Friday update

Our own Spartanburg Occupier, Deb Morrow, won the SC Democratic primary! She will go up against awful Trey Gowdy for the 4th District Congressional Seat in November.

I made a special trip to vote for Deb; she was the only candidate on my ballot. I am proud of her efforts (and have attended two of her organizing meetings) and hope she will give us a call at the radio station tomorrow. She tried last week, but was apparently in a moving vehicle, and consequently, we lost her. Give us another shot, Deb!



~*~

Apologies for my late news. I had internet connection issues all week. Unplugged against my will! Argh!

During this time, the shameless scandalmonger in me has stayed tuned to the sordid Jerry Sandusky trial. (Penn State coach accused of sexually abusing numerous children.) No cameras in the courtroom, but reporters have provided a steady stream of horrors. I am amazed at how hands-off the authorities were, over decades... these kids were not from families who would have raised a ruckus. And Sandusky chose them deliberately for this reason.

He repeatedly told them how much he loved them, and they have testified that they loved him in return. They loved the gifts, the attention, the football games.

People on Facebook are howling for Dottie Sandusky's head, believing that she must know more than she is letting on. One victim claims he stayed overnight at Sandusky's house in excess of 50 times. Besides that, Jerry Sandusky stayed in the basement for hours with these kids. Didn't his wife suspect anything?

We will be discussing the Sandusky trial tomorrow on my show, so tune in.

My radical history, continued

Photo of the first-year commemoration of the Three Mile Island nuclear accident. Your humble narrator is at the top right of the photo. The guy in the white shirt standing next to me is Mike Gruber, and I think the guy in the hat was David Breithaupt. I regret to say the names of the other activists have since fizzled in my memory.

If you can read the teeny-tiny print, you know that we stood out there from 3:15am until 3:56am, which was the exact time of the accident. I mostly remember the eerie quiet around the Ohio Statehouse at that hour of the early morning.

Misogynist goes on killing spree

Photo of George Sodini from lalate.com.


I am watching the press conference right now, just chilling. Apparently, he hated women and was punishing them for not dating him.

The women he killed: Heidi Obermier, Elizabeth Gannon, and Jody Billingsley.

Police: Pennsylvania man who attacked gym had 4 guns

On Tuesday night, the gunman walked into his gym wearing workout gear and a headband, entered a "Latin impact" dance aerobics class and placed a duffel bag on the ground. He rooted around in the bag for a moment, turned off the lights, took out at least two guns and started shooting.

Three women were killed and nine women were wounded. Police say he may have fired as many as 52 shots before turning the gun on himself and committing suicide.

"He walked right into the room where the shootings occurred as if he knew exactly where he was going," Allegheny County police Superintendent Charles Moffatt said. "I think he went in with the idea of doing what he did."

The man has been identified as George Sodini, age 48, and like everyone else these days, he had a blog.

Pretty sordid stuff, too. Sodini claimed he hadn't had sex since 1990 and had no girlfriend since the 80s. As a result, he hated women and blamed us for his profound unhappiness. Yes, deja vu all over again; he'd be right at home on any Men's Rights blog!

ABC-News has posted some blog excerpts:

I was reading several posts on different forums and it seems many teenage girls have sex frequently. One 16 year old does it usually three times a day with her boyfriend. So, err, after a month of that, this little ____ has had more sex than ME in my LIFE, and I am 48. One more reason. Thanks for nada, b----! Bye

But he also claims to be worth over $250,000 and to have a child that he has never seen. He was a lot better off than many men.

And then, there is this blog entry:

Maybe soon, I will see God and Jesus. At least that is what I was told. Eternal life does NOT depend on works. If it did, we will all be in hell.

Yes, it does. Surprise, George. How's the view from hell?

Like the Baptist billboards here in the south say: Whew, it's hot!

My prayers, novenas, sympathies and healing wishes go out to survivors and families.

...

EDIT: Mitch Marconi (Post Chronicle) reports that the woman said to be the mother of Sodini's child is... dead. (Oh man, calling Ann Rule. Is that suspicious or what?)

The blog entry on Sordini's site said "Lee Ann Valdiserri had my baby in early 1991. Haven't seen her since she was about four months into it. I knew her sister, Chris, from high school."

Lee Ann Valdiserri's is reportedly dead according to online obituaries and a myspace blog of her dead nephew.

Let's hope this was death from natural causes... it appears it might have been a risky endeavor to be a female anywhere in George's immediate vicinity.

Confederate Memorial Day

CSA Battle Flag image from The Palmetto Scoop.



