beyond mark foley: no more beating around the bush

i know there is another thread talking about the foley scandal, so the purpose of this one is to go back and in light of foley and the apparent coverup by republican leadership, take a "hard" (pun intended) look at some other recent "kerfluffles" involving prominent republicans and their talking heads. i think there is a very disturbing pattern of hypocracy with these people who claim to be such good "christian conservatives". im not saying bush is gay, but i would have my questions about anyone who hung out with a male prostitute as much as he did.

1) jeff gannon -
James Dale Guckert worked under the pseudonym Jeff Gannon as a White House reporter between 2003 and 2005, representing Talon News. After Guckert came under public scrutiny, in particular for his lack of a significant journalistic background and involvement with various homosexual escort service websites using the professional name Bulldog, he resigned from Talon News on February 8, 2005. Continuing to use the name Gannon, he has since created his own official homepage and worked for a time as a columnist for the Washington Blade newspaper, where he came out as a homosexual.

Guckert routinely obtained daily passes to White House briefings. He attended four Bush press conferences and appeared regularly at White House press briefings. Although he did not qualify for a Congressional press pass, Guckert was given daily passes to White House press briefings "after supplying his real name, date of birth and Social Security number".

Guckert first gained national attention during a presidential press conference on January 26, 2005, in which he asked United States President George W. Bush a question that some in the press corps considered "so friendly it might have been planted".

Guckert to Bush:
"Senate Democratic leaders have painted a very bleak picture of the U.S. economy. (Senate Minority Leader) Harry Reid was talking about soup lines. And (Senator) Hillary Clinton was talking about the economy being on the verge of collapse. Yet in the same breath they say that Social Security is rock solid and there's no crisis there. How are you going to work – you've said you are going to reach out to these people – how are you going to work with people who seem to have divorced themselves from reality?"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeff_Gannon

gannon is also shown to have made a very unusual amount of visits to the white house. under the freedom of information act congressmen john conyers and louise slaughter were able to obtain the white house logs showing a series of visits with date and time of arrival and time of departure.

this is just one of the pages - the other 10 or so are here
http://rawstory.rawprint.com/0405/guckert_access_1.php

now again, im not saying bush is gay, but how many of us would go around hugging male prostitutes with such affection?


looks familiar, huh?

 

2) james dobson - mr "focus on the family" is an advocate of fathers showering with their sons to show them what a man is supposed to look like.

"Meanwhile, the boy's father has to do his part. He needs to mirror and affirm his son's maleness. He can play rough-and-tumble games with his son, in ways that are decidedly different from the games he would play with a little girl. He can help his son learn to throw and catch a ball. He can teach him to pound a square wooden peg into a square hole in a pegboard. He can even take his son with him into the shower, where the boy cannot help but notice that Dad has a penis, just like his, only bigger.

When boys begin to relate to their fathers, and begin to understand what is exciting, fun and energizing about their fathers, they will learn to accept their own masculinity. They will find a sense of freedom—of power—by being different from their mothers, outgrowing them as they move into a man's world. If parents encourage their sons in these ways, they will help them develop masculine identities and be well on their way to growing up straight. In 15 years, I have spoken with hundreds of homosexual men. I have never met one who said he had a loving, respectful relationship with his father."
http://www.family.org/docstudy/newsletters/a0021043.cfm

im not a father or anything, so what do i know about parenting, but im really glad james dobson wasnt my dad. call me crazy, but im glad i never showered with my father.

 

here's the blog of a gay man who is now daily outing congressional staff members and will soon begin outing actual members of congress.

http://www.blogactive.com/

http://pageoneq.com/news/2006/fox_101006.html
Mike Rogers, blogACTIVE and PageOneQ.com editor and publisher, appeared Monday on FOX News' The O'Reilly Factor with host Bill O'Reilly. They discussed the effects the growing Mark Foley scandal, speculation around which O'Reilly described as "partisan nonsense."

Rogers told O'Reilly that he has more members of Congress he will be reporting on as closeted and anti-gay before the election. "If the right wing thinks that homosexuality is tied to pedophilia, which we know is not true, what will they say in the next week or two when I release the names of other closeted gay memebrs of Congress in the Republican Party?" Rogers asked the host. "It's going to happen. What will their response be?" he also asked.

"I fear that the homosexual community in America is going to be damaged by this whole thing," O'Reilly stated, before asking Rogers if he agreed. "I think that America is able to tell the difference between gay men and closeted gay men who make unhealthy psychological decisions," replied Rogers.

Rogers told O'Reilly that he will be releasing more names of closeted members of the Senate and House before election day. O'Reilly advised Rogers to "get [them] on the issues," to which Rogers replied, "I am... and their hypocrisy."

