words can not describe how angry this makes me. the catholic church needs to get. a. clue. it is totally irresponsible for the pope to discourage the use of condoms in sub-saharan africa. the hiv infection rate is absolutely ridiculous, nearing criminal, in some african nations (in botswana, 24% of all adults are infected). isn't health a basic human right? people are not going to stop having sex. correct condom use drastically decreases the chances of infection. how the fuck does anyone justify preaching the evils of condom use to citizens of countries with such high percentages of hiv infection?!?!

words. can not. describe. how. floored. i. am.

Pope tells Africa 'condoms wrong'

Pope Benedict XVI, who is making his first papal visit to Africa, has said that handing out condoms is not the answer in the fight against HIV/Aids.

The pontiff, who preaches marital fidelity and abstinence, said the practice only increased the problem.

"A Christian can never remain silent," he said, after being greeted on arrival in Cameroon by President Paul Biya.

The Pope is also due to visit Angola on his week-long trip, where thousands are expected to attend open-air Masses.

Some 22 million people are infected with HIV in sub-Saharan Africa, according to UN figures for 2007.

This amounts to about two-thirds of the global total.

'Painful wounds'

According to Vatican figures, the number of Catholics in Africa has been rising steadily in recent years.

Baptised Catholics made up 17% of the African population in 2006, compared with 12% in 1978, the Vatican says.

Pope Benedict said on the eve of his trip that he wanted to wrap his arms around the entire continent, with "its painful wounds, its enormous potential and hopes".

HIV/Aids was, argued, "a tragedy that cannot be overcome by money alone, that cannot be overcome through the distribution of condoms, which can even increase the problem".

The solution lay, he said, in a "spiritual and human awakening" and "friendship for those who suffer".

Speaking at the airport in Cameroon's capital, Yaounde, the Pope called on Christians to speak up in the face of violence, poverty, hunger, corruption and abuse of power.

Sexual abstinence

While in Africa, the pontiff is expected to talk to young people about the Aids epidemic and explain to them why the Catholic Church recommends sexual abstinence as the best way to prevent the spread of the disease.

He gave a similar message to African bishops who visited the Vatican in 2005, when he told them that abstinence and fidelity, not condoms, were the means to tackle the epidemic.

The BBC's Caroline Duffield, in Cameroon, says people in Yaounde have been energetically sweeping and cleaning everywhere in preparation for Pope Benedict's visit.

The Pope will stay until Friday in Yaounde, where he will meet bishops from all over Africa who will be taking part in a meeting at the Vatican later this year to discuss the Church's role in Africa.

In Angola, which is still recovering from 27 years of civil war, Pope Benedict will meet diplomats posted in Luanda and is expected to urge the international community not to abandon Africa.

The pontiff is also due to hold private talks with political leaders in the two countries, both of which have been accused of corruption and squandering revenues from natural resources.

source

seriously. what the fuck???

it's no secret that bill o'reilly hates san francisco. after 9/11 he made a comment that the military shouldn't protect san francisco from a terrorist attack.

he's on the attack yet again, this time with a "documentary" about what the obama administration will do to the country. and he bases his fears on san francisco.



i have to say, as frustrated as i found myself that o'reilly went looking to paint a horrible picture of san francisco, i found myself laughing out loud (and i know some of those hippies in golden gate park, for the record). for one, making medical marijuana use look oh-so-fucking-radical is ridiculous. and secondly, on the whole, san francisco is a VERY safe city. i have no qualms walking or biking around 95% of the city alone at night. it is not a city plagued by violence (for the most part) like detroit, atlanta, or even (parts of) oakland. i have to say, he went out of his way to try to make san francisco look like a crime plagued, liberal black hole. but in reality he didn't really do his job so well.

i find this really disturbing. ummm...

( gun store holds an 'obama sale.' )

*sigh*

i should really stop reading the news until after election day. the "yes on 8" bigots (sorry, but it is true) are making me angry and depressed. seriously, i know i am preaching to the choir here, but since when is it ok to amend a document, that was essentially written to make sure people are treated equally and fair under the law, to take away rights and discriminate.

i. just. don't. get. it.

and i don't understand how the "sanctity" of a healthy heterosexual marriage is somewhat undermined by two men or two women legally getting a marriage license.

i am actually more concerned about proposition 4 (the anti-choice legislation) passing, and i really don't think 8 is going to pass, but the mere fact that it is on the ballot sickens me.

while driving home tonight, i heard about this on the mike malloy show. sarah palin did an interview with an NBC affiliate in colorado. during the interview, she answered a question submitted by a third grader. true, she sounded like she was in her element, answering a question from a child, but she gave him incorrect information about the job of vice president! follow this link to see the video.

mike malloy suggested that she look up "vice president" on wikipedia...

