Thursday, October 8, 2009

Republicans: Rape Is OK If The Perpetrators Are One Of Us

Important to note: Halliburton has been a huge GOP campaign contributor.

Posted by at

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

This is a classic case of misdirection and misinformation.

First, this amendment was tacked on to a military spending bill, which begs the question: if it was so crucial and important why wasn't it presented on it's own instead of trying to insert it in to an unrelated bill? The Democrats don't need any Republican votes to pass a bill currently, so they certainly could have done it straight up.

Second, it does not actually accomplish anything, since legally Arbitration does not cover, nor is it allowed to supersede Criminal Proceedings, which Rape, last time I checked, was, although I guess not according to Polanski supporters, but I digress. If you actually look at the Federal Arbitration Act, which by the way seems to have been strengthened in recent years by Democrat controlled Congresses, specifically does not apply to Criminal Issues. Therefore, the employee in question could have pursued criminal and civil charges against her attackers, despite the arbitration clause.

Finally, do we really want to be passing laws prohibiting government contracts with companies whose policies we disagree with? If so then I assume that when Conservatives are in power you won't mind them excluding any companies that support abortion rights, or employee illegal aliens, from having government contracts, right?

October 9, 2009 at 2:02 AM
Josh Haden said...

Thanks for your comment, anonymous, I love your anti-scientology work!

To your first point, I completely agree with you. I even wrote a blog post about this very problem here.

To your second point, I think the employee in question was trying to sue KBR itself, not necessarily the KBR employees who allegedly gang-raped and imprisoned her.

To your final point, yes, I personally would like to see Congress pass a law that prohibits government contracts with companies that have a policy of rape.

Here is the text of Franken's amendment:

"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."

You write, "...when Conservatives are in power..." Let's not get ahead of ourselves.

Its true that when the Bushes were Presidents the U.S. was prohibited from funding overseas health organizations that provided abortions to women who may have needed them.

When Obama took office I believe he rescinded this prohibition. I might be wrong about that. However, Obama recently said himself that any healthcare reform under his watch would not include funding or reimbursement for abortion services. So there we have a liberal Democrat excluding abortion in insured heath services. We don't need a conservative in office to make sure such a thing happens.

I also believe there is already on the books a law prohibiting U.S. companies from hiring illegal aliens. Here in L.A. just in the past few weeks there was a raid on a big clothing manufacturer, American Apparel, which reportedly got rid of 25% of its workforce. No matter that American Apparel prides itself on not ferreting work out overseas, something conservatives seem to have no problem with despite their "buy American" slogans.

And you're right, I do mind. I, along with the first President Bush, pine for the day when we will have a "new world order", when there is true equality for all, not just for the rich, and when there is no such thing as an illegal alien because there will be no such thing as borders. A man can dream, can't he?

October 10, 2009 at 1:56 AM
Anonymous said...

wow - Josh should enter politics! He has a keen mind and good, strong social positions.

October 14, 2009 at 3:16 PM

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)