Jezebel: lavena johnson

When Jamie Leigh Jones was brutally gang...

Megan — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 18:45:39 EDT

When Jamie Leigh Jones was brutally gang raped by her co-workers in Iraq and then held against her will for several days in a shipping container to prevent her from reporting the rape, she was able to get free by convincing a sympathetic co-worker that hadn't raped her to loan her his personal cell phone — or else who knows what might've happened to her. In response, her employer, KBR, has banned the use of personal cell phones by all of its employees in Iraq. What a bunch of sick fucks. [Think Progress]

The Best John McCain (And We) Can Do

Megan — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 18:30:00 EDT

Obama responds to McCain's Britney-and-Paris ad: "is that the best you can come up with?" We're all kind of hoping so, actually. [ABC News]
Meanwhile, McCain's camp is accusing Obama of playing the race card. I guess they really weren't paying attention during the primary season when Hillary tried that. [NY Times]
He'd probably just rather you not know that Exxon Mobil's earnings last quarter were $11.68 billion, the largest quarterly earnings by a U.S. company ever — or that their share price fell upon that news because they were expected to be higher. Because if you knew, you might think that there was something hinky with his energy plan, or lack thereof. [HuffPo]
Speaking of hinky, the House held hearings into the teeny-tiny sexual assault problem the military seems to have in Iraq, though they didn't touch specifically on LaVena Johnson. The link has a great video of a rant about how fucked that whole situation is; it totally gave me a ladyboner. [Crooks & Liars]

Tim Russert's son is going to be doing convention coverage for NBC. I'm pretty sure that sounds kind of wrong to me. Oh, and why doesn't Rachel Maddow have a show yet? [AP]
A California court has ruled that the evil early termination fees the cell phone companies are charging you aren't legal. Not that I have a contract, but I might get one now if it means I won't have to pay a fee the next time I'm feeling flighty. I mean, if I move to California, that is. [Yahoo News]
A judge has ruled that the White House doesn't have the power to ignore subpoenas from Congress. Expect nothing else to happen for a while, wheels of justice moving slowly, etc. [NY Times]
Cynthia McKinney says that if the Mainstream Media gave the Green Party more press they'd be the second-biggest party in the U.S.. I say: not with Cynthia's kind of anti-Semitic crazy at the helm, it wouldn't. [Washington Post]

Hopefully, you haven't forgotten about LaVena...

Megan — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 14:40:00 EDT

Hopefully, you haven't forgotten about LaVena Johnson, whose death was declared a suicide but was most likely a case of murder. There's a new petition available for random internet people to get Congress to investigate. We're all for random internet petitions, truly, but if you actually want to see anything happen, please call, email, fax or write your own Member of Congress and your Senators. While Internet petitions are great to show support for an issue, your Congress is filled with old fogeys who hire kids out of college to deal with that stuff. [Shakesville, The Petition Site]