RandySF
RandySF's JournalRachel Ehmke, 13-Year-Old Minnesota Student, Commits Suicide After Months Of Bullying
Rachel Ehmke, a 13-year-old seventh grader in Mantorville, Minn., died April 29 after hanging herself at her home. The months leading up to the tragedy were a whirlwind of peer abuse instances, her parents say.
Now following Rachel's Friday funeral that was met with widespread community condolences, Rick and Mary Ehmke are speaking out against the bullying they say their daughter endured at Kasson/Mantorville Middle School and online.
Rachel's family and friends say the teen fell victim to school bullying last fall when her chewing gum was stuck to her textbooks and the word "slut" was scrawled across her gym locker, the Austin Daily Herald reports. And while she was outgoing, athletic and friendly, the same group of girls reportedly threatened Rachel and kept calling her a "prostitute," though she had never kissed a boy, according to KMSP.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/05/08/rachel-ehmke-13-year-old-_n_1501143.html?ref=mostpopular
Mitt Romney ASSUALTED fellow student for being gay.
NOTE: This may be a duplicate, but I want to stress the fact that ROMNEY COMMITTED ASSAULT AND BATTERY on a gay teen in prep school.
What would be the worst possible news for Mitt Romney to have to deal with the day after President Obama announced he supports gay marriage? Romney's already had a gay staffer resign because social conservatives were outraged he'd hire an openly gay person. And having a hypothetical family member come out as gay would probably help him seem more compassionate. But one thing that might project an image Romney really wants to avoid -- heartless outmoded anti-gay conservative -- would be a long profile in The Washington Post about how he bullied a gay kid in high school. At the exact moment Romney doesn't want to talk about gay stuff, the Post's Jason Horowitz reports Romney led a gang of boys who singled out a gay kid, held him down while he cried, and cut off the kid's offensively un-hetero hair. No one ever likes a bully, but it's really a bad time to be an anti-gay bully.
http://www.theatlanticwire.com/politics/2012/05/todays-worst-day-mitt-romneys-high-school-bullying-story-come-out/52147/
Log Cabin Republicans: GOP is "moving" on gay marriage.
LogCabinRepublicans ? @LogCabinGOP
@RonHogan We keep working - and the truth is, Republicans are moving on this issue, too. Recall, it took Republicans to win marriage in NY.
http://twitter.com/#!/logcabingop
Gay Former Romney Staffer: Obama ‘On The Right Side Of History’
Richard Grenell, the openly gay former Bush administration official who wa Mitt Romney’s national security spokesperson for a couple weeks before resigning under pressure from social conservatives upset with his hiring, praised President Obama for publicly supporting same sex marriage Wednesday. Grenell, who is an advocate for same sex marriage, told Metro Weekly Obama “deserves credit for finally taking a stand in favor of equality.”
His full statement:
President Obama’s decision to personally support gay marriage means he will be on the right side of history. He deserves credit for finally taking a stand in favor of equality. Nevertheless, it’s important to keep politicians from playing politics with a group’s civil rights. Democrats and Republicans continue to calculate the political implications of their positions, and the timing of the president’s announcement suggests his position is a political move too. While the president could have evolved when the Democrats controlled the House and the Senate or even yesterday before the swing state of North Carolina voted on the issue, Republicans should also remember that young people and many Christians believe in civil equality.
http://livewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/entries/gay-former-romney-staffer-obama-on-right-side
It began in San Francisco
The road to today's historic announcement by President Obama began with San Francisco Supervisor Tom Ammiano and Mayor Gavin Newsom who asked "Why not?" They are both at polar opposites of City politics, but together they helped change the country. As goes San Francisco, so goes the nation.
Electoral Impact of president's announcement?
My take without the benefit of polling, which I am sure Team Obama did:
North Carolina is gone. Virginia and Iowa become a bit dicier. Obama is strengthened in Colorado. Florida could be impacted, but I don't know how. As for California, I think it could help us pick up an additional one or two congressional seats.
What do you think?
It was a dark night for America, indeed.
- The fraction of North Carolinians who showed up at the polls voted to ban civil unions and domestic partnerships just to make sure gays do not marry.
- A right wing extremist defeated sane Republican Richard Lugar and is likely headed to the Senate after November.
- In West Virginia, a convicted felon nobody ever heard of carried 40% of the Democratic primary and ten counties against the sitting black POTUS.
- In Colorado, the Republican-controlled state house blocked passage of civil union legislation.
I guess progress requires that the country be dragged kicking and screaming into the 21st Century.
Rmoney introduced at fundraiser by coal baron who killed workers
Mitt Romney is all for coal mining, and he proved that recently with a $2,500-per-person campaign stop in West Virginia, where he was introduced by the coal magnate Bob Murray.
Maybe Romney was too busy running for president in 2007 to notice that Murray’s Crandall Canyon coal mine collapsed twice in 2007, killing six miners and three would-be rescuers. Or that Murray claimed an earthquake caused the first failure even when seismologists determined it did not.
Or that the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration issued a report a year later finding that Genwal Resources, a Murray Energy Corp. subsidiary, was operating under three findings of high "negligence" in three of its Crandall mining plan elements and with "reckless disregard" in three others.
Perhaps it also did not come to the candidate’s attention that earlier this year an outraged federal judge fined Genwal just $500,000 for the disaster — all that the law would allow.
http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/politics/54064936-90/murray-romney-mcentee-coal.html.csp#disqus_thread
"Values" are never taught in school? What school are they talking about?
Last week, I walked into my son's after school class to pick up my son. When a classmate told him I was there, he jokingly said "That's not my dad. That's my grandpa". I thought nothing of it (knowing his sense of humor) but a few minutes later he walked up and apologized because the teacher told him to. That's when it occurred to me how Republicans and others on the right complain that character values are not taught in public schools. All I can say to them is come to San Francisco USD.
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