News of the Restless

Big break for Argentina’s disappeared

Posted on April 30, 2012 by Sabina Becker

General Jorge Rafael Videla, de facto military dictator of Argentina, 1976-81.

The wheels of Argentine justice turn with painful, creaking slowness. But they’re still moving, and today comes news that things could start moving forward a lot faster:

Last Thursday, the Airport Security Police raided the homes of Jorge Rafael Videla, Albano Harguindeguy and Santiago Omar Riveros, where they took documents into custody to be analyzed as part of the “Causa de Mayo” case (4012/03).

During the raid, ordered by the federal judge of San Martín, Alicia Vence, authorities seized folders marked “strictly secret and confidential”, audio and video cassettes, a sealed envelope which Videla was thinking of sending to Riveros, and pieces of intelligence.

Also found were official documents of the dictatorship marked “secret”, such as “Guidelines of the Military Junta for the National Executive for the exercise of government actions”.

The magistrate had ordered the seizure of all documentation related to crimes committed during the dictatorship, as well as anything else of interest in the case.

The raid on the homes of Videla, Harguindeguy (the dictatorship’s former Minister of the Interior), and Riveros (ex-commandant of the Military Institutes of Campo de Mayo) came in response to a presentation by Pablo Llonto, a lawyer representing the families of the disappeared.

Llonto made reference to the declarations of Videla which appear in the book Final Disposition, by the journalist Ceferino Reato. “With no need to violate professional secrecy, which is protected for journalists under the Constitution, we ask the judge to have Reato place at our disposition the 20 hours of recordings with Videla which, according to him, were made,” the lawyer said in an interview with Tiempo Argentino.

“We have also written to demand a raid on the home of Videla, in the Avenida Cabildo, to take into custody all documentation having to do with the dictatorship, in search of the lists of disappeared persons. Because Videla himself, in the book, says that there were folders and admits that, at some point, he had folders and papers related to various cases,” Llonto added.

Translation mine.

It looks as though the files and folders in question are now in the hands of the magistrate. It will be interesting to see, in the months ahead, what lies within.

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Posted in Don't Cry For Argentina, Fascism Without Swastikas, Law-Law Land, Spooks | 3 Comments

Music for a Sunday: A clever combo

Posted on April 29, 2012 by Sabina Becker

While putzing around on Jezebel, I found this. It’s a mash-up between a cute song I’d never heard (“Two Weeks”) and an old fave (“Head Over Heels”). And now I have a new idol, too. Kimbra has a tremendous voice, big and bright, and I love her interpretation. (Also, I want her hair!)

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Posted in Music for a Sunday | Comments Off

Wankers of the Week: Bad Oda, and other stinkers

Posted on April 28, 2012 by Sabina Becker

Crappy weekend, everyone! If I sound a little funny to you right now, it’s because I’m typing this with one hand holding my nose. There are just so many wankers stinking the joint up this week with all the foul-smelling hot air they expel. And here they come, in no particular odor…er, ORDER:

1. Bev Fucking Oda. You know that old saying, “champagne taste on a beer budget”? Well, Bev’s the one with the champagne taste, and we’re the ones stuck with the beer budget as a direct result. And worse, it’s “lite” beer. Meanwhile, Bev’s beverage of choice is $16-a-glass orange juice at the Savoy in London, owned by the Saudi royals. That shit better be dusted with 24-karat gold, is all I can say, because there is no other way to justify THAT expense. And even then…STILL no fucking way. Pay it all back from your own purse, Bev!

2. Rob Fucking Ford. Not to body-snark or anything, Robbo, but if you’re gonna make a gimmicky weight-loss plan part of your PR blitz for how many new ways you can find to fuck up Toronto in your own image, the least you could do is comply with your scheduled weigh-ins. After all, this was your idea. And you wouldn’t want voters to think you can’t keep your promises, right?

PS: Looks like Frod Nation is about to go smashy-smashy. Robbo’s under an ethics probe for conflict of interest! So much for your vaunted conservatism at all levels of gummint, eh SupposiTory corruptocrats? Where’s your transparency and openness NOW?

3. Allen Fucking West. In retrospect, trying to be Tailgunner Joe’s houseboy-in-spirit wasn’t such a hot idea. The NAACP doesn’t think so either. Next, look for the witch-hunter’s butler to call the NAACP a bunch of commies.

