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I was appalled recently at the number of people making JOKES about Mackenzie Phillips' claim that her father, musician John Phillips, began raping her when she was ten years old. I am disgusted by the people who make excuses for Roman Polanski's rape of a 13 year old girl in the 1970s. And that includes the writers of Saturday Night LIve. I don't care who you are. I don't care how long ago it happened. Rape is never acceptable. Rape is never funny.
In 2005, Jamie Leigh Jones was an employee of KBR, a former subsidiary of Halliburton and a US government contractor in Iraq. The details are too horrible to recount here, but Ms. Jones was drugged, gang raped, threatened, harassed, and imprisoned by her colleagues and her employer. She was not alone. Several American women reported similar situations. KBR responded by waving the women’s employment contracts in their faces. According to Sen. Al Franken (D-MN), “That contract contained a clause which required her to arbitrate any future dispute against her employer. This means it forced her to give up her right to seek redress in court if she was wronged. At the time, Ms. Jones had no idea what implications this seemingly innocuous, fine-print clause would have.” The rest of the details are too horrible to recount here, but you can read them at Franken’s website. He’s a member of the Employment and Workplace Safety subcommittee of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee.
On October 1, Franken offered an
amendment (SA 2588) to
HR 3326, a Defense Department appropriations bill. The amendment prohibits federal funds to Halliburton, KBR, or any other contractor that requires employees or subcontractors to sign mandatory arbitration clauses giving up their rights to sue the company for civil rights and sexual assault offenses. Franken made an
eloquent statement explaining the reason for the amendment on the floor of the
Senate.
In the end, the
amendment passed by a vote of 68 – 30*. That’s right.
Thirty United States Senators voted to protect rapists and the government-paid companies that employ them. Those senators are all Republicans, and they are all men. They are:
Yesterday, I sent email messages to all thirty of the men on this list. The message said:
“I'm writing an article for my online column, "Community Matters" for Examiner.com about the Franken Amendment. Tell me why you approve of rape. Tell me why your parents didn't care enough about you to teach you right from wrong. Tell me how you explained this vote to your mother, your sisters, your wife, your daughters, and your granddaughters. The article will be published at noon on Friday, October 16, 2009.”
I’ve also notified Franken of this article.
So far, I’ve received four form replies:
· James Risch thanked me for my message and said my input is important to him.
· Johnny Isakson thanked me.
· Lindsey Graham thanked me and said he only replies to South Carolina residents.
· John Cornyn said he will reply as quickly as possible.
Yes, I emailed them. I did not spend several hours making phone calls. They’ll get the messages and they can call me if they have anything to say. I’ll let you know if I get any real responses.
So. Do we want these people making life and death decisions for us? Will we continue to reward these pigs for their behavior? When will we demand accountability from our employees?
These hypocrites claim to honor women and family values. They claim to be “tough on crime”. They peddle “personal responsibility”. So let’s ask them about their family values. Force their hands on crime. Hold them personally responsible.
I'm sending this link to the ten Republican senators who voted for the
Franken Amendment. I'll ask them to hold their colleagues accountable for their actions. You can do the same.
They are:
- Robert Bennett, Utah
- Susan Collins, Maine
- Charles Grassley, Iowa
- Orrin Hatch, Utah
- Kay Bailey Hutchison, Texas
- George LeMieux, Florida
- Richard Lugar, Indiana
- Lisa Murkowski, Alaska
- Olympia Snowe, Maine
- George Voinovich, Ohio
Please help. Publicize this list of senators. Contact them. Ask them the three questions. Forward this column to the people that you know in their states. And don’t stop until we get answers.
* Pennsylvania Senator Robert Casey (D) voted for the amendment. Senator Arlen Specter (pretending to be a D) did not vote. I’ve asked his office why he didn’t vote, but they haven’t replied yet.
Comments
This is apalling! Not entirely surprising, but horrific just the same.
Look at this moron lordphallas says I for one am getting tired of hearing every feminist bitch about everything. You've been blessed with knees, a mouth, and a pussy, what the hell else do you want?" This is the kind of people who worship hate radio host. He is probably live in trailer park, very poor, support republican agendas, though their ideas are contrary to his interests, and finally he is the reasult inbreed. Since in his world cousines are not off limit to mate.
And about this issue Patricia O'Malley prepare online petitions because it is more effective and will have more responses.
