June 9, 2011 |
Editor's note: The following article contains images that may be shocking to some readers. It is not “work-safe,” and is intended only for mature audiences.
Almost two weeks have passed since the first racy picture of Rep. Anthony Weiner, D-New York, emerged on the Internet. Since then, the eyes of the world – or at least the major news media – have been riveted on the story as it has unfolded.
The photographic evidence of the congressman's perfidy has become ever more extreme. What began with a pair of boxer shorts led to pictures of Weiner's uncovered pectoral muscles, and finally, to the unvarnished image of a man's erect penis – a penislater confirmed to belong to Anthony Weiner.
That photo has since been removed from YFrog, but we've posted a copy of it here as a public service to our readers.
But Weiner's wiener wasn't the first obscene photograph to zoom around the Internet, and it won't be the last. We scoured our files for some other perverse images that may be getting less attention than the Weinergate pics, but are just as important.
Here are 10 of the most profane.
1. On Average, 48 Young Women Are Raped Every Hour In the Congo
Below is an image of Congolese women fleeing from the latest outbreak of violence in a series of civil wars that have devastated the country for the last 15 years – hot-points in a conflict that has led to more deaths than any other since World War II.
There's nothing obscene about the photograph, but according to Al Jazeera, “more than 1,100 women are raped every day in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), making sexual violence against women 26 times more common than previously thought, a study has concluded.”
More than 400,000 women and girls between the ages of 15 to 49 were raped in the war-ravaged country in central Africa during a 12-month period in 2006 and 2007, according to the study published in the American Journal of Public Health on Wednesday.That is 26 times more than the 15,000 women that the United Nations has reported were raped there during the same 12 months."Our results confirm that previous estimates of rape and sexual violence are severe underestimates of the true prevalence of sexual violence occurring in the DRC," Amber Peterman, lead author of the study, said."Even these new, much higher figures still represent a conservative estimate of the true prevalence of sexual violence because of chronic underreporting due to stigma, shame, perceived impunity, and exclusion of younger and older age groups as well as men," she said.
2. Murder-by-State
This is Troy Davis, pictured with his mother, Virginia. Davis has languished on death row since his conviction for the shooting death of Savannah, Georgia police officer Mark MacPhail in 1989.
Of the nine witnesses who identified Davis as the shooter, seven have since recanted their testimony, claiming the police threatened and coerced them into identifying Davis, who has always maintained his innocence. One of the two witnesses who are sticking to their stories is Sylvester "Redd" Coles, originally a suspect in the case. Coles was seen acting “suspiciously” near the scene, and a witness later testified that he had bragged about killing a police officer at a party.
Davis' final appeal was rejected without comment by the Supreme Court in March, setting the stage for a new execution date – his fourth. The state delayed setting a date after Davis' mother died suddenly on April 14. Davis was not allowed to attend her funeral.
3. U.S. Steps Up Airwar to Defend Brutal Dictator
This is a picture of Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh, a strong-arm dictator who has been in power since 1978. (He rose to power following the assassination of his predecessor, and then “won” the country's first direct election with a Stalinesque 96 percent of the vote.) Saleh was a close ally of Saddam Hussein, and supported the Iraqi leader's 1990 invasion of Kuwait.
According to the New York Times, “The Obama administration has intensified the American covert war in Yemen, exploiting a growing power vacuum in the country to strike at militant suspects with armed drones and fighter jets.”
The recent operations come after a nearly year-long pause in American airstrikes, which were halted amid concerns that poor intelligence had led to bungled missions and civilian deaths that were undercutting the goals of the secret campaign...The extent of America’s war in Yemen has been among the Obama administration’s most closely guarded secrets, as officials worried that news of unilateral American operations could undermine Mr. Saleh’s tenuous grip on power.
Four civilians were reportedly killed in airstrikes targetting al Qaeda-linked militants in Yemen last Friday.
4. Murder by Health-Insurance
This is the University Medical Center in Tucson, Arizona -- the scene of a perverse crime.
Early last year, Arizona Governor Jan Brewer signed a budget that eliminated the Children’s Health Insurance Program, denying health care to 47,000 low-income kids in Arizona. But she wasn't finished. Last October, Arizona also eliminated funding for certain organ transplants covered under Medicaid.
According to the Arizona Daily Star, in January, the medical center confirmed that “a patient who was refused a liver transplant because of state budget cuts has died.”
The death was "most likely" due to the defunding of the organ transplant, said Jo Marie Gellerman, University of Arizona Department of Surgery spokeswoman....The patient is the second person to reportedly die while waiting for one of the transplants that were cut. Between 95 and 100 people were taken off a waiting list for organ transplants when the defunding took effect.
5. Modern-Day Hoovervilles, In the Richest Country in the World
This is a tent city outside Sacramento, California, last summer. There are now approximately 14 million Americans who want a job and can't find one. In March, the average length of joblessness for all unemployed workers was a record 39 weeks. Many of those people relied on their unemployment insurance to get by until it ran out and they still haven't found work -- they've come to be known as "99ers," as extended unemployment benefits in many states last a maximum of 99 weeks. Researchers at the National Employment Law Project estimate there were 3.9 million 99ers out of work last year, and project a similar number for 2011.
Meanwhile, as I noted last month, it's not only Washington that has largely turned a blind eye to the catastrophic jobs situation; a study of the corporate media's economic coverage conducted by the National Journal found that “major U.S. newspapers have increasingly shifted their attention away from coverage of unemployment in recent months while greatly intensifying their focus on the deficit.” (The study was conducted before Anthony Weiner's penis started making major news.)
