If Obama becomes president-elect

A'murka--Look, you have no idea how thrilling the idea of a Black American president is to me. The only single group of Americans that I've consistently had respect for besides Jews are Black people. Not Poles, not German-Americans, not anyone else.

But the problem is, we're probably all going to hate Obama after he's done very little in the social agendas we all need expedited. We're going to have to fight and pressure him to do what's right. Even if the Democrats somehow win a veto-proof and filibuster-proof majority in both houses of Congress, most of them are going to do their best along with the Republicans to derail any substantial social-dividend.

That's right: I'm saying that if Obama wins, in three-years you're all going to hate him and think he's the same kind of son-of-a-bitch that's leaving office on January 20th, 2009. Why do I think this? My knowledge of American history and its trends and cycles, especially regarding the last 30 years. That said, I wouldn't dissuade many voters from casting their votes for candidate Barack Obama, and would never advocate them voting for a Republican in any lifetime. Obama's record is hardly sterling or pure on a social agenda, let alone on the wars in the Middle East, nor regarding the obvious crimes of the Bush administration.

Obama has voted for funding for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq without exception, and there are troubling-signs elsewhere. For a former professor of constitutional law, he has some very peculiar viewpoints on what's acceptable behavior by a presidential administration. He has not called for the prosecution of a patently criminal administration, let alone for its impeachment. While it's true that he didn't vote for the authorization of force in Iraq, it's even money that he would have, his only out being that he wasn't a member of Congress at the time.

Mark these words: you're going to hate this man if he wins, and in a very short time...unless you apply extraordinary pressure on him and Congress to push for a more social agenda for all, a genuine redistribution of wealth that's unprecedented in our history. Only then can we be a viable nation that can compete on the world stage, bringing-back a nation that was once an innovator in so many areas.

This requires breaking the logjam of concentrated power, that greatest threat to ingenuity, spontaneity, and inventiveness that really did make this a great nation at one time. My feeling is he's going to blow it because he's going to be told to by his handlers. He shows all the warning-signs. I'm voting Nader/Gonzales so I can sleep at night.

The Smoking Gun's Bill Bastone: "Bottom Feeder," according to late DC Madam

WWW--Below is an excerpt of correspondence between Jeane Palfrey and nefarious cop/prosecutor lover Bill Bastone, ostensible editor of The Smoking Gun. What a piece-of-shit he is: Palfrey's trial was almost a year away. The world first learned of this story from his website, and it wasn't on-accident.

Posting Palfrey's early-1990s mugshot mirrors the prosecution's strategy, and "bad-jacketed" the defendant as a felon.

It begs-the-question: how many times has Bastone engaged in this behavior before? Who is he? Really? What is he? What is the real role of The Smoking Gun site?

Someone within the government's investigation and prosecution provided him--illegally--with an unsigned search warrant (it's dated Oct. 4th, 2006, and still online), and more. In the opinion of this writer, at-minimum, Bill Bastone is that most despicable of so-called journalists--the "friendly asset." Guilty, or innocent, how can anyone have a fair trial under such circumstances?

What Bastone did was to taint virtually every potential jury member out there, by colluding with the prosecution--there is no other conclusion to be made from this. My take. Prove me wrong. What I do pledge is that I will be filing FOIAs on this matter until the end of my life. Bastone appears to have no concept of due process or the time honored American tradition that one is presumed innocent until found guilty in a fair trial. He ensured that this wasn't going to happen by his actions.

Mr. Bastone… I can assure you that sooner or later, I will get to the bottom of this mess. In particular, I am going to find out who leaked the unsigned search warrant to you, last October and who you really are and/or represent. –Jeane Palfrey

-----Original Message-----
From: william bastone [mailto:wbastone@yahoo.com]
Sent: Friday, July 06, 2007 9:29 AM
To: jeanepalfrey@sprynet.com
Subject: Re: D.C. Madam Can Peddle "Call" List - July 5, 2007

jeane:

let's see, you've turned women out for almost 20

years [Ed.--Told to you by whom?], which seems to make the "veteran pimp" moniker

pretty accurate. as for the bottom feeder crack, well, i'm not going to

challenge your particular ability to identify that

species.[Ed.--Correct, she knew scum when she saw it.]

finally, does this mean you won't be e-mailing us your phone logs? because i had cleared my calendar for the

rest of the month... [Ed.--Here, Bastone makes-it-plain which

camp he's in and that he's not interested in the phone logs, which is curious considering the nature of his site. Amazing.]

regards,bill bastone

--- Jeane Palfrey wrote:

>

http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/years/2007/0705072palfrey1.html?link=rs

> sfeed

>

> Mr. Bastone... "the veteran pimp" - you continue to

> be nothing, but a bottom

> feeder. Jeane Palfrey

>

>

William Bastone

thesmokinggun.com

600 Third Avenue

16th Floor

New York, N.Y. 10016

(212) 692-7849

More GOP Failures and Negligence: The Lower 9th Ward is Flooding Again

New Orleans, Louisiana--That's right, it's happening again, and we're getting scanty coverage of it in a manner that's familiar. Some levees that did not break during Katrina have broken and the Industrial Canal levees are being breached by overtopping as evident from what coverage we're seeing today on television. This appears to have happened within the last two hours.

