Mark Foley: Republicans keeping their family secret... What is peculiar about the whole mess is, among the obvious items, the remark by Rep. Rodney Alexander, (R-LA), the sponsor of the page:
Alexander said he did not pursue the matter further because "[the boy's] parents said they didn't want me to do anything."
Are we expected to believe that the parents were indifferent to such an allegation? or were they afraid of pursuing the matter?
Secondly, John Schimkus, (R-IL) never bothered to inform ranking Dem members of the Page Board that such an accusation was being investigated. His excuse was that he was "dealing with it." That judgement will need revision.
Finally, Majority Leader Boehner, (R-OH) has changed his story about whether he told Speaker Dennis Hastert, (R-IL) about the matter. Yesterday he said he did tell him; today he says he didn't tell him.
Like the aroma that surrounded certain Catholic bishops, this will linger. These Republican family values are not so healthy after all.

Trent Lott is the latest to put his foot in his mouth on the subject of Iraq... [found on Daily Kos].

"It's hard for Americans, all of us, including me, to understand what's wrong with these people," he said. "Why do they kill people of other religions because of religion? Why do they hate the Israeli's and despise their right to exist? Why do they hate each other? Why do Sunnis kill Shiites? How do they tell the difference? They all look the same to me."

Aside from the most obvious howler, it's really hard to believe that he doesn't understand sectarian hatred. His party has been capitalizing on American sectarian hatred for the past decade.

Speaking of sectarian hatred, the Terrell Owen/Dallas PD slugfest has degenerated into some real slime on HuffPo, with the comments section bringing out the real stars in the firmament of mouth-breathers. The spittle is flying about gays and black people today.

Marilyn Musgrave beats the (Christian) terror drum... Adding to the shrill pitch of the so-called "Values Voters Summit" last week, the throng of right wingers began ginning up the fearful base for the upcoming elections. [from Think Progress]:

Rep. Marilyn Musgrave (R-CO), the lead sponsor of the constitutional ban on gay marriage in the House, spoke this weekend at the Family Research Council’s “Values Voter Summit.” (Other virulently anti-gay speakers were featured at the event.)
Musgrave declared that gay marriage “is the most important issue that we face today.” She told the audience that “when you’re in a cultural war like this, you have to respond with equal and hopefully greater force if you want to win,” and warned that the “future is grim” if gay marriage is not banned.

A dynamite comment on her blather from a Huffington Post reader:
LOL
Bring out the gays bring out the gays...we have nothing except fear to sell, nothing except fear..
01) Being gay is not natural. Real Americans always reject unnatural things like eyeglasses, polyester, and air conditioning.
02) Gay marriage will encourage people to be gay, in the same way that hanging around tall people will make you tall.
03) Legalizing gay marriage will open the door to all kinds of crazy behavior. People may even wish to marry their pets because a dog has legal standing and can sign a marriage contract.
04) Straight marriage has been around a long time and hasn't changed at all; women are still property, blacks still can't marry whites, and divorce is still illegal.
05) Straight marriage will be less meaningful if gay marriage were allowed; the sanctity of Britany Spears' 55-hour just-for-fun marriage would be destroyed.
06) Straight marriages are valid because they produce children. Gay couples, infertile couples, and old people shouldn't be allowed to marry because our orphanages aren't full yet, and the world needs more children.
07) Obviously gay parents will raise gay children, since straight parents only raise straight children.
08) Gay marriage is not supported by religion. In a theocracy like ours, the values of one religion are imposed on the entire country. That's why we have only one religion in America.
09) Children can never succeed without a male and a female role model at home. That's why we as a society expressly forbid single parents to raise children.
10) Gay marriage will change the foundation of society; we could never adapt to new social norms. Just like we haven't adapted to cars, the service-sector economy, or longer life spans.
By: Hirnlego on September 27, 2006 at 05:35pm

The gay terror angle plays well, obviously, but Bugs Bunny may have described it thusly:
"What a maroon!"

Juan Cole's interview is now up at "Democracy Now"... highlights: his description of Bush's "axis of evil" statement as "shameful"; his characterization of Iraq as being "unquestionab[ly]" in a state of civil war; and his judgement that the Israel-Lebanon war was "inconclusive" but that "war crimes" were commited. He characterized Hugo Chavez' UN appearance as "clownish", but no more so than Bush's slur of Chavez. Professor Cole was, as is his "Informed Comment" blog, very interesting and, as you might expect, informative. His blog is part of my daily routine since the perspective you'll find there is refreshing and free of the usual partisan, corporate hype that is all to easy to find.

Falwell just doing what he does best... The so-called "Values Voters" Summit this weekend featured Jerry Falwell's opening salvo against a Hillary Clinton presidential candidacy when he remarked that such an event would mobilize "his" constituency better than a run by Lucifer. It is no surprise that fear be used as motivation by a preacher; we've been terrorized by threats of hurricanes and brimstone and the end of the world for a long time. Claims that he had attempted to "demonize" Senator Clinton with his remark were denied, of course. As he has done many times before, his slurs are quickly followed by some kind of demur...after the sound bite has been projected all over the world.

Create your own online newspaper... Although I don't have any momentous opinions to offer you today, I wanted to recommend http://www.crayon.net as the cool way to make a one-stop collection of all the favorites you visit every day. You simply add the link for the site you want in your "paper" and you're done. FYI, among those I've got on my list is The Huffington Post, Truthdig, BBC, Informed Comment, Daily Kos and Talking Points Memo.
The advantage, of course, is that it's web-based so you can get your daily paper wherever you are.