If the allegations are true, it’s awful. We
understand that athletes aren’t necessarily role models, but we at
least expect them to abide by the basic laws of the state. Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty
How sad is it when the biggest news about the team you grew up dying to beat is about something that didn’t even happen on the
football field? Of course, with the Vikings mailing in their first four
games this year, a good sex scandal might be just what the team needs
to divert the attention of fans and the media from their miserable 1-3
start.
Personally, I don’t much care what adults do in their spare time.
It’s a free country, and when you have a collection of large men hopped
up on testosterone and possessing more money than sense, what do you
think is going to happen? Of course, If laws were broken, then the
legal system should be allowed to do what it does. If not, then those
folks who in the meantime all falling all over themselves in fits of
righteous, moralizing indignation need to just shut the hell up.
Of course, given that the Vikings were a team in disarray before
this alleged incident occurred, it’s not as if this is going to make
putting Humpty Dumpty back together again any easier.
The names of 17 Minnesota Vikings who were
identified as being aboard two charter boats last week where sex
parties allegedly took place have been given to Vikings officials in a
controversy that has put the team’s bid for a new stadium and its
standing among fans and community leaders in jeopardy.
At
least six crew members who allege they were confronted with
out-of-control Vikings players on the boats met Wednesday with Hennepin
County Sheriff’s detectives who are investigating allegations of
prostitution and lewd behavior….
The claims involve
players aboard two boats on Lake Minnetonka. Because of the ongoing
investigation, the repercussions are hard to gauge. But what is known
is this: The NFL once again is monitoring a legal issue involving the
Vikings, anti-stadium opponents are having a field day, public
relations is at its lowest point in memory and the Vikings are the butt
of jokes.
At the time of the party, Vikings officials
were heavily lobbying state legislators to convene a special session to
get public funding for a stadium….
No one has been
charged with a crime in connection with the charter boat cruises, which
occurred last Thursday night on Lake Minnetonka….
Employees
of the boat company and a resident of the lake community of Mound
described players having public sex, drinking heavily, urinating on a
lawn and aggressively propositioning female crew members.
Yep, just a bunch of rich, randy, spoiled athletes having some good,
clean fun during their bye week…or breaking a few laws along the way.
Who knows what actually happened? Hey, you must as well get your fun in
now. Before too much longer, winter will descend on the Frozen Tundra,
and the only things on Lake Minnetonka will be snowmobiles. Kinda tough
to have a sex party on one of those, eh??
Jeez...I know you can get an grand jury to indict a ham sandwich but I never knew you could get one to indict a file!
More happiness, from Larry Johnson (ex-CIA) and his blog No Quarter (thanks to Atrios):
Had lunch today with a person who has a direct tie to one
of the folks facing indictment in the Plame affair. There are 22 files
that Fitzgerald is looking at for potential indictment . These include
Stephen Hadley, Karl Rove, Lewis Libby, Dick Cheney, and Mary Matalin
(there are others of course). Hadley has told friends he expects to be
indicted. No wonder folks are nervous at the White House.
Yes folks, the National Security Advisor expects to be indicted for
activities he allegedly undertook while he was Number Two to our
current Secretary of State. So can someone tell me how Condi skates if
Hadley gets nailed?
Juggling appearances before a grand jury and conservative
admirers didn’t seem to make sense, so presidential adviser Karl Rove
has canceled three such outings as he waits to hear whether he or
anyone else will be indicted in the leak of a CIA officer’s identity.
Rove canceled plans to attend two Republican fund-raisers,
the national party confirmed Tuesday. And he did not give his scheduled
speech to the conservative Hudson Institute think tank on Oct. 11.
Republican National Committee spokesman Brian Jones said
scheduling conflicts kept Rove from an RNC fund-raiser Monday night in
Greenwich, Conn., and a Virginia Republican Party fund-raiser Saturday.
Jones said that Rove, who is Bush’s top political aide, currently has no plans to appear at upcoming RNC events.
For a man who is supposedly innocent, he sure is radioactive all of a sudden.
