Massa staffers talk: He "expressed a desire to have sex with the men in the office"

By GottaLaff

Tickle Me Massa is about to stop laughing:

Just three months after Eric Massa was elected to Congress, his young male employees on Capitol Hill began complaining to supervisors that the lawmaker was making aggressive, sexual overtures toward them, according to new interviews and internal documents.

The senior staff, one of whom said he heard Massa making lewd remarks to young staffers, tried to manage the problem internally. But reports of Massa's inappropriate behavior continued, leaving junior workers feeling helpless, according to victims, other staffers and sources close to an ongoing House ethics investigation.

To anyone who has ever suggested that Democrats don't report negative things about other Democrats... I rest my case. Two dozen interviews and many documents later, Married Massa appears to have engaged in even worse behavior than has been previously reported.

The man was a predator. Staffers were afraid to report him for fear of repercussions, and things "spiraled out of control." So sad, so wrong, and so good riddance:

Staff in the D.C. office felt they had nowhere to turn, she said. For months, according to numerous accounts, Massa's aides tolerated a frat house environment full of sex talk and lewd behavior. [...]

In one instance, a staffer said he alerted Joe Racalto, Massa's chief of staff, in March 2009 that Massa tried to fondle a young colleague in a hotel room during the 2008 campaign. Racalto told staffers he believed their complaints, because he had heard similar stories, according to staffers. Two sources said that Racalto told staffers he himself had been a victim of Massa's advances.

There are many more details here.

Sexual harassment is a sick power play. I've been on the receiving end of it myself, back when I was young, naive, and didn't know how to deal with it as I would today. Many of Massa's staffers apparently felt the same way. Nobody should have to.

I can tell you from first hand experience, you feel helpless, angry, embarrassed, intimidated, and scared. In my case, I publicly humiliated the guy, who was a respected [sic] game show producer, and it ended.

When you read the whole article, you'll see what these people felt they were up against... literally.

H/t: 42bkdodgr

"I didn't go through all of that just to flash my boobs at a stranger...Security is an illusion."

By GottaLaff

One of our commenters wrote something very personal under the post about the airport scanner invasion of privacy ("Airport worker photographed screen as female passed through scanner"). She has generously allowed me to use her heartfelt comment as a post.

Please take the time to read the whole thing:

I am a sexual assault survivor and I have been told by the TSA that while we can request a wanding (to avoid a pat-down), if we opt out of going through the body-scanner, they cannot guarantee the personnel or a wand would be available. The TSA rep told me that she could not guarantee that if I refuse to go through the scanner, that I won't be subjected to a pat-down. This is totally unacceptable to me and this incident in the UK only reinforces my fears.

I fought my attacker off, who had a gun by the way. I got out of it without being raped and with only a bad burn on my forehead where he tried to shoot me (either the gun didn't fire properly or it was a blank, but as soon as I realized I wasn't dead I went berserk on the guy and he gave up). I didn't go through all of that just to flash my boobs at a stranger who might have a camera in his or her pocket, or to be touched by a TSA agent, every time I have to fly. The lack of control over who sees or touches my body is what is bothering me, and sexual assault victims like me, the most.

I am starting a consulting project in Chicago in a few weeks and I am seeking therapy for the trauma just thinking about this is making me go through. I feel violated all over again. I know I got off easy because I was not actually raped or hurt badly like other sexual assault victims. I can only imagine what they are going through, if it is making me feel this horrified.

Security is an illusion. This technology is not even proven. Our government should not force its citizens to comply with such an egregious form of violation of our constitutional right to privacy if there is not guarantee it will work.

I have decided to take a stand. On my first return flight home, I will wear a one-piece bathing suit through security. I am a former competitive swimmer and while my body is not as toned as it used to be (having twins will do that to a woman) I feel comfortable being in front of people in my bathing suit (not a bikini - and for those of you who would like to make racy comments - please refrain because it is people like you who make me want to jump through my computer and commit bodily harm).

I want to take back control over what I will allow people to see and this is the only thing I can think of doing. My racing suit will show everything a scanner or a pat-down would detect and it would provide me with a way to control who sees what parts of my body. I will respectfully ask that they perform a visual scan, without touching me. If they will not comply, I will not fly, but I will take a stand.

Thank you for sharing that with us. You are a survivor, and security is indeed, an illusion.

Airport worker photographed screen as female passed through scanner

By GottaLaff

All those jokes about having to get in shape, work out, and diet before going to the airport these days aren't too far off. Virtual nudity can be awfully intimidating.

So can illegal photos of virtual nudity.

