Survivors of Brazil mudslides that killed more than 500 frustrated
By Juliana Barbassa (CP) – 4 hours ago
"...TERESOPOLIS, Brazil — Survivors of mudslides that killed more than 500 people are growing frustrated, saying Brazil's government has fallen short in rescuing victims still stranded on remote hillsides and finding the bodies of the dead.
On the fourth night since torrential rains sent avalanches of mud and boulders smashing through communities in the lush mountains outside Rio de Janeiro, many people were still begging officials for aid late Friday. Many also took it upon themselves to search for their dead and help out the living.."
Saturday, January 15, 2011
Friday, January 14, 2011
Colbert - Hitler's Inspiring Tucson Memorial Speech
| The Colbert Report | Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c | |||
| Hitler's Inspiring Tucson Memorial Speech | ||||
| ||||
I'm really trying to find some humor, but frankly the Foxfuck's flip-flops made me dizzy.
Thursday, January 13, 2011
I'll let Borowitz help you laugh, I'm still pissed off
Impressed With Speech, Fox Names Obama an Honorary American
NEW YORK (The Borowitz Report) - Impressed by his speech at the University of Arizona last night, the Fox News Channel today took the extraordinary step of naming President Barack Obama an honorary American.
"Let's face it, he's earned it," said Fox host Glenn Beck. "I don't care where he came from, he's one of us now."
Naming President Obama an honorary American was only one of a series of conciliatory moves made today by what promises to be a kinder, gentler Fox News.
A network spokesman said that starting this week, Fox would air one minute of civil discourse every Sunday at 4 AM. More here.
The Los Angeles Times says Andy Borowitz has "one of the funniest Twitter feeds around." Follow Andy on Twitter here.
Lawmakers And The Crazy Laws They Want To Pass In The Wake Of Tucson Tragedy
Jason Linkins First Posted: 01-13-11 06:56 PM | Updated: 01-13-11 08:25 PM
NEW YORK (The Borowitz Report) - Impressed by his speech at the University of Arizona last night, the Fox News Channel today took the extraordinary step of naming President Barack Obama an honorary American.
"Let's face it, he's earned it," said Fox host Glenn Beck. "I don't care where he came from, he's one of us now."
Naming President Obama an honorary American was only one of a series of conciliatory moves made today by what promises to be a kinder, gentler Fox News.
A network spokesman said that starting this week, Fox would air one minute of civil discourse every Sunday at 4 AM. More here.
The Los Angeles Times says Andy Borowitz has "one of the funniest Twitter feeds around." Follow Andy on Twitter here.
Lawmakers And The Crazy Laws They Want To Pass In The Wake Of Tucson Tragedy
Jason Linkins First Posted: 01-13-11 06:56 PM | Updated: 01-13-11 08:25 PM
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
Tucson: Time for Another Examination of Conscience
Thank you for weighing in on this. Since I was very young at the time of the assasinati
One question I have regarding the Manchester quote; Why does he use the name Earle Carroll? The name I've seen over and over again for the mayor of Dallas at the time of JFK's assassinat
who's brother was General Charles P. Cabell ( http://en.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost
What is company success?
Tomgram: William Hartung, Lockheed Martin's Shadow Government
Posted by William Hartung at 10:02am, January 11, 2011.
Yup. I know this to be true because I was one of those rounded up and sent to Lockheed Martin offices for the welfare-to-work program. We looked around at each other and wondered aloud if we were going to be Rosie-the Riveter or some shit? Baffling because there wasn't a war going on at the time.
Computer fiasco costs state dearly
$1.2 billion in fines over child support systemBy Ed Mendel
STAFF WRITER SDUT
March 28, 2007
Posted by William Hartung at 10:02am, January 11, 2011.
"... How in the world did Lockheed Martin become more than just a military contractor? Its first significant foray outside the world of weaponry came in the early 1990s when plain old Lockheed (not yet merged with Martin Marietta) bought Datacom Inc., a company specializing in providing services for state and city governments, and turned it into the foundation for a new business unit called Lockheed Information Management Services (IMS). In turn, IMS managed to win contracts in 44 states and several foreign countries for tasks ranging from collecting parking fines and tolls to tracking down “deadbeat dads” and running “welfare to work” job-training programs. The result was a number of high profile failures, but hey, you can’t do everything right, can you? ... "
Yup. I know this to be true because I was one of those rounded up and sent to Lockheed Martin offices for the welfare-to-work program. We looked around at each other and wondered aloud if we were going to be Rosie-the Riveter or some shit? Baffling because there wasn't a war going on at the time.
The employees got almost no guidance at all from corporate and I think through no fault of the employees the program was a dismal failure for most welfare recipients. They needed comprehensive help and the psychiatric help was the epitome of incompetent and transitory and a range of other needs were not met.
I know that this county is pretty much owned and operated by the M-I-C so it didn't surprise me, but it did fuel my cynicism. I knew about the budget cuts and privatization going on in the military. When I was offered community college classes I took the ball and ran with it even though my choices were childcare or business. Childcare? Ugh. Well, I did learn something in business classes. I learned how to track a stock price for a period of time:
Computer fiasco costs state dearly
$1.2 billion in fines over child support systemBy Ed Mendel
STAFF WRITER SDUT
March 28, 2007
Monday, January 10, 2011
Tonight's Maddow opening segment
Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
I burst into tears before Rachel finished. Suddenly I was 15 again and hearing about the Brenda Spencer school shootings. When I was 16 I was living in the same place as a girl who had been Spencer's cell mate at juvie. I was never a danger to anyone but myself, but believe me, some of those kids were sick. I hope that girl got better eventually because she was twisted. There was help for young people then. Nice places for kids like me who's folks had health insurance, and the State paid for wards of the court if help was needed.Then came Reagan.
