A senior aide to Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) (Hey! Whaddayaknow? We don't have to play "Guess his Party Affiliation"!)
was fired from his post last week after he was charged with distributing and receiving child pornography.
Jeffrey P. Rosato, an aide to Boxer and a senior policy adviser on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, was arrested last Friday, the same day he was fired from Boxer's office, and charged with one count each of receipt and distribution of child pornography. He appeared in U.S. District Court in Alexandria on Wednesday and was released on his own recognizance, but he is forbidden to have access to children or computers.
According to an FBI affidavit, an unnamed person "distributed more than 600 files containing graphic images and movies of child pornography to an undercover detective that [the person] believed was a 13-year-old boy" over the course of more than 15 online chats during a three-week period in January. In that person's computer, the FBI found information suggesting the person had exchanged pornography with Rosato.
Investigators also found pornographic photos and movies of children on Rosato's laptop computer during a Nov. 4 search of his Alexandria home, according to the affidavit. "Many of the images and videos depict prepubescent boys engaged in sexual acts," it said. . . .
Natalie Ravitz, a spokeswoman for Boxer's personal office, said: "On Friday, the Justice Department informed our office of criminal charges made against a Senate employee. Senator Boxer has zero tolerance for crimes against children, and the employee was immediately terminated." Good for her.
Rosato had worked for Boxer since 2005, according to Senate payroll records on the LegiStorm Web site, and had drawn a paycheck from the environment panel since 2007. Boxer is chairwoman of the Environment Committee and the Senate Select Committee on Ethics. Before joining Boxer's staff, Rosato worked as an aide to then-Sen. Robert G. Torricelli (D-N.J.). . . . Another stalwart, upstanding citizen of unimpeachable character.
Posted by: Mike ||
11/14/2008 13:10 ||
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#1
I'm surprised that she didn't claim that it was a rightwing conspiracy.
President-elect Barack Obama is considering the New York senator and former first lady for secretary of state - an appointment that would go a long way toward healing the wounds left by their bruising Democratic primary.
Two Democratic officials confirmed that Clinton - long rumored to be a contender for the job - is under serious consideration.
Adding to the intrigue, Obama and Clinton met yesterday in Chicago, according to a Democratic official. Clinton's motorcade was seen leaving Obama's office complex shortly before he left for the day.
Check yer watch and yer wallet, Bambi ...
"Any speculation about Cabinet or other administration appointments is really for President-elect Obama's transition team to address," said Clinton adviser Philippe Reines. The Obama campaign declined to discuss any of the administration positions that haven't been announced.
Other Democrats believed to be in the running for secretary of state are New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson and Sen. John Kerry, the party's 2004 nominee for president. Another widely discussed contender is former Senate Democratic Leader Tom Daschle, who is close to Obama and has many ties to his staff.
But Hillary has a "better than average Rolodex," noted political strategist Michael McKenna. And she has "the ability to leverage Bill and the residual good will toward him."
The notion of Hillary Clinton as secretary of state was floated earlier in the year, when Democrats were trying to think of ways to lure her out of the bruising race against Obama.
Since the election, the buzz over Hillary has been building. "The pick of the former presidential contender and Senate Armed Services Committee member would go a long way toward healing any remaining divisions within the Democratic Party after the divisive primaries," DC gossip writer Al Kamen blogged for The Washington Post.
Just what we need, a gossip columnist advising us on matters of state ...
The speculation gained momentum after Clinton accepted an award at the Glamour Women of the Year ceremony Monday. "Whether it's standing up for women who have been denied their rights or being the secretary of state and carrying the burden of that office, there are so many ways each of us can make a difference," she said. Clinton was referring to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who got a Glamour Award, but it was enough to stir up Beltway gossip mongers.
It's unclear whether Clinton would even want the position. And some wondered if the Obama camp - which is very disciplined about unwanted leaks - is simply trying to compliment her by suggesting she's in the running.
#1
"according to a Democratic official who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to release the information"
I see that Obama is meeting usual Democratic administration standards for information control.
#2
"according to a Democratic official who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to release the information"
I see that Obama is meeting usual Democratic administration standards for information control.
#11
My guess is Obama doesn't think she'll take the job and is just throwing it out there so it seems as if he's trying to work with HIllary. Same with the Gore balloon that was suggested yesterday as well as the Collin Powell for whatever position he wants that appeared on the Obama org chart.
Look I tried to be bipartisan and a good solid Democrat but only the far left radical friends of mine would take the jobs.
#16
Hill won't take it. Why give up all the power she has in the Senate to be the toady of O'Bambi?
Exactly right. Hillary's holding a huge 'I told you so' card in case (ok, when) Obambi turns into Carter, freeing her to run again in 2012. Why would she fold her hand and accept Sec. of State? I don't see the logic in that move.
#17
The frightening part of this whole deal is that if she accepts they'll keep showing her on the TV news almost every night and we'll have to keep looking at her. Shudder.
In a new afterword to his 2001 book, Bill Ayers, former leader of the 1960s radical group Weather Underground, describes President-elect Barack Obama as a family friend and denies he wished his group had set off more bombs in the 1960s.
Ayers, a professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago, adds few new details about his relationship with Obama in the afterword to Fugitive Days: Memoirs of an Anti-War Activist. The book is being reissued this month.
We had served together on the board of a foundation, knew one another as neighbors and family friends, held an initial fund-raiser at my house, where Id made a small donation to his earliest political campaign, he writes.
But right-wing commentators tried to use those connections to smear Obama, he says.
Obamas political rivals and enemies apparently saw an opportunity to deepen a dishonest narrative about him, that he is somehow un-American, alien, linked to radical ideas, a closet terrorist, a sympathizer with extremism, Ayers wrote.
Ayers was the purported terrorist Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin was referring to when she claimed that Obama was palling around with terrorists.
At a presidential debate, Obama described Ayers as engaging in despicable acts with a radical domestic group, adding that he roundly condemned those acts."
He has also said that Ayers is not somebody who I exchange ideas with on a regular basis.
The Weather Underground claimed responsibility for about a dozen bombings in the late 1960s, with targets including the Pentagon and Capitol. The group¹s casualties included three of its own members killed while making a bomb in New York City in 1970. In 1981, two police officers and a security guard were killed when other members of the group committed an armed robbery.
Ayers defends his role in the group.
I killed no one, and I harmed no one, and I didnt regret for a minute resisting the murderous assault on [Vietnam] with every ounce of my being, Ayers writes.
He denies a quote attributed to him in 2001: I dont regret setting bombs. I wish wed set more bombs. I dont think we did enough. The quote was widely republished during the presidential campaign.
Ayers writes, I never actually said that I set bombs, nor that I wished there were more bombs.
With the 1960s over, his more radical days are behind him, he writes. Nowadays, I go about my business, hang out with my wife and our kids and grandchildren, take care of the elders, go to work, teach, and write, the afterword states. I also organize and participate in the never-ending effort to build a powerful movement for peace and social justice.
Ayers wrote the new afterword on July 8, 2008, a day when he writes he saw a 1960s-style bumper sticker all tie-dyed and psychedelic, and heard Give Peace a Chance on the radio. He begins the afterword with a quote from Bob Marleys Redemption Song: Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery; none but ourselves can free our minds.
Its [d]eja vu all over again, Ayers writes.
Ayers is scheduled to appear for a live interview Friday on ABC's Good Morning America.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
