Posts Tagged United States

In further proof that republicans will vote for anything, as long as they’re making the opposite vote as the democrats, 30 Republican senators  voted in favor of gang-rape recently.

Their reasoning?  The democrats were for protecting rape victims, so therefore, they must be against it.  They’re calling it many, many other things, trying to word it in so many other ways, but that’s what it all translates to, in the end. They voted for rape; they voted against rape victims.

The issue is an amendment to the Defense Appropriations Bill which would stop any and all federal funding going to contractors and companies that force victims of violent attacks and rape to settle their claims against the companies through arbitration rather than seeking criminal convictions.

The inspiration for this amendment to the bill is Jamie Lee Jones who, while working in Iraq for KBR/Haliburton, was gang-raped by a group of her co-workers, and then, when she tried to go get help and report the crime, was locked in a cage.  Upon her return to the US, she tried to press charges, but wasn’t allowed to do so. She was forced to accept a settlement instead.

And you know what seems to be the entire and only reason that these Republicans voted against this clause? It was proposed by Democrats. Actually thinking about what the clause meant didn’t seem to even enter into it.  Common sense and forethought, like the fact that they were voting in favor of letting people get away with rape, didn’t seem to occur to them.

Their votes  meant that they think it’s quite alright if women employees at companies accepting government contacts get raped by their co-workers under the banner of that company, as long as the companies pay them off later.

There is no possible way to justify this, no matter how much spin they might want to try to put on the matter. All of the female Republican senators, though? They voted in favor of the amendment, and the victims’ rights.

Related articles:

• Thirty GOP senators and the Jamie Leigh Jones rape case (network.nationalpost.com)
• Thirty senators vote in favor of rape
• Al Franken Goes After Rape-Supporting KBR (dvorak.org)
• Jamie Lee Jones Takes On Pro-KBR Senators On Rachel Maddow [No Justice No Peace] (jezebel.com)
• GOP backs corporate rape (dailykos.com)

According to my BF, this July 11 (That’s tomorrow!), the American Association for Nude Recreation (AANR) are planning to have the largest skinny dip in American history.  Apparently Skinny Dipping is the latest fad record to hit the Guinness Book of World Records.

To accomplish this…they are encouraging everyone to go out and, that’s right, take off your clothes and get to splashing!

Sounds like fun, doesn’t it!

Here in Georgia, about the only fun thing you can do this time of year outside is go swimming, and going swimming without your knickers is a time-worn and cheerful tradition.

I think we’ll try it out!  To get organized (and get counted for the record!) sign up for doing it at their Facebook site, or go here.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Things you should try once in your life (michellemalkin.com)
• Skinny dippers to bare all in world-record bid (seattlepi.com)

In the wake of Independence day, I’d like to encourage everyone to read John Perry Barlow’s Declaration of the Independence of Cyberspace.  It is easily one of the most eloquent and well-thought essays on the reasons why the internet and cyberspace needs to be a place of free and unfettered discourse, without censorship or interference of government agencies.

The internet is a place where everyone can express their opinion in relative anonymity, without fear of reprisal.

It is the true home of free speech, some of the most free speech in existence, even in countries where that right is protected and held sacred.

You may not, and probably will not, like everything you find on the internet.  Much of it is crass, ignorant, and occasionally very, very silly and stupid. It can also be the last and only refuge of people who are unable to fight oppression in any other way, the only place where they can, with any measure of safety, express dissenting opinions.

So go give it a quick read…I assure you that it’ll make you think.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Q&A with Clay Shirky on Twitter and Iran (theswarm.wordpress.com)
• China: 2009 Declaration of the Anonymous Netizens (advocacy.globalvoicesonline.org)