General: Abuse Photos Show Rape

If this true it would be bad. Very, very bad.

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/PoliticalbaseBlog/~3/LNKN6QzLPEs/&blogId=7291

Slumdog child star's home demolished

From the WTF?! file: One of the main characters from Slumdog
Millionaire said his tin roof shanty of a home was demolished by local
authorities. The Gaurdian takes understandable exception to the
decision but skirts around the main question: why is he still in a
slum?! Did they even pay this kid?!? If I landed a speaking role in a
major motion picture I'm pretty sure i'd be able to move my family out
of the leanto! Either Mumbai is ruiniously expensive (which i'm pretty
sure it is) or else they seriously ripped this kid off!! What are
prevailing wages for actors in India? 3 kilos of garlic nan and a pat
on the back?! Somebody needs to sue Danny Boyle and fast.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/may/14/slumdog-actor-mumbai-home-demolished

Another note on Lopez

I try not to be too judgmental of Bushwick politicians. After all, this is a town that seems to constantly teeter on the brink of xenophobia, especially when it comes to criticism. I wasn't born here (and I'm white) so that makes me doubly suspect. Yet the shadiness of one Bushwick pol, Vito Lopez seems to just keep getting shadier. At first I just didn't like the look on his face. Vito is a state-assemblyman whose website is updated barely once a month. That's a bad sign. Then later I learned that he was chairman of the Brooklyn Democratic committee. That's another bad sign. The committee is open to the public and has a small caucus of county delegates. This might all seem nice and democratic, until you realize that the committee meets once ever two years. At this years meeting Lopez's people literally read from scripts and then shut down the meeting before anyone else could speak. Now I read this in the Daily News. It seems Lopez is being accused of trying to strong arm his brother-in-law into a better paying position at the MTA. The Assembly is sweeping it under the rug. Since the agency didn't give the kid the job no harm no foul. But this kind of nepotism isn't good for Brooklyn and it isn't good for Democracy. Maybe Bushwick ought to be more open to criticism after all. 

Daily News report of MTA job ploy has New York politicians staying silent

BYPETE DONOHUE
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

Monday, May 11th 2009, 4:00 AM

Read more: "Daily News report of MTA job ploy has New York politicians staying silent" -http://www.nydailynews.com/news/2009/05/11/2009-05-11_pols_keep_silent_on_news_report_of_mta_job_ploy.html#ixzz0FCBtuYFX&A

Commentary: Enough Ivy League judges on top court - CNN.com

Oniell presents here an argument that the next USSC nominee ought to
be one with more "real world experience." He suggests that the
uniformity of Ivy-league educations has not produced any uniformity of
descisions and therefore lacks validity as a basis for appointment.
However, he also fails to explain what benefit, if any, holding prior
elected office brings to the task of an SC justice. Does it grant any
more clarity of reasoning? We've moved steadily away from the kind of
moralizing of the Warren court, in part because of the acedemic
background of the current crop of justices. Is there a benefit to
going back to moralizing public advocate method? If so, Oniell fails
to explain what that is.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/05/07/oneill.supreme.court/index.html?eref=rss_politics