Real Free Speech Heroes

No not Ezra Levant and his puerile bigoted cartoons, not Maclean's Magazine for publishing the neurotic race terror of Mark Steyn and certainly not the various racist webmasters and homophobes the conservative blogosphere rushes to defend.

No, I speak of course, of Maclean and Maclean.

They were brought to mind by yesterday's Globe and Mail featured obituary of Blair Maclean, the older brother who died at the end of October.

As half of the entertainment team MacLean and MacLean, he played the 12-string guitar. Gary played the banjo. The two were famous for their raunchy and often scatological language, and entertained millions around the world with their ribald comic parody of popular songs.

Their language also made them famous in legal circles. They were arrested twice but persevered in defending their right to free speech, a cause that took them all the way to the Supreme Court of Canada. Their fight - reminiscent of the struggles of American comics Lenny Bruce and George Carlin - helped open the door for today's comedians to use off-colour language freely on stage and on late-night television, said Mr. MacLean's wife, Marcia.

I think fighting for the right to exuberantly sing 'Fuck Ya!' at the top of your lungs beats fighting for the right to say hateful things about Muslims or Gays.

Here's some classics, do I even need to say that these are NSFW? That you shouldn't listen to them if you're humorless, easily offended or believe you'll damn your soul to hell if you hear the 'f' word?

I've seen pubic hair

The entire album Toilet Rock

Sure we're corrupt, violent and taser happy, but that's no reason not to trust us.

The RCMP commissioner admits - because really, what choice does he have? - that the national force has had a series of 'inappropriate behaviours and violations of core values' like electrocuting Polish people, killing bicyclists while driving drunk (The same officer in both incidents!) and trying to suppress evidence of wrong doing. But the commissioner wants the public to have patience and, "It's also important for the public to have faith in the independent systems we have in place to review our activities with respect to all those incidents,"

That would be the same independent systems that determined that it was possible for an officer, while lying face down on a couch with a big heavy guy kneeling on his back throttling him from behind to pull out his gun, reach behind the guy kneeling on his back and shoot him in the back of the head. In self defense.

Well why on earth would anyone not have faith in such a clearly 'independent system'?

If you can't stand the heat, etc, etc...

Proposition 8 in California would amend the state constitution to eliminate same sex marriage. It's on the knife's edge in the polls and no one has a satisfactory answer about what it would do to the rights of gay couples who are already married. The primary organizing force and most of the money - $20 million - behind the yes on Prop 8 operation is the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

The Mormons are committing considerable time, effort and money to an attempt to strip away existing legal rights of gays and lesbians in California.

The context for this ad from the No on Prop 8 forces:

The Mormons are deeply offended that the 'no' forces would stoop to such bigotry in response to their own deeply respectful attempt to make them second class citizens.

The killing fields of Calgary's streets

At least 177 homeless people have died -- from poor health in hospitals to violent encounters on city streets -- in the past five years, according to numbers compiled by the Calgary Drop-In and Rehab Centre.
Officials at the downtown shelter have been compiling the list since 2003, when they decided to keep track of their clients who have passed away.

Almost certainly a low ball figure too, it doesn't include many couch surfers or those who died in hospitals.

As of 2006 there were more than 3000 people living on the streets or in shelters in Calgary. As shelters were overflowing and NIMBYism was keeping new ones from being built, hateful almost eliminationist rhetoric and official policy were being promoted by Calgary's business and political elite. The Calgary Sun referred to homeless people as 'polluted' and the city council was passing laws making being poor illegal. Taking their cue from the official tone, roving bands of thugs were gleefully videotaping themselves abusing the homeless and a Calgary business association launched a huge campaign to try to convince Calgarians not to give change to people begging for help.

Of course the kind of ideological every man (and woman, and child) for themselves attitude exemplified in the right wing politics of Alberta is casual policy sadism that isn't even cost effective. A study in BC proved that pushing people off welfare ends up costing the public many times more than keeping them on the rolls.

Now the homeless are being disenfranchised even more by new electoral ID laws that seem designed to purge the poorest from participating in society.

We can't afford an ideology that is unwilling to even concede there is a problem or that government has any role in its solution anymore. People shouldn't be freezing to death on the streets of the richest city in Canada.

Organize against Voter Suppression

So I proposed that someone - not me as I'm all thumbs with Facebook - should create a group much like Michael Geist's Fair Copyright group to oppose Canada's restrictive new Voter ID laws. Such a group should also promote awareness of its requirements and even provide a kernel of a Canadian ID drive much like the voter registration drives progressives do in the US - Anything that pisses off right wingers as much as those American programs do has to have some value.

So I mentioned this idea in multiple places and Casey from the enMasse forums took me up on it.

Here's his just started group Stop Voter ID required Law, Stop Voter Suppression

I encourage those concerned about this issue to join - maybe even start more groups as well. Let's see if we can make this snowball folks.

Voter ID means Voter Suppression

The lowest voter turnout in Canadian history coincides with the first election with stringent new voter ID rules. You are encouraged not to draw any obvious conclusions.

At my polling station I handed over my voter card I got in the mail and was asked to say my name out loud. I wasn't asked for more ID until I incredulously offered it. It seems like the rules were very inconsistent from poll to poll though.

Rick Salay's 21-year-old son and 25-year-old daughter both tried to vote in Toronto yesterday using their voter identification cards and passports. Mr. Salay said his children were told that wasn't enough. His son managed to find a piece of mail with his address, and could vote; his daughter did not, and couldn't vote.
"It just seems ludicrous to me that with those two pieces of ID [voter registration card and passport], it's still not enough," Mr. Salay said.
"A passport is good enough to get them out of the country."

Several senior citizens in Saskatoon were turned awayand turned off Tuesday after they didn't have proper identification to vote in the federal election.
"I'm very, very angry -- pissed off -- especially when I made an effort to come when I can barely walk anymore," said Phyllis Harms after she left the polling station at Bedford Road Collegiate.
Harms and her daughter, Marina Hopkins, were flabbergasted when told Harms couldn't vote because the identification she brought -- her health and social insurance cards -- didn't include Harms' address. A clerk at the poll suggested Harms use her driver's licence.
"Obviously she doesn't drive. She's legally blind," said Hopkins.
The clerk then suggested they return to Harms' home to find an approved piece of ID such as a telephone bill. That wasn't an option for the 78-year-old whose son looks after the finances and pays bills online.
Across town, in Saskatoon's downtown, several senior citizens experienced the same frustration. A special polling station was set up Tuesday afternoon for residents of The Palisades. The only problem was many don't have identification with their address. John South and his wife Doreen moved to The Palisades about six weeks ago.
"You feel pretty degraded. You feel pretty small," said John South, who is 79 years old.
"I was a little hot under the collar," recalled South of his encounter with Elections Canada officials.
The Souths returned to their apartment and eventually found a document with their new address.
"We have very few things left in this country that is sacred and voting is one of them," said South.
"I'm tired and I'm old, but I'm not going to back away from something like this."
Several other residents in the complex, including more than 20 residents in The Palisades' intermediate care unit, were refused their right to vote. The administrators had hoped their documents would be sufficient to prove these people did indeed live at The Palisades.

In Calgary-Centre, a homeless man said he was denied his right to vote because he does not stay at a shelter or visit soup kitchens.
Lawrence Oshanek said because he uses a commercial address to receive personal mail, does not stay at shelters and does not have someone who can swear they know him, he was turned down at the polling station.
"I'm a non-person," he said.
Under Elections Canada rules, homeless voters need to have proof of identity or can register on election day as long as another person from that electoral district -- who can prove their identity -- can vouch for them.

So an absurd over-reaction to the non-existent problem of voter fraud has helped contribute to the very real problem of low voter turnout - particularly among young people, seniors and the homeless.

Don't make the mistake of thinking that's by accident.

UPDATE: This post struck a nerve and got a lot of comments, hits and links since I posted it this morning. Over at POGGE's place I made this proposal:

You know Michael Geist's Facebook group Fair Copyright for Canada has something like 100,000 members now I think, and has been part of a very effective campaign to advocate for fair copyright and petition against the Canadian version of the DMCA.

It occurs to me that this could be a very effective model to educate and advocate about this issue - petition to repeal these regulations, educate people about what their rights are and network ID drive efforts.

I confess my Facebook Kung Fu is shamefully weak - anybody want to start a Voters Rights for Canadians group? Let us all know if you do so we can all promote and contribute.

UPDATE 2:

Ask and ye shall receive

It doesn't have to be the only one of course.

The Last Hundred Days

As of midnight tonight George W. Bush has only 100 days left in The White House.

He destroyed his country's standing in the world, destroyed his country's economy, very probably destroyed his party and tried very hard to destroy the legal protections and traditions of the American constitution. He will be remembered in history books alongside Nixon and Hoover for a record of incompetence, corruption and belligerence that the world can only hope we will never see the like of again.

We can only hope that Bush and his glowering, sneering consigliari Vice President Cheney will not attempt to roll the dice and redeem their vicious worldview with an all out attack on Iran before being evicted from the White House.

These aren't just supporters of bad ideas and bad policies, these are bad people and the world will be repairing the damage they've done for years to come.

Let them huddle in their bunker under the rubble as their long night approaches. When they're gone may we never see their faces again unless its from the dock.

America: Learn from this, learn from the drooling hatred and loathing we're seeing now in the crowds at McCain and Palin's Nuremberg style rallies. Banish these inclinations from your system and rejoin the wider world.

We're waiting for you.

Gaming the system

Despite poll numbers that are dropping off a cliff with little time to make any game changing comeback - historically October is no time to make up the kind of deficit the McCain campaign now has - Republicans may be quietly sanguine about their chances.

For the very good reason that they aren't leaving the results to chance.

Although exact figures are difficult to obtain, the report notes that one election official in Mississippi was recently found to have purged 10,000 voters "from her home computer." Another 21,000 voters have been purged in Louisiana. Increasing the concerns, another study cited by CBS has found that "nineteen states are ignoring a federal law banning systematic purges within 90 days of a federal election."Blogger Brad Friedman comments, "So CBS News has noticed. Where the hell are the Democrats, and why aren't they raising holy hell about all of this stuff everywhere. ... In the meantime, the Republicans are out with phony 'reports' and lawsuits damned near every day --- and not just on Fox 'News' --- declaring 'evidence' of completely non-existant 'voter fraud' by "Democrats". Yet, in the meantime, the Dems continue to bring a knife to a gunfight, and, as we've noted many times of late ... seem to have no clue that they are in a War on Democracy being waged by their GOP opponenents."

"Fresh meat"

Say what you will about Gilles Duceppe, dude can turn a phrase.

Mr. Duceppe had stated that teenaged criminals sent to prison under Mr. Harper's plan to crack down on youth crime would be “fresh meat” for the perversions of adult inmates. “We all know what happens in prison,” Mr. Duceppe told reporters after meeting with union leaders.

“They will be fresh meat, let's not kid ourselves.”

Steve is clutching his pearls of course:

"Here, he has passed the limit," he said. "Rather than debate ideas, Mr. Duceppe is saying extreme, irresponsible, and unacceptable things. Things he himself knows to be false."

Really Steve? You're quite sure about that? Don't tell this judge:

WINNIPEG - A Winnipeg judge warned two violent young offenders Monday that they face bleak futures - which could include being raped in federal prison - if they don't turn their troubled lives around.

"Next stop is Stony Mountain," provincial court Judge Ronald Meyers told a 17-year-old boy, who along with a 15-year-old pleaded guilty to three armed robberies of Winnipeg businesses.

"I don't know whether you're prepared to consider yourself the girlfriend of some guy in there. But that's what awaits you. An 18-year-old fresh face comes in and it's fair game. Think about that."

And unfortunately its not just the other prisoners to worry about:

The Canadian Press OTTAWA -- The Supreme Court of Canada has awarded $140,000 to a B.C. man who suffered sexual abuse at the hands of a jail guard -- reducing the amount awarded by a lower court by almost half.

Dean Zastowny, who has spent much of his adult life in prison, claimed his career in crime was partly due to psychological damage from the abuse.

.....

Zastowny is one of dozens of prisoners MacDougall allegedly preyed on.

"He targeted younger inmates, inmates who had been sexually abused in the past and/or inmates who had little experience in jail,'' according to one statement of claim.

In fact, as the organization Stop Prisoner Rape submitted to the House and Senate the last time the Tories went on a bread and water kick, in Canada the prisons are safer, at least compared to the nightmarish dungeons in the US, but only because:

Based in the United States, SPR is a human rights organization committed to ending sexual violence against men, women, and children in all forms of detention. The organization recently conducted a fact-finding mission in Canada to assess what makes Canadian institutions generally safer than their U.S. counterparts. The SPR delegation determined that the manageable size of the prison population, stemming directly from Canada’s reasoned laws that afford judges discretion in sentencing, has played a critical role in maintaining safe facilities.

and

The U.S. experience with prison overcrowding has made it painfully clear that violence, particularly sexual violence, proliferates when correctional facilities house too many inmates. In addition, there is a direct link between prison overcrowding and community violence. Virtually all inmates are ultimately released, bringing their prison experiences, including learned violent behavior, back to their communities. The experience of the U.S. illustrates the significant problems that may develop if Canada adopts the proposed harsh sentencing laws. Bills C-9 and C-10 would make the prison population in Canada increase significantly, causing Canadian prisons and detention centers to become larger, more difficult to manage, and more violent. Notably, the prisoners affected by these laws would not be the most dangerous and violent offenders, but rather those for whom a judge identified factors that supported community supervision or a minimal prison term. These defendants are among the most vulnerable to abuse in prison, and have the greatest prospect for rehabilitation in the community.

Gilles Duceppe was stating the simple facts.

The Republican Party Vote Supression Machine

First: Through insane Republican economic policies and a deliberately under-regulated mortgage industry drive thousands of people, primarily in the lower economic spectrum out of their homes.

Then use the foreclosures these policies have inevitably caused as an excuse to deny people made homeless because of them of their right to vote.

Michigan Republicans plan to foreclose African American voters
The chairman of the Republican Party in Macomb County Michigan, a key swing county in a key swing state, is planning to use a list of foreclosed homes to block people from voting in the upcoming election as part of the state GOP’s effort to challenge some voters on Election Day.
“We will have a list of foreclosed homes and will make sure people aren’t voting from those addresses,” party chairman James Carabelli told Michigan Messenger in a telephone interview earlier this week. He said the local party wanted to make sure that proper electoral procedures were followed.
State election rules allow parties to assign “election challengers” to polls to monitor the election. In addition to observing the poll workers, these volunteers can challenge the eligibility of any voter provided they “have a good reason to believe” that the person is not eligible to vote. One allowable reason is that the person is not a “true resident of the city or township.”
The Michigan Republicans’ planned use of foreclosure lists is apparently an attempt to challenge ineligible voters as not being “true residents.”

"Because you're scary and unpleasant and occasionally one of you flips out and starts shooting people."

Abortion protesters in Vancouver asked the BC Appeals Court why they should have to follow a clinic bubble law.

The B.C. government brought in the law in 1995 after an escalating series of protests around the Bagshaw and Everywoman's Health clinics.

Protesters outside the clinics carried graphic signs, blocked the sidewalks and access and conducted so-called sidewalk counselling to try and dissuade women entering the clinic from getting an abortion.

But it was the November 1994 shooting and near-death of Vancouver abortion provider Dr. Garson Romalis that spurred the government to action.

Romalis was sitting at his breakfast table when he was shot by someone outside his house. The bullet shattered the bone in his leg and severed an artery.

American anti-abortion activist James Kopp is suspected in the shooting of Romalis, as well as the shootings of Dr. Hugh Short in the elbow at his home in Ancaster, Ont., in 1995, and Dr. Jack Fainman in the shoulder at his home in Winnipeg in 1997.

The court ruled that while the law did limit the free speech rights of the anti-abortion protesters it was justified by the competing rights of vulnerable women wanting to have a legal medical procedure without feeling intimidated or threatened.

Minneapolis = Montebello?

Lot's of 'Well the cops may be getting a bit rough, but some of those protesters are really asking for it.' in the American media, though as usual Glen Greenwald displays his furious clarity.

But after catching the police in the act in Montebello, skulking among the real protesters, carrying rocks and getting exposed by the real protesters telling them to drop them, can we really be sure it's protesters at the RNC to blame for any of the destruction or violence?

Universal Music: 'The law only applies to the little people, not us.'

Virtualy the only element of the DMCA, the American copyright law Harper's Conservatives are so eager to inflict on Canada too, that is designed to protect consumers is that there are legal consequences to rights holders for an illegally applied takedown notice. Now Universal Music argues that one protection was never supposed to be used against them.

SAN JOSE, California -- Universal Music told a federal judge here Friday that takedown notices requiring online video-sharing sites to automatically remove content need not consider whether videos are protected by the "fair use" doctrine.

The doctrine permits limited use of copyright materials without the owner's permission.

This is important, as takedown notices have been illegally used to suppress criticism of public figures like Pastor Hagee trying to hide video of his bigoted and extremist remarks and corporations like Telus suppressing criticism from its workers and customers.

If, as Universal is arguing, the one portion of the DMCA designed to limit their power to suppress speech does not in fact do so, than this is the very definition of privilege: Private law.

They're war criminals and they know it

The Bush administration, their hangers on, fellow travelers and useful idiots have repeatedly scoffed at accusations of criminality. 'Crude partisanship from people suffering from Bush derangement syndrome' they sneer. Of course 'Bush derangement syndrome' as the die hard Bush supporters define it, is now suffered by 75% of Americans and the Bush administration is in its final months.

And behind the scenes they've been getting nervous.

The reaction of top Bush Administration officials to the ICRC report, from what I can gather, has been defensive and dismissive. They reject the ICRC’s legal analysis as incorrect. Yet my reporting shows that inside the White House there has been growing fear of criminal prosecution, particularly after the Supreme Court ruled in the Hamdan case that the Geneva Conventions applied to the treatment of the detainees. This nervousness resulted in the successful effort to add retroactive immunity to the Military Commission Act. Cheney personally spearheaded this effort. Fear of the consequences of exposure also weighed heavily in discussions about whether to shut the CIA program down. In White House meetings, Cheney warned that if they transferred the CIA’s prisoners to Guantanamo, “people will want to know where they have been—and what we’ve been doing with them.” Alberto Gonzales, a source said, “scared” everyone about the possibility of war crimes prosecutions. It was on their minds.

One of the most successful and hard nosed criminal prosecutors in America flatly calls for the prosecution of George W. Bush for murder, but as Glenn Greenwald points out, the Democrats are so compromised by collusion with this criminal regime, we probably can't expect them to do their duty.

On the plus side, members of the Bush administration will never be able to travel outside of America again after Bush leaves office, without looking over their shoulders.

Even the right wing press turn on Harper over Khadr

Both the Sun and CanWest chain call on Harper to repatriate Omar Khadr:

From the Sun:

He's believed to have tossed a grenade that killed an American Special Forces soldier.

He was 15 at the time.

Old enough to know better, many would say, but raised in a world far removed from ours -- mentally, at least.

It would be easier to condemn Khadr and condone any brutal treatment had he been linked to 9/11 or another clear act of terrorism rather than being on the wrong side of the war.

But even then, atrocity is atrocity no matter how you justify it.

Given his twisted family background, which is deeply rooted in sympathy and alleged support for Osama bin Laden and al-Qaida, it's easy to see how Khadr is one messed up young man.

He's not your typical Canadian by any stretch of the imagination.

It seems he was never given the chance and that window has closed forever.

Yet he was born in Canada and hence the dilemma.

From The Calgary Herald, who more honestly acknowledge the severe weaknesses in the case against Khadr and the abuse he's suffered in American hands:

In Khadr's case, specific mistreatment includes denial of timely medical treatment and pain relief for bullet wounds in the chest, long periods of solitary confinement under bright lights and cold temperatures, and sleep deprivation. At one point, prison guards terrorized Khadr to the point where he urinated himself. They then dipped him in disinfectant and used him as a human mop to wipe up his own urine. He would have been 17 at the time.

Now we know, thanks to disclosure ordered by the Federal Court, that Canadian officials were aware of the abuse while it was happening.
...

Six years after Khadr was taken into detention, it recently came to light the report identifying him as the combatant who threw the grenade originally identified another combatant (executed on the battlefield) as the perpetrator. The report was altered after the fact.

We know evidence obtained by torture and cruel or degrading treatment will be admitted at trial. We know the original military commission judge assigned to hear the case was sacked and replaced after making a procedural ruling that the Bush administration considered unfavourable. Finally, we also know the Bush administration announced that, even if Khadr is acquitted of the charges against him, he can be detained indefinitely anyway.

Can anyone believe there is any merit to letting such a process run its course as a prerequisite to seeking Khadr's release?

UPDATE: Christ. Even The National Pest gets it.

Prisoners of America

I hope Bush enjoyed his farewell tour of Europe, because he and the most senior members of his administration will never be able to safely leave the United States again.

Is it likely that prosecutions will be brought overseas? Yes. It is reasonably likely. Sands's book contains an interview with an investigating magistrate in a European nation, which he describes as a NATO nation with a solidly pro-American orientation which supported U.S. engagement in Iraq with its own soldiers. The magistrate makes clear that he is already assembling a case, and is focused on American policymakers. I read these remarks and they seemed very familiar to me. In the past two years, I have spoken with two investigating magistrates in two different European nations, both pro-Iraq war NATO allies. Both were assembling war crimes charges against a small group of Bush administration officials. "You can rest assured that no charges will be brought before January 20, 2009," one told me. And after that? "It depends. We don't expect extradition. But if one of the targets lands on our territory or on the territory of one of our cooperating jurisdictions, then we'll be prepared to act."

Murderous dictator General Augusto Pinochet assumed that Margaret Thatcher's swooning girlish crush (Apparently jackboots and testicle clamps really got her hot.) meant he could safely visit England, but his remaining years were consumed with fighting charges of crimes against humanity.

