The Best Defense is.....

For all the lack of hoopla out there you might have easily missed the story of Allee Bautsch, a twenty-five year old campaign aide to Governor Jindal and her boyfriend, Joe Brown being beaten outside a Republican fundraiser on Friday, April 9. Maybe it got my attention because I have a twenty-five year old daughter. The story is very well covered at The Hayride. Link in Bubba Post by BJ@freeusnow. I don't seem to be able to publish links.

Hayride offers up this quote as the story was picked up by Yahoo

" Of course, even if Bautsch and Brown's recollection is correct and the attackers did come from the group protesting the event, they can't know for sure what their motives were.Their account of the non-political nature of the verbal assault matches the one Brown gave police and the homophobic, misogynistic nature of the insults would be unusual coming from the kind of person one might expect to protest a Republican fundraiser."

My first thought on hearing about this led me to fear it was a racial incident as the MSM has been telling anyone who will listen that Tea Party People are not only all Republican but racists to boot. It has made me think back to my September '08 adventure into Obama's website and his link to The Black Snob where I found this picture of the other first black president.








Then I started thinking of Bill Clinton's need to remind us about it being a right- winger that blew up the federal building in Oklahoma. We have also heard about Sarah Palin's perceived attempts to incite violence by 'targeting' certain Democrats in 2010. Again I was reminded of my visit to Obama's website and this picture.






And we all know how the Democrats are the only party that treats women with respect. You'll never guess where I found this picture.


While there seems little doubt that the attack had a political motive I find reading the original police report informative.(Link in Hayride article)

"As they neared the intersection, Mr. Brown stated he heard subjects state such things as, "Little blonde bitch," "You're a f-----g faggot," and You think you're f-----g special."

Political? Probably under the circumstances. Misogynistic and homophobic? No doubt. Hate speech? No. It would be hate speech if Mr. Brown was gay and received a broken nose and jaw and a concussion. It would be hate speech if Ms. Bautsch had been called a little black bitch and not a blonde one and then had her leg stomped on and broken in 4 places. Could "You think you're something special" have anything to do with the "blame the rich for everything" mentality that is being used to push for wealth re-distribution?

I have little doubt that this crime was perpetrated by those at the protest. Democratic protesters of a better ilk that were duped into this need to come forward. Those who might object to the methods used by Obama to advance his candidacy need to speak up.
Those that were only too happy to see Obama take advantage of sexism, racism and misogyny if that's what it took to win, need to stop thinking of themselves as the 'good' ones. You and the instigator-in-chief gave these guys permission. No, Yahoo it is not at all unusual.

Women's Rights Not Worth Mentioning?

NEWS From Yesterday's Washington Post

The undaunted Dorothy Height

Wednesday, April 21, 2010

UPON HER DEATH Tuesday, Dorothy I. Height was hailed a hero, the grande dame of the civil rights movement, an icon. She was all of those things. Yet somehow words fail to capture what was so remarkable about this woman who fought for so long, and with such tenacity, dignity and resolve, for racial justice and gender equality. Because she lived such a full life, an entire generation grew up knowing her without fully understanding the entrenched unfairness she fought against and helped to lessen. To appreciate Dorothy Height is to understand the slights she endured and the obstacles she encountered both as an African American and as a woman, and how they only spurred her life-long campaign for justice.

Ms. Height died at the age of 98 on Tuesday morning at Howard University Hospital. President Obama eulogized her as "the godmother of the Civil Rights Movement and a hero to so many Americans." Her activism dates to the 1930s, and she played an influential, if largely unsung role, in the civil rights movement that transformed America in the 1950s and 1960s. Even though she presided over the National Council of Negro Women, a group she would head for 40 years until 1997, Ms. Height and her work often went unnoticed and unpraised. She was seated on the platform with Martin Luther King Jr. when he delivered his "I have a dream speech" at the Lincoln Memorial, but she would later express dismay that no one gave voice to women's rights.

Such experiences enabled her to see the injustices against women and African Americans as part of the same set of American problems that needed to be addressed jointly, and not as separate -- or even conflicting -- concerns. And, just as she had to fight against being marginalized in the civil rights movement because of her gender, so she had to push back against being marginalized in the feminist movement because of her race. She did so not with anger or bitterness but with determined grace. She spoke of this during a book signing at the Library of Congress in 2004: "I have been in the proximity of, and threatened by, the Klan; I have been called everything people of color are called; I have been denied admission because of a quota. I've had all of that, but I've also learned that getting bitter is not the way
Ms. Height never gave up the fight. Even as her age advanced, she continued to advocate for black families, preach self-reliance and despair over the lack of voting rights for the District. Recently, when she thought a worthy tennis program for children was threatened, she put her prestige on the line. Just as words can't fully capture her, so they fail to describe the void left by her death.