April 9, 2016

"According to the prosecutors, [former Speaker of the House Dennis] Hastert gave one boy, a 14-year-old freshman wrestler, a massage in the locker room, then performed an unspecified sex act on him."

"Another boy, Stephen Reinboldt, who died in 1995, was sexually abused by Mr. Hastert throughout high school in the late 1960s and early 1970s, his sister and others told the prosecutors. A third boy, who was 17 and remembered Mr. Hastert sitting in a recliner-type chair with a direct view of the locker room shower stalls, said Mr. Hastert had told him that one way to make his wrestling weight was to get a massage, then performed a sexual act. And prosecutors said Mr. Hastert had massaged another boy’s groin area after asking the boy to stay in his hotel room during a wrestling camp."

The details the federal prosecutor's case against Hastert come out. Hastert was a high school wrestling coach long ago. He has pleaded guilty to a banking violation (related to paying off one of the alleged victims), and he will be sentenced later this month.

122 comments:

MayBee said...

I have a real problem with this prosecution and the way they went about it. I have real problems with the laws they got him on. I think we should all rebel against these kinds of intrusions and prosecutions.

"Subject A did not sound like someone who was extorting money from the defendant". That's garbage.

But Hastert. Awful.

David Begley said...

So Denny violated bank laws. What about Hillary? Maybe the fact that the Chinese and Russians have been reading our secrets for years is slightly more important.

Eric the Fruit Bat said...

On the other hand, it would seem that Mr. Hastert's methods produced some champion wrestlers.

Anonymous said...

Hastert can't be defended.

On the other hand, the accuser and the FBI seem very sleazy as well.

tim maguire said...

I was all set to dismiss it until we got to the banking violation. Now Hastert can expect shysters and schemers to come out of the woodwork to get a piece of his wealth. But that's part of his punishment.

tim maguire said...

So the "crimes" he's about to be sentenced for amount to taking his own money and giving it to someone. We should all fear this sort of prosecution.

MayBee said...

"After a series of recorded phone calls, with Mr. Hastert’s cooperation, the investigators concluded that there was no extortion, but that Mr. Hastert was actually carrying out an agreed-to settlement for real abuse. "

This was the part that floored me, that as the Drill SGT says, made the FBI look so sleazy. Hastert tells them he's been extorted, the FBI listens in, decides the person getting the money is just getting an "agreed upon" settlement? Come on, FBI. Obviously you decided Hastert sexually molested this teenager and you wanted to punish him for that.

This is all so incredibly sordid. But none of us should rejoice in what they've ultimately charged Hastert with. What an incredible intrusion into all of our lives the government has set up.

To keep us "Safe!!"

Humperdink said...

Sad case. Hastert should at least be pleased that he lived a good life, for a long time, prior to his demise. However, I suspect the guilt he was carrying offset the good times on a regular basis.

At 74 and a stroke victim, I am not sure prison is the place for him. A huge fine may be in order.

MayBee said...

Friends, keep this "investigation" in mind when you consider supporting Laws against encryption on phones.

MayBee said...

Megan McArdle points out another fishing expedition, this time against the CEI, a critic of global warming.

Lesson: give us access to your information, and we might uncover a crime!

SJ said...

I've heard rumors that Barney Frank treated Congressional pages in similar ways.

Shouldn't a full investigation be in order?

traditionalguy said...

Hastert was good at faking the Evangelical Christian, Super Conservative schtick for votes while he secretly did every hidden sex and every hidden bribe he milk the sustem for.

As part of the Bush Family's Iraq War push he lead the GOP politicians supporting the cluster fuck while he eagerly took bribes from Turkey to approve weapon sales.

He made his fortune on insider land investments for millions of dollars based on controlling the route for new Federally funded road projects.

He epitomizes the Insider GOP Establishment that sees Trump's unexpected coming to power as DESTRUCTION for them. But they have their own Hastert prototype ready to block him, the fake Evangelical Christian, Super Conservative called Cruz.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

Good thing hastert is an R - If her were a D, this sort of thing would be kept secret.

Anonymous said...

http://www.rawstory.com/2015/05/dennis-hasterts-secret-gay-misconduct-is-even-worse-given-his-terrible-voting-record-on-gay-rights/

"Hastert would be only the latest conservative Christian political figure to be revealed as engaging in a homosexual lifestyle he demonized as a lawmaker. His record fighting against gay rights is lengthy and rich.

As a federal legislator, Hastert voted regularly against bills to empower gay people. In Congress from 1997 to 2007, Hastert voted for the so-called “Marriage Protection Act,” and in favor of a constitutional amendment to “establish that marriage shall consist of one man and one woman.” The year he stepped down, Hastert voted no on the “Employment Non-Discrimination Act,” a bill to prohibit companies from discriminating against employees “on the basis of sexual orientation.”


Noting Hastert’s “deeply conservative” policy positions back in 1998, the Associated Press reported the “National Right to Life Committee, the Christian Coalition, the Chamber of Commerce, and the National Rifle Association all gave his voting record perfect scores of 100.”