Check out this little invasion of privacy:

A Scotland Yard spokesman said: "Police received an allegation regarding an incident that happened at Heathrow Terminal 5 on March 10. A first-instance harassment warning has been issued to a 25-year-old male."

The BAA employee took a photo of his co-worker, Jo Margetson, when she inadvertently went through a scanner.

"I can't bear to think about the body scanner thing," she told the Sun. "I'm totally traumatised. I've spoken to the police about it. I'm in too much of a state to go to work."

I'd be traumatized, too, only with a Z.

The incident is likely to reignite privacy concerns over the scanners by civil liberty groups.

There's much more here.

H/t: BoingBoing

Twitter Watch: "I laughed so hard to see Olbermann's rant about his father's health...Die..."

By GottaLaff

I appreciate Twitter. I'm a constant tweeter. Because of Twitter, I've been able to chat with people I'd never hope to meet anywhere else, our readership has grown tremendously, and I've gotten several radio gigs.

However, it has its drawbacks.

(click on image to enlarge)

One of them is named TonyPagano51:

This is someone who is sick and in desperate need of attention.

He also needs exposing and should be prohibited from tweeting. I've reported him twice to Twitter spam and blocked him as well. Unfortunately, he still shows up on my Twitter search stream since he addresses me by name, and Twitter has yet to delete his account.

In other words, he harasses people, and I'm one of them.

Maybe this will help, it's worked before. Thank you for indulging me.

Scandal Watch: Scott Brown Accused of Harassment in 1998

By GottaLaff

But will the Senate ethics committee investigate? Don't be silly:

Jennifer Firth, a local mortgage banker who was elected to the Board of Selectmen in 1999, filed a civil defamation suit against Brown in July of 2000, alleging that he had harassed her when she worked on his campaign in 1998, and then tried to smear her reputation around town with forged letters and emails.

I can see the attraction, what with his affinity for the pink leather shorts and all. Who could resist a guy like that?

She also alleged that Brown told several people that he'd had an "intimate relationship" with her and that he had a stack of sexually explicit letters that Firth had sent him. In her suit, Firth says that she'd never been sexually intimate with Brown, nor did she ever send him the aforementioned letters. A 2000 article in the local paper, the Sun Chronicle reported that Brown had denied the charges; for her part, Firth said she felt that filing the suit was "the only way I could stop this."

Allegedly.

But wait! There's more! Two days later....

Two days after the lawsuit was filed, Jennifer Firth's lawyer, Harvey Schwartz, filed a motion to withdraw as her counsel, saying that "to the best of [Schwartz's] knowledge, information and belief, the above allegations [by Firth] are not supported by 'good grounds.'" The next day, Jennifer Firth withdrew her suit. It was dismissed with prejudice, which means it can never be re-filed. Brown told a local newspaper that her lawyer had decided to withdraw after he was presented with letters and e-mail messages that proved she'd been harassing Brown.

Maybe Firth should go before the ethics committee.

Come to think of it, maybe the ethics committee should go before the ethics committee.

Who paid Firth off, I wonder... Or maybe she had no case. Or maybe ... Or maybe...

Rushpublics are so good at making a lot out of allegations and conjecture, enough to ruin careers. Dems on the other hand....

More details, speculation, and the court documents here.

So what really happened with Eric Massa?

Other than generally giving Rahm indigestion, this looks to be what will take him down.

The incident that Massa believes sparked the investigation happened at a wedding reception for one of his staff members. When being razzed about possibly banging one of the bridesmaids he had just danced with, Massa “tousled the hair” of one of his male staffers and said “What I really ought to be doing is f***ing you.”

ADDED- Josh has a little more here.

Justice Department Intervenes In Gay Rights Suit For First Time In A Decade

By GottaLaff

This is a good example of why it matters who you support/vote for in any election, and why it is vital that you vote, period:

Yesterday, for the first time in a decade, the Justice Department intervened in a gay rights suit. In August, an openly gay 14-year-old student named Jacob — with the help of the ACLU — sued the Mohawk Central School District in upstate New York because officials “did not appropriately respond to relentless harassment, physical abuse and threats of violence” that Jacob received because of his sexual orientation. NPR reported on some of the harassment to which Jacob alleges he was subjected.

The heartbreaking details are here.

So are the heartening ones, including:

Under Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder, the Justice Department has had a dramatically different focus than it did during President Bush’s terms. While the Bush Justice Department was focused on installing political cronies, going after mythical voter fraud cases, and the suppression of minority voters while looking out for the voter disenfranchisement of whites. The Obama Justice Department, by contrast, recently announced that it would also start aggressively going after “banks and mortgage brokers suspected of discriminating against minority applicants in lending.”

