AP/Matt Rourke The last image found in Matt Rourke’s camera before he was hauled off

Fantastic article in the Minn Post about Matt Rourke, the AP photographers arrest.

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“Covering news is a constitutionally protected activity, and covering a riot is part of that coverage. . .Photographers should not be detained for covering breaking news.” David Ake, an AP assistant chief of bureau in Washington

I’d read about the round up of protesters that were planning marches in the days before the RNC. Did you catch that? PLANNING.My favorite was the family in the bus that was pulled over and had their bus impounded when they were just driving down the highway.

But I’ve hid away a bit from the news the last few days and I only just found out that they have been arresting reporters.

You got to be kidding me. Amy flipping Goodman, (are they high?!?) Producers from Democracy Now! Matt Rourke an AP photographer and Kentucky University student photographers Ed Matthews and Britney McIntosh and Kernel photo adviser Jim Winn.

There may be more I haven’t read about yet.

Why am I surprised?

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I had a comment in my last post from someone that said that the VAM act is unconstitutional which is poppycock misinformed.

Not interested in getting in a pissing contest, so I leave you with a summary of what VAM is and what it did from the Family Violence Prevention Fund.

You make your own mind up. . .

History of the Violence Against Women Act

The Violence Against Women Act of 1994

The first comprehensive federal legislation responding to violence against women was introduced in 1990. While the U.S. Senate held several hearings and reported bills out of committee, not until the 103rd Congress was there finally traction on the issue in both the Senate and the U.S. House of Representatives. With the help of outspoken advocates across the country, including the Family Violence Prevention Fund (FVPF) and other members of the National Task Force to End Sexual and Domestic Violence Against Women, the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) was finally signed into law in August of 1994 as a part of the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994 (PL-103-322).

The provisions included in the final bill were a compromise of two pieces of legislation that had been introduced previously, H.R. 1133, introduced by Rep. Pat Schroeder (D-CO), and S. 1607, introduced by Sen. Joseph Biden (D-DE).

VAWA created:

- new penalties for gender-related violence and
- new grant programs encouraging states to address domestic violence and sexual assault including:

law enforcement and prosecution grants (STOP grants)
grants to encourage arrest
rural domestic violence and child abuse enforcement grants
the National Domestic Violence Hotline
grants to battered women’s shelters
While no one felt this completely addressed the needs of victims of domestic violence, almost all involved believed this was a vital first step in our nation’s efforts to treat domestic violence as a serious problem.

The Violence Against Women Act of 2000

Because the authorization for the original VAWA provisions expired in 2000, the Congress took up the reauthorization of this landmark legislation in 1999 and completed its efforts in the fall of 2000 with the passage of the Violence Against Women Act of 2000. The House version of the bill, known as H.R. 1248, passed on September 26 by a vote of 415-3, and the Senate version, known as S. 2787 passed on October 11 by a vote of 95-0. During the course of final negotiations, VAWA 2000 was merged with the Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act of 2000 and several smaller bills, and President Clinton signed the legislation into law on October 28, 2000 (PL-106-386).

Despite early efforts by advocates and congressional allies to create a more comprehensive bill, the final version of VAWA reauthorization included mainly a continuation of already existing programs with a few improvements, additions and funding increases. The following is a summary of the major components of the legislation.

VAWA 2000 Summary

Total Authorization: $3.3 billion over five years (This number represents the total amount authorized, the actual money distributed has yet to reach this “allowed” amount).

STOP Grants (Services and Training for Officers and Prosecutors): $925 million over five years. This is the largest portion of the funding in the legislation and goes to states to be distributed among police, prosecutors, courts and state and local victims services agencies mainly for the purposes of enhancing law enforcement activities.

Shelter Services for Battered Women and their Children: $875 million over five years. This is the second largest portion of funding from the bill and funds programs to help communities provide services for women and children living in shelters. These grants also go initially to the states, and recent legislation increased the minimum amount that any state would receive to $600,000/year. Remaining funds are distributed to states based on their populations.

The legislation also created new programs and strengthened existing legislation in the following areas:

Civil Legal Assistance: $200 million over five years. This section creates a separate grant program for civil legal services to give women legal help with protection orders, family court matters, housing, immigration and administrative matters.

Transitional Housing: $25 million per year but only for one year. This program provides grants to aid individuals who are “homeless, in need of transitional housing or other housing assistance, as a result of fleeing a situation of domestic violence and for whom emergency shelter services are unavailable or insufficient.” This program was never funded.

Supervised Visitation Centers: $30 million over two years for pilot project authorizing the Attorney General to provide grants to state and local law enforcement to provide supervised visitation exchange for the children of victims of domestic violence, child abuse and sexual assault.

