Haiti: Apocalypse Now

Shocking on so many levels.

-Diane

Pic of the Day

A pair of giant red shoes protrude from the store front as Harrods opens their Wicked Witch Of The East display on December 1, 2009 in London, England.

[Photo by Neil Mockford/Getty Images Europe]

Happy holidays?

Well, we won't get world peace for Christmas again this year, but we can slaughter the hell out of one of the poorest nations in the world with 25 of our friends and allies.


Shittiest compromise deal I've ever heard of.

-Diane

Report: VA Tech officials notified their families, but not students as shooting unfolded

The NYT reported on Friday revisions to the Virginia official report on the Virginia Tech shootings two and a half years ago, that were made at the insistence of the victim's parents:

During the worst campus shooting spree in American history, Virginia Tech officials locked down some administrative offices and warned their own families more than an hour and a half before the rest of the campus was alerted, according to revisions made in the state’s official report on the rampage.

The delay in notifying the rest of the campus of the danger was obviously an inexcusable decision, but it gets worse:

They do not change the original thrust of the report — that university officials could have saved lives by notifying students and faculty members earlier about the killings on campus. But they provide a more detailed picture of the mistakes made by university officials in handling the emergency. The report, for instance, indicates that students who were initially locked down at West Ambler Johnston residence hall, where the first two victims were killed, were later released from the building by the police and allowed to attend their 9 a.m. classes. Two of those students then went to class in Norris Hall, where they were killed by the gunman.

And university officials failed to contact the family of the gunman’s first victim, Emily Hilscher, until after she had died, even though Ms. Hilscher survived for three hours and was taken to two hospitals before her death.

Thirty-two students and faculty members were killed that day. We'll never know how many others may have been spared if there hadn't been a delay in warning the campus.

-Diane

Zombie Pigs

As if pigs aren't creepy enough, now the Pentagon wants to turn them into zombies.

-Diane

'nuff said?

[Photo: REUTERS/Jason Reed]


-Diane

Anti-war activists occupy Senator Levin's office

Via Michael Moore:

GRAND RAPIDS (WZZM) - Instead of sending more troops, some protesters in Grand Rapids think President Obama should bring U.S. forces home from Afghanistan.

"Sending more troops is immoral, illegal and it's not going to result in anything but more deaths," says anti-war activist Jeff Smith.

Tuesday evening, protesters held a demonstration outside the Gerald R. Ford Federal Building. Inside the building, a pair of anti-war activists occupied the office of U.S. Senator Carl Levin and refused to leave when the office closed at 5:30 p.m. ...

-Diane

GOP's health care plan...

-Diane

Who does Obama think he is?

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U.S. Army Chain of Command: By sending 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan, President Obama must be unfamiliar with the chain of command.

-Diane

Photo of the Day

-Diane

Looking for that silver lining

The good news is that the stigma long attached to those receiving food stamps seems to be fading.

The bad news is that now 1 in 8 in the US now depend upon them to feed their families.


-Diane

'The Family': Blood on their hands.

If you missed Raw Story's report on the Ugandan Anti-Homosexuality Bill of 2009 that allows for, among other means of punishment, execution...be sure to read it HERE.

Who are the group of American politicians behind the group,'The Family,' who back this heinous violation of human rights?

From NPR's Terry Gross, via Talk2Action:

GROSS: This is FRESH AIR. I'm Terry Gross. Let's get back to our interview with Jeff Sharlet, the author of the bestseller 'The Family,' about the secretive fundamentalist group that promotes its anti-abortion, anti-gay, pro-free market ideas with the help of several Congressman and Senators who are connected to the group, including John Ensign, Bart Stupak, Joe Pitts, James Inhofe, Tom Coburn, Charles Grassley and Zach Wamp.[Emphasis mine.] The Family is active in America and around the world.

A bit surprising, although not shocking, is that Democratic Representative Bart Stupak (Who also is opposed to complete women's health care services) could be a homophobic hate-monger who is party to the murder of gays.

I anticipate dismal election results for Stupak when he comes up for re-election, assuming he has the audacity to run again, and assuming we can get any Dems to bother to turn out at the polls...


In a perfect world, the rest of Congress and the Senate would condemn this group, and call for immediate resignations.

-Diane