Video

AlterNet Video

The side-effects of abstinence-only education.
Posted by Tala Dowlatshahi, American News Project on July 4, 2008 at 8:00 PM.

One in three teenage girls in the US becomes pregnant. Recent media hype and movies like Juno give teen pregnancy a certain kind of treatment.

ANP went to one health center in the Northeast of Washington, DC to explore the real thing.

Keith Olbermann Talks with Senator Jim Webb (D-VA)
Posted by Isaac Fitzgerald, AlterNet on July 3, 2008 at 4:48 PM.

On Monday, June 30, legislation introduced by Sen. Webb that would provide post-9/11 veterans with comprehensive educational benefits was signed into law. Last week, the legislation was overwhelmingly passed by both the House of Representatives and Senate.

Olbermann talks with Sen. Jim Webb about passing this historic legislation, and what he plans to do next to help our servicemen and women.

Funder Gives Money to McCain ... and Terrorist Groups?
Posted by Isaac Fitzgerald, The Young Turks on July 3, 2008 at 3:59 PM.

John McCain's campaign has accepted millions of dollars from Carl Linger Jr., who has knowingly given money to internationally recognized Columbian terrorist groups the AUC and FARC.

The mainstream media, not surprisingly, is looking the other way on this one. Do you think the same would be happening if Obama's campaign had accepted money from such a contributer?

AlterNet is a nonprofit organization and does not make political endorsements. The opinions expressed by the filmmakers are their own.

Woman Convulses and Dies, Ignored, in Waiting Room of New York City Hospital
Posted by Jill Filipovic, Feministe on July 3, 2008 at 1:39 PM.

If this story doesn’t disgust you, I don’t know what will:

It was a nightmare captured on surveillance video. A woman who had waited nearly 24 hours to be seen in a Brooklyn public hospital collapsed, fell face-down on the floor, convulsed and for nearly an hour — while several hospital staff members looked at her and one staff member even prodded her with her foot — received no aid. At some point during that time, she died.

The New York Civil Liberties Union has been sounding the alarm about New York City hospitals for some time now, calling the emergency room and inpatient units at Kings County Hospital “a chamber of filth, decay, indifference and danger.” It’s disgusting that someone had to die before the city bothered doing anything about it.

And this is just the one that we know about because the video was released on YouTube. The callous disregard that the hospital employees showed to Esmin Green is not possibly a one-time occurrence. Ms. Green was a poor, mentally ill woman of color. She apparently didn’t matter one bit to the employees at the hospital who were supposed to be giving her care. I would bet everything I own that she is not the first “unimportant” patient to receive that kind of treatment — she is just the first to have her death broadcast on YouTube, and so she is the first that the city cannot turn a blind eye towards.

And via Panopticon in the comments:

A state agency, the New York State Mental Hygiene Legal Service, filed a lawsuit a year ago, calling the psychiatric center “a chamber of filth, decay, indifference and danger.”

Patients, the suit said, “are subjected to overcrowded and squalid conditions often accompanied by physical abuse and unnecessary and punitive injections of mind-altering drugs.”

“From the moment a person steps through the doors,” it added, “she is stripped of her freedom and dignity and literally forced to fight for the essentials of life.”

The suit was especially critical of the hospital’s emergency ward, saying it is so poorly staffed that patients are often marooned there for days while they wait to be evaluated.

Sometimes, the unit runs out of chairs, according to the lawsuit, forcing people to wait on foam mats or on the waiting room floor. The suit also claims that bathrooms are filthy and filled with flies, and that patients who complain too loudly are sometimes handcuffed, beaten or injected with psychotropic drugs.

In case this doesn’t make it clear, mental health (and health care in general) is a feminist issue. This should appall and enrage all of us.

Read the rest of the post on the flip side »

That Ain't No Way to Win a Woman...
Posted by Laura Flanders, Firedoglake on July 3, 2008 at 1:22 PM.

