Sign the petition. End abuse at the "Rape Factory"

Tell Target: End the abuse at "rape factory" in Jordan

Thousands of Change.org members have already spoken out against abuses at what's becoming known as the "rape factory" in Jordan.

“We only went to Jordan to earn money to help our families; we had no idea that factory managers would rape so many of us young girls,” said a young woman who goes by the name Nazma to protect her identity. 

Nazma is one of the dozens of Sri Lankan and Bangladeshi young women who have been sexually assaulted by supervisors at Classic Factory in northern Jordan, which makes clothes for American brands like Walmart, Target, and Macy's.

Leading up to next week’s trial against a Classic supervisor charged with rape -- the first such trial -- managers are escalating abuses. Supervisors are locking victims and witnesses in the factory, threatening and intimidating them to ensure they will not testify.

And although the Jordanian government promised that Anil Santha, the manager accused of rape, would not be allowed to return before the trial, he's back on the factory floor.

Despite global outcry over Classic’s abuses and the tactics they’re using to dodge justice, international customers like Walmart, Target, and Macy's are still buying Classic clothing.

Given the critical situation on the ground, Classic Factory workers, consumers, and human rights organizations, are urgently calling on these high-profile companies to immediately condemn human rights abuses and force change. Click here to sign the petition now. 

Target and Macy's have claimed that they are investigating conditions at the factory, but they're deferring to the Jordanian Ministry of Economy and Labor -- which claims there is no evidence of sexual abuse.

Instead, conditions are getting worse. In addition to imprisoning women inside the factory, managers are removing all the males workers -- in some cases even deporting them -- cutting the staff to older male supervisors and vulnerable young women. 

At Classic's urging, the government also arrested the leader of an outside human rights NGO and took his passport to prevent him from intervening to protect the women at the factory.

“All we can do is cry,” Nazma said. “We ask the people who buy our garments, please end this abuse and torture we face. We should be able to work without fear of sexual assault.”

Now is a critical moment for action. Outside pressure and attention can ensure that victims and witnesses are freed and can testify against their rapists -- and that Classic Factory reforms its policies and practices. 

Otherwise, the manager and supervisors will continue to imprison, assault, and rape girls and women with renewed impunity.

Sign now to urge Walmart, Target, and Macy's to force Classic Factory to free imprisoned victims and witnesses -- and end its human rights abuses against women:

http://www.change.org/petitions/tell-walmart-to-stop-rape-and-torture-of-young-women-in-its-factories

Thanks for being a change-maker,

- Patrick and the Change.org team

And Cue Phony Right-Wing Outrage in 3. . .2. . .

Michele Bachamnn's loony mug is adorning this week's issue of Newsweek (motto: Yes, they still make newsweek!)

 

Alternate titles: The Face of Catatonia

The Queen of "Hungh?"

The Lunatic is in My Head.

And of course, of course the picture isn't flattering enough for the wingnutosphere. No picture would have been. I mean, granted, it's not the most flattering picture, but A: Try finding a picture of Bachmann in which she doesn't look baboon-ass crazy.  B: Shouldn't you just be glad that a publication is treating her as if she were a person of importance? and C: you don't really need to say anything about it, no one reads Newsweek anymore.

But no. No, instead you get the sadly predictable phony outrage, with headlines like this one in Slate:

Is Newsweek's Michele Bachmann Cover Sexist?  

Or this bit of tortured logic from one of Breitbart's idiotic websites:

When your premise is an unflattering photo (and if you don’t have them you’re a liar or Miranda Kerr) to sell your bias, you just might be a chauvinist.

Or you just might not be a good enough photographer to make Bachmann look like a sane person?

That was written by someone named Dana Loesch, who also crapped out this brain-diamond:

I don’t know about you, but when I want articles on women that read like bitter Summer’s Eve scripts, I turn to Newsweek. Under the editorial control of Tina Brown, the rice paper magazine barely struggles against its bias towards conservative women to view them with anything other than contempt.

Oooh, sorry. You were so close. What you meant to say was "bias against conservative women."

Also, the "Summer's Eve script" reference? I have no idea what that's supposed to mean,nor do I want to. Please, for the love of God, I don't want that line explained.

