Despite Threats Alaskan Women Want You to Know The Real Sarah Palin

Despite threats to their physical safety over a thousand Alaskan women rallied so you would know what they know about Alaskan Governor Sarah Palin.

excerpt from:
Anti-Palin rally organizers receive threats
by Lori Tipton Thursday, Sept. 11, 2008

ANCHORAGE, Alaska-- Opponents of Gov. Sarah Palin's policies are being threatened.

Alaska Women Reject Palin, a local group that opposes the Republican vice presidential candidate, on Wednesday announced plans to host an anti-Palin rally this weekend.

Since that announcement organizers say they've received intimidating messages.

A press release for the Reject Palin rally went out to practically every media outlet in town Wednesday. And one talk radio host decided to share the names and phones numbers of the two contacts on-air.

That decision has left organizers feeling somewhat fearful of practicing their First Amendment rights.

KBYR talk radio host Eddie Burke admits he is a conservative and a "Palinista."

But on Wednesday Burke resorted to name calling when he found out Alaska Women Reject Palin planned to host a Saturday rally.

"They're a bunch of socialist maggots, that's what I'm going to call them -- socialist maggots, that's what they are, a bunch of socialist baby-killing maggots," said Burke.

On Thursday Burke pulled back, a little.

"Yesterday, I was probably a little over the top," he said.

The talk show host encouraged listeners to call the two women listed on the press release, which he calls a public document.

Burke says he released the information across the airwaves because organizers had included their contact numbers in the press release.

But some listeners ended up making abusive threats toward the two rally organizers.

One message said, in part, "You liberals need to get a life. What is wrong with you? You think you speak for everybody? You don't speak for nobody but your individual, stupid selves."

An organizer of the rally said the message "shocked" her. Channel 2 News is not publishing or broadcasting the name of this organizer.

"I was honestly shocked because I couldn't believe that a member of the media would take information that I think is pretty standard in a press release and use it for what seems like pretty unethical purposes, for one thing," the organizer said.

This organizer and another woman have voicemail boxes "full of messages," they say, thanks to Burke.

The messages range from people objecting the rally to personal threats.

"To really abusive, hostile, you know, swearing, personal attacks, name calling," they said.

On September 13, 2008, the "Alaska Women Reject Palin" Rally took place as scheduled.

Thank you to these courageous women.

NARAL Pro-Choice's Statement on the Selection of Joe Biden

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 23, 2008

Statement from NARAL Pro-Choice America on Sen. Barack Obama's Vice-Presidential Selection

Washington, D.C. Nancy Keenan, president of NARAL Pro-Choice America, issued the following statement in response to Sen. Barack Obama's selection of Sen. Joe Biden as his vice-presidential running mate.

"Sen. Biden has consistently expressed support for a woman's right to choose. While we have not agreed with him on every vote, we have a longstanding relationship with Sen. Biden that is open, positive, and constructive, and we are confident this will continue in a new administration under Sen. Obama's pro-choice leadership.

"Most notably, Sen. Biden has a strong record of opposing judicial nominees with hostile anti-choice records. He voted against George W. Bush's two anti-choice nominees to the U.S. Supreme Court, John Roberts and Samuel Alito, and he opposed anti-choice Justice Clarence Thomas' nomination to the Court as well as multiple anti-choice nominees to lower federal courts.

"In addition, Sen. Biden has a strong record in opposition to anti-choice clinic violence and voted to hold anti-choice extremists convicted of violent attacks against doctors and patients at women's reproductive-health centers accountable for their criminal actions.

"Sen. Biden, who is a cosponsor of the landmark Prevention First Act, also has joined us in supporting commonsense efforts to prevent unintended pregnancy by improving women's access to birth control, ensuring teens receive accurate sex education, and supporting family-planning programs."

NARAL Pro-Choice America, which tracks all choice-related votes in Congress, classifies Sen. Biden's record as mixed choice.

http://www.prochoiceamerica.org/

Britain's Woeful Rape Prosecution Rate

"According to government statistics, only 5.7 percent of rapes officially recorded by police in England and Wales end in a conviction."

