This week, former FBI Louis Freeh concluded his investigation of Penn State complicity in possibly covering up repeated pedophilia by Assistant Coach Jerry Sandusky, who was recently convicted of multiple acts of pedophilia. The results, unlike many other reports, were given to the media and Board of Trustees at the same time, preventing from ( Read more... )

It almost needs to be put as a warning, but this post will cover Jerry Sandusky, the Catholic Church and pedophilia. If you feel these are topics you cannot deal with comfortably, please tune in tomorrow. If you feel you cannot read this because they have been covered too much in the media. . .well, you're probably right. Late Friday night, former ( Read more... )

Ye, dear readers, I am attempting a comeback run. This is titled one year later, but that's only because it was about a year ago when I "quit" writing this blog. In practical terms, I had quit long before that. I've written maybe a dozen blog posts since Obama was elected and only one since he was inaugurated. I had my reasons for quitting then, ( Read more... )

Two stories appeared today that were in direct contrast. The first was a story about a Sheriff in Chicago who is now an official hero of MidnightRanter and the other was about Mrs. McCain saying some really dumb things about PTSD. Normally, these two issues wouldn't really intersect, but where they meet right now tells you more about America than ( Read more... )

Senator Jim Webb (D-VA) has long made a name for himself for taking on the administration. Elected in the elections of 2006, he first made news by showing up President Bush at a reception for new Senators. He had not taken the official oath of office and he was already showing his strong opposition to the war, his unwavering support for the ( Read more... )

There are few times when a political junkie or hack hears a speech and knows, right off, this is an important speech. We're too focused on how it was flawed, what it didn't address, what was targeted, who was targeted and what specific voters the speaker was targeting with the speech. It can be broken down to an almost science about which words ( Read more... )

For too long we have become inured to the shock of sex scandals in government. It's almost expected at this point that powerful politicians will have sex when possible. But now, the once venerated governor of New York, Elliot Spitzer, has been caught on a wiretap ordering prostitutes. Now, before we all judge, let's just remember that these were ( Read more... )

On the campaign trail, any number of hunting or war analogies are bound to come up. Following a leader, or "poaching" delegates, which candidates are in the hunt and can fire at whom. It is in this environment, it's easy to see how people can start to think any rules are permissible. The problem, this isn't war and we need to be able to work ( Read more... )

Yes, another state of the union, and there was nothing great that happened and nothing great he put forward. He had no real bold visions for the future, but seemed to be visions of the past. Granted, they were visions of HIS version of the past, including his bringing up discredited "terrorist plots". He did mention all the key events of the past ( Read more... )

Here we are on the day before Bush's final State of the Union address (yes, tomorrow will be the great big recap of it all here on MidnightRanter). It is always interesting to see powerful people at the end of their time. Queen Elizabeth in her final days did her damndest to not appoint a successor while all those around her kept trying to ( Read more... )