JUSIPER
Friday, August 31, 2007
Larry Flynt on David Diapers Vitter
Damn straight:
Vitter apologized for his “sin,” but neglected to mention that what he did was a crime. Soliciting sexual services from a prostitute is illegal in most states, including D.C. and Louisiana.
7:14 PM | Post or Read Comments (0)
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The American Taliban
It's a point made too frequently in these pages, but Kos provides an elegant summary table.
6:32 PM | Post or Read Comments (0)
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"So long as Republicans promote homophobia, the party's closets will be crowded."
Joe Conason's history of the Republican leadership and a very large closet.
Somewhere in the textbooks of psychosexual pathology there may be a straightforward answer, so to speak. Does the party draw closeted men because they can hide behind Republican homophobia? Or does the party promote homophobia as a political ruse while closeted men run the show? Whatever the answer, the result is routine humiliation and personal destruction. Even worse, the party's culture of concealment encourages right-wing gay-bashing, such as Tucker Carlson's grotesque boast that he and another adolescent thug beat up a gay man who "bothered" him in a bathroom years ago.
Telling such manly tales may relieve the insecurities of Republicans who must contemplate the ever-mounting archive of homosexual history in their party's ample closet. But only Republicans who are truly in denial can ignore the long parade now led by the reluctant Craig -- a conga line of right-leaning queens that dates all the way back to the late Roy Cohn, Joe McCarthy's infamous henchman and an intimate friend of the Reagans'. Perhaps, like Cohn, today's closeted Republicans believe that they aren't really gay at all, except for a few minutes in bed (or in the men's room).
No matter how Cohn deluded himself about his sexuality, however, he was among the founders of modern conservatism, along with late fundraiser and activist Marvin Liebman, who finally came out and denounced the homophobia of the right several years before his death. Both of them lived to witness the conservative resurgence of the Reagan era, led by the likes of Terry Dolan, who operated the National Conservative Political Action Committee from deep within his lifelong closet, attacking "the growing homosexual movement" until not long before he died of AIDS, and Arthur Finkelstein, the renowned Republican political consultant who worked for the NCPAC and dozens of Republican senators, often emphasizing their opposition to gay rights and in particular to gay marriage -- at least until three years ago, when Finkelstein married his male partner in their home state of Massachusetts.
6:31 PM | Post or Read Comments (0)
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When men were men
Patriotboy writes to George Will. Fantastic.
12:51 AM | Post or Read Comments (0)
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Thursday, August 30, 2007
The last time I thought of Larry Craig
Until this week, that is--was during his extraordinarily bitchy exchange with Al Gore on March 21, 2007.
11:48 PM | Post or Read Comments (0)
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Freepers conspiracy theories begin
Since their own hypocrisy couldn't possibly be the reason.
11:15 PM | Post or Read Comments (0)
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From the NYT comments section
Inadvertent double entendre aside, bingo:
Here’s the pathetic irony: we have a group of people - right-wing, evangelical religious zealots - who berate, taunt, fight, pick-on and make miserable the lives of gay people every chance they can. Deny them marriage rights and other common decencies. So they drive these people literally underground, and when one of them acts out like this, because its the only way he can given the pressure of religious nazis, they scream about this also. The only conclusion you can make is they want gay people eradicated: they don’t want to allow them personal freedoms in the privacy of their own home, but they’re astonished, outraged when one of them reacts this way, due a long life of hiding his desires and natural orientation. They can’t have it both ways… let people do what they want in the privacy of their homes, stop the culture of hatred, and maybe this kind of stuff would go down.
9:41 PM | Post or Read Comments (0)
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Who knew?
Argentina's Página 12, one of the best newspapers in the world, notes as an aside that Fidel Castro's obsessive institutional homophobia was linked to his displeasure over his brother Raúl's homosexuality. And that the codename for Raúl among gay insiders is "La China."
One of the advances of an opening to Cuba along the lines that Barack Obama (alone among major presidential candidates) has suggested is that it would open the gates for progressive critiques of the Castro regime. Republican Cubans have had a monopoly on legitimate outrage against the regime. That should not be.
8:26 PM | Post or Read Comments (0)
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Political earthquake coming
A judge in Polk County, Iowa, Ground Zero of presidential politics this year, has just issued a ruling legalizing gay marriage. Oh my. Developing...
8:18 PM | Post or Read Comments (0)
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"Señores, ¡Franco ha muerto!
A ringing repudiation of the Partido Popular's anti-marriage politics at Gay Pride in Madrid.
