Open Thread for Night Owls: Rescuing Sex Slaves | read this item
Human trafficking, much of it for sexual purposes, is a worldwide phenomenon. It can be found everywhere from Vietnam to the United States. Estimates of its victims run from 4 million to 27 million, which numbers provide a window on how difficult it is to get a handle on the crime. Each year since 2004, the U.S. Attorney General has presented Congress a report on human trafficking, which includes children and adults sold for sexual purposes and other forced labor. In other words, they are slaves. The number of children in this grim trade are estimated at one million, 80% of them girls. But, really, nobody knows for certain.
While many of these slaves are transported over international boundaries – perhaps 800,000 a year – the majority stay in their country of origin, far from family members, captive to the traffickers who make as much as $15 billion a year worldwide. But again, the real numbers are, at best, educated guesswork.
At the Daily Beast, Michelle Goldberg writes about how one victim in India has become a tireless advocate for others as co-founder of Prajwala.
When Sunitha Krishnan arrives at one of the shelters she runs for sex-trafficking victims in the Indian city of Hyderabad, several of the young women who live there throng around her, their high voices excited and quick. Just moments before, they tell her, a brothel madam and three of her goons had shown up at the shelter’s metal gate, screaming threats and abuse. No one seems particularly frightened—in Krishnan’s world, this sort of thing happens a lot. She’s been beaten up by traffickers 14 times in the last 18 years. Mere words don’t rattle her.
Only one girl, who hangs back from the others, looks shaken. She’d been rescued only the night before, and seems both confused and extremely wary. Her wrists are scarred with thick gashes. At first, Krishnan assumes they’re from suicide attempts—almost everyone in the shelter has at one time tried to kill herself—but the girl says she was cut by a customer. The truth, whatever it is, will probably come out later, when Krishnan has had time to win the girl’s trust. Right now, she has to head back to the headquarters of Prajwala, her anti-trafficking organization, because she has a meeting to plan another rescue. …
Krishnan says her political awakening began when she was gang raped by eight men when she was 16. The worst part of it, she says, wasn’t the rape itself, but the way the surrounding society, including her own family, seemed to blame her for what happened. “Of course, being violated by eight men is not a pleasant experience, but that part of it faded,” she says. “But the psychological part of it, the social part of it, continued for many years, that’s when things started becoming more and more clear to me.” She realized, she said, “that women who are victims of sexual violence are doubly victimized by the society,” and she committed her life to fighting such victimization.
The Army is sending troops back to Iraq whose injuries prevent them from wearing protective gear, firing a weapon, or even moving quickly enough to take cover to avoid enemy fire.
Jack Murtha seeks to change all this, simply by requiring that the Army adhere to its own standards on readiness, rest, and retraining.
Riding the Diary Rescue streetcar tonight are vcmvo2, jlms qkw, jennyjem, dopper0189, Alfonso Nevarez, ybruti, and YatPundit in the motorman’s chair of the handicap-accessible 400-series Riverfront car on an almost-spring New Orleans evening.
Diary Rescue is all about promoting good writers, so remember to subscribe to diarists whose work you enjoy reading.
