Words & Tricks

Pepper on McGreevey: Yet more government sexcapades

OK, so the government sexcapades continue as now-former New Jersey Governor McGreevey has some sexual skeletons in his closet, like being gay.

No wait, we knew that.

He likes dudes and had fun sexxxy times with his driver.

No wait, we knew he liked dudes, and his driver is a dude. so they had sex. OK.

He likes dudes and had fun sexxxy time with his driver and his wife.

Uh-huh. So, three consenting adults allegedly had fun, sexxxy times. He says so. She denies it.

It was in the privacy of his own home with other consenting adults. Allegedly. I tried to take a minute to see if it’s illegal in NJ, just in case. Then I though, honestly that would be a stupid law anyway. So, I don’t care. Plus, the hits that come up when you type “threesomes” and “New Jersey” into Google (250,000 of them) are not what I was looking for.

The Bottom Line

McGreevey is not Eliot Spitzer, which is where this is all coming from. Spitzer broke the law, a law which he busted other people for breaking. McGreevey likes to have fun with multiple partners simultaneously. Allegedly. These do not equate.

McGreevey Wasn’t an Openly Gay Governor

Also, I am bothered that they call mcgreevey the first openly gay governor. His situation is not a triumph over intolerance; it wasn’t proof that he could be elected on his platform and his stand on important issues, rather than with whom he spent his free time (ahem, without pay cash-money). He wasn’t open.

1. He hid it.
2. It came out.
3. He came out,
4. and then he resigned in shame.

This meant that his time being openly gay and his time as governor overlapped by, like, five minutes. That he had to hide it in order to get elected is everyone’s shame.

It’s All About Who You Bl-, er Know

Giving his boyfriend jobs (and I’m not talking about neither “hand” nor “blow”) is the kind of crony-ism that all politicians, as well as captains of industry, and corporations, and other places of employment, share. It’s usually about who you know, and by extension, to whom you’ve given a job (hand, or otherwise).

I am so done with Governors, their “scandals,” and their wives. She said no, let her have that. He’s not the governor anymore, so why bother?

I think I am going to call Governor Patterson the first openly legally blind governor in the country.

Pepper is a recent graduate of Sheboygan Conservatory of Music where she studied the accordion. She enjoys Horatio Caine/Grissom fic and old episodes of Designing Women. Since she has become unemployed, she’s got a lot of time to find stuff to be annoyed about.

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photo credit: maxintosh

Further Reading on Words & Tricks

• WT Update: Selection of Chris Pommier’s freelance clips online (0)
• Writers + Business Sense = Money (1)
• World Corruption: The United States Falls near the Middle (3)
• Pepper on Spitzer: Politi-cos and Politi-hos (0)
• New German monument to gays and lesbians killed in the Holocaust (0)

Tags: consenting adults, eliot spitzer, Gay, government, jersey governor, money, politicians, threesomes, wife

An Ode to Sue Boyer

Years ago, when my father was cleaning out his parents’ house, he came across his childhood Boy Scouts of America handbook. When I found the book myself, I relished it as an artifact of the days when Scouting meant adventure. My own Girl Scout experiences didn’t look at all like cooking over an open flame, tying slipknots and devising outdoor showers with pails and sticks. Mine looked like Sue and Jean, our homely Scout leaders, cutting ice cream into equal rectangles we could enjoy while the other girls made fun of me in the elementary school cafeteria.

And it is with the same childlike reverence that I recently finished reading Abbie Hoffman’s 1971 classic, Steal This Book. Though the good old days were not as they seemed, the book still possesses a kinetic energy and a presence of irony that seems missing from activism today. In an age when my peers rebel by riding bikes and caucusing, a how-to guide to hitchhiking, crafting Molotov cocktails, and rolling joints is certainly a throwback to something. The political climate Hoffman was confronting was not unlike the climate of today: a stupid incumbent president setting records for low approval ratings, fronting an administration rife with scandal, entrenching the country in a war in we had no business fighting. So why is it that Washington has not been overrun with protests? Where are the troublemakers? Where are the Merry Pranksters?

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Further Reading on Words & Tricks

• World Corruption: The United States Falls near the Middle (3)
• Pepper on McGreevey: Yet more government sexcapades (0)
• Opinion: Application of Humanitarian Law Not Enough to Address Global Violence (3)
• Minneapolis Star Tribune wins multimedia journalism award (0)
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Tags: abbie hoffman, activism, activist, climate, government, irony, merry pranksters, shopping, war

World Corruption: The United States Falls near the Middle

It’s safe to say that corruption in the single-party cultural gulag created by Big Brother Bush and his thought police carried many of us to the polls this year, but how does the United States rank in perceived corruption around the world?

Transparency International published the 2006 Corruption Perception Index. On the map to the right, darker is more corrupt. The U.S. falls at 20 with Chile and Belgium, far below Finland (1) and Singapore (5) with Iraq (160) falling nearly dead last, an indictment of U.S. involvement with that country. According to Transparency International, poverty and corruption go hand in hand. The organization looks to the Americas here:

While there are no winners in the Americas, the index shows substantially higher scores for countries with relatively strong democratic institutions, such as Canada and the United States, but also notably for Chile, Costa Rica and Uruguay. But as recent scandals show, they too must continue to strengthen their institutions. There is, for example, a strong sense in the United States that corruption is on the rise in Congress, with special interests able to buy access and Congress doing little to police itself.

Money, The 109th Congress and Nepotism

The Sunlight Foundation, using technology to enable citizens to ensure greater accountability and transparency in government, has been following the money trails in the 109th and published their second installment in the “Is Congress a Family Business?” report. Citizen journalists working with the Foundation have found that over $635,000 have been spent from campaign moneys on businesses and consulting fees for the spouses and family members of around 19 members of the House. This practice is not necessarily illegal as the federal nepotism statute keeps members of Congress from hiring family to work in their Washington offices, but doesn’t address the issue of family working on campaigns as long as they render bona fide services to the campaign at fair market value.

The Lazy, Good-for-Nothing 109th Congress

The 109th Congress is also poised to be the least productive Congress since the late 1940s, according to this report (pdf) from the Sunlight Foundation. Don’t we all wish we could go to work for only about 129 days this upcoming year, like the Senate? And the score in the House:

This year the House of Representatives scheduled a mere 88 days in session. At least 23 of those days have votes occurring after 5:30 or 6:30 pm with one voting day ending at 2 pm for Rosh Hashanah. Twelve of these 23 postponed voting days occur on a Monday or a Tuesday following a Monday off. This allows members to come in late on Mondays or Tuesdays just in time to cast a vote. There are also 37 days with no votes on the calendar. Congress has so far failed to meet for 23 of those 37 “no vote” days with four “no vote” days remaining. Of the ten “no vote” days that the House has met, nine of them lasted for no more than 11 minutes. Fewer than one-out-of-three “no vote” days become a day in session.

The New Congress: Can Democrats Address These Issues?

What do you think? Post your comments below. Will Democrats really make a difference? How will the transition from campaigning to governing go? They have their work cut out for them. Will their watchword be transparency? How many secret meetings will they have? I’ve been hearing a lot lately about three issues:

1. The Democrats squeaked into office and their reign is only temporary, at best.
2. They are more centrist, less progressive these days.
3. There are many who are new to the business

Don’t take your eyes off them. For those of us who voted them into office, we can’t sit back on our laurels and hope for the best. Let’s make sure they do their job, shall we?

Further Reading on Words & Tricks

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• Election 2006; There’s a First Time for Everything (2)
• Wednesday Morning Brings Democrats and Yet More Waiting (2)
• US 53rd in World Press Freedom Index (1)

Tags: corruption, government, international, national, politics