Hastert resigned as speaker of the House following allegations that he failed to report former Representative Mark Foley (R-FL) for inappropriate relationships with boys employed as pages at the U.S. Capitol.

At a Christian Coalition meeting in 2004, Hastert told the audience that Republicans would push for a constitutional amendment to define marriage as solely between one man and one woman. He said the amendment would send a “strong message to liberal activist judges.”

“We will not allow them to put our children’s future at risk because of their agenda for political correctness,” Hastert added. He also said House Republicans had added language to a budget bill that would increase funding for abstinence sex education. “More kids need to be taught to just say no, that doesn’t just apply to drugs, it also applies to sex before marriage,” Hastert remarked."

Hypocrite.

Humperdink said...

Tradguy turns a decades-old sex scandal into Trump campaign commercial.

If nothing else Tradguy, you are resourceful.

Wince said...

...a massage in the locker room, then performed an unspecified sex act on him.

I'm guessing he gave him a blow job. And some tea.

Anonymous said...

http://www.politico.com/story/2015/06/dennis-hastert-before-the-fall-118859

"“We must continue to be proactive warding off pedophiles and other creeps who want to take advantage of our children,” Hastert said, according to an account of an Internet forum he held in his congressional district.

The records show that Hastert’s office kept a legislative file titled “Homosexuals,” filled with policy statements from social conservative groups like the Traditional Values Coalition and the Family Research Council that criticized same-sex marriage and Clinton administration efforts to prevent discrimination against gays and lesbians. The file also includes a 1996 Weekly Standard article, “Pedophilia Chic” that warned that “revisionist suggestions about pedophilia” were being embraced by the left."

Hypocrite.

Humperdink said...

Let she who has not sinned, cast the first stone.

Anonymous said...

Let wolves in sheep's clothing fall victim to Karma.

MisterBuddwing said...

SMH over the tone of some of these postings: "Sure, what Hastert did was wrong, BUT.... "

Where's Professor Glenn "Teach-Women-Not-to-Rape" Reynolds when you need him?

MayBee said...

"Sure, what Hastert did was wrong, BUT.... "

What he did to the boys is awful.

What the government does - start investigations into the way people are using their OWN money- is awful.

No "But".

Hagar said...

This is not about Dennis Hastert, but about bringing embarrassment to the Republican Party in an election year. That is what it was about before, and also bringing it up again now.

Abhorrent as Hastert's behavior 40-50 years ago was, perhaps especially by the standards of that time, we need to look a little closer at the actions and motives of the DoJ lawyers here and how they used the law to come up with a way to publicize the matter without having any actionable crime to work with.

MisterBuddwing said...

This is not about Dennis Hastert, BUT... (emphasis added)

MayBee said...

What would you all say if your bank's risk management officer asked you why you were withdrawing your own money?

Psota said...

Hastert would have been a good client for the Voyeur Motel

traditionalguy said...

Hiding in plain sight is not working these days. It started in Happy Valley with the Sandusky/Paterno hidden lifestyle. And then along came Edward Snowden who blew the loudest whistle ever heard. Once secrets are digitized, they can no longer stay hidden for long .That in turn encourages people to "spill the beans" they know.

Drudge outed Clinton's sex slave in the White House. The Vatican's financial corruption has been outed. John Edwards got outed by National Enquirer rumors. Who will be next?

MayBee said...

"The risk management officer told the defendant that the bank had noticed the large cash withdrawals and was required by law to understand its customers' banking activity"

What would you all say?

"Defendant originally told the risk management officer that the withdrawals were none of his business"

This, to our government, indicates the need for an investigation.

What do you al think of that?

Hagar said...

Well, MisterBuddwing, since you bring up Glenn Reynolds, Instapundit also says "but for double standards, they would not have any standards at all."

Time had run out on Mr. Hastert's misdeeds so, as far as the DoJ was concerned, there was no crime there. The FBI (or the DoJ) concluded that there was no blackmail and extortion case to be made, so there was no crime there either.
(Though that sounds to me like they were trying very hard to keep the "victim" a victim; most people surely would agree that Hastert was being blackmailed.)

So they came up with the banking thing as an excuse to get the case into the media, who could be counted on to go ooh! and aah! over the horrors of Mr Hastert's misconduct and quite neglect to notice the legal shenanigans of the prosecutors.

Humperdink said...

Amanda said: "Let wolves in sheep's clothing fall victim to Karma."

I believe you reap what you sow. And Hastert is reaping to the fruits of what he did.

I am sure I would not want my closet to be open up for all the world to see. You, on the other hand ........

Hagar said...

And for the banking thing, they themselves state there was no underlying crime there so that should not have been prosecuted either; they have that discretion.

Martha said...

MayBee said...
What would you all say if your bank's risk management officer asked you why you were Withdrawing your own money?

My bank's risk management officer dragged me into his office about 12 years ago after I requested a withdrawal of approximately $50,000 from our savings account. The bank officer demanded to know what I intended to do with that much money. When I told him I was putting the money in our checking account in another bank in order to write a check to pay the tuition bills for two of my sons he sniggered : "$50,000 for tuition? Where do they go to college? Harvard?"
Well both sons were students at Harvard —ha!—but that was none of the bank's business.

traditionalguy said...