Today is officially Confederate Memorial Day. This day in history marks the capture of Jefferson Davis. From the Greenville News:

COLUMBIA — All state agencies, 10 counties and one school district in South Carolina are observing Confederate Memorial Day.

The state holiday is officially May 10, but employees get Monday off.

The holiday marks the death of Confederate commander Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson and the capture of Confederate President Jefferson Davis.

South Carolina is among several Southern states that designate a state holiday to honor Confederate soldiers, although they do so on different days. Alabama, Georgia and Mississippi observed Confederate Memorial Day on April 27th. Texas honors Gen. Robert E. Lee's birthday, Jan. 19, as Confederate Heroes Day.

May 10 was renewed as an official holiday in South Carolina in 2000 as part of a compromise that also made Martin Luther King Day a permanent holiday.

I have my issues with "Confederate Memorial Day" and its questionable political genesis, but then again, I figure I can use this day any way I like.

I'd like to take this day to honor one of my ancestors, a CSA Army deserter named (by most accounts) Thomas Hatcher. A native of Virginia, he deserted the Confederate army at about the Civil War's mid-point, and swam across the Ohio River, eventually taking up residence in Pittsburgh. He was variously known as TA Hatcher and TJ Hatcher, as well as several other names; I don't know anything else about him, except that he appeared to stay on the move, even after the war's end.

One might presume that deserting the CSA was some risky business, and that is why he moved around a lot and changed his name. Was he proud or ashamed? What made him do it? Whatever his reasons, I am extremely proud of him. This decision cost him his family and his former life. He stayed in the north, and from all I have been able to discern, never went back to the south.

As I have written here before, I don't know if he was sick, injured or just fed up and disgusted. I like to think it was the latter, and he had seen enough. I trace a direct line from great-great-great grandfather Hatcher to my own anti-war sentiments that have sustained me throughout a lifetime. I enjoy believing that pacifist convictions are encoded in my DNA.

On this day, I honor you, Thomas Hatcher, for having the courage to lay down your arms and beat swords into plowshares. I am lighting a candle to honor your great decision not to continue fighting in a racist war.

Far between sundown's finish and midnight's broken toll
We ducked inside the doorway, thunder crashing
As majestic bells of bolts struck shadows in the sounds
Seeming to be the chimes of freedom flashing

Flashing for the warriors whose strength is not to fight
Flashing for the refugees on the unarmed road of flight
And for each and every underdog, soldier in the night
And we gazed upon the chimes of freedom flashing.

(Bob Dylan, Chimes of Freedom)

Virtual rally today: Desiree Alliance

Image from Desiree Alliance.

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From Renegade Evolution comes news of a virtual rally later today that I will not be able to participate in, due to work. So, decided to cover it now. It involves Philadelphia Municipal Judge Teresa Carr Deni, who is up for re-election, just to make it interesting.

Deni made national news when she referred to the gang-rape of a prostitute as mere "theft of services":

A judge in Philadelphia has come under fire for a controversial ruling in which she reduced charges so that a man accused of raping a prostitute at gunpoint faced only robbery charges for "theft of services."

Municipal Judge Teresa Carr Deni earlier this month dismissed rape and sexual assault charges against Dominique Gindraw, who is accused of forcing a prostitute at gunpoint to have sex with him and several other men. Deni left intact charges of armed robbery for theft of services against Gindraw.

Prosecuting Gindraw for rape, the judge said in a subsequent newspaper interview "minimizes true rape cases and demeans women who are really raped."

The decision — and Deni's subsequent comments to a local newspaper — prompted about 40 complaints from around the country to the local bar association, said executive director Ken Shear, as well as a campaign by women's groups to encourage people to vote against Deni when she is up for reelection Tuesday

The Philadelphia Bar Association this week took the unusual step of publicly criticizing the ruling.

"I am personally offended by this unforgivable miscarriage of justice," said bar association chancellor Jane Dalton. "The victim has been brutalized twice in this case: first by the assailants, and now by the court."

"A victim is a victim regardless of how they come to be in that position," Dalton told ABC News.

Deni did not immediately return a message for comment left this morning.

Her lawyer, George Bochetto, said Deni "makes decisions based on the evidence presented in a court of law, not newspaper accounts of the story. She finds the chancellor's comments to be regrettable."

The accuser testified that she initially agreed to have sex with Gindraw and a friend of his in exchange for money, but that Gindraw refused to pay her, held a gun to her head and forced her to have sex with several men, according to a transcript of an Oct. 4 court hearing.

"She consented and she didn't get paid. … I thought it was a robbery," Deni told the Philadelphia Daily News.

