Senators John Thune and Thad Cochran on their opposition to the Al Franken Amendment
(This is a quick, less than complete, post. I’ll update later, but wanted to get something up this evening)
Last week, Al Franken introduced his own piece of legislation – an amendment purposed to ban the government from contracting with companies that force rape victims into binding arbitration. The language is actually more expansive; it covers all Title VII workplace discrimination. At bottom, the amendment, if passed into law, would prevent the government from awarding contracts to any corporation that requires its employees to submit to binding arbitration for workplace discrimination claims.
The Amendment came up in the context of rape. A woman working for KBR in Iraq had been gang-raped by the men she worked with. The company first sought to cover up the rape. Next, they forced her back to work – alongside her alleged rapists. When she went to sue the company, she learned that she was prevented from doing so by the “binding arbitration clause” in her employment contract.
When the Senate investigated the issue of rape in Iraq, Franken developed his amendment. It was passed last week, 68-30. All 30 “nays” were Republican men.
I spoke with two of them, John Thune and Thad Chochran, this afternoon.
First up, John Thune:
Next, Thad Cochran:
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Howie Klein, James Salsman. James Salsman said: RT @downwithtyranny: Rape enabler John Thune (R-SD) tries bullshitting Mike Stark… but fails miserably: http://tinyurl.com/yhczfyo [...]
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19 Oct 09 at 5:02 pm
What the hell is the matter with these political clowns?! Honestly, can we get Balloon Boy’s dad to make 30 more Mylar balloons for these hacks, so we can be rid of them once and for all…
http://jdrourke.wordpress.com/
Frost-Barnes
19 Oct 09 at 6:45 pm
Would love it if you got Inhofe or Coburn cornered on this question.
Rena
19 Oct 09 at 9:20 pm
They just don’t seem to care. They’ll stand with corporations against individual citizens every time. So much for the party of family values. They had no regret about what happened to Ms. Jones.
majii
20 Oct 09 at 3:18 pm
Then we need to make them care.
http://30against.org
Thirty Against
20 Oct 09 at 11:54 pm
I assume our friends would agree that murder would not be dealt with by arbitration. The question is what ‘level’ of criminal behavior is handled by arbitration? Rape for sure but what about a good old fashioned ass kicking?
Tim
21 Oct 09 at 4:33 pm