist Hans Kaufmann and art historian Rita Wildegans, Gauguin conjured up the story of Van Gogh's self-mutilation in order to protect himself.

Hunting People for Jesus: Growing Fundamentalism in the U.S. Military

From Crooks and Liars

After revelations that some American soldiers were given Bibles and encouraged to "hunt people for Jesus," the Pentagon on Monday denied allegations that the U.S. military allows its personnel to seek the conversion of Afghans to Christianity. But while the copies of the New Testament translated into Pashtun and jaw-dropping video from Bagram may seem like exceptions that prove the rule of American prohibition on proselytizing by the military, they are just the latest episodes in the disturbing rise in influence of Christian conservatives in the United States armed services.

As Jeremy Scahill detailed in the Huffington Post, the incidents first reported on Al Jazeera are an affront both to the U.S. military code of conduct and America's Afghan allies:

The center of this evangelical operation is at the huge US base at Bagram, one of the main sites used by the US military to torture and indefinitely detain prisoners.

In a video obtained by Al Jazeera and broadcast Monday, Lieutenant-Colonel Gary Hensley, the chief of the US military chaplains in Afghanistan, is seen telling soldiers that as followers of Jesus Christ, they all have a responsibility "to be witnesses for him."

"The special forces guys - they hunt men basically. We do the same things as Christians, we hunt people for Jesus. We do, we hunt them down," he says.

"Get the hound of heaven after them, so we get them into the kingdom. That's what we do, that's our business."

As it turns out, that has indeed been the business of Christian conservatives in the U.S. armed services since 9/11. In word and deed, evangelicals in recent years have aggressively boosted their visibility and influence within the American military.

An early warning came in 2003 in the guise of Lt. General William Boykin.

Boykin, who later became a deputy under secretary of defense, claimed during speeches to prayer groups and breakfasts that militant Islamists sought to destroy America ''because we're a Christian nation.'' General Boykin also explained to evangelical audiences that Muslims worship an ''idol'' and not ''a real God.'' While President Bush expressed his disagreement (noting Boykin "''didn't reflect my opinion" and "it just doesn't reflect what the government thinks"), Boykin remained on the job.

The U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs has been a hotbed of evangelical activism - and controversy. While cadets in 2004 distributed leaflets at dinner place settings for a screening of "The Passion of the Christ, football coach Fisher DeBerry displayed a sign in the team's locker room proclaiming, "I am a Christian first and last. I am a member of Team Jesus Christ." In May, 2005, Lutheran minister and Captain MeLinda Morton was removed from her post after warning evangelical Christians were trying to "subvert the system" in trying to win converts among cadets at the Academy. A June 2005 study at USAFA described other incidents of religious intolerance, insensitivity and inappropriate proselytizing, and concluded:

"Additionally, some faculty members and coaches consider it their duty to profess their faith and discuss this issue in their classrooms in furtherance of developing cadets' spirituality."

In the wake of the Brady report and complaints from Military Religious Freedom Foundation founder Mike Weinstein (himself a graduate of the Academy), the Air Force in October 2005 moved to withdraw a "code of ethics" document which permitted chaplains to evangelize military personnel who were not affiliated with any faith. ("I will not proselytize from other religious bodies," it read, "but I retain the right to evangelize those who are not affiliated.") Still, even that minor restriction produced an avalanche of opposition from Focus on the Family, the Christian Coalition and other groups which protested that the new guidelines abridged "the constitutional right of military chaplains to pray according to their faith."

Undaunted, the push to proselytize in the U.S. military continues. In 2007, an inspector general's report highlighted ethics violations among current and former officers, including two major generals, for appearing in uniform for a promotional and fundraising video for the evangelical group Christian Embassy. As the Washington Post noted, the report "offers a vivid picture of how inappropriately intertwined Christian Embassy had become with Pentagon operations by the time the video, with its extensive scenes inside the Pentagon, was filmed in 2004." Nonetheless, the New York Times reported earlier this year that military personnel were shown videos featuring football's Terry Bradshaw professing his Christian religion as part of an official military production dealing with depression, suicide and "the importance of faith."

The aggressive campaign for military converts is producing a climate of fear and intimdation in the armed forces. Specialist Jeremy Hall sued the Army after a superior officer interrupted his meeting for atheists and free-thinkers by proclaiming, "People like you are not holding up the Constitution and are going against what the founding fathers, who were Christians, wanted for America!" In another case, Army Specialist and Iraq Purple Heart recipient Dustin Chalker filed a lawsuit after being subjected to a mandatory ceremony that began and ended with a Christian prayer. As he put it:

"The Army enforces policies against racism and sexism, but doesn't bat an eye at these kinds of religious discrimination. Why is it acceptable that soldiers are unable to serve this nation without attending state-led religious practices they find offensive and false?"

US taxes disappear in Dutch-Irish-Bermuda triangle (Updated)

Updated: And the Dutch react to the Obama "slur."

From Radio Netherlands

Obama targets "tax haven" Netherlands

The Netherlands is a corporate tax haven for US multinationals, and together with Ireland and Bermuda it is sheltering companies' earnings from the American tax authorities, president Barack Obama said on Monday. As long as they keep their earnings overseas US companies are legally exempt from paying. Taxes only become due when the money is "repatriated" to the United States.

The current practice is perfectly legal, but the US government considers it harmful to the American economy. President Obama announced a crackdown on the tax shelters, aiming to raise 210 billion dollars in taxes over the next decade. A Wall Street Journal report in April quoted a figure of 58 billion dollars in overseas earnings, which are out of the tax office's reach, losing it an estimated 20 billion dollars in tax revenue. One-third of the foreign profits in 2003 came from, what the US Treasury calls, "three small, low-tax countries: Bermuda, the Netherlands, and Ireland".

Bevrijd

Radio Netherlands

Meanwhile preparations are underway for Liberation Day today. According to Trouw, extra security measures have not been taken and festival programmes have not been shortened. At best the comperes will tone down their presentation. The north-eastern city of Zwolle will kick off the festivities. In Wageningen a liberation torch will be lit in front of Hotel De Wereld which will travel to each of the festivals held in 12 provinces and the capital Amsterdam.

Dutch National Remembrance/Dodenherdenking

During the National Remembrance at the Dam Square in Amsterdam the Mayor said, "Every year we remember the fallen, here on the Dam, with the attendance of our Vorstin [Sovereign]. This year in particular we are fortunate to have her presence." [spontaneous applause of 20,000 in attendance] This gesture of support from the spectators is unique in the history of the commemoration of the dead.



The Queen, the Prince of Orange and Princess Máxima were visibly moved by this support from the public.



Photo: ANP/Robin Utrecht