KBR: No More Cries For Help From Our Rape Victims

Often times, justice and bad press get in the way of each other when it comes to the dealings of a large corporation that makes money off one of two of the big evil in the world. KBR, a subsidiary of Halliburton recently was involved in such an episode when their "get your war on" culture just happened to result in the rape of Jamie Leigh Jones (one of several). The reason her story came to light was due to the goodwill of her guard to let her use his cellphone in order to call her family (while being locked inside a storage bin after telling her superiors about her ordeal). So how does KBR alleviate problems like this?

From The Seattle Examiner:

Defense contractor KBR Inc. said it has banned the sue of personal cell phones by its employees in Iraq for security reasons.

In an e-mail to The Associated Press on Saturday night, KBR spokeswoman Heather L. Browne confirmed the company had notified its employees in Iraq that use of personal cell phones is prohibited.

Browne said the decision was because of "a safety and security concern." She declined to elaborate, but did say KBR officials are reviewing the matter that led to the directive.

A safety and security concern? I wonder who's safety they are concerned about, their employees or their stock quote? Instead of working towards a solution that can put an end to a rape-permissive culture inside the war profiteering outfit, they chose to go the route of merely covering up for the criminals that lurk inside their company.

Shelly Silver Helped Cover For Rapist In His Office, Now The Victim Is Working For Paul Newell

Shelly Silver, one of the three men in the proverbial room, is a real piece of work, but we already know that. He is the master at stalling legislation in the Assembly and rules the chamber, but I never thought he would be so deep in the old boys club that he'd cover for an alleged rapist (at the time, now it is proven fact) in his own office, yet he did exactly that.

From The NY Daily News:

Crothers, 32, was a young staffer for an upstate Republican assemblyman when she brought an internal complaint in 2001 with the Assembly that she was raped by Silver's then-counsel Michael Boxley.

Crothers and her boss met directly with Silver, who she said was callously eating pretzels as she recounted her story.

Silver initially put out a statement backing Boxley, who denied the charge. An internal Assembly investigation was inconclusive, and Crothers and Boxley agreed the matter was closed. She never filed a criminal complaint.

Several years later, Boxley was led out of his Capitol office in handcuffs after another legislative aide accused him of rape.

The story is absolutely disgusting, for him to be eating fuckin' pretzels while she recounted her horrific and traumatic story should be criminal for the heartlessness of it all, not to mention (un)wittingly aiding Boxley. So what is Elizabeth doing these days? She's out to get revenge in the very best way possible.

Elizabeth Crothers has since moved to California, but she's so bent on ousting Silver that she is volunteering for Paul Newell, one of two Democrats taking on Silver in this fall's Democratic primary.

Crothers said she plans to spend more time in New York raising money and campaigning for Newell, telling her story in hopes he can pull off a primary upset. Just this week, she was part of a host committee for a Newell fund-raiser.

"I see it as the only opportunity to bring real reform to New York and to unseat one of the worst leaders in the state and quite possibly in the nation," Crothers said.

There are already plenty of reasons to get rid of Shelly Silver, but Elizabeth Crothers adds a very personal and traumatic story, hopefully to rid the Assembly of Sheldon Silver for good.

Rape Versus Prostitution

Yes, the most prominent New York politician resigned yesterday due to his dealings in prostitution, the way he transferred money to finance it and of course transporting prostitutes across state lines. It was shameful, ridiculous, idiotic, stupid and you can use many more adjectives to describe Spitzer. Yet as bad as it was, in my book rape is far worse, because that isn't consensual and shows the worst in people. Now Dennis Gallagher hasn't been convicted of raping a woman in his office, but when you look at the details of a possible plea agreement, the situation looks terrible.

From The NY Times:

A New York City councilman accused of rape is close to a deal with prosecutors to avoid jail in return for his resigning from office, seeking alcohol abuse treatment and apologizing to the victim, according to two people familiar with the negotiations.

The councilman, Dennis P. Gallagher, a Queens Republican, was initially charged with raping a woman in his campaign office in Middle Village in July after they met in a nearby bar. Mr. Gallagher, who is married and the father of three children, acknowledged a sexual encounter but said that it had been consensual.

In January, a State Supreme Court judge dismissed the indictment of Mr. Gallagher, saying that prosecutors had unfairly prejudiced the grand jury against him. The judge added, however, that the evidence was strong enough to warrant an indictment.

That ruling left the door open for prosecutors to present the case again to a new grand jury. The Queens district attorney, Richard A. Brown, said that he intended to seek a new indictment, but that has not happened.

A sticking point earlier in the plea discussions was whether Mr. Gallagher would be required to register as a sex offender. No such requirement is in the current proposed resolution of the case, according to one of the people familiar with the negotiations.

So basically they had a sexual encounter, he said it was consensual, she said it was rape. Except for Gallagher, everyone involved agrees there is enough to indict him. Now he's ready to make a deal to save himself from being a sex offender and having to serve time in jail for what he did. If he's innocent like he claims, then he should try to fight it, not make a deal, because it presumes some level of guilt.

So in one week, we could have two resignations from NY public officials. Damn, I wonder if that's a record. In any case, both men were wrong in what they did, and while Spitzer's meltdown will be more in the media's spotlight than Gallagher's, his is still far worse.

Jamie Leigh Jones Testifies To Congress

The Bush Justice Department never wanted to hear about her plight, so at least Congress is willing to hear her out....and hopefully do something about it, for her and for all women subjected to the abuses of KBR and Halliburton.

Huffington Post Whacks Huckabee Upside The Head Again

The Huffington Post ran the story last week about Huckabee helping to get serial rapist Wayne Dumond out of prison. Huckabee took a page out of Giuliani's book and attacked the messenger instead of confronting the facts. With a woman like Arianna running the site, you know H Po wasn't going to take his criticism lying down. Early this morning the blog did not disappoint, shedding light on even more documents that show all Mike cared about was letting this dangerous criminal out of jail to appease Huckabee's Clinton-hating fans.

From The Huffington Post:

Since the Huckabee campaign has questioned the validity of the original report, the Huffington Post has decided to release additional documents from Huckabee's file on Dumond.

[Read the new documents in full here.]

The file, which was provided by a staffer to then-governor Huckabee who was concerned about his handling of the case, includes 12 separate letters written by eight different women. (This includes the three documents posted for the original story). Three of the women reported being raped or sexually assaulted by Dumond. One, whose writings have not been made public up to this point, wrote about her harrowing assault at Dumond's hands[...]

The document provides a clear indication that Huckabee had evidence from state officials concerning Dumond's long history of violent behavior. While on the presidential campaign trail, Huckabee has stated that no one could have anticipated that Dumond would strike again after being set free.

I wonder what the Huckabee campaign will say to these new revelations. We should probably give him some time to respond, since he is now dealing with statements made from Ryan White's mother about his comments about AIDS patients.

Poor guy, meh.

If Corporations Are People, KBR Should Be Jailed For Life

Per the 14th Amendment and the Supreme Court, corporations in America are deemed to people in certain situations for their benefit only. If "personhood" was applied thoroughly, KBR and Halliburton would be sentenced to many years in jail for a brutal rape of an employee in Iraq. However, we do not live in a perfect world and the story of Jamie Leigh Jones is an incredibly sad one to hear.

From ABC News:

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.

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.

Only because a sympathetic guard let her call her father did she get out of that container. Congressman Ted Poe made the necessary calls to get her out and is 100 percent behind her, yet more than two years later, there has been no justice for Jamie.

The government is helping KBR hide her rapists and the company as a whole from litigation. Convenient loopholes have let them escape prosecution. Now Jamie is trying to use the civil courts as a last hope at finding justice, but KBR is fighting her every step of the way. The Bush Administration is of no use to her. If Bush had to choose between a rape victim and a war profiteer corporation, he would always go with the latter.

