Archive for April, 2009

Prominent Gay British Politician Jokes about Killing Miss California for Her Opposition to Same-Sex “Marriage”
Calls her a “silly b**ch”

By John-Henry Westen and Hilary White
LONDON, April 27, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Alan Duncan, the UK’s first openly-homosexual Conservative politician and the Shadow Leader of the House of Commons is rebuffing criticism for saying on a comedy show that he would kill Miss California, Carrie Prejean, for her remarks against homosexual “marriage.” Prejean made the remarks during the recent Miss American beauty pageant. (See coverage: http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2009/apr/09042103.html)
Mr. Duncan, on the BBC comedy news show “Have I Got News For You” on Friday, described Prejean as a “silly b**ch.” He added, “If you read that Miss California has been murdered, you will know it was me, won’t you?”
Other panellists on the comedy show expressed shock despite their support for same-sex “marriage.” Katy Brand said, “That’s a hell of a statement to be making on camera there, Alan.” Paul Merton said, “For someone planning to be Home Secretary.”
The Metropolitan Police have received a complaint from George Hargreaves, an outspokenly pro-family evangelical minister and the leader of the small political party, the Christian Party, whose members believe that homosexual activity is sinful.
Yesterday Hargreaves said, “Mr Duncan has crossed the line. A senior politician suggesting, even as a joke, that it is okay that Miss Prejean should be murdered for her evangelical Christian views is totally unacceptable.
“How can we stop gun and knife crime when the man who thinks he will be the next Home Secretary makes death threats?”
In later comments, Duncan continued to treat the incident as a joke. “Of course it was in jest. It is a comedy show after all. I’m sure Miss Prejean’s very beautiful and that if we were to meet we would love each other. I have no plans to kill her. I’ll send her a box of chocolates – unpoisoned,” he told media.
A spokesman for the BBC said, “Alan Duncan’s comment was not meant to be taken seriously and it did not go unchallenged. Its absurdity and unacceptability was [sic] highlighted by the other panellists.”
George Pitcher, religion editor of the Daily Telegraph and the Sunday Telegraph, wrote on Monday that the larger issue is that a senior Tory politician has said that he is opposed to the current legal definition of marriage in Britain.
“A union between a man and a woman. In current civil and ecclesiastical law that is how it is,” he wrote. “So, it would seem that Mr. Duncan would want to put same-sex civil partnerships on the same civil and ecclesiastical legal footing as marriage. Is that Conservative Party policy and will Mr Duncan push for it if he becomes Home Secretary?”
Duncan, who is in a legal civil partnership with James Dunseath, is described as a “moderniser” in the Tory party and economically and socially libertarian in his political views. When Duncan announced in March 2008 that he would be entering into a homosexual civil partnership, Tory party leader David Cameron said, “I am absolutely delighted for Alan and James and wish them all the very best.”
During the Miss America pageant, aired live on NBC, homosexual activist and celebrity gossip Perez Hilton, one of 13 telecast judges, asked Miss California, Carrie Prejean: “Vermont recently became the fourth state to legalize same-sex marriage. Do you think every state should follow suit? Why or why not?”
Prejean answered, “I think it’s great Americans are able to choose one or the other. We live in a land that you can choose same-sex marriage or opposite marriage. And you know what, in my country, in my family I think that I believe that a marriage should be between a man and a woman. No offense to anybody there, but that’s how I was raised and that’s how I think it should be – between a man and a woman.”
Hilton later lambasted Prejean for her answer on his popular blog. He called her answer “the worst answer in pageant history.” “She lost, not because she doesn’t believe in gay marriage, she lost because she’s a dumb b*tch,” he said.
“If that girl would have won Miss USA, California, I would have gone up on stage, I sh*t you not, … snatched that tiara off her head, and run out the door,” said Hilton.

To express concerns to the Conservative party:
David Cameron,
House of Commons, 
London, SW1A 0AA. 
Email: camerond@parliament.uk

I am sure you have heard about it already and you may have questions about the Swine Flu. Here is a list that I have compiled of website for all of you that may help answer some of the questions you may have about the Swine Flu.

Karl Zeigler
WiminsWatch Webmaster

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention  (CDC): http://www.cdc.gov/swineflu/
Fox News: http://www.foxnews.com/health/infectious/index.html
CNN: http://www.cnn.com/HEALTH/
MSNBC: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3032076/

Apr 27 02:40 PM US/Eastern

WASHINGTON (AP) – U.S. Park Police say they have arrested 91 protesters in front of the White House, including some in wheelchairs who chained themselves to a fence.

The protesters are calling on the president to support legislation that would give people with disabilities in need of long-term care alternatives to nursing homes.

Sgt. David Schlosser says a large group gathered on a sidewalk outside the White House on Monday without a protest permit required for groups of more than 25 demonstrators.

He says some protesters are in wheelchairs and have chained themselves to a fence. Police may use a bolt-cutter to cut the chains.

The protesters are receiving written citations from officers, but are not being handcuffed or taken to a detention facility.

Original Article CLICK HERE

U.S. plans to accept several Chinese Muslims from Guantanamo

The Uighurs would be the first detainees from the prison to settle in America. Challenges are expected from China and within the U.S.
By Julian E. Barnes
April 24, 2009
Reporting from Washington — The Obama administration is preparing to admit into the United States as many as seven Chinese Muslims who have been imprisoned at Guantanamo Bay in the first release of any of the detainees into this country, according to current and former U.S. officials.

Their release is seen as a crucial step to plans, announced by President Obama during his first week in office, to close the prison and relocate the detainees. Administration officials also believe that settling some of them in American communities will set an example, helping to persuade other nations to accept Guantanamo detainees too.
But the decision to release the Chinese Muslims, known as Uighurs, is not final and faces challenges from within the government, as well as likely public opposition. Among government agencies, the Homeland Security Department has registered concerns about the plan.

The move would also incense Chinese officials, who consider the Uighurs domestic terrorists and want those held at Guantanamo handed over for investigation. U.S. officials no longer consider the Chinese Muslims to be enemy combatants and fear they would be mistreated in China.

There are 17 Uighurs (pronounced WEE-gers) at Guantanamo. A U.S. official familiar with the discussions over their release said that as many as seven could be resettled in the U.S., possibly in two or more small groups.

Officials have not said where in the United States they might live. But many Uighur immigrants from China live in Washington’s Virginia suburbs, and advocates have urged that the detainees be resettled near people who speak their language and are familiar with their customs.

The release would mark a dramatic turn in the history of the Guantanamo Bay facility, set up in Cuba by the Bush administration as an offshore prison beyond the reach of American law. Intended to hold alleged terrorists captured during the “war on terror,” Guantanamo turned into an international symbol of U.S. overreach. At its peak, it held nearly 800 prisoners; about 250 remain.

The Uighurs are primarily from the northwestern steppes of China in a region officially called the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region but known to Uighurs as Turkestan. Beijing, which controls the area, has been criticized by Washington and others for repressing Uighur religious rights and freedoms.

The Uighurs were sent to Guantanamo in 2002 after being captured in Pakistan. Before that, they had gravitated to Afghanistan, where they received firearms training at a camp apparently run by a Uighur separatist.

Some former U.S. officials have said government information indicates that the Uighurs may pose a danger if released. But other officials and human rights organizations insist they pose no threat to Americans.

“It is kind of hard to tell other countries you would like them to accept some of these guys from Guantanamo if you are not willing to accept them,” said the U.S. official, who described the internal discussions on condition of anonymity.

The release is a slap in the face to Beijing, which has requested that the Uighur prisoners be repatriated to China to stand trial for separatist activities. In their testimony before the Guantanamo tribunal, the Uighurs admitted that their purpose in going to Afghanistan was to receive military training to fight Chinese rule over Xinjiang.

“If these people are terrorists, they should be punished. If they are not terrorists, the United States should apologize to China for holding them so long and make compensation,” said Zhang Jiadong, an expert in terrorism at Fudan University’s Center for American Studies. Zhang said, however, that he did not expect the Chinese government to retaliate because it was already widely anticipated in Beijing that the United States would not return the Uighurs to China.