Now whether they are dangerous or not, and they (or sometimes us) are lucky, they are in prison. Sometimes it's just a way to get the medication they need. Sometimes it saves our lives. Sometimes not. I personally think that the really crazy people never get help and some of them are wealthy and important people. Don't tell me there aren't nutballs at the top of the social strata in the world because I will call you a liar. Anyway, things were different, I was lucky, and I've never been in jail. Hell, I don't even have any parking tickets.
Tired and sad today
I missed Grey's Anatomy on Thursday, so I decided to watch in on the computer last night. Sadly, it was about a mass shooting. The characters in the show dealt with a mass shooting in the hospital just 6 months before.
Silence Is Complicity & Defensiveness Is Endorsement
by: David Sirota
Mon Jan 10, 2011 at 13:30
I feel like I can't escape.
I have a lot of respect for David Sirota, even though his OpEds are not carried in my local fishwrap, and he's not heard on local radio. There is too much demand for RepugnanThuglican hate-spew here. I'm pretty sure that Limbaugh, and his ilk are on AM radio, and there's even some local stooge that I can't stand. Anyway, here's David:
I have a lot of respect for David Sirota, even though his OpEds are not carried in my local fishwrap, and he's not heard on local radio. There is too much demand for RepugnanThuglican hate-spew here. I'm pretty sure that Limbaugh, and his ilk are on AM radio, and there's even some local stooge that I can't stand. Anyway, here's David:
Silence Is Complicity & Defensiveness Is Endorsement
by: David Sirota
Mon Jan 10, 2011 at 13:30
Saturday, January 08, 2011
Gabrielle Giffords (D 8th AZ)
Arizona congresswoman among 12 shot at Tucson grocery
By the CNN Wire Staff
January 8, 2011 -- Updated 2005 GMT (0405 HKT)
Report: Tea Party Gifford's enemy, father says
By Peter Schroeder - 01/08/11 03:08 PM ET
By Peter Schroeder - 01/08/11 03:08 PM ET
Palin Uses Crosshairs To Identify Dems Who Voted For Health Care Reform
Jillian Rayfield | March 24, 2010, 5:47PM
Jillian Rayfield | March 24, 2010, 5:47PM
I know I am not the only who thinks that Sarah Palin needs to shut the fuck up and sit the fuck down. Her inflammatory rhetoric and grifter ways are not helping this country at all.
So she facebooked condolences, so fucking what? Her fans saw this map, but they probably are too stupid to read what the page said.
Updates on incident here
Updates on incident here
Friday, January 07, 2011
Call him what you will
But this documentary/interview is streaming on Netflix right now.
Collapse (II) (2009)
It's not fun stuff, but it makes sense to me. He mentions the Kübler-Ross model (stages of grief). I had him on my blogroll years ago.
Collapse (II) (2009)
It's not fun stuff, but it makes sense to me. He mentions the Kübler-Ross model (stages of grief). I had him on my blogroll years ago.
Thursday, January 06, 2011
Griftopia by Matt Taibbi
For those of us unschooled in the financial services sector and relatively unaware of it's stranglehold over our government, the US economy, and the manipulation of the world economy this book is gold. Taibbi's biting wit and ability to explain things in layman's terms makes this book a must read. His now famous quote from "The Great American Bubble Machine" article in Rolling Stone is a teaser for the book:
"The first thing you need to know about Goldman Sachs is that it's everywhere. The world's most powerful investment bank is a great vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity, relentlessly jamming its blood funnel into anything that smells like money. In fact, the history of the recent financial crisis, which doubles as a history of the rapid decline and fall of the suddenly swindled dry American empire, reads like a Who's Who of Goldman Sachs graduates."
Most importantly Taibbi gives us a history of the rules and regulations that the biggest players have shredded for their benefit and to the detriment of people all over the planet, just in the last 30 years. I nodded my head as I remembered my 4 days in a cubicle (fucking torture for me anyway) at a JP Morgan office that had me pulling the signature documents out of mortgage files so they could be scanned and put online. This was in 2006, and I had never seen mortgage documents before but something smelled rotten in Denmark to me. I KNEW what I was looking at didn't make any sense:
Shitholes sold at over-inflated prices to minorities with revolting balloon payment seconds. The unquestioning little hamsters on wheels that worked in this office did NOT want me learning anything, or even voicing my confusion. They thought I was stupid and incapable of learning what they wanted me to do. If any of those tools understood that I was questioning this all-mighty banking behemoth, they never let on, even after I snarled back at them that there weren't any rocket scientists in that place. They looked at me like I was a heretic when I questioned the intelligence of the person who wrote the fire-drill plan. The fires were bad here later that year, with multiple homes lost in the area very close to the place I was and I've often wondered about that.
So, moving on, Taibbi makes us aware of what was supposed to be a temporary law signed by FDR which is wreaking havoc in our healthcare system called the McCarran-Ferguson Act that exempts the business of insurance from most federal regulation, including federal anti-trust laws to a limited extent. The inablility to change that helped make the healthcare reform bill a joke.
