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It seems odd but I have to laugh when I hear someone get hysterical about female genital mutilation happening in the world. I laugh not out of any sick sense of humor or misogyny, but rather at the hypocrisy of these individuals. They cry about women in far off countries having the clitoris forcibly removed but yet they are strangely silent, and in some cases even participating in male genital mutilation. Of course I am referring to the practice of circumcision which involves the removal of the foreskin of the penis which results in the loss of about two million nerves. A few unlucky souls get some souvenirs too like psychological problems. The procedure is done for a variety of reasons. In the Jewish tradition it is done on the eighth day of a boy's life as a sign of the covenant between Abraham and God. It gained popularity in the US as a general practice amid the mistaken notion that there was some connection between intact foreskin and penile cancer as well as other myths. For example in regards to cancer one can just look at the rates of Japan, a country where circumcision is not practiced, and see that is a mere myth. What sparked this entry was TiVo happened to be on the Detroit Fox affiliate when I turned the TV on this morning and Montel Williams happened to be on with a show entitled "Medical Horrors". The promotional clip for the next segment was this woman from the Seattle area talking about having her son circumcised and the doctor coming out and saying "we have a problem". Now even before they got to the part about the botched circumcision, I had to question this woman's intelligence since she said that she felt uncomfortable with the obstetrician that she had been referred to and when she mentioned it to the doctor's own secretary she was told "do not come back" and when she did get another obgyn, she let him talk her back in to coming back with him. The procedure takes about ten to fifteen minutes. This particular doctor took almost forty-five minutes because he cut the artery down there and had to cauterize it. Even better though, during the cauterization process he dropped the instrument which left a scar down the child's stomach and across his penis and testicles. Stuff like this is not isolated either. But stuff like this is not isolated. There have been cases where the penis was damaged so badly that a son becomes raised as as daughter. Boys also have died from exsangination or systemic infection directly caused by the procedure. I definitely am against the procedure. I view it as no different than when a girl is held down and her clitoris is not-so-surgically removed. Even in religious cases I find it to be a form of mutilation. Why? Because even if it symbolizes a covenant with God and whatnot, then it still needs to be a choice made by the child. In fact, some Jewish parents are not having the procedure done allowing their sons to make the choice later in life. I will concede however that it may be medically necessary in some cases. That is actually why the mother in the "raised as a daughter" link had her twin sons circumcised because the boys were having trouble urinating. Another site quotes a man who had frequent urinary tract infections. But again those problems develop later. It is akin to preventing a child from breaking his arm by cutting it off first. What I find the most sickening is that circumcision is a violation of the Hippocratic Oath. "First do no harm" apparently does not have any meaning in the case of circumcision. Since there is no medical reason for arbitrary circumcision why is it still being done? In a side note, there is a bizarre twist to the Seattle area woman's tail though. Remember hearing about a case where an obgyn had a twin brother and that a lot of the patients were sexually assaulted? Well, that is the doctor this woman went to. He was found guilty. Tags: commentary, masculinity I feel : nauseated
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It has been brought to my attention that there is a new distributed computing program available for users now that helps AIDS researches develop a cure. For those of you not familiar with distributed computing, the process works by installing a client that handles everything. It connects to the master server and downloads a block of information and then disconnects. Using your available CPU time, like when the screen saver is activated and such, the client then processes the data block and then, when complete, sends the results back to the server and then grabs a new block. Some notable projects include Distributed.Net, which specializes in mathematical problems like encryption cracking and Golomb Rulers, and SETI@Home, which processes radio signals received from space. Now, available from the World Community Grid is FightAIDS@Home. The Frequently Asked Questions are available here. There really is no reason not to install this software. It is small and nonintrusive as it can be run constantly or merely as a screen saver. AIDS affects everyone. So download the client and sign up. Tags: psa I feel : hopeful