Way to fight the good fight! I'm with you; I'm passing this on; and then I'll start my own emails.
"I myself have never been able to find out precisely what feminism is: I only know that people call me a feminist whenever I express sentiments that differentiate me from a doormat." -Rebecca West, 1913
The ordeals of the women you reference are indeed horrific. But I also believe that the simplistic logic you are using to make the quantum leap that republican senators are now condoning rape diminishes your message. Most employers routinely ask their employees to sign clauses in their employment agreements to cover all manner of unforeseen contingencies. IT is beyond terrible that these clauses can be used in this way. But again, I do not believe that the senators agreeing to allow employers to retain employer agreements puts them in a category of condoning a violent crime or worse "approving of rape".
Somewhere in here I feel you are leaving out a great deal of info. I smell another liberal fabricating a story to make republicans look bad.............
Marlena - Look at the links yourself. I'm not the only one reporting on this.
Oh, sorry. I forgot.
I made it up and Senator Al Franken amended a Defense Appropriations bill on my say-so.
LINDA
THIS IS THE TEXT OF THE AMENDMENT. IT APPLIES ONLY TO CIVIL RIGHTS AND SEX ASSAULT CLAIMS.
WHY DO YOU APPROVE OF RAPE?
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.
(b) The prohibition in subsection (a) does not apply with respect to employment contracts that may not be enforced in a court of the United States.
Making inflammatory accusations IE: Linda, WHY DO YOU APPROVE OF RAPE? is not the way to convince anyone that your argument holds any merit? Re-reading the amendment...I stand by my original comment. If the amendment simply stated that: "IF an employee is sexually assaulted during the course of their employment and the employer is proven to be complicit; the employee or independent contractor performing work under the contract or subcontract must resolve their claim through arbitration ONLY." This would be condoning rape if it was proven that a rape occurred. However, that is NOT what the amendment asserts. The nature of the crime is abhorrent and I understand the outrage but I do not believe that making false and misleading assertions about a group of senators’ helps in any way. These assertions seek to blame everyone but the criminal or criminal(s) who perpetrated the assault.
Some of the opposition comments: The amendment would impose the will of Congress on private individuals and companies in a retroactive fashion, in validating employment contracts without due process of law. It is a political amendment, really at bottom, representing sort of a political attack directed at Halliburton, which is politically a matter of sensitivity.
Notwithstanding, the Congress should not be involved in writing or rewriting private contracts. That is just not how we should handle matters in the Senate, certainly without a lot of thought and care, and without the support or at least the opinion of the Department of Defense.
Senator Franken offered this amendment because he apparently does not like the fact there are arbitration agreements in employment contracts. I would suggest that is common all over America today.
Google it to get more...I can not insert the link for some reason.
btw not all Rep's voted nea so your accusations and logic are flawed.
The comments go on to say that arbitration is typically the best approach over litigation due to the cost of suing. If I took your approach I could assert that Democrats are against the poor.
Obviously, republicans are not in favor of rapists. No one is (except the rapists). The title of your blog is inflammatory and part of the problem most of America is having to deal with today. Just about anything can be either taken out of context or dealt with at a headline level (like this one) or not researched (again, like this one). Talking about truth and facts are not as much fun as creating a crazy headline to draw in readers and then leave them with only a fraction of the info. Next time try the whole story so folks like Caroline, James and Kate don't go out and make fools of themselves.
btw - I'm not a republican or a democrat. I am independent and deal with issues based on facts, rule of law and the Constitution.
Republicans being bought to keep thier collective hypocritical mouths shut?? Doesn't surprise me at all.
RAPIST -
Article I, Section 8,
Clause 1 - to provide for the general welfare
Clause 18 - To make all laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into execution the foregoing powers and all other powers vested by the constitution in the government of the United States or in any department or officer thereof.
The Franken Amendment pertains to all GOVERNMENT CONTRACTORS.
The government most certainly can decide the terms of any contract in which it is involved.
No one is forcing any company to be a contractor. If they don't like the terms and conditions, they are free to work elsewhere.
Now. Tell us all exactly why you think it is acceptable for any company to violate the civil rights of its employees, and to IMPRISON them to prevent them from reporting a RAPE.
This conversation is closed.
Just like your mind.
..and I suppose that the list of Democrats who vote against "the right to life" and are pro-abortion is an equally if not longer one. Expand your research.
Why do you hate Republican men?
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