Mission accomplished: the GOP is still wrecking America. McCain's urging of aid is a belated move by the problem itself. Meanwhile--back at the ranch--Bush is coddling-up with mommy (who looks like the spitting image of George Washington) and daddy. Incredible, but we expected John McCain to keep eating that cake with George W. Bush the second time around.

"New Orleans Lower Ninth Ward Flooding From Gustav's Storm Surges," All Headline News, 09.01.2008: http://www.allheadlinenews.com/articles/7012135607

Songs from the Site Meter: A Visit Over the Deskin-Palfrey E-mails

Site Meter--They're not coming down, not now, not ever. They are part of our history, and the public has a right to know what happened. I never signed anything, or agreed to any contract during my whole correspondence with Deborah Jeane Palfrey, the "DC Madam." Roll out the Pinkertons, boys, we got a live one here.

Question: does Sam Deskin and his firm have any association with Preston Burton and Orrick, Herrington, & Sutcliffe?

It wouldn't surprise me, or others who were involved in the DC Madam saga, but the fact is that they're a global law firm with nearly 1,000 attorneys in their employ in around 18 countries. Oh yeah, and Orrick's visited this site in the past. I assume they'll be back now. Are Burton and associates at Orrick working on a book on the late-Jeane Palfrey? One would imagine.

Domain Name		verizon.net ? (Network)
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D.C. Madam's mother sues to keep autopsy and suicide photos sealed

Tarpon Springs, Florida--The mother of the deceased DC Madam, Deborah Jeane Palfrey, is suing to keep crime scene photographs sealed. Blanche Palfrey has requested that photographs of Palfrey's corpse at the scene of discovery as well as autopsy photos be permanently kept from publication.

But who would want to publish them? Not this writer, but someone Jeane Palfrey referred to frequently to this writer as a "bastard," one Bill Bastone, editor of The Smoking Gun website.

"The only media or public interest in said photographs flows from a morbid exploitation by some members of the public and the pursuit of sensationalism by some members of the media," the lawsuit states.
As of today the only entity that has requested the photographs is SmokingGun.com, said Capt. Jeff Young of the Tarpon Springs Police Department.
The department has not released any photographs or police reports on Deborah Palfrey's suicide because the investigation isn't finished, but it should be in a matter of days, authorities say.

When that day comes, the agency is expected to release whatever documentation it is obligated to under Florida public records laws, said Jim Yacavone, the attorney for Tarpon Springs. ("D.C. Madam's Mother Sues to Stop Release of Photos," TBO.com/Tampa Bay Online, 08.07.2008)

I cannot disagree with Mrs. Palfrey's and her counsel's reasoning, and she wouldn't be the only one upset by their release. The photographs won't add to any knowledge of the case for the record, and nothing will be learned from them. It's just a move by gawkers and exploiters to make money (like Alex Jones, and others...).

The DC Madam's relationship with The Smoking Gun and Bastone is a peculiar one. They were the very first media outlet to pick-up on the story. Palfrey informed this writer on several occasions that she felt Bastone had been illegally "tipped-off" by federal investigators and prosecutors on her case in order to taint her and her ability to receive a fair trial through articles containing selective leaks.

Bastone's first article appeared on October 9th (http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/1009061hook1.html)
. Palfrey claimed that The Smoking Gun editor contacted her on her cell phone while she was in Germany on October 6th, just two days after her home was being searched by federal agents. How did Bastone have her private cell phone number at that time?

More importantly: how was he made aware of the investigation and pertinent details of it? Palfrey thought it was leaks by the prosecution until her untimely end. The articles contain the theme of an assumption of guilt on the part of Bastone.

