30 Senators Speak - I can't believe what they said

Of all the things I've been reading lately (and I've been stuck reading a lot since I landed in sick bay almost a week ago... on the mend, but BK likes to read when she's not feeling well) - this story is the one story that rather blew my tail almost off my delicate behind. I'm pretty lucky it's attached so well. I must share with you the story and the part that really got my tail in a ruffle.

There was an amendment to the 2010 Defense Appropriations bill, added by Sen. Franken, that would withhold defense contracts from any and all companies "if they restrict their employees from taking workplace sexual assault, battery and discrimination cases to court." This seems really logical, especially considering the case of Jamie Lee Jones, who in 2005, was gang-raped while in Iraq working for Halliburton/KBR. To make her experience MORE memorable...

"She was detained in a shipping container for at least 24 hours without food, water, or a bed, and "warned her that if she left Iraq for medical treatment, she'd be out of a job." (Jones was not an isolated case.) Jones was prevented from bringing charges in court against KBR because her employment contract stipulated that sexual assault allegations would only be heard in private arbitration."

source: Think Progress

So, who could have voted against changing the rules that made it so this type of behavior was no longer out of the hands of the justice system? Thirty Republican males. Here is a list of their names and the states the represent. They are a complete and total disgrace.

HALL OF SHAME:

Alexander (R-Tennessee)
Barrasso (R-Wyoming)
Bond (R-Montana)
Brownback (R-Kansas)
Bunning (R-Kentucky)
Burr (R-North Carolina)
Chambliss (R-Georgia)
Coburn (R-Oklahoma)
Cochran (R-Mississippi)
Corker (R-Tennessee)
Cornyn (R-Texas)
Crapo (R- South Carolina)
DeMint (R-Idaho)
Ensign (R-Nevada
Enzi (R-Wyoming)
Graham (R-South Carolina)
Gregg (R-New Hampshire)
Inhofe (R-Oklahoma)
Isakson (R-Georgia)
Johanns (R-Nebraska)
Kyl (R-Arizona)
McCain (R-Arizona)
McConnell (R-Kentucky)
Risch (R-Idaho)
Roberts (R-Kansas)
Sessions (R-Alabama)
Shelby (R-Alabama)
Thune (R-South Dakota)
Vitter (R-Louisiana)
Wicker (R-Mississippi)

As you have quickly glanced at this list - ask yourself this one question. What if it had been your daughter, your wife, your friend, someone you loved who was sexually abused while she was just doing her job in Iraq working for one of these contractors. Wouldn't you want her to be able to feel safe knowing that she could speak up and prosecute any co-worker that hurt her? Because these men above felt that it was more important that the company had the right to do it's business unimpeded that the right for a woman to report rape. There is something really wrong in their priorities says this kitty. Looking at those states, I certainly wouldn't want to live in any of them with those men as Senators. I'm truly repulsed.

Other source used: Direct Democracy
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There is just so much to comment on, but alas Bad Kitty is a Sick Kitty too. Maybe too much tall grass, who knows... I hope to cover the following topics and soon because I've had them rolling around in this tiny cat brain of mine for far too long - and I bat and swat at them, until I release them, I'll keep playing with them and honestly, what is the fun in that? Like most cats, I like to share my treats.
Coming soon to the Bad Kitty Blog....
Michael Moore goes one on one with Hannity - who sounds more convincing?
I'll give you my take.
Jennings and NAMBLA - just what is the truth and what is hyperbole? Let me take you out of the spin zone.
President Obama loses Olympic bid, Rush and Glen rejoice.
President Obama wins Nobel peace prize, Rush and Glen's reaction? Are these guys ever happy or will it take Obama's death? Partisanship rears it's double chinned head again and again, not to be bowed even by it's own lies, scandals, and unjustifiable actions - speaking of which....
It is definitely time to take a cat nap, find a nice cuddly place and snooze.
Peace from the patch....

Abortion, Christianity and Health Care

I'm going to admit it up front. Bad Kitty is really in a foul mood. Hissing and scratching, she clawed her way to the computer, the spittle from this hissing still covering the screen. What do I really care? I'm watching the theater of the absurd.

This great country is engaged in a very real threat against terrorists who want to impose their religious beliefs upon the entire world. They are zealots without mercy and who subjugate women. They impose what is known as "Sharia" - a law based on "God's law" under Islam. This has come to mean polygamy for men, less education for women (in general), less freedom for women in all aspects from their dress to their physical movements in and about their towns and cities, in the name of respect for women and the name of God. Women who are raped must provide four male witnesses or else be stoned to death. A woman who was raped and got pregnant was in fact stoned to death after the birth of her child. This is life under the rule of God known as Sharia.

In the country I love, the land I live in and have always called home, women have had the right to discuss and control their bodies. Religion has no play in health care as should be the case. We are a secular nation. We have no Sharia, no religion to tell us what we "must" do or what we must believe.

Long before the ruling in 1973 which made abortion legal, abortions were happening in the United States. The serious problem was that in addition to the fetuses, a great deal of women were dying as well. Understanding that a woman has the right to determine what happens to her body, the Supreme Court ruled in 1973 in Roe v. Wade that a woman had the choice to have an abortion should she choose to do so. This is the law of the land and has been so now for 36 years.

Of course there are people who have beliefs that oppose this legal position. However, there may be people who oppose the fact that your sister or your female child doesn't cover her hair and her arms appropriately. What do you say to them? You tell them to mind their own business. Just as I tell you to .... mind your own business.

But, but ... "I'm try to SAVE LIVES!" you exclaim.

No. You are merely pushing your beliefs onto me - making you just like the people of the Taliban. Did you ever for once think of that? You are trying to make the United States into exactly what we are fighting against?

I respect your view. Please respect mine. Most importantly, respect the LAW.

This cool cat is outta here.

Making America Safe

What can be done to make this country safe? Bring back the Constitutional core and with it, the rights to all people, whether they are thought to be "dangerous" or not, whether they are thought to be "terrorists" or not, let our freedom ring once more.

To allow our civil liberties to die like this, slowly, in the name of the "Fight on Terrorism" is one of the saddest things to see in my lifetime. To know that a human being can be held indefinitely, and can be tortured under the legal protection of my government, and this is being done to "make me safe" does not at all make me feel safe. It rather makes my skin crawl. Who is to say that in 20 years, the person being detained indefinitely will not be ME? Who is to say the person being "interrogated with enhanced techniques" in 25 years will not be ME?

I am no lover of those who want to kill me. However, I am a lover of the laws of our country and the Constitution of this once great country. Declaring these men a prisoner of war is merely a word game. We must be more precise. There will always be people who wish to see the United States fall. Look to Timothy McVeigh and the militant people now living in the rural areas. Will they be next if we have attempted bombing or successful bombing? Will they be indefinitely held?

We must have trials. People must know why they are being held. We then present evidence, even if it is in a military tribunal. People who are truly dangerous will not be released as we should have enough evidence to hold them in a normal and appropriate jail (Super Max for those dangerous enough). If there simply is no evidence, we cannot and must not hold people. How can we be the country of Jefferson, Adams, Franklin and Washington if we do not uphold the principles that these men fought for, argued about and finally immortalized in our Constitution; that which has guided us and the rest of the world for the last 200 plus years.

Now is not the time for our torch to dim, but to blaze ever brighter in a world of those who would have tyranny and oppression. We will lead the way and show that we are not afraid and that we will not change our standards for treating other human beings out of fear. We will show that nothing is important enough for our country to change its' very founding principles. Only in this way can we show that terrorism and fear have not won. Rather, freedom and the American way have in fact prevailed. No amount of hatred can change our long valued principles and values. We will not live in fear. We will not change because of fear. We are Americans. Long may our flag wave in inspiration to all those who seek fairness, dignity and human rights.

In this way, and only in this way, by inspiring other people to want to have freedom and dignity to live in peace and harmony with each other without fear of detention for no reason for unlimited time and without fear of state sanctioned torture, with freedom of religion, freedom of speech, we offer the world hope, instead of fear. Hope will make America safe. Hope and a desire to be like us, to travel here and a love of our culture will make us safer, not a fear of America.

It could be that I am the only sane one left - or that I need some catnip. Who knows.....

In Massachusetts - a novel approach

Apparently a great deal of self-labeled "conservatives" are upset at a program in Massachusetts begun in 2006, which is going to receive an additional $3o,ooo to the $4oo,ooo currently received. First of all, that additional amount is relatively small for the uproar being raised. Read the story here for full details as reported in the Boston Herald.

As noted in the article, a person must be on welfare and have children. They must reside in an area where there is no public transportation to get to and from work. They either must have a job or demonstrate an ability to receive a job. Sixty-five people received cars last year. Those people had $6,000 deducted from there welfare benefits. Not having been on welfare, but examining the monies received for those on welfare and the amount of income one needs to have to qualify for welfare, I do not begrudge these people a chance to get out of this welfare trap.