8:17 PM | Post or Read Comments (0)
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CREW has it right
Press release from Melinda Sloan, Executive Director, Citizens for Responsibility & Ethics in Washington:
"Senator Ted Stevens maintains his position on the Appropriations Committee despite being the subject of a major criminal investigation, including an FBI raid on his Alaska home and Senator David Vitter maintains his assignments despite admitting to the crime of soliciting a prostitute."
Sloan noted that in response to CREW's calls for Sen. Stevens to step down from his position on the Senate Appropriations Committee where he has jurisdiction over the Department of Justice's budget, Senate Minority Leader Mitchell McConnell demurred, defending Sen. Stevens. Sloan continued, "A disorderly conduct plea requires a member to give up his committee assignment, but a full-fledged bribery investigation does not. Apparently, in the view of the Republican conference there is almost nothing more serious than a member attempting to engage in gay sex."
"For consistency's sake, Senators Stevens and Vitter should both be forced to give up their committee assignments as well."
7:48 PM | Post or Read Comments (0)
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Advice to the Democratic Party
David Diapers Vitter repeatedly solicited prostitution, but the Republican Party is doing nothing about it. This is an opportunity to take two senators out, hit the opposition on its double standard, get a free senate seat (LA has a Democratic governor), force the GOP to discipline a sitting senator from its racist evangelical Southern base, and keep this story alive for a few more news cycles.
7:25 PM | Post or Read Comments (0)
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The Larry Craig tapes
Aside from the mild racism Radar alludes to), what's most interesting about arrest tape is that it looks like the only reason Karsnia arrested him is that Craig refused to come clean.
LC: I don't, ah, I am not gay, I don't do these kinds of things and ...
DK: It doesn't matter, I don't care about sexual preference or anything like that. Here's your stuff back sir. Urn, I don't care about sexual preference.
LC: I know you don't. You're out to enforce the law.
DK: Right.
LC: But you shouldn't be out to entrap people either.
DK: This isn't entrapment.
LC: All right.
DK: Urn, you you're skipping some parts here, but what what about your hand?
LC What about it? I reached down, my foot like this. There was a piece of paper on the floor, I picked it up.
DK: Okay.
LC What about my hand?
DK: Well, you're not being truthful with me, I'm kinda disappointed in you Senator. I'm real disappointed in you right now. Okay. I'm not, just so you know, just like everybody, I, I , I, treat with dignity, I try to pull them away from the situation.
LC: I, I
DK: and not embarrass them.
LC: I appreciate that.
DK: And I
LC: You did that after the stall.
DK: I will say every person I've had so far has told me the truth. We've been respectful to each other and then they've gone on their way. And I've never had to bring anybody to jail because everybody's been truthful to me.
Craig proceeds to lie, and the cop gets more and more frustrated.
DK: Have you been successful in these bathrooms here before?
LC: I go to that bathroom regularly
DK I mean for any type of other activities.
LC: No. Absolutely not. I don't seek activity in bathrooms.
DK: It's embarrassing.
LC: Well it's embarrassing for both.. I'm not gonna fight you.
DK: I know you're not going to fight me. But that's not the point. I would
respect you and I still respect you. I don't disrespect you but I'm disrespected right now and I'm not tying to act like I have all kinds of power or anything, but you're sitting here lying to a police officer.
DK: It's not a (inaudible) I'm getting from somebody else. I'm (inaudible)
LC: (inaudible)
(Talking over each other)
DK: I am trained in this and I know what I am doing. And I say you put your hand under there and you're going to sit there and...
LC: I admit I put my hand down.
DK: You put your hand and rubbed it on the bottom of the stall with your left hand.
LC: No. Wait a moment.
DK: And I, I'm not dumb, you can say I don't recall...[...]
DK: Was your gold ring on your right hand at anytime today.
LC: Of course not, try to get it off, look at it.
DK: Okay. Then it was your left hand, I saw it with my own eyes.
LC: All right, you saw something that didn't happen.
DK: Embarrassing, embarrassing. No wonder why we're going down the tubes. Anything to add?
NN: Uh, no
DK: Embarrassing. Date is 6/11/07 at 1236 interview is done.
LC: Okay
But the question remains: why is the Minneapolis police department using Craig's list to entrap people? This is just bizarre:
Two defendants were caught after trying to arrange encounters through the personals section of craigslist. In those cases, police responded to the personals and later traded phone calls with the men, arranging a time and place.
7:11 PM | Post or Read Comments (0)
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Howie Klein on a roll
Blogactive.com owns the story, but the former president of Reprise Records has done a better job explaining the post-outing situation than anyone else in media.