Full Faith and Credit: Allows for protection orders from one state to be recognized in another state and allows Grants to Encourage Arrest to go toward providing technical assistance and computer or other equipment to law enforcement to aid in the enforcement of interstate protection orders and those between state and tribal jurisdictions.

Battered Immigrant Women: Legislation addressing the needs of battered immigrant women was by far the most significant addition to the original VAWA. This section removes the U.S. residency requirement and “extreme hardship” requirements for immigrant women to receive VAWA protections; allows battered immigrant women to obtain lawful permanent residence without leaving the country; restores access to VAWA protections for immigrants regardless of how they entered the country and creates a new type of visa for victims of serious crimes that will allow some to attain lawful permanent residence.

Dating Violence: defines dating violence and allows grants to go toward programs that address dating violence

Services for Disabled and Older Women: $25 million over five years to provide grants for training law enforcement and developing policies to address the needs of older and disabled victims of domestic and sexual violence

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I agree completely with Senator Schumer that McCain’s choice of Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate is a Hail Mary Pass, but it is going to make things very interesting. . . that said, I honestly don’t think they are going to be picking up a lot of women from Senator Clinton’s camp. As Senator Barbara Boxer said, “If John McCain thought that choosing Sarah Palin would attract Hillary Clinton voters, he is badly mistaken. The only similarity between her and Hillary Clinton is that they are both women. On the issues, they could not be further apart.”

For me, it has never been about wanting a woman or wanting someone of color. It has been about who has been the closest to what I am about and what I would like to see happen. Senator Clinton had never been my candidate. I would have supported her as I did Kerry four years ago even though he was not my first choice.

I’m happy that Senator Obama has the nomination. I’m happy that Joe Biden is his running mate. Is he perfect? No. Does he sometimes have a big mouth (yes- and I kind of like that actually) But I’ll stand behind someone with all of the foreign policy experience that he brings plus let us not forget he authored the Violence Against Women Act

Why has McCain (who has a dreadful record on women’s issues) brought Palin to the National Stage? Ann Friedman has a great article in The American Prospect.

It’s clear that Republicans believe that what made Hillary Clinton such a good candidate was her gender, not her political experience or positions on the issues. And McCain’s decision to pick Palin shows he took this message to heart and chose to add her to the ticket primarily because of her gender. In so doing, McCain has turned the idea of the first woman in the White House from a true moment of change to an empty pander.

Why is this a pander? Because Palin is not a woman who has a record of representing women’s interests. She is beloved by extremely right-wing conservatives for her anti-choice record (fittingly, she’s a member of the faux-feminist anti-choice group Feminists for Life). Palin supports federal anti-gay marriage legislation. She believes schools should teach creationism. Alaska is currently considering spending more on abstinence-only sex education. And when it comes to a slew of other issues of importance to women, such as equal pay, she’s not on the record.

Of course, I’m of the belief that more women in politics — across the ideological spectrum — is always a good thing. On a superficial level, nominating a woman to the Republican presidential ticket is indeed a milestone. But the real reason many women were excited about Hillary Clinton’s candidacy is that she was the whole package — a politician with a solid record on issues like choice and fair pay, and with a lot of experience, who was also a woman. Even feminists I disagreed with during the primary made the compelling point that it wasn’t just about Hillary’s gender. It was about her record, too

I really just don’t see a lot of people switching their vote simply because of gender. I hope I’m not wrong, because a McCain/Palin administration would not only be horrible the United States at home and around the world, it would be a disaster for women.

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So, I am one of those people that actually watches political conventions. I’ll even watch as much of the Republican convention as I can before my head explodes.

I remember the first time I heard Obama speak was at the last convention and I thought, “Damn. He’s going to be a star.”

The New York Times has a fantastic timeline on the history of the Democratic National Convention that you can see here.

And if you are so inclined, Michelle Obama’s speech is kick-ass. It’s twenty minutes, but I think it’s worth it.

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I’ve always liked Joe Biden. But I never thought he’d get picked for the VP slot.

I think it’s a good choice.

—————–

update

Funny. I’ve read a few blogs from people saying that they aren’t pleased and remember how he treated Anita Hill. I think maybe my memory is bad because I remember something else. I remember how he went after Thomas. That was when I was first aware of Biden and I liked him for it because I was so against Thomas. . .

How odd.

Anyway.

I think it’s a good choice and I am a feminist.

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After three years in London, I still don’t get Celsius. Much like French where I can order a glass of wine and say hello or goodbye, my understanding of it is rudimentary at best. If someone says it’s 35, I know that is damn hot (by UK standards- not growing up in Las Vegas standards) but I wouldn’t know what that number translates into Fahrenheit unless I use an online tool.

