Terri Schiavo

The Resource List of GOP Family Values Hypocrites (With Links)

larbabe — Thu, 29 Jun 2006 13:05:37 -0400

Feel free to pass this list (including links) along to your self-righteous GOP friends and neighbors.

For the sake of brevity, I won’t get into the well-documented history of GOP graft and corruption. Instead, I’ll concentrate on sexual morality, since this is the subject in which rightwing Republicans sanctimoniously declare their superiority to Democrats. Do they really hold the moral high ground over the Dems? As you will discover, there is overwhelming evidence which proves quite the opposite. If this were a contest, these sexually repressed neo-cons would be the hands-down winners when measuring them by their own standards.

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to realize that since most family values Republicans are so deep in denial, they are extremely venomous, and thus dangerous. Especially egregious are those on the religious right, who feel free to impose their values and brand of religion on the rest of us. Yet, they make up a sizable percentage of those who have committed adultery, homosexuality, pedophilia…and yes, even bestiality.

I have omitted individuals whose hypocrisy is based merely upon unsubstantiated allegations, and have attempted to provide as many non-partisan original links (except where an article is re-printed) as I could find. If you have additions, corrections, or better links, please feel free to respond and I will try to update the list on a regular basis.

Now, here is The Resource List of GOP Family Values Hypocrites

EDISON MISLA ALDORANDO, Speaker of the Puerto Rico House of Representatives, reached a deal with prosecutors to reduce a rape charge to attempted rape of his 17 year-old step daughter and her friend. He was sentenced to 13 years in prison for the lesser crime and two counts of giving alcohol to minors.

RANDAL DAVID ANKENEY, a Republican activist and regional representative for Colorado Governor’s Office of Economic Development, was considered a fixture in El Paso County Republican politics. He was charged with sexual assault on a child with force, sexual assault on a child, sexual exploitation of a child, marijuana possession, and possession of drug paraphernalia, but copped a plea to a lesser crime of attempted sexual assault. The girl was 13 years old at the time. In addition, he was charged in the sexual assault of a 17 year-old campaign worker. Oh yeah, his dogs were named Nixon and Reagan.

JIM BAKKER, PTL Club televangelist, committed adultery with Jessica Hahn and then used charitable donations to pay her hush money. His finely-tuned Ponzi scheme bilked his followers out of millions of dollars. He was indicted on 23 federal charges of fraud, tax evasion, and racketeering. But Bakker did repent and was forgiven by the Lord. However, God does not forgive Democrats for similar offenses.

PAUL ROBERT BALACH was Labor Secretary Elizabeth Dole’s political personnel liaison to the White House. He was also an aide to Rep. Robert Bauman (listed above – Birds of a feather DO flock together). Balach was part of a major White House scandal during the 1980’s. Children from orphanages in Nebraska were transported around the United States by top Republican officials in order to engage in child sex orgies with America's ruling elite. Balach paid for homosexual prostitute services which were charged to his credit card. See Charles K. Dutcher, Lawrence E. King, Jr. & Craig J. Spence.

REP. BOB BARR (GA) sponsored the anti-gay Defense of Marriage Act, believes in the sanctity of marriage, and is an opponent of abortion. Yet. Rep. Barr was married three times. Furthermore, he paid for his second wife's abortion and failed to pay child support to the children of his first two wives. While married to his third and present wife, Barr was photographed at a charity event licking whipped cream from the chests of two buxom women .

MERRILL ROBERT BARTER, Lincoln County Commissioner, pleaded guilty to unlawful sexual contact and assault on a teenage boy. His den of iniquity was a motel near the Civic Center during the Republican State Convention which he attended. He was handed a suspended sentence of two years in prison, with two years probation.

REP. ROBERT BAUMAN, chairman of the American Conservative Union in 1979, was an anti-gay activist who was described as the quintessential conservative, family-values congressman. He was also a married, closet Republican and leading a double life. He was charged with solicitation and having sex with a 16-year-old boy he met at a gay bar.

PARKER J. BENA, a Republican activist, pleaded guilty to possession of child pornography on his home computer(including children as young as 3 years of age) and was sentenced to 30 months in federal prison and fined $18,000.

LOUIS BERES was Chairman of the Christian coalition of Oregon. According to its web site, the group describes itself as Oregon's leading grassroots organization defending our Godly heritage, and is affiliated with the national organization founded by Pat Robertson. Beres was accused by three of his female family members of molesting them when they were pre-teens. Some heritage!

JOHN BOLTON, Bush's back-door appointee ambassador to United Nations, has set about trying to single-handedly dismantle the U.N. There are corroborated allegations that Mr. Bolton’s first wife, Christina Bolton, was forced to engage in group sex have not been refuted by the State Department.

HOWARD L. BROOKS, legislative aide and former director of the Antelope Valley YMCA, was charged with molesting a 12-year old boy and possession of child pornography.

ANDREW BUHR, the Republican party nominee for the Missouri House in 2000 and the former Republican committeeman for Hadley Township, was one of three men charged with two counts of first degree sodomy with a 13-year old boy. After his arrest, GOP Central Committee Chairman John Winston called Buhr “a nice guy, and a smart person who was very active in the party.”

TED BUNDY campaigned for the Republican Party, and was considered by many as a rising star in the GOP. He was also a serial rapist who murdered 16 women.

JOHN ALLEN BURT, an anti-abortion extremist, was charged with sexual misconduct involving a 15-year old girl. He was caught by police 150 miles from the scene of the crime , obviously trying to make his escape. The girl, one of two who have brought about allegations against Burt, was living at Our Father’s House, Burt’s home for unwed mothers. The home was accredited and inspected by the Florida Association of Christian Childcare Agencies. Burt has a long history in connection with violence against abortion clinics.

REP. DAN BURTON (IN), Chairman of the House International Relations Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere, a staunch Conservative and Born-again Christian, was quoted as saying that character does matter. He once deemed President Clinton a scumbag for his sexual encounters while in office. Yet, Burton admitted committing adultery and fathering an illegitimate child. In addition, it has been reported that Burton abused his power by using strong-arm and unethical campaign finance practices and by preying on female lobbyists, staffers and constituents. Furthermore, it is alleged that he groped a lobbyist from Planned Parenthood in the mid-1990s when she visited his Washington office. There are also accusations that Burton maintained sexual relationships with women on his congressional and campaign payrolls.

PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH was accused in a criminal complaint and lawsuit of raping Margie Schoedinger, who later mysteriously committed suicide. Tammy Phillips, a former stripper, claimed she had an affair with Bush that had ended in 1999.

JOHN BUTLER, Cass County, IL, GOP chairman, was charged with criminal sexual assault on a teenage girl. Butler had previously received pardons from Gov. George Ryan for burglary convictions.

REP. KEN CALVERT (CA), champion of the Christian Coalition, was quoted as saying "We can't forgive what occurred between the President and Lewinsky." Yet in 1993, this champion of family values was caught by police in a compromising position with prostitute in a parked car. He then attempted to flee the scene. Not surprisingly, Calvert was accused by his ex-wife of being a deadbeat dad.

REP. HELEN CHENOWETH (ID) admitted to a six-year adulterous affair with a married associate. In 1995, Chenoweth had denied the affair when asked about it by The Spokane Spokesman-Review, but she claimed a pardon from a higher authority: "I've asked for God's forgiveness, and I've received it," she revealed. Like Bush, she also speaks to God. In other words, God is far more forgiving of Republican moral offenses than Democrats.

KEOLA CHILDSInteresting last name for a pedophile, Hawaii County Councilman pleaded guilty to first degree sexual assault of a male child.

