Blackwater Doesn't Apologize

Even when they kill a man's 9 year old son and he agrees not to sue them if they just admit what they did and apologize. I have to say, Erick Prince and Blackwater are a shit stain on America that needs to be washed clean ASAP!!! That we are still doing business with that company should be shameful to each and every citizen of this country...

(h/t Attackerman)

The Picture Gets Clearer....And Uglier

Rachel Maddow carried the new and breaking details tonight about the circumstances of the Census worker's death in Kentucky that is believed to be a result of foul play. Its getting harder not to just come out and say that he was targeted because of his work with the Census.

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Out In The Streets They Call It Murdah

The news on Blackwater, or Xe or whatever the hell they are calling themselves this week, just keeps getting worse:

A former Blackwater employee and an ex-US Marine who has worked as a security operative for the company have made a series of explosive allegations in sworn statements filed on August 3 in federal court in Virginia. The two men claim that the company's owner, Erik Prince, may have murdered or facilitated the murder of individuals who were cooperating with federal authorities investigating the company. The former employee also alleges that Prince "views himself as a Christian crusader tasked with eliminating Muslims and the Islamic faith from the globe," and that Prince's companies "encouraged and rewarded the destruction of Iraqi life."

In their testimony, both men also allege that Blackwater was smuggling weapons into Iraq. One of the men alleges that Prince turned a profit by transporting "illegal" or "unlawful" weapons into the country on Prince's private planes. They also charge that Prince and other Blackwater executives destroyed incriminating videos, emails and other documents and have intentionally deceived the US State Department and other federal agencies. The identities of the two individuals were sealed out of concerns for their safety.

Its going to take years to unwind all of this mess in Iraq before we realize just how bad George Bush fucked over us for the last 8 years.

Arrest Made In Connection With McNair Murder

I still have to ask though, how Sahel Kazemi tracked down a convicted felon who just so happened to be illgally in possession of a gun that he ended up selling her just hours after she was bailed out of jail by Steve McNair which she used two days later to kill him.

Maybe this arrest will yield more information.

Fishy

I have been trying my best not to go all conspiracy theory on the Steve McNair murder/suicide but the facts keep making the hair on the back of my neck stand up. First of all the woman who supposedly murdered him then turned the gun on herself, Sahel Kazemi, only bought the gun a couple of days before everything went down. This was a 9mm pistol, that is not exactly a pop gun. And yet we are supposed to believe that she was such a cold blooded killer that she not only murdered Steve McNair but shot him in the head then shot him in the chest twice then shot him in the other side of his head?! Seriously?!

And then of course we have to deal with her ex boyfriend, Keith Norfleet, who just so happened to be the one who picked her up after the DUI which occured two days earlier where she was driving with McNair in the passenger seat and then McNair left in a cab. He just so happened to have sent an email to the Nashville paper, "The Tennessean" exposing the fact that McNair was in the truck with Kazemi when she was pulled over and that he was dating her. Then there is the violent homemade rap that the guy put on his myspace page. And there is also the question of what role he might have played in Kazemi buying the gun in the first place. Besides that is the report that Kazemi had to call the police on him for assaulting her earlier this year.

But maybe the most sinister angle is about the arresting officer from the DUI. It just so happened to be officer Shawn Taylor, the same guy who was disciplined after he was found to have abused his position when he had previously arrested McNair on a bogus DUI charge and kept bugging him to take a drug test. What might he have said to Kazemi that night? Is it just a bit of irony that he was involved with this stop a few days before McNair ends up dead? And considering the brutal nature of the murder suicide doesn't it seem at least more probably that a police officer rather than a 20 year old girl would have the capacity to carry such an attack out and then be able to cover it up afterward?

I don't know man, this story to me still isn't over. Not by a long shot.

Murder/Suicide

Damn. I really don't know what I was hoping the story would be in the end, but I just feel for Steve McNair's family that during their time of mourning they also have to go through the shock of his indiscretions on a public stage. Evidently his jump off, Sahel Kazemi, had some serious mental issues. You just never know man, you never know....

A Truly Disgusting Human Being

I want you to think about something for a moment. Think about what Bill O'Reilly is saying about women. He is saying that he believes there are thousands of women who would seek to end their pregnancy in the last trimester on a whim or a lark. He is promoting a notion that there are countless women so cold hearted that they would have no qualms about going through that procedure simply because they "wanted to go to a concert". I don't have a problem with people being opposed to late term abortions, but to put the situation is such obviously ridiculous terms is just reprehensible. When his guest tries to correct him he immediately begins to talk over her. He doesn't want to know or even consider what the truth is. It couldn't be that these procedures are actually reserved for women whose lives are really in danger. No, not in his world. He is just all too happy to keep framing the debate in false terms to try to paint Dr. Tiller as a monster.

You see he isn't really upset that Dr. Tiller was murdered, he is just upset that people rightly leveled some blame at him for it. Bill O'Reilly is a coward of the highest order and we need to find a way to get his advertisers to pull away from him. This man doesn't deserve a second chance to try to get another doctor killed.

