Tag: Veterans

Ultra-Rightwing Sen. Larry Craig Sentenced for Lewd Behavior in Airport Men’s Room

Jon Ponder

Are any Republicans really heterosexual? Now we learn that Sen. Larry Craig (R-Idaho) was arrested in June by a plainclothes cop who was investigating lewd conduct in the men’s room at a Minneapolis airport.

According to a report in Roll Call earlier this year, Craig was sending signals in the men’s room that he was seeking a sexual encounter:

According to the incident report, Sgt. Dave Karsnia was working as a plainclothes officer on June 11 investigating civilian complaints regarding sexual activity in the men’s public restroom in which Craig was arrested.

Airport police previously had made numerous arrests in the men’s restroom of the Northstar Crossing in the Lindbergh Terminal in connection with sexual activity.

Karsnia entered the bathroom at noon that day and about 13 minutes after taking a seat in a stall, he stated he could see “an older white male with grey hair standing outside my stall.”

The man, who lingered in front of the stall for two minutes, was later identified as Craig.

“I could see Craig look through the crack in the door from his position. Craig would look down at his hands, ‘fidget’ with his fingers, and then look through the crack into my stall again. Craig would repeat this cycle for about two minutes,” the report states.

Craig then entered the stall next to Karsnia’s and placed his roller bag against the front of the stall door.

“My experience has shown that individuals engaging in lewd conduct use their bags to block the view from the front of their stall,” Karsnia stated in his report. “From my seated position, I could observe the shoes and ankles of Craig seated to the left of me.”

Craig was wearing dress pants with black dress shoes.

“At 1216 hours, Craig tapped his right foot. I recognized this as a signal used by persons wishing to engage in lewd conduct. Craig tapped his toes several times and moved his foot closer to my foot. I moved my foot up and down slowly. While this was occurring, the male in the stall to my right was still present. I could hear several unknown persons in the restroom that appeared to use the restroom for its intended use. The presence of others did not seem to deter Craig as he moved his right foot so that it touched the side of my left foot which was within my stall area,” the report states.

Craig then proceeded to swipe his hand under the stall divider several times, and Karsnia noted in his report that “I could … see Craig had a gold ring on his ring finger as his hand was on my side of the stall divider.”

Karsnia then held his police identification down by the floor so that Craig could see it.

“With my left hand near the floor, I pointed towards the exit. Craig responded, ‘No!’ I again pointed towards the exit. Craig exited the stall with his roller bags without flushing the toilet. … Craig said he would not go. I told Craig that he was under arrest, he had to go, and that I didn’t want to make a scene. Craig then left the restroom.”

In a recorded interview after his arrest, Craig “either disagreed with me or ‘didn’t recall’ the events as they happened,” the report states.

Craig pleaded guilty on August 8 to a disorderly conduct charge. The court dismissed the charge of gross misdemeanor.

Last year, gay activist Mike Rogers outed Craig, but the senator denied he is gay.

Pentagon Planned to Turn Enemy Troops Gay

Trish

The Pentagon’s 1994 plan to devise a “gay bomb” is making new headlines.

More significant than whether the Pentagon has really abandoned the plan is what their research proves: sexual orientation is biologically determined — not a lifestyle choice

The DOD requested $7.5 million over six years to develop the “weapon,” which they hoped would chemically alter straight enemy troops so they would become attracted to each other. Theoretically, the hostiles would become distracted by their new relationships and stop paying attention to blowing us up. Later, morale would suffer as Joe breaks up with Jim, and Jim’s friends all tell him he’s so much better off because everyone knows Joe is jerk. Then one of them starts going out with Joe. And so forth.

The official line is that almost as quickly as the idea was hatched, it was scuttled. But the Sunshine Project, which monitors such hair-brained Defense Department activity via the Freedom of Information Act, says that ain’t so.

[Sunshine Project Director Edward Hammond] went on to state that the Joint Non-lethal Weapons Directorate, based out of Quantico, actually used the “gay-bomb” idea as a marketing tool in a CD-ROM from 2001-2002 and that “the Pentagon… submitted it to the highest scientific review body in the country.”

