..and having the temerity to ask that his colleagues agree with him on the Congressional Record too!
The horror!
Via TPM, mostly because linking to Politico tends to give me the heebie jeebies...
The Republicans are steamed at Franken because partisans on the left are using a measure he sponsored to paint them as rapist sympathizers -- and because Franken isn't doing much to stop them.
"Trying to tap into the natural sympathy that we have for this victim of this rape --and use that as a justification to frankly misrepresent and embarrass his colleagues, I don't think it's a very constructive thing," Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) said in an interview.
That is a straw man, Senator Cornyn -- Franken wasn't asking you to shed a tear for the victim, but instead was asking that you vote to make illegal what the Halliburton subsidiary did -- namely, held the victim without food, or medical attention for two days in a cargo container after being gang-raped by her colleagues, and then cited contract language keeping her from suing her employer for it.
The question shouldn't be whether Franken was sticking it to the GOP. The question is why the GOP caucus allowed three-fourths of its members to be so honest about their priorities when it comes to regulating how military contractors treat their employees when such brutality occurs on their dime.
Luckily, the amendment passed despite their opposition to such regulation. Score one for the good guys.
Sen. Al Franken's (D-MN) anti-rape amendment to the Defense bill may be in danger. The admendment would end contracts with defense contractors who force employees into binding arbitration and deny employees the right to file sexual assault charges. This amendment passed 68-30. The only Senators opposing it were Republicans from the south.
The danger comes from an unlikely source, Sen. Daniel Inouye (D-HI). Rumors abound that Inoye is getting lobbied hard and heavy by defense industry lobbyists. Inouye chairs the Appropriations Committee and has the power, as Chair, to do things like this.
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."
(Huffington Post)
I spoke with Lori Hamamoto, Sen. Inouye's Press Secretary. She said that Inouye voted for the amendment and continues to support it. Lori has no idea where these rumors originated and reassured me that Sen. Inouye would not be weakening or removing Franken's amendment.
UPDATED
My cross-post at Daily Kos got rec listed. ****ing A!!! That's never happened to me before. Wow.
The following YouTube demonstrates why Senator Franken introduced that amendment, that thirty - THIRTY - Republicans opposed. Let's look:
The above YouTube and the thirty - THIRTY - Republican Senators that voted against Senator Franken's admendment demonstrates, once again, that GOP now stands for GreedOverPrinciples.
While we covered Sen. Al Franken's to terminate all contracts with any military contractor that makes contractors sign agreements to not sue if they are raped, Jon Stewart on The Daily Show had a great take on it.
Political jujitsu: proposing amendments that get common-sense things done while forcing your opposition to choose between pissing off their base by agreeing with you or looking like they actually support corporate rape.
That's exactly what Al Franken did this week with an amendment to the Defense Appropriations Bill designed to prevent defense contractors from stipulating that their employees have no recourse in case of sexual assault while on the job. From a release by Franken:
Last Thursday, I offered an amendment to the 2010 Defense Appropriations Bill that would stop funding defense contractors who deny victims of sexual assault their day in court. My efforts were inspired by Jamie Leigh Jones, whose story is a chilling call-to-action, and whose actions to right this wrong a stunning profile in courage.
When Jamie was 19, she was working for then Halliburton subsidiary KBR in Iraq, where she was placed in a barracks with 400 men. She complained about sexual harassment, but KBR took no action and she was eventually drugged and gang-raped by co-workers. When she tried to report what had happened, KBR locked her in a shipping container under armed guard. One of her guards smuggled her a cell phone, which she used to call her dad. Her dad and her Congressman got her back to the States.
Once Jamie was back with her family, she discovered that the fine print in her contract with KBR prevented her from taking her case to court. Since then, she's been telling and retelling her story around the country, fighting on behalf of victims of sexual violence.
Yesterday, by a vote of 68-30, the United States Senate adopted the Jamie Leigh Jones Amendment, ensuring that employers cannot unfairly force victims of sexual assault into arbitration. While Jamie's fight is not over, from now on victims will have a better shot at seeking something that far too often eludes them: justice.
I was honored and humbled to play a small role in seeing this amendment passed, and am so pleased to let you all know today that while Minnesota, and the country, face serious challenges, we're making some progress on standing up for those who have previously been without a voice in Washington.
Of the six Republican males who voted for the amendment, all of them represented states outside the deep South -- Bennett (UT), Hatch (UT), Grassley (IA), LeMieux (FL), Lugar (IN), and Voinovich (OH). The other 30 men, including luminaries like David Vitter, John Ensign, and John McCain, didn't think the amendment warranted passage.
This is interesting. According to Republicans, a fake pimp and ho, reported to the police, was apparently so beyond the pale that they've worked to strip ACORN of all federal funding. But denying employees actual redress from gang rapes is no big deal?