With a record like this, Britain certainly lacks the credibility to point out women's rights abuses in other nations.


excerpt from:
In Britain, Rape Cases Seldom Result in a Conviction
By Mary Jordan
Washington Post Foreign Service

In Britain, a nation whose justice system has been used as a model around the globe, government officials and women's rights activists agree that rape goes largely unpunished.

Solicitor General Vera Baird, who oversees criminal prosecutions in England, estimated that 10 to 20 percent of rapes are brought to authorities' attention. According to government figures, 14,000 cases a year are reported and 19 out of 20 defendants walk free.

"There will never be proper female equality and appropriate dignity afforded to one-half of the population if it's possible to rape somebody and get away with it," said Baird, one of the highest-ranking women in the British government.

Thousands of victims each year once chose not to go to police because of shame, women's advocates say. Now, the advocates say, the bigger reason is that rape victims feel the system is stacked against them.

A 2005 report commissioned by the police found a "culture of skepticism" in the justice system when it came to rape cases, and recommended shifting the focus from seeking reasons not to believe the accuser to gathering evidence to support the charge.

Lisa Longstaff, spokeswoman for the London-based group Women Against Rape, said rape cases are "not a priority" for busy police and prosecutors and, as a result, "so few rapists get locked up that those who do feel unlucky rather than guilty."

Even some cases that do end in a guilty verdict stir outrage. Last year, a judge sentenced a 24-year-old man to two years in prison for having sex with a 10-year-old after concluding that the girl had "dressed provocatively."

Speak Out Against the Sexual Violence in Iraq

Did you know that approximately 30% of military women will be sexually assaulted while serving their country? Or that women who work as contract employees in Iraq face similar dangers?

Jamie Leigh Jones recently testified at a Congressional hearing that she was drugged and brutally gang-raped by her co-workers in 2005. Three years later, KBR and the military have failed to punish the perpetrators or provide redress for Jamie Leigh.

And now, also three years later, Karen Houppert of "The Nation" reports the horrific experience of another KBR employee who was viciously raped at a KBR compound in Iraq.

In the article, "Another KBR Rape Case" Houppert wrote:

" It was an early January morning in 2008 when 42-year-old Lisa Smith*, a paramedic for a defense contractor in southern Iraq, woke up to find her entire room shaking. The shipping container that served as her living quarters was reverberating from nearby rocket attacks, and she was jolted awake to discover an awful reality. "Right then my whole life was turned upside down," she says

That dawn, naked, covered in blood and feces, bleeding from her anus, she found a US soldier she did not know lying naked in the bed next to her: his gun lay on the floor beside the bed, she could not rouse him and all she could remember of the night before was screaming and screaming as the soldier anally penetrated her while a colleague who worked for defense contractor KBR held her hand--but instead of helping her, as she had hoped, he jammed his penis in her mouth.

Over the next month and a half, she says, she faced a series of hurdles. She would be discouraged from reporting the incident by several KBR employees, she says. She would be confused by the lack of any written medical protocol for sexual assault (as the only medical person on site, she treated herself with doxycycline). She would wander through a tangled maze of interviews with KBR and Army investigators about the incident without any clear explanation of her rights. She would be asked to sign several documents agreeing not to publicly discuss the incident, she says. She describes having her computer--which she saw as her lifeline, her main access to the outside world--confiscated by KBR staff as "evidence" within hours of receiving her first e-mail from a stateside lawyer she had reached out to for help.

And eventually she would find herself temporarily assigned to sleeping quarters between two Army Criminal Investigation Division (CID) officials, who, she says, assured her that it was for her own safety, since her alleged assailants were at the same camp for questioning; they roamed freely. When she wanted to move about the camp to get meals etc., she was escorted.

Smith felt very alone. But she was not.

