Blogging for America

I wrote the following in response to a series of discussions about generalizations about people because someone wrote that 30% of Republican Senators voted against an amendment that would deny appropriations to corporations which denied their employees their day in court. There were many "Republicans are people,too" replies. Here is my response:


In the United States we as reasonable beings persuade others by facts.
And, what ALL of you are forgetting is that WOMEN are people, deserving of respect, dignity, the protection of law, taking article 78 action, and taking legal action against the corporation when raped, assaulted or discriminated against when the corporation is protecting such actions. Corporations are not people though they have had the standing of citizens ever since Chief Justice Waite made a pre-argument statement that was recorded by the court reporter in Santa Clara County vs Southern Pacific Railroad [118 U.S. 394 (1886)] . (I discussed this, and the implications at Constitution Day, which a lot of you missed).

What happened was Sen. Franken offered an amendment to the 2010 Defense Appropriation bill which would deny contracts to corporations which restrict their employees from having their day in court--due process.
Here are the details that prompted this from Think Progress :
In 2005, Jamie Leigh Jones was gang-raped by her co-workers while she was working for Halliburton/KBR in Baghdad. She was detained in a shipping container for at least 24 hours without food, water, or a bed, and "warned her that if she left Iraq for medical treatment, she'd be out of a job." (Jones was not an isolated case.) Jones was prevented from bringing charges in court against KBR because her employment contract stipulated that sexual assault allegations would only be heard in private arbitration.
GOP Senator Jefferson Beauregard Sessions of Alabama called the Franken amendment a "political attack" of Halliburton, and was overreaching by ( somehow ) denying corporations due process. (Remember it was Halliburton/KBR which denies its employees due process in court.

Let me remind us all that there are stipulations about government appropriations that say if X happens or does not happen, appropriations will be withheld--for instance, if States want 100% of their Highway funds, they have to have alcohol drinking and purchase prohibitions on their books and enforced--aka the 21 year old drinking age; likewise States have to enforce the speed limit on federally funded interstates. . .
The Senators that voted against the amendment are listed below. 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)
Reach your own conclusion. Mine is that women are not afforded the same equality, same protections of our Constitution as corporations by some members of the Senate, who are in this case male and Republican. You are free to have your opinions, but you just can't have your own set of facts.

Labels: corporations, republicans, women's rights

Obama became the 3rd sitting US president to earn a Nobel Peace Prize---and at the time of nomination had only been a sitting for 2 weeks. It was his message of hope and peace, of nuclear disarmament and diplomacy, of cooperation rather than aggression that won the prize.
As Archbishop Tutu says " It is an award that speaks to the promise of President Obama's message of hope."
May this honor encourage him forward.

Labels: hope, Nobel Peace Prize, Obama