FBI investigating Anti-Gay Mayor West

The latest chapter in the Jim West story involves an FBI investigation the Spokesman-Review is reporting:

The FBI is in the initial phases of a possible "public corruption" case involving allegations that Spokane Mayor Jim West abused his office by offering jobs to young men he hoped to entice into sexual relationships, a senior Justice Department official said today.

FBI agents on Wednesday are expected to interview Ryan Oelrich and another man, both 24, who said they were independently offered City Hall jobs and a position on the Human Rights Commission after online chats with a man who turned out to be West.

"The FBI has opened what's called a 'preliminary inquiry' to determine whether a full-blown investigation should occur," said Thomas O. Rice, chief criminal prosecutor in the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Washington.

He said he couldn't discuss particulars of the investigation or where it might lead.

Mr. Rice, you are not alone. There are a lot of people who are trying to figure out where this might all lead. This scandal has unraveled so quickly, it's stunning. And, every time I check out the Spokesman-Review web page, it seems there is another development. That paper is kicking butt on this story.

That West was able to keep this all quiet for so long is actually pretty creepy, too. Makes you wonder if there isn't some GOP "down low" where they all cover for each other. Read the rest of this post...

Open Thread

Blogger was doing maintenance and I went to the pool....what did I miss? Read the rest of this post...

Again, we ask, What Liberal Media?

Liberal media, my ass.

On Sunday, the Washington Post explained how the strategy to save Tom DeLay would play out:

As explained by insiders, the DeLay survival strategy is to attack the critics, including questioning the motives of reporters and the funding sources of watchdog groups; leak data making it clear that Democrats engaged in many of the same practices; and relentlessly curry loyalty with his two bases outside the Capitol -- national conservative groups and Republicans in his district.

So, here's how to become part of the effort to save poor Tom DeLay. Let's call ourselves ace reporter, Brody Mullins.

Brody's been at this for awhile. Last year, while working at Roll Call, Mullins wrote a scathing and inaccurate piece about progressive groups titled "Who's Watching the Watchdog?" His tone was all indignant and sanctimonious.

Now, Mullins has a job at the Wall Street Journal. Today, he wrote basically the same piece titled "In Washington, Watchdogs Bear Watching." Clever, huh? But this time, he focused more on the group that's attacking DeLay -- Citizens for Responsible Ethics in Washington (CREW) -- that's of course in keeping with the GOP strategy outlined above. That way, the RNC would have something to put on their web page. That just proves that Tom DeLay is just being picked on by the mean liberals. Poor Tom DeLay.

Yep, this really happened.

It does say one thing: CREW is making a difference for the GOP to wage this strategy against them. I say, keep it up, CREW....despite what Brody Mullins writes over and over.

Liberal media, my ass. Read the rest of this post...

NCFR banning its own research on gay families

It seems the National Council on Family Relations has learned something about gay marriage. Pity they're hiding it.

NCFR is the group that is getting paid by the Bush Administration to put together an online clearinghouse on marriage. As we reported earlier, they've agreed to break their own rules about discriminating against gays to prevent anything about gay marriage or its effects from ever showing up on the White House website.

Which is a shame, because by doing so NCFR is agreeing to conceal what they've already learned about gay marriage. Facts like:

33% of female same-sex couple households and 22% of male same-sex couple households reported having at least one child under 18 years of age living in the home.

Social science research has found few differences between children of lesbian or gay parents and those of heterosexual parents.

Marriage of same-sex couples would protect children born after the marriage took place by providing them with the same rights and benefits as those with heterosexual married parents.

But you won't see this information on the clearinghouse. You won't even see links to outside sites providing information on gay marriage -- not even NCFR's own research.

NCFR's Executive Director, Michael Benjamin ( mbenjamin@ncfr.org ; (202) 659-1190), has the responsibility of promoting the group's publications. Except, of course, when he's being paid not to. Keep reminding him of his group's rules against anti-discrimination. Ask him why this clearinghouse is going to be all-inclusive on marriage research -- unless it's about gay marriage.

Read the rest of this post...

Frist says Nuclear Option vote is next week

AP reports:

A long-threatened showdown over changing Senate rules to stop Democratic filibusters of President Bush's judicial nominations could come as early as next week, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist said Tuesday.

Frist, in his weekly news conference with reporters, said he hopes the Senate finishes a highway bill and an emergency spending package to fund military operations overseas this week. "And then we need to turn to 100 United States senators and move to the issue surrounding judges," he said.

The theocrats are getting cranky. They want their radical judges.

Two key facts:

Bush has only had 10 out of 204 judges blocked from getting a vote. He's at 95%.

The GOP blocked over 60 of Clinton's judicial nominations. Read the rest of this post...

Log Cabin Republican: West's not anti-gay

Wow. A whole new insight in to how gay republicans "think." Thanks to unpoetaloco for catching this in the Spokesman-Review. Lots of comments about this one already...and it deserves a separate post:

Dave Kaplan, president of the Log Cabin Republicans of Washington, a pro-gay GOP group, said that just because West has different opinions than many in the gay community does not make him anti-gay.

Though Kaplan said he disagrees with many of West's positions, he said that gays and lesbians shouldn't have to adhere to a political orthodoxy. Bedrock conservative principles of fiscal conservatism and personal responsibility are not in conflict with homosexuality, he said.

Kaplan said it is just the "theocratic" wing of the Republican Party that opposes homosexuality, and "I don't think most conservatives care one way or the other."

"I get more crap from the gay community because I'm a Republican and gay than I get from Republicans because I'm gay," he said.

