Anti-Surveillance Activist, Glenn Greenwald, Is at Center of New Leak
Anti-Surveillance Activist, Glenn Greenwald, Is at Center of New Leak:Glenn Greenwald, a blogger who opposes government surveillance and has supported whistle-blowers, has published a top-secret order on the monitoring of phone logs.
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As my friend put it: "
Ohio approves budget to defund Planned Parenthood, rape crisis centers
Ohio approves budget to defund Planned Parenthood, rape crisis centers:The Ohio Senate passed a budget that would slash funding for rape crisis centers and women's health facilities
oh. snap.
oh. snap.
The truth about gays and money [spoiler: there's a sexuality "poverty gap"]
The truth about gays and money [spoiler: there's a sexuality "poverty gap"]:When gays and lesbians are featured in popular culture, what do we see? White, wealthy women who host talk shows or affluent men doting on their kids — like Mitchell and Cameron from "Modern Family." So it's no wonder that the conventional wisdom is that gay people in America have tons of money and fewer economic struggles than the rest of the population.
But the truth is significantly different.
Drawing on recent data from four different sources, the report finds a sexual orientation "poverty gap": LGBT Americans are more likely to be poor than heterosexuals, with African-Americans and women particularly vulnerable. [update: the report is here.]
Badgett spoke with NBC News about the results of the study, "The Gay Affluence Myth: New Research on LGBT Poverty."
Federal Government Said to Have Collected Data From Internet Firms
Federal Government Said to Have Collected Data From Internet Firms:and now the other shoe drops …
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The federal government appears to have been secretly tapping the nation's largest Internet companies going back nearly six years — including Google, Facebook and, most recently, Apple — according to documents that emerged on Thursday even as officials confirmed they had been compiling a vast library of Americans' phone call records in the fight against terrorism.
While the data provided varies according to the online provider, it could include e-mail, chat services, videos, photos, stored data, file transfers, video conferencing, and logins — according to a presentation describing the highly classified National Security Agency program dubbed Prism.
… Together, the unfolding disclosures opened an extraordinary window into the growth of government surveillance that began under the Bush administration after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and has clearly been embraced and even expanded under the Obama administration.
thepoliticalfreakshow: West Point Rugby Team Punished For...
West Point Rugby Team Punished For Derogatory Emails About Women, Why Can't The Military Get Its Shit Together And Stop Sexual Assault and Rape?
If only the military took sexual assault as seriously as West Point apparently takes rape culture: the academy recently disbanded its men's rugby team and punished 60 cadets after administrators found a "derogatory email chain" that illustrated "a culture of disrespect towards women."
"…cadets on the team were found to have violated the Cadet Disciplinary Code for Unsatisfactory behavior, Error in Judgment, Failure to Perform a Duty, and a violation of the General Article for actions which tend to reflect discredit on the Corps of Cadets and the United States Army," West Point spokesman Frances DeMaro said in a statement earlier this week.
An officer at the military academy in West Point, N.Y. spent a month investigating the team's emails and overall culture. The investigation didn't uncover any actual sexual assault, but the cadets still had to complete an "intense" respect rehabilitation program mandating self-assessments, reflective journals (really wish we could read those) and role-model interviews.
"The intent of the program," according to DeMaro's statement, "was not only to punish the offenders, but to address the cultural issues with their actions."
Can that sentiment trickle up?
[ABC]
Philadelphia to Close 23 Public Schools While Building $400 Million Prison
Philadelphia to Close 23 Public Schools While Building $400 Million Prison:Philadelphia is set to close 23 public schools, nearly 10 percent of the city's total. 81 percent of students impacted by school closings are black, even though they make up only 58 percent of the population. Meanwhile, the city has recently begun work on a $400 million prison project, said to be "the second-most expensive state project ever."
Texas Says It's OK to Shoot an Escort If She Won't Have Sex With You
Texas Says It's OK to Shoot an Escort If She Won't Have Sex With You:Absolutely disgusting. The criminal justice system never fails at demonstrating its ability to devalue the lives of women and poor people.
