This is just so wrong…

I debated about posting this but it has been bothering me terribly since I first read it.

Warning, graphic language.  If you came over for some lighthearted banter, today is not your day.  Click on out, please.

Backstory – About 4 years ago,  Jamie Leigh Jones, 19 YEARS OLD, went to Iraq to work for KBR which was owned by Halliburton (Dick Cheney’s old stomping grounds) until 2007.  In case you didn’t know, Halliburton and KBR are contractor companies hired by the Department of Defense to supply our troops, etc.  And, we the taxpayers shoot them a lot of money to do laundry, transport food and water (be nice if it wasn’t contaminated), etc.  See this article.  But, back to Jamie Leigh Jones. 

She was there FOUR DAYS when she was given a drink that probably had roofies in it.  She says she doesn’t remember anything after that until she woke up bleeding – raped both vaginally and anally, breasts torn apart (she had to have reconstructive surgery).  She was gang raped by seven men. This part from from the Guardian describes her ordeal:

In legal papers Jones, who was 20 at the time, says she was fed a knockout drug while drinking with KBR firefighters.

"When she awoke the next morning still affected by the drug, she found her body naked and severely bruised, with lacerations to her vagina and anus, blood running down her leg, her breast implants ruptured and her pectoral muscles torn‚ which would later require reconstructive surgery. Upon walking to the rest room, she passed out again," the papers say.

Jones was treated by a US army doctor who gave forensic evidence to company officials. She says the firm placed her under guard in a shipping container and she was released only after her father asked the US embassy to intervene. When the forensic evidence was handed to investigators two years later, crucial photographs and notes were missing.

Jones says she identified one of the men who attacked her after he confessed, but that Halliburton/KBR prevented her from taking legal action against him or the company by pointing to a clause in her contract requiring disputes to go to arbitration.

She told a Senate committee: "I had no idea that the clause was part of the contract, what the clause actually meant, or that I would eventually end up in this horrible situation."

 

Because of that arbitration clause in her employment agreement, she cannot sue KBR.  The men who raped and sodomized her and mutilated her body have not been charged with any criminal offense.   She has filed a civil suit against KBR for the right to sue.  It’s been four long years and she still doesn’t have justice. 

Sen. Al Franken proposed an amendment to Department of Defense funding bill to require Department of Defense to not use companies that force employees to sign a contract that forces them use only arbitration.  Senator Al Franken tore into KBR’s front man.  It is well worth watching.

 

Here is Jamie Leigh on December 17, 2007 being interviewed on MSNBC:

Here is the wording of the amendment:

Sec. 8104. (a) None of the funds appropriated or otherwise made available by this Act may be used for any existing or new 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.

 

Pretty clear to me and I think well written. 

But now it gets very wrong.  If this could probably get worse, right?  THIRTY Republican Senators voted AGAINST IT.  Are you freaking kidding me?  THIRTY – that’s 30 REPUBLICAN US SENATORS voted against it.  Here is that cast of fools from a satire site called Republicans for Rape.

Below is the list of thirty legislators who were brave enough to stand up in defense of rape and vote against Senator Al Franken’s anti-rape amendment to the 2009 Defense Appropriations bill.  We applaud these courageous men!  Roll over the portraits with your mouse to see the Senator’s phone number, or click on a portrait to visit the Senator’s contact page.   We encourage you to send your kind words to these gentlemen!

Senators from states in which both senators voted nay get a pink background!

New!  A fan-created rape support map has been added to the bottom of this page!

 

Jeff Sessions (R-AL)

 

Richard Shelby (R-AL)

Jon Kyl (R-AZ)

John McCain (R-AZ)

Saxby Chambliss (R-GA)

Johnny Isakson (R-GA)

Mike Crapo (R-ID)

James Risch (R-ID)

Sam Brownback (R-KS)

Pat Roberts (R-KS)

Jim Bunning (R-KY)

Mitch McConnell (R-KY)

David Vitter (R-LA)

Thad Cochran (R-MS)

Roger Wicker (R-MS)

Kit Bond (R-MO)

Mike Johanns (R-NE)

John Ensign (R-NV)

Judd Gregg (R-NH)

Richard Burr (R-NC)

Tom Coburn (R-OK)

Jim Inhofe (R-OK)

Jim DeMint (R-SC)

Lindsey Graham (R-SC)

John Thune (R-SD)

Lamar Alexander (R-TN)

Bob Corker (R-TN)

John Cornyn (R-TX)

John Barrasso (R-WY)

Mike Enzi (R-WY)

This website is (mostly) satire. Its creators do not endorse rape nor do they oppose anti-rape legislation.

 

Are you still with me?  Are you anywhere near as horrified as I am that these MEN voted AGAINST this amendment?  Note – not ONE REPUBLICAN FEMALE SENATOR voted against this amendment.  Boys, isn’t that telling you something?  And, kudos to you Republican women.  Please take your asses over to these boys and BEAT THE SHIT out of them, will ya?

The basic reason that the good ole boys voted against this amendment is that it WOULD LEAVE COMPANIES LIKE KBR open to lawsuits and it would cost them MONEY.  Oh really?  Well, then, perhaps you might want to police your employees a little more carefully.  Hell, these companies are getting paid ENOUGH by us taxpayers to DO A GOOD JOB for our troops and to PROTECT THEIR OWN EMPLOYEES.

Maybe you shouldn’t hire barbarians.  What a thought.  One of the guys CONFESSED!  Is he still working for you?  Or did you do the right thing and fire him and tell the authorities over here what a monster he is?  Who were these guys anyway?  Why aren’t their names being published?    Wouldn’t you love your daughter to date one of these stellar individuals? 

So, our wonderful Republican Senators want to protect their lovely little (yeah, right) defense contractors from shelling out money in lawsuits.  Do these Republican Senators remember at all that they were elected by THE PEOPLE OF THE UNITED STATES to protect us and our children?  To represent US and our beloved daughters?

NOT DEFENSE CONTRACTORS?

No, I don’t think they remember.  But, we can make them remember.  Call them – their phone numbers are on the Republicans For Rape site, just hover over their picture and the phone number will pop up.  Write them – you can get their snail mail addresses here – all their websites are listed.

AND THE MOST IMPORTANT THING – when the next election comes up for these total fools – VOTE THEM OUT.  GET RID OF THEM.  America DOES NOT need people in our Senate who will not protect our children.

I look over at my beloved daughter sleeping on the couch and think, what would I do if something like that happened to her and there was no justice.  I would go mad.  Totally mad.

Now, it gets better – from the Huffington Post:

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."

Call and write this asshole, too.  Tell him to NOT TO CATER catering to big money, please?

Senator Dan Inouye

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here is his phone number:  202-224-3934 and his email is:  senator@inouye.senate.gov .  I just called. 

This is for all of us, Republicans and Democrats alike.  It doesn’t matter – we need to come together for this.

If you’ve stayed with me on this whole thing, thank you.  And, call.  Write.  FAST.

Here is Jamie Leigh Jones website:  The Jamie Leigh Foundation .

Here is more info on what happened via Wikipedia.