ROY COHN, continually condemned gays and gay rights, but was a closet gay who died of AIDS. He played a prominent role in the trial of eleven leaders of the American Communist Party and in the prosecution of Julius Rosenberg and in 1951. It’s obvious that Americans were given a Cohn job by this man.

CAREY LEE CRAMER, a political consultant, and the man behind the ad accusing the Clinton-Gore Administration of giving away nuclear technology, was convicted on two counts of indecency with a child by contact and one count of indecency with a child by exposure. He faces up to 149 years in prison.

REP. DAN CRANE had sex with a female minor working as a congressional page. Rep. Henry Hyde pleaded mercy for his friend before members of the House. "I suggest to the members that compassion and justice are not antithetical; they are complementary.” They must have been moved by Hyde’s compassionate oratory, because they voted to censure Crane rather than expel him. One would never know this was the same Henry Hyde who screamed for blood at the Clinton impeachment hearings, and later admitted this was payback for Nixon.

KEVIN COAN, Republican election board official, was sentenced to two years probation for soliciting sex over the Internet (A favorite tool of neo-con pedophiles) from a 14-year old girl. The "girl" was actually a male Alton police officer who had set up a chat-room sting.

PAUL CROUCH, Televangelist and former President of Trinity Broadcasting Network, had an extramarital gay affair with a former employee at a network-owned cabin at Lake Arrowhead in 1996. TBN paid $425,000 in hush money to Enoch Lonnie Ford in an attempt squelch the story. However, the LA Times got wind of it and the story got out. Beware LA Times! According to Crouch, God, we proclaim death to anything or anyone that will lift a hand against this network and this ministry that belongs to you, God. However, God does provide for hypocrite neo-cons. It is said that Crouch and his wife own thirty homes across America, as well as a Gulfstream private jet.

RICHARD A. DASEN SR., Republican benefactor of conservative Christian groups, was charged with rape of a 15-year old girl and two felony counts of promoting prostitution, after being caught in a cheap motel, clad in his underwear, with a nearly-naked young lady who was behind in her payments to his finance company. Dasen, 62, is married with grown children and several grandchildren. According to court documents, he admitted to police that he paid more than $1 million to have sex with a large number of young women, many of whom were in legal trouble, addicted to drugs and in debt to him. City Attorney Charles Harball claimed that Dasen pretty much single-handedly funded the methamphetamine trade here in Kalispell for a number of years. He explained that women used the money Dasen paid them to pay for their habits. Harball went on to say that after Dasen’s arrest, money to methamphetamine users pretty much dried up. He added that there has been a flood of petty crime from addicts seeking cash for their habit. One might surmise that when it comes to women druggies, Dasen is a compassionate conservative.

RICHARD A. DELGAUDIO, a major GOP fundraiser who collected money for Ronald Reagan and Jessie Helms, was found guilty of producing child pornography, after paying two teenage girls to pose for sexual photos in a Baltimore Hotel.

PETER DIBBLE, legislator from New London, CT, pleaded no contest to having an inappropriate relationship with a 13-year-old girl over a three year period. Obviously Dibble liked to dabble with young girls.

BRIAN J. DOYLE, Deputy Press Secretary of Homeland Security, propositioned what he thought was a 14 year-old girl over the Internet. He sent her pornographic movie clips and had sexually explicit conversations with her. As it turns out, the girl was really an undercover police detective, and Doyle was caught with his virtual pants down. He revealed his name, his position at Homeland Security Department, and offering his office and government issued cell phone numbers. Mr. Doyle’s misdeeds provide a textbook example of The Peter Principle in action. Surprisingly, he wasn’t promoted to a higher level of incompetence in the Bush Administration. Doyley, you’re doing a heck-of-a job.

CHARLES K. DUTCHER, associate director of presidential personnel in the Reagan Administration, was part of a major White House scandal during the 1980’s. Children from orphanages in Nebraska were transported around the United States by top Republican officials in order to engage in child sex orgies with America's ruling elite. Dutcher paid for homosexual prostitute services which were charged to his credit card. See Paul Robert Balach, Lawrence E. King Jr. & Craig J. Spence.

NICHOLAS ELIZONDO, director of the (get this) Young Republican Federation, molested his 6-year old daughter and was sentenced to six years in prison.

LARRY DALE FLOYD, Republican Constable in Denton County, TX, was arrested July 2005 for allegedly crossing state lines to have sex with an 8-year old child. He was charged with 7 related offenses.

JOHN FUND of the Wall Street Journal, was a prominent anti-abortion columnist and GOP fund raiser. He lost his position after it was revealed that he impregnated the daughter of an old girlfriend and then encouraged her to abort his child. It’s obvious that Fund’s biggest Fundraiser was pedophilia.

JEFF GANNON, real name James Guckert, was partisan blogger and regular contributor to GOPUSA.com, with no journalism credentials. Using an alias, he got invited to Bush's Press conferences. Although he has made anti-gay statements, he is a pimp and a gay prostitute. Guckert once advertised himself on the Internet as a "top" who is "8 inches, cut." Astonishingly, Guckert had access to Bush that many legitimate journalists were unable to obtain. Hmmm!

RICHARD GARDNER, a Republican candidate for Nevada Assembly District 34, admitted to molesting his two daughters.

JACK W. GARDNER, is presently a Millersville Boro (PA) councilman, despite having previously been convicted of molesting a 13 year-old girl. The deed took place at the Old Mill Inn in Lancaster County.

NEWT GINGRICH, former House Speaker, who has hinted he might be a presidential candidate in 2008, was married three times. Gingrich campaign worker Anne Manning admitted that she gave Newt oral sex while he was still married to his first wife. Proving he is a Compassionate Conservative, Newt informed his 1st wife he was filing for divorce while she was in the hospital recovering from cancer treatments. Gingrich was also reprimanded and fined $300,000 by the House Ethics Committee. It seems he had used tax-exempt foundation money to promote Republican goals. He was also found to have lied to the committee during the investigation.

PHILIP GIORDANO , former Mayor of Waterbury, CT, is serving a 37-year sentence in federal prison for sexually abusing 8- and 10-year old girls. This case is the worst I have ever seen," said U.S. District Judge Alan Nevas in passing sentence. "Your conduct is the worst I have ever seen. I've seen drug dealers, murderers. What you did is indescribable."

RUDY GIULIANI, former NYC mayor, is considered a GOP front-runner for 2008 presidential candidacy. He not only committed adultry, but moved his mistress into the State Capital while still married. In February 2005, Giuliani pocketed $80,000 for speaking at a charity benefit for tsunami aid which raised only $60,000 for the victims themselves.

MATTHEW GLAVIN, former president and CEO of the Southeastern Legal Foundation, played a major role in the Clinton Impeachment, pointing the finger at President Clinton on morality issues, and was largely responsible for efforts to get Clinton disbarred in Arkansas. Married with children, Glavin was active many anti-gay causes. However, like other GOP anti-gay self-haters, such visciousness is the result of being burried deep in the closet. Glavin has had multiple arrests for public indecency. One such arrest in October 2000 was in a Chattahoochee River park in Atlanta, a popular spot for same-sex cruising, where Glavin was caught masturbating in a parking lot. The arresting officer claims that he was fondled lewdly by Glavin. Glavin plead guilty and was sentenced to one year probation.

MARTY GLICKMAN, a.k.a. “REPUBLICAN MARTY”, was taken into custody by Florida police on four counts of unlawful sexual activity with an underage girl and one count of delivering the drug LSD.

