The Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) is a tremendous feminist success story. The legislation, which was passed in 1994 and reauthorized in 2000 and 2006, allows for $3.9 billion in funding to help survivors of intimate partner violence, dating violence, sexual assault, and stalking. Feminists were the driving force behind the drafting and passage of VAWA--it's our baby.
So you can imagine my disappointment when I found out the Office on Violence Against Women (OVW) (where VAWA lives) is going to be run by yet another wacky Bush appointee.
Mary Beth Buchanan, US Attorney for the Western District of Pennsylvania, is set to be OVW's Acting Director.
Buchanan’s claims to fame?
She’s an enthusiastic cheerleader of the Patriot Act. (It preserves civil liberties, she says!)
She spent $12 million on "Operation Pipe Dreams," taking down 55 people for selling bongs. This included actor Tommy Chong--in the courtroom, Buchanan introduced his fictional pot-smoking characters as evidence of his "frivolous" attitude towards drug laws.
She’s an anti-obscenity crusader, prosecuting people for written stories on the internet and going after any and all porn. (Don't get me wrong, I'm not a fan of violent porn and the like, but Buchanan strikes me as more interested in enforcing morality than the law.) The legal director for the Pittsburgh ACLU once called Buchanan "the vanguard of [former U.S. Attorney General John] Ashcroft’s attempt to impose his morality on others." Yikes.
So basically, this sucks. I can see it now...VAWA funds being diverted to conservative anti-obscenity groups under the rhetoric of protecting women. I am completely freaked out.
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Oy.
So is it time for feminist groups to team up with the porn industry and start lobbying hardcore?
Scary. Bush's appointees are getting creepier and creepier all the time. Anti-feminist women make me saddest of all.
And $12 million to take down 55 people for selling bongs? That doesn't seem like a very responsible use for our tax dollars.
It's good she wasn't around in the early 90s, or my friends could have faced legal liability for "Good Sir Nasty," a five-foot tall lavenderish bong, in what would have dubbed THE TRIAL OF THE CENTURY.
Is she related to my other favorite Buchanans? (Pat and Faye?)
It is a good thing she was not around in the late 60s when, following a late snowstorm, we erected a six foot snow sculpture as a tribute to being male and even, in the interest of positive messaging, covered it with a clear plastic trashbag.
The local police (both of them) were unsympathetic enough since we raised our monument on the front lawn of the local Baptist church.
So basically, this sucks. I can see it now...VAWA funds being diverted to conservative anti-obscenity groups under the rhetoric of protecting women. I am completely freaked out.
Now that's synergy. I wonder, will we soon be seeing Pat Robertson quoting Andrea Dworkin on the 700 Club? That'd almost be worth it.
It is a good thing she was not around in the late 60s when, following a late snowstorm, we erected a six foot snow sculpture as a tribute to being male and even, in the interest of positive messaging, covered it with a clear plastic trashbag.
The local police (both of them) were unsympathetic enough since we raised our monument on the front lawn of the local Baptist church.
Awesome.
"It is not the business of government to make men virtuous or religious, or to preserve the fool from the consequences of his own folly. Government should be repressive no further than is necessary to secure liberty by protecting the equal rights of each from aggression on the part of others and the moment governmental prohibitions extend beyond this line they are in danger of defeating the very ends they are intended to serve."~ Henry George
Ooh, Jessica, does K-Lo ever have YOUR number:
Some feminists seem to be hysterical about the president appointing someone who, among other things, is not keen on pornography to the Office on Violence Against Women.
GodDAMN that's tasty intellectual dishonesty!
I think this is what you can expect with the Bush Administrations new-found spirit of cooperation. In short, Bush expects women to be happy with this appointment because he didn't appoint a man.