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Politics : GOPwinger Lies/Distortions/Omissions/Perversions of Truth -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: longnshort who wrote (168037)	3/17/2011 2:24:59 PM
From: Skywatcher	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 173976

D.A.: Walker's Stealthy Vote Broke Wisconsin's Open Meetings Law The Cap Times of Madison, Wisconsin reports: Dane County District Attorney Ismael Ozanne charged state Senate Republicans Wednesday with open meetings law violations in connection with a controversial move they made to pass legislation to curtail public sector union bargaining rights. "Our investigation has found merit in the verified complaints, which allows us to commence this litigation," says Ozanne in a statement. "This litigation does not address the merits or the wisdom of the legislation." Senate Republicans had been stymied by 14 Democrats who fled the state last month to deprive the GOP-controlled Senate of the 20-member quorum needed to pass Gov. Scott Walker's budget repair bill, which included a measure to effectively end collective bargaining for public employees. A week ago, Republicans hastily called a joint conference committee, including members of both legislative houses, to consider a bill that was stripped of fiscal elements, allowing the legislation to be passed by a simple majority. State law requires 24 hours notice for such meetings unless "good cause" exists. The Republicans' notice was short of two hours. According to the article, resolving the complaint could take quite some time, as civil complaints are not allowed against the legislators while the legislature is in session. However, if the complaint is upheld, it raises the possibility that Scott Walker's stealthy vote could be overtuned because among other things, the complaintrequests relief in the form of voiding all actions taken at the meeting. Of course, even if that were to happen, the legislature could probably simply call another meeting and repass the law, but anything that keeps Walker's abuse of power in the public's eye is a net positive for opponents of his union-busting measure.

To: longnshort who wrote (168037)	3/17/2011 2:26:10 PM
From: Skywatcher	Respond to of 173976

Sick: Republican Lawmaker Likens 11 Yr Old Rape Victim to a "21 Yr Old Prostitute" Displaying the standard Republican concern for women and children, Florida GOP lawmaker Kathleen Passidomo had this to say about a recently publicized case in which an 11 year old girl was allegedly brutally gang raped: There was an article about an 11 year old girl who was gangraped in Texas by 18 young men because she was dressed up like a 21-year-old prostitute. And her parents let her attend school like that. And I think it’s incumbent upon us to create some areas where students can be safe in school and show up in proper attire so what happened in Texas doesn’t happen to our students. Passidomo made her comments during a subcommittee hearing about the vitally important issue of banning saggy pants in schools. When queried about her horrifying statement, she naturally just deflected the blame: "Thank you for your concern, I was not referring to my own opinion to the cause of the rape, but to the cause implied by a March 8th article of the New York Times." The New York Times piece that serves as the basis for her backpedaling got tons of flak for appearing to sympathize with the alleged perpetrators of the attack. The piece observed that the young girl dressed much older than her age, suggesting that she had brought the attack on herself. Of course, the NYT article merely insinuated grotesque, sexist assumptions about the victim and crime. Passidomo does everyone the favor of illustrating the concept of "rape culture" in a much more helpful, obvious way. (Amanda Marcotte wrote a great piece for AlterNet about the original screwed-up news coverage of the case. Check it out.)