David Hamilton: Wants To Be a State Representative. Likes to Bruise Women
The last damn thing we need in Texas is another woman-hating bully in the Texas House of Representatives.
We have a guy running for the state house from my county. He’s a Republican. David Hamilton claims that he was arrested in Kentucky, but it’s just political. He likes to protest at women’s health clinics.
During one such stint outside a clinic in Kentucky in 2009, Hamilton said he was arrested for disorderly conduct after he attempted to get around a counter-protester. The charges were later dropped. The following year, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder sued him for violating the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act – a case that was settled in 2013.
Settled? Really?
I like his language of “getting around” a counter-protestor. First, it was not a counter-protestor. It was a clinic escort. Women attempting to enter this Lexington, Kentucky, clinic were so horribly harassed that other women volunteered to escort them into the clinic to keep men who are 6 foot 6 inches tall, like David Hamiliton is, from screaming at them and attempting to use their bodies to block women from entering the clinic.
Hamilton’s “getting around” the escort meant that he physically attacked her and left a bruise.
He grabbed her arm and shoved her so hard that he bruised her.
And now he’s running for the Texas House of Representatives.
You can help us get the word out to the Democratic base by donating a few dollars right here.
Hamilton admitted to the office of U.S. Attorney Eric Holder that he was guilty and paid a $2,500 fine to his victim in 2013.
From his arrest report —-
He bruised her. In Texas we call that an assault.
Here’s the first page of his agreement to pay the fine.
He did not “move” her. He grabbed her and he shoved her with such violence that it left a bruise. He did that to a woman. And he’s proud of it.
Now take a look at this 6 foot 6 inch guy’s website. Click the little one to see the big one.
His “high ethical standards” don’t include not hitting women.
Now here’s the clincher.
Republican Party of Texas Chairman Steve Munisteri said the party would consider allocating resources to Hamilton’s campaign. “There is a potential window of opportunity there, and we’re going to take a look at it.”
Texas Republicans are all behind this guy. They are going to give him money to help him get elected.
Please defend a woman’s right to chose and help us defeat David Hamilton, please click here to help us fill out the “electoral restraining order” on David Hamilton. We want to send a strong message that shoving women is unacceptable. Any dollars you donate will be used to get out the Democratic vote in that race.
The Democratic incumbent in that race votes for women’s rights. We need to keep him there.
Thank you for any help you can give us. This guy scares me.
He and that Terry guy who ran public menacing at womens clinics are two of a kind. Totally paleolithic! They think they are demonstrating love with their behavior which includes bombings and assassination. They would treat women trying to enter the clinic so rough that they could incite a miscarriage. Have they ever thought of that? Nothing more than Nazis in behavior and thinking. Bet they haven’t got word yet that we beat the Nazis.
1Apparently there are men in the world, even in Kentucky, who lack the self-control to not touch others when angry. These men need counseling. Some need incarceration. None need election to high office.
2He may think he’s a Christian but he’s not. Nowhere in the Gospels does Jesus tell men to assault women.
Besides, “Christian, husband, father” are not qualifications for office. (Neither is “conservative” but at least it tells the voter which way the politician is likely to swing.
3I am disgusted he assumes assaulting a women makes him a good christian. And that people would consider him a good candidate for public office.
4Has his wife been assaulted? Does he have a history of this behavior? I can’t imagine this was an isolated incidence.
I know a couple of women that if he had done that to them, he would have been kicked so hard in the cojones that he would have gagged on them in the back of his throat.
5Which probably would have cured several things about this idiot.
He should be “pushed” into a jail cell for that assault.
6Who do you know well, Miz Juanita Jean, who could research the background of this guy and his wife? It might be really interesting. Of course she might be mean too. You never know. Some folks really enjoy that sort of entertainment.
7And what was he doing in Kentucky at a women’s clinic? Where all has he travelled to scare women?
