Busy, busy, busy

No time to post for the last three weeks. Possibly won't make the time to post again, ever. But I have to say, I'm much less cranky after the outcome of Tuesday's election. The air hasn't seemed this sweet in a long time. And I live in LA.

I came across a quote by Thomas Jefferson that seemed apt:

A little patience, and we shall see the reign of witches pass over, their spells dissolve, and the people, recovering their true sight, restore their government to its true principles. It is true that in the meantime we are suffering deeply in spirit, and incurring the horrors of a war and long oppressions of enormous public debt. If the game runs sometimes against us at home we must have patience till luck turns, and then we shall have an opportunity of winning back the principles we have lost, for this is a game where principles are at stake.

I don't know if we've won back our principles fully, but we're a lot closer than we were on Monday. The best part about the win is that the 'through the looking glass' feeling of the last six years is diminished. The country didn't turn progressive overnight, but sanity has prevailed. That gives me hope. Cheerio.

Evert time we torture, an angel gets its wings

Today, with the signing of the Military Commissions Act of 2006 we are officially a country where the executive branch of the government can 'disappear' anyone it wants, for any reason, torture them as he sees fit without threat of recourse, and abandon due process that has been in place for more than 200 years.

This post offers a good summary of what this means:

The bottom line is simple: The MCA preserves rights against torture and cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment, but it severs these rights from any practical remedy.

This means that the President can have his "alternative sets of procedures"-- i.e., torture lite-- if he can persuade CIA personnel to violate the law with the promise that they will never be prosecuted or punished for doing so. When Rickard suggests that someday CIA officials will have to answer to judges and juries, he assumes precisely what the new bill acts to forestall-- judicial inquiries into the conduct of CIA interrogations.

This is the great irony (and chutzpah) of the President's repeated claim that he only wanted to clarify the law so that the CIA and other officials wouldn't have to break it. The CIA will still be violating the law if it does what the President wants it to do. However, because the Military Commissions Act severs rights from remedies, the Executive branch has the sole power of enforcement. The President decides whether he thinks people in the Executive branch are violating the law, and even if he believes they are violating the law, the President also decides whether he will order them to stop. By now we know the answer to this question. He will not order them to stop. Quite the contrary: the President has made clear in his repeated endorsement of these "alternative" techniques (techniques that he will not name in public) that he will push CIA officials to break the law. Because the Executive branch holds all enforcement powers within itself, the only thing that prevents cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment is the conscience of CIA personnel and executive branch lawyers.

Remember the pasty faces of these jackals in this picture. They were instrumental in crapping on the constitution in the name of 'security.' Has there ever been a group of 'lawmakers' who has done more to undermine the legal foundation of our country?Where's Saint McCain? Why isn't he attending this blessed event, since he gave his approval (after a media-event one day objection to torture and subsequent roll over)? My guess is, he's under Bush's table, with his mouth full.

Oh, and if I hear another Republican talk about their party's Moral Values(TM), my foot will meet their ass. Not surprisingly I try to stay away from face to face encounters with such swine. Here's a money quote:

"It is a rare occasion when a president can sign a bill he knows will save American lives," Bush said. "I have that privilege this morning."

So, that means, if we torture someone, anyone, even if they are not found guilty or don't have a trial at all, and even if the information they give us is worthless, America is spared death and the little baby Jesus will smile.

W T F

This is so much more important than the Mark Foley scandal. But if perverts preying on teens is what the braindead media want to give to the masses, and it is what sweeps these criminals out of office, then fine. Next time, they can sweep away the handful of Democrats who voted for this shameful bill.

For anyone who thinks that this only applies to Terrorists who are Guilty, guess again. Many of the prisoners in Gitmo are guilty of being at the wrong place at the wrong time. And there is no provision in this travesty of a law that says torture is only for brown skin people with funny last names (not that it matters who gets tortured in the grand scheme of things-it's all bad). We already know that this administration has been spying on Quakers and other American peace activists. This law strips away their protections, by saying that the President has the discretion to do whatever he sees fit to obtain information.

Jesus wept. Or, better, the line from a Woody Allen film (I can't remember which one): "If Jesus came back to earth and saw what was being done in his name he would never stop throwing up."

