Saturday, October 10, 2009 5:22:24 AM
From Stand-Up Comic to Stand-Up Guy: The Long, Strange Trip of Al Franken
John Eskow
Screenwriter, Journalist
Posted: October 7, 2009 01:47 PM
I called Senator Al Franken last night to discuss a matter of crucial national importance: his beloved Minnesota Twins had just defeated [ http://www.usatoday.com/sports/columnist/lopresti/2009-10-06-twins-metrodome-win_N.htm ] the Detroit Tigers in an epic one-game playoff. Senator Franken (D-Minn)'s position was clear, eloquent, and unequivocal: second-baseman Nick Punto's game-saving throw to home plate to nip the go-ahead run in the top of the 12th was, he confided to this correspondent, "fantastic." It was only after he'd boldly gone on the record concerning this vital subject that we got around to discussing his latest piece of legislation. It was something he spoke of with an even more fiery passion than Nick Punto's throw--and, as they say, therein lies a story.
I won't pretend any kind of objectivity here; I've known Al for nearly thirty years. The 1980s: heady days in New York City. Al was in the full bloom of his Saturday Night Live career, and I was a writer in transition from the page to the screen, and we bonded over a love for sports (he's an annoyingly good athlete, and I ripped my knee up when he faked right and went left in a racquetball game) and for the mid-American surrealism of Bob and Ray. What intrigued me right away was the schism between Franken's comic persona on SNL--"the Al Franken decade," etc., which earned shock-laughs by its celebration of the naked ego unleashed--and his thoughtful, sober, and sometimes (to me, a hard-core leftist) his maddeningly sensible political views. When I was sixteen, I became Abbie Hoffman's protege in rebellion, and I still wanted to tear down the temple walls with bare hands; Al, despite being a Grateful Dead fanatic, felt politically closer to Hubert Humphrey, and wanted to refine the architecture.
But even so, and even then, he had a unique ability to translate his beliefs into immediate action: once, when Henry Kissinger personally called the SNL offices to request tickets to the show, Al happened to pick up the phone, and curtly informed the ex-Secretary of State that his request would not be honored. When Kissinger -- indignant at the slight -- asked why he couldn't score the tickets, Al calmly replied: "Because of the bombing of Cambodia."
As with so many Franken anecdotes, it provokes that shock-laugh: but it's also a token of bone-deep commitment, a sense of justice as palpable and strong as a heartbeat.
In the years to come, that fusion of comedy and social conscience would produce best-selling books and lucrative speaking gigs -- a career that would satiate most people, and slow them down. But while he carved out a special niche in American culture -- and bewildered me by becoming friends (or at least friendly) with people like Tom DeLay -- it became clear that he was beginning to dream of becoming a real-life politician.
It seemed utterly insane.
The show-biz types who've made that transition -- take Schwarzenegger or Jesse Ventura, for example -- first created a persona of raw power on the screen or in the wrestling-ring, then rode that synthetic, commanding, larger-than-life persona into a political sphere that worships power as a primal force. Even Reagan gave off -- at least to much of the American electorate--a vibe of hushed, Father-Knows-Best inner strength. But the comedian is, by his very nature, an outsider and a gadfly -- qualities unlikely to inspire that warm, gooey, He-Can-Protect-Me-from-Bad-Things-in-the-Dark confidence that lets us flip our brains to the default positon -- Off, of course -- and pull a lever for them in the voting booth. No; Al would dare to present himself to America not as larger-than-life, but as life-sized--and, incredibly, to win that way.
If it was ridiculous to think he could get nominated to succeed his dear friend Paul Wellstone as Senator, it was pure madness to think he could win in an actual election. But even when the national Republican artillery was rolled out in dazzling battalions in support of incumbent Norm Coleman, he did it.
Which brings us to Franken's new piece of legislation.
Following an initial bill that was inspired in its clarity and simplicity--providing funds to train service-dogs for injured war vets -- Franken took up the cause of Jamie Leigh Jones, a 19-yr-old employee of defense contractor KBR, stationed in Iraq, who was gang raped by her co-workers and imprisoned in a shipping container when she tried to report the crime.
