I'm still laughing at how bad a week the religious right hate groups had

First, the vice president endorses his openly-lesbian gay-activist daughter having an out-of-wedlock artificially-inseminated (we assume) fatherless birth, and then the House Ethics Committee tries to exonerate the folks who enabled a sexual predator by claiming that the enablers may simply have been trying to protect a known homosexual, so that makes it okay. In other words, the conservative House Republicans put gays ahead of kids. Add that to the fact that Rick Santorum, George Allen, Katherine Harris, and the rest of the religious right wacko brigade went down in flames either during or after (e.g., Bill Frist) the election. It's a sorry time in America to be a far-right theocratic bigoted hate group.

I'm sure they pine for the good old days when Strom Thurmond was running for president. Mary Cheney will spend the next 50 years of her life being a walking poster child for conservative Republicans accepting every aspect of the "gay lifestyle," including gay marriage, gay adoption, and gay employment equality. Mary, Dick, and the House Ethics Committee just axed the hate groups in the back. And it's funny as hell. Read the rest of this post...

Cliff's Corner

NOTES: First of all, I apologize for my inconsistent posting over the past few weeks. It's the boy. I just gotta spend much hours with my little boy. I have written little bits and pieces and my semi-new blog, creatively named cliffschecter.com. Check it out, don't cut and run!

The Week That Was 12/08/06

Another week. More preposterousness to report.

Well what do you know? Shockingly the "Ethics Committee" found that nobody is really to blame for Foley-trolling, except the honorable former first fornicator himself. Hoewever, being that he wasn't relying on Republican contributors like Enron, but the federal government for his pension, he'll still get his cold hard cash for retirement.

I mean have a heart, it's not easy defraying the cost of the multiple Rambo flicks, a year's supply of Lambskins and a vat of Banana Boat.

Although, in a just world, it'd be delivered to him by some of Vladamir Putin's friends in a bag of polonium.

Speaking of Republicans in Congress, if you really want to understand this coverup as well as the corporate-fellated, make-believe moral, "I must invade another country because I never got laid in high school" lives of these feudal-lords-in-fundamentalist-clothing, I give you Rep. Jack (-ass) Kingston.

Here is what this Georgia peach-for-brains had to say about the terrible new requirement Democrats are implementing in the Congress, that he actually, you know, work five days a week:

Keeping us up here eats away at families," said Rep. Jack Kingston (R-Ga.), who typically flies home on Thursdays and returns to Washington on Tuesdays. "Marriages suffer. The Democrats could care less about families -- that's what this says.

First of all, nice cheap-shot attack on all Democrats you Southern-fried, Deliverance clone. Second of all:

B-O-O-H-O-O

Yet, as you would guess from a statement like this, Jack-in-the-Box is stalwart supporter of easing the economic burden on married families and supporting them in any and all ways he can muster. That's probably why he opposes raising the minimum wage, universal healthcare, birth control, free childcare, family and medical leave, gay marriage, tax breaks for the middle class instead of Paris Hilton and Halliburton.

He does, however, support the government's right to intrude into private medical decisions made by a husband concerning his wife, as he did in the Terry Schiavo case. Luckily he'll now have an extra couple of days a week at work to propose other helpful legislation, when he isn't surfing the web for naked photos of Borat and speaking in a dialect that can only be called Southeastern trailer.

It still is stunning, however, the hypocrisy of these people. Lawsuits suck says Trent Lott, when it is time to vote for limits on jury awards to please his corporate benefactors. But the minute his house got wrecked because President Dumbo was playing with a shiny new set of dinner forks instead of being the Decider when Katrina hit, he joins a class action suit to get as much $$ as he can fit into his grubby little hands.

Which by the way are still aching from the multiple splinters he got from that burning cross he nailed on a lawn in Jackson last night.

Once again Democrats, we can't work with these people. From Kingston's ridiculous attack on Democrats as "anti-family" to Kingston and Lott's sheer hypocrisy, as many (including your humble narrator) predicted right after the election, they're not looking for compromise. It's easier to oppose things for other people they support for themselves. It is the essence of today's Republicanism.

Well that and lesbian daughters who have children because they can avoid many of the consequences of gay marriage bans their party passes.

If they want to support a progressive agenda, the more the merrier. Otherwise, in this man's opinion, here is how they are to be treated.

