Tag: violence against women act

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Domestic Policies women

Violence Against Women’s Act Unawareness At UNC

It seems like the Violence Against Women’s Act was re-signed so very long ago. President Obama signed this important legislation into law on March 7th in which many are hoping will curb attacks against women nationally. We could only hope. But at the University of North Carolina, it appears they are unaware of such legislation being signed, let alone it even being introduced or even discussed in the media, on television or even debated throughout various political battlegrounds both for and against this important and historic law.

Attorney Clay Turner of Chapel Hill North Carolina, sent a letter Monday to The University of North Carolina [UNC] Chancellor Holden Thorp, advising the school of the complaint that his client, Landen Gambill filed with the Office for Civil Rights in the U.S. Department of Education.  Ms. Gambill says the school expelled her for retaliation against her speaking out publicly about the rape and assault on the campus. Attorney Turner wrote to Thorp saying he was “to demand that you immediately end this reckless prosecution. The retaliatory charges against my client are inappropriate, unconstitutional and utterly without merit.”

Landen Gambill

Ms. Gambill has yet to identify the alleged offender but the Chancellor and the Board has stated that she violated the honor code by creating an environment that’s intimidating for him. FOR HIM… The accused!

After a hearings board cleared him of sexual assault, they did find him guilty of a much lesser charge of harassment but no criminal charges were filed.

Mr. Turner lashed out saying, “In speaking out for change at UNC, Ms. Gambill is not ‘harassing’ or ‘intimidating’ her abuser, whom she has never named. “Rather, the university’s decision to press charges against Ms. Gambill has tragically provided her abuser with the opportunity to harass and intimidate her” despite a no-contact order issued against him last May.

This makes the third such complaint against the University in which they are being accused of “under reporting” crimes on the campus. Also, Gambill and five additional women in January filed a Title IX complaint with the office of civil rights, saying UNC-Chapel Hill mishandles sexual abuse cases.

The school has denied any wrongdoing however, and continues to stand by its decision in expelling Ms. Gambill. But this will not go away. It has now gained national attention from Melissa Harris-Perry of MSNBC and others, so the heat on UNC’s Board will get hotter before cooler.

No, this story will not go away but the Chancellor is. Thorp is resigning in June to become the chief academic officer of Washington University in St. Louis.

The school this month hired two new employees to investigate sexual assault allegations and to help victims.

Stay tuned.

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Politics

Republicans In Congress Finally Approve The Violence Against Women Act

We all know what’s happening here, right? That’s right, Politics is at play. In the last election cycle, Republicans watched as women voted for President Obama and Democrats in near record numbers. There were hashtags [#GOPWarAgainstWomen] going around on Twitter detailing how Republicans were against women because they refused to approve the Violence Against Women Act.

Well that was yesterday’s news. Today, Republicans are trying to regain some of those women voters and they finally voted to approve the bill today.

The vote comes after House Republican leaders, cognizant of the need to improve their faltering image among women voters, accepted a Senate bill passed two weeks ago on a strong bipartisan vote.

The House vote to reauthorize the 1994 law that has set the standard for anti-violence programs came after lawmakers rejected a more limited approach from Republicans.

The law lapsed in 2011 and has been caught up in the partisan battles that now divide Congress.

Last year, the House refused to go along with a Senate-passed bill that would have made clear that lesbians, gays, immigrants and Native American women should have equal access to anti-violence programs.

The bill now goes to President Obama to be signed into law.

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House Republican Tid Bits

Monday, February 18, 2013

Cold as a witch’s tit in New York today, 18 degrees! And since it’s a federal holiday, practically everything is closed so no need to go outside…that’s my excuse and I’m standing behind it…

President Obama has declared a presidential proclamation citing February 2013 National Black History Month, commemorating and honoring the 50th Anniversary of The March On Washington. The groundbreaking march solidified the cause for justice and civil rights in the hearts and minds of all the brave folks who were a part of it.