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Holy shit Bre is a psychotic bitch! She has a fit over the fact that someone swiped one of her granola bars that she had just bought and, without any evidence, decided that Nicole did it. In retaliation Bre took some of Nicole's Red Bulls and dumped them down the drain. In a bad move, Kim tried to mediate between the them but Bre went psycho on her. Then, after both her and Bre had finished their shoots, Nicole confronted her and Bre went psychotic again. Girl needs to cancel her subscription to those issues. Mr. Jay overheard Nicole and Kim talking about the incident and so he was filled in. Naturally, since the girls are always being watched by everyone on set, word of the incident got back to Tyra. What is funny is that she had a chance to just admit "Yeah I did it, it was childish and stupid, and I am sorry" but instead she launched into an attack on Kim. Mr. Jay's words described her as 'going for the jugular' which is exactly what she did at judging. Instead she goes off about how the flare up at the photo shoot was all because of Kim. It did not even stop there. When the girls were dismissed so that the judges could deliberate, Bre just went right for Kim's jugular yet again. Kim made a very valid point by trying to shout over Bre and tell her that her anger is what got her into the situation and earned her a dressing down by the judges and so she should just quit right then. Naturally Bre just ignores her. Funny thing is Bre commented on Lisa's insanity. Pot, meet Kettle. Unfortunately when elimination rolled around it was down to Bre and Kim and, since she has not been all that consistent in delivering good photos, Kim was sent home. I was really hoping Bre's little episode earned her a one-way ticket back but unfortunately it was not to be. What is it with the black girls on this show being such bitches? I never saw the first season, but in two we had Camille, Eva was kind of a bitch in Season 3, and Brandy followed by Keenya were bitches in the fourth season. During the third season's casting, Tyra told Eva to her face "I do not want to cast another black bitch." But in the end, their attitude is their down-fall. Only Eva made it all the way and that was probably because her bitchiness was just things like a lack of tact and tendency to speak before thinking as opposed to that of Camille who was just insane with arrogance. Tags: antm, pop_culture, television I feel : shocked
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There has been a big blow-up in the media when people detected a rootkit in Digital Restriction Management (DRM) used by Sony BMG CDs to "protect" the content from being pirated. A rootkit is a set of software programs designed to cloak things on a computer. This may involve something as simple as hiding files to hiding running processes and much more. Naturally Sony BMG neglected to tell its consumers about this. The main concern is that the rootkit would become exploitable by others as rootkits have been used to hide the presence of things like programs that record your keystrokes and such. That concern became reality when malicious software was spotted "in the wild" making use of Sony's rootkit. Sony recalled the CDs and vendors of malicious software protection products like Microsoft and Symantec have publicly stated that their products will detect and remove Sony's rootkit with or without Sony's blessing. According to the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and its sister organization, the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), I am a criminal. I have been judged guilty without facing my accusers, without a trial, and without my guilt being determined by a jury of my peers. Instead I apparently announce my guilt when I buy a CD. That purchase tells the record label that I will be pirating the album instead of enjoying it. I apparently will be making MP3s of the tracks not to add to my library stored on my computer or to listen to on my MP3 player, but instead will put them on networks like KaZaA and package them to send over BitTorrent. Though I have never seen it, sometimes I feel like I am in Tom Cruise's position in the movie Minority Report. But instead of the Pre-Crime division coming after me, it is agents of RIAA/MPAA because I may commit piracy. But I guess this is the new attitude of content providers in US today - treat your customers like criminals. When we buy a CD/DVD today, we no longer own it, we just rent it. Media we paid for with our money has to be used on their terms. Unfortunately it works because either way they still end up making money. Why? Because people will still buy the media. Sony makes my hair hurt oh so much though. In an article on C|Net's News.Com, it is discussed how the rootkit that Sony BMG apparently has used open source software like the LAME MP3 encoder, but yet the rootkit in and of itself is closed source. This is incredible hypocrisy on Sony's part. Why? Because under the rules of open source software, any piece of software that integrates open source software must also be open source. If the rootkit merely called upon a separate instance of the LAME encoder and the other open source software found in the rootkit they would have been fine. But since the code was integrated into the rootkit's executable, they committed.... you guessed it.... copyright infringement. Kind of ironic that Sony positions itself as a "defender of artist's rights" but yet tramples on those same rights when it comes to software programmers. The thing that bugs me the most is that with all these copy protections, broadcast flags, and other such "protection" crap content providers have missed the picture big time. Do they honestly think they will ever stop piracy? They may succeed in pushing it underground on occasion but as we have seen historically they always find something new and come back. The new protections they devise are today's inconvenience for pirates, nothing more. The bottom line - Criminals will engage in criminal behavior with the content. What these restrictions end up doing is merely punish those who are honest and will abide by the non-distribution and non-commercial use restrictions. Tags: commentary, computers I feel : annoyed Ambient Sounds of : Patrice Rushen - Forget Me Nots
