Julian Assange Extradition Granted. Well It Would Be Wouldn't It

Kicking the establishment in the bollocks was never going to be forgiven. If I were you old lad, I'd be seriously thinking of being away on me toes, tag or no tag. The writing is on the wall, just the two words, Julian Assange.

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange to be extradited to Sweden

WIKILEAKS founder Julian Assange will be extradited to Sweden to face sexual assault charges, a British judge has ruled.

The silver-haired Australian sat in the dock of the Belmarsh Magistrates Court in southeast London showing no emotion as Judge Howard Riddle read: "I must order that Mr Assange is extradited to Sweden".

"I have specifically considered whether the physical or mental condition of the defendant is such that it would be unjust or oppressive to extradite him," Judge Riddle said.

"In fact, I am satisfied that extradition is compatible with the defendant's convention rights. I must order that Mr Assange be extradited to Sweden."

He added that Mr Assange had seven days to lodge an appeal the against the decision.

"Clear and specific allegations have been made against Mr Assange in Sweden," Judge Riddle said, adding that it was reasonable for authorities to request he be in Stockholm for questioning.

The allegations against Mr Assange include three counts of sexual assault and one of rape, against two women on two separate occasions in August 2010.

Judge Riddle recounted details of the women's claims: that in one case Assange "deliberately molested the injured party by acting in a manner designed to violate her sexual integrity".

His actions allegedly included holding her arms, forcing apart her legs and putting his body weight on top of her to prevent her movement, later rubbing his penis against her naked body.

The allegation involving the second woman is that Mr Assange had unprotected sex with a woman who was sleeping, knowing she would not consent to unprotected sex and therefore constituting rape.

Judge Riddle rejected arguments by Mr Assange's lawyers that the Swedish prosecutor in charge of the investigation was not authorised to order the extradition and had made a mistake.

"Here, there is simply no reason to believe there has been a mistake," he said.

"The prosecution has been meticulous and left no stone unturned."

The court continues to discuss Mr Assange's bail status.

Since December 14, his conditional bail has required he live at an English country estate and report daily to police.

Geoffrey Robertson QC, representing Mr Assange, said there were some difficulties if bail were to be continued in its current form, including the electronic "bracelet" that his client is required to wear to monitor his whereabouts.

"You know what the problem is: that it does restrict his exercise. He can't run, for example," Mr Robertson told the court.

"The electronic tag does, for example, make it difficult to run."

Without having made a formal decision on bail, Judge Riddle said the current measures were necessary.

"There is a need for the authorities to know where somebody is on a daily basis," he said.

Dressed in a dark grey suit with red tie, Mr Assange held a notebook and pen throughout last night's ruling but wrote down little.

Earlier, he strode confidently pass waiting media and into the court complex, smiling and chatting with his legal representatives.

The smile was nowhere to be seen after Judge Riddle's ruling, with Assange clasping his hands and shifting in his seat.

Mr Assange sparked controversy when he published hundreds of thousands of leaked US diplomatic cables on WikiLeaks.

He has said his real fear was Sweden delivering him to US authorities.heraldsun.au

Julian Assange a Possible Maybe Perhaps?

Which makes me somewhat reluctant to offer it up, but what the hell.

WikiLeaks' Assange 'very likely' to lose extradition fight

Barrister pokes ahead of Thursday's hearing

An expert in UK extradition law says it's “very likely” that WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange will lose his battle against extradition to Sweden, where he's wanted for questioning in an investigation into rape and sexual assault allegations.

Julian Knowles, a barrister for law firm Matrix Chambers and the author of books on extradition, told BBC Radio that the legal and factual bases underpinning Assange's defense during three days of extradition hearings in London earlier this month weren't persuasive. As a result, Chief Magistrate Judge Howard Riddle, who is scheduled to deliver his judgment on Thursday, is likely to rule in favor of Swedish prosecutors seeking Assange's extradition, he said.


“From what I read and heard about the Assange extradition hearing, I think it's very likely that the Swedish prosecutor will prevail and extradition will be ordered by the senior district judge,” Knowles said during an interview on BBC Radio's Law in Action program. “In a nutshell, the two preliminary arguments that the defense are running are (one) the prosecutor has no power to issue the warrants and (two) that Mr Assange is only really wanted for questioning and isn't really wanted for trial and you have to be wanted for trial in order to be properly extradited.”

Knowles went on to say: “There is no doubt that a Swedish prosecutor does have the power to issue warrants.” He also said that the Swedish prosecutor handling the case “has made clear that Mr Assange is wanted for trial if he goes back. Unless he can demonstrate his innocence ahead of trial, he will be tried.”

Knowles shot down other claims made by Assange's legal team, including the argument that the alleged behavior being investigated, even if true, didn't amount to extradition offenses. Allegations leveled by one of Assange's accusers involve the use of force and would “obviously” constitute sexual assault if tried in the UK.more

Wikileaks opens online store in attempt to raise funds.

Libya,The One With The Oil, That Libya Fidel?

Hey up! Castro's up, and he has a few words to say about the Revolution, the Yankees, and the Seven Ten.



Sorry, upside down. the Oil.

Fidel Castro: The NATO Plan is to Occupy Libya

Cuban Revolution leader Fidel Castro said that the government of the United States is not in the least worried about peace in Libya and it will not hesitate in giving NATO the order to invade that rich country, perhaps in a matter of hours or a few short days. Concerning al-Gaddafi he expressed: "I cannot imagine that the Libyan leader would abandon his country".

THE NATO PLAN IS TO OCCUPY LIBYA

Oil has become the principal wealth in the hands of the great Yankee transnationals; through this energy source they had an instrument that considerably expanded their political power in the world. It was their main weapon when they decided to easily liquidate the Cuban Revolution as soon as the first just and sovereign laws were passed in our Homeland: depriving it of oil.

