US DOJ estimates 248,300 rapes in 2007...

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Wednesday December 31, 2008 · 1:52 AM PST

2008/12/31 · 01:52

(including unreported rapes and attempted rapes, which may be as many as or more than the number reported to police).

New DOJ Crime Data Released: Rate of Sexual Violence Well Below Record Rates of Early-1990s http://www.rainn.org/... RAINN's website states that 1 in 6 women and 1 in 33 men will be raped during their lifetimes.

RAPE-RATE STILL CATASTROPHIC
An estimated 248,300 rapes in 2007: five and one half times the 41,057 auto-related deaths. For 305,986,357 US population 2007, those DOJ stats pencil out to about 81.15 rapes of persons 12 years and older per 100,000 population that year. For 65 years of a 77-year life expectancy, assuming that rate doesn't drop further because nothing more is done to inhibit rape and an average national population of 350,000,000, that would be about 18.5 million victims, or perhaps 1 in 12 women and 1 in 65 men (just back-of-envelope figuring). Is a reduced level of evil acceptable? No.

We might be surprised to learn where America's rape pandemic is most entrenched. Check below the fold.

WatermelonGrower

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Sunday November 02, 2008 · 1:26 PM PST

2008/11/02 · 13:26

Early as possible every day, I look at what amazing feats you-all perform east of the Sierras, especially in my home state of Indiana. I can't make it before the holidays, so I do what I can for an outstanding candidate for the Berkeley City Council, Jesse Arreguin, to fill the remaining two years of the term of the late Dona Spring, a Green Party progressive who succumbed to ill health in July.

Jesse Arreguin is the accomplished and able President of our elected Berkeley Rent Stabilization Board, and a key member of our City Housing Advisory Commission (where some want the pro-developer majority of the Council to donate funds intended for low-income housing by non-profit developers to market-rate housing by for-profit developers).

To volunteer please stop by Jesse's campaign office today, tomorrow or anytime Tuesday at 2030 University Avenue, between Shattuck and Milvia in Berkeley, (just two blocks north of BART, one-half block from 51, 18, 9, and 7 buses). You can also contact the campaign at (510) 848-8745 or by email at jesse@jessearreguin.com.

Poll

3 votes Show Results

BERKELEY KOSSCAKIANS ONLY: To support Jesse Arreguin, I will

3 votes Vote Now!

BERKELEY KOSSCAKIANS ONLY: To support Jesse Arreguin, I will

Call the campaign to get phone or walking list and DO IT

1 vote

Send a contrbution

0 votes

Vote for Jesse if I am registered in District 4 (downtown west to Sacramento)

0 votes

All of the above.

2 votes

Indiana working people well-housed, but need Congresspersons Ruley Welsh Ackerson Montagano

WatermelonGrower

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Friday October 24, 2008 · 7:57 AM PDT

2008/10/24 · 07:57

Why Indiana is conservative (asked on another diary): Funding for public education has been mediocre. Many Indiana college graduates leave for Chicago, California, or the East. Only in the early 1960s did a school consolidation law compel the rural areas to give their young better opportunities for advanced math and foreign language study than for basketball (I experienced this first-hand in the 1950s).

For over 30 years, federal government incompetence managing the national economy (including the administrations of Democratic Presidents Carter and Clinton) shafted Indiana blue-collar folks who lost union jobs during the emergence of the Rust Belt. A wave of Reagan Democrats in 1980 also sank liberal Senator Birch Bayh.

In the 1920's the KKK got at least 300,000 men (both my grandfathers, btw), building on Protestant anti-Catholic, anti-German, and anti-black bigotry, bankrolled (over $1 million) the Indiana Republican Party's gubernatorial candidate, only to see KKK Grand Dragon D.C. Stephenson, a vicious drunk, convicted of second-degree murder for abducting and "strong-arming" Madge Oberholtzer. Indiana conservatives don’t want to confront their predecessors’ shame.

Poll

3 votes Show Results

I will canvass for Democratic Congressional candidate

3 votes Vote Now!

I will canvass for Democratic Congressional candidate

IN-05 Mary Etta Ruley against riidiculous Republican Dan Burton

0 votes

IN-06 Barry Welsh against Republican Mike Pence

0 votes

IN-04 Nels Ackerson against odious, vile Republican Steve Buyer

1 vote

IN-03 Mike Montagano against Republican Mark Souder

2 votes

IN-05 & IN-06: Donate to Mary Etta Ruley & Barry Welsh

WatermelonGrower

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Wednesday October 22, 2008 · 7:53 AM PDT

2008/10/22 · 07:53

Ann Hedonia wrote: I am from the southern part of the state [of Indiana], near that wild city of Louisville (one of the stinkiest towns in the US). Why does it smell so bad here? It's like being in hell. The smell of sewage seeps up from the sidewalks downtown and in the Highlands area (the "hipster" part). Yuck. Why can't our leaders clean this shit up? It can't be healthy.