In fact, a growing number of women employees working for US defense contractors in the Middle East are coming forward with complaints of violence directed at them. As the Iraq War drags on, and as stories of US security contractors who seem to operate with impunity continue to emerge (like Blackwater and its deadly attack against Iraqi civilians on September 16, 2007), a rash of new sexual assault and sexual harassment complaints are being lodged against overseas contractors--by their own employees. Todd Kelly, a lawyer in Houston, says his firm alone has fifteen clients with sexual assault, sexual harassment and retaliation complaints (for reporting assault and/or harassment) against Halliburton and its former subsidiary Kellogg, Brown & Root LLC (KBR), as well as Cayman Island-based Service Employees International Inc., a KBR shell company. (While Smith is technically an SEII employee, she is supervised by KBR staff as a KBR employee.)"

* The name Lisa Smith is a pseudonym

Since Jamie Leigh spoke out, 38 U.S. women, all contract employees in Iraq, have come forward to report crimes of sexual harassment and assault in the workplace. Halliburton/KBR has failed to protect the safety of its contract employees, and, in fact, has fostered an environment wherein sexual violence is accepted. Moreover, the company requires employees to sign a private arbitration agreement, forcing them to give up their right to sue the company or have a trial by jury.

"Halliburton is trying to force this into a secret proceeding, which will do nothing to prevent continued abuses of this nature," Jamie Leigh told Congress. "The United States government has to provide people with their day in court when they have been raped and assaulted by other American citizens."

Due to Halliburton/KBR's pattern of fraudulent and abusive behavior, including fostering a work environment conducive to violence against its own employees, we let's call upon Mr. Robert Kittel, Suspension and Debarment Official of the U.S. Army Legal Services Agency, to debar Halliburton/KBR from future contracts in Iraq.

1. Click here to read CODEPINKer Medea Benjamin's letter to Mr. Kittel (http://www.codepink4peace.org/article.php?id=3988)

2. Click here to send your own letter using this sample email (http://www.codepink4peace.org/article.php?id=3987)

3. Please also sign this petition in support of the Jamie Leigh Act of 2008, which mandates that companies report criminal violations and provide this information to new employees. (http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/424/t/4589/petition.jsp?petition_KEY=922)

For more information, please read the recent New York Times article, "Limbo for U.S. Women Reporting Iraq Assaults" (http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/13/world/middleeast/13contractors.html) and see www.jamiesfoundation.org.


Other actions that you can take:

Volunteer your time or services

Please email your name, address, phone number and how you wish to help to jamie@thejlfoundation.org

• Write your local senator or congressman http://www.congress.org/congressorg/directory/congdir.tt to

• encourage more stringent jurisdictional guidelines for criminal prosecutions of criminal contractors who work outside of the territorial limits of the United States.
• create a protocal for forensic examinations on government contractor victims.

• Sign these petitions
• Petition to hold criminal contractors accountable under enforcable Federal law to Protect Americans working for U.S. contractors in Iraq by signing for the "HR27 MEJA expansion and enforcement act of 2007" to be passed immediately.


• Petition to ban the practice of mandatory arbitration by enacting the "Arbitration and Fairness Act" without delay. This will force accountablity for the way companies treat their employees. The civil rights of workers are at sake.


• Petition to pass the Jamie Leigh Jones Act which will force contract companies who recieve federal contracts and work outside of the territorial limits of the United States to disclose to all applicants statistics on the criminal records of its employees. Crime awareness comes with crime reporting.

Thank you for helping women hold abusive companies accountable and provide justice to courageous women.


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MSNBC Has Crossed The Line

Dear Readers,

Last week, MSNBC correspondent David Shuster stated, while talking about Chelsea Clinton's campaign activities on behalf of her mother, "doesn't it seem like Chelsea's sort of being pimped out in some weird sort of way" by Sen. Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign -- a comment that quickly sparked widespread criticism.

Sadly, this remark is not the first time commentators at MSNBC have relied on sexist or misogynistic stereotypes when talking about current events. Last year, MSNBC canceled its simulcast of host Don Imus' show over his racist and sexist comments about the Rutgers women's basketball players. In January, MSNBC host Chris Matthews was forced to address a controversy ignited by his contention that the reason Clinton is "a U.S. senator, the reason she's a candidate for president, the reason she may be a front-runner is her husband messed around." Instead of tackling the root of the problem, MSNBC used Matthews' purported "apology" in an ad to promote the network's political programming! It's time to tell MSNBC that enough is enough.

