[Vision2020] Republicans Retreat on Domestic Violence

[keely emerinemix]

I am more and more dismayed -- no, disgusted and horrified -- that the GOP and its Religious Right/Tea Party element has proved so effectively that it is utterly opposed to anything even close to resembling an agenda of simple, basic decency, much less the Name of Christ they bandy about so freely.

My God.  It's 2012 and we have a plausible presidential candidate talking about making birth control illegal by state fiat, and the mighty forces of the Christ-bearers in society are so amassed against letting two men or two women solemnize and legalize their relationships that they can't see any real threat to human beings, nor any real offense to the character of the Savior they seem to claim and then just as easily ignore when actually following Him would cost political capital.  The Religious Right is storing its political treasures here on earth, where moths, Palins, and thieves destroy them.  They get what they deserve.  Sadly, they have the earthly power to take millions down with them.

Thanks again, Deco.

Keely
www.keely-prevailingwinds.com


Date: Fri, 10 Feb 2012 08:37:20 -0800
From: art.deco.studios at gmail.com
To: vision2020 at moscow.com
Subject: [Vision2020] Republicans Retreat on Domestic Violence




   
   


February 9, 2012

Republicans Retreat on Domestic Violence

 


 

    Even in the ultrapolarized atmosphere of Capitol Hill, it should be 
possible to secure broad bipartisan agreement on reauthorizing the 
Violence Against Women Act, the 1994 law at the center of the nation’s 
efforts to combat domestic violence, sexual assault and stalking. The 
law’s renewal has strong backing from law enforcement and groups that 
work with victims, and earlier reauthorizations of the law, in 2000 and 
2005, passed Congress with strong support from both sides of the aisle. 
       
 Yet not a single Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee voted in 
favor last week when the committee approved a well-crafted reauthorization bill
 introduced by its chairman, Senator Patrick Leahy, and Senator Michael 
Crapo, a Republican of Idaho, who is not on the committee.        
The bill includes smart improvements aimed, for example, at encouraging 
effective enforcement of protective orders and reducing the national 
backlog of untested rape kits. The Republican opposition seems driven 
largely by an antigay, anti-immigrant agenda. The main sticking points 
seemed to be language in the bill to ensure that victims are not denied 
services because they are gay or transgender and a provision that would 
modestly expand the availability of special visas for undocumented 
immigrants who are victims of domestic violence — a necessary step to 
encourage those victims to come forward.        

Senator Charles Grassley, the committee’s ranking Republican, offered a 
substitute bill that not only cut out those improvements but called for a
 huge reduction in authorized financing, and elimination of the Justice 
Department office devoted to administering the law and coordinating the 
nation’s response to domestic violence and sexual assaults. His measure 
was defeated along party lines.
 Mustering the 60 votes needed to get the bill through the full Senate 
will not be easy, even though previous reauthorizations were approved by
 unanimous consent. Recalcitrant Republicans should be made to explain 
to voters why they refuse to get behind the federal fight against 
domestic violence and sexual assaults.        




	







-- 
Art Deco (Wayne A. Fox)
art.deco.studios at gmail.com


=======================================================
 List services made available by First Step Internet,
 serving the communities of the Palouse since 1994.
               http://www.fsr.net
          mailto:Vision2020 at moscow.com
======================================================= 		 	   		  
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mailman.fsr.com/pipermail/vision2020/attachments/20120210/88d7b120/attachment-0001.html>