As a Mother, this scandal just infuriates me.

[TayTay]

I don't want to read those IMs. I don't want to know the specifics of what the child predator said to some kid who was the same age as my son. This is unbelievable.

The Rethugs have played on the emotions of the so-called 'security Moms' and told people that they were the only ones who could keep Americans safe, partly because they were Church-going Christians who knew right from wrong.

This scandal is somehow personally offensive to me, as a Mother. (As I'm sure it is to other Mothers, Fathers and so forth.) I don't want to know the disgusting details of what that pervert wrote to a kid who was probably a lot like mine. I want to know why this was allowed to go on and if these people, including the ones who looked the other way, are going to be held accountable.

This is beyond disgusting. This is a betrayal of the public trust. I don't want this done because I'm a Democrat. I don't want this done because I want to take Republican seats. I want justice done because I have kids that were that age and I can't help seeing these news reports through that prism.

How dare these bastards look the other way when a child predator was on the loose and they had the power to possibly prevent it. How dare they!!!

[KittyWampus]

1. listen, I'm sick of arguing over who is or isn't a pedophile & recommend

your post. In the end, this is just so sad.

[Redstone]

4. Oops. Thanks for the reminder. I'm going to recommend it as well.

Redstone

[TayTay]

8. I don't want to argue over the definition either

But dear Lord, can't it be assumed that someone was supposed to look out for these kids? Someone was supposed to make sure that nothing happened to them on what should have been an exciting time in their lives? Someone should have acted as parents and made sure they were safe.

This is outrageous. These bastards knew Foley had, at the least, questionable contacts with minors. If those e-mails went to my son, I would want Foley's head on a god-damned pike, whether he was a bona fide pedophile or not. What he did was a fundamental abuse of trust, at the very least.

I think there are a lot of people who think, that could have been my kid. I want those bastards held accountable for this outrageous and immoral conduct. How dare they do this!!!!!! The bastards.

[rrasile]

15. Open your eyes TayTay

Foley is one of the guys we elected and put into position to write our laws.
He's like the neighbor you've known all your life. Check the list of Politicians that have sexual crimes. Makes you sick doesn't it. Call your friends and remind them who committed the crime, let them decide who comes and who goes.

[TayTay]

17. I had this mental flashback to early Sept of 04

and the attack on Beslan in Russia. The Rethugs and their cohorts in the media ran tape from that assault over and over and over and implied that the Democrats were too weak to ever deal with a situation in which kids were in trouble.

I know these situations are not the same. I know that. But I also know hypocrisy when I smell it and these arrogant bastards have to go.

Again, they play on the emotions of parents and send out subtle messages that the Republicans are the only ones who can keep you safe. Bullshit. Sorry, but my tagline toniht is: How dare they do this to kids!

[cynatnite]

2. What I sent to Nancy Pelosi on the matter...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=364&topic_id=2279187&mesg_id=2279187

[Redstone]

3. I have two sons. I feel the same.

Redstone

[uppityperson]

5. I had a thought about this.

How would I feel about myself, or my partner, having this IM conversation with my child, or a friend of my child?

I agree with you totally.

This needs to be noted not as an intellectual matter, but as an emotional matter. Thinking of my child, my child's friends. If they were any of the kids involved here, and someone knew this had happened before, and didn't protect them? beware.

[TayTay]

12. I couldn't agree more.

This is sickening. These people were in a position of power. They were dealing with minors. How many 16 year old minors have the self-confidence and knowledge to tell a Congressman (for God's sake) to stop doing what he is doing because it's morally wrong.

I am equally outraged by the freeper morans who think this is a gay thing. This has zero to do with being gay. (I'm not even going to dignify that with a response. Their idiocy is not my problem in this scandal.) It has to do with abuse of authority and taking advantage of kids. Foley is a bastard and I hope he rots in hell for this. If the leadership of the Republican Party in the House knew about this abuse of authority and didn't stop it, then they should have the decency to resign.

How dare they do this to kids!!!!!!!

[rzemanfl]

6. K & R n/t

[babylonsister]

7. Go, Tay! I'm incensed, and I'm not a mom. The hypocrisy is

mind-boggling, and what Foley did, and the cover-up, is just unethical and immoral.

[jhain]

9. As a Mom with a child in the Military

it is ANOTHER nightmare added to the gut wrenching images my mind conjures at 3:00 am ...thinking about what other countries will decide to do to the quaint Geneva Conventions when they capture our children.

[babylonsister]

16. My best wishes, jhain. Anyone with a relative in the military

has got to be on pins and needles. I have some nephews and acquaintances state-side, and you never know whose turn will be next.

[TayTay]

19. This is like the nightmare that you can't wake up from

I can't even imagine what you are going through right now.

I want my country back. I just want my country back and I want to know that kids like yours are only placed in harms way because there is not other solution to a problem. The sacrifice that you and your family are forced to make, the sleepless nights, the fear, ....

My God, these bastards in office do not deserve to have good families make such sacrifices on their behalf. They just don't. Tonight is, of course, just the latest outrage of many.

I hope your child is safe and comes back to your soon!

[jhain]

20. thankfully...

my son is in the USCG Reserves at the moment- I did not mean to imply that he was in Iraq. Those parents have my most fervent prayers... Along with my constant begging that my son STAYS where he is. I also have two nephews in similar situations...

Rememeber Joe Biden's fury on this isue regarding his own son in the Military? Been waiting to hear something from him on the Treason Pass . He did vote no.