Upon this energy source today’s civilization was developed. Venezuela was the nation in this hemisphere that paid the highest price. The United States became the lord and master of the huge oil fields that Mother Nature had bestowed upon that sister country.

At the end of the last World War, it started to extract greater amounts of oil from the oil fields of Iran, as well as those in Saudi Arabia, Iraq and the Arab countries located around them. These became the main suppliers. World consumption progressively increased to the fabulous figure of approximately 80 million barrels a day, including those being extracted on United States territory, to which later gas, hydro and nuclear energies were added. Until the beginning of the twentieth century, coal had been the basic source of energy that made industrial development possible, before billions of automobiles and engines consuming the liquid fuel were produced.

The squandering of oil and gas is associated with one of the greatest tragedies, not in the least resolved, which is suffered by humankind: climate change.

When our Revolution arose, Algeria, Libya and Egypt were not yet oil producers and a great part of the abundant reserves of Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Iran and the United Arab Emirates were still to be discovered.

In December of 1951, Libya becomes the first African country to attain its independence after WW II, during which its territory was the stage for important battles between the troops of Germany and the United Kingdom, conferring fame and glory on Generals Erwin Rommel and Bernard L. Montgomery.




Ninety-five percent of its territory is completely made up of desert. Technology permitted the discovery of vital oilfields of excellent quality light oil that today reach one million 800 thousand barrels a day along with abundant deposits of natural gas. Such riches allowed it to reach life expectancy that is almost at 75 years of age and the highest per capita income in Africa. Its harsh desert is located over an enormous lake of fossil waters, equivalent to more than three times the land area of Cuba; this has made it possible to construct a broad network of pipelines of fresh water that stretch from one end of the country to the other.

Libya, which had a million inhabitants when it attained independence, today has somewhat more than 6 million.

The Libyan Revolution took place in the month of September of the year 1969. Its main leader was Muammar al-Gaddafi, a soldier of Bedouin origin who, in his early years, was inspired by the ideas of the Egyptian leader Gamal Abdel Nasser. Without any doubt, many of his decisions are associated with the changes that were produced when, as in Egypt, a weak and corrupt monarchy was overthrown in Libya.

The inhabitants of that country have age-old warrior traditions. It is said that ancient Libyans were a part of Hannibal’s army when he was at the point of destroying Ancient Rome with the troops that crossed the Alps.

One can agree with Gaddafi or not. The world has been invaded with all kinds of news, especially using the mass media. One has to wait the necessary length of time in order to learn precisely what is the truth and what are lies, or a mixture of events of every kind that, in the midst of chaos, were produced in Libya. For me, what is absolutely clear is that the government of the United States is not in the least worried about peace in Libya and it will not hesitate in giving NATO the order to invade that rich country, perhaps in a matter of hours or a few short days.

Those who with perfidious intentions invented the lie that Gaddafi was headed for Venezuela, just as they did yesterday afternoon on Sunday the 20th of February, today received an fitting response from Foreign Affairs Minister Nicolás Maduro when he literally stated that he was “wishing that the Libyan people would find, in the exercise of their sovereignty, a peaceful solution to their difficulties, that would preserve the integrity of the Libyan people and nation, without the interference of imperialism...”

As for me, I cannot imagine that the Libyan leader would abandon his country; escaping the responsibilities he is charged with, whether or not they are partially or totally false.

An honest person shall always be against any injustice being committed against any people in the world, and the worst of all, at this moment, would be to remain silent in the face of the crime that NATO is getting ready to commit against the Libyan people.

The leadership of that war-mongering organization has to do it. We must condemn it!


Fidel Castro Ruz

February 21, 2011
Escambray

Thought For Today: Not Made In Japan

In all my years on this planet, today when shopping online for a new monitor, was the first time I consciously made country of origin; not Japanese, a prerequisite in my considerations.

Ain't that so Teddy?

Paul Watson: To Stand With You Sir, The Honour Is Completely Mine

And ain't it just, Captain Paul Wilson, a remarkable human being.

If I could have found a photo of you from taken from behind, or if I had a similar one of Teddy, you would Captain Sir Paul Watson by now. But alas, both are like the proverbial rocking horse whatsit, so you'll have to wait until Betty gives you one, good heavens man you deserving enough. Not that I suppose you would be over impressed with such a gong I'm sure; but there you go.

Upped on this blog because I have just upped a post on t'other one and I would like it to stay on the front page for a spell.



This is the accompanying video.

Dear Teddy,

We did it! This week, we drove the entire Japanese whaling fleet from the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary. They are on their way home!

But we did not do it alone. We did it with you! Sea Shepherd is more than the ships and crew that operate them.

Yes, the crew is important - men and women from around the world from all walks of life who volunteer their time and skills and risk their lives to defend life in the seas. They are, of course, a very important reason for the success of our missions. They are the people who directly confront the killers on the high seas. It is their passion that makes Sea Shepherd all that we can be.
video thanks from captain watson

The crew on the ships could not function without our onshore crew, who make up our office staff and our many shore-based volunteers. Our onshore crewmembers are in a very real sense just as important as those who go to sea. They make budgets, answer phones, process donations, conduct legal research, respond to media inquiries, create merchandise, organize benefits like bake sales and art auctions, man information tables, prepare the ships in port, solicit donations of food and services for the ships--and so much more.

But, the foundation of what we are and what we do lies firmly upon the shoulders of our supporters from all around the world. Your financial backing puts the resources into our hands that feed our crew, put gas in the tank and paint on our hull, keep our engines running, and our safety and navigational requirements in tip top shape.

It is this trinity of sea crew, onshore crew, and financial support crew that keeps Sea Shepherd at sea and keeps the harpoons away from the whales, the clubs away from the seals, the longlines and driftnets away from the fish, turtles, and sharks, and the knives away from the dolphins.

Sea Shepherd is all of us who care about our oceans and are willing to stand up and ACT, in whatever way we are able, in defense of the wondrous diversity of life in our fragile oceans.

