Rights vs. a "terror law" in Malaysia

we in the u.s. do a really, really BAD job of staying up on what's happening in other countries... if we paid more attention, we might actually learn something but, instead, we sit around contemplating our navels, totally sucked up in our own shit... it grinds me severely that even the most liberal, broad-minded folks among us (and i'm referring to a number of my fellow bloggers here), seem to have a limited repertoire, consisting of rove, bush, roberts, iraq, et al, and seem to conveniently ignore the rest of the world, something they accuse the red-staters of doing... (and, yes, i tend to do it myself...!) ok, rant over...

take a look at how one country is abusing a law that was originally intended to facilitate clamping down on terrorists... (and don't for one second think that the same thing isn't happening in the u.s...)

Behind the gleaming skyscrapers and the wide, manicured highways with luxury cars gliding by -- the symbols of Malaysia's vaunted economic success -- lurks what one rights activist calls the 'White Terror'.

The preferred weapon of this terror is the Internal Security Act (ISA), a law passed in 1960, which provides for indefinite detention without trial. Ostensibly enacted to fight communist insurgents it has since been used against all and sundry.

The common denominator is dissent against the established status quo and any challenge to the official pecking order of society.

The ISA is frequently used against forgers, counterfeiters, Islamists, political opponents and even against people who campaign to abolish the ISA itself.

It has claimed a steady stream of victims since 1960. Many survivors gathered this week to recount the horror they suffered and, united with NGOs and opposition parties, renewed their determination to force the repeal of this draconian law.

They recounted stories of horror -- arrests in the dead of the night, interrogation for days on end, beatings and torture and severe psychological pressure to recant, confess and join political parties in the government.

This week marks the 45th anniversary of the ISA, a convenient reference point for victims and campaigners to press for the repeal of the law that has jailed over 3,500 since 1960.

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Family violence in the Balkans

during my time in macedonia, i became aware of just how taboo a subject family abuse and violence is in that culture... it's rarely if ever acknowledged as a problem and the social infrastructure to deal with it is virtually nonexistent... according to this article, which focuses primarily on serbia and belgrade, it's a problem that affects a large part of the balkans...

”Family violence is a taboo (subject), due to the traditionally conservative Serbian society and slow action by local courts,” she [Vesna Stanojevic who heads the Belgrade-based Shelter for Victims of Family Violence] said.

”The only fear the perpetrators have is that they might be caught,” child psychiatrist Oliver Vidojevic [said]. ”All the research in the region has come to this conclusion. Nothing else matters for them.” The police rarely get involved in what they see as an internal family problem, he said.

Stanojevic says family violence begins when a husband first slaps his wife.

”This is not recognised as violence, but that is the start of it,” Stanojevic said. ”Years of abuse follow, and violence becomes the third partner in a marriage. Besides wives, the children become victims.”

Stanojevic says her shelter has received about 2,000 calls from victimised women since January, a third more than over the same period last year.

”It does not necessarily mean there's more violence,” she said. ”It means that more women are becoming aware of it.”

Stanojevic and Vidojevic say men traditionally believe that their family is their property and that they can do what they want with it.

But the violence could also be due to a high tolerance of violence among a population that witnessed three wars in the past decade ”and got used to everything,” says Slavka Lakicevic, assistant minister for childcare at the ministry of work and social affairs.

imaginary or real, whenever i have been in that area of the world, i have always felt a considerable presence of sullenness and low level anger... it seems to be in the air...

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CAFTA may be a done deal in the U.S. but not necessarily down south

U.S. President George W. Bush signed the Dominican Republic-Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) on Tuesday, touting it as a personal political victory, after it barely squeaked through the U.S. House of Representatives on Jul. 28 with a 217-215 vote.

[...]

But opposition to the trade deal is stiff in Central America. Although the business community, keen on gaining access to the huge U.S. market, has largely celebrated the U.S. passage of the accord, social organisations are threatening to step up their mobilisations against it.

