God, the absolute vicious, vile crap women have to put up with in this world on a constant basis

Today, we're talking about the most reprehensible thing-short of murder-a woman can go through

Rape-both physical & legal

Not just the physical assault itself, but attacks on the very concept of self-autonomy my gender takes for granted and wouldn't put up with in the least if anti-choice laws were aimed at our bodies & genitals

We'll get to the abortion rant in just a bit, but two VERY disturbing stories show just how women can get raped by various legal systems as surely as the physical attack itself

If you're human in the least, you WILL shake with rage when reading these stories

First, in a story that the true wordsmith Shakespeare's Sister posted on her site today comes this portrait of a clearly misogynistic legal loophole on the part of N.Y. state

Ordeal too short for benefit

CSEA says Camp Cass hostage wasn't held long enough to get captivity compensation

A kitchen worker at a state juvenile detention facility who was raped, beaten and kidnapped by a 16-year-old inmate in 2004 was denied a captivity benefit for union members because she was not held hostage long enough.

The woman escaped from her captor after a six-hour ride at knifepoint around Albany County on Dec. 28, 2004. The union's insurance policy covers only victims held captive for eight hours or more.

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As her work shift in the kitchen was ending, Michael Elston of Buffalo choked her with her scarf, banged her head against a cinder block wall, held a 12-inch knife to her throat and raped her.

He then forced her into her car and drove around the county before she escaped.

Elston pleaded guilty to the rape and kidnapping, which occurred two days after the woman had confiscated his notebook containing gang-related writing and his desire to have sex with her.

Great, the camp knew about this Elston's fantasies involving his eventual victim, but still did nothing to stop the attack

And it gets SO much more anger-inducing We're slightly out of order with the text here, but it makes the point more powerfully

"I feel like I'm being raped all over again," said the woman, now 52. "I feel outraged and so should every woman who works for the state."

And the reason she's justifiably livid about this legalistic BS is because of THIS

A waiver could have been issued if the Civil Service Employees Association's executive board had approved the victim's request. She was a chef at Camp Cass, a minimum-security facility in rural Rensselaerville overseen by the state Office of Children and Family Services.

First off, the CSEA MUST be hammered for not issuing a waiver-just why the living holy FUCK this wasn't done ASAP is something I can't fathom in the least

Second, just what kind of MINIMUM-security camp is this anyway?

Easy, Minimum Security in this case means not enough protection for vulnerable staff members

A 10-month review by the state Department of Labor made public in December revealed that Camp Cass workers are routinely placed in dangerous situations and are not properly trained to handle the youths who are sent there.

And yes, it still gets worse, as the state not only raped the victim again, but then tried to cover it up in the most inept of CYA attempts

She said logbooks were tampered with and false incident reports filed to cover the fact that Elston's escape was facilitated by her co-workers' neglect of their duties.

"Policies weren't followed both before and after this incident," she said, pointing to a subsequent string of escapes. "How can people not be held accountable for not doing their jobs?"

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In a September 2005 letter to union President Danny Donohue, CSEA Capital Region President Kathy Garrison said the woman's doctor did not believe she would be emotionally or physically able to work again and that JLT Services, the union's insurer, was open to a waiver of the eight-hour limit if the executive board requested it.

"I believe it is in the best interest of our organization and our member do this," Garrison said in the letter obtained by the Times Union.

The next part is SO loathsome that it's hard to find the proper outrage to express just how absolutely revolting this particular bureaucratic mindset gets with this victim

On Monday, CSEA spokesman Steve Madarasz said the incident did not meet the criteria of the hostage insurance policy.

"Obviously, this was a very unfortunate incident," he said, but declined further comment.

The woman received $2,000 in hospital benefits and $8,000 when the captivity waiver was denied. She also is getting workers' compensation payments. Had the waiver been granted, she said, she could have received between and $40,000 and $100,000.

An additional appeal to the Governor's Office of Employee Relations also failed, she said.

A Dec. 29 letter from Assistant Director Charles E. Vejvoda expressed "sorrow, regrets and outrage." But, he said, workers' compensation is the only form of redress for injuries sustained at work. He urged her to seek counseling through her union.

"It may be that the grievant takes no consolation that Michael Elston is serving a 27-year sentence in state prison. However, by contrast, the foregoing is what we are constrained to offer," he said.

