From Tuesday's Palm Beach Post:

But when it comes to Foley these days, one subject keeps coming up in conversations: What about the ex-congressman's longtime partner, dermatologist Layne Nisenbaum?

Nisenbaum is somewhat of a star with the society set. The Gatsby-esque dresser is the local facial-peels and Botox king who made a career of trying to make elderly ladies look younger in time for the social season.

"Well, I (emphasis on I) didn't do anything," Nisenbaum told Page Two. "Why are you calling me?"

Asked if he and Foley had been in contact since last week's revelations, Nisenbaum simply said: "You know I can't comment on this."

Several gala chairwomen told Page Two it was customary for Foley to accept two tickets to parties: one for him, one for Nisenbaum. Yet the politician went all out to make it seem they weren't together.

"You knew not to put Mark and Layne at the same table," said a gala chairwoman, who asked to remain anonymous.

Foley and Nisenbaum often arrived at functions in the same car, but they had pretty women on their arms. In pictures, they never stood side-by-side. They sometimes didn't say a word to each other during the entire evening.

Foley, 2003: "If I Were Going to Federal Prison ..."

Bob Norman's blog on Florida politics, The Daily Pulp, on October 1 noted an interesting puff profile on Foley in the Palm Beach Post that ran after he dropped his misguided 2003 quest to become a U.S. Senator. This quote caught my eye:

“If I were going to federal prison, they would stand outside the gate and say, ‘Do good, get a job in the library,’ ” Mark says fondly.

Norman also provides us with these further tidbits of information reported in that Palm Beach Post article:

"There’s also references to the family’s close relationship to a Catholic priest at Cardinal Newman High School where his dad coached football, a marijuana arrest at 17, and his wish to quit high school and go to New York to help manage an apartment building for a male friend."

I didn't know he once was arrested for a marijuana-related offense, something he didn't mention in a letter to a constituent who wrote to him for his support to end federal arrests of marijuana users.

From the NORML web site:

December 4, 2003

Ms. Cathie XXX
XXXS St.
Palm Beach Gardens, FL 33418-1507

Dear Cathie,

Thank you for contacting me with your support for federal legislation designed to stop the arrest and prosecution of marijuana smokers. I appreciate hearing from you on this issue, but must disagree with you on its merits.

As you know, marijuana is the most commonly used illicit drug. According to the 2001 National Household Survey on Drug Abuse, marijuana was used by 76 percent of current illicit drug users. What is even more surprising is that an estimated 37% of Americans aged 12 or older had used marijuana or hashish in their lifetime.

These numbers are very disturbing, as ins the general lack of understanding about the harsh effects of this drug. Marijuana abuse is associated with frequent
respiratory infections, impaired memory and learning, increased heart rate, anxiety, and panic attacks. What is worse is that the effects of marijuana smoking are
more devastating on younger users.

I have and will continue to do everything in my power to stop all forms of drug use - including marijuana. We must all begin to take responsibility for this epidemic and fight to save our children.

Again, thank you for contacting me with your thoughts on this matter.
Sincerely,
Mark Foley
Member of Congress

Fight to save our children, presumably from the evils of pot, right? Well, ABC News reported today on some new IMs exchanges Foley had with a young adult male.

From one of the newly released IMs, as reported by ABC:

Maf54: we will be adjourned ny then
Teen: oh good
Maf54: by
Maf54: then we can have a few drinks
Maf54: lol
Teen: yes yes ;-)
Maf54: your not old enough to drink
Teen: shhh…
Maf54: ok
Teen: that's not what my ID says
Teen: lol
Maf54: ok
Teen: I probably shouldn't be telling you that huh
Maf54: we may need to drink at my house so we don't get busted

I don't get the sense Foley was all that concerned about fighting the epidemics of teenage drinking or drug use with the teenager, do you?

Feds More Concerned w/Weed, Than Foley

Gee, I feel so much safer now. The feds today carried out another one of their crackdown and arrest operation against a medical marijuana club in San Francisco. Maybe the marijuana growers and sellers should send emails and IMs of a sexual nature, to avoid federal law enforcement attention. Seeing the feds do nothing about Foley for years, but being able and ready to wage a war against a weed and sick people who need it, is just one more sorry example of America's screwed up priorities.