More significant than whether the Pentagon has really abandoned the plan is what their research proves: sexual orientation is biologically determined — not a lifestyle choice. That fact could blow up more Republican and Christian right fund raising campaigns than the best placed bomb, gay or otherwise.

Haggard’s Church Lays off 44 People While Paying Him $130,000 Per Year

Jon Ponder

The True Life megachurch in Colorado Springs that was founded by Ted Haggard, the drug-addled self-hating homo evangelist, has laid off 44 people — approximately 12 percent of its employees — saying the Haggard scandal has negatively affected the church’s fundraising.

“As a pastor he never had to pay for his cars or his house (and he has a huge house with a pool and maids) and he got that 130k salary not to mention all the money he made from his books.
— Former church employee

Haggard was fired last November after it was revealed that he had sex with a gay prostitute and had purchased a large quantity of crystal meth. Yet the church continues to pay Haggard’s $130,000 annual salary, at least through this year.

A former church employee said in comments to Pensito Review:

I just got laid off … from New Life Church … If we weren’t paying him all of this money, people who worked there and weren’t the ones lying and deceiving the church would have been able to keep their jobs.

But no, we are going to pay Ted the one who lied to us all, deceived us all and was the one who did somthing wrong.

As a pastor he never had to pay for his cars or his house (and he has a huge house with a pool and maids) and he got that 130k salary not to mention all the money he made from his books.

This is wrong, it’s all wrong, he has ruined many peoples lives. He has left many people jobless and hurt. I hate New Life church and I am glad that God freed me from that place.

Ted Haggard Fired

Jon Ponder

Ted Haggard has been fired by the megachurch he founded in Colorado Springs. After an investigation, the board of the New Life Church found him “guilty of sexually immoral conduct.”

He should have been fired for looking into the camera and lying — badly: Mike Jones had only given him a massage, not sex. He bought the meth but threw it away.

Meanwhile, as he’s delivering this bullshit into a reporter’s camera, he’s behind the wheel of his car, with his wife beside him and his kids in the backseat.

This guy is a head case.

Pastor Who Resigned over Gay Hooker Claims Is Bush’s ‘Spiritual Consigliere‘

Jon Ponder

Rev. Ted Haggard, who counsels Pres. Bush on a weekly basis and has been called his spiritual consigliere,” resigned today as president of the National Association of Evangelicals and as pastor of the megachurch he founded in Colorado Springs because a gay prostitute says he’s been having sex for pay with Haggard for more than three years.

Rev. Haggard is closer to the president than his better-known rival, Dr. James Dobson, head of the anti-gay nonprofit group, Focus on the Family, which is also headquartered in Colorado Springs:

The press tends to regard Dobson as the most powerful evangelical Christian in America, but Pastor Ted is at least his equal.

Whereas Dobson plays the part of national scold, promising to destroy politicians who defy the Bible, Pastor Ted quietly guides those politicians through the ritual of acquiescence required to save face.

He doesn’t strut, like Dobson; he gushes. When Bush invited him to the Oval Office to discuss policy with seven other chieftains of the Christian right in late 2003, Pastor Ted regaled his whole congregation with the story via email.

“Well, on Monday I was in the World Prayer Center,” New Life’s high-tech, 24 hour-a-day prayer chapel, — and my cell phone rang. It was a presidential aide; “the President,” says Pastor Ted, wanted him on hand for the signing of the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act.

Pastor Ted was on a plane the next morning and in the President’s office the following afternoon.

“It was incredible,” wrote Pastor Ted. He left it to the press to note that Dobson wasn’t there.

Mike Jones, the male escort, says he did not know Haggard’s identity until he saw him on television. Jones says he has voicemails and other proof of his relationship with Haggard and will release them tomorrow.

In an interview excerpted on MSNBC’s Countdown with Keith Olbermann tonight, Jones also said that Rev. Haggard used methamphetamines during their sexual encounters.

Haggard was in the news in September when he disavowed his appearance in the controversial documentary “Jesus Camp,” which exposed the indoctrination of children into Christian nationalism at a summer camp in the Midwest.

