30 Republican Legislators Voted against a Bill introduced by Al Franken that would ensure that any employee raped or sexually harassed by another employee, could by law take such cases to court rather having to deal with contract-ordered arbitration.
Arbitration is like the
company store version of our legal system. 94 percent of rulings made by arbitration are in favor of corporate entities and not the individual people--consumers or employees who make the complaints.
A National Public Radio Story on the Jone's case has this to say about Arbitration:
If you use credit cards, have a cell phone contract, bought a house from a builder or put your mother or father in a nursing home, you have very likely signed away your right to be heard in court if there's a problem. It's called pre-dispute mandatory binding arbitration. Public Citizen's David Arkush, one of the country's leading researchers on arbitration, says many consumers have no clue as to the rights they're signing away."In the fine print of those contracts is a provision that says that they can never sue the company if they have a dispute," Arkush says." Instead they have to go a private, secret tribunal chosen by the company."
The reason why its such a poor substitute for consumers and plaintiffs? Because professionals in mediation who rule for individuals, and not the corporate gods, are often let go after that initial ruling. Word gets around.
But what about Jones. She was 19 yrs old. She was raped by who knows how many assailants after being drugged with what was probably Rohypnol though there are several kinds of Date Rape Drugs.
Gamma Hydroxybutyric Acid. AKA the Date Rape Drug or Roofies also known as
Rohypnol. Her story sounds like the latter, since GHB doesn't generally stay in the system as long.
"The sedative effects of Rohypnol begin to appear approximately 15 to 20 minutes after the drug is ingested. The effects typically last from four to eight hours after administration of the drug, but some cases have been reported in which the effects were experienced for twelve or more hours after administration. In recent news, it has been discovered that scientists can now detect flunitrazepam and related compounds in urine at least up to five days or in hair up to a month after administration of a single dose of Rohypnol.
Considering that when she tried to report what had happened, she was locked in a metal container, I find that very very interesting.
According to an
ABC Story, she was held in a metal shipping container for 24 hours kept there by armed guards. And it was one sympathetic security guard who lent her a cell phone so she could call her father. It was only after he called their Senator Ted Poe of Texas, that she was released. The Rape Kit that was allegedly done by U.S. Army Docs, was *ahem* Misplaced after it was given to KBR folks.
Wow, lets just take a moment to marvel at the divine providence in the loss of that bit of official evidence, for Kellog Brown and Root. One does marvel. Yes one does.
Also during that time, even though she had to *rescued by State Department Employees from KBR--the
Department of Justice declined to investigate. Why one my ask did that happen? It is a 64 dollar question now isn't it?
According to the ABC story, the bipedal males involved with this case {because I hesitate to use the word *men} will probably never be prosecuted because there is no evidence. Though one might just love to see them squeeze that pig that was still in the bed with her, and see if he rolls on his fellow pigs. Come on buddy, you know you want to throw the other pigs under the train. Neither the DoJ nor the State Department kept Poe in the loop about this case involving his tender, young consitituent.
This woman was raped anally and vaginally. And her breasts were brutalized to the point that they will be permanently disfigured. She was also told after this happened by her "own" people, fellow American Citizens I might add, that there would be no job for her in Iraq nor a job waiting for her in Houston when she returned to the Continental United States.
But More on Arbitration from the ABC Story:
In arbitration, there is no public record nor transcript of the proceedings, meaning that Jones' claims would not be heard before a judge and jury. Rather, a private arbitrator would decide Jones' case. In recent testimony before Congress, employment lawyer Cathy Ventrell-Monsees said that Halliburton won more than 80 percent of arbitration proceedings brought against it.
So if in general, 94 percent of all Arbitration cases are for the Corporate entity, and in the case of Haliburton, 80 percent of it's arbitration cases are for Haliburton, what does that tell you about a Rape Survivor who doesn't have a rape kit, who had to be rescued by the state dept from Haliburton, tell you about this case? That Jones will have to have Haliburton's Dick surgically removed from an oriface to make this all stop, because apparently the company isn't done raping her.
Taking rape charges to arbitration is like saying that the accusation of rape is similar to that of complaining about a hang nail. It minimizes the traumatic aspects of such an accusation from every conceivable standpoint.
Its like telling her that her ability to maintain bodily integrity, to consent or refuse sexual advances means little more than being able to prevent people from stealing the stapler from her desk. It is a slap in the fucking face of every American Woman in this country, and any Rape Survivor, male or female.
There are lots of strange things going on Overseas with American Contractors.
As an article in the winter issue of the Wisconsin International Law Journal recounts, in 2000, employees of DynCorp Inc, a Virginia-based private military security company (PMSC) employed by the United Nations Police Task Force in the Balkans, were accused of participating in a Bosnian sex slavery ring. Kathryn Bolkovac, a DynCorp employee working as a UN Police Force monitor, reported to her supervisors that her male colleagues had made comments about women they owned. Bolkovac was fired soon after.
The same story indicates that contractors in Afghanistan were allowed to use brothels known to harbor trafficked women forced into prostitution.
Uh? We prosecute pedophiles for taking sex tours overseas, but raping American Contractors, or women forced into prostitution, well apparently thats okley dokley!
The Huffington Post also covered the weirdness of Contractors in Kabul.
"Private security guards at the U.S. Embassy in Kabul were pressured to participate in naked pool parties and perform sex acts to gain promotions or assignment to preferable shifts, according to one of 12 guards who have gone public with their complaints."
So all this time, we have been worrying about winning the hearts and minds of Islamic peoples in Afghanistan and Iraq, and other places Near East. But this is all I see. Rapes, Sexual Harassment, use of prostitutes, nice. The Rape States of American Female GIs by other GIs in those theatres is staggering as well.
What the fuck is up with this shit?
Back to Jamie Leigh Jones: Before you think, that this was years ago, she should get over it by now, because I have no doubt that somewhere out there in cyberspace there are idiots rolling their eyes about this case that keeps popping up like a bad penny.
Rape is not a one time deal. Its not just a moment in time that one forgets. Rape is an echo in the survivor's mind. An echo that becomes so loud and insistent that it can and does drown out the joys of everyday living. It changes everything.
Ms Jones had to deal with unbelievably callous attitudes, being unlawfully detained after being gang raped. She was shamed repeatedly, and physically battered to the point of permanent scaring. I have personally known rape victims who had to have reconstructive surgery on their genital and anal region. This may or may not have happened to her. No doubt after the fact, she had to take anti-virals and probably still lives with the spectre of HIV and Herpes. The stigma of being raped and the WORLD knowing about it. She revealed it because it was the only way to get justice.
She was sexually harassed by her own company for stigmatizing her and firing her for being raped.
And she got to experience the magnitude of betrayal that few will ever comprehend, when she learned that the DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE would not be investigating her case, and that the State Department was sitting on information as well about her case. That the company she worked for, peopled by other Americans, purposefully lost her rape kit, to cover their own asses, because she just discovered that in their world, ass covering is way more important that doing what's right.
Aint that part of America Grand?
And when she finally got someone to take her case, Al Franken, 30 Republican Legislators voted against a bill that would prevent this from happening to another American Citizen. What kind of scumbum, shit sucking ass-pigs vote no against that sort of bill? That puts decorum above Justice?
You can see who voted yea or nay here.
1. Alexander from Tennessee
2. Barasso from Wyoming
3. Bond from Missouri
4. Brownback from Kansas
5. Bunning from Kentucky
6. Burr from North Carolina
7. Chambliss from Georgia
8. Coburn from Oklahoma
9. Cochran from Mississippi
10. Corker from Tennessee
11. Cornyn from Texas
12. Crapo from Idaho
13. DeMint from South Carolina
14. Ensign from Nevada
15. Enzi from Wyoming
16. Graham from South Carolina
17. Gregg from New Hampshire
18. Inhofe from Oklahoma
19. Isakson from Georgia
20. Johanns from Nebraska
21. Kyl from Arizona
22. McCain from Arizona
23. McConnell from Kentucky
24. Risch from Idaho
25. Roberts from Kansas
26. Sessions from Alabama
27. Shelby from Alabama
28. Thune from South Dakota
29. Vitter from Louisiana
30. Wicker from Mississippi
Why? What on earth would prompt a person {and I use that term loosely} to turn a blind eye to the circumstances that allowed this terrible injustice to be visited upon another American, after being brutalized by rapists? What could you possibly say to justify THAT?
Thank you Al Franken, who had this to say about the case:
“Sexual violence is about a person trying to exercise power and control over another person through unwanted sexual contact and violence,” said Pam Zeller, Executive Director of the Sexual Violence Center. “In arbitration the intent is to arrive at an agreement. This agreement does not have to be equitable in order to be resolved. It is also not intended to resolve a criminal matter. Sexual harassment and sexual violence inherently have an imbalance of power. Submitting a victim of sexual harassment, or sexual assault, to a process of arbitration is a revictimization of the victim, and minimizes the seriousness of the crime of sexual assault. The proposed amendment by Senator Franken will protect victims of sexual harassment and sexual violence from being revictimized through the arbitration process.”
The Voice of Reason. Somewhere in this maelstrom of shit, there was a voice of reason. I am just so thankful that the Yeas won. That Common Decency won, for once.