Alright, You Called It, Catapults It Is

The never-elected usurper-Pres wants to catapult the propaganda. I'm thinking it's better to catapult the facts, in this case courtesy Anonymous Liberal:

Here's my very simple idea for a Democratic campaign ad:

The GOP's 1994 "Contract with America" appears on the screen.

As the camera focuses in on the Contract's preamble, we can hear Republican House members reciting the words:

[W]e intend to act "with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right."

To restore accountability to Congress. To end its cycle of scandal and disgrace.

To make us all proud again of the way free people govern themselves.

Halfway through the recitation, the screen switches to footage of the 1994 press conference on the steps of the Capitol, where all the Republican members of the House solemnly pledged to end the "cycle of scandal and disgrace" in Washington.

The screen then flashes in rapid succession to headlines of all the Republican scandals of the last few years:

Randy "Duke" Cunningham behind bars, Tom Delay indicted and resigning in disgrace, Bob Ney pleading guilty to corruption charges, Mark Foley exposed as a child predator, Dennis Hastert and the Republican leadership implicated in a cover up, etc. etc.

The screen then flashes to the original TV Guide advertisement used to launch the Contract with American. In bold type it reads: “If we break this contract, throw us out. We mean it.”

The commerical ends with the narrator asking, in a solemn voice: "Had enough?"

A Fine Kettle of Fish!

This is the sort of sordid stuff I generally prefer to step over or around. That's not the way Karl or his fellow sty-occupants do it though, and thus - alas - we can't play genteel right now either. The neocons and other shrill-voiced sorts have more or less made it imperative that we all walk on the wild side for a spell. And it is imperative that we call out the hypocrisy and criminality whenever we can.

This has all the skank of a big story. I'm not proud to be circulating it, but the job is what it is.

The topic is the apparent sexual harrassment by former republican congressman Mark Foley of a 16-year-old congressional aid. The evidence was sufficient to cause Mr. Foley to resign. Given his resignation, I guess we don't need to quibble about the basic accuracy of the charges. It doesn't seem to have been out of character for the "lawmaker." Besides the totally abhorrent behavior, the criminality involved was the specific subject of a bill the perpetrator publically supported and his slimy republican (yes, redundant) cohorts touted in trying to dress up their credentials as boosters of high principles. Sort of like Hugh Hefner campaigning against short skirts or something, from what I can tell.

More importantly, the trouble for the Troubled Party that represents no one with cognitive functions intact these days from what I can tell, is that the senior house leadership (Hastert, Boehner, etc., an entrancing cast of potential crab bait - but what self-respecting crab would eat this stuff?) has had knowledge of this criminality for a good long time and has almost certainly conspired to hide it.

This could be, and should be, more Big-Time Bad-Time for the Party of Corruption.

You can't help but know something about this if you are enlightened enough to be reading this (or are the beneficiary of me catapulting it!). On the off-chance a little direction is needed, try this:

As noted in the post below, one of the laws which Mark Foley appears to have violated is the so-called "Adam Walsh Child Protection Act of 2006" which, among other things, increases penalties for adults who use the Internet to discuss or solicit sexual acts with "minors" (defined as an "individual who has not attained the age of 18 years"). GOP leaders hailed this law as a vital tool in protecting our nation's children against Internet predators:

Denny Hastert, who said the Act was critical in "preventing child exploitation, stopping child pornography and creating new criminal offense penalties protecting children from the Internet," proclaimed:

"At home, we put the security of our children first and Republicans are doing just that in our nation’s House. We’ve all seen the disturbing headlines about sex offenders and crimes against children. These crimes cannot persist. Protecting our children from Internet predators and child exploitation enterprises are just as high a priority as securing our border from terrorists. . . That’s why today we passed the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act of 2006.”

Majority Leader John Boehner similarly intoned in referring to passage of the Act:

House Republicans have a record of working to strengthen our communities and protect American values. So far this year, House Republicans have approved legislation that protects our children from Internet predators and violent criminal offenders; improves communications capabilities of first responders and emergency personnel; and guarantees Americans’ freedom to display the American flag and recite the Pledge of Allegiance.

As much as anything else, that is what this scandal is about -- GOP House Leaders prancing around as the Protectors of our nation's children from Internet Predators while, at the same time, apparently knowing that there was such a predator in their midst. And they not only failed to do anything about it, but they actively worked to conceal the behavior (by, as noted below, ensuring that all Democrats -- including even the Democrat on the House Page Board -- were blocked from learning about these accusations). As Hastert put it at the top of his Press Release (emphasis in original): “At home we put children first, and Republicans are doing just that in the House.”

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And here's the NY Times article, perhaps helping to make the whole thing real for the three people that are still hung up on the idea that it's gotta make the mainstream media to be genuine.