Now let me highly recommend two of the best progressive books I have read in a while, for Holiday Gifts (ha ha O'Reilly, I am bitch-slappping Christmas again). They are:

Whistling Past Dixie: How Democrats Can Win Without The South; and Sweet Relief: The Marla Ruzicka Story. Yes, full disclosure, both of these authors are friends. And these are also two of the best progressive books I have read in a while, with Tom Schaller's work (the former) a great work of "strategery," and Jen Abrahmson's work (the latter) an amazing story about a little slice of humanity and compassion in Iraq and Afghanistan. Read the rest of this post...

Virginia, the state that led the way in stopping whites from marrying blacks, is now leading the way in bashing Mary Cheney's baby

Ruth Marcus, in today's Washington Post, has a few thoughts about Mary Cheney's baby:

My only regret about Mary Cheney's pregnancy is that it didn't happen earlier -- say, during the 2004 presidential race, when Cheney was working for her father's campaign and his running mate was busy trying to write discrimination against people like her into the Constitution....

In her mind, as Cheney told "Primetime Live" this year, "Heather and I already are married. We have built a home and a life together. I hope I get to spend the rest of my life with her. The way I look at it is, we're just waiting for state and federal law to catch up with us."

That could take some time, especially if Mary Cheney's political party has anything to do with it. As a resident of Virginia, which does not permit a gay parent to adopt, Poe will have no legal connection to the child that she and Cheney clearly intend to have and raise together. If the couple were to split up, Poe would have no legal right to see the child.

Virginia's newly adopted and expansively drafted constitutional amendment prohibiting gay marriage casts doubt on the ability of Cheney and Poe to write binding medical directives and wills. Without any legal protection, state or federal, against job discrimination -- the Bush administration opposes extending anti-discrimination laws to cover sexual orientation -- Mary Cheney could be fired simply because she is gay.

Mary deserves to live in Virginia. Her child doesn't. Hey, there's an idea. I wonder if we can report Mary to the Virginia state department of child and family services for planning to raise a child in a hate state? Read the rest of this post...

Republican Senator says Iraq war "may even be criminal"

Now Oregon's Republican Senator Gordon Smith is right. Bush's war is criminal. How come it took him so long to figure this out?:

Oregon Sen. Gordon Smith, a Republican who voted in favor of the Iraq war in 2002 and has supported it ever since, now says the current U.S. war effort is "absurd" and "may even be criminal."

In an emotional speech on the Senate floor Thursday night, Smith called for changes in U.S. policy that could include rapid pullouts of U.S. troops from Iraq. He said he never would have voted for the conflict if he had known the intelligence that President Bush gave the American people was inaccurate.

"I for one am at the end of my rope when it comes to supporting a policy that has our soldiers patrolling the same streets in the same way, being blown up by the same bombs day after day," Smith said. "That is absurd. It may even be criminal. I cannot support that anymore. ... So either we clear and hold and build, or let's go home."

Of course, Smith is already back-tracking. He didn't mean criminal in the "legal sense." Huh? Typical spineless Republican.

No matter how he meant it, Smith basically said Bush, Cheney and Rummy are war criminals. Read the rest of this post...

How much taxpayer money did Cong. Hastings and Berman waste producing the Foley cover-up?

It must have cost some money. My and your money. Not to mention there must be a number of people staffing that committee, they're earning annual salaries, the committee has an annual budget for supplies, phones, office materials and more. How much are we wasting on this useless excuse for a conspiracy to obstruct justice and enable child sex predation?

The House Ethics Committee is nothing more than a joke. Well, actually it is more than a joke. It's an old boy's network out to protect itself at the expense of America's children. It's time the Ethics Committee be disbanded and a real Inspector General installed in the US Congress.

Again, how much of my and your money was wasted on this child sex predator enabling monstrosity being run by Congressman Hastings (R-WA) and Berman (D-CA)?

As Donna on West Wing would say, I want my money back. Read the rest of this post...

Open thread

Abused any children lately because you cared too much about gay people and were afraid to tell a Democrat? Read the rest of this post...

House Ethics Committee gay-baits: Says possible reason GOP didn't investigate perv congressman was because GOP was too pro-gay

You, see according to Democratic Congressman Howard Berman (D-CA) and Republican Doc Hastings (R-WA), on page 71 of the ethics report, one of the possible reasons the Republicans didn't do anything about Mark Foley preying on young boys was because Foley was gay, and you know how hard Republicans try to protect gay people. They simply couldn't investigate Foley's case because Foley was gay, and it just wouldn't have been right under that circumstance.

