Homosexuals deserve to be executed or tortured and possibly both, an Iranian leader told British MPs during a private meeting at a peace conference, The Times has learnt.
Mohsen Yahyavi is the highest-ranked politician to admit that Iran believes in the death penalty for homosexuality after a spate of reports that gay youths were being hanged.
the story is extra notable for a Pet Shop Boys reference.
The Pet Shop Boys dedicated Fundamental, their Grammy-nominated album, to Mahmoud Asqari and Ayad Marhouni, who were hanged in Justice Square in Mashhad in 2005. Graphic photographs of the execution of the youths, who were under 18 when arrested, were released by the Iranian Students News Agency.
Reporters' jabs and errors are long remembered, and no hour is too odd for an angry phone call. Clinton aides are especially swift to bypass reporters and complain to top editors. "They're frightening!" says one reporter who has covered Clinton. "They don't see [reporting] as a healthy part of the process. They view this as a ruthless kill-or-be-killed game."
ahh, yes, the "vast right-wing conspiracy" is alive and well, even in the left-leaning press.....
i also like the fact that even though she's counting on the support of working-class women, she can't be bothered to actually tip a waitress she spoke to and later used her story in stump speeches (reported by NPR).
Anita Esterday waited on the New York senator and her entourage at a Maid-Rite restaurant in Toledo, Iowa. Esterday posed for photos with Clinton and spoke of her plight as a single mother forced to work two jobs to make ends meet.
Clinton later incorporated Esterday's story into her campaign stump speech. Pictures of their meeting appeared in newspapers and on TV newscasts.
In the NPR interview, Esterday said that while she had enjoyed meeting Clinton, she hadn't gotten much out of her 15 minutes of fame.
"I mean, nobody got left a tip that day," Esterday said, adding, "I don't think she understood at all what I was saying."
then, Tim Russert committed the cardinal sin of actually asking her a yes/no question about whether she supports New York Gov. Spitzer's plan to give driver's licenses to illegal aliens, she calls that a "gotcha" question...
When, in the waning moments of the debate's "lightning round," NBC's Tim Russert asked Clinton why she had told a New Hampshire editorial board that Spitzer's plan "makes a lot of sense," Clinton credited the governor with "filling the vacuum" in the absence of comprehensive immigration reform on the federal level.
Only after Connecticut Senator Chris Dodd came out against the license plan did Clinton attempt to clarify her position. "I just want to add, I did not say that it should be done, but I certainly recognize why Governor Spitzer is trying to do it," she said.
When Russert asked Clinton to pick a side, she accused him of playing "gotcha" - and her opponents were ready to join the game. "Senator Clinton said two different things in the course of about two minutes," former North Carolina senator John Edwards said.
and then, of course, Slick Willy came to the rescue, accusing the other candidates of "piling on" against poor defenseless Hillary.
but i especially love the way she combats all of this unfair coverage by planting questions in the audience in "town-hall meeting" campaign stops...
most fans paid zip, zero, nada for "In Rainbows". a survey by comScore Inc. shows that 62% of the people downloading the new radiohead masterpiece did it for free, and the remaining 38% averaged paying $6.
the silver lining, i guess, for america--
Among U.S. residents, about 40 percent who downloaded the album paid to do so. Their average payment was $8.05, the firm said.
Some 36 percent of the fans outside the U.S. who downloaded the album opted to pay; on average, those fans paid $4.64, according to the study.
i guess we can gather from that that americans are not as big a freeloader as the rest of the world, or our economy's better and thus we can afford to pay more, or we're just suckers.
"The Democratic Party is going after anyone who presents a credible challenge to their monopoly over their perceived voters...This lawsuit was filed to help advance a free and open electoral process for all candidates and voters. Candidate rights and voter rights nourish each other for more voices, choices, and a more open and competitive democracy."
“[a] racist is one who is both privileged and socialized on the basis of race by a white supremacist (racist) system. The term applies to all white people (i.e., people of European descent) living in the United States, regardless of class, gender, religion, culture or sexuality.”