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America's Next Top Model finally delivered for me tonight. One of the girls I want to go home was sent packing and, as an added bonus, Lisa was the one who got sent back to the US. It was down to her an Jayla but the judges tonight had finally had enough of Lisa's over-the-top antics. I am definitely revising my opinion of Bre though. In the beginning she seemed shy and not too sure of herself. This bought her a spot on the bottom two a few weeks ago. But now she has improved and is taking great photos. But her attitude has shifted from shy and insecure to haughty. She could easily take Lisa's place in terms of my disdain. Her, Jayla, and Nik all went after Kim because she is a little gossipy. Big deal? Bre tells Kim that it is something she needs to work on as all of them have at least one thing they all need to work on. At first I thought this was very admirable of her because rather than just tear Kim down, she said what she felt needed to be said and then offered some encouragement. But in her little commentary of it, she says things about "keeping [her] enemies closer." The preview of next week's episode kind of reinforces that because she goes after Kim, again, calling her an ugly person and such. Personally, I think she needs a dose of reality. During the third season, the girls got a chance to meet and chat with the winner of the second season, Yoanna House, specifically mentions that the girls just need to focus on what they are doing themselves and not concentrate on what the other girls are doing. I think this is where Bre is going to mess up eventually because she does seem a little too preoccupied with other people in the house are doing. Tags: antm, pop_culture, television I feel : blah
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I had to bust out laughing when I read this news story on 365Gay.Com. Apparently in their paranoid thrust to "defend" marriage against us evil homosexuals, the state of Georgia neglected to actually look at its marriage laws and note something more than a little disturbing. In an effort to prevent children born out of wedlock, Georgia passed a law that allows for children to get married, regardless of the age of either spouse, with the only requirement being that the woman is pregnant. This law is currently being used by a Florida woman who wed the the fifteen year-old boy she had been having a relationship with just prior to her arrest. Her defense attorney plans to use a Supreme Court ruling that bans the use of statements made by a spouse. If it holds, which it probably will, the statements the boy made to the police and anything based upon them are inadmissible as evidence. The kicker though is that, in spite of being told by a Florida woman who wrote the every single member of the GA legislature and confirming what she told them, Republican leaders do not endorse changing the law. The quote from Rep. Karla Drenner, the only openly gay person elected to state office, sums it all up: "We're protecting society from the perceived threat of homosexual marriage, which was already illegal. But yet if you're pregnant, you can get married -- and it doesn't matter if you're 9 years old or 10 years old." Of course the Republicans state that they will strengthen sex offender laws but, as I pointed out, that will not stop this problem because of the aforementioned ruling from the US Supreme Court. It is simply amazing the level of hypocrisy that exists. Democrats who refuse to vote of a constitutional ban on Gay Marriage are labeled as supporting it. So I guess since these Republicans do not endorse a ban on minors getting married, they in fact support child marriage. Tags: commentary, fucked_up_shit, politics I feel : amused
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I just got home from the Thompson-Prometric testing center. I have survived the GRE exam and I think I did pretty well. I am a little upset with myself because I rushed a little bit during the Math exam and accidentally cubed a number I meant to merely square so I answered that one quantity was bigger than the other when they were actually the same. But combined I got an 1140/1600 or 71.25%. I do not remember which exam I got which score on but they were 550 and 590. I think I did better on the Math but I will have to wait for the final test report which I will get in 2-3 weeks. The writing exam had me a little worried when I went in but I managed to pull through for the essay I had to write taking a position on the issue. One of my recent LiveJournal postings actually came into play for that one which I found amusing. When it came to analyzing an argument I think I totally just laid waste to it. I was presented with an argument based on an empirical study and, thanks to the courses I took with my adviser, I was able to easily spot the problems with the experiment and just went at it like a piñata. In terms of my scores being "good" or not in terms of admission, the only figure I have seen was 1,000 which was used to describe the reading/math exam scores so I hope the writing exam just vaults me even higher. But now that it is over, I can relax now. This exam has totally stressed me out and the