How low will they go?

Dennis Hastert went on Rush Limbaugh to spin away his cover up of predatorgate. And what he said shows that he still doesn't get it.

SPEAKER HASTERT: There were two pieces of paper out there, one that we knew about and we acted on; one that happened in 2003 we didn't know about, but somebody had it, and, you know, they're trying -- and they drop it the last day of the session, you know, before we adjourn on an election year. Now, we took care of Mr. Foley. We found out about it, asked him to resign. He did resign. He's gone. We asked for an investigation. We've done that. We're trying to build better protections for these page programs.

But, you know, this is a political issue in itself, too, and what we've tried to do as the Republican Party is make a better economy, protect this country against terrorism -- and we've worked at it ever since 9/11, worked with the president on it -- and there are some people that try to tear us down. We are the insulation to protect this country, and if they get to me it looks like they could affect our election as well.

So, let's see: Hastert covers up the situation for political reasons and plays dumb. And now we are to believe that this is all coming out now to GET HIM. Yeah, it's the kid's fault. The kids are working with the Democrats to bring down the Republicans. I see. The kids must have SET UP poor little Foley by being so innocent and young and eager to 'work' with him. And now Hastert is the victim because these damn nubile pages are taking him off message and not letting him win the election by scaring the shit out of Americans about terrorism. And, as a kicker: If I have to resign over Foley, then the terrorists have won.

What a F***ING PIG. This is who's running Congress. Are there ANY adults in charge in Washington?

The whole lot of them need to resign and have the Pages take over; the pages, at 15 or 16, show ten times the maturity these cretins do.

Et tu, Mrs. Bush?

Turns out Laura Bush is going to be campaigning with Tom Reynolds (R-NY), who is part of the Foleygate predator scandal.

Oh, I do so hope she brings back those horse masturbation jokes when she speaks.

From the torture-friendly NYT copy editor

Along with victories, G.O.P. takes a few blows.

And one of those 'victories' would be their 'success' in shitting on the Constitution by allowing Bush to detain anyone he wants, at any time, for any reason he wants and not give them due process under law that has been guaranteed for more than 200 years.

But we wouldn't want to sully a newspaper with nuances like that. Way to go, liberal media.

Foley on Clinton

"It's vile. It's more sad than anything else, to see someone with such potential throw it all down the drain because of a sexual addiction."

--Rep. Mark Foley (R-FL), commenting on President Clinton, following release of the Starr Report, September 12, 1998.

Who will protect the children now?

The GOP always, ALWAYS brings in the worst possible person(s) to lead a particular mission.


- Halliburton oversees Iraq reconstruction.
- Enronites in the Department of Commerce.
- Longging interests wrote the Healthy Forests Act.
- Alberto "Waterboard" Gonzales as the public defender of the Constitution.
- Karl Rove asked to "run" Katrina recovery.
- Henry "Stay the course in Vietnam" Kissinger advises Bush and Cheney on Iraq.


And now, we learn, a guy who has sex chat with young things on the internet was co-chair of the Committee on Missing and Exploited Children. Some in the GOP are screaming at the Dems for making the Foley scandal a big deal, screaming, what about the Congressional page program now? What about Foley's initiative to protect children now?

Simple, and I don't know why they haven't thought of it before. Someone whose career is on the skids, and would like to make a change. Hmmm, who could lead the committee to protect the kids? Ah. Of course.

Oh, and in case there's an opening for director of of the national Henhouse, may I submit a candidate.

Page boy scandal: House leadership knew

Of course. From the Washington Post:

The resignation rocked the Capitol, and especially Foley's GOP colleagues, as lawmakers were rushing to adjourn for at least six weeks. House Majority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) told The Washington Post last night that he had learned this spring of some "contact" between Foley and a 16-year-old page. Boehner said he told House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.), and that Hastert assured him "we're taking care of it."

Sure they were. I mean, the creep Foley was only in charge of protecting vulnerable children from predators. But that was just his sheild. His party leadership protected him, and continued to do so and kept letting him have access to pages even when they knew about his antics. Right, they care about the kids. Yeah.