A High School Wrestling Coach and Explorer Post Leader abusing the teens under his total authority is as bad as it gets on this earth. He cannot use that fake smile anymore thanks to an excellent Federal District Attorney. Good job well done by a Trial Lawyer.

Hastert's midwestern niceness persona so impressed the insiders that it got him elevated, much like the Janesville Flash Ryan, to be the insider's third in succession to the Presidency, replacing the Common Sense Conservative style of Newt Gingrich.

Conservative is as Conservative does. Hastert totally faked it. When will they ever learn.

Meade said...

"When will they ever learn."

Many of us have learned. We see right through Donald Trump's republicany-ness.

Beloved Commenter AReasonableMan said...

The Drill SGT said...
Hastert can't be defended.


Let's keep it simple.

Beloved Commenter AReasonableMan said...

Meade said...
Many of us have learned. We see right through Donald Trump's republicans-ness.


And voted for the Princeton/Harvard/Bush/Goldman Sachs candidate, who is a good debater. As most people know, a good debater is someone who can argue either side of a case with apparently equal conviction.

Birkel said...

"AReasonableMan" thinks we should vote for socialism so the average income in this country can fall to Mississippi (READ: European) levels.

Pass!

Anonymous said...

Interesting challenge you have. Something you declare abhorrent for a voluntary association which has a despised minority (churchmen or politicians of a despised party) many of you think does not scale with population irrespective of group. So here's a public school employee who's also a member of a despised party, good entertainment. Though about as much fun as watching a child fry ants under a magnifying glass. Though some few will look up in horror at what they have done which suggests there's hope for you all. What would be news is documenting the much greater abuse in the public school system by both genders as only enabled by the law of large numbers and well intentioned but abused union protectionism vice a smaller church hierarchy with the same feet of clay. And why the solution lies with less government than more, and disestablishing the now unneeded because of technology diocesean layer in church governance returning the bishops to a pastoral role (selling their gulfstreams), while putting their parishioners in charge of the parish and their schools, all this reporting of facts underwritten by unbiased observation and measurement - after all it's "science!". Government being those things we coerce all of us to do together. At least with churches it is voluntary, some of their membership, save for the abused children, can and do vote with their feet.

Humperdink said...

ARM said: "And voted for the Princeton/Harvard/Bush/Goldman Sachs candidate .."

Delete Booosh from this statement and you pretty much have the entire executive branch ..... of every administration.

MayBee said...

Ha! yeah, I thought ARM was talking about Obama.

Beloved Commenter AReasonableMan said...

Birkel said...
"AReasonableMan" thinks we should vote for socialism so the average income in this country can fall to Mississippi (READ: European) levels.


Which candidate am I voting for?

Beloved Commenter AReasonableMan said...

Humperdink said...
you pretty much have the entire executive branch ..... of every administration.


Trump went to Fordham.

rhhardin said...

Drama club was the official gay place before official gay places in high school.

Humperdink said...

@ARM: Which is why Trump is not in the club.

Humperdink said...

Goldman Sachs and the Treasury Dept are one and the same.

Birkel said...

"AReasonableMan"

Since you hold that information, please delight us with your preferred candidate choice.

I prefer the only candidate who will at least nod in the right direction of reducing the reach of Leviathan.

Beloved Commenter AReasonableMan said...

Birkel said...
Since you hold that information,


Yet you stupidly assumed otherwise.

Michael K said...

"He made his fortune on insider land investments for millions of dollars based on controlling the route for new Federally funded road projects."

Yes, Hastert was the R's Reid. He destroyed the 1994 legacy of the Republicans and he and DeLay gave us Obama.

I still blame Gingrich and I think he knows he failed the country by going for the quick money with his book.

I thought he would try to make up for it by helping Trump run the country but the GOPe/Hastert branch seems to be doing a good job of stopping Trump from saving us.

grimson said...

Following up on MayBee's comments on phone encryption and bank risk management officers . . .

Assuming both are supposedly to help deter illegal activity (including terrorism), we should never forget what Louis Brandeis wrote: "Experience should teach us to be most on our guard to protect liberty when the Government’s purposes are beneficent. . .The greatest dangers to liberty lurk in insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well meaning but without understanding."

Quaestor said...

Sad case. Hastert should at least be pleased that he lived a good life, for a long time, prior to his demise.

A curious use of the word good.

Humperdink said...

Referring of course to him rising to top of heap in congress. Maybe that escaped you.

Michael K said...

"The greatest dangers to liberty lurk in insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well meaning but without understanding."

Remember that Orwell got the theme for "1984" while working at the BBC. He recognized how fdangerous the combination of power and "virtue" were.

Birkel said...

"AReasonableMan"

You do prefer socialism. So which socialist do you prefer?

Beloved Commenter AReasonableMan said...

Birkel said...
which socialist do you prefer?


The one Republicans keep voting for.

Brian said...

