No Honor Among Thieves

So why are we so surprised that there is no honor among Congressmen?  

It's disgusting.  It's disgraceful.  It's gone on far too long.  

Everyone, please remember this on Election Day.  

Let's elect people who will restore some pride in our country instead of causing us national shame.  

Bob Pendell, aka Adastra, the Wizzard of Jacksonville

Reconvene Congress ?

The damage has been done and the media will fan the flames. But bringing congress back just as they are heading into the home stretch to election day might hurt everyone's chances of winning needed voters' support.

Oversight is important, but it needs to be dealt with after November 7th, or the Dems might be lose steam. Let the public and the press boil for a while. It'll do alot more good for now.

Bring back the house.

I cannot sign your petition

Foley

Lost Cause

There's nothing more Denny Hastert or anyone else can do. This .org should be called Lost Cause.

Find a Democrat who would have as much as admitted wrong doing let alone resigned. You can't. It would never happen. They'd be circling the wagons.

Common Cause ought to consider finding a cause first and then perhaps a common one. Once they get a few down they could move on to actual important causes. Naw, too much work. What am I thinking?

If people spent half the energy they waste on stuff like this on proposing real solutions to real problems the accomplishment we could achieve is unimaginable.

republican ethics

Bringing them back is waste of time; they will just lie in our faces and then turn away.

Nothing surprises me about republicans; they point their fingers at everybody else trying to make themselves look morally grand. They never look at themselves and see the corrupt bunch of greedy child molesters they are.

They financially blackmail our children's schools; giving child molesting armed forces recruiter's free access or they don't get federal funding.
No child left behind.

They take from poor and middle class family's to fund their lobbyist written legislation. Legislation that benefits only the K Street scum they whore themselves to.

The new bankruptcy laws, allowing credit card companies to hound honest citizens after they prove themselves insolvent in court.
Citizens who have either made mistakes or have hit hard times, without looking at the acts of usury that put them there.

Allowing insurance companies to fine print there way out of paying the victims of natural and man made disasters.
A drop of water hits the floor of a wind damaged home and the damage changes to flood damage and is uncovered.

Allowing drug companies to charge us what ever they can and the dirt bag republicans let them write laws not allowing US citizens or States to collectively bargain for cheaper prices. Making the act of buying the same drugs cheaper in another country against the law.

The list goes on and on.

They are the party of false Christians; they are the money changers in the temple, they the pearls that will be thrown before the swine.

I cannot sign your petition

Puh-leeze!  Don't you think the timing of the Foley email "leak" is suspicious?  Don't you think yet another sex scandal is a good way to take the media's and public's minds off the fact that on 28 September 2006, Congress passed, and the President signed on the following day, "A bill to authorize trial by military commission for violations of the law of war, and for other purposes."

This bill is a "get out of jail free card" for the Administration. It is more vicious than the proposed "compromise bill," and defiles our Constitution.

Don't dignify the Republicrats' leak when anyone who sells a tv or computer time to someone, who is later adjudged to be an "unlawful enemy combatant," can be thrown into prison, without so much as a habeas corpus, based on information gathered without a warrant.

That new law is what we need to be screaming about -- not another sitting Congressman who took advantage of his position.  Maybe we should just get rid of all the opportunities available to White House interns and Congressional pages.

Foley's Follies

ABOUT SOMETHING©

"Foley's Follies"

by Joan Reid

As the headlines unfold day-to-day about Mark Foley, one would think they were reading a tawdry novel or a Greek tragedy.   The central character is a statesman with a flaw that even a great playwright (read PR person) can't fix, and any novelist would be hard pressed to come up with a plot so thick and fantastic.  Unfortunately, the good stuff these days is really happening.   If we're lucky, Foley's Follies will eventually be just another reality sideshow with a limited run.  Right now, however, we'll have to sit through this play of the absurd.

Act I: The news hit the airwaves and Foley's first move was to check himself into a rehab center for alcoholism, thereby giving those who imbibe a bad rap.  Most alcoholics are not sending minors suggestive emails.  Some, unfortunately, do take the lives of others on the road, yell at their wives and hit their kids.  Foley running to a rehab was transparent.  Foley isn't being admonished for being a lush.  God knows we have enough of them on Capital Hill, anyway.  This was clearly a strategy to make the public think, "Hey, I'm just one of the good ole boys who drinks too much."  Sorry, Foley, this isn't Miller Time.

Center Stage: His next move was to admit that he was gay.  Nothing wrong with that, except again, he is making gay men the fall guys. Gay men are not pedophiles.  Gay men enjoy the company of other men, but don't necessarily prey on under age males, unless they want to go to prison. So now we're at the end of Act One, and the second act is being written ad hoc, lines are being fed to Foley but he can't recall them because he has that dreaded DC condition: amnesia.   Probably from all that drinking.

