Posts with the tag Foley

Republicans are not so Smart After All

Liz — Thu, 22 May 2008 06:25:05 EDT

The Republicans heralded the "genius" of Karl Rove for almost 8 long years, but you don't hear so much praise about him these days.

Chambers in a recent article in the New Yorker pointed out that Rove's declared ambition to create a "permanent majority" appeared to be a vision of tactical genius. However, as Chambers pointed out, it was built on two illusions: that the conservative era would stretch on indefinitely and that politics matters more than governing.

The first illusion defied history; the second was blown up in Iraq and drowned in New Orleans.

The Republican Party and its conservatism are dead. Democrats who try to walk the middle line of "moderate" are playing with fire as well. The battle cry of the people is change--and not change that is offered up to us as a pacifier like McCain's summer gas tax but real deep and lasting change regarding how business is done in Washington DC.

This is the year, not that "Mr. Smith" goes to DC, but the year that the American people go to DC. And we will replace those 35,000 lobbyists with 304,000,000+ Americans. So move over lobbyists and goodbye Republicans.

And just in case anyone has forgotten how horrible Republicans can be, please read this article about the 110 Congress---THE WORST REPUBLICAN CONGRESS EVER. This is what they act like when they have absolute power. It was a time when "a hairy-necked, raincoat-clad freak like Rep. Mark Foley could get himself named co-chairman of the House Caucus on Missing and Exploited Children."

The 110th Republican Congress was enough to make Caligula shudder. Remember it because that is an example of how despicable that Republicans can get.

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/12055360/cover_story_time_to_go_inside_the_worst_congress

Republicans Don't Like Children?

Progressive America Times — Sat, 09 Dec 2006 03:48:09 EST

According to the AP, the House Ethics Committee found that nobody in GOP leadership broke rules in Mark Foley scandal.

You Tube Warrior For John Hall

Porgie Tirebiter — Tue, 24 Oct 2006 08:17:05 EDT

Greetings again folks....not sure this whole dashboard is working, as I've seen NO FEEDBACK to my efforts at communicating in this blog....so, trying a little experiment here. I have been putting up some You Tube video against John Hall's oppenent, Republican Rubberstamper Sue Kelly, and want to drive the hits up, which means I am getting the word out. That's where all of you come in.

Please email these links out to your own footsoldiers as we try to take back Washington, DC. View them yourself, take the time to leave comments, suggestions, and by all means VOTE ON THEM.

Attack Blog
Link

You Tube Video's For John Hall

Link

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LVrACCU_eE4

Link

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yftEt7U7AH0

Link

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w55D0X5KNnQ

Dubya to Stump for Sherwood and Allen

Rob — Sat, 14 Oct 2006 22:33:52 EDT

For at least eight years, Rep. Don Sherwood (R, PA) has represented himself as a conservative values Republican. However, last year he admitted to cheating on his wife with a younger woman over the course of five years. He then settled a lawsuit that alleged he choked his mistress. (SEE: Link )

Sen. George Allen (R, VA) has a history of making racial slurs. You can watch the video clips of Allen hanging himself at Link

What do these stories have in common? Well, aside from the standard Republic hypocrisy on being the "values people" and "moral high grounders," both Sherwood and Allen apparently will receive the dubious honor of campaign appearances by none other than Dubya himself. (SEE: Link )

Conservative Republicans can be, at least ostensible, child stalkers like Foley, racists like Allen, adulterers and assaulters like Sherwood, influence peddlers like Delay, and liars like Rumsfeld and yet still stand in critical judgment of those with Progressive values. Now, to compound matters, Dubya is even placing his official imprimatur on some of these scandals. I am tempted to say that brazen, unabashed chutzpa has become a Republican value. However, that would be too kind of an assessment.

Fallout from the Foley Coverups and Gay Quislings

HillWilliam — Mon, 09 Oct 2006 10:41:36 EDT

I've been inundated with emails and lists chronicaling the fallout from the Foley Cover-up scandals. I'm still righteously angry with the LCR bunch. I never could wrap my head around the atrocious mental gymnastics of trying to reconcile being gay and voting Republican. They knew as well as I did that the party of oral values would use LGBT people as political fodder and throw us under the bus at every opportunity. So far, the pugs have missed no opportunity to use LGBT folks as demons. Rick Santorum (who has several gay staff members) said that homosexuality was the greatest threat to national security. It certainly didn't seem to be a threat to his hiring of quisling gay office staff.

Sphinctorum is certainly one to talk -- he's at the top of the list of perv-enabling idiots.

