RandySF
RandySF's JournalIf America is so "exceptional", when is our mission to Mars?
Have you ever noticed how those who push the concept of "American Exceptionalism" are the same people who want government to do jack shit about anything except enforce reading of the Bible, wiping the ass of the rich and killing everyone else? Winning World War II was exceptional. Wiping out polio was exceptional. Going to the moon was exceptional. Yet there I was at the cinema today, looking at my son during the movie trailor "Interstellar" and wonder if he has something more to look forward to than building a better Walmart. I want him to want to be an astronaut. I want him to live in a country to that does big things the way we used to. And dammit, let's start by going to Mars.
Report on Irish baby homes documents use of infants for med school cadavers, vaccine testing
More than 60 years ago, a fair-skinned Irish politician named Sally Mulready was born into a home for unwed mothers called St. Patrick’s. It sat on a road named Navan in Dublin, and Mulready was one of four siblings born there. Her brother John never made it out of St. Pat’s. Like hundreds of other babies born into an Irish homes for “fallen women,” John died in 1947. He was two months old.
“Inanition,” his death record read, according to RTE News. “Failure to thrive.”
But RTE News said the record carried a mystery. John for some reason wasn’t buried until 1950 — three years after his death. The oddity was first discarded as a clerical error.
But it wasn’t. John’s records had the designation “AS,” or “anatomical study.” His infant remains had in fact been given to researchers at Trinity College Dublin, who used them for medical research — though it’s unclear whether his mother had given consent for this.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2014/07/23/irish-baby-homes-investigation-reveals-use-for-cadavers-vaccine-testing/
Peshmerga Retake Gwer; IS in Retreat in Nineveh
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Peshmerga officials said this morning they have retaken the town of Gwer in an all-out assault, after two days of air strikes by US jets on Islamic State (IS/ISIS) positions.
Meanwhile, Kurdish military leaders said that on all fronts in Nineveh province the Islamists were in retreat, while in Kirkuk and northern Diyala their numbers and activities had dropped.
A Rudaw reporter returning from the frontlines quoted Peshmerga officers as saying that the Islamist armies were suffering from serious fuel shortages, hampering operations that rely mainly on vehicles and mobile units.
But on the Jalawla frontline in northern Diyala, Peshmerga commanders said their forces were locked in some of the fiercest fighting of the day since dawn, killing some 25 militants.
http://rudaw.net/english/middleeast/iraq/100820142
Mass grave discovered on grounds of former Florida reform school
Official records showed 31 burials at the Marianna school between its opening in 1900 and its 2011 closure for budget reasons, but researchers found the remains of 24 additional people between last September and December.
Some former students from the 1950s and 1960s have for at least a decade accused employees and guards at the schoolof physical and sexual abuse, but the Florida Department of Law Enforcement concluded after an investigation that it couldn't substantiate or dispute the claims because too much time had passed. Many former Dozier inmates from that era call themselves "The White House Boys" after the white building where they say the worst abuse took place.
In 2008, the Florida Department of Juvenile Justice held a ceremony to officially "seal" the building and recognize the boys who passed through it. Some of "The White House Boys" were present and media coverage of the event, as well as an order from then-Gov. Charlie Crist, led to the investigation. Researchers, reacting to the allegations, excavated the graveyard at the school.
Krell said her older brother would wear a guitar string around his neck and that the family would sing country-western songs for entertainment. He hadn't been in trouble before the stolen car, she said.
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/body-remains-identified-florida-reform-school
Ige Beats Gov. Abercrombie in Hawaii Primary Race
Hawaii state Sen. David Ige (EE-gay) has won the state's Democratic primary for governor, upsetting incumbent Gov. Neil Abercrombie.
Ige has promised to bring a different leadership style to Hawaii, saying he wants the state to live within its current revenues rather than raise taxes. The Democrat also pledged to collect $450 million in unpaid taxes.
Abercrombie had sought a second term after sparring with some Democrats in the state Legislature, including Ige. They rejected his proposal last year to tax retiree pensions, soda, hotel rooms and plastic bags.
After winning Saturday's primary, Ige is now expected to face two others in November: Former Lt. Gov. James "Duke" Aiona and Independent Party candidate Mufi Hannemann.
Ige holds big lead over Abercrombie in early returns
State Sen. David Ige held a significant lead over Gov. Neil Abercrombie in the Democratic primary on Saturday after early returns were announced.
Ige, the chairman of the Senate Ways and Means Committee, leads Abercrombie by more than 30 percentage points. The tally covered walk-in votes and a large portion of the absentee votes cast by mail.
If Ige's lead holds, Abercrombie would become the first governor since William Quinn, a Republican, to lose re-election in Hawaii since 1962 and the only governor to fall in a primary.
Ige would face Lt. Gov. James "Duke" Aiona, a Republican, and former Honolulu Mayor Mufi Hannemann, of the Hawaii Independent Party, in the November general election.
http://www.staradvertiser.com/elections/20140809_governors_race_early_returns.html
Hawaii US Senate: Hanabusa Holds Slight Lead Over Schatz
U.S. Rep. Colleen Hanabusa is leading U.S. Sen. Brian Schatz in the Democratic primary race to replace the late U.S. Sen. Daniel K. Inouye.
Early election results released Saturday evening have Hanabusa up 49.4 percent to 47.2 percent for Schatz in what has been a tight and contentious race that has polarized Hawaii’s Democratic Party.
The first round of results includes most absentee and early walk-in ballots, according to elections officials.
The campaign between Schatz and Hanabusa started almost immediately after the death of U.S. Sen. Daniel K. Inouye on Dec. 17, 2012.
http://www.civilbeat.com/2014/08/hawaii-us-senate-hanabusa-holds-slight-lead-over-schatz/
Meet the female colonel leading Kurdish forces into battle against ISIS
At the southern tip of that extended front, just 80 miles away from Baghdad, is the town of Jalula. That's where Colonel Nahida Ahmed Rashid is heading on a resupply mission. She’s the highest ranking female commander in the peshmerga, the Kurdish militia that's taken over for the collapsed Iraqi army across much of the country's north.
Rashid began her military career as a teenager, fighting for for the Kurdish separatist movement. She's far from the only female peshmerga soldier — the militia boasts an all-female unit with "several hundred" members — but she's the only colonel who's a woman.
She earns the same wage as her male counterparts — just $1,000 a month. Colonels in the Iraqi army earn about twice that salary, but Rashid says money can't buy loyalty — and peshmerga fighters are loyal.
“They fight for no money, they fight for their people,” Rashid says. “I know there are some peshmerga at the front line [who] didn't get paid for months now and they're still there. We fight for this land here. What you see out there, that's our cause.”
http://www.pri.org/stories/2014-08-07/meet-female-colonel-leading-kurdish-forces-battle-against-isis
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Gender: MaleHometown: Detroit Area, MI
Home country: USA
Current location: San Francisco, CA
Member since: Wed Oct 29, 2008, 02:53 PM
Number of posts: 58,823