CAFTA has yet to be ratified by the legislatures of Nicaragua, Costa Rica and the Dominican Republic. Ninety days after they inform the Organisation of American States (OAS) that the agreement has been approved, it will go into effect in those countries.

But El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala have already completed the ratification process.

[...]

Omar Salazar, director of the non-governmental regional Services and Labour Promotion Association [said] . . . guarantees are needed to ensure that there will be no further deterioration of labour standards or protection of workers in the subregion under the free trade accord.

Although the countries of Central America have labour laws, they are generally not enforced, said Salazar.

[...]

CAFTA could drive up the cost of essential medicines like those needed to treat HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis or malaria, because it states that pharmaceutical patents must be respected, warned the France-based Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders.

message: if you wanna play in the global economy, here's the rule book... rule #1: the u.s. makes the rules... rule #2: see rule #1...

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The Bush White House - at the heart of darkness

i made some notes to myself on the flight from jfk to buenos aires tuesday night...

prisoner torture @ guantanamo & abu ghraib a u.n. ambassador congress and the american people don't want tacit approval for homophobia and ethnic hatred pharmacists refusing to fill rx's going to war based on lies destroying the social safety net fear as a way of life extraordinary rendition grandiosity disguised as a virtue greed as a higher good a fundamentalist extremist christian nation extermination of the middle class poverty as a personality defect vanishing civil liberties the sharecropper society testosterone leadership

and the one thing they don't have and can't abide

the bright white light of love changing everything in an instant

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A realistic appraisal of Iraq - from a conservative journalist killed on the job

armando at kos presents the sad, sad story of a man trying to do his job the best way he knows how, to be honest and then dying in the process... go here for the whole post...

[P]raising America's undeniable military prowess is a bit like the old saw involving the doctor who crows that "the operation was a success, but the patient died." Sure, the surgery was brilliant, the surgery team removed the cancer, but all manner of infectious diseases afflicted the patient in the post-op period. (And again, forgive me, but here in Basra, Mookie Sadr is hands-down the most popular public figure outside of Sistani.)

thanks, armando...

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Iranian President may be denied visa

petulance and pettiness are so unbecoming...

The Bush administration may deny a visa to the new Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadi-Nejad who is expected to address the U.N. summit of world leaders Sep. 14-16.

[...]

Officially, neither the Bush administration nor the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has confirmed that Ahmadi-Nejad was one of the students who held U.S. embassy officials as hostages after the siege. The Iranians have also said the new president was not involved in the takeover of the U.S. embassy.

"But still, the Bush administration could use this rumour as an pretext to deny him a visa to enter the United States for the upcoming summit, thereby triggering another political confrontation with the United Nations," says a senior U.N. official, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The United States has always maintained that it has a legitimate right to deny a visa (even if the person is on an official visit to the United Nations) if he or she is deemed a threat to the "national security" of the country.

But U.N. spokesman Dujarric told reporters Friday: "The host country agreement (between the United Nations and the United States) calls on the United States not to impose any impediment to the travel to the United Nations of any representative of a member state on official business."

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The Minutemen should not be allowed to drop off the screen

i am not at all enamored with the minutemen and i've made no bones about it on this blog... i've also been dissed for my views but, hey... it goes with the territory... i ain't lettin' it go... the downside potential of the minutemen, imho, far outweighs any conceivable benefits... here's yet another look at some of the little critters that scurry back into the dark as soon as you turn over their rock...

The arrest, conviction and subsequent execution of Timothy McVeigh signaled the beginning of the end for the militias; the ensuing media spotlight caused membership to decline, interest to wane and the militias disappeared from the headlines.

”The Minutemen of today and the militias of a decade ago have many commonalities ideologically,” Burghart [Devin Burghart, who monitors anti-immigrant movements with the Illinois-based human rights group, the Centre for New Community's Building Democracy Initiative] said. ”Despite all their 'law-and-order' rhetoric, they both rely on illegal paramilitary vigilantism and intimidation to push public policy.”

”They both appear to be expressions of Middle American Nationalism -- the notion that 'middle Americans' are being squeezed from above by the economic elites, and from below from the multicultural hordes that are sucking the lifeblood from the productive middle.”

