A Scout is Loyal, Trustworthy... and a stukach?

Be loyal, kind and don't steal Movies

LOS ANGELES [AP] -- A Boy Scout is trustworthy, loyal, helpful, etc., etc. He is also respectful of copyrights. Boy Scouts in the Los Angeles area will now be able to earn an activity patch for learning about the evils of downloading pirated movies and music.

{snip}

Scouts will be instructed in the basics of copyright law and learn how to identify five types of copyrighted works and three ways copyrighted materials may be stolen.

Scouts also must choose one activity from a list that includes visiting a movie studio to see how many people can be harmed by film piracy. They also can create public service announcements urging others not to steal movies or music.

{Click Here for the whole story}

So you can't be gay and be a Boy Scout, but you *can* be a Scout and be a grass for the movie industry.

Money talks, logic walks.

(Note that, while, so far at least, the movie industry is the official moving force behind this, the "activity patch" shows both a reel of film and a CD... How long you figure it'll be before RIAA manages to buy the right people and get this rolled out nationally?)  ¶ 1:30 PM 0 comments links to this post

  Of Geese, Ganders, and Tasty Gravy (and Gored Oxen, for that matter...)  While, as seems typical of Democrats, the amount of ethically-questionable money is rather less than it generally is in cases involving Repugnicans, $1.1 million ain't precisely chump change, enither:

AP Exclusive: Reid got $1M in land sale

WASHINGTON (AP) - Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid collected a $1.1 million windfall on a Las Vegas land sale even though he hadn't personally owned the property for three years, property deeds show.

In the process, Reid did not disclose to Congress an earlier sale in which he transferred his land to a company created by a friend and took a financial stake in that company, according to records and interviews.

{more}

I've been accused, by friends and on-line correspondents who really don't pay enough attention, of coming down hard on Republicans who screw up and ignoring the moral lapses of Dems.

Well, if the moral failing in question is pretty well irrelevant to his job qualifications and doesn't really call into question his fitness to continue therein, yeah, i'll cop to that. It's called "business as usual" in politics - you use any club your opponent hands you to beat him heavily about the head and shoulders, and you expect him to do the same to you. (And complaining about how "unfair" it all is is a meta-tactical expansion of the same thing.)

But when a powerful official (say a Senator - maybe even a Minority Leader...) apparently uses the power of his office to manipulate deals he officially has no connection with, and then fails to report the profits made as he is required to do by Senate ethics rules - yeah, smoke his ass.

Full-court-press investigation, censure or whatever is the maximum discipline he could face, if the charges are found to have erit.

But, ya know, i have to admit that, personally, i'd say that a little creative dealing and some convenient amnesia about $1.1 million in possibly-questionable gains* when filling out an ethics report seem to me a bit picayune when compared to

ONE: the exploits of a Congresscritter who, simultaneously, and at the same time (thank you, Great Gonzo) was chairing a caucus on missing and exploited children and authoring/sponsoring legislation to protect kids on the Internet, was sending pretty predatory-sounding e-mails to sixteen year old pages (apparently pages were warning each other not to get caught alone with Foley as far back as 1995, at least)

TWO: A Speaker whose office was apparently informed several years ago of said members little recreational peccadillos who swears that either that never happened or that he, personally didn't hear about it if anyone did happen to mention it and then

THREE: Tries very hard to make the whole hoohah the fault of the "liberal media" who reported it (with help from FOX Izvestia, which several times "accidentally" labelled Foley as a Democrat, and, when caught out, removed the incorrect caption, but failed to acknowledge their minor "error"), well..

Yeah, as i said, investigate Reid, and, if he did done it, hit 'im with the max penalties prescribed (probably censure and losing his position as Minority Leader) and then leave it to the voters to decide if he stays in the Senate.

And investigate Foley and Hastert - in open session, so no-one can accuse anyone of coverups. Consider whether any criminal charges should be filed. Forget all of this "This is all a Plot on the part of the Liberal Media Conspiracy to cause trouble for the GOP stuff."

Make it clear to one and all exactly who did what (or would have liked to) and to whom, when, and who knew about it and when. And, if there was a cover-up (as seems likely to me), whodunnit?

And let's have an Elephant Roast next month...

