Democratic Senator Al Franken of Minnesota votes for people over corporations. (Photo: flickr.com)

Following one of the more vile incidents against a woman in American history, the Senate has voted in favor of Sen. Al Franken’s amendment to the 2010 Defense Appropriations bill that gives the government the right to withhold defense contracts (no small cash loans, either) from companies like Halliburton/KBR (not just that company) that deny employees from taking “workplace sexual assault, battery and discrimination cases to court,” reports Think Progress.

If you aren’t already aware, Jamie Leigh Jones was gang-raped by Halliburton/KBR co-workers in Iraq during the year 2005. After the tragic incident, she was imprisoned in a shipping container for at least 24 hours without food, water, or a bed. If small cash loans could have bought a human conscience, perhaps her captors could have found it within themselves to stop.

Talk and Lose Your Job

Furthermore, she was told that if she went against the company’s mandatory arbitration clause and sought treatment and justice outside, she’d lose her job. Apparently Jones was not alone in receiving this type of treatment. Considering that multiple source tend to corroborate that Halliburton/KBR’s record with cases that went to their “independent” arbitrator, one wonders why they even bothered with the charade of mandatory arbitration clauses.

Here’s What Sen. Franken Proposed

And Here’s the GOP Rebuttal

Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL) called it “a political attack directed at Halliburton,” and Franken’s response (read the amendment yourself) was that “This amendment does not single out a single contractor. This amendment would defund any contractor that refuses to give a victim of rape their day in court.”

(Photo: wikipedia.org)

For the record, here are the 30 who voted against the Franken amendment:

• 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)

If you’re interested in telling your senator what you think, I encourage you to do so. You elected these officials, and they are accountable to you. If you need small cash loans to pay for the ever-increasing cost of postage or Internet bandwidth, click the button to apply. Be a citizen of a representative democracy.

Jaime Leigh Jones’ Response

Jones made an appearance with Sen. Franken following the vote. “It means the world to me,” she said. “It means that every tear shed to go public and repeat my story over and over again to make a difference for other women was worth it.”

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