The Senate passes a bill that allows the government to detain an American citizen indefinitely without a trial, according to the Daily Show. I could write a story about it or a snarky blog post, but perhaps the Daily Show making light of it will help more Americans understand what is at stake?
What I’m wondering is, where are all the activist on the right who fight so fervently for their Second Amendment gun rights? Do they not see how the right to bear arms is useless without the right to due process and against unreasonable searches and seizures?
Aasif Mandvi says the WikiLeaks release is important because it shows that what the government says in private is not necessarily what it says in public.
OK, this is funny, but it’s not, especially since Alabama’s Senate delegation voted against the measure. Another embarrassing day to be from Alabamaland…
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.
Sen. Al Franken (D-MN) proposed an amendment to the 2010 Defense Appropriations bill that would withhold defense contracts from companies like KBR “if they restrict their employees from taking workplace sexual assault, battery and discrimination cases to court.” Speaking on the Senate floor yesterday, Franken said:
The constitution gives everybody the right to due process of law … And today, defense contractors are using fine print in their contracts do deny women like Jamie Leigh Jones their day in court. … The victims of rape and discrimination deserve their day in court [and] Congress plainly has the constitutional power to make that happen.
On the Senate floor, Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL) spoke against the amendment, calling it “a political attack directed at Halliburton.” Franken responded, “This amendment does not single out a single contractor. This amendment would defund any contractor that refuses to give a victim of rape their day in court.”
In the end, Franken won the debate. His amendment passed by a 68-30 vote, earning the support of 10 Republican senators including that of newly-minted Florida Sen. George LeMieux.
We should not even be talking about Sarah Palin because it’s sexist, says John Stewart of Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show,” after taking apart Karl Rove on his comments about GOP veep pick Sarah Palin vs. the Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine, who made Obama’s short list…
Is it any wonder many people turn to the cable comedy shows for news? The networks and their talking heads are not liberal. They are just a not-so-funny joke…
During the Bush years, we specialized in covering the politicization of the U.S. justice system as much as any news organization. Our archives are about the most comprehensive for anyone researching the prosecution of former Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman, and the original case against Richard Scrushy, which Glynn Wilson covered for The New York Times.
