Daily Archives: May 22, 2013

racism

SC Governor Names White Nationalist to Reelection Committee | Hatewatch | Southern Poverty Law Center

South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley is the daughter of Indian immigrants and just the third person of color to be elected governor of a Southern state.

So, one might think she would want nothing to do with racists and anti-immigrant extremists. Not so, apparently.

In anticipation of her 2014 re-election campaign, the Tea Party darling has put together a 164-member steering committee comprising folks from all 46 of her state’s counties. And on that list is one “Republican leader” and Tea Party activist named Roan Garcia-Quintana of Greenville.

The name won’t ring many bells outside of the South Carolina political world. But he’s better known in white nationalist, anti-immigrant and neo-Confederate circles.

Garcia-Quintana is a lifetime member and current board member of the Council of Conservative Citizens (CCC), which is listed as a white nationalist hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center. The CCC is the linear descendant of the old White Citizens Councils, which were formed in the 1950s and 1960s to battle school desegregation in the South, and has evolved into a crudely racist organization. Its website, for example, has published pictures comparing pop singer Michael Jackson to an ape and referred to blacks as “a retrograde species of humanity.”

Garcia-Quintana is also a rabid nativist, even though he’s a naturalized citizen who was born in Havana. He’s executive director of the anti-immigrant group Americans Have Had Enough, based in Mauldin, S.C., where he lives. At the 2008 CCC conference held in Sheffield, Ala., Garcia-Quintana referred to Latino immigration as an “illegal alien invasion.

via SC Governor Names White Nationalist to Reelection Committee | Hatewatch | Southern Poverty Law Center.

peace

German Intelligence Believes Assad Regime Regaining Lost Power – SPIEGEL ONLINE

{So if they were wrong a year ago, why should we believe they got it right now?}

Not even a year ago, German intelligence predicted Syrian autocrat Bashar Assad’s regime would soon collapse. Now, the agency instead believes the rebels are in trouble. Government troops are set to make significant advances, it predicts.

Germany’s foreign intelligence agency, the Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND), has fundamentally changed its view of the ongoing civil war in Syria. SPIEGEL ONLINE has learned that the BND now believes the Syrian military of autocrat Bashar Assad is more stable than it has been in a long time and is capable of undertaking successful operations against rebel units at will. BND head Gerhard Schindler informed select politicians of the agency’s new assessment in a secret meeting.

via German Intelligence Believes Assad Regime Regaining Lost Power – SPIEGEL ONLINE.

Gun-violence

The Day in Gun Violence – NYTimes.com

A 10-year-old girl was shot and killed by a juvenile male in Crozet, Va., Tuesday morning. The shooting happened near the Open Door Ministry Center, which hosts after-school childcare. Police refused to identify the child or the shooter, their relationship, or whether the incident was accidental. “I saw a little girl running and screaming and carrying on and there was another girl or woman running behind her,” a witness said.

via The Day in Gun Violence – NYTimes.com.

Feminism

Brave woman tried to shield body from attackers | Perth Now

According to London’s Telegraph the woman pictured was a 48-year-old Cub Scout leader and mother-of-two.

Ingrid Loyau-Kennett described how she jumped form a passing bus to assist the injured man and tried to persuade the attacker to hand over his weapon.

She says the alleged attacker told her: “We want to start a war in London tonight.”

Mrs Loyau-Kennett, 48, from Cornwall, was first identified on twitter by her son Basil. She was one of the first on the scene and was photographed by other onlookers trying to talk down the man who was still holding the knife.

Of all the things today `I didn’t expect a suspected terror attack in my town and my mum, of all people, to talk to the attackers #Woolwich

— Basil Baradaran (@SiibillamLaw) May 22, 2013

He described his mother as a “motherf—ing badass”.

@lazaroumterror @dannymckiernan @skynews That’s my mother! Ingrid Loyau-Kennett. An unbelievable photo you’ve captured there

— Basil Baradaran (@SiibillamLaw) May 22, 2013

She told the Telegraph: “Being a cub leader I have my first aid so when I saw this guy on the floor I thought it was an accident then I saw the guy was dead and I could not feel any pulse.

@mlilleker They hit the soldier with a car first

— Basil Baradaran (@SiibillamLaw) May 22, 2013

“And then when I went up there was this black guy with a revolver and a kitchen knife, he had what looked like butcher’s tools and he had a little axe, to cut the bones, and two large knives and he said ‘move off the body’.

“So I thought ‘OK, I don’t know what is going on here’ and he was covered with blood. I thought I had better start talking to him before he starts attacking somebody else. I thought these people usually have a message so I said ‘what do you want?’

“I asked him if he did it and he said yes and I said why? And he said because he has killed Muslim people in Muslim countries, he said he was a British soldier and I said really and he said ‘I killed him because he killed Muslims and I am fed up with people killing Muslims in Afghanistan they have nothing to do there.”

“I started to talk to him and I started to notice more weapons and the guy behind him with more weapons as well. By then, people had started to gather around. So I thought OK, I should keep him talking to me before he noticed everything around him.

via Brave woman tried to shield body from attackers | Perth Now.

Feminism

West Point Sergeant Accused Of Filming Female Cadets In Shower: Gothamist

Someone else had to know too and did nothing – the whole dumb culture has to change – NOW!

