From Scooter "the Bear" Libby:
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For even more difficult prose, however, one must revisit an earlier work. “The Apprentice”—Libby’s 1996 entry in the long and distinguished annals of the right-wing dirty novel—tells the tale of Setsuo, a courageous virgin innkeeper who finds himself on the brink of love and war.
For even more difficult prose, however, one must revisit an earlier work. “The Apprentice”—Libby’s 1996 entry in the long and distinguished annals of the right-wing dirty novel—tells the tale of Setsuo, a courageous virgin innkeeper who finds himself on the brink of love and war.
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Libby has a lot to live up to as a conservative author of erotic fiction. As an article in SPY magazine pointed out in 1988, from Safire (“[She] finally came to him in the bed and shouted ‘Arragghrrorwr!’ in his ear, bit his neck, plunged her head between his legs and devoured him”) to Buckley (“I’d rather do this with you than play cards”) to Liddy (“T’sa Li froze, her lips still enclosing Rand’s glans . . .”) to Ehrlichman (“ ‘It felt like a little tongue’ ”) to O’Reilly (“Okay, Shannon Michaels, off with those pants”), extracurricular creative writing has long been an outlet for ideas that might not fly at, say, the National Prayer Breakfast. In one of Lynne Cheney’s books, a Republican vice-president dies of a heart attack while having sex with his mistress.
Libby has a lot to live up to as a conservative author of erotic fiction. As an article in SPY magazine pointed out in 1988, from Safire (“[She] finally came to him in the bed and shouted ‘Arragghrrorwr!’ in his ear, bit his neck, plunged her head between his legs and devoured him”) to Buckley (“I’d rather do this with you than play cards”) to Liddy (“T’sa Li froze, her lips still enclosing Rand’s glans . . .”) to Ehrlichman (“ ‘It felt like a little tongue’ ”) to O’Reilly (“Okay, Shannon Michaels, off with those pants”), extracurricular creative writing has long been an outlet for ideas that might not fly at, say, the National Prayer Breakfast. In one of Lynne Cheney’s books, a Republican vice-president dies of a heart attack while having sex with his mistress.
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It took Libby more than twenty years to write “The Apprentice,” which is set in a remote Japanese province in the winter of 1903. The book is brimming with quasi-political intrigue and antique locutions—“The girl who wore the cloak of yellow fur”; “one wore backward a European hat”—that make the phrase a “former Hill staffer,” by comparison, seem straightforward.
It took Libby more than twenty years to write “The Apprentice,” which is set in a remote Japanese province in the winter of 1903. The book is brimming with quasi-political intrigue and antique locutions—“The girl who wore the cloak of yellow fur”; “one wore backward a European hat”—that make the phrase a “former Hill staffer,” by comparison, seem straightforward.
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Like his predecessors, Libby does not shy from the scatological. The narrative makes generous mention of lice, snot, drunkenness, bad breath, torture, urine, “turds,” armpits, arm hair, neck hair, pubic hair, pus, boils, and blood (regular and menstrual). One passage goes, “At length he walked around to the deer’s head and, reaching into his pants, struggled for a moment and then pulled out his penis. He began to piss in the snow just in front of the deer’s nostrils.”
Like his predecessors, Libby does not shy from the scatological. The narrative makes generous mention of lice, snot, drunkenness, bad breath, torture, urine, “turds,” armpits, arm hair, neck hair, pubic hair, pus, boils, and blood (regular and menstrual). One passage goes, “At length he walked around to the deer’s head and, reaching into his pants, struggled for a moment and then pulled out his penis. He began to piss in the snow just in front of the deer’s nostrils.”
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Homoeroticism and incest also figure as themes. The main female character, Yukiko, draws hair on the “mound” of a little girl. The brothers of a dead samurai have sex with his daughter. Many things glisten (mouths, hair, evergreens), quiver (a “pink underlip,” arm muscles, legs), and are sniffed (floorboards, sheets, fingers). The cast includes a dwarf, and an “assistant headman” who comes to restore order after a crime at the inn. (Might this character be autobiographical And, if so, would that have made Libby the assistant headman or the assistant headman’s assistant?)
