Rep. Richard Curtis(R) "I have not had sex with a guy,"

Well... That is what he was saying on Monday. It is amazing how a couple of days can change everything:

State Rep. Richard Curtis, R-La Center, admitted to having sex with a man he met at an adult video store in Spokane last week, according to a police report released Tuesday afternoon.

The police report offers a damning and far different version of events from the brief account Curtis gave to The Columbian Monday, one that seems likely to threaten Curtis’ political future.

The report is filled with graphic details of an encounter that began at a porn store on a Spokane Valley strip and concluded miles away in Curtis’ room at the city’s poshest hotel.

The police report contains an account of how Curtis allegedly donned women’s clothing, red stockings and a black sequined lingerie top before engaging in a sex act at the store. He continued to wear them throughout the night under his clothing.

ok...Mark Foley, David Vitter, Jim Kolbe, Glenn Murphy Jr, Larry Craig, etc.

Continuing to carry the republican family values banner in fine form they just keep digging deeper and deeper on sex scandals, hypocritical voting records, prostitution and gay/bisexual trysts outside of their "traditional republican marriages".

As I noted when Bob Allen and Larry Craig got caught in their respective bathrooms:

At least neither of these Republicans pulled a full GOP and tried pick up kids like Foley...Or, at least, nothing has been proven in Larry Craig's case, but I certainly do have to say: This has got to be the worst year for political sex scandals in the history of the GOP... And that is saying a lot.

I guess we just haven't really said enough yet. And at least this one avoided being the fourth Republican bathroom scandal, but I cannot say that a porn shop pick-up is that much better. Just a lot more sanitary.

Cheney Flagged For Hanging With Racists

As we all watched New Orleans drown, was there ever any doubt about bush and cheney's views on race:

Although Cheney did not shoot anyone on this hunting excursion, the New York Daily News reports that the trip still managed to stir up problems for the Vice President:

Nobody got shot, but Vice President Cheney still fired up controversy Monday when he went hunting at a private club that hangs the Confederate flag.

A Daily News photographer captured the 3-by-5 foot Dixie flag affixed to a door in the garage of the Clove Valley Gun and Rod Club in upstate Union Vale, N.Y.

“It’s appalling for the VP to be at a private club displaying the flag of lynching, hate and murder,” said Rev. Al Sharpton. “It’s the epitome of an insult.”

Cheney spokeswoman Megan Mitchell said, “No one in our office was aware there was such a flag. The vice president did not see a flag, nor did anyone on his staff traveling with him in New York.” The Daily News photographer who took the picture, Howard Simmons, said “the flag was plainly viewable in the strong sunlight streaming toward the garage”, but he also “said it is conceivable the garage door could have been closed when the vice president and his guests were there.”

Sorry, but I am not buying that cheney would not have a clue about the kind of people he chooses to hang around with. Especially after NOLA, Jena, and immigration issues have exposed the hidden agendas of the average GOP supporter.

Previously brewed here:

This is by no means a "Heads up!" I really mean "Duck and cover!" Like your life depends on it.



A word of warning to everyone in the area:

The Poughkeepsie Journal in New York reports that “Vice President Dick Cheney is coming to Dutchess County again to go hunting.” On Monday, Cheney is “expected to leave Poughkeepsie and head to the Clove Valley Rod & Gun Club.” No word on whether the Vice President will be drinking beforehand this time.

Dutchess County, NY, is next door to a good part of Litchfield County in Connecticut. And with the weapons that warmongering neoconservative idiot has in his arsenal we can never be too careful! There is nothing more dangerous than a hunter with a beer hat on his head and a deadly can opener in his hands...

An Offer That Scares the Hell Out of Washington D.C.

Via Lukery at the Booman Tribune and Let Sibel Edmonds Speak:

Former FBI translator and whistleblower Sibel Edmonds has promised to tell us everything she knows about treason at the highest level of the US government - with one proviso:

"Here's my promise to the American Public: If anyone of the major networks --- ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, MSNBC, FOX --- promise to air the entire segment, without editing, I promise to tell them everything that I know."

Edmonds, "the most gagged person in the history of the United States of America," has been trying to expose criminal activity, treason, at the highest levels of the US Government - Congress, Pentagon and State Dept - since she became aware of the crimes in 2001 and 2002.

