FOLEY WATCH

MIAMI, Florida (CNN) -- Former Rep. Mark Foley, who resigned Friday amid allegations that he sent inappropriate e-mails to teenage pages, told a Florida television station that he is in a treatment facility for alcoholism.

--story

FOLEY GATE

WASHINGTON, Sept. 30 — Top House Republicans knew for months about e-mail traffic between Representative Mark Foley and a former teenage page, but kept the matter secret and allowed Mr. Foley to remain head of a Congressional caucus on children’s issues, Republican lawmakers said Saturday.

--CONTINUED

FOLEY WATCH

WASHINGTON, Oct. 1 — In the hierarchy of Congress, the high school students who serve as Congressional pages fall somewhere near the bottom, seemingly invisible as they scurry through the hallways of the Capitol ferrying messages to powerful lawmakers who often fail to give them a second glance.

In that rarefied world, Representative Mark Foley, the silver-haired Republican from Florida, stood out.

He took pains to befriend the 16- and 17-year-old aides, several former pages said in interviews on Sunday. He chatted with them on the House floor, they said, sent handwritten notes and urged them to keep in touch when they left Washington for their hometowns.

“You didn’t have a lot of interaction with the members because most of them treated you like a kid, but he was pretty friendly,” Ashley Gallo, a 21-year-old former page who is now a senior at Western Michigan University, said of Mr. Foley.

“He would talk to people,” said Ms. Gallo, who was a page in the fall of 2001 and said she knew several pages who were friendly with Mr. Foley.

“He would say, ‘Here’s my e-mail address if you want to keep in touch.’ I don’t think anyone thought anything of it. They saw him as a mentor or a reference.”

--continued

well, DUH.... they LIED to you

WASHINGTON, Oct. 2 — Members of the Sept. 11 commission said today that they were alarmed that they were told nothing about a White House meeting in July 2001 at which George J. Tenet, then the director of central intelligence, is reported to have warned Condoleezza Rice, then the national security adviser, about an imminent Al Qaeda attack and failed to persuade her to take action.

--nytimes

REPUBLICAN PEDOPHILES LIST

HERE

and HERE

FOLEY-GATE

WASHINGTON - The White House and Democratic leaders in Congress called Sunday for a criminal probe into former Rep. Mark Foley (news, bio, voting record)'s electronic messages to teenage boys — a lurid scandal that has put House Republicans in political peril.

White House counselor Dan Bartlett called the allegations against Foley shocking. He said
President Bush hadn't learned of Foley's inappropriate e-mails to a 16-year-old boy and instant messages to other boys before the news broke last week.

--STORY

FOLEY-GATE

The FBI has opened a "preliminary investigation" of disgraced former Congressman Mark Foley over the sexually explicit Internet messages he sent to congressional pages, all male high school students under the age of 18.

--ABCNEWS

FOLEY WATCH

finally some democrats have some spine.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Democrats demanded on Sunday that House Republicans keep them in the loop and thoroughly investigate former Rep. Mark Foley's inappropriate e-mails to a 16-year-old boy. The White House went further, suggesting the need for a criminal probe.

"This should be investigated objectively. I think the Democratic leadership should have been told 10 months ago," said Rep. Jane Harman of California, top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee. "I gather that basically nothing was done except that Foley was warned."

--story

FOLEY WATCH - pelosi's letter

Washington, D.C. – House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi released the following letter sent today to House Ethics Committee Chairman Doc Hastings and Ranking Member Howard L. Berman about the Foley matter. The text of the letter follows:

--read the letter here

FOLEY-WATCH

The Republican congressman who resigned Friday following the discovery of sexually explicit Internet messages he sent to teenage boys was a gregarious and charismatic lawmaker who built his political career in large measure on legislative proposals meant to halt the sexual predation of children and others.

Beginning with his 1993 sponsorship of a measure in the Florida state legislature to seize the cars of men who solicited prostitutes, former restaurant owner and real estate agent Mark Foley repeatedly attracted a flattering political spotlight by inveighing against those involved in sexual crimes and presenting himself as a protector of exploited children.