Jones' father and congressman had to fight to get her safely returned to the United States, but once she was home, she learned a fine-print clause in her KBR contract banned her from taking her case to court; instead she would be forced into an "arbitration" process that would be run by ... KBR itself.
This is the kind of case that leaves so many of us with a loser's choice between hatred and despair.
But thanks to the astonishing career-shift that Franken has completed -- and, he insists on pointing out, with the help of his gifted and tireless staff -- he was able yesterday to sit on the Senate floor as that august body passed an an amendment to the Defense Appropriations Bill that will ban the practice of committing employees to arbitration in the case of assault. Jamie Lee Jones herself sat watching, along with Al's wife Franni, as the roll was called. And though, amazingly enough, 38 Republican senators voted against the gang-rape victim and for the multi-billion-dollar contractor (health care parable, anyone?) the amendment passed. Jones wept in the gallery. We can only hope that sometime soon the execs at KBR will weep a little too.
So in one way it's been a tremendous journey from Saturday Night Live to the Senate floor, from dissing Kissinger to defending veterans, from Gilda Radner to Jamie Lee Jones; but in another way it's simply the graceful trajectory of one man's conscience.
"I love this country," Franken says. "But you have to love your country like an adult loves somebody, not like a child loves its Mommy. And right-wing Republicans tend to love America like a child loves its Mommy, where everything Mommy does is okay. But adult love means you're not in denial, and you want the loved one to be the best they can be."
Well said, Senator. And congratulations on the Twins.
Copyright © 2009 HuffingtonPost.com, Inc. (emphasis in original)
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/john-eskow/from-stand-up-comic-to-st_b_312047.html [with comments]
==========
Franken Gets His First Amendment Passed By Roll Call Vote
Sam Stein | HuffPost Reporting
First Posted: 10- 7-09 10:47 AM | Updated: 10- 7-09 01:31 PM
After operating largely under the radar during his first few months in office, Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) is slowly beginning to make political ripples.
On Tuesday night, the Minnesota Democrat got his first piece of legislation passed by the United States Senate via roll call vote. The amendment stopped federal funding for those defense contractors who used mandatory arbitration clauses to deny victims of assault the right to bring their case to court. It passed by a 68-30 margin with nine Republicans joining each voting Democrat. And in the immediate aftermath, Franken was granted the chance to revel, ever so slightly, in his victory.
"The story came to my attention of Jamie Leigh Jones who, when she was 19, went to Iraq to work for [defense contractor] KBR and she was put in the barracks with 400 men and was sexually harassed," Franken told the Huffington Post in a brief interview shortly after the vote. "She complained. But they didn't do anything about it. She was drugged and gang raped and they locked her up in a shipping container. She tried to sue KBR and they said you have a mandatory arbitration clause in your contract. She tried to fight back and said this is ridiculous. She took it to court and they have been fighting her for three years."
"This bill would make it so that anybody in business with the Department of the Defense can't do this," he concluded emphatically. "They can't have mandatory arbitration on issues like assault and battery."
Franken's amendment, which was added to the FY2010 Defense Appropriations Bill, didn't steal the headlines from the other news of the day: the ongoing debate over the war in Afghanistan. But it did add another notch in his belt as he makes the transition from popular comedian to serious politician. The senator has largely avoided the national spotlight in favor of pursuing a behind-the-scenes yeoman-like approach. Indeed, when asked to discuss what role congressional Democrats would play in adding conditions to any potential troop increase in Afghanistan, he demurred, saying there wasn't enough time in the brief interview to address such a weighty topic.
Since winning election, the senator has had several memorable moments and achievements. He was praised for strong questioning -- and a solid Perry Mason joke -- during the confirmation hearings for Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor. And, in mid July, a bill he authored to provide more service dog services to wounded veterans was adopted by the Senate through unanimous consent.
