Another wingnut congressman who needs to be unemployed

Wingnut North Carolina congressman Patrick McHenry knows what the lives of your loved ones in uniform are worth.

Twenty-five cents.

That is what "two-bit" means.

McHenry recently went on one of those idiotic taxpayer-funded congressional junkets to Iraq, you know the ones, the potentates blow in and disrupt important work so they can be treated to a dog-and-pony show and a couple of nights in one of Saddam's palaces.

Then he came back home and gave a speech in which he lied about a death occurring in the Green Zone while he was there (it didn't happen, he said it did. There was a rocket attack, but no one died.)

That is outrageous enough. But the really offensive thing this warmongering tool said was referring to the Soldier who wouldn't let him into the gym without credentials a "two bit security guard." Then he demanded to see the soldiers superior.

It did my heart good to read that the superior saw it the soldiers way and the wingnut warmonger was escorted back to his sleeping quarters.

McHenry’s gaffe occurred in his telling of a story about his recent two-day visit to Iraq. He said he was stopped by a military guard in the area known as the Green Zone, when he was going “to the gym” in the early morning hours on Easter after being unable to sleep.

The congressman belittled the sentry- referring to him as a “two-bit security guard”- for following his orders by not allowing him to enter the gym without “proper credentials,” according to McHenry’s own telling of the story to an audience of some 160 Republicans.Even after demanding to see the guard’s superiors, by McHenry’s own account, he still was refused entry into the gym and was told he had to return to his room, in a pool house at one of Saddam Hussein’s former palaces in the Baghdad area. (emphasis added.)

Can we please start throwing some of this crap back at these idiots - and can the M$M get over painting these hypocritical bastards as the pro-troop party? They so obviously aren't.

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Don't Resign, Elliot

Glenn Greenwald nails the ridiculousness of the hysteria over Elliot Spitzer paying for sex with consenting adults, but let me just add this:

Until this nation's president and vice-president are prosecuted, convicted and imprisoned for their admitted crimes of torture, treason and destroying the Constitution, no elected official should offer even so much as an apology - much less resignation - for any lesser crime.

And that goes for David Vitter and Larry Craig, too.

Hang in there, guys! Tell the haters that you haven't waterboarded anybody!

Cross-posted at Blue in the Bluegrass.

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Hypocrisy alert: Shrub cares about diplomacy

Now, at the end of his reign, George W. Bush wants to hire 1,100 new diplomats:

The additional positions are part of an $8.2 billion request for State Department operations for the 2009 budget year that Bush will submit to Congress on Monday, according to documents described by officials.

That request would be $690 million, or 9.1 percent, above the current level for department operations, the officials said. They spoke on condition of anonymity ahead of the public release of the spending plan for the budget year that begins Oct. 1.

Other significant proposed increases include a 41 percent rise in spending for new embassy construction, from $670 million to $948 million, and a nearly 20 percent boost for worldwide security spending, from $968 million to $1.16 billion.

And, where was this concern for diplomacy five years ago, in February 2003?

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Oxymoron Meets Moron

Just don't expect him to actually answer

Far from a "macaca" moment, but still indicative that the GOP frontrunners for the presidential nom are nothing but a passel of buzzword chanting bastards. Compassionate conservatism has always been known to be a bumper sticker platitude to members of the Reality-Based Community, but naturally the The Gullible Third™ eat this offal like candy.

During an October 7 campaign stop in New Hampshire, Romney was asked a perfectly nuanced question regarding the validity of medical marijuana in treating the worst side effects of terminal illnesses.

Here is a longer piece of video than has been currently making the rounds, with better audio.

When asked "will you arrest me and my doctors if I get medical marijuana?" of course the biatch punts, and turns his back on a terminally-ill man in a wheelchair. "I'm not in favor of medical marijuana," Mitt4Brains™ responds. He's not only a douchebag, but he plays one on tv! This is so indicative of GOPer rhetoric, in this campaign and campaigns past: 1 mile wide and 1 inch deep.

Do the GOPer contenders really want to jail doctors and patients for using medical marijuana? Doubtfully, just in the way they don't actually wish to jail doctors who perform abortions nor the patients who undergo them. It's simply more red meat for Red State [of Mind]™ rednecks. Even the Gullible Third™ deserve better...they just don't want any better.

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One More Way NOT to Support the Troops

In it's never-ending efforts to make sure your children's future income is spent as efficiently as possible, the Army is ensuring National Guardsmen returning from 22 months in Iraq do not qualify for full educational benefits under the G.I. bill. Those clever bean counters at the Pentagon deployed more than 1,100 of them for only 729 days… exactly one day short of the 730 days needed to guarantee thousands of dollars a year for college.


In it's never-ending efforts to make sure your children's future income is spent as efficiently as possible, the Army is ensuring National Guardsmen returning from 22 months in Iraq do not qualify for full educational benefits under the G.I. bill. Those clever bean counters at the Pentagon deployed more than 1,100 of them for only 729 days… exactly one day short of the 730 days needed to guarantee thousands of dollars a year for college.

