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28 February 2011

What a slow newsday. So Ted Kennedy went to a brothel.[More:] 50 years ago. And he's been dead for two years. And a group fought like heck to get the FBI files released, when they could've been doing other things like helping the poor or homeless. And it's "breaking news". Am I missing something here?
In their own words:

Judicial Watch, Inc., a conservative, non-partisan educational foundation, promotes transparency, accountability and integrity in government, politics and the law.
...
The motto of Judicial Watch is "Because no one is above the law". To this end, Judicial Watch uses the open records or freedom of information laws and other tools to investigate and uncover misconduct by government officials and litigation to hold to account politicians and public officials who engage in corrupt activities.

The poor and homeless aren't part of their scope. Crooked (dead) politicians are. Well, Crooked, liberal politicians. Oh, and the side-effects of an HPV vaccine.

Best part: Boston.com filed this under breaking news.
posted by filthy light thief 28 February | 17:51
Broken news, maybe.
posted by JanetLand 28 February | 18:42
Kind of creepy; it reveals more about the person publicizing it than about Sen. Kennedy. Teddy Kennedy made some seriously bad choices as a young man, and his wealthy family shielded him from consequences in his early life. But he grew beyond his youth and became a great person. Probably not perfect, but his values are closer to mine than most politicians, and he put his values into action, so his imperfections distress me less.

posted by theora55 28 February | 19:08
I don't disagree with anything that's been said here, and while I find this awfully petty and vindictive, I do think that the release of old FBI/CIA files is a *very* important facet of our country.
posted by ufez 28 February | 20:21
Meanwhile, our Capitol is closed to even legislative staffers -- but not lobbyists! -- and they're bolting/welding windows shut, after a weekend in which we had a 100,000-strong crowd with zero arrests, and we can't PAY CNN.com to cover it.

What's wrong here?
posted by Madamina 28 February | 20:49
... to hold to account politicians and public officials who engage in corrupt activities.
I must be missing something - what about this fits in with the definition of 'corrupt activities'?
posted by dg 28 February | 22:02
Is prostitution legal in Australia? I know that in the UK what one does behind closed doors is one's own business but soliciting in the streets isn't.
posted by brujita 01 March | 01:34
I don't have a problem with pushing to release old FBI files. I have a problem with the fact that the Boston Globe considered this a breaking news story. I have a problem with the fact that it was #1 on the Globe's most emailed list. I have a problem that the US has a really, really warped attitude towards sex.
posted by Melismata 01 March | 10:56
brujita, it varies from state to state. In my state (Queensland), it's legal as long as appropriate licences are in place. I'm not sure about the details for individual sex workers (and yeah, not googling it from work), but brothels are definitely fine - there are some restrictions about where they can be located etc.

The question is, is it legal in Chile? If so, it doesn't seem like he did anything wrong particularly, although many people may question the morality. Even it if isn't legal there, it's still not corrupt behaviour. Perhaps not very smart for an ambitious politician, but still not corrupt.

The legality of brothels reminded me that a colleague once applied for a job as an inspector (the job is amazingly similar to what we do, although we regulate vastly different frameworks). That's not particularly interesting, but what I found intriguing was that the job was only available to males (an exemption was in place for equal opportunity legislation). Apparently, women are far more likely to be negatively pre-disposed towards prostitution than men.
posted by dg 01 March | 17:22
So we bought a new place || Organizing the Bookcase (cute 1:30 video)

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