Excerpt #1:
Today I called Senator Craig's office to offer a redemptive strategy that will help him capture his dignity and his soul. I don't think he'll bite. But I very much agree with Barney Frank, who kind of outed him back in October of '06 on the Bill Maher show. He didn't actually out him. He just left the question hanging and said something about hypocrisy: "The right to privacy should not be a right to hypocrisy and people who want to demonize other people shouldn't then be able to go home and close the door and do it themselves."
This morning Barney took issue with Craig's homophobic colleagues, playing to the GOP's Know Nothing base, like John McCain and Norm Coleman, who have called for Senator Craig to resign at once. Barney's message to Craig: resist!
The GOP is after Craig's scalp so they can go to their base and say, "See, we'll not all toe-tappin' homos and when we find one, we root him out." They actually applauded David Diapers Vitter (R-LA) when he admitted he had broken the law by hiring hookers. No one asked him to resign from his committees. And no one asked Ted Stevens (R-AK) to step down from his committees, let alone from the Senate, after the FBI announced an investigation into a massive and systematic bribery operation Stevens has been running, an operation based on abusing his committee assignments. But Stevens and Vitter are straight, so Republicans don't even care what laws they break. "What he did, it’s hypocritical," said Barney of Craig this morning, "but it’s not an abuse of his office in the sense that he was taking money for corrupt votes," a subtle slap at Stevens and Senate Minority Leader, Mitch McConnell, a closet queen himself, who is leading the charge to purge Craig.
Barney went on: "It’s one thing to say that someone can’t be trusted to vote without being corrupt, it’s another to say that he can’t be trusted to go to the bathroom by himself."
Meanwhile, Klein distinguishes himself by covering the entrapment angle and tying it back into Craig's vicious brand of self-loathing politics:
I just listened to Senator Larry Craig's entrapment tape. It seems obvious to me that if the police wanted to have safe bathrooms in public places they would have uniformed officers on patrol. Instead they sent out the prettiest boy in the department who many gay men would find attractive. What a revolting set-up! The irony, of course, is that society allows this kind of disgusting waste of time and resources-- time and resources that ruin peoples' lives-- because of hypocrites like Larry Craig (R-ID), David Dreier (R-CA), Jim McCrery (R-LA), Mitch McConnell (R-KY), Lindsey Graham (R-SC), Bob Allen (R-FL), Mark Foley (R-FL) and dozens of other Republican lawmakers trying to capitalize on human frailties to seek votes from ignorant and bigoted constituents.
Klein closes with speculation on what the Craig news conference might have sounded like if our educated, pretty cop had gone through with it and then arrested him. But since this is a family blog, we won't quote it.
6:58 PM | Post or Read Comments (0)
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This week on the Game Show Network
It's the disco version of Family Feud, recorded in 2003: The Village People versus The Disco Divas, including Martha Wash, Freda Payne, Thelma Houston, Janice-Marie from a Taste of Honey, and Evelyn Champagne King. The divas won in a blowout, and despite their horrific answers (Fast Money question: "Name a place men have more hair than women?" Freda Payne: "Pubic hair." Q: "Name the temperature at which you turn on your air conditioner." Thelma Houston: "50."), somehow managed to win $20,000 for an AIDS foundation.
6:16 PM | Post or Read Comments (0)
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McCain twists the knife
Yes, according to John McCain, Larry Craig has no business being in the Senate (he's said nothing, incidentally, about David Diapers Vitter).
In addition, prominent Republicans, like Senator John McCain and Senator Norman Coleman, have shed their allegiance to a fellow colleague. Mr. Coleman, who is fighting to retain his seat in what is widely viewed as a tough re-election, spat back the $2,500 in contributions he received from Mr. Craig’s political action committee.
Mr. McCain suggested he was taking a road even different from the moral high road that he so often wants to walk.
“My opinion is that when you plead guilty to a crime, then you shouldn’t serve,” Mr. McCain told CNN. “And that’s not a moral stand, that’s not a ‘holier-than-thou,’ it’s just a factual situation.”
The bar for McCain is "pleading guilty," which is very smart, given his past.
- McCain was one of the "Keating Five," congressmen investigated on ethics charges for strenuously helping convicted racketeer Charles Keating after he gave them large campaign contributions and vacation trips.
Charles Keating was convicted of racketeering and fraud in both state and federal court after his Lincoln Savings & Loan collapsed, costing the taxpayers $3.4 billion. His convictions were overturned on technicalities; for example, the federal conviction was overturned because jurors had heard about his state conviction, and his state charges because Judge Lance Ito (yes, that judge) screwed up jury instructions. Neither court cleared him, and he faces new trials in both courts.)