That piece of legislation, like the one passed on Tuesday night, was a low-risk but eminently logical effort -- something that could engender bipartisan support by addressing a plain and evident problem. But in his conversation with the Huffington Post, Franken indicated that his eyes were set on a broader topic, one that his amendment only began to address.
"One of the things I campaigned on is the fact that we haven't done oversight on our contractors," he said. "Part of the job of Congress is to do oversight which we really didn't do it, especially from 2001 to 2007. It was actually almost criminal that we didn't do it on our contractors in Iraq because there was all this money that was wasted and lost on fraud and abuse. It was totally incompetent and in contributed to the collapse of the country because the reconstruction was done so wrong."
Copyright © 2009 HuffingtonPost.com, Inc.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/10/07/franken-gets-first-amendm_n_312399.html [with comments]
==========
Meet The Senators Who Voted Against The Franken Amendment
Jason Linkins | HuffPost Reporting
First Posted: 10- 7-09 03:56 PM | Updated: 10- 7-09 05:59 PM
I think that all homo sapiens can understand how the mere thought of an organization that receives government money through contract mechanisms being tangentially involved in setting up a fake tax shelter for a fake pimp and his fake prostitution ring of fake prostitutes can justifiably lead to lawmakers going absolutely cross-eyed with white-hot, impotent rage [ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/09/24/the-unintended-consequenc_n_298540.html ]. But what happens when a similarly taxpayer-endowed contractor attempts to cover up employee-on-employee gang rape [ http://thinkprogress.org/2009/09/16/jones-sue-kbr/ ] by locking up the victim in a shipping container without food and water and threatening her with reprisals if she report the incident? Somehow, it doesn't engender the same level of anger!
Credit new Senator Al Franken however, for introducing an amendment to the Defense Appropriations bill [ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/10/07/franken-gets-first-amendm_n_312399.html (just above)] that would punish contractors if they "restrict their employees from taking workplace sexual assault, battery and discrimination cases to court." You'd think that this would be a no-brainer, actually, but that didn't stop Jeff Sessions from labeling Franken's effort a "political attack directed at Halliburton." Franken, of course, pointed out that his amendment would apply broadly, to all contractors, because otherwise, 'twould be a bill of attainder, right? Right? [ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/09/24/gop-fail-congressional-re_n_298698.html ]
Franken's amendment ended up passing, 68-30. Here's a list of the Senators who showed broad support for Roman Polanski by voting against it:
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)
ADDENDUM: It's been pointed out to me that the U.S. Chamber of Commerce lobbied against the Franken amendment as well [ http://www.politico.com/blogs/scorecard/1009/Tough_vote_for_Vitter_Burr.html?showall ]:
Republicans point out that the amendment was opposed by a host of business interests, including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and applies to a wide range of companies, including IBM and Boeing.
I guess we must cover up crimes like rape in order to save capitalism.
---
RELATED:
Franken Wins Bipartisan Support For Legislation Reining In KBR's Treatment Of Rape [ThinkProgress]
Oct 7th, 2009
http://thinkprogress.org/2009/10/07/kbr-rape-franken-amendment/
---
Copyright © 2009 HuffingtonPost.com, Inc.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/10/07/meet-the-senators-who-vot_n_312976.html [with comments]
==========
Naked, Sore, Bruised and Bleeding: Alleged U.S. Contractor Rape Victim Fights for Day in Court
Senate Passes Amendment to Stop Contractors From Forcing Employees into Arbitration
Oct. 7, 2009
http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/halliburton-employee-jamie-leigh-jones-testifies-senate-rape/story?id=8775641 [with comments]
Senate Passes Amendment To Prevent KBR and Halliburton From Getting Away With Raping Employees (Literally)
October 6, 2009
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/howie-klein/senate-passes-amendment-t_b_311866.html [with comments]
GOP votes against measure to help victims of rape at govt. contractors
October 7th, 2009
http://rawstory.com/2009/10/gop-votes-against-prevent-rape/ [with comments]
Louisiana Young Dems: 'We Can Only Guess' Why Vitter Is Opposed To Anti-Rape Law
October 8, 2009
http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/10/louisiana-young-dems-we-can-only-guess-why-vitter-is-opposed-to-anti-rape-law.php [with comments]
Wicker and Cochran Vote to Protect Contractors, Not Women
October 8, 2009
http://www.jacksonfreepress.com/index.php/site/comments/wicker_and_cochran_vote_to_protect_contractors_not_women_100809/ [with comments]
Court rules that KBR employee’s gang rape wasn’t a personal injury ‘arising in the workplace.’
