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There’s something about censorship that tends to make large numbers of people sympathize with the censored, almost no matter what kind of material is being shut out. That’s why it should be no surprise to the activist group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), that their protest and demand that auto-maker Chrysler remove

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In campaign mode, Obama makes Texas dash for cash Deep in the land of George W. Bush, President Barack Obama swept through Texas on Monday to gather Democratic cash and votes, pounding home education as not just an economic imperative but also a political wedge. Here in the place where Bush, then Texas governor, launched his successful run for the White House, in a state Obama lost handily to Sen. John McCain two years ago, the president did the job that takes up much of his time these days. “At a fund-raising event for Democrats in Dallas, where Bush now lives, Obama said the former president’s ‘disastrous’ policies had driven the U.S. economy into the ground and turned budget surpluses into deficits,” Reuters reported . Politics. Story continues below… Obama raised up to $1 million for the Democratic National Committee at a hotel in Austin, where the mantra of his midterms — “Are we going to move forward, or are we going to move backwards?” — played well to his lunch crowd. Later, he was the headline draw at a fundraiser in Dallas that raised about $650,000 to help Democrats in key Senate races, held at a private home within about five miles from where Bush now lives. And in between came an education speech at the University of Texas, where the screams of students prompted Obama to raise a voice even louder, combining for a raucous campaign feel. This is Obama’s August offensive, a string of tactical, time-gobbling campaign stops to raise a bunch of money and revitalize Democratic voters. The traditional result of approaching midterm elections is that the party of the sitting president loses seats; in this case, with anti-incumbency fervor soaring, Democrats could be in for a lashing. Republicans need to gain 40 seats in the House and 10 in the Senate to take control of Capitol Hill. From coast to coast, Obama’s message at every stop is that he is governing, Republicans are obstructing, and voters have a choice. “We have spent the last 20 months governing. They spent the last 20 months politicking,” Obama said of Republicans. With three months to go before the election, Obama all but said “bring it on”: “They’ve forgotten I know how to politick pretty good.” The ostensible purpose of the Texas day trip was education. At the University of Texas in Austin, Obama outlined his college agenda, largely a recitation of steps already taken, if perhaps overshadowed by Washington’s din. Holding the official event along with his political appearances means the White House could bill taxpayers for most of the costs of the trip. Obama made sure to point out it was Democrats who passed a law last year that made the government the lender of all federal government loans, eliminating banks from the process and freeing up more money for student aid. “We went to battle against the lobbyists and a minority party that was united in their support of this outrageous status quo,” Obama said. “And, Texas, I am here to report that we won.” Conspicuously absent from Obama’s Texas stop was any appearance with Texas’ Democratic gubernatorial hopeful, Bill White. Some Democratic candidates have been wary of appearing with the president given voters’ concerns about his stewardship of the economy and other issues. White House spokesman Bill Burton said Obama took no offense. Earlier in Austin, a mostly friendly crowd greeted Obama as his limousine neared the fundraiser. And inside, the president listed all the reasons why he was happy to back in the Texas city — the people, the food, the music. He ended on a fitting point. “I like that there are a bunch of Democrats here,” he said. “I like that, too.” Powered by Mochila

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UN: Afghan civilian deaths jumped 21 percent in first half of 2010; attack in Kabul kills 2 The number of civilians killed in the Afghan war jumped 21 percent in the first half of 2010 compared with the same period last year, with insurgents responsible for the spike, the United Nations said in a report Tuesday. Shortly after the U.N. released its report in Kabul, two gunmen with explosives strapped to them tried to storm the office of an international security company in the capital. When guards fought back, the men detonated their explosives, killing two Afghan drivers. The U.N. report showed a reduction in civilian casualties from NATO action, but the overall rise in deaths indicated that the war is getting ever-more violent — undermining the coalition’s aim of improving security in the face of a virulent Taliban insurgency. “The human cost of this conflict is unfortunately rising,” said Staffan De Mistura, the top U.N. envoy in Afghanistan. “We are very concerned about the future because the human cost is being paid too heavily by civilians. This report is a wake-up call.” Story continues below… According to the U.N. report, 1,271 Afghans died and 1,997 were injured — mostly from bombings — in the first six months of the year. There were 1,054 civilian deaths in the first six months of 2009. The U.N. said insurgents were responsible for 72 percent of the deaths — up from 58 percent last year. In much of the south, people say they are too scared to work with NATO forces or the Afghan government because they will then be targeted by insurgents. And the risk of attack makes travel, running a business or any sort of community organizing or political campaigning dangerous. The attack on Hart Security in Kabul started with a gunbattle as the assailants tried to shoot their way in to the compound in the largely residential Taimani neighborhood about 3:30 p.m. (1100 GMT, 7 a.m. EDT), said Abdul Ghafar Sayedzada, chief of criminal investigations for the Kabul police. The Taliban told The Associated Press that they orchestrated the attack. After the assault, a group of men could be seen carrying a body out of the building toward a waiting police truck. One of the men carrying the body was weeping, according to an AP reporter at the scene. The attack appeared timed to coincide with the end of the company’s workday, Sayedzada said. Area residents said they heard shooting about the same time as the blast. “I was about to park my car when I heard gunfire. I turned and saw shooting between the security guards and two other people. They were trying to get in the building,” said Mohammad Sharif, who lives nearby. “In the middle of that fighting suddenly there was a big explosion.” One of the security guards was also wounded, Sayedzada said. The Kabul deaths were not the day’s only civilian casualties. Three civilians were killed when their car struck a roadside bomb just outside the eastern city of Ghazni, according to deputy provincial governor Kazim Allayar. And an insurgent-planted bomb killed an Afghan civilian near southern Kandahar city on Monday, according to NATO forces. De Mistura said militants were using larger and more sophisticated explosive devices throughout the nation. “If they want to be part of a future Afghanistan, they cannot do so over the bodies of so many civilians,” de Mistura said. De Mistura said that does not dissuade the U.N. from seeking a negotiated peace between the government and the Taliban, but he called on insurgent groups to consider whether they are not hurting their own long-term goals. “One day, when unavoidably there will be a discussion about the future of the country, will you want to come to that table with thousands of Afghans, civilians, killed along the road?” Deaths from U.S., NATO and other pro-government forces dropped in the first six months of 2010. The report said that 223, or 18 percent, of the Afghan deaths were due to U.S., NATO and other pro-government forces. That was down from 310 deaths, or 31 percent, during the first six months of last year, primarily because of a decrease in airstrikes, the report said. Even so, air attacks were the largest single cause of civilian deaths caused by pro-government forces — accounting for 31 percent. Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the former NATO commander, introduced strict rules on air strikes and called on soldiers to assess the likelihood of civilian casualties before taking any action. His successor, Gen. David Petraeus, has continued the policy. “Every Afghan death diminishes our cause,” Petraeus said in a statement. He also noted that even the increase in insurgent-caused deaths can hurt NATO’s effort. “We know the measure by which our mission will be judged is protecting the population from harm by either side. We will redouble our efforts to prevent insurgents from harming their neighbors,” Petraeus said. Though bombs continued to be the largest killer, there was a large jump in deaths from assassinations, particularly in the last few months. There were about four assassinations or executions of civilians a week in the first six months of 2009. That jumped to about seven per week in the first six months of this year, spiking in May and June to 18 per week. “These figures show that the Taliban are resorting to desperate measures, increasingly executing and assassinating civilians, including teachers, doctors, civil servants and tribal elders,” said Rachel Reid, Afghanistan researcher for Human Rights Watch. “Targeting civilians violates the laws of war.” The Taliban has called on its fighters to avoid civilian casualties, but the group pointedly excludes anyone allied with the government from this protection. So mayors, community elders taking foreign money for development projects and mullahs seen as supporting the government have all become targets. Children have also increasingly become casualties. The report says 176 children were killed and 389 others were wounded — up 55 percent over the same six-month period last year. Elsewhere in Afghanistan, seven Afghan policemen were killed Monday in attacks in southern Helmand province, police officials said. In Laghman province in the east, seven Afghan soldiers have died and 14 have been wounded in ongoing fighting with insurgents on the outskirts of the provincial capital of Mehtar, said Gen. Mohammad Zahir Azimi, a spokesman for the Defense Ministry. He confirmed reports that up to 20 Afghan soldiers have gone missing in the province and are in the hands of the Taliban. (This version CORRECTS percentage in first paragraph and headline and number of civilians killed in 2009 in fifth paragraph.) Source: AP News Mochila insert follows… Powered by Mochila