protocol at the testing center does absolutely nothing to assuage it either given the fact I sign several documents and I am video taped the entire time. I also have a very low opinion of standardized testing because it is not really a valid measure in my opinion. The purported racial, gender, and socio-economic biases aside, I do not believe that these exams are accurate of real-world situations. For example if I need an antonym for the word "quixotic" in writing a paper or something, I will have access to some sort of thesaurus and such. If I am going to do a factorial analysis of variance for an experiment, I will not need to be able to regurgitate the formula on cue, I will be able to look it up if I need to. In fact my undergraduate statistics class had the math portion of exams open-book. Oh well. Now I can go back to doing my application training and stuff and work on getting some job skills since I got some major depressing financial news yesterday in regards to my student loans. Tags: education I feel : relieved
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Wow... just when I thought social conservatives could not appear to be any dumber, The Washington Post comes out with this article. The pharmaceutical companies Merck, of Vioxx infamy, and GlaxoSmithKline have developed a vaccine that appears to be 100% effective in preventing two of the strains of the Human Papilloma Virus, which causes the sexually transmitted disease commonly referred to as "genital warts", that are responsible for cervical cancer in women. Both companies would like to see the vaccinations made mandatory for teenagers before puberty as research shows that prepubescence is the ideal time to administer the shot and have it be fully effective. Even though cervical cancer is obviously only something women can get, boys would receive the shot too in order to prevent further infections. Naturally since HPV is classified as a sexually transmitted disease, conservatives are screaming how such a shot would "encourage sexual activity". The proponents of the universal failure known as 'Abstinence-Only Education' think that because the vaccine makes sex a little bit safer, people will engage in it. Of course they neglect several facts such as: - The HPV vaccine combats two strains known to be the most cancer causing. There are other strains not covered much like the meningitis vaccine only is partial protection. Chlamydia in particular is one concern because majority of people who have it do not show symptoms and therefore are unknowingly infecting others.
- HPV is not the only STD out there. There's herpes, syphilis, chlamydia, gonorrhea and of course good 'ol HIV. So removal of HPV does not remove any of those other threats.
- HPV is a disease that, like herpes, can be spread even if all safety precautions like condoms are taken.
- HPV is not only the most common viral STD, but is the most common STD period due to the fact that it can be spread by only skin-on-skin contact even if a condom is used.
- Since HPV is the most common STD out there, the possibility exists that people with meet, marry, and have sex with individuals who have HPV. Even though an individual has been abstinent for their entire life up to that moment, they are still at risk.
The director of the National Cervical Cancer Coalition, Alan Kaye, had the best quote in the article: "Just because you wear a seatbelt doesn't mean you're seeking an accident." That describes it perfectly. Most of the gay men I know, myself included, have condoms on hand. Does this mean that any or There is a broader issue here though. Even though cervical cancer strikes about 10,000 women annual and kills about 3,700 of them, HPV is not that serious of a disease. Neither is herpes. What concerns me is what happens when the day comes and there is a vaccine for HIV? Will these same idiots throw tantrums and shriek about how a mandatory vaccination against HIV would be encouraging teenagers to engage in sexual activity? Will these idiots still have the power to block such vaccinations as Bush's ineptitude allows them to do now? One thing I hope for is that the health insurance industry, as much as I am critical of them at times, jumps in on this one and sets up a situation to make vaccination look infinitely better. And I am not talking about just covering the vaccination with little or no co-pay either. Because money is the ultimate motivator in this country, I am talking about making women who were able to receive the vaccine prior to puberty but did not pay more for any treatment of HPV and/or cervical cancer. I also hope a group of people in power will have the balls to stand up and tell these conservatives to fuck off and that the health of the population comes before their delusional moral superiority. I would definitely do it. And if I was in such a position, I would also add that if these parents are so worried that a vaccine would suddenly cause a rise in teen sexual activity, then they must not be very good parents. Tags: commentary, politics I feel : pissed off
