Puppet MastersS


Life Preserver

Rand Paul: I don't understand same-sex marriage

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Republican Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, who describes himself as a libertarian, said Wednesday that he opposed the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) because it could unintentionally result in same-sex marriage becoming legal.

"I believe in traditional marriage," he said during an interview with Bryan Fischer of the American Family Association. "I really don't understand any other kind of marriage. Between a man and a woman is what I believe in, and I just don't think it is good for us to change the definition of that."

Bad Guys

Woman accuses NYPD of handcuffing 7-year-old son for 10 hours

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© AFP Photo
A New York City woman has threatened to sue the local police department for $250 million for allegedly handcuffing her 7-year-old son and accusing him of beating up another child over $5.

The New York Post reported on Wednesday that, according to Frances Mendez, she found her son, Wilson Reyes, cuffed to a wall at 14th Precinct headquarters, after being mistakenly accused of stealing the money.

Pistol

Sen. Graham brags about his AR-15 at home

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Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) said Wednesday during a Senate committee hearing on gun control that he is a proud owner of an AR-15 assault rifle, and personally hesitant to restrict magazine capacity because such a decision, he said, could give rise to gun-packing mothers running out of bullets when faced by a criminal threat.

"You could find yourself in this country in a lawless environment from a natural disaster or a riot," he said. "I have an AR-15 at home, and I haven't hurt anybody, and I don't intend to do it."

The Republican senator added that he would carry his assault rifle around his neighborhood in the event of "a law and order breakdown," then said that magazine capacity should not be restricted because "there could be a situation where a mother runs out of bullets because of something we do here."

Health

Military provides inadequate care for injuries suffered during sexual assaults

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© Flickr/isafmedia
Some women in the military are still receiving inadequate care for sexual assault, a Government Accountability Office (GAO) report published Tuesday found. The report found that "not all first responders had completed the required training," even after a 2005 Department of Defense directive mandated "a comprehensive policy for the prevention of and response to sexual assault." One servicewoman even reported an inability to gain access to yeast infection treatment.

Though GAO found that the military "has not established guidance for the treatment of injuries stemming from sexual assault - a crime that requires a specialized level of care." Often, officers assigned to be "victim advocates" for those who had suffered sexual assault "are not always aware of the specific health care services available to sexual assault victims."

GAO investigated three military installations in the United States and seven Afganistan installations, as well as looking at eight Navy ships. The investigators talked to 92 servicewomen, 60 of whom said they believed they were receiving "generally" adequate care, but 8 reported deficiencies in female-specific health care.

"At one location we visited in Afghanistan," the report said, "a female airman told us that she believed the military was trying to meet the health needs of women, but still had work to do - noting, for example, that a medication she was prescribed had given her yeast infections."

Gold Seal

Obama's non-closing of GITMO, kind NYT headlines, and US government irony

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© Photograph: Brennan Linsley/APAn image of President Barack Obama is put up in the lobby of the headquarters of the US naval station at Guantánamo Bay.
The excuse used to justify Obama's failure to close GITMO is incomplete and misleading. Plus: multiple other items

A few (relatively) brief items worthy of note today:

(1) The New York Times' Charlie Savage reported yesterday that the State Department "reassigned Daniel Fried, the special envoy for closing the prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, and will not replace him". That move obviously confirms what has long been assumed: that the camp will remain open indefinitely and Obama's flamboyant first-day-in-office vow will go unfulfilled. Dozens of the current camp detainees have long been cleared by Pentagon reviews for release - including Adnan Farhan Abdul Latif, a 36-year-old Yemeni who died at the camp in September after almost 11 years in a cage despite never having been charged with a crime. Like so many of his fellow detainees, his efforts to secure his release were vigorously (and successfully) thwarted by the Obama administration.

Perfectly symbolizing the trajectory of the Obama presidency, this close-Guantánamo envoy will now "become the department's coordinator for sanctions policy". Marcy Wheeler summarizes the shift this way: "Rather than Close Gitmo, We'll Just Intercept More Medical Goods for Iran". She notes that this reflects "how we've changed our human rights priorities". Several days ago, Savage described how the Obama DOJ is ignoring its own military prosecutors' views in order to charge GITMO detainees in its military commissions with crimes that were not even recognized as violations of the laws of war.

