If you love audio content and podcasts as much as I do, don't miss "In Bed with Susie Bright." In my opinion, her podcast on the Sarah Palin and Mark Sanford sex scandals (free excerpt at the link) should win best podcast of the year, if there is such a thing. (Her blog on sex, culture, and politics, etc. is great too, but like the podcasts, not necessarily work safe.)
Open thread below...
Here we go again. Another phony pro-life or should I say, anti-choice republican gets exposed in dirty dealings. He's not so much against the idea of sex as wanting the young ones for himself.
We have lift off. The lying liar Rep. Paul Stanley has resigned from his seat after having and affair with an intern and then being blackmailed.
Sen. Paul Stanley, R-Germantown sent a letter of resignation to Lt. Gov. Ron Ramsey this afternoon after allegations that a Clarksville man had tried to blackmail the senator with nude photos of an intern taken in Stanley’s Nashville apartment.
Earlier today, Senate Majority Leader Mark Norris told a Memphis TV station that Stanley should “do the right thing for his family’s sake and for the sake of his constituents” and step down so a new election for his seat can be held.Norris said in a statement released Tuesday that Republican leaders have been working behind the scenes for about a week to get Stanley to step down. Stanley told agents from the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation that he had a sexual relationship with the intern, McKensie Morrison, a 22-year-old Austin Peay student from Dickson, but has declined to speak publicly about the matter. He may be doing an interview with a Memphis radio station within the hour.
Just another right wing family values creep gets exposed. Sex for him but not for thee. How long will it be until he starts quoting the Bible? Maybe he should email Mark Sanford for some spiritual advice. Unfortunately for him, Sanford already took the ever popular "God is on my side," line. I'm sure he'll find another.
Mike Murphy is right: "Gov. Sarah Palin is the political train wreck that keeps on giving."
How great is it that a week after she aborts her career in politics, Republicans are still debating whether she has a future on the national ticket?
And Newt Gingich votes yes. [This audio, Newt Gingrich interviewed by his former mistress/now wife Calista, was posted to his website on Friday, July 10.]
One has to wonder with guys like Newt Gingrich still not giving up hope for Palin's future, whether NPR analyst Jennifer Pozner is right, that the public treatment, and Newt's tacit endorsement, of Sarah Palin is much more about her looks and sex-appeal than about her painfully obvious lack of qualifications:
Ironically, though Palin has railed against unfair treatment by the mainstream media, she has mostly been referring not to blatant sexism but to reporters who wouldn't show her "respect and deference." The last thing journalists owe any politician is deference.
In other Palin discussion among the GOP, Peggy Noonan created a major stir with this oped, opining that Palin wasn't qualified to run for high office and never will be. One good article out of a hundred, Peggy, but I still haven't forgiven you for your "GOP sex scandals can be traced back to Bill Clinton" wack-a-news bite. I for one am ready to stop talking about the Clenis and let GOP-nees take responsibility for their own wanderings and motivations. [h/t Nicole for the new lingo.]
No More Mister Nice Blog: South Carolina has a dishonest hypocrite for a Governor because of liberalism
Roger (the good one) Ailes: Another randy Republican having trouble keeping his pants on
Calculated Risk: How bad is the recession? Check new home sales
Liberal Values: God and Science
mandroppings: Fox News has won a court ruling that holds that broadcasters have a 1st Amendment right to deliberately distort news or outright lie on the air.
Coal Tattoo: Blockbuster studies describe Mountain Top Removal impacts
(Graphic via Denver Post)
James Dobson's group makes the news in a sex case.
A Colorado Springs man who narrates the Bible in Spanish on CDs and works in the Spanish broadcasting department of Focus on the Family appeared in court Monday in Golden on two felony counts of using the Internet to lure a 15-year-old girl for sex, The Denver Post reports.
Juan Alberto Ovalle, 42, was arrested Friday when he drove to Lakewood to meet the girl — who turned out to be an undercover officer — after discussing various sexual acts he wanted to perform with her, the Jefferson County District Attorney’s Office said.
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Ovalle “came to know the Lord at the age of 14,” according to a Web site offering his Spanish Bible narration for sale, and founded Spanish Christian Audio in 2001 to “help Christian organizations with their audio needs.”After first encountering the officer who was posing as a 15-year-old girl on the Internet last week, Orvalle made “sexually graphic statements in a chat room to a person he believed to be an underage teen,” the district attorney’s office said in a release. When the undercover officer said her mom wouldn’t be home the next day, Orvalle said he was “horny” and made arrangements to come to her house, according to an arrest affidavit...read on
Halliburton and Blackwater, apparently, were just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to American corporate corruption overseas -- the kind aided and abetted by the U.S. government.
Now there's this case involving DynCorp, as reported by CorpWatch:
Middle-aged men having sex with 12- to 15-year-olds was too much for Ben Johnston, a hulking 6-foot-5-inch Texan, and more than a year ago he blew the whistle on his employer, DynCorp, a U.S. contracting company doing business in Bosnia.
According to the Racketeer Influenced Corrupt Organization Act (RICO) lawsuit filed in Texas on behalf of the former DynCorp aircraft mechanic, "in the latter part of 1999 Johnston learned that employees and supervisors from DynCorp were engaging in perverse, illegal and inhumane behavior [and] were purchasing illegal weapons, women, forged passports and [participating in other immoral acts. Johnston witnessed coworkers and supervisors literally buying and selling women for their own personal enjoyment, and employees would brag about the various ages and talents of the individual slaves they had purchased."
Rather than acknowledge and reward Johnston's effort to get this behavior stopped, DynCorp fired him, forcing him into protective custody by the U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Division (CID) until the investigators could get him safely out of Kosovo and returned to the United States.
And the case's outcome?
Incredibly, the CID case was closed in June 2000 and turned over to the Bosnian authorities. DynCorp says it conducted its own investigation, and Hirtz and Werner were fired by DynCorp and returned to the United States but were not prosecuted. Experts in slave trafficking aren't buying the CID's interpretation of the law.
Hey, I'm sure they had America's best interests at heart, and therefore we should just forgive them.
A la O'Reilly, a shower of gifts
Still searching for that perfect gift for your closest phone pal? How about the "O'Reilly Approved" Loofah, courtesy of thesmokinggun.com website?
Yesterday, the Court TV-owned document clearing house messengered scores of the abrasive bath cloths to grateful recipients all over Manhattan. The items came in plastic bags sporting a label featuring Fox News star Bill O'Reilly's smirking face and the slogan "Perfect for your Caribbean shower fantasies!" along with the disclaimer, "Red wine and falafel not included."
The Loofah Man's reaction to Bastone's little joke?
It remained a mystery yesterday.
A Fox News spokeswoman told me: "I'm not going to dignify this with a comment."