So, moving on, Taibbi makes us aware of what was supposed to be a temporary law signed by FDR which is wreaking havoc in our healthcare system called the McCarran-Ferguson Act that exempts the business of insurance from most federal regulation, including federal anti-trust laws to a limited extent. The inablility to change that helped make the healthcare reform bill a joke.
The venality, criminality, and arrogance of the financial sector during the bail-outs is going to get worse. The revolving doors between government and business have only recieved some grease. Today's news is only another example:
Business Background Defines New Chief of Staff
The food riots in 2008 were caused by commodities traders and speculators and so were shitloads of other bubbles, including the housing bubble. They get in and manipulate the prices by injecting a bunch of money, running up the prices, getting their commissions and getting out before the crashes they create happen. I remember the Enron traders and how they made my electric bill double in one month, and the rolling black outs they caused and laughed at, so I hate those testosterone fueled pricks. I should have known it was them, but I wondered whether it was supply and demand.
Business Background Defines New Chief of Staff
The food riots in 2008 were caused by commodities traders and speculators and so were shitloads of other bubbles, including the housing bubble. They get in and manipulate the prices by injecting a bunch of money, running up the prices, getting their commissions and getting out before the crashes they create happen. I remember the Enron traders and how they made my electric bill double in one month, and the rolling black outs they caused and laughed at, so I hate those testosterone fueled pricks. I should have known it was them, but I wondered whether it was supply and demand.
The consolidation of banks makes me feel like I'm watching that old Pac-Man game.
Why Is The US Taxpayer Subsidizing Facebook – And The Next Bubble?
By Simon Johnson
Wednesday, January 05, 2011
John Boehner Rises To Role Of Speaker
A larger than normal gavel for a more corrupt than usual Congress. The Banksters and Corporate Boards around the world are popping the bubbly corks!
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost
Don't score drugs via cell phone anymore, eh?
Ruling lets California police search your phone without a warrant
By Amy Gahran, Special to CNN
January 5, 2011 3:02 p.m. EST | Filed under: Mobile
By Amy Gahran, Special to CNN
January 5, 2011 3:02 p.m. EST | Filed under: Mobile
"Sarah Lee"
Oh this is rich:
Wednesday, Jan. 5, 2011
US suspends military contractors in Afghanistan
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) - The United States Central Command says two contractors for the U.S. military in Afghanistan have had their contracting privileges suspended over allegations they failed to pay Afghan subcontractors.
Coalition forces said in a statement Wednesday that the suspension of Bennett-Fouch Associates and K5 Global could last 18 months while the case is being investigated. The companies could be barred from further contracts depending on the results of the investigation.
The statement said several Afghan companies had brought allegations against the two companies, both of which are owned by the same person, identified as an American woman named Sarah Lee.
It said that the failure of firms to pay local subcontractors "adversely affects counterinsurgency strategy."
2011-01-05 12:56:59 GMT
Wednesday, Jan. 5, 2011
US suspends military contractors in Afghanistan
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) - The United States Central Command says two contractors for the U.S. military in Afghanistan have had their contracting privileges suspended over allegations they failed to pay Afghan subcontractors.
Coalition forces said in a statement Wednesday that the suspension of Bennett-Fouch Associates and K5 Global could last 18 months while the case is being investigated. The companies could be barred from further contracts depending on the results of the investigation.
The statement said several Afghan companies had brought allegations against the two companies, both of which are owned by the same person, identified as an American woman named Sarah Lee.
It said that the failure of firms to pay local subcontractors "adversely affects counterinsurgency strategy."
2011-01-05 12:56:59 GMT
Monday, January 03, 2011
Bank Of America Sets Up WikiLeaks Defense Team
Isn't this rather like slamming the barn door after the animals have wandered off?
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost
Rove got Assange arrested?
hat tip to Gordon over at Alternate Brain
MONDAY, JANUARY 3, 2011
The Rove/Assange Story Hits the International Press in Sweden
Nyheter24
Ok, I'm gonna pout. I REALLY want to see this:
Haikuleaks.
MONDAY, JANUARY 3, 2011
The Rove/Assange Story Hits the International Press in Sweden
Nyheter24
Ok, I'm gonna pout. I REALLY want to see this:
Ok, done pouting. See? I cool off quick.
Soooooo, who's afraid of the big bad wikileaks wolf today?
Bank of America
Oh, no doubt that blowhard Issa will be embarrassed somewhere along the way.
The French Governemnt over the Boeing vs Airbus thingy.
Pesticide companies killing honeybees.
I know exactly why Julian Assange is a threat to the privelidged and powerful and their minions in governments. Nobody that vulnurable to falling very quickly into a pitchfork wielding mob at the bottom of the pyramid that holds them up wants to be exposed. And about 6 ¾ billion people on this fucking planet are about to pick up pitchforks.
Julian Assange is a hero for those of us interested in freedom of the press.
Bank of America
Oh, no doubt that blowhard Issa will be embarrassed somewhere along the way.
The French Governemnt over the Boeing vs Airbus thingy.
Pesticide companies killing honeybees.
I know exactly why Julian Assange is a threat to the privelidged and powerful and their minions in governments. Nobody that vulnurable to falling very quickly into a pitchfork wielding mob at the bottom of the pyramid that holds them up wants to be exposed. And about 6 ¾ billion people on this fucking planet are about to pick up pitchforks.
