Public Restroom “Footsie” Champ Of
The U.S. Senate, Larry Craig, Prefers To “Wait It Out”…

U.S. Senator Larry Craig went back to the judge and said: “Wait, your Honor! I didn’t mean it when I admitted playing “footsies” in the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport with an undercover [HAD TO BE “LIBERAL”] cop.” The judge urged the Senator to rush that “shemale” BUTT of his out of the courtroom…From [...]

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Open Thread for Night Owls

Unless there is a remarkable intervention from somewhere, by the end of October, with two months yet to go till year's end, 2007 will become the worst year for U.S. troop fatalities in Iraq since the war and occupation began 55 months ago. Obviously, as has been the case since the beginning, Iraqis fare much worse, as noted in this excerpt from an editorial in Friday's Los Angeles Times:

Insane on asylum

The administration can't or won't admit most Iraqi refugees. Is it incompetence or indifference?

Plenty of pious statements have been made over the last year -- many of them by senior Bush administration officials -- about how the United States has a moral obligation to help the more than 2 million refugees who have fled Iraq, most particularly those who have become targets because they worked for the Americans. Credibility with the Iraqi population, in the broader Middle East and around the world will be gauged by whether the U.S. keeps its promises. Now we may judge the administration's performance by the benchmarks it set for itself.

The Bush administration promised to grant refuge to 7,000 Iraqis during this fiscal year, which ended Sept. 30; just 1,608 were admitted. It plans to take in 12,000 in fiscal 2008. (Sweden, which opposed the Iraq war, has already admitted more and plans to resettle 20,000 Iraqis this year alone.)  ...

The White House may hope that the troop "surge" will succeed in quelling violence to the point where the refugees will go home. Or perhaps it fears that images of airlifts would send the message that the U.S. is "losing" Iraq, or trigger a stampede among the vital Iraqi workers the U.S. still desperately needs. With the historic example of the Palestinians before his eyes, Bush must realize that embittered Iraqi refugees stranded all over the Muslim world would likely feel betrayed by the United States -- and the strain on their host nations could begin a new cycle of misery in the Mideast. If Bush won't end this cynical, heartless and self-defeating U.S. policy of delay, Congress should.

Indifference? Incompetence? The Times editors left out an option: Intentional.

Paul Krugman plants another big wet one on the GOP:

Conservatives Are Such Jokers

On Wednesday, President Bush vetoed legislation that would have expanded S-chip, the State Children’s Health Insurance Program, providing health insurance to an estimated 3.8 million children who would otherwise lack coverage.

In anticipation of the veto, William Kristol, the editor of The Weekly Standard, had this to say: "First of all, whenever I hear anything described as a heartless assault on our children, I tend to think it’s a good idea. I’m happy that the president’s willing to do something bad for the kids." Heh-heh-heh.

Most conservatives are more careful than Mr. Kristol. They try to preserve the appearance that they really do care about those less fortunate than themselves. But the truth is that they aren’t bothered by the fact that almost nine million children in America lack health insurance. They don’t think it’s a problem.

"I mean, people have access to health care in America," said Mr. Bush in July. "After all, you just go to an emergency room."...

So once again, if you’re poor or you’re sick or you don’t have health insurance, remember this: these people think your problems are funny.

Take the poll.

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Colbert: Bush Has "Glacier-Sized Balls -
PRE-Global Warming!"

"Mr. President, for leading us to a bold commitment to finalize a goal for future possible action to solve global warming, you, sir, are my Alpha Dog of the Week."

Via Dan Froomkin

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http://thegreenmiles.blogspot.com/2007/10/colbert-bush-has-glacier-sized-balls.ht
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$650 Billion Dollar Cheapskates

I'm opposed to the war in Iraq, and have been since March 2002. My preferred policy outcome is for a reasonably rapid drawdown of US forces within twelve months of making a decision to disengage and manage any spill-over crisis from outside of the country. I am also very frustrated at the Democratic Congress for their unwillingness to play harball. Despite all of this, I am disgusted at the DOD being cheapskates and screwing over people. The first story is about the Minnesota National Guard brigade that saw over a year and half in combat:

When they came home from Iraq, 2,600 members of the Minnesota National Guard had been deployed longer than any other ground combat unit. The tour lasted 22 months and had been extended as part of President Bush's surge.

1st Lt. Jon Anderson said he never expected to come home to this: A government refusing to pay education benefits he says he should have earned under the GI bill...

Anderson's orders, and the orders of 1,161 other Minnesota guard members, were written for 729 days.

Had they been written for 730 days, just one day more, the soldiers would receive those benefits to pay for school.

"Which would be allowing the soldiers an extra $500 to $800 a month," Anderson said.

When half of the brigade which has the longest continuous stretch of combat deployment in the US Army has orders which screws them out of benefits by one day, it sure as hell screams a prima facie case of deliberate intent. An extra day demobilizing equipment, debriefing their experiences and writing up lessons learned for future reference would have been a reasonable end result. It would have been fair given what we as a country have asked them to do.

