Compassionate conservatism rearing its ugly head

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?

Ass kisser, thy name is Mark Noonan

Here's another brilliant example of partisanship from an extreme Bush Apologist: last week, the Senate failed to pass Bush's immigration bill, largely with the help of Republican lawmakers who distanced themselves from the president because the bill wasn't tough enough on border security.

On June 7, Mark Noonan expressed his pleasure at what took place in the Senate.

It isn't completely dead, but its pretty dead - and while Reid and other Democrats are trying to downplay this, the fact remains that leftwing hispanic groups had large input into the Democratic part of the bill, and they won't be happy that the Democratic leadership failed to move this bill forward - especially since it is certain that the next immigration reform bill will almost certainly be strong on border security before any thought is given to what to do about the illegals already in country. Amnesty, under any guise, is likely dead - even if the Democrats win it all in 2008, because to pass any sort of amnesty bill would be political suicide.

Notice the joy and glee Mark shows through in his post about the death of the bill through GOP lawmakers, but as President Bush stuck to his guns on the immigration bill, Noonan sung a different tune than the one he presented last week.

It might be that we can't get this bill to a point where it commands sufficient support to be passed - but to just damn the bill and demand that it be stopped entirely is to abdicate our responsibilty as Americans; we must have immigraiton reform, and such reform must be passed through the government have, not the government we wished we have - the President is 100% right about one thing: the status quo is unacceptable. Kill this bill and you might be happy - but the illegals will still flood across the border; if you want that stopped, then we have to start somewhere - and here's the starting point.

Wait a sec: You were full of glee when the bill wasn't passed, and now you're demanding that your GOP blogger friends stand by Bush's side on immigration?

Let's face the truth Noonan: You're a blind loyalist hack who'll accept anything the president will say at face value and take it as the Word from God Almighty.

The Count was right about Leo

Let me tell you point blank what I think about Leo Pusateri . He is a piss poor parent. The worst kind of parent. Anybody who has a child in Iraq or Afghanistan and supports this war and this President doesn't give a shit about his children.

He cares more about his president then he does his own child and to me that makes him a worthless parent and a worthless human being.

I couldn't agree with you more, Count.

I came to this conclusion when I posted about why he's bitching about Al Gore but not about the Army Times reporting that the troops serving in Iraq don't need a bigger pay raise. This was his response:

1. Try to stay on topic.

2. Bush wouldn't complain about a larger increase in pay than he proposed if your defeatocrat friends wouldn't be threatening to cut military funding at every turn of the corner (and don't give me that B.S. that you're not a democrat--you hang out at D.U.).

I'd be trying to conserve money, too.

Don't be talking to me about supporting the troops.

You and yours may just as well hold a friggen gun to their head, and threaten to pull the trigger, since that's what you and yours have been doing lo' these many months.

Talk about torture and stress. It's not like they have enough, and you go and pile it on with your worthless piece of crap political posturing and threatening to cut off their funding.

Screw you!!

Don't ever--ever come on this blog again and talk about Bush not supporting the troops!

I decided to ignore his ranting and provide more examples of Bush not giving a shit about our troops.

Jonathan said...

"(and don't give me that B.S. that you're not a democrat--you hang out at D.U.). "

Wrong, I read D.U. - barely, because I don't have the luxury to do it(responsibilities to school)everyday, and btw: i'm not a member. I've never signed up for D.U., you condescending prick.

What's the matter, Leo? Hard to accept that Bush only uses the soldiers as either a photo-op or for political posturing?

Well, here are more examples of Bush not supporting the troops:

Wieghtman testifying about privatization of Walter Reed

two soldiers killed in friendly fire, not in combat

injured troops being deployed

veterans disabilities being downgraded

neglection at Walter Reed #18

sending troops to war without the right amount of troops needed

Who supports the troops now?
It sure as hell isn't the Commander-In-Chief.

5/25/2007 10:59:00 AM

Unfortunately, Leo couldn't handle the truth, so he deleted it.

Count Istavan was right........Leo, you don't care.

I could really care less at this point, whether or not you support the war. I believed that you would be pissed that for all the talk of Bush claiming to support the troops, that you would be mad as hell that he's only using them for a photo-op, but I guess your unwavering loyalty to Bush trumps your own son and the troops.

You sir, are a fucking creep.

Mark Noonan: Blind Loyalty Before Country

So this week's bitch over at Blogs for Bush.con are the 11 GOP senators who placed country before party (or voters before country, however you want to look at it) telling the Shrub in office, “The word about the war and its progress cannot come from the White House or even you, Mr. President. There is no longer any credibility. It has to come from Gen. Petraeus.”

Unfortunately, that didn't sit too well with Mark Noonan. For those who don't understand bullshit speak, I will translate, from time to time, what Noonan is saying to what he really meant.

