Showing posts with label politics. Show all posts
Showing posts with label politics. Show all posts

Monday, May 5, 2008

D.C. Madam Leaves Suicide Notes

Deborah Jeane Palfrey 1956-2008 RIP(CNN) -- Convicted "D.C. Madam" Deborah Jeane Palfrey railed against what she called a "modern-day lynching" in notes to her mother and sister before hanging herself at her mother's Florida home, police disclosed Monday.

Police in Tarpon Springs, Florida, released Palfrey's suicide notes Monday, along with autopsy results confirming her cause of death as a suicide. Her mother and sister confirmed the notes' authenticity, police said.

"I cannot live the next 6 to 8 years behind bars for what you and I have both come to regard as this 'modern-day lynching' only to come out of prison in my late 50s a broken, penniless and very much alone woman," she wrote.

The front of the note was marked "Do not revive (DNR). Do not feed under any circumstance."

Palfrey, 52, was convicted of money laundering, racketeering and mail fraud in April. She had been staying at her mother's Tarpon Springs home while awaiting sentencing in July and told ABC News last year she would never return to prison after serving time in the 1990s for other prostitution-related charges.

"You must comprehend there was no way out, I.E. 'exit strategy,' for me other than the one I have chosen here," Palfrey wrote in the note to her sister.

Palfrey released the telephone records of her business, Pamela Martin & Associates, to reporters as she awaited trial. Those records linked two high-profile officials to her firm -- State Department official Randall Tobias, who resigned in May 2007 after confirming he patronized Palfrey's business, and Sen. David Vitter, R-Louisiana, who apologized last July for "a very serious sin in my past."

Neither Tobias nor Vitter have faced charges in the case.

During her trial, Palfrey insisted she ran only a legal escort service -- "Basically a bunch of benign women who want to make a living," she told CNN in March. "This is not racketeering by any means -- this is running a business."

Palfrey was convicted April 15 in connection with a high-end prostitution ring catering to Washington's elite. She was found guilty of money laundering, racketeering and mail fraud and faced a maximum 55-year prison term at her sentencing, scheduled for July 24.

She had said in interviews that she would kill herself before going to prison.

"I'm looking at 55 years in a federal penitentiary, and at my age, that is virtually a life sentence," Palfrey told CNN Radio's Ninette Sosa in March. "Realistically, we estimate between eight and 15 years. I'm also looking at the complete forfeiture of my entire life savings and work."

She said in the interview that the government "went after me. They found out that I'm not who they thought I was, and instead of dropping the whole matter, they decided to press forward and -- what the heck -- she's a woman, she's weak. We'll intimidate her, we'll humiliate her, we'll pounce on this poor lady and she'll give in."

Palfrey also told writer Dan Moldea, who was helping her write a book, that she would commit suicide rather than return to jail, according to Time magazine.

Note to Palfrey's Mother - pdf

"Mom, I want you to know how very much I love and appreciate you. I sincerely apologize for any pain which I have caused you in this lifetime. Additionally, I can't sufficiently express to you how badly I feel for this burden I am leaving you with here.“

Note to Palfrey's Sister - pdf

"You need to be strong for Mom. Help her in any way possible. Also you must comprehend there was no way out i.e. 'exit strategy' for me other than the one I have chosen here. As you read this letter (probably repeatedly in time), know I am in peace, with complete certainty, I believe Dad is standing watch, prepared to guide me into the light."

Deborah Jeane Palfrey - wiki

D.C. Madam: "There was no way out" - CNN

Palfrey Described "Exit Strategy" - Washington Post

Poe Forward's New Dead Girls 2008

The Original Dead Girl: Mary Rogers/Marie Roget

Friday, February 1, 2008

Towards Understanding Anger

Anger Management

The excellent blog site AIN'T CHRISTIAN informed me about GRETA CHRISTINA's new essay about ATHEISTS AND ANGER. Considering our current editorial debates, I thought this might be helpful to the discussion.

One of the most common criticisms lobbed at the newly-vocal atheist community is, "Why do you have to be so angry?" So I want to talk about:

1. Why atheists are angry;

2. Why our anger is valid, valuable, and necessary;

And 3. Why it's completely fucked-up to try to take our anger away from us.

One of her lamentations:

I'm angry that the 41st President of the United States, George Herbert Walker Bush, said of atheists, in my lifetime, "No, I don't know that atheists should be regarded as citizens, nor should they be regarded as patriotic. This is one nation under God." My President. No, I didn't vote for him, but he was still my President, and he still said that my lack of religious belief meant that I shouldn't be regarded as a citizen.

