You all have been waiting for it...some knuckle-dragging commentary from the swamps of Freeperland about conservative Republican U.S. Senator from Idaho Larry Craig's same-sex bathroom booty call. Enjoy!
Part of the perversion that is homosexuality; sex in public places.
I'm getting to the point where I just don't care about that—my rage at the betrayals overshadows all. Haggard, Foley, this kook. It seems that NO one speaks for us and acts for us.
It will be interesting being that he is a Repub if he will get millions for a book deal, a one hour show on Oprah, and multiple favorable reviews in the New York Times like Gov. Jim McSleezy who put the security of the entire state of New Jersey at risk.
OK, here is my latest conspiracy theory... enjoy! Homosexuals are deliberately infiltrating the GOP so they can say either (1) See, we're gay and we're Republicans, too! or (2) They can claim to be anti-homosexual agenda politicians, and then when they are caught, it makes the GOP look like the party of hypocrites. Either way it advances the homosexual agenda.
Scumbags like this absolutely disgust me. I have no particular problem with him being a degenerate (as long as he does so on his own time) but he has no business serving in a public office, and especially not as a Republican. Thanks for the 'gift that keeps on giving' Larry!
Yes, another case of Conservative Hypocrisy for the lefties to crow about. What's the equivalent on their side? Al Gore wanting to force everybody else to ride a bike while he flies private jets, etc. John Edwards bemoaning poverty while padding his expense accounts. The difference is that Craig is finished in public life, and Gore will continue to get Oscars and big speaking fees and Edwards will continue to run for President and rate respectful ass-kissing from the MSM. It's the double standard.
Foley left congress and Craig won't be far behind. His support for amnesty was enough for me to want him gone. This gay bathroom crap will end his career. Good riddance to an amnesty supporter
Larry Craig is toast. I certainly would not want to represented by a Senator who drops his pants in public. There is something seriously wrong with him - he needs help. But not on the taxpayer's dime.
I thought Republicans were Anti-Gay? Am I missing something here? The GOP apparently has Gays in High Places. And the Main Stream media rather than saying, The Republicans are not the narrow minded Cretins we make them out to be. Instead say another "Fag Republican" was caught. What gives? The Demorats love Gays until they are members of the GOP. Then they are dirty scoundrels? Two faced liars and hypocrits. That's what the Demorats are today. They hurl the Gay Insult when a GOP member is outed. If they out themselves as Demorats they are courageous. Otherwise they are Sexual Deviants.
The GOP needs to clean it's house of perverts and sodomites.
I agree. This looks very bad, indeed. He can use all the excuses that he wants, but I doubt that he will convince many that he was "innocent." I hope that he does the right thing for the GOP and decides not to run again for the senate. He is political toast. Unlike the Dems, Republicans care about sexual ethics.
Craig is not stupid. Expeditious? Expeditious?? The only thing he expedited was his eminent exit from the senate. And the self destruction of the republican reelection effort. These are the long knives. The Republicans need to pull out the long knives and do some exposes' on some of the democrats' sordid misbehavior.
[And my personal favorite --]
I think this is another Democrat setup. Anyone who says anything against gays nowadays is persecuted.
Nah, I think more likely the GOP bigwigs eventually knew about it and figured it will come out any way, dump it today under the flash of the Gonzales stories.
Larry Craig, up until a short while ago, served as a co-senate liaison for the Mitt Romney campaign. Here is what a Mitt mouthpiece, Matt Rhoades, announced.
"Senator Craig has stepped down from his role with the campaign. He did not want to be a distraction and we accept his decision."
Sidney Smith, a Craig aide in Boise, said Monday afternoon that the senator was "in the (Boise) area" but was declining to give interviews.
Mitt's campaign is backing away as fast as it can from the potty-sex Senator. Take a look at Mitt's YouTube page scrub job. He had a video of Craig lauding the former Massachusetts governor, but you can no longer play the video. Click the link on the page -- it goes nowhere. And look at the direct YouTube page (screenshot below, click to enlarge).