Foley, Gannon Gay GOP Scandals Are Minor Compared with 1989 Call Boy Sex Ring with Ties Inside Bush White House

Jon Ponder

(Via BuzzFlash.net and The Law Party)

In a February 1989 raid on a gay escort service, the Secret Service showed up and confiscated key evidence. Law enforcement officials said that involvement of the Secret Service in a local operation was highly unusual and had never happened before.

Forget Mark Foley’s electronic dalliances with underage pages and the dozens of White House visits by gay GOP prostitute, Jeff “Bulldog” Gannon — the biggest gay Republican scandal to date was the uncovering in 1989 of multiple gay prostitution services that billed tens of thousands of dollars to credit cards belonging to powerful men inside the Bush and Reagan administrations — including top staffers, military officers and lobbyists. The scandal was revealed in late June 1989, and then just as quickly was swept under the rug and has barely been mentioned since.

If you think this sounds outlandish, consider the original source: The story was broken on June 29, 1989, by the ultraconservative Washington Times newspaper, which is of course owned by Korean rightwing cult leader, Rev. Sun Yung Moon. The lead reporter on the story was Paul M. Rodriguez, who is known for the rightwing slant of his reporting.

The article was edited by Wesley Pruden, then the Times’ managing editor, now its editor-in-chief. In it, Pruden, who makes on secret of his conservative, even neo-Confederate, views, made it clear that higher-ups in the Reagan and Bush administrations would be protected — the paper would only reveal the names of subordinates:

“There is no intention of publishing names or facts about the operation merely for titillation,” said [Pruden].

The Times ran the story above the fold, with a banner headline that read, “Homosexual prostitution inquiry ensnares VIPs with Reagan, Bush,” with the subheading, “‘Call boys’ took midnight tour of White House.”

Reading through the story (which we have transcribed, in part, below), it appears that the investigation into the call boy sex ring had begun about nine months earlier, arising from an attempted blackmail and charges of credit card fraud. Apparently the gay prostitutes routinely videotaped and photographed their encounters with their clients, especially those who had powerful positions in the government, which meant there was plenty of fodder for extorting money.

In February 1989, as Washington D.C. police were conducting a raid on an out-call center operated by several gay escort services in a residence on 34th Place NW, the Secret Service made a surprise appearance and confiscated some of the evidence, according to The Times:

Although the confiscated material was turned over to District police on the scene, witnesses and law enforcement agents say the Secret Service kept one box containing names and other information about high-level government officials who were clients of the male escort business.

District police officials say that, to their knowledge, this is the first time the Secret Service has ever become involved in such a raid in this area.

Initially, the Secret Service denied it was involved in the raid, but after a second raid of the 34th Place house on May 18 [1989], the agency acknowledged its involvement in the investigation.

Secret Service spokesman Bob Snow said the agency participated in the search and seizure operation because of its jurisdiction over credit card fraud. “We come into such operations usually at the request of a U.S. attorney … if the fraud involves $10,000 or more … We are not involved in any local prostitution investigation,” said Mr. Snow.

GOP lobbyist Craig Spence spent upwards of $20,000 per month on gay prostitutes.

The paper named Craig J. Spence as a central figure in the sex ring:

One of the ring’s big spending clients is Craig J. Spence, Washington socialite and international trade consultant, according to documents and interviews with operators and prostitutes who say they engaged in sexual activities with Mr. Spence.

Mr. Spence spent upwards of $20,000 a month for male prostitutes who provided sex to him and his friends, said to include military personnel who also acted as his “bodyguards.” It was Mr. Spence who arranged the nocturnal tour of the Reagan White House. Repeated attempts to reach Mr. Spence by telephone, fax machine and personal visits to his home, were unsuccessful.

Credit card vouchers confirm that Mr. Spence charged thousands of dollars on American Express and Visa cards, sometimes making $600 charges against his cards several times a day, drawn in behalf of an escort service called Professional Services Inc.

A few months after the story broke, Spence committed suicide, but in an interview with the Washington Times (which we have not yet located), he allegedly told the paper that he was given access to the White House that night by Donald Gregg, who was a top Bush adviser.

Other underlings named by the newspaper included Charles K. Dutcher, former associate director of presidential personnel in the Reagan administration; Paul R. Balach, Labor Secretary Elizabeth Dole’s political personnel liaison to the White House; and Todd A. Blodgett, a former assistant to President Reagan.

