A bill was  passed in the Senate in October by a 68-30 roll call vote. vote that would punish government contractors who “restrict their employees from taking work place sexual assault, battery and discrimination cases to court.” Senator Sessions accused Franken of a “political attack directed at Halliburton” but Franken argued that it would apply to all contractors preventing it from being a Bill of Attainder. The bill was introduced by Senator Al Franken. What is truly astounding about this is that 30 Senators voted against it. Although the bill would cover all companies, it was born as a result of a case against a government contracted company named Halliburton/KBR. The company is accused of attempting to cover up a gang rape in which a female employee was assaulted by fellow employees, and after the incident was reported and she had been treated by a company Doctor; locked in a shipping container by the management of the company. The incident happened in Iraq in a camp named Camp Hope. The Chamber of Commerce was one of the companies who fought against this bill.

            This company has a long and sordid history. This is the second time that the company has been accused of concealing a gang rape by trying to use a binding arbitration clause in their employment contracts. On both occasions, the physical evidence collected after the rape “has disappeared”. Unfortunately for the victim, but fortunate for her case is the fact that she was so badly injured during the rape that her genitalia and breasts required reconstructive surgery, so some evidence does exist. Despite attempts by the Company, and sadly, some government offices, the victim,  Tracy Barker, will finally have her day in court according to a federal judge who found that this was not covered as a workplace compliant, although an earlier court ruling by another federal judge tried to deny her the right. It has been two years since the rape.

            No company or individual should ever be above the law. It is bad enough that rape does not carry a more severe sentence, despite the documented evidence of recidivism. To legally attempt to allow a company to cover up a crime as horrendous as this one is yet more evidence of people putting money above morals. How could anyone have voted against a law that makes companies obey instead of circumvent the law, let alone senators who are supposed to be upholding the interest of the people? To what God, ego or conscience could they possibly be answering in recommending that a crime as brutal as one that requires reconstructive surgery of the victim be legally protected.  Did it occur to them that this could have been their wife, daughter or mother. How much money did it take to buy their loyalty? How do they sleep at night protecting monsters so horrendous that they would condone this? I am still stunned that there were any who opposed a bill to make companies follow the law.

            As an update, about six weeks after the Franken bill was ratified, Tracy Barker was awarded $3,000,000 to settle her case by an arbitrator. I guess Halliburton finally decided that finding themselves once again in the spotlight was bad for business. Or maybe Dick Cheney, Halliburton’s  former CEO and our former VP, found his stock options weren’t doing as well as he hoped with all the new found publicity.       

         Ironically enough, with the company currently under investigation for the electrocution deaths of 18 US Servicemen due to faulty electrical wiring, the company, now KBR who has severed its ties with Halliburton, was once again awarded a DOD contract in February of 2009 worth $35,000,000. KBR’s response to the accusation was not denial, but only that they were not required to follow US Electrical codes while working in another country. Apparently, there are those to whom the almighty dollar will always supersede the morals by which most of us live, with respect for the rights, dignity and lives of others. They will never understand that there is no amount of money worth what they have put their victims and the families of those victims through.

Obama was our first black president, it’s an amazing accomplishment for our country. It really was inspiring. A very significant color barrier had finally been broken. Unfortunately, last Tuesday may have been an indicator that color really was, at least in some voters minds what the election was about.

Maybe it’s the new disillusionment with the wild goverment spending, interference and broken promises of the democrats. Maybe it’s just that traditionally, local and state races see a lower turnout. But what actually happened, was that many of the new black and hispanic voters did not show up at the polls last Tuesday. If our newest President was elected simply because he was black,( and by the way, he is half-white also) how meaningful is that amazing accomplishment of ours?

It’s an embarresment, to our country, to our president, and to our children and it’s racism. A vote should mean something more then you approve or disapprove of a canidates skin tone, or their gender (the one we still haven’t managed to break). It should mean that the person who is elected represents your views, at least as much as possible. I wonder now that things are going badly, will many suddenly consider him white.

Let’s see who might be benefiting here. Well, I don’t think we can say it’s the senior population. No raise for social security this year even as the list of Doctors who are willing to accept medicare grows shorter by the minute due to the declining percentage of fees that medicare is now willing to reimburse; and oil prices are through the roof. Perhaps the sentiment is that if we can keep them from eating and narrow the options for healthcare for seniors, more will inevitably die for treatable conditions and we will be able to spend even less on social security, which has already been raided and robbed many times over for special interest projects that have nothing to do with seniors but everything to do with lining some legislators pockets.

Maybe it’s the kids, oh no, not them either. Funding to schools has been cut. We are supposed to educate them better to compete in the world marketplace today with less money for resources then we’ve had in previous years. Oh, but if they can manage to get admitted to college, there will be more funding available for that, which is good, since we will need to spend more time in college teaching what we have been unable to teach in elementary school.