Though he was not convicted of anything, McCain intervened on behalf of Charles Keating after Keating gave McCain at least $112,00 in contributions. In the mid-1980s, McCain made at least 9 trips on Keating's airplanes, and 3 of those were to Keating's luxurious retreat in the Bahamas. McCain's wife and father-in-law also were the largest investors (at $350,000) in a Keating shopping center; the Phoenix New Times called it a "sweetheart deal."
- Mafia ties: In 1995, McCain sent birthday regards, and regrets for not attending, to Joseph "Joe Bananas" Bonano, the head of the New York Bonano crime family, who had retired to Arizona. Another politician to send regrets was Governor Fife Symington, who has since been kicked out of office and convicted of 7 felonies relating to fraud and extortion.
5:24 PM | Post or Read Comments (0)
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Is Huckabee's rise good or bad?
And the answer is: good, as long as he doesn't actually get the nomination.
5:06 PM | Post or Read Comments (0)
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Requiem for an incompetent criminal
Via reader M, Andrew Cohen has the last word on Alberto Gonzales.
4:54 PM | Post or Read Comments (0)
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Chuck D on the state of music fans
Sounds right:
Explain the meaning of your new album’s title.
CHUCK D: How You Sell Soul to a Soulless People Who Sold Their Soul is answered with a simple phrase: You don’t sell soul to a soulless people who sold their soul. You have to give it to them. And that’s how it boils down with me. I think the last 15, 20 years the music and the record business experienced a great deal of one-sided individualism and greed. In order to return it to some of its roots, artists and entertainers and songwriters have to reach down into themselves in order to reach down into the souls of folk.
Followed by some political analysis that is both wrong and trenchant:
Do you think Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton can win the presidency?
No. That doesn’t mean we don’t try. I just think the American democratic system is full of hypocrisy. And it’s primitive. It’s a two-party system that if it doesn’t change, you’re going to have the same mathematics work against people. And the mathematics say not only has a white male always been president, but a white male has always lost to the president. That dynamic has to be changed with some type of different strategy and planning — preferably by another party other than Republican. I always thought Barack Obama or whoever is the next president of the United States has to clean up at least three years of bullshit. Then, their first thing in office they’re going to be on the defensive, and I think that might be too much for Barack Obama. There’s a chance for Barack Obama in 2016. The mathematics that’s being played is going to eventually have Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton cancel each other out. How come Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton can’t come under a guy like Edwards? [H]ave Edwards clean up and then Obama work with that campaign and try to figure out how to clean up America without being a focal point and bearing the brunt? Same thing with Hillary Clinton. You look down into the crux of the problem. Even the Democratic Party is run on ego and the same old-boy network. Handshakes by the zipper.
3:49 PM | Post or Read Comments (0)
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"That part of the world"
Bush's message to Louisiana:
[T]he taxpayers and people from all around the country have got to understand the people of this part of the world really do appreciate the fact that the American citizens are supportive of the recovery effort.
I come telling the folks in this part of the world that we still understand there's problems and we're still engaged.
We care deeply about the folks in this part of the world.
As David Kurtz notes, "He might as well have been talking to tsunami survivors in Indonesia."
UPDATE: Al Gore and George W. Bush in New Orleans: a comparison
3:41 PM | Post or Read Comments (0)
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For the record
Many recent visitors to this blog have been trying to figure out whether Larry Craig is Mormon or not. No, he is not. Idaho's other senator, the entertainingly named Mike Crapo, is. Larry Craig, like George W. Bush and Hillary Clinton, is a Methodist.
3:32 PM | Post or Read Comments (0)
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GOP candidates blow off Latinos
DailyAmazing. They have decided that it's better to cede the Latino vote in the general because any appearance of sympathy will kill their chance to win the primaries.
Univisión planned to air the first presidential debates in Spanish on Sept. 9 and 16, one for Democrats, the other for Republicans, trumpeting a national coming-out party for Hispanic voters.
Except Republican candidates aren't coming. Only Ariz. Sen. John McCain agreed to participate in the event at the University of Miami.
So much for Sept. 16.
''That date is off the table,'' university spokeswoman Bárbara Gutiérrez said Wednesday.
Democrats aren't passing up this chance to communicate with one of the nation's largest swing constituencies.
All eight Democratic candidates are slated to show up Sept. 9, and party leaders plan to highlight the contrast. The New Democratic Network, a nationwide political group, is planning news conferences and inviting Hispanic leaders, including Sen. Bob Menendez of New Jersey, former Cabinet member Henry Cisneros and U.S. Rep. Luís Gutiérrez of Illinois.