The Rescues:
coquiero adds to her series called Parenting a Child with Autism with a description of the expense and effort required to find the right bed for her daughter. (ybruti)
FrankCornish reveals the hypocrisy of philanthropy in Charity V. Justice. (Alfonso Nevarez)
Steven D considers how patent laws helped to turn one corporation into a giant monster in Monsanto Makes a Killing. (jennyjem)
Spencer Troxell muses about his “clients” at a homeless shelter while he tries to deal with a Bird In the House. (ybruti)
Examining the work of several high profile “global warming skeptics” DWG finds their work not only unscientific, but also not the work of a true skeptic: More reasons to doubt climate change skeptics. (dopper0189)
Reino brings the CCSSI to your attention, and discusses the downside of National Educational Standards, as well as how you have the opportunity to add your two cents. (jennyjem)
PaulLoeb provides us with a Soul of A Citizen excerpt: The Real Rosa Parks, which debunks the myth of the spontaneous movement, and exalts the virtues of a persistent and well organized struggle. (Alfonso Nevarez)
Weekly Tracking Poll: Incrementalism | read this item
Research 2000 for Daily Kos. 3/8/2010-3/11/2010. Registered Voters. MoE 2.8% (Last week’s results in parentheses):
FAVORABLE
UNFAVORABLE
NET CHANGE
PRESIDENT OBAMA
54 (53)
42 (43)
+2
PELOSI:
35 (36)
56 (56)
-1
REID:
26 (27)
67 (66)
-2
McCONNELL:
20 (21)
63 (63)
-1
BOEHNER:
19 (19)
63 (62)
-1
CONGRESSIONAL DEMS:
38 (37)
60 (61)
+2
CONGRESSIONAL GOPS:
23 (24)
68 (67)
-2
DEMOCRATIC PARTY:
40 (39)
56 (57)
+2
REPUBLICAN PARTY:
29 (30)
67 (66)
-2
Full crosstabs here. This poll is updated every Friday morning, and you can see trendline graphs here.
Since this is now the second week since the big transition from a universe of all adults to a universe of registered voters, we can finally draw some legitimate comparisons.
Unfortunately, there isn’t a whole lot of volatility to explore. The Democrats (with the exception of the leadership) gain a couple of points in net favorability this week, while the GOPers in question lose a point or two.
That said, some other key indicators don’t show much change. The margin for Democrats on the generic ballot variation remains steady at a three-point edge for the Democrats (46-43, up a point for both sides). Meanwhile, the right track-wrong track indicator (critical for the incumbent party) only improved incrementally, from 38/60 to 39/60.
Another key stat, one we have been tracking for a long time, is voter intensity. Those numbers change only a little this week, and in the Republicans’ direction. The GOP now has a 51/21 split between those who seem likely to vote versus those who appear unlikely to vote, a net improvement of two points for the Red team (49/21 last week). Meanwhile, the net Democratic voter intensity slacked off by a point (40/32, from 39/30 last week).
The Big Lie in Lindsey Graham's 9/11 Military Trials Push | read this item
Spencer Ackerman has a critical post about just how duplicitous Lindsey Graham is in his crusade to stop the 9/11 trials from going forward in federal courts. Graham has been working with Rahm Emanuel on this, promising that if he gets his way on no civilian trials, then he’ll get Republicans to drop their opposition to closing Guantanamo.
On Friday, the White House said it was “weeks away” from any decision about whether to scrap a civilian trial for the man known as KSM — which could give Graham what he wants.
There’s just one problem. Graham’s rationale for why KSM needs to be tried in a military commission and not a civilian court has to do with the procedures in the commissions for protecting classified information. But the revisions to the military commissions approved by Congress last year — with significant input from Graham himself — removed any significant difference between how classified information is handled in military and civilian venues. Accordingly, Chris Anders, a lobbyist for the American Civil Liberties Union, said Graham’s position was founded on “one big urban myth” — though whether that will affect Obama’s political calculation over the trial remains to be seen.
Asked to specify Graham’s objection to trying KSM in civilian court, Kevin Bishop, Graham’s chief spokesman, said that the senator is concerned about the potential for releasing classified information in open court. “Military justice and the military framework — a military commission — would allow us to better protect classified information,” Bishop said. Graham made a version of that argument on February 13 in the Republican radio address, referencing a 1995 terrorism trial and asserting, “valuable intelligence was compromised.”
But the military framework for handling classified information is almost exactly the civilian framework for handling it. The Military Commissions Act of 2009, which set procedure for the revised military commissions, explicitly instructs military judges to look to the civilian rules for protecting classified information, known as the Classified Information Procedures Act, or CIPA. Under the Act’s fifth subchapter governing the “construction of provisions” for the “protection of classified information,” the text says that “the judicial construction of the Classified Information Procedures Act (18 U.S.C. App.) shall be authoritative,” except in certain specific cases that Justice Department officials said are legally arcane….