WatermelonGrower SEZ: Ann Hedonia, put political pleasure back in your life, Support two excellent east-central Indiana Democratic Congressional candidates who know Indiana's environment has been trashed.

Mary Etta Ruley http://maryettaruley.com/ against the ridiculous Dan Burton (IN05 -- Huntington-Peru-Kokomo-Tipton-Noblesville-Carmel-Greenfield-Shelbyville). Being endorsed by the conservative Indianapolis Star helps her too!

Barry Welsh http://barrywelsh.org/... can retire ultra-conservative Mike Pence, who has mis-represented IN-06 (Anderson, Muncie, New Castle, Richmond, Connersville + the counties along the old Levi Coffin of Fountain City anti-slavery Underground Railroad route from Cincinnati suburbs to the south edge of Fort Wayne).

Poll

4 votes Show Results

Will you help or donate to at least one of these four Indiana congressional campaigns?

4 votes Vote Now!

Will you help or donate to at least one of these four Indiana congressional campaigns?

Mary Etta Ruley, Democratic Congressional candidate for IN-05 against ridiculous Dan Burton

2 votes

Barry Welsh, Democratic Congressional candidate for IN-06 against Mike Pence

1 vote

Nels Ackerson, Democratic Congressional candidate for IN-04 against Steve Buyer, ex-military persecutor afraid to debate Nels

1 vote

Mike Montagano, Democratic Congressional candidate for IN-03 against Mark Souder

0 votes

Egalitarian early "Hoosiers" nicknamed after a black Methodist preacher?

WatermelonGrower

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Tuesday October 21, 2008 · 3:51 PM PDT

2008/10/21 · 15:51

Please read the whole diary RE AdmiralNaismith’s query and then take the poll.

To many Indiana residents, "Hoosier" means being an adherent of the civic religion of community pride and leader-selection through basketball.

But the word "Hoosier" very possibly has nobler, almost Obama-esque, roots. Black Harry Hoosier, a freed slave, was a very well-known Methodist revivalist on the frontier. Foreshadowing many Americans' acceptance this year of the political leadership of Senator Barack Obama, Hoosier was an egalitarian who downplayed sin while drawing large audiences at camp meetings. "Hoosiers" was a common late-18th century putdown by Virginia Baptists (documented by linguistic geographers), who scorned those Scots-Irish settlers of the Ohio Valley who adhered to the Methodist doctrine of salvation by good works. It is likely (but not proven) that they were called Hoosiers because of guilt by association with Harry Hoosier.

Indiana (Jeffersonian) Democrats did block attempts to allow slavery , frustrating efforts by the Federalist Territorial Governor, wealthy, Indian-cheating, war-provoking William Henry Harrison (the future "Tippecanoe and Tyler too" President)and his Federalist associates. Harry Hoosier must have been known to them.

Poll

19 votes Show Results

Would you recommend this diary?

Yes, because it is based on a novel historical explanation.

Yes, because it says something critical about Indiana basketball legendry.

Yes, because it gives a more plausible explanation than the frontier call-out "Whose Hyear?"

Yes, because it gives me reason to think most Indiana people, including conservatives, are not racist rednecks.

No, because it does claim the explanation is proven, AND I agree with one or more of the reasons below

No, because Hoosiers is too inspiring as a sports story to be dinged as a fariry tale because of significant inaccuracies

No, because I'm not interested in history, especially linguistic archaeology.

No, because it's not what I was taught in an Indiana school.

No, because this is nothing but a damned-fool bicoastal putdown of Indiana.

19 votes Vote Now!

Would you recommend this diary?

Yes, because it is based on a novel historical explanation.

13 votes

Yes, because it says something critical about Indiana basketball legendry.

0 votes

Yes, because it gives a more plausible explanation than the frontier call-out "Whose Hyear?"

3 votes

Yes, because it gives me reason to think most Indiana people, including conservatives, are not racist rednecks.

2 votes

No, because it does claim the explanation is proven, AND I agree with one or more of the reasons below

1 vote

No, because Hoosiers is too inspiring as a sports story to be dinged as a fariry tale because of significant inaccuracies

0 votes

No, because I'm not interested in history, especially linguistic archaeology.

0 votes

No, because it's not what I was taught in an Indiana school.

0 votes

No, because this is nothing but a damned-fool bicoastal putdown of Indiana.

