Compassionate conservatism rearing its ugly head

My take on the Franken Amendment and the partisanship behind the vote can be read over at Jonathan's Corner. WARNING: the piece is extremely disturbing, concerning the subject material. Once again, the Count is welcome to post my piece onto Banned and Dangerous and the NH O/T if he so wishes.

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Some of you may already know about the horrific and shocking tale of Jamie Leigh Jones, but for those who don't, here's a bit of info on her story.

A Houston, Texas woman says she was gang-raped by Halliburton/KBR coworkers in Baghdad, and the company and the U.S. government are covering up the incident.

Yes, you read that right. The act itself, as it turns out, was a warm-up compared to what comes next in the story.

Jamie Leigh Jones, now 22, says that after she was raped by multiple men at a KBR camp in the Green Zone, the company put her under guard in a shipping container with a bed and warned her that if she left Iraq for medical treatment, she'd be out of a job.

"Don't plan on working back in Iraq. There won't be a position here, and there won't be a position in Houston," Jones says she was told.

In a lawsuit filed in federal court against Halliburton and its then-subsidiary KBR, Jones says she was held in the shipping container for at least 24 hours without food or water by KBR, which posted armed security guards outside her door, who would not let her leave. Jones described the container as sparely furnished with a bed, table and lamp.

Unfortunately, it gets more insulting. Under the Bush Department (lack) of Justice, her case was largely swept under the rug, and left for one group to settle the matter...Halliburton/KBR.

Jones is now trying to proceed with the case in civil court, but KBR is pushing for it to be heard in “private arbitration,” without a “public record or transcript.” Halliburton has “won more than 80 percent of arbitration proceedings brought against it.”

Under a mandatory arbitration clause, if something happens to you - like the sexual abuse of Leigh Jones - under contract, you cannot sue the company for damages. Turns out its not just Halliburton that makes an arbitration clause mandatory in the workplace.

Hooters • Applebee's • KFC • Friendly Ice Cream Corporation • Circuit City • Neiman Marcus • Nordstrom • Hallmark Cards • Merrill Lynch • Citigroup • First usa • Ameriquest • Discover • Blue Cross Blue Shield • Aetna • Kaiser Permanente • AT&T • Ford • Daimler AG • Toyota • Clear Channel • General Electric • Halliburton • Bechtel • Rent-a-Center

Thankfully, last month, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in her favor over Halliburton, stating that her injuries were not covered by the arbitration clause.

Now what does this heartbreaking example of unchecked corporate accountability and another dark example of life under the Bush/Cheney era have to do with 'compassionate conservatism' rearing its ugly head yet again?

Junior Senator Al Franken of Minnesota introduced an amendment to the Defense Appropriations bill that would make it illegal for defense contractors to stop employees from taking sexual abuse, battery, and harassment up to court, in other words, to make sure that we don't have to hear about another Jamie Leigh Jones in the news. You would beleive in the Senate, that a bill that would stop defense contractors from restricting employees from pressing charges because of rape or assault, would be an instant, no-brainer, unanimous 'yes' vote, right?

The bill did pass alright....by a vote of 68-30.

30 Senators basically defended rapists.

And these 30 Senators were, drumrolls please.......

Old, white, Republicans lawmakers. Here's the full list of the Senators who had the audacity to vote no.

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)

I'm not one to wish ill will on others, but in this case, I hope there's a special place in Hell for the people who have decided to place corporate interests over those of rape victims.

Jon Stewart does a great job taking these partisan hacks to task on their actions on last night's The Daily Show.

In addition to being the Party of unchecked corporate greed, torture, anti-minorities, obstructionists, and the angry, racist Southern white voter, the GOP can add defender of rape victims to that shameful list.

Again, how the hell can honestly look at these qualities, and still vote Republican?

I Guess I Would Be An Abusive Parent

Honestly I understand both sides and agree with quite a bit of what both sides of the Should you spank your child debate have to say BUT in the case of little Falcon Heene once the initial joy, happiness and relief of finding him unharmed wore off I would tan his hide. Social Science be damned. Am I a believer that Spanking is the answer in disciplining a child? In most cases absolutely not but in this case I wouldn't lose a moments sleep worrying I scared him for life. I know there is a great debate about this sort of thing and assuming this wasn't a publicity stunt. but If I were little Falcon's Father I would hug him tight say thank you that he is safe and then pull him off into another room and make sure sitting would not be real comfortable for him for about a week.

Rush Limbaugh A Man So Large He Is A Sex All To Himself.

For those of you not familliar with Twitter there is a group of little yellow bus riders on Twitter known as #tcot. Top Conservative Users On Twitter. One of my all time favorite members of Twitter is the perpetual loser Ron Dickerhoof Jr. Yes that is his real name. Ronny once posted a picture of himself on the internet after he pissed his pants...


