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In 2005, Jamie Leigh Jones was gang-raped by her Halliburton/KBR co-workers
while working in Iraq and locked in a shipping container for over a day
to prevent her from reporting her attack. The rape occurred outside of
U.S. criminal jurisdiction, but to add serious insult to serious injury
she was not allowed to sue KBR because her employment contract said
that sexual assault allegations would only be heard in private
arbitration--a process that overwhelmingly favors corporations.
This year, Sen. Al Franken (D-MN) proposed an amendment that would deny defense contracts to companies that ask employees to sign away the right to sue.
Jon Stewart seems surprised. I'm not. Between protecting KBR/Halliburton's protection of rapists and protecting women from rape was a no-brainer -- fortunately for KBR/Halliburton.
Oh, that's nice. That's really nice. So it is a bit jarring -- in more ways than one -- to read allegations that the White House apparently considers concerned gays part of the "internet left fringe" (as if that were a bad thing). From John Aravosis:
"Tomorrow night President Obama will speak before a gay rights group,
and on Sunday there will be a massive gay rally in Washington, or as I
call it, the Million Mo March. Which makes this weekend the perfect
time for Obama to announce he's repealing "don't ask, don't tell" and
committing to a full-throated endorsement of gay marriage. One, because
it's the right thing to do and two, because it will throw the
conservative base into such a frenzied, pants-shitting panic that
they'll drop all that BS about death panels and socialism and let us
all get some actual work done.
"But of course that's not going to happen. I can tell you what the
president is going to tell his audience tomorrow: How much he supports
them. How much he agrees with them. And how he wishes he was President
so he could help them out.
October 5, 2009 Healthcare Reform Debate with Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-NY) and Dr. Betsy McCaughey, Health Policy Expert, Patient Advocate and former Lieutenant Governor of New York (1995-1998)
If the “feeling” about Obama is the “game changer”, then why not award
the Nobel Peace Prize to the entire American electorate? After all,
we’re the ones whose feelings have changed — as shown by us
collectively doing as much as possible to remove Republicans from power
in Washington and treat the world better....
This prize should only be awarded to those who, as can be shown
empirically, brought more peace to the world. To throw the prize at
Obama — or anybody else — who simply causes the Nobel committee to
“feel good” only cheapens the award.
[T]his isn’t about domestic politics, or about what he’s done yet.
President Obama has changed how the world feels about America. He’s
lifted the planet’s mood. This guy is global Prozac.
by Damozel | Can I hear you say, "Amen"? From Huff Post:
"We as a party have spent the last six months, the greatest minds in our party, dwelling on the question, the unbelievably consuming question of how to get Olympia Snowe to vote on health care reform," he said. "I want to remind us all that Olympia Snowe was not elected President last year. Olympia Snowe has no veto power in the Senate. Olympia Snowe represents a state with one half of one percent of America's population."
"What America wants is health care reform," he continued. "America doesn't care if it gets 51 votes in the Senate or 60 votes in the Senate or 83 votes in the Senate. In fact, America doesn't even care about that, it doesn't care about that at all."
The consensus view-- which I share -- is that it's a bit damn previous. On the other hand, anything that upsets the denizens of Greater Wingnuttia as much as this is going to do is pure bonus, so there's that. In short: Mwahahahahahahha!
by Damozel | This 4-part video --aptly summarized here -- is extremely worthwhile and definitely worth making time for, as he discusses his father's experiences.
S. Amend. 2566 simply prohibits "the use of funds for any Federal
contract with Halliburton Company, KBR, Inc., any of their subsidiaries
or affiliates, or any other contracting party if such contractor or a
subcontractor at any tier under such contract requires that employees
or independent contractors sign mandatory arbitration clauses regarding
certain claims." The "certain claims" have to do with sexual assault....
Franken offered the amendment because a KBR employee, Jamie Leigh
Jones, age 19, was raped by a bunch of KBR workers in Iraq and then
locked up in a crate when she tried reporting them. After she was
rescued and returned to America she was informed that she couldn't take
KBR to court because there was some fine print in her -- and everyone
else's -- contracts that don't permit any such thing. [See the video
below.]
Senator Jeff Sessions of Alabama...of
the Senate Armed Services Committee, was the key spokesperson for the
GOP against the legislation which he called unfair to Halliburton, one of the biggest Republican Party contributors in history. (More at HuffPost)
Good going for Franken. It needed to be done, and he did it.
by Damozel | Schultz explains the distinction between discourse on the House floor and an outburst during a Joint Session of Congress. In case I haven't mentioned it lately, Anthony Weiner is my other favorite Democratic warrior. "Eric Cantor must think the bill fairy pays the hospital bills" for the uninsured. Weiner says of Grayson, "Usually we don't let freshman speak, but we gotta get this guy out there more."
by Damozel | This is how you do it. When civility gets you nothing but FAIL, this is how you counter the untrue jeering and the lies that just won't die.. This is what we send people to Congress for. From The Hill:
"America is sick of you, Republican Party; you're a lie factory, that's all you do," he told MSNBC on Thursday. "Why don't you work together with the Democrats to solve America's problems instead of making stuff up?"
Grayson
then called the party a bunch of "no-mongers."...
"The people
who should be apologizing are the Republicans, they're the ones who
should apologize for dragging us all through the mud here while we're
just trying to improve healthcare in America," he said. "That's all
we're trying to do."
Thank you, Alan Grayson, for standing up to the bullies.
by Damozel | I'm just so damn relieved that somebody is finally saying it and that the someone in question is Florida's Alan Grayson. Watch Tweety call Grayson "a Martin Luther" and the GOP blowhards such as Limbaugh "clowns" and calls Glenn Beck "what's his name, Beck." Grayson says that bullies always back down.