Mark Foley and the Repulsive GOP

George Vreeland Hill — Sat, 07 Oct 2006 00:10:42 EDT

Once again, the Republicans have turned my stomach with shocking and repulsive behavior.
Mark Foley, a Republican member (now ex-member) of Congress, has sent many e-mails with perverted sexual content to a sixteen year old boy.
This is the same man who while in Congress, backed a bill that was meant to protect children from child predators.
Foley himself, is a man who preyed on a child with lust.
What is also incomprehensible, is the fact that some Republicans knew of Foley’s behavior, and yet, did not take a hard stand against this until it became public news.
If I had a teenage son and/or daughter, I would not want them to go near any Republican leader for fear of either or both becoming a victim of a sick Republican pervert.

George Vreeland Hill

Open Letter to Dennis Hastert and the GOP Leadership

Rene' — Fri, 06 Oct 2006 15:18:21 EDT

Mr. Hastert, you started out as a teacher, teaching children not that much different in age from the pages in Congress. At what point in your career did sexual abuse and molestation move from being an attack on a child to being "a political problem"? At what point did the emphasis shift from the welfare of the children involved to your political party?

Sir, your political party will not wake up nights screaming and crying because of a face in the night. The GOP will not shake and sweat when they hear a door lock or constantly make sure that there's always more than one way out of a room. You need not fear the Republican power brokers will from this moment on be more prone to depression, PTSD or suicide.

These kids deserved to be protected by their leaders and they weren't. Not only have they not been protected, your party has allowed your media pitbulls to claim that the children liked the abuse, wanted the abuse and were responsible for the abuse because they dared to become pages in the first place. And not once, sir, have I heard you or any of the rest of the so-called compassionate Conservatives, tell them how repugnant their statements were.

No, you and the rest of your leadership have shown throughout this that you are too busy covering your own asses and worrying about your pathetic "power bases" to protect even children placed in your own care.

If your decision making skills are that faulty, that immoral, how can you claim that you have the leadership skills to represent this fine nation. You and your ilk have proved that when the chips are down, you will feed on our young to protect yourselves.

Who Will Be John Dean Now

Barry C aka Casey — Wed, 04 Oct 2006 11:25:13 EDT

The similarities between Nixon's Whitehouse & GWB's Whitehouse are becoming more in focus. Mark Foley & Bob Woodward are King Georege's worse nightmare. Sooner rather than later somebody be it Kirk Forham or Tom Reynolds will break and spilll their guts to save their asses. My vote for now goes to Kirk Fordham because he was chief of staff for both Rep. Tom Reynolds & Rep. Mark Foley. Reynolds hurt his chances when he held a press conference surrounded by children. When asked if he would ask the children to leave the room so they could ask adult questions. Reynolds answer was no. I'm waiting for the pages themselves come forward and then we will find out how pervasive this problem. For all of the Republicans pompus even pius attitudes towards citizens, I believe that more than we know this attiude is hiding something. Paraphrasing Shakespeaer me thinks thou dost protesxt too much.

A tidbit to support this is Mark Foley recently tangled with Florida Naturists (nudists). He was upset that they run a summer camp for 7-16 year olds at a Florida Naturist resort. Now these kids knew everyone at the camp because they had been there with their parents. Maybe he was upset with them because they don't allow pedifiles to supervise kids at this camp. Maybe he wanted the kids to go to Jesus Camp instead.

Examples of Republican Hipocrisy

Rob — Tue, 03 Oct 2006 22:51:16 EDT

Check out some comic and tragic examples of Republican hypocrisy at www.armchairsubversive.com For example:

Deep from the heart of Texas -
Republican Party Chairman Sam Walls,who is married,
was urged to drop his candidacy for Congress
when it was found he likes to dress up in women's clothing

Foley's Follies

Barry C aka Casey — Tue, 03 Oct 2006 02:46:20 EDT

Well I hope we all agree that Rep. Mark Foley was one step away from Chris Hansen's "to catch_a predator" on NBC's Dateline. In commenting on President Clinton's affair with Monica Lewinsky Foley used words like vile, disgusting, sexual addiction. These are the same words now being used by even conservative Republicans about Foley. But Rep. Foley has now come forth with the "I'm an alcoholic" excuse. This was an appropriate excuse when Dem. Rep. Wilbur Mills was caught in the reflecting pool. Why because he was bombed when he was caught with Fanny Foxe splashing around in the reflecting pool. Oh yea and Fanny Foxe was a stripper with a few years on the Congressional pages.

It is time for the Republican's to clean their house (so do to speak). Here is a congressman on the House subcommittee charged with passing new and reviewing existing laws designed to protect children. Instead he is doing just the opposite. Worse it appears that party leadership knew of his inappropriate contact with male pages. Even though they say they were not aware of the breadth. They knew this as early as last fall. It is time for Speaker Dennis Hastert to resign and to take any member of the House of Representatives including any Democrats that knew with him.