Sgt. First Class Michael McClendon is described as a “tactical noncommissioned officer” who worked as a staff adviser to 125 cadets at West Point. The Military Times reports that he faces 35 specifications “four articles of the Uniform Code of Military Justice for indecent acts, dereliction in the performance of duty, cruelty and maltreatment, and actions prejudicial to good order and discipline.”

McClendon is alleged to have been in possession of computer files for images of nude cadets, according to a charge sheet obtained by Army Times. The names of the alleged victims were redacted.

Between July 2009 and May 2012, McClendon allegedly made images and videos of a number of women’s exposed bodies, though it is unclear where and how each of the images were created. McClendon in at least some cases is alleged to have entered into a women’s bathroom without announcing himself to film women as they were coming and going from the shower.

via West Point Sergeant Accused Of Filming Female Cadets In Shower: Gothamist.

HumanLoving, racism

Meaness before Mercy and Community – Food Politics » Civics lesson: SNAP amendments to the farm bill

Civics lesson: SNAP amendments to the farm bill

I know the mere words “farm bill” are enough to put any sane person into a coma, but what’s happening in Congress can be quite entertaining if you don’t care what happens.

For example, the bill is so big and covers so much territory that just about every legislator introduces amendments (these are tracked by FarmBillPrimer.org).

Because SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) takes up 80% of farm bill funding to the tune of about $80 billion a year, lots of amendments deal with further decreasing the budget allocation or restoring amounts that have been cut.  So far, none of these has passed.

But legislators have other things they want SNAP to do.  For example, Senator Tom Coburn MD (Rep-Oklahoma) has introduced several amendments pertaining to SNAP, among them:

Amendment 1000 – Junk Food Purchases with SNAP: Requires the Secretary of Agriculture to approve state demonstration projects that limit the purchase of junk food under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. Additional information here.

 

Energy drinks, candy bars, sodas, ice cream, potato chips, fancy bakery cakes and cookies are all eligible foods under the program, as defined by statute…Few people would qualify these goods as “nutritional assistance.”

Amendment 1001 – Food Stamps: Returns the title of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program to its original name, the Food Stamp program. Additional information here.

Congress renamed the Food Stamp Program to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, and made a name change to the underlying legislative bill governing food stamps. Given spending patterns and eligible purchases in the program, though, SNAP is anything but nutritious for recipients or the country as a whole. Instead of misleading the public as to its benefits, SNAP should be renamed its original title, the Food Stamp Program. This name…is also a reminder of the core goal of the program: to serve our nation’s most vulnerable.

Amendment 1002 – SNAP Promotion Limitation: Limits the amount of SNAP funding that may be used to promote increased participation and enrollment in the program to 1% of overall funds and prevents SNAP funding for soap operas and parties. Additional information here.

Giveaways, soap operas, and radio miniseries all may be solid advertising opportunities for private companies wishing to market a product. They are not, however, appropriate uses of taxpayer funds to advocate for greater enrollment in SNAP, which would even further drain the government’s already-depleted coffers.

Want to take bets on whether the Senate, let alone the House, will pass any of these?

via Food Politics » Civics lesson: SNAP amendments to the farm bill.

environment

The Dake Page: Senators Lautenberg and Vitter Announce Bipartisan Chemical Safety Improvement Act

In a surprise move, Democratic Senator Frank Lautenberg (NJ), long a champion of safer chemicals, and Republican Senator David Vitter (LA) jointly announced introduction of the Chemical Safety Improvement Act of 2013.

The bipartisan cosponsors include: co-sponsored by U.S. Senators Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), Mike Crapo (R-ID), Richard Durbin (D-IL), Lamar Alexander (R-TN), Charles Schumer (D-NY), James Inhofe (R-OK), Mary Landrieu (D-LA), Susan Collins (R-ME), Joe Manchin (D-WV), Marco Rubio (R-FL), Robert Menendez (D-NJ), and John Hoeven (R-ND).

via The Dake Page: Senators Lautenberg and Vitter Announce Bipartisan Chemical Safety Improvement Act.

Where’s the catch? Hope it is an improvement…

environment, planetkillers

Cadmium-Laced Rice Found in China · Global Voices

Rice contaminated with high levels of the toxic heavy metal cadmium, dubbed “cadmium rice,” is the latest food scandal in China to trigger public panic and anger among the country’s consumers.

The Guangzhou Food and Drug Administration revealed[zh] on May 16 that eight out of 18 rice samples tested in local markets contained excessive levels of cadmium. Most of the polluted rice comes from the southern province of Hunan, China’s top rice producing province.

“Cadmium in rice usually comes from the soil where it grows, and the soil was polluted by mining and chemical wastes,” Fan Zhihong, a food safety expert at China Agricultural University in Beijing, told the state-run Global Times.

via Cadmium-Laced Rice Found in China · Global Voices.

environment, planetkillers

Monsanto, Bayer seek answers to bee losses – Ruse, wash, hoax

The European Union said this month it would ban the class of pesticides known as neonicotinoids, or “neonics,” used for corn and other crops as well as on home lawns and gardens. Similar constraints in the United States could cost manufacturers millions of dollars in sales.

“We are concerned… that the science sometimes gets trumped by the politics,” said Dave Fischer, an ecotoxicologist at Bayer CropScience who is meeting with bee keepers and studying the bee deaths. He said critics “are searching for a culprit.”

via Monsanto, Bayer seek answers to bee losses.