We are all Shepherds of the Sea and those who are not should be, because the stark reality is that if our oceans die, we die! Together we fight not just for the whales, sharks, seals, sea-birds, turtles, and fish, together we fight for our own survival.

Together we are a force for good, a force for change, a force for ecological sanity, and a force to be reckoned with!

We will be honored if you would continue to stand with us as we imminently face battles on other fronts - bluefin tuna overfishing in the Mediterranean, pilot whale slaughter in the Faeroes, dolphin killing in Taiji, poaching in the Galapagos, and more.

To all the Shepherds of the Sea that made it possible for us to drive the whale killers from the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary, I think I can speak for all the citizens of the sea in saying "Thank-you."

For the oceans,
Captain Paul Watson

Captain Paul Watson

Founder and President

• Click here to make a donation
• Click here to read about the whalers leaving the Southern Oceans.

See comments.

Well What Did You Expect? Wearing a T-Shirt AND Turning Your Back

Stood there quietly, I don't know, you should have been more vocal, it was after all, an address on free speech that Clinton was giving.

At Clinton Speech: Veteran Bloodied, Bruised
and Arrested for Standing Silently

As Secretary of State Hillary Clinton gave her speech at George Washington University yesterday condemning governments that arrest protestors and do not allow free expression, 71-year-old Ray McGovern was grabbed from the audience in plain view of her by police and an unidentified official in plain clothes, brutalized and left bleeding in jail. She never paused speaking. When Secretary Clinton began her speech, Mr. McGovern remained standing silently in the audience and turned his back. Mr. McGovern, a veteran Army officer who also worked as a C.I.A. analyst for 27 years, was wearing a Veterans for Peace t-shirt.

Blind-sided by security officers who pounced upon him, Mr. McGovern remarked, as he was hauled out the door, "So this is America?" Mr. McGovern is covered with bruises, lacerations and contusions inflicted in the assault.

Mr. McGovern is being represented by the Partnership for Civil Justice Fund (PCJF). "It is the ultimate definition of lip service that Secretary of State Clinton would be trumpeting the U.S. government's supposed concerns for free speech rights and this man would be simultaneously brutalized and arrested for engaging in a peaceful act of dissent at her speech," stated attorney Mara Verheyden-Hilliard of the PCJF.

Mr. McGovern now works for Tell the Word, a publishing arm of the ecumenical Church of the Saviour in the Adams Morgan neighborhood of Washington, D.C.

source

Now watch how it's done Soviet style, 7m 40s thru 9m 45s.

But hey, that's Russia, it would never happen in the United States of America. Would it?

South Dakota! Where's My Batshit Crazy Folder?

And to think it was only the other day I was trying to impart to a reader just how backward and batshit they all are in South Dakota. Or to use a newly discovered word that I have added to my dictionary, the Talibangelical. It's a craaacker Moister Paisley!

And to say nothing of being able to delve into my Dakotas folder and up some little treasures, and not one of 'em me own. For the occasional Kansas graphic that I feature, still read South Dakota, there are after all, no borders in hell.

South Dakota in Turmoil over a Bill to Call Killing Abortion Doctors “Justifiable Homicide”
Thursday, February 17, 2011

Conservative lawmakers in the South Dakota legislature want to expand the definition of “justifiable homicide” to include killings that seek to protect the life of a fetus. Abortion rights advocates claim the legislation has been crafted to make it legal to kill doctors who perform the controversial procedures.

“The bill in South Dakota is an invitation to murder abortion providers,” Vicki Saporta, president of the National Abortion Federation, told Mother Jones.

House Bill 1171’s author, Republican Representative Phil Jensen, who opposes abortion, says his legislation has nothing to do with abortion, and that he merely is trying to “bring consistency to South Dakota statute as it relates to justifiable homicide.” However, the bill’s wording says that, “homicide is justifiable if committed by any person in the lawful defense of such person, or of his or her husband, wife, parent, child, master, mistress, or servant, or the unborn child of any such enumerated person.” More and what could turn out to be quite an interesting site. AllGov

You know it must be really batshit when People For The American Way come out against it.

PFAW Condemns Abortion Provider Murder Bill

South Dakota’s House of Representatives is expected to vote soon on a bill that would legalize the killing of abortion providers. The bill, reported today in Mother Jones, would expand the state’s definition of “justifiable homicide” to include killings meant to protect the life of a fetus. This is not a hypothetical issue: according to Mother Jones, eight abortion providers have been assassinated in the United States since 1993, and 17 more have suffered assassination attempts.

The South Dakota bill is part of a nationwide effort by anti-choice extremists to all but eliminate access to abortion services by asserting the “personhood” of fetuses. One such bill, introduced in the Ohio legislature, would make it illegal for women to seek abortions as soon as 18 days after conception—all but eliminating the constitutional right to access abortion services.

Michael Keegan, President of People For the American Way, said:

“This bill is an appalling attempt to further restrict the reproductive rights of women in South Dakota, while forcing abortion providers to risk their lives to provide care.

“The attempt to legalize the murder of abortion providers exposes the uncompromising zealotry of the anti-choice movement. A real ‘pro-life’ movement would respect the rights and judgment of women and certainly would not enable the murder of health care providers. I urge South Dakota legislators to examine their consciences before voting on a bill that would force women to seek illegal and unsafe abortions, and endanger the lives of health care providers.” PFAW

The Shame Of Being An American

Sorry Paul, it's Wikileaks and hypocrisy that you're talking about, and all the while I thought you'd been to the Creation Museum. Because when was it now? That's it, February 08, "I was ashamed to be an American today" I think I might have been too old lad.

