Pat Buchanan Calls For Bush Impeachment

It must be really bad when the conservatives are even screaming for Bush to go. Pat Buchanan in the latest issue of The American Conservative ends his discussion of the insane plan for an Iran War with this sobering sentence:

"Forget the Feingold Resolution. Undeclared presidential wars are the real stuff of impeachment."

White House Gone Mad!

No I don't mean Laura is running around flashing her breasts! According the Seymore Hersh of the New Yorker Magazine, Bush is planning a nuclear attack on Iran. This goes way beyond chilling to the point of madness. To start a nuclear war with the middle east is insane, and Bush shows how desperate he is to hang on to power.

Reportedly even people in the Defense Dept. threaten to resign if he goes through with this. I would hope they would do more than that.

Today, write your Congressman, Senator, the local newspaper everyone you know and get mobilized to stop this wacko before he brings the world to the brink of destruction.

Newfoundland City With Stiff Moniker

Just 15km from the Trans Canadian Highway lies the town of Dildo, Newfoundland. The 1200 residents most likely get their share of jokes, however they claim it may have got its name from Spain or Portugal, or an algonquin tree, or the shape of the headland that forms the harbor.

However it happened, I wonder if you have six residents visiting you here in Texas if you could run afoul of the law?

Scotty the Pinata!

Press secretary Scott McClellan got battered by the press today as he tried to hum and haw his way around the truth during a White House press conference. The long slumbering third estate seems to have awakened and was actually doing their job...asking the tough questions.

Read the details in the New York Times.

Harry Reid of Nevada summed it up on the floor of the Senate.

"This is a serious allegation with national security consequences. It directly contradicts previous statements made by President Bush, it continues a pattern of misleading by this Bush White House, and it raises somber and troubling questions about the Bush administration's candor with the Congress and the public."

$13,700 An Hour - And We Wonder Why Gas Is $3.00 a Gallon

Working at minimum wage you would make $10,500 annually. Most of the folks I know who earn low wages, work harder than anyone else both at their job and home to make ends meet.
I find it obscene that the CEO of Exxon/Mobil makes about $13,700 per hour.

Something is very wrong in America today, and that kind of disparity is a symptom. I believe everyone has a right to succeed and to make their own fortune if they can, however the insane pay doled out to the CEOs of America's biggest corporations do not reflect their hard work or talent. They are part of a club, the ruling elite, who went to the right schools and networked with the right fat cats an now are sucking their company and the public dry.

Jobs are outsourced to fatten the payroll of the top management, while the stakeholders in the firm, the "worker bees" find less and less in their paycheck and their benefits. So next time you fill your tank with $3.00 a gallon gas, send a special wish to Lee Raymond CEO of Exxon/Mobil.

Corporate Headquarters
5959 Las Colinas Boulevard
Irving, Texas 75039-2298
(972) 444-1000

Bettie Page Coming Soon To A Theatre Near You

This spring a new film by Mary Harron about the fetish icon Bettie Page will hit local theatres.
I will review it as soon as I see this flick. I anticipate it will be pretty interesting not only from the standpoint of a kinky person, but from a historical view. Bettie Page influenced fashion and camp for generations through her provocative pinup posing.

Check out the preview here at Comingsoon.com.

Another Government Pedophile

The number of administration pedophiles continues to grow. So good to know that the Republican Party, the party of "responsibility and family values" has a government so riddled with "short eyes" that they are being busted now on a weekly basis.

According to the Government Computer News website:

Charles Lynch, director of the Defense Information Systems Agency’s Internet Protocol version 6 transition program, was arrested March 8 and indicted in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia the next day on one count of possessing child pornography.

Wonder just what Family Values kiddy porn falls under?

IRS Harassing Liberal Churches

AmericaBlog today posts new information that comes as little surprise, the IRS has been harassing liberal churches and ignoring right-wing congregations.

Sounds like another Bush "faith-based" initiative! If this gets you as mad as it does me, do something about it...write your elected officials and make your voice heard. Try this link to "Contacting The Congress" a very useful online tool to find your elected reps and make your voice heard.

Piercing Goes Mainstream

The Daily Californian, an independent, student-run newspaper published by the Independent Berkeley Students Publishing featured piercing in their regular "Sex on Tuesday" column. It's remarkably perceptive and a good piece for anyone considering adding metal to their body.

Paranoia? Not If They Are Really Out To Get You.

I guess I have taken my privacy for granted too long. Those conversations I have been having with friends and family just might have been tapped. Paranoid? Read this article in the Washington Post where Attorney General Alberto Gonzales says domestic calls might have been tapped as well as international calls by the Bush administration.

It's beginning to feel a lot like the days of J. Edgar Hoover. For those not old enough to remember his shenanigans and those of Richard "Tricky Dick" Nixon is the reason for federal restrictions on warrantless wiretapping were written. Just remember that the next time you arrange a scene, or for that matter call a friend to bitch about the political situation in the country today.

