(h/t to The Carpetbagger Report)
She was a senior counselor for the Attorney General, and served as a liaision between the White House and the DOJ. She's only 33 years old, with a law degree from Regent University, the evangelical school founded by Pat Robertson. The Post article about her is disturbing, although it only reinforces the already-understood fact that this administration has stacked every government office it could with die-hard political supporters, who tended to come out of the evangelical christian community:
Part of a generation of young religious conservatives who swept into the federal government after the election of President Bush in 2000, Goodling displayed unblinking devotion to the administration and expected others to do the same.
One of the features of this generation, I think, is a kind of naive arrogance. They had faith in Bush, both in the rightness of his mission and in his infallibility as a leader:
To her supporters, Goodling's only mistake -- if she made one at all -- was not anticipating the political peril before the 2006 midterm elections.
"The young conservatives who came off the campaign and were new to town with this administration, they've never seen lean times," said a veteran Republican political appointee who declined to be quoted by name saying anything critical of Goodling. "They had no appreciation for what would happen after the Democrats took control and how tough it would be."
Oh, and the US insists its not escalating tension with Iran by conducting naval exercises in the Gulf. But I'm sorry, coming from this administration that statement is completely worthless.
Wonkette is being scandalicious about the whole thing, of course, but its a significant case. I've seen references to the Texas Youth Commission Scandal before, and it's not pretty:
"The TYC has
established a dynasty of corruption that condones the mistreatment of
youth in its care," said Randal Chance, a retired inspector general for
the agency. "Staff are being paid your tax money to rape your children."
Among the charges in the Texas Ranger report were that administrators
would rouse boys from their sleep for the purpose of conducting
all-night sex parties.
There have been 750 complaints of sexual abuse by TYC officers since 2000. It turned out that one TYC official was a registered sex offender. Another official was living on the prison grounds with a sixteen year old boy. 22 officials have been arrested in total and the entire TYC board has resigned, after the state legislature threatened to fire them. But the really disgusting thing about this is the way in which abuse was systematically denied and covered up. In 2005, the Texas Rangers made a complete investigation which came to damning conclusions. In 2006, assistant state attorney general received a letter detailing the abuse. He refused to pursue the case, and went as far as to argue that the boys wanted it:
"As you know, consent is frequently an issue in sexual assault cases. Although none of the victims admit that they consented to the sexual contact, none resisted or voiced any objection to the conduct. Several of the victims suggested that they were simply 'getting off' on the school administrator."
Bryzinski, the Texas Ranger who uncovered the abuse in 2005, went all the way to the DOJ, but Gonzalez wasn't interested . I'm sorry, but what is it with Republicans and pederasty?Embattled AG now accused in teen sex scandal 'cover-up' [WorldNetDaily]
Alberto Gonzales, child sex abuse enabler [Pam's House Blend]
Those British Marines are still being held, and Blair has warned that negotiations will enter a "new phase" if the hostages aren't released soon. US hawks are stoked as this means that if we go to war with Iran, the UK will be dragged along, despite their best efforts to pull out. Our Navy is conducting a "show of force" in the Gulf right now but insisting that this has nothing to do with Iran. What's really disgusting about all this is that the Iranian actions were far from unprovoked. The US kidnapped five high-ranking Revolutionary Guardsmen in Irbil, Iraq last month. Not only that, we have had our tankers just hanging out in the narrow, hard to maneuver mouth of the Persian Gulf for months, presumably with the hope that we could provoke a Gulf of Tonkin style incident and use it as a pretence for war. I don't believe a word the government says when it comes to Iran. The horrible, inescapable conclusion is that there is going to be another war. Sy Hersh warned us about this last year. The people making the decisions here have no perspective, no empathy. They don't care how many more kids die. They don't care if there are terrorist attacks all over Europe, if oil goes up to $60 a barrel, if the US never recovers from what they do. I'd like to believe that after Iraq, the American people wouldn't let this happen again but at this point I am faithless. The only thing that could make a difference, in my opinion, would be French-style general strikes. Fat chance.
They were in the Northern Gulf, near the Shatt al-Arab waterway which is a highly contentious dividing line between Iraq and Iran. The rules of territorial jurisdiction in the Persian Gulf are ambiguous--Iran is claiming that the Marines were in Iranian territory at the time of their capture, while the UK and US are insisting that they were in Iraqi waters and were 'forcibly escorted' into Iranian waters. This isn't the first time this has happened--8 UK Marines were kidnapped in 2004 and held for three days, but this is, to put it mildly, not the best time for another international incident with Iran. This could blow over, or it could not. Please, guys, let's be reasonable about this.
[UPDATE] Well, this is is just delightful. The foreign embassies in Tehran are updating their escape plans in preparation for a possible US/Israeli strike.
Al Gore's righteous indignation just made my night. You tell 'em man:
It seems like every time another scandal breaks with this administration, there is this hope that this one will be the one, the one so blatantly obscene that it cannot be denied or parsed, the one that will finally make this disgusting regime we find ourselves under fall. So let's recap. We've had:
1. The Downing Street Memo: no one gave a shit, no one paid attention.
2. Abu Ghraib: no one high up on the chain of command is punished. Rush Limbaugh says the soldiers were just having a good time
3. Katrina: Halliburton gets the rebuilding contract.Newt Gingrich blames the residents of the 9th Ward, for being too stupid to get out of the way of the hurricane.
4. The Plame Affair: Libby convicted, may or may not be pardoned by Bush. Oh, also Plame outed herself, the dumb bitch.
5. Walter Reed: It was all those slovenly veterans' fault.
6. The US Attorney Scandal: Clinton did it.
It is enough to make me want to bash my head against a brick wall. The Democrats have finally got the balls to subpoena the relevant parties but Bush will fight it allll the way to the Supreme Court. And you know what? He may win. And his supporters in the pundit world and in the blogosphere keep on tapdancing. I guess when you've gotten to the point where you're parsing the definition of torture you can justify anything. But the cognitive dissonance is maddening. This point has been made over and over and over and over and over again, but since Tony Snow is now attempting to eat his own words, I think it bears repeating. These were the same people who tried to impeach Clinton for getting a blowjob. Even thinking about it makes me want to scream. Can they just publicly clarify that Democrats and Republicans will have completely different legal standards applied to them from here on out.
I try to be optimistic, and tell myself that it is almost over. But I know it can still get worse, in so many ways. Bush has been the president since I was 15 years old. Half of highschool and all of college, I just tried not to think about it. Pondering it, for me, only leads to rage, and then sullenness and depression.
The Onion breaks it down in honor of the 4th anniversary.
Sadly, No! has an excellent dissection of the so-called "Gathering of Eagles" : a bunch of pro-war demonstrators hanging out at the Vietnam Memorial to prevent it from being attacked by John Kerry and Jane Fonda.
I hate American politics.