The Shame Of Being An American

By Paul Craig Roberts

February 16, 2011 "Information Clearing House" -- The United States government has overestimated the amount of shame that it and American citizens can live down. On February 15 “the indispensable people” had to suffer the hypocrisy of the U.S. Secretary of State delivering a speech about America’s commitment to Internet freedom while the U.S. Department of Justice (sic) brought unconstitutional action against Twitter to reveal any connection between WikiLeaks and Bradley Manning, the American hero who, in keeping with the U.S. Military Code, exposed U.S. government war crimes and who is being held in punishing conditions not permitted by the U.S. Constitution. The corrupt U.S. government is trying to create a “conspiracy” case against Julian Assange in order to punish him for revealing U.S. government documents that prove beyond every doubt the mendacity of the U.S. government.

This is pretty bad, but it pales in comparison to the implications revealed on February 15 in the British newspaper, The Guardian.

The Guardian obtained an interview with “Curveball,” the source for Colin Powell’s speech of total lies to the United Nations about Iraqi Weapons of Mass Destruction.

Colin Powell’s speech created the stage for the illegal American invasion of Iraq. The Guardian describes “Curveball” as “the man who pulled off one of the greatest confidence tricks in the history of modern intelligence.” As The Guardian puts it, “Curveball” “manufactured a tale of dread.”

U.S. “intelligence” never interviewed “Curveball.” The Americans started a war based on second-hand information given to them by incompetent German intelligence, which fell for “Curveball’s” lies that today German intelligence disbelieves.

As the world now knows, Saddam Hussein had no weapons of mass destruction (WMD). The Bush/Cheney Regime, of course, knew this, but “Curveball’s” lies were useful to their undeclared agenda. In his interview with The Guardian, “Curveball,” Rafid Ahmed Alwan al-Janabi, admitted that he made the whole story up. He wanted to do in Saddam Hussein and told whatever fantasy lie he could make up that would serve his purpose.

If the Bush/Cheney Regime had really believed that Saddam Hussein had world-threatening weapons of mass destruction, it would have been a criminal act to concentrate America’s invading force in a small area of Kuwait where a few WMD could have wiped out the entire U.S. invasion force, thus ending the war before it began.

Some Americans are so thoughtless that they would say that Saddam Hussein would never have used the weapons, because we would have done this and that to Iraq, even nuking Baghdad. But why would Saddam Hussein care if he and his regime were already marked for death? Why would a doomed man desist from inflicting an extraordinary defeat on the American Superpower, thus encouraging Arabs everywhere? Moreover, if Saddam Hussein was unwilling to use his WMD against an invading force, when would he ever use them? It was completely obvious to the U.S. government that no such weapons existed. The weapons inspectors made that completely clear to the Bush/Cheney Regime. There were no Iraqi WMD, and everyone in the U.S. government was apprised of that fact.

Why was there no wonder or comment in the “free” media that the White House accused Iraq of possession of terrible weapons of mass destruction, but nevertheless concentrated its invasion force in such a small area that such weapons could easily have wiped out the invading force?

Does democracy really exist in a land where the media is incompetent and the government is unaccountable and lies through its teeth every time if opens its mouth?

“Curveball” represents a new level of immorality. Rafid al-Janabi shares responsibility for one million dead Iraqis, 4 million displaced Iraqis, a destroyed country, 4,754 dead American troops, 40,000 wounded and maimed American troops, $3 trillion of wasted US resources, every dollar of which is a debt burden to the American population and a threat to the dollar as reserve currency, ten years of propaganda and lies about terrorism and al Qaeda connections, an American "war on terror" that is destroying countless lives in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia, and which has targeted Iran, and which has destroyed the Bill of Rights, the US Constitution, and the civil liberties that they guarantee. And the piece of lying excrement, Rafid al-Janabi, is proud that he brought Saddam Hussein's downfall at such enormous expense.

Now that Rafid al-Janabi is revealed in the Guardian interview, how safe is he? There are millions of Iraqis capable of exterminating him for their suffering, and tens of thousands of Americans whose lives have been ruined by Rafid al-Janabi’s lies.

Why does the U.S. government pursue Julian Assange and WikiLeaks for telling the truth when “Curveball,” whose lies wiped out huge numbers of people along with America’s reputation, thinks he can start a political party in Iraq? If the piece of excrement, Rafid al-Janabi, is not killed the minute he appears in Iraq, it will be a miracle.

So we are left to contemplate that a totally incompetent American government has bought enormous instability to its puppet states in the Middle East, because it desperately wanted to believe faulty “intelligence” from Germany that an immoralist provided evidence that Saddam Hussein had Weapons of Mass Destruction.

And America is a superpower, an indispensable nation.

What a total joke! ICH

Thought For Today: God and His Creations

Why would the god of a 12,000 mile diameter planet, create a 136 billion light year universe?





Why did God instruct Noah to pitch the inside of the Ark?

Why is there no Stone Age in the Creationist timeline? Seemingly.

And; why does Donald Duck, when getting out of the shower to answer the door, preserve his modesty with a towel?

US Army: Bible Bashing For Jesus

I received email notification which took me to this page, which I daren't even look at, which linked me through to this post, itself containing a bunch of links, which I have cherry picked for your wonderment and amazement. (and any other emotion that might ensue)

I did well actually, to keep it together and compile this post, because I tell you something, 'tweren't easy, 'tweren't easy at all, not at all at all it weren't. Avid disbelief in the messages your eyes and ears are sending to your brain, tends to have quite a debilitating affect on a fellow.

All I can manage to say about this ???, because words really do fail me, is, that one half of these ??? are running the country, and the other half are running the great big killing machine. Oh! and Congresscritter, Gresham Barrett SC, I shouldn't leave him out, because I can say something about him, what an absolute cunt of a man an excuse for a man he is.

Is there any wonder that the Allah-wallas take one look at the Jesoids, and instantly it's game on, Holy war game on. Crusades I think they used to call them.

Update: Having come back down to earth somewhat I can only reflect that; I knew this lot had a hard on for Jesus, but to have it presented to you in one big syrupy compilation as this, well, it just astounds me. These are grown men for Christ's sake, half of them professional killers, and they are sat around holding hands at their prayer breakfasts and their Bible study classes, I mean, do none of them ever get embarrassed or what? Stroll on! it's so culturally alien to me, I think I shall have to watch the thing again, just to make sure I didn't dream it, or nightmare it, or whatever it.