Then there's some site called "freedom's Lighthouse" that asks the question that everyone is thinking:

Of all the photos of GOP Rep. Michele Bachmann they could have used, this is what Newsweek has chosen to feature on their cover. Notice they call Bachmann,

“The Queen of Rage.”

Can anyone really say with a straight face that the Mainstream Media is not totally biased against conservatives?

You know they didn't have a lot to choose from, right? I mean, which picture of Bachmann would you have preferred?

 

Seriously, do a google search and just see if you can find a picture of Michele Bachmann in which she doesn't look poo-throwing crazy, bag-of-doorknobs stupid, or both.

And after the horrible horrible things the righties have said a bout Hilary Clinton, Nancy Pelosi, et al, they really have some balls throwing around charges of sexism.

Terrible marketing --DirecTV

First of all, shame on you, DirecTV, for aiding and abetting Dat Phan's career.

But, seriously, how the hell did this ad get made?



What was the pitch meeting for this like?

Hmm, gotta think of something funny. . . .
. . .Hey, you know what's funny? Asian dudes!

Asian dudes?

Yeah, you know how they're always talking in those funny accents? It's hilarious!

Oh, yeah, everyone likes accents! And let's have him act like a big shot, even though he's a tiny Asian guy. That'll be hysterical!

Oh, and you know how in commercials, you can tell a guy is rich because there are bikini-clad models following him around like pet labradors?

Oh, yeah, we should totally do that!

But get this, we'll show that he's super-rich because he can afford white chicks!

Even though he's a small Asian man? Brilliant! I'm laughing already!

Oh, and let's throw in an enormous panda just in case anyone forgets that this guy is Asian.

Why not just have him say his lines in broken pidgin-English?

Hey, who says we can't do both?

Saturd80's - The Egyptian Lover

Does anyone else remember the Egyptian Lover? Maybe it was a Southern California thing, but we loved this guy in 1984-5.

Rep. Steve King Continues to Stake his Claim to the Title "Most Absurd Member of Congress."

 

High five! Anyone? No?

Steve King: Covering Birth Control Will Make Us ‘A Dying Civilization’

Rep. Steve King (R-IA) thinks it's "Orwellian" that the federal government would require health insurance providers to cover birth control, and that if left unchecked the policy could allow the U.S. to become "a dying civilization."

The pill killed the dinosaurs. Look it up!

Wow! How exactly does he come to this conclusion?

King particularly took offense to the "preventative" part of the language: "And they've called it preventative medicine. Preventative medicine. Well if you applied that preventative medicine universally what you end up with is, you've prevented a generation. Preventing babies from being born is not medicine."

Right, because making birth control available is basically going to force everyone to use it every time! If contraception is available, there will be no babies ever, because no one actually wants babies. Every baby born anywhere in the world is attributable to the high cost of Norplant. (Do they still make Norplant?)

 

I mean, look at this thing. Who would want one of those?

"That's not constructive to our culture and our civilization," King said. "If we let our birth rate get down below the replacement rate we're a dying civilization."



He later added: "Now none of us would have health to care about if they prevented us, would they Mr. Speaker? That is just it is bizarre, it's Orwellian."

Um, I gotta think that's a bit more Lewis Carroll than George Orwell.

King objected to this policy on the House floor on Monday night, saying that it is simply government overreach and part of Obama's plan for socialized medicine: "We have people that are single, we have people that are past reproductive age, we have priests that are celibate. All of them, paying insurance premiums that cover contraceptives so that somebody else doesn't have to pay the full fare of that?"

Wow! That's a whole lot of ridiculous for one quote.  Let's take this one point at a time.

A) Suuuuure, single people don't use birth control.

 

Honest, mom!

B) Really, there aren't enough celibate priests.

C) It's still private insurance companies covering birth control, so how is that "socialized medicine?"

D) By your logic, women shouldn't have to pay for prostate exams, vegetarians shouldn't have to pay for angioplasties, and those of us who have chosen not to reproduce shouldn't have to cover obstetrics or pediatrics.

 

Not on my dime, bitch!

Seriously, I don't know which is more ridiculous, the idea that making birth control more available will wipe out the species, or the idea that my insurance should only cover the things that I personally am going to use. Or, even if you are Steve King, you might someday find a woman willing to have sex with you, would you not want her to have access to birth control? Because a little mini Steve King? That would be a crime against nature.