The ACLU’s Anders wondered whether the novelty of military commissions — especially as the legal rules under the commissions have changed three times since the Bush administration created them after 9/11 — might make them more likely avenues for inadvertent disclosure of classified information in a KSM trial. “Who is going to do a better job with applying the substantively difficult law protecting classified information,” Anders said, “federal judges who have regularly applied it in many cases, or military commission judges who have never even tried a complex criminal case, much less the most important international terrorism case in history?”
[Joshua] Dratel [one of a handful of defense attorneys to have taken on terrorism cases in the pre-9/11 civilian courts] agreed, citing a case he argued at Guantanamo Bay in which a judge blurted out that something stated in court “probably” ought to have been classified. ” Any preference for military commissions based on some purported danger of release of classified information in federal courts is like worrying about ships going too far toward the horizon because they’ll fall off the edge of the earth,” he said. “It is simply without any factual foundation, and ignores the 30-year history of federal courts handling classified information in the context of criminal prosecutions.” [emphasis mine]
Graham is purely playing politics on this, the more seemingly genteel side of the same game that Liz Cheney, Bill Kristol, and Chuck Grassley are playing with their attacks on the DOJ–undermining Holder and his Justice Department. Making this deal with Graham would be a disaster for the White House on many levels, not the least of which is that Graham isn’t a position to fulfill the Guantanamo part of the bargain.
Texas Board of Education vs. America | read this item
Think Progress and the Texas Freedom Network report that the Texas Board of Education has elected to remove references to Thomas Jefferson from the state’s social studies curriculum standards.
9:30 – Board member Cynthia Dunbar wants to change a standard having students study the impact of Enlightenment ideas on political revolutions from 1750 to the present. She wants to drop the reference to Enlightenment ideas (replacing with “the writings of”) and to Thomas Jefferson. She adds Thomas Aquinas and others. Jefferson’s ideas, she argues, were based on other political philosophers listed in the standards. We don’t buy her argument at all. Board member Bob Craig of Lubbock points out that the curriculum writers clearly wanted to students to study Enlightenment ideas and Jefferson. Could Dunbar’s problem be that Jefferson was a Deist? The board approves the amendment, taking Thomas Jefferson OUT of the world history standards.
9:40 – We’re just picking ourselves up off the floor. The board’s far-right faction has spent months now proclaiming the importance of emphasizing America’s exceptionalism in social studies classrooms. But today they voted to remove one of the greatest of America’s Founders, Thomas Jefferson, from a standard about the influence of great political philosophers on political revolutions from 1750 to today.
9:45 – Here’s the amendment Dunbar changed: “explain the impact of Enlightenment ideas from John Locke, Thomas Hobbes, Voltaire, Charles de Montesquieu, Jean Jacques Rousseau, and Thomas Jefferson on political revolutions from 1750 to the present.” Here’s Dunbar’s replacement standard, which passed: “explain the impact of the writings of John Locke, Thomas Hobbes, Voltaire, Charles de Montesquieu, Jean Jacques Rousseau, Thomas Aquinas, John Calvin and Sir William Blackstone.” Not only does Dunbar’s amendment completely change the thrust of the standard. It also appalling drops one of the most influential political philosophers in American history — Thomas Jefferson.
9:51 – Dunbar’s amendment striking Jefferson passed with the votes of the board’s far-right members and board member Geraldine “Tincy” Miller of Dallas.
9:56 – Here is what the Library of Congress says about Jefferson’s influence: “Recognized in Europe as the author of the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson quickly became a focal point or lightning rod for revolutionaries in Europe and the Americas.” The Library of Congress notes, in particular, Jefferson’s influence on revolutionaries in France (including on the Declaration of the Rights of Man), other European nations, South America and Haiti.
If there was ever a WTF moment, this is it. Seriously, what else can you say? The wingers are so far gone, so far off the deep end, so completely crazy…it’s almost like the only thing left is…WTF?
New Study Finds Median Wealth of Black Women Is $5 | read this item
It’s not exactly breaking news that there is a wage gap between men and women and between whites and people of color.
