North Carolina District 10 asshat Patrick McHenry has decided that House Democrats are to blame for Republican ex-Congressman Mark Foley’s interest in young studs. In a tired political stunt, McHenry yesterday called on House Democrats to testify under oath about what they knew about Foley. Never mind that the GOP leadership apparently was alerted several times and did nothing. Now its somehow Nancy Pelosi’s fault.

Enjoy your last days in Congress, Pat. In a little over a month, you’ll be free to take that dream job delivering pizzas in Cherryville.

Wow, could the timing of the Mark Foley scandal be any more perfect? I mean, while the news media is falling over themselves to cover yet another Washington sex scandal, no one will notice that the Republicans’ Detainee Bill has gutted habeas corpus. This little bill sets the American legal system back, oh 800 years or so.

So while we know all about Foley’s attraction to little boys, we hear little about our Republic crumbling around us. Our Dear Leader now has the right to lock up anyone he so chooses, indefinitely, with absolutely no legal recourse available to the victim. Isn’t that a little scarier?

What happened to the America I once knew? How is it that the freedoms we used to enjoy – those earned through two hundred thirty years of standing up to injustice – can be so easily dismissed, with not so much as a whimper from the populace? How is it the country I was proud to represent when I wore the uniform is so easily defeated – from the inside? America has turned into the Cold War foes it once faced down. Freedom vanishes with a stroke of a pen.

Every one of the cowards in Congress who allowed this to happen deserves to be handed walking papers next month. And if the door hits them on the way out, all the better. Its well past time to get this country back on track.

I was thinking back to the devastation that Hurricane Katrina wrought on New Orleans last year. It reminded me of how utterly pathetic the current administration’s response was, as well as how it played on racial overtones. Then I remembered that my congressional representative is running for reelection against another wingnut playing the discrimination card. So, I made a contribution to Brad Miller’s campaign.

I hope you will, too.

Today’s Washington Post notices today what I noticed last week: Osama Bin Laden isn’t wanted by the FBI for the attacks of 9/11. Nowhere on his most wanted poster does it mention the September 11, 2001 attacks on the Pentagon or the World Trade Center.

The article says its because Bin Laden’s never been charged with the attacks. In a way I’m glad to see the FBI is going by the book on this one, and only listing crimes for which a suspect has been indicted.

Rule of law. What an amazing concept. If only the rest of the gummint held this standard.

A New York satellite TV dealer named Javed Iqbal was recently arrested simply for providing access (no, actually for agreeing to provide access) to a certain satellite channel. You won’t see Disney cartoons on this particular channel, as its al-Manar, a channel that acts as the propaganda arm of Hizbollah, the Lebanese terrorist group. (Read USA Today’s recent profile of Al-Manar).

Now I don’t happen to agree with Al-Manar’s message. After all, for hatred and one-sided, venom-spewing propaganda there’s always Fox News. But aside from all that, it is a clear violation of the First Amendment to make listening to an opposing viewpoint a crime. That’s just what the Department of Treasury did in December 2004 when it branded the television channel “a terrorist entity” and made all financial transactions between Al-Manar and Americans unlawful.

How a video signal can be considered dangerous is beyond me. Guns, yes. Bombs, yes. But not a TV signal. As far as I know, no one’s ever died from watching TV.

Blocking broadcasts is something cold-war Soviets did. It’s what Castro’s Cuba does. You expect it from totalitarian governments. It’s not something a supposedly free country – one which supposedly values freedom of speech – engages in. Even the oppressive, Islamic government of Iran can’t stop the spread of thousands of satellite dishes on homes across the country.

Is Hizbollah a terrorist organization? Undoubted and unabashedly. Is Al-Manar being used to further their terrorist goals? Perhaps. But freedom of speech is freedom of speech. You either accept that every idea has a right to be expressed – whether you agree or disagree – or you don’t. If you restrict speech – ANY speech – it isn’t free anymore.

I hope this New York guy’s case to court and he wins. And then he sues the pants off the Treasury Department. A government that can tell us what we can and can’t watch and whom we can and can’t believe poses a bigger threat to our freedom than any terrorist.

I’ve never liked Joe Lieberman. He’s needed a good smacking for a while now (and no, not the George W. Bush kind of smack).

Last night Ned Lamont did the real smacking. Here’s hoping its the end of Holy Joe’s political career.

I was disappointed to learn that last week the Raleigh Parks, Recreation and Greenways Board rejected plans to keep Horseshoe Farm park natural, in spite of overwhelming public opinion to do just that. The Board went against the recommendations of a master plan committee which worked for 14 difficult months and instead recommended a big, dumb gynmasium be put on this special property.

As I mentioned before in my blog, while I love a good pick-up game of basketball and would like to see a court near my home, even I have to admit that its insane to put it at Horseshoe Farm.

People, this is a freakin’ river park! How many parks do we have that are bordered on three sides by a river? This place is special, and adding a gym will completely spoil it. As The Independent Weekly’s Bob Geary points out, you can put up a stupid gym anywhere, like one of the many rotting strip-malls dotting the city.

The Council takes up the issue this Tuesday, August 8th. Hopefully the City Council will see the light and go with what the people want. Let them know how you feel by visiting the Horseshoe Farm website and following their link to contact the Council.

The AP wire has a fascinating feature recalling the Battle Of Athens, an armed battle that took place sixty years ago in rural Tennessee between corrupt deputies and grizzled WWII veterans who’d had enough of corruption. No one was seriously hurt in the shootout but it spelled the end of the political machines in much of the South.

“The lesson is that people ought to take voting a whole lot more seriously than they do and not let things get out of hand,” said Harold Powers, a witness to the battle. “Don’t let the politicians just take over.”

How true.

We were walking through our neighborhood when Kelly pointed out an aircraft flying extemely low. It was a Boeing 737 on final approach to RDU Airport, sporting a yellow-and-white livery I didn’t recognize. It was flying above the legal 500 feet but probably below 1000 feet, well below most approaches.

Now that we’re back it makes sense. The Decider In Chief is in town. The plane – flying lower than Bush’s poll numbers – was probably minimizing its exposure for security.