When it comes to depicting scenes of romance, however, Libby can evoke a sort of musty sweetness; while one critic deemed “The Apprentice” “reminiscent of Rembrandt,” certain passages can better be described as reminiscent of Penthouse Forum. There is, for example, Yukiko’s seduction of the inexperienced apprentice:
Homoeroticism and incest also figure as themes. The main female character, Yukiko, draws hair on the “mound” of a little girl. The brothers of a dead samurai have sex with his daughter. Many things glisten (mouths, hair, evergreens), quiver (a “pink underlip,” arm muscles, legs), and are sniffed (floorboards, sheets, fingers). The cast includes a dwarf, and an “assistant headman” who comes to restore order after a crime at the inn. (Might this character be autobiographical And, if so, would that have made Libby the assistant headman or the assistant headman’s assistant?)
When it comes to depicting scenes of romance, however, Libby can evoke a sort of musty sweetness; while one critic deemed “The Apprentice” “reminiscent of Rembrandt,” certain passages can better be described as reminiscent of Penthouse Forum. There is, for example, Yukiko’s seduction of the inexperienced apprentice:
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He could feel her heart beneath his hands. He moved his hands slowly lower still and she arched her back to help him and her lower leg came against his. He held her breasts in his hands. Oddly, he thought, the lower one might be larger. . . . One of her breasts now hung loosely in his hand near his face and he knew not how best to touch her.
He could feel her heart beneath his hands. He moved his hands slowly lower still and she arched her back to help him and her lower leg came against his. He held her breasts in his hands. Oddly, he thought, the lower one might be larger. . . . One of her breasts now hung loosely in his hand near his face and he knew not how best to touch her.
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Other sex scenes are less conventional. Where his Republican predecessors can seem embarrassingly awkward—the written equivalent of trying to cop a feel while pinning on a corsage—Libby is unabashed:
Other sex scenes are less conventional. Where his Republican predecessors can seem embarrassingly awkward—the written equivalent of trying to cop a feel while pinning on a corsage—Libby is unabashed:
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At age ten the madam put the child in a cage with a bear trained to couple with young girls so the girls would be frigid and not fall in love with their patrons. They fed her through the bars and aroused the bear with a stick when it seemed to lose interest.
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At age ten the madam put the child in a cage with a bear trained to couple with young girls so the girls would be frigid and not fall in love with their patrons. They fed her through the bars and aroused the bear with a stick when it seemed to lose interest.
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And, finally:
He asked if they should fuck the deer.
The answer, reader, is yes.
He asked if they should fuck the deer.
The answer, reader, is yes.
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So, how does Libby stack up against the competition? This question was put to Nancy Sladek, the editor of Britain’s Literary Review, which, each year, holds a contest for bad sex writing in fiction. (In 1998, someone nominated the Starr Report.) Sladek agreed to review a few passages from Libby. “That’s a bit depraved, isn’t it, this kind of thing about bears and young girls? That’s particularly nasty, and the other ones are just boring,” she said. “God, they’re an odd bunch, these Republicans.” Unlike their American counterparts, she said, Tories haven’t taken much to sex writing. “They usually just get caught,” she said.
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— Lauren Collins (New Yorker)
So, how does Libby stack up against the competition? This question was put to Nancy Sladek, the editor of Britain’s Literary Review, which, each year, holds a contest for bad sex writing in fiction. (In 1998, someone nominated the Starr Report.) Sladek agreed to review a few passages from Libby. “That’s a bit depraved, isn’t it, this kind of thing about bears and young girls? That’s particularly nasty, and the other ones are just boring,” she said. “God, they’re an odd bunch, these Republicans.” Unlike their American counterparts, she said, Tories haven’t taken much to sex writing. “They usually just get caught,” she said.
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— Lauren Collins (New Yorker)
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Libbys lurid book in demand - The World - Breaking News 24/7 - NEWS.co...
Suggester says: Why are high profile right-wingers writing novels laden with sexual content and why are the novels in high demand at absurd prices First Lynn Cheney's racy tale reportedly depicting whorehouses, attempted rape and lesbian love, and now we learn that Scooter Libby has penned his own "lurid" novel described by one Amazon.com reviewer as containing "lavish dollops of voyeurism, bestiality, pedophilia and corpse robbery."
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Not just bizarre - but extremely violent acts of depravity, to say the least. What kind of mind conceives this sort of trash It flies in the face of the family values rhetoric often touted by the right and almost begs the question - do right wingers prefer fantasizing and writing about sex to actually having it Perhaps this would explain the perverse obsession with Clinton's crotch and Ken Starr's porn report. On the other hand, perhaps it is simply a case of capitalizing on the idea that sex sells - and of course no good neocon would allow morality to stand in the way of making a buck.