A well-liked member of the class of conservatives elected to Congress in 1994, Foley was until two days ago a deputy whip for the House Republicans and a co-chairman of the Congressional Missing and Exploited Children's Caucus. A Web site for the bipartisan group states that it was formed to "create a voice within Congress" on that issue and to operate a hotline for tips about "online child sexual exploitation" that could be passed to law enforcement agencies.

washington post

FOLEY-GATE

over at rollcall they've got a coupla articles that are worth reading.

foley watch

he's in seclusion now. like we're supposed to feel sorry for the bastard.

Foley left Washington on Saturday for an undisclosed location. He is said to be an emotional wreck. His older sister, Donna, who always has been by his side during his political campaigns, is with him.

--story

FOLEY-GATE

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The top three Republicans in the House assailed Rep. Mark Foley Saturday over his e-mails to a teenage male page and said his resignation was not enough.

Calling the incident "an obscene breach of trust," the congressmen released a statement saying, " immediate resignation must now be followed by the full weight of the criminal justice system."

--story

FOLEY-GATE

WASHINGTON — Sexually explicit messages from former Rep. Mark Foley to one former congressional page might be just the tip of the iceberg, the leader of an alumni association for former congressional pages told Scripps Howard News Service on Saturday.

While Foley resigned this week after published reports of "friendly" e-mails to one 16-year-old male page and the pending broadcast of more sexually explicit instant messages, similar graphic messages from him were received by at least three other teenage boys who once worked in the page program, said Matthew Loraditch, a Maryland college senior who runs the U.S. House Page Alumni Association's Internet message board. ...Loraditch said his friends all thought the messages were disturbing, but they did not report them, either because they did not think the messages posed a serious threat or because they might have worried about career consequences.

--story

FOLEY-GATE

WASHINGTON — A spokesman for the Florida Department of Law Enforcement confirmed late Saturday the agency is deciding whether to press charges against former U.S. Rep. Mark Foley, who hastily resigned from office Friday.
--STORY

if this was you or me we'd be sitting in a cell while they were bickering on whether to bring charges. his status as a VIP allows him better treatment under the law obviously. no more is America the land where everybody is treated fairly. the more time they're wasting on whether to bring charges allows Foley to scrub his hard drives of any evidence that could incriminate him. the people of America should scream their outrage over the sloppy gathering of law enforcement on this issue. to hell with the children seems to be the true message of Florida officials.

i wonder how many papers catch this story

A Florida law that bars exit polling near voting places violates the press' rights under the First Amendment, a lawsuit filed by The Associated Press and five television networks alleges.

The lawsuit filed Friday in U.S. District Court in Miami contends that a 2005 amendment to state law that prohibits asking a voter a "fact" or "opinion" within 100 feet of a polling place is unconstitutional.

"We're asking the court to ensure they can talk to voters in Florida on Election Day within a reasonable distance from polling places," said Susan Buckley, the attorney representing the news organizations.

--story

FOLEY WATCH

gonna start cataloging articles that mention this wretch of a human being.

new york times

washington post

AP

usnewswire

editor and publisher

foxnews

by now it's all over the place.

sound like someone you know?

who does this sound like?

His primary rules were: never allow the public to cool off; never admit a fault or wrong; never concede that there may be some good in your enemy; never leave room for alternatives; never accept blame; concentrate on one enemy at a time and blame him for everything that goes wrong; people will believe a big lie sooner than a little one; and if you repeat it frequently enough people will sooner or later believe it.

(from wikipedia on the big lie)

the whole shebang

the IM's of MAF54 (foley's IM tag)

what's so sinister about this whole affair is that the republican leadership knew about it for a whole year but never told the democrats who insisted that foley resign. no wonder they're referred to as repukes. they make me sick.

and as skids noted on DU:

Republicans put draft dodgers in charge of wars, some guy who thinks the UN should be disbanded in as ambassador, corporate whores in as heads of OSHA and the mining safety agency, a guy who paves over wetlands and wants the EPA to let the states do all the work in as, yes you guessed it, head of the EPA, and oil moguls in charge of energy policy.

more proof that bush let 9/11 happen

The CIA'S top counterterrorism officials felt they could have killed Osama Bin Laden in the months before 9/11, but got the "brushoff" when they went to the Bush White House seeking the money and authorization.