But the real obscenity here is that rather than make a concerted effort to help these people, communities across the country are breaking up tent cities as they pop up, and giving law enforcement new tools with which to harass the homeless.
6. Executed Boy
This is an Afghan boy named Gul Mudin. He was around 15 years of age when a U.S. army “kill team” murdered him in cold blood, according to an investigative report featured in Rolling Stone.
According to sworn statements, two soldiers – Cpl. Jeremy Morlock and Pfc. Andrew Holmes – staged the killing to make it look like they had been under attack. Ordering the boy to stand still, they crouched behind a mud wall, tossed a grenade at him and opened fire from close range. This photograph shows Mudin’s body lying by the wall where he was killed.
Mudin was one of four Afghans murdered by the rogue unit. They represented a tiny portion of the total – according to the most conservative estimates, over 8,000 civilians have been killed since the U.S.-led intervention began.
7. Millionaire Playboy Escapes Prison by Paying Blood Money
Pictured below is one Ryan LeVin, a “millionaire playboy” who killed two tourists in Florida when he lost control of his Porsche while hurtling down a street at over 100 miles an hour, fled the scene and then lied to cops about who had been behind the wheel at the time of the crash.
At the time, LeVin had been on parole in Illinois, where he had over 50 moving violations, including one for an incident in which he struck a police officer before fleeing.
LeVin faced up to 45 years in prison for the Florida killings, but his lawyer “argued that the need for LeVin to pay restitution to the men's widows and children outweighed the need for LeVin to serve prison time.”
"The wives and children of the deceased were significantly and permanently impacted by this incident, and they have indicated ... that there exists a great necessity for restitution which the defendant can, and will, make, if permitted a sentence devoid of incarceration," LeVin's defense attorney David Bogenschutz wrote in court documents.
According to the Huffington Post, LeVin was “sentenced to two years of house arrest, which he will serve at one of his parents' two luxury seaside condos. He will be able to use the gym in the building and go to church.”
He offered no apologies to the victims' families during the hearing; his lawyer asked the court to return his Porsche.
8. Unarmed Protesters Gunned Down in Occupied Territories
According to the Palestinian Center for Human Rights, this young protester was unarmed when he was shot by Israeli security forces on May 15, a day of commemoration of the Palestinians' expulsion from their homes during the formation of the state of Israel. He was lucky – a total of 15 Palestinians were reportedly killed that day.
This week, the L.A. Times reported that “Israeli security forces opened fire Sunday on throngs of pro-Palestinian protesters who were attempting to breach the border by crossing from Syria into the Golan Heights, the second such deadly incident in less than a month.” As many as 20 protesters were killed and 270 others were wounded, according to reports in the Syrian press.
9. Too Big To Jail
This is Brad Hintz, the top-ranked analyst for the Wall Street research firm Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. According to Hintz, Goldman Sachs is not only too big to fail, it's also too big to jail for rampant fraud that contributed to the worst recession since the Great Depression.
Hintz wrote that investors shouldn't worry too much about Goldman's criminal liability, despite the fact that the Justice Department is reviewing a blistering Senate report that unearthed major allegations of criminality on the part of the Wall Street giant. Noting that the Justice Department has eased prosecutions against the big Wall Street players since accounting firm Arthur Andersen LLP collapsed following a felony charge, Hintz argued that Goldman, like other major players accused of fraud, would likely be “treated not as a hardened criminal but as the equivalent of a juvenile offender that can be reformed.”
In a worst-case environment, we would expect a “too big to fail” bank such as Goldman to be offered a deferred-prosecution agreement, pay a significant fine and submit to a federal monitor in lieu of a criminal charge.
According to Bloomberg, “under a deferred-prosecution agreement, the U.S. files charges against a company and agrees to dismiss them after a certain period, typically if the company pays a fine or penalty and improves its governance or other practices.” Last October, the Justice Department dismissed a conspiracy case against UBS AG – Switzerland’s biggest bank -- after the expiration of an 18-month deferred prosecution agreement with the Zurich-based firm.
10. Haiti
Below is a photograph of dead Haitians, victims of last January's devastating earthquake, gathered in an open pit before burial in a mass grave. All of the males in the photo presumably own penises, images of which weren't sent around the world on Twitter. So there's that.
This week, heavy flooding killed at least 25 people in Haiti. It was a little-reported story. The floods have aggravated a cholera epidemic that has sickened over 330,000 Haitians, killing over 5,000, since it broke out in mid-October.
Earlier this year, the Department of Homeland Security announced that it would resume deportations for undocumented immigrants from Haiti – a move that was condemned by international human rights groups. (Last month, the government offered a temporary reprieve for some Haitians eligible to be sent back to their decimated country.)
In November, the UN reported that most countries had failed to deliver on their pledges of aid to Haiti. According to the Washington Examiner,
… Only $506 million, or 18.9 per cent of the international assistance promised for 2010 has so far been provided.International donors promised $5.3 billion to Haiti after the earthquake. Only four countries have delivered any money at all. The US and Venezuela pledged more than $1 billion each but have delivered nothing. As of 14 July 2010, less than 2 percent of the money that has been promised had been delivered, according to a CNN investigation.
That's every bit as obscene as the rest of these stories, none of which garnered even a small fraction of the coverage that Weinergate has triggered. While they may not be as salacious as a sex scandal lacking actual sex – or as vitally important to the national interest -- we thought we'd share them with you anyway.
Joshua Holland is an editor and senior writer at AlterNet. He is the author of The 15 Biggest Lies About the Economy (and Everything else the Right Doesn't Want You to Know About Taxes, Jobs and Corporate America). Drop him an email or follow him on Twitter.
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