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November 23, 2005
Just another immoral Republican - Scooter Libby writes a book about bears raping 10 year old girls and people paying to watch.
Just another immoral Republican - Scooter Libby writes a book about bears raping 10 year old girls and people paying to watch.
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What a sicko. The author leaves out Bill O'Reilly's pornographic "novel" about a crack addict and her pimp. From Richard Bradley at Tom Paine:
What a sicko. The author leaves out Bill O'Reilly's pornographic "novel" about a crack addict and her pimp. From Richard Bradley at Tom Paine:
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The Republican party's most powerful members live by a double-standard of personal vice and ill-gotten gain. I don't normally associate bestiality with Republicans, but in Scooter Libby's case, one has to make an exception. Consider this excerpt from Libby's 1996 novel, The Apprentice, which chronicles the depraved training of a Japanese prostitute:
The Republican party's most powerful members live by a double-standard of personal vice and ill-gotten gain. I don't normally associate bestiality with Republicans, but in Scooter Libby's case, one has to make an exception. Consider this excerpt from Libby's 1996 novel, The Apprentice, which chronicles the depraved training of a Japanese prostitute:
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The young samurai's mother had the child sold to a brothel, where she swept the floors and oiled the men and watched the secret ways. At age ten the madam put the child in a cage with a bear trained to couple with young girls so the girls would be frigid and not fall in love with their patrons. They fed her through the bars and aroused the bear with a stick when it seemed to lose interest. Groups of men paid to watch. Like other girls who have been trained this way, she learned to handle many men in a single night and her skin turned a milky-white.
The young samurai's mother had the child sold to a brothel, where she swept the floors and oiled the men and watched the secret ways. At age ten the madam put the child in a cage with a bear trained to couple with young girls so the girls would be frigid and not fall in love with their patrons. They fed her through the bars and aroused the bear with a stick when it seemed to lose interest. Groups of men paid to watch. Like other girls who have been trained this way, she learned to handle many men in a single night and her skin turned a milky-white.
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This is a curious passage, and not just because of the less-than-obvious connection between milky-white skin and sex with a bear. It's strange because the author is a conservative Republican, a member (well, until recently) of an administration which considers sex even sex between two humans a bad, bad thing. John Ashcroft, for example, clothed a statue's bare breast; the FCC tried to cover up Janet Jackson's; and two months ago, the FBI launched an anti-obscenity squad. (Would Scooter Libby's book fit the bill?) So the fact that Dick Cheney's closest confidante scripted a work featuring bestiality, rape and general licentiousness would seem to constitute hypocrisy in the GOP's war against immorality lashing out against others?
This is a curious passage, and not just because of the less-than-obvious connection between milky-white skin and sex with a bear. It's strange because the author is a conservative Republican, a member (well, until recently) of an administration which considers sex even sex between two humans a bad, bad thing. John Ashcroft, for example, clothed a statue's bare breast; the FCC tried to cover up Janet Jackson's; and two months ago, the FBI launched an anti-obscenity squad. (Would Scooter Libby's book fit the bill?) So the fact that Dick Cheney's closest confidante scripted a work featuring bestiality, rape and general licentiousness would seem to constitute hypocrisy in the GOP's war against immorality lashing out against others?
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Attacking smut and sin while profiting off them yourself. But then, it's hardly the only such example. Here are a few more.
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* Despite years of speaking out against gambling, Ralph Reed, former head of the Christian Coalition, recently admitted that he had taken more than $1 million in fees from lobbyists representing Indian casinos.
* Despite years of speaking out against gambling, Ralph Reed, former head of the Christian Coalition, recently admitted that he had taken more than $1 million in fees from lobbyists representing Indian casinos.
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* Back in his days as a Texas state legislator, Tom DeLay earned the nickname Hot Tub Tom, for his talents at water sports.
* Back in his days as a Texas state legislator, Tom DeLay earned the nickname Hot Tub Tom, for his talents at water sports.
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* Conservative White House reporter Jeff Gannon turned out to be a former gay hooker.
* Conservative White House reporter Jeff Gannon turned out to be a former gay hooker.
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* Rupert Murdoch, the owner of conservative Fox News and the New York Post , is also part-owner of DirecTV, which makes millions distributing pornography.
* Rupert Murdoch, the owner of conservative Fox News and the New York Post , is also part-owner of DirecTV, which makes millions distributing pornography.