But a new study from the Insight Center for Community Economic Development reveals a shocking disparity in women’s wealth:
Among the most startling revelations in the wealth data is that while single white women in the prime of their working years (ages 36 to 49) have a median wealth of $42,600 (still only 61 percent of their single white male counterparts), the median wealth for single black women is only $5.
Yes. You read that right. Five dollars.
And the numbers aren’t much better for black women on the whole, whose median wealth is only $100, or for Hispanic women, whose median wealth is only $120.
The study [pdf] focused on data from the 2007 Survey of Consumer Finances, sponsored by the Federal Reserve Board. That means, according to the study’s authors, that as bad as these numbers were in 2007, in all likelihood, they’re a lot worse now, given the recent economic downturn. In other words, the conclusion that single black women’s wealth is about $5 is actually a conservative estimate.
The study offers several explanations. Women of color are more likely to hold jobs with lower pay and fewer benefits. They’re also more likely to be raising their families alone, with a full 70 percent of black families headed by single women. And while married or cohabitating women of color do better, with a median net worth of $31,500, that’s still substantially less than their white counterparts, whose median net worth is $167,500.
Another explanation is the disproportionate reliance on credit card debt for what the National Council of La Raza calls “survival spending.” You know, those luxuries like groceries and other necessities.
And finally, there’s this catch:
Last but not least, women of color are more likely to use their own financial resources to help out extended family members. With a history of exclusion from public benefits and economic opportunities afforded to whites, women of color know they are relied on and must rely on others in their families and communities when hard times hit.
So in times of economic trouble, black women are more likely to take on the additional burden of assisting friends and family, with fewer resources available to assist them, and thus, they’re the most likely to have greater debt and less wealth. Nice catch, huh?
Meizhu Lui, director of the Closing the Gap Initiative, who contributed to the report, and works every day to improve the economic circumstances of women of color, was nonetheless shocked by the report.
“Even for those of us who have been looking at the wealth gap for a while, we were shocked and amazed at how little women of color have,” Ms. Lui said.
The study recommends five policy changes to address these horrible imbalances and improve the financial realities for women of color:
Improve data collection
Improve employment opportunities for women of color
Support self-employment and microenterprise
Provide low-income women with subsidies and incentives to save
Modify social insurance to provide adequate protection for women of color, who often fall through the cracks because of significant gaps in coverage
The entire study is devastating in its assessment of women’s wealth, or lack thereof, but well worth reading.
Cheers and Jeers: Rum and Coke FRIDAY! | read this item
From the GREAT STATE OF MAINE…
Still Yellow After All These Years
My goodness, time flies when you’re living off of dust mites and stray cookie crumbs while cowering under the bed.
As of today, America has spent eight years (2,922 days—yes, I keep count) under the watchful eye of the federal government’s color-coded Homeland Security Advisory System.
Tom Ridge changed—or was pressured to change—the colors ten times during the system’s first two years, mostly due to the dire threat of Democrats winning elections. He then apparently lost the key to the color-changing control box and we’ve been stuck at “Yellow” ever since.
(Despite spending untold billions of dollars on security, our nation’s airports are stuck at level “Orange.” This makes me wonder if most of the money isn’t going towards lavish TSA “strip-search parties,” where employees lounge in gold hot tubs, suck shots off each other’s stomachs and play games of “Bobbing for Diamonds.” But I digress.)
DHS helpfully spells out what you’re supposed to do [pdf] in each color-coded phase. But given how thoroughly they’re ignored these days, I’ve updated them to be slightly more useful:
Level Green (”Low”): Yawn Level Blue (”Guarded”): Scratch tummy, rub eyes Level Yellow (”Elevated”): Plop down in La-Z-Boy with TV remote, six-pack and bag of Doritos. Pull handle on side of La-Z-Boy to elevate feet. Level Orange (”High”): Twist up a big fat one. Light. Check program guide to see if The Big Lebowski is on. Level Red (”Severe”): SHIT! Your mom just pulled in the driveway! Extinguish joint and spray entire can of Glade throughout house ASAP!
