From Common Dreams: http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/04/01

by Christine Ahn and Sukjong Hong
Published on Friday, April 1, 2011 by Foreign Policy in Focus

On the eighth anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Iraq, U.S. fighter planes took off to start yet another military action — this time, in Libya. A recent Gallup poll found that only 47 percent of Americans approved of military action in Libya, the lowest level of support for military intervention in 40 years. At the same time, U.S. President Barack Obama has sent Congress a budget that includes $1.2 trillion dollars for military and security expenditures. Clearly, Americans are weary of war, especially during an economic crisis that has threatened jobs, health plans, and pensions most families need to survive.

The hopeful news is that a grassroots movement of ordinary people across U.S. towns and cities has launched the New Priorities campaign, uniting under the demand to “bring the troops and war dollars home” by cutting defense spending instead of benefits, jobs, and basic government services. Worldwide actions are also being planned for the Global Day of Action on Military Spending on April 12^th to shine a light on egregious amounts of military spending by the world’s governments. Central to these efforts must include demands to shut the 1,000-plus U.S. military bases in over 46 countries.

Bases are the most visible structures of the U.S. drive to maintain global military hegemony. Yet for most Americans, bases remain out of sight and outside the national discourse on war. Many don’t know about the enormous footprint of U.S. military installations around the world and how they undermine the lives and aspirations of the people who live directly in their shadow. Ending U.S. wars is essential, but closing down foreign bases is even more critical to dismantling U.S. militarism and global hegemony.

On the island of Cheju off the coast of South Korea, villagers are struggling to prevent the construction of a South Korean naval base intended for U.S. military use. In 2009, one of us traveled there and can still remember the tattered yellow flags lining the fence posts of homes, symbolizing the movement’s determination to stop the project. Walking along the endangered rocky coastline at the edge of this quiet village of farmers and fisherfolk, it was clear that Cheju Island and other sites of U.S. military bases in Korea have borne enormous costs to the people and to the future of peace in the region.

A Huge Financial Cost

Most figures used to estimate the cost of U.S. wars omit the global network of U.S. bases that provides vital resources and infrastructure to existing military conflicts. The Pentagon’s 2010 Base Structure Report, for example, lists 662 overseas bases but fails to include the 411 bases in Afghanistan, the 88 remaining bases in Iraq, or sites in Qatar and other countries where U.S. military personnel are stationed. Maintaining and constructing all U.S. bases cost American taxpayers $41.6 billion in 2010, according to Undersecretary of Defense Dorothy Robyn.

Continue reading at:  http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/04/01

I stopped registering my Domains with Go Daddy because of their utterly piggish, misogynistic advertising. I am not a supporter of PETA for the same reason.  If you treat women like objects to be abused you are scum in my eyes. But I have to admit I’m with PETA on calling for a boycott of GoDaddy.

As I have stated before I am an omnivore, not a vegan, yet I still try to exercise some degree of consciousness by eating locally and by boycotting those huge corporations that have been charged with animal cruelty or unconscionable acts of ecological abuse.

Boycott Go Daddy….

And a big Fuck You Finger to GoDaddy founder and CEO Bob Parsons

I hope your sexist dickwad company tanks…

PETA closes GoDaddy account after CEO kills elephant

From Reuters: http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/04/01/us-media-godaddy-idUSTRE7307FH20110401

By Sofia M. Fernandez
Fri Apr 1, 2011

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) – GoDaddy founder and CEO Bob Parsons is under fire for killing an elephant in Zimbabwe.

A video of the hunt was posted on Parsons’ blog, along with a picture of him next to the dead animal. The video provides a scene-by-scene description of the shooting and concludes that Parsons’ action was just because it helped farmers scare away elephants that were damaging crops and that the dead pachyderm fed many villagers.

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) closed its account with GoDaddy in response to the video and urged others to follow suit.

From The Village Voice: http://blogs.villagevoice.com/runninscared/2011/03/godaddy_ceo_kills_elephant.php

GoDaddy CEO Bob Parsons is the target of some animal activist ire based on the above video of him “saving” an African village from an elephant who was ruining crops. The clip starts off with ominous music as the hunters show the animal damage and then stalk their enemy. Cue darkness, loud noises. “Bob Parsons fires first,” the text reads. “Bob Parsons fires again. Both shots hit home.” There’s a photo of Parsons proudly standing over the dead animal’s carcass. Then it gets really weird.

AC/DC’s “Hells Bells” comes on, triumphantly, as “hungry villagers butcher the elephant.” A majority of the male villagers are wearing bright orange GoDaddy hats, which get a special zoom-in from the camera.

What a scumbag.  Tank his company.  Register your domains with:  Domain.com, an animal-loving, non-sexist competitor of GoDaddy.com – we want to offer all the disgruntled GoDaddy customers out there a special offer this week.

But this is not the only Eco-Atrocity I Learned of this Week

From Paul Watson of Sea Shepherd I learned about a serious case of animal abuse in China, where the consumption of the parts of endanger species because of a belief in their powers to erect dead dick is common place.  Where they kill dogs and cats for their skins which are then passed off as fake fur.

Just when you think you’ve heard of practices that represent the pinnacle of cruelty the Chinese manage to top it with something else.

From Paul Watson:  http://www.facebook.com/notes/captain-paul-watson/sealed-with-the-kiss-of-death-for-good-luck/182147778498580

Sealed with the Kiss of Death for Good Luck

By Captain Paul Watson

Just when you thought that there is a limit to the extremes that human cruelty can go, along comes another horrific example of the inhumanity of human kind.

Of course in pointing this out, I open myself up to charges of racism because these particular little gems of eco-sadistic madness are being sold as trinkets in China.

But enough is enough, sealing turtles and fish in plastic pouches to die of suffocation and starvation for the amusement of shallow hominid minds is simply monstrous, and any person who sells these items, or worse who buy them, is a deviant sociopath within every definition of that pathology.

Keyrings! Useless plastic crap, but this time incorporating a living, breathing, sentient being imprisoned within a plastic packet to be tossed about, thrown down on the table, dangling from the ignition, inflicting unbelievable stress on the starving animal within until the creature expires from lack of oxygen, if not from shock and trauma.

Any human being who has purchased this item is a shameless, barbarous, despicable monster regardless of their sex, race or frigging anthropocentric beliefs.

This kind of cruelty goes above and beyond any acceptable morality and is simply perverse.

And this “product” is becoming a popular consumer item in China!

Continue reading at:  http://www.facebook.com/notes/captain-paul-watson/sealed-with-the-kiss-of-death-for-good-luck/182147778498580

http://www.inquisitr.com/102233/moron-dept-turtles-in-a-purse-or-a-goldfish-your-choice/

Turtles in a purse – or a goldfish, your choice

What you are looking at up there in that photograph, and below,  is the hottest little trinket being sold outside of Chinese subway stations.

Yup, you get your choice of a Brazil turtle or two small kingfish sealed inside of a small plastic baggie measuring seven centimeters in length and filled with some sort of colored liquid.

The vendors, who sell the baggies at the entrances to subways or train stations, claim the colored water is a “nutrient rich” solution that allows the live creatures shoved inside a seven centimeter bag to live for a few months, after which–if this story couldn’t get any more depressing–the animals die and, according to Helablog, “rumor has it…the cadavers are heated in the microwave for 15 seconds and eaten while enjoying an ice cold beer.”

If the existence of these keychains wasn’t depressing enough, the fact that they’re not illegal makes them even worse, as China only has a Wild Animal Protection Law, under which these keychains do not happen to fall.

This week two e-mails arrived in the G-mail account I use for this Blog. They were both pretty much the same telling me that someone who spends a good deal of the space on her blog attacking me and others has a new job.  The messages were sent though an anonymous mail service that makes tracking them impossible, but the implication was that I should use this information to go after this person who takes great glee in attacking me and others.

I used to join in attacking people back when I still drank.  Over 10 years of sobriety has changed me a good deal.  I’ve gone back to my roots.

One of my core ethical questions regarding my positions on many issues is from the Black Panther Party, “Are you part of the solution or part of the problem.”

One of the ways I act upon that is in refraining from name calling and bullying.  Particularly of people who seem to have a lot of issues.  Even if they are thoroughly unpleasant and not given to the personal insight that would lead them to seek counseling.  And I am sure as hell not going to mess with their employment.  They will manage to screw that one up on their own.

Over the years I’ve watched the trashing of various people, actual leaders and activists, who put themselves on the line.

Riki Wilchins, (Happy Birthday), the founder of Transsexual Menace and the author of honest and insightful columns that were collected in “Read My Lips“.  I didn’t agree with everything she wrote but Read My Lips was/is still a better and more insightful book than anything ever written by any non-trans person including Dr Benjamin.

She got trashed when she say the problems of gender based discrimination go far beyond transsexual and transgender issues. One of the people at GenderPac, in a personal communication with me described trans-activism as an exercise in “herding cats”.

Sure enough Riki was trashed and condemned as a sell out for moving out of the transgender ghetto and dealing with issues of other forms of gender discrimination>

I’ve had to deal with tons of bullshit from both Transgender Inc and from the HBS/Classic Transsexual set.  My big sin is refusing to embrace “Transgender” as my personal lord and savior….. Oops different group that I’ve alienated.  My refusal to embrace Transgender and the ideology of transsexual being a subset of transgender has brought a lot of bullshit my way. But so too has my refusal to embrace the HBS/Classic Transsexual bullshit.

Transsexualism most impacted my life when I was a transkid and while I was in transition, and has had a lessening impact every year since my labiaplasty in 1973.  The areas where it does impact my life are rarely if ever the focus of Transgender Inc.

Things like being the last of my circle of friends who went through the Stanford Clinic in the years between about 1970 and 75.  It saddens me to know I can’t call someone up, with whom I shared that experience and reminisce about the old days.

Fortunately I have new friends that include sisters who are transgender as well as sisters who are also post-transsexual.  Sobriety has increased my ability to feel empathy, rather than dwell on my own personal hurts.

Which brings me to trashing.

Trashing is a form of bullying.