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* Illinois GOP candidate Jack Ryan dropped out of a race for U.S. Senate after disclosures that he had pressured his former wife, the actress Jeri Ryan, to go to sex clubs with him.
* Illinois GOP candidate Jack Ryan dropped out of a race for U.S. Senate after disclosures that he had pressured his former wife, the actress Jeri Ryan, to go to sex clubs with him.
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* Newt Gingrich cheated on two wives. His short-lived successor as House speaker, Louisiana congressman Bob Livingston, stepped down from the post after admitting to his own marital infidelities.
* Newt Gingrich cheated on two wives. His short-lived successor as House speaker, Louisiana congressman Bob Livingston, stepped down from the post after admitting to his own marital infidelities.
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* Lynne Cheney is the author of Sisters, a 1981 potboiler described by USA Today as including brothels, attempted rapes, and a lesbian love affair. Earlier this year, plans by publisher New American Library to reprint the book were abandoned after Cheney protested; her agent explained that she did not think the book was her best work. With lines like and then we shall go to bed, our bed, my dearest girl, let us hope he was telling the truth.
* Lynne Cheney is the author of Sisters, a 1981 potboiler described by USA Today as including brothels, attempted rapes, and a lesbian love affair. Earlier this year, plans by publisher New American Library to reprint the book were abandoned after Cheney protested; her agent explained that she did not think the book was her best work. With lines like and then we shall go to bed, our bed, my dearest girl, let us hope he was telling the truth.
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* GOP consultant Roger Stone allegedly advertised himself and his wife in a magazine for swingers. (Stone claimed that he had been framed.)
* GOP consultant Roger Stone allegedly advertised himself and his wife in a magazine for swingers. (Stone claimed that he had been framed.)
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The list could go on (Strom Thurmond, anyone), but as fun and titillating as that would be, there is a larger point here. The GOP bills itself as the party of family values, and in a hundred different ways imposes its moralistic judgments about sex and reproduction on the American people. It tries to amend the Constitution to ban gay marriage; it subverts the FDA's science to ban the morning-after pill; it attaches anti-birth control restrictions to foreign aid. Et cetera. And all the while the party's most powerful members live by a double-standard of personal vice and ill-gotten gain.
The list could go on (Strom Thurmond, anyone), but as fun and titillating as that would be, there is a larger point here. The GOP bills itself as the party of family values, and in a hundred different ways imposes its moralistic judgments about sex and reproduction on the American people. It tries to amend the Constitution to ban gay marriage; it subverts the FDA's science to ban the morning-after pill; it attaches anti-birth control restrictions to foreign aid. Et cetera. And all the while the party's most powerful members live by a double-standard of personal vice and ill-gotten gain.
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Of course, hypocrisy on the part of individuals doesn't entirely negate a morality platform. But at the least, it does suggest that some of the most powerful proponents of family values are deeply cynical about that aspect of the Republican agenda. They feel free to impose these values on others even while making a mockery of them in their own lives.
Of course, hypocrisy on the part of individuals doesn't entirely negate a morality platform. But at the least, it does suggest that some of the most powerful proponents of family values are deeply cynical about that aspect of the Republican agenda. They feel free to impose these values on others even while making a mockery of them in their own lives.
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Moreover, in this coming campaign year there's an opportunity for Democrats here not to excoriate Republicans for their personal failings, which is a dangerous game, but to remind Americans that government isn't suited to the promotion of sexual morality upon its citizens. That's really the work of community groups, churches, schools and other grassroots organizations. Instead, citizens should demand morality in government e.g., sending the nation into war as a last resort and on the basis of sound intelligence; protecting the identities of CIA agents; promoting high-quality public broadcasting free from partisan influence; awarding federal contracts competitively with no favoritism shown for administration officials former companies.
Moreover, in this coming campaign year there's an opportunity for Democrats here not to excoriate Republicans for their personal failings, which is a dangerous game, but to remind Americans that government isn't suited to the promotion of sexual morality upon its citizens. That's really the work of community groups, churches, schools and other grassroots organizations. Instead, citizens should demand morality in government e.g., sending the nation into war as a last resort and on the basis of sound intelligence; protecting the identities of CIA agents; promoting high-quality public broadcasting free from partisan influence; awarding federal contracts competitively with no favoritism shown for administration officials former companies.
