Mark Foley on The Child Safety Act of 2005

Below is the text of what Mark Foley (R-FL, former) said during open debate on September 14th, 2005, during the introduction of H.R. 3132. Text from the Library of Congress. A shining example of hypocrisy.

Mr. SENSENBRENNER. Mr. Chairman, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Foley).

Mr. FOLEY. Mr. Chairman, as co-chairman of the Congressional Missing and Exploited Children's Caucus and an original author of the Sex Offender Registration and Notification measure included in this bill, I rise in strong support of H.R. 3132, the Children's Safety Act of 2005.

Mr. Speaker, we have all heard the names: Jessica Lunsford, Jetseta Gage, Sarah Lunde, Megan Kanka, Jacob Wetterling, just to name a few. All beautiful children carrying with them the hopes and dreams of every young child in this country. All taken away from their parents and their futures, killed by sex offenders.

This is an important piece of legislation we are faced with today. It is probably one of the most tragic things any family will ever deal with. While Katrina, the hurricane, and Judge Roberts are much in the headlines, below the fold seems to be daily an occurrence of a violent act against our children. It is time we get tough.

I have said repeatedly that in this country we track library books better than we do sex offenders. This bill, thanks to the good efforts of the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Sensenbrenner) and others, seeks to correct that.

This bill is not a knee-jerk reaction. We have worked over 1 year on this legislation with the National Center For Missing and Exploited Children, the U.S. Department of Justice, and other Federal agencies.

It is horrific that in this country we are experiencing these untold tragedies throughout our Nation; but we can do better, and in this bill we will do better.

I would like to thank the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Sensenbrenner) and his staff, Mike Volkov, for working tirelessly to produce this comprehensive child protection legislation. This bill has indeed many fathers and mothers. It is for the children, though, that we work and we labor.

I have often said this bill is a labor of love. Yet it is a labor of shame that we have these kinds of incidents of violence and tragedies affecting our kids.

I would like to thank Bradley Schreiber, my legislative director, who has worked so many hours in trying to perfect and work alongside staff to make this legislation possible; Ernie Allen from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children; John Walsh from America's Most Wanted, who has led a crusade for well over 20 years since the death of his beautiful son Adam in Florida. John Walsh has brought a scrutiny to child protection legislation unlike any other human being.

Finally, and most important, I want to recognize the victims' parents. It is their hard work and determination, their tears and their frustration, and their fears for their other children that has brought this bill to the floor so quickly. They took away from their own tragedies a chance to help fellow Americans protect other children; and for that we are entirely grateful.

Mr. Chairman, these are not petty criminals. These are sex offenders, and they must be dealt with accordingly.

Medicare Part D: Built to Fail?

An article in The Capital Times of Madison, Wisconsin suggests that the Medicare Part D Program was built to fail...to make the road to privatization easier to justify. And I agree. The great insight on this program is available here.

To me, it shows even more how the Republican majority (and even some Democrats) find a convenient use for senior citizens...knock them down to further their own goals and ambitions to live up to the campaign dollars contributed by major Pharmaceutical companies. Once again, another reason to change course on November 7th.

Talking to a Bush

Vote For Change This November 7th. American Freedom Is On The March...right here at home.

And It All Came Tumbling Down

If the Democratic Party had its own “Project for the New American Century,” they would have just achieved receiving their “Pearl Harbor Event.” But unlike PNAC, who needed the deaths of thousands of Americans to rally the nation to its cause, the Democratic Party only needed one Republican pervert, the proverbial “straw that broke the camel’s back.”

The GOP (Grand Old Perverts) are losing their death-grip on American power. Scandal upon scandal seemed to leave them unscathed. Until one man’s “love” for young Congressional Pages became headlines. The events of the past week have initiated the sea-change tidal wave that will most likely swamp the already leaking SS Republicana.

If nothing else, the Foley-gate scandal and its apparent cover-up by the Republican Congressional Leadership should serve as a clear warning to all who claim to have a moral fortitude greater than the majority of the citizens of a nation. Their lust for power, their lust for man-boy love, their lust for money and war and death and destruction and perpetual war has undone them. Now, a clear majority of Americans favor the Democrats over Republicans on every single major issue. Homeland Security. Economy. The war in Iraq. Even Moral leadership and values. The latest poll by NEWSWEEK deals the blows:

“While 52 percent of Americans believe Hastert was aware of Foley’s actions and tried to cover them up, it’s part of a larger loss of faith in Republican leadership, thanks mostly to the war in Iraq," Marcus Mabry writes. "For instance, for the first time in the NEWSWEEK poll, a majority of Americans now believe the Bush administration knowingly misled the American people in building its case for war against Saddam Hussein: 58 percent vs. 36 percent who believe it didn’t."

I think we are witnessing the meltdown of a political party, and the erosion of faith in the political ideology of Conservatism. Will it soon go the way of Communism? I doubt it, but Conservatism, for all intensive purposes, is in Intensive Care, on life support… We can bring America back. Back from the brink. And it will all begin on November 7th, 2006, when we inform the nation that sometimes “staying the course” is just pure stupidity.