Amerika, zemlja velika

[Roger Sanchez]

2 stories form the Great American Crusade against Females, Battlefield Deep South.Chained Heat, but 4real. Sweet Jail Alabama.

A Justice Department investigation accuses Alabama officials of violating women’s rights by fostering an environment of rampant sexual abuse at the state’s Tutwiler Prison, where inmates “universally fear for their safety” and officers allegedly forced women to engage in sex acts just to obtain basic sanitary supplies.The nearly 900 women incarcerated at the maximum-security prison live “in a toxic environment with repeated and open sexual behavior,” the Justice Department said in announcing its findings today into the Wetumpka, Ala., facility.As part of the alleged abuses, male officers openly watched women shower or use the toilet, staff helped organize a “strip show,” prisoners received a constant barrage of sexually offensive language, and prisoners who reported improper conduct were punished, according to the department.What’s more, at least a third of the 99 employees at Tutwiler have had sex with prisoners, the department said.“We conclude that the state of Alabama violates the Eighth Amendment of the United States Constitution by failing to protect women prisoners at Tutwiler [Prison] from harm due to sexual abuse and harassment from correctional staff,” the Justice Department wrote in a letter to Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley.Perhaps most disturbing, investigators concluded the Alabama Department of Corrections and officials at Tutwiler have been “well aware of the multitude of structural problems that allow this abuse and harassment to continue unabated.”“Officials have been on notice for over eighteen years of the risks to women prisoners and, for over eighteen years, have chosen to ignore them,” the head of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, Acting Assistant Attorney General Jocelyn Samuels, said in the letter. In that time, inmates have been raped, sodomized and fondled by prison staff, yet officials “remain deliberately indifferent to the serious and significant need to protect women prisoners.”In addition, the report found the sexual abuse and harassment were grossly under-reported due to fear of retaliation.“Action needs to be taken immediately,” George Beck Jr., the U.S. attorney for the Middle District of Alabama, said in a statement.The Justice Department’s inquiry began in February 2013, after what it called a “sordid history of sexual abuse and harassment” at Tutwiler since it opened in 1942. As part of their investigation, federal officials visited Tutwiler, interviewed dozens of prisoners, and reviewed 233 letters from current inmates.But their work is not over. In a notice to Alabama officials, the Justice Department said its investigation will now look at more potential violations of prisoners’ rights, including allegations of excessive force and constitutionally inadequate conditions of confinement and health care.The leadership at Alabama’s Department of Corrections “fully cooperated” with the federal investigation, and the Justice Department noted that Tutwiler’s new warden was not there “when much of the alleged misconduct took place.”The head of the Alabama Department of Corrections, Commissioner Kim Thomas, said her department has “never downplayed the significant and serious nature of these allegations,” adding that they represent “an unacceptable abuse of power.”“I do not, however, agree that Tutwiler is operating in a deliberately indifferent or unconstitutional manner,” Thomas said. “We will cooperate with the Department of Justice and continue our efforts to implement changes and recommendations with the goal of improving prison conditions and avoiding potential contested litigation.”A spokesman for Thomas noted that a year ago she announced a formal “action plan” to improve operations at Tutwiler, and even before that state officials “began universally addressing and implementing” scores of changes.

Sveti nepovredivi fetus i njegov nevažni mrtvi inkubator malo dalje, u Tejasu..