From the SF Chronicle site this afternoon:

Federal drug agents raided three Bay Area buildings connected to the same medical marijuana club today and arrested at least six people, advocates for the clubs said.

Drug Enforcement Administration officials would not confirm details of the raids or arrests, citing a sealed search warrant.

A marijuana club in San Francisco's Mission District was raided by federal drug enforcement officials around 10:30 a.m., according to protesters outside the building this afternoon. The building, at 1760 Mission St., is listed as a business called New Remedies, but there is no sign on the single-story brick building.

Federal agents also searched a warehouse about 2 1/2 miles away and arrested at least four people there. Medical marijuana advocate William Dolphin said the warehouse, located at 790 Tennessee St., was a growing facility for New Remedies, which also has been known as Mission Compassionate Caregivers.

Dolphin said two women also were arrested at what he called an administrative office for New Remedies in Oakland. The office is located at 17th and Franklin streets, near Lake Merritt, he said.

"Obviously, the DEA is on a little bit of a rampage this week," said Dolphin, citing other pot club crackdowns in Granada Hills, San Fernando Valley and Modesto. [...]

DEA spokeswoman Casey McEnry would not give details of today's "law enforcement action," citing a sealed search warrant.

At 12:45 p.m., federal agents brought five people out of the front door of 790 Tennessee St., a brick and stucco warehouse building with blacked-out windows and at least three surveillance cameras on the outside.

A federal agent at the scene indicated that three men and a woman had been arrested and another woman had been detained for questioning. [...]

HRC, RIAA Leader Hilary Rosen Gave $2,000 to Foley

Hilary Rosen, a member of the Human Rights Campaign Foundation board of directors and former head of the Recording Industry Association of America, made two donations to Mark Foley before he resigned from the House.

Rosen's FEC records show she donated $1,000 to him in December 2001, and another $1,000 in May 2003.

Do not expect Rosen to ask for a refund.

(Source for Rosen image.)

[UPDATE]

This is from Lou Chibarro's story today posted on the Washington Blade site:

Gay activist and blogger Michael Petrelis of San Francisco called on HRC to demand that Foley return the $27,000 that HRC has contributed to Foley’s congressional election campaigns between 2000 and 2006.

“It’s an interesting idea,” said HRC spokesperson Luis Vizcaino. “We’ll consider it.”

Please do. And HRC should also consider having all staff, executives and board members disclose any donations they've made to Foley, and then think about asking Foley to return those contributions too.

Foley Must Refund $27K to Gay DNC Wing, HRC

No one has been shocked!, shocked! to find the gay wing of the Democratic National Committee, the Human Rights Campaign silent on the Foley scandal. HRC is just too squeamish to figure out something, ANYTHING, of substance to say about the ex-congressman, now in rehab.

The largest gay organization in America and all its members can't see a single reason to weigh in on anything related to Foley, showing HRC has all the backbone of one of the dead, boneless chickens served at their dinners.

I have a piece of unsolicited advice for HRC, if it wants to change course and factor in somehow to this major upheaval in the House, weeks before the midterm election.

Ask Foley to return the $27,000 HRC has donated to him since 2000, especially the $2,000 for this election.

Send a message to all members of Congress that HRC is not a bunch of wimps, afraid to stand up and ask a candidate, who just happens to be homosexual, to return a donation, Joe Solmonese.

Leadership and taking a stand during a gay-related congressional crisis. What a concept for HRC to embrace.

HRC's donations to Foley:

2000
$10,000

2002
$10,000

2004
$5,000

2006
$2,000

Foley YouTube Clip: "If I Were One of These Sickos ... "

Newsweek Error: Says Foley Voted Against DOMA

Do Evan Thomas and Michael Isikoff know how to fact-check? They mistakenly claim Mark Foley voted against the Defense of Marriage Act in this week's edition of Newsweek:

Radical gay groups sometimes "out" closeted right-wingers, but Foley was insulated against charges of hypocrisy because he voted against a congressional ban on gay marriage.