CIA Director George Tenet and his counterterrorism head Cofer Black sought an urgent meeting with then-national security adviser Condoleezza Rice on July 10, 2001, writes Bob Woodward in his new book "State of Denial."

--source

Site of the Day

http://blueballfixed.ytmnd.com/

when do you call it corruption?

BAGHDAD, Sept. 27 -- A $75 million project to build the largest police academy in Iraq has been so grossly mismanaged that the campus now poses health risks to recruits and might need to be partially demolished, U.S. investigators have found.

The Baghdad Police College, hailed as crucial to U.S. efforts to prepare Iraqis to take control of the country's security, was so poorly constructed that feces and urine rained from the ceilings in student barracks. Floors heaved inches off the ground and cracked apart. Water dripped so profusely in one room that it was dubbed "the rain forest."

--source

the cities are only a hundred miles away

and i'd sure like to go up and protest.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Republicans have chosen the Twin Cities of Minneapolis-St. Paul — in the politically pivotal Midwest — for the 2008 presidential convention, GOP officials said Wednesday.

--story

they do NOT want us there

BAGHDAD, Sept. 26 -- A strong majority of Iraqis want U.S.-led military forces to immediately withdraw from the country, saying their swift departure would make Iraq more secure and decrease sectarian violence, according to new polls by the State Department and independent researchers.

--source

Quote of the Day

from a newspaper in connecticut:

The war in Iraq has worsened the U.S. position regarding the terrorist threat, according to officials familiar with the analysis who talked to reporters. In other words, we are less safe than we were before the war.

they lied and nobody cares

WASHINGTON — Adding to criticism of the Bush administration's prosecution of the war in Iraq, a retired senior general who commanded an infantry division in the conflict said Monday that requests by commanders for more soldiers were repeatedly turned down.

"Many of us routinely asked for more troops," retired Maj. Gen. John R.S. Batiste said, contradicting statements by President Bush and his senior aides that the administration had given the military all the resources it had asked for.

--source

Website of the Day

HERE

iraq is just a "comma" > bush

the transcript from blitzer's interview with the piece of shit:

BLITZER: Let's move on and talk a little bit about Iraq. Because this is a huge, huge issue, as you know, for the American public, a lot of concern that perhaps they are on the verge of a civil war, if not already a civil war…. We see these horrible bodies showing up, tortured, mutilation. The Shia and the Sunni, the Iranians apparently having a negative role. Of course, al Qaeda in Iraq is still operating.

BUSH: Yes, you see — you see it on TV, and that's the power of an enemy that is willing to kill innocent people. But there's also an unbelievable will and resiliency by the Iraqi people…. Admittedly, it seems like a decade ago. I like to tell people when the final history is written on Iraq, it will look like just a comma because there is — my point is, there's a strong will for democracy. (emphasis added)

something i caught in today's papers that i wanted to keep

for future reference:

The New York Times, the Washington Post, and the Los Angeles Times all lead with a government report finding that the war in Iraq is hurting the fight against terrorism. The classified National Intelligence Estimate, issued last April, finds that the occupation of Iraq has been a crucible for new, more decentralized extremist cells, while global outrage over the war has proved to be a boon for terrorist recruiters.
The NIE represents the opinions of all 16 intelligence agencies and was approved by Director of National Intelligence John D. Negroponte. It's worth noting, as all the papers do, that a 2002 NIE was used to build the case for invading Iraq. That history makes the report's stark assessment of the war all the more sobering. Since the report is still classified, the papers rely on sources familiar with the document for tidbits, and as a result the stories all sound very similar. TP won't pretend it's surprised that all three papers do their cover pieces on the same day, five months after the report was issued. It sounds, however, as if the slim 30-page report is a little short on specifics as well: There's no attempt to discern the chances of the U.S. being attacked again, nor does the report make any policy suggestions. The report simply states, one sources tells NYT, "that the Iraq war has made the overall terrorism problem worse."

--today's papers

Letter Of The Day

comes from my old school chum and the father of my neighbor across the street (small towns have that way of doing things like this).

Thirty-eight days into Bill Clinton’s presidency, the WTC was bombed. No one blamed George Bush Sr. Clinton’s Justice Department captured those responsible and put them in prison. No less than 22 planned Al-Qaeda attacks (20 in this country) were thwarted by these arrests.