”Both the militias and the minutemen create a demonised 'other' based on citizenship status: The militias had the 'sovereign citizen' concept, which divided people into (white) state 'sovereign' citizens and so-called '14th Amendment' citizens. The Minutemen do it the basis of perceived immigration status.”

He noted that ”both are rife with conspiracy theories. For example, the militias were concerned about the New World Order, while the Minutemen have La Reconquista, which contends that there is a secret plot to re-conquer the American southwest for Mexico.”

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U.S. troops in Paraguay...? Yep...! Stay tuned...

Despite the government's continued denials, analysts and activists have raised the alarm over the possible installation of a U.S. military base in Paraguay, especially after Congress granted permission for U.S. armed forces contingents to remain in the country for 18 months at a time.

The joint military exercises authorised by Congress as of Jun. 1 will involve the arrival of over 150 U.S. troops in Paraguay.

In May, Congress granted immunity from prosecution to the U.S. soldiers participating in the 13 operations approved so far, two of which are already underway.

But as far as Paraguayan political analyst and historian Milda Rivarola is concerned, ”in practice, there has already been a (U.S.) base operating in Paraguay for over 50 years.”

While the actual physical infrastructure of a military base does not exist, the U.S. armed forces have had a continued, ongoing presence in the country, she said in an interview with IPS.

”In the past, they needed congressional authorisation every six months, but now they have been granted permission to be here for a year and a half,” she commented.

Rivarola said that the United States is keeping a particularly close eye on the tri-border area where Paraguay, Argentina and Brazil meet. The region is home to a large Arab community, which various intelligence services have identified as a source of financing and shelter for Islamic fundamentalist groups.

a piece of geography trivia for the trivial-minded... where paraguay, argentina and brazil meet is also the site of iguazú falls, described by the lonely planet guide to argentina, uruguay & paraguay as "among the most awe-inspiring sights on the planet . . . of such magnitude and sheer power that they make others seem puny by comparison..."

i've posted several times on the below-the-radar (meaning not worthy of u.s. media attention) developments that indicate the u.s. is quietly establishing a foundation of policies, plans and strategies for extending the "war on terror" into latin america... this looks like just one more quiet move in that direction...

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The U.S. has to play the big dog in Skopje, Macedonia too...!

The Macedonian Government and the US Embassy in Skopje have signed a contract [July 25] on selling the Kale Gradiste [Gradishte] site atop Skopje's fortress of Kale [the site is on the same hill, but some distance from the actual fortress], where the new US embassy compound will be constructed over the next three years.

View of central Skopje from Kale Fortress,
constructed in the 11th Century

this story may not be all that significant in the grand scheme of things but i will tell you why i'm posting it... i have been in and out of skopje since summer 2003, 4 trips altogether... this particular site for the new u.s. embassy has been discussed off and on for for that whole time... the back story is that the site overlooks the entire city and is located on a piece of ground with history that reaches back to at least the 11th century... (it could well be much earlier than that given the fact that the remains of a roman aqueduct extend for nearly a kilometer not far from there...) needless to say, more than a few locals are pissed that the u.s. embassy feels the need to build its new, hi-tech, post-modern, electronic and concertina wire-protected fortress in a location that pre-dates the ottoman empire... i fully agree and am additionally ticked off that it will be on the highest point within the city that actually looks down on the principal offices of the macedonian government...

and we wonder why people in other countries get annoyed with the u.s...

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Temps are rising but other numbers are falling

(from CNN and an AP-Ipsos poll... hat-tip to oldest son in reno for the story...)

Approval of Bush's handling of Iraq, which had been hovering in the low- to mid-40s most of the year, dipped to 38 percent.

[...]

Bush's overall job approval was at 42 percent, with 55 percent disapproving.

[...]

The portion of respondents who consider Bush honest has dropped slightly from January, when 53 percent described him that way while 45 percent did not. Now, people are just about evenly split on that issue -- with 48 percent saying he is honest and 50 percent saying he is not.

[...]