Christian Embassy.

Christian Embassy page Youtube

Link to "this Kind" of conversation, I can't think which word to use, bizarre or surreal.

Similarly "1.3 million tracts" what do I use for this little gem, arrogant, batshit, or just plain old Southern Baptist?



The first of the two videos featured in the, "get the pattern" link. What can I say?



And they don't miss a trick, or should that be anybody? Listen to this whackjob talking about his direct line with God and the distribution of Swahili Bibles in Iraq. Yes Iraq! I mean who the fuck speaks Swahili in Iraq? The Ugandan base workers evidently.

I think I have just fried my brain with this lot, or I have a touch of the vapours, or something, in either case, there's only one place for me; bed, and with my head under the covers.

A few from the early days. Not aged much.

Afghanistan: State Controlled Women's Shelters A Recipe For Tears

When any story which emits from these mediaeval countries, contain the words conservative political leaders and women in the same text, there is only ever going to be one outcome, tears, women's tears. And this is just one of those stories.

And while here in Britain, the pap and sentimentality given over to the, (invariably if not prominently dead) heroes of this conflict, the British troops, I do have to say, there are no such sentiments here on this blog, just as equally there are no heroes. Being sent to Afghanistan by some skanky politician who will never give you another passing thought, only then to get blown up by an IED, doesn't make you a hero, it makes you unlucky at best, and a mug and unlucky at worse.

And when it's all over and everybody comes home, except those that won't be coming home, the same old question will be asked, and will be greeted with the same old answer. And that answer will be, as well you know, fuck all, absolutely fuck all.

Karzai Threatens To Close Afghan Women’s Shelters

Women’s shelters in Afghanistan, long under fire from conservatives in the country, now face their toughest battle yet for survival. A government proposal now being considered would bar non-governmental organizations from running private safe houses and bring the 14 women’s shelters opened over the last decade under the direct control and supervision of the Ministry of Women’s Affairs.

For years opponents of women’s rights in Afghanistan, including high-profile conservative political leaders, have accused the shelters of promoting prostitution. No evidence to support any such charge has ever been found, but this has not stopped critics from waging high-profile media campaigns against shelter leaders and their staff.

Women’s advocates see this latest offensive against their work as yet another sign of a conservative resurgence in the country as discussions about peace deals with the Taliban grow louder. In their view, President Hamid Karzai and his government want to position themselves for a Taliban return to power by putting distance between their politics and ‘foreign’ ideas and institutions such as women’s shelters.

“At this sensitive time when the government is going to start negotiation for peace and reconciliation with the opponents, women human rights are on the top list of threats,” says a statement from the Afghan Women Skills Development Center, which runs a shelter in Kabul. “This is the right time to let the government and international community know about our concerns.”

Other advocates agree.

“The Ministry of Women’s Affairs does not have the capacity to run women’s shelters,” says Manizha Naderi, the executive director of Women for Afghan Women, which runs five shelters in Afghanistan. “Furthermore, as an arm of the government itself, dependent on that body for its survival, (the Ministry) lacks the independence and the will to stand up for women’s rights against an increasingly conservative regime.”

Women seeking shelter often flee forced marriages or physical abuse and many times both. For women who have left their homes, the safe houses are their only option. Now, women fear, the process of even entering a shelter will be too arduous for most women to bear.

Under the proposal, women seeking shelter would have to be examined by a doctor before receiving admittance to a shelter. They would then face monthly medical examinations and be banned from leaving the shelter without the express permission of government authorities. Most troubling to women’s advocates now running shelters in the country, women would be forced out of the shelter if their families pledge to take them back.

The confrontation between government authorities and women’s rights advocates has been months in the making. Shelter organizers banded together in December to oppose a TV presenter who charged that women’s shelters were promoting immoral behavior, including prostitution. No basis was found for his allegations, and the attorney general’s office in Kabul pledged to look into the women’s complaints concerning abuse of the media.

Now, the focus is on fighting back by spreading the word about the government’s latest attempted crackdown on safe havens for the country’s many victims of domestic abuse. Should Karzai sign the bill, it will become law immediately. source

Previous:

Is This What We Are Fighting For In Afghanistan?

Reading About Women's Rights Earns Afghan Journo Death Sentence

And plenty more in the side bar under the, Women in Islam, tag.

Well That's a Bugger! No NASCAR

The Feds have nicked me stream, the miserable twats.
Too late in the night/early in the morning to look for another one.

And it ain't because I'm too cheap to buy things that I watch a freeby, I would much prefer to part with gold for a decent quality stream, but as far as I know, there ain't no such animal.

http://www.channelsurfing.net/ RIP




I don't suppose I'm the kind of fellow one would normally associate with NASCAR, but having followed JP Montoya from Formula One to NASCAR, and though it's taken a year or two I have become quite a fan of roundy roundy racing. And no, not for the wrecks, but for better and more exciting racing than F1 has managed to produce in recent years. Last year being the exception of course.

Li'l ol' redneck me.

Here you go, five minutes of the Bud Shootout, not part of the Sprint Cup Series, more a shake down race I suppose. Boogity boogity boogity, let's go racing boys!

The Big Vibrate Inn and Sex Is Icky Page

Shurely shome mishtake, shouldn't that be In? it sounds like a hotel chain otherwise.

Anyway; what's with this first story, I thought all the dildos in Alabama were in the State Legislator and not in the shops? Sureley shome other mishtake?


I think to truly appreciate this story you need to know a brief history of what makes people buzz in Alabama, or perhaps more accurately, what's not giving them the opportunity to buzz. Fear not though, all is provided lower down the page as previously reported by moi.

