The United States Supreme Court this morning voted 8-1 in favor of the Westboro Baptist Church in a case brought by the father of a Marine killed in Iraq whose funeral Westboro picketed in 2006. The majority opinion, only Samuel Alito dissented, determined whether Albert Snyder, the father of a Marine killed in Iraq, was entitled to monetary damages due to his suffering emotional damages as a result of Westboro’s protest at his son funeral in Westminster, MD five years ago.
Marine Lance Corporal Matthew Snyder was 20 years-old when he died in Iraq in a non-combat-related vehicle accident in Al-Anbar province on March 3, 2006. Westboro Baptist church members staged a protest at Snyder’s funeral in his hometown of Westminster. The elder Snyder has claimed emotional distress and physical problems related to the protest, and has said he cannot separate memories of his son from the hate-filled protest.
The Court, however, found that Westboro was engaged in protected public, not private, speech “in a public place on a matter of public concern” and therefore Snyder was not due any damages.
“Simply put, the church members had the right to be where they were,” Chief Justice John Roberts said, writing for the majority. “Westboro alerted local authorities to its funeral protest and fully complied with police guidance on where the picketing could be staged. The picketing was conducted under police supervision some 1,000 feet from the church, out of the sight of those at the church. The protest was not unruly; there was no shouting, profanity, or violence.”
Roberts, however, went on to note the Court was not deciding on the larger Constitutional question of whether protests at funerals are protected. This ruling only affected Albert Snyder’s rights to compensation in this specific instance.
“Our holding today is narrow,” Roberts wrote. “We are required in First Amendment cases to carefully review the record, and the reach of our opinion here is limited by the particular facts before us.”
Roberts pointed out, as the Court has said in the past, that even reprehensible speech that the overwhelming majority of Americans disagrees with must be protected under the right to free speech. “If there is a bedrock principle underlying the First Amendment, it is that the government may not prohibit the expression of an idea simply because society finds the idea itself offensive or disagreeable,” Roberts wrote in today’s decision.
Left unsettled by the Court in this decision, however, is the larger of question of whether a state can block a person’s or group’s protest at a funeral. Maryland and 43 other states have passed laws in recent years barring demonstrations at funerals because of the Wesboro protests.
In an impassioned dissent, Justice Alito wrote that the right to free speech does not allow for “the vicious verbal assault that occurred in this case.” Alito believes the Westboro Church member “brutally attacked Albert Snyder” and that he is entitled to damages as compensation for his suffering “severe and lasting emotional injury.”
Koch brothers’ hype man Scott Walker laid bare the full of his budget proposal yesterday. In it, he called for nearly $1B in cuts to public school funding, while ensuring that local districts wouldn’t be able to spuriously find a way to close the gap he’s creating. How? By inserting a provision requiring districts to reduce their property tax authority. It’s assumed that Walker will soon legislate a bully and a pickpocket into each municipal school, in order to extract additional funds directly out of kids’ pockets.
Fear not, though, fair Wisconsin residents! Walker didn’t just take his chain saw to the expense side of the ledger. No, no, not at all. He also looked for ways to trim up the budget from the revenue side, asking for an estimated $82M in tax cuts, much of that coming from capital gains realized on investments in ‘Wisconsin based businesses’. Wait, you mean cutting more revenue will only further impact the ability of the state to shore up it’s budget issues by forcing even more spending cuts? Well done, high school accounting students! Your classes just landed on Scott Walker’s chopping block!
Further, let’s assume that power plants, the kind that Walker wants to privatize and sell off (without bids!) as part of his larger plan, would qualify as ‘Wisconsin based businesses.’ But remember, the Koch’s aren’t interested in those power plants. Nope, never. Ignore the fact that their own website, under ‘Industry Areas’ lists ‘supply energy to communities to heat and cool buildings’ in the first sentence highlighting their offerings.
Walker is also touting cuts to cities and counties in his budget, just so they don”t feel left out as Walker machetes his way through what’s left of the middle class.