Huckabee's Downfall? Rape, Murder And The Right Wing Influence

The crippling stories about the Presidential candidates are coming fast and furious lately. last week it was about Giuliani, then Hillary's negative attacks got bad press, now Huckabee has some serious explaining to do. Why on Earth would then-Governor Huckabee push for early release of a convicted rapist? Was it because the right-wing nuts pressured him to do so because one victim was related to Bill Clinton?

Dennis Gallagher, Do Not Pass Go

Well Councilman Gallagher won't be staying in jail anytime soon, but he was forced to turn himself in this morning to the authorities. A little over three hours ago, Dennis was booked for rape, assault and a criminal sex act.

The indictment is currently sealed, but expect it to be released later today. Basically the grand jury heard the story from each side in the case, and easily made the decision to let this go to trial.

He was smiling yesterday when he went to court, but I doubt there was any happy emotions from this indicted man today. Goodluck to the justice system in prosecuting him to the fullest extent of the law. Dennis has no business representing his slice of Queens, though if he wants to run for cell block president, then go ahead by all means.

Accused Of Raping A Grandmother, Gallagher Smiles

Dennis Gallagher left the courtroom smiling after giving testimony about a rape case that a 52 year old grandmother has brought against the Republican City Councilman from Queens. He says he has done nothing wrong, that she is only mad because he insists the encounter was a one night stand. The plantiff has a slightly different account of what happened.

From The Daily News:

A smiling Gallagher emerged from the courthouse after two hours of testimony about 4:45 p.m. "I know in the end I will be vindicated," he said.

His accuser, who testified before the grand jury for an hour last week, said she was the victim of a violent assault and that Gallagher is lying.

"He's going to say its consensual or whatever ... but it's all B.S.," the woman told The News.

Gallagher testified he met the woman at a well-known Middle Village watering hole, Danny Boy's, then went to his office for sex, the sources said.

The accuser told cops Gallagher offered her a ride home, but instead took her to the office, where he forced her onto her knees and tied her hands. He then allegedly raped her and forced her to perform oral sex, according to police reports obtained by The News.

She claims that he has everything to lose and there would be no reason for her to bring the suit if it weren't true. Gallagher says the only thing he did wrong was commit adultery. So he has already lied to his wife and abused the trust of their marriage. There is no reason to think he wouldn't continue to lie if the situation is as serious as the victim claims. Of course this will all have to be sorted out in trial, but starting out it will be an uphill battle for this adulterer and/or rapist to prove his innocence.

Religious Nuts Are Ruining Our Country

We all know that Republicans like to take credit for being the caretakers of 'American, Judeo-Christian-style morality in our country. Yet case after case shows that the only morality they act out of is their own fear.

Imagine being a young woman walking to your car and a man jumps out at you, drags you off the street and rapes you behind an intersection. It is one of the most traumatic things one person can do to assert power over another human being. Only in the case of a particular woman in Tampa on Saturday night this was only the beginning of her nightmare.

The hospital had done a standard exam and prescribed her a morning-after pill, followed by the police coming in to do their standard investigation. When they pulled up her record a paperwork-snafu from four years ago showed she had an arrest warrant for not providing resitution in a case as a juvenile.

So what did the cops do? Vigoriously work to find the rapist and bring him to justice? No, instead they hauled her off to jail:

...the woman was put in handcuffs and taken to jail. She was not allowed bond, and the medical staff at the jail refused to give her the Morning After Pill even though it had been prescribed at the hospital.

"The medical supervisor would not allow her to take the pill because she said it was against her, the supervisor's, religion. So, here we have a medical supervisor imposing her beliefs on a rape victim," claimed the victim's attorney Virlyn Moore. "As a human being, how someone could be so violated by this monster and then the system comes along and rapes her again psychologically and emotionally - it's outrageous and unconscionable."

So a rapist now runs free while the raw trauma of a rape is compounded by the 'morality' of the prison' medical staff. Who are they to deny her the rights of an American citizen? How is it that religious beliefs can be imposed on another in a public institution, especially that of a rape victim? This is a phenomenon that needs to be stopped cold in it's tracks. If an individual does not believe in secondary contraception, then don't take it for yourself. But in America, that is where it should stop. We are a land that was founded with liberty in mind, not religious persecution of others.