Foley was never insulated against claims of closeted hypocrisy, at least not by Mike Rogers of Blogactive.com!

If it's not too much trouble, Thomas and Isikoff might learn how to use Google to find Foley's vote for a federal ban against gay and lesbian marriages.

Heck, I'll make it easy for them and link to the Vote-Smart.org page on Foley's vote in favor of DOMA.

Photo of Foley, Page at GOP Confab; Tells O'Reilly "Predators Are Winning"

From a GOP Congressional page's blog about the 2004 Republican convention:

INCREDIBLE! There are no words to explain the feeling of being on the Floor the final night of the convention. Not very many 17-year-old seniors get a chance to represent their own Congressman at the conventions close. Congressman Mark Foley had to return to DC to accompany FEMA back to the District to help with the relief efforts for hurricane Frances. Mark's sister Donna took the time to call me and tell me to pick up an envelope they left for me at the front desk with a small surprise. I opened the envelope to find Mark's final evening Floor credentials and a note encouraging me to make him proud. What could anyone say except, THANK YOU!

And here are three notable quotes from Foley in the past few years, that given his resignation and ever-growing scandal about his conduct with young male adults online, may be things he wishes he could retract:

1.
ALAN KEYES IS MAKING SENSE
Wednesday, April 17, 2002

FOLEY: Well, I think they make a valid point there, and that's why I've always been an advocate for the First Amendment. But, again, we're dealing with a little bit different standard here. We're not dealing with gunfights, and we're not dealing with skate boarders or things that may be reckless in nature. What we're dealing with is graphic and gratuitous sexual engagement of minors, young people. I think it's wrong whether it's virtually simulated or...

If it were so wrong, why did you engage in such behavior over the years, Mr. Foley?

2.

NEWS CONFERENCE WITH ATTORNEY GENERAL JOHN ASHCROFT
TOPIC: SUPREME COURT DECISION ON CHILD PORNOGRAPHY
JUSTICE DEPARTMENT, WASHINGTON, D.C.
12:22 P.M. EDT, WEDNESDAY, MAY 1, 2002

REP. FOLEY: [...] It doesn't make a difference if the child engaged in sex is real or virtual. In other words, an old simple saying: If it walks like a duck, talks like a duck, it is a duck. The courts obviously didn't have a chance, as Chairman Lamar Smith suggested, to see the kind of virtual reality that is on computer terminals today. It's as close to reality as possible.

Are you a duck, Mr. Foley?

3.
This is a partial transcript from "The O'Reilly Factor," May 2, 2006, that has been edited for clarity.

FOLEY: [...] Our kids are precious. Their lives are vulnerable. The predators are winning as we speak because there is no mechanism on the books.

You're a special kind of winner yourself, Mr. Foley.

Foley Scandal Closes House Page Alumni Assn Web Site

Matthew Loraditch, a former congressional page who told ABC News today that he other pages were warned five years ago about Mark Foley, has closed the House Page Alumni Association web site.

I Googled him and found this link:

Summer 2005 - House Page Alumni AssociationI applied for the summer session II to Mark Foley ( R - Palm Beach , FL ) . Hope I get in . ... 1.6 © 2006 IPS , Inc . Licensed to : Matthew Loraditch , USHPAA.
www.pagealumni.us/boards/index.php?showtopic=610 - 101k - Supplemental Result - Cached - Similar pages

But when I went to that site, this message was posted:

Welcome!

Because of the current situation. I am shutting down the board until I can provide a proper statement about my part in what has been going on. I appreciate your patience.

If you are the board administrator, you can log in below and begin setting up your new board.

This Foley sex scandal gets crazier by the minute.

LA Times Omission: Facts on Latest "Controversial" HIV Ads

[I sent this letter off today to several contacts at the Los Angeles Times.]