0 votes

Indiana (and Missouri) now Leaning Dem on FiveThirtyEight.com map

WatermelonGrower

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Tuesday October 14, 2008 · 8:14 AM PDT

2008/10/14 · 08:14

Indiana and Missouri now Leaning Dem on map @ www.FiveThirtyEight.com
Check it out. And the Senate sCORECARD now has Democrats picking up as many as 8 Republican seats, which would take them one short of filibuster-blocking 60 (with Sanders and Lieberman): AK (bye-bye Stevens), MN (Coleman), NC (Dole) OR (Smith), NH (Sununu), CO (Schaeffer), NM (Pearce), VA (Gilmore).

Nate Silver has comments on the huge North Carolina voter reg surge

http://www.fivethirtyeight.com/...

that parallels comments yesterday evening from Barry Welsh, CD06 Democratic Congressional candidate in Muncie-Anderson-New Castle-
Richmond-Connersville area with a Cook PVI of R+11 about early voting in three central Indiana congressional districts (I'm guessing also CD04 and CD07).

Republicans have been trying to block convenient early-voting centers in Gary, Hammond, and East Chicago (CD01), which will be heavily pro-Obama. See http://www.blueindiana.net/...

Poll

8 votes Show Results

Will you visit central Indiana in October (nicer weather, btw, than holidays) and

8 votes Vote Now!

Will you visit central Indiana in October (nicer weather, btw, than holidays) and

phone-bank or canvass for Nels Ackerson to retire Steve Buyer (CD04)?

5 votes

phone-bank or canvass for Barry Welsh to retire Mike Pence (CD06)?

1 vote

phone-bank or canvass for Mary Etta Ruley to retire Dan Burton (CD05?

2 votes

phone-bank or canvass for Mike Montagano to retire Mark Souder (CD03)?

0 votes

Indiana can retire 4 vulnerable Republican Congressmen: Buyer, Pence, Souder, Burton

WatermelonGrower

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Monday October 13, 2008 · 6:46 PM PDT

2008/10/13 · 18:46

Indiana could be won by the Democrats, but it’s not just about scoring the Hoosier (see * at botom of post for amazing story of the word's origisn) State’s 11 electoral votes for Obama. Turnout is critical for the down-ticket races, to retire four vulnerable Republican Congressmen who deserve it: Buyer, Pence, Souder, Burton, as well as Governor Daniels.

Indiana’s 6 pm poll-closing inhibits Democratic voters, so early voting encouraged by canvassers in the next three weeks will help overcome that big disadvantage. Democratic voters tend to be wage-earners, formerly making it with day-shift jobs, now more challenged as household heads have to scramble with more than one jub. Fewer union blue-collar jobs now: more dog-eat-dog spew on radio, blogs, newspaper letters.

Your door-to-door faith in Obama, in four excellent Democratic congressional candidates: CD03 - Mike Montagano (vs. Mark Souder), CD04 - Nels Ackerson (challenging do-nothing Republican Steve Buyer), CD05 - Mary Etta Ruley (vs. Dan Burton), and CD06 - Barry Welsh (vs. Mike Pence), and in Jill Long Thompson for Governor (vs. Mitch Daniels), can cheer on many Hoosiers hassled by 8 years and more of Republican misrule to take back the state.

Poll

19 votes Show Results

After reading the note on origins of word "Hoosier," do you think Hoosier residents

19 votes Vote Now!

After reading the note on origins of word "Hoosier," do you think Hoosier residents

Would be willing to embrace the theory that their namesake was a black Methodist preacher?

6 votes

Would prefer to think that it was a variation on "Whose Hyear?" called out to passersby from wilderness cabins?

7 votes

Derived from workmen being referred to as Hoosiers, after a Lousiville riverfront builder ca. 1800 named Hoosier?

3 votes

May have come from a Welsh word "Hoo" meaning highland?

0 votes

The simplest explanation is the best, in this case, that Indiana natives couldn't think of a different name for themselves than what the Virginians called them, but they liked the sound?

3 votes

RSS

US DOJ estimates 248,300 rapes in 2007...

Help Jesse Arreguin to rebuild a progressive majority in Berkeley

Indiana working people well-housed, but need Congresspersons Ruley Welsh Ackerson Montagano

IN-05 & IN-06: Donate to Mary Etta Ruley & Barry Welsh

Egalitarian early "Hoosiers" nicknamed after a black Methodist preacher?

Indiana (and Missouri) now Leaning Dem on FiveThirtyEight.com map

Indiana can retire 4 vulnerable Republican Congressmen: Buyer, Pence, Souder, Burton