Sep 16th, 2009
http://thinkprogress.org/2009/09/16/jones-sue-kbr/ [with comments]
After rape victim used cell phone to call for help, KBR bans use of personal phones in Iraq
Aug 4th, 2008
http://thinkprogress.org/2008/08/04/after-rape-victim-used-cell-phone-to-call-for-help-kbr-bans-personal-phones-in-iraq/ [with comments] [at http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=31208737 ]
KBR Rehired Employee With Child Pornography Fetish
May 7th, 2008
http://thinkprogress.org/2008/05/07/kbr-rehired-employee/ [with comments]
Pentagon Inspector General Refuses To Probe KBR Rape Case
Jan 8th, 2008
http://thinkprogress.org/2008/01/08/dod-not-investigate-kbr/ [with comments]
Bush Administration Misses Deadline To Respond To KBR Rape Questions
Jan 3rd, 2008
http://thinkprogress.org/2008/01/03/state-rice-kbr-rape/ [with comments]
Rep. Poe: At Least 3 Other Women Were Sexually Assaulted While Working For KBR In Iraq
Dec 19th, 2007
http://thinkprogress.org/2007/12/19/poe-testify-kbr/ [with comments]
Jamie Lee Jones - No Justice for Alleged Rape Victim
December 14, 2007
http://www.gather.com/viewArticle.action?articleId=281474977203863 [with comments]
==========
also (items linked in):
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=28285293 and preceding
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=26790488 and following
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=25438657 and preceding
John Eskow
Screenwriter, Journalist
Posted: October 7, 2009 01:47 PM
I called Senator Al Franken last night to discuss a matter of crucial national importance: his beloved Minnesota Twins had just defeated [ http://www.usatoday.com/sports/columnist/lopresti/2009-10-06-twins-metrodome-win_N.htm ] the Detroit Tigers in an epic one-game playoff. Senator Franken (D-Minn)'s position was clear, eloquent, and unequivocal: second-baseman Nick Punto's game-saving throw to home plate to nip the go-ahead run in the top of the 12th was, he confided to this correspondent, "fantastic." It was only after he'd boldly gone on the record concerning this vital subject that we got around to discussing his latest piece of legislation. It was something he spoke of with an even more fiery passion than Nick Punto's throw--and, as they say, therein lies a story.
I won't pretend any kind of objectivity here; I've known Al for nearly thirty years. The 1980s: heady days in New York City. Al was in the full bloom of his Saturday Night Live career, and I was a writer in transition from the page to the screen, and we bonded over a love for sports (he's an annoyingly good athlete, and I ripped my knee up when he faked right and went left in a racquetball game) and for the mid-American surrealism of Bob and Ray. What intrigued me right away was the schism between Franken's comic persona on SNL--"the Al Franken decade," etc., which earned shock-laughs by its celebration of the naked ego unleashed--and his thoughtful, sober, and sometimes (to me, a hard-core leftist) his maddeningly sensible political views. When I was sixteen, I became Abbie Hoffman's protege in rebellion, and I still wanted to tear down the temple walls with bare hands; Al, despite being a Grateful Dead fanatic, felt politically closer to Hubert Humphrey, and wanted to refine the architecture.
But even so, and even then, he had a unique ability to translate his beliefs into immediate action: once, when Henry Kissinger personally called the SNL offices to request tickets to the show, Al happened to pick up the phone, and curtly informed the ex-Secretary of State that his request would not be honored. When Kissinger -- indignant at the slight -- asked why he couldn't score the tickets, Al calmly replied: "Because of the bombing of Cambodia."