3:27 PM | Post or Read Comments (0)
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Huckabee rising
The evangelical former fatty might be a contender after all.
3:21 PM | Post or Read Comments (0)
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An obvious point that I missed
The GOP's double standard for Larry Craig versus Diapers Vitter is not only attributable to their sexual orientations but the party identifications of their respective governors.
In the specific case of Hewitt, though, there's probably a more important factor: Louisiana's governor is a Democrat, and Idaho's is a Republican. Craig resigning would mean a Republican incumbent going into the 2008 election; Vitter resigning would mean another Democratic Senator. So no conservative pundit should get credit for standing on principle for demanding that Craig resign, and that goes triple if they haven't made the same call for Vitter (who actually violated the law, although he did so in a more heterosexual way that will help to earn forgiveness from conservatives.)
3:19 PM | Post or Read Comments (0)
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Wednesday, August 29, 2007
Tucker Carlson commits felony assault and battery
But the statute of limitations has passed.
11:35 PM | Post or Read Comments (0)
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Dad to Josh: Idaho is off limits
Howie Klein on Mitt:
According to Bob Novak, Mitt Romney thinks he's best positioned to capitalize on his former Idaho campaign chair's bathroom escapades! He fired Senator Craig as soon as word of his toilet foibles leaked out earlier this week-- and followed it up by prohibiting his son, Josh, from even setting foot in Boise, apparently nervous he might end up being another of the Boys of Boise.
Meanwhile, a more interesting question: is the closeted Republican Senate minority leader being harsher on a fellow closet case than on straight GOP sex criminals?
Crew's got the whole story but wonderers are wondering why McConnell is rushing around like a chicken without a head to make Larry Craig disappear when he never asked Ted Stevens (R-AK) to step down from any committees-- and Stevens actually used his committee positions to solicit millions of dollars in bribes. I never heard anything about Craig trying to play any potty games with any veterans or oil executives. And David Diapers Vitter (R-LA) already admitted he broke the law by hiring a prostitute. But he's still on his committees. What's with McConnell's double standard. What will happen early next year when the evidence on him is splashed all over the newspapers and TV screens-- I mean after he denies everything? Will he be forced to step down as Minority Leader?
Or, put even more succinctly:
Interesting that McConnell is moving rapidly against his fellow homosexual-- who loudly denies having done anything wrong-- while he never did a thing when it came to David Diapers Vitter (R-LA), who admitted to hiring prostitutes (a crime).
Meanwhile, evangelical pastors are faced with a big of a problem: since half their candidates are whoremongerers and closet cases, how do they publicly justify the congregational voting drives and campaign contributions that allow them to feed off the Faith Based Inititative trough? AmericaBlog gives us a rundown of their attempts.
11:24 PM | Post or Read Comments (0)
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"A word about muslin"
Thoughtfully recommended by a JUSIPER contact in South America, catch the cached copy while you still can from the password-protected Christian Domestic Discipline website (subtitled: "Loving Wife Spanking in a Christian Marriage). It might be a joke, since it's a little vanilla for your average Republican politician, but if it isn't, 10% of the corporate tithe may go right back into the party!
Still more, which I am going to quote in its entirety in the cached copy of this item disappears:
In today’s society where any physical discipline is severely frowned upon, it is important that even a Christian Domestic Discipline relationship be consensual; however, it is interesting to note that Biblically, a man’s right to chastise and discipline his wife is strongly implied. Just as a parent would never stop to ask permission to chastise his child, a husband should not have to obtain consent to discipline his wife; however, our legal system has put him in the position of having to do so. Just as our culture is turned upside down in so many other things, the traditional Christian marriage is no exception.
It is worth mentioning that even Biblically, it is best if the wife submits willingly rather than being forced to obey her husband, and in giving honor to his wife as the weaker vessel, it is good that the husband listen to her thoughts and opinions and try to incorporate them into their lives so that she will be content. In that sense, this discussion of CDD and all it entails is Biblically sound. That is the spirit in which we will approach the remainder of this book.
This workbook is designed for a husband and wife beginning a Christian Domestic Discipline relationship and is meant to give them a starting point as to the things they need to discuss so that each know what they might expect from their CDD marriage. Much of the talk will be the husband, the leader of the family, instructing his wife as to his wishes and expectations for her in their new arrangement, all of which she should pay close attention. However, the husband should place a high importance on his wife’s opinions during this time as well if they both are to be content within the relationship.
