Sasquatch 05.26.12
Dylan Ratigan: Racism was rebranded ‘the war on drugs’
MSNBC host Dylan Ratigan on Monday highlighted the concerning racial disparities that existed within America’s war against illegal drugs.
“Our big story on this Martin Luther King holiday is the new math of racism in America,” he said. “The greedy bastards have rebranded racism, calling it ‘the war on drugs.’ They’ve made it both acceptable and profitable. While the concerns of racism from the 1950s and 60s have improved in this country, if you look at the numbers the war on drugs has become a racist war.”
He noted that African Americans are ten times more likely than white Americans to be imprisoned for the same drug charges. He also noted there were more African Americans in prison or on probation today than there were slaves in America before the civil war.
Dylan added that American taxpayers spent $74 billion on prisons in 2007, with a growing percentage of that money going to private prisons.
“And yes, publicly traded for profit prison companies exist,” he said. “These companies have massive political and lobbying wings to keep the war on drugs alive, as they also happen to use the very prisoners as cheap labor.”
…is that he’s a domestic violence committing, female co-star intimidating asshole. You can read the details of what he did to his female partner at the link. Regarding his treatment of female costars: Kiera Knightly didn’t want him spanking her during one of their scenes in a…
[Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]
My Favourite Chords - The Weakerthans
It’s here in the smallest bones, the feet and the inner-ear.
It’s such an enormous thing to walk and to listen.feeling terrible 2011
ugh
my phone.
not only is it delaying my messages by up to two days, but i wake up this morning and the screen won’t go on. the freaking screen. after doing all the things i could think of (taking battery in and out, moving sim card, plugging it in, restarting it a lot, hitting and blowing into it #nintendo) i gave up. so i mean, if you wanna get me i guess there’s the internet. :(
I’m literally shaking in anger and disgust.
If you have the time, please.
Signed, and shared.
Done.
Sign. We HAVE to hold the media accountable for perpetuating rape culture and victim blaming.
aklsdf;aksdfl;kajs;fdkajsf
i just woke up :{
i slept through four alarms
ugh. i missed my first class (i won’t be able to get there before it ends)
ffffff
NY Candidate Paladino Adds ‘Homophobe’ to His Resume
New York State Gubernatorial Candidate Carl Paladino told an audience of Brooklyn Hasidic Jews that he opposed homosexuality, in no uncertain terms.
“I just think my children and your children would be much better off and much more successful getting married and raising a family, and I don’t want them brainwashed into thinking that homosexuality is an equally valid and successful option — it isn’t,” he said on Sunday in widely-reported remarks, which included criticism of his opponent, Andrew Cuomo, who recently marched in a gay pride parade with his daughter. Some outlets reported that Paladino’s prepared text initially included the phrase “being a dysfunctional homosexual is nothing to be proud of” in reference to Cuomo.
But Paladino, swearing that he was tolerant, issued what he apparently thought was a reasonable disclaimer: “Don’t misquote me as wanting to hurt homosexual people in any way. That would be a dastardly lie.”
The far right-wing candidate has carved out a growing reputation for himself after a video of him and aides threatening to “take out” an aggressive reporter went viral. Still earlier, reports circulated of his forwarding racist and pornographic emails to colleagues.
-Sarah Seltzer
Read more at the NYTimes and at Newser.
Watch a video of Paladino’s Speech at WNYC’s “Empire” Blog
MENTOR, Ohio — Sladjana Vidovic’s body lay in an open casket, dressed in the sparkly pink dress she had planned to wear to the prom. Days earlier, she had tied one end of a rope around her neck and the other around a bed post before jumping out her bedroom window.
The 16-year-old’s last words, scribbled in English and her native Croatian, told of her daily torment at Mentor High School, where students mocked her accent, taunted her with insults like “Slutty Jana” and threw food at her.
