Anyways, So.. needless to say, the election is over, and the United States, along with the global community is in the midst of a full fledged text book recession. Charming. Not to mention the media is just upping the heat and playing off of the fear of the United States populous. Hold on to your undies, everybody, this is not armageddon. We are not all about to die because gas prices are plummeting alongside with your 401ks.  Everything is going to be okay if, for one second, you step away from your televisions and breathe. The economy is cyclical.. it always has be, it is, in fact, the nature of economics.   More to come later.

Varsha Sabhnani, 46, was convicted with her husband in December on a 12-count federal indictment that included forced labor, conspiracy, involuntary servitude and harboring aliens.

The trial provided a glimpse into a growing U.S. problem of domestic workers exploited in slave-like conditions.

The victims testified that they were beaten with brooms and umbrellas, slashed with knives, and forced to climb stairs and take freezing showers as punishment. One victim was forced to eat dozens of chili peppers and then was forced to eat her own vomit when she couldn’t keep the peppers down, prosecutors said.

U.S. District Judge Arthur Spatt called the testimony “eye-opening, to say the least — that things like that go on in our country.”

“In her arrogance, she treated Samirah and Enung as less than people,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Demetri Jones said. “Justice for the victims, that’s what the government is asking for.”

Federal sentencing guidelines had recommended a range of 12 to 15 years in prison for Sabhnani, who was identified as the one who inflicted the abuse. In addition to prison, she will serve three years of probation and was fined $25,000. (read more…)

However, what really strikes me as being…ironic… is that there is suddenly an overwhelming interest everything that is occurring now. For, the same instances of abuse, voter harms, opposition strong arming, and general dictator like behavior occurred in the 2002 elections. Perhaps the irony stems from the fact that in 2002 George Bush’s approval rating were somewhere between 60-80% and now, in the year 2008 his approval rating has meandered between a whopping 29-32%. It is of no mistake that Georgie ( and the US government) has suddenly made free elections in Zimbabwe their number one concern, as it shifts the focus away from the gross negligence that the US has shown in 1) the war in Iraq 2) the sub prime plummet 3)the health care crisis 4) forced oil inflation 5)foreign policy as a whole.

I find it laughable that on the nightly news there are videos of Bush speaking to the horrific conditions in Zimbabwe, while his own country sinks. This is not to say that the issues of Zimbabwe are not pressing, as they are. Yet, in a nation where habeas corpus has just been restored, perhaps the human rights in our own nation ought to be looked at before we attempt to tell other nations that their actions are not democratic.