with regards to last night's debate i am still in utter disbelief about how little mccain understands about women's health! did y'all hear (really hear?) what he said about so called "partial birth abortions" (when really, the proper term is either "third trimester abortions" or "late term abortions") during last night's debate? and i loved obama's response, which did not alienate any of his pro-choice voters.

here's a statement from nancy keenan, the president of naral: ( under the cut for your reading pleasure. )

i think that my favorite quote about john mccain comes from cecile richards:

"women voting for john mccain is like chickens voting for col. sanders."

how accurate is that??? ( read the rest of that here )

finally, how happy was i when the candidates were asked two of the questions i wanted most wanted answers for:

"why would the country be better off if your running mate became president rather than his running mate?" (mccain's assessment of palin was 100% wrong. but really, what could he say?)

and

"are each of you tonight willing to sit at this table and say to each other's face what your campaigns and the people in your campaigns have said about each other?" (mccain is PROUD of those who show up at his rallies chanting "terrorist" and "kill him"? oh my god.)

even fox news viewers agree: obama won last night's debate. three for three! now 4 nov just needs to come so we can elect president elect obama!

Debate Watching with Gov. Palin
Updated 12:10 a.m.
By Perry Bacon Jr.

Aboard her campaign plane, after taking questions for the first time from the reporters who follow her every move, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin told the assembled press and two senior aides standing near her that she didn't want to watch the presidential debate "in my hotel room with just campaign staffers."

The campaign hadn't scheduled a debating watching party for her, but that plan quickly changed. After Palin spoke at a rally here, her campaign entourage of aides and reporters drove to a local pizzeria called Boli's on the Boulevard. Palin went casual, appearing in blue jeans and a purple windbreaker she had been given after her speech at the East Carolina University a few minutes earlier.

As she greeted the surprised crowd of more than 50 at the small pizza place, she posed for several cell phone pictures. When Dana Corey, who was about to start eating, realized Palin was there, he was on the phone with wife. He asked if Palin would say hello and the governor did, joking, "Libby, why is your husband here drinking beer without you?"

The Corey family lives in Wilmington, N.C., and Mrs. Corey explained to the governor that her husband was there because he was working on a construction project in Greenville.

As the debate started, the governor sat with Charlotte mayor Patrick McCrory, and the state's Republican senators, Elizabeth Dole and Richard Burr, along with Burr's wife, as several televisions in the bar showed the Fox News telecast of the debate.

At the onset of the debate, Palin took out a pen and some paper. And for the next hour and half, along with chatting with the politicians, she often took notes of what the two candidates were saying. Interviewed after the debate, Dole said Palin was writing down many of their exchanges on energy, while Burr noted that Palin was "focused on what Barack was saying."

Perhaps like anyone else watching the town hall, the governor looked away at times and spent some time texting on her phone.

Corey came over to Palin's table, this time with his daughter, a college senior, on the phone. Palin greeted her too. Dana Corey said Allie enjoyed talking to Palin but was still deciding between Obama and McCain even after the Alaska governor pushed her man on the phone.

The dozen reporters with Palin were seated in a different section of Boli's from Palin, although we could see her throughout. She smiled at some of McCain's remarks about energy independence and took notes quietly when Obama spoke. At the end of the debate, her aides brought reporters over to Palin's table.

Asked how the debate went, she was enthusiastic as usual.

"Great. Great. It was a great night for America. He's proposing real plans that will work for economic recovery and energy independence," she said of her running mate.

"I think Barack was even less candid than usual," she added, not explaining exactly what that meant. "But McCain has fought on and sounded very energized and it was a good night for him.... It's gonna be a great 28 days to go. Taking this message of reform on the road and just having it resonate more and more every day is what I believe's happening. And it's good. It's very good. I look forward to the 28 days."

But Palin is aware of her ticket's political situation. Asked on the plane about her reflections from her first month on the campaign trail, she used a word she would repeat at the rally here: "underdog." That analysis may have been unavoidable, given that she was about to touch down in North Carolina, a state Republicans have won for decades but where polls show Obama effectively tied.

"I've been an underdog quite often in my life -- and so has John McCain. And we both have come out victorious," she said. "I anticipate that's what going to what we see at the end of the day on Nov. 4."

source

and a fun photo:



i do wonder if she played the maverick drinking game. or (in the case of last night's debate, the "my friends" drinking game.

since obama clearly won tonight's debate, fox news needs something else (anti-obama) to report on. so, "my friends," this was a fucking headline on fox news dot com tonight:

"Obama Admits Bumming Cigarettes on the Campaign Trail"

OMGZ THAT IS LIFE CHANGING! WHAT AN EVIL EVIL (black) MAN! I'M GONNA VOTE FOR MCCAIN NOW!

damn.
i hate fox news.

i refuse to link fox news to my blog, so here is a screen shot:

wow.

just wow.