Someone 'splain something to me: What's Hastert's crime?

It's not child molestation, as the statute of limitations has passed. I have additionally not heard a theory of why Hastert giving money to an alleged victim - whether characterized as a private settlement or as paying blackmail money - is criminal on the part of Hastert. Why how would Hastert's structuring bank withdrawals to attempt to conceal a non-crime be criminal? This case smells like an illegitimate attempt by prosecutors to bypass the statute of limitations for Hastert's alleged molestation of minors.

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

Hastert did nothing different than any Republican would have done when it comes to creating opportunity for America's youth and other underprivileged populations.

It doesn't make up for all the school lunches and funding for education that they'd like to deprive them of. But still.

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

The rhetorical somersaults these commenters are contorting themselves into in order to defend a child molester like Hastert are curious and sleazy, to say the least. And mildly nauseating at not even the most.

I guess I shouldn't be surprised.

n.n said...

Pedophilia is a trans-social orientation. Progressive liberals will normalize the behavior when it becomes politically expedient.

MayBee said...

Rhythm and Balls-

You understand that the banking laws they are using to go after him, and used to begin an investigation of him have nothing to do with child molestation, right?
That both can be true: He can be reprehensible AND our government can be a greedy, over controlling, and overzealous intruder into our lives.

This is the kind of thing the left used to understand.

MayBee said...

Say they discovered Hastert was involved in a mutual payment plan (as the prosecution is pretending happened here) with an adult who had had an extramarital affair with Hastert. He could be charged with the exact same crime.
Or, say he was using the money to buy his transgendered lover a sex change operation.
He could be charged with the exact same crime.

Are you for that?

cubanbob said...

That Hastert is scum doesn't alter the fact that the government also acted like scum. Breaking the law by prosecuting someone for no actual law breaking as charged by the government is an even greater crime than what Hastert did. To balance things out the prosecutors should be prosecuted for malicious prosecution, fired from their jobs and be disbarred as a caution to the others. The job is prosecutor, not persecutor.

Paddy O said...

Too bad his wife isn't running for President, then the media would overlook everything.

Michael K said...

"It doesn't make up for all the school lunches and funding for education that they'd like to deprive them of. But still."

Yes, that has worked so well for the black inner city population. Idiot !

cubanbob said...

AReasonableMan said...
Meade said...
Many of us have learned. We see right through Donald Trump's republicans-ness.

And voted for the Princeton/Harvard/Bush/Goldman Sachs candidate, who is a good debater. As most people know, a good debater is someone who can argue either side of a case with apparently equal conviction.

4/9/16, 9:36 AM"

I gather from this comment that you are not voting for either the Democrat or Republican candidate for president or for the candidates of either party downstream.

William said...

I recently saw the movie Spotlight. It was about the Catholic pedophilia scandals in Boston and the role of the Boston Globe in uncovering them. It was a very good movie. I give the movie credit not only for highlighting the way the Catholic hierarchy orchestrated with the justice system to bury this problem but also for highlighting the fact that that a previous version of the Globe had abetted in the coverup........I was raised as a Catholic. When I was young, you just didn't look upon priests as potential child molesters. I can understand how people wanted to look upon them as some kind of strange and rare aberration and to minimize the problem. But, of course, they weren't, and the problem flourished because of that attitude.......I think liberals would like to isolate this problem to the Catholic Church, Republicans, and Evangelicals, but that's simply not true. Pious liberals have covered for Bill Cosby, Jimmy Saville, Epstein, the Rotherham rapists, Daniel Ortega, and a great many other sex criminals who were in the protective embrace of their faith. The Hypocritical Faith is inclusive of all who wish to join and believe truly in their moral superiority.........Graeco-Roman wrestling looks a bit minty to me. Real men pound each other with clenched fists. You wouldn't find this kind of scandal among practitioners of MMA. Thank God we have one institution that's above scandal and that we can truly believe in.

Rusty said...

Blogger AReasonableMan said...
Birkel said...
which socialist do you prefer?

The one Republicans keep voting for.

Voting for Trump, then?

walter said...

..and R&B turns this into an ad for "free stuff". But hey..now we're doing school breakfasts too. Due to those darn Republicans, kids will soon never leave the public schools.

mccullough said...

Hastert committed the same crime as Spitzer, although he committed many more instances of structuring. Spitzer used the money for prostitutes and Hastert used it to pay off someone he molested and his pederasty was prolonged and had many victims. If he had been caught at the time, he would have received a long prison sentence. But the statute of limitations on his molestation of those he coached/taught has long since expired. He is a monster who should have been killed a long time ago. He should get the longest sentence possible for the number of structuring cash transactions he committed.

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

RIght. They used the "wrong" way of nabbing a pervert. Go pro-money laundering de-regulation! Open up banks in Panama and stop surveilling secret big money payouts to the diddled kids fund!

You guys' priorities are FUBAR.

From now on I'm just going to conclude that you guys are a bunch of child molesters. You're more sympathetic to them than anyone I've ever heard from before. It's shocking, really.

