Eideard

Archie Wilson [without his bible] awaiting arraignment

Bible toting Clermont County politician Archie Wilson surfaced from substance abuse treatment Tuesday to answer charges he traded prescription drugs for sex at a bed bug infested motel.

Wilson, 60, of Batavia Township, pleaded not guilty in Kenton District Court to soliciting prostitution and trafficking in a controlled substance, both misdemeanors that could send him to jail for up to 12 months.

Wilson, who is married with one son, refused to answer reporters’ questions as he left the Kenton County Justice Center…

Wilson, who was known for bringing his bible to County Commission meetings, resigned as a Clermont County commissioner earlier this month citing health concerns…

Wilson’s troubles began in June when a female inmate at the Clermont County jail, Amanda Lay [I kid you not], saw Wilson’s photo in a newspaper and asked to speak with a detective. She told investigators that Wilson, over a period of several weeks, had paid to have sex with her in Erlanger motels and that he had provided her with cocaine and pills, according to court records.

Lay…introduced authorities to second woman who claimed she also had “performed services” for Wilson in exchange for cash and prescriptions. While authorities have not released the name of the second woman, they said she told them she would “engage in shows or sexual encounters” for Wilson, whom she first met at the Venus adult dance club in Covington four years ago…

As I have been known to say in the past, there is sort of a natural justice to Family Values right-wing politicians getting caught with their pants down – lying about sex and drugs. I realize Christianity may hold the copyright on hypocrisy; but, today’s Republican Party – with appropriate aid from the Kool Aid Party – has perfected the process.

Harper spends a lot of time in the dark
Daylife/Reuters Pictures used by permission

The government is abruptly arguing that the same-sex marriages of many foreigners who wed in Canada are not valid, a move that stunned the gay community and could affect thousands of couples.

In 2005, Canada became one of the first nations in the world to formally legalize gay marriage. Same-sex couples have been marrying in their thousands in Canada, and lenient rules on residency requirements for those seeking a marriage license mean many of them are from abroad.

Ottawa now says many, if not all, the unions involving foreign residents are invalid. It made the argument in a case where two women, one from England and the other from Florida, sought a divorce after their 2005 Canadian marriage…

“(This) is about to, if it hasn’t already, make us look like fools on the international stage,” said Martha McCarthy, a lawyer for the couple at the center of the furor…

“We’re the leaders of gay marriage … and the federal government is saying ‘Oh, yes, sorry, we forgot to mention that for the last nine years we’ve been marrying people that we didn’t think those were valid’,” she told Reuters on Thursday.

Critics blamed the right-of-center Conservative government, which they say wants to roll back social rights such as gay marriage and abortion…

Activists estimate that around 7,500 same-sex couples have married in Canada since 2003, when some provinces first allowed gay marriages. About 2,500 involved were foreigners, many from countries and U.S. states that do not recognize gay unions…

McCarthy said her clients’ message was: “We can’t get divorced in our own jurisdictions because they don’t recognize the validity of our marriage. You guys here in Canada married us so please give us a divorce because no one else will.”

RTFA to keep up on the latest folderol introduced by one more conservative who tries to back out of civil rights because his so-called morals can’t deal with them.

Unless you think Harper and his peers are only worried about convenient divorce.

Rick Santorum is the 8th dillweed from the right
Daylife/AP Photo used by permission

Former U.S. Sen. and Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum has a well-known Google problem.

For the uninitiated, if you Google Santorum’s name, the first result you’ll probably get is not his personal website but a fake definition of “santorum,” a sexual byproduct that’s a bit too graphic to talk about in detail here.

We’ll get into how that all happened in a second, but here’s what’s new: On Tuesday, the socially conservative politician lashed out at Google, saying the company could get rid of the sexual references to his name on the search results if it wanted to — and perhaps would do so if he were a Democrat…

Santorum contacted Google and asked the company about the issue, Politico said.

In an e-mail to CNN, a Google spokeswoman said, “Google’s search results are a reflection of the content and information that is available on the Web. Users who want content removed from the Internet should contact the webmaster of the page directly. Once the webmaster takes the page down from the Web, it will be removed from Google’s search results through our usual crawling process.”

She added: “We do not remove content from our search results, except in very limited cases such as illegal content and violations of our webmaster guidelines…”

The lewd “santorum” definition popped up after the former senator compared homosexuality to pedophilia and bestiality in a 2003 interview with The Associated Press…

That angered gay rights supporters, including gay podcast host and sex columnist Dan Savage, who launched a campaign for his listeners to redefine Santorum’s name. Savage created a website to promote the winning definition and enough bloggers linked to it that the spoof site eventually eclipsed Santorum’s campaign website in search rankings.

Danny Sullivan, who writes at the blog SearchEngineLand, notes that Google has a history of being hands-off when it comes to these controversies, regardless of the politics or sensitivities involved:

“Google is loathe to touch its results in any way, shape or form. That’s because if it does intervene in any way, there’s some interest group that will immediately claim a bias…

Just an example that reactionaries are as likely as anyone else to put in a claim for political correctness.

Yes, there are qualities of bigotry that I personally think should be shunted into the garbage can of discourse – but, I’m not in charge of anything in the public eye except this blog. Santorum is getting exactly what bigots like him deserve. A joking finger up his self-image.

Freshman U.S. Rep. Joe Walsh, a tax-bashing Tea Party champion who sharply lectures President Barack Obama and other Democrats on fiscal responsibility, owes more than $100,000 in child support to his ex-wife and three children, according to documents his ex-wife filed in their divorce case in December.

“I won’t place one more dollar of debt upon the backs of my kids and grandkids unless we structurally reform the way this town spends money!” Walsh says directly into the camera in his viral video lecturing Obama on the need to get the nation’s finances in order…

An intense, silver-haired firebrand, Walsh, 49, has taken cable TV by storm in recent weeks, becoming the unofficial spokesman for the “No compromise” faction of the Republican majority in the U.S. House — refusing to consider any debt crisis solution that includes raising taxes on the wealthy.

Walsh admits he is not wealthy. Some of his financial problems — including losing his Evanston condo to foreclosure — were documented before his out-of-nowhere victory last fall in the 8th Congressional District in Chicago’s north and northwest suburbs…

Before getting elected, he had told Laura Walsh that because he was out of work or between jobs, he could not make child support payments. So she was surprised to read in his congressional campaign disclosures that he was earning enough money to loan his campaign $35,000.

“Joe personally loaned his campaign $35,000, which, given that he failed to make any child support payments to Laura because he ‘had no money’ is surprising,” Laura Walsh’s attorneys wrote in a motion filed in December seeking $117,437 in back child support and interest. “Joe has paid himself back at least $14,200 for the loans he gave himself…”

Walsh lives with his new wife and children in McHenry. He has not paid any of the $117,437 yet, Laura Walsh’s attorney, Jack Coladarci, said Wednesday.

My lifetime political dicho still stands: Republicans would have invented hypocrisy if Christians hadn’t beaten them to it.

 
An embattled Cincinnati-area state representative quit yesterday afternoon, caught up in controversy after being arrested for drunken driving in Indiana with a stripper in his car and Viagra in his system.

By making his resignation effective Aug. 2, Robert Mecklenborg, R-Green Township, ensured himself that he will be paid for all of July; if he had quit this month, his legislative salary would have been prorated. He also gets a bit more from the state retirement system…

His two-sentence resignation letter to House Speaker William G. Batchelder, R-Medina, was sent electronically yesterday, although it had been in the works since Saturday, said Mike Dittoe, spokesman for House Republicans…

The latest blow against the GOP representative came last week when it was revealed that four days after he was charged with DUI, Mecklenborg signed a driver’s-license application in Ohio saying that he did not have any outstanding traffic citations. Mecklenborg, 59, had an expired driver’s license when he was pulled over by an Indiana state trooper on April 23…

…A dashboard camera video showed him repeatedly telling the trooper that he had not had anything to drink, even as he failed three field sobriety tests…

Mecklenborg was chairman of the House State Government and Elections Committee and sponsored a controversial bill that would require Ohioans to provide a photo ID before being allowed to vote. He also belonged to the Judiciary and Ethics Committee.

Mecklenborg was a good little loyal soldier in the Republican Army of hypocrites. He raised the family values flag every chance he had – supporting legislation against civil rights, against women having any choice or family planning opportunities, never heard of a war he couldn’t approve or a budget for working families and their children he wouldn’t cut.

HERE is the footage everyone’s been waiting for – WORLD EXCLUSIVE spy video shot by NATIONAL ENQUIRER investigators of CHRIS HANSEN of “To Catch a Predator” fame, CAUGHT cheating!

The blockbuster video footage of NBC’s “Dateline” investigative reporter, Hansen, and blonde beauty, KRISTYN CADDELL, a news anchor at a local NBC affiliate, WPTV in West Palm Beach, Florida, was shot June 24, at 7:30 PM.

The clandestine couple arrived at the Ritz-Carlton’s Angle restaurant in Palm Beach where they “enjoyed a romantic dinner”, an eyewitness told The ENQUIRER.

In the ENQUIRER’s new print edition, now on newsstands, readers will see exclusive photos showing how the couple spent the rest of the night together — until he left town the following morning.

For nearly four months, sources say, the handsome father of two has been cheating on his wife with 30-year-old Kristyn.

Hansen, 51, and his wife, Mary, 53, live togeth er in Connecticut and have two sons, but that didn’t stop the “To Catch a Predator” star from being caught in his own web of deceit…

I can’t stand sanctimonious creeps like Hansen. Watching him is like listening to Mitch McConnell preaching about preserving life, liberty and pursuit of happiness for all of Bernie Madoff’s peers. Between the entertainment/realityTV industry and Congress there are hardly any better examples of hypocrites on the planet.

Thanks, Mr. Fusion

The campaign to allow gays to serve openly in the US military will gain momentum today when the Pentagon releases a report on the impact a repeal of the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy would have on morale. It will be sent today by the defence secretary, Robert Gates, to President Barack Obama and to Congress.

Officials told the Washington Post last month that the report, a survey of opinion among soldiers, other military personnel and their spouses, found an overwhelming majority either supporting or, at least, not opposing the reform. A majority said it would have no impact on morale…

Gates and Mullen back the change, as does Obama, but repeal of the existing policy, in which gays can serve but not openly, needs to be done by Congress. The House has voted in favour of repeal of the existing law but the Senate is stalling.

The Senate is to hold hearings on Thursday and Friday and its Democratic leader, Harry Reid, has promised a vote before Christmas. However, senators such as the Republican John McCain are holding out, saying there has not been sufficient scrutiny…

Supporters of reform fear that if the vote, which would be part of a defence spending bill, is delayed until next year, the new Congress will have even more Republicans, possibly making reform tougher. Several Republican and Democratic senators have said they would not make up their mind until they had read the Pentagon report…

The survey is based on responses by some 115,000 troops and 44,200 military spouses to more than a half million questionnaires.

Everyone knew the report was coming – with a positive response. Hypocrites like John McCain have already been working out revisionist recasting of their original objections – which were based on waiting for the report.

Principles – and civil rights – be damned.

A pastor who said Facebook was a “portal to infidelity” – and told married church leaders to delete their accounts or resign – once testified that he took part in group sex with his wife and a male church assistant.

Rev Cedric Miller confirmed the information reported yesterday by the Asbury Park Press of Neptune, New Jersey, which cited testimony he gave in court in 2003. The activities had ended by that time…

The 48-year-old leader of the Living Word Christian Fellowship church in Neptune claimed Facebook ignites old passions, and ordered about 50 married church officials to delete their accounts or resign from their leadership positions…

In court testimony he gave in April 2003, Miller said his wife had an extramarital affair with an assistant at the church. Miller said he participated in many of the sexual encounters and the assistant’s wife was sometimes present, too.

Miller said the activities – which occurred in the Millers’ home – sometimes took place during Thursday Bible study meetings and on Sundays after church.

All of this, uh, before Facebook became enough of a big deal to cop the holy rolling preacher some extra headline space.

Just another hypocrite and hustler.

Getty Images used by permission

Ken Mehlman, President Bush’s campaign manager in 2004 and a former chairman of the Republican National Committee, has told family and associates that he is gay.

Mehlman [he says] arrived at this conclusion about his identity fairly recently, he said in an interview. He agreed to answer a reporter’s questions, he said, because, now in private life, he wants to become an advocate for gay marriage and anticipated that questions would arise about his participation in a late-September fundraiser for the American Foundation for Equal Rights (AFER), the group that supported the legal challenge to California’s ballot initiative against gay marriage, Proposition 8…

“Everybody has their own path to travel, their own journey, and for me, over the past few months, I’ve told my family, friends, former colleagues, and current colleagues, and they’ve been wonderful and supportive. The process has been something that’s made me a happier and better person. It’s something I wish I had done years ago.”

Privately, in off-the-record conversations with this reporter over the years, Mehlman voiced support for civil unions and told of how, in private discussions with senior Republican officials, he beat back efforts to attack same-sex marriage. He insisted, too, that President Bush “was no homophobe…”

Mehlman acknowledges that if he had publicly declared his sexuality sooner, he might have played a role in keeping the party from pushing an anti-gay agenda.

“It’s a legitimate question and one I understand,” Mehlman said. “I can’t change the fact that I wasn’t in this place personally when I was in politics, and I genuinely regret that. It was very hard, personally.” He asks of those who doubt his sincerity: “If they can’t offer support, at least offer understanding…”

Mehlman is aware that his attempts to justify his past silence will not be adequate for many people. He and his friends say that he is aware that he will no longer control the story about his identity — which will simultaneously expose old wounds, invite Schadenfruede, and legitimize anger among gay rights activists in both parties who did not hide their sexual orientations…

RTFA. There is a great deal of soul-searching in the interview with Mehlman. As much as anyone concerned with the ethics of hypocrites – whether they are conservatives or Christians, politicians or pundits – I can’t waste any time on forgiveness over the simple act of finally telling the truth.

There can be military, security reasons for lying – in some few contexts. Platforms vying to represent the political will of the American people are often as likely an opportunity for lying – and wholly unjustifiable. The best I can say about Ken Mehlman is I’m pleased to hear he can look himself in the mirror, now, and know he’s willing to face the world – and himself – as an honest man.

Indiana Republican Congressman Mark Souder, a staunch family values conservative who was elected as part of the Republican Revolution of 1994…is resigning his seat in the U.S. House of Representatives amid an affair…member of his staff…

“I sinned against my God, my wife and my family by having a mutual relationship with a part time member of my staff,” Souder added. “I am so shamed to have hurt those I love.”

He waited until he won the Republican primary a few weeks ago…before he announced his resignation.

Souder’s resignation, which was first reported by Fox News, was trumpeted Tuesday morning in an “in case you missed it” e-mail from the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.

Democratic officials acknowledge, however, that Souder’s resignation will not improve their chances of carrying this solidly Republican district.

May as well acknowledge that Republicans are accustomed to voting for hypocrites who hustle the nut ball family values-vote as a matter of practice.