Thank you all for your good thoughts for my family.

[antonialee839]

10. Not only did they look the other way, it also looks like they

seemed okay with bidding on dates with Foley. I feel like I need a shower.

[NanceGreggs]

11. If you're THIS mad about it, and your child isn't directly ...

... in harm's way from these people, IMAGINE the reaction of parents whose kids are in the Page Program right now.

How many parents of those pages are on their way to DC as we speak to get their kids and bring them home? How many parents have been calling all day DEMANDING that their child be sent home immediately?

And how many Repugs are trying to talk them out of it, because of how BAD it will look PR-wise when kids get pulled from the program ...

[uppityperson]

13. hadn't considered that. Thanks for the thought.

amazing. appalling.

[TayTay]

14. I am a peaceful person, but I know people who would be there

in a nano second. And if evidence ever comes out that physical contact was made, they would be down there with shotguns.

For the love of God, these were kids. Didn't any of these bastards ever hear of in loco parentis?

Again, how dare they do this. How dare the leadership let a possible child predator just go about his business without notifying someone. This is outrageous.

[NanceGreggs]

18. Exactly.

Even the staunchest Republican-supporting parents are NOT going to leave their own child in jeopardy, they are not going to be assuaged by assurances that the 'problem' has been rectified and won't happen again, and they are NOT GOING TO KEEP THEIR MOUTHS SHUT either.

[kestrel91316]

21. Remember to mention to all your soccermom acquaintances that

the ReNAMBLAcan misleadership in Congress knew about this guy's proclivities for at LEAST FIVE YEARS and not only did nothing, they laid out the red carpet for him to prey on those boys.

[_dynamicdems]

22. These republicans are so morally corrupt.

There isn't a damn thing I'd put past them at this point.

[glitch]

23. Exactly.

Naughty emails?
Overly friendly?
They can't tell the difference between "naughty emails" and child predation? What the hell does that say about Republicans?
To defend this at all implicates every last one of them.

[rhiannon55]

24. A repuke family member

(I won't say HOW he's related to me) has been "sexually creepy" as long as I've known him--which would be my whole life. For reasons I won't get into here, I won't leave my children alone with him; hell, I won't be alone with him, myself. When I see him at family gatherings, he spouts all the repuke talking points about Bush, Clinton, gays, abortion, the war, guns, the economy--you name it. He LOVES Rush Limbaugh, thinks Sean Hannity walks on water, AND he's a member of a fundie church. He's also married with grown children.

I haven't seen him since the Foley story broke, but I can imagine him making excuses for that hideous behavior--or blaming Bill Clinton, somehow. It creeps me out to say this, but I'll bet that he found those IMs stimulating. Eewwww!!!

Because of him, I've long suspected that repuke "family values"-spouting people like him are closet perverts. They just spend WAY too much time worrying about what other consenting adults do in their private lives; something about "protesting too much"....

[Hidden Stillness]

25. The Republican Party: Where Morality is Just a Slogan

This situation, finally, rips the mask right off the devil and exposes things for what they are:
1) It shows you the evil of this Republican group that will "frame" and "spin," "characterize" and smear, flip the presentation this way and that, then back again, any old way that wins for them, "moral" this week, ripping the Constitution apart the next, and censoring what they were doing the whole time. They cut rich people's taxes, deregulate everything, break the backs of the middle class and poor, then publicly chant "cut-and-run" at every occasion while cutting medical benefits for veterans. They will do anything, exploit anything, lie about anything, and advance a cause of global oligarchy that no one has been referring to.
2) It demonstrates yet again the threat of a thing like this--everyone is against abuse, harrassment, etc., as an abstract, but when it comes to a real individual predator who has advanced their cause up to now, this is when they flip everything around the other way, and actually cover up for the abuser; where they claim--and even believe--that they would never have done any such thing ever. Against evil as a remote "example"; but now that it is "their friend," they are accomplices. You never really know if someone has real morals or ethics, until the actual situation comes up--now how do they act, when it is really here, and it would profit your career to keep it quiet, victims or no victims.

[lennilenape]

26. As a Mother... how dare these bastards

TAY TAY
I'm a parent too. I don't know much about law, but is there any legal argument that this new "Child Law" law is now defective, maybe even 'useless" since a pedophile helped write it, along with those who knew a pedophile was helping draft it? Wouldn't they put in a leagal "out" for themselves in case they are caught?
Lenni

[TayTay]

27. Welcome to DU Lenni, and I don't think that's a worry

The law went through the whole legislative process and was voted on by the whole of the House and then by the Senate and signed into law legally by the President. (Wonder if it had a Signing Statement attached to it to exempt anyone? Just kidding.)

This is now the law of the land. It is not relevant what person who originally proposed it meant or did when the bill became law, it is now law. The political motivations of the person who proposes the law are important to that person and to their relection and so forth, but not relevent unless this goes to Court on a dispute. There are lawyers here who could answer this more fully, but it is my understanding that the 'intent of Congress' in drafting a bill does come up sometimes when a law is viewed as being murky. This doesn't seem too murky though, so the 'intent of Congress' seems pretty clear to me.

I think you are right to be worried, but I think there is no out for this guy Foley. Otherwise, why would he have resigned so quickly. The next thing we will hear about him is that he 'lawyered' up and I bet we hear that about a lot of top Republicans this week. This is very, very bad for them. This law applies to them.

Again, welcome to DU and thanks for posting. :hi: