Vote for Progressive Democrat Martha Coakley

On the merits of her record.

1. Opposes sending more troops to Afghanistan.

2. Supports a woman's right to choose.

3. Supports health care coverage for all.

4. Achieved record settlements in enforcement actions against Big Pharma.

5. Supports civil and reproductive rights: filed constitutional challenge to DOMA.

6. Supporting the environment; supporting consumers by litigating ratepayer protection to the tune of $100 million dollars

7. Strong record on domestic violence, survivors of abuse, crime victims, preventing human trafficking.


I don't have time to review everything, it's on on her website, in detail. This election is about electing a superb candidate from MA to the US Senate, MA Attorney General Martha Coakley.

More on the Amirault Cases

A reader gave me a link to materia on the Amirault child sexual abuse convictions, a case that had passed through the hands of 3 MA Attorneys General, O'Reilly, Harshbarger, and Coakley, a case Republican governor Jane Swift refused to commute.

Witness praises Amirault decision

By John Ellement, Globe Staff, 2/23/2002

CAMBRIDGE - Jen Bennett wants to give Acting Governor Jane Swift a bear hug in appreciation, and she wants Gerald Amirault to admit he sexually abused her when she attended the Fells Acres Day Care Center in Malden in the 1980s.

Bennett was one of nine children who testified against Amirault during his three-month trial in 1986, which ended with his conviction on multiple rape and molestation charges. He was sentenced to 30 to 40 years in prison.

Bennett spoke out yesterday about Swift's refusal this week to commute Amirault's prison sentence, a decision denounced by Amirault supporters as politically motivated and unjust. They contend that no one was sexually abused at the day care center and that Gerald Amirault is a wrongly convicted man.

''I just want to give her a great, big hear hug,'' Bennett said of Swift.

As for Amirault, ''I want to say to Mr. Amirault: Admit your guilt, you did this. He is where he is supposed to be. I will fight against you to the end. He destroyed my childhood.''

Harriett Dell'Anno, whose daughter was one of the victims, echoed Bennett's insistence that children were sexually violated and also thanked Swift for keeping Amirault in prison. Had she coached her daughter to falsely accuse Amirault, or had she allowed investigators to coerce her daughter into making false claims, Dell'Anno said she would deserve to be in prison.

Of the sexual abuse, she said simply, ''It happened.''

Laurence Hardoon, who was the trial prosecutor, said yesterday the preschool age of the witnesses did inject some inaccurate information into the inquiry. But, he said, mistaken memories by some of the children accounted for at most 5 percent of the information against the Amiraults.

Hardoon also said the quality of the investigation and the actions of prosecutors, police, and social workers working with the children were all scrutinized intensely during Gerald Amirault's trial - and still the jury convicted.

He said Amirault supporters are focusing on 2 percent of the children's claims that ''seem inexplicable and they are conveniently ignoring the 98 percent of the case that was overwhelming'' against Amirault.

Amirault's sister, Cheryl Amirault LeFave, and their late mother, Violet Amirault, were convicted in a separate trial. Both women were later released on appeal.

Middlesex District Attorney Martha Coakley, who inherited the case from former district attorneys Scott Harshbarger and Thomas F. Reilly, said Amirault's insistence that he is innocent does not make it true.

She drew a parallel between John Geoghan, the former Catholic priest sentenced to 9 to 10 years in prison Thursday for molesting a child. Like Amirault, Geoghan insisted that he, too, was innocent, she said.

''Admitting to child abuse is a very difficult and often, a never-seen thing,'' she said. Coakley said it was time for Amirault and his supporters to end their pursuit of an early release from prison so that the victims can finally begin to fully heal from the trauma he caused them as children.

A spokeswoman for Swift, Sarah Magazine, repeated that the acting governor made her decision knowing that ''there are strong feelings on both sides of this issue.

Full story here.


And from the Chief Prosecutor of both Amirault trials, Larry Hardoon:


Letters to the Editor: The Real Darkness Is Child Abuse



WALL STREET JOURNAL (J) 02/24/95

Copyright (c) 1995

As the chief prosecutor of both of the Amirault cases I am writing to prevent the public from being misled into believing that an injustice occurred as Dorothy Rabinowitz alleges in her Jan. 30 editorial-page piece "A Darkness in Massachusetts."

Her suggestion that the convictions were based on "some of the most fantastic claims ever presented" presumptuously ignores the reality of the cases. The three Amiraults -- Gerald, Violet and Cheryl – were convicted after two trials before different judges and juries almost one year apart. They were represented by able and well-known defense counsel. The convictions were upheld after review by state and federal appellate courts. The McMartin case in California was the result of a botched legal system and Kelly Michaels's conviction was overturned because of legal errors. Contrary to Ms. Rabinowitz's implication, the Amirault convictions were neither of these.

The first trial involving Gerald Amirault lasted a record three and a half months. Nine children and their parents testified and were subject to extensive cross-examination. The second trial of Violet and Cheryl Amirault involved five children. The entire proceedings were public and extensively covered by the media.

The children testified to being photographed and molested by acts that included penetration by objects. To the average person unfamiliar with the gruesome-ness of child pornography, the allegations of penetration by objects seem bizarre. The testimony of a postal inspector experienced in child pornography was properly admitted to educate the jury regarding the plausibility of the children's testimony.

The overturned order of the trial judge changing Violet and Cheryl Amirault's sentences five years after they were imposed was nothing more than a political squabble between the judge and the parole board over who dictates the appropriate release time for convicts. Violet Amirault was convicted of threats to commit a crime and Cheryl Amirault was convicted of assault and battery for acts committed while in prison. These subsequent convictions may have played a role in the decision of the parole board to deny parole.

Amirault was handled differently from cases in other parts of the country. The initial investigation and interviewing of the children was divided among different investigators, contrary to the assertion in the story that the allegations were developed through one pediatric nurse. Uniquely similar disclosures came from children with no connection of any kind to each other who were handled by different teams of investigators. Many children involved in the prosecution were from families who were initially hostile or skeptical toward the prosecution. Only after these children made unexpected disclosures directly to parents did they join the prosecution effort. The implication in the article that the children's allegations of abuse were tainted by improper interviewing is groundless and not true.

Studies show, as did testimony from a nationally recognized pediatric gynecologist, that most sexually molested young children have absolutely normal physical examinations. However, in Amirault, the majority of the female children who testified had some relevant physical findings, as did several female children involved in the investigation who did not participate in the trial. The findings included labial adhesions and hymenal scarring of the sort present in a very small percentage of non-sexually abused children.

The defendants had a full and fair opportunity to present any evidence they wanted the jury to consider. Although it has no significance in a court of law due to the presumption of innocence and the right against self-incrimination, the choice by Violet and Cheryl Amirault not to testify in their own behalf at trial can certainly be the subject of conjecture by the public at large. They passed up the single most important opportunity they had to tell their story. Isn't this fact, unmentioned by Ms. Rabinowitz, something the public ought to know?

The investigation and handling of these cases was not flawless. In 1984, when the Amirault case began, law enforcement was just beginning to cope with the explosion of sexual abuse into the criminal-justice system. Improvements have been implemented since then, many of which had their inception in that case. Today, there are still more innovations that can be implemented by the judicial system to make the process fairer to both the children and the defendants in these cases.

Ms. Rabinowitz's article is a superficial, one-sided look at a case handled extensively and carefully by the legal system. The victims and their families in these cases have been irrevocably harmed by what was done to them by the Amiraults. Every argument raised by Ms. Rabinowitz was ably presented by the defense at the trials. The juries, by their verdicts, rejected these arguments. Justice was done.

Laurence E. Hardoon

Boston

Source, here.

Teabaggers versus Coakley

"All things are ready if our minds be so."