From December 1st, 2006:

As we first reported, federal investigators are probing the operator of a Washington, D.C. escort service that sent college-educated prostitutes to the homes and hotel rooms of well-heeled clients. In a new court filing, federal prosecutors offer an amusing glimpse into how madam Deborah Jeane Palfrey ran her escort business, which she started in 1993 and ran until about three months ago. When Internal Revenue Service agents raided Palfrey's California home, they recovered newsletters that Palfrey distributed to her stable of whores at Pamela Martin & Associates. (' "Pro-fessional Tips, Feds: Alleged D.C. madam sent newsletters to her stable of whores," The Smoking Gun, 12.01.2006)

Indeed, Palfrey was guilty, but this was over a year before her belated trial. It was before she ever charged officially with racketeering, which came in March of 2007. There are no federal laws against prostitution.

The Smoking Gun's editor wrote in his first piece from October, 2006:

But Palfrey did speculate that she may have come to the attention of federal agents because her operation had somehow intersected with a more high profile case, like that of convicted ex-congressman Randy "Duke" Cunningham. Investigators are reportedly examining charges that a defense contractor provided hookers to Cunningham as part of an influence-peddling scheme. Palfrey did not claim a nexis between her escort service and Cunningham, but invoked the disgraced pol's name while saying that she would wager that the basis for the federal probe of her business "had solely to do with some Duke Cunningham-type bigwig client that got caught up in something and started to say, 'Do you know this?' and 'Do you know that?' And that he might have been able to lead them to somebody." ("New D.C. Sex Scandal Looming?" The Smoking Gun, 10.09.2006)

Yet Palfrey claimed that it was Bastone who first dropped the name of now convicted former GOP congressman Randall "Duke" Cunningham, not the opposite. J-7 invites Mr. Bastone to produce the interview tape to clear up this issue, and others, though it's doubtful that he ever will.

Ironically, my own research for the defense focused on the "Cunningham angle," one that Palfrey summarily dropped towards the end of the run-up to trial in March of this year. Bastone's--and Tru TV's--site is the only outlet to have requested the death photos of Palfrey, a curious move by those with a potentially unscrupulous relationship with her prosecutors.

If it's true that Bastone had a "relationship" with the IRS, Postal Inspectors, the FBI, or the Justice Department (take your pick), then his credibility is seriously in question (nothing new). Palfrey sent this to myself and her then-attorney, the inimitable Montgomery Blair Sibley on December 23rd, 2007:

Blair… if you ever doubt that my case is politically motivated OR simply “can’t go there” with the mounting circumstantial evidence of selective prosecution, I would ask that you read the highlighted portion below in particular, from Bil earlier today. Never forgot that son-of-a bitch, Bill Bastone’s first question to me in Germany, just days after the warrant was executed on my property had to do with Cunningham and Bastone’s insistence that I professionally knew the “Dukester”; this, despite my continued statements to the contrary. -Jeane

Mr. Bastone was questioned for this piece on how he had obtained Palfrey's cell phone number and whether she'd dropped Cunningham's name first in the impromptu interview from Germany (there might have been multiple-contacts, one possibly during an in-transit flight) in early-October of 2006. Bastone refused to comment in any detail stating in an email, "Thanks for your note. However, we don't discuss our interviews or reporting process."

Considering that the information might have been leaked illegally by a federal agent or official, that's understandable. At least his response was prompt.

"D.C. Madam's Mother Sues to Stop Release of Photos," TBO.com/Tampa Bay Online, 08.07.2008: http://www2.tbo.com/content/2008/aug/07/dc-madams-mother-sues-stop-release-photos/

"New D.C. Sex Scandal Looming?" The Smoking Gun, 10.09.2006: http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/1009061hook1.html

' "Pro-fessional Tips, Feds: Alleged D.C. madam sent newsletters to her stable of whores," The Smoking Gun, 12.01.2006: http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/1201061palfrey1.html

Added-value Postscript, 08.09.2008: Here's an exchange with Bill Bastone, ostensible editor of The Smoking Gun. Isn't he charming? Yeah, I'm not either, but that's how it goes. Eat and enjoy!


On Fri, Aug 8, 2008 at 4:29 PM, Matt Janovic <myboigie@earthlink.net> wrote:

Dear Mr. Bastone:

On October 9th, you penned a piece on Ms. Palfrey where you alleged that she dropped the name of Randy Cunningham during your talk with her.

I would like to know the following: 1.) How did you obtain her private cell phone number, and 2.) do you still contend that she dropped the name of Mr. Cunningham first--she contended otherwise, that you said it first.

kind regards, Matt Janovic, private researcher

Then... (isn't our cause-and-effect universe thrilling?):

----- Original Message -----

From: The Smoking Gun

To: myboigie@earthlink.net

Sent: 8/8/2008 4:36:55 PM

Subject: Re: Jeane Palfrey

Matt:

Thanks for your note. However, we don't discuss our interviews or reporting process.
Bill BastoneEditor

TSG

But...