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Government shouldn't dictate morality to citizens, but citizens should expect morality in government. It's the kind of thing that Republicans used to say. That they no longer do provides an opening for Democrats to make their case.
Government shouldn't dictate morality to citizens, but citizens should expect morality in government. It's the kind of thing that Republicans used to say. That they no longer do provides an opening for Democrats to make their case.
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The Jeff Gannon Affair:
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New York Daily News - http://www.nydailynews.com
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Bush press pal quitsover gay prostie link
Bush press pal quitsover gay prostie link
BY HELEN KENNEDYDAILY NEWS WASHINGTON BUREAU
Thursday, February 10th, 2005 WASHINGTON -
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A conservative ringer who was given a press pass to the White House and lobbed softball questions at President Bush quit yesterday after left-leaning Internet bloggers discovered possible ties to gay prostitution.
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"The voice goes silent," Jeff Gannon wrote on his Web site. "In consideration of the welfare of me and my family, I have decided to return to private life."
"The voice goes silent," Jeff Gannon wrote on his Web site. "In consideration of the welfare of me and my family, I have decided to return to private life."
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Gannon began covering the White House two years ago for an obscure Republican Web site (Talon-News.com). He was known for his friendly questions, including asking Bush at last month's news conference how he could work with Democrats "who seem to have divorced themselves from reality."
Gannon began covering the White House two years ago for an obscure Republican Web site (Talon-News.com). He was known for his friendly questions, including asking Bush at last month's news conference how he could work with Democrats "who seem to have divorced themselves from reality."
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Gannon was also given a classified CIA memo that named agent Valerie Plame, leading to his grilling by the grand jury investigating her outing.
Gannon was also given a classified CIA memo that named agent Valerie Plame, leading to his grilling by the grand jury investigating her outing.
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He came under lefty scrutiny after revelations that the administration was paying conservative pundits to talk up Bush's proposals. By examining Internet records, online sleuths at DailyKos.com figured out that his real name was Jim Guckert and he owned various Web sites, including HotMilitaryStud.com, MilitaryEscorts.com and MilitaryEscortsM4M.com.
He came under lefty scrutiny after revelations that the administration was paying conservative pundits to talk up Bush's proposals. By examining Internet records, online sleuths at DailyKos.com figured out that his real name was Jim Guckert and he owned various Web sites, including HotMilitaryStud.com, MilitaryEscorts.com and MilitaryEscortsM4M.com.
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"The issue here is whether someone with connections to male prostitution was given unfettered access to the White House and copies of internal CIA documents. For a family values administration, that's pretty creepy," said John Aravosis, one of the bloggers chasing the story.
The White House didn't return a call asking how someone using an alias was given daily clearance to enter the White House.
"The issue here is whether someone with connections to male prostitution was given unfettered access to the White House and copies of internal CIA documents. For a family values administration, that's pretty creepy," said John Aravosis, one of the bloggers chasing the story.
The White House didn't return a call asking how someone using an alias was given daily clearance to enter the White House.
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On his Talon News Web site, Gannon had written that liberals were out to get him because he's a white conservative man who owns a gun, drives a sport-utility vehicle and is a born-again Christian.
On his Talon News Web site, Gannon had written that liberals were out to get him because he's a white conservative man who owns a gun, drives a sport-utility vehicle and is a born-again Christian.
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Yesterday, however, he abruptly quit, and all of the stories he wrote were erased from the Web site. A great many were on gay issues, including one detailing John Kerry's "pro-homosexual platform" that was headlined mockingly, "Kerry Could Become First Gay President."
Yesterday, however, he abruptly quit, and all of the stories he wrote were erased from the Web site. A great many were on gay issues, including one detailing John Kerry's "pro-homosexual platform" that was headlined mockingly, "Kerry Could Become First Gay President."
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Must see also: [Please use this URL to link to this story, sorry, it kept changing with blogger:http://americablog.blogspot.com/2005/02/man-called-jeff.html
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March 11, 2006
Another Bush 'Family Values' Hypocrite: CLAUDE ALLEN ARRESTED FOR THEFT AND FRAUD
Another Bush 'Family Values' Hypocrite: CLAUDE ALLEN ARRESTED FOR THEFT AND FRAUD
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Former Bush domestic policy czar Claude Allen (right) has been arrested in Maryland on charges of swindling at least $5000 out of Targets and Hecht's stores in a refund scam, the Washington Post reports this morning. When Allen was named by Bush as his White House domestic counselor a year ago, I wrote a profile of Allen for the L.A. Weekly detailing how Allen was "a notorious homophobe, a ferocious enemy of abortion and an opponent of safe-sex education who for years has been one of the AIDS community’s principal enemies," and explaining why his appointment was was "a huge victory for the social reactionaries of the Christian right."
