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I find it stunningly shameful that in 2009, amendments like this are still needed…
n 2005, Jamie Leigh Jones was gang-raped by her co-workers while she was working for Halliburton/KBR in Baghdad. She was detained in a shipping container for at least 24 hours without food, water, or a bed, and “warned her that if she left Iraq for medical treatment, she’d be out of a job.” (Jones was not an isolated case.) Jones was prevented from bringing charges in court against KBR because her employment contract stipulated that sexual assault allegations would only be heard in private arbitration.
Sen. Al Franken (D-MN) proposed an amendment to the 2010 Defense Appropriations bill that would withhold defense contracts from companies like KBR “if they restrict their employees from taking workplace sexual assault, battery and discrimination cases to court.” Speaking on the Senate floor yesterday, Franken said:
The constitution gives everybody the right to due process of law … And today, defense contractors are using fine print in their contracts do deny women like Jamie Leigh Jones their day in court. … The victims of rape and discrimination deserve their day in court [and] Congress plainly has the constitutional power to make that happen.
On the Senate floor, Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL) spoke against the amendment, calling it “a political attack directed at Halliburton.” Franken responded, “This amendment does not single out a single contractor. This amendment would defund any contractor that refuses to give a victim of rape their day in court.”
What is most astonishing is that while the amendment passed with a 68-30 vote, those 30 nay votes were all from Republican senators. In essence, by casting their vote against the amendment they were giving their tacit approval for gang rape. Think about it – for Republicans, concern for defense contractors like Halliburton takes precedence over the rape of women.
These guys never disappoint – rotten to the core.
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Two words only ….ugly bastards.
…and why not? The Republicans have been raping us for the past 8 years…
Okay, now that i’ve calmed down enough not to fill this comment section with curse words…… These Republicans are the same ones who want to dictate a woman’s choice, want to have total control over a woman’s right to choose and right to speak out against her attackers when raped or domestically abused. All the while decrying the involvement of government in their own lives and businesses.
Hypocritical, misogynistic men who would be only to happy to rescind women’s right to vote.
There ought to be a law….
@Janine GOP votes makes sense to me; they wrap themselves in their religion and most all religions regard women as below the value of the male and treat woman with disrespect.
So we can pass all the laws in the world to protect women but the mind-set will not changea as long as they see women as subservient.
Like I said before, they have never forgiven Eve for getting them kicked out of their heaven. They can’t man-up and take responsibility for eating the damn apple
@Dahl,
You right, I mean correct! GOP votes do make sense because of the reasons you state. I don’t know why I get surprised at what they vote for or against, like in the above post, but for some reason I’m usually surprised at how unreasonable they can be
@janine HAha don’t ever call me “right” again!
I used to say as I grow older I loose my sense of Awe. But by gum Republicans have brought it back, bless their hearts
@Dahl
I won’t! in fact I have taken that particular word out of my vocab
[...] We wrote a few days ago about defense contractor KBR’s female employee who was gang-raped and the related Al Franken amendment which passed last week. Story here. [...]