In case you happened to catch yourself feeling bad for Walker, don’t worry, he’s still got folks on his side. In spite of the poll numbers indicating that support for him is waning, Americans for Prosperity is putting together a ‘Stand Against Spending. Stand With Walker’ bus tour this very weekend!.
I don’t need to tell you who the primary backers of AFP are.
In short, Scott Walker is Flava Flav, if Flava Flav ever worked for Don King.
Despite his bizarre claims in an interview with ABCNews’ Christiane Amanpour, Gaddafi’s crackdown on opposition forces intensified over the weekend with Special Forces, regular Army forces and fighter jets striking opposition targets. Meanwhile, opposition forces announced the formation of the National Libyan Council and selected former justice minister Mustafa Mohamed Abdel Jalil is to lead the initiative. The Council will coordinate attempts to liberate Tripoli and other Libyan areas still under Gaddafi’s control. On Sunday, Sens. McCain and Lieberman called on the US government to recognize and arm the provisional opposition government. Over the weekend and through last night, opposition forces fought fierce battles against pro-Gaddafi forces to maintain their hold on ‘liberated’ areas, but neither side appears to have gained a clear military advantage. Opposition forces repelled sustained pro-Gaddafi assaults on the opposition-held towns of Zawiyah and Misrata, but attempts to reach Tripoli did not materialize and it remains under Gaddafi’s control.
Opposition organizers in Benghazi
Beyond the military assaults, Libyan civilians trapped by the fighting are facing food and medical supply shortages. Over the weekend, The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) entered Eastern Libya, including opposition held Benghazi, and is now providing medical assistance. The ICRC reports 256 killed and 2,000 people wounded in Benghazi. On Monday, French Prime Minister, François Fillon, announced that France is also sending two planes carrying doctors, nurses, medications and medical equipment to Benghazi. The planes are scheduled to leave this morning. However, due to the security situation, aid is not reaching western parts of Libya. According to Valerie Amos, the UN humanitarian chief, the security situation around Tripoli remains too dangerous for international aid agencies to assess the need for medicine, food and other supplies in the west. The ICRC has also not been able to access Western Libya and Al Jazeera reports this morning that Gaddafi’s regime may be purposefully blocking food supplies to Western towns as a means of undermining opposition control.
Benghazi, the de facto capital of the opposition, is where much of anti-Gaddafi actions are co-ordinated and executed.
For Libyans and foreign nationals who have been able to flee the country, refugee support remains limited. Sybella Wilkes, spokeswoman for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, announced that more than 140,000 refugees have fled into neighboring countries, estimating that up to 75,000 refugees had already crossed into Tunisia from Libya and 69,000 others had crossed from eastern Libya into Egypt. Over the weekend, witnesses and news reports documented Tunisian guards repeatedly opening fire on refugees attempting to enter and refugees being beaten by guards. Once through the border, the refugee situation remains precarious. The Tunisian camp can accommodate about 10,000 people. “The resources are being drawn down as quickly as we can pump them in,” Ms. Wilkes said in a telephone interview. Relief workers have said they are concerned about sanitation in the camp and supplies of drinking water. In Geneva, Secretary of State Clinton announced the Obama Administration has set aside $10 million for emergency humanitarian relief through the U.S. Agency for International Development and that two teams of USAID experts are being sent to Libya’s borders to assess the refugee crisis and organize the delivery of aid.
Member of opposition forces outside Benghazi military base
More than two weeks after the uprising began the International community continues to increase pressure on the Gaddafi regime though military intervention but the imposition of a no fly zone remains unlikely at this point. Over the weekend, acting on President Obama’s Executive Order, the US Treasury Department froze $30 billion in Libyan government assets. The European Union imposed new sanctions, including an arms and police equipment sales embargo and a visa ban for Libyan officials. On Saturday the Security Council met for a second time and adopted Resolution 1970 under its Chapter VII, Article 41 authority which includes 1) an ICC referral, 2) an arms embargo, 3) an asset freeze and 4) a travel ban (Note: the Resolution link provides summaries of the Security Council member statements on the Resolution. Importantly, Ibrahim Dabbashi, the Deputy Permanent Delegate, represented the Libyan delegation).