The same article has Mayor West's legislative history:

Spokane Mayor Jim West's votes on gay-rights and human-rights issues:

On Christmas Eve 1985, Gov. Booth Gardner signed an executive order banning discrimination in state hiring based on sexual orientation. West and 14 other Republicans responded by introducing a bill in January 1986 that would have barred gay men and lesbians from working in schools, day-care centers and some state agencies. The bill called for screening prospective employees for sexual orientation and firing state workers whose sexual identities became known. The bill failed.

Also in 1986, West voted to bar the state from distributing pamphlets telling people how to protect themselves from AIDS during sex.

West opposed gay rights bills introduced in 1985 and 1987.

In 1989, West opposed a proposal to expand a needle exchange program to protect people from AIDS from Pierce County to the entire state.

In 1990, as part of a bill on AIDS education, West proposed that teen sex be criminalized. The bill, written by the abstinence group Teen Aid, would have made sexual contact a misdemeanor for unmarried teenagers under 18. Sexual contact was defined as "any touching of the sexual or other intimate parts of a person" for sexual gratification.

West voted in 1998 for the Defense of Marriage Act, which defined marriage as between a man and a woman. Gov. Gary Locke vetoed the bill, but the Legislature overrode his veto.

As Senate majority leader, West and other Republicans in 2003 bottled up the gay-rights bill in committee and it died.

As Spokane's incoming mayor in November 2003, West said he's opposed to extending City Hall benefits to domestic partners, citing the cost. In April 2005, the City Council approved domestic partner benefits in a 5-2 vote, enough to withstand a mayoral veto.

Yeah, I can see how someone might misinterpret his record....HUH?

West was a leading homophobe in the state legislature. Maybe the Log Cabin guy should read some of Mayor Jim's comments since then. He doesn't think of himself as gay. (I wouldn't characterize me as 'gay')...that's dirty....because He HATES us. Read some of the chats which the Spokesman-Review has on line.

And here's a newsflash: The GOP is a theocratic party...the radical right wing runs the show. You think those judges the right-wing wants appointed for life are going to be gay-friendly? You think Bill Frist and Tom DeLay are kowtowing to the religious fanatics because you all share the same conservative values...and those values somehow include respect for gays? WRONG. You, Mr. Log Cabin, and the rest of us, are right at the top of their hit list. Read the rest of this post...

Open Thread

What now? Read the rest of this post...

Gay Men, biology and chemistry

The right-wingers are going to hate this new scientific study....but,wait, they hate all science. Seems gay men are biologically different. Here's AP's take(linked thru the Spokane Spokesman-Review, my new favorite paper):

The sexual area of a gay man's brain works a lot like that of a woman when exposed to a particular stimulus, researchers say.

In an experiment, men and heterosexual women sniffed a chemical from the male hormone testosterone. The homosexual men's brains responded differently from those of heterosexual males, and in a similar way to the women's brains.

"It is one more piece of evidence ... that is showing that sexual orientation is not all learned," said Sandra Witelson, an expert on brain anatomy and sexual orientation at the Michael G. DeGroote School of Medicine at McMaster University in Ontario, Canada.

NY Times has a wonkier article which appeared on the front page of the print edition.

So, it really is about the chemistry....and, this may explain my pathetic dating life. With my allergies, I can't smell anything. Read the rest of this post...

Ohio Stops Investing in GOP Rare-Coin fund

Ohio is a fiscal cesspool. It's what you get when the GOP runs everything. Same thing is happening in Washington. They don't care about public money. In Ohio, the leaders gave $50 million to their top fundraiser, Tom Noe, to invest in a risky rare-coin fund. Now they've pulled out according to the Toledo Blade:

State officials yesterday said they are halting a controversial investment in two rare-coin funds controlled by Tom Noe, a prominent Toledo-area Republican fund-raiser and coin dealer.

The Ohio Bureau of Workers' Compensation announced that it will dissolve the $50 million investment "over a reasonable period of time sufficient to protect the state's investment."

The agency did not say how long that would take.

"We had concerns about the ability of the managers to commit the necessary time and resources to make it profitable," said Jeremy Jackson, the bureau's press secretary.

The agency's decision was made a day after The Blade reported that two rare gold coins purchased for the state had probably been stolen. Mr. Noe had said the coins were "lost in the mail." He has told the bureau that an additional 119 coins owned by the state were "misappropriated" by a former employee.

Ohio's GOP leaders ou only made the investment because of Tom Noe, who is also a Bush Pioneer (and under federal investigation for fundraising irregulaties):

State Sen. Marc Dann, a Democrat from suburban Youngstown, said state leaders didn't act soon enough to protect "what's left of the investment."

He said the governor, attorney general, and state auditor "fiddled for a month while Rome is burning."

"These guys were falling over themselves to protect their big donor, Tom Noe," Mr. Dann said.

Mr. Noe has contributed more than $11,000 in campaign funds to Gov. Bob Taft and more than $4,000 to former Gov. George Voinovich, now a U.S. senator, over the past decade.

Since 1990, campaign finance records show that Mr. Noe has contributed more than $110,000 to candidates for state offices and to various state Republican Party committees.

For the Ohio GOP, money talks. Doesn't matter if it's good for the public, just that it's good for their major donor. Looks like the GOP in Ohio is as corrupt as the national party....In Ohio, they're bankrupting the state, here they're doing it for the whole country.

Every voter in Ohio better know about the GOP agenda of Tom Noe, Rare Coins and Risky Investments in next year's Governor's race. Read the rest of this post...