Does your Senator love (shielding government contractors from prosecution for abetting) rape?

[Alex_P]

(Clarified by request.)

So, in 2005, a woman working for Haliburton / KBR (Kellogg, Brown, Root -- an engineering/construction company) was gang-raped by her co-workers in Baghdad. The company rather mishandled the situation, stuffing her in a cargo container and mishandling the rape kit performed by an Army doctor. Her contract included a clause stipulating that the sexual assault claim would be settled in out-of-court arbitration. As far as I can tell, the arbitration pretty much just strung her along for a year and then she filed a court case to get her claim moved to court. The Department of Justice, pathetically, did nothing about the case -- despite the fact that it's the government's responsibility to bring forward criminal cases, not the victim's.

Yesterday, the Senate voted on an defense spending amendment that would bar awarding contracts to companies that require their employees sign away the right to pursue sexual assault, battery, and discrimination cases in court.

30 Senators voted against it. That's thirty people who aren't even pretending to make a good-faith effort to stand up for the basic rights of their voters or hold government contractors up to any scrutiny whatsoever.

I made you this little chart.
A "Nay" vote is a vote for doing business with companies that make their employees sign away their right to seek redress for rape in court.

Alabama:Sessions (R-AL), NayShelby (R-AL), Nay
Alaska:Begich (D-AK), YeaMurkowski (R-AK), Yea
Arizona:Kyl (R-AZ), NayMcCain (R-AZ), Nay
Arkansas:Lincoln (D-AR), YeaPryor (D-AR), Yea
California:Boxer (D-CA), YeaFeinstein (D-CA), Yea
Colorado:Bennet (D-CO), YeaUdall (D-CO), Yea
Connecticutodd (D-CT), YeaLieberman (ID-CT), Yea
Delaware:Carper (D-DE), YeaKaufman (D-DE), Yea
Florida:LeMieux (R-FL), YeaNelson (D-FL), Yea
Georgia:Chambliss (R-GA), NayIsakson (R-GA), Nay
Hawaii:Akaka (D-HI), YeaInouye (D-HI), Yea
Idaho:Crapo (R-ID), NayRisch (R-ID), Nay
Illinois:Burris (D-IL), YeaDurbin (D-IL), Yea
Indiana:Bayh (D-IN), YeaLugar (R-IN), Yea
Iowa:Grassley (R-IA), YeaHarkin (D-IA), Yea
Kansas:Brownback (R-KS), NayRoberts (R-KS), Nay
Kentucky:Bunning (R-KY), NayMcConnell (R-KY), Nay
Louisiana:Landrieu (D-LA), YeaVitter (R-LA), Nay
Maine:Collins (R-ME), YeaSnowe (R-ME), Yea
Maryland:Cardin (D-MD), YeaMikulski (D-MD), Yea
Massachusetts:Kerry (D-MA), YeaKirk (D-MA), Yea
Michigan:Levin (D-MI), YeaStabenow (D-MI), Yea
Minnesota:Franken (D-MN), YeaKlobuchar (D-MN), Yea
Mississippi:Cochran (R-MS), NayWicker (R-MS), Nay
Missouri:Bond (R-MO), NayMcCaskill (D-MO), Yea
Montana:Baucus (D-MT), YeaTester (D-MT), Yea
Nebraska:Johanns (R-NE), NayNelson (D-NE), Yea
Nevada:Ensign (R-NV), NayReid (D-NV), Yea
New Hampshire:Gregg (R-NH), NayShaheen (D-NH), Yea
New Jersey:Lautenberg (D-NJ), YeaMenendez (D-NJ), Yea
New Mexico:Bingaman (D-NM), YeaUdall (D-NM), Yea
New York:Gillibrand (D-NY), YeaSchumer (D-NY), Yea
North Carolina:Burr (R-NC), NayHagan (D-NC), Yea
North Dakota:Conrad (D-ND), YeaDorgan (D-ND), Yea
Ohio:Brown (D-OH), YeaVoinovich (R-OH), Yea
Oklahoma:Coburn (R-OK), NayInhofe (R-OK), Nay
Oregon:Merkley (D-OR), YeaWyden (D-OR), Yea
Pennsylvania:Casey (D-PA), YeaSpecter (D-PA), Not Voting
Rhode Island:Reed (D-RI), YeaWhitehouse (D-RI), Yea
South CarolinaeMint (R-SC), NayGraham (R-SC), Nay
South Dakota:Johnson (D-SD), YeaThune (R-SD), Nay
Tennessee:Alexander (R-TN), NayCorker (R-TN), Nay
Texas:Cornyn (R-TX), NayHutchison (R-TX), Yea
Utah:Bennett (R-UT), YeaHatch (R-UT), Yea
Vermont:Leahy (D-VT), YeaSanders (I-VT), Yea
Virginia:Warner (D-VA), YeaWebb (D-VA), Yea
Washington:Cantwell (D-WA), YeaMurray (D-WA), Yea
West Virginia:Byrd (D-WV), Not VotingRockefeller (D-WV), Yea
Wisconsin:Feingold (D-WI), YeaKohl (D-WI), Yea
Wyoming:Barrasso (R-WY), NayEnzi (R-WY), Nay

(data source [http://senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=111&session=1&vote=00308])

Does one of the Senators who voted "Nay" represent you? Maybe you ought to give him a call.