Now, forget for a moment that in the entire report no one suggests that this was the reason they didn't investigate. Oh no, evidence is so 1990s. And forget for a moment that the only people who even alleged the "they won't investigate the gays" argument were: Newt Gingrich; Bay Buchanan; and the hate groups of the religious right.

Oh no, the House Ethics Committee was determined to find a legitimate reason the Republicans did nothing to help these poor kids, and they found it - blame the gays, or rather, blame the incredible pro-gay bias that is endemic in the conservative House Republican caucus. Give me a fucking break.

Not to mention, since there is to be no further investigation or discipline, I guess it's okay the next time a closeted Republican member of Congress preys on pages because, after all, it's a valid reason, per the Ethics Committee, to not investigate such preying if the perp is gay.

Berman and Hastings are sickening. Read the rest of this post...

House Ethics report says there's nothing they can do about Foley because he's already left Congress - and oh yeah, he still gets his big fat pension

Yes, there's nothing they can do since Foley has already resigned. Nothing they can do except give him (and Cong. Kolbe, who allegedly obstructed justice) their big fat congressional pensions, paid for by you and me.

Did you know that regular-guy convicts lose their right to vote, but congressional convicts still get their pensions? And there's nothing we can do about that because, well, congress doesn't want to do anything about that.

Sickening. More here. Read the rest of this post...

Ethics watchdog blasts House Ethics Committee cover-up of Foley scandal

This is a cover-up, pure and simple. And the Democratic chair of the Ethics Committee, Rep. Howard Berman (D-CA), telephone (202) 225-4695, was a willing party to it. Sickening.

Independent ethics watchdog CREW reveals that, in contradiction to what the House ethics report claims, House rules WERE in fact broken:

In fact, Rule XXIII of the House Ethics Manual requires all members of the House to conduct themselves “at all times in a manner that reflects creditably on the House.” This ethics standard is considered to be “the most comprehensive provision of the code.” When this section was first adopted, the Select Committee on Standards of Official Conduct of the 90th Congress noted that it was included within the Code to deal with “flagrant” violations of the law that reflect on “Congress as a whole,” and that might otherwise go unpunished. This rule has been relied on by the Ethics Committee in numerous prior cases in which the Committee found unethical conduct including: engaging in sexual relationships with congressional pages as well as the failure to report campaign contributions, making false statements to the Committee, criminal convictions for bribery, or accepting illegal gratuities, and accepting gifts from persons with interest in legislation in violation of the then gift rule.

Melanie Sloan, CREW’s executive director, stated today, “The fact that when faced with such egregious facts, the ethics committee did not find that so much as a single person acted in a manner that does not reflect creditably on the House just goes to show how utterly ineffectual the ethics committee is.” Sloan continued, “This report is proof positive that the ethics committee is incapable of handling allegations of wrongdoing. To restore the public’s confidence in the congressional ethics process, the new Congress should immediately move to create an Office of Public Integrity to handle complaints against members of Congress.”

Read the rest of this post...

GOP Page Board chair didn't tell Democratic panel member about Foley complaint because "he's a Democrat"

Apparently Representives Berman and Hastings, who head the Ethics Committee, see no problem in that GOP Rep. John Shimkus, a senior member of the House who chairs the Page Board, didn't inform another member of the House, who is also on the page board, about the Foley matter because "he's a Democrat."

So, a senior member of the House kept this scandal quiet for partisan political reasons. He didn't do his duty and report this scandal to the only Democrat on the page board because the other member was a Democrat, and worse, the Republican thought the Democrat would blow the matter out of proportion. I.e., the Democrat would make a big deal about the Foley scandal, and the Republicans didn't want to make a big deal out of the Foley scandal.

And Representative Howard Berman, a Democrat, and the co-chair of the Ethics Committee, agrees that what Shimkus did is no big deal, and certainly not a violation of any House rules. Meaning, that Shimkus is free to do this all over again the next time pages are set upon by horny old men because there is nothing in the House rules that says Shimkus is required to tell the other page board members about any page sex scandal that might make waves.

Congressman Howard Berman (D-CA)
(202) 225-4695

Congressman Doc Hastings (R-WA)
(202) 225-5816

Read the rest of this post...

