It's Official

My new site is up at WordPress. Thanks again to Uppity and Nunly for the encohttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifuragement to move over there. I have added this blog to the Blogroll for Archives sake, but as of today, it is up and running.

Here is the link to Rabblerouserruminations' Weblog. Please bookmark it.

I will be writing at the other site exclusively from now on, though given all that is going on right now, likely not every day (I also will be on vacation again in 10 days, so there's that).

In any event, I hope you will come join me at the other site. It is more user-friendly, especially to make comments. See you soon!

New Construction *Open Thread*

Hey, Friends -

I am working on changing my blog site to WordPress, and away from Google's "Blogger" for a number of reasons. Some of those reasons are: 1. my good buddy, Uppity, suggested I do so; 2. because Google attaches a bunch of cookies to people who visit; and 3. it can be a real pain in the butt for people to leave comments. In all honesty, I should have done this ages ago, and I apologize that I did not. So, while I work on setting up the other site, this one will continue to be available.

While I am at the housekeeping portion of this post, I also want to give fair warning that I will be undergoing more knee surgery next month. Unfortunately, that seems to be the only way to determine exactly what is going on in there that is making my pain worse now than it was before. As it is, concentrating on actually writing posts has become increasingly difficult, so expect my posting to be a little more sporadic in the time leading up to the surgery, and for a bit afterward.

Okay. Enough about me. Here are a couple of stories that really caught my eye. First up is the new talking point by the Democrats that it is all the Tea Party's fault for our downgraded credit rating. Because, you know, it just makes sense to blame the people who want to rein in spending and decrease our debt for this rating, right? Uh, yeah, if you are Obama puppeteer David Axelrod, or the last Democrat for whom I ever voted because I was a Yellow Dog Dem even though I couldn't stand him, John Kerry. Wow. The lack of logic there is just staggering.

Let me understand this. The Democrats refused to prepare a budget for over two years because they knew the debt ceiling discussion would necessarily come up, and kept spending like drunken Congresspeople, ballooning our debt more and more, and somehow, it is the fault of a few people from the Tea Party in Congress? What a crock.

Then there is this astonishing story just out now: Jacqueline Kennedy (Onassis) believed it was Lyndon B. Johnson who caused the death of her husband, JFK. Check that - had JFK killed:

[snip] In the tapes, to be broadcast by ABC, Kennedy reveals her belief that Johnson and a cabal of Texas tycoons orchestrated the murder of her husband by gunman Lee Harvey Oswald.[snip]

Holy crappydoo - that is massive.

And finally, my thoughts and prayers go out to the families, friends, and fellow troops after the tremendous loss of 30 of our finest this past weekend in Afghanistan. Such a tragic event in terms of how it happened, and that it happened. To lose so many members of the elite Seal Team Six is just mind boggling. My heart just breaks for all of those affected personally by this tragedy, and for us all, as this impacts us, too.

For them, for their families, I leave you with this:

Where Have All The Girls Gone?

Debra Saunders had a disturbing piece up at the San Francisco Chronicle recently. In the midst of all of the haggling, blaming, and name calling going on at the Hill, this may not seem like an exciting, gotcha kind of story, but it is an important one, and highlights a situation that will have a long term, global impact.

Here is the story, as detailed in Saunders' piece,
In This Brave New World, Girls Disappear:

The world is becoming unbalanced. In pockets across the globe, women are giving birth to too many boys. In China, the sex ratio is 121 boys to 100 girls. In India, it's 112 to 100. Sex selection also is a force in the Balkans, Armenia and Georgia. In her eye-opening book, "Unnatural Selection: Choosing Boys Over Girls, and the Consequences of a World Full of Men," journalist Mara Hvistendahl estimates that ultrasound and abortion have "claimed over 160 million potential women and girls - in Asia alone." That's more than the entire female population of the United States.

If you think that scarcity makes women more valuable, you are right - but that does not mean females benefit. As "surplus men" have trouble finding mates, young girls are forced into prostitution. Others are forced into arranged marriages. On Taiwan's eBay, Hvistendahl finds three Vietnamese women for sale for $5,400.

Those women who do well economically in the new order sadly are more likely to abort daughters in favor of sons.

Is this not disconcerting? Not only are girls being aborted in greater numbers by choice, but the decreased numbers of girls does not translate to girls being treated better. Not even close, unfortunately. Most disturbing is that women are buying into this mindset, and how that is made manifest.

