desliz:

Here are some English-language articles:

The Kingpins - Lengthy but pretty comprehensive article that lays out the relationship between the PRI, Enrique Pena Nieto, and the narcowar, as well as the influence drug violence has had upon Mexican voters.

Mexico’s Election: A Vote For Peace, A Plan For War - Offers some background regarding the origin of #yosoy132 and American interference in the elections.

Mexico’s Youth Uprising - Written just before the elections, capturing the mood at that time.

Raped, Beaten, Never Forgotten - Information about the widespread sexual assault of women in San Salvador Atenco, which occurred under Ernesto Pena Nieto’s watch, and is one of the biggest contributors to outrage against him.

Reports of gift card payments… - Concerning the gift cards to Mexican supermarket chain Soriana, which were used to buy votes for the PRI, and the origin of the the numerous Soriana references in the protests.

(I do not claim that the information in these articles is 100% accurate or free from contention, but they should give a sufficient understanding of the factors at play here.)

I had been looking for something like this, thank you.

thisdanobrien:

Today, two Michigan, female lawmakers were silenced after saying the word “Vagina” on the grounds that their actions “failed to maintain the decorum of the House of Representatives.”

Not too long ago, Congressman Don Young pulled out an eighteen-inch walrus penis and waved it around on the House floor as he argued with Mollie Beattie (the first female head of the Fish and Wildlife Committee).

Don Young was not silenced for this.

Michigan, land of riches.

(via desliz)

omg-penises:

So remember that company that Mitt Romney owned (and is still a large shareholder in), Bain Capital? One of their holdings is the Aspen Education Group, a conglomeration of “teen residential programs”. These are places entirely unregulated by the government, frequently religious in nature, that use “aversion therapy” and “behavior modification” (they literally use physical and emotional abuse as “therapy”).Teens are transported to these places by force (literally dragged out of their beds in the middle of the night) and imprisoned in these places, frequently until they age out at eighteen. While there they have no legal recourse and frequently no communication outside at all; most of these programs explicitly tell parents that any allegations of abuse are an attempts at manipulation and lies.

Children have died in these places (warning link does play audio, but read this fucking shit, it links to the relevant news reports for each death). They are beaten and sexually assaulted by staff and frequently denied any sort of medical attention (one boy died after suffering from internal injuries for weeks while staff claimed he was faking). Aside from this general brutality, the “therapists” (and facilitators, and staff in general all the way up) are frequently grossly unqualified and use confrontational group therapy (they humiliated kids in front of their peers) and so-called “tough love” methods that have been disowned by most counseling organizations and have been shown repeatedly in studies to be detrimental to overall mental health. Kids are leaving these places with PTSD and other psychological issues as a result of their therapy.

The specific abuse of rape survivors warrants special attention. From an experience with the “rape and molest” group at WWASP, “We were constantly asked to look at the fundamental decisions that had led to our situations.  Drugs, alcohol, inappropriate clothing, inappropriate flirtation, being alone with a boy, not telling someone about a molestation – all of these were choices that we had made that were important to acknowledge before we could “choose” to move on and make “working decisions” in the future.  There were a lot of girls who had been molested by their parents or step-parents and of those, most were sent to the program by the very people who had molested them.  I never saw or overheard legal action encouraged.  Rather, the goal was often to encourage girls to forgive their molesters and choose to have “appropriate” relationships with their caretakers in the future.  Our pain and sadness was looked at as unnecessary, as though we were just acting out.” This is a common thread, rape survivors are disbelieved and humiliated. This is not therapy, this is the re-victimization and deliberate triggering of survivors.

These places are big business. They have contributed hundreds of thousands of dollars to political campaigns and have used their clout to stall legislation that would allow regulation of their activities. Both Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum (Santorum ran UHS, a for-profit hospital chain that has bought up these troubled teen facilities as they have closed due to litigation and has a history of death and abuse, UHS is now a primary contributor to Santorum’s campaign). Frankly, I can’t think of anything terrible enough for profiteers on the back of institutional abuse, but these men need to publicly answer for this shit.

There is more about these places than I care to detail here, but I’ll leave links (more links than you can shake a stick at)

 http://www.cafety.org/

http://astartforteens.org/

r/troubledteens yeah it’s reddit, don’t let that prejudice you

Survivors of Institutional Abuse

I’ll try to explain all of this to the best of my understanding, if you want a more thorough take from someone actually effected by these places read this.

tidesbetween:

after it has stayed in the shelter for 72 hours 

the dogs that fall under this “breed ban” it won’t even get the chance to be adopted

if the owner brings in the dog it will immediately be killed  

the breeds in the “ban” are “bullies” ie: Dobermans, Rottweilers, Chow Chows, German Shepherds, Great Danes, Pitbulls, Mastiffs, Akitas and Huskies

click here to sign the petition 

and reblog the shit out of this. 

as someone with ties to animal sheltering, there is some misinformation in this post and it replies to it that should be addressed.

first: this was not a statewide proposal. it was for Cumberland County, North Carolina’s county animal shelter only.

second: the plan has now been dropped. there is no immediate danger.

third, and most importantly: an adoption ban is, despite the name, a death sentence for dogs who enter shelters who employ the bans. these dogs are very unlikely to be transferred to another shelter, or sent to breed rescue. not all county shelters are the same, but many of them are strapped for money and time. there is not a lot of incentive for them to go above and beyond their outlined duties. 

this is all a moot point, however, when you consider that across the U.S., pit bulls account for an average 29% of all dog intakes at shelters. that’s on the rise, by the way: in 2003 they were already at an average of 23% of surrendered dogs. they also make up an average of 60% of the dogs euthanised in shelters in 2010. the dogs in cumberland county were only the most visible victims of an overpopulation crisis in pit bulls.

if you are reading this and are concerned about the welfare of these dogs: are you helping provide low-cost spay and neuter to pet owners in need? are you supporting your local shelter? did you adopt your dog? are you breeding the dogs that will be put down in shelters in 2012? now that you’ve signed the petition or reblogged a post about it, what are you going to do?

what are you going to do to help the dogs and their owners when the cameras are off?

(via tidesbetween-deactivated2012030)

hey y’all, I wanted to bring up something I think is pretty important- the Global Drug Survey. it’s an independent, non-judgemental online survey used to study real-life drug use, attitudes, and behavior in a wide variety of populations.  you can read about the people behind the survey on this page. io9 has a good article here. the survey takes about 10-20 minutes.

I understand that many people might be reluctant to participate. I chose to because I believe that to end the “war on drugs”, policy makers, experts, and the public need access to unbiased information about drugs and drug use.

if you’d like to take the survey, you can find it here.