8Marge Wood, my first thought was that he maybe migrated from KY to TX. Was also interested that he lists “husband” in his credentials, but the wife is absent from that picture. Could she be back in KY where there’s a TRO on him? Or, did they both migrate to TX?
9I wish that I were a really good Anonymous-type hacker. All these jerks need to have their websites adjusted to reflect reality.
I am sick and tired of people claiming special treatment and using a bad English translation of a bad Latin translation of a bad Greek translation of the Hebrew and Aramaic transliterations of the myths and legends of a Bronze Age tribe as their justification.
It justifies war.
It justifies murder.
It justifies assault.
It justifies slavery.
It justifies genocide.
It justifies sexism.
It justifies racism.
It justifies classism.
It justifies statism (run by the “right” people).
In fact, it justifies just about anything you want, as long as you don’t want logic.
What a Good Book!
10I wish that someone held the copyright to the word “Christian” and would specifically prohibit its use in campaign materials. This is a country with secular governments according to both the federal and state constitution and the Bill of Rights.
What is this guy saying? Instead of “Christian”, how about “I am not a Jew”? “I am not a Buddhist?” Or especially “I am not a Muslim”?
On the other hand, let’s be direct and positive. Let’s go with “I am a bigoted white guy who’s pimping for votes from all my paranoid, fellow bigots.”
11I wonder if guys like this ever realize how badly they are tarnishing their brand. The word “Christian” no longer means what it used to mean because of its increasing association with people like this.
12UmptyDump, you are definitely onto something with secular government; also need some sort of warming label to alert everyone to the major differences between those “dog whistle Christians” and normal folks. Guess we can take their mewl and puke announcement of their religion as fair warning.
13Too true – PKM
Lately, I have been referring to them as neo-christians. The free market is their god, Jeebus their CEO and greed the major sacrament. If you’ve not been paying attention, check out all the ‘prosperity gospel’ proponents running around, especially on TV. Started long ago with Rev. Ike on the radio and the TV. It’s now everywhere. All hail Republican Jeebus! If you ain’t rich then Jeeebus don’t like you.
14At the next elections, all a candidate has to say is ‘I’m a xtian..(fill the blank).’ And he will NOT get my vote.
15Being xtain does NOT make you special, just delusional and capable of doing evil if pushed.
I’m for secular government. There are lots of good folks in all religions that care about what happens to one another. When I get one of those nastygrams about Muslims or gays or whatever, I just say I’m against extremists in any religion. It’s all complicated but it boils down to love one another. It’s not a suggestion.
16NOTE FROM JUANITA: I am going to break our no-trolls rule and post this comment just so y’all can see how lame this guy is. He says that he paid the fine because he didn’t want to go before a jury. Of course he didn’t want to go before a jury!
Here is the other side of the story, if anybody is interested: http://www.jillstanek.com/2013/01/doj-continues-to-lose-face/
17publius bolonius, when did the Reagan “Southern Strategy” among the buffet Christians meta-morph into the full blown racist dog whistle Christian “Southern Strategy”? Was it the Rove era or before?
Can’t recall the man’s name, maybe Black or Blackwell who was the shadow behind Rove. Still looking for the John Birch or Koch ties with this disgusting racial fear mongering.
18PKM, from a documentary I saw lately, I think we can date it all to Rove and Koch. Too many people think if you say it often enough on TV it must be true and these folks have bought a lot of airtime spreading lies in the last 20 years.
19Just clicked on the link and donated, then shared on Facebook. I have a brother (my sisters and I call him the “crazy” one to distinguish from the much nicer “sane” brother) who used his 6′ + frame to physically intimidate. Don’t know if he ever showed up at a women’s health care clinic, but he sure tried such intimidation on several occasions with family members. A RWNJ who kept moving from one off-brand church to another trying to find one that would do things his way.