Edmonds has exhausted every conceivable channel in the courts, Congress, and elsewhere, and is now willing to risk criminal charges to ensure that the American people learn how their government really 'works.'

BradBlog has the exclusive.

I am willing to bet, no matter how credible Sibel Edmonds charges have been decreed by those that have heard her testimony in Congress, there will be no takers on this blockbuster of a story because the CORPORATE OWNED MEDIA are just shills for the CORPORATE OWNED GOVERNMENT... Welcome to "Corporate America" run-amok under the guise of the conservative agenda of privatizing everything as a solution to problems that didn't really exist in the first place.

You have all seen this truth

The DesMoines Register tackles a truth that most of the media will never admit:

Kathleen Ferguson of Des Moines says nothing has changed four years later. She found one of those surveys on the Web site of WQAD-TV in the Quad Cities. She answered the 11 multiple-choice questions and decided how important each issue was to her.

The topics were Iraq, immigration, tax cuts, stem cell research, health care, abortion, Social Security, a line-item veto, ethanol, same-sex marriage and the death penalty.

Ferguson clicked "select a candidate," and up popped Kucinich.

She had family members take the test. Kucinich came in first or second.

She wondered what was going on. A lot of Democrats like what he has to say on the issues. Yet only a small percentage like him as their candidate.

"We're not all that liberal," Ferguson said. "Several of us are former Republicans. It's astonishing to see what we want was labeled too far-out liberal."

A lawyer she knows took the test, and another friend. Kucinich, Kucinich.

The last time I took one of those tests Connecticut Rep. Rosa Delauro popped up as the closest candidate to me on the issues. Dennis Kucinich and Ralph Nader were tied in a close second... And I am not all that liberal in my politics, considering I hold a strong belief in fiscal responsibility when it comes to spending. None of those matches surprised me at all. I am familiar with where most of the candidates stand on the issues that are important to myself.

PTSD Reform in the Military May be Too Late

The Hartford Courant reports on reforms to how the military will attempt to screen and treat soldiers that may be suffering from PTSD:

Military Backs Reforms
Most Of Task Force's Recommendations Adopted By Defense Department

The military will expand psychological screening for both new recruits and active-duty service members, and will make safeguarding mental health part of the core training for leaders, Defense Secretary Robert Gates' office told Congress in a report released Tuesday.

The report adopts nearly all of the recommendations sent to Gates in June by a Pentagon task force of mental health professionals, who called on the Defense Department to correct "fundamental weaknesses" in its approach to mental health or risk tragic social consequences. Those recommendations include improving access to care by hiring more mental health clinicians, "embedding" counselors in military units and primary-care clinics, and improving coordination between the military and the Department of Veterans Affairs.

But Gates' office cautioned that many of the reforms would take until May 2008 - or longer - to put into place, fueling concerns among some soldiers' and veterans' advocates that mental health problems and suicides among troops in Iraq will continue to climb.

But the Military is too late for many of the soldiers that are already suffering from PTSD:

Iraq Veteran Faces Charges

MANCHESTER - Fresh off two, back-to-back tours in Iraq, a troubled Marine reservist faced a judge Wednesday on charges of pointing a loaded shotgun at his girlfriend and throwing a knife at her.

With "USMC" tattooed on his neck, Riaan Roberts, 25, of Chestnut Street, stood expressionless before the judge during his arraignment in Superior Court in Manchester.

The charges against him, which include first-degree reckless endangerment, second-degree unlawful restraint and third-degree assault, stem from a bizarre incident with his girlfriend early Tuesday. According to police, Roberts insulted the woman, threw a knife at her and pointed a loaded shotgun at her in their Manchester apartment where officers found three guns - two shotguns and a rifle - four knives and boxes of ammunition.

snip

During the arraignment, prosecutor Anthony Spinella said he has sympathy for Roberts, but that Roberts was too unstable to be released from custody as a bail commissioner had recommended.

snip

McKinney later told police that Roberts has issues with civilian society and experiences flashbacks from Iraq. He recently told her he doesn't trust himself. She said he needs professional help for mental health issues but refuses to see anyone.

Read more...