“The [Chinese] foreign ministry will criticize the decision, but there is nothing they can do about it. We’re used to the United States being tough with us,” Zhang said.

In captivity, the Uighurs filed suit to win their freedom. A U.S. district court in 2008 ordered their release. The decision, appealed by the Bush administration, was overturned by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. Lawyers for the Uighurs appealed to the Supreme Court.

U.S. officials did not detail what supervision the Uighurs might receive once they are living on their own. But they said the Uighurs would be allowed to live freely.

In 2006, the U.S. released five Uighurs into Albania. After pressure from Beijing, which also urged other countries with Uighur communities not to accept the released detainees, Albania declined to take any more.

The Uighurs oppose the Chinese government but do not consider the U.S. government a direct enemy. Still, many of the Uighurs hold strict views of what is permitted under Islam.

Within the prison, Uighurs are not considered a grave threat and are allowed greater freedom, such as television privileges, than other detainees.

But the TV privileges underscored potential difficulties to come, according to one current and one former U.S. official. Not long after being granted access to TV, some of the Uighurs were watching a soccer game. When a woman with bare arms was shown on the screen, one of the group grabbed the television and threw it to the ground, according to the officials.

Since then, officials at Guantanamo have bolted down the TVs and shown pre-taped programs, editing out any images they thought Uighurs might find offensive.

Jenni Russell

There are some news stories that are so staggering that, when you hear them, you immediately assume some important details must be wrong. That’s how it feels in the case of Betty Figg.
She is an 86-year-old Coventry woman who was unhappy about living in the care home she entered last summer. At one point she was admitted to hospital with dehydration. At another time her daughter Rosalind found her with a mouth caked in blood, complaining of hunger.
So last autumn Rosalind decided to give up her pottery business and convert a downstairs room into a bedroom and bathroom so her mother could be cared for at home. Wheelchair ramps and handrails were put in so that Betty Figg, who has dementia and is incontinent, could be moved around. An expensive mattress, with sensors to detect movement, was installed so Rosalind would be able to respond when her mother got up in the night.
In November they gave the residential home four weeks’ notice, but were told that Betty Figg could not be discharged until social services had done their assessments and referrals. Weeks and months went by with very little happening. Rosalind Figg became increasingly distressed by her mother’s state: “She was sat like a chicken in a battery house, head dropped on her chest, rarely up on her legs. Her pads would be soaking because they hadn’t been changed. And she’s in a room full of strangers with dementia – she can’t converse with them.”
Last weekend Rosalind went to visit and decided that, since her mother was so miserable where she was, she would wait no longer and simply take her home.
The change in her mother was dramatic and immediate. She asked for the kettle to be put on, talked and smiled, drank tea out of china cups instead of the nonspill baby cups given to her in the home and started to practise standing again.
But two days later all that ended. Two social workers banged on the door, accompanied by four policemen, two police cars, a battering ram, a doctor and an emergency warrant under the Mental Health Act, on the grounds that “a person believed to be suffering from a mental disorder is being illtreated and neglected”.
Police stood by to smash the door in unless Betty Figg was given up. She was loaded into a wheelchair and taken to a waiting car by two social workers, who casually threw a blanket over her face as they came down the path. She was returned to the care home.
Was this a story of a devoted daughter betrayed? Surely the council’s battering ram and warrant were a signal that there was something more sinister going on.
I rang Colin Green, acting director of community services in Coventry. He was grave and very measured. Oh no, there was no issue of abuse. There wasn’t? Then what on earth was this about?
Planning. Capability. Cooperating with social services. Protecting vulnerable people. An unplanned transition. Apparently Rosalind Figg had already been discussing her mother’s transfer with social services for six weeks, but Betty Figg had been removed from residential care before “the appropriate level of care was in place”.
After a lot of jargon, this boiled down to two factors. The council had to be sure that Betty Figg had her medicines and that Rosalind Figg would remember to administer them – “and we have no reason to suppose that is not the case”. More importantly, the council thought that nobody could provide an incontinent adult with 24-hour care and it was concerned that extra carers had not been arranged beforehand.
This was scarcely believable. Had a legalised kidnapping of a confused old lady really taken place for this reason? Thousands of people provide sole 24-hour care for others. My mother did exactly that for my demented and disabled father for the last 18 months of his life. It’s tough – but people do it out of love and compassion. And if carers were so crucial, why didn’t the council help find them? “That can take some time to organise. It should be done in a planned way. This was not a solution we could turn to on Monday.”
This had become robospeak. What if Betty Figg were happy with her daughter? “People can express happiness, but if that leaves them vulnerable and potentially puts their health at risk then a judgment must be made on that.” What about Rosalind Figg’s desire to spend time with her mother before she dies? “She should have continued planning with our staff. Clearly she was getting impatient. She thought she could just get on with it.”
This, it turns out, has been Rosalind Figg’s real mistake. She thought that love and life and death were more important than procedures. It isn’t that she has been endangering her mother; it’s that she has irritated an all-powerful bureaucracy. She didn’t realise that today’s state is obsessed with ensuring people’s physical safety, while ignoring the truth that what matters most to all of us is our emotional wellbeing.
The removing of Betty Figg, even as justified by the council, looks like an act of arbitrary cruelty, carried out for petty and vindictive reasons. And it’s inaccurate. Rosalind Figg had, in fact, booked extra carers from the Pulse agency, but no one had bothered to ask.
Caught up in their own jargon, social services have lost sight of the fact that it’s human beings who matter, not their own internal processes. Green says, with the warped logic that a machine might employ, there is no reason for Betty Figg to go to her daughter because “she’s never lived with her, so the place she’s used to is the care home”.
The very idea of bonds between people seems to have no place in this cold vision. When Rosalind Figg says to me, with real passion, “I know it’s not going to be easy, but I just want to look after my mum for as long as I can, for as long as necessary”, one can hear the longing in her voice. And she adds, sadly: “So many people have said to me they got such pleasure from looking after their parents in their last few months.”
What makes this official behaviour even more monstrous is that the real problem we all face over the next 10 or 20 years isn’t how to stop people looking after their parents, but how to encourage them. The number of over-85s is going to double in 20 years and we don’t have the money or the institutions to cope. We need people like the Figgs to be given every bit of help and encouragement they can get. They must not be crushed by a self-important bureaucracy that no longer understands that humanity must come first.

HAVING MOM OVER FOR DINNER….

You don’t even have to be a mother to enjoy this one…

Brian invited his mother over for dinner. During the course
of the meal,

Brian’s mother couldn’t help but keep noticing how beautiful Brian’s roommate, Stephanie, was. Brian’s Mom had long been suspicious of a relationship between Brian and Stephanie, and this had only made her more curious.

Over the course of the evening, while watching the two react, she started to wonder if there was more between Brian and Stephanie than met the eye.

Reading his mom’s thoughts, Brian volunteered, ‘I know what you must be thinking, but I assure you Stephanie and I are just roommates.’

About a week later, Stephanie came to Brian saying,’Ever since your Mother came to dinner, I’ve been unable to find the beautiful silver gravy ladle. You don’t suppose she took it, do you?’

Brian said, ‘Well, I doubt it, but I’ll send her an e-mail just to be sure.

So he sat down and wrote:

Dear Mom:

I’m not saying that you ‘did’ take the gravy ladle from the house, I’m not saying that you ‘did not’ take the gravy ladle. But, the fact remains that one has been missing ever since you were here for dinner.

Love, Brian

Several days later, Brian received an email back from his mother that read:

Dear Son:

I’m not saying that you ‘do’ sleep with Stephanie, I’m not saying that you ‘do not’ sleep with Stephanie. But, the fact remains that if Stephanie was sleeping in her own bed, she would have found the gravy ladle by now.

Love, Mom

LESSON OF THE DAY… NEVER LIE TO YOUR MOTHER!