May I remind you, the planet is fucked, the ice caps are melting, America, India and China are burning carboniferous fuel, both liquid and solid, at an alarming rate. Half the world is starving, half the world has no access to clean drinking water, America is bankrupt and rolling down hill like a snowball headed for hell, with no kind of chance for the Flag or the Liberty bell, and yes, the good times really are over for good.

It is the year of our Lord 2011, and what are we talking about? We are talking about vi-bra-tors, god-damned fucking vibrators! and we are talking about it in Ala-fuckin-bama, a state where you can buy a fucking gun! but you can't buy a fucking vibrator!

~ ~ ~

All posts links and stuff updated and working.

Alabama sex shop owner swaps 'Guns for Toys'

An Alabama sex shop owner has decided to do her bit for peace and luuurv this Valentine's Day, and is offering customers the chance to trade "Guns for Toys".

Sherri Williams, owneratrix of Pleasures, in Huntsville, hopes to take 300 firearms off the street before the offer wraps on 15 February. Customers are invited to roll up to the store between 11am and 7pm and flash their pieces to gun dealer David Smith, who'll assess the condition and value.



In return for their unwanted firearm, punters will walk off with something which can deliver an equally mighty bang, but with a greatly reduced risk of death.

According to local news outfit WAFF, Williams said "all guns that were used in a crime will be handed over to authorities while all others will be placed in an auction for sale on the store's website".

Part of the proceeds of this sale will benefit The Alabama Crime Victims' Compensation Commission, although it could be argued that reselling the guns is possibly not the best way to support the ACVCC's work.

In the end, though, it's doubtful flogging a few shooters online will have much effect on gun ownership levels in Alabama. It is considerably easier in the Yellowhammer State to get your hands on a gun than to bag a sex toy, since the local anti-obscenity law bans the sale of the latter unless it's for "medical or educational purposes".

Back in 2009, the Alabama Supreme Court rejected an appeal by the Love Stuff chain of shops claiming the law was "unconstitutional" and "unconstitutionally vague".

Owner Ross Winner explained that he was allowed to sell sex toys, but the devices had to be kept in "a back room" and staff were obliged to "ID everyone who enters and refuse sale to anyone who doesn’t fit the medical or educational criteria".

Ross claimed the purchase of a sex toy is a private matter, and the government "does not have the right to have input" on what goes on the intimacy of a citizen's home.

Judges kicked Ross's case into touch, decreeing that "public morality can still serve as a legitimate rational basis for regulating commercial activity, which is not a private activity". source

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First Published under the title: It's a Funny Old World.

My site meter showed a recent visitor from Saudi Arabia (the first) the result of being directed here by a Google search for "Laura Bush vibrators"


Talking of dildos, Republican Representative Ralph Davenport seemingly wants South Carolina to join other states in the Global War on Vibrators.

A sex toy ban has already happened in Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, and Texas. South Carolina could be next on that list.

But here I can't help but wonder, can you buy a gun in those states?

And not unnaturally some people asked the reasonable question and called Rep. Davenport to ask him the state purpose for such a law. (Proposal H4830 see Pam's House Blend Link)

He said some constituents had asked him to introduce the bill, and he hoped that if someone is caught kidnapping someone and using these devices on an unwilling victim, that this would be another offense with which they could be charged.

Whoa boy,whoa whoa whoa, say that again.

if someone is caught kidnapping someone and using these devices on an unwilling victim,

Well Freud I ain't, but Jesus H, what is going on in this tiny suppressed little mind? I don't know what it is boy, but there is some dark unfulfilled little fantasy churning about in there. I mean to say, how many of you as readers, look at a vibrator and see being kidnapped?

If that little sentence alone doesn't set the alarm bells a ringing, the hooters a hooting and the whistles a whistling I don't know what will. Un-fucking believable that anybody could come out with such a statement, if that is what is in his head, what else is in there? Lawdy lawdy!

But Davenport, who professes not to know what a sex toy is (the hell you don't) also proposed this bill. (H3273)

TO CREATE THE SOUTH CAROLINA UNBORN CHILDREN'S MONUMENT COMMISSION TO ERECT A MONUMENT ON THE STATE HOUSE GROUNDS AS A MEMORIAL TO SOUTH CAROLINA CHILDREN WHOSE LIVES ENDED BEFORE THEIR BIRTH

In the state house grounds this fellow wants to build a monument to a foetus! A nutcase you'd be thinking, a lone nutcase. Sorry, there are thirty three, yes thirty three* sponsors of this bill. (new link*)

Now at this point I have to tell you, I'm struggling with this story, struggling inasmuch that I'm having a problem getting my head around the fact there are thirty three grown men and women that have put their names forward to endorse the building of a "Foetus for Jesus" monument, I'm struggling with it a great deal indeed.

I asked further up the page what was it that was going on in Davenport's head, well if you pop over to Pam's House Blend where she asks you to Look at Davenport's level of detail and research that obviously went into crafting this masterpiece of legislation.

So what conclusion can I reach about yer man Davenport, well for a man that don't know nuttin about sex toys, he knows a great deal about sex toys, and strangely enough an awful lot about all the Icky places that they might go.

I must stop this practice of getting up in the middle of the night for a cuppa (tea) it was never my intention to write this piece, not the first under similar circumstances, and I doubt the last.
So to round it off a couple of limericks that I dashed off at the time.


All us girls down South Caroline,
Scrub at sin 'till we do shine.
But to take away,
So we can't play.
Don't you dare it's mine mine mine.


My Daddy has asked me to,
Keep myself so pure and true.
But my little toy,
Gives so much joy.
Bet it knows much more than you.

New Update:
Gardner believes it would be good publicity, "I believe it would be a tourist attraction. No other state in our nation has such a monument."

You don't say.

1st Update:

(2) 'patently offensive' means obviously and clearly disagreeable, objectionable, repugnant, displeasing, distasteful, or obnoxious to contemporary standards of decency and propriety within the community.

