It's the United States Congress, not the Super Adventure Club

Ahh, nothing like a sex scandal during election season. Especially one involving a Republican congressman and teenage boys. If you feel a little voyeuristic, ABC News has transcripts of some of the instant messages that Rep. Mark Foley (R-FL) sent to congressional pages. Disturbing stuff - don't follow that link if you're going to come back and complain that it made you sick.

Not wanting to dwell on the sordid details, I'll dwell on the sweet, sweet irony. Foley was the chairman of the House caucus on missing and exploited children. Hey, it's a rare example of the Republicans giving a position to someone who actually has some experience! Foley was credited with writing the sexual-predator provisions of the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act of 2006, which Bush signed in July.

Some folks on Daily Kos dug up an interesting quote from the Clinton-Lewinsky witch hunt:

"It's vile," said Rep. Mark Foley, R-West Palm Beach. "It's more sad than anything else, to see someone with such potential throw it all down the drain because of a sexual addiction."

Quick, what's the difference between Clinton and Mark Foley? Clinton's activities involved another consenting adult.

Not only is Mark Foley a pederast, he's also a fucking hypocrite. Despite his own feelings toward adolescent boys, Foley voted YES on the Homophobia Gets Us Reelected Act (also known as the Defense of Marriage Act).

And for the coup de grace, it's becoming increasingly clear that Republican reps all the way up to Majority Leader Boehner (heh heh) and Speaker Hastert knew about Foley and engaged in a cover-up. I'm not sure how they thought they could get away with it when an organization as powerful as the Catholic Church couldn't.

UPDATE: How ironic (in the Alanis Morissette way) that I would make a comment about the Catholic Church, and then Foley would claim to have been molested by a clergyman. If it's true, he has my sympathy, but it doesn't excuse his actions.

Most importantly... the following Congressmen knew about Foley's activities and did or said nothing. If you live in their districts, please go to the polls in November and make sure they are no longer stinking up the hallowed halls of our Capitol next year.

• House Majority Leader Boehner, John (R-OH-8th)


• Speaker of the House Hastert, J. Dennis (R-IL-14th)


• Rep. Shimkus, John (R-IL-19th)


• Rep. Alexander, Rodney (R-LA-5th)


• Rep. Reynolds, Thomas (R-NY-26th)

The Axis of Evil would like to welcome its newest member...

Well, Congress has passed and very soon George W Bush will sign the absolute worst piece of legislation this decade (if not ever) - and after six years of Republican control of the nation, that's quite an accomplishment.

Now, in the name of national security, the government can round up suspected "terrorists", put them in secret prisons indefinitely without trial, without access to legal representation, and without the right to challenge their detention. Furthermore, these detainees can be "interrogated" (that's fancy talk for TORTURE) by any means that the President authorizes, since this bill gives the President the sole authority to interpret and apply the Geneva Conventions.

Now, it looks like the really awful stuff might be off-limits... rape, murder, amputation, and the like. But minor mutilation, waterboarding, bamboo slats under the fingernails, sexual abuse... those are OK if Mr Bush says so. And it's hard to imagine that Christian Warrior having a problem with a few A-rabs getting abused. Never mind that torture has never been shown to provide useful information, and never mind that it is dehumanizing - not just to the detainee, but to the captors as well. In fact, just a few years ago, some of us might have scratched our heads about this bill. Surely the Presiden't can't really authorize torture, because our soldiers wouldn't go along. They'd refuse to participate in any really heinous acts against detainees. Of course, that was before we heard of a little place called Abu Ghraib.

And speaking of Iraq - pretty much everyone in America agreed that Saddam was a bad guy. Sure, some of us opposed invading Iraq on the grounds that it was a sovereign nation which posed no imminent threat to the United States. But we could agree that we'd rather see Iraq under the rule of law instead of under a tyrant. You know, the kind of guy who puts his enemies in SECRET PRISONS and TORTURES them. Then when the majority of Americans were misled into thinking that Iraq was still seeking weapons of mass destruction, it seemed that everyone was ready to march off to war to get rid of Saddam.

Well, let's look at some facts here. The U.S. has the world's largest stockpile of weapons of mass destruction. We are the only nation to have ever used a nuclear weapon in combat - killing an almost unimaginable number of civilians instantly. Twice. And Bush has never made any bones about the fact that they're still "on the table" for use in The War Against Terror. And now, we also officially have secret prisons and torture available to the President at his discretion. What's left that distinguishes us from Iraq, or Dubya from Saddam?

We have become our enemy. The terrorists hate us for our freedoms, but they must be liking us more each day, as we throw those freedoms away and sink slowly into tyranny.

RIP America - land of the free, home of the brave.

Reality Check

George Bush, Sept. 11, 2006:

The world is safer because because Saddam Hussein is no longer in power.

REALITY CHECK for Mr. Bush:

Worldwide terrorist incidents by year. Source: MIPT Database.