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A jury in Bexar County, Texas just acquitted Ezekiel Gilbert of charges that he murdered a 23-year-old Craigslist escort—agreeing that because he was attempting to retrieve the $150 he'd paid to Frago, who wouldn't have sex with him, his actions were justified.
Gilbert had admitted to shooting Lenora Ivie Frago in the neck on Christmas Eve 2009, when she accepted $150 from Gilbert and left his home without having sex with him. Frago, who was paralyzed by the shooting, died several months later.
Gilbert's defense argued that the shooting wasn't meant to kill, and that Gilbert's actions were justified, because he believed that sex was included as part of the fee. Texas law allows people "to use deadly force to recover property during a nighttime theft."
The 30-year-old hugged his defense attorneys after the "not guilty" verdict was read by the judge. If convicted, he could have faced life in prison. He thanked God, his lawyers, and the jury for being able to "see what wasn't the truth."
Former drone operator says he's haunted by his part in more than 1,600 deaths | NBC
Former drone operator says he's haunted by his part in more than 1,600 deaths | NBC:A former Air Force drone operator who says he participated in missions that killed more than 1,600 people remembers watching one of the first victims bleed to death.
Brandon Bryant says he was sitting in a chair at a Nevada Air Force base operating the camera when his team fired two missiles from their drone at three men walking down a road halfway around the world in Afghanistan. The missiles hit all three targets, and Bryant says he could see the aftermath on his computer screen – including thermal images of a growing puddle of hot blood.
"The guy that was running forward, he's missing his right leg," he recalled. "And I watch this guy bleed out and, I mean, the blood is hot." As the man died his body grew cold, said Bryant, and his thermal image changed until he became the same color as the ground.
"I can see every little pixel," said Bryant, who has been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder, "if I just close my eyes."
Marijuana Arrests Four Times as Likely for Blacks
Marijuana Arrests Four Times as Likely for Blacks:Black Americans were nearly four times as likely as whites to be arrested for marijuana possession in 2010, but both groups used the drug at similar rates, federal data shows.
This disparity had grown steadily from a decade before, and in some states, including Iowa, Minnesota and Illinois, blacks were around eight times as likely to be arrested.
During the same period, public attitudes toward marijuana softened and a number of states decriminalized its use. But about half of all drug arrests in 2011 were on marijuana-related charges, roughly the same portion as in 2010.
Paris student activist dead after attack by far-right skinheads
Paris student activist dead after attack by far-right skinheads:A French left-wing activist has died after an attack blamed on skinheads in central Paris.
Clement Meric, an 18-year-old student, was with friends when he was "hit extremely violently" by several men during a fight, officials say.
Several people with links to the far-right have been arrested, according to French media.
French President Francois Hollande said he condemned Wednesday night's attack "in the strongest terms".
Mr Meric - a student at Sciences Po, a leading undergraduate school in Paris - was in a busy shopping district near St Lazare train station when three men described as skinheads and a woman confronted his group.
He was struck by a knuckle-duster and his head hit the ground as he fell, police say.
The teenager was placed on life support but was declared brain dead and died on Thursday.
Left-wing parties have called for a demonstration in Paris later on Thursday.
They have blamed the attack on a fringe far-right group, the Revolutionary Nationalist Youths. However it denied any involvement.
The main far-right party, the National Front, described the incident as "appalling".
Correspondents say it has re-ignited a public debate over the role of small right-wing groups in recent violent protests against gay marriage in France.
A friend of Mr Meric's, Claire Cosquer, told reporters that his death was murder and had happened in the context of "a very worrying rise of radical far-right movements".
rachelfershleiser: Bookseller humor.
Bookseller humor.
Recommended at Left Forum | SocialistWorker.org
Recommended at Left Forum | SocialistWorker.org:Thousands of people will come together on June 7-9 at Pace University in New York City for Left Forum, a weekend of plenaries, panel discussions and debates covering a vast range of critical perspectives on the world and promoting a dialogue about building a stronger left.
SocialistWorker.org contributors and supporters will be speaking in sessions throughout Left Forum. We hope attendees will consider attending these meetings.
When men say they are "oppressed" by women who have...
When men say they are "oppressed" by women who have the "privilege" of "denying" them sex by "faking" a headache …
U.S. Is Secretly Collecting Records of Verizon Calls
U.S. Is Secretly Collecting Records of Verizon Calls:===
WASHINGTON — The Obama administration is secretly carrying out a domestic surveillance program under which it is collecting business communications records involving Americans under a hotly debated section of the Patriot Act, according to a highly classified court order disclosed on Wednesday night.
The order, signed by Judge Roger Vinson of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court in April, directs a Verizon Communications subsidiary, Verizon Business Network Services, to turn over "on an ongoing daily basis" to the National Security Agency all call logs "between the United States and abroad" or "wholly within the United States, including local telephone calls."
The order does not apply to the content of the communications.
interstellargeek: amerikkkan-stories: criminalwisdom: Ku Klux...
Ku Klux Klan poster from the 1930s.
Via Prison CultureIt all makes sense now. Seeing this poster reinforces why "communism" and socialism" are so threatening to them. You hear those words tossed around all the time by the angry types. And most of the time I'm thinking: you have no clue what those things are…
But just look to this poster for context.
All these years. All these wars. All of this death.
They're afraid of communism? No. They're afraid of equal footing. They always have been.
Oh look, the Ku Klux Klan using Republican talking points.
Ugh. I do NOT want to be awake right now.
Ugh. I do NOT want to be awake right now.
Classified Documents Show CIA Has No Clue Who It's Killing In Targeted Drone Strikes
Classified Documents Show CIA Has No Clue Who It's Killing In Targeted Drone Strikes:Richard Engel and Robert Windrem of NBC News published a horrifying report today revealing that the CIA doesn't always know the identities of the people it's executing in drone strikes. Their findings are based on a review of 14 months worth of classified documents that describe 114 drone strikes in Pakistan and Afghanistan beginning in September 2010.
About one of every four of those killed by drones in Pakistan between Sept. 3, 2010, and Oct. 30, 2011, were classified as "other militants," the documents detail. The "other militants" label was used when the CIA could not determine the affiliation of those killed, prompting questions about how the agency could conclude they were a threat to U.S. national security.
This is similar to the Obama administration's strategy for keeping the civilian death toll low by labeling any military age male killed in a drone strike a "militant".
Jim Crow After Roe? How States Are Regulating Abortion Out of...
Jim Crow After Roe? How States Are Regulating Abortion Out of Existence & Widening Health Inequality (by democracynow)
The new book, "Crow After Roe: How 'Separate But Equal' Has Become the New Standard in Women's Health and How We Can Change That," tackles the new landscape of restrictions on reproductive healthcare in the United States. On Tuesday, a House panel voted to advance a bill banning abortion after 20 weeks of pregnancy. Similar bans are already in place in states across the country, part of an unprecedented tide of state abortion restrictions enacted in the past few years with the goal of challenging Roe v. Wade at the Supreme Court and making abortion inaccessible and unaffordable on the ground. The laws have created a new reality in women's healthcare: a two-tiered system where poor women, women of color and women in rural areas cannot access basic healthcare services. We're joined by co-authors Robin Marty and Jessica Mason Pieklo, both writers for the reproductive news website RH Reality Check.
"Now your little white ass..." Really? If that's not racist....
No. Merely descriptive. Anyways, white people are not oppressed as a social group because of the color of their skin, so the question of "racism against white people" in the u.s. is a non-starter. it doesn't exist. if anything, racial enmity directed at white people by people of color is a response to the culture of racial prejudice which white people have constructed and subjected us all to in the first place.
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