Now Ron is backing Rush Limbaugh's failed attempt at buying the Saint Louis Rams. This is Ron's Twitter avatar.
Now I couldn't let the chance to needle Mr. Dickerhoof a little bit about backing another loser so I sent him a message...

CountIstvan @rdickerhoof Aww no Rams for Rush. Looks like Ron Dickerhoof is a loser again. Oh well he's used to it. #tcot. #ocra

rdickerhoof @CountIstvan Classy libs are classy. Do you kiss Obama's posterior with that mouth? #ocra #tcot

CountIstvan @rdickerhoof Let's see you are the one promoting a drug addict. Do you blow Pete F (Fleckenstein) with that mouth? of course you do. #tcot. #ocra.

CountIstvan I love it when Conservatives who champion drug pushers who go on sex trips to the Dominican lecture me on class. #tcot #ocra.

rdickerhoof @CountIstvan I blew all kinds of things with this nose. The drug troll won't work on me, CountmeOut. #ocra #tcot

YES HE REALLY RESPONDED WITH THAT!

rdickerhoof @CountIstvan I wonder if Rush will buy MSNBC w/the settlement money...there's a team in need of help. #ocra #tcot

rdickerhoof @CountIstvan I love that you simply can't contain your sexism. Makes my job easier. #ocra #tcot

Now this is a first. Because I called out his Boy Rush I am now sexist! I knew Rush was a large man I didn't know he was a sex all to himself.

CountIstvan @rdickerhoof Sexism? where? Rush is a sex now?

rdickerhoof @CountIstvan Oh, I almost forgot. The homophobia got you blocked. Very chic. #ocra #tcot #gay #lgbt #logcabin

Oh Noes I have been blocked from #tcot again! Whatever shall I do?

RIP: Al Martino

I have still never seen the Godfather movies.

In case you haven't figured it out: John Bohner's a real dumbass

My take on the House Minority Leader's newest line of nonsense, can be found at Jonathan's Corner.

Man It's Tempting...Ok No It's not.

Recieved This In My Email

What A Way To Die

Watching Missouri Game Was Last Wish For Lifelong Husker Fan This amazing story is true. A lifelong Husker football fan woke up from a six-day coma last Wednesday in Lincoln and announced that his one last wish was to watch Nebraska beat Missouri Thursday night in Columbia. Hours after making that announcement, he went back into a comatose state, only to wake up on Thursday and fulfill his dream. Rex Plock, 89, died late Sunday morning at Lincoln's Madonna Rehabilitation Hospital, where one of his daughters is a registered nurse. Ironically, she specializes in caring for patients in the same condition as her father, who spent seven of the last 10 days of his life on a ventilator. Deb Kapperman, the R.N. and one of Plock's two daughters, and Jim Miller, the pastor at his church, have seen a lot of cases like his, but can't remember anyone who was so determined to make his last wish come true. Plock, you see, had been so deep in a coma for six straight days that no one, not his doctors, his caretakers or his family, expected him to wake up. But when he did last Wednesday, he made it perfectly clear that he wanted to see, or at least listen to, Thursday night's game, even if it killed him. Against all odds, Plock watched the game in his room at Lincoln's Bryan East Hospital after he'd come out of that second comatose state. Before going back into it, he spelled out what he wanted if his eyes could not open - a radio right next to his ear, tuned into the game. "He wasn't leaving without watching or listening to that last game," Kapperman said, choking back a tear, even though she is confident that her dad was at peace with his life, his family, and yes, the football team that he has followed so fervently for so long . . . his beloved Nebraska Cornhuskers. You need to understand how extraordinary Rex Plock was - as a man and as a fan. Other than the life machines this is exactly how I want go I can't think of a better way.

Obama wins Nobel Peace Prize? Boooooooo!

My take on the big news and the GOPricks poo-pooing on the president's success can be found at Jonathan's Corner. The Count is also free to cut & paste my entry onto B&D if he so wishes.*

*Will Do

Unless you've been living under a rock for the last 24 hrs., you have already heard the news that President Obama, just nine months into his young presidency, has been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. With this award, he joins a very select group of former U.S. Presidents (Theodore Roosevelt in 1906, Woodrow Wilson in 1919, and Jimmy Carter in 2002) who have been awarded the Peace Prize.

I've heard the talk about the campfire (I, myself, have ashed the same question):
"What's he done this early on to deserve this award?"
"The nominations for the award end on February 2, Obama had been in office for a week and a half! What gives?"
"There are more people out there who have actually made accomplishments in steering the world towards peace, so why did they get the shaft?"

