Joe. My. God.: About That Renegade Republican….
La Frontera Times: Another Immigrant Dies In ICE Detention From Poor Medical Care
Flip Flopping Joy: Treating: Communities vs. Individuals
Bitch: Apply for the Bitch Youth Leadership Council (Deadline Dec. 1)
NY Mag: Another kind of AIDS crisis
Jezebel: The Problem with Fashion’s Obsession with Death
Slate: What ever happened to the Amazon rainforest? Did we save it?
Dr. Aafia Siddiqui: The Story of the Brown Box
I Blame the Mother: Learning to be a mother not possible for the learning-disabled
Feministing: Notes from a bitch…reading is fundamental…
Flip Flopping Joy: being hungry: the places that scare you
Racialicious: NPR sort of hates “black music”
Evil Slutopia: Think before you pink this October
Shakesville: Seven Scenes, for a Reason
US News: Sally Ride: Astronaut urges girls to pursue science
Tex[t]-Mex: The fruit of Lou Dobb’s hate-filled spleen: Mario Vera
Rage Against the Man-chine: Too drunk to drive? Then you’re too drunk to deserve pity for having been raped, you dumb whore.
China Hush: Amazing Pictures, Pollution in China
FWD/Forward: Ableist Word Profile: Intelligence
New America Media: A stranger in his homeland
Womanist Musings: Spike Lee speaks the truth on Tyler Perry
The Pursuit of Harpyness: Don’t Lie About Your Age: A Rant
The Sanctuary: “Send ‘em back with a bullet in the head the second time.”
Feministe: Early Nashville Women’s History
LA Times: The racism of marijuana prohibition
Muslimah Media Watch: Erasing the Dichotomy: Positive Portrayals of Latina Muslims
Jezebel: How do hundreds of rapes just “come to light?”
Hoyden About Town: Monsters vs Aliens—Feminist Win, Feminist Fail?
Feministing: When nudity is progressive — and when it’s not
Flip Flopping Joy: The Value of Not Speaking…
Womanist Musings: What would we do without white privilege?
Feminist Finance: What If I’d Taken All The Bad Money Advice I’ve Been Given By Dudes?
***more after the jump***
From a protest held on Defense of Pakistan Day for the release of Aafia Siddiqui.
Austin-American Statesman: New Bible requirement hits Texas schools this fall
Miami Herald: FL gay adoption ban goes to appeals court
Feministe: One woman takes on King Coal. And wins.
Racialicious: How do we deal with racist materials?
Crooks and Liars: Now the Birthers are demanding to know: Was Obama circumcised?
TimesOnline: Iranian boy who defied Tehran hardliners tells of prison rape ordeal
South Texas Chisme: Right-wingers aim to indoctrinate Texas kids
States Without Nations: The Mexican-izing of Mark Lyttle: The First Steps in Deporting a US Citizen
ImmigrationProf Blog: NASA Astronaut: A Child of Migrant Workers
NY Times: Where’s the Rulebook for Sex Verification?
NY Times: After 48 Years, Julia Child Has a Big Best Seller, Butter and All
Feministing: Judo champ finally gets her gold–the one she should’ve got in 1959
The Curvature: Defense attorneys want victim to act out alleged rape in court
Recently on This Recording: Mechanical Brides
Tejaztlán Notebook: Old White People on Government Health Care Rally To Prevent Black President From Giving Health Care to Brown People
The Pursuit of Harpyness: On Women, Alcohol, and Anti-Feminism
And an older article, but since the Obamas did indeed land in Matha’s Vineyard this week, an interesting read: Black and White on Martha’s Vineyard
Surprise, surprise.
WASHINGTON — The Obama administration will continue the Bush administration’s practice of sending terror suspects to third countries for detention and interrogation, but will monitor their treatment to insure they are not tortured, administration officials said on Monday. [...]
But human rights advocates condemned the decision, saying it would permit the transfer of prisoners to countries with a history of torture and that promises of humane treatment, called “diplomatic assurances,” were no protection against abuse.
“It is extremely disappointing that the Obama administration is continuing the Bush administration practice of relying on diplomatic assurances, which have been proven completely ineffective in preventing torture,” said Amrit Singh of the American Civil Liberties Union, who tracked rendition cases under President George W. Bush.
She cited the case of Maher Arar, a Syrian-born Canadian sent in 2002 by the United States to Syria, which offered assurances against torture but beat Mr. Arar with electrical cable anyway.
The Obama task force proposed improved monitoring of treatment of prisoners sent to other countries, but Ms. Singh said the usual method of such monitoring — visits from American or allied consular officials — had also been ineffective. A Canadian consular official visited Mr. Arar several times, but the prisoner was too frightened to tell him about the torture, according to a Canadian investigation of the case.
Change we can believe in, eh?
The LA Times had a feature earlier this week about the women disappearing in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico.
Two dozen teenage girls and young women have gone missing in this violent border city in the last year and half, stirring dark memories of the killings of hundreds of women that made Ciudad Juarez infamous a decade ago.
The disappearances, which include two university students and girls as young as 13, have some crime-novel touches: mysterious dropped calls, messages left by third parties and unsubstantiated reports of the women being kept at a house.
There is no clear evidence of wrongdoing or links among the cases, which have been overshadowed by a vicious drug war that has killed more than 2,500 people in Juarez since the beginning of 2008. But relatives of the young women say it is highly unlikely that they would have left on their own. [...]