Clinton tripled the counter-terrorism budget for the FBI, created a national security post and introduced two anti-terrorism bills, all fought by the Republicans in Congress. In 1998, in retaliation for U.S. Embassy attacks in Kenya and Tanzania, Clinton hit targets in Sudan and Afghanistan.

The Sudanese government never offered up bin Laden. A man named Mansoor Ijaz claimed he knew a Sudan general who could deliver him and suggested sanctions against Sudan be lifted. Sudan’s regime has killed more than two million Christians, deals in slave trade and state-sponsored terrorism. Sandy Berger deemed him unreliable.

U.S. policy deals with governments, not individuals. After the USS Cole attack, Clinton had Richard Clarke devise a comprehensive plan to eliminate al-Qaida. In December 2000, that plan was presented by Sandy Berger to the incoming Bush administration. It was ignored for nine months. In Bush’s first seven months in office, he was away on vacation 42 percent of the time.

In February 2001, the Hart-Rudman report on national security, which cited a very real terrorist threat, was also ignored by Bush’s people. Repeated FBI warnings involving al-Qaida, flight schools, airplanes and terrorists’ chatter were ignored.

Meetings between Clarke, Berger and the Bush administration were continually postponed. Repeated requests by Thomas Pickard of the FBI for manpower and money increases were denied by Attorney General Ashcroft and Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld. Finally on Sept. 4, 2001, Clarke’s plan reached the Principal’s Committee and they decided to advise Bush to accept it. One week later, the WTC fell. The next day, they blamed Clinton.

What?

--Gene Beller

attribution

keeping 9/11 in mind

U.S. military deaths from Iraq and Afghanistan now surpass those of the most devastating terrorist attack in America’s history, the trigger for what came next.

The latest milestone for a country at war came Friday without commemoration. It came without the precision of knowing who was the 2,974th to die in conflict. The terrorist attacks killed 2,973 victims in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania.

--story

why hezollah will never die

take a look at this

Letter of the Day

John Carlson has every right to be offended by a bumper sticker that includes a word he finds offensive ("Can't Escape Dumb and Offensive (but Legal) Messages," Sept. 13). Likewise, the young lady who has the "(Blank) War" bumper sticker has every right to display it.

My primary question, however, revolves around what truly is offensive. War is obscene.

While the obscenity of war at times can be justified, it is one of the least desirable demonstrations of human behavior. War always should be the last resort, and the unjust war is the greatest obscenity.

Being offended by the [anti-war] bumper sticker is fine. Maybe the more appropriate response, however, is being outraged by unjust war.

- Phil George, Pella.

attribution

watching M*A*S*H

and i'm wondering... why do they show the surgeons scrubbing like mad AFTER surgery? they're wearing platex gloves throughout the whole ordeal, the place is as sterile as it ever got over there, and here we have a shot, a 60 second shot, of them scrubbing, talking about the surgeries they've just completed.

i mean, all i have to ask: what are they washing off?

... probably some blooper contest angle.

HYPOCRISY ALERT

WASHINGTON, Sept. 22 (UPI) -- A Bush administration official has rejected a claim by a U.N. official that torture in Iraq is worse now than under former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.
--story

speaking of state sanctioned torture - in ira, in afghanistan, at gitmo, in secret prisons, with extraordinary renditions. hell, America likes torture so much it legitimizes it with the cover of law.

HYPOCRACY ALERT

WASHINGTON, Sept. 22 (UPI) -- A Bush administration official has rejected a claim by a U.N. official that torture in Iraq is worse now than under former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.

--STORY

speaking of state sanctioned torture - in ira, in afghanistan, at gitmo, in secret prisons, with extraordinary renditions. hell, America likes torture so much it legitimizes it with the cover of law.

Quote of the Day

"Believe those who seek the truth. Doubt those who find it."
--Andre Gide

attribution

Letter of the Day

Jon von Gillern is sick and disgusted that 30 percent of adults in the United States can't recall the year of the Sept. 11 attacks (Talk About It, Sept. 11).