Just Me the Giggler

Texas Feminine Protection

In Texas, a woman was called in front of a grand jury for possible manslaughter charges after she shot a mugger in the back six times as he was running away with her purse. He had grabbed her purse and ran. She had her hand on her gun inside the purse and when he ran with the purse she was left holding just the gun.

When asked by the grand jury why she shot him six times, in the back as he was running, under oath she replied  “Because when I pulled the trigger the 7th time, it only went click.”

She was acquitted of all charges because that’s the way it is in Texas and the way it should be everywhere.

FDA Caves, Makes Plan B Available to 17-Year-Olds without Prescription

By Kathleen Gilbert
WASHINGTON, D.C., April 23, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced yesterday they would not appeal last month’s ruling by a federal judge ordering the agency to make the controversial morning-after pill available to 17-year-olds without a prescription.
A New York district court judge had ruled March 23 that the FDA’s decision under the Bush administration to restrict minor girls’ free access to the pill was “arbitrary and capricious.”
Judge Edward R. Korman’s ruling was lauded by the Center for Reproductive Rights, which had launched the lawsuit against the FDA. The Center insisted that the potent hormonal drug, which became available over-the-counter to adults in 2006, should be more available to “young women who might benefit most from this form of contraception.”
The ruling will be implemented after Plan B’s manufacturer submits a request to the FDA.
Concerned Women for America’s (CWA) President Wendy Wright, who spoke at the FDA’s original hearing on the issue, said the decision was “driven by politics, not what is good for patients or minors.”
“Parents should be furious at the FDA’s complete disregard for parental rights and the safety of minors,” said Wright.
Wright decried the health risks posed by the largely untested drug, which has been called a “hormonal bomb.”
“The FDA requires a prescription for the lower dose of the same drug for good reason,” she said. “It can cause blood clots, heart attacks, and strokes in healthy women.”
Wright condemned the decision for forcing the FDA to become “snake oil salesmen,” as she says the order was based on a false impression of the drug’s effectiveness.
“Pregnancy counselors report that women are relying on Plan B as a regular form of birth control because it is easy to get,” said Wright. “They are not aware that it is less effective than other methods of birth control and that it has not been tested to determine the effects of using it multiple times.
“Women, parents, and children who rely on the FDA to do their job deserve better than this shoddy decision,” she concluded.
Though Plan B is normally considered a “contraceptive,” studies by the FDA and Plan B’s manufacturer have shown Plan B to cause the death of an already fertilized embryo in 75 to 89% of cases, rather than prevent conception.
See related LifeSiteNews.com coverage:
Judge Demands FDA Allow Abortifacient Morning After Pill fo

By Kathleen Gilbert
WASHINGTON, D.C., April 24, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A divided House Judiciary Committee yesterday voted to send a federal “hate crimes” bill to the House, after free speech advocates failed to secure protection for pastors who might preach biblically-based injunctions against homosexual activity.
In a motion almost completely ignored by the mainstream media, the Judiciary Committee voted 15-12 to allow the hotly contested H.R. 1913, known as the Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Act of 2009, to go forward.
The measure would grant the federal government a new authority to prosecute any violent crime anywhere in the country that is perceived to be “motivated by prejudice” against a number of protected characteristics, including “sexual orientation” and “gender identity.”
Christian leaders are particularly concerned that attempts to secure the right to speak against the homosexual lifestyle and its normalization have failed. Among many rejected proposals for the bill was one offered by Rep. Louis Gohmert, R-Texas, which would have included a clause ensuring ministers could not be prosecuted for abetting a “hate crime” because they preached the Christian perspective on homosexuality.
Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., the Congressman who introduced the bill, claimed the bill posed no danger to Christian free speech, saying that it “only applies to bias-motivated violent crimes and does not impinge public speech or writing in any way.” Section 10 of H.R. 1913 states: “Nothing in this Act, or the amendments made by this Act, shall be construed to prohibit any expressive conduct protected from legal prohibition by, or any activities protected by the free speech or free exercise clauses of, the First Amendment to the Constitution.”
Yet free speech advocates have pointed out that under current U.S. law, any action that “abets, counsels, commands, [or] induces” a perceived “hate crime” shares in the guilt of that crime, and is therefore punishable.
The danger posed by the “hate crime” legislation to Christian ministers was confirmed when Congress considered practically identical legislation in 2007. Then, Rep. Artur Davis, D-Ala., admitted during a hearing on the measure that it could be used to prosecute pastors for preaching the biblical perspective on homosexuality, given the perception that it may have “induced” a later hate crime.
“Just passing the legislation is going to result in pastors saying, ‘I’m not going to address this issue,’” the American Center for Law and Justice’s Jay Sekulow told the Christian Broadcasting Network.
In a Christian Post column Tuesday, Family Research Council president Tony Perkins issued a point-by-point explanation of the unprecedented dangers presented by the “hate crimes” bill.
Perkins points out that H.R. 1913 violates the 14th amendment, which provides equal protection under the law, “by protecting some victims more than others.”
“Do we somehow care less about a victim who is violently assaulted because of a robbery or personal dispute than we do about a victim who is assaulted because they belong in a federally protected category?” Perkins asked.
Also, says Perkins, the bill essentially “punishes thoughts and not just actions.”
“Advocates of the bill deny this because it only authorizes prosecution of someone who ‘willfully causes bodily injury’ or ‘attempts to cause bodily injury,’” he said. “But such acts are already crimes under state law. What converts the acts targeted by this bill into a federal offense are the thoughts or opinions of the perpetrator alone.
“Since every violent crime manifests some sort of ‘hate,’ it makes more sense to think of this as a ‘thought crimes’ law.” (To read Perkins’ full column: http://www.christianpost.com/Opinion/Opinions/2009/04/why-congress-should-reject-federal-hate-crimes-bill-21/)
Matt Barber, a lawyer with the Liberty Counsel, commented: “As has proved to be true in both Europe and Canada, this Orwellian piece of legislation is the direct precursor to freedom killing and speech chilling ‘hate speech’ laws.
“It represents a thinly veiled effort to ultimately silence – under penalty of law – morally, medically and biblically based opposition to the homosexual lifestyle,” said Barber.
According to House majority leader Steny Hoyer, the measure is due for consideration by the full House next week.
U.S. House of Representatives switchboard:
202-224-3121
To look up local U.S. Representatives: 
http://www.congress.org

O.K. let me be upfront about this I have not watched a Beauty Pageant since they stole Miss America from Atlantic City, New Jersey.
But every time I turned the T.V. on today I saw a replay of the Miss U.S.A. contest in which Miss California was asked a question by a creature who calls himself “Perez Hilton “ and is a “Celebrity Blogger.” (I blog. Am I a celebrity?)
It was about her “opinion” on gay marriage. She gave it and drew the ire of “the Hilton Creature”, because HE did not agree with the answer.
Now I would not have given that answer but it was her opinion that was asked for by “the Creature.”
The Perez Hilton then flipped and continued to flip later on his “Celebrity” blog. The “Creature” even referred to the young Miss California as a “dumb bitch.”
But here is the real problem I have – why was this “Creature” known as Perez Hilton (not his real name) who is an OBVIOUS WOMAN HATER chosen to be a judge of a woman’s beauty pageant ?
Here’s what I figure – our society has gotten so comfortable in it’s misogyny and the culture at large has gotten away with doing, saying or acting towards women in any way they want – you can kill us, mutilate us, rape us, sell us into slavery for sex or domestic work, mock and disrespect our political leaders or even assassinate them (Palin and Bhutto for just two examples) and it is perfectly acceptable. It is completely acceptable. There is no big outcry. Gosh we even join in ala Tina Fey, Katie Couric.
Given that that is the prevailing attitude it is only a logical extension that we as a society, now engage in mocking and belittling events that have been traditional expressions of womanhood such as the Miss USA Pageant.
Then it is only logical to have a vile, woman HATING judge such as the Creature Perez Hilton on the panel. It is a shame that Ted Bundy wasn’t available – having been executed as a mass murderer of young women and all. He would have been even better than Perez having actually murdered young women and not merely engaged in character assassination.
Maybe they can get David Duke to judge the Miss Black USA this year.