Sadly, the days of what I call the “Ruh-roh Rainbow” may be numbered. Last year President Obama—who once called the system “the color-coded politics of fear”—ordered a review of the effectiveness of the system. Given that such a review would take about five seconds, we can only assume that it was completed but the report got lost between Janet Napolitano’s sofa cushions.
So, on what may be (but probably won’t be) its last birthday, let’s all take a moment to raise our three-ounce bottles of hair gel and offer our traditional salute—which also happens to be the motto of the GOP—for perhaps (but probably not) the final time to the Department of Homeland Security’s Threat Advisory System:
“Ooga Booga!”
Your west coast-friendly edition of Cheers and Jeers starts in There’s Moreville… [Swoosh!!] RIGHTNOW! [Gong!!]
Late afternoon/early evening open thread | read this item
What’s coming up on Sunday Kos ….
In honor of Women’s History Month, Angry Mouse will explain what’s wrong with Women’s History Month.
Page van der Linden will take you on a virtual tour of the Hanford Site in Washington State, with an updated look at the environmental legacy of the Cold War nuclear arms race.
DemFromCT will take a look at the changing health reform landscape in “why I support health care reform” and argues for passing the current bill despite its flaws because it’s the right thing to do.
exmearden will examine the political and functional obstacles of broadband access on Native American reservations in the US, and how upcoming proposals by the FCC may impact this access.
Dante Atkins will extol the virtues of pragmatism.
CA-Gov: Meg Whitman's Bad P.R. Week Continues | read this item
Needless to say, California GOP gubernatorial frontrunner Meg Whitman has had a week she’d probably rather forget. After all, our own DK/R2K poll showed that despite a month of saturation level advertising, she still trails the in absentia campaign of Democrat Jerry Brown by four points. Of course, that came after her absurdly bad press availability in the Bay Area this week, where she got the “deer in the headlights” look when reporters began peppering her with questions, tagging off to her press aide who promptly ushered the reporters out of the room with great haste.
This “press event without the press” fed an already growing campaign narrative that Whitman is deeply fearful of finding herself in unscripted situations.
This will do little to disabuse people of that notion:
A funny thing happened when Camp Whitman was filming its 30-minute info-mercial last night in Orange County. Oh, besides stuff like covert filming by her opponents, cops being called, crowd screening and Meg goosing the audience for applause.
* * * * * *
The tickets to this “private” Meg event — which didn’t tell the ticket-holder that they were going to potentially be part of infomercial history — found their way into the hands of Whitman’s political opponents, both Democratic and Republican (of the Insurance Commish Steve Poizner variety.)
Somehow operatives from the two camps were giving off some sort of musk that told Team Whitman that they weren’t Meg’s type of people. The Poiz operative was told to stop filming. But before he did, he managed to get shots of Meg asking the crowd to make sure to applause loudly for her. “A lot of cheering would be good” she tells them.
The Democratic operative booted from the festivities was a Californian named Jeremy Thompson, who made the charge on his Twitter page that Team Whitman actually called the cops on him for being there, despite the fact that he had been invited to the event.
On its own, the incident probably would not amount to much embarrassment for the Whitman team. Stacking the crowd for a Town Hall is hardly political breaking news, nor is it a grand aberration for politicos or their subordinates to coach a crowd prior to cameras rolling.
But for a campaign that has already taken no small amount of heat for both secrecy, and for keeping their candidate in a hermetically sealed bubble, this was a gaffe targeted right at their Achilles’ Heel.
Jerry Brown, whose campaign as of the close of the year had spent less than Meg Whitman had on staff travel alone, has to be thanking his good fortune that the Whitman campaign is building this quite perilous narrative for their candidate without his help.
When Sunitha Krishnan arrives at one of the shelters she runs for sex-trafficking victims in the Indian city of Hyderabad, several of the young women who live there throng around her, their high voices excited and quick. Just moments before, they tell her, a brothel madam and three of her goons had shown up at the shelter’s metal gate, screaming threats and abuse. No one seems particularly frightened—in Krishnan’s world, this sort of thing happens a lot. She’s been beaten up by traffickers 14 times in the last 18 years. Mere words don’t rattle her.