[T]he portion of respondents who view his confidence as arrogance has increased from 49 percent in January to 56 percent now.

"This country is a monarchy," said Charles Nuutinen, a 62-year-old independent from Greenville, Wisconsin. "He's turning this country into Saudi Arabia. He does what he wants. He doesn't care what the people want."

Six in 10 surveyed said they think the country is headed down the wrong track, despite some encouraging economic news in recent weeks.

question... for a president who makes it a point NOT to pay attention to poll numbers, how low do they have to go before he has no choice...? with opinion about his handling of iraq now in the 30s, you'd think, uh, well, SOME would think, uh, well... oh, never mind... thinking when applied to bushco is a pretty empty exercise...

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Give it a friggin' rest, will ya...?

A Republican congressman from South Texas has proposed renaming 16th Street NW as Ronald Reagan Boulevard.

[...]

Mayor Anthony A. Williams (D) objected, saying that renaming the historic north-south route that leads to the White House would mar the elegant street plan laid out by French engineer Pierre L'Enfant in 1791 -- and cost the city $1 million to alter maps and signs.

"It's been a long time since I've heard of a plan that made so little sense," Williams said.

[...]

Rep. Thomas M. Davis III (R-Va.), chairman of the House Government Reform Committee with jurisdiction over Bonilla's legislation, called it "ridiculous" and said he would put it in the "appropriate file..."

ah, good... some intelligent bipartisan opposition... why doesn't the honorable congressman from texas propose putting ronnie on the fast track to sainthood along with john paul...? why these silly half-measures...? better yet, why doesn't he spend some time working on REAL ISSUES...?

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Train workers strike in Argentina

well, THIS explains why traffic was so snarled here yesterday...

Railworkers yesterday staged a nationwide train strike that snarled hundreds of thousands of commuters. The strike was lifted at 5pm following a "personal request" by President Néstor Kirchner, said the La Fraternidad train drivers’ union. But no wage agreement was reached.

inflation has reared its ugly head in argentina, over 6% for the first half and projected to be over 12% for the full year... there's a boatload of folks who are still struggling with the aftereffects of the currency collapse in 2001 and inflation is exacerbating an already tough situation... the gov't has caved, and maybe rightly so, to pressures for salary increases from other groups so this isn't a surprise but it's a definite signal of the still-precarious argentine economic situation...

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It ain't always about money, goddamit...

Visitors to the eastern shore of Pyramid Lake 35 miles northeast of Reno, Nevada, can scan an area framed by a desert mountain backdrop and not see a hint of mankind.


Pyramid Lake, Nevada

The American Indians overseeing the lake say such serenity along 125 miles of lake coastline 4,000 feet (1,200 m)above sea level is the result of the tribe's traditional respect for nature.

Others suggest the Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe, which suffers 44 percent unemployment, should allow at least some development so it can share in the prosperity that regions such as Lake Tahoe in northern California enjoy.

The clash matches economic opportunity cost against tradition, with the sovereign tribe having the final word.

"The historical aspect of the lake has always been to keep it as it is," Norman Harry, chairman of the Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribes' Reservation, said in an interview. "The lake is sacred to the people and always will be."

when i'm in the states, i reside not many miles from pyramid lake... if you are ever in the neighborhood, you should make it a point to visit (the lake that is!)... the vastness is indescribable and the silence is nothing less than soul-renewing... my hat is off to the tribe... in this day and age, it's inspiring that there are people who can still put spiritual values ahead of money...

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Bolton: and so it begins

U.S. Ambassador John Bolton, in his debut in the U.N. Security Council, pressed Syria and Iran on Thursday to do more to stem the flow of terrorists, arms and funding into neighboring Iraq.

[...]

Bolton urged all nations "to meet their obligations to stop the flow of terrorist financing and weapons, and particularly on Iran and Syria."

"We think this is very important, obviously, to help bring stability and security to the people of Iraq and to permit the constitutional process to go forward. It's the highest priority for the people and government of Iraq, and for the United States as well," he said, speaking after the council vote.