4. Bill O’Fucking Reilly. Speaking of anti-communist witch-hunts, what the fuck is up with Billo? Has he caught the hysteria, too? Somebody, please, work on a vaccine for this…I don’t want to be standing in the midst of 1950 all over again.

5. Ann Fucking Coulter. Meanwhile, the Coultergeist has decided to put her oar in on the wrong end of the boat as well. Starting with the “knee-grows”, and finishing with the “Democratic KKK”, with a buttload of stupid gun nuttery in between. Last I looked, the Klukers were all voting Republican, and black people didn’t take all that kindly to being called knee-grows. Not to mention that they’re giving the NRA the ol’ side-eye for a very good reason, and that reason is that it’s stuffed to the gills with racists like the Coultergeist, who like to call them knee-grows, niggruhs, and even niggers.

6. and 7. Robert and Branden Fucking Canoles. Speaking of racists who are probably in the NRA, how about this father-son tag-team of trespassing gun nuts? They held an interracial couple of African refugees at gunpoint for trying to take possession of a recently purchased house. Nice, eh? And please spare a few rotten tomatoes for the idiot deputies who initially thought these two redneck vigilantes were doing the right thing, too. Victim-blamers don’t exactly instill trust in law enforcement.

8. Jeremy Fucking Faison. And while we’re on the subject of victim-blamers, how about this fucking teabag? Apparently gay kids who get bullied to death are to blame because their parents didn’t instill “good values” in them. And the bullies? Well, gee shucks, they shouldn’t be treated like murderers, sez Gomer. No word on what kind of piss-poor values THEIR parents instilled. (The elephant in the room, of course, is right-wing religiosity, which makes bullies of everyone who’s had it instilled in them. Especially in Tennessee.)

9. John Fucking Edwards. Yeah, Rielle Hunter sure was a crazy slut. She slept with YOU, didn’t she?

10. Phil Fucking Bryant. Concern troll has misplaced his concerns. Maybe next election, voters will DISplace him? Don’t bank on it, Mississippi haz Teh Terruble Stoopid. They elected this dumbfuck in the first place.

11. Jorge Fucking Victorino-Vazquez. If you must buy yourself a birthday present, make sure it will not land you in jail. That is all.

12. Wade Fucking McCree. Sexting someone not your spouse: Poor judgment. Sexting someone not your spouse while on the judicial bench: Piss-poor judgment. Thinking what you’re doing is really harmless? Turn in your judicial robe. And please do so while fully dressed.

13. Bill D. Fucking Boner. Because when someone with a name like that sexually harasses women, the headlines just write themselves.

14. Stephen Fucking Harper. Almost lost in the shuffle over the abortion non-debate (now put off until June, haha), this prize-winning bit of revisionist history from our not-at-all-honorable PM. Not only did the CCF predecessors of the present-day NDP not fail to support the fight against Hitler, some of them were actually fighting the ORIGINAL fight against fascism, the Spanish Civil War. And what thanks did they get for their brave (and, shockingly, illegal) self-sacrifice when they got home? Constant surveillance from the RCMP and later, CSIS. Just like Tommy Douglas, BTW. And his file is STILL not being made public. Where’s Harpo’s outrage on that one?

Of course. In the can with the crickets, where it’s always been! PS: Nice job offending Latin America, you bitch. Now I’m going to have to get an apology shirt with primer ministro in place of presidente.

15. Paul Fucking Ryan. If you don’t want to be labelled a Randroid, don’t be a fucking Randroid! How difficult is that?

16. Julian Fucking Fantino. Funny how he used the term “mud-slinging” instead of simply saying “categorically false” when an ethics probe turned up offshore accounts in the Cayman Islands bearing his name. Now, why would he do something like that? Oh, maybe because he really DOES have offshore accounts, but doesn’t want to declare them publicly for fear of looking like a tax dodger? And since when is it the RCMP’s job to safeguard a politician’s (not-so-)good name, anyway?

17. Monica Fucking Crowley. Cheap shot at Sandra Fluke is cheap. Also not fucking funny.

18. Stephen Fucking Woodworth. You know you’re a wanker when Jezebel snarks all over your putzy old dog-whistling ass. Ha, ha, ha.

19. Mitt Fucking Romney. Lo! What august wisdom hath the Repugnican Party’s anointed one for us this week? Oh joy, a message of fiscal conservatism: Go into debt!!!