As with so many Franken anecdotes, it provokes that shock-laugh: but it's also a token of bone-deep commitment, a sense of justice as palpable and strong as a heartbeat.
In the years to come, that fusion of comedy and social conscience would produce best-selling books and lucrative speaking gigs -- a career that would satiate most people, and slow them down. But while he carved out a special niche in American culture -- and bewildered me by becoming friends (or at least friendly) with people like Tom DeLay -- it became clear that he was beginning to dream of becoming a real-life politician.
It seemed utterly insane.
The show-biz types who've made that transition -- take Schwarzenegger or Jesse Ventura, for example -- first created a persona of raw power on the screen or in the wrestling-ring, then rode that synthetic, commanding, larger-than-life persona into a political sphere that worships power as a primal force. Even Reagan gave off -- at least to much of the American electorate--a vibe of hushed, Father-Knows-Best inner strength. But the comedian is, by his very nature, an outsider and a gadfly -- qualities unlikely to inspire that warm, gooey, He-Can-Protect-Me-from-Bad-Things-in-the-Dark confidence that lets us flip our brains to the default positon -- Off, of course -- and pull a lever for them in the voting booth. No; Al would dare to present himself to America not as larger-than-life, but as life-sized--and, incredibly, to win that way.
If it was ridiculous to think he could get nominated to succeed his dear friend Paul Wellstone as Senator, it was pure madness to think he could win in an actual election. But even when the national Republican artillery was rolled out in dazzling battalions in support of incumbent Norm Coleman, he did it.
Which brings us to Franken's new piece of legislation.
Following an initial bill that was inspired in its clarity and simplicity--providing funds to train service-dogs for injured war vets -- Franken took up the cause of Jamie Leigh Jones, a 19-yr-old employee of defense contractor KBR, stationed in Iraq, who was gang raped by her co-workers and imprisoned in a shipping container when she tried to report the crime.
Jones' father and congressman had to fight to get her safely returned to the United States, but once she was home, she learned a fine-print clause in her KBR contract banned her from taking her case to court; instead she would be forced into an "arbitration" process that would be run by ... KBR itself.
This is the kind of case that leaves so many of us with a loser's choice between hatred and despair.
But thanks to the astonishing career-shift that Franken has completed -- and, he insists on pointing out, with the help of his gifted and tireless staff -- he was able yesterday to sit on the Senate floor as that august body passed an an amendment to the Defense Appropriations Bill that will ban the practice of committing employees to arbitration in the case of assault. Jamie Lee Jones herself sat watching, along with Al's wife Franni, as the roll was called. And though, amazingly enough, 38 Republican senators voted against the gang-rape victim and for the multi-billion-dollar contractor (health care parable, anyone?) the amendment passed. Jones wept in the gallery. We can only hope that sometime soon the execs at KBR will weep a little too.
So in one way it's been a tremendous journey from Saturday Night Live to the Senate floor, from dissing Kissinger to defending veterans, from Gilda Radner to Jamie Lee Jones; but in another way it's simply the graceful trajectory of one man's conscience.
"I love this country," Franken says. "But you have to love your country like an adult loves somebody, not like a child loves its Mommy. And right-wing Republicans tend to love America like a child loves its Mommy, where everything Mommy does is okay. But adult love means you're not in denial, and you want the loved one to be the best they can be."
Well said, Senator. And congratulations on the Twins.
Copyright © 2009 HuffingtonPost.com, Inc. (emphasis in original)
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/john-eskow/from-stand-up-comic-to-st_b_312047.html [with comments]
==========
Franken Gets His First Amendment Passed By Roll Call Vote
Sam Stein | HuffPost Reporting
First Posted: 10- 7-09 10:47 AM | Updated: 10- 7-09 01:31 PM
After operating largely under the radar during his first few months in office, Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) is slowly beginning to make political ripples.