[…]

Was the GOP Leadership’s Cover Up of Foley’s Emails Illegal?

Jon Ponder

What did the Boehner and Hastert Know and When Did They Know It?

It’s telling that the boy’s congressman apparently went directly to Tom Reynolds, chair of the Republican’s campaign for the House this year, with news of the brewing scandal. But it is not credible that Reynolds never bothered to tell senior House leaders.

Boehner’s boner: The world found out about GOP Rep. Mark Foley’s sexually tinged emails to a 16 year-old male House page yesterday, but at least one key member of the Republican House leadership has known about them for about a year.

If one of the leaders knew about Foley’s emails, it seems likely that others did too — and that members of the GOP leadership have engaged in a strategy to keep the story out of the media until after next month’s elections.

Based on the content of Foley’s emails it is possible that he could be facing jail time for using the Internet to solicit sex with a minor. If that is so, the leadership could be guilty of covering up a crime.

Evidence of this includes a significant change in the reporting on the story yesterday by the Washington Post. Majority Leader John Boehner gave the Post one story Friday afternoon but changed his retelling of events later in the day, apparently after a discussion with House Speaker Dennis Hastert. The Post dutifully revised its story but offered no explanation for the change.

In fact, the only reason we know that the Post revised the story is because BuzzFlash.com caught it:

This Sentence Was Changed in the Following Washington Post Story on Foley: “…Foley and a 16-year-old page. Boehner said he told House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.), and that Hastert assured him “we’re taking care of it.”It was not immediately clear what actions Hastert took. His spokesman had said earlier that the speaker did not know…” (as copied from the Post’s search engine on morning of 9/30).

That sentence became this sentence: “House Majority Leader John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) told The Washington Post last night that he had learned this spring of inappropriate “contact” between Foley and a 16-year-old page. Boehner said he then told House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.). Boehner later contacted The Post and said he could not remember whether he talked to Hastert.” That’s Quite a Factual Change. Washington Post, Please Explain. 9/30

When Boehner spoke with Roll Call last night, he and Hastert were the same page:

Boehner strongly denied media reports late Friday night that he had informed Hastert of the allegations, saying “That is not true.”

In other words, “We’re not lying — we’re just incompetent.” Come on. Why didn’t the senior leadership know? How is that possible?

It isn’t. Foley’s flirtatious email exchange occurred late last summer. At least one member of the GOP leadership, Rep. Tom Reynolds, chair of the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC), was informed about Foley’s emails sometime in the fall:

_The congressional sponsor of the page, Rep. Rodney Alexander, R-La., said he was asked by the youth’s parents not to pursue the matter, so he dropped it.

_Alexander said that before deciding to end his involvement, he passed on what he knew to the chairman of the House Republican campaign organization, Rep. Thomas Reynolds, R-N.Y. Reynolds’ spokesman, Carl Forti, said the campaign chairman also took no action in deference to the parents’ wishes.

_Rep. John Shimkus, R-Ill., chairman of the Page Board that oversees the congressional work-study program for high schoolers, said he did investigate but Foley falsely assured him he was only mentoring the boy. Pages are high school students who attend classes under congressional supervision and work as messengers.

_The spokesman for Speaker Dennis Hastert, Ron Bonjean, said the top House Republican had not known about the allegations. Shimkus said he learned about them in late 2005.

It’s telling that the boy’s congressman apparently went directly to Tom Reynolds, chair of the Republican’s campaign for the House this year, with news of the brewing scandal. But it is not credible that Reynolds never bothered to tell senior House leaders.

The only alternative is that Hastert and Boehner have been sitting on the scandal for almost a year. Now the question is, what have they done to suppress the information.

This Just In: Foley Resigns After Approaching Underage Male Intern

Trish

Just this morning, I was thinking there was nothing to the story circulating around Florida of U.S. Rep. Mark Foley (R-Palm Beach) being improper toward a male teenaged former page in email.

And when I’m wrong, I’m wrong big.

ABC is reporting Foley just resigned.

