Watch:

In The News:

I have such a big boner for Hillary Clinton.

• But think about what’s happening to people as we speak today. Men and women are harassed, beaten, subjected to sexual violence, even killed, because of who they are and whom they love. Some are driven from their homes or countries, and many who become refugees confront new threats in their countries of asylum. In some places, violence against the LGBT community is permitted by law and inflamed by public calls to violence; in others, it persists insidiously behind closed doors.
• Just as I was very proud to say the obvious more than 15 years ago in Beijing that human rights are women’s rights and women’s rights are human rights, well, let me say today that human rights are gay rights and gay rights are human rights, once and for all.

You can watch a video of the speech here

In The News:

Trafficking in Perssons (TIP) Report 2010 has been released. Andy maybe you wanna watch Hillary Clinton being amazing at the release of the report. She really has been quite a leader in putting policy spotlights on the rights of women and god damn is her hair looking good. A few select quotes from Ms. Clinton:

• Human trafficking not only exploits and victimizes women and girls it also fuels the epidemic of gender-based violence around the world.
• Human trafficking crosses cultures and continents.
• Traffickers must be brought to justice. And we can't just blame international organized crime and rely on law inforcement to persue them. It is everyone's responsibility. Businesses that knowingly profit or exhibit reckless disregard about their supply chains. Governments that turn a blind eye or do not devote serious resources to addressing the problem.
• We have to ensure that our policies live up to our ideals and that is why we have for the first time included the United States. As this report documents, cases of trafficking are found in our own communities. In some cases foreign workers, drawn by the hope of a better life in America, are trapped by abusive employers. And there are Americans, unfortunately, who are held in sexual slavery. Some find themselves trapped through debt to work against their will; in conditions of modern day bondage.
• Human trafficking is not someone else's problem. Involuntary servitud is not something we can ignore or hope doesn't exist in our own communities.
• This report is a catalog of tragedies that the world cannot continue to accept, but it is also a record that deserves praise and recognition because it exemplifies hope and action, because hope without action cannot be our goal.

I'm just going to put down some countries of interest and their tiers. And just for reference I'll briefly explain the tiers.
Tier 1: Countries whose governments fully comply with the TVPA's minimum standards
Tier 2: Countries whose governments do not fully comply with the TVPA's minimum standards, but are making significant efforts.
Tier 2 Watch List: Countries whose governments do not fully comply with the TVPA's minimum standards, but are making significant efforts AND a) the number of victims of severe trafficking is very significant or is significantly rising b) failure to provide evidence of increasing efforts to combat severe forms of trafficking c) the determination that a country is making significant efforts was based on commitments by the country to take additional future steps over the next year
Tier 3: Countries whose governments do not fully comply with the minimum standards and are not making significant efforts to do so

Argentina - 2
Bolivia - 2
Bosnia & Herzegovina - 1
Brazil - 2
Burma - 3
Cambodia - 2
Chile - 2
Colombia - 1
Cuba - 3
Ecuador - 2
Guatemala - 2WL
Iceland - 2
Israel - 2
Laos - 2WL
Mexico - 2
Paraguay - 2
Peru - 2
Philippines - 2WL
Poland - 1
USA - 1
Uruguay - 2
Venezuela - 2WL

Watch:

Nerding out to political funnies.

In The News:

1. "The Obama administration is adopting an increasingly confrontational approach with BP -- accusing company executives of intentionall underestimating the scale of the Gulf oil spill to spare themselves billions in fines." It's always reassuring to hear that your own government thinks the BP execs are full of shit. Also...they can't seriously think that stopping the leak in August is the best they can do, right? [Politico]
2. The American Medical Association passed a resolution that no doctor or hospital should have to go against their personal morality when treating a patient. Uh... what? Keep your religious and personal moral beliefs out of my scientifically based medical treatment. I don't mix my religious beliefs with my work. Or find a religiously funded and themed hospital to work at .. any of your Saints will do. But it's ridiculous to allow doctors and nurses to refuse services based on personal morality. I think we all know who will suffer the most from this... women of reproductive age. [Change]
3. Can a non-Muslim be a Maldivian? Mohamad Nazim, born in Maldives has come out as an atheist. According to law a non-Muslim cannot became a citizen. But what about a citizen that becomes a non-Muslim? [Hassan Ziyau]

In The News:

Every now and then I'll be posting bits of news that's worth sharing (not that most news isn't...I strongly encourage all to be on the ball with what's going on in the world -- but I guess that's just the International Relations major coming out)

A very touching video from George Steven Lopez Mercado's mother (with subtitles). Most of you probably have already read the articles pertaining to Mercado's very violent death last week.