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Because everyone loves a rap feud, 50 Cent has decided to come out and say how Kanye West was wrong when he declared "George Bush doesn't care about black people" during the live telethon for victims of Hurricane Katrina that aired on NBC. According to 50 Cent, "The New Orleans disaster was meant to happen. It was an act of God" and that, in reference to West's comments, "I don't know where that came from." Well if 50 Cent had been paying attention about two months ago he would have seen where West's comments were coming from. Like images from the New Orleans Superdome where a lot of people, mostly black, were sitting around with no climate control, no food, no water, no decent facilities and no one was doing anything about it in spite of there being more than enough resources to get them at least food and water. It also came from Associated Press photos that were being labeled differently depending on the race of the people depicted. Timing of these comments is also very suspect. 50 Cent stars in his own version of 8 Mile called "Get Rich or Die Tryin". Mysteriously it opens next week. Sounds exactly like Young DeBarge when he made the announcement that Janet Jackson and his brother James have a secret daughter born during their brief marriage. Coincidentally Mr. DeBarge happens to have released an album and is currently promoting it. Tags: commentary, politics, pop_culture I feel : amused
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To listen to Senator Majority Leader Bill "I-can-diagnose-anything-via-edited-vide otapes" First (R-TN), the US Senate was "hijacked by the Democratic leaders" who "no convictions", "no principals", and "no ideas". This comes after the Senate was forced into a closed-door session for the first time since former President Clinton's "trial". Sometimes I wonder if people really are too stupid and/or ignorant to see the hypocrisy in that man and the Republican party of today. His use of the word "hijack" is ironic considering he is the same man who continuously threatens to hijack the Senate and change the rules because Democrats do not want Republicans putting judicial activists like Priscilla Owen into life-long judicial appointments. So when Democrats opt to use the filibuster, First responds by threatening to change the rules. First also claims the move was a "political stunt" on the part of Senator Harry Reid (D-NV). Of course First neglects his own "political stunt" when he helped "hijack" not only the Senate but the House of Representatives as well in order to ram through legislation to "protect Terri Schiavo's right to judicial process" because, after viewing heavily edited video tape First, a doctor but not a neurologist, was able to make a prognosis for her recovery in spite of the fact independent experts who actually are neurologists had said otherwise and that imaging of Terri's brain showed large areas where the cerebral cortex was gone and replaced with fluid which is something that current medical science cannot reverse. Of course the child in Texas who was in the same situation Terri Schiavo was in get neglected... probably because the order to remove the child from life support against his mother's wishes was signed on authority of George W. Bush when he was governor of Texas. In a larger sense though, it seems like Republicans have a very short memory because it was only a decade ago when they did even worse to then President Clinton. To this day I fail to see how receiving oral sex in the oval office has anything to do with a supposed real estate scam. And on that same vein, Republicans and their apologists were scoffing at independent council Patrick Fitzgerald's decision to indict I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby on charges of lying to the grand jury investigating the leak of covert CIA agent Valerie Plame instead of charging him in the leak itself... amazingly former President Clinton's articles of impeachment, railroaded through by Republicans, were virtually identical in that they charged him with lying and such to independent council Kenneth Starr but yet neglected to actually charge Clinton with the crime Starr was investigating in the first place. Tags: politics I feel : amused
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While doing my morning sweep of various news sites I ran across an article on MSNBC from Newsweek entitled The Price of Loyalty. In it Jonathan Alter discusses how the Bush administration's exorcism of those who dissented against the war in Iraq have have left some pretty devastating effects. Before the war we The New York Times published an editorial by Joseph Wilson, a former diplomat. He had returned from a visit to Niger investigating claims that Iraq was buying yellowcake uranium for weapons of mass destruction. The documents cited by both the US and UK governments as they laid out a case for war in Iraq. Geroge W. Bush cited them in his 2003 State of the Union address. Wilson's editorial criticized the US for citing those documents when they knew they had been forged. Eight days later Conservative apologist Robert Novak exposed Wilson's wife as a CIA agent and not only damaged her cover, but also the cover of all the covert agents working for Brewster Jennings & Associates which was a front. Of course Novak tried to claim he though she was only an analyst and therefore revealing her identity was not an act of treason but critics argue that after decades of reporting from Washington, DC he would be unlikely to make such a simple mistake. LexisNexis searching backs up the critics as Novak used, correctly, the terms "CIA operative" and "covert operative" to describe covert CIA employees in every single article he wrote including the one where he revealed Valerie Plame. The CIA had even asked him not to publish her name but he considered that "a very weak request" and did it anyways. Now I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby stands indicted on charges relating to this matter and Karl Rove is still under