When they came home from Iraq, 2,600 members of the Minnesota National Guard had been deployed longer than any other ground combat unit. The tour lasted 22 months and had been extended as part of President Bush's surge.

1st Lt. Jon Anderson said he never expected to come home to this: A government refusing to pay education benefits he says he should have earned under the GI bill.

"It's pretty much a slap in the face," Anderson said. "I think it was a scheme to save money, personally. I think it was a leadership failure by the senior Washington leadership... once again failing the soldiers."

Anderson's orders, and the orders of 1,161 other Minnesota guard members, were written for 729 days.

Had they been written for 730 days, just one day more, the soldiers would receive those benefits to pay for school.

"Which would be allowing the soldiers an extra $500 to $800 a month," Anderson said.

[snip]

Both Hobot and Anderson believe the Pentagon deliberately wrote orders for 729 days instead of 730. Now, six of Minnesota's members of the House of Representatives have asked the Secretary of the Army to look into it -- So have Senators Amy Klobuchar and Norm Coleman.

Klobuchar said the GI money "shouldn't be tied up in red tape," and Coleman said it's "simply irresponsible to deny education benefits to those soldiers who just completed the longest tour of duty of any unit in Iraq."

[snip]

Senators Klobuchar and Coleman released a joint statement saying the Army secretary, Pete Geren, is looking into this personally, and they say Geren asked a review board to expedite its review so the matter could be solved by next semester.

Minnesota National Guard spokesman Lt. Col. Kevin Olson said the soldiers are "victims of a significant injustice."

Hobot and Anderson must be some of those "phony soldiers" Rush spoke of this week.

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"He Was a Victim of Circumstance, in the Wrong Place at the Wrong Time"

Chrismakwanzukkah™ may have come early (no pun intended) for those with hopes of picking up more Democratic seats in the 111th Congress, for it seems that GOP Senator Larry Craig may not resign after all.

"It's not such a foregone conclusion anymore, that the only thing he could do was resign," said Sidney Smith, Craig's spokesman in Idaho's capital.

"We're still preparing as if Senator Craig will resign Sept. 30, but the outcome of the legal case in Minnesota and the ethics investigation will have an impact on whether we're able to stay in the fight - and stay in the Senate."

It does not appear that the Craig camp meant to come out (no pun intended) publicly with these plans so early, but with all things with this bit of scandal, Craig seems to have misjudged who was on the other end of his machinations.

While Craig publicly announced his resignation at a news conference in Idaho on Saturday, CBS News correspondent Chip Reid reported that privately he was sending out a very different message.

In fact, just minutes before that press conference, he mistakenly called a wrong number and left a recorded message obtained by the newspaper Roll Call and confirmed by CBS News to be the voice of the senator.

"I'm willing to fight that. I've got quality people out there fighting in my defense and that this thing could take a new turn," he said in a call apparently intended for his lawyer.

This silly drama all started when Craig mistook who was on the other side of a public toilet's partition, and it lives on because he cannot dial a bloody phone number properly.

But, in all fairness to Craig, I hope he wins this fight, because after all he has not been found guilty of an sort of improper conduct in regards to his serving in the Senate, and truly he has only pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor, a plea he now regrets and recants. So, why not fight?

In fact, Senator Craig, I ask you please fight! Fight for and retain your Senate seat. Run for the nomination of your party in 2008 in Idaho. Rather than allow your party to abandon and throw you under the bus (then back up and run you down with said bus), let the voters of Idaho decide your fate. And eventually, make room for the new Democratic senator from Idaho, To Be Determined!

Crossposted at Welcome to the Revolution

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Schaddenfreude alert!

I love it when hypocrites get a few thousand calories of just desserts.

Jack Burkman is the right-wing nutjob who said this: "[T]his issue [gay marriage] and the moral fabric of the country is five times as important as the war on terror and the war in Iraq combined... I mean, if Osama bin Laden thinks he can defeat the United States by knocking over buildings, he's crazy. But where we will fall and where we are falling as a civilization is from within."


And I just found out that he is on the D.C. Madam's phone list!!!

Oh, sweet God's of hypocrisy and come-uppance, I offer you blessings!!!

So perverts with fetishes who hire hookers and exploit women - while trashing other people whose behaviors don't harm anyone else, or even the participants - are not a problem, but if my Uncle Billy were to make an honest woman of my Aunt Richard after 40 years of a monogamous, loving and committed relationship, western civilization would surely crumble.

Listen up, all you "family values" hand-wringers. I am offering an olive branch here, and if you don't take it, I'm going to use it to beat you bloody...

Here it is...

You value your family, and I will value mine, and we'll leave one another the hell alone about things that are not anyone else's damned business.

Comprende?

(h/t skippy for the picture of Burkman. Hop on over there for an overdose of snark!)

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Larry Flynt: Douchebag of Liberty

In all honesty, Larry Flynt is not the type of guy I want to be when I grow up. With that proviso, he is certainly a useful ally in the culture war against sanctimonious and hypocritical right wing moralists. The latest casualty of Flynt's meddling appears to be GOP Senator David Vitter of Louisiana.

