TERROR IN THE HEARTLAND,MURDER IN CHURCH *UPDATE*

I left a message a couple of days ago with Liz from Planned Parenthood. She handles media requests. In light of the shooting in a church in Kansas of a doctor that provided abortions, I was curious as to how people involved with Planned Parenthood in my area were handling things, and if there was an uptick in threats, etc., from people here.

So it's been a couple of days since I contacted her, and she returned my call today.
I asked her how people were holding up and she indicated that support in Washington and Oregon remains strong, and they have in fact beefed up security at clinics, and I was under the impression that security, while always on their mind, was a renewed subject at the water cooler in the offices region-wide.

Liz indicated to me that they take security and threats against clinics and staff very seriously, and she made it clear that law enforcement on every level, Federal, State and Local have been extraordinarily helpful.

I asked Liz if there had been an escalation in threats since the attack last Sunday, unfortunately I failed to ask her if there has been an escalation in threats of violence since Obama's election, but if you read my Blog, Liz, feel free to comment and let me know! Regarding an uptick in threats here, she said aside from the usual protesters they encounter on a daily basis, there has not been a noticeable increase in Washington and Oregon, but she acknowledged that people here are generally more supportive of reproductive rights. She could not tell me if there has been an increase of threats of violence in other areas of the country. Be safe y'all...

I would like to drop this on you, Searchers: overall I do not like abortion. Like most pro-choice people, I do not like abortion. But the right wing and Fundamentalist Christians need to realize the fact that abortion is not going away. The right wing and American Christianity has these abortion blinders on and that is all they can see.

These dumbasses, (largely made up of what I like to call (with total sarcasm) the Great White Right), especially in the Bible racist Belt, vote on this one issue, and like true provincial thinkers focus on this while the schools are crumbling around them, hell, Mrs. Searcher's worthless pappy wasted tax payer money as a state rep for 11 terms, that's 22 years, and the schools in Forrest City, Arkansas at the time were some of the worst in the state.
Jobs are disappearing and Rural America is as broke and poor as ever, but the conservatives (and yes I mean you too, Conservadems, just cause you vote for Mark Pryor or Blanche Lincoln doesn't mean you're not voting Republican) want to vote their religion instead of common sense and decency. Not surprising, religion, especially fundamentalist christianity, evangelical, whatever the hell label you want to put on it, especially in the United States, is about dumbing people down, denying rights, education and health care, and discrimination and intolerance.

It is no wonder I switched sides. Peace, Searchers...

PENNSYLVANIA JUDGES TO PLEAD GUILTY

This is an update from a previous post regarding the Pennsylvania Judges that were selling children to a jail company. The judges are pleading guilty according to the New York Times, read the story here. Some excerpts:

"At worst, Hillary Transue thought she might get a stern lecture when
she appeared before a judge for building a spoof MySpace page
mocking the assistant principal at her high school in Wilkes-Barre, Pa. She was a stellar student who had never been in trouble, and the page stated clearly at the bottom that it was just a joke.
Instead, the judge sentenced her to three months at a juvenile detentioncenter on a charge of harassment. She was handcuffed and taken away as her stunned parents stood by.
“I felt like I had been thrown into some surreal sort of
nightmare,” said Hillary, 17, who was sentenced in 2007. “All I wanted toknow was how this could be fair and why the judge would do such a thing.”
The answers became a bit clearer on Thursday as the judge,
Mark A. Ciavarella
Jr., and a colleague, Michael T. Conahan, appeared in federal court in Scranton, Pa., to plead guilty to wire fraud and income tax fraud for taking more than $2.6 million in kickbacks to send teenagers to two privately run youth detention centers run by PA Child Care and a sister company,Western PA Child Care.
If the court agrees to the plea agreement, both judges
will serve 87 months in federal prison and resign from the bench and bar. They are expected to be sentenced in the next several months. Lawyers for both men declined to comment."

Of course the worthless bastards declined to comment. 87 months sounds like a lot, it is only 7.25 years.

While I appreciate these judges pleading guilty to their crimes, there can be no redemption for them. People like these judges that are held with such a high public trust should be made into examples. There should be no plea agreement, and there should be no chance for parole when they are sent to prison. Let them be sent to prison and left for dead.
Violating the public trust has become the norm for politicians, police, judges, prosecutors. It is high time we as a people stand up and hold these people accountable for their actions. If you are charged with the responsibility of creating laws or enforcing laws, you had better make sure you acquiesce to those same laws. None of this bullshit about fucking things up and pretending you are above the law. Put these judges away for ever.

It is time to end the Reagan era of privatization. Operating prisons for profit only invites corruption. With privatization there is no accountability. We have a difficult time enough at this point holding our elected officials accountable as well as our news outlets, we do not have the time to regulate these privatization morons. Let's push the Republicans as well as the failed policies of Ronald Reagan into the sea.

Onward.

PENNSYLVANIA JUDGES ACCUSED OF JAILING KIDS FOR MONEY

Okay Right Wingers-

Don't even try to tell me private-run prisons are a good thing. The opportunities for corruption are nearly endless when the government ponies up trillions for private prisons, armies, contractors...it is ridiculous. The privatization of prisons only provides reason to the greedy to keep people behind bars and shuffle them around the country like cattle. An excerpt from an AP article from Yahoo!

"WILKES-BARRE, Pa. – For years, the juvenile court system in Wilkes-Barre operated like a conveyor belt: Youngsters were brought before judges without a lawyer, given hearings that lasted only a minute or two, and then sent off to juvenile prison for months for minor offenses.

In one of the most shocking cases of courtroom graft on record, two Pennsylvania judges have been charged with taking millions of dollars in kickbacks to send teenagers to two privately run youth detention centers.

Prosecutors say Luzerne County Judges Mark Ciavarella and Michael Conahan took $2.6 million in payoffs to put juvenile offenders in lockups run by PA Child Care LLC and a sister company, Western PA Child Care LLC."

Here is the link to the AP article via Yahoo!

This is another example of the nightmare that is conservatism. Lock up your "problem people" in private FOR PROFIT jails and prisons. Kinda like Mayberry, but I guess Andy Taylor's jail at the very least was a public run facility.

I sincerely hope we are looking at a death knell for the conservative movement and capitalism, it has done far too much damage for far too long.
Peace, Onward!

MCCAIN "BUSH ON STEROIDS"

Rolling Stone did a great job with this article written by Tim Dickinson, I found on their website today. This is an incredible indictment against McCain and the neocons. I don't have a lot of commentary as not much is needed. It is clear we do not need McCain and Palin or anymore conservatives at all, ever.

"He's going to be Bush on steroids," says Johns, the retired
brigadier general who has known McCain since their days at the National War
College. "His hawkish views now are very dangerous. He puts military at the top
of foreign policy rather than diplomacy, just like George Bush does. He and
other neoconservatives are dedicated to converting the world to democracy and
free markets, and they want to do it through the barrel of a gun."

"Johns" is John H. Johns a retired brigadier general who studied with McCain at the War College, according to Dickinson.

If this loon and his Vice President pick get elected, it will be an interesting situation.

The article goes on for about ten pages, and it's well worth the read.

Peace-