20A friend of mine does escort duty at a local clinic and people like this scare her and scare patients. The escorts have been trained not to react physically, not to try to restrain people confronting them and the patients, because they’d draw an assault charge themselves– these people are looking for a chance to stop the escorts by claiming that they’re the victims. (Apparently a majority of SCOTUS bought this argument.)
I have a lot of respect for my friend, but I can’t do the work because I would, as Mike says, give this jackwagon one where it hurts the most, and then I’d be the one arrested and giving my side a bad name.
As with a nasty hit on the football field, it’s the one who retaliates that draws the penalty.
21daChipster, you introduce an important concept here.
22The Bible; ie, major mainstream translations, is a good book. Why? IMO, if viewed from a perspective of history, the integration of quantum and macro einsteinian world with humans essentially in the middle of the extremes scales coupled with the universal question of why are we here with all the good and bad, the essential ingredients are free will choice and faith.
Yes, there are problems with translations but more importantly, interpretations cause more of the problems and mix in those who misuse the Bible for their own self-serving agendas.
If we attribute creation to a God (as the only other alternative appears to be a random throw-of-the-dice which involves a rather large roll number), then why do we have all these contradictions in this world?
So, is the Bible a history book telling about God’s way of introducing man to Him? Do we tend to anthropomorphize God from our narrow preceptors, intelligence and myopic view of the big picture?
Why wasn’t the Bible literally written in stone from the beginning instead of being drawn out over millennia?
How many other religious texts go into such depth regarding the good, the bad, the ugly of human nature?
Finally, what about the transition from the OT quotes to the NT of Jesus’ teaching of unconditional love, forgiveness and taking care of the have-nots? Is this not part of the context of the Bible?
I hope this is not viewed as proselytizing for a religion but it is for critical thinking; ie, beyond our own normal controllable restraints.
Just once I wish someone would stand up and ask the candidate “you say you’re a Christian, can you tell us what kind of Christian” – if they reply with their standard Bible-thumping response your follow up could be Oh I thought you were a Jesus Christian…you know feed and clothe the poor, turn the other cheek, make sure the ill are taken care of, you know a real Christian.
23I was a volunteer clinic escort for 10 years–the ’90s–the behavior of the anti-choice people, for the most part, was appalling. (There were a few I had no objection to, i.e. praying quietly, etc.) Many of the men anti-choicers were women-hating wackos, who tried unsuccessfully to intimidate the female escorts.
24I think often of this oldie but goodie from Gandhi:
“I like your Christ. I do not like your Christians. They are so unlike your Christ.”
25Marlene, my son notes that a certain kind of church-goer could be called a kristian, like the krab in the fake seafood salad.
26Rhea and Old Mayfly, this Hamilton clown reminds me of another “they got it wrong” SCROTUS decision. The Five Fascists ruled against Massachusetts clinics setting a reasonable buffer zone between patients and protestors. While the hypocrites themselves enjoy a huge safety perimeter and underground garage access to avoid any and all protestors.
Too bad just any old doctor can prescribe Viagra. Imagine the Sturm and Angst, if the old boys on the Court or in Congress had to run the gauntlet women must run for reproductive health services. Sure would be many more court decisions in favor of patient/doctor confidentiality.
Think it’s time to hammer Hamilton with the many reasons women visit Planned Parenthood and other clinics. It’s not all about abortion, not that is is really any of their business.
27Polite Kool Marxist, your great comment encourages me to relate my favorite outside the clinic war story. Nobody repeat it please, because I’m going to put it in my autobiography.
I was the lone escort outside a clinic on a very high-traffic street. The sidewalk was narrow, and a “one-way” sign posted there was in a hole that had eroded. We escorts were careful to steer patients around the hole.
It was late afternoon and the protesters had left. I was there because sometimes the anti-choice people returned to harass women leaving the clinic, i.e., “Now you’re going to get cancer, kill yourself, etc.”
A 30ish man drove up and parked. His car carried many stickers, i.e. “I took a U-turn on the Road to Hell”, etc. plus many anti-woman stickers.