-- Alex

 

[MrSnugglesworth]

Go Virginia. We're awesome.

 

[gmer412]

...And, look at that, they're all republicans. My God, America. Luckily both of my senators voted rationally. VA for the win!

@ above poster: yes.

 

[Armored Prayer]

Good to see Maryland said "Yea".

 

[Berethond]

However much I may hate them, they did vote "Yea".

 

[Trivun]

This doesn't apply to me because I'm British, but if I found out that my local MP had voted that way in a similar Parliamentary vote over here on a similar topic I would definitely be calling bullshit and be ranting a bit about it. Fortunately one of my housemates is the Vice President of our student union Labour Party Committee, and another is on the editorial team of our student newspaper. So I have a few contacts there already.

Really though, this is, as I said, bullshit. Those senators should be voted out of office as soon as elections are held, or equivalent depending on the appointment procedures of US Senators (as a Brit I don't fully understand politics outside the UK). They obviously don't care about their constituents, it's as simple as that.

 

[Gxas]

Wow... Thankfully, Ohio isn't a Nay, but that is still absurd.

Definitely shows the view of those that we have voted into senate.

 

[Grayjack]

It's reassuring to see that NY voted "Yea."

 

[A random person]

Well, both of my senators voted against it. I love South Carolina and our conservative strawman named Jim DeMint.

 

[Godavari]

I'm from Missouri. Our only good senator voted yea, so I'm calling that a win.

EDIT: I just noticed, every senator who voted nay is a Republican.
*flame suit activated*

 

[Psyco Josho]

Proving once again that the US government is full of idiots.

 

[Timotei]

It's shit like this that make people want to burn Congress down.

I am not surprised about the conditions of the contract as it was from Haliburton, who as we all know is run by people who, like Darth Cheney, haev set out to create mass death and frustration.

 

[Kajin]

I'd actually like to see the proposed bill and give it a read through myself before I light the torch and brandish my pitch fork. Their may have been a reason somewhere in the fine print that they disagreed with. Law making is tricky business, you have to make sure all your bases are covered before you make a decision and that sometimes involves putting a stop to a beneficial proposal so it can have a little more processing time to "get things right" the first try.

You don't get to be a president by being a smart man. You get to be president by being a charismatic individual with no qualms against kissing as much *** as humanly possible. The same can be said for most political positions of relatively high rank. I sincerely doubt that rapists are a high voting majority, which by my flawless (not really) logic, one can assume that the politicians are either extremely lucky special ed students or are willing to take a hit to public opinion now in order to be the hero later by passing somewhat more effective legislation.

 

[A random person]

Oh look, Georgia's full of hicks, why am I not surprised? Oh yah I live there. On a totally unrelated note the GOP today announced renewed efforts in ensuring equal rights for women. In a public statement the GOP leader said this, "The GOP cannot continuously support taking away a woman's fundamental right to be raped."

Could you give a source? I know the republicans have quite a few fringe people, but I really doubt a major GOP figure would have said that.

Edit: Nevermind, apparently I'm an idiot at detecting sarcasm.

 

[dmase]

Go Virginia. We're awesome.

Yes we are. Anyways it appears as tho most.... all of the nay voters are republican. It really does go against the Republican agenda with little to no regulation for buisness but i don't see how you could vote no on a bill like that.

 

[Alex_P]

I'd actually like to see the proposed bill and give it a read through myself before I light the torch and brandish my pitch fork.

Here you go [http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d111:SP2588:].

-- Alex

 

[A Weary Exile]

Way to go Florida! Rape is bad!

 

[thiosk]

Before jumping to any undue conclusions, was this vote on ONLY this narrowly described ammendment?

American law and legislation is so complex, it may very well be that this was a provision that was a single part of another vote. Like, maybe it was a vote to create a government department that oversees all companies that do business with them. And this provision was added. You could then vote against the department as a whole, and be voting against this provision by matter of association.

In fact, I doubt that this was the only line the senators were voting on that day. Since there is not necessarily the option for line item vetos, maybe they were voting against something else that was attached to that.

Before jumping on the fuck republicans band wagon, I would ask for this to be clarified.