Saunders points out, though, that this isn't just bad for women:

The results are equally bleak for men. Many boys grow up knowing they are unlikely to marry and start a family. In two years, 1 in 10 Chinese men will lack a female counterpart. The Chinese have a term - fenquing for "angry youth" - to describe the legions of young men likely to grow old alone. They find release in places like the Rising Sun Anger Release Bar, "where for the price of a few drinks, customers can pummel one of the bar's hired hands." In that equation, both men are losers.

In three decades, Vietnam - a poor country that provides brides and kidnapped prostitutes to affluent overly male nations - will have 4.3 million surplus men.

Holy cow. The difference the shortage of women will make in such a brief period of time is astonishing.

Saunders touches on the path of good intentions, whose result seem to fulfill the old adage paves the path to hell:

Hvistendahl finds no shortage of villains in this story. There's China's one-child policy, which resulted in untold forced abortions. Western governments and charities threw money at family-planning efforts to stem population growth in Asia, with little concern to the methods - forced sterilizations and abortions - employed. Then there are the willing participants - doctors, nurses and parents - who choose to engage in female feticide. French demographer Christophe Guilmoto recalls an Indian woman who was livid because she had aborted a boy after a doctor misdiagnosed the gender of her fetus.

I was struck at the distortion of good intentions. Family planning does promote prosperity, while overpopulation is unhealthy and destabilizing. Researchers develop technologies to help families. But in a world where technology moves faster than ethical thinking, giving would-be parents the gender they prefer is good business. So you get fertility clinics like the Los Angeles outfit that advertises, "Be certain your next child will be the gender you're hoping for."

Of course, sex-selection abortions happen in America, often among immigrant families. Hvistendahl reports that 35 percent of Asian American pregnancies result in abortion. [snip]

Oh, yes - definitely "good intentions" paved the way to this hell, which affects girls on a massive scale. And the numbers are just staggering.

Saunders concludes with the following:

[snip] Canadian sociologist Sharada Srinivasan has another suggestion. As she told Hvistendahl, at some point, feminists have to define sex selection as a human rights abuse. That would be a good start. (Click here to read the rest.)

Yes, it would be a good place to start - it is a human rights abuse, and the sooner we start dealing with it as such, the better.

I will leave you as Saunders did in her piece, with the following quotes. These should get your blood a-pumping: Thoughts On Parenthood

"You can choose whether to be a parent, but once you choose to be a parent, you cannot choose whether it's a boy or girl, black or white, tall or short."

- Delhi gynecologist Puneet Bedi

"Better 500 rupees now than 500,000 later."

- Mumbai ultrasound ad

"Less than $5 invested in population control is worth $100 invested in economic growth."

- President Lyndon B. Johnson, in a 1965 speech in San Francisco Copyright © 2011 by Rabble Rouser Reverend Amy

This Says It All *Updated*

I received the following photos from my friend, Artemis, this morning. I think this sums up perfectly the difference between who we could have had, and who we have.

Hillary Clinton in the rain:



And then there is Obama in the rain:



Enough said, though feel free to share your opinions!

UPDATE: Apologies for not having the photo credits, but the friend who sent the email let me know she got the photos from our friend, Uppity Woman's site (where Uppity got them from, I don't know). Uppity has an outstanding post along the lines of this one (though better - Uppity Woman ROCKS). Here is the link to, "He's Stolen Everything ELSE, But He Can't Steal My HOPE!" Copyright © 2011 by Rabble Rouser Reverend Amy

Voter Fraud Convictions About Which You Probably Didn't Hear

I am back from vacation, but am fortunate enough to still have my (almost) 7 year old grandnephew visiting, so posts may be spotty for the next week. Thanks!

And not just because of the constant Debt Ceiling discussion. It is amazing - I was out of the country for five days, and I swear, there has been very little real movement. Even now, a resolution is being touted, but nothing has been PASSED. Just another pesky little detail, right?

Anyway, I don't think it is just the Debt talk that kept this little news story out of the major headlines: "Mississippi NAACP Leader Sent To Prison For 10 Counts Of Voter Fraud." Have you heard about this? No, I didn't think so:

While NAACP President Benjamin Jealous lashed out at new state laws requiring photo ID for voting, an NAACP executive sits in prison, sentenced for carrying out a massive voter fraud scheme.