With the pending indictments of numerous Bu$hCo cronies, not
excluding according to some reports pRedzident of Vice Richard Bruce
Cheney, this item should be of serious concern to those who helped
Bu$hCo gut the country's local governments of operating funds:
The Monroe County Jail is within 10 days of running out of
the most basic supplies, including toilet paper and cleaning materials,
the jail commander says... Council President Mark Stoops said Monday
that a majority of the Council felt there was enough money in the jail
budget to stretch things to the end of the year on supplies.
Indiana is a solid Red State. If this is the financial status of a
Good Red State, in what condition will the Federal Prison that receives
Big Time Dick and Scooter and Karl be like? Many lurid images come to
mind as to how these Topper$ will deal with personal hygiene under such
conditions!
The WH could always send them stacks of Presidential Daily Bulletins. They've never been used for anything else.
Dick Cheney and George Bush have left the
Whitehouse in a white Bronco and are reported to have a large sum of
cash, fake mustaches and a case of tequila and glycerince pills.
They are headed toward Gualajara Mexico and are reportedly handed the keys to the Whitehouse over to the ghost of Richard Nixon.
MORE NEWS AS IT DEVELOPS.
The Washington Post has a major story tonight that puts Vice President Cheney's office at the center of the Fitzgerald investigation:
As
the investigation into the leak of a CIA agent's name hurtles to an
apparent conclusion, special prosecutor Patrick J. Fitzgerald has
zeroed in on the role of Vice President Cheney's office, according to
lawyers familiar with the case and government officials. The prosecutor
has assembled evidence that shows Cheney's long-running feud with the
CIA contributed to the unmasking of operative Valerie Plame.
In
grand jury sessions, including with New York Times reporter Judith
Miller, Fitzgerald has pressed witnesses on what Cheney may have known
about the effort to push back against ex-diplomat and Iraq war critic
Joseph C. Wilson IV, including the leak of his wife's position at the
CIA, Miller and others said. But Fitzgerald has focused more on the
role of Cheney's top aides, including Chief of Staff I. Lewis "Scooter"
Libby, lawyers involved in the case said.
Cheney, a longtime proponent of toppling Saddam Hussein, led the White
House effort to build the case that Iraq was an imminent threat because
it possessed a dangerous arsenal of weapons.
Before
the war, he personally traveled to CIA headquarters for briefings, an
unusual move that some critics interpreted as an effort to pressure
intelligence officials into supporting his view of the evidence. After
the war, when critics started questioning whether the White House
relied on faulty information to justify war, Cheney and Libby were
central to the effort to defend the intelligence and discredit the
naysayers in Congress and elsewhere.
The New York Daily News is set to report in Tuesday editions that a
well-placed source interviewed by the newspaper believes a senior White
House official has flipped and may be helping the prosecutor in the case.
Also under a microscope is the White House Iraq Group, an ad-hoc
strategy group started by Bush chief of staff Andrew Card aimed at
selling the war in Iraq.
Two officials close to Fitzgerald say
they have seen documents obtained from the White House Iraq Group which
state that Cheney was present at several of the group's meetings. They
say Cheney personally discussed with individuals in attendance at least
two interviews in May and June of 2003 Wilson gave to New York Times
columnist Nicholas Kristof and Washington Post reporter Walter Pincus,
in which he claimed the administration “twisted” prewar intelligence
and what the response from the administration should be.
For what it's worth, someone named "Larry Johnson" posted the following on the Raw Story
message board. I am wondering if its the same Larry Johnson who is a
former CIA agent and trained with Valerie Plame. He's been quite
outspoken about the case:
The word for the past year has been that
John Hannah, a deputy to Libby, was the initial guy to cop a deal. I've
also heard thru a separate source who is talking directly to a person
involved in the case that several folks in the White House are
frantically scrambling to cut a deal with Fitzgerald. The life boats
for the Titanic are being put to sea and the band is playing Nearer My
God to Thee.
The 
Latest Tidbit On The Plame Affair
Jeez...I know you can get an grand jury to indict a ham sandwich but I never knew you could get one to indict a file!
More happiness, from Larry Johnson (ex-CIA) and his blog No Quarter (thanks to Atrios):