JOHN GOSEK While serving as Mayor of Oswego, NY, was arrested outside a motel near Syracuse, after offering a $250 payment to a woman in exchange for sex with two teenage girls. Unfortunately for Gosek, this was a sting operation and he got busted. Gosek is facing federal criminal charges of using a facility in interstate commerce (a telephone) to knowingly attempt to persuade, induce, entice, and coerce an individual under the age of 18 years to engage in sexual activity, more commonly referred to as the Mann Act.

MARK A. GRETHEN was to be honored in Washington D.C. as Republican of the Year, an honor bestowed upon him by Representative Tom Davis of Virginia. The problem was that Grethen couldn’t make it to the awards ceremony since he was convicted of six counts of sex crimes involving children . He will be in the Deep Meadow Correctional Facility until September 25, 2024.

DR. W. DAVID HAGER, OBGYN, was an avowed anti-abortionist, yet Bush appointed him to the FDA committee on reproductive drugs. He was a member of Focus on the Family's Physician Resource Council and involved in a movement to ban the morning-after-pill. It was revealed that Dr. Hager had an adulterous affair, before divorcing his wife. It was also reported that he sexually abused her, including sodomization while she was asleep. The perfect Bush appointee!

MARK HARRIS, a West Bend, WI Alderman, was described as a ”good military man" and "churchgoer". He was sentenced to 12 years in prison for repeated sexual assault of a young girl. The molestation began when she was 11 years old, and continued over a two year period.

JOHN HATHAWAY, Maine Senate candidate, was accused of having sex with his 12-year old baby sitter and withdrew his candidacy after the allegations were reported in the media.

HOWARD SCOTT HELDRETH, an anti-abortion activist, gained fame when he was arrested for attempting to cross police lines to take water to Terri Shiavo. According to the right-to-lifers, he is a real hero for the un-born. However, Heldreth doesn’t fare so well for the living; He is a convicted child rapist in Florida.

REP. JOHN HINSON (Miss), married and ultra-conservative, admitted to being accused of committing an obscene act at a gay establishment. Furthermore, he acknowledged that he survived a fire in a gay D.C. movie theater, but still denied being homosexual. Hinson won re-election, but three months later was arrested on charges of attempted oral sodomy.

MIKE HINTZ, First Assembly of God youth pastor, was commended by Bush during the 2004 presidential campaign. The pastor was a real champion for decency. He signed an ad that called for criminally prosecuting businesses that sell porn. Among his other achievements, Hintz urged teens to avoid pursuing romantic relationships in favor of getting closer to God. Perhaps Hintz was really prompting teens to get closer to him. Hintz surrendered to police after admitting to a sexual affair with a female juvenile whom (you guessed it) he’d been counseling for emotional problems.

NEAL HORSLEY (pay attention to the last name) is best known among the pro-lifer’s for his Nuremberg Files. It lists abortion doctors marked for death. He has called for the arrest of all homosexuals. Horsley admitted on Fox News Radio's The Alan Colmes Show, that he's had sex with mules. This brings a whole new meaning to the phrase Piece of Ass. Horsley also put graphic photographs on his web site of naked men committing homosexual acts and a nude woman engaging in bestiality amid shots of grotesquely maimed fetuses. Horsely openly calls for the establishment of a new government, one that can obey God's plan for government. And what is Horsley’s Faustian vision of this plan?
God only knows!

TIM HUTCHINSON, former US Senator (AR) and former Baptist preacher, divorced his wife of 29 years to marry a congressional aide he was having an affair with.

PAUL INGRAM a former top civil sheriff's deputy and head of the Thurston County (WA) Republican Party, pleaded guilty to six counts of raping his daughters. However, so-called victims of "recovered memory" came to Ingram’s rescue, creating a defense fund and trying to generate support for his cause. They suggested that the girls’ memories of abuse were manufactured (by Democrats?). Wonderful family values; these wicked children invented the abuse. However, Supreme Court and U.S. District Court upheld the validity of Ingram's plea. Ingram was sentenced to 20 years, but served 14 years in State prison.

EARL “BUTCH” KIMMERLING was a moral majority advocate. He gained statewide attention in Indiana by fighting a gay couple’s attempts to adopt an 8-year-old girl, who at the time was under Earl’s foster care. The Kimmerlings and their pastor, Brad Brizendine of Center of Faith Church, launched a campaign opposing homosexual adoption. Republican representatives also took up the issue by proposing a bill to ban gay adoptions in Indiana. More than likely, the real reason Kimmerling waged his custodial campaign was that he wanted the girl all to himself. He was charged with molesting her and was sentenced to 40 years in prison.

LAWRENCE E. KING JR., a Republican activist, embezzled funds from the credit union which he managed. The money was said to have been funneled to help organize child sex parties at the White House during the 1980’s See Paul Robert Balach, Charles K. Dutcher & Craig J. Spence.

I. LEWIS “SCOOTER” LIBBY is the former Assistant to the President and Chief of Staff to V.P. Dick Cheney. He was forced to resign after being given a 5 felony-count indictment by a grand jury in connection with the “outing” of Valerie Plame. Scooter is also a founding member of Project for the New American Century, a neo-conservative think tank which created the policy document Rebuilding America's Defences , a draconian manifesto for world domination (to which the Bush Administration has adhered). If you find this unsettling, there’s an even more sinister side to Libby. In 1996 he wrote The Apprentice, a novel containing explicit and bizaree sexual content, including beastiality and pedophillia.

REP. DONALD “BUZ” LUKENS (OH) paid a female minor for sex over a four year period, beginning when she was 13 years old. He was secretly videotaped by an Ohio TV station, offering the girl’s unemployed mother a government job in exchange for her silence. Lukens was found guilty of contributing to the delinquency of a minor and sentenced to one month in jail. However, after serving his sentence, Lukens still refused to resign. He was later accused of fondling a Capitol elevator operator, before finally submitting his resignation.

JON MATTHEWS, a neo-conservative talk show host, was sentenced to seven years' probation for exposing his genitals to an 11-year-old girl. On his show he often voiced the view that those who crossed the law deserved little mercy and harsh punishment. Well, he seems to have received an abundance of mercy and zero harsh punishmentfrom the Liberal court...but he probably didn’t complain.

JEFF MILLER, Senate Republican Caucus Chairman in Tennessee and the sponsor of Tennessee’s Marriage Protection act, was sued for divorce because of an alleged affair he was having with an office aid. The Marriage Protection Act proclaimed that marriage should be defined as between a one man and one woman. It also banned gay marriage in the state constitution. However, Miller opposed an amendment that would have included an adultery clause. Now why would he do that?

NICHOLAS MORENCY, an anti-abortion activist, pleaded guilty to possessing child pornography on his computer. He was also found guilty of offering a reward to anybody who murders an abortion doctor.

BRENT PARKER, a Utah state representetive, was arrested for soliciting sex from an undercover officer posing as a male prostitute.

JEFFREY PATTI, Republican Committee Chairman, was arrested for distributing a video clip of a 5-year-old girl being raped.

JOHN PAULK, Christian Fundementalist and professed ex-gay, lied about prowling for gay sex while running a fundamentalist group to cure gays. Denial is not a river in Egypt.

JUDGE MARK PAZUHANICH molested a ten year-old girl during a Hilary Duff concert. He pleaded no contest to charges of corrupting a minor, endangering the welfare of a child, two counts of indecent assault, and an additional charge of public drunkenness. Pazuhanich was sentenced to 10 years probation.

GEORGE ROCHE III, while serving as president of Conservative Hillsdale College, carried on a torrid 19 year affair with his daughter-in-law, Lissa Roche, who was managing editor of the Hillsdale College Press. The sordid entanglement (which is still denied by many conservatives) apparently led to Roche’s divorce from his wife of 44 years. It also must have contributed to Lissa’s tragic suicide, just hours after she publicly revealed the details of the affair. Hillsdale College, emphasizes the importance of the common moral truths that bind all Americans, while recognizing the importance of religion for the maintenance of a free society.