Phil Carter of the Intel Dump caught another cheapskate move by the DoD on the prevelance of 'pre-exisiting' condition discharges in the military.

Thousands of U.S. soldiers in Iraq ? as many as 10 a day ? are being discharged by the military for mental health reasons. But the Pentagon isn't blaming the war. It says the soldiers had "pre-existing" conditions that disqualify them for treatment by the government.

Many soldiers and Marines being discharged on this basis actually suffer from combat-related problems, experts say. But by classifying them as having a condition unrelated to the war, the Defense Department is able to quickly get rid of troops having trouble doing their work while also saving the expense of caring for them.

The result appears to be that many actually suffering from combat-related problems such as post-traumatic stress disorder or traumatic brain injuries don't get the help they need.

He goes on to argue that the prevelance of pre-exisiting mental health condition discharges are probably a combination of administrative ease, and an intermediate result of the demand for more bodies at the front which has fueled the massive dropping of recruit standards. People who would have been kindly encouraged by their recruiter five years ago to look for something else are being signed up and shipped out to boot camp in two weeks now. And this has been the case for a couple of years. Combine this with the new boot camp culture to get as many people through as possible and the removal of seperation authority from field trainers to high level staff, more people who are susceptible to mental health disorders are being deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan.

The Army screened these individuals and believed that they would be adequate soldiers after they passed boot camp and their individual advanced training. The Army was able to use these soldiers for the mission in Iraq, and now they're trying to dump the costs of treatment onto someone else. If there was a significant pre-exisisting mental condition, the individual should either never have been accepted into the Army, OR seperated before being combat deployed.

Cheap, cheap behaviors despite have half the world's military budget.

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http://cernigsnewshog.blogspot.com/2007/10/650-billion-dollar-cheapskates.html

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IF LARRY CRAIG MATED WITH DAVID VITTER WHAT WOULD
YOU GET MEET JOEY DiFATTA

Another Republican elected official-- a pal of David Diapers Vitter no less-- caught toe-tappin' in the boys room! And he wants wanted to be a state senator too! Yesterday's Times-Picayune painted another dismal picture of another Republican pervert who trawls from public restroom to public restroom looking for... love? Well, looking for something. Joey DiFatta is the chairman of St. Bernard Parish Council and a prominent Republican leader (until 2004 on the GOP state party Executive Committee). He just withdrew from his state senate race, after his arrests for lewd behavior in a public restroom were made public.

DiFatta, like Larry Craig, denies his toilet toe tappin' was a gay signal. Maybe it's a Republican signal that normal people just don't know about. (Another coincidence: he decided to pull out of the race because of "elevated enzyme levels," not because his toilet trawling activities have been made public. His first summons was for a simple Peeping Tom incident in a Mervyn's at a mall in Kenner. "The report states that DiFatta watched a man use the bathroom while peering through a hole in a bathroom stall. The man held DiFatta until police arrived, at which time he was issued the misdemeanor summons and ordered to appear in court."

DiFatta got away with it and eventually upped the ante, moving from the Mervyn's to a Dillard's.

In the second incident, Jefferson Parish deputies working an undercover detail in a men's bathroom at Dillard's at Lakeside Shopping Center in March 2000 stopped DiFatta after he indicated a desire to engage in sex with an undercover deputy in an adjoining bathroom stall, according to an interoffice memorandum written by Sgt. Keith Conley, one of the deputies involved in the investigation.

The report said DiFatta slid his foot into the deputy's stall and tapped the deputy's foot. In the report, Conley noted that such activity is common among men to indicate a willingness to participate in sex.
The deputy inside the stall, Detective Wayne Couvillion, responded by tapping his foot, and DiFatta reached under the partition and began to rub the deputy's leg, the report states.

The detective asked DiFatta, "What do you want?" according to the report, and he replied, "I want to play with you."

DiFatta also used a hand signal to indicate that he wanted to engage in sex and used language that indicated the same, according to the report. Conley, who is now the Kenner city attorney, confirmed the report's authenticity Thursday.

The incident did not culminate in an arrest because the deputy in the bathroom with DiFatta terminated the investigation after several children entered the bathroom, the report states. Conley noted in the report that DiFatta appeared well-versed and comfortable with the routine.

Conley wrote that had the investigation been allowed to continue, it likely would have concluded in DiFatta's arrest on obscenity charges, including a possible attempted crime against nature.
Conley confronted DiFatta outside the bathroom, and DiFatta apologized and said he would not return, according to the report. DiFatta also said he has a problem with such behavior and had sought counseling for the addiction in the past, the report states.

DiFatta has 2 children and several grandchildren. His campaign material mentions the children and grandchildren by name but not a word about a wife. What makes closet cases gravitate to the GOP?

