Strike | Dance | Rise! To end violence against women

“One billion women violated is an atrocity. One billion women dancing is a revolution.”

Violence against women is an unchecked epidemic. According to the United Nations [PDF], 1 in 3 women worldwide will be beaten or raped in her lifetime. One billion women. Gender-based violence causes more deaths and disability among women aged 15 to 44 than cancer, malaria, traffic accidents, and war combined.

Violence against women isn’t a local issue, or a cultural issue, or a national issue. It affects every woman in every country on the planet. It is a widespread pattern of women being devalued and dehumanized, regardless of where they live.

Victims of sexual violence, intimate partner violence, religious violence, economic violence, environmental violence, war zone violence. Rape and sexual assault, domestic abuse, incest, female genital mutilation, acid attacks, war crimes, child marriage, sexual slavery, forced childbirth, dowry murders, honor killings, murders of female infants, girls and women, lack of education, substandard or non-existent medical care, high unemployment, lack of proper housing or nutrition.

V-Day began in 1998 as a “global movement to end violence against women and girls.”

On February 14, 2013, the 15th anniversary of V-Day, women and men who support them — grassroots activists, writers, celebrities, politicians, artists, and ordinary citizens around the world — will join together and dance as a form of protest, until there are ONE BILLION RISING.

Eve Ensler, author of The Vagina Monologues and creator of V-Day:

“When One Billion bodies rise and dance on 14 February 2013, we will join in solidarity, purpose and energy and shake the world into a new consciousness.

Dancing insists we take up space. It has no set direction but we go there together. It’s dangerous, joyous, sexual, holy, disruptive. It breaks the rules. It can happen anywhere at anytime with anyone and everyone. It’s free. No corporation can control it. It joins us and pushes us to go further. It’s contagious and it spreads quickly. It’s of the body. It’s transcendent.”

—
Watch the trailer:

TRIGGER WARNING for violence, abuse.

Learn more at www.onebillionrising.org

WTF?!

Just popping in for a moment to ask one simple question of all you screaming maniacs who screamed and swore when I was a Hillary supporter. I’ll ask the same question of all those who begged me to vote for Obama last year because “he’s anti-war, he’s pro-Constitution, he’s for universal healthcare, he IS all that AND a bag o’ tater chips!!”

Why the effin’ hell did I vote for this guy?

Rather than ending the war and bringing our troops home, the supposed Savior is about to pull a Johnson and escalate an unwinnable war.

Thank you Democrats. Thank you. Really.

I should have voted for Lyndon LaRouche. At least that kind of stupid is visible.

 

Hit-n-Run Posting

Yeah, yeah, I’m still not online yet. Maybe someday…before I die.

Anyway, this was too good not to share:

Miss M, my lovely 16yo daughter, hasn’t been doing well in school this year. With ADD and the school dragging its feet on implementing an IEP (Individualized Education Plan) plus a distinct lack of caring on Miss M’s part… We’re lucky she’s passing English and Concert Choir.

Anyhoo…. these two things — ADD and school —  combined into a lovely, oughta-be-on-a-bumper sticker moment.

See, Miss M hadn’t been taking her meds. So Mom decided to be the dispensary. I very, very faithfully gave her each dose. Well, it turns out we hadn’t needed to increase her meds last month, we just needed her to TAKE her meds. So, um yeah… she had a bit of a meth rage. On the same day as the parent-teacher conference.

As the bullshit meeting went on (These people do. not. care.  unless you’re a  mindless, college-bound, automaton.  Smallest school population in the county and the highest dropout rate.  ‘Nuff said.) Miss M spoke up and said, “I’m sick of you all telling me what my future’s going to be like!”

At which point, her seriously incompetent guidance counselor asked, in that smarmy, I’m-your-friend voice, “What do you want to do in the future?”

And my daughter answered,

“Uproot the patriarchal bullshit system.”

🙂 Oh yeah. That’s my baby!

Let the Countdown Begin

100 days

and the end of the reign of El Pollo Loco, The Prince of Darkness, and the rest of the Merry Band of Minions and Idiots.

The end is in sight.

And I’ll be celebrating this joyous event by going to see Hillary Clinton in Scranton today… and some other people.

Poking the Bear

Oh my freakin’ Jeebus, people! I’m so pissed and annoyed and… plain freaked out, it’s not funny.

You know how we on the left always wonder just how crazy the Republicans and Bush-Cheney Corporate Headquarters are? Well, wonder no more!

The stupid is so awesome, so intense, so effin’ ridiculous, so burningly awful that it is almost beyond my ability to respond with more than “Oh my god… but… oh holy shit… sweet baby jeebus in the cow trough!!”

From the New York Times:

Poland and the United States struck a deal Thursday that will strengthen military ties and put an American missile interceptor base in Poland, a plan that has infuriated Moscow and sparked fears in Europe of a new arms race.

”We have crossed the Rubicon,” Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said, referring to U.S. consent to Poland’s demands after more than 18 months of negotiations.

Washington says the planned system, which is not yet operational, is needed to protect the U.S. and Europe from possible attacks by missile-armed ”rogue states” like Iran. The Kremlin, however, feels it is aimed at Russia’s missile force and warns it will worsen tensions.

Um, except Iran is two-three times as far away from Iran as it is from Russia…

Red - Poland; Blue - Russia; Fuschia - Iran.

but… um… just ignore that.