Send Arthur Silber Money

I just sent Arthur Silber money because he is ill and could use some help. Not a lot just what I could afford. I invite you to do likewise if you can. I am sending him money even though I have um, issues, in that aspect of life myself, because I believe he has more issues than I do, and because I think it is important to support the thinking of thinkers. I agree with much, though not all, of Arthur's thinking, and even though I utterly disagree with him about some important things such as the MA senate race -- and think that in this respect he totally has his head up his *ss and just couldn't be any more f*cking wrong about progressive Coakley versus waterboading enthusiast Brown, I am still sending him money because of the other 98% of his stuff which I think is brilliant. So it is ok with me that he is 2% completely batshit crazy wrong wrong rong. Though I wish he weren't.

So, whatever. I wish someone would go out there and find him and bring him to a warm cheap climate, perhaps Costa Rica?

Progressive Dem Coakley versus waterboarding enthusiast Brown

Pro-torture candidate for Senate in MA, Scott Brown, is rising in the polls against progressive Dem Martha Coakley. You'd think a Republican would be easy to beat in MA, but apparently the teabaggers are all riled up about beating Coakley.

Brown on waterboarding:

Brown . . .took a hard line against the coming terrorism trials in New York City, lambasting Attorney General Eric Holder by saying, "It's time we stopped acting like lawyers and started acting like patriots." He also defended the use of waterboarding, disagreeing with Sen. John McCain (who endorsed him recently): "I do not believe it is torture.

Here's a link John Cole of Balloon Juice put up at ActBlue, for fundraising.

If you can't donate, and you think it's important that MA's senator be anti-torture, write a letter, blog a blog, if you can.

If America Recovers, The Terrorists Have Won

Is That Egg On Brit Hume's Face Or Is He Just Happy to . . .

Hey, kids!

Remember--it's never too late for a loudmouth "Christian" talking head to slam a major world religion he knows absolutely nothing about!

Have an auspicious Western New Year, everyone!




Kvatch's take, here.

Buddhist Jihad, here.

Matthieu Ricard: Habits of happiness

Happy New Year.

Merry Buddhist Part of Christmas

Celebrating the Buddhist part of Christmas:

Peace on earth, good will toward all sentient beings.



May all beings have happiness and the causes of happiness,

May all beings be free from suffering and the causes of suffering,

May all beings never be apart from the great happiness free from suffering.

May all beings remain in the great evenness of mind free from passion, aggression and ignorance.

.

Taking the Holidays Off

I'm swamped. Best wishes for holidays. Will post when/if. Yes, we got snowed in with two feet of snow, plus drifts. 15K people around us lost power; massive clean-up still in process, but it will be a white Christmas for those who celebrate it. Here, we will celebrate the Buddhist Part of Christmas, as usual -- that would be the peace on earth, good will to all sentient beings part of Christmas.

Re-post from 2006 -- Child Abuse Prevention

April is Child Abuse Prevention Month.

In acknowledgment thereof, we might talk about the Republican Homeland Security pedophile guy, Brian Doyle, who went sex-trolling for adolescent girl children via the internet.

We might talk about all the bruised, beaten, starved and neglected unwanted children, but we've already talked a lot about them (scroll on down).

Or we might talk about Miss America of 1958.

That would be Marilyn Van Derbur, who was the victim of child abuse. The Miss America who was incested by her own pedophile father, and who, at 69, still suffers the consequences.

Americans don't like to talk about child physical abuse, much less child sexual abuse, much less incest. We prefer to be oblivious, like the South Dakotans who support a rapist's right to breed -- even an incestuous rapist's right to breed.

That's why, as part of Child Abuse Prevention Month, I think it's good to bring Miss America's story to the fore.

Her father was a rich and powerful man. His name was Francis S. Van Derbur, but his friends -- and he had many -- just called him "Van." He owned mortuaries and made himself a millionaire.

He was a socialite, a philanthropist, a renaissance man who recited poetry from memory -- and a rapist of children who violated his own daughter hundreds of times.

"Terror was my nightly blanket," Van Derbur writes in her award-winning autobiography, Miss America By Day. . .

