s skippy the bush kangaroo: it turns out people hate it when you vote in favor of rapists

skippy the bush kangaroo



Thursday, October 22, 2009

it turns out people hate it when you vote in favor of rapists

thanks to c&l videocafe, we find the rachel maddow show pointing out how the repubbblican vote against sen. franken's amendment was very bad publicity for the gop.

the amendment in question is to the sept. of defense appropriations bill that would prevent the government from contracting w/halliburton if halliburton required employees to sign away their rights to sue if something nasty happens to them. something nasty like, say, oh...rape.

rachel enlightens us as to how bad this negative vote is for the repubbbs:

maddow: one specific vote on one specific part of the giant legislation that funds the defense department is turning into a real political problem for 30 republican senators.

in idaho, the "lewiston morning tribune" called out its two senators in an editorial titled, "senators crapo and risch cast an inexplicable vote."

in mississippi, "the clarion ledger" editorialized, quote, "senators cochran and wicker voted to protect corporations, not victims, and they should own up to that."

an opinion piece in the "osawatomie graphic" was titled simply, "kansas senators are disappointing." in tennessee, a "crossville chronicle" writers asked, "whose side are our senators on?"

the "athens banner herald" in georgia headlined a letter quote, "georgia senators embarrass state." and in louisiana, a "shreveport times" writer asks, quote, "what exactly is sen. david vitter problem with women."

when republicans are getting called out in mississippi, kansas, louisiana, tennessee and georgia, something big is going on politically. this all began when 30 senate republicans voted against an amendment by democratic senator al franken of minnesota.

the amendment said that the government shouldn't give defense contracts to companies if those companies prevent their employees who have been raped or discriminated against from suing in court.
here's even more stories depicting the bad press the gop has heaped upon itself.

c&lvideo cafe shows the maddow clip which interviews jamie leigh jones, the contractor who was drugged and gang-raped by her halliburton co-workers, upon whose sad story the franken amendment was based.

unfortunately at this juncture, it looks like sen. dino inhooye will gut sen. franken's amendement out of the 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."
bet sen. inouye's not gonna be popular in the islands (insert "lei" joke here).

addendum: some commentors @ huffpo suggest:

call sen. inouye's office tell him not to strip sen. franken's anti-rape amendment! 202-224-3934/6747
posted by skippy at 11:37 PM |

2 Comments:

This is fucking ridiculous. Sixty-eight Senators voted for this amendment. It should have been all of them voting for it, but the GOP is teeming with the scum of the earth, so I can understand why most of them would vote against it.

What I don't get is why Senator Inouye would cave on this issue. I don't care how much money the lobbyists throw at him, this is a no-brainer. Rape is wrong. Period.

Way to bolster people's faith in the government, Inouye. He needs to retire now...
commented by Blogger Jim Yeager, 7:59 AM PDT  
What is wrong is that the last time I heard anything about it, no one was criminally charged in Jones' rape or imprisonment. Where is the Justice Dept., Bush's or Obama's? If civilian contractors remain above the law whereas soldiers can face military trials, nothing is going to change. Yeah, KBR and Haliburton and those types of companies will have to pay some form of restitution once the victims survive the attack, call in support from their local congressperson, and then manage to find a competent attorney able to make a case against some super company's billion dollar legal team. Sure things will change.
commented by Anonymous sean, 9:44 AM PDT  

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