Despite repeated pleas from the Libyan UN delegation, human rights groups and some US elected officials, the UN Security Council did not include imposing a no fly zone to prevent Gaddafi from bombing civilians by air. Today, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov ruled out Russian support for a no fly zone. Russia is a permanent member of the UN Security Council and has veto authority. NATO could impose and enforce a no fly zone but has stated that any military interventions would have to be UN authorized.
For those having problems with the Al Jazeera live stream (maybe it’s just me), sign up for LiveStation (it’s free!) and you can watch any Al Jazeera channel: http://www.livestation.com/
After deciding not to run again because of being on the receiving end of some shady mortgage deals from Countrywide, Chris Dodd (D-CT) has a cushy new job as the CEO of the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA). He will replace Bob Pisano who is the acting CEO. Pisano is a Hollywood insider who spent time at SAG, MGM and Paramount, whereas Dodd is certain that he’s seen movies but is outraged by the price of popcorn and the lack of wide parking spots.
The MPAA is the organization that determines what rating a film will receive based on how many instances of boobs, butts, peens, dirty words, violence, sex and Mel Gibson are in the film. They don’t tell you what you can’t have in your film, but if you want it to get a R or below you know what you have to do.
If we can agree on nothing else, let us at least agree to agree that POLITICO (All caps, please. K THX) is absolutely terrible. Politico is the Qadaffi of websites. No… Politico is the Charlie Sheen of websites. Unhinged, incomprehensible, obsessed with meaningless bullshit and you need a chlamydia test after fucking with it.
So why don’t we throw a little contest for the Crasstalk Army:
Let’s prowl Politico in search of the most execrable, mundane, pointless or otherwise awful article on the site today and post a link in the comments.
Tomorrow we’ll announce the winner. The prize is a very special Crasstalk post, written by me, extolling your virtues and affirming your place in history. Who wouldn’t want that?
First of all, stop gushing on Obama, GOP. Also, you can’t just put “Smitten:” at the front of a headline and expect it to make any sense. Usually you do something like that if you want to attribute the statement to someone. Like for example, “Scientists: Charlie Sheen Not Actually a Real Drug.” See, that would make sense.
To prove the writer’s point that the GOP is gushing on Obama, it goes on for about two solid paragraphs with a lukewarm Haley Barbour quote and then wraps up with this:
In his typical overly-Texan tone, Perry said the president is “a good talker” rather than communicator.
Perry though made clear that he thinks the Obama may like to hear himself talk, frequently mentioned how “long” the president took to answer some of the governor’s questions.
WHAT DOES THAT EVEN MEAN? GAHHHHHHHHHH POLITICO. WHY DO YOU TEASE US WITH SUCH BULLSHIT????
You thought I was done yammering about abortion laws? HA. You are so naïve.
Welcome to Part Two of Chipping Away At Roe, or I Can’t Believe We Still Have To Protest This Crap. Today we’re going to look at a (very) small sampling of state laws and bills relating to abortion and reproductive rights.
We’ll start with my home state, Iowa. According to theGuttmacher Institute, Iowa had 11 abortion providers in 2008 in 9% of Iowa counties. They also have like a million crisis pregnancy centers (CPCs). NOTE: Crisis pregnancy centers do not offer abortion, and in general will try their damnedest to keep you from getting one. A lot of them will also try to give you information that is either debatable or that they’ve just plain made up, like that abortion causes an increase in breast cancer (yes!no!yes!no!), or that Post-Abortion Syndrome exists and is common (Nope. It’s not recognized by the APA or American Psychiatric Association, though emotions after abortion vary widely), or that abortion providers will lie to you to get your money (highly illogical, Captain; they’d make more money off prenatal care). So don’t visit them unless you’re just looking to score some free baby clothes and cookies. If you want information, go to your doctor or Planned Parenthood. You can get free condoms for more baby-free sex, too!