"It doesn't matter if I vote. The candidates are interchangeable. Someone else will cancel out my vote anyway." Wrong.

This boy's life was changed because of who Americans elected. He knows the ObamAdministration is looking out for him. He won't feel quite as alone and helpless any more.

He may even feel optimistic that change is in the air, no matter how incrementally, and that there's reason for hope... all because enough people exercised their right to vote.

As frustrated as some of us may be with Obama, this is one time we can come together and unite behind him.

"I've seen this horrible stuff on TV but never thought I'd be 'attacked' by these sickos"

By GottaLaff

One of our regular readers shared this chilling experience with us in Comments:

Today, Friday 01/08/10 at about 4:00PM Pacific, I took a package to be dropped off at my local Harbor City, CA 90710 post office...only to see 2 males, one white, one black, with a table (set up on the sidewalk directly in front of the walk out the front doors of the PO) covered in the Obama as hitler posters.

I *tried* to walk, head down up a different side walk, only to be yelled at by the white male.

It went down hill from there...he kept spewing facist Obama stuff...Obama is hitler...we're all going to forced prison labor camps...

...I basically just kept saying that they were sick...ignorant of WWII history and the crimes against humanity committed...etc.

The guy finally just turned his back to me...only to turn and yell FACIST at me as I was getting in my car.

Needless to say...I've been shaken since. I've seen this horrible stuff on TV but never thought that I would be "attacked" by any of these sickos.

I'm scared for our country.

And then he added:

I'm tell'n ya...my stomach was rolling, my hands were shaking and I think I was scared.

...if drinking and driving was legal, I would have pulled into Rite Aid and bought beer!

Some of you may remember when Mr. Laffy had a similar encounter.

Gee, somehow I doubt that this kind of sick behavior will win followers or change minds. What are they hoping to accomplish? And why did they yell at our Commenter? I'm guessing he wasn't wearing an Obama tee shirt, nor did he make the first move. They were the aggressors.

Publicly bullying a fellow citizen is a cowardly act that should be prohibited by law. How do these people live with themselves?

More than 10,000 of you have stood up to Bill O’Reilly

By GottaLaff

I'm sure Think Progress won't mind my copying and pasting this one in full:

Since the launch of our Stop Supporting The O’Reilly Harassment Machine campaign on Wednesday afternoon, more than 10,000 of you have taken action. Thank you for all your support! In just two days, here’s all the successes we’ve had:

– UPS announced it will no longer advertise on The Factor [Laffy Note: Paddy posted about that here]

– Capital One expressed “regret” for O’Reilly’s insensitivity and explain that it does not endorse his views.

– A Ford spokesman candidly told us that he agreed with us about the “rantings of the hopelessly pig-headed Mr. O’Reilly.” (Ford then clarified that the statement did not speak for the company)

– AT&T said it makes “every effort” to ensure their advertisers are in keeping with the company’s “corporate values and philosophy,” but it would not say whether O’Reilly’s show was in keeping with that philosophy.

– Bill O’Reilly lashed out at us, calling us “insects”

– Amanda appeared on MSNBC’s Countdown with Keith Olbermann to discuss the campaign

Let’s urge more companies to follow the lead of UPS. Please join our campaign.

Billo is messing with the wrong crowd. How nice that we are mobilizing so effectively for such a good cause.

Video: Cohen shoves Armenian-American cameraman

By GottaLaff

Oy. This can't end well (caught by Fox news of course). Nikki Tinker is at it again:

Back story:

It’s been a rough 24 hours for Rep. Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.).

The freshman lawmaker, facing a racially tinged primary battle Thursday, was hit earlier today by an ad that questions his religious convictions. And Wednesday afternoon, he literally hit an Armenian-American photographer who had been trailing him.

In a must-see video provided by WHBQ-TV, Cohen is seen getting up and confronting the cameraman and shoving him out of his house.

"Nikki Tinker is supported by the Armenians, and these are her Armenian photographers who have been harassing me last night and continue to harrass me," Cohen told the group of reporters before the confrontation. "And they should be out of here. They have gotten in my face, and I don't want these people in my house." [...]
Cohen has been one of the top congressional targets for the Armenian-American community because he opposed legislation that would have condemned Turkey for committing genocide against Armenians during World War I.

Armenian-Americans have given Cohen’s opponent, Nikki Tinker, about $30,000 in campaign donations.

Last night on Keith Olbermann's Countdown, Nikki Tinker was named Worst Person in the World. She plays dirty, to say the least, "tinkering" with religious innuendo like this: