Crank up the propaganda and fax, fax, fax!

It seems many, many people were shocked, then angry when Jaffer copped a plea and the charges – speeding, driving over the legal blood alcohol limit, and cocaine possession – were dropped.

Such law-abiding people tend to supply the media with solid information for their investigative stories.

In Stevie Spiteful's Office, the furniture has now been righted, arrangements made to repair broken glass and the temps who took shelter under theirs desks have been coaxed into staying for another day.

The PMO spin doctors gather to survey the damage, to produce speaking points to fax to their Attack Parrots and to create a bright shiny diversion.

The ReformaTories - business as usual. That hammering you hear is not another nail in the coffin of Helena Guergis' political career.

Wait, wait, wait ... Family Values©™... yes! The spin doctors pump the air. Jaffer was driving home to be with his wife. And that anti-family bulldyke OPP officer stopped him as he was rushing to his beloved's embrace.

Just another day of prevarication and fabulation in the PMO.

It's straight out of Law and Order, folks.

Canadian Cynic has the last word: Coke and hookers? Works for me!

Afterthought: Toe, one of our frequent commenters (don't forget to get your loyalty card stamped!) wondered just how valuable Jaffer's information about Gillani could possibly be, given the tenuous and opportunistic nature of their "business" relationship. Makes no difference. It gave the higher-ups a pretext. Otherwise, it would be evident the plea bargain was all about political pull - and Jaffer's knowledge of skeletons in other people's closets.

But, but, but ... the feminists are oppressing ME - Shrieeek!!!

Blob Blogging Wingnut turns HER defense of Catholic patriarchs' refusal to respond humanely to criticism about Church tolerance and protection of pedophile priests, into a cause banale. As usual, it's all about HERSELF and how SHE is being persecuted.

SHE finds it hilarious.

"Oh woe is me. I'm so happy and fulfilled being Catholic. How can I be so blind to my own oppression? Fundamentalist men made me do it! They FORCED me to be Catholic by saying nice stuff about me. The nerve! Pushing me into the Catholic faith against my own will. Hilarious."

It's indeed hilarious. Here is someone who spends a MASSIVE amount of time disseminating religious propaganda and claiming that Abortion Is Murder©™ and that family is sacred.

Yet, as the Vatican Taliban feels the heat of criticism, it unleashes whatever odious weapons it can to preserve its most valued and cherished assets: power and wealth.

Not its Catholic families, betrayed by centuries of prevarication. The sexual exploitation of a child by a priest - someone said to be the official representative of God - is a physical assault that will damage that individual's mental, emotional, social and spiritual self for years to come. But the harm is not limited to the thousands of girls and boys who experienced sexual abuse at the hands of pedophile Catholic priests. Families have also been affected by recurring problems such as substance abuse, suicide attempts and other mental conditions caused by the trauma.

Sexually defiled children became adults who perpetuated the cycle of violence: priests, parents, educators, coaches, doctors who abused the children in their care. Research done into this phenomenon has investigated the profound and multidimensional impact of clergy-perpetrated sexual abuse and the betrayal of trust by religious leaders on individuals, families and communities by their refusal to accept responsibility and deal with the pedophile priests.

Catholic Church fathers determined centuries ago that its clergy would be above the authority of “man-made” laws. This question divided Henry II and Thomas Beckett: "The clergy have Christ alone as King and under the King of Heaven; they should be ruled by their own law." It is now 2010 and the Vatican Taliban perseveres in following medieval principles and maintaining that its ecclesiastical rules are the only ones that are God-given and irrevocable.

As a result of this MASSIVE sense of entitlement produced by centuries of intellectual inbreeding, Pope Maledict and his Vatican Taliban could be taken down by the collective grief and anger of families.

For more about the Catholic Church ongoing stonewall, check out Canadian Cynic's Arrogance from yesterday and today, ... and then I hit my daily word limit, gosh darn it. which demonstrates how the Family Values©™ branding is really an empty rightwing religious zealot political tactic.

Nature or Nurture?

Are Republican politicians and their supporters born bent or does belonging to the GOP turn them out that way? From the Washington Post:

[Recently disclosed] financial reports showed that the party used tens of thousands of donor dollars for luxe hotels, private jets and other questionable expenditures. [...]

Although it is not unusual for either party to spend money in tony settings to cater to wealthy donors, the Republican National Committee's latest filings captured widespread attention for one expenditure at a risqué nightclub: $1,946.25 for "meals" at Voyeur in West Hollywood, which features topless dancers wearing horse bridles and other bondage gear while mimicking sex acts. [...]

An RNC investigation of the incident found that the Voyeur party was attended by a group of young Republicans who had been at an official party "Young Eagles" event at the Beverly Hills Hotel the same night, according to an internal memo obtained by The Washington Post. The Young Eagles is an RNC program to cultivate 30-to-40-year-olds as major future donors.

While it's hardly news that there's a chasm between what members of the Republican Party loudly proclaim with regard to Family Values©™ and what they actually do privately until photos surface in tabloids, it's interesting that they acknowledge these preferences and orientations within their donor recruitment campaigns.

Republican "Family Values©™" - absent Dad, exit Mom.

South Carolina governor Mark Sanford is in the news again. In June he went A.W.O.L. and as a result, the expression "hiking the Appalachian Trail" entered the political dictionary of euphemisms for adultery. Then he tried the Bible high road, to shame his detractors.

All to no avail, it seems.

A day after estranged S.C. First Lady Jenny Sanford announced that she was divorcing her philandering husband, S.C. Gov. Mark Sanford, the traditional Sanford family Christmas cards began arriving in select South Carolina mailboxes …

This year’s cards are not like their predecessors, however – another reminder of the highly-publicized drama that has consumed South Carolina’s First Family ever since the governor confessed earlier this year to having an extramarital affair ...

For starters, this year’s “family picture” includes the couple’s four sons [...] but no governor. And no first lady.

Won't somebody please think of the children? Beyond their public relations value, that is.