This impending electoral implosion couldn't happen to a more deserving party.

Hagar said...

High school seniors are not "children," so pedophile does not apply and pederast is doubtful without knowing more than we do.

Hagar said...

As for R&B, I think his party would consider Hastert's crimes to be more like sex between consenting adults the way things are today.

We see a lot about women teachers and affairs with students, but from the tone of the articles seem to be more about titillation than condemnation. Especially female on female seems to be good jam for the media.

Birkel said...

Come around and say that to any of our faces, "Rhythm and Balls", and you will either be taught by the courts or extrajudicially that calling people child molesters without evidence is wrong. Fuck you sideways.

Denny Hastert is an awful human being who should have been caught and prosecuted at the time he raped children. He is a dangerous pervert, a scoundrel and evil. He deserves punishment on this plane and in the afterlife.

The people who work in government believe they own you and me. Fuck that and fuck them.

MayBee said...

From now on I'm just going to conclude that you guys are a bunch of child molesters.

That's a winning argument.

Anonymous said...

"You guys' priorities are FUBAR.

You're more sympathetic to them than anyone I've ever heard from before. It's shocking, really.

This impending electoral implosion couldn't happen to a more deserving party."

True.

MayBee said...

I love the way the lefties don't want to talk about the government intrusion aspect.
Anything the government wants to do is ok by them.

Beloved Commenter AReasonableMan said...

Rusty said...
Voting for Trump, then?


Voting for any of them gets you a socialist. You know its true.

n.n said...

There must be strict cause to reject and to normalize transgender and trans-social orientations and behaviors. The current pro-choice model of selective (i.e. unprincipled) inclusion/exclusion following politically expedient agendas is incompatible with the rule of law and its hypocrisy is a first-order cause of catastrophic anthropogenic government whoring and progressive corruption.

That said, the fact that it is easier to hold Republicans accountable for their violations of social, natural, and moral standards is actually favorable to their position. Also, since they have not adopted a pro-choice religious philosophy, or attempted to [selectively] normalize transgender and trans-social orientations, their individual deviations are not evidence of class diversity dysfunction or corruption.

Beloved Commenter AReasonableMan said...

MayBee said...
I love the way the lefties don't want to talk about the government intrusion aspect.
Anything the government wants to do is ok by them.


So abusing young children is fine with you then?

Anonymous said...

Trump wants government to be even more intrusive.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/18/technology/apple-timothy-cook-fbi-san-bernardino.html?_r=0

"Apple Fights Order to Unlock San Bernardino Gunman’s iPhone

The dispute could initiate legislation in Congress, with Republicans and Democrats alike criticizing Apple’s stance on Wednesday and calling for tougher decryption requirements. Donald J. Trump, the Republican presidential contender, also attacked Apple on Fox News, asking, “Who do they think they are?”"

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

Yup. There's nothing that gets me more worked up about how the government can track $10,000 withdrawals than the way a child rapist can use that practice in an effort to money launder his bribes to his victims.

You guys sure are fans of secrecy and economic freedom. Especially when used to the advantage of rapists, foreign lobbyists, corporations. Anyone who can abuse an American citizen or the voter. That's the best kind of freedom, I guess.

He's not a pedophile? Ok, I guess we have to stop prosecuting all the pretty 30-year old ladies who sleep with their students, also. While I'm not sure that would bother me all that much, remember that it's possible some of Jerry Sandusky's victims might have escaped this "too old to be raped" loophole, too. Hey, at least you have SOME appreciation for studying classical antiquity, at least when it comes to replicating their primitive sexual mores.

As for hating all public servants, Hastert's extra-curriculars occurred before he was elected to the position from which he ascended to the exalted Speaker's office.

I still think you guys are weird.

MayBee said...

ARM- I've already said what Hastert did was awful.

So. Your turn.

MayBee said...

Amanda- you don't need to tell me what Trump thinks. What do *you* think?

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

Amanda- you don't need to tell me what Trump thinks. What do *you* think?

She probably thinks you guys are weird, too.

Weird and dangerous.

Go money-laundering teen child molesters! Freedom!

Beloved Commenter AReasonableMan said...

MayBee said...
So. Your turn.


I am glad they caught the fucker. And your complaint about abuse of power has been dealt with by others. They can't charge him with the real crime so they stretched to get him. Is it perfect justice? No. Was it the right thing to do? Yes. I have zero sympathy for these fuckers. I am surprised that you are so sympathetic.

Anonymous said...

Maybee,
What do I think? I think you folks who support Trump and complain about government overstepping its bounds are hypocrites. Trump has pretty much said he would use Executive authority liberally (pun intended). I think you religious right folks also are unusually forgiving to pedophiles who happen to be rightists. I think that's pretty damn weird and yes dangerous.

MayBee said...

Is it perfect justice? No. Was it the right thing to do? Yes.

You realize they can do the same thing to anyone, even if they haven't committed a crime in the past, right?
That's the problem with the "Crime" they've gotten Hastert for.