Act II: Foley stays behind the curtain and his lawyer comes forward to speak Foley's lines. "Clergymen molested Foley when he was a teen-ager."   Now the clergy are in the mix, and we know what an easy target they have become.  They're taking a hit when they had nothing to do with the matter whatsoever.  And what is the matter?  Foley would have us believe the matter at hand is alcoholism, homosexuality, amnesia, or predatory clergymen.  His being a Republican really has nothing to do with this either.  Which by the way, is another group who will take a hit because of his folly.  

Act III: The cast of characters is dizzying.   If I were the director of the Follies I'd be pulling out my hair.  No one remembers anything. No one wants to be seen on stage with Foley.  I keep waiting for Donald Trump to appear and shout "You're fired" to Dennis Hastert.  I keep waiting for Foley to be a person of honor and not malign others just because he may have done a criminal act.  I'd rather not be subjected to this reality TV media circus for the next several weeks.  I do want justice, and a free election.  I want to remind politicians that we the people elect them, this is our government and country that we entrust to them. And I want to see Foley's Follies close quickly with bad reviews.

Is this a distraction from the war in Iraq , the Bush Administration, Guantanomo Bay, the environment, outsourcing our manufacturing to foreign countries, unemployment, etc. etc...you can't fool us.

Joan Reid is columnist, playwright and public relations professional. Comments can be sent to jbwrites01@yahoo.com.

Joan Reid is a columnist for "About Something", playwright and PR professional. Comments can be sent to joan.reid@yahoo.com.

Foley's Follies

ABOUT SOMETHING©

"Foley's Follies"

by Joan Reid

As the headlines unfold day-to-day about Mark Foley, one would think they were reading a tawdry novel or a Greek tragedy.   The central character is a statesman with a flaw that even a great playwright (read PR person) can't fix, and any novelist would be hard pressed to come up with a plot so thick and fantastic.  Unfortunately, the good stuff these days is really happening.   If we're lucky, Foley's Follies will eventually be just another reality sideshow with a limited run.  Right now, however, we'll have to sit through this play of the absurd.

Act I: The news hit the airwaves and Foley's first move was to check himself into a rehab center for alcoholism, thereby giving those who imbibe a bad rap.  Most alcoholics are not sending minors suggestive emails.  Some, unfortunately, do take the lives of others on the road, yell at their wives and hit their kids.  Foley running to a rehab was transparent.  Foley isn't being admonished for being a lush.  God knows we have enough of them on Capital Hill, anyway.  This was clearly a strategy to make the public think, "Hey, I'm just one of the good ole boys who drinks too much."  Sorry, Foley, this isn't Miller Time.

Center Stage: His next move was to admit that he was gay.  Nothing wrong with that, except again, he is making gay men the fall guys. Gay men are not pedophiles.  Gay men enjoy the company of other men, but don't necessarily prey on under age males, unless they want to go to prison. So now we're at the end of Act One, and the second act is being written ad hoc, lines are being fed to Foley but he can't recall them because he has that dreaded DC condition: amnesia.   Probably from all that drinking.

Act II: Foley stays behind the curtain and his lawyer comes forward to speak Foley's lines. "Clergymen molested Foley when he was a teen-ager."   Now the clergy are in the mix, and we know what an easy target they have become.  They're taking a hit when they had nothing to do with the matter whatsoever.  And what is the matter?  Foley would have us believe the matter at hand is alcoholism, homosexuality, amnesia, or predatory clergymen.  His being a Republican really has nothing to do with this either.  Which by the way, is another group who will take a hit because of his folly.  

Act III: The cast of characters is dizzying.   If I were the director of the Follies I'd be pulling out my hair.  No one remembers anything. No one wants to be seen on stage with Foley.  I keep waiting for Donald Trump to appear and shout "You're fired" to Dennis Hastert.  I keep waiting for Foley to be a person of honor and not malign others just because he may have done a criminal act.  I'd rather not be subjected to this reality TV media circus for the next several weeks.  I do want justice, and a free election.  I want to remind politicians that we the people elect them, this is our government and country that we entrust to them. And I want to see Foley's Follies close quickly with bad reviews.

Is this a distraction from the war in Iraq , the Bush Administration, Guantanomo Bay, the environment, outsourcing our manufacturing to foreign countries, unemployment, etc. etc...you can't fool us.

Visit www.lifeisabike.com

Joan Reid is a columnist for "About Something", playwright and PR professional. Comments can be sent to joan.reid@yahoo.com.

we who are not as others