HOME IS WHERE CHILDREN ARE TO LEARN MORAL VALUE.  ALLEGIANCE TO GOD AND COUNTRY.. IT IS NOT THE JOB OF THE STATE.    THE AMERICAN WORKER IS  COMPETITIVE AS FAR AS KNOWLEDGE AND SKILL   THE UNIONS AND THEIR DEMANDS ARE WHAT SEND JOBS TO OTHER COUNTRIES.  DON’T BE FOOLED BY THIS.

Christy Zito

School all year?

U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan believes that the traditional school calendar and week needs an overhaul.

American schoolchildren need to be in class more – six days a week, at least 11 months a year – if they are to compete with students abroad, Duncan recently said when visiting middle and high school studentsat a public school innortheast Denver.

“Go ahead and boo me,” Duncan told the students last week during his speech. “I fundamentally think that our school day is too short, our school week is too short and our school year is too short.”

“You’re competing for jobs with kids from India and China. I think schools should be open six, seven days a week; 11, 12 months a year,” he said.

It’s a concept that would shake up what’s been the norm for American schools for decades. Area educators say that they’re open to the idea of more time for student instruction, but questions remain.

Wiley Dobbs, superintendent of Twin Falls School District, said he agrees with the concept that more time is needed, particularly for struggling students.

He said that anticipated federal stimulus funding for Title 1 programs will help provide more time for instruction.

Title 1 funding is aimed at helping student achievement, including programs that offer more instruction. Ideas under consideration for the district include lengthening its three-week summer school program and expanding after-school options.

Dobbs said expectations have been added to schools over the years without changing the traditional schedule that’s been in place for decades.

Filer School District Superintendent John Graham said that more days of instruction would work better than longer days of classes.

“You look at the elementary students and if you extend the day too far, you end up losing their focus,” he said. “You could theoretically decrease their instruction. I’m not saying you shouldn’t look at it.”

Graham said other considerations that a school district would need to consider include air conditioning, extracurricular activities, and the work students do outside school on family farms and dairies.

“I would not be opposed if you worked out the problems, and there are many, not only just for kids but for the staff and the parents,” Graham said, adding that funding for additional days would be another issue.

Scott Rogers, superintendent of Minidoka County School District, echoed that theme.

“My first reaction was: I’m not opposed to extended teacher days, but who’s going to fund it?” he said, noting that increasing teacher time is difficult in a time of state budget cutbacks to education funding. “Where would you get the money this year to do that?”

Wayne Rush, superintendent of Glenns Ferry School District, has traveled to Japan. In that country, teachers spend more time working together and preparing lessons, he said.

“If we’re going to extend it, funding is the huge issue,” Rush said, adding that there isn’t a “one-size-fits-all solution” for the school schedule.

(OPRAH.com) — Motherhood is a wonderful responsibility — but it can also be exhausting, confusing, infuriating and downright funny.

Trisha Ashworth and Amy Nobile felt motherhood hit like a bomb and wrote a book on their experiences.

“I always say moms have the toughest job in the world if you’re doing it right,” Oprah Winfrey says. “Today, [women] are spilling the beans about a side of motherhood that hardly anybody ever talks about.”

She is saluting moms everywhere and letting them know they have support.

“We hear from mothers all the time who say they feel alone. They feel overwhelmed; they feel sometimes inadequate. And you say you’re afraid to admit the truth for fear of being judged,” Winfrey says. “So today we’re creating a judgment-free zone, a sisterhood of motherhood where anything goes.” Oprah.com: Stress-relief for busy moms

Heather Armstrong is a mother of a 5-year-old daughter and has another baby on the way. She’s getting the conversation started by admitting the aspects of motherhood she says she could do without. “I really don’t enjoy the early mornings or the plastic toys,” she says. “I don’t do arts and crafts, I don’t do pipe cleaners, I don’t do cotton balls or scissors.”

She’d also be happy to never deal with bodily fluids again, she says. “I could do away with the liquids,” she says. “The snot and the poo. I’m not fond of those things.”

Bodily fluids are a point of contention for the mothers across the board. Vicki Glembocki, a mom of two, says she had a “pee incident” recently during a seven-hour drive with her kids.

“I looked in the back, and the kids were sleeping, which was literally a miracle from God, but the problem was I had to pee,” she says. “So I’m thinking, ‘If I stop at a rest area, they’re totally going to wake up, and I do not want them to wake up.’ So I reach into the diaper bag, I pulled out a diaper and I peed into it.”

Dee-Dee Jackson, a mother of five, has her own diaper confession. After running out of diapers in the middle of the night, she says she had to make her own. “What we had to do was use a maxi pad until the next morning,” she says. “It worked so well, we took our time the next day to get diapers.”

Heija Nunn has a diaper tip that has served her well with her three kids. “You have to seed the house and car with diapers,” she says. “That way there’s always one to unearth in an emergency. Don’t put them in one spot — just scatter them.”

The one universal truth about motherhood seems to be that no one ever tells you what to really expect. The moms on our panel say they had to learn the toughest lessons from experience.

Glembocki says the most surprising thing about motherhood was that she didn’t feel maternal right away. “I swore to God that the moment my daughter issued forth from my loins that … my life would finally be complete and I would finally know my purpose. It was not like that,” she says. “I couldn’t get her to sleep. I couldn’t get her to stop crying. I completely believed that I was the only woman in the history of time who did not have the maternal gene, and I thought I was completely alone.”

Four years later, Glembocki says she’s just now getting the hang of it. Oprah.com: What your baby’s cries mean

Melinda Roberts, a mom of three, says she had to learn on her own that motherhood is like a 12-step program.

“You’ve got to take it one day at a time sometimes,” she says. “You feel like: ‘If I can get out of bed and get breakfast on the table, I’ll be happy. If I can get them to school, I’ll be happy.’”

One major motherhood realization that Roberts says she had with her first child was that she could no longer control everything in her life.

“You can no longer choose your activities, your down time, when you get to sleep,” she says. “No matter what you do or where you go, you’re always tethered to this other human being in this unbreakable, incredibly fragile way. Anything you do will affect this child potentially for the rest of their life.”

Longtime friends Trisha Ashworth and Amy Nobile set out on the motherhood journey together. They had perfect plans — Amy would stay at work after kids; Trisha would have three children, set exactly two years apart. But, like so many best-laid plans, things didn’t work out like they thought. Motherhood, they say, was more overwhelming than they expected. “It was like a bomb hit us,” Nobile says. “I didn’t feel I had permission to talk about how hard motherhood really was.” Oprah.com: Would you trade your husband for a housekeeper?

Eventually, Ashworth and Nobile say they reached their breaking point, and they set out to see if other mothers shared their struggles. After interviewing hundreds of women, they say they’ve heard all the dirty little secrets of motherhood. Their first book, “I Was a Really Good Mom Before I Had Kids,” was based on their findings.

One of the most interesting things Nobile discovered is that mothers are dying to open up — but it takes time. When interviewing mothers for their book, Nobile says it would take a good 22 minutes of chatting before moms would speak the truth. “We feel like we don’t have permission to admit that it’s really hard, so we’re all walking around with these smiles on our faces, but really we feel alone,” she says.

Ashworth and Nobile say they’ve heard just about everything from moms, but one admission really struck a chord. “One mom said, ‘I love being a mom, I just hate doing it because it is an impossible job,’” Nobile says. “We’ve raised the bar so high.”

The common thread throughout Nobile and Ashworth’s interviews — whether they were talking to mothers of one or of five — was that mothers demand too much of themselves. “The expectations we have on ourselves is completely unrealistic. This generation of women was raised to believe that we should and could do it all,” Ashworth says. “And that list [of expectations] is so huge that we think if we can’t live up to that, then we’re not good moms.”

