the holiday politic

[lagilman]

Y'know, it would be nice to see a political holiday ad that doesn't feature a christmas tree, or Santa, or a possibly subliminal cross... But what do I know? It's not like I'm a native-born voting citiz...oh, wait.


Meanwhile in D.C.: $14 billion in earmarks. If you don't know what that means, you should. It's your money being spent. *spits*

And the Haliburton rape cases are finally being heard on the Hill. The Justice Department needs to be tarred, feathered and then tarred again for refusing to deal with this (Haliburton's disregard for anyone not a Male American Employee has already been well-established).


Now I'm gonna go write me some words. They may be pointy.

Comments

[wishwords.livejournal.com]

Did you see that I've been interviewed twice about sexual harassment in Iraq? I'm starting to wish my memoir was done so I could just hold it up and say, "Read this. It's all in there."

[lagilman]

And there will still be people who insist that it could never actually happen, that those things never happen, that the women overreacted or were oversensitive to just guys being guys burning off stress or showing off...

[wishwords.livejournal.com]

I've heard a couple of those. My response is that if guys want to blow off steam and show off they can do it without drugging a woman so that she will be cooperative and then beating her so badly during the rape that she has to have reconstructive surgery. They can go compare dick size in the shower or play some basketball.

Er, sorry. I get kind of worked up.

[lagilman]

Er, sorry. I get kind of worked up.

Believe me, I quite understand! I wasn't defending those sorts, merely sighing over them.

[wishwords.livejournal.com]

Oh, I didn't think that you were. You made your opinion quite clear. It just gets so frustrating dealing with people like that, that I had to vent. But, I didn't mean to be so vulgar in your journal.

[rwglaub.livejournal.com]

Office party was Friday, and the book exchange was then. This was a type where you could steal someone else's gift, and your books exchanged a number of times before settling down.

Package arrived today. I'll pick it up tomorrow morning and deliver it to the intended recipients. Thanks!

See you at Arisia...

[dsgood.livejournal.com]

Mike Huckabee says his Christmas ad wasn't political.

[lagilman]

yeah, pull the other one, Huck.


Assuming -- whcih I somehow doubt -- that he didn't use any of his campaign monies to make the ad, and didn't intend for it to have any impact whatsoever on voters, and it was just a Christmas message to a portio of the population that celebrates that holiday -- this is supposed to... do what?

[safewrite.livejournal.com]

It amazes me that people taxpayers do not know what earmarks are.

[rwglaub.livejournal.com]

The biggest problem is that for a long time there were no rules. The security corporations and others could basically do what they wanted couldn't be held to account. That environment attracted a lot of cowboys and chest-pounders and the super macho types. Many of the employees are from Slavic countries, or South Africa, or Latin America, areas which do not look too kindly on women's rights. They give lip service, but actual practice is another matter...

My people coming back from Iraq have taken a lot of crap from contractors, especially the women. You've got a lot of super-macho types and far-right who get pissed off at the sight of a woman doing a man's job, and doing it well. Plus since there are no rules, they think that they can demand sex from any woman at any time and that she doesn't have the right to say no. And the corporations cover it up. When I was in the Balkans after the wars, Halliburton and KBR were the main contractors with the NATO peacekeeping forces. They had a lot of problems with human trafficking, forced prostitution, child molestation, rape, etc. They weaseled their way out of accountability by sacrificing a few low level executives to British courts...