BEVERLY RUSSELL, Republican activist and Christian Coalition leader, admitted to an incestuous relationship with his stepdaughter, Susan Smith, whose name was later prominent in the newspaper headlines for having drowning her two children.

JACK RYAN, was the 2004 Republican nominee for the U.S. Senate (IL). However, he had the misfortune of running against popular Democrat Barack Obama. It was alleged by his wife, actress Jeri Ryan, that he pressured her to have sex with other men. According to Jeri, he tricked her into visiting sex clubs, where he asked her to have sex with him while others watched. Ryan called this a smear campaign, even though he consistently trailed Obama in the polls throughout the race.

JOE SCARBOROUGH, Conservative talk show host and pundit, is a former Congressman who was once considered a “rising star” in the GOP. Suddenly, with no forewarning, he prematurely and unexpectedly resigned his congressional seat to spend more time with his sons. This occurred amidst allegations of an affair, after the congressman had divorced his wife. A short time later, Constituent Services Coordinator Lori Klausutis, was found dead in Scarborough’s office of an apparent head injury. Within three hours of the body's discovery, both Rep. Scarborough and his spokesman appeared on two local TV stations, inventing a nonexistent history of chronic medical conditions. Medical Examiner Dr. Michael Berkland ruled the case an accident, after giving conflicting information about Ms. Klausutis’ injuries. Berkland admitted he lied because "The last thing we wanted was 40 questions about a head injury." The good doctor previously had his license revoked in Missouri for falsifying information in an autopsy report and was suspended in Florida for six years.

DR. LAURA SCHLESSINGER , the right wing radio host family values queen, hasn’t spoken to her mother in 15 years and is estranged from her sister. She espouses moral decency, even though she once posed for nude photos which are available online. She openly opposes adultry, and claims: "Holy sex is between husband and wife. . . .Unholy sex is everything else", yet admits to having had sex before she was married, committing adultry while she was married, and moved in with a married man.

LARRY JACK SCHWARZ, parole board chairman and former Colorado state representative, was fired after child pornography was found in his possession. The pictures and material all involved family members. Schwarz is a father of five and has 16 grandchildren. During his first term, he listed "crime prevention and punishment" among his key issues.

GOV. ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER (CA) admittedly participated in group sex and boasted of his penis size in an article in Oui Magazine. He allegedly had sex with a 16 year old girl when he was 28.
Sixteen women have come forward to say he sexually mistreated and humiliated them.

REP. JOHN SCHMITZ (CA), a former John Bircher, was considered one of the most ultra rightwing members of Congress. Schmitz once referred to Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan as Liberals and idolized Senator Joseph McCarthy. He was known for his outrageous attacks against gays, feminists and Jews. Well, wouldn’t you know it, he was forced out of office in 1982 for having an adulterous affair and fathering two children out of wedlock with one of his students. Like father, like daughter; Schmitz gained further notoriety as the father of pedophile Mary Kay LeTourneau, who was convicted of having an adulterous affair with one of her students, a boy of Samoan extraction. Schmitz, of course, tried to get his daughter off the hook by attempting to find a loophole in United States treaties with Samoa.

REP. DON SHERWOOD(PA) eventually admitted to an adultureous affair with a woman 30 years younger than him, after she accused him of physical abuse. Regardless, Sherwood was actively supported by family values neo-conservatives, such as Senator Rick Santorum.

TOM SHORTRIDGE, campaign consultant and former head of the South Bay Republican Club (Redondo Beach CA), was sentenced to three years probation for taking nude photographs of two teenage girls, 15 and 16 years of age, and both employees of his. His attorney claimed that Shortridge was approached by the girls, wanting their nude pictures taken. Yeah, right! Take a look at the photo of this behemoth and you decide! According to prosecutors, the reduced sentence for this horny toad was more than fair; it could have been a lot stiffer.

FRED C. SMELTZER, JR., City Councilman (Lancaster, PA), pleaded no contest to raping a 15 year-old girl at a Delaware campground, and served 6 months in prison. In a court affidavit, an acquaintance of Smeltzer’s claimed that he had raped his daughter at this campground. Due to laws which shield children’s identities in matters such as these, it was not revealed (but evident) that she was the actual victim of this crime. Smeltzer is now a registered sex offender.

CRAIG J. SPENCE, Republican lobbyist, was part of a major White House scandal during the 1980’s. Children from orphanages in Nebraska were transported around the United States by top Republican officials in order to engage in child sex orgies with America's ruling elite. Spence took friends and male prostitutes on late-night sexcursions to the White House. Spence also faced cocaine and gun possession charges. Unfortunately, this Republican really fell on his sword. He was found dead in a Boston hotel room. See, Paul Robert Balach, Charles K. Dutcher & Lawrence E. King, Jr..

JIMMY SWAGGART, is the televangelist who once said: “You boys and girls that have Beatle records at home, this is the most rotten, dirty, damnable, filthy, putrid filth that this nation or the world has ever known.” Wouldn’t you know it, Swaggart was caught in a seedy motel with a prostitute, being dirty, damnable and filthy. Ah, but God favors Republicans. Swaggart repented and was saved. President Bill Clinton also repented, but evidently he can never be forgiven and will rot in hell for his sins.

DAVID SWARTZ, Commissioner (Richmond County, OH), pleaded guilty to molesting two girls, which began at ages 6-7. Swartz admitted in court to having sex with the first girl. It was learned that the molestation took place for a decade. The 2nd occurred over a period of 5 years. He was sentenced to 8 years in prison.

RANDALL TERRY, Right to Life activist and founder of Operation Rescue, gained much of his notoriety in the Terri Schiavo protests. He was once imprisoned for sending former President Bill Clinton an aborted fetus. There is strong evidence Operation Rescue may have been responsible for the violence against abortion clinics. One of Terry’s fervent followers was charged with 2nd Degree murder of a doctor who performed abortions. As with most hypocrites, Terry’s personal life is filled with contradictions. He has campaigned against infidelity, yet he was censured by his church, for a "pattern of repeated and sinful relationships and conversations with both single and married women.” He has spoken out against unwed mothers, yet his daughter had 2 children outside wedlock. He has denounced homosexuals, yet his son is gay. True to his convictions, however, he has all but disowned both children. On his website, Terry appealed to his flock for donations to support Operation Rescue’s pro-life activities, but failed to disclose that the money would be used to purchase a new $432,000 house. At the same time a family court ruled that Terry, "was not paying a fair share of child support" regarding the children of his first wife.

REP. BILL THOMAS (CA) (See page 13 of this link), former chairman of the House Ways & Means Committee and cosponsor of the industry-sponsored Medicare reform legislation, had an adulterous affair with Deborah Steelman, a health care lobbyist. who bestowed humongous gifts to Thomas’ war chest. You see Ms. Steelman had the most to gain from this union. Her Washington firm received $2.4 million in lobbying fees from health interests, including $900,000 from pharmaceutical manufacturers.

SEN. STROM THURMOND, the rightwing family values standard-bearer whose racist history is well-documented, had sex with a 15-year old black girl which produced a child.

ROBIN VANDERWALL was a GOP strategist, Citadel Military College graduate, and 3rd year law student at Pat Robertson’s Regent University. He was also director of Faith & Family Alliance. Vanderwall helped funnel money from Jack Abromoff to Ralph Reed. In 2002, he was convicted in Virginia on five counts of soliciting sex with (what he thought were) children over the Internet. Like Brian J. Doyle, Vanderwall had played into a police sting operation. The Internet seems to be a favorite tool of GOP pedophiles.