It was the fourth time in little more than two years that a bullied high school student in this small Cleveland suburb on Lake Erie died at his or her own hand – three suicides, one overdose of antidepressants. One was bullied for being gay, another for having a learning disability, another for being a boy who happened to like wearing pink.
Now two families – including the Vidovics – are suing the school district, claiming their children were bullied to death and the school did nothing to stop it. The lawsuits come after a national spate of high-profile suicides by gay teens and others, and during a time of national soul-searching about what can be done to stop it.
If there has been soul-searching among the bullies in Mentor – a pleasant beachfront community that was voted one of the “100 Best Places to Live” by CNN and Money magazine this year – Sladjana’s family saw too little of it at her wake in October 2008.
Suzana Vidovic found her sister’s body hanging over the front lawn. The family watched, she said, as the girls who had tormented Sladjana for months walked up to the casket – and laughed.
“They were laughing at the way she looked,” Suzana says, crying. “Even though she died.”
WHAT IN THE ACTUAL FUCK?!
Read the rest of the article here, then proceed with the RAGERAGERAGERAGE.
GOP Candidates Pledge to Kill High Speed Rail
As a dreamer of the American high speed rail dream, this news just makes me sad: the Republican candidates running for governor in Ohio, Florida, California, Wisconsin, and elsewhere, have all pledged to kill the rail projects in their states if they’re elected. Some are even making such a pledge central to their campaigns. They plan on rejecting the stimulus funding offered to the state — funding designed to bolster employment — to stymie high speed rail. And why would they do such a thing? Because it’s one of Barack Obama’s signature projects, of course, and opposing it is an opportunity to score some political points. Here’s more on some gubernatorial candidates’ plans to kill high speed rail: For starters, take a look at what’s going on in Wisconsin: (via the NY Times) Mr. Walker, who worries that the state could be required to spend $7 million to $10 million a year to operate the trains once the line is built, started a Web site, NoTrain.com, and has run a television advertisement in which he calls the rail project a boondoggle. “I’m Scott Walker,” he says in the advertisement, “and if I’m elected as your next governor, we’ll stop this train.” The kicker is, the states competed vigorously for the projects just a year ago, and the private sector is also competing in many places to match the funding to complete the projects. But with each of the above candidates for governor either ahead in the polls or still a serious contender, there’s a genuine possibility that they could win, make good on their promises, and shut down high speed rail. The opposition to the project has the Republican Transit Secretary Ray LaHood scratching his head. Yesterday, he tweeted: “Is it just me, or is it hard to argue against writing the next chapter in American innovation?” He also issued a statement that read: “The bottom line is that high-speed rail is a national program that will connect the country, spur economic development and bring manufacturing jobs to the U.S. It will also transform transportation in America, much like the Interstate highway system did under President Eisenhower. It’s hard to imagine what would have happened to states like Ohio and Wisconsin if their leaders had decided they didn’t want to be connected to the rest of the country back then.” High speed rail would indeed be a great boon to these states, both short term and long term, and help put the nation’s transportation sector on a more sustainable trajectory — it’s a shame that cynical, anti-incumbent politics is grinding the dream to a halt.In Wisconsin, which got more than $810 million in federal stimulus money to build a train line between Milwaukee and Madison, Scott Walker, the Milwaukee County executive and Republican candidate for governor, has made his opposition to the project central to his campaign.
Mr. Walker evidently failed to factor in the relieved burden on the roads, reduced congestion and air pollution, the subsequent health benefits, and the added bonus of employing people during a dragging recession. Other candidates have similar plans of nixing the rail:
In Ohio, the Republican candidate for governor, John Kasich, is vowing to kill a $400 million federal stimulus project to link Cleveland, Columbus and Cincinnati by rail. In Florida, Rick Scott, the Republican candidate for governor, has questioned whether the state should invest in the planned rail line from Orlando to Tampa. The state got $1.25 billion in federal stimulus money for the project, but it will cost at least twice that much to complete.
Obama’s plan