The White House architects of conquest, torture and murder will hopefully spend the rest of their lives nervously looking over their shoulders.

Words

Harper's apology to residential school survivors was welcome but ultimately what matters is deeds not words.

This is the same government that scrapped the Kelowna Accord, one of the best opportunities to start undoing some of the damage Harper apologized for yesterday. His government has offered nothing approaching the Accord's scope in its place.

This is the government that has refused to ratify the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. A far more concrete step than mere words and far more likely to mean significant change than a cosmetic apology.

This is a government, members of which frequently bloviate about individual human rights for natives - but primarily as a stalking horse to attack native collective rights and pass the buck for institutional neglect back to its victims. It was only last month that they gave up their ideology based efforts to undermine collective rights and accepted amendments to Bill C-21 that protected them.

Even now some Conservative MPs and members of the right wing press minimize the harm done by the residential school kidnap factories, express scorn for the apology and cavil about compensation. This may express the true views of the governing party more than a calculated PR exercise does.

If this undoubtedly historic apology is to be more than mere words it will require deeds to back it up.

What's a few dead junkies?

After coyly denying for months that any decision about the fate of Insite had been made and clearly planning to leave the safe injection site's operators and clients hanging in limbo until the last minute, suddenly the federal government discovered urgency when the BC Supreme Court took the decision out of their hands.

Health Minister Tony Clement argues that Insite saves only one life a year - this is undoubtedly a significant low ball as Insite's staff report intervening in more than 336 overdoses since 2006. Even if Clement's caviler dismissal of '1 life per year' were accurate it would still mean that the Stephen Harper government is comfortable with those lives not being saved because of their ideological objection to harm reduction.

Dr. Keith Martin, a British Columbia Liberal MP and former Reform Party star, is also a former substance-abuse physician. He admits that Clement may succeed in closing Insite: "But in doing that they will be essentially committing murder."

And it is an ideological objection, let there be no doubt about that, it flies in the face of Insite's support from all levels of government in BC, the Vancouver police department, health professionals and over 25 peer reviewed studies that all agreed that Insite was saving lives and money.

Put against the Harperites distaste for the people being saved none of it matters.

It even contradicts the Conservatives fair weather belief in devolving power from the federal to provincial governments - they're quite happy to cite provincial control over medicine if it means provincial government's undermining universal health care by allowing private clinics - not so much if it means saving the lives of people even Tony Clement admits have an illness.

The false economy of callousness

BC's 'liberal' government of Gordon Campbell pushed over 100,000 people off of welfare. Over 6000 died. Many more became homeless. Now it turns out that a homeless person costs taxpayers almost 8 times as much as someone on welfare due to increased emergency supports, health care, policing and emergency housing.

Local and provincial taxpayers are now paying an estimated $644 million a year on emergency services for the province's 11,700 homeless people who are both severely addicted and mentally ill, according to an exhaustive study by SFU's Centre for Applied Research in Mental Health and Addiction.
Put bluntly: Welfare pays $7,320 per person per year. Homelessness costs an estimated $55,000 per person per year.
"It's definitely a false economy," Klein said. But because that cost is spread between various ministries and shared among dozens of local municipalities, it's effectively hidden in plain sight.

Slashing welfare may give the uncaring among us a mean-spirited little frisson of satisfaction that they aren't being 'forced' to contribute as much to the social contract, but in fact all it does is eat up even more taxpayer dollars than would have been spent keeping the same numbers on the welfare rolls.

High School Principal outs students to school and their parents.

The ACLU says in September 2007, Beasley asked her staff to give her the names of students who were couples, heterosexual and homosexual, because she wanted to keep an eye on them to cut down on public displays of affection.

She's accused of publicly posting the names of those students, including two boys, Andrew and Nicholas, who had just started dating. The ACLU says that in doing so, Beasley revealed their relationship to other students, teachers and even their parents.

...

Nicholas says his teachers and other students treat him differently as a result of Principal Beasley's decision and that he and Andrew have both had to deal with verbal assaults. Nicholas was also not allowed to go on a trip to New Orleans to help rebuild homes because, as one of his teacher's explained, he would "embarrass" the school by engaging in gay affection.

"I really feel that my personal privacy was invaded," Nicholas says. "I mean, Principal Beasley called my mother and outed me to my mother!"

Principal Evilbitch needs to never be allowed to be in a position of authority over children or young adults again ever.