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UN: Afghan civilian deaths jumped 21 percent in first half of 2010; attack in Kabul kills 2 The number of civilians killed in the Afghan war jumped 21 percent in the first half of 2010 compared with the same period last year, with insurgents responsible for the spike, the United Nations said in a report Tuesday. Shortly after the U.N. released its report in Kabul, two gunmen with explosives strapped to them tried to storm the office of an international security company in the capital. When guards fought back, the men detonated their explosives, killing two Afghan drivers. The U.N. report showed a reduction in civilian casualties from NATO action, but the overall rise in deaths indicated that the war is getting ever-more violent — undermining the coalition’s aim of improving security in the face of a virulent Taliban insurgency. “The human cost of this conflict is unfortunately rising,” said Staffan De Mistura, the top U.N. envoy in Afghanistan. “We are very concerned about the future because the human cost is being paid too heavily by civilians. This report is a wake-up call.” Story continues below… According to the U.N. report, 1,271 Afghans died and 1,997 were injured — mostly from bombings — in the first six months of the year. There were 1,054 civilian deaths in the first six months of 2009. The U.N. said insurgents were responsible for 72 percent of the deaths — up from 58 percent last year. In much of the south, people say they are too scared to work with NATO forces or the Afghan government because they will then be targeted by insurgents. And the risk of attack makes travel, running a business or any sort of community organizing or political campaigning dangerous. The attack on Hart Security in Kabul started with a gunbattle as the assailants tried to shoot their way in to the compound in the largely residential Taimani neighborhood about 3:30 p.m. (1100 GMT, 7 a.m. EDT), said Abdul Ghafar Sayedzada, chief of criminal investigations for the Kabul police. The Taliban told The Associated Press that they orchestrated the attack. After the assault, a group of men could be seen carrying a body out of the building toward a waiting police truck. One of the men carrying the body was weeping, according to an AP reporter at the scene. The attack appeared timed to coincide with the end of the company’s workday, Sayedzada said. Area residents said they heard shooting about the same time as the blast. “I was about to park my car when I heard gunfire. I turned and saw shooting between the security guards and two other people. They were trying to get in the building,” said Mohammad Sharif, who lives nearby. “In the middle of that fighting suddenly there was a big explosion.” One of the security guards was also wounded, Sayedzada said. The Kabul deaths were not the day’s only civilian casualties. Three civilians were killed when their car struck a roadside bomb just outside the eastern city of Ghazni, according to deputy provincial governor Kazim Allayar. And an insurgent-planted bomb killed an Afghan civilian near southern Kandahar city on Monday, according to NATO forces. De Mistura said militants were using larger and more sophisticated explosive devices throughout the nation. “If they want to be part of a future Afghanistan, they cannot do so over the bodies of so many civilians,” de Mistura said. De Mistura said that does not dissuade the U.N. from seeking a negotiated peace between the government and the Taliban, but he called on insurgent groups to consider whether they are not hurting their own long-term goals. “One day, when unavoidably there will be a discussion about the future of the country, will you want to come to that table with thousands of Afghans, civilians, killed along the road?” Deaths from U.S., NATO and other pro-government forces dropped in the first six months of 2010. The report said that 223, or 18 percent, of the Afghan deaths were due to U.S., NATO and other pro-government forces. That was down from 310 deaths, or 31 percent, during the first six months of last year, primarily because of a decrease in airstrikes, the report said. Even so, air attacks were the largest single cause of civilian deaths caused by pro-government forces — accounting for 31 percent. Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the former NATO commander, introduced strict rules on air strikes and called on soldiers to assess the likelihood of civilian casualties before taking any action. His successor, Gen. David Petraeus, has continued the policy. “Every Afghan death diminishes our cause,” Petraeus said in a statement. He also noted that even the increase in insurgent-caused deaths can hurt NATO’s effort. “We know the measure by which our mission will be judged is protecting the population from harm by either side. We will redouble our efforts to prevent insurgents from harming their neighbors,” Petraeus said. Though bombs continued to be the largest killer, there was a large jump in deaths from assassinations, particularly in the last few months. There were about four assassinations or executions of civilians a week in the first six months of 2009. That jumped to about seven per week in the first six months of this year, spiking in May and June to 18 per week. “These figures show that the Taliban are resorting to desperate measures, increasingly executing and assassinating civilians, including teachers, doctors, civil servants and tribal elders,” said Rachel Reid, Afghanistan researcher for Human Rights Watch. “Targeting civilians violates the laws of war.” The Taliban has called on its fighters to avoid civilian casualties, but the group pointedly excludes anyone allied with the government