(3) 'prurient interest' means a shameful or morbid interest in nudity, sex, or excretion and is reflective of an arousal of lewd and lascivious desires and thoughts.

I think this must be Davenport's way of saying it's worth watching.

Which only leaves me only to say: Only In Ameriki folks, only in Ameriki.

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Texas Is Buzzing Vibrator Law Overturned



I shall not write a word.

What the judges wrote

"Just as in Lawrence, the state here wants to use its law to enforce a public moral code by restricting private intimate conduct," the judges wrote in the 2-1 ruling. "This case is not about public sex. It is not about controlling commerce in sex. It is about controlling what people do in the privacy of their own homes because the state is morally opposed to a certain type of of consensual private intimate conduct."more

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Sex Toys: Mississippi Back in The "News" Again
.
Stroll on! and the bloody TV station even send a crew out and conduct their own little "sting," what a bunch of repressed fucktards.

If this is what constitutes a news story in Jackson Mississippi then all I can say is thank God the Atlantic Ocean lies between us.

What will they ban next, Teddy Bears?


There is a video with the story that for whatever reasons only wants to deliver audio to my machine.

Update: Video here. Merci beaucoup to anonymous in the comments.

And it is here, at this point, as a European, and if I could find the words I would scream them out, this is just so fucking bizarre, so absolutely fucking culturally bizarre. The television station is featuring on the news, a sting that they instigated, about buying a fucking vibrator! Honestly, really and truly in all honesty, my brain just doesn't have a reference point for this. It just won't compute it.

America! it's not another country, it's another world entirely.

Adult Video and Books on McDowell Road in Jackson is apparently selling illegal sex toys again.
Jackson police raided the store at least two times last year after an undercover sting. Three people were arrested and several boxes of sex toys were seized.
A "3 on Your Side" undercover investigation shows that the business is back at it again and is not even discreet about selling the devices.
WLBT received the tip, so we decided to go undercover to see if it was true.

Kandiss Crone entered the store and said "Hi...I'm going to a bachelorette party, I'm looking for a sex toy."
After looking over the stock Kandiss said "Can i have that purple one?"
As soon as the sale was completed our team walked back into the store to confront the owner.
Kandiss: "Hi charles, I'm Kandiss Crone from WLB. I understand this business was raided for selling sex toys illegally. I just purchased this sex toy and it is still illegal to sell them in the state of mississippi. Even though you were raided last year and you're still selling them, what is your response to that?more

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"You're going to have to pry this vibrator from my cold, dead hand"

NVA then?


Sex Toy Ban Remains Intact

MONTGOMERY, Ala. - The U.S. Supreme Court declined Monday to hear a challenge to Alabama's ban on the sale of sex toys, ending a nine-year legal battle and sending a warning to store owners to clean off their shelves.
An adult-store owner had asked the justices to throw out the law as an unconstitutional intrusion into the privacy of the bedroom. The Supreme Court declined to hear the appeal, leaving intact a lower court ruling that upheld the law. more

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No Sex Toys Allowed You're In Dixie Now


You are by now probably aware of my feelings regarding the repressed puritans of America, so I am not going to reiterate, you can read about the subject here or here, or you can go to Babeland's Blog and have far more interesting experience as you read away



Yesterday the Eleventh Circuit court held that Alabama’s ban on sex toys is constitutional. On Valentine’s Day of all days! The ruling does so on the grounds “that Alabama has an interest in preserving “public morality” against the sale of such devices.” This ban does not prohibit owning sex toys or using them, just (just!) buying them anywhere in the state of Alabama........




While you are over at Babeland's Blog not looking in the left hand sidebar at what she has to offer the discerning perv, and not placing your order for one or more of her Premium Vibes or any number of other interesting little tricks, or not placing an order in the waterproof section for little Ducky that would bring a whole new dimension to bathnight, while you're not doing any of those things, don't read the (unfortunately few) comments on the page. A snippet below.

From Texas:
An adult bookstore employee in El Paso, Texas, sued the state after his arrest for showing two undercover officers a device shaped like a penis and telling the female officer the device would arouse and gratify her.

The employee, Ignacio Sergio Acosta, says a Texas law outlawing the manufacture, marketing or dissemination of an “obscene device” including those shaped like sex organs.........



Bondage Ducky not from Babeland.

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Democracy! I’ll Take Anarchy Any Day

Georgia House bans genital piercings for women.

The Associated Press - ATLANTA

“Genital piercings for women were banned by the Georgia House Wednesday as lawmakers considered a bill outlining punishments for female genital mutilation

The bill would make such mutilation punishable by two to 20 years (sic)in prison. It makes no exception for people who give consent to have the procedure performed on their daughters out of religious or cultural custom.

An amendment adopted without objection added, "piercing" to the list of things that may not be done to female genitals. Even adult women would not be allowed to get the procedure. The bill eventually passed 160-0, with no debate.

Amendment sponsor Rep. Bill Heath, R-Bremen, was slack-jawed when told after the vote that some adults seek the piercings.

"What? I've never seen such a thing," Heath said. "I, uh, I wouldn't approve of anyone doing it. I don't think that's an appropriate thing to be doing."

The ban applies only to women, not men. The bill has already been approved by the Senate but now must return to that chamber because of the piercing amendment. Both chambers of the Legislature must agree on a single version of a bill before it can go to the governor for final approval.”

I can only assume the proposed bill was originally intended to address the custom of female circumcision but then went on to included consensual adult female piercing.

Two to twenty years; I wouldn’t have a problem with the full twenty being handed down to any parent who subjected a daughter to such a selfish act of barbarism, in fact if religion were cited as the reason for carrying out this heinous act, I would give them forty years.

And my reasons would not be, as you might have so easily gathered, that I am anti religion, for this practice is nothing whatsoever to do with religion, it is but for the purposes of subjugating women and robbing them of their sexuality and as such, make them less likely to “stray.”
And in doing so, bolster against the overriding insecurity of the misogynist males that abound in the countries where this practice still takes place.