Julian Assange is a hero for those of us interested in freedom of the press.
Haikuleaks.
Need a job?
Dollar General will hire 6,000 for new stores
Yeaaaaaah, that'll pay the rent, or the house payment!
Holy fuckwad from hell, unregulated capitalism sucks ass. How do the asshole banksters who own all the empty homes sleep at night knowing they are responsible for the previous occupants being on the streets?
Yeaaaaaah, that'll pay the rent, or the house payment!
Holy fuckwad from hell, unregulated capitalism sucks ass. How do the asshole banksters who own all the empty homes sleep at night knowing they are responsible for the previous occupants being on the streets?
Sunday, January 02, 2011
Atlas Shrugged
Written by a quite insane speed freak who was born in the USSR who blamed the government for all of society's ills. The bitch was deluded by her own selfish sense of self-importance. I am convinced that people who love this book cannot see ANYTHING clearly or objectively even though Ayn Rand fans called themselves part of the "Objectivist movement." Because we all know how logical, well reasoned and objective speed freaks are, right?
Yeah, fucking idiots like Alan Greenspan (who is nothing but a tool for the very rich), are fans of Ayn Rand who called him a social climber. Hilarious since she was nothing but an apologist for the spoiled, selfish navel gazers who need tools like Greenspan in order to continue lying, cheating and stealing from people who actually work in order to remain spoiled, selfish navel gazers.
Now they are making a movie. How do you make a movie of an unreadable piece of dogshit that is over 1300 pages long?
Now they are making a movie. How do you make a movie of an unreadable piece of dogshit that is over 1300 pages long?
Nation Readers' Person of the Year
The Nation
December 30, 2010
"The response was strong and, interestingly, WilkiLeaks founder Assange was also our clear-cut winner because, as Lorna Singh pointed out, "we need to see how we were lied to," and, as Mike Pribula wrote, "he has reminded us about the importance of integrity in diplomacy and democratic ideals in our republic."
December 30, 2010
"The response was strong and, interestingly, WilkiLeaks founder Assange was also our clear-cut winner because, as Lorna Singh pointed out, "we need to see how we were lied to," and, as Mike Pribula wrote, "he has reminded us about the importance of integrity in diplomacy and democratic ideals in our republic."
Which of the Six Big 6 Banking Houses Was the Most Shameless Corporate Outlaw?
Alternet, RJ Eskow.
"...They're offended because they didn't meet with the president? From the looks of things they're lucky not to be meeting with the warden..."
"...They're offended because they didn't meet with the president? From the looks of things they're lucky not to be meeting with the warden..."
Income inequality and chutzpah
Why Inequality Matters
January 1, 2011
Higher Taxes on Top 1% Equals Higher Productivity
Michael Hudson: History of US shows economy grows when top tier tax rates and workers' wages are high
"...Nicholas Kristof of The New York Times provides these grim statistics: “C.E.O.’s of the largest American companies earned an average of 42 times as much as the average worker in 1980, but 531 times as much in 2001. Perhaps the most astounding statistic is this: From 1980 to 2005, more than four-fifths of the total increase in American incomes went to the richest 1 percent.” (November 6, 2010)..."
Michael Barone is an idiot and a tool. Read this nonsense and laugh.
Ezra Klein says basically Oooh, deficit is bad and infrastructure is crumbling, but:
"...Here's the good news: Infrastructure investment is the best deal in the economy right now. Government borrowing costs are lower than they've been since the 1950s. Unemployment in the construction sector is above 15 percent, which means companies are desperate for work and bids to complete projects are coming in low. A weak global economy means cheap raw materials. Bottom line? These investments are more affordable now than they're likely to be in a few years. We'd be foolish to miss this opportunity..."
Right. Remember when taxes were our way of investing in the infrastructure and in America?
January 1, 2011
Higher Taxes on Top 1% Equals Higher Productivity
Michael Hudson: History of US shows economy grows when top tier tax rates and workers' wages are high
"...Nicholas Kristof of The New York Times provides these grim statistics: “C.E.O.’s of the largest American companies earned an average of 42 times as much as the average worker in 1980, but 531 times as much in 2001. Perhaps the most astounding statistic is this: From 1980 to 2005, more than four-fifths of the total increase in American incomes went to the richest 1 percent.” (November 6, 2010)..."
Michael Barone is an idiot and a tool. Read this nonsense and laugh.
Ezra Klein says basically Oooh, deficit is bad and infrastructure is crumbling, but:
"...Here's the good news: Infrastructure investment is the best deal in the economy right now. Government borrowing costs are lower than they've been since the 1950s. Unemployment in the construction sector is above 15 percent, which means companies are desperate for work and bids to complete projects are coming in low. A weak global economy means cheap raw materials. Bottom line? These investments are more affordable now than they're likely to be in a few years. We'd be foolish to miss this opportunity..."
Right. Remember when taxes were our way of investing in the infrastructure and in America?
Fuggedaboutit. Unless you are some Goldman Sachs punk selling US infrastructure revenue to some sheik in Abu Dhabi so he has some place to park his oil profits and watch them grow you don't matter.
It's a brave new world for those with enough chutzpah. Yes, I said chutzpah, and since I lived some of my early life in a working class Jewish neighborhood, I don't mean the "good" kind. I mean the kind that would sell your mother if it might make a profit. Or keep some crooked politician in office.