GOP Rep. Kolbe alleged to have obstructed justice

This isn't news? And, gee, perhaps not worthy of further investigation since Mr. Kolbe, now retired, is getting a big fat retirement paycheck on the public dime?

Read the rest of this post...

House Ethics Report: Staff and Members actions in Foley scandal posed "a present danger to House pages" - therefore, no one should be disciplined

These people are sick. From page 4 of the report (page 6 of the pdf):

Read the rest of this post...

House Dems and Republicans together filibuster Child Sex Predator press conference

UPDATE: Thanks to Nancy Pelosi's office, I was able to find the actual Ethics Committee report on Foley. It's here.

Well, that was a lovely example of why American hates Congress. Republican Doc Hastings and Democrat Howard Berman just filibustered their own press conference about the release of the House Ethics Committee report on the Mark Foley scandal.

We have no idea what happened - other than a teaser in an AP story - because these two gentlemen just got on TV for 15 minutes and gushed about how great they are, how great their staff is, how great everyone in Congress is. They gushed over a child sex predator scandal, like it was the Oscars.

CNN, to its great credit, finally pulled the plug on their coverage and moved on to heart stents and commercials. The press conference is still going on, but no one is watching. We have NO IDEA what the results of the House Ethics probe are because Congressmen Hastings and Berman spent the entire press conference slapping themselves on the back.

I can't even believe this. The story is gone. We have no idea what happened. And these out of touch morons just took this incredibly serious issue and used it as an opportunity to thank all the members of the academy.

And the really sick part, the Democrat, Howard Berman, joined in this ridiculous display of congressional onanism.

Seriously, these people wonder why America hates them. I hate them right now now. This does not bode well for the new congress.

Feel free to call Mr. Berman and Mr. Hastings and ask their staff what actually was in the House Ethics Committee report on Mark Foley, since all we got out of their bosses today were jokes and bonhomie about a child sex predator scandal.

Congressman Howard Berman (D-CA)
(202) 225-4695

Congressman Doc Hastings (R-WA)
(202) 225-5816 Read the rest of this post...

Breaking from AP: No rules broken by House leaders in Foley Scandal, but they were negligent

UPDATE: The press conference is on, and they're busy spending time patting each other on the back. It's 11 past the hour and they still haven't told us a damn thing, other than how great they all are. Gosh, they're all such great men and women, I just love them all. What is this, a high school graduation mixed with the Oscars? Tell us the damn results, you arrogant out of touch fools. I want to thank my wife, my staff, and especially Mark Foley, without whom this entire child sex scandal wouldn't be possible. Shut up already. Oh my God, they're still talking about themselves, they're 15 minutes into this press conference and they're talking about themselves. And they wonder why people hate them?

CNN just cut away from the press conference, mid press conference, because neither the Dem nor the Republican said a God damn thing other than lauding themselves (about a child sex predator scandal, mind you - inappropriate much?). We now have no idea what they found because the Democrat.

Via CNN:

The Associated Press reports the House ethics committee has concluded that Republican leaders did not break any rules in handling ex-Rep. Mark Foley's improper advances to former male pages but were negligent in protecting the teenagers, a congressional aide said today.

Associated Press:

The House ethics committee has concluded that Republican leaders did not break any rules in handling ex-Rep. Mark Foley's improper advances to former male pages but were negligent in protecting the teenagers, a congressional aide said Friday.

The committee was releasing its findings Friday.

The aide, who was not authorized to be quoted by name, was made aware of the committee's findings.

"The Republicans did not break rules but were negligent in protecting the pages," the aide said.

Read the rest of this post...

Ethics Committee Mark Foley report comes out at 2pm Eastern

Lane Hudson, the guy who posted the Foley emails online at StopSexPredators.com, now has his own blog, News For The Left. Read the rest of this post...

China executes protester

The family and attorney heard the news, after the fact.

Chinese officials have secretly executed a demonstrator who took part in a massive protest in 2004 against a hydro-electric dam in the south-western province of Sichuan, lawyers and family members said yesterday.

NOTE FROM JOHN: Then again, a lot of this case doesn't sound that different than what we do, now:

The group's defence lawyer, Ran Tong, said he had only found out about the verdicts on Monday, when he received the sentence sheet containing the sentences of all the defendants. "We were not able to defend our clients, and I strongly oppose the court not respecting the spirit of the law," he said.