Media Matters for America is collecting signatures on a petition to NBC News and MSNBC executives asking them to seriously address the degrading commentary that pervades their broadcasts. I've signed the petition and hope you will too.

Sign the petition by clicking here.

I've included the email from David Brock, president of Media Matters for America, with more information on this important issue.

Dear Friend,

During the past year, three MSNBC commentators have been suspended, reprimanded, fired, or forced to apologize for their sexist and/or racist comments. Rather than address these problems by proactively moving to make certain they do not happen in the first place, MSNBC has instead decided to use these controversies as part of an advertising campaign to promote its political coverage.

>> Take Action Today -- Send a Message to NBC News President Steve Capus

That's right -- MSNBC has turned the recent mea culpa by Hardball host Chris Matthews for his sexist comments into an advertising campaign, using clips of his statement to push MSNBC programming. Left on the cutting room floor, of course, are the portions in which Matthews acknowledged having been "callous," "nasty," and "dismissive" toward Sen. Hillary Clinton.

The pattern of sexism at MSNBC doesn't stop there. Last year MSNBC canceled its simulcast of host Don Imus' show for his racist and sexist comments targeting the Rutgers women's basketball players. It was only after a widespread outcry by individuals, employees of the network, and many organizations, including Media Matters, that the network took action. At the time, NBC News President Steve Capus promised to "continue the dialogue about what is appropriate conduct and speech."

The latest example of the systemic problem of sexism and misogyny on MSNBC's airwaves came last week from correspondent David Shuster when he stated, while talking about Chelsea Clinton's campaign activities on behalf of her mother, "doesn't it seem like Chelsea's sort of being pimped out in some weird sort of way" by Sen. Clinton's presidential campaign. Following criticism from many who found Shuster's comments indefensible and demeaning, MSNBC suspended Shuster indefinitely and aired an apology from him that evening.

>> Take Action Today -- Send a Message to NBC News President Steve Capus

Many know of the high-profile controversies I've noted above, but what about the less publicized incidents of sexist and misogynistic commentary that have gone unacknowledged and uncorrected by NBC News and MSNBC? Media Matters has documented scores of examples. Just last year, MSNBC host Tucker Carlson said of Sen. Clinton: "[T]here's just something about her that feels castrating, overbearing, and scary." Further, Carlson has said of Clinton: "I have often said, when she comes on television, I involuntarily cross my legs."

Just how seriously are these issues being taken?

With Americans going to the polls this year to select the next president of the United States, news organizations like NBC News and MSNBC have a sacred duty to be good stewards of accurate, balanced, and responsible political discourse.

>> Take Action Today -- Send a Message to NBC News President Steve Capus

These controversial comments undercut the foundations of what journalism should be. They turn political news coverage into a sideshow circus, diverting attention from and distorting the real issues Americans face daily.

Reasonable people of every political persuasion agree, as I'm sure you do, that sexist smears should not be a part of legitimate journalistic coverage of the issues or candidates in any race.

It's clear the management at NBC News and MSNBC has consistently failed to address what appears to be the core problem. Please take a moment to sign our petition and send a message to NBC News President Capus that the time for apologies has passed. The time for a real commitment to change is long since overdue. With your help, we can urge MSNBC to change the demeaning tone that its coverage all too often takes and truly address this disturbing pattern once and for all.

>> Take Action Today -- Send a Message to NBC News President Steve Capus

Thank you for your continued support.

Sincerely,

David Brock,
President & CEO
Media Matters for America

P.S. Please pass this email on to your friends, family, and co-workers by clicking here.

Note: MSNBC is certainly not the only network which has sexist commentators. However, over the past few months comments from some of their most prominent media personalities seem to indicate that there is an atmosphere on their network that tolerates sexism and misogyny.

An Insanity Which Cannot Be Explained

There is simply no way to make sense of the violence reported in the following article. It is the type of insane act that seems to defy explanation. The level of sexual violence against women and children in the DR Congo is has reached imaginable heights, or better to say, depths of unbridled hatred.