I called out Autumn Sandeen when she engaged in a 4 part rant on Pam’s House Blend, trashing Ashley Love.

And now I am calling upon those who have decided to fair game Autumn to cut the shit.

That goes for the HBS/Classic Transsexual Mafia and others who have decided to hop on the band wagon.

It is ritual cannibalism, the forming of the circular firing squad that keeps people from actually engaging in activism.

I’m still incredibly pissed off with Autumn and I’m not seeing much in the way of mea culpas on her part.  But nonetheless last year Autumn went to jail for the cause and that counts for a hell of a lot in my book.

The same goes for the trashing of Mara Keisling.  WTF?  This is how the so called community pays back activists who spend years putting forth effort to advance the cause in an extremely hostile environment.  A community where half those taking pot shots hide behind aliases.  Mara’s big crime was failure to gain advances in an environment dominated by whiny Republi-Nazis who begrudge all LGBT/T people even the basics of survival.

I loved Julia Serano’s book “Whipping Girl“, thought it one of the most insightful books I’ve read on transsexualism and transgenderism.  Yet Julia Serano was attacked for not having her surgery and people who had no idea about Julia’s personal circumstances saw fit to tell her how she should run her life.

I blog about this and other stuff but other than Get Equal my activism is more left wing, anti-war, pro labor, pro feminist than trans-anything.

Why would anyone want to subject themselves to the whole vicious environment of getting trashed when there is so much more to life?

I’ve watched what is going on in Maryland.  The operative word is watched, since I live in the D/FW area and I’m not about to go to Maryland for much of anything.  I’ve thought maybe folks should have taken a partial victory instead of acting like getting something was worse than getting nothing.  The frame of genderidentity/gender expression would have at least been in place and people could go from there.

Instead I’ve watched a whole kamikaze number with people lashing out at gays and lesbians for not dropping their struggle for marriage equality (Not all TS/TG people are straight so marriage equality impacts our lives as well.  Further marriage equality means an end to people like Nikki getting her heterosexual marriage challenged as well) to focus on adding Trans to the Maryland anti-discrimination bill.

I’ve been called a separatist for insisting on being called transsexual instead of transgender. Yet I consider myself to fit under the “L” in the alphabet soup more than under the “T”.  If people in Transgender Inc want to split from the L/G it is okay… But don’t expect me to come too.

Maybe if people would just stop calling names and trashing out activists more people would be willing to put their bodies on the line.

Cannibalism is a really sucky way to build a movement.

Rand Paul is a  scumbag, who hates hard working Americans.  Overly privileged Aqua Buddha boy thinks he is better than the hard working people who have their lives shortened by Black Lung.

Fuck you Rand Paul, my grandfather died of miner’s lung.

From Care2.com:  http://www.care2.com/causes/health-policy/blog/rand-paul-black-lung-costs/

posted by: Robin Marty
April 2, 2011

Republican Senator Rand Paul has made it repeatedly clear that he sides with businesses when it comes to absolutely any sort of financial policy or regulation — be it taxes or toilets.  Still, even his own home state of Kentucky seemed somewhat shocked when he stated that there is no reason to continue with any policies to help decrease the instances of black lung among coal miners, declaring any intervention or government regulation too “burdensome” on companies in comparison to the amount of lives it could potentially save.

The Courier-Journal reports:

Sen. Rand Paul questioned the need Thursday for new federal new coal-mining rules to reduce black-lung disease, despite federal figures showing the illness has been on the rise in recent years, killing about 1,500 miners annually.

The Kentucky Republican, a frequent critic of government regulations, said during a Senate hearing that black-lung rates had dropped dramatically since 1969, when a law to combat the illness took effect.

“Every regulation doesn’t save lives,” Paul said at a hearing of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee. “There is a point or a balancing act between when a regulation becomes burdensome and our energy production is stifled. We have to assess the cost.”

Continue reading at:  http://www.care2.com/causes/health-policy/blog/rand-paul-black-lung-costs/

From Equality Matters: http://equalitymatters.org/blog/201104010017

April 01, 2011 6:59 pm ET by Carlos Maza

A House Armed Services subcommittee held a hearing Friday to review the implementation of the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” (DADT) where Republicans ostensibly hoped to find reasons to stall and potentially derail the final repeal of the discriminatory law. But the testimony presented at the hearing gave them very little room to complain.

Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness Clifford Stanley said he saw “no issues or problems” with the repeal of DADT, which is expected to be completed by midsummer. “All is going well,” Stanley said.

Republicans weren’t pleased.

Rep. Austin Scott (R-GA) attempted to make the case that under DADT gay and lesbian service members were being discharged for violating standards of conduct rather than for simply being gay and that training for repeal was costing the military too much money. He was rebuked, not once but twice, by Vice Admiral William E. Gortney, who testified that the majority of soldiers discharged under DADT had not violated standards of conduct and that training had only cost about $10,000, a minuscule  amount considering the military’s annual budget.

Continue reading at:  http://equalitymatters.org/blog/201104010017

Ah but kicking gay and lesbian service member out is far more expensive but the bigots and racists of the Republi-Nazi party consider that money well spent.