Mothers need to know that if they can’t do it all — or if they don’t want to — that doesn’t make them failures, Nobile says. “We need honesty,” she says. “We need to support each other more.”

Nobile says mothers need to accept that they cannot reclaim the person they were before they had kids. “You have to reinvent yourself,” she says.

It’s also important to remember that taking time for yourself doesn’t make you a bad parent. “Most of us feel guilty, like you have to be on the floor with them 24/7 and give them all your attention or you’re not a good mom,” Ashworth says. “Redefine it for yourself that way, like, ‘It’s okay that I’m on the computer and my kids are playing by themselves.’ Make peace with that.”

Before Armstrong had her daughter, she kept a blog that she says had about 30 readers. The week she gave birth, she says she noticed a spike in her traffic and a new audience of moms looking to connect. She chronicled her experiences breastfeeding and her bout with postpartum depression. She says her blog became her lifeline.

“So many women reached out to me to let me know that they had gone through the same crises and come out the other side,” Armstrong says. “It was the hope that they gave me that pulled me through.”

Armstrong’s blog, Dooce.com, became so popular that she’s been called the “mother of all bloggers.” The site brings in a reported $40,000 a month in advertising and has become the family business. “I think people are really hungry for that honesty,” Armstrong says.

One popular topic on Armstrong’s blog is sex and how it changes when you are a mom. “It took seven months [before I had sex after giving birth]. No one had told me that it was going to take that long after what the baby did to me,” Armstrong says. “Any guy who wants to have unprotected sex? Seven months without it. Just think about that for a minute. Let that number circulate in your head for a little bit.”

As hard as it can be to find time or energy for sex, Nobile says its an effort worth making. “We have to make sex a true investment in the marriage,” she says. “A good marriage is the backbone of a healthy family.”

Date nights and moments of intimacy send important messages to both your husband and your children about your priorities, Nobile says.

“One husband said [to me]: ‘I used to be first, and now I’m pulling up the rear. I’m behind the pet rabbit,’” she says. “Our kids are watching us. So when you go out on that date, you have to sit your kids down and say, ‘This is important for our family.’”

In a studio full of moms, one audience member says her biggest complaint regarding motherhood is the unspoken competition between working moms and stay-at-home moms.

“It is a war. It’s a kind war, but still a war,” she says. “I’m a working mom, so it’s important that my family comes first and that I still do everything that a stay-at-home mom does, plus have a career. That means every single one of my vacation days are used for [my kids] — mommy day at school, a play date or mommy and me things. … We don’t want it to seem as if we love our career more, so we try to do it all and get two hours of sleep.”

Jackson is currently a stay-at-home mom, but she was a working mother once too.

“The competition is there because we create it for ourselves,” she says. “There’s really no reason to compete, because [stay-at-home moms] are just as busy as the working mom. The working mom is just as busy as we are. We just tend to sometimes put the focus on the wrong things. We’re all busy 24/7. I consider myself an at-home working mother.”

Nobile says these wars arise out of our own uncertainties as mothers. “We’re insecure about the choices we’re making — that’s why we’re judging each other,” she says. “We need to give ourselves a collective break.” Oprah.com: Try Amy and Trisha’s judgment exercise

“Have compassion for each other,” Ashworth says. “Realize we all have issues, and we’re all doing the best we can.”

From The Oprah Winfrey Show

Original Article http://www.cnn.com/2009/LIVING/personal/04/17/o.truth.about.motherhood/index.html

(CNN) — Eight-year-old Sandra Cantu will be remembered at a memorial service Thursday in the central California community where she lived and was later found dead.

The girl, who police say died at the hands of a Sunday school teacher, was last seen alive March 27 in the mobile home park where she lived with her family in Tracy, California. Police found her body April 6, stuffed into a suitcase and submerged in a pond at a dairy farm in the area.

Police arrested Melissa Huckaby, 28, and charged her with killing and raping Sandra, who was a friend of her 5-year-old daughter. She faces charges of murder, kidnapping, the performance of a lewd and lascivious act on a child under 14, and rape by instrument.

Huckaby, a Sunday school teacher at Clover Road Baptist Church, lived in the nearby mobile home park that Sandra’s family lived in.

If convicted, Huckaby would face the death penalty or life in prison without parole, San Joaquin County District Attorney James Willett said this week.

The service for Sandra is scheduled for 4 p.m. ET at a high school in Tracy.

Original Article http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/04/16/slain.girl.service/index.html

You can now follow Wimins Watch on https://twitter.com/wiminswatch

Afghan women protesting marriage law are pelted with rocks

Critics of the new law say it legalizes marital rape

The Associated Press

A crowd of about 1,000 Afghans swarmed toward a demonstration by 300 women against a conservative new marriage law Wednesday, pelting them with rocks as police struggled to keep the groups apart.

The complete article can be viewed at: http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fgw-afghanistan-protest16-2009apr16,0,7668966.story

Visit latimes.com at http://www.latimes.com

This video is becoming a hit on the internet.

Susan Boyle a 48 year old from Bathgate, West Lothian, Scotlan, appeared on Britain’s Got Talent on April 9th, 2009. When first taking the stage, she had no stage presence and lacked the attire normally attributed to stars. Both the audience and the judges snickered and made comments about here, BUT the moment she started singing (“I Dreamed a Dream” from Les Miserables) however, the audience instantly stood on their feet and the judges were amazed by her beautiful voice. She will continue on in the upcoming rounds of Britain’s Got Talent.

Susan Boyle began singing at the age of 5 to comfort herself after being bullied by schoolyard children. Boyle still lives in the same town she grew up in, and is constantly surrounded by the people that bullied her as a child. She’s proud to have had a successful audition on Britain’s Got Talent, as it comforts her that she was able to rise above and move beyond her childhood trouble, but admits that the taunting she receives still bothers her. Boyle auditioned for Britain’s Got Talent to fulfill a wish of her mother, who passed away in 2007.

This just shows that it doesn’t matter how you look on the outside, if you have a talent and are good at that talent, you can turn that talent into a successful one and people will follow.

Here is the video:

[sboyle]9lp0IWv8QZY[/sboyle]

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Tuesday, April 14, 2009

PHILADELPHIA —  The latest forum for the national debate over abortion is whizzing by at 65 mph.

Anti-abortion groups have won approval in at least 18 states for specialized license plates with the tagline “Choose Life,” even as officials in New Jersey and other states fight the requests on various grounds.

The cases raise unresolved questions about whether license plates — or even portions of them — convey government or private speech. To raise revenues, many states let drivers buy specialty plates that recognize everything from military units and colleges to sports teams and nonprofit groups.

“Legislatures can say there might be certain controversies they do not want discussed on license plates,” Assistant N.J. Attorney General Andrea Silkowitz argued Tuesday in the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court, referring to an Illinois case.

Silkowitz argued that the state rejected the “Choose Life” plate not to avoid controversy but because the relevant law limits designs to group names and logos, and does not permit slogans.

In 2003, the N.J. Motor Vehicle Commission approved a request from the New York-based Children First Foundation, but later rejected the proposed design, which included a small graphic of a sun, two children’s faces and the words “Choose Life.”

The New Jersey agency also dismissed a later attempt to substitute a new domain name, “NJChoose-Life.Org,” for the original “Fund-Adoption.Org” on the plate.

The foundation sued on free-speech grounds, but a federal judge last year dismissed the case.

“Defendants partially denied Plaintiff’s designs not because of their desire to stay away from a controversial issue, but because they do not allow slogans or advocacy messages,” U.S. District Judge Joel A. Pisano wrote. “New Jersey has a legitimate interest in communicating that it does not approve or disapprove of any particular political cause, belief, or message.”

But Children First’s lawyer argued Tuesday that the design was rejected because it was “too controversial.”

States invite such controversy by sanctioning specialized plates for groups with various viewpoints, from GreenPeace to the Knights of Columbus, he argued.

