Tuesday, December 22, 2009

A Win for Jamie

Those of you who were with me during the previous incarnation of this blog, will remember that I have supported this woman’s cause for years.  She still has not received the compensation she deserves, but she has met her goal to make the way less difficult for others forced to follow her in her unfortunate footsteps.

jamieleighjones The White House Press Office sent out a statement today announcing that President Obama signed the Department of Defense Appropriations Act, 2010 into law on Saturday:

H.R. 3326, the “Department of Defense Appropriations Act, 2010,” which provides FY 2010 appropriations for Department of Defense (DOD) military programs including funding for Overseas Contingency Operations, and extends various expiring authorities and other non-defense FY 2010 appropriations.

Within the Appropriations Act is Sen. Al Franken’s (D-MN) amendment prohibiting defense contractors from restricting their employees’ abilities to take workplace discrimination, battery, and sexual assault cases to court. The measure was inspired by Jamie Leigh Jones, who was gang-raped by her co-workers while working for Halliburton/KBR in Baghdad...

Inserted from <Think Progress>

I hope that Jamie got a smile from this.  She deserves it.  And just so you don’t forget, these are the Republican slime balls who voted against Jamie that it’s OK for giant corporations, who fail to protect their employees from such abuse to add insult to injury by denying them their day in court.

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)

10 comments:

rjs said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
the walking man said...

She knows how to use a weapon and I suggest she take her own dignity back. No court can return it to her. And no court is going to prosecute them who raped her.

rjs said...

disregard my above comment; it was meant for the Bernanke article...

Randal Graves said...

Did you ever think that Vitter was out buying diapers before he cast his vote? He simply didn't have the time to study the facts.

TomCat said...

LOL, RJ!! Getting prolific in your dotage? ;-} JK, my friend.

Mark, I'll have to disagree. If KBR ends u[p losing a single contract, that id more effective retribution for her.

Randal, since when has Vitter ever been concerned with facts?

Joe "Truth 101" Kelly said...

Why does it take personal tragedy for these republiscum to see the error of their ways?

Hurricane Katrina floods out houses and only then does Trent Lott decide somethng should be done because his house was flooded. Don't these idiots have wives and daughters. Can't they for one moment imagine themselves in a situation like Jamie is in?

These creeps bring shame on the entire human species.

mary b said...

My heart goes out to Jamie. She stood strong and paved the way for a (hopefully) better future for others! Way to go, Jamie! It's a shame she had to suffer and be victimized in the process.

While I would never, ever make light of what Jamie has gone through, (those bastards, all of them, belong in prison for a long, long time), the Corporate Machine is raping us daily in non-physical ways. Someone in Congress should try and put a stop to that, too.
Working your ass off for unbelievably low wages, for years straight without anykind of raise or even a Christmas turkey for a bonus, paying women much less than men for equal work, laying off others just to let another low wager do the work of three people with no monetary compensation, it's just continuos greed, non stop. And they keep on thinking up more ways to fuck with you. And don't even try to make your complaints known, there are too many people out of work who will work for a little less than you, even if you've been there for 10-20 years. It's almost like a prison system, cept you get to go home at night.
We do not live in a Democracy. We haven't for a long time. It's pure, simple Capitolism. It's filthy, smelly and getting worse by the day.
What can we do to try to change it? Looks like, not too fucking much. The Unions don't even have the power they used to have. That is, if you can even find a Union job. In the South, they don't exist.
Let's all hope that Jamie, being the strong, wonderful woman that she is, is able to go on with as little trauma as possible. And here's to you Jamie! You are a Hero among todays young women for standing and fighting and coming out strong! Good luck to you and your future. May the best always be yours!

TomCat said...

Truth, the irony is that even with her personal tragedy, the Republicans I listed STILL do not see the error of their ways.

Welcome back, Mary. I fully agree. To change it, I am following a two step process. First get rid of the alligators. Then drain the swamp. The alligators are the Republican Party. As long as they retain any vestiges of power, they will wield it to prevent any progress whatsoever. They are completely devoid of ethical substance, human concern, and integrity. They have no redeeming value. They must be eliminated. I'm speaking politically and oppose any attempt to use violence against them. The swamp is the Democratic Party. Many of them are no better than the Republicans. However they do have a progressive core. We can build that core until it dominated the party. It will take time, and I probably will not live to see the goal fully reached, but as I see it, that is our nation's best hope.

Lisa G. said...

A big YEAH for Jamie. Hopefully, she'll at least get a civil suit out of this and sue the crap out of them; but I'm not really hopeful. After all, this amendment is ex post facto; but other people will benefit from her bravery. Good on her and I hope she gets the help she needs to get over this travesty.

Yeah, I took Latin from Jr. High (7th grade then) until I graduated from High School. A CPA and Latin student - I guess that makes me the biggest geek EVER. Oh, and I aced trig and calc.
BTW, Sen, Crapo has the most suiting name ever!

TomCat said...

Lisa, if igt makes you feel any better, I had four years of Latin.

Gallia est divisa en partes tres.