• "The Unbearable Whiteness of Being: Dismantling White Privilege and Supporting Anti-Racist Education in Our Classrooms and Schools." Taught by a professor from St. Cloud State University in Minnesota, this session "is designed to help educators identify and deconstruct their own white privilege and in so doing more deeply commit themselves to anti-racist teaching and critical multicultural teaching."
• "Talking About Religious Oppression and Unpacking Christian Privilege." This session, taught by a team of professors, "will examine the dynamics of Christian privilege and oppression of minority religious groups and nonbelievers as constructed and maintained on three distinct levels: individual, institutional and societal. A historical and legal lecturette will be presented and participants will engage in interactive learning modules."
• "Beyond Celebrating Diversity: Teaching Teachers How to be Critical Multicultural Educators." Taught by NAME regional director Paul Gorski, founder of the activist group EdChange, this session will start from the premise that multiculturalism's greatest danger "comes from educators who ostensibly support its goals, but whose work - cultural plunges, food fairs, etc. - reflects a compassionate conservative consciousness rather than social justice. This session focuses on preparing teachers, not for celebrating diversity, but for achieving justice in schools and society."
the amazing thing to me about this video is that Gov. Richardson would allow himself to be videotaped seriously discussing this issue.
to make things weirder, let's go to last night's Democratic presidential debate, moderated by Tim "Meet the Press" Russert and Brian "NBC Nightly News" Williams...Rep. Dennis Kucinich was asked in a presidential debate if he had seen a UFO! his answer: yes. but he clarified that it was an "unidentified flying object", this being just days after he had questioned W's mental health regarding comments Bush has made about the prospect of WW3 in relation to Iran's nuclear arms program.
"I seriously believe we have to start asking questions about his mental health...There's something wrong. He does not seem to understand his words have real impact."
neither does Kucinich, apparently...
Russert points out in the video that 14% of Americans claim to either believe in UFOs or have seen one. Kucinich said that that is a higher percentage of people than those who approve of President Bush (wrong). Russert could've come back with "no, it's really closer to the approval ratings for the Democratic-led Congress", but, alas...he didn't. what a missed opportunity.
honestly, though, i don't even think it's crazy to claim to have seen a UFO or believe in extraterrestrial life. i've seen something i couldn't explain, myself. i just think it's bizarre that we've reached a point where Tim Russert will ask a presidential candidate about this in a public forum. unless, of course, it's all an effort by the Hillary! team to start knocking off the lower-tier candidates...
Kucinich is running for president. the president is the commander-in-chief of the US military. the military is not being hounded by the journalist who's been filing FOIA requests for documents pertaining to Kecksburg. a civilian agency, NASA is catching the heat for the cover-up. Shirley Maclaine is a civilian. my sources tell me that Kucinich is, too.
...and NOW he wants to lead the military?
Kucinich has been fairly low-key since the Maclaine admission...what's HE hiding?
and now tonight i'm surfing the internet and i run across this story from the Houston Chronicle about how Bill Richardson told a crowd on the campaign trail that he, if elected president, would try to get to the bottom of the Roswell UFO mystery.
"When I was in Congress I said (to the) Department of Defense ... 'What is the data? What is the data you have?' "
He was told that the records were classified.
"That ticked me off," he said.
"What do you want me to do? You want me to open up all those files?...I'll work with you on that."
emphasis mine, but it was important to capture the essence...the GRAVITY of that statement. Kucinich has not gone that far. Richardson seems to really mean business. right now i'm going with Richardson.
God bless you and keep you safe, Governor...you're a brave, brave man...
one will be attractive and tall (average between 6-7 feet). and the men will have giant penises. the women: "...will all have glossy hair, smooth hairless skin, large eyes and pert breasts". these will be the elite, btw...
the other species will be "an underclass of dim-witted, ugly goblin-like creatures".
life won't be all rosy for the elite...an over-reliance on technology will mean that they'll be child-like, and medicine will weaken our immune systems.
fascinating stuff. and, by "fascinating" i mean that i've thought this same stuff a million times before.
