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03 Jul 2010 13:43

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World: Report: Cuban hunger striker Guillermo Farinas could die

  • 129 number of days he’s been on a prolonged hunger strike
  • Why did he protest?Since Feburary 24, Farinas has been hunger striking to protest the imprisonment of numerous political activists, as well as the death of Orlando Zapata Tamayo, a prisoner who died during his own hunger strike.
  • His current statusFarinas is currently at Arnaldo Milian Castro University Hospital in Santa Clara. His doctor says he’s being fed a little via intravenous feeding and has gained weight, but has a blood clot that could prevent blood from getting to his heart.
  • A surprising facetPerhaps the most interesting thing about the Farinas situation is that the source which reported on the opposition activist was Granma, a communist newspaper – and they played it very big, devoting two of their eight pages to him. source
  • » Programming note: This is based on an AP article, which as you might know, we try to avoid here at the ShortFormHQ. But this article seemed important enough that it was worth bypassing the picket line, at least today.

31 May 2010 10:44

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World: Israel kills a bunch of pro-Palestinian activists, pisses off Turkey

  • A very harrowing clip to watch. Israel just stepped in it, big time. For the last three years, Israel has been enforcing a blockade on the Hamas-led Gaza Strip. When a series of ships from Turkey full of activists and supplies tried to get past the blockade, the situation got incredibly violent, with at least ten deaths. Now Israel has completely pissed off their only Muslim ally in the Middle East, along with much of the rest of the world. source

10 May 2010 22:56

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Politics: Did the “Rentboy” for anti-gay activist George Rekers do his job?

  • YES he gave the dude career-damaging massages source

29 Jan 2010 13:05

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U.S.: Scott Roeder’s murder conviction happened in a familiar place

  • 30 number of minutes it took a jury to acquit George Tiller of 19 misdemenaor violations of Kansas’ abortion law in March of last year
  • 37 number of minutes it took a jury in the same courthouse to convict Scott Roeder of murdering Tiller; Roeder attended Tiller’s trial source

26 Jan 2010 20:21

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U.S.: ACORN pest James O’Keefe flies too close to the sun, gets burned

  • He can now be mentioned in the same sentence as Watergate! James O’Keefe, the conservative activist previously best-known for destroying ACORN’s dignity (and working for BigGovernment.com), was arrested for trying to break into Sen. Mary Landrieu’s New Orleans office, along with three others. They were pretending to work with the phone company, which is some serious LOLz and a lot less creative than the pimp/ho getup they used with ACORN. A lot of people have felt schadenfreude in reaction to all this, not the least of which ACORN itself. We just think it’s proof that Tom Green-style tactics like this don’t work in politics. source

11 Sep 2009 13:08

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U.S.: Anti-abortion protester killed in Michigan shootings

  • Owosso, Mich. is in the national news for the first time ever. James Pouillon, a noted anti-abortion activist, was killed this morning while protesting outside Owosso High School. Pouillion, who used an oxygen tank and wore leg braces while protesting, wasn’t alone. The owner of a local gravel company was found shot and killed inside his office. A suspect in both cases was later captured. Citizens for a Pro-life Society director Monica Migliorino Miller put it like so: “Jim Pouillon is a hero. He died for the cause of life.” source