Ah, but if it's used for a bad guy this time, that's ok! (even though this was part of the Patriot Act and was going to be used for terrorists). So what if it's on the books as a crime? So what if it was designed to catch terrorists? It can be used to catch drug dealers too.....and then anybody. Because that person *might* be the victim of extortion (as they said in this document). The government is really looking at your own bank records and asking you to justify your habits to keep you safe!

MayBee said...

Amanda-
I don't support Tump.

So what do you think about this crime?

MayBee said...

I'm also not religious right, Amanda. Geez, anything to avoid answering what you think about this power of the government, huh?

cubanbob said...

Amanda said...
"You guys' priorities are FUBAR.

You're more sympathetic to them than anyone I've ever heard from before. It's shocking, really.

This impending electoral implosion couldn't happen to a more deserving party."

True.

4/9/16, 3:43 PM

It must be very pleasant to live in the delusional world Amanda inhabits where the political party that in actual fact isn't imploding is the one whose candidates are criminals and communists.
It must be wonderful to live with such certainty where the impending economic disaster of the current Administration is nevertheless going to deliver an electoral landslide to a candidate under criminal investigation or a communist.

Hagar said...

"We can't get him for the crime he did commit, so let's make up something we can get him for."

The very definition of a "legal lynching."

Quite a comment to make on a law professor's blog!

Anonymous said...

Maybee,
Excuse me? I'd think by reading the links I provided upstream you would already know where I stand regarding Hastert's 'crimes' of pedophilia. As for his banking crimes, why should he be given a lesser sentence than anyone else? Why should he be given sympathy of any kind whatsoever? Everyone was thrilled when OJ Simpson ended up in jail afterall, even if the crimes he ended up in jail for were not for the murders he committed. It's Karma.

MayBee said...

As for his banking crimes, why should he be given a lesser sentence than anyone else?

THat's not the question.
The question is what do you think of the banking crime itself?

MisterBuddwing said...

"We can't get him for the crime he did commit, so let's make up something we can get him for."

The very definition of a "legal lynching."


Worked as far as tax evader Al Capone was concerned.

Anonymous said...

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/05/28/dennis-hastert-patriot-act_n_7465780.html

"Patriot Act That Dennis Hastert Passed Led To His Indictment

On Oct. 24, 2001, then-House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) shepherded the Patriot Act through the House of Representatives. It passed 357 to 66, advancing to the Senate and then-President George W. Bush’s desk for signing.

Hastert took credit for House passage in a 2011 interview, claiming it “wasn’t popular, and there was a lot of fight in the Congress” over it.

Little did Hastert know at the time that the law he helped pass would give federal law enforcement the tools to indict him on charges of violating banking-related reporting requirements more than a decade later."

Maybee, perhaps you should ask Hastert himself what he thinks of the law that did him in. Afterall, he helped pass it.

Birches said...

I see Amanda is trying to score cheap political points off of this by calling Hastert a hypocrite. I would think anyone who had ever done something like this would be considered a hypocrite, no matter their political or social beliefs.

Do gay men regularly engage in sex acts with teenagers? If we found out that Dan Savage did these things, does he get a pass? He's not a hypocrite?

Anonymous said...

Birches,
Anyone who is a pedophile is breaking the law. Pedophilia is illegal besides being a predatory, despicable, and vile act. Are you suggesting that homosexuals regularily engage in pedophilia? All these "Family Values" types must be easier to forgive for Birches.

Fritz said...

I remember the liberal outrage at Gerry Studds . . .

Anonymous said...

Anyone who thinks that Dennis Hastert wouldn't have used this banking law that he was instrumental in passing, to prosecute anyone else is living in lala land.

Anonymous said...

From link @4:52PM,

"Defendant initially told the risk management officer that the withdrawals were none of his business. When the risk management officer pressed further, defendant said that he was withdrawing the cash for investments and to buy stocks and also because he wanted to keep his cash deposits under the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation insurance limits. The risk management officer told defendant that his explanations did not make sense, i.e., one cannot buy stocks with cash, and the risks associated with possessing large amounts of currency far outweigh the risks of a bank failure. Defendant provided no further explanation. The risk management officer explained to defendant the bank’s obligations under the Bank Secrecy Act and the PATRIOT Act. Defendant stated that he was aware of the law, but that the PATRIOT Act was just for terrorism and he (defendant) was not a terrorist.

Defendant’s history and characteristics also are marred by stunning arrogance. In the court filing, it’s explained that Hastert’s attorney told investigators that his client was being extorted; in two meetings between Hastert and Individual A, the person promised $3.5 million to keep quiet about Hastert sexually abusing him in a hotel room during a wrestling camp trip, it became abundantly clear to investigators there was no extortion going on.


In fact, according to the court filing, Individual A figured Hastert’s community prominence, which is a big reason why the four wrestlers spotlighted in the filing didn’t tell anyone Hastert sexually abused them, would help them both in keeping everything quiet."

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

It must be very pleasant to live in the delusional world Amanda inhabits where the political party that in actual fact isn't imploding is the one whose candidates are criminals and communists.

