1. 53 year-old Randall Casseday, Human Resources Director of the Reverend Moon's Washington Times, was nabbed in an internet sting as he tried to arrange sex with someone he thought was a 13-year-old girl. The best coverage comes from Max Blumenthal:
He sent several graphic photographs of himself and in return, received pictures of a young girl in a bathing suit, according to an affidavit filed in US District Court. When Casseday appeared to rendezvous with someone he reportedly thought would be his young prey, he was immediately cuffed by DC cops.Blumenthal goes on to reveal that Casseday has quite a history at the Times:
According to two sources who have dealt directly with Casseday, the accused sex criminal has played a central role in stonewalling internal investigations into the racist and sexually predatory behavior of Times managing editor Fran Coombs, and did so on orders from Joo and Pruden.2. 50-something Florida GOP congressman Mark Foley, we learn, developed a yen for a 16 year-old page boy (and his pal "will"). Americablog has acquired some damning emails. Foley's supporters claim that these texts reveal only that the congressman was "overly friendly" to the young man.
"Whatever Joo, Pruden and Coombs wanted, Casseday did," a senior staffer in the Times newsroom told me today. "Casseday literally was their hatchet man, the hit man for Pruden, Coombs and Joo.
Oh really? Judge for yourself. This comes from Foley:
I just emailed will...hes such a nice guy...acts much older than his age...and hes in really great shape...i am just finished riding my bike on a 25 mile journey now heading for the gym...whats school like for you this year?
How are you weathering the hurricane...are you safe...send me a pic of you as well...
did you have fun at your conferences...what do you want for your birthday coming up...what stuff do you like to doThese emails are all the evidence any reasonable person needs to state uncategorically that Mark Foley has a sexual interest in young males. But have we exposed the full measure of this man's hypocrisy? No, we have not. The Smashed Frog blog argues that Foley's email could amount to a "third degree felony":
Let this Floridian tell you what kind of man Mark Foley is.You can read about the "Adam Walsh Act" here and here. Frankly, I doubt that this law applies in this case. I should also point out that 16 is the age of consent in DC, where the emails originated. But no-one can deny the hypocrisy factor -- or the "ick" factor that obtains whenever a 50-something gets all mooney-eyed over someone not old enough to buy beer.
Mark Foley was one of 12 Republican Congressmen who stood up under suspension of the rules and voted in the Adam Walsh Act, which "W" signed into law on the anniversary of the boy's death.
The AWA carries the harshest federal sentencing guidelines for persons convicted of sex related crimes, including Foley's little email, which can certainly be interpreted any way law enforcement chooses.
With the signing into law of the AWA, Prom Night now carries a 10 year mandatory minimum should an 18 year old high school senior cross a state line with his 17 year old girlfriend. Or vice versa, ladies.
(For what it is worth: I favor a staggered age of consent. A relationship between a 16 year-old and an 18 year-old may be inadvisable, but it should not be illegal. Anyone over 40 who takes a sexual interest in a 16 year-old deserves placement in the stocks, with free tomatoes handed out to any members of the public who want to test their aim.)
Those "in the know" have understood for years that Mark Foley is gay; see this expose by the noble busybodies at the Concerned Women of America.
3. Republican congressman Ralph Hall of Texas has defended the rape and sexual exploitation of a 15 year-old Taiwanese girl sold into sexual slavery. A Kos poster code-named Zaphod Beeblebrox, who keeps at least two eyes focused on Republican hypocrisy, offers all the grisly details, by way of TPM Muckraker:
In November of 1997, Rep. Ralph Hall (R-TX) publicly questioned the credibility of a teenage girl's claims that she'd been the victim of the sex trade in the Northern Mariana Islands. The statement, which Rep. Hall entered into the Congressional Record, was prepared by Jack Abramoff, the lobbyist for the islands.What would happen to any Democrat who signed his name to this garbage? One word would suffice to describe his career: Over. Of course, Republicans may do that which others may not.
"[S]he wanted to do nude dancing," Hall's statement said of the fifteen-year-old girl.
Look, I'm no prude. The actions (even the ultra-kinky actions) of consenting adults never bothered me. What does bug me is the hypocrisy. Republicans, who pretend to be the defenders of conventional morality, assailed Bill Clinton and Gary Condit for normal, dull extramarital relations with adult females. I'm starting to think that what bothered the conservatives wasn't the sex, but the vanilla sex.
Are there any Republican males who still enjoy the quaint practice of inserting their penises into adult females? Or is that sort of thing considered terribly passé?