On Fri, Aug 8, 2008 at 6:01 PM, Matt Janovic <myboigie@earthlink.net> wrote:

Dear Mr. Bastone:

So the prosecution never briefed you on Ms. Palfrey's case in October of 2006? Are you a "friendly asset" of federal investigators?

kind regards, Matt Janovic

Yet...

Matt:

Seriously, what part of "we don't discuss our interviews or reporting process" did not register?No need for another response. [Ed.--Awwwwww, sure there is...]Bill BastoneTSG


Ed.--I won't bore you with the rest, and I certainly won't be writing Bastone again anytime soon, but suffice it to say that he was told for the several thousandth time that he was a jerk and an exploiter (in sharper words). Gotham City is not safer with this man on the beat. He sure doesn't like it when the mic is pointed in the other direction.

Louisiana Sen. David Vitter attempting to use campaign donations to pay for legal fees related to Palfrey case

Washington D.C./Metarie, Louisiana--Is it redundant to refer to the donors of Sen. Vitter's campaign as suckers? Never mind, the Advocate is reporting today that the senator from Louisiana has sent a letter to the Federal Elections Commission (FEC) trying to recoup over $70,000 in legal fees he incurred, assessing and watching the Palfrey scandal through counsel.

This pleases myself--the editor of this site--to no end. The total amount is somewhere in the neighborhood of $137,000, a tidy sum for someone who never set-foot in a courtroom. Why just $70,000? Perhaps the senator doesn't want the public to know what all of the money was spent on, but much of it was probably expended on private investigators and legal research.

Vitter's present counsel, Jan Witold Baran--whom he's now incurring even more legal debts with--has made some striking admissions to the Advocate, but the message is coming from Vitter. Will anyone notice? The Advocate missed spelling-out who Baran is: one of the "top elections and campaign lawyers who was an "Executive Assistant" to the FEC, 1977-79, according to his own firm profile. He's an insider who even represented the RNC and the Bush Sr. campaign in 1988. (http://www.wileyrein.com/directory.cfm?attorney_id=399)

Vitter has paid $70,000 of the legal fees personally and is asking that the money be re-imbursed through the campaign funds, the letter says.

FEC officials could not be reached late Wednesday afternoon for comment. Through his spokesman, Vitter declined to comment on the letter. The latest FEC campaign contributions report for Vitter, filed March 31, shows he has $1.6 million in his campaign coffers.

Baran, in the letter, says Vitter had been monitoring the Palfrey case three months before the senator acknowledged what he called a serious sin in his past. A review of the Palfrey records shows Vitter’s number on the list five times between 1999 and 2001 when he was in the House. ("Vitter to seek help with fees," The Advocate, 07.03.2008)

Why should the campaign contributors have to pay for Vitter's continual lies and obfuscations? Baran conveying Vitter's acknowledgment that he was "monitoring" the case from as early as late-March makes it plain that the senator was well aware of his guilt, and moved heaven and earth to avoid responsibility.

But now, a woman is dead by her own hand, and for some perverse reason, he's still holding office, though not if Louisiana state Republicans can help it. Eight GOP incumbents in the Senate still appear to support the errant-genitals of Sen. Vitter and Larry Craig--and the rest of their bodies--when they co-sponsored yet another round in the feeble-attempt at a gay marriage amendment to the Constitution, banning it.

Will the FEC reimburse the senator for his legal expenses? It depends on how much of a liability he's become to the national GOP, how much control the party itself exerts over the bureaucracy, and whether Louisianans have any self-respect left. After Katrina, it's time to muster some.

Yet, it appears that some of them still do, particularly Nate Monroe of The Daily Reveille, and he's hardly alone in the Southern state. Monroe's observations on Vitter's proposal of another stab at a national ban on gay marriage and his behavior related to the Palfrey case are astute:

The self-righteous hubris that Vitter revealed during his scandal - that it happened a long time ago, that he was "sorry," that he allegedly apologized to God and that, finally, he will not resign because he is still the best man to save Louisiana from itself - is the same hubris that motivated him to cosponsor this ridiculous piece of legislation. And of course, this bill is coming at a time when Congress ought to be paying attention to more dire events. ("Senator Vitter is married to arrogance," The Daily Reveille, 07.03.2008)

Technically, he's married to Wendy...for now. It should go without saying that the FEC would vote "no" to Vitter's absurd request, particularly with the April 15th conviction of the deceased Deborah Jeane Palfrey. This means that Vitter committed at least five criminal acts of soliciting prostitutes, and that he did likewise in his own home state. There is a possibility that he violated federal white slave laws and the Traveling Act, since Palfrey's service crossed state lines in the D.C. region.