JIM WEST, Mayor (Spokane, WA), supported a bill which, if it hadn’t failed, would have barred gays and lesbians from working in schools, day-care centers and some state agencies. He also voted to bar the state from distributing pamphlets telling people how to protect themselves from AIDS. To prove his worthiness with other family values Republicans, he proposed legislation that would criminalize “any touching of the sexual or other intimate parts of a person” among unmarried teenagers. As it turns out, the reason West was so viscious was that he was deep in the closet: West had a sexual affair with an 18 year old boy, and he propositioned what he thought was a high school senior over the Internet, offering an internship at City Hall for services rendered. The boy, we learn, was actually a computer consultant, hired by a newspaper to verify the mayor’s identity and presence on Gay.com. In other words, Jim was caught with his virtual pants down.

REP. KEITH WESTMORLAND (FL) was charged with seven felony counts of lewd and lascivious exhibition to girls under the age of 16. Shortly thereafter, he committed suicide. Ironically, Rep. Westmoreland had a bachelor's degree in criminal justice.

STEPHEN WHITE, better known to Penn students as Brother Stephen, was vocal in his condemnation of gays and sexual promiscuity in his campus preaching. He was also known for his abrasive methods and harassment of students as they passed him on campus. You can add Brother Stephen to the list of vicious GOP closet queens. He was sentenced to jail after soliciting a 14-year-old boy, offering $20 to perform oral sex on him.

According to Republicans, the Democrats sinful decline stems from Bill Clinton’s lapse in judgment with Monica Lewinsky and the DNC’s continued support of gay rights. Using scare tactics the RNC spread about rumors that the Democrats would ban the Bible and that men will marry men if John Kerry were to be elected president in 2004. It worked. The Republicans were able to paint themselves as the God-ordained alternative to the satanic Democrats.

What makes the GOP’s boasts of moral supremacy even more appalling are imbecilic claims such as those of Reverend Jerry Falwell, when he alleges that Republicans are the faith and values party. Furthermore, he urges Christians to vote Republican in 2008. The reverend’s proclamation would be laughable if it were not so loathsome. I question whether Reverend Falwell ever read biblical passages in Matthew and 1 Corinthians where Jesus made no secret of his distaste for hypocrites, especially when Jesus said Let he who is without sin cast the first stone (Luke 4:1-13).

Fortunately, according to a New York Times/CBS News poll conducted from May 4 to May 8, of 1241 adults, people are no longer accepting the GOP as the moral standard bearer.

Fifty percent said Democrats came closer than Republicans to sharing their moral values, compared with 37 percent who said Republicans shared their values..

While Democrats have not been without their sex scandals, I believe I have provided solid proof that the Dem’s indiscretions pale in comparison to those of the GOP Family Values Hypocrites.

Bush's "Party of Ideas"

Bob Geiger — Fri, 07 Apr 2006 06:59:15 -0400

In addition to the most recent revelations of George W. Bush authorizing leaks of critical intelligence information to silence Iraq war critics, Bush had this to say when responding to the decision by disgraced Republican Congressman Tom DeLay to retire from Congress: “I wish him all the very best and I know he is looking to the future. My own judgment is, our party will continue to succeed because we're the party of ideas.'' The party of ideas? Off the top of my head, here’s the only Republican ideas I’ve seen in the last five years:

Doctoring evidence used to start a war with a country that did not attack us and posed no threat to America.

Having responsibility for the deaths of 2,344 American military people and tens of thousands of Iraqis, at least $250 billion in wasted war money and a trashed reputation throughout the world.

Being fully supportive of holding prisoners without charges, without counsel and in violation of every tenet of American ideals. Oh, yeah, the GOP leadership thinks it’s acceptable to torture people too.

Consistently lying to the American people about everything from the rationale for war, through Hurricane Katrina response to domestic spying.

And speaking of Katrina, how many people might have lived had the Republicans not gutted the Federal Emergency Management Agency and exiled it under the Department of Homeland Security? Incompetence kills. Heck of a job, Brownie. And speaking of domestic spying, the Republican party stands for eavesdropping on all of us, without required court orders and in express violation of the law.

Politicizing to the extreme the heart-wrenching Terri Schiavo situation – including Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist making a magical “diagnosis” of her condition from the Senate floor that, as it turns out, was wrong anyway.

Being the party of Tom DeLay, Jack Abramoff and Duke Cunningham – enough said.

Disclosing the identity of covert CIA agent, Valerie Plame as retaliation for her husband, Ambassador Joe Wilson, pointing out that Team Bush was lying in their reasons for attacking Iraq. The GOP: Where treason becomes fashionable.

Seeding the media with right-wing propaganda disguised as legitimate news, including having former prostitute Jeff Gannon sitting front and center in the White House briefing room to throw softball questions at Scott “The Lyin’ King” McClellan.

Embarrassing the American people by making a macho vow to get Osama bin Laden – you remember, the guy who actually did attack us on September 11 – letting him roam completely free for almost five years, while allowing al Qaeda to continue operating in at least 60 countries.

Cutting taxes for other rich Republicans time after time, while running up the biggest budget deficit in U.S. history.

Making our Statue of Liberty at least temporarily irrelevant by trying to kick 12 million immigrants out of the country, while branding them felons. (I’ve been in Mexico a lot lately and the people I talk to there have the same reaction as most people throughout the world – love most Americans, hate our government.)

Decimating social programs including Social Security, Medicaid and Medicare while forcing a disastrous drug program on the nation’s elderly.

Refusing to raise the minimum wage and only funding the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program for a fraction of the approved budget and at the end of the winter.

Giving the American version of the Taliban – our very own religious extremists – a front-row seat in governing our country.

Fighting at every turn, attempts by Congressional Democrats to support homeland security – such as providing funds for port protection and first-responders – while rejecting almost every Democratic effort to fund Veterans programs.

Trying to turn over security of our major ports to a country with known ties to the terrorist attacks of 2001.

Leading the effort to turn back the clock in our society and outlaw a woman’s right to reproductive choice.

Whew! That took me a whole 10 minutes. Bush may be right and the Republicans may indeed be the “party of ideas.” Too bad those ideas are ruining our country, destroying our world standing and imperiling the next generation. You can reach Bob Geiger at geiger.bob@gmail.com

Call it the year of lame excuses!

Frank Ranelli — Thu, 29 Dec 2005 11:53:24 -0500

A great summary of how Bush and others, such as the media, vastly failed all Americans in 2005:

Call it the year of lame excuses,

Officials sought any shelter in the year’s storms, both natural and political

By Alex Johnson
Reporter
MSNBC
Updated: 9:04 a.m. ET Dec. 29, 2005

“I don’t think anybody anticipated the breach of the levees,” President Bush said on Sept. 1, three days after Hurricane Katrina punctured the system of dams protecting New Orleans and created the greatest natural disaster in American history.

Unfortunately for the president, that wasn’t true, as news reports about studies that did just that would make clear. But it sounded good at the time.

“I remember on Tuesday morning picking up newspapers and I saw headlines, ‘New Orleans Dodged the Bullet,’” Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said three days later, explaining why his department was slow to respond to the devastation. “Because, if you recall, the storm moved to the east and then continued on and appeared to pass with considerable damage but nothing worse.”

Of course, it didn’t. And even if it had, that would only have meant that the bullet took out Mississippi and Alabama, rather than Louisiana. But it sounded good at the time.

That was 2005. It was the year of the excuse.

‘Brownie, you’re doing a heck of a job’
Hurricane Katrina was the worst natural disaster in U.S. history. It killed 1,300 people, ravaged five states along the Gulf Coast and all but destroyed New Orleans. It also caused a political and bureaucratic storm of unprecedented proportions.

