Rain Storm -- an online journal of opinion and culture

And if we all now have to pay lip service to Bush's little fantasy that the US is "bringing freedom" all around the world --- well, to the oil producing world anyway --- then I give up. It's bad enough having to listen to sanctimonious Republican phonies pretend to be morally superior, but if everyone now has to fall over themselves to proclaim that the United States is on a worldwide freedom crusade then we have truly entered the twilight zone.

At the conclusion of his speech, the Tribes presented the President with a plaque inscribed with his new Indian name - Walking Eagle. The proud President then departed in his motorcade, waving to the crowds.

A news reporter later inquired to the group of chiefs of how they come to select the new name given to the President.

They explained that Walking Eagle is the name given to a bird so full of shit it can no longer fly.

As the Jeff Gannon story progressed and turned into a Bush White House homosexual prostitution scandal, Internet investigators started asking if there could be a connection to the previous Bush White House homosexual prostitution scandal.

If you recall, the stories of 15-year-old callboys wandering through the White House in the middle of the night were linked to the "Franklin Cover-Up" case exposed by Nebraska State Sen. John DeCamp. In that case, a Republican operative named Larry King was involved with procuring boys and girls from Boys Town in Nebraska and elsewhere and entrapping them in a child sex-slave and espionage ring. King, with an annual salary of under 20K, was throwing sex parties for the powerful in a $5,000-a-month condo in Washingotn, DC; apparently taping the proceedings for blackmail purposes.

One of the victims of this ring was one Paul Bonacci, who testified in court proceedings that he helped kidnap Johnny Gosch into this ring in 1982. It was apparently at 2:29 AM, Sunday, Feb. 20 that the question was first asked -- is "Jeff Gannon" really Johnny Gosch?

By the end of the day, Hunter S. Thompson was reported dead.

URGENT National Call-In Day on March 8th!
URGENT National Call-In Day to Members of Congress
Tuesday, March 8, 2005


WE NEED A BUDGET THAT PRIORITIZES CHILDREN!

The House and Senate Budget Committees are meeting next week to come up with a budget resolution! We need to tell our Senators and Representatives that we are counting on them to produce a responsible resolution that makes children's services a priority for our nation. We must stop attempts to sacrifice health care for millions of children, end legal guarantees of protection for abused and neglected children, cut child care programs, deny children Head Start services and more. We need them to vote to make sure that our most vulnerable children and families do not bear more budget cuts, caps, freezes or eliminations in order to pay for more tax cuts for the wealthy.

Call Tuesday, March 8th at toll-free 1-800-247-2971
You'll be connected to your Senators and Representative or directly call the U.S. Capitol Switchboard at (202) 224-3121. The toll-free number is provided courtesy of the American Friends Service Committee. Don't be discouraged if the lines are busy -- we want calls to pour into the offices!

Please ask your members of Congress to:

Protect programs like Medicaid and assistance for abused and neglected children. Do not cut or cap the federal funding of, or destroy the guarantees and legal framework of, these critical child health and child protection services.

Protect successful domestic programs that invest in children including child care and Head Start. Do not adopt President Bush's proposals to cut or eliminate programs that will result in fewer children receiving child care, access to Head Start, and other children's health, child welfare, and education services.

Stop considering shredding federal guarantees that reduce child suffering while stacking the deck in favor of the wealthy. Do not adopt budget rules that cap programs for children while continuing to give massive tax cuts to the wealthiest Americans and adding their cost to the national debt our children will inherit.

Travis says, "Take care of the kids. Before long, we'll need them to take care of us."

Within a few days, however, I was slowly falling apart due to a horrible onset of severe depression. My world was falling apart and I was falling into the hole of mental illness that seemed to do nothing but continue on and on and on. I wanted the falling to stop, and I was determined to make it stop.

So one a chilly Sunday morning in March of 2003, I opened up a package of razor blades and planned on introducing them to my wrists.

Congress should look at the British example. In 2000, when the queen's army jumped out of its closet (so to speak), many senior officers were aghast. Their arguments then were similar to American fears now: sooner or later, showers and bars of soap were mentioned. Four years later, recruitment has not suffered; most new recruits are unfazed about meeting gay comrades. And with gays subject to the same rules governing appropriate behaviour as heterosexuals, the showers need hold no fears for happily-married men. Come on, Rummy, what are you afraid of?

This is what responsible journalism and ethical blogging are all about. We wouldn't want people to hear unsubstantiated gossip. That's why he writes that he refused to report or blog about the credible dominatrix who couldn't provide proof of her allegations that "she had been hired several times by a prominent Republican who does the family-values shtick." I would imagine that a certain "Virtues Czar” has been quaking in his leather chaps over this story and is mightily relieved that Corn has decided not to blog about it. I'm sure everyone will take Corn's ethical lead and refuse to give this story another moment's consideration. It wouldn't be right and I simply do not want to participate in such activity. I do plan to write a lot about this kind of good journalism, however, the kind where you don't report on stories about credible dominatrixes and disgraced moralizing gamblers without proof.