February 2008 archive

It was back in the day, early 80s, right before AIDs made it problematic to be promiscuous.

After hours club on 9th Avenue and 14th Street, dark with little tacky Christmas-tree lights and cheap drinks, a place of the imagination, one could be whomever or whatever one pleased, indulging the neverending child’s fantasy of make-believe.

My entrance was predatory, taking in the entire room as I walked to the front bar, accepting or discarding (mostly discarding) the hungry looks on the faces of all the lovely men, who outnumbered the women by a very satisfactory ratio.

Heh.

http://podblanc.com/?q=node/13519

http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/M…

I like the original German don’t you?

Unlike the Germans though America seems to have heightened the Satanic evil potential by removing any ideology behind a round up.  It’s simply a matter of policy and procedure.  The Stanford Prison experiment on steroids our brand of fascism includes 40 year old wives of teachers, peons if you will.

The term “zogster” comes up with very few hits on Google linking it to a “white supremacy group”.  More like five misguided kids in the basement or perhaps a regional term set up by the CIA itself.  Zogster then has little relevance and may serve to divert attention away from the far more mainstream practice of the militarization of local police.

Tazer deaths, thug type cops with no oversight.  I would sue, big time.

A lot of people attack the sea, I make love to it.

Jacques Yves Cousteau

1. The Washington Post reports Dozens killed in suicide bomb attacks in Baghdad. “Within the span of 10 minutes, two female suicide bombers blew themselves up in crowded Baghdad markets on Friday, killing dozens of people in the deadliest day in the Iraqi capital in months, according to U.S. and Iraqi officials… There were conflicting reports about the scale of the carnage. Iraqi police said 58 people were killed and 172 others were wounded, while the U.S. military reported 27 killed and more than 50 injured. The bombings took place in predominantly Shiite neighborhoods.”

   “There were pieces of people everywhere. One was without a head, others were without arms. Some were dead and not moving, some were crawling,” said Jawad Kadim, 21, who sells birds in the market. “I closed my shop and I ran away. It’s getting worse and worse here. This is the fourth explosion.”

2. Meanwhile in northern Iraq, The New York Times reports Kurds’ power wanes as Arab anger rises.

   The Kurds’ efforts to seize control of the oil-rich city of Kirkuk and to gain a more advantageous division of national revenues are uniting most Sunnis and many Shiites with Mr. Maliki’s government in opposition to the Kurdish demands.

   For the United States, the diminution in Kurdish power is part of a larger problem of political divisiveness that has plagued its efforts to build a functioning government in Iraq. While several political parties can come together to address a particular issue, none can seem to form the lasting allegiances needed for actual governance.

   The Kurds, with their pro-American outlook, were a natural ally. But now the Americans are increasingly placed in the uncomfortable position of choosing between the Kurds, whom they have long supported and protected, and the Iraqi Arabs, whose government the Americans helped create.

   “‘In times of trouble, you get to know your enemies and your friends,’ counsels one Kurdish proverb. ‘The Kurds have no friends,’ answers another. Many Kurds fear the United States will betray them, as, they say, Washington and other foreign powers have in the past.” — Houston Chronicle, March 21 2003.

3. The Guardian reports China arrests leading rights activist. “Chinese state security forces have arrested one of the country’s most prominent civil rights activists in an apparent crackdown on dissent ahead of the Olympics. Hu Jia – who used blogs, webcasts and video to expose human rights abuses – is expected to face charges of inciting subversion of state power, his lawyers said today. His formal arrest comes after he was seized by police from an apartment in east Beijing on December 27. In the month since, his wife, Zeng Jinyan, and their two-month-old daughter have been prevented from leaving their home or contacting outsiders.”

4. Bloomberg News reports Bats Die by the Thousands From Mystery Malady in Northeast U.S. “Thousands of bats are dying from an unknown illness in the northeastern U.S. at a rate that could cause extinction… At eight caves in New York and one in Vermont, scientists have seen bat populations plummet over two years. Most bats hibernate in the same cave every winter, keeping annual counts consistent. A cave that had 1,300 bats in January 2006 had 470 bats last year. It recently sheltered just 38. At another cave, more than 90 percent of about 15,500 bats have died since 2005, and two-thirds that remain now sleep near the cave’s entrance, where conditions are less hospitable. Scientists don’t know what’s causing the deaths”. The AP notes “The white fungus ring around bats’ noses is a symptom, but not necessarily the cause. For some unknown reason, the bats deplete their fat reserves and die months before they would normally emerge from hibernation.”

Remember tomorrow is Groundhog’s Day. The day where John McCain pops out of his dark hole, sees his shadow, and tells the nation there will be 100 more years of “surge”.

The Megamarch Yesterday In Mexico City

Chanting “Sin maiz, No hay pais” (Without Corn, the country doesn’t exist), Mexican farmers by the tens of thousands demonstrated in Mexico City against NAFTA.

Join me across the Rio Grande.

Cross Posted from DailyKos

hat-tip to kj & NightProwlKitty!!!

A group of bloggers over (here) at Docudharma have been actively writing about NOLA after Hurricane Katrina and we have decided to do a week-end marathon fund-raiser for the 9th Wards’ N.E.N.A. (Neighborhood Empowerment Network Association)

Kossacks/Dharmaniacs came to the rescue when Pretty Bird Woman House needed help.  

And for that you are all superstars in my book-no matter who you’re voting for!!!

Now, New Orleans Ninth Ward needs our help, and this is more of a reminder than anything else, since the needs are ongoing.  Who is NENA, you ask?

The Lower Ninth Ward Neighborhood Empowerment Network Association (NENA) was established in the aftermath of Katrina to play a lead role in rebuilding New Orleans’ Lower 9th Ward.

Organized and controlled by residents of the Lower Ninth Ward, NENA addresses not only the immediate recovery needs created by the storm’s destruction, but also the institutional neglect and disinvestment that plagued the neighborhood long before Katrina. NENA works with current Lower Ninth Ward residents, displaced residents living in other parts of New Orleans, and the broader diaspora who want to return to the neighborhood.

cross posted from sanchopress.com

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories…

CBS News’ investigative unit wanted the numbers, so it submitted a Freedom of Information Act request to the Department of Defense asking for the numbers of suicides among all service members for the past 12 years.

Four months later, they sent CBS News a document, showing that between 1995 and 2007, there were almost 2,200 suicides. That’s 188 last year alone. But these numbers included only “active duty” soldiers.

CBS News went to the Department of Veterans Affairs, where Dr. Ira Katz is head of mental health.

“There is no epidemic in suicide in the VA, but suicide is a major problem,” he said.

Why hasn’t the VA done a national study seeking national data on how many veterans have committed suicide in this country?

“That research is ongoing,” he said.

So CBS News did an investigation – asking all 50 states for their suicide data, based on death records, for veterans and non-veterans, dating back to 1995. Forty-five states sent what turned out to be a mountain of information.

And what it revealed was stunning.

In 2005, for example, in just those 45 states, there were at least 6,256 suicides among those who served in the armed forces. That’s 120 each and every week, in just one year.

OUR GOVERNMENT, OUR VA AND OUR DOD SHOULD BE ASHAMED OF THEMSELVES.