The death sentence is carried out swiftly after conviction, generally by a bullet to the back of the head. China executes more people than any other country.

Read the rest of this post...

Rumsfeld at his LAST Pentagon Town Hall Meeting. Finally.

CNN covered Rumsfeld's Last Pentagon Town Hall Meeting. Finally, it's over. The man is delusional. Truly delusional. He's helped make the world a much more dangerous place. He's made America a weaker nation. He's led us in to a war that we're not winning. After they cut away, the CNN reporters started their praise of the outgoing Defense Secretary. Rumsfeld is "intelligent" and, in private, "charming." Whatever.

Read the rest of this post...

Foley ethics report could be coming today at 2 PM

UPDATE: CNN is reporting there will be a House Ethics Committee press conference at 2 PM today.

The rampant rumor in DC today is that the Ethics Committee is finally going to release its report on the Foley scandal. The Associated Press and the Washington Times have joined the speculation.

Will it be a whitewash? It should be at least have some entertainment value but not as good as the Vanity Fair article. Read the rest of this post...

Another perspective on the latest e.coli outbreak

The US news stories have been focused on the number of cases and the ties to the green onions but this report out of the UK is much more interesting and addresses the heart of this and other e.coli cases in the US. I hope that in the near term farmers can find a better balance between mass production and quality because at the moment, they are failing miserably. Food safety should be taken much more seriously by both the farmers and by the government:

Michael Pollan, a journalism professor who has written extensively about food safety, said all the recent problems stemmed from the intensive, industrial-style agriculture increasingly practised in the United States.

The 0157:H7 strain of E.coli was unknown until cattle were taken from their traditional grazing grounds, pushed into industrial feedlots and fed grain and corn instead.

Faeces from those animals, in turn, can sometimes enter the water supply on big farms and find its way into irrigation canals in vegetable fields.

Read the rest of this post...

Friday Morning Open Thread

Had some computer issues this morning....not Blogger's fault for a change.

So, way behind already...what's happening? Read the rest of this post...

Kofi Annan is absolutely correct

How can the world allow this to happen?

Outgoing U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan will ask Friday how the international community can allow the "horror" in Sudan's Darfur region to continue and say there is more than enough blame to shared all around.

In a speech to be given in New York, Annan says blame can be shared by those valuing abstract notions of sovereignty over human lives; those whose response of solidarity puts them on the sides of governments and not people; and those who fear commercial interests could be jeopardized.

"The truth is, none of these arguments amount even to excuses, let alone justifications, for the shameful passivity of most governments," Annan says in the speech to be given to mark International Human Rights Day.

"We have still not summoned up the collective sense of urgency that this issue requires," said Annan, who pledged earlier this week to make the killings in Darfur his priority until he leaves office on December 31.

Some 200,000 people have been killed in Darfur since the rebels took up arms against the central government in 2003, while another 2 million have been driven out of their homes.

Read the rest of this post...

71% of Americans dissatisfied with Bush plan in Iraq

You can always count on the GOP to be behind the curve. The American public knows what's happening, which is why they voted in the Democrats and sent the GOP out the door. The wingnuts are now doing their best to shift the blame for the failed war over to the Democrats, failing to see that the Democrats are where the American public is, so I hope that they keep on blaming the Democrats/overwhelming majority of Americans. Go ahead, tell the American public how stupid they are and how they lost the war. I want the White House back as well, so thanks for the help. Read the rest of this post...

Bush's friends the Saudis are funding the insurgency, I mean the terrorists, in Iraq

From AP:

Private Saudi citizens are giving millions of dollars to Sunni insurgents in Iraq and much of the money is used to buy weapons, including shoulder fired anti-aircraft missiles, according to key Iraqi officials and others familiar with the flow of cash.

Saudi government officials deny that any money from their country is being sent to Iraqis fighting the government and the U.S.-led coalition.

But the U.S. Iraq Study Group report said Saudis are a source of funding for Sunni Arab insurgents. Several truck drivers interviewed by The Associated Press described carrying boxes of cash from Saudi Arabia into Iraq, money they said was headed for insurgents....

In one recent case, an Iraqi official said $25 million in Saudi money went to a top Iraqi Sunni cleric and was used to buy weapons, including Strela, a Russian shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missile. The missiles were purchased from someone in Romania, apparently through the black market, he said.

Read the rest of this post...