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What a blast from the past -- a vintage Larry Craig denial:
ABC News report from 1982 -- Rep. Larry Craig issues a preemptive denial regarding any involvement in a congressional sex and drug scandal.
[NOTE: If you can believe this, the initial Craig post on the Blend was linked to by PerezHilton and it's swamped the server.]
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Steve Ralls at The Frontlines reports on Randy Miller, who was injured in Iraq during a parachute jump accident, falling 900 feet, sustaining injuries to his leg and ankle.
Miller's injuries weren't what got him booted from the 82nd Airborne -- it was because he was turned in by a fellow soldier who reported Miller's presence in a gay bar to a superior.
In Miller's case, he said he was in a known gay bar minding his own business when a male soldier made him a sexual proposition, which he rejected. The rejected soldier reported Miller to a superior, and Miller was subsequently called in. He didn't lie. He admitted he was gay.
With his two-year anniversary in the Army coming up, marking a promotion and pay raise, officials acted swiftly to discharge him. It also meant he had to pay back a sign-on bonus he had already spent because he didn't fulfill his commitment.
"Going to a gay bar is not grounds for dismissal. It's unfortunate he made the admission to his commander without legal representation," said SLDN spokesman Steve Ralls, who was unfamiliar with Miller's case.
One consequence of his discharge under DADT is that his homosexuality is disclosed on his official Army papers since it is the reason for separation.
Because Miller was discharged under "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," his homosexuality becomes public knowledge anytime he applies for a new job because the reason is stated on his Army discharge papers.
"I've probably already had some job-related issues. People have refused to call me back," said Miller, referring to job openings he says he was qualified for since returning home. He has not pursued legal action against those employers, although it is against the law in California to discriminate against a potential employee based on sexual preference.
“At the time of this incident, I complained to the police that they were misconstruing my actions,” Craig said in a statement released Monday evening. “I was not involved in any inappropriate conduct. I should have had the advice of counsel in resolving this matter. In hindsight, I should not have pled guilty. I was trying to handle this matter myself quickly and expeditiously."
This is probably the first of many statements we'll see from Senator Craig.
"What's up with elected officials like Senator Craig? They stand for so-called 'family values' and fight basic protections for gay people while furtively seeking other men for sex. Infuriating pathetic hypocrites. What more can you say?
"There is sad irony that a United States senator from Idaho has been caught up in the same kind of thing that destroyed the lives of dozens of men in Boise in the 1950s, so tragically chronicled in 'Boys of Boise.'
"And by the way, why are Minneapolis tax dollars being used to have plainclothes police officers lurking idly in airport restroom stalls?"
He pleaded guilty, folks. This was kept under wraps for some time. The question is, will he take pointers from Florida State Rep Bob Allen when he discusses his public foray into man-on-man action for the press? It's all a big misunderstanding, you know. I wonder if there were any scary black men or lightning storms near the airport. Roll Call has the goods.
Sen. Larry Craig (R-Idaho) was arrested in June at a Minnesota airport by a plainclothes police officer investigating lewd conduct complaints in a men's public restroom, according to an arrest report obtained by Roll Call Monday afternoon.
Craig's arrest occurred just after noon on June 11 at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport. On Aug. 8, he pleaded guilty to misdemeanor disorderly conduct in the Hennepin County District Court. He paid more than $500 in fines and fees, and a 10-day jail sentence was stayed. He also was given one year of probation with the court that began on Aug. 8.
A spokesman for Craig described the incident as a "he said/he said misunderstanding," and said the office would release a fuller statement later Monday afternoon.
After he was arrested, Craig, who is married, was taken to the Airport Police Operations Center to be interviewed about the lewd conduct incident, according to the police report.
Idaho reactionary and well-known closet queen, Larry Craig, was arrested in a public toilet for misbehaving in a way closeted Republicans often do. So apparently it isn't just train stations' rest rooms that turn Senator Craig on.