*I sort of wonder, how many minutes (or is "minutes" optimistic on my part?) does it take $1.1 million to go down the bottomless sinkhole - i'm sorry, i mean Halliburton Corporation - in Iraq, versus how long did Reid have to work to steal it (or whatever he did), BTW?

  ¶ 12:38 AM 1 comments links to this post

  Hastert Announces Impending Resignation?
Hastert: Anyone Who Hid Page Info Leaves

WASHINGTON (AP) - House Speaker Dennis Hastert said Tuesday he'll dismiss anyone on his staff found to have covered up concerns about ex-Rep. Mark Foley's approaches to former pages.

Hastert said he huddled with his staff members last week and he believes they acted appropriately in handling information on Foley's conduct. But he also issued them a stern warning: ``If they did cover something up, then they should not continue to have their jobs.''

{Click here for more}  ¶ 3:38 PM 0 comments links to this post

  I Hate Him  I do not know his name. (Or her name – it could be a woman.)

I don’t know where he lives.

I don’t know what he looks like.

I will never see his face or learn his name.

But i hate him.

Why do i hate him?




I hate him because he, not i, is going to drive off in the harlot-red, immaculate-looking MG-A roadster i saw for sale in a driveway off Georgia Highway 369 this morning.

(The above photo is not the actual car; but it’s just like it…)

  ¶ 11:05 PM 0 comments links to this post

  Rush Limbaugh Explains (for us mere mortals) How The Democrats and the Media Set Foley Up October 3 broadcast of The Rush Limbaugh Show:

LIMBAUGH: Nancy Pelosi knows the person who planted the story about Foley five weeks before the election. "But Rush! But Rush! But Rush! Tell us what you know! How can you be sure she knows?" Well, I can almost guarantee it. She might not know who specifically did it. But she knows where it comes from. All the liberal Democrats do. She knows the person because this -- these emails were held by a liberal, they were planted by a liberal, and they were timed to the 2006 election cycle by a liberal. And liberals know liberals, and so Pelosi knows who Deep IM is. There's a Deep IM here. Not Deep Throat, but there's a Deep IM.

[...]

Note typical Limbaugh technique - assert flatly that the Bad Guys have done or know something, then weasel.

LIMBAUGH: Folks, you don't know the Democrats like I do. Everybody is now comin' out of the closet, if you will, saying they knew Foley was gay. He's in a safe seat. Somebody knew this was going on. Go to one of the kids or go to a couple of pages and say: "Titillate the guy." "Why? Why? Why? I don't want to get in trouble." "You won't get in trouble. You'll be a hero. Nobody'll ever know it's you. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah." How do you get a kid to do this? You threaten 'em or you pay 'em. I don't know.

[...]

 You know, how do these pages get into the page program? How does this happen? One way is through political connections, political patronage. So who are these pages and who sponsored these kids to become pages and, and for, for what reason? Is there a political party that would stoop this low? Yes, there is. We know that there is a political party that would stoop this low to set somebody up this way.

[...]

This is, this is so obviously a planned, orchestrated release -- timed release of information that's designed to keep the story going. I know how these people in the drive-by media work. I know how they coordinate with the Democrat [sic] Party. They're all excited.

I love it - Rush Limbaugh referring to others as members of the "drive-by media"...

Meanwhile, Fox IZVESTIA has more than once referred to Hastert and/or Foley as Democrats...

Also:

Foley, the chairman of the House Caucus on Missing and Exploited Children[1], sponsored the following legislature:

H.R.5749Title: To amend title 18, United States Code, to protect youth from exploitation by adults using the Internet, and for other purposes.

Sponsor: Rep Foley, Mark [FL-16] (introduced 7/10/2006)

[1]Hey - who better qualified, right?

   ¶ 1:15 AM 1 comments links to this post

  Technical Virgin Encore? Remember a while back (well, maybe you don't) when i ran an entry about the "Technical Virgin" parody ads?

Well, i got the following from my sister today:


   ¶ 10:33 AM 0 comments links to this post

  How Considerate (or, I Hope Mr. Rogers Doesn't Go Back to Atlanta)

My District State Representative, Carl Rogers, was kind and considerate enough to send me a flier a week or so ago telling me exactly why i should vote against him.

(Click for a larger image)

  ¶ 12:48 PM 0 comments links to this post