Question
 

The problem with this approach is that in governence, as in a democracy, there is nothing worse than ignoring danger, or marginalizing the voice of what is right for reasons driven by changing political winds. The job of President is to be the leader of the nation, not the leader of a political party.


Pulling a Ty from RT's news story.

Question
 

That's the problem with posting about prostitution? Huh.

Question
 

Remember too that we're talking about a federal prosecution here -- not state level.

DC is different than most jurisdictions because the USAO handles essentially all local crimes above parking tickets (including misdemeanor drug possession) but unless things have changed a lot -- which I doubt -- in most of the country federal prosecutors not only don't prosecute pure users, they don't prosecute dealers who don't meet a certain threshold of weight. Not enough resources. Those cases are kicked to the states.

So, to extend the analogy, the bottom line is that the DOJ (main Justice) isn't going to prosecute johns any more than they would prosecute a simple possession case. Not worth their time.

S_A_M

Question
 

They realize that's pointless and might open an front no one wants open...

Nobody wants to start pointing that finger. It eventually leads back to your own house, and usually a baggie in your own sock drawer or freezer.

Question
 

They don't bother with users. Those get plead out for slaps on the wrist.

Unless it's acid or mushrooms, in which case you can wind up facing 10 years for minimal amounts. Good ole Uncle Sam. Really got his shit together. You can carry around tons of a brain-rotting drug like coke, but acid or shrooms - non-addictive drugs that do little more than cause you to act silly and have arguably revelatory experiences (YMMV) get you serious jail time.

The Drug War is atrocious. But so predictable in its aims.

Does it ever seem that we're governing ourselves toward being narrowminded, simple and obsessed with toiling for material? Step back and think about our values. We're really fucking nuts these days. Hard work is great, but we're just running away from our lives.

The Drug War seems to want to protect most the mindset that keeps us in that cycle. It's almost like they want us to have cocaine on some level. They just really don't want us getting off the merry-go-round, and thinking about the bigger picture.

You can't spell "HypocRite" without an "R"
 

Isn't Rev. Jesse Jackson still paying off his baby momma?

You can't spell "HypocRite" without an "R"
 

Look at yourself, Slave. You're defending some hypocrite on the Christian Right who goes on and on in a holier-than-thou rant about how gays getting married is sinful while he's carrying on with prostitutes advertising exotic little adventures. It's his sanctimonious hypocrisy that is the issue.

So, you've fully embraced the alliance with the Christian Right. Are you proud of what your party has become?

You can't spell "HypocRite" without an "R"
 

Oh come on. I hope it's clear that affairs/using prostitutes/buggering boys is a bi-partisan thing. And when they get caught, the ones who have lectured about family values look the worst. Or if they get caught lying about doing it. Etc. Etc. Sanctimonious hypocrisy? Nothing new there. Jesse Jackson belongs in that group, just like Baker and whatever fool it was that cried like a little girl apologizing. I hope you aren't claiming that Repubs have a higher incidence of affairs. No? Then why get riled when someone throws Jackson into the group of preachy politicians who can't keep it zipped?

You can't spell "HypocRite" without an "R"
 

Vitter's hypocrisy is the issue. But so is Jackson's. They're all part of a broader picture of infantile moralism running this country.

People fuck, a lot. And they fuck hookers and people other than their wives. Sometimes they fuck people of the same sex. The sooner we get past all the judgmental chidlish insecurities about sex the sooner we can move on to real issues. In that regard, people like Vitter out to be publicly caned for being such horrendous hypocrites. I hope his wife leaves him and he loses his seat and finds himself bankrupt. He deserves it.

But suggesting this is an exclusively Right problem is equally childish.

Question
 

Legalizing prostitution would go a long way toward curing a lot of problems in this country.

We'd also attract a lot of male Muslim youths, but for all the right reasons instead of the wrong ones...

If you think about it, prostitution is already legal. Anytime anybody gets involved with another person not because he or she loves/likes/is attracted to that person, but instead likes that person's money, isn't that prostitution? What's gold-digging but prostitution by another name? You don't see anyone prosecuting that.

How is a short fat bald man with bags of cash who gets a young chick to glom onto him for $$$ any different than a John? Because he buys her services exclusively? Prostitution seems a lot like the cocaine/crack sentencing dichotomy. It's OK for the moneyed, but when the poor do it in its purest, quickest cheap and most honest form, it's a hanging offense.

If the health care exec down the street from me can have a trophy wife who lays under him for cash, why can't Joe Blow get a prostitute on Friday night?

You can't spell "HypocRite" without an "R"
 

The point was that Slave was raising a minor scandal more than a decade old involving someone never elected by the Dems to deflect from the Hypocrisy of the Right Wing Christian Nutcases that the Rs have chosen as a core constituency.

Look at the little point you bury above. It's the key point. For all Jackson's flaws, he's never made a sanctimonious speach like that Vitter speach. There is a special place in hell for the philandering little Christian Taliban the R's so fondly embrace.

And if someone who doesn't make these speeches hangs around the cat houses or has a thing with an aide - well, that happens, and it's not a big deal.

It's not about the sex, it's about the hypocrisy. Try to deflect it all you want, but it's a major R problem, because you guys are the ones who elect the Christian Taliban.

You can't spell "HypocRite" without an "R"
 

It's not about the sex.

It's about those lovely speeches, tossing stones at Sodom, Gomorah, and Massachusetts.

Question
 

Please, get yourself elected a delegate to the Republican convention and make this speech on the floor. I'll start the pool on where the first stone comes from. (Dibs for me on Bush's next Surgeon General. )

You can't spell "HypocRite" without an "R"
 

Gotta love Larry Flynt.

Bush makes girl cry. (To his credit, he then tried to make up for it.)