Of School Shootings and Scandals

"I molested a few boys, so now, I'm going to rehab for alcoholism..."

Okay, so former US Representative Mark Foley, R-Florida, didn't actually say these words, but he may as well said them. Of course, there's no proof that Foley physically molested the (then) 16-year-old male page, but you can bet your ass that there's more to this story than what's being told.

And then, there's the revelation that the Republican leadership of the House of Representatives knew about the allegations. Monday, House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R- Illinois said that the House did not move agressively to investigate the charges that Foley exchanged sexual e-mails with the page. In other words, what these jackals are saying is that they did everything to basically sweep it under the rug, for fears that it may derail the Republicans' chances of keeping control of the House (many of the Representatives are up for re-election this year). Thanks, guys. Now the FBI's involved.

The copy of the Foley documents can be linked by clicking on the title.

Then, there's the rash of school shootings. Three in a week's time. The Bailey, Colorado shooting where a 54-year-old man shot a few girls, then the shooting yesterday in Nickel Mines, Pennsylvania, in an Amish community, where five girls lost their lives. And, of course, a kid didn't like his principal in Cazenovia, Wisconsin, so he killed him. At least two of the school shooting had one thing in common: the Colorado and Pennsylvania shootings were sexual in nature. In the Bailey shooting, the 54-year-old Duane Morrison, sexually assaulted six female students, killed one of them before killing himself. In the Nickel Mines shooting, Charles Carl Roberts IV, 32, tied six girls, shot all execution style. Five of the six died, and of course, Roberts shot himself dead. And now, the news accounts say that Roberts molested a couple of female relatives 20 years ago (go to http://www.nbc10.com/news/9991948/details.html for this story), and that at the time of the shooting, he had lube on him. No doubt, Roberts had plans for these girls.

The troubling thing here in all of this is all the parties involved- save for the 15-year-old assailant in Wisconsin- is that they all have or had sexual issues. Foley is single and Roberts was married with three children. More troubling is the fact that Foley worked on committees to protect children from exploitation- he even worked on a committee with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, founded by America's Most Wanted host John Walsh (see NCMEC's response at http://www.missingkids.com, and click on the appropriate site). Yet, he exploited young boys on the internet, which the last time I checked, was a federal offense. So, now that the FBI's in the game here, it looks like Foley's days of being free may be numbered.