Here’s the background:

The boy served as a page to a Louisiana congressman last year and came to know Foley, 52. He sent the congressman a thank-you note when his term as a page ended. After the boy returned to his home in Louisiana, Foley used his personal e-mail account to correspond with the teen.

Under the AOL Instant Messenger screen name Maf54, Foley made repeated references to sexual organs and acts

In the exchange, Foley asked the boy about weathering Hurricane Katrina and wrote, “send me an e-mail pic of you.” In another e-mail, Foley told the boy he was on a break from Congress and was in Florida. He asked the boy, “how old are you now?”

The boy forwarded excerpts from the e-mails to congressional staffers and said, “Maybe it is just me being paranoid, but seriously. This freaked me out.”

The boy, who is not being identified because of his age, told the St. Petersburg Times in an interview last November, when the Times first learned of the e-mails, that he cut off correspondence with Foley.

“I thought it was very inappropriate,” the boy told the Times. “After the one about the picture, I decided to stop e-mailing him back.”

…ABC News reported that Foley’s office said he routinely asked interns and job applicants for photographs. But when the Times asked Foley about the e-mails nearly a year ago, he did not mention that practice. He said he was merely trying to be friendly and did not mean to make the boy uncomfortable.

Foley has had e-mail exchanges with at least one other former page who told the Times he was surprised to get an e-mail from a congressman.

So check this out:

Saying he was “deeply sorry,” Congressman Mark Foley (R-FL) resigned from Congress today, hours after ABC News questioned him about sexually explicit internet messages with current and former congressional pages under the age of 18.

A spokesman for Foley, the chairman of the House Caucus on Missing and Exploited Children, said the congressman submitted his resignation in a letter late this afternoon to Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert.

Hours earlier, ABC News had read excerpts of instant messages provided by former male pages who said the congressman, under the AOL Instant Messenger screen name Maf54, made repeated references to sexual organs and acts.

In a statement, Foley said, “I am deeply sorry and I apologize for letting down my family and the people of Florida I have had the privilege to represent.”

Did you get that? The chairman of the House Caucus on Missing and Exploited Children?! Man, those Republicans are sick puppies.

Update: Here’s some of the text of the emails/instant messages. Maf54 is Marky Mark.

Maf54: You in your boxers, too?
Teen: Nope, just got home. I had a college interview that went late.
Maf54: Well, strip down and get relaxed.
…
Maf54: What ya wearing?
Teen: tshirt and shorts
Maf54: Love to slip them off of you.
…
Maf54: Do I make you a little horny?
Teen: A little.
Maf54: Cool.

Is Heterosexuality a Lifestyle Choice?

Jon Ponder
Conservatives’ internalized homophobia is like bulimia of the spirit. Its victims starve their psyches by regurgitating their self-loathing.

A new study has identified a small but significant biological factor that influences the sexual identity of males. The study proves that “having one or more older brothers boosts the likelihood of a boy growing up to be gay — an effect due not to social factors, but biological events that occur in their mother’s womb…”

While the study does not provide the ultimate proof that sexual orientation is innate, it does offer definitive evidence that biological forces have a role.

This is significant because, according to a 2003 Pew poll, 42 percent of Americans believe that homosexuality is a lifestyle choice — and it is among this group that we find the conservatives’ consensus of opposition for equal treatment under the law for gay people.

What fascinates me about rightwingers’ belief that sexual orientation is a choice is that, while they project this decision making onto those of us who grew up to be gay, they are apparently blind to the converse decision-making that it implies about themselves.

If homosexuals “decide” to be gay, then the corollary must be true: Heterosexuality must be a lifestyle choice, too.

What this means is that, at some point in their lives, these conservatives seriously considered becoming gay but then decided to pass.

This decision must have been wrenching. And over time, their suppressed desires turned into self-loathing — a disgust which they came to project onto others who, they believe, did not have the fortitude to conquer their attraction for members of their own gender.

This internalized homophobia is like bulimia of the spirit. Its victims starve their psyches by regurgitating their self-loathing.

Truly straight people do not — cannot — make a choice about their sexual orientation, just as gay people don’t, and can’t, choose. People who are comfortable in their own sexual personae are not threatened by the way the sexuality of others is expressed.