Women Born Transsexual

And some people actually think I am being unfair to these douche nozzles when I call them Nazis.

From Salon: http://www.salon.com/news/politics/war_room/2011/03/15/kansas_lawmaker_immigrants_helicopters

Shoot illegal immigrants from helicopters? A Kansas Republican representative raises the idea

By Adam Clark Estes

Tuesday, Mar 15, 2011

Kansas state Rep. Virgil Peck, R-Tyro, suggested Monday that the same methods used for controlling the feral pig population should also be used to control the illegal immigration problem. Those methods include shooting them from a helicopter. In Peck’s words:

It looks like to me if shooting these immigrating feral hogs works maybe we have found a [solution] to our illegal immigration problem.

Complete article and video at:  http://www.salon.com/news/politics/war_room/2011/03/15/kansas_lawmaker_immigrants_helicopters

From Common Dreams: http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/03/14-2

There’s no denying its historic decline, but the left does not lack for issues. It needs only organization.

by Richard Wolff

Published on Monday, March 14, 2011 by The Guardian/UK

“In contradiction” best describes the American left today. On the one hand, it is fragmented and dispirited, feeling itself distant from the tumble of daily US politics and acutely disgusted by its many-layered corruptions. It hardly knows itself as a part of society, so deep runs its alienation. After all, leftists, too, are affected by the mass media’s wishful pretense that the American left has simply disappeared and the extreme right’s paranoid caricatures that recycle 1950s McCarthyism.

And yet, the US left is actually quite strong and getting stronger by the minute. Very many young people find far more meaning in the left social criticisms of Jon Stewart, Bill Maher and Stephen Colbert than they do in the stale Republican or Democratic activities that those popular comedians mock. The devotees of much current popular music want and respond to lyrics rich with social criticism. The assaults of the right in the US on access to abortion, on civil rights and civil liberties, on the separation of church and state, and on immigrants, are less and less suffered in silent resentment and increasingly opposed by a revived left criticism and activism. From the mass mobilizations of immigrants to the outpouring of support for the embattled public employees in Wisconsin to the gatherings of support for Planned Parenthood, the US left’s size, depth and diversity are evident.

The proportion of respondents polled about their religious affiliation who answer “none” is growing faster than any other group of respondents. As one famous philosopher wrote, “the criticism of society begins with the critique of religion.” The million who marched in 2003 against the invasion of Iraq quietly persuaded a majority to make recent national polls repeated referenda against all three US wars (Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan).

The young are perhaps outraged most by the vulnerability and erosion of many social conditions they had taken for granted as permanent. Anger and activism are rising against the incapacity or unwillingness of the political establishment to restore those conditions. The radical generation of the 1960s, after middle years devoted to careers and families, is now returning to political engagement likewise to restore those conditions. That combination of rising youthful passion and political experience with mass radical action represents a potent mass base for a new US left political formation to emerge.

Organization is what the US left lacks. Not issues, not members, not a wide public audience: the US left now has all of them in abundance. Indeed, the economic crisis that exploded in 2008 – now becoming a social crisis because the “recovery” bypassed the majority that needed it most – has only enhanced that abundance. Yet, a deeply rooted and continuously nurtured aversion to unified organization undermines the US left’s social influence and collective action at every turn. The decline of past left organizations – the socialist and communist parties, student groups such as SDS, SNCC, major segments of organized labor – has fostered a sense of the futility of organization. The demonization of those and other left organizations, by liberal as well as conservative voices, renders individual left thought and action sometimes acceptable but collective criticism and activity always deeply suspect.

Continue reading at:  http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/03/14-2

From The New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/15/opinion/15tue3.html?_r=1

Editorial
Published: March 14, 2011

Pfc. Bradley Manning, who has been imprisoned for nine months on charges of handing government files to WikiLeaks, has not even been tried let alone convicted. Yet the military has been treating him abusively, in a way that conjures creepy memories of how the Bush administration used to treat terror suspects. Inexplicably, it appears to have President Obama’s support to do so.

Private Manning is in solitary confinement at the Marine Corps brig in Quantico, Va. For one hour a day, he is allowed to walk around a room in shackles. He is forced to remove all his clothes every night. And every morning he is required to stand outside his cell, naked, until he passes inspection and is given his clothes back.