I'm almost finished reading Taibbi's Griftopia. It's disturbing, the class war exposé.
Danny Schechter and Matt Taibbi speak.
It's a brave new world for those with enough chutzpah. Yes, I said chutzpah, and since I lived some of my early life in a working class Jewish neighborhood, I don't mean the "good" kind. I mean the kind that would sell your mother if it might make a profit. Or keep some crooked politician in office.
I'm almost finished reading Taibbi's Griftopia. It's disturbing, the class war exposé.
Danny Schechter and Matt Taibbi speak.
Friday, December 31, 2010
America's Tienanmen and Blogger of the Year 2010
We will continue using the internet and blogging until the danged internet service providers figure out a way to slow down the loading of our sites, and speed up the loading of their preferred sites. They are working on it, and the way the regulatory agencies (the FCC in this case) are busy handing out concession
http://www
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost
Happy New Year
Project Censored Top 10 Stories. (not all of the top 25 Project Censored. stories happened in 2010, but they're the ones that were chosen for the 2010 book)
1. US Congress Sells Out to Wall Street
2. US Schools are More Segregated Today than in the 1950s
3. Toxic Waste Behind Somali Pirates
4. Nuclear Waste Pools in North Carolina
5. Europe Blocks US Toxic Products
6. Lobbyists Buy Congress
7. Obama’s Military Appointments Have Corrupt Past
8. Bailed out Banks and America’s Wealthiest Cheat IRS Out of Billions
9. US Arms Used for War Crimes in Gaza
10. Ecuador Declares Foreign Debt Illegitimate
Tweet
LA rebel artists defy attempts at censorship
Wednesday, December 29, 2010
Study: Conservatives have larger ‘fear center’ in brain
By Daniel Tencer
Tuesday, December 28th, 2010 -- 5:43 pm
"...At the same time, conservatives' brains were also found to have a smaller anterior cingulate -- the part of the brain responsible for courage and optimism..."
Yeesh, tell me something I don't know. I was raised by the idiots.
Tuesday, December 28th, 2010 -- 5:43 pm
"...At the same time, conservatives' brains were also found to have a smaller anterior cingulate -- the part of the brain responsible for courage and optimism..."
Yeesh, tell me something I don't know. I was raised by the idiots.
Tuesday, December 28, 2010
Rape rampant in US military
Statistics and soldiers' testimonies reveal a harrowing epidemic of sexual assault in the US military.
Dahr Jamail Last Modified: 21 Dec 2010 13:22 GMT
Sexual assault within the ranks of the military is not a new problem. It is a systemic problem that has necessitated that the military conduct its own annual reporting on the crisis.
A 2003 Air Force Academy sexual assault scandal prompted the department of defense to include a provision in the 2004 National Defense Authorization Act that required investigations and reports of sexual harassment and assaults within US military academies to be filed. The personal toll is, nevertheless, devastating.
Military sexual trauma (MST) survivor Susan Avila-Smith is director of the veteran’s advocacy group Women Organizing Women. She has been serving female and scores of male clients in various stages of recovery from MST for 15 years and knows of its devastating effects up close.
“People cannot conceive how badly wounded these people are,” she told Al Jazeera, “Of the 3,000 I’ve worked with, only one is employed. Combat trauma is bad enough, but with MST it’s not the enemy, it’s our guys who are doing it. You’re fighting your friends, your peers, people you’ve been told have your back. That betrayal, then the betrayal from the command is, they say, worse than the sexual assault itself.”
On December 13, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and other groups filed a federal lawsuit seeking Pentagon records in order to get the real facts about the incidence of sexual assault in the ranks.
The Pentagon has consistently refused to release records that fully document the problem and how it is handled. Sexual assaults on women in the US military have claimed some degree of visibility, but about male victims there is absolute silence.
Pack Parachute, a non-profit in Seattle, assists veterans who are sexual assault survivors. Its founder Kira Mountjoy-Pepka, was raped as a cadet at the Air Force Academy. In July 2003 she was member of a team of female cadets handpicked by Donald Rumsfeld, at the time the secretary of defense, to tell their stories of having been sexually assaulted. The ensuing media coverage and a Pentagon investigation forced the academy to make the aforementioned major policy changes.
Report reveals alarming statistics
Mountjoy-Pepka often works with male survivors of MST. She stated in a telephone interview that four per cent of men in the military experience MST. “Most choose not to talk about it until after their discharge from the military, largely because the post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in over 60 percent of MST cases is too overwhelming,” she informed Al Jazeera.
Last week the Pentagon released its “annual report on sexual harassment and violence at the military service academies”. At its three academies, the number of reports of sexual assault and harassment has risen a staggering 64 percent from last year.
The report attributes the huge increase to better reporting of incidents due to increased training and education about sexual assault and harassment. Veteran’s Administration (VA) statistics show that more than 50 percent of the veterans who screen positive for MST are men.
According to the US Census Bureau, there are roughly 22 million male veterans compared to less than two million female vets.
In Congressional testimony in the summer of 2008, Lt. Gen. Rochelle, the army chief of personnel, reported the little known statistic that 12 percent (approximately 260) of the 2,200 reported rapes in the military in 2007 were reported by military male victims.
Due to their sheer numbers in the military, more men (at a rough estimate one in twenty), have experienced MST than women.