At the center of it was Michael Brown, director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, who became a laughingstock after he betrayed his agency’s lack of planning before Katrina and its lack of awareness afterward. Brown told CNN that he didn’t even learn that hundreds of New Orleanians were trapped in the fetid Convention Center until two days after the television networks had been broadcasting the scene to the world.

Instead, e-mail records showed, Brown and his staff were hard at work making sure he had enough time for a leisurely dinner in Baton Rouge and looked snappy on TV. “I got (my shirt) at Nordsstroms (sic),” Brown wrote. “Are you proud of me? Can I quit now? Can I go home?”

Others followed closely in Brown’s rhetorical missteps.

“Brownie, you’re doing a heck of a job,” the president said at a post-disaster photo-op, hard on the heels of pictures of the chief executive reviewing hurricane-ravaged areas from the comfort of Air Force One while returning from vacation.

The president’s mother placed foot firmly in mouth when she said this of the thousands of Louisianans who took refuge in Houston’s Astrodome: “So many of the people in the arena here, you know, were underprivileged anyway, so this is working very well for them.”

And Rep. Richard Baker, R-La., was overheard telling lobbyists: “We finally cleaned up public housing in New Orleans. We couldn’t do it, but God did.”

It sounded good at the time
2005 gave us opportunities galore to step into big, steaming piles of rhetoric:

Iraq: There was good news for the administration by year’s end as Iraqis carried out a largely peaceful and broadly inclusive election on the way to establishing a new constitution. But it was a long and deadly road to get there. The U.S. military death toll topped 2,000 — a symbolic milestone that the White House dismissed as substantively meaningless — and Bush himself put the total number of Iraqis killed at 30,000.

Quotation: “It is true that much of the intelligence turned out to be wrong,” Bush said in December, after his administration largely denied exactly that for almost three years.

Terri Schiavo: Fifteen years after she collapsed in a coma and seven years after various members of her family began fighting in court over what to do with her, Terri Schiavo died in a hospice in Pinellas Park, Fla., in March. The battle over which relatives should have the final say in whether to remove her feeding tube turned into a proxy for the abortion wars as figures from Florida Gov. Jeb Bush to the Rev. Jesse Jackson weighed in on the meaning of life.

Quotation: “This is not somebody in a persistent vegetative state,” Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., a physician, diagnosed in Washington after watching Schiavo on videotape. Turns out she was, as her autopsy revealed.

[snip]

FULL STORY HERE:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10576609/

Jeb Bush ends Schiavo death inquiry

dinamic — Fri, 08 Jul 2005 13:56:51 -0400

This is the final word on Terri Shiavo, thank heaven. Since it turned out as it did I guess that the inquiry is a good thing for Michael Shiavo, but the hell that Jeb Bush has put him through for some political advantage is monstrous. Now Jeb just wants to be the hero of hurricane Dennis and let us all forget what he has put the Shiavos through.

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. - Gov. Jeb Bush has declared an end to the state’s inquiry into Terri Schiavo’s collapse 15 years ago, after Florida’s state attorney said there was no evidence that criminal activity was involved. Bush had asked State Attorney Bernie McCabe to investigate Schiavo’s case after her autopsy last month. He said he now considers the state’s involvement with the matter finished. “Based on your conclusions, I will follow your recommendation that the inquiry by the state be closed,” Bush said in a two-sentence letter.

I wonder if dubya will come to Florida or where ever Dennis hits for more photo-ops handing out water for the cameras?

Jeb calls Democrats "Pathetic"

googa1 — Wed, 06 Jul 2005 08:10:47 -0400

`Pathetic' label fits school woes

By Dan Gelber

"Pathetic." Gov. Bush recently called the Democratic Party "pathetic" over the reported failure of the party to submit payroll taxes for two quarters in 2003. The dictionary definition of "pathetic" is "arousing or capable of arousing sympathetic sadness and compassion." As a Democrat, I am, of course, appreciative of the governor's sympathetic concern, but let me suggest a few and more proper applications of the word "pathetic."

Pathetic is having the worst high school graduation rate in the nation. Worse than any other state and worse than any other time in Florida history. Now that arouses sympathetic sadness and compassion.

Pathetic is paying Florida's teachers $6,000 below the national average, but somehow finding $300 million to give well-connected corporations and multimillionaires uncalled-for tax breaks.

Pathetic is asking underpaid kindergarten teachers to teach 40 children in a class. Florida's classrooms are among the most overcrowded in the nation.

Pathetic is an education budget that ranks last in the nation in per capita spending.

Pathetic is boasting about cutting state taxes for special interests while quietly shifting more than $800 million in our education budget onto the backs of Florida homeowners through state-mandated property taxes.

Pathetic is the fact that Florida's high school seniors taking the SAT scored worse than seniors from 46 other states. At no time in history have our seniors been less competitive in the hunt for college placement.

Pathetic is raising tuition for Florida higher education each year, more than double the rate of inflation, so that those seniors who do graduate will find it harder to develop advanced skills with which to enter the workforce.

Pathetic is zealously pursuing voucher programs that are not merely unconstitutional, but that bleed resources from a school system that can't afford to lose a dime.

Pathetic is, despite overwhelming public support for a constitutional amendment mandating "high-quality" universal pre-kindergarten education, implementing a confusing, three-hour-a-day program that lacks even the semblance of "high" quality.

Of course, I'm just getting started. The list of what is and should be labeled pathetic unfortunately doesn't end with this administration's public education record. It's pathetic that 17 percent of Floridians have no health insurance, and almost the same numbers have no access to a primary care physician. It's pathetic that nearly every week we hear about a child entrusted to state custody getting lost, killed or molested. And our state's unconstitutional and unseemly intrusion into Terry Schiavo's end-of-life decision gives new meaning to "pathetic."

If I may, a few words of advice: If you want to engage in a real debate on policies and their effects on Floridians, then let's have at it. But name-calling does nothing to advance solutions to the very serious challenges facing our state.

Dan Gelber is a Democratic legislator from Miami Beach.

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/opinion/sfl-03forum04jul04,0,971659.sto...

Let's Hold "Dr." Frist Accountable for Playing Politics with Terry Schiavo's Life

Bob Fertik — Tue, 05 Jul 2005 00:05:59 -0400

Remember how Bill Frist lied about Terry Schiavo's persistent vegetative state? According to RawStory.com, the Tennessee Medical Board is currently reviewing complaints against Frist. If you were outraged by Frist's conduct, consider writing a letter like this one, sent to us by Dr. Jeff Wade of California. Dr. Frist is licensed in both TN and DC.

Board of Medical Examiners:

As a physician, I was deeply dismayed recently upon seeing the actions of Dr. William Frist. Dr. Frist is on public record as giving an apparent diagnosis and prognosis on Mrs. Terry Schiavo during the nationwide debate and political jockeying that surrounded her death.

As he said, this was based only on a review of a videotape of her, not on a good faith history and physical. It is both a field of medicine other than that in which he is trained and she lived in Florida, a state where he is not licensed to practice medicine.

While he was not truly a treating physician for her, he represented himself as a physician and gave what an ordinary lay person might assume was a medical opinion based on all the facts available in the case.

As a result of his intervention, the case was protracted, leading to increased mental and emotional harm to her family.

Due to his failure to adequately evaluate her, he was proven wrong after her autopsy. At this point he compounded the problem by emphatically denying the substance of his earlier, televised statement on her medical condition, again on national television. This is tantamount to being caught in a blatant lie and such behavior lessens the esteem in which our profession is seen by the public.