20. Vic Fucking Toews. Oh look, Icky Vic is pretending to care what his constituents think all of a sudden. Let’s all pretend to believe him! No, on second thought, let’s not. I hope your constituents are giving you shit, Vic!

21. Greg Fucking Gutfeld. Claiming women have equal rights because they can shop is like claiming you live in a democracy just because there are ballot boxes lying around. Or something else equally ignorant and shitty which wouldn’t be funny even if a canned laugh track were attached. You wanna see funny?

THIS is funny. No, not the dork with the piss-colored sign. Read the caption, Einstein.

22. Dominic Fucking Dieter. And speaking of not funny, dude, how would you like some OTHER dude, bigger and with more muscles than you, to bend you over a bathroom sink and rape you till you go gay? Not laughing? Well, then, don’t make “jokes” about raping lesbians till they turn straight. That shit not only doesn’t work, it’s not good for shits ‘n’ giggles either.

23. Ted Fucking Nugent. Oh, now he feels insulted? Boo fucking HOO. Should have thought of that before you shot off your big ugly racist mouth, dickhead. PS: Paranoid idiot is paranoid. It’s not the fish and game laws that are “maniac” — it’s YOU, Ted.

24. Pat Fucking Robertson. Okay, time to cart him off to the asylum. Patwa is officially demented if he thinks he saw God creating the Universe.

25. Michael Fucking Wiener. Repugnican sex tourist is…ugh. Repugnant. But appropriately named!

And finally, to “Los Lobos”, the fucking idiot troll who just couldn’t confine himself to topic. Dumbass used a fake e-mail address with an .es suffix to hint that he was in Spain. His IP, however (216.15.23.92), revealed him to be in Missoula, Montana. And his comment revealed him to be so full of shit that even his earwax stinks of sewage. That’s three strikes in one dumb comment. By the power vested in me by myself, I now pronounce you dead meat. You may kiss the ban filter!

But on the off chance that he somehow makes his damn fool way back here, and that he knows any Spanish at all, the above LOLpic is for him. And for anyone else dumb enough to believe the hype about Chavecito’s alleged death, or anything else the anglo whore media may tell you about Venezuela.

Good night, and ¡qué se joden!

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Posted in Wankers of the Week | Comments Off

Puerto Rico wants in!

Posted on April 27, 2012 by Sabina Becker

Is Puerto Rico a US colony, or is it a part of Latin America? The political leaders in Puerto Rico seem to think the former. But a famous rap star has other ideas:

The lead singer of Calle 13, René Pérez, wants to meet with all the Latin American heads of state to ask them to include Puerto Rico in official events of the region.

The artist had his first meeting of this initiative yesterday with the president of Uruguay, José Mujica.

“When there are Latin American presidential meetings, I want Puerto Rico to be included as a Latin American country, in spite of our political situation. Since even now they have not worked on a definition of [our] status, I am totally within my rights to demand, as a Latin American and a Puerto Rican, that Puerto Rico be included in all meetings,” Pérez affirmed.

The singer said that to achieve this goal, a delegation must be formed to represent the country at all events.

“Maybe some candidate from some party will be interested. But I believe that the government and the other candidates from the other parties won’t be interested, because they feel themselves to be represented by Obama. But there are people like me who don’t feel represented by him, and they would like to have a delegation which would be invited to this type of activities,” Pérez said.

During the meeting, Mujica showed himself to be very receptive. René gave him a Puerto Rican flag and the president asked him to autograph it, and also promised to evaluate his petition as soon as possible.

It is possible that next week, Pérez will meet with the president of Argentina, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, with the same proposal.

On May 6, the singer will begin a tour of the United States and Europe, along with his brother Eduardo Cabra, but he will continue to participate in such meetings.

Translation mine.

This isn’t the first time I’ve heard René Pérez get vocal on behalf of Puerto Rican independence. Here’s his harsh love letter to the FBI, who murdered the independence activist Filiberto Ojeda Ríos:

It opens with a clip of Ojeda himself, angrily denouncing the US authorities’ intrusions into the political affairs of Puerto Ricans during a TV interview. It closes with Ojeda giving the same rallying cry as Fidel Castro in Cuba: ¡Hasta la victoria siempre! (Ever onward to victory!) This is no coincidence either, since the US has long had Cuba in its sights and would no doubt like to turn it into a dependency like Puerto Rico.

