Ladies, today is YOUR day! The President even said so!

From the White House:

WOMEN'S EQUALITY DAY, 2011BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 

A PROCLAMATION 

The 19th Amendment to the United States Constitution tore down the last formal barrier to women's enfranchisement in our Nation and empowered America's women to have their voices heard in the halls of power. This Amendment became law only after decades of work by committed trailblazers who fought to extend the right to vote to women across America. For the women who fought for this right, voting was not the end of the journey for equality, but the beginning of a new era in the advancement of our Union. These brave and tenacious women challenged our Nation to live up to its founding principles, and their legacy inspires us to reach ever higher in our pursuit of liberty and equality for all. 

Before the Amendment took effect, women had been serving our Nation in the public realm since its earliest days. Even before they gained the right to vote, America's women were leaders of movements, academics, and reformers, and had even served in the Congress. Legions of brave women wrote and lectured for change. They let their feet speak when their voices alone were not enough, protesting and marching for their fundamental right to vote in the face of heckling, jail, and abuse. Their efforts led to enormous progress millions upon millions of women have since used the power of the ballot to help shape our country. 

Today, our Nation's daughters reap the benefits of these courageous pioneers while paving the way for generations of women to come. But work still remains. My Administration is committed to advancing equality for all of our people. This year, the Council of Women and Girls released "Women in America: Indicators of Social and Economic Well-Being," the most comprehensive report in 50 years on the status of women in our country, shedding light on issues women face in employment, crime, health, and family life. We are working to ensure that women-owned businesses can compete in the marketplace, that women are not discriminated against in healthcare, and that we redouble our efforts to bring an end to sexual assault on college campuses. 

On the 91st anniversary of this landmark in civil rights, we continue to uphold the foundational American principles that we are all equal, and that each of us deserves a chance to pursue our dreams. We honor the heroes who have given of themselves to advance the causes of justice, opportunity, and prosperity. As we celebrate the legacy of those who made enormous strides in the last century and before, we renew our commitment to hold true to the dreams for which they fought, and we look forward to a bright future for our Nation's daughters. 

NOW, THEREFORE, I, BARACK OBAMA, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim August 26, 2011, as Women's Equality Day. I call upon the people of the United States to celebrate the achievements of women and recommit ourselves to the goal of gender equality in this country. 

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this twenty fifth day of August, in the year of our Lord two thousand eleven, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and thirty-sixth. 

BARACK OBAMA

You know with Sarah Palin and Michele Bachmann doing everything they can to roll back all of the progress made by the Women's Movement in the last hundred years, it is really nice to know that SOMEBODY has the back of the females in this country.

But then what would you expect from a man raised by a single mother, and married to a strong representative of the female gender like Michele Obama?

Have a great day ladies!

Japanese Government vs Fukushima Citizens on The Right to Live

Via pejorativeglut Jul 23, 2011

UPDATE: Per my suggestion, this video is now featured on Boing Boing.

UPDATE #2: This video is now featured on Gizmodo.

Here is a truly astounding and WTF unbelievable, must see video on how current Japanese government officials are mistreating, ignoring and insulting their very own citizens in Fukushima! These residents are located outside of the current 20-30 km evacuation zone. However, since more high levels of radiation are being discovered near their homes and schools, they want the government to increase the evacuation zone and financially support them and their families to evacuate. But, of course, the Japanese government does not want to do this as it would involve many more residents and cost much, much more. In the beginning of this video, the Director of Local Nuclear Emergency Response Headquarters, Mr. Akira Satoh, answers some very serious questions from some very concerned Fukushima citizens:

Citizen: "As other people do, people in Fukushima have a right to avoid the radiation exposure and live a healthy life too. Don't you think so?"

Akira Satoh: "The government has tried to reduce the radiation exposure dose as much as it can."

Other citizens: "You didn't answer his question!"

Citizen: "So are you saying that they don't? They have that right don't they?

Akira Satoh: "I don't know if they have that right."

Can't believe it? Watch:



Above video was filmed and edited by some anonymous members of the Japanese Save Child website. English subtitles are 100% correct and were done by pejorativeglut.

The below picture is of Mr. Akira Satoh. Towards the end of the video, when he refused to accept the childrens' urine for radiation testing, they should have poured it all over him!



See also: Japan Prediction: Nuclear Holocaust, Tokyo Evacuated

Labor Struggles [The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire]

¡Hola! Everybody...
I consider myself a fairly intelligent person, well-versed in history and a wide range of subjects. I know this sounds like hubris, but it is isn’t, I’m simply claiming a little intellectual curiosity. Which is why I was taken aback one day some years ago when I was entering an NYU building for one of my classes and noticed a large wreath of flowers. There were no words, no plaque, no reason, apparently, for the wreath. When I asked a classmate, she looked at me in surprise, and asked, “You never heard of the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire?” Actually, I never had heard of that horrific incident.

They say that history repeats itself, but I disagree. I tend to see history as a spiral not a circle (an important distinction). If you want to know where the current conservative Kool-Aid will lead us, then read on. This is the “America” the teatarded want to bring back (h/t Sam Smith)

* * *

-=[ The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire]=-

Those who refuse to learn from the past are condemned to repeat it.
-- George Santayana

Note: My maternal grandmother toiled as a garment worker for decades.