Wow, just fucking Wow, I guess the fact she was raped while on the job doesn't equate to being injured on the job when it comes to Workers Comp

I say give ALL these worthless bureaucrats in this case a Major-League Bitchslapping Supreme-Better yet, let these idiots go through EXACTLY what the victim went through in this case, then let them play their legalistic word-parsing of the most empty type

I fail to see much difference between the woman's physical attacker and those who shafted her so badly when they had it in their power to issue a much deserved waiver for the victim in this case

Let's be clear

Because the woman did NOT let herself get attacked for another two hours, her employers end up telling her to get the fuck over it while at the same time blathering about how she's probably not appreciative enough of the prison sentence her physical attacker received

"It may be that the grievant takes no consolation that Michael Elston is serving a 27-year sentence in state prison."

Geez, ya think so Sherlock Brainiac?

Like the victim said, "How can people not be held accountable for not doing their jobs?"

In today's Rape Horror Show, the next example comes from Italy, and it sure raises all sorts of interesting questions-that is if you can get past the anger you're sure to experience when reading this

US soldier's rape sentence cut due to Iraq stress

Yep, now battlefield stress apparently can be an excusing factor when it comes to rape & sexual assault

A U.S. soldier who raped a Nigerian woman in Italy was given a lighter sentence because the court deemed his tour of duty in Iraq had made him less sensitive to the suffering of others.

God, I fucking HATE this moral relativism-the excuse that because this soldier saw horrific suffering he's allowed to claim a diminished capacity to know that rape is NEVER justifiable or acceptable

Rape is about the ONLY major crime where the victim is assigned the majority of the blame-either for her clothing or attitude

The BS about the rape victim "asking for it" somehow is so infuriatingly asinine that there's no way to overstate it

And thanks to this case, now battlefield stress will be a legally accepted precedent when it comes to getting other rapist scumbags off the hook

According to an Italian court document obtained by Reuters on Tuesday, James Michael Brown, a 27-year-old paratrooper from Oregon stationed in northern Italy, was sentenced to five years and eight months for rape in February 2004.

Brown beat and handcuffed the woman, a Nigerian resident in the town of Vicenza. He raped her vaginally and anally and left her to wander the streets naked in search of help.

I'm sure Italians against this war and their military's involvement will no doubt have the utmost empathy for James Michael Brown (And on a side note, you KNOW things are bad when your middle name is used in a news story)

Now, unless Brown had clearly identified psychological issues BEFORE going into combat, I can't see how his claim has as much validity as the Judges in this case felt he did

The crime would have earned him an eight-year sentence, but the judges reduced the penalty due to the "extenuating circumstances" of the psychological effects of Brown's year of service in Iraq, the document said.

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In a detailed explanation of the reasons for the sentence, the judges said U.S. soldiers in Iraq faced "a guerrilla war against an invisible enemy, conducted using all means, to which there is still no end in sight, which is extremely wearing for the occupation troops."

"For about a year, the professional role of parachutist Brown was not just to kill and capture the enemy, but also to avoid unpredictable ambushes set using all kinds of methods."

"The prolonged psychological stress to which the accused was subjected and the lowered importance he ended up giving to the life and wellbeing of those around him can only have influenced the committing of the crimes."

Brown's lawyer, Antonio Marchesini, denied the soldier had used his term in Iraq as an excuse for rape. "Before it was accepted, there was a detailed examination of his personality," he told Reuters.

Good Christ, OF COURSE Brown's using his Iraq tour as "an excuse for rape", if he wasn't, then the military service would NEVER have been used to such devastating effect when it came to Justice for the REAL victim, the woman Brown raped & beat savagely

But one factor to consider is just how good are the mental health services available to US Military personnel both on the field and on the base-And why do we know that this is also an area where Dear Leader W shows his "support" of the US Troops by cutting back badly needed funding & personnel for mental health services that so many vets are currently lacking

And in yet another repugnant example of the US holding itself exempt from the same rules it would insist on if it was a US service member attacked & raped by someone from another country, this last bit must surely be getting the victim and many Italians even madder than they were before

Brown, who is being held at a U.S. military prison in Mannheim, Germany, may never serve his rape sentence as, under Italian law, he may be allowed to return to the United States pending an appeal to the conviction.

There's a personal reason I have absolutely NO patience of any kind when it comes to claims that some worthless scumbag felt entitled to take by force what he couldn't get by words alone

My first sexual experience-in college no less-involved taking a shower with the woman involved-I wanted to go further than oral contact, but she wasn't interested

Guess what?