Most importantly, the couple should approach each subject with prayer, asking God’s blessing on their marriage and the decisions they make regarding their CDD relationship.
***Recommended in conjunction with Christian Domestic Discipline 101***
When equality is no longer a basic expectation, one learns to lovingly and submissively accept any amount of humiliation from the alpha partner--as black and gay voters proved long ago with the Clintons.
Even more at the inactive but cached CDD blog!
7:18 PM | Post or Read Comments (0)
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Finally, some good news
Welcome Back, Tim. And video of today's event may bring a tear to your eyes.
3:56 AM | Post or Read Comments (0)
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Chuck D. and Flav return
And if the first single "Harder Than You Think" is any indication, this is a major event.
The prospect of a new CD from a major artist barely rates a blip in popular consciousness these days. The forty-five second ad on PE's website gives you a glimpse of how exciting a new release could be if we had talented popular artists who actually had something to say.
The lyrics are self-referential, revolutionary, smart and, yes, hard (just like that). Six and a half years have passed since the death of American democracy. Fifteen have gone by since the death of rap as a genre of any sociopolitical significance. Finally, a song with punch, truth, and a hook that would take it to #1 if it could get the airplay it deserved. No song with an intro that dramatic restricts its ambition to a genre. This is a pop manifesto as much as it is a rap one.
Preview the MP3 at the excellently explicated link above or watch this video, then buy the album directly from the artist here.
3:45 AM | Post or Read Comments (0)
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And the winner of today's photocaption contest is...
Jesus' General.
2:44 AM | Post or Read Comments (0)
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Tuesday, August 28, 2007
Idaho Values Alliance: Craig must resign
And here's why:
"The Judeo-Christian tradition says that by the mouth of two or three witnesses every fact is confirmed," says the Idaho Family Values leader.
5:55 PM | Post or Read Comments (1)
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The story behind the Coalition Provisional Authority
Appalling.
5:39 PM | Post or Read Comments (0)
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ABC breaking news email
SEN. LARRY CRAIG MAINTAINS HE IS NOT GAY AND INSISTS HE DID NOTHING WRONG DESPITE PLEADING GUILTY TO CHARGES OF DISORDERLY CONDUCT
Hopefully this means he will run again.
UPDATE: Oh my God, he is running! And he is not gay and never has been.
UPDATE #2: In these two posts, former President of Reprise Records Howie Klein has the last word. Senate Minority Leader Miss McConnell and Lindsey Graham, you're next.
5:13 PM | Post or Read Comments (0)
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Craig cop ID'd
Dave Karsnia "received a master's degree in criminal justice from Concordia University in St. Paul" in the spring of 2006. Now he'll be known as the airport toilet cop for the rest of his life. Who knew you needed a graduate degree to look pretty and tap your feet?
4:23 PM | Post or Read Comments (0)
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Fox News refuses to mention Craig is a Republican
Not surprising. Meanwhile, Matt "I'm Not Gay" Drudge is tapping his own feet around the issue.
3:58 PM | Post or Read Comments (0)
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Now it's all out there
Scooped by Roll Call, Idaho Statesman finally publishes the piece that was someone muzzled months ago. Nothing he did was illegal. None of it should even matter. But the legislation he approved and the judges he backed as a senator did all they could to force gays back into the closet in which he lived.
In an interview on May 14, Craig told the Idaho Statesman he'd never engaged in sex with a man or solicited sex with a man. The Craig interview was the culmination of a Statesman investigation that began after a blogger accused Craig of homosexual sex in October. Over five months, the Statesman examined rumors about Craig dating to his college days and his 1982 pre-emptive denial that he had sex with underage congressional pages.
The most serious finding by the Statesman was the report by a professional man with close ties to Republican officials. The 40-year-old man reported having oral sex with Craig at Washington's Union Station, probably in 2004. The Statesman also spoke with a man who said Craig made a sexual advance toward him at the University of Idaho in 1967 and a man who said Craig "cruised" him for sex in 1994 at the REI store in Boise. The Statesman also explored dozens of allegations that proved untrue, unclear or unverifiable.
Craig, 62, was elected to Congress in 1980. Should he win re-election in 2008 and complete his term, he would be the longest-serving Idahoan ever in Congress. His record includes a series of votes against gay rights and his support of a 2006 amendment to the Idaho Constitution that bars gay marriage and civil unions. [...]
Craig told the Statesman in May that he doesn't care about a person's sexual orientation. He said he had a homosexual staffer. "I hire people based on their talent and their ability to produce," he said.