Who's a communist and why are you associating it with criminality? As far as I can tell, people can believe whatever ideology they want to in America. Should we make being a communist a thought-crime? Should socialist programs like social security and Medicare be outlawed and its recipients prosecuted? Maybe the socialist health care of the Veterans Administration should be labelled as the criminal syndicate that you believe it is. No health care for veterans unless they can purchase it out of pocket on their own, the way every true-blooded American should be forced to do.

Anyone who thinks that the Republican party has a rosy future nationally in the near-term is delusional. A party that can't even pick a presidential candidate palatable enough to most of its supporters is not imploding? Even despite all the fascist demagoguery of its front-runner? I guess I've heard everything now.

But then, I also heard that prosecuting child molesters who led the legislative chamber of the world's most powerful republic is also suspect. But that's because he had the money to pay for it. And as everyone knows, any rich, powerful should be able to use their money for any evil and nasty purpose they want to or else we're all on our way to the gulag.

Anonymous said...

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ephebophilia

"Ephebophilia is the primary or exclusive adult sexual interest in mid-to-late adolescents, generally ages 15 to 19.[1][2] The term was originally used in the late 19th to mid 20th century.[2] It is one of a number of sexual preferences across age groups subsumed under the technical term chronophilia. Ephebophilia strictly denotes the preference for mid-to-late adolescent sexual partners, not the mere presence of some level of sexual attraction.

In research environments, specific terms are used for chronophilias: for instance, ephebophilia to refer to the sexual preference for mid-to-late adolescents,[1][2] hebephilia to refer to the sexual preference for earlier pubescent individuals, and pedophilia to refer to the sexual preference for prepubescent children.[2][3] However, the term pedophilia is commonly used by the general public to refer to any sexual interest in minors below the legal age of consent, regardless of their level of physical or mental development."

Birches said...

Amanda, you are the one comparing pedophilia and gay legislation. You did it with your first excerpt. I thought it was nuts and pointed it out.

Anonymous said...

Birches,
I "compared" pedophilia with gay legislation?? Please point me to where you think I did this.

Birches said...

Your first comment with the excerpt rawstory, which correct me if I'm wrong you linked to approvingly, since you called Hastert a hypocrite. It says, ""Hastert would be only the latest conservative Christian political figure to be revealed as engaging in a homosexual lifestyle he demonized as a lawmaker. His record fighting against gay rights is lengthy and rich."


Hastert is abusing boys, not looking for airport stall sex. I wouldn't call it engaging in a homosexual lifestyle.

Birkel said...

Good choice to disengage, "Rhythm and Balls".

You may not be stupid.

Anonymous said...

Jesus Birches,
The article was not comparing pedophilia to gay legislation. The article was pointing out the extent of Hastert's hypocrisy. Hastert's support for anti gay legislation was simply another way in which he portrayed himself as a "Family Values" hero. YOU have connected the two in your mind, don't project that onto me, or even the author of the article.

Hagar said...

A party that can't even pick a presidential candidate palatable enough to most of its supporters is not imploding?

Easy there , R&B, you are skating on thin ice. Trump is a New Yorker, like Bloomberg, highjacking the Republican nomination for his own ends, and in the case of Trump, very much against the Party organization's wishes.

On the Democrat side now, Hillary Rodham Clinton, secretary treasurer and chief legal adviser to Clinton, Inc. for 40+ years, is the Party's nominee, though she apparently is anything but palatable to the young Democrats; the party's future.

Drago said...

R&B's: "Anyone who thinks that the Republican party has a rosy future nationally in the near-term is delusional."

Are you referring to the Republican party that was effectively destroyed and destined to wander in the wilderness for 40 years as every single lefty publication informed us in 2008?

Why are we even discussing this? Lefty's are always wonderfully brilliant on all subjects at all times (due to their chosen political framework) so they could not possibly be wrong. So what is this already long-extinct republican party to which you refer?

Of course, we have been informed once every 2 or 4 years that the republican party is dead and that goes back to 1936.

http://www.gallup.com/vault/189884/gallup-vault-1936-gallup-asked-gop-dead.aspx

I anxiously await the next batch of articles proclaiming the republican party dead next year...and the year after....and the year after...

One supposes that, like Generalissimo Francisco Franco, the republican is dead and must be announced so every now and again to give comfort to the lefties in-between failed leftist experiments.

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

Trump is a New Yorker, like Bloomberg, highjacking the Republican nomination for his own ends, and in the case of Trump, very much against the Party organization's wishes.

Oh I wouldn't over-dramatize. Trump is in favor of any wishes that strengthen his own wishes. President Trump, to whom all glory be!

If promises of a wall further that wish, so be it. And remember, it doesn't matter if he achieves it, because Republicans don't want to do anything achievable anyway. That's why all their policies are fantasies: Wars to bring democracy to the Middle East; tax cuts that pay for themselves; cutting regulation to improve people's lives; improving race relations by engaging surreptitious racist demagoguery and dog whistles, etc., etc., etc.

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

Are you referring to the Republican party that was effectively destroyed and destined to wander in the wilderness for 40 years as every single lefty publication informed us in 2008?