Uncommon Courage

If you are like me and watch "The Rachel Maddow Show" on a regular basis, then you probably are familiar with Princeton Professor Melissa Harris-Lacewell. She is a frequent guests and she gives very informed and many times witty takes on racial issues as they relate to politics. Well today she has a very powerful, moving, courageous, and just about any other positive adjective you can think of post up at "The Nation" about the assassination of Dr George Tiller over the weekend. On Monday there Rachel had Dr. Susan Wicklund on TRMS who had this to say.

We have to get women to start standing behind us as providers. We need the 45 million women who have had abortions in this country Roe versus Wade to stand beside us as providers and clinics now and come out of your homes, come out of your comfort zone and talk about it. Make everyone know how common this is.

At the time I thought to myself that Dr. Wicklund was absolutely right, but what she was asking of many of these women might be too much for them to bear. Well Ms. Lacewell shows that there are women out there willing to tell their story in order to push back against the anti choice crowd.

Forty years ago my mother was part of the movement of individuals who helped desperate women find safe ways to terminate their pregnancies. This network provided safe houses, transportation, and follow-up support for women who had to cross state lines to obtain abortions. She was willing to risk her life and livelihood to protect women's reproductive choices.

Nearly twenty years ago my older sister was diagnosed with cancer during the second trimester of her pregnancy. Her religious commitments led her to refuse her doctor's advice to terminate. She risked her life to ensure that she would not have an abortion. She and my niece are both healthy.

When we were 14-year-old, high school freshmen my friend decided to have the baby of a boy she'd had sex with only once. It changed her life forever, but she graduated from school and made a life for herself and daughter. In my twenties I stood by dear friends who simply could not afford emotionally or financially to carry their pregnancies to term. Their decisions to seek abortions were difficult and painful, but they faced them courageously.

I'm a 35-year-old, educated, black, divorced mother. Like so many other women my age I have faced my own tough reproductive choices. I've had a child, an abortion, and hysterectomy. I love and respect women who have chosen many different paths. Their stories and my own are part of the reason that I am a committed supporter of reproductive rights.

The murder of George Tiller is personal to me. It is not just a matter of politics or policy. I am an aunt to three teenage girls and the mother to a daughter. It is critical to me that their health, safety, and choices are protected.

I HIGHLY recommend reading the full text of her post because it definitely deserves your attention. I can't imagine how much courage it took for Professor Harris-Lacewell to tell her story but I hope she is an inspiration to other women who have a similar story to tell.

Very Powerful

The son of one of the founders of the Right To Life movement, Frank Schaeffer appeared on the Rachel Maddow Show tonight and what he said in light of the assasination of Dr. George Tiller was very powerful. He not only took responsibility for his part in stirring up that kind of evil with his hateful rhetoric previously, he also called for others in the RTL movement to come forward and take responsibility as well. I could try to describe what he said but I wouldn't do it justice so instead just check out the video from the show.



The tail end of the segment where he talks about the rage that wingnuts are trying to gin up at President Obama I think is exactly spot on. And I can only hope that the people tasked with protecting him are paying attention and are leaving nothing to chance.

Dave Waldman AKA Kagro X Is A BEAST!

Dave Waldman has a diary up over at dailykos that is definitely worth the full ready about the mainstream media's epic fail covering the cop massacer in Pittsburgh by right wing nutjob Richard Poplowski. But I just HAD to excerpt the ending because it expresses my thoughts exactly.

It's a little shy of two years now since reporters at the press conference at the last event held under the Yearly Kos banner in Chicago expressed amazement at having been shown the FOX Nutwork record of "mistakes" in reporting basic facts that were embarrassing to Republicans. And it seems clear that even now, traditional media reporters are unable to come to terms with the fact that there are people masquerading as "their kind," yet who not only can't and won't work in the same fact-based reality as they do, but actively beam out a steady stream of incendiary, counter-factual rhetoric that you'd have to be willfully blinding yourself not to connect to shooters who end up parroting, well, pretty much exactly what they're broadcasting on FOX.

Wake the hell up, people. There's a 24-hour eliminationist "news" nutwork broadcasting poison to already-fevered minds. Call it what it is. Be aware of what they're doing. And reporters, be clear on what they're up to, and whose profession they're using as cover.

And really, when a cop killer's best friend tells you casually that he was consumed with Zionist control of the government and imminent martial law and gun confiscations... that's actually the story!

When a shooter's best friend tells you he killed cops because his mind was being controlled by aliens from planet Xoltron, you have a sad and inexplicable illness on your hands, and "just the facts" reporting is all you can responsibly do.

When a shooter's best friend tells you he killed cops because he believed fake stories you can hear reported as "news" on a well-known (and even "respected!") 24-hour cable television network, you've got a very serious story on your hands that it's actually irresponsible not to look deeper.

This stuff isn't just appearing from out of nowhere. It's being beamed out under the protections you've worked hard to protect for your profession.
To the extent that you refuse to call FOX out for their nonsense, you become partly culpable for its continuance.

Take the reins and lead.

Not How I Normally Roll

I try to stay away from posting sensational stories about celebrities or athletes but this particular story is so sad, convoluted, crazy, ironic and tragic all at the same time that I just felt compelled to post about it.