With Kicking Against the Pricks -- the 1986 album by Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds -- in the background, it is my sad duty to point out that yet another conservative hypocrite appears to be going down. Randall Tobias (b. Indiana, 3/20/1942), US Director of Foreign Assistance, Ambassador and head of the US Agency for International Development (USAID), resigned his post yesterday at 5 p.m. "for personal reasons." Remember the saga of Ted Haggard? In Tobias' case, he called some "gals" over to his place over the years, high paid workers from Deborah Jane Palfrey's California-headquartered Metro DC escort service (Pamela Martin & Associates).
Now, I'm already on record as being in favor of legalizing and regulating prostitution and certain drugs, so that's not my main issue with Mr. Tobias, servant of the American people whose salary is paid by tax-paying citizens. No, it's the hypocrisy and arrogance of "pricks" like him and Ted Haggard. Haggard denounced gay men while secretly hooking up with a gay massage "specialist" and taking illegal drugs; Tobias as US AIDS Coordinator hectored people to follow ABC -- Abstinence when not in a committed relationship, faithfulness to one partner within a committed relationship, and only as a last resort, C, condoms. He did, though, admit in a PBS Frontline interview that "C recognizes the fact that there are individuals in high-risk circumstances who either by choice or by coercion are going to find themselves unable to follow A and B, and therefore they need to have access to condoms, and they need to understand the correct and consistent use of condoms." (see transcript of May 30, 2006 interview posted on Frontline segment of PBS website). I guess "by choice" he found himself in just such a situation, presumably requiring the employment of Rule C.
Tobias has "worked" with prostitutes before, saying he wants to "help" them. Try not to laugh too hard. Here's more from the Frontline interview:
Frontline: But with regard to prostitutes and sex workers in developing countries, is it necessary to work with them? Do you try to get them to change behavior? And if they don't, then what?
Tobias: First of all, very recently I was in Haiti in a program where we are working with prostitutes, teaching them skills that will give them the economic leverage to get out of prostituting. The particular program that I visited, young women were being taught the skills of being beauticians, of doing cosmetic work and hair work and that kind of thing. . . . .
In the end, there's a far more egregious offense -- the ridiculous titles of their "non-fiction" books: Foolish No More! (Haggard, 2005) and Put the Moose on the Table (Tobias, 2003).
Good God, what were they thinking? And when's the YouTube version coming out?
4 comments:
I'd say R.T. wanted to enrich his knowledge of the trade with a little one on one. Sounds just like the ex-felon from our prison. He got himself a drug counseling certificate and everyone at our facility was extremely proud of his new job. That is, until he was arrested in a hotel room with a cache of drugs and a prostitute.
Enjoy the reads Erik. To see more of the radioactive fallout and towns affected go to a website called kidofspeed. Very interesting stuff. MW
Yeah, it is the hypocrasy that gets to me as well. How completely disgusting.
Origin and meaning of the phrase, "Let's put the moose on the table," during meetings.
"A moose is something big and smelly and ornery," explains Fowler, whose accent hints at Southern roots. "'Putting the moose on the table' means talking about things that are difficult or uncomfortable." The phrase has been used in management circles for years, and it was recently popularized in a book of that title by Randall Tobias, former ... FORMER
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