Syrian Ambassador Fayssal Mekdad attacked Bolton's statement and similar comments by British Ambassador Emyr Jones Parry, saying they showed "a determined campaign against Syria" by Washington and London.

oh, shit... here we go... and, ferchrissakes, the s.o.b. has only been on the job since monday...

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Secret, underground prisons...?

Two Yemeni men say they were held in solitary confinement in secret, underground U.S. detention facilities in an unknown country and interrogated by masked men for more than 18 months without being charged or allowed any contact with the outside world, Amnesty International charged Wednesday.

amnesty international...? isn't that the incredibly screwed-up organization that called guantanamo a "gulag...?" well, goodness knows, THEIR credibility is certainly in question... besides, who's gonna believe YEMENIS...?? ~snark~

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Another call for Dems to "reform..." Gag me with a spoon...

(joan vennochi in the boston globe accomplishes the anatomically spectacular feat of putting it where the sun doesn't shine...)

It is time for Democrats to stop moaning about John Roberts and John Bolton and start doing something productive -- such as figuring out how to win elections.

Even though Democrats continue to resist the outcome, George W. Bush won the 2004 presidential contest. His reelection triggered a time-honored cliche: To the victor, go the spoils. Bush selected a Supreme Court nominee and an ambassador to the United Nations who reflect his philosophy. Any Democratic president would do the same.

i am unbelievably sick of reading shit like this... the part that this kind of crap completely ignores is that it isn't about winning elections or that the dems would take the same tack if they were in office... it's about being continually appalled at the actions of the most evil regime in american history and, quite possibly, given the power exerted by the u.s., in the history of the world... granted, it's not the blatant evil of a saddam but it's certainly more insidious, the ramifications run much deeper, and they will be with us for an unthinkably long time... get your head out of your ass, joan... the dark forces are at play here and you're wanting us to go back to business as usual...

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Environmental damage: a view from the Shuttle

Commander Eileen Collins said astronauts on shuttle Discovery had seen widespread environmental destruction on Earth and warned on Thursday that greater care was needed to protect natural resources.

wow...! i just had a TERRIFIC idea...! let's send bush and rove up in the shuttle...!!! wait...! toss in john bolton too...!!! they could all play pinochle and watch as the earth gets trashed...

afterthought: any bets on what happens to eileen collins' reputation after the shuttle comes back to earth...?

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What science is not...

the boston globe proposes an interesting approach in an editorial titled, "unintelligent..."

The best educational use of intelligent design would be to expose students to a good example of what science is not.

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The NRA: guns for everybody, everywhere, all the time

yet again, i am left speechless in the face of mind-boggling insanity...

Fresh from its victory last week, when a timorous Senate voted to protect the gun industry from damage suits, the National Rifle Association is now urging a boycott of a major energy company, ConocoPhillips, that dares to protect its employees from gunplay in the workplace. With a sense of civics worthy of the O.K. Corral, the N.R.A. announced a national campaign, replete with billboards, to urge gun lovers to bypass Conoco and Phillips 66 gasoline stations until the company drops its ban on employees' keeping firearms in company parking lots.

say, what...???

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Howard Dean's take on Paul Hackett

hot off the democratic party email, courtesy of howard dean...

No, Paul Hackett didn't get elected to Congress yesterday. But he received 48.2 percent of the vote in a district where the Democratic candidate received only half that in the last four elections.

The formula is simple. Paul Hackett didn't apologize for being a Democrat, didn't hold back from criticizing a president who has failed to lead in Iraq and at home, and took a strong Democratic message into the heart of a Republican stronghold.

This district used to be written off. Now we have a network of Democrats, independents, and sensible Republicans who are tired of the out-of-touch Republican leadership and its culture of corruption. It proves that we can compete everywhere -- if we show up and fight, and give people a real choice.

i really, really need some encouraging news... yes, i am happy that hackett racked up the percentage of votes cast that he did but i am desperately afraid that the country will be ruined so badly by the time things are in place to turn it around that it may be too late... 'course, i also need to keep in mind that things can change dramatically in sudden and unexpected ways...