Iowa requires parental/relative consent if a minor wants an abortion, except in a medical emergency or cases of abuse, incest and neglect. Some people may think that it’s only fair to let parents know what their child is up to, especially when it concerns something as serious as abortion. However, forcing children to notify their parents is harmful. It’s my firm belief that parents need to foster an environment where their kids will feel comfortable telling them they are pregnant and what they plan to do about it. If your daughter isn’t coming to you about this, she probably feels she has a good reason, whether she’s afraid you’ll be angry or disappointed or knows she might be kicked out of the house or even killed. Luckily, some states’ Planned Parenthoods offer volunteer attorneys to help with judicial bypass, which allows minors to get an abortion without telling their parents.
Here’s something cool about Iowa, though: we have the first telemedicine program for abortion. That’s right: abortion on demand (in a clinic with a nurse who does all the usual examinations, tests, counseling and ultrasound). This makes it much easier for those harlots to frivolously abort their precious pre-borns whenever they want, as they are wont to do. No, wait, sorry. It makes it easier for women hours away from the nearest abortion provider (quite common in Iowa; shocking, for a state that’s 86% farmland!) to get abortion pills, which induce abortions within the first nine weeks of pregnancy. This means they don’t have to take time off work, arrange transportation, find someone to take care of their kids, explain their absence, and deal with protestors outside the clinic. It’s also much less invasive than surgical abortion and allows women to exert more control over the prodecure. Go Hawks!
Oh, by the way: if you insist on calling fetuses pre-borns so they can have all the rights that born babies have, I’m going to go ahead and call myself a “pre-senior” so I can start getting all those sweet discounts.
I'm looking forward to it
Some current legislation that sucks:
HJR 3, or House Joint Resolution 3: Man, this right-to-life thing is a pain in the ass. Thanks a lot, Thomas Jefferson! This bill states that personhood begins from the moment of conception. They can’t even wait until the damn thing attaches to the uterine wall. Defining an embryo/fetus as a person is the beginning of giving them rights accorded to people, including the right to life.
But you know, I don’t really care about the whole is-a-fetus-a-human-life or is-a-fetus-a-person argument. Totally played out. Besides, two sets of rights can’t logically exist in one body. Eventually one set of rights will have to trump the other, as in the case of the previously mentioned Angela Carder. Even then, the woman’s rights will need to be prioritized over the fetus’. After all, she’s carrying the damn thing, and has all those pesky responsibilities to her family and career and school and whatnot. The fetus isn’t even autonomous, the lazy bastard. Look at it, just twiddling its little webby thumbs in the amniotic sac, mooching off Mom’s blood.
GET A JOB
HF 153: Here’s where the trouble starts with that whole “personhood” thing. This would propose that life and personhood begin at conception, which means NO ABORTIONS, EVER. Well, it doesn’t really say that, in so many words. It says “life is valued and protected from the moment of conception and each life is accorded the same rights and protections guaranteed to all persons.” This is a bit sticky. Obviously, it would ban all abortions, something the state can’t legally do because of Roe v. Wade (though the purpose of the bill is probably to challenge Roe v. Wade anyways).
If someone takes my birth control pill from me, I will cut a bitch
However, some are concerned that it would also ban certain forms of birth control that prevent a fertilized egg from attaching to the uterine wall. This means contraception that contains progesterone, which prevents the endometrium from thickening enough to support an embryo, could be banned. This includes birth control pills, some IUDs, Implanon (implanted birth control), the patch, Depo-Provera….you get the picture. No hormonal birth control.
Moving on!
I know a lot of you are from New York, so next stop: Big Apple.
New York’s basically the best place to live if you need an abortion. The Guttmacher Institute says there were 249 abortion providers in 61% of counties in 2008. Remember kids: don’t go to crisis pregnancy centers! New York also doesn’t have any of the usual abortion restrictions like waiting periods, parental notification and required ultrasounds (the clinics do ultrasounds in the first place to discover how far along a pregnancy is, so this would be yet another cost added to the bill), and allows Medicaid to pay for abortions.