First, the Nobel Peace Prize is usually awarded, not for one's accomplishments, but for one's actions to bring about peace in the world, and to highlight the causes of the times. For example, take all the many people have won it for trying to bring about peace in the Middle East (Carter, Yasser Arafat, Mohamed Anwar Al-Sadat of Egypt etc.), and we're no closer to having Israelis and Palestinians lay down their past grudges and weapons and work together to coexist in the same strip of land they are fighting and dying for.
Second, what ha Obama done to win this award? Here's what the people who give out the award, have to say:

Obama has as President created a new climate in international politics. Multilateral diplomacy has regained a central position, with emphasis on the role that the United Nations and other international institutions can play. Dialogue and negotiations are preferred as instruments for resolving even the most difficult international conflicts. The vision of a world free from nuclear arms has powerfully stimulated disarmament and arms control negotiations. Thanks to Obama's initiative, the USA is now playing a more constructive role in meeting the great climatic challenges the world is confronting. Democracy and human rights are to be strengthened.

In other words, he's not Bush Jr., where his idea of diplomacy could be equated to playing a game of Cowboys and Indians, and his attitude towards human rights were like that of his feeling about the Constitution he swore to uphold and defend - 'who gives a flying fuck, i'm the motherfucking President of the United States bitches, so I can do whatever the fuck I want, so suck on it, you damn foreigners!'

That's why he won the award. And it was well earned.

And one would beleive that everyone would feel a sense of pride that a sitting U.S. President has won this award, and set aside scoring political and partisan points with their respective base and congratulate the President on his achievement, right?

Well, with the Obstructionist Party...uh, I meant the Party of No...whoops, I mean the party that caters to un-Reconstructed Southern crackers...Ok, this isn't coming out right, let's rewind and start over...

It turns out with the Republican party, partisanship doesn't take a vacation (nailed it this time!).

Instead of going into some rant against the GOPricks, I'll just let one of my favorite songs from the British alternative rock band, Radiohead, express what I want to say in song.

I don't know why you bother
Nothing's ever good enough for you.
I was there, it wasn't like that.
You've come here just to start a fight
You had to piss on our parade,
You had to shred our big day
You had to ruin it for all concerned,
In a drunken punch-up at a wedding, yeah!

Hypocrite, opportunist
Don't infect me with your poison
A bully in a china shop
When I turn 'round you stay frozen to the spot
You had the pointless snide remarks
Of hammerheaded sharks
The pot will call the kettle black
It's a drunken punch-up at a wedding, yeah!

For a party that loves to hold claims on putting country first, they're like the kid who's mad that his prom date stood him up, so he pisses in the glass punch bowl to make everyone else's night miserable, because as the saying goes, "misery loves company."

Update on the mental state of BFV

It's been weeks since i've done any coverage on he loony bin that is Blogs For Victory, but given the big news story of Obama winning the Nobel Peace Prize, I decided to take a stroll over to Mark Noonan's mental asylum and hear his -- and his blogger's -- thoughts about the award.

kjstrouble1 says:
October 9th, 2009 at 7:53 am

I would like a list of actual items Obama has done that have resulted in peace? I know that talking to Iran cannot be what got him this, because that has just resulted in Iran being more emboldened in working towards getting nuclear bombs. Nor has he done anything but appoligize to the world for Americans being Americans.

Yeah, this will just go to show the left that the Euro Libs don’t want to upset the Islamists, so Obama must be trying to keep the peace.

chuck says:
October 9th, 2009 at 9:53 am

Other than be a black liberal that reads the teleprompter extremely well, what has Obama done?

Someone, please tell me what he’s done?

What has he accomplished?

I still don’t know how he got elected, without having accomplished anything in his life. How his accomplishments warrant the Nobel Peace Prize is beyond me.

Being worhipped by liberals, loved by Europeans, and pushed around by 2 bit dictators, must be the new criteria for the Nobel prize.

I guess Jimmy Carter should be retoactively awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for what he did during his Presidency.

cluster says:
October 9th, 2009 at 10:13 am
I gotta tell you, this administration and current state of politics is better than anything the comedy channel could put out. From the 11 day achievement that garners a Nobel Peace Price to lap dogs like ohio and magnum on their knees with chin buckets and knee pads firmly in place, it’s a can’t miss comedy show.

But cluster and the rest would know all about getting on their knees, since they've been doing nothing but sucking Bush's dick for 8 years.

Add "Nobel Laureate" to Obama's Resume...

Just announced: President Obama is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

Let the gnashing of teeth and wringing of hands - oh, and a river of Glenn Beck's tears, no doubt - commence over in Wingnuttia.

Game Day #5

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