Vitter's admission that he used the escort service is tied to a call from a telephone number listed in public records in his name in Washington on February 27, 2001. Until late last week, a federal judge had prohibited Palfrey from publicly releasing her phone bills, but the ban was lifted and the entire archive — which Palfrey has said would weigh in at roughly 46 pounds in paper form — has been placed on her website. Members of a team assembled by self-described pornographer Larry Flynt, publisher of Hustler, are understood to have identified Vitter's name through their own analysis of Palfrey's phone records. Flynt has a long record of exposing what he regards as "hypocrisy" on the part of politicians who tout family or religious values, while falling short in their own lives. Flynt recently placed a full page adverstisement in the Washington Post, asking, "Have you had a sexual encounter with a current member of the United States Congress or a high-ranking government official?" It went on to offer $1 million for documented evidence, and listed a toll-free number and email address.

For me, there is an extra frothy layer of icing on this schadenfreude cake, because Vitter is the hypocrite who replaced Bob Livingston in the House after he resigned owing to sleuthing by Flynt and his minions. As Blue Girl has posted, it's not the sex that is the issue for me, it is the hypocrisy. I would go so far as to say, it's the criminality. In this, I am seconded by the DC Madame herself, Debra Jean Palfrey.

And as the so-called "D.C. Madam" whose escort service Vitter says he used, Palfrey says the agency she ran was merely one-half of the alleged equation. "Why am I the only person being prosecuted?" she told TIME over the phone. "Sen. Vitter should be prosecuted [if he broke the law]" Palfrey has been battling prostitution-related charges in federal court in Washington, and became a celebrity of sorts in May when ABC's 20/20 ran a story on her service "Pamela Martin & Associates."

In his prepared statement Monday night, Vitter did not address whether he broke the law, how many times he used the escort service, when he stopped using it or whether he recommended the service to others. His office did not respond to requests for comment on those issues. But Palfrey argues that those potentially prurient details of Vitter's activity are key to her case. "If Sen. Vitter participated in any illegal behavior, illegal sex, illegal prostitution, intercourse or oral sex of any kind, you would have to wonder why he would not be prosecuted," she said. Palfrey's legal defense is that no prostitution took place because the escorts who worked for her business were issued strict written instructions not to engage in illegal sexual activity. Indeed, Randall Tobias, the senior State Dept. official who admitted using the service and then resigned, has claimed that he only received "massage." Palfrey's lawyer says Vitter will be called as a witness to testify under oath in her court case.

I must say I agree with Ms. Palfrey. I don't think Vitter has the class of even Livingston, so voluntary resignation is probably not on his agenda; but prosecution should be on the DC courts agenda. Censure, at the very least, should be on the Senate's agenda.

By the way, what's this wingnut obsession with "massage" therapy?

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It isn't the sex, or even the corruption, it's the hypocrisy

"This was a very serious sin in my past for which I am, of course, completely responsible," Vitter said in the statement. "Several years ago, I asked for and received forgiveness from God and my wife in confession and marriage counseling. Out of respect for my family, I will keep my discussion of the matter there -- with God and them. But I certainly offer my deep and sincere apologies to all I have disappointed and let down in any way."

Whatever, Senator. However you want to try to spin it, it boils down to this:

Yet another powerful, influential man who sits on a committee that deals with issues arising from sex trafficking – has been caught consorting with hookers.

Add this unseemly business to the cloud of suspicion that was already hanging over his head after his less-than-kosher associations with the disgraced lobbyist and convict Jack Abramoff.

In 2003, Vitter attended a fundraiser hosted by Abramoff. Two months after the event, Vitter inserted a provision into an Interior Department funding bill that was favorable to one of Abramoff’s clients, the Coushatta tribe of Louisiana, at the expense of the Jena Choctaw tribe – also his constituents. The provision that Vitter slipped in barred the Jena Choctaw from opening a casino that would have competed with the casino owned and operated by Abramoff’s clients, the Coushatta. Vitter has previously confessed to working with lawyers from Abramoffs firm, Greenberg Traurig, in drafting the legislative language for the provision.

This man has proven himself not fit to serve in the position he holds. He should, for the sake of the institution, resign immediately.

I have said from the very beginning that this is not about sex. It is much deeper than that. The sex is just the part that gets the American public in a tizzy. So bless their little hearts. If it takes tits and titillation to get the American people to pay attention to something, well, so be it. I would be tickled pink if people got as excited about bad policy and bad politics as they do bad behavior, but unfortunately, they don’t. So what the hell? We’ll take what we can get so long as light keeps shining in dark corners.

One last thing - if Brian Ross of ABC News knew that a sitting senator was on that list, and he backed off on the story...He should resign in disgrace, too.

UPDATE: About that resignation I think he ought to have the courage to submit...In 1998, he agreed. Think Progress has dug up this quote from the Clinton impeachment era: “I think Livingston’s stepping down makes a very powerful argument that Clinton should resign as well and move beyond this mess,” he said. [Atlanta Journal and Constitution, 12/20/98]

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