Marriage should be between and man and a woman, Craig said. But he said he supports unions between same-sex couples. "You can have a civil union, but you can't commandeer the institution of marriage. That's very special, religious, culturally, and you can't go there."
Last fall, however, after Rogers' report, Craig issued a statement saying he would vote for an amendment to the Idaho Constitution on the November ballot that bans both gay marriage and civil unions.
4:39 AM | Post or Read Comments (0)
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You can't make this stuff up
Idaho's Republican governor would replace Larry Craig were he to resign from his Senate seat.
The governor's name is Butch Otter. And his wife's name was Gay Simplot.
He dumped her, of course, in fine Republican tradition, for a Miss Idaho who was 25 years junior to him. And in fine Catholic tradition, the Church granted an annullment.
12:41 AM | Post or Read Comments (0)
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And in related news...
Randy and Paula have called it quits!
12:33 AM | Post or Read Comments (0)
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Bishop: Devil made me beat my wife
Amazing. And isn't funny how forgiving judgmental churchgoers become when their pastors commit felonies? Unless they turn out to be gay of course.
Global Destiny Ministries members on Sunday circled their spiritual wagons around their pastor, Bishop Thomas Weeks III, now charged with beating his estranged wife, the nationally known evangelist Juanita Bynum.
Most congregants approached for interviews after Sunday's 8 a.m. service declined to comment on the marital problems of Weeks, 40, and Bynum, 48.
Those who did urged caution in taking sides in the issue and passing judgment on two people they consider spiritual giants, but also human.
"There are three sides to every story," said Clarkston's Shannon Mayers, a frequent visitor. "Nobody has the right to judge anybody. God is in the midst of that and will work it out."
Member Maurice Adams, 26, of Atlanta said he was disappointed to hear the news but still considers Weeks his bishop.
"We all make mistakes. He deserves another opportunity," Adams said. "I'm hurt, but I do respect him for being man enough to show his face today." [...]
Weeks, wearing a dark suit and his customary bow tie, blamed the devil for the accusation that has him facing two felony charges. He didn't, however, offer any specifics before introducing a guest minister who preached in his stead, then exiting the room.
The bishop is charged with aggravated assault for allegedly choking, kicking and hitting Bynum on Tuesday night in a parking lot at the Renaissance Concourse Hotel and with making terroristic threats to kill her. Both are felonies.
12:20 AM | Post or Read Comments (0)
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Muslims get an evangelical off the air
Hee hee:
Earlier this month, officials from the Council on American Islamic Relations wrote a letter to the TV station's owners asking for an investigation of the show it broadcasts, "Live Prayer with Bill Keller."
In a May 2 broadcast, the televangelist said Islam was a "1,400-year-old lie from the pits of hell" and called the Prophet Mohammed a "murdering pedophile." He also called the Quran a "book of fables and a book of lies."
Council officials asked for equal air time for Florida Muslims to counter Keller's comments, but never got the chance, the St. Petersburg Times reported in its Friday editions.
Station manager Laura Caruso of WTOG, which airs the show, said the decision to end Keller's contract was a programming one, made by station executives and the televangelist.
But after speaking with CBS executives, the Islamic group claimed credit for Keller's demise. His last broadcast will be Aug. 31.
"They really based their decision upon our letter," said Ramzy Kilic, the group's civil rights coordinator. "They really did not know that Bill Keller was involved with this kind of anti-Muslim rhetoric."
Keller said his "Bible-based" message has not changed in the five years the program has aired.
Actually, it hasn't changed for over a thousand years.
12:07 AM | Post or Read Comments (0)
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Monday, August 27, 2007
Larry Summers goes back to what he was actually good at
And raises serious policy questions about the home lending industry.
7:18 PM | Post or Read Comments (0)
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Larry Craig story finally "comes out"
It's taken a few months, but now it's finally official. Senator Larry Craig of Idaho is the latest Republican was caught on a "morals charge." If you go to Roll Call's website right now, it will say:
The server is currently unable to handle the request due to a temporary overloading or maintenance of the server
Fortunately, Kos has the quote:
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. At one point during the interview, Craig handed the plainclothes sergeant who arrested him a business card that identified him as a U.S. Senator and said, “What do you think about that?” the report states.
What do I think about that? This is an objective blog, so my opinion shouldn't matter. But here is a bit of Larry Craig's voting record.