Foley Scandal - Seize The Moment

Rob — Mon, 02 Oct 2006 22:08:47 EDT

In an era when the Straussian Neoconservatives attempt to construct reality with the complicity of the corporate media, there are no coincidences. The media preoccupation with the Mark Adam Foley story has to be a distraction from something. After all, the story has all of the elements of a media-feeding smorgasbord.

According to the New York Times, Republican leaders knew about, or at least had a clue, as to Foley's indiscretions for months. (N.Y. Times ) Why was it made a national story at this moment in time? One possibility, is that Foley is a distraction from the passage of the pro-torture / anti-habeas corpus bill. (Rob's Blog Post 9/30)
Another possibility is that Foley deflects attention from media's coverage of Bob Woodard's "State of Denial," which alleges that the Bush administration was, at the very least negligent, if not deliberate, in ignoring the terrorist threat to the United States prior to 9/11. (The Raw Story )

I do not know why the Foley story gained national attention at this time, but I do suspect that Foley was a sacrificial lamb. (I am speaking in terms of pragmatic politics, NOT morals.) I also think that the Bush / Cheney / Rove regime got so caught-up in their own spin that they may have screwed-up this time.

Why? According the New York Times: "Among those who became aware earlier this year of the fall 2005 communications between Mr. Foley and the 16-year-old page, who worked for Representative Rodney Alexander, Republican of Louisiana, were Representative John A. Boehner, the majority leader, and Representative Thomas M. Reynolds of New York, chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee. Mr. Reynolds said in a statement Saturday that he had also personally raised the issue with Speaker J. Dennis Hastert." ( N.Y. Times )

Seize the moment! Write letters to the editor of your local newspapers, write to your congresspersons, and call radio shows. Demand the resignation of any official who was aware of the Foley problem but did not speak out. Do NOT let Republicans draw an analogy to Barney Frank or Bill Clinton. The distinction is between consenting adults and minors.

Finally, look forward to a brighter tomorrow. Democrats may yet regain control of Congress this November.

Doc's House Call

Chad (The Left) Shue — Mon, 02 Oct 2006 10:25:47 EDT

Originally posted here

On Friday, both the Minority and Majority Leaders of the US House moved to have the investigation of Mark Foley sent to the House Ethics Committee. At first glance you might think that Nancy Pelosi, Democratic Leader in the House and John Boehner, republican Leader are working together to take immediate corrective action in the wake of Mark Foleyâ??s resignation. Think again.

Foley, Plame, and the Neocon Agenda

Rob — Sat, 30 Sep 2006 22:06:01 EDT

I do not claim to have any inside information, this is opinion, but as I watched our corporate media news shows today, September 30th, I began to see a connection between three, seemingly unrelated stories.

First, yesterday, September 29th, Congress voted in favor of one of the most horrific pieces of legislation in U.S. history. Simply stated, Habeas Corpus, the right to be charged before a judge, has been suspended for enemy combatants. However, now, enemy combatants are not just those captured on foreign battles fields, but anyone who has "...supported hostilities against the United States." This language is so vague that anyone, including the reader of this post, could fall within its scope. For a full expose of this legislation, read William Rivers Pitt's article posted this morning. Link

Second, the top story on all or most of the corporate news shows during the day today concerned the alleged misconduct, and subsequent resignation, of Congressman Mark Adam Foley (R, FL). Foley's story has all of the grist needed for a sensational news story. A fifty-two year old congressman allegedly made sexual advances toward a congressional page. However, he was not just a page, but a then sixteen-year-old, male, page. And, Foley was not just a conservative Republican, but chairman of the House Caucus on Missing and Exploited Children. Link

Foley's secrecy about his sexual orientation is old news. See, for example, the NNDB intelligence aggregator. Link Furthermore, I lived in Palm Beach County in 1994 when Foley first ran for Congress. In a town hall meeting in Jupiter, FL, an audience member asked Foley about his sexual orientation. Foley's answer was angry, direct, and still crystal clear in my mind; He responded, "That's none of your business!" (Applause followed.)

Third, Joseph Wilson wrote an op-ed column in The New York Times in which he claimed he had been sent by the CIA in February 2002 to investigate charges that Iraq was trying to buy yellow cake, a type of uranium, from the African country of Niger. He reported, perhaps contrary to the Bush regime's interest, that there was no truth to the charge. Link Shortly thereafter, someone in the Bush administration outed (intentional word choice) Valerie Plame, Wilson's wife, as a NOC (no official cover) CIA operative. You can decide for yourself who leaked what to whom and if there was retaliation involved. Link

Get the connection? In the Neocon's fabrication of reality, the people cannot be told of the suspension of their constitutional rights; they must be distracted. In order to distract the people, the media must be distracted. What better way to distract the media from an apparent usurpation of power by a Unitary Executive than by releasing an alleged sexual scandal? Will the Bush regime eat one of their own in order to achieve their goals? You decide.