Having reliable transportation is one of the keys to breaking the welfare cycle. Yes, these people will receive "free AAA membership and free insurance" for one year. This one year can be the year that they break free of the problems that typically besiege someone trying to escape poverty. Unfortunately, those people who are so angry at the perception that people are "getting something for nothing" that they fail to comprehend that they are actually helping to solve this cycle of poverty and dependence on the government. If you teach a man to fish, he can feed himself - is this not what this year and the car provides? A chance to not be feed, but to fish for himself? We are providing fishing poles instead of the fish and yet some of us still complain.

Can we please be more compassionate towards each other? This is our country. Yes, some of us cheat the system. I chose to believe there are more honest and good people than those who cheat. I know I am honest. I chose to believe that we continue to be the greatest country because we treat the sickest and poorest with some compassion still. If we can continue to do that, we will maintain our greatness, for it is said that the greatness of a country can be measured by how it treats its weakest, most vulnerable citizens. We must not fail.

We are Americans. All of us.

The Ever Evolving Online Identity

Having an online identity is a new thing. How could someone exist online to people who they could only see on their computer (and hear as well) and actually form meaningful attachments to when this technology simply did not exist before this current generation? The online experience subliminally encourages youths to take more risks, to experiment with their identities and to act these personalities out in front of a larger audience then they normally would have done in previous generations. One can point to the online suicide committed in Florida in 2008 and witnessed by over 900 people, some encouraging the young man, not yet 20, to take more pills. The detachment from other people and the cruelty of this type of personality is easy to assume when there is a screen separating you from that other person. It is far more difficult to imagine these youths all sitting in the room with this young man as he sat there with the pills in his hand encouraging him to take them without many more of them actively stopping him. Actively stopping him was something no one did until he was long deceased.

In adults, most behavior I have witnessed seems to be consistent with the individual's inner core. In other words, there is no true separation of online identity and real life identity. When there is, you will find mental illness. A person can most likely keep up a facade of online identity which is false for a great deal of time, but will fail to maintain that facade in real life. The stressors of daily life cannot be hidden and edited behind a computer screen. There is no off button, no mute button; quite simply, the control is gone.

Therefore, the thrust of interest and study really should be directed at the youth of today who are gaining access to online communities and using video chatting at earlier and earlier ages. Personality development shows us that rebellion comes against one's parents. One sure way of doing this is to change and experiment with one's identity. The easiest way by far to do this is in one's bedroom, online. A person can become anyone they want to become. I experimented myself. I have "become' various people in basically the same giant chat room. Although I was different people, I was essentially responded to in the same way. I believe this is because my core identity comes through regardless of how much I try to fake an identity. My inner decency and kindness attracts each time.

On the Internet, it is thought to be a mark of a real man to be able to "talk the talk" and to put it bluntly, on many occasions, be an asshole. When did this become something a man did? Why don't we put the gentle back in man? I want gentlemen and ladies. I want society. I want people who ask questions when things seems suspicious. Wouldn't it be great if we could have people who disagree without yelling at each other and not even listening?

Where are our youth getting this impression that this is the behavior that leads to success? Look at our media. Why does anyone watch that stuff? Do you think our country is served by anyone who uses that type of conversational style to get their message across? Is that the country we want for our next generations? I am very serious when I ask these questions because we are on a path and the directions we choose to go in are very important as well as the way we decide how we are going to go about choosing our path.

Civility.

As Crosby, Nash and Young sang "Teach your children well...."

and that's all this Bad Kitty really has to say .... she has enough difficulties negotiating temporary peace treaties with those canines that roam around her catnip patch :P

Golden Rules

Perhaps this is a novel idea and perhaps it is not, but I do remember in Kindergarten being taught some golden rules. These included being nice to other people, sharing, waiting my turn, and cleaning up after myself. These were not hard to do and everyone else was doing it too. Kindergarten was a good place as I recall.

Somehow as we grow older, the rules slowly change and nobody really notices. Being nice to people no longer becomes important by high school for sure. Cleaning up after yourself - becomes "uh, is not that what we pay people"as for sharing -"hey, I worked hard to get my "stuff" why should YOU have any of it." Waiting - oh my goodness, heaven forbid you delay for a moment at a stop light, be slightly lost for those horns will come honking at you. Because that will definitely help - that horn blowing. Those of you in grocery lines with the frowns on your faces - hey, we're all waiting. That's just the way it goes.