The man seemed disappointed at the quietness. He spoke to me a few times and I didn’t reply.
He decided to leave, I guess, but first he delivered his decisive salvo to me:
“Women,” he said, ” are inferior to men. That’s just the way it is. It is God’s law–like the law of gravity.”
Then he turned on his heel and marched away, only to step into the hole and fall to his knees.
I said, “You seem to be having a little trouble with the law of gravity.”
Never saw him again.
28This happened in Louisville (where I escort) to a fellow escort of mine. Just an FYI, since the blog says it happened in Lexington.
29People think they can have it their way.
They can customize their burgers.
They get to vote for their favorite singer or dancer on TV.
Look at how many types of salad dressings you can buy in the grocery store. Can you even find regular old Wishbone Oil & Vinegar in under 5 minutes?
Even churches find the need to stand out from the others to gather a congregation. If one of them says misogyny is all right, under special circumstances, a guy like David Hamilton is going to sign up and claim to be a proud Christian.
Praise the Lord! Bruise the women!
30https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DXOsRmdbfes&list=UUTTU-oN1Tr7dDv6Pm35L8fA Here is video of him outside EMW clinic
31Old Mayfly, thank you for the wonderful example of Karma. Love when She administers an immediate bite to the posterior of a deserving recipient. Poetic Justice is sweet, indeed.
Meanwhile, SCROTUS booted the buffer zone rule. Time for some upstanding member of Congress to introduce legislation that SCROTUS has to eat.
$2,500 fine for Hamilton? Nah. He should never have been that close in the first place. Time to set reasonable boundaries and haul the offenders in for assault, if they so much as place a toe on the line.
I’m with Jorge Peralta and also reject violence, but some of these punks really deserve to have their eyes dotted.
32van59, the Bible should be treated in the same way as fairy tales, or legends, which take place in a recognizable world, yet is not a true reproduction of this world. It contains some truths, some facts, some entertaining stories, some lessons. But it does not contain ALL truth, ALL facts, ALL stories, ALL morals. It’s precepts are based in an ancient society that we can imagine, but not fully understand. Its major protagonist, Yeshua ben Yusef of Nazareth in Galilee, has exactly the same historical basis as Mithras (none) and much of the same biography.
Most of the other religious texts, especially those from which the Bible borrows (e.g. Egyptian or Sumerian texts), or that borrow from the Bible, like the Koran, go into the same depth on a book-by-book basis. But the Bible as we know it – and as a Catholic, the Bible I know is different from that of Protestants – came into being in a political battle among bishops in the 4th century AD, who literally chose this 72-book version of the truth from many other sacred texts, including a PLETHORA of gospels. The Canon, including the official biography of Jesus which doesn’t even agree in the 4 Gospels we DID receive, and what it used to mean to be Christian, all comes from the Nicean Council. Written, edited, selected and sold for a profit by Man.
Finally, why do we need a Creator? An Uncaused Cause? The existence of this universe (one in a series? one among many?) was indeed mathematically improbable, yet so is every other form of universe. But SOME universe formed, so the probablity of any possible roll-of-the-dice happening is, indeed, 100%.
The more I think about it, the more I find the concept of God to be incredibly egotistical of mankind. “Let us create man in our own image” says one of the two conflicting creation stories.
What does that passage really do? It creates God in man’s image.
33David Hamilton: Christian. Husband. Father. Conservative. Woman Bruiser.
34Well,
Bless the brave souls who put their bodies on the line for other peoples’ rights.
35The only thing I like about him is his last name.
36Zyxomma, that Hamilton is as far away from Alexander Hamilton and any good Hamilton as ….. apologies to Mama in advance, so I won’t complete the sentence.