These people don't give a shit about ANYONE except their own. All of us are just pages. We're servants, objects to be moved around. Their constituents are not people. They're dumb shmucks to be bought off or manipulated. Their problems are just wedge issues for their campaigns.

Disgusting. Yet, after yesterday the thought of some fine, fine men in the GOP going down... er, um, I mean leaving office because of this really warms my heart.

GOP=Grand Old Pedophiles

It's all about the hypocrisy of the family values party. They win elections by 'protecting our kids' from 'perversity'. How much more can it take for people to wake up and realize they've been had, on every level?

The GOP hall of shame:

* Thomas Adams, longtime Green Oaks mayor and former chairman of the Lake County (IL)Republican Central Committee, was charged Monday with possession and distribution of child pornography.
* A Bush appointed DHS spokesman was arrested for trying solicit sex on the internet from an undercover detective posing as a 14 year old girl. He was arrested while actually online with the detective.
* Republican Mayor of Spokane, Jim West, was recalled after being arrested for soliciting young boys to have sex with him from his government issued work computer.
* Republican political consultant and ad producer Carey Lee Cramer was found guilty of charges he sexually molested two young girls. Cramer is best known as the man behind the Anti-Gore ads in the 2000 election.
* Republican County Constable Larry Dale Floyd was arrested on suspicion of soliciting sex with an 8-year old girl. Floyd has repeatedly won elections for Denton County, Texas, constable.
* Republican judge Mark Pazuhanich pleaded no contest to fondling a 10-year old girl and was sentenced to 10 years probation.
* Republican Party leader Bobby Stumbo was arrested for having sex with a 5-year old boy.
* Republican petition drive manager Tom Randall pleaded guilty to molesting two girls under the age of 14, one of them the daughter of an associate in the petition business.
* Republican County Chairman Armando Tebano was arrested for sexually molesting a 14-year-old girl.
* Republican teacher and former city councilman John Collins pleaded guilty to sexually molesting 13 and 14 year old girls.
* Republican campaign worker Mark Seidensticker is a convicted child molester.
* Republican Mayor Philip Giordano is serving a 37-year sentence in federal prison for sexually abusing 8- and 10-year old girls.
* Republican Mayor John Gosek was arrested on charges of soliciting sex from two 15-year old girls.
* Republican County Commissioner David Swartz pleaded guilty to molesting two girls under the age of 11 and was sentenced to 8 years in prison.
* Republican legislator Edison Misla Aldarondo was sentenced to 10 years in prison for raping his daughter between the ages of 9 and 17.
* Republican Committeeman John R. Curtain was charged with molesting a teenage boy and unlawful sexual contact with a minor.
* Republican anti-abortion activist Howard Scott Heldreth is a convicted child rapist in Florida.
* Republican zoning supervisor, Boy Scout leader and Lutheran church president Dennis L. Rader pleaded guilty to performing a sexual act on an 11-year old girl he murdered.
* Republican anti-abortion activist Nicholas Morency pleaded guilty to possessing child pornography on his computer and offering a bounty to anybody who murders an abortion doctor.
* Republican campaign consultant Tom Shortridge was sentenced to three years probation for taking nude photographs of a 15-year old girl.
* Republican racist pedophile and United States Senator Strom Thurmond had sex with a 15-year old black girl which produced a child.
* Republican pastor Mike Hintz, whom George W. Bush commended during the 2004 presidential campaign, surrendered to police after admitting to a sexual affair with a female juvenile.
* Republican legislator Peter Dibble pleaded no contest to having an inappropriate relationship with a 13-year-old girl.