It’s been warm here in Charleston and the humidity packs an extra one, two. A couple of nights ago Gary thought it was cool enough to not have the air on and just open windows and run fans and Stuart and I nearly died. The folks told us if we need to adjust the air con to feel free to do it.

Last night, it started to be rather chilly. I pulled one of the blankets around me and snuggled my toes up to Stuart while we watched TV. I just figured they had cranked up the air con because of night before. But then it got even colder.

We saw Gary go to the thermostat and mumble to himself. Stu turned to me with a small look of horror.

“Oh no.”

“What?”

“I turned the air on and I think I forgot it was in Fahrenheit.”

“Oh no. What did you turn it to?”

“19.”

I laughed.

“What is that for ours?”

“Something like zero.”*

“Oh God.” Stuart stood. “Errr. . . Gary?”

* It is actual C -7.2

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Stuart takes a bottle of bud light out of the mini fridge in the TV room.

It’s 10:30 AM. I just woke up but he has been up since 7AM and slept 13 hours.

“Wanna know what I had for breakfast?” He popped the top off of the beer.

“Hum?”

“Two bud lights–”

“Stuart. For breakfast?”

“I had other things. Besides it was noon at home. I’m legal.”

“It’s always 5 PM somewhere.”

“Two bowls of cornflakes–”

“With the beer?”

“Not WITH the beer. Two cans of diet coke, some cookies, that nice processed cheese–”

“That’s a two word stupid. Nice processed–”

“It is nice cheese! And a bowl of cookie dough ice cream.”

I raised my eyebrow. It isn’t often that Stuart does bulemia without the vomiting eating. That is usually my MO.

“Then I watched a documentary on Elvis. About his excesses before he died. . . ”

I snorted.

Stuart swigged his beer, “Why are you laughing?”

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One of the nice things about going to my parent’s house. . . I get to play with the dog and the cats.

The dog is Charlotte, a black lab mix thing who while is a couple of years old, has a puppy mind and throws her body around when she is excited. When we first arrived, she jumped up on the bed as we were unpacking, which normally might be a annoying but given that Stuart had just put his arsenal of electronic equipment on the bed could have been disastrous. I tried to pull her down while he cradled his iPhone and looked terrified.

We’ll be keeping the door to our bedroom shut.

Their pool was just finished and nearly every time we let Charlotte out yesterday, she had to show off her swimming skills by gingerly stepping into it and swimming to the other side.

She’s funny and like many children, is fun to play with and you are rather glad you can give her back to her parents when she starts crying.

The parentals have a screen porch that is a pleasant way to sit outside but not really be outside because you don’t get eaten alive by bugs. You look out at their enormous garden and it is really relaxing. The size of their garden is not hyperbole. You could seriously fit a football pitch inside it and still have room for the pool.

Last night I sat there with a glass of red, reading a magazine and wrote a short scene. The cats, (George, my baby they adopted from me, Jake, Zack and Miss Sophie) were hanging out with me as well and once in a while one would come and say hello and then go back to their chair or shelf and blink and be cattish.

I don’t know what my parents have been feeding George because he has lost his girlish svelte figure. Perhaps like all of us he has gotten old and just decided to let himself go. He’s always been a solid kitty, but now when he kneads his paws into you, he has some serious bulk behind his kitty shiatsu.

I think perhaps when I come visit, is is as much to see the zoo as it is to see my folks.

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Soon I will be floating in my parent’s pool or in the ocean.

Stuart and I leave tomorrow to visit my folks in Charleston, where I will be doing very little other than cause myself serious skin damage.

I’m all packed. I am now a master packer. When I go on business trips I even just take a carry on. I still take a ton of stuff, but instead of five pairs of shoes I take two.

The last two years at this time we have gone on a road trip. Last year was Spain and the year before was France. Both years we had an amazing time but it was go-go-go-go-go-go-go-go and this year I really just needed to have some sun to help get me through the approaching darkness.

When I lived in California, I had no idea. I mean I knew the weather was good. I lived in Seattle for two years before LA, but after a year you forget. You think it’s normal to wear a short sleeve dress in April and to crank up the AC.

Not to say the weather is that bad here. It really isn’t. It’s not Russia or Chicago. It just isn’t Maui, but then again few places are.

So we’re off. Off for some sun and cervaza and food and hanging out with the parentals.

Then we have to come back and get cracking. Lots of things to get done. Work is going to heat up plus finishing the play plus exercising.

Winter is coming grasshopper. . .

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