Dhimmi This!

Have the Rats Started Coming Out of Their Holes

Reports that a Madrassa in the Bajaur region of Pakistan has been bombed.  The Madrassa is suspected of containing Al-Queda trainees or operatives.  News reports seem to be conflicting as to what occurred.  One report states that it was bombed by Pakistani helicopters and that about 80 terrorist were killed.  The article even has pictures purporting to be of the dead on makeshift tables. See Yahoo News. 

The Blotter of ABC news has a story stating that the attack was carried out by a US Predator drone and that between 2 and 5 senior Al-queda Members were killed.  The target, according to Pakistani Intelligence sources, was Ayman al Zawahiri, Al-Queda's No. 2.  This sounds more like the attack in January 13, 2006 than the current attack.  Pakistani Observer

If you recall the region is in what is now called the Islamic Emirate of Waziristan. See post below The Islamic Emirate of Waziristan.  I think that the rats are getting comfortable and starting to scurry about.

Update: I may be wrong on where this incident took place. There is still a conflict between the stories and I still believe that Al-Queda and the Taliban are being heavily hunted in this region. According to Newsday.com,Pakistan army shells religious school, the incident was north of the tribal areas know as The Islamic Emirate of Waziristan.  This incident occurred in the Bajaur tribal zone, which is reportedly near Damadola, Pakistan.  The coordinates for Damadola are
34° 48' 20N,71° 28'0E (Fallingrain.com).

Plug these into Google Earth and this is the image:

Project Valour-IT and a SOGB Matty Burden

"There is one great thing that you men will all be able to say after this war is over and you are home once again. You may be thankful that twenty years from now when you are sitting by the fireplace with your grandson on your knee and he asks you what you did in the GWOT, you won't have to cough, shift him to the other knee and say, Well, your Granddaddy shoveled shit in Louisiana.  No, Sir, you can look him straight in the eye and say, Son, your Granddaddy supported Project Valour-IT and rode with the Great Milblog BlackFive and a Son-of-a-Goddamned-Bitch named Matty Burden!" ~ slight paraphrase of speech by General George S. Patton, Jr delivered to his troops on June 5, 1944.

Project Valour-IT, the brain child of Captain Chuck Ziegenfuss - tcoverride.com, provides voice-controlled software and laptop computers to wounded soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines recovering from hand and arm injuries or amputations at major military medical centers. The voice activated software allows the wounded to operate laptop computers by speaking into a microphone. Our wounded heroes are able to send and receive messages from friends and loved ones, surf the 'Net, and communicate with buddies still in the field, all without having to press a key or move a mouse.

The military blogs are heading up Valour-IT's online fundraising competition.  The goal of this friendly competition is to use the naturally occuring inter-service rivalry to raise money to help reconnect our wounded warriors with the world!  The competition started on October 30 and runs through Veterans Day.

Giving wounded warriors with hand and arm injuries access to a computer supports their healing and puts them back in touch with the world. The blogger teams have been divided along military branches, with civilians "up for grabs."

The lines are drawn by service rivalry:

Jarheads (Marines) will be led by Villainous Company
Zoomies (Air Force) will be led by Op-For
Squids (Navy) will be led by Chaotic Synaptic Activity.
Doggies (Army) will be led by Blackfive 

I have signed up to support Army. Now, you go do the same.

StopOctoberSurprises Looks To Be Winding Down

StopOctoberSurprises may have had all the fun that he wants.  The bottom of his latest post ask "Question: Has anyone read my other blog?"

Now, it looks like SOS is going to reveal his identity soon. This should be interesting. Great job and kudos for doing the job that the Main Stream Media would not go do itself.  Personally, I think that there is more to the story and, believe me, I think that the blogoshpere will have its work cut out for it get to the bottom of it. SOS has certainly set the bar high enough.

Heck, I hate to ever try to guess SOS's true identity.

UPDATE: New Deadline has been posted for November 1, 2006. There is now a picture of a Star Bucks Green Tea Latte on the post.  I assume this is a suggestion that we get some tea while we wait or he may have posted it as a self portrait (GTL).

Is this StopSexPredators' Lane Hudson

Lane	Headline: "" Orientation: Gay Here For: Gender: Male Age: 29 Location: WASHINGTON, WASHINGTON DC, US Profile Updated: Sep 14, 2006 10:53 AM	View Profile Send Message Send Instant Message Forward to a Friend Add to Blog Preferred List

www.myspace.com/lanehudson

UpDate: RadarOnLine has an article with Lane Hudson's photograph.

Latest on the HRC Outing

Latest on the HRC outing - Radar Online has a post that a former staffer named Lane Hudson was the fired employee who was responsible for StopSexPredators.  StopOctoberSurpises has stated that more will be posted on LH later.  There is also a post in the comment section from StopOctoberSurprises which purports to be a response from HRC to a blogger inquiry.  The pot continues to be stirred.

What A Tangled Web We Weave

"On another legal front, Rep. Alexander said he has asked the House Ethics Committee to investigate whether Scott knew of questionable e-mails sent by a page hired [the page was sponsored not hired] by Alexander to former U.S. Rep. Mark Foley, R-Fla.

"I want to see if all this is connected," he said.

Hoare [Scott's Attorney - see post below] said Scott now has another job in the private sector. She has a master's in business administration [which she evidently received on-line while working for Congressman Alexander], he said, adding that she would not be available for comment on the case.

Rep. Alexander said Scott is from Alabama, the only member of his staff not from Louisiana." See The Town Talk.

See Also StopOctoberSurprises.com for the story on Human Rights Campaign's involvement in the Page Email Scandal - referred to in this blog as Foleybate. GTL, the blogger, has released information that the person(s) who set up StopSexPredators, which was instrumental in breaking Foleybate, was a "Democratic Operative(s)" working for HRC.  The HRC claims that they have fired the person and that the person was only recently hired.  Hopefully GTL will keep pushing buttons to see which doors open. 

From memory the time line on this is as follows - it looks like the emails to the Page were brought to the attention of Congressman Alexander by a reporter in November, 2005. Thus, since they reference Hurricane Katrina they would have had to have been written by Foley between August 29 and November, 2005. Scott joined the Congressman's office after Hurricane Katrina (August, 2005) forced her to move from New Orleans.  The emails also had to have been provided to the reporter during the same time.  She filed her lawsuit in September, 2006 after the Foley Scandal had broken.  If she wanted to keep the matter out of the public she could have asked for an Adminstrative Hearing and the privacy of the matter would have been maintained. Instead she has gone public and blatanly used the exposure of Foleybate to promote her lawsuit.

The roux for this Louisiana Gumbo is getting dark and it's starting to thicken.

Update: a good Synopsis of the time line can be found at JustOneMinute

Foleybate Continues - HRC is Outed

Okay, the net seems to be smoking today.  First, FloppingAces.net has a good rundown on the Foley Email issue and StopOctoberSurprises.com website outing of HRC.  Then today around 1:00 p.m.(eastern) a comment to StopOctoberSurprises.com morning post appeared. The morning post stated:

“Wednesday, October 25, 2006
by Friday
Open letter to Joe Solmonese:

It is your responsibility to rid the HRC of the SSP gang. It is important for you to do so; doing nothing is connivance.

When I started this pursuit (or stumbled in), I knew nothing of the HRC or its mission. I am now thoroughly aware of how many people rely on the HRC to forward the rights of the LGBT community. Underhanded tactics of a few not only tarnish the organization but also its mission.

If you do not act, I will. Friday is your deadline or I name names.

gtl

Update: So who's calling? The MSM (main stream media), that's who.
posted by gtl at 8:47 AM 0 comments”

    Around 1:00 p.m. (Eastern) the post had two comments.  One of which stated:

    “Brad Luna said...

“The email exchanges in question between former Congressman Mark Foley and a House page have been in the possession of bloggers and media outlets for some time now. Yesterday, it came to our attention that an HRC employee, hired just last month to work for us in Michigan, was responsible for initially posting these emails on his blog. We investigated the matter, determined that HRC resources had been inappropriately used, and let him go. No one at the Human Rights Campaign, other than this individual, had any knowledge of his activities,” said Brad Luna, Spokesman for the Human Rights Campaign.”