'the way i see it' is that sarah palin is an idiot.

and john mccain, while much more intelligent than palin, continues to slip in the polls. get ready for four weeks of smear tactics. that's all mccain has got at this point.

regardless, this is lower than low.

palin plays the terrorism card in reference to obama.

jesus.

and, all of this negative mudslinging coming from the right, eh? are they scared? or do they just have no accomplishments of their own to bring to the table?

oh poor poor poor sarah palin. despite doing better in last night's debate than anyone would have guessed (yes, she still sounded stupid. but not as stupid and clueless as predicted.), she is upset at katie couric. katie "annoyed" her. so what did palin do? ran to fox news, of course. she told fox's carl cameron what a bully couric was to her.

what palin needs to realize is that she is running for the second highest office in this country. she is no longer the mayor of wasilla, the governor of alaska, or the simple hockey mom. this is serious business, and the american public has the right to know what she thinks of the bush doctrine (er, if she's ever heard of it), which newspapers she reads, which supreme court rulings she believes in, and yes, what her job as vice president would entail.

couric was just doing her job. golly, it's a doggone shame she caught palin "off gard." but, as vice president, palin would have to be on, all the time, as she might have to step in as president at a second's notice. betchya she can't handle that responsibility. jane hamscher of the huffington post said it best, "i cannot believe that we are seriously thinking of placing this dodo bird within reach of the presidency." (source.)

now i want to give a shout out to everyone who helped me create this fabulous icon. it was a collaborative effort between a few of my friends (none of whom wanted credit on my userpics page.).

great. she has a lesbian friend. great. she chose not to be a lesbian.

WHATTHEFUCKISWRONGWITHTHISWOMAN?!?!??!?



and i am so glad to know that those who have had abortions won't be thrown in jail... :/

and for the record, she is NOT a feminist...

watch sarah palin not be able to name a newspaper that she reads:

the san francisco chronicle ran a story about how the mccain campaign is shielding palin from the press. it's mostly old news, but with just a little over a month until election day, it's starting to become absolutely ridiculous. seriously, what happens if they (*GASP*) actually win this election and there is some majop crisis and she has to talk to the press (or will she just hide like cheney did right after 9/11?)?

( under the cut )

i am baaaaaaaaaack! new computer and working internet.

it's going to take me a bit to get caught up on everything, but this needs to be posted:



for real? are we still on this wavelength? i am surprised she knew the name "putin." and am i the only one who wants cameras allowed in her (ahem) "closed to the media" meetings with foreign leaders (and bono)?

by the way, sarah palin, though i can not see russia from my house, i have been there. take that.

this is old news (as in earlier this morning), but just in case you missed it, sarah palin and her friends filed a lawsuit to end the "troopergate" investigation.

a lawsuit? seriously?

that is kind of extreme. it makes me wonder what else palin and her buddies are hiding deep in the alaskan tundra.

this one is random, but very interesting. it also goes to show that before just a year ago, sarah palin was not even a bleep on the radar of most republicans.

some of the neo conservatives first met sarah palin while the weekly standard's cruise was docked in juneau. in 2007. last year.

makes me wonder: if the weekly standard had chosen a caribbean cruise over an alaskan one, who would john mccain's running mate be?

you like cows? you can hold a top post in alaska's department of agriculture. and earn big bucks doing so. i guess sarah palin really doesn't look past likes and dislikes (and proximity) while determining who is qualified for what state job.

so the sarah palin fact of the day is palin is known to put her buddies into high paying positions in the state of alaska.

too bad "the barracuda" and i ain't friends. i think i'd make a fine upper-level department of transportation bureaucrat because i like to ride BART... (sometimes).

i was out of town all day yesterday, so i could not post the sarah palin fact of the day.

sarah palin fact of the day #7:

(big props to cacahuate for leading me to this one!) while palin was mayor of wasilla, the town was charging victims of rape for using the town's supply of rape kits...

yes, you read that right: charging rape victims if a rape kit had to be used to gather evidence. the alaska legislature had to step in and prevent a law barring this practice.

i don't care if palin put this into practice. but it was happening while she was the town's mayor, so, while she might or might not deserve to have to take full responsibility for this, she could have stopped it.

sarah palin fact of the day #8:

most of you have already heard this, but i think it's extremely laughable and deserves to be a sarah palin fact of the day.

since alaska is near russia, and from parts of the state, you can see russia, sarah palin claims to be an expert on russian foreign policy. she sure didn't seem to know much about the russian/georgian conflict for starters. and correct me if i am wrong, but didn't her stance on russia seem to be a bit, oh, 1980s fear-of-the-sovietsish?

i can see the bank from my apartment! i suppose that makes me well versed in banking, accounting, and financial services...