“It’s really inescapable that the Legislature was welcoming in a number of viewpoints,” said Jeff Shafer, senior legal counsel for the Alliance Defense Fund.

Judge Theodore A. McKee agreed that states may have inadvertently courted controversy in an effort to raise money.

Across the country, federal judges have issued myriad opinions on the issue, but the facts also differ from case to case.

— In Illinois, a federal judge found the General Assembly had rejected a plate featuring the words “Choose Life” only because of its politically controversial nature, and found that discriminatory.

— In Arizona, the 9th U.S. Circuit also found discriminatory the state’s decision to reject the “Choose Life” message so as “not to enter the Choose Life/Pro-Choice debate.”

— The 4th U.S. Circuit Court in Richmond told South Carolina officials they could not approve “Choose Life” plates without also allowing abortion-rights plates.

The 3rd Circuit panel presiding over Tuesday’s case — Circuit Judges McKee and D. Brooks Smith and District Judge Richard Stearns of Massachusetts — gave the lawyers unlimited time to argue what McKee called an “extraordinary” case. The judges did not indicate when they would rule.

Children First, which operates in the New York region, has “Choose Life” plates in use in Connecticut and a similar suit pending in New York, Shafer said.

The U.S. Supreme Court declined last fall to review an appeal in the Arizona case, but will get another chance with the expected appeal of the Illinois case.

Original Article http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,515677,00.html

Here is another sick case that I have been following since it started. Another young girl dead, what in the hell is this country coming to!?? I have no mercy for anyone who does this to a young child or even to an another adult. Enough of my ranting and raving, here is the article. Also, don’t forget to check out the Don’t Miss links for more articles on this sick case.

Karl Zeigler

CNN) — A California woman accused in the rape and murder of 8-year-old Sandra Cantu fought tears Tuesday as a judge read the charges against her in a brief court appearance.

Melissa Huckaby is charged with killing 8-year-old Sandra Cantu, who was a friend of her own daughter.

Wearing red jail scrubs over a white T-shirt, Melissa Huckaby, 28, flinched at the mention of Sandra’s name. She is charged with killing Sandra, who was a friend of her own daughter.

The Sunday school teacher’s lip quivered and a single tear rolled down her cheek as the judge read special circumstances alleged against her — that the murder was committed in conjunction with a kidnapping, the performance of a lewd and lascivious act upon a child, and rape by instrument.

Huckaby did not enter a plea or speak during the appearance. Public defender Ellen Schwarzenberg, who appeared in court with Huckaby, said she would not enter a plea at that time, adding she had spoken with Huckaby “very briefly.”

The matter was continued for arraignment on April 24.

Schwarzenberg requested a gag order be imposed in the case, but the judge put off that matter until April 24 as well. Huckaby will remain in the San Joaquin County Jail without bond.

Huckaby is undergoing a medical evaluation as part of another case, an alleged petty theft being handled in a mental health court, Willett said.

Asked whether that would affect the murder case, he said, “Obviously, any mental health issues would have an effect on this case.”

Schwarzenberg said she hopes people will not rush to judgment in the case until all the facts are known.

If convicted as charged, Huckaby faces the death penalty or life in prison without parole, San Joaquin County District Attorney James Willett told reporters after the hearing. A decision on whether to seek the death penalty will be made later, he said.

Sandra’s body was found April 6, stuffed into a suitcase and submerged in a pond at a dairy farm. Huckaby was arrested Friday night after questioning by police.

Sandra was last seen alive March 27 in the mobile home park where she lived with her family — the same mobile home park where Huckaby lives with her own 5-year-old daughter. The two children were close friends and played together frequently, police said.

Huckaby is the granddaughter of Clifford Lane Lawless, pastor of Clover Road Baptist Church near the mobile home park, and she taught Sunday school at the church, police said. The church was searched as part of the investigation into Sandra’s disappearance and death.

Before her arrest, Huckaby acknowledged to a newspaper reporter that she owned the suitcase that contained Sandra’s body. But Huckaby said the suitcase had been stolen.

Willett declined to comment on any of the evidence or allegations in the case, saying evidence would be presented in court.

I have been watching this case ever since the beginning and knew that she was guilty from the start. Casey Anthony has lied to police and I wouldn’t doubt that she also lied to her lawyer. The State of Florida took the death penalty off a while back ago and just today put it back on.  For those of you that have been following the case I have enclosed a poll question in this post and for those of you that haven’t been following the case I have enclosed an article from CNN in this post.

Karl Zeigler
WiminsWatch.org Webmaster

State reverses itself, will seek death in Casey Anthony case

NEW YORK (CNN) — In a dramatic reversal, the Florida state attorney’s office announced Monday it will seek the death penalty against Casey Anthony, the 23-year-old woman charged in the death of her 2-year-old daughter Caylee.

Casey Anthony is charged with first-degree murder in the slaying of her daughter Caylee, 2, Trial is set for October.

The state had previously said it would not ask for the death sentence for Anthony.

The development could have a major impact on how the case plays out at trial, including whether defense attorney Jose Baez can stay on the case.

Baez has not been certified by the court to defend capital punishment cases.

Prosecutors announced their change in strategy in a letter of intent. Read the letter of intent (pdf)

Meanwhile, Anthony’s defense filed a motion on Friday with Orange County Circuit Court, seeking more phone records from a dozen people involved in the case. The motion asks for any and all records for “phone calls, text messages, P2P communications, Internet usage, WAP usage, and cell tower pings.”

The defense wants records from the defendant’s parents, George and Cindy Anthony; her former fiancé, Jesse Grund; her brother, Lee Anthony; a friend, Amy Huizenga; and Roy Kronk, the meter reader who found Caylee’s remains in December of last year.

Nancy Grace

Nancy Grace has the latest on Casey Anthony
8 & 10 p.m., HLN

see full schedule »

Kronk had called authorities as early as last August to report he had seen a suspicious bag in the area.

Other names on the list include several former boyfriends, two private investigators, a volunteer searcher and Richard Cain, an Orange County Sheriff’s deputy.

Cain was fired after an internal investigation found he failed to respond to repeated calls from Kronk about the suspicious bag. Cain has refused to leave the job and is awaiting an appeal.

“Various cell phone service providers are in possession of certain items which are material to the preparation of the defense in this cause,” the motion says, adding, ”the items sought by this application cannot be obtained through normal discovery.”

The motion says the release of these records could lead to admissible evidence in Anthony’s trial, which is set to begin in October. Anthony is charged with first-degree murder of Caylee, whose remains were found in woods near her grandparents’ home in Orlando.

Original Article http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/04/13/casey.caylee.anthony/index.html

Hotline calls up from last year as are cases of shaken baby syndrome

updated 4:20 p.m. ET, Fri., April 10, 2009

GARDEN CITY, N.Y. – Some hospitals report seeing more than twice as many shaken babies as a year ago. Deaths from domestic violence have increased sharply in some areas.

Calls to domestic-violence hotlines have risen too, and more than half the callers said their families’ financial situation has changed recently.

Across the country, these and other signs point to another troubling effect of the recession: The American home is becoming more violent, and the ailing economy could be at least partially to blame.

Our children and families are suffering,” said Alane Fagin, who runs a Long Island nonprofit group called Child Abuse Prevention Services. “With more layoffs expected, the threat of foreclosure looming over so many and our savings disappearing, even the best parents can feel stressed out and overwhelmed.”

Nationwide government data will not be compiled for months, so the evidence suggesting an uptick in child abuse and domestic violence has been largely anecdotal.

But the Child Welfare League of America, a coalition of public and private agencies, has been surveying state child welfare agencies to determine whether the numbers reflect a spike in violence.

“I think a lot of people are very concerned that we are in the early phases of this,” said Linda Spears, vice president for policy and public affairs.

Eighty-eight percent of law enforcement officials surveyed nationwide believe the economic crisis has led, or will lead, to more child abuse and neglect, according to top police officials from Los Angeles, Boston, Milwaukee and Philadelphia who recently held a news conference in Washington.

“Those of us on the front lines of law enforcement know that there is a correlation between economic distress and increased child abuse and neglect,” said Los Angeles Police Chief William Bratton. “We have to get in front of this problem now.”

Funding for support agencing shrinking
Just as the need appears to be growing, the recession is drying up funding to many agencies that fight domestic violence.

“This period of time may well be our perfect storm: a struggling economy, an increase in stress and a decrease in funding of programs,” said Fagin, the Long Island child abuse prevention advocate.

Not everyone is convinced domestic violence and child abuse are increasing.

“So far from what I’ve read there is no evidence that is the case,” said Ben Tanzer of Chicago-based Prevent Child Abuse. “Certainly we’re concerned that certain communities may be in crisis, but we just don’t know.”

Earlier this month, the U.S. Administration for Children’s Services released its annual report on child abuse, which found the number of children being maltreated actually fell in recent years, from 904,000 victims nationwide in 2006 to 794,000 the following year.

But those figures do not include the worst of the recession, which began in late 2007. Still, additional signs abound that violence is rising:

• The National Domestic Violence Hotline reported calls were up 21 percent in the third quarter of 2008 compared with a year earlier. A six-week survey found 54 percent of callers answering “yes” when asked if there had been a change in the family’s financial situation in the past year.
• Workers at Children’s Hospital Boston and Massachusetts General Hospital reported seeing nine infants with shaken baby syndrome in three months, compared with four in the same period last year. The chairman of pediatrics at Schneider Children’s Hospital on Long Island said his facility has had five cases in the past six months; only one or two cases arose during the previous year.
• Milwaukee reported a 40 percent increase in homicides related to domestic violence in the first three months of 2009. Police Chief Edward Flynn cannot say for sure whether the increase was caused by the recession, but he believes the two are related.
• The San Diego County Domestic Violence Hotline reported a 20 percent increase in calls in January 2009 over the prior year. “As the economy worsens, it’s likely that trend will get even worse,” District Attorney Bonnie M. Dumanis said.
• The Women’s Center of San Joaquin County, Calif., says the number of clients seeking aid in obtaining restraining orders against abusers has increased 50 percent for the first three months of 2009, and counselors blame the economy. The county leads the nation in foreclosures.
• Maine saw domestic violence-related homicides double in the past year. Gov. John Baldacci urged health care professionals to look even more carefully for signs of violence and sexual assault.
• Just outside the nation’s capital, the number of abuse and neglect cases rose 23 percent in Fairfax County, Va.; 29 percent in Montgomery County, Md.; and 18 percent in the District of Columbia in 2008. Neglect investigations appear to have increased most, as struggling families live without heat or electricity or fail to get children medical care.

Amy Wicks, a spokeswoman with the National Center on Shaken Baby Syndrome, said her organization has received reports from pediatricians around the country concerned about a spike in cases.

“It’s not just shaken baby, it’s other forms of physical abuse,” Wicks said. “A lot of fathers, or male caregivers, have been laid off and now they’re home with the screaming baby. Sometimes the stress of a crying baby is just too much on top of everything else.”

Individual cases also raise questions about the role economic troubles may have played.

Police on Long Island were called last month to the home of an out-of-work stagehand arguing with his wife over money. After repeatedly punching her in the face in front of his house, the man barricaded himself inside with her and their seven children as hostage negotiators pleaded for their release.

The siege in East Rockaway ended after the man’s wife fled and he was tackled by police outside the house. The children were not harmed.

Days later in Stockton, Minn., a man held a 4-year-old hostage for about five hours before surrendering. A woman told police her husband was intoxicated and had become “verbally violent” with her, noting he was depressed about being laid off at a die-casting company.

Mindy Perlmutter, spokeswoman for the Nassau County Coalition for Domestic Violence, cautioned that the economy is not the only factor in abuse cases — a common refrain among social workers.

“It doesn’t cause someone to be abusive,” she said. “There are many poor people who never abuse their loved ones. But if you’re inclined to be abusive, if you are an abuser, losing a job and being home 24/7 may give you more opportunity.”

Original article http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30156918/

Saturday, April 04, 2009

KABUL —  Responding to criticism from around the world, Afghan President Hamid Karzai said Saturday that a new law that critics say makes it legal for men to rape their wives will be studied and possibly sent back to parliament for review.

Karzai said he ordered the Justice Ministry to review the law, and if anything in it contravenes the country’s constitution or Shariah law, “measures will be taken.”

The law, signed by Karzai last month, is intended to regulate family life inside Afghanistan’s Shiite community, which makes up 10 percent to 20 percent of the country’s 30 million people.

But the United Nations Development Fund for Women has said the law “legalizes the rape of a wife by her husband.”

The United States has urged Karzai to review the law, and Karzai said he has spoken with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton about it. Canadian officials have also criticized the legislation.

One of the law’s most controversial articles legislates the frequency of sexual relations between Shiite husbands and wives. Article 132 says the husband has a right to sex every fourth night unless the wife is ill.

Karzai did not mention Article 132 during a news conference Saturday. But he said he had studied the law earlier in the day and that “I don’t see any problems with it.”

He complained that Western media outlets had mistranslated it. He read an article of the law during the news conference that appears to restrict Shiite women’s right to leave their homes, though Karzai underscored a provision that allows women to leave in emergencies.

Still, he said the law should be reviewed in consultation with scholars and religious leaders.

“I ordered the justice minister to review the law, and if there is anything that would contravene the country’s constitution or Shariah law or the freedom our constitution gives to Afghan women, without any doubt there will be changes in it, and again it will be sent to the parliament of Afghanistan,” he said. “Measures will be taken.”

The issue of women’s rights is a source of tension between the country’s conservative establishment and more liberal members of society. The Taliban government that ruled Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001 banned women from appearing in public without a body-covering burqa and a male escort from her family.

Now, millions of girls attend school and many women own businesses. Of 351 parliamentarians, 89 are women.

But in the staunchly conservative country, critics fear those gains could easily be reversed. Fawzia Kufi, a lawmaker who opposed the legislation, said this week that the law undermines all advances for Afghan women in the last seven years.

In the latest Afghan violence, a roadside bomb in southern Afghanistan on Saturday killed a service member from the NATO-led force. No other details, including the service member’s nationality, were released.

The U.S. military, meanwhile, said that coalition and Afghan forces killed 20 militants during a series of operations in the Kajaki region of Helmand province on Friday.

A U.S. statement said the forces were patrolling in a “known Taliban stronghold” when they were ambushed with gunfire and mortars. The combined forces responded with gunfire and airstrikes, killing 20 insurgents, it said.

Friday’s fighting was the latest in a string of battles in Kajaki, a region controlled by militants that produces much of Afghanistan’s illegal opium poppies, the main ingredient of heroin.

The U.S. said fighting around Kajaki on Wednesday killed 20 militants, and fighting there on Tuesday killed 31 militants.

U.S. commanders have said they expect violence in Afghanistan to spike this year as 21,000 new U.S. forces arrive in the country to battle an increasingly bloody Taliban insurgency. The U.S. already has a record 38,000 troops in the country. President Barack Obama has promised to increase the U.S. focus on Afghanistan as he draws down troops from Iraq.

Wednesday, April 08, 2009

KABUL —  A controversial law that critics say legalizes marital rape is unconstitutional and leads toward the “Talibanization” of Afghanistan’s legal system, according to a petition signed by dozens of Afghan ministers, lawmakers and officials.

The law, quietly passed and signed last month, has stirred international outcry over women’s rights. The law says a husband can have sex with his wife every four days unless she is ill, and it regulates when and for what reasons a wife may leave home alone.

Critics have said the legislation undermines hard-won rights for women enacted after the fall of the Taliban’s strict Islamist regime in 2001. The regime banned women from appearing in public without a body-covering burqa and a male escort from her family.

Following an international outcry, with President Barack Obama calling the law “abhorrent,” President Hamid Karzai ordered its review.