Even though I was still a virgin, I did NOT force my way, nor did I get angry or frustrated

I kept my cool, and thusly, I have absolutely NO patience with any guy who couldn't hold themselves to the same standard I held myself to

Of course, rape doesn't have to be physical to be dehumanizing and degrading, treating women like nothing but living incubators qualifies as rape as well

Hat tip to Pam's House Blend for putting together an excellent post that shows just how the 3M's, the Modern Misogynists Movement have targeted women all across the country, with new Wingnut Anti-Choice, Pro-Misogynistic laws they hope will kill off the Roe decision

Tennessee

This law REQUIRES women who want an abortion to provide proof that they've told the biological father

The bill provides exceptions if the woman signs a statement saying the pregnancy is a result of rape and has been reported to law enforcement, is unable "after diligent effort" to notify or identify the man (in which case she must file written notice with the Department of Children's Services to be placed on the department's putative father registry), and in the case of medical emergencies when the life of the woman is at risk. Penalties are a Class A misdemeanor punishable by a $5,000 fine for the physician and a $2,000 fine for the woman.

And, of course, there's other unaddressed questions & problems as well

What is not made clear in the proposed legislation is how it will be enforced and monitored. Will physicians contact men listed on women's statements to verify that they have been notified? If so, how does this square with patient privacy laws? Why are there no exceptions for women who are being abused, or who may have been examined by a medical professional in the case of a rape which may not have been reported to law enforcement? What constitutes a "diligent effort," and how will such effort be verified? Will the Dept of Children's Services essentially keep a list of women who have had abortions, and could that affect them in future custody or other legal actions? According to TN code (36-2-318), the Putative (presumed) Father Registry was established primarily to deal with parentage records relevant to adoption procedures and termination of parental rights. How will the following section apply?

"Those persons contained on the registry shall be given notice by the petitioners in proceedings for the adoption of a child or for the termination of parental rights involving a child, and they shall be necessary parties to the proceedings, and, except as they may waive their rights under subsection (f), must have their parental rights to the child terminated prior to entry of an adoption order, as may be required pursuant to chapter 1, part 1, of this title, unless they have executed a surrender, waiver of interest, or parental consent as provided in chapter 1, part 1 of this title."

Although the proposed law requires 24-hour notice, could this portion be used for additional delays?

A person listed on the registry and entitled to notice of pending adoption or termination proceedings under subdivision (e)(3) shall have thirty (30) days from the receipt of such notice to file a complaint for parentage or to intervene in the adoption proceedings or termination of parental rights proceedings for the purpose of establishing a claim to parentage of the child or to present a defense to the termination or adoption case.

Nothing like Misogynists telling women what's appropriate conduct when it comes to women's self-determination & autonomy, something absolutely NO guy would EVER accept being told concerning his genitals & decisons over his own body

The Modern Misogynists Movement Rolls Over South Dakota's Women

S.D. Governor Signs Abortion Ban Into Law

Gov. Mike (Jerkoff Woman Hater) Rounds on Monday signed legislation banning almost all abortions in South Dakota.

Under the law, doctors in South Dakota will face up to five years in prison for performing an abortion except when the procedure is necessary to save the mother's life.

Apparently, these Modern Misogynist Movement types forgot that a lack of an exception for the health of the mother is EXACTLY why the Nebraska Law was struck down when it hit the Supreme Court some years back

And GREAT job there Gov Ground Round, nothing says consistency & Spine of Iron like doing a flip-flop that's guaranteed to cost the SD taxpayers a ton of money

Rounds issued a technical veto of a similar measure two years ago because it would have wiped out all existing restrictions on abortion while the bill was tied up for years in a court challenge.

Seriously, the term "Fucktarded Blowhard" fits Round perfectly, along with EVERY SD politician who voted for this wretched attempt at controlling women's bodies & self-determination

I'll quote myself from various comments I left at other sites today

Surely, SURELY, there's got to be a female legislator somewhere willing to introduce legislation regulating what men may & may NOT do with their genitals, with infractions punishable by public, anesthesia-less, castration

Assuming there's a big enough microscope & tweezers to find the units of most of these female-hating scumbags

Fucking knuckledragging Modern Misogynist Movement blowhards, their faith is so weak iit's not valid to them unless all nonbelieving others are forced to worship the same way

It's time to start playing the VERY-justified NAZI card against these anti-choice fucktards, and play it at EVERY opportunity