Shamed into silence
Billy Capshaw was 17 when he joined the Army in 1977. After being trained as a medic he was transferred to Baumholder, Germany. His roommate, Jeffrey Dahmer, by virtue of his seniority ensured that Capshaw had no formal assignment, no mail, and no pay. Having completely isolated the young medic, Dahmer regularly sexually assaulted, raped, and tortured him.
Dahmer went on to become the infamous serial killer and sex offender who murdered 17 boys and men before being beaten to death by an inmate at Columbia Correction Institution in 1994.
Capshaw reflects back, “At that young age I didn’t know how to deal with it. My commander did not believe me. Nobody helped me, even though I begged and begged and begged.”
The debilitating lifelong struggle Capshaw has had to face is common among survivors of military sexual assault.
Later during therapy he needed to go public. Since then he says, “I’ve talked to a lot of men, many of them soldiers, who are raped but who won’t go public with their story. The shame alone is overwhelming.”
In 1985 Michael Warren enlisted in the navy and for three years worked as a submarine machinist mate on a nuclear submarine. One day he awoke to find another soldier performing fellatio on him.
He recollects with horror, “I was paralyzed with fear. I was in disbelief... shame. When I reported it to the commander he said it was better for me to deal with it after being discharged. Nobody helped me, not even the chaplain. The commander at the processing centre wouldn’t look me in the face. When I filled out my claim later they didn’t believe me. It’s so frustrating.”
Armando Javier was an active duty Marine from 1990 to 1994. He was a Lance Corporal at Camp Lejeune in 1993 when he was raped.
Five Marines jumped Javier and beat him until he was nearly unconscious, before taking turns raping him. His sexual victimization narrative reads, “One of them, a corporal, pulled down my shorts and instructed the others to ‘Get the grease’. Another corporal instructed someone to bring the stick. They began to insert the stick inside my anus. The people present during this sadistic and ritual-like ceremony started to cajole, cheer, and laugh, saying “stick em’ – stick-em’.”
Extreme shame and trauma compelled him not to disclose the crime to anyone except a friend in his unit. He wrote in his account, “My experience left me torn apart physically, mentally, and spiritually. I was dehumanized and treated with ultimate cruelty, by my perpetrators… I was embarrassed and ashamed and didn’t know what to do. I was young at that time. And being part of an elite organization that values brotherhood, integrity and faithfulness made it hard to come forward and reveal what happened.”
The reality of being less equal
Women in America were first allowed into the military during the Revolutionary War in 1775 and their travails are as old. Drill instructors indoctrinate new recruits into it at the outset by routinely referring to them as “girl,” “pussy,” “bitch,” and “dyke.”
A Command Sergeant Major told Catherine Jayne West of the Mississippi National Guard, “There aren’t but two places for women - in the kitchen or in the bedroom. Women have no place in the military.”
She was raped by fellow soldier Private First Class Kevin Lemeiux, at the sprawling Camp Anaconda, north of Baghdad. The defense lawyer in court merely wanted to know why, as a member of the army, she had not fought back.
The morning after the rape, an army doctor gave her a thorough examination. The army’s criminal investigation team concluded her story was true. Moreover, Lemeiux had bragged about the incident to his buddies and they had turned him in. It seemed like a closed case, but in court the defense claimed that the fact that West had not fought back during the rape was what incriminated her. In addition, her commanding officer and 1st Sergeant declared, in court, that she was a “promiscuous female.”
In contrast, Lemeiux, after the third court hearing of the trial, was promoted to a Specialist. Meanwhile his lawyer entered a plea of insanity.
He was later found guilty of kidnapping but not rape, despite his own admission of the crime. He was given three years for kidnapping, half of which was knocked off.
The long term affects of MST
Jasmine Black, a human resources specialist in the Army National Guard from June 2006 to September 2008 was raped by another soldier in her battalion when she was stationed in Fort Jackson, South Carolina. She reported it to her Sexual Assault Response Coordinator (SARC) and the Military Police, but the culprit was not brought to book.
After an early discharge due to MST and treatment at a PTSD Residential Rehabilitation Treatment Program (PRRTP) facility, she was raped again by a higher-ranking member of the air force in February 2009.
Administrator for a combat engineering instruction unit in Knoxville, Tennessee, Tracey Harmon has no illusions. “For women in the military, you are either a bitch, a dyke, or a whore. If you sleep with one person in your unit you are a whore. If you are a lesbian you are a dyke, and if you don’t sleep with other soldiers you are a bitch.”
Maricela Guzman served in the navy from 1998 to 2002 as a computer technician on the island of Diego Garcia. She was raped while in boot camp, but fear of consequences kept her from talking about it for the rest of her time in the military. “I survived by becoming a workaholic and was much awarded as a soldier for my work ethic.”
On witnessing the way it treated the native population in Diego Garcia, she chose to dissociate from the military. Post discharge, her life became unmanageable. She underwent a divorce, survived a failed suicide attempt and became homeless before deciding to move in with her parents. A chance encounter with a female veteran at a political event in Los Angeles prompted her to contact the VA for help. Her therapist there diagnosed her with PTSD from her rape.
The VA denied her claim nevertheless, “Because they said I couldn’t prove it … since I had not brought it up when it happened and also because I had not shown any deviant behavior while in the service. I was outraged and felt compelled to talk about what happened.”