Former Bush domestic policy czar Claude Allen (right) has been arrested in Maryland on charges of swindling at least $5000 out of Targets and Hecht's stores in a refund scam, the Washington Post reports this morning. When Allen was named by Bush as his White House domestic counselor a year ago, I wrote a profile of Allen for the L.A. Weekly detailing how Allen was "a notorious homophobe, a ferocious enemy of abortion and an opponent of safe-sex education who for years has been one of the AIDS community’s principal enemies," and explaining why his appointment was was "a huge victory for the social reactionaries of the Christian right."
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To take just one example from Allen's repulsive resume, when he was Deputy Secretary of HHS: "Known as Karl Rove’s enforcer Allen wielded a heavy, censorious and punitive hand at HHS. In November 2001, [HHS Secretary Tommy] Thompson loyally toed the Rove-Bush line when he put Allen in charge of supervising HHS’s audit of HIV-prevention spending. Allen led an HHS witch-hunt that investigated all of the AIDS service organizations (ASOs) receiving any federal funding (like New York City’s Gay Men’s Health Crisis) whose staff members had disrupted Tommy Thompson’s speech to the 14th Annual International AIDS Conference in Barcelona; they were there to protest Bush’s lethal do-nothingism about the AIDS pandemic. These audits were designed to intimidate ASOs into abandoning AIDS advocacy. A number of ASOs, like San Francisco’s Stop AIDS Project and half a dozen other California AIDS-fighting groups, were ultimately purged from receiving U.S. funding by the Allen-led witch-hunt because Allen didn’t like their science-based sex-education programs. Allen ordered Advocates for Youth, the leading national coalition for safe-sex ed, audited half a dozen times...." There's a lot more in my L.A. Weekly profile of Claude Allen, which you can read in its entirety by clicking here. (Left, Claude Allen's police mugshot accompanying the report of his arrest on the website of the Montgomery County (Maryland) Police Department's website.)
To take just one example from Allen's repulsive resume, when he was Deputy Secretary of HHS: "Known as Karl Rove’s enforcer Allen wielded a heavy, censorious and punitive hand at HHS. In November 2001, [HHS Secretary Tommy] Thompson loyally toed the Rove-Bush line when he put Allen in charge of supervising HHS’s audit of HIV-prevention spending. Allen led an HHS witch-hunt that investigated all of the AIDS service organizations (ASOs) receiving any federal funding (like New York City’s Gay Men’s Health Crisis) whose staff members had disrupted Tommy Thompson’s speech to the 14th Annual International AIDS Conference in Barcelona; they were there to protest Bush’s lethal do-nothingism about the AIDS pandemic. These audits were designed to intimidate ASOs into abandoning AIDS advocacy. A number of ASOs, like San Francisco’s Stop AIDS Project and half a dozen other California AIDS-fighting groups, were ultimately purged from receiving U.S. funding by the Allen-led witch-hunt because Allen didn’t like their science-based sex-education programs. Allen ordered Advocates for Youth, the leading national coalition for safe-sex ed, audited half a dozen times...." There's a lot more in my L.A. Weekly profile of Claude Allen, which you can read in its entirety by clicking here. (Left, Claude Allen's police mugshot accompanying the report of his arrest on the website of the Montgomery County (Maryland) Police Department's website.)
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The New York Times report this morning on Allen's arrest this past Thursday says that the White House knew of Allen's legal problems in January, but kept him on to work on the State of the Union address. In the sanitized chronology provided by White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan, as relayed by the Times:
The New York Times report this morning on Allen's arrest this past Thursday says that the White House knew of Allen's legal problems in January, but kept him on to work on the State of the Union address. In the sanitized chronology provided by White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan, as relayed by the Times:
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"On Jan. 3, Mr. Allen discussed the incident with Harriet E. Miers, the White House counsel, and told her that he had been returning merchandise and there was confusion with his credit cards because he had moved many times. He assured Ms. Miers that the matter would be cleared up.Mr. McClellan said the White House gave Mr. Allen "the benefit of the doubt" because he had gone through extensive background checks before his judicial nomination.Within a few days of the incident, Mr. McClellan said, Mr. Allen told Mr. Card and Ms. Miers that he was thinking of leaving the White House to spend time with his family. But Mr. Allen decided to stay for a while because he was working on domestic initiatives for the State of the Union address, which Mr. Bush delivered on Jan. 31."