Old Fart, while I won’t and can’t speak for anyone else, it’s not the “other peoples’ rights” for which I stand. It’s all of our rights, including the st00pid like Cliven Bundy who don’t know any better. I’m white, but I too wear hoodies and could be the next Trayvon Martin or Michael Brown, if we don’t speak to the problems of militarized police and police brutality, and speak long and loud about corruption in our judicial system and politics.
Mrs B and everyone here point out the many issues facing us and do what can be done to improve things for everyone.
While I wouldn’t take the pitchfork for the Koch brothers or ALEC, I’d be good with sparing them, if they paid their back taxes and stopped their assault on the planet.
37I hope an attorney out there takes my throw down and articulates this better than can I. But here goes…
38Most folk hear “assault” and they think immediately somebody beat the crap out of somebody else. But Texas has the whole continuum of assault down pat IMO. At the misdemeanor end Texas has the assault by offensive contact where somebody touches you or some part of your clothing or backpack or whatever and they should have known that you would find that touching anger-making. This guy’s behavior is black and white that sort if misdemeanor criminal. And since we dont know the whole story it may have escalated well beyond a local court misdemeanor.
It’s just part of the Repug women outreach program. They reach out and hurt them.
39Thanks, deChipster, for a polite, reasoned response. I totally support the right of your belief. Whether I agree with it in whole or part or whatever is also totally irrelevant so long as it is not imposed upon me against my free will.
40The gist of your argument, IMO, is restricted to our narrow world and time frame which is natural since many can not or will not take the time to delve into the macro/micro cosmic aspects for a basic understanding of context.
About 20 years ago Scientific American published a book, “Powers of 10” where the size of man was the base of 1 which was raised exponentially up and down one digit at a time with an illustration at each step. At that time, there were about 26-27 exponents up and same number down which interestingly put man essentially in the center.
I ride bikes with a PhD physicist who could not answer several questions I posed to him; eg, explain, using the laws of nature (God for believers) what the 4 basic forces of nature are and not what they do; what is life, consciousness, innovative thought, good and evil, etc. He couldn’t do it.
Again, with the extreme complexities of nature, can you think of any other options for the universe other than supreme power or roll of the dice?
If we assume a supreme power and the validity of the laws of nature, which to date have not been shown, proven, to be invalid, changed, wherein the hundreds of billions of galaxies and 13.7 billion years of observable universe which apparently make up only 5% of the visible universe and the possibility of virtual particles in “space”, eg, why would this supreme power make our time so short, our world so constrained by very narrow set of parameters and yet appear to make things cloudy as you are pointing out?
Add to that the present science of all this coming in one instance from a “singularity” (close in concept to a point) with all the laws of nature intact.
How many life forms have come and gone in addition to those of today? Millions? Billions? Care to hazard some thought of demonstration as to how the laws of nature was able to engineer all these different forms? Or how DNA with its 6 billion alphabets (as I recall) just happened to come together?
If the Bible and other religious texts seem quite similar, are we not confronted with the Adam/Eve like beginning and the Flood especially wherein each case it seems the source of spouses for the off spring do not seem to be dealt with per our current understanding of inbreeding.
But with the Flood, can we assume eventually some form of dispersal of the growing population of survivors which eventually produced the surviving variants of the Flood, Noah and others? Why did some forms of these legends survive and others didn’t?
To me what makes a kind of sense is that this Supreme Intelligence wanted volunteers to join him. Hence, the free will. Throw in faith where just enough objective evidence along with subjective evidence is given such that one could make a reasonable choice. But, like any proofing, testing, there has to be some kind of challenge.
Can a God of this nature intervene in man’s thoughts while still allowing man his free-will choosing over his time frame as opposed to ours?
Another opinion; suppose the laws of nature are not meant to prove or disprove directly the existence of God.
Lastly, what was the knowledge level of people at the times these books, writings, were recorded?
Back to Ms JJ’s theme. People like this hamilton came into this world presumably as innocent babies. Along the line somewhere they made a free-will choice to sell their souls in the same manner as those who chose not to sell their souls.