* Voted YES on constitutional ban of same-sex marriage. (Jun 2006) * Voted NO on adding sexual orientation to definition of hate crimes. (Jun 2002) * Voted NO on expanding hate crimes to include sexual orientation. (Jun 2000) * Voted YES on prohibiting same-sex marriage. (Sep 1996) * Voted NO on prohibiting job discrimination by sexual orientation. (Sep 1996)
If Gonzales is replaced by Homeland Insecurity head Michael Chertoff, CNN reports sources say that DHS will be headed up by Clay Johnson III, the Deputy Director for Management at the Office of Management and Budget.
It would be yet another hack appointment, a friend of Bush, completely unqualified to defend the homeland, as it were. Think Progress:
Johnson, who has no homeland security experience, is a professional Bush loyalist. While Johnson may have familiarity with some aspects of DHS's budget, he appears to have no experience in the many responsibilities of the department, including immigration, air travel security, disaster response, and other aspects of our nation’s homeland defense.
I thought about taking on a different topic, but it seems pretty useless on a day like today. So I thought I'd add my two cents on Gonzalez.
What's striking to me is how little sadness there is on the right that he is leaving. A quick look over at The Corner shows that most conservatives there view his departure with relief. Michelle Malkin wasn't upset to seem him go either. A quick blogosphere check shows that most on the right are okay with this decision.
But I wonder why Republicans and wingnuts aren't angry about Gonzo's departure. Gonzalez has been radioactive for months now. He became the walking symbol of the Bush Administration's failures - incompetence, corruption and cronyism (loyalty uber alles).
For him to resign now - after the disastrous appearances on the Hill, after his deceptions, after stubbornly refusing to do so months ago when it could have stemmed the tide - well, it seems like defusing a bomb after it had already gone off. It's like Rumsfeld all over again.
This departure brings back memories of the phrase, the Mayberry Machiavellis. Bush and friends seem intent on going down hard and taking the GOP with them.
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This past Thursday I had the honor of moderating the very first "Take A Stand Day" event. In attendance was Congressman Tom Davis (R-VA) and Rand Beers who gave their assessment of the current situation in Iraq. The event was covered by C-SPAN, The Washington Post, and The Politico.
The main focus of our event was to allow Congressman Davis to explain his position on Iraq directly to a room full of over 100 of his constituents.
I'm no Tim Russert when it comes to moderating so I did the best I could do and was fortunate enough to present the AAEI message to the audience.
Afterward I introduced Rand Beers, a former member of the National Security Council, and Counter Terrorism Advisor to George W. Bush. Mr. Beers resigned his position in the White House in opposition to the war in Iraq - listen here to his brilliant remarks.
We were able to get a lot of information out of Congressman Davis. The most sobering remark was when he actually admitted that the White House is likely to "tweak" the report from General David Petraeus expected to come in mid September. Most Republican members of Congress have been using this upcoming report as cover from frustrated constituents who want answers on how the U.S. will get out of Iraq - the Republican members are quick to respond "well, we will just have to wait and see what General Petraeus has to say in September."
In addition, I thought it was appropriate to incorporate into the discussion our current policy of granting amnesty to former Al-Qeada affiliates and insurgents who have American blood on their hands. To me it was necessary because President Bush says we have to remain in Iraq to fight Al-Qeada and the insurgency. That is main message Bush sends to his hardcore loyalist who eat it right up. Davis concurs with Bush but agrees it is "distasteful." Also, the issue raised that the GAO has reported that we have lost over 190,000 weapons that we have supplied to the Iraqis that are now missing and could possibly being used against us.
Other questions were presented to the Congressman on how much Iraq war spending has impacted his congressional district, and the possibility of 18 month troop deployments in Iraq if the situation doesn't change. The erosion of our military capacity and capability of our National Guard forces was addressed as well.
We were also fortunate to be joined by Sister Marie Lucey and Bob Petrusak. I happen to know Bob personally and he is a very reasonable man who cares deeply about troops.
Overall the event was a tremendous success with very insightful dialogue from all members of the panel.
Tomorrow there are similar town hall meetings taking place around the country and we'll have reports from them, too.
Just watched Bush, who it appears is, in fact, angry. He thinks Gonzo's name was "dragged through the mud." As you can see below, he also thinks his A.G. "is a man of integrity, decency and principle." In the real world, none of those descriptors apply to Gonzales: Read the rest of this post...