At-minimum, it would be a grotesque act of favoritism and injustice for him to be reimbursed even a penny. Taking responsibility means just that, and Vitter's just illustrating that he's never going to unless he's forced to by society, by the courts. It sounds familiar doesn't it? It sounds a lot like the Bush administration, but then, it should. We're talking about the national GOP here.

This story and the career of the senator should have ended when Vitter's name was found in Palfrey's escort service records on July 9th of last year by researcher Dan Moldea. But up is down and down is up when the Republicans control the bureaucracy in Washington. They're right: government doesn't work...when they're in power.

It's the hope of this writer that Sen. Vitter's private investigators and attorneys were paid very well indeed when they came to J-7, as they most assuredly did. Several high powered law firms visited this site during the period before Vitter's semi-admission of guilt in July of 2007, and afterwards. There's another thing he's wrong about: others in the phone records were retaining counsel, just as he did, and they certainly incurred legal expenses of several thousand dollars.

How do I know this? Because many of them came through this site, leaving a record of it on the third party site meter. It's all about David, naturally. The other Johns are their own concern, they don't even exist to Vitter--and cannot, if he's going to succeed in painting himself as some kind of martyr. Absurd, and he's failing.

Sen. Vitter's attempt at evading even more responsibility for his actions, 07.03.2008: http://www.2theadvocate.com/news/22850554.html

The day after we learned Sen. David Vitter was a sinner, 07.10.2007: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/07/09/AR2007070902030.html

"Senator Vitter is married to arrogance," The Daily Reveille, 07.03.2008: http://media.www.lsureveille.com/media/storage/paper868/news/2008/07/03/Opinion/Senator.Vitter.Is.Married.To.Arrogance-3387766.shtml

"Your soul contains all that is found in insects, pigs and vermin."

The J-7 mailbag--That's all she/he/it/shim wrote, that stalwart of J-7, old Bobby Crane. You know, Colonel Hogan, that goy who was murdered by John Carpenter (not the director). Most sites get these emails at some point or another, but I acknowledge the intensity of this material on this site. The senders hope to throw the recipient off-base, get them to feel beleaguered, embattled, and depressed. Well, that works if they're a conformist who cares what others think.

Unlike most Americans, I'm not one. So, my reaction is to actually enjoy when someone I dislike gets this angry and writes me something like this. It's my candy, my television. It cures whatever ails me. Bobby came around right before the end of the Palfrey trial. Their sell was interesting, and they weren't alone: I was close to the Palfrey case, and some wanted "access" to the late madam, and myself. Oh yeah, and they were offended by some things I wrote too...

One of them was the ambulance chasing L.A. attorney Sam Deskin (do a word search on this site with his name, enjoy), who had approached Palfrey sometime around January of this year for exclusive access and control of her phone records for deeper research and publication (for money, you got it). Sam once tried to get our sites fused together, and I stupidly agreed to this not knowing who he was or what he was about (money, crass power-grabs). Luckily, the blog software and his own site's were incompatible. Ah yes, there were several others who will remain nameless--but then along came "Bobby" (oooohhhh!).

Bobby wanted me to stop writing comments of praise about Sen. Barack Obama's former preacher, the Rev. Wright. I still agree with the majority of statements made by Wright, who could be described as someone practicing liberation theology. Bobby said I was being offensive..."as shit." Yeah, a real rocket scientist, that. Then, after the rude approach, Bobby plied me with the confidence game, very clever.

This is the gist: "Hey, we can be friends. I have this site you once passed through, and I'm trying to create an alliance of progressive sites that will communicate directly with Democratic national candidates--but you'll have to change your writing." I'm paraphrasing.

Since I was only born the day-before-yesterday, it didn't work. I was wise to the ruse. Do I think it's something scary, some kind of a conspiracy? Of course not, unless you count assholism as a global cabal (hmmmm...). And so, as chronicled in other parts of this blog, I told Bobby to fuck-off and that "I don't care what you think about anything at all." As as a matter of fact, I don't care what the readers of this piece think either.

To make things short, Bobby got more-and-more abusive--I'd already beaten him to it on that count. But Bobby and his ilk never got it and never will: I enjoy the bile, the hate, and the rejection. I like watching scoundrels writhe in agony. It's my badge of honor in what I consider to be a virtually soulless world void of much humanity, a place of idiots and meat puppets. I see conformists who wish to be liked by everyone as very pathetic creatures indeed. Do I believe I'm right about everything on this blog? Of course not, I'm human, but it's my right to express myself. But let's get to the crux, the original message that comprises the title of this piece, because it's all she wrote.

