Last Month our new senator from Minnesota, Senator Al Franken, proposed an amendment to HR 3326 the Defense Department Appropriations bill, S 2588. This bill was meant to fix the problem that became big news in 2005 when Jamie Leigh Jones, an employee of KBR in Iraq who was brutally raped and beaten by her male co-workers then had to suffer the indignity of submitting to arbitration (that is, without a judge, jury or public record of the hearing – something that would be unheard of had the crime been committed in America). KBR claimed that Ms. Jones had signed away any right to a trial of any kind when she became their expatriate employee in Iraq.
Franken’s bill, simply put would deny the use of funds for any Federal contract “if the contractor or a subcontractor at any tier requires that an employee or independent contractor, as a condition of employment, sign a contract that mandates that the employee or independent contractor performing work under the contract or subcontract resolve through arbitration any claim under title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 or any tort related to or arising out of sexual assault or harassment, including assault and battery, intentional infliction of emotional distress, false imprisonment, or negligent hiring, supervision, or retention.”
The bill was debated and approved on October 6th.
Thirty Republican senators voted no.
John Cornyn, the junior senator from Texas was among their number. Kay Bailey Hutchison voted in favor of the amendment.
30 white men, Republicans all, voted against the rights of a rape victim.
Why mention this now? This seems to be some old news.
Politico is reporting today that momentum from this event is gaining steam and that these 30 senators, including John Cornyn of Texas, are going to be presented to Americans by Democrats that Republicans are insensitive to rape victims. In particular, six of these Republicans who are up for re-election in 2010.
From Politico:
Franken’s bill, simply put would deny the use of funds for any Federal contract “if the contractor or a subcontractor at any tier requires that an employee or independent contractor, as a condition of employment, sign a contract that mandates that the employee or independent contractor performing work under the contract or subcontract resolve through arbitration any claim under title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 or any tort related to or arising out of sexual assault or harassment, including assault and battery, intentional infliction of emotional distress, false imprisonment, or negligent hiring, supervision, or retention.”
The bill was debated and approved on October 6th.
Thirty Republican senators voted no.
John Cornyn, the junior senator from Texas was among their number. Kay Bailey Hutchison voted in favor of the amendment.
30 white men, Republicans all, voted against the rights of a rape victim.
Why mention this now? This seems to be some old news.
Politico is reporting today that momentum from this event is gaining steam and that these 30 senators, including John Cornyn of Texas, are going to be presented to Americans by Democrats that Republicans are insensitive to rape victims. In particular, six of these Republicans who are up for re-election in 2010.
From Politico:
“Angry letters denouncing Republican senators have appeared in newspapers from Tennessee to Idaho. Unflattering videos of senators trying to explain their votes have gone viral on the Internet, including one of Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) swatting away a hand-held video camera held by a liberal blogger questioning his vote against the amendment.”
“And Democratic strategists are salivating at the prospects of using the vote against the eight GOP senators who voted against the amendment and are up for reelection in 2010.”
So in case you start hearing about this, I thought maybe you should also be able to view the above-mentioned video taken by the blogger who asked the junior senator about his vote for rapists and against all American women.
What a class act, huh?.
What a class act, huh?.
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