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Bush: faith trumps fact

President Bush invigorated proponents of teaching alternatives to evolution in public schools with remarks saying that schoolchildren should be taught about "intelligent design," a view of creation that challenges established scientific thinking and promotes the idea that an unseen force is behind the development of humanity.

i'm sorry to resort to such vulgarity but i wish this son-of-a-bitch would just shut the fuck up... he's an embarrassment and i'm sick unto death of fundamentalist christian ideology substituting for leadership...

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Novak incapable of shame - or decent journalism

somehow a simple blow-job is refreshingly human when compared to the sleazy pandering of bob novak...

In an Aug. 1 column, Novak cited the Kerry campaign’s supposed rejection of Wilson to further denigrate the former ambassador, who has become a bete noire to Republicans since he charged in an opinion article on July 6, 2003, that the Bush administration “twisted” intelligence on Iraq’s nuclear weapons program.

[...]

Novak wrote that “Joseph Wilson was discarded a year ago by the Kerry presidential campaign after the Senate [intelligence] committee reported that much of what he [Wilson] said ‘had no basis in fact.’

[...]

Novak’s attack on Wilson – about his supposed repudiation by Sen. John Kerry’s Democratic campaign – can be traced back to a story by Talon News’ former White House correspondent Jeff Gannon, whose real name is James Guckert.

On July 27, 2004, just over a year ago, a Talon News story under Gannon’s byline reported that Wilson “has apparently been jettisoned from the Kerry campaign.” The article based its assumption on the fact that “all traces” of Wilson “had disappeared from the Kerry Web site.”

[...]

But Peter Daou, who headed the Kerry campaign’s online rapid response, said the disappearance of Wilson’s link – along with many other Web pages – resulted from a redesign of Kerry’s Web site at the start of the general election campaign, not a repudiation of Wilson.

thanks once again to robert parry of consortium news for another excellent piece of investigative journalism...

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back in the saddle, mas o menos

after 36 hours of traveling (real-time) from skopje, macedonia, back here to buenos aires, argentina, from the 95+ degrees of high macedonian summer to the mid-50's of bsas winter, i am badly in need of a shower... but, news addict that i am, i fired up the 'puter and plugged in the adsl to get my fix... and what did i find...? nothing uplifting, nothing worth celebrating, but, what did i expect...?

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'Nuff said...

[T]he appointment [of John Bolton] is, of course, terrible news for the United Nations.

no shit...

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Bush knows what he knows and that's all that he knows...

Post-Enlightenment folks tend to think of knowledge as an empirical thing: knowledge is the product of evidence that comports with a theory or world view. As such, we seek data, and when the data are inconclusive or inconsistent with expectation, we admit that we don’t know.

That, I submit, is not what George Bush means when he says he knows something. He knew Karl Rove was innocent in the same way he knew that there were WMDs in Iraq, and that Osama got birthday cards from Saddam. More to the point, he knew it the way he knew God wanted him to be president.

In other words, he knows Rove is blameless in the way he knows his religious beliefs are true—based not upon a survey of facts, evidence and expertise, but upon an inventory of only the desolate, monochromatic landscape of his own interior.

Bush knows Rove is innocent because that is what Bush’s heart tells him; his brain is incapable of grasping the resulting circularity. This kind of knowledge, so widely and deeply embraced by his supporters, was the basis for Bush’s elevation to the White House. It explains his intransigent stance on Social Security, on John Bolton, and virtually everything else he has wrought since; the light of reason is not allowed to reach the dark place where Bush holds his beliefs.

i cannot read this or even think about it without my skin wanting to crawl off my body... this is the man who holds the most powerful position in the world... he and his team make decisions and chart directions every single day that will affect all of us for years to come... we're being led by an asshole...

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Pathologically stubborn S.O.B. to appoint same

Frustrated by Democrats,President Bush will circumvent the Senate on Monday and install embattled nominee John Bolton to be ambassador to the United Nations, a senior administration official said.

[...]