For more information on PTSD:

Blaming the Veteran
The Politics of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder

Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) became part of the American vocabulary after the Vietnam War as its affects on veterans became widely publicized. Now, a new generation of American veterans are again victims of PTSD. This series explores the impact of politics on the funding, diagnosis and treatment of veterans suffering from PTSD. It examines the propaganda used to justify a reduction in benefits to veterans with PTSD and the effort to redirect blame for the ravages of war to the soldiers themselves.

Part I: Stacking the Deck - With trillion dollar estimates for the Iraq war, the Administration looks to cut costs, eyeing treatment for the returning PTSD wounded veterans.

Part II: Ration & Redefine - Redefining PTSD and substance abuse as moral/spiritual failings opens the door to cheaper unregulated, unlicensed faith-based "treatments."

Part III: Malign & Slime - Propaganda is used to stigmatize veterans seeking help, reduce benefits to veterans with PTSD and to blame the soldiers for their own illness.

PTSD Resources

Also: See tessa's diary on "Veterans Committing Suicide"

And in comment from snorwich at the MLN x-post of this diary:  "I just read a story in the Denver Post about a severely wounded vet who just killed somebody over a bag of dope. I will try to retieve the story; it was perfect for this diary." Tragically, snorwich may be correct.

Kick the Nancy Can

skippy the bush kangaroo takes a kick at the Nancy can and so can you:

i am nancy pelosi's earful and so can you! my letter

you are an embarassment to americans, nancy. representative stark spoke the truth. you can't get an impeachment investigation of crimes you helped hide for bush but you will attack a democratic representative who speaks for over 60% of the american people.

when the full history of american politics is known, you will be seen as one sad, easily maniupulated puppet of the bush regime.

There are many of us in the left that are tired of her gavel gazing when IMPEACHMENT, for the sake of everything this nation once stood for, has become an imperative...

Duck and Cover!

This is by no means a "Heads up!" I really mean "Duck and cover!" Like your life depends on it.


A word of warning to everyone in the area:

The Poughkeepsie Journal in New York reports that “Vice President Dick Cheney is coming to Dutchess County again to go hunting.” On Monday, Cheney is “expected to leave Poughkeepsie and head to the Clove Valley Rod & Gun Club.” No word on whether the Vice President will be drinking beforehand this time.

Dutchess County, NY, is next door to a good part of Litchfield County in Connecticut. And with the weapons that warmongering neoconservative idiot has in his arsenal we can never be too careful! There is nothing more dangerous than a hunter with a beer hat on his head and a deadly can opener in his hands...

Crimes Against Who?

Via TPM:

The metaphorical statue of L. Paul Bremer III has come crashing down. Today the Iraqi government formally revoked one of the Coalition Provisional Authority’s enduring vestiges — a decree of immunity from prosecution in Iraqi courts for U.S. security contractors.

“The cabinet held a meeting yesterday and decided to scrap the article pertaining to security companies operating in Iraq that was issued by the CPA (Coalition Provision Authority) in 2004,” government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said in a statement.

“It has decided to present a new law regarding this issue which will be taken in the next cabinet meeting.” Read more…

Has anyone contacted Blackwater to find out when they, err I mean, the insurgents will blow up the Iraqi cabinet responsible for these outrageous crimes against corporate entities?

The Liberal Journal said that "Yesterday, the USA Today reported that the terrorist watch list has grown to over 755,000 names. It has grown at about 200,000 a year since 2004. Now, the TSA is proposing that we get Big Brother's permission 3 days before we are to fly."

No word yet from the TSA about whether or not Blackwater mercenaries that have committed minor errors, like murder and massacre, will be on that list...

Epluribus Radio Tonight

If you are around TONIGHT (Wednesday, October 24), please join us again for another edition of Don't Hijack My Thread! at 8PM Eastern/5PM Pacific. Dante Atkins (hekebolos) will be our guest co-host tonight.

This week's topics are as follows:

• CA wildfires and "hating America"
• Dodd's filibuster of the FISA bill
• Talking turkey about Turkey
  
• Could criminal prosecution for Gonzo be a reality?

The link to tonight's show is: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/epradio/2007/10/25/dont-hijack-my-thread

The link to past shows for podcast or streaming is here: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/epradio and you can check out Blog Talk Radio's progressive radio lineup at Heading Left (www.headingleft.com).

Info about calling in can be found here: http://political-nexus.blogspot.com/2007/04/want-to-call-into-dont-hijack-my-thread.html


The call in number is 718-508-9410