"On Jan. 3, Mr. Allen discussed the incident with Harriet E. Miers, the White House counsel, and told her that he had been returning merchandise and there was confusion with his credit cards because he had moved many times. He assured Ms. Miers that the matter would be cleared up.Mr. McClellan said the White House gave Mr. Allen "the benefit of the doubt" because he had gone through extensive background checks before his judicial nomination.Within a few days of the incident, Mr. McClellan said, Mr. Allen told Mr. Card and Ms. Miers that he was thinking of leaving the White House to spend time with his family. But Mr. Allen decided to stay for a while because he was working on domestic initiatives for the State of the Union address, which Mr. Bush delivered on Jan. 31."
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So, once again the White House's internal procedures are revealed as having all the efficiency of the Keystone Kops-- if McClellan's version can be believed, the Bushies took this bigoted religious right darling at his word, instead of immediately launching an investigation to see whether Allen was telling the truth or not. So here we have a guy who was stealing from chain stores while he was working on Bush's State of the Union address. A rather remarkable admission of Bush administration incompetence, I'd say.
So, once again the White House's internal procedures are revealed as having all the efficiency of the Keystone Kops-- if McClellan's version can be believed, the Bushies took this bigoted religious right darling at his word, instead of immediately launching an investigation to see whether Allen was telling the truth or not. So here we have a guy who was stealing from chain stores while he was working on Bush's State of the Union address. A rather remarkable admission of Bush administration incompetence, I'd say.
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Now that Allen has been arrested as a petty criminal and a thief, it's another example of the hypocrisy of the religious right and of Bush's pea-brained judgement in making this fraud his chief domestic policy advisor. And to think that Bush actually named this criminal to a federal court judgeship in 2003! (The nomination was blocked by the Democrats.) It's also worth noting that neither the WashPost nor the Times this morning has any of the detail on Allen's anti-safe-sex, anti-abortion, anti-poor past that my L.A. Weekly profile of Allen reported over a year ago.
Posted by Doug Ireland at 05:54 AM Permalink
Now that Allen has been arrested as a petty criminal and a thief, it's another example of the hypocrisy of the religious right and of Bush's pea-brained judgement in making this fraud his chief domestic policy advisor. And to think that Bush actually named this criminal to a federal court judgeship in 2003! (The nomination was blocked by the Democrats.) It's also worth noting that neither the WashPost nor the Times this morning has any of the detail on Allen's anti-safe-sex, anti-abortion, anti-poor past that my L.A. Weekly profile of Allen reported over a year ago.
Posted by Doug Ireland at 05:54 AM Permalink
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Listed below are links to weblogs that reference Another Bush 'Family Values' Hypocrite: CLAUDE ALLEN ARRESTED FOR THEFT AND FRAUD:
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Bush Shocked, Just Shocked, by Arrest of Former Adviser from DEALSDAQNobody is more shocked and outraged by the arrest of Claude Allen that the president himself. Allen, for those who do not know, was arrested after receiving refunds for more than $5,000 worth of merchandise he did not buy. President Bush was just outr... [Read More]
Tracked on Mar 11, 2006 7:09:27 PM
Bush Shocked, Just Shocked, by Arrest of Former Adviser from DEALSDAQNobody is more shocked and outraged by the arrest of Claude Allen that the president himself. Allen, for those who do not know, was arrested after receiving refunds for more than $5,000 worth of merchandise he did not buy. President Bush was just outr... [Read More]
Tracked on Mar 11, 2006 7:09:27 PM
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It's Hard out Here for a Black GOPer from Anderson@LargeThe arrest of President Bush's former domestic policy adviser Claude Allen (here and here) for allegedly scamming Target and Hecht’s department stores is another blow to Bush who’s still reeling from the Dubai ports deal debacle (here and here). Until [Read More]
It's Hard out Here for a Black GOPer from Anderson@LargeThe arrest of President Bush's former domestic policy adviser Claude Allen (here and here) for allegedly scamming Target and Hecht’s department stores is another blow to Bush who’s still reeling from the Dubai ports deal debacle (here and here). Until [Read More]
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