On Tuesday night, the Minnesota Democrat got his first piece of legislation passed by the United States Senate via roll call vote. The amendment stopped federal funding for those defense contractors who used mandatory arbitration clauses to deny victims of assault the right to bring their case to court. It passed by a 68-30 margin with nine Republicans joining each voting Democrat. And in the immediate aftermath, Franken was granted the chance to revel, ever so slightly, in his victory.
"The story came to my attention of Jamie Leigh Jones who, when she was 19, went to Iraq to work for [defense contractor] KBR and she was put in the barracks with 400 men and was sexually harassed," Franken told the Huffington Post in a brief interview shortly after the vote. "She complained. But they didn't do anything about it. She was drugged and gang raped and they locked her up in a shipping container. She tried to sue KBR and they said you have a mandatory arbitration clause in your contract. She tried to fight back and said this is ridiculous. She took it to court and they have been fighting her for three years."
"This bill would make it so that anybody in business with the Department of the Defense can't do this," he concluded emphatically. "They can't have mandatory arbitration on issues like assault and battery."
Franken's amendment, which was added to the FY2010 Defense Appropriations Bill, didn't steal the headlines from the other news of the day: the ongoing debate over the war in Afghanistan. But it did add another notch in his belt as he makes the transition from popular comedian to serious politician. The senator has largely avoided the national spotlight in favor of pursuing a behind-the-scenes yeoman-like approach. Indeed, when asked to discuss what role congressional Democrats would play in adding conditions to any potential troop increase in Afghanistan, he demurred, saying there wasn't enough time in the brief interview to address such a weighty topic.
Since winning election, the senator has had several memorable moments and achievements. He was praised for strong questioning -- and a solid Perry Mason joke -- during the confirmation hearings for Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor. And, in mid July, a bill he authored to provide more service dog services to wounded veterans was adopted by the Senate through unanimous consent.
That piece of legislation, like the one passed on Tuesday night, was a low-risk but eminently logical effort -- something that could engender bipartisan support by addressing a plain and evident problem. But in his conversation with the Huffington Post, Franken indicated that his eyes were set on a broader topic, one that his amendment only began to address.
"One of the things I campaigned on is the fact that we haven't done oversight on our contractors," he said. "Part of the job of Congress is to do oversight which we really didn't do it, especially from 2001 to 2007. It was actually almost criminal that we didn't do it on our contractors in Iraq because there was all this money that was wasted and lost on fraud and abuse. It was totally incompetent and in contributed to the collapse of the country because the reconstruction was done so wrong."
Copyright © 2009 HuffingtonPost.com, Inc.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/10/07/franken-gets-first-amendm_n_312399.html [with comments]
==========
Meet The Senators Who Voted Against The Franken Amendment
Jason Linkins | HuffPost Reporting
First Posted: 10- 7-09 03:56 PM | Updated: 10- 7-09 05:59 PM
I think that all homo sapiens can understand how the mere thought of an organization that receives government money through contract mechanisms being tangentially involved in setting up a fake tax shelter for a fake pimp and his fake prostitution ring of fake prostitutes can justifiably lead to lawmakers going absolutely cross-eyed with white-hot, impotent rage [ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/09/24/the-unintended-consequenc_n_298540.html ]. But what happens when a similarly taxpayer-endowed contractor attempts to cover up employee-on-employee gang rape [ http://thinkprogress.org/2009/09/16/jones-sue-kbr/ ] by locking up the victim in a shipping container without food and water and threatening her with reprisals if she report the incident? Somehow, it doesn't engender the same level of anger!
