Update #2:
Binghamton Chief of Police will not confirm who the shooter was. Has asked for press not to circulate the name that's been going around. They haven't confirmed the identity of the killer, whether there were more shooters or the identity of all victims.

Update #1:
[deleted]

From Multiple deaths feared in hostage-taking - Crime & courts- msnbc.com:

NBC's Pete Williams cited city and state officials as saying that as many 13 people might have been killed. But Williams cautioned that the information was very preliminary and may change by because police were still searching the building.

At least 41 people were in the American Civic Association building at the time of the shooting, The Binghamton Press & Sun Bulletin reported.  read more »

There, I said it.

I am fully aware that as a feminist I should be wagging my finger at Spitzer for the rest of his life for his stupidity and hypocrisy. You know what, though? I don't give a shit these days given how Wall Street is taking down the whole country with them.

To be honest, I miss Elliot Spitzer the Attorney General more so than the Governor. No offense to Cuomo who is doing a somewhat decent job. I just sigh whenever I read a column like this one:

But wait a moment, aren't we in the midst of reopening contracts all over the place to share the burden of this crisis? From raising taxes --income taxes to sales taxes-- to properly reopening labor contracts, we are all being asked to pitch in and carry our share of the burden. Workers around the country are being asked to take pay cuts and accept shorter work weeks so that colleagues won't be laid off. Why can't Wall Street royalty shoulder some of the burden? Why did Goldman have to get back 100 cents on the dollar? Didn't we already give Goldman a $25 billion capital infusion, and aren't they sitting on more than $100 billion in cash? Haven't we been told recently that they are beginning to come back to fiscal stability? If that is so, couldn't they have accepted a discount, and couldn't they have agreed to certain conditions before the AIG dollars --that is, our dollars-- flowed?

The appearance that this was all an inside job is overwhelming. AIG was nothing more than a conduit for huge capital flows to the same old suspects, with no reason or explanation.  read more »

Earlier this month I read of the case of a former Hassidim woman who was in the middle of a sexual abuse case against her father. The now 27 year-old was a sex slave of her father who first raped her at the tender age of 9. For 18 years she not only was robbed of her childhood, but was robbed of her humanity by a monster that was supposed to care for her and cherish her as her father.

This is not an isolated case, but it's been hard for child rape and pedophilia victims to get the word out and bring their abusers to justice. The Hasidim's cultural insularity makes it incredibly difficult for victims to seek justice or to find help, but that wall of silence around the community is starting to crumble. The bashing of that wall is coming from the community itself but it's meeting a lot of resistance.

Word is out that Orthodox Jewish and Hasidim organizations have created a lobby coalition against the passage of the Child Victims Act:  read more »

Via the Humane Society the United States :

###  read more »

A face only a mother could love.

Vito Fossella is one of those politicians many an activist loves to not so much to hate but smack around. ">If you go to our archives, you're going to find our peeps here at the TDG have been working hard to help Steve Harrison smack Fossella down come November and it looks that the congressman is giving them plenty to work with these days.

Here's a list that'll put you up to date on the face of NYC's GOP :

Roy Moskowitz's Letter to the editor

Michael Bouldin's Baghdad Vito Freaks Out and Harrison, Steinem, and the GOP's Catholic problem  read more »