The Beast?

One of her reasons:

Because anger has driven every major movement for social change in this country, and probably in the world. The labor movement, the civil rights movement, the women's suffrage movement, the modern feminist movement, the gay rights movement, the anti-war movement in the Sixties, the anti-war movement today, you name it... all of them have had, as a major driving force, a tremendous amount of anger. Anger over injustice, anger over mistreatment and brutality, anger over helplessness.

Anger For Liberty

Atheists and Anger - Great Christina's Blog

Atheists and Anger - Good Reasons - Ain't Christian

Sunday, December 23, 2007

Best & Worst Women of the Year 2007

Best: Comedian Kathy Griffin

Listen to Kathy Griffin Telling Jesus to Suck It!!! - LAist

Christian Thespians Scold "Vulgar" Comic -
AOL News

Kathy Griffin's Jesus Remark Cut From Emmy Show -
Reuters

Kathy Griffin Censorship Petition -
SuckItJesus.com

"Dorothy Snarker" - Kathy Griffin's Love-Hate Relationship with Hollywood -
New York Magazine

Kathy Griffin -
wiki

Worst: Polemicist Ann Coulter

Ann Coulter

"I Love To Pick Fights With Liberals" - UK Telegraph

Ann Coulter Once Again Defines A New Low In America's Political Debate -
Spinsanity

Coulter Called Gore a "total fag," while Matthews said "we'd love to have her back" -
Media Matters

Coulter Under Fire For Anti-Gay Slur -
CNN

Ann Coulter Uses Slur To Describe John Edwards @ CPAC -
Metacafe

ADL Condemns Ann Coulter's Comment That Jews Need "To Be Perfected" -
ADL

Jewish Groups Condemn, Boycott Ann Coulter: Conservative Pundit Draws Ire For Comment That Jews Need To Be "Perfected" -
CBS News

Ann Coulter Wants Jews to Become Christian -- So What? -
Dennis Prager

Ann Coulter -
wiki

Monday, November 12, 2007

Happy 45th Birthday Naomi Wolf!

Naomi WolfNaomi Wolf, THE END OF AMERICA: A LETTER OF WARNING TO A YOUNG PATRIOT, Won't Back Down - FireDogLake

"It is clear from this inundation of personal stories of abuse and retribution against ordinary Americans that a network of criminal behavior and intention is catching up more and more mainstream citizens in its grasp. It is clear that this is not democracy as usual — or even the corruption of democracy as usual. It is clear that we will need more drastic action than emails to Congress."

THE END OF AMERICA: A LETTER OF WARNING TO A YOUNG PATRIOT - wiki

Naomi Wolf (born November 12, 1962) - wiki

Friday, October 26, 2007

Happy Birthday Mrs. President!

Hillary

"That's what Americans have been doing for over 200 years. It wasn't by accident that the first meeting ever held in the world to talk about and write down what rights women were entitled to happened in America. We have to keep faith with the work, the struggle and the sacrifice of those who have come before. We have to be reminded from time to time that freedom isn't free and equality cannot be taken for granted. Every generation faces new challenges and every generation has to step up and be heard and exercise their constitutional rights to make a difference.

That's what we do when we're at our best in America. I want Americans to start acting like Americans again. We face a lot of challenges here at home and around the world. We need to set big goals, goals that will bring out the best in our country, goals that will unite us, goals that will respect each and every one of us and cherish the contribution that we can make to this great nation. I know that there's a lot of work to be done but I relish the opportunity to be part of making history with all of you because this country deserves the very best that each and every one of us can offer."

Hillary Clinton Website - HillaryClinton.com

Hillary Clinton - wiki

Hillary Clinton: My Life At 60 - Heidi Evans - NY Daily News

Women For Hillary

Sunday, October 14, 2007

Two Gals Named Naomi


Naomi Klein's THE SHOCK DOCTRINE: THE RISE OF DISASTER CAPITALISM - NaomiKlein.org

"It's a brilliant dissection of what Naomi Klein calls 'disaster capitalism,' an economic philosophy born half a century ago at the University of Chicago under Milton Friedman. It holds that the best time to institute radical free-market policies is in the aftermath of a massive social crisis, such as a terrorist attack, a war, or a natural disaster like Katrina.