    Around 1:30 p.m. the post and comments disappeared and a new post was published.  The new post contained the statement by Brad Luna, HRC Director of Media Relations and a note that Luna had confirmed that it was from his office.

    The plot started with a Louisiana page and has now thickened into a Louisiana gumbo.  The statement from Luna offers that the staffer worked in Michigan and was only on the HRC staff for a month - this would be after the StopSexPredators.com surfaced.  However, StopOctoberSurprises.com has suggested that it was a group of people - “SSP Group”.  Does HRC just have some renegade on its staff who was pushing “his” own agenda or is the “SSP Group” comprised of several people on the HRC staff and the statement by Luna is misleading?

Whether a single person or a group - Was this done solely for the purpose of outing Mark Foley or were there more insidious motives to embroil Congressman Rodney Alexander and maybe even the Republican leadership as a whole?  The person who initially provided the press with the emails to the Louisiana page has been described by the press as a Democratic Operative - Is this the HRC staff member the same person or connected to that person?  There are a lot of questions which need to be answered, but will the MSM followup on it or will it be left to the blogosphere to pursue it?  Stay tuned - it is bound to get even more interesting. If there is one thing that can be said about politics - "It ain't boring."

--UPDATE: The MSM has finally taken a cursory look at the Outing of HRC

    New York Times - Rights Group Fires Publisher of Foley E-mail

    The Washington Times - Outer Rousted

    Drudge has a link

    However, they need to dig some more.  Who is this masked man, when did he get the emails, from whom did he get the emails, why did he reveal the emails in the manner in which he did, who else had he provided with copies of the emails and did he know about the IM's? Keep digging.

Alexander Adamantly Denies Allegations

Congressman Alexander took issue with Scott’s allegations that he took no action concerning her complaints about being sexually harassed and being paid less than male employees in his congressional office.

“This is flatly false,” Congressman Alexander said.

“Ms. Scott was around me numerous times every day and never met with me or told me anything of the sort. In fact, the first time I learned of Ms. Scott's allegations is when she sent me an e-mail on a Saturday -- the day after her meeting with my chief of staff in which he informed Ms. Scott of my decision to remove her from the scheduler position due to her performance deficiencies. The next communication I received regarding Ms. Scott was two days later, on the following Monday, when her lawyer contacted my office,"  Congressman Alexander said.

Congressman Alexander said an independent investigation was conducted by a law firm in Washington, D.C., which concluded her allegations did not have any merit.

“This whole matter centers on the fact that Ms. Scott does not want to face her shortcomings as a scheduler,” Congressman Alexander said.

“The scheduler position is an extremely demanding and detail-oriented position in a congressional office and some individuals simply cannot keep up with the pace.  Ms. Scott is one of those individuals.

“Rather than accept her shortcomings as a scheduler, accept that the independent investigation found no basis for her claims of sexual harassment and accept a new position, Ms. Scott decided to abandon her job and pursue a lawsuit," Congressman Alexander said. The Ouchita Citizen 

Alexander spokesman Adam Terry called the lawsuit “frivolous,” contending  it was filed Sept. 27, one day after Scott was demoted for what the office called a poor job-performance evaluation.

“We believe the facts will show there is no basis for this lawsuit,” Terry reported in a statement. “We look forward to proving this in a court of law.”

Rodney Alexander said he was never told of any abusive conditions and that Scott was demoted because she couldn’t handle the scheduling duties.
The Advocate

Alexander said Scott didn’t express concerns to him about Royal Alexander’s behavior until after she was told that she would be demoted from scheduler to staff assistant.

“Ms. Scott was around me numerous times every day and never met with me or told me anything of the sort,” Alexander said in a written statement. “In fact, the first time I learned of Ms. Scott’s allegations is when she sent me an e-mail” the day after she was told she would be demoted.

“The next communication I received regarding Ms. Scott was … when her lawyer contacted my office,” Alexander said. “The whole matter centers on the fact that Ms. Scott does not want to face her shortcomings as a scheduler.” The News Star

It's Amazing What You find on the Web

    It is amazing what you can find on the internet.  There is a new bit of information with every mouse click.  The attorney for Elizabeth Scott has reportedly made several comments to the press that directly dispute the previous stories told by Ms. Scott. 

    This could simply be a product of the fact that his client is giving him conflicting stories and he can’t keep up with which one she is on now or it could be a product of the way he does business.  Who knows.  Take a look for yourself at the Washington, DC Bar website - Disciplinary Page: Go to Attorney Discipline Database

Click by Search by Name and Type in Michael Hoare where indicated and find:

For the Public

Attorney Discipline

Records matching your search criteria = 1

Search again.
Michael J. Hoare

   1. Date of Action: September 17, 2004
      Summary of Action: Bar Counsel issued Hoare an informal admonition for violating Rules 1.2(a), 1.5(a), 1.5(b), 1.16, 8.4(a), and 8.4(d) with respect to various provisions in his retainer agreement in an employment matter, including language attempting to limit the time period within which his client could file an ethical complaint, imposing an unreasonable fee, and impermissibly burdening the client’s right to determine whether to accept an offer of settlement; and for failing to state his hourly rate in writing.
      Read full informal admonition.
   2. Date of Action: March 18, 1999
      Summary of Action: The court suspended Hoare for two years, nunc pro tunc to September 11, 1996, based upon his conviction in the Circuit Court for the Twentieth Judicial Circuit, St. Clair County, Illinois, of aggravated reckless homicide in connection with a drunk-driving accident.
      Read full opinion.
   3. Date of Action: October 19, 1998
      Summary of Action: In this criminal matter from the Circuit Court for the Twentieth Judicial Circuit, St. Clair County, Illinois, where Hoare was convicted of reckless homicide, the board recommends that the court suspend Hoare for two years, nunc pro tunc to September 12, 1996.
   4. Date of Action: March 4, 1997
      Summary of Action: In this reciprocal matter from the Circuit Court for the Twentieth Judicial Circuit, St. Clair County, Illinois, where Hoare was convicted of reckless homicide, a felony, the board referred the matter to a hearing committee to determine whether the circumstances of Hoare's crime involved moral turpitude and to recommend the final discipline to be imposed. In an order dated November 1, 1996, the board determined that the crime did not involve moral turpitude per se.

   

Crazy is as Crazy Does!

    In digging around on Foleybate I have been provided some information on Elizabeth Scott - the young woman attacking Congessman Rodney Alexander's office in a lawsuit. If the stories are true - then like we say down South - this “girl ain’t right”.  Former staffers from Congressman Alexander’s office have recently shared tales concerning this young woman. Again, if true she seems to have a vivid imagination and a penchant for making things up.   

    The staffers stories read like a second rate comedy script - She is reported to have faked having “lupus” as an excuse to sleep in from work and to take undeserved time off;   she is reported to have later laughed to co-employees about how she fooled the staff with her “Lupus story”; she reportedly claimed that she was named Elizabeth after the Queen of England because her family descends from the royal lineage of Britain; and she also claims that her family is some sort of Southern Blue Blood Aristocracy having reportedly stated that she is from “one of the wealthiest and most prominent families in Alabama.”  Most intriguing, however, are the stories concerning improper photos on her desk; her intoxicated and continued sexual advances toward a younger male staffer, and her attempted “come on” to a Congressman who offices in the Cannon Building. 

    There are also the stories of her incompetence in her job.  From newspaper reports she was evidently taking online courses during the time she was working as the Congressman’s scheduler.  This may explain why her attention supposedly wasn’t on her job.  A story was related that shortly before she was demoted she scheduled the Congressman to be at a meeting in the Nation's Capital (that’s Washington, D.C.) when the meeting was being held at the Louisiana State Capital (that’s Baton Rouge).  The last time I checked there was not a tunnel from the Cannon Building to Baton Rouge.  She is also said to have had a problem with constituents.  She reportedly told one constituent that it was to bad that “you can’t fire your constituents” and told a constituent, who was calling for a group of Purple Heart Winners from World War II, that she would only take scheduling request by email and did not want to talk to constituents on the phone. 

    Supposedly all of this has been told to the independent investigators and was essential to the reason that her claims were  denied. Like Mama always say - “Crazy is as Crazy Does.”