Slog

Jesus christ, get your geeks to code you an auto html tag closer. Make it so that no post can publish with unclosed tags.

This law sounds like an excellent idea! Congratulations Ms. Murry.

However, the statistic you site at the end of the post - one in three women abused by their partners - seems like a startlingly high rate of abuse. If this is true then either many of my female friends and relatives are hiding abuse by their partners or the people I know are lucky. I'm not saying that this statistic isn't true and I'm not trying to be the jerk who tries to find out how the statistic is "wrong". It's just that the sheer number of victims takes your breath away. That would be at least 50 million victims.

So... One in three women will get unlimited time off and the State will foot the tab, and businesses will suffer. Sounds like the kind of sound Liberal policy that only Ms. Murray could dream up.

Just another reason to always hire the man when faced between a choice between two candidates of equal caliber. If you hire the woman, chances are if she’s not away from work having babies she will be away from work having beatings.

I'm hoping the time off is certified by legal paperwork and such, because another problem I can immediately see is a woman, seeking divorce, who then files accusations of domestic abuse just to get hassle-free time off from work for her divorce proceedings.

#5, I'm willing to take that chance. Millions of women are physically abused by their partners and a surprising number of them are killed them. Sure, some will cheat this system, (they always do) but that number would be very small compared to the numbers of victims who would benefit from the legislation.

Considering how much productivity is lost by abusers harassing their victims at work, I'd say this is a money-saver.

#4, Like men don't have any problems that distract them from their work. Please.

While it's generally unproductive to call people names, I believe you are an offical women-hater.

I agree with YGBKM. If we do this, what next? Paid time off for jury duty or Sick leave? I bet you a lot of women will provoke their partners into beating them just to get that paid time off to go sit in a courtroom or police stations - two of the garden spots of contemporary society.

Heads work better when they are pulled out of the ass, YGBKM. I suppose you fancy yourself a libertarian or something - aren't you people all supposed to move to New Hampshire or something?

Does unemployment insurance last for a limited time and aren't there already limits on how often you can receive it? It's not quite a financial windfall.

woah #8, as someone with lib leanings don't put that YGTBKM in anything closely resembling something i agree with. his views are distorted and wacko and downright hostile as represented in those posts. even NH would want nothing to do with him.

Why not all crime victims? If a dude gets mugged that's got to count too.

Okay, job security for abuse victims. Sounds decent, although there are probably details to work out.

But wait, "Badass WA Senator Patty Murray..."? Are you kidding me? "Badass"? There are a lot of words I would use to describe Patty Murray, but "badass" isn't anywhere close to that list. I've met her. She's a good person. She mostly casts votes the way I'd like her to. I voted for her before, and I'll vote for her again. But come on. She's widely known not to be the brightest bulb in the box, and she is hardly an innovator. I'm actually surprised she came up with an idea like this. She is not by any stretch of the imagination a badass.

Women! They let 'em vote, smoke and drive - even put 'em in pants! And what happens? A Democrat for president!

Hey folks, everyone here seems to have forgotten that Men can be in abusive relationships as well. To assume otherwise is incredibly sexist and ignores gay/lesbian couples. Can't you folks think this through a little bit before ranting on the internet?

This law protects everyone.

I'm all for protecting victims, but I do not support this bill for the same reason that I do support nationalized health insurance.

It's not fair on employers or employees to ask businesses, especially small businesses, to foot the bill for employee misfortunes they had nothing to do with. Victim protection, like health care, should be covered by nationalized services.

Hope that happens after 2008.

Did anyone see the news on Saturday, about the woman who was running down the street away from her partner as he was chasing after her and shooting at her? Even though neighbors called the police, he killed her.

Today (for those still up).

In the Seattle metro area.

"that one in three American women will report physical or sexual abuse by a male intimate partner in their lives"

This frankly sounds like horseshit. Please cite your source for that stat.

(That said, this is probably good legislation).

It's a noble effort, but I'm not sure how much it will accomplish.

1) Employers WILL look at things like this and see yet another risk in hiring a female employee, unfortunately. It's just cold economics. Unless, perhaps, there is some risk of roughly equal likelihood that men would seek leave. But I don't see how that could be appropriately fit in to this effort, since men don't quite suffer from domestic abuse the way women do.

2) How easy is it to prove that an at-will employee was fired because of abuse?

This law will not solve every single problem about Domestic Abuse. Therefore it is a bad idea.

Hello everyone, wanna be part of some kind of community, possible here? anyone here?