282. FAMILY VALUES GRAB BAG

From the Archives (20 September 2007) So. Another so-called family values Republican official has been busted for sexual abuse—only, this time, there's no homosexual element.

Perhaps this explains why the mainstream media has barely covered the story. Or maybe it's because the pedophile is a US attorney in a Republican state where the story stands a decent chance of being conveniently hushed up for the good of the party.

Shh!

Just as the repugs are now attempting to silence the Gonzales debacle—Please! Let the good man get back to his work protecting the chillllllll'ren, people! Stories such as this are silenced too often unless we make enough of a fuss to ensure the attention they deserve.

Or who knows? Maybe a grown man showing up with a Dora the Explorer doll and a jar of Vaseline to f*ck a five-year-old just doesn't scream "scandal" to Faux News the way a gay man's attraction to a DC page who at least has hair around his genitals does.

What's especially disgusting to me is that Atchison told the deputy who was posing as the girl's mother not to worry because he'd go nice and slow with her.

Meanwhile, The Portly Dyke has posted a picture of the youth cheerleading squad that this pedophile assists, which makes me worry how he has been "assisting" them . I guess the answer to that question will either be hushed up too or made apparent soon enough though.

* * *

And now, on a completely different note, my cute little brother has embarked on a cross-country bike ride to raise money for the families of the nine Charleston SC firefighters who died this year fighting a furniture warehouse fire.

Check out his blog to see gorgeous pictures of his journey.

He left Georgia on 9/6 to drive out to Palm Springs (where he will embark on his journey) and plans to roll into Charleston in early October.

209. COMFORTABLE AS A FLOAT

From the Archives (April 2006)

BITTERNESS
by Olga Broumas

She who loves roses must be patient
and not cry out when she is pierced by thorns.
—Sappho

In parody
of a grade-B film, our private
self-conscious soapie, as we fall
into the common, suspended disbelief of love, you ask
will I still be
here tomorrow, next week, tonight you ask me am I really
here. My passion delights

and surprises you, comfortable
as you’ve been without it. Lulled,
comfortable as a float myself in your real
and rounded arms, I can only smile
back, indulgently
at such questions. In the second reel—

a season of weeks, two
flights across the glamorous Atlantic, one
orgy and the predictable divorce
scenes later—I’m fading out
in the final close-up
alone. As one

heroine in this
two-bit production to the other, how long
did you, did we both know
the script
meant you to wake up doubting
in those first nights, not me, my daytime
serial solvency, but yours.

Yesterday—the same day that a child was testifying before Congress about being abused by online sexual predators—a high-ranking Bush official was arrested for pedophilia. Yes, Bush’s deputy press secretary for the Department of Homeland Security tried to solicit sex from a fourteen-year-old girl.

This also from the Post:

Another Homeland Security official—Frank Figueroa, special agent in charge of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Tampa—faces trial this week on charges of exposing himself to a teenage girl last year at a mall. Figueroa, who has been suspended, pleaded not guilty.

As my Baptist mother used to say, be sure your sins will find you out, yo.

SANG IN SHOWER: Pat Benatar’s “Hit Me With Your Best Shot” (which dates me, huh?)

READING: The search warrant for 610 N Buchanan St. (AKA the lacrosse team house beside Duke campus).

BEST-OF SPAM: I FAILED AND STILL MAKE 94K! [but apparently cannot find the caps lock key on his computer]