I sure am.

If you actually bother to look at this, the Democrats weren't "done" after 1968, either. They still controlled Congress for quite a while, in fact. But they had no achievements to rival those of Nixon or Reagan after that point.

So the Republicans can also cling on by their fingernails to the trappings of power. But maintaining this much clout in the face of all the decline they're bringing to the country and disrepute to their brand only furthers the cycle that keeps moving the ball to their opponents.

I'm sure you'll respond to this obvious claim with the same flurry of ad hominem political invective and ridicule you usually do when you know I'm right.

Birches said...

Gee Amanda that excerpt doesn't mention anything about family values, but it specifically mentions homosexual lifestyle and Hastert engaging in it. My mistake. I wouldn't defend rawstory on that point.

Hagar said...

R&B, if you can hear the "dog whistle," you are the dog!

Birches said...

Even the article title calls it secret gay conduct. Yeah, I wouldn't defend rawstory at all.

Birches said...

So no, the connection was not made up in my mind. If you want to disavow, fine.

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

R&B, if you can hear the "dog whistle," you are the dog!

I don't hear it immediately.

I ask myself, gee, what does this person mean by the phrase "welfare queen?" And why does it play so well in the same South that Lee Atwater told us needed an alternative to just saying "the N-word?"

Hmmmm.

And then, I ask, what is the objection to "busing", given that integrated busing was simply an anti-segregation measure.

Hmmmm. Things that make you think.

And then I go, "Why is RNC chair Ken Mehlman apologizing for that same Southern Strategy that Lee Atwater admitted to?" That's awfully curious. He's in a pretty high-profile position. Surely you couldn't get TWO high-level Republican operatives admitting to the same thing if that language actually did mean something innocuous.

Well, I guess I'm just not as credulous as your typical Republican.

I'm also not credulous when people complained about Clinton's use of the phrase "fairy tale" when describing Obama's trouncing of his lackluster wife, or when saying that in the past he'd have just been Hillary's errand boy. I guess that was just stuff that I wasn't supposed to hear, either.

You Republicans sure are tricky when it comes to saying stuff that I'm just not supposed to hear. I guess that's why your party faithful are so prone to believing nonsense in general.

Char Char Binks, Esq. said...

Wrestling is pretty much just mutual groping done while wearing spandex. It ends when the winner symbolically rapes the loser.

Birkel said...

You can find two high-level Republicans to admit to all sorts of false shit, "Rhythm and Balls".

I admit Republicans took control of the Alabama legislature in 2010, 45 years after the Civil Rights Act of 1965 was signed by LBJ.

That "Southern Strategy" only took two+ generations. Or, it is a false story told by Liberals to comfort themselves. Tomato. Tomato. Tomato.

Liberals are stupid.

MayBee said...

Maybee, perhaps you should ask Hastert himself what he thinks of the law that did him in. After all, he helped pass it

I'm asking you.

MayBee said...

And yes, the point that Hastert voted for this law...the Patriot act is part of the whole problem. Legislators pass laws to keep us SAFE. The Obama administration wants Apple to let them in to keep us SAFE. We can't have lotion in our purse at the airport to keep us SAFE.

And these laws to make us safe never go away, they always expand beyond whatever the intent of the people who passed them was.
Which is why Congress needs to do better when creating laws, and needs to restrict the powers they give the government.
Don't you agree, Amanda?

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

So Birkel says liberals are stupid to take Republican leaders at their word.

I know of only one other group whom people say not to believe when they admit to despicable things: Hamas.

Oh, don't believe that those terrorists are actually good with getting as many of their own people killed, for the sake of political sympathy, as they manage to get killed!

Here's Ken Mehlman on the same strategy Lee Atwater explained so well:

"Some Republicans gave up on winning the African American vote, looking the other way or trying to benefit politically from racial polarization. I am here today as the Republican chairman to tell you we were wrong."

There's no reason for anyone in politics to ever apologize for something they didn't believe they did.

You'd have to be a Republican, or a Palestinian activist, to believe otherwise.

Same difference.

Birkel said...

The lies a "Rhythm and Balls" must tell itself to believe as it does must cause irreparable harm to the body and mind.

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

Shorter Birkel: Unless you assume that every apology and admission by every Republican is a lie, then you must in fact be lying to yourself.

Thanks for clarifying the Republican thought process for me, Birkel!

Again, I quote former Republican National Committee chair, Ken Mehlman:

"Some Republicans gave up on winning the African American vote, looking the other way or trying to benefit politically from racial polarization. I am here today as the Republican chairman to tell you we were wrong."

"Pay no attention to the men behind the curtain," says Birkel!

Ha. Ha. Ha. Ha. Ha.

Birkel said...

"Rhythm and Balls"

You really are terrible argumentation. This can be explained by your overwhelming dishonesty. It can also be explained by your unabashed joy in your own dishonesty.

If I thought you were capable of reason or evenhanded analysis, I would give a shit about you. Please, just make sure to act the way you do online with people you meet in person.

I would be amused at the video, if you can have somebody tape you acting as you do.