For you "moderates" out there - go ahead and vote against victory; heck, switch parties, if that will make you feel better. For us on our side of the aisle, we're more than willing to see zero GOPers in Congress in 2009 if that is the price of victory in 2008.

Translation: dead American soldiers and my party's future doesn't mean jack shit to me, as long as Dear Leader keeps his head up firmly in his ass and continues to lead the troops and the country over a fucking cliff, then so be it.

This is war, not politics - and all of the political straddling and calculation of all the "moderates" in America isn't worth...well, it isn't worth something which rhymes with "spit".

Translation: to hell with with what americans say about the war, their opinons aren't worth two squirts of piss! Besides, there's only one opinion that really matters......and that's the one coming from Dear Leader's mouth!

We fight until victory or until our fellow Americans so far remove us from the direction of affairs that we lack any power to influence events.

Comment: Mark, that day is coming sooner than you think.

2. To the blood of the Iraqi dead: Look, you saw what we defeatists engineered in Saigon in 1975. You should know by now that if a war goes on more than a year, then we'll be working for American defeat because war is hard and we don't like it much and we especially don't like it while President Bush is in charge.

Comment: Uh Mark, the Vietnam War lasted 16 years and cost us the lives of 58,208 American soldiers, but I guess those numbers don't really matter when you're fucking shitfaced from all the White House talking points you've been drinking, eh?

3. To our enemies: You win. We're too chicken to fight you for long and if you'll please just blow up Americans in moderate annual numbers, then we'll be ok with it forever.

Translation: i'm too much of a fucking pussy to fight in a war that I support so much. Also, I have nothing new to say, so i'll just repeat some bullshit scare tactics I overheard Dick Cheney talking about on Meet the Press.

Mark, when you and your neo-conservative possy have been wrong about everything about Iraq for 5 years, isn't time to stop making predictions on how Bush's strategy (Stay the Course, take 4) is going to eventually fuck up, ditch the rhetoric on how we're going to win (without any definable goals or without any hint of a fucking plan), and just admit that you were wrong?

From the looks of Noonan's last post, it appears he's going to ride his saddle of ignorance into the sunset.

Good luck dude, let's see how far that 'el get ya.

Another example of a Bush apologist placing blind loyalty to a president over his country.

Partisanship at its worst

If you're wondering how high this Bush Administration has set the bar on partisanship, take a look at former top aide to Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez, Monica Goodling. See, Monica was a student at Regent University. When she was a student then, education took a backseat to religion.

The Regent Law School, located in Virginia Beach, VA, was founded in 1986, after Oral Roberts University's law school closed and donated its library to Regent University.[1] The law school was accredited by the ABA in 1989 and had an enrollment of 489 students in 2006.[2] Currently, the school offers a J.D. degree, which is typically completed in three years of full-time study or four years of part-time study.[3] 61% of Regent students pass the bar on their first attempt; the Virginia state average is 74%.[4]

In the Fall 2006 entering class, 333 of 630 applicants were offered admission.[2] Of 333 students accepted, 161 matriculated.[2] In the entering class, the median Law School Admission Test (LSAT) score was 153 and the median undergraduate grade-point average was 3.30.[2]

Regent Law was ranked in Tier 4 by U.S. News, the lowest ranking and essentially a tie for 136th place out of 170 schools surveyed.[5] The Princeton Review ranked the school fourth in the country for quality of life, based on "student assessment of: whether there is a strong sense of community at the school, how aesthetically pleasing the law school is, the location of the law school, the quality of the social life, classroom facilities, and the library staff."[6]

Those numbers, however, didn't stop the Bush Administration from taking in over 150 Regent graduates to federal government positions as exampled from the report from the Boston Globe:

In a recent Regent law school newsletter, a 2004 graduate described being interviewed for a job as a trial attorney at the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division in October 2003. Asked to name the Supreme Court decision from the past 20 years with which he most disagreed, he cited Lawrence v. Texas, the ruling striking down a law against sodomy because it violated gay people's civil rights.

"When one of the interviewers agreed and said that decision in Lawrence was 'maddening,' I knew I correctly answered the question," wrote the Regent graduate . The administration hired him for the Civil Rights Division's housing section -- the only employment offer he received after graduation, he said.

That same report also reported this frighting statistic:

The changes resulted in a sometimes dramatic alteration to the profile of new hires beginning in 2003, as the Globe reported last year after obtaining resumes from 2001-2006 to three sections in the civil rights division. Conservative credentials rose, while prior experience in civil rights law and the average ranking of the law school attended by the applicant dropped.

To cap it off, all 150 graduates of Regent University who are in positions of power in the Bush Administration have one person to thank to this: the founder of the Christian Law School, televangelist Pat Robertson.

Yes, Pat Robertson.

The same guy who stated that Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez should be assassinated.
The same guy who used his non profit organization Operation Blessing to make diamond and gold deals with African dictators Mobuto Sese Seko and Charles Taylor.

That is how high the Bush Administration has raised the bar on partisanship.