The fire at the Triangle Shirt Waist Company in New York City, which claimed the lives of 146 young immigrant workers, is one of the worst disasters since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution.

This incident has had great significance to this day because it highlights the inhumane working conditions to which industrial workers can be subjected. To many, its horrors epitomize the extremes of industrialism.

The tragedy still dwells in the collective memory of the nation and of the international labor movement. The victims of the tragedy are still celebrated as martyrs at the hands of industrial greed.

Brunswick Times Record editorial, ME - On March 25, 1911, a fire broke out at the Triangle Shirtwaist Co. in New York City. It spread quickly through the factory, which made women’s blouses, known as “shirtwaists,” and occupied the top three floors of the building.

Most of the workers could not escape the flames, since doors leading to the roof were locked and flames prevented workers from descending stairwells or by an elevator that eventually buckled under the heat. The fire caused the deaths of 146 garment workers, most of them immigrant women, who either died in the flames or jumped to their deaths from the factory windows.

It was the deadliest industrial disaster in the city’s history, the fourth deadliest in the United States.

The fire, and the acquittal of the two owners in a criminal trial, helped spur factory workers to organize and join labor unions that would advocate for them against sweatshop working conditions, low wages and 50-hour work weeks.

A young woman named Frances Perkins was appointed as the lead investigator of the commission looking into how to prevent a similar tragedy from happening again. The commission took four years to complete its seven-volume report…

Perkins later become the first woman to hold a Cabinet post, serving as secretary of labor for the 12 years of Franklin D. Roosevelt’s presidency. Her mind as well as her heart seared by what she had learned in the Triangle fire investigation, she was the driving force behind most, if not all, of FDR’s “New Deal” reforms. Among them:

The Wagner Act, which gives workers the right to organize unions and bargain collectively.

The Fair Labor Standards Act, which established for the first time a minimum wage and gave us the 40-hour work week.

The Social Security Act of 1935, legislation she literally nagged FDR to support, astutely recognizing that the dire conditions of the Great Depression were probably the only way such a sweeping economic security package would gain public support.

* * *

Company executives, showing no concern for the welfare of the women workers, managed to escape by secretly taking a freight elevator where they were rescued. It is said that girls and young women leapt from eighth- and ninth-story windows, their flaming skirts billowing in the wind. It horrified a nation and led to some of the first city, state and federal laws dealing with workers’ safety. It gave a powerful impetus to the fledgling labor movement, greatly strengthening the building of the International Ladies Garment Workers Union, which two years before the fire had led a three-month strike to focus attention on conditions in workplaces like the Triangle factory.

How easily we forget the sacrifices and victories of our own labor history.

More on the Shirtwaist Fire here

My name is Eddie and I’m in recovery from civilization...

Make it Personal

¡Hola! Everybody...
I usually hold Saturdays for the arts, but today it’s political. I’m headed out now to a Pro-immigrant rally at Union Square. There are similar rallies being held across the nation. If, like most Americans, the Arizona law essentially legalizing racial profiling while shredding the constitution concerns you; if you’re concerned that basic freedoms are being sacrificed by bigoted goobers from a backward state, then consider lending your voice in opposition to The Arizona immigration law. This isn’t an immigrant rights issue, this is a human rights issue. I wrote the following a while back...

* * *

-=[ Politics ]=-

“The personal is political.”

The personal, as some are so fuckin’ fond of saying, is political. Therefore, if some idiot politician, some power player, tries to execute policies that harm you or those you love, take it personally.

Get Angry.

The “Machinery of Justice” will not serve you here -- it is slow and unfeeling, and it is theirs -- all of it. Only those without access to power suffer at the hand of Justice; the creatures of the power elite slide out from under with a wink and a grin.

If you want Justice, or even fairness, you will have to snatch it from them.

Make it personal.

Do as much damage as you can. Get your message across. That way you stand a far better chance of being taken seriously next time -- of being considered dangerous. And make no mistake about this: being taken seriously, being considered dangerous, marks the difference -- the only difference in their eyes -- between players and the “little people.” They don't give a damn about respect -- respect has no value for them. You have to make them fear and loathe you.

Players they will make their deals with. Little people they liquidate. And time and again, they justify your liquidation, your displacement, your suffering, and the brutality of it all with the ultimate insult that it’s the way of the world, it’s politics, it’s a tough life, it’s “just business,” and that it’s nothing personal. Well, fuck that...

Make it personal.

Love,

Eddie

Chinese Police Cancel Mr. Gay China Pageant

Here's yet another incident showing the lack of human rights in China:

Gay pageant 'cancelled by police' in China



Via BBC News and Youtube
15 January 2010

"A Chinese gay pageant, said to be the first held in the country, was ordered by police to close an hour before opening, organisers say.

The Mr Gay China event was thought to mark a new openness toward the gay community in China.

Organisers said police informed them it could not go ahead because they had not applied "according to the procedures".

Homosexuality was illegal in China until 1997, and officials described it as a mental illness until 2001.

The event's organiser, Ben Zhang, said he had been hoping the event would mark another step towards greater awareness of gay people in China."

Continued...