Been collecting some of the early reaction to the announcement that Alberto Gonzales has resigned. We'll post more as they come in...
UPDATE: Just added statements from Pelosi and Conyers below -- and now also Senator Clinton. Bush is speaking at 11:50 a.m. Word is that he's not happy and is going to express his displeasure. Whatever. His A.G. is a liar -- that's standard operating procedure for Bush, but for most of the rest of us, that's a problem.
Alberto Gonzales was never the right man for this job. He lacked independence, he lacked judgment, and he lacked the spine to say no to Karl Rove. This resignation is not the end of the story. Congress must get to the bottom of this mess and follow the facts where they lead, into the White House.
Senator Patrick Leahy, who will oversee the confirmation hearing for the next AG, had this to say:
Reacting to press reports about the resignation, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) said he hopes that Gonzales’s decision “will be a step toward getting to the truth about the level of political influence this White House wields over the Department of Justice and toward reconstituting its leadership so that the American people can renew their faith in its role as our leading law enforcement agency.”
Leahy added that under Gonzales, “the Department of Justice suffered a severe crisis of leadership that allowed our justice system to be corrupted by political influence.”
Senator John Cornyn is on CNN right now defending Gonzales. He thinks this is a "sad day" and "sad commentary." That's rich.
The resignation of Attorney General Gonzales is long overdue. The rampant politicization of federal law enforcement that occurred under his tenure seriously eroded public confidence in our justice system.
The President must now restore credibility to the office of the Attorney General. Given the serious loss of public trust and the disarray at the Department of Justice, the American people must have absolute confidence in the integrity of the next Attorney General as the nation’s chief law enforcement officer and as defender of our constitution independent of political influence. The President’s nominee must have the character and stature to command that confidence.
The nominee must also pledge to cooperate with ongoing congressional oversight into the conduct of the White House in the politicization of federal law enforcement. Hearings on the nominee will provide Congress with another opportunity to examine the new, flawed FISA law and will aid in our efforts to improve it.
Chair of the House Judiciary Committee John Conyers:
It is a sad day when the Attorney General of the United States resigns amid a cloud of suspicion that the system of justice has been manipulated for political purposes. More than accountability, we need answers. Unfortunately, the continued stonewalling of the White House in the U.S. Attorney scandal has deprived the American people of the truth. If the power of the prosecutor has been misused in the name of partisanship, we deserve a full airing of the facts. The responsibility to uncover these facts is still on the Congress, and the Judiciary Committee in particular.
Hillary Clinton weighs in -- with a warning shot about the next nominee:
This resignation is long overdue, and so is the appointment of an Attorney General who will put the rule of law and our Constitution above partisan politics.
Attorney General Alberto Gonzales took an oath to uphold our Constitution and respect the rule of law, but time and time again, he demonstrated that his loyalties lie with the President and his political agenda, not the American people or the evenhanded and impartial enforcement of our laws. In his actions and inaction, from warantless wiretaps to the firing of U.S. Attorneys, his loyalty was to the President, not the American people.
The Department’s hardworking lawyers, law enforcement officers, and staff are trusted to defend our Constitution, not one Administration or political party. That trust is central to the sanctity of the rule of law and the vitality of our democracy. Because he betrayed his obligations and the trust of the American people, I welcome today’s announcement that Attorney General Alberto Gonzales has resigned his post as Attorney General of the United States.
My hope is that the President will select a new Attorney General who will respect the rule of law and abandon partisanship, who will serve the American people and not the President’s political ideology, and who will answer to the Constitution and not political operatives. It is past time to clean up this mess and restore non-partisan accountability and competence to the Department of Justice.
The second anniversary of Hurricane Katrina is one more reminder that the President must appoint someone to lead the Department of Justice with the leadership and competence necessary to defend the Constitution.
Gonzales himself is doing a press conference at 10:30 a.m. Will he take questions? And, if so, how many questions won't he answer.