The pregnant, brain-dead Texas woman being kept on life support over her family's protests is carrying a fetus that is "distinctly abnormal," attorneys for the woman's husband said Wednesday.Marlise Munoz remains hooked up to machines in a Fort Worth hospital, while her husband and the hospital are locked in a court battle about whether to retain life support.The case has raised questions about end-of-life care and whether a pregnant woman who is considered legally and medically dead should be kept on life support for the sake of a fetus. The case has gotten the attention of groups on either side of the abortion debate, as anti-abortion groups argue Munoz's fetus deserves a chance to be born.Erick Munoz said his wife, a fellow paramedic, was clear with him before he found her unconscious on Nov. 26: If she ever fell into this kind of condition, pull life support. But John Peter Smith Hospital says it's bound by state law that prohibits the withdrawal of treatment from a pregnant patient, although several experts interviewed by The Associated Press have said the hospital is misapplying the law.Munoz's attorneys, Heather King and Jessica Hall Janicek, issued a statement Wednesday describing the condition of the fetus, now believed to be at about 22 weeks' gestation. King and Janicek based their statement on medical records they received from the hospital."According to the medical records we have been provided, the fetus is distinctly abnormal," the attorneys said. "Even at this early stage, the lower extremities are deformed to the extent that the gender cannot be determined."The attorneys said the fetus also has fluid building up inside the skull and possibly has a heart problem."Quite sadly, this information is not surprising due to the fact that the fetus, after being deprived of oxygen for an indeterminate length of time, is gestating within a dead and deteriorating body, as a horrified family looks on in absolute anguish, distress and sadness," the attorneys said.Spokeswomen for the hospital and the Tarrant County District Attorney's office, which is representing the hospital in the lawsuit, declined to comment Wednesday.A hearing in the case is scheduled for Friday. Munoz's lawsuit asks a judge to order the hospital to pull life support and return Marlise Munoz's body to her family.Several experts have said the Texas Advance Directives Act doesn't apply in this case because Marlise Munoz, having suffered brain death, is legally and medically dead — a key argument in Erick Munoz's lawsuit.Munoz previously told the AP he wasn't confident about the health of the fetus. His wife was 14 weeks pregnant when he found her unconscious in November, possibly from a blood clot.

Edited January 23, 2014 by Roger Sanchez

[WTF]

Orange is the New Black + Terry Schiavo 2.0. Holderu, udri po zgadiji!Edit: za utehu 2 lepe vesti iz Commonwealth of VA:1) Ultrasound Bob je zavrsio politicku karijeru, a nije nemoguce ni da zavrsi u mardelju2) Novi AG nece da brani same sex marriage ban

Edited January 24, 2014 by WTF

[Prospero]

svaka čast na želji, planu i realizaciji:

Bankrupt Detroit Doles Out Corporate SubsidiesBy Shikha Dalmia - Jan 22, 2014While the rest of the country remains focused on Detroit’s bankruptcy travails, the big story in the city itself is the group of private investors who are attempting an ambitious urban turnaround. Led by Dan Gilbert, owner of Quicken Loans Inc., they are trying to rebuild everything -- retail, housing, start-ups, transit and even street life -- in the seven-square-mile downtown area.Their theory is that a thriving core will lift the rest of the 130-square-mile city out of its economic torpor. The challenge for the new mayor, Mike Duggan, will be to let this grand experiment in private social engineering proceed without shortchanging the rest of the city.Bankruptcy has exposed how powerful unions have contributed to Detroit’s decline by extracting extravagant pension sweeteners and other benefits. But the other cause of the city’s troubles (and one that doesn’t show up on its books) is the corporate welfare -- tax breaks and write-offs -- it has historically lavished on casinos, stadiums, big events and other flashy private projects whose promises of urban renewal never materialized.The latest revival plan is different, its backers say. Called Detroit 2.0, it takes a holistic approach, instead of pinning its hopes on any one project.Gilbert started by scooping up 40 downtown properties, some of them historical gems, that were empty or in foreclosure, available for pennies on the dollar. He isn’t simply sitting on them waiting to make a killing if the city bounces back. He is trying to make the comeback happen.According to his real estate czar, Matt Cullen, more than half of the $1.3 billion Gilbert has invested in the city has been used to acquire and renovate buildings. Gilbert has also moved his suburban headquarters to downtown -- bringing 7,000 employees to work in the city. Other large employers such as General Motors Co. (GM) and Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan have followed suit, bringing about 3,000 more.What’s more, Cullen notes, Gilbert has renovated the buildings as office space and apartments. The office space is almost fully occupied. To encourage occupancy for the apartments -- and rebuild Detroit’s hollowed-out population -- Gilbert, along with other downtown companies, created a program that offers subsidies to anyone who wants to rent or buy housing in the area targeted for renewal.Gilbert has also collaborated with local investors to begin Detroit Venture Partners, which seeds early-stage technology companies that locate in the city in the hope of turning Woodward Ave., the main drag, into “Webward Ave.”Detroit’s lack of street buzz is eerie. Its boarded-up stores discourage foot traffic -- and the lack of foot traffic discourages stores, the two essential ingredients for a vibrant city. Gilbert’s team is attacking both ends: aggressively courting retailers and making efforts to bring back pedestrians.It convinced local information-technology companies to allow some employees to work out of local cafes every week and paid cafe owners to reserve tables for them. To ensure that commuters don’t speed away to their suburban homes after work, it organized evening lawn games, concerts and other events last summer.There is no doubt about Gilbert’s good intentions. Yet there are reasons to worry whether his downtown makeover will stick and how it will affect the rest of the city.For starters, should the broader national economy tank, forcing Quicken and other companies to resort to layoffs, the city wouldn’t be able to hang on to its new population, which predominantly consists of singles and renters.More to the point, though Gilbert and his fellow investors have provided plenty of their own money, their revival plan may still be a net drain on city resources.Cullen disputes this, noting that Gilbert doesn’t even rely on the city for security (he had an elaborate surveillance system installed in one of his downtown buildings to watch the neighborhood). GM and other businesses donated police cars and ambulances to prevent cuts in public services due to bankruptcy. Moreover, given that Detroit taxes anyone who works in the city, the influx of new employees will rebuild the revenue base.Nor has Gilbert received many special subsidies or tax breaks from the city, Cullen says, with the exception of one site that is in a Renaissance Zone.But Gilbert received almost $50 million in tax breaks from the state of Michigan when he relocated his headquarters to Detroit. Other investors have received even more.An element of the revival plan is a $650 million entertainment complex that will house a new Red Wings ice arena. Mike Ilitch, founder of the Little Caesars pizza chain and the owner of the hockey team, will have monopoly rights to ticket and concession sales without contributing anything to the arena’s construction. The facility is being financed entirely by tax-exempt state bonds that will be paid off by property taxes collected from area businesses. Ilitch himself will be exempt because he insisted on leasing instead of buying the arena from the city.Likewise, a local partner of Whole Foods Markets Inc. (WFM) received $4.2 million in city and state tax breaks. Papa Joe’s, an even more upscale food market, qualified for “Green Grocer Project” tax breaks. Less-upscale Meijer Inc. was ensconced in a development that received a $10.8 million break in school taxes. It also received $6.1 million in brownfield tax credits; Schostak Brothers & Co. got $27 million in such credits for an office tower.More troubling, says Rodney Lockwood, an area developer who has offered his own plans to revive Detroit, these new businesses can apply for a 50 percent property tax abatement for 12 years when they redevelop property for higher use. But the city won’t adjust the tax assessments of existing businesses, even after their property values crash.This creates a two-tier tax system that makes it difficult for these businesses. “Whatever the impact of new businesses on downtown,” Lockwood says, “they’ll have a negligible to negative impact on the rest of the city as existing businesses shut down.”The playing field isn’t the only thing skewed by the revival project; the priorities for reform are affected, too.Like other declining cities, Detroit has excessive infrastructure that is too expensive to maintain or tear down. Incredibly, however, Gilbert and his cohorts have spearheaded a $140 million project to build a 3.3-mile streetcar line along Woodward Ave. It won’t cost the city anything because private philanthropists and a federal grant are financing the construction -- and a state regional transit authority will pick up the operational expenses, Cullen says.What’s the point though? It isn’t needed to alleviate traffic congestion: Woodward often resembles a ghost town even during rush hour. It is to give young technology workers living and working in downtown a quick way to get to the entertainment district in midtown.In most cities, people use taxis or car services for such purposes. It would make far more sense to ease the tight cap on medallions and onerous regulations that have undermined competition in Detroit’s cab industry. But cab deregulation, never a popular cause with local politicians, would be an even lower priority since these services would compete with the streetcar. This will close off an avenue of entrepreneurship for Detroiters.Detroit’s bankruptcy managers are tackling the ravages caused by those motivated by self-interest in the past. The new mayor’s job will be to make sure the city doesn’t get carried away by grand plans of those purporting to act in its interest.(Shikha Dalmia, a contributor to Bloomberg View, is a senior analyst at the Reason Foundation. She is based in Detroit.)

[Prospero]

[Ariel]

Pošto "it's the economy, stupid" važi još uvek... i svuda, ovo mi je bilo prilično interesantno:http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2014/01/the-fastest-growing-jobs-of-this-decade-and-the-robots-that-will-steal-them/283411/ti pokušaji psihoistorije tj. prognoze budućih privrednih kretanja su stvarno, rekao bih, jedna velika iluzija, na koju su naročito pretplaćeni Amerikanci, . Ali interesantna je i diskusija u komentarima, civilizovana, ipak je to The Atlantic.

[расејан]

ti pokušaji psihoistorije tj. prognoze budućih privrednih kretanja su stvarno, rekao bih, jedna velika iluzija, na koju su naročito pretplaćeni Amerikanci, . Ali interesantna je i diskusija u komentarima, civilizovana, ipak je to The Atlantic.

Па морају да повремено избацују те бајаги научне прогнозе, да би одржавали илузију некаквих економских законитости, иако већ одавно живе у договорној привреди.

[DarkAttraktor]

[Gandalf]

Snowpocalypse in Atlanta...http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2014/01/atlanta-snow-storm-102839.html

On Tuesday, snowfall of just over 2 inches shut down metropolitan Atlanta’s roads, schools, churches, government offices and businesses. Thousands of flights were cancelled at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport. More than 2,000 school children were separated from their parents, and spent the night in buses, police stations, or classrooms. It seemed that the only places open were Waffle House and Home Depot, the former serving hash browns and coffee and the latter opening up its stores as makeshift shelters. People who didn’t camp out in supermarket aisles and hotel lobbies were trapped in cars for 10, 16, 20 hours as they tried to make commutes that normally take just 30 minutes.

[расејан]

Довољна је једна будала која мисли да вожња по снегу није ништа нарочито, па да на све стране имаш редаљке од по двадесетак кола. Вирџинија је као онолико северније, па исто нему појма. А школскибуси не смеју да возе док инспектор не провери да је све чисто на две стопе ван пута дуж целе трасе. Дакле ако је нека гртал'ца морала да заобиђе нешто близу ивичњака, ниједан школскибус не иде. А да пусте децу да препешаче преосталих 200 метара до куће, не долази у обзир из безбедносних разлога, има да седе у бусу док не дође овлашћена & атестирана екипа ("јес' ти полагао ходање по снегу? ај здрао и налево круг") да их званично спасава.Има да иду у школу сваке суботе у мају и јуну, видим ја...

[расејан]

А сад нешто сасвим другачије... Велики брат није ни држава ни ријелити, Велики брат је дућан где сте нешто пазарили.(бемлига, у едитору уреднику се слика лепо види...)

Edited January 31, 2014 by расејан

[Roger Sanchez]

E, al da neko s ovoliko ljubavi i simpatije u npr. Italiji na nacionalnoj mreži intervjuira nekoga ko je na amerskom sudu duly convicted as an accessory to murder, ko možda i je ubojica, plikove bi dobili kolektivno na 99% kože..http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=9IRB-abvP90

The Week UK's Andrea Vogt counters that American media are turning the murder of Kercher into "some sort of twisted reality show, not a heinous crime being tried in a serious European court of law"."Frankly, it makes a mockery of the Italian magistrates who professionally managed this appeal, and who regularly risk their lives prosecuting the mafia in that very same courtroom," she writes. "Has American arrogance ever been so bold? Have the western media ever been so complicit in such an orchestrated public relations sham?"

Edited January 31, 2014 by Roger Sanchez

[DarkAttraktor]

the apologize-to-the-rightwing network hits a new low :isuse:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fffj0320a70

[Filipenko]

Kako mi se povraćalo od gostovanja Nensi Palozi kod Stjuarta u četvrtak... Umišljena krava establišmenta, sa "stavom". Dobro je da i nokte nije lakirala u emisiji.

[DarkAttraktor]

Mike Huckabee, koji je po novim anketama ima najvece sanse GOP primariesima, skoro izjavio kako je stavljanje birth control=a u healthcare package demeaning towards women. Cenk prima loptu i zakucava:

Now, that's a ridiculous things to say - it brings up this whole issue of War on Women, it alienates the female voters and so in the general elections that's gonna be a disaster. But that's the problem with the Republican party - you can't win in the primaries if you're anywhere near reasonable. You gotta go right, and then go a little further right and the go little further off the cliff and then go a little bit more right while you're heading down. And that's what Mike Huckabee is doing

[Gandalf]

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Edited February 3, 2014 by Gandalf