You know, we're all in this together. We can be nice to each other, like we were in Kindergarten and maybe show our children a kinder, nicer world, or we can trod further down this cold road which is against every good thing we were taught in the very beginning.

Be nice.
Wait your turn.
Share and take your turn.
Clean up after yourself.

Oh and remember how it was a given we respected our elders, that would be rather nice too, but I'm not going to be unrealistic. Even I can't roll in that much catnip :P

Peace from the patch - belly up and feeling good.

Freedom for All

Why is it that gay people are so feared and hated in this country? I just do not understand this. In both Florida and California as we as a country took a giant step forwards towards change, these two states actually amended their state constitutions to FORBID two people in love to get married because they happen to be of the same gender.

I remember vividly a post from a so-called friend on MySpace ... urging his friends to vote in favor of the initiative in Florida to pass the amendment against gay marriage. This relatively bright young man used the argument "What we will allow next, people marrying animals?" That line brought bile to my throat. How could anyone possibly believe that simply granting the same civil rights to other human beings would open the door to ... bestiality? This fear mongering and unbelievable jumping to unreal threats to scare people (perhaps in their ignorance, these people truly believe this, I don't know) - but I do know that it is backwards, cruel and intolerant.

There is NO reason that in 2008/2009 we should deny any human being his or her civil rights. Those include the right to love and enjoy the same legal benefits as other humans in love who decide to legally join themselves. Heterosexual marriage is NOT some sacred thing. The divorce rate in this country is 50%. Hey, I'm divorced. I was able to have the privilege of getting married because I'm heterosexual - and it did not work. How fair is that to a couple that has been together for 20 years and yet is denied all the legal benefits my husband and I enjoyed for the eight years we were married? Obviously it is not fair at all.

Until we as a nation can be tolerant and treat each citizen equally, no matter the race, gender or sexual orientation, none of us are truly free. This is the dream we must strive to attain. We can be the greatest country in the world, but only if we embrace each other and the differences which actually make us so great.

Equality, tolerance, diversity. Wonderful words - better when in action.
Let's do it.
Yes, WE CAN.

The Beginning of a New Era

Congratulations to our new President.

Now more than ever we need change. I know we need to look every where for change, but we absolutely must change the law that makes cannabis a Schedule I drug. A schedule I drug means that there is absolutely no medical therapeutic benefit at all. This is not true. Why, if it were true, why would the Federal Government still be giving it to five patients? That just simply makes no sense at all. They say it is compassion, but if it is of zero benefit (which we have seen from those patients, it is of enormous benefit) - oooh - you see where I'm getting tangled up here!

For the sake of scientific data - because I find that it is hard for people to argue with facts: here is yet another study showing again the promise of what this plant (not drug, do drugs make seeds?) holds for us - click here to learn about cannabis extracts killing drug resistant bacteria. Note in the article - we have cannabinoid receptors in our brain naturally -and that some can cause a "euphoric" effect while others do not. We do not allow any use of cannabis at all for medical reasons out of ignorance. Perhaps fear too?

We allow adults to smoke and chew tobacco. There is nothing safe about it. Every tobacco product is labeled thus, informing the intended user of the negative side-effects. At least the adults are making informed choices and in this great country, we allow adults to pursue happiness without judging them for their behavior. I would not dream of making it illegal to possess tobacco or to grow tobacco. Tobacco is merely a plant. It was here before the Europeans settled this great nation. Hemp was here as well. George Washington and Thomas Jefferson were both farmers and amongst their varied crops, they grew hemp. Hemp is a hardy plant, suitable for many uses.

However, today, no farmer may grow this easy plant with its versatile uses. The scientific community is hamstrung by the way in which the more potent cousin of hemp - marijuana is studied in a medicinal setting as it is still not a Schedule II drugs even after all of the studies and published articles and state laws allowing for marijuana to be used for medical purposes

After reading the DEA's last rejection letter to reclassify marijuana, I now believe the sole reason marijuana is even illegal is because the DEA knows that if cannabis is no longer feared, they know the so call War on Drugs will be won. Money and lives will be saved. The people will finally be set free from an archaic law, passed due to overt racism, propaganda, fear and lies. The time for all that is over. The people know better. What is even more interesting, we certainly expect better now, don't we =D

YES, WE CAN!