Bush is doing a statement at 11:50 a.m. from Crawford before he heads out to raise campaign funds for Senator Domenici in NM, then Congressman Dave Reichert in Washington. (Don't forget, you can help Burn Bush for Burner to counter that visit.)
Is Michael Chertoff, the current Secretary of Homeland Security, in Texas with Bush? His name is being mentioned by all the punditry. And, how interesting that Bush would name Chertoff two years after they both oversaw the Katrina response debacle.
UPDATE 9:52 a.m.: CNN just reported that Bush will only make a statement, no questions. And, no replacement will be named.
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The very controversial, embattled, lying Attorney General, Alberto Gonzales, has resigned:
Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales, whose tenure has been marred by controversy and accusations of perjury before Congress, has resigned. A senior administration official said he would announce the decision later this morning in Washington.
Mr. Gonzales, who had rebuffed calls for his resignation, submitted his to President Bush by telephone on Friday, the official said. His decision was not immediately announced, the official added, until after the president invited him and his wife to lunch at his ranch near here.
Mr. Bush has not yet chosen a replacement but will not leave the position open long, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because the Attorney General's resignation had not yet been made public.
NBC reporting possible replacements are Michael Chertoff and Orrin Hatch.
[Note from AJ: Everybody is saying Chertoff -- current Department of Homeland Security Secretary -- is the replacement. Whoever it is, the confirmation hearings should take a long, hard look at what the nominee thinks of the political influence within the Justice Department. And if it is Chertoff, the confirmation hearings for his replacement at DHS should be similarly rigorous.
On the other hand, since Congress isn't in session, are we looking at recess appointments?? How this plays out will be very interesting.]
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In this last week of August, the focus will be on Bush's biggest failures: Iraq and Katrina.
Americans Against Escalation in Iraq are hosting "Take a Stand" Town Hall meetings across the country this week. Members of Congress are going to have to decide if they're still with Bush -- or if they're going to finally change the course and take a stand against the endless war.
This week also marks the second anniversary of Katrina striking the Gulf Coast. Bush has the audacity to show his face in New Orleans on Wednesday.
Greetings from the Hotel Delta in Lamia, Greece (a rather decent hotel, 60 euros or so for three of us, great air conditioning in the rooms, free Internet in the lobby, and a decent breakfast (like 5 euros extra or something) - after our hotel last night in Delphi, the Hotel Olympic, which has air conditioning in name only, I had to pull my mattress to the hallways by the front door since it was cooler on the marble floor away from the window - our room was 90 degrees all night - anyway, after that, I'm now making hotel recommendations :-)). Half of Greece is on fire, and I'm here visiting family. Nice. Above is the view from the highway. The video, below, is from downtown Athens. We were getting our car rental when we saw this huge billowing smoke coming from across town. We had a hunch that this was related to the fires, and I think it was. (Just uploaded the video, so may take a few minutes.)
We found out yesterday that the road down south to our family, and half the country, has been blocked off by the police because of the fires. No one is going anywhere. So we headed north, visited Delphi yesterday, which really is an amazing place, and then went to the monastery of Holy Lukas, a monk from like 900 AD or so. Lukas' remains are in the monastery, on display (okay, it was kind of creepy and cool). Voila, the monastery.
Delphi was huge compared to what I remember. I think they've uncovered, or prepared for the public, a HUGE amount more than was previously available. The cool thing is that Greece is becoming like Rome, in that more and more of the antiquities are finally becoming readily viewable by the public. Previously, so much work was yet to be done on the ancient stuff, but now they're really moving into high gear, or at least it seems. It's really great to see. This is the view from the top of the Delphi looking down at the theater (where they bega the Pythian Games) and then the Temple of Apollo where the oracle sat and did her thing (it's also where Oedipus killed his father, married his mother, then flipped out).
And today we head to another series of monasteries atop some mountains in northern Greece (Meteora). Mom is big on the monastery thing, but it actually is pretty cool - anything 1000 years old isn't too shabby (well, okay, maybe Ann Coulter). Not sure what the rest of the week will bring, since much of my trip was going to be visiting the family down south.