Such behavior is unprofessional and violates the standards and practices of our profession. It makes it seem as if he is using his medical degree to further political goals while disregarding the ethics of the profession. As the nation's most visible physician, he should be held to an even higher standard of conduct, as his behavior reflects on all physicians.

Thank You,

Jeff Wade MD

For DC:

Re : William Frist MD
US Senate
Washington, DC 20510
DC license MD 21572

send to:
DC Board of Medicine
Mr. James Granger
717 14th St. NW, Ste. 100
Washington, DC 2005

for Tennessee License

his TN address:
3010 Poston Ave. Ste. 220
Nashville, TN 37203
License 17379

send to:
Tennessee Medical Board
Office of Investigations
Third Floor Cordell Hull Building
425 Fifth Ave. North
Nashville, TN 37247

the TN complaint form can be downloaded at :
http://www2.tennessee.gov/health/Downloads/g5020208.pdf

DROWNING IN FILTH

JOHN CHUCKMAN — Fri, 24 Jun 2005 15:07:52 -0400

June 24, 2005

DROWNING IN FILTH

John Chuckman

"We are all drowning in filth…I feel that intellectual honesty and balanced judgement have simply disappeared from the face of the earth."

George Orwell (diary entry for 27 April, 1942)

I've given the date of Orwell's words lest someone think they were written by a contemporary bearing the writer's name. Recent events surely qualify the United States to claim some sort of title from the Guinness Book of Records such as the world's largest moral and intellectual open sewer.

A man by the name of Ed Klein has written a vile book called The Truth about Hillary. Perceptive readers may require no more information about this book than the fact that Klein is a former editor for The New York Times. The Times reputation as a newspaper upholding genuine liberal values exists only in the minds of those who regard rolling on the floor and babbling in tongues as divine inspiration. For decades, The Times has demonstrated enough dissembling, unwarranted personal attacks, subtle omissions, and tweaking of words to qualify many times over for a J. Edgar Hoover Official G-Man Helper Award. So what would you expect from a former editor?

You must give Klein his due, he knows his market: America always loves vile books about successful women. I could ask, how does a man with any self-respect, any sense of decency - claiming to be a responsible figure in journalism to boot - write a book retailing trashy gossip about a living, former first lady's sex life? The subject would be off-limits for anyone possessing some integrity. But remember, this is America, where literally almost anything goes to make a fast buck or a vicious political point.

How does writing such a book differ from the behavior of thirteenth-century tribesmen stoning women for presumed transgressions? Why, not a bit, of course. Never mind that swill about women's rights and freedoms America pitches out there. That's only for consumption by ignorant turban heads. When it counts in America, when something untoward occurs like an independent-minded woman seeking high office, stoning remains completely acceptable.

One good measure of any book is the nature of those who promote it. Well, here is Rush Limbaugh - America's pill-popping television clown for lads stuck in the onset of puberty, almost certainly America's greatest living authority on the threatening qualities of women - slobbering over the volume:

"I've got some interesting, juicy details on this book on Hillary by Ed Klein, but I'm not going to be the first to mention them. I'm not going there. It will come out eventually. It has to do with sexual orientation, and I'm not going to be the one. That's the book that everybody says is going to be presenting a firestorm."

Klein's intent of course is to poison political prospects for Mrs. Clinton, who is frequently mentioned as a future presidential candidate. We knew Mrs. Clinton had a fine intelligence, but she also has demonstrated her steel, rising from the most savage treatment ever accorded a President's spouse to success in the Senate. And she is richly hated for precisely that reason.

It was a fine moment recently when the American Senate offered an apology for about five thousand American lynchings. The number came in at a mere five thousand because limits were placed on the time span covered. The Senate is punctilious about details if nothing else. The Senators' gesture was reasonable and fair, wasn't it? A privileged body totally neglects its duty and plain human decency for a century and then says it is sorry five thousand corpses later.

Note that the number of lynching victims counted (and there were many more in the previous century) is roughly double the number of people killed in 9/11. The population of the United States was much smaller when lynching was a regular source of family-values entertainment in the South, so the number killed actually represents a far greater proportion of population than those consumed in 9/11.

The families of those lost in 9/11 were overwhelmed with donations, many even became multi-millionaires, but never mind compensation for the descendants of people savagely lynched by their neighbors. America's not of a mind for that sort of thing as the sponsor for the apology explained.

Now that an autopsy has proved the late Terri Schiavo was blind, missing half her brain, and showed no signs of abuse, you'd think the American politicians who made complete asses of themselves trying to have the courts interfere in the private affairs one poor citizen would shut up.

But not Governor Jeb Bush of Florida. He now has a prosecutor looking into the original reporting of the injury Terri suffered fifteen years ago. Her poor husband not only lost his wife, endured years of marriage to a vegetable, years in the courts trying to bring a decent end to the misery, he has been reviled, abused, and threatened by America's Christian Right who claim they cherish life while cheering their troops in Iraq murdering, maiming, and torturing thousands.

At Terri's death (a natural and peaceful one following the legally-authorized removal of life support), her husband actually had to go into hiding for fear of his life. So the Governor of his state, confronted by scientific facts and embarrassed by the idiocy of his party's behavior, launches a witch hunt against the only real victim in the whole terrible saga, Terri's husband. It is difficult to imagine a more vicious and dishonest action by government authority than this of Jeb Bush.

The American House of Representatives is to vote for the sixth time on a Constitutional Amendment to make defacing the flag a crime. My, here's a cause right up there with ending slavery or defining high treason: the horrifying act of defacing a piece of cloth with red and blue dye.

I just wonder about all those cheap little flags that went up on car aerials after 9/11, you know the ones that were shortly reduced to millions of faded gray rags or fluttered down in the thousands like autumn leaves to be ground into the pavement? Are drivers with ragged, dirty bits fluttering from their aerials or stuck to their tires to be regarded as felons?

How about all those "Made in America" flag labels they love at Wal-Mart? Would you go to jail for soiling your Jockey shorts or disrespectfully crumpling used Dixie Cups? Would spilling coffee on your star-spangled track suit in the privacy of your recreational vehicle become a crime? How do you handle American flag mud flaps?

Considering the monstrous things in which America now is engaged, both at home and abroad, this political farce borders on pornography.

We have the revelation in a New England Journal of Medicine article that American doctors attending prisoners at America's torture chamber in Guantanamo Bay give confidential patient information to the CIA and other agencies so that they can assess which of their efforts proves most effective. I guess you could call it a system of continuous improvement in torture using information collected by doctors sworn to do their patients no harm. Psychiatrists and psychologists treating prisoners work as part of an integral system of punishment and rewards to keep prisoners under stress. I wonder whether they tell their victim/patients "Have a Nice Day!" as they leave each session.

A ministerial letter leaked in the U.K. confirms not only that American Marines used napalm-type weapons in Iraq but that the American government lied to its British ally when asked whether it was doing so. America's napalm weapon is now innocuously named MK-77 to avoid tripping memories of roasting villagers alive in Vietnam. The MK-77 consists of a dumb bomb containing a mixture of jet fuel and polystyrene, a compound which clings to the flesh of victims like barbecue sauce as it burns white-hot. The letter claimed it was only used away from civilians, but dumb bombs do have a way of going astray, and I'm not sure any person of conscience can accept poor conscript soldiers being treated that way. There are many unconfirmed reports that this hideous weapon also was used by Marines on Fallujah.

The Downing Street Memos - Eyes-Only, Secret documents also leaked in the U.K. - are irrefutable proof that Bush had the invasion of Iraq planned almost a year before it occurred, before all his phony outrage about weapons or support for terror. It points, too, to intelligence and diplomacy being deliberately bent to the purpose.