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http://downwithtyranny.blogspot.com/2007/10/if-larry-craig-mated-with-david-vitte
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Week in Review 10/5/07

Steve looks back at some of the stories making news for the week ending October 5, 2007 and, as always on Fridays, there's a news quiz question.

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http://theointment.com/?p=461

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Week in Review 10/5/06

Steve looks back at some of the stories making news for the week ending October 5, 2007 and, as always on Fridays, there's a news quiz question.

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http://theointment.com/?p=461

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La Meme Chose: Simply the Best

I've gotten tagged by the Blawg Review's La Meme Chose: Simply the Best. While they didn't name TalkLeft, others who got tagged did (thank you Law Sites and Deliberations) so now it's my turn.

Without further ado, here's my list of daily reads of blogs covering legal issues or blogging.

• Sentencing Law and Policy
• How Appealing
• Scotus Blog
• Balkanization
• Bench Conference
• WSJ Law Blog
• Stand Down Texas Project
• Drug War Rant
• Grits for Breakfast
• Real Lawyers Have Blogs

(Since LNILR contributes to TalkLeft, I'm not naming his Fourth Amendment blog -- or the blogs who named TalkLeft -- to avoid the appearance of favoritism and reciprocity.)

Honorable mention goes to Capital Defense Weekly, the DUI Blog, the White Collar Crime Blog and Think Outside the Cage.

There are many great law blogs out there and I hope you'll check all the lists going around.

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http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/TalkleftThePoliticsOfCrime/~3/165565738/40951

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How Do You Know Rumsfeld’s No Longer At DoD

A: You get this response to an annoying email:?Urgent Request From D.O.D.? read the subject line of a Defense Department message sent at 10:42 a.m. ?This is your Combating Terrorism Office for D.O.D. asking you to kindly stop now please.?Yes, with the big dog out for almost a year, now, the DoD has taken to [...]

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http://guntotingliberal.com/?p=1973

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GOP FRONTRUNNERS SHOW WHAT THEY'RE MADE OF-- YOU
WANT MORE OF THE SAME VOTE FOR ANY OF THEM

Between 70 and 75% of Americans favor the State Children's Health Insurance Program passed overwhelmingly by both Houses of Congress and vetoed by Bush; that includes a majority of Republican voters. It also includes almost all the governors, including a majority of Republican governors-- and not just pinkos like Schwarzenegger but also neo-fascists like Utah's Jon Huntsman. Anyone from outside the Regime backing Bush on this? Glad you asked.

Most of what Newt Gingrich perceptively, if unkindly, referred to as the "pathetic bunch of pygmies" (i.e.- the 2008 Republican presidential contenders) back Bush. The two grandpas, McCain and Fredrick of Hollywood, plus Full O'Mitt, and Giuliani have all barked loudly that they back Bush on this politically unpopular issue. (Brownback avoided voting on this hot potato.)

It may seem like a strange question to ask, but do Republican elected officials and Party insiders even understand that there's a health care problem? Paul Krugman is a lot smarter than any of them and he doesn't think they do.

?I mean, people have access to health care in America,? said Mr. Bush in July. ?After all, you just go to an emergency room.?

And on the day of the veto, Mr. Bush dismissed the whole issue of uninsured children as a media myth. Referring to Medicaid spending-- which fails to reach many children-- he declared that ?when they say, well, poor children aren?t being covered in America, if that?s what you?re hearing on your TV screens, I?m telling you there?s $35.5 billion worth of reasons not to believe that.?

It?s not just the poor who find their travails belittled and mocked. The sick receive the same treatment.

Before the last election, the actor Michael J. Fox, who suffers from Parkinson?s and has become an advocate for stem cell research that might lead to a cure, made an ad in support of Claire McCaskill, the Democratic candidate for Senator in Missouri. It was an effective ad, in part because Mr. Fox?s affliction was obvious.

And Rush Limbaugh-- displaying the same style he exhibited in his recent claim that members of the military who oppose the Iraq war are ?phony soldiers? and his later comparison of a wounded vet who criticized him for that remark to a suicide bomber ? immediately accused Mr. Fox of faking it. ?In this commercial, he is exaggerating the effects of the disease. He is moving all around and shaking. And it?s purely an act.? Heh-heh-heh.

Of course, minimizing and mocking the suffering of others is a natural strategy for political figures who advocate lower taxes on the rich and less help for the poor and unlucky. But I believe that the lack of empathy shown by Mr. Limbaugh, Mr. Kristol, and, yes, Mr. Bush is genuine, not feigned.

What?s happening, presumably, is that modern movement conservatism attracts a certain personality type. If you identify with the downtrodden, even a little, you don?t belong. If you think ridicule is an appropriate response to other peoples? woes, you fit right in.

Well Frederick of Hollywood and McCain have always fit right in and Rudy and Full O'Mitt are doing their best to prove that they do too.

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http://downwithtyranny.blogspot.com/2007/10/gop-frontrunners-show-what-theyre-mad
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