from this protection. So mayors, community elders taking foreign money for development projects and mullahs seen as supporting the government have all become targets. Children have also increasingly become casualties. The report says 176 children were killed and 389 others were wounded — up 55 percent over the same six-month period last year. Elsewhere in Afghanistan, seven Afghan policemen were killed Monday in attacks in southern Helmand province, police officials said. In Laghman province in the east, seven Afghan soldiers have died and 14 have been wounded in ongoing fighting with insurgents on the outskirts of the provincial capital of Mehtar, said Gen. Mohammad Zahir Azimi, a spokesman for the Defense Ministry. He confirmed reports that up to 20 Afghan soldiers have gone missing in the province and are in the hands of the Taliban. (This version CORRECTS percentage in first paragraph and headline and number of civilians killed in 2009 in fifth paragraph.) Source: AP News Mochila insert follows… Powered by Mochila

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‘Starting to live’: Victims of female circumcision seek out Colo. doctor for healing surgery This picturesque southern Colorado town known for decades as the sex-change capital of the world — thousands of gender-reassignment operations have been performed here — is becoming a beacon for victims of female genital mutilation. Dr. Marci Bowers has performed about two dozen reconstructive surgeries on mostly African born women victimized as children by the culturally driven practice of female circumcision. Bowers is believed to be one of the few U.S. doctors performing the operation. Bowers, who underwent a gender reassignment operation in the 1990s at age 40, said she relates to what her mutilation patients describe as a loss of identity, of not feeling whole. “It took me so long to get there in my own life. I know what the feeling is like, seeking my own identity,” she said. Story continues below… Massah, a patient who grew up in a village in Sierra Leone and now lives in Australia, said the surgery “is like giving us a second life. Actually it’s starting to live.” Wearing a blue-and-white striped shirt, dark blue pants and sneakers to her pre-surgery exam, Massah asked that her full name not be used because she hasn’t told most friends and even family that she was having the surgery, or that she was circumcised as a girl in Africa. She paid a $1,700 hospital fee, plus lodging and travel expenses for the surgery last month. “I will spend my whole life savings,” she said, “even if it’s for one minute of feeling complete.” The World Health Organization estimates 100 million to 140 million girls and women worldwide have been circumcised. Cultural, religious and social factors have helped keep the practice alive among those who believe it will reduce promiscuity and take away sexual pleasure or desire. The World Health Assembly passed a resolution in 2008 urging an end to the custom. The restorative surgery practice in this town of 9,500 people near the New Mexico border began in early 2009. Last month, at a guest house a short drive from Bowers’ office, Massah and six other patients talked late into the night, sharing stories that they’d found difficult to voice even with best friends. All requested not to be identified. One 37-year-old woman from Richmond, Va., was circumcised as an infant in Nigeria and realized in college during a biology class that she didn’t look like her textbook diagrams. She said she would still like to ask her mother why. “Why did you allow it to happen? What were you trying to prevent?” Massah said she was circumcised at age 11 by a village woman. She was with about a half dozen of her sisters and cousins. She was placed before the woman and was held down before being cut with what she thinks was a razor. She still remembers her screams. “Nightmarish,” she said. She has felt ashamed, incomplete and apprehensive toward sex, she said. “It’s embarrassing going for Pap smears,” Massah said haltingly, trying not to cry. “Just the look on people’s faces.” She said she was hoping for “wholeness” from the surgery. A week into her recovery, she said she felt “ecstatic.” “Some people get another chance in life through organ transplant, but for me, this is it,” she said. Bowers learned her techniques for operating on FGM victims with Dr. Pierre Foldes, who performs the procedure in France. Typically, patients have not had the entire clitoris removed, Bowers said, and the surgery exposes what remains, uses remaining tissue to reconstruct labia that may have been cut away, and clears scar tissue. She said the surgery typically results in improvement in sensation as well as cosmetic benefits. Bowers hopes to form a teaching program so other doctors can serve FGM victims. “Somewhere, at some point, women have got to hold hands and say, ‘No, no more. We’re not going to do this anymore,’” she said. Bowers’ patients pay their own hospital fees and travel and lodging expenses, unless an insurer agrees to cover the hospital fee. Bowers donates her services. Just how long that will continue here is uncertain. Bowers has announced plans to move to California this fall, and Mt. San Rafael Hospital where she operates says it has no immediate plans to add a new gender reassignment surgeon. That would be a big change for Trinidad, where Bowers’ mentor, the late Dr. Stanley Biber, performed more than 5,000 sex change surgeries over more than 30 years. Attitudes toward female