Cleveland Leather Awareness Weekend

April 28-30 in Cleveland, Ohio.

For more info check CLAW's website.

Bush Gets a Painful Question

I guess it's the sadist in me that loves this kind of thing, but Bush's latest fake town hall meeting went way off script with this exchange during a question and answer period:

Q You never stop talking about freedom, and I appreciate that. But while I listen to you talk about freedom, I see you assert your right to tap my telephone, to arrest me and hold me without charges, to try to preclude me from breathing clean air and drinking clean water and eating safe food. If I were a woman, you'd like to restrict my opportunity to make a choice and decision about whether I can abort a pregnancy on my own behalf. You are --

THE PRESIDENT: I'm not your favorite guy. Go ahead. (Laughter and applause.) Go on, what's your question?

Q Okay, I don't have a question. What I wanted to say to you is that I -- in my lifetime, I have never felt more ashamed of, nor more frightened by my leadership in Washington, including the presidency, by the Senate, and --

AUDIENCE MEMBERS: Booo!

THE PRESIDENT: No, wait a sec -- let him speak.

Q And I would hope -- I feel like despite your rhetoric, that compassion and common sense have been left far behind during your administration, and I would hope from time to time that you have the humility and the grace to be ashamed of yourself inside yourself. And I also want to say I really appreciate the courtesy of allowing me to speak what I'm saying to you right now. That is part of what this country is about.

THE PRESIDENT: It is, yes. (Applause.)
Q And I know that this doesn't come welcome to most of the people in this room, but I do appreciate that.

THE PRESIDENT: Appreciate ?

For the full text check the White House Website.

Scooter Fingers The President

Well, "Scooter" Libby apparently has told prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald that it was none other than Dubbya that gave him authorization to leak classified info to the press.

Wonder f they used torture on him to get this confession? I could help them out if they needed tips of torture by the way....

University Students Hold BDSM Seminar

According to a story in the Wesleyan Argus, an undergraduate publication at Wesleyan University in Middletown, CT, Students are holding a seminar on BDSM. Student, Lola Pellegrino is leading the event, and though she claims she is not authority, she sees a need for the student population to be able to explore their kink armed with knowledge of safe, sane and consensual principals.

Sounds like the next generation of kinky folk are going to have an easier time of it that mine. We didn't have any seminars, just learned the ropes from older more experienced players and by trial and error. I have no regrets having learned by doing and from mentors, but today's BDSM education can really help people avoid some of the mistakes I made.

More later.

Charity Begins in the Dungeon

Well looks like Abraham Alexander of East Meadow, NY really knew how to get to the heart of matters. As an accountant for the Cardiovascular Research Foundation he embezzled over $200,000 to pay for both on-line and in-person sessions with a pro domme. Another reason to really know where your charitable contributions are going.

More importantly, if this guy was out of his kinky closet, he wouldn't have to pay for the services of a Dominatrix. I know dozens of dommes in NY that would torture him for free. Of course that would entail him being honest about his sexual proclivities, and that is apparently not something he could do.

The moral of the story is this, living honestly and openly is a much better way to survive in this world. Coming out of your Kinky closet will not be easy, but once you do it, you can't be shamed or blackmailed or manipulated by your secret. We are only as sick as our secrets. It's an old saying but it rings true even today.

Deep in the Heart of Texas

So most of the folks I hang out with are celebrating the resignation of Tom DeLay. The only thing that will be better than this news is the photos of him doing the perp-walk as they cart him away for money laundering. Now I have nothing personal against old Tom, except that he is part of the bigger problem that is the Republican party.

Far from the big tent they claim, these guys have systematically tried to divide the American public and discriminate against a variety of scapegoats du jour. Being gay, and a progressive, I have little voice in the politics of this great state, so living here (native Texan, by the way) is sort of like being in a strange low-security prison. You can go to work, and live your life, you just don't have any say in anything remotely political.

I suspect many of the people who read this blog came here to find kinky news and info, and I am as kinky as the next leatherman, but the truth of the matter is the web is littered with kink. Most of it is fantasy and far from the real world, but that's OK as long as it stays a fantasy. For me, I live out most of my fantasies that involve anything sexual or BDSM, so what I am looking for online is opinion and truth. That is what I hope to fill this blog with and with your help, we can spread useful information to other BDSM/kinky people across the country.

Politics? You bet. In my opinion, what we as leatherfolk do is radical sexuality, and on the fringe of societal acceptability. That makes us somewhat Sexual Outlaws (borrowing that term from John Reichy) and so almost everything we do is a radical political act. To go against the norms of a society so fixated on sex as the United States, you are committing a revolutionary act, and to that end I am writing this blog.

Play safe, sane and consensual.

Yours in leather,

Hardy Haberman