The rush is on to woo women voters and the politicians and the pundits think they know the trick. Everybody from DNC chair Howard Dean to conservative pundit William Kristol is talking about sexism and why it matters, but women voters aren't stupid. If there was more than politics to all this new found-feminism we'd see policies on the table.

"I've got whip-lash" Lisa Witter, COO of Fenton Communications told GRITtv July 1. "In less than a week, the national discussion of women's leadership changed from the merits of a female president to the potential first lady's dress." Witter, who is co-author with Lisa Chen of The She Spot, told GRITtv that women voters aren't turned on by the makeover of Michelle Obama into nicey-nicey wife. "She's liked because she's strong." What's next? The cookie-baking contest?

What women want is more on policy and not just reproductive policy said Mia Herndon Director of Programs at Third Wave: "I'd like to hear more about urban issues, housing, transport, childcare." The war is a women's issue: women were disproportionately against the deployment, and women will be the major caretakers for injured and sick vets.

"I want them to talk about everything," said Rebecca Traister, staff writer at Salon.com. "Everything we are mentioning from foreign policy, domestic policy and also education, pay equity, healthcare, and reproductive rights."

Reproduction's not the only women's issue, the panel agreed, but if a politician believes abortion should be safe, legal, and funded they should come out and say it. Women are half the population (they're not a special interest) and, as Traister says, "it's fundamental...basic human rights."

"Democrats who assume the female vote is a sure thing should think again," Witter warned. Before they pander for one more female voter, campaigners would do well to listen and learn. Also, why the US needs a motherhood movement.

Here on GRITtv. Take a look.

GRITtv airs Mon-Thurs, at 8 pm & 1 am ET, on Free Speech TV (Dish Network ch. 9415) and at www.firedoglake.com.

The Onion: Bush Tours America to Survey Damage Caused by Presidency
Posted by Brave New Films, The Onion on July 3, 2008 at 9:56 AM.

President Bush will seek to comfort victims of his presidency as they try to make sense of the destruction he has caused.

From The Onion.

Vogue — McCain Strikes a Pose
Posted by ZP Heller, Brave New Films on July 3, 2008 at 8:00 AM.

This hilarious video was part of The Colbert Report's Green Screen Challenge: Make McCain Interesting. The Vogue Edition was created by Wayne Simbro.

Watch Christopher Hitchens Get Waterboarded
Posted by Isaac Fitzgerald, AlterNet on July 2, 2008 at 6:00 PM.

Last February, Vanity Fair editor-in-chief Graydon Carter asked Iraq warmonger Christopher Hitchens if he would be willing to subject himself to the form of torture known as waterboarding.

Hitchens accepted.

"It doesn't simulate the feeling of drowning. You are being drowned."

Read John Dolan's essay on Hitchens, "Hitchens Gets Waterboarded, Withdraws from Iraq in 11 Seconds."

Fox News Has Celebrity McCain Endorser Stephen Baldwin Make Fun of Celebrity Endorsements
Posted by Isaac Fitzgerald, The Young Turks on July 2, 2008 at 5:10 PM.

Laura Ingram talks to the born-again Baldwin about how ridiculous celebrity endorsements are.

Stephen does a great job not making his own political leanings known with such statements as: "I believe John McCain is going to be the next president of the United States. And should be."

Ingram ends the talk about how inconsequential celebrity endorsements are by listing other famous people who support John McCain.

Smooth.

See the Proof That Joe Lieberman Is a Terrorist
Posted by ZP Heller, Brave New Films on July 2, 2008 at 12:41 PM.

Did that headline grab your attention? It's exactly the kind of slimy trick FOX News played when anchor E.D. Hill began her show America's Pulse with the teaser: "A fist bump? A pound? A terrorist fist jab? The gesture everyone seems to interpret differently."

Well, by FOX's own insane equation (fist bump + slanderous spin = terrorist threat), Sen. Joe Lieberman is a terrorist. After all, Lieberman can be seen in this video giving a fist bump to someone at what looks to be a golf game, judging by Lieberman's polo shirt and khaki pants.