(And I'll be very amused if any Friends of Jesus take umbrage at my use of the word "penises" without taking umbrage at the activties of Hall, Foley and Casseday.)
11 comments:
joe, glad you brought this up, as the topic plays a key role in my review of john dean's new book on authoritarianism.
though dean does not move even remotely in the direction of connecting authoritarianism with sexual deviance, i assert the connection, based on the observation that it is illogical and counter to psychological understanding; it makes no sense for someone to be personally and socially deviant but to have a healthy sex life.
more on this very soon.
Reverend Moon, Koreagate, The Washington Times, Political Blackmail Oh My!!!
http://www.consortiumnews.com/archive/moon4.html
http://www.allentwood.com/articles/tedsampley.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bo_Hi_Pak
http://www.consortiumnews.com/2006/061406.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun_Myung_Moon
http://www.iapprovethismessiah.com/
Wakeup America!
We've discussed this before, but as the dear doctor notes, the relationship between right-wing politics and sexual deviance is not a casual one.
It doesn't take years of psychoanlysis to arrive at the simple observation that people attracted to authoritarian practices and ideals -- and all the lies and hypocrisy required for their implementation -- are fundamentally sick, at odds with themselves.
The Republican party of 2006 is sublimated deviance. What else could explain this insidious, gleeful fervor for everything wrong, self-glorifying and punitive? In politics, they're effectively buggering 10-year olds while flagellating others for their own sins.
Joseph, your #2 horse (Foley) just came in.
Miss P.
yeah, ms p, foley just resigned.
according to abc, he's resigned.
Hours earlier, ABC News had read excerpts of instant messages provided by former male pages who said the congressman, under the AOL Instant Messenger screen name Maf54, made repeated references to sexual organs and acts.
if the dems don't make a list of all the repug perverts and run with the hypocrisy, they have just simply gone hyper-stupid.
"Are there any Republican males who still enjoy the quaint practice of inserting their penises into adult females? Or is that sort of thing considered terribly passé?"
Yikes! I've enjoyed coming to this blog for a couple of years, but I didn't realize -- until now -- how homophobic it is. If Foley is gay then it is absolutely normal for him to be interested in someone of the same sex, this is not being perverted as one of the other comments said. I agree with the "ick" factor of the page being 16, but that's legal, and I dare say that there are plenty of so-called heterosexuals who are more than remotely interested in females of the same age. I DO agree with the rampant sexual hypocrisy of the Repugs -- but let's be a little more careful when we self-righteously define what is "normal" and what isn't. Gays ain't going away, folks -- get over it.
There's nothing homophobic about the question I asked. I'm genuinely curious.
I would have had no quarrel with Foley's sexuality if he had been open about it -- and if he had kept things age-appropriate. There's also an additional "ick" factor in the fact that he came on so strongly to someone who is a subordinate and who had shown no reciprocal feelings.
But, yeah, in the end it is the sheer hypocrisy that gets to me. As long as the Republican party courts the anti-gay vote, closeted gay Republicans are a fit topic for conversation. That, I think, is why Americablog broke this story, and the Gannon tale as well.
The Christian right seems to believe that all Republicans favor nuclear families and all Dems favor hedonism. Once the fundies finally understand how things really stand, the neocons will lose their shock troops.
Though this isn't necessarily germane to the heart of Joe's post, what I've been thinking about all week is: Republicans are abusers. Abusers of power, abusers of other people. Though not all of the examples discussed in this post are necessarily examples of sexual interaction that involves abuse or abuse of power, the bulk of all Republican sex (read: rape, incest and trangressionary sexual acts) scandals that I've read about feature the elected Republican engaging in at least one form of serious abuse with regard to his or her "partner." Because, in no insignificant way, that's all they know how to do.
Joe is raising a really important question here. How many of these Republicans in the House and Senate that are anti-gay that are in fact gay themselves?
The main problem with Foley is that he was going after a minor! It's not only "deviant" but downright illegal! The "fundies" though, will be a hard group to convince.
Washington D.C. - Age of Consent Laws
The following information was taken from the Online Source for the District of Columbia at http://moraloutrage.net/staticpages/index.php?page=Washingtondc
§ 22-3020. Aggravating circumstances.
(2) The victim was under the age of 18 years at the time of the offense and the actor had a significant relationship to the victim;
And the AWA certainly does apply to this case if law enforcement can prove that Foley arranged or invited any of those he emailed to meet him.
Hard to believe, isn't it?
But very true.
This is the kind of law our elected officials love to pass....and then, they become ensnared in the very laws they create.
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