Credit new Senator Al Franken however, for introducing an amendment to the Defense Appropriations bill [ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/10/07/franken-gets-first-amendm_n_312399.html (just above)] that would punish contractors if they "restrict their employees from taking workplace sexual assault, battery and discrimination cases to court." You'd think that this would be a no-brainer, actually, but that didn't stop Jeff Sessions from labeling Franken's effort a "political attack directed at Halliburton." Franken, of course, pointed out that his amendment would apply broadly, to all contractors, because otherwise, 'twould be a bill of attainder, right? Right? [ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/09/24/gop-fail-congressional-re_n_298698.html ]
Franken's amendment ended up passing, 68-30. Here's a list of the Senators who showed broad support for Roman Polanski by voting against it:
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)
ADDENDUM: It's been pointed out to me that the U.S. Chamber of Commerce lobbied against the Franken amendment as well [ http://www.politico.com/blogs/scorecard/1009/Tough_vote_for_Vitter_Burr.html?showall ]:
Republicans point out that the amendment was opposed by a host of business interests, including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and applies to a wide range of companies, including IBM and Boeing.
I guess we must cover up crimes like rape in order to save capitalism.
---
RELATED:
Franken Wins Bipartisan Support For Legislation Reining In KBR's Treatment Of Rape [ThinkProgress]
Oct 7th, 2009
http://thinkprogress.org/2009/10/07/kbr-rape-franken-amendment/
---
Copyright © 2009 HuffingtonPost.com, Inc.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/10/07/meet-the-senators-who-vot_n_312976.html [with comments]
==========
Naked, Sore, Bruised and Bleeding: Alleged U.S. Contractor Rape Victim Fights for Day in Court
Senate Passes Amendment to Stop Contractors From Forcing Employees into Arbitration
Oct. 7, 2009
http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/halliburton-employee-jamie-leigh-jones-testifies-senate-rape/story?id=8775641 [with comments]
Senate Passes Amendment To Prevent KBR and Halliburton From Getting Away With Raping Employees (Literally)
October 6, 2009
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/howie-klein/senate-passes-amendment-t_b_311866.html [with comments]
GOP votes against measure to help victims of rape at govt. contractors
October 7th, 2009
http://rawstory.com/2009/10/gop-votes-against-prevent-rape/ [with comments]
Louisiana Young Dems: 'We Can Only Guess' Why Vitter Is Opposed To Anti-Rape Law
October 8, 2009
http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/10/louisiana-young-dems-we-can-only-guess-why-vitter-is-opposed-to-anti-rape-law.php [with comments]
Wicker and Cochran Vote to Protect Contractors, Not Women
October 8, 2009
http://www.jacksonfreepress.com/index.php/site/comments/wicker_and_cochran_vote_to_protect_contractors_not_women_100809/ [with comments]
Court rules that KBR employee’s gang rape wasn’t a personal injury ‘arising in the workplace.’
Sep 16th, 2009
http://thinkprogress.org/2009/09/16/jones-sue-kbr/ [with comments]
After rape victim used cell phone to call for help, KBR bans use of personal phones in Iraq
Aug 4th, 2008
http://thinkprogress.org/2008/08/04/after-rape-victim-used-cell-phone-to-call-for-help-kbr-bans-personal-phones-in-iraq/ [with comments] [at http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=31208737 ]
KBR Rehired Employee With Child Pornography Fetish
May 7th, 2008
http://thinkprogress.org/2008/05/07/kbr-rehired-employee/ [with comments]
Pentagon Inspector General Refuses To Probe KBR Rape Case
Jan 8th, 2008
http://thinkprogress.org/2008/01/08/dod-not-investigate-kbr/ [with comments]
Bush Administration Misses Deadline To Respond To KBR Rape Questions
Jan 3rd, 2008
http://thinkprogress.org/2008/01/03/state-rice-kbr-rape/ [with comments]
Rep. Poe: At Least 3 Other Women Were Sexually Assaulted While Working For KBR In Iraq
Dec 19th, 2007
http://thinkprogress.org/2007/12/19/poe-testify-kbr/ [with comments]
Jamie Lee Jones - No Justice for Alleged Rape Victim
December 14, 2007
http://www.gather.com/viewArticle.action?articleId=281474977203863 [with comments]
==========
also (items linked in):
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=28285293 and preceding
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=26790488 and following
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=25438657 and preceding
Greensburg, KS - 5/4/07
"Eternal vigilance is the price of Liberty."
from John Philpot Curran, Speech
upon the Right of Election, 1790
F6
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