DR Congo child rape victim dies

An 11-month-old baby girl has died in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo a day after she was raped, the UN says.

The alleged rapist, a man aged 20, has been detained by Congolese police about 140km west of Goma. He faces a life sentence.

Reports of the atrocity came as the Red Cross held a news conference in Geneva to denounce the "systematic violence" against girls and women in DR Congo.

Aid workers blame combatants on all sides for a culture of sexual violence.

ICRC official Dominik Stillhart said that in his recent visit to eastern DR Congo, he found some 370,000 people had been driven from their homes since fighting resumed in December between the army and fighters loyal to renegade General Laurent Nkunda.

"What really shocked me personally the most, was the systematic violence especially against women and girls which is producing immense suffering," Mr Stillhart said.

Shot dead

The UN Mission in Congo (Monuc), which told the BBC of the latest rape atrocity, have themselves been accused by lobby group Human Rights Watch, of failing to act against the widespread use of rape against civilian victims of all ages.

The BBC's Arnaud Zajtman heard the harrowing story of one young victim.

A six-year-old girl named Mushika told our correspondent she was looking after goats in her village when a soldier grabbed her and abused her.

"He laid me on the ground and lifted my skirt... I was trying to shout but he put his hand on my mouth. After he had finished, he ran away. When I tried to walk, I was dizzy."

When the girl's mother discovered what happened she took the child to the military camp where she was asked to point out the man.

"The soldier was then shot in front of me," Mushika said, "but later his uncle came to our home and threatened to kill the whole family to take revenge."

Some 15,000 UN peacekeepers are in DR Congo to secure peace after a five-year conflict officially ended in 2002.

But violence continues to rage in the east.

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/africa/7119567.stm

Published: 2007/11/29 17:38:17 GM

In the following video Amy Goodman of Democracy Now speaks with Congolese Human Rights Activist Christine Schuler Deschryver on Sexual Terrorism and Africa's Forgotten War

Related posts:

Rwandan rebels suspected in Congo massacre

Congo's Wounds of War: More Vicious than Rape

The Hypocrisy of Isiah -- Is It The Hypocrisy of Black America?

OK, where are all of the people who were morally outraged over the Don Imus "nappy headed hos" comment. Isiah Thomas is saying that he's offended if a white man calls a black woman a bitch but not if a black man does the same thing. If that's not hypocrisy then I don't know what it. Sadly this type of thinking is so accepted in the African-American community that it is hardly noted by mainstream media and African-American bloggers. Do a google search and see for yourself. I guess Oprah is going to have to hold another town meeting. plk


SI.com - NBA - Witness says ex-Knicks VP complained about Isiah - Tuesday September 18, 2007 6:53PM

Just months after berating her in expletive-filled tirades, New York Knicks coach and president Isiah Thomas moved from cursing to courting a fellow executive now suing the basketball Hall of Famer for sexual harassment, a former team employee testified Tuesday.

Jeffrey Nix, a 15-year employee of the NBA team, took the stand in U.S. District Court to recount a series of conversations he had with his friend and co-worker, plaintiff Anucha Browne Sanders, throughout 2004.

Browne Sanders, in tones of disgust, detailed how Thomas initially treated her with contempt shortly after his December 2003 arrival in New York, Nix testified.

At one meeting meant to resolve any issues between Browne Sanders and Thomas, the two-time NBA champion guard lashed out at her by announcing, "Don't forget, you f------ bitch, I'm the president of this f------- team," Nix said his friend told him.

Browne Sanders also told Nix, he testified, that Thomas had asked her in March 2004, "What the f--- is your job? What are your job responsibilities, you f------- ho?"

By the end of the year, though, Nix testified that he saw Thomas embracing Browne Sanders in Madison Square Garden after a Knicks' victory -- and watched as his friend pushed the coach away.

"You're not going to believe what he just said," Nix quoted Browne Sanders as saying. "He just said, `I'm in love with you. It's like (the movie) `Love and Basketball.'"'

During the questioning, Thomas also said he would find it more offensive if a white male called a black female a "bitch," than if a black male made the same comment.