Readers' Representative
The Los Angeles Times
Email: readers.rep@latimes.com

Dear Sir or Madam:

Your September 30 story on the latest manufactured controversy by the Better World Advertising group for the Los Angeles gay center, demonizing gay men for an alleged silence about HIV and AIDS issues, left out several facts.

The article quotes Lorri L. Jean, the head of the gay center, as claiming "[a] very alarming silence has descended over our community with regard to HIV and AIDS."

I would like to know how Jean measures silence and how she determines if it is increasing, going down or remains stable. So much of what Jean and her group allege on their web site, regarding this "alarming silence" may be true, but no hard, scientific data is presented on the site, or by your paper, to back up the claim.

Indeed, the Times' omitted the latest HIV and AIDS statistics for Los Angeles. Interesting that the provisional stats, through the end of 2005, show both full-blow AIDS cases and new HIV infections are slightly declining. Yes, the HIV and AIDS numbers will certainly climb marginally once all labs reports are eventually provided to the county's epidemiologists, but even so, charts 1 and 2, on page 7 of the current report, clearly show no increases and some promising declines.

How can there be an alarming silence and an apparent drop in both HIV and AIDS in Los Angeles?

By the way, you should know that a similar declining pattern was reported in San Francisco's just-released HIV/AIDS annual epi report, which said in the executive summary, on page 12: "The current HIV/AIDS epidemic is characterized by no apparent increases in HIV infection rates over the past five years, and with considerable decreases in some populations."

Other facts left out of the Time story are the following things: information about the costs of the new social marketing campaign; whether the federal, state or county governments are funding it; if an HIV community advisory board approved the campaign; and how it will be decided if the campaign is a success or failure.

I must also add that I would have liked the Times to address the matter of continually barraging the gay community with such prevention campaigns and the negative impact manufacturing controversy by Better World Advertising may be having on gay men's health.

For the past decade or so, gay men, our sex lives and our emotions have been subject to an endless series of controversial ad campaigns, more often than not created by this ad agency with government dollars, designed to provoke us into communication or to take action over our health needs. For examples of those efforts, click here, and here.

And the campaigns all share one common factor: find and exploit a controversial angle. As if it's not enough that we gays on a daily basis must deal with religious and political controversies stirred up by our opponents who sometimes question our very existence, right to love and live safely, we must also contend with AIDS groups hitting us with new controversial campaigns every few months.

Since when did controversy become THE fundamental building block on which to create effective gay health programs? Is there any verifiable proof controversies lead to a better well-being for gay men and is any other community subjected to constant, hostile, accusatory social marketing campaigns?

Before he passed away this summer, AIDS activist and gay leader Eric Rofes wrote an insightful essay about why some of us reject the controversial prevention messages forced on by AIDS service organizations:

"Many thoughtful gay men hunger for a deeper and more complex analysis of what’s going on in our communities. We no longer trust AIDS experts because they’ve shouted “Fire!” in this theatre too many times. Health advocates frequently mistake our boredom at their superficial and vapid analyses for complacency about the health of our communities. We care deeply about the well being of gay men’s communities; we are simply enraged at the repeated manipulation of statistics and emotions in the name of HIV prevention. And we hunger for vision: a new vision for HIV prevention, a new vision of gay male communities, a new vision of gay men’s health and wellness."

Finally, it strikes as very telling that on the new campaign's site, the LA gay center leaders list this as something gays can do to end the supposed AIDS silence:

"Get involved politically to let your elected representatives know that HIV continues to disproportionately affect our community and that funding for effective prevention programs is badly needed."

Frankly, I've never seen a social marketing campaign, probably funded by a government agency, telling gay men to get politically active and ask politicians for more money. I'm surely not one to oppose gay men being political or demanding more government funds for gay health programs, but I do sense a desire on the part of those behind the new ad campaign to use it to drum up more money for the LA gay center.

Count me as one gay man who wants effective HIV prevention campaigns that don't incite controversy for its own sake, and that don't use social marketing to increase government funds for the salaries of bureaucrats at the LA gay center.

Best regards,
Michael Petrelis
San Francisco, CA
Ph: 415-621-xxxx