Do we really believe that Joe Lieberman is a terrorist? Of course not! But if we were loyal FOX News viewers (perish the thought), we would have come away from Hill's show thinking that Obama was a terrorist over the innocent hand gesture he gave his wife upon clinching the Democratic nomination. And then we would believe that Lieberman, along with all of the people seen here in Media Matters' gallery of fist bumps, were terrorists as well.

Read the rest of the post on the flip side »

Tag, You're It! Now Register Someone to Vote
Posted by ZP Heller, Brave New Films on July 2, 2008 at 10:54 AM.

JoeFelice has a created a fantastic way of using YouTube to amplify his message about voter registration. In Joe's Voter Vlog Project, he registers someone to vote, then makes a video in which he "tags" other YouTube users, calling them out to do the same.

CitizenTube has some of those who have already responded to Joe's challenge.

Olbermann: Obama Makes a Play for Evangelical Support
Posted by Lindsay Beyerstein, AlterNet on July 2, 2008 at 8:25 AM.

Barry Lynn from Americans United discusses why Obama's promise to intensify faith-based initiatives is wrong-headed. Lynn argues that we should go back to the pre-Bush administration policy towards religious social services.

Before Bush, churches and other religious groups could compete for federal dollars on the same footing as any other groups. Many did. Bush changed the rules to let faith-based organizations discriminate against clients and staffers in ways that a publicly-funded secular service provider would never be allowed to do.

Bush's faith-based agenda isn't pro-faith or pro-charity, it's a sop to the most reactionary elements of the religious right. Mainline and progressive religious organizations don't need a license to discriminate. If Obama wanted to help liberal and mainline churches, he'd abolish the special rules for bigoted religious groups and let all social service providers compete on an equal footing again.

Servicemembers Tell All About Iraq and Afghanistan in Poignant New Series
Posted by Brave New Films, Brave New Films on July 2, 2008 at 7:29 AM.

From Brave New Foundation's Jim Miller:

Last summer I got a call from someone who had seen some of our past work. She started off being extremely complimentary about the issues we were bringing to light, marveling at how widely we were able to distribute our short videos to not only inform, but to motivate viewers to take action. She then asked if Brave New Foundation would be interested in taking on a large project to help amplify the stories of a group of Americans whose efforts and sacrifices weren't being acknowledged. She warned me that it would be a difficult task since it only directly affected less than 1% of the US population.

Being a bit headstrong (even in my middle age), I said that no task was too difficult. If there is an injustice, we could tackle it and help to make it right! But what she wanted was difficult. The task we took on was to tell the stories of servicemembers who have returned from Iraq and Afghanistan.

Over the past several months, as we gathered our staff and began to meet the men and women who have served, we knew that it would be a privilege to be able to share the stories of these servicemembers and their families so that the other 99% of the US population can better understand what is happening to our troops when they return from war.

We wanted to do something different than our usual short videos with this project, so we developed an idea for a LIVE internet-based show and decided to call it In Their Boots to let the audience know they would be hearing the information from the servicemembers' points of view.

The show premieres today, Wednesday July 2nd, at 4pm Pacific/5 Mountain/6 Central/7 Eastern at www.intheirboots.com. The stories are riveting and the show will be broadcast LIVE. You will have the opportunity to hear the stories from these servicemembers, learn about organizations that are helping, and find out how you can help as well.

The show will be broadcast from our brand new studio (it was a beauty parlor just 2 months ago), not quite finished since we are still doing some fundraising, but looking pretty good. Since it is LIVE, we invite you all to join the discussion and become part of webcast history by asking our interview guest a question, live, "on the air."

We are proud of what we have put together and we hope that you all tune in to see this. Please let us know what you think of it as well. And if you miss any part of the episode, be sure to check it out on our site: www.intheirboots.com. We plan on producing a new episode every Wednesday, live at 4pm Pacific.