By Protecting Defense Contractors the GOP Has Become the Pro-Rape Party

Last updated on April 2nd, 2010 at 04:08 pm

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Drugged, gang raped and locked in a shipping container by KBR contractors, Jamie Leigh Jones still hasn’t had her day in court, and when 30 Republican Senators voted against an amendment proposed by Sen. Al Franken that would hold the defense contractors accountable for their employees rapes, the GOP became the pro-rape party.

Ms Jones was working in Iraq during Iraqi Operation Freedom for KRB when she was brutally sexually assaulted. When she reported the gang rape, she was held imprisoned in a shipping container by two armed KBR guards until she could call the Embassy to reach her father, after which she was rescued.

You can hear Ms Jones describe her ordeal in her own words:

Due to a clause in her contract with government contractor KBR (now Halliburton), she is unable to sue over this criminal assault; Instead she has to go to binding arbitration. Apparently, this is a common clause that government contractors use to protect themselves from being sued. Outraged over this, Sen. Franken (D-MN) proposed an amendment to the 2010 Defense Appropriations bill that would withhold defense contracts from companies like KBR, “If they restrict their employees from taking workplace sexual assault, battery and discrimination cases to court.” Speaking on the Senate floor yesterday,

Franken said:

The constitution gives everybody the right to due process of law … And today, defense contractors are using fine print in their contracts do deny women like Jamie Leigh Jones their day in court. … The victims of rape and discrimination deserve their day in court [and] Congress plainly has the constitutional power to make that happen.”
http://thinkprogress.org/2009/10/07/kbr-rape-franken-amendment/

30 Republican Senators voted AGAINST Franken’s amendment. 30 Republicans Senators voted to protect rapists working for Halliburton and other government contractors. Here’s the list of pro-rape Republicans: Alexander (R-TN) Barrasso (R-WY) Bond (R-MO) Brownback (R-KS) Bunning (R-KY) Burr (R-NC) Chambliss (R-GA) Coburn (R-OK) Cochran (R-MS) Corker (R-TN) Cornyn (R-TX) Crapo (R-ID) DeMint (R-SC) Ensign (R-NV) Enzi (R-WY) Graham (R-SC) Gregg (R-NH) Inhofe (R-OK) Isakson (R-GA) Johanns (R-NE) Kyl (R-AZ) McCain (R-AZ) McConnell (R-KY) Risch (R-ID) Roberts (R-KS) Sessions (R-AL) Shelby (R-AL) Thune (R-SD) Vitter (R-LA) Wicker (R-MS)

Being outraged by this is something all Americans share. These are our sisters, daughters, wives, mothers who are serving their country. How can we stand by silently as they are raped, kidnapped, etc — and then told that they can’t sue over such criminal activity.

And then they run a woman and expect all of us women to fall over ourselves voting for her, as if we are so stupid that we don’t know that she doesn’t stand for equal rights or women’s rights in any way; that in fact, she takes women back to a time when they had to pander to men in order to be accepted at work. She is a patriarchal Barbie. To add insult to injury, they then dressed her up like she was a piece of meat, and overly-sexualized her in every way they could, all the while crying “sexism” if anyone asked her what she read. All of this sets women back many years.

And they were shocked that we didn’t vote for her.

I’m sure they’re also shocked that Michael Steal (of campaign finance fraud investigations, aka: Steele) didn’t get the black vote for them, and yet they say blacks voted for Obama because of his color.

Ms. Jones needed reconstructive surgery due to the brutal nature of her attack. Reconstructive surgery! And the assailants claim it was “consensual”. Her breasts were misshapen and torn from the wall of her chest, among other painful injuries she sustained.

Republicans insult us all almost every time they open their mouths, and they wonder why no one wants to associate with their party anymore.

Sarah Jones

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