On the plus side, the GOP and the so-called Right To Lifers thought the Terri Schiavo issue was a real winner for them

We all know how that little public bitchslapping they got shut them up REAL quick

Time to slap them down again

HARD

And, as I posted before, New Hampshire's anti-abortion law targets teen females just as much as the SD law does with adult women

And to get an idea of the charming types who love to tell women just what they may & may NOT do with their own bodies, check out this year's "March For Life" in DC this past January, truly loathsome parasites indeed

And a BIG Hat Tip to Adoptee Amy, for pointing out something I hadn't seen anywhere else-and I don't blame her one bit for screaming with all caps here, I would too if I were female

THE RIGHTS OF WOMEN IN THIS COUNTRY VIOLATED

HAVE WE LOST OUR MINDS? HAVE THE WOMEN IN SOUTH DAKOTA LOST THEIR MINDS? I can't believe no one freaked out about this abortion law in South Dakota. If it happened in South Dakota, it will happen here in Texas. Ladies they are coming after us now. What are we going to do about it? I know what I am going to do about it. WRITE MY CONGRESS AND MY SENATE.

This law prosecutes doctors. DO YOU KNOW WHAT THAT MEANS? IT MEANS OUR RECORDS WILL BECOME OPEN FOR THE COURTS AND THE PUBLIC TO SCRUTINIZE!!!!!! My health records are my business and no one else's. It means if you have had an abortion or birth control the rightwingers will be at your jobs and your homes harassing you. THEY WILL EMBARASS YOU EVERYWHERE YOU GO. ARE YOU OKAY WITH THAT? I AM SURE THE HELL NOT. I am not going to lay down for these idiots to analyze my life and what I have done or not done in it. I DON'T WANT ANY WOMAN'S MEDICAL HISTORY LOOKED AT UNDER THAT KIND OF LIGHT BY ANYONE. I WOULD NOT WISH THIS KIND OF CRAP ON MY WORST ENEMY.

PLANNED PARENTHOOD, ATTORNEYS, ACLU, AND MANY OTHERS BETTER GET ON THE BALL. WOMEN ARE NOT JUST BREEDING MACHINES FOR THE RIGHTWINGERS. WE DESERVE A FULL LIFE JUST AS THE MEN DO. WHAT ARE THESE PEOPLE TRYING TO DO? KEEP WOMEN IN THEIR PLACE BY FORCING THEM TO HAVE CHILDREN THAT THEY CAN'T AFFORD? GIVE ME A BREAK. BY FORCING THEM TO HAVE CHILDREN THAT THEY CAN'T AFFORD, ALL WE ARE DOING IS FORCING MORE CHILDREN INTO THE FOSTER CARE SYSTEM. WE ARE FORCING MORE WOMEN TO GIVE UP THEIR CHILDREN. WE ARE FORCING WOMEN AND CHILDREN TO BEAR THE BURDEN OF THEIR "DIRTY SECRETS." THEN AT THAT POINT WILL THE ADOPTION RECORDS BE OPEN FOR THE WORLD TO SEE. ARE WE ALWAYS AS A COUNTRY GOING TO EMBARASS AND HUMILIATE WOMEN FOR BEING SEXUAL BEINGS? YES WE ARE SEXUAL BEINGS JUST LIKE MEN ARE. IT IS ALL PART OF HUMAN FUNCTIONING. WHEN WILL WE AS A COUNTRY ACCEPT THAT? YES TODAY I AM PISSED OFF.

I AM SO TIRED OF THE RIGHTWINGERS AND OTHERS LIKE THEM WHO WANT TO SHAME WOMEN EVERY CHANCE THEY GET. LADIES AROUND THIS COUNTRY STAND UP AND FIGHT BACK AGAINST THESE MORONS.

Fucking GrandSlamDunk from Amy, someone to keep an eye on with as powerful & passionate a voice she brings to the abortion & adoption issues

And to see EXACTLY what motherhood & abortion entail, let's excerpt from one of my favorite sites, Shakes Sister, in particular a heartfelt post from Mamasquab

To Be a Mother

On February 24, in a direct attack on Roe v. Wade, the South Dakota House followed the Senate in approving a ban on all abortions except where a woman’s life is at stake. Today, Republican Governor Mike Rounds signed the bill, which is almost identical to the Texas law that Roe overturned in 1973. According to the Alan Guttmacher Institute, similar antiabortion proposals are in the works in seven other states: Missouri, Indiana, Kentucky, Oklahoma, West Virginia, Georgia, and Tennessee.