"He's damaged goods. This is a person who lacks credibility," Sen. Christopher Dodd of Connecticut, a senior Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said on "Fox News Sunday." Bush, he said, should think again before using a recess appointment to place Bolton at the United Nations while the Senate is on its traditional August break.

gonna hafta stick this picture in again... and, geez... i had only put it up last friday... must be prescient, huh...?


take THAT, america...!!

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What is true religion?

According to Matthew's gospel, chapter 25:41-45,

"Then he will say to those at his left hand, 'Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels; for I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink, I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not clothe me, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.' Then they also will answer, 'Lord, when did we see thee hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to thee?' Then he will answer them, 'Truly, I say to you, as you did it not to one of the least of these, you did it not to me.'

From Alabama, the heart of the Bible Belt and notorious for its idolotry of a stone monument:

If there was ever a prison that needed help, it was Limestone Correctional Facility.

Even within the troubled Alabama penal system, this state compound near Huntsville was notorious for cruel punishment and medical neglect. In one drafty, rat-infested warehouse once reserved for chain gangs, the state quarantined its male prisoners with H.I.V. and AIDS, until the extraordinary death toll - 36 inmates from 1999 to 2002 - moved inmates to sue and the government to promise change.

Alabama's solution was to fire the local company in charge of medical care and hire Prison Health Services, the nation's largest commercial provider of health care behind bars. Prison Health's solution was to recruit Dr. Valda M. Chijide, an infectious-disease specialist who arrived last November with a lofty title: statewide coordinator of inmate H.I.V. care.

[...]

Though the company had promised the help of other doctors, she said, she was left alone to care for not only the 230 men in the H.I.V. unit, but the 1,800 other prisoners, too. Nurses were so poorly trained, Dr. Chijide said, that they neglected to hand out life-sustaining drugs or gave the wrong ones. Medical charts were a mess, she said, and often it was impossible to find such basic items as a thermometer, or even soap.

[...]

Her short, frantic stint - battling for drugs, hospitalizations and extra food for skeletal inmates, she said - was not unusual in the world of Prison Health Services, which has had a turbulent record in many of the 33 states where it has provided jail or prison medicine. But her story, a rare firsthand account of a doctor in charge of a prison's health care, offers an intimate glimpse of the company's work at a moment when the need for change could not have been more pressing, and the spotlight on Prison Health could hardly have been more intense.

Even then, interviews and the reports of a federal court monitor show, the state and the company made promises they did not keep, settling for care that jeopardized inmates' health. And Prison Health, which often laments the difficulty of finding qualified doctors to work in jails and prisons, searched nationwide for a specialist, only to question her integrity.

Ah the smear, tried and true tactic of the right. And the old fox guarding the henhouse:

There is, of course, a higher authority that Prison Health must answer to: the state official charged with making sure it lives up to its contract. That person is Ruth Naglich, who as associate commissioner of the Alabama Corrections Department is supposed to review the company's work.

Three years ago, Ms. Naglich was a Prison Health executive, vice president for sales and marketing, at the company's headquarters outside Nashville.

The story goes on to document the horrible conditions these HIV prisoners were subject to, Dr. Chijide's efforts to correct them, and then to document them, her suspension and subsequent attempt at cover-up by Prison Health.

Yeah, we are such a Christian nation.

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Republican Google ads at the top of this blog...

i bitched to google back in may about the repub ads appearing on my google adsense ad bar at the top of this blog... i got back a boiler-plate email (see below) that essentially said, "tough shit," although, interestingly enough, the ads subsequently disappeared... now, nearly 2 1/2 months later, they're creeping B-A-A-A-ACK...! but, ya know what...? let 'em stay... so friggin' what... if nothing else, they're good for a laugh... "meet republican singles...?" by all means, if you're so inclined, click on through... :)

We understand the importance of maintaining the quality of your site and your site's user experience.

However, currently, you may not individually filter out specific ads or types of ads. The only way to filter ads from your site is by blocking all ads from that advertiser's site. In the future, however, we may enhance this functionality so publishers can retain even more editorial control while still offering diverse advertising content.

