The other day I wrote about a friend who was raped by an organized crime figure and prevented from seeking justice, for fear of retaliation. With regard to the case, there are also serious questions about whether the criminal justice system turned a blind eye to this rapist, due to corruption within the DA's office. But what about when protection of powerful entities -- such as Corporations -- from legal action for crimes such a rape -- is the overt agenda of our elected officials? This is from Change Congress.

You may have heard about Jamie Leigh Jones -- an American woman who was gang raped by her co-workers while working for a defense contractor in Iraq.

Her employer (KBR, an affiliate of Halliburton) "lost" the rape kit, locked her in a box for 24 hours, and then prevented her from filing charges in court -- by invoking a private-arbitration clause in her contract. KBR picked the arbitrator.

Senator Al Franken (D-MN) proposed a bill last month to allow victims of rape to bring their case to court. Sounds like an easy vote, doesn't it? Most senators thought so. All female Republican senators thought so.

But Sen. Richard Burr (R-NC) voted no to protecting rape victims -- after receiving over $700,000 in campaign contributions from the defense industry and Chamber of Commerce, both of which lobbied against Franken's proposal because arbitration saves them money. [The other Senators who voted against the Franken Amendment were likewise all male Republicans. The list of these Rape-publicans is here.]

Today, we are asking people across the country to sign an expression of outrage at Burr's decision to put campaign contributors above rape victims. We'll keep the media informed about our growing number of signatures, and shame Burr publicly.

Can you help us shame Burr? Click here to sign -- and then please pass this email to others.

(At the link, you can see a great video of Jon Stewart calling out Burr and others.)

We are also releasing a poll we commissioned in North Carolina, which shows Burr voted against the overwhelming majority of his own constituents. 73% of North Carolinians disapprove of Burr's vote against Franken's proposal. And after hearing that Burr took over $700,000 from the defense industry and Chamber of Commerce, a majority believe Burr's vote was affected by those interests.

Thus again, the point we have made over and over: Whether or not you believe Burr sold out, his behavior leads most to believe money buys results in Congress -- and that taints our democracy. We need to shame these politicians one by one until Congress realizes that it's time to replace special-interest-funded elections with citizen-funded elections.

Can you help us shame Burr? Click here to sign -- and then please pass this email to others.

We will keep you up to date on our progress. Thanks for helping to Change Congress. -- Lawrence Lessig

P.S. Local and national media have already reported on our poll this morning. Here are some more results:

•73% of North Carolina voters disapprove of Burr's vote against rape victims, only 14% approve.
•56% of voters are less likely to vote for Burr in 2010 as a result of his vote, only 11% are more likely.
•67% think money buys results in Washington DC, only 14% think it doesn't.
•47% think Burr cast his vote because of the money, only 34% think he thought it was the right thing to do.
•52% think Burr's $700,000 in special-interest contributions "hurt his judgment," only 34% thought it didn't.