In other news, I'm trying to remember all the interesting things I've seen in the past several days. Ah, the museum at Delphi. Very interesting. They had a beautiful statue of Antinoos. I seemed to remember that he was the lover of the Roman Emperor Hadrian, and was shocked to see the description of the statue state that fact outright (it's not often that the gay gets left in historical accounts). Especially gay history going back 2000 years. Here's the description the museum gave.
Anyway, it's very interesting being back in Greece after 20 years - I've been here 3 times before, but the last time was 1988. People are way nicer than I remember, and there are signs of major advancements in the country over the past two decades, such as the Athens metro, and this really cool bridge that goes to Corinth, I believe.
Here's some video of the bridge that I took - it's called the Rion-Antirion Bridge. Totally cool.
Then again, some things never change, like the traffic jam we had yesterday on the way to the town of Lamia, which is right next door to where King Leonidas took on the Persians in the story they redid for the movie "The 300," which mom and I watched halfway through 2 weeks ago, and hated.
Then again, perhaps the goats felt that turnabout was fair play after our dinner at my Aunt Mary's the other night. (Two points if you guess the mystery meat.)
Speaking of food, we had probably our best meal yet in Greece at a little restaurant in Lamia. If you ever visit this town, run to this restaurant. It's called"O Tselykas (or Tselyikas), meaning "The BIG shepherd," and the address is 22 Karaiskaki street (just off the main town squar, across from a pastry shop). It's all roast and BBQ'd food, Greek style. I had a to-die-for roast pork, and dad had lamb. Mom shared a Greek salad with us, also to die for (and I don't even like salad). The owner is a young guy who waits the tables and cooks all the food. He runs around like a madman and is the nicest guy. And it's cheap - our main courses were 7 and 9 euros, salad 3.50, etc.
Speaking of Aunt Mary's and grilling, I was grilling her on our various ancestors and she mentioned something that even my mom didn't know about. We come from southern Greece, on both sides of my family, and knew that, but found out that on mom's side, the famous-general-during-the-revolution side of the family, actually came down from northern Greece (near Albania) and had a reputation as being quite the vicious "don't f-with-me" crowd. My peeps were apparently mercenaries in the north, protecting villages from whomever (Turks mostly, I'd assume). They were called the "Souli," and our home village in the south became known as Soulima, derived from "Souli mas" - meaning, "our Souli." Their nickname, once they came down south, was "Dreddes" or something like that - apparently, it means something in some unknown language that is akin to "they're really scary people" (because we were known as warriors). Kind of a weird thing to learn about your family, but also kind of fun, and cool, and always fascinating to find out more about yourselves. (Any history buffs or geneology buffs out there who have a suggestion as to how I can research more about our family? My concern is that anything written about the Souli or the Dreddes, is probably in Greek - and I can speak okay, but reading, ugh.) Holy cow, there's an entire Wikipedia entry about my people - okay, I gotta admit, the Internet still continues to freak me out. I loved the following snippet, which my mom did actually know about:
In a famous incident on December 16, 1803, the so-called Dance of Zalongo, 22 Souliot women were trapped by enemy troops and committed suicide to avoid capture. According to tradition they did this by jumping off a steep cliff one after the other while dancing and singing.
Our ancestor who was a revered leader in the revolution against the Turks was named Papatsoris (I think he was a general, and a priest - have to ask mom). There's a statue of him in the center of the town of Soulima, and his uniform is in the museum in Athens. He's the one I'm really trying to find out information about, though any of his ancestors or beyond would be most welcome - if any of you Greek-info sleuths are interested in snooping around :-)
At first, I'd forgotten how unlike western Europe Athens is. But after 24 hours, I'm home again and really enjoying being here. It's a good life... when half the country isn't ablaze.
In closing, here's a picture I took of relatively nothing. It's not anything particularly beautiful, and it's not a particular nice photo. It's just an example of how damn beautiful the water is here. I didn't retouch this photo at all, this is the color of the water. And contrast it to the pale landscape. My mom said "it's like someone took a bucket of blue and just dumped it into the water, forgetting the rest of the landscape." It really is a beautiful country in such basic ways.
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