When Van Derbur talks about child molestation, her demeanor is fierce, and her turquoise eyes burn with a natural-born warrior's zeal for battle. She rattles off shocking statistics like this: "One in six boys and one in four girls are sexually violated before the age of eighteen in this country; fourteen-year-olds comprise the greatest number of sex offenders of any age group. If those statistics don't frighten you, you are in total denial."

Or sums up the feelings of victims of child molestation like this: "We stay shamed by acting ashamed, when we have nothing to be ashamed of. Together we must say to every violator, 'The child may be mute today, but someday the child will speak her name and your name. The children will speak every single name!'"

More on Ms. Van Derbur here. More on Child Abuse Prevention Month at the National Clearinghouse on Child Abuse and Neglect Information, here.

child abuse
incest
Bushist family values

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow

From Noaa, the government agency ex-Senator Rick Santorum wanted to privatize:

A BLIZZARD WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT FROM 4 PM THIS AFTERNOON TO 1 PM EST SUNDAY.

A CLASSIC WINTERTIME NOREASTER WILL CONTINUE TO DEVELOP OFF THE MID ATLANTIC COAST TODAY. IT WILL MOVE NORTHEAST TONIGHT AND LIKELY BE SITUATED JUST SOUTHEAST OF NANTUCKET EARLY SUNDAY MORNING. SNOW WILL SPREAD NORTHWARD IN ADVANCE OF THIS LOW AND WILL REACH THE WARNING AREA BY THIS EVENING. THE SNOW WILL BECOME HEAVY AT TIMES OVERNIGHT AND CONTINUE SUNDAY MORNING. THE LOW WILL PULL AWAY DURING THE DAY SUNDAY WHICH WILL ALLOW THE SNOW TO TAPER OFF AND END SUNDAY AFTERNOON.

AS THE LOW APPROACHES TONIGHT...NORTHEAST TO NORTH WINDS WILL BECOME QUITE STRONG. SUSTAINED SPEEDS OF 25 TO 35 MPH ARE EXPECTED TONIGHT AND SUNDAY WITH GUSTS POSSIBLY REACHING 60 MPH.

THIS COMBINED WITH HEAVY SNOW WILL CAUSE BLINDING SNOW AT TIMES... WITH VISIBILITIES BEING REDUCED TO UNDER A QUARTER MILE.

SIGNIFICANT BLOWING AND DRIFTING OF THE SNOW IS ALSO EXPECTED.. . STORM TOTAL SNOWFALL AMOUNTS ARE EXPECTED TO BE 7 TO 15 INCHES. . .

TRAVEL IS NOT RECOMMENDED TONIGHT AND SUNDAY AS IT WILL BECOME DIFFICULT AT BEST...AND NEARLY IMPOSSIBLE AT TIMES.

A BLIZZARD WARNING IS ISSUED WHEN SUSTAINED WINDS OR FREQUENT GUSTS OVER 35 MPH ARE EXPECTED WITH CONSIDERABLE FALLING AND/OR BLOWING AND DRIFTING SNOW. VISIBILITIES WILL BECOME POOR WITH WHITEOUT CONDITIONS AT TIMES.

THOSE VENTURING OUTDOORS MAY BECOME LOST OR DISORIENTED...SO PERSONS IN THE WARNING AREA ARE ADVISED TO STAY INDOORS.

I Read the News Today, Oh Boy

Here's a a Kingston, MA, man accused of raping a three-year-old girl in August who got out on $10K bail, now accused of raping the five-year-old daughter of a friend.

On the news last night, it said he'd threatened to kill the victim's father if she told.

Nobody Wants to Talk About Child Sexual Abuse

Let's talk about the statistics of child sexual abuse, here.

Let's talk about the grooming process of child sexual predators, here.

And let's remember that experienced child sexual predators choose their victims wisely -- the younger the better. Because the younger they are, the less likely they are to be believed.

And the weirder the circumstances, the less likely they are to be believed -- recall David Cobb, the English teacher from Phillips Andover Academy whose sideline sexual abuse specialty was donning a pumpkin mask, paying his mentally retarded victims if they would do special things to "Help Pumpkin," such as "lotioning Pumpkin" and "assisting in urination."

Imagine how that might sound -- "Mommy, Mommy, a Pumpkin Man paid me to help him!"

"Oh, did he, dear? That's nice."

Martha Martha Martha

Top lawyer wins nomination for Kennedy's seat.

Negative Future Projection and Medicare Equality for All

How we look at things matters.

How we choose to look at things matters.

How we think about things matters.

If we assume, as our fearless unelected leaders in the occult cabal clique-who-must-be-obeyed have, that outcome A is hopeless, we will clearly be unable to take steps to achieve outcome A.

This is negative future projection, and it is a cognitive style with behavioral implications.

Weirdly enough, this aberrant cognitive style has gone viral, and has nearly wiped out Medicare Equality for All, as an outcome.

It's like one of those dog-torture scenarios: delivering electric shocks that are unavoidable, so the dog sinks deeper and deeper into hopelessness, then goes belly-up, and submits and dies.

This self-appointed Steering Committee uses classic social pressure to shame and blame those who have not given in to the --[we can't achieve Medicare Equality for All] -- Cabal Core Belief with hopes that the rest of us will submit and STFU.

Besides all this narcissistic bullying, the greater problem is -- they're dead wrong.


Choosing the goal defines the plan, and the outcome.

Goal: man on moon.

Outcome: man on moon.


Goal: to fly

Outcome: flying


Goal: Medicare Equality for All

Outcome: take steps along path to goal

But unless you set the goal, it is impossible to achieve it.

Cognitive frame: flying is impossible

Outcome: none


Cognitive frame: man on moon is impossible

Outcome: none


Similarly:


Cognitive frame: Medicare Equality for All/ Single=pay is impossible

Outcome: na ga happen

Duh.


Negative future projection about universal health care is a choice, and it is the wrong choice. It's viral social hypnosis. It's groupthink. It's cabalthink. It's bullshit.

We need to wake the f*ck up.




More:

Arthur Silber on the Fuck You Act

VastLeft on shit sausage.

Ian Welsh on the Democratic majority.

All Life is Problem-Solving

More Billionaires for WealthCare Teabag Goodness

Join the Billionaires for WealthCare!

What's so bad about an apple a day, eh?

The Illness Industry: Sometimes Less Is More, Sometimes More is More. Profitable.

From: the Heart Scan blog.

Shut up, about Stupak, ladies. There are way more important things to work on such as -- [fill in blank].

Thanks to Corrente, I've discovered a new blog, Historiann.



Where I found this comment:

Emma on 22 Nov 2009 at 11:09 am #

The one time the left pulled the pin, it voted for Nader in 2000. And look how that worked out.

You misunderstand. I’m not talking about the left. I’m talking about the fake “left” that propagated misogyny and CDS and elected Obama. That “left” will never oppose Obama or even attempt to hold him accountable.

No, what I’m talking about is WOMEN needing to play madwoman political bargaining with the Dems. Because when it comes to women’s rights, the Democrats and the Republicans are identical. Women’s rights, including abortion, are nothing more than political bargaining chips.

Let me put it this way: After the Democrats — led by Democrat Bart Stupak — passed the Stupak/Pitts amendment I got all these “call to action” emails from Democrats to save abortion rights by appealing to more Democrats and sending money to more Democrats. It’s deeply, deeply screwed up. And there’s nary a Republican to blame for it.

I’m done. Nothing, not one thing, not a “public option” health insurance plan, not universal health care, not single payer health care, not the success of the historic Obama presidency, not poor people’s rights, not people of color’s rights, not a jobs plan that actually works, not the wars in Afghanistan or Iraq, not the Guantanamo detainees — nothing is worth accepting, putting up with, or losing the battle on this steady erosion of women’s equality. Nothing. My “allies” are on notice. Nothing matters to me but winning this fight on women’s equality. Nobody gets anything from me on any other issue — not money not votes not feet on the street. Nothing.