They have a few bills chilling out in the state assembly (largely pro-choice) right now. They don’t seem to be going anywhere, but here they are. I’m going to go ahead and apologize now for not having many details on the bills I mention here. It’s really f’ing hard to get information unless someone’s kicking up a fuss about them. A couple I found were A02128, which would require parental notice, and we’ve got A02244, or a right to know bill, which looks like it might require clinics to provide women with “full information and reflection time.” (24 hours)
Giving women alternatives to abortion, as well as full information on how the procedure works, what to expect, and how to take care of themselves afterward is important, and most clinics, especially Planned Parenthood, do a pretty good job with it on their own. Regulating abortion, making sure it’s safe, is also crucial. You’ll just have to understand that I’m a bit wary of bills like these when they come from anti-abortion legislators. The issue, then, is that they’re often biasedagainst abortion, which increases the risk of false information being given and puts more pressure on women not to get abortions. Dudes. That decision is hard enough without making her feel like shit about it. And adoption is an alternative to parenthood, not pregnancy, and is therefore not always a valid argument.
The rest of the bills I found were all good stuff, like requiring CPCs to disclose they don’t perform abortions, aren’t medically licensed or a medical facility, and that pregnancy tests can be purchased over the counter and self-administered. Four for you, New York.
Let’s stop briefly in California, home of the courageous Rep. Jackie Speier (D-CA), who spoke of her own 2nd-trimester abortion during the debate on HR 217 to strip Planned Parenthood of funding. The Guttmacher Institute puts the number of abortion providers at 522 in 78% of counties in 2008. They, like New York, don’t have any of the usual restrictions, and 2nd-trimester abortions are legal. I couldn’t find any current bills pertaining to abortion, so we’ll move on.
I imagine it's something like Mexico's Island of the Dolls, but less creepy
I hear a few of you are from Illinois, mostly hailing from The Only Part of Illinois That Matters. Illinois is also known as “an island of abortion in the Midwest.” Abortion Island has 37 abortion providers that practice in only 8% of Abortion Island counties, which seems a bit sparse, considering its nickname. It’s also got some anti-choice language in the state code that declares Illinois’ commitment to protecting the unborn and that, should Roe v. Wade be reversed, they will reinstate the abortion ban, with exceptions for the health of the woman. Illinois also doesn’t have most of the common restrictions, though the fight for parental notice has been going on since the Parental Notice of Abortion Act of 1995 was enacted, then put under permanent injunction, which is now being appealed. Whoof.
So, you’ve made it this far, have you? Good on you. The last state I’ll go into detail about is Arizona. Arizona legislature is pretty much completely anti-choice; the House, Senate and Governor Jan Brewer all support anti-abortion laws. In 2008, there were 19 abortion providers in 13% of Arizona counties. Restrictions include parental consent, not just notification, as well as counseling designed to discourage her from having an abortion, and a 24-hour wait. There are a couple of bills getting some press right now. HB 2443 (sorry about the blinding text color) would charge those who perform abortions knowing they are based on sex- or race-selection with a Class 3 felony. Oh, Arizona! It’s a little late to convince people you care about racism. There hasn’t really been any evidence that race-selection is the cause of some abortions, and most abortions happen before the sex is able to be most accurately determined, which is around the end of the first trimester. These bills aren’t about protecting disenfranchised fetuses, but creating more obstacles to abortion.
The other bill (it really needs to be easier to find bill names)would require that clinics that provide medication abortions be under the same state regulations regarding staffing and facilities of clinics that provide surgical abortions. This would also apply to satellite clinics that provide telemed abortions, which would be banned. Since only 13% of Arizona counties have abortion providers, this makes it much harder for women outside of those counties to get an abortion.
To wrap up, a quick word on trigger laws. Trigger laws are laws that, while currently unenforceable, would be automatically enforceable should other legislation change. Many states have trigger laws pertaining to abortion in case Roe v. Wade was someday overturned. Louisiana’s former governor Kathleen Babineaux Blanco signed a trigger law in 2006 permitting abortion only when a woman’s life was threatened by pregnancy, and Mississippi’s governor Haley Barbour signed a similar one in 2007.
