On April 11, 2010, Ben Domenech wrote in The New Ledger that Kagan’s nomination “would please much of Obama’s base” because she “would be the first openly gay justice.” Domenech’s comments created a firestorm over Kagan’s sexual orientation that even drew in the White House.

On April 13, Senator Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), in a comment that would come back to haunt him, said about Kagan: “I like her. I liked her (referring to her confirmation hearings for Solicitor General). I liked her answers.”

Bryan Fischer, of the influential extreme right-wing fundamentalist organization, the American Family Association (AFA), assuming that Kagan is a lesbian, said on April 15: “We simply should not elevate to the highest court in the land people who are known for engaging in sexually abnormal behavior….” Apparently not believing his statements were sufficiently homophobic, Fischer, on his AFA blog post the following day, said no homosexual should ever serve as a judge because, according to him, homosexuality equals pedophilia.

Senator Scott Brown (R-Mass.), during an interview on Face the Nation on April 18, side-stepped the question whether he has been distancing himself from the Tea Party because he refused to attend a Sarah Palin rally in Boston (and presumably because he voted against a GOP plan to filibuster a $15 billion jobs bill). The same weekend, at a Tea Party rally in Greenville, S.C. William Gheen, head of the far-right group Americans for Legal Immigration PAC (ALIPAC), punished Sen. Graham for saying he liked Ms. Kagan by calling for him to “come out of that log cabin closet.”

During hearings for the next Supreme Court justice, the Democrats should be sure to capitalize on this twist to the story by pointing out that extreme far-right Republican groups who oppose their nominee are out of touch with principles of decency and tolerance and that even the GOP is beginning to move away from them. It is possible that Graham and Brown, in an attempt to not be lumped with those extremist groups, will further distance themselves from them and not oppose the Democratic nominee.

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“The Marriott Hotel in downtown Stamford, Conn., is claiming that a woman who was raped in its parking garage three years ago was negligent in the attack.

The Connecticut Post and Stamford Advocate first broke the story in which the hotel is responding to a suit filed by the unidentified woman, who was with her toddlers when she was assaulted at gunpoint.

As part of its defense, the hotel’s lawyers say that the victim “failed to exercise due care for her own safety and the safety of her children and proper use of her senses and facilities,” according to court documents cited in the stories.

The Stamford Marriott, plus the companies that manage the hotel and its parking garage, made the claim as part of a list of special defenses filed in state Superior Court in Stamford last month, the stories say.

In its defense, the Marriott hotel’s legal team claims that the acts were beyond their control and that the woman failed to properly “mitigate their damages,” the story says.

The Post’s reporter, Monica Potts, says a hotel manager declined to comment on the case and she did not get a return call from the hotel’s lawyer on the incident.”

***Please spread the word: Marriott is blaming a woman for being raped.***

Today’s post is about slavery and the cocoa industry. The first thing that I learned when I began researching modern day slavery is that there are numerous anti-slavery and fair trade organizations around the world. That is the good news. The bad news is that these organizations estimate that there are an estimated 12 to 27 million people around the world, including in the United States, caught in some form of slavery. I will feature all of these organizations and the excellent work that they are doing in future posts. Today, as promised, I will discuss cocoa and slavery and begin with the oldest human rights organization in the world: Anti-Slavery International (www.antislavery.org). I first came across this organization when I was researching the Transatlantic Slave Trade for my novel. It was founded as The Anti-Slavery Society, in London, in 1839. Anti-Slavery International is an impressive organization that engages in many campaigns on all forms of slavery in different industries and settings all over the world. I will feature Anti-Slavery International in future posts. Here, I begin my discussion of its work in the cocoa/chocolate industry. I say “begin” because this sub-topic of slavery is itself complex.

Let me say at the outset that I love a cup of hot cocoa on a snowy, wintry day. But, like everyone I know, I do not want to consume cocoa, or anything else, that has been produced by slave labor. I’ll share with you what I have learned thus far (I have more research to do) about the cocoa industry and what all of us can do to take action to work to abolish slavery in that industry.

Anti-Slavery International has an excellent brochure called “The Cocoa Industry in West Africa.” According to that document, cocoa beans were introduced to Spain by Hernan Cortes in 1528 and the cocoa drink became so popular that Spain set up plantations in its West Indies to meet the demand at home. It was not until the late 19th century, however, that production in Africa began on a significant scale.

Harvesting of cocoa is labor intensive, which is why, until the present time, cocoa plantations make profits if they use forced labor. Anti-Slavery International quotes a farmer in the Ivory Coast who explains how he buys slaves:

“When I need workers I go back to my village in Burkina Faso and tell my relatives that I want people to help me on my cocoa farm. If they have children who are still in the village, they will send them to me. I settle on a price with their fathers for each child….”

Anti-Slavery International reports that in 2001 the cocoa industry, human rights organizations, and trade unions entered into the Cocoa Protocol and signed a binding Memorandum of Cooperation.

What can we do? Anti-Slavery International says that we can:

• Support fair trade. Buy fairly traded products. If your local retailers do not stock fair trade products, write and ask them to. Go to: www.fairtrade.net
• Contact the major chocolate companies (Anti-Slavery International has a sample letter).

So, I e-mailed See’s Candies, my husband’s favorite chocolate maker, and asked them what they were doing about slavery in the cocoa industry. Here, in relevant part, is what they said:

“We do not make the chocolate itself. Despite the fact that we are somewhat removed from the actual cocoa bean, we do care deeply about the issue of Fair Trade and the elimination of any abhorrent labor practices. Both See’s and our chocolate supplier, Guittard Chocolate Company, are members of the World Cocoa Foundation….”

I looked at the list of members of the World Cocoa Foundation and it is impressive. I will research that foundation for a future post. I think that it is funny that See’s claims to be “removed from the cocoa bean.” So what are they putting in their candies?

Another candy giant is Cadbury, which claims to be the first mass-market chocolate to get Fairtrade certified. Sounds good.

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