Klein shows how the crony capitalists running the Bush administration saw post-invasion Iraq as the perfect proving ground for all their pet free-market policies. The fantasy was that a privitazied and corporatized Iraq would become a free-market utopia that would spread the gospel of the market throughout the Middle East. Democracy would reign, and Halliburton and Bechtel would stand supreme.

And we know how well that turned out."

--- Ariana Huffington

Bleakonomics - The New York Times

THE SHOCK DOCTRINE - wiki

Naomi Klein - wiki

Naomi KleinNaomi Wolf, THE END OF AMERICA: A LETTER OF WARNING TO A YOUNG PATRIOT, Won't Back Down - FireDogLake

"It is clear from this inundation of personal stories of abuse and retribution against ordinary Americans that a network of criminal behavior and intention is catching up more and more mainstream citizens in its grasp. It is clear that this is not democracy as usual — or even the corruption of democracy as usual. It is clear that we will need more drastic action than emails to Congress."

THE END OF AMERICA: A LETTER OF WARNING TO A YOUNG PATRIOT - wiki

Naomi Wolf - wiki

Naomi Wolf

Thursday, September 6, 2007

Legal, Political & Religious News

Macho Catholic League President Bill Donohue asks Cocky Atheist Christopher Hitchens to Step Outside (with You Tube video) - Fresh Intelligence/Radar Online

ABC's Resident Conservative John "20/20" Stossel Gets Sued by Wealthy Pastor - Daily Breeze

Belgium Charges Scientologists with Extortion - The Sydney Morning Herald

Not Related: Tom Cruise Wins Extortion Case - SF Gate/Daily Dish

Read the Transcript from the Man who says He Had Sex with Senator Craig (with audio) - Idaho Statesman

Big Surprise #1: Britain's Own BIG BROTHER Spied on Orwell - Yahoo News

Big Surprise #2: FBI Spied on Coretta Scott King for Years - The Independent

Actress Geena Davis Suing Charity for Stealing Her Idea - E News

Latest Corporate Efforts to Depersonalize, Isolate, and Turn Workers into Cogs in the Machine - Firedoglake

Nuclear Weapons Flown by Air Force from North Dakota to Louisiana - CNN

Women in the U.S. Military Assaulted and Raped by Fellow Soldiers - Crooks and Liars

Anti-Gay, Anti-Choice, Anti-Free Speech, Anti-Evolution, Anti-Global Warming, "fiercely conservative" Megachurch Pastor Rev. D. James Kennedy Succumbs to the Human Condition - AOL News

Pro-war, Pro-Caesar, "throne and altar theology" Bibles Published For Military - Front Page Magazine

Research Shows Human Beings Prefer Myths to Truth - Scholars and Rogues

Crimes of Christianity: Suppression of Science - Nothing is Sacred

Friday, August 31, 2007

Princess Diana 1961-1997 RIP

Princess Diana

Diana Frances Spencer (July 1, 1961 - August 31, 1997) has been dead for 10 years today. Her fans continue to adore her. Many hold up her memory as an example for us all. However, the true tragedy of Diana's passing is not simply our loss of an enchanting humanitarian "peoples' princess," but her childrens' loss of their mother. Her sons, wealthy royals they may be, are living through the best years of their lives without their mother's support and guidance. How they must miss her. When we cry for Diana, we must relegate a few of those tears for her sons.

Princess Diana 1961-1997 RIP

Princess Diana

Diana Frances Spencer (July 1, 1961 - August 31, 1997) has been dead for 10 years today. Her fans continue to adore her. Many hold up her memory as an example for us all. However, the true tragedy of Diana's passing is not simply our loss of an enchanting humanitarian "peoples' princess," but her childrens' loss of their mother. Her sons, wealthy royals they may be, are living through the best years of their lives without their mother's support and guidance. How they must miss her. When we cry for Diana, we must relegate a few of those tears for her sons.

Saturday, August 4, 2007

Cartoonist Dwane Powell - Raleigh News and Observer

Dwane Powell

"If we don't comply with subpoenas
Congress threatens to sic the Attorney General on us."

Wednesday, August 1, 2007

History Repeats Again and Again

White House Protest

"President Wilson Is Deceiving The World
When He Appears As The Prophet of Democracy
President Wilson Has Opposed Those Who
Demand Democracy For This Country
He Is Responsible For The Disfranchisement
Of Millions Of Americans
We In America Know This
The World Will Find Him Out."

Thursday, July 12, 2007