I wish I could go into greater detail, but we’d be here all week. I’m linking to some helpful sites at the end of this post. The Guttmacher Institute is a great resource for information on state laws and abortion in general. I got a lot of my information from the Media Center and State Center on their website.
Back to the federal level: Here are the ten Democrats who sponsored HR 3, which codifies the Hyde Amendment. They are, uh, not favorable reviews.
I didn’t add this at the end of my last post, but I should have. Guys, the reason I’m writing about this stuff isn’t just to work up some righteous outrage on your end. There’s enough of that out there already. I’m writing about this as a call to action. Look up your state’s legislation. They should have bills listed on their website, as well as your representatives’ information. Find out what’s going on in your state, and start calling people. Email, if you can’t call. Organize protests. Do something to remind your representatives who they work for.
If you do, there's a sugar glider bee in it for ya.
College dropout and Race to the Bottom cheerleader Scotty Walker is soon to have a brother in arms. In Ohio, former Fox News host and former Lehman Brothers executive-turned-governor John Kasich and the GOP majority are on track to pass a distinctly similar bill to the one on the table in Wisconsin.
Much like Walker’s bill, the Ohio proposal would strip public employees in Ohio of the right to collectively bargain for pay and benefits. This would be on top of the concessions that have already been requested (and mostly agreed to), and further, limit the effects of binding arbitration.
And, much like Wisconsin, public sector employees in Ohio are filling buses and making their way to Columbus in volumes generally reserved for Ohio State-Michigan football games.
Within the state, the familiar battle lines are being drawn, while eyes focus on Wisconsin. The assumption is that if Wisconsin caves to the demands of Koch-driven politics, that Ohio will be the next domino to fall, right on the backs of what remains of the middle class.
It seems almost sure to happen, eventually, though. Kasich isn’t the type to let up. He has his mandate, (and no, I’m not talking about the glorious 49% of the vote he received last November) and seems determined to deliver it to us: You will fight for scraps, and be grateful for the opportunity to do so.
Sadly, there is support for this, which, if you listen to a lot of the folks online and in the papers, seems counterintuitive. The argument I witness most frequently is that if the private sector isn’t ‘able’ to give employees benefits like those currently enjoyed in segments of the public sector, then the public sector employees shouldn’t be entitled to the benefits that they’ve currently bargained for. This, I have a problem understanding. The fact that the private sector has slowly and steadily taken things away from the middle class means that we should screw what’s left of it over? Seems like we’re picking the wrong scapegoat.
So, we’ll likely see a repeat of what’s happening in Wisconsin here in Ohio. Thousands of public sector employees, with organizational help from the unions, will make their way to the state capitol to voice their discontent. Some Koch brothers’ funded group with a happy-sounding name will bus in a few hundred Medicare recipients (some from out of state, I’m sure) who are too stupid to realize that they’re spitting in the wind, and have them counter protest.
In the end, the Republicans will have the votes they need to pass these bills, and we can get to partying like it’s 1929.
The dawning of a new week sees Muammar el-Gaddafi double down on his commitment to murdering his own citizens.
Government buildings continued to burn Monday in the Libyan capital, Tripoli, following “major” riots overnight. Libya’s response has been to unleash their war machines as helicopters and warplanes besieged parts of the city and fired on protesters. Other witness reports are claiming bands of Miltiamen, many of whom sound like our African mercenariness we heard about yesterday, are tooling around the city in pickups shooting at groups of protesters. Tripoli seems to be in complete chaos right now; security forces have retreated to defensive positions inside government buildings, there are many fires burning in the street and there are shortages of bread and gas. Rebels ( I guess you graduate from protester to rebel after you seize control of a city) in Benghazi, the second-largest city, maintained their control over the area and have issued a list of demands calling for a secular interim government led by the army in cooperation with a council of Libyan tribes [NYT].
Photo apparently taken today in Benghazi
The rioting and clashing with security forces going on in Tripoli sprung up rather suddenly and seems to have been inspired by Gaddafi’s son’s television address last night. Here’s some video of the speech via Al-Jazeera:
He seems to take after his father when it comes to speeches; most people are agreeing that the speech was rambling, incoherent and offered little admission of guilt or compromise.