Having said all this I cannot get my head round that the reasons for this legalisation are enlightenment and altruism, not in, of all places, Georgia.
No, I fancy it more for the “icky” factor, ickyness being related to the goings on that occur in the region between the navel and the knee.

One only has to read the article to have my views endorsed.

“The bill eventually passed 160-0

With no debate.”

Bill Heath, Repub. (how could he be other than?) was slack-jawed when told after the vote that some adults seek the piercings.

"What? I've never seen such a thing," Heath said. "I, uh, I wouldn't approve of anyone doing it. I don't think that's an appropriate thing to be doing."

I, UH, I WOULDN’T APPROVE OF ANYONE DOING IT.

If that sentence alone doesn’t have you screaming then nothing will.

The ban applies only to women, not men.

“Men have authority over women because God has made the one superior to the other. (Qur’an 4:34)

Democracy! Give me a break.

All these weird and wonderful stories drawn from the "Sex Prudery" tag here at Only in America.

"Did Manning jump, or was he pushed?" Much Lies In The Answer

Interesting.

.....If you spend any time at all reading about Bradley Manning, the young U.S. Army private who stands accused of providing WikiLeaks with massive amounts of intelligence pulled from the Secret Internet Protocol Router Network used by the Pentagon and the State Department, the picture that emerges is one of a young man who also felt isolated, one who saw WikiLeaks as a means of ameliorating that feeling. Manning remains in custody -- a particularly brutal form of solitary confinement, actually -- at the Marine Corps brig in Quantico, Va.

Manning still faces charges of his own, but he's played a larger role in the tensions between U.S. government officials and WikiLeaks, in that he is seen as the key figure in building a larger criminal case against WikiLeaks founder and figurehead Julian Assange. That Manning willingly provided WikiLeaks with classified information does not appear to be in dispute. The issue, rather, is one of "did Manning jump or was he pushed?"

U.S. officials have been gamely attempting to make the case that Assange induced Manning to provide WikiLeaks with government documents. Now, according to the Wall Street Journal's Julian Barnes and Evan Perez, that case has cratered:

New findings suggest Pfc. Bradley Manning, the intelligence analyst accused of handing over the data to the WikiLeaks website, initiated the theft himself, officials said. That contrasts with the initial portrait provided by Defense Department officials of a young man taken advantage of by Mr. Assange.

Further denting the push by some government officials to prosecute Mr. Assange, the probes have found little to link the two men, though others affiliated with WikiLeaks have been tied to Pfc. Manning, officials said.

For the U.S. to bring its preferred case against Mr. Assange of inducing the leak, it would have to show that the WikiLeaks founder specifically encouraged Mr. Manning to hand over the documents, which included thousands of State Department cables, as well as low-level intelligence reports on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Federal Bureau of Investigation agents and Justice Department lawyers continue to gather evidence for a possible conspiracy charge against Mr. Assange, but that's a harder case to make, government officials said. more HuffPo

US Snowstorm Photo's NASA

High resolution.




source

Related: Post below.

Out In The Cold: US Homless

I prevaricated about the bush on running this story, in spite of this and the picture post above appearing within a day or two of each other on the HuffPo.

In fact, if the photo featured here hadn't caught my eye, there wouldn't have been a post at all. But as you might, after seeing the photographs in the previous post, give a little shiver and think, poor bugger.

And in truth,the only reason either post managed to get featured, was due to the Hugo Chavez post below. Now I'm not for a minute trying to compare the US and the Venezuelan situations, that would hardly be fair. Nevertheless it does make you think a little. And perhaps a little more so when US can manage to spend, $1,149,034,217,295 on a war, an illegal one at that, but shows as much regard for the welfare of its own citizens as it does for the citizens of the rest of the world.

$1,149,034,217,295 is the figure according to ICH, and I think that is, one trillion, one hundred and forty nine billion, thirty four million dollars and change.

Federal Homelessness Program Runs Out Of Money As Need Rises

WASHINGTON -- Homelessness has significantly risen in the U.S. as a result of surging foreclosures and joblessness caused by the recession, but a new federal program designed to nudge people back from the brink of life without shelter is on the brink itself.

A new report, released by the National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty on Jan. 26, found that a homelessness prevention and re-housing program funded by the 2009 stimulus bill needs more money to meet rising need. Instead, the program will likely be left out of the new federal budget.

In response to the 20 percent increase in foreclosures that occurred from 2008 to 2009, the Department of Housing and Urban Development used $1.5 billion in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funds to create the Homelessness Prevention and Rapid Re-Housing Program (HPRP), which helps keep people in their apartments by subsidizing their rent.

The program is quickly running out of money, however, and having a number of administrative difficulties trying to keep up with demand. In Detroit, for instance, about 50,000 people filled out applications for only 3,500 grants on the first day the money was available, and a number of major U.S. cities have already used up more than 80 percent of their allotted funds, which were supposed to last until 2012.

When the NLCHP report surveyed local service providers and legal assistance organizations to determine the overall effectiveness of the program, about 61 percent said that "program bureaucracy" resulted in over half of people applying for HPRP not receiving assistance. About half of the respondents said there was no clear appeals process to give people a second chance when their initial application was denied, and in many communities, eligible families were not even aware of the program because of a lack of outreach efforts.

Sheila Crowley, president and CEO of the National Low Income Housing Coalition, told HuffPost she is not surprised the program is having difficulties meeting demand because it was only supposed to be an emergency band-aid for victims of the recession.

"The program was basically created fairly quickly, and the idea was to put some cash into the hands of the service providers in communities who are there when people knock on the door and say, 'I'm about to be evicted,'" she said. "It's a program that was seen as a one-shot deal in response to what, in 2009, people hoped was a short-term crisis. Here we are two years later, and unemployment is still high, and foreclosures continue, so it's sort of the story of what happens when you do programs like that." more

Now check out the story below.