absolute power

ABC News reported Friday that Foley also engaged in a series of sexually explicit instant messages with current and former pages, all male. In one message, ABC said, Foley wrote to one page, "Do I make you a little horny?"

In another message, Foley wrote, "You in your boxers, too? ... Well, strip down and get relaxed."

Foley, as chairman of the Missing and Exploited Children's Caucus, had introduced legislation in July to protect children from exploitation by adults over the Internet. He also sponsored other legislation designed to protect minors from abuse and neglect.

"We track library books better than we do sexual predators," Foley has said.

Foley, who represented an area around Palm Beach County, e-mailed the page in August 2005.

Foley asked him how he was doing after Hurricane Katrina and what he wanted for his birthday. The congressman also asked the boy to send a photo of himself, according to excerpts of the e-mails that were originally released by ABC News.



forgive me for posting this week old news, but i find it so incredible that a once great nation has fallen so far that even its pedophiles are in power, making laws.

exxon executives are in charge of environmental policy, oil-men are in charge of militaries that fight in oil-rich countries, a misogynist ignoramus is in charge of the richest state in the country, meetings with the president can be bought and sold, and in canada we had a highschool drop out in charge of education.

it is no surprise that america is one of the least educated nations in the developed world. and those in power can stay there because of it. it's time for a revolution, but everyone's too drunk on religion, meth, television, or good old fashioned ignorance, to do a goddamned thing. so to america::: you get the future that you deserve.

all those terrorists that are building up to fight against you due to this unjust war? they're yours, you made them, you are complicit because you never stopped your country from fighting, never wrote your congressman, never joined a war protest, never made a stand.

doing nothing is a political act. you voted with your remote control, you voted with your walmart and your SUV. you voted with your arrogance. the terrorists target you because it is you. your stock markets, your globalization, your quest for profits, your decisions, are all coming back to haunt you.

in all globalizing processes there are winners and losers. when you create too many losers, revolution begins to boil. the more losers, the more unrest, and the more unrest, the more dictatorial an approach is taken to maintain the financial status quo, until finally the barberians storm the gate. history gives us numerous examples of an upper class that gets too top complacent, too corrupt, too greedy, too vile, and too top heavy. are we there yet?

you can't keep fucking up forever. you can't keep doing the immoral, the wrong, the unjust, the cruel, forever. somewhere, someone is going to have had enough.

I'm not sure if teacher's college counts as 'academia' per se. It is a mix of theory and practical ideas, with some pyschology throw in.

i wake at 6. i have a one hour commute there, and a two hour commute home. class is, for the most part, very interesting though. the way they teach today is so incredibly different from when i was in the system. the idea of engaging people with ideas in order to learn is incredibly exciting.

my classmates are, unfortunately, not very cerebral, but that is to be expected. Most of them are here because they did not get into law/medicine/other post graduate studies. they all seem very nice though, and they also seem very judgy.

there seems to be a moral air about much of what they suggest, ie, when being told that some students may be pregnant at 12 years old, they let out loud guffaws and condemn the student and parent that would 'let that happen'. or when told that students today have tattooes, my classmates become indignant, questioning the parents' choices. i want to say something, but i believe it might go over their heads. some would agree, i'm sure, but the intelligent are generally quiet in situations such as these because the group think mentality on the other side is so deafeningly loud and morally righteous that to open one's mouth is paramount to social suicide! case in point! as demonstrated by your truly.

we did an exercise in 'appreciating others values', and were asked to pick on a scale between 1 and 5, with one being strongly disagree and 5 being strongly agree: Teacher's should instill in students a strong sense of patriotism and nationalism.

I strongly disagree. Of course, do what you want as a person and parent and friend, but as a teacher i don't think it's my job to instill ethnocentricity and divisiveness at such a young age. parents can do that. molson and tim horton's can do that. i don't care to do it.

when the teacher asked who picked "strongly disagree", i was the only one. (the majority, of course, picked strongly agree) i then had to espouse my views. "a country is an idea. i believe in the idea of what canada is, but i do not believe that teaching others should be a part of my job". i went on to discuss the notion that canada, as a distinct and unique idea, doesn't exist outside of the major metropolitan areas. the rest of canada is not: multicultural, or firmly ensuring the charter of rights and freedoms is applied to all of its citizens (it's not even doing it in cities). Of course, this was taken to mean i didn't like canada... i don't even know how to respond to this type of reductive logic. i felt absolutely misunderstood and villified. it was a terrible day two of school. learning to deal with those who cannot think will be a part of my adjustment, my training.

i feel that many people would rather discuss ways to be tyrannical to students to ensure they listen then how to get students excited about learning. on this point, however, i am afraid my libertarian views are going to be given a very harsh illumination during my first teaching gig! students probably WON'T care for these views, my liberal attitude, my belief in equality, etc. they are probably their own little anarchistic tyrants! wake up call, meet F's quaint, esoteric views.

we shall see.

for now, i have 9 courses per term, all of which are loading us up with homework and i must go to get to it.

full authoritarianism?

monitoring... subtle pressure... the government is watching you, listening to you disagree with it...

the question isn't 'what does monitoring mean', it's what does the government do with the information, and what is the effect on an american writer who is critical of the government?


http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_IRAQ_MEDIA_MONITORING?SITE=7219&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2006-08-31-22-29-00

Pentagon Moves Toward Monitoring Media
MATTHEW PERRONE AP Business Writer
AP Photo/GEORGE FREY


WASHINGTON (AP) -- The U.S. command in Baghdad is seeking bidders for a two-year, $20 million public relations contract that calls for monitoring the tone of Iraq news stories filed by U.S. and foreign media.

Proposals, due Sept. 6, ask companies to show how they'll "provide continuous monitoring and near-real time reporting of Iraqi, pan-Arabic, international, and U.S. media," according to the solicitation issued last week.

Contractors also will be evaluated on how they will provide analytical reports and customized briefings to the military, "including, but not limited to tone (positive, neutral, negative) and scope of media coverage."

The winner of the contract will likely also be required to develop an Arabic version of the multinational force's web site.

Attempts by The Associated Press to contact officials connected to the project via telephone and e-mail were not successful Thursday night.

The program comes during what has appeared to be a White House effort, before the fifth anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks, to take the offensive against critics at a time of doubt about the future of Iraq.

President Bush addressed the American Legion's national convention in Salt Lake City on the issue Thursday, stressing that a U.S. pullout from iraq would lead to its conquest by America's worst enemies.

He continued a theme set by both Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice when they spoke to the administration-friendly group earlier in the week.

The military last year was criticized for a public relations program in Iraq that included hiring a consulting firm that paid Iraqi news media to carry news stories written by American troops.

Pentagon officials have defended the program as a necessary tool in the war on terror. But critics have said it contradicts American values of freedom of the press.