And where is Gaddafi Sr. amongst all this? Apparently he might be in Venezuela [Guardian].
The death toll may be as high as 400 now, according to statements made by Libyan rights groups. This is being decribed as the bloodiest crack-down in the history Gaddafi’s rule and his regime seems to be genuinely on the brink of collapse now; the demonstrators seem very determined now. However, with Libyan authorities framing the state violence as routing out “terrorist nests” it would seem that Gaddafi is prepared for a long and protracted armed conflict. Many people within the government are resigning with at least seven international ambassadors leaving their posts, including the ambassador to the US [Guardian].
Elsewhere, five people perished in a building that was set alight during riots in Morocco [VOA]; demonstrators continue to occupy Pearl Square, their numbers being bolstered by the thousands since Saturday. Some other Arab kingdoms convened talks with Bahraini rulers to pressure them to get a lid on this thing before it spreads to their own kingdoms [Canadian Press]; tens of thousands of anti-government protesters continue to march in Yemen, demanding the resignation of their president, whom has vowed to resist an ousting:
So, the latest news coming out of Libya is that Muammar el-Qaddafi has hired some African mercenaries and they’re now (surprise, surprise) laying waste to protesters indiscriminately resulting in “scores” of deaths across the country today. Today’s activity brings the death toll in Libya to approximately 200 but, of course, no one knows for sure because journalists have been barred from entering the country and communications have been essentially shut down country-wide. Most of this has been happening in Benghazi, where 15 or so people where murdered by security forces yesterday while attending a funeral. There are reports emerging of disturbances in the capital of Tripoli, also:
“We are in Tripoli, there are chants [directed at Gaddafi]: ‘Where are you? Where are you? Come out if you’re a man,” a protester told Al Jazeera on phone. There were also reports of protesters heading to Gaddafi’s compound in the city of Al-Zawia near Tripoli, with the intention of burning the building down [Al-Jazeera].
Yeah, Gaddafi! Where the fuck are you? I’m in the streets everyday, where you at?!!? That’s it! I’m calling Gaddafi a straight-up punk, ya dig?
At least one military unit has defected to the side of the protesters, probably due to them being ordered by an insane, blood-thirsty piece of shit to commit horrible atrocities against innocent people. Protests have also been reported in other cities, including Bayda, Derna, Tobruk and Misrata and the Al-Zuwayya and Warfala tribes are none too happy with Gaddafi; the Warfala tribe has threatened to stop all oil-exports to the West within 24 hours if the violence doesn’t end. Unfortunately, messing with the oil supply is probably the only way to get Western countries to do anything about it.
The Libyan government has been “defiant” (when are those motherfuckers anything but?) in the face of international criticism. Also, apparently an 18-month-old was shot in the head by a sniper [Gulfnews].
Douchebag Jr. (Gaddafi’s son, Saif) has just given an address on state TV in which he blamed everyone (trade unionists, foreigners, “Islamists”) besides himself and his father. Saif claimed, also, that numbers regarding casualties and deaths have been exaggerated. Sorry, bud, but if even one person was injured slightly you are a huge piece of shit. No need to beat around the bush here, that is what you are. He also promised that reforms would be forthcoming and a popular assembly would be convened on Monday to discuss how to move on from this. Oh these dictators! They’re always so reasonable and reform minded after protesters seize control of “some” military bases and tanks, aren’t they?
Elsewhere, Tunsia seeks Ben Ali’s extradition [Reuters]; the leader of Yemen’s secessionist Southern Movement was arrested today; shots were fired in the capital Sanaa as demonstrations move into their ninth day [VOA]; Bahraini opposition parties met Sunday to figure out an official declaration of demands to present to the government although protesters continue to demand Bahrain’s prime minister and his cabinet step down. Things seemed to remain peaceful throughout Sunday[Toronto Star]; tens of thousands of people demanding political reform have managed to march peacefully in Morroco [ LA Times].
Welp, this has made me thoroughly sick. I got to go lie down now, goodnight!