And voting “yes” or “no” isn’t enough anymore, either. There has to be solid work toward building a coalition that will have the ability and the power to stand firm and pass legislation that will advance women’s equality and thus protect abortion and reproductive rights. And I mean a Constitutional Amendment or a statute that kills the Hyde Amendment, the Global Gag Rule, and Stupak dead for the foreseeable future. That’s all I will accept.

And beyond lack of support, I will oppose every effort that further enshrines or advances women’s inequality. I don’t care what gets scuttled. If you have to suffer until I get my rights, that’s too bad for you. Because nobody gets ahead while I wait. Never again...

Click onthrough.

Give Arthur Silber Money, Please

Arthur Silber says what I think, only better.

And says what I feel about the normalization of violence, only better.

He's right. He deserves our support.

Jeff Zeig on Milton H. Erickson

And now for something completely different. Again.

Department of Why How We Look at Things Matters

Once a year, in the weeks before Thanksgiving, I go to the local knife-sharpener to get my knives sharpened. The knife-sharpener is a vet with PTSD, and he knows I'm a therapist. He remembers my first name, every year. He remembers that I see children. Sometimes he remembers that I see both children and adults. He often doesn't remember that my clinical specialty is treating complex PTSD. He didn't remember that today.

In the course of today's conversation, I mentioned that one of the worst misconceptions that people in the military had/have about how to treat PTSD was and is the belief that no one can treat combat PTSD unless they have been in combat. Which is dead wrong. Brain surgeons treat brain problems without having to have those problems themselves. Clinicians don't need to have PTSD (or to have had) successfully to treat people who have PTSD.

My point here is not about PTSD, it's about the weight of thoughts.

How stubborn clinging to beliefs in itself is enough to alter our behavior. In this case, this thought, this single thought stuck inside this person's head, is enough to keep him -- and so many others like him -- from receiving the assistance toward healing they say they wish for.

Remarkable instance of cause and effect.

So, in honor of the knife-sharpener's lost-lasting pre-conceptions, and acknowledging the causal power of immaterial thought to successfully produce effects in the material world, I toast to increased awareness and flexibility of mind.

What's Wrong With This Picture?

Simmer down, Stupak haters.

Ok, this is a test. This is not only a test.

It is a Rorschach.

1. What am I testing for?

2. How many instances can you find in that post at Kos I linked to?

3. What does it all mean?

Stupak Is As Stupak Does

Periodically, when I'm feeling down, I launch attacks against the government-forced maternity crowd. And I launch attacks against the separation-of-church-and-state-is-for-pussies crowd, those arrogant guys in those churches that want meddle in the lives of people who don't even GO to their churches.

And, you know, like, I still have my panties in a twist about all that, you know, primary sexism stuff from all those kewl libruls who really have no problem throwing, you know, broads under the bus.

So when I heard about the Stupak thing, I just thought: hey! Broads under the bus 2009? No biggie. It's deja vu all over again.

And, you know -- it is!

I know it's just because I'm so emotional, just that time of the month, prolly, but see, there's another little tiny voice inside my head that is saying:

hel-lo.
fuck this. really.

you really don't have to be physically hit to be abused, do you?

Dept. of Just How Stupid Can You Get?

Army doctors worried that Hasan was psychotic.

"Army doctors worried that Hasan was psychotic"?

Psychotic = he's hearing voices, voices commenting, maybe voices that tell him to do stuff. You know, as in auditory command hallucinations: "Go. Kill. Infidels. Hasan. Right. Now."

No, I am not making this stuff up. This is what psychosis sounds like, is like.

They're worried that he's psychotic. Oh? Are you f*cking kidding me?

And they not only let him keep on practicing, they promoted him?

Who is running the Army asylum?

If someone thinks someone is a danger to themselves or others, one gets to hospitalize them, even against his or her will. At least for a couple of days. Who was Hasan's clinical supervisor? Who was Hasan's therapist? If he didn't have one, why didn't he? This is how they run their psychiatry services? Pretending psychosis will just go away? Would you like a little numbing and avoidance with your homicidal ideation and command hallucinations with a cherry on top?

Cripes.