The justification for this vicious piece of misogyny seems to be based on the following notions: (a) a woman is a mother from the moment a fertilized egg begins to grow in her body; (b) mothers are morally obliged to take care of their children at any personal cost to themselves; and (c) it is the state’s responsibility to force reluctant mothers to meet their moral duties to their children. I won’t waste my breath upbraiding the South Dakota legislators for their apparent indifference to the social context in which women are assigned these duties--a context where there is unrelenting violence against women, much of it perpetrated by husbands or boyfriends; where rape and lesser forms of sexual coercion are widespread; where mothers, not fathers, are almost solely responsible for hands-on childcare; and where social institutions and practices are systemically rigged to favor the interests of men over those of women. These points have been made many times before and I haven’t the heart to repeat them. Instead, I’m going to plead for a revised understanding of what pregnancy is. It’s when we think of pregnancy as something that happens to a woman rather than something she does – when we think of pregnant bodies as flowerpots, ovens, or incubators – that the awfulness of the particular kind of wrong about to be done to South Dakota women escapes our notice.

As I write this, my daughter is thirty-two weeks pregnant with her very much wanted first child. Like any human pregnancy, hers is not simply a biological process but a purposeful activity in which she is creatively engaged. For starters, she’s had to manage some pretty unrelenting nausea by learning, through trial and error, what foods she can tolerate and how often she needs to eat; this requires her to take packets of cheese, crackers, almonds, and so on to work with her so that food will be available right when she needs it. In her twentieth week she developed high blood pressure, so she bought an exercise machine and has been forcing herself to use it regularly. In her twenty-first week, she also developed gestational diabetes, requiring her to revamp her already restricted diet, prick her finger four times a day to check her glucose levels, and give herself a shot of insulin every night before bedtime. She goes to her doctor every two weeks to be monitored for these and other possible complications.

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Significantly, what antiabortion legislation requires of women is quite different from what child-support legislation requires of delinquent fathers. To be sure, such fathers must pay child support, but they are never forced to what lawyers call “specific performance.” They aren’t required by law to change diapers, give baths, prepare and serve meals, help with homework, or take their children to soccer practice. All unwilling fathers have to do is pay up every month. Specific performance, in fact, is seen as a form of servitude that may lawfully be required only of conscripts when there is a clear and present danger to the state. It may not be imposed even on convicted felons. If a drunk driver smashes into your house, he might have to go to prison or (under certain victim compensation laws) pay for damages, but he doesn’t have to repair your brickwork or replace your broken door with his own hands. If your architect breaks her contract with you by failing to produce the agreed-upon blueprints, the court can impose a fine, but it can’t make her sit down at her drafting table and do the promised work.

An absolutely top-notch piece of writing that should be required reading for EVERY member of the Modern Misogynist Movement, so go check out the rest

And I can't end this post without referencing one of the most disgusting, vile acts of rape & sexual assault I've ever heard of, the Haidl case

Haidl & two friends of his drugged a 16 yr old girl, then videotaped themselves anally sodomizing her unconscious body with a pool cue & a Snapple bottle

Then, the dumbfucks done went and forgot all about the video-that is until someone else found it and turned it over to the cops-The cops were sure they were witnessing gang-necrophilia at first, that's how unconscious the victim was

The first trial ended with 1 juror voting guilty, which was the reason the DA retried the case

This time, the bastards got convicted, and let's hope they go in for a long fucking time, and get done to them what they had no problem doing to someone they drugged up & videotaped

For the Haidl Archives-and the articles are long, detailed and many, go HERE

For the latest updates about the case, go HERE and HERE

The last link has an interview with the Jury Foreman in the retrial, and you have to wonder why the 2nd Jury got it so right when 11 members of the original trial's jurors got it so wrong, easily swayed by Haidl's daddy's megafortune-And on a Sheriff's Deputy's salary no less-and truly loathsome Defense Attorney arguments, chief among them that it was the victim who actually raped the males while she was unconscious, and that she wanted a career in the Porno business

If the judge rules the way he indicated back in October, then there may be some justice after all for the victim, Lord knows with the physical rape on the pool table and the mental rape she endured from Defense Attorney's while on the Witness Stand, this girl was put through the Meatgrinder and deserves complete retribution & satisfaction

My own gender REALLY pisses me off when it comes to raping women, both physically & legally