"Your soul contains all that is found in insects, pigs and vermin." I'm unsure why anybody would think this would offend me, especially someone who has no problem using a panoply of expletives (especially "fuck," popular favorite). But let's get a little quasi-scientific here: what's found in "insects, pigs and vermin"? The same elements that make up all life on earth, meaning hydrogen, oxygen, and of course, carbon. Yes, Bobby is a dumb-ass, and I'm being irritating. What's a soul made of? This is where the pixie-dust factor comes-into-play. Who fucking knows? Who cares? Exactly. I sure don't.

Bobby and his ilk are my entertainment, my video game. I love Bobby. Bobby makes me laugh at how impotent and ineffectual most of us are, myself included. But he also makes me feel a lot smarter, and that's always good for the ego, let's be honest. He's the proverbial duck in the barrel that I can shoot at. Any other takers? Snips, snails, and puppy dog tails--that's what your momma eats for brefist.' Thanks Bobby. Thanks for being ewe.

Postscript, 07.03.2008: I'm leaning towards it being Rob Cappriccioso of Bighead DC, he's probably still smarting from that whole Sam Donaldson flap.

Republican New York Rep. "Vito" Fossella's Love Child and His Problems with Drunk Driving

"I have had a relationship with Laura Fay [Ed.-Who he called first when he was in-trouble with the incident.], with whom I have a three-year-old daughter. My personal failings and imperfections have caused enormous pain to the people I love and I am truly sorry. While I understand that there will be many questions, including those about my political future, making any political decisions right now are furthest from my mind. Over the coming weeks and months, I will to continue to do my job and I will work hard to heal the deep wounds I have caused." --Soon-to-be former NY GOP Rep. Vito Fossella on Thursday. (NYT'S City Beat, 05.08.2008)

New York State--Where is M.A.D.D. on this one? You have to love it when dozens of Republican incumbents who keep authorizing funding for the war and blocking impeachment end-up like this. It has to be said again-and-again: it's a bad time to be a Republican voter who's a true believer, the cognitive-dissonance must be excruciating.

Like the adulterous Dan Burton who issued former President Bill Clinton over 1,000 subpoenas during his own sex scandal, Fossella is busted. This time, the AP couldn't ignore the fact that he's a GOP incumbent in the coverage. The exposure came from the representative being pulled-over for running a red light, then it was discovered by the police at the scene that he was driving drunk. The rest is now becoming political history:

Fossella's personal life came apart at the seams after police stopped him for running a red light last week and charged him with drunken-driving. The arrest fueled scrutiny which led to revelations of an affair with a former Air Force officer, and a 3-year-old daughter with her. ("New York Rep. Fossella faces calls for his resignation, AP, 05.10.2008)

The article isn't entirely clear on what caused the chain-reaction of exposure, but who cares? Fossella said that he was going to see his daughter who was "sick"--he forgot to say which one. It's great for the common good when a Republican--or anyone abusing office--gets caught in wrongdoing. It's possible that the soon-to-be former representative will stay in office until July 1st, simply leaving the seat empty until the November elections cycle. The GOP is likely to lose the seat.

According to a source close to Huffington Post on the Hill, Fossella cried to House Chaplain Daniel P. Coughlin on the floor of the House this week over the debacle he created for himself, his party, his constituents...oh yeah, and his legally recognized family. So much for family values. What's very interesting is where Fossella was pulled-over: Alexandria, Virginia, stomping-ground for numerous lobbyists, government contractors, and HQ for Christopher D. Baker's Shirlington Limousine. This could be nothing, but...

Alexandria's also where Ret. Col. Ronald Roughead of SAIC lives. Colonel Roughead was found by this site in the phone records of the deceased DC Madam, Deborah Jeane Palfrey. The New York Times states that Fossella is a close ally of Vice President, Richard Cheney, who was named by the DC Madam as a former client to this writer. It's unknown whether she--or Larry Flynt and Dan Moldea--could corroborate this assertion or not. Fossella was arrested the day Palfrey's body was found, hanged, in Tarpon Springs, Florida, a town just outside of Orlando.

The representative from New York City said back on May 3rd that he wasn't resigning, though it's virtually assured at this writing. His decision is expected by Monday. Like mainstream Democrats, Fossella has been a staunch supporter of the Bush administration's failed war in Iraq, as well on sundry other issues. He's definitely not bullish on social programs, just adultery and siring bastards.

The timing couldn't have been better. With the recent death-by-suicide of the DC Madam, and the Senate Ethics Committee refusing to investigate Senator David Vitter, another shoe has dropped. Vitter's home life must be hell, which is appropriate.