Bulb

Why do rape laws still protect spouses?

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© Credit: Shutterstock/Salon
Washington state mulls a long-awaited change to how it defines sexual assault

Planning on raping your spouse in Washington state? The consequences are about to get a lot tougher. Maybe. On Tuesday, lawmakers in the Evergreen State began considering House Bill 1108, which would remove the spousal exemption for third-degree rape and for "indecent liberties."

Washington already has partner rape provisions for first- and second-degree sexual assault - rape that includes violence, overt threat of violence, or is perpetrated on someone physically or mentally incapacitated. Yet the state's current legal system means that prosecutors have to pursue "lesser misdemeanor assault charges" in cases that would otherwise qualify as third-degree if the victim and assailant weren't married. Washington law defines third-degree rape as occurring when "that person engages in sexual intercourse, not married to the perpetrator ... where the victim did not consent ... to sexual intercourse and such lack of consent was clearly expressed by the victim's words or conduct." There you go. You can say no, clearly and explicitly, but if you're married and your assailant didn't slap you around, it's not rape.

Eye 1

Priest, teacher convicted in Pennsylvania church abuse case

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© AP Photo/Matt RourkeThe Rev. Charles Engelhardt
A jury on Wednesday convicted a priest and a teacher in a pivotal church-abuse case that rocked the Philadelphia archdiocese and sent a church official to prison for child endangerment.

The verdict supports accounts by a 24-year-old policeman's son that he was sexually abused by the Rev. Charles Engelhardt and sixth-grade teacher Bernard Shero in about 1999.

The accuser's 2009 complaint describing abuse by two priests and the teacher led to Monsignor William Lynn's landmark conviction last year for endangerment. Lynn is serving three to six years in prison for his role in transferring an admitted pedophile priest to the accuser's parish in northeast Philadelphia.

Document

Tennessee "Don't Say Gay" bill would require teachers to out their students

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© Credit: Tennessee state legislature
Language in the bill also appears to endorse counseling for students who are "at risk" of being LGBT

If you thought that you'd heard the last of Tennessee's "Don't Say Gay" bill after state lawmakers abandoned the legislation last year, think again.

It's back. And it's awful.

Camcorder

Five Broken Cameras: The documentary that should make every decent Israeli ashamed

A documentary on a Palestinian farmer's chronicle of his nonviolent resistance to the actions of the Israeli army.

When his fourth son, Gibreel, is born, Emad, a Palestinian villager, gets his first camera. In his village, Bil'in, a separation barrier is being built and the villagers start to resist this decision. For more than five years, Emad films the struggle, which is lead by two of his best friends, alongside filming how Gibreel grows. Very soon it affects his family and his own life. Daily arrests and night raids scare his family; his friends, brothers and him as well are either shot or arrested. One Camera after another is shot at or smashed, each camera tells a part of his story.


Stormtrooper

The world doesn't need killer mothers: Now lady GIs can kill the poor overseas

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Big step forward for society's ruling rich adding half of the population to its reservoir of cannon fodder as they heavily invest in WMD and their deployment surrounding Iran, China and Russia. But potential recruits should consider how difficult it will be to avoid self-incriminating themselves in obvious crimes against humanity and peace. An Nuremberg style trial is inevitable.

The Secretary of Defense (read War) has, by memorandum, ended the official but unheeded ban on women in combat.

It is a great step forward for society's ruling rich to have added half of the population to its reservoir of cannon fodder as they heavily invest in weapons of mass destruction, deploying them around the world, and surrounding Iran, China and Russia.

Ladies, who will supposedly be rushing to join up, will have known about, or heard a lot about, the death of millions of men, women and children for the American invasions of Korea, Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia, Dominican Republic, Somalia, Panama, Grenada, Afghanistan, Iraq, the bombing of Lebanon, Yemen, Yugoslavia, Pakistan, Libya and military backed covert operations in virtually every country in Latin America, Asia and now Syria, Mali and other African nations, all to, as Martin Luther King Jr. cried out, "maintain unjust predatory overseas investments." [see King Condemned US Wars)