telescreen.org: We Know What's REALLY Important Here, Don't We?

Now this pisses me off.

The Judiciary Committee of the South Carolina State House has tabled a bill protecting victims of domestic violence. Licensed social worker Vicki Bourus, executive director of the South Carolina Coalition Against Domestic Violence & Sexual Assault, says that the bill would protect domestic violence victims: for one thing, it would require training in domestic violence issues for family court judges and magistrates.

As it turns out, that same week, the State House Judiciary Committee passed a bill cracking down on cockfighting, making it a felony punishable by up to five years imprisonment. (Currently, domestic violence and cockfighting are both misdemeanors, punishable by 30 days in jail.)

Now, the obvious conclusion to be drawn from the above is that South Carolina's State House Judiciary Committee thinks that protecting gamecocks is more important than protecting battered women. Another state legislator certainly thinks so, saying:

What we have said by the actions of the Judiciary Committee is we aren't going to create a felony if you beat your wife, partner. But now, if you've got some cockfighting going on, whoa! Wait a minute.

WIS-TV reporter Kara Gormley asked Rep. John Graham Altman (R-Charleston), a Republican on the Judiciary Committee and a supporter of the cockfighting bill, about this perception. Altman's response was not only facile and stupid, but downright insulting as well. The full exchange, as reported in WIS's story:

Altman: "People who compare the two are not very smart and if you don't understand the difference, Ms. Gormley, between trying to ban the savage practice of watching chickens trying to kill each other and protecting people rights in CDV statutes, I'll never be able to explain it to you in a 100 years ma'am."

News 10 reporter Kara Gormley asked Altman, "That's fine if you feel you will never be able to explain it to me, but my question to you is: does that show that we are valuing a gamecock's life over a woman's life?"

Altman again, "You're really not very bright and I realize you are not accustomed to this, but I'm accustomed to reporters having a better sense of depth of things and you're asking this question to me would indicate you can't understand the answer. To ask the question is to demonstrate an enormous amount of ignorance. I'm not trying to be rude or hostile, I'm telling you."

Gormley, "It's rude when you tell someone they are not very bright."

Altman, "You're not very bright and you'll just have to live with that."

In the follow-up interview, Rep. Altman commented, "I wanted to offend that snippy reporter who come in here on a mission. She already had the story and she came in with some dumb questions and I don't mind telling people when they ask dumb questions."

Unfreakingbelievable. This is an elected official that's behaving this way. I'm so glad that he's so concerned about the fate of fighting chickens. And I wonder if he has any daughters. Or a wife. Or a sister.

(Once again, here is Rep. Altman's contact information.)