 

and what about the scandal surrounding tom delay and the northern marianas? u.s. clothying manufacturers operationing sweatshops with chineese laborers - allegations of forced abortions if they got pregnant and rampant prostitution.

are these the things the "party of life" is about?

http://www.cnn.com/2005/POLITICS/05/09/real.delay/
As chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, Frank Murkowski became furious at the abusive sweatshop conditions endured by workers, overwhelmingly immigrants, in the U.S. territory of the Northern Mariana Islands, of which Saipan is the capital.
Moved by the sworn testimony of U.S. officials and human-rights advocates that the 91 percent of the workforce who were immigrants -- from China, the Philippines, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh -- were being paid barely half the U.S. minimum hourly wage and were forced to live behind barbed wire in squalid shacks minus plumbing, work 12 hours a day, often seven days a week, without any of the legal protections U.S. workers are guaranteed, Murkowski wrote a bill to extend the protection of U.S. labor and minimum-wage laws to the workers in the U.S. territory of the Northern Marianas.

So compelling was the case for change the Alaska Republican marshaled that in early 2000, the U.S. Senate unanimously passed the Murkowski worker reform bill.

But one man primarily stopped the U.S. House from even considering that worker-reform bill: then-House Republican Whip Tom DeLay.

According to law firm records recently made public, lobbyist Jack Abramoff, paid millions to stop reform and keep the status quo, met personally at least two dozen times with DeLay on the subject in one two-year period. The DeLay staff was often in daily contact with Abramoff.

DeLay traveled with his family and staff over New Year's of 1997 on an Abramoff scholarship endowed by his client, the government of the territory, to the Marianas, where golf and snorkeling were enjoyed.

DeLay fully approved of the working and living conditions. The Texan's salute to the owners and Abramoff's government clients was recorded by ABC-TV News: "You are a shining light for what is happening to the Republican Party, and you represent everything that is good about what we are trying to do in America and leading the world in the free-market system"

http://www.tompaine.com/articles/2006/05/09/sex_greed_and_forced_abortions.php
When asked about reports of forced prostitution and labor abuses, DeLay told the Galveston County Daily News in May 2005: “Sure, when you get this number of people, there are stories of sexual exploitation. But in interviewing these employees one-on-one, there was no evidence of any of that going on. No evidence of sweatshops as portrayed by the national media. It’s a beautiful island with beautiful people who are happy about what’s happening.”

No evidence? DeLay’s support persisted even when a Department of Interior report documented that workers in Saipan’s garment factories were coerced into having unwanted abortions. The damage continues to this day, even though both men have been stripped of their power.

http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/04/06/ivins.delay/index.html
The Northern Marianas Islands are a U.S. protectorate (so it can label goods "Made in the USA") in the Pacific being used as a sort of labor gulag, with workers imported from China and elsewhere and paid pitiful wages. Jack Abramoff had a contract with the government of the Marianas to lobby against stopping the flow of immigrant labor to the islands and to prevent a minimum wage bill (mandating a level higher than the island's standard $3.05 per hour) from getting to the floor of the House.

The islands are home to classic sweatshops. In 1996 and 1997, Abramoff billed the Marianas for 187 contacts with DeLay's office, including 16 meetings with DeLay. In December 1997, DeLay, his wife and their daughter went on an Abramoff-arranged jaunt to the Marianas. DeLay brunched with the Marianas' largest private employer, textile magnate Willie Tan.

Tan had to settle a U.S. Labor Department lawsuit alleging workplace violations. According to the book "The Hammer" by Lou Dubose and Jan Reid, among the violations common on the islands is forbidding women to work when they are pregnant, thus leading to a high abortion rate.

 

im not gay or even curious (not that there's anything wrong with that). im just fascinated by the hypocracy of our "christian conservative" leadership. i think mark foley is just the tip of the iceberg with these people. does the country know that a male prostitue had unfettered access to the president? does the country know that some republicans lobbied for and supported a company that enforces abortion and prostitution on its workers? does the country know that the republican party, which supposedly stands for family values and divisive anti-homosexual agendas has several homosexuals in their own party?

i never saw my dad nude and i am not gay either. hmm...

so before you were married you questioned your preference? i never saw my dad naked and ive never questioned my preference.

you spent a few paragraphs laying out your reasoning for finding no fault with dobsons views, and i wont argue with you on the merits of your points, but why no mention of the other issues? fact is that a homosexual prostitute was planted in the white house press corp, made dozens of visits to the white house and is photographed hugging the president - doesnt that "arouse" any suspicions in you? can you at least recognize that people might find it odd that the president, a "christian conservative" should have such a close relationship with a homosexual prostitute?

i dont know - just stating the facts here - a male prostitute was planted in the white house press corp, made dozens of visits to the white house and is photographed in a very familiar embrace with the president. is bush gay? i dont think so - i believe that he does like men though.

ive been scared for awhile. invading countries on false pretenses, illegal wiretapping and surveillence of american citizens, overturning of the constitution and 4th amendment, the north american union, open borders, our president claiming dictatorial powers, corporate entities like halliburton robbing us blind, the presidents legal advisor john yoo stating that the president has the authority to have a childs testicles crushed infront of his parents - these are the things that scare me.

 

in all fairness, i think jeff gannon was of age.

 

who is gay bashing?

 

facts such as the fact that a male prostitute was placed in the white house press corp to field softball questions to the president?

facts such as the fact that said male prostitute made dozens of trips to the white house?

facts such as the fact that tom delay prevented worker reforms in the marianas islands? reforms that would have put a stop to stuff like forced abortions and forced prostitution? i thought yall were the party of life?