U.S. officials also said the timing of the deal was not meant to antagonize Russian leaders at a time when relations already are strained over the recent fighting between Russia and Georgia over the South Ossetia region.

“O hai! Sry, dudez. Srsly!

We didn’t mean to piss you off even more, right as you’re cease-firing from a little war spurred on by our idiot government telling the Georgian president we had his back… and then, um, not. But hey! Good news! Condi’s coming to make things all better… um, or maybe to buy shoes.”

[Tusk] said the deal also includes a ”mutual commitment” between the two nations to come to each other’s assistance ”in case of trouble.”

That clause appeared to be a direct reference to Russia, which has threatened to aim its nuclear-armed missiles at Poland — a former Soviet satellite — if it hosts the U.S. site.

Ummm… is anyone else having flashbacks to the 1980s and The Day After ?

Dr. Landowska: There is a rumor that they are evacuating Moscow. There are people even leaving Kansas City because of the missile base. Now I ask you: To where does one go from Kansas City? The Yukon? Tahiti? We are not talking about Hiroshima anymore. Hiroshima was… was peanuts!
Dr. Russell Oakes: What’s going on? Do you have any idea what’s going on in this world?
Dr. Landowska: Yeah. Stupidity… has a habit of getting its way.

Yep, and this misAdministration isn’t going to be happy until the whole freakin’ world is in flames.

“Promise You’ll Protect Me From the Americans”

Omar Khadr.

Fifteen years old when he was captured by US forces in Afghanistan. Six years spent at Guantanamo without trial. Facing five war crimes charges, including the murder of a US soldier during a battle, and life in prison.

“Softened up” by American interrogators prior to a visit by Canadian intelligence personnel.

This happened to Mr. Khadr just ahead of a March 30, 2004, visit by Jim Gould, an intelligence officer with the Canadian Foreign Affairs department.

“In an effort to make him more amenable and willing to talk, [blacked out] has placed Umar in the ‘frequent flyer program,’ ” says an April, 2004, report by R. Scott Heatherington, then-director of the Foreign Intelligence Division of the Canadian department. “For the three weeks before Mr. Gould’s visit, Umar has not been more than three hours in any one location.

“At three-hour intervals, he is moved to another cell block, thus denying him uninterrupted sleep and a continued change of neighbours.”

Mr. Heatherington goes on to say that Mr. Khadr would, following the visit, be “placed in isolation for up to three weeks,” then be subjected to re-interview. [National Post]

He was a child. He begged the Canadian intelligence officers interviewing him. “Promise you’ll protect me from the Americans.”

Instead, they left him for another 5 years in a hellhole being (most likely) abused with torture techniques inspired by SERE training — a program instituted as a result of torture of American prisoners of war. Techniques approved by President Bush and then-Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld.

And he’s facing war crimes charges?

I don’t know whether to cry or vomit.

McCain Says: Family=Male/Female Parents

Via Shakesville, Reason # 3582668 for Why I Won’t Vote For John McCain.

From a man who cheated on and later divorced the wife who waited through the many years he was a prisoner of war. The mother of the two sons he adopted and the daughter they had together:

Mr. McCain, who with his wife, Cindy, has an adopted daughter, said flatly that he opposed allowing gay couples to adopt. “I think that we’ve proven that both parents are important in the success of a family so, no, I don’t believe in gay adoption,” he said. [New York Times]

Proven? Who’s “proven” this? As a single, straight mom, I call bullshit.

Are gay parents somehow less equipped to give a child a loving home? Are straight parents somehow more equipped?

The Longest Walk Ends

They started at Alcatraz on February 11th.

Five months. Two routes. Over 4,000 miles. From sea to shining sea.

On foot.

175 days (4200hrs.) ago walkers from all over Indian country as well as international allies embarked on a journey that carried them through rain, snow, and even a tornado.

Two paths were taken to make the journey, both a Northern and Southern route, in order to bring awareness to and address environmental and sacred sites protection, cultural survival, youth empowerment and Native American rights.

Thousands of walkers, which included new born babies and elders in their 90s, representing more than 100 Nations joined the Walk along the way. The Navajo (Dine’ Nation), Hopi, Apache, Havasupai, Tunica-Biloxi, Anishinaabeg, Wintun, Hualapai, Lakota, Six Nations, Ute, Washo, and many others as well as representatives from New Zealand, Germany, Japan, Italy, Holland, Poland comprised the diverse Walk. As they walked they picked up more than 8,000 bags of trash on the roads they traveled.

Amerika

Article IV, U.S. Constitution, as amended on July 9, 2008:

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

Hitler didn’t not rise to power by show of force; he was elected. The rights of the German people were not first taken away at the point of a gun, but were eroded by the power of the pen.

With back-room deals and plenty of intimidation, laws contrary to the public good and in violation of the German Constitution were passed by lawmakers whipped to a frenzy by an atmosphere of fear-mongering and hysteria. The Reichstag — the elected representatives of the German people — voted to destroy their Constitution and disband themselves in order that the country be “protected” from “terrorists.”

Fight Tyranny

Those Senators who vote to allow the government to continue spying on the communications of Americans without warrants and to immunize those telecoms which complied with illegal directives by the Executive Branch — to a degree which is still unknown — should be haunted from here on out by the words of some of our Founders and historic figures.

John Adams:

But a Constitution of Government once changed from Freedom, can never be restored. Liberty, once lost, is lost forever.