investigation by special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald. Valerie Plame is casualty number one. Next we come to former Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill. You may recall that his firing was pretty much the first publicized action Bush took in trying to fix the sliding economy. O'Neill presciently tells Bush that he can either have a tax cut or a war in Iraq, but he cannot have both because the nation could not afford it. O'Neill is fired. Along those same lines Larry Lindsey, Bush's former economic adviser informed Bush that he projected the costs of a war in Iraq to be between $100 and $200 Billion (as of 12p EST, National Priorities Project has the cost at over $204 Billion). Guess what happens to him? He's fired too. Casualties two and three. Even more mind boggling is the case of General Eric Shinseki of the US Army. He says that in order to accomplish the publicized goals of the Bush administration in Iraq, it would take several hundred thousand troops to do so. Mysteriously he sent into early retirement after that. I say it is mysterious because the US military is under a "stop loss" order. This means that enlisted military personnel can be kept in service beyond their contractually agreed upon term. In fact, the payroll system has their military service expiring after 2030. This has been criticized from both sides, most notably Senators John Kerry (D-MA), and John McCain (R-AZ), as a "backdoor draft" given that in 1973 Congress refused to renew the draft law and thus it died on July 1st of that year. But more importantly, under a "stop loss" order, commissioned officers such as Shinseki can have their retirements deferred by the military. So why is a general being put into early retirement? Casualty number four. On the other end of the spectrum we have CIA Director George Tennet. Unarguably he has been at the helm of the US intelligence gathering operations through the two biggest blunders in its history. Of course I am referring to the Iraq WMD but even more so for the September 11th attacks. He have even helped spread information discrediting one of his own employees in the "Plamegate" scandal. Yet instead of being punished for his incompetence, he is instead rewarded with the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Anyone notice an interesting pattern? You doubt Bush you are removed or marginalized. Support him, you get rewarded. No debate, no discussion. It is black or white. Even George W. Bush's father, former President George H. Bush, has had little luck getting the president to closer to those who do not rabidly echo him. Brent Scrowcroft served as National Security Adviser to former president Bush. Like the elder Bush, Scrowcroft held a philosophy towards foreign policy that was more grounded in realism than that of the current president. The elder Bush has tried to get his best friend and his son together after Scrowcroft wrote an editorial published in the Washington Post entitled Don't Attack Saddam but has been unsuccessful. Oddly enough, the differing between the two Bush presidents is echoed also in their national security advisers as well. Condoleezza Rice was Scrowcroft's protégé but switched sides when she switched Bushes. The same can be said of Dick Cheney too. Alter's article mainly focuses on the war in Iraqi so I feel it lacks a little balance but then again he may be omitting the most glaring example of the incompetence of the Bush administration because it has already been waved around recently. Of course I am talking about Hurricane Katrina. Everyone is familiar with the line "Brownie, you're doing a heck of a job" that Bush used to congratulate former Federal Emergency Management Agency director Michael Brown. This came in spite of the fact that media outlets and officials in Lousiana were describing how FEMA had actually inhibited aide such as Jefferson Parish president Aaron Broussard describing how shipments of bottled water being provided by Wal-Mart and fuel provided by the Coast Card were turned back by FEMA. When the press got even worse attempts were made to block it resulting in CNN filing a lawsuit resulting in an injunction against federal officials blocking reporters access. The blame game started with federal officials laying the responsibility of their lack of action on sate and local officials in spite of the fact that various laws such as the Insurrection Act allowed them to do what they claimed the states had to give them permission to do. Not to mention the "supremacy clause" in the Constitution would probably have been enough justification as well. FEMA Directer Michael Brown was recalled to Washington, DC on September 9th and resigned three days later. He is still on FEMA's pay roll to this day. Pretty much what has happened is a small, dangerous group of incompetent neo-conservatives have hijacked the nation and has dragged the population along with it. The notion that to dissent publicly was "unpatriotic" or, according to those idiots over at 'The "Free" Republic', "treason" took hold for some odd reason yet those who whore that notion neglect the fact this nation was born from dissent against what was unarguably the most powerful nation in the world. Instead now such acts are "aiding the enemy" and "hurting our troops". The damage no one seems to see is that the American Democracy became the American Oligarchy during all this. But hopefully we will get it back. Tags: commentary, politics, world_politics I feel : discontent
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