Do you know what's even more disgusting? More than 30 percent of adult Americans still think Sept. 11 was the work of the Iraqis.

- Donald M. Maze, Marshalltown.

attribution

our very own taliban

Speaking in tongues, weeping for salvation, praying for an end to abortion and worshipping a picture of President Bush -- these are some of the activities at Pastor Becky Fischer's Bible camp in North Dakota, "Kids on Fire," subject of the provocative new documentary, "Jesus Camp."

"I want to see them as radically laying down their lives for the gospel as they are in Palestine, Pakistan and all those different places," Fisher said. "Because, excuse me, we have the truth."

"A lot of people die for God," one camper said, "and they're not afraid."

"We're kinda being trained to be warriors," said another, "only in a funner way."

--story

republican and democrat shoes

can you tell which are which?

betcha didn't know THAT.

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- In the few short years since the first shackled Afghan shuffled off to Guantanamo, the U.S. military has created a global network of overseas prisons, its islands of high security keeping 14,000 detainees beyond the reach of established law.

--source

what really bothers me is that if any other country did this, the world would be screaming on it's end to terminate this practice.

the numbers

The latest Bush bounce is over. Today, 41% of American adults approve of the way that President Bush is performince his job and 57% disapprove. That's exactly where the numbers were before the President's 9/11 speech.

Overall 21% of Americans Strongly Approve and 42% Strongly Disapprove.

--rasmussen

they're sending george baker to iraq

is that like throwing gasoline on a fire?

Headline of the Day

even though this piece is two years old, it still rings true today as much as it did then.

Pillaging Iraq in pursuit of a neocon utopia

when do they start to call it corruption?

After the fall of Saddam Hussein's government in April 2003, the opportunity to participate in the U.S.-led effort to reconstruct Iraq attracted all manner of Americans -- restless professionals, Arabic-speaking academics, development specialists and war-zone adventurers. But before they could go to Baghdad, they had to get past Jim O'Beirne's office in the Pentagon.

To pass muster with O'Beirne, a political appointee who screens prospective political appointees for Defense Department posts, applicants didn't need to be experts in the Middle East or in post-conflict reconstruction. What they needed to be was a member of the Republican Party.

--story

when do they start to call it corruption?

After the fall of Saddam Hussein's government in April 2003, the opportunity to participate in the U.S.-led effort to reconstruct Iraq attracted all manner of Americans -- restless professionals, Arabic-speaking academics, development specialists and war-zone adventurers. But before they could go to Baghdad, they had to get past Jim O'Beirne's office in the Pentagon.

To pass muster with O'Beirne, a political appointee who screens prospective political appointees for Defense Department posts, applicants didn't need to be experts in the Middle East or in post-conflict reconstruction. What they needed to be was a member of the Republican Party.

--story

i never did like the guy

he looks creepy and evil. and now he evidently has shown his true colors

Muslims Lash Out at Pope's Remarks
Benedict's criticism of Islamic violence draws sharp rebukes and may threaten his Turkey trip.

Letter of the Day

Recently, Donald Rumsfeld accused those like me of appeasing fascists for calling upon the administration to withdraw from Iraq. He accused us of being morally and intellectually confused.

Rumsfeld is intellectually confused. He believes the mission in Iraq is still war.

The repressive regime of Saddam Hussein is gone; the war is over. Clearly, the mission is now peace- keeping, reconstruction and nation-building. Peace in such a complex region requires vision, wisdom, nuanced diplomacy and restraint.

Rumsfeld is morally confused. He believes it necessary to ignore U.S. and international law if doing so allows us to obtain information that prevents a terrorist attack.

Even if torture and abusive tactics led to valuable intelligence, it diminishes us as a people and as a nation.

The "ends justifies the means" is the rationale used by every despot who ever bloodied the soil of this planet.

Our role in the world should be to bear the torch of liberty and preach the gospel of human rights.

- Rick Whitten, Madrid.

attribution

Quote of the Day

"If we're not willing to use it here against our fellow citizens, then we should not be willing to use it in a wartime situation,"
--Secretary Michael Wynne

attribution

Quote of the Day

"If we're not willing to use it here against our fellow citizens, then we should not be willing to use it in a wartime situation,"
--Secretary Michael Wynne

attribution