The Dirty Thirty and the Silence of the Media Lambs

When the U.S. Senate finally stopped Joseph McCarthy’s violent, devastating attacks on American values, 22 Senators SUPPORTED McCarthy.  They were all Republicans.  

 

When a 19-year-old woman was reportedly gang-raped by co-workers in Iraq, 30 Senators* supported the rapists’ company, effectively protecting the RAPISTS along with the company.  All Republicans, these Senators self-righteously voted AGAINST an amendment holding government subcontractors responsible for the actions of their employees.  “Free enterprise” beat out accountability for a gang-rape.   

 

What kind of human being, much less Senator, champions private profit over justice in the face of rape?  I can only wonder -- would it have been different if a man had been gang-raped?  

 

When The Daily Show with Jon Stewart reported this week on the debate, then vote on the Senate Floor -- including simply unbelievable speeches from a number of these 30 Republican Senators -- we went looking to other news sources to learn more, quite reasonably turning first to The New York Times.  Zero, zip, zilch.  

Alternative media,such as Alternet and the Huffington Post had the story, as did the member-supported MinnPost.com in the hometown of the Senator who had introduced the proposed amendment, Senator Al Franken.  A press release was reprinted by HometownSource.com.  Coverage was also provided by numerous bloggers and special interest groups.  Except for Haliburton’s hometown Houston Chronicle, in the mass/traditional media, we had to go to the U.K.’s Guardian** for more information.  Lest one argue that the story “isn’t news”, as of 7 PM Mountain time on Saturday, the story ranked #4 on the Guardian website’s most viewed list.  We’re still waiting for the screaming-Fox-News-headline: Republican Senators Support Gang-Rape by Three to One Margin.

 

Minnesota Senator Franken served decency well by introducing this piece of proposed legislation.  Anyone working for the United States government, even mercenaries working for subcontractors, has the right to expect their fundamental human rights will not be blindly violated, left with no where to turn for justice.  

 

More, Sen. Franken has served a greater good in letting these Senators’ actions speak for themselves.  It is they -- not he -- who are keeping front and center the reality of Republican ideological and dogmatic maliciousness in the service of their corporate masters.  

These 30 Republican Senators may refuse to hold accountable government contractors and those to whom they subcontract.  For me, the larger question is -- will voters in the states nominally represented by this Dirty Thirty hold THEM accountable?  

 

Arbitration for gang-rape?  Surely the Republican Party has earned the right to die.

 

 

*– These are the Republican senators, all male, who voted against the amendment and for the right of corporations to do pretty much what they damn well please without suffering any consequences:

 

The Dirty Thirty WALL of SHAME:

 

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)

 

Apparently their views were actively supported by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

 

These are the Republican senators who voted for the amendment:***

Robert F. Bennett - R-UT

Susan Collins - R-ME

Chuck Grassley- R-IA

Orin Hatch-R-UT

Kay Bailey Hutchison - R-TX

George S. LeMieuz - R-FL

Richard Lugar - R-IN

Lisa Murkowski - R-AK

Olympia Snowe - R-ME

George Voinovich - R-OH

 

Four of the 10 are women, bless them all.

 

** - see, particularly, the “controversial history” of Halliburton at the end of this article.  That history appears to be part of what the DIrty Thirty voted to protect.

 

***- two Democratic senators, West Virginia’s Byrd and Pennsylvania’s Specter, did not vote.

Comments

[the evil zargos]

what? Re-thuglicans are against women??? OLD NEWS!!

[Archie1955]

Perhaps it's time to open the pocket book and take out a full page ad in the Washington Post and the Wall Street Journal detailing the votes of these peverse miscreants.

[LeftAlone]

more proff that the MSM not only is far right by only a tool of corporate interests.

i cant wait for the day when newspapers are all gone.

[Motherunit]

I wonder if any of the 30 gave a moment's thought to what they were voting against. Did they have their reasons, however flawed, or was it just the Repub knee-jerk "NO" because the amendment was introduced by a Democrat? This story deserved way more attention than the MSM gave it. Fortunately, we have Jon Stewart and Paula Gordon...not much else.

[ziploked]

I forwarded a copy of your post to Scott H. Heekin-Canedy, President, General Manager of the NY Times, asking why they never reported on this story.

By the way, Senator Franken's name is spelled with an "e", not an "i".

[Smithn]

This is a wonderful action! I just copied it (in part) to the Axelrod, Emanuel Fox story blog--it's been busy as a hive all morning.

[ziploked]

Ms. Gordon:

The story should have been bigger than Rush Limbaugh trying to get an NFL team, yet somehow, it wasn't! It would seem the big question is: why was this story (apparently) suppressed? This is seemingly huge news, so why would a famous liberal bastion like the NY Times, or any other major media outlet choose not to run it? Have you spoken to any of them to ask why? Who could exert enough influence over the national press to stop this story from running, and why? Any ideas? (assuming you can theorize or print pure conjecture without the risk of getting maligned or sued).

[Smithn]

Paula,
I posted this blog immediately to NewsTrust & Digg--that how important I believe it is. Thank you so very much for writing such a pointed call to action. It needs to be printed and stapled to every telephone post in every town of every state on the list!

[DavidFinke]

Being from Missouri and supposedly represented by Sen. Kit Bond, I immediately took to his senatorial website, copied the article, and asked why he was sullying his reputation by having been in the 30 instead of the 10? Kit was one to go against the naysayer grain by voting for confirmation of our most recent Supreme Court Justice. He tries to put at least a little light between him and fellow-Missourian R. Limbaugh.
We know that contact via websites gets more attention than e-mails. (Phonecalls and visits are best... along with hand-written letters.) So let's use them to stir things up a bit among the Dirty Thirty... and see if any might actually break ranks and repent.
Thanks, Paula!