Free Rape for Foreign Contractors say 30 Senate Republicans

Think Progress Franken Wins Bipartisan Support For Legislation Reining In KBR?s Treatment Of Rape
Franken Wins Bipartisan Support For Legislation Reining In KBR’s Treatment Of Rape

In 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:

Quote:

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.

Watch Franken’s speech:

YouTube Video

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.”

In the end, Franken won the debate. His amendment passed by a 68-30 vote, earning the support of 10 Republican senators including that of newly-minted Florida Sen. George LeMieux. “He did what a senator should do, which was he was working it,” LeMieux said in praise of Franken. “He was working for his amendment.”

Appearing with Franken after the vote, an elated Jones expressed her deep appreciation. “It means the world to me,” she said of the amendment’s passage. “It means that every tear shed to go public and repeat my story over and over again to make a difference for other women was worth it.”

Quote:

NAYs ---30
Alexander (R-TN)
Barrasso (R-WY)
Bond (R-MO)
Brownback (R-KS)
Bunning (R-KY)
Burr (R-NC)
Chambliss (R-GA)
Coburn (R-OK)
Cochran (R-MS)
Corker (R-TN)
Cornyn (R-TX)
Crapo (R-ID)
DeMint (R-SC)
Ensign (R-NV)
Enzi (R-WY)
Graham (R-SC)
Gregg (R-NH)
Inhofe (R-OK)
Isakson (R-GA)
Johanns (R-NE)
Kyl (R-AZ)
McCain (R-AZ)
McConnell (R-KY)
Risch (R-ID)
Roberts (R-KS)
Sessions (R-AL)
Shelby (R-AL)
Thune (R-SD)
Vitter (R-LA)
Wicker (R-MS)

If you voted for any of those senators you are a dumbass.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Despite this whole thing, wouldn't you really be a dumbass for voting for them anyway?

Ensign, you fucking cocksucker. I wish you'd die already.

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I'm not surprised to see Kyle (R-AZ), as he's a total douche-bag... but come on, McCain? Why the hell would he vote against that?!

I hate this state more and more

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

I'm not surprised at all to see Burr from NC up there. At least we got rid of Elizabeth Dole in the last election, otherwise I guarantee that it would have been 31 votes against this bill. She seemed innocuous enough before, but during the last election she came out against pretty much everything good and revealed herself to be a horrible excuse for a human being.

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Originally Posted by Dark Nation

I'm not surprised to see Kyle (R-AZ), as he's a total douche-bag... but come on, McCain? Why the hell would he vote against that?!

I hate this state more and more

Looks like when he sold his soul he hasn't gotten it back yet. >.>:

I was speaking idiomatically.

More solid proof Republicans will do anything in their power to antagonize anything remotely tied to Barack Obama or the Democatic party. Unless they really are awful human beings.

I can't decide which one is worse.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

Think of how mind-numbingly dense the average person is. Then imagine that 50% of the voters in this country fall below that level of intelligence.

It all kinds makes sense if you really bother to think about it.

FELIPE NO