The Justice Ministry has said the law — which has not been published in the official registry and would apply only to the country’s Shiite population, between 10 percent and 20 percent of Afghanistan’s 30 million people — is not being enforced while it is under review.

“We are greatly dismayed and express sincere apologies to Afghan sisters and mothers, civil society and others who are committed to the preservation of human rights,” said a petition signed Wednesday by more than 100 Afghan officials and public figures, including six government ministers and 22 lawmakers.

The law contradicts the country’s constitution and human rights, treating women as objects rather than subjects, the joint declaration said.

“Notwithstanding the advancement of Afghan women, including their active participation in the political and social spheres, the rights of women have once again been neglected and violated in the name of ‘law,”‘ the petition said.

“We believe that all those who support democracy … will confront the Talibanization of the legal system of the country with determined efforts,” it said.

Much has improved since the fall of the Taliban. Millions of girls now attend school, and many women own businesses. Of 351 parliamentarians, 89 are women.

But in this conservative country, critics fear those gains could easily be reversed.

The petition came as Poland’s President Lech Kaczynski held talks in Kabul with Karzai and reiterated his country’s plans to increase its troop contribution in the country by 20 percent this year.

Poland has 1,600 troops in Afghanistan as part of the NATO-led force and is among the few countries other than the United States to substantially increase the number of soldiers pledged to fight insurgent groups.

Southern Afghanistan is the center of a growing Taliban-led insurgency, where thousands of new U.S. troops will deploy later this year to try to reverse militant gains of the last three years.

NATO said in a statement that one of its soldiers was killed Wednesday in a “hostile incident” in southern Afghanistan, but it did not provide the exact location of the incident or the nationality of the victim.

In the southern Uruzgan province, U.S. coalition and Afghan troops killed six militants with mortar fire while they were planting roadside bombs and constructing an ambush site Wednesday, the coalition said in a statement.

Also Wednesday, a roadside blast hit a civilian vehicle south of Kandahar city, wounding six civilians, said the spokesman for Kandahar province’s governor, Zalmai Ayubi.

Two of those hurt were in critical condition, he said.

Militants regularly plant bombs alongside roads used by foreign and Afghan troops, but the majority of victims in those attacks are civilians.

From Atia Abawi
CNN

ABUL, Afghanistan (CNN) — “In Afghanistan, the sacrifice in the political game is women and children,” female Afghan parliamentarian Fawzia Koofi said.

Koofi says that is exactly what happened when the Afghan parliament recently passed a bill intended to give the minority Shiite community their own identity. But critics say the latest draft strips Shiite women of rights as simple as leaving the house without permission from a male relative and as extreme as allowing a man to have sexual intercourse with his wife even when she says, “No.”

These critics wonder how what amounts to rape in marriage could be passed by parliament and signed into law by President Hamid Karzai.

Amid blistering criticism from the West, Karzai addressed the law over the weekend, saying that key elements of the bill were misinterpreted by Western news organizations. Watch Karzai react to controversial law »

“We understand the concerns of our allies and the international community. Those concerns may be due to an inappropriate, not-so-good translation of the law, or misinterpretation,” Karzai told reporters in Kabul.

He added that the Minister of Justice will study the “Shiite state law,” line by line, to make sure it follows the nation’s constitution, which requires equal rights to both sexes.

“If there is anything that is of concern to us, then we will definitely take action in consultation with our [religious clerics] and send it back to the parliament. You be assured of that. This is something that we’re also serious about and should not allow,” he said.

However, Karzai did not address the most controversial part of the bill, dealing with rape of a wife. Watch a report on the law »

The Shiite state law was debated by 249 members of the lower house, including 68 women, some of whom voted for the bill. It was then sent to the upper house. Even some lawmakers are baffled at the manner in which it passed.

“Most members of the parliament did not know what they were going to vote for,” Koofi said. “Even some of my friends, MPs sitting with me, voted in favor without knowing what happened.”

U.S. President Obama called the law “abhorrent” and said his administration has made it clear to the Karzai government that it objects to the law. Human rights groups and the international community have condemned the law and say it could undermine efforts to support basic human rights in the war-torn nation.

“We very much hope that the draft piece of legislation is to be withdrawn,” German Chancellor Angela Merkel said during a NATO summit on Afghanistan over the weekend. “It is unacceptable if such a law were to be passed in Afghanistan and become a part of Afghan legislation.”

According to lawmakers who opposed the bill, conservative legislators are pushing back any progress made for women’s rights in Afghanistan after the brutal oppression under the Taliban regime.

From 1996 to 2001, under the Sunni fundamentalist government of the Taliban, women were not allowed to leave their homes without being escorted by a male relative, and girls were not allowed to go to school.

When women did leave their homes, they were required to wear a blue burqa, which covered their bodies from head to toe. The only opening was a small net that provided an eyehole for the women to see through.

Women remember those days with despair.

One female teacher, who asked not to be named, said that during the Taliban regime, she was stopped at the market by the Taliban and beaten with a whip. Her crime: She wore a shawl covering her body instead of a burqa. She says she was too poor to purchase a real burqa.

After that beating, she was stuck in her home for months until someone was able to give her a used burqa. But even then, she didn’t know how to function wearing the suffocating fabric.

“I remember stepping out of a taxi with my son, and my foot was caught inside the burqa, making me fall out of the taxi onto mud. And everyone started laughing. It was humiliating,” she said.

Women in Afghanistan can still be seen wearing burqas. But Koofi says advances have been made for women’s rights in recent years. In some cases, it’s as simple as putting on makeup and walking down city streets.

But she fears that the rights of women and children could slowly be eroded, the “victims of political games,” as she puts it. “I mean, they don’t have a gun to fight [with], they cannot create a mess,” Koofi said.

That’s a sentiment echoed by rights groups. “The reported new law on women’s rights could be about to seriously undermine women’s rights for millions of Afghanistan women,” Amnesty International said in a statement.

The new law was intended to give the minority Shiite community its own identity within the predominantly Sunni country. Shiites have been practicing their form of Islam for centuries in Afghanistan, but they agree that there needs to be a governing Islamic law for Shiites alone, one recognized by the central government.

Koofi welcomes international support in fighting the new law, telling CNN that international investments in Afghanistan should go beyond financial donations.

“I don’t ask that the international community come and make laws for us, but they have to make the government of Afghanistan accountable for their commitment to women and children … and basically the human rights situation in this country,” she said.

Original Artivle at http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/asiapcf/04/06/afghanistan.law/index.html

» 02/14/2009 16:50
SAUDI ARABIA

According to the judge, the woman is guilty of adultery and of accepting a ride from a stranger. Following her rape, she became pregnant, and will finish her pregnancy in prison. The one hundred lashes will be given after her baby is born.

Jeddah (AsiaNews/Agencies) – The victim of sexual violence after which she became pregnant, a 23-year-old Saudi woman has been condemned to one year in prison, and 100 lashes. The news has been reported by the Saudi newspaper Saudi Gazette, which says that the judge punished the woman because she is guilty of “adultery,” having accepted “a ride from a stranger.” The man and his friends abused her the entire night.

The court of the district of Jeddah handed down the sentence after the unmarried woman “confessed to having forced intercourse with a man who offered her a ride.” According to the young woman’s testimony, he took her to a house east of Jeddah, and, together with four friends, abused her the entire night.

Following the rape, the woman became pregnant; she was eight weeks pregnant when she went to the military King Fahd Hospital. According to the judge, the woman is guilty of “adultery” simply because she is not married, and she has been sentenced to a year in prison.

The hundred lashes will be given after she delivers the baby; the child will take his mother’s last name. In Saudi Arabia, women are not allowed to drive, and can ride in a car only if they are accompanied by a husband or relative. In recent days, Saudi princess Amira al-Tawil, wife of prince Al Walid Bin Talal, had defended the right to drive for all women in the country.

Original Article at http://new.asianews.it/index.php?l=en&art=14486