In a story ignored by the national media, in April a Tunica County, Miss., jury convicted NAACP official Lessadolla Sowers on 10 counts of fraudulently casting absentee ballots. Sowers is identified on an NAACP website as a member of the Tunica County NAACP
Executive Committee.

Sowers received a five-year prison term for each of the 10 counts, but Circuit Court Judge Charles Webster permitted Sowers to serve those terms concurrently, according to the Tunica Times, the only media outlet to cover the sentencing.

“This crime cuts against the fabric of our free society,” Judge Webster said.[snip]

No kidding, it does. I still do not get the whole brouhaha about wanting people to show evidence of who they are - we have to do it for far lesser reasons all of the time in this country. That just seems to be a red herring to me, and one that clearly is meant to hide stories like this one. It seems to take a lot to prove actual voter fraud, and that this woman was found guilty of 10 counts is mighty telling.

And it isn't the first time:

[snip] The NAACP has had other problems with voter fraud. The NAACP National Voter Fund registered a dead man to vote in Lake County, Ohio, in 2004. That same year, out of 325 voter registration cards filed by the NAACP in Cleveland, 48 were flagged as fraudulent.

But the NAACP’s voter fraud record doesn’t approach that of ACORN, the Association of Community Organizers for Reform Now. At least 54 individuals employed by or associated with ACORN have been convicted of voter fraud.

Voter fraud, sometimes called electoral fraud, is a blanket term used by lawyers that encompasses a host of election-related improprieties including fraudulent voting, voter registration fraud, perjury, forgery, counterfeiting, impersonation, intimidation, and identity fraud.

I have written extensively about ACORN, and all of their attempts to throw an election. I think just about all of the different ways to commit fraud above would fit ACORN. It has been systemic, and systematic. People have been convicted here and there, but the organization itself seemed to slip by. Until now:

And ACORN, which filed for bankruptcy last November, was itself convicted of voter fraud in Nevada in April. Sentencing is scheduled for Aug. 10 in Las Vegas. ACORN was also banished from Ohio in 2010 when it settled a state racketeering filed against it by the 1851 Center for Constitutional Law, a project of the Buckeye Institute. Under the settlement ACORN, which is now reorganizing its state chapters under different names, agreed never to return to the state. [snip]

Uh, yeah. Given that ACORN is restructuring under different names, someone better stay on their toes to make sure they don't slip back into Nevada, especially considering their good buddy and protector, Senate Majority leader Harry Reid. Just saying'.

But here is what I don't get:

Election experts say voter fraud is fairly common, but progressive activists typically insist that the crime is virtually nonexistent. Republicans, they say, routinely exaggerate claims of voter fraud in order to whip their political base into a frenzy and push for voter ID laws. Liberals say such laws are unfair, and claim that they discourage minorities and the poor from voting.

[...]

Stephen Colbert, the liberal comedian who portrays an overbearing conservative Republican on his cable TV show “The Colbert Report,” broadcast a segment this week ridiculing Republicans for treating voter fraud as a serious problem.

Some Democrats, however, aren’t laughing. The office of District Attorney Brenda F. Mitchell, a registered Democrat who serves Mississippi’s 11th Circuit Court District, successfully prosecuted Sowers. Mitchell was appointed to the post by Republican Gov. Haley Barbour in January 2010 after the previous DA resigned. She’s now seeking the Democratic nomination for the office in a primary election scheduled for Aug. 2.

District Attorney Mitchell isn't the only one:

[snip] U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar, Minnesota Democrat, is also no conservative. But she won a conviction against Joshua Reed for voter registration fraud in 2004 when she was the Hennepin County, Minn. Prosecutor.

“It was very important for the public integrity of our electoral system that somebody, if they do something like this, gets charged, gets convicted and gets consequences,” Klobuchar said at the time. (Click here to read the rest.)

I could not agree with Senator Klobuchar more. Our right to vote is sacred, and should be treated as such. And, those who violate that sacred trust deserve to be brought to justice. We need them to be so that we can have full faith and confidence that our elected officials were duly elected. At least this past one, that did not seem to be the case for a host of reasons, mainly surrounding ACORN, and the entire nominating process.

This is good news, even if you haven't heard about it - justice was meted out to both Ms. Sowers, and to ACORN. That's a start. Hopefully, the powers that be will be more vigilant in ensuring this does not happen again, and if it does, to bring the perpetrators to account swiftly. Our system deserves nothing less... Copyright © 2011 by Rabble Rouser Reverend Amy