Meanwhile, Puerto Ricans like René Pérez are rising up to demand that things go the other way, and that Puerto Rico become independent again…like Cuba.

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Posted in Cuba, Libre (de los Yanquis), Paraguay, Uruguay, Puerto Rico, Gente Pobre, Spooks, The United States of Amnesia | 1 Comment

Quotable: Tina Fey on conservative women

Posted on April 27, 2012 by Sabina Becker

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Posted in Quotable Notables, Uppity Wimmin | 1 Comment

Festive Left Friday Blogging: Two years on the tweeter

Posted on April 27, 2012 by Sabina Becker

A little birdie told me that someone is celebrating his second anniversary on a certain microblogging platform tomorrow:

And that means it’ll be two years on there for me as well, since I joined shortly after Chavecito did.

What’s most amusing for me of late is following the cheeping disociad@s of Venevisión, who kvetch constantly about Chavecito’s “twittergobierno” — which happened as a result of his being out of sight while he underwent chemo in Cuba. As anyone who’s ever been through chemo or known someone who has can tell you, that shit is tiring and makes you feel sicker than the cancer itself does. You don’t want to eat much, do much or even talk much. So it stands to reason that Chavecito was out of sight for a while, communicating publicly only through the occasional burst of tweeting. Of course, sensible explanations won’t stop the insane speculations. But I guess they all had to eat their tweets when the object of their ire suddenly turned up back in Caracas, very much alive and very disappointingly (for the oppos, anyway) NOT GOING ANYWHERE.

And come October 7, we can expect to see more “twittergobierno” still, since Chavecito will be re-elected. And @chavezcandanga will go on tweeting.

¡Pa’lante, Comandante!

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Posted in Festive Left Friday Blogging, Huguito Chavecito | Comments Off

On “personhood” and what it means to be a non-person in Canada

Posted on April 26, 2012 by Sabina Becker

The Famous Five, gagged. This is what it’s coming down to, folks.

Well. How about that “debate” in the House of Commons today? Or should I say, that NON-debate? Because the legal status of zygotes, embryos and fetuses in Canada is really not up for debate anymore. This “debate” was settled in 1988, as far as abortion goes.

And it was settled even earlier, as far as the legal status of women goes. Although I find it shocking that we women — whom this proposed non-debate would affect most, after all — were not legally persons here until 1929, still, one would think that the personhood rights the Famous Five won us were legally binding and thus eternal.

Unfortunately, someone doesn’t see it that way.

Stephen Fucking Woodworth — yes, let’s call him by his full, right name here — is a believer in science only insofar as it supports his notions of a sky-pixie who would actually WANT women and girls to become pregnant willy-nilly, even by their own relatives and who knows what other abusers. And he thinks his sky-pixie wants the law to compel us to stay that way, even when it endangers our very lives.

In short, Stephen Fucking Woodworth doesn’t see women as legal persons, only as incubators for “legal persons”. And those incubators must be forced to incubate, even if it violates our constitutional and charter rights to make it so.

Does this sound like much of a “debate” to you, so-called-progressive bloggers who STILL don’t get it?

Unfortunately, living, breathing women don’t matter much to the Harper Government™. Nothing drove that home to me more than the case of Veronica Castro. She was deported back to her native Mexico for being an Illegal Person, apparently…and it cost her her life. She was beaten and robbed (and, ultimately, killed) by the same human-smugglers she was paying to help her get out of Mexico. Where she feared for her life. Why did she fear for her life? She was an abused woman.

And the Harper Government™…well, we all know how they feel about THEM.

Perhaps Veronica Castro would have had better luck if she were still a bun in the oven. At least then, some concern troll on Parliament Hill would try to reopen the nonexistent debate on whether she counted as a person or not.

As it stands, the non-debate has adjourned until June. Too late for Veronica, but not too late for the rest of us. Time to mobilize, and pressure your MP. Yes, even the SupposiTories are not in lockstep on this issue. If they want to play wedge politics with women’s lives, let’s turn the wedge on them and bust the fraudulent fake majority of the Harper Government™ wide open.

The Famous Five would approve.

