It Is Unacceptable

WTF is wrong with Americans?

Condescending Wonka

Learn The Difference

The US schools with their own police

The US schools with their own police: "More and more US schools have police patrolling the corridors. Pupils are being arrested for throwing paper planes and failing to pick up crumbs from the canteen floor. Why is the state criminalising normal childhood behaviour?

The charge on the police docket was "disrupting class". But that's not how 12-year-old Sarah Bustamantes saw her arrest for spraying two bursts of perfume on her neck in class because other children were bullying her with taunts of "you smell".

"I'm weird. Other kids don't like me," said Sarah, who has been diagnosed with attention-deficit and bipolar disorders and who is conscious of being overweight. "They were saying a lot of rude things to me. Just picking on me. So I sprayed myself with perfume. Then they said: 'Put that away, that's the most terrible smell I've ever smelled.' Then the teacher called the police."

The policeman didn't have far to come. He patrols the corridors of Sarah's school, Fulmore Middle in Austin, Texas. Like hundreds of schools in the state, and across large parts of the rest of the US, Fulmore Middle has its own police force with officers in uniform who carry guns to keep order in the canteens, playgrounds and lessons. Sarah was taken from class, charged with a criminal misdemeanour and ordered to appear in court...."

This Was At a Peaceful Rally

Newt Gingrich Leaves 30-Year Trail Of Debts, Lawsuits And Bankruptcies In His Wake

Newt Gingrich Leaves 30-Year Trail Of Debts, Lawsuits And Bankruptcies In His Wake: "WASHINGTON -- Newt Gingrich holds himself up as a model of fiscal discipline. "If the U.S. government was as debt-free as I am, everybody in America would be celebrating," he told reporters last year.

What may be true for Gingrich personally, however, has rarely been the case for organizations he runs. Gingrich's presidential campaign is basically broke. The latest financial disclosure reports show that his campaign closed out the month of January with $1.73 million in debt and a scant $1.79 million in cash on hand, just enough to cover expenses that included private jets and unusually large personal reimbursements. The highly publicized injection of more than $11 million from casino magnate Sheldon Adelson into a super PAC backing Gingrich's campaign has fueled the perception that Gingrich is flush, but Adelson's money won't keep the lights on at campaign headquarters...."

Money Equals Speech?

Pull the Trigger

What Will Be the Impact of Rising Gas Prices?

GOP Kicks Women Out Of Contraception Debate – Says It’s About Religion Not Women (VIDEO)

GOP Kicks Women Out Of Contraception Debate – Says It’s About Religion Not Women (VIDEO): "If you’ve been following the debate on contraception over the last couple of weeks, you might have noticed a fascinating trend. Hormonal contraception is taken solely by women. It is prescribed by medical professionals for a variety of medical conditions, including some that would be very painful without birth control pills and some that could be deadly. Yet, on TV and now in Congress, neither women nor healthcare experts have been allowed to participate in the debate....."

"The poorest and most backward societies are always those that put women down."
~Isabel Allende

Catholic Priest Allegedly Told Child He Was Raping That ‘This Is What God’s Love Feels Like’

Catholic Priest Allegedly Told Child He Was Raping That ‘This Is What God’s Love Feels Like’: "The Catholic Church has thrown a temper tantrum over contraceptives, abortion, and homosexuality over the last few years. Catholic bishops and priests have gone on the offensive, crusading against what they call sin, immorality, and abomination of the word of God. But the Catholic Church can’t seem to clean up its own act. Over the years, child molestation and rape scandals have rocked the Catholic Church. But instead of dealing with the problem, many in the Catholic hierarchy have largely ignored the scandal and some priests have tried to use their religious affiliations to escape justice or use God to justify their actions. The horrendous scandal has now hit California, where 200 Catholic priests have been accused of sexually abusing children.

Ray Boucher is the attorney at the helm of this investigation and he says that not only have “many if not all” of the 200 priests admit to sexually abusing children, “they live within a mile of 1,500 playgrounds, schools and daycare centers” across California. You heard that right. 200 priests that are under investigation for sexually abusing children live near areas where children play and learn....."

Why Do Dangerous Financial Criminals Roam Free?

Why Do Dangerous Financial Criminals Roam Free?: "Prosecutors like Eric Schneiderman need cops on the beat to put financial crooks behind bars. But thanks to Bush, these cops are missing in action.

American Public Media's "Marketplace" had a recent segment focused on why it has taken so long to bring criminal prosecutions related to the financial crisis. Reporters observed that at the beginning of the crisis, the Obama administration wanted to calm the financial industry rather than impose accountability. They speculated, along with Tea Party and Occupy Wall Street participants, many of whom have been calling for prosecutions, that Obama’s creation of a new group to prosecute mortgage fraud led by New York Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman was likely to be politically motivated. And they indicated that financial crimes are complex and prosecutors need time to develop their cases.

But here's what they didn't say: A major reason the prosecutions don’t exist is that President George W. Bush took the cops off the beat...."

Walmart Whistleblowers Stand Up to Retaliation

Walmart Whistleblowers Stand Up to Retaliation: "Unseen but ever present, behind the well-stocked shelves of Walmarts around the country are warehouse workers. This labor force is primarily employed by contracting firms that underpay workers and fire them summarily, according to advocates, but a group of 60 former employees at a Walmart warehouse in the Chicago suburbs are holding these contractors accountable for what they say are numerous labor violations.

The workers allege that, after they filed a complaint in November 2011 calling for lost wages from their temp employer, Eclipse, they were dismissed without notice when Schnieder Logistics, the company that operates the Walmart warehouse in Elmwood, Illinois, canceled their temp agency's contract...."

Grover Norquist To Obama: Extend Bush Tax Cuts Or Be Impeached

Grover Norquist To Obama: Extend Bush Tax Cuts Or Be Impeached: "You almost have to admire the chutzpah of Grover Norquist. For a man with no elected office and lacking the billions of the Koch brothers, Norquist exerts a phenomenal amount of influence on American politics. From his ability to force the entire GOP to pledge not to raise taxes under any circumstances (except on the Middle Class and poor, of course) to his latest act of arrogance in essentially threatening the President of the United States, Norquist is quite sure of himself...."

The Battlefield and the Barracks: Two War Fronts for Women Soldiers

The Battlefield and the Barracks: Two War Fronts for Women Soldiers: ""The crisis is so severe that I'm telling women to simply not join the military because it's completely unsafe and puts them at risk. Until something changes at the top, no woman should join the military."
~Veteran April Fitzsimmons, victim of sexual assault

The distinction between military support and combat roles vanished in the Afghanistan and Iraq wars of occupation. With this blurring of boundaries, military women serving in these wars, though barred from ground combat, have worked in situations as dangerous as those faced by men.

They have patrolled streets with machine guns, served as gunners on vehicles, dismantled explosives, driven trucks down bomb-ridden streets, and rescued the dead and injured in battle zones....."

Truth in Lapeling

SOPA "explained" by The Guardian

Military torture tactics are creeping into US police enforcement

The DOJ really needs to step in on this. What bullshit!

How Much Money Can One President Spend?