So, in the long haul, which group will win out? How? Why?
Caveat: I ain’t no genius (except when I’m around the teabaggin, christianist conservatives:). I feel like I’m merely a messenger here; incomplete, skip around, loose ends, etc, due to space constraints and possibility of boring too many.
Just a plain old everyday asshole.
41I really hate to get nit-picky,Juanita, but when he got in her face, that was assault. When he touched her, that was battery…at least here in Texas. I have no idea what they call things in Kentucky…
42van59, I am thoroughly enjoying our exchange. 🙂 Hope other folks aren’t bored, offended, annoyed etc, because I’m gonna respond again.
I will grant you one window for God, and it’s this window that makes me an agnostic rather than a full-blown atheist. As the theme goes “The whole universe was in a hot, dense state…” – the singularity of which you speak. A super-dense dot of pure energy. Then BANG! …physics. Everything progressed from there.
Now, what happened before the Big Bang? Where did that singularity come from? Did an extra-universe omnipotent omniscient being put it there, with full knowledge of what would happen? If we are going to create a space for God in what science tells us of cosmology, it is there. After that? There is 0 evidence of a Supreme Being who takes an active role in history. Any such being would be beyond our powers of comprehension, would have no human emotions, would not crave love, attention, obedience and companionship from us, and really wouldn’t give a damn – because there is no hell – whether I had a pastrami sandwich on Good Friday or not. Being outside of time, there is no cause/effect relationship (therefore no sin!) nor even a single “reality.” All possible existences, and all possible points of time in those existences, are in the eternal, immediate NOW of that being.
Your acknowledgement of scale is actually an argument against your position, in that the amount of time packed into a BILLION years, much less 4 billion of them, much, much less 15 billion (if we’re talking about the salting postulate – an extra-terrestrial source of amino acids) is UNIMAGINABLE to us. Mutations in your DNA have taken place in your body just in the time it’s taken you to read this. Given the scale of the universe and of universal time, the existence of recombinant aminos was a mathematical certainty. Complexity – the plethora of particlulate permutations – is not an argument for God, just an argument for entropy, or for chaos, if you will.
The God of SOME human religions is a convenient anthropomorphism whose prejudices mirror those of the adherents of that religion. He is the ultimate logical fallacy – an appeal to unassailable authority. Once you accept, without evidence, the existence of such a petulant deity, then nothing is permissible without the blessing of his self-appointed representatives, and nothing is forbidden, especially hypocrisy, in his name. Because if there ARE no unchangeable rules, then I’m not even here. I’m just a figment of your imagination put there by God to test your faith. By that I mean that reality is totally SUBJECTIVE, which paradoxically rules out your God, who as the Ultimate Arbiter must be assumed to be OBJECTIVE reality embodied.
There MAY be a God, but it’s nothing like anything our words could express, especially in a bad English translation yadda yadda yadda.
43Guys, let’s table the religious philosophy here. The issue here is not religious belief or nonbelief in any form, but rather that it has no place in government that serves a diverse citizenry. I’m concerned that conservative religious zealots will jump at the opportunity to label contributors to this site (and thus Democrats in general) as enemies of Christianity who will wreck the country. Separation of church and state. It’s a concept that applies whether one is conservative or liberal, as the sad histories of other countries amply demonstrates.
44PKM @37,
I don’t disagree with you, EXCEPT in that particular moment the monitors were not in need of safe, LEGAL, abortion services. In that regard, I meant what I stated…
I guess this is another chance to state: Let’s honor these brave souls.
45Umpty Dump, I will abide by your motion to table, BUT as to conservative religious zealots labeling us enemies of Christianity who will wreck the country?
Brother, that ship has not only sailed, but hit the iceberg, gone to the bottom, been found, and had a movie made about it.
46@daChipster – Amen (if I may use the word), Brother!
47I’m a non believer and he is an ass.
48