As stated above, the Philadelphia Bar Association has publicly dissociated from Judge Deni's comments:

MUNICIPAL JUDGE Teresa Carr Deni has invited the wrath of a very unusual source: the Philadelphia Bar Association.

In a rare public reproach, Chancellor Jane Leslie Dalton yesterday denounced Deni for inflicting an "unforgivable miscarriage of justice" on a prostitute who was the victim in a preliminary hearing Deni presided over earlier this month.

"The victim has been brutalized twice in this case: first by the assailants, and now by the court," Dalton said in a scathing rebuke issued in a statement yesterday.

The sex worker had agreed to have protected sex with the defendant and another man for a prearranged fee, but was instead forced - at gunpoint - to have unprotected intercourse with four men.

But Deni dropped the rape and sexual assault charges against the defendant, and held him instead on armed robbery charges for "theft of services" from the prostitute. "She consented and she didn't get paid," Deni explained to me later. "I thought it was a robbery."

In the aftermath of outraged e-mails sent to the bar association, Chancellor Dalton felt compelled to read the transcript of the Oct. 4 proceeding herself.

And she was appalled by it.

Deni's ruling "belies a basic understanding of what constitutes rape in Pennsylvania," Dalton's statement said.

"Judge Deni's belief that because the victim had originally intended to have sex for money and decided not to because she didn't get paid posits that a woman cannot change her mind about having sex, or withdraw her consent to do so, regardless of the circumstances. We cannot imagine any circumstances more violent or coercive than being forced to have sex with four men at gunpoint."

The ruling reflects "in my opinion, a clear disregard of the legal definition of rape and the rule of law in this case," Dalton said.

"As Chancellor, a lawyer, and a human being, I am personally offended by this unforgivable miscarriage of justice."

And that's a courageous and dramatic comment for the head of a group that's far more likely to defend a judge than criticize one.

Dalton felt compelled to speak out because Deni is running for retention to a six-year term in next week's election.

And that is why there is a virtual rally today, to GET RID of Deni tomorrow, November 6.

Vote NO on Deni.

For immediate release

Contact: 877-776-2004

info@DesireeAlliance.org

Rape is NOT an Occupational Hazard!

Sex Workers Join Women’s Groups and Sexual Assault Survivors’ Groups to Urge PA Voters to Vote ‘No’ on the Retention of Judge Teresa Carr Deni

Judge Teresa Carr Deni spawned outrage from all directions after ruling on October 4th that a sex worker that was raped at gunpoint by multiple men was NOT sexually assaulted, rather she was just robbed. Deni commented in an Oct. 12th interview that this case “minimizes true rape cases and demeans women who are really raped.”

Grassroots activists around the country, including nationwide sex worker-led organizations such as the Desiree Alliance and regional advocacy groups from coast to coast responded with anger and disgust for Deni’s disregard of the basic human rights of the rape victim in this case. “Deni’s decision in this case sends a message that sex workers can be targeted for violence with impunity. Rape of sex workers is common, alarmingly under-reported, and rarely taken seriously by authorities,” Kitten Infinite of Sex Workers’ Outreach Project said. “Violence against sex workers is perpetuated by the state through discriminatory laws and judicial rulings such as this.”

Sex workers in the US and abroad are organizing and becoming more vocal about the violence and discrimination that they face. “Because prostitution is criminalized, our human rights and our boundaries are clearly not respected,” Mariko Passion, a board member from the Desiree Alliance commented, she continues, ”…forcing or manipulating sexual intercourse by fraud, fear or coercion is rape.” On Oct 30th, after considerable pressure from sex workers and feminists around the country, the PA Bar Association issued a statement condemning Deni’s action, stating that, “The victim has been brutalized twice in this case: first by the assailants, and now by the court.”

The Desiree Alliance applauds Association Chancellor Jane Dalton’s review of the matter and we find some satisfaction in the fact that the District Attorney’s office has re-filed rape charges against the perpetrator of this despicable crime. However, we still call on voters to vote ‘No’ on retaining Deni in the election on November 6th. The Desiree Alliance will hold a virtual press conference and rally on Monday, November 5th at 5pm Eastern for sex workers and allies to comment publicly about this case and how to prevent further discrimination against sex workers.

Who: Desiree Alliance and Affiliates

What: “Rape is NOT an Occupational Hazard!” Virtual rally

Why: Judge Teresa Carr Deni should not be retained as a Municipal Court Judge in Philadelphia

When: Monday, November 5, 2007, 5pm Eastern, 2pm Pacific

Where: http://www.BoundNotGagged.com

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Listening to: Amy Winehouse - Back to Black
via FoxyTunes