“In a sense we have come to our nation’s capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” ~ Martin Luther King Jr. from his “I Have A Dream” speech during the 1963 March On Washington. ♦

The ever-kool, Brooklyn Congressman Hakeem Jeffries is demanding an apology from NRA hell raiser Wayne LaPierre for comments he made last week in an editorial for The Daily Caller about Super Storm Sandy giving Brooklynites an open invitation to pillage and plunder, reiterating his call for more gun ownership:

“We saw the hellish world that the gun prohibitionists see as their utopia. Looters ran wild in south Brooklyn . . . And if you wanted to walk several miles to get supplies, you better get back before dark, or you might not be home at all.”

But Congressman Jeffries begs to differ:

“There’s reality, and then there’s Wayne’s world. In Wayne’s world facts apparently don’t matter. The reality is that the in week after Super Storm Sandy hit, crime went down.”

“Wayne’s world”… lol! So far, no word on that apology, and I wouldn’t hold my breath either Hakeem. ♦

On Sunday Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand called for the renewal of the Violence Against Women Act. House Republican lawmakers opposed revisions to the bill back in October 2011 because it had the nerve to suggest its expansion to include LGBT and Native American victims of domestic violence as well. House Republicans just can’t wait to be kicked out next year, can they? The VAWA presently funds programs for domestic violence victims. Is there really a need to emphasize ALL victims of domestic violence, you numbnuts!? ♦

Mayor Bloomberg is pissed about the rising incidents of iPhone thefts marring his record of NYC’s low murder rate in 2012. The free weekly paper, The Brooklyn Paper, chronicled iPhone thefts in the 35 neighborhoods it covers, and its police blotter recorded an increase in Apple product thefts by 3,890, with some of thefts resulting in its owner being killed. My advice on avoiding iPhone theft? Put the ish away and read a paper! ♦

 

Categories
Politics Senate

Al Franken Weeps On Senate Floor While Discussing ‘Violence Against Women Act’

After months of Republican opposition to the re-authorization of the Violence Against Women Act, it finally passed the Senate yesterday on a 68-31 vote. All 31 votes against the re-authorization of the bill came from Senate Republicans. For the other Republicans who joined with the Democrats to pass the bill, maybe it was this emotional plea from Sen Al Franken that did it.

The bill now goes to the Republican controlled House of Representatives where it will face a much harder time.

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Politics

Congressional Republican Candidate – Violence Against Women Act? What’s That?

Her name is Sarah Steelman and she is running for the Missouri’s Congress as a Republican. She will fit in perfectly with today’s other Congressional Republicans.

According to this website, Sarah Steelman serves on the Missouri Consolidated Health Care Plan Board of Trustees; the Missouri Public Service Commission’s Gas Cost Recovery Task Force; the Joint Committee on Terrorism, Bioterrorism & Homeland Security; and the Joint Committee on Administrative Rules. She is chairman of the Senate Committee on Commerce and Environment; a member of the Senate Committee on Aging, Families, Mental & Public Health; a member of the Senate Committee on Education; and a member of the Senate Committee on Governmental Accountability and Fiscal Oversight.

With all that knowledge, Ms Steelman was asked a very simple question – what do you think about the Violence Against Women Act?

We’re still waiting for a sensible answer.

Categories
Politics

Biden Tries to Save The Violence Against Women Act from GOP Block Party

Vice-President Joe Biden will Wednesday lead a Democrat push to reauthorize the Violence Against Women Act, the 1994 legislation that now faces opposition from some conservatives.

Biden will be joined by Attorney General Eric Holder, Senior Advisor Valerie Jarrett, White House Advisor on Violence Against Women Lynn Rosenthal and Sharon Love, mother of Yeardley Love and founder of the One Love Foundation, to talk about the need to reauthorize the law.

The New York Times has reported that the law would expand financing for and broaden the reach of domestic violence programs.

However, it said some Republicans say the measure unnecessarily expands immigration avenues by creating new definitions for immigrant victims to claim battery, and also dilutes the focus on domestic violence by expanding protections to new groups, like same-sex couples.

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