It’s obviously not the general public that is benefiting. Unemployment is still reaching new highs, people are still losing their homes caught in a mountain of red tape and technicalities and the governments answer for these people is to fine the ones who will not buy into the healthcare embezzlement , bail out businesses by paying off the exorbitant contracts of the executives and leave the smaller local businesses to die at an alarming pace.

So much for a goverment of the people, by the people. Obama will not manage a second term, theres no way. Unfortunately when he does leave office, the trillions of dollars of debt will not leave with him. Yes, I’m aware that he inherited a mountain of problems, but no, I don’t believe he’s done anything to improve the situations either. If the answer to not paying the executive bonuses at the automakers and financial companies was to let them close, then let them close. I’m tired of hearing about how the government doesn’t have any right to tell businesses that accepted their money how it should be used. If I went and got a mortgage from the bank, they would certainly tell me how I could use it. I couldn’t just take off for an extended luxury vacation. But that’s pretty much what happened with the companies that we have bailed out. I guarantee you that if it had come down to people losing their jobs or their bonuses, the bonuses would have gone. I don’t think the government should be running a business that didn’t take a loan from it. But business has to be held accountable when they start lying to their consumers and shareholders. Larceny is larceny, whether you broke into my house and took my money, or lied to me to get it. It’s not that complicated.

There’s going to be a lot of representatives out of a job in the coming years, my greatest hope is that they finally reap what they’ve sown as they try to find their next job. Staying on Obama’s good side doesn’t guarantee anything. Just ask Creigh Deeds.

Of course, I’m one of those weirdos that believes that believes strange things, like the news should simply report the news, as facts. I don’t need their editors personal opinions on things. I have enough of my own opinions. Beside’s there’s already a section for that, it’s called the editorial page. I also belive the Constitution is important and still relevent today. But, back to the subject at hand, our elections.

It’s a biggie for us. There’s way too much on the table right now, and someone needs to be there to clean it up. I did vote for Obama in the last election, I don’t regret it because I don’t think I would have been any happier with the alternative. Can’t say I’ve been too happy with a lot of them, although Clinton was pretty good for the country. But as I’ve just said, I’m not too happy with the current administration either. Like any other sane person in this country, I do believe we need some kind of healthcare reform. Notice I called it reform, not socialized medicine as is the case with the current bill. Not the government forcing people to buy a product, this one or any other. I believe in the Constitution and the Ammendments. I don’t recall any part of those saying that government should be going into business for itself. I don’t remember anything that says that they should be selling anything, ever. And I’m not quite clear on how the government is willing to regulate the financial industry, but not the insurance industry, which by the way is regulated by every individual state in which it is sold. Is there any reason we can’t start there?

 Think about it. We have global warming, oil prices are sky high, primary education budgets have been cut while secondary education scholarships have expanded (does anyone understand that?), the economy is in the toilet, unemployment is ridiculous so what are we going to do? We’re going to shove a new healthcare system down everyones throats, fine the people who obviously have enough to worry about with putting food on the table and keeping a roof over their heads and can’t afford to pay for the insurance which they didn’t choose anyway; because the government, current and former, are doing such a great job with everything else that they should obviously be running something that everyone’s lives depend on, right?

 I am one of those people that haven’t always had insurance when I needed it. It’s totally crappy. I will be paying bills off for a very long time. But I no more want this healthcare system then my father, a staunch Republican. Govenment should not now, or ever be selling anything, and that is unfortunately what this election is coming down to.

I don’t like our Republican candidate. I am a single working mother who believes my body is my own, I should be paid the same wages for the same job, religion should never be the foundation for laws (just ask the Middle East how that’s working for them) and everybody is entitled to their own values and beliefs, they live with their own choices. The man is against everything I stand for, except the healthcare issue. He has made the statement that he opposes it unilaterally. Some people have commented that this is dumb, such a sweeping statement. I don’t agree. The bill that’s currently on the table, the extraordinarily long bill, is a violation of our freedom and our rights. It gives the government the license to not only sell a product, but force us to buy it. Can you imagine any other business doing that, there would be riots. They can now regulate yet another industry which they know nothing about. So maybe not such a dumb sweeping statement after all.

I was really hoping that our democratic choice would come out with a statement of some sort. But, with Obama’s back behind him, I guess that may be asking too much. The strongest statement we have there is that he would consider opting Virginia out of the public healthcare option. It’s not enough, not for myself or many other Democrats in this state. Our purple state like our tempers, is starting to run red.

Unfortunately, as much as I hate to admit it, they may be right on this one, our choices seem to be coming down to a vote for or against Obama’s healthcare bill and which rights we are willing to sacrifice to make our voices heard.

Just make sure that your voice, whatever it is saying, is heard.