Dear Senator Boxer:
I'm concerned that you're not investigating Senator David Bruce Vitter of Louisiana. Senator Vitter would not be serving on a Senate Foreign Relations subcommittee if it had been known that he had frequented the escort service of Deborah Jeane Palfrey (as we all know, he called her Pamela Martin & Associates five-times during 1999-2001, as well as other possible liaisons of some sort in New Orleans). This is troubling, and inaction isn't excusable. Senator Boxer, take a casual-glance at recent public opinion polls: Congress is experiencing the lowest approval-ratings in almost the entirety of its history. They are even lower than that of the president. The "whys" are simple--you aren't following the will of the American people. We want an end to the war, and we want George W. Bush and his criminal administration brought to justice. We also want accountability within the halls of Congress, and we're going to get it in time.
While the 9/11 hijackers were plotting their attacks, the FBI appears to have been busy watching, recording, and babysitting then-Representative David Vitter when he frequented the establishment of one Jeanette Maier--aka "The Canal Street Madam." It's possible that the FBI was also babysitting other GOP incumbents in New Orleans through questionable surveillance, and that this could also be the case with Ms. Deborah Jeane Palfrey's firm and her own peculiar legal predicament. But for the reasons of transparency and accountability, all of these surveillance logs should be declassified in toto. The public has a right to know.
For this reason--and because Senator Vitter's oversight of USAID's Randall L. Tobias was incomplete--it's time for a real investigation into Vitter's actions during the period found in the phone records of Pamela Martin & Associates (1999-2001 inclusive, though it could extend further). The fact that Vitter and Mr. Tobias are both found in the records is very troubling, and suggests the possibility of other improprieties by the two, possibly in-collusion in some manner. He has all-but-admitted to committing repeated crimes involving infidelities with other women, though the true extent of this is still unclear. It won't be an easy job investigating Senator Vitter. Your Republican colleagues on the Ethics Committee are likely to tip him and the Republican leadership off to the particulars of any inquiry, and they cannot generally be trusted to follow the rule of law as members of their party. They have illustrated this time-and-time-again in recent years.
But it's extremely likely that David Vitter has violated various District of Columbia statutes (and Louisiana's code), which would have impaired his ability to serve on the Foreign Relations subcommittee, even when prostitution was not part of the picture. We need to know more about his activities while serving as a member of Congress. What's clear--although the statute of limitations likely applies in the 1999-2001 liasons with women--is that Senator Vitter violated the DC code on adultery, § 22-201:
Whoever commits adultery in the District shall, on conviction thereof, be punished by a fine not exceeding $500, or by imprisonment not exceeding 180 days, or both; and when the act is committed between a married person and a person who is unmarried both parties to such act shall be deemed guilty of adultery.
Granted, the law is rarely enforced, but perhaps this is because D.C. prostitution statutes are thought to cover this area of misbehavior more adequately. Only it appears they do not--clients are usually given a light-punishment, while sex workers receive the full-force of the law. This is gender inequality, something that I assume concerns you as a woman. All of this underscores the senator's own questionable morality, and is part of a very sick culture in Washington (and throughout our nation).
As far as we can tell, David Vitter may have violated this "adultery statute" five-times, aside from what could also be charges of frequenting women for the purposes of prostitution. The fact is, there are more-than-sufficient indications that an investigation into Senator David Bruce Vitter is in order, and it should be done in as objective and an even-handed manner as possible. It should already have begun, and I hope that it has. He's hardly alone in Washington in his misbehaviors, and it's time to start some genuine, radical reform. Any investigations into these areas should be aggressive and done in a timely manner.
respectfully yours, Matt Janovic, private citizen
I find this article to be well written and intriguing. I found your blog while searching for other individuals who had Gnosis as an interest. I'm curious what your take is on legalized prostitution.
ReplyDeleteThank you for the kind words and your observations. My take is that it should be legalized as it is in Germany and elsewhere. We're rapidly coming-in- last in human services in developed nations on several-counts, and prostitution is no exception.
ReplyDeleteIt should be obvious to all upon cursory examination of the effects on poor woman either forced into prostitution by thugs, or merely because it's getting harder and harder to survive in America. It is inhuman and criminal and makes women engaged or trapped within prostitution to be victims of both the police and ruthless criminals.
Whatever one might feel about prostitution is irrelevant, only the effects on women should be taken-into-account, and I don't mean the wife of Senator David Bruce Vitter, fuck those morons. One should note that it was during the last so-called "progressive era" that our current prostitution statutes came-into-being. Who pushed it hardest? Why, RICH WOMEN, of course.
100-years of this has only hurt the prostitutes, with some pimps being brought down. However, police agencies--state, federal, and municipal--feed off of the current situation and victimize prostitutes...and madams (I'm not alleging that Ms. Palfrey is, she's innocent until proven guilty, and even then...).
Ask yourself why madams are hit hardest by the authorities, and the answers will come in a nexus of gender politics, class (most-of-all), and your general corruption. For this reason, feminists really need to get serious about ending this human rights disaster, it must stop.
Gnosis: Feel free to search the site for my review of Michele Soavi's "The Church" (1988), it's perhaps the closest any director has come to putting some of the basics of the Gnostic cosmology into the cinematic medium. Perhaps closer to Manicheanism, but that's close enough--the world as hell, a lower-realm. His "Cemetary Man" is also a good example of the same cosmology in a movie, though less obvious. I'll be writing more on Gnosticism and Hermeticism in future pieces...
PS: I enjoin anyone who wishes to see this information on Vitter's page to paste it back, it's below in the articles directly beneath this one. The original research is writer Bill Keisling's @ www.yardbird.com.
ReplyDeleteI also would recommend that all Americans concerned about the direction their country is taking to purchase his book, "The Midnight Ride of Jonathan Luna," the assistant US attorney who was murdered in early-December of 2003, it's an American nightmare that needs to be seriously investigated.
The Vitter piece is there for those who wish to know the facts about how much trouble the Senator really happens to be in--and the fact that Governor Blanco would immediately replace him with a Democratic representative. That would suit me fine, and that's why the GOP in Congress isn't spanking him: his loss means they cannot block investigations and worthwhile legislation that aids the public and the common good.