* Republican advertising consultant Carey Lee Cramer was charged with molesting his 9-year old step-daughter after including her in an anti-Gore television commercial.
* Republican activist Lawrence E. King, Jr. organized child sex parties at the White House during the 1980s.
* Republican lobbyist Craig J. Spence organized child sex parties at the White House during the 1980s.
* Republican Congressman Donald "Buz" Lukens was found guilty of having sex with a female minor and sentenced to one month in jail.
* Republican fundraiser Richard A. Delgaudio was found guilty of child porn charges and paying two teenage girls to pose for sexual photos.
* Republican activist Mark A. Grethen convicted on six counts of sex crimes involving children.
* Republican activist Randal David Ankeney pleaded guilty to attempted sexual assault on a child.
* Republican Congressman Dan Crane had sex with a female minor working as a congressional page.
* Republican activist and Christian Coalition leader Beverly Russell admitted to an incestuous relationship with his step daughter.
* Republican Judge Ronald C. Kline was placed under house arrest for child molestation and possession of child pornography.
* Republican congressman and anti-gay activist Robert Bauman was charged with having sex with a 16-year-old boy he picked up at a gay bar.
* Republican Committee Chairman Jeffrey Patti was arrested for distributing a video clip of a 5-year-old girl being raped.
* Republican activist Marty Glickman (a.k.a. "Republican Marty"), was taken into custody by Florida police on four counts of unlawful sexual activity with an underage girl and one count of delivering the drug LSD.
* Republican legislative aide Howard L. Brooks was charged with molesting a 12-year old boy and possession of child pornography.
* Republican Senate candidate John Hathaway was accused of having sex with his 12-year old baby sitter and withdrew his candidacy after the allegations were reported in the media.
* Republican preacher Stephen White, who demanded a return to traditional values, was sentenced to jail after offering $20 to a 14-year-old boy for permission to perform oral sex on him.
* Republican talk show host Jon Matthews pleaded guilty to exposing his genitals to an 11 year old girl.
* Republican anti-gay activist Earl "Butch" Kimmerling was sentenced to 40 years in prison for molesting an 8-year old girl after he attempted to stop a gay couple from adopting her.
* Republican Party leader Paul Ingram pleaded guilty to six counts of raping his daughters and served 14 years in federal prison.
* Republican election board official Kevin Coan was sentenced to two years probation for soliciting sex over the internet from a 14-year old girl.
* Republican politician Andrew Buhr was charged with two counts of first degree sodomy with a 13-year old boy.
* Republican legislator Keith Westmoreland was arrested on seven felony counts of lewd and lascivious exhibition to girls under the age of 16 (i.e. exposing himself to children).
* Republican anti-abortion activist John Allen Burt was found guilty of molesting a 15-year old girl.
* Republican County Councilman Keola Childs pleaded guilty to molesting a male child.
* Republican activist John Butler was charged with criminal sexual assault on a teenage girl.
* Republican candidate Richard Gardner admitted to molesting his two daughters.
* Republican Councilman and former Marine Jack W. Gardner was convicted of molesting a 13-year old girl.
* Republican County Commissioner Merrill Robert Barter pleaded guilty to unlawful sexual contact and assault on a teenage boy.
* Republican City Councilman Fred C. Smeltzer, Jr. pleaded no contest to raping a 15 year-old girl and served 6-months in prison.
* Republican activist Parker J. Bena pleaded guilty to possession of child pornography on his home computer and was sentenced to 30 months in federal prison and fined $18,000.
* Republican parole board officer and former Colorado state representative, Larry Jack Schwarz, was fired after child pornography was found in his possession.

