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Republican politicians have earned their reputation as heartless asses. That said, here’s a reminder that Democratic politicians are at times no better. The background to the story below can be found here.
HuffPo reports…
An amendment that would prevent the government from working with contractors who denied victims of assault the right to bring their case to court is in danger of being watered down or stripped entirely from a larger defense appropriations bill.
Multiple sources have told the Huffington Post that Sen. Dan Inouye, a longtime Democrat from Hawaii, is considering removing or altering the provision, which was offered by Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) and passed by the Senate several weeks ago.
Inouye’s office, sources say, has been lobbied by defense contractors adamant that the language of the Franken amendment would leave them overly exposed to lawsuits and at constant risk of having contracts dry up. The Senate is considering taking out a provision known as the Title VII claim, which (if removed) would allow victims of assault or rape to bring suit against the individual perpetrator but not the contractor who employed him or her.
“The defense contractors have been storming his office,” said a source with knowledge of the situation. “Inouye either will get the amendment taken out altogether, or water it down significantly. If they water it down, they will take out the Title VII claims. This means that in discrimination cases, they will still force you into a secret forced arbitration on KBR’s (or other contractors’) own terms — with your chances of prevailing practically zero. The House seems to be very supportive of the original Franken amendment and all in line, but their hands are tied since it originated in the Senate. And since Inouye runs the show on this bill, he can easily take it out to get Republicans and the defense contractors off his back, which looks increasingly likely.”
Inouye is the second longest serving Senator in Congress which is further reason to why Congress needs to impose term limits on its members. Returning the same fools to office for 30 or 40 years makes it too easy for corruption to take hold.
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My question is when is Obama going to really change the way Washington works ? He promised that in his election campaign and while I realise that he has a lot on his plate,I hope he will step up to the plate when the health bill reform is passed. We need to stop the lobbyist influence in Congress right away. We need to have laws that prevent politicians to go on brainwash vacations by greedy companies and sway them on their vote. We need decent people that will vote for the right thing to do when defending society and the individual.
Lobbyists have infected the jar and outlasted their usefulness just like unions have. We need something different in Washington and we need to get rid of slime and sleaze in the political arena