Party officials and strategists who would not speak publicly to avoid interceding in the case said the general preference was for Mr. Fossella to not seek re-election in November but to finish his term and avoid yet another special election in potentially difficult political territory. But many said they doubted he could survive politically and that it might be better for him and his colleagues if he quit rather than have his conduct become part of the campaign.

Representative John A. Boehner of Ohio, the Republican leader, said Mr. Fossella had to make his own choice. “I think Mr. Fossella is going to have some decisions to make over the weekend,” Mr. Boehner told reporters. “And I would hope that and, frankly, expect that this is a decision between he, his family and his constituents.” ("Fossella Admits to Extramarital Affair," AP, 05.08.2008)

Even with the nearly week-long delay in the exposure of Fossella and his mistress--former Air Force Lt. Colonel Laura Fay--the damage to the GOP is going to be compounded. This will virtually ensure Fossella to opt for resignation, a belated ending to a political career that began in 1997, back when Americans could still afford gasoline and milk. Score another victory for the common good.

What's troubling is that Fossella's adulterous behavior is getting more attention when he should be taking the greatest heat for breaking-the-law for driving drunk, and possibly lying to uniformed Alexandria Police. A commenter at The New York Times "City Room" put it best regarding the Republicans and what they really are:

178.

• May 10th,
  2008
• 1:25PM
  

  “Here we go again–just one more case that reveals the hypocrisy in the self-righteous Republicans’ supposed monopoly on “family values!!”

  — Posted by Kathy ”
  It’s all rather simple. The republicans in reality represent the interest of the “business class” and the wealthy and the fact that there are not enough of those groups to get them in office they use the social issues to get people to vote against their own interest. :)

  — Posted by Jon ("Fossella Admits to an Extramarital Affair," NYT's City Room, 05.08.2008 )

I couldn't have stated it better myself. Here then, is the true face of the GOP, and where she's been for several generations. This isn't the party of Lincoln. What are they going to do with a more "enlightened" America? The race-baiting isn't working anymore, and there's nary-a-Red to bait. Terrorism isn't bringing the dividends it used to. The same goes with gay marriage and abortion. Nobody cares. It's time to put the GOP out of our misery, splintering them into legitimate, law-abiding parties. There's no reason to stop there--the Democratic Party is in great need of the same.

A question keeps nagging this writer: How exactly did the congressman and the Lt. Colonel meet? Was she moonlighting as a prostitute, like in the case of Lt. Commander Rebecca Dickinson who worked for the DC Madam? Or is she like Tammy McFadden, a former Air Force nursing student who serviced Brent Wilkes at a sleepover in Hawaii with convicted former GOP Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham? Some have even said that Democratic congressman Daniel Inouye was part of their visit. Perhaps "prostitute" is just a matter of semantics in political marriages...

The AP on the Fossella bust, 05.10.2008: http://enews.earthlink.net/article/pol?guid=20080510/48251dc0_3ca6_1552620080510815608812

The New York Times on Rep. Fossella's D.W.I., 05.03.2008: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/03/nyregion/03fossella.html?_r=3&hp&oref=slogin&oref=slogin&oref=slogin

"Fossella Admits to an Extramarital Affair," NYT's City Room, 05.08.2008: http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/05/08/fossella-admits-to-extramarital-affair/?hp

The Dead Zone (1983) review

Greg Stillson: "The missiles are flying. Hallelujah, Hallelujah!"

1983 was still a pretty good year for horror and genre fans, and a bad one for ordinary people. Director David Cronenberg did this film back-to-back with his other political film, Videodrome, and they both compliment each other in their statements on the rightist and authoritarian threat to liberty in North America.

The Reagan revolution's effects were being felt by Latin Americans, the urban poor, small farmers, minorities, women, deinstitutionalized inmates of state asylums, the working-class, and the Cold War was heating-up again with the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. As the GOP were in-power, the rich got much richer. However, the corruption of the Reagan years has been handily eclipsed by the administration of George W. Bush.

Reagan was never truly popular, but managed to sneak into office due to voter apathy. The rest is bunting and chest-beating by his backers, and he was elected by a slim majority of eligible voters. The arms race (reignited by Carter) was being accelerated by Reagan to a frightening degree, and we were funding death squads in El Salvador, Guatemala, Asia, Africa, and Nicaragua. Those who noticed the insanity were watching the skies again, just as they did during the Cuban Missile Crisis (which was the fault of the GOP and Kennedy, making Sheen a proper choice). Things were pretty grim, and there was a recession. In this context, The Dead Zone did well at the box-office, and is still remembered fondly as one of the best King movies.