And there's the latest, besides Foley.


Is it my imagination, or does the straight jacket of morality make conservatives the kinky sex seekers? Not only that, but they appear to seek abusive relationships, which is part of what fuels pedophelia: the kick of using someone more helpless.

Democrats, however, get ordinary, run of the mill blow jobs from adult interns under the desk. And the world goes crazy. I'll bet the mainstream media makes a big deal about the fact this guy was seeking sex from a male, and not the fact that he is a hypocrite creep.


Maybe the GOP should run Larry Pierce for Congress. At least he's honest.



Then again, if the GOP loses their 'values voters,' what do they have to run on? Shredding of the Constitution and War Without End? Nah, those two trends will run their course, one can hope.

Another GOP hypocrite bites the dust

Rep. Foley (R-FL) resigns over emails to a boy.

Yesterday, the news broke that he wrote emails to a 16 year old former page, which do kind of cross the line of 'friendly' into the realm of creepy, including asking the boy for pictures of himself and praising the physique of his male friend.

But what may yet surface must be horribly damaging. Even Rep. Bob Ney, who was indicted and plead guilty still didn't resign.

Rumors had been circulating about Foley being gay for at least three years, to my knowledge. He was a key homo basher, which makes him suspect to begin with.

The Workforce Investment Act passed by a 224 - 200 vote after Republicans defended the hiring language. [It] would repeal workplace protections in job training programs signed into law by President Reagan and written by then-Senator Dan Quayle. Specifically, it would allow religious organizations, which receive federal funding to operate job training programs, to discriminate in employment based on religious grounds - including objections to an individual's sexual orientation.

House Democrats argued that the bill amounts to government-sanctioned discrimination. "This provision is offensive, ugly, wrong," said Rep. Jim McGovern, Massachusetts Democrat. "It is a slippery slope from here on out and I fear this is just the beginning." LGBT civil rights also decried the legislation which still needs Senate approval.

"Republicans are attempting to force taxpayers to pay for their own discrimination," said Eric Stern, Executive Director of National Stonewall Democrats. "No American should have to pass a religious test in order to receive a federally funded job. The valuable work of our religious institutions should not be corrupted by discriminatory policies advanced by Republicans."

The vote followed an "action alert" Tuesday by the conservative Family Research Council urging its members to contact their representatives to vote for the measure. "Organizations that oppose homosexuality and abortion often need extra protection when receiving federal aid or using federal facilities," said Tony Perkins, FRC President.

Among the Republicans who voted for passage of the legislation were Charlie Bass (NH), Judy Biggert (IL), Mary Bono (CA), Mark Foley (FL), Rodney Frelinghuysen (NJ), Nancy Johnson (CT), Jim Kolbe (AZ), Jim Leach (AZ), Deborah Price (OH), Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (FL), Joe Schwarz (MI) and John Sweeney (NY), all of whom received endorsements and financial support from national LGBT organizations last November.

And on the child-chasing front, here was his cover: being a leader in fighting those who would exploit youth over the internet.

H.R.5749
Title: To amend title 18, United States Code, to protect youth from exploitation by adults using the Internet, and for other purposes.
Sponsor: Rep Foley, Mark [FL-16] (introduced 7/10/2006)

It's not a question that he was gay. It was pretty much an open secret in Washington for years, just as there is nobody in Hollywood who hasn't known about Tom Cruise. But I am not trying to equate gayness with pedophelia. I'm simply saying that, this is what the closet does. It perverts, it warps, it damages anyone who refuses to come out, and, when they are in the public eye, it makes them sponsor hateful amendments for gays, introduce legislation to 'protect' kids from internet predators, become priests (and I'm not saying this is true of all or even most priests, so lay off), and, of course, join Scientology and jump on sofas.

I believe it's a better than even chance that Foley will find Jesus in a BIG way, and come back an even bigger pervert.

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But nowhere do I see: U.S. Constitution, 1789-2006, died today in Washington, D.C. Nope, can't find that one anywhere.

But that's great news about Charlie Sheen. Kind of makes up for what Congress did by knowing ol Chuck can buy more hookers now. Hooray!

USA: We Torture (since 2006)!

I was going to come up with some incisive analysis on this, or at least a slapdash rant on how our Constitution died today. Or some insight into habeus corpus, and how Our Leader will now have the power to disappear anyone he chooses, at any time, including you and me.

But nothing I could write would come close to matching Orwell. From 1984, book III chapter 3:

'Now I will tell you the answer to my question. It is
this. The Party seeks power entirely for its own sake. We
are not interested in the good of others; we are interested
solely in power. Not wealth or luxury or long life or
happiness: only power, pure power. What pure power means you
will understand presently. We are different from the
oligarchies of the past, in that we know what we are doing.
All the others, even those who resembled ourselves, were
cowards and hypocrites. The German Nazis and the Russian
Communists came very close to us in their methods, but they
never had the courage to recognize their own motives. They
pretended, perhaps they even believed, that they had seized
power unwillingly and for a limited time, and that just
round the corner there lay a paradise where human beings
would be free and equal. We are not like that. We know that
no one seizes power with the intention of relinquishing it.
Power is not a means, it is an end. One does not establish a
dictatorship in order to safeguard a revolution; one makes
the revolution in order to establish the dictatorship. The
object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture
is torture. The object of power is power. Now do you begin
to understand me?'