Hillary Clinton Speaks OUT on Rights

Yesterday, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton gave a speech at Georgetown in which she responded to criticism from the human rights community about various issues across the globe.  During this speech she addressed the “death penalty” bill in Uganda and other LGBT issues.

From her speech:

Calling for accountability doesn’t start or stop at naming offenders. Our goal is to encourage—even demand—that governments must also take responsibility by putting human rights into law and embedding them in government institutions; by building strong, independent courts and competent and disciplined police and law enforcement. And once rights are established, governments should be expected to resist the temptation to restrict freedom of expression when criticism arises, and be vigilant in preventing law from becoming an instrument of oppression, as bills like the one under consideration in Uganda to criminalize homosexuality would do.

We know that all governments—and all leaders—sometimes fall short. So there have to be internal mechanisms of accountability when rights are violated. Often the toughest test for governments, this is essential to the protection of human rights. And here, too, we should lead by example. In the last six decades we have done this—imperfectly at times but with significant outcomes—from making amends for the internment of our own citizens in World War II, to establishing legal recourse for victims of discrimination in the Jim Crow South, to passing hate crimes legislation to include attacks against gays and lesbians. When injustice anywhere is ignored, justice everywhere is denied. Acknowledging and remedying mistakes does not make us weaker, it reaffirms the strength of our principles and institutions.

Second, we must be pragmatic and agile in pursuit of our human rights agenda, not compromising on our principles, but doing what is most likely to make them real. We will use all the tools at our disposal. And when we run up against a wall we will not retreat with resignation—or repeatedly run up against it— but respond with strategic resolve to find another way to effect change and improve people’s lives.

and

Success stories deserve our attention so that they continue to make progress in building sustainable democracies.

And, even as we reinforce successes, conscience demands that we are not cowed by the overwhelming difficulty of making inroads against misery in the hard places like Sudan, Democratic Republic of Congo, North Korea, and Zimbabwe, or on the hard issues like ending gender inequality and discrimination against gays and lesbians—from the Middle East to Latin America, Africa to Asia.

Read the entire message from Clinton at: Politico

Hillary Attends Unveiling Of Statue Honoring Gay Poet Walt Whitman

Today Secretary of State Hillary Clinton attended the unveiling of a statue of gay poet Walt Whitman at Moscow State University. But local Russian LGBT activists are disappointed the Clinton did not use the opportunity to denounce the homophobia of the Russian government.

Read more at: Joe My God!

I Am Right….Hear Me R.O.A.R!

Well the fine “fair and balance” (choke and gag) gang over at FOX have managed to do it again. They’ve found yet another right wing idiot! Yup, I think FOX is definitely a nut magnet and they only requirement they have is that you have to be blatantly stupid and ignorant to “report” for them…and of course hate anything liberal that doesn’t infringe upon another’s freedoms and President Obama.

I just read a post by Dan Gainor which highlights, if not epitomizes the complex and blatant imbecility of the right wing sector of this country. Below is an excerpt.

“It’s not surprising that the left has trotted out one of its stock phrases to pass the buck about President Obama’s failures. There’s no vast right wing anything. The only thing that is “vast” is the list of excuses from liberals.”

First of all Danny boy, President Obama hasn’t failed at anything.  He’s only been in office less than a year and it’s gonna take time, as change does, to ‘right’ the wrongs of the last moron who lived in The White House.

Secondly, the left isn’t making excuses…it’s the right who blames Mark Sanford’s affair on the democrats.  It’s the right who blames, blames, blames…even though it was eight years of the right that put us into the mess we’re in today!

Third point Danny boy, your article goes on to blast Bill Clinton…and Hillary, for Bill’s affair with Monica Lewinsky.  Since when is the sex life of anyone the business of anyone else as long as it’s between consenting adults?  OK, I admit, Bill should have come clean about the affair from the start, but it was the vast right wing conspiracy that set out to ruin him through exposure of (gasp) his extra-marital affair.

What I want to know…Why it is when the right becomes involved in almost ANY debate…they bring it back to sex?  They hate the homoSEXuals…why?  Because of how they have SEX.  They don’t believe women should have the right to choose, and why, because they shouldn’t be having SEX in the first place. They don’t believe in teaching teens to protect themselves from STD or pregnancy through the use of condoms, but rather just pray with them so their raging hormones won’t take over and they won’t partake in the evil act of SEX.  Oh, and since they hate the homoSEXuals, they are the ones who have to hide out in airport bathrooms and try to have sex with other men, while they simultaneously scribble anti-gay legislation thought onto a piece of toilet paper.

Perhaps this is why so many right wingers are so vile, hateful and nasty.  Perhaps they simply aren’t having enough SEX, and this of course would only segue into why conservatives seem to be so preoccupied with SEX.  The right is compiled of very loud people.  I call them the party with a R.O.A.R., which stand for Repression, Oppression, Aggression and Recession (recession in regards to the definition of returning of ownership to a former possessor)…you know, all those tea-baggers who claim the U.S. is theirs and not anyone else’s so they’re gonna take it back.

Of course, if it wasn’t for the right wing nuts of the world, who seem to want to blame everything “evil” on liberals and SEX, I suppose I wouldn’t have such a great appreciation for my education and the knowing I have an open mind.

So, while the right…fueled by being provided a voice through FOX, continues to worry about Bill Clinton’s, and everyone else’s sex life, I’m looking at today and tomorrow and how we can all work together to end the repression, oppression, aggression and recession (this time in the economical sense).

So, congrats go out toDan Gainor and FOX for yet another great job!  You’ve managed to once again R.O.A.R. and demonstrate why anyone, with half a brain, would never associate themself with those on the right!

First Openly Gay Head of State Make Forbes 100

The first openly gay person to be elected as the head of a nation has made Forbes “100 Most Powerful Women” list.

Clinton Doubles Angola’s HIV/AIDS Funding

From Poz.com:

On her recent trip to Angola, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton signed an agreement with Angolan health officials to more than double U.S. HIV/AIDS treatment and prevention funding to the sub-Saharan African country from $7 million to $17 million, The Associated Press reports.

According to the article, Clinton is the first secretary of state to visit the country in seven years. In addition to increasing the Obama administration’s HIV/AIDS commitment to Angola, Clinton urged the government to follow up its successful legislative elections in 2008—its first in 16 years—by holding a presidential election as soon as possible. The country is still struggling to recover from a 27-year civil war, which ended in 2002.

“We look forward to Angola building on this positive step, including the adoption of a new constitution, investigating and prosecuting past human rights abuses and holding a timely, free and fair presidential election,” she sai

d.

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