We appreciate your feedback and welcome any additional suggestions on ways we can improve Google AdSense for you.

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No vindication for the Denver 3 - shameful and disgusting (Sunday version)

(courtesy of dear bro who is celebrating his birthday today... happy birthday, bro...!)

oh, of COURSE not... why in the world would we expect there to be any consequences whatsoever for bushco despite their megalomaniacal, arrogant, civil liberties-smashing behavior...? it's just another day for george, karl, and the fratellanza...

Federal prosecutors have declined to press charges of impersonating a Secret Service agent against a White House volunteer who ousted three people from a speech by President Bush in Denver on March 21.

The announcement was made Friday in a letter to Colorado Sen. Ken Salazar and Reps. Mark Udall and Diana DeGette, all Democrats, who had asked for a Secret Service investigation into the incident.

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United's pension plans - Hey, let's privatize Social Security

(thanks to the nyt for running an article that dares to tweak the nose of wall street...)

Had anyone listened to Doug Wilsman, tens of thousands of United Airlines employees would not be facing big cuts in their pensions. And the federal agency that guarantees pensions might not be struggling with its biggest losses ever.

So who is Doug Wilsman? He is a retired pilot and a former fiduciary of United's pension plan for pilots, and in 1987 he discovered that the company had abandoned its older, tried-and-true approach of investing retirees' money in bonds timed to pay when the pensions came due. Instead, it had bought into the promises of Wall Street that it could put less money into the plan - and take out more later - if it just put most of the assets into the stock market.

[...]

"Everybody knows stocks are cyclical," Mr. Wilsman said last week. So is the airline business. All along, he said, he thought it was almost inevitable that both would one day go south at the same time, with catastrophic results - which is just what happened this year.

does anybody else but me think that THIS might be precisely the reason bush's idiotic plan to privatize social security has died a thousand deaths...? raise your hands... but does a tragedy of this magnitude cast a pall over the insanely greedy, mutant monstrosity that is waiting to gobble up any hard-won gains of po' folk...? hell, no...

Given Mr. Wilsman's prescience, one might think that experts would be examining how United's investment strategies contributed to the demise of its pension funds - and whether similar scrutiny elsewhere could prevent more pension plans from crashing.

Not a chance. Congress, regulators, lobbyists and the news media are all scrambling to find out what has gone wrong with the pension system. Hearings have been convened in the wake of United's default, chief executives examined under oath, bills introduced in Congress, numbers crunched. But virtually everyone is looking at the rules covering how much money a company puts into a pension plan every year - not at what happens to the money after that.

when, for god's sake, are we gonna cast off the yoke of the super-rich whose only goal in life is to amass more money from those who are in the worst position to part with it...?

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Hackett's been taking Dean lessons...! i LIKE it...!

[Paul Hackett is] a Marine Reservist and an Iraq war veteran who opposed the war before the U.S. invasion and remains a harsh critic of President Bush's policy there. He is also a Democrat battling to win a special House election in Ohio in a district that has been in Republican hands for more than three decades.

[...]

Hackett told USA Today that Bush's taunting line, "Bring 'em on!" was "the most incredibly stupid comment I've ever heard a president of the United States make." He also told the newspaper that, while he was willing to put his life on the line for the president, "I've said that I don't like the son-of-a-[expletive] that lives in the White House.

[...]

"He called the commander in chief a son-of-a-[expletive]," said NRCC spokesman Carl Forti. "We decided to bury him."

[...]

"I said it. I meant it. I stand by it," [Hackett] said in a phone interview. "In this district, we need more straight-talking, straight-shooting politicians."

in the long run, "burying" truth and truth-tellers never works... and, hey, paul... you don't need me to tell you this, but it ain't only in your district that we need "straight-talking, straight-shooting politicians..." you say what has to be said, fella, and don't let anybody stop you...

MAJOR BEEF WITH WAPO: the article is titled, "GOP Says It Will 'Bury' Name-Calling Candidate" and was run under a dan balz byline... i think dan's last name might be more fitting if he insisted on a headline that didn't goose the dems and boost the r's...

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