Politician Greg Stillson (Martin Sheen) is a progressive, seemingly "Populist" politician, but in-appearance only. In reality, Stillson is a ruthless criminal who uses intimidation, blackmail, and any means he can use to achieve power. This is a very grim portrait of North American politics, and at a time when Reaganism was sweeping-through the culture; all of it still resonates strongly today. We may never know how close America has brushed-up with a "Stillson scenario," though Boam and Cronenberg seem to be suggesting that this is commonplace.

King's and Boam's allusions to Washington Irving and Edgar Allan Poe are powerful and fitting for such a fateful and psychological tale, which gives the film a wider sense of scope. It has something important to say about North American culture that defies any simple explanations--I could write an entire book on this film, and still be left with more to explain, it is that rich a tale. Above everything, however, it is a tale of loss and of what could have been. Americans know the tragedy of this all too well.

Jeffrey Boam and David Cronenberg took Stephen King's "Rip Van Winkle" retelling, and made it much-much more--a parable of 1983, but also of our common era. Like most good-literature, nothing-is-as-it-seems in the "Dead Zone", but entering into this is the character Johnny (played beautifully by Christopher Walken). Without any supernatural-explanations, Cronenberg gives us a character who is somehow able to penetrate the deceptions in life and what is hidden in the lives of the people he encounters (and touches). Basically, Johnny is an instrument of fate. His role is to stop a local murderer, as well as to stop Greg Stillson from attaining power, and here, all of the authors suggest that destiny and fate limit the structure of our lives. It has been remarked (apocryphally, by Steven Spielberg, a director who fears Cronenberg's depth) that the film's storyline supports the notion of assassination--it absolutely does, and unapolegetically. It also posits--like King's book--that not all people who appear insane or eccentric are wrong in their different take on reality.

For many Americans--and one can suppose, Canadians too--someone like Stillson reaching the pillars of power and authority is impossible, unthinkable. It shouldn't seem "impossible" after George W. Bush, a phony Populist if there ever was one. His resemblance to the character Greg Stillson is eerie, and he is not alone. Boam, King and Cronenberg insisted in 1983 that "this is possible", and that only an ordinary man, poised by providence, can affect the course of this path to destruction. Will the evil end entirely? Cronenberg and Boam don't answer this, but Stillson's and Johnny's journeys and destinies have. This is because they were intertwined. Evil and destruction never truly end, and neither does the resistance to it.

This movie was a "hire" job for David Cronenberg, and yet it so resembles the political and social-implications of all of his work from his early period, a strange fact. Often, the "adversaries" in his films are faceless, or murky, only showing themselves at the right moment to strike. His adversaries are often social forces, and trends, often disembodied and invisible. The 1980s were simply an ugly and vulgar era, with a lot of submerged politics--like Iran-Contra, where even drug-running was alleged in funding Reagan allies in Nicauragua. Reagan said, "We don't negotiate with terrorists," and did just-that! Today, it is safe-to-assume that much-worse is being done in our names, and only needs uncovering by the bravest amongst-us. Johnny shows that there is a price in this ability; he dies-a-piece with every revelation he is privy to, and he's almost like a missionary or a Civil Rights worker, or a saint.

Most of the philosophical arguments and implications are dealt-with in the dialog between Johnny and his rehabilitation counselor (Herbert Lom, in one of his greatest performances). What would you do if you knew who the next Hitler was, and could do something about it? Lom has the perfect answer: "I am a doctor...I love people...but, I would have to kill the son-of-a-bitch." The politics of the film are very clear, but so are the consequences of the sacrifice.This is why so few people ever "rise-to-the-occasion" to fight an encroaching evil. It is simply easier not to. Even nonviolence is basically a cop-out when you're facing an enemy who proves we're in a universe without morality. Johnny Smith is a messianic figure, and a revolutionary one who must eschew an ordinary life (this is where some of the "loss" figures-in).

The subtext of covert political activity is always there, waiting to be discovered, and fought, by ordinary people. And so, the horror of this film is a political horror, our political nightmare. It is the revelation that flies-in-the-face of homespun, North American values of fair-play and hard work--that many of those who wish to govern us do not wish us well, but quite-the-opposite: they wish us death, ultimately, the logical conclusion of the will to power.

This was a post-Watergate lesson we have conveniently forgotten, but are now reawakening to, and that is the horror we all face. Cronenberg made a classic that will continue to affect caring people profoundly, it speaks-to our hopes and our fears. The Dead Zone also speaks to our regrets in this vale-of-tears, an oddly "Puritan" message, but it fits the story's locale. The late Michael Kamen's score is both moving and warm, and the film would be very cold indeed without it. The TV series is worthless. It has nothing to say.