House of Bush-Saud

When I read this headline - Saudi Rape Case Spurs Calls for Reform - and went to the NYT page to read more, I learned that a young woman in Saudi Arabia had been raped by a gang of men, and then SHE was tried and found guilty of being alone with a man to whom she was not married.  Her punishment was 90 lashes.  

If that wasn't enough, her lawyer appealed, and for daring to do that, the woman's punishment was more than doubled (200 lashes!  Two hundred!!!  WTF, are we living in medieval times?  Jeebuz, I hardly know what to say about this horrific and revolting situation) and the lawyer had his license revoked.

In general when there are articles like this, there's some quote from Mr. Democracy, our very own faux president,  about how appalling this sort of thing is.  Human rights, democracy, rule of law, blah blah blah.  Of course there is no criticism from Bush, though.  None from Miss Laura, either.

And then I remembered this:

From the article in NYT:  

The Saudi system still operates without a codified legal system and uses a strict Wahabi interpretation of Islamic law, or Shariah, to hand down verdicts. Like all institutions in Saudi Arabia, the court system is subject to the absolute authority of the monarchy.

Daddy Bush and Junior Bush are both friends of that monarchy.  In some ways, maybe Junior even agrees a bit with this:

The Saudi Ministry of Justice and two prominent Saudi judges have lashed out against the victim, suggesting that she was engaged in immoral behavior at the time of the assault.

What with wanting to eliminate access to abortion and birth control, Junior and his ilk show how little they care for the rights of women to privacy, to control of their own bodies, to simple human rights.  

Here is more:

The Justice Ministry published two statements on its Web site on Nov. 20 and 24, 2007, alleging that the rape victim had confessed to engaging in illicit acts and was undressed in a car prior to the rape.

The victim's attorney has said that is NOT true.  Be that as it may, the only point of consequence is that if she was raped, then she is the victim.  I don't care if a woman pole-dances naked in front of the royal residence; if she is raped, then the rapist is the one who should be punished.  

Maybe I'm wrong and Junior did indeed speak out against this, but I haven't found it online yet.  Apparently oil for America is more important than the dignity and safety of women in Saudi Arabia.  It reminds me of the old saw that you can know a person by the company he keeps, and I'm still pissed off at how many Americans failed to take this into account when voting for the candidate they think they'd most like to sit down and have a beer with.

•  I would love to have a beer with him.

  Having a buzz on would make it all-the-more satisfying when I throw my PBR in his face and bonk his head against the juke box glass, causing a recurring skip in Bette Midler's "The Rose", while people look on in shocked silence for 3.5 seconds before returning to converstation, darts, and mechanical bull riding.  Or is it just me?

  by bigtimecynic on Fri Nov 30, 2007 at 02:26:03 PM PDT

•  Why am I not surprised?

  Bush won't condemn the Saudi "justice" system because

  A)He doesn't want to piss off his family's buddies
  B)The GOP plank on reproductive health is all about disdain for women.

  by Pan Zareta on Fri Nov 30, 2007 at 03:22:02 PM PDT