YES on prohibiting same-sex marriage
NO on prohibiting job discrimination by sexual orientation
NO on expanding hate crimes to include sexual orientation
NO on adding sexual orientation to definition of hate crimes
YES on constitutional ban of same-sex marriage
Rated 100% by the Christian Coalition: a pro-family voting record
And for added measure:
YES on rejecting racial statistics in death penalty appeals
YES on limiting death penalty appeals
Rated 13% by CURE, indicating anti-rehabilitation crime votes
YES on more penalties for gun & drug violations
Strongly Favors Mandatory Three Strikes sentencing laws
YES on more penalties for gun & drug violations
So if this was his third time being caught in a men's room, does that mean he'd have to go to jail?
Finally, it's good to hear of his consistency on abortion: he was rated 0% by NARAL, "indicating a pro-life voting record." And you can't make any unwanted babies that way.
UPDATE: If you can't get through to Roll Call, details of the incident's homosexual overtones (early reports make it seem like an accidental solo adventure), and a lovely picture, here
UPDATE #2: BlogActive, meanwhile, takes us to some of Craig's earlier statements.
As with the earlier "scary black guys made me do it" Florida case, I have very serious reservations regarding police entrapment in these cases. But these are precisely the types of legislators who enable this type of law enforcement activity.
UPDATE #3: Larry Craig's usual haunt was Union Station in Washington. You don't get to travel Northwest every day!
6:01 PM | Post or Read Comments (0)
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Great, just great
This is what our misadventure in Iraq has come to:
Child fighters, once a rare presence on Iraq's battlefields, are playing a significant and growing role in kidnappings, killings and roadside bombings in the country, U.S. military officials say.
Boys, some as young as 11, now outnumber foreign fighters at U.S. detention camps in Iraq. Since March, their numbers have risen to 800 from 100, said Maj. Gen. Douglas Stone, the commander of detainee operations. The Times reported last month that only 130 non-Iraqi fighters were in U.S. custody in Iraq. [...]
Stone said some children have told interrogators that their parents encouraged them to do the militants' dirty work because the extremists have deep pockets.
Insurgents typically pay the boys $200 to $300 to plant a bomb, enough to support a family for two or three months, say their Iraqi instructors at a U.S. rehabilitation center.
About 85% of the child detainees are Sunni and the majority live in Sunni Arab-dominated regions in the country's west and north. In these deeply impoverished, violence-torn communities, the men with money and influence are the ones with the most powerful arsenals. These are the children's role models.
The rise of child fighters will eventually make the Iraq conflict more gruesome, said Peter W. Singer, a Brookings Institution expert on child fighters.
He said militant leaders often treat children as a cheap commodity, and peace will be less attainable because "conflict entrepreneurs" now have an established and pliable fighting force in their communities.
Websites feature stories of child martyrs as an inspiration, and on the other side of the sectarian divide, radical Shiite Muslim cleric Muqtada Sadr's Mahdi Army also boasts of youngsters' involvement. [...]
For their American captors, the apparent surge of child fighters confuses enemy and friend on the battlefield even further, and it causes renewed scrutiny of the military's detention policies and lack of judicial access for juvenile detainees in custody. [...]
The use of children by the militants has some precedent in the regime of Saddam Hussein, who used the organization Ashbal Saddam -- Saddam's Lion Cubs -- as a paramilitary force of boys between 10 and 15 that fed the fedayeen units led by his son Uday.
Back to the future.
5:41 PM | Post or Read Comments (0)
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Chaplains in corporate America
If only Karl Marx had a blog. And since most corporate chaplains are evangelicals (they'd almost have to be Protestant or Protestant-influenced white Catholics to buy into capitalism to this degree), they will presumably tell workers that they should be content with their lot. And that Jesus never said a word in favor of unionization.
Corporate Chaplains of America, which is based in Wake Forest, North Carolina, is both newer and smaller: it was founded in 1996 and has 100 full-time chaplains on its books who minister to 75,000 workers in 24 states. But it is also booming. Dwayne Reece, a spokesman, says that the firm would like to have 1,000 chaplains ministering to 1m workers in six or seven years' time. Both companies talk excitedly about going global. Marketplace Chaplains expanded into Mexico and Puerto Rico this year, and has high hopes for the British market. Corporate Chaplains has a client who wants it to expand into China.
Why the chaplain boom? People in the business point to the practical advantages of having a company cleric. Many workers are cut off from their geographic and religious roots. Corporate chaplains can perform the role of traditional village priests. People in the business also argue that corporate chaplains can boost productivity. Art Stricklin, of Marketplace Chaplains, claims that the turnover rate at Taco Bell outlets in central Texas dropped by a third after they started employing chaplains.
5:30 PM | Post or Read Comments (0)
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The Hispanics are coming!
Republican Barone just crunches the numbers; their political import is fairly obvious.
5:05 PM | Post or Read Comments (0)