While it will go to any length to maintain public silence over the issue, the military machine has no such qualms within its own corridors. Guzman discloses, “Through the gossip mill we would hear of women who had reported being raped. No confidentiality was maintained nor any protection given to victims. The boys’ club culture is strong and the competition exclusive. That forces many not to report rape, because it is a blemish and can ruin your career.”
The department of defence reported that in fiscal year 2009, there were 3,230 reports of sexual assault, an increase of 11 percent over the prior year.
However, as high as the military’s own figures are of rape and sexual assault, victims and advocates Al Jazeera spoke with believe the real figures are sure to be higher.
Veteran April Fitzsimmons, another victim of sexual assault, knows what an uphill battle it is for women to take on the military system. “When victims come forward, they are ostracized and isolated from their communities. Many of the perpetrators are officers who use their ranks to coerce women to sleep with them. It’s a closely interwoven community, so they are safe and move fearlessly amongst their victims.”
Her advice to women considering joining the US military?
“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.”
This is the first in a two part series on sexual harassment in the US military. The second part in the series will be published in the coming week.
Research support was provided by the Investigative Fund at The Nation Institute.
Dahr Jamail Last Modified: 21 Dec 2010 13:22 GMT
Sexual assault within the ranks of the military is not a new problem. It is a systemic problem that has necessitated that the military conduct its own annual reporting on the crisis.
A 2003 Air Force Academy sexual assault scandal prompted the department of defense to include a provision in the 2004 National Defense Authorization Act that required investigations and reports of sexual harassment and assaults within US military academies to be filed. The personal toll is, nevertheless, devastating.
Military sexual trauma (MST) survivor Susan Avila-Smith is director of the veteran’s advocacy group Women Organizing Women. She has been serving female and scores of male clients in various stages of recovery from MST for 15 years and knows of its devastating effects up close.
“People cannot conceive how badly wounded these people are,” she told Al Jazeera, “Of the 3,000 I’ve worked with, only one is employed. Combat trauma is bad enough, but with MST it’s not the enemy, it’s our guys who are doing it. You’re fighting your friends, your peers, people you’ve been told have your back. That betrayal, then the betrayal from the command is, they say, worse than the sexual assault itself.”
On December 13, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and other groups filed a federal lawsuit seeking Pentagon records in order to get the real facts about the incidence of sexual assault in the ranks.
The Pentagon has consistently refused to release records that fully document the problem and how it is handled. Sexual assaults on women in the US military have claimed some degree of visibility, but about male victims there is absolute silence.
Pack Parachute, a non-profit in Seattle, assists veterans who are sexual assault survivors. Its founder Kira Mountjoy-Pepka, was raped as a cadet at the Air Force Academy. In July 2003 she was member of a team of female cadets handpicked by Donald Rumsfeld, at the time the secretary of defense, to tell their stories of having been sexually assaulted. The ensuing media coverage and a Pentagon investigation forced the academy to make the aforementioned major policy changes.
Report reveals alarming statistics
Mountjoy-Pepka often works with male survivors of MST. She stated in a telephone interview that four per cent of men in the military experience MST. “Most choose not to talk about it until after their discharge from the military, largely because the post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in over 60 percent of MST cases is too overwhelming,” she informed Al Jazeera.
Last week the Pentagon released its “annual report on sexual harassment and violence at the military service academies”. At its three academies, the number of reports of sexual assault and harassment has risen a staggering 64 percent from last year.
The report attributes the huge increase to better reporting of incidents due to increased training and education about sexual assault and harassment. Veteran’s Administration (VA) statistics show that more than 50 percent of the veterans who screen positive for MST are men.
According to the US Census Bureau, there are roughly 22 million male veterans compared to less than two million female vets.
In Congressional testimony in the summer of 2008, Lt. Gen. Rochelle, the army chief of personnel, reported the little known statistic that 12 percent (approximately 260) of the 2,200 reported rapes in the military in 2007 were reported by military male victims.
Due to their sheer numbers in the military, more men (at a rough estimate one in twenty), have experienced MST than women.
Shamed into silence
Billy Capshaw was 17 when he joined the Army in 1977. After being trained as a medic he was transferred to Baumholder, Germany. His roommate, Jeffrey Dahmer, by virtue of his seniority ensured that Capshaw had no formal assignment, no mail, and no pay. Having completely isolated the young medic, Dahmer regularly sexually assaulted, raped, and tortured him.
Dahmer went on to become the infamous serial killer and sex offender who murdered 17 boys and men before being beaten to death by an inmate at Columbia Correction Institution in 1994.
Capshaw reflects back, “At that young age I didn’t know how to deal with it. My commander did not believe me. Nobody helped me, even though I begged and begged and begged.”
The debilitating lifelong struggle Capshaw has had to face is common among survivors of military sexual assault.
Later during therapy he needed to go public. Since then he says, “I’ve talked to a lot of men, many of them soldiers, who are raped but who won’t go public with their story. The shame alone is overwhelming.”
In 1985 Michael Warren enlisted in the navy and for three years worked as a submarine machinist mate on a nuclear submarine. One day he awoke to find another soldier performing fellatio on him.
He recollects with horror, “I was paralyzed with fear. I was in disbelief... shame. When I reported it to the commander he said it was better for me to deal with it after being discharged. Nobody helped me, not even the chaplain. The commander at the processing centre wouldn’t look me in the face. When I filled out my claim later they didn’t believe me. It’s so frustrating.”