It is rare for historians to have such evidence of plans and intentions, especially at so early a date after an illegal war. The only other example I can think of is the Nazi government's papers falling, completely intact, into the hands of the Allies. Yet the American press has minimized these revealing documents by misrepresenting them, under-reporting them, and playing with words when they are reported.

Instead, we were treated to a sentimental love-in over memories of two cub reporters at the Washington Post three decades ago during the last days of Richard Nixon. It followed the revelation of just who Deep Throat was, a high-level government source for the reporters at the time. It was re-assuring that the Washington Post managed one act of serving the public thirty years ago. They certainly have done nothing worthwhile since. One of those daring cub reporters, Bob Woodward, has since gone on to such meaningful work as singing the praises of America's current brutish-thug President.

Last, we have a genuine investigative reporter, one of America's last, a remarkable man named Seymour Hersh, telling us that sadistic horrors are contained in tapes from Abu Ghraib prison never released to the public. They contain, among other things, pictures of young boys being sodomized and the soundtrack has their screams.

Jebbie's new thing

timotho — Fri, 17 Jun 2005 13:24:13 -0400

Any body hear about the new Jebbie thing in FL?

http://www.cnn.com/2005/LAW/06/17/schiavo.governor.ap/index.html

He wants to investigate the Schiavo collapse 15 years ago.

This is the sickest, most obvious political ploy that I can recall.

This is how desperate these GOPs are after looking silly over the whole
Terri Schiavo thing.

Remember the Terri Schiavo case?

Sharon Kay Kennedy — Wed, 15 Jun 2005 20:58:50 -0400

I bet the media who help spread all those lies and blasting her husband won't print or retract an update. All the damage they caused... but if he were wrong; it would be all over the place, he would have even more threats.

Schiavo Autopsy Shows Massive Brain Damage
Jun 15, 08:10 PM EDT
By MITCH STACY - Associated Press Writer

LARGO, Fla. (AP) -- The autopsy of Terri Schiavo backed her husband's contention that she was in a persistent vegetative state, finding she was severely and irreversibly brain-damaged and blind as well. The report, released Wednesday, also found no evidence that she was strangled or otherwise abused before she collapsed.

Yet medical examiners could not say for certain what caused her sudden 1990 collapse, long thought to have been brought on by an eating disorder.

The findings vindicated Michael Schiavo in his long and vitriolic battle with his in-laws, who insisted her condition was not hopeless and suggested that their daughter was the victim of violence by their son-in-law.

In its report, the medical examiner's office cast doubt on both the abuse and eating disorder theory.

The autopsy results on the 41-year-old woman were made public more than two months after Schiavo died of dehydration on March 31 following the removal of her feeding tube 13 days earlier. The death ended an extraordinary right-to-die battle that engulfed the courts, Congress and the White House.

The autopsy showed that Schiavo's brain had shrunk to about half the normal size for a woman her age and that it bore signs of severe damage.

"This damage was irreversible, and no amount of therapy or treatment would have regenerated the massive loss of neurons," said Pinellas-Pasco County Medical Examiner Dr. Jon Thogmartin, who led the autopsy team. He also said she was blind, because the "vision centers of her brain were dead."

George Felos, attorney for Michael Schiavo, said the findings back up their contentions made "for years and years" that Terri Schiavo had no hope of recovery. He said Michael Schiavo plans to release autopsy photographs of her shrunken brain.

"Mr. Schiavo has received so much criticism throughout this case that I'm certain there's a part of him that was pleased to hear these results and the hard science behind them," Felos said.

Nevertheless, attorney David Gibbs III said Schiavo's parents, Bob and Mary Schindler, continue to believe she was not in a vegetative state and questioned the conclusion that she was blind.

The finding that she was blind counters a widely seen videotape released by her parents of Terri Schiavo in her hospice bed. The video showed Schiavo appearing to turn toward her mother's voice and smile. She moaned and laughed. Her head moved up and down and she seemed to follow the progress of a brightly colored Mickey Mouse balloon.

The parents said the video that showed she was aware of her surroundings, but doctors said her reactions were automatic responses and not evidence of consciousness.

In Washington, White House spokesman Scott McClellan said the autopsy did nothing to change President Bush's position that Schiavo's feeding tube should not have been disconnected. He had signed a bill, rushed through by Congress in March, in a last-ditch effort to restore her feeding tube.

Thogmartin also said Schiavo would not have been able to eat or drink if given food by mouth as the Schindlers wanted after the tube was removed. In fact, he said, she might easily have choked to death if such feedings had been tried.

"Removal of her feeding tube would have resulted in her death whether she was fed or hydrated by mouth or not," Thogmartin told reporters.

The autopsy included 274 external and internal body images and an exhaustive review of Terri Schiavo's medical records, police reports and social services agency records.

Thogmartin said that the autopsy produced no conclusion on what triggered the temporary heart stoppage that caused her collapse and brain damage. He said there was no evidence of drug use, though he cautioned that Schiavo was not tested in 1990 for every conceivable substance that could have been in her blood.

He said there was no proof she suffered from an eating disorder such as bulimia, which can disrupt the body chemistry with lethal effect. The main piece of evidence cited for an eating disorder - the low levels of potassium in her blood in 1990 - could have been caused by the emergency treatment she received at the time, Thogmartin said.

While she had lost more than 100 pounds since high school, Schiavo never confessed to an eating disorder, she did not take diet pills and no one had witnessed her purging food, the medical examiner said.

He also discounted the possibility that she had overdosed on caffeine from drinking large amounts of tea in an effort to keep her weight down.

The cause of death was ruled dehydration from removal of the feeding tube, but the underlying reason for her brain damage was officially listed as "undetermined."

In addition, the autopsy found no traces of morphine in her system at her death, although she had been given two doses in the days before she died. The Schindlers had contended that morphine might have been used to speed their daughter's death.

The Schindlers fought their son-in-law in court over their daughter's fate for nearly seven years, battling to the end with conservatives at their side. Michael Schiavo said his wife never would have wanted to be kept alive artificially in such a condition.

Courts repeatedly rejected extraordinary attempts at intervention by Florida lawmakers, Gov. Jeb Bush, Congress and the president on behalf of her parents.

Experts said that the autopsy demonstrates how difficult it is for people to recover from severe brain damage.

"People should understand that sometimes, for known or unknown reasons, individuals sustain massive brain injury that for which healing is not possible," said Dr. Karen Weidenheim, the chief of neuropathology at Montefiore Medical Center in New York. "Everything that could have been done was done for this lady for 15 years, and this case is very tragic."

---

Offer attribution (a link) to the news source and please, cut it down to about four paragraphs.

On the Net:

Pinellas-Pasco Medical Examiner's Office: http://www.co.pinellas.fl.us/forensics/

"Compassionate conservatism" and "culture of life" refuted.

clwilk — Wed, 15 Jun 2005 13:02:21 -0400

http://news.yahoo.com/fc/us/assisted_suicide

Block quoted
Schiavo Autopsy Shows No Sign of Trauma
AP - 30 minutes ago
LARGO, Fla. - An autopsy released Wednesday found no evidence to contradict the diagnosis that Terri Schiavo was in a persistent vegetative state after her 1990 collapse, backing up her husband's contention that she would not have recovered if she was given additional therapy as her parents requested. "There's nothing in her autopsy report that is inconsistent with a persistent vegetative state," said Dr. Stephen J. Nelson, a medical examiner who assisted in the autopsy.

Gee, I guess you can't determine a persistent vegatative state from fifteen minutes of video "Dr." Frist. And "Mr." Delay, I guess those "activist" judges did their jobs appropriately, ethically, and to the letter of the law.