circumcision are changing, the women patients said. But, said Massah, “It’s changing, but too slow. It’s going to take a lot of generations.” Iman, a mother from the Twin Cities area in Minnesota who was circumcised, is grateful for Bowers and the chance to talk with other patients who underwent FGM. “I left all that baggage at the guest house, all the things that tormented me,” she said. “Imagine dealing with your worst demons and then meeting six other people who are dealing with the exact same issues you are. Then you get to leave all your baggage there, with no judgment.” Unlike other women who were blindfolded and cut in village ceremonies, with drumming and singing in the background, Iman was excised at age 12 in Kenya, in a doctor’s office. She had localized anesthesia. “I remember everything,” she said. “My mom was there. I don’t blame her because she did what was done for her. It was a rite of passage.” Later, she was taken to her grandmother, who checked whether the doctor had done a good job, she said. After her grandmother died, her mother didn’t take her three younger sisters to be circumcised. “I give her credit for that,” she said. “It stopped with me.” ___ Online: http://www.marcibowers.com/ Source: AP News Mochila insert follows… Powered by Mochila

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The president of a conservative Christian group who argued that the judge that who struck down California’s controversial Proposition 8 should have recused himself because he might be gay may have met his match. Family Research Council President Tony Perkins was blasted Sunday by David Boies, one of the lawyers who successfully argued that Prop 8 was unconsitutional. Perkins maintains that Judge Vaughn Walker should have recused himself because the San Francisco Chronicle reported he was gay. “I think what you have is one judge who thinks he knows — and a district level judge and an openly homosexual judge at that who says he knows better than not only 7 million voters in California but voters in 30 states across the nation that have passed marriage amendments,” Perkins told CBS’ John Dickerson. “This is far from over.” “You mentioned this claim that he’s openly homosexual,” said Dickerson. “I’m not sure if that’s the case. Whether he is or isn’t, what bearing does it have on the case?” “Well, that according to the San Francisco Chronicle ,” replied Perkins. “That he is openly homosexual. One of two federal judges. I think, you know, had this guy been a, say, an evangelical preacher in his past there would have been cries for him to step down from this case. I do think it has a bearing on the case but this is not without precedent.” Story continues below… “He ignored a lot of the social science in his opinion,” continued Perkins. “But in Nebraska in 2005 there was a similar ruling by another federal district level judge. It was overturned in the 8th circuit unanimously. So there is certainly not only based upon the social empirical data that’s out there but on the legal basis this is a flawed decision. And, as I said, it’s far from over.” Boies was cool as he explained Perkins’ facts wouldn’t hold up in court. “Well, it’s easy to sit around and debate and throw around opinions that appeals to people’s fear and prejudice,” said Boies. “Site studies that either don’t exist or don’t say what you say they do. In a court of law you’ve got to come in and you’ve got to support those opinions. You’ve got to stand up under oath and cross-examination.” “What we saw at trial is that it’s very easy for the people who want to deprive gays and lesbian citizens of the right to vote to make all sorts of statements and campaign literature or in debates where they can’t be cross-examined but when they come into court and they have to support those opinions and they have to defend those opinions under oath and cross-examination, those opinions just melt away.” “And that’s what happened here. There simply wasn’t any evidence, there weren’t any of those studies. There weren’t any empirical study. That’s just made up. That’s junk science. It’s easy to say that on television but a witness stand is a lonely place to lie. When you come into court you can’t do that. That’s what we proved. We put fear and prejudice on trial, and fear and prejudice lost,” said Boies. This video is from CBS’s Face the Nation , broadcast Aug. 8, 2010.

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The commander of US forces in Iraq said Sunday that Iraq’s military is ready to take over operations in the country. “We do believe they are ready to assume full operations in Iraq,” Gen. Ray Odierno told ABC’s Christiane Amanpour Sunday. “This is something we’ve been working for a very long time with the Iraqi security forces. For the last 20 months, we’ve been slowly and deliberately turning over more and more responsibility to them and they have stepped up. They continue to do broad scope operations across all of Iraq,” said Odierno. Odierno said it wasn’t the security profile that gave him the most concern ahead of the August 31 deadline. “There will be people who attempt to take advantage of the opportunity of the attention being brought upon the August 31 date. And so there will be groups who try to take advantage of that and show weakness on the government of Iraq and create some sort of lack of confidence of the people in the process as we move forward,” he said. Story continues below… This video is from ABC’s This Week , broadcast Aug. 8, 2010. Watch this video on iPhone/iPad