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Posted in Canadian Counterpunch, Fetus Fetishists, Isn't It Ironic?, Law-Law Land, Mexican Standoffs, Not So Compassionate Conservatism, Pissing Jesus Off, Sick Frickin' Bastards, Uppity Wimmin | 3 Comments

Quotable: Kurt Cobain on homophobia

Posted on April 24, 2012 by Sabina Becker

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Posted in Quotable Notables, Teh Ghey | 1 Comment

So much for the Great Liberal Conspiracy Theory!

Posted on April 24, 2012 by Sabina Becker

Remember Vikileaks, when a certain adulterous SupposiTory got his comeuppance via the tweeting of publicly available details of his scandalous divorce? Sure you do. And now, the guy who tweeted those deets reveals all. And it isn’t what the SupposiTories think/wish, either:

Adam Carroll, who was fired as manager of caucus resources for the Liberal research bureau when his involvement with the Vikileaks30 account was uncovered, told members of Commons ethics committee Tuesday that he volunteered to testify before them out of respect for Parliament and to bring the matter to a close.

[…]

“I, and I alone, am the author of that Vikileaks30 posting site,” Mr. Carroll said. “I was never ordered or asked to do it. I never discussed my actions with any member of Parliament including [Bob Rae,] the Interim Leader of the Liberal Party.”

Under questioning from Conservatives who did their best to implicate other Liberals in the Twitter feed, Mr. Carroll said Mr. Rae had fired him when his actions were exposed. The Liberal chief later apologized in the Commons for Mr. Carroll’s actions.

But Mr. Carroll said he had no regrets about what he had done. All of the information that was posted was already on the public record and obtained from accessible sources, he said. And the Twitter site was created as a reaction to legislation introduced by Mr. Toews that would allow police to “spy” on the on-line activities of Canadians without a judicial order.

In defending the bill, Mr. Toews “infamously challenged all Canadians to ‘either stand with us or with the child pornographers,’” Mr. Carroll told the committee. “Like most Canadians I was deeply offended by the minister’s aggressive and deeply polarizing language.

Mr. Carroll said he published the first few tweets from home and then posted others from the computer in his office within the Liberal research bureau.

But he questioned the rationale for the investigation that was launched by Commons Speaker Andrew Scheer to uncover his identity given that “no laws had been broken nor [was there] any evidence that any policies had been breeched.”

But wait…that’s not the best part. Read on:

When Conservative MP Dean Del Mastro, the parliamentary secretary to the Prime Minister, asked where Mr. Carroll obtained the court documents, Mr. Carroll said they were freely available in the Liberal office.

The Conservatives, who more than once accused Mr. Carroll of “playing the victim,” repeatedly demanded to know the names of people who had access to the documents – a line of questioning the opposition New Democrats charged was designed to obtain secret intelligence about the Liberal Party.

The Conservatives also insisted on finding out whether Mr. Carroll had received severance pay when he was let go. He refused to answer that question and Scott Andrews, the Liberal MP on the committee, suggested the Tories consult the compensation rules that apply to their own staff because they would be the same as those that cover Liberal aides.

Eventually Mr. Del Mastro told the committee that, from what he had heard, it was obvious Mr. Carroll could not have set up the Twitter account by himself and that he had to have been put up to it by the Liberal Party.

“This was nothing but a partisan activity with co-ordination from the Liberal Leader’s office and I believe you took a bullet for the team,” he said. To which Mr. Carroll replied: “I disagree with everything Mr. Del Mastro has said. To use his words ‘baseless smears’ or, in the acronym, B.S.”

“B.S.”

LOL!

That “playing the victim” is pretty funny, too, considering that that’s what the SupposiTories have been doing all along. And they haven’t been doing a very convincing job of it. Considering that the cyberspying law they wanted to push through would have made victims of us all, they have some gall claiming that anyone who reminds the public of known facts is some kind of pedo-pornographer.

But yeah, there does seem to be some kind of conspiracy afoot…and it’s not the NDP (the original suspects) or the Liberals (the current suspects) perpetuating it. Guess who?

NDP MP Charlie Angus called Mr. Del Mastro’s accusations “conspiracy theories” and asked Mr. Carroll if he had any idea why the committee would be investigating Mr. Toews’s messy divorce.

“I have also been wondering that same question for myself,” the former Liberal staffer replied. “This is a sideshow, this is a distraction. The circumstances and events came out right when their robo-call scandal was beginning to break and this seemed like a very convenient way to turn the channel.”

Yep…that’s just what I thought, too.

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