Military officials say, without explanation, that these precautions are necessary to prevent Private Manning from injuring himself. They have put him on “prevention of injury” watch, yet his lawyers say there is no indication that he is suicidal and the military has not placed him on a suicide watch. (He apparently made a sarcastic comment about suicide.)

Forced nudity is a classic humiliation technique. During the early years of the Bush administration’s war on terror, C.I.A. interrogators regularly stripped prisoners to break down barriers of resistance, increase compliance and extract information. One C.I.A. report from 2004 said that nudity, along with sleep deprivation and dietary manipulation, was used to create a mind-set in which the prisoner “learns to perceive and value his personal welfare, comfort and immediate needs more than the information he is protecting.”

Complete Editorial at:  http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/15/opinion/15tue3.html?_r=1

Written by Malvina Reynolds in the early 1960s.  Malvina Reynolds was a San Francisco Bay Area. She was a political activist and socialist, a member of  Women for Peace. Like Pete Seeger, Harry Belafonte and others she stood up for what she believed even during the dark days of the McCarthy era.

I first learned this song about the time of the Cuban Missile Crisis.  It was also about the time Rachel Carson’s book “Silent Spring” came out.

What have they done to the Rain? worked equally well for either the poisoning of the environment with pesticides or by the fallout from nuclear testing.

Joan Baez performed the following version in Japan.

Hubris, hubris… Putting nuclear reactors that close to earth quake faults.  As an atheist I obviously do not pray.  I can only hope these reactors do not  go Chernobyl.

Separation of church and state is one of the bedrock principles upon which this nation was built.  Our Founding Fathers had seen the endless religious wars in Europe between competing sects of Christianity and did not want those religious wars brought here to this country.

Hell as tight lipped and grim as the Puritans were, they too were driven from Europe by those religious wars.  Indeed some of the strongest proponents of separation of church and state were the Baptists who had suffered under the Church of England.

But that aside… When we are asked to take the reasonable position of opposing the imposition of Islamic Sharia Law in the US should we willingly turn around and support the equally onerous Christian version of Sharia supported by the extremist Christian sects?

There is a good reason for Dan Savage’s use of the word santorum to describe the frothy mix of shit, lube and cum produced during anal sex.  It describes the thinking of Rick Santorum to a T.

From Talking Points Memo: http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/03/santorum-kennedy-was-radical-for-believing-in-church-vs-state.php

Santorum: JFK Was ‘Radical’ For Believing In Separation Of Church & State

Jillian Rayfield
March 15, 2011

Rick Santorum told about 50 members of the group Catholic Citizenship that he was “frankly appalled” that America’s first Catholic president, John F. Kennedy, once said “I believe in an America where the separation of church and state is absolute.”

“That was a radical statement,” Santorum said, and did “great damage.”

The Boston Globe reports that Santorum, who is Catholic, criticized the increased secularization of politicians, which he related back to a speech Kennedy gave at the Greater Houston Ministerial Association in 1960. Kennedy had made the speech to a group of Protestant clergy as a presidential candidate, in order to allay fears that the Catholic church would influence his decisions if elected.

Complete article at:  http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/03/santorum-kennedy-was-radical-for-believing-in-church-vs-state.php

From Common Dreams: http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/03/15-3

by Ralph Nader

Published on Tuesday, March 15, 2011 by CommonDreams.org

The tumultuous managerial shakeup at National Public Radio headquarters for trivial verbal miscues once again has highlighted the ludicrous corporatist right-wing charge that public radio and public TV are replete with left-leaning or leftist programming.
Ludicrous, that is, unless this criticism’s yardstick is the propaganda regularly exuded by the extreme right-wing Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity. These “capitalists” use the public’s airwaves free-of-charge to make big money.

The truth is that the frightened executives at public TV and radio have long been more hospitable to interviews with right of center or extreme right-wing and corporatist talking heads than liberal or progressive guests.

PBS’s Charlie Rose has had war-loving William Kristol on thirty one times, Henry Kissinger fifty five times, Richard Perle ten times, the global corporatist cheerleader, Tom Friedman seventy times. Compare that guest list with Rose’s interviews of widely published left of center guests—Noam Chomsky two times, William Grieder two times, Jim Hightower two times, Charlie Peters two times, Lewis Lapham three times, Bob Herbert six times, Paul Krugman twenty one times, Victor Navasky one time, Mark Green five times and Sy Hersh, once a frequent guest, has not been on since January 2005.

Dr. Sidney Wolfe, the widely-quoted super-accurate drug industry critic, who is often featured on the commercial TV network shows, has never been on Rose’s show. Nor has the long-time head of Citizens for Tax Justice and widely respected progressive tax analyst, Robert McIntyre.

Far more corporate executives, not known for their leftist inclinations, appear on Rose’s show than do leaders of environmental, consumer, labor and poverty organizations.

In case you are wondering, I’ve appeared four times, but not since August 2005, and not once on the hostile Terri Gross radio show.

Continue reading at:  http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/03/15-3

From The Bozeman Daily Express: http://www.bozemandailychronicle.com/news/article_96adb40a-4e72-11e0-b6b6-001cc4c002e0.html

March 14, 2011

UPDATE, 4:05 p.m. – HELENA (AP) — Federal agents with guns drawn raided up to a dozen medical marijuana operations across Montana on Monday, the same a day that a bill to repeal the state’s medical marijuana law stalled in a Senate committee.

Near Helena, agents burst into Montana Cannabis’ greenhouse, where the company grows more than 1,600 plants for its four stores across the state. The greenhouse runs about half the length of a football field and is packed with marijuana plants that can be seen from U.S. Highway 12.

About 15 workers were inside the warehouse during the morning raid. Montana Cannabis employee Brett Thompson, 30, said he stepped outside to smoke a cigarette and saw agents running up the driveway.

“They came in, guns drawn, got us down on the ground and in cuffs as fast as they could,” Thompson said.

Agencies involved included the Drug Enforcement Administration, the FBI, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

Continue reading at:  http://www.bozemandailychronicle.com/news/article_96adb40a-4e72-11e0-b6b6-001cc4c002e0.html

Because Newt Gingrich is an immoral whore living off campaign donations made by the wealthy corporations.

From Raw Story: http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/03/15/whoops-gingrich-praises-nafta-for-shipping-out-american-jobs/

By Stephen C. Webster
Tuesday, March 15th, 2011

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich found himself in a bit of a log-jam with his inner-conservative Monday night.

Appearing on a conservative talk radio program, Gingrich praised the Clinton-era North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), taking the decidedly internationalist view that it was positive because it created jobs in Mexico.

Whether the economy or even the job market overall benefited from the agreement has been the subject of intense debate ever since, but most economists agree that the trade agreement has resulted in the loss of many low-skill jobs to Mexico.

But Gingrich’s position on the arrangement, which succeeded in dramatically expanding the value of trade between the US, Canada and Mexico, isn’t common among Republicans, today or in the lead-up to the agreement’s passage.

Then, he was instrumental to the Clinton administration in helping bring Republicans around to supporting the plan. Gingrich was also a supporter of the World Trade Organization and has been consistent in advocating for the globalization of markets.

Continue reading at:  http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/03/15/whoops-gingrich-praises-nafta-for-shipping-out-american-jobs/

From  http://www.transmaryland.org/

Religion is not our friend.

All religions, with the possible exception of the Wicca, hate women.  One of their main purposes is the oppression of women as well as supporting the power structures that keep the wealthy safe and in control.  Heaven is a contractual lie that prevents the poor from demanding social justice and equality in this life time by offering a promised reward i.e. heaven.  Never mind there is no physical evidence of the existence of this place or of the place of punishment i.e. hell.  But there is plenty of evidence of the hell the rich and religious have created in the here and now.

In Maryland the Black Churches were behind the killing of the marriage equality bill.  The Black churches along with the Catholics, Mormons and California Evangelicals were the ones who took away the right of marriage equality for gay and lesbian couples (as well as TS/TG folks in same sex relationships).

These are the same misogynists who are behind the fight to prevent passage of the Equal Rights Amendment and who want to deny women the right to control their own bodies.

From The Baptist Press: http://www.bpnews.net/BPnews.asp?ID=34834

Southern Baptist leaders stand against proposed ‘gender identity’ law in Nash.

by Michael Foust

Posted on Mar 14, 2011

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (BP)–Three prominent Southern Baptist leaders are publicly opposing a proposed Nashville law that would require city contractors to add non-discrimination policies based on “sexual orientation” and “gender identity.”

The policy could: 1) allow men access to women’s restrooms, 2) drive up costs due to litigation, and, 3) imperil religious liberty, the leaders say.

The three leaders — Richard Land, Frank Page and Thom Rainer — co-wrote a column published March 14 in The Tennessean. Land is president of the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, Page is president of the Executive Committee and Rainer is president of LifeWay Christian Resources.

The Southern Baptist leaders say the proposed ordinance, which already passed the metro council once (21-16) and could receive a final vote March 16, is “ill-advised and should be rejected.” The law would place homosexuality alongside “such immutable characteristics” as race, gender and disability.

“Discrimination against such immutable characteristics as race, gender and disability is immoral, has no place in our society, and is prohibited under both federal and Tennessee law,” the letter reads. “Homosexuality is not in the same class as these characteristics, yet the proposed ordinance would elevate ‘gender identity’ and ‘sexual orientation’ to the same protected status.”

Continue reading at:   http://www.bpnews.net/BPnews.asp?ID=34834

Notice the divide and conquer technique aimed at keeping all oppressed people fighting against each other rather than uniting in struggle against a common enemy.  Guess where the churches fall? Hint right next to Faux News and the Koch brothers.

From Huffington Post: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/03/14/bank-of-america-anonymous-leak-mortgage_n_835220.html

Ryan McCarthy

03/14/11

The WikiLeaks-allied hacker group Anonymous has posted a series of emails purported to be from a former Bank of America employee, which the organization says prove “corruption and fraud” at the nation’s largest bank.

In a release announced with the Twitter hashtag #BlackMonday, Anoymous posted the emails on the site BankofAmericasuck.com, where an emailer who identifies himself as an ex-Bank Of America employee airs a number of grievances against his former employer. The website’s availability was up and down early Monday morning, potentially due to high traffic. The e-mails could not be independently verified.

In a statement to Reuters on Sunday, a Bank of America spokesman said the emails are simply clerical and administrative errors. “”We are confident that his extravagant assertions are untrue,” the spokesman told Reuters.

Bank of America did not immediately return multiple calls on Monday.

The claims of the person purporting to be a former employee appear to begin with so-called “forced-place insurance,” in which a mortgage borrower who doesn’t maintain an insurance policy on their home has a policy “placed” for them by their insurer. The problem with forced-place insurance, as Felix Salmon noted in November, comes when a mortgage servicer owns an insurer. This can allow for highly inflated premiums and inadequate policies forced upon borrowers without their knowledge.

Continue reading at:   http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/03/14/bank-of-america-anonymous-leak-mortgage_n_835220.html

From Common Dreams: http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2011/03/14-2

Student groups and tax avoidance protesters will stage occupations to coincide with TUC demonstration on 26 March

by Matthew Taylor

Published on Monday, March 14, 2011 by The Guardian/UK

Anti-cuts campaigners are planning a wave of sit-ins, occupations and “people’s assemblies” to coincide with this month’s TUC demonstration, in a “carnival of civil disobedience” designed to highlight opposition to the government’s programme of cuts.

Student activists, tax avoidance campaigners and anti-capitalist groups say they plan to occupy some of the capital’s “great buildings”, close down scores of high street stores and stage a 24-hour occupation of Hyde Park.

“This is going to be a really important day,” said Anna Walker of the campaign group UK Uncut. “We had the student protests and we have seen the growth of UK Uncut, but this is the first time we are going to have people from all over the UK together whose lives are being turned upside down by these cuts. It is going to be the start of something powerful.”

The direct action is planned to coincide with the TUC’s anti-cuts demonstration on 26 March, when more than 100,000 people – including public sector workers, families and first-time protesters – are expected to take to the streets of London.

UK Uncut, a peaceful direct action group set up five months ago to oppose government cuts and protest against corporate tax avoidance, is calling on its supporters to occupy and close down scores of shops on Oxford Street.

Continue reading at:  http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2011/03/14-2