Armando Javier was an active duty Marine from 1990 to 1994. He was a Lance Corporal at Camp Lejeune in 1993 when he was raped.
Five Marines jumped Javier and beat him until he was nearly unconscious, before taking turns raping him. His sexual victimization narrative reads, “One of them, a corporal, pulled down my shorts and instructed the others to ‘Get the grease’. Another corporal instructed someone to bring the stick. They began to insert the stick inside my anus. The people present during this sadistic and ritual-like ceremony started to cajole, cheer, and laugh, saying “stick em’ – stick-em’.”
Extreme shame and trauma compelled him not to disclose the crime to anyone except a friend in his unit. He wrote in his account, “My experience left me torn apart physically, mentally, and spiritually. I was dehumanized and treated with ultimate cruelty, by my perpetrators… I was embarrassed and ashamed and didn’t know what to do. I was young at that time. And being part of an elite organization that values brotherhood, integrity and faithfulness made it hard to come forward and reveal what happened.”
The reality of being less equal
Women in America were first allowed into the military during the Revolutionary War in 1775 and their travails are as old. Drill instructors indoctrinate new recruits into it at the outset by routinely referring to them as “girl,” “pussy,” “bitch,” and “dyke.”
A Command Sergeant Major told Catherine Jayne West of the Mississippi National Guard, “There aren’t but two places for women - in the kitchen or in the bedroom. Women have no place in the military.”
She was raped by fellow soldier Private First Class Kevin Lemeiux, at the sprawling Camp Anaconda, north of Baghdad. The defense lawyer in court merely wanted to know why, as a member of the army, she had not fought back.
The morning after the rape, an army doctor gave her a thorough examination. The army’s criminal investigation team concluded her story was true. Moreover, Lemeiux had bragged about the incident to his buddies and they had turned him in. It seemed like a closed case, but in court the defense claimed that the fact that West had not fought back during the rape was what incriminated her. In addition, her commanding officer and 1st Sergeant declared, in court, that she was a “promiscuous female.”
In contrast, Lemeiux, after the third court hearing of the trial, was promoted to a Specialist. Meanwhile his lawyer entered a plea of insanity.
He was later found guilty of kidnapping but not rape, despite his own admission of the crime. He was given three years for kidnapping, half of which was knocked off.
The long term affects of MST
Jasmine Black, a human resources specialist in the Army National Guard from June 2006 to September 2008 was raped by another soldier in her battalion when she was stationed in Fort Jackson, South Carolina. She reported it to her Sexual Assault Response Coordinator (SARC) and the Military Police, but the culprit was not brought to book.
After an early discharge due to MST and treatment at a PTSD Residential Rehabilitation Treatment Program (PRRTP) facility, she was raped again by a higher-ranking member of the air force in February 2009.
Administrator for a combat engineering instruction unit in Knoxville, Tennessee, Tracey Harmon has no illusions. “For women in the military, you are either a bitch, a dyke, or a whore. If you sleep with one person in your unit you are a whore. If you are a lesbian you are a dyke, and if you don’t sleep with other soldiers you are a bitch.”
Maricela Guzman served in the navy from 1998 to 2002 as a computer technician on the island of Diego Garcia. She was raped while in boot camp, but fear of consequences kept her from talking about it for the rest of her time in the military. “I survived by becoming a workaholic and was much awarded as a soldier for my work ethic.”
On witnessing the way it treated the native population in Diego Garcia, she chose to dissociate from the military. Post discharge, her life became unmanageable. She underwent a divorce, survived a failed suicide attempt and became homeless before deciding to move in with her parents. A chance encounter with a female veteran at a political event in Los Angeles prompted her to contact the VA for help. Her therapist there diagnosed her with PTSD from her rape.
The VA denied her claim nevertheless, “Because they said I couldn’t prove it … since I had not brought it up when it happened and also because I had not shown any deviant behavior while in the service. I was outraged and felt compelled to talk about what happened.”
While it will go to any length to maintain public silence over the issue, the military machine has no such qualms within its own corridors. Guzman discloses, “Through the gossip mill we would hear of women who had reported being raped. No confidentiality was maintained nor any protection given to victims. The boys’ club culture is strong and the competition exclusive. That forces many not to report rape, because it is a blemish and can ruin your career.”
The department of defence reported that in fiscal year 2009, there were 3,230 reports of sexual assault, an increase of 11 percent over the prior year.
However, as high as the military’s own figures are of rape and sexual assault, victims and advocates Al Jazeera spoke with believe the real figures are sure to be higher.
Veteran April Fitzsimmons, another victim of sexual assault, knows what an uphill battle it is for women to take on the military system. “When victims come forward, they are ostracized and isolated from their communities. Many of the perpetrators are officers who use their ranks to coerce women to sleep with them. It’s a closely interwoven community, so they are safe and move fearlessly amongst their victims.”
Her advice to women considering joining the US military?
“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.”
This is the first in a two part series on sexual harassment in the US military. The second part in the series will be published in the coming week.
Research support was provided by the Investigative Fund at The Nation Institute.
Monday, December 27, 2010
Karzai Releasing Scores Of Drug Traffickers In Afghanistan, WikiLeaks Cables Show
Do you really think that big natural gas and big mining interests give a sh*t whether dope dealers are caught?
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost
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