Zainab al-Khawaja, a human rights activist in Bahrain, writes a letter from prison about why she is on a hunger strike and how Martin Luther King Jr. guides her acts of civil disobedience.
Guest blogger Seema Jilani writes about a Pakistani girl who, after being shot alongside Malala Yousafzai last year, is struggling under threats from the Taliban.
Guest blogger Shalini Kantayya writes about her own experience of sexual assault in India, and the unacceptable response she received from American and Indian institutions.
I have my winner for my annual win-a-trip contest: a journalism student at University of Wisconsin at Madison who blogs and produces videos -- and has spent a couple of years in the Peace Corps in Kyrgyzstan.
Guest blogger Lisa Shannon argues that Secretary Clinton must speak up about the recent mistreatment of rape victims when she meets with Somalia's new president on Thursday.
I love snooping in on Right Wing crazies to find out what’s inside their brains. Most of the time, I come up empty, but I try not to seem to stunned by the fact.
Fox News CEO, Roger Ailes, has a personal blog and I found his entry on Easter Sunday rather amusing:
Happy Easter
Or, as John McCain calls it, the Jewish Custer’s Last Stand.
The Senator has no campaign events scheduled for today, as he will spend the entire holiday hunting, unsuccessfully, for the Easter eggs he hid last night.
So while all of those “Hillary Lovers” out there are yucking it up over Obama having to defend his personal and religious beliefs, here comes the Photo Op of the week on the NYT – courtesy of the Obama campaign staff.
Among those in attendance, was the Rev. Jeremiah Wright Jr., who is seen shaking hands with Mr. Clinton in a photograph provided today by the Obama campaign. Mr. Wright’s relationship with Senator Barack Obama, as his longtime pastor, has been the subject of considerable controversy in recent days because of incendiary excerpts of sermons Mr. Wright gave at their church, Trinity United Church of Christ, in Chicago.
In providing the photograph to The New York Times, the Obama campaign appeared to be trying to divert some attention to the Clintons after a week in which Mr. Obama’s relationship with Mr. Wright has left him facing one of the biggest challenges of his campaign. There is nothing in the picture or the note that addresses whether Mr. Clinton had met Mr. Wright prior to the White House meeting or whether he or Mrs. Clinton knew anything about Mr. Wright’s views.
Anybody out there holding their breath that Hillary will give a stump speech defending her religion? Email me and I’ll make sure you get a nurse and an oxygen tank ASAP.
This deserves no explanation – the joke writes itself. From The Hill:
While reporters were hovering outside a Capitol Hill conclave of the Michigan and Florida delegations last Wednesday night, Rep. Neil Abercrombie (D-Hawaii) just happened to come by to use the restroom, which he did.
But when he emerged, flashing lights surprised him as several cameramen pointed their lenses at Abercrombie. They had been given instructions to shoot any live bodies they could see.
Being from Hawaii, Abercrombie doesn’t have a dog in the Michigan-Florida delegation fight, but there he was, caught in the glare of the cameras like the proverbial deer in the headlights.
Momentarily stunned by the three cameras staring him in the face, Abercrombie decided to have a little Aloha State fun when he looked back toward the restroom and shouted:
“Come on, Larry, it’s all over!”
To be clear, there was no one else in the restroom at the time, including Sen. Larry Craig (R-Idaho) — the obvious Larry in question.
And while I don’t need any more kitchen appliances, nor do I have any more counter space in my kitchen – in fact, I don’t even drink tea, hot or cold – but I have to have this particular teapot. Put it on your list and I promise I’ll be better behaved than I was last year. (Asking price is $179 US)
Thank you.
(And thank you snarfd and azrhey. For without you, I wouldn’t be nearly the shallow, materialist and pathetic twit that I am right now.)
State lawmakers have passed nonbinding resolutions to end the war in Iraq and impeach Bush and Cheney, and several towns have also passed resolutions of impeachment. None of them have caught on in Washington.
Pretty dumb, don’t you think? Especially when you head on to the next paragraph:
Bush has never visited the state as president, though he has spent vacations at his family compound in nearby Maine.
In Brattleboro, the vote was 2,012 for and 1,795 against. In Marlboro, it was 43 to 25, with three abstentions.
“I hope the one thing that people take from this is ‘Hey, it can be done,”‘ said Kurt Daims, 54, who organized the petition drive that led to the Brattleboro vote.
He said he hopes Bush and Cheney are never arrested here; he wants them impeached before that could happen.
Organizers of the campaign to have these two thugs arrested complained because the ballot included their measure on the back of the form. They wanted the measure front and center on the front cover!
Organizers of the indictment campaign were frustrated that the printed ballot ended up relegating the Bush-Cheney indictment article to the back side, which they said would cause some people to miss it.
The 8-by-14-inch yellow cardboard ballot listed the offices and candidates in the local election on one side, and at the bottom in block letters “Turn Ballot Over and Continue Voting.”
The article read: “Shall the Selectboard instruct the Town Attorney to draft indictments against President Bush and Vice President Cheney for crimes against our Constitution, and publish said indictments for consideration by other authorities and shall it be the law of the Town of Brattleboro that the Brattleboro Police, pursuant to the above-mentioned indictments, arrest and detain George Bush and Richard Cheney in Brattleboro if they are not duly impeached, and prosecute or extradite them to other authorities that may reasonably contend to prosecute them?”
In spite of all the hub-bub going on – people forgot to turn the ballot over anyway. (Which is astounding, if you ask me.) Said:
Barbara Southworth, a 66-year-old nurse, said she would’ve voted against it.
“I forgot to vote because it was on the flip side,” she said.
Check out the last sentence on Deutsche Welle on the exact same story:
Voters in two towns in the US state of Vermont have approved a measure that would instruct police to arrest President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney for “crimes against the Constitution.” The nonbinding, symbolic measure, passed in Brattleboro and Marlboro instructs local police to extradite Bush and Cheney to other authorities that may prosecute them. Lawmakers in Vermont, a state known for its liberal politics, have passed nonbinding resolutions to end the war in Iraq and to impeach Bush and Cheney. None of them have caught on in Washington.
That’s pretty damned funny.
Here’s a really cool video I found on YouTube on the topic (Especially the last two older gentleman):
The Trail Blazers Blog of the Dallas Morning News has this piece as of this morning:
Hillary Clinton and her campaign is pushing for precinct captains for Texas’ 8,000 Democratic polling places. They need to train folks to lead the caucus sessions that will determine more than 60 delegates after the primary voting is over.
In training materials being handed out by the Clinton campaign, it is clear that they want to control those caucus sessions.
The materials say in part, “DO NOT allow the supporter of another candidate to serve in leadership roles.”
It goes on to say, “If our supporters are outnumbered, ask the Temporary Chair if one of our supporters can serves as the Secretary, in the interest of fairness.”
The control of the sign-in sheets and the announcement of the delegates allotted to each candidate are the critical functions of the Chair and Secretary. This is why it is so important that Hillary supporters hold these positions.”
It’s right out of Stalin’s playbook. “It’s not who votes; it’s who counts the votes.”
And I couldn’t agree more. Clinton’s campaign is looking more and more like it’s a dictatorship movement who’s willing to throw her dissenters in jail. Let’s not forget the fiasco with the Clinton KOA in Clark County, Nevada. As we’ve seen the dirt and slime out of the Bush Administration, Clinton’s actions like this only means we’ll be seeing more Bush Style of politics while she’s in Office.
Why can’t the Clinton Campaign play fair?! Because they’d lose if they didn’t.
Because Clinton is their patsy, that’s why. It’s the perfect win-win for the GOP. If Hillary Clinton wins the Dem ticket, they create a “Lesser of Two Evils” to the American public. The GOP gets to rally their troops and get McCain in. But, if Hillary wins, they already have her in their pocket anyway.
But if Obama is the Dem – the game’s over with. Out with allof the gunk in Washington DC and in with everything new.
My husband life partner were watching Real Time with Bill Mahr with Representative Jack Kingston (R-GA) desperately trying to sound like a buffoon. During the show, Kingston questions Barack Obama’s patriotism because he doesn’t wear a US Flag lapel pin on his jacket. The audience moans in utter disbelief, and yet both of us spotted that Kingston wasn’t wearing a lapel pin either!
“Hypocrite!”
Yesterday, Congressman Kingston shows up on MSNBC’s Live with Dan Abrams who’s segment is a focus on the right-wing smear machine. “Home Skillet” immediately ponders the patriotism of someone who doesn’t wear such a lapel pin on his outer jacket, he thinks there’s cause to question one’s patriotism. This time, Dan Abrams catches him at it and points out to the Congressman that he’s not wearing one himself! Watch the sputtering here.
It might be pedantic of me to point out that in 1992, when Congressman “Home Skillet” ran for US House of Representatives in the 1st Congressional District of Georgia; he ran on the platform saying:
“I have a Democrat’s heart and a Republican’s brain. You have to have a heart, but a brain, too, to solve problems,”
These Republicans: Sometimes you want to shove your thumbs into their eyeballs and smack them upside their empty little heads. Enter DailyKos, Crooks and Liars and TPM and the rest of them to do just that:
When the Clinton campaign plane took off from Texas this afternoon, one person was missing: Hillary Rodham Clinton.
Where was she?
Mrs. Clinton hopped another plane bound for New York will she will appear later tonight on Saturday night Live, much the way Senator Barack Obama of Illinois did last year. It’s a surprise walk-on, and comes as Mrs. Clinton is finding new places to take her campaign appeal (She is appearing on Comedy Central last week).
But they always leave the best part in the last paragraph:
In what is perhaps not the greatest bit of show business timing, Mrs. Clinton will be sharing the Saturday Night Live bill with Wilco, the popular alt-country Chicago band which has become one of the biggest boosters of – you guessed it, Mr. Obama. (The Obama stickers could be spotted on the band’s gear when it showed up for a two-night stand at 9:30, the Washington music club this week.)
How easy can I find a picture of Barack Obama hugging a Wilco band member?
phphphphphph….
“Jesus Christ our president…” Wilco lead singer Jeff Tweedy sang in a Woody Guthrie song written before Obama’s candidacy.
But from the enhusiastic cheering for the man Tweedy introduced as “the next president of the United States,” it might have seemed like it was written for Obama.
If gay people were in charge of FEMA; all of those people in New Orleans would not only have bottled water, but they'd also have sun-screen and ponchos in three different colors!
-The Agenda with Joe Solmonese on XM Radio
I love snooping in on Right Wing crazies to find out what’s inside their brains. Most of the time, I come up empty, but I try not to seem to stunned by the fact.entire holiday hunting, unsuccessfully, for the Easter eggs he hid last night.
meeting or whether he or Mrs. Clinton knew anything about Mr. Wright’s views.
From 
Organizers of the campaign to have these two thugs